Boxerbrand's Recipe for Success

The Stonebriar Country Club of Frisco, Texas is its own private world. And bills itself on being a “home away from home” for its members. On this expansive property there are two 18-hole golf courses, eight tennis courts, a Class III swimming pool with two diving boards and staffed with lifeguards. And a food and beverage experience for all moods and times of day. Built in 1988, the club was a cornerstone of the massive development of the high-end residential…

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“It’s a crazy story!” she begins. “I’d had a few restaurants, one I’d named Café Sari, and everyone thought it was an Indian restaurant, which it wasn’t.  “At another point I was a caterer who flew around the country on assignments because my work was in such high demand. I was a very successful pastry chef with 25 cupcake flavors, 15 cookie flavors and 10 varieties of cakes. “And one day I decided I wanted to open a concept that…

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A solid, lattice-truss bridge in the iconic Eli Whitney style, which once served only as a beautiful, covered walkway for restaurant patrons, was transformed during government lockdown measures into a means of survival for a 75-year-old destination restaurant. Festooned in twinkling white lights that shown like fireflies at night, the covered bridge at Bull Run Restaurant had a wait-list every night of the week as soon as outdoor dining was approved, says owner Alison Tocci. “When the pandemic hit, we…

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In Alaska, where the short growing season for produce is offset by the sheer abundance of the world’s freshest salmon and halibut, Nancy Alip began mastering her culinary skills by age 16. Though she dismisses the notion that she was a natural cook, Alip caught the cooking bug as a teenager and never looked back. Her career since 2002 taken her from line-cook to co-owner, and finally to becoming full owner of Jens’ Restaurant in 2016. “My family has been…

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During a dark time, a strategic restauranteur with three popular concepts in historic coastal New Bedford, Mass.,had a bright idea. The shuttered doors of a restaurant in the the old Candleworks Building, where products were once built to “light the world,” now cast a shadow on the neighborhood where Howie Mallowes and his partner Alfred Peters were running three successful concepts: Rose Alley Ale House, The Vault Music Hall & Pub, and others. “I didn’t like seeing a closed restaurant…

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Al Thomas began in restaurants at the ‘bottom of the bottom’ — “I was so low on the food chain I had to work up to becoming a dishwasher.” As a boy, he couldn’t wait to launch himself into restaurants. He got his feet wet at age 13 working in a seafood store and mini market. “I loved it! I sold fish over the counter all summer.” At age 14, the budding entrepreneur was doing cleanup work at 48-year-old Sperry’s,…

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Beneath a chandelier laced with faceted crystals reflecting a bygone age, a room is steeped in 1920s history, while fresh opportunity bubbles up for a female entrepreneur, so filled with optimism. Stacey Gibson, who co-owns Park Avenue Fine Wines of Portland, OR, with partner Neil Thompson, enjoys the rise of her career as sommelier-turned-business woman with enthusiasm and intensity  “Wine, for me, evokes an image of beautiful vineyards, and late-night conversations over wine and meals,” Gibson says. “I just love…

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Tom Jankovich looked out the window of his North Carolina restaurant concept and saw a line of cars heading his way. “All of a sudden, there they were!” Jankovich says. Coming from the mountainous Bannerelik region of his state, on word-of-mouth news that the longtime country club chef had opened his own restaurant, loyal fans and patrons found their way to the Painted Fish Café without so much as a billboard to lure them in. But nothing in Jankovich’s story…

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“Tea is just wonderful!” says Melissa Oraibi. “We’ve found a way to infuse a modern flair to classical tea at the Wenham Tea House (Wenham, MA) and we’re appealing to a wide spectrum— young, crossover customers who come for our full lunch and dinner menus to these die-hard ladies who “like to do lunch, baby.” And many in between. As the world opens up to life-after-Covid, Melissa and her husband and chef Brenden Crocker are brimming with optimism.  The new…

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Along the banks of the Androscoggin River in Lewiston, Maine, where old brick mills once hummed, a new energy fills the air with a sense of possibility; of optimism. Though the historic town with deep French-Canadian roots does not yet “sizzle” with a thriving restaurant scene like Portland, Maine or Concord, N.H., restaurant partners Jules Patry and Craig Tribuno, principals in Davinci’s Eatery, a 20-year icon in Lewiston, are positively stoked about the future. “It’s been a tough slog to…

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