Boxerbrand | Recipe for Success

A Manhattan couple who honed their craft at a 3-star Michelin restaurant in the Big Apple, is poised to carve out their American dream as first-time restaurant owners in Vermont. Debbie and Luis Pazos, longtime restauranteurs at the famous French restaurant Le Bernardin in New York City, will open Social House Restaurant in Manchester Center this June. And while it’s no small step from the Manhattan life, with dinners served at 2:30 AM, to the tall pines and chilly peaks…

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Paul McCullough started out in hospitality as a very small fish. “I was 19 when I went to work as a runner for the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group,” says McCullough, partner in thriving Saratoga Springs restaurant, 15 Church. “Eventually I moved up to back waiter, then to assistant, and then to captain in three-person teams,” he says. “What an experience! I worked for 15 years learning the ropes of a premier and cutting-edge restaurant group created by a man I…

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One summer evening while sipping wine with friends in Jamaica, Anna Kay von Dueszeln and her pals hit upon the idea to open their own wine and cheese shop. “Our idea, which sounded really good over wine, was to dabble in wine and cheese,” Anna Kay says. “This was about 10 years ago when we first discussed the idea, and my only experience at the time in the hospitality business was that I liked wine and cheese!” But backed by…

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Some traditions never get old. Fine steaks, veal chops, and Dover sole prepared tableside are just some of the traditional Abruzzi cuisine items attracting patrons to the charming La Locanda Ristorante Italiano in Pennsylvania since 1997. Eighty percent of the customer base is repeat business, says La Locanda Ristorante partner Franco Stefanatto. “Every year we’re increasing our revenue by 2.5 to 3 percent,” Stefanatto adds. In this week’s Q&A interview with Boxerbrand blog Recipe for Success, Stefanatto offers insights into…

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Up the steps of the Rosedon Hotel’s wide, welcoming veranda of the type enjoyed by Mark Twain in his day, awaits a 40-room boutique property that began humbly as a bed and breakfast in the 1950s before emerging as a world-class destination. “My grandmother Elizabeth Kitson bought the main house in the 1950s and turned it into a bed and breakfast,” says Lee Petty, co-owner and creative director. “It grew from there.” The property was managed by generations of Elizabeth…

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Five years ago, Cheryl and Gene Long gave up their desk jobs in the insurance business to create something really beautiful. On a rolling tract of land, dotted with barns and adorned with the ruins of an old stone chapel, the couple envisioned a wine-tasting room in an old cow-milking barn for him, and a wedding and party venue centered around the chapel and old horse stables for her. “The two ideas paired well together,” says Cheryl Long, as Sassafras…

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Chef Tiziano Gortan worked for years among the stars— both the Michelin stars, which ranked at least two restaurants where he cooked, as well one in Ireland, owned by a quiet band of rock stars who went by the name of … U-2! In his travels, the Italian native earned his chops working for the only 3-star Michelin restaurant in Milan before jetting off to Dublin to work as a pastry chef in in Dublin’s Clarence Hotel, where the world-renowned…

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Chef David Slay begins his day at sunup. “I’m not a big sleeper,” says the top Zagat rated chef/owner of Park Ave restaurant in Stanton, Calif. “The first thing I do is check our video feed from my vineyard, so I can see as workers arrive, and start planning for the day.” By 8 a.m., Chef Slay is on the scene at his destination restaurant in a blue-collar community about 15 miles from the coast. The romantic restaurant, with its…

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Rising from the vast, flat stretches dominated by defense contractor buildings and busy highways stands a castle, of sorts. Designed with symmetry inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, the 8,000 square foot, two-story structure of stone and wood, houses a restaurant fit for King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Under the peaked roofline of River Stone Chophouse, in a dining room and four event spaces echoing an Arts and Crafts architectural style, guests feast on the finest Hereford…

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After retiring from a 20-year commercial real estate career, John Zimka picked up the reins of an Illinois café and kicked it into its second act. Tackling the menu with determination, Zimka got rid of old “diner style” staples like powdered potatoes and canned gravy and ushered in menu items such as fish tacos and stuffed potato pancakes, as he went about revamping Tony’s Café of Crystal Lake, Ill. “Tony’s was at the tail end of its run after 20…

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