Boxerbrand | Recipe for Success

Nearly 20 years ago, with bulldozers nearly at the ready to clear 500 acres for an 80-home development in Groton, Massachusetts, Steve and Nancy Webber stood up at a town meeting and offered a different plan. Instead of homes, they proposed a farm-to-table restaurant featuring produce grown and raised on site. Instead of cul-de-sacs and driveways, they argued to preserve the land where Gibbet Hill Farm once raised Black Angus beef cattle. “There was a major developer who proposed building…

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Tavern 4&5 in Minnesota leverages opportunity for success by doing a “really weird thing.” Even its name has a funny story, says General Manager Dave Guistolise, who has presided over the Eden Prairie neighborhood restaurant since it first flung open its doors five years ago. The longtime restauranteur and Boxerbrand customer explains the name, the concept, the “weird thing” in this week’s Q&A with Recipe for Success @ Boxerbrand. Q: How did Tavern 4&5 get its name? It’s kind of…

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Sofia Italian Steakhouse, 10, and Amelia’s Restaurant, 4, are rustic Italian “sisters” bringing sublime small plates and casual charm to neighborhoods in Massachusetts. Both restaurants flourish under the guidance of owner Marios Michalakis, a seasoned restaurant veteran who cut his chops working for a restaurant in Quincy, Mass., before opening Sofia Italian Steakhouse in West Roxbury, Mass. 10 years ago.  And four years ago, his success inspired him to open “little sister” Amelia’s in Stoughton. Serving small plates so beautiful…

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A championship par 72 golf course in Georgia has teed up fine dining. Last month, after decades spent successfully attracting athletes to its fine, bentgrass greens and first-class conditions, the operators of the Woodmont Golf & Country Club threw open the doors to The Summit, a destination restaurant open to everyone. “The decision was made because we wanted to improve the level of service and the quality and variety of food we offered,” says Food and Beverage Director Robert Gilbreath….

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Luis Arce Mota arrived in New York City in the early 1990s with love in his heart and a burning desire to make it in the City of Dreams. “I started from the ground up,” says Mota, owner of La Contenta Restaurant, which boasts fine Mexican with French influences at two Manhattan locations. “As soon as I arrived in New York, I was drawn to the restaurant business because I knew I wouldn’t go hungry, and that workers like me…

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Thirty-nine years ago, Rusty Romo opened Harry Browne’s Restaurant in the heart of Annapolis as a tribute to his uncle. He and uncle Harry had dreamed of opening their own place once Harry was retired from a career in New Jersey and Romo had graduated college. “My uncle and I were always very close, and we planned to do a restaurant venture when he retired because he was a real foodie,” Romo says. “In my junior year at the University…

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A few years ago, a sophisticated Las Vegas restauranteur went back home to his roots, where he would help humanity, and indeed, himself. With long years of culinary history under his belt, including a 15-year stint at MGM in Vegas, Jeff Voyles decided to do two things at once: help feed and clothe the homeless living in two camps near St. Louis, and build a dream restaurant with friends and partners on Main Street in his hometown of Belleville, IL….

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In a beautiful tasting room overlooking a 60-acre estate, visitors sip the wines produced by the very fields of grapes they cast their gaze upon. And as they indulge their senses in the panorama that unfolds, they also learn about the grapes, the soil, the harvests, and especially the glorious effort that goes in to every varietal produced by Alexana Winery. “In a perfect world, if you’re laying out a business model for selling wine, the best possible margins come…

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Three days before Mardi Gras, the seat belts were being fastened at The Roosevelt New Orleans, a Waldorf Astoria hotel at the edge of the vibrant French Quarter. “It’s madness right now,” says Food and Beverage Manager Myles Holdsworth. “The city goes wild for two weeks, and then we have Ash Wednesday. For our part, we fasten our seat belts and go into overdrive to provide the very best experience for our guests.” Guests who expect the finest luxury are…

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Opening a new restaurant is like going to war. There’s a Seal Team Six mentality required, says St. Louis’s 2017 Restauranteur of the Year Zoe Robinson. “You need to be in tip-top shape, emotionally and physically, and prepared for everything,” says Robinson, who threw open the doors to her third restaurant, Billie Jean, in St. Louis this past December. In this week’s Q&A with Recipe for Success @ Boxerbrand, Robinson offers insights before dashing off to manage her Italian, French…

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