Where were they then?: Local notables recall their lives a decade ago

by Heather Bouzan, 11-05-2007

WHEN Stuff@night hit the streets for the first time in 1997, Boston was a very different place. The Red Sox still sorta sucked, M-80 was the place to see and be seen at night, and Kenmore Square was its old, scuzzy self. But what about the people? What were Boston’s notables doing a decade ago, and where were they doing it? We asked, they answered. Some were doing pretty much the same things they’re doing now — only in tighter pants and tackier haircuts. Some were working in completely different industries and patronizing then-hotspots no longer on our radar. And some — well, some haven’t a clue. But no matter how fuzzy their memories, all were game to predict what their lives will be like 10 years from now.

MP3: Stuff@Night editor Tamara Wieder talks to FNX about turning 10

Todd English, chef/owner, Olives, Figs, Bonfire, and others
Where were you 10 years ago?
I was in between opening Figs in Wellesley and preparing for the opening of Olives Las Vegas at the Bellagio. I was living in Charlestown and splitting my time between working and family — my youngest son, Simon, was about a year and a half, so he was getting into fun stuff like crawling. My first cookbook, The Olives Table, came out, which was very exciting. I was always busy, but I found time to spend at Biba. One of the cool spots at the time was the Plough & Stars. I used to stop in to hang out and listen to my friend “banging on his axe.”

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I hope to be traveling across the globe, experiencing different cultures and cuisines — hopefully with my children. Nothing inspires me more than traveling, and then hopefully returning home to enjoy the magnificent view of my vineyard in the south of France or somewhere in the Italian countryside.

Peter Fiumara, owner, and Marisa Fiumara, owner and function coordinator, the Good Life
Where were you 10 years ago?
Peter: I was living in the North End, finishing up at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as a painter. [I was a] carpenter by day and DJ by night (mainly at house parties only). I was running down to New York City just about every weekend, because I was getting ready to move there, which I did the next year. I spent a lot of time in the North End/Cambridge/Back Bay. In the North End, I was living with three (sometimes four) of my best friends, listening to the Doors and drinking way too much. [I] needed a change — NYC was it. Although I miss New York every day, Boston is home and always will be; I just felt very comfortable here.

Marisa: I was 20 years old — young and wild, sneaking into all the bars in Boston, because I was a year shy of 21. Still in college, Hartwick College. When I was home in the summer, waitressing at two restaurants while working for free in the corporate world, interning. [I was] young and busy, always looking for the best parties in town. I was a social butterfly. I was living in Boston in the summer, and then during the winters I was up at school.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Peter: I’ll be 45 — I hope to have helped the music and nightlife scene in Boston to gain more respect and exposure. The talent in this city is amazing, and I want Boston to be looked at as a city of serious DJs, producers, and bands. I want Beantown to be noted as one of the great cities for music, and hopefully I can help provide a few more venues for that. Otherwise, I will be painting in my studio and listening to the Doors with a few drinks, I’m sure.

Marisa: I’ll be 40. I’ll still want to be young at heart, owning, hopefully, four more restaurants. Different types of restaurants and bars. An eclectic group: maybe one high-end restaurant, one funky bar, stuff like that. In Boston, and possibly in New York. Hopefully married and having a family, having a wonderful husband that supports me on my career. And always having two German shepherds.

William George, owner of James Joseph Salon and James Joseph Studio
Where were you 10 years ago?
I was just getting started in the beauty industry. I opened James Joseph Salon in April 1997, and the first couple years were really tough. I was living in the South End but didn’t have much of a social life except for summer weekends in Provincetown and an occasional party in the South End. The gay house-party scene had peaked in the early ’90s and was on a steady decline, so I was happy when Stuff@night asked me to cover the greater Boston social scene as the first “party pics” photographer. It was a really exciting time for me.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I hope to have 10 salons in the Boston area and a couple in California. My product line will be in Target, and I’ll be really exhausted.

Max Toste, bar manager/owner, Aaron Sanders, general manager/owner, and Josh Velazquez, chef/owner, Deep Ellum
Where were you 10 years ago?
Max: I was working downtown as a busboy/back waiter at the 125-year-old Locke-Ober restaurant, pre Lydia Shire. There I learned from some of the most experienced waiters and bartenders I’d ever seen. (Most of the staff had worked there longer than I’d been alive.) I had just moved to Allston a year earlier. Like most twenty-nothings, I was looking for a good time all the time, and Boston had the food and the booze. Besides my neighborhood haunts in Allston Rock City, I spent some time at the much-missed Tar Bar, where I probably stumbled unknowingly into my future partner Aaron.

Aaron: I was working at Division 16 — it’s not there anymore. Division 16 was there for probably 16, 17 years, and I was there right on the brink of when they started to kind of close down. It was a restaurant-bar; it was a big hotspot. I had just moved here from Texas, so I was kind of getting used to Boston’s scene. A lot of my restaurant experience was from Division 16.

Josh: I was in Knoxville, Tennessee. I was sous chef at a restaurant called Tuscany, a northern Italian restaurant. And I had begun learning about beer at Knoxville’s first beer bar, called Union Jack’s. That was it: working and drinking.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Max: Considering where I was 10 years ago, I would be hard-pressed to try to speculate the future. But I will say that our new business is far beyond what I could have hoped for in the past.

Aaron: Probably sitting on Deep Ellum’s deck. We just got approved to build our deck out back at Deep Ellum, so we’re going to be building that this winter. There’s no decks around in the neighborhood, so probably in 10 years, I’m going to be sitting back there.

Josh: I hope to still be working with Max and Aaron on a project. I’m sure we’ll always have some project going, but personally I think I’d like to also — I love talking to people about food and culinary things, and I’d like to somehow work that into my life. Before I was a chef, I was a writer, and I’d like to bring those two things together.

George Regan, president/owner of Regan Communications
Where were you 10 years ago?
I was working really hard to try to keep our company afloat, trying to head in the right direction, and I obviously made a lot of sacrifices to do that. The company has grown a lot in 10 years, so I probably work harder now than I did 10 years ago. I used to go hang around a lot of times at Daisy Buchanan’s, but now that I’ve gotten older, I go to Ciao Bella instead. I used to go to the Hard Rock Café a lot, but I think I sort of grew out of that one, too. Ten years ago [at Regan Communications], we just had this office, and we had just opened up an office in Providence. We probably had, back then, maybe 40 [employees]. Now, we have seven offices and an advertising agency we just bought down in Barnstable. It’s much more corporate clients [now]. We’ve really grown.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Hopefully, settled down. Married to somebody, not just my company. I would hope [Regan Communications] would continue to grow. I would hope that we continue to play a bigger role in the community. I really insist upon, we have to give back, and philanthropically, try to get more involved, because it’s a wonderful opportunity, in a city with so many issues and problems, for us to play more of a role philanthropically. And I’d probably try to get involved in a couple more boards, too. I’d like to continue to strive to be a better person — I’ve got a ways to go, but I’m hopefully heading in the right direction.

Darryl Settles, owner of Bob’s Southern Bistro, co-owner of the Beehive, and foun-der of BeanTown Sounds
Where were you 10 years ago?
I was doing what I’m doing now: real-estate development and owning Bob’s. And so the only change is, I founded the BeanTown Jazz Festival, and opening the Beehive. And I got married and had two lovely and wonderful kids — that’s what I’ve done since 10 years ago. Ten years ago, my life pretty much centered around Bob’s Southern Bistro, or, at the time, Bob the Chef’s — building that business.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I can see myself owning additional nightspots in and around Boston. I can see myself doing more real-estate deals with partners. I can see myself spending more time with my wife and kids than I am today. And I can see myself going back to traveling more, like I used to.

Lesley Carvalho and Allison Levangie, co-owners of Casa di Stile
Where were you 10 years ago?
Lesley: We were both juniors in college. I went to Bentley College, and Allison went to Syracuse University. At that time, we were both focusing on school and our socially active sorority lives. Junior year in college, you start preparing your resume and start thinking about what jobs you’re going to apply for and what jobs you might be able to secure when you graduate, so that was definitely a focus, too. Allison was in the retail management program, and I was business communications. We’ve been friends since the sixth grade, childhood friends. Our evenings and weekends 10 years ago were filled with sorority meetings, mixers, and community service.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Lesley: We see ourselves both as co-owners of two very successful stores. Two Casa di Stile stores — one in the Boston area, and we’re exploring [opportunities] outside of Massachusetts. But just kind of expanding our store, expanding our name. Ten years from now, we’ll have a much larger following. More consistent, repeat customers. Ten years from now, both with happy, healthy families. Children, husbands, both truthfully probably living in the city still. We’re really happy with our city lives, living in the North End, and just being part of a close-knit neighborhood. I see myself with investment opportunities, a real-estate portfolio, owning some buildings, doing a few things in real estate in addition to the store. More entrepreneurial things, because I think now that it’s really almost been a year of being on our own, there [are] definitely more entrepreneurial things we can do.

Dylan Black, bartender/owner of Green Street
Where were you 10 years ago?
I was a bartender at Redbones during the day, in Davis Square, which was probably the hub of my social life. I had friends at the Someday Café, I had friends at the Somerville Theatre. I would also drink at Sligo’s Pub in Davis Square, and I lived in North Cambridge, so that was kind of where [I was], along the Red Line. And, being a bartender, most of the weekends and evenings, I was working. I started bartending during the days, and at night I was still waiting tables and doing takeout, other duties like that. At that time, I was 23 years old. I didn’t realize, but my life was about to change a bit. Shortly after that, I was hired at the B-Side Lounge, and that’s when it went from kind of a job ... it became a legitimate career when I started at the B-Side Lounge.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I would say, hopefully, celebrating my 12th year of Green Street being open, is one goal. Working a little less. Fishing more. But 10 years from now, I see myself still in Cambridge, where I grew up, still in Central Square, where I grew up, and hopefully with a family and more friends.

Mario Russo, owner of Salon Mario Russo and owner/creator of Mario Russo product line
Where were you 10 years ago?
Professionally, 10 years ago I was just starting to strategize my own line of products. Networking with elite chemists, listening to my clientele basis, and researching the health benefits of olive oil on the scalp (like my grandmother used for me, as a child). My line was just a twinkle in my eye back then. My salons were truly prospering, and I was beginning to differentiate myself as a “non-conformist” modern and contemporary trend-setter in Boston. This is the time I started to become known as a celebrity stylist with [clients like] Rhea Perlman, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, et cetera.

Personally, I was buying art and building my collection. Some things never change! Weekends are always spent with friends and family and my true love, Tessa — my dog. Summer weekends spent at my home in Provincetown. Winter and fall, skiing in Vermont and Colorado.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I envision growing and re-vamping my product line and salons — lots of innovative products and services on the horizon. [Also], enjoying the emerging art scene in Boston and the ICA.

Lydia Shire, chef/co-owner of Locke-Ober, Blue Sky, and Scampo
Where were you 10 years ago?
My last son, Alex, was born in 1990, so he was seven years old. I owned two restaurants then: Biba and Pignoli. I had just moved out to Weston, Massachusetts, in a beautiful old home; my daughter, who’s an architect, she designed it. Moving out to Weston was very special — it’s a beautiful town. I was having fun in my two restaurants. Traveling a lot. I love to travel, go to China — I’ve been to China four times, and love to eat.

[Locally, I spent time at] Olives, for sure. I think what Todd English does is pretty fabulous. I think he’s one of the best cooks ever to have been in Boston. I’m always amazed at his food and his menus; they’re great. So I would say that was one good place. Peach Farm, which is in Chinatown — that’s a very special restaurant. I love the food there. They taught me how to make salt-and-pepper beef short ribs. Of course, I always loved to go over and visit Gordon Hamersley — he’s my good buddy. These were all restaurants that were happening back then, and still happening.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I would be 68. So, I will have my three restaurants, which are Locke-Ober, Blue Sky on York Beach — that’s in Maine — which I’m opening next week. It’s very exciting. And we have a bakery there that I named after my granddaughter: Clara’s Cupcake Café. So, hopefully my granddaughter, she’s nine years old, so she’ll be 19, and I’m sure she’ll be working there in the summer. She loves to cook. And my son will have taken over my mini-restaurant empire, and he’ll probably be based at my newest restaurant, which is Scampo, at the Liberty Hotel. I’ll be there writing menus, the same thing I’ve done for forever. I’ll be writing menus and basically helping my son. Personally, just more traveling — I love to travel. As long as in 10 years I continue to be surrounded by beauty, I’ll be a very happy person.

Oh, and by the way: I think I’ll be old enough to own a Jaguar by then. I love BMWs and all that, but I’ve always kind of wanted a Jaguar, but I always think of them as old people’s. But I’ll officially be old by then, and I think I can have a Jaguar. So you’ll see me tooling around in, probably, a dark-green or a red Jaguar.

Bill Emery, managing partner of 28 Degrees
Where were you 10 years ago?
I was just moving to the South End. Professionally, I was consulting with interior designers and architects on the business aspect of that industry. I still do that, actually. Besides owning a restaurant, that’s what I do professionally. Socially, probably pretty similar to what I’m doing today. I think Mistral was around about 10 years ago, if I remember correctly. Tim’s Tavern, for some reason that comes to mind. Bomboa. Used to go to the Tar Bar all the time; loved the Tar Bar. I had just started in the consulting, so that was kind of a big thing. I was just starting it at that time.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Pretty much doing the same thing. Hopefully I’ll be doing some other venture in the restaurant or lounge industry 10 years from now. I think the Seaport area is a great up-and-coming area, so possibly living down there or working down there in 10 years, I would think. I’m very happy with the way my life is right now, so hopefully 10 years from now, it will still be in the same capacity. Just more of the same, I guess.

Julie Salickram, director of marketing at Gypsy Bar, Liquor Store, Match, Tequila Rain, Jillian’s, and Lucky Strike
Where were you 10 years ago?
I was still in college. I went to Northeastern, so I was out on co-op at the time. I was working as the executive assistant at WBCN. I had just turned 21, so the whole Boston nightlife scene really opened up for me then. There really wasn’t anything for under-21 at the time. And I was also living on campus for the first time, because I had been commuting. So all of that, all at once, really opened up a lot. One of the girls I worked with introduced me to Bombay Sapphire martinis, and that became my drink — I really went all for it, right at the beginning. And I remember Pravda 116, which is now Gypsy, had just opened right around the same time. I remember going there — the food there was fabulous — and just sitting at the bar, and getting all dressed up. Just turned 21, all grown-up. I wanted to be 31 when I was 21; now that I’m 31, I want to be 21.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
My first thought is, I’ll probably be pulling out my hair, as my son, who’s three now, will just be hitting his teenage years. I’ll probably be Boston-based. I lived in New York for a while, but I really like Boston. And probably still something in hospitality, promotions, marketing. But exactly what, I’m not sure.

Deborah Hughes, chef and co-owner, and Mary Catherine Deibel, co-owner, Up-Stairs on the Square
Where were you 10 years ago?
Mary Catherine: I decided to take a summer-long sabbatical to ready myself to repair a long-standing injury to my knee by having a knee replacement. So for the first time, I actually was free to travel, which I did all summer, to visit Vancouver, New Brunswick, Texas, Colorado. It was a time of great growth for UpStairs at the Pudding, when the “secret garden” had really caught the city’s imagination for outdoor dining, so it was the busiest year we’d ever had, and was challenging but exciting for Deborah and me. Biba on Friday nights was where you could find us and our crowd. Deborah and I really took the time and effort to get out and about at events and parties that year and had a blast. By 1997, UpStairs at the Pudding was celebrating its 15th year in business!

Deborah: 1997 was the year of great men in my life: I had a great general manager, a great boyfriend, a great property manager, great people in my kitchen. It was the year I had bought a condo, and I was painting my floors, and I spent a lot of time on flowers — it was the year of peonies for me. I used to go with André Robert, Friday night, to Biba, and that was how I got to be friends with Lydia and Susan Regis. Lots of women chefs used to go out. Mary Catherine and I, in 1997, were just beginning to imagine that we would be changing spaces.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Mary Catherine: I see myself right here in Harvard Square, the gods willing, at the helm of UpStairs on the Square, greeting old friends at the door, making new friends on our lovely pedestrian street. I just hope that by that time, I can count on more time off!

Deborah: I see myself on a farm; I’d love to be a grower. It’s sort of a natural progression. I would love to be a farmer, and I’d love to have a bakery — sell great blueberry muffins and grilled cheese. [I’ll be with UpStairs on the Square], in some fashion, I would imagine, 10 years from now. I love the idea of doing some version of a bakery with great family dinners at night. I love the idea of communal dining, some kind of supper club. And I definitely have products I want to market. I’ve got this great “bad-girl plaid” and “good-girl plaid” in my restaurant on the wall, and I want to make that into fabric and do like cocktail aprons, things like that.

Ken Oringer, chef/owner of Clio, Uni, Toro, and La Verdad; consulting chef at KO Prime
Where were you 10 years ago?
I was settling in at Clio. We had opened in June 1997. And it was right about this time of year, too, when I had my first day off. I was just starting to think about Spain for inspiration — I planned my first trip and went to El Bulli, where chef Ferran Adrià was wowing the world with his creations. I actually got to work in the lab with Ferran and his crew. I was having a lot of fun, working hard and searching for Celine (my beautiful wife). Where was I hanging out? Silvertone and Clio late night. Also, Bukowski Tavern was and is a great place to be. When I had free time, I liked to venture to other restaurants.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Sitting on the beach in Mexico with my family and enjoying the first La Verdad in Mexico City. I also look forward to continuing to provide authentic and unique cuisine for greater Boston.

Marc Harris, owner of Salon Marc Harris
Where were you 10 years ago?
I was in a partnership in a salon called Ecocentrix on Newbury Street. I had one salon. Personally, I was married with one child. Locally, I’ve pretty much always hung out at 29 Newbury, so that was kind of my spot back then. [Professionally], I was fairly established. I originally opened [Salon Marc Harris] in 1990, and I’ve been on the same block on Newbury Street since 1978 [starting with John Dellaria]. I was pretty established in the business at that point. For me, 10 years doesn’t seem like that long.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Based on where my company has gone — we’ve evolved quite a bit — I see myself, in 10 years, probably having a minimum of five salons and a very well-developed product line. Now, I’m no longer in Ecocentrix. We re-branded; it’s called Salon Marc Harris. We own three salons now: one in Providence, one in Andover, [one in Boston]. We’re opening a fourth location in downtown Boston, probably within the next few weeks. We’ve been working on it for a while — we’re hoping to close this week on it. I’ve produced a product line, that is just a phenomenal line, and hopefully in 10 years, the goal would be to really have the product line help us establish the brand nationally. And then make a determination: if that brand’s strong enough nationally, do we follow that with salons? I see five as my short-term goal with the salons, but long-term, I can see it being a lot more.

Right now, I’m not married and I have three daughters, so I guess [they’re] the most important thing on a personal level. My oldest daughter is coming into the business, so on a personal level, I would really like to see her be established in the business and see what happens with the two younger ones.

Tony Susi, chef/owner of Sage
Where were you 10 years ago?
I was living the life of a line cook at Olives — not much money but had connections all over town, so we still had a decent lifestyle. Much like today, [I] was surrounded by great food and wine and people. I was single, and God only knew then where I was heading. I was living in Boston, moved back from San Francisco the previous year. After work or [on a] night out, we would usually hit Joy Club, Biba, Franklin Café, or TC’s Lounge (depending if you wanted chic, casual, or dive).

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Still cooking and creating great food; relaxing and enjoying life with my family and friends; still doing Q&A segments for magazines!

Garrett Harker, owner of Eastern Standard
Where were you 10 years ago?
I was running Scala’s Bistro, one of San Francisco’s most popular restaurants, for the Kimpton Group. Ironically, the same company that, 10 years later, gave [chef] Jamie Bissonnette the opportunity at KO Prime that took him away from Eastern Standard. I was waiting for an opportunity to move back to Boston, where my wife was from. We had met together waiting tables at Legal Sea Foods and moved out to SF for our twenties. Around this time in ’97, I had phone conversations with Todd English about the Olives Group. But it was a friend at United Liquors, Vince Maxson, who twisted my arm to meet a woman who was looking to open a small place on Beacon Hill, a place that felt neighborhood-y but had the highest of ambitions. He said she cooked like your Italian grandmother. Well, my Italian grandmother was 100 percent Irish and bred several of Baltimore’s finest cops. And Barbara Lynch was a lot closer to my grandmother than any little Italian lady. It felt right. That restaurant became No. 9 Park.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I expect my hair to be white, to have two days off a week, and to have successfully fought back from ankle, knee, and hip replacement to run food at Eastern Standard.

Chris Douglass, chef/owner of Icarus and the Ashmont Grill
Where were you 10 years ago?
Ten years ago, I …

•spent my mornings with my one-year-old son, Walker, and my four-year-old daughter, Emma, while my wife Maryellen was busy at work doing landscape design.

•took the kids out to parks (Dorchester Park, Blue Hills) and museums (Science, Children’s, DeCordova, Aquarium, MFA, Gardner).

•lived in an apartment on Ashmont Hill in Dorchester, now live on same street in a house we bought eight years ago.

•worked the line at Icarus four or five nights a week, made a real effort to be home at least two nights a week for dinner with the family.

•conceived, planned, and organized two consecutive annual Chefs Collaborative “chef retreats” at Alyson’s Apple Orchard in Walpole, New Hampshire.

•celebrated Icarus’s 20th anniversary.

•cooked my 400,000th meal (approximate — 16 years x 100 per day x 52 weeks).

•adopted black and white mutt (lab/Dalmatian), Toby.

•bought my first mini-van.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
10 years from now …

•I will probably still be working, although not so much in the kitchen.

•[I will be] celebrating Icarus’s 40th anniversary, Ashmont Grill’s 12th, and Tavolo’s 10th (Tavolo opening spring ’08).

•[I will be] spending more time at the beach.

Frank McClelland, chef/owner of L’Espalier and Sel de la Terre, owner/guru at Au Soleil Catering
Where were you 10 years ago?
My third child, James, was born — it’s really, obviously a big highlight: January 28, 1997. Another highlight was, I was completing in 1997 a major renovation of L’Espalier. Also, I had developed the idea in 1997 of Sel de la Terre, and I traveled to Provençe that year to investigate my idea. That’s really the three large happenings, for me, personally and in business.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Hopefully on an island somewhere, in a lounge chair, watching the waves ripple up on the beach. I hope to continue my work chasing perfection at L’Espalier and Sel de la Terre, and just continue to reach for the stars in my profession, with the culinary arts and business, both. Personally, to be fishing out on the Gulf Stream.

Chris Schlesinger, chef/owner of East Coast Grill and All-Star Sandwich Bar
Where were you 10 years ago? I did the same thing 10 years ago that I’m going to be doing in 10 years. We go to Costa Rica, I hang out at the same places, I hang out with the same people. I basically do the same thing. I think I’m kind of boring that way. I wear the same clothes and drive the same car. I was doing the same stuff 20 years ago, too. We hang out, we go to Westport.

Just working. [I hung out at] Green Street Grill, shopped at Formaggio’s, [went to] Santarpio’s. I always kind of had concepts around in my head, always thinking about concepts, but no, [I wasn’t thinking about All-Star Sandwich Bar] at that point.

My partner had left three years before, so I had pretty much made the transition and started taking over more of the business side. Probably had a different chef back then, and a different manager.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I love the restaurant business, and I’m fortunate to have a lot of very different things going on in it. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if I was doing pretty much the same thing. I’ve always wanted to have a bar, so I can see maybe owning a bar or something like that. I like to try to keep things interesting — when I have one restaurant, I want two, and when I have two, I want one. I’m sure that trend will continue. I like the work, so I don’t feel an impending need to lessen my workload. I’d like to travel as much as possible — Asia and the Middle East, I’d like to see more of that. I feel fortunate — I feel like things are going really good, and I don’t feel the need to do anything differently.

Esti Parsons, co-owner of Radius, Via Matta, and Great Bay
Where were you 10 years ago? I’ve been doing this for 20 years. At 10 years ago, we were just starting the process of opening Radius. What was going on personally? Well, when you’re in restaurants, that is kind of what your personal life is. I was not married but was dating my current husband. He was probably on the road an awful lot. And opening a restaurant, as you can well imagine, was sort of 24/7. At that point, we were probably just in the design phase, so it was a lot of meetings and dealing with the construction end of things.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Hopefully doing the same thing. Hopefully running restaurants — I really like what I do, so I hope to still be doing it. I’m never bored, even after 20 years, and there’s always something new and challenging, and you get to throw parties and work with great people. And I hope to be as happy as I am right now.

[Photos by Tim Gray for Furnald/Gray]

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