Rants 'n' Ruminations

Sleeping with the Bottles

March 13, 2012    » posted by: admin

I had just turned 21 when I realized I had to go. I had dropped out of college after my first year, moved back to my hometown, and was working a nowhere job. I was pining away for an old girlfriend, living in an awful little apartment and drove a sad excuse for a car that didn’t have reverse most of the time. Some family friends had visited the Virgin Islands and showed me pictures of the trip, and I saw a bunch of young kids about my age in the periphery of the photos.

Records, Details, Memories

February 19, 2012    » posted by: charlieredd

After a few days off around the holidays to reflect and evaluate where we are here at the restaurant I thought it would be fun to share about where the thought process went and is continuing to go. It all started with records.  »read more

Name That Drink : The Creation of a Cocktail List

November 9, 2011    » posted by: Matt

Last Friday, as I quickly ducked into the local wine shop to grab a bottle of white for the house, I heard a young woman exclaiming into her cell phone in the next aisle.

“This. Is. PERFECT!”. Just like that, too.

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Ferran Adria, mentor from afar

September 4, 2011    » posted by: charlieredd

What does an avant garde chef in Catalonia have to do with a Southern boy with a deep love for pulled pork and all things traditional? Everything. Who is this bad mama jama? If you don’t know look him up and get ready for a lengthy list to come up. The most famous chef in the world is a quick sum up. But I’m not trying to write about who he is, but what he is to me.  »read more

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An open letter to the Boston Globe restaurant critic Devra First

July 26, 2011    » posted by: charlieredd

Dear Devra:

First, thank you for coming to Roslindale, our quiet section of Boston. I am glad you thought enough of our project to come and consider us for a visit. Since the moment you first followed our Twitter account, I was excited and nervous about your visit. Now, on the eve of our scheduled review, I thought it would be fun (especially considering our past conversations where I criticized your rating system while praising your prose and quest for umami as the elusive Delicious), to tell the story about what I went through in anticipation of tomorrow.

………  »read more

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Chapter 2: Summer Camp

July 20, 2011    » posted by: charlieredd

So where does a good Southern boy go to summer camp? Cooperstown NY, of course. No, not a baseball prodigy.I was scared of the ball. Beaver Cross was an Episcopal church camp run by the diocese of Albany that is within driving distance of my Oma's summer house in the Adirondacks where we would spend the summer. As I left the Outback with little ambitions for the summer I contacted Deacon Betty and she hired me as kitchen help for the summer. I got room and board, some scratch at the end of the summer, and got to be STAFF at the camp I went to as a kid. What else is there in life?

Chapter 1: Outback Steakhouse

June 9, 2011    » posted by: charlieredd

How did you get into cooking?

It sll started for a zitty teenager bussing tables at the hottest table in Charlotte NC in 1991, Outback Steakhouse. The Outback had just opened in what was to become a hip strip of cool small business and culture in this new money city. This is 91 though in the new South. Australian steakhouse with big oil cans of beer and you have ALL the Nascar races live? Two hour waits.  »read more

The local network, for real

May 23, 2011    » posted by: charlieredd

In opening this restaurant I have been very fortunate to be out in the hands of many other interesting Boston businesses. Local and sustainable is a lifestyle, not a fad. Where we spend our money, especially as a business, makes a big difference in the greater picture and when working with good business people, saves one money. Paying significantly more for local businesses versus the competition is debatable but I see it as charity, and in that category Partners in Health does more good then any business could ever do. if you don't know about them you should.

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