Vida Cantina, Salt + Stone, Axel & Byrne

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You are listening to Food for Thoughtwith Billy and Jenny, brought to you
by the Box Center. For morethan fifteen years, this dining duo has
been eating their way through New England, mixing it up with top chefs,
jumping behind the line of the hottestrestaurants, and giving you the inside scoop
on where to wine, dine andspend your time. So get ready,
it's Food for Thought giving you somethingto chew on. Hey, everybody,

(00:22):
welcome into Food for Thought brought toyou by the Box Center. Jenny this
week is here, Billy is offSouth State and happy somewhere, but just
not with us today. I'm reallyexcited for the show this week because we
have some great restaurants, some greatchefs, and some great opportunities for you
listeners to be able to enjoy somespecial culinary offerings this time in the state

(00:45):
of New Hampshire. I love toget up to the Granite State as often
as I can. I think alot of folks, both in Massachusetts and
anywhere in New England do as well. Certainly this time of year is a
highlight with the gorgeous peeping and theleaves and sort of that that sort of
ode to warmth that we all holdon to so so much this time of
year. This chef is someone whohas been recognized on a number of different

(01:10):
levels, one of which is asOutstanding Chefs from James Beard Foundation. He
was also a Warrant Chefs by theYear by the New Hampster Lodging and Restaurant
Association. This is Chef David Bargus. He has a couple of different places.
The first one Vita Cantina. It'sit's first, his first restaurant in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and thena couple other ones or now Barbecue and

(01:30):
Kittery, Maine, and then anotherone up there as well. So Chef
David Bargis, how are you doingtoday? Fantastic, Thanks for having me
on the show today. Oh soexcited to have you. We it's actually
been a little bit since we've beenup to Portsmouth. But our show definitely
tries, our television show definitely triesto get throughout New England at least a

(01:51):
few times a year. So tellus you, oh, we'll definitely be
up there soon. So tell usabout first of all, Howard's going up
in Portsmouth, and tell us alittle bit about Vita Cantina. Things are
going great up here. I mean, the scene, just like you said,
is absolutely gorgeous. This time ofyear we have you know, it

(02:13):
really hasn't stopped being busy at all. We have a lot of people coming
into town on a constant But VitaCantina is absolutely gorgeous. We just celebrated
this is our tenth year being open, and we're stronger than ever, is
what I say. It's just agreat modern Mexican restaurant that really celebrates the
community altogether. Oh my gosh.And I want to get into more specifics

(02:37):
about the restaurant, and I can'tbelieve ten years that is a major,
major deal in any business, butcertainly in the hospitality industry. So I
love to sort of give people anidea of who the stuff is that we're
talking to. Where you come from, what a little bit about your background
is am I correction saying that maybeyou started lice in the West Coast or

(02:58):
spent some time in the West Coast. Yes, I'm born and raised in
southern California, and I met mybeautiful wife in California and she is originally
from the New Hampshire area, midNew Hampshire, and you know, we
decided that we wanted to raise ourfamily. We have two incredible kids,

(03:20):
and we wanted to raise our familyin a slower paced kind of area,
and so we decided to come thisway. You know. The only thing
I stipulation I had is let's goby the sea coast and needed to have
some ocean by me. So wedecided to come this way. And it's
been incredible. I've been here sincetwenty ten and we opened up the restaurant
in twenty thirteen. But I definitelymissed the West Coast in some in some

(03:43):
form. It's nice to go backand visit. You know, all my
family is there and so it's niceto go back. But it's incredible to
call this area home now. OhI love that, and it is such
a special place to raise a family. And you're right, a little bit
more of a low key vibe thansort of the intensity I'm sure of southern
California or any other major city,so that you guys are able to sort

(04:05):
of be creative in the ways thatyou want to be and be supportive as
sort of a neighborhood restaurant. Butwe like to know a little bit more
about where the like, where didculinary become sort of the focus for you?
Was there a culinary inspiration in yourlife, someone in your life that
sort of helps show you the flavorsand sort of help you get into this

(04:28):
area. So really, you know, my parents open up a restaurant when
I was young. But you know, family and food is really what depicts
megicand of culture all together. Andso really, you know, I growing
up in that culture, being surroundedby the food every single weekend, every
single day almost and our family alltogether and really celebrating each other really help

(04:51):
uh focus what I am doing today, you know. And so I had
no idea at a young age itwould really shape up to what I decided
to do for the rest of mylife. But you know, eating those
eating that food, you know,smelling those smells, seeing everything going on
in the kitchen. You know,even as a young kids, you know,

(05:13):
I you know, I'd be lyingif I told you I was that
kid that was, you know,right next to mom cooking and stuff.
I was right next to mom eatingmore than helping cook. But I remember
those tastes, I remember that sensationin my belly and things like that,
and so that really helped shape mesome. You know, a lot of
inspiration comes from both my parents.You know, they're both from Halischool,

(05:33):
They're both immigrants to this country,and so they really not only helped me
focus on what food should look likeand what it should feel like as far
as you know, feeding your familyand feeding your community, but it also
helped me shape my my work ethicas well. You know, coming to

(05:54):
these countries as immigrants and really workingas hard as they can to uh focus
on giving their fans only a betterfuture and things like that is really like
what helped shape my whole world ofbecoming a chef. I love that and
obviously the flavors are playing out inthis restaurant as well. Tell us a
little bit briefly about your other restaurant, which is which is newer or Nell's

(06:17):
Barbecue and Kiddymaine. Why do peopleenjoy it there? Oh? Ornells is
absolutely incredible. You know are Mybusiness partner, Will Mishka is the pitmaster
chef there as well as the owner, and he's originally from Sugarland, Texas.
And Will and I met here atVita Cantina. He was my chef
to cuisine for quite a number ofyears and we decided to open up this

(06:41):
venture together and it's absolutely incredible.I mean it's Central Texas style barbecue,
which is oak smoked, really concentratingon the meats itself, no sauce on
the meat, and so you know, you have that dry rub, you
have that beautiful brisket, which youknow is incredible, and I then you
have the rich and obviously the sideto go along with it. Well people.

(07:06):
I know, people are so particularabout their barbecue and I love that.
I read somewhere that you hosted adiversity barbecue, which is really inviting
chefs from everywhere to cook and sharesome of their stories, their cultural backgrounds
and experiences. You talked about theinspiration of your parents and that definitely played
out in your involvement in the community. I want to talk more about that.

(07:27):
Will take a break and we'll beback with more Food for Thought in
just a minute. You're listening toFood for Thought, brought to you by
the Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hoteland Sweet Name Spear Nominated chef David Vargas
is on the show with us thisweek, coming talking to us in New
Hampshire today. So we talked alittle bit about both the restaurants. We'll
talk a little bit more about themcoming up. We talked a little bit

(07:49):
about your inspiration and sort of whereyour love for food and for hospitality really
came from. But one of thethings that I know is so important to
you is community and UH and theconnection with all the purveyors that you work
with, with all the partners thatyou work with with with the patrons that
come in to enjoy. But there'sso many different levels and so many focuses

(08:13):
that you've had throughout the past,you know, decade of being up there
in New Hampshire. I want totalk about some of those. I actually,
I know I've read somewhere that you'rethe former interm director of Nutrition for
the Kiddery Public Schools, which isjust so fascinating, So because you are
so passionate and really energized about foodand you're able to speak to it on

(08:37):
on on obviously so many different levels, but talk about sort of the engagement
and the involvement in community and whythat's so important to you. I think,
you know, I feel very luckyfor being able to do what I
get to do for a living andas most restauranteurs will know and already know,

(08:58):
it's tough to make it in thisbusiness, and so to be able
to come out on the other endis what I say. Even through obviously
the COVID times and everything like that, I feel like I need to now
give back to my community. Andthat has been my switch, my focus
really. You know, there's alot of movement on this farm to table
thing, and so I switched thatwhole mindset, and I really call my

(09:20):
movement community to table, and howI can do a full circle every single
day and continue to support my community. So yes, exactly like you said,
you know, I was. Iworked in the school lunch program at
the Kiddery School district, and Willytry to try to rewrite USDA recipes so

(09:41):
we could stop stop packing our freezerschool and start packing our fridges full of
fresh food instead of frozen food.In different ways like that, you know,
we support you know, we growlocal corn here on the Sea coast
to make all our masstuff, tomake all our chips and all tortillas,

(10:01):
and so you know, my funlittle saying is by coming in here and
just eating your our tacos and ourtortillas and our tortilla chips. You're actually
supporting your local community. It's likethe simplest thing you can do, and
if you really wanted to get downto it. You know, most of
our farms that we work with aswell practice regenerative farming, and so that

(10:22):
is the type of farming where youactually are reducing the amount of carbon footprint
that is in the air as well. So just by eating our tacos and
our chips, you're actually reducing theamount of carbon that's here on the secos.
So it's like those little things thatwe continue to do and continue to
strive for on how we can makethis full circle community really continue to build

(10:43):
each other up. You know.One of the other greatest things that we've
done is started at a festival calledbipod Fasts that really celebrates the black Indigenous
people of colored communities throughout New Englandas well. I mean, it's so
important and you're doing such inclusive andimportant work that you should be so proud

(11:03):
of because this is this is oneof the things we love about sharing the
stories of chefs of restaurants is thatit is so much more than cooking a
meal that is on your plate ifand when you find someone as passionate and
as energized as you are. Iwant to go back to the corn for
for a little bit and talk aboutVita Tortilla. So you have been able

(11:28):
to use that locally grown corn tomake all of your tortillas, but you
also sell them to restaurants or directthe consumer that can people also purchase them
in different places. Absolutely, Sowe started this project about six years ago,
seven years ago with a local farmhere about thirty minutes away from the
restaurant called Tuckaway Farm. And reallywe wanted to make the best tacos that

(11:50):
we possibly could, and that startswith the torfilla all the way. So
to do that you have to,you know, make your own massa.
Yeah, the opportunity to either importit or figure out how I could grow
it here. And so I workedwith the farm and we started off with
one acre. Last year we harvestedthirty acres between three farms now and so

(12:11):
it's just been this continuous project.You know. We opened up the company
Vita Tortilla, which basically makes tortillas, makes tortilla chips, and not only
sells it to restaurants, but alsosells it at farmers' markets and different various
stores throughout the all the way upto Portland, sometimes down to Boston depending

(12:33):
on But since since I opened upthe company about two years ago, we
have sold it off actually to ourproduction manager, another Mexican American woman that
is very passionate behind the culture aswell, and so it was exciting for
us to continue the project, stillbe able to use the product as well,

(12:54):
but also give it to another Bipopcommunity member. That's so exciting,
how wonderful to be able to watchthat be able to be sustained, but
also us still grow. I knowone of the things they're also passionate about
is connecting other chefs or other peoplewithin hospitality with the local farmers, because
I think in some ways, youoftentimes see people moving so outside of the

(13:18):
community, and it seems like,really what your focus is is there's people
doing all of the things that weneed to sort of sustain our business right
more so right in our backyard.To talk about sort of those connections and
how important that is and why that'sso important to your mission, I think
one of the easiest ways to describethis is we watched our whole food system

(13:39):
shut down when our country shut downthrough COVID, and so unfortunately that was
the big time when all these localfarms actually did extremely well because this was
their food system. And so whatwe need to continue to do as chefs
is continue to make our food lesssexy. Is like one of my atos,

(14:00):
and I understand that this is thefood that's accessible to all all types
of income on a constant. Soyou know, if you look at farmers'
markets and things like that, youknow, you think only you know,
the wealthy can shop there, butactually this, these vegetables, these things
that they sell there actually can beaffordable to all types of income. And

(14:22):
so it's just about becoming aware andmaking that awareness throughout the community on a
constant. And so as chefs,if we can connect and show off and
really promote, you know, thesedifferent types of farms, and we can
get that word out altogether and thesedifferent communities that don't have access to it
will have access to it eventually.Yes, it is so important and I

(14:46):
think that educational peace to say sothis actually is affordable, and it's more
nutritious, and it's it's it's checkingso many of the boxes that so many
people want to be supporting so thateducation is so important one of the other
things that you do every year andconnect to every year of supporting both the

(15:07):
community that you live in the statesthat you live in. I know that
this is Seacoast Restaurant Week up inPortsmouth and New Hampshire and Seacoast November Sex
through November eleventh, and I wantedto make sure that people had an idea
what this looks like and what it'lllook like when they're inside your restaurant.
Oh great, Yeah, this isa great way for people to give our

(15:28):
restaurant a try. You know,we offer a three course menu at a
discounted rate then that we usually woulddo. And so for us, you
know, it's kind of we kindof have fun with it every single time
and kind of put a theme behindit. And this this time we're doing
LATINX food ways, and so we'vekind of picked out you know, we

(15:52):
have three appetizers, three entrees,one of four appetizers, three entrees and
three desserts and each one is fromdifferent LATINX country and so you can come
in here and you know, foran appetizer, you'd get something like a
RepA from Colombia or tacos ropa fromCuba and things like that, you know,

(16:12):
and so it's a fun play alltogether, and it actually makes it
very you know, for I loveRestaurant Week just because it makes uh it
for something different than where we're normallycooking as well. It's a completely different
menu that we that we create andare inspired by something else. Love it

(16:32):
so much and and I think there'ssomewhere around thirty different participating restaurants and around
the Sea coast and this is reallysort of the the ends of this comes
from or I guess it's a collaborationwith the Chamber of Greater Portsmouth. And
there's also some beneficiaries that you guysare supporting throughout these these week's efforts.

(16:56):
Yes, yeah, definitely. Youknow, GATHER is a huge support of
this Restaurant Week. You know.I think one thing that we realized is
you know, food and security altogether. And so we figure out, you
know, with the special menus andfood that is left over throughout the week
and after this week and things likethat, how we can continue to collaborate

(17:19):
with GATHER, the local food pantry. Hmm, that's wonderful. Okay,
We're going to take a quick breakand we're going to talk a little bit
more about GATHER and about some ofthe other supporters. There's great sponsors that
participate in this week. There's,like I said, over thirty participating restaurants
in and around the New Hampshire SeaCoast. So if you're looking for a

(17:41):
great weekend, if you're looking foran enjoyable dieting experience, we have a
lot of suggestions coming up. We'regoing to take a break. We'll be
back with more Food for Thought.Jeff Bargas in just a minute, you're
listening to Food for Thought brought toyou by It's the Box Center and Sale
and Waterfront Hotel and Suit So Jeff, it really is a great way and
not only support local businesses there duringrestaurant weeks for Smith, another great opportunity

(18:06):
to be able to go see oneof the beautiful cities in our region.
But it's a really nice way tosort of collect, you know, connect
with the local community. And Ithink the way you said it is right.
I mean, it allows you totry the restaurants and try many different
restaurants and also know that you're supportingGATHER and helping to sort of hopefully end

(18:26):
food and security at some point.So so, chef, can you tell
us some of the other participating chefs. There's some of the chefs that you're
close with in the community that theymay want to check out in addition to
yours. Yes, definitely, youknow, I mean there's so many great
menus in at you know, twentyfive dollars for lunch and forty eight dollars

(18:47):
for dinner. It's absolutely a greatdeal. But you know, if I
had to talk about a couple ofrestaurants, you know, obviously Ornell's Barbecue,
we're doing a false smoke scene there, and you can find something from
like a seafood you know, usinglocal seafood here on the Sea Coast Tippino
to like a fried green tomato vegetableappetizer as well. One of my favorite

(19:12):
restaurants to go to for sure alsois Raleigh. Chef Jeremy Glover is the
chef. They're phenomenal, phenomenal chefand you could find you know, I
mean, his desserts are always topnotch, and I'm a sugar teen and
so he has this Courtland apple tartthat just it describes as like I think

(19:33):
he has it as like a brownbutter ice cream with an oak crumble and
brown butter ice cream just sounds amazingto me already. But he has one
of my favorite fishes on his menuas well, which is a local monk
fish with a like a leak stewthat he's doing with it also, And
so, like you know, youwhat I love about it is most of

(19:56):
the chefs on the sea coasts thatare that are involved with UH really bring
out there. You know. It'skind of like their time to shine and
bring something special that they haven't beenable to do on their regular minus.
That is totally true, and Ithink you're right. I mean, the
conception of of like a prefixed menuwould be that it is you know,

(20:17):
basic, and I see absolutely theopposite. During weeks like this, I
want to make sure people have thewebsite. It's www dot Restaurant week Horsmith
dot com. So the dates forthis are November second through the eleventh.
There's a special initiative to support gatherand fight food and security together. Chef,
It's a pleasure to have you,Billy, and I need to get

(20:37):
up there to you soon. Vitakids and that definitely got to check that
out and thank you so much,chef. We'll talk to you soon.
Thank you. All right, We'llbe back with more Food for thoughts.
Stick with us. You're listening toFood for Thought brought to you by It's
the Box Center and Sale and WaterfrontHotel and sweet Hey everybody, welcome back

(20:59):
into Food for stot brought to youby the Box Center. I think we
think of a few things as NewEnglanders. In the fall, we think
of the leaves changing colors. Wethink of pumpkins and apple picking and uh,
you know, certainly being up therein New Hampshire's we just talked about
during uh, during the fall issuch a beautiful place to be. But
the other thing we think of isfootball, okay, and so we think

(21:22):
for as New Englanders, we thinkabout football and Foxborough. And I'm really
excited because I have the owners ofa new restaurant down there in Foxborough,
Axel and Burn. I have itsowner, Sean Olsen on the phone with
me. Sean, thanks so muchfor joining us. Thanks for having me
Jenny be here so Sean, weof course, well we've had you on
the show. You also on Saltand Stone and Assembly Row and Axel and

(21:47):
Burn is your new spot. We'regoing to talk about both of those restaurants,
certainly going to focus on Axel andBurn today just because yes, it
is football season. But I wantto talk a little bit about you,
your background and how you into hospitality. So I know you and your wife
are co owners of these restaurants,but so give us a little background.

(22:10):
Well, I just turned sixty threelast month, but I had been in
the business since I was thirteen.Both of my parents or gourmet cooks.
My grandparents were Gormet. Well,my grandmother was a gourmet cook. So
at thirteen, I got a jobas a dishwasher at a local restaurant,
told them I was a little bitolder than I was, and right off

(22:30):
the bat started prepping and cooking andjust really really went at the food business
and loved it, and then,when you know, continued on with that
kind of path until I got tocollege and got a degree in restaurant management
and been in the whole time.So god, yeah, that is so

(22:52):
I mean, it's like literally andfiguratively in your bones. That is so
special. And so what were whatwas what was like a dinner or like
sort of paint a picture of whatgrowing up culinarily looked like for you,
What were the flavors, what werethe memories that you have obviously being within
restaurants for certain, but share someof those memories with us well. So

(23:15):
Sunday was always probably the biggest mealof our family. I'm one of seven
kids, and during the afternoon,my dad and I would I'd help him.
He was always cooking, and wehad Julia child, you know,
in black and white TV on inthe background, and would you watch that
and enjoy that and talk about thatand then get the whole family together,

(23:37):
you know, after working, heand I working several hours during the day,
and the seven kids and my parentswould sit down and it would be
gone in fifteen minutes. Right.But it was truly a joy to be
around food and see people appreciate itso much. I can I can picture
that those little black and white TVsand doing the same actually with my grandparents.

(24:00):
So what were some of the whatwere some of the dishes that were
sort of reminiscent of that Sunday afternoonfamily brunch anywhere? What we would do
start brunch earlier? Right, itwould be funny, would be like an
eggs benedict or you know, tryingto duplicate Julia's omelets, you know,
her famous omelets, and trying tofigure out how to do that without it

(24:22):
completely sticking to the band and beingruined. And you know, we talk
about that, and you know,making homemade English muffins for example, that
was a project, you know,learning sour doughs and how to make those
from scratch and not things like that. And then that would turn into you
know, the eggs benedict that wewould tackle then later and then we would

(24:44):
start the evening meal or always wouldSundays was always typically a roast, whether
it's a simple pot roast or itwas a leg of lamb something, you
know, or you know, wewe would cook turkeys a lot, even
though it wasn't Thanksgiving, and thatwas just a meal that could last for
a whole week, a big family. You have a turkey, and then
you have sandwiches, and then youhave soup. So and I'm sure those

(25:10):
memories are still such a big partof you today in your restaurant. So
Okay, so a few years backyou open Saltonstone with your wife at Assembly
Road. Tell us about what peopleinjoy when they walk inside there. Well,
Sultan's Stone is a very eclectic restaurant. You're going to see two you
know, vibrant colors of blues andgolds and blacks, very high ceilings,

(25:36):
a lot of wood accents. Wehave. Our main bar in the front
of the restaurant is made from thewood comes from a old mill in New
Bedford that was demolished many years ago. It actually have to be Berkshire Hathaway's
first office building way back in theday, and so the bar is made
out of that. It's beautiful tolook at. You know, great local

(26:00):
beers on tap and mixed craft cocktailshave become huge around the city, right
but we really are part of that. We also have a more a little
quieter bar in the back where peopleif they want in less activity, they
can sit to hover around that.We have a raw bar for locals,
clams and oysters, shrimp, youname it. Our kitchen is wide open

(26:26):
to the audience right in the middleof the restaurant. We have two wood
ovens. Well, one's wood,one's gas pizza ovens. In the wood
oven we cook our flatbreads, weroast our wings, meatballs, and then
the other one is a rotating oventhat we do want proteins in our steaks,
our fish, our chickens, andyou can sit around that as you

(26:49):
want. One of the great thingsabout that restaurant is there's so many different
areas right like you are in onebeautiful, welcoming, comforting space, but
you can do a variety of differentthings as you're there. And obviously Assembly
Row is a great place to visitfor so many reasons. You can get
so much done in that one area. But that's definitely a great spot to

(27:10):
eat at. Okay, we're goingto take a break. When we come
back, we're going to talk aboutyour newest edition to your restaurant group.
So exciting for folks who are headingdown to a Patriots game or otherwise.
We're going to take a break andbe back with more Food for Thought.
In just a minute. You're listeningto Food for Thought brought to you buy
the Bock Center and Salem Waterfront Hoteland Sweet. Sean Olsen, a co
owner of Excell and Burn and alsoSalt and Stone and Assembly Row, is

(27:33):
our guest today. Okay, soSean, we talked about Salt and Stone,
great spot to visit if you're inright over there in Summerville and an
Assembly Row. If for folks whohaven't been to Assembly Row, it's kind
of your your ideal sort of onestop shopping. You're no longer in them
all, so you get to beenjoying the outdoors, but you get access
to everything that you want. Youcan you know, so many different restaurants,
and we want to make sure thatsalton Stone is one of the places

(27:55):
that you pop on your list.Okay, so that was a few years
had that restaurant and things are goingwell there and and so then I'm always
interested about this, what's the processin a restaurant towards mind? Like what
was the moment, that moment whereyou said to your wife You're like,
okay, here we are. We'regoing to go do this again. We're
going to do it in a littlebit of a different way, and and

(28:17):
this is what it's going to looklike. Like do you remember when that
sort of came to fruition and whenyou guys decided to take this next lead
to number two? Yeah? Ido remember it actually, and my wife
saying, are you crazy? Youknow we've got this, yeah, this
really great thing. Yes, we'vegot this really great one. Roll and
down the you know, it's justrunning itself almost now and people love it,

(28:40):
great reviews, and what are youthinking? And I just said,
I said, I just think Ihave one more in me. I you
know, the Salt and Stone isjust took off like a rocket. But
I thought that, uh, Foxboroughwas missing something, and you know,
I wanted to do something a littledifferent, and I thought it was missing

(29:00):
primarily barbecue, but also creative sandwichesand salads, you know, food from
the road. And that's the sloganfor our restaurant there, Axel and Food
and Burn food from the Road.And the reason it's called that is it's
Axel and Burn. Axel was mygrandfather. Madeline Burne was my grandmother,

(29:22):
and she was one of the firstwomen that went to the Court and Bluke
Looking School in New York. Sothis is where all kind of evolving from.
It's a lineage or an homage tothem. He would he was a
traveling salesperson down in New York Cityarea in the early forties. He would
come home and talk food to Madelineand from there she would create recipes and

(29:47):
different foods and just play around withit. And so that's what we tried
to do. You know, wedefinitely are primarily barbecue, but we have
great New York deli sandwiches, rubensfrom me is you know it just you
name it. Food's pretty cool andit's all we call it feel good food.
So yeah, such feel good food. So talk a little bit more

(30:11):
about that. So Axel did heate his way? But then you also
have been, you know, throughoutthis country to sort of experience some of
the great flavors and where are someof the flavors that you're pulling from that
people will experience on the barbecue menu. Okay, So a barbecue comes anywhere
from the brisket out of Texas,ribs from the Carolinas or Kansas City ribs,

(30:36):
or the Saint Louis ribs, acouple of sauces. My mom created
one of our house sauces. It'sreally great. And she drew inspiration for
that from a recipe she got inthe New York Times. Oh my god,
at least forty years ago, fiftyyears ago, and I remember that
and it's one of our recipes.It goes great. And I have lived

(30:57):
all over the country. I've livedand visiting Canada. You know, for
a while we lived in California,and we went down to Mexico a bunch
of times, and little people don'tknow it, but caesar salad comes from
Mexico. So that's one of ourfoods from the road, is our caesar
salad, you know. Then wehave it's just a mishmash. And when

(31:18):
as we travel, we like tobring back food, so our menu is
ever changing. There. I lovethat. And one of the things I
also know about you and a littlebit about your history, and I think
what's nice is you're able to beI think probably more specific to your story.
I know like you came from moreof a corporate background, right,

(31:40):
Like there was more of like corporaterestaurant brands prior to being able to open
these two am I right? Yes, We Sue and I opened up the
first two five guys in Massachusetts andeverybody knows that, and we grew that
into nine locations around Massachusetts and nowthere's sixteen or seventeen hundred of those worldwide.

(32:02):
We sold those about six months beforeCOVID hit, so kind of dodged
a bullet there. We also hada sandwich concept called Capriot's and that was
in the location where Axelin Burne isnow, So we did. We thought
the food was good there, peopleliked it, but our turn was up

(32:22):
and we said, you know what, we're going to do our own thing
now. So yes, we've beenin that. Prior to that, it
was a corporate caterer and did alot of corporate dining for different businesses around
MetroWest. Oh my gosh, wellI love that because I think what it
done. You had the original perspectivefrom your grandparents, from your parents,

(32:44):
you then went on the much largerscale working and you know, like the
business side of the culinary kind ofthing, right, So when it was
that big, it's a it's alittle bit of a different feel, and
then ultimately came back to something thatyou know is literally husband and wife owed
you guys are a part of allthe details, and that's really special to
see that come full circle. Soin this new restaurant, Axel and Burn

(33:06):
Food from the Road, what dopeople like? What do people see when
they walk in? I know you'reright there in Patriots Place, which I
should mention, yes you go toPatriots Place if it's a case, if
it's a if it's a football game, but yes you go there also any
day any time of year, becausejust like Assembly Row, you have all
of the things that you want toexperience in one space. It's a great

(33:27):
place to meet folks if you're comingfrom different places in New England. But
it's a great place to get allthe things checked off your list that you
need to get done. So so, yeah, the walk us into the
restaurant. What looked like. Soyou walk into the restaurant again, very
high ceilings, cool callers. Wehave a brick mural on the right side
that it says excell and burn andbold letters painted onto the brick food from

(33:52):
the road. And then the leftside of the restaurant is a large mural
that was just mine for us.In the center of the mural has Axel
and burn picture of them actually sittingin a car facing the audience, so
to speak. And you know that'sa welcoming thing. You see them and

(34:14):
some of the focal points of theplaces are in the mural that my grandfather
had visited in my grandmother different youknow, a stadium here or a New
York delia and another picture. It'svery unique. And as you walk into
the restaurant you again see we havea four seat bar that is built out

(34:34):
of the same wood as in theSalt and Stone Bar, and we have
you know, creative cocktails there aswell or frozen drinks which are great during
the summer or anytime actually in localbeers again on tap. So what's nice
about the Patriot Place too is ifyou're in the mood for some food and
your mood for a drink but you'reon the move so to speak, you

(34:58):
can grab food to go, uhand also a cocktail to go as long
as you're going to stay on propertyand drink it. So so that's what
a lot of people do. Theycome in the grab a pull pork sandwich
for example, a draft beer andyou know, continue to walk down the
property and explore. My gosh,so great a snail gator, it's so

(35:19):
unique. But I want to talkabout for tailgaters, like on game day,
you're doing some very specific things andyou also do special events catering.
So so what are what do that, what does that look like? And
how else can people get in touchwith you to experience those things. So
so a way to get in touchwith this is pretty simple. It's axel
and burn dot com. We areoffering packages of you know, barbecue,

(35:44):
pork, brisket, jerk, chicken, apaturs, tizers like wings or fried
pickles, all the sauces, allthe sides that go with it. You
can, you know, create yourpackage the way you want to. We
can help create your package. Wealso have pig roasts that we can do
from anywhere from twenty people to onehundred and twenty people. We just need

(36:05):
a three day notice on those,and that's something that people have already started
to do. They're like, wait, I can have a pig roast.
And what we do is, youknow, overnight, we're slow roasting a
pig and then packaging all the sidesthat go with that, and then we
meet the person on property on gameday at eight o'clock, they pull up,
they get a special parking permit tocome in be behind the building,

(36:30):
We pack the food into their car, and then they can go to their
spot in the parking lot. Andthat's the same not just for pig roast,
but for our catering both. Well. I just think it's so fantastic
because listen, the tailgate experience ina football game, there's really nothing,
I guess more exciting from a youknow, sports watching perspective. But yet

(36:51):
part of it is do I reallyfeel like getting all this stuff together,
and is what I'm going to gettogether really going to be that delicious,
Probably not as delicious as way experienceat Axel and Burn, And it takes
like all that extra step out ofit you get just get to go there
and enjoy. It's such a goodidea. So I want to make sure
people know the spelling Axel and Burna x E L and burn b y

(37:13):
r N. And it's going tobe a spot that you want to check
out again, certainly during the footballseason, but certainly any other time of
year, and keep it in mindas holidays are coming about. I mean,
I think this is a great wayto sort of experience whether or not
it's around your you know, bigscreen TV with a bunch of buddies,
or if it's something for the holidays. I think that's a great thing to
keep in mind. So thank youso much. It's so great to have

(37:36):
you, Sean, and I hopeto see you soon. Thank you very
much for having me. Okay,we'll be back with more Food for Thought
and just a bit. You're listeningto Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and Sale and WaterfrontHotel and sweet Hey, everybody, welcome
into Food for Thought, brought toyou by the Box Center. Okay,
So I got a few good ideasfor you guys this fall season. Definitely
check out the Seacoast Portsmouth Restaurant Week. We've featured that on our television program

(38:00):
a number of times over the pasttwenty years. Yes, Billy and I
have been doing this together for twentyyears. And you know, Patriot's Place
another really convenient grace WoT to checkout. So I had one break left
and I wanted to touch base withyou guys to let you know some of
the places that Billy and I havebeen checking out. It's always nice to
sort of add them to the listof places that you want to support.

(38:21):
We had the pleasure of actually goingup to the woods Hill Farm. So
you've heard us talk about woods HillPere four, Woods Hill Table and at
Alita. The Woodshill Table and Adelaidaare in Conquered Massachusetts. Woods Hill per
four is in Boston, Massachusetts.You heard chefs Vargas at the beginning talking
about the importance of connecting with farmsand of sourcing locally and of the sort

(38:42):
of community aspect of hospitality. Well, Kristin Canty, the owner of the
Woods Hill Peer four restaurants, isdoing just that. She actually also has
a ginormous farm in Bath, NewHampshire that we went to go visit where
she raises all the meat that youget to enjoy the restaurants. Jale still
growth hops and vegetables and different produceand has a slow of chickens and hens

(39:05):
and pigs, and it's just it'sa very very impressive experience that there's also
a home there and sort of aninn that you can host retreats or used
as an Airbnb. But what Ithink it did for Billy was really broad
in our appreciations for all of thoseelements that go into what we call hospitality.
Right, There's so many different layersto it, and Vargas was speaking

(39:27):
to that as well. So Ithink those are restaurants I want to add
to people's radars just because they're onesthat you know, we we love to
support and we love to support thisidea of growing and sourcing locally as locally
as possible. So the other thingI wanted to check out or to tell
you guys about with my husband andI just went to Layerhouse, which is

(39:51):
a new restaurant, not even ayear old, probably, I think came
about maybe this spring. It's rightthere in Summerville, and the Summerville came
line and it's a Jewish tavern andit's also a house of learning. It
was a very very, very interestingand cool concept. So part of the
restaurant is looks like a library andit has a number of different books that

(40:14):
people can take out, you know, sort of just like at a library,
or they can sit there and read. It has sort of a very
loungey field on the other side ofthe tavern. And what they're trying to
do here is showcase the different flavorsof Jewish food throughout the world. Right,
So there's Jews everywhere in this entireworld, and so the flavors that
people that the Jews cook with indifferent countries, in different regions, in

(40:36):
different areas are different. Just likeif you go to anywhere in the United
States, the flavors will differ alittle bit. So there's flavors from Ethiopia,
there's certainly flavors from Israel, there'scertainly flavors from Russia. I mean,
there's all these different flavors that youcan experience, and we had a
really delicious meal. I loved mostof the salmon pat with these housemade everything
bagel chips that were fantastic. Andmy husband really loves the Google, which

(41:00):
is really this sort of mac andcheese sweet cake. So if you think
of mac and cheese as something savory, this one was really sweet. Uh
And it was a really nice experience. And they're doing a lot right now
to support efforts right now and tosupport people, and and it's also a
nice place to go to for educationand and and for conversation if you're looking

(41:22):
to just sort of understand more,which is during a very sort of chaotic
and and painful time with the warin UH in the Middle East. Of
course, there's a lot of newin the area. The Raffles Hotel in
Boston just opened. Coming up onour show, we're going to a place
called Barnaby, which is good ifyou're a parent and you're looking for something

(41:44):
great to do with your kids.There's a place called Barnaby, which is
basically a kids shop right there andBeacon Help. Okay, so that's what
I got a handful of spots foryou guys to add to your relojack.
Thank you guys so much. We'llbe back next week. As always,
first thoughts brought to you by thefantastic, the wonderful, the creative,
the Magic Goldbox Center. We'll seeyou next time. Thanks so much,