Arrive - July/August 2013

Left: Chef-owner Jody Adams opened Rialto in Cambridge, Mass., in 1994. Now other Cambridge chefs are considering moves farther afield into such suburbs as Concord Center and Braintree. Right: One of Adams’ seasonal soups.

“People’s expectations continue to get higher as [they]
become more knowledgeable about food and ingredients,”
says Benno, who also worked at Gramercy Tavern and was the
chef de cuisine at Per Se for many years. “And that translates
to the suburbs as well. More and more young people are find-
ing their way to the suburbs and have higher expectations for
the restaurant experience.”
“Being in the suburbs doesn’t mean it’s the country,” says
Tsai, a pioneer in the suburban trend. “These are sophisti-
cated palates.”
But also, chefs say, they’re opening to the burbs because
that’s where they themselves live, and they know the style of
cooking that will succeed. And, as some expand their culinary
empires, they need to open new restaurants to have somewhere
to promote their most trusted and talented employees.

“We’re starting to get to the point where we have some really top-notch guys who want to move up, and either we just let them know why we don’t have anywhere for them to move, or we open up another restaurant and make room for them to grow with us,” says Vetri, who will open an Osteria restaurant in Moorestown Mall in New Jersey in the fall. The 5,000-square-foot restaurant will have a similar look to his Philly original—wine boxes on the wall, a colored cement floor—and the menu, much of which is prepared over a wood fire, will be nearly identical.

Osteria’s casual food—pizzas and pastas—is a good fit for both city and suburbs. Simple, not cerebral, is the kind of cuisine that works best in the outer ring, chefs say.

“We’re not doing pig intestines,” says Tsai, when I ask him how he knew more than a decade ago that his Blue Ginger would be successful. “It’s my version of steak and potatoes—the East meets West version. I knew my food would be accepted and hopefully loved.”

Family First

Psilakis earned his Michelin star for Anthos, an upscale Greek restaurant in Manhattan. But after it closed, he changed his culinary course. His father had died, and Psilakis had a young son. Wanting to have more time with his own family helped him focus his restaurants more on the people around the table rather than the food upon it. The flavor still needed to be there, but the pretense didn’t.

“The suburbs versus the city, the main dynamic—and it’s
significant—is family,” says Psilakis. “In order to be successful
you need to cater to the family, the children.”
Psilakis has incorporated skills he learned in the urban
environment—good cooking techniques, bold flavors, fresh
ingredients—but tweaked them to work in the suburbs. At his
MP Taverna restaurants in Irvington, Westchester, and Roslyn,
on Long Island, the stroller set arrives early to dine on roasted
lemon chicken with dill and garlic-roasted fingerling potatoes
for $15 a plate. Yet, I’ve enjoyed a perfectly adult evening at
the bar, nibbling on Psilakis’ terrific gyro-spiced beef sliders
and sharing plates of his crispy calamari with chickpeas while
exploring the interesting Greek wines on his list.