5 Courses with Keith Pooler of Bergamot

Keith Pooler is a shy guy, a low-talker. He worries that he’s too even-keeled for his job. At staff meetings, someone hands the veteran chef a megaphone so they can hear him as he describes the daily specials. Pooler’s partner, manager Servio Garcia, has to nudge the shy chef into the limelight, out of his comfort zone. Pooler is a no-edges guy, the calm sort you’d want next to you if you were in the weeds on a busy Saturday night. It’s hard to imagine him riled up. But he was. Four days after the opening of Bergamot (118 Beacon Street, Somerville, 617.576.7700), his first I-am-my-own-boss venture, chef Pooler got his first review. It was a good review, a terrific review truly, but the speed of response took the chef’s breath away. “We hadn’t even ramped up yet. We’re still in take-off mode,” he marveled. “How can anyone know what we’re going to be like when we hit cruising speed?”

When is it fair game to judge a new restaurant? A chef gets reviewed every day by every diner. As soon as you open to the public, you are fair game. But I think of a restaurant like an airplane. It takes a lot more energy to get it up in the air (or land it) than it does to maintain a steady flying altitude. Today, we are 10 times better than we were two days ago. Next week, we will be many multiples better than we are today. So can we be judged from day one? Yes, we can.

How does a restaurant develop? The key is to be brutally honest and open-minded. You have to listen to the customers and take in good ideas from your staff. We read customer comment cards every night. For example, customers complained that the kitchen lights were distracting. The next day we put in a bamboo curtain. Truthfully, in some ways, I’m more worried about what happens when I hit cruising speed than I am about the ascent. The ramping-up phase keeps you on your toes.

You’ve worked at great local spots like Scampo, Excelsior, and Harvest. Why was this the right time to open your own restaurant? I hit the end of working for other people. I couldn’t do it any more. I had a serious talk with myself, and I thought, if I don’t start working for myself, I’m going to have to do something radical to change my outlook from narrow to wide. Move back to New York, work on a farm in Napa.... I’m an old-school chef. I’m into finesse and solid technique. New-school cooking is much more scientific, more laboratory, and less about finesse. That’s not my style. I wanted to work in a culinary think tank, not a laboratory.

The buzz is pitch-perfect for a brand-new restaurant. What makes Bergamot tick? I only have three rules here: awesome food, smooth service, and a tight kitchen. After that, I’m open to everything.

What’s a good day for you away from the restaurant? I shut it all off by going to the beach. I grew up in Gloucester and had a very Norman Rockwell boyhood. I still love going up to the house I grew up in and having a barbecue and going to the beach. There’s a spot on Plum Island where I sometimes go after work. I fish for a few hours in the wee hours of the early morning and catch a few hours of sleep before I come back to the restaurant.

— Louisa Kasdon
Louisa Kasdon can be reached at louisa@louisakasdon.com.