Stuff Boston : nightlife

Sibling non-rivalries: Family food without the family feud

Erin Souza — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:28:00 GMT

Family food doesn’t necessarily lead to family feuds

Many veterans of the restaurant industry liken working in the kitchen, serving tables, and spending hours with the same people every day to being part of a family. But for those who own and operate restaurants with their brothers and sisters, their restaurants are tru extensions of their homes and families. Sibling-run restaurants are places where the ties of brother- and sisterhood can sometimes be tested, and the line between professional and personal relationships is blurred to near-invisibility.

When we set out to write a story about these restaurants, we were expecting to hear salacious tales of sibling rivalry and middle-child syndrome. But for the restaurateurs we spoke with, working with a brother or sister (and sometimes both) instead has brought them closer, made them recognize one another’s strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately solidified their bonds. For these teams, the recipe for a successful working relationship is a balance of trust, creative compatibility, and complete honesty.

Trust me
For sisters Carla and Christine Pallotta, co-owners of the North End’s Nebo (90 North Washington Street, Boston, 617.723.6326), the best part about running a business together — this is their second go at it; they worked together at the Reading hair salon Carla opened when she was just 22 — is their confidence in each other. “It’s very hard to trust that somebody is going to love something and care as much as you do, and work as hard,” Carla says.

Babak Bina and his sister Azita Bina- Seibel, owners of Lala Rokh (79 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston, 617.720.5511), Bin 26 Enoteca (26 Charles Street, Boston, 617.723.5939), and the new Bina Osteria and Bina Alimentari (581 Washington Street, Boston, 617.956.0888), agree that familial trust is the bond that keeps their nearly 20- year-old business relationship booming. “I trust him with my eyes closed,” says older sister Bina-Seibel, “so I never question what he does.”

Not only do Bina-Seibel and her brother have complete faith in each other when it comes to carrying out the vision they have for their restaurants, but the same is true of their finances. In a business where gobs of cash are constantly changing hands, it’s refreshing not to have to worry about getting burned by an unfaithful partner. “Our lives depend on each other,” says Bina. “The trust comes a lot more easily because she’s my sister, so we can really concentrate on what we’re doing.”

The twentysomething duo behind Financial District eatery and bar J.A. Stats (99 Broad Street, Boston, 617.357.8287) also think confidence in each other is the crux of what makes for a successful — and smoothly-run — endeavor. “You have to go into business with someone you trust,” says Jimmy Statires, the older of the Stats. “And who do you trust more than your brother?”

Bob and David Kinkead of Sibling Rivalry (525 Tremont Street, Boston, 617.338.5338), who put dueling cooking styles at the heart of their restaurant’s menu, say their dynamic is ideal for working together. “We have a very good relationship that’s high in trust and low in drama,” David says. In the restaurant business, he says, “there’s a lot of transient people, and unfortunately, people who are not trustworthy. We don’t have that; that’s totally eliminated from the stress of running a business.”  

Checks and balances
When people refer to their better halves, they’re not usually talking about a sibling. But in the cases of the teams we talked to, working with a brother or sister draws out the best in them. “We are, in a way, an apple split in half,” says Bina of his professional relationship with his sister. “My fault is that sometimes I get too many balls in the air at once. We really help each other by filling in what the other person’s weakness is.” But, he admits, his sister’s weaknesses are few. “She is one of the strongest people I know. She is relentless in making sure what she’s imagined in her head is delivered.” Some might consider that a fault, he notes, “but a weakness? No. It makes her who she is.”

Bina-Seibel sees her brother in a similar light, and says that one of the qualities she most admires is his ability to bring equilibrium to their operation. “He never lets his emotions get in the way of business decisions. Even though he could be boiling up, he keeps his cool. I’m hard- headed and he’s more rational; that brings balance.”

The de Magistris brothers, the trio behind Dante (5 Cambridge Parkway, Cambridge, 617.497.4200), attribute working well together to their diverse job experiences. “They went to school and did other things,” says Dante of his older brother, Filippo — whose resume includes stints at a bakery, a sculpture foundry, and making and selling wine — and his younger brother, Damian, a former maître d’ at New York City’s Town restaurant who holds an MFA in writing. “That’s why they’re the smarter ones in the family,” he jokes, “and I’m stuck cooking all the time.” For them, this division of the workload — Dante in the kitchen, Damian at the front of the house, Filippo running the wine program — is successful because they each focus on their own fortés. And perhaps more important, it ensures that they don’t often get on one another’s nerves. “We have different areas of expertise and focus,” says Dante. “If we were all in the kitchen, it wouldn’t work — three cooks messing up one stew.” At Nebo, the Pallotta sisters’ divergent — but equally fun and boisterous — personalities lend themselves to a distinct separation of responsibilities: Carla works the front of the house, greets customers, and handles most of the business side of Nebo, while Christine spends more time in the kitchen, ensuring that food preparation and delivery go off without a hitch.

According to Christine, people — patrons and employees alike — tend to gravitate to Carla. “People absolutely love her,” she says. “She’s got such a personality.” As a result, Carla is often the pseudo-diplomat, the sisters agree. “I know she gets more upset than I do,” says Carla, “so I often act as the buffer between her and the employees.” The sisters are the restaurateur equivalent of complementary colors — they work well on their own, but together, they truly shine. Says Carla: “I think we balance each other out.”

The non-compete
Spending most of your waking hours with the same person — especially a brother or sister — must lead to some screaming matches, right? Not exactly. According to the siblings we talked to, brawls don’t break out very often. But the lighthearted, easy relationships the de Magistris brothers have with one another now came after years of spats typical of a house full of boys. “There was yelling, screaming, breaking mirrors,” recalls Dante. “We had this great game called ‘push off the bed.’ I’m surprised none of us has big gouges in our heads from it.”

“Well, I have a scar here,” Damian interjects, pointing to a spot above his eyebrow, “from hitting the corner of a wall in a pillow fight” with Filippo.

“People like to think it’s like a cooking competition,” says David Kinkead of Sibling Rivalry’s name and menu theme. “And they love that idea because of Iron Chef.” But in reality, the dynamic in the restaurant — and in the brothers’ personal relationship — is anything but competitive. “It’s just a regular, normal kitchen,” says David, “where we just execute two menus.”

In fact, the only notable disagreement the Kinkeads — two of a whopping 10 siblings — had was over something all brothers have surely argued about at some point: a flat-screen TV. David wanted to have a TV at the restaurant’s bar; Bob didn’t. So who won that little tiff? “There’s a big, beautiful television at the bar, and people come and watch sports,” says David, his smile nearly audible over the phone. The difficult part for the Kinkeads is that when their opinions do differ on something, there’s no higher authority to look to for guidance. “There’s no final say,” notes David. When you’re working with your older brother, you can’t tattle on him when things don’t go your way.

For their part, the Pallottas remember only one argument they had during the process of opening Nebo. “We’d bicker like sisters do, but the only fight we had was over the size of an olive-oil dish,” notes Carla. “Seriously.”

Nor are there many telltale signs of rivalry between the Statires brothers, who are just two years apart and grew up working in their parents’ restaurants in Manchester, New Hampshire, and playing on the same sports teams. They share the same group of friends, spend time together outside of work, and are steadfastly focused on their common vision for their business and the possibility of future expansion. “We used to fight as kids,” says Jimmy. “But we’ve grown past the physical part,” adds Andrew.

Still, while the bond between siblings will always exist, apparently so will the teasing. “My sister and I are still fighting,” Bina-Seibel jokes of the sister who helps her and her brother manage their Beacon Hill restaurants. But only about non- work-related things, of course. “If she wears the same jacket twice in a row, I have to pick on her about it. Or if I don’t like the color of her lipstick, I have to point it out,” she says. “She’ll always be my older sister, and I’ll always have to fight with her. That’s just the way it is.”

Bina-Seibel doesn’t often fight with her brother, a fact she credits in part to their six-year age difference. “It makes a difference in how the relationship develops,” she says. “He’s my little brother; we never had any problems.”

From this day forward
So now that these brothers and sisters have had the experience of owning and operating restaurants together, would they ever share the helm with a non- sibling? Having worked alongside her sister for years, Carla Pallotta says she would find it difficult to go into business with someone she’s not related to. “It’s about work ethic,” she says. “I know that if something goes wrong at 3 a.m., I’ll run to it and so will [Christine]. It’s my name and my reputation.”

“It’s [like] a marriage,” says Bina- Seibel. “So for me, it’s a very serious thing. It’s like, would I divorce my husband and go marry someone else? No. I’d rather be single.”

Polina Raygorodskaya@Night

Erin Byers Murray — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:20:00 GMT

Model behavior

Modeling since age 10 and running a fashion-consulting and public-relations business since she was in college, Polina Raygorodskaya is nothing if not ambitious. The Newton resident and owner of Polina Fashion produces fashion shows and handles PR for a number of up-and-coming businesses, including photographer David Alsdorf. These days, she does more producing than modeling, though she still embraces the jet-set life and travels weekly. But when she’s home, she likes to keep things low-key, palling around with friends over good beers and a game of pool.

@ 6:15 p.m.: I like to get together with an intimate group of friends, so we may start out near my house in Newton for a little pregame sangria at Legal Sea Foods. They have one of the best sangrias I’ve ever tasted.

@ 7:30 p.m.: I may head over to Kinsale for dinner and a few beers. They have an incredible beer list, so all you have to do is tell them what you’re in the mood for and they’ll pick it out for you.

@ 9:45 p.m.: From there, we might run over to the Foundation Lounge for a drink. We stop there a lot.

@ midnight: I really like going to Felt; I like the fact that there are four different floors and that they each have a different atmosphere. I love to play pool, actually, so you can play pool or if you want to dance, you can go to the dance club on the top floor. It has everything.

@ 2 a.m.: When I’ve had a good night, I don’t want to go home right away, so I’ll stop by Apollo in Chinatown. They’re open late so we can sit down for some sushi and sober up a little.

Ain't No Party Like a Hotel Party

Erin Souza — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:26:00 GMT

Boston's hotel bars are heating things up and packing 'em in

On a recent Friday night, the crowd waiting to get into the Liberty Hotel (215 Charles Street, Boston, 617.224.4000) was about 30 well-dressed people deep. Inside, diners, drinkers, revelers, and presumably some actual hotel guests swarmed the lobby. It was a typical weekend night at the Liberty, the holding-cell-turned-hotspot that emerged on the local nightlife map just over a year ago. And the momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

The idea of hotel bars used to conjure up two starkly different — yet similarly unsexy — images. Images, on the one hand, of dark rooms awash in mahogany and filled with a sea of suits and power politicians drinking $20 martinis; images synonymous with private men’s clubs, low on fun and high on pretense. And on the other, images of sparsely filled barstools where traveling businessmen sat killing time between meetings.

But for Boston, that stereotype has been steadily shifting as hotel bars shape themselves as destinations — places where locals go after work and on weekends to take in the scene and a few well-mixed cocktails.

Some major cities, namely New York City and LA, have had deeply rooted and highly popular hotel party scenes for years. But in Boston, the hotel’s prominent place in the nightlife landscape is a more recent development. With the just opened Mandarin Oriental Boston (776 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.535.8880) and the still-new-ish Liberty and InterContinental Boston (510 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, 617.747.1000), Boston’s hotel bar scene continues to grow from barely-there to must-be-there. But what exactly is the draw?

Christopher Choquet, rooftop manager of Plunge at New York’s trendy Hotel Gansevoort, attributes hotel bars’ appeal to the fact that their owners often have more funds to pour into creating posh spaces: “They’re usually a little bit pricier, trendier, sexier, and better built” than your average bar. Located in the city’s Meatpacking District, which has gone from gritty to go to since designer boutiques and high-end nightclubs took root there, the Gansevoort, which opened in 2004, certainly has all of the characteristics Choquet mentions.

Robert George, general manager of City Bar (Lenox Hotel, 61 Exeter Street, Boston, 617.933.4801), shares Choquet’s sentiment. The surge of hotelbar popularity “has to do with the hotels themselves realizing that they were missing out on a lot of money and then allowing companies to come in and design a place to make it a destination,” he says, referring to operators such as the Briar Group, which runs City Bar, among other Boston bars. “When I was younger, the hotel bar was known as the deadest place to be,” says George, 40. “And now it’s the hottest place to be.”

In an industry where the “hottest place to be” sometimes has the shelf life of a dairy product, City Bar is arguably the first local hotel bar that was a successful nightlife destination—and the place that set the ball slowly rolling toward a hotel-bar renaissance. City Bar originally opened as a place for diners to have drinks before their reservations at neighboring restaurant Azure, says George, but then “it just morphed into its own kind of destination cocktail lounge.”

According to George, who’s been managing City Bar since its 2002 opening, another appeal of hotel bars comes from the talent slinging the drinks. “We hired the best bartenders we could find, and the best staff we could find, and they drew in people they knew,” he says. “The industry people really drove City Bar.”

Clink, the Liberty’s lobby-level restaurant/bar, also puts a premium on service and quality. “We’re trying to play a careful game of giving high-end service but at the same time understanding that things are a little more lowkey, relaxed, and fun” than the stuffiness associated with hotel bars of days past, says Clink general manager Jonah Selaya-Mendez. “I don’t want us to be elitist or stuffy. Bostonians, don’t forget, can very easily change their opinion about a place. And if you start charging $500 for a bottle of Champagne, people will start going somewhere else.”

In terms of Boston nightlife, it’s that elitist vibe that SelayaMendez says has really changed. So hotel bars have responded by moving into more laidback territory. “The Bristol Lounge [in the Four Seasons], for example, was always considered a very elitist place to be,” he says. “You were hanging out with millionaires and having $20 martinis and $20 burgers.” Now the movement of newer hotels toward a more relaxed, social atmosphere has transformed the landscape. “We’remarketing toward younger professionals and not necessarily the ritzy crowd.”

If the crowd at the Liberty on a recent Friday night is any indication, that marketing tactic is spoton. “What we have here are people who aren’t looking for a nightclub,” says Selaya. “They’re done with the nightclub scene but are still looking to go out and have fun.”

At Noir, the sultry lounge at the Charles Hotel (One Bennett Street, Cambridge, 617.864.5715), the people in the industry comprise a large chunk of the bar’s late-night business, too, according to manager Alex Beram. “We have a very devoted crowd from the service industry. We’re a go-to for a lot of industry folks, like bartenders from the BSide Lounge, the West Side Lounge, and some Harvard Square spots,” he says. “We have major corporate, entertainment, and political fi gures rubbing shoulders with the manager from Harvest, and a bartender from the West Side Lounge, for instance.” Beram attributes Noir’s popularity, in large part, to the staff there. “They work to cater to our customers, they build new regulars everyday, and they embrace what we’re trying to create here.”

Even at bars that are located right in a hotel’s lobby, like RumBa at the InterContinental, the scene is also thriving, proving that it’s not only rooftops and secluded spaces that draw the crowds. In fact, RumBa had the most successful bar opening in the InterContinental chain to date, and it continues to be one of the company’s most lucrative bars, according to Stephanie Loeber, who handles public relations for the Boston hotel. “The Waterfront changing has helped change the crowd here,” says InterCon bars manager Wayne Duprey of the upgraded dining scene and easier access to the Seaport District. On a recent Thursday evening, RumBa is filled with what looks like a Financial District after-work crowd, a typical late-week snapshot of the venue.

The new-school hotel party scene continues to evolve, with a second City Bar location now open in the Westin Boston Waterfront (425 Summer Street, Boston, 617.443.0888), and a W Hotel on the horizon. And though the nightlife niche’s full effect on the city remains to be seen, there’s no doubt that hotel bars have become a place to be, rather than a place to end up.

CITY BAR (Lenox Hotel, 61 Exeter Street, Boston, 617.933.4801; Westin Boston Waterfront, 425 Summer Street, Boston, 617.532.4600)
•The original City Bar location at the Lenox doesn’t have televisions, but the new venue at the Westin will have flat screens on for big games and events.
•Both locations offer Infusions Diabolique, a line of infused spirits created by chef Robert Fathman for City Bar and neighboring restaurant Azure at the Lenox.

CLINK (Liberty Hotel, 215 Charles Street, Boston, 617.224.4000)
•The bar and lounge are located under the Liberty’s 90-foot lobby rotunda.
•The Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame bar, adjacent to Clink, serves Champagne by the glass on weekends until 2 a.m.

NOIR (Charles Hotel, One Bennett Street, Cambridge, 617.661.8010)
•The space seats 100 guests and has a seasonal outdoor patio.
•Noir’s 5-4-3-2-1-0 special features $5 flat breads, $4 sandwiches, $3 snacks, $2 salads, $1 sweets, and complimentary nuts every Monday through Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m.
•The bar pays homage to the film noir genre with movie screenings and aptly named cocktails, including the LA Confidential and Dirty Harry.

RUMBA (InterContinental Boston, 510 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, 617.747.1000)
•RumBa pays tribute to Boston’s historic rum trade and serves nearly 100 rums.
•The space is circular in design, with a U-shaped bar as its focal point.
•RumBa’s private Champagne Lounge, adorned in sultry red leather, is available for events and is open to the public one Saturday per month for Champagne nights.

CUFFS (Jurys Boston, 350 Stuart Street, Boston, 617.266.7200)
•The lounge-like space features a fireplace, waterfall, and dark leather seats.
•Open daily until 2 a.m.
•It’s billed as an Irish bar, but the atmosphere is more posh than pub.
JERNE (RitzCarlton, 10 Avery Street, Boston, 617.574.7176)
•Features art from the hotel’s $1 million collection, including a glass sculpture from artist Ben Hill.
•Through November 4, the bar offers politically-charged cocktails like the O’Bama ($16), the Mac ($18), and the United Purple States of America ($16).

THE BRISTOL LOUNGE (Four Seasons, 200 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.351.2037)
•Offers a Viennese dessert buffet on Friday and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. to midnight.
•One of Boston’s best spots for power players and high-rollers (or wannabes), the lounge seats 165 for dinner and 50 for cocktails.

M BAR & LOUNGE (Mandarin Oriental Boston, 776 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.535.8880)
•Boasts a hand-carved wooden wall behind the glass-top bar and floor-to-ceiling windows.
•The wine menu includes about 300 options, highlighted on a custom-designed wine wall.
•Light bites menu includes Asianinspired fare and artisan cheese plates.

THE RUBY ROOM (Onyx Hotel, 155 Portland Street, Boston, 617.557.9950)
•This crimson oasis has 45 seats, including curved banquettes.
•The black granite bar glistens thanks to fiber optics.
•Ruby Room Club Card holders get 20 percent off of wine by the bottle and special rates on guest rooms at the Onyx Hotel.

CHARLESMARK LOUNGE (Charlesmark Hotel, 655 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.247.1212)
•The entrance to this Boylston Street bar is at the Boston Marathon finish line.
•Patio seating is available for seasonal cocktail-sipping.
•The bar’s sleek, modern, redandblack décor offers an interesting contrast to the building’s classic architecture.

Adult Entertainment: Grown-up Alternatives to College-kid Partying

Erin Souza — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:00:00 GMT

Remember when the onset of autumn meant heading back to school? And the changing of the leaves meant changing your mailing address from your parents’ house to your shoebox-size dorm room? We hate to be the ones to break this to you, but we’re all grown up now (for the most part, anyway), and autumn is different than it used to be. While September is a return to routine — the college students are swarming the city, the T is packed again, and network television is starting its new season of bad reality programs — there’s no doubt that it’s also the perfect time to start over. It’s like New Year’s for the young professional set: a chance to refresh and renew our dedication to our jobs, our relationships, our social lives. Since we traded in our red plastic cups for red wine flights, our idea of Boston nightlife has become a bit more sophisticated. So we’ve rounded up a few alternatives to the raging nights of our younger years. But don’t worry: if you still spend Thursday nights at your alma mater’s watering hole, we won’t judge.

>>Click here for the gallery.