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Restaurant restaurateur Lacey Irby spoke to Fox News Digital about the dining spot she opened with chef Ryan Brosseau despite massive demanding situations, and shared her path to success.
The COVID-19 pandemic, so fatal to many, turned out to be the best time to open a new place to eat for a vendor organization that bravely chose “hope” over fear.
“One way or another, we were determined to succeed,” Boston-area celebrity restaurateur Leo Keka told FOX Business.
He boldly opened a sprawling 7,500-square-foot Mediterranean steakhouse, Alba on 53, in Hanover, Massachusetts, in August 2020, as the state was paralyzed by executive mandates and many consumers were terrified.
The double national tornado of politicians and panic opened a wide path of destruction in the restaurant industry: the shocking devastation is still noticeable and felt in many major cities.
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Some 90,000 restaurants nationwide have closed due to the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association.
“You have to give yourself hope and this place to eat gave us hope,” Keka said of his resolve to move forward with planning, construction and hiring even as everything was collapsing around him.
Alba on 53, a sprawling dining place with capacity for 280 diners in Hanover, Massachusetts, opened in August 2020 at the height of COVID fears and lockdowns. “We decided to create this place,” said owner Leo Keka. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital/Fox News)
He is one of the few brave restaurateurs who dared to double down on his long-term efforts at the height of COVID fears.
Celebrated international chef Daniel Boulud opened The Pavilion in Midtown Manhattan, on the towering One Vanderbilt skyscraper, in May 2021, while the city’s streets were still empty of tourists and workers.
“Somehow, we decided to succeed. ” — Restorer Léo Keka
“We were determined to get the job done all the time,” Boulud told Fox News Digital.
“The commission is already conceived. It’s about being able to finish the work. “
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Newcomer restaurateur Lacey Irby and executive chef Ryan Brosseau opened Dear Margaret in Chicago’s Lakeview community in January 2021 when the city was suffering from nutritional restrictions.
“I think ‘Fuck it, let’s do it’ is very much due to our attitude,” Brosseau said.
Chef Daniel Boulud speaks at the New York City Food and Wine Festival luncheon with Daniel Boulud at the Pavilion on October 16, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for NYCWFF/Getty Images)
Irby added: “Nobody knew how to do this, how to run a place to eat in the middle of a global pandemic. We had to be as agile as possible. “
The efforts of these restaurateurs came amid complaints from some corners, at a time when neighbors called the police to denounce the owners who made barbecues in the yard.
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However, many consumers at the time were eager for normalcy and eager to show it.
All 3 are reaping the rewards today.
Alba, 53, turned out to be one of the toughest tables in New England. Keka is tearing down walls this week to raise 40 extra seats and entertainment to its steakhouse.
The dining venue already has a 240-seat dining domain and a 40-seat patio for seasonal dining.
Dear Margaret opened in Chicago in January 2021 while the city was still grappling with COVID mandates and customer concerns. Pictured are executive chef Ryan Brosseau and restaurateur Lacey Irthrough. (Photo by Neil Burger/Fox News)
“We’ve been packed each and every night since we opened,” Keka said, first with capacity restrictions finally lifted.
“Honestly, it’s all about our customers. They looked for us to be busy. They sought a sense of normalcy and opened a place to eat when so many other people were closing. “
These visitors covet Alba in 53 for her decadent gnocchi at the end of the braised rib in red wine and her very good double-cut red meat chop with bones and homemade mustard.
“We were almost going to use the pandemic to our advantage. ” — Chief Ryan Brosseau
The Pavilion has just received a Michelin star, a prestigious honor reserved only for the world’s restaurants.
“The sublime dining room, with its high ceilings, glass plates and warm palette, makes the rich feel at home,” Michelin du Pavillon said.
“You’ll rub shoulders with many of them at the bar, a prized position topped by an impressive blown crystal chandelier. “
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The dining place offers breathtaking views of New York’s celebrated Chrysler Building overlooking Grand Center Terminal.
The Pavilion’s signature dish is Chef Boulud’s Vanderbilt oysters, a tribute to the Grand Central tycoon, with poached oysters, herbs, hazelnuts, seaweed and a hint of clam chowder in the shell.
Dear Margaret has been critically acclaimed for Chef Brosseau’s modern interpretations of French-Canadian home cooking, adding a duck liver mousse.
Acclaimed Greater Boston restaurateur Leo Keka opened his first restaurant, Alba Restaurant, after Sept. 11 and his second, Alba on Sept. 53, amid the COVID crisis. Both restaurants are booming today. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital/Fox News)
Earlier this year, Chicago Magazine named Dear Margaret one of the city’s newest restaurants; Plate mag named Brosseau a chef to watch in 2022; and Michelin has included Dear Margaret in its 2022 Bib Gourmand list, designating affordable, high-quality restaurants.
“We were almost able to use the pandemic to our advantage,” Brosseau said, only they opened first just for takeout.
“We can defer a lot of the expense of opening a restaurant, doing it on a small budget, and making some cash before investing in things like tables and chairs. “
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The team also found an owner willing to design an agreement with them that the truth of the moment.
The departure of Keka d’Alba is no stranger to disastrous circumstances.
He fled the poverty of communist Albania in 1991 by swimming across a lake to Montenegro, before being captured by Serb militants and escaping from it.
He arrived in New York later that year, unable to speak English.
Chef Ryan Brosseau’s French-Canadian charcuterie dish is highlighted through his signature duck liver mousse in the rear left. (Photo by Neil Burger/Fox News)
He got a job as a dishwasher in Boston while learning the language.
He opened his first restaurant, Alba Restaurant in Quincy, Massachusetts, in the fall of 2001, 10 years after arriving in the United States. But the opening came on the heels of the Sept. 11 attacks, which quelled the nation’s starvation over dining out. for months afterward. Thrive today.
These private and professional challenges, as a serious fear for his employees, gave Keka the courage to fight COVID, a business colleague said.
“We made a great restaurant. ” — Chief Daniel Boulud
“There was a time [in 2020] when Alba at 53 was our only visitor and kept us afloat,” dining venue designer Jessica Smith of Studio 59 East told Fox News Digital.
His entire business has dried up amid COVID fears.
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Keka employs another 110 people at its new restaurant, in addition to the 80 who work at its original location.
Daniel Boulud’s Le Pavillon restaurant in Midtown Manhattan opened in May 2021 next to Grand Central Terminal, while offering surprising insights into the landmark Chrysler Building in New York. (Photo via Eunji Paula Kim/Fox News)
The 3 restaurants, Alba at 53, Le Pavillon and Dear Margaret, have thrived in cities still recovering from the pandemic.
The number of other people dining in New York City this summer is down 38 percent compared to the same time in 2019, according to data from online restaurant reservation service OpenTable.
Chicago suffers a drop of 23% and Boston of 17%, according to the same source.
“It’s complicated, we didn’t know if we were going to survive,” said Boulud, who, in addition to the Pavilion, operates several other high-profile restaurants in New York City and around the world.
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Everything would have been lost, he says, the loyalty of his consumers and staff.
Opening Le Pavillon amid demanding COVID situations and earning Michelin’s accolade “is a glorious achievement, for the team and for all of us. We made a great restaurant. “
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