At unaccustomed center stage at 220 Main was Chef Michael Kramer, shaking hands and accepting congratulations by the bar. As Mariani wrote about Kramer, in part: “he just does American creative flawlessly; potato gnocchi laden with morels, asparagus, and prosciutto, each ingredient retaining its own powerful flavor…”
During a quick tour of the kitchen downstairs, everything was total calm, which of course goes against everything we’ve all seen on those reality TV chef shows... Asked why, the Voice General Manager Ludovic Poirier laughed and said “That’s because the chef isn’t here.”
Toughest lesson Kramer and his crew learned through the school of hard knocks? Don’t send food up a dumb waiter. As much as they’d like it otherwise, the food just doesn’t stay in the same place on the plate. By the time it came out, there was no way to bring the plates to the table – not to any patrons expecting glitzy presentation.
Instead, what’s probably the most in-shape wait staff in America runs up and down the stairs, balancing plates of food, and with a twirl, delivering them to their diners.
They still use the dumb waiter to send the dirty plates to the kitchen. – Margaret Downing