Business & Tech

Tony Maws Talks Upcoming Somerville Restaurant, 'Always Dreamed' of Cooking More Rustic Food

The chef behind Cambridge's Craigie on Main talked briefly about his new project in Somerville on WBUR's Radio Boston.

"There was another type of food that I always dreamed of cooking," Tony Maws, chef of Cambridge's Craigie on Main, said on WBUR's Radio Boston Tuesday afternoon. 

"Craigie on Main food is one of the themes that I have, and the other theme is the more rustic food that I cook for my family on Monday nights. It's a little more family style, and still great ingredients," the chef said.

That's what restaurant fans can expect when Maws opens his new restaurant in the Somerville space formerly occupied by Kirkland Cafe, which closed in 2007.

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The new restaurant doesn't have an opening date yet, though it seems work has been taking place at the site.

As for the name, "We're still working on it," Maws told the radio show. "We're thinking of using Kirkland somewhere in there and paying homage, but we're not 100 percent sure."

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Maws indicated opening a second restaurant was as much a personal choice as a business choice.

"When we first opened up this one"—referring to Craigie on Main—"I think it was a three-month period where I had my son, my wife and I moved into a little house and we opened up a restaurant, and it was pretty life-changing," he said.

"Business wise, I think it probably made a lot of sense to do this or consider a second restaurant a while ago because we had good people and I think we put out a pretty good product. Life wise I was like, hey, let's get this think working really well, let's get everything spinning in the right direction and develop a team of people that I feel very confident in and they feel confident in," Maws said.

He also said Craigie on Main will remain at the top of his priorities. "Craigie on Main's my restaurant, and whatever I do second is still going to be another place, and we're going to consider that to be very important as well."

The bulk of the conversation on WBUR was about the hard life in the restaurant business and a new book by Scott Haas, Back of the House: The Secret Life of a Restaurant, that profiles Maws and his restaurant. It's an interesting conversation, and you can listen to it here.


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