All-state restaurants

Local Eatery chef and owner Kevin Halligan, left, talks with Ralph Rathjen of Krebs Farm in Sanbornton. At right is Justin Bristol, an employee of the restaurant. Krebs Farm is one of the many local food providers that Halligan does business with. (Adam Drapcho/Laconia Daily Sun)

Yankee Magazine lauds Tavern 27, Local Eatery

By ADAM DRAPCHO, LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — Large metropolitan restaurant scenes have long fostered concepts outside of the norm. But when tapas restaurant Tavern 27 opened in 2010, owners Ray Simanson and Leslie Judice challenged an assumption that a novel and high-end dining business could only work in a big city. Two years later, Kevin Halligan took aim at conventional wisdom when he opened the Local Eatery, which sources most, if not all, of its ingredients from local sources, even throughout the winter. Today, both businesses have not only survived but thrived, and have started making a name for themselves outside of city lines. Yankee Magazine, in its current issue, lists both establishments in its 2017 Editor's Choice Awards for places to visit in New Hampshire.

It's an exclusive list, with only 14 mentions for the state under the "Dining" category. The owners of Tavern 27 and Local Eatery take pride in securing two of those mentions for Laconia.

"I think it's about time for people to start paying more attention to the Lakes Region," said Halligan, "I was excited about that."

"The first thing that I saw when I looked at (the list) was a feeling of accomplishment for Laconia," Simanson said. "I thought of what it could do for the community."

It would also be understandable if Simanson said that the honor made him consider how far the local restaurant community had come in recent years. In 2010, Simanson knew he was in for a challenge as soon as word started to spread that there was a new kind of restaurant in town. Many of their first patrons showed up because they had misheard the word "tapas" when used to describe their establishment.

"People were coming through the door looking for a topless restaurant," Simanson said. No, he wasn't joking. Even more surprising, he was able to convince many of that crowd to give Tavern 27 a shot, and some of them are counted among the restaurant's regular customers.

Tapas, for the uninitiated, is a form of dining that originated in Spain but has since found fertile ground around the world. Instead of each member of a party ordering a single entrée, the group orders a series of small plates, each carrying several bite-sized portions, for the whole table to share. It gives each diner the chance to sample a variety of dishes, while also enhancing the social experience as the people around the table talk about the food and what they should order next.

"It's like a cocktail party at your table," said Judice, who serves as the chef at Tavern 27. Her diners, she said, "are here to spend time with their friends. The food ramps that up."

Yankee Magazine was especially enamored of Tavern 27's dates, stuffed with goat cheese, bacon and almonds, then wrapped with chicken and served on skewers. Much of the menu features meat dishes, and their success is all the more notable considering that Judice, a pescatarian, has never tasted them.

Beyond the food, Simanson and Judice credit their success to a system of operations that ensures that each guest receives the highest possible level of service. One unique feature of that system is the position of food runner, whose job is to bring dishes from the kitchen to the table. In most restaurants, the food runner is low on the totem pole. But during service at Tavern 27, the food runner has more authority than anyone else when it comes to quality control. If the plate doesn't look like it's up to snuff, the food runner can send it back to Judice before the diner even sees it.

"It's one more layer of protection (so) that we don't make human mistakes," said Simanson.

Tavern 27 makes a point to source its ingredients locally when possible, so it might have been understandable for Judice and Simanson to have been miffed when Halligan opened Local Eatery shortly after they started. Instead, they welcomed the Local Eatery as a colleague instead of a competitor. If someone walks into Tavern 27 but there aren't any tables, Simanson picks up the phone to see if there's a table down the street.

"I know they'll be hungry again later," he said. And, he would rather be one in a successful community of restaurants than the only one of his kind on the landscape.

"Kevin's one of the best things that ever happened to us. We need other restaurants," said Simanson.

Asked about his inclusion on the list, Halligan, who also operates a butcher shop on Main Street, said that his restaurant's success begins with a commitment to local products but also extends to every aspect of the Local Eatery's operations. For example, to best utilize available local products, he and his kitchen staff throw out their menu every two weeks and begin from scratch. That helps protect the quality of product, and keeps him and his staff from resting on their heels.

"We're constantly trying to get better at what we're doing," said Halligan.

Other Lakes Region locations that made the list, which included categories for activities and lodging as well as dining, are: The Kalled Gallery in Wolfeboro, Mount Washington Cruises on Lake Winnipesaukee, The Ballard House Inn in Meredith, The Wolfeboro Inn and Tamworth Distilling.

Ray Simanson and Leslie Judice, owners of Tavern 27 in Laconia, were thrilled to see that two Laconia restaurants caught the attention of the editors of Yankee Magazine. (Adam Drapcho/Laconia Daily Sun)