Couple share family traditions through food at Taste of Legacy Cafe & Catering

GILFORD — Isaiah Bullock has a friend who once explained that every food professional has a “culinary backpack,” a figurative vessel used to collect the food-related inspirations they collect throughout their life.

Bullock, from Boston, earned the title of chef at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. His food inspirations started much earlier, though, 1,000 miles away and generations before, from his family living in Georgia, who served food prepared in the Cajun and barbecue traditions.

Now a husband and father to three young boys, Isaiah and his wife Corinne Bullock have decided that it’s time for them to unpack their culinary backpack, and they’ve decided to do it here, at the Village at Paugus Bay, at 131 Lake St. The contents of that backpack can be explored at The Taste of Legacy Cafe and Catering, open for breakfast and lunch.

Camp cooks

The Bullocks met at a Christian summer camp, where he was working as the head chef and she was hired as part of the kitchen crew. There was a rule about romance between camp staff, but love doesn’t follow rules, and Corinne and Isaiah have just celebrated their 12th anniversary.

Up until last year, the Bullocks — Corinne also grew up in Massachusetts — were living in southern New Hampshire and running a catering business. They have a love of community, though, and they wanted to find a place to open their doors to the public, while also providing food for weddings and other catered events. So, Corinne said, they decided to go to the place that kept drawing them back.

“We were in Nashua prior to here; we vacationed up here with our kids for years, and we fell in love with the area,” she said. When they started looking at available places, they said, they were sold by the vision of the new owners of the Village at Paugus Bay, located near the intersection of White Oaks Road and Weirs Boulevard, and which has an interior mall with 30 units for vendors.

“It just seemed like the right time to make the leap,” Corinne said.

Taste of Legacy opened in April.

Ups & downs

How has business been so far?

“It’s been up and down,” said Isaiah. They appreciate the concept behind the Village at Paugus Bay, and also enjoy the supportive philosophy shared among the other tenants. One drawback, though, is that it’s been hard for them to attract locals, which might be due to the lack of visibility from the street.

The business has been kept afloat so far by hungry tourists, much more likely than locals to rely on search engines to guide their meals. Taste of Legacy enjoys a perfect five-star rating on Google.

“I think it’s been received really well,” Isaiah said. “I think the biggest challenge is to find us.”

A ‘twist’

The menu at Taste of Legacy was carefully designed to appeal to a range of diners. The Bullocks are adventurous eaters, and want items on the menu that would surprise people like them. But they also want more conservative diners to feel welcomed. And, as people who often go out to eat with kids in tow, they wanted to be sure young appetites would also find something to enjoy.

“I think we provide a twist on the classics,” Isaiah said. He thinks of his offerings as “elevated comfort food.”

Taste of Legacy is a “scratch kitchen,” as Corinne put it, meaning that everything is made in-house, including the breads and sauces. Speaking of their bread, they serve sandwiches on what Isaiah calls “fo-co,” a recipe that combines a few elements from his culinary backpack: it’s a yeast-risen wheat dough, similar in many ways to a focaccia, but also plays some cornbread notes: cornmeal, honey, salt and pepper.

The biggest seller so far is the category of “comfort bowls,” which can be healthy, such as brown rice with sweet potatoes, black beans, avocado and corn, to indulgent, like mac-and-cheese with barbecue pulled pork, or mashed potatoes with cheese, corn and steak.

Front of the house

While Isaiah is at home in the kitchen, Corinne’s specialty is the administrative side of the business, including the renovation of the interior. She’s created a space that feels more like a living room, perhaps even a swanky lounge, than a stiff-seated diner.

She said she was aiming for a “comfy, hang-out-with-the-family, kind of vibe,” and they hope the space will become sought-after for nonprofits or other groups who want room to gather.

“We’re driven by community,” Isaiah said. “Let’s give to a community that we’re drawn to.”