of Juliet the Magazine volume 1 part 1

of juliet winter 2018 Seasonal Magazine and Program

BEHIND THE SCENES AT: Love for Lyon Tracks North Persian New Year

PLUS ORIGINAL: Short stories Interviews Art and photography Recipes Activities

“this is everything I have to tell you”

Juliet Cafe

Romeo’s at Juliet Romeo’

as w

a fa e w h o ic s ey tw th y, da

Juliet

e th

Wink + Nod

Gitana at ONCE Lounge

Jimmy’s No. 33 Persian New Year Kitchen Kibitz

Nowruz James Beard House

May Day Flower pot luck at Eva’s Garden

Austinland / Texas Breakfast

Beacon Hill Bistro

O.N.C.E.

BELLYwine bar +The Blue Room

CREDITS

Juliet is: Home Of Somerville’s Most Unique Dining Experience As well as Juliet Café and Romeo’s At Juliet Gratuity Free Dining. Living Wages.

Great food. Great jobs. Great company.

Katrina Juliet Jazayeri, Proprietor/ Wine Director/ Set Designer Joshua Lewin, Chef/ Creative Director Katie Rosengren, General Manager Rachael Collins, Executive Sous Chef Will Deeks, Sous Chef

Staff, in order of appearance: Reggie Tarver, Carlos Ponce, Carlito Pineda, Gilberto Santos, Elvis Reyes, Samantha Mangino, Noah Clickstein, Christiana Celli, Alexis Charney, Annie Gilmore.

Of Juliet is: Joshua Lewin, Editor in Chief Katrina Jazayeri, Design and Illustration Katie Rosengren, Managing Editor

Contributors: Lucia Jazayeri Nina Coomes Megan Guidarelli Samantha Mangino Grace Wexler Will Deeks

CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTORS

Juliet Family Tree

GRACE WEXLER

Curtain Notes

1

Juliet, unseen 2

by Grace Wexler I Was Listening 10

by Joshua lewin Secrets on the Rhone 12

by Samantha Mangino

is an artist and explorer of all sorts. She inds her truest passions in visual art and presentation. These passions are explored through varying outlets including photography, drawing, music, and coffee service. Grace aims to infuse her love of food/beverages, plants, and learning into all the art she creates. Although she is a fairly new addition to the Somerville community, having moved from Colorado in 2016, Somerville has proven a welcoming home to Grace and her two cats and she is delighted to be a part of and contribute to the community.

SAMANTHA MANGINO

is a writer, student, and server. Born in Yarmouth, Maine, she grew up with parents who knew good food and helped to develop her disdain for the kid’s menu. She studies journalism at Emerson College but prefers studying food and wine at Juliet.

NINA COOMES

Tracks North 18

by Joshua Lewin

is a Japanese and American writer, performer, producer and artist. She was born in Nagoya, raised in Chicago, and currently resides in Boston, MA. Her writing has appeared in EATER, Catapult, The Collapsar, among other places. Her debut chapbook, haircut poems, was published by Dancing Girl Press in December 2017.

Home Things 22

by Nina Coomes

MEGAN GUIDARELLI

Haikus 25

by Megan Guidarelli

is a writer, Champagne saber-er, and wine buyer at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge.

This haiku project is the beginning of a greater reconiguration of her wine notes. She has happily called Somerville home for six years and Josh + Katrina [of Juliet] friends for ive.

WILL DEEKS

Do Something Fun 26 Life’s Glowing Marrow Reviewing Aurora Birch’s Debut, Brightness 28

by Joshua Lewin In Conversation 30

by Will Deeks Expectations are the Problem 32

by Joshua Lewin Dignity Not Included 34

by Katie Rosengren

is a Boston based cook, writer, and musician. After working in a number of kitchens throughout the city, Will has settled in as a sous chef at Juliet. Whether he is at the stove there, or occasionally touring the country with various bands, he works to provide insight to the human experience through hospitality and art.

KATIE ROSENGREN

Is the general manager of Juliet, a job which combines two of her favorite things, making spreadsheets and eating food. After a decade plus detour in New York, Katie and her husband- both native Mainers- are happy to be back in New England and call Somerville home. In her spare time, she likes to ight the patriarchy, eat all the food, and watch lots of TV.

LUCIA JAZAYERI

is the creative director and one of the original cooks at Clover Food Lab. She’s worked there pretty much consistently since graduating from BU in 2009, except for 3 weeks when she was a PA on Top Chef DC (and nearly had to drive a van to the FBI). Lucia illustrates the joys and challenges of building a local-food empire in the fast food space, and in 2014 was named one of Zagat’s 30 rising stars under 30. When she’s not working, you’ll ind her cooking fundraiser dinners, ignoring dishes in her sink, or relaxing in front of chips and salsa with her parents and sister Katrina in Austin, TX. One day she will inally see the Minions movies.

Curtain Notes Do you know how parmigiano-reggiano is made? It’s really pretty simple. It just takes time. Two years actually. Some milk is heated, and skimmed, and pressed, and then aged. Exactly two years. That’s the way it’s been done since the fourteenth century (source, Buvette: The Pleasure Of Good Food). Along the way there is plenty to be enjoyed though. Warm milk, fresh cheese curds, and the satisfaction of watching a process give shape to the formless. Everyone loves that, right?

Our winter season begins with a rush of recognition as we head into the new year with a return to the roots of our cuisine. Well, really, the roots of everything. Juliet is much more than just cuisine. I hope.

The irst production of the year, Love For Lyon: Union Square Bouchon, is really the return of a classic. The Bouchon, as you’ll read later from Juliet server Samantha Mangino, holds a very special place in the canon of everyday French cuisine - as we hope to someday hold a special place in the canon of everyday…everything.

Lyon is a reprisal of a menu we introduced for the irst time in 2017. And in fact, most of the menu productions throughout this year will be coming around for the second time, as we purposely repeat almost everything we did last year, but better. Next year, we’ll archive half of it, and the year after that, the other half again. Everything will be new, two years at a time.

We’ll turn two years old at Juliet in the middle of our second production of the year, one of only two that will be completely new this time around. Tracks North is inspired by a trip never taken. It is also a tribute to a past far enough back to be nearly forgotten, and it is a tribute, for the irst time really, to some of our staff here at Juliet. General Manager Katie Rosengren was the irst to prepare cuisine Quebecoise here in this restaurant, as part of a casual event last year celebrating the traditions of our staff and their families. With Tracks, I’ve piled a pullman car full of hopes and dreams for a future as fortuitous and richly rewarding as our recent past here in Union Square. And as much as I’ve done that for Katrina and myself, this one is for the team, too.

This Is Everything I Have To Tell You, Joshua Lewin Cook and storyteller; craft as immersive performance.

Aspiring to something… I almost know what at Juliet, etc: Home of Somerville’s Most Unique Dining Experience as well as Juliet Cafe and Romeo’s At Juliet

twitter: @jlewin @julietunionsq instagram: @jdlewin @julietunionsq www.JulietSomerville.com www.ByJoshuaLewin.com

of juliet 1.

UNSEEN

by Grace Wexler

photographs by Grace Wexler

M

y photo series is inspired by unseen moments, spaces, and light. Working in a cafe is a special chance to experience the “behind the curtain� moments of an establishment- before a place opens or after it closes. These moments hold a push and pull of peacefulness and the lingering energy of the day or the buzz of possibility as a new day of service begins.

This photo series aims to capture the glow of these moments through my favorite art element: light. In photography, I aim to capture light and the way it informs objects. This series is all about differences in light. Capturing the light of distinct times of day, and capturing the light that sparkles into the interior of Juliet at quiet times when only a few see- right after it closes and just before it opens only a few hours later.

4.

I Was Listening

By Joshua Lewin

Dogs don’t smile.

That dog is practically a slave to that track, right? Day and night, kennel to racetrack and back again, but for that one turn, it’s like he is actually going to win something. For himself. Like it matters. Like crossing that chalk line ahead of his kennel mates will catapult him straight up into the sky and he’ll ly away somewhere.

It’s seconds. But those few seconds with gums pinned back by the wind, long tongue lapping up over that skinny head...

Bullshit dogs don’t smile. Ever seen a greyhound turn the last corner with the lead?

And then he peels the eggs? You saw him peel the eggs?

That’s stupid.

No, it’s a different dog! And no, I didn’t actually see it, this was my grandfather’s dog.

He brought it back after his service in Africa.

And they used to hang out at the bar, right, like a lot. Him and my grandmother. And the dog would just sleep there by his feet, and then once or twice throughout the afternoon he would bark, real loud, just once. And then

In the spirit of These Wild Apples, this series turns snippets of conversation from our dining room into stories for everyone to overhear.

I swear to God, that dog would get up up on both of his hind legs, push himself backwards and have this big old grin on his face. He was literally smiling.

It’s not stupid. That dog is driving itself ahead, a mass of blood and bones and ligaments whipping it forward, faster than a car whistling through the tunnels of the Merritt Parkway.

What does this have to do with eggs? You said the dog could peel eggs?

10.

jump straight up onto the bar top where they had these hard boiled eggs out. Anybody could take one. Even a dog. And the dog would scoot back on his hind legs, and like, hold the egg in his front paws. Then peel them and eat one or two then go back to sleep.

So this dog would just sleep all day and then jump up and peel an egg?

That’s what he said. And I would always wonder if the dog was dreaming. Like maybe he was dreaming he was one of those greyhounds, right, but not at the track, a free greyhound.

Well he was an African dog, so maybe a… what are those called… a Saluki...

Those are Persian. I think Asawagh is West African maybe.

There’s no way that dog could peel an egg though, or jump up on that bar.

I’ll text my mom, she’ll remember. She was there too, she was, like, 5 then.

And anyway, he’s just running and running. In his dream, right? Nothing but sand and sun and clear sight lines and he spots a hare or something and just runs like you wouldn’t believe. He’ll never catch it but he doesn’t care about that. He just wants to chase it. And then he pops up out of this dream and the whole thing is so ecstatic he pops all the way up onto the bar and it’s like he’s a man now, like a human, and the whole world is open to him, and there just like that, an old lazy dog can peel an egg.

What did your mom say?

Oh, hold on.

Well, ok. But it’s just a dream though, right? So in his dream he’s a Saluki. And he’s in Egypt maybe.

She just says, sometimes you just had to be there. •

collage by Lucia Jazayeri

of juliet 11.

Secrets on the

RhĂ´ne

by Samantha Mangino If you’re visiting France and love food, you go to Lyon. The city itself doesn’t grab the attention of those searching for the latest trends to post on social media. The food of Lyon lacks an eyecatching aesthetic as boiled tripe doesn’t have an outward visual appeal. The Lyonnaise feel no need to change, since their food is meant to serve those who proudly reside there. The Lyonnaise work hard.

The food has to work harder, making the food like the people: hearty, rustic and hospitable.

Nestled in the intersection of the Rhône and Saône rivers, the region provides the city a bounty of ingredients necessary to creating an exceptional dining experience. The Lyonnaise do not all live in the heart of the city, as many dwell on farms just miles away. Those individuals cultivate a harvest with a great bounty of duck, rabbit, chicken, and beef which will garnish plates in every form one could dream of devouring. Decorating the city streets are long-running establishments of casual and ine dining, all of which have contributed to Lyon’s culinary reputation. There are the sophisticated and historic “Mère” restaurants opened by the female chefs who raised the bar for culinary performance, and as a result, are responsible for the city’s esteem.

While those eateries provide some of the greatest ine dining in France, the heart of Lyonnaise culture is in their neighborhood restaurant: the bouchon.

The word bouchon itself has come to have two meanings. The irst is a bottle stopper or cork, an ironic name considering the low of wine can’t be stopped at a bouchon. Instead, a less likely known origin is that bouchon refers to a bundle of straw. A picture of said image would appear on bouchons as a way to usher in silk workers passing through Lyon (just as the green cross marks pharmacies throughout Europe). A bundle of straw was the Lyonnaise symbol of a place to stop in and be served something satisfying. From the beginning, the meals being turned out at bouchons were for the workers not the bourgeoisie.

When you walk into a bouchon, you not only recognize the owner but are greeted with a pat on the back and your glass is instantly full of Beaujolais wine. Plainly decorated beyond the paper tablecloths over red and white checked linen, the paint on the wall is chipped and the lighting falls warm and low. The food goes from pan to plate with little accessory, maybe a slice of lemon or sprig of parsley; it is presented without pretense. The refined celebrity of the food you’ll ind in Paris is not accepted

14.

“These women, the “mères” of Lyon, kick whatever antiquated idea of women in the kitchen out the door.”

by Lyonnaise cuisine which instead has rougher edges, and fully embraces the offerings of the surrounding region.

When ordering, there isn’t much to be debated. You get everything you see on the menu, and it is to be eaten with everyone at the table; not just getting a bite here or there, but receiving heaping spoonfuls. Meals may begin “lightly” with the house terrine serving up layers of duck, rabbit, and chicken. It’ll include every part of the roast duck that you won’t see when served later on. Once you’ve inished the terrine, you’ll quickly move onto the paté wrapped in pastry. Other plates will follow: There could be fried tripe or a poached veal head. There will deinitely be St-Marcellin cheese and cassoulet, the latter a warm dish you want to enjoy on your travels through Lyon during a break from your daily work. Conit duck with sausage and beans are slow simmered until the silken casserole comes to the table ready to be eaten between sips of wine. The sausage in the cassoulet will be made by the family who’s been making ine charcuterie for as long as cassoulet has been on the menu. The bouchon welcomes not only a collection of the locals who serve as patrons, but it celebrates the ine work that goes on at the charcuterie shop a few blocks down the road and the patisserie a few further. It takes a village to raise a child, and a city to breed a culinary reputation.

The bouchon carries on the everyday dining experience in Lyon. While they are able to emphasize the food of the people, it is the mothers of Lyon who exposed to the world the exquisite cuisine of which the region was capable. Cuisine Lyonnaise may have no secrets, except the women that mothered it. These women, the “mères” of Lyon, kick whatever antiquated idea of women in the kitchen out the door. The women chefs came from backgrounds in cooking for upper-middle class families who left their posts to open restaurants. Motivation to serve the best food came from the Michelin Guide. While Lyon was already at a crossing point between the North and South of France, a Michelin rating could make a travelers pause in their journey just for a meal. The women opened restaurants eponymously always beginning with “Mère” taking pride in the

BRIGADE DE CUISINE In the c lassic system of Fr enc h kitc hen organization, every soul had a role. Where would you fit in?

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I m a k e t h e l a m b, T h e b e e f, f o w l a n d p o r k .

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B u t s t i l l I c h o p, h a u l , a n d s w e e p u p t h e f l o o r.

Boulanger

matriarchy raising an elevated level of cuisine. The Mères were different from Bouchons in their more reined quality, but neither was trying to outshine the other; both coexist as equally signiicant in the scheme of Lyonnaise cuisine.

When you discuss the Mères, you have to remember Eugenie Brazier, a pioneer of the cuisine coming out of the Mères; a strong woman who stood in a short-sleeve, white button-up, starched and pressed, with a white apron behind the stove of her restaurant. Her hair is pulled back into a bun, and not only did she cook at her restaurant La Mère Brazier, but she also took the time to step out and greet guests. It was her space, and she proudly would meet the guests who would travel from far and away to eat the food prepared by the irst Michelin six-star chef.

She would serve famous guests such as Charles de Gaulle and Marlene Dietrich her renowned dishes such as her poulet demi-deuill: black trufles placed under the chicken of a Bresse chicken, which is then roasted.

16.

Eugenie Brazier never was out for the fame.

Her love was in her food and she hoped to instill that in others. A line of French chefs began their education with Brazier. One of those young chefs was Paul Bocuse, the now patriarch of French cuisine.

G isidolized for Garde Manger He may have never received the esteem of the culinary world without the education he got with Brazier, a woman whose thundering yells which knocked him off his feet still give Bocuse nightmares. The tough love Brazier bestowed on Bocuse lives on as he still has the chefs in his kitchen tucking black truffles under the skin of a Bresse chicken. By serving the Bresse chicken the same way his mentor had taught him to prepare it, Bocuse is paying respect to the chef who established the foundations of his career. While it isn’t Brazier’s fame that’s being highlighted, it’s respect to the history and tradition the Lyonnaise care so deeply for.

Most brilliantly Brazier wrote in her part cookbookpart memoir: “‘I have met and conversed with many intellectuals, sophisticates, and I have always been

My day is long.

I write all the recipes And keep the staff str ong.

Chef de Cuisine

Poissoniere

Saucier

The sea is my pantr y I scale the sole.

Sautee it in butter and lemon. And ser ve it whole.

I’m kind of a big deal.

I make succulent sauces to finish each meal.

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My joy is to ser ve.

MMy yMj oyj oy jyoi syi s ti ost otsose ersrvevere.v. e .

Pâté, ter rines, sausages PPâ âtPétâé, t, ét et, er trreirnri nreiesnsea, sns,dasusasauausgsaeagsge es s And other fine h’ors AAn ndAdnodot htoheterhreh hr’ o’ hor ’rsosrdsd’ o’doe’evovreerve. r. e . d’oevre.

The broom is my tool.

I w o n’ t t o u c h t h e b i g k n i f e Til I’ve graduated culinary school. illustrations by Lucia Jazayeri

G is for Garde Manger

mindful of who I am.’” The celebrity of her restaurant was distinctly separated from Brazier herself. The lack of recognition unfortunately allows Brazier’s achievement to go forgotten. With her restaurants based on Rue Royale in Lyon and another miles into the country outside of Lyon, Brazier became the irst French chef to hold two, threestar Michelin restaurants at the same time. In 1998, the title of “First Six-Star Chef” briely was given to Alain Ducasse in the New York Times after he had earned the same accolade as Brazier had 60 years earlier. While a correction was issued in the Times, the mistake stood for the erasure of the mères despite their establishments and inluence still coursing through the veins of Lyon.

However, fame can only last so long. And the Lyonnaise are more concerned with paying respect to tradition.

The menus you’ll come across in Lyon have been reined to what the people want. It’s the tradition of the cuisine and the comfort of the establishments that keep the community supporting the bouchon and lifting up the esteem of the ine-dining Mères. The quenelles de

brochet, a dish not easily replicated, consisting of a pike dumpling baked in a crayish sauce, is a luxury served since the silk workers irst began stopping into bouchons. It’s still served on menus and the quality never falters because to do so would be dishonoring the history of the dish. The food and chefs which have garnered fame in the city can be credited to the respect the Lyonnaise have had for preserving tradition through food.

The title of gastronomic capital of France is taken by Lyon as the individuals cooking the food they wanted to see and showed the rest of the world it was worth tasting. Hearty and rustic are easy to see in Lyonnaise cuisine, but if you look closer, there is conidence and grace in each dish served. Lyonnaise cuisine lives undisturbed in its traditions of the bouchon which will continue to welcome guests as long as they keep coming. Everything you want to know, and everything the people of Lyon have to tell you will be on plates delivered to the table. The only secret of Lyon is that it’s a culinary treasure along the Rhone. Once you ind it, there is nothing left to hide.•

of juliet 17.

BYbyJOSHUA josh LEWIN lewin

E

arly in 2017, as the menus at Juliet began to take shape, we decided that we would put each production on a two year cycle.

We had the idea to introduce each menu, focusing irst on the food and beverage pairings.

Then, as much as we had time for, to incorporate room design, decoration, poetry, other storytelling elements (those came a little later in the year), and more.

Along the way the recipes were adjusted, sometimes entirely changed, and the menus and garnishes edited and reined.

We have a lot of notes on all of this.s each production wrapped up for its season, we diligently transferred those notes from their sauce splattered state into permanent record, ready and

waiting for us to reintroduce them as the calendar turned to 2018.

So here we are. We have eight dinner productions, plus one lunch, that are entering their second showing. The recipes are inalized (for now) and the menus are too. Half of them have a poem or a story to accompany their creation. One of them has a time traveling play and a virtual reality experience (Les Pommes Sauvages).

We’ll focus this year on creating a more immersive experience around each of those themes, through further attention to what you see, hear, and know, in addition to what you taste.

There is one exception to all of this though, and that is Tracks

North: Cuisine Quebecoise. This one is brand new. Here is a look at how the irst steps of this trip were taken. It’s not all about food at Juliet, but it usually starts with food.

There’s a good chance a lot of this will look different by the time it ends on the irst day of spring. We’ll be back to show off what we learned along the way this time next year. Oh, these recipes are directly from our kitchen, you might need a ield guide to some of the terms and quantities you ind here, and there may be more weighted measures than you are used to.

This isn’t a cookbook for use at everyone’s home (this time) this is just a look at what we’ve really done. So far. •

MENU 1ST COURSE: Maine scallops. braised bacon (or pulled pork shoulder, or canadian bacon [probably rotate these as we butcher], hollandaise MAIN COURSE: slow roasted pork. lentils “baked beans” and honeyed carrots [we used to call these magic carrots, but that was a long time ago], basil DESSERT: cheddar doughnuts with apple caramel [sounds good, now how are we going to make that..]

Optional courses: 1st: coddled egg. wild mushrooms, salmon roe, potato 2nd: pate en croute. [going to need a pan for that] with horseradish broth cheese. epoisses de bourgogne Unlisted courses, surprises amuse. foie gras sandwich and baked oyster bread service. potato rolls, pullman style the salad. herbs and pickled rhubarb mignardises. of juliet 19.

LENTILS BAKED BEANS 1 onion, small dice 2 cloves garlic, brunoise 400 grams lentils 1 Q water 20 grams tomato paste

50 grams brown sugar 2 tablespoons maple syrup 1 tablespoon cider vinegar 2 tablespoons dry mustard 1 bay leaf

kosher salt and pepper mix to taste sweat (covered pot, low heat, pinch of salt) onion in canola oil until soft without browning add garlic, cook 1 minute longer Add remaining ingredients and bring to boil cover and bake at 350 F until tender (check at 45 mins) adjust seasoning (salt, pepper, lemon juice)

BRAISED BACON 3-5lb slab bacon, in one piece, skin removed 2 Q mirepoix (2:1:1 onion:carrot:celery), large dice 2 bay leaf 1.5 cup white wine 1.5 cup white vermouth 1.5 cup chicken stock Roast mirepoix until well caramelized Meanwhile: blanch bacon cover in a pot with cold water by a few inches bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes drain water and rinse under fresh cold water for a few minutes Combine blanched bacon, mirepoix, bay leaf, wine, vermouth and stock in hotel pan triple wrap (foil/plastic/foil) Cook at 300 degrees until tender (check ďŹ rst at 2.5 hours) Drain, reserve liquid for another purpose Press overnight.

20.

POTATO PUREE 900 grams russet potato, washed, unpeeled 454 grams cold butter, diced 1 cup hot milk cook potato in oven on salt at 500 until very tender cool potato to the touch, but peel while still warm to hot pass over fine tamis combine in mixer with butter, slowly finish with hot milk season with salt and pepper

CANADIAN BACON 1 gallon water, divided 200 grams kosher salt 350 grams maple syrup 50 grams light brown sugar 10 grams pink salt

4 bay leaves 3 medium cloves garlic, smashed 10 grams black peppercorns 1 boneless pork loin, fat trimmed to ½ inch

(InstaCure, Prague Powder)

To make the cure, combine 1 quart of the water, kosher salt, maple syrup, brown sugar, pink salt, bay leaves, garlic, and peppercorns in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve salts and sugar. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat.

Transfer to a large container and stir in remaining 3 quarts of water. Place in refrigerator until completely chilled. Fully submerge pork loin in cure and let sit in refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.

Remove pork from cure and place in large container.

Add enough fresh water to fully submerge loin. Let sit for 30 minutes, then remove pork from water and pat dry with paper towels.

Smoke at 225°F, to 140 internal temp, 2-3 hours.

of juliet 21.

home things Nina Li Coomes interviewing Katrina Jazayeri

When I make my way to Juliet, it is early evening in early December. Though it is only 5:00 pm, it feels much later. It is dark, the street lights creating pale spotlights ahead of me on the sidewalk. Through the large windows of 257 Washington Street, I can see Katrina Jazayeri, co-owner of Juliet, bent behind the counter, working at something in the kitchen. Her hair is piled on top of her head instead of in her signature braids usually neatly coiled. The lighting in the empty dining area is a mellow, lazy amber. It is not quite the golden romantic lighting of Juliet during dinner service, nor is it the sunny bright whites of brunch hours. I push open the door fogged over in the cold feeling as if I am heading backstage before a run of shows, about to speak to a performer in the green room before they enter stage right to resounding applause. Around me, music swells briely, which is not a part of my imagination but instead, Katrina explains, is the Aurora Birch record she was just listening to.

As she hurries to turn it off, I make a mental note to later listen to Birch’s album while asking Katrina what she was doing at the back counter. She gestures to an open table near the windows, and tells me that she was starting the process of making the croissants and babkas they sell on weekends. “And besides,” she smiles, “If I’m home I just want to do home things so I’m putting those off.” She makes two tall glasses of mint tea and sets them on the table, easing into the chair next to me.

I’ve come to Juliet to speak to Katrina about Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which Juliet celebrates with a special menu in March. Briely summarized, Nowruz marks the vernal equinox, or the beginning of spring, and inds its origins in the Zoroastrian tradition.

It can sometimes be called the Iranian New Year, but as Katrina notes in our conversation, is actually celebrated all over the region, ranging in inluence from Afghanistan to Georgia. Nowruz is pronounced like “no ruse,” meaning literally “new day”, and though the holiday itself has been celebrated for centuries (the Christian tradition of painting eggs for Easter even inds its roots in Nowruz!) Katrina’s introduction to the holiday has been a gradual one. “We didn’t grow up around a lot

22.

of other Persian families as all my dad’s family is in Los Angeles. We would visit them every couple of years maybe,” she says, “but my dad wasn’t really big on traditions.

He’s a tomorrow man.” Aunts would call to wish them a happy new year, but beyond that, Nowruz’s presence in the Jazayeri household was subtle: “I’m realizing all the ways the holiday and cooking made it into my life but it never came with the narration. It was only when we started thinking about a Persian New Year menu for our events that I was like, wait a minute! All these things my dad made, these are what we ate as children.” She recounts to me the differences she has observed in the cuisine of Iranians who led before the revolution versus those who might still be in Iran, adding “though I don’t want to make it too binary because it’s more subtle than that.” Later, she would tell me of her mother, an “Air Force brat”, who traveled to Iran and married her father because she couldn’t stand to be apart from him, only for the Iranian hostage crisis to occur days after their wedding. “Their lives changed a lot,” she remarks wryly, speaking about the need for her father’s family to relocate “ if I could bottle to the United States.

Hearing of her family’s the sound of a flight to the USA, I ask persian dinner Katrina what, if any, intention might have in constructing party, that’d be she a Nowruz menu while the great” United States has listed Iran as a country under the newly upheld Travel Ban. Earlier in the evening we had spoken briely about how feeding people can be a political act, citing Juliet’s no-tipping policy and advocacy for a living wage. Katrina pauses for a moment, thinking. “One of the great things about food is there are so many entry points.” She continues: “you could be excited about farm to table culture and that’s what gets you to pay attention, or you could be interested in a culture that broadens your understanding of a people.” She goes on to detail an Arabic phrase that provided the name for for her and co-owner/chef Josh Lewin’s hospitality company, Bread and Salt Hospitality;.. “‘between us, bread and

Katrina’s parents on their wedding day in Iran, 1979. photo courtesy of Katrina Jazayeri.

salt,’ and it means once you break bread with a person and have a meal you can’t be adversaries...

When food can get people to the table and be that gateway to talking or learning about people who are not like them, that’s the best entry point into a discussion.” As Katrina inishes her sentence, I ind myself briely skeptical. Can food really foster some sort of sense of understanding or mutuality? Does the simple act of eating truly harbor the potential to bring people together, past racial, political, and socioeconomic lines? I shelve these questions in my mind for later, and our conversation moves on.

When I ask what it’s been like to try to translate Nowruz into a menu at Juliet, Katrina tells me “creative license is what my dad taught me. He was always tinkering with older and more traditional recipes and lavors and turning them into what you expect to see

at a French restaurant. That was a fun challenge for him. He expressed a lot of creativity with his rolodex of lavor combinations.

This ish dish, sabzi polow mahi, it’s fried ish with lots and lots of herbs mixed into rice. My dad would take white ish illets and make a spinach illing and roll the ish around the spinach and take all the herbs that were supposed to go in the rice and make an emulsiied green sauce and to us, we just thought, ooh, Dad’s making another great dinner.”

It seems both Katrina and Josh keep Katrina’s father’s spirit of tradition and creative license alive and well. In another example, Katrina tells me of a hearty stew that her father made, redolent with tomatoes, chickpeas, and lamb.

Traditionally, the stew ought to be served mashed together in a sandwich, but Katrina recounts the way her sister, her mother and herself loved the brothy stage before

the stew properly reduced, sneaking into the kitchen for bowls of just the thin soup. The Juliet Nowruz menu features two “very traditional dishes,” and two that have classical origins with interpretive takes. One appears to be that soup. According to Katrina, “Josh does a great job of turning a hearty stew into a tomato and saffron consomme and lamb roulade and little potatoes.” She adds,“We made it a full on soup, a brothy soup.” It seems this reimagined dish at Juliet is a victory for the younger Katrina stealing broth from her father’s stew pot. The menu also features an array of sides called sabzi khordan which Katrina explains as “a collection of fresh herbs, spring radishes, onions. They’re kind of like palate cleansers as you’re eating your meal. We would do a version of [the sabzi khordan] as a way to introduce a style of eating to people that’s very different.”

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At this point, I realize we have been speaking of Nowruz for a while but I have yet to understand what exactly Nowruz feels like, looks like, sounds like, or smells like. It will still be a few months before it is time to celebrate Nowruz at Juliet or in the outside world, and I’d like a better glimpse into the holiday.

I ask Katrina to think about these sensory categories and how they might it into the New Years celebration.

She begins by speaking about her aunt’s home, saying “there’s always the smell of cinnamon, but it’s textural too, because there’s something inevitably bubbling on the stove somewhere. So the air in the house is always a little bit wet, steamy almost. There’s fresh herbs everywhere so you get, I guess to me, the smell of cooking. Cinnamon, saffron, and herbs are the irst thing that meets you.” She closes her eyes, and goes on. “There’s always really soft carpet and you take off your shoes. Somewhere near the entryway one of the irst things you’ll see is the haft-seen, or the table that gets set with auspicious icons. There’s some kind of sprouted wheat pudding, a wheatgrass plant, vinegar, garlic, apples, and our family does a goldish. Painted eggs, gold coins, a mirror and candles.”

Katrina continues, smiling, “There’s never silence in an Iranian house. Even at the end of the night when people are full and some are falling asleep on the couch and others are milling around there’s always the sound of tea being poured or nuts being cracked at the coffee table. There’s always a happy chaotic sound of gossiping

and laughing. I love that sound. If I could bottle the sound of a Persian dinner party that would be great.”

As Katrina describes the many sensory elements of Nowruz, a slow joy begins to spread across her features. The matter-of-fact expository answers to what Nowruz might be, her careful consideration of political landscapes at the table, even the mirth of childhood remembrances---all of these suddenly make much more sense in the context of the glow breaking across her face. Katrina paints a picture of relaxation, of community, and perhaps most importantly, of home.

The tight knot of skepticism I had carried earlier begins to unravel. Of course food could bring strangers around a table. Of course a once-impossible discussion might become possible in the carpeted, cinnamon-haze chatter of a loved one’s house. Of course there is potential. Of course, optimism. Of course, hope. I begin to understand that the act of Nowruz, and perhaps Juliet broadly, is to begin the fresh year by inviting people in from the cold, and giving them whatever warmth you can muster. On Nowruz, you are gracious, putting aside your labels and grievances, letting hospitality speak instead. Though the year before and the year ahead may be cold, harsh, cruel even, on Nowruz everyone is full and content, allowing for the glimmering possibility of something better. Later, I ask Katrina what kinds of themes drive Juliet, and what she says next sums up what I felt from her discussion of Nowruz perfectly: “This is all I have to give you. Everything that I love.”

Joshua Lewin and Katrina Jazayeri at The James Beard House, 2015 celebrating Nowruz. photo courtesy of Jazayeri.

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HAIKUS by Megan Guidarelli Pouilly- Fuisse, Clos Varambon a creamy lemon with a stone in the middle waving a silk scarf

La Distesa, Gli Eremi One sip for a sunset over Abruzzo in full technicolor Bandol Rose the first blood is drawn such is the sacrifice made for concentration Domaine Wachau, G.V. I have never had a bowl of clams more perfect nor crustier bread Sineann, Abondante Together on your parkay floor, full glass in hand celebrating firsts

of juliet 25.

D O S O M E t H i n G F U n 26.

Introducing...

FLAT ALEXANDER Have you heard of Flat Stanley? Stanley is a paper cut-out with a cult-like following among elementary school children. It all starts by making a small paper cut out, and decorating it to become Stanley (or whoever you’d like really.) Then Stanley travels around the world to friends, family, celebrities, etc. where he sees the sights and the tour guide returns Stanley to the sender along with a jounal entry about what they did together.

Flat Stanley was started 23 years ago as a literacy program for school kids. If you ever seen a Stanley outing in person, you can’t help but smile at the sight of “grown-ups” planning trips and posing with a tiny paper doll. As exciting as it must be for the children to open their letters and welcome Stanley home, it’s possible that Stanley’s tour guides have as much if not even more fun!

It’s time to connect with our creative and perhaps a bit silly side, hence, Flat Alexander.

He’s named for one of our favorite sour beers, that despite having some die hard fans, we don’t always sell a full bottle before the beer goes lat. We found ourselves talking about uses for “lat alexander” with a tone as if we were talking about an old friend. Flat Stanley immediately sprang to mind, and so, Flat Alexander was born.

Now it’s up to you. Cut out, decorate, and take Flat Alex out for an adventure, celebrate an occassion, or cheer up an otherwise mundane task.

Document Alex’s travels with pictures and/or stories, send them back to us (physically or digitally), and you may see your travel story in a future issue of the magazine, Of Juliet.

As always, thanks for playing.

for analog post: 257 washington st.

Somerville MA 02143 for digital post: @julietunionsq #FlatAlexJuliet

Mana-tea time, all day long.

8am

12pm

8pm illustration by katrina jazayeri

TRADITIONS

photo by brian samuels

Cocktails make music.

The simplest music.

Its most basic form.

Percussion.

Improvised percussion.

You only need what you already have.

You can hear it when you’ve got it right.

2.5 oz rye whiskey +.5 oz simple syrup +1 dash orange bitters stir with ice. strain into your favorite glass. add new ice and a twist of orange. enjoy your old fashioned by katrina jazayeri

Doug says he can’t ind an Old Fashioned Cocktail he likes as much as ours. The irst time he said it I was surprised. Of all the inventive versions of the Old Fashioned out there, ours is always by the book.

Sometimes I actually get a little nervous when I look down at our list of three to ive cocktails, mostly traditional, and worry that people aren’t going to think they are interesting, or at least varied, enough.

Not that we don’t ever innovate. We do. Often. When we do, though, we are always sure to start on solid foundations; the right techniques, marched out to the right timing. After that, it’s easy to embellish with our own signature. Or not. We are proud to present your favorite drinks. Even if we can’t take credit for their invention every time, we always treat them as if we can; right. of juliet 27.

Life’s Glowing Marrow

Reviewing Aurora Birch’s Debut Album, Brightness photo courtesy of Aurora Birch

by Joshua Lewin

Aurora Birch has been a “sometimes collaborator” throughout the past year here at Juliet. She played an important role in our ive day show, These Wild Apples, and spent some time caroling around here for the holidays. We hosted an album release party for Brightness on Dec 10, 2017.

28.

All of us breathe. We do it without thinking, and if we’re lucky, we’ll do it naturally until the moment we stop. Our breath oxygenates our blood, as it circulates and pumps through the rivers and tributaries of our bodies, stopping momentarily each time around to lood the lake of our brains, lighting up everything we are to be.

Or as Aurora sings in the opening seconds of her new album in what could pass as a radio hit if you want it to, or double as a lament for the passage of time if you need it to, “we were unaware of corporal pain/ of human time/ but without regret/ we became the breath of one young girl” (Atomic Love).

When Aurora Birch breathes, presumably all of this happens just the same way it does for you, and for me. But at the same time, that breath seems to low into this young performer from some very old place outside of the oxygen rich atmosphere that fuels my own body and lows back out of her like the gentle but persistent heat of a barbecue pit, turning the most challenging bits into something to be repeatedly enjoyed; coveted, longed for in constant earnest.

In her debut release, Brightness, Aurora Birch invites us to not just breathe her own breath along with her, but to see her twenty something years of personal history through her own burning eyes, and hear the sound of her own universe crashing through the thunder clouds hanging over us all.

Thunder clouds that look and feel the way we know them, but through her expert arrangement are reinvented as the sound of angels praising God’s creation when

they erupt. The lash and ire is there, but as she breathes it all in, doubtlessly feeling it burn from head to toe and beyond, she offers us instead the pure pleasure of intoxicating euphoria with each exhale, “and I remembered I could die of you if I tried/ my luck/ I remembered I could die” (The Only Rule).

As we trip and stumble over Aurora’s words, “if I’m the irst to ind my grave/ I’ll be humming our refrain to you/ in no notes composed, nor in my inest prose/ could I chronicle the garden…” (Tom’s Song), we loat back up through the clouds “I’d like to think I’m kinder than I was when I was small/ that my hands, which found the world, did good/ and right when they were called” (Little Shoes), on the undulations of her voice, which itself is uplifted through the ebbing string arrangements and deep percussion devoid of distracting edges that accompany this fated troubadour in her reminiscing and reinvention.

lyon is for l ov e r s

Lest you get the impression that Aurora needs your sympathy, she is quick to remind us that she is no passive actor in this world, “what kind of woman am I/ to leave before you wake up and never/ say goodbye?/ to splinter from a brightness and burn you in the eye?” (Woman).

The most dangerous tide is the one that you can’t feel as it pulls you out to sea.

Aurora Birch is this tide. An elemental sound that lows as stoically as it does cosmically; from some frightening and cavernous place outside of natural wakefulness. This tide will unrelentingly pull you out to sea, and then turn you inside out, and leave you unsure if you are loating to heaven in salvation or already drowned in a cold and salty sea. Either way, you will enjoy every minute of everything she has to share. Just remember, “keep the whiskey steady, keep it lowing like the Rhone/ I’ll be drowning out the questions that are/ burning in my throat” (Semantics).

book your Valentine’s Day table

I like whiskey. I live rivers. If drowning is anything like what Aurora Birch has done to us with Brightness, then I promise you, I like drowning too. • listen to Brightness at www.aurorabirch.com

of juliet 29.

In Conversation with Reggie Tarver, interviewed by Will Deeks Age: 28 Hometown: Dorchester

Years in the Restaurant industry: 10 plus Best music for the kitchen: Floetry- anything by Maxwell

From Fenway Park to To Juliet- “What prepares you for working in a kitchen, is working in a kitchen.”

Most Mornings you can expect to find him behind the line rolling omelettes and singing along with Otis Redding. Just don’t come looking on Sundays- they are reserved for hanging out with his daughter. When we sat down to catch up over coffee he informed me that afterwards he was heading to the party store to pick up balloons for her 7th birthday.

When did you become aware that you enjoyed cooking?

Being with my grandmother. She would let me try things out different recipes. I would wake up in the morning and cook breakfast. Try to mimic the omelettes and stuff that I saw on TV. Tell me a little bit about you ended up working in the industry?

I remember hospitality jobs being the only ones I could get.

I used to apply for jobs at the mall in high school, Foot Locker, I wanted to have a cool kid job- but I couldn’t make it happen. I applied for a security job at Macy’s- the guy told me I was overqualiied. Hospitality always took me in.

I know you have worked at some interesting places- Fenway?

Fenway was cool. Then after cooking at Fenway Park, I wanted to work at Steel and Rye over in MIlton. They had no room in the kitchen so i started as a back server. One of the cooks ended up breaking his leg and was out for seven months. The chef took me in and the rest just sort of worked out.

Juliet is known for and is- I can say from my experiences working here- a different kind of kitchen. What do you make of kitchen culture potentially calming down? Becoming less of a Wild West?

I have heard that kitchens are crazy places all my life but I have never really experienced anything that felt too tough. I mean every kitchen has its crazy moments but nothing too wild. I have never been a part of kitchen that breaks people.

You fell Into cooking and ended up being great at it, but you’re also great with people. Did you ever see yourself having the kind of job where you both interact with customers and cook on such a regular basis?

The last kitchen I worked in, Loyal 9, was an open kitchen, and now I have found myself in an even more open kitchen. I didn’t ever see myself working in this environment, it just kind of goes natural with who I am. Even when I am not at work, I can talk or hang with anybody. I hope that anybody would want to kick it with me.

I understand from witnessing you at work (Reggie is a great dancer) and hearing stories from you that back in the day that you used to dance seriously. How has that affected your kitchen work?

I started with tap originally and then I moved into modern technique and jazz. Then I got accepted into an arts high school and it was mandatory to take ballet for three years. I had been dancing since age six but this was….I mean, it was hard, every muscle in

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your body hurts. But to answer your question, dancing is a different form of coordination- I really believe that the only thing that prepares you to work in a kitchen is working in a kitchen.

You cook breakfast for us everyday here. For the staff, and for guests. But what is you perfect breakfast?

I actually found my perfect breakfast- a place in Lynn called Three Yolks- what they have is a fried pork chop breakfast, over easy eggs, a bowl of grits and toast. Ideal breakfast, great way to start the day.

You have clearly learned a lot through the years. Did you ever consider going to cooking school?

I was talking to Josh (co-owner/executive chef of Juliet) one time and I was like I really love cooking and I have been doing it all my life, do you think I should stop playing around and go to school? And he said no, you already have all that. It’s better to be here, hands on.

Well thanks for taking the time today man. Winter is upon usyou are about to head out into the cold. What do you like about living in Boston?

Man, seafood, and to be honest- I know this sounds crazy, but I love the snow. So yeah, two best things about living in Boston, seafood and snow.•

breakfast. lunch. coffee. pastries. catering.

Expectations Are The Problem Joshua Lewin

We have a problem in the restaurant industry, and it isn’t new. Talking about it isn’t new either. But talking about it the way we are talking about it now is. Until fairly recently we talked about it like it was funny. At least a lot of us did.

Or, if not funny, expected; understood to be the case.

Harassment is a regular expectation for too many individuals in this business. This harassment takes a lot of forms, and they should all be discussed and brought to light, but for now, I’m referring to sexual harassment. And unfortunately more than I realized, sexual assault.

This harassment and assault primarily affects women. But not exclusively. Yes men, I know, it can happen to us too. And it does. For now, I’m talking about the sexual harassment and sexual assault of cis and trans women in restaurants.

If you work in restaurants, it has likely happened in every job you have ever held. You might have done it. If you eat in restaurants, it has likely happened at some point in every restaurant you’ve enjoyed (or didn’t enjoy). You might have been responsible. Women in restaurants are often subjected to harassment and assault at the hands of guests. Literally. I’ve had a staff member harassed by a repair vendor in a small space where no one could hear it. Recently.

But for now I’m talking mostly about instances involving co-workers, and because it is so common, I’ll stick to directing these comments at instances involving superiors; managers, chefs, owners, apparently also... investors.

Sexual harassment and assault is about power. So are our reactions to it. Restaurants should be a refuge and a place of opportunity for the people working in them. They were, and are, for me. But then again, I am a man.

Without the opportunity provided to me by this exciting industry, I really have no idea what I would be doing today. Restaurants gave me the time and the means to igure it out. Eventually, I igured out that I wanted to stay. Had I been subjected to sexual harassment or assault, especially

32.

repeatedly, I don’t know that I would have been able to pursue what has become the work that I love.

I wonder how many women have not...

The most important three people in my organization, of about twenty, are women. This includes my co-owner, our general manager, and our executive sous chef. My company wouldn’t exist without Katrina. Not just that it wouldn’t exist the way it does now, there is plainly no way my career would look remotely like it does today, without her contributions to what we do together.

Juliet would be months and years behind where we are as a still start up business without the work and dedication of Katie and Rachael.

I hope they never leave. And I do my best to work, with them, to create and provide an environment that is meaningful and rewarding, provides opportunities to learn and develop (professionally, personally, creatively), and provides an income that is livable and fair (and growing).

This is really a form of hospitality. It’s a similar philosophy to the way we approach our guests, even if the tools we use with them are different. In fact, our initial training materials include a lot of discussion that, in a way, removes the separation between who the guests are, and who the staff are, when it comes to what hospitality means, and how it works.

We take care of people. Sure, that’s usually through cooking, setting the table, cleaning up, and pouring the wine. But it’s also through telling our story, and listening to theirs.Through approaching each interaction with understanding and respect, through realizing that everyone involved in the interaction (at Juliet we call these stakeholders, and the stakeholders very clearly include our staff) beneits when, well, everyone beneits.

The opposite by deinition then, is also true.

Why is it so common then in a ield that is built

on hospitality, or at least is supposed to be, that a group of people can be so regularly and pervasively subjected to the harassment and assault that we are now reading about every day?

I don’t know all the reasons, but I do understand that this issue is about power and who has it, and who wants to keep it. Again, I’m referring to the sexual harassment and assault of women working in restaurants at the hands of their managers, chefs, owners, and their investors.

These victims have felt afraid for yearsand decades in many breaking cases- to come forward and report these instances. Often,they haven’t felt they had anyone to report them to, because their attacker was their boss, or because they were told not to bother to report by their boss, or begged not to report by their coworkers, because they were afraid of repercussions based on threats from their attackers, or even a history of experiencing those threats being carried out.

Over the past few months high proile cases of systematic abuse and its covering up have broken about some of the biggest and brightest names that made this industry so attractive to so many seeking opportunity. I could list all the names, but thanks to some brave and diligent reporting, and much much braver informing, I don’t have to. And for now, I won’t. The information is easy to ind.

For an industry that is founded on principles of hospitality and care, it is unfathomable to me that we have never discussed openly and proactively the issues of the sexual harassment and assault of women in these jobs. We knew. We all knew.

As it says in our employee handbook: hospitality is proactive.

Everyone is culpable. The chefs and managers that look the other way when told to (I’ve done that), the investors and business partners that put up with unacceptable behavior to protect proits and branding, the press and other gatekeepers that sprinkle out the attention that keeps these

businesses churning, and the foundations and organizations that hang medals around the necks and bestow honoriics on the individuals who will become symbols of success.

I have no idea how to ix it. I train and work side by side with a staff of twenty, serving 300 guests each week. All I can really do is refuse to accept it, and let people know. We can, and will, create better training programs within our organization to guard against it happening here, and to take speciic action if it does. We will encourage discussion and solution based conversations among our team and outside of it. We will provide a place of opportunity, safety, and dignity, not as an afterthought, but as part of our foundation and woven into the creativity of our work.

Award winning restaurateurs and chefs should have their names removed from their plaques if their success has come at the expense of the dignity and safety of others. Strip those awards away and put together a committee to seek out and award hardworking and talented people who were held back by their actions. This won’t be easy, or perfect. But it could be done.

Well intentioned individuals and businesses with smaller voices should be sought out by the press, large and small, and heralded as trailblazers.

It sounds a little ridiculous to suggest that it is a trailblazing attitude to promote equality, opportunity, and dignity for everyone working in this industry of opportunity and hospitality. I know. But I also know that it is true. The press could have an overwhelmingly positive inluence in telling these stories, which will be invaluable for those that have them told.

There are a lot of good people working in this business. It should be notable though how powerful so many of the bad ones were, and are.

This is a watershed moment for dignity in the workplace. It is a painful moment for many. We have an opportunity as an industry to lead the way forward, the way we always should have. •

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Katie’s Corner

Dignity Not Included On Tuesday, November 21, Juliet hosted a salon on sexual harassment, the irst in a series to discuss issues in the restaurant industry. Since these salons will tackle some broad topics- and not everything can be said in 2 hours -our hope is to continue the conversation here.

Since the news of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein broke, it seems like the loodgates have opened for people, particularly women, to share their stories of sexual assault and harassment. As the #metoo campaign gained traction and prominent men were being called to task, it seemed the pervasive monster lurking in the shadows that we’ve always seen and mostly ignored had been thrust into the spotlight.

When the allegations moved from one industry to the next, we in the restaurant world knew it was only a matter of time before our reckoning would come.

According to the Restaurant Opportunities Center, we have the highest reported rate of sexual assault and harassment of any industry. So it was no surprise when the names of chefs and restaurateurs were added to the growing list of Hollywood producers, actors, and politicians.

While sexual assault and harassment are often taken for granted as just part of the job in the restaurant industry, the abuses don’t end there.

As a restaurant employee, you are expected to push yourself to your physical and mental limits, most of the time, without healthcare. Your worth as an employee is judged by how many doubles in a row you can pull without complaining. Battle scars are hard earned and well respected. The emotional scars from the abuse at the hands of your superiors or guests, sure, but also the physical scars from working in an environment with hot and sharp things in constant orbit around your body. You are more respected when you work through sickness and injury. You will tell yourself you earned those several beers you enjoy late night after all the guests have gone. Not just anyone can do this job, you’ll say. Fighting through your 12 hour shift the next day while you battle a hangover will only prove it once more.

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Paying a living wage, providing health insurance and paid sick leave, and taking strong action against sexual harassment and abuse are just some of the ways in which we protect the most vulnerable among us.

Because so many of us get pushed through this machine, get our battle scars so early, a cycle of abuse occurs. Sexual abuse or harassment - as well as any other abuse - is so dificult to report in the restaurant industry because the person you would report it to is your harasser and he or she is taking advantage of the accepted culture. Or the person has gone through it him or herself and continue to normalize the behavior.

I wish I could say I’ve never bought into this culture, or perpetuated it as a manager. I’ve put up with sexual harassment on a near daily basis because I was young and I didn’t know any better and no one showed me otherwise. I’ve pushed myself to exhaustion and near mental breakdown because saying I needed support would mean proving I was not it for this job.

I’ve yelled at employees, expected too much, pushed them too far because that’s what was being expected of me.

What I see now is we need to look to our owners and managers for meaningful changes that can impact their workers’ lives. Paying a living wage, providing health insurance and paid sick leave, and taking strong action against sexual harassment and abuse are just some of the ways in which we protect the most vulnerable among us. While I’m happy to see some of the bad actors in our industry answer for their behavior - and I look forward to more - just punishing these people (men) does not solve the root of this problem. Until we start treating restaurant work like a digniied career and not a trial where only the strong survive, we can’t expect our culture to change.•

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-of juliet