13 minute read
IN THE KITCHEN
In the Kitchen at Roots Café with chefs Dan Merola and JT Hearn
A view behind the scenes at West Chester’s dining desinations, and a chat with the people who run them.
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photos ERIK WEBER @westchesterviews story JESSE PIERSO L @jessepiersol
If I’m making something, and I’m not happy with it, it goes in the trash. We don’t tweak it,” says Roots Café co-owner and chef John “JT” Hearn.
Fellow chef (and other half of the business partnership) Dan Merola, confirms that JT’s words are not an empty threat. “Just this morning, I was licking the icing off a cake because I knew he was going to throw it out. We want people to have the best they’ve ever had when they come to Roots.”
Their steaks are all locally sourced. Chicken comes from a farm in Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania and costs three times as much of that offered at other restaurants. They’ve got a guy who drops off a case of mushrooms with his truck, pulling up in the alley so they can buy stuff out the back door. On the first page of the menu alone, more than 90% of the items are local. “It’s supporting local business, which is better for the environment, too,” Dan says.
“There are lots of ways restaurants can save money. It’s way easier to open a bag rather than cut things up by hand,” he continues. “But people would rather pay for quality. I think it ties into the ‘buy local’ angle of ethics, which is especially important for a town like West Chester.”
“If it was all about cost, we could save money,” JT affirms. “But we like cooking food we like to eat. If you have really great ingredients, you don’t have to do a lot to them.”
The relentless pursuit of quality is what unites these two friends who have taken the plunge into restaurant ownership together. In addition to breathing new life into Roots, they’ve taken the café’s offerings to the next level. And that’s just the beginning.
A Shared Approach
Dan, 30, and JT, 31, grew up together, both attending Upper Darby High School. Years later, their paths would collide again when they were both following parallel paths within the restaurant industry.
JT vividly remembers being eight and making omelets with onions and roasted garlic, and his mom yelling at him for not cleaning up the kitchen. She had a small catering business then, and the intrepid youth would fill raviolis and make gnocchis to help out. “All the front work nobody wants,” he laughs. One day, celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse was at a local bookstore signing his newly released kids’ cookbook, and JT was in line, clutching his copy. “I said, ‘I want to do that.’” From there, he worked in dozens of kitchens, including a stint at La Cabra Brewing as head chef, where he ran into Dan again, who was working as a sous chef.
Dan caught the cooking bug when he was eight years old, burning grilled cheese sandwiches in the family kitchen. He learned how to cook (the right way) at the venerable Clam Tavern in Clifton Heights, where he started as a dishwasher. After only two months, the chef started teaching him the fundamentals, like how to bread things for frying and how to roast meat. “They’ve been making the same things since the 1970s,” says Dan. “It’s where I learned about using quality ingredients.”
It didn’t take him long to realize he had a real knack for cooking, and that he loved it, but he still decided to go to college. “In the middle of my philosophy degree at West Chester University, you know, you do a lot of thinking about yourself. I was going to school to get out of the kitchen, but I spent $40,000 learning that I wanted to stay in the kitchen. It was a discovery worth every penny!”
In 2013, Dan came on board as a head chef at Roots, where he stayed until 2017. During that time, he dreamed of something bigger. “We’ve both always had that entrepreneurial bug. We tried to start side businesses, always coming up with new inventions and thinking about what we could do to get out of somebody else’s kitchen,” he recalls. Roots’ original owner, Dan Cellucci, thought the two friends had what it took to make a partnership work, and they all started the process of taking over in April 2018. In spring 2019 they completed the final paperwork to make it official.
Pork Belly Benedict
Start with house-cured and smoked pork belly and serve it up on house-made corn bread that’s light and sweet to offset the richness of the pork belly
The joy they infuse in their workday manifests in the food. “We want to have fun,” says JT. “If you hate what you do, you wake up miserable every day. I’ve had salaries that were really nice but not worth the headache.”
They describe themselves as two friends running a successful business, although they contrast—but in good ways. One way their contrasts merge for success is in their approach to the menu. “We try to change the menu seasonally,” JT explains “If we’re thinking of changing up the menu in two weeks, for instance, we’ll both create a full separate menu on our own. Then we’ll sit down and take elements from one person’s ideas or dish until we have one final version.”
Their contributions end up on the final version as a 50/50 split. “It just always works out that way,” says Dan. “We don’t try. If the other person disagrees, but is passionate about it, then you compromise and do it.”
JT concurs. “We have disagreements, but it’s never to the point that I don’t look forward to seeing him the next day. For me, there is no other venture I want to do without Dan.”
They’ve been adjusting to the workload, which is significant, given that Roots offers three meals a day for all seven days of the week. “For almost a year, it was both of us for all three meals,” Dan says. “But now we can split it up. We’ve gotten to the point where we can say ‘hey we’re working together today’ and it’s cool.”
Friendly rivalry keeps the spark in their work, too. “When we have special dinners, for example,” says JT, “we’ll keep track to see who has the best-selling dessert.” They both agree on their favorite sweet item, though. “We have the best donut ever,” he asserts. “It is soft and pillowy, sweet and yeasty. You don’t want to do anything to it. Maybe sprinkle it with a little cinnamon sugar.”
The Food
Roots boasts a mix of customers who like to indulge and who are health conscious. Take, for example, the pork belly benedict, which is one for the indulgent crowd. They start with house-cured and smoked pork belly and serve it up on JT’s new, improved corn bread. “It is our recipe, and it’s designed for the pork belly specifically. I mix it by hand in two hotel pans, which makes it more cohesive for the meat. “We wanted something lighter and a little sweeter to offset the richness of the pork belly,” he says. Topping it off are apple compote, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce.
Another popular item is the hot chicken sandwich. They pound out the chicken breast and drop it into a brine of hot pepper juice, their signature sea
soning blend, and milk, where it marinates for 24 hours. Before frying, it gets dredged in their sweet-salty herb mix, a custom in-house blend featuring 27 herbs and spices.
Served on a brioche bun toasted with butter and spicy pickles, the sauce is the kicker. “Our house buffalo sauce is better than KFC!” Dan jokes. It’s a combination of peppers, tomato paste, cocoa powder, hoisin and soy sauces and other secret ingredients. Viscosity is key. “I want it to coat,” says JT, “and to stick to the chicken. It is one of our signature sauces.” The sauce is so popular that customers frequently request a bottle to take home with them, prompting the duo to make plans to bottle and sell the sauce separately. “I’ve never worked at a place where people wanted to buy the hot sauce and salad dressing,” says Dan.
Their signature seasoning blend is another custom flavor. “Rather than salt and pepper, we use five ingredients that go into the potatoes and omelets,” he notes. “If recipes call for salt, this is what goes in it. If you just put salt and pepper on potatoes, you can do that at home. People come here for something special. Little touches like that, other restaurants won’t do. We’re not the prettiest or most elegant restaurant, because we’re
focused on the food. We want customers to be walking out of here remembering the food, saying, ‘I crave it and have to go back.’”
Since the beginning, Roots has always had a hyper-local food focus. “It was always a good brunch spot,” says Dan. “Now it’s a must-go destination if you’re traveling in Pennsylvania. When people come in and want my advice on choosing between four or five things, I have a really hard time helping them decide. Because the whole menu is good.”
He notes that they’re not big on offering a daily steak or brunch special, “because everything on the menu should be special. If we get a special ingredient, then we’ll showcase it and make a special. We might get hold of incredible strip steaks, so we’ll make a simple steak and eggs with potatoes to showcase those steaks.”
“Healthy people love the superfood hash,” says Dan. In fact, that’s what former U.S. Women’s Soccer Team member Heather Mitts ordered up and posted for her 90,000 Instagram followers along with the caption “Breakfast of Champions.”
Tools and Tips
When the duo took over Roots, one of their first tasks was to invest in equipment, including better knives, slotted spoons, and whisks. Their go-to knives are made by Shun, a Japanese brand known for keeping its sharp steel edge longer than competitors. “It has a better-feeling handle, too, meaning you can cut longer and your wrist doesn’t hurt,” says JT. “I have this heavy German steel Dalstrong knife. It’s a monster. I cut five onions, and I want my other knife.”
What else should the well-equipped home kitchen have? Dan and JT agree. An immersion circulator, which is used for sous vide cooking. “Everyone should have it,” says Dan. An immersion circulator clips to the inside of a pot of water into which you insert vacuum-sealed meats. It heats and circulates the water in the pot, cooking everything floating in that water to an exact temperature. “It’s
what makes our chicken breast come out so tender and juicy, with its distinctive tooth feel. It’s really consistent. We both have them at home.” Dan pulls out his phone to demonstrate the app that he uses to control it.
Seasonings are another essential yet underappreciated element of cooking. When asked about one ingredient that everyone should have in their own kitchen, Dan barely lets the question sink in before proffering the answer: Salt. “It brings the flavors out. It’s not there to suck the moisture out of your food; it’s there to make your food taste good.”
JT jumps in to further expound on the nature of flavor. “There are three levels of flavor—sweet, salty, and savory. You can tell instantly when something is off. Everything should have multiple levels.”
Giving Back
Given the intensive schedule for the pair of entrepreneurs, it might be easy to forget about giving back to the larger community. But on Mondays, Dan spends the evening teaching elementary and middle school kids in Coatesville school district to cook. On a recent day, he brought Brussels sprouts from the Roots kitchen. “The point is to teach healthy food tastes good. Ideally, maybe develop it into a camp.”
And who knows—there may be a star in the making. “There’s one kid who’s maybe 10 who must cook at home,” Dan shares. “When you have a group of kids, things tend to get rowdy. But he always knows what ingredients are, and really pays attention.”
With garden season coming up, the Roots crew is brainstorming ways to involve the kids who are standouts with gardening tasks at the restaurant. “Our garden out back is entirely edible,” says Dan. “If there’s a flower out there, you can eat it... although they’re still mostly visual.” And while it’s small, it still provides an opportunity to learn and practice valuable skills. “We can have the kids take eggshells and crush them up and put them in the soil we use for the garden,” he says.
JT does his part as well, having recently directed the efforts to coordinate and feed 350 people at numerous events for The Salvation Army.
The Future
Dan and JT have big plans for 2020, including a Roots food truck. But perhaps the most exciting thing going on at Roots is happening upstairs.
“Space is a big issue for us,” says JT. “We don’t have a happy hour or a place to sit at the bar.” Currently, Roots can serve 30 customers in the dining room and another 35 outside on the patio in the warmer months.
Later in 2020, the pair will open their new second-floor dining area, which will include a cocktail bar. Once the expansion is done, they’ll finally have a space for private room rentals to accommodate weddings, showers, and graduation parties, with the renovated space
Currently, Roots can serve 30 customers in the dining room, and another 35 outside on the patio... Later in 2020, the pair will open their new secondfloor dining area...
adding a whopping 41 seats to Roots’ current capacity. “The aesthetic will be simplicity with natural woods. Modern earth,” says JT. “Lots of plants, exposed wood. Simple and natural to show off your food and drinks.”
They will offer standard beers but also a selection of craft beers and boutique wines, along with cocktails designed with taste, texture, and “wow factor.” “Dissolving sugar cubes, smoke, burning orange peels, toasting marshmallows, smoking glasses,” JT envisions. “Making our own bitters and infusions. Instead of buying a vanilla vodka, we’ll have our own infusion on display where you can see the vanilla beans. Ice cubes with blueberries in them that melt to form a cocktail from the cube itself.”
“Today’s experience is less about branding and more about lifestyle. I feel like Roots brought awareness to that whole movement,” says Dan. “I’ll wear a Bluebird Distillery t-shirt when I’m working the floor sometimes because it gives them some promotion too.”
Even in these uncertain times, the future remains bright for the best friends in the kitchen at Roots. In the words of JT’s childhood inspiration, Emeril Lagasse, “I’m working harder than ever now, and I’m putting on my pants the same as I always have. I just get up every day and try to do a little better than the day before, and that is to run a great restaurant with great food, great wine, and great service. That’s my philosophy.”
It is a philosophy that may help guide us all.
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