Chef's Blog

April 13th, 2010

On Simple Food… By Kelly Hartman A friend recently asked me to think about food for a restaurant he’s considering opening.  He described the type of cuisine he’s going for as “Simple American”.  He said he wants to open a place that serves comfort and pub-type food “Stripped down to the essentials:  Meat, sauce, vegetable.  …

Technology and Tradition in the Kitchen

March 1st, 2010

by Kelly Hartman One of the things that always drew me to the culinary arts was the, for lack of a better word, timeless nature of it.  When I started cooking, the internet didn’t exist yet, but there was still a feeling that we were at a great technological crossroads.  Computers were in most homes, …

Creating a Wine List

February 16th, 2010

We are tasting wines all week in order to put together the next warmer weather wine list. This sounds like fun but is actually very tough, because we taste over 300 wines, take notes, score them, then have to meet and decide what wines fit. The tastings involve a tremendous amount of time and energy …

The IFAW and the Animals of Haiti

February 2nd, 2010

We are running a special cocktail all this week in the Franklins, 100% of the proceeds of which go to supporting the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s heroic efforts in Haiti. We knew we had to do something to help but were not sure, with so much human suffering if it would be too soon …

Cape Ann Brewery meets the Franklin

January 28th, 2010

The other day Chef and I went over to the Cape Ann Brewery to talk about setting up a series of food and beer dinners (to be held at the Franklin Cape Ann). We both found the experience to be very informative and thirst quenching.We were happy to find them just as excited about their …