Date: Fri 18-Dec-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Lohan-Brown-manager-sous-chef

Full Text:

Feeling At Home At The Mary Hawley Inn

(with photos)

BY SHANNON HICKS

The Mary Hawley Inn in Newtown recently celebrated its first anniversary. A

few faces have come and gone, but two of the biggest changes in this past year

have made noticeable differences in the way guests are greeted to the Main

Street restaurant and lodging house and the taste and presentation of the

meals there.

When Annmarie Lohan was ready to take a step forward in her career a year ago,

Newtown's Mary Hawley Inn was looking for someone to step into an important

role. Annmarie had returned to Two Steps Downtown Grille, a popular restaurant

located within the CityCenter entertainment and restaurant section of Danbury,

after a two-year program of study at the Culinary Institute of America. She

was satisfied with her job at the restaurant, but felt a little restless.

"It was just time to move on," Ms Lohan said recently. Danbury's loss was

Newtown's gain. Ms Lohan is now serving as the manager of the Mary Hawley Inn.

"We've already gone forward in leaps and bounds from where we started from,"

she continued. She puts in well over 60 hours at the restaurant per week, but

says she can't imagine being happier doing anything else.

"It's the nature of this business," she said. "You are expected to put in that

much time because you have a passion for this kind of work. Hers is the first

face customers usually see upon entering the double doors at the front of the

restaurant. And if Annmarie isn't at the front desk to greet customers, most

likely she is very close by, checking on her staff or speaking with customers

at one of the tables in the inner dining area.

Annmarie, now 23, had planned on studying elementary education in college, but

began working as a hostess at Two Steps after graduating from Brookfield High

School in 1991. She eventually moved into the manager's shoes, and realized

she would be more at home working in a restaurant atmosphere.

The two-year program at CIA, from which she graduated in November 1996, was

what gave her the education to begin working behind the line at a restaurant,

and the realization that she had found her true career calling. The time she

took after graduating from Brookfield and enrolling at CIA three years later

was time well spent.

"I couldn't have gone to the Culinary Institute straight from high school,"

she said. "The amount of work and experience that I needed, I didn't have

[upon graduating BHS]. I also didn't know at that time that this was what I

really wanted to do."

At Mary Hawley, Annmarie is the restaurant's floor manager. Her duties include

everything from working at the front desk as hostess to greeting people coming

in the front door, and keeping an eye on anything that goes on in the front of

the house. She makes sure all the servers show up and are ready to go for

their shift, she answers the phone and books parties...

"Pretty much anything that goes on up front during the day, I'm responsible

for," she explained. "Every day is different.

"Of course, sometimes in the middle of a Friday night you sometimes wonder if

you've made the right career choice," she said with a smile. "But then you get

that rush, that adrenaline starts flowing and you see your staff working as a

team, and it all makes you remember why you do this."

Excitement In The Kitchen

Visitors to Mary Hawley Inn within the past four months may have noticed a few

changes to the menu, a different element of excitement emanating from the

kitchen. A large part of that excitement, which has carried over to the wait

and cooking staff, is thanks to the inn's new executive chef, Jason Brown.

The exhilaration must be carrying over to the word on the street, too. Last

weekend, the inn was completely booked for Friday and Saturday evenings. By

Friday morning, the reservations lists were full and there were going to be no

walk-in tables available in the dining room.

Jason has been leading a charge at the Mary Hawley since September, when he

took over the top spot from previous chef David D'Ambruoso. Jason has not yet

revamped the menu entirely ("the turkey dinner will stay," he laughed), but

there is an added spice, a touch of modernism to the formerly all-traditional

offerings at the inn.

This winter Jason is working on infusing root vegetables and heartier dishes

into the menu, while he promises "more sweeping changes" will be coming in the

spring. The menu year-round is now going to be a combination of traditional

New England, which was the style the restaurant opened with, and Nouveau

American, Jason says.

This past October, the inn hosted an Oktoberfest with a menu that was

spectacular. At the end of the meal, Jason walked out from the kitchen to

thank those who had visited the restaurant for the special event. Coming out

from the kitchen is something Jason tries to make a regular part of his

schedule.

"I've gotten a lot of positive comments from people since I started here," he

said. "I know how special it makes me feel any time I'm at a restaurant and

the chef walks out. I want people who eat here to feel the same way, and to

know they can talk to me at any time.

"And people do tend to be honest, which is important," he continued. "I'd

rather hear something needed more flavor, something specific, than just having

a customer say `Oh, it was all right.'"

A self-taught chef, he says it was watching his mother and grandmother in the

kitchen while growing up on Long Island that was a large influence on his love

for cooking, even though when he was younger he thought he wanted to be a

musician when he grew up. Even his father "cooked just as much as my mom, I

think," says Jason.

It was about eight years ago, while working at The Baker's Cafe, a vegetarian

cafe in Katonah, N.Y., that he began to learn about cooking. Jason has also

worked as a line cook at Hay Day in Westport. From there he proceeded to move

up to sous chef at the Ridgefield Hay Day store, and then returned to Westport

as an executive chef.

"Hay Day really gave me a lot of opportunities," Jason said. "Not only did I

get to work with them and get paid for it, but Hay Day had a lot of guest

chefs I was introduced to and able to work with for a few days at a time." He

has also done catering with Glorious Foods out of New York City and William

Nicholas & Co., in Katonah. It was after being laid off from William Nicholas

that the opening at Mary Hawley came up.

Jason and his wife Nianh are now living in Newtown. Like Annmarie Lohan with

her work schedule well over the 40-hour-per-week mark, Jason counts on putting

in close to 75 hours weekly. He accepts it as part of his career, and infuses

his working time with the creativity of any good chef and the respect for all

staff members Jason feels is imperative for any good working kitchen.

"Communication is the key to any good relationship," believes Jason. "I love

it when the waiters come in and ask to taste something. They want to learn as

well, so I have really tried to open the kitchen up, make it more accessible."

In addition to new changes in Mary Hawley's menu, Jason and his sous chef,

Angel Curillo, continue to lead the kitchen staff in creating everything the

restaurant presents from scratch, or using local ingredients and staples. The

kitchen produces its own breads and stuffings, the soups and stocks are all

fresh, and all desserts on the menu are made in-house.

"Jason's brought a whole new life, a new excitement to the kitchen that was

missing," manager Annmarie Lohan said. The fact waiters and waitresses are

always given samples and looked to for their responses helps the entire staff

of the inn work better as a team.

Creativity is going to continue to run rampant in Jason Brown's kitchen.

"It's OK to learn from your mistakes," the chef said, then added, "but you

never serve a mistake.

"When all is said and done, the customer is still the most important."