Chef Charles Draghi opened Boston’s acclaimed Erbaluce in 2008. His cooking is inspired by the uniquely flavorful cuisine of northern Italy’s Piedmont region, where his family is from. His partner, Joan Johnson, presides over the front of the house and the all-Italian wine list. MC Slim JB is a Boston-based food writer with over 350 published articles and is the restaurant critic for the Improper Bostonian. During a recent conversation, the restaurateurs and the critic discussed food and wine, reviews and social media, and those fucking Yelpers.

On customers’ reaction to Erbaluce’s unusual cuisine and wines

Charles Draghi: We have a roasted cauliflower dish on the menu. It’s roasted cauliflower with a fondue of Robiola cheese on top and a dressing made with a little anchovies, some capers, and roasted garlic. When people try it they say, ‘This is Italian?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, actually it is.”

MC Slim JB: I would expect a lot of Bostonians would be sort of puzzled or nonplussed when they come in and look at your menu.

Photograph by Wayne E. Chinnock

Draghi: What’s funny is there are a lot of Italians who live in Boston. They get very disappointed in what [many locals] call “Italian food.” So we get a lot of Italians here. They look at the same dish that an American would look at and say ‘I’ve never heard of that before,’ but the Italians go, ‘Oh I know that dish.’ A good example in the winter time is Pizzoccheri—noodles kind of like pappardelle, but shorter, made from buckwheat. And they’re served with cabbage that’s braised with duck fat and white wine, and then some boiled potatoes. And then you grate Bitto cheese on top of that.

MC Slim JB: That’s almost Eastern European.

Draghi: Yeah it’s very Alpine, you know? Italians all over Italy know Pizzoccheri because it’s served in the skiing areas.

MC Slim JB: I’m always seeing something that’s quite unfamiliar to me every time I come in. Which kind of brings me to the notion of what you’re doing with the wine list.

Joan Johnson: It’s fun to find those little obscure winemakers and wineries that make unusual things, and that’s what we try to find. I train the staff to ask people very closely what it is they like to drink. [If] someone says sauvignon blanc, I ask them if it’s California sauvignon blanc or if it’s a Sancerre. California wine drinkers can be tough, because there’s not really equivalent [wines on the menu]. But there are things you can give them they’ll like.

Draghi: The core of the list is from this area of northern Lombardy called Valtellina. There’s a wine from this region called Sforzato. Basically what they’re doing is [the] Amarone process using nebbiolo, which is one of the greatest grapes, and what you wind up with is a wine that is like an aged merlot crossed with a nuanced Amarone. It’s one of the best wines in Italy.

On what restaurateurs think about Yelp

Draghi: It’s like when you have a busy night at the restaurant and you have two problem tables. You’ve had essentially four people that are causing a problem, but you’ve done 150 people who were great.

MC Slim JB: You can use the expression ‘fucking yelpers.’

Johnson: Yeah, fucking yelpers—Yelp is a very negative site. But also Yelp in particular blackmails you. They deny doing fake bad reviews, but they do them, and they admit doing fake good reviews for people who pay up.

Draghi: I think my interaction with them was something on the lines of, ‘You’re trying to extort me? I’m Italian. We fucking invented that.’

Chef Charles Draghi | Photo courtesy Erbaluce

On professional reviews versus social media

Draghi: With professional reviewers we do pretty well. But it’s hard in the new-media age to try to figure out who’s got a reliable opinion. And then you have to take into account all the things like Facebook. If I put a dish [on Facebook], we get more customers coming in for it then I would [after] a positive review in a local magazine or something. The larger media, the conventional media with real professional food writers is more of a long-term thing. You may not see an impact immediately, but your name is out there.

Johnson: [MC Slim JB], when you are out and about in restaurants and you’re writing reviews, do you ever have a situation where it’s really awful and you decline to write something?

MC Slim JB: I have written some pretty harsh reviews, but that’s usually a failure of reconnaissance. I’d frankly much rather draw attention to places that I like than to steer people away from places that didn’t impress me. I figure that mediocre places or places that I think are not good … tend to go away by themselves. Or they serve a niche that probably doesn’t give a rat’s ass about my opinion anyway.

THIS PIECE FIRST APPEARED OUR JUNE/JULY 2016 PRINT ISSUE AVAILABLE HERE

Erbaluce
69 Church St, Boston, MA
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MC Slim JB
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Top photo courtesy Erbaluce

The post Insider’s Take: This is Italian? appeared first on Take Magazine.

Sam Chaplin is a social worker and dear friend of Jaclyn Walsh, a full time student at Smith College in Northampton Massachusetts. These two rock-and-rollers, along with an ever-increasing list of rogue queer punks, comprise Eternal Slumber Party. This is the latest in our series of conversations with New England arts leaders.   

Eternal Slumber Party show flyer by Owen Liza

Jaclyn Walsh: Sam — so, how would you explain Eternal Slumber Party to someone who has no idea what it is?

Sam Chaplin: Eternal Slumber Party is a DIY show booking collective that centers women, queer/trans, and POC musicians. When I’m talking to someone who is less familiar with the concept of DIY I’ll usually clarify that this means the shows usually take place outside of typical for-profit venues (bars, clubs, etc.) and instead happen at places like Flywheel Arts Collective or local basements. DIY also means that we’re handling all elements of event production ourselves– including securing a venue, creating the lineup, publicity, and finding volunteers to staff shows (work door, run sound, etc.) It also means that we don’t get paid! I always call ESP a collective because it feels like that’s the dream that I had for it in the beginning, but it’s funny to think of it that way because, in reality, it is mostly just you and I who have carried the collective for most of its existence. Did I leave anything out?

JW: I think that pretty much covers it. I just want to clarify that when we talk about “shows,” we’re talking specifically about shows with bands, like rock shows, y’know? Think Blink-182’s 2001 smash hit “The Rock Show.” I’d also add that it kind of does feel like a collective, because in DIY a lot of times bookers and bands rely on their friends & communities to help make shows happen, and run smoothly. We’ve definitely gotten some collective help from the community and friends along the way! Speaking of the community & possibilities that exist within the world of punk and DIY shows, what is it that drew you to DIY when you first started booking?

Eternal Slumber Party show flyer by Phoebe Harris

SC: I came up as a performer in a theater world, and it always felt like I had to wait for someone else to give me permission to make art. There’s all this gate-keeping, like auditioning for roles or trying to get opportunities to perform other people’s work. When I started going to punk shows, my world was really shook up by this concept that you can make stuff happen without anyone’s permission. Beyond the experience of performing, it’s also really cool to be a spectator to DIY because it makes critical engagement with art accessible and interactive. I can watch a band, pay attention to the details of their performance, think about the references that are coming to mind, and then I can usually talk to the musicians directly because I probably know them already. That’s exciting to me. Thinking beyond the general appeal of DIY, I’m wondering what specifically feels exciting to you about the booking role? What keeps you in it?

JW: I mean, there’s honestly so much, but at this point it feels pretty second-nature to me. I’ve been pretty obsessed with the ideology and dynamics of DIY music since early high school (shout out to Kurt Cobain), and I’ve been going to shows for years now (shout out to all the queer freaks who were booking shows in Boston back in the day). I think what’s kept me in it for so long is a mix of the music, the space that DIY culture allows for care and attention, the emphasis that it places on political thought, and the possibilities that exist for reciprocity and mutual support among creative folks. It’s really cool to be surrounded by and in touch with people who are endlessly inspiring and freaky, and to watch and help each other grow. Booking is something that makes sense for me to be doing as a musician myself, and as someone who is interested in making connections with and supporting other politically-minded musicians. This all feels weird and sappy to say because I’m already half-jaded, but when done with care and a community who gets it, DIY can be totally transcendent. I guess that’s what keeps me around.

SC: I’m always blown away by the wildly innovative music that gets made by people who are just regular guys like us, who show up in our small town to play in basements for donations and sell a few cassette tapes. Beyond the connections made with musicians, it seems like there are a bunch of awesome booking collectives cropping up in different areas. Is there anyone that you feel is especially kindred to ESP in the booking world?

Eternal Slumber Party show flyer by Sam Chaplin

JW: Absolutely! Right now, I’ve been getting stoked on work my friend Mary is doing over in Long Island with her booking collective, Long Island Ladies. capitalH records is doing really cool shit over in Connecticut. All Mutable collective in Philly are doing amazing stuff as well. For Western MA: SALT is amazing. That all being said, I wanna shout-out some booking collectives that were foundational to what I wanted to do…I first realized I could do a collective like this when I read an interview with Unregistered Nurse booking (based in Baltimore) in The Media back in high school, and it helped a lot to be surrounded by cool people in Boston booking shows by and for queer punks, Smash It Dead Fest folks, Kimberly who was doing work over at the Democracy Center, etc. There are countless bookers I could directly shout-out, but it comes down to this: I am endlessly inspired by any DIY booker who’s not a straight white dude. I am endlessly inspired by any DIY booker who makes a point of not booking over-saturated straight white dude bands. And I am endlessly inspired by any DIY booker who still cares about and centers radical politics in the work that they do.

(left to right) Sam Chaplin, Jaclyn Walsh

Be sure to follow Eternal Slumber Party on Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter, and get to the gig featuring Sad13 (Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz), Vagabon and Maxi’s World at 13 Queen in Northampton Massachusetts on November 16 at 8pm.

Top photo Eternal Slumber Party show flyer by Joe McCann

The post The Insider’s Take: Eternal Slumber Party appeared first on Take Magazine.