When I mentioned yesterday to someone that I was going to Beast for dinner, she replied, “Oh, that’s the place that’s like all meat, right?”
Not anymore.
Beast chef and owner and James Beard award winner and former Top Chef Masters competitor Naomi Pomeroy tweaked the format of the $102 six course-plus prix fixe dinner in April, and gave media types a tour Tuesday night.
Pomeroy, who has a cookbook, Taste & Technique, dropping this fall, is still around the kitchen, but she’s got several other projects going. So she’s letting her Chef de Cuisine, Jake Stevens, put his stamp on the menu—and the pair have rejiggered the nine-year-old Beast’s format.
I’ve long been waiting to see this happen—because while Beast was obviously an award-winning tour de force, after a visit or two it begins to feel staid. There was always a soup course, and always the charcuterie plate with the foie gras bonbon. Always a cheese plate and a meat-and-potatoes type dish.
Now, a fish dish or pasta course could be involved, and the feast starts with a carpaccio or crudo. Dinner guests are greeted with a splash of champagne and an amuse bouche of charcuterie.
The Mercury spoke with Pomeroy last week about her planned changes, and here’s a Q & A, edited for length and clarity:
Mercury: So why tweak the format now, after all this time?
Naomi Pomeroy: In the beginning it was me and Mika (Parades, longtime right hand cook). It was kind of a habit to stick with the formula, and there became this belief if anyone came in and the charcuterie plate wasn’t there, there’d be some kind of freak out.
Part of the change was from reading feedback, which I was opposed to doing for a long time. I find people who have time to review on sites, aren’t the kind of people you want to be listening to… I’m trying to be diplomatic.
But over time, I became interested in doing stuff that made it feel different. I started to accept the critique—the format was staying so similar that even though all the ingredients were changing. In all our years we never served the same soup twice. Even though those things were changing, I think something about the format of that made people feel like they were having the same experience even if they weren’t.
Merc: How did you decide on the changes?
NP: Some of changes were subtle and over time. For example, it’s been a year and half since we’ve started with a soup. What’s really changed is we took this sort of approach to figure out how to make this feel fresh.
My chef de cuisine loves making pasta. In the past, I’ve said this is a French restaurant and we’re not going to do pasta. And I had this idea that we had these restrictions for staffing. It was me and Mika, all we could do was bust out a soup for the first course.
I was ok with just mixing it up totally. Jake pushed for that, we can incorporate meat into the pasta dish and do fish for a main course. It’s so weird, because there’s an idea you’re going to come to Beast and eat a Flintstones-sized rib. We don’t care about that any more.
Merc: I’ve noticed there are a lot more men in your kitchen. Has that changed the dynamic at this formerly lady-dominated restaurant?
NP: There were so many rumors about Beast—like that I wouldn’t hire guys. That’s never been true: my second employee was a guy. But there was a flipped ratio. You’d see a guy every once in a while and it would be more women.
Jake is an only child of a super badass mom. For him to be around a woman in a powerful position is not something that intimidates him.
With more guys, the energy is a little more serious. I think the food has been really elevated. My style of cooking personally, you’ll see in my cookbook – it’s French, rustic, it’s not as stylized. The plating style has to evolve. I’m 40 and I acknowledge that there’s a certain thing about trusting and keeping your younger cooks inspired.
Their creative stuff is making a huge contribution. I work more as an editor. Jake and I work super closely in writing the menu together, he’s got the ideas. I really trust my people and I think that’s showing in what we’re doing.
I think guests are going to come in and feel like it’s gotten a step better.
Merc: Are there any other rumors or misconceptions about Beast you’d like to clear up?
NP: It’s not full every fucking night. If we have space, you can come in. Also, there’s this whole thing about our “substitutions politely declined” line on the menu. That’s not totally true: If you tell us ahead of time, we can make changes… if we can. If you let us know you’re a vegetarian, you can eat. But we’re a small kitchen, so we can’t take last minute people who can’t eat dairy or gluten or something like that.
Merc: You said you were going to open a Japanese-inspired restaurant. Where is that project?
NP: I’m pausing on it right now. We were looking at a space in the old Magic Garden, but it felt early to go into Old Town. My stomach was in knots about it. I decided not to do that project yet. But I am thinking of Japanese pop ups.
