by: Anna Frost
Grill on Main sous chef Jonathan Johnson acts as Chef Tony Saccoccia’s right-hand man. Johnson worked his way up after starting at the restaurant in 2003 on the salad and dessert station. Now he takes charge of the kitchen during service when Saccoccia’s not in, and helps the chef-owner with the daily prep work. Johnson enjoys the consistent nature of the restaurant, which stays busy in the summer and also has a sizable crowd of regulars among the year-round crowd. Look for him in the kitchen, which is open to the dining room and in view of many of the tables. You’ll be sure to see him intensely focused on sending out the delicious food that he learned to make with Saccoccia.
Does the restaurant use a lot of local produce?
For the most part we try to, when it’s priced correctly, because when you’re going down that farm-fresh road with the two-for-one [entrée] that we run, it’s very hard price-point wise to do it. They’ll do wholesale, but it’s tough. So we will if the price is good, but we can’t guarantee it. But most of the product that we bring in here is super fresh any way.
Do you source your meats locally?
We have a couple purveyors that we go through. It’s mostly the stuff that he’s been using that he really does like. I know our beef tenderloin is really high quality…Our ribeyes are certified Black Angus so that’s pretty much prime. Same with most of our tenderloins and everything else. It’s surprising with the two-for-ones because you would think we would slack on meat prices, but that’s not the case. It’s more the higher quality stuff that bigger Boston restaurants are using that are getting a lot more money for it.
So is everything here made from scratch?
Everything.
Even the desserts?
Everything.
How is the wine list cultivated?
Tony loves wine. He works with our purveyors and he has a price-point and taste and what he likes. I can say it’s his baby – it’s one of those things where he knows exactly what’s on it and exactly what someone wants if they’re looking for a certain particular wine.
What’s your favorite thing on the menu here?
Last time I said the chicken saltimbocca and we had runs on it for three weeks, so I’m not going to say that this time. The veal porterhouse that we have on the menu, it’s on the prix fix, it’s freaking unbelievable. That’s one pound grilled; it’s really good. It’s a shallot balsamic reduction that we do with it and it’s really good.
