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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 3 May 2017

American Living:

Lost Kitchen: 10,000 phone calls for a 40-seat restaurant

BETH J. HARPAZ pared for the avalanche hol, but BYOB wine is per-
AP Travel Editor of calls, from locals to folks mitted, so French’s mother
Erin French runs a 40-seat from Texas, Alaska and runs a wine shop onsite.
restaurant called The Lost Ireland. The calls were re- With a staff of a half-dozen,
Kitchen in an old mill in a turned one by one until French cooks and serves,
tiny town in central Maine. 1,500 reservations were and at some point each
She began accepting res- filled for her May through night, stands up to explain
ervations for the season New Year’s Eve seatings. “how that menu came to-
at midnight April 1, ex- Dinner at The Lost Kitchen, gether.” Then she gives
pecting a few dozen calls while pricey for Maine, thanks and toasts with her
overnight. Instead, she got wouldn’t raise eyebrows in guests, “just as you would
10,000 in 24 hours. New York or Boston: $100 if you were at a friend’s
Calls came in so fast that per person plus tax and tip house.”
it overwhelmed her three for six to eight courses. The Thomas Delle Donne, as-
phone lines, which hold menu depends on what sistant dean at Johnson &
just 40 messages. Alarms the farmers, fishermen and Wales’ College of Culinary
went off when emergency fields have to offer. A menu Arts in Rhode Island, says
lines to the fire department from last summer included The Lost Kitchen is part of
were blocked. “This is big- tomato soup, melon salad, a subculture: “These din-
ger than us,” French posted cheese, sea bass, corn, ner clubs and pop-up res-
on Facebook sometime af- cherry tomatoes, baby fin- taurants and underground
ter midnight. “Thousands of gerlings, arugula, polenta concepts play right into
calls pouring in.” cake, grilled peaches and that celebrity status that
Word of mouth, a few blackberries. chefs have. Having some-
magazine mentions and But The Lost Kitchen isn’t thing private and in the
a Tastemade video that just about food. “It’s the know is like going to see
got 2 million views (and mystery, the excitement,” a band play at an under-
won a James Beard me- French said. “There’s some- ground club where you
dia award) have helped thing a little scary. You have to know the drummer
turned French into a culi- This photo shows Erin French, owner of The Lost Kitchen restau- don’t know where you’re to get in.”
nary star. It’s quite a triumph rant in Freedom, Maine, grilling burgers with an Airstream trailer going. You don’t know French’s story is particularly
for a woman who grew up in the background. French has just come out with a cookbook what you’re going to have inspiring. “She lived in an
in Freedom, Maine, popu- called “The Lost Kitchen” that tells the remarkable story of her for dinner. You’re going on Airstream, she came from
lation 700, working in her career from a teenager working in her dad’s diner to giving din- an adventure.” the bottom and like a flow-
dad’s diner. ner parties in her apartment and later in an Airstream, to run- Lisa Eberhart came from er, burst back into this thing.
“The fear was no one was ning a wildly successful 40-seat restaurant in an old mill in a tiny Virginia to eat there. It gives people hope,” he
going to show up,” French Maine town. “You would never find said.
(Nicole Franzen/Clarkson Potter/Penguin Random House via
said. “Now the fear is there AP) this place,” Eberhart said. Success has brought invita-
are too many people.” “There’s no lights on that tions to expand. “You can
She’s also got a cookbook But word spread and by stored by a businessman road in the dark. It’s in the have airport kiosks! You
coming out May 9 from the fifth dinner, all her who wanted to help the lo- middle of nowhere. There’s could be like Shake Shack
Clarkson Potter called “The guests were strangers. She cal economy. French’s res- no sign. You can’t even see with something on every
Lost Kitchen,” offering reci- opened a restaurant with taurant, using ingredients it. You’re going through the corner!” French said. “I had
pes for everything from her husband in Belfast, grown by local farmers, woods over a footbridge. ‘Top Chef’ call me and
mussels to moose stew — Maine, but that business was the perfect tenant. I said to my husband, ‘This say, ‘You’d be the strong
as well as the story of her closed in a messy divorce. French, 36, has been fea- is the craziest thing.’ But it female in the season.’ And
unusual journey. She started over using a tured by Martha Stew- was worth every bit of it. I said no. I’m being my au-
French started in 2010 with 1965 Airstream to give pop- art, Food & Wine and L.L. This to me was a once in a thentic self. I literally started
a $40-a-meal supper club up dinners. In 2014, she Bean, which co-produced lifetime experience. It was with nothing. I begged and
in her apartment. At first, “I opened The Lost Kitchen in the Tastemade video and magical.” borrowed. It’s been a slow
had to beg friends to come an abandoned 19th cen- made her a brand ambas- Freedom does not permit payback. But right now I’m
over,” she said. tury mill that had been re- sador. Still, she wasn’t pre- restaurants to serve alco- surviving pretty well.”q