Just an old video from YouTube filmed awhile back for the Harvard Square Business Association. Get some images of our chefs, owners, and even a tour of the cheese cart!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ldFP9PgV8w
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Dinner Dances UpComing at UpStairs!
Autumn is officially here, and to kick it off well we have another two dates with our friends Bill & Bo Winiker and their Orchestra. Here's all the info, as well as a few photos of the band with our fearless leaders, Mary-Catherine Deibel and Deborah Hughes. Hope to see you there!
The Classic Dinner Dance: Dance the Night Away
to the Music of Bo and Bill Winiker Orchestra
Thursday Nights this fall…
Thursday, September 27, AND Thursday, October 25
No cover to diners; $20 for non-diners
Dancing to begin around 9 pm
Probably our most popular event, we’ve been quick to book Bo and Bill for Thursday nights this fall. We’ll clear away the tables in the Monday Club Bar, strike up the band, and dance until we drop. The old-fashioned glamour of a dinner dance with all your favorite tunes—from swing to the fox trot. Come with friends, come single, or bring Prince or Princess Charming. Just come and twirl with us in this most romantic of evenings. Be prepared to cha-cha-cha until the coach turns back into a pumpkin.
The Classic Dinner Dance: Dance the Night Away
to the Music of Bo and Bill Winiker Orchestra
Thursday Nights this fall…
Thursday, September 27, AND Thursday, October 25
No cover to diners; $20 for non-diners
Dancing to begin around 9 pm
Probably our most popular event, we’ve been quick to book Bo and Bill for Thursday nights this fall. We’ll clear away the tables in the Monday Club Bar, strike up the band, and dance until we drop. The old-fashioned glamour of a dinner dance with all your favorite tunes—from swing to the fox trot. Come with friends, come single, or bring Prince or Princess Charming. Just come and twirl with us in this most romantic of evenings. Be prepared to cha-cha-cha until the coach turns back into a pumpkin.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Harvest Vegan Dinner On for Wednesday!
Who's excited for veggies! Yeah! Here's the information on our Vegan tasting dinner coming up next week in the Soiree Room. Should be a rollicking good time for all our vegan friends. One reviewer sweetly described her own experience with our regular vegan tasting like this:
"When we got there, we were seated right away and the chef [Steven Brand] came out to confer with us. He had 7 courses all planned for us. The chef was happy to have us there and told us we were welcome to come back every week. We had about 3 servers and throughout the night they excitedly asked us whether we liked each dish ... and which dish we liked better. The [co-]owner also came over to chat with us. We felt more like movie stars than vegan nuisances." Review from BostonVegan.org
So if you want to come feel like a movie star diner, here is the information one more time on our splendid fall fete. Enoy!
Harvest Vegan Dinner
Wednesday, September 19 6:30
Four course dinner with wine in the Soiree Room
$55
Judging from the popularity of our vegetarian and tomato dinners earlier this fall, our clientele adores vegetables. Come try Steven Brand’s all vegan tasting menu tonight (we feature one every night in the Soiree Room!) matched with Matt’s inspired pairing of organic wines.
"When we got there, we were seated right away and the chef [Steven Brand] came out to confer with us. He had 7 courses all planned for us. The chef was happy to have us there and told us we were welcome to come back every week. We had about 3 servers and throughout the night they excitedly asked us whether we liked each dish ... and which dish we liked better. The [co-]owner also came over to chat with us. We felt more like movie stars than vegan nuisances." Review from BostonVegan.org
So if you want to come feel like a movie star diner, here is the information one more time on our splendid fall fete. Enoy!
Harvest Vegan Dinner
Wednesday, September 19 6:30
Four course dinner with wine in the Soiree Room
$55
Judging from the popularity of our vegetarian and tomato dinners earlier this fall, our clientele adores vegetables. Come try Steven Brand’s all vegan tasting menu tonight (we feature one every night in the Soiree Room!) matched with Matt’s inspired pairing of organic wines.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Rum tasting update
Scott Steeves, a fellow rum lover and fellow blogger made it to the rum tasting, here is what he thought.
Making Magic Happen
The time has come: wedding season has officially kicked off at UpStairs. Beginning this past Saturday, UpStairs was host to a beautiful fall wedding. These occasions are especially near and dear to our hearts as they offer us as a restaurant united the opportunity to shine at what we do best: provide hospitality and sumptuous food.
Prior to joining the UpStairs team, I was personally involved in a fantastic catering crew back in my hometown of Oneonta, New York. The company is called Sunrise Specialty Catering, and its proprietors are Janet and Mark Quackenbush. From age 16 until the very recent past, I can barely remember a weekend were I wasn't involved in a wedding. To date, I estimate that I have been part of just over 400 weddings. Some are more memorable than others, but resoundingly each and every one has left an impression upon me that I will carry forever.
This past weekend was an incredible event to behold. As this was the first wedding of the season and for many of our new servers their first wedding at UpStairs, there was a palpable hum in the room as we sat down to our extensive pre-meal. It is, for me, delightful to see the servers exude a nervous energy that equals that of the bride and groom. Everyone wants so badly for the day to be a success at all costs.
It is in this respect that UpStairs excels. The empathy for the wedding couple is there. Each and every employee, from the host to the dishwasher, is fully cognizant of the implications of their actions and how they directly influence the outcome this most special day. From a front-of-the-house standpoint, I revel in the fact that my servers are so quick to assess the read of the room. We tell them from the inception to survey the room, to seek out the rowdy college friends, to look for the shaky grandmother and make sure she has a cocktail, and above all else to make absolutely certain that the bride and groom eat at their own wedding. I cannot express how awful I feel when the wedding couple doesn't eat but a few bites of the food they have so generously selected and paid for simply because they were nervous or compelled to talk to everyone in the room.
There is also something to be said for the extremely cheesy, but completely accurate analogy to snowflakes (i.e. that every wedding is completely different). Granted, the general order of events is almost always the same, but never is one group exactly like another. Herein lies the beauty of what we do in hospitality. We facilitate a good time. We promote an environment that fosters good cheer and frivolity. And we smile ... a lot. Not those plastic "Ken and Barbie" smiles that leave the jaw sore and face numb, but genuine inner smiles that resonate from the heart and translate to the visage.
At another point, I plan to post some of my more light-hearted stories and anecdotes from catering/restaurant past. For now, however, I have proven exactly how long-winded I can be, and will summarize. For anyone who knows me, I have a profound respect and admiration for Walt Disney. His reliance upon magic, wishes, and dreams to make effective realities amazes me. With every event with which I am involved, I strive to propagate that magical energy within myself, my servers, and everyone else involved. It is through that belief in a dream event that magic is achieved.
Here's to more magical events at UpStairs!
Prior to joining the UpStairs team, I was personally involved in a fantastic catering crew back in my hometown of Oneonta, New York. The company is called Sunrise Specialty Catering, and its proprietors are Janet and Mark Quackenbush. From age 16 until the very recent past, I can barely remember a weekend were I wasn't involved in a wedding. To date, I estimate that I have been part of just over 400 weddings. Some are more memorable than others, but resoundingly each and every one has left an impression upon me that I will carry forever.
This past weekend was an incredible event to behold. As this was the first wedding of the season and for many of our new servers their first wedding at UpStairs, there was a palpable hum in the room as we sat down to our extensive pre-meal. It is, for me, delightful to see the servers exude a nervous energy that equals that of the bride and groom. Everyone wants so badly for the day to be a success at all costs.
It is in this respect that UpStairs excels. The empathy for the wedding couple is there. Each and every employee, from the host to the dishwasher, is fully cognizant of the implications of their actions and how they directly influence the outcome this most special day. From a front-of-the-house standpoint, I revel in the fact that my servers are so quick to assess the read of the room. We tell them from the inception to survey the room, to seek out the rowdy college friends, to look for the shaky grandmother and make sure she has a cocktail, and above all else to make absolutely certain that the bride and groom eat at their own wedding. I cannot express how awful I feel when the wedding couple doesn't eat but a few bites of the food they have so generously selected and paid for simply because they were nervous or compelled to talk to everyone in the room.
There is also something to be said for the extremely cheesy, but completely accurate analogy to snowflakes (i.e. that every wedding is completely different). Granted, the general order of events is almost always the same, but never is one group exactly like another. Herein lies the beauty of what we do in hospitality. We facilitate a good time. We promote an environment that fosters good cheer and frivolity. And we smile ... a lot. Not those plastic "Ken and Barbie" smiles that leave the jaw sore and face numb, but genuine inner smiles that resonate from the heart and translate to the visage.
At another point, I plan to post some of my more light-hearted stories and anecdotes from catering/restaurant past. For now, however, I have proven exactly how long-winded I can be, and will summarize. For anyone who knows me, I have a profound respect and admiration for Walt Disney. His reliance upon magic, wishes, and dreams to make effective realities amazes me. With every event with which I am involved, I strive to propagate that magical energy within myself, my servers, and everyone else involved. It is through that belief in a dream event that magic is achieved.
Here's to more magical events at UpStairs!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Hand picked music (is better than canned music)
In addition to being front of the house managers, we are also iDJs (it's like being a DJ, except the only thing you spin is that wheel on the iPod) for the Monday Club Bar, which we enjoy a lot. Before the age of iPods, we used to have a satellite radio system that played the same 20 songs over and over during all meal periods. Now we have playlists that progress from quiet piano music in the early hours to some good vocal and rat pack for the peak of lunch service, smooth jazz in the afternoon, Parisian jazz in the early evening and another peak of high voltage jazz for prime dinner hours, ending the night with a romantic soundrack. All of it sprinkled with a bit of Bossa-Nova and Samba, Flamenco, Motown, Afro-Cuban and Italian music, just for fun. We also like the Beatles a lot here, so you're likely to hear them on brunch. Ask Sheila about her Beatles stories, she's got a bunch of good ones, including the time she went to see them live at Suffolk Downs.
I love the feeling of walking into the Monday Club in the middle of dinner service and finding the dinning room and bar full, the lighting at the right level and the right music playing at the right volume. The right volume may be disputed by some, getting specially more difficult to find a common ground if different age groups are taken into consideration. The rule of thumb for me is to keep it at the same volume as the natural sounds of the dinning room ( guests conversations being the main guideline ). So on a Saturday night when I'm behind the bar I adjust the volume a few times to keep it at the perfect level.
And then there is always the case-by-case factor that is the golden rule of hospitality. The lunch crowd is more likely to request that we turn down the volume for a business meeting than our Jazz Wednesdays fans, while a family thanked us for playing only the good Beatles, as opposed to "the cheesy Beatles" one recent Sunday morning. A cartoonist put down on paper his rendition of our soundtrack, when he was celebrating a birthday with friends at the bar one night (the drawing can still be seen hanging from the Love-Letters chandelier), while a couple that comes in often on Saturday afternoons suggested we make our own compilations to sell, which we declined (move over Hotel Costes) but we appreciated the comment.
And just like that, a soundtrack of sensitive playlists contributes to the general culture of the restaurant and maybe even the life of the square. I don't think that satellite rotating the Earth in the cold, cold space would care if my jazz crowd were having drinks at the bar and a conversation about Coltrane.
I love the feeling of walking into the Monday Club in the middle of dinner service and finding the dinning room and bar full, the lighting at the right level and the right music playing at the right volume. The right volume may be disputed by some, getting specially more difficult to find a common ground if different age groups are taken into consideration. The rule of thumb for me is to keep it at the same volume as the natural sounds of the dinning room ( guests conversations being the main guideline ). So on a Saturday night when I'm behind the bar I adjust the volume a few times to keep it at the perfect level.
And then there is always the case-by-case factor that is the golden rule of hospitality. The lunch crowd is more likely to request that we turn down the volume for a business meeting than our Jazz Wednesdays fans, while a family thanked us for playing only the good Beatles, as opposed to "the cheesy Beatles" one recent Sunday morning. A cartoonist put down on paper his rendition of our soundtrack, when he was celebrating a birthday with friends at the bar one night (the drawing can still be seen hanging from the Love-Letters chandelier), while a couple that comes in often on Saturday afternoons suggested we make our own compilations to sell, which we declined (move over Hotel Costes) but we appreciated the comment.
And just like that, a soundtrack of sensitive playlists contributes to the general culture of the restaurant and maybe even the life of the square. I don't think that satellite rotating the Earth in the cold, cold space would care if my jazz crowd were having drinks at the bar and a conversation about Coltrane.
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