Peter McCarthy: EVOO and Za, Cambridge and Arlington
Profile ONE in this series: Boston Chefs and the Covid-19 Pandemic
What are your thoughts right now in the peak moment of the pandemic crisis?
It’s scary, I’m not sure how EVOO is going to get through this. It may be the so-called “peak,” but we are a long way from being done with it. I fear the repercussions will still be felt years from now.
When the guidelines were released in mid-March, what were your immediate thoughts?
This is going to suck! As well as: Alright, we can do this, we’ll do as we are being directed, work hard as a team and get through it.
What steps did you take to prepare for the lockdown—both professionally and personally?
Professionally: We cleaned, organized, preserved and froze as much as we could (we had just received a 260-pound pig from a local farm, which we had been processing for the menu; it now sits in multiple vacuum seal bags scattered throughout our freezer.) We also had to furlough most of our staff, which was heart wrenching. After being open for 22 years, having to tell your longtime co-workers, most of whom are good friends, that we don’t have a job for them, was excruciating.
Personally: We had to figure out how to take care of our two children, with no school, no babysitters (typically my wife’s parents) and my wife and I still working. Fortunately, our kids are amazing and we have been able to figure it out with the help of online classes and their mature handling of the situation.
Are you using this time to experiment with other dishes or are you not working with food at all?
Fortunately, we also own Za, a pizza-salad restaurant with two locations, one in Cambridge and the other in Arlington. All of the managers, as well as a few staff, are still working hard to keep these restaurants going. It’s take-out and delivery only; Cambridge Za, with its [Kendall Square] business area location is squeaking by. However, Arlington Za, with its more residential location, is doing gangbusters. I have been working at Za Arlington, arriving early, making the dough and then working the oven during the dinner rush. I have not been experimenting much, though I have been working on fine-tuning the pizza dough recipe, a constant enigma of mine.
Describe the differences you’ve experienced the past five weeks as opposed to running your usual restaurant.
I have been working, though what I have been doing is far from my norm.
Everybody’s talking about Netflix, HBO and other TV streaming, do you have any recommendations you want to share? Have you found the time to read, and if so, what are you reading now?
We have been working, however we do get home much earlier than we used to, so, we have been able to watch a bit more TV. We finally finished watching Stranger Things and started watching an Icelandic cop show, with English subtitles, called Trapped on Amazon Prime. I am also looking forward to watching the next season of Bosch, which just came out also on Prime.
I am always reading something. I just finished The Ghostwriter by Alessandra Torre and just started reading The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer.
What are the staples in your kitchen that you can’t do without? Have you been able to keep these items in stock?
Onions, carrots, broccoli, potatoes, pasta, cheese, beef, eggs, flour, sugar, Thai fish sauce, soy sauce, hot sauce, oil(s), vinegar and a bunch of other Asian ingredients. The only ingredient we have had issue with finding has been flour, which was easily solved; I just brought some home from Za!
What is your go-to menu now that you are cooking at home.
Four Sundays in a row we have had steak. Each time a single, very large sirloin, that I cook, let rest, slice and we share. Twice I made steak au poivre, a classic my wife loves. Another time I made a simple chimichurri and once I made béarnaise sauce. Each week we’ve had potatoes: homemade French fries one time, grilled potatoes another and baked the other two times. Veggies and salad were also a part of each dinner. Through the requests of my wife and son I have made a few batches of a Thai-style coconut braised beef dish, which they both love. And with my daughter I have been doing some baking, including my mother’s recipe for coffee cake.
What kind of safety precautions are you taking?
Social distancing, masks and gloves. No visitors at home. Za in Arlington is curb-side pick-up only. All orders are pre-paid; when the customer arrives, they call the restaurant and we place their order outside on a table for them to grab with no personal contact.
How are you coping with stress?
At first it was extremely stressful; the unknown can be daunting. I have gotten to the point of realization that it is no longer in my/our hands. If EVOO is able to open again (hopefully) it’s going to take a lot more than our hard work and money. We will also need cooperation from our landlord, the government and our guests.
A pre-dinner glass of wine in the backyard in front of a fire on a chilly evening with my family takes a lot of that stress away.
Will this pandemic crisis change the way you do business in the future and if so how?
I think it’s going to change how we all live for the foreseeable future. I don’t see people gathering in large groups until there is a vaccine or enough time has gone by without people getting sick to feel comfortable going out to restaurants. I think we will be serving take-out for a long time.
Would the seating capacity of your restaurant change because of the social distancing even when the guidelines no longer exist?
I will let our guests and the government help us decide how to handle that. We will be willing to do whatever we can to continue our passion of running a sustainably minded, community driven restaurant.
Is there anything you would like to share in reflection on this crisis that we are all in together?
The support has been humbling, so many people—family, co-workers, guests, farmers, purveyors—have all reached out to us to let us know that we are in this together and will work through it together. I can’t thank them enough.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity; it appeared in May 2020 as an online exclusive, part of a larger series of interviews with local chefs during the Covid-19 pandemic.
