Brian Callahan wanted to be the next Bob Dylan. Instead, he became a big-time bartender.

Boston Globe

2 days ago

You've worked at lots of interesting places. But tell me about Darling.
There are two of us, Zimu Chen and me. I'll be the owner and also in service on the floor, starting out in a beverage director-ish kind of role.
Darling is a cocktail bar, a small plates restaurant. It was inspired by the phrase 'kill your darlings,' which I interpret as a creative approach to operating without attachment, having the ability to not put boundaries on the cocktail menu and change it at whim.
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I really just wanted to do something that utilized a lot of really interesting seasonal ingredients and didn't want to have a ton of rules around it.
People knew the space as
for so long. How did you come to find this space and settle on this location?
I came across the space through [real estate advisory firm] Graffito. We'd been trying to find a space for about a year-and-a-half to two years.
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We knew MIT was the owner. When we first inquired about it, we thought it was out of our league. You know, it's MIT; they probably want somebody with a lot more concepts and a lot more experience.
But we also felt like our concept really fit well in the space and in Central Square. We got the opportunity to go speak with MIT and explain our concept and who we are. We put together a whole presentation and everything, and they ended up picking us. We were obviously over the moon — and a little bit surprised.
When you say that MIT owns it, who did you have to pitch your concept to? I picture a bunch of scientists and professors.
They have a whole real estate investment team, but they were incredibly down to earth. We went up to their offices, and it kind of felt like you were on 'Shark Tank,' just pitching your idea. I had a PowerPoint and everything, and it was intimidating. These people are incredibly smart and successful. I'm just a bartender — not just a bartender, but I wasn't a businessman like that. That was the intimidating part of it.
We really learned all this stuff on the fly. We had to learn how to write a business plan, a pitch deck, and everything. We had to learn how to read legal documents and negotiate a lease. Hopefully, if there is a next time, it'll be much easier.
What was your elevator pitch?
We came extremely prepared. We made it clear that we really wanted it. And we explained that Mary Chung was a neighborhood restaurant. It was a family-owned restaurant: The community, the people who came there, knew the people who owned it. They knew their faces. They saw them there every day. And that was what we were. We're not a family restaurant, but we're going to be here every day. We're going to be the faces who people come in and see. We own the restaurant. We'll be bussing tables. We'll be talking to people. We really played up that we had a lot of desire to build a neighborhood restaurant, not just a business.
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Dim sum and drinks at Darling.
J-M Leach
Did you always want to work in restaurants?
Definitely not. I got a job when I was home for the summer during college as a busboy in Stamford, Connecticut. I went back to school that fall and lied on my resume a little bit to get myself a serving position at an Applebee's.
Restaurants for the first six or seven years were just a means for spending money. I was trying to be a musician. I play guitar. I was into folk music. I wanted to be Bob Dylan.
When it was clear I wasn't good enough for that, I tried to work in the music industry. When I moved to Boston, I was working out of this guy's apartment, booking shows and doing marketing for super local artists. I got paid 50 bucks a week. I was at Grafton Street then, serving. When a barback position opened up, I kind of thought it would be something cool. That's really when things clicked: the dynamic of being behind the bar as opposed to serving tables on the floor.
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This was in the 2010s, when it felt like bartending was really starting to become something that you could make a career out of. I put all my eggs in that basket, and I just went for it.
How do you think the Boston hospitality scene has evolved since you arrived in the city?
Guests are so much savvier than when I first started. That goes for the industry, too. We've all kind of grown together, as bars start to evolve. Guests become more acclimated with certain techniques and ingredients and stuff.
The people who are coming up now are just very impressive. I think people are very loyal to spaces they work at, but they also treating [themselves] as a brand as well, and that's something I was never very good at.
If you had to classify Darling as a brand, what's the tagline?
Man. I'm still kind of trying to figure that out. We just want to be a cool but unpretentious place to hang out. We want to be a neighborhood cocktail bar, a place where people feel like they can come in whatever form they're in, dressed up or dressed down, to have a cocktail or to have a full dinner. I don't know if that's the perfect answer.
There are no perfect answers. What did you learn from working for Tiffani Faison at Tiger Mama?
That was definitely a pretty major introduction to the showbiz-y side of the industry. When I came to Tiger Mama, I didn't know who Tiffani was. I was just looking to work at a cool bar, and I didn't really have enough experience to work there. I got pretty fortunate.
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I'd never watched 'Top Chef.' That was all very out of left field to me. To see people in the restaurant wanting to take pictures with her was a little confusing at first.
As I grew in that company and got closer with her, and started to go to certain events and everything, she showed me what's possible — again, how to treat yourself as a brand. Like I said, I don't think I'm very good at it, but I definitely learned a lot about that from her.
Your expertise is hospitality and drinks; you're not a marketing expert. I think it would be hard to do both.
Some people seem to be very good at it and make it look very easy. Even now, I'm doing a lot of social media for Darling, and I'm just kind of winging it. Some people can go in and make all these cool reels and videos and everything. I said this to someone the other day: I feel like my parents, when they don't know how to use a phone or an app.
How important do you think social media and branding is in this era of restaurants? Or does it matter as much as we might think it could?
I think it does matter. I think it probably doesn't matter as much as maybe sometimes we make it out to seem.
One of the challenges I've always had, especially as a younger bar manager, was just paying a lot of attention and putting a lot of energy into 'best of' lists and attention on social media.
You kind of start to feel like, if you don't have that, then you're not doing a good job. But then people are coming into the bar and they're having a nice time. But you have this feeling of ... for me, a lot of the time at Tiger Mama was: We were busy, people loved the drinks and everything, but I had this feeling of emptiness, because I didn't feel like I was having all of those [social media] things.
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And after COVID, I really got rid of all that: I just don't care anymore.
Who do you really admire now? Who are people to watch?
What Ryan Polhemus is doing with Offsuit is really impressive. I've had the ability to work with him as I've been getting ready for this. I learned a lot from him about running a more cocktail-focused space. I just think he's extremely creative and talented when it comes to cocktails.
The guys over at Tall Order, Daren [Swisher] and Joe [Cammarata], were going through a lot of the process of opening restaurants around the same time. I like observing them as bartenders who have gone on to owners. It's definitely been very encouraging and informative. I think what they're doing is really great.
Where do you hang out when you're not working?
I've been in Andover, and I have a 2-year-old, so I haven't gone out in about two years. But we just moved to Watertown.
I lived for a while in Somerville, and I love Sarma. It's probably my favorite restaurant in the city. Offsuit is probably my favorite bar in the city. And I think Koji Club is doing a lot of really cool stuff. It's definitely a neat space for Boston. And I think what the team does at Spoke in Davis Square is really exciting.
What do you love to eat?
Pepperoni pizza is a big one. I was fortunate to live not far from Garlic Breath when I was up in Andover, which became my go-to. I've also been really just crushing PB&Js lately like nobody's business.
Crunchy or creamy?
Creamy.
Any great hangover cures?
I did get pretty hung over back in January, and I forced myself to run three miles the next morning, which was terrible, but then I felt pretty great. And then I went out for some spicy food and had a cheap lager. I would say that's my new plan. I actually felt surprisingly great. Usually, my hangover cure is to just lie on the couch and be miserable and not talk to anybody or do anything for the whole day.
There's been a lot of reporting that Gen Z
than previous generations. How has that influenced your work? Or is that not something you notice day to day?
I mean, it definitely seems to be real. It's definitely something I think a lot about, especially opening a bar right now. We're putting a lot of attention into NA beverages. You have to put the effort into that, in today's industry, if you want to be competitive.
How do you balance work with a
2-year-old?
It's honestly been really tough. I'm actually getting a little emotional: It's been, definitely, the hardest two years of my life. I have a really great partner and a really great support system, and that's the only way that it's possible. My wife is incredible.
When I was working on this space, it was tough. I was doing a lot of the R&D and everything from home. I'd get up with him; we'd put him down for a nap at 10; and then I'd run downstairs, work on an ingredient or jump on my laptop and fire off a bunch of emails for the hour-and-a-half that I had while he was asleep. I underestimated how difficult it would be. You just kind of figure it out.
On that note: Favorite drink?
A gin martini.
Interview was edited and condensed
.
Kara Baskin can be reached at