Community rallies for Juliet chef after serious hit-and-run injuries
Lewin, 40, sustained serious injuries that night. In addition to a broken right wrist and right collarbone, he suffered two broken ribs. The most severe injury is a laceration to his left eye, bandaged after surgery. Lewin says it will be a couple of months of healing before he learns the status of his vision.
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North Shore Motosports, a young motorcycle club that Lewin joined a year ago, set up a
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'Personally, I struggled with some depression last winter, and one of the persons constantly texting me, always talking to me, was him. I really wanted to be there for him in the same way, and the group feels the same as well.'
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Lewin has embraced the support, after some reconsideration about looming medical expenses. 'We always tell the people on our teams (at Juliet): ask for help when you need it,' he says. 'I never would have asked for this help on my own, but at every turn, I'm being pushed a little bit further toward realizing it's OK.'
Lewin and Juliet co-owner Katrina Jazayeri are currently assessing how to balance the needs of their nearly 10-year-old restaurant and its 35-member staff while Lewin is unable to work. Last June, they ended their partnership with Peregrine, the Beacon Hill restaurant inside the Whitney Hotel, after the five-year contract expired. (Peregrine continues to operate under a different menu and management.)
Juliet, which has garnered accolades locally and nationally, includes a 20 percent service fee on meals, divided evenly, based on hours worked, among all staff. Front-of-house staff are paid full wages. Lewin and Jazayeri were midway through a detailed process of refocusing efforts on the single restaurant when the accident occurred. They worry about the impact his accident will have on the restaurant.
'The circumstances of running a restaurant have gotten harder and harder over the past five years, and then for this to happen,' says Jazayeri. 'Truly, Josh is a person who does everything for everyone else. … So, the cruelness of someone's inattention to harm him — and then to have those consequences hit a bunch of other people who are also innocent in this circumstance — it's just not fair. And we've always been about fairness and equity and justice in this restaurant.'
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Complicating matters, the summer season is among Juliet's most challenging as regulars venture on vacations and tourists stick more centrally to Boston. The GoFundMe aside, Lewin and Jazayeri urge the community to 'Don't forget us!' and ask folks to consider booking tables during the week, or buying
'Juliet will endure,' Lewin says. 'Juliet has endured a lot, but every bump and bruise is really hard for us. We made it through the pandemic, we expanded employment shortly after the pandemic once we got back to baseline-ish. We will find a way to make it.'
JULIET
257 Washington St., Union Square, Somerville, 617-718-0958,
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