In celebration of Mezze Bistro turning 20 this year, the following blog post is excerpted from Bo Peabody’s article dated May 18, 2016 on LinkedIn.

I’ve Run Many Businesses, But Never Experienced Anything Like The Madness Of A Restaurant

In the restaurant business, longevity is a rare commodity. It’s not only ingredients that are seasonal. Staff come and go; menus change; leases can be difficult to renew; and over time, guests tire of any particular dish or vibe. It’s unlikely that any given restaurant you went to ten years ago is still there. And if it is, they’ve surely made some changes. Restaurants are less a brand than they are a product of the people who inhabit them — the chefs who whip up the curiosity, the waitstaff that serve the aura, and the guests who attend to the enthusiasm.

Restaurants that do last are an anomaly, carried forward by a random assortment of good luck, great staff, creative offerings and an ability to adapt and change.

Restaurants, such as Le Bernardin, Daniel and Gramercy Tavern have all been around for more than 20 years, and are classics because of their tenure. These restaurants are just three of the 53 restaurants we rate at Renzell, a company I founded last year. Renzell is dedicated to changing the way restaurants are rated by using a data-driven methodology. We create a unique rating system by using data from a comprehensive survey taken by Renzell Members each time they dine out. Our first annual ratings will be released this September.

But I’ve also seen the longevity as a restaurant owner. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Mezze Bistro and Bar, a restaurant in Williamstown, Massachusetts, I co-own with Nancy Thomas. We operate two restaurants up in the Berkshires, an area not immune to the difficulties of maintaining a steady business. The area has a number of challenges: seasonal tourist traffic, a shrinking base population, and demand that is very event-driven (Tanglewood, skiing, etc.). It also has one huge asset: local farmers and producers. Understanding the rhythms of these challenges and assets is at the core of our success. We don’t take it lightly that we’ve managed to last this long, and we celebrate everything that brought us to this remarkable milestone.

Running a restaurant for 20 years means 20 years of memories — of chefs who moved us forward, dishes that delighted and dared, servers that became cult of personalities, cocktails that soothed, and a whole lot of crazy shit that happened night after night.

Since 1996, we’ve had three locations and a fire (the entire place burned down!); seven head chefs, 14 front-of-house managers, more than 350 waitstaff; two lost liquor licenses for unauthorized after-hours staff parties (totally worth it, by the way); seven guests removed for drunkenness, one dream table: Gwyneth, Blythe, Spielberg, Capshaw; one dream order: Bradley Cooper eating salad, soup, followed by another salad; eight hospital trips for burns and cuts; too many rummaging bears to count; several broken walk-in freezers; 250 dance parties; 300+ weddings; nine proposals (that we know of); two drag queen cabarets; two fringe floats in the Williamstown 4th of July Parade; 2 Heimlich’s (both, thankfully, successful); a screening party for the premier of The Restaurateur with both Danny Meyer and Tom Colicchio in the house; an accounting scandal that almost ended everything; two restroom sex scandals; one employee fired for drug dealing; many, many rock and roll shows; dropping off ONE sandwich at a private jet in North Adams (you know who you are); one court appearance for a donut caper; several coming out parties; 8 Halloween parties (it takes two years to recover from each one); and over 1,000,000 dining experiences delivered.

All of these things brought us to the brink of ruin but are the underpinning of our longevity. It takes a family (and yes, a few scandals) to get you through the years. In 1996, just a few months after we opened, a weary traveler came in one late night after we had closed. She was hungry and eager for someone to talk to. Nancy made her a salad with some cheese and bread, her own choice for a late-night nourishment. That woman has returned to Mezze for the entire 20 years. It really is the small things.

–– Mezze Restaurant Group Co-owner Bo Peabody

Kim Wells of East Mountain Farm Shares His Favorite Menu at Mezze

The celebration of Mezze Bistro’s 20^th Anniversary this month got me thinking of the special meals I’ve had at Mezze over the years. Many of them were with Joji Sumi, a big fan of using pork and an experienced chef who practiced nose-to-tail cooking. Every other week, Joji would butcher a whole pig from my farm to make charcuterie and create mouth-watering dishes for the restaurant’s seasonal menu.

Joji would visit my farm regularly and bring along his kitchen team to see where their food was coming from. They would save compost scraps from the kitchen for the pigs, which created this fantastic closed-circuit system of local food. Early on, I remember a time when Joji came up to the farm to see the pigs and a large heritage breed pig emerged from the forest. Its jowls were so large it could barely see past them. Joji was transfixed but finally turned to me and said, “I’m in love.”

That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship ;-)

My most memorable and passionate meal at Mezze was the “pork-tastic” banquet Joji created for us at the end of August in 2010. I had just started selling a side of pork to Mezze and the first one I brought in was from a heritage breed pig with the usual two to three inches of fatback. Joji was quietly inspecting the pig and, given his expression, I thought he might be alarmed by the quantity of fat. I asked him if something was wrong and he said, “No, this is just me being happy!”

My oldest son was visiting from California that week so my wife Lynda and I, along with my mom and dad, headed out to Mezze on a Saturday night. At first, we were handed menus but when word got to the kitchen that the farmer was in the house, the server asked for them back and said we wouldn’t need menus. Joji had a special meal planned for us. All ten courses highlighted East Mountain Farm pork. Joji’s creative talents exploded once he had the raw ingredients and we enjoyed that meal immensely. I thought, with all the nostalgia going on with Mezze’s 20^th Anniversary, that you would enjoy seeing the menu from that night.

Kim Wells of East Mountain Farm

Chef Joji Sumi, former Mezze Chef

All photos courtesy of Kim Wells of East Mountain Farm in Williamstown, Mass.