In 2027, Mooo….Burlington, the North Shore’s premier steakhouse, will celebrate its fifth anniversary. The restaurant is part of Columbus Hospitality Group, which was founded by chef Jamie Mammano and partners, and which has shaped Boston’s dining scene for nearly three decades; it includes such establishments as Mistral, Sorellina, Ostra, Gary’s Pizza, and the Beacon Hill and Seaport outposts of Mooo. The year also marks five years for the Seaport location and 20 years for Beacon Hill.
A Culture of Longevity
In an industry dominated by quick turnover and fleeting concepts, Columbus—and, by extension, Mooo—is defined by its staying power. Staff members do not just come to Mooo (or to the restaurant group, generally) for a short time; they come to explore a career, with many staying on for years. While some team members have been with the hospitality group since its inception, in 1997, others, like executive pastry chef Shane Gray, director of hospitality Hoshang Dadrass, and chief culinary officer Mitchell Randall, have been with the company for 20 years or longer.
How has the company fostered such a robust culture of longevity? “I think it goes back to our culture and our philosophy, to 1997, when we opened Mistral, and every restaurant we opened subsequently,” says Mark D’Alessandro, who handles operations for the restaurant group, and who began with the group when it started. “The culture of Mistral, from day one, was about consistency and being an employee-motivated company, and if we could provide those two qualities for sustainability, then it will work.” That culture, D’Alessandro says, necessarily extends to Mooo….Burlington, too, a part of the hospitality group family that shares its same core values.
For D’Alessandro, allowing staff members to have a stake in what’s happening in their work culture has made a difference in how they feel about their jobs—and in how they feel about staying long term. “For years,” he says, “I had a philosophy of keeping the line staff abreast of what’s happening within the organization, and what comes with that respect for the line staff is that just because they’re a back waiter, or a server, or a bartender doesn’t mean that they don’t have good ideas.”
The result has been a corps of people who have stayed in their positions for longer than the average in the hospitality industry.
An Ambassador of Joy
But it isn’t only the work culture that sets Mooo….Burlington apart from other restaurant groups, says wine director and sommelier Maria Mayer. Mayer, who now works the floor at Mooo….Burlington and the other two Mooo locations, began her career with the company as an 18-year-old college student and has experienced the full breadth of the company. “There’s a significant amount of training and mentorship and promoting from within that I think is missing from a lot of other hospitality groups,” she says. “There has always been a human aspect to working at Columbus Hospitality Group.”
Mayer’s programming also contributes to the restaurant’s success. With approximately 200 to 250 selections on the Burlington list, Mayer focuses on maintaining a “dynamic” wine list and sees herself as an ambassador of joy. “It’s about joy and pleasure, however you get it, and it’s not my job to police that,” she says. “The strength of these restaurants is the lists have always sought to please their guests first, before becoming showpieces for another beverage professional’s ego.”
The wine list—and the wine program more broadly—are both nuanced and approachable, bringing guests through the door and providing an opportunity both for conversation and for pleasure. Quarterly wine dinners, Mayer notes, have been particularly popular; a recent three-course experience highlighted the wines of Sicily, paired with regional dishes.
Steak, Seafood, and Dessert
Speaking of food, chief culinary officer Mitchell Randall, who started with Columbus Hospitality Group two decades ago, oversees the food at Mooo….Burlington (and the group’s other restaurants). Together with in-house fishmonger Henry Funes and executive pastry chef Shane Gray, Randall helps to curate what guests will experience when they dine at Mooo. “I think what kind of sets us apart from the other steakhouses in Massachusetts is the quality of beef, our relationships with our vendors, constantly staying on top of what the next new steak is,” Randall says.
The brand, he notes, does extensive business with high-quality vendors, like Snake River Farms, and is also one of the only steakhouses in the country to carry the extremely rare Snake River cap cut. “It’s basically the outside—the deckle of the ribeye, the best part, the cap that goes around the actual heart of the ribeye,” he says. “They’re peeling those off and we’re portioning those. I think it’s only us and one other location in Massachusetts that has that steak.”
Quality is equally important when it comes to the sourcing of fish. Sure, Mooo is a steakhouse, but it’s a steakhouse with an estimable raw bar. Every weekday at 5 a.m., in-house fishmonger Henry Funes takes orders from the restaurants before heading to the piers no later than seven to select the best and freshest shellfish and whole fish for the restaurants, to be prepared at each location.
Then, of course, comes dessert. “To me, it’s the most important part of the meal,” says executive pastry chef Shane Gray, “because we can pick up the ball. If the steak had to be recooked, or if something wasn’t quite right with the service, we can make the guests happy at the end. So, there’s a lot of pressure on dessert to have some parachutes available.” The final parachute? Company-wide, homemade mignardises: Gray’s own version of Nabisco’s iconic Mallomar.
In the end, as Mooo….Burlington prepares to celebrate its fifth birthday, it owes its success to all aspects of its hospitality team. And perhaps director of hospitality Hoshang Dadrass sums up the restaurant’s philosophy—and enduring success—best. “People like familiar faces,” he says. “When they walk in, they want to be recognized. And we do it really well.” It’s a point that’s hard to argue with, after all these years.
