Ask around in Salem and folks will tell you he’s the ultimate organizer of social gatherings, the Pied Piper, a great cook, a true confident and even a Messiah figure.
This is partly because growing up as the son of a Southern Baptist preacher in Kansas City, Mo., Jonathan Simcosky felt the burden of community obligation. Though he has since become an Episcopalian and more of an East Coast-er, Simcosky continues to value community leadership “that’s rooted in the sacred act of invitation,” says the Salem resident.
Simcosky, 32, is a keeper of lists that you want on, particularly ones that land you at Tipple Tuesday, a monthly cocktail club that meets in various homes, galleries and distilleries around the North Shore, or Diner en Blanc, an annual pop-up picnic incorporating dining, fashion, design and the reclamation of creative public space “with unexpected and impossible beauty.”
Diner en Blanc takes place in July the Sunday around the French Bastille Day. This year’s location — revealed only hours before via email — was the Salem Willows. Hundreds turned up with their own portable tables, chairs, candelabras, crystal vases and glasses, deviled eggs, charcuterie, salads to share and lots of sparkling conversation. And then, they cleaned up and left without a trace. At year five, the crowd has grown from a handful to an invite list of nearly 500. The dress code raises eyebrows in a city where black is de rigueur. Wear white. Wear what? That’s right, all white from head to toe.
But also at year five, the tragic events of Bastille Day in Nice gave the event more global resonance when heart pins in bleu, blanc et rouge were distributed. The event also got got a new twist when Simcosky told the crowd that this is the last year of Diner en Blanc as we know it. Going forward, the project is being radically reimagined and more crowd sourced. Admittedly, Simcosky gets bored easily.
“I worry about folks getting too comfortable with what the event is and how it works. I always remind people this isn’t a party,” he says. “It’s supposed to be hard and surprising and disorienting — kind of like life. It’s important to revisit and reiterate founding principles, to remind ourselves that we don’t have it all figured out.”
A lover of all things French, food and wine and an acquiring editor of foodie books who has worked with the likes of Claudine and Jacques Pepin, indulgence is something Simcosky thinks we need more of in our lives….as long as we’re willing to work for it. His blog, Goat Anyone, has quite a few followers, who sometimes quote his six “JS Commandments,” the final of which is “Privilege the Queer.”
“The loud and entitled are used to getting attention, and I don’t think I’m alone in getting bored with that,” says Simcosky. “It’s refreshing to see new names taking on leadership – even if it’s as simple as hosting a Tipple Tuesday — and more leadership in the community means stronger communities.”
Tipple Tuesday is a midweek gathering, an opportunity to meet people new to town, neighbors you never had a real conversation with or acquaintances with whom you’d like to become friends. It’s taken place at gorgeous homes on Salem Common and in the ship captain’s mansions along Chestnut Street, Salem’s Merchant Hotel, but also art galleries, residential driveways and artist studios.
“If there’s a secret to success it’s making sure the guest list stays fresh — that there’s always someone new and interesting to introduce yourself to and learn something from,” says Simcosky, who encourages other communities to start their own version of tippling (having a drink) on a Tuesday.
After a decade in Salem, Simcosky is a regular fixture along the cobblestones, who also can be glimpsed walking the Salem/Beverly Bridge to his publishing job. Hang out with him at the recent opening of Notch Brewery, for example, and he might pull contact sheets from his tote bag of a photo shoot for an upcoming celebrity book project.
He has leant his time to local boards and art projects like the Salem Theatre Company, North Shore Art Throb and the Salem Award Foundation for Human Rights and Social Justice. He’s pleased with the city’s growth, its embrace of a non-heteronormative lifestyle and the fact that it’s in creation mode. When asked where he’d live if not Salem, he says, “I would never have imagined spending so many years in Salem so I’m perhaps not the best person to ask. I will say that I generally like places that are slightly off the radar, have a deep history and an emergent creative community, not so much underdogs but free from expectation and an outsider’s assumption.”
This summer he led a Bible study at Grace Church in Salem on food and faith. Future projects he’s imagining include pop-ups at North Shore restaurants featuring some of the internationally recognized chefs he works with. When asked why he’s so good at community organizing, Simcosky says: “If I’m good at something, it’s chasing stories. Honoring the quirky, pursuing the unsung. I think people appreciate knowing their individual experience is valued, and by extension, the community benefits.”