A Manhattan chef’s journey east, and how he savors the warm notes of summer

by bryan calvert

When I moved to Prospect Heights in the mid-1990s, I thought Brooklyn was where you lived only if you couldn’t afford Manhattan, not a destination of its own. I landed here after traveling around as a culinary journeyman, living out of my backpack as I bounced from the city to the countryside. I found, however, that I loved how the beauty and tempo of bucolic life here contrasted with the energy and diversity of the city. As a cook in Manhattan, I didn’t get to experience the skies and fresh air, but I soon discovered Brooklyn was a mash up of those urban and rustic pleasures.

My moment came when the restaurant I was living above went up for sale. I knew it was time. (It had been a bodega with bulletproof glass surrounding the cash register a few years earlier.) I had opened restaurants before, but with deep-pocketed investors, veteran restaurateurs, and teams of experts. This time, it had to be mom-and-pop style—personal and hands-on. James opened on June 15, 2008 (named after my great grandfather, who was a chef in turn-of the-20th-century New York).

My business partner Deborah Williamson and I were busy from the first, but three months after we opened, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and business began to dwindle, along with the economy. The most impressive dishes suddenly became the ones that weren’t selling. I realized, with Deborah’s help, that the kind of food I liked— dishes that could be eaten frequently and enjoyed consistently—were selling most, not the “special occasion” dishes that I thought I had to cook. And our real customers emerged; they wanted thoughtful, uncomplicated food served in a comfortable atmosphere. To accommodate their tastes and wallets without skimping on quality, what I discovered is that simpler food means fewer cooks, fewer ingredients, lower costs, and less waste, and it also taught me to embrace diversity and express my values through the choices I make. —from Brooklyn Rustic: Simple Food for Sophisticated Palates.