Today we’d like to introduce you to Deborah Hansen.
Deborah, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The kitchen has been my workshop and my happy place for most of my life. Although I never considered a culinary career, I kept finding myself at my most joyful when I was immersed in food and wine. After earning a B.A. from Bates College and an M.A. from N.Y.U. Madrid, I opened my first restaurant in Madrid, Spain at the age of 28 back in 1992 (with my husband-at-the-time) … Over the next 5 years I would give birth to two wonderful girlchildren and earn my Sommelier Certification in that unabashedly food-obsessed and bustling city. My love for Spain and her cuisine, so firmly and respectably rooted in regionality and seasonality, never wavered. Taberna de Haro in Brookline MA opened in 1998 with the sole goal of replicating this tradition-oriented cuisine. As the chef, I seek to show guests the authentic food of Spain so I replicate my favorite dishes, taking almost no creative licenses. Sure, a few of the rotating specials look more like the offerings on a contemporary Spanish menu than an older one, but the staples are strictly traditional. 19 years later after opening, I am proud when people tell me my food is widely considered the most authentic Spanish food in the area.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth is simply not possible in the restaurant industry. Smooth is also dull and doesn’t provide much opportunity for growth, so I am pleased to report that the road has been strewn with obstacles and gullies! A few struggles stand out in my mind.
One is the ongoing the unreliability of the telephone-internet-cable companies. I recall several nights, almost always on the weekends, back in the early 2000’s when the phone service had failed and the restaurant would be empty. Now when the internet fails, I have no reservation system, no music, and no way for servers to order food nor create a bill for guests. Each episode can cost a restaurant thousands of dollars, and the telecommunications companies are utterly unaccountable.
The transition from newsprint to the internet was also a growth-inducing struggle. There were once 6 or 8 relevant print publications in Boston that reviewed and discussed restaurants, food, and wine. The number of on-line review sites and blogs dwarfs the handful that remain today. Consequently, our industry went from being reviewed by professionals or at the very least by food-savvy writers, to being scrutinized by legions of diners, often quite inexperienced. The hidden expenses of maintaining an on-line presence is also an ongoing struggle.
The economic crisis of 2008 made us dig deep and get creative. Underwriting on WBUR helped us to remind would-be diners that Taberna de Haro is both a reasonably-priced and a nurturing place to eat in tough times. I took on a self-induced struggle in 2012 expanded the restaurant to double its size! The winter of 2015 almost brought our demise, as it did to numerous small businesses in the area. It required two personal loans to make ends meet!
Today, an ongoing struggle is the labor situation in the Boston area. Immigrant communities, traditionally the mainstay of restaurants, have sadly shrunk due to harsh policies and a shortage of reasonably-priced housing. Life has simply become too difficult for many hard-working folks so they leave, which is a tremendous loss to Boston in my opinion.
Please tell us about Taberna de Haro.
My restaurant, Taberna de Haro, serves the traditional cuisine of Spain. In addition to tapas and entrees, I offer a wine list consisting of over 300 wines from Spain, including 85 sherries. Creating this list painstakingly over the years has been my passion, and I’m proud to say it has won numerous accolades. The Wine Enthusiast has named Taberna de Haro One of the Top 100 Wine Lists in the Nation for 2 years in a row. The Wine Spectator has given Taberna de Haro an Award of Excellence each year since 2004. The World of Fine Wine, The Catalan Wine Association, The Improper Bostonian, The Boston Globe and others have all lauded Taberna de Haro’s list at one time or another.
Small business owners can achieve nothing without a fine staff, and mine is exemplary. I am so proud to look around my kitchen and see the same faces I have seen since the restaurant was an infant. When people ask how I’ve been able to maintain my core kitchen staff for all these years I answer: High exceptions and high pay; trust and autonomy, and a whole lot of love. Together we have created a family and a successful kitchen.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Don’t throw money into the Yelp black hole.
Pricing:
- Plenty of excellent bottles of wine for under $40
- Memorable dinner for two for about $100 with wine
Contact Info:
- Address: Taberna de Haro
999 Beacon Street
Brookline, MA 02446
Just outside Kenmore Square - Website: www.TabernaBoston.com
- Phone: 617-277-8272
- Email: info@TabernaBoston.com
- Instagram: @TabernadeHaro
- Facebook: Taberna de Haro
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