Tim Maslow, a well-known Boston chef who has also worked at Momofuku Ssäm Bar in New York and Le Bec-Fin in Philadelphia, will be heading up two new restaurants in Camden.
Maslow, whose restaurant Ribelle in Brookline won the highest rating of four stars from the Boston Globe, will be leading the staff at Hoxbill and Kurafuto, two restaurants with different concepts that are in the same building on the Camden waterfront. Both restaurants will be open year-round.
The owner of the restaurants, Matt Haskell, said Hoxbill, a casual fine dining restaurant, will have a “very small” soft opening Friday, then close for two days after Labor Day weekend. It will reopen Thursday for a friends-and-family soft opening, and then hold a grand opening Friday.
Kurafuto, a counter-service izakaya, or pub, will open about a month later. Haskell said he is still waiting on brewing equipment to arrive, as well as a yakitori grill on its way from Japan. Kurafuto is the Japanese word for “craft,” Haskell said.
The restaurants are located on the water at 5 Bay View Landing off Bay View Street, just behind the 16 Bay View Hotel.
Maslow was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2015. He has been a semifinalist three times for a James Beard Award in the Best Chef: Northeast and Rising Star Chef of the Year categories.
Maslow worked with chef David Chang’s restaurant group at Momofuku in New York City for more than six years, most recently as chef de cuisine at Momofuku Ssäm Bar. He then moved back to Watertown, Massachusetts, to help his father revamp his restaurant, Strip T’s. He sold Ribelle in July 2016, and most recently was working as a chef consultant at Mida, an Italian restaurant in Boston’s South End.
“I would say Matty Haskell has been courting me for close to a year now,” Maslow said. “I probably turned him down 10 times, I’d say. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. I had a pregnant girlfriend and she didn’t want to uproot us from our lives in Boston.”
When Maslow’s son was 3 months old, Haskell approached him again, and Maslow decided to come up to Camden to have a look. The chef said he loves the way he can drive in any direction and find a farm or local fishmonger. And he likes the idea of smaller food purveyors bringing ingredients right to his kitchen door.
“I love everything about it,” Maslow said. “I guess I’ve just stayed in cities because that’s where a lot of great restaurants are. Matty really made me believe that great restaurants can thrive outside big cities, and not only that, they can be profitable, they can be beloved, they can be centerpieces and cornerstones of the community.”
Maslow is pursuing another restaurant project in Boston with his business partner. That project is moving along much more slowly, he said. “I’m here for right now and we’ll see how it goes,” Maslow said. “If the community likes what I do, then maybe I’ll stay. I really do like the lifestyle. So far, it’s awesome.”
The executive sous chefs at the Camden restaurants will be Ean Flanigan and Ray Williams, who is moving to Maine from North Carolina.
Haskell also owns the Blaze restaurants in Bangor and Bar Harbor known for their wood-fired food, and the Finback Ale House in Bar Harbor.
Hoxbill will have a Grillworks wood grill, an Argentinian-style wood-fired grill favored by chefs such as Jose Andres and Dan Barber. Haskell says he thinks it’s the first one in Maine.
The restaurant also has a 700-bottle wine room inside the dining room.
Hoxbill, Haskell said, is named after the hawksbill sea turtle, although he changed the spelling.
“I own a piece of property on the central coast of Belize,” Haskell said. “It’s a hawksbill turtle nesting shore. I’m slowly building an eco-resort down there, with a goal to help lead a conservation effort in the area on the turtles.”
Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com
Twitter: MeredithGoad
Send questions/comments to the editors.
