Welcome to In the Weeds, a new publication covering the business of independent restaurants.
For this edition, I spoke to Chef Evan Hennessey about a month before he was named Best Chef: Northeast at the 2026 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards. Evan, who runs Stages, The Living Room, and Topolino in Dover, is the first chef from New Hampshire to win the award. Congrats!
Our discussion touched on restaurant evolution, the draw of small towns, and one of my favorite topics — diner behavior. I’m endlessly fascinated by why diners act and order the way they do. There’s only so much you can learn from surveys and even from directly asking diners. Diners are strange creatures, and sometimes the best way to understand what they want is to study them in the wild.
“I think watching diners' behavior is a really interesting subject,” Evan told me. “You can really shape the experience you're trying to give by paying attention to that as much as you possibly can, because ultimately, those are the people that you are trying to connect with.” 100% agree, Evan.
Also in this edition: using AI for restaurant promotions, the fight over THC beverages, and unsubscribing from the reservation wars.
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Evan and a table at Topolino. Photo credit: Katherine Keenan
Topolino, a Mediterranean restaurant in Dover, New Hampshire, opened on March 31 and had a new service model by mid-April. Owner and chef Evan Hennessey ditched the QR code menu and started accepting reservations after opening as a walk-in-only establishment.
To Evan, who was recently named James Beard’s Best Chef: Northeast, the restaurant’s swift evolution is proof of how intently “we listened to the people,” he told me during a video call in May.
When he envisioned Topolino, he assumed QR codes would streamline the dining experience, but he heard otherwise.
“I was caught off guard by the amount of revolt [against QR codes] that we got,” he said.
Similarly, with reservations, when everyone came in at 5:30 or 6 pm, he quickly saw the service suffer, and diners were vocal about it.
“After hearing what people’s reactions to [QR codes] was, very quickly we're like, ‘Ditch it.’ I mean that was literally two weeks in, we were like, ‘Nope, done, gone,’” he said. “There’s a great amount of humanity and vulnerability and personality involved in good service.” Sometimes you have to come out and say, “I was wrong,” he said.