JUNE

A Sea Boil and our Captain, Nathan!

Stissing Sea Boil. On Saturday, July 18th, we're bringing the shanty to the valley. The evening begins on the lawn with cold rosé, follows with seafood boiled in flame-licked cauldrons, and ends with the best summer jelly you’ll ever taste... tickets and more information about our maiden voyage here.

Pine Plains Community Day Recap. Thank you to everyone who came to came for a coconut creamsicle and to celebrate Pine Plains last weekend!

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Watermelon Jelly. Wobbly, ridiculous, excellent with whipped cream! See you at the Sea Boil.

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An interview with our very own General Manger, Nathan Rawlinson.

This month, we’re less ‘in the fields’ and more right inside the restaurant with Nathan Rawlinson, Stissing House’s General Manager (and doer of all things). While tracking expenses and managing the bar program are top of his mind, he’s also been known to repair door handles, build firewood storage and fix the WiFi—a true Renaissance man.

Nathan got his start at 16, washing dishes and waiting tables at a Pizza Hut in Cheltenham, England—not because he loved hospitality, but because his dad told him to get a job and drove him there. What followed was a money-motivated, decade-long detour into software development that he describes as “mind-numbingly boring,” before he hopped across the pond and enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America at 31. While there, during the front-of-house rotation that most of his classmates dreaded, Nathan took a shine to wine.

Meeting Danny Meyer, during his Setting the Table book signing at the CIA, led Nathan to Eleven Madison Park during one of the most celebrated runs in American restaurant history, where he went from having no front-of-house experience to becoming a Manager and Sommelier. Under Will Guidara and alongside wine director John Ragan, Nathan absorbed something he still embodies today: not rules or systems, but a way of thinking about hospitality—why you do what you do, and what it means to build a culture where everyone around you wants to be great. From there, his résumé only got more eclectic: James Beard-nominated food photography, opening restaurants for Chris Cannon and Stephen Starr, a four-year stint as a fine wine specialist, and bartending for Russian oligarchs in Park Avenue apartments where an oven might still have cardboard in it because it was never used.

This very unique combination is what he brings to Stissing House every day. When Nathan and his wife Jane relocated upstate, he wasn’t looking to replicate his New York City career. He was looking for something that fit his lifestyle and used every part of what he’d learned. Stissing House turned out to be exactly that, and lucky us! Today, as the team he’s built finds its stride, Nathan has a genuine appreciation for what makes it so special: surrounding yourself with people who really want to be there, and raising each other’s bar every single day. Read more below from our conversation.

What makes the magic that is Stissing House?

It’s the people who work here. We have such an amazing team who really want to be here and really believe in what we are doing—creating a world class restaurant with once in a lifetime experiences. It makes making the magic so much easier and everyone pitches in with new ideas all the time. A great example of this is last year’s Pie Fest. Katie and Clare came up with this idea that started as something we thought was crazy, but the trust we all had in each other to make it work created something that was amazing and can likely never be repeated—each member of the team contributed and it all came together so perfectly.

Do you have a daily or weekly ritual that helps you maintain a rhythm in your role?

A good cup of coffee in the morning and a good night’s sleep! Every day there is a new challenge so it’s good to be fresh and ready. I could probably get away with less sleep when I was younger, but not anymore!

When we spoke, you were at the restaurant on your day off, waiting for a repair person. What’s the craziest and/or most unglamorous thing you’ve done on the job?

Sometimes I think my entire job is unglamorous, so it’s hard to pin down a single thing. A few years ago the dish machine broke down and we couldn’t find a tech to fix it. It’s really hard to find specialized technicians in the Hudson Valley for anything restaurant related, so I downloaded the tech manual, ordered the parts, dismantled the machine and fixed it myself. That’s probably a stand-out unglamorous moment. In a 250 year old building, something is always breaking, so you have to figure out how to fix things without relying on always having to call someone.

You were a server and cook at a UK Pizza Hut in your teens, a software developer in your 20s, and the sommelier at Eleven Madison in your 30s. Is there a through line between these experiences that informs how you lead the team?

Taking care of your staff and creating an environment where they want to come to work every day is by far the most important thing. If you can do that, then everything else becomes so much easier. Even 35 years ago at Pizza Hut, we all wanted to be there and enjoyed our job, so in turn we were good at what we were doing. I am lucky that I really enjoy my job, so it’s important to me that everyone who works for me does as well.

You once ushered Anthony Bourdain around during his two day visit to the Culinary Institute of America. What was your takeaway from that experience?

He is one of the coolest people I have ever met. Really down to earth and had time for everyone. This was before he hit the big time on mainstream TV, but all the students worshipped him—his book Kitchen Confidential was required reading. He was so open to all things (food, arts & discussion), and it really left an impression on me to this day. I worked on a couple of food events with him in NYC after that, and it really opened my mind to foods and cultures that I had never experienced before—specifically, Vietnamese and Thai.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

When someone walks through the door of your restaurant, you have no idea how their day has been, if they are here to relax, celebrate, commiserate or something else. It could be the best day of their life or the worst day, so treat everyone like they are the most important table in the house.

You’ve worked with many storied restaurateurs and restaurant groups. What do you love about this role, at this time in your life, at Stissing House?

I feel like I am able to take all the lessons I have learned from everywhere I have worked and apply them to Stissing House and it’s my responsibility to make it happen. Previously, I hadn’t been ultimately in charge, but now I am and it feels like the timing is just right.

QUICKFIRE

Listening to: Jason Isbell

Reading: Everything Matters by Ron Currie

The last thing you bought and loved: lunch at Asador Etxebarri with my wife Jane (we were there a week ago)

Something you’re eating or drinking on repeat: a great sandwich

Always: curious

Never: angry

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