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• By Boston Voyager
• In News
• Posted Jul 24, 2018

Meet Nick Rabar of Avenue N American Kitchen & The Pantry at Avenue N in Rumford

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Rabar.

Nick, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I come from the small town of Pleasant Valley New York. We were surrounded by miles of working farms but had very few restaurants. The ones that we did have rarely had job openings. After months of effort I finally scored a position washing dishes at the town’s busiest place. One night, I was thrust onto the line during service and the rest became history. The motions felt natural, the timing, the energy, the rush, despite all the chaos happening around me I felt right at home. I was comfortable there, it just felt right. I used that feeling as the foundation of my career. So much of being a chef is the ability to find peace amongst the craziness that comes along with it. You have to learn how to harness it, to use it and to become it. It’s an industry that requires discipline, organization, fore thought, and commitment. Those things trump the passion, fun and creative side of it. In order to make it a sustainable career you have dedicate yourself at an early age. I always consider myself privileged to have found my calling so young, not everyone is as lucky as I was.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I’m privileged to have seen a lot of the upside of this industry. It’s given me everything I know and love. First and foremost I met my loving wife Tracy and together we have our three sons Jackson, Parker and Wynn. Collectively they are my whole world and my endless source of motivation. When I look at them they inspire me get up tomorrow and be better than I was today. The path also led us to our wonderful community of Rumford. When we first moved here we fell in love with the people of this small Rhode Island town. To know them is to understand what I mean and to be able to offer our craft to a town who honestly appreciates what you do, that’s rare and believe me its special.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Avenue N American Kitchen & The Pantry at Avenue N story. Tell us more about the business.
When we were building Avenue N we called ourselves a gathering place, somewhere the people of Rumford could huddle up after a long day. We tailored the menu around that concept, somewhere you could have a burger and a beer or multiple courses with big bottles of wine. Something about that resonated with people and we quickly realized it appealed to much more than just the local community. We started seeing travelers from Boston, Newport, New York and beyond. We have always been well sourced, using hyper-local ingredients since day one but not always screaming it from the roof tops. Tracy and I never wanted it to seem like a marketing tool. We use local ingredients for all the right reasons, freshness, seasonality, friendship and smart local economics. We use them to create seasonally focused, innovative plays on regional, nostalgic foods that are approachable and unpretentious. Our goal is to feed you a thoughtful plate of food in a space that you’re comfortable being in, at a pace you’re comfortable with.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I always say success is dictated by three equal parts; one part talent, one part who you know, and one part right place-right time. The latter can be translated as luck and it controls more of our destinies then we often want to admit or give it credit for. I can pinpoint all the moments of my life where luck intervened, from meeting my mentor John Elkhay, which brought me to Tracy, which brought me to Rumford, which brought me to Avenue N & The Pantry, which brought me to today. I think you can control luck to some degree, I think you can improve its odds, but you can’t deny that luck, good or bad, plays a role in all of our lives.

Source:
https://bostonvoyager.com/interview/meet-nick-rabar-avenue-n-american-kitchen-pantry-avenue-n-rumford-ri/