What’s Half-Way Between a Big City and a Remote Town?
“I moved to Hudson, N.Y. And then I moved away.”
–“Giving Up My Small-Town Fantasy“; The NYT (9/7/2014)
“When Gavin Kaysen announced in March that he would leave his longtime position as Café Boulud‘s executive chef to open his own restaurant, plenty of people in the restaurant industry ” and those who watch it ” were surprised. As Daniel Boulud’s right-hand man, Mr. Kaysen was a player in one of the most successful restaurant empires in New York.
But the bigger surprise was where Mr. Kaysen, 35, planned to open his restaurant, Merchant: not in Manhattan or Brooklyn but in Minneapolis, his hometown.”
–“Chefs Move Beyond New York“; The NYT (July 28, 2014)
I got a chuckle reading about the couple who ditched San Francisco for upstate New York — tiny Hudson, to be specific.
What happened next?
They tired of the isolation — and yes, cold — and moved to Manhattan.
From Brain Drain to Brain Gain
Guess what?
There’s actually something in between.
I can’t do anything about the cold, but places like the Twin Cities offer a very palatable middle ground.
And I mean that literally: the local foodie scene is blossoming precisely because so many young, up-and-coming Manhattan chefs (see, Gavin Kaysen) view places like Minneapolis as better spots, long-term, for both themselves and their families.
P.S.: Admittedly, a local connection helps: Kaysen is from Twin Cities suburb Bloomington.
