George Harrington knows a thing or two about running famous eateries. For 10 years, he was man of the house at Marblehead’s fabled Rosalie’s Restaurant, and for another 20 years, he was at the helm of Salem’s legendary Lyceum, where he still is today.
By Anna and David Kasabian, photography by Anthony Tieuli
George Harrington knows a thing or two about running famous eateries. For 10 years, he was man of the house at Marblehead’s fabled Rosalie’s Restaurant, and for another 20 years, he was at the helm of Salem’s legendary Lyceum, where he still is today.
Given the grueling pace of the restaurant trade and Harrington’s considerable length of service, one might expect a little less spring in his step today, perhaps a bit less fire in his belly. These two notions are shattered when the kitchen door bursts open and Harrington bounds out with a puckish grin, a sturdy handshake, and an impassioned narrative about how his newly renovated Lyceum is better than ever in the way it looks forward and back at the same time.
Indeed it does. The history of Lyceum thickens the air. This very building, after all, once housed the worldly Salem Lyceum, among the preeminent public lecture halls of its day, from whose podium John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson posited lofty thoughts.
In homage to its legacy, Harrington focused part of his rejuvenation on a reemphasis of history with the help of Beverly architecture and design firm Seimasko + Verbridge. Classic hardwood paneling and leather banquettes are new but look original. The handsome bar is original, but given more prominence by opening up the sightlines at the bar area entrance. The effect is dramatic and inviting, sweeping you up in the atmospherics of vaulted ceilings and ancient brick walls, yet it preserves the graceful lack of pretension that helped make the first Lyceum a North Shore institution.
Nowhere has Harrington blended past and future more astutely than in the kitchen. Hugo Corado, Lyceum’s executive chef since 2004, is now joined by Dan Friley, Lyceum’s young new chef de cuisine. It’s a mystery how two talented chefs from two different worlds can be thrown together in one kitchen to coexist, but here, it seems to work. We see harmony rather than conflict reflected in a menu that-like the new Lyceum itself-is rooted in tradition, but with a few new surprises. You’ll find the etched-in-stone selections of jumbo shrimp cocktail, French onion soup, Caesar salad, steak frites, and fish and chips. But you will also find the less-expected steamed cockles, crispy chicken livers, Tuscan bread salad, handkerchief pasta with duck confit, and pan-roasted Vermont quail.
The Lyceum has been a fixture in this city for so long that it would have been a shame to see it grow old and fade away. But rest assured, a fellow like George Harrington would never let that happen.
43 Chuch St., Salem, 978-745-7665, thelyceum.com