Lynn, MA – Anyone who’s had the opportunity to taste Rachel Miller’s food knows she’s talented. Walking the line between challenging and delicious, the food from her popular Nightshade Pop-Ups around the North Shore might include anything from kale salad with crispy pig ears to tamarind-glazed fried chicken – always paired with smart, reasonably-priced beverages.
Now Miller, who has worked in some of the best kitchens in Boston, from Bondir to Clio, picking up a Zagat 30 Under 30: Boston’s Hottest Up and Comers nod along the way, wants a permanent home for her restaurant, and she is asking area food lovers to support her with an investment through MainVest. The restaurant will repay 3.5 percent of gross revenue to investors until they receive 1.5 times their initial investment.
Miller has cooked around the area enough to see what’s missing. “What I hear North Shore people mention most is that restaurant options are limited and they often serve the same or similar items,” she says. “I want people to invest in a new experience for this area…. The North Shore is packed with sophisticated people. This
is for you!”
So far, Miller has raised about $4,400 toward her goal of $75,000. MainVest enables investors to pledge as little as $100, and if she doesn’t reach the goal by Dec. 24th, all the money will be returned.
Miller has set her sights on opening in Lynn, and is considering several properties for Nightshade Noodle Bar, a 25-30 seat boutique restaurant nestled downtown, offering café-style food by day and progressive Vietnamese-influenced small plates, eclectic noodle dishes and Viet-Cajun crawfish by night.
“I love Lynn, specifically downtown where I live,” Miller says. “Lynn is so unique and has so much potential, and also is affordable. I love the architecture. It’s far from generic and the population is very diverse, which I think is what keeps neighborhoods exciting and progressive.”
Miller hopes that her restaurant will add to the revitalization of Lynn while shaking up the dining scene on the North Shore. “The restaurant culture hasn’t really evolved much up here and it will continue to be hard for restaurateurs, chefs, and sommeliers without more of us focusing on this area and subliminally educating the public on what it means to dine in an intimate chef/owner/operator atmosphere.” Not only that, Miller notes, but it’s hard to find a truly incredible beverage program north of Boston that is unique to the food. So Nightshade Noodle Bar will reflect the same thoughtful attention to beverage pairings that Miller brings to her pop-ups, and to her time as chef at Soall Bistro in Marblehead, through collaborating with talented sommeliers and mixologists.
For details on investing in Nightshade Noodle Bar, visit https://mainvest.com/businesses/nightshade.