WGBH's Henry Santoro, host of Henry in the Hub, talks with Boston Chef Eric Brennan and Himmel Hospitality's Eric Brennan, the team behind Post 390.  

Santoro: Fine dining in Boston doesn't get any more delicious or fun than at the restaurants Grill 23, Post 390, and Harvest in Cambridge. They are three restaurants that are run by the Himmel Hospitality Group's Chris Himmel and executive chef Eric Brennan, and gentlemen so great to see you.  Welcome to WGBH and welcome to Henry in the Hub.

Brennan: Thank you, Henry.

Himmel: Thanks, it’s great to be here.

Santoro: First up Chris congratulations on yet another best of Boston award for best steakhouse in Grill 23.  If you keep this up, they're going to put that place on the National Register of Historic Places.

Himmel: The pressure mounts every year to repeat so thank you.

Santoro: When dining at any one of your restaurants everything seems to go off flawlessly, now we know that it doesn't but it seems to go off flawlessly.

Brennan:  Well I do think so.

Santoro: From the initial greeting to the food to the service. It's the whole package that makes the dining experience click.  How do you do that night after night with the volume that you do and what is the training process like for the Himmel Hospitality Group?

Himmel: Well I think that it starts with the people that we bring in to the restaurants. I can teach someone to pour a glass of wine I can teach them to set a table but I can't teach them how their actions affect others and that's really what the definition of hospitality is and I think that that's something that we really work hard to identify those types of people: people that really want to learn.

Santoro: Yeah as you said it's passion, which we know that Eric has.

Brennan: I try not to take anything for granted, that’s for sure.  We know there's a lot of opportunities out there now more than ever, I think, in Boston.  So like Chris said, the company's been always very generous about furthering education going on experience of the restaurants and you know going to this R.V. trip.

Santoro: Right, exactly.

Brennan: That's part of it.

Santoro: Well that’s a huge part of it. Earlier this year, “Himmel Hits the Road” was launched where, Chris, you took a group of your employees on a six thousand mile road trip to meet the people responsible for a lot of the food that you have in your restaurant.  You saw the farms, you saw the processing facilities you even did pop up dinners along the way. Now that the two of you are back, what was the biggest takeaway?

Himmel:  The biggest was inspiration.  You know, Eric and I both have been doing what we do for over twenty years probably and part of what drove this trip was that we'd see places like Broken Arrow Ranch or Benton’s Smokey Mountain Country hams and we've used the product, we love the product but we've never gone and met face to face of them.  And we found that that was the missing piece, you know, we can say that we really have touched base and connected with almost every person that's on that menu in some way shape or form.  And to do that was no small commitment but we really took away, I think, a newfound passion a newfound respect, not just for the products that they create but for the individuals.

Brennan: It’s a different individual. You meet a lot of salespeople but these people aren’t salespeople, you know, and the common denominator there was that everybody was just so focused on their product and  they really weren’t out there for the money. 

Santoro: Well you've got a reality show in the making here.  But now the focus is on working with a new batch of kids from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston.  For those not familiar with what you guys do, why don't you tell us what happens there?

Himmel:  Sure. It’s a program that we started about three years ago called "farm to change" and it's in partnership not just with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston but also with Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare as well as Green City Growers who are the people that have the farm at Fenway Park.  We started working with the kids and basically really establishing a set of gardens and saying what do you want to grow: cucumbers, strawberries, kale, any of that. 

Brennan: We use some cooking demos with some of the products that they were growing. 

Himmel: It started as Eric and I really going and taking some of the ingredients from the garden and cooking with the kids.  It's evolved into a barbecue at the club in June where we cook for four hundred of the kids or families of staff.

Santoro: And they see what the whole process entails? 

Himmel: Exactly.

Santoro: Well, Eric Brennan, Chris Himmel, thank you so much for coming in.  The restaurants are Harvest in Cambridge and Grill 23 and Post 390 in Boston.  Thanks so much.

Himmel: Thanks Henry.

Brennan: You too, Henry.  Have a good one.