JORGE LOPES
The affable Jorge Lopes, Executive Chef, is a natural fit in the Blue Room’s open kitchen if you consider his theatrical bravado, his deft and creative hand with locally-grown ingredients, and of course his raven-haired pompadour. More than a few think of him as Portugal’s answer to Elvis, the country where he was born and sometimes draws inspiration. Jorge elevated his crack culinary expertise at Johnson & Wales and under the tutelage of well-regarded chefs Gordon Hamersley and Steve Johnson. His favorite tune: “Love Me Tender.”
NICK ZAPPIA
Most nights of the week Nick Zappia can be spotted crisscrossing the floor of The Blue Room. No surprise, as he's the restaurant’s starship commander, mother hen and unfailing inspiration, a man who can’t help but take care that every patron and employee is coddled and content. He knows the space well, having owned the restaurant once in part, now wholly, for fourteen years. Nick finetuned his service chops in Providence’s burgeoning culinary scene, at Johnson & Wales, and finally Cambridge’s celebrated East Coast Grill. When it comes to his other passions, golf and cassoulet, he is hardly a mother hen. He once drove a golf ball through the windshield of a 1975 Pontiac Malibu, costing him two months of hard-earned paperboy cabbage.
LIZ VILARDI
Liz Vilardi is a natural fit in the positions of Blue Room Owner and Wine Buyer, given that as a discerning youth she refused ham sandwiches in favor of escargot and duck confit, and held Kool Aid in withering disdain (holding out, no doubt, for a Jeroboam of 1977 Chateau d’Yquem). Lucky girl: she had a doting, gourmand father! Stints at Boston College and the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts further refined Vilardi's enviable palate and managerial prowess. And finally she’s come around to ham sandwiches, albeit with Spanish Jabugo, acorn-fed, and a thick slather of French butter. Kool Aid? No way, not ever.
ROBYN LUONGO
Robyn Luongo works indoors because she is terrified of moths, but that isn’t how she ended up at one of the most prestigious culinary schools ever—the CIA—she has her Mom’s cooking to thank for that. A mother herself, of two cats that is (Hi Pumpkin! Hi Fennel!), Robyn finds herself immersed even more in food as one of two lead managers at The Blue Room. As Robyn says, “My awkward stage lasted too long,” but it’s funny what a dining room does for her as she couldn’t be more comfortable among diners enjoying themselves. Want to chat up Robyn on her latest obsession? Talk to her about rosé wine, which she fell in love with here at The Blue Room, oh and then there’s always Harry Potter...
ANDREW BONNER
Andrew Bonner once sweat bullets on stage as bass player for the band Piebald, now sweats bullets expediting forty plate pick-ups in The Blue Room kitchen. After his graduation from The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts we snagged Andrew to be his “in between gigs gig” but his American heart was still tangled up with Piebald. For more than 2 years now we’ve been lucky enough to have Andrew join us full-time as Sous Chef at The Blue Room. Now, he gets off more on his giant pick-ups than hammering away on his old Fender’s pick-ups. Yeah, you’re a part of it.
REGGIE ST. PAUL
Reggie St. Paul is just what you want in a head barkeep: a commanding and gruff exterior that one can easily scratch to find underneath something like the tender heart of a teenage girl in love. Sit twice at his bar and this is a man who has your back (and front, and side). And with such an impressive white beard and Old School Boston savvy, you’d half expect to locate him in the pages of a Dennis Lehane mystery. Instead he can be found on his days off swatting a handball past one of his cronies and trolling the metro region’s bakeries for all things sweet.
LINDSAY PYRCH
Lindsay Pyrch co-commander of The Blue Room management team came to us via University of Central Florida and Southern Connecticut University with a Communications background and upon her arrival she declared, “I Love Disney!” We still hired her, because she recovered with “and I don’t like clowns” and with that cute gap in her teeth we couldn’t argue with her—clowns are scary. Assisting Liz in all things wine, Lindsay finds herself, in all of her work, to still seek out the perfect wine pairing to her favorite snack—goldfish. You’ll have to ask her what she’s come up with, as it’s still a highly guarded secret in these parts.