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None of us knew exactly what was going on,” McAdams laughs.Īll agree that one key to Longman’s early success was chef Jared Wentworth, now at Moody Tongue. “Those first three years of Longman could have really benefitted from us knowing numbers. While their inexperience contributed to Longman’s originality, it also led to some minor problems - like running so low on capital the founders had to use their personal bottles of whiskey to stock the bar at opening. We weren’t thinking like restauranteurs.” “The greatest thing about it was that we weren’t restaurant folks,” Finkelman says.

But that also became their greatest asset. The four founders (McAdams, Cody Hudson, Pete Toalson, and Bruce Finkelman) came from the bar and music business none had extensive food experience. “We expected to be sitting at the bar drinking, and there was no longer a stool at the bar for us!” McAdams says. Then, to the surprise of its founders, Longman blew up. “We tried to build something with our friends in mind - a place we could sit and drink whiskey with our pals.” “We created a place we wanted to hang out,” co-owner Robert McAdams says. It wasn’t quite a gastropub, since it was too much like a bar it wasn’t quite a bar, since its food would soon win it a Michelin star it wasn’t a fancy restaurant, since it was intentionally too loud for comfort. Longman & Eagle was an odd duck when it first opened. That’s one reason, among many, that the 10th anniversary of Longman & Eagle is genuine cause for celebration.

The failure rate in the industry is high and tastes change quickly when you combine that with rising rents and labor costs, it sometimes feels like a miracle that any restaurant stays open longer than nine months. It’s always an occasion when a restaurant makes it to a big anniversary.