click to enlarge - File: James Buck
- Peg & Ter's
After a year of working as co-chefs at Peg & Ter's, Scott Como and Derek Robert have decided to leave their positions at the end of September. Johnny Helzer, a co-owner of the Shelburne restaurant, posted on social media last week that Peg & Ter's will close on October 1 for "an extended break ... to explore future staffing and plans for our space."
Helzer opened the restaurant with his wife, Tina, in 2018 in the location occupied by Café Shelburne for a quarter century. They named it for Tina's late parents, Peggy and Terry Thatcher, who loved to throw dinner parties.
In a phone call, Johnny Helzer explained that since the pandemic, "it's been a challenge to find and keep good folks." Because the Helzers own the building at 5573 Shelburne Road, he said, "we have lots of flexibility to take a break and step back."
The couple hope to reopen Peg & Ter's, but Helzer said they may explore other food-and-beverage-related ideas for the space.
"The want is there for good restaurants," Helzer said, but it's a constant tug-of-war between offering staff "a good living wage and not gouging the customer with a huge bill at the end of the night." He said labor expenses are up 50 percent and food costs have increased, rendering already-slim margins even tighter.
According to Helzer, Robert will move back to Massachusetts, from which he and Como moved in summer 2020. The co-chefs initially worked together for their former Boston boss, chef Matt Jennings, who was then vice president of culinary at Healthy Living. Jennings now owns Red Barn Kitchen in Charlotte with his wife, Kate.
Como will remain in Vermont. The New Jersey native has a "large amount of Italian blood," he wrote in an email, and has been "the pasta guy" throughout his cooking career. He plans to take a break "from the hustle and bustle of restaurant life" to launch a line of pastas and do pasta dinner pop-ups with help from his partner, Chelsea Kaigle, who works for Bonté Bakery in Montpelier.