Green Land Cafe an instant hit in Salem

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Paul Bolden, owner of the Green Land Cafe in Salem, stands outside his restaurant. Joe Giacalone, not pictured, is co-owner of the restaurant. Cole Margen

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July 21, 2010

By Ethel Mickey Correspondent The Salem News Wed Jul 21, 2010, 06:00 AM EDT

SALEM — Since opening in early May, The Green Land Cafe has generated quite a buzz around its locally grown, organic menu.

On Washington Street, near City Hall, the restaurant features a variety of tapas and entrees that change over the course of the week, depending on whatever local fare is available. Co-owner Paul Bolden says this keeps things fresh and it keeps things interesting.

Last week, for example, Bolden got a call that snap peas were flourishing at local farms, so his chef added a new tapas dish to the menu highlighting the peas. This week, it was razor clams and soft-shell crabs.

For the past five weekends, the place has been completely booked, but Bolden, who owns the restaurant with Joe Giacalone, says its recent success has come after years of planning and research.

Can you explain the name of the restaurant?

We pay homage to the land around us, and we built it as a green restaurant, hence "Green Land."

How did you come up with the restaurant's concept?

I used to do market research in Boston and I was a consultant for restaurants, so when I decided to open a restaurant myself ... I did research, studying the demographics of Salem, talking to the residents. And I tried to fill a niche that was missing here.

What we really wanted was something you would see in Boston, with tapas and the bar and patio. ... The inspiration, the concept, is that it be a restaurant with fresh, local produce, with seafood from Gloucester. We use organic whenever possible. We have micro-brewed, New England beers. ... We have things like cheese from a local farm in Topsfield, world-class meats from Vermont. That was the concept.

We wanted the inside to feel natural, too. I didn't want to fill it up. I want the focus to be on the tables with plates of well-displayed food and tall glasses of wine.

How long did it take to open up the restaurant?

About four years. Thirty-six months ago, I began looking at Salem. ... I am really enamored with Salem itself. From the moment that we started here, we've received a lot of support and help from the city and the mayor's office. They embraced our concept and encouraged us.

For the last 18 months or 20-something, we had paper in the windows, "The Green Land Cafe coming soon," and we would constantly hear from neighbors asking, "When's it coming?"

The restaurant seems to have been an instant hit — why do you think?

I think we are fulfilling a niche that was needed, and we are organic. People want this kind of food with fresh — everything's fresh — organic food.

The staff was hired for their passion for food. All of them want to be in the restaurant business and own their own restaurant eventually; that was actually a prerequisite. They like talking about food.

The bar also seems to be a center focus. It's a conversation piece because it's U-shaped. It's almost like ... a campfire, drawing people to the center of the restaurant. Some older folks like it, too, because they like looking at all of the entertainment going on in the bar, which is usually younger folks. So we've really hit all age demographics.

Any menu favorites?

I really like our seafood and some of our unusual sauces. ... Because we make everything ourselves, it's really a journey ... a journey of taste here. The tapas can really speak for themselves. They're fun, whimsical, impromptu.

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