The food of Steve “Nookie” Postal has been pleasing the palates of Cambridge and Somerville (with significant stops in Boston) for decades, from high-end restaurants to humbler cafes and even the luxury suites of Fenway Park. A new self-published cookbook written with Marygrace Gladden of his Revival eateries called “The Nookbook” has recipes from his life and his restaurants that he calls a “manual to navigating your life, regardless of the culinary scenarios you find yourself in.” Boasting everything from game day snacks to easy dinners to a full Thanksgiving spread, “The Nookbook” came out in November, and Nookie speaks at Porter Square Books on Friday. We interviewed him Jan. 10; his words have been edited for length and clarity.
Talk me through your history in the Cambridge restaurant scene.
I moved here after I graduated from the College of Wooster in 1998. I had gotten a degree in economics, and my mother was getting me a suit for my graduation present, and I was getting fitted, and I was like, “I don’t want to dress up, I don’t like dressing up, it’s my least favorite thing to do.” I went home and was watching TV and “Yan Can Cook” came on with Martin Yan, and I was like, maybe I’ll go to culinary school. I moved to Porter Square to go to the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, and I’ve never left.
My resume is actually quite sad now, because all these restaurants have now closed, but my first job was at Casablanca, a legendary restaurant in the Boston scene. That’s where I met Ana Sortun, of Oleana and Sarma. I worked at Icarus in the South End, and then I worked at Chez Henri in Cambridge, where Moeca is now. I went to Europe for a bit, and then I became Ana’s opening sous chef at Oleana. I was there for six years, and we were nominated for every award possible, and won lots of them. Plus Oleana continues to be one of the top restaurants in Boston all these years later, so that’s exciting. I moved to Spain with my new wife, we lived there for a year, and then when we came back, I started a job as the executive chef for the Boston Red Sox. That was a big job, I did that for about seven years, and even got a World Series ring. I learned a lot about managing people, because that was a much larger operation than I was used to.
Next I went on a TV show on Bravo from the creators of Top Chef that was called “Around the World in 80 Plates.” It was like “Top Chef” meets “The Amazing Race,” and that was great. I was itching to do my own thing at this point, and I opened Commonwealth in 2013 in Kendall Square. In 2016, I joined forces with my current business partner, Liza Shirazi. She owned Crema Cafe, a legendary cafe in Harvard Square, and together we created Revival. We started with Alewife and Davis in 2016. Covid happened, which was really difficult and awful, but we now have opened a few more: We have one in Lexington and one in Watertown, we have a Milk Street location in Boston and another one in One Post Office Square only available for the people who work in that building, and we’re opening another one in Fort Point on Wednesday.
Commonwealth closed at the beginning of 2023 because the lease was up and the landlord wanted another 10-year lease. I’m in a very different place than I was 10 years ago and I didn’t want to sign another 10-year lease, so it was time to close. We had a really great run. And sometimes it’s nice to say goodbye to things on your own terms. Mothership opened about three weeks later in December 2023. That was really nice because I was able to transfer all the staff from Commonwealth to Mothership, so no one really lost their job.
What has been the greatest lesson or takeaway?
At the end of the day, it’s all about your staff, how you interact with them, how you behave around them. And in times of crisis and when times are hard, how you act is especially important. That’s when true character is shown. I believe in simply treating people well: No screaming, no yelling, no throwing things, none of that. I think that’s the No. 1 lesson. If you treat people well, good things will happen, and if you’re an asshole, bad things will happen. I feel like I, and all of my managers, try to have really good relationships with people. We want to actually know them and understand what’s going on in their lives, and then they pass that on to our guests. I think that’s why we have high retention and why we have people coming back.
How did the idea for “The Nookbook” come about?
Maybe it’s a vanity project. It’s certainly not a moneymaker. I talked to a few publishers about publishing it, and they were going to offer some money, but it wasn’t very much. I decided I’d rather just do it myself so I can have 100 percent creative liberty to do whatever I want. I wanted it to be a true representation of me, my family and my life, and that’s what it is. I’m really proud of it. Maybe it’s a legacy thing, I don’t know. Recently I was talking to Irene Shiang Li of Mei Mei Dumplings in Boston and she told me a cookbook is like a business card that people don’t throw away. I thought that was a really interesting line.
What was the process of putting the book together?
Marygrace took all the pictures and did all the layout. The whole thing took us about two years. Some of the recipes are from home, some of them are from the restaurants, some of them are from other things. I’m a busy guy. I work a full time-job, probably two; I have three kids – a senior in high school, a freshman in high school and a sixth grader, all in Cambridge Public Schools. And I have a busy life. My wife will tell me “so-and-so had a baby, you need to make them something,” or there’s a bake sale, or we’re going away to the ski house and you need to make food. So, basically, this is my life in a book: There’s recipes for having people over for brunch, for hosting Thanksgiving, for hosting Christmas, recipes for potlucks. So yes, there are some recipes from the restaurants, but it’s a lot of the stuff I make for my family all the time.
We ended up having more than 160 recipes and had to pare it down. There’s also a lot of writing that went into it, more than anticipated. Honestly the whole thing took longer than I anticipated and was harder than I anticipated. But, like I said, I’m really, really happy with the finished product and I think it’s a great representation of me and my life. I think when people see and read it, they can hear my voice, which was really important to me. I’ve done a bunch of writing in the past, including a series for Eater Boston in 2013 about what it’s like to open a restaurant. I wrote an entry every week for over a year. I’m not an English major, I kind of write the way I talk, and that seems to resonate with people. I did a six-part series for Boston Magazine about having weight loss surgery that detailed the journey of that, being a chief and being surrounded by food all the time. So the writing part was enjoyable for me, even though it was a lot.
Do you have a favorite recipe from the book, or one you’re particularly excited to see people make?
It’s so hard to pick one, it’s like picking your favorite child! I think it depends. Like for instance, my wife is going away skiing this weekend with the kids and some other people, so last night, I pulled out “The Nookbook” and I made this recipe, Leftover Cookies. It’s a base cookie recipe and then you can just add in whatever you have in your cupboards, so I did shredded coconut and Cinnamon Toast Crunch because that was what I happened to have. So that one’s top of mind, but there are so many good ones. My meatballs are great, I love the gringo tacos. That’s become Marygrace’s go-to. Through the process she’s learned a lot about food and cooking and has become a much better cook through this, and she’s now making them once a week. I make them once a week for my family for dinner. I’m doing a little demo class in Alewife for the tenants, and people got to look at the book, and they chose No Peeking Dumplings. They’re “no peeking” because once you put the dumplings in, you have to cover the pot and you can’t peek. Nothing’s super fancy, the book is full of recipes like these. The paper we picked for the book is good for writing on, for creasing, because I want people to use it. I don’t want it to sit on the shelf and get dusty, I really want people to make these recipes. I have a busy life, and these are the things I make to get through, and I hope people will do that too.
Steve “Nookie” Postal speaks at 7 p.m. Friday at Porter Square Books, 1815 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square, Cambridge. Free.
This post was updated Aug. 19, 2024, to note that descriptions of the books were compiled from the publishers.
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