Tasting Counter

Twelve years ago, we were drawing designs for our U-shaped counter in Somerville. We opened in 2015 with a simple belief: the kitchen can be a restorative place. Back then, we had our young kids running around with our dear friends cheering us on. When we closed in 2023, we wrote, “The future of Tasting Counter is much larger than 1,000 square feet tucked into the back of some brewery. It’s time to move on.”

Today, we’re excited to share that we’ve identified farmland near Great Barrington for the vision we’ve always dreamed of. We can see, clearer than ever, a growing space integrated with our dining room, bringing us closer to our roots in the natural world. We’re now drawing designs again and meeting new teammates. One of our kids is off to college. And there’s still a lot to figure out, from zoning and financing to when we’ll be ready to open. But one thing is certain: our enduring belief in a kitchen designed to restore – our guests, our team, and our planet.

Join us for this next chapter. Expect updates and behind-the-scenes looks at our design process, staff training, and (of course) what we’re eating. Swipe for a sneak peek.

If you’re interested in supporting our mission and becoming a part of the story, sign up for our upcoming newsletter through our website (link in bio)!

Join Peter and Ginhee, co-creators of Tasting Counter, TOMORROW (Saturday, October 12) at in North Adams, MA. Come sit by the river during the most beautiful time of fall, eat delicious food, interact with the chefs, and connect with more of our vibrant community!

Enjoy the fall foliage on a road trip to the Berkshires and take in the beautiful mountain scenery for another grillfest event as we tackle cooking over live fire and battle the blaze with ’s custom fire pits!

True to the essence of Tasting Counter, we’re sourcing impeccable seafood from Wulf’s Fish () and are dipping into our storage pantry of prized house-made TC preserves, including aged misos, preserved lemons, and fermented hot sauces, all of which will be incorporated into the dishes we will be serving!

Come and join Peter and Ginhee (co-creators of Tasting Counter) this Saturday, October 12 from 3-6pm at Tourists () in North Adams, Massachusetts!

— — — TICKET LINK IN BIO — — —

Enjoy the fall foliage on a road trip to the Berkshires and take in the beautiful mountain scenery for another grillfest event as we tackle cooking over live fire and battle the blaze with ’s custom fire pits!

True to the essence of Tasting Counter, we will be dipping into our storage pantry of our prized house-made TC preserves, including aged misos, preserved lemons, and fermented hot sauces, all of which will be incorporated into the dishes we will be serving!
Official invitation from BLUE BARN BUILDS & TOURISTS . . .
(https://www.exploretock.com/tourists/event/483833/blue-barn-the-lending-x-tourists)

Join us Saturday Oct 12 from 3-6pm outside by the river for food, drinks, music, and the spectacle of open-fire cooking on Blue Barn’s custom grills and fire pits. Tickets are $98 (plus tax) per person and include all-you-can-eat tastings from four acclaimed, regional chef friends.

– Aaron Oster (chef/head of culinary at , formerly A-oK BBQ)
– Justin Forstmann ( at MASS MoCA)
– Peter Ungar (forthcoming sustainable restaurant concept in western MA from )
– Tu Le (chef/farmer/founder of )

Come sit by the river during the most beautiful time of fall, eat delicious food, interact with the chefs, and connect with more of our vibrant community!

We took the entire summer off to travel with our kids during their school break, taking advantage of the unique opportunity to bond as a family. After nearly a decade working on TC 1.0, this trip was a much needed break to rejuvenate, restore, recalibrate, and reconnect with our children and ourselves. So we said goodbye to our Somerville home for a few months to experience the other side of the world, as we intentionally pave the way to become fully engaged in creating TC 2.0 with a fresh start.

We fostered family connections with distant relatives, many of whom we haven’t seen in years or have simply never met. We visited Ginhee’s family’s old neighborhood in Seoul, by chance encountering long-ago neighbors who actually remembered her family from over 60 years ago, and also saw Peter’s family’s names etched in the Welcome Wall in Sydney (Australia’s National Monument to Migration). We went even further back in time, visiting ancestral burial mounds from 15 generations ago in Korea, as well as starkly simplistic Jewish cemetery grounds outside of Sydney.

We had many other incredible discoveries, especially with food. In Korea, we experienced as many different naengmyeon noodles as possible in Seoul, as well as sampled gochujang in Sunchang wandering from one artisanal producer to another. In Japan, we braved the Tokyo subway system in search of ramen, weaved through crowds at Tsukiji Fish Market, climbed Mount Fuji, and fed deer in Nara. In Australia, we embraced the cool winter weather while hiking around Uluru, explored the oldest rainforest in the world in Queensland, scuba dived in the Great Barrier Reef, and ascended the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

These new experiences created space for new connections, awakened our curiosity, and was a welcome pivot from the demands of restaurant life. Although we were a world away, the food connection to our work at TC was always present. We reveled in the seasonal local flavors of each country, rich with history and culture, bringing home a renewed sense of purpose and what lies ahead for TC 2.0. Bon voyage to us!

OUR FIRST OFFICIAL COOKING EVENT IN THE BERKSHIRES!

Come and join us this Sunday, June 9 from 3-6pm at Tourists () for another grillfest event where we tackle cooking over live fire and battle the blaze with ’s custom fire pits!

A couple of these photos are from when we did this similar event in 2021 at the Herb Lyceum () in Groton, MA. This time, however, we’re going to be in North Adams, MA in the western Massachusetts region of the Berkshires!

Although our menu is still evolving, what we do know is that we’ll be sourcing, as we always do, impeccable seafood from Wulf’s (), as well as dusting off some of our prized TC preserves such as our misos, preserved lemon, gochujang, and hot sauces, to be incorporated into each dish.
Official invitation from BLUE BARN BUILDS & TOURIST . . .

Join us Sunday, June 9 for a bacchanalia of our favorite things – beer, spirits, food, fire, music, and ’s custom fire pits. $150 covers all-you-can-eat from four acclaimed regional chefs cooking fresh local ingredients over live fire. All of the beverage options at will also be available. Sit by the river and eat delicious food, talk to our chef friends, and meet more of the community. Ticket link in bio.

CHEF TASTING
– Aaron Oster (chef/head of culinary at workforce development, formerly A-oK BBQ)
– Douglas Higley (farmer and chef at )
– Peter Ungar (forthcoming sustainable restaurant concept in western MA from )
– Tu Le (Chef/farmer/founder of )

Aside from our recent collaboration dinner (with more to come), we’ve been busy planning our next restaurant. Well over 10 years ago, when we were first scouting for the original location of Tasting Counter, we began our search in Great Barrington, MA. The “farm to table” ethos of our restaurant was always meant to be surrounded by kitchen gardens and farmland, not limited to a grow wall in a repurposed factory. Life has a way of creating opportunity and we took a leap of faith opening in Somerville.

Now we’re aspiring toward our life-long dream of building our restaurant in the countryside with a direct connection to nature, focusing on Southern Berkshire County, a community already ripe with dense farmland, great restaurants and an eager dining audience. This is where cultivating our food will be fully integrated into the dining experience, ideally situated equidistant between Boston and New York City.

With a whole systems approach to food sourcing, service, and industry culture, we aim to transform the experience of connecting through food for our staff, guests, purveyors, and beyond. We’re actively searching for 20+ acres of land to be the location of our new restaurant, which will ultimately be surrounded by kitchen gardens and a small farm.

As we continue to reach out and develop networking connections with local stakeholders in the area, we are also looking for unique off-market opportunities for our restaurant project. The hunt is on for anyone looking to transform their land into a truly one-of-a-kind dining destination!

There's still time to grab our vinegars, jams, preserves, wines, (come sample all of them!) and DEEPLY discounted kitchen equipment! Open late until 9 pm on June 21! Swing by 14 Tyler St, Somerville MA

Just a few tickets remain for our Remnant x TC Beverage Takeover at 1pm this Thursday. Swipe right for a sneak peak of one of the beers we'll be pouring on Thursday. Follow the link in bio to learn more and purchase your ticket to join us Thursday.

Join us and Remnant Brewing] on Thursday, Jan 19th for a very special lunch! Remnant Brewing] will be taking over our beverage pairing program for the afternoon, pairing their unique beers with our 3-course lunch tasting menu. Find out more and purchase tickets by following the link in our bio.

At Tasting Counter, we're redefining what it means to work in the restaurant industry. We invest in hospitality professionals who believe in the same future that we do, and who will continue to evolve the industry through their work. Are you ready to be a part of this type of kitchen culture? Apply through the link in our bio.
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Our Regenerative Kitchen Project is equal parts reflection, continuing education, and collaborative team building that makes a conscious and equitable work environment possible. Swipe to see our developmental approach.
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We're constantly finding inspiration from the natural world around us.

As mentioned in a recent post, we recently had an opportunity to step out of the kitchen and into nature to experiment and draw inspiration from our local bounty. Here we have a dish with Acorn Ravioli made from locally foraged acorns, milled into a flour and made into pasta. The ravioli is filled with a fall leaf ricotta made with local dairy from Maybelline Farms in Hadley, MA. The ravioli sits on top of a bed of braised kale and is surrounded by a celery root and candy cap mushroom broth. Candy cap mushrooms are one of the only sweet mushroom varieties and prized for their maple syrup flavor and fragrance.

Swipe for some behind-the-scenes moments that inspired the creation of a current dish on our tasting menu.
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