Micah Tavelli, a 2024 James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef: Northeast, and business partner Philip Herzog are launching an occasional series of pop-up dinners called Into the Wolf’s Mouth. The first two events, featuring a seven-course tasting menu, will take place at Junction restaurant in the Essex Resort & Spa on February 19 and 20.
The dinners will cost $80 ($90 for seats looking into the open kitchen) with an optional beverage pairing and must be booked ahead on Junction’s Resy account. Tavelli, 33, said a written menu will not be shared with guests until after they eat, but the style will be “Italian-ish” with Nordic and Japanese influences. The chef promised freshly made pasta. Guests can also expect innovative riffs on classics, such as his version of cacio e pepe made with celery root noodles.
Tavelli earned his James Beard recognition while executive chef at Burlington’s Paradiso Hi-Fi. That venue closed abruptly last July — ostensibly for a “brief 45-day pause” — and never reopened. The chef was previously chef de cuisine at Paradiso’s sister business, the also-closed Dedalus Wine Shop, Market & Wine Bar in Burlington, where Tavelli and Herzog met as colleagues. Before that, Tavelli rose to sous chef over a four and a half-year stint at Burlington’s Hen of the Wood.
Herzog, 33, and Tavelli are currently employed at bramble in Essex as assistant dining room manager and chef de cuisine, respectively. They expect to do a few more pop-ups through late winter and spring at various Vermont locations and hope to ramp up frequency this summer, Tavelli said.
The name Into the Wolf’s Mouth comes from an Italian saying, which is equivalent to “break a leg,” in English, Tavelli explained. The chef said he hopes the pop-up series is a stepping stone towards his goal “to be my own boss and own my own space.”