Chef Aaron Busch, with 20 years of experience, is opening a new restaurant, Born & Braised, in Erie, Pennsylvania.Busch emphasizes using fresh, unprocessed ingredients, a philosophy sparked by cooking a freshly killed chicken.Born & Braised will feature “outskirts of American” cuisine, including braised meats, smoked fish, and other unique dishes.
Aaron Busch, 39, has been around the restaurant block a few times. He was born in Erie, but he’s been cooking around the country for 20 years. He most recently moved back to be closer to family. He served eight months as the executive chef at The Cork 1794. He has also cooked in Raleigh, North Carolina; Miami, Denver and Pittsburgh, and he’s ready to venture out on his own.
He and his staff are finishing up the details at Born & Braised, 802 W. 18th St., (formerly Hectors) and plan to open May 22. Hours will be Thursdays and Sundays, 4 to 9 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays, 4 to 10 p.m. Reservations are recommended, as only the main dining room will be open, seating about 25.
“I want this restaurant to be food-centric,” Busch said, adding that he doesn’t want to buy frozen food in a bag to save labor. He wants to make the food he sells.
“I have a nostalgia for what food can be,” he said. “And I want to cook it myself.”
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Busch said he’s actually had a hard time finding the basic ingredients he needs because typical restaurant suppliers only sell them pre-cooked, or pre-prepped.
“The ingredients just don’t exist or I can’t find them,” he said, providing an example as he had to search on his own for beef bones and found them for $5 a pound.
“I want to actually cook the food,” he said. “I don’t want to buy stuff in bags.”
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He said he wanted to order raw lamb shanks, which the supplier found “but he didn’t make it easy,” Busch said. “I told him I didn’t want precooked food in bags. He got super mad.”
The revelation
Busch told a story about a friend whose dog killed one of the friend’s chickens while he was visiting. It turned into a pivotal moment in his career.
“I took it home and cooked it,” he said, right down to plucking the feathers himself. “I’d never held a warm chicken,” he said with a laugh. “It tasted like chicken was supposed to taste. It really opened my eyes.
“The food tasted real,” he said. “The thing tasted like a chicken thigh should — deep and rich.”
Busch said Born & Braised will serve “the outskirts of American” food, such as steaks and braised meat and smoked fish, lamb shanks, oxtail, beef cheeks, osso buco and more. “Once, (in a previous job) I served a whole fish as a special and included the head.
“The head is part of the fish,” he said. “You’re supposed to eat the head.”
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But customers complained. He said the idea would have flown better in Miami, where he cooked for a while even selling his own beer and running a bottle shop.
“The ones that knew (to eat the head) knew,” he said. “In south Florida, it would have gone over better. Everyone eats fish all the time.”
Not content to have one restaurant to open, he is eyeing the former Luigi’s, which sits kitty corner to Born & Braised.
“I’m eyeing that for a pizzeria,” he said with a grin.
For now, though, he and his staff of six (so far), are helping him get the place ready for prime time while getting to know each other.
“We’re putting the finishing touches on everything,” Busch said. Is he excited? “Sure.” Is he nervous? “Yes.”
But at this point, he’s mentally ready for opening day.
“I’ve spent months picking out paint, building the bar and working on the plumbing,” he said. (He used to work for his father, who is a contractor.) “I’m ready to cook some food.”
Contact Jennie Geisler atjgeisler@timesnews.com. Find her weekly newsletter athttps://profile.goerie.com/newsletters/erielicious/.Â