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Blacksmith restaurant uses products from local farms

BERLIN– Berlin’s newest restaurant continues to challenge its clientele with a creative and constantly evolving menu.
Blacksmith, located on 104 Pitts Street, opened in March. Owner Justine Zegna, boasting more than 20 years of experience as a professional chef, and Brooks Sullivan run the kitchen with plenty of help from their supporting cast.
“We’ve got a lot of people back there and all of us have cooked for a long time,” said Zegna. “Brooks and I are basically the ones making the menus, making the dishes and dealing with the vendors. We deal with so many vendors and so many farmers that it’s sort of a part-time job in of itself – getting new things and then figuring out what we’re going to do with them.”
The restaurant uses Berlin Organics and other local farms, including aquaculture oysters and clams, to source the best-possible ingredients. Blacksmith only uses bay-grown oysters, something Zegna believes contributes to both better taste and more responsible fishing practices.
“We’re supporting aquaculture here,” Zegna said. “We think it cleans the water. We think it’s good for the watermen. We think it’s a good alternative to wiping out the oyster population, and because we’re here near the water people like to eat oysters. We like the way this type of aquaculture is being done in the water as opposed to in tanks.”
Customer feedback has driven the majority of the menu changes at Blacksmith.
“Because we’re new we talk to customers a lot, seeing what people like, seeing what their favorite things are,” Zegna said. “We’re trying new things all the time, and as the seasons change we’re adding seasonal items on. We’re definitely doing more seafood than we were in the beginning, which we like, and we’re basically just trying to hand make everything – the ketchup, the mustard, the pickles. It gets a little crazy.”
In July Beer Advocate magazine tapped the restaurant to create a cocktail using Burley Oak Brewing Co. beer, something that should inspire the revamped beverage menu.
“We’re redoing our beverage menu now, and we’ll have beer cocktails, which we hadn’t had in the past,” Zegna said. “We’ll be doing some more café drinks like espresso and artisanal tonics, and we’ll also be doing more nonalcoholic drinks.”
The restaurant also added a deck and a lunch menu in recent months.
“Lunch has been pretty busy and has gone well, and the deck has as well,” Zegna said. “For summer it’s a lot better than we thought. We’re starting to deliver lunches too; we have a bicycle delivery in town, which is fun.”
A transplant from Rehoboth, Zegna said the town has been supportive.
“I was in Rehoboth for 20 years and I never met the mayor,” she said. “I was in this building for 20 minutes and (Berlin Mayor Gee Williams) showed up and said, ‘give me a paintbrush, what can I do?’ It’s a really welcoming town, and you just feel like the people running the town have your best interest as a business owner at heart.
“It’s so different from other towns. Here we have restaurants like The Globe that come by and say, ‘what days are you open or closed so we can tell people,’” Zegna continued.