The Melrose Messenger

New Collaborations Are Cooking at The Kitchen

By Ellen Putnam

On Saturday, The Bread Shop had its grand opening at The Kitchen, drawing people of all ages who were eager to pick up loaves of fresh bread and try out breakfast sandwiches and coffee. This new collaboration with The Bread Shop is one of several exciting new initiatives The Kitchen will be premiering in the coming weeks.

Julie Unger founded The Kitchen, a cooking school and gathering space, in May 2023 after Seven Hills Pasta moved out of the space, which is located next to the Wyoming Hills commuter rail station.

“My background is in community organizing and event planning,” Unger explained, “My work has always been about bringing people together. But after COVID, we’ve all been operating in such silos. We have our homes and our work, but we’ve lost that third space, that other location where we can meet up and connect.”

At the time, Unger was running the Melrose Farmers’ Market and had been offering cooking classes there on site. “And then this spot opened up,” she went on, “and I thought, could I do something like that in this space?”

Since it opened, The Kitchen has provided a range of offerings for the community: cooking classes for kids, teens, and adults; themed dinner parties; private cooking classes and dinners; meal prep classes; kids’ birthday parties, and more.

For kids, classes at The Kitchen provide “another option for kids who aren’t sports kids or theater kids. I am so impressed by these kids,” Unger added, “their ability to chop, cook, follow instructions. The variety of foods they’re willing to eat. Parents will say, ‘my kid wouldn’t eat Mexican food, then they made it in cooking class and now they want to go to Mexico Lindo.’ That’s a huge success.”

For adults, The Kitchen provides “a place to get together with friends or meet people in the community.” The private dinners and themed dinners that the Kitchen hosts, Unger said, “have a different vibe. We can turn the space into what feels like a nice restaurant. Lower the lights, and everything.”

“There’s a sense of nostalgia when you’re eating,” explained Unger, “certain dishes ignite that. You don’t see people angry when they’re eating good food.”

The Kitchen fosters a sense of community not just among guests, but also among the chefs that work there. “It’s a nice space for them to get creative and give back,” Unger said.

The new retail collaboration with The Bread Shop comes from a long-standing relationship between Unger and The Bread Shop’s head baker Lauren Donati. Donati teaches classes at The Kitchen, and The Bread Shop operates a booth at the Melrose Farmers’ Market.

After The Bread Shop lost its storefront in Wakefield last year, they opened a kitchen space on Tremont Street that they’ve been using for limited retail hours, but it isn’t an ideal setup for retail. “Lauren and I were talking,” explained Unger, “and we thought, we could make the space retail during the day. Everything’s in the afternoon or the evening anyways.”

The Bread Shop will sell their bread and other baked goods along with breakfast sandwiches, parfaits with homemade granola, and coffee out of The Kitchen on Wednesday through Sunday between 8 am to 11 am. “We’re going to see how this goes,” said Unger.

After Cloud Nine closed during the pandemic, Wyoming Hill hasn’t had an option for takeout coffee - “it’s a coffee desert,” Unger quipped (not including, she noted, the two wonderful sit-down breakfast places in the neighborhood, Melrose Diner and Cappa’s Trackside Kitchen) - so this collaboration will help fill that niche.

The Kitchen has also recently brought Melrose resident David Drew on board as executive chef. Drew was previously the executive chef at Cambridge Brewing Company. He will be leading classes and dinners as well as managing the kitchen.

One of Drew’s initiatives will be to create a family-style dinner-to-go once a week starting in mid-March. These dinners will be available for preorder, and can be customized for different dietary needs. “It should be great for picky eaters and non-picky eaters,” said Drew. “It will be comforting and approachable. And every once in a while I’ll make it a little bit weird - in a good way.”

The Kitchen has a number of other collaborations on the horizon. They will sell prepared food at Hannah’s Brewing Company for St Patrick’s Day. The Kitchen has worked with The Food Drive on meal prep classes for the Community Freezer. And Jenine Wright, who owns fitlife studios and created the menu at new Main Street arrival Planted Organic Cafe, will be leading some plant-based meal prep classes in the future.

Unger has strong ties to local nonprofits, too. She has hosted classes for Big Brother, Big Sister and MAAV and offers fundraisers for PTOs and other nonprofits. “I try to do stuff like that as much as I can, to support the community,” she said. In the summer, she said, the menu at The Kitchen “will reflect what’s at the Farmers’ Market. We’ll work with the farms there to get our stuff locally.” And she offers cooking classes as teambuilding events for local businesses and larger companies. “It’s a great way to connect with someone you don’t usually work with,” she pointed out.

“The community has been super supportive,” Unger said, “and that’s the key. People will request things. They’ll want vegan classes, or specific cuisines. We do a lot of options - we’re just trying to make sure we meet different needs.”

“That was the plan,” Unger concluded, “having cooking classes and bringing people together around food.”

Posted March 3rd, 2025