Behind the Scenes at The Musket Room

Restaurants are high-pressure environments, full of tension — and not just the metaphorical kind. This explains, at least partially, why so many of them recently have been exposed as incubators for bad behavior, especially fine-dining kitchens.

But one exception is The Musket Room, an under-the-radar, which first opened in 2013, but rebooted during the pandemic thanks to owner Jennifer Vitagliano, with a new kitchen team led by Mary Attea. They want to not only maintain and grow the level of cooking that earned the restaurant a Michelin star, but also to demonstrate that tier of dining can succeed in a more equitable, less fraught environment.