Executive Chef Hart Boyd

Commanding the Helm at Bayberry Garden in Providence

To the uninitiated, any table at Bayberry Garden is a good table—and they’re not wrong—but insiders know that the sleek chef’s counter, offering a front-row seat to Chef Hart Boyd’s open kitchen, is the place to be.

Though named executive chef this past summer, Boyd, 34, has been working the line since the restaurant opened a year and a half ago in Providence’s burgeoning Innovation and Design District, quickly becoming the neighborhood’s breakout culinary star. Assuming the role since the departure of former executive chef Mike Seely has been a seamless transition for Boyd, who had commanded kitchens from New York City to the nation’s capital.

Though his father was a chef and his mother was a server for 25 years, and later worked in catering, Boyd was hoping his apple would fall far from their tree. “I thought for a long time I needed to stay away from restaurants,” he says with a chuckle. “I didn’t think that was what I wanted to do at all.” Slowly, he took the path paved by his parents and enrolled in a culinary program at City University of New York, Kingsborough, in 2013.

Simultaneously, a friend connected him with the head chef of two beloved Brooklyn hot spots, Frankie’s 457 Spuntino and Prime Meats. “He told me he couldn’t hire me because I had no experience—it was a very reputable restaurant—but I worked there for free for about 1,000 hours, and that was my start,” says Boyd. “Then I dropped out of culinary school because the head instructor said I was failing Culinary 1, but I was the most gifted student there.”

An opportunity to lead the kitchen of a Washington, D.C., institution, Clyde’s, brought Boyd to Northern Virginia, where he married and became a father of two (he and his wife welcomed a third child, a son, a few months ago), later returning to New York to be closer to family. He was at Quality Bistro, a bustling French American brasserie in midtown Manhattan for just three weeks when the pandemic hit. The period brought great uncertainty for Boyd, as it did for every professional in the restaurant industry whose work came to a grinding halt.

“I was looking all over the country, honestly, and when I was looking in Boston, Bayberry came up,” he says. An initial call with Seely turned into a 90-minute conversation between two people passionate about all things food, soon followed by an in-person meeting where Rhode Island’s ample greenspace, windswept beaches and lower cost of living compared to New York sealed Boyd’s fate.

“I spent a good 90 days working out of the Bayberry Beer Hall and working on [Bayberry Garden’s] opening menu, so I’ve really been a part of Bayberry’s food ethos from the get-go,” says Boyd. “The menu has evolved as I have evolved, as the restaurant has evolved. I really love what we have built.” Leading the 196-seat restaurant, which occupies the first floor of the Wexford Innovation Center including the outdoor patio, dubbed The Grove, comes naturally to Boyd, who’s been critical in solidifying Bayberry Garden’s enviable reputation. With a hyper-seasonal menu rooted in coastal New England flavors yet endlessly creative, meticulously curated and downright playful at times, the chef relishes the chance to produce beautifully composed, unexpected dishes. The open kitchen allows Boyd to see guests’ faces and they take in the dish both aesthetically and physically, something he finds endlessly satisfying.

Apart from the menu’s collection of both small and large plates, there is the “Let Us Cook for You” option, a four-course chef’s choice menu where dishes might only be offered for a day or two, sometimes longer. “It’s a great avenue for us to really get creative and take different spins on things and get slightly more labor-intensive for some elements … [guests] are basically giving you full trust and confidence in whatever you put in front of them. It gives them an opportunity to try things they might not otherwise—it can be a visceral changing experience for them.”

This season, Boyd says he’ll be using a lot of apples, pears and “hard wintry squashes” along with long-braised meats, hearty ragus and reimagined pasta dishes. Citing Rhode Island’s abundant Italian American heritage, he wants to avoid what’s already being done with pasta, which remains one of his favorite things to eat. “I want it to be more than just ‘the flavors are delicious.’ I want people to think that the food is thoughtful, not just the greatest hits,” he explains.

Bayberry Garden’s owners, Tom and Natalie Dennen, who made their restaurant debut in the city when they opened Bayberry Beer Hall on the West Side in 2017, have admired Boyd’s talent from day one. “The thing that I love about Hart is that he’s so versatile in his training and his background, from his comfort food style to his finer-dining style,” says Tom, calling the chef “incredibly talented.”

Adds Natalie, “One of the things that touched me first about him is that [on] every plate of food that he puts out, there’s something familiar, but there’s also something that’s going to stretch your palate or stretch your mind.”

As the team heads into their second autumn in the sun-drenched space, punctuated by cascading vines and greenery throughout, there’s a sense of steadiness as Boyd settles into this new but familiar role. Says the chef, “I think we are really putting forward something that is different and worthy of the journey.”

(Recipe available at EdibleRhody.com.)

Bayberry Garden
225 Dyer St., Providence
401.642.5013; BayberryGarden.com

Visit EdibleRhody.com to find a delicious fall Bayberry menu with recipes for:

• Seared Cabbage Wedge with Blue Cheese, Bacon and Walnuts

• Bone-in Pork Chop with Braised Apple and Mustard Greens

• Miso Skillet Upside-Down Cake