Newton in the Kitchen

Newton Native Kathy Sidell "Met" with Success in Food and Film

Kathy Sidell, owner of the Metropolitan Club in Chestnut Hill and four other MET restaurants, talks about how being from Newton has shaped her career as a film producer and restaurateur.

The word metropolitan can mean “characteristic of a metropolis in accepting and combining a wide variety of people and ideas.” So it’s no wonder Kathy Sidell chose to name the restaurants in her “collection” (she prefers this term to “chain”) with variations on Metropolitan Club. The group includes the original on Route 9 in Chestnut Hill, MET Bar and Grill outposts at The Natick Collection and at Legacy Place in Dedham, MET Back Bay, and the newest member, MET on Main in Nantucket. But as diverse as the locations of the restaurants are, they all reflect Sidell’s upbringing on Baldpate Hill Road right here in Newton. “I worked extra hard at being accessible, real, earthy,” Sidell explains. “I didn’t want the fact that I came from a wealthy…

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Wendy Schapiro

11:03 am on Friday, December 14, 2012

Factual corrections: Neither Kathy nor Todd English were involved with Pomme Frites (there was an error to that effect in an article on a tribute to her father that was held a couple of years ago). Sorry for the mistake!   more ›

Newton Restaurant Owed Back Wages to Underpaid Employees

Fresh City on Needham Street in Newton is one of the 34 Boston-area restaurants that owed $1.3 million in back wages, according to a press release from the Department of Labor.

Updated 10:26 a.m. with a statement from the Fresh City CEO. The U.S. Labor Department has found that 34 Boston-area restaurants owe more than $1.3 million in back wages to employees, including Fresh City in Newton Upper Falls and The Metropolitan Club in Chestnut Hill (Brookline).  According to a press release issued Thursday by the U.S. Labor Department, officials found violations relating minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping. The approximate $1.3 million is owed to 478 employees at various establishments around Boston.  During the investigation, the Labor Department found that some restaurants were paying flat salaries for all hours worked and not including any overtime pay. Some restaurants were also paying incorrect overtime …

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