For most chefs, moving from one restaurant to another can be a challenge. Ramon Taimanglo, however, moved from one kitchen to cooking for four sister restaurants.
Taimanglo left Park & Grove this fall to join Indigo Road Hospitality Group, where he is executive chef at Mercantile & Mash, Bar Mash, the Cedar Room and Morrison Yard.
“It is a nonstop pace,” Taimanglo said. “There is always something going on. We just came off of December. Bar Mash does a Christmas theme where they decorate the whole bar in Christmas attire and it really drives business. At the end of the year, we had some weddings and a lot of Christmas parties. It was definitely kind of work until the job is done in December.”
Taimanglo is no stranger to busy places. Before joining Indigo Road, he was executive sous chef under James Beard award-winning chef Bob Kinkead at Colvin Run Tavern in Washington D.C. In 2009, he returned to Charleston and was executive chef at High Cotton, Amen Street Fish and Raw Bar and Peninsula Grill.
Restaurants, too, have ebbs and flows, but the event business has big seasonal swings, with holidays, weddings and other celebrations.
“When you get to the private dining part, especially in the Cedar Room, there can be 150 to 250-plus guests, so the volume and the amount of prep that goes into it is sometimes a challenge,” Taimanglo said. “It’s definitely fast-paced. At Mercantile & Mash, we have our breakfast crowd from about 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and then you get your lunch crowd starting at about 10:45 a.m. until 2:30-ish. It’s pretty steady all day long. You just hear the ticket machine go off and you start cooking. It makes it challenging for the cooks, but I’m only a few steps away to jump in when needed.”
Taimanglo said he’s been adding his own twists to the menus.
“We’ve made a few changes at Merc. We’ll keep some of the standards like the avocado toast, but I’m adding my own little twist to it. We just started making our own bread in-house, so it’s a toasted sourdough with avocado, balsamic red onions and then some marinated cherry tomatoes, lots of herbs and an ‘everything spice.’ And, of course, people can add on an egg if they want.”
He added that the Bar Mash menu always changes and that he’s begun revamping private dining for the Cedar Room and Morrison Yard.
Taimanglo said that juggling all of the venues was definitely fast-paced, but “the rush of adrenaline reminds me of my younger days.”
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