The
Couple
Who
Made
Worcester
Cool
Starting with great local food and craft beer,
Alec Lopez and Sherri Sadowski are shaping the
Wormtown scene
by
ELIZABETH GREENWOOD
TONY LUONG
photos by
S
even years ago, a tattooed young couple, Sherri
Sadowski and Alec Lopez, went out to dinner in
Worcester, Massachusetts. They had high standards.
Both were already veterans of the hospitality indus-
try. Sadowski had been tending bar since lying about her age
at 17, and Lopez had recently gone from employee to owner
of the Dive Bar, a mecca of craft beer on Green Street. And
good food is in their blood. Sadowski grew up on a small farm
in Rhode Island, and her first job was manning a roadside
vegetable stand with her brother. As a boy, Lopez spent afternoons at his grandfather’s bistro in Argentina before moving
to Holden, Massachusetts, at age 10.
When the night was over, the couple had dropped $120 on
yet another meal that left them underwhelmed. They looked
at each other and said, “We’re going to do this.” They decided
to open a place of their own.
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Take!—!December 2015 / January 2016
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PREVIOUS SPREAD: Alec Lopez and Sherri Sadowski in the beer garden at the Dive Bar.
Back then, they could not have imagined how big “this”
Before Armsby Abbey’s launch in 2008, Worcester
ABOVE: Beer taps at Armsby Abby
“Main Street is cursed,” he said, and hung up the phone.
Worcester,” Lopez says. They hired a cabinetmaker from
Petersham, Massachusetts, to re-create the rolled elbow
would be. Sadowski and Lopez are today the visionaries
didn’t register as a haven for conscientiously and locally
Ten minutes later, Lopez called Sadowski back and
behind Worcester’s acclaimed Armsby Abbey and Crust
sourced foods. Sure, it is the birthplace of the diner,
said he was standing in front of the most beautiful store-
Artisan Bakeshop, along with the Dive Bar. Their estab-
with the Miss Worcester and the Boulevard still oper-
front he’d ever seen.
lishments have come to signify a conscientious yet down-
ating as beloved landmarks, and it’s renowned for Hot
“What’s the address?” Sadowski asked.
to-earth approach to meals: a warm hearth of community
Dog Annie’s in neighboring Leicester. But Sadowski
“144 Main Street,” Lopez responded.
planned on operating as a bar first, a restaurant second.
where you can’t help but order another round and sop
and Lopez were aiming for a more refined taste. As they
They began renovations a week later.
Their first kitchen ran out of a space no larger than a
it up with choices as eclectic as poutine, vinegar pulled
sought to realize the dream they both had of opening
Until recently, Main Street in Worcester was a dead
pork, merguez flatbread, and watermelon carpaccio. The
a place with craft cocktails, a vast beer selection, and
end. As Zack Photakis, proprietor of the Owl Shop tobac-
flavors are exotic, yet all ingredients come from just a
simple food meant to be shared, their hometown didn’t
conist just down the street, which has been in business
short drive away. One patron described the outdoor beer
originally cross their minds. They looked in Lowell, with
since 1946, says, “If I ever told you I’d be drinking 12%
garden at the Dive, which remains open with a fire pit
its proximity to Boston and its walkable downtown.
small-batch beer and sucking the crap out of smoked
edge as a subtle echo of the older bar.
When they opened Armsby Abbey in 2008 at the
height of the financial crisis, Sadowski and Lopez
“If I ever told you I’d be drinking
12% small-batch beer and sucking the
crap out of smoked bone marrow on
Main Street, I’d think I was lying.”
and heat lamps in winter, as “your best friend’s backyard.”
Sadowski and Lopez had left Worcester for spells, but
bone marrow on Main Street, I’d think I was lying.” But
Sadowski describes Armsby Abbey as the type of place
something always pulled them back. “It was me,” admits
like the 2004 Red Sox, Sadowski and Lopez reversed
where you will power down your phone, shake off the
Alec, recalling how he convinced Sadowski to move back
the curse.
day, and engage with the people and world around you.
from sunny Arizona so they could be together. “She came
The secret to their success has been honoring what is
In their seven years as restaurateurs, Sadowski and
back kicking and screaming.” One day, Sadowski was
local, and the restaurant space itself was no exception.
Lopez have also helped resuscitate a once-blighted down-
perusing Craigslist and happened upon her ideal loca-
The couple was faithful to the warm inherent features
tion burners, and a panini press. From that tiny space,
town in Massachusetts’s second-largest city. They have
tion: a storefront with big glass windows and exposed
of the room: raw brick, big iron columns, and natural
Armsby Abbey swept the Best of Worcester Awards in
cultivated a homegrown DIY culture that is manifesting
brick. Giddy, she called Lopez and told him of the gem
light pouring in from the massive windows. The pièce
2009, claiming the titles of Best New Restaurant and
far beyond their communal tables.
of a find.
de résistance was a handcrafted mahogany bar, which
Best Chef. “But we’re a bar, not a restaurant!” Sadowski
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utility closet with two electric ovens, two portable induc-
“Where is it?” he asked.
they designed in homage to the bar at the Dive. “That bar
remembers thinking. Then she adds, “We keep letting
“144 Main Street,” she responded.
[at the Dive] is over 100 years old and a historic piece of
Armsby tell us what it wants to be, and we listen.”
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With Armsby, Crust, and the Dive, Sadowski and
Lopez don’t just celebrate homegrown foods. They also
celebrate homegrown talent.
Molly McGrath, the owner of Grime, a vintage clothing shop on Shrewsbury Street, approached Lopez to
make one of her lifelong dreams come true: a live production of the movie Wet Hot American Summer on the
back patio of the Dive. The event was standing room
only, and spectators dangled off the Providence and
Worcester Railroad overpass to catch a glimpse. “The
Dive isn’t doing the typical karaoke or dance night that
could be anywhere,” McGrath says. “Alec is trusting and
allowing local people to play out their vision.”
“They are the founding fathers
of the farm-to-table movement
in central Massachusetts.”
That passion is percolating. On a section of Main
Street formerly occupied by tumbleweeds, new shops
and restaurants are thriving, like the consignment shop
Crust Artisan Bakeshop, a few doors down from Armsby Abbey.
Trunk & Disorderly. The long-empty vocational high
The Dive Bar.
Armsby Abbey’s menu changes not seasonally but
blue cheese with its soul mate of a craft beer, arranging
weekly, dictated purely by the ingredients available.
their famous slabs of local charcuterie, pickles, and small-
school and courthouse have been turned into apartments since Armsby Abbey opened its doors, all within
stumbling distance.
Chambers of commerce from cities beyond Worcester
I spoke to executive chef Damian Evangelous in mid-Sep-
batch mustards, Sadowski and Lopez revel in indigenous
have approached Sadowski and Lopez to bring their for-
tember, on the shoulder between summer and fall. “The
flavors that have always been in Worcester.
mula of revitalization, that elusive and desirable shift so
end of the season is an interesting time. I have to figure
At Crust Artisan Bakeshop, just a few doors down from
out ways in the next few weeks to shift things,” says
Armsby Abbey, the retail shelves are stocked with tilled
been asked to re-create Armsby Abbey in Singapore. For
Evangelous, who now cooks in a state-of-the-art kitchen.
flour and cornmeal from Massachusetts fields—the same
the moment they have demurred, keeping their gaze
Sorting through the latest delivery of peppers, toma-
grains that go into Crust’s breads, scones, and dough-
focused locally. The most inspiring change the couple
toes, pumpkins, and apples, he was creating a dish that
nuts—and locally produced honey and sriracha sauce.
has witnessed, Lopez says, is more restaurants follow-
would use summer peaches alongside autumn butternut squash and sage.
many former factory towns seek. The couple has even
Sadowski’s and Lopez’s success has instigated a trick-
ing suit and taking advantage of the bounty available
le-down effect across the region, with more demand for
just outside their door.
Customers have embraced the seasonal approach to
fresh ingredients. “They are the founding fathers of the
In a fitting tribute to the philosophy that has made
food—although staff members still occasionally have to
farm-to-table movement in central Massachusetts,” says
it such a success, Armsby Abbey celebrated its seventh
explain to guests why Armsby Abbey doesn’t serve toma-
Lynn Stromberg of Lettuce Be Local, which delivers
anniversary earlier this year at Tougas Family Farm, one
toes in December. Their ever-changing menus flaunt the
farm produce to local businesses. Stromberg connects
of the purveyors Sadowski and Lopez have been work-
names of dozens of local farms the restaurant supports.
75 central Massachusetts farms with restaurants, hos-
ing with since the beginning. With a long communal
Tougas Family Farm in Northborough, Massachusetts,
pitals, and schools. “People are dumbfounded to learn
table set up in a sun-dappled field, they could’ve been
for example, yields sun-ripened blueberries and apples.
that we have a huge amount of farms just minutes from
on Sadowski’s family farm in Rhode Island or at a Lopez
A smattering of Vermont dairies provide an array of cow
the city,” she says. And that money stays local.
family reunion in Argentina. But they were surrounded
and sheep cheeses. Carefully pairing the perfect creamy
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Hops growing in the Dive Bar beer garden.
by chefs, bakers, bartenders, and friends in Worcester’s
backyard.▪
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