Ashley Flagg: The Laurel

By Alex Dueben

The Laurel is a new restaurant, but the chef behind it has been working at restaurants in Connecticut and Massachusetts for the past decade including stints at Grant’s in West Hartford, Millwright’s in Simsbury, and Hamilton Park and High George at the Blake Hotel in New Haven. This year, Ashley Flagg and her wife are opening their West Hartford restaurant focused on “shareable plates, globally inspired, locally sourced.”

“It’s a nice way of saying that I just want to cook whatever I want to cook,” Flagg said with a smile when we sat down at the restaurant during renovations. “When I first started cooking, I was living on my own for the first time, and I was reaching out to family members for recipes that I missed. My grandmother’s from Spain, but she grew up in Mexico and Nicaragua. My stepdad’s British. My mom’s French Canadian. And then I started learning about my friends’ food and their culture.

“I just kept evolving. And it helped me in terms of my techniques, because every culture has a different technique for doing something. It broadened my horizons as a chef. In this restaurant, I want to recreate that. And I want my staff, who’s from all different cultures, to have input on the menu in that way, too.”

Two themes that kept coming up in my long conversation with Flagg were consistency and change. Consistency in terms of food and work, and quality, and change. “What we saw during the pandemic is people just want good food. And if you’re consistently providing good food, people will find you and come to you. That’s all you can really do,” Flagg said. “You just have to stay consistent.”

The other big idea that Flagg kept returning to was change. Whether talking about how the menu shifts seasonally to how she works has changed to the changes she’s seen in the industry and the culture at large since she started working in kitchens.

“I’ve seen a lot of change in the restaurant industry. I still think it has a very long way to go,” Flagg said. “I see a lot of women and people of color in this industry who have to work harder. My wife, Rebekkah, and I knew that our plan would have to be a cut above because women in this industry face a little bit more scrutiny. As women in this industry, we know that we have to work a little bit harder,” Flagg said, adding “I think the industry needs to meet us at our standards where we’re working. I think that the people that are getting the advantages right now are working a bit below where they should be, and they can come and meet us at our standards and our level where we’re working.”

Some of that change centered on how she worked. “When I first started cooking, I really thought I had to be this bully chef. That was how I was trained,” Flagg said. “But no amount of me yelling at [the staff] is going to give them a positive work experience.”

“We really want to create a culture, a positive work environment, where everybody’s supporting each other and growing with each other–where we can be a part of our cooks’ and our servers’ lives in a positive way—help them get to the next step in their lives or their career, whatever it may be, whether it’s with us or somebody else,” Flagg said. “There’s been a lot of people in this industry that have been a very positive impact for me. And I want to be that for other people.”

One way is making sure employees have two days in a row off, something not the norm. “While it’s a tough decision to make as a business manager, at Millwright’s for a long period of time, we had two days off in a row, and I found that my staff was in much better shape when they had those two days to just completely forget about this place. It’s a good thing. It’s a good thing for your mental health.”

While the restaurant will be very different from the Corner Pug, which it replaces, Flagg admits that it won’t be wildly different in some ways. “We want to be the place that the community comes to and wants to bring people to. Is the food going to be different? Yes. But at the end of the day, I think the overall feeling is going to be the same. We want a sense of community.”

As for why it’s called The Laurel, it goes back to Flagg’s grandmother. “My grandmother’s road was Laurel Grove Road. I’m very close with my grandmother. She’s 101 right now. And I know—despite her telling me that she’s going to live forever—that might not in fact be true. So, I want her to still be a part of this restaurant even when she’s not here,” Flagg said.

“I think like the biggest influence you’ll see from my grandmother on my menu is my general curiosity about different cultures. She provided that to me, whether she knows it or meant to or not,” Flagg said. “She’s a huge part of who I am as a chef.”

Pork Belly with BBQ Beans & Herb Salsa

Pork Belly:

1 boneless skinless belly 

Juice of two limes

Salt and pepper 

Tabasco

Rub the belly generously with tabasco (or hot sauce of your choice), lime juice and then season thoroughly with salt and pepper and let this sit in the fridge for at least 6 hours but preferably overnight. You won’t be rinsing the pork belly so make sure the amount of seasoning you are using is the amount you want on your final product. Roast at 350 until fork tender, meaning you can easily push a fork through it without resistance. Allow the pork belly to cool completely and then cut into desired size (I recommend about one-inch pieces). Slicing it hot will cause the juices to run and we want to avoid this.

For the beans:

One quart gigante beans (soaked overnight) you can sub for any dry bean you like or if you don’t have time just use canned beans and add it to the cooking liquid after you reduce it.

1 large white onion small diced

1/4 lb bacon diced

2 ea bay leaves

½ lb dark brown sugar

1 pt ketchup

2 oz sherry vinegar

Hot sauce, S and p to taste

Soak beans overnight and then cook on low heat in water until soft all the way through.  Season the water when beans are almost cooked. While beans cook, sweat onions and bacon in a large pot until bacon is rendered. Add sugar and stir constantly until caramelized, and then deglaze with vinegar. Allow the vinegar to cook out a bit, and then add the ketchup, bay leaves and fully cooked beans. Simmer until the liquid is reduced and the flavor is absorbed into the beans. It’s important that the beans are cooked all the way before adding to the liquid. Don’t rush this. Right before removing from the stove, season with salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste.

For the herb salsa:

2 oz parsley chopped

2 oz cilantro chopped

2 oz scallions sliced

2 cloves garlic chopped

1 jalapeno minced (seeds removed)

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Salt and hot sauce to taste

Olive oil to coat herbs (mucho take it easy)

1 tb sherry vinegar

Cut all herbs accordingly and then add all ingredients to a bowl and mix, season to taste with salt and hot sauce.

For the plate up:

Reheat your pork belly in the oven or if desired you can reheat them in a pan with a little bit of butter, herbs and garlic for added flavor. An air fryer would also work. Serve the pork belly over the hot beans and top with your herb salsa. We recommend eating this with corn bread or a good sour dough (we love Small State Provisions out of West Hartford and Avon).