Andy Husbands '94

It’s 1996 and 26-year-old Andy Husbands is standing in front of a boarded up storefront at 647 Tremont Street. While contemplating his $300,000 debt, he thinks about everything he had done in his life to get him where he is at this moment.  
 
Born and raised in Seattle, Husbands moved to Massachusetts with his father in 1984 when he was 14. That was the year that he took an after-school job working at a neighborhood bakery, and has never looked back.
 
In 1992, following graduation from Johnson & Wales University, and numerous cooking jobs in restaurants around Boston, Husbands was hired as Sous Chef at the nationally renowned East Coast Grill, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was here that he worked under James Beard award-winning chef, Chris Schlesinger. After a year of hard work and great effort, Husbands was appointed as Executive Chef in 1993.
 
In 1995, Husbands took the year off to travel the West Coast on his motorcycle, living and working on Elizabeth Berry’s Organic farm in Abique, New Mexico and apprenticing at several San Francisco Bay area restaurants.
 
When Husbands returned, he decided to turn his long time dream of opening his own restaurant, into a reality. He and high school friend Chris Hart took all of the money they had, opened a joint bank account, and began to actively seek out investors for this very ambitious project. Over the next six months, they met with financial advisors, architects, real estate brokers and potential investors, built up a capable team of professionals, and turned this once raw retail space into a beautiful and funky high-end eating establishment.
 
Tremont 647, at long last, opened its doors in December of 1996 with the mission to provide high quality food and hospitality, in a professional, fun and funky environment.
 
The 70-seat restaurant, in the heart of Boston's South End, serves up boldly flavored American cuisine, with inventive global influences. Husbands' commitment to locally grown ingredients is reflected in the restaurant's eight-season cycle-menu, which is changed bi-monthly to take advantage of the freshest items in the market.
 
Since then, Husbands has also opened up Sister Sorel and Rouge; upon the opening of the latter, reporters humorously began dubbing the South End as “Andy Land.”
 
In September of 2004, Husbands released his first cookbook, “The Fearless Chef,” and spent the fall traveling the country and making TV, radio, and bookstore appearances on his wildly successful national cookbook tour.

Husbands has also been awarded the extremely high honor of Chef/Restaurateur of the Year in 2004. The award was presented by the nation’s leading hunger relief organization, Share Our Strength, which he has worked very closely with for the past 8 years.

Most recently, in the spring of 2005, Husbands was honored by the National Pork Board as one of only 5 chosen “Celebrated Chefs” in the country.