{"id":41974,"date":"2023-01-12T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=41974"},"modified":"2023-01-12T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T11:00:00","slug":"the-barn-is-being-raised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/01\/12\/the-barn-is-being-raised\/","title":{"rendered":"The Barn is being raised"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Danielle Ray Landmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

PRINCETON Relaunching her family\u2019s restaurant in town is a dream come true for Gabi Bennett.<\/p>\n

Gabi co-owns The Barn, formerly the Mountain Barn for decades, with her mother Carla Zottoli and manages it along with her husband, Ryan. Her family, as well as her husband\u2019s, have been in Princeton for generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe three of us grew up here. Each of us moved away for a bit in our 20s, and all of us ended up coming back to our beautiful hometown to settle in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After attending Wellesley College to study math and living in California for several years to work in the entertainment industry, Gabi was recruited by IBM. Eventually, she moved back to Princeton \u201cafter realizing the corporate world, as well as California and cities in general, were not for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFunnily enough, after my mom graduated from college in her 20s, she moved out to California to work in Hollywood as well, and (she) ended up moving back home to run what was the Mountain Barn,\u201d Gabi said. \u201cMy husband had gone to school in Ohio, then moved out West to Jackson Hole, and the same week I\u2019d moved back, (he) also moved back to Princeton.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple grew up a mile from each other and rode the same school bus, but somehow they only first met when both moved back home at the age of 26 \u2013 in the lobby of the Mountain Barn, the popular spot her grandparents Bill and Peg Zottoli built along with her mother 40 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey ran it for several years until my mom took over operations, then about 20 years ago leased the Mountain Barn to my cousins, Steve and Mindy Zottoli, who ran it until its closing in August 2021,\u201d Gabi said of the restaurant\u2019s family history.<\/p>\n

She \u201calways had a gut feeling,\u201d she said, that one day she would run the family restaurant, but \u201cthought it would be much further down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019d asked the universe for for years, and when the opportunity presented itself, who was I to tell the universe its timing was off?\u201d Gabi said. \u201cRyan and I were on our honeymoon when my mom called to tell us the Mountain Barn was shutting down and that it was our turn if we wanted it. And of course, we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

They had two conditions, though. One, if they were going to reopen it, they were \u201cgoing to do it in a way that felt true to us and that we were passionate about.\u201d And two, that her mother had to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had run the Mountain Barn for 15 years and had worked in so many areas of the industry, she just had so much wisdom that we would need to make this work,\u201d Gabi said of her mom. \u201cThe heart of the rebranding was to let people know that this is a different restaurant but that we love and respect the life it\u2019s lived and the memories it holds.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are aiming to open The Barn doors later this month or early February, depending on how everything goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs anyone who\u2019s taken on a renovation project knows, the unexpected always has a way of popping up, but we are clicking along and getting very close,\u201d Gabi said. \u201cThe reopening process has been \u2026 a process.<\/p>\n

\u201cRenovation is never an easy task, and especially an old building that has seen so much life as this one takes quite a bit of TLC. It hasn\u2019t been easy, but every minute has been such a labor of love. And most of the time, it\u2019s been a blast. It\u2019s been a serious, all-hands-on deck family effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said they have been describing the menu to people as \u201cseasonally and locally inspired elevated comfort food.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lucked out finding the most incredibly talented, creative chef, Eric Marvin,\u201d Gabi said. \u201cWe told him our concept, and he ran with the menu in ways we couldn\u2019t have even imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

The menu will change every four months to highlight the unique flavors and ingredients of New England that are featured during each particular season \u201cand delivering them in unexpected ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is that our customers will see things they recognize, but perhaps prepared in a way, or featuring an ingredient that they may not be familiar with,\u201d Gabi said. \u201cOf course, there will be some classics on the menu, done The Barn way, that you\u2019ll always be able to go back to, but there\u2019s definitely the opportunity to try something different that might become your new go-to. Or even better, to try something new each time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reaction and response from the community to the relaunch has been nothing short of positive, she noted, and said that if she could say something to those who have shown their support, it would be a simple but heartfelt thank you.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most incredible parts of the experience has been people in the community just showing up to help when they see our cars out front,\u201d she said. \u201cThey know who they are, and we are endlessly grateful. It\u2019s been incredibly humbling and even more motivation to do everyone proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how they are all feeing about opening and welcoming both new patrons and their regulars back, Gabi summed it up in two words: \u201cSo excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe single most important thing to us, and the driving factor behind every decision we make, is that The Barn should feel like you\u2019re coming to our home. The staff we\u2019ve hired are all truly exceptional people who light up a room and make you feel so welcome. Literally every single one of them. The changes we\u2019ve made to the interior are all meant to make the space warm, cozy and inviting. We\u2019re all just so excited to bring our community into the space, to show them what we\u2019ve been working on for the past year, and to give them a really special experience from the second they walk through that door.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Barn will be a change from what the Mountain Barn was, and we know that change isn\u2019t always easy, but it will be worth it,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe\u2019re pouring everything we\u2019ve got into this place and can\u2019t wait to give the community a place to once again come together, make memories, and eat really, really good food.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRINCETON Relaunching her family\u2019s restaurant in town is a dream come true for Gabi Bennett. Gabi co-owns The Barn, formerly the Mountain Barn for decades, with her mother Carla Zottoli and manages it along with her husband, Ryan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}