In a recession, sometimes it is the mother of invention that sustains a restaurant. Robert Dunn is pinning his future on Mac Daddy, which is serving up gourmet varieties of the emergency staple in every mom”™s recipe box ”“ macaroni and cheese.
With plans to expand the concept to other locations, Dunn created Mac Daddy in Georgetown in an attempt to exploit what he sees as a market for a youthful clientele looking for a new take on the old dish that sustained them throughout their college years.
If Mac Daddy starts out in an odd location ”“ Georgetown has no university or college for miles in any direction ”“ that is because Dunn started it in the space occupied by a previous restaurant he owned called Donna Marie”™s Cucina Italiania, which had served traditional Italian fare.
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While business had been down, Dunn said he could have continued operating the restaurant, but chose a fresh start instead that could generate a “wow” factor in a down economy. His is not the only restaurant to do so ”“ up Route 7, the “Nuevo Latino” Coco Bongos recently reopened as a Mexican restaurant, and throughout Fairfield County restaurateurs have sought to reinvigorate menus or in some cases entire concepts in a bid to hold out until consumer spending resumes.
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Mac Daddy”™s signature dishes also have a signature presentation ”“ served up in the cast-iron skillets in which they are prepared.
Prices range from a small, $6 pan of “Mac U.S.A.” ”“ straight American and cheddar cheese; to the $57 Mac Daddy-sized “Mac Lobo” ”“ fresh lobster, roast corn and Asiago cheese. The menu currently has nearly 20 versions of the dish, including Mac Donna Marie in tribute to Mac Daddy”™s predecessor restaurant.
Mac Daddy also serves a compartmentalized, cast-iron sampler pan, and offers a few salads on the menu as well.
The recipes are the work of head chef Alex Castagneto, a Ridgefield native who worked at several restaurants in Boston before returning home to Fairfield County. Castagneto starts with a milk-based béchamel for all mac and cheese creations, which he said allows various cheese nuances and intensities to come through while lightening what is a typically heavy dish.
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Mac Daddy is not the first macaroni-and-cheese restaurant in the United States ”“ the idea occurred to Dunn on a June visit to New York City, where he passed Sarita”™s Macaroni & Cheese in East Village, popularly known as S”™Mac.
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He pulled together Mac Daddy in less than four weeks on $10,000 out of his own pocket, opening in time for the Independence Day holiday.
After finding the dining room furniture he wanted at IKEA, he rented a truck and hit three of the stores in the Tri-state region to come up with enough chairs to fill the room. Friends helped him cook up a logo ”“ the “C” in Mac Daddy is a piece of macaroni ”“ and he got his name out in time for the annual Georgetown Day festival in mid-June at the confluence of Redding, Wilton and Weston, attended by U.S. Rep. James Himes among others.
The Georgetown location won”™t be the last if Dunn has his way. He remains committed to the Georgetown location, where he competes with a handful of other venues along a mini-restaurant row on Main Street just off Route 7. But he sees the potential for Mac Daddy to expand into college cities like New Haven and Boston, and has proven he can get a restaurant up and running in a hurry.
