The truth about Charley is this - he wants to bring great sandwiches to Boston. "I just saw a need. They just don't have good sandwiches here."
At 10:40 on a wet Saturday morning, Charley is buttoning up his chef jacket as he says, "It's getting late. We need to start making some progress."
About a year ago, Charley and his wife Rachel started planning to open their own breakfast and sandwich shop. Back then, she was writing for Cook's Illustrated, and he was working in America's Test Kitchen and freelancing for Gourmet magazine. They made a choice, and Charley started working on recipes. Nine months later, they had a location, and Charley had perfected The Spuckie. A few months and a few delays later, they finally opened the door of Cutty's in Brookline Village. That was one week ago.
Cutty's could be in Real Simple magazine with blond wood floors, table tops to match, and one of the white walls painted half chalkboard green for use as the menu. The kitchen is open and obvious; when food arrives, it does so on simple white dishes.
Rachel looks the part: a mess of brown hair, a huge smile, pretty and straightforward. She greets people with the sweet over-exuberance of a new shop owner who is thrilled by every customer who walks in.
Besides being around six-foot-four, Charley is pretty average, with reddish-brown hair, good-looking, and friendly. He is the kind of guy that women would call cute but not sexy, and guys would say he is just one of them.
The truth is, if you called Central Casting and asked them for a couple to star in a romantic comedy about a cute couple starting their sandwich shop, you would get Charley and Rachel Kelsey.
At 11:37, progress is being made. Charley keeps a smooth-running kitchen. As they prepare for what he hopes will be a lunchtime rush, he checks in on what his team is doing.
"Dena, can you slice the sharp Parmesan for me? Thin...you know what I am saying, right?" He says in a certain tone.
Dena chuckles, "Yeah."
"No, really." Then Charley shows her. There is a whirring of the slicer. "See, it should be so thin it starts to break apart."
The truth about Charley is that sometimes you can't tell if he is kidding or not. His team loves it. It keeps the kitchen loose. Dena first worked under Charley as an intern at the Test Kitchen. After that, she wanted to be involved in whatever he was doing. "He wants you to learn from him." She says, "He respects the people and the food. He knows we are not just machines."
In the background, Charley quotes from the movie Semi-Pro: "Everybody love everybody!" Everybody is hard at work, but they all laugh.
At 12:20, the truth about Charley is that he is jovial. He gets more so the busier it gets. The rush has become a reality. Charley in the kitchen is a touch like Brian Scalabrine on the basketball court. A little awkward, but you realise he has a particular kind of (still slightly awkward) grace and definitely gets the job done.
Even when it's busy, Charley seems relaxed. "I am relaxed...this is making sandwiches." He laughs and lays two more edible masterpieces on plates. He pulls the ticket for the next order and starts humming.
Charley is his hands. His lean fingers make utensils look miniature, but they move deftly, particularly adding just one more slice of meat or cheese. Charley does not slap together these sandwiches. Rather, he builds them quickly but with the care used in assembling a house of cards.
At 2:03 in the afternoon, Charley is precisely where he wants to be. Business has slowed, and he is in Cutty's kitchen delivering a diatribe about his goal to make high-quality food more affordable, why there are not any good sandwiches in Boston, the building blocks of a great sandwich, and the process of designing his signature sandwich, The Spuckie.
The truth about Charley is he is a hard-working guy trying to create something special, and He is passionate about sandwiches.
"If you don't like a sandwich, you're just an asshole." He is smiling, but he is serious.
In the dining room, everyone takes bites out of their sandwiches and nods slowly in approval.
The truth about Charley Kelsey is that he is making it easier not to be a Masshole...one sandwich at a time.