Photos by Linda Campos

A couple weeks in at Northern Spy, a new tavern in Canton, co-owner Daniel Myers met a customer who reintroduced himself. He was the uncle of the kids who lived next door to Myers’ family when he was growing up in central Massachusetts, and he had recently moved to Canton. With his takeout bag in one hand, the customer held his other arm around knee-level, telling the restaurant owner (and another employee) “stories about my own childhood,” Myers says.

It was exactly the type of small-town moment he had envisioned happening at Northern Spy, which opened December 26 as a sister restaurant to Cambridge’s avant-garde New England culinary history trip, Loyal Nine.

Situated along the Neponset River in a brick building at the Paul Revere Heritage Site—the original headquarters of a copper company founded by the patriot in 1801—Northern Spy is part of a historic preservation development that includes new housing, a nine-acre public park and a future museum. The location brings to life a convivial town-pub concept years in the making by Myers and his business partners, who include his wife and wine director, Rebecca Myers; and Chef Marc Sheehan.

With a menu inspired by New England and centered on a wood-burning hearth, Northern Spy aims to be a place where locals can get a really great steak or burger served with farm-fresh, seasonal ingredients and also order from a kids’ menu sourced from the same purveyors. It’s a contemporary tavern with an intriguing bar selection, as well as local coffee, soft drinks and an atmosphere comfortable for multigenerational families. In other words, it’s a high-quality dining option that doesn’t require driving into Boston.

“As folks move out to the suburbs a little bit further, you find that the food and the cuisines are going with it, which is something we're seeing everywhere throughout the United States,” says Myers. The demand for destination dining outside of cities isn’t slowing down as people continue working from home, and the economy’s relationship to downtown business districts adapts to the COVID-19 era. But that same reality has also forced the Northern Spy team to change some plans. After a historically accurate gut renovation of the copper rolling mill, service was limited to takeout for two months. On-site dining is only available now outside on the sprawling patio. Myers hopes food service employees have the chance to get the COVID vaccine before Northern Spy shows off its dining room, he says.

Despite all the masked, outdoor interactions, Northern Spy is well on its way to achieving its community-minded mission. Masks aren’t a barrier to making connections, Myers says—in fact, the opposite is true. “The impediment towards hospitality is not wearing a mask,” he notes.

Chef Sheehan has modified his menu as necessary: Grass-fed sirloin tips are the takeout steak option, for instance, rather than the hulking cuts of dry-aged beef he intends to roast over oak in the future. And finding the right packaging has been key. The Northern Spy burger, which features two smashed patties and a generous dousing of special sauce, necessitated the purchase of branded, insulated, grease-proof paper. On the coldest nights in February, the team resorted to cranking the heat inside the empty restaurant for the benefit of the food awaiting pickup.

That said, it’s been a warm welcome for Northern Spy. Myers is starting to recognize a burgeoning group of masked regulars by their eye color, hairstyle or tone of voice. And weeks before the hometown-neighborly connection, he learned about a local Facebook group because someone came in to buy 20 $50 gift cards for a social media lottery.

“My jaw dropped,” Myers says. Becoming a community mainstay is well underway, he adds, but it has less to do with the restaurant’s goals and more to do with “the effort of the folks that live in Canton.”

northernspycanton.com

This story appeared in the Spring 2021 issue.