There’s a theme that pervades greater Cape Ann and most every story written about it. Some call the region charmed, most say there’s no place like it on earth, and none deny the synchronicities that led them here. Kim Costello’s story is another example of magical elements conspiring to lead her to the right place—in this case, the right parking lot—at the right time.
Originally from Connecticut before moving to Newburyport when she was in grade school, Costello sold food and restaurant equipment while her husband, Jim Lesko, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, worked with a high-end caterer. They also ran a design build company. Both were looking to leave corporate America. 1640 Hart House was one of Costello’s customers. (As her husband had been.) “Then it all fell in our lap,” Costello laughs. The owner at the time was about to sell yet “the sale in the eleventh hour, fell through,” she continues. “A friend who was a restaurant broker, called me and said, ‘I think I have an opportunity for you….’ I said, ‘Where’s the location?’ And when he told me, I said, ‘I’m sitting in their parking lot, I just made a delivery.’ I ran upstairs, talked to the owner, and within I would say, a week, she had agreed to sell to us. And now her granddaughter works for me. It’s come full circle.” That was twenty-two years ago.
Lesko is the executive chef and runs the back of house. Costello runs the front and the business side. “We’ve been very blessed with an unbelievable clientele. Some customers eat here five nights a week, and it’s just like family. We know everybody because we’re owner operators, so we’re out in the trenches. We’ve had people get married here. Then I’ve had their kids’ Sweet 16, their graduation parties. And now we’re doing engagements for some of these kids.”
Costello inherited some of the staff as well. “My oldest waitress is ninety.… She worked here sixteen years before I bought the restaurant. Then I hired her for twenty-two years. She’s been coming to this building for thirty-eight years! On her seventy-fifth birthday, we named the dining room where she worked after her, because everyone would say, ‘I want to sit in Rose’s living room!’ It’s called the Rosalie Sweeney Living Room.” Out on medical leave, Sweeney is “going to physical therapy to get herself in good shape to come back to work.” Costello’s business philosophy is simple and impactful: “Our belief is that you eat with your senses before the food hits your mouth so we try to make an environment that encompasses that. When you walk in, you see the place with your eyes. You want to be comfortable. When we first opened, we put in these large leather wing back chairs, and everyone I know in the industry said, ‘That’s the kiss of death!’ I said, ‘No, I like a comfortable chair.’ Industry standard used to be ‘don’t keep them comfortable in the chair, so you can flip the table.’ We try to do that, yet we try to make the place comfortable, too.”
Costello’s and Lesko’s culinary philosophy has designed a menu that reads like a comfort food checklist. It’s vast and all homemade—even the bread is baked daily. “We do a lot of comfort food, traditional New England fare with a twist and some classical dishes like steak au poivre, a classic French preparation. Chicken Milanese, again, classical preparation. Sesame-crusted tuna. Our menu bounces all over the place—poke bowls, rack of lamb. We do anything! [People] come here for lighter fare and choose a beet salad with grilled salmon, or duck. People like to have a familiar item on the menu so they feel like they’re eating at home.”
Guests experience the menu in different atmospheres: a casual bar tavern—“ our most popular room,” adds Costello—or you can enjoy white table service in a more intimate space, hang out on the decks, or opt for private dining. “We’ve had people [share] they’ve been trying to have a child for years, and now they’re having triplets. It’s nice to help people share this information with their family. We feel honored that they invite us into their lives like that.”
The restaurant was constructed a mere twenty years after the Pilgrims landed. Originally owned by Thomas Hart, Ipswich’s first selectmen, house highlights include 363-year-old fireplaces and wall panels with Colonial hand-painted tea box illustrations. In the ’20s, two of the rooms were sold to the Metropolitan and Winterthur museums and replicas were built in their place. “We definitely have some invisible staff. It’s a friendly haunting,” says Costello. Perhaps the spirit of Hart himself, rumored to have been buried under the living room.
The charmed atmosphere Costello and Lesko have created is inspired by the region, their Gloucester home and their “do unto others” philosophy. “I love Cape Ann. In the summer, I have no intention of ever traveling anywhere else than my backyard. Everyone laughs b ecause we have a gourmet kitchen, but we never cook in it! On our days off, we actually support all the restaurants locally.” 1640 also supports veterans, offering a free lunch each Veterans Day, extends holidays off to their staff and is fine with you napping on their couch after a long day. Together, they have built a world where “we treat people the way we want to be treated.”
