BU Today feature: Leftover Turkey? Try the Flying Rhino’s Turkey Tetrazzini
This article was originally published in BU Today on November 19, 2018. By Megan Woolhouse. Video by Alan Wong. Photos by Jackie Ricciardi.
There’s nothing boring, or even ordinary, about a meal at the Flying Rhino Café & Watering Hole in Worcester.
Its popular Philly cheesesteak sandwich features chicken, not beef. The Mediterranean fattoush salad? It comes spiked with banana peppers and feta cheese. The entrées are just as creative, like a Korean Beef Stew of braised short ribs with a suggested pairing of Soju, a traditional Korean spirit. Thirsty? How bout a Frisky Whiskey, a mash-up of whiskey, mango syrup, and lemonade. Even the décor is one of a kind. A red chandelier and an elaborate mosaic of a flying rhino on a magic carpet greets customers.
Sterile Olive Garden this is not. The Phantom Gourmet calls the restaurant “so wonderfully wacky you can’t help but love it.”
To know the Flying Rhino is to know Paul and Melina Barber, two BU alums who have spent the last 18 years welcoming guests to their restaurant vision.
Like its owners, the Flying Rhino is unpretentious, artsy, and fun. A weekday lunch rush sees a diverse crowd of businessmen, construction workers, and employees from nearby UMass Medical Center who come for the food and the vibe.
Keeping the concept fresh has meant the Barbers put their heart and soul into thinking up new and interesting ways to keep customers coming back. They change the menu twice a year, offering new dishes with seasonal ingredients. They also take care with time-honored favorites, like crab rangoon and wontons. Melina Barber (CFA’87) makes 1,000 of them by hand every week.
Restaurant industry veteran Paul Barber (MET’87) oversees the operation—and the fun. Every summer he trucks in enough sand to turn the parking lot into a weekend “beach party,” with bands and food. Regular customers see familiar faces: many employees started working there when the restaurant opened in 2000.
“It makes it a fun place to be,” Melina says, “because you’re with friends.”
The Barbers have been cooking together with friends since their undergraduate days at BU. They met as freshmen in the early ’80s when they lived on the 12th floor of Warren Towers. By sophomore year, they were dating.
From a large Greek family in Worcester, the then Melina Capsalis came to BU on a full ride to study sculpture. Her father owned Art’s Luncheonette, a well-known Grove Street eatery, as well as Frosty’s, a soft-serve spot next to the legendary bargain outlet Spag’s. She’d waited tables for years, but at BU she picked up cooking techniques from her future husband, who studied hospitality.
“I got a secondhand culinary degree from BU,” she says. “I learned everything Paul and his friends were learning. They’d learn how to do things like debone a fish and come home and practice the techniques, and I’d watch and do the same thing.”