Rebecca Fetner- PR & Marketing Manager

Rebecca grew up in New York and moved to Boston where she attended Boston University and received a Bachelors of Science in Communication.  Rebecca joined the Rialto team in June 2009.   Hospitality is an innate trait of Rebecca’s personality and influences her role in the Rialto team.  At Rialto, Rebecca works to maintain the website and is launching a new website in 2012, build the social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, maintain the internal restaurant climate by planning Guerrilla Grilling trips, staff gatherings and incentives, monitors Rialto’s giving program to the non-profits that Rialto is committed to supporting.  Born into a family of foodies and cooks, since childhood Rebecca has been immersed in a world that is expressed through food.  She is a firm believer that food brings people together and helps build strong relationships. In 2011 Rebecca helped start the Team Rialto Pan-Mass Challenge, now Team Rialto-TRADE helping fundraise $65,000 for the team.

Annie Sarkis- Special Events Manager

Annie joins Rialto with a background in special events. A graduate of Suffolk University, Annie parlayed her education and innate hospitable qualities into a position at the prestigious Boston advertising agency, Hill Holliday. While at Hill Holliday Annie represented the company and delivered their strategic goals and messages through all points of customer contact, ranging from corporate gifts and client meetings to the flawless execution of elegant, creative and customized events for top executives and high level dignitaries.  Annie then moved her creative vision, to CMT Entertainment where she worked with a team of experienced event specialists by providing unique concepts and themes and accruing sponsorships for many non-profit agencies across the city.  In 2007, Annie joined Longwood Event, in detailing and executing the social side of events. Helping to implement the highest level of service Annie has focused in facilitating more than 100+ weddings at State Room.  Annie moved her talent, strong comprehension of special events to the Rialto team in August 2009

Allison Foote-Wine Director

Allison Foote first landed in Cambridge after completing undergraduate degrees in both German and International Studies at Allegheny College in 2006.  She quickly identified with the local artisanal community and her epicurean curiosity lead her to Rialto, where she cultivated a passion for hospitality through the lens of Italian food and wine culture.  You may recognize her from previous dining experience with her as a server and bartender.  The world of wine became her first love, which has since triggered the endless quest for knowledge about classic cocktails, spirits and the ever evolving world of craft beers.  On her days off, you can find her in the garden, brewing beer and tearing apart the kitchen with friends. As the current Wine Director, Allison includes a healthy mix of the die-hard classics, a few esoteric studies, and the international favorites on the Rialto wine list.  She enjoys developing seasonal cocktail menus in the Rialto Bar, which aim to highlight artisanal spirits and ingredients that are fresh and locally available.  Her favorite aspect of working with the Rialto team is the collaborative approach to menu design that truly promotes the cohesion of flavors between food and beverage pairing.  Allison finds the opportunity to learn more about ingredients and how they are incorporated exciting and sharing that satisfaction to be most rewarding.
 

Brian Rae- Chef de Cuisine

Brian grew up in Ridgefield, Connecticut.  After high school, he went to The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, graduating in 1997. Rae then worked in restaurants in his Connecticut hometown, at Bernard’s and The Elms Inn. The zealous young chef’s introduction to serious seafood was with Chef Steve Cavagnaro at Nantucket’s long-standing seafood institution Straight Wharf. Cavagnaro’s simple approach to food taught Rae how to best utilize and highlight ingredients.  Seeking more experience in a culinary city, Rae joined the opening team for Rick Moonen’s first Vegas restaurant, RM Seafood, as sous chef. After a year, Moonen promoted Rae to chef de cuisine of the fine dining arm of the two-in-one restaurant. Under Moonen, Rae has continued his extensive training in seafood, with a focus on sustainability, and further developed his ingredient-driven sensibility.  In 2008 Brian won a rising StarChefs award. Brian joined the Rialto team as sous chef in November 2009.

Peter McKenzie- Sous Chef

Peter grew up in Washington DC.  He studied at the North West Culinary Institute in Vancouver B.C.  He worked in a few small fine dining restaurants and catering companies in Vancouver before moving back to D.C. where he worked at a southern inspired French restaurant called Vidalia.  Peter moved from prep cook to chef de tournant in a year and upon moving to Boston was recommended to work with Jody Adams.  Peter started at Rialto in late 2008 as a line cook and after a short stint in Nantucket joins the Rialto team as sous chef. Peter is interested in offals and off cuts as well as increasing peoples interest in the more delicious less desirable parts of the animal.

Susan Abbott —Pastry chef                                   

After receiving a B.S. in Conservation of Natural  Resources from the University of California, Berkeley, Susan took a turn into the food world. A graduate of the NewEngland Culinary Institute, Susan has worked as a pastry chef at Shelbourne House in Shelbourne, VT, Sherborn Inn in Sherborn, MA, SuSu Bakery Boutique in Wellesley, MA and Foley's Bakery in Portland, ME, among other restaurants and bakeries. The Boston Globe restaurant critic Alison Arnett, in her recent four-star review of Rialto, proclaimed, "Rialto's dessert is a good course to linger over." She went on to say, "the buttermilk sherbet with mascarpone tart in a cornmeal crust, offset with blueberries soaked in grappa, really steals the show."