Four months ago, Reza Rahmani told MassLive he was holding a contest to give away his 1920s speakeasy-style bar — Bar 25 — in Ayer, for free.
Now, the bar has two new owners who will turn it into a new bar and restaurant featuring familiar foods and drinks fused with flavors from around the world.
Chefs Terrell Wilson and Matthew Lucas were awarded Bar 25 after competing in the Rahmani’s contest held in July. The two will convert the speakeasy-style bar into a new bar and restaurant known as The Ravioli Theory. The restaurant’s website reads that the menu will offer craft cocktails and dishes “infused with global influences.”
During the competition, Wilson, 35, and Lucas, 25, faced off against two other teams. Rahmani previously told MassLive that he intended to leave Bar 25 to focus on his other two bars, Bar 25 at 38 State St., in Newburyport and Sin·A·Loa Tacos and Tequila at 3 Broadway in Salisbury.
During the competition, the three teams presented their concepts, food and drinks in front of a panel of judges at Bar 25 in Newburyport.
Rahmani, who was part of the panel, was impressed with how the two presented their concepts. He added that Wilson and Lucas are very good chefs and that their experience will bring something new to Ayer.
“They really crushed it,” Rahmani said. “Their concept was really cool.”
As of September, Rahmani said the two signed the lease for the bar and that the process of transferring licenses is underway.
“Everything that’s protocol was easy,” Rahmani said. “Going forward, what we told them was, ‘tell us what you need. We’re here to make sure you don’t fail.’ But we also don’t want it to be something where they think we are dictating something or trying to overstep our boundaries.”
Lucas told MassLive that winning the contest was “unbelievable” and thanked Rahmani for the opportunity and his continued help. He said he had wanted to open a restaurant since he entered the industry after high school and particularly wanted to do so with Wilson, with whom he is close friends.
“How many times can you get into a restaurant with no upfront cost,” Lucas said. “Its taken a lot of stress off our shoulders.”
The restaurant and bar is expected to open in November.
What is the Ravioli Theory?
The Ravioli Theory is a concept that Wilson coined during his college years at Johnson & Wales University.
The idea of the Ravioli Theory is that cultures around the world have their unique versions of well-known dishes such as ravioli, according to Wilson.
“I started noticing that every culture in its own way and form had a ravioli,” Wilson said. “The easiest way I can explain it is that it is approachable food with global influence.”
An example Wilson gave was a meatball dish that will be part of the menu.
Wilson said the meatballs would be made with Greek ingredients such as lamb, but the accompanying tzatziki sauce would be made with tomato sauce, which is found in Italian cuisine.
Lucas told MassLive the sauce has hints of tzatziki and that you could taste the cucumber and dill when you eat it.
“It’s international fusion,” Lucas said. “As it is right now, the menu does have 18 cultural influences.”
Wilson does not view himself as a chef who cooks only one cuisine — choosing instead to cook with multiple flavors and ingredients worldwide.
He also confirmed the bar will still be the focal point of the establishment and will feature drinks and cocktails with an international twist, such as a Jamaican take on a Margarita using Jamaican hibiscus flowers.
“Were adding that global influence to it as well,” he said.
As for whether ravioli itself will be a part of the menu, Wilson confirmed there will be a ravioli or pasta dish named The Ravioli Theory that changes with the seasonal menu.
“That is the only dish on the menu that is a ravioli and a pasta dish,” Wilson said.
Wilson and Lucas first met at the Farmer’s Daughter restaurant in Sudbury in 2021. At that time, Wilson was recently hired as the restaurant’s executive chef while Lucas was working as the sous chef.
Wilson said he and Lucas instantaneously created a bond, which he said was natural between an executive chef and a sous chef. The two would then become friends, with both leaving the Farmers Daughter in 2023.
“We were able to foster a really great relationship together and in a really quick time kind of became really close friends,” Wilson said. “Within that time frame, Matt was kind of pushing and driving to see if I was interested in opening our own place together.”
After leaving the restaurant, the two began formulating ideas to open their own establishment. One of Wilson’s friends then notified him about the contest to win Bar 25. At first, Wilson said he and Lucas thought it was a scam. When the pair realized it was the real deal, they sat down overnight and submitted the Ravioli Theory as their concept for the bar.
Wilson did not think he and Lucas would win Bar 25. When the two learned they were selected for interviews with Rahmani, Wilson figured they might have a shot at winning but still tempered his expectations.
“No one just wakes up one day and wins a restaurant,” he said.
When it was announced that the two chefs were one of the three final teams and pitched their concept in front of the panel, Wilson ultimately felt that he and Lucas now had a good chance of winning the bar.
“That was the moment when something said we might actually win this,” he said. “Everything came together at that moment where I was like, ’I think we got this one’ and then we found out the next day we won.”
Wilson and Lucas tell MassLive they are confident in their ability to work together and are ready to offer those in Ayer a taste of what the Ravioli Theory has to offer.
“I knew Terrell as a mentor and as a chef first and then it kind of grew into the relationship and the friendship we have now,” Lucas said. “I don’t know if there is another guy on this planet I would open a restaurant with other than Terrell.”
