Nightshade Noodle Bar

Nightshade Noodle Bar, a 33 seat boutique restaurant nestled in the heart of downtown Lynn at 73 Exchange Street, offers cafe-style food + service by day and progressive Vietnamese-influenced small plates, eclectic noodle dishes + Viet-Cajun seafood by night

Rachel Miller | Chef/Owner

Rachel first fell in love with cooking while working at a small restaurant on the coast of Virginia. It was there that she discovered the profound sensory impact of terroir, since the restaurant sourced ingredients from nearby farms and local fishermen. She also discovered a love for butchering and charcuterie, which quickly propelled her to move to Boston to pursue her talents with the knife. Over the next 12 years, Miller worked her way up into some of the best kitchens in Boston, taking on the role of Executive Sous Chef at Bondir Restaurants, Chef de Cuisine at TW Food, Coppa, and most notably Chef de Cuisine at Clio, Ken Oringer’s award-winning flagship restaurant. She also was named one of Zagat’s 30 Under 30: Boston’s Hottest Up and Comers.

In the spring of 2017, Miller unveiled her pop up restaurant Nightshade, an urban-casual dining experience that offers different types of events from tasting menus with wine and beverage pairings, to Viet-Cajun seafood dinner parties and collaboration dinners with other chefs. She has attracted audiences to Nightshade with her creative and elegant culinary style and a stellar team of collaborators. Her first brick and mortar, Nightshade Noodle Bar,  is slated to open September 2019 in Lynn, Ma.

Liana Van de Water | Wine & Service Director

It was Liana’s first job as a busser at the local dinner theatre in Boulder, Colorado, that led her into the world of food service and hospitality. She instantly fell in love with the tempo of service. After leaving the Dinner Theatre, she gained a range of serving experiences; from fine dining to fast-paced lunch service, to wine bar to jazz club, she learned the congruencies of service as well as what makes each experience special.

In her late twenties, Liana moved to Boston, MA where she began pursuing a Master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling with a specialization in expressive arts therapy. During this time she served and bartended at the James Beard Award-winning restaurant Oleana, where she began to develop a passion for natural wine and culturally rooted food. Once she graduated and began working as a counselor full time, Liana found she could not leave the energy of restaurants behind. They offered a joyful and pleasurable counterpoint to the often heavy work of therapy.

Liana has played an integral role in Nightshade since its inception back in 2017, collaborating with her partner Rachel Miller on each of the sixty+ pop-ups. Now as they transition into Nightshade Noodle Bar, Liana continues to engage her passion for service, while also continuing to establish her career as a therapist.

John Groh | Beverage Director

Taking a leap of faith from a background in software engineering and graphic design, John stepped into his first bar job at a high-volume karaoke bar roughly seven years ago. Working a full room every night and becoming engrossed in the energy, he decided to delve deeper into the history and the craft of working ‘behind the stick.’ He quickly began searching for the next step in his journey and landed, proudly, at Tavern Road, formerly in Boston’s Seaport.

Merging a creative background with the visual presentation and flare associated with craft cocktails, he took to developing cocktail programs and assisting with the opening of a handful of restaurants in and around the Boston area with friends and colleagues.

John joined the Nightshade family to launch the brick and mortar location and develop a cocktail and beverage program that complements and plays off of the flavors and textures of Rachel’s Viet-American cuisine and aims for a continuous evolution of the program.