By Steve Hoffman
Editor

Life’s major decisions are sometimes made in unusual places and at unexpected times.

Mike Hall was seated in the Texture Salon in Oxford, talking with his hair stylist about how good the location of a vacant restaurant in town was. Mike has a background in culinary arts, and he told the hair stylist that he had considered, at least casually, opening his own restaurant in the location. The stylist replied that the building was still available.

In that instant, Mike’s long-held desire to open his own restaurant gained a new sense of clarity: Now was the time to act.

Mike went home to his wife, Shannon, and told her what he was thinking. She wasn’t surprised.

“He always talked about opening a restaurant,” she explained.

The couple immediately began making plans, their enthusiasm unabated.

“By the next morning,” Mike recalled, “we had a small business plan and a good start on the menu.”

All this happened in July. By the end of the month, Mike and Shannon had a deal in place so that renovations could begin on the restaurant. They wanted to open in October, so that left a little bit more than two months for the extensive remodeling work.

“My dad helped out a lot—he’s a carpenter,” Mike explained. “It was a real friends-and-family operation. It took a lot of long days and nights in order to get ready.”

The upside of all that renovation work is that the resulting restaurant is exactly what Mike and Shannon envisioned when they set out to design their first restaurant.

“We went with more of an industrial, city-style restaurant,” Shannon explained. “We wanted to create a Philadelphia-style bistro atmosphere here in Oxford.”

Muse officially opened at the former Peppercorn’s location at 306 Market Street on Oct. 14.

The name is a shortened version of amuse-bouche, a French term that is literally translated as “mouth amuser.” Mike did not want to use a French term for the restaurant because it is not a French bistro. But he liked “Muse,” especially because the term can refer to the power of inspiring an artist, a poet, or a thinker in a creative endeavor.

“Every artist has a muse,” Mike explained. “Food is our muse. It tied everything together.”

Although this is the first time that Mike and Shannon have endeavored to operate their own restaurant, they are not new to the business. Mike’s sister, Michele, owns Oceanside Seafood in Avalon, New Jersey.

Mike’s background in culinary arts extends back to his time studying at the Philadelphia Restaurant School in 1997. After graduation, he worked at The Bards Irish restaurant in Philadelphia and served as the suis chef at the exclusive Wyndham Philadelphia Hotel at Franklin Plaza, where he routinely cooked for local notables like former Mayor Ed Rendell, Joe Frazier, and a host of other Philadelphia athletes. One night he even prepared food for President Bill Clinton.

“It was quite an experience cooking for the President,” Mike explained.

When he and Shannon started their family, he decided to pursue a different line of work, joining Wawa for eight and a half years. He never lost his desire to one day return to a professional kitchen, however.

“When you have a passion for food,” Mike said, “it doesn’t go away.”

Mike is certainly most comfortable when he’s in the kitchen for 12 hours a day, thinking up and then perfecting his culinary creations. Mike overseeing the food preparations, Shannon utilizes her skills as a graphic designer to help market the restaurant. She is a graduate of Moore College of Art & Design. She also handles a variety of other tasks in the restaurant.

Mike said that his preparation style is a simple one: He likes to combine different kinds of foods for a variety of tastes without relying on heavy seasonings or heavy flavors. Presentation is important because, as he explains, “You eat with your eyes first.”

Now in charge of his own kitchen, Mike is making the foods that he has always wanted. The menu is designed specifically for a 40-seat American bistro, which is to say that the emphasis is placed on an interesting mix of foods instead of offering an endless number of dishes.

“You don’t want to compromise the food by having too many dishes,” Mike explained, adding that his menu will be “an eclectic melting pot of American cuisine.”

One of Mike’s specialties is eggplant napoleon, which includes eggplant, goat cheese, basil, roasted red pepper coulis, sauteed white bean, and escarole. Another popular entree is the crabcake trio, which  features jumbo lump crabmeat, jalapeno-agave nectar remoulade, portabella mushroom fries with orange lavender honey. Stuffed pork tenderloin, filet mignon, and a 14-ounce ribeye are succulent staples of the menu.

“People rave about the filet,” Mike noted.

For pasta lovers, the offerings include sweet potato gnocchi (sweet potatoes, maple-brown butter, crispy basil leaves), mushroom ravioli (portabella mushrooms, ricotta cheese, basil, and oregano in a light rose sauce), or shredded beef linguine (slow-roasted pulled short rib, linguine, with house-made marinara). These pasta dishes are available in two portion sizes.

The menu also includes appetizers like pulled pork mac and cheese (Gruyere emmanthaler and fontina cheese, apple-smoked bacon and pulled pork), Thai chicken skewers (grilled chicken tenders, spice Thai pineapple chutney) or pan seared sea scallops (sea scallops, wilted arugula, radish sprouts, citrus vinaigrette).

“We’re using grass-fed beef and local produce as much as possible,” Shannon explained.

Mike views Muse as part of a larger culinary movement in the region, with more chefs in the area relying on local, fresh ingredients.

“There’s a culinary movement in this area. Farm-to-table is very big in Chester County,” Mike said. “In the last four or five years, we really got into organics. It’s just healthier if you use a better quality of meat. We will use local vegetables, as they are available, the mushrooms we use are all local.”

Muse is a BYOB, and unlike many such establishments Mike insists on not charging a corking fee.

“I think it’s ridiculous to charge a customer for that. We’re going to do all the little things to make sure our customers are happy,” he said.

The comforting ambiance of Muse may be attributed to the owners’ commitment to creating a family atmosphere. With two children, Mikaela, 10, and Gwyneth, 5, they want to make Muse a place operated by a family, for families.

“We are a family-oriented business,” Mike said, “We’re a family trying to give that to a town. We’re here to offer something that we’re good at.”

In short, this is the restaurant that Mike and Shannon always wanted.

“What we want to offer is a nice, beautiful dining experience,” Mike said.

“It’s a date-night place,” Shannon added.

The response so far has been nothing but positive. So much so, in fact, that reservations are necessary during peak hours, especially Friday and Saturday nights between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback,” Mike said. “We encourage people to make reservations if they can because we feel terrible when someone shows up and we can’t seat them right away.”

He added that, “Everyone has been very welcoming. OMI {Oxford Main Street, Inc.} and the Borough have been very helpful. It’s obvious that they want the town to grow.”

Mike said that he is looking forward to having the restaurant grow as Oxford grows.

“You have to leave yourself room to change. In this business, you have to change every three to five years,” he said.

Muse is open for dinner from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Brunch is available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.

To contact Editor Steve Hoffman, e-mail editor@chestercounty.com.