Marked For Taste

World-beating chef Michael Scelfo sharpens the cutting edge of Boston’s innovative restaurant scene.

- Jim Sullivan

IT’S LATE ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON and I’m at Harvard Square restaurant Alden & Harlow with owner-chef-restaurateur Michael Scelfo. We’re chatting about his tattoos. He started the inking process three years ago. “All of them have some kind of significance,” he says, starting to point out particulars. “Here’s ‘Joe and Jo’—that’s for my grandparents Joe and Josephine. Here’s my kids’ names in my handwriting. Here’s some “Star Wars” stuff; a character from a graphic novel I really like called “Tales from Essex County”; and the latitude and longitude of Alden & Harlow.”

CULINARY ICONS Scelfo, 45, also owns Waypoint, just down the road. His latest venue, upstairs from Alden & Harlow, is the Longfellow Bar. “I’ve got three or four more concepts that I would like to roll out before all is said and done,” he says, before plunging deep into the Boston restaurant scene and his own extraordinary culinary journey.

Where Boston: Did you ever eat here when this place was called Casablanca?

Michael Scelfo: I did. I actually wrote my business plan for Alden & Harlow at the bar, not knowing it would eventually be in this location. It was definitely one of those crazy little ironies.