Exhale: How did you both get involved in the hospitality industry?

Danielle Dorcil:It’s been a passion all my life, cooking. I grew up watching Julia Child, Jacques Pepin. That was my lineup: Sesame Street, then Jacques Pepin. Food was a big deal growing up in my house. We’re of Haitian decent so we cook our home food, but my mom loves to cook everything. I was making fried rice by the time I was five years old.

Julia Buccieri: I went to art school, and I have a classic fine arts background. I worked in Irish pubs for a long time, so that’s where I got the hospitality part. In cocktail culture, there’s so much pretension attached to it now, but I pride myself on my background in Irish pubs. I learned that old-school hospitality is kind of a lost art. It’s not totally gone, but it needs to be consciously preserved.

Tell us about how you develop your menus.

Danielle:I like to recompose a lot of traditional dishes. I feel like there are so many different cultures in America. Being an American restaurant, what I’m trying to do is have everyone’s native food here.

Julia: We definitely both are really into the seasonal ingredients. I think we’re both on the same level of creativity, which is cool. Sometimes I’ll say to her ‘I know this is weird, but I want to do it.’ And, she’ll be like ‘No, that’s awesome. I want to do it too!’

Danielle: Just taking something as traditional as tomato soup and grilled cheese and adding a twist to it. Why not have a grilled cheese with three different types of Italian cheeses in it?

Julia: I feel like that part of you is the same part of me that doesn’t use simple syrup in any of my recipes. My reason for that is, why would I use straight sugar when I could use something more exciting? I use wildflower honey, fortified wine, different vermouths, different cordials that I make in house. Also, lunch is launching soon. That’s going to be a whole different thing. We’re both talking about getting weird.

Danielle: Getting weirder.

Julia: Exactly. We’ll definitely have a variation of a cocktail on tap, maybe some kind of house-made cordial or amaro on tap. I’m thinking of doing a rotating frozen cocktail.

Danielle: For me, it would be more like small bites, easier to eat, funner foods. [Maybe I’ll have] fun with wings, people love buffalo wings. Why not do a French buffalo wing?

The restaurant has a real neighborhood vibe to it. Has the Symphony area influenced your menus?

Danielle:Absolutely. We also run a lot of specials. The Marathon is coming up, and it’s a big deal to do pasta specials, so I’ll be running some of those. We’ll probably do something fun for Opening Day for the Red Sox: hot dogs, Cracker Jack — making a house-made Cracker Jack would be fun. One of our pizzas, the sausage, peppers and onions is inspired by the Sausage Guy from Fenway, because he’s my favorite.

Julia: When Doug (Bacon, the owner) brought me over here, I started doing research into the history of Symphony Hall. I didn’t know that much about it, even though I grew up here. The statues [inside Symphony Hall] stood out to me. They’re based on mythological deities, gods, goddesses, nymphs, and, also, real-life writers and artists. It jumped out at me like, wouldn’t that be cool if I named all the cocktails as an ode to those figures? I spent a long time reading and pulling something from their stories to use in the cocktails.

How do you feel about having these power positions in a male-dominated industry?

Julia:There’s that mutual respect in knowing that it was a little harder for us to get where we are. I literally workout every day so I can lift cases, because I said to myself a long time ago, ‘I don’t want to be limited at what I do versus what a man can do.’ It was a very conscious decision.

Danielle: It’s been really a great adventure being a female chef. With times changing, getting more respect, and having people appreciate what you do, it feels great. To have a boss look forward to having two female leaders in the restaurant felt really good.

Julia: The icing on the cake is that we get along really well.

So you ladies work every day? When do you relax?

Julia:We try to take days off? I think we’re both off tomorrow, actually?

Danielle: Nope.

Julia: Oh, wait, no.

Danielle: When you’ve just opened a new restaurant, it’s your baby. You’re growing your baby. That’s how I look at it. So, if I’m going to lose sleep over it, I know I’m going to raise it correctly and then I can step away. We do work almost every day, but it’s for a reason. We’re building a solid foundation.