Brian Smith, owner of Baker’s, is mixologizing poetic at his new Queen Anne joint, Bar Miriam. Photo by Thor Radford/Radford Creative

Have you ever read Blood, Bones, & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton? She’s best known for her Brooklyn bistro, Prune, and she turns up on food shows like Mind of a Chef and a couple of other Anthony Bourdain joints. Sorry, I know you know.

Okay, so you know the part in the book where she takes a job at a little bar-tabac in rural Brittany that her French mom’s friend owns, and she’s describing the bar essentially as a community center for the village? About how the red-faced farmers