Twenty minutes after I arrived for my scheduled interview at the Central Park Boathouse, I was still leaning against the bar, drinking a glass of ice water and waiting to meet the restaurant’s executive chef, Adam Fiscus.
Fiscus was in the kitchen preparing meals during an unexpected 2 p.m. rush that seemed to take much of the staff by surprise. For an early Tuesday afternoon, the maître d’ and two hostesses seemed unusually busy seating customers with or without reservations.
Plates were moving in and out of the kitchen rapidly, and servers were constantly shifting around the floor from table to table as I watched from a distance. Fiscus had set aside time for an interview, but the restaurant had other plans.
The Boathouse first closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, reopened in 2021 and later shut its doors again amid rising operating costs. Fiscus told me he was brought on as executive chef at the Central Park Boathouse in 2023, less than a year after the restaurant closed again in October 2022.
“They moved me here in September of 2023 from Dallas, and I had six months to get this place ready,” Fiscus told me after we were able to find a moment to sit down at a table.
He had previously served as executive chef at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey, and had worked as a cook and sous-chef for Texas-based hospitality company Culinaire.
“We had a lot on our plate,” Fiscus said. “The building was not in the state that it is now when I arrived.”
“We completely rebuilt the kitchen,” he added, saying other renovations included replacing the ventilation systems, painting and performing maintenance on the building’s infrastructure.
But the chef wasn’t only interested in physically renovating the restaurant. He also wanted to renovate its identity.
“There was a rebranding to what we like to call a continental theme,” Fiscus said. “We’re going to take a lot of aspects from all kinds of food—Italian, French, Mediterranean.”
That continental approach can be seen throughout the menu.
The summer watermelon salad combines baby arugula, cucumber and feta with a dill vinaigrette, while the house-made campanelle is served with Amatriciana sauce and guanciale. The mafaldine pairs jumbo lump crab with citrus, crème fraîche and toasted breadcrumbs.
The entrées continue that mixture of familiar dishes and seasonal ingredients. The roasted chicken is prepared with a buttermilk brine and served alongside corn succotash and tomato relish, while the Faroe Island salmon comes with summer squash and a lemon-caper sauce. Together, the dishes draw from several culinary traditions without limiting the Boathouse to one particular regional identity.
“We worked very, very hard to make sure we were putting out a menu that has a little something for everybody,” Fiscus said.
“Because of our location in Central Park, there is a lot of tourist activity, so you have to take that into account during the menu writing,” he continued.
The Central Park Boathouse placed Fiscus at the helm of perhaps the most publicly recognizable restaurant of his career. He was already an accomplished chef when he accepted the position, but the restaurant offered him something he had not had before: the opportunity to help rebuild and shape the culinary identity of a New York City landmark.
At the Central Park Boathouse, Fiscus has helped shape the restaurant’s culinary identity and was entrusted with revitalizing its kitchen and cuisine. There was also a sense of “magic” for Fiscus at the Boathouse. He had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world and hear their stories, an experience that the chef said has become a highlight of the job.
“My favorite part of this job is meeting all the different people who come here to dine—if they are tourists, if they are locals—and just hearing their stories and being an integral part of their experience,” Fiscus said.
He said that during his tenure as executive chef at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, he had often passed the Boathouse alongside his wife and children. Though he had never been inside, Fiscus said he knew there was something unique about the restaurant.
“We walked past here many times,” he said. “I always knew that it was someplace that was special and unique. So when I did have the opportunity to come here, I jumped on it.”
“It’s something I take a lot of pride in, something I look forward to every day,” Fiscus said.
Now, when Fiscus walks through the park, he no longer passes the Boathouse. He walks inside and takes charge of its kitchen.
When our conversation ended, Fiscus returned through the kitchen doors, back into the room that had kept him from our interview in the first place. The dining room outside offered visitors one of Central Park’s most peaceful views. Behind it, the work continued.
