Bolivar Hilario’s destination dining
By Charles Dubow
Bolivar Hilario has big plans. The young chef envisions a day when the newly opened Ore Hill restaurant in Kent will become “destination dining;” a place where foodies from Litchfield County and beyond will come to enjoy a unique blending of locally-sourced ingredients with the creativity of the kitchen. “I want to be able to serve an experience menu that showcases the incredible products curated by local farmers,” he says. “That’s why we are offering only a tasting menu of between five and seven small courses each night. We will be serving only what is freshest that week. It will be unlike any other fine dining experience in the area.”
Key to Hilario’s goal is Ore Hill’s partnership with Rock Cobble Farm, the 1,000 acre property on the estate of the late philanthropist Anne Bass. In addition to a herd of 100 Randall Lineback cattle, which provide both beef and dairy products, the farm grows more than 350 heirloom varieties of vegetables, fruits and flowers, most of which will wind up in one form or another on Ore Hill’s tables.
Hilario’s ambitions have carried him a long way from helping on his mother’s food truck outside Orlando, Florida. “I was this young kid and it was a lot of work. For a long time I fought against the idea of cooking but then I did a 360 and fell in love with it.” Instead of cooking school he worked in local restaurants and eventually found himself in New York, where he worked at Chumley’s and was executive sous chef at the now-defunct but highly regarded sushi restaurant Shoji. He came on board to Ore Hill’s sister restaurant Swyft in January 2021, where he also serves as executive chef. But this is not his first time in the Litchfield Hills. From 2015 to 2017 he was sous chef at Community Table in New Preston.
Did he think he would be back so soon? “Not really,” he laughs. “I mean, it’s a great part of the world and the local ingredients are incredible, but I thought I’d be in the city a little longer. But when the opportunity to come here arose, I knew I had to take it.”
Dining hours 6 & 8 pm, Fridays & Saturdays
3 Maple Street, Kent, orehillandswyft.com
