Published: 6/28/2022 4:59:46 PM

When you run one of the regions most unusual restaurants, with anAsian-Jewish-Hungarian fusionmenu, youre ready to serve everything frommushrooms tobone broth to pork bellybao bun.From time to time, Miriam Kovacsgoes completely off the rails.

Sometimes I incorporate Velveeta! said Kovacs, who opened the Broken Spoonrestaurant in Franklin in November 2020 in the teeth of the pandemic. Hey, embrace it all! Our country is a melting pot of cultures why not? Its American food.

Broken Spoon will be getting a belated official ribbon-cutting on Wednesday, June 29, at 11 a.m., celebrating it as part of the changes sweeping downtown Franklin. Kovacs said shes happy for the ceremony because it will give her a picture to send to her mother, but isnt planning any changes.

Broken Spoon is take-out only due to difficulty in finding staff as well as concerns about the lingering pandemic. COVID is still very present. I cant afford to get COVID here, my whole business would go down, said Kovacs.

Both chef and owner, Kovacs is a first-generation American; her mother is from Sri Lanka and her father is Jewish, from Hungary. She grew up with culinary traditions from many places that she has incorporated into Broken Spoons menu, which features pork belly in various forms, the steamed buns known as bao, meat skewers of many typesand ramen bowls with ingredients like seaweed chiffonadeand marinated wild mushrooms. It even has an unusual take on that all-American meal of peanut butter and jelly.

Kovacs, who has a history as a cook and chef including studying at the Culinary Institute of America, came to Franklin from New Jersey for personal reasons, and stayed partly because it was affordable. She had been developing plans for a restaurant and jumped at the chance to move into a former restaurant space at 416 Central St. That made it possible to open Broken Spoon, she said, because there was already ahood system installed, saving many thousands of dollars in opening costs.

Kovacs said business has been steady and growing, perhaps fueled by peoples desire for something new after the constraints of the pandemic. People travel here from all over, she said.

The Broken Spoon is one of a number of new businesses that have opened or are planning to open soon in Franklin, spurred largely by the attention drawn to Mill City Park, New Englands first public whitewater park on the Winnipesaukee River.

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Franklin recognizes the Asian-Jewish fusion restaurant that reflects the city's evolution - Concord Monitor