CORRECTION: Due to an editor’s error, an earlier version of this article misspelled the last name Brankman. The Weekly News regrets the error.
This is the second part of a two-part series.
When 18-year-old Emily Farnsworth found a job waiting tables at the Westport Country Club in upstate New York, she began working with 21-year-old line cook Scott Brankman. Both had grown up and worked in a variety of restaurants in the small hamlet of Westport, an idyllic community resting between the Adirondack Mountains and Lake Champlain. Emily and Scott’s paths had crossed before, but working closely in the club’s intimate setting allowed their relationship to flourish. Within a few short years, the pair would take their vows at the Westport Country Club, setting sail together on a lifelong journey in business and marriage.
Scott’s training at Johnson and Wales University, followed by appointments as executive chef at the Westport Country Club, the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, the Greens at Valencia in Los Angeles, and in Boston’s Cityside Bar and Grille, provided him with the entrepreneurial expertise required for opening a place to call his own. Emily earned her way from hostess, server, and assistant manager to general manager with stints in New York, Los Angeles, and Boston, each stop serving to equip her with the managerial skills to run her own restaurant.
After working in restaurants throughout the country, Emily and Scott settled in Marblehead in 2008, where they would open their first restaurant, Jack-Tar American Tavern.
The Brankmans found a familiar charm and sense of community in their new home, and while Jack-Tar instantly became a Marblehead favorite, the eight years away from their families proved to be challenging. Jack-Tar closed in February of 2017. In the following years, the Brankmans went on to add two more restaurants to their credentials in Saratoga Springs and Westport, one year-round and one seasonal.
Emily remembers the call she received from her Marblehead landlord in early 2019. The space once belonging to Jack-Tar had become available.
“When we had the opportunity to come back to Marblehead, we sold our year-round restaurant immediately,” she recalled. “We didn’t even think twice about it.”
Less than eight months later, the Brankmans were back with a new restaurant. Sea Salt was up and running in November of that same year.
“Jack-Tar was our first business together,” Emily reflected. “We have grown up a lot. We’ve had two other restaurants since then and now, we are able to step back a little and have a chef and a general manager and a wonderful staff to run this for us. Unlike Jack-Tar, we don’t have to be here every day. And it’s great.”
The Brankmans celebrated 20 years of marriage in August and return to their hometown each year from late May through early October to run their restaurant at the Westport Yacht Club.
“We love Marblehead. That’s why we wanted to come back,” Emily said. “We are not planning on going anywhere in the near future. We have the best of both worlds now. We have Sea Salt, and we still get to go home to our hometown in the summer.”
Leslie Martini is a freelance writer and children’s book author. Though she and her family have lived in Marblehead for more than 26 years, Leslie is still discovering countless untold stories. If you’d like to share your story, please contact leslie@marbleheadweeklynews.com.