Stars Thriving After 25 Years as Restaurant for Everyone

There is such a diversity of diners at Stars on Hingham Harbor that General Manager Wes Baltzer knows the early morning breakfast crowd from the last-minute eggs and pancake seekers.

Stars, of course, has its breakfast-with-the-family-types, but also its business lunch crowd, its obscure beer drinkers, late-night carousers, sports fanatics and even live music aficionados.

"We are something to everybody," Baltzer said. "You can find whatever you want here."

And that, more than anything else, is why on Thursday Stars will reach its 25th anniversary, a milestone rarely hit in the restaurant industry. 

"It's an incredible feat," Baltzer said. "It's a lot of hard work that's paid off."

Stars, owned by a group called Eat Well Inc. that also runs nearby Tosca and Caffe Tosca, opened on Jan. 23, 1989. Baltzer and Executive Chef Richard Daniels have both been with the restaurant for nearly 20 years.

"His breakfast is unbelievable," Baltzer said of Daniels, who led the development of two special menus to celebrate the anniversary.

The lunch and dinner menu, to be featured Thursday through Saturday, includes dishes such as the Grass Fed Burger, topped with a pancetta crisp, smoked gruyere cheese, mixed greens, tomato and a homemade basil aioli. 

There is also a sautéed mussels entree, and chicken stuffed with prosciutto, spinach and fresh mozzarella and served with a twice-baked sweet potato. Dessert is a mud pie featuring coffee and chocolate ice creams.

Each dish is paired with a local craft beer. The burger, for instance, goes well with an Entitled IPA draft, brewed for Eat Well at the Wormtown Brewery in Worcester and sold only at the three Hingham restaurants.

Baltzer worked with co-owner Jim Hodgdon and corporate beverage director Brian Barry on the pairings.

"Their beer knowledge is unmatched locally," Baltzer said.

Stars' diverse beer offerings, along with its central location on Route 3A, is another reason for its staying power. The restaurant has built great relationships with distributors, Baltzer said, and has customers returning to discover new brews.

The 25th anniversary breakfast menu, featured Thursday through Sunday, offers selections such as B-Day Cake Pancakes, a three-egg omelette stuffed with sautéed shrimp, scallops and imported swiss cheese and topped with a dill hollandaise sauce, and a twist on eggs benedict using oven-roasted turkey, sliced avocado and grilled cranberry bread.

For more information on Stars and its anniversary celebration, go to http://starshingham.com