A local favorite, Flying Rhino Café & Watering Hole, is excited to announce that Chef Drew Day has been appointed as the new Executive Chef. Day came to Flying Rhino four years ago with 15 years’ experience in the restaurant industry and will be overseeing all the establishment’s culinary operations.
Chef Day started working in niche markets before working at Flying Rhino, specifically in the coffee and high-end cheese markets. While working in Boston, a friend and prominent chef in the area told Day that he “has an exceptional palate,” describing his diverse sense of taste. This helped to spark Day’s culinary passion and a year after that he stepped into the kitchen and hasn’t looked back—loving every minute of it.
Day gained much of his culinary expertise from traveling and vacationing across the U.S. and around the globe throughout his 20s. Day lived in Europe with his family when he was younger. From there he traveled to Puerto Rico, Mexico, and a variety of other countries. He lived on Martha’s Vineyard for a decade, working within the restaurant scene as a chef, and then moved to West Palm Beach, working for a James Beard Award winning chef—describing those years as the best times of his life.
“If you want to know the history of the location you’re in, look at their cuisine. You’ll be able to get the story and background of global influences that have inspired your favorite dishes today,” says Chef Day.
His travels and love of music have inspired many of his dishes at the Flying Rhino. Last November, Day created and hosted the event “Chef Drew’s Mystery Dinner: The Sound of Taste,” which paired food, drinks, and music.
Day is no stranger to the family-owned Flying Rhino restaurant, as he has been Executive Sous Chef Day for the past four years, working under former Executive Chef Christopher O’Harra. As Chef O’Harra moves on to other business ventures, the handoff from Chef O’Harra to Chef Day will be seamless as they have worked together and collaborated in the kitchen for so many years. Owners, Paul and Melina Barber, are proud to promote from within and have all the confidence in Executive Chef Day.
Chef Day has found a home with the Flying Rhino family. He loves the fun and personal environment of the Rhino, especially the relationships he’s built with Paul and Melina Barber, coworkers, and customers alike.
When asked what he hopes to accomplish as the new executive chef, “My favorite part about being a chef and being in this industry is how the relationships you build are very mentor-mentee based. You can almost trace someone’s lineage back through the years of who they apprenticed under and it’s very romantic in that sense. I want to pass that kind of romance down to everyone that work and dine at Flying Rhino. When you enter a place that has that kind of attitude, you want to keep going back for more. It’s one of the coolest aspects about being a chef.”