Maya s Kitchen Maya Gurung-Subba and her husband, Suk Subba, had high hopes for 2020. On January 24, 2020, their small restaurant in Burlington s New North End, Maya s Kitchen, celebrated a year in business. They had developed a loyal following for their regional Himalayan dishes, including chicken choila with chickpeas and crispy rice, fried pork-chile momos served in a spicy tomato sauce, and chunky vegetable curry. The couple did everything themselves: sourcing specialty ingredients, cooking, washing the dishes. Maya s Kitchen broke even by the end of its first year, a notable achievement in the notoriously tough restaurant sector. It was really good in 2019. It was really, really busy, Gurung-Subba said. Our big American dream in 2020: We were hoping to buy a house.
Upon first glance, Macao Bravo s backyard man cave isn t a structure that immediately beckons for further investigation. From the street outside his Winooski home, the decades-old outbuilding, which once served as a garage and toolshed, looks like nothing more than a dry place for stacking firewood that is, until one notices that its creatively arranged grid pattern of firewood in front is actually an ingenious privacy screen. Outside, you look at this place, it s ugly, said the Chilean-born Bravo in a thick Spanish accent. But inside, people are surprised by what it can be. Indeed, entering the 52-year-old s man cave is like taking a tour of Bravo s life: the places he s lived, the things he s done, and the rare and unusual artifacts he s gathered along the way. Its many small and eclectic touches reveal the personality of an interior designer, formally trained in Spain, who is always seeing new potential in old and discarded objects.