Who We Are
Chef Rachel Miller
Rachel first fell in love with cooking while spending time in her French-Moroccan-Jewish grandmother’s kitchen and garden as a child. In her teenage years, she began working in kitchens along the coast of Virginia, as well as Louisiana and Mississippi, where her love of the ocean, large food-focused family gatherings, and the region’s terroir inspired her to pursue a career in cooking. Growing up between the first neighborhood outside of the largest Naval Base in the world and the bayous of the Deep South, she was exposed to a wide array of foods and food cultures from a young age, instilling many food memories that live on through dishes on her menus today.
Once Rachel was of legal age to work, she jumped into all kinds of kitchen jobs in different types of restaurants to learn as much as possible. By 18 years old she’d already been working multiple jobs, 70-80 hour weeks for years, and was hungry for more, which inspired a sudden move to Boston.
The breadth of unique working experiences she gained over almost two decades, from learning in diners to fine dining restaurants all over the South and Northeast, along with her extensive studies in Vietnamese food culture and love of the ocean morphed over time to create the concept of Nightshade Noodle Bar, a French and Vietnamese inspired seafood restaurant in Lynn, MA, which opened in October of 2019.
Both Chef Rachel Miller and Nightshade Noodle Bar have gained much praise, including the second-ever 5-star review in the Boston Globe, high rankings in the area’s best restaurant lists year after year, and scrolls of 5-star guest reviews. Rachel was also a finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef Award in 2023 and a Semifinalist for Best Chef: Northeast in 2024. Rachel can be found every night on the line in the NNB kitchen, personally cooking for her guests along with her talented team.
Director of Operations Alex Caruso
Born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Alex’s career began at her neighborhood restaurant, The Ashmont Grill. She worked as a host while pursuing an art degree and quickly realized that restaurants offered a creative outlet that she couldn’t experience at art school. When she was offered an early management position, she jumped at the opportunity and fell fast in love with hospitality.
Alex has since mastered the art of hospitality, learning from the best of the best at notable restaurants including Myers & Chang, The Beehive and Barcelona Wine Bar. Prior to joining the Nightshade Noodle Bar team, she was the opening General Manager and Wine Director at celebrity chef and James Beard Award winner Chef Karen Aukonowicz’s restaurant, Fox & the Knife in South Boston, notably named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Restaurants in America.
Alex believes in the power of a well-served meal to nourish the soul and the body. Her passion for service lies where food and drink enhance special memories and occasions, whether it be a clink of a glass of champagne, the pleasure of scraping up socarrat on the bottom of a paella, cutting open a runny egg yolk, or fileting a fish for friends at dinner.