Jonny Boston’s International Restaurant

This is the story of a guy named Johnny....

And a stateside restaurant that came from down under.

“Hi I'm John Kiper.   Welcome to Jonny Boston’s."

With a name like 'Jonny Boston', one would think this small spot would be in downtown, Back Bay, or the South End but it is in fact situated in Newmarket, New Hampshire, and gets it name from the owner's time in Australia.

"So I lived in this little town in in Australia called Sorento. And when I would say to people, yeah, I'm from New Hampshire, they would say, where's that? I'd say it's north of Boston. They say, oh, you're from Boston. And I was like, No, I'm not from Boston. I'm from New Hampshire. But for four years, I was Johnny Boston."

And the menu is a collection of American dishes with international flare inspired by Jonny's time abroad.

"We're just trying to fuse traditional American foods with other culinary experiences and other tastes.  So we have an international flair. But we really experiment with any types of food. We really like to experiment with mixing different cultures, you know, ethnic foods together in a new way that's both familiar and at the same time, different.”

The sandwiches at Jonny Boston's are far from ordinary.

There's a Cuban Spin on Steak and cheese featuring tender steak, peppers, onions and cheddar with a zippy ropa sauce and check out the Peruvian style Pork Roll.

"It's got sweet potatoes, pulled pork, pork belly, smoked gouda, caramelized onions, and chili aioli.  It comes on a really nice fluffy Portuguese roll.  It's a really hearty sandwich and one that you know you're going to need a fork with because it's, it's it's a little messy too. which is you know, I never apologize for making messy sandwiches. I think you know, the sauce here, the better the messier the better.”

For an Asian spin on a New York Deli mainstay, get the Reuben.

"I really wanted to do a Reuben but I did not want to do corned beef.  So I thought you know, ..we'll get the traditional marble rye.  We'll get the Swiss and we're going to make a traditional Thousand Island dressing, but instead we're going to put it on pulled pork and instead of using sauerkraut, we're going to use kimchi...and people love our Reuben.  The kimchi that we make is Is it spicy, but it's not too spicy. And to add just enough of a different flavor to the Reuben that people say when they bite into it, this is a Reuben. But it's not like a Reuben I've ever had before.  It's like you bite into it, you're like, this is familiar, but at the same time, new and exciting."

And for a twist on Vietnamese classic, order the Banh Mi.

"So our ban mi is the cibatta toasted with  roasted chicken, herb mayo, sriracha, pickled vegetables and cucumber.  We toasted on the Panini press and it's got a really different flavor.

If you've ever had a bahn mi, you'll know that ours is a bahn mi but it's different. we're doing this herb mayo that you know, Vietnam they don't do....we don't use cilantro, we use a different herbal blend, because personally, I don't like cilantro. Don't tell anybody. But our bahn mi is very popular."

Other handhelds include a tremendous selection of burgers.

"We definitely are known for our burgers.  When we first opened I didn't want to do any burgers because you get a burger everywhere in town. I thought, you know, that's not original. That's not cool. But people kept asking for burgers. So I said, All right, we'll do it.

So our beef is local, it's super fresh. People love it. And now people tell me all the time, this is the best burger I've had in my entire life. And some of these people are kind of old so probably eating a lot of burgers."

There's the Royal with Cheese, topped with caramelized onions, crispy pork belly, lettuce and steak sauce and the James Baxter Melt, a flavor bomb featuring smoked gouda, pork belly, pickles, jalapenos and horseradish sauce.  But if you ask Jonny, he'll tell you to keep it simple and order the Randy Burger.

"I'll tell you there's some days when.  I'll just literally wake up in the morning and I'll say to myself, you know, today I'd have to eat Randy burger. You know nothing. Nothing pretentious about it it just cheese pickles and ketchup.   It's not a pile of crazy ingredients. It's just very simple. And it just brings you right back home."

There are south of the border offerings like BBQ Pork Nachos topped with corn salsa and plenty of cheese.  Tasty tacos filled with all slow cooked pork or chicken and an oversized burrito made one way and one way only.

“I really hate going into a burrito place and they've got all this ingredients on the wall and they asked you a million questions.  So I said let's just make a great burrito. No choices. So we automatically put guac, we automatically put on Pico and corn salsa, sour cream, you know, whatever meat you want some really crunchy lettuce along with cheese, beans, rice, and everyone that has our burrito just loves them. And I think it's because, they didn't have to build themselves. We did all the thinking of what goes into it, and that's why it's great."

And what's even greater than the love Jonny puts into his food, is the love he gets back from his customers.

I hear 5, 10 times in a week, this is the greatest sandwich I've ever had, this is the greatest burger I've ever had, you know, this meal I've been thinking about you know, I've had this before and I've been thinking about it for three days people telling me that you know, and and now I think is probably the coolest thing when someone says you know, I've literally been thinking about this bahn mi for two days, you know, that really like mind blowing.