Photo By Graham Lienhart

Sharon Butler

Sharon Butler met her future partner Mary Pat Pace when they were both employed at Edwards Restaurant, a former downtown eatery. When they talked about trying something of their own, they agreed to strive for something most folks in the food industry only dream of -- a life apart from their culinary endeavors. Sharon recalls, "We had the same needs, and that made all the difference in the world." Sharon also learned to cook the way she does today while she was at Edwards: "Everything was made from scratch. I learned to work quickly; there was no language of shortcuts. You didn't assume it was OK to do anything else."

CityBeat: Where did you eat your last great meal and what was it?

Sharon Butler: I just had a meal for my husband's birthday in Columbus at The Happy Greek. That was the best Mediterranean food I'd ever had -- it was delicious, it was fresh from beginning to end.

CB: What's one of your fondest food memories?

SB: People say what conjures up memory most is the sense of smell -- smell doesn't do anything for me. I have these unbelievably vivid memories of my Aunt Marie making Wind cookies. We'd go over there at Halloween and she'd open the oven and there would be this brown paper she took from brown paper bags and cut to fit the cookie sheets and these whitish brown mounds of meringue sitting there in her oven. Not one smell! The word, the sight of it and then to get to eat it, too --that's the stuff that imprints on memory.