LYNNFIELD — Javier Baez has faced several crossroads in his 33 years, and has had to make many tough decisions.
Born and raised on School Street in Roxbury, Baez will be the first one to admit that he’s made a lot of mistakes, one of which left him nearly dead after a fatal overdose on Halloween in 2017.
Fast forward to 2024 and Baez is seemingly back where it all started — on School Street as the executive chef at the new School Street Foods restaurant on Salem Street in Lynnfield.
At the restaurant, there is a picture on the wall of the intersection between School Street and Arcadia Street, which was near his childhood home.
For Baez, the sign represents the story of his life.
“Everything I learned about selling and making food came from my parents on that street. I got addicted to drugs and I got sober on that street,” he said. “Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and that picture is 100% more than a thousand words for me.”
The School Street Foods menu features a fusion of Latin, American and Caribbean cuisines sure to make your mouth water. Baez drew inspiration from his grandfather, who owned a 24-hour Pastelito shop in Puerto Rico.
“I try to combine the flavors of the three cultures adapted to American classics, like burgers, chicken sandwiches and pizza. We even have cheese steak empanadas and something we call the Big M, giant mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce.” Baez said his Thanksgiving turkey empanada is a customer favorite. Baez fills the empanada with roasted turkey, stuffing, and gravy. Lightly fried, it’s served with a cranberry-mayo sauce on the side. It’s a taste that leaves you craving for more — trust me, I’ve already turned into a regular of sorts.
Baez serves up a wide variety of empanadas, quiches, and breakfast sandwiches. He expects the ham, egg, cheese, sausage and bacon empanada — his mother’s favorite — will be a customer favorite, “grab-and-go breakfast style.” His preferred style of cooking is birria, a unique method that originated in Jalisco, Mexico that combines tomatoes, cloves, cinnamon and peppercorns to make a to-die-for stewing sauce.
“It makes a wonderful aromatic sauce and then you stew the meat in that sauce,” Baez said. “The one I like best is the beef, which is served with a side of the sauce covered with cilantro for dipping.”
Baez shared that he wants to bring customers “new flavors they might not be used to.”
“I think Lynnfield was lacking something because there aren’t that many choices especially when it comes to different foods. So far, the response has been fantastic,” he said.
Since opening in October, the place has been jumping. Restaurant owner Gina Goodwin said much of the success of the restaurant will likely come from Baez’s following.
The restaurant decor is family-friendly and bright with yellow and black the predominant colors.
“The colors are basically the color of an empanada but I also wanted to make it fun and cartoony,” Baez said.
The dining area wall is covered in chalk paint so kids can doodle while they eat. There are plenty of board games, a Play Station, and a television. There will also be an option for music depending on the noise level in the small space. Baez, who also writes poetry, said he envisions the possibility of open-mic nights and game nights.
“I like to experiment and see what people like,” he said. “I’m open to anything. I just want people to have fun and enjoy good food. That’s our vision. We’re going to make it work.”
The road to School Street Foods was far from easy. The son of a Dominican mother and Puerto Rican father, Baez attended the prestigious Boston Latin School until his addiction forced him to drop out. He then went to Latin Academy but that didn’t work out either.
“Due to my chasing alcohol and drugs, I ended up at Dorchester High and graduated in 2009, but by that time, I was deep into drugs and alcohol,” Baez said. “A big part of my story is I made a lot of bad decisions, but my mother never let me go out onto the streets. She is my No. 1 supporter and has been there for me the whole way.”
He tried to turn his life around by attending the Cordon Bleu culinary school but dropped out due to a dependency on oxycodone. He paid for his habits by stealing from his family and from jobs working in kitchens and as a delivery driver. Emotional pain and a near-fatal overdose eventually led to Baez seeking help.
“They pronounced me dead on the scene on Halloween night,” Baez said. “I didn’t get sober then, but that was the moment I began to believe in a higher power because I was dead and then I was not.”
Eventually, Baez kicked the habit with help from multiple rehabs and Narcotics Anonymous. He’s been sober for more than six years.
Right about now, you’re probably wondering how a kid from Eggleston ended up in Lynnfield.
Enter Goodwin.
Baez first met Goodwin when he was working out of a commissary kitchen in Salem selling products to the public and operating popups at local breweries.
“She was a customer of mine and would come in for my empanadas,” Baez said. “I was doing popups recently at a bar in Beverly. Things didn’t work out. When I told Gina last summer I wasn’t doing it anymore, she asked if I would be interested in starting a restaurant and I said, ‘of course, that’s my dream, but I don’t have the money for it.'”
Goodwin did.
A photo of Goodwin’s mother, Adele, also hangs on the wall at the restaurant. She died earlier this year.
“She’s my inspiration and was always saving for me my whole life. I’m an only child. I said I was going to invest the money here,” Goodwin said. “She is always watching over me.”
Talking about his relationship with Goodwin, Baez described her as “an angel on earth.”
“She is so caring and selfless and is always willing to do the right thing for the right reason and she wants people to have joy in their lives. It’s very few and far between that you find people like her,” he added.
Baez highlighted that his relationship with Goodwin goes beyond business; it’s all about family.
“We’re very close and our kids are close,” Baez said.
So close in fact that Goodwin broke her family’s Thanksgiving Day tradition of dining at the Kowloon Restaurant to instead eat together at School Street Foods, where the Baez and Goodwin families and the School Street team served free Thanksgiving dinners to anyone who walked through the door. The day capped Goodwin’s Gina’s Giving Back campaign that distributed free Thanksgiving dinners to North Shore area families.
While it’s too soon to tally the number of meals that were distributed this year, Goodwin said she wouldn’t be surprised if it reached 17,000.
