Phelps Dieck – Queen of Cuisine

Above: Photo by Susan Laughlin

She and her partner Deb Weeks had created one of the hottest scenes in Portsmouth with the Green Monkey restaurant when a space opened up across the street. They took a bold leap and bought it, starting a new restaurant named Brazo with a South American ambiance and dishes that suggest ports of call from Cuba to the Yucatan Peninsula. Phelps Dieck is a graduate of New England Culinary Institute and her role at the Green Monkey was running the kitchen while Weeks took care of the front of the house. At Brazo, Dieck will manage the front and oversee the menu, while Chef Luis Gabriel Velez runs the kitchen. The congeniality and conviviality that made the Monkey such a happening eatery is likely to remain a priority. Anyone who says you can’t be in two places at once just needs to watch Dieck perform her magic.