Tom Johnson has been readying himself to open his own restaurant since he was 13. That’s when he first started cooking. By 17 he’d progressed to management, and over the years helped open and run about 20 corporate, chain-style restaurants.

Then he moved with his wife to Vermont and enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute. From there, he scored an internship at MC Perkins Cove in Ogunquit. This allowed him to work closely with chef/owners Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier, who also own Arrows and were recently nominated as Best Chefs of the Northeast by the James Beard Foundation.

“I learned a ton about culinary arts, good flavors and restaurant skills,” Johnson says of his time at MC Perkins Cove, where he became sous chef once his internship ended.

Next he worked in Portland at R