Welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for being with me today. My guest is an inspired story of a young person influenced by his grandmother and cooking in the kitchen in New Orleans. And he knew from an early age, he wanted to rise up in this career. And he went to the Culinary Institute of America. And unlike a typical student, he went above and beyond.

And he soaked up all the knowledge of all these experienced professionals that he met, professors. And every step of the way, there were new inspirations that ultimately led him to New York City and working for Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group in one of those restaurants. And this is all about Key learnings and best practices and building a team and then opening your own restaurant.

So now he's back in Jackson, Mississippi. The concept is called Elvie's and he's working on opening up a historic restaurant that's been closed called the Mayflower, which is opening in a couple of weeks. So we talk about culture, we talk about leading a team, we talk about marketing and finance and all those best practices, but this is an inspired episode, so you're not going to want to miss it.

You're tuned in to the Restaurant Rockstars Podcast. Powerful ideas to rock your restaurant. Here's your host, Roger Beaudoin.

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Hey everybody. Welcome back. This is the Restaurant Rockstars podcast. So glad you're with us. Hunter, welcome to the show, man. How are you?

Good. Thank you for having me.

This is great. This is a chef episode. We're going to dive into the kitchen, and everyone has early inspirations, but I really love your story, and it has something to do with your grandmother in New Orleans.

Take us there. Paint the picture.

Yeah I live in Jackson. Our restaurant, Elby's, is in Jackson, Mississippi. We're three hours north of of New Orleans. And that's where Elvie, my grandmother, lived for most of my life. She died early 2000s. But that was like my first exposure to the grand dining rooms, the, that, that culture that is so specific and centered around food in New Orleans.

Just going to visit her, just being exposed, all, every family gathering, all the food. So that, that's really where I pull a lot of that from. And I just love, there's so many cultures blended there, and that story is really defined, I feel like. Is that

Creole, Hunter? Or can you tell us a little bit more about the differences between Cajun and Creole?

Are those two different styles, but they are predominant in New Orleans? And then there's also this French influence, right? Tell us about all that. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. There's Spanish, French.

Oh,

wow. I think all of that kind of blends into these things. And then from my understanding, all a spinoff of that is Creole, which I feel like is more the Spanish.

The, I think of tomatoes when I think of Creole which I think were introduced by the Spanish Cajun. I feel like it's a blend of a lot of that French. There's some regions of New Orleans Louisiana, where people are speaking a dialect that is not really French, it's not English.

It's this blend it's, more like farming, living off the land. I feel like a Cajun living off the waters

Fascinating once you dive into, the uniqueness.

It's a real foodie culture though, food is definitely the common binding element of Louisiana and it is such a draw for people internationally as well as in this country.

It's so known for such a, like you said, it's a mix or a melting pot of all these different cultures and nationalities that have come together to define the New Orleans style or Louisiana in general. So this is all inspiring to you, the shrimp boiling on the pot, In the pot and all that kind of stuff, and the sounds and the sights.

And so how old were you when you first got exposed to all this and did you, lend a hand? Did you help your grandmother cook in the kitchen, all that kind of stuff? Is that really what you were doing?

Yeah. Yeah, I don't have the story. I think of I was, at her apron, t tugging, okay, she was teaching me, but I'm running through the kitchen playing, chasing my cousins and brothers and.

I remember the sink always full of shrimp and the leaning, leaning over, peeling the shrimp, artichokes in the oven. Those are the kind of memories like food is coming I can smell it. I'm around it. The kitchen is like a place I want to be and I will come back to and sit down with my grandmother and my family.

Yeah, all the fresh seafood. So a lot of that, definitely inspiring. And I guess really it led to, that has such a defined culture. And food identity. When I moved away to go to New York to learn to cook, I was missing the South Mississippi and I was like what is Mississippi's identity?

What is our what are the food ways of Mississippi? And so just exploring that as I guess from being exposed to that to my own journey of what do I want to cook and what is my role and identity and voice.

So when you went to New York, was it to go to cooking school?

Was it to, say, work in a restaurant, maybe apprenticing your way up? Like, how did you move your career along? And it sounds like New York was a launching pad for you.

Yeah, so I did go, I graduated high school, and I went to the University of Mississippi, and summer before college, I had the realization restaurants are interesting, I want to cook, I want to know more about this, as a career.

I've been exposed to the food, that parents didn't love the idea of hey, I don't need to go to college, I can just cook, I can just start working. Found Hospitality Management as a program that Ole Miss offered. That seemed okay, that seems like it pleases my parents.

Check that box. But also this is like a really great foundation. If I want, I'm serious about owning a restaurant, all this, all these business courses and whatnot geared towards hospitality industry, like when. That's a sound

decision. Yep.

So that was like I guess classroom education. I was really wanting to work the, I still wanted the kitchen experience.

I want to, work the kitchen. Work long hours. I want to get, beat up during a shift. Like I want the energy in the kitchen. So I just started cooking while I was in school. I did that all through college. There was a professor at Ole Miss who went to the CIA in Hyde Park, New York, and encouraged me.

He was like, Hey, this is what you want to do. You should do this. So I moved to New York to go to a Culinary school.

Oh, so you went to CIA? Yep. Wow, that's an illustrious name, obviously, in our industry. Everyone's heard of that. Full immersion. Now, that's a, that begs the question. Did you, or does that program at CIA expose you to all aspects of the business, like hospitality management, where you're not only learning culinary skills, but also financial management in case someday you want to run a group of restaurants or own your own?

Tell us about that experience. Did you get exposed to all those areas?

Yeah, they definitely, I think when you build the curriculum, they obviously are thinking these people are going to run restaurants. They need to know the accounting, there's some legal stuff menu development. But when you're 21.

And you just want to cook. You're like, the accounting stuff is boring. So

you're

like, I don't need this, but now you're like, man, I wish I had that textbook where I

took

better notes.

I see that benefit now. Yeah.

Yeah. So they definitely, they, they provided it's there. I tell everyone, culinary school, I know there's a lot of opinions on go, don't go, work, you get out of it what you put into it, and I went up there, and I was older than most people, I had gone to college, a lot of people were 18.

Kind of party, doing their like off on their own for the first time kind of thing, which is totally great. But I had some years of experience and I was already committed. And so I stayed late and met with all the professors. I helped them with caterings outside because every three weeks you get a new professor.

And so I was just like, this is an opportunity to. This person's been in the industry for 30, 40, 50 years.

Yeah. Tap into all of that.

Yeah. And so that's what I did. I did, I missed friends, weddings and family stays. And I was just stuck in New York and just, yeah, I didn't see the sun some days.

I worked when I didn't have class and vice versa.

That's initiative and ambition right there. You had goals and you wanted to just immerse yourself in a passion for what you really saw at an early age. But it's okay, and learning and soaking up all that knowledge from people that have been there for decades.

Decades doing the stuff that you ultimately wanted to do. So would you say any of those professors were mentors to you? Took you under their wing and kind of showed you stuff because you clearly went above and beyond what the typical student was doing. You were staying late. You were volunteering to do things just because you knew it was a great experience for you.

Tell us about any one in particular that really stands out that gave you something extra that just kept you going and inspired you further maybe?

Yeah, I think there was one guy, Francisco Magoya, who But he was on the pastry side. And so I would walk through, the most of the stuff happens at the CIA in this massive like building and kind of this hallway.

And there's all these windows, so you can see all the classrooms. I would always walk about his pastry class because as a culinary arts student, you don't take that many pastry classes, but I would walk by, we had the same glasses. Like I was just like, this guy is On the next level, he had a little chocolate shop and he had actually, he was the pastry chef at the French Laundry for a little bit.

Oh, wow. No kidding. That says a lot. Yeah. That says a lot.

This guy has it and has been there and I would just watch him and, He ran the bakery, which is basically one of the classroom outlets for pastry students, but they also served a minimal lunch, and they needed some culinary arts students to work the line and do the sandwiches.

And so I started working there, and I got to know And then he would let me sit on these pastry classes that were like, levels like, above, way above my head, and they're playing with all these liquid nitrogens, but just the precision and just the way he like, approached everything, I remember we would clean the kitchen almost longer than the service and then I think he went on to run Bonner and His Cuisine, and now he just took the job at Noma as a pastry chef, so he's always been someone just like that super admired attention to detail and just his knowledge and the way he approaches food.

And then when you find a direction that you want to pursue, is it a specialty at that point? Whether you want to be, working with pastry, or you want to be working, just in fine dining, or do you specialize? And does it all begin with knife skills 101? It all starts with processes and procedures before you actually start, and then you move on to making sauces.

I'm just guessing. You tell us what it's

like. Yeah, so before you enter, you go culinary arts or baking pastry.

Oh, okay. Two

totally different curriculums.

If you choose one or the other, you do get a little intro into the other world. Gotcha. Because you're going to be a part of a restaurant, they both exist together.

Start with fundamentals. That's the longest class, and that's knife skills, sauces. You're learning your way around the kitchen, just basic intro, you have a recipe, make this, and you go through different stuff definitely a lot of knife skills, a lot of, you have a school lunch tray and you cut, a bunch of julienne carrots and then some diced potatoes and you take it up to the chef and they like, Compare the little scorecard with the, and I still have that.

So it's just like an intro of like a regimen and the structure of a kitchen. And then the, I think a really cool thing, you move into a lot of specialties after that. You don't necessarily declare one, but three weeks we do fish. That's fish identification. That's butchering. It's different methods of how you would butcher different fishes, et cetera.

Then you go on to meat class, and you butcher animals, what not. Then you go to cuisines of America, cuisines of Asia, cuisines of Mediterranean, and you get exposure to different In my head, it's different cultures and cuisines, but it's also the way people cook. You cook on a wok, you cook with different spices.

So it's all these different exposures. And then there are restaurants on campus that you graduate to, and then you run the restaurant. And the cool thing is, those restaurants order their meat and whatnot, and the butcher class that you're in fills those orders. So they're breaking down, I need, this restaurant needs.

32 pork chops, whatever. So they break it down. So it's this big system. But

yeah. That's fantastic. Wow. What an immersion, right? Complete immersion. And it sounds really focused, but you can also, get a little taste of this and a little taste of that to use a cliche. Yeah. That's great.

Fantastic. All right. So what happened when you graduated? Does the school place you or they have a placement office that sort of gives you career options? It's did you do that on your own? Where did you land first out of culinary school? And what city would that have been or what place?

So part of the curriculum, you do one year and then you go to an externship and then you come back and finish.

Since I cooked, since I had some years of experience prior, I enrolled in the accelerated program. So I skipped the externship and I just rolled into the second year. So a lot of people will go extern and then go back to the place, if they want to go to super fine dining, they'll extern and then, take a job with that restaurant after.

As I was coming up, I was I was like, I want to go to school, I want to do this. New York, cooking in New York was top of my list. If I could cook there, I can cook anywhere. So it was pretty top priority. I'm going to graduate and then move into the city and work. And so I landed at one of the Danny Meyers restaurants.

Pretty sure it closed shortly after COVID, but it was called North End Grill. Tribeca area, but amazing like restaurant to be in and then just company to be a part of and his culture and really get the education of that. And so I felt like I did all this cooking and then that gave me this, like, all right, now I can see this restaurant culture work and this company and how to treat people.

And obviously he was very successful. So I started picking up as I was cooking, and I was watching. The managers and whatnot. And

interestingly, that, that restaurant group is obviously famous and it keeps expanding with different concepts and Danny's well known as obviously a restaurateur par excellence, but also a book author, but with so many different venues or locations, did he spend much time in That restaurant that we're talking about, did you have much interaction with him personally?

Does he personalize the experiences with his people where he feels, or you working for him, feel like it's all part of the same team? Is there training involved with him personally? Tell us about that because that's interesting as well.

Yeah, he definitely, it's not every day but it's very tangible that this is a Danny Meyer restaurant, but it was always exciting.

Okay, Danny's coming in tonight. He's bringing this person. That was always fun. We, when I was there, we got reviewed by the New York times. And so afterwards he came and we had like a celebration. But one of the cool things He, you mentioned his book, setting the table, which is a

Bible of the industry.

Yeah.

I think he reached a point when I was there where everyone like across all sorts of industries, people were reading the book and taken his, I think he, he called it his playbook and they were taking that. And I think some, in some cases we're like almost executing it better than his team was.

And so he rewrote a chapter called our playbook. Reprinted gave everyone a com in the company, a copy, and then had a book club and you could go to the headquarters and have discussions and whatnot. And so that was cool to see him like. Not just in this corporate office controlling from up top, but yeah.

In the trenches with his people. Yeah. It's like inviting

people to, the vision that he has. And so yeah, it was, yeah, he was a rat. He was definitely, a part of the restaurant.

When you went to that restaurant for the very first time, like every restaurant group is different, and regardless of people's experiences, in some cases you start at the bottom and you still, you polish the silverware and you peel the potatoes, but not necessarily in every case.

What was your early experience like? What was your role when you first started? What did you do?

First started just like the app, app garmentier But I remember walking in, it's open kitchen, massive wood burning grill, like at least eight feet. And I want to work that one day.

Yes, that's, I get that. That's on my radar. And then, there's a whole raw bar section, so I definitely worked some of that. And I was, Used to that, knew that from Mississippi and eating oysters growing up in Louisiana and visiting. I definitely, I love the seafood.

And yeah, it was just like the more of the kitchen and the kind of drew me in of it just felt and I'm never forgetting like on Friday nights, the big pass, you put the white tablecloth, the heat lamps come down. I feel like it's the movie scene where like the gym lights come on, it's like Friday night lights.

Yeah, theatrical production. This is show business.

This is prime time. And I was all in this is the best.

How many years did you spend in New York? I

spent A little over one year.

Okay. And then you knew you wanted to return back to Mississippi?

Yep. I was dating my wife and we had met prior, but I was like, I said that I'm going to New York.

I don't have time, but we kept in touch and we were writing letters and I was like, I don't really write letters to anybody else like this, and then I just started missing community, like long distance was getting hard and old and then I just missed Mississippi and and all of that.

I was like, all right, I'll move back and that was 2015, I believe in May. So one year was good for me.

Did you always have in the back of your mind LVs as a concept? Or did it take some time to develop that? Did you always know that, you wanted to start a place and, create your own business?

When did it all begin? You mentioned 2015 was the turning point in your career. And, that was almost 10 years ago. So what happened? Yeah,

I think ever since, I guess I got into this career, I've been very goal oriented. And I guess that's just, I don't know if that's just specifically in work.

I think it's general I just set goal I want to go to CIA. I want to work in New York. I want to, open a restaurant one day. And so I have like sketches and like journals and I have like recipe books I would draw in or write in on the way on the subway home every night.

And

I have I think it's 2014 at the top is LBs and just notes and whatnot.

And I think that was in that phase. Like I'm starting to miss home. What would this restaurant look like? What does it mean? Tim B to open a restaurant.

And it's interesting cause I'm now learning. I feel like I did all that and I hit the checklist, have this company and we're building this culture.

And I'm now learning that I need to make those goals culturally, and what are our values, what are our procedures, and I need to name those as I have our goals, my goals in the past, because, look, I made it, but if you don't know, if you don't set the direction, of where you're going, how can you measure if you're going, in the correct way.

Yeah, staying on track. Exactly. Yeah. They often use that airplane analogy that if you're off just one degree on your course, you'll end up hundreds of miles in the wrong direction. And yeah, you're neat. It sounds like you, you approach this With a business mindset and that you had to put the procedures in place and systemize everything.

Like you're very logistical and calculating about how you started. But then there's that creative side, right? And I look at the website and it invites me in to what looks to be a really intimate bistro kind of space. Would you say that was the original vision? Did it evolve at all? Is that really true to what you're originally thinking?

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Yeah, it was being in Danny Meyer's restaurants and just getting exposed to that culture of taking care of people and Yes, people feeling seen and heard. I wanted to create a restaurant where that was very tangible So it's in an old house That we redid and especially being named after my grandmother.

I wanted that kind of

Oh yes, you're in,

you're in a safe place. So the kitchen is open. A nod to North and grill where I first worked. I love like seeing the guests, but the past, like I can turn around and shake a hand, say hello. So it was very intentional in the way that we designed it and laid out.

It's not a huge restaurant. How many seats do

you have

probably have 40 to 50, if you have a bar. And then, open kitchen, there's a chef's counter. So you can sit right there. I was going to ask you that next,

if you do a chef's table. You've got a chef's counter. Okay.

Which I really encourage, the cooks

to,

Eavesdrop.

If they say, man, those fries look good, but they didn't order fries hand them some fries, make those connections with these people. Create an experience.

Absolutely. That's wonderful. Wow. That's so great. Fantastic. Let's talk about your no, let's start with culture because I was going to start to ask you about your team and what you're looking for, and we'll get to that.

But what would you describe the culture of LV's to be? Every restaurant has a different culture, and if you were to ask all of the team that one question, would there be a common thread among all those people where they all agreed, yes, this is what we are about, this is what we feel when we're here.

Describe that culture for us.

I think the, when you're thinking about all these things, it's really important to you come up with this big picture, but you boil it down and you keep nitpicking of okay, what does it really mean? What does that really mean? And you get down to this one thing.

And so we started out like, all right, we're going to do it differently. We're going to take care of our staff, because we take care of them, they can take care of guests.

For

sure. That means helping, providing gym memberships, therapy resources, really investing in the the way we design the restaurant, the way we design the menu, and really and I've actually been thinking about this a lot the last couple weeks, and I think that the bottom of that is the culture is to enrich The lives of our employees and our guests.

And so I'm thinking,

I like

that. If that is our, if that is the culture, then we hire and fire based off of that, the way we approach the wine list, the way we try to educate our staff on wine. And I've it's told us, when we're doing lineup and we're telling them about this wine and whatnot, I'm like, okay, this is the chance for you to.

Okay, they like prosecco, but we have this cava. Explain the difference. They might be into it. You have now enriched their experience of, and you gave them something to enjoy, but also you gave them knowledge of an ingredient or a line. So it really boils down to enriching others. And that's the community, the way that we are involved in the community, the way that we treat our employees and the guests.

So I think it's important if you don't name it. Yeah. And you can lose sight of what your culture is.

That speaks volumes to your commitment to everyone you mentioned, but if we're talking about the team members and the benefits that you provide in terms of balance and wellness and all the things that, that will help them feel, cared for, nurtured, we have an opportunity here, but it's not just the job for a paycheck.

It's more than that. And That's a really powerful culture. So thanks for sharing. Let's talk about hires and your hiring philosophy. What things do you look for in someone and what skill sets or what do you think they should bring to the table to work at LBs?

I think it's definitely they

have to buy into that culture. Our values have to align. And excuse me. I look for somebody that wants to take that extra step to learn, Hey, what is the difference between Prosecco and Calabas? It's not just bubbles. They're both bubbles. Bubbly. But, what makes them different and how can I share the difference and connect?

Same with in the kitchen. Yeah, we can get tomatoes over here, but I can also call Van, the farmer, and we get these tomatoes. I would need, I need somebody that's curious and interested in those tomatoes and, wants the next, the best thing that they can get. So yeah, I think it's just like that edge on wanting to learn and grow.

And then. I take it on as my job to provide that opportunity for them to step up into that role.

Do you hire for experience or approach and attitude or both? Will you take on someone with no experience you just see something special in and then you train that person along the way? There are some really special magical people that just bring some sort of an essence to the job but they've never worked in a restaurant before but you can just see it and you can just sense that this can be a great fit.

With some training, with some direction, with some shadowing perhaps of some of your best people. So that happens in your organization, huh?

Oh yeah, I'll take on, I think, an industry called someone that's very green. No experience. They have no bad habits. I would take them with a good attitude over a lot of people most of the time.

Because if you want to learn, and you're okay with making mistakes and learning from them, I can teach you and show you, how, I how I could, but I invite you into our vision. That's what I think, how you become a great chef,

yeah. You just answered my next question about your leadership style.

You just told me without me asking you. That's fantastic. So let's talk about the framework of onboarding somebody new. Does it start with a job description and monitoring performance and perhaps as a performance view into it? Do you have recognition and rewards programs? Is there that formal structure?

Is it a little looser? At LVs, how does that work?

It's pretty loose. I would like to get more structured. And I think that's where we are right now as a business. As we grow because for so long, I was just in it. I was just, I was cooking. If a dishwasher was out, I was washing dishes. I was very much.

And I'm now working on the business and yeah, and I don't have a ton of experience in that. And so I'm reading every book I can get my hands on and, trying to streamline and make those processes because I realized once I was ready and able to take a step back, it was very hard because I had expectations that I did not define clearly and they, therefore it could be interpreted very, different ways.

And so if somebody did something differently and I got frustrated, I didn't really have anything to fall back on because I never clearly defined what I was expecting. So I'm in the middle of, that right now.

All right. Are you having any issues with staffing? Much of this industry, that is one of the biggest challenges right now obviously is staffing.

And it's not just people, it's great people that you wanna keep in your organization and not have high turnover, which obviously costs a lot of money. Where is that fit into your situation?

I think our, I would say overall, even through the pandemic we are in our fourth year, we have not had a huge issue with staffing.

Great.

I think because we pay our people well, we create this culture, we create opportunities, we try to enrich their lives. And they have friends that they talk to.

Word gets around. That work at the

restaurants.

Yeah.

That are, I think, waiting for a spot to open up or, so I think, if you build that strong culture, I interviewed a lady yesterday and she was looking for a second job.

She started one. She's I don't think they're paying me what I deserve. And I said, what are they starting you at? She's 11 an hour. And I was like, I've never paid anyone 11 an hour. I'll start you at 13. Just for two weeks to see if like you like us and we like you and then I'll bump you up, you know immediately and continually and and then I was just like what is minimum wage and I was like seven twenty five I think in Mississippi and I was like blown away that yeah people can't can and do pay somebody that yeah and then expect You expect a quality job or a great, product.

And it was just that, I was just like, man, if you take care of your people, I think the investment there is tenfold.

That is key information right there that I want the entire audience to hear. And that starts with the foundation of culture. But it's the enriching people's lives, not just giving them a job.

And the word on the street is going to be there and people are just waiting for a better opportunity to open up because the grass clearly is greener in this type of an approach to the business. And that's beautiful. Thanks for sharing that. That's great. Yeah, go ahead.

I would say if you have trouble with staffing and, I think a lot of people in this, a lot of, I think one of the big faults of our industry is people don't view their position, whether a server or a line cook, as a career.

And that's not just, that can be from business owners. And the general public, Oh, what are you doing while you wait tables? Like you must be in school. No, day one, this is my career. This is how I pay bills. This is how I pay for my kids to go to school. Set that up, day one, this can be your career and I will treat you like it as your career, but you have to act like it's your career.

And therefore, that's how you retain employees. If you treat them like, Oh, this is just temporary, and you're just basically telling them, I will, I'm expecting someone else in a year or two to roll over. So I think that's also, just a general attitude towards, and I think one that could radically change this industry if business owners thought of their lifebook as, this could be a career they can sous chef, it's not just the owner as a career. So I think that's a big shift that needs to happen, but I think it is an important message to your staff.

Absolutely. Hospitality, the foundational word of our business, is it not? Everyone has their own definition, and I would like to ask you what that word means to you and if you impart that to your team to approach every day with that word in mind.

Yeah, I think hospitality is someone feeling known or seen and seen, there's all sorts of technology and reservation systems where. Mr. Stewart came last week and he had a steak, we can make a note that his steak was a little over. He likes it under. He had this one red glass of wine that he really likes.

Somebody, if he walks in, you can, Hey, would you like that same glass of red wine? Instant connection, instant guest. He's man, they know me. They remembered me. I am known here. And I think that's like truly taking care of somebody. And being hospitable is, seeing what their preferences are and what their tastes and what they like.

That's a personal point of pride in giving the recognition, because I believe everyone wants to be recognized, they want to be acknowledged, they want to be served, and the service is a big part of hospitality also. But it also has a marketing effect to it, where if you feel special in a place and it becomes your place, how many people do you tell, word of mouth, And then online reviews, and the social media world, and the internet, and all that has such a powerful effect on a restaurant's success.

And if you think of every single guest as the most important guest, and treat them as such, that is hospitality, and that just speaks volumes about your restaurant. I think that, that's spot on. Is there a typical day in your life, Hunter? What's a typical day? Tomorrow, what's tomorrow gonna be like at LV's for you?

It's, every day is different, I'm sure.

Yeah yeah, it is different. Summer, with kids, it's all over the place. And, we're also working on restaurant number two. Yes, I wanted to ask you about that as well. I'm definitely I'm learning that role, but typical and recently I started, I wake up, I try to get up at 5.

45 or 6 before my kids and I can just sit, I can have my coffee, I'll read, and I'll generally look at My day like a quick calendar just because if I don't then in my head I get really stressed So I think I have some eating here and I think I'm need to be over there Am I needed in two places at once so it's almost just like a it kind of calms me down Like

I get that

it's a little planned out manageable Man, we'll get our kids up and she goes to school across the street, take her to school and then I'll head into the restaurant.

And I I like to do some prep, maybe if I have a special or an idea, like a sauce or something. Morning hours are perfect. They're a pretty great time for that for me at LV. And then lunch gets rolling. I have an amazing staff to do that and I'll have meetings. Recently I've been heading over to the Mayflower, which is our second restaurant, and checking in on that because we're like moving kitchen equipment in hopefully today or tomorrow.

So that's really close. And then this past week, it's been manager meetings and really, and some employee meetings of really making sure that culture is maintained, because I feel like we honestly, I lost a little trap, with the Mayflower, I just went all in on that.

I know what that's like.

Yep. And I just let it, float. And I was like, Oh, we're good. And then looked up and I was like, man, this is not exactly how I would like it. Spending a couple hours being intentional with employees, managers, and checking in on things that they need and being clear on expectations and needs or things that we need them to help with.

 

So you can find a balance. Is that challenging? Cause it sounds like the bandwidth gets a little shrunk. You're opening up a new place and you got to spend a lot of focus on getting that place right.

But then relying on your time. Team obviously at LVs to keep the show rolling over here to your expectations. And then you've got a growing family and it's wow, how do you balance all those things?

Yeah, I think it's getting what I'm learning has helped me is communicating to clearly what your expectations are and what needs to be done, what the tasks are.

And it's hard because I started out this is what I wanted to do. I wanna open a restaurant so I could cook my food. I don't really cook that much anymore, so Do you miss that? I'm like, man I do. It was really hard after our second kid, like Uhhuh, man, I like grieving this, like I love this, I miss the Friday night lights, the broad time, but this is very important also.

And I can only raise my kids once. And I'm just, and so it's switched. Instead of creating dishes, I've also really enjoyed creating managers, creating healthy employees, training them so I can catch a breath, step away and give them a spot to step up

it's hard. It can be hard. Yeah. It's a lot of, I think a lot of groundwork of being intentional and really digging into, the lives of the people that work for you.

Yeah, I think you said it best. You're setting expectations, and you're holding people accountable to certain goals, because you can't be in every place at every time, and everyone must be part of that uplifting the organization, and allowing you to spend time where time is necessary for the big picture.

And that's not called delegation. That's called empowerment. And I'm a huge fan of that. So I'm really glad that you also mentioned that. I definitely want the audience to differentiate those things. Being a true leader and recognizing talent, empowering people, and helping them build your business.

And that's a really powerful thing. So that's awesome that it's happening. How about financial responsibilities? Do you have to spend much time? Do you have someone else that's handling that? The key, performance indicators and menu costing and inventory and food and beverage and labor costs and all those things that are critical for any restaurant to succeed.

Do you take a hand in that or is someone else doing it?

If I'm honest, I do not enjoy any of that. I am the, I like, give me the tomato and the, the fish and give me the people and I will thrive in the kitchen. So when I opened LBS, I knew I needed a business partner that could do that and do it well.

And so I partnered with a friend, Cody McCain. He's front of house, office Excel spreadsheet wizard. He took all the. I went through the menu recently and just went through all the invoices and broke down, a pinch of salt cost this month, but he like enjoyed it.

That was like fun for him.

Yeah.

I'm like you're insane. Speaking my language. I was like, what are you doing? And then he'll come to me with, numbers and whatnot, and we'll have meetings and talk about quarters so I'm definitely, I am involved a little I would also like to be more as I, take steps back out of the kitchen.

But I have a, I have my business partner and it's definitely his expertise.

How often does the menu change? Are there specials that you add from time to time that are just on weekends or busy times that are off the menu or does the menu change seasonally? Does it change more frequently than that?

There's the creativity part of what you do, right? How often?

Yeah. Yeah. We try, we probably change the dinner menu every other month.

Yeah.

Just because, the seasons in Mississippi are. Really odd, there's not. There's not a fall, it just goes hot to cold, back to hot to, so it's hard to say seasonal.

I just get with the farmers and, tomatoes are hot now, okra is right after, and then that's, that's really how we dictate the menu.

And your guests appreciate the freshest of the fresh at the right time.

Yeah, there's definitely, between six or eight entrees, three of them are going to stay the same, or the rest will change.

And that's there's a couple apps that are staples. We'll change the rest and that's how we approach it.

Yeah. It seems like it's very much a seafood concept. What about Mayflower? What's that menu going to be like and how do you differentiate the two restaurants? What are the main differences between LVs and Mayflower?

Whole different directions or any crossover?

LVs I would say is pretty seasonal, very farmer driven, very Mississippi, Intentional, thoughtful, what are farmers growing, what are the traditions of the south, foodways, all that kind of gets filtered into the menu at L. V. 's. The Mayflower is an 86 year old restaurant that's like a very iconic staple in the city.

And it's dubbed we found all these old menus and, they have, they had an upstairs that they didn't use, so just pop boxes and trash and stuff.

Yeah. Awesome.

And on the menu, it's Mississippi's oldest seafood house. So their thing is very seafood started by Greek immigrants.

It's actually where comeback dressing originated. There's two restaurants. And I think one of them created it and they maybe not together with the Mayflower, but that one's no longer. So Mayflower is the last standing restaurant that is like the, Original comeback dressing, which is a story that is really untold, but crazy because I can go anywhere and they have come back on a chicken sandwich or a salad.

Yes. Wow. That's a marketing hook in and of itself. And the history that speaks to is very powerful. And the community at large obviously is very familiar with that restaurant.

Yeah. So it's definitely

when

I opened LV, I wanted, we're classic. I wasn't really going to chase the trends and I joked, I want LVs to be the next hundred year old restaurant.

Four years later, we have this chance to take over an 86 year old restaurant. It's in downtown Mississippi and Jackson has its struggles flighty. A lot of businesses are leaving. So this, and now I've been thinking about, okay I'm going hard on the culture of LVs. What is Mayflower's culture?

And at first I was like, oh, they don't have a culture. I can, we can start from scratch. Then I realized, no, everybody has a culture. It's whether it's a good culture or a bad culture. And this one is it has had some issues. So it was now our chance to, and like we use the word enrich at LV, like reconcile is this word that's come up a lot when I think about the Mayflower.

In a city that has a lot of struggles, In an area of town that has a lot of struggles, and if you want to be honest, talk racially, a city in the south, that has a lot of struggles. This is a space for us to change that and start a new story and tell the stories of the cooks and the city and downtown and really hope that there's like this spark and this, energy that starts to permeate downtown and lift the city of Jackson up.

That's a rebuilding, rebirth sort of beautiful story. Inclusivity, again, all around the common breaking bread and food and that sort of thing in the culture. That's fantastic. I love that story. That's great. Let's shift gears a little. You are a James Beard Award finalist. In 2024, is that correct? And I know that you were a semi finalist last, in 23.

How does all this happen? Were you nominated by someone in the industry? And what is that sort of decision making process and how it's very competitive because it's such an illustrious award to win. And what a powerful thing to say that you were a semi finalist and now you're a finalist. That's huge.

Yeah. Yeah, that was one of those things when I started cooking in college was like, I want to win a James Green award. So it was wild to be at the awards ceremony. I thought I was going to pass out. Literally, I was like, I wonder if anyone's going up on stage on the stretcher pillows. I'm about to lose it.

The adrenaline

was flowing, right?

Yeah, it was weird. So they have gone through a lot of changes and they created a committee, I believe, of a couple hundred people for the region of the South. And I think they have, those people nominate or, this is my interpretation of, and I guess they're like, Oh, this chef is doing great things.

This chef, this chef is doing whatever. And they have this list of all these names and I guess, the names and then you also apply, you do apply and there, you I think there's like a video interview that you submit.

Okay.

And then I imagined, okay, out of these 300 people, the 20 most common names are these and let's look into them. And then those are the semi finalists. When you hit the semi finalist stage, there's another committee, a lot smaller, maybe a dozen or so people, for each region. And they go out and like undercover, like a food critic, and they eat and dine and they score it on some sheet.

I'm assuming, I don't, I haven't seen that. I don't know what that looks like. Top five scores become finalists. Then they do that process again with the top five and then the highest score wins. So I think in the past they've been it's been called like a clubby like favoritism, like I like this person, so let's give them an award.

And I think it's moved to more of a, what are these standards and these things that we can calculate and then, have a top score or something. And so that's my understanding of how the process works. And yeah, we went to Chicago last month and went to the ceremony and it was awesome.

I met so many great people in the industry. And yeah, just a fun weekend to be there.

That is fantastic. You're an inspiration to the industry for sure and to your people that work at LVs. What's your opening date planned at the Mayflower? Is that, you made it sound like it's imminent, like we're moving in the equipment and we're getting, we're gearing up, like what are you looking for?

What's your timeline?

We were shooting soft openings August 10th.

It's coming up quick, yeah?

Yeah, we're, we're down to equipment gets in, call health department, get all those last minute things. The

checklist, yep.

Could be Around then, maybe a couple days after, the week after August, middle of August,

we

should be all in.

So you mentioned the soft opening. Do you have a guest list in mind of influencers, prominent people in the community that can spread the word, chamber of commerce type thing? What's the plan there? That's a powerful marketing opportunity for you to have a soft opening. Have your people trained, put their best foot forward, deliver an amazing experience so that suddenly the word is out, the Mayflower is back.

Yeah. This is,

this has definitely been more of a delicate soft opening because the Mayflower has such a iconic, I don't know, tie to a lot of people. There's like people, there's a Friday night crowd, there's a Saturday night crowd, and those people go every Friday. every Saturday. They're a lot older than me.

It's that, generate, they've been going for 40 years. It's also has a huge political crowd when the session is meeting downtown legislators. So we've thought through, we can have a legislator night. We could have these, like the crew that is like the regulars, like Friday night that knows the history, knows the family that previously ended.

And then also, there's a chance for us to invite like, more of our generation that has never been there to go downtown anymore and expose them to this new restaurant because we are changing a lot. That's for being six years old of not maintaining a restaurant. It can look pretty rough. I'm sure.

So there'll be some new, some updating it. As we've been saying and adding a lot of really cool stuff, actually adding stuff that they used to do that they quit doing. So we're like bringing back, to life, some of the stuff. Some people are gonna be like, this is, yeah, And one of those being, it was BYOB forever,

we're going to

put a bar in, so that's one of the, are the regulars going to be okay with buying a 12, 14 glass of wine when they were bringing their 25 bottle home but I've fallen back on that.

And it was life or death this

thing was going to disappear for a while. Yeah, some traditions have to remain. You're modernizing, you're upgrading equipment, you're refurbishing, but then you walk in the door and there's still old memories perhaps for people that know it from what it used to be.

And it's that very strong balance that I think you're going for. And I think you're going to hit it. That's tremendous. I wish you the best of success with that. Let me ask you the last question. If you were to go back in time to the start of your career, what advice would you give your young self or even an aspiring line cook now who is the person who is trying to figure out life and am I going to be a chef?

Where can I go in this business, in this career? What advice would you give that person?

Think gain as much experience, I think that's one of the things I loved about culinary school. Every three weeks I had a different professor to cook with, watch, learn, pick their brain but if Don't go to Culinary school or can't go to Culinary school. Work at different jobs, get different exposures from, from different restaurants.

I lived in New Orleans for a summer while I was in school and did an externship. I worked at a restaurant and then my cousin was opening one. I was like, I've never been a part of a restaurant opening. That's interesting. So I went and worked over there for a little bit. Then I went back to the other restaurant.

And I'm not saying work here three months and flip flop around, but if you're moving cities and or if you want to keep one job, travel. Ask your chef, Hey, I'm going to the next big city three hours away. Do you have any restaurant? Do you know any, a chef there? Can I go stage? Can I go eat?

That's one of the things that we do. A server is going somewhere like, all right, here's a hundred bucks to go experience this. So to get exposure to something else.

Yeah. You can bring back The best practices or things that you've seen that enhance and uplevel your organization to that.

That's great.

Exposure.

Cause not only

you're just going to learn the things that you want to learn. I learned a lot of stuff of like how not to do something working with a chef. I do not want to be that guy. I do not want to manage like him. I do like this, and this, but you can learn what you want, but also what you don't want to do.

And I think those are both important.

Absolutely are. Hunter, it's been great having you on the show. Thanks for your experience. Thanks for your stories. Thanks for the inspiration. And again, you're doing amazing things in the culinary world and opening up a new restaurant. I wish you the best of success with that.

Yeah, thank you.

Thanks for having me on. Enjoyed it. Thanks for being a great guest. Thanks, audience, for tuning in. That was the Restaurant Rockstars podcast. We can't wait to see you in the next episode, so stay tuned and stay well. We'll see you there.

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