Tupelo Honey Café is one of those classic, feel-good American restaurant stories. It’s been almost 19 years since Tupelo Honey Café opened its doors in Downtown Asheville. Locals, in particular the hospitality crowd, flocked there after work for what was then just a whisper of the now ubiquitous farm-to-table concept. Tired and tourist wary servers and bartenders noshed on fried okra and Carolina white sauce, sweet tea-brined chicken and biscuits, collards and fried catfish. To insiders, Tupelo’s menu was just an elevated version of what Southerners grew up eating. To outsiders, it was revolutionary.

In the ultimate what’s old is new is old again, visitors gradually discovered the café. The organic following rose beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains, catapulting simple Appalachian cuisine into the fine dining vernacular. With it, the Tupelo Honey Café lifestyle grew. Much like Asheville, Tupelo Honey Café had that indescribable ‘it’ factor of unpretentious surroundings, gathering at tables, and, as we say in the south, stupid good eating.

Fast forward to 2019. There are nearly 20 Tupelo Honey Cafés throughout the country. Visit the original café today and somehow it has managed to preserve the vibe that made it famous. Perhaps that’s why many of the employees have personal history there. E. Tyler Alford is the vice president of operations for Tupelo Honey Café. For this Carolina native, returning to Tupelo is meaningful. After stints as food and beverage manager in swanky Jackson Hole for the four-diamond Wild Sage Restaurant within the Rusty Parrot Lodge, and after that becoming manager and assistant Sommelier at the James Beard awarding-winning Commander’s Palace, in 2014 Alford joined Tupelo Honey Café where he introduced a beverage program focused on sustainable, hyperlocal ingredients. It wasn’t long before his passion for the restaurant served as a springboard and he rose to his current role.

“I spent my summers in the North Carolina Mountains and my mom would take us out for one big meal the morning before we got dropped off at camp – this new, hip café had opened in downtown Asheville that served brunch,” said Alford. “We went to Tupelo that first day and we went back every time before camp or on breaks after that, so I had eaten there a dozen times before joining the company.”

When Alford married, he and his wife knew they wanted to be closer to family – and in grand Tupelo style, all the stars aligned. It just so happened Tupelo Honey Café was in need of a beverage person with Alford’s passion and experience.

“At that time, they had just opened sixth restaurant and it was a growing company on a path towards globalization of southern food,” Alford said. “The success in taking it mainstream is a result of lots of experience from our senior leadership, technology, oversight and business aptitude to know which markets work or which ones are not a fit.”

But Alford says first and foremost, Tupelo has and will always be known for hospitality.

“My senior director of hospitality was an hourly server so with every person there is an institutional passion and culture – it follows us because everywhere we go, people say they came to Tupelo Honey Café in Asheville and remember that experience,” said Alford, who equates it with loyalty to the original location and paying attention to local markets. “There is a Franklin’s Tupelo Honey café, not just a Tupelo Honey Café in Franklin, while in Downtown Asheville, the restaurant is quirky so you’ll see a lot of blue hair and dark sleeve tattoos – we couldn’t institute a uniform policy or there would be a coup.”

Designers slightly alter the décor depending on the market, but the thematic features remain throughout in the warm southern art for which Tupelo Honey cafes are known, in step with the culture of the cuisine. Students of southern food can recall a time when the Appalachian menu was derived from a lack of resources. Now even what used to be lowliest vegetables (okra, we’re talking to you) are sustainably sourced, along with grits that come from a local mill straight to Tupelo Honey kitchens and other responsible ingredient practices.

With expansion in mind, CEO and owner Stephen D. Frabitore capitalized on Tupelo’s unmistakable vibe, pairing that with the skills of an outsider who could bring a fresh perspective on how to make Tupelo Honey Café work everywhere else. In 2016, Frabitore selected New York super chef Eric Gabrynowicz to help translate the brand to markets outside of Asheville. Gabrynowicz built his career on hard work in the kitchens of New York City but was an unabashed fan of Southern cuisine.

“I always say if everyone in life was a server for a year and in New York City the world will be a better place,” said Gabrynowicz, who loves what living in the Carolinas affords him the opportunity to do. “The people here are incredibly grateful and hospitable – they knew where they were lacking yet they understand their client base and why people love it so much.”

Gabrynowicz recognized he was coming into a tight-knit restaurant family with deep ties to a long-time menu. [Read more…]

Opening a restaurant is a daunting task for any chef. To open a new restaurant in a new hotel in a city still finding its culinary footing is baptism by fire. For Angeline’s executive chef Robert Hoffman, the lessons learned and relationships forged along this journey are part inspiration and part cautionary tale. Along with lead bartender Henry Schmulling and director of food and beverage Andy Carlson, they have managed to create an atmosphere where none existed before in the still-shiny Kimpton Tryon Park Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Hoffman got the call to become Angeline’s executive chef eight weeks before the staff began training. He was at a resort in Arizona, also a Kimpton property.

“I didn’t know where Charlotte was – I had a vague idea and, two days later, I was doing a tasting for our management and checking out the area to see if I wanted to move,” said Hoffman, who had previously relocated to Arizona from Chicago. “What I found is Charlotte is a great middle ground.”

That Angeline’s is located in the region’s only Kimpton property helps. That and the fact that Charlotte is a city of hangouts in which its just under 1 million residents are always on the lookout for the next place to go. A week into opening, Angeline’s and the rooftop bar Merchant & Trade were packed, with security guards at the ready to keep onlookers from harassing local celebs like basketball legend Michael Jordan and the billionaires who come to do business in the banking boomtown. The hotel’s floor-to-ceiling windows boast big skyline views, but, in contrast, Angeline’s feels cozy and heady, evoking visions of craft cocktails, wine, and Italian cuisine to come. The nearly 3,000-square-foot restaurant includes a hideaway dining room, full-height wine wall, and communal table. The polished copper and whiskey-colored ombre glass chandeliers and beer taps overhead give it a sultry, laid-back vibe.

Hoffman describes the move, opening Angeline’s and being part of a new hotel as a whirlwind. To a certain extent Monday to Saturday, every table is full and there is a line to get into the rooftop bar nearly every night. “I’ve done some rather large openings before and there were big holes in the boat we had to get filled, but it comes down to staffing,” he said. A hotel restaurant is a different animal. No matter how new or tasty the menu, it is only as good as its staff. Because a hotel guest experience revolves around a length of time rather than just a couple of hours as in a single meal, the service element is critical.

“The main way I measure success is by empowering people and being able to train and develop them through the ranks so they want to come to work every day and be interested and engaged,” Hoffman said. “It’s hard to recruit and retain people so you have to make the investment in the individuals because they might leave you as a line cook and come back as a sous chef. You have to forge those relationships and start those building blocks.” [Read more…]

Over the past few months, we’ve been following the opening of Public Greens, Indianapolis restaurateur Martha Hoover’s second location of her hit healthy café. We followed Hoover as she and her team navigated every part of the opening process of a restaurant, from picking a location to marketing. In the final installment of this series, we speak to Jeanna Chandler, director of operations, about the last-minute logistical challenges that arise in the final weeks leading up to the opening.  

The most important part of these two weeks leading up to the opening is being organized. We have a really solid checklist program, and everyone has delegated responsibilities instead of one person trying to take on everything. Having checklists and timelines allow us to remain calmer when life happens and vendors or designers or deliveries don’t arrive when you planned. I have very specific lists of items that each individual takes care of — and what I do is I only send people lists of everything that needs to be done today and tomorrow so they can knock that out. This makes it very manageable for people and not overwhelming — to feed them a little bit at a time so we are not trying to take on the entire world.

Timing is always the biggest challenge in making sure you are ready. There are always delays — furniture delays, construction delays. I am sitting here inside the restaurants and the patio was supposed to be stained yesterday so the patio furniture could be delivered tomorrow, but it’s raining, so that was thrown for a loop. There was also a mistake in one of the architectural designs so we have to redesign the seating or readjust the sizing of the seating. There are so many things like that where you have no control, but you stay calm and figure out the best way to move past it.

Today I am meeting with our linen company to talk about rugs that we would need, and then I have a meeting with our liquor vendors — we have our accounts already set up with them, so we are just getting pre-orders ready to go because we already know what the menu will look like. We will also unpack our smallwares on Friday and over the weekend in preparation for the staff to get here. That doesn’t mean we put everything away. We just want to get everything in their stations so that when the training happens, those things can be put in place and people are lining shelves and learning organization and how to make the station work for them. We want to have the product in-house for training next week, so staff can touch and feel as much as possible.

We are also in the final stages of making sure that all our licenses are in place, and we have all our health department approvals and certifications, first-aid items, and preventative maintenance agreements. The next thing will be the first drop of ingredients — we will start bringing food into the restaurant next week. I’ve already done our health inspection. We have a great relationship with the health department — they gave us permission to bring food in, based simply on our history and level of organization and how we do things. [Read more…]