Restaurant Constance — Charlotte, NC
I always start these conversations understanding the person’s path to Charlotte. Everybody's journey to the city is so different, and I know you've lived in New York City, D.C., and Myrtle Beach. So, what was the journey like to Charlotte?
"Food. Well, I mean, I got here because of food, really. Also, my children's mom wanted to get back into the workforce, and she had a job offer here. So, there are a couple of different factors at play. Those are the primary ones, that was in 2004."
It was chosen for you, and you had to pay attention to it. Was it always food that sparked a passion for you, or did you have something else that you thought would be your career path?
"Yeah, a couple of serendipitous culinary moments. I grew up in the restaurant business, but it wasn't something I thought about doing while I was in the business, you know? Growing up, it was just what we did. It was just part of the family fabric. I'm one of five, and we all worked in my Dad’s restaurant, busing tables or washing dishes or, in my case, sometimes I got to cook. My cousin did the same thing, too, and it's just something that we did. I guess my experience in high school wasn't great; I don't know; I didn't have very much interest in it. When I graduated, my Dad actually sent me to culinary school. I went unwillingly (laughs), I was told, and then I wound up in this hotel. My Dad's friend's son was the chef there, but my Dad also knew the owners of the hotel. This is back in Myrtle Beach and in the early 90s, so everybody still knew everybody, and he just sent me along my way. Once I got into this hotel, I found that this restaurant was kind of fine dining. It was an Inn, and it was grounded in European tradition. So if you got a room, you got breakfast, and then you got a dinner option. The menu changed every single day, and they were focused on local foods; they were focused on great European traditions when it came down to the style of food, and they were focused on technique. Soon after I arrived there, I realized I was in the right place, and I loved it. Fresh basil and peaches are available in the summertime, as well as soft shell crabs. Do you know what I mean? As a young cook and kid I had so many questions, and I was just super excited about it. Of course, I had no idea what I was doing at the same time, but they held on to me, and that meant a lot."
Did you have that moment where it just hit you that this was where you were meant to be?
"Yeah, definitely. It was the summertime, and there were a lot of African American cooks there; it was such a cool environment to be in. I remember one of the ladies that was one of the chefs there for like 20 years, like her tenure was 20 years, and she was prepping fruit in the morning time; she and I just had a little 10 to 15-second conversation about why fruit is so much and why the fruit we were having and prepping was so much sweeter in the summertime. It was like the light went on, and I thought, this is different, and I wanted to learn more."
What was the experience like at your other restaurants or other places?
"Well, I just worked for my Dad at that point, and I had a dishwashing position at Outback Steakhouse. That wasn't exactly glamorous, you know? There were no culinary breakthroughs to speak of during my time there other than that bread that they served, whatever it was. So my Dad's restaurant was comfort, it was home, it was a craft that created connections in the community, and when I say the community, like Myrtle Beach, all of our friends worked there, but also we had repeat customers every single year come from all over the country to my Dad's restaurant. As a kid, you can't really pick up on what's going on. But there's an undercurrent of energy going on there that if you stay open-minded enough down the road, at some point, it'll make sense, and soon after, I landed at the selling end and continued my career there.”
You are really big on locally sourced products from local farms in the state. Did that kick off at that point, or was it when you were here in Charlotte?
"The seed was definitely planted there. The seed was 100% planted there. Even then, we would have fishermen come up well before, like refrigerated trucks and all that stuff; these guys from McClellanville almost always African American fishermen would come up and bring the crab, the shrimp and whatever else they caught on the back of this beat up pickup truck in a cooler full of ice, and it was just a handoff. It was such a cool thing to witness as a kid in such a cool time and in our hospitality industry era, where things were just very simple."
And then you built that here with folks and farmers, bringing people together.
"Yeah. Well, then you learn when fresh shrimp are available. You know what I mean? So then you have this clock that's ticking within you and like, okay, springs coming, soft shell crabs and soon after that fresh shrimp, and the shrimp would reappear at the end of summer once the waters cooled down a little bit and Mother Nature was good to us so the seed was planted there. I guess it all had always been a part of me, but I have to say that I worked for some really, really committed people with lots of great experience who were willing to share their knowledge and, coupled with the childhood I grew up with is how I got to where I am today."
Are you a goal-driven person?
"No. I don't think there is anything wrong with setting goals. It can be productive and it can be counterproductive, right? My job at this point is to stay out of the way as much as possible and let whatever happens happen as long as I play my part. I view my role here in the restaurant we're sitting in now and the company that I own in this life as a spoke-on-the-wheel thing. Nobody's really in charge. I also believe in doing the right thing and continuing to do the right thing, and I think whenever you put that good energy out there, it comes back. So, this restaurant was never in the plans; there were never any plans for this. I just had an idea, whenever I was laid off in March of 2020, to get out there myself and into service and use my platform to help support the farmers. Then, I would go back to work whenever COVID left. Two weeks into that, I would do ten meals a day out of my apartment and then go back to Upstream, my previous employer. Two weeks into that venture, I delivered unknowingly to a food writer, who wrote a glowing review of the food she ate. And then the rest is history, man. I went from doing 10 to 30 to 40 meals a day.
It's one of those things that I'm a big believer in if you do the leg work, the doors will open. If you do the legwork, not only will the doors open, but you'll be prepared to walk through them. That's nothing I made up. It's just what I'm taught. A lot of this is recovery-based. I've been sober a long time. So that's just what I did. That's what we continue to do. Then we moved in over here. I was in the back corner. It was like a little wedge in September 2020. Then, a random phone call from a guy from the Carolina Panthers, Christian McCaffrey, said he was looking for a personal chef, breakfast, lunch and dinner, five days a week, 365. That became our Personal Chef Division, and then a lady called who said that she had lost two deposits and was just trying to get her daughter married. This is May 2020, and she needed somebody to come to her house and cook in the backyard to get her daughter married. So that became our Events Division. It's all just putting it out there to the next right thing, and whatever happens, happens, and here we are. The restaurant we're sitting in now became a thing because the previous tenant had seen some success in 2021 and 2022 and was looking for a larger space. And so he was walking down that hallway, and I was walking the other way. He was staring at his phone. I was probably staring at mine. He goes, hey man, if you know anybody that wants to sublease this restaurant, let me know we're going to move on, and I said, well, I'm opening up a restaurant.
From a goal standpoint, you know, it's a one-day-at-a-time thing for me, and that's to attack the day like literally attack the day and, you know, try to meet as many moments that present themselves as challenges as I can and also give myself and those people around us as much grace as that moment requires as well. We try to learn from it."
Is there a struggle that you're currently dealing with right now?
"No, because, look, I used to be homeless. I used to live on the streets. I was homeless for a year and a half. I nearly died right around the corner. I was strung out. I was an addict. I've been served; November would be ten years, God willing. So that's my perspective, and bad days for most people aren't necessarily bad days for me. Plus, I stay connected to the recovery community that writes the wrong between the ears on a regular basis. Are there struggles? No. Do we have challenges? Yes. I'm a small business owner, and I have 40 employees. It's election season, and the business is up and down. You know what I mean? I have challenges, but I don't have struggles."
What is a proud moment you can look back on that has shaped you into who you are today?
"Yeah, I have to lean into sobriety, and that's one day at a time. What I love about sobriety is I tried to do this life thing on my own for 38 years, and I failed miserably, so whenever I surrendered to my reality and the consequences of substance abuse and let other people into my life, everything changed."”
