BRIQUETTES SMOKEHOUSE - Key Persons
Since I was a kid, I have always had an obsession with food. At 6 years old, I was making my own recipes out of the "Fishes and Loaves" cookbook. By 10 I was helping out in the communal kitchen at Koinonia Farms in the Plains Georgia area, where village chef "Queenie" would let only the most careful assistants complete her famous pan-fired okra recipe. At 16 I took my first restaurant job "flipping burgers" and found myself in a management position before I was 17. From there it was a tour de force working my way through a dozen our more restaurants, learning skills, developing knowledge, and becoming the type of all-around restaurant operator it takes to be an owner.
In 2009, I took the plunge. I wrote the business plan for Briquettes Smokehouse, usually between the hours of midnight and 4am after my Executive Chef gig at a restaurant I had just helped to get open with some former employees. By May, co-founder John Senger and I were going full bore to get the doors open. The next twelve years seem to have gone in fast forward as the business grew, the location changed two times, my wife (Elisabeth) and I have added four more children to the one we already had, and the neighborhood around us grew and flourished.
Started working at Briquettes 10 years ago, just to have a job with flexible hours while I was in College. I was working on an associate degree for Radiologic Technology. I was hired as a dishwasher, but of course that is not what the Restaurant Gods had decided for me. The first week working there, I sliced my hand open with a piece of broken glass. That day forward I was moved to out front and out of place. Being
a kitchen guy (only having two years' experience as a dishwasher/cook somewhere else) placed in front of people, taking tables. Fast-forward 2 years, we were in the process of moving to a bigger location across the street and I was about to graduate with my degree, I was offered a more permanent position with the company with possibility of ownership, I
accepted. Fast-forward 2 more years moving again to our permanent location, I was finally able to secure enough money to buy in before my 5-year anniversary. I love this job; I love the people I work with and the customers I interact with. I have made many lifelong friends working with this company. It has been the best-worst decision (being a restaurant owner) of my life.