Becoming The Best

Becoming The Best

and sharing our thoughts on what it means and our plan of how to do it

Some of our regular guests at the restaurant have a love-hate relationship with us. I don’t admit this flippantly, as our entire mission is based around serving others and making them happy, but I want it to be on the record that we as a team are aware of this. The reason for this at-times tumultuous relationship is that we are constantly changing. 

A lot of restaurants change their menus, but we take change to a new level. Season to season you'll see a completely new menu, but also: new furniture, new interior design, completely new genres of music, new fusions of cuisine, new uniforms, new service times, even new dining rooms as we rotate guests around the many nooks and crannies of our 150 year old building. From tapas, to a la carte pastas, to restrictive tasting menus, to somewhere in the middle, we have tried a lot in the past 2 years.

But why do we do it? Honestly it's as simple as the clue given in the title. We want to become the best restaurant in the Upstate. But before I dive into what the word best means to us, and how we hope to pull that off, let me explain why we want to become the best in our region.

It's also a pretty simple answer, just give me a minute to get to it. Our team at the restaurant is the epitome of an underdog. None of us have been to culinary school, almost all of us have never even worked in another restaurant before, and we span a variety of ages and ways of life. Our story is not that of the typical aspiring Michelin service industry workers of this world; working endless hours in kitchens prior to owning or operating in a management position. While it may appear as random, most of us found ourselves in this medium of artistry because of a pre-existing and internal craving for creativity, as well as just a love for accomplishing difficult things. 

So why do we want to become the best? None of us got into this industry for the typically shitty pay or the grueling schedules. We decided to do this because we found a love for the craft, and wanted to play the game at the highest level possible. We wanted to work with the best ingredients, create the best experiences, and curate a team that is truly passionate and driven about their way of life.

So what does the word best mean to us? In one of the pre-launch meetings of this new season at the restaurant, Appalachia, we defined this word by formulating a description of how we want our customers to feel when they leave the restaurant, as a way of describing our goal of being the best.  So to us, being the best, means people leave a night at our restaurant:

1. Happy and full.
2. Introduced to new ingredients, techniques, and concepts.
3. Pondering the many surprises of the night they didn't anticipate.
4. Wondering how the coordination and cooperation of the whole team as not just cooks and waiters, but as guides all working together to serve each guest, actually came together.
5. Uncomfortable referring to the restaurant as just a place to eat good food.
6. Ecstatic about telling their friends.

To conclude our definition of being the best; our goal is to host and serve our guests far beyond the expectations of the industry, filling each night with expression, perspective, and passion. 

So what's our plan to become the best? Again it's simple. Through the very change that at times can be upsetting. Believe me, at times we also hate change. The changes to concept, design, menu, service styles, etc. are uncomfortable, risky, and emotionally / physically taxing. But these changes are the very pieces of evidence pointing to our commitment not only to self improvement, but also to our mission of curating the absolute best experience for our guests. Through the changes over the past 2 years we have learned so much about cultivating our own passions, curating unforgettable experiences, and crafting the tools and systems to create truly unique dishes and dining experiences. 

I'll finish with one final thought. This season, our hope is not to arrive at some final destination of absolute perfection, but to take the once again terrifying and potentially fatal leap of reaching the next level of proficiency. This season we are excited and grateful to have the opportunity to not only serve you but hopefully to wow you. So book your table, join us for a night, and put us to the test.