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WINDSETFARMS.COM Food & Beverage Magazine |May 2017

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HOSPITALIT Y PROFESSIONALS 26

killed restaurateur Doug Hogrefe has spent more than 20 years in the restaurant industry. As co-owner at 4-Top Hospitality, Hogrefe oversees 14 Tennessee and Mississippi restaurants in the group’s independent multi-concept portfolio. Hogrefe is an active partner leading operations and managing the frontof-house while focusing on sales and service. Concepts from partners Ben Brock, David Conn, Doug Hogrefe and Paul Schramkowski range from neighborhood Italian restaurants to upscale steakhouses and chef driven hotspots running the gamut from $15 to $70 checkouts. Their broad set of tastes led to success in multiple markets and a diverse customer base. It began when the group took over four Amerigo restaurants after working in chef, server and management positions at various locations for several years. They’ve since expanded their footprint in Jackson, Mississippi to include French bistro Anjou, Mexican kitchen Sombra, steakhouse Char and oyster bar Saltine (which was on Bon Appetit’s list of Top 50 Best New Restaurants in 2015). Up in Nashville, they added Etch and etc., both fine dining restaurant from locally-renown chef Deb Paquette.

Food & Beverage Magazine |May 2017

27 HOSPITALIT Y PROFESSIONALS

F&B MAG • Doug •

EVERYONE HAS A STORY. TELL US HOW YOU KNEW YOU WANTED TO ENTER THE HOSPITALITY FIELD. WHAT WAS YOUR “LIGHT BULB” MOMENT? It’s a total cliché. I didn’t know what I wanted to do after I graduated from college so I thought I’d take a year off. A buddy of mine was waiting tables and making pretty good money and he got me a job where he was working. And 28 years later, I’m still trying to decide what I’m going to do after college. Back when I was still a GM, I kind of did everything myself. I figured I could do it quicker, better, and “my” way, so why have someone else do it? Then one day it dawned on me that I worked with quite a few people that could actually do things much better than me and that I needed to start using that talent to make my job, their job, and the store itself better. I started working smart, not hard, as one of our current GM’s likes to say.

F&B MAG • Doug •

CAN YOU NAME A PERSON WHO HAS HAD A TREMENDOUS IMPACT ON YOU AS A LEADER? WHY AND HOW DID THIS PERSON IMPACT YOUR LIFE? When I found myself, along with my partners, in a position to take over the company that I had worked for my entire adult life, someone told me that I was making the biggest mistake of my entire life and that I would be bankrupt within a year because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. There were a lot of expletives mixed in with that prediction. I wouldn’t say that was the only spark that lit the fire, but it was pretty close. I vowed to do everything I could to prove that person wrong. Almost ten years later we have grown by 350% and I’m still not bankrupt (knock on wood). WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS YOU MAKE AS ONE OF THE LEADERS OF YOUR ORGANIZATION? How to grow while still protecting each and every person that we work with. A large number of people have put their faith in us that we will not only protect their jobs, but also continually provide opportunity for growth. So you have to balance that. We have been extremely conservative with our cash which hopefully gives us some cushion if things ever go south for some reason. But that cash has also given us the credit and ability to grow. A lot of “experts” told us early on that we should pay ourselves and not sit on the cash. They were wrong. I don’t need a boat. We don’t need a plane. WHAT SETS YOUR VENUES APART FROM OTHER RESTAURANTS IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY? Myself and my four partners were all servers or cooks for at least 8-10 years before we even got into management, much less ownership. And none of us have forgotten what it was like to make $20 on a slow Monday night or get sent home early because “they” needed to save money on labor. Because of that, I think we spend a lot more time focusing on staff than a lot of other restaurant groups. Because if your staff is happy, then your guests are happy. And that leads to a happy restaurant. I’ve never understood the reasoning behind having mean, scary managers. The job is hard enough at its core without having to deal with ugly management. Management should be there to help and teach, not yell and criticize. w w w . f o o d b e v m aContinues g . c o m on| next M a page y 20 17 >>

CHEFS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

F&B MAG • Doug •

HOW DO YOU ENCOURAGE CREATIVE THINKING WITHIN YOUR ORGANIZATION? BY GETTING OUT OF THE WAY. First off, I am a micro-manager. Owners that say they aren’t are either lying or stupid. I know what’s going on at my businesses. But, if things are going well, then I give our people the autonomy to do their jobs as they see fit. I try to simply be a resource for our people. However, if things aren’t going the way we want them, I can micro-manage down to the last bar towel. But I find that I rarely have to do that. We have good people that want to take ownership in areas that interest them. And I let them run with that. AS ONE OF THE PARTNERS AT 4-TOP HOSPITALITY GROUP, WHICH DO YOU THINK IS MOST IMPORTANT TO YOUR ORGANIZATION—MISSION, CORE VALUES OR VISION? Core values. I’m not big on slogans or mission statements and I can’t see into the future. But what I can do, on a daily basis, is focus on the two things that are most important to the business: our guests and our people that take care of them.

F&B MAG •

WHEN FACED WITH TWO EQUALLY-QUALIFIED CANDIDATES FOR EXECUTIVE CHEF, HOW DO YOU

Doug •

The nice one. We hire the one that understands that while the food is important, if he/she does not respect their staff as much as they do their food, then they are not going to be a very good chef. The screaming chef stuff people see on TV doesn’t work in real life. It’s unnecessary and I choose not to be around it.

F&B MAG • Doug •

WHAT IS ONE CHARACTERISTIC THAT YOU BELIEVE EVERY LEADER SHOULD POSSESS? The ability to turn it off. I’m trying. I’ve gotten better. I wish email had never been invented. There is no template for what makes a great leader. But every leader needs to be able to turn it off at some point. When someone boasts about working 100-hour weeks, I quietly think to myself, “Well, that’s your problem, not mine.” CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE IMPACT, IF ANY, THAT SOCIAL MEDIA HAS MADE ON YOUR ORGANIZATION AND YOU PERSONALLY? Organizationally, it’s another marketing tool that can be very effective if used properly. It’s a decent way to gauge the guest experience, but you have to take it with a big grain of salt. Personally, I find it frustrating. It probably does more harm than good in a lot ways. It’s really irritating to read a scathing review and reach out to the person and then never here back from them. And that’s almost 100% of the time. Whereas if someone emails or calls about a bad experience, we are always able to get them back in for another chance. So, when you almost never hear back from someone that posts a bad experience on a review site, then you have to wonder how many of the online reviews are even real. Because you don’t want to start making decisions from things that may be fake. And it is real easy to do that.

Food & Beverage Magazine |May 2017

K I T C H E N 2 T H E TA B L E

F&B MAG •

WHAT ARE A FEW RESOURCES YOU WOULD RECOMMEND TO SOMEONE LOOKING TO GAIN INSIGHT INTO BECOMING A BETTER LEADER?

Doug •

There is an episode in the HBO mini-series “Band of Brothers” called “The Breaking Point.” It’s ostensibly about a stalemate during the Battle of the Bulge. But it’s really about leadership and why people choose to follow and respect certain types of leaders and how strong leaders can get people to do anything, while the weak ones just get people, in this case, killed. The book “Moneyball” is a great read for people that are stuck in a culture that will not change because change is scary and bad. And I always say that while people think “The Godfather” is a mob movie, it’s really a business movie if you think about it.

F&B MAG • Doug •

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ENSURE YOUR CONTINUED SUCCESS, GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT AS A LEADER? I self-evaluate daily. I think I am a pretty good critic of myself. Maybe too good, sometimes. I understand that leadership is a never-ending developmental process. There is no finish line in learning how to lead. WHAT, DO YOU DO TO RELAX? While we do enjoy going to restaurants, my wife is a really good cook and I’m pretty good at all things wine, so we very much enjoy dining in. And then there is music, hiking, history books, and the Nashville Predators. I now love hockey and I never saw that coming.

Thank You, Mr. Hogrefe

w w w. f o o d b e v m a g . c o m | M a y 2 0 1 7

SWEET CHICK OPENS ITS DOORS IN LOS ANGELES FAIR FAX AT MELR OS E A DDS C HIC KEN & WAFF LE S TO ITS WHO: New York-native and restauranteur, John Seymour, is bringing his chicken & waffles concept, Sweet Chick to Los Angeles. WHAT: Backed by rapper Nas, Sweet Chick is a fresh take on beloved chicken & waffles concept. Hitting LA’s hottest block, Fairfax at Melrose, Sweet Chick is bringing southern comfort vibes to the city. Enter its doors and expect twist-onclassic dishes, guzzle-worthy cocktails and desserts that make you feel like a kid again. And, with deep roots set in music and hip hop culture, those that eat can look forward to the occasional live music break out.

New York-native and restauranteur, John Seymour, and rapper NAS, in front of Sweet Chick

Sweet Chick is promised to be the neighborhood “spot” – there to provide, not only the best food, but to build a sense of community – customers eat and feel like family. On any given day, you’ll find Sweet Chick owner John Seymour behind the bar talking and bonding with his customers, not just serving them. Sweet Chick will open its doors to Angelenos on Thursday, April 20. For more information on Sweet Chick, please visit: www.sweetchick.com.

Food & Beverage Magazine |May 2017

K I T C H E N 2 T H E TA B L E

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