For more information:
Emily Connolly or Morgan Dyches
Melissa Libby & Associates
404-816-3068
Kevin Gillespie Forms Red Beard Restaurants to Provide a Roadmap for
Internal and External Company Growth
Atlanta Chef/Restaurateur Teams with Marco Shaw and M. Blake Morley to Create
Parent Company for Smart Expansion and Talent Development
ATLANTA (July 13, 2015) – Atlanta chef, restaurateur and
cookbook author Kevin Gillespie has always been quick to credit the strong team
behind him for the success of his restaurants and career. Now, with the announcement of Red Beard Restaurants, he has
taken an important next step in making a great team even greater. Along with
director of food and beverage Marco Shaw and director of development M. Blake
Morley, Gillespie's new parent company will maintain consistency at both Gunshow and Revival, Gillespie’s second restaurant
slated to open in Decatur this month, ensure smart expansion for future development
and provide consulting services to other food and beverage start-ups.
“Trying to figure out how I would
split my time between my two restaurants prompted me to ask myself, ‘how do I
ensure that Gunshow doesn’t fall off course when I’m at Revival?’ It was then
that I realized we could really benefit from having a single entity to hold our
entire team to a certain standard and sustain the values that are important to
us,” recalls Gillespie.
By setting these standards, Gillespie will take even better
care of his employees with the hopes that his staff will feel like they’re part
of a team with forward momentum. He encourages his staff to find the roles that
best suit them, and Red Beard Restaurants will allow Gillespie to provide more
internal growth opportunities for his team members.
The new company’s primary value is what Gillespie refers to
as “learn to be bigger by being smaller.” Gillespie believes that direct
connectivity and his day-to-day interactions with guests are what will grow his
company to its maximum potential. Remembering this personal contact reminds him
to not lose sight of his entrepreneurial spirit. As a result, diners can expect
the same quality that Gillespie is known for and then some, because support
from the Red Beard Restaurants team frees up more time for him to pursue his
creative visions and continue impacting the culinary landscape of the South.
“I think we can make our restaurants better places to work
by ensuring everyone and every aspect of this business has a defined place
moving forward, so nothing gets overlooked,” he says. “In turn, I will have the
opportunity to be even more involved in the things our guests really care
about; Red Beard Restaurants gives me the freedom to do what I do best
creatively and constantly improve the quality of the food.”
Joining Gillespie as the company’s director of food and
beverage is Marco Shaw, a longtime friend and business associate for whom
Gillespie worked in Portland, Oregon, at Fife Restaurant. Shaw owned Fife
Restaurant for nine years, in addition to owning Full Plate Restaurant in
Portland and then Piedmont and Zely
& Ritz in Raleigh, North Carolina. Shaw’s successful restaurant
ownership and management experience combined with his many executive chef roles
make him the most well-rounded candidate for the job.
“I’ve used Marco as a sounding board for all my business
choices over the last decade and have always looked to him as an expert,” says
Gillespie. “I knew he could bring new energy to our team. Adding him as a key
player is truly a slam dunk for us.”
In addition to Gillespie and Shaw, Red Beard Restaurants’
executive team also includes director of development M. Blake Morley, who first
worked with Gillespie at Woodfire Grill as the restaurant’s beverage manager.
Morley was Gunshow’s opening general manager and, after being promoted multiple
times, has since discovered that his real strengths lie in creating and
developing new business. Gillespie considers him to be the “person who sees
what it will take in reality to make my ideas happen.”
Morley is an example of what Gillespie hopes to achieve for
his employees with the creation of Red Beard Restaurants. “Blake is now able to
do exactly what he wants because he stayed with our company, which is what our
model stands for: bringing talented people on board and giving them what they
need to be successful wherever their talents lie. This is what gives our
company direction.”
Together, Gillespie, Shaw and Morley have many years of
restaurant experience spanning all facets of the industry that they look
forward to passing along to those who want to enter restaurant ownership and
aren’t fortunate enough to have that same know-how.
“We’ve learned a lot of lessons the hard way that we’d like
to share with others,” says Gillespie. “When you’re trying to start a
restaurant, there are millions of unanswered questions. It’s easy to be misled
into thinking you need to spend more money than you actually do. It can be
daunting, but I think we’ve proven that it’s possible to successfully open on a
small level.”
Red Beard Restaurants will also employ a small sales team to
coordinate events held at Gunshow and Revival. Additionally, the company will
oversee all of Gillespie’s merchandise
ranging from home goods to cookbooks to clothing, so that he can remain closely
involved in the design of these products.
With the introduction of Red Beard Restaurants, Gillespie
looks forward to more methodical, efficient growth and more calculated
expansion in the future. For more information on the company, visit www.redbeardrestaurants.com or call
404-380-1886.
About
Chef Kevin Gillespie
Chef Kevin Gillespie's true passion lies in
incorporating fresh, organic and sustainable ingredients in all of his dishes.
After graduating with honors from the Art Institute of Atlanta, the Georgia
native worked in top restaurants in Atlanta and Oregon before opening his first
restaurant, Gunshow, in May 2013. In summer 2015,
Gillespie plans to open his second restaurant, Revival, in Decatur, Georgia,
which promises a fresh take on the traditional, family-style Sunday
dinner, with a focus on farm-raised and artisan-prepared ingredients. Gillespie
was one of the three finalists on the sixth season of Bravo’s “Top Chef” and was voted “fan favorite.”
He was named a 2015 semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef:
South award and had been a semi-finalist for the Rising Star Chef of the Year
award for three consecutive years, nominated for Food & Wine’s People’s Best New Chef and named Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for his outstanding
accomplishments in the restaurant industry. As a rising young culinary star who
was bringing more than just good food to the table, Gillespie was named one of
Mother Nature Network’s top “40 Chefs Under 40” in November 2009 for linking
farms to forks and promoting better health for people and the planet. In
February 2010, he was honored as one of Gayot.com’s “Top Five Rising Chefs.” In 2014, Gunshow earned the seventh spot on GQ magazine’s list of “12 Most
Outstanding Restaurants” and was honored as one of 12 restaurants on Esquire magazine’s “Best New Restaurants
of 2014” list. Gillespie released Pure
Pork Awesomeness: Totally Cookable Recipes from Around the World in March
2015, a follow-up cookbook to Fire in My
Belly, which was selected as a James Beard Award Finalist. Gillespie is a
member of Slow Food Atlanta, Southern Foodways Alliance, Chefs Collaborative,
Community Farmers Markets Chefs Advisory Board, Georgia Organics and the
Society for the Preservation of Traditional Southern Barbecue. For more
information, please visit chefkevingillespie.com.
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