Welcome to the first edition of In the Weeds, a publication highlighting stories from the independent restaurant industry. I’m kicking things off with a two-part series on chefs who have brought their big-city fine-dining experience back home.
Jon Nodler and Samantha Kincaid at Canter Inn
Many restaurant industry folks have recently moved back home, motivated by the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and the desire to be near family. For them, home means smaller metro areas, suburbs, or rural towns—the same hometowns they had left for fine-dining experience in cities like New York, LA, and Philadelphia.
These “boomerangs” (a term I first heard in Adam Reiner’s Bloomberg piece on Buffalo’s dining scene), returned in search of more sustainable careers and stronger support systems that, for some, can only be found at home.
I spoke with Jon Nodler and Samantha Kincaid, the husband-and-wife team who closed their acclaimed Philadelphia restaurant, Cadence, to relocate to New Glarus, Wisconsin, a small town about 40 minutes from Madison, where Sam grew up.
Jon and Sam opened Canter Inn in October, with a menu highlighting the area’s Swiss heritage and the region's agriculture. “We’re calling it neighborhood fine dining,” Jon said, which translates to a come-as-you-are dress code, skate wing schnitzel, and a bar that welcomes walk-ins for innovative cocktails or a Wisconsin Old Fashioned.
They moved to New Glarus for personal and professional reasons, they said. And they’ve observed others in the industry make similar moves.
“We’ve seen more of it with our colleagues moving home,” Jon said. “Having a support structure for starting a family is more important, and, in real estate, even those second-tier markets are out of control.”
The Canter Inn menu highlights the area’s Swiss heritage and the region's agriculture.
Sam and Jon weren’t exactly seeking work-life balance, which, they agreed, is elusive in the restaurant industry. Instead, they were looking to survive and thrive in the ebb and flow of restaurant life. They hope to start a family, and they couldn’t imagine doing that with the demands of the Philadelphia restaurant scene.
Of course, starting a restaurant anywhere is pretty damn demanding.
“We know there's going to be times when work takes priority, and we know there's going to be times when life needs to take priority, and how do we make that work? That's really the question,” Jon said. “I think our goal ultimately is to get to a point where, when life needs to take priority, we are in a professional situation to be able to handle that.”
There’s less red tape and cheaper real estate in New Glarus, but finding fine-dining staff has proven trickier; there’s a lot of reliance on teen labor in the area. Jon and Sam benefit from an intimate knowledge of their new home base and its farmland, but they’ve also had to revise their thinking on what diners in the area want.
Before opening, Jon and Sam expected tourism to drive much of their sales, and, while tourists are coming in, they’ve found a ton of support from locals in New Glarus and neighboring towns. “There’s, I think, a lot of people who are hungry for something [like Canter Inn], but there’s just really no comparable dining opportunity there,” Sam said. And they received the sort of logistical and business backing that’s rare to get in big cities. The village helped them secure their liquor license and connected Jon and Sam to local grants.
In past interviews, Jon and Sam have been asked to define their restaurant concept, although, for the record, I didn’t ask. They’ve learned that when you’re starting something new in an untested market, it’s okay to eschew a neat definition and evolve with community needs. Their Tuesday takeout offering, which might seem out of place at a fine-dining spot, is a good example of this.
“[Canter Inn] is just a truly independent restaurant,” Jon said.
Thank you, Jon and Sam, for sharing your story.
Side Dishes:
One of the most wide-ranging pieces I’ve seen on ICE’s impact on the restaurant industry in Minneapolis and beyond, including lots of industry voices boldly speaking out.
I chatted with Philadelphia chef Tyler Akin for Nation’s Restaurant News’ Extra Serving Podcast. We discussed his restaurant Bastia and how he juggles hotel dining and hospitality consulting. “I have an open mind and a large network.”
Here’s Tyler answering my current favorite question to ask industry folks: “What don’t diners understand about the restaurant industry?”
@gloriacdawson My favorite question to ask restaurant industry folks lately is “What don’t diners understand about restaurants.”Chef Tyler Akin’s answer ... See more
Co-CEOs are growing in popularity in the corporate world, so why not co-chefs? The role is growing in Canada, where some chefs see the benefits of forgoing the kitchen brigade system.
Are diners bypassing servers or somms and bringing their menu questions to ChatGPT at your restaurant?
“Most [restaurants] never make the media’s ‘hot lists.’ They survive on a base of regulars, people from the neighborhood who return again and again.” - Sara Deseran in the San Francisco Standard
Speaking of hot lists….
Why is our culture now that everything must be so hot, so trendy? I don’t want that. I’m not interested. I’m playing the long game.
—Alexandra Shapiro, NYC-restauranteur and owner of Flex Mussels and Hoexter
And, finally, I was certainly guilty of this when I was a server approximately 100 years ago:
Thank you so much for reading the first edition of In the Weeds.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it on to a friend in the industry.
In the Weeds wants your feedback. If you have any suggestions for upcoming newsletters or other feedback, I’d love to hear from you.
—gloria