From executive chef to Wing-It’s new owner
So how do you explain a world-class trained executive chef moving on to
frying wings for a living? I mean this is a guy who went from preparing
dishes like Veal Chardonnay, Chilean Sea Bass en Papillotte and Shrimp
Le Jon in a five-star restaurant to asking you what kind of sauce you
want on your wings.
What do you say to him when you get to interview him?
What do you ask him without offending him?
How do you keep from blurting, whadaya nuts?
How do you go from coaching the Yankees to a beer-league softball team?
But then he begins explaining his previous life and comparing it to what
it is today. And how, as executive chef, he basically ran a very
stressful life making money for other people, and how it was becoming
more and more difficult to please customers night in and night out when
they’re dropping $100-plus on dinner for two.
Then he says he’d head home only to find his wife and kid have been
asleep for hours. When he wakes up, they’re gone for the day. When they
get home, he’s back at work. This is a family?
Now, he says, he own a wing and barbecue shack where people already know
and love the product. They come and go with big smiles and tell him,
“Great food.” He chats with them. “Have you met my wife? Jane’s behind
the counter helping me out today, and that’s my boy, Justin, over
there.”
And at the end of the day, he gets to go home with them, watch a show
together, play Monopoly. He gets to see Justin’s soccer game and meet
his teachers. He even gets to have a conversation with his wife that
isn’t rushed and isn’t over the phone. He eats breakfast with them and
tells Justin to have a great day at school.
He realizes they’re a family again instead of roommates with different
schedules.
His wife actually looked at him one day and says, “I haven’t seen you
this happy since I met you.”
He remembered thinking, “You know what? You’re right.”
And then you realize maybe he’s not off his rocker. Maybe he’s got
nothing to be ashamed of. Who cares if snobby chefs are snickering at
his career move? He’s got to make himself happy, and by doing that, he’s
making his family happy.
But wait. What about this new place? What about the loyal following the
previous owners built up? What will they think of this new guy, Mr. Five
Star Restaurant Guy?
Relax, he tells you. Before he went to settlement, he spent five weeks
learning the ropes from previous owners Leighann and Larry Fazen. He
learned the secret recipe for that addictive “kinda hot, kinda sweet”
house sauce, and just how long to leave those wings in the fryer until
they’re just right. He learned the secrets of barbecue—low and slow, to
get that pulled pork, brisket and ribs just kiss-your-lips right. And he
even took a page from his 13 years as the top dog at Axelsson’s Blue
Claw Restaurant and his formal training at the Culinary Institute of
America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and he added a crab cake to the menu because
seafood is his specialty.
Now he’s adding more hours so his flock can order more fowl. Closed on
Mondays? Not anymore. Not when there’s Monday Night Football and the
Phillies are in the playoff hunt. Not when there are families getting
home at dusk after soccer practice and tap dance lessons and need
something – quick! – for dinner.
What else can he do? Lunch! Why not?
And how come the business closed after the Super Bowl? Isn’t there a Pro
Bowl after that? And isn’t NASCAR and March Madness after that? He’s not
interested in changing the product, just making the operation run a
little better.
And you finally get what Christian Rife has been trying to tell you all
along in your interview.
“I wanted something to do that would fit into my family life. I didn’t
want to have to fit my family into my business life.”
And for that, he couldn’t be happier.
Rob Seitzinger can be e-mailed at
seitz{at}catamaranmedia.com or you can
comment on this story by calling 624-8900, ext. 250.
Wing-It!
1265 Bayshore Road
Villas
886-8488
ON THE MENU
Customer favorites: Wings (by the dozen, $5.95, $10.95, $14.95, $18.95,
$22.95, add two sides for $2); Tails (boneless, small 5-7 $5.95, large
10-12, $9.95); pressure fried chicken (16-piece dinner, $20.95;
eight-piece dinner $11.95; four-piece dinner $6.95, three-piece $5.95,
two-piece $4.95; ribs ($17.95 whole rack, $22.95 for dinner with two
sides); pulled pork ($7.95/$13.95).
Take-out only.
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to around 8 p.m., Thursday through Monday.
Cash only, no credit cards.
Photos by Jen Arthur
Rob Seitzinger can be e-mailed
at seitz[at]catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by
calling 624-8900, ext. 250.
Check out his Cape Cuisine food blog