Fork & Hammer

Jamie Brown> We own and operate five restaurants in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Moriah Glenn> Can you run to 22 please?

Jamie Brown> They're all completely different.

Bruce Russel> There you go.

Jeff Tonidandel> We are constructing our sixth restaurant.

Jamie Brown> Immediately, the brakes got pumped because it's not structurally sound.

We are also moving a 1903 building.

Jeff> This is a bad idea.

Jamie> I pray to God this building doesn't fall over.

- Whoa!

There's so much chaos going on.

We've got three children that we're raising and five restaurants that we're running, and 250 people.

Waitress> - Whew!

Jamie> We have a lot to live up to.

(music fades) >> Major funding for Fork and Hammer is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina , the proud partner of South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio.

With the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations, the ETV Endowment of South Carolina is committed to sharing entertaining and uplifting stories and series like Fork and Hammer .

>> This series is made possible by Trust20.

Trust20 is a nationally accredited food safety training provider offering online training, certifications, and resources for all areas of the food service industry Learn more at Trust20.co.

>> Charlotte, from the refined to the unexpected, every bite, a memory in the making.

There's much more at Charlottesgotalot.com >> Fork and Hammer is brought to you by Biltmore Estate Winery .

(slow melodious music) Jamie Brown> So, how many wells will we have here?

I know we've got two back there.

Jeff Tonidandel> Two back there.

This can handle two, maybe three bartenders.

We're a husband and wife team working in one of the most competitive businesses.

Jamie> A little bit of a snafu with some drinks are not arriving in time for the - the meals.

Jeff> Sixty percent of restaurants fail in the first year.

Jamie> We have five, all completely different.

Jamie> Every one of them lives inside a building that was never meant to be a restaurant, a former grocery store, a furniture shop, a church.

This is what we do.

It's who we are.

Our next big project is Leluia Hall .

(music fades) (machines whirring) Jeff> This is the first restaurant that we're funding completely on our own.

>> That's a little bit scary.

(melodic music) Jamie> We have been working on this for over three years.

Jeff> The roof supports, one of them is cracked and bending, and we needed to brace it more so that we can do all of the demo that we're going to do.

(tools whirring and hammering) Jamie> All of the steel beams along every single wall rotted out.

Jeff> Just those screws that we have up there - like the screw bill, thousands and thousands of dollars.

It's crazy.

Jamie> So much of the cost is just sitting here in a building that we're paying for, and we have no revenue coming in.

Jeff> We have punch lists, to do lists.

So many things going on.

It's pretty overwhelming.

Jamie> Had we known that it was going to take this long way back when we started, Jeff> And this much money.

Jamie> I don't know that we would have taken it on.

(Music fades) Jamie> The thing I'm concerned about are the the bubbles that are happening on that strip, because it doesn't seem to be happening on strip two, three, four.

>> Jamie Brown's got a good eye for decor and how to set that ambiance up.

Jamie> When people first walk in, seeing that view.

Jeff> Jamie keeps us on track visually.

Jamie> We do this piece, here.

And then run- Jeff> She makes sure that all the food looks wonderful that all the touches everywhere are on point.

Jamie> I spent probably six months looking for a flower vase to put on our table over at Leluia Hall , and I could not find any.

I sketched out what I was looking for in the hopes that maybe I could find something out there.

Jeff looked at my drawing and he said, I can make this.

I can make this for us in the woodshop.

He designed it on the computer, took it over to the CNC machine, and he is cutting them out.

I am drilling a hole in the top of each one, and then we're going to place Italian Ruscus in pinks and whites on each of the tables in the dining room.

(music fades) Jeff> When we first started talking about coffee cake, we were like, what direction do we want to go?

Right?

Savannah Foltz> My experience with Jeff is he's so smart.

Jeff> The nuts may be a little bit overrated, but I think the oats are awesome.

Savannah Foltz> I don't know if it's a sixth sense or that he really is just wildly intelligent and I'm missing something, but like, he just knows what he's doing.

Jeff> Maybe just a touch too much cinnamon.

Jamie> Jeff has his eyes open to the big picture of ingredients and how things pair together.

Jeff> This is the texture of that sauce.

Do you have any salt in there?

Chris> No.

So what I have been doing is, it's a splash of tamari.

Jeff> Just a little hidden umami.

Chris> Yeah.

Jeff> I think you're going to have a hard time getting someone to eat a raw quail egg and uni at the same time, but it was really good.

(gradual melodic music) Jamie> When we first got this building.

There had been a drop ceiling.

So our big vision for the ceiling was to rip out all of that in order to expose those beams up above.

Jeff> Isn't this fun?

Jamie> But immediately the brakes got pumped and it was "you cannot remove this ceiling, because it's not structurally sound."

The whole building basically was falling in on itself this way as a 1915 structure.

I mean, maybe we could have expected it with the slate on the roof and everything.

Now we're here and we've got these gigantic trusses running along the sides, and we're able to open up the ceiling.

I'm grateful, even though it's taken the two years that we took the time to do it, because it really has changed the space.

(music fades) Jamie> Because the whole ceiling had been closed off, there was no access looking up to the bell tower, but now we have opened it up.

It was something that we really wanted to do, but we had no idea how it would come to life.

And frankly, I still don't know.

(Jeff laughs) Jeff> If we don't have enough going on trying to open up a restaurant, let's move a building to the parking lot over here Jamie> I know right.

(moderate melodic music> The Leeper Wyatt building is a 1903 building.

It served as a former grocery store.

And this building was meant to be torn down because there's a high rise coming in.

Dant Anderson> This idea came up of how can we save this building that is really historical?

', but then inject some new livelihood into it?

Jeff> Saving an old building just becomes part of what we do, in our DNA, Jamie> It also can be our detriment, because we take on projects like this.

We have to get the city on board.

We have to have the neighborhood on board.

Jeff> Quite honestly, we're hundreds of thousands of dollars in.

It's got to happen.

(music fades) (stately melodic music) Jeff> We both went to Davidson College just north of Charlotte.

Jamie> Jeff and I first met in political science class.

He sat several rows back.

I always had myself front and center so that I could pay attention and try to not get B's or C's in the class.

Being college athletes, him playing tennis, me playing basketball.

We were just thrown together a lot.

So I knew who he was.

He knew who I was.

And now it's coming up on 17 years.

(music ends) Jamie> After we went to Davidson College, both of us went and got our MBAs and we started working in the corporate world.

I think what we both realized was that we wanted to work for ourselves, and we wanted to build something together and have it be our own.

(slow melodic music) We wanted to figure out what was next in life, what we wanted to do with our lives.

So we came up with this crazy scheme to put all of our stuff in storage and go travel.

Jeff> Took a complete separation from our jobs.

Jamie> We really tried not to have any plans and just kind of go with the flow.

If we loved a place, we would find an apartment and stay.

We have very few places to put our clothes, so my stuff goes over there and Jeff's stuff, well, and some of my stuff goes over there.

It was just beautiful and inspiring, and that's where we first wrote down the idea that we wanted to open up a little French restaurant that would serve street crepes, like the ones we had, had in Paris that we knew were not available here in Charlotte at the time.

(music fades) (frantic melodic music) News Anchor #1> Bleak outlook for the Tar Heel State, with reports of our first big economic drop in seven years.

Jeff> I asked you if we could open a restaurant at a time when there was a recession coming.

News Anchor #2> 2.6 million jobs were cut from the economy last year.

Jeff> Most restaurants were closing.

News Anchor #3> The total number of commercial restaurants in this country is shrinking.

Jeff> And we didn't have any experience running a restaurant.

(music pauses and restarts) >> I've been in the restaurant business 20 years and even now, opening restaurants it's still hard to get all the things right and get all the food correct.

Jeff> We just decided to go for it and figure it all out.

(music fades) Jamie had to go back to work.

She had to kind of support us.

I was teaching tennis lessons on nice days just so we could go to the grocery store.

And then all the rest of our funds were going into building a restaurant, which is not a cheap endeavor.

We inquired about some spaces and nobody would even call us back.

(gradual upbeat music) That's when we stumbled upon the NODA neighborhood.

Michele Lemere> NODA is a neighborhood about two miles northeast of the center of the city.

And it's named that because the main thoroughfare through the neighborhood is called North Davidson Street.

Rob Crenshaw> It's an artsy area.

There's a good little music scene happening.

I wouldn't say NODA was dangerous back then.

I would just say it was, it was always edgy.

Joe Kuhlmann> The neighborhood was up and down.

It was kind of the Wild West back then.

Jeff> Landlords were a little more desperate, a little more open to taking a chance.

(music fades) Jamie> We did a lot of things to really cut back.

When we were building out, we were just really thoughtful about using old equipment.

(slow melodic music) We used the table bases that were there from the prior restaurant.

Jeff> We would hear about restaurants closing.

They were closing all the time, and I would grab whatever cash I could and show up and see what we could get from them.

Jamie> We got stools from a restaurant that had closed in Uptown called GW Fins.

Jamie> They were like $500 stools, and we got them for like $70.

He drove a U-Haul up to Pittsburgh and we got the booths from this restaurant called Roxy's.

(music fades) I would not let him go get his haircut.

I would cut his hair to save money.

Everything was going well, until one time I was in a groove and all of a sudden the guard fell off and I zipped up the back of his head.

Jeff> One time, as in, a few days before we were opening Crepe Cellar.

Hi, I'm Jeff from the Crepe Cellar Kitchen and Pub.

I did a lot of interviews in hats.

Jamie> I bought him a newspaper boy hat that he would wear and he could cover up the back of his head.

Jeff> We do both savory and sweet crepes here.

But at least we saved that money, from getting a hair cut.

(laughing) It's very important.

(gradual melodic music) Steve Kuney> When we first opened, it was tough, you know, and Jeff and Jamie and kind of taking a leap of faith in the air and kind of spent their life savings trying to get this place up and running.

Jeff> The restaurant business is so tough that you're hoping you have enough money from the weekend to pay payroll, and then it rains four days in a row and your sales just don't hit what you need and you're biting your nails.

Jamie> Crepe Cellar opened when I was pregnant.

It was April and I had Isabella in August.

I went out and got a full time job so that I could have insurance and have a paycheck coming in.

He'd keep the baby all day long.

When I would come home, I would take the baby, and then he would go off and work his shift.

Jamie> The following year, we opened up Growlers right around the same time when we had Eli, and then a couple years later, we had Isaac, our third and Haberdish came along.

Jeff> For a while, we were having a child as we opened every single restaurant.

It's a good thing we stopped that.

That was exhausting.

(laughing) Jamie> More for me than for you.

(music ends) (machines whirring) Jeff> We need to talk - Jamie> - about these bathrooms.

Jeff> about these bathrooms.

Jamie> I'm sorry, but I'm still like, I haven't gotten over the, Jeff> So talk to me about the wallpaper.

What happened?

Jamie> I ordered the wrong color.

<Jeff> Oh.

Jamie> And I'm kicking myself.

Jeff> Because it was pink, right?

Jamie> I was up for hours in the middle of the night, and yeah, this, the whole blue area here is supposed to be pink.

I thought it was all right, and I didn't realize the wallpaper is almost identical, except for this area here.

Jeff> A different color.

Jamie> is supposed to be pink And I'm now going to have to live with this wallpaper like this.

And I know it looks fine.

I'm trying - Jeff> It's only every time you go to the bathroom.

But this is what happens when we order stuff two years ago.

It's just a little disjointed, right now.

Jamie> Yeah.

I'm being very unforgiving of myself right now because I had a vision and it's not right.

And there's no one to blame (laughs nervously) except for me.

Jeff> Maybe you messed up the wallpaper, but maybe you didn't.

Who knows?

I'm not going to worry about it, but I think I messed up this part.

This wall just probably needs to be a little bit higher somehow.

We have this six inch gap, and then the bathroom needs to be ADA.

So, we're kind of stuck.

ADA is super tight.

Twelve inches up has to be 100 percent clear, which makes sense because you need to be able to swivel your feet around if you're - Jamie> -in a wheelchair.

Jeff> -in a wheelchair.

I don't know what to do.

(music starts gradually) (upbeat music) Jamie> We make pretty much everything in our restaurant group from scratch, other than the ketchup.

(Melodic music) Jamie> We make our pastas all by hand.

Our cannoli shells are all rolled out every day by hand.

Vince> Go get the best ingredients, apply some of the most fun techniques you know, and let's just put really good food on a plate.

Jamie> Our ice creams, our sauces, our cocktail mixes, everything is done by hand.

And I think they can taste it.

I think that's why they come back.

It never tastes like something comes out of a bottle.

Chris> All right, so here we go.

Jamie> Ah!

Chris> Fancy fish sticks Jamie> Chris, look at that.

Chris> Right.

Jamie> You know, I'm on board with that.

Chris> I know.

Jamie> We do tastings every single week.

(upbeat jazz music) Vince> Tacos incoming.

Jamie> They happen on every Thursday.

We just rotate the restaurant.

Chef at Ever Andalo> This is our Uova All'Inferno.

Sam Sheehan> This is the dish that I very much love.

Savannah> The cake is guava.

And then there's an orange curd between each of the 12 layers.

Jamie> Tastings have been huge for us, because you have to think about how you're going to actually execute that every single night, day after day, throughout an entire shift.

Jon Rosenberg> I do think the cheese could be a touch creamier.

Chris> So the issue was when it is softer, it doesn't pull like that.

Vince> The very first tasting we have, we said some more crunch and so we added the chicken skin.

Jeff> After you tell them that it's not quite right three, four or five, six times, it gets better.

Chris> Lobster fundido.

Try 45.

Jamie> I don't know how we do this, but I've got something in mind, but just giving it more height.

Jeff> I think it's amazing.

I love this dish.

(music fades) Jamie> All right, last one on the list is the sweet potato wrapped fish.

Will we run this, as always, sea bass?

Chris> No, we could do halibut.

We could do any flaky white fish works well.

Jeff> I've seen this a few times.

Let's talk about where you are with the sauce.

Chris> Yeah.

So the sauce.

I did a different spin.

This is going to be a more seafood vinaigrette style sauce.

So it's going to be slightly broken.

It's going to look a little more rustic.

And I feel it's going to suit this dish better.

Sea bass stuff like that is usually really fatty.

So I feel like this is going to accent that.

It's really nice.

It's going to be tart.

It's going to have a lot of anchovies.

It's going to have garlic.

It's going to be, something that accents the sweet white fish better.

Jeff> I think the sauce is really good.

I think let's just try and temper it out.

Chill it out a little bit.

Chris> Okay.

I can just tone it down.

Jamie> How do you tone it down?

What - Chris> I'll take the anchovy out of it.

Put like less capers.

Jamie> Okay, anything with the potatoes themselves They are like North Carolina sweet potatoes?

Chris> Yeah.

So their local sweet potatoes are from Harmony Ridge.

(sizzling) Jon Rosenberg> What's the cook time in the oven?

(sizzling) Chris> Twelve "minutes-ish".

Jon> Okay.

So it's going to be a 15 to 20 minute pickup on - Chris> - an entree.

Yeah.

Jon> Okay.

Chris> The biggest thing is you have to get the fish around that rectangular shape.

Jeff> Are you consistently able to make a lot of those cuts without a lot of waste then?

Chris> Yeah.

So we're on the big boys.

You just have to cut them like it's just super thick.

And then just cut them in half Jon> At a restaurant like Leluia Hall .

It'll work really well because you can use it for ceviche as well if you're having to square off the fish.

Jeff> Gotcha.

Jon> Yeah.

(melodic music) Jamie> Mmm.

Chris> I like how moist it stays in the potato.

Jamie> Yeah.

That's wonderful.

(music stops) Jeff> Jamie's been kicking herself over the wallpaper in the bathrooms, and I got a great solution.

I found the receipt in her email inbox, ordered the wallpaper, and then the guys while we're on vacation have put it up.

I can't wait for her to see it.

She's going to be so excited.

(bright music) Jamie> So why do I feel so nervous!

Jeff> Don't, get distracted.

Keep walking towards the bathrooms.

Jamie> Stop it.

Oh my gosh, it's so much better.

(music fades) You did not have to do that.

It's so much better.

(melodic music begins) Thank you guys.

Jamie> With the number of people that we have on our team, we also have a huge reliance upon all of them to do a great service every time.

And that's a lot of trust that we have to put into people that we don't know very well.

Jeff> They're our brand.

Jamie> They are our face.

Jeff> They are coming to the table.

Allison> My name is Allison and I'll be guiding us through our trip to Italy tonight.

Supperland Server> Have you all dined with us before?

Couple> Uh, Yes.

Supperland Server> Okay, perfect.

Jamie> Every single server, every food runner who comes to touch the table.

They have to be doing a great job, or that whole experience for the guests gets flipped and suddenly it's not great, and then they're not coming back.

(lively music) Jeff> I think one thing people forget about in this business is how important every little job is.

Moriah Glenn> Two.

Seats one and two please.

Jeff> I look at the food runner as being one of the most important jobs in the business.

You need that person to set the food down correctly, to smile at the table, to tell them what is on that plate.

Vince> These are karaage steamed buns.

It is marinated in sak, soy, and mirin.

Jamie> We really try to go through the process of making sure people are trained.

Jon> Walk guests to the restroom.

Avoid pointing.

Jeff> How we want spoons brought out, where we want plates to be set.

Jon> Tight here, one inch from the bottom.

Jeff> And make sure that everybody is doing everything the same way.

Jon> If you sit there, your elbows are going to land on this part of the chair, and then when you sit down, that's where your hands go.

(music fades) Jamie> There are so many people who have to come together in order for us to open a restaurant.

(staple slams) There's this whole team that comes in to actually conduct all the work, drywall and painting and tile work.

They have to know their trade and you know, we have to really just rely on them to do a great job.

So Owice, being from Morocco.

This is a trade that you've watched for a lot of your life.

Owice Aittaleb> Yes.

It's just been going on for 800 to 900 years.

So if you go to Morocco now when you go to all these like historic sites, you will see this everywhere.

Every single piece is handmade, hand colored, dyed and then hand chiseled one by one.

And that's what gives it that variation in color and texture.

These are individual craftsmen with like 10, 20, 30 years experience.

And they have this craftsmanship passed down through generations.

This when it gets old, it still looks beautiful and it still looks like it has a story to tell.

(soft music) Jamie> You haven't seen all this stuff in a minute, Don.

Donald> Right.

Jamie> So what do you think?

Donald Peadon> I love these arches.

The way that the design was focused was how do we change the essence of the space that it was to give it a new identity?

Jamie> I think the biggest challenge that we're going to have though is with heating and cooling, because it's 20 to 30 degrees warmer up there, versus down here.

Jeff> We insulated too well.

So it's like, all- Donald> holding, trapped in, Jeff and Jamie, they're natural collaborators.

They take the idea and then push it to new heights.

You having that ceiling open now is like- Jeff> "Oh, it's awesome."

Donald> Like, you can just feel that thing opening up or I can see floor one, two and three and through to everything else.

That is an amazing moment as an entry for any restaurant or any design that we're doing, it's how do we understand that people are going to experience the space?

Leluia Hall was almost breaking down what it used to be, because people have a memory of it being a restaurant.

Jeff> It was a fine dining restaurant before, so how do we make it our own?

Donald> People knew it was a restaurant.

They're not - they're going to walk in here and it's going to blow their mind.

This is nothing like what they had before.

But all the pieces are in the same place.

(music fades) (tool whirring) (lively music) Jeff> Leluia Hall is very time consuming right now.

It is a huge project.

But then we can't forget about the five other restaurants and the 250 people.

Vince Giancarlo> Can you say thank you Mrs Jamie?

Hendrix Giancarlo> Thank you!

Jamie> We've got three kids and we're moving a building, and we're there in the center of it.

Vince> Oh boy.

Jamie> It is no time for a chef to be walking out of a kitchen.

(rain splashing) Jeff> I hate water.

Jamie> It's very uncertain.

We don't need- Jeff> Yes.

Yeah.

Jamie> He's not scared at all.

(music fades) Jeff> Thanks, mate.

(snap) We got speed?

(strident music) Jamie> Oh, jeez.

(clapping and snapping) Jeff> Bang.

(snap) Crew Member> Wait a minute.

Jamie> You are so pleased with yourself.

(clap) Jeff> Oh, that was terrible.

(clap) Crew member> Oh!

Paula Azuaje> Oh, wow!

He took my job.

Jeff> Let's go.

Speed!

(clap and snap) We got speed.

(clap and snap) (music ends) Jamie> Are you happy now?

Jeff> Yeah.

I love that.

Major funding for Fork and Hammer is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina , the proud partner of South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio with the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations.

>> The ETV Endowment of South Carolina is committed to sharing entertaining and uplifting stories and series like Fork and Hammer .

>> Thank you for watching Fork and Hammer This series was brought to you by Trust20 a nationally accredited food safety training provider offering accessible digital training at anytime and on all devices Learn more at Trust20.co >> Charlotte, a city shaped by storytellers, dreamers, and makers becomes a living canvas There's much more at Charlottesgotalot.com >> Fork and Hammer is brought to you by Biltmore Estate Winery .