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Kip: I started working prep shifts at a bakery as a teenager. I then moved to NYC for culinary school and spent my evenings working as a polisher (literally just polishing glassware) at a fine dining restaurant. Soon shifted into kitchens, then service, then management.
Halley: I started interning in New York during college, moved at 21, and have never left. It wasn’t until living in the City that I ever started going to restaurants, and I immediately fell in love with dining. The idea of a space where the things happening around you were engineered for your enjoyment and pleasure was intoxicating. I spent the next ten years working in the corporate world and developing an encyclopedic knowledge of restaurants across the city - eventually i decided to give myself three months to pivot into hospitality and after many, many desperate emails, calls, and coffees, finally landed a job.
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K: Margot is a neighborhood spot in Ft Greene! Pastas, burgers, really good salads.
H: Our first baby, Margot is by far the hardest thing we’ve ever done, but she’s also the most special (so far).
K: it changes quickly and everyone hustles to keep up. NYC breeds talent and it’s an amazing place to just keep learning. It’s easy to find people to look up to in the New York restaurant industry.
H: I think we’re ushering in a new era of young talent that is focused on producing excellent hospitality and dining experiences, and at the same time cares deeply about supporting one another across the industry. We all serve as mentors to one another in different ways, offering help, advice, and a sounding board in a way that feels new and refreshing.
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K: our restaurants focus on the staff first, when our team is most happy so are our guests. But our goal in building a restaurant is creating a third space, somewhere comfortable and casual that feels close to home.
H: As Kip said, we lead with an ethos of care, both for our guests and our teams. We believe deeply in professional development and cultivating the next generation of talented hospitality individuals, and we believe deeply in guest-first hospitality, meeting everyone who walks through our doors where they’re at, and customizing their experience accordingly.
K: We spent some time in Montreal, Paris, and London last year eating around rotisseries, we loved the ease of service and the simplicity of the menu. Comforting and almost nostalgic.
H: We tried to synthesize the learnings from Margot and the Diner, and take what works best about both concepts to develop a modular, high-volume concept that also aligns with our track record of creating chic, welcoming, full-service dining experiences.