For 25 years, Chris Schlesinger has been the coach,
scout-troop leader, mentor, and beloved top dog for the large band of guys who
have manned the grills at the East Coast Grill. Some, like
Andy Husbands of Tremont 647 and Steve Johnson of Rendezvous, have gone on to
open successful restaurants of their own. (Okay, there has been a sprinkling of
women, too, but there is a zesty whiff of testosterone along with the smoke of
the grill.) As for Schlesinger, he decided to open the East Coast Grill after
an eating trip to New York's Gulf Coast restaurant, a Cajun-Creole spot that
would draw crowds night after night. The casual atmosphere and the
Southern-style BBQ ribs warmed Schlesinger's Virginia-boy heart. He slurped his
first blue martini at the Gulf Coast, swirled it with a plastic flamingo
swizzle stick, and the rest is history.
Who are you really? I am the world's luckiest
human. It is truly amazing that with my limited skill set I got a chance to be
successful. I dropped out of college at 18 after one semester - my father had
insisted on my giving college a try. I wasn't a total J.D. (juvenile
delinquent), but close. I was living at home, being a bum. My grandmother
kicked my butt. She told me to get out and get a job, even washing dishes. I
said I was too busy watching TV to be interrupted by work. But I went to a
local place and started washing dishes. I mopped a floor for the first time in
my life. Long after all the cooks left, I was still washing dishes. I was a
truly excellent dishwasher. A bomb went off in my brain the first minute I
stepped in the kitchen. I loved being in the kitchen and controlling the chaos.
My father got it and started collecting information on cooking schools, and
then [before I knew it], there I was at the C.I.A. [Culinary Institute of
America].
How does it feel to be a culinary icon? Feels
great! I was the anti-icon, the goof-off guy who showed up with the beer and a
pig. Never saw myself as the kind of chef as some of the others in my
generation - Todd English, Lydia Shire, Gordon Hamersley, Jody Adams, Jasper
White...
What made East Coast Grill work? Exquisite
timing. As Vince Lombardi says, "the intersection of timing and preparedness."
We started with an unpretentious, friendly atmosphere, and food people liked -
ribs, chicken, brisket. The "food thing" was new in the '80s. In 1985, when we
served a grilled pork chop with pineapple salsa, it was edgy. Now you can get
it at Chili's. The second thing: we actually have a mission statement with four
principles that we've kept true to for 25 years - teamwork, mutual respect,
relentless friendliness, and profitability. It still works.
What do you hate about eating out? Indifferent
service. I hate people going through the motions. We talk a lot at EC Grill
about the difference between "service" and "hospitality." Generally, there's a
lot of lip service to the idea of "hospitality."
Local heat seekers who want truly fiery food show up in
droves for your "Hell Nights." Where did the idea come from? We used
to get comments like "The food isn't hot enough." So we decided to make a
really hot hot sauce and serve dishes like "Pasta from Hell" as a
joke. We tried to talk people out of it; it was a kind of joke. But people got
into it. And then we had Russian Roulette Deviled Eggs, where you didn't know
which was the hot one. And the whole idea took off.
- Louisa Kasdon
Louisa Kasdon can be reached at
louisa@louisakasdon.com.
