Building the Future National Houston
At the Southern Smoke Festival, a Hospitality Community Comes Together
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At the annual Southern Smoke Festival in Houston, chefs and hospitality professionals from all over the country came together in a celebration of community and mutual support. Marking a decade of fundraising to provide emergency relief, physical support, and mental health resources to hospitality workers, the weekend felt more like a homecoming, with friends and colleagues joined together in community to give back.
With everyone’s minds on community in hospitality, I asked chefs and restaurateurs what they valued about their communities at home.
Aretah Ettarh
Gramercy Tavern | New York City
The one thing that I gravitate to more and more is just the idea that we really want to take care of each other.
This business is so hard in so many ways, and the best way that we can keep moving forward is by looking out for each other and supporting each other when we can. I’m super grateful to be in a team that really cares about each other, and then extend that outward to the greater community — chefs, restaurant professionals, and the hospitality industry in general.
Telly Justice
HAGS | New York City
New York City is obviously a major metropolitan city. Living there is super tough. It’s expensive. It’s expensive to run a small business. That builds, out of necessity, a really tight-knit community of people that want to support fledgling concepts — people that, in earnest, want to build a better version of New York City, one that they want to see and want to live in.
And when you look out across a vast city of people that are working hard and doing their best, you see the ones that you align with, and you draw each other close. So, it just becomes more and more community-driven. I’ve seen it over the past couple years, and I only see a richer future for a New York that’s based in building communities.
Vinnie Cimino
Cordelia | Cleveland
It’s all about the people. It’s all about taking care of one another, opening doors, passing plates, celebrating around food. We have a very close-knit culinary community. We all look out for one another. We take care of one another. It’s just a real special thing.
Christina Nguyen
Hai Hai | Minneapolis
Everybody’s just got each other’s back. We all support each other. I love our city, and, I feel like hospitality is awesome everywhere, and there are so many tight-knit communities. But Minneapolis is home. We have beautiful people — cold weather, warm hearts.
Cheetie Kumar
Ajja | Raleigh
Raleigh is so special. It’s the reason I stayed. Not only is there such a great food scene, but agriculture is the backbone of our community. We have a farmers’ market that is open 363-and-a-half days a year. I can get any ingredient I want that’s grown locally, which is a lot, and it really helped me make connections between the global south and the American south and the chefs in our community.
Not only do we have incredible chefs, but a lot of them are female, a lot of them are immigrants, and we really support each other. We are there in our most vulnerable times. We’re not competing with each other, we’re lifting each other up. And I really mean that — I would not have been able to do this. I’m not a cheffy person by nature; I never went to culinary school. I do this because I love food, and I love to feed people. Through the darkest times, and there have been so many, I have been uplifted by my community, and I feel so fortunate to cook in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Nando Chang
Itamae | Miami
What’s special about Miami? I would say it’s our diversity. Miami, really, really — I can’t emphasize it enough — has diversity. It’s something to behold. You really have so much good from every corner of the world. That makes us unique.
Isabel Coss
Pascual, Lutèce | Washington, D.C.
The hospitality community in D.C. is super tight, super welcoming. I found really genuine friends as soon as I moved there; they were ready to open arms. And I honestly, it’s a spirit I want to continue. So now, when I see new kids starting to open their places and wanting to pursue their own restaurant and their own team, I’m all for it.
Cory Nguyen
Crawfish & Noodles | Houston
[What’s special is] how close the community is. Like, it seems you’re pretty much just walking into a family member’s house. It seems like every chef knows each other. For example, Southern Smoke is supposed to be 85 of pretty much the best chefs. It’s supposed to feel nerve-wracking, but, to be honest, it’s just like meeting up with old friends. We talk to each other on a daily basis, so this is just another excuse for us to hang out together. So that’s all it is.
Rob Rubba
Oyster Oyster | Washington, D.C.
What makes the hospitality community in D.C. special is that everyone still is rooting for each other. We are the nation’s capital, but we’re still a small city. It’s not gigantic. It’s a close knit of people, and we’re all just out looking for each other. So, if somebody’s down, someone will do a fundraiser for them and help them and pass it around. No matter how good or bad the times are, we’re always there for each other.
Neal Bodenheimer
Cure, Cane & Table | New Orleans
The one thing we talk about it a lot is that hospitality is a profession. It is a skill. And it’s something we provide.
But the thing that we do in New Orleans that differs from so many other places is that we really give of ourselves when we give hospitality. And when people come to New Orleans, that’s the thing that they feel. I think we have one of the best communities in the world. And obviously you could argue that, but one of the reasons why is because people that are in New Orleans really want to be in New Orleans. Our economy is almost entirely tourism-based — we want to take care of people and we come together to do it. We’re all pointing in the same direction, trying to achieve the same goal, and that’s one of the things that makes our community so special.
Cherif Mbodji
Bludorn, Bar Bludorn, Navy Blue, Perseid | Houston
Something I’m really excited about the hospitality community here in Houston, Texas is that the food scene is having a moment. Restaurants have really hit this this moment in the last five years, post-Covid. There’s growth, there’s opportunity, and we are at this point where we were able to create and build something for the future here. I’m excited for what’s to come, but I’m even more excited about what we’re doing right now to build that foundation.
Jason Stanhope
Sullivan’s Fish Camp | Sullivan’s Island, SC
There’s just such a camaraderie. There’s the most healthy competition — we want to see all of us rise together and win together … We always talk about a community of people that you can lean on and learn from. People that will celebrate your strengths, but forgive you for your weaknesses, because they know you’re working on them. It is the most special thing in the world. And you know, the Charleston community is very, very tight.
Calvin Eng
Bonnie’s | New York City
The hospitality community where we are, everyone is always like, very, very tight and close knit, even though New York City is massive and competitive — like cutthroat — everyone is homies with each other, even if you’ve never met them before. And that’s what’s sick about it.
Jamie Bissonnette
Somaek | Boston
What’s special about the hospitality community is that we’re always there for each other. We all know that you’ve got to put the mask on yourself before you can put the mask on the people. Boston, our city, is pretty awesome, because we all get along. We all support each other. It’s a very, very good crew of people.
Bailey Sullivan
Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio | Chicago
What’s special about Chicago is it is a community of people who are incredibly hard working, but also very chill and loving to each other. And I think that you can show a lot of hospitality in the smallest things, from the second somebody steps into the door, whether it is a guest or somebody working on the line.
Aaron Bludorn
Bludorn, Bar Bludorn, Navy Blue, Perseid | Houston
The local food community here in Houston is so special because of its inclusivity. We all kind of feel like we’re in it together. And that’s one of the most amazing things — to have everyone behind you.
Eli Sussman
Gertrude’s | New York City
Community and hospitality, to me, means a group of people that are all working towards a common goal of fulfilling their own personal dreams in the restaurant, of executing what they want to do in the restaurant, while also providing a space for customers to come in and enjoy the food and be together inside of the vision of the chef, and the front of house and the back of house that creates it for them. So, it’s really a two-way street of everyone working together inside of the restaurant to achieve this unbelievable goal of having a great experience while dining.
Opé Amosu
ChòpnBlọk | Houston
Houston is like none other. The most diverse city in the country, got the best flavors in the country, and the biggest thing about it is we all know how to get along, so it’s a very special place.
Clay Williams is a Brooklyn-based photographer whose work takes him across the country and beyond, documenting stories of food, culture, and community. Follow him at @ultraclay.
