The New York Times named him “The Ponce de Leon of New Floridian Cooking”; Food And Wine Magazine named him “The Best New Chef in America in 1991”; his establishment has continually ranked among the top restaurants, both in Florida and the United States.
That establishment is Chef Allen’s in North Miami Beach, and the man we’re talking about is Allen Susser.
We might also mention that Chef Allen received the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef Award for the Southeast region in 1994. In October of 1994, Chef Allen was invited to prepare a special dinner for President Bill Clinton.
We are honored to feature an interview with one of the fastest rising stars in the Food and Restaurant business, Chef Allen Susser.
Q – According to your bio. You were born into a family heritage rich with celebrating life through food. Does that mean you like to eat?
A – Exactly. Most of our family get-togethers were around the big dinner table. I actually lived in a 8-family house. We lived on the first floor. We were a family of six. My grandmother lived on the second floor. My aunt, with a family of four, lived on the third floor; Very often we found ourselves all together, in my grandmother’s big dining room eating together. And not only holidays, but pretty much on a weekly basis, we’d get together. It was a really great time.
Q – Could your restaurant have been as successful in Syracuse as it is in Miami?
A – It think it could. I think the success of the restaurant is very much through its consistent quality in food and service. So yeah, we could be in Syracuse. I think it would be a little cold. Colder than I like it, (Laughs), and that’s why I’m in South Florida, ‘cause I love the weather. .
Q – And your seafood is probably very, very fresh.
A – Yeah. Truthfully we know our fisherman here. We actually have 4 or 5 fisherman that come in on a regular basis to us that are out fishing and bring us their fresh catch before it even goes into the wholesale chain. So, the fish is spanking clean and fresh as anything. You can do wonderful things with a food product like that.
Q – Your restaurant is open only for dinner?
A – Correct.
Q – What kind of clientele is drawn to your restaurant?
A – I’d say a good mix of people. Probably half of our clientele are locals, who come here on a regular basis, and enjoy eating out and what we do. The other quarter are probably people from throughout South Florida that think of us as a special occasion restaurant, that want to come here for their birthday or anniversary, or holiday. I guess the rest is made up of business travelers who need to eat in a fine restaurant as well as food travelers who just love to eat in food restaurants throughout the world.
Q – Do you feel threatened at all by the growing popularity of such national chains as Red Lobster or Olive Garden?
A – To certain restaurants they are defiantly threatening. The fact that they have national advertising budgets points out that people do enjoy eating out on a whole lot more regular basis than ever before. For my restaurant, the niche market I fit into, competes with the overall dining out dollars, but it’s not one that competes with the quality and value and types of service of the national chains. It’s an indirect competition as opposed to a direct competition with us.
Q – You say you borrowed money from anyone willing to lend it to get this restaurant going. Why not just go to a bank?
A – Banks don’t loan restaurants.
Q – Why not?
A – Because statistically, I don’t know, if it’s ninety percent of restaurants go out within the first year and probably seventy-five per cent go out within three years. The chances of survival are not good. Banks are not in the risk taking business. They‘re bankers. They’ll lend you money if you’ve got money to put in their bank. But, they’re not just gonna go and give a restaurant a loan of any sort without collateral material.
Q – How expensive was it to get the restaurant off the ground, and up and running?
A – Near a half a million dollars.
Q – You must have a lot of rich friends.
A – A lot of friends. Little pieces from each. It really took a lot of commitment-to make this happen.
Q – Would you say half a million dollars is the average cost of starting a restaurant?
A – I think you can get by a little cheaper, but not a whole lot more. I wouldn’t think you could start a restaurant for anything under a quarter of a million dollars today. But, then again it depends on the quality you’re putting on the table, and the quality of what you’re trying to do as an overall presentation for the customers.
Q – You got to sell a lot of dinners.
A – That’s for sure.
Q – What exactly is the New World Cuisine you feature in your restaurant?
A – It’s the influence on our cuisine of the Latin American and Caribbean flavors; In addition to that, it’s the ingredients of the fresh tropical fruits, the Latin root vegetables and fresh fish, and seafood.
Q – Is that something you alone came up with?
A – I was amongst the people that came up with this. I don’t think any cuisine can be a chefs creation. I -think a cuisine is when many chefs cook similar items with similar ingredients. The fun of it is every chef cooks differently so there’s lots of different tastes and influences on the cuisine. To be bigger than a cuisine it has to be more than one restaurant, or one style of restaurant. It has to be many types of restaurants cooking similarly from the resources that are available.
Q – You say one of the ingredients that is so important to a restaurant’s success is hospitality.
A – Absolutely. .
Q – You spend quite a bit of time traveling. How can you be sure that when you’re not around, your staff practices that hospitality?
A. O.K. That’s a good question. Though it may appear that I’ travel a lot, I live, eat and breathe the restaurant. I sleep seven hours a day. Other than that, I’m at the restaurant. With that, I’ve developed a great staff and team that works with me. Many’ have been with me numerous years. I’ve got some people that have worked for me for-5 to 10 years. I’ve got two chefs that have been with me for seven years, a couple of my cooks for nine or ten years. My general manager has been with me for nine years. Numbers of my waiters and waitresses have been with me for five to seven years. They’re here on a constant basis. Through that we know the quality of what we need to put in on a nightly basis for each and every single diner eating here, as opposed to just the big picture. We really look at the micro picture of it and say if you’re here tonight, you’re gonna have an experience at Chef Allen’s.
Official Website: www.chefallens.com
