Kevin Gentry (4:45)

Well, ladies and gentlemen, if you're listening and you're familiar with the area, you know what Neil is talking about. But if you're unfamiliar, the northern Piedmont area of Virginia, at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I would argue, is some of the most beautiful area in the United States. So it's another reason to come visit, and we'll get into more of that as well. But I want to go more into your story and your journey, Neil. So you grew up in Chicago, is my understanding, and a family where food and the whole concept of food and the community and time around the meal was important. And then you decided to go from Chicago to Walla Walla, Washington, to college, to Whitman College out in the Pacific Northwest. What was the kind of go big moment that inspired you or introduced you to the hospitality sector? How in the world did you decide that's what you wanted to pursue?

Neil Wavra (5:41)

Well, as you noted, yeah, family. And growing up in Chicago, food is, is everywhere and in. In great supply and at all levels throughout Chicago. But even, and most importantly, probably within the context of our family, my grandmother and on my mom's side was a great cook and an Italian cook, and, and that part of going to grand family meals where you see my hands starting to, to populate the screen right here, I can't even talk without them. From the Italian context, right. The. That side of the family, certainly food was important and big grand meals and just pasta meatballs were important, but we were always at a meal talking about a previous one, talking about the next one. And so I had always associated food with, with family, I think, and with connection. And same thing was on my dad's side, relative to his mother, cooking for, for us when we visited and going through, you know, the old Polish neighborhoods and Lithuanian neighborhoods and things on the south side where my dad worked for a period of time. And every time we would do something, it would be oriented around some kind of food experience. And so that was always important for me. When I was 16, my mom and dad gave me a walk because I was watching Yan Can Cook and I wanted to learn how to. To stir fry. And so food became part of what I loved about the world. And yet it wasn't my focus. And so I went to college, as you noted, in Walla Walla. And I chose Walla Walla to go there in a way as an undercurrent, not because of the education that I was going to receive per se, but because I was enamored with the idea that the. The. The mountains were around and the agricultural fields that surrounded Walla Walla were there. And that when you matriculate to Whitman College, they send you a box of sweet onions and that there was actual balsamic vinegar and olive oil on the table as I was a considering student. And so there's all these elements that were food related. While I was there, I got a job and worked for the food service that was, you know, was serving the student body. I did an internship through them in one summer and worked at another food service operation near to my home in Chicago. I started a gastronomical society, as we called it, a food club. And so food was part of my experience there, but it wasn't yet a legitimate pursuit in its own right. And I leveraged my experience in Walla Walla to go to a graduate program in California where there was plenty more food, the markets were spectacular, I was in a new wine country, and I was of age at that point. And so enjoying those experiences still really informed all of my time outside of the academic pursuit. And so academic was substantial and real and therefore led to a career for a period of time in government. I worked postgraduate school in the Washington, D.C. area. And that's how I came to this area and worked for two years, but realized that wasn't going to be for me and really was excited about pursuing for. For real, as a. As a career choice, the culinary arts and the world of hospitality. And so it began early on in the. In the context of food relating to family and to wonderful memories and to great experiences. It expanded in college and graduate school by way of broadening my horizons with respect to where food comes from and how rewarding it is to know where food comes from and how that connection can kind of enrich our lives and enrich the connections we have with not only people, but place and products. And so as I then ventured to go to culinary school, this is where I really began to dive deep into this career and to realizing my own vision of what my career would look like in this. When I was in government, I sat in the office on the third level of the Department of Commerce building, looking out over the mall, dreaming up this idea that I could link the farm to the table through policy. And policy ended up not being my. My path. But then that evolved into food. And recognizing that if I had a restaurant someday and a place that had a farm or farms around me and sourced from those farms and then used that product to create a community of clientele and guests as well as a staff, that would be my big vision of what it would be like to add value to a farm commodity product through hospitality. And that practice has been one that I've been working at for, I guess, now, 20 years.

Kevin Gentry (10:12)

Well, that is very cool. And that. That is at the core the reason that I wanted to invite you onto the Going Big podcast, because you've had this vision from a relatively early age. It's kind of funny. I've had other guests recently, Pinto and Billo Navarone, who from Walla Walla, also from Raza, but they started theirs later in life. Polly Gentry, an artist, kind of found her gift later in life, but at the core. Everybody's trying to figure out what is their gift, what is their passion, how can they follow it. And I think it's so cool that you had this dream and wanted to keep pursuing it. So my understanding is after the stint in government, and it would be a little curious even was there something about that also that wasn't taking risks, it wasn't sort of the going big that you wanted to do. But anyway, from that you went into the hospitality space and you worked for some of the greats. I mean, Charlie Trotter, Chicago base, one of, one of the absolute great restaurateurs. And then certainly my understanding is you were at BlackBerry Farm in Beautiful Wall in Tennessee, one of the, one of the, one of the great, great hospitality places in America today. Tell us a little bit about that.

Neil Wavra (11:26)

Absolutely, I think so. I ended up at Charlie Trotter's after culinary school and culinary school. While there I was afforded the opportunity to win a couple scholarships that helped me to travel California and France and Italy, principally around wine and the study of wine. And in the pursuit of that, I was able also to dine at a number of amazing restaurants, a number of Michelin starred restaurants and otherwise. And my takeaway from that experience, beyond gaining a tremendous amount of, of wine knowledge was that really great dining experiences were just that they were experiences and they were part about food, but not only. And they were also about service and they were also about the ambiance and they were also about the wine. And when I graduated, my mother took me to Charlie Trotters as a gift. And when we went, that was also my recollection from that experience. I took away from that an experience that was, I felt seen and I felt like I was catered to. I, I was a culinary student. So they, they showed me the kitchen and they certainly talked about food in a level of detail that they maybe didn't with others. They gave me a tour of the wine cellar. They took an attempt at trying to create an experience that was special. And I had wonderful dishes, but I don't really, and I didn't even shortly after recall the dish, I recalled the experience. And so as I graduated culinary school, had that experience, went on these wine trips, came back reinforcing that experience for me. I applied to Charlie Trotters and after having to call a number of times to just get the interview, Matt Murges, the chef de cuisine there, called me in and said, bring your knives, come on and visit. And I said, well, I'm actually thinking about being on the front of House side. If I could start there, I would prefer it. And he said, well, wear a suit, come on in. And went through that process. And over the course of two years, I worked from being someone who checked coats and greeted guests to running food to serving in a station, and then eventually managing the restaurant as a dining room manager. The experience there of tailoring experiences for people, using food and drink and ambiance and service to connect with people was reinforced over and over again. And while Trotter's prize great ingredients, those ingredients didn't come from Chicago. They came from all over the world. And what I was really seeking beyond just the experience was the connection with the place. And I had occasion while working for Charlie to represent him at a Relay and Chateau conference in Geneva, Switzerland, where I met Sam Bell, who has since passed. But he and his family started. His family started, and he was at that time operating BlackBerry Farm in Tennessee. And the idea of being in a high level hospitality operation that wanted to expand the linkage between the farm and the table was very enticing for me. And so I moved to Tennessee and I helped them establish the farmstead there where they have the gardens and the creamery and the larder. And in that process, they were all also building out the barn. I don't know if you visited the barn when you're down there, Kevin, for your event, but I imagine you did. And the barn was a new facility, a new restaurant that I helped open. And so I leveraged my hospitality experience to link some of the farm experience there and create another level of experience that was meaningful for guests. It was neat to see patrons bring their kids in and take them to the garden in order to show them that carrots came from a garden, not from a plastic bag. And so having that relationship was deeply meaningful. So those two experiences, for sure, Charlie was and still is sort of the, the, the devil and the angel on my shoulders. He, he's been a mentor. Even as we didn't work closely necessarily together, we, his, his ethos and his, his organization continues to act in a mentorship role for me. BlackBerry was a great exercise in me applying what I had learned and working extraordinarily hard to launch something and to help build out something and to be part of that process. And so I've, I've drawn on both experiences well for the rest of my career, for sure.

Kevin Gentry (16:00)

That's amazing. And I really. And this is, this is another one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the going big podcast deal is you bring all this stuff together and when you go to field in Maine, it is an experience. And it's. It's. It's. It's great food, and you have great wine. We're going to talk about the wine in just a moment. The ambiance is amazing, but it's. But. But the sum is greater than the whole, is greater than the sum of the parts. And. And I think you bring that together, and you have that vision, and that's what really rings out, which is cool. All right, so you went from working in the industry, working for others, to going big. You and your wife, star decide to. To take the leap and start your own restaurant. And as I say, it flourished. But then, boom, Covid hit. And Covid was a serious crisis in the hospitality industry. Many, many great restaurants couldn't survive. But, you know, we know that in every crisis, there are elements of both danger and opportunity, and you seized on some opportunities. Tell us about the sort of going big of the opportunity that you were able to also see during the COVID years.

Neil Wavra (17:12)

Well, thank you for saying that. Yeah, it was a special time relative to what we were able to accomplish here at the restaurant. And I think it all boils down to quite simply having a mission that was formed from childhood through Walla Walla, through working at BlackBerry and Chicago, to here, of finding a way that food connects people. And I think the concept, the going big idea relative to opening our own restaurant was what really had defined how I saw that. Like, I needed a physical structure. I needed a table. I needed you to be at that table in that physical structure, the four walls of a restaurant, in order to connect with you, in order to share with you the cuisine that we had put together, the wines that we had chosen, the ambiance of the space. And while all that was true and is true, what Covid taught me was that the mission was not dependent on a space or those constraints. You could still use food to connect with people, and finding a way to do that every day became that much more interesting. And that was the guide that helped us move through Covid. And so we couldn't serve inside. Well, we could serve off the patio in a to go bag, and we could still connect with people. We could connect with folks who wanted to sit outside at a picnic table, and we could bring them something socially distanced from the wine standpoint. I was missing the opportunity to really curate individual experiences with wine. And so we began doing a mystery wine blind tasting where we would sell a bottle of wine. And we still do this to this day. We did it every Thursday throughout Covid. And now we do it on the third Thursday of each month and you join me on YouTube or on Facebook and you take the brown bagged wine, the enclosed bag of wine home, and you don't know what's inside. As long as you don't peek. I don't either. My staff, my team picks out the wine and then we go through a process, a deductive process that we've sort of hybridized from the court of Master Sommeliers and the WSET program and just our own experience with wine to try to bring it down to anyone's level to where they can appreciate what's in their glass and identify certain characteristics in order to determine what the wine might be. And that process, it's fun if we get it right, it's fun if we don't. We have a glass of wine together. And the process, though, created community. And we found through this experience that online to go, we found people, found each other and found meaning in that connection. And at the end of the day, was it more important to serve like the well thought out dish or to be able to serve a dish? And for myself, it really goes back to those experiences with Michelin restaurants and my travels and with working at or dining at Trotter's. The experience is the most important part. And the food and the drink and the ambiance and the circumstance are all subject to the mission of trying to relate. And as Covid kind of started to loosen and restaurants started to open up, we had 25% capacity inside and. And then it was 50%. I had this space. We have an adjacent space that's part of the property here that I had a bunch of ideas of what to do with that space, but none of them are what's there now. And Covid helped to really form what that is. And we have seven cabanas now that we've built outside, individual dining kind of huts, as some people call them. But they're little cabana spaces that seat up to 6 and one of them seats up to 10. And I realized that we were going to say goodbye to a certain series of guests as we started transitioning away from the to go offering, because we were now coming back inside. And that wasn't going to be enough to necessarily sustain the business and the team that we had put together and the relationships we had with the farmers who still were still growing and producing. And we had a relationship and a reason and a responsibility to help them continue to find a way to make use of their products. So we needed to create something that would respond to the guest need to not come inside and yet still be here and for us to continue to apply our craft. And the cabanas were what came to me. And so there was this. As, as has been the case a number of times, the big idea is a download. I'm a conduit for it. It comes in. And within a week I had the initial structures kind of roughed out. We had tents first that were on platforms and then the tents faded away as the wind got worse. And we doubled down and. And built actual physical structures and had propane heaters because that's what I could get at the moment at the Tri county or at the the store nearby. And then from that standpoint, we put in individual H vac systems and we put in sliding doors, all of which took a year to get because it was just where we were at in Covid. And we just iterated over and over again, led though by this idea that our mission is to use local food and drink to connect with people and to foster community. And that can happen in whatever circumstance presents itself. And there are ways in which we want to do it, there are ways in which we wish to express ourselves. But at the end of the day, the ultimate reason for doing this is the connection.

Kevin Gentry (22:31)

Well, love how you embrace these challenges. And as someone who's dined out under the sort of the garden space and then the cabanas. The cabanas are great for small family get togethers as well as well as inside. In your dining room and at the chef's table, you just have so many different innovations. You're always embracing that. It's a real. You're embracing transformation frankly too. So what's next for Field and Maine and what you're doing? What's your next. Go big. I mean, now tell us about your fable hospitality group. It houses the Red Truck Bakery. Tell us about that.

Neil Wavra (23:09)

So from the standpoint of the restaurant, we continue to focus in on those relationships with artisans and farmers and getting better at expressing what they're giving us. In a moment in the season, we have an a la carte menu that affords guests the choice of appetizers, entrees and desserts. And then we have a present menu, as we call it, the gift of the moment. And that's a tasting menu as a sequence of courses that represent sometimes smaller portions of things that we don't have enough of to run in an a la carte form. And so continuing to evolve that to get better at and to look forward to each season. I mean, one way, remember Chef Linton Hopkins in. In Atlanta talking about spring peas like I'm going to have. If I get 30 more seasons, I get 30 more shots at making spring peas. Like there's asparagus comes on and should be excited about that, and it should be everywhere. And so I'm anticipating that perhaps more so now than. Than ever because of this cold winter. So from the field main standpoint, it's about really refining our offering of what it looks like to be a restaurant that seeks to bring the farm to the table from a fable hospitality perspective. Fable meaning the farm and the table where the two meet. It's not just a story, but the hospitality element has embraced the idea of expansion and growth by way of wanting to have the ability to provide more for our staff and our team for growth opportunities for healthcare. And we were able to acquire Red Truck Bakery, which is across the street from the restaurant here in Marshall. And there's also the original location in Warrenton, and we ship nationwide. For me, though, the. The idea and the understanding came to be farm to table at first, but the table's a little bit too small a footprint to really have an impact meaningfully on a farm. I don't buy enough from any given farm to be important. I also don't think I should buy so much that I am the most important. I think farms need to diversify. If I go out of business and they've built their whole production around me, that's not safe either. But the idea then of a farm to village concept is where our next big move is, right? Is trying to help to figure out how do we create enough scale to say to the farmer, we'll take it, all of it, and we'll use all of it. It's our charge then to take the steer, not just the ribeyes or just the tenderloins. And how do we take all of it and make use of it? And can we do that by leveraging? I like to think of it in the context of this restaurant being. All right, so some. Some great chefs are going to have to use what is local first and then globe, be globally inspired to create dishes that are compelling and have our guests come in. In the same vein, what would a baker do with these ingredients? And how do they create something that's special, that isn't compelling, but in a different format? And then are there other subsequent enterprises, restaurants, elements that can be created to make better use of the product that's around us? And then how does that model come together in a way that's appropriately scalable, and we don't have to be the ones that scale it, but if we can help write the book on it, so to speak, or to rewrite it, because I think it used to be that way. Right. That's what the book was for. For even for this restaurant. Back in the 1800s when it was a restaurant, this was what it was built to be. They were sourcing locally to the extent that they had to. They could go further afield or could go further afield, but generally speaking, they were providing hospitable experience for guests and patrons who were traveling by or who lived here with the foodstuffs of this area. So we'd like very much to create a playbook of what it looks like to source from a region. For us, it's the Virginia Piedmont, and to express that in multiple ways. And so I think that's our next. Our next focus.

Kevin Gentry (26:54)

That is excellent. And, Neil, I don't know whether you know this. There's no reason you would. I grew up in the Blue Ridge. I grew up in Culpepper, and I'm now having these memories of having spring peas and spring potatoes and asparagus early in the year, just as we switch to March. I can anticipate all of that. That's so cool. That's really very, very nice. All right, so one more question. So you're also one of. Probably the. One of the leading experts on the Virginia wine industry. And let me ask you, does. What's. What's next for.

Neil Wavra (27:27)

For.

Kevin Gentry (27:27)

For that industry? Can Virginia wine go big? It just seems to continue to be rising in prominence and appreciation. What's your comment on Virginia wine going big?

Neil Wavra (27:38)

That's so exciting. It's. The Virginia wine industry is, you know, the oldest wine industry in the states and. And in some ways, somewhat one of the newer ones. Right. You go back to Thomas Jefferson and his exploits at trying. And so there's a. A novelty to talking about that. But he didn't really launch a successful commercial operation of Virginia wine, but prompted an interest, for sure. And in the modern context, we're talking about 40 years worth of effort. More than that, perhaps. Now, you know, we're cresting in on sort of almost 50 years of work to try to make this industry what it is. And its relative levels of influence and evolution have been locally focused, regionally focused, and then kind of even a little bit larger than that. And now what you're seeing, I think, too, is an interest in going beyond our borders and it's happening, and it has happened already. But as it goes beyond our borders, it's not just with sort of a generic product or with a product that is ubiquitous. So we make a Chardonnay, we'll export a Chardonnay. No, it's becoming more, I think, identity based of what can be made here. And that takes time to figure out. Talking about sort of the spring peas or the asparagus you get as a winemaker, you get 50 vintages. I mean, how many vintages you get? Not many. And you want to make a change, it's another year, and it's probably multiple years before that change happens. But like anything that has a. A big quality about it, there's this slow arc where not much is happening, not much is happening, and then there's a skyrocketing. And I think we're here at this point where you have, let's say, the third generation of folks coming into Virginia wine who have benefited from the founders, who are benefiting from the ones in the middle, who had a family plot of land or found a piece of land that was close to a crossroads or a more metropolitan or kind of important area, and they're now going further afield, finding the great spots for vineyards, recognizing what works in the vineyard, and then making wines that reflect this place. And as a result, you have uniqueness. And when you have uniqueness, then there's something that's setting you apart from. From the rest of the world. And that's the exciting proposition, I think, for Virginia, relative to the rest of the world. I think of little regions like Priorat in Spain, where they have old vine material, they have old knowledge, and they have a kind of a profile to the wine they make. You can talk about a lot of places in the old world that discovered this over centuries. We're discovering this over decades, and it's moving fast now, which is exciting. And I think that's one of the special prospects about Virginia. 1. One of the ones we talk about here in the restaurant, for sure, is that in most places in the world, you don't get the opportunity to actually drink the arc of discovery. You're drinking the discovered, or it's really brand new. And we're in this really dynamic time where with each vintage, someone's learning something new. Something's putting. Putting forward a new expression with. With sometimes novel grapes, sometimes very known grapes, and just they're put in a different context because of this place and how this place is wanting to be represented in the way of wine. And so It's a fun time to be in Virginia, for sure. It's not without challenges, and it's part of that kind of, you know, that. That experience of. Of the frontier where we're in from the. The United States standpoint, one of the oldest parts of the US but we're on the frontier of wine discovery here.

Kevin Gentry (31:11)

Which is exciting, ladies and gentlemen. If you're not familiar with, as I say, the Northern Piedmont, Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, now you've got another reason, and that's to discover the amazing wine industry. And then you add on to that with the celebration of America's 250th birthday. We're going to have Patrick Henry on our Going Big podcast in a couple of weeks, and the actor who will play him during the reinvention enactment, which is coming up in just a Couple of Weeks, March 23, 1775. The famous give me liberty or give me death speech. There's a lot to go big with in, in Virginia. And no, I'm not doing. I'm just doing the plug for the Virginia travel industry because I. I love Virginia. All right, Neil, the last two questions I have for you. One, I always ask this, thinking about a younger version of yourself, would you do anything differently?

Neil Wavra (32:02)

Oh, gosh, I don't think necessarily differently. I think part of the drive as a younger person to get there fast, to get there now. And that drive, I think, was helpful and important because it propels one to go forward. But I think maybe I would tell myself just to relax into the moment a touch more and to recognize that each of those moments, maybe they're not quite where you have the vision of where you want to be, but those moments are informing where you're going and informing what you're going to need to know when you get there. And there is no there. The moment is all you have. And that kind of settling into that is what I think I've come to understand better. I'm not a perfectly practiced individual in this respect. I can live in my head and look forward quite a bit, but the actual enjoyment and the practice of being and doing in the moment is. Is something that I could tell my younger self that you. You can take in a moment to appreciate where you are and to recognize that everything you're doing now is going to inform later.

Kevin Gentry (33:14)

Well said. Wow. All right, so the final question, for someone listening, watching, who. Who is trying to understand how to go big or whether to go big, what kind of words of inspiration might you offer? You've taken some risks and not everybody's willing to take risks. What kind of encouragement would you give as we close out?

Neil Wavra (33:39)

Well, I think of this world as an experience of finding those connections in life. And one of the ways that we best show up in this world, certainly that I found for myself, is that you look to be of service. And as looking if you're looking to be of service, then you find what your particular gifts are. What can you do well, what do you do that that inspires you to do it again and again and again. And when you find that it's not that much of a risk to double down on that and to focus on that, to reward yourself with the joy and the pleasure of pursuing your purpose. I think that's my favorite definition of happiness is the joy that you derive in the pursuit of your purpose. It has nothing to do with kind of a fleeting delight. It has everything to do with work. And so if you're focused on what you do well and what you can contribute and you can create something around that or find and align yourself with others who have created something where you can practice what it is that you provide. That's the big in life is being you that is of service and benefit to others. You will, you will take risks in doing it for sure. But they seem to, at least in my case, they've always paid off.

Kevin Gentry (35:03)

Neil, as someone who loves and is motivated by service, you're a model for hospitality. Ladies and gentlemen, check out Neil Wavra's Field in Main Restaurant, Marshall, Virginia. But thanks for helping us and a different perspective of understand how we should think about going big. And thanks for everything you're doing.

Neil Wavra (35:21)

I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today. It's been a pleasure.

Kevin Gentry (35:24)

Thanks for tuning in to the Going Big podcast. I hope today's conversation left you feeling energized and ready to tackle your biggest goals. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps spread the word and it gets these inspiring stories stories out to more people. You can also find more content, resources and updates at our website, goingbigpodcast.com Remember, the only limits are the ones you don't challenge. The limits that you impose on yourself. Keep pushing, keep growing, and above all, keep going big. See you next time on the Going Big podcast.