Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dallas McGarity. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dallas, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think it takes the ability to look at things from many different perspectives. For example, as a restaurant owner, I look at things from the diners view, the cooks, the servers, and my view as the owner. I want to make sure that everyone is having a good experience dining with us and all of our employees are having a good experience working as well. I say take care of your employees and they will take care of your guests.

Dallas, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started my career at age 15 in Orangeburg SC. I was a dishwasher at a country club, and it was a very fine dining place. I really became tired of washing dishes and thought that if I can learn how to help the cooks with some prep, I can move into another position and maybe make a little more money. I didn’t expect to fall in love with cooking. The chefs there were classically trained, and they showed me some of the nuances of working the line and doing the prep. I learned how to butcher meats/fish, prep vegetables, and make classic French sauces. The sous chef and executive chef told me I was a natural and needed to go to culinary school, so I enrolled in Johnson and Wales University in Charleston SC (when it was there). I worked all over Charleston developing my skills and learning from the great chefs of the south and when the time was right for me, I accepted a sous chef position at a golf club in Mt Pleasant SC. I really learned a lot about the business side of things and how to do catering there. Once I outgrew my position there, I took the Head Chef job at a small 50 seat Italian restaurant called Capriccio’s, which sadly doesn’t exist anymore. It was great. The owner was a Frenchman that had a ton of international experience, and I learned a ton in this tiny restaurant.

In 2004, I moved (sight unseen), to Louisville KY. I just left on a whim and didn’t really have a plan, but I knew the food scene in Louisville was great. About a month after arriving, I was hired at Volare Ristorante as the Executive Sous Chef under Massimo Campagnini, a chef from Bologna Italy. He was way overqualified to work in Louisville, having a ton of experience in Chicago and internationally so of course he became bored and decided to move back to Chicago. I was offered his position and happily accepted it. It was my first large scale restaurant chef job. I ended up making a great name for myself at Volare and working at some amazing other places in Louisville.

In 2009, I became a partner with some local businessmen in a restaurant called Marketplace. It was a 308-seat restaurant in the theater district in downtown Louisville. I learned so much about running a business that is high volume and upscale during this time. We would do 300 covers in 2 hours during a show rush on busy nights and then on slow nights we would do 40 people, so I learned how to design a menu that is appropriate for a minimal amount of labor in the kitchen. I increased their sales from 400k/year to over 1.5 million a year in only a few years.

When the time came for me to open my own restaurant, I took the leap. I opened The Fat Lamb in 2016 and never looked back. I have utilized all of my skills to make my own restaurant very successful. I have cooked for many celebrities and dignitaries. I have won Chopped on the Food Network, been on tv many times, done some radio, and doing caterings/events across the country all while supporting many local charities to build my brand while maintaining a solid fine dining restaurant. In 2024, I received the biggest honor of my career by being in the semifinals for Best Chef Southeast by the James Beard Foundation. I have found that hard work, dedication to your craft, and taking care of your employees has been the bedrock of all my success and I strive to keep on going and pushing towards the next level of my career.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I had to unlearn was that the customer is always right. Sometimes the customer is not right. We have had a few difficult customers over the years but the one that I remember the most is an older gentleman that was dining with a friend, and he ordered a dish that he modified heavily from the original. He sent it back to the kitchen but spoke to the server with a few choice words that were very inappropriate and unprofessional. When the server told me how he was spoken to, I asked this gentleman and his dining companion to leave. He said a few choice words in the dining room and when all was said and done, the entire dining room clapped because I removed him.

Sometimes, when working in the service industry, we only think of how we can make the guest happy. In this circumstance I tried too hard to make a guest happy and it backfired because I didn’t stick to my guns on my preparation of the dish. Now I know that if someone is trying to compromise my integrity, I deny that and ask them to order something that suits their needs from our menu. They always end up much happier.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

So, funding a restaurant is a little tricky. Most banks don’t like to give out loans for a business model that has a 5-10% profit margin and usually doesn’t make it past the 3-year mark. I was extremely lucky to find a space that didn’t need much of anything except a good cleaning. The fellow I bought the restaurant from was generous enough to let me pay him off monthly for 2 years and that was the lucky break I needed. I had 50K and I believed in myself and my skills. Today we are sitting at 7.5 years in business and have won many awards and accolades in Louisville and nationwide. We are having the best year we have ever had because I followed through with my vision and worked really hard to show my crew where we are going and how we are going to get there. It was literally luck and timing that helped me fund my business and now we are thriving because of all the lessons I have learned working in other places. Here’s to the next 7 years!

Contact Info:

• Website: fatlamblouisville.com
• Instagram: @fatlamblouisville @chefdmcgarity
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dallas-mcgarity-34538326b/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-fat-lamb-louisville