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

Jimmy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

My wife Ilia and I took out an SBA loan to purchase a family style restaurant called Scully’s. It was a very successful and smooth running business. The employees that were working there were all great for that type of restaurant and most had worked there over 5 years. We ran the restaurant as it was for a couple months to give us some time to organize permits for our simple remodel that was supposed to be about 5 weeks from closing to reopening. We had decided that we wanted to keep an opportunity for everyone that was there when we re opened as Driftwood, knowing that it was going to take a lot of work to get everyone up to where they needed to be. We brought on a bar manager, sous chef and some support staff in addition to the staff that was in place as those were positions that weren’t needed in the previous operation. The 5 weeks turned into 5 months being closed because of the incompetent contractor we had hired. That 5 months was 90% of our busy season leaving us to open going into the slow season having spent 90% of our reserved operating capitol on rent payments. We spent a lot of our remaining money on a week of staff training (which still wasn’t enough). By the time we actually got open, we had less than a weeks worth of expenses in the bank. During our first year of business, we lost almost all of the employees from Scully’s. We had numerous people coming in and out that we would train for a month or so to find out that they weren’t the right fit. It felt like we were chasing our tails. The second that someone seemed like they were working out, something came up to prove otherwise. We weren’t able to really trust anyone which created a lot of anxiety on top of the day to day stresses. The culture in the restaurant was terrible. Occasionally, we’d have a qualified candidate come through, but they wouldn’t stick around because of other employees. There were many especially dark days that I would start to lose hope. I was working 100+ hr weeks on very little sleep and neglecting my responsibilities as a father and husband. The thought that we may not make it was becoming more and more present in my mind. We had put everything we had into the restaurant and it just wasn’t enough. A little in to our second year, after 3 or 4 back to back failed hires in the kitchen and multiple front of house staff issues something clicked for me. It became crystal clear that this would never change until we get the right team in place. I started reaching out to friends in other parts of the country. I decided that we don’t want to be the type of restaurant that will work for someone that’s just looking for a job. I knew that we were doing (or at least trying really hard to do) something different from other restaurants in our area and that should be attractive to aspiring chefs. I would start reaching out to people that I hadn’t spoken to in years just to get leads on anyone that would appreciate working with us. I’ve spent hours spilling our story out to countless people knowing that there was a slim chance they’d be willing/able to actually move to Boynton Beach. In my mind, that was they only way to start building the team we needed. It was going to be a long and ongoing process, but I felt like I knew what needed to happen to fix the problem we were having. Moving forward, interviews were no longer about skills or experience. I would talk about where Driftwood was, is and where it was going to be and then hear about where they were, are and want to be. little by little our team was coming together. The more likeminded people we had, the easier it was to attract and keep the next. Bad fits stuck out like a sore thumb and would find themselves to the door. We started to understand the importance of taking care of our team in any ways that we could. Our team was becoming our family. Things were better than ever by our 2nd anniversary in March 2020.

We all know what happened in March 2020. Again, the thought that we may not make it came back after I was sure that we had made it past those times. We remained open 5 days a week the entire time. We had to temporarily lay off some of our team, but we did whatever was in our means to take care of them. We made sure everyone had food, toilet paper, sanitizer, someone to talk to or whatever else may have been needed in those days. We shifted our business in every way imaginable, doing whatever we felt was the best at the time. There was 5 of us, and we made those decisions together every night. Even though there was a lot of uncertainty, there was a sense of peace and calmness. Before the lockdowns, we were having record nights every week. It went from the busiest we had ever been to a sudden halt on normal operations. Ilia and I actually took two day weekends for the first time since opening. We were never really sure what tomorrow would bring, but everyone was well rested, healthy and prepared to tackle it. After a few months, when we realized that we were making it work, I realized that we kinda had a chance to rebuild Driftwood better than we did the first time. We grew a little at a time, only as we were able to, making sure that anything we took on was sustainable long term. If we only have enough staff to be able to serve 50 people at the level of quality that we want, then we only serve 50 people. We no longer see it as an option to bring someone on our team that is just a pair of hands. We are always looking for good people, if it’s the right fit for them, we will find the right spot for them. We are constantly thinking about ways to make Driftwood a better place to work. When a restaurant is a great place to work, it organically becomes a great place to eat and drink (with the right guidance). I’ve probably spent more time, energy and focus on our team than any other aspect of the restaurant. Thankfully I can say that I am very proud to work with every single person on our team. Especially Denise and Jean who were part of the original Scully’s team and stuck with us through all of the up’s and downs.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I grew up in Lake Worth, Florida. After getting in a bit of trouble with the law at 14, I started working as a busboy at a country club. I enjoyed the atmosphere in the kitchen more so than in the front, so after a year, I convinced them to move me to the back. I continued cooking in different parts of the kitchen through the rest of high school. I had not been doing very well academically, but seemed to be growing very fast in the kitchen. I signed up for the new culinary program at my high school where I was able to improve my grades by doing what I loved. At a point, I was only required to be in class for 2 or 3 periods a day, the rest I was graded by my work reviews. My high school instructor, Sylvia Tricarico, helped me apply to a few different Culinary Schools in my senior year. I wasn’t initially interested in more school but she convinced me that it would be worth it down the line. She was able to help me get a scholarship to the Culinary Institute of America where I started a few months after graduating high school. My focus at the CIA was to learn how to become a great cook. I hadn’t really developed a passion for great food at this point. I did an externship at American Seasons on Nantucket and then returned after graduation. American Seasons is where I learned to take pride in the way I work and respect the ingredients I was working with. My goal was to move to New York City so I focused on saving money, taking on a second job in the mornings working over 100 hr weeks.
After leaving Nantucket, I had a chance to Visit family in California see wine country and to eat at the French Laundry. It was an amazing trip but it caused me to spend most of my saved money. Regardless, I left for NYC lining up as many couches as I could to sleep on for my first few months. I found a job at Eleven Madison Park just a few weeks after Daniel Humm had moved there from San Francisco. This was by far the most intense kitchen I had worked in at that point. I remember always feeling like tasks were impossible to get done in the amount of time we had, but it always got done. After about a year and a half, I had an opportunity to work at WD-50, which was a restaurant I had my eye on since before moving there. It was an amazing experience that forced me to create dishes and cook mentally for the first time. I left there looking at food and cooking in a completely different way than when I started.
A friend from Eleven Madison Park, Jared Gadbaw, had asked me to join him as his sous chef for the opening of Marea. I was 23 years old and hesitant to take a management role but finally decided to go with it. Marea is where I developed passions for managing, sourcing products, seafood, Italian cooking, controlling food/labor costs and for Ilia, my wife whom I met there.
I had decided to leave NYC after 2 and a half years at Marea, mainly for a change of scenery and pace. I had an opportunity to do so while staying with the same company by moving to Hong Kong to open Al Molo with Michael White. Hong Kong was an incredible or horrific time for me depending on how you look at it. Either way, It was a once in a lifetime experience that I am grateful for and will never forget. I left Al molo after 14 months in much need of a break. My wife an I traveled for a few months, mostly different beaches in Florida, Puerto Rico and Mexico before visiting my brother in Los Angeles. We decided to stay in Los Angeles, which was a good thing as we had spent all our money traveling.
I wanted to get back to hands on cooking with great ingredients so I took a job as a cook at a small farm to table restaurant. I was making barely enough to get by, but having more fun in the kitchen than I had in years. Eventually, my wife became pregnant and I had to find something that would support us better. I opened a small Gastropub type restaurant for a friend of a friend that I had met there. After having our son, it became clear that we needed to be closer to our families on the East coast. We drove across the country with our 6 month old son, our puppy and everything we owned in a VW Jetta.
My initial job that I had lined up didn’t work out in Florida so I helped out a friend that owned a restaurant in Ft Lauderdale called Valentino. I helped where needed until an opening came up for me to take over as Chef de Cuisine with in a few months. While at Valentino, my wife and I planned our own Restaurant and started to search for locations and capital. Ilia and I had put together a few different concept ideas and looked at different locations from Key West to Jacksonville. We finally came across a rare opportunity in Boynton Beach to purchase property that had an existing Restaurant. Once we saw the space, we started fresh with what we now had to work with. We had both been working in restaurants most of our lives and had a few things that we’ve been able to learn from past experiences. We knew that the cause of most business issues in restaurants came from investors and/or landlords. We were able to figure out how to open our own place having neither of those concerns. We knew that for our vision to play out, we need to have complete control over how the restaurant is run.
Driftwood has now been open about 4 and a half years. It has grown and improved a lot since the beginning. We started off without enough money to do what we really wanted to do so we were always just making it work. Slowly, we’ve been able to make those improvements as we go. We wanted to create a place where its employees are like family and work feels like home. A place where guests can feel welcome, comfortable and actually be treated like a guest. We want everyone to feel value in either working or dining at Driftwood. Our team members as well as our guests should always be getting at least as much as they are giving.
I am very proud of how far we have come and excited about how much more we have to go.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I was working as a sous chef at Marea in NYC, preparing to leave for Hong Kong in the next 6 months or so. Ilia started as a coat check/hostess. The most dreaded task for the coat check girls was to bring a small slip of paper with guest information back to the chef whenever there was a VIP or guest that needed special attention from the kitchen. The kitchen was usually full of 20-30 cooks/food runners/dishwashers that were mostly young men. It could be an intimidating trek for a new young lady dressed up to greet the very upscale guests at the door. I remember her having a very serious face, never smiling when she would come back to the kitchen. Any time she would bring back the slip, she wouldn’t even look up or say hi. Over the next 4-5 months I made numerous attempts to find an opportunity to talk to her with no luck. The day of our holiday party, I begged one of the servers that was on talking terms with her to convince her to come out that night. I was finally able to have a conversation with her. In just a few hours it was very clear that we had a strong connection. I learned that she had been working in restaurants as long as I had, graduated culinary school, cooked professionally and managed multiple restaurants before taking the position as coat check at Marea. I had been single for over 2 years at this point and had no intention of changing that a month before heading to Hong Kong with a one way ticket. We casually dated for the last month expecting nothing more than good company and a fun time from each other. I was leaving to take my first executive chef position opening a restaurant so I was very focused on the ton of work I had ahead of me. After I left, she was immediately promoted to office manager. We kept in touch daily for the first few months both personally as well as work related issues. At one point about 3 months in she mentioned that if I wanted her to come join me, all I had to do was ask. I sat on that for a couple days but within a month or so, she was on a plane. I was able to get her a job (illegally) at a friends restaurant. The fact that she had to leave the country every 3 months allowed for trips to Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Macau. After 14 months, we headed back to the US. I resigned from the company that I had spent about 4 years with to take a break. We spent a few months traveling in Mexico (where we got engaged), Puerto Rico, Florida and then Los Angeles (where we ran out of money to keep traveling). All the time, getting to understand each others ideas for our own restaurant. A few months after settling in LA, we found out that Ilia was pregnant. After our son Maxon was born, we decided to move closer to family in Florida and started to really hone in on what and where our restaurant would be. We spent a lot of time on business plans and looking at spaces from Key West to Jacksonville. In 2015, we took a trip to Vegas and got married by Elvis at Graceland chapel. After about 3 years of being in Florida, the right opportunity crossed our path and it became Driftwood. I’m grateful that my business partner is also my wife and best friend.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Driftwood got off to a very rough start financially. We planned everything right according to the information we had but hired the wrong contractor. A 5 week project turned into 5 months costing us 90% of busy season and 90% of our operating capital. By the time we could finally open up, we had less than a week of expenses in the bank heading in to the slow season. Every single day was figuring out money. My wife and I both emptied our bank accounts and IRA to keep things running. We took out any credit card we could to cover our personal expenses since we could rarely afford to pay ourselves. I had some family and friends visit to help us cut back on labor. There were no days off and most. days were at least 15 hr work days. Being our first year open, and hopeful, we expected September and October to pick up a little bit. September was the worse month we had that year. It seemed like every week we had to search for payroll money. We never compromised food quality but maybe we’d skip the grease trap service, push back Ansul service until the fire Marshall gives us a final notice or just give everyone extra days off and cover it ourselves. By October, we were bare bones. We had already slimmed down as much as possible and beyond overworked. One of those days I got a surprise visit from my first boss that owned the country club I worked at throughout high school. That was my first restaurant job at 14 so I’m sure he was happy to see that I had grown and opened my own restaurant. The truth was that we weren’t sure that we were going to be open the following week. He asked me if he could have his holiday party at Driftwood in December. In my mind, I wasn’t really sure that we would still be open. We booked the date and he asked me how he should pay the deposit. I wasn’t even thinking of asking for a deposit from him but gladly accepted it. We were able to limp through the next few months until season because of it. they loved having their holiday party at Driftwood and have returned every year since. It still took us until our 2 year anniversary to somewhat recover financially. Our 2 year anniversary was March 17 2020, the first day of the covid 19 lockdown in Florida. That was the beginning of a new challenge.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.driftwoodboynton.com
• Instagram: @eatdrinkatdriftwood
• Facebook: Driftwood Boynton Beach
• Yelp: Driftwood

Image Credits
Shelby Cooper