We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maureen Holt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Maureen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Since early childhood I always thought I would open up a little cafe. I pictured a cool early bustling morning with guests taking their cafe au lait and favorite pastry to the fully bloomed side walk, beaming with the morning sun on their smiles. When my father passed, that was what I thought I would do…but that didn’t happen. I felt I needed more time to learn about the ways of restaurant life, so throughout College, I worked in many facets of the industry, event married a chef and continued to dream.
My aim became higher the more I worked as a Front of the House Manager, eager to hone in on better skill sets of how to manage a bar, how to taste fine wines, how to really manage the people around me to be successful in everything, even though they had different dreams about their direction in life. I believed that one day, I would open up my then cafe, now turned a dream of a full fledged fine dining restaurant. I would have to stay patient, and be willing to pivot in order to understand that everything wasn’t always going to go my way.
Years later, I met my 2nd Husband, Clifton while working at a local fine dining establishment. I was 32, and felt stuck. No matter how many of the Mom and Pop places I had worked, I still was not learning the financial plan to open up my own place. It occurred to me after speaking with my mentor, that another path was still waiting, and that was to go corporate, and all of the processes would be taught immediately to drive that into my brain.
When Clif and I got married, we spent 2 weeks in France on our honey moon, really enjoying the beauty of the art of eating. We then spent our first Christmas together at The Little Inn in Washington, a huge expense, but that weekend was the catapult of how we began to look for the space that would eventually be named Little Savannah. During those moments, all of the memories of smells, the sensations, the awareness of elegance, began to formulate the canvas for which my dream was shaping.
How did we go from idea to reality: We arrived on scene in a microcosmic world a mile and a half from our house, called Forest Park. This is where our new home would be. An old high school friend of mine had a sign in the window, he was looking for someone to take over his space. All of these things happened so quickly for me, Clifton and I were married in March 2003, and opened our restaurant September that same year. My vision has changed from that little coffee shop, but the Little part remained, as we figured how to make magic happen in a 27 seat restaurant. All parts of our Southern Charmed place had remnants of the colors of France, marked with deep red, blue and yellows, and a painting of the sky scape of Savannah, Georgia, hence part of the name of our Restaurant because not only did we have our first date in Savannah, Clifton’s then 15 year daughter when we married, was named Savannah.
So, all of those experiences we remembered, were interwoven within our passion to make our dream come true. Our conviction and desire kept us going beyond the sleepless nights, as did the laughter over our wine list, the test tastings of the ingredients from different purveyors, but in particular, the kind advice we gained from our closest entrepreneur friends lead us to our opening day. There were a lot of Do’s, not a lot of Don’ts. In hindsight as I have gone beyond the birth of my daughter Jamie Jean, through the divorce of my husband and the letting go of that dream, I have only just begun my journey into my next season. Since the beginning of that dream, I have my own small catering company, called Southern Graze! Life is a journey, and sometimes that one small seed planted has everything right to sustain its growth.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Southern Graze originally began when my Chef Friend Angela Schmidt and I cultivated the idea of Women Chef Pop Up Series back in 2014. Women Chefs at the time were relatively silent partners, tucked away to be seen and not heard, but women were emerging at the time and we wanted them to be seen and heard. I was already a restauranteur, part owner in Little Savannah Restaurant and Bar, and at this time I recently finished a 6 month fast start program at San Francisco Cooking School, after many years of being booted out of my own kitchen by my husband.
However, I am a creative, an empath, a seeker of following ones passion. Sometimes things happen ‘on accident’, as I am saying that after my divorce from Clifton, I had to find away to keep myself alive in the industry, take care of a 6 year mostly on my own, and for those next years once again, I worked for other owners in the Catering Industry. Then, such as God does, He sends you messages that you can continue to ignore, or listen to. The Pandemic 2020 came about, and suddenly most are out of jobs in our industry and one either Pivots, or begins to tire themselves into pity and despair. As I was doing one, the other showed its head as well, and then I needed to make The decision. Will you continue to work for other people or are you going to get rid of your W-2? With the help of my amazing boyfriend, who continued to support my positive mind set that ‘Yes, you can do this”, I began to serve again, my friends and family that couldn’t get out of their house, I made meals after meals and delivered. Then, my clients wanted small catered parties, which turned into to large catered partied, and then cooking classes, huge Kosher dinners, all following a simple seed planted a long time ago.

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

To learn is also to Unlearn…
The restaurant industry is the ‘Hardest business you’ll ever love’. This may be applicable to other service industries, but what I understand now, is that you have to give yourself grace, nothing is ever going to be perfect. All of the anxiety that gets built up can also be deflated, but by your own doing. So with all of this Hard work, you need a strategy that will keep your longevity.

My unlearning: this is a financial piece I wish I knew then. We set up an Scorp for our business, I do recommend this of course because it will save you thousands on Uncle Sam’s Taxes. What I was taught to do, was to pour all of your money, into renovations, into new STUFF, investing in your business, that is was what we were taught.

Here is the kicker, you have to have an Exit Plan. NO one talks about an Exit Plan until it’s too late. ( I am now teaching people to have this exit plan and have it written down with your partner.)

1. You must give yourself a paycheck, but with that paycheck, your must also PUT MONEY AWAY in your secured savings plan and do not sway from it, as if you were to tithe. Just as every household has a budget, so does your business. Just because you had an over and abundance in a good month, you will have a slow month that you’ll need for the rainy days.
You will have things come up! Your insurance goes up, your payroll is much higher than expected, your power bill just doubled, you over ordered on perishable, and the company won’t take it back. (those are just a few)

2. Many restauranteurs get caught up in the grind and also the elements of persuasion to go out into the early mornings; make a schedule, put you first. Work out, get to work, take a break for 1 hour every day, go to bed in a timely manner. You will thank me later.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When I started Southern Graze, we were a pop up series group. We used different Email links like Mail Chimp to execute the invites. Face Book was really the only other popular way to get across your information to new people and old.
I would stay consistent, interface instagram into your facebook, and make a reel once a week, and begin to Teach your craft by showing people how to make things, or be intimate with how you are feeling that day before a big event. Short movies, bright and clear photos make a seamless social media skill.
Tag others, Tag @everyone, always give credence to a purveyor or client as a thank you!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @southerngraze
• Facebook: @southerngraze
• Other: working on website!

Image Credits

Andi Rice, professional photos of Maureen Holt individual, i have the rights