We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Patrick Panella. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Patrick below.

Hi Patrick, thanks for joining us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

Like most young people, I thought my parents were wrong about almost everything. Of course I was misguided. My parents taught me many things — amongst the most valuable were self-reliance and resourcefulness. They never handed me anything. Everything I achieved in life was through hard work and perseverance.

As a child my father would compel us to work manual labor jobs around the house on the weekends and also for other people. We were generously paid 75 cents an hour regardless of the task and regardless of our desire to work. Little did I understand at the time that it was a paid internship of sorts and not illegal child labor. But I developed a skill set and an understanding of things even though at the time my only feeling was that my father was stealing my weekends from me.

Patrick, 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’ve been in the restaurant industry off and on for my entire working career. I started as a dishwasher when I was 16 and have held just about every position possible in a restaurant. I think it’s important to understand what it’s actually like to work in a particular position if you hope to give direction and/or motivate people to do a good job in that position. I’ve also built many of my restaurants with my own two hands, often working in a dark room for 6 months trying to make something out of nothing, and working closely with my partners (my wife specifically) to realize our vision. Doing this definitely increases the sense of pride with the finished product.

My current spots: Bin 152, Chez Nous, Malagon, and La Bonbonnette (opening this December in Paris) are all labors of love that manifested from the hard work and collaboration of myself and my partners: Fanny Panella, Jill Mathias, Juan Cassalett, and Chris Kellogg. Restaurants are team sports that require constant attention in order to be successful. Both the staff and the customers can feel if a restaurant has lost its soul. And each restaurant has to be treated differently, in the same way that each customer and each employee has to be treated differently according to their particular needs and wishes.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

The first business I opened was a wine bar in San Francisco called “Hotel Biron” in October of 2001. My business partner and I built it ourselves with a shoestring budget (mostly credit cards) and while working other jobs. We were basically blind squirrels finding an acorn. But somehow it worked and somehow it still exists — for the most part exactly as we envisioned it (although some cosmetic updates and other improvements have followed in the last 20+ years).

Fairly soon after opening the bar, our lives took different turns, and for various reasons we decided to sell it. At first I was happy about it, because the stress of running a business by myself was gone; however, shortly thereafter I regretted the decision. I was 30 when I sold it and I thought I could easily transition back to being an employee for other people and providing value as a former business owner. But the reality was that I was much more suited to being my own boss and making all of the big decisions than taking direction from someone else. After toiling in the world during my “blue period” for about 5 odd years, I was thrilled to get back in the entrepreneurial game and open Bin 152 with my wife, Fanny. After that, I never looked back…

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I’ve never been fortunate enough to have an angel investor. Opening my first bar, my partner and I used about $10k of savings from working as bartenders and servers in other restaurants, and the rest we put on credit cards. The total amount we spent was in the neighborhood of $33k. We accomplished this by doing all of the buildout ourselves and making huge compromises. We also committed to working as the only employees until we were able to pay back all of our credit cards.

The second bar was done with exactly the same blueprint. My wife and I had full time jobs at a bakery. We would get out of work at 5 o’clock, go to the site of the new bar, work until midnight, then go back to work at the bakery at 7 am. We did this for 6 months. Then when the bar opened, we worked every shift from open to close, 6 nights a week until our debt was paid off.

Opening subsequent restaurants was a bit different. We were able to gather the capital ourselves and from another person who knew of our success and work ethic and who was willing to invest in other projects. If I ever decide to move away from the small restaurant concept and open something really grand, I might try and raise money solely from investors and approach it in a more corporate sense, but for now, I enjoy only answering to my active business partners.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cheznouschs.com, www.malagonchs.com, www.bin152.com, www.labonbonnetteparis.com
• Instagram: @cheznouscharleston, @labonbonnetteparis, @bin152winebar, @malagoncharleston