by Garrick Moritz, Editor
New Year’s Day was a big day for O So Good and Garretson in general as the restaurant was featured on Diners Drive Ins & Dives on the Food Network. We talked with owner and star chef Omar Thornton on the Monday after the weekend rush at his restaurant.
“I’ve still got goosebumps on my goosebumps,” he said. “Oh man! Garretson is now a part of Flavortown, USA! Me and Renee made the call to be open that Friday night as usual. We have three big TV’s now at O’s and we had them all on the Food Network and turned up full blast, but you could still barely hear it with all the cheering and laughing and clapping going on. We were full, we were so busy! Lots of celebrating that night and we were 100 percent full. Saturday we were open for lunch and dinner we were 100 percent full all day. Sunday lunch, usually a little slower, was ninety percent full.”
“We did take a few walk ins, but I told people that unless you have a reservation, we can’t
guarantee you a seat. We did have folks who waited over an hour and a half to get seated, and we had to turn some away. I didn’t want to do that, I never want to do that, but that’s the reality. Only thing I can do is ask for patience, and please come see us again. As for the amazing number of customers we did serve, well we made a lot of new friends and got to know a lot more families that we’ re going to love to see again.”
“We sold out of our cornbread, and we’ d made more than usual because we knew there would be a response, but I don’t think we truly understood how much of a response that would be until it dropped right into our laps. So, we made double, triple, quadruple the amount we normally make going into the weekend. Our staff was going at 130 miles per hour. I’ m proud of them, and they held it together, but they are tired out. I told them that right now, this is 100 percent hype. Things will calm down again, but if we can do what we’ve done and impress this influx of new customers, then we’ ll have repeat business we can bank on. We’ve still got the worst of this winter’s weather to get through and the pandemic is still going on, so we’ve got those things to worry about. We were already talking about hiring new positions, before the episode aired and now for sure we need to be hiring and training some new people, and that’s something we will most certainly be doing going forward.”
The Triple D TV filming and interview is literally a dream come true for Omar Thornton. Guy Fieri is truly one of his heroes, and one of the reasons that he was inspired to open his own restaurant in the first place.
“Chops and the Triple D are two of my favorite TV shows period,” Thornton said.
Continued on Part 2 - mailed subscriber or higher level account required to view
