meez podcast

Chef Opie Crooks on Building a Hospitality Group and Preparing for Fatherhood

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About this episode

#78. In this episode of The meez Podcast, host Josh Sharkey sits down with Chef Opie Crooks, a culinary talent and soon-to-be dad. Josh shares the story of how he first met Opie at an event in Washington, D.C., where Opie's graciousness and exceptional cooking left a lasting impression. Now based in Savannah, Georgia, Opie oversees culinary operations for FARM Hospitality Group, managing multiple concepts with his characteristic warmth and expertise.

Recorded from the quietest spot Opie could find—a car, away from the restaurant’s generators—this conversation offers an insightful look into the challenges and rewards of growing a hospitality group. Opie discusses his role as a culinary director, emphasizing the importance of supporting and nurturing the chefs he works with, ensuring their success and innovation.

Join Josh and Opie as they catch up on life, leadership, and the journey that has brought Opie to this exciting moment, just before he embarks on the new adventure of fatherhood. Congratulations, Opie!

Where to find Opie Crooks:

Where to find host Josh Sharkey:

What We Cover

(03:45): Opie's background

(05:19): Culinary community in Savannah

‍(12:56): All about FARM Hospitality Group

(19:38): How Opie and his team continue to learn

(25:11): The value of culinary consistency

(31:50): How Opie and his wife Annie are preparing for their first child

Transcript

[00:00:00] Josh Sharkey:

You're listening to Season 2 of The meez Podcast. I'm your host Josh Sharkey, the founder and CEO of meez, a culinary operating system for food professionals. On the show, we're going to talk to high performers in the food business, everything from chefs to CEOs, technologists, writers, investors, and more about how they innovate and operate and how they consistently execute at a high level.

[00:00:24]

And I would really love it if you could drop us a five star review anywhere that you listen to your podcast. That could be Apple, that could be Spotify, could be Google. I'm not picky, anywhere works, but I really appreciate the support. And as always, I hope you enjoy the show. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, today's guest, if I time this right, is literally having a baby this week.

[00:00:50]

We're trying to time it so that he can listen to this episode and maybe watch it before he was a dad and then after. This is chef Opie Crooks and he's one of the nicest people you'll meet. You know, the first time that I met Opie, we were doing an event. in DC at the lion hotel and I was sponsoring a breakfast and he was cooking it and first of all his food was delicious but he was hosting a bunch of incredible chefs from around the country for this event and he couldn't have been more gracious with his kitchen with his space with his time and right away i was like man this is just such a just a class act kind of person He has since moved down south to Savannah, Georgia and he is overseeing culinary for a hospitality group called FARM Hospitality Group.

[00:01:38]

They have a number of really great concepts and well, you know, we did spend some time just kind of generally catching up. Funny enough, he was in his car for this conversation because, well, you know, what it's like running a restaurant and finding space for some quiet that doesn't have generators and condensers running.

[00:01:58]

So I was appreciative of that. And anyway, we just had a good time catching up. We talked a lot about what it's like growing a hospitality group and becoming the culinary director and starting to sort of manage all of these chefs and making sure that the metric of success for yourself is high. how successful and happy and productive and innovative the chefs that work with you are.

[00:02:17]

So it was great to hear his story and just sort of his trajectory of how he's gotten to where he is. I think you'll just enjoy, of course, relating to that. And I'm just really grateful to have had the time with Opie before he became a dad because he'll probably not have a lot of time for the next few months.

[00:02:33]

Anyways, thanks Opie. Congratulations. And I hope that everybody here enjoys this episode as much as I did. Good to see you, man. What are you up to today?

[00:02:49] Opie Crooks:

Today, I'm over at our new bakery slash supper club Flora and Fauna. Got here in the morning, checked in on breakfast, had a meeting with Jeff Brandon, who's the, uh, owner, founder of the group that I'm a partner in. Had a quick catch up and now I'm talking to you and then I'll be working service tonight and we're going to knock it out.

[00:03:09]

And then all of our restaurants are closed for the 4th of July. Oh, that's super nice. And everybody's looking forward to a little reprieve. So

[00:03:16] Josh Sharkey:

Nice, man. Well, I do have a bunch of questions about FARM Hospitality group because we couldn't find a ton of information on it, but I'm going to ask you a bunch about that, but you know, just because we've met in person a few times and chatted a bunch, I just want this opportunity selfishly to just learn more about your background.

[00:03:33]

I know like your cooking background, because you can just Google that and find where you worked for spike for a long time. Who's that for like Like, how did you, how did you get into all this? Like, I don't know any of that.

[00:03:45] Opie Crooks:

Yeah, I, I grew up in Nashville, started working in restaurants when I was a kid and, and fell in love with it.

[00:03:51]

And, you know, I realized that the, uh, chances of me playing professional sports were, uh, few and far between. So it was like, I took that same kind of tenacity that I had for sports and translated in the kitchen and, you know, just started trying to work at the best places that I could and, you know, the rest is kind of history, you know, just head down and, you know, honing the craft is kind of what I was always chasing and just trying to do. I was a big baseball player.

[00:04:22] Josh Sharkey:

Gotcha.

[00:04:23] Opie Crooks:

Still play? No, I've never, I don't even really watch it except for the Savannah Bananas. You know, what's that? So the Savannah Bananas is the local baseball team. It's more of a show than it is baseball. Now they have their own, like they call it banana ball, but there's like lots of singing and dancing and it's like a real showmanship situation.

[00:04:47]

It's pretty amazing to watch.

[00:04:50] Josh Sharkey:

It sounds kind of likethe Harlem Globetrotters of Savannah. Exactly.

[00:04:52] Opie Crooks:

It's the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. Exactly. Exactly. You know, like people will do like trick plays, like they'll hit a ball to the outfield and the guy will do a backflip before he catches it.

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