March 28, 2024

From the Third World to Front Street

Feb. 12, 2016
Anthony Craig Is Passionate About Food

Chef Anthony Craig has come a long way from Bluefields, Nicaragua, an isolated, tropical trading village where he began his life. In Bluefields, Craig lived on a dirt floor and watched his father load boats with ice for days-long fishing trips into the Atlantic. In Traverse City, Craig owned a tiny restaurant he wanted to turn into a big one.

HUNDREDS OF LOCATIONS

Craig opened the small-sized Georgina’s in 2013 at 439 East Front Street, a space known for incubating startup restaurants. The Latin-Asian fusion fare, stirred with Craig’s animated customer banter over the food, turned out to be a hit, and he soon looked for more space than his four-table operation could offer.

When the 44-year-old learned a spot across the street from the State Theatre might be available, he jumped on it. He called the building’s owners and made his pitch.

"They were in Florida and I called them. I left a message. I said, "˜Hi. You don’t know me; my name is Anthony Craig.’ I said, "˜I own a little restaurant,’" he said of his effort to take over the one-time location of Phil’s On Front. ""˜I hear Phil’s is closing down.’" After some uncertainty, Craig got the location. Today, Georgina’s – nearly 10 times the size of the original – seems to be thriving.

He opened a second restaurant down the street at Georgina’s original location in January, Elsie’s only to announce a week later that he would close that restaurant so he could focus on opening a Georgina’s in Harbor Springs. He hopes to open a branch of the restaurant in Ann Arbor next year. He says people from all over are asking him to open one in their town.

"I’m going to go pursue my own dream. So, my dream is not to own one Georgina’s and have it here. My dream is to have hundreds of Georgina’s and then go and start hundreds of Italian restaurants," he said.

A FRAUGHT BEGINNING

Craig’s big move to that coveted Front Street location almost didn’t happen. The building’s owners originally said they’d give him the space only before suddenly saying they wouldn’t, he said.

"They called me back and they were like, "˜Listen, we’re sorry. We didn’t really know he [Phil] was closing,’" Craig said. ""˜We didn’t know who you were. We can’t give it to you.’ Because, like, 50 to 100 people had called them wanting this place, and some of them were their friends."

Craig said he was crushed. "I went from a high to a low where I was, like, cursing God," he said. "I was bummed. I was just bummed."

He asked a friend, real estate agent Jack Lane, who rented a space from the owners, to intercede on his behalf.

Weeks passed and Craig said he was despondent over the possibility he had lost the location. He said the owners of the Front Street building and their wives came to his restaurant to check it out and he didn’t realize who they were. He said he was so depressed that he failed to deploy his charismatic restaurant owner banter with them when he served them a complimentary plate of flan. Nonetheless, he said, the owners were impressed.

The lobbying and Georgina’s reputation helped him break through, Craig said. He said the owners told him when he signed the lease that they’d run into someone in Florida who knew Traverse City and who mentioned Georgina’s in particular.

AN EXPLANATION OF SUCCESS

Craig said cooking is in his blood. In Bluefields, he grew up with a Cuban dad and a mom who is part Chinese and part Nicaraguan. He moved to Tampa at age 7 with his mother and stepfather and he became friends with an Italian family who ran a restaurant.

He said he owes his success to that background and the fact that he was passed down a cooking "gift."

"The gift that people have given me through cooking, it has nothing to do with me, you know?" Craig said. "Everything that everyone taught me about cooking and sharing that experience with them, it just so happens I am the person that carries that, to bring it to you."

A complex blanket of aroma confronts you when you walk into Georgina’s – there’s something Mexican and something Asian. Craig said it’s made up of all the marinades that cook around-the-clock in his kitchen: flavors of Cuba, Nicaragua, Asia. There’s hoisin, ginger, garlic and basil. There’s some starch there, too.

Craig believes he brings an essence of the Third World to Front Street.

"I’m always still a kid from a third worldcountry and I tell everybody, even though my sister was going to school in Costa Rica. We had a car, but still, when you see somebody with dirt floors and the roof is tin and we have to boil water to get it upstairs"¦," he said. "You don’t forget things like that, when you see your mom kill a chicken. I always look around and I am in awe. I am blessed."

ADVENTURES IN CORPORATE COOKING

It was a long road from cooking with his mother to owning his own restaurant. Craig said he spent his formative years at a Macaroni Grill in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"My dream was to be the executive chef of a corporate chain because I thought I could do it better than them. I was like, man, I would see the executive chefs’ recipes and I could fix them," Craig said. "I knew where they were wrong, like, where they made no sense, and that’s where I knew my talent was evolving."

He said he learned that national chain restaurants did not foster creativity from the chefs working their way up. Not at liberty to change recipes, Craig said he used his time there to learn as much as he could and experiment while he had access to so many ingredients.

"I would be there and I would learn at their cost, you know? And I was like, "˜My way is right,’" he said. "So, at that point in time I was evolving. Even though they didn’t give you the freedom, I was evolving. And I was like, "˜Wow, my talent is growing.’" Craig said that, at some point, he realized the job was a dead end because of politics in the company.

"That’s when I realized," he said. "I said, "˜I can do this better. I know I can.’"

A MOVE NORTH

He got a chance for a fresh start when a friend married a woman from northern Michigan and offered to help Craig get a job at the Village Inn in Suttons Bay. He moved in 2003.

"So I came here because Scott goes, "˜You can take over this little kitchen that I have; you already know all that corporate stuff, you can start building in your mind and recipes and how to start doing all of those things,’" Craig said.

He wasn’t at the Village Inn for long.

"And then I remember, like six months later, everyone used to talk about this restaurant [in Traverse City] "¦ and how it was the best restaurant in the world and I remember, I went and ate there, and I was like, I said, "˜Are you guys serious?’" Craig said. "I said, "˜You guys think this is the best restaurant in the world?’ I said, "˜Have you guys left this town before?’’’ Craig said he soon took a job at the restaurant and redesigned their menu. He claims he doubled the restaurant’s revenue, but instead of getting credit for that, he said he was fired.

"They told me that he was the reason that they were successful, not me, and he just came in one day and fired me," Craig said. "He’s like, "˜I’m the one that’s made this place happen.’" He said the incident convinced him to start saving money so he could open his own place.

ON TO THE NEXT THING

It’s a time of upheaval at Georgina’s. Craig said now that he’s turned his attention to a venture in Harbor Springs, he is not sure how long he will keep Elsie’s in business even though it just opened.

Though fans of Georgina’s may be disappointed, it could be good news for an aspiring restaurateur looking for a break.

The location has incubated numerous restaurants in addition to Georgina’s that have gone on to success elsewhere, including The Cook’s House, 9 Bean Rows, and Patisserie Amie.

Craig said he hadn’t given a lot of thought over who will be the next tenant at 438 E. Front.

Meanwhile, he is moving forward in Harbor Springs with a restaurant that will carry the Georgina’s name but will not look anything like the current Traverse City location.

That’s because, just as in TC, he plans to use the character of the building to determine the space’s design.

In Harbor Springs, the space is the former home Juilleret’s, a family-style diner that operated for 112 years before it closed a couple years ago. Craig said he planned to keep a lot of the tile from the original to honor the history of the building.

"I don’t want to create the coolest restaurant in the world, I want to create something that you can come and your emotions are comforted," he said.

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