Some food for thought at the Atlantic Place
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Back in May, one of the Independent's more loyal readers sent me an email request for this column.
"A group of senior center (Adult Community Center) members visited the Atlantic Place for a tour and taste event. It would be of interest to others, I think, to learn more about the new owner and chef and featured menu items... The owner also shared his culinary experiences," the reader wrote.
It took me awhile, but I finally caught up with Atlantic Place executive chef and owner Ronnie Walker this week. And I agree with the reader, learning more about the Atlantic Place would be of interest.
The Independent's only article on the restaurant located inside the former Atlantic Hotel building at Main and West College was published in 2022 before it actually opened. Walker had just taken over the location right after Bello Cucina restaurant closed and he was in the middle of a renovation project.
“I want to keep it approachable to everyone in the community,” Walker was quoted in the article. “I want everyone to feel like they’re welcome.”
In the article, Walker explained he wanted to have a chef-driven menu, with food made from scratch. Which made sense, because as the article stated, Walker is a former instructor at the culinology and hospitality management programs at Southwest Minnesota State University. He created Taste, which is the student-operated restaurant at SMSU.
The sit-down interview with Walker this week was my first ever meeting with him. His southern accent was a good conversation starter. He's from North Carolina and that's where his love for food started.
"Ever since (I was) 15, I had a job washing dishes at a seafood restaurant," Walker said. "Every couple summers here and there, I ventured out, did other jobs, but I always fell back into the kitchen... I love the adrenaline rush."
But he said the job entailed more than washing dishes.
"Peeling all the onions, grinding all the onions. Peeling the shrimp. ... I was hot stuff doing the fryer until you start cranking on that machine and then splatted a grease on you. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, though," he said. "I worked my way, just different places. Worked from hole in the walls to nice country clubs to really high-end places. You always learn something from everywhere, right? Like what not to do and what you really want to go toward and what you want to do."
Life, however, took him out of the south and into farming in Cottonwood, Minnesota.
It took a year, but Walker said the farming venture didn't work out for him, but doesn't regret the experience. And he explained how that experience actually benefited him in his next ventures.
"Holy cow. I learned so much. I met so many people. Some of those people actually, I mean, they’re great customers now," he said. "Just seeing how stuff is grown. Just learning the truth about, I hate to say the word, GMO, but you learn about that. Learn about how just the whole cycle of a plant, and you appreciate it more. We have a huge garden out there in (Cottonwood) now, and it’s like in summertime, it’s a love-hate relationship because I got so much to do here, then I got to go out to Cottonwood and do so much and help.
"It’s just fun. Dirt on food, to be honest. Weird. I mean, some of the kitchen staff hate it when we get deliveries or come in on Tuesday after a long weekend that I’ve been picking because all that stuff we got to wash and clean, rather than buying off a truck and it’s already clean. But I enjoy that. It’s just seeing it from seed to growing over your head from corn, just picking it."
Once he realized farming wasn't going work out for him, he moved on to teaching in the Department of Agriculture, Culinology and Hospitality at Southwest Minnesota State University.
"I loved that and I’m not a big public speaker by no means," Walker said. "I still remember our first day. I was so nervous, but it was just man, it was just seeing the students from day one, and then when they graduate, it’s so rewarding. I mean, like I said, I’m not being fake at all, just cliches, just the growth of them. I mean, even if they’re a pain in the rear sometimes. I don’t have kids myself, so just seeing them grow and that was the coolest thing ever."
Walker said he continues to keep in contact with some of his students.
"Just seeing where some of them are now is so cool. It’s like we had this one student just graduated, and he’s got his own business now -- Spice Company. And it’s just awesome what he does. I just bought a bunch of his spices recently," he said.
Listening to Walker talk about how he works with his kitchen staff to prepare different kinds of menu items convinced me that working with food in the south, the farming and teaching experiences all ended up being successful combinations that led to running Atlantic Place.
"You just appreciate everything more," he said. "You don't throw anything -- from the stem to the seed to just whatever. I hopefully pass that on to other generations. I think a lot of people do appreciate it, and just try to utilize every little thing. The pepper leaves and stuff like that. Instead of just tossing, just using pepper. We use the whole plant, like the leaves. We can make pesto out of it. We can saute it in greens -- mix it in."
He enjoys teaching his kitchen staff.
"It's like when we got a bunch of the duck in here. So they’re going to be learning how to butcher duck here pretty soon, how to break it down. We used to race. We used to get cases of chicken from Ralco at the farm there, and we used to race -- not race -- but half a competition. How fast we could break it down. So I remember this young -- she was 15 or 16 year old -- young girl. She came in and started working part time. Man, she crushed us all. Just how quick she was, I mean, it was so precise. It wasn’t just jaggedy cuts and stuff. So we have fun with it too. Bringing in whole lamb, whole goats, chicken. I mean, I mean it’s fun. Just their eyes lighten up,” he said.
Sometimes his passion to teach includes young customers.
"It's fun when people go to the restroom because they walk out of the passway, and that’s the open kitchen there," he said. "Or just just even the kids just looking at the pizza oven. One kid last weekend, she was too short. She was jumping up and down, just trying to look into the pizza oven back there. ... Hey, you want to make a pizza? ... I got a couple buckets and this big board, and they can stand on and make their own pizza. I can’t always do that. I don’t advertise that. But when I can, I can. I like to do that just to show them how fun it is to use your hands and touch that pizza dough."
I asked him what led to him jumping into restaurant ownership in Marshall, specifically at the Atlantic building.
"We got approached by the landlords, and just one thing after another. It’s just good timing. I always wanted to have a restaurant of my own," he said. "I did a ton of research because some of these pictures we had -- I think from the museum. Actually, they helped us out quite a bit. Just getting them blown up to the right size, not too big."
He didn't want a lot of color, just keep it simple.
"Let’s just keep it black and white. Kind of showcase Marshall too. Just what it was with the building. It’s like I really want to do like an anniversary -- like 100-year anniversary -- because like on that cornerstone, it’s 1926 out there. It’s like 100 years this year. So I’d like to throw a like a supper club theme, dinner somehow, whenever I find time,” he said.
He also teaches the keep it simple strategy in the kitchen.
"We always use KISS. It stands for keep it simple, stupid, and that’s what I wanted. Just you see the black and the white. There’s nothing that screams loud to you in here. Clean, simple. I like that whole speakeasy vibe. Nothing too out of this ordinary," he said.
But if you want something out of the ordinary?
"You can get there if you want it, but just request it. We do it sometimes," he said.
Otherwise, he just wants his restaurant to be known for "good comfort food and a place to get together."
I did ask him of any unique dish comes to mind that he tried to serve in the restaurant.
"I'd say putting my own spin on the Midwest -- what you guys enjoy. Put my own spin on Tater Tot hot dish, smelt fries or smelt. We turned them into smelt fries when we opened. That was a hit or miss too," he said. "I didn't even know what smelt was until I did my homework. It's just little fish. So we actually battered them and friend them and called them smelt fries."
And then something that flopped?
"That happens every day. There's so many things on the menu that you just have to tweak," he said
He explained when picanha was on the menu, but customers didn't know what it was or able to pronounce the word.
"We just had to change the verbiage," he said. "Steak and potato."
As for the future, Walker wants his restaurant venture to keep growing, especially with the catering aspect.
"It’s really hard. I mean, there's not a ton of profit in the actual restaurant itself ... But restaurants can make it, of course. I mean, you got to have every seat filled every night. So that’s the hardest part,” he said.
Walker remembers the group from the Adult Community Center.
"We had them -- I think it was Cinco de Mayo last year," he said. "We had them come in. We fed them a small three-course meal."
He also recalls asking them why some of them never been to the Atlantic Place before their visit. He recalls them saying, "We didn't know you were here."
"How do I fix that?" He asked.
He now advertises in the Adult Community Center bulletin.
"Actually hired one of them," he also said. "She's very part time. She helps me with the catering. So that was a very useful event that we had. I learned a lot."
Not only did he get a staff member, but now some of those visitors are regular customers.
"It was just figuring out how do I reach out to them. Because you think everyone knows you. You're in a small town, right? But there's so many people that, 'oh, I've never been there,'" he said.
I really enjoyed talking with Chef Walker. He gave me so much material, there was just no way I could fit all in this column.
"I just enjoy talking about food," Walker told me.
And I enjoyed listing to all of it.