Chef Patrick Healy spent his childhood cooking with his grandmother, culinary teacher to Jackie Kennedy, and having dinner with her friend Julia Child– casual.
Situated in Santa Monica, The Buffalo Club, one of L.A.’s most iconic restaurants, has sustained its presence over two decades, and counting, since its inception in 1994. The upscale New American cuisine with French influences was amongst the first in L.A. to launch as a prohibition era supper club before it became a culture fad. Today, the restaurant is 23-years in the business and obtaining its legacy is no easy fete. But, when you have award-winning executive chefs like Patrick Healy, only then is it possible thought there’s more to it than infectious recipes and swanky libations. Healy, also a managing partner of The Buffalo Club, shares exclusively with CARRA what exactly has garnered the restaurant much success and his reigning tenure in the kitchen.
Why cooking of all professions? What and why did you connect?
I was exposed at a very young age to the pleasures of fine dining. My grandmother, who had a cooking school in Palm Beach, Florida played a critical role in my decision to pursue a career as a chef. She had many well known students, none more than Jackie Kennedy, and she taught them all a love for French cooking. At an early age, not more than 7, she would have my sister and I competing in her kitchen doing crepe flipping contests.
“We dined often at the Moulin de Mougins with Julia Child, a close family friend, and it was there that I had an epiphany.”
She covered the floors with newspapers which is where most of them ended up. My grandmother would spend her summers in the south of France and on one of my trips to see her, at the age of 18, I was exposed to some of France’s greatest chefs. We dined often at the Moulin de Mougins with Julia Child, a close family friend, and it was there that I had an epiphany. As I watched Roger Verge, the chef, go from table to table, greeting and talking with his guests, I knew then that the restaurant business was for me.
Tell me about how you ended up working at The Buffalo Club.
A friend of Tony Yerkovich, the principle owner of the club, found me through a mutual friend, Shep Gordon, Alice Cooper’s manager. I came on board a year before we opened and later became managing partner and executive chef.
What was the state of The Buffalo Club like when you first arrived?
Everything was still under construction and tableware/wine list/bar program/ menu had not been chosen. I fell in charge of these areas amongst others.
What does it take to sustain a 23-year-old restaurant in a contemporary world where supper club type-of-restaurants are very rare these days?
Most fine dining restaurants are lucky to last 5-years. I believe our success is mostly due to our staying the course with a classic formula— serving only high-end items in a traditional, timeless manner while not bending or kowtowing to every new fad and whim. Customers knew what to expect and we delivered with very high standards and in a consistent manner year after year.
Was the intention always to go into the hospitality business as a chef and becoming managing partner?
Thanks to my many cooking experiences with my grandmother in my youth, I knew cooking is what I wanted to do. After opening my first restaurant, Champagne, and establishing myself as a chef/owner, I wanted to undertake other challenges within the fine dining business, including all aspects of the front of the house. This included everything from accounting work to public relations, marketing and building an excellent wine list.
Most people don’t realize, I feel like anyways, that an elevated type of creativity is needed for a Chef. You’re literally marketing to people’s taste buds, sight, and scent sensors, and are relying on that alone in hopes that they come back. How have you not only developed but managed to sustain your taste and visual aesthetics (plating presentation) over the past years?
To be a good chef, you must first love to eat and have an open and adventurous outlook on food. Paying close attention to customer feedback is critical as well. Many chefs don’t want to hear any criticism of their work and as a result aren’t often receptive to customer feedback, which may be the single most important part of a restaurant’s success. If a plate comes back unfinished, the server should ask the customer if everything was to their liking. If a customer complains, their complaint should always be relayed to the chef and front of the house management. Unfortunately, most customers don’t say anything when they’re unhappy, they simply don’t come back.
Tell me about the setting at The Buffalo Club. What is the takeaway for people dining at your restaurant?
The Buffalo Club has a classic, retro-speakeasy feel. The original dining area, The Iroquois Room, is designed much like an elegant, turn-of-the-century chop house you might find in New York City. Customers love the sumptuous leather booths, mahogany paneling and classic music from Sinatra to the Stones.
What’s one thing you know now as a chef and businessman that you didn’t know 10-years ago?
I have grown to appreciate what a nuts and bolts business fine-dining is. Every penny spent needs to be spent wisely and accounted for. Profit margins are slim and management oversight is critical to your success.
Why do we as a society crave to dine out and what are we really searching to find or experience?
In a time when it’s easily to order from an app or monthly food subscription, do you think that dining-out or the idea of restaurants can one day become obsolete?
Many foods simply don’t translate to being put in a box and transported to a different location. While food apps and subscriptions can be fun, they cannot replace the experience of dining in a great setting with impeccable table service and a varied menu with items prepared and plated at the moment a customer orders their dinner.
Career-wise, what do you want to accomplish before you retire…if/when that happens. Will you retire one day?
What’s the best advice your grandmother has given you?
Is she proud that her grandson went from crepe filling contests in her kitchen to managing partner and chef? Did she/has she tasted your food? What is/was her critique?
She was very proud and loved my food but never held back, even well into her nineties, if she felt something wasn’t right.
Photo Credit: The Buffalo Club, Pinterest, The Buffalo Club Facebook
