The South’s Hospitality Blueprint: Grit, Gratitude, and Giving Back
How one chef’s journey reveals the heart of Southern dining, community, and purpose and the dishes you cannot miss along the way.
A Childhood Built Around the Table
Some people grow up around sports. Others grow up around business. Chris grew up around the dinner table. Every meal mattered. Every moment together counted. Food was not a luxury. It was the language his family spoke.
He remembers helping his grandmother tip beans, frying chicken, picking berries in the summer, and eating tomato sandwiches over the sink because they were too juicy to handle. He remembers the first time he was lifted into a restaurant kitchen to watch the action. Even as a child, he understood that food was more than sustenance. It was connection.
Those early years shaped everything that followed. Food became his way of showing care. Hospitality became a calling.
The Kitchens That Forged Him
Chris’s culinary education was not gentle.
Lebec Fin in Philadelphia was fierce, traditional, and exacting. Canoe in Atlanta was fast, creative, and filled with talent that would go on to set the tone for Southern dining for years.
Those kitchens taught him pacing, timing, leadership, and humility. He describes restaurants as a live performance every night. No script. No safety net. Just heat, trust, and timing.
They also taught him brotherhood. Kitchens are families you choose. The bonds formed on the line last decades.
The Leap Into Ownership
His partnership with Todd Mussman and Ryan Turner did not begin as a business plan. It started the way most great Southern collaborations do around a table, over good food, with honest conversations.
Together they built Muss & Turners, Eleanor’s, Local Three, MTH Pizza, Roshambo, and more.
Together they survived the Great Recession because vendors believed in them and the community refused to let them fail.
Together they took risks most people would avoid.
Chris describes the turning point clearly. He did not want to wake up at 60 and wonder what if. So he bet on himself.
And the restaurants they built have become Atlanta staples. If you want to taste your way through the story, here is what Chris says you cannot miss.
Muss & Turners
The Gobbler which is Thanksgiving on a bun with turkey, stuffing, lingonberry coulis, and lemon thyme mayo
The Reason to Reuben which Chris calls the best in town
The Swifty’s Dream pulled pork sandwich with bacon and cole slaw, “because you can’t have too much swine.”
At Eleanor’s next door, order the Brown Thrasher cocktail: “Order one, then order another…continue until the Uber comes to get you,” he says.
MTH Pizza
The hell boy if you like heat
The margherita which is simple, classic, and perfect
The Gordo’s Motor City Big Sexy Detroit style pepperoni (Chris's kitchen nickname)
“The wings are really good. Don’t sleep on the wings.”
Local Three
The Truffle Parmesan Popcorn which has been on the menu since day one
The McDowell Burger which is their Coming to America homage
The bourbon selection which has more than 900 bottles including many private barrels
Prime Rib Saturday
Three Guys Burger Sundays (cease & desist order pending)
Roshambo
The Bucket of Fried Chicken (aka “The Party Barrel”): “my favorite thing on the menu,” he says.
Pair it with champagne for the ultimate high and low moment
These dishes are more than menu items. They are expressions of the team's philosophy that food should be intentional, playful, and rooted in memory.
How Unsukay Got Its Name
Every great restaurant group needs a name. Most people assume Unsukay has a cultural meaning or some deep culinary origin. It does not.
It started as a joke.
Back in the early days at Muss & Turners, their first chef de cuisine, David Sturgis, had a habit. When someone asked him how a dish tasted, he would shrug and say, It does not suck. It is unsukay.
The team jokingly called it Anglo Japanese for does not suck, and the phrase stuck.
So when Chris, Todd, and Ryan formed their partnership, they approached the name the same way they approach their restaurants. Take the work seriously, but never take yourself too seriously.
Unsukay became a philosophy as much as a label.
It meant great food without pretense.
Craftsmanship without ego.
Excellence without stuffiness.
A reminder that hospitality should feel welcoming, human, and fun.
When Tragedy Became Purpose
The Giving Kitchen did not begin as a strategy. It began around a dining room table when their chef and friend, Ryan Hidinger, was diagnosed with stage four cancer and given months to live.
Team Hidi raised more than $270,000 in weeks. After the event the calls started coming. Cooks, servers, bartenders, dishwashers all facing crises with no safety net.
The founders realized they had the ability and the responsibility to help more families. With guidance from attorney Michelle Stumpe, they launched Giving Kitchen. What began as an act of love became a national nonprofit that has helped more than 30,000 hospitality workers with financial assistance and crisis resources.
Chris says it best, “You shouldn’t have to choose between feeding your child and paying for an Uber to get to your chemo.”
Giving Kitchen is now a legacy bigger than any restaurant.
Creating Spaces That Bring People Together
Warhorse and Seahorse were born from a few simple questions.
What if a private dining club could be curated without being pretentious?
What if people could walk in, lose track of time, and feel a sense of belonging?
They built environments where meticulous design meets irreverent personality. Oil paintings and speakeasy doors. Whiskey buttons and hidden rooms. Hospitality at its most playful and intentional.
The goal is not exclusivity. The goal is community. A place where people feel known, welcomed, and well fed.
The Heart of Southern Dining
For Chris, Southern dining is defined by people more than ingredients.
Dining in the South is collegial and collaborative. A rising tide really does lift all boats.
He dreams of someday opening a true meat and three or a yin yang Italian restaurant with both Jersey style and traditional Italian cooking. But no matter the concept, the purpose never changes.
Food is the vehicle. Human connection is the destination.
His final encouragement is simple.
Eat local. Support independent restaurants. Celebrate the people who cook for you, serve you, greet you, and care for you.
Because without them, the South loses its flavor.
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