Customshop Handcrafted Food is chef Trey Wilson’s first restaurant. Kristen Wile/UP

Chef Trey Wilson opened Customshop on Elizabeth Avenue in March 2007. The restaurant, which serves European-inspired fare in a sultry trattoria setting, became a fixture in an area that has never been a hotspot like South End or Plaza Midwood. Wilson likes it that way. “We want to do the outskirts,” he says, and build enduring concepts with a strong neighborhood feel. He attributes the success of Customshop and its sister restaurant, Flour Shop, to the sense of community that he has deliberately cultivated among his staff. The supportive work environment and longevity of many key staff members helped the businesses weather the pandemic — and make plans to grow.

Wilson launched the Art and Commerce Food Group with business partners Andres Kaifer and Steven De Falco this year, and the group has developed two concepts slated to open in early 2023. In Wesley Heights, the 3,000-square-foot Pizza Baby will serve eight to 10 varieties of New York-style pizza, along with salads, local beer, and largely Italian wines. During COVID, Wilson had pivoted to pizza as a takeout friendly option. “And we crushed it,” he says — then quickly clarifies, “As much as you possibly could. I paid my staff and we stayed afloat.” Pizza Baby will build on that success.

And next to Customshop, the group will open a wine bar called The Girl Next Door. The women-driven concept will be led by several of Wilson’s longtime staff and provide a tonal contrast to Customshop, which Wilson describes as “very masculine.”

Here’s what a day in his life looks like.

6 a.m. “I have a 4-year-old and I have a 2-year-old,” Wilson says. “So I get up and make their breakfast.” He doesn’t join them: “I fast till like 2 or 3 every day.” He calls himself “somewhat of a health nut” and often starts the day with an infrared sauna at home.

9:30 a.m. On weekdays, Wilson hosts a workout designed by local trainer Emily Breeze. His staff are invited to meet him at a park or on the expansive Flour Shop patio for a 30-minute session of CrossFit-style interval training. The workouts exemplify Wilson’s managerial ethos, which prioritizes staff camaraderie and well-being. He attributes his success during the pandemic and overall staff retention to the family atmosphere he’s built through a longtime commitment to staff welfare and forward-thinking policies. They have Sundays and holidays off, and no one works more than 45 hours a week. (The restaurant family is literal in a couple of cases: Wilson’s sons Jacob, 19, and Nick, 25, both work at Flour Shop.) After the workout, the staff opens up shop and begins making bread and pasta.

11 a.m. Wilson loves being in the kitchen, but the new food group and forthcoming restaurants often keep him busy elsewhere. He focuses part of the day on administration and menu planning, and regularly coordinates with his business partners. The restaurant group is a new approach for Wilson, who ran Customshop and Flour Shop independently until this year. “It was really spreading me thin, really fast,” he says. “And it was cutting into my family time, so I said, ‘I just can’t do it and keep expanding.’” As he worked on opening a third restaurant, he realized he needed operating partners. Already, Wilson says, they’ve made a “big difference.”

12 p.m. Throughout the day, Wilson fields calls from contractors. “Pizza Baby is moving really fast,” he says. “The landlord — Browder Group — is working on the demo right now, and then I’ll have a permit in mid-September to do our work.” Wilson is targeting a February or March opening. Meanwhile, the wine bar is in the earliest stages of demolition, but Wilson tentatively predicts a January opening.

Wilson didn’t intend to be working on two new concepts at once. Pizza Baby had been in the works for a while when Wilson and his family chanced into Undercurrent Coffee at Optimist Hall, one of his standbys. He was wearing a Flour Shop T-shirt and “this guy came up and started talking to me.” The pair hit it off, and Wilson learned that the man’s background was in bakeries, including Sullivan Street Bakery in New York City. The man was Steven De Falco, and Wilson later brought him on as an operating partner for Pizza Baby. De Falco then introduced Wilson to Kaifer, a chef with experience in fine dining, who went on to buy into Customshop. “So then the space next door opened up,” Wilson says. “I saw the neighbors had left, and I just made a couple of phone calls and I say, ‘Well, I’d love to have that spot for a little wine shop next door.’”

2 p.m. In the midafternoon, Wilson eats his first meal of the day, typically at a restaurant but sometimes at home. “Yesterday,” he says, “we went to Flower Child.” He says it can be a challenge to balance staying healthy with eating out, “but there’s a few places around that offer what I like to eat.” Wilson clarifies that his diet isn’t always so clean: “I’ll go to Shake Shack every blue moon.”

5 p.m. “We have lineup at 4:45, so we will do a couple of dishes for the staff to go over,” Wilson says. “We change the menu a lot, at least once a week, so we’ll have to go over that with the staff.” Wilson’s sous chef works Monday through Friday from nine to five, “so him and I’ll do the whole transition thing and I’ll take over pastas and whatnot.” Part of the appeal of Flour Shop is the open kitchen, where diners can watch staff bake bread and shape pasta, so, Wilson says, “I try to hold off until I can do it in front of customers, especially on the weekends.”

7 p.m. Wilson heads home to Seversville, where he moved from Plaza Midwood about four years ago, in time for bedtime with Adrienne, 4, and Banks, 2. “Banks fights it,” Wilson says, “and he’ll hang out until around 9 o’clock, until we just have to force him to go to bed.” Wilson doesn’t stay up much longer. He talks over the day with his wife, Sandra, who designs the restaurants and manages much of their administration. The couple has two dogs and two chickens: Lola, Karen, Karen, and Karen. Sometimes, they watch TV. With his food group established and partners that help keep the restaurants running smoothly, Wilson can kick back and enjoy some newfound time with family.

More in this series

Sam Diminich of Your Farms, Your Table
NoDa Brewing’s Chad Henderson
Bruce Moffett of Moffett Restaurant Group
Alyssa Wilen of Chef Alyssa’s Kitchen
What the Fries’ Jamie Barnes and Greg Williams
Kindred’s Katy Kindred
Freshlist’s Jesse Leadbetter
300 East’s Ashley Boyd
Aria and Cicchetti’s Pierre Bader