Justin Burke-Samson, former pastry chef and manager at Kindred and Hello, Sailor. Photo by Blake Pope.

Justin Burke-Samson, who was part of the Kindred and Hello, Sailor management team as well as the restaurants’ pastry chef, worked his last shift at the restaurant this past weekend. Samson’s signature desserts are whimsical takes on classics; you’ll find cobblers in cast iron or cinnamon buns made with Kindred’s signature milkbread.

Burke-Samson began working at Kindred when it opened three years ago, and says that owners Joe and Katy Kindred knew of and supported his aspirations to open his own restaurant someday. The husband-and-wife owners of Kindred and Hello, Sailor had Burke-Samson working in the kitchen and interacting with diners, helping him learn and experience the many facets of owning a restaurant.

“These past three years I like to refer to as restaurant boot camp,” Burke-Samson says, “absorbing as much as I possibly could, both in front-of-house and back-of-house.”

The news that Burke-Samson and his husband were expecting their first child helped put the transition to entrepreneurship on a timeline. With a son due on Christmas day, one of them needed to have the flexibility to stay home with their baby. In self-employment, Burke-Samson will shift his focus to writing and doing recipe development, something he often got requests for but couldn’t fit into his work schedule. He also plans on exploring a cookbook, which would focus on his food memories as child in California. And in a year or two, he hopes to have his own brick-and-mortar restaurant.

“The next six months to 12 months is going to be a lot of writing, a lot of recipe development, a lot of working with other publications and at the same time working on my first project,” he says. “But I need the time to be off to recover and rest and really put my mind in a space where I can actually thoughtfully think about what I want to do and work out all of those kinks.”

He won’t share much about what he’s thinking of for his first brick-and-mortar spot, but says with certainty it will happen. His number one project, of course, is raising his son.

The pastry chef’s last day with the Kindred team was Saturday, and Burke-Samson was emotional — “that’s my home, you know?” he says — but also excited for what’s to come. Joe and Katy Kindred, he says, have helped him realize you can be successful in the restaurant business and have a healthy family life, too. In doing both, he concedes he’ll have to put in a lot of work, but believes he can be a good father and own a restaurant.

The one tidbit Burke-Samson would share about his upcoming restaurant will be a welcome one to locals who have tried his desserts.

“I’m not leaving Charlotte,” he says. “If anyone’s worried about that, I’m not.”

Phew. —Kristen Wile