Raydal Hospitality — the group that owns Sabor Latin Street Grill, La Caseta, and Three Amigos — has hired Kris Reid as operations manager of Sabor Latin Street Grill, a fast casual Latin restaurant. In the new position, Reid will oversee talent development, ensure safety training and sanitation procedures, manage limited time offers, and implement limited time offers, among other responsibilities.

“Our strategy has shifted from investing in new locations to investing in talent,” says Dalton Espaillat, CEO and owner of Raydal Hospitality. “I first learned about Kris through her reputation and work in the community as being a voice for workplace inclusivity and upward mobility. Once we had the chance to talk, I knew right away she was exactly what we needed to lead in our operations. We are extremely grateful to have Kris on board and I am super excited to see our shared vision come to fruition.”

Reid is known to many in the Charlotte food community as the founder and executive director of Piedmont Culinary Guild, a local nonprofit that works to advocate for purveyors of local foods and the chefs that buy from them. Though she still plans to be active with PCG in an advisory role, the difficulties brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic led her to decide the non-profit was better off without the burden of her salary. The events that she spent much of her time planning as executive director have mostly been cancelled or moved online, as is the case with the guild’s annual symposium, which begins next week. Reid notes the guild has also seen less engagement from chefs as they struggle to keep their businesses afloat. 

“There’s nothing I can do to bring us up to a level of activation that makes it worthwhile to continue to keep my salary,” Reid says. “I made the decision in November that I would roll off and we would find an admin support person to help us maintain for a while until we can come into a period of resurrection. And at that point, it will be really up to the board how they choose to proceed.”

Reid likens PCG’s current state to a dormancy, waiting out the pandemic and hoping for a reactivation when chefs have the bandwidth to be more active and the group’s Tastemakers, a members-only group for food enthusiasts in town, are comfortable attending events once again.

The change, however, brought Reid to her new position at Raydal Hospitality.

“I couldn’t be more grateful, to be honest with you, that this happened,” Reid says. “I would have never pursued a job like this. It’s exposing me to such a high level; I’ve never worked for such financially competent people. They’re truly brilliant at what they do, and I’m learning so much that I would have never learned had I not been put in this position. So while it has been painful to go through all of this and have to change the way that I’m living and working, and as sad as I am to see how things have been unfolding for our local community, I’m also finding gratitude for the fact that I have an opportunity to learn something very unique and special with people who are super passionate about what they do.”

Reid says she’s particularly interested in the career development part of the job, where she’ll help Raydal employees grow from entry positions to leaders in the company. To start, Reid’s position will oversee Sabor’s 18 locations. She will eventually add operational oversight of Three Amigos’ current Central Avenue location and upcoming South Charlotte location, as well as La Caseta at Camp North End, to her responsibilities. 

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