When the 2019 James Beard Award semi-finalist list came out, The Yolk co-owner and Loft & Cellar executive chef Greg Collier wasn’t paying attention. Recognition from the most respected food organization in the U.S. wasn’t something he thought was coming any time soon. Though none of Charlotte’s semi-finalists advanced to the finalist round, making such a prestigious list can have a profound impact on a chef. We spoke with Collier to see what the nomination meant for him and how it inspired the new concept he and his wife, Subrina, hope to open. (Edited for clarity and brevity.) —Kristen Wile

Unpretentious Palate: How did you find out you were nominated?
Greg Collier: Me and Paul Verica [of The Stanley] had a conversation maybe a week before the nominations came out. And we was just kindof talking about our thoughts, the reasons why we
feel like Charlotte gets overlooked, and just general conversation about awards, what they mean what they don’t mean, whether we should shoot for them, what do we do to get ’em? And the consensus of the conversation was we don’t know if we’re gonna get a nom this year.

He was the first person to call me. Him and Peter Taylor were over there (at The Stanley) and he looked at it. I wasn’t thinking about it. I’ve always thought that a James Beard Award was going to be something I set somebody else up for, a young chef, get them to a place and then he would win or get nominated for it. So I wasn’t even thinking about it.

He called me at like 10 o’clock… he was like congratulations, I was like ‘For what?’ He was like, ‘Well, don’t you know?’ I was like bro, it’s like 10 o’clock in the morning, what are you doing? What are you talking about? He’s like, “Oh shoot, so you really don’t know?” He said the James Beard thing. I said man, eff you man, I don’t want to talk to you, and I hung up. And he was laughing the whole time. But I hung up the phone on him. He sent me the text with the list and my name was on the list. So that’s how I found out. That was crazy.

UP: How many people reached out to say congratulations?
GC: Everybody. I don’t even know, I didn’t even count. I think that whole day was so weird for me because I feel like I’ve talked to people, I’ve talked to chefs who’ve been nominated, I talked to chefs who’ve been part of the process, I’ve talked to a couple of news people and a lot of people reached out.
I was like yo, what is going on? ‘Cause in my mind, I’m thinking there is a schematic to get to it. I’m thinking certain things have to happen and have to be in place and I didn’t think I had done that yet. I understand it; it was some of the stuff we do at breakfast, Soul Food Sessions, and what we’re doing at Loft & Cellar, and for our community. But I did get it from a contextual place, like ok, you were doing a lot. I didn’t really think that was part of anything. And I wasn’t doing that to get that recognition. I always do what I do because I think it’s what we’re supposed to be doing.

UP: You were only going to stay at Loft & Cellar to overhaul the menu and kitchen. Does this nomination impact your plans about whether you’re going to stay there long term?
GC: The plan was never going to be to stay there long term. Obviously when this happened, things changed a little bit. There’s a plan in process for me to transition out of it, like there always was. Fortunately, Oscar Johnson and Calvin Wright are there and they’ll be the chefs there. The hope was to have one person good enough in the kitchen to be able to carry on, fortunately, there’s two people over there in place who are going to be able to keep it going. We have a new menu and all that stuff.

The plan is for me and Subrina to do something we think will be authentically us that will have some lunch and dinner to it. And I don’t think that would have happened—I’m not saying it wouldn’t have happened pre-James Beard, but I think having the James Beard nomination made us both look at what we wanted to do and the impact that we wanted to have.

UP: Do you have anything else you want to share about that?
GC: Not yet, not yet. (Laughs.) I’m super excited that Subrina wants to, because we always were like nah, we’re not doing dinner. And then once the Loft & Cellar thing happened, I think she got used to me being out there late. Loft and Cellar, I get home at like 10:30, 11 at the latest. I’m not out super late.
The breakfast thing worked so well because of both of us, because of the energy and love that we put into different pieces of it. And now, moving forward, we’re going to be able to put the energy and love that we’re looking at like okay, if this is how you get a James Beard Award, how many of these things do we really want to do, to try and actually affect whether we get one or not? Now that she’s excited, I’m more excited and I’m more amped up to be able to bring something that’s authentically me and her. … With this new project, it’s me and her. So I’m super excited about that and I can’t wait to share it with people.

UP: Is there a timeline for your transition out of Loft and Cellar?
GC: It will be soon. I think how soon really depends on how busy I really am. We have some flexibility in it. The original plan was the end of March. We have some events that’s going to happen in April and some things that are happening that I’m probably going to be a part of, just let people know about the new menu items and different things. As far as the day-to-day goes, I let Calvin and Oscar take the lead on most of that stuff. They’ll call me, ask me certain things, I’ll stop by, have some conversations, but I’m not necessarily there five or six days a week making sure everything gets taken care of. … Probably the end of April will be the transition date.

UP: Have you found that this recognition gives you more of an ability to find investors for another restaurant?
GC: I don’t know. I haven’t received any calls saying, “Hey, I’ve got a check for you.” That hasn’t happened yet. A few people have been interested in what’s going to happen in the future. I’ll say that. More than normal. I’ve always felt like I’ve had what I guess you can call a following. People are interested in the stuff we’re doing, the events we’re having, but what I’ve noticed more now is people are interested I feel like from a different perspective. People aren’t just curious because they want to come to events, people seem to want to be a part of what we’re doing. And that’s for Uptown Yolk and what me and Subrina are doing, too… I haven’t seen specific dollars and cents yet, but I can tell it feels different. You know what I mean? I really can’t explain it, but the conversations that I have, the way people are talking. Even so much as, we’ve been in meetings, and in the meeting, somebody mentions [the semi-finalist nomination], and the tone of the meeting changes.

UP: You started Soul Food Sessions to bring visibility to minority chefs. How does it feel to be a black semi-finalist for a Jame Beard Award?
GC: The continuing feeling is I hope the people that came before me who are here in real life and here in spirit, I hope I’m doing okay with what they gave me. That is my first and it will be the everlasting tenet for everything I do, because people came before me. There were black chefs who were geniuses at their cuisine that not a lot of people know about. Realistically, Edna Lewis is just becoming famous in the last 10 years. Being in the South, that’s a bit of a travesty for me. So the first thing I thought about was hoping I’m really doing my ancestors proud. … Especially me as a black chef, I think people need to know that people like me exist. That you can push culinarily, you can push cuisines, you can offer new things culturally, and you can also be yourself. … [Me and Subrina] are not cookie cutter, we don’t look like, act like, walk like, talk like anybody else. And I try to make sure when I go to events, my hat might be off to the left or to the right a little bit, or I might not have on a chef’s coat. The way I’m speaking to people, it’s professional but I’m not talking like everybody else is talking. I don’t feel the need. I make it a point to be authentically me and Subrina does that as well. So I think another big thing is the ability to be yourself, whoever that is.

UP: What did you and Subrina do to celebrate, or were you too busy?
GC: We didn’t really do anything. I’ll tell you how that part of the day went. She was getting her hair braided. And that’s the thing. If we were thinking about it, we would’ve planned something, but we weren’t thinking about it. So it was just like one of those, she was getting her hair done and I was a ball of emotional energy, then when I seen her I shed a couple tears and she was like, “I’m so proud of you.” So we had our five minutes of that. And that’s all I really needed.

I think we’re going to celebrate, I mean really now, if we actually have the opportunity to win one. Now it’s like well, let’s plan for this. Let’s celebrate this.

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