South African native Neil Grant made his fame and fortune in hospitality in his homeland.

He did this after immersing himself in the wine industry in California, and earning his chops as a sommelier, before returning to the continent to open a succession of successful restaurants, including Burrata of Cape Town.

Lauded for his expertise in wine and his vision for hospitality, Grant sold his restaurant stake in South Africa and returned with his American wife to the US to help with her sick mother.

And in the unlikely community of Boise, Idaho, Neil Grant’s self-described “Version 2.0” in hospitality began with 10-month old concept Saltbrush, which was five years in the making.

In this week’s Q&A with Boxerbrand blog Recipe for Success Grant discusses his journey in hospitality.

Boxerbrand: Let’s begin with how you discovered the hospitality biz.

Neil Grant: I was in college in South Africa when I took a job at a restaurant to pay my bills through college. There was a point at that time when I realized that I was good at it. I loved the restaurant business! So, after I finished school, I decided to further my education in hospitality by going to work in the California wine industry. I felt there was no better way to learn than by going to work in the San Francisco area.

I worked in various top restaurants there and spent my last three years working for Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant, which was voted the best wine merchant in the USA by Food and Wine magazine. And I was lucky enough to work under two master sommeliers and to study through the Court of Master Sommeliers and earn by own certification in 2005.

I also met my wife Carrie while working in the wine business, and after we were married, she really wanted to move to South Africa.

Boxerbrand: How did you make your mark in South African hospitality?

Neil Grant:  After I returned to South Africa in 2006 I opened several successful fine-dining restaurants.

As a sommelier I was able to help build a concept called Rust en Vrede, which went on to become one of South Africa’s top award-winning restaurants. After that I refined my vision of fine dining with a restaurant called Burrata, which offered top quality food in a less formal atmosphere. In 2013 it was named the best Italian restaurant in South Africa by EatOut magazine.

During this time in my career, I traveled to China and Hong Kong to host wine tasting events and further my knowledge.

Boxerbrand: How did this vast international experience help you create Saltbrush in Boise?

Neil Grant: My wife and I decided to return to the states, to Boise, to help her mother, who was ill. I was able to sell my restaurants in South Africa and had no plan to try to open another when we got to Boise.

But one night five years ago at a wine event here I got into a conversation with Erik Johnson. Erik spent a lot of time in the wine industry in Sanoma wine country and after a time we realized we agreed that Boise needed more restaurants. And we started talking about concepts that eventually served as the cornerstone in our development of Saltbrush.

We knew we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, but that we wanted to offer elevated dining in a carefully designed room that would offer an aesthetic that would be both beautiful, but also warm and receptive to diners.

Boxerbrand: What was your strategy to bring Saltbrush to fruition?

Neil Grant: One of our first steps was finding a location. We knew we wanted to be downtown. Boise is one of the fastest-growing cities in America, but with all the growth, it doesn’t mean there were unlimited locations. We had one or two possible deals fall through, and over time we found 4,500 square feet, but it was a shell requiring a total buildout.

We embarked on this during Covid, and it took about a year to build out our ground-floor space beneath six floors of condo apartments above us.

We hired a designer and gave him carte blanch to create something beautiful, something sophisticated, and to fit with our cuisine, which is best described as California wine-country cuisine.

Boxerbrand: Tell me about the design of Saltbrush.

Neil Grant: Our designer worked on two main themes, the color and texture pallet and the flow of the space. In some cases, he came up with the opposite solution to what I’d imagined. Like with the placement of our bar, which is laid out along the left side as you enter the restaurant.

On the right of the aisle are high-top seating that allows a guest to float toward the main dining room. The flow of the place is amazing, and we easily seat 120-130 people.

Equally important to the flow is the color and texture. Most restaurants use monotones with a pop of color. At Saltbrush we have an abundance of color, from burgundy in our leather seats and cream tones to darker woods and marble. Our bar top is fashioned from black marble with striking white veins running through it. We have a lot of texture in our coffered ceilings and a variety of materials used for our tabletops, from wood to metal.

We also hired an artist from Maine to paint a mural of trees throughout to add some soft touches and pay homage to Boise because it is called the City of Trees.

Our biggest goal with the design concept was to make Saltbrush a place so beautiful but also comfortable, warm and welcoming, that word of mouth fueled by social media would help us attract customers.

Boxerbrand: How did Boxerbrand menu covers fit into the ambience?

Neil Grant: Your menu covers were part of the attention to detail that make us memorable. When Erik and I started talking about our concept, we agreed that it was important that everything we placed in our space fit the aesthetic, and that’s where the menus from Boxerbrand met our needs completely.

Boxerbrand: How does your concept draw inspiration from your locale?

Neil Grant: The restaurant takes its name from the Saltbrush plant, which is part of the sage bush family, which grows in abundance on the Boise foothills. Our name is a nod to our commitment to source most of our menu from local ingredients. We love rustic simplicity and cooking with wood fire.

Our menu features such dinner entrees as a handmade tagliatelle, roasted half chicken, wild Thai snapper, wild sockeye salmon, a grilled Kurobuta double pork chop, and a 14-ounce NY strip.

Boxerbrand: What challenges have you faced?

Neil Grant: Inflation has been tough. We’ve learned to be smart when we source, to make sure we buy what we need, and use everything to keep food waste down. But it’s a challenge to everybody when the price of eggs changes today and then tomorrow. But we do our best.

Staffing was our biggest worry when we started, but it went very well. Erik, as the executive chef, is in the kitchen every day. So, he has made sure the kitchen runs very well. In the restaurant world in Boise, we became a place where people want to work. So, we’ve maintained consistency in our staffing.

We are not facing wage inflation like what they’re seeing in places like Denver. Our servers make good money and tips because our restaurant is on the higher end of price-per-head of entrees.

It’s a constant struggle to watch hours and hold our percentages of our budget allotment to labor though, but we’re managing.

Boxerbrand: Saltbrush has been open for 10 months. What are you noticing?

Neil Grant: We’ve been steadily picking up new customers through word of mouth and social media, and contrary to predictions that January would be a lot quieter, we’re finding it to be busier than we thought we’d be at this point.

We were told to expect a slowdown after the holidays, so we’ll take it.

Trying to predict trends in restaurants is always a challenge. I look forward to the day when we know we’re going to be full every day!

—Saltbrush of Boise uses Boxerbrand’s Italian Ultra line in their table presentation. Thank you!