Two years after iconic Stephan Parry restaurant The Downtown Grille pulled up stakes from Charlottesville, Va. relocating to Winston-Salem, N.C., the 28-year-old restaurant continues to strike gold by plating traditional dishes with a progressive flair.

Located on the main level of a freshly renovated 18-floor building at 500 West 5^th St., the restaurant is strategically positioned in the entrepreneurial hub of the downtown, catering to a broad spectrum of professionals and foodies.

“We’re in this very cool building on the main floor of the Flow Automotive headquarter, in a section of the lobby, in a space where loading docks used to be, before space was cut out and shaped into restaurant space,” says GM Jon Willis. “Winston-Salem is just a big, small-town, where a huge cosmic shift in the food scene is taking place. And we’re poised to capitalize on the interest in progressive, fusion cuisine.”

In this week’s Q&A with Boxerbrand blog Recipe for Success, Willis takes offers us a peek into operations, and the vision for the future.

Boxerbrand: Tell me about your niche and how it works in Winston-Salem.

Willis: Winston-Salem is perceived as a big city, but it’s really just a very large, blue-collar town, which has benefitted from a lot of inbound migration of people looking for a more affordable location.

That new population is contributing to a food renaissance and is opening up Winston-Salem to new and fresh ideas.

Boxerbrand: How does The Downtown Grille contribute to the growing sophistication of the regional pallet?

Willis: We’re known for traditional style dishes that are more progressive than you’d find in a classic steakhouse, which uses more sophisticated techniques to source ingredients.

Our executive chef Harrison Littell, who is a partner in the restaurant, got his degree in agriculture before entering the restaurant business. His knowledge of produce and how it is grown, or foraged, ensures that whatever winds up on our plates is of the highest quality.

Chef Littell has enlisted 13 local farms for our poultry, beef and pork, and he forged a great relationship with a James Beard Award-winning dayboat fisherman, who brings us fish farmed that same morning.

We also have a half dozen produce farmers, from mushroom forgers and microgreen growers, who ensure that we can give consumers what they want, which are foods in their simplest, purest form.

Boxerbrand: Tell me more about that.

Willis: When I started in the restaurant industry as a chef, Portland, Oregon was the place to be. Its food was 20 years ahead of the rest of the country in terms of sourcing very fresh ingredients. While Portland was doing its thing, a majority of restaurants were going to US Foods, for example, to fulfill most of their ingredient needs.

But more and more people want to enjoy something in its purest form, which when it’s really fresh, the perfect tomato or strawberry, can be perfect with little, or nothing done to them.

The rest of the country has caught up a trend to go back to the basics, and our chef is so committed to thisidea that he devotes a lot of time to researching and tracking down the perfect ingredient. A lot of people say they’re farm-to-table, but we’re very farm-to-table.

Boxerbrand: Why did The Downtown Grille move from Charlottesville to Winston-Salem?

Willis: We moved for the same reasons that attracted others to move in: it was much more affordable. After 2020 the landlord raised the rent, but another opportunity presented itself when our owner, Stephan Parry, received a phone call inviting him to consider moving to Winston-Salem. Don Flow, the chair and CEO of Flow automotive, has the company’s headquarters on the base of the building, and thought it might be perfect there.

At the same time our executive chef was considering his future. He had been considering other avenues, including taking over his mother’s catering business, but instead he was offered a partnership in the restaurant, and since he was born and raised in Winston-Salem, he decided it was the perfect move for him to make.

Boxerbrand: Tell me about your customers.

Willis: We appeal to 20- to 50-year-olds, who mostly fall into the realm of casual fine-dining. Although we’re a white-tablecloth restaurant, we won’t turn away people who walk in wearing scrubs because we’re near a hospital, which is a major employer.

We also try to appeal to the wider demographic employed by major employers RJR Tobacco and Pepsi.

Boxerbrand: What are the recent challenges you face?

Willis: The industry as a whole has faced major challenges with food and labor inflation, and survival in this business is about taking the hits and rolling with them. A colleague told me a long time ago that the show must go on.

Post 2020 the entire hospitality world got flipped on its head. Longtime employees started asking themselves what they wanted out of life and many left the business. The result was that we had to pay higher wages to retain personnel.

Food inflation has been another challenge we’ve all faced. Some cost has been passed onto the customer, but we’ve found that it’s easier and more cost effective to source with local people on a handshake. And it’s about striking deals on price and for maintaining consistency with the end product so that the consumer is happy, but also, we need to make sure our guests are fully informed on price so they don’t suffer sticker shock at the end of the meal.

Boxerbrand: What can you say about the price of beef?

Willis: Many restaurants have offset the inflationary cost of beef by downgrading the quality of what they offer so they can still make their margins. Beef is graded, from high to low, as Prime, Choice and then Select, with Select being the bottom of the rung.

At fine-dining restaurants like ours, we’re somewhat insulated from the negative impacts of beef inflation because we appeal to people who have money and a deep appreciation of good food, and also to people who visit us on special occasions or justify an occasional nice meal out because they rarely eat out.

I think the fast-casual restaurants are being hit harder by food inflation because the perceived value of a “basic” meal no longer squares with the reality of the costs. I’ll give you an example of Chick-fil-A, which raised the price on their chicken sandwiches from $7 to $12. That’s a huge jump for a very basic item, and I think a lot of people in fast-casual chain restaurants are making the leap to spend a few dollars more to go to full-service, sit-down restaurant.

Boxerbrand: How does Winston-Salem fit the bill for The Downtown Grille?

Willis: This is the first venture out of Virginia for Stephan Parry of Parry Restaurant Group. He has had a tremendous career in hospitality, including as the Vice President of Operations for Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and the experience here has been excellent. Though we’re white tablecloth, our leather chairs, coffered ceiling, and other interior design elements are updated and more contemporary in vibe. And we have a panoramic view and face the mountains to the northwest. We’re two hours from the mountains and three hours from the beach. And its blue sky as far as the eye can see!

— The Downtown Grille uses Boxerbrand Italian Ultra menu covers in their table presentation. Thank you!