The past and future for Hilda Staples, restaurateur
Hilda Staples has opened six restaurants in as many years with Top Chef contestants Bryan Voltaggio and Mike Isabella. She dishes on the differences between DC and RVA and how she makes the magic happen.
This is not Hilda’s first rodeo. Since 2008, Hilda Staples has opened six restaurants. Today, her latest, Mike Isabella’s Graffiato Richmond opens to near-Beatles-level anticipation. But for Hilda, the process of opening a restaurant in Richmond has been frustratingly long and uniquely taxing, despite her extensive experience.
“I’m kind of terrified of Richmond,” Staples says with a quick laugh. “It’s been pretty horrific. I’ve opened about half a dozen restaurants. This has been the single worst experience of my life,” she admits. “VOLT was right up there because of the historical renovation,” she says, comparing the ordeal to her first restaurant project, VOLT in Frederick, MD.
When I met Staples in 2008, she was standing on the front steps of the Houck mansion, an imposing Victorian building on Market Street in Frederick, MD. Staples was radiant with energy and confidence. Over the next few months, she and Bryan Voltaggio, his sous chef Graeme Ritchie, beverage guys Neil and Aaron, and a staff of 30 oddballs and novices–including myself–would painstakingly transform the 200-year-old mansion into a culinary destination. We memorized menus. We swept fresh drywall dust off the new marble tile as more sprinkled down on us. It was hot and dusty and weird, full of anticipation. Almost every relationship in the restaurant was new; no one knew what to expect. Hilda was there every day, it seemed, often on the phone or directing contractors with a purposeful sense of urgency.
“There, we were dealing with a historic property, and the costs of opening a business there were really bad,” she recalls. Her experience with VOLT would pave the way for Staples to open three more concepts with Voltaggio as well as the original Graffiato with Voltaggio’s Top Chef buddy, Isabella. But in Richmond, Staples says redundant and conflicting permitting issues from the city stalled the Graffiato opening date on several occasions. In one instance, Staples explains, the city refused to allow a lighted sign to replace the existing Popkin sign, citing a prohibition on lighted signs. The Popkin sign lit up Broad Street for four years, but sure, OK.
The decision to open in Richmond was largely Hilda’s husband’s, Jonathan Staples: “He loves Richmond. He grew up here…He pretty much signed the lease [on the former Popkin Tavern space] and said ‘You’re doing it.'” Jonathan’s enthusiasm for RVA and a friendship with fellow Richmond advocate Travis Croxton (of Rappahanock Oyster Co) made the river city an obvious choice: “[Jonathan] has a big sense of place and where he is and has always loved Richmond. It’s a great town. He loves the town. You can’t help but get sucked up in his passion for something.”
Despite the logistical setbacks, Staples says the hiring process in Richmond was actually much better compared to the highly competitive atmosphere in DC: “In DC, it’s torture because there’s so much growth, there’s so much competition. We had excellent turnouts at our open houses. Compared to DC, it’s been fantastic. There was lots of great talent here.” Graffiato’s staff is made up of mostly locals, with about ten percent coming directly from Graffiato DC’s management team, and several, including beverage manager Tatha Ismael, splitting time between the two. “If there’s something you love at Graffiato DC, it will be here too,” Staples notes.
Hilda’s not finished with Richmond yet. She will open Family Meal with Bryan Voltaggio at Willow Lawn early next year. Ultimately, Hilda says she’ll be better prepared for round two: “What we’ve learned is that we have to put people who are qualified for the job in the job from the start.” And after this, her first ‘long-distance’ relationship with a restaurant, Hilda has learned the value of being on the ground personally. “The lesson learned is, if you’re not there 24/7, you have to get someone who knows what they’re doing.”
In the early days at VOLT, Hilda’s presence in the dining room was a cause for attention. She’d often entertain friends and investors from a table directly overlooking the open kitchen. The chefs, Bryan included, would adjust their posture when she entered the kitchen and would prepare to answer her questions as gracefully as possible. She was genuinely interested, curious; and we all wanted to impress her.
Six years later, she is even more commanding and confident. Over drinks, Hilda casually mentions that she’s adopted five children from Burma. Maybe I should be surprised, but I’m not. She retells a heartbreaking story: Three years ago, she read about a family who escaped from Burma to the US. Within weeks, the five children, ages 12 – 19, lost both parents leaving them facing separation from one another in the child services system. Hilda and Jonathan reached out to the writer at the paper to see how they could ‘help’ the kids and eventually took them in and made them a part of their own family.
Balancing seven restaurants and seven kids may be a Herculean undertaking, but when I ask her how she manages it all, Staples downplays what she does and credits technology and a well-trained staff for her success: “For me, it’s not like I work the floor everyday. Thank goodness for technology. I can see everything that happens all the time by looking at one screenshot. I have some wonderful people who work for me…It’s huge, but again I can do it from one central location. I don’t need to be on-site at every restaurant. It goes back to hiring really great people who can do something like that on their own.”
Photo by: Greg Powers
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Stephanie Ganz
Stephanie Ganz thought there would be pizza.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
A few comments on this story… First: In the first sentence of the third paragraph, Ms. Ganz should have used the words “worked for…,” or “worked with…” Hilda Staples up in Frederick, MD in 2008, rather than the words “When I met Staples back in 2008…,” since she clearly was a former employee or business partner of Ms. Staples she is profiling and the new restaurant she is promoting here on RVA News. (“…near- Beatles-level anticipation…” REALLY?)… Secondly, I have one old-school suggestion for the editors of RVA News, in the interests of journalism transparency and respect for this site’s readers: Whenever RVA News posts items about a business or an individual from a writer –freelance or paid staff — whose business interests might be helped or hurt by the positive or negative publicity/word-of-mouth that article may generate. (For example: Stephanie Ganz’ author ID at the end of this fawning profile says “she’s always helping people develop food-focused businesses.”) …(That knowledge raised the question for me whether or not Ms. Ganz and Ms. Staples have renewed their business relationship on ‘Grafffiato’ or another project.) … Personally, I think readers deserve some specific snippets of up-front/follow-up information and context about the writers published by RVA News to more clearly understand and better interpret the information and the opinions they read on the site. Thanks!
Tim, Ms. Ganz refers to herself as one of “a staff of 30 oddballs and novices”. I don’t know how you can read that line and come to any other interpretation other than she was working for Ms. Staples. Also, what is your suggestion? You say “Whenever RVA News posts items about a business or an individual from a writer –freelance or paid staff — whose business interests might be helped or hurt by the positive or negative publicity/word-of-mouth that article may generate.” That sentence seems to be missing an ending. Finally, why are you so eager to be critical. Loosen up, man, and have a Prosecco.
Patrick – First an apology: You are correct. I neglected to properly copyedit that sentence before posting…I meant to write that like other legitimate “news” blogs and information outlets around the world, RVA ‘News’ should adopt the same basic transparency and conflict-of-interest standards that place readers’ interests and their education first (ahead of advertisers’ revenue) and include disclosures and disclaimers from writers who may have an economic, political, or familial connection to the subjects they write about…. Secondly, in my opinion, Ms. Ganz did not describe her previous and current work relationships with Ms.Staples clearly enough to give readers an accurate portrayal of the factors that might have influenced her endorsement of Ms. Staples and the business she’s about to open here in the RIC; when I first read that section about their work together in Frederick, MD, it sounded like they were just old friends… Finally, in my view, it is our collective job as readers to help keep our media outlets doing the best job they can for us, just as we should be doing with regard to our elected officials. … Your recommendation that I “loosen up and have a Prosecco,” illustrates the exact reason why media startups trying to do things the correct way, like RVA News, were created in the first place, as Main Street consumer-friendly alternatives to the tone-deaf, advertiser/big employer-driven Richmond Times Dispatch… It also illustrates why voters in the City of Richmond, the State of Virginia and these United States of America keep electing, year after year, self-dealing thieves to public office every Election Day — because the very people who laugh, giggle and complain the loudest about their terrible political representatives, about how their tax dollars are being wasted and about the lousy state of the city/county/state would rather be in a bar or at home getting drunk than make a thoughtful visit to the ballot box. (Full disclosure: I’m a ‘Legend Brown’ man, and I have time to both vote, and “loosen up…”)
I am all for journalistic integrity, but that is not why i come to RVANews. I simply come to read about local happenings and opinions. You are trying to hold them to a higher standard, but i dont think this is that type of site. It’s more about entertainment, social events, food & drink…etc. You should start critisizing our local news papers and TV news stations, as i think that’s where most people go for “real” & “serious” news.
Tim, your point about disclosing a conflict of interest may have merit — if there is any conflict to be disclosed. And, although the fact that Ms. Ganz worked for Ms. Staples years ago and the fact that Ms. Ganz seems to do consulting in the industry may raise the question of whether they are currently working together, I don’t think that there is any affirmative obligation (moral or otherwise) on a reporter/news outlet to disclose that there is NOT a conflict. If there is one, we could argue about whether it is something that RVANews should absolutely disclose. But, I could see your point on that, if there is in fact a conflict. My issue is that you seem to have assumed there is one, which is unfair and potentially libelous (maybe a stretch, but you are challenging her journalistic integrity). On the issue of their working history, the relationship was described pretty clearly to me. I don’t think the issue is what was written, but what the reader understood. As for the rest of your most recent screed … OK, fine, skip the Prosecco and have a Legend Brown (although, might I suggest a Hardywood Hoplar Imperial IPA instead … it is fabulous) and loosen the tin hat a little.
Patrick — Since you and I have such different opinions about what constitutes journalism ethics, respect for readers and what a visitor can expect when they visit a site with the word “news” in the title, there’s no point in belaboring this disagreement any further… Sadly, I had hoped for more from RVA News and its editors; I thought I was part of a community that wanted something more substantial than the fluff and nonsense almost all of RVA’s print and web offer every day… I think our fellow scribbler Sean has it correct…this site apparently is not a place where anyone comes for “news” in spite of its name..Still, I had such high hopes for something better, since I’ve seen such a terrible degradation of the journalism profession over these last few years…BTW: What’s the latest development on RVA’s doughnut/donut “scene”???