Best of Show

Woman of the Year Nominee

by Allison Shirreffs

May 2, 2008

When Anne Quatrano and her business partner and husband, Clifford Harrison, decided to relocate their wildly successful restaurant, Bacchanalia, from Buckhead to the emerging west side in 1999, they needed additional funds.At the time, Quatrano was on her way to amassing an impressive resume. She (along with Harrison) made Food & Wine's list of 10 best new chefs in 1995, and in 1998, Bacchanalia was honored as an inductee into the National Restaurant Association's Fine Dining Hall of Fame.

Today Quatrano is the queen of Atlanta's restaurant scene and one of the forces behind its expanding reputation. Not only does she oversee an empire of restaurants – ranging from the to-go to exquisite gourmet – but she also runs a farm and a retail shop. She also is a mentor, inspiration and supporter of the restaurant scene and its players. "When we first opened Via Elisa, Annie supported and promoted
my business, and her enthusiasm and encouragement kept me going through difficult times," says Elisa Gambion, owner of Via Elisa Fresh Pasta.

The restaurant consistently topped the Zagat guide as Atlanta's best restaurant. And it wasn't a fluke. The pair's sophomore effort, Floataway Café, which opened in 1998, had a following of its own. Like their choice for Bacchanalia's new home, Floataway was in an industrial area, except this time it was on the edge of Virginia-Highland area. Unfortunately, their successful track record wasn't enough to sway loan officers at a trio of big-name banks. Unable to see past the fact that a significant number of restaurants fail (a study published in the Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly estimates 61 percent of all restaurants fail within three years), their accolades meant little. But they had a champion. Robert Long, then-chairman and president of SunTrust Bank's Georgia operations, was a Bacchanalia
regular, and put in a good word for them. "He helped push [the loan] through," Quatrano says. They secured a $500,000 loan, added another $400,000 of their own, and in 1998 transformed the 12,000-square-foot west Midtown location into a restaurant, retail operation (Star Provisions) and a small eatery and take-out, Provisions To Go. In 2005, the pair opened Quiñones at Bacchanalia in a space below Bacchanalia.

Quiñones at Bacchanalia-a lavish prix fixe, multicourse restaurant, which opened to the delight of fanatic foodiesstresses the use of local, organic and southern ingredients to create an exquisite 8-10 course tasting menu that changes nightly. A division of Star Provisions, Provisions To Go offers an array of gourmet-to-go. As a dine-in and take-out facility Provisions To Go serves fully prepared foods including entrees, sandwiches, paninis, salads, soup, bakery items and more. Quatrano and Harrison live on the 60-acre Summerland Farm, on the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, another part of the pair's culinary fiefdom.

There, they grow produce, raise livestock (including goats and Jersey cows that provide milk for the pair's cheese and butter), and provide a home for 20 horses and a bevy of dogs. Quatrano hints that they'll eventually add another restaurant and that it will probably be along the lines of the café in Star Provisions. "Pretty casual," she explains.

Although cooking is her passion, Quatrano has learned that passion isn't enough to make you successful; there is the need for business acumen. She learned from the people she worked for, and she learned on the fly. Quatrano, who turned 49 in January, lists several women she met in the mid-1980s in San Francisco's "era of the woman chef " as her mentors. Zuni Café's Judy Rodgers, Chez Panisse's Alice Waters, Square One's Joyce Goldstein, and the late Barbara Tropp, who is credited with helping introduce Americans to Chinese cuisine, were among those who influenced Quatrano's craft.

To get a better handle on the retail side of her business, Quatrano trekked to Ann Arbor, Mich, to take a few business classes at Zingerman's, a well-known deli with a strong retail component. "Retailing is my biggest challenge. I know how to cook, but I'm not completely confident about what people are buying or pricing or inventories," Quatrano says. She's not as interested in the business side as she is with the food or with stocking Star Provisions with "beautiful things I want to take home," she says, but she watches the numbers. "I have to," she says. "You need the business side to make it all work." In the early days, "business plans" and "growth" weren't something she and Harrison talked so much about, but nowadays, there are specific goals and budgets. Two years ago, in an attempt to boost employee retention in an industry plagued by turnover, they set up a 401(k) plan and began offering health insurance to their 120 employees. "It's been amazing," Drew Billene, the chef at Floataway Café since 2004, says of the added benefits. Billene also credits Quatrano with not only teaching him about food, but about how to run a business. He's also learned from her attention to detail and eye for service. "She's shown me how to make the financial end of what she loves to do work," Billene explains.

When they hired Bacchanalia's executive chef Daniel Porubiansky in 2006, Quatrano and Harrison did so because they felt it was best for the restaurant. But it was a big salary they hadn't paid previously, so the pair launched a plan to reduce waste in their kitchens. "Across the board, we have to manage our product," Quatrano says, sounding more like a CEO than a chef. "When you pay thousands of dollars in produce bills, every part of that turnip becomes important." As a manager, Quatrano considers herself to have softened with time and success. "One of my managers used to ask me why I couldn't be meaner - like I used to be," she says with a smile. "A lot of stress comes from financial instability and wondering if you can pay bills or pay staff."

In Bacchanalia's first year, she and Harrison paid themselves a combined annual total of $1,000. They lived in a doublewide trailer because the mortgage was less than $100 a month. "I think we're successful because we don't take anything out of our business. We take what we need to live," she says. "We lead by example. We don't sit at the bar and drink, and we don't expect our employees to either." She and her kitchen staff have a mutual respect. They know she wants things done a certain way. "It's like I'm inside their heads and they're inside mine," Quatrano explains, likening such synergies to a team sport.

"We're working together for the same goal. We start over every night and hope we get better every day. When it goes well, it's like winning," she says. When she finds a few free days, Quatrano likes to travel and hunt for new ideas. On a recent trip to Paris, she visited as many bakeries as possible. Quatrano returned with macaroons and a good bit of digital research. "I took thousands of photos," she explains. "I'll show [my chefs] the photos and say, ‘Can we make it?'"