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Regardless that she’d spent years working in eating places, Maureen Kalmanson by no means thought she’d open her personal. When she’d labored as a hostess earlier than faculty, she’d requested for a waitress place from one in every of her managers.
“She informed me, ‘It is advisable to simply maintain going to highschool, doing what you’re doing, [and] don’t become involved in all this mess,’” Kalmanson informed Goergia Voice. “So, I took her recommendation and went to varsity.”
However even at school, one thing saved pulling her again to the culinary world. Whereas taking lessons, Kalmanson’s aspect job was at all times at eating places, normally working as a hostess or a supervisor. She mentioned she had no intention of opening her personal restaurant and was getting ready to take the LSAT to go to legislation faculty when she completed faculty.
“I used to be going to be a lawyer, or possibly a psychologist,” she mentioned. “I had two majors and one, two, or possibly even three minors. I couldn’t actually determine who I used to be then.”
Maureen had plans for her future, and eating places weren’t part of them. Then got here Harry’s.
Opened in 1978 in Athens, Georgia, Harry’s was a two-story location, with a pub-style restaurant downstairs and a bar and music venue on the higher degree. Kalmanson mentioned that she selected Athens as a result of she was dwelling in Tallahassee earlier than she moved and was in search of a city that wouldn’t really feel too totally different.
Kalmanson didn’t cease her tasks in Athens and continued to maneuver across the nation, opening and managing eating places alongside the best way. After shifting from Athens to Atlanta, she opened Peasant Bistro, which they saved working in downtown Atlanta for seven years earlier than finally closing it to give attention to different tasks.
From Atlanta, she moved to Fireplace Island, New York, the place she opened one other restaurant in collaboration with a enterprise companion. Subsequent got here New York Metropolis, the place Kalmanson helped oversee a number of eating places. In all places she went, Kalmanson was concerned within the native restaurant scene.
After a number of years of shifting round, Kalmanson moved again to Atlanta, the place her already-opened eating places had been ready for her, which had been quickly adopted by her present eating places, Henry’s Midtown Tavern and Campagnolo.
“So yeah, I’ve been on this enterprise ceaselessly,” she joked after recounting her story.
Her profession has include ups and downs, however Kalmanson says that she’s been completely satisfied along with her profession within the restaurant business. Regardless that it wasn’t deliberate, she mentioned that when she landed in that profession, she discovered that it labored along with her mind-set. Past that, she says she loves the interpersonal side of working a restaurant.
“I like bringing a number of totally different individuals collectively, and I like making individuals completely satisfied,” she mentioned.
Whereas Kalmanson has watched her profession evolve and develop, the restaurant world has adopted swimsuit. Reflecting on when she began working within the enterprise, she mentioned that girls weren’t typically seen taking management roles in the identical method males within the restaurant enterprise had been. The place a person’s instructions would appear like good administration, a girl’s would have been interpreted as bossy or controlling.
“Again in that point, ladies weren’t anticipated to be in cost,” she mentioned, including that she didn’t settle for these double requirements as honest or regular. Kalmanson remembers pondering to herself, “I can’t behave the best way they need me to behave, I can’t be that individual, as a result of that’s not who I’m, and I’m not gonna faux to be somebody I’m not. They’re both gonna get used to me, or I’m gonna depart.”
Now, Kalmanson’s profession has lasted for greater than three a long time, and she or he says that the attitudes round ladies in management positions have modified. She says that she’d loved her profession due to all of the locations it’s taken and all of the individuals she’s met and befriended alongside the best way.
“It’s been an incredible expertise,” she mentioned, and I wouldn’t commerce it for something.”
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