Today we’d like to introduce you to Don Bailey.
Don, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I spent 3.5 years at the Boston Harbor Hotel, starting as a server, then bartender, until a new F&B Director by the name of Ed Costa took charge. Lucky for me, he liked that I was a little (lot) cocky, and hungry. At 19, I was the youngest F&B manager in the hotel and running a bar within it. By the time I had left in 2002, I had managed every outlet in the hotel, gained an advanced wine education, and hit a ceiling.
Next stop was Aquitaine Restaurant is Boston’s South End. It was here that I truly was able to craft my own personal style with the support of restaurateurs whom I had looked up to long before I had met them. Seth Woods & Jeff Gates, in particular, were men that embraced my enthusiasm and cultivated my efforts. We grew from 2 to 7 restaurants, and I had served as General Manager starting at the age of 2 0, and Area GM by 22, with 3 restaurants within 275 steps of each other (Aquitaine, Metropolis Café, & UNION Bar & Grill).
In 2009, while I was shopping for investors for a restaurant of my very own, I got an offer I just couldn’t pass on, to be the opening GM of Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill. So I scrapped the idea of debt service and ungodly hours for an opportunity to combine my passion for both sports & hospitality. In this incarnation of a GM role, I was responsible for every aspect of operations, including pre-opening construction, investor relations, design, marketing, food & beverage programming as well as training. One of my marketing ideas, a $ 500 “Season Pass” to the bar, landed on the front page above the fold of the NY Times on the Red Sox Opening Day to the 2010 Season.
In 2012, I met my wife while she was a student at Suffolk University, but hailed from Long Island. By 2013, we were married and had our first child, Scarlett. That’s when we knew we needed to be closer to her family, so an email was sent to some company called BARTECA based in Norwalk, C T. After interviewing and staging, I was excited about bartaco, and accepted the GM role in the West Hartford, CT location. At that time, it was one of four existing locations.
Since joining bartaco, I have worked in West Hartford, Westport, Stamford, Port Chester, Reston (VA) and am now in Atlanta, where we have 3 locations. I was promoted to Area Director in 2 015, the first internal promote to AD and have enjoyed seeing both the company’s growth, but even more so the professional development of all those I have been lucky enough to come into contact.
Has it been a smooth road?
In 2008, I opened a very high end, a fine dining Italian restaurant with a Chef from Eleven Madison Park, and a Pastry Chef from Per Se. I learned that no matter how great your pedigree or reviews are, that alone will not fill seats or make a restaurant sustainable for very long. The market crashed and burned, and so did that concept.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
bartaco is many things to many people; so much more than just a restaurant, it’s a hangout, a place for special occasions, a date place, family-friendly, but has an incredible vibe. We specialize in making something casual, something really special.
I enjoy facing really difficult challenges that require strategic planning and team collaboration. Considering I ’ve seen our company double in size twice in 3 .5 years and am STILL excited, I’d say it’s an excellent fit for my personality. I am most proud of seeing people I may have had some impact on being successful, or at the very least, pursuing what they are meant to do.
If you had to start over, what would you have done differently?
If anything, I would have told my younger self to listen to the gift of feedback from my peers and mentors. I have been extraordinarily fortunate to have had a path of fantastic opportunities provided by amazing people. I am very grateful for everything that has led me here to this day and has given me an amazing career, the perfect wife, and my two little baby girls. I regret nothing.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3802 Roswell Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30342 (bartaco Chastain Park)
299 North Highland Avenue Northeast P, Atlanta, GA 30307 (bartaco Inman Park)
969 Marietta St Northwest, Atlanta, GA 30318 (bartaco West Midtown) - Website: http://bartaco.com/
- Phone: 678.871.8226 (Chastain Park), 470.400.8226 (Inman Park), 404.607.8226 (West Midtown)
- Email: marketing@barteca.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bartacolife/
- Facebook: facebook.com/btchastainpark/, facebook.com/btinmanpark/, facebook.com/btwestmidtown
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bartacolife
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