On The Marquee: Nicholas David, The Feelin'

Meet one of the grooviest dudes to grace the Hell’s Kitchen stage. Nicholas David– often referred to by his moniker The Feelin’– isn’t easily defined by a single genre. A lifelong student of his craft, Nick’s been playing piano since age 8 and singing since his mid-teens, blending the sounds of blues, soul, New Orleans rock ’n’ roll, gospel, and good old-fashioned R&B into something unmistakably his own. You might recognize him from his top-three finish on The Voice back in 2012, but around here, we know him for the soulful vocals, infectious grooves, and feel-good energy that make every performance a little bit magical. When Nick takes the stage, you’re in for a whole lot of heart, a little bit of funk, and a whole lot of Feelin’.

When he’s looking for live music around town, Bunkers remains a favorite. It’s one of the few places where he can still see that same hunger and drive he remembers from his early days playing gigs. As Nick puts it, the old folks weren’t kidding when they said, “It wasn’t like this when I was your age.”

Nick’s keeping busy with new music, too. He’s putting the finishing touches on his upcoming studio album, No Place To Follow, while preparing to release his first live album, Live at the Dakota. But if he could share the stage with anyone, it wouldn’t be a chart-topper or a rock legend. It would be his grandpa, who played accordion and piano at family parties. Nick still remembers polka dancing to his grandpa’s accordion in his parents’ unfinished basement in the early ’80s (and even has a scar to prove it!). Eventually, he joined his grandpa at the piano, making music together as two Mrozinskis tickling the ivories.

A lifelong passion for the arts has also made Nick a music and film librarian and historian, with an extensive collection organized by genre and alphabetized to perfection. And yes, that includes VHS tapes and cassette tapes, too. Some classics deserve to stick around!

As for his Hell’s Kitchen go-to? He’s kept it simple since the early 2000s. A classic Dante’s Double Smashed Burger and fries with a side of mayo, plus a cola on the rocks hits the spot. A tried-and-true classic.

Want to catch Nicholas David live? Head to thefeelin.com for his upcoming show schedule and links to his social media. Of course, you can see him play every second Sunday right here in Hell from 10am-1pm. You can view our full live music calendar here

Monthly Staff Spotlight: Brandon

If you’ve read through our reviews in any recent memory, chances are you’ve seen this name before. Brandon came into our fold as a downtown resident who frequented our employee-owned restaurant and quickly became enamored with the food, atmosphere, and goofy ragtag bunch of misfits. Armed with top-tier customer service skills, and enough sass to stop a freight train, Brandon quickly proved he’d be an undeniable asset to our service staff. Flash forward three years into his Hell’s Kitchen tenure, Brandon now works as one of our top banquet leads, and there isn’t a day that goes by without him making people laugh– customers and staff alike. 

A fitting favorite memory comes from a chilly winter when Brandon donned his iconic short shorts (if you know you know), and the compared length of his server apron definitely left some things up to the imagination. While serving a guest celebrating– as she put it– “another 60th birthday”, and couldn’t help but comment on his bravery to fight the brutal temperatures in less than ideal attire. This led to further discussion on adventures in Minneapolis, plenty of hootin’ and hollerin’, and a claim that Brandon had “absolutely made her birthday”. This interaction became the first in a long line of customers that have insisted Brandon join them in the photobooth for the memories. 

That spark of human connection is what got Brandon into customer service in the first place, and what drives him to show up as his best self each day. He found Hell’s Kitchen as the band of misfits we all are, and our “Spirit of Mitch” to pursue excellence through genuine interactions and grit is what made him feel like he found the family he’s been looking for. 

So what does Brandon do for an ultimate meal? Easy– a Spring Roll Salad Wrap with pancho-seasoned kettle chips and a healthy dose of ranch on the side. The pro tip comes from a recent menu modification by adding the crispy chicken tenders wrapped up in the tortilla with all the spicy, hearty salad mix.

Want to see more from Brandon? Book a private event with us (especially during our Hell-a-Dazzle holiday takeover), and there’s a good chance his jubilant self will take the reins on making sure things go off without a hitch.

Monthly Staff Spotlight: Alisha

If you’re booking a private event with us this year, there’s a pretty strong chance this is the lady you’ll find leading the team. Even though she’s only lived in the Midwest since college, Alisha’s connection to the region would have you convinced she has lived in Minnesota all her life. She joined the team as a server back in 2017, and proved right away that service was second-nature to her. To this day, Alisha is a shining example of what hospitality should look like, so it’s no surprise that she’s now considered one of our most seasoned and tenured banquet leads. 

Like many of us, Alisha says it’s the rest of the staff that have kept her around all these years.

“The strange chosen family we have created together over the years. It was alive and well when I first started, so maybe it’s Mitch’s spirit that’s still loving us so fiercely, but we take care of each other through the inevitable hardships of life. I realized recently it’s quite like an orphanage, or home for wayward souls. I have been so lucky and grateful to have them the last several years of my life. I think it goes both ways.”

She’s right. It does. And it’s that same sense of service-based community that drives Alisha forward. Working on our private events team for as long as she has means Alisha has worked every type of event under the sun– many of those being huge life events for our guests. Last year, when we gave away a wedding to celebrate 10 years of legal gay marriage, Alisha was one of our team captains, seeing that our two grooms’ special day went off without a hitch. An honor she says she won’t soon forget. Now Alisha has a whole new honor bestowed upon her. She recently just accepted the role as our Host Manager, taking all of that genuine welcoming persona, and imparting it on those who act as our first impression. 

Now what’s Alisha’s go-to shift fuel these days? Our energy-loaded Warm Greens Grain Bowl with spicy impossible sausage and a healthy pour of Cry Baby Craig’s. She likes to pair that with an english muffin on the side that’s loaded up with our housemade peanut butter. 

Fiercely-Independent

For 20 years, we've always identified ourselves as fiercely independent, but what exactly does that mean?

The easiest explanation is that we're not, and have never been, beholden to financial partners simply because we've never had any. Back in 2002, when Mitch and Cyn started Hell's Kitchen along with Steve, the amount of money needed to start a restaurant --while certainly daunting-- wasn't anywhere near the amount that would be needed in today's times. The bootstrapping owners were able to pull it off by renovating the interior by themselves and scrounging used kitchen equipment, supplies, furniture, fixtures and other things for pennies on the dollar from resellers. Still, those expenses had to be paid from somewhere, so Mitch and Cyn sold their house and managed to squeak by without having to find investors.

The founders were quick to admit that selling their assets wasn't necessarily the smart thing to do...bringing investors on board would have taken a percentage of their ownership, but also would have saved a ton of financial anxiety. In hindsight, though, the freedom that came without having partners allowed the rogue founders to chart their own territory. As Mitch once said, "We were naive enough --stupid enough if I'm honest-- to want to be the big fish in our tiny pond and make all the decisions for ourselves without worrying about losing someone else's hard-earned money." And if you've followed our precarious journey, you know they lost a boatload of money on so many different occasions that they probably should have lowered their personal risk by bringing on financial partners. But they didn't, and at the end of the day, it turned out to be a blessing.

Being fiercely independent allowed them to take risks in so many ways: Offering up a free wedding when marriage for gay couples finally became legal... defending our servers publicly when a heartless bigot went on a rant... packing up a truckload of cooking gear and heading up to Embarrass to throw a fundraiser... deciding to co-exist peacefully instead of suing Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen even though we've owned the trademark even before he started (wanna see his cheeky anniversary greeting? Click here to watch his 2012 apology)... moving the restaurant lock, stock, and barrel when we still had a lease... turning down a $2 million dollar offer in 2013 for 50% of our company from a well known Twin Cities icon when our gut told us it could tear apart our culture... then spending $109k of our savings on legal and other fees in order to turn the restaurant over to our employees via the ESOP 6 years later... opening Hell's Cafeteria during the pandemic... and even writing these "behind the scenes stories" that make many other restaurant owners cringe. All of these might have raised eyebrows from investors, but by absorbing all of the financial risk, we were able to make on-the-spot decisions, right or wrong.

Would we do it all over again? You betcha. But nowadays, opening a restaurant takes millions, so opening a new downtown restaurant today, sans financial partners, would be out of the question. We feel luck that the only people we now answer to are our Employee Owners and YOU, our valued guests. Both are equally important to us, and once again, we're humbly grateful for the support.

Today marks our 21st Anniversary (!!!), so this is our last "20th Anniversary" story from Hell. But stay tuned...so many of you have written to us, intrigued by our long-winded ramblings, we plan on continuing to share snippets of our journey with you every so often. Thanks for reading; thanks for believing in us.

Fun-Filled

Heads up: if you live in a small Minnesota community more than 3 hours from the Twin Cities, consider reading this post all the way to the end for a surprise announcement.

After last week's "highlight reel" of hellish things we've faced over the years, we thought we'd circle back to one of the most fun times we've EVER experienced: our road trip to Embarrass, Minnesota.

It all started back in the winter of 2014 when we heard that Embarrass, Minnesota, a town of 450 up near our Canadian border, was experiencing brutal temps of MINUS 64 degrees. "That's literally colder than the surface of MARS, exclaimed Mitch. "Let's invite 'em all to come to Minneapolis and warm up in Hell." Knowing that her chef/husband wasn't kidding, Cyn wrote a cheeky Facebook post inviting their residents to a complimentary brunch in Hell.

Sadly, even the offer of a free brunch with one of our heralded Bloody Mary's wasn't enough to entice them. Most had to decline our offer due to the (duh) weather. "We're too busy shoveling and thawing out" ... "the roads are really bad and icy" ... "great idea, but our animals need us."

But Jeannine Bjornrud, the pastor's wife (yes, church folks "get" us), turned things upside down with her reply to our invitation. "We would love to visit --thanks for the offer-- but if you'd like to come and serve your brunch at my house, the whole town could come. Here in Embarrass, we are all snuggles in for the great adventure. So, Hell's Kitchen, I extend the offer to you. Will even put you up for the night, because it would be too cold to drive home."

Mitch's mood instantly morphed from dejection to elation: Challenge accepted! He then raised the bar: instead of crowding into Jeannine and Marlin's house, he turned it into a fundraiser for the Embarrass Region Fire Dept. Here's where the magic happened: the entire community jumped in...the Embarrass Vermillion Federal Credit Union offered to print the tickets, Zups donated bacon, Northern Comfort B&B offered us accommodations, and an army of volunteers signed up to set up tables and chairs and help flip flapjacks at Timber Hall.

Thus started our first and only road trip from hell. After weeks of planning, a caravan of cars and a big 'ol rental truck fought through an unexpected hellish winter blizzard to get to Embarrass, oftentimes having to pull off the road through whiteout conditions. But thanks to the community's excitement, coupled with fantastic support from the town's surrounding communities, the event was a smashing success. Fire Captain Mike donned Mitch (a self-proclaimed pyromaniac) with firefighting gear, helped us all climb on top of his rig, and paraded us around the block as a final (and freezing) sendoff. But before we headed back home, Captain Mike confided in Mitch that when he first heard of our crazy idea, his first thought was, "Yeah, right. When Hell freezes over. I'll believe it when I see it." But he was smiling like hell when we we waved goodbye and our caravan rolled back out of town.

Surprise! A decade later, the employee owners of Hell's Kitchen hope to honor Mitch's legacy and recreate our Embarrass Fire & Brimstone experience in a different Minnesota community.

If you live in a small town that might be interested in hosting our team for a similar excursion in the fall of 2024, rally your friends and neighbors and throw your hat in the ring for our second-ever fundraiser by clicking HERE to let Cyn know!

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Frightening

A highlight reel of the most frightening things we’ve faced over the past 21 years:

2002 Mitch, Cyn and Steve started Hell's Kitchen on a wing and a prayer. Within 2 weeks of opening, Mitch’s knee was crushed in a vehicle accident, so Steve, Mitch’s co-pilot, had to run the entire kitchen almost single-handedly. The pressure was indescribable; Steve lost 20% of his body weight in 3 months, but saved Hell’s Kitchen from imploding.

2003 Cyn (aka bookkeeper, CEO, marketing, jack of all trades except cooking) couldn’t figure out why we were always so cash strapped. Going over every line item on the Profit and Loss statement, she cut out superfluous spends such as a fresh ORCHID on every plate. ($3k/year). Mitch howled; Cyn prevailed, so Mitch sold his beloved Jeep to get our bank account back on track.

2007 "Hell yeah! Here we come, Duluth!” Experienced restauratuers know the best practice is to take over a space that already has restaurant-specific infrastructure in place (hoods, venting, etc). Instead, we took over the old Antique Mall on Canal Park Drive…gas lines and water lines had to be trenched into cement; hoods had to go up through 4 floors, and a host of unexpected spends we should have discovered during our due diligence before signing a 3-year lease decimated our $530,000 budget. We peed our pants and took on a massive loan of almost a million dollars.

2008 Cyn, Steve and Mitch were exhausted, working double duty at both locations, and hanging on by a thread. So imagine their terror when the landlords from our Minneapolis location sent a Certified letter asking them to leave the 10th St location because they wanted to redevelop the entire city block even though we had 2 more years on our lease. The iron-clad lease was good for another 2 years, but seeing the writing on the wall, we threw in the towel and moved to our current 9th St location when the landlords agreed to pay for the move.

2009 "What the fk were we thinking?" Although our downtown Minneapolis restaurant was profitable, our high buildout costs in Duluth continued to drain our funds. When our CPA suggested we rebrand the concept into a more casual restaurant with better margins, HellBurgers was born. Did we think it was smart to spend $72,000 for the rebrand? Yep. Did it work? Ahh, nope. After a bloodbath of further losses, we closed in 2010, still owing the bank over $800,000.

2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Even though our Mpls restaurant would have been protected (separate corporations), we refused to declare bankruptcy for the Duluth operation, and spent 6 years paying off the Duluth debt with profits from downtown Minneapolis as fast as we could (which is why Vision Bank still loves us to this day). Mitch repeatedly asked "If downtown's doing so well, how come we never seem to have money?" Cyn repeatedly showed him the loan statements, and he'd walk away with slumped shoulders.

2017 With Minneapolis' cash reserves at an all time low, we were so busy running the biz that we completely missed the fact that our downtown margins slipped from a healthy profit to a dwindling, almost-negative number. In September, we had a "hair on fire" meeting with our staff, who quickly came up with a remarkable list of ways to cut costs without hurting our food quality. KJ Granberg, our current company President, turned the ship around in 4 short months (!!!) and brought the downtown restaurant back to profitability. Mind you, we still weren't laughing all the way to the bank, but she and her team managed to squirrel away some savings each month, which ended up being a godsend that got us through the first year of our covid closure.

2019 Mitch, as you might already know, fell ill and suddenly passed away in 2015, leaving Cyn and Steve, now in their 60’s, to explore exit plans so they could retire. Rather than sell to private investors, which would yield the highest price, the founders bucked everyone’s sage advice and instead turned Hell’s Kitchen over to its employees via an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) on Jan 1, 2020 so everyone, from dishwashers to managers, servers, hosts, cooks, expos, and bartenders, could own the company. The best part? They didn’t have to pay a penny out of their pockets because payments to the founders would come from future profits. Since the restaurant was solidly profitable, they thought “What could possibly go wrong?” Well, ummm, COVID. Closed restaurant, no profits, no ESOP payments ...the founders watched their future retirement funds vanish into thin air.

2021 Having already spent a big portion of our savings to add the Hell’s Cafeteria concept on the street level, our management team decided to forge ahead, even though we were still reeling from Covid. What the hell were we thinking? Easy answer: “Covid’s almost over, and when downtown offices bounce back to life, folks will love our easy, lightning-fast “old school” cafeteria concept." But with offices coming back at a snail’s pace, it's still a bit of a dance to get traction, so we're thrilled that downtown visitors from conventions and events are keeping the concept alive.

These are just a few examples of why we’ve often said it’s a miracle we've survived 20 years. Welcome to restaurant life in the fast lanes!

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Joyful

Hey hey hey, guess what? After last week's "Maddening" story, we feel obligated to point out that we're not always whiny LOL. In fact, there have been countless joyful times over the years. Most recently, our entire staff was overjoyed to welcome a sold-out, full house for Easter weekend.

We've of course had several times where our underground lair was wall-to-wall full, but for some reason, last weekend, in an epiphany of sorts, it finally struck us that Hell's Kitchen is back in full force. In between taking care of guests, in the moments we had to catch our breath, several of us just stood there, taking it all in. The lively music on stage. Customers grinning and yakking with each other as they went through our epic Bloody Mary Bar. People saddled up the bars enjoying brunch. Families sitting in "their" booths (our Minnesota Room, with each and every city/township in our state listed, seems to have become a personal favorite for folks who come from various points in Minnesota). And to the 5 people who piled into our PhotoBooth and were laughing their asses off as the camera clicked away, your joyful noise simply made our hearts melt.

Are you tired of us saying "thank you" so frequently? Trust us, those aren't just superflous, empty words. Whenever we say "thank you," we genuinely mean it. Pre-covid, we were grateful for your patronage and awards. Post-covid, we're also in awe that you believed in us enough to venture back through the Gates of Hell. The employee-owners at Hell's Kitchen are deeply grateful for your patronage, now more than ever. And that, perhaps, is the biggest reason we are so incredibly joyful.

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Maddening

In several of our previous “20th Anniversary” posts, we’ve mentioned how grateful we are to still be around 21 years after Mitch, Steve and Cyn opened the gates of Hell.

But because we also promised to be transparent, we do have to be honest about our frustrations along the journey. Case in point: literally weeks before Covid closed down the world, we were putting the final touches on a completely revamped catering arm of our business, Hell on Wheels. Many of you loved our box lunches that we delivered to offices and hotels in the downtown area, but almost all of you asked for a streamlined way to order online without having to waste time. So we spent 7 months (along with a boatload of money) to update everything from our food offerings to delivery logistics and especially that easy-breezy way to order everything online.

Then, well, Covid. 18 months later, when we finally reopened, almost everything we had meticulously planned flew right out the window. It was maddening: our POS system had to be overhauled, all of the online ordering had to be reconfigured, menu offerings changed, photos needed to be reshot, pricing had to be re-analyzed, and believe it or not, even our previous catering manager changed careers. 7 months down the tube, 7 months of rebuild, and now….well, soon (!)…a new and improved Hell on Wheels will be launched to take care of your needs both large and small.

We have redesigned Hell on Wheels to cater to your needs post-pandemic, hoping to make your return to the office a little bit easier. With a new menu featuring Hell’s Kitchen favorites and boxed lunches from the Cafeteria, easy online ordering, and disposable warming packages and utensils, we are your one-stop-shop for office lunches and events. We deliver to all of downtown and even have a dedicated sales manager to answer any and all questions and discuss any special accommodations that might be needed. Boy oh boy, we’re tired, but we’re also fired up because our excitement about the new Hell on Wheels overshadows everything. Thinking about delivery, pickup, or set up for a small office party or a large soiree? Stay tuned!

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