For Jeff Mills, Founder & CEO of Genuine Foods, November 12th has a particular relevance. On this day, twenty years ago, The New York Times published a review of his New York City-based restaurant, The Biltmore Room, awarding it a coveted three-star rating. Mills, then just 29 years old, was the youngest restauranteur at that time to have received that distinction.
Jeff Mills in The Biltmore Room restaurant located in Chelsea, NYC.
Jeff found a home in the restaurant industry at an early age, working full-time starting at 14. His career took off when he began bartending in Boston to pay his way through college. Soon, he was being asked to bartend across the city.
The Biltmore Room, a fine-dining restaurant in a then-little-known part of Chelsea, was the result of years of experience in hospitality paired with a dream to create something extraordinary. “I often think about one of the quotes in the New York Times review. It has nothing to do with the restaurant really,” said Mills. “The review said, ‘The Biltmore Room may be the best restaurant ever to come out of far left field.’” “I like to do things other people say are impossible.”
So many aspiring chefs and restauranteurs are never able to overcome the obstacles to building a business. Mills preserved through a mix of charm, grit, and tenacity. When the landlord of the building he’d been eyeing finally relented to leasing, the offer came with an ultimatum. “She said, 'If you want this, I want you to come see me by 4 PM today. Bring a security deposit and six months upfront in cash.' I had no credit, no collateral, and no idea where I was going to come up with that much cash in such a short time, but I did, and that’s how everything started.”
Finding the building was just the beginning. The general contractor took payment in full and completed ten percent of the work before walking. The mob had to be paid off. At the point that he was sleeping on a friend’s couch, wearing shoes with holes, and had no more money left to spare, things finally came together.
The Biltmore Room received early praise and distinction, being one of just 52 restaurants reviewed by the Times each year out of the thousands that open. Soon it became a go-to spot for the well-connected. Its appeal went beyond its expertly crafted and executed menu. As in all great restaurants, dining there was an experience. “It was a place where you felt transported. You couldn’t see the outside. You didn’t feel like you were in New York City. It was an escape, and I enjoyed the theater of it.”
“When I was 30, I had my birthday party in the restaurant,” said Mills. “I remember friends coming up to me and saying ‘Wow, you are living the dream.’ I didn’t feel like it.” Jeff soon found a new focus when a nonprofit approached him about giving low-income youth the opportunity to job shadow. As far as he had come from his humble roots, Jeff began to think back to his beginnings. He grew up in Ohio, not knowing his father and seeing his mother rarely. He was raised by his German grandmother and French grandfather. Good food was central to their relationship and played an outsized role in bringing joy and warmth to his early life. “My grandmother’s nourishment went beyond nutrition, it was love. I wanted to do that on a bigger scale.”
Jeff sold The Biltmore Room to his lead investor and began consulting. Soon after he found himself overseeing the food program at DC Public Schools. Over a short period, he and his team radically transformed the food accessible to more than 44,000 mostly low-income students from heat and serve to flavorful, whole-food-based, and scratch-made. When Jeff learned that the private vendor who had been serving the schools had mismanaged funds, he spent years pursuing a case as an official whistleblower, winning one of the largest settlements of the time against a food service management company.
Following the conclusion of the suit, Jeff saw an opportunity to build a better food service management company – one that had high-quality food at its core and operated with transparency and integrity. He founded Genuine Foods soon afterward. As Genuine Foods has grown, Jeff has made certain it continues to reflect his commitment to high-quality food and hospitality, bringing the same level of care and attention to diners across the country as he did to his former Biltmore Room patrons. He remains driven by the same sense of purpose and restless spirit. If good food can power better, brighter futures, why isn’t it available everywhere?