Chef Christopher Collins on His Iconic Restaurants, Swimming, and Extra

A fourth-generation restaurateur, Chef Christopher Collins has constructed a profession round creating neighborhood eating places that really feel like residence. After incomes a level in hospitality administration from Boston University and refining his craft with Hillstone Restaurant Group, he returned to Arizona to discovered Common Ground Culinary, the corporate behind beloved Valley ideas like Grassroots Kitchen & Tap, Wally’s American Gastropub, The Collins Small Batch Kitchen, Neighborly Public House, and extra. Each restaurant displays his perception that real hospitality, considerate design, and nice meals have the ability to deliver individuals collectively.

 

What impressed you to create eating places that really feel like “home?”

I wasn’t impressed to create a enterprise, however fairly an area the place individuals in my group might really feel one thing past the everyday restaurant expertise. I grew up in my dad’s kitchen and have core reminiscences surrounding giant household dinners, and people emotions are what I would like my eating places to embody.

 

As a fourth-generation restaurateur, what’s one lesson that’s stayed with you?

The biggest lesson my father taught me was “don’t get too high on the highs and too low on the lows.” Having grown up within the enterprise, I watched firsthand how this trade might be feast or famine, and that the strongest operators hold a good keel and transfer ahead day-after-day.

 

How did your time with Hillstone form your strategy to hospitality?

At Hillstone, I discovered uncompromising dedication to our operations, requirements, and types, however I’ve to credit score my father in instructing me real hospitality. He at all times emphasised that cooking meals for visitors and them handing over their hard-earned cash is a really intimate transaction and that ought to at all times be appreciated and revered.

 

What’s the center behind Common Ground Culinary’s ideas?

The core precept behind Common Ground Culinary and our assortment of eating places is my pursuit to turn out to be the Valley’s premier hospitality group. I’ve no ambition to function any ideas exterior Arizona. I’m dedicated to my group and hope that the group is proud to name Common Ground Culinary a cornerstone of the Arizona restaurant scene.

 

Do you may have a favourite dish throughout your eating places—or is that unattainable to decide on?

That’s like asking which certainly one of my boys is my favourite son. On any given day, a special dish shines and brings a smile to my face. I’m really happy with all of our creations, and like something value pursuing, I’m always revisiting and evolving our recipes.

 

What’s one factor visitors won’t know occurs behind the scenes?

Most visitors don’t perceive that our day begins lengthy earlier than opening, and that whereas the eating places shut, there’s a good probability that my staff and I are nonetheless “at work.”

 

What retains you impressed within the Valley’s eating scene at the moment?

There are some things that get me enthusiastic about what’s occurring domestically right here within the Valley. The eating scene by no means sits nonetheless, and we’ve got entered a time of fixed reinvention and creativity. Greater Phoenix is on the map as a significant eating vacation spot, providing international influences with distinctive takes on fusion cuisines. At the tip of the day, the best present is that the group exhibits up and helps its native eating places, permitting us to take probabilities and lift the bar.

 

If you weren’t a chef or restaurateur, what would you be doing?

Whenever I’ve a tough day, it’s widespread for me to come back residence and inform my spouse, “I should have been the swim coach at Brophy.” I grew up on the swimming pool, acquired a full athletic scholarship to attend Boston University, and have fond reminiscences of my friends and coaches. If I might do it once more, I might spend my time motivating and molding a younger technology to search out worth in laborious work and dedication.

 

One factor we’d be shocked to find out about you?

My happiest place in life is within the kitchen cooking meals for these whom I like, however a really shut second is spending time underwater with fishies. I’m an avid lover of the ocean and discover peace whereas scuba diving and snorkeling with my household.