| Newton’s Law of Motion | | | | By: Steve Stevens |  Page 1 of 2 next >> |
When you do something crazy, everybody has an opinion.
So when Tradd Newton, the only child of one of the oldest, most important families in Charleston, South Carolina, decided to abandon the job he’d been earmarked for since birth, a lot of heads turned. “So many people said, ‘What are you doing!’ But twice as many said, ‘What took you so long!” Newton said.
The Newton family business is the grocery supply group called the Piggly Wiggly Carolina Company. His grandfather started the Pig (as South Carolinians affectionately call the company) in 1947 in a cotton warehouse on the banks of the Cooper River and turned it into a business that, according to Newton, has annual sales of just under a billion dollars. The company had passed from Newton’s grandfather to Newton’s father. So when Tradd broke the news he was quitting the family business to open his own restaurant, his father was shocked to say the least. This was not the plan.
But in 1995, Tradd had enrolled in Johnson & Wales University’s culinary program to deepen his knowledge of food. “Seeing how sauces were made, how everything came together in the kitchen was eye opening for me.” Newton saw food in a new way, and he was hooked on the hospitality field. Luckily, there was an opportunity around the corner that would change his life.
McCrady’s
At 2 Unity Alley in Charleston, there is a stately, four-story brick building built in 1788 by Edward McCrady, a familiar figure in the pages of South Carolina history. Part of this structure was McCrady’s Tavern, where Charleston’s movers and shakers of the day met to drink, insult the British, and argue about politics. After decades of neglect, these buildings were resurrected in the 1980s, and McCrady’s building became a restaurant.
According to Rita Postell, a spokesperson for the Piggly Wiggly Carolina Company, they invested in McCrady’s when it was going bankrupt sometime in 1998. “We invested in the restaurant when the chef came to us (with financial problems). But after we invested, the chef went back to Europe. And since Tradd went to Johnson & Wales, he was given the responsibility.”
The 37-year-old Newton often dresses in khaki shorts and a short-sleeve, button-down shirt. He looks tan, fit and relaxed. And he is usually smiling. McCrady’s chef Michael Kramer worked closely with Newton for five years. “He’s an easy going guy, no doubt about it. He enjoys the outdoors, and he’s a local guy—his heart’s really here in Charleston.”
Recruiting Kramer was one of Newton’s first major decisions as top dog at McCrady’s and it turned out to be a smart one. Esquire magazine named McCrady’s one of the best new restaurants of 1999 and it has won the Wine Spectator’s award of excellence every year since 2000. It also consistently pulls in local awards for its wine and food service which in Charleston (a city Esquire called ‘a bellwether of good taste in America’), is no small accomplishment.
A Leap Of Faith
One night in 1988, a 21-year-old Newton was leaving a Piggly Wiggly trade show, walking arm-in-arm with his mother, when he passed a large, dark warehouse-like structure, skulking in the half-light of the Charleston Harbor. He pointed his finger and declared, “One day, I’m going to put something in that building.”
It was the US Navy Fleet Landing Building, built in 1942 by the Navy as a demarcation point for sailors. But it had lain unused for several years. It was this big, beaten, brute of a building that would eventually serve as Tradd Newton’s tipping point. True to his word of 16 years ago, he quit the Pig and with his wife Weesie as a 50/50 partner, he is putting a restaurant in that old building.
|
Wine Related Articles 
