When did you know this is what you wanted to do? When I was younger I had ideas of running my own business. As young as 10 or 12 years old I always envisioned owning my own hotel. I was really into restaurants, bars, hotels and hospitality as a whole. How did you get your start? My first job was busing tables when I was 14 years old. I worked in a few restaurants and bars through high school and college. In my late 20s I decided to go back into hospitality—it was more like "I’ll give it a shot; maybe it will be a career, maybe it won't.” I got out of the mortgage industry and just really wanted to find the next, long-term career. Being a creative person, I always enjoyed having my own vision and really wanted to do my own thing. The hardest thing was not knowing how to start. My biggest learning experience was opening up my own bar and having to create and learn everything from scratch. I’ve seen a change in myself over the past 6 years—I'm more patient, more understanding and more helpful with teaching people. Luckily, I’ve been able to learn a lot from family and friends that own their own restaurants and bars. I feel fortunate that I can learn directly from people I admire and respect and who were nice enough to give me advice and help. What was your first restaurant and when did it open? How did your concepts evolve? theAVENUE is my first restaurant on my own. In November we turned 5 and we are steamrolling through to year 6. After theAVENUE came KINGS, followed by Proper and more recently, Park & Rec. theAVENUE was not a great location when we took it but I was excited about the other businesses coming in. After theAVENUE, we opened KINGS and were able to help develop an awesome and unique concept in an area that was growing. We saw the trend of what was coming. That’s something we want to be part of always. It’s exciting to help develop an area. Eventually, when the pizza place next to theAVENUE left I knew I wanted the space. I wanted that synergy. I didn’t think the World of Beer location on the same block would end up being my third location, but it worked out perfectly. Proper ended up being a completely different build out. For it to take 13 to 14 months was not the plan. Especially with KINGS being brand new, it was a difficult time; probably the hardest year of my life. Now we are close to 100 staff. To be able to say I’ve created close to 100 jobs is something I’m proud of. Where are you from and how did you find yourself in St. Pete? I grew up in Tampa and considered it home. I was living in Channelside and originally looked to open theAVENUE RESTAURANT FOUNDER Stephen Schrutt is making his mark in downtown St. Pete. Entering the scene almost six years ago with theAVENUE eat + drink, he found his niche and has since built a successful restaurant group by adding KINGS Street Food Counter, PROPER Kitchen & Cocktails and the most recent Park & Rec DTSP. We are impressed by Stephen’s business success and creativity and wanted to dive deeper into where he came from and where he’s headed. theAVENUE Park & Rec MAY/JUNE 2017 localsDISH 19
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