Today we’d like to introduce you to John Russ.
Hi John, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in New Orleans, and for a long time I thought I might end up in radio. I listened to a lot of NPR, went to the University of Alabama for a year and came home without much of a plan. My parents told me it was time to find a job, so I ended up working on the Steamboat Natchez.
That was my first real look at cooking as a profession. We were feeding huge numbers of people, and I became interested in how a kitchen worked and how much there was to learn. I enrolled at Delgado Community College and eventually worked at places including the Ritz-Carlton, where I was exposed to chefs with serious technical training. From there, cooking took me to different cities and overseas.
I met my wife, Elise, while we were both working at a hotel in Maryland. She is a pastry chef, and food has always been part of the way we built our life together. We moved to San Antonio in 2012 and started Alamo City Provisions, a series of collaborative pop-up dinners that introduced us to a lot of the people shaping the city’s food community.
In 2018, we opened Clementine in Castle Hills. We now have three kids, and the restaurant has grown up alongside our family. I am still ambitious about the food, but my definition of success has changed. I care much more about building something we can be proud of for a long time, surrounded by people we respect, in a city that has become home.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. One of the hardest things has been learning that the version of success you picture at the beginning is not necessarily the version that will make you happy later.
Before Clementine opened, Elise and I spent a lot of time imagining a much larger restaurant. Eventually we had to ask ourselves what kind of owners, parents and partners we actually wanted to be. Choosing a smaller restaurant gave us the ability to stay close to the food, our team and our family, but it also required us to stop measuring ourselves against what everyone else in the industry seemed to be doing.
Then 2020 changed everything. We were trying to protect our staff, keep the restaurant alive and take care of two very young children while the rules changed constantly. We adapted the restaurant over and over again, and that experience made us much more comfortable with uncertainty.
The challenges since then have been different, but the lesson is similar. Staffing changes, shifting guest habits and the day-to-day pressure of ownership force you to keep learning. I have become much more aware that leadership is not just setting a standard. It is figuring out how to communicate that standard to different people, when to push, when to listen and when your own approach needs to change.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Clementine?
Clementine is the restaurant Elise and I opened in Castle Hills in 2018. The food is seasonal and changes constantly, but what matters most to me is the way the restaurant operates and the relationships behind it.
We work closely with farmers, ranchers, fishermen and other producers, and that connection influences what ends up on the menu. Our Feed Me option is probably the clearest expression of how we like to cook. Instead of asking guests to make every decision themselves, they can give us a few preferences and let the kitchen take it from there. It creates room for spontaneity and gives our team a chance to cook with what is best at that moment.
The older I get, the more I think about restaurants as ecosystems. A restaurant should be good for the guest, but it also has to work for the people cooking the food, serving it, supplying it and owning the business. I am proud that we have resisted the idea that success has to mean becoming bigger. We have chosen to keep our attention on one restaurant, develop the people around us and stay close enough to the work that we can keep improving it.
I want Clementine to feel thoughtful without feeling precious. You can come celebrate something important, or you can come in because it is Tuesday and you want someone else to cook dinner. Both matter to us.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
What I like best about San Antonio is the sense of community. I moved here in 2012, and it did not take long before the city started to feel like home. There is a real loyalty here to people, neighborhoods and local businesses. We have guests who have grown with Clementine, producers we have worked with for years and a food community that is generous about showing up for one another. Elise and I are raising our three kids here, so San Antonio is not just where we built our restaurant. It is where we built our life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.clementine-sa.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clementine.sanantonio/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clementine.sanantonio
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/clementine-san-antonio-castle-hills
