Hall of Fame John Rivers, Peter Kacheris

2020-2021 Hall of Fame

Congratulations to FRLA’s 2020-2021 Hall of Fame Recipients!

An interesting Editor’s note: Both of these Hall of Fame winners were featured in the spring 2017 issue of FR&L Magazine with Rivers as our Chefs That Sizzles and Kacheris as our Path to Power feature. View this issue here.

Restaurateur John Rivers 2021 Restaurateur of the Year

Restaurant entrepreneur and head chef of the award-winning 4 Rivers Smokehouse, John Rivers spent two decades traveling the country honing his taste and talent for barbecue. The Jacksonville native and Florida State University business grad ended a 20-year career in health care as president of a billion-dollar company to pursue a passion for helping children through his garage-based barbecue ministry — a bold switch fueled by faith and supported by family.

With ten restaurant locations throughout Florida, one restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, and plans for continued expansion, John has received national recognition, having cooked at the James Beard House in NYC and participated several consecutive years in the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival. Other renowned publications, including USA Today, Cooking Light, Food & Wine, and Paula Deen Magazine have also featured Rivers and the growing 4R brand.

Rivers is a 2021 FSU College of Business Alumni Hall of Fame Inductee and served on the FSU College of Business Board of Governors.

In 2017, as a Path to Power feature in FR&L Magazine, Rivers attributed his success in the restaurant industry as follows: “I believe a successful restaurant is the direct result of a strong culture, and 4 Rivers is all about the culture. People think it’s about the brisket and they think it’s about the product, but it’s about so much more than that. It’s about having fun, being thankful for our blessings and giving back to the community. It’s not about what we do; it’s about why we do it.”

John’s latest restaurant concept, The COOP, has quickly become a neighborhood favorite, with its fresh take on Southern comfort foods. He recently published his first book, The Southern Cowboy Cookbook, serves on numerous charity and school boards and lives in Winter Park, Florida, with his wife and two children.

Hotelier Peter Kacheris

2021 Hotelier of the Year

Peter Kacheris began his career in 1978 with Marriott Hotels & Resorts holding positions in operations, sales and marketing at various properties before being promoted to cluster general manager for the JW Marriott Lenox in Atlanta. In 2006, he was tapped as hotel manager for the Orlando World Center Marriott and was soon thereafter named general manager of the JW Marriott Grande Lakes Hotel complex comprising a 1,000 room JW Marriott hotel and a 582 room Ritz-Carlton, one of the first luxury hotels in the Orlando market. In 2006 Kacheris joined Starwood Hotels as complex general manager of the 2,265-room Walt Disney World® Swan and Dolphin Resort. In 2008, he joined Hilton Hotels as Managing Director of Waldorf Astoria Orlando & Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek. During this time, Kacheris was responsible for daily operations of the 498-room Waldorf Astoria Orlando (the first new-build Waldorf Astoria outside of NYC) and the 1,001-room Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek. He was also responsible for the award-winning Waldorf Astoria Golf Club, the Waldorf Astoria Spa and more than a dozen dining and lounge experiences, including the acclaimed Bull & Bear® restaurant.

In a 2017 interview with FR&L Editor, Susie McKinley, he noted, “The single greatest factor in the success of my career is the incredible people I have surrounded myself with. I have been very fortunate to work with high-performing individuals at all levels — superiors, peers and support teams.”