20 Questions with Chef Pat Gallagher

There’s No “I” in Restaurant

A Conversation With Chef Pat Gallagher of Gallagher’s Grill, Pat Gallagher's 527, Gallagher’s Restaurant, and Pat’s Rest Awhile

By Mimi Greenwood Knight

Photos Courtesy of Pat Gallagher

We sat down with Covington's favorite son, Pat Gallagher, as he looked back on almost five decades in the restaurant business, what he’s learned, his deep Northshore roots, and where he’s headed next.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP IN COVINGTON IN THE 50S?

It was pretty special. You could ride your bike anywhere you wanted and knew everybody along the way. It was twenty-five cents for a movie. My grandfather was one of two or three doctors in town. He was coroner for St. Tammany Parish for forty-some-odd years and the first chief of staff of St. Tammany Parish Hospital. He had an office in the Southern Hotel and one in the front of his house. I can remember the doorbell ringing in the middle of the night. It would be a parent with a sick child. I used to sleep in the room right next to his office and I could hear them squalling when he gave them that penicillin shot. I’d hear him say, “That’ll be five dollars” and the patient say, “Dr. Gautreaux, I don’t have five dollars.” My grandfather would tell them, “Well, get that baby home.” Then after he made his rounds at the hospital, he’d be looking in on the child. My mom told me, during the depression, he took payment in chickens and eggs or whatever a patient could give.

After my dad graduated from Notre Dame where he walked onto the football team, he took a job coaching at St. Paul’s. He was the first St. Paul’s coach to beat Covington High. So, Bill Pitcher who was superintendent of schools hired him away from St. Paul’s and he became football, baseball, and basketball coach at Covington. He was on the city council for twenty-something years, Mayor Pro Tem, started the little league program at the community center, and was inducted into the Louisiana State High School Coaches Hall of Fame. You can say my roots run pretty deep in St. Tammany.

WHAT CAREER DID YOU ORIGINALLY SEE FOR YOURSELF?

I wanted to be a basketball coach like my dad. I’d go to all the games with him. From the time I was ten or eleven years old, I was the towel boy sitting on the bench with the team. I played basketball for my dad. He wanted me to go to Notre Dame like him, but Playboy Magazine had voted USL the party capital. So, I went to USL and majored in PE, still intent on being a basketball coach. But my hair started growing long and things changed. Let’s just say I didn’t get cheated out of a good time.

WHAT MADE YOU THINK YOU COULD CUT IT IN THE HIGHLY-COMPETITIVE RESTAURANT BUSINESS?

I don’t have a clue. I had no idea what I was doing. I’d run college bars in Baton Rouge then came back to Folsom to work in the nursery business with my brotherin-law. I was there about four years thinking that’s where I’d stay. The boss bought a little house in Folsom and said, “Why don’t you open a café in there?” Doing the work I was doing, I’d grown fond of my hot plate lunch. Working hard like that, you really look forward to that plate of red beans or that beef stew.

So, my first wife and I decided we were going to open a café, doing catfish and steaks for dinner and plate lunches and sandwiches for lunch. The day before we opened, I’d never fried a piece of catfish in my life. I got my first delivery of fish and I asked the guy, “What temperature do you fry this at?” He asked, “When are you opening?” and I said, “Tomorrow.”

I spent that night frying fish and trying to get it right. We had 40 people show up the first night and it was an unmitigated disaster. I went home, laid in bed, looked at the ceiling and I thought, “What the hell have I done?” I’ve done that about a thousand times since. But we were fortunate enough to have a lot of good friends and loyal patrons who helped us along.

WHO WERE SOME OF YOUR EARLY INFLUENCES?

I had an old gentleman walk in, one of those first days, by the name of Francis Stipsky. He was frail looking and blind in one eye. He said, “I understand you’re opening a café. Do you need any help?” I found out he had 45 years’ experience in the restaurant business. He’d been executive chef at Touro Medical Center feeding a thousand people three meals a day. He’d been at Louisiana Country Club and was at La Louisiane with Diamond Jim Moran. We wouldn’t have lasted six months without Mr. Francis. He told me one day, “Pat, they got this thing over in New Orleans called St. Michael’s Chefs for Charity. You need to go to this and watch these guys. You’ve got the passion. Go watch and learn and if you get the chance to meet Warren Leruth, tell him I’m working with you.”

Warren was the first New Orleans chef to gain national acclaim. Back then, all the chefs in New Orleans were unknown African Americans. The owners were out front, but the chefs were unknown. Warren gave a platform to Leah Chase, Austin Leslie, Louis Evans, and all these amazing black chefs. He really changed the way New Orleans looked at dining out.

Go do something else. (Laughs) No, I’d tell him to read. Study. Be ready to work very, very hard every day. When you walk into your store every morning, tell every person in that store “hello” and when they leave at night, tell them, “thank you”. We’ve had so many people come through. Thousands of people.

Before my father passed away, I had a chance to tell him, “Pops, you taught me more about what I do than you’ll ever know.” He looked at me befuddled and I told him, “I watched you build teams every year, with some people leaving, new people coming in, getting them to buy into the system and buy into the culture.” Our business is all about teamwork. To use a sports analogy, if the guard on the basketball team misses his screen, you don’t get the shot off. In football, if the guy misses his block, you don’t get the first down. If my dishwashers don’t show up, I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do.

My son, Patrick, gave me a card for Father’s Day and wrote, “You have shown me the work ethic and what you can do with hard work.” This business isn’t for the faint of heart. People see the romantic side of it, people out having fun, having drinks. But if you’re not willing to work hard, you’ll never make it and if you don’t have a team behind you, you’re done. That’s why my wife, Chyrl, and I decided to offer health insurance to our people. That’s very rare in the restaurant business. They work hard for us. We want to do right by them.

I’m in the process now of bringing the kids in. Patrick, Jr. is with us full time. Our daughter, Shelby, was full time, but she just gave us our first grandbaby. So, she’s on the shelf for now. My oldest, Skyler, handles all our social media. I can see the three of them taking over. I’d still like to be the face of the brand and visit with my guests, go up at night, have a glass of wine. But after 46 years, I’m ready to slow down.

WHAT’S YOUR OWN PERSONAL FAVORITE MEAL AND COCKTAIL?

I love soft-shell crab and we’re getting them fresh right out of the water right now. I love big, red wines, cabernets and pinots. But I’m more of a cab drinker. Of course, I still gotta have my Mic Ultra every now and then.

OUTSIDE OF THE GALLAGHER GROUP, WHO’S REALLY GETTING IT RIGHT?

John Besh is doing a great job. I know he had some challenges, but I’m so happy to see him back out front again. We’re much better off with him out there.

Sal Impastato is an absolute treasure for St. Tammany Parish. I love this man like he’s family. I’m going to his 50th celebration. We’re very lucky to have Sal in St. Tammany.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE INSIDE NORTHSIDE READERS TO KNOW?

I’m very grateful for the support we’ve gotten over the years and the patience people have shown to us as we learned. I’m very grateful to all the young adults who’ve come through over the years. Any success we’ve had is due in no small part to their efforts. When things are going right, it’s because of my outstanding staff. And St. Tammany has been very good to us.