The Community, Connections & Commerce Podcast, presented by OUE & St. Clairsville Chamber - Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 5 with Matt Welsch

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

Good morning and welcome back to Community Connections and Commerce. We're joined, it's myself, Wendy Anderson, and we're joined by our guest this morning, Matt Welsh. Matt, thanks for coming on this morning. Hey, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. We're glad to have you. Good morning. Good morning. So, Matt, we're going to start off by saying you are my son-in-law. We'll just get that out there. We're just going to get that right out there. Yeah. Happily so. Oh, thank you. And congratulations on the new baby. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

First of all, before we get into everything, how much of a toll has that taken, kind of taken you away from a few things, I'd imagine. You say you just got, what, three hours of sleep last night? Being Wendy's son-in-law, yeah, hours and hours of therapy. Yeah, thank gosh for insurance. Baby stuff is great. You just learn to operate on a whole new schedule. We sleep in two-hour bursts, and everything's a little bit different.

But we're getting back into the swing of things now, and things normalize over time. You get used to it. Well, your official title, if I'm not wrong, is owner of the Vagabond Kitchen here in Wheeling, correct? That's one of them. Okay. What are the others? I'm also the executive chef for West Virginia State Parks. Okay. What are the others? I'm also the executive chef for West Virginia State Parks. Okay. And I am the value-added products coordinator or something like that with West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition.

So I get to wear a lot of hats, but it's all food-related. Okay. Okay. And I'd imagine you had to go to culinary school to get that. I actually didn't go to culinary school. I worked my way up from the dish pit. I started cooking when I was going to school at West Liberty University. And I started working there, washing pots and pans and then started grill cooking and took it from there. It's one of the great things about culinary. It's kind of a trade, right? You know, so you can pick up on the job learning. Yeah. And, you know, just kind of

if you if you'd like to detail your story that you know, you kind of how you came up, you just touched on it a little bit there. And then from there, where did it go? Where did you start as far as dishes and then working your way up to cook? Well, you know, Drake, I was always really excited to travel and explore and find new things. So throughout that travel, I could always get a job in a kitchen. And if I showed up on time and I worked hard, you know, like it went really, really well. So I would kind of work somewhere for a while and save up money. And then I would go and travel and explore.

And then when that was all tapped, I'd find something else. So I've had the opportunity to cook in a lot of different places across the country and travel in a lot of different places across the whole world. And it was just through doing that often enough, I found it was something I had a passion for. So about 11 years ago, I started the Vagabond Chef Project, which was a culinary travel blog, and I rode my motorcycle 13,000 miles across the country researching over 60 different restaurants and culinary communities,

and I would talk to them about what they were doing, how they were doing it, and why they were doing it that way. And I'd just write stories about it. I wasn't there to critique or anything like that. But I came away from it really energized and really excited by what I saw as like a culinary renaissance in our country. And then I ended up with this opportunity to come back home again and share my experiences through the food in my own restaurant, which was really awesome. What was it that led you back here? You know, I actually had a job opportunity.

I had resettled from Idaho, did my trip, resettled in Arizona, and I had a job opportunity here in Wheeling that brought me back home. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out. But that was what got me here. And then before I knew it, people were really interested in what I had to offer. So I started catering, and that led to a brick and mortar. Wow. Wow, that's great stuff. So you, um, you have roots here. Oh yeah. In the Ohio Valley. So where are you from

originally? I grew up in Marshall County. I actually grew up on a dairy farm, uh, outside of Limestone, West Virginia. And then my family moved back to Glendale where, uh, my great grandfather built our farmhouse in 1905. So when I'm in the rest of the world, I'm from Wheeling, West Virginia. But when I'm here, I'm from Glendale, Limestone, Marshall County. Okay. So you are very passionate about Appalachian cuisine, correct? Yeah, I am.

I think it's very important. I think that food is part of our culture. Oh, yeah. And our culture is who we are. So it tells our story. And I have tried really hard to rediscover. And I kind of see myself as a culinary anthropologist. And I look for recipes that I grew up with or my folks grew up with, things that are unique to this area, and try to update those and bring them into the present day.

So one of the things that you've done at your restaurant, you have started the Benefit Burger. First of all, why did you start the Benefit Burger? What was it that led you to that? Well, so our mission statement at the Vagabond Kitchen is handcrafted food rooted in local community. And I think it's very important that we have the food and the community. Those are like two sides of an equation that balance each other out. And what I learned in my travels was that I can see the most beautiful sunset in the world, but if it died with me, like, gosh, that seems like a shame. Like, how can I help that live on? So if I make really great food

and people don't get a chance to eat it, what's it matter, right? So I always wanted to give a lot back to the community, be very active in the community. And then, you know, with the pandemic and everything that's gone on since then, that became harder and harder to do. And I threw a, we did the Irish stew benefit. Yeah, for broderie. Yeah. And when we did that, we sold bowls of our Irish

stew. We just marked it up a couple bucks and that money went to the charity. So we weren't out anything. We were able to still cover our food costs, our labor costs, our overhead. And I was like, Oh my God, this is so much better. People seem to have this, this idea that restaurants are just rolling in it. Uh, and nothing could be further from the truth. So we get hit up for charity stuff all the time and we want to help out, but you can't squeeze blood from a stone. So with the benefit burger, we sell it. We sell one of our, it's like a burger of the month. We sell our typical burger, Jacob and son's meat, Mancini's bread.

We get our cheese from Valley cheese. We get our vegetables from Jebbia's market and we put put together new flavors every month, and it helps out a different charity. And we just mark that burger up a couple bucks. And that money goes to the charity. So we're not out anything. Do you put that out there to entice people to get that? What's that? The burger, the charity burger?

Yes. Oh, you market it really well. And it really is. It is more a marketing thing for the charities. We don't raise a ton of money for them, unfortunately. I mean, a couple hundred bucks, you know, but it's every single person that comes into the restaurant hears about the charity of the month. Yeah.

They hear what's going on. And I think it really fosters a sense of community. And it reminds me of the story of Stone Soup, where the community comes together to make a meal. Yeah. And I think it shows us that we can all come together to make our community greater. Wow. So why is it important to you to support the local farmers? How does that benefit? Does that benefit all of you? Sure. I think local economy is super, super important. I mean, being a native West Virginian, our state's

history is wrought with us destroying our natural resources and sending all the proceeds outside of the state. And I want to see that change. And part of that is through bolstering our local economies. And the local farmers, the local producers, the local markets that we deal with, the money that we are giving to them stays in our community. It goes to help put a little girl to dance school. It goes to help someone's softball team. And I think that's really important. But I think even more important is to shine a light on the great things that are being done. I think we talk a lot about how nothing's made in America anymore. But look at all this stuff that's getting made. Like,

you know, we've got, I've got, I'm wearing my Riffle Farms hat right now. They grow bison in West Virginia, in Preston County. And we've got their bison hot dog on right now. We're doing a West Virginia hot dog with a West Virginia grown bison hot dog. How cool is that? Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. You try to get everything that you use locally, correct? We get everything as local as possible. Quality is my first concern. Local is my second. And just getting those really good flavors. You know, and of course, we have to be concerned about our price point too. But yeah, local is super, super important to us. And I think, again, it's fostering that sense of community yeah so how many people in a sense do you do you employ currently I think

we've got about eight folks about about three full-time the other five are part-time and that kind of fluctuates as people come and go and business you know peaks and valleys right but 2019, I had 20 people working for me. Okay. So you've had a, you've had to go through the hiring process a good amount. And one of the questions I wanted to make sure we got to was, was what you look for and what your ideal candidate was in somebody that comes on. And also like how young are the people that usually want to work for you and, and, or how old how old are they you know the age range is all over the place uh and really what i look for more than anything else is character you know and i look back to the people that were hiring me you know i could show up to work on time i worked hard

when i was there yeah that's the sort of thing i'm looking for if people aren't skilled that's fine i can teach them my staff can teach them but if if, you know, for front of the house, for the servers, if they've got a basic ability to create rapport with folks, you know, if they've got a good personality, then we can teach them about, you know, the menu and how to talk about food and the steps of service. And for the back of the house, if you can listen, if you can follow direction, you know, at least, you know, if I can say, hey, I need you to do this, and this is how to do it, and it's followed through accurately, cool. The nuance will come. So you focus more on the intangibles.

The culture. Yeah, I think that's way more important. So what do you say to students who are in school right now, college, and how to apply for a job. What is it that, I know what you said you looked for, but what can they do in school to make sure that they are top on your list? Well, I think you need to take your schooling seriously. You know, take what you're doing seriously. We only get one life. We only get so much time, so don't waste it. And I also think you should, these days, you have a lot of opportunity as a job seeker.

Really do your research. When I have candidates come in and they know as much about me as I do, I'm super impressed. The research. Yeah, my current head chef, he came in. He knew everything about my story. He knew everything about our menu. He had questions for me. He was looking for where does he want to work? What place has the culture that fits what he wants? Because when you work for small business, especially, it is 100% a quality of life choice. You can go work for a chain and make more money. That's just how it is.

But if you want to enjoy life, you might be better suited. It depends on what's important to you, right? But you might be better suited working at a place that's mom and pop. So do your research. Find a place. Know yourself. Know what your values are. Sure.

And then find a place that aligns with that. Okay. Do you face any challenges when it comes to, you know, I don't want you to throw anybody under the bus, but is there anybody that you say, you know, I wish this or that, you know, there's just these one or two hurdles we have to get over, whether it be in terms of the hiring process or just folks that work for you or any other aspect? You know, I think restaurants face all the hurdles. And I think that's one of the reasons why you're seeing fewer and fewer locally owned places. You know, we're a retail store the hurdles, and I think that's one of the reasons why you're seeing fewer and fewer locally owned places.

You know, we're a retail store where our product goes bad in a week. I mean, nothing could be more challenging. Yeah. And, you know, finding staff that do have a work ethic, that have that sense of urgency that you need, that are trustworthy, all those things, that's challenging no matter what business that you're in. So it is a very, very challenging industry to be a part of. But it's not something I could choose to let go. It's something that's part of who I am. And some people come and go in the industry. They'll serve for a summer to get through to the next thing.

Or they'll do a little bit of cooking here and there, but you always know the lifers because they, they are so passionate about food and about hospitality and about the experience that they're giving to people. You know, it's, it's almost like they couldn't do without it. So that somehow transcends all those hurdles. And then you just start to get creative about how are you going to get across to the other side?

I know that you just celebrated your 10th year anniversary. So congratulations for the fact that you stayed in business in downtown Wheeling. And during, you know, the 10 years, I know you've had hurdles up and down. The one thing that I am really impressed with was Conquer the Cones. So how did that come about? Well, Conquer the Cones was started by Panhandle. So back in, this is kind of a funny little story.

Back in December, I was at the restaurant late for, I can't remember what was going on, but I was there late. I shut her down. Everyone else was gone. And I was talking to a chef friend of mine in Morgantown and just explained to him like what was going on with the streetscape project and I shot this little video of me standing in the middle of my intersection and with both both sides of Market Street completely closed and I sent it off to him and we were like holy crap and we're just kind of chatting back and forth and the next

morning I was like you know what shoot I'm just going to post it on my Instagram. And it blew up, of course, because the things you put no effort in are the ones that catch it. Makes me want to take less notes. That's exactly right. So the folks at Panhandle saw that and they're like, yeah, we've got to do something. We've got to help out. We've got to help out all these businesses in downtown.

So they started this Conquer the Cones initiative, which is such a great idea. I believe there are 13 restaurants listed on this little business card. And if you go to, I think you only have to go to six and yet each one, you get a little stamp. And once you go to six, you get to turn your card and you're entered into a drawing for a thousand bucks at the end of that quarter. And you can enter as many times as you want. You just have to do the work. You have to go eat good food, good local food. So good local food. So it's such a great way to bring the community together. And so Panhandle did the first quarter, and then we just had Rowward Financial, I believe, picked up the second quarter. And then now we're into the third quarter, and it's Erie Insurance is doing it.

And I believe they've got sponsors all the way through next summer when the project is supposed to be completed. So super, super cool way to just have that conversation in a positive way. Because our local places are here for our local community. And it needs to be a symbiotic relationship. We need people to go out of their way to support us so we can do what we do for them. Sure. Right. I was going to ask you about the construction and the streetscaping and everything.

And I think that's a great way to get people to, you know, enticed to go to these local businesses and local food and everything. But maybe before that, you know, what other challenges do you see that causing for yourself and other businesses around Wheeling? The biggest challenge we have in downtown is people's idea of what downtown is. Okay. People are hung up on it's not what it was in the early 80s, and they don't even want to give it a shot.

And the biggest problem with this streetscape project is that it looks like a mess out there right now. Feels, yeah. And people are using that to fill that narrative of downtown's a mess, I'm not going to go down there. When really it's a minor inconvenience. It's still very possible to get everywhere you used to go. You might have to just dogleg and jog around a street or something like that.

They're still parking. A lot of the problems are perception issues. And they're just in people's minds. And so our biggest thing is to get people to give it a shot. And I think when the streetsetscape Project is done, we need to have a grand reopening of downtown. We've got to blow it up. I agree.

Marching bands and people on stilts and dancing bears, whatever, and get people to come down and see. I've been saying for years that we're in the heart of beautiful downtown Wheeling. And maybe that's hard to say at the moment, but I believe that's going to be true again. And I've always believed that a downtown is the heart of a community. Sure, yeah. And I call my place Vagabond Kitchen because I think the kitchen is the heart of a family. It's the heart of a home.

So I see that a lot in what I'm doing. West Virginia is the heart of Appalachia. We're the only state fully in Appalachia. So we've got to put the heart back into all this stuff and we need people to become involved again in their community. You can't just make choices based off of convenience all the time. Oh, yeah. We talked about that a long, we talked about that in our first episode, I believe. Right. No, you can't, You can't just sit stagnant and let things happen. You know, I know there's two restaurants or two eateries that have closed. Yeah.

Or I just saw yesterday. And that made me so sad. Yeah. Because you have to be, there's so much you can do. But yet again, you have to be flexible, but sometimes it's just hard. It is just hard. It is definitely hard. And I, you know, I think a big part of what I do with the Vagabond Kitchen and what I do with my food is to try to get people to be more intentional and to think a little bit more about what they're putting into their bodies

and their choices. And that's really what they're putting into their bodies and their choices. And that's really what, that's the same thing with local businesses. And I understand that it is way easier to run through the drive-thru at McDonald's and grab something to eat because you're stressed, you're tired, you're busy, and, like, you've got all this stuff going on. And that's fine. Like, that's going to be part of life, and it's okay. But just put in that little bit of extra effort to hit up a local place once a week or once a month whatever works for you right yeah i think that is so important because

that's what um the chamber's motto is always about you know supporting local being out there and taking the time to get out of your car and go visit some of these places it is just so important right right because it's not only because like you said when you support local i don't care what business it is it is helping that family because that family is also pouring money into the community right and they're supporting dance groups or you know boy scouts or baseball whatever. And I think we need to really think about the idea of staying local and are in the Ohio Valley. Well, you get so much more bang for your buck. You do.

And that's the thing. It's a little bit more output on the individual's part, but you receive so much more back, exponentially more back, than you would if you just went the convenience route. We read a few weeks ago that what was it 62% of all the money you spend locally gets reinvested look yeah so it stays there whereas you know anywhere anywhere else in some big corporation you know that goes to corporate right right things like that but but yeah I think it's incredibly important and that's why we call out all the farms and the markets

that we work with on our menu so people can see that's if I this, that money is also going to support Jebbia, is going to support Jacob and Sons, going to support Riffle Farms, Blended Homestead, Family Roots Farm, the people that we get to work with on a regular basis. And we're always looking for more local folks to bring into the fold that we can collaborate with. Sure. So Matt, I'm going to ask you, what's your favorite food? Oh gosh. I have the least interesting answers to stuff like this because like I love pizza. Like I'm basic. I mean, I enjoy all the fancy stuff.

I've had foie gras and sushi and all kinds of like things when I was growing up, I never even thought I'd ever have the chance to try. I've eaten tons of awful like intestines and brains, you know, all kinds of stuff. But I'm a pizza dude. I love pizza. And, you know, people always ask, what do I love to cook? I like to make soup. Really?

Yeah. Soup's awesome. So you can do so many things with soup. This is a little psychological. Do you find, does cooking bring peace to you? It depends. Maybe not when you're at work. Well,

it just depends on if things are going right. So it's all about mise en place, which is a cooking term. It's a French term means everything in its place. Okay. And if you have your mise, if you have your stuff together, it's great.

It feels wonderful because it's like being in a sports team. It's like you're in the zone. If you don't, when things go off the rails, it can be quite stressful. Or even cooking at home when there's a lot going on and the kids are hungry and the phone's ringing and you're like, oh, my God, I've got to get this done. And I always put a lot of pressure on myself. I want everything to be hot. I want everything to come out at the same time.

I try to plate nicely at my house. So, yeah, it's not like it's always Shangri-La in the kitchen. Well, listen, I liked you before, but I like you a lot more now with your pizza answer. And I have to ask you, what's your favorite local – what do you think is the best locally owned pizza in the Ohio Valley? Wow. I'm going to make enemies. Stretching all the way up to Steubenville, down to Moundsville. There are three standouts.

Okay. Of course, DeCarlo's. I grew up on DeCarlo's. I love DeCarlo's pizza. I'm a diehard DeCarlo's fan. Then there is DeFelice. The DeFelice Supreme. I love DeFelice, the DeFelice Supreme. I love DeFelice.

Oh my God. Uh, and then more recently we've got, uh, PJ's Pizza from New Martinsville has come up and got the old Varsity Pizza down in Moundsville. Oh, okay. And PJ's is a really good pizza also. But I mean, I remember the worst piece of pizza I ever had. It was awesome. Yeah.

It's pretty hard to mess up pizza. I like it frozen. Growing up we'd get the Schwan's man would come, those little round pizzas. I loved it all. School cafeteria pizza, bring it. Oh my gosh. So I will tell you, my favorite is that hot dog. The bison hot dog.

Oh, heavens. If you have not had that bison hot dog, my favorite food, it's a hot dog yeah yeah i'd love hot dogs and went somewhere yesterday and there was a hot dog bar and all she said was um i said what's your special she said we have hot dog bar okay sign me up so i love hot dog i love that hot dog though so let me share with everyone what that is, what that plate is. So I also love hot dogs.

It is, so I mentioned the locally grown bison hot dog wrapped in bacon. And it's a West Virginia hot dog. So it's got the chili sauce, creamy coleslaw, minced onions, and yellow mustard on it. And we serve it with a pickled ramp potato salad and smoked baked beans oh my god it's so good it's on a mancini's bun so it is it is a heck of a meal yeah it is one of my favorites yeah i'm gonna have to stop in at some point this week yeah please do i also really enjoy um elevating like peasant food or like things that are like, oh, that's not fancy. Well, let me make it fancy. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, do you use – do you use flowers? Flowers. I have. In yours? If they're edible. I've got a thing about don't put anything on the plate I'm not supposed to eat. So no inedible garnishes.

No rosemary sprigs, like raw rosemary sprigs. What am I supposed to do with that? Brush my teeth? I don't know. sprigs, like raw rosemary sprigs. What am I supposed to do with that? Brush my teeth? So if it's an edible flower, I have, I will. It's not my favorite thing. It feels like you're trying, like gold leaf.

Yeah. Get out of here with that gold leaf. Come on. Is it bringing anything to the dish? No. So that's my question. I think it can be done well. It's not necessarily something that I do well. And I just try to play to my strengths and increase what those are. And plating is something I've been working on a ton over the years.

I really want to make sure that the plating matches the finesse of the food, right? Yeah. It's almost like a first impression. Oh, for sure. You eat with your eyes first, for sure. Wow. Wow. Wow. Do you have anything else?

No, I can't. I want to respect your time. I know you've got to get across the street. No, I just thank you for coming in. And I thank you for being someone who's passionate about local. Yeah, thank you. Local cuisine. I'm still in the family.

You're still in the family. Still in the family. I was worried. So thank you again. Yeah, you bet. And, you know, here's to another 10 years in downtown Wheeling. And I think that is something that we all should strive for. Make sure we come out and support local, eat local, have fun local.

Well, I appreciate it. And things like this are super important because we need to get the story out there more. We do. So that's why I started a YouTube channel a couple years ago because I wanted to get the story out there. If you can't come in and eat the food yourself, at least let me show you what we're doing. Let me show you that food. Get that idea in there. Right, right.

Because we've got to market our local businesses, our state, our region. It's very, very important to show people what they're missing if they're not putting that extra effort in to partake. Right. Well, we appreciate you coming on. Thank you.

We appreciate your time, and we wish you the best. And for Matt, Wendy, myself, this is Community Connections and Commerce. Thanks for listening, and have a good one.