by Steven Doyle
There was a major disturbance in the force today in the Dallas chef world. Graham Dodds, the wunderkind chef who opened the Statler redux is no longer with the hotel.
We reached out to all parties concerned, and rumors were flying from the community. Dodds is bound by a severance package that prevents him from commenting, as is the case with a manager and another unnamed chef Dodds brought on to the team.
This is often the case when building a restaurant, or group of restaurants. The executive behind the initial growth often moves along shortly after the teams are constructed.
“Graham Dodds was an integral part of our opening team, and we are incredibly grateful to him for leading the culinary helm of our six concepts at The Statler over the past year. That said, while we have decided to part ways, we continue to be his fans and wish him nothing but the best,” Chris Zielke shared with Crave today.
Zielke went on to say, “Graham built us a great team and they are going to continue to execute his vision”.
Zielke also shared that the Statler is doing extremely well and one of the top three in Dallas liquor sales, and assure us that he has execs in place that are “strong and running their own stores”. He is not seeking a current replacement at this time.
Followers of Dodds recall his service at another Zielke restaurant, Bolsa. He was also at Central 214, Hibiscus and Wayward Sons where he had a flare for farm-to-table. Concept Dodds oversaw at Statler include Fine China, Scout and R&B.
Graham Dodds is a hot commodity and will most likely show up at a newly opened restaurant very soon.
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