The politics of restaurants: Carlton owner Kevin Joyce focuses on the big picture
Kevin Joyce stays deeply connected to more than the "raw material" of the restaurant business.
The owner of The Carlton in the BNY Mellon Building, Downtown, naturally, is alert of where to get thick pieces of Midwestern beef, fresh Alaskan seafood or a musky cabernet. He stays focused on taxes on drinks, parking rates he believes hurt trade,• and state liquor policies he sees as a burden.
Joyce has taken on a political role in his life as a restaurateur -- even when such work means losing trade.
"That fight has been costly," says Ray Hottenstein, owner of the Olde Greenfield Inn in Lancaster County and a colleague from the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association. "Some people on Grant Street just don't stop in anymore."
He and others in the restaurant business see Joyce sometimes gambling with success at The Carlton, a well-appointed restaurant he has managed since 1984 and owned since 1995.
Glenn Hawley, owner of the Monterey Bay Fish Grotto on Mt. Washington and in Monroeville, says Joyce has a passion that can lead him "not to be appreciated."
When asked for a comment about the restaurateur, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato declines. Onorato and Joyce have been steady foes over a county drink tax that Joyce thinks hurts business and the county. The 7 percent tax on poured alcoholic beverages was established to raise funds for county contributions to the Port Authority of Allegheny County.
But that attention to the politics of the restaurant business defines Joyce, says Jack Offenbach, the owner of the local Ruth Chris Steak House, Downtown. He gave Joyce his first managerial position at Tequila Junction in Station Square on the South Side.
"Kevin is an outstanding performer," Offenbach says. "He has taught me a lot. Still does. If I were to look at the hiring I have done in my 40 years in this business, Kevin would be the star."
Knowing the restaurant business
Joyce grew up in Brookline. After his family moved to the Philadelphia area, he started working in the restaurant at the Chester Valley Country Club when he was 14. That led to steady restaurant work through high school and college. When he left Pitt in 1976, he started work at the Steak & Ale chain in this area, becoming the bar manager at the McKnight Road site.
That led to his first managerial position, at Offenbach's Tequila Junction. Offenbach says he looked at Joyce as an innovator who knew the Pittsburgh market.
"Whenever I need advice about what's going on here, I go to Kevin," he says.
Joyce ultimately got involved at a site at One Oxford Centre owned by Levy Restaurants in Chicago, which led to him becoming the manager of The Carlton in 1984.
"They wanted a restaurant that would be a good place for business meetings and also a good place for celebrating a special event," Joyce says, adding that still is his philosophy today. "But we didn't want it to be New York- or Chicago-stuffy."
He bought the restaurant in 1995, a time when the Levy company was getting more into concession work, say Mark Levy, who now is the CEO of a Southern California chain.
He says the Levy firm was pleased at that time "that a local person with the same goals as we had would show interest in the property."
Those goals and a knowledge of the business keep The Carlton cooking, says Mark Swomley, the restaurant's executive chef, who has been at the restaurant for 17 years.
He says Joyce works the front of the restaurant as an owner, dealing with customers and business, and spends time in the kitchen, expediting preparation.
"The man can tell you anything you need to know about wine," Swomley says. "He just loves food."
Janet McClelland, the hostess at the restaurant, has worked there for 26 years, and says Joyce makes the site a success because "he listens to everyone. He knows what we want. We know what he wants. He knows the business."
Adding spice to the recipe
.Joyce's outlook on political life more or less reflects his outlook on business.
"You have to look at the broad picture," he says.
When a tax on alcoholic beverages is passed in Allegheny County, it can move some trade in border areas to outer counties, he says. So an Upper St. Clair wedding reception might be moved to nearby Washington County or one in Monroeville to Murrysville in Westmoreland County.
Higher rates in city garages and at city meters keep potential diners from coming Downtown, he says, which can be costly when there is an effort to make the city more lively.
Joyce says he has tried to see the bigger picture in terms of business, too. In 2010, that led to a complete shutdown for eight weeks and two days for a $1.3-million improvement project. The job included work at Eadie's Kitchen & Market, a breakfast and lunch site in the BNY Mellon Building that is owned by Kevin Joyce Restaurants Inc., and is managed by his wife, Maggie.
Besides running a restaurant and being involved in local issues, Joyce has been busy with the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association. He was the president of the statewide group in 2006 and chairs the Government Affairs Committee for the Western Chapter. He is on the board of directors and executive committee as a past president.
Such involvement is a statement of his overall outlook, says John Graf, owner of The Priory on the North Side.
"He is willing to stick his neck out," Graf says. "He is willing to put it on the line."
Joyce does these things not only to help himself, but for the whole industry, says Jeff Cohen, co-owner of the Smallman Street Deli and Weiss Provision, both headquartered in the Strip District.
"Basically he has taught me you have to give back," he says.
Richard Beynon, chairman of the board of directors of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, says Joyce's alertness to all matters is an important feature of his work. The Partnership is a group centered on blending the business and residential aspects of life and work Downtown.
Joyce is part of the board of directors and Beynon calls him a "valuable member" because of his ideas and concerns.
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl says he respects the "opinions on behalf of the local business community" that have emerged from Joyce's work with the partnership.
Taking on issues and expressing opinions seem to go back to Joyce's days at the University of Pittsburgh, when he was studying political science with the goal of going to law school.
"He would have been a tremendous trial lawyer," Hottenstein says.
But, he is obviously at ease in the restaurant business, too.
