THE FCSI INTERVIEW
IN HIS OWN WORDS: THREE MILESTONE PROJECTS FOR ERIC NORMAN
BRAZEN OPEN KITCHEN, DUBUQUE, IOWA
“Brazen is a unique restaurant. In our downtown there was a lot of empty and rundown manufacturing warehouse buildings. There was a huge resurgence to redo
the area. Brazen was a project we did with local chef Kevin Scharpf. He came from the casino world but wanted to do a cool restaurant. We worked on that project 10 years ago and it’s become a massive anchor in our downtown area. Now everybody in the city knows It. That restaurant has spurred growth and development all around it. Kevin went on to be on Top Chef and I’m still working on other concepts with him. It’s become a cool relationship between us, but that one was fun.”
VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE
When asked where he finds himself the happiest in his job – whether designing, growing the business, meeting clients, or fixing snagging issues on site – Norman says it’s essentially, all of the above. I’m happiest knowing that I get to do all those things. Te best thing about my professional life is the diversity and knowing I’m not doing the same thing every day.” For Norman, that’s nearly
exclusively design work these days, although many will recall the excellent Rock My Restaurant series he hosted with Bill Bender FCSI for Foodable WebTV in the 2010s, where the two consultants would troubleshoot operators issues.
“Tat show got me comfortable with public speaking. It was awesome to research all those topics, and then discuss them live on our show. It was a huge learning experience for me,” he says. Away from work, Norman
snowboards “a ton” and plays disc golf and pool. He loves to travel, believing it’s “life’s best educator”, but ultimately, he is at his most content spending time with his wife Kerrie and son, Gunther, and the family’s two Bernese Mountain Dogs, Archie, and Winston – a faithful presence during our interview. Tat’s a lot to balance, but
Norman has always had a thing about finding his comfort zone in the eye of the storm.
CASEY’S GENERAL STORES INC., ANKENY, IOWA “Casey’s General Stores is a convenience store gas station chain in the Midwest. It’s such an institution in the Midwest. In every city here you always stop at Casey’s to get gas or coffee. They have hundreds of locations, but I was hired in 2019
to work on the corporate headquarters kitchen. There is a test kitchen where they work on recipe and menu development, so, there is an interesting dynamic between the R&D of their food product and their convenience store side. I went through the design process for the project and then it got built, but then Covid hit. But it was fun to work on this project.”
HILTON HOTELS, MIAMI, FLORIDA “Clevenger has historically worked a lot with large Hilton properties as well as prototyping for its sub brands, including Tru By Hilton, Home2 Suites and Hampton Inn. In 2018 I got a call from Hilton in Miami. They wanted us to do the prototypes for their Central and Latin American market. The designs went through during Covid, but I was able to design their central and Latin American prototypes for Hilton Garden Inn, Tru and Home2. I was designing prototypes that would be used in hundreds of hotels in totally different geographical areas of the world. I had a great relationship with Hilton corporate – I had such a blast doing that.”
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