Meet PCG Member – Bonnie Warford: Serving Up Dinner Family Style
If you owned and ran one of Charlotte’s most beloved restaurants for nearly three decades, you’d probably exude a good dose of confidence. But there’s depth to the quiet ease with which PCG Member Bonnie Warford sits down at the table in the sun-infused dining room of Carpe Diem.
That confidence comes naturally and feels like an essential part of her being.
The answer to its source likely lies in Warford’s response when asked about the happiest part of her day. “I get to work with my sister. That’s pretty awesome.”
It may sound like a cheesy, made-for-marketing comment, but Warford is sincere. She has no need to play the PR game to convince Charlotte of her place in the Queen City’s culinary community.
Her two thriving businesses do all the speaking for her.
Originally from Miami, FL, Warford grew up in a large family with no particular ties to the restaurant world, other than an appreciation of fine dining. “My aunt and uncle had a lot of style, and I really idolized them, and they also loved to go out to good dinners. From the get-go, we were going to great restaurants.”
The most remarkable aspect of her upbringing seems the ongoing depth of the Warford family ties. Not only has she partnered happily with her sister Tricia Maddrey since her earliest restaurant days, but today their brother Chris is Inventory Manager of their second venture, Earl’s Grocery. Just a stone’s throw from the restaurant, Earl’s is—of course—named after their father.
“I always knew I wanted to be a businessperson, an entrepreneur,” Warford says. The focus of her business acumen came at her first kitchen job at Café Society, a former Myers Park mainstay, where she moved from prep, through shift leader, to manager. “That was the first restaurant I ever worked in, which made me fall in love with the restaurant business.”
When they needed a dessert expert, Warford pulled in her sister, who had spent much of their childhood baking for the family. “She was always in the kitchen making crème caramels,” she recalls. “I just loved the kind of short order, ‘whaddya want, whaddya want’ part of that.”
Since 1989, the sisters have shepherded their own restaurant through multiple moves, economic downturns, and street repairs. They added a catering service that filled gaps when construction kept customers away. Four years ago, they opened Earl’s Grocery, capturing a new demand for informal, quick-serve dining with high-end flavors. Through it all, Carpe has remained a constant, solid presence on Elizabeth Avenue.
Warford’s joy at working with her siblings extends to her staff. She speaks of Executive Chef (and PCG Member) Paul Ketterhagen with respect and comfortable familiarity. For his part, Ketterhagen says, “I consider them family, her and Tricia.” He’s helmed the kitchen here for over ten years, “the longest kitchen job I’ve ever had.”
In an industry known for constant turnover and frequent job hopping, Chef Ketterhagen is not alone in his loyalty to the sisters. Most of the managers at Carpe have similarly long histories.
“Theresa [Girault, Beverage Director] has worked for us for 29 years,” Warford says, listing off the tenure of several staff members. “Laura [Henson] … used to be a server here, and now she’s our office manager; she’s worked here for years.” She cites a tight-knit team as one of the rewards of her job. “I really enjoy the people I work with. I see a lot of community.”
“She’s very hands-on, very approachable,” explains Ketterhagen. “She listens to all sides of what’s going on, if it’s a complaint or there’s a problem with a dish.”
Warford’s home base is a long office with a wall of window onto the kitchen at Carpe, but she is equally comfortable on both sides of that window. Much of her day centers around Carpe’s catering arm, but she still keeps a toe in the restaurant’s kitchen. “When we do seasonal changes, we brainstorm ideas together,” says Ketterhagen. “It’s a partnership.”
Sometimes Warford will ask her team to develop a new dish based on something she tasted on a trip, or an inspirational dining experience. Occasionally she’ll take matters into her own hands. The recently added falafel waffle came from her search to offer “something for vegetarians that is craveable…something like the fried chicken,” probably the restaurant’s best-known dish. “I worked really hard on that waffle at home, over and over again until I got it just right.”
This hands-on approach has helped Warford and Maddrey keep the restaurant relevant in a market where diners flock to the newest concepts while still seeking comfort in familiar dishes.
“I don’t think we’re traditional, but I don’t think we’re trendy either. The more relevant thing for us to do right now is to stay consistent, deliver high quality food, and give people what they want, but to also seem current at the same time. It’s taking what would be familiar and putting a twist on it. That’s what I try to do in catering, and that’s what we try to do in our Carpe Diem menu.”
While she has long relationships with many local farmers and purveyors, she has to walk a fine line between customer expectations and ingredient availability. “Years ago, when Sammy [Koenigsburg] came to us from New Town Farm, I think we bought some tomatoes, but he didn’t have enough to supply us. It was a very, very slow start for local food producers.”
By the time area growers had ramped up production enough to meet market demand, Carpe Diem had become a local institution with a well-established customer base. Scrapping the menu in favor of true seasonality wasn’t an option.
“It would be a lot more limited, and I don’t think it’s what our customers wanted,” says Warford. Still, her ties to community lead her to find a way to incorporate what she can – including using products from several PCG Members. “I would not call us a farm-to-table restaurant, but we use those ingredients in our specials. We get fish from Tim Griner [Charlotte Fish Company], we get mushrooms from Hiram [Ramirez, Urban Gourmet Farms], and we get deliveries from Jesse Leadbetter [Freshlist].”
With her well-established place in Charlotte’s food scene, what was the appeal of joining the network offered by the Piedmont Culinary Guild?
“I just wanted to be part of the current community, and meet new people. It’s fun to be part of that.” She’s reconnected with coworkers from years ago and continued to expand her professional contacts beyond restaurants and farms. It’s all part of staying relevant in a rapidly evolving business. “I like kind of [seeing] the broader business, and just what people are doing now; what’s current and what people really like, versus what everybody else tells us to like.”
It also hearkens back to the strength of her ties, from family, to employees, to community. As Ketterhagen puts it, “[Bonnie]’s involved in the community and wants the restaurant to be involved in the community as well.”
It’s easy to overlook the achievement of staying in place as the city grows around you, but hopefully Warford’s quiet confidence will help usher Charlotte’s food scene into its next evolution.
Profile written by Alison Leininger
Carpe Diem
1535 Elizabeth Avenue
Charlotte, NC 28204