John Valentino opened his first restaurant in Jacksonville 14 years ago.
That was a Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers along Southside Boulevard in the Tinseltown area. He followed that with more Mellow Mushroom franchises in Fleming Island, Jacksonville Beach, River City Marketplace and Avondale. He is looking for a site in the Bartram Park area.
That wasn’t all.
Since 2014, he has been a partner and CEO of the Gallery Restaurant Group, which owns the Burrito Gallery and Uptown Kitchen & Bar.
The group owns the Burrito Gallery restaurant Downtown, while Valentino and the group’s managing member own the Burrito Gallery in Riverside and are building one at the Beaches. Sites are in review for the Tinseltown area, Orange Park, Bartram and St. Augustine.
The group also owns Uptown Kitchen & Bar in Springfield. He would like to expand that concept into Tinseltown, Bartram and the Beaches.
Last summer, he bought The French Pantry in Southside and will open another in Westside.
It’s a collective big business. The concepts employ 707 people.
A Jacksonville native, Valentino, 47, moved to Atlanta in sixth grade with his family. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1993 from the University of West Georgia and moved back to Jacksonville in the late 1990s with his wife, Christy, a pharmacist.
They have three children from ages 4 to 14.
You returned to Jacksonville in sales. How did that turn into restaurants?
I was selling valves. My primary places were Palatka and Fernandina Beach — paper mills, power plants.
I was more or less being groomed to go back to Atlanta and take over that business, and I decided after looking at the landscape in Jacksonville and what restaurants were out there in the early 2000s, that I would try and do a Mellow Mushroom in Jacksonville.
I was always intrigued by the nature and novelty of the concept. It’s three guys. One graduated from Georgia Tech and two from Georgia, and they decided not to go to work and instead open a restaurant. That started all the way back in 1974 and it’s a really neat story.
In developing the Mellow Mushroom in Avondale, you ran into community opposition in the historic district, but it worked out and you’ve won awards for the restaurant.
That’s probably one of the more important both life and business lessons that I’ve learned.
I never thought that by purchasing a piece of property with a closed gas station, less than a mile from my house, and wanting to open a family-friendly restaurant primarily serving pizza was going to be such a controversy.
It was a two-year process, a very expensive process. I’ll never forget. We were going to go to hold a community meeting and I’m driving down St. Johns Avenue and there are signs posted saying “come to the community meeting” for Mellow Mushroom.
It was going to be in a chapel and there were so many people we had to go to the full church and it was standing room only, 250 or so people.
I’m standing on the stage in front of many people that I know — friends or neighbors or parents of children that are in my children’s classes — and it was quite an experience.
I think that going through it and what ultimately happened as a part of the design and final product was very good.
But the process of fighting with neighbors and fighting the online fight and all of that was very unfortunate.
What attracted you to the Burrito Gallery?
Jacksonville’s a small city and I’ve gotten to know a lot of people that make a difference, one of which is Tony Allegretti.
He was a partner in the Burrito Gallery and we were friends and we also did some business together and he always admired what I was doing with Mellow Mushroom. Of 200 locations out there, mine are always top stores.
Burrito Gallery opened its first business back in the week of Super Bowl. I remember the day they opened as I was roaming the streets of the urban core.
I went in and had a steak taco, walked outside, ate it and went back in and had another. It was that great. But they needed some specialized help, so that’s how I got involved.
What about Uptown Kitchen & Bar?
I have a passion for the business and I have a passion for all my restaurants, but that is one that holds a special place in my heart. We were up for a renewal on the lease and we had a decision to make.
Either we were going to close the restaurant or keep it open, so we decided to reinvest and remodel. We bought equipment, added a full bar and since that time, our sales are up 35-38 percent, depending on the week.
It was a restaurant that always enjoyed a decent powerbroker breakfast crowd and the same for lunch. We would always fill up.
But dinner was always an area that needed some focus. I worked with Chef Eddy and focused on the farm-to-table aspect and produced three new menus, and the rest is history.
I do wish that more people would open restaurants in Springfield. I’ve thought about opening a couple around it just to attract more people to that neighborhood.
The French Pantry bakery and restaurant along Powers Avenue has an interesting story. How did you become involved? Do you plan another?
The French Pantry is very unique. It definitely is a culinary tourist location. I had not actually patronized The French Pantry until probably 2010, and it wasn’t long after that I approached Chef Tim and asked if he could possibly make some bread for my Mellow Mushrooms because we serve a lot of hoagies. We worked together to create a recipe.
Last February, I was talking with him about the menu for Uptown Kitchen & Bar, and he says to me, “When are you going to open one of these?”
I really didn’t know what to say at first, and I just said, “I am so busy right now I really don’t have time to do anything else.”
Later on that evening at about 3 in the morning, I said to myself, “You need to go over there and talk to him and see what he is interested in.”
So we did. He and his wife are getting older and needed an exit strategy. I was flattered that they had thought of me to carry on their legacy.
It’s certainly feasible that they could have sold that restaurant to many, many people.
But it all worked out. In July we closed on the business and they planned to work there for another four-plus years.
I’m working on a pretty high-profile location on the west side of Jacksonville and my plan is to open more of a retail operation — lunch and dinner, and possibly brunch on the weekends.
How do you see Jacksonville as a restaurant city?
In 2000 before I did Mellow Mushroom, it was really not. There were just very few good quality places to eat.
In the last four years it is one of the fastest-growing industries, with the different restaurants and bar concepts.
It’s very rewarding to have been a part of that process. The economic development of Jacksonville is very, very important to me, and having gone through the experience in Avondale, even more so.
Since that time I’ve gotten very involved in city government and what’s going on there.
I spent a lot of time in City Hall, talking to people. It reminded me of my life in sales — it’s basically just talking to people.
Are you thinking about franchising?
We are. I’m working on preliminary documents for the Burrito Gallery. I hope to have the first franchisee signed up in the next six to nine months.
What are your tips for success?
You have to get up every morning and organize yourself and run your own business.
One of my mantras is to always make it better. You may not accomplish that every day, but if you devote a lot of brain power to that, you can make that happen.
To make it better you have to be aware of what’s going on. You have to be able to walk into the restaurant on a busy Friday night and understand what’s going right and what’s going wrong.
What going wrong is the awareness part, can I make that process better?
You started in sales. Did you foresee becoming a restaurant executive?
No, I always wanted to be the owner of my own business and I’ve always admired some of the other restaurant companies out there. That’s kind of my dream, to be able to do what they’re doing, and it’s just seemed to all come together.
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On whether everybody can run a restaurant
“No, definitely not. I think there’s a lot of TV shows that feature that, as well as a lot of social media sites that definitely reflect on that.”
On being a hands-on business owner
“Probably more so than I should be in some aspects, but yes. The restaurant industry specifically is very challenging, because you have to be good at all aspects of business: purchasing, sales, accounting, marketing. That’s one of the things that I like most about the industry. It’s very challenging.”
On Springfield, home to Uptown Kitchen & Bar
“It’s a really great neighborhood and I know and experienced the gentrification years ago. I’m optimistic that process will continue in the future. I would really love for more businesses to go to Springfield and invest in that neighborhood because it’s a really important neighborhood, much like Riverside in its historic nature.”
On what he does for fun
“I’ve been accused of spending too much time on the business, for sure. You know, I’ve got three young children, and every day that goes by I learn to appreciate that and spend more time with them. I do like to play golf, but I don’t get to do that as much.”
Restaurants
Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers: Tinseltown, Fleming Island, Avondale, Jacksonville Beach and River City Marketplace.
Burrito Gallery: Downtown and Brooklyn
Uptown Kitchen & Bar: Springfield
The French Pantry: Southside
Future sites
Mellow Mushroom: Bartram Park area
Burrito Gallery: Beach Boulevard and Third Street in Jacksonville Beach, Tinseltown area, Bartram, Orange Park and St. Augustine
Uptown: Tinseltown, Bartram and Beaches
The French Pantry: Westside
Hometown
Native of Jacksonville; grew up in Atlanta and returned after college.
Family
Wife, Christy, a pharmacist, and three children, ages 4 to 14.
Previous jobs
Sales for Control Equipment Co. of Atlanta, which was owned by his father; previous industrial distributor sales job in Mobile, Ala.
Education
Bachelor of Business Administration, University of West Georgia, 1993
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First Coast Success: John Valentino
The Daily Record interviewed Valentino for “First Coast Success,” a regular segment on the award-winning 89.9 FM flagship First Coast Connect program, hosted by Melissa Ross. These are edited excerpts from the interview.
The interview was scheduled for broadcast this morning and will replay at 8 p.m. on the WJCT Arts Channel or at wjct.org/ondemand.
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