Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennie Kelley.
Jennie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Frank Underground was, and is, an experiment in cultural and culinary anthropology. It started simply as a desire to bring people together over food and grew beyond my wildest dreams. I honestly thought it might be a side project I would do here and there. My chef partner, Ben Starr, put us on on Yelp in the very beginning and we somehow garnered only 5-star reviews. Yelp even reached out several times asking what we were doing because the response was so unusual.
At Frank, one thing I believe in is authenticity. It is called Frank because we do “honest” food. All scratch cooking and house-made down to the bread and butter. Not a lot of molecular gastronomy except for the necessary sous-vide technique needed for certain proteins. We have cultivated a wonderful relationship with local farmers, have our own chicken flock for local eggs and often have only local & rare products on our menu.
At Frank, I am fortunate to work with two amazing C0-Chefs, Ben Starr & Adrien Nieto, whom I met on Season 2 of a funny reality show called MasterChef with Gordon Ramsey in 2011. Ben, who lives in Lewisville, has been with me from the beginning and is an awesome collaborator as well as an amazing forager! Adrien, who moved from Southern California to work at Frank 4 years ago, puts so much heart and soul in our food that I always say how thankful I am that he didn’t win MasterChef (he was the runner-up) and gets to be apart of Frank.
I guess the other thing I would like to mention, that is different from your typical dining experience, is we only seat 20 people a night and we never repeat a dish. So, every time you dine at Frank, you have a totally new meal/menu. All of our dinners are based around a theme and even though the theme may sometimes repeat, like our Brunch After Dark or Music Frank, our menus never do. It’s a wonderful challenge I’ve implemented from the beginning that can also be daunting as we are in our sixth year of dinners. But that’s part of the dance.
The dinners have one other awesome element. Your chefs are right there with you. Explaining not only the inspiration of the dishes but also the technique and where the ingredients come from. Frank is not only about the food… it’s about the story. Plus, our guests are really rad!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Oh my gosh, no. As Frank started as a hobby/experiment, I wasn’t really ready for all of the responsibility that comes with running an underground restaurant. I recall my Co-Chef’s encouraging me to take on the role of Executive Chef and I was/am more into the collaboration aspect of creating food together.
It took a while for us to all get on the same page with that. And I do think to work with a woman, with an opinion, was a little bit of a challenge for them as well. But now, we kinda all understand how we all work. We are curating original dishes that have a little part of us all in them. There’s, of course, some arguing, and some negotiating, but that’s really just part of the process. At the end of the day, there is a necessary trust.
One of my mottoes is: Trust The Team.
Can’t go wrong there, especially with the team I have.
Tell us more about you. What do you do, what are you known for, etc. and what sets you apart from others?
I am known as the Soup Whisperer and Sauce Whisperer in our Chef circle.
Nothing sets me apart from anyone else except for the desire to live life to the fullest: no matter what. Take risks. Jump in the deep end. Drown a bit. Come back up for air. Repeat.
Were there people and/or experiences you had in your childhood that you feel laid the foundation for your success?
That’s an interesting question. I guess I would have to say my mom’s support, although perhaps perplexed by her adopted daughter, was always there. When I left my job, with a 401k and benefits to travel with my band, The Polyphonic Spree, she simply said: enjoy the ride. And the travel, the food, the various cultures I was able to be a part of, transformed me. So, thanks Mommie and thanks to Tim & Julie & CP of The Polyphonic Spree.
Contact Info:
- Website: frankunderground.com
- Email: frankunderground@gmail.com
- Instagram: @frankunderground
- Facebook: Frank.
- Twitter: @franktothepoint
Image Credit:
Melissa Hennings Photography
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