7 years later: Nick Hufft

Restaurateur, director of operations, H+M Hospitality Group—Curbside Burgers, Gail’s Fine Ice Cream, Junior’s on Harrison (New Orleans), The Overpass Merchant

“In 2005, I was in college at LSU, and I was enjoying cooking late-night food way too much. Ha! I noticed that in Baton Rouge, aside from fast food, there weren’t many food options at all after 9 p.m. I thought there could be a need for something different, which is how the food truck idea started for me and eventually became reality.

Now, each of my restaurants means the world to me, because they provide jobs for people in our community and, hopefully, they are a space where anyone can come to snag a quick lunch, wind down for a happy hour or spend a long evening with friends and family.

In the past several years in restaurants, I think what I’ve learned the most is that no matter how hard I try, I can’t do everything by myself, and I can’t grow a restaurant group by myself. Our management team is the best in the business. I’ve been able to let go of some in-store things and focus on bigger growth, and that’s all because of the team we’ve built and the trust they’ve put in me to continue to grow this thing for all of us.

And Baton Rouge is changing, too. Smart growth is great. As we open more stores, the expectation level is set higher and higher. When choosing a restaurant, people are demanding more—which for me, is exciting to continue to push the envelope.

Having Curbside open in Mid City was important to me. It’s where we beta tested the truck during the food truck round-ups, and it’s an amazing neighborhood. I can’t wait for these streets to get some landscaping down the middle and really bring to life what the city has been working on for a while now. And along with that is this growth of more independent restaurants in the city, and they are being supported, which is the biggest change in the food scene.

For us, we are part of that. We have four amazing concepts under our belt with a commissary kitchen on the way. And we are building our team to grow, so it’s an exciting time for all.”

This article was originally published in the November 2020 issue of 225 Magazine.

Click here to read through the full 15-year anniversary issue.