On the entrance porch of their dwelling overlooking Chesapeake Bay, John and Elise Russ dreamed of journey whereas sipping rum. They imagined turning a constructing in decay right into a positive eating spot, a sweep of luxurious the place culinary creativity may flourish and delight company.
Life turned that imaginative and prescient the wrong way up. Three kids, a cross-country transfer, the COVID-19 pandemic and a difficult business pressured a serious pivot.
“Our authentic dream,” mentioned Elise, “is so removed from what we even have now.”
What the Russ’ have is a neighborhood treasure in Fort Hills. Eighteen tables. A seasonal menu. An informal setting with an open kitchen and clementine-like orange shields within the entrance. In sum, a modest framework that belies an distinctive fame.
Clementine carries its weight in international flavors (fried Japanese eggplant, Aussie barramundi, carrot tortellini) and nationwide acclaim.
John is a two-time James Beard Award nominee for Greatest Chef: Texas, Elise a distinguished pastry chef from Georgia and an alumna of the James Beard Ladies’s Entrepreneurial Management Program.
4 months after opening in 2018, Clementine drew a good overview from Texas Month-to-month — “A Brilliant New Spot in San Antonio” — and a compelling lede: “They’d me at ‘fast sautéed with gobs of garlic and black pepper.’”
Extra not too long ago, John earned Chef of the Yr honors on the CultureMap San Antonio Tastemaker Awards in April. Elise obtained a finalist nod for Pastry Chef of the Yr whereas Clementine was a finalist for Restaurant of the Yr.
A lot of love for an eatery that serves dinner 5 days per week. Lunch? It grew to become a casualty of COVID-19. “Lunch was a monetary break even,” John mentioned. “It was much more traumatic. The numbers didn’t add up.”
John couldn’t let go of lunch utterly so he serves it as soon as a month. June’s particular centered on vegetarian fare. July featured seafood. August offered a style of New Orleans — gulf oysters and blackened gulf bycatch snapper.
The lunch menu this month was a homage to John’s roots. He grew up in New Orleans on fried oyster po’boys and his grandmother’s quenelles de brochet.
Like fellow James Beard-nominated chef Andrew Weissman, John as soon as aspired to a profession in journalism.
The aim: report for Nationwide Public Radio. One 12 months as a communications main on the College of Alabama modified his thoughts. A job as a steamboat porter steered him into the world of meals.
He secured a culinary arts diploma in 2001 from Delgado Faculty in New Orleans, grew to become chef de partie on the Ritz-Carlton and a sous chef at Restaurant August beneath celeb chef John Besh.
Years later, John grew to become govt sous chef at a luxurious resort in Maryland, the place he met Elise Broz, the daughter of the resort supervisor. A pastry chef in Chicago, Elise had come for a tasting.
Her father needed to rent her. John objected, citing nepotism. Elise acquired the job and John was not happy.
“John and I didn’t get alongside for the primary six months,” mentioned Elise, who has a level in Baking and Pastry Arts from Johnson & Wales College. “After which, I don’t know, he began rising on me.”
They frolicked as pals, bonded over their dislike of a brand new govt chef and fell in love. On quiet evenings overlooking Chesapeake Bay, John and Elise dreamed about opening their very own place.
In 2012, Besh employed John to run Lüke on the River Stroll, the celeb chef’s first restaurant outdoors of New Orleans. The couple embraced San Antonio, married in 2015 and ready to launch their very own eating spot.
They employed a public relations agency, hoping to position John on the radar of James Beard Award judges.
“We felt it could assist solidify our enterprise,” mentioned Elise, who, on the time, was pastry chef at Biga on the Banks. “And actually assist fill these slower weeknights.”
A James Beard nod, John believed, would draw clients to a brand new idea — as a substitute of opening “and saying, ‘Hey, I’ve acquired a restaurant.’”
The general public relations try failed. John left Lüke in 2016, discarded the James Beard technique and opened Clementine with Elise in 2018. The Southern-inspired spot drew constructive evaluations for service and dishes created with worldwide aptitude.
Two years later, COVID-19 shut down the restaurant business.
Clementine survived and simply because the Russes had been rising from the pandemic, an sudden textual content appeared on John’s cellphone: “Congratulations,” it started.
John blinked in disbelief. This should be a joke, he thought. It wasn’t.
John earned his first James Beard nomination in 2022. The popularity boosted enterprise. He grew to become a Greatest Chef finalist in 2023. Enterprise accelerated. All this after abandoning a public relations marketing campaign.
On the nook of a strip middle at West Avenue and Northwest Army Drive, Clementine is small (1,557 sq. toes) and closed two days per week by design. The Russes are hands-on mother and father to their kids ages 4, 6 and eight, and luxuriate in a thriving church group.
That way back dream? John and Elise wound up with a smaller spot, a modest area, a spot they by no means may have imagined as they seemed throughout Chesapeake Bay.
A bit gem that appears like dwelling.
