PERSONALITIES
A Taste of Adversity Restaurateur Cameron Mitchell faces the most difficult time in his 40 years in the business By Brandon Klein
CAMERON MITCHELL AND his wife, Molly, moved into their new house last April, shortly after his restaurant empire came to a halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cameron Mitchell Restaurants went from $325 million in
revenue to zero in four days and furloughed 4,500 employees. “(My wife) asked me, ‘Are we going to lose the company? Are we going to lose our house?’” Mitchell says. “And (I said back then), ‘Actually, I don’t know. I don’t think so. But I don’t know.’” Mitchell is no stranger to adversity. Those who have read his autobiography, Yes is the Answer. What is the Question?, know how Mitchell overcame his troubled teenage years, rising within the restaurant industry to create a company that operates 16 different concepts across 36 locations in 12 states. The restaurant industry isn’t easy, Mitchell says – otherwise, more people would get involved. He was 16 years old, working as a line cook at a steakhouse, when he realized his desire to pursue a career in the business. “I was just in the kitchen one day,” he says. “It was four in the afternoon. I was working a double shift that day. I was going to be a host at night and it was just pandemonium in the kitchen; you know that
the managers were barking orders. The a.m. shift was trying to leave and the p.m. shift was trying to come on in. The restaurant was half full and the bar was packed for happy hour. “I had to run home and change clothes and come back and be a host at night, and you know, I was just in time,” he adds. “I love the energy, the people and the party, if you will.” Following that chaotic day at work, Mitchell set goals to run his own restaurant company. Years later, when he was an operations director for the now-defunct 55 Restaurant Group, Mitchell realized he had hit his limit with the company. He decided to start his own restaurant in 1992. Going out on his own came with a new set of challenges. Mitchell spent the first six months working on a restaurant concept in downtown Columbus and was close to finalizing the property when the landlord went bankrupt. “I had to start all over again. It took me 14 months to go find another location, and that was one of the darkest points in my life,” he says. “I was broke and down to rolling change to buy groceries and so forth.” Mitchell was able to bounce back, opening Cameron’s American Bistro in Worthington in 1993. He continued to meet his share of challenges, including
“America will come out of this.” 8
cityscenecolumbus.com | March/April 2021