MANAGER to CHEF
teamwork And competition
Chris Hampton, General Manager/COO of Sycamore Hills GC, believes both traits are critical to F&B success. By Joanna DeChellis, Editor
SOME OF THE MOST successful club culinary programs work best when leaders encourage a balance of team collaboration and a drive for personal growth. This is exactly the case at Sycamore Hills Golf Club (Fort Wayne, Ind.), where Chris Hampton, General Manager/COO, has spent three seasons developing a vision for the club’s future and building a team that can execute it, while simultaneously advancing as club professionals. One of his more successful hires so far has been Executive Chef Anthony Capua, who came to the club shortly after Hampton. Together, the two have built a strong culinary team and successfully elevated a la carte dining at Sycamore Hills. CRC: You are a fourth-generation club manager. Have you always wanted to be in the club business? 28
l Club + Resort Chef l July 2021
CH: Actually, no. When I was three years old, my father left private clubs. He re-entered more than a decade later as General Manager of The Country Club in Pepper Pike, Ohio. I always wanted to do something with computers, but I spent the summer after my high school graduation working for him as the expeditor in the kitchen. I fell in love with the business, and the rest is history. CRC: What brought you to Sycamore Hills GC? CH: I felt I had accomplished everything I could with the resources I had available to me at my last post, at Lakewood Country Club in Westlake, Ohio. I let one of the search executives know I was ready to make my next move. He knew of my family’s desire to stay within a few hours’ drive of Northeast Ohio, where both my wife and I grew up. It took about a year before he picked
up the search for the GM/COO position at Sycamore Hills. I decided to apply and was blown away that a club of this caliber was in a small market like Fort Wayne. I connected well with the club ownership group and was thrilled when they offered me the position. CRC: What are some of Sycamore Hills’ F&B strengths? CH: This team is incredibly creative. Most private-club culinary programs are built on tradition, which sometimes can be a detriment for long-term growth. A wise man once said, “If you are not moving forward, you are falling behind.” And when a club’s culinary program caters strictly to tradition, it stifles the growth of that program for the next generation of members. Years ago, catering strictly to tradition worked, because there wasn’t as much competition from local dining www.clubandresortbusiness.com
