Baton Rouge chef Peter Sclafani has had a whirlwind of a year.
After leaving his longtime position as co-owner of Ruffino’s Restaurant last October, he joined TJ Ribs as its managing partner in January. In March, Sclafani joined Phil’s Oyster Bar as partner and executive chef, and now he’s launching his own company, Down South Hospitality, at the same time as he rolls out a revamped menu for Phil’s.
Down South will serve as an umbrella company for Sclafani’s restaurant consulting work and for his restaurants as he grows and acquires stakes in more businesses.
“One of the main things I’m doing now is consulting with restaurants, primarily setting up some back of the house systems, because that’s where independent restaurants tend to struggle,” Sclafani says. That’s one of the differences between chain restaurants and independent eateries, he says, because chains have all of their software and kitchen operations streamlined for them by their larger company.
He has stake in a Phoenix-based software company called Restaurant Systems Pro, which helps his clients get set up with the program and can be used to manage scheduling, budgeting and inventory.
Sclafani is still a chef at heart though and has created several new dishes at Phil’s Oyster Bar, including a seared Ahi tuna entree, a crawfish cheesecake appetizer and a crab and brie grilled cheese sandwich served with tomato soup.
“Phil’s has been around a long time, so it doesn’t make sense for me to go in and just start changing things,” Sclafani says. “What I’ve tried to do is just bring something different, more of an update. We don’t want to lose sight of the past, or all those years, but we want to look towards the next 50 years.”
