The extra six hundred dollars of unemployment benefits that arrived during the early weeks of the pandemic helped – a lot – especially since he had only been receiving about sixty dollars a week since the world came to a halt and restaurants were forced to close.
It wasn’t enough, though.
With bills piling up and a lot of uncertainty with how soon restaurants would be able to fully open, he knew he had to do something. Using the little bit of money that they had, he and his fiancée got the necessary licenses, a small deep fryer, and a few other essentials they would need to be able to hit the streets on the West Side of Charleston and serve the community a comforting staple.
Fish sandwiches.
As is so often the case in West Virginia, the locals came out and supported the young couple – lining up some days to buy their deep-fried creations. The pair had a renewed sense of hope and belief, which for most people at that time was hard to find. They were working hard, doing what they loved, and bringing some much-needed smiles to the neighborhood.
Then…the storm blew in.
Growing up in East Baltimore wasn’t easy for Anthony Wilkins. With his mother working nights, he often found himself hanging out in the rough streets of the area – usually with the wrong crowd and, almost inevitably, in trouble. It was a path that led him to living in foster care and, occasionally, juvenile detention centers.
With no clear direction and no high school diploma, Anthony’s life drifted along – in and out of trouble. Finally, his journey led him to the one place he didn’t want to go…and the place that would ultimately save his life: prison.
The stark reality of his surroundings hit Anthony – HARD – on his first day there, and he vowed to change his life from that day forward. He immediately began studying to get his GED and working in the kitchen. When a culinary correspondence course became available, Anthony jumped at the opportunity, and hope, it provided. Reading the books again and again, day after day and night after night, Anthony began to dream and plan what his new life would look like – even if no one else believed him.
Looking westward down the Kanawha River, the summer skies seemed to grow darker by the minute. The blue skies from earlier in the afternoon had given way to the ominous deep purple clouds of a late July thunderstorm. A light breeze quickly changed to a thick, hot, angry wind.
It was about to get bad, and they knew it. Scrambling to put food back in coolers and clean up their tables, the tents from overhead were ripped apart in a matter of seconds by the storm’s winds. The heavy rains – the kind that would make you empathize with Noah for a few short moments – followed quickly after.
There was nothing they could do.
Within minutes, all of the work they had put into their pandemic pivot fish sandwich operation was gone: tents destroyed…tables broken…deep fryer ruined…ingredients lost. Just as they had supported them by buying their food, a few West Side locals pitched in to help with the sad task of cleaning up in the storm’s aftermath.
With everything loaded up in the back of the van, the couple sat in silence for a few moments, still in shock from what had just happened. In a soft and naturally discouraged voice, he finally spoke.
“What do you want to do now, Felita?”
After his release, Anthony was finally ready to begin his life – his NEW life. With his experience in the kitchen and a correspondence course under his belt, Anthony began picking up work in restaurants while also enrolling in the culinary program at Stratford University in Baltimore. He believed in his new path and the future it could ultimately lead him to if he just put in the work.
And put in the work, he did.
Anthony entered countless cooking competitions at school, while also investing every extra dollar he could earn in new tools from the kitchen supply stores. Every new technique and every new recipe he learned just added to his growing confidence…and hope.
His first big opportunity in his culinary career came when he applied for a line cook position at The Cheesecake Factory in Baltimore, Maryland. Anthony was hired and placed at the most challenging of spots in their kitchen – the sauté station. This break was going to require a lot of hard work and determination, as he would have to memorize two hundred recipes during his thirty-day training period to be made a permanent hire.
The work in the kitchen was fast-paced, and the learning curve was steep. Anthony would study recipes on the bus to and from work and at night when he got home. Despite the stress and almost overwhelming amount of information to absorb, he truly believed he could do it…that this was his calling.
A month later, Anthony was a permanent member of The Cheesecake Factory team.
A few straggler raindrops still splashed with heavy thuds against the windshield of the van, serving as audible reminders of what had just happened.
“We have a little bit of money saved up,” he said. “Maybe we should try to figure out how to open up a restaurant. An ACTUAL restaurant.”
Thinking for a few moments in silence, she finally replied. “Ok…yeah. Let’s do it.”
Despite their lack of funding, he believed it could work; they just needed to find the right space. A small location on the opposite end of the capital city seemed promising, an empty restaurant on a side street in Charleston’s historic East End. With resources in short supply, they knew the best way to get started.
A deep fryer and fish sandwiches — hot and fresh and served to-go to a community they hoped would support their efforts.
Two years into his tenure with The Cheesecake Factory, Anthony was working at their Virginia Beach location. When days off came, he would make the drive to West Virginia to spend time with his two children from a previous relationship. Anthony had always loved the Mountain State since the first time he visited many years prior, and he ultimately decided to move to Charleston to be with his kids full-time and make this his permanent home.
With his experience working at The Cheesecake Factory, Anthony quickly found work at The Tidewater Grill. A job wasn’t the only thing he found at the restaurant on the eastern end of the Charleston Town Center Mall, though.
It was there that he met Felita Chase.
The pair hit it off fast – enjoying each other’s company pretty much day and night. They would often stay up talking into the quietest hours of the night about their goals and dreams and hopes of what the future might hold in store.
Over the next few years, several opportunities came along in different restaurants around Charleston – The Lookout Bar & Grill, The Marriott, and others. Anthony and Felita worked and took care of the kids — including a little one of their own – and continued to dream. Anthony also decided to pick back up where he left off with culinary school, enrolling in the program at Carver Career & Technical Institute.
Each morning, Anthony would board the bus near their home in St. Albans to make it for classes at Carver. When classes finished, he would ride the bus to work and then back home again at the end of the night. It was tiring and stressful and difficult…and Anthony believed with all his heart that it was worth it.
Opening and growing a new restaurant has never been easy but doing so during the uncertainty of an ongoing pandemic was an entirely different challenge.
As word got out about the East End’s newest restaurant – Gourmet Fast – they knew they would outgrow fish sandwiches quickly. That would require more equipment, though. So, they did the only thing they could and bootstrapped their growth by heading to the restaurant supply stores and investing in more and more equipment with the money that was coming in from sales.
As they added equipment, they expanded the Gourmet Fast menu with a lineup of classic comfort food dishes like shrimp and grits, meatloaf, and chicken and waffles. Most of their business was to-go orders, partly from their limited seating and mostly due to the new habits people had developed during the lockdowns and quarantines. As some restrictions lifted, Gourmet Fast was also able to pick up some catering business.
While some days were good, others were frustratingly slow. Some days were stressful – sometimes painfully so, as almost any business owner can attest to.
All the while, though, he still believed.
As graduation from the culinary program at Carver approached, Anthony had the opportunity to compete in the Skills USA Competition, where he would first have to go head-to-head cooking against his classmates. He remembered the thrill he got years ago competing in similar events while at Stratford University in Baltimore, and he was energized by the prospects.
His experience – and skills — paid off, as he won the local event at Carver and earned the right to advance to the statewide Skills USA Competition in Fairmont, where he would compete against culinary students from around the region. This would mean more studying and more prep work and more late nights. With his time still stretched thin with work and family obligations, others doubted whether he would be ready for an event like this.
Anthony, though, believed…and won the gold medal at the event.
With a culinary degree, a Skills USA Competition victory, and an exciting new job at Mediterranean Breeze alongside the Kanawha River in St. Albans, Anthony’s belief in himself and hope for a better future was fulfilled.
Then came a pandemic…and sixty dollars a week of unemployment benefits.
Today, you can find Anthony Wilkins still working and grinding…and believing.
Gourmet Fast has developed a reputation for its heartwarming and belly-filling lineup of comfort food dishes, along with some unexpected touches like braised oxtail, lamb chops, and crab cakes – which pay homage to Anthony’s Baltimore roots.
Anthony’s reputation as a chef has helped Gourmet Fast expand their catering services, and he recently was invited to be a guest chef at 1010 Bridge Restaurant with Paul Smith as part of their Appalachian Chefs Collaboration Series.
While we may never know what might happen from one day to the next, Anthony Wilkins, along with his fiancée Felita, are a perfect reminder that hard work… and belief…can make all the difference.
Gourmet Fast is located at 709 Ruffner Avenue in Charleston, West Virginia. You can find them on Facebook and Instagram.
