Earlier this week we came home to hear some terrible news.  A dear friend, Val Belcher, passed away from complications from congestive heart failure. He was my former boss, my friend, my mentor and even my client for many years.

Val founded the restaurant chain (Lone Star Cafe/Big Daddy’s Crab Shack) that my husband and I worked at (we met there!), and after I left the company and started my own food and beverage consulting business, the corporate office became my client for 8 years. Val and I worked very closely to cost everything on every menu to be sure that we were managing our controllable costs to the best of our ability. The restaurants grossed 10s of millions of dollars per year, so it was important to ensure our costs and profits were where they should be … and the head office essentially became my full time client.

After Val left the chain himself, we continued to work together on his other ventures (Big Easy’s). We had a great working relationship, and we did work I was very proud of. It was a very valuable relationship for me in my career, and one that I don’t think will ever be replaced by someone else.

He called himself a ‘big old football player from Texas’ (with that Southern drawl), but he sure knew what he was doing when it came to the restaurant business. He believed in procedures and analysis. He taught me that attention to detail was a great thing … sometimes a painful and tedious thing … but a great thing. Together we had a really good handle on food and liquor costs in every restaurant and it was due to the fact that we thought out our procedures and we used checks and balances with everything.

Val taught me a lot, but more than that he put his faith in me every day, and he trusted me and instilled confidence in me that I had never experienced in my career before.

Val built an empire and inspired so many people in the process. Being part of the Lone Star/Big Daddy chain ‘way back when’ allowed us to make some great friendships, some of which (like mine) blossomed into marriages and families, and many went on to have success in businesses, because we all put our hearts and souls into our work. We learned about stellar customer service and Southern hospitality from Val, his brothers Gary, Russell, and the Belcher family.

Tonight we will honor Val at a memorial service, and he gives us the opportunity to gather together with our old friends to catch up and share our great memories. 

Rest in peace, VB.  I will miss you and I will never forget you.

~ Trace

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