Patrick and Steven O’Bryan – Bon Temps Grill and Whiskey & Vine

Restauranteurs and brothers, Patrick and Steven O’Bryan, owners of Bon Temps Grill and Whiskey & Vine restaurants, join Discover Lafayette to share their love of their industry, the importance of good service focused on their clientele, and their successful partnership in running a family business together since 2011. Patrick and Steven O'Bryan are respectful and loving toward one another. Wise and funny, they are full of practical wisdom for up and coming entrepreneurs who want to open their own restaurant. To understand their success, it is important to note that they both spent years working for others as they learned to hone their craft. They bring best practices of the restaurant business to their local investments in restaurants and catering. Both men had extensive experience in the restaurant business. They waited tables, cooked, and bartended. Patrick started out by bussing tables at Cafe Vermilion for Ken Veron while in college. "The first thing I learned to do was fold a napkin. It was the best job you could have in college." Patrick also learned how to bartend in his early days at the old Ruth's Chris formerly located where the current Whiskey & Vine is at 507 W. Pinhook Road in Lafayette. He was taught to be a flair bartender (utillizing finesse and fancy tricks) by JB Bandy when he worked at TGI Fridays in Lafayette; Bandy, incredibly, was the flair bartending coach for Tom Cruise when he was training for his role in the movie, Cocktail. The older brother by three years, Patrick moved to Dallas after years of working for local restaurants. While employed at Cypress Bayou Casino, he worked with The Freeman Group, a consulting corporation that focused on improving hospitality by teaching the behavioral and technical aspects needed to make a guest's experience exceptional. He left Cypress Bayou to join The Freeman Group and stayed with them for 15 years, getting to travel and work with luxury establlishments all over. It honed his ability to understand what is needed to make a restaurant customer want to come back and be a loyal patron. Steven also worked at restaurants while in college and after graduation, worked with various corporate restaurants, including Copeland's, Semolina, TGI Fridays,and Logan's Roadhouse, the latter of which he was employed with for 15 years. Steven learned the ins and outs of the restaurant business, and shared how hard it is for restauranteurs to stay in business unless they can reach a certain threshold of dollar volume in sales. "If you can't do over $2 million in sales per year as a restaurant ($40,000 per week), you probably won't make it. Unless you personally serve in all the roles....owner, manager, bartender, chef, etc. People can be successful doing that but their quality of life won't be there." Steven realized that he was working to help others build their successful restaurant concepts and for years he asked Patrick to move home and open a restaurant with him. To build their own success. And Patrick finally agreed, it was time. Patrick and Steven O'Bryan grew up learning how to cook from their family, which always included grilling, not frying food. Steven recalls how they learned how to grill food from his dad and a friend, including the art of grilling alligator. Patrick says, "Steven is the cook! I cook just enough to be dangerous! I am a bartender. I am the front guy!" Photo by Leslie Westbrook of The Acadiana Advocate taken in front of Whiskey & Vine After a lot of brainstorming which included posting flip chart paper all over a wall with their ideas, and having the mutual agreement that they wanted to grow a business with a great team, Bon Temps Grill was created. The O'Bryans' first chef at Bon Temps Grill was Alexis Cupich-Indest, a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, which coincidentally is where their mother is from. Alexis left for a while to pursue other endeavors but is now back with the O'Bryans as Executive Chef at Whiske...