| UNC-CH
BEN ADAMS
A customer-first culinary approach
Ben Adams is an alumnus of UNC-Chapel Hill who pursued his passion for the culinary world after graduation. He's the executive chef and co-founder of Picnic Durham. Working with partners Ryan Butler, a heritage-breed pig farmer,and barbecue man Wyatt Dickson, Ben has made Picnic a standout restaurant concept that has residents of Durham and the wider Carolina community buzzing.
Register to attend the Startups Happy Hour event for UNC alumni at Picnic on Thursday, Oct. 18.
Q & A
Tell us a little bit about your background and if there was an inspirational moment around the idea behind Picnic.
Our barbecue man Wyatt and I met at UNC, and several years after graduating, we reconnected over our shared interest in the food scene. We hatched the idea for Picnic over five years ago, and after three years of business planning, finding a location, and renovating our current location, we managed to get Picnic open.
As an entrepreneur in the food service industry, what lessons have you learned that you’ve applied to your work?
This is very much a people business. We’re a small restaurant but have 30 employees. Communicating with them effectively and letting them know how much we appreciate them is incredibly important. And making sure we do all that we can to make sure that each and every customer who walks through our doors leaves happy is the most important thing we do.
What’s something that people would be surprised to learn about you or your business?
Our third business partner is our pig farmer Ryan Butler. And all of hour pigs are grown 10 miles up the road in Bahama, NC.
As an alumnus of UNC, how did your college years prepare you for the work you’re doing now?
They taught me how much North Carolinians care about barbecue!
What’s most exciting about your work as an entrepreneur, and do you have any best advice for other startups?
Making people happy never gets old. And when we were developing our business model, we took comfort in the fact that we would be able to stay open and repay our investors, even if we weren’t as busy as we hoped to be.
What lies ahead for Picnic and the food service industry in the RTP region?
I think we’ll continue to see exciting concepts open as chefs take advantage of the areas continue growth.