Eric Warnstedt and Will McNeil

Hen of the Wood. Doc Pond’s. Prohibition Pig. Eric Warnstedt and Will McNeil have worked together for more than 15 years, creating some of Vermont’s hottest dining and drinking establishments. I sat with them over fresh coffee and warm chocolate chip cookies to hear how they built their business yet manage to remain so damn chill. Their secret? Stick to values-based decisions.

How did you two connect?

Will McNeil: We met in 2002. I was a culinary intern at Smokejack’s, where Honey Road is now, and Eric was the sous chef. We reconnected a few years later when Hen of the Wood Waterbury opened in 2005, and I applied for front-of-house manager.

Eric Warnstedt: Yeah, we were pretty desperate, so I hired him! Now he owns half the business. 

What led to Hen of the Wood Burlington?

EW: By 2008 we were thinking of adding another space, something larger than Waterbury, which has no bar, just a small 40-seat restaurant. We had been proactively looking for places, and once we met the Hotel Vermont developers Jay Canning and Chuck DesLauriers, we knew this would be a good working relationship.

WM: There aren’t many spaces in Burlington that you get to design the dream package and build from the ground up. Construction took about a year and a half and we opened on October 7, 2013. And that was just the beginning! A lot has happened in the last few years.

WM: After the Vermont Ale House in Stowe closed in the spring of 2015, we were approached to open a bar. That became Doc Pond’s. It felt like a fun way to express a more casual, fun side. We opened in August.

And taking on Prohibition Pig?

EW: I live in Waterbury and have been good friends with the owner. He was ready to move on, and it was another natural fit for us. We bought it in December 2018 and have been slowly putting our imprint on it. I’m from the South originally and now I can dip my toe into the barbecue world, such as smoking whole pigs.

WM: And since Pro Pig has a brewery, that was a whole new world for us.

How do you elevator-speech your establishments?

WM: The Hens are a snapshot of Vermont. On any given day, you can walk in and get a sense of what’s happening agriculturally in the state. Hen Waterbury is small so we can be nimble and go deep with an ever-changing farm-to-table menu. Hen Burlington has a bar, so we feature great cocktails and dollar oyster hour. Pro Pig is downtown Waterbury so we have a real community focus there. Doc Pond’s is super casual, a great beer and burger place. It has an outdoor adventure vibe and more than 1,000 albums.

How did you start your culinary careers?

EW: I didn’t start cooking until my last year in college. I got a job in a restaurant kitchen and it just clicked. I knew it was time to get focused so I went to Johnson & Wales culinary school after college.

WM: Mom told me to get a job when I was in high school. I started as a dishwasher at Sirloin Saloon and worked my way up to line cook by senior year. I went to the Culinary Institute of America and have been in love with the industry ever since.

Did you ever dream all this would happen?

EW: Never. In the early days when I was cooking, I never could understand how people could own more than one restaurant. But I guess I’ve evolved, and things now are the best they’ve ever been. Will and I are behind the scenes, and each place has its own chef and manager who have full autonomy. They know our expectations, and we trust them to do their own thing as long as it falls under our ethos.

WM: We have people who have been with us for 13 years, guys who started as our line cooks and are now chefs, or who started as servers and are now managers. We’re at a point now where we can pay an acceptable rate and people can build a career here if they want.

Describe your roles now as co-owners of these four businesses.

EW: Will and I focus on company culture—how we all work together, communicate and motivate each other—and leave the specifics of the food and beverage to the chefs and managers. The ultimate vision is to have some component of work and personal life interface in a healthy way so that coming to work is something you enjoy, not dread.

WM: Eric and I couldn’t have these restaurants without our team.

Any outside influence on your leadership?

EW: Kim Scott’s Radical Candor podcast. That’s been a major component of our management style.

What drives your mission?

EW: We try to stay focused on why we originally opened Hen. To be here for the community and to provide an awesome work environment. This heartfelt stuff feeds into the food and wine. These restaurants are our name, our reputation. We’re part of a new wave of restaurant owners who are leading with a strong moral compass. After everything that’s happened in recent years, we think the restaurant industry deserves more professionalism, more training and education.

WM: Education is our foundation. Our front-of-house staff undergoes a weeklong extensive training before going onto the fl oor and interacting with a guest. They take weekly tests on liquor, wine, beer or food. We require every staff member to be Cicerone beer server certified. We do staff wine education every week at all of our restaurants, and we pay if someone wants to take the sommelier exam. We have tastings and invite farmers, cheese makers, and producers to come in and present to our staff. We invest in developing the knowledge and confidence of every staff member, and that comes through in how they interact with the guests. This professional training keeps staff energized. It seems to be working because we haven’t had to hire a new server at Hen Waterbury in six years.

EW: We named our company Heirloom Hospitality, and that meshes with what we’re trying to do here on several levels. First, heirloom vegetables have to be cared for and cultivated or else they would disappear. Likewise, an heirloom is something of value that has been preserved and handed to the next generation.

WM: If we stick to those two principles of cultivation and ownership, everything should fall in place. And we never lose sight that we have 175 employees and their families relying on us.

Do you miss cooking?

EW: I miss the farmer relationships. The excitement when wild mushrooms come rolling in, of creating a daily menu. At this point, my energy comes from building programs, looking at new opportunities and bringing the next generation of restaurant professionals along. Growth sparks creation.

WM: I don’t miss cooking on the line nightly. I have replaced it by cooking at home, and at work, we’re always talking about food, service and the overall restaurant experience. Food and cooking are part of my everyday life, just not the physical act of cooking in restaurants anymore.

An indelible moment from one of your restaurants?

EW: The most gratifying moment is when I sit at the window box seat at Hen Waterbury and eat a good steak and watch the restaurant hum around me. That’s pretty awesome.

WM: The first meal I ever had at Hen Waterbury. Before I took the job, Eric invited me to have dinner and experience the whole restaurant. I remember every dish was like nothing else I had ever had. I knew this was where I had to be.

How about cooking at home? Holiday traditions or specialties?

EW: We have a pretty legit taco night at my house. And for the holidays, we make lobster chowder every year for Christmas Eve.

WM: I tend to cook whatever is in the refrigerator. Less planned menus, more make what I can out of what I have. At the holidays, everyone comes over to my house and I cook for about 20 to 30 people. I’ve taken on the role that my Grandma (Peggy) McNeil use to have. At Thanksgiving we always cook two birds two different ways. Christmas is always a large rib eye cooked whole. I serve creamed pearl onions at both, which is what Grandma McNeil served.

After working together for more than 15 years, how do you balance each other?

WM: Neither of us has high highs or low lows. We’ve never been pan throwers.

EW: We each bring different skill sets to the table beyond cooking. Will is a systems and logistics guy, and I love big picture concepts. My goal is to never touch a computer.

FIVE RAPID FIRE

Breakfast today?

Both: Coffee.

Favorite childhood meal?

EW: Alaskan king crab legs.

WM: Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma McNeil’s house here in Burlington.

Cake, pie or cookies?

EW: Key lime pie.

WM: Same.

Guilty pleasure?

EW: We live in the world of guilty pleasures! Maybe the pimento cheese ball at Pro Pig?

WM: Anything savory and salty.

Late-night snack?

EW: Cheese and crackers, peanut butter and bananas, or leftover ice cream.

WM: Yogurt and granola.

Hen of the Wood | @henofthewood
Doc Pond’s | @doc_ponds
Prohibition Pig | @prohibitionpig
Honey Road | @honeyroadrestaurant
Hotel Vermont | @hotelvermont
Johnson & Wales | @johnsonandwales
Culinary Institute of America | @theculinaryinstituteofamerica
Kim Scott | @kimmalonescott