By the time Chuck Harris was 7,
he was climbing onto a stool
to cook scrambled eggs or a
batch of macaroni and cheese.
At 12, he was preparing family
meals. And on Lamar’s fraternity row in the
1990s, he was chilling and grilling to turn
out feasts for his brothers in Alpha Tau
Omega.
At 32, Harris ’99 is a certified chef—
one of fewer than 5,000 in America—and
owner of the Spindletop Steakhouse and
Continental Cuisine on Crockett Street in
downtown Beaumont.
Colorful attractions grace the menu,
including seafood flamingo, smokey seared
salmon Oscar and a variety of steaks—
Japanese-crusted with sesame seeds or in
the classic bayou style with crawfish and
shrimp creole sauce, to name two options.
For lighter fare, there are oyster nachos,
shrimp tamales, and his favorite, eggplant
rollo. Mac-n-cheese remains close to his
heart as a side dish.
“I love the food, and I love being in
the kitchen when you’re really busy and
don’t think you’ll see the end,” Harris said.
“You have 20 pans going and 30 steaks on
the grill. It’s all in the moment.”
In presiding over an upscale restaurant
with 30 employees, Harris wears far more
than a chef ’s hat. “Chuck is the executive
chef-owner, but he’s also general manager,
landlord and groundskeeper,” said Ty
Gwynn, his chef de cuisine. “He’s human
resources. He’s payroll. He does it all.”
On a Monday morning in August,
Harris eases into the work week. He’s just
returned from a cooking school in Cuero
and a Texas Chefs Association convention
in San Antonio. It is his slow day, closed in
the evening, but the kitchen is abuzz in
anticipation of the lunch crowd. Personnel
arrive. The aroma of lemon wafts into the
air as a worker fastidiously polishes each
surface. The wait staff dons aprons as the
pace quickens.
Harris’s favorite spot is “in the window,”
where food is handed from the
cooks. He’s the expediter, who keeps the
flow. “I see every plate,” he said. “I can see
almost every table from here and all the
guests. If they’re eating slowly, or not done
with their appetizers, I move things
around. We’re always trying to watch the
flow and make it better.”
On Nov. 12, 2009, the restaurant will
celebrate its first anniversary. And Harris
has traveled a dizzying roller-coaster ride
since he bought the downtown landmark
last October – and opened it less than a
month later. “It was a whirlwind,” he said.
“I started to think it wasn’t
going to happen. This was
right after Hurricane Ike. We
had started negotiations before
the hurricane (after the original
Spindletop closed in July). I
was busy at the Elegante trying
to feed 200 people breakfast,
lunch and dinner with no
power. When things finally
start getting back to normal, I
come down to go over the
final paperwork. I sign and
drive away from downtown,
thinking, ‘I’m a restaurant
owner now.’ It was surreal.”
Ninety minutes later, he
was typing his resignation letter
at the Elegante, where he
was executive chef. His career
had taken him from David’s
Upstairs to Carrabba’s,
Beaumont Country Club
to Post Oak Grill, Holiday
Inn Beaumont Plaza and L’Aberge du Lac
in Lake Charles.
What makes Harris tick? Gwynn, who has
also studied at Lamar and worked with Harris
at Holiday Inn and L’Aberge, explains: “It’s a
challenging field. When we get compliments,
it’s like with people addicted to extreme sports
– that rush, that feeling of, ‘It’s good, and I
impressed somebody.’”
A big compliment came Harris’s way
when the Go Texas Committee selected him
to represent Texas at the 2009 Great American
Seafood Cookoff in New Orleans in July. He
placed fifth with a creation that was strictly
Southeast Texas: beer-buttered shimp and a
shrimp and risotto panko-covered shrimp cake
with shrimp-flavored sauce—garnished with a
barbecued shrimp on top of roasted-corn salsa.
Schedules permitting, his wife, Jammie
Marie (King) ’00 joins him. “She was in New
Orleans to cheer me on.” High school sweethearts,
they married in 2000 and have two
daughters, Kynslee, 4, and Addyson, who will
be 2 in October. A foods and nutrition graduate,
Jammie is director of the Women, Infants
and Children program in Beaumont.
“She’s had to stick with me and raise our
kids so I can do what I’m doing,” Harris said.
“It’s been tough, but it’s starting to get better.
Now, I can promise Sundays with my family.
I know I am going to be off 56 days in 2009.
That might not sound like many, but, in my
field, that’s a lot. Between 2004 and 2008,
I had 60 days off.”
Harris harkens back to his own childhood.
“I loved to eat,” he said. “There was
always a lot of food around, and I was fortunate
my mother and grandparents were good
cooks.”
His maternal grandmother specialized in
desserts and fried shrimp. His paternal
grandmother lived on Lake Rayburn at
Zavalla, where some of his favorite memories
originated. “I could sit on the counter and
watch without getting in the way,” he said.
“She had acres of gardens, and included lots
of things she grew. She always had all the
burners going. Those were such good times,
and they inspired me to know food.”
During his early adventures in cooking,
adults trusted Harris to fix easy dishes. As
he advanced to cooking dinner, “I’m sure
my mom always had a watchful eye on me,
but I could pretty much produce everything,”
he said.
The fraternity house had no kitchen—
just microwaves and hotplates. “I’d have
something going in every room. I could
publish my own microwave cookbook,” he
said. “I’d put out a buffet. That’s when I
started creating. Probably the best thing that
came out of it was my recipe for baconsmothered
red, new potatoes, one I use to
this day.”
But, said Harris, “I didn’t know I’d be a
chef until I was 18 or 19. I wanted to be in
the restaurant business. I think when you
own something, you should know every
aspect of it, so I wanted to know the kitchen.
But I didn’t think I’d come to work every
day in a chef ’s jacket.”
While his menu includes classical
dishes—Oscar, Diane and Caesar—“we try
to put a twist on everything,” Harris said.
He’s a veteran of cooking classes and is, in
fact, collecting photos and writing recipes in
hopes of publishing a cookbook next
year.“Some people have a bunch of novels.
I have thousands of cookbooks.”
Harris was born in Port Arthur but
lived in West Palm Beach, Fla., from age 5
until he was almost 17. He enrolled as a
junior at Nederland High School where he
joined the Bulldogs’ baseball team, which
advanced to the state tournament his senior
year. Several teammates earned LU baseball
scholarships, but a shoulder injury prevented
his competing. With other scholarships and
grants, he enrolled at Lamar.
He became ATO president and served
in the Student Government Association and
on the Greek Council. He was an engineering
major, but, as a junior, started thinking
about the restaurant business. “I was going
to become an engineer, make a lot of money
and open a restaurant.”
Harris worked at a service station owned
by his stepfather, Tommy Spires ’71, who
offered advice: “Do what you believe in. Do
what you love, and the money will come.” A
customer told him that if he wanted to be in
the restaurant business, he needed to work in
a restaurant, and recommended him for a job
at David’s Upstairs. Harris interviewed with
the legendary Chef Alex Pickens. “He gave
me three days to prove myself.” Harris
remained at the iconic restaurant in Gaylynn
Shopping Center until the night it closed.
He switched his major to hospitality
management, and determined to graduate on
schedule, worked as much as he could. “It
was a lot of cramming, a lot of staying up
late, but it was the right way to do it.”
Harris maintains strong ties to the
Department of Family and Consumer
Sciences, where, he said, “The culinary program
is constantly growing. It’s accredited by
the American Culinary Federation, putting it
on a par with the country’s best culinary
schools.”
Today, his lunch menu caters to employees
of nearby businesses, with quick service,
homestyle cooking and blue-plate specials.
Dinner is upscale, and specialties include 14
cuts of steaks, cut in house, including Kobe
beef, plus gourmet seafood and other dishes.
A chef ’s tasting is generating a lot of buzz.
“It’s a new concept in Beaumont, and we’re
doing more and more,” Harris said. “It helps
me be creative.”
Harris loves what he does and does
what he loves. He has big dreams.
“This is real life. It’s definitely not 9 to
5,” he said. “I think people get into the
restaurant or hospitality business because
they want to serve people. It makes me
happy to know they’re happy. That was the
beginning motivation. Now, it’s about trying
to have the best restaurant in Beaumont and,
eventually, the best in Texas.”
