Ever wondered how you can turn a historic cotton mill into a culinary hotspot? Meet Dan, the owner of Emmet's Social Table in downtown Waxhaw. Dan takes us on a journey of how he transformed a historic building into a beloved restaurant. With Megan’s creative flair and Dan's hands-on approach, they've crafted a menu that includes unique delights like fried deviled eggs. Influenced by their years in Asheville, their story is a testament to passion and ingenuity in the restaurant industry.
Emmet's Social Table
Dan Giroux
401 E. South Main St.
Waxhaw, NC 28173
Phone: 704-233-7813
info@emmetsnc.com
https://emmetsnc.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Regina League.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey, an, good morning .
I'm so excited to meet with youthis morning.
I love your restaurant Emmet'sSocial Table in the beautiful
historic downtown Waxhaw, sowelcome, welcome.
I know you and Megan opened in2018.
And tell me, tell our audience,a little bit about that journey
(00:31):
and how you found that awesomelocation.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Okay, well, first off , thank you for welcoming us to
do this with you today.
Yeah, it really just fell in ourlap.
We were happy with what we weredoing Through a mutual friend
once.
You know, one night we got aphone call and someone just
wanted an opinion on the spacethey had.
And you know I went down andlooked at it and came home and
(00:56):
chatted with my wife that dayand said, you know, we talked a
little bit and said maybe it'stime for us to branch out and do
our own thing.
And we kind of talked, you know, asked around a bunch of
different people what theirthoughts were and we threw a
menu together, an idea together,and we agreed to partner up
with the gentleman who wasputting this business together
(01:17):
and so or this developmenttogether, I should say.
But to have such a unique spaceI still remember seeing it for
the first time you couldn't notfall in love with it.
It's not something you canbuild anymore, it's just.
This has such unique characterand really tells the history of
how long it's been there.
It's been there since 1898, butjust you can see how many
(01:40):
different times it's beenrenovated, through different
archways that used to be doors,used to be windows, and just
trying to figure out what it wasused for, how they used to
enter in those ways and so itwas just really interesting and
unique building to be part of.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Was it a mill?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, it was.
Originally it was called theRodman Heath Cotton Mill and it
opened in 1898, like I said, andit closes that through in the
mid-1940s and then over theyears a few other companies came
in.
But the cool part is, you know,there's I believe it was the
Monroe Sweater Company that wasin there from the 80s and maybe
(02:20):
early 90s.
But there's still people thatcome in all the time and say, oh
my, you know my grandparent ormy, my parent worked here oh one
time we had somebody bring us ayou know, a paycheck stub from
one of their relatives that hadbeen paid from that spot.
So it's neat that that townpeople that have been there we
were talking off air before westarted this about some of the
(02:42):
people that are originals ofthis town and you get a lot more
of them down there, um, out inthe Waxhaw area, and so a lot of
them have really seen thatwhole, that whole building
thrive.
Then go down now to see itthrive again.
It makes them happy to see it.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, I think it's amazing, the downtown Waxhaw
area.
People haven't been there.
It is beyond charming.
It takes you away from the cityand I always say I feel like
I'm in the mountains orsomething when I'm in Waxhaw,
that area.
So, Dan, what you mentioned,you kind of said it was time for
(03:19):
you to do your own thing.
What were you already in therestaurant business prior?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
to this.
Yes, I had.
I moved down here about 18years ago and I never worked in
the restaurant business.
I found myself working in itand said, hey, you know, I'm OK
at this, you know.
So I just kind of startedchasing it a little bit and I
was very fortunate to jump onwith a really great company.
Then, about a year later, mynow wife started working at that
(03:42):
same restaurant.
We met and we both grew withthis company and eventually
getting married and havingchildren and kind of moved on
over.
We had lived down in Ashevillefor a number of years as well
and really a lot of that time inAsheville influenced a lot of
the feel for what we did withour menu, with the small plates
and American style tapas thing,because we still love going
(04:03):
downtown Asheville and you know,hop around different places
getting a glass of wine and ameat and cheese board or going
somewhere and getting somesliders or small small bites to
share among us.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So well, I was looking at the menu.
You have some very, very coolthings.
Uh, is it fried deviled eggs?
Did I read that right?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
you did.
You know, uh, that that's a funstory.
You know my I think my wife andI have some different,
different stories on that, butthere was a day that we had been
messing around with pork bellythe vegetarian to our pork belly
tacos and, as you can imagine,we didn't have a restaurant yet,
so we were doing stuff out ofour kitchen at our home and so
(04:45):
the whole house smelled likepork belly.
So my wife is not probably notthe hugest fan of that, but we
knew it was an item we wanted tohave.
But you know, I came home Herfriend from Asheville had been
visiting and they were talkingabout these fried deviled eggs
and their friend had had.
And so you know, I knew rightaway, because my wife is really
(05:08):
Megan's, really the creative onehere.
I'm kind of that's that's whywe team up.
Well, she has the ideas and I'mpretty good with how do we
streamline it, how do we massproduce these things?
And right away I knew when herfriend mentioned these fried
deviled eggs, she looked rightat me and I said no, no, no, no,
no, I can.
Never I've dealt with deviledeggs before.
(05:28):
I said there's no way we'regoing to be able to mass produce
deviled eggs.
With deviled eggs before said,there's no way we're going to be
able to mass produce deviledeggs.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So uh, you know, my version of this is a couple of
glasses of wine later.
What are?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
we doing?
Yeah, yeah, that's it.
Next thing is like I'm beingconvinced and we're hard boiling
some deviled eggs in thekitchen and, uh, and we had had
the pork belly from that day,and so it just kind of happened
and we had the red pepper jellyas well, and then we tried it
and it kind of went from a weare never going to be able to do
this to how do we do this?
Because we really knew rightaway that that moment this would
(06:00):
be a signature item and it hasit really has.
I was just looking the other dayat a product mix of what we've
sold and we sold well over athousand orders of those just in
the month of May, and so it'sjust it's a lot of deviled eggs,
that is, yeah, that's a lot ofdeviled eggs.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I think what strikes me is this wonderful variety.
And you also provide agluten-free menu, kids, I mean,
there's something seafood, beefand I have to talk about your
bar, your craft beer wine theBloody Mary, by the way.
Oh, my goodness, Tell me aboutthe Bloody Mary.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I mean everything.
You know, we really tried whenwe took our cocktail list it was
really a you know how do wehave some fun with it and look
at some throwback drinks.
Uh, you know, through all thetime that the mills been open,
that was really our philosophywith it.
And, um, we had one of our, ouropening general manager, uh,
(07:01):
another megan, um, and my wifemegan.
So, as you can imagine, thatwas fun to to decipher between
the megans for for six years.
Uh, but you know they, theyreally took the reins on that
and came up some really awesomecocktails people loved.
You know you have the bloodymary.
The moonshine margarita hasbeen a huge, huge hit.
Uh, you don't want to have toomany of those, but, uh, it's a
(07:23):
very popular drink.
Uh, the retro cosmo has beenhas been, a huge drink for us as
well.
Um, and then just having thehaving the old setting.
You know what's.
What's fun about the bar ingeneral is and really everything
in that building is we're.
We're fortunate that when theydemoed the whole building, they
they saved all the materialsthat they demoed, so that bar is
built out of railroad ties, youknow, full-on railroad ties
(07:46):
that were demoed from thatbuilding and then we we sat
there Still have pictures of usspacing it all out and designing
the bar itself.
So it really just has not onlythe drinks kind of throwback-y
and everything else with it, butevery bit of that bar.
The shelving is old tongue andgroove flooring from the mill.
So everything is really justtied to the history of that
(08:07):
space.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
That is super, super cool.
Wow, as far as other menu items, you use the word signature.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Share with me a couple other than the deviled
eggs and then tell me some otheritems.
Yeah, gosh, you know it's funny.
A lot of times people come inand they'll ask us you know
what's your favorite menu item?
And?
you know, when you, whether youor you know, we were very
fortunate to have a lot offriends in this business as well
.
That helped us kind of developthis menu.
But you're passionate about allof them, right, because there
(08:40):
was a reason you put them on themenu.
The mill fries have beensomething that have been very,
very popular.
The you know it comes with ourhomemade ranch, our homemade
jalapeno cheese sauce andsomething that people have just
become obsessed with, which isour curry ketchup.
That is just kind of a unique,unique twist on uh on ketchup,
(09:02):
but it really goes well witheverything.
Uh, the.
My personal favorite, if I hadto choose one, is the blt
sliders.
You know people have had abasic blt before, but we do with
our crispy green tomato,arugula, bacon and a homemade
sriracha aioli as well.
So it's just it really allthose flavors kind of come
(09:23):
together really really well.
Uh, you know we can go all over.
You know we have our, ourseared tenderloin, which is a
unique setup.
The biggest thing when wedesigned the menu, the bulk of
it was really trying to make itso everything truly was
shareable.
You know, when the wholetagline of the social table was
really to create conversationabout the food.
(09:46):
Hopefully it's positiveconversation about the food, but
to create conversation aboutthe food they have in front of
them.
So by doing that you need tomake everything a shareable item
right, so they can be tastingthe same thing and hopefully
experiencing the same positiveflavors as everybody else at the
table yeah, my mouth iswatering just looking at the
menu and everything online.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
so I noticed you're open seven days a week, is that?
Correct, yes, so what do you dofor fun when you have some fun,
yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
So we have been.
We've been very fortunate overthe years to have some, some
really great people that thatwork for us and have gotten us
to where we're at.
I mentioned the you know, theother Megan earlier.
She was a huge part in our, ourgrowth and development.
Uh, we've had some other othergreat managers managers.
We have now our staff uh really, you know kitchen everywhere,
(10:42):
from dishwashers to hosts toeverything.
We're very fortunate, uh, to tohave great people.
You know free time yeah, freetime's tough.
We have two young daughters aswell, and so a couple of years
ago, I started coaching softballfor my youngest.
That is an interesting timeinvestment.
Our oldest has been to danceand they both do swim, so it's
(11:09):
just trying to find that balance.
I would say balance is thehardest thing to figure out,
especially when my wife and Iare both involved in the
business.
It definitely takes its time.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Absolutely.
Well, it's wonderful that ahusband and wife can work
together, but yet, you know,find the time to to get away
together as well.
Well, it is a pleasure.
Tell our audience your location, address, phone number, that
kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, it's 401 East South Main Street down in Waxhaw
.
East South Main Street down inWaxhaw Phone number is
704-233-7813.
It's also at emmitsnc.
com and then you know.
I see a lot of people don'tknow is you can.
Right now we do groups ofreservations for groups of six
or more, but a lot of timespeople will call and ask for
(12:02):
smaller groups.
But we do offer our online callahead seating kind of thing so
you can get text message updateand things like that.
So that can be done throughGoogle or directly through our
website as well.
We also have another restaurantover in Fort Mill.
I'll give a little plug too.
So we have a it's a pizza placecalled Center Theater Pie, so
it's pizza and ice cream.
And so that's over on MainStreet in Fort Mill, also
(12:24):
another older building, so itused to be a movie theater.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
From from the what style of pizza it's new york
style pizza, so it's had prettygood reviews so far.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
So it's, it's uh, it's only been about eight or
nine months, so it's stillgrowing, but it's doing a great
job so far yeah, congratulations.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Well, it has been a pleasure to chat with you and,
um, I'm definitely coming to trythe, the fried deviled eggs.
You've got me very intrigued.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Thank you, you'll enjoy them, I promise.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go toGNPSouthCharlotte.
com.
That's GNPSouthCharlotte.
com, or call 980-351-5719.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Regina League.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey, an, good morning .
I'm so excited to meet with youthis morning.
I love your restaurant Emmet'sSocial Table in the beautiful
historic downtown Waxhaw, sowelcome, welcome.
I know you and Megan opened in2018.
And tell me, tell our audience,a little bit about that journey
(00:31):
and how you found that awesomelocation.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Okay, well, first off , thank you for welcoming us to
do this with you today.
Yeah, it really just fell in ourlap.
We were happy with what we weredoing Through a mutual friend
once.
You know, one night we got aphone call and someone just
wanted an opinion on the spacethey had.
And you know I went down andlooked at it and came home and
(00:56):
chatted with my wife that dayand said, you know, we talked a
little bit and said maybe it'stime for us to branch out and do
our own thing.
And we kind of talked, you know, asked around a bunch of
different people what theirthoughts were and we threw a
menu together, an idea together,and we agreed to partner up
with the gentleman who wasputting this business together
(01:17):
and so or this developmenttogether, I should say.
But to have such a unique spaceI still remember seeing it for
the first time you couldn't notfall in love with it.
It's not something you canbuild anymore, it's just.
This has such unique characterand really tells the history of
how long it's been there.
It's been there since 1898, butjust you can see how many
(01:40):
different times it's beenrenovated, through different
archways that used to be doors,used to be windows, and just
trying to figure out what it wasused for, how they used to
enter in those ways and so itwas just really interesting and
unique building to be part of.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Was it a mill?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, it was.
Originally it was called theRodman Heath Cotton Mill and it
opened in 1898, like I said, andit closes that through in the
mid-1940s and then over theyears a few other companies came
in.
But the cool part is, you know,there's I believe it was the
Monroe Sweater Company that wasin there from the 80s and maybe
(02:20):
early 90s.
But there's still people thatcome in all the time and say, oh
my, you know my grandparent ormy, my parent worked here oh one
time we had somebody bring us ayou know, a paycheck stub from
one of their relatives that hadbeen paid from that spot.
So it's neat that that townpeople that have been there we
were talking off air before westarted this about some of the
(02:42):
people that are originals ofthis town and you get a lot more
of them down there, um, out inthe Waxhaw area, and so a lot of
them have really seen thatwhole, that whole building
thrive.
Then go down now to see itthrive again.
It makes them happy to see it.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, I think it's amazing, the downtown Waxhaw
area.
People haven't been there.
It is beyond charming.
It takes you away from the cityand I always say I feel like
I'm in the mountains orsomething when I'm in Waxhaw,
that area.
So, Dan, what you mentioned,you kind of said it was time for
(03:19):
you to do your own thing.
What were you already in therestaurant business prior?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
to this.
Yes, I had.
I moved down here about 18years ago and I never worked in
the restaurant business.
I found myself working in itand said, hey, you know, I'm OK
at this, you know.
So I just kind of startedchasing it a little bit and I
was very fortunate to jump onwith a really great company.
Then, about a year later, mynow wife started working at that
(03:42):
same restaurant.
We met and we both grew withthis company and eventually
getting married and havingchildren and kind of moved on
over.
We had lived down in Ashevillefor a number of years as well
and really a lot of that time inAsheville influenced a lot of
the feel for what we did withour menu, with the small plates
and American style tapas thing,because we still love going
(04:03):
downtown Asheville and you know,hop around different places
getting a glass of wine and ameat and cheese board or going
somewhere and getting somesliders or small small bites to
share among us.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So well, I was looking at the menu.
You have some very, very coolthings.
Uh, is it fried deviled eggs?
Did I read that right?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
you did.
You know, uh, that that's a funstory.
You know my I think my wife andI have some different,
different stories on that, butthere was a day that we had been
messing around with pork bellythe vegetarian to our pork belly
tacos and, as you can imagine,we didn't have a restaurant yet,
so we were doing stuff out ofour kitchen at our home and so
(04:45):
the whole house smelled likepork belly.
So my wife is not probably notthe hugest fan of that, but we
knew it was an item we wanted tohave.
But you know, I came home Herfriend from Asheville had been
visiting and they were talkingabout these fried deviled eggs
and their friend had had.
And so you know, I knew rightaway, because my wife is really
(05:08):
Megan's, really the creative onehere.
I'm kind of that's that's whywe team up.
Well, she has the ideas and I'mpretty good with how do we
streamline it, how do we massproduce these things?
And right away I knew when herfriend mentioned these fried
deviled eggs, she looked rightat me and I said no, no, no, no,
no, I can.
Never I've dealt with deviledeggs before.
(05:28):
I said there's no way we'regoing to be able to mass produce
deviled eggs.
With deviled eggs before said,there's no way we're going to be
able to mass produce deviledeggs.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So uh, you know, my version of this is a couple of
glasses of wine later.
What are?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
we doing?
Yeah, yeah, that's it.
Next thing is like I'm beingconvinced and we're hard boiling
some deviled eggs in thekitchen and, uh, and we had had
the pork belly from that day,and so it just kind of happened
and we had the red pepper jellyas well, and then we tried it
and it kind of went from a weare never going to be able to do
this to how do we do this?
Because we really knew rightaway that that moment this would
(06:00):
be a signature item and it hasit really has.
I was just looking the other dayat a product mix of what we've
sold and we sold well over athousand orders of those just in
the month of May, and so it'sjust it's a lot of deviled eggs,
that is, yeah, that's a lot ofdeviled eggs.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I think what strikes me is this wonderful variety.
And you also provide agluten-free menu, kids, I mean,
there's something seafood, beefand I have to talk about your
bar, your craft beer wine theBloody Mary, by the way.
Oh, my goodness, Tell me aboutthe Bloody Mary.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I mean everything.
You know, we really tried whenwe took our cocktail list it was
really a you know how do wehave some fun with it and look
at some throwback drinks.
Uh, you know, through all thetime that the mills been open,
that was really our philosophywith it.
And, um, we had one of our, ouropening general manager, uh,
(07:01):
another megan, um, and my wifemegan.
So, as you can imagine, thatwas fun to to decipher between
the megans for for six years.
Uh, but you know they, theyreally took the reins on that
and came up some really awesomecocktails people loved.
You know you have the bloodymary.
The moonshine margarita hasbeen a huge, huge hit.
Uh, you don't want to have toomany of those, but, uh, it's a
(07:23):
very popular drink.
Uh, the retro cosmo has beenhas been, a huge drink for us as
well.
Um, and then just having thehaving the old setting.
You know what's.
What's fun about the bar ingeneral is and really everything
in that building is we're.
We're fortunate that when theydemoed the whole building, they
they saved all the materialsthat they demoed, so that bar is
built out of railroad ties, youknow, full-on railroad ties
(07:46):
that were demoed from thatbuilding and then we we sat
there Still have pictures of usspacing it all out and designing
the bar itself.
So it really just has not onlythe drinks kind of throwback-y
and everything else with it, butevery bit of that bar.
The shelving is old tongue andgroove flooring from the mill.
So everything is really justtied to the history of that
(08:07):
space.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
That is super, super cool.
Wow, as far as other menu items, you use the word signature.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Share with me a couple other than the deviled
eggs and then tell me some otheritems.
Yeah, gosh, you know it's funny.
A lot of times people come inand they'll ask us you know
what's your favorite menu item?
And?
you know, when you, whether youor you know, we were very
fortunate to have a lot offriends in this business as well
.
That helped us kind of developthis menu.
But you're passionate about allof them, right, because there
(08:40):
was a reason you put them on themenu.
The mill fries have beensomething that have been very,
very popular.
The you know it comes with ourhomemade ranch, our homemade
jalapeno cheese sauce andsomething that people have just
become obsessed with, which isour curry ketchup.
That is just kind of a unique,unique twist on uh on ketchup,
(09:02):
but it really goes well witheverything.
Uh, the.
My personal favorite, if I hadto choose one, is the blt
sliders.
You know people have had abasic blt before, but we do with
our crispy green tomato,arugula, bacon and a homemade
sriracha aioli as well.
So it's just it really allthose flavors kind of come
(09:23):
together really really well.
Uh, you know we can go all over.
You know we have our, ourseared tenderloin, which is a
unique setup.
The biggest thing when wedesigned the menu, the bulk of
it was really trying to make itso everything truly was
shareable.
You know, when the wholetagline of the social table was
really to create conversationabout the food.
(09:46):
Hopefully it's positiveconversation about the food, but
to create conversation aboutthe food they have in front of
them.
So by doing that you need tomake everything a shareable item
right, so they can be tastingthe same thing and hopefully
experiencing the same positiveflavors as everybody else at the
table yeah, my mouth iswatering just looking at the
menu and everything online.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
so I noticed you're open seven days a week, is that?
Correct, yes, so what do you dofor fun when you have some fun,
yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
So we have been.
We've been very fortunate overthe years to have some, some
really great people that thatwork for us and have gotten us
to where we're at.
I mentioned the you know, theother Megan earlier.
She was a huge part in our, ourgrowth and development.
Uh, we've had some other othergreat managers managers.
We have now our staff uh really, you know kitchen everywhere,
(10:42):
from dishwashers to hosts toeverything.
We're very fortunate, uh, to tohave great people.
You know free time yeah, freetime's tough.
We have two young daughters aswell, and so a couple of years
ago, I started coaching softballfor my youngest.
That is an interesting timeinvestment.
Our oldest has been to danceand they both do swim, so it's
(11:09):
just trying to find that balance.
I would say balance is thehardest thing to figure out,
especially when my wife and Iare both involved in the
business.
It definitely takes its time.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Absolutely.
Well, it's wonderful that ahusband and wife can work
together, but yet, you know,find the time to to get away
together as well.
Well, it is a pleasure.
Tell our audience your location, address, phone number, that
kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, it's 401 East South Main Street down in Waxhaw
.
East South Main Street down inWaxhaw Phone number is
704-233-7813.
It's also at emmitsnc.
com and then you know.
I see a lot of people don'tknow is you can.
Right now we do groups ofreservations for groups of six
or more, but a lot of timespeople will call and ask for
(12:02):
smaller groups.
But we do offer our online callahead seating kind of thing so
you can get text message updateand things like that.
So that can be done throughGoogle or directly through our
website as well.
We also have another restaurantover in Fort Mill.
I'll give a little plug too.
So we have a it's a pizza placecalled Center Theater Pie, so
it's pizza and ice cream.
And so that's over on MainStreet in Fort Mill, also
(12:24):
another older building, so itused to be a movie theater.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
From from the what style of pizza it's new york
style pizza, so it's had prettygood reviews so far.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
So it's, it's uh, it's only been about eight or
nine months, so it's stillgrowing, but it's doing a great
job so far yeah, congratulations.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Well, it has been a pleasure to chat with you and,
um, I'm definitely coming to trythe, the fried deviled eggs.
You've got me very intrigued.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Thank you, you'll enjoy them, I promise.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go toGNPSouthCharlotte.
com.
That's GNPSouthCharlotte.
com, or call 980-351-5719.
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