Becoming a restaurateur was far from Richard Mott’s mind back in 1981 when he was studying finance at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. As preparation for a career in corporate America, he made a bid to run a student coffee shop for a class project. “To stake out on your own–to be in business for yourself–was considered heresy in those days,” he recalls. “But I came to enjoy the independence, not having anyone tell you what to do. Besides, I figured I didn’t have to wear a suit every day.” Upon graduation Mott turned down a job in investment banking from Citicorp–he’d opened another concession on campus. Today he owns and operates a menagerie of coffee joints at local universities as well as a pair of upscale restaurants notable for their waterfront locations, North Pond Cafe and Jackson Harbor Grill.
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Mott, who says he’s a hearty eater but not a foodie, branched into fine dining only two summers ago. By then his small concession empire, University Foods, had grown 20-fold in revenues, grossing millions annually and employing several hundred people. And he’d struck up a good working relationship with the Park District. “Nearly all of my concessions are for not-for-profit organizations,” he says, “six at the U. of C., a couple at Northwestern, John Marshall Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, and so forth. But mine had been a seasonal business that didn’t generate a lot of income in the summer, so I started selling hot dogs and such in the parks. And that was one reason why I decided to open these restaurants.”
Mott had hired chef Mary Ellen Diaz to concoct the menu at North Pond, which Mott calls “a wine, white tablecloth, sit-down diner.” A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Paris who had worked in the kitchens of the Ritz-Carlton and Printer’s Row, Diaz believes in fresh, organically grown ingredients. “I was spoiled by Paris,” she says, “shopping for meat and vegetables every day at farmers’ markets. So I brought this culinary philosophy–the idea of a sustainable nature–back, and it influences my selection of ingredients and the way I cook.” Last spring, impressed by her penchant for imaginatively eclectic dishes, Mott asked her to revamp the fare at the more laid-back Jackson Harbor. “I thought of this book I just read, If I Can Cook/You Know God Can” by Ntozake Shange, Diaz recalls, “and I was struck by her advice to mix and match, to be inspired by a traditional cuisine but not to copy it.” She decided to use the flavors of Latin America as her model.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Richard Mott photo by Eugene Zakusilo.
