Thanks for checking out our new blog series featuring the extraordinary people of Hot Chicken Takeover. This week we talked with Craig Morin, our resident history buff, general jack of all trades and Project Manager for HCT.
How long have you been on the HCT Team?
I’ve been with HCT almost 3 years now. I started as a crew member at the North Market back when it was our only location and we were open just six days a week. Since then, I’ve been a General Manager, I managed the food truck, and I’m working now as a Project Manager. In my current position I help support our Operations team by doing event planning, creating training material, helping with new restaurant development— basically helping out anywhere I can.
Describe your journey here. How have you grown both personally and professionally?
I started at HCT less than a month after I left the Army. I was on active duty as an infantryman for about five years and my transition to civilian-life was a little bumpy. I felt pretty isolated at the time. I was consumed by this notion that, “nobody understands, nobody ever will, how could they?”. We only have a small handful of veterans at HCT, but being apart of this team has tremendous power: we put into practice the art of looking past the very things that tend to isolate people in other environments. That empathy, it’s a beautiful thing, really. I’m lucky to have found HCT when I did. It was the bedrock that allowed me to get my life together (still ongoing).
Professionally? Well I’ve learned how to fry chicken. So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice. And because we’re such a small company, I’ve been fortunate enough to be apart of a diverse range of experiences: vendor management, restaurant layout and design, training and staff development, event planning. The last three years have been a crash course in business operations and I’m doing everything I can to take it all in.
How have you seen HCT grow since you’ve come on board?
Obviously we’ve opened a few restaurants since then, which means our team has grown. But we’ve also grown up a bit. When I started we would run out of chicken regularly, for no other reason than we didn’t know how to do it any better. Now we’re open seven days a week, two meal periods a day, and we’re able to produce consistent and quality product the entire time. This maturing can’t be laid at the feet of some innovation or a new piece of technology. It was trial and error— dedicated team members putting in hours of hard work. I love that.
Your craziest off-menu creation?
I’ve experimented with Ma’s Mac and Cheese bites a few times— do a panko breading and drop them in the fryer. They’re especially good topped with our warm spice and dipped in ranch.
How do you spend your time outside of HCT?
I don’t really like to sit still, so I always find myself into something. I have an old Ford Bronco I like to work on, I’ve taken on a few wood working projects lately, and I read like a madman. Recently, to the delight of my many many (many) followers, I’ve gotten into posting obscure facts about the Civil War on my Instagram account. It’s a real crowd-pleaser.