Meet the passionate foodie who followed her dreams.
By Ruvani de Silva
In conversation with Alicynn Fink, Managing Partner of Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group
Alicynn Fink tells me that she usually stays in the shadows. As managing partner of Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group, one of the most successful hospitality firms in Central Texas. Dodging the spotlight can’t be easy, especially following the brand’s spectacular sweep of Michelin recognition last year, with the group receiving two Michelin Recommends, two Bib Gourmands, a coveted Green Star and One Star recognition for Emmer & Rye and Hestia restaurants respectively. Nonetheless, Fink describes her behind-the-scenes contribution to Emmer & Rye’s success modestly, as “back-of-back-of-house,” quietly underplaying the significance of her work in managing the finances, marketing and HR for a prestigious twelve-business-strong hospitality group across Austin and San Antonio. Fink clearly loves her role, and relishes “the constant push and pull to make sure our teams are supported, have the tools to achieve their mission and vision and communicate them to the public, as well as moving the needle financially,” she said. No small feat.
As we chat, one of the words Fink uses most often is passion. She warmly recalls discovering her own passion for food and culinary culture at a young age, spending bright Arizona winter days sitting outdoors with cyclists visiting her bicycling-coach father and chatting about their favorite foods. Sometimes, she’d pass the time, cutting pictures from her designer mother’s magazines to create images of the restaurant she hoped to one day own. “It was a wonderful way to get to know people – I was captivated,” she says.
Sensibly, Fink followed her heart, studying hotel and restaurant management at North Arizona University and completing a Masters degree in Food, Culture and Communication: Food, Place and Identity at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy.
Fink moved from Arizona to Austin to realize her dream and open her own restaurant with her husband, award-winning chef Kevin Fink. After spending time restaurant-hopping during visits to the city, encountering support and encouragement from fellow restaurateurs, the couple landed on Austin. “Austin’s restaurant scene is rich in quality and we fell in love with it,” she says.
Central Texas also had another draw for the Finks – a strong presence of local farms ideal for their concept of a sustainable, locally-sourced, minimum-waste restaurant showcasing fresh hyperlocal produce. Fink had begun exploring sustainably sourced whole foods to improve her health, and “a pursuit of health soon became a pursuit of deliciousness” as she discovered how much better freshly picked fruit and vegetables, heirloom grains and free-range animal products tasted. This also coincided with the Fink’s desire to build a business that was meaningfully integrated into the local community through every part of the restaurant’s supply chain to their customers’ dining experience.
“When we first moved to Austin we spent time going from farm to farm, begging farmers to trust us with their products and forming relationships,” Fink explains. “This was really important to us – showing up for our community.”
Community is at the heart of Emmer & Rye’s values. Fink returns to her focus on passion as she describes how much she values her team and how she sees her role in supporting them and creating an environment in which they can thrive. Successful staff retention and development are critical to Fink’s principles as a manager, and she is warmly proud of how Emmer & Rye give employees the space to grow and achieve their ambitions. The business’s expansion into a hospitality group was, she says, in part a way to facilitate this and offer greater opportunities to her team.
“The business grew because of the passion and talent in our team,” Fink says. “We took opportunities to open new restaurants because our partners want to showcase foods and cultures that are dear to their hearts.”
As the business has grown over the years, Fink is clear that the new additions still embody Emmer & Rye’s original ethos: “To change the relationship with food from transactional to deep and connected.” This, Fink explains, is “an overarching direction that each restaurant goes back to - how they are creating these moments to bring people into.” Emmer & Rye’s success in facilitating this connection for diners in every aspect of their dining experience has been crucial to the brand’s success.
Looking ahead, Fink points to industry trends that present challenges and opportunities for Emmer & Rye, including the growing density of Austin’s restaurant scene, changes in consumer spending as the cost of living increases, a shift in understanding the importance of a healthy work/life balance and creating a sense of ownership and investment for employees. These are ongoing issues that have arisen over the last few years, particularly since COVID, that the industry must address that.
“I have to determine how to do this on all layers, to support the business and employee engagement,” she explains.
As a working mom, Fink knows first-hand the difficulties of managing work/life balance.
“It is a challenge in the hospitality industry to balance how I want to show up as a mom and how I want to show up as a partner and team member – both worlds demand a lot,” she tells me. “It can be really hard to know when and how to focus.”
That said, her advice for managing this is to not lose sight of self-care: “Put on your oxygen mask first! If you truly want to be a strong leader, you must take care of yourself physically and emotionally – exercise and proper sleep – the basic things that your grandma told you!”
Fink’s key takeaway for getting the most out of her role is “to remind yourself every day why you do it, why you believe in it and why you’re passionate about it.” And that passion has carried Fink from her childhood scrapbooks all the way to Michelin.
