Feature: West End Manager

Senior Unit Manager of West End Market Steve Garnett spent countless nights during his freshman year of college dreaming the phrase, “beef, bean or chicken?” Garnett laughed and said, “That phrase was so engraved in my head because everyone who ordered got asked that simple question.”

It was those four words he muttered to every Virginia Tech student who placed an order at the local shop he worked at called La Cantina, located in Owens. Currently, Garnett is the new face walking around hoisting the head management position in Virginia Tech’s dining hall, West End Market.

Garnett never realized that his minimum-wage job as a student would eventually land him a position as the top man in our award-wining dining hall. The executive chef of West End Market Mark Bratton remembers when Garnett was a young worker and said, “I hired and trained Steve Garnett as a shop leader eight years ago and now he is my boss.”

Garnett grew up in New Jersey but only applied to Virginia colleges. He jumped at the chance to come to Virginia Tech when he got accepted during early admission in the fall of 1994 as a forest resource management major.

Throughout his college career, Garnett worked at Owens and eventually became a supervisor of one of the shops. However, he still took no initiative at this time to pursue a career in the food industry and even overlooked a potential management opportunity.

After graduating from Virginia Tech in 2000, Garnett and his wife moved to Virginia Beach because of job opportunities. While he was there, he looked to put his forest resource management major to use by doing tree care and other various outdoor jobs.

After realizing that Blacksburg was the place they both wanted to reside, they moved back into the area for several different reasons. When I asked him what his motives were, he said, “It is phenomenal here [Blacksburg] and we love the mountains, going camping and doing things of that nature.”

Once Garnett realized how much he missed working in the food industry, he went back to Owens; however, this time he had aspirations to become the manager. He started out again as a minimum-wage worker and was looking to do anything he could in order to improve his status.

He eventually got promoted to the salary advisor for J.P.’s Chop House in West End Market where he could prove his skills. Garnett continued to move his way up in the ranking by holding positions like assistant manager, operations manager, food production manager and finally, senior unit manager of the entire dining facility.

Looking back after all of these years, Garnett’s career goals have been paved by starting as a server in the dining halls. Since he knows what it is like to be at the bottom of the totem pole, he feels as though he can cater to the typical college student successfully.

Sophomore transfer student Kurt Reitzel said, “The management and workers at West End Market are very easy to talk to and do a great job catering to the students. Their food is one of the reasons I wanted to go here. You just can’t find that combination anywhere else!”

Garnett is currently working on a compost project that is looking to minimize the amount of compostable material that goes to the landfill. They are saving an average of 2.5 tons of waste a week; an amount that far exceeded his expectations. Along with this and many other projects, his main goal is to make the customers of West End Market happy and provide them with the best quality food at the lowest price possible.

When he is not working hard behind the scenes solving problems, restocking the kitchen, training the staff and various other responsibilities, he enjoys cooking in his own kitchen. Garnett laughed when he said his favorite restaurant is his kitchen and admits that him and his wife “don’t really go out much. The more I’ve worked in food service, the more difficult it is to be truly satisfied with any restaurant.”

Garnett hopes to remain at West End Market for a couple of years in order to solidify his skills as the best. He said one of the hardest parts about being rated the number one dining facility by the Princeton Review is keeping that status.

He followed up that statement and said, “Once you are rated number one, there is only one way to go from there. Of course it is difficult to maintain that high level every year! But the chefs, management, senior management and administration are always looking to stay on the cutting edge by bringing new menu ideas, keeping guests as happy as possible and providing them with what they expect and beyond.”