Seedless watermelon, cut into 2-inch cubes.
"At the time, they had grits and cornmeal, which I started buying from them.After a couple of years, something happened with Mike's crop and he kind of got out of the side gig.
It was like, "Okay, the crops are ruined.I'm not going to try again.".By that time, Anson Mills had Carolina Gold rice to sell.
I started buying that, and then buying other kinds of rice from them.Black rice was the one that I really, really loved.
I got that for a few years and then that crop failed and they didn't have any, and Glenn Roberts [the founder of Anson Mills] was telling me about some seed rice that I don't even know, was some ridiculous amount of money, like $300 or $3000.
But they were trying to bring this rice back..That was really intense.
It was very scary to see our entire restaurant industry basically fold overnight.I was coming into our factory to shut the 16,000 square-foot building down and send my team home until Lord knows when.
I remember feeling a sense of loss because I've always been able to just make things work no matter what happens, because I just can show up and pull it together.This felt like an instance where there was no control.