Food for Thought
Fleming’s Maeve Pesquera dishes on private lunches & Facebook foodies
Maeve Pesquera was a Houston restaurant general manager at age 21 — the firstfemale restaurant GM at Tony's. And she hasn't stopped since.Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar
Fleming's is getting into the private lunch business. The whole restaurant canbe yours.Photo by Chris Conyers
It's still all about the steak — and Facebook.
Had lunch at the River Oaks Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar the other day.
The place was packed with the very chic (and little ol’ me), all invited to sample the lunch menu that’s available now for private parties seven days a week.
“It’s your own private restaurant for lunch,” operating partner Maeve Pesquera says.
How cool would that be to have your own restaurant for lunch? Bridal showers, birthday parties, just a gal or guy get together. I could get used to that.
So, we sipped wine and noshed on 6-ounce filets and jumbo crab cakes and little loaves of wonderful rosemary sourdough that chef/partner James Cole popped out of the oven. Pesquera eats one loaf everyday when she arrives at work, and yet remains as slender as when I first met her 14 years ago. Oh, and she’s also had four sons since then. Some people just have all the luck.
Pesquera is a longtime fixture on the Houston food scene, one known for her management skills as well as her drop-dead good looks and involvement with the social set. She cut her teeth working for the legendary Tony Vallone, whom she still refers to as Mr. Vallone.
She spent 10 years working for him, managed to attend the Hilton School of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston and became the Vallone Group's youngest and then only female general manager when she was promoted to that spot at Anthony's when she was 21.
Which is where I met her when an ex-boyfriend of hers who was then a current date of mine (no, I am not getting into that here) introduced us.
Fast-forward to 2002 and she joined the Fleming’s team to open its first restaurant in Houston, where she’s been wining and dining the cream of society since. Her hubby, Luis Pesquera, was the former chef/owner of Joyce’s Ocean Grills. At one time the couple had four restaurants between them. And three sons.
But just before the birth of the latest boy, Luis got out of the biz for a day job in real estate to spend more time with his growing family so sons now out number eateries for the charming couple.
So now, with just one restaurant, it’s time for Pesquera to conquer other worlds. Like the cyber world.
“I’m on Facebook!” she says proudly. “Although I’m afraid to post something and have it be wrong, I’m still working it all out.” Apparently she’s doing it pretty well, she has more friends than I do and we even set up an interview recently on the site. She told one of the Fleming’s corporate honchos about this as they discussed setting up a fan page for the restaurant.
“Facebook is a really good marketing tool, I think we’ll be doing a lot more," Pesquera says. "But the social aspect is a little daunting. It was bad enough when we were kids and everybody got invited to the slumber party but you. Now you have to see the photos from the party you weren’t invited to on Facebook.”
Well, that is a drawback. But as our food arrives, half of the table immediately whips out smart phones and starts snapping away and typing.
“What is everyone doing on the their phones?” one table mate asks.
“Posting photos on FaceBook and Twitter,” we reply in unison.
“Oh!” Pesquera says, excitedly. “Can you teach me how to Twitter later today?”
Ah, another convert to the foodie cyber world. And, yes, Maeve, if you tweet it, we will follow.
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