Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Stonewood takes on woman´s touch

By VALERIE WHITNEY
NEWS-JOURNAL BUSINESS WRITER

PORT ORANGE — Mary Pat Jones got her first job as a hostess at a beachside restaurant when she was 16.

“I wanted a car,” Jones, 43, said during a recent interview at the new Stonewood Grill and Tavern opening here Thursday.

The Ormond Beach resident continued working at eateries throughout high school and college. She even wrote a training manual for one of her employers while in college.

“I was going to school so I didn´t have to end up working in a restaurant,” Jones said.

Somewhere along the way she got hooked on the industry.

Jones was recently named operating partner of the new Stonewood, the 14th location for the Ormond Beach-based chain founded in 1999.

A member of the founding staff at the Stonewood in Ormond Beach, Jones is the first female to hold that position with the dinner-only restaurant chain.

“Mary Pat has been an integral part of the growth of our company serving many different roles in the last five years,” said Steve Papero, executive vice president of Stonewood Holdings, parent company for the chain as well as the Peach Valley Cafe chain.

“We´re proud to have her leadership directing the opening and operations of our newest restaurant in Port Orange,” Papero said in a prepared statement.

Jones, with 20 years of experience in the industry, is ready for the challenge.

“It´s like a dream come true. I´m still amazed by it all,” she said, during the middle of a training session at the restaurant last week.

In her new role, she is directly responsible for the complete operations of the restaurant, including hiring the staff.

A graduate of Father Lopez High School, Jones earned a bachelor´s degree in business marketing from Florida State University in 1985. She spent 10 years working at the Chart House restaurant in Daytona Beach.

Her first job with Stonewood was as a server trainer. She also worked as a bartender, server and trainer before being promoted into management.

The eatery, located at 1078 Dunlawton Ave., is in a 7,100-square-foot-building that formerly housed a Don Pablo´s Mexican Kitchen.

You can´t tell it was a Don Pablo´s from the inside or outside, though. The interior building has been transformed into the Stonewood motif of deep mahogany wood, accented by Tennessee sandstone pillars.

The building´s high ceilings have been lowered, creating a more intimate setting for the dinner-only restaurant that seats 230. That is slightly more than the number of seats in the Ormond Beach location.

Prior to the opening, Jones and her staff spent nine days training the 87 employees on all there is to know about a Stonewood restaurant, including schooling them on each of the dishes on the menu, from appetizers to dessert.

The servers learn the menu so they are better able to answer questions about the dishes from guests when ordering, she said. During one session, she spent time inspecting the food for quality control as they were completed to make sure they met the company´s standards.

Stonewood, which Nation´s Restaurant News called one of the “hot concepts” for 2002, specializes in hand-cut steaks and fresh seafood cooked over an open grill.

In keeping with company tradition, the Port Orange Stonewood will hold a charity event the night before it opens to the public. Tickets are $25 and all proceeds, in this case, will benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Volusia County, said Kellie Cofer, director of marketing for the restaurant.

One unintended benefit Jones derives from her new post is that her husband, Fred Jones, works next door at Coquina Bank. That makes it easier for the couple, who have three boys, to juggle family life.

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