Sidelined by football injury, chef embarks on culinary career

Anyone who has eaten at David Reid’s Sump’em Good restaurant in Ellenwood, or had him cater an event, can blame their good fortune on a football injury.

Reid was a ninth grader at Kiley Junior High in Boston, Mass., when he was tackled on the football field and broke his hip. On crutches for a year, he couldn’t take gym and was sidelined into double home economics classes.

Back then, as now the boy goofed off in the class while the girls did all the cooking and aced all the tests, but to Reid’s surprise, he took a liking to it. Soon he was showing the girls who were the boss at baking and cooking.

His next step was vocational tech school and his instructor, a graduate of the Harvard of cooking school – the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. – introduced him to the idea of being a chef. But in 1981, the institute had a three-year waiting list and his parents, Hartfield and Helen Reid, wanted him in college.

As part of his vocational internship, Reid was sent to the Royal Heartside Restaurant in Rutland, Vt. Being a cocky teenager, it never occurred to him that Ernest Royal, the humble black man who owned the restaurant, had connections.

Today, when he tells the story of how Royal, whom he later found out was a member of the Board of Trustees of The Culinary Institute, introduced him to Ferdinand Metz, the institute’s then president and got him into the school in 1982, he can’t stop the tears from coming. "There I was thinking I knew everything," Reid said.

He graduated in 1985 and has had a whirlwind career in the kitchen of some of the nation’s top hotels and country clubs. He has done stints with the Hyatt Regency, the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, the Crowne Ravinia and the Omni in Atlanta, and at hotels and restaurants in Fulda, Germany; Paris, France; and the Half Moon hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

But these days, Reid is exercising his culinary skills right here in Ellenwood, and when diners walk into his mostly take-out restaurant in the Five Points Shopping Center at Panola and Fairview Roads, they know that despite the Sump’em Good name, this is not your usual Southern grill.

Maybe it’s the plump shrimp, split lobster tail and giant pink crab legs sitting on ice, or the two refrigerated cases of attractive salads and array of desserts, or the racks of golden whole chickens rotating slowing on the rotisserie that dominates behind the counter.

Sit long enough and it become clear that the customers who come in – whether for takeout or for sit-down meals, priced from $5.99 to $18.00 – are regulars. They chat easily with Reid, who greets them as the walk in.

Reid relocated to Atlanta in 1993 and went into business for himself in 2001. He says customers come from all over South DeKalb, McDonough and downtown Decatur to eat at the restaurant, his first permanent location, which he opened last June.

Before that, he ran a mobile catering service, driving his kitchens and BBQ pits – from which he can cater for 5,000 to 10,000 people – wherever he was hired.

Today, full-line catering still dominates him business. He also does business under Worldwide Catering and competes with the likes of Proof of the Pudding and Affairs to Remember for corporate contracts. Reid works primarily in three states – Georgia, Florida and Texas. Whenever he heads off to far-flung locations like Houston, he ships his kitchens and BBQ pits on trailers and he and his staff fly out to meet them.

Reid’s clients include MCI, BellSouth, Home Depot, Georgia Pacific and Gov. Sonny Perdue.

He does everything from upscale-white tablecloth corporate events, to weddings, and tailgate parties for Georgia Tech and the University of Auburn. This year, he is looking to add Notre Dame University.

Now that he has a permanent location, Reid said retailing is picking up.

"I am already outgrowing this spot," he said of the 2,200 square-foot restaurant that seats 60.

Luckily for him, most of the business there is take-out.