Ever since we first announced that Flyte World Dining and Wine would be shutting its doors for good after service on June 22, social media has been filled with fond remembrances from diners' experiences at the popular restaurant that served as a cradle of chefs. There have also been many tributes to co-owners Scott Sears and Scott Atkinson in regard to the way they ran their operations and the grace with which the planned their exit from the business.
But there's one more surprise that just might be the cherry on top of Flyte's sundae: Pennington Pribbenow is a managing partner and COO of Red Pebbles Hospitality, the team behind such successful Nashville restaurants as Adele’s, 404 Kitchen, Bajo Sexto Taco, Pemrose and Emmy Squared. When Pribbenow and his team heard that Flyte would be closing and saw that “the Scotts” were working to help place their staff in new positions (hopefully starting June 23), he reached out to make a really gracious offer.
Pribbenow worked with Flyte chef Chris Stallard earlier in his career, and has great respect for the chef. In his letter to the entire Flyte staff, Pribbenow describes Stallard as “great leader and a pleasure to work with."
"Over the years we have kept in touch," Pribbenow continues. "He cannot say enough about each and every one of you.”
Then Pribbenow made a surprising and compassionate offer: “It is with great pleasure that Red Pebbles would like to extend employment opportunity to all employees of Flyte. Front and back of house, all positions. We also will match or increase all current pay rates of Flyte. If you are interested in joining our family, please reach out to me directly and I will be happy to set you up with our teams internally.”
While it’s not known yet how many current Flyte employees will take advantage of Red Pebbles Hospitality’s largesse, this is a remarkable development that demonstrates an important and oft-overlooked factor about the Nashville restaurant scene. Unlike some other markets, where there's more of a “zero sum” model (i.e., one restaurant must fail so another can survive and thrive), the community here is much more likely to extend a helping hand. As Scott Atkinson said in our original story, there’s little doubt that a talented staff like Flyte’s would have much trouble finding gigs in this city’s tight job market. But it sure is nice for these folks to be able to finish out their tenures at Flyte gracefully with the knowledge that an offer is on the table.
