After Robert Barclift graduated from high school, his dad gave him an important word of advice:
“You have two choices: Go to college or go to work, but … whichever you chose to do, give it 100% in order to be successful.”
Barclift chose the latter, not attending college, and today is executive chef and owner, with wife, Brooke, at Lakeshore Grille. But the road that led him to a career as restaurateur was met with a few twists and turns along the way.
It began in the corporate kitchen at Applebee’s in Athens, Georgia, where he realized his creative abilities were limited. So he left and went to work in a high-end restaurant in Madison, Georgia, where, he says, he was able to grow and develop his culinary skills under the eye of a chef who specialized in Southern fusion, as well as another chef from France under whom he served as sous chef.
Here he talks about his restaurant, his mentors and the three people he would invite to his dream dinner.