It's 8 a.m. on a Friday morning and Bill Fuller is doing his final training run for the Pittsburgh Marathon. Sporting a bright orange tee announcing his Big Burrito Group team for the upcoming race, he seemingly gallops along downtown streets, a big man taking big strides ahead of a big race.
The Dubois, Pa. native is a bundle of kinetic energy at all hours of the day, nothing new for a man who hitchhiked across the U.S. at the age of 18. He eventually made his way to San Francisco and hung out at Grateful Dead shows (“the Dead girls were the prettiest”) before heading back to the east coast and Washington, D.C., landing at George Mason University in nearby Fairfax, Virginia, where he eventually obtained a degree in chemistry. Dismissing a future in chemistry as “boring,” Fuller pivoted to the restaurant industry, where he had worked as a youth, and was taken under the wing of chef Jeff Buben of the vaunted Vidalia restaurant in Washington, D.C.
“He taught me so much,” says Fuller of his early mentor. “There was an order for everything. You stepped into the walk-in, grabbed a sheet, ordered the vegetables and put the sheet back on the hook.” Good training for the operation Fuller is now running as corporate chef for Big Burrito, where he oversees 11 Mad Mex restaurants spread throughout the Pittsburgh region as well as State College, Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio, and five specialty restaurants, some of the best in town, namely Eleven, Kaya, Casbah, Soba and Umi.
Many believe that Fuller and his crew helped establish the dining scene that is now earning Pittsburgh national accolades. “It's a question I get asked a lot,” he says. “Pittsburgh was poised to change and grow, so it was easy to go along with it. Twenty years ago, UPMC was nothing. There's been great growth in the economy here, and with it a desire for better restaurants grew. I've spent time in S.F. and D.C. and Tom [Baron, founder of Big Burrito] is a New York boy so we had a big-city appreciation for restaurants, the way they should be and need to work. That's what we brought to the game. But I don't want to take all the credit.”
Fuller touches many of the restaurants on a daily basis and on this day, he starts at Mad Mex in Shadyside, a cavernous space popping with color and sound that's a hit with everyone from college kids to East Enders and weekend revelers.
“I've gotta show you something and it's f*cking awesome,” he enthuses, offering an impromptu tour of a basement room stacked with more than sixty buckets of frozen margaritas ready to be hooked up to a line that's plumbed to an upstairs bar. It's Cinco de Mayo weekend, arguably the biggest weekend of the year for Mad Mex.
Back upstairs, Fuller connects with Matt Glick, another tall, good-looking fellow who runs the kitchens across the Mad Mex domain. They're about to sample brownies for the restaurant.
The Big Burrito Group is approaching 900 employees, with the Mad Mex restaurants a huge contributor to their success. “We sell a lot of wings at Mad Mex,” deadpans Fuller, who also recognizes the considerable role that liquor sales play. “We're always trying something new behind the bar, we have a lot of specialty margaritas. What we offer here is a good protein with a simple garnish. People come here to chill, relax, kick back with a group. They're not looking for an intricate, composed plate of food. A lot of our business is regulars, and they don't even look at the menu anymore.”
Fuller's work extends into food procurement, human resources and catering and, to many, he is the face of the organization. Along with being an outsize presence on Twitter (@chefbillfuller), he does a weekly radio segment on WYEP on Friday mornings and has a bi-weekly cooking segment on KDKA's morning show, “Pittsburgh Today,” every other Thursday. His affable demeanor makes him a natural for Big's many catered events, including weddings, bar mitzvahs and private fundraisers, and he's quick to say that “a lot of times, the food tastes better because I'm there,” acknowledging that it's equal parts the perception of diners and reality.
The chef's partners are founder Baron and managing partner Cary Klein, the latter a recent addition to the group (Fuller, now 45, has been with Big Burrito for 20 years). “Tom and I have a lot of energy, passion, temper. Cary helped us build a plan. Now, there are less 3 a.m. parties and more spreadsheets.”
With Eleven, their newest specialty restaurant, almost a decade old, Fuller is chomping at the bit to do a new concept. “I want to do Italian,” he says, a gleam in his eye. “There's room for good food, booze, wine. That fits into the business side of my brain and the food side of my brain.”
Late morning, Fuller walks across the street to Casbah and it's hard to say whether he's conducting business as he wisecracks with chefs Eli Wahl and Dustin Gardner in the restaurant's compact kitchen. The Fuller schmooze train is on full autopilot and chugging toward Kaya in the Strip District, where he meets Jen Fisher, operations and development manager for Big's specialty restaurants, for lunch ahead of a 2 p.m. meeting to discuss Kaya Fest, the annual street party on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.
Chef Ben Sloan, a young man with electric blue eyes and a shock of wild hair, is manning the stoves at Kaya after the departure of the popular and talented Sean Ehland, and he's acquitting himself admirably. The restaurant's conch fritters and mild Jamaican jerk wings are still a must on the vaguely Caribbean menu yet it's Sloan's inspired take on an egg salad sandwich that speaks to real promise. Seasonal ramps have been pureed and mixed in with a chunky egg salad, giving the mixture an intriguing pastel green color. It's spooned onto a soft sesame challah roll and topped with a mound of bright green grilled asparagus and tender pea shoots. A slow-cooked pork and banana sandwich with red onions, mayo and a spritz of lime also dazzles.
Kaya's longtime general manager, Monica Berwein-Banks, joins the early-afternoon meeting and matches Fuller on an energetic level, two restaurant operatives at the top of their game keen to top previous successes.
“We've got to start serving the pig earlier this year,” implores Berwein-Banks, who seized on the idea of Kaya Fest after observing the success of festivals at a church down the street. “7 p.m. is too late.” Fuller agrees to serving pork at 6 p.m. alongside a loaded taco bar and with sides including black-eyed peas, greens and tortillas.
Sloan is eager to offer frozen chocolate bananas flecked with coconut and insists he'll be able to keep them frozen despite Fuller's persistent doubts. The group agrees on four bands that will play throughout the evening, and Berwein-Banks puts her foot down on one key detail. “NO one drinks until that street is swept at midnight and reopened again.” Everyone nods in agreement.
Fuller zips down Smallman Street shortly before 4 p.m. and walks through the back door at Eleven, poking his head into the tiny office of executive chef Derek Stevens. Lanky and laid back, Stevens is yet another member of the Burrito running team.
“He took it up 'cause he's got to do it better than me!” joshes Fuller.
“It's all about you, Bill,” zings Stevens with a wink.
The two compare notes on the food Eleven has prepped for a private dinner this evening at which Fuller will be cooking. For the 20-person event in a Shadyside home, the menu will segue from passed hors d'ouevres to roasted lamb chops and Scottish salmon, though there are countless components to every part of the meal. Big's catering head, Gary Terner, shows up just in time to identify every single element and whisk it across town.
Fuller arrives in Shadyside at 5 p.m. and he and Terner adeptly orchestrate the ballet that is food, pans, plates, seasonings. The hostess pops into the kitchen as the lamb sizzles and positively beams upon seeing the Big chef at her stove. Their banter is easygoing and she leaves with a breathy “okay, I'll just go and get dressed!”
“The fun's about to begin,” says Fuller.