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GREENSBORO — Graham Heaton keeps the four photos of his young kids taped beside his 10-eye gas stove.

He looks at them at least a half-dozen times a night. There’s Evan, his 2-year-old boy. Evan loves trucks and trains. And his twin daughters, Reagan and Kendall, 9 months old. They love just about everything.

He sees them as much as he can. But as a restaurant owner and a chef, he knows time isn’t his friend. His second home is Table 16, his restaurant, and he’s there countless hours creating what he calls New World Cuisine.

He became half-owner of Table 16 in July 2008. But right before Halloween, he bought out his partner and his old boss, well-known Greensboro chef Ben Roberts, and took on a title he’s thought about forever.

Restaurant owner and chef.

He does everything. Take Monday. As the music of The Avett Brothers played in his tiny kitchen 14 steps long, he took phone calls and waited on his accountant before he opened his doors for another week.

He looks comfortable in his T-shirt and baseball cap. He looks young, too. Like high school graduate young. He gets that a lot.

Tuesday through Saturday, tucked in one of our city’s quirkiest spots — the 500 and 600 blocks of South Elm — Graham parks himself beside the photos of his children and creates something delectable and downright artistic out of scallops, elk or collard greens.

Then he’ll pull away from his sizzling pans and step into Table 16’s dim light.

He’s out talking to his diners, many he knows by first name. Graham will be in his white chef coat, wearing a face you’d think a razor has never touched.

And at least once a night, he’ll get the same question from diners he doesn’t recognize.

“You look so young!’’

“But I feel so old!’’

That’s Graham’s standard response. It’s pretty true.

He does love reading the book, “Big Trucks,’’ to his son, and he does love polishing off a half box of Golden Grahams every night after work as he watches David Letterman.

Plus, he’s made a log cabin out of carrots for kids who have come to eat at Table 16.

But he’s spent nearly half his life working in restaurants — ever since age 16, when he washed dishes for free at a Thai restaurant in Powells Point, a no-stoplight town right before the Outer Banks.

He graduated from culinary school, cooked in some of the country’s best restaurants and embarked on a career where the profit margin is all too often as thin as a wafer.

Yet, he’s making it work, this “chef thing’’ as he calls it.

Graham says his business has more than doubled since taking over Table 16. But you don’t need a spreadsheet to figure that out. Just peek into Table 16 on any given night it’s open.

The place is busy.  Graham’s take? “It’s slammin.’’’

But it’s not easy. Graham is 33, a married father with three young children and 15 people who call him boss. It’s all new.

So, every night, while driving home to Thomasville, Graham calls his business consultant.

His father Don.

There was a time when they didn’t get along. Graham was the rebellious teenager; Don, the by-the-book dad. But today, their relationship is much different.

Don understands the intricacies of business because he ran his own pharmacy for 30 years. He also understands his son, his talent and the possibilities of hardship.

Decades ago, Don’s father loaned him money to expand his pharmacy in the Currituck County town of Grandy and, later, skirt catastrophe when an employee’s embezzlement nearly killed his business.

So, with the memory of his own father fresh in his mind, Don helped his son. He saw that his son had an “unbelievable gift.’’ He also saw something else: Graham had grown up.

Don lent his son the money he needed to buy Table 16. It was nearly the same amount his own father loaned him: about $145,000.

Don says he cherishes their relationship. Graham does, too.

Even past midnight before his big bowl of Golden Grahams when he hangs up with his father, looks down at his cell phone and realizes he has talked to his dad the whole ride home.

“It’s my turn to be good enough to do what my dad did and give (my family) everything they need,’’ Graham says today. “It’s my duty. And if I die half the man my father is, I’ve done very well.’’
 

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com