Restaurateur Jim Verfurth, owner of Verf's Grill in Flower Mound, shared tales from his unexpected journey of entrepreneurship as the featured presenter at last week’s Rotary meeting, hosted by Dr. Michelle Martz.

 

“The last thing I ever thought I would do is own a restaurant,” says Verfurth, who grew up on the East Coast with five siblings. With so many mouths to feed, Verfurth's parents had to work hard to make ends meet, he recounted. The family went out to eat only twice a year, enjoying fine dining at McDonald’s and KFC, he quipped. But Verfurth always enjoyed food, and as a teenager, he got a job as a dishwasher at a local eatery. He worked his way up the ladder to be a leader in the kitchen, and eventually, one of his managers encouraged him to go to culinary school.Verfurth was accepted to The Culinary Institute of America in New York and graduated in 1981. Tired of too many cold winters on the East Coast, he moved with two friends to Houston and started his career in the restaurant industry. In time, he became the executive chef of Kingwood Country Club, and later Director of Purchasing for the United States. His work brought him to the Dallas area, and a change in his employer’s leadership prompted Verfurth to open his own restaurant in Highland Village, called the Village Grill.“I worked 105 hours a week for eight months, writing checks to stay open, with no paycheck,” recalls the intrepid entrepreneur. He worked the same long hours another eight months without a paycheck, he noted, and became overwhelmed with anxiety about leaving his family in the lurch. But after 16 months, the restaurant finally started making a profit.Things went swimmingly for several years, until about 2014, when the strip center where the Village Grill was housed started to fall into disrepair. Sales gradually declined, and Verfurth was at a critical decision point. When his landlord refused to provide any rent relief or upgrades when it came time to renew his lease, Verfurth decided to move his eatery to a new location.“You’ve got to sometimes get uncomfortable to make life happen,” he said. The move proved fruitful, and Verfurth soon became a sought-after resource in the local restaurant space, making a deal to take over Shoal Creek Tavern in the Shops at Highland Village and later adding Lambeau’s America to his portfolio. Although he eventually shuttered the Village Grill, he has been able to grow the other three restaurants successfully.Verfurth is quick to give credit to Florencio Benitez, Director of Operations and executive chef of Verf’s Grill, for the success of all three locations. Verfurth hired the aspiring chef when Benitez was only 18 years old, and he has been by the restaurateur’s side ever since.