San Antonio’s food scene is as hot as ever, and one of the hottest restaurants on everyone’s “must” lists is Clementine, a neighborhood restaurant serving seasonal Southern and American eats in a casual setting. It’s received rave reviews locally since opening less than a year ago and has gained notice across Texas and even nationally. To be honest, it’s impossible to list all of the accolades heaped on the restaurant started by executive chef John Russ and wife, pastry chef and co-owner Elise Russ.
As if navigating the world of restaurant ownership wasn’t enough, in addition to her role at Clementine, Elise is also part of the team behind the San Antonio Cocktail Conference, bringing her vast experience in back of the house in the hotel and restaurant industry to her role as events director, executing all events within the Conference, from conception to clean up, coordinating with restaurants and chefs, and managing special Cocktail Conference events throughout the year.
Oh, and while John and Elise were working to open Clementine, they were also welcoming their daughter, Laurie Marie. So what’s it like giving birth to a new restaurant and a ridiculously cute little girl simultaneously? Read on, and be sure not to miss her recipe for Key Lime Pie. Or just go enjoy lunch at Clementine and let Elise make it for you!
Q. How do you manage family life around restaurant hours?
A. We spend every morning together, so we get up early and do breakfast and just spend time together. And we have every Sunday because the restaurant is closed Sunday/Monday. I’m so glad we decided to do that. I don’t know what we would do if we were open seven days. Having Sunday to just spend it with the three of us is so important.
On Mondays, I work at the Cocktail Conference and John and Laurie spend the day together. I work with the Cocktail Conference two full days a week, Monday and Wednesday, then additional days when we have events or things going on. On Wednesdays, Laurie comes to work with me. Tuesdays/Thursdays, I prep at the restaurant in the morning, then I work every night and she stays with a friend.
Q. How do you juggle it all?
A. I get a lot of help from other people. Her godmother is incredible. She helps me at night, then Cathy at the Cocktail Conference helps out. My mother-in-law comes whenever I need her. She’s in school Tuesday and Thursday now. There’s no way I could do it on my own. These incredible women all help me, plus John. John really takes on being physically available at the restaurant and helping with Laurie Marie, too.
Q. How do you schedule your day?
A. After mornings together, I’ll be at the restaurant 10:00 A.M.–2:30 P.M., then I’ll go pick up Laurie Marie, then I go back to the restaurant around 5:30 P.M. I try to have an hour or two in the afternoon where I’m just spending it with Laurie Marie and I’m not doing anything else.
Q. How has being a mom changed you in the kitchen?
A. It’s made me more understanding of our employees, the things that come up in their lives with their children and life events. It’s made me understand that more and made me want to be more flexible with them when things come up. I know it’s really nice when people are flexible with me.
Q. How did being a chef prepare you for motherhood?
A. I read a book written by a woman chef and owner. She expressed some of the same thoughts I’ve had. When Laurie Marie was a newborn and she didn’t sleep, or we were up all night, I was thinking, How do people who have never been chefs do this?!
I was used to working so many hours and getting very little sleep, and having to function on that was training for being a mom. It had run through my head so many times, then I read this book (Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton) and she said it too. I knew exactly what she [was] thinking. I really do. I feel like it’s prepared me for being a mom—the lack of sleep, the nonstop, having to organize your time down to the minute to get everything done.
Q. What has surprised you most about motherhood?
A. The way that kids are constantly learning. You can never really get a routine down because as soon as they learn how to do one thing, it’s time to start teaching them the next. It’s so cool to see what a person can learn in 16 months. You’re just teaching them how to eat food and all of sudden they’re feeding themselves. It just keeps going. It’s been really incredible to watch.
Q. What’s your biggest challenge?
A. Always feeling like I don’t get to spend enough time with her. Feeling torn between everything I have to do and wanting to be a mom all of the time.
Q. Managing, planning, and making meals is a grind for most families. Since you’re both at the restaurant so much, how do you manage meals?
A. What I’ve found to be the most successful, right after we had Laurie Marie my mother-in-law bought us a freezer. A couple of times a month, I’ll make a bunch of freezer meals. That way I can just pull them out before I go into work. We eat every night when we get home. John will eat at 1:00 A.M. when he gets home. I do eggplant parmesan or enchiladas, baked ziti, quiche—you can pretty much freeze anything. If I want a salad or a vegetable, I get it all ready in the morning so all I have to do when I get home is make the salad dressing or sauté the vegetables because I know that if it’s not all ready to go I’m not going to do it. If I have to cook a bunch of stuff, it’s not going to happen.
Q. What do you enjoy about San Antonio?
A. One of my favorite things is that it’s such a big city with a small-town feel. You can really create real relationships with people, and you don’t find that everywhere. We weren’t planning on staying. We were going to stay here for a year, then move to New Orleans. We just fell in love. Really, it’s the people.
Recipe courtesy of Elise Russ, Pastry Chef/Co-Owner of Clementine
Graham Cracker Crust
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
6 tbsp melted butter
Composition
1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Press into a 9″ pie pan.
3. Bake 350 F for 7 minutes- cool completely before adding filling.
Pie Filling
Ingredients
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup key lime juice
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Composition
1. Let the cream cheese soften at room temperature.
2. Cream the cream cheese and slowly add the sweetened condensed milk.
3. Slowly add the key lime juice.
4. Whip the cream to soft peaks and fold into key lime mixture.
5. Pour into a graham cracker crust and refrigerate until set, overnight.
Photo courtesy of Chelsea Francis.
Q. What’s it like to see Clementine come to fruition?
A. It’s really cool to see something you’ve dreamed about for so many years actually happen, and then to see that people like it. Obviously we were pretty excited about our idea and thought it was going to do well, but you never know once it’s reality, how it’s going to be received.
Q. What was it like to be expecting Laurie Marie and working to open the restaurant at the same time?
A. It was definitely terrifying for me. It was a year of a lot of uncertainty. John stopped working in November and we didn’t find the space until August. There were a lot of ups and downs, looking at places, then realizing it wasn’t a good fit. Wondering if we should just give up on this, should John just go get a job—what’s the best thing?
But for John, I think it was the opposite. Finding out we were going to have a family really spurred him to want to have his own place, to want to do his own food, have somewhere where he was proud of where he worked—that had the same values he did. To have a job you that you knew was stable. I think us starting a family made him start to think about the future and what he wanted that to look like. And that really pushed him to open Clementine.
Q. What’s it like working together?
A. It’s fun because we haven’t worked together in so long. When we met, we worked together, and so now, being able to work together again is fun. If I don’t have time to do something or I can’t get something done, he always makes sure it gets done for me. It’s nice having that person to rely on—you’re a team with everything that you do, not just with work, but with our stuff at the house and all of that. To be comfortable with our schedules and to be able to work together to make it all happen. I don’t know how we’d be able to do it all if that wasn’t the case.
