Meet Miles Garner | Crawfish Innovator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Miles Garner and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Miles, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
There were a few things that I thought about when I was coming up with my business. I looked around the Houston crawfish scene and I really didn’t like what I saw. There were a lot of places charging outrageous prices for very average crawfish. It seemed to be more of a money grab than a passion for good food. Growing up around the culture in Louisiana, they handle crawfish in such a different way. It’s about family, and gathering around a table to eat. So I believed that my passion for good food and my product would be successful. I wanted to be able to match all budgets, not just higher class and corporate budgets. I never thought it would take off the way it did. And although I love the traditional way to cook crawfish, my creative side longs for so much more. So as my business grew, I have been able to get creative and bring innovative flavors to the world of crawfish.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Professionally my path is not to dissimilar from a lot of food and beverage people. I grew up in a restaurant family. My Dad owned a restaurant in downtown Houston for the better part of 25 yrs, my mom, brothers, sisters all worked in restaurants at some point in their lives. Myself, I was in Houston restaurants for a few years before changing over to a corporate position. I was in sales and customer service. It seemed like every few years I would be starting over. I never really found a home in the corporate world, but I definitely learned a lot about people and building relationships. I think that’s what really sets me apart from other organizations that do what I do. Most of them have a back of the house restaurant background, or some type of manual labor industry. While I have both of those, I also have an extensive background in food service and sales. I take pride in being very professional and detailed in all aspects of my business. There is so much more to catering and food service than just the cooking aspect. This hasn’t been an easy path, and I am ecstatic to be out of the corporate world and in business for myself. I don’t plan on going back to that either.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First off, I love the city of Houston. I believe it is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the country and there is so much to do. I would start by encouraging my friend to visit in the middle of March. Obviously the weather is beautiful, but also, it’s rodeo season in Houston. No trip to Houston could possibly be complete without a trip to the HLSR. Houston is a bustling city, full of food and drink options. New York has burrows, Houston has “areas”. So the food and drink tour would take us from the Heights (where I reside) and hit some local spots like Karbach or New Magnolia Brewery. Then we’re headed to the north end for some authentic tacos. To downtown to explore some of our food courts like Bravery Chef Hall and our downtown tunnels. We’ve got to hit the East End and visit J&M BBQ, 8th Wonder, Truck Yard, and Nancy’s Hustle. We would have to explore the culture of Montrose and the Museum district for BBQ and soul food at the Pit Room or Turkey Leg Hut. Possibly throw in a museum visit. We’ve got to go down to Bellaire and hit some of our Asian spots like Mein or Tiger Den. Let’s come back to the Heights and hit Loro and some craft cocktail bars like Julep (where I was a bartender) or Lei Low. If we can we have to see an Astros game at minute maid. Or if it’s early march go the College Classic at Minute Maid, one way or another we’re getting some baseball in. To wrap it all up, I’m obviously bringing them out to my place for some Crawfish. We can’t have a complete trip without that. There’s so much we missed, but I guess they’ll just have to come back for another visit.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to give a shoutout to all my friends/family that supported me in my first year. Without them, I would never have been able to grow into a third season. The crew at Underdog’s Pub on Washington Ave, They gave me my first location and plenty of my first orders.

Website: Clutchcitycrawfish.com

Instagram: @clutchcitycrawfish

Linkedin: Miles Garner

Facebook: @clutchcitycrawfish