Restaurant owner applies skills learned from sports
Steve Kalbaugh brings the discipline, motivation and commitment he learned as an NCAA champion track star and coach to managing his staff at The M&M Restaurant & Bar in downtown Galveston.
“When you’re managing a hotel or a bar or a restaurant, you’re leading a team, too,” explained Kalbaugh, 47, who ran long distances at Louisiana State University when the school won backto-back NCAA national track and field championships in 1989 and 1990, then worked in college athletics for 13 years.
To his sports acumen, Kalbaugh added more than a dozen years’ experience running full-service hotels and restaurants, including a stint as director of operations at The San Luis Resort on Seawall Boulevard before he bought the M&M at 2401 Church St. last fall.
“You take care of your guests with friendly, quality service,” he said
In both college sports and the hospitality industry, Kalbaugh feels he learned from some of the best.
His coach at LSU was Pat Henry, who won a total of 27 national championships there before continuing his winning ways as the current track and field coach at Texas A&M University.
“As far as running a restaurant,” said Kalbaugh, “I got the majority of my experience at the San Luis resort complex,” managing its restaurants in keeping with other eateries owned by Landry’s Restaurants, Inc.
“We ran The Steakhouse and the Grotto as if they were stand-alone restaurants,” explained Kalbaugh. “You were expected to hold them to the same high standards as other Landry restaurants.”
Kalbaugh grew up in Metairie, Louisiana, outside of New Orleans. He played football and ran track at Grace King High School in Jefferson Parish before majoring in economics with a minor in political science at LSU.
After graduating in 1990, Kalbaugh coached at three colleges in the Big Easy: Tulane University, Loyola University New Orleans and Xavier University of Louisiana.
He segued into the hospitality industry two years before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana in 2005, and Kalbaugh moved to Texas.
In 2008, another storm, Hurricane Ike, damaged the M&M, which had been built in the 1840s.
“It closed after Ike and didn’t reopen until 2010,” said Kalbaugh. “I would go to Sunday brunch there every couple of weeks and occasionally for lunch or dinner.”
On each visit, Kalbaugh learned more history.
“It had been several different things: a general store, a sandwich shop, even a rooming house,” he said. “Customers still come in and tell me stories. The most famous owner was Joe ‘Moose’ Maffei and people like to tell stories on him.”
Since buying the M&M in 2014, Kalbaugh said, “I’m there almost every day. I’ve gained a few pounds, but I stay pretty active running around, overseeing the service. I don’t ask employees to do anything I won’t do myself. You gain respect by being a great team player.”