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Dishes like the grilled tuna below are prepared by Lantz Price '88 at Plums, his bistro in Beaufort, S.C.

"I LOVE SEARING SALMON," SAYS LANTZ PRICE '88. "Some fish don't sear very well." It's just one of many things Price loves about the restaurant business. He loves the energy and camaraderie. He loves getting ideas from other restaurants, like the tiny oyster house in Boston's South End where he got the best sandwich he's ever had in his life—a lobster BLT—along with his favorite Belgian beer. (Back home in Beaufort, S.C., he created his own southern version with crabmeat and twice-smoked bacon.) He loves his knuckle-sparing offset serrated knife. Price even loves being "in the weeds," restaurant parlance for being overwhelmed with orders.

"I'm jammed up against the wall with 18 orders on the board and more coming in," he says. "It's very stressful, very inspiring, and requires great energy." When Price cooks at his bistro, Plums, he is the point person, sautéing and calling out the orders to the "oven guy," the "salad guy," and the "grill guy." When they're in the weeds, they could really use six cooks. But the staff of four can dig their way out, if they're "on" and if they're prepared—the pasta water must be at the boil by 5 p.m. "Sometimes it's beautiful, like a really well-executed symphony," he says. At the end of a performance, the cooks may applaud themselves with a few whoops of elation.

Price has been braving, and enjoying, this kind of pressure for much of his life, starting at 14 when he got a job as a dishwasher. "I grew up in a Kitchen Confidential world," he says, alluding to chef Anthony Bourdain's best-selling tale of life in the "culinary underbelly," where drugs, tattoos and testosterone run rampant. "Unfortunately, I've seen all of that," Price says, "but I gravitated toward the management side."

Price purchased Plums in 1995 without investors or partners. "If I can't afford it," he says, "I shouldn't be doing it in the first place." In 2003, he opened the Saltus River Grill because he wanted to "go to the next level" with a more sophisticated cuisine and urban ambience. He succeeded: Reviewers always write that they felt transported to New York or Los Angeles for a couple of hours.

At his second, larger restaurant, Saltus River Grill, Lantz Price leaves the kitchen to an executive chef. "I don't like cooking 'brigade' style," he says, "where the division of labor is so diced up. It's much more fun in a smaller kitchen, being in control of all the food."

Even the menus at his two restaurants seem to reflect his energy and embrace-life attitude. Saltus River Grill features an oyster menu with 27 varieties from around North America, with names like Giga-Moto and Tatamagouche. A New Hampshire native, he notes that "Some people down here, no matter how rich they get, want fried shrimp and grits." No problem. Price is only too happy to offer grits—though not just your ordinary grits—daily. "They're stone ground," he says with some reverence. "We cook them al dente, but you still get the creaminess, thick with heavy cream and butter."

Price intended to study zoology at UNH, but loved his required English classes so much that he majored in English literature with a minor in business. He believes writing all those literary-analysis papers helped him develop an analytical approach to his restaurants. The business courses were useful because he must watch costs so closely—adding or subtracting one 25-cent shrimp can really make a difference over time. He thinks that's why many restaurants fail: "They don't run by the numbers."

Some of Price's lessons have come the hard way. As a young restaurant owner, he decided to economize with a $30 safe. Three burglaries later, he purchased a $500 industry-standard model. Now 38, Price has much to teach would-be restaurateurs. Clearly he thrives on the pressure that has driven others out of the business. Yet every couple of weeks he takes the time to go fishing. And every day, he spends time with his wife, Jennifer Lussier Price '88 (a.k.a. the Test Menu Queen), and their two children. About to open his third restaurant, he won't be cooking much at Plums anymore. "I love putting all the pieces together," he says, "but in the end, I'd just love to own a bistro and cook." ~

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