Laurie Kniess, general manager of Butcher & Rose, has been a part of the Cameron Mitchell Restaurants (CMR) family since 2013. Kniess started working at The Pearl Short North in guest services, gaining experience in several positions before becoming the restaurant’s general manager. Her great work at The Pearl was honored by CMR when she was named Dining Room Manager of the Year in 2016 and General Manager of the Year in 2018. She then went on to become the general manager of Del Mar SoCal Kitchen (now SoCal Kitchen + Bar), Lincoln Social Rooftop and The Guild House, before joining the team at Butcher & Rose.
Kniess hopes to bring a positive energy to the new steakhouse, and is excited to see the concept come to life in downtown Columbus. Her main goal is to deliver memorable experiences for both her team as well as guests.
Over the course of her career with CMR, Kniess has embraced the power of a positive attitude and is passionate about teaching this mindset to other associates. She is continually impressed by the impact a positive gesture, thoughtful comment and generally optimistic spirit can have on someone else’s day. “A positive attitude is easy to keep when you strongly relate to the bones of the company and its people,” said Kniess.
Kniess resides in Columbus, Ohio. When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, exercising, traveling, enjoying the outdoors and relaxing. Her favorite CMR dish is The Pearl’s Braised Short Rib.
Wayne Schumaker has been passionate about food his entire life, starting from his childhood where he grew up on a fruit farm. Wayne has more than two decades of professional culinary experience and has been with Cameron Mitchell Restaurants (CMR) for almost 20 years serving in many positions and concepts.
Upon graduating with a culinary arts degree from the Oregon Culinary Institute, Wayne moved to Chicago and worked for the Hilton Hotels company for six years. Working his way up to executive sous chef before being offered a position at Smith & Wollensky in Las Vegas. Wayne worked for the steakhouse chain for four years before being offered an executive chef position at their Columbus location, where he worked for more than a year.
In 2004, Wayne joined the CMR family as a sous chef at Martini Modern Italian. In the two decades, Wayne has worked in the CMR kitchens of Martini Modern Italian, Mitchell’s Steakhouse, Mitchell’s Ocean Club, Hudson 29 Kitchen + Drink and The Barn at Rocky Fork Creek. Wayne was also a regional chef for CMR where he traveled to various CMR locations to assist the restaurants’ executive chefs and kitchen staff. Wayne is excited to be the Executive chef of Butcher & Rose.
What Wayne enjoys most about being an executive chef is teaching and seeing someone achieve their goals. His advice to aspiring chefs is to “get in with the best, be inspired and learn from them, and to challenge yourself.” He believes that you need to get out of your comfort zone to grow.
Although he’s supported CMR with more than 10 restaurant openings, he feels it never gets old and is always exciting. Wayne is driven by the success of others and has learned that to be successful, surround yourself with great people who have the passion and attitude for great food and providing genuine hospitality.
Wayne and his wife, China, live in New Albany with their son Mason. In his spare time, Wayne’s passions are his family, fishing, football.