Adam Whitley was a businessman first, and then a chef.
But while cooking and creating new culinary delights for Crady’s in Conway are now top priorities, Adam’s business acumen comes in quite handy in his role as chef and partner in his family’s restaurant.
In a departure from how many chefs begin training in the restaurant industry, Adam did not have a restaurant job while in high school. He did witness his mother, Barbara Whitley, hone her baking skills through the years.
It wasn’t until Adam was a student at the College of Charleston working on his Business Administration degree that he earned money in a kitchen.
“I worked at Olde Towne on King Street,” he says. “I was a cook.”
But after graduation Adam, who is now 36 years old, did not pick up a spatula again in a professional capacity until 1998.
“Before that I did retail,” he says, “and I was a server for extra money. I waited tables at Frank’s, Austin’s, Rice Paddy, Thoroughbreds and Emi. I started at Roz’s Rice Mill Café in 1998, and I worked both front and back of house.”
Through the entire period Adam worked restaurant jobs on the south end of the Grand Strand, he lived in Conway as he has since he was 2 years old. The 45-minute commute to work was his time to “zone out and think about things.”
Then in 2001 he and his parents, Les and Barbara Whitley, and his sister, Heather Whitley, opened a restaurant on Main Street in Conway called Crady’s. It’s named for his maternal grandmother, Najgy Crady, who was a fabulous cook.
“It started as a coffee shop with baked goods,” Adam said. “I still worked at south end restaurants at the same time. I did that for a year or two. But then we started offering a couple of lunch items, then we started having hot lunch, and it kept evolving from there. We added dinner a year ago.”
Ah yes, dinner. Dinner was added after an extensive renovation that more than doubled the restaurant’s dining capacity. Although the Whitleys did the work themselves, the expense of the beautiful remodeling was a huge investment that also meant the restaurant was closed for three months.
Adam’s learning curve steepened sharply.
“Adding dinner was a big stretch,” he says. “It meant training a cooking staff and writing down recipes. I couldn’t just say a dish has a little bit of this and a little bit of that.”
The Tuscan Panini is an extremely popular lunch item.
The chef changes the menus about every two months, and his inspirations for dishes such as Scallop Dumpling in Champagne Cream and Bone-inCenter Cut Pork Chop with Bleu Mac and Cheese and Apple Brandy Demi-glace come from many sources. He looks at cookbooks and food magazines for inspiration, and he attends food trade shows to see what’s new and innovative.
As he talks, Adam is marking dishes to be deleted from his latest menu.
“I’m striking off anything too heavy, for the spring. I’m thinking lighter, but I’m also thinking a steak and chop theme. Both food shows I’ve been to lately say meat’s the way to go…On the next menu I’m going to have lacquered bacon. You cook it halfway through, then glaze it with a chutney mix. It looks like it’s polished, with a wood sheen. It’s crazy. I’m going to make an appetizer with it. You can almost pick it up and munch it like a breadstick. And you can’t go wrong with bacon.”
He also enjoys changing up the restaurant’s special drinks offerings. You can check out the entire Crady’s menu, including the special seasonal libations, HERE.
When he isn’t developing menus and recipes or cooking, Adam likes to work in the garden at his house in Conway. He also enjoys dabbling in interior design, but says extracurricular activities are not a priority.
“As a restaurant owner, I don’t have time to do much of anything but work.”
Crady’s is in historic downtown Conway, at 332 Main St., across from Theater of the Republic.
