Claire Calvin says she created a dining experience she wanted to have in Winston-Salem when she opened The Porch Kitchen and Cantina — commonly known as “The Porch” — 10 years ago. She sat down with City Editor Cambridge ahead the restaurant’s anniversary celebration to talk about her work the past decade.
Necessity is the mother of invention
Calvin didn’t plan to open a restaurant. In 2007, she moved to Winston-Salem from Portland, OR with her young family for her husband’s work. The former attorney says she was lonely and wondering what was next professionally.
Eating out with young children was difficult, so the busy mom was spending more time in the kitchen. She enjoyed it and she started preparing meals for others. She created a weekly delivery service she dubbed Dinners on The Porch.
Three years in, she needed more space to make the meals. She found a spot on Mill Works Street, which ultimately inspired her to invite customers to come to her for dinner.
“We were like, well, if we have all this space we might as well have some tables... so it kind of evolved like that,” Calvin said.
The Porch opened in 2014. She wanted a place where families could relax — a casual atmosphere with good handmade food. The native Texan brought food and concepts she was familiar with, like her grandmother’s queso + counter service. (Mimi’s queso is still a customer favorite — the restaurant switched to table service a year in.)
Calvin is honest about the hardships of the first year. She says despite being busy, the restaurant lost money because she didn’t understand restaurant economics. She kept working, learning, and tweaking things to find the recipe for success.
“I think we’ve changed and evolved so much. I wouldn’t even say it’s the same restaurant that it was when we opened. But we’ve somehow been able to stay afloat even during all of those different changes.”
The only constant is change
Calvin seems to have a knack for navigating change. She says the closure of Salem Parkway for the Business 40 Improvement Project impacted customer traffic in 2019. The following year, COVID-19 forced her to close two other restaurants, The Canteen and Alma Mexicana (the latter reopened and later rebranded as Alma).
Calvin tried to see the silver linings. The Porch was in a good position early on to handle an influx of to-go orders because of the wholesale meals it was already packaging and selling. Staff pitched in to deliver meals + the restaurant reconnected with the community the way she had always intended.
“I loved when we were doing The Porch originally, people would be like, ‘oh, the meal was so great, and I didn’t have to cook, and we all sat around the table and had a great time’ and I was like that feels nice that we helped that family. That really came back during COVID, people were like ‘thank goodness you’re still doing this’ and that was really nice.”
Serving Winston-Salem
Calvin says feedback is one of the things that makes doing business in Winston-Salem unique. She credits customers being open to trying new things — and offering support when it doesn’t go as planned — for helping her succeed.
“We were just lucky, like, somehow that we had so many loyal customers and community members that were like ‘well, we had a bad experience but we’re coming back, don’t worry.’”
Experience has been Calvin’s ultimate teacher. She enjoys project development but says she’s comfortable with where things are with The Porch, Alma, and a third restaurant she opened last year, East of Texas. Right now, she’s having fun looking back and enjoying what she and her team have accomplished.
“I am really proud that we’ve survived this long.”
You can help Calvin and her team celebrate The Porch’s 10-year anniversary on Friday, Sept. 20 and Saturday, Sept. 21. The restaurant will have yard games, a band, free face painting, and more at the restaurant at 840 Mill Works St. Current and former employees are invited to a staff reunion on Sunday, Sept. 22.
