BleedGopher
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per Hayes:
Torii Hunter is seated at the bar of his highly reviewed barbecue restaurant engrossed in conversation with one of his partners. They’re discussing any number of relevant topics from staffing to supply issues to the latest on their recently opened third location.
The two hold a similar discussion five days a week as Hunter makes the rounds to check in on all of his ventures — four restaurants and his real estate investments.
While we wait for our trays of food to arrive, Hunter confesses. Though his father was a pitmaster, the former Twins outfielder knew little about the restaurant industry before becoming an equal partner.
But he didn’t wait long to fix that problem.
Within 90 days of the September 2017 grand opening of the first Tender Smokehouse location in Celina, Texas, Hunter was serving food, pouring beer and greeting customers. He’s much more focused on business growth these days, but Hunter first tried to do everything. There’s even a video of him washing dishes that found its way into the hands of a few former teammates.
“I’ve done it all,” Hunter says with a laugh. “Friends would say, ‘I think Torii is broke’ because I was sweating for nine months.”
After consuming a platter full of ribs, burnt ends, baked beans, pickles, coleslaw, mac and cheese and Texas toast, our tour of the Hunter business empire continues with a short drive across this growing suburb 30 minutes north of Dallas.
The next stop is a mixed commercial-residential, three-story building full of condominiums Hunter owns that are being refurbished.
Plans call for seven other properties to be purchased. There’s talk of a boutique hotel. A brewery was recently approved.
And two blocks beyond that is the crown jewel, a newly constructed 54,000-foot building. Among the businesses housed is a private fitness center for high-performance athletes run by longtime friend and major-leaguer Matt Kemp, a coffee shop, an apparel company and a salon. But Hunter’s pride and joy is Makers Gym, a co-working space that offers state-of-the-art production studios, production equipment and training classes, among other services.
This isn’t how most players spend their retirement, certainly not those whose career earnings total more than $170 million. But well before his playing days ended in 2015, Hunter, 46, knew he wouldn’t be satisfied with a life spent on the golf course, constantly vacationing or occasionally doing charity work. The same energy and passion that drove him to be a successful major leaguer for 19 seasons would need another outlet.
This is it.
“My wife tells me to stop, people tell me to stop all the time,” Hunter said. “‘If I had what you have, the money you have or the things that you’ve done, I wouldn’t do nothing. I’d go to the beach and lay out.’ That’s why you ain’t me. …
“Sometimes you get a lot of people trying to take you away from it because you’re moving too fast. But I still spend time with my family. But when I’m into my business, I’m 100 percent focused on the business. Wherever I am, I’m 100 percent into it.
“My story don’t stop with baseball.”
theathletic.com
Win Twins!!
Torii Hunter is seated at the bar of his highly reviewed barbecue restaurant engrossed in conversation with one of his partners. They’re discussing any number of relevant topics from staffing to supply issues to the latest on their recently opened third location.
The two hold a similar discussion five days a week as Hunter makes the rounds to check in on all of his ventures — four restaurants and his real estate investments.
While we wait for our trays of food to arrive, Hunter confesses. Though his father was a pitmaster, the former Twins outfielder knew little about the restaurant industry before becoming an equal partner.
But he didn’t wait long to fix that problem.
Within 90 days of the September 2017 grand opening of the first Tender Smokehouse location in Celina, Texas, Hunter was serving food, pouring beer and greeting customers. He’s much more focused on business growth these days, but Hunter first tried to do everything. There’s even a video of him washing dishes that found its way into the hands of a few former teammates.
“I’ve done it all,” Hunter says with a laugh. “Friends would say, ‘I think Torii is broke’ because I was sweating for nine months.”
After consuming a platter full of ribs, burnt ends, baked beans, pickles, coleslaw, mac and cheese and Texas toast, our tour of the Hunter business empire continues with a short drive across this growing suburb 30 minutes north of Dallas.
The next stop is a mixed commercial-residential, three-story building full of condominiums Hunter owns that are being refurbished.
Plans call for seven other properties to be purchased. There’s talk of a boutique hotel. A brewery was recently approved.
And two blocks beyond that is the crown jewel, a newly constructed 54,000-foot building. Among the businesses housed is a private fitness center for high-performance athletes run by longtime friend and major-leaguer Matt Kemp, a coffee shop, an apparel company and a salon. But Hunter’s pride and joy is Makers Gym, a co-working space that offers state-of-the-art production studios, production equipment and training classes, among other services.
This isn’t how most players spend their retirement, certainly not those whose career earnings total more than $170 million. But well before his playing days ended in 2015, Hunter, 46, knew he wouldn’t be satisfied with a life spent on the golf course, constantly vacationing or occasionally doing charity work. The same energy and passion that drove him to be a successful major leaguer for 19 seasons would need another outlet.
This is it.
“My wife tells me to stop, people tell me to stop all the time,” Hunter said. “‘If I had what you have, the money you have or the things that you’ve done, I wouldn’t do nothing. I’d go to the beach and lay out.’ That’s why you ain’t me. …
“Sometimes you get a lot of people trying to take you away from it because you’re moving too fast. But I still spend time with my family. But when I’m into my business, I’m 100 percent focused on the business. Wherever I am, I’m 100 percent into it.
“My story don’t stop with baseball.”
After retiring from MLB, Torii Hunter could have idled. Instead, he dove into entrepreneurship
There’s little difference in how Hunter approaches his restaurants and how he approached baseball — he thinks like a center fielder.
theathletic.com
Win Twins!!