Shane Schaibly

Corporate Chef
Front Burner Brands

Shane Schaibly is corporate chef for Front Burner Brands, Inc., a full-service and fast-casual restaurant management company headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Front Burner Brands, Inc. is affiliated with dynamic and niche-specific brands including The Melting Pot, the premier fondue restaurant franchise with more than 140 locations in North America, Burger 21, the “beyond the better burger” franchise concept with two locations and expected rapid growth, and GrillSmith restaurants with six locations in Tampa, as well as other concepts in development.

On the culinary side, Schaibly is responsible for overseeing the research, development and cost planning for all of Front Burner Brands’ menu offerings. He personally creates and assists in the procurement of all new menu items for The Melting Pot and Burger 21, and additionally assists in the menu development of GrillSmith restaurants. Schaibly works closely with The Melting Pot’s existing vendor partners and research and development chefs to ensure the fondue chain is putting out exceptional food every time and that the additional Front Burner Brands concepts will benefit from the already established relationships in these fields.

Shane also oversees the beverage department with responsibilities including creating and procuring all ingredients for The Melting Pot’s new signature cocktails which are released to coincide with the Big Night Out (limited-time feature menu) as well as overseeing the current core wine program and beverage offerings.

Prior to joining The Melting Pot, Schaibly served as lead pastry chef and sous chef for Café Ponte in Clearwater. Schaibly also previously served as a cook at The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach, and graduated at the top of his class from Johnson & Wales University in North Miami.

Shane lives in Tampa, with his wife, Lisa, and enjoys cooking at home, spending time on Florida’s Gulf of Mexico and collecting tattoos.

Please describe your restaurant concept.
With more than 140 restaurants in North America, existing locations in 36 states, Canada and Mexico and more than 15 locations currently in development, The Melting Pot Restaurants, Inc. is the premier fondue restaurant franchise. Founded in 1975, The Melting Pot continues to be a memorable dining experience. Guests enjoy a choice of fondue cooking styles and a variety of unique entrées combined with dipping sauces. The menu also includes cheese fondues, salads, fine wines and chocolate fondue desserts. The Melting Pot is an affiliate of Front Burner Brands, a restaurant management company headquartered in Tampa.

What are some of your most popular menu items?
Some of our most popular menu items at The Melting Pot include the Cheddar Cheese fondue and Flaming Turtle dessert fondue. Our “Big Night Out” limited-time feature four-course menu makes up about 33 percent of overall sales. There is also something to be said about the fact that 90 percent of our guests order chocolate fondue.

What about the restaurant inspires me:
Ever since my first day working in a restaurant when I was 14 years old, I have always been fascinated by the impact a good meal has on a guest.  It inspires me to make sure that every recipe I write, every plate I create, and every time I send anything out to the dining room, it is perfect both in flavor and in appearance.  Looking out into the dining room and seeing smiling, laughing guests talking about a dish I have created or sharing a bite with someone else at the table makes doing what I do that much more rewarding. I try to encourage all of my team members to think about the food in that way. When they buy into it on that level, I know the consistency is there, and the food is still making guests smile every time even when I’m not around.

“What is your “sizzle”?  Are there any new menu items or specialty food presentations that you are using?

I get to use new and exciting ingredients every day to come up with menu items because The Melting Pot menu is so unique, including cheese and chocolate fondues, as well as salads and a variety of entrée items, all cooked fondue style by the guests.  Cheese has become my real passion in the past few years, and just being able to layer many different flavors within one dish is always a cool experience.  Also, everyone loves melted chocolate, so finding new ways to impress guests using old favorites like milk or dark chocolate really allows me to expand our guest experience and help them realize their love for different flavor combinations that they may not have been exposed to in the past unless they’ve dined with us.

On the Burger 21 side, it is always a pleasure to spice up old favorites like burgers, dogs and shakes.  There is still something to be said for the old favorites, but since we have a feature burger and shake released on the 21st of every month, I really get to experiment with different ingredients and show how unexpected combinations can really work together when done right.  I also love the opportunity to bring classics to life, like some of our feature shakes, Peaches N Cream and Peanut Butter and Jelly.  Observing guests of all ages enjoying these menu items really makes me hungry to create even more fantastic recipes!

Where did you grow up?  Does that influence your style?
I was born and raised in a small town just west of Tampa, called Dunedin where Scottish roots run deep so lots of meat pies, Scotch eggs and fish & chips were consumed growing up.  In addition to that, the Tampa area has so much diversity within only a few square miles: the Greek influence in Tarpon Springs, the Cuban influence in Ybor City and throughout the Tampa Bay area, the traditional Mexican influence in the Clearwater area and, of course, all of the local seafood right at our fingertips.  We grew up always at the beach or on the water fishing, diving and surfing.  The fact that I was always around such a wide variety of foods growing up really made me appreciate and respect the cultural differences in cuisine and helped me to always be curious and eager to learn about other cultures.

What is your favorite dish to eat that you’ve created?
One of my favorite cheese fondues is our Boston Lager Cheddar Cheese Fondue. It combines Samuel Adams Boston Lager, garlic, tabasco, fresh cracked black pepper and cheddar and Gruyere cheeses. It is a great cold-weather fondue as the beer and rich flavors in the seasonings really warm the heart and belly! Another great dish was a limited-time offer that took about six months to finally figure out.  Our White Chocolate Crème Brûlée Fondue, which after months of working on, came together just perfectly and was met with lots of great feedback from our guests.  The trick is to get the top of a chocolate fondue to caramelize like traditional crème brûlée so the guests have a thin layer of sugar to “crack” through before getting to the delicious fondue underneath!

To what do you attribute your success?
I like to think my personal dedication and love for the restaurant industry has helped me achieve success over the years.  I also attribute much of my success to the people in the restaurant business who have taken me under their wings over the years and shown me that if you truly love what you do and continue to do it for all the right reasons, which at the end of the day is simply to make guests smile, you will be successful.  
I have had the pleasure of working with many chefs who put in long hours and dedicate the time to teaching young chefs the right way to do things so that the future of the industry will be strong for all of us, namely Chef Jeff McInnis whom I worked for at the Ritz-Carlton of South Beach and Chef Chris Ponte of Café Ponte in Clearwater.  Both are nationally recognized chefs, and I really feel like the two of them have helped shape my career and the way I look at my job everyday.