Newt's co-creator Mike Currie passed on passion for restaurants to his family

Apr. 28—ROCHESTER — Anyone who has eaten a meal at restaurants in the Rochester area or even Disney World in the past five decades has tasted the influence of

Mike Currie

, either directly or indirectly.

"He was passionate about restaurants. Restaurants were his hobby and his career. He was such an incredible man. I can't even stress that enough," said his daughter

Linda Black

of her father. Black created her own award-winning chain of Smokin' Oak Wood-Fired Pizza restaurants as well as Pi Wood-Fired Pizza and Tilda's Pizzeria in Rochester.

On April 13, Currie passed away at 76. Along with business partner

Jerry Zubay

, he created some of the most iconic local eateries, like Newt's and Henry Wellington, and trained hundreds of employees along with his four children who took his teachings to start their own successful restaurants.

"I believe there are roughly 24 people who used to work for me and Mike who opened their own restaurants," wrote Zubay of his long-time friend and business partner. "There are probably a few million people who have eaten in a lot of restaurants that can be traced back to the training, skill, and knowledge that Mike started, with me as his first student, in 1972."

Currie arrived in Rochester in his 20s as a manager of an Embers family restaurant. Zubay started work there as a 16-year-old dishwasher who advanced to cook, server and eventually to assistant manager.

"Mike taught me the ropes: inventory, scheduling, ordering, food costing, hiring, and training — all of it. The five years I spent at Embers learning how to run a restaurant from Mike was far more beneficial than anything I've seen in anyone who has come out of Cordon Bleu," said Zubay.

In 1978, the duo decided they could run a restaurant better than their bosses. Currie and Zubay launched The Bank, the first of several restaurants that they would create together. The Bank offered fine dining at 216 First Ave. SW. The lounge above The Bank eventually became the original Newt's bar and grill in 1980. They named it after legendary Rochester businessman Newton Holland, who had operated a cafeteria in the building in the 1930s.

In response to the growth of fast casual restaurants in the U.S., they transformed The Bank into Henry Wellington's in 1982. That was the first many transformations made to keep a restaurant fresh.

"Dad taught us that there is a growth curve to business. It's like a roller coaster. They'll go up and up, eventually it starts to get old or tired and go down. He always felt it was best to get off that roller coaster right when you went over the top, not at the bottom," said David Currie.

David Currie and brother, Mark Currie, run

Creative Cuisine

. Creative is a collection of seven restaurants that includes four Newt's, the Redwood Room, City Market and the Purple Goat.

The elder Currie brought his children into the world of restaurants very early.

"When I was 6-years-old, my dad would take me on Sundays to Embers and I would hand out little plastic Embers puppets filled with little toys for the kids at the tables. That was my job and I loved it," remembered Denise Villeneuve.

She and her three siblings all worked in the various restaurants busing tables, washing dishes or doing whatever else was needed.

Mike Currie taught his employees and his children to pay attention to the details. "He'd get a dish or something to where it was good and then he'd keep working at it to make it even better," said Linda Black.

That focus on details is also something that his partner Zubay recalls.

"I remember him with a stopwatch around his neck, timing server greetings and ticket times. I remember him digging through garbage, looking for silverware and wasted food," he wrote.

As their portfolio of restaurants grew in Rochester as well as elsewhere, others started looking to the duo for their knowledge of the industry. They became restaurant consultants for Disney World, after Zubay wrote a 20 page letter to the amusement park detailing how to improve its restaurants after a visit.

His children say Disney wanted Currie and Zubay to work full-time and even offered to buyout their restaurants, but they weren't interested in giving up their achievements in Minnesota.

Of course, not every restaurant or project worked. However, those failures didn't deter the perpetually optimistic Currie.

"I did football and basketball in high school and one big thing I learned from him was he didn't care if I was the best or got to start. He wanted me to try as hard as I could every time. Hustle every time without fail and that served me well. I think it served all of us kids really well," said Mark Currie. "There was no half-assing it. If you're doing it, you're going to try as hard as you can and bring a great attitude."

Currie is remembered for working long hours. He continued to think about restaurants, even when he was off. He and his children talked about the business for hours, even while he was undergoing cancer treatment.

Trying to pinpoint what Currie did to make people want to return over and over to restaurants that he helped create is kind of like trying to find which ingredient makes a dish delicious. However, one thing does stand out in the memories of his children and Zubay.

"I think his drive and determination is what really did it and his attention to every little detail," said David Currie.