Boss Mode is a regular feature spotlighting leaders in our community. Today we’re featuring Chris Boukedes, who has been part of the Lake Norman entertainment scene for decades as former owner of Brickhouse Tavern and the Galway Hooker, and now as owner (and self-appointed janitor) of Boatyard LKN.

Name: Chris Boukedes
Company: Boatyard LKN
Job title: Janitor

First thing you do when you walk into work?
Start planning. Boatyard is a wonderful beast of a business. It’s such a large-scale place and has so many moving parts. However, before you can start preparing for the next week, you have to clean up the remnants from the prior long party weekend of fun and dancing.

We check the venue, prepare the orders, have all the necessary management meetings, call the bands, get the marketing going and get ready to do it again. Boatyard is our community’s gathering spot. Through the years, we have had wonderful venues like Double Door, Rusty Rudder, Midtown and now Boatyard. I am so thankful to have this place and get to provide a wonderful entertainment option for Lake Norman!

Coffee, tea or something stronger?
Coffee, then a little more coffee! The stronger stuff for me these days is adding a little collagen to the beans to keep my skin looking vibrant and young. Lord knows the late nights can age you faster than you would like. But with all these wrinkles, a wise man said, “Wrinkles are where the smiles have been!”

What part of your job would surprise people the most?
I absolutely love people and love entertaining. To me, there is nothing better than executing a great night. When 1,000 people show up and have a full night of eating, drinking, being entertained by a great band, hanging out after the show, talking and socializing, then going home — or to Saeed’s, Taco Bell, etc. — that is about as fulfilling to my heart as anything.

I don’t have a job. I get to do this! So, the most surprising part would be, I feel like Punxsutawney Phil most times — six more weeks of fun!

Regardless of the season, it’s challenging to turn this on week in and week out, to be different and unique while maintaining the expectations of our family of customers. It takes a full village, and we do not rest.

What small decision eats up way more time than it should?
Should the band be inside or outside? We always want to go outside, but Mother Nature around Lake Norman doesn’t give us the graceful decision-making opportunities until hours before the shows start.

Any show at Boatyard is special. The place is just special. However, when we put the shows outside and that lake air is just right, there isn’t anything much better.

What’s always on your desk (besides a phone and computer)?
Boat keys! Regardless of day, time or hour, when I get home and there is a chance to decompress and jump on the boat and just float, that is where you will find me.

I have been doing this a long time, and to have the water to go relax on keeps the chaos at bay a bit. It creates a calm, makes things slow down and allows for a lot of free thinking. So, if you want a good collab, pack a cooler and meet me on the dock — it’s my therapy!

Favorite quick lunch in town?
Chick-fil-A — grilled chicken sandwich, add bacon, no lettuce (especially now) — then head to Lucky Box Card Shop, eat lunch at the counter and look at baseball cards. It’s my nerd thing that I have been doing for 40-plus years.

I have collected all types of sports cards, and ever since COVID, I have become lost in the hobby. The guys at the shop are great conversationalists, and you just might hit a life-changing card!

Best advice you’ve ever gotten about business?
Service is black and white; true hospitality is in color. Give them Technicolor.

I have been in the customer service business for 35-plus years. It’s all I have ever known. I am not in the food and beverage game; I am in the people game. I only have one job description: Give them what they want, each and every time.

I have taken care of people. It has brought me some incredible connections, wonderful successes, but most importantly, a lot of lifetime friends. I feel pretty blessed doing what I do. As I get older, though, it gets harder. The times and game have changed.

A daily habit that keeps you sane?
Again, baseball cards … and going to the gym. I need a hobby and need to take care of my body as best I can.

Getting older, the cards are easy and the gym is progressing from heavy bench pressing and pullups to inclined walks and plunges. I just want to stay in the fight.

What’s the five-minute task you refuse to delegate?
Meeting with any of our team members when they are open to talk about the business in any way, at any time. You learn everything going on and what could be done to make things better from the people doing the hard work.

Plus, they have a lot of great ideas as well, so receiving a plan or an idea from a staff member that comes to fruition is amazing. Watching them cultivate an idea, thinking outside the box, then working with our management to try something new — it’s simply amazing.

I want full buy-in from all of our staff. I have employed thousands of people in my career. We don’t hire from the outside 95% of the time; we hire internally, and all of our key players at all the businesses have elevated from other positions within the company.

Family is not just at home. It can be at your place of business as well. You spend more time with them, honestly, especially in our world.

What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?
Connections are currency, and invest every disposable dollar. Buy more Bitcoin!