capital club 16 restaurant

shannon and jake wolf are the proprietors of one of my favorite raleigh restaurants, capital club 16.  when customers visit furbish from out of town, i always recommend they hit up capital club for lunch or dinner, and especially a cocktail and one of their delicious apps.  the restaurant is cozy and cool, hip but not sparse, and always full of friendly folks and tasty dishes.  too good not to share with you guys, here's a feast for the eyes -- and please make sure when you're in town to drop in for some pimento cheese, a stiff old fashioned and a skillet of farm-fresh egg-topped veggies.

photos by gary meyer, me and mike gilder

years in business
almost 5

number of employees
25

where do you find inspiration
each other, our 5 yr old johnny, our dog tiny, family, friends and everyday life

what gets you most excited about getting out of bed in the morning
morning snuggles with tiny, our brussels griffon sweatheart, and then seeing what the day will bring... every day is different

making money or helping people
we love food, drink, conversation and get togethers. would be the best ever if could just host without the money part. but we’re lucky to be able to do it for a living and have an amazing team working with us.

favorite place to travel
new york. and can’t wait to do a NC mountain trip this winter to take johnny snowboarding.

mentor in your field
sylvester schneider (zum schneider) and mary anthony (modern dance legend/life mentor)

bootstrapping vs. funding
personal money and private investors

what's your current state of mind 
thankful for the busy holiday season. and also thankful for slingshot coffee every morning.

why does your business work?
we love what we do, and try to keep things fun for us and our customers. and we also really appreciate our CC16 team (both current and those who have been with us at different times throughout the years) and for the incredible community who have supported us.

work hard or work smart?
before we opened CC16, we both worked hard and, we thought, smart in our individual careers (jake as chef, shannon as TV producer). then we decided to move, have a baby and open a new business together all at the same time. hard work is a given but working ‘smart,’ now has new meaning to us. we have started to get better at it, but boy do we sometimes wish there were more hours in the day:)

why raleigh?
long story short(ish): we met in high school in southern pines. fast forward, oh just a few years, we both lived and worked lots of places (jake--from colorado, germany to boston); shannon--mainly NY), re-met then both lived in NY. When we decided to make a life change and start a business together, we knew we wanted to come back to NC to be near family, but weren’t sure exactly where. when we visited raleigh, we loved the energy of it and went with our gut feeling. now, fast forward five years, we couldn’t be happier with decision and we love the amazing community and the friends we’ve made.

your biggest extravagance
shannon: furbish pillows:) i want them all. 
jake: snoopy’s hotdogs and skate sessions with johnny

one piece of advice you'd give to a prospective entrepreneur
love what you do

thoughts on failure? 
we’d rather take risks and sometimes ‘fail’, than say we never tried something we were passionate about and committed to. and sometimes our ‘flops’ have turned into really fun things(or, we think so at least:)

favorite spots in raleigh
the rose garden, lump, CAM.