Passion, integrity, and the occasional 100-hour work week.

Running a restaurant, never mind a handful of them, is rigorous work. But for the family behind Championship Dining Group, it’s this labor of love that fuels their creativity — and commitment to satisfying your taste buds.

The company, though only a few years old, is the culmination of decades of combined experience in the local dining scene. Led by longtime restaurateurs Jerry and LeeAnn Zubay, their two children Lindsay and Jason, and executive chef Justin Schoville (who by every measure is family), Championship Dining Group is making its mission to cook up mouth-watering meals and, along the way, elevate Rochester’s culinary identity.

A restaurant, downtown?!

It may be hard to imagine now, with what seems like a new restaurant popping up every month, but there was a time in the not-so-distant past when no one — and we mean no one — came downtown after five.

But at 21, Jerry had zeal, audacity, and just the right amount of naivety.

He also had the right business partner. That man was Mike Currie, and the two had spent years working together at Embers, a chain diner in town. With Mike running the day-to-day operations, and Jerry climbing the ranks from busboy to assistant manager, the two had positioned themselves to set out on their own.

“We decided that we could run a restaurant better than then they could,” recalls Jerry.

So, in 1978, Jerry and Mike quit their jobs and decided to open their first concept together: The Bank Restaurant, a fine-dining establishment located in of all places, downtown Rochester.

“We talked a bunch of people out of their hard-earned pay to finance us,” says Jerry.

“And for years I had people telling me I was crazy,” he adds. “Because why would you want to be downtown? There’s no parking. There was no one downtown.”

What would follow would be a series of new concepts that would forever change the local food industry.

In 1980, they turned the upstairs of Bank restaurant into Newt’s, a smokey street bar where you could get 75 cent tap beers and 95-cent highballs (the burger craze came later).

Then, as he has done time and time again, Jerry decided it was time to rethink the downstairs, too. So, together, Mike and Jerry headed west with the goal of finding ways to revamp their fine-dining concept.

“But in between our research, we would end up at all these little divey places that were loud and fun and hopping and popular … and then we got back to Rochester to figure out how to make Bank Restaurant more like the high-end ones, and it hit us: ‘Wait a minute, we hated the high-end ones.’”

In 1982, they decided to turn the space (now home to Hefe Rojo) into Henry Wellington’s. Immediately, it became a smash hit.

“It was gangbusters,” recalls LeeAnn. "Something like that did not exist in Rochester.”

For the next three decades, the tandem of Jerry and Mike would continue introducing new concepts, including a few that still stand today: 300 First, Redwood Room and City Market. (Those restaurants, along with Newt’s, are now owned and operated by Mike’s two sons, David and Mark, under a separate company called Creative Cuisine.)

“A lot of their concepts were revolutionary for Rochester and nobody thought to do it that way,” says Lindsay. “And even when they would fail, that would make it OK for some else to come in and try it.”

“They really laid the groundwork,” adds Justin, ”for other restaurants that to this day are successful.”

A family affair

Some advice is better left unheeded, as evidenced by the 37-year marriage between Jerry and LeeAnn.

As LeeAnn tells the story of how they met years back: “I was a waitress and he was a cook. Mike [Currie] said ‘don’t fool around with the help,’ and he did,” she says with a smirk. “And then here we are.”

What the two have created since goes beyond the confines of any one restaurant.

Together, they have developed a recipe of ingenuity, teamwork and resourcefulness that now extends to a second generation of food-obsessed entrepreneurs.

*“Knowing that we put our effort and passion into it just drives us that much more,” says Justin. (Photo: Jason, Lindsay and Justin / by William Forsman)*

“We are always together,” says LeeAnn. “And we each bring a different piece in. I think running a restaurant is a monumental task. There is a lot more to it than a customer would ever know.”

With Justin heading up the kitchen, Jason running the front of the house, and Lindsay managing the rest behind the scenes, Championship has been able to launch three distinct concepts in as many years.

With each restaurant, the group aims to build off the legacy of ZZest, which they closed in 2016 following a decade-long run as one of the most highly-acclaimed restaurants in Rochester.

After ZZest, Justin says, their goal became: “How can we take that concept, with the passion and the integrity and the effort we put into it, and move it toward a more simplified, casual concept?”

What resulted was Porch, known for its fried chicken and smoked meats; Cellar, and its intimate vibe and array of small plates and cocktails; Hot Chip, a neighborhood burger bar located in the former ZZest space; and Lettuce Unite and neighboring Guerita’s Window, both in the skyway.

At least 18 former employees have started restaurants after working for Jerry. “That’s something I am pretty proud of,” says Jerry. “I just find that very cool.” (Photo: Jerry and LeeAnn at Porch restaurant / by William Forsman)

For Jerry, who got into the business when local options were limited to meat and potatoes, the level of creativity he sees from his three successors — and Rochester as a whole — is on a whole different level.

And while that means he may not speak the same language anymore, he still has a thing or two to show them.

“I don’t know if I could retire,” says Jerry, who still does a bit of everything, from bookkeeping to electrical. “[Working with family] is 10 times more fun for me than anything I have ever done.”

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