Michael Peterson is now corporate chef for McCoy’s, Beer Kitchen restaurants

The last time that Fat City checked in with chef Michael Peterson, five months ago, he had just finished a consulting gig with Hickok’s Bar & Grill in the River Market and was talking with investors about opening his own restaurant in the same historic neighborhood.

• Chef Michael Peterson

“But in doing due diligence for my business plan,” Peterson says, “I found that the customer traffic flow in the River Market just isn’t strong enough yet for the concept I had in mind. It’s steady, but not really there yet. It would not have been a wise financial decision for me.”

So Peterson took on a consulting position with locally based Wkc Restaurants, which operate Westport’s McCoy’s Public House, the Foundry and the Beer Kitchen, as well as the McCoy’s restaurant in Minneapolis. Peterson says he was hired to do a “major overhaul on the McCoy’s menu in Minneapolis.”

“We took it from traditional comfort food to a gastropub menu,” he says. “We added 43 new menu items. It was a huge success.”

After that project, the owners of Wkc Restaurants offered Peterson a full-time job as corporate chef.