nate_beaumont (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nate_beaumont) wrote2010-04-20 07:12 am
nate_beaumont) wrote2010-04-20 07:12 am
About the Man
Name: Nathaniel Augustin Sauveterre Beaumont. Call him Nate. Please.
Gender: Male
Orientation: Straight
Age: 48 as of 08/31/2009
Personality: Nate will likely come across as a friendly, charming good ol' boy on first meeting. Calm and incisive, a good listener with a wry sense of humor, he is irrepressibly self-confident in his work. His introspection and self-doubts come out more in private, especially when dealing with his issues as an alcoholic. He holds to the combination of prayer, faith, the Bible and AA's Twelve Steps to deal with his own more troubled times, and may well get chilly if someone runs down Christianity or Catholicism in his presence.
He also takes the tenets of service in his faith very seriously. In addition to sponsoring a less experienced AA member, Nate is active in his church, Habitat for Humanity, Share Our Strength and Second Harvest. He generally does his best to help those in trouble.
History: Nate's parents, Victor and Eloise Beaumont, own La Vie en Douce, a successful Creole restaurant in New Orleans. Nate grew up helping out in every aspect of the business, developing his palate for a wide variety of food and drink (especially wine) from an early age. After graduating with a business degree in 1983, he looked primed to take over the restaurant in due course, but instead he chose to take his chances in the pressure-cooker environment of the New York City food world. He did well, showing a keen judgment for what a demanding and fickle public wanted as well as the skills to bring it to them at a profit. A few years after Nate moved to NYC, his childhood friend Celeste Cross followed, looking to try her hand at modeling. The pair married in 1990.
New Orleans might be the city of the go-cup and alcohol sold in movie theaters, but the New York restaurant scene proved no healthier for a man with a worsening drinking problem. Nate tipped head-first into alcoholism, justifying his excesses with excuses like "it's just business" and "everyone drinks on shift". And after. And in the morning to deal with the hangover. And, and, and ... the stress and boozing at times brought out a nasty temper in Nate, which Celeste reacted to by withdrawing into work (she'd shifted from modeling to public relations) and her own circle of friends. Suspicions that she was cheating on him triggered more arguments, more drinking, lapses in his business judgment, a shoulder injury after he took a fall while riding soused, still more drinking, and so on in a nasty downward spiral.
Nate's first inkling that he had a real problem came after the first time he cheated on Celeste, but he still ducked responsibility in his own mind and avoided getting help. Nor did he get help after striking her during a blow-out over seeing her in another man's arms, only to find out she'd been crying on a friend's shoulder because she'd just discovered she was pregnant. Celeste divorced Nate in spite of his pleading in February of 1995, their daughter Angelique was born a month later, but her father was forbidden to see her until he sobered up. Guilt and self-loathing pushed Nate to the bottom of a bottle for two years. It took a tearing-into from his little sister Suzanne, now capably running La Vie en Douce along with her husband, for the despondent man to pull himself together enough to turn back to his faith and attend his first AA meeting.
He met Angie for the first time in 1999, after achieving a year of sobriety, but he'd come to realize that he needed someplace new to make a fresh start. When a friend offered him a managing partnership in Cipollina, a Sicilian restaurant he planned to start in San Diego, Nate took him up on it and moved to the Sunshine State in 2001, while Celeste and Angie returned to New Orleans. Nate is currently approaching five years without alcohol, his last fall off the wagon having occurred after he went back to New Orleans to help his family deal with the damage dealt by Hurricane Katrina. He followed up his initial success in San Diego with a well-received pan-Asian restaurant called Shiso, which brought him to the attention of another friend back in New York who wanted to set up a West Coast version of his Upper East Side restaurant, Elle's. Having learned a lesson or two about overextending himself, Nate sold his interest in Cipollina and launched Elle's West not quite a year ago.
Storylines:
Mattéo Quintana: Nate met Matt at Matt's first AA meeting about a year ago and became his sponsor a few months later. Sponsorship means that Nate not only shares his experience of AA and reclaiming his life from alcohol with the younger man, he's prepared to take emergency calls from him and talk him through crisis moments. Not only do they have Catholicism and divorce in common, but Matt's occasional bouts of artistic temper don't faze Nate. After all, he works with chefs every day of his life.
Pat Kalinska: Speaking of which. Patrick Kalinska is a talented pastry chef and a transplant to Elle's West from the original Elle's. The two men are still finding their footing with each other, as well as having the usual tiffs over lavish ingredients versus cost effectiveness that crop up between the talent and the man who has to keep his eye on the bottom line. Both men are gifted at what they do and determined to make Elle's West a success, so they work things out.
Vicky Mayhew: Technically speaking, Vicky and Nate haven't met yet. But Vicky is Matt Quintana's ex-wife and currently trying to come back into the glassmaker's life as a friend, so it's likely only a matter of time.
Molly Hebert: Molly is, in no particular order, the daughter of an old friend of the Beaumonts', a friendand instigator to Nate's daughter Angie and a holy terror of an eighteen year old. Seriously, the girl is shenanigans walking.
Savannah McBride: Savannah is the bartender for Elle's West, another transplant from the New York location, though she's a Georgia girl originally. Nate is unfailingly gallant to his fellow Southerner, though he has to restrain himself from getting involved in her bar or the alcohol contained therein.
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 185 pounds
Build: Tall and reasonably well-muscled
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Salt with just a little pepper left
Skin: Lightly tanned
Defining Marks: Prematurely silver hair, soft New Orleans accent that deepens when he's tired, startled, angry or flirting
Eyesight: Occasionally wears reading glasses
Hearing: Normal
Dominant Hand: Right
Behaviors: Projecting easy good cheer much of the time, Nate nonetheless gives anything that catches his attention his full focus, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.
Weaknesses: The fact that he is a recovering alcoholic means that Nate cannot trust himself at all with booze, can't trust himself to take a taste without finishing the drink or a drink without finishing the bottle. He therefore has to trust chefs, sommeliers and bartenders to handle all aspects of procuring alcohol for his restaurants, except for paying for it. He also has an old shoulder injury that spasms and stiffens occasionally.
Special Skills: He's well versed in all aspects of starting up and running a successful restaurant. Nate also has a knack for dealing with people, even (or perhaps especially) the temperamental ones.
Hobbies/Interests: Cooking, polo, horse riding and care, charity work, AA sponsorship, Bible study
Relationships: Aside from the people listed under storylines, Nate's relationships include his ex-wife Celeste and daughter Angelique, his parents, sister Suzanne and her family, a wide array of cousins and people close enough to be practically family, plus an assortment of friends in San Diego, New York and New Orleans.
Random Trivia:
Gender: Male
Orientation: Straight
Age: 48 as of 08/31/2009
Personality: Nate will likely come across as a friendly, charming good ol' boy on first meeting. Calm and incisive, a good listener with a wry sense of humor, he is irrepressibly self-confident in his work. His introspection and self-doubts come out more in private, especially when dealing with his issues as an alcoholic. He holds to the combination of prayer, faith, the Bible and AA's Twelve Steps to deal with his own more troubled times, and may well get chilly if someone runs down Christianity or Catholicism in his presence.
He also takes the tenets of service in his faith very seriously. In addition to sponsoring a less experienced AA member, Nate is active in his church, Habitat for Humanity, Share Our Strength and Second Harvest. He generally does his best to help those in trouble.
History: Nate's parents, Victor and Eloise Beaumont, own La Vie en Douce, a successful Creole restaurant in New Orleans. Nate grew up helping out in every aspect of the business, developing his palate for a wide variety of food and drink (especially wine) from an early age. After graduating with a business degree in 1983, he looked primed to take over the restaurant in due course, but instead he chose to take his chances in the pressure-cooker environment of the New York City food world. He did well, showing a keen judgment for what a demanding and fickle public wanted as well as the skills to bring it to them at a profit. A few years after Nate moved to NYC, his childhood friend Celeste Cross followed, looking to try her hand at modeling. The pair married in 1990.
New Orleans might be the city of the go-cup and alcohol sold in movie theaters, but the New York restaurant scene proved no healthier for a man with a worsening drinking problem. Nate tipped head-first into alcoholism, justifying his excesses with excuses like "it's just business" and "everyone drinks on shift". And after. And in the morning to deal with the hangover. And, and, and ... the stress and boozing at times brought out a nasty temper in Nate, which Celeste reacted to by withdrawing into work (she'd shifted from modeling to public relations) and her own circle of friends. Suspicions that she was cheating on him triggered more arguments, more drinking, lapses in his business judgment, a shoulder injury after he took a fall while riding soused, still more drinking, and so on in a nasty downward spiral.
Nate's first inkling that he had a real problem came after the first time he cheated on Celeste, but he still ducked responsibility in his own mind and avoided getting help. Nor did he get help after striking her during a blow-out over seeing her in another man's arms, only to find out she'd been crying on a friend's shoulder because she'd just discovered she was pregnant. Celeste divorced Nate in spite of his pleading in February of 1995, their daughter Angelique was born a month later, but her father was forbidden to see her until he sobered up. Guilt and self-loathing pushed Nate to the bottom of a bottle for two years. It took a tearing-into from his little sister Suzanne, now capably running La Vie en Douce along with her husband, for the despondent man to pull himself together enough to turn back to his faith and attend his first AA meeting.
He met Angie for the first time in 1999, after achieving a year of sobriety, but he'd come to realize that he needed someplace new to make a fresh start. When a friend offered him a managing partnership in Cipollina, a Sicilian restaurant he planned to start in San Diego, Nate took him up on it and moved to the Sunshine State in 2001, while Celeste and Angie returned to New Orleans. Nate is currently approaching five years without alcohol, his last fall off the wagon having occurred after he went back to New Orleans to help his family deal with the damage dealt by Hurricane Katrina. He followed up his initial success in San Diego with a well-received pan-Asian restaurant called Shiso, which brought him to the attention of another friend back in New York who wanted to set up a West Coast version of his Upper East Side restaurant, Elle's. Having learned a lesson or two about overextending himself, Nate sold his interest in Cipollina and launched Elle's West not quite a year ago.
Storylines:
Mattéo Quintana: Nate met Matt at Matt's first AA meeting about a year ago and became his sponsor a few months later. Sponsorship means that Nate not only shares his experience of AA and reclaiming his life from alcohol with the younger man, he's prepared to take emergency calls from him and talk him through crisis moments. Not only do they have Catholicism and divorce in common, but Matt's occasional bouts of artistic temper don't faze Nate. After all, he works with chefs every day of his life.
Pat Kalinska: Speaking of which. Patrick Kalinska is a talented pastry chef and a transplant to Elle's West from the original Elle's. The two men are still finding their footing with each other, as well as having the usual tiffs over lavish ingredients versus cost effectiveness that crop up between the talent and the man who has to keep his eye on the bottom line. Both men are gifted at what they do and determined to make Elle's West a success, so they work things out.
Vicky Mayhew: Technically speaking, Vicky and Nate haven't met yet. But Vicky is Matt Quintana's ex-wife and currently trying to come back into the glassmaker's life as a friend, so it's likely only a matter of time.
Molly Hebert: Molly is, in no particular order, the daughter of an old friend of the Beaumonts', a friend
Savannah McBride: Savannah is the bartender for Elle's West, another transplant from the New York location, though she's a Georgia girl originally. Nate is unfailingly gallant to his fellow Southerner, though he has to restrain himself from getting involved in her bar or the alcohol contained therein.
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 185 pounds
Build: Tall and reasonably well-muscled
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Salt with just a little pepper left
Skin: Lightly tanned
Defining Marks: Prematurely silver hair, soft New Orleans accent that deepens when he's tired, startled, angry or flirting
Eyesight: Occasionally wears reading glasses
Hearing: Normal
Dominant Hand: Right
Behaviors: Projecting easy good cheer much of the time, Nate nonetheless gives anything that catches his attention his full focus, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.
Weaknesses: The fact that he is a recovering alcoholic means that Nate cannot trust himself at all with booze, can't trust himself to take a taste without finishing the drink or a drink without finishing the bottle. He therefore has to trust chefs, sommeliers and bartenders to handle all aspects of procuring alcohol for his restaurants, except for paying for it. He also has an old shoulder injury that spasms and stiffens occasionally.
Special Skills: He's well versed in all aspects of starting up and running a successful restaurant. Nate also has a knack for dealing with people, even (or perhaps especially) the temperamental ones.
Hobbies/Interests: Cooking, polo, horse riding and care, charity work, AA sponsorship, Bible study
Relationships: Aside from the people listed under storylines, Nate's relationships include his ex-wife Celeste and daughter Angelique, his parents, sister Suzanne and her family, a wide array of cousins and people close enough to be practically family, plus an assortment of friends in San Diego, New York and New Orleans.
Random Trivia:
- He has recently found himself owned by what is either a small gray puma or a large, muscular domestic shorthair cat. She moved in last October; he's still trying out names for her.
- Nate used to ride Mardi Gras floats with Krewe du Vieux every year, but gave it up when staying sober for the entire parade route proved too difficult. These days he arranges the food for the Krewe's dinners, crayfish boils and so on.