This week, after two years with the café @ Cornell Tech, Christian Camacho steeped into the top spot. Here’s a quick introduction.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Who is Christian Camacho?
The first thing I noticed about Christian Camacho, sitting by the floor to ceiling windows in the café, was that he was too young for the job. He could not have nearly enough experience, but I was wrong. His youthful, optimistic appearance belies a strong track record in food service management.
Great Service for Great Food
As luck would have it, Camacho arrived for his new job on Roosevelt Island just before the coronavirus pandemic hit New York full force. He was a Catering Director where catering was virtually impossible.
Fortunately, his prior experience prepared him for rolling with the punches. Starting fifteen years ago, he took a job with the Compass Group, the sixth largest food service company in the U.S. But he wasn’t really into food service yet. He was hired on as a bookkeeper.
Things changed, though, and two years later, he was manager at the high-volume Café at Cleary Gottlieb Steen. And after multiple promotions, ten years after that, he moved on to the Patina Restaurant Group, fine dining specialists, where he worked as a General Manager.
As a result, he brought a boatload of successful experience on the day he landed at Cornell Tech. Now, after two COVID restricted years, he’s ready to use that experience in carrying on where departing Christopher Lewis left off.
Off Work
A native of Dayton, Ohio, raised in New Jersey, Christian Camacho is a family man, proud of his Columbian heritage with roots deep in the coffee business. He moved into New York City in 2014 and lives with his children, one 2 years old, the other 12, and wife in Jamaica Estates, Queens.
“We like to do a lot of road trips,” he says.
In the meantime, he’s a bit of a news junkie, interested most in world and financial news.
Conclusion
The café’s new GM invites you to stop by and say, “Hello,” while he adjusts to his new role. Coming in with the pandemic receding, he has ideas about innovations for the scenic venue. We’ll bring you up to date on them as they develop.
More from he Roosevelt Island Daily
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- Queens Crime Headlines and Community Responses: Roosevelt Island’s ConnectionsQueens crime headlines and community responses have shaped recent conversations from subway stories to neighborhood events. Here’s how Roosevelt Islanders are affected and how the borough is responding.
A Different Kind of Bet
For years, Roosevelt Island did not behave like a system constrained by limits. Internally, the budget was often treated less as a boundary and more as a reservoir to be used.
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