SB #MaroonMemories Melody and Michael Shemtov ’00

In February, 140 SB students heard from Melody and Michael S. Shemtov ’00 in Wells Fargo Auditorium.

Michael was the recipient of the 2021 Howard F. Rudd, Jr. Business Person of the Year Award:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjXNS-yXAl0

 

#MentoringMatters – Melody and Michael with students in our Impact X room

Photo Credits: Dylan Walker

After growing up in Atlanta, Michael Shemtov graduated from the College of Charleston and the Honors College in 2000 with a degree in business administration. At the age of 22, he went into restaurant ownership with the opening of Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers in downtown Charleston. He later opened three more Mellow Mushroom locations in the Charleston area and served for two years as the marketing director for the parent company of Mellow Mushroom.

As a Charleston-based restauranteur with a strong passion for entrepreneurship, Shemtov opened Butcher & Bee Charleston in 2011 with the simple mission of serving honest-to-goodness sandwiches made with flavors and quality usually reserved for fine dining. The Butcher & Bee group now includes multiple concepts in Charleston, Nashville and Atlanta. Workshop, which closed in 2021, was a Charleston-based culinary incubator Shemtov created and graduated 10 culinary entrepreneurs into stand-alone brick and mortar locations between 2017 and 2021.

Beyond the restaurant business, Shemtov is passionate about community, politics and policy. He is a regular volunteer for political campaigns and a graduate of the James E. Clyburn Political Fellowship Program. He helped found and is board chair for Pay it Forward Charleston, a nonprofit serving the city’s food and beverage community with emergency grants and is a founding member of the Independent Restaurant Coalition. He resides in Charleston with his wife and their two children.