Restaurateur Chef Megan Kee: A Homegrown Success Story
In Sussex County, Delaware, locals zealously guard their heritage. Residents are either a “been here,” meaning they’re natives, or a “come here.” There is no doubt about Megan Kee’s pedigree. She is a “Beebe Baby,” born in Beebe Hospital in Lewes. And although she’s lived in Boston and Rhode Island, her heart has remained in Rehoboth. Indeed, the entrepreneur owns three downtown restaurants within walking distance of each other.
Kee’s newest restaurant is Dalmata, an Italian concept located in the space formerly occupied by the Vineyard Wine Bar & Bistro. Dalmata has been a long time coming. Kee took possession of the space in July 2019. Renovations and then the pandemic led to delays.
However, the restaurateur is not one to give up easily. Kee survived a high-profile divorce that caused her to step away from her dream business, and when dining rooms closed last spring, she kept her restaurants afloat by cooking family-style meals.
In the process, she has earned the respect of her employees and her customers. “Megan is exceptional at reading people,” says JoAnne Grape Morgan, a frequent guest who was a part-time hostess at Houston White. “For being so young, she’s already honed a legacy.”
Beach Bred
The oldest of two children, Kee grew up at her parents’ house in Lewes and her grandparents’ home in Henlopen Acres, a municipality that adjoins Rehoboth Beach. She spent hours in the kitchen with Ruby, the nanny who’d also helped raise Kee’s mother, Winnie. “Those are special memories for me,” she says. “We would walk around the corner and get apples from the Derrickson’s apple tree and make an apple pie.”
Her grandparents were entertainers. Jacob Reese White, Jr. had been the president and co-owner of Houston-White Co. in Millsboro, founded by his grandfather, William J.P. White, and Delaware Sen. Henry Houston in 1905. The company purchased lumber land and manufactured building materials. Later, it made containers for truck crops. The company closed in 1974 but remained a corporate entity.
White served on several bank boards and was a state fish and game commissioner. When Margaret White, a native Baltimorean, hosted dinner parties, Kee helped set the table with the fine silver and bone china. “It was so glamorous to me.”
Bright, and with a bevy of extracurricular activities under her belt, Kee was intrigued when representatives from the Johnson & Wales University culinary program came to Cape Henlopen High School in 2002. She received a full scholarship to the program and left high school early. After two years in Rhode Island, the restless student moved to Philadelphia to study food photography.
When her grandmother, then a widow, developed dementia, Kee returned to Southern Delaware. Determined to be a skilled caregiver, she earned her certified nursing assistant certification and studied nursing at Delaware Technical Community College. However, a grieving Kee lost interest when her grandmother died in 2005.
Next up, Harvard University. If she could get in, she figured, she would graduate. She was accepted as an anthropology major, but when the stock market crashed, she realized she needed a job with income potential. “That was my swan song for college,” she says with a laugh. She moved home.
Jill of All Trades
Like many kids who grew up in resort towns, Kee was 14 when she started working in the hospitality business. While working at The Frog Pond, she met Ginger Breneman, who was moonlighting as a bartender, and the two worked together at a bank.
She’s also been a real estate agent and a retailer. In 2012, she and a friend opened a Rehoboth shop specializing in vintage goods, most of which came from their closets and shelves. Many of the shabby chic items went into outfitting Bramble & Brine, the restaurant she opened with then-husband and chef Joe Churchman in 2013. (The couple were both Cape graduates, but sparks didn’t fly until she left Harvard. They wed in 2010.)
Bramble & Brine was a success. However, the marriage took a turn: The couple did not share a vision for the eatery or their future. “I had to abandon my dream because I knew we were on different trajectories,” she says. “It would have been very lovely if it had worked out.”
They divorced, and she left the business. On her last day in the restaurant, she played “My Heart Will Go” from the movie Titanic.
Kee was regrouping in the family’s Pocono cabin when her mother called her to tell her that she’d invested in Breneman’s Rehoboth restaurant, Mixx. Kee was going to help run it. The friends became partners. But when Breneman wanted out, Kee had a new restaurant in mind.
Bonjour La Fable
Mixx’s lower level was a challenging space. However, it reminded Kee and boyfriend Nick Pawson of French eateries in New York. Since the cinderblock walls, tile floors and exposed ductwork were at odds with a Parisian bistro, the duo got to work.
They installed wood-looking cork floors and a drop ceiling that resembles ornate tin panels. Kee searched far and wide — including England — for the ballroom mirror on the wall only to find an acceptable version in Sussex County. In a Millsboro antiques store, she discovered a rolled map of Julius Caesar’s conquered territories, including France. “That was super serendipitous. I thought it would be expensive, but it was $25,” she says.
The hard work was worth it. La Fable, which opened in 2016, has earned a “most romantic” restaurant award from Open Table.
The Next Chapter
They say you can’t go home again, but Kee opened her second eatery in the old Bramble & Brine building. Fortunately, her ex-husband had remodeled it before closing. “I don’t know that I would have had it in me to dismantle what we’d done,” she acknowledges.
Kee named the restaurant Houston White Co. for the family’s business. Initially, it was a steakhouse with a few family recipes for crab cakes and fried chicken. Even before the pandemic hit, however, Kee realized that running a small steakhouse has a slim profit margin. Servers need to upsell the sides to boost income.
When Gov. John Carney ordered restaurants to shutter their dining rooms in March 2020, Kee temporarily closed La Fable and turned Houston White into a to-go operation. She rolled up her sleeves and cooked such dishes as shepherd’s pie, fajitas, crab cakes and prime rib. “I call it country comforting foods,” Kee says. “It’s the things people can afford and enjoy.”
She offered one dish a day with sides and took orders on her cell. Customers were so supportive that she resumed the family meals in the off-season, along with the full menu.
The pivot helped her push Houston White into a “farm-to-table steakhouse,” which gives the chefs more creativity. There are still three steak cuts on the menu. You’ll also find “Marge’s” crab cakes and vegan offerings. “When a vegetarian comes in, we blow their minds,” Kee says.
Hat Trick
Dalmata, the latest venture, is Italian for Dalmatian, her grandmother’s favorite dog breed. The open atmosphere is bright and colorful — think “La Dolce Vita,” not “Goodfellas.” More than 100 plates on the wall pay homage to Italian restaurants that give plates to favored customers. (Buon Ricordo dishes are so popular that there is a collectors’ association.)
Having three restaurants has helped Kee train and retain staff. “She’s motherly — strict with high expectations, but trusting,” says Chef Shane Kellagher, who works at Houston White. “She lets her leaders do their job.”
Diners can expect more from Kee, who has a playbook of concepts. Bringing a theme to life is the best part of being a restaurateur, she says. Well, one of them, anyway.
“Creating the relationships with the guest is the most important,” she says. “I do very much love people and their stories.”
Houston-White Co. 315 Rehoboth Avenue, 302.227.8511 Facebook Instagram
La Fable 26 Baltimore Avenue, 302.227.8510, Facebook Instagram
Dalmata 28 Wilmington Avenue, 302.542.3748, Facebook Instagram
