01/25/2025
Weāve been deeply heartbroken to hear of Charles Phanās passing earlier this week. Iām still in shock and will be processing it for a while, but I want to share how much he has impacted my life.
I joined the Slanted Door group in 2015 as a bookkeeper on Charlesā team that manages his portfolio of restaurants. I learned so much about managing finances, inventory, and staff in the food industry, and occasionally Iād bring in cookies I baked to share with the team. When Charles and his family learned of this, they insisted that I use his commercial kitchen in the off hours to bake my cookies and to always āthink biggerā. So for years, after working my day job for him, Iād spend my time out of the office in his prep kitchen using his restaurant equipmentāmaking dough, baking and selling cookies, and building this business. I developed and honed my recipes, established my business, and grew my San Francisco customer base all from his commissary kitchen.
Sadly, I had it in my mind that I had many more years to work with him and learn from him. I will cherish my time with Charles, especially our last meetup in which he invited me to his home for dinner. His family and I enjoyed a delicious meal that he cooked, as he continued to push me to strive for growth and success.
I am one of the ripples of his legacy, and I will be forever grateful to Charles and his family for giving me these life-changing opportunities. His generosity, encouragement, fearlessness, mentorship, culinary innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit will be greatly missed.
- Dan
Owner & Baker
Stirred, Not Shaken