08/23/2026
An Exciting New Chapter at Black Radish 🌱
As Black Radish Kitchen & Catering continues to grow, we’re excited to announce a reorganization of our restaurant leadership team at Black Radish at 14th Star.
This next chapter is about building an even stronger foundation for our team, our food, and the experience we provide every guest. We’re incredibly excited to introduce the people stepping into these key leadership roles:
**Jake Ovitt — General Manager**
Jake brings an extraordinary combination of leadership experience, deep local roots, and a genuine passion for food to Black Radish.
Jake served our country for more than 15 years in the U.S. Army as an active-duty paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. He spent much of his military career serving as a Platoon Sergeant and First Sergeant, leading and managing organizations of up to 150 soldiers during the Global War on Terror.
Jake also brings extensive restaurant experience to the role—and for him, it started right here in St. Albans. Jake grew up in St. Albans and spent more than 13 years working as a cook in various local restaurants during his teenage and college years. Those years in the kitchen helped develop a lasting passion for great food and the people who make it.
That combination of hands-on kitchen experience, operational discipline, proven leadership, and connection to the St. Albans community makes Jake uniquely suited to lead our restaurant team. We’re thrilled to have him at the helm as we continue raising the bar and taking Black Radish at 14th Star to the next level.
**Antoine Butcher — Kitchen Manager**
Antoine joined Black Radish in December 2025, bringing nearly 35 years of diverse food-service experience and a lifelong love of cooking.
His passion for the kitchen began as a young child, cooking alongside his grandmothers. For Antoine, cooking has always been about more than feeding people—it’s about creating flavors, experiences, and memories.
He takes tremendous pride in maintaining high standards for food quality, safety, cleanliness, and consistency. A lifelong student of the kitchen—and a self-described “grumpy old man”—Antoine is happiest when he’s taking care of people through food.
We’re proud to recognize everything Antoine brings to Black Radish and very happy to announce his promotion to Kitchen Manager.
**Amethyst Duffy — Front of House Supervisor & Administrative Coordinator**
Amethyst joined Black Radish in November 2025 as a server and quickly earned the respect of our entire team through her exceptional customer service, poise, professionalism, and commitment to our quality standards.
Her previous banking experience has also brought an invaluable skill set to Black Radish. Her organization, attention to detail, and ability to keep things moving both in front of and behind the scenes have made her a trusted and valuable member of our leadership team.
In her expanded role as Front of House Supervisor & Administrative Coordinator, Amethyst will help lead our guest-service team while also supporting the administrative side of our growing business.
We couldn’t be happier to have her stepping into this role.
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**This is an exciting time of growth for Black Radish.**
We’ve learned a tremendous amount since opening our doors, and as we continue to grow, we’re investing in the people and leadership structure that will help us become an even stronger restaurant and catering company.
Jake, Antoine, and Amethyst each bring something different to the table—but they share the same commitment to great food, great hospitality, high standards, and taking care of people that we want Black Radish to be known for.
Please join us in congratulating Jake, Antoine, and Amethyst on their new roles. We’re incredibly excited about what comes next.
**And we’re growing our team!**
With these promotions and our continued growth, we now have opportunities for new people to join Black Radish across several areas of our business. We’re looking for great people interested in joining our Front of House, Back of House, and Catering teams.
If you’re passionate about hospitality, take pride in your work, and want to be part of a team that cares deeply about the food and experiences we create, we’d love to hear from you.
There’s a lot happening at Black Radish, and we’re just getting started. 🌱
14th Star Brewing Company
Downtown Saint Albans