About

My wife – partner & voice of reason Cassie and I opened Clock Tower Grill in March of 2013. When opening. We wanted to bring a new and different concept to our area; we did not want to be just another restaurant. We wanted to change the mold by having fun & being more involved in our local community. While at the same time changing the way people dine out by fighting the good fight in our broken food system.

Broken food system you may ask, what does this mean to you? Our mission is to put out a higher quality product while not always looking at the bottom-line. We are committed to serve & source as much local – sustainable – organic & GMO free as we can in our market. We find that utilizing our local farms and farmers markets are not a challenge but in fact a chance to be story tellers. We find nothing more rewarding then knowing how the food on your plate got there. You won’t find chicken franchise or refried beans on our menu, but you will find all natural, wholesome & different ingredients. Creating a unique dining experience, which I think our customers have come to love.

Believe it or not Cassie and I did the renovation with a little help from friends and family. It’s amazing what you can learn on YouTube. Who knew I could learn to weld from a video? We were committed to upcycle as much of our build out as possible. We literally drove around with a trailer looking for old wood, pallets and metal that we used for much of our décor & furnishings.

We also had an idea of local art to hang proudly in our restaurant. So we came up with the idea of skateboard art, so we held a 4th grade art show here at the restaurant. We bought 20 blank skateboard decks & contacted a local art teacher to see if her creative arts students would take on this project & paint them. They did using famous artist from history for their inspiration. What an amazing job they did. An event that we thought would be just something fun ended up being tremendous for the kids, their families, the school and us. We contacted local press for the art show which made for celebrity statues for these little artists.

Cassie and I enjoy having fun and keeping it fresh so we are always coming up with some kind of crazy event. It could be a harvest or winter festival out in our courtyard or a monthly themed dinner, like wild game, bourbon or beer dinners. Rest assured you can always expect the unexpected at the Clock Tower Grill.

This is not our first rodeo, but this time it’s different! There are no partners to have meetings about meetings, it’s just Cassie and myself. We do what we feel is right and have fun doing it. 

Rich Parente
Owner/Chef