Prime on 4th owners Xavier Staggs and Jennifer Hill create a dining experience as unique as their love story.
HQ 91 | AUTUMN 2015
In addition to celebrating their business’ one-year anniversary in June, Xavier Staggs and Jennifer Jill are proud new parents of a baby girl named Gia. Together, they’re young and full of life, but had it not been for a chance meeting in a Las Vegas bar two years ago, the two restaurateurs may have never even crossed paths, and Huntington would be without one of its prime dining spots.
“I can guarantee you, I wouldn’t want to do this with anyone else,” Staggs says of his working relationship with Jill, who for all intents and purposes also is his business partner. Her response assures that their living and working together, often a recipe for disaster for most couples, works for them. “You would think it would cause conflict, but it really doesn’t for us,” she says.
Before they met, Staggs and Jill, owners of Prime on 4th, were living in Washington, D.C., and Providence, Rhode Island, respectively. Staggs, who grew up in Proctorville, Ohio, practiced law in the nation’s Capitol while Jill managed a number of restaurants up north. Though Staggs was familiar with the industry — his grandmother moved to the United States from Mexico and opened one of the country’s first Giovanni’s Pizza parlors in Ohio — he and Jill come from completely different backgrounds. Despite that, they connected when their paths converged one weekend in Las Vegas, where they independently traveled for separate bachelor and bachelorette parties.
Chance made sure they stayed in the same hotel and their parties met in a nearby bar. And, as fate would have it, they hit it off.
But, their romance hasn’t been without complications. After meeting in Las Vegas in 2012, the two went back to their lives on the East Coast, where they were separated by more than 700 miles Over the next year, they hardly spoke, but after Staggs made a return visit to Las Vegas, where he happened to meet some of Jill’s friends who also were there, he worked up the courage to contact her.
“The rest is history,” Jill says with a laugh in her voice.
It wasn’t long until Staggs and Jill decided they wanted to start a new life together, but they weren’t sure where to go. Staying in Washington, D.C., wasn’t promising due to economic downturn, and while Jill was successfully managing five restaurants in Rhode Island, the two decided to start somewhere else, ultimately settling on coming back to the Tri-State area where familial roots had already been planted.
Their move was staggered — Staggs came in December 2013, and Jill moved in March 2014 — but starting a restaurant quickly became an attractive option during that time.
“Jenn needed something to do after all,” says Staggs, who is a lawyer with Jenkins Fenstermaker in Huntington by day. The two often work together at the restaurant during evenings and weekends.
After talking to a friend, who encouraged him to get into the business, and gaining the approval of Jill, Staggs used his connections in Huntington to secure a prime dining location in the heart of the city — 910 Fourth Ave., the site of the historic West Virginia Building and home to the former Huntington Prime.
Before she even moved to Huntington, Jill began establishing a base for the restaurant, coming up with a menu, which she says is heavily influenced by Appalachia as well as dining cultures of cities where the chefs have worked.
“Our idea was to have a menu that had dishes with familiar names, but it’s not like how your grandmother would make it,” Jill says.
Settling on a menu and identity, Staggs and Jill opened their restaurant in July 2014. Prime on 4th, as Staggs puts it, is fine dining but approachable — elegant but casual.
“We wanted to make it a good, community driven restaurant,” he says, later adding that he and Jill sought input from local diners to see what they wanted. They soon found many enjoyed the location’s previous tenant, Huntington Prime. That prompted them to carry over some of that restaurant’s themes.
“I never had a chance to try Prime,” Staggs says. “But it had an excellent reputation in the community and we wanted to build on that with a similar concept.”
That concept has been well received, and not just by locals.
“We’ve got diners coming from all over the Tri-State,” Staggs says, later adding that competing restaurant owners, such as the Hagys of La Famiglia and Mark Cross of 21 at the Frederick, are regulars.
Staggs says the warm reception can be owed to the menu and business model the restaurant has adopted.
“We want it to be a place where anyone in Huntington can come in and enjoy themselves, whether it be an anniversary meal or if they want to come in on a Tuesday for a pizza,” he says. “We have something to offer everyone, every day of the week.”
While the menu has several area favorites like deviled eggs, fried green tomatoes, meatloaf, and typical fine-dining mainstays like prime rib and filet mignon, each dish takes the traditional and makes it contemporary.
“You have something like deviled eggs,” Jill says. “There’s the traditional way of boiling the egg and seasoning it with cayenne pepper, but we’re doing it differently.” While the appetizer is offered with three different topping varieties, including sriracha, bacon and roasted red peppers, each egg is coated in Penko breadcrumbs and deep-fried, creating a unique balance of creaminess and texture.
“They’re our No. 1 seller,” Jill says.
Prime has other appetizers found on its “Tappalachian” menu. Staggs says each are prepared and priced so a group can purchase and eat more than one without spoiling an appetite or breaking the bank.
In addition to its dining options, Prime on 4th has a full-service bar with several signature cocktails made with fresh fruit. It also has an extensive wine selection, served by the glass or bottle.
The restaurant is open for lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and Sunday. Dinner hours are 5-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 5-11p.m.on Friday and Saturday. The bar is open late. Reservations can be made and a full menu can be viewed on the restaurant’s website at www.primeon4th.com. While the restaurant doesn’t employ a head chef, the kitchen is manned by a culinary team of chefs Josh Moore, Russ Lewis, Eric Fizer and Ryan Clark.
As for the future of their restaurant, Jill says the staff will look to bolster catering options. The restaurant added a catering service in the spring that she says “has been growing well.” There’s also some community interest in opening another location, though Staggs and Jill say they aren’t yet ready to make that kind of commitment.
“We’ve talked about that, but haven’t gone any further,” Staggs says.
For now, Staggs and Jill say they’ll focus on doing what they do best — serving elegant but casual fine dining — all the while navigating their new role as parents.
With a daughter, they have shifted many responsibilities onto their staff, but Staggs says they have no intentions of stepping aside.
“It’s been a great year.”
