News

Starr Teel fills the hole in Little Rainbow Row dining options

By Lightning Reports, Published: December 28, 2024

When Starr Teel surveyed the dining landscape of Little Rainbow Row, he spotted the gap. Obvious, really. It’s existed since the Honey & Salt crew pulled up stakes and took the mini-skillets with them.

“We had everything in Flat Rock from a bakery to a barbecue joint to a lunch and dinner option,” Starr explains. “But no place to start the day with a great breakfast.”

Starr being Starr — creative entrepreneur, smoke-master of beef and pork, tireless splitter of white oak logs — he defaulted to his baseline: a doer.

His unintentional “soft opening” of Hubbaloo, in the former Honey & Salt space behind the bright-green saloon like facade, came a week after Hurricane Helene ravaged the region. It’s been Starr’s experience to have an act of God intervene when he launches a new food venture. He opened Campfire Grill a week before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March of 2020.

Starr goes back to the roots of the historic village's food options in recent decades. He started and later sold Flat Rock Village Bakery. He’s well known for his iconic barbecue shack, Hubba Hubba Smokehouse, where locals and visitors alike enjoy his mastery of barbecue and traditional country sides.

The challenge when he envisioned Hubba Hubba's little sister, Hubbaloo, was to create a mix of the traditional and the new-ish. To serve a brunchie line of offerings in the cozy dining room Starr recruited executive chef Yasmin Mansukhani, who assembled a team to elevate the breakfast experience by focusing on fresh, locally sourced ingredients.

“One of the things we’re most excited about is introducing breakfast tacos,” Yasmin says. Drawing inspiration from a popular trend across the U.S., Hubbaloo’s breakfast tacos feature smoked meats from Hubba Hubba, giving them a savory Southern accent. Smoked brisket and pork options are wrapped in warm homemade tortillas, all topped with house-made salsas.

Breakfast tacos include potato, Hubba brisket and Hubba pulled pork and Neuske’s bacon taco, while lunch tacos include smoked salmon, mushroom and pork, brisket and Mexican street corn and potato and street corn — $4 or $5 apiece. There’s the classic American breakfast, Hubba brisket eggs benedict and Hubba smoked salmon eggs benedict, plus pancakes and French toast. Savory bowls — roasted carrot yogurt, breakfast salad, grit or potato — range from $10 to $14.

Yasmin Mansukhani, the chef at Hubbaloo, serves up breakfast items. [BRUCE HOLLIDAY/Flat Rock Together]
With more than 25 years in the restaurant industry, Yasmin brings a wealth of training, experience and a passion for culinary excellence. Her journey to becoming the head chef at Hubbaloo started long before she joined Starr’s team.

Born into a family of restaurateurs, Yasmin grew up watching her father run Indian restaurants in Japan and became immersed in the world of food from a very early age. At age 15 Yasmin moved to the United States where she finished high school. She lived in Germany for a time before receiving formal culinary training at Le Cordon Bleu in London, earning her Grand Diplôme in both patisserie and cuisine.

In the intervening years, Yasmin has worked in a variety of culinary settings, from fine dining resorts to corporate kitchens. Two of her most notable stops include The Breakers in Palm Beach and collaborating with Whole Foods to open new stores and fine-tune their prepared foods departments. Most recently, she served as sous chef at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, where she honed her skills under the guidance of other talented chefs.

Veering into the summer camp industry is an inevitable consequence of any Starr Teel conversation. In fact, the only reason Hubbaloo opened in the fall rather than last spring was Starr’s selfless rescue of a camp operator, one of many that he considers family. After traveling to the Blue Ridge Mountains in college to work as a summer camp counselor, he settled here and eventually began his long food journey.

“We were going to open in May but when the dining hall burned at Camp Wayfarer” plans changed, he says. “When their dining hall burned, it just seemed like a no brainer because when you start bringing in these emergency kitchens it's numbingly expensive — just crazy. It was a natural opportunity for me to do something, but also for them to have successful season. They were able to open camp.”

Starr’s connections to the camp industry led him to a partnership with Annabelle Comisar Lyles, a talented baker who owns the renowned Michael’s Muffins in Raleigh. And to Suzanne Vizethann, the chef and owner of Buttermilk Kitchen in Atlanta. Suzanne’s restaurant is well-known for serving award-winning Southern breakfast fare. A James Beard Foundation Women’s Entrepreneurial Fellow in 2022, Suzanne has shared techniques and insights with Starr, particularly helping Hubbaloo perfect its biscuit recipe. Coffee is by Little River Roasters, which got its start in the basement of the Wrinkled Egg years ago.

“If you walk through the whole menu, between Yasmin's relationships to certain products, and my relationships to certain people, in particular, there's a lot of relationship building,” Starr says.

The Hubba franchise lives on, giving early risers from Flat Rock and beyond a reason to stop in, order a hot coffee and start the day with a great breakfast.

* * * * *

The Lightning borrowed liberally — with permission — from Bruce Holliday’s feature on Hubbaloo in his Flat Rock Together blog.