Another View highlights the people, places and things that make Columbia distinctive. Know someone you'd like to see highlighted here? Email suggestions and comments to rona@free-times.com.

A Man for All Seasonings

He's a highly successful restaurant owner with shares in two more.

He's developed a mini restaurant empire that has raised the bar on fine dining in Columbia.

He's a risk-taking entrepreneur always looking for a way to do something different, better, unique.

And, he's not even 30 years old.

Meet Ricky Mollohan, owner of Mr. Friendly's New Southern Cafe and partner in both Gervais & Vine and Solstice.

Unlike many restaurant owners who got into the business through family, Mollohan's entry was more out of necessity. Drawn to USC after graduating from T.L. Hanna in Anderson in 1994 to play golf, that eventually went by the wayside as he found himself waiting tables at Mr. Friendly's while earning a degree in history. Not long after starting there he wound up managing the restaurant, and when he graduated from USC in 1999, he bought-in.

"I think you get to a point and realize 'This is my career, this is what I'm good at,'" says Mollohan, who will be getting married in July to Erica Tyner, a nurse at Lexington Medical Center. "You recognize the talented people around you, and you get excited about what you can accomplish."

It also was in 1999 that he, along with Kristian Niemi as principal owner, established Gervais & Vine, which year-in and year-out gets nods on Best of Columbia lists for its romantic atmosphere and was instrumental in introducing tapas to the Columbia market.

"It's funny looking back; at first we opened Gervais & Vine as a wine shop that offered some light food," Mollohan says. "The tapas didn't have much of a Mediterannean feel, didn't have much live cooking, just a lot of spreads and cheese plates.

"We realized that with the wine shop, we were having a hard time keeping up, stock-wise. We had never been in the retail business before, and really we couldn't keep up with the big stores. When Total Wine came in, we kind of knew that was about it."

Niemi and Mollohan sold the restaurant, but bought it back after seeing it run poorly, reopening in spring 2001.

"People were coming in for the food and tapas and loving that aspect of what we were doing," Mollohan says. "So we focused on that. With the former Meritage restaurant doing well and also selling tapas, they actually helped us more than they hurt us because they got the word out there about it.

"But we gave the tapas and the experience more of a personal touch with Gervais & Vine, and I think we set a tone that people still relate to and enjoy."

With two successful, though different, restaurants running smoothly, Mollohan knew he wanted something new, something big. Enter Solstice, which opened in February and hasn't slowed down since.

"We wanted to take the service aspect we're known for and add a big-city fine-dining feel," Mollohan says. "We wanted to create a destination restaurant, one where we could prepare the kind of food and use the kind of techniques you see at restaurants in New York and Atlanta.

"We had looked at other options for about two or three years, but thought this one had the most potential as far as location and access to the interstate so people from downtown could get here without much trouble."

Mollohan credits the success of all three restaurants to following simple guidelines.

"If you keep your staff happy, you'll keep them around," Mollohan says. "With Mr. Friendly's, our retention rate has been so good. It allows us a consistency of service that our customers appreciate.

"I think that's the key with all our restaurants. People can tell we're proud of what we do, that we take a lot of care to emphasize every aspect of the dining experience from service to preparation to keeping in touch afterward through our emails. I just hope we're able to continue here for a long, long time."