Meet the St. Paul restaurant vet bringing connection — and a killer breakfast bowl — to Cathedral Hill

What happens when a personable kid starts busing tables at one of St. Paul's most venerable diners as a 14-year-old?

He goes on to become the owner of a restaurant in Cathedral Hill, of course, combining slinging hash with the flavors of Hawaiian and Southwest cuisine.

Meet Michael Noyes, who learned to cook, wait tables and run the business at restaurants ranging from the Copper Dome to W.A. Frost. But his most important lesson, he said, was making customers feel valued.

Eye On St. Paul recently stopped by the High Hat, 485 Selby Av., to talk about why he says the restaurant biz is about way more than food. This interview was edited for length.

Q: You just opened a restaurant. What were you thinking?

A: I can't get away from this business. I can't get away.

Q: How long have you been in the business?

Q: Where was your first job?

A: The Copper Dome, at Randolph and Hamline.

Q: What did you do?

A: I started out as a busser, and then I became a dishwasher. Then they tried me in the back, which didn't go great. Then I became a host — poured coffee, regular or decaf all the way around the restaurant. Dumped ash trays. And finally I became, I think, the first male waiter at the Copper Dome. I was 14 years old.

Q: You went from busser to dishwasher to waiter, all at 14?

Q: Wow, what happened? Did a bunch of people quit?

A: No, you know, those old ladies, I knew how to charm them.

From there, I went to the Uptowner on Grand. ... So I got my start with breakfast. It was always breakfast. Well, it wasn't always breakfast, but I spent a lot of time at diners — fast-paced, fast food. I think it gave me work ethic, because you feel like everything is going to collapse if you don't do it. And so I was good at it because I always felt like if I didn't do it, it was going to fall apart.

Anxiety becomes an asset.

[Noyes worked a number of other restaurant jobs over the years, including Old Chicago, a move to Los Angeles at 23 and a return to St. Paul and the Neighborhood Café in 2006.]

A: I think every restaurant has their time. And in a city like St. Paul, people embrace new businesses. Especially restaurants. And it's very exciting when one opens. And to me, because I'm always worried, it can be deceptive as an owner. You might get all the attention [from customers] right away, but that person better come back. They're going to come once, but I need them to come twice.

At the Neighborhood Café, we had regulars who came twice a day. I want people to enjoy it. I want to be part of the neighborhood and be truly enjoyable.

Q: What makes a restaurant sustainable?

A: How you're treated. Period. Food can be good. But if people don't feel like you treat them with respect, that there's a warmth, a genuine care for who they are, then they're gone.

Fine dining, slinging hash browns, whatever it is, how you treat people is why they come out.

A: The food? Or the feel?

Q: Both. What makes you different?

A: I think the menu's interesting. It's a little different. It's colorful. It's influenced by other parts of the country. [The breakfast bowl was inspired by something a server ate in Hawaii.] I have no ego. I take things from other places.

Q: So the breakfast bowl gets people to come in and the warmth gets them to come back?

A: [He points to servers who came with him from W.A. Frost, where he was general manager.] Impeccable service. But warm. I was at Frost five years. A server until COVID, then GM. So, yeah.

A: Tuesday through Friday, 8-2, weekends, 8-3.

Q: Breakfast? Lunch?

A: Breakfast.

Q: No lunch?

A: Not yet. I want to nail breakfast first.

A: I haven't done [breakfasts] for a long time. I worked at the Original Pancake House [in Roseville]. It was get to work at 5 a.m. Here, I mean I just opened a restaurant. We opened last Tuesday. I was up from Monday morning to Tuesday afternoon. We had to do it. So I haven't slept good in a couple, six, seven weeks.

Q: Why do you do it?

A: It's my passion. It really is. This to me is like breathing.

Q: Why?