David Davidson: ready to give restaurants the old college try, university foodservice vet moves on to Back Bay

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb 16, 2004 by Brooke Barrier

What are you looking forward to leaving behind?

I think everyone in the country knows that Yale is a heavily unionized work environment, and if there's one thing I'll tell you I won't miss, it's that. For many years relationships between management and Yale were not good. They're improving now, but there's still confrontation.

What will you miss most about the on-site segment?

Because you are on-site, you develop a community and relationships. For the most part you see the same people and the same faces every day. In my new position at Back Bay, I'll be overseeing 20-plus restaurants, but they're spread across three states.

Both you and Michael Berry have extensive experience in the on-site marketplace. Do you think Back Bay has any concepts that might lend themselves to one or more on-site segments?

I'm not sure, actually. That's something we haven't talked about at this point in time.

At a glance

Name: David Davidson

Age: 49

Title: vice president of operations

Career highlights: spending six years at the Beverly School for the Deaf as foodservice director, 10 years with McDonalds as district manager and nine years with Harvard University Dining Services as associate director; joining Back Bay Restaurant Group as vice president of operations

Hometown: Peabody, Mass.

Education: chef training program