Jeffrey More ’82

Degree: B.A. in economics and computer coordinate

Job title: President of Ashley’s Restaurants Ltd. in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Favorite Trinity memory: So many great memories. I got to try rowing crew (not available at the time in Michigan), taking in movies at Cinestudio (I’ll never forget the original Aliens), and on Friday nights moving our living room to the middle of the Long Walk and grilling dinner.

What was your path to your current position?

People always ask me how I got into the restaurant business, and I tell them it was a temporary fit of insanity. But I’ve been a foodie all my life. I blame it on my mother, as she tried to have one new dish at every dinner. She loved exploring cuisines from around the world long before you had many ethnic restaurants and stores like we do now.

What do you do in your role?

As I get closer to retirement, I’ve downsized our operations to our original restaurant located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, directly across from the University of Michigan’s central campus. I have a great management team to take care of the day-to-day operations, and I spend most of my time handling marketing, advertising, and HR duties. It’s still a small business, and you have to wear many hats throughout the day.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

First, I am my own boss, and that is nice. I like interacting with guests and meeting lots of great people. Just last year, I had a couple looking at our menu posted outside. I noticed they weren’t speaking English. Turns out it was a couple from Belgium, and the man was in Ann Arbor to give a lecture as he did the research on the Blue Zones and aging. One of the secrets is to engage new people in conversation. Hopefully I’m on my way to a long life!

What are the biggest challenges you face?

In the restaurant business, you always have to be nimble but even more so these days. Dining and drinking have really changed since the pandemic. A lot of people learned to cook during the pandemic and coupled with affordability issues are not dining out as much. Drinking patterns also have changed a lot. College-aged kids do not drink as much or as often as they used to do. At Trinity, most of my friends and I would get together after studying most nights and meet up at Trinity’s pub or someplace off campus. So much of socialization these days is done strictly on phones.

How did Trinity prepare you for your career?

Economics courses were certainly helpful in running a business, and when we started out, I wrote programs to handle many of our business functions, such as payroll, as these were not widely available yet.

What was the most memorable course you took at Trinity?

I really enjoyed “Corporate Finance” with Dr. Ward Curran. I guess it was the prospective business operator in me.

Was there a professor at Trinity who was particularly influential?

I had taken some time off after high school to figure out what I wanted to do. I actually got a Department of Defense security clearance to do some work for a local research lab in Ann Arbor. When I got to Trinity (which I had not had the chance to visit but chose based on the recommendation of a friend at Williams), I met with my adviser, Dr. Curran, and he really believed in me and gave me the confidence that I could succeed at Trinity.

How else did your time at Trinity affect your future?

While I was at Trinity, I developed a taste for beers with flavor. Trinity’s pub served Heineken Dark, which I really enjoyed, and there was a pub off campus that had John Courage Ale from England on tap. When we created Ashley’s in 1983, I knew that specialty beers had to be a focus of what we were about. In the early ’80s, Ashley’s was just one of a handful of places in the United States that featured craft beer (the term wasn’t even invented at the time). I’ve had the chance to nurture many brands that are now commonplace, including Bell’s, Founders, Avery, Allagash, and many more. After decades of promoting the great beers of Belgium, I was knighted by the Belgian Brewers Guild in 2016.