Family recipes are a family business

Culinary arts alumna mixes education with experience when managing longtime family restaurant Club Paris

Above the Club Paris dining room in the office hangs photos documenting the 67-year history of Anchorage’s oldest steakhouse. Among such artifacts are childhood drawings from the current manager of the restaurant Cheyenne Selman, A.A.S. Culinary Arts ’15, granddaughter of Charlie Selman, who became the second owner of Club Paris in 1976.

Growing up in the restaurant, Selman recalls having always wanted to join the family business, despite her mother’s attempts to get her to entertain other career options. And Club Paris truly is a family business. Now co-owned by her father and uncle, Selman’s husband, whom she met while in UAA’s culinary arts program, eventually joined as a chef. Even the staff who aren’t biologically related might as well be — some of whom have worked there since before Selman was born.

“Lots of our staff started as dishwashers or hostesses and worked their way up. Even my dad doesn’t have any culinary background other than the restaurant. He says he’s a dishwasher that didn’t get fired and just worked his way into the office,” joked Selman.

When she was a kid, Selman’s first job at the restaurant was stocking “soda” behind the bar, which she would eventually learn was actually alcohol. These days, as manager, no two days are ever quite the same. Always on call, she is ready to fill any position on a moment’s notice, whether it be in the office or in the kitchen, in the front of the house or in the back.

Despite already being a professional restaurateur, Selman wanted to complement her experience with education by enrolling in a culinary arts program. Wanting to stay close to family, she enrolled at UAA, aided by a scholarship named after her grandfather offered through Alaska CHARR (Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association), an organization that has worked to advance, serve and protect Alaska’s hospitality and food service industry since 1964.

“What I really liked about the culinary program at UAA was that it’s so much more than cooking. It gave me a new way to look at things — a little more history and depth that I was able to bring back to the restaurant,” said Selman.

Any business that has been as successful for as long as Club Paris has is no stranger to weathering change. Long before Selman was born, the restaurant had survived the 1964 Alaska earthquake that famously brought down the JCPenney building just across the street. Long after she was born, it survived the COVID-19 pandemic that shuttered so many other restaurants by relying on her operational education to bolster its lunch and takeout offerings. Even the building Club Paris occupies is a testament to change — constructed in the 1920s, the building served as a funeral parlor, a furniture store and a storekeeper home before opening its doors as Club Paris three decades later in 1957.

Another change is the impending retirement of Selman’s father, who once thought himself incapable of such a thing. While this change is an exciting one as she works to add the ins and outs of restaurant ownership to her expertise of restaurant management, one thing that will not change is Club Paris’s ongoing service to Anchorage.

“Every time I mention that I work at Club Paris, someone gets a smile on their face or they light up and have a memory or experience they want to share. I think that’s really nice, just being that staple in the community,” said Selman.