Alex Ray
Serving the Common Man
Ray started his restaurant empire, the Common Man Restaurants, with little capital in 1971. He built slowly and conservatively and at last count has 13 venues, from the Tilt’n Diner to the Lakehouse in Church Landing at Mill Falls. He must be one busy guy, but in September of 2005, Ray packed up a van with food and cooking utensils and headed for New Orleans, stopping to cook for the first needy people he found. Later, in December, he flew down with a wad of cash to hand out. A series of charity dinners at all his restaurants netted $108,000 for hurricane relief. And the charity events keep rolling. It’s not much of a business plan, but it seems to work for him — and for the countless folks he has helped along the way.
New Hampshire Magazine knows where “It” is at. Each November, we identify the state’s most happening people and publish their names and profiles in our annual “It List.”
So what defines an “It” Person?
How about buzz, panache, je ne sais quoi, currency, a person whose time has come, a person of tomorrow, a timeless person, noteworthy, below the radar, in the news, in the know, hot, cool, high impact, slippery, a mover and shaker, a humble saint, a behind-the-scenes operator, a scenery chewer, an unsung hero, a hero who knows how to sing.
It’s a quality that’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it.
Above is one member of the 2006 It List.
