Steve Palmer

Where They Are Now

Hospitality labor is the frame that shapes Steve Palmer’s work: he started in Atlanta as a dishwasher, learning service from the bottom rung and carrying that perspective into later leadership. The Indigo Road Hospitality Group is the platform where that experience now sits in executive form. As Managing Partner, founder, and Chief Vision Officer, Palmer’s role covers both operations and direction, but the language of his leadership stays close to the realities of the kitchen and dining room. The title signals scale; the background explains why his perspective remains grounded in the daily demands of the industry. Mental health has become the issue Palmer names most directly, and he does so without softening the terms. His view is plain: the industry’s problems have to be addressed where they start, with the people carrying the work. That stance places his public comments in the broader trade conversation about what hospitality asks of its workers, and what the trade owes them back.

In Their Words “If we're going to solve the issues in our industry, we've got to start with mental health.” The line is stripped down to its essentials, which is part of its force. It treats mental health as a practical starting point for hospitality, not a side note, and it frames the problem as one the industry has to face directly. “I was working 14 hours a day; my feet hurt, my back hurt; it felt pretty real.” The detail is physical before it is reflective. It points to the wear that long service shifts leave behind, and to the kind of conditions that shape how someone later thinks about labor, endurance, and care inside the trade.

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