Plenty of people used the 2020 pandemic as an opportunity to redefine work, to reassess priorities, or even to make a career move. Jean-Baptiste “JB” Caillet did all that and more, upending his storied career at high-end New York City restaurants for a change of pace and scenery. He and his family made the move to the Great Lakes State in June 2020 and haven’t looked back since.
Change may be the one constant in Caillet’s globe-trotting life. Born in the Loire Valley of France, Caillet moved to the United States with his family as a youngster. With deep roots in the wine industry, he’s traveled all over three continents, from France to Seattle to Mexico and Uruguay to New York, where he managed some of the city’s most lauded restaurants, including Aquavit and Balthazar. He now serves as general manager at Rudy’s Prime Steakhouse, which opened late last year in a former downtown Clarkston marketplace beloved by generations since 1933. I sat down with Caillet to talk about playing polo, New York’s millennial “it” restaurants, and, of course, wine.
Your background is interesting. Can you share some early highlights?
We moved around a lot. I immigrated to this country in the late ’60s. My father worked for Boeing [in Seattle] and then with Ford in Detroit for about five years. Then we moved back to France for five years. After I graduated from the University of Houston, I hopped on an airplane and went to Argentina.
Why Argentina?
My father had done some work down there, and he had a family friend who was a very wealthy man who owned a polo club, so I was hired to play polo and played professional polo in Argentina for two years. We also used to go to Punta del Este in Uruguay for the summers. [While there, I] met some Spanish guys, and we opened a seasonal bar. … I spent the next three summers opening seasonal bar — four months working, eight months traveling.
From there you went to New York, right?
In ’94, my first management job was at Aquavit with [award-winning chef] Marcus Samuelsson. About a year into it, we got a three-star review from The New York Times. The restaurant filled up for three or four months in a couple days. I was there for three years in all and then opened Balthazar. It was the best time, seeing celebrities all the time. We had a great staff.
Staff training is a big part of what you do at Rudy’s. Can you walk us through that?
We spent three weeks with the staff with intensive training on cocktails, and still, every Friday, I do a wine class to educate the staff. We’ve got zero staff turnover in the front of the house and the kitchen.
Your by-the-glass wine list is pretty impressive. Can you tell us more about that?
We do a Coravin [wine preservation system] program where I pick a wine of the week or two wines of the week, and we have them for $20, $25, $30. It allows me to offer Old World wines to people that would never otherwise spend $120 on a bottle that they don’t know.
This story originally appeared in the August 2025 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
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