Ryan Turner
Founding Board Member
Founding Partner — Unsukay Restaurants
Ryan Turner is co-founder and partner of Unsukay Restaurants, the parent company for the restaurants Muss & Turner’s, Eleanor’s, Local Three Kitchen & Bar, Warhorse Investments, Seahorse Advisors, Roshambo and MTH Pizza in Metro-Atlanta.
Since college he has worked in every role in a restaurant from dishwasher to bartender. Ryan was the food & beverage manager at East Lake Golf Club before opening Muss & Turner’s in February of 2005. He and his partners were recognized as the Georgia Restaurant Association Restaurateurs of the Year in 2011. In 2013 they received the GRA’s Restaurant Neighbor Award for their involvement in founding and launching Giving Kitchen. In 2015 the Unsukay partners were awarded the National Restaurant Association’s Cornerstone Humanitarian Award.
Ryan was named the 2014 Business Person of the Year by The Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Atlanta Business Chronicle in the Experienced Entrepreneur category. He was also the 2015 Board Chairman of the Georgia Restaurant Association.
Ryan was instrumental in the conception and creation of Giving Kitchen after the overwhelming response of love and support Chef Ryan Hidinger and his wife Jen received immediately following Hidinger’s devastating stage four cancer diagnosis. Ryan Hidinger was the chef and an integral family member at Muss & Turner’s for seven years. Turner was also assisting the Hidingers in launching their dream restaurant, Staplehouse, which was the original flagship of the organization and owned by GK up until 2020.
The gravity and severity of Hidinger’s diagnosis prompted an immediate mobilization by Turner and his partners, as well as a robust group of Atlanta restaurateurs and chefs. With finesse, this group—nicknamed Team Hidi—raised enough funds for Hidinger to elect to a very progressive treatment not covered by his health insurance.
With great power comes great responsibility—and Team Hidi, led in part by Turner, carried their momentum forward and Giving Kitchen was born. As a founder, Turner put together an extensive group of individuals with a wide range of professional skills and resources both within and outside the restaurant industry. Additionally, by securing the commercial loan and private guarantors necessary to provide the capital needed to build Staplehouse Restaurant, Turner helped make the Hidinger’s dream a reality.