STOCKHOLM — A restaurateur has no business leading tours through the frozen tundra of Scandinavia. Then again, a restaurateur has no business leading tours through Tuscany, either, and that was over 70 trips and 1,500 people ago.

The 2026 Yonderlust Travel season officially kicked off this week, and for the first time in almost 10 years of doing this, we’re starting in the land of the midnight sun instead of the rolling hills of central Italy. This is the trip I’ve been wanting to host since the beginning — a bucket-list run through Sweden, Denmark and Norway that ends north of Tromsø, roughly 217 miles above the Arctic Circle. A perfectly logical destination for a man who has spent 45 years sweating in the commercial kitchens and dining rooms of south Mississippi. If the skies cooperate, we’ll witness the aurora borealis in one of the few places on earth dark enough and far enough north to see it at full power.

None of this was the plan.

My profession is restaurants. Has been since I was 19 years old. All I ever wanted at the beginning was to own one restaurant so I could wear T-shirts and shorts every day. This, it turns out, is not a viable business strategy. One became two, and two became five, and five became seven, and before I knew it, we were running a multiunit operation with the mindset – and the infrastructure – of a mom-and-pop, one-store shop.

About four years ago we started making real changes. We added a C-suite – Jarred Patterson as chief operations officer, Chad Carmichael as chief information officer, Nevil Barr as chief culinary officer and Maria Keyes as chief financial officer – brought in executive coaches, reworked our entire financial structure and started treating the business the way I should have a couple of decades earlier. Today at 64, I am more engaged in our restaurants than I have been at any point in 38 years of ownership.

COVID rattled us. The years before it weren’t my best, either. But we came through that and built something stronger on the other side.

The leadership team we have today is the best we’ve ever had. And the bench – the people ready to step in and lead as we grow – is deeper than it’s ever been. My son will be joining us soon, which makes all this feel like it’s coming full circle.

Restaurants are my first love. If I’ve learned anything over 45 years in this business, it’s that you take care of your first love first and foremost.

The travel business grew up alongside the restaurants almost by accident. Back in 2011, my family and I took a six-month trip through Europe. When we came home, people started asking me to take them over there – show them the people, the places, the food I’d found. I figured I’d do it once. That one trip turned into a full-scale business we now call Yonderlust Travel.

For years, Simeon Williford – my former executive assistant who also runs the publishing company – handled the travel side as part of her other duties. But we’ve reached the point where that’s not enough. I hired Brittany Nicholson as the operations director for Yonderlust Travel, because if the business is going to grow, it has to be able to operate without me on the ground for every tour.

The relationships I’ve built with people overseas – colleagues who have become genuine friends – will allow us to offer curated tours and experiences I’ve created, run by people I trust, even when I’m not there.

At the center of almost every tour outside of Tuscany is Jesse Marinus. Jesse is Dutch, lives in Rome and has been my boots-on-the-ground partner for seven years now. He handles the logistics, co-hosts tours with me and works with a professionalism and eye for detail that I haven’t seen often in 45 years of the hospitality business.

I’ll still host five tours in the spring and five in the fall. But the only way to scale this thing is to do it without me being at every activity and at every dinner table.

We’re also getting ready to announce something I’ve been asked about for a long time – deep-dive tours right here at home. Yonderlust Mississippi. And a New Orleans tour. Because the best food and hospitality in America has always been in our own backyard.

Here’s what connects all of it – the restaurants, the travel, the tours at home and overseas. Hospitality. That one word. Creating an experience for someone, whether it’s a Tuesday night dinner at the Crescent City Grill or a week chasing the northern lights above the Arctic Circle. Making people feel taken care of. Making them feel like they matter. That’s the job. Always has been.

We are, after all, the Hospitality State. Though I’m fairly certain the tourism board didn’t have fjords in mind when they put that on the license plate.

What I didn’t see coming is that the people I meet at the restaurants become friends and then guests on the tours. And the people I meet on the tours become friends. Real friends. Lasting ones. Over 38 years, people have trusted us with their dining experiences. Over the past decade, 1,500 of them have trusted me with their vacation time. That’s not something I take lightly.

A restaurateur has no business leading tours through Scandinavia. But hospitality is hospitality, whether the table is set in Hattiesburg or on a fjord in northern Norway. The table just keeps getting bigger. And for that, I am grateful.

Onward.

ORANGE CREPES WITH SUGARED CRANBERRIES

Serves 6-8

Sugared Cranberries
1/2 cup water
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons orange extract
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
Sauce
1/2 cup Grand Marnier
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons orange zest
1/4 teaspoon salt

Crepes
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs plus 1 yolk
3 cups whole milk
1 stick butter, melted

Filling
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, softened
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray

Instructions:
■ For cranberries: Combine 1/2 cup water with 1 cup sugar in a small pot. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in orange extract. Cool to room temperature. Stir in cranberries. Place cooling rack over baking sheet. Remove cranberries with slotted spoon and place on rack. Dry 1 hour. Toss cranberries in remaining 1 cup sugar. Return to rack and dry 1 hour. Can be made 24 hours ahead.
■ For sauce: Place Grand Marnier in 1-quart pot over high heat (stand back as it will flame). Once flames burn off, add orange juice and sugar. Boil 4-5 minutes. Add cream and reduce by half. Stir in zest and salt. Keep warm.
■ For crepes: Combine flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt in bowl. In separate bowl, whisk eggs, yolk, milk and 3 tablespoons melted butter. Whisk egg mixture into flour mixture. Stir 1 minute. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Heat 6-inch skillet over medium heat. Brush with butter. Ladle 2 ounces batter into skillet. Swirl to coat bottom. Cook until almost dry, flip and cook 1 minute. Place on parchment and repeat.
■ Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
■ For filling: Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add egg and sugar. Beat until smooth. Add zest, juice, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Beat until mixed.
■ Spray 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Place 3 tablespoons filling down center of each crepe, leaving 1/2 inch at ends. Fold in ends, then sides. Place seam-side down in dish. Cover with foil and bake 10 minutes.
■ To serve: Place warm crepes on platter. Top with sauce and cranberries.

Robert St. John is a restaurateur, author, enthusiastic traveler, and world-class eater from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He has spent four decades in the restaurant industry, written 13 books, and written a syndicated newspaper column for more than 24 years. Read more about Robert at robertstjohn.com.