Kimpton Armory Hotel, Executive Chef Shane Graybeal
Executive Chef Shane Graybeal hails from a small town in the mountains of North Carolina, so making the move to Bozeman was a natural fit. Graybeal joined the Kimpton Armory team to oversee all property dining outlets including Fielding’s, Sky Shed, and Tune Up. In his day-to-day focus as Executive Chef at Fielding’s, the namesake of Fred Fielding Willson, the architect of the original Bozeman Armory building, Graybeal is committed to serving locally sourced meals and a menu that rotates with the seasons and reflects the spaces and the ranchers that surround him in Montana.
Graybeal got his start in the kitchen when he was just 15 years old and was working in a pizza shop that was housed in his grandparents’ house in Staggs Creek, North Carolina. He was immediately drawn to the art of cooking and the restaurant industry vibe and quickly found out that he was a natural host, keeping the kitchen open late and visiting with the regulars. After high school, he attended Johnson & Wales University and received a degree in culinary arts. Upon graduation, he worked in fine dining in Charleston and then at 25 years old, he was asked to open the kitchen at a luxury, destination resort in Virginia.
Graybeal first joined the Kimpton family in 2010 where he worked as a sous chef at Firefly, located inside Kimpton’s Hotel Madera in the prestigious Dupont Circle neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Since then, he’s led kitchen teams in Chicago at BIN 36 in the West Loop, at Sable at the Palomar, another Kimpton property, and at the Royal Grocer, a Windy City favorite. He then went on to build his culinary career at fine dining outlets in Michigan and North Carolina. After spending his honeymoon in the nearby town of Livingston, Graybeal quickly realized that Montana offers a vibrant food scene, and he joined the team at the Kimpton Armory in the spring of 2023. Graybeal is excited to execute a locally driven menu that inspires both locals and visitors alike. He’s proud to be leading the team at Fielding’s and is honored to be on staff at a new Kimpton property. When he's not in the kitchen, Graybeal can be found hunting with his bow in the mountains in southwest Montana.