Donte Cleaves

Some encounters pass without a trace.

Others stay with you.

This one began on a flight, in seat 19A.

There was nothing remarkable about the setting—just another boarding, another seat assignment, another quiet stretch of time between departure and arrival. But Donte Cleaves does not arrive as background.

He opened with a simple question:
“Let’s get comfortable… you good?”

It was disarming in the best way—genuine, unforced, and generous. The kind of question that makes space instead of filling it.

What followed was not small talk. It was alignment.

Donte—known as The Black Fry Guy—is a businessman and serial entrepreneur, but titles only capture a fraction of who he is. What defines him is his presence. He listens with intention. He speaks with clarity. He carries himself in a way that makes people feel seen without effort.

Some people adjust to a room.
Others shape it.

He is the latter.

And at the center of who he is, beyond the ventures and the visibility, is devotion. He speaks with deep love about his wife, Kuiana, about their children, and about his mother—grounded in a sense of responsibility, pride, and care that is felt as much as it is spoken. It is clear that everything he is building is anchored in who he is building it for.

Midway through the flight, the connection revealed another layer. His wife, a fellow Maplewood Panther, shared ties to my Sue. Out of all the flights, all the possible seat assignments, the overlap felt less like coincidence and more like quiet design.

But what stayed with me most was not the conversation.

It was his prayer.

There was no performance in it. No requests for more. Just gratitude—for God’s presence, for his family, for the people entrusted to him, and for the responsibility of leaving something meaningful behind. It was steady. Grounded. Certain.

It offered a different definition of success—one not measured by accumulation, but by what is poured into others.

Since that flight, what began as a brief exchange has become something lasting. A stranger, for a moment, has become a brother in every way that matters.

Through his work as The Black Fry Guy, Donte is building more than a brand. He is cultivating community—one connection, one experience, one intentional moment at a time. He represents a kind of entrepreneurship where excellence and humility coexist, and where character carries more weight than recognition.

At BeeSeatedHere, the table has never been only about food. It is about connection. It is about the people who are placed in our lives with intention—those who remind us, sometimes unexpectedly, what still matters.

Donte has a seat here.

Because every now and then, the right person finds you at the right time—

and all you had to do was take your seat.