[6] While attending his graduate program he worked at a local Italian restaurant in Chapel Hill; he decided to switch from religious to culinary studies and enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York.

[4] While attending CIA, Fleer worked as the personal chef for actress Mary Tyler Moore.

[6][7] His first job after finishing his schooling was as an executive chef at Blackberry Farm, a luxury resort in Walland, Tennessee, where he grew in reputation for his Southern cuisine.

[6] Benne on Eagle was established in December 2018 in an area known as "the Block" in Asheville, and was once a flourishing African-American community known for Appalachian cuisine.

[8] The restaurant was designed to celebrate Black cuisine, and Fleer who is White, hired chef Hanan Shabazz, and chef de cuisine Ashleigh Shanti who are Black to help him accomplish this goal.