Objective #4 for 2010

Our fourth objective for 2010:

• To create a place our employees love to work

Restaurants are notorious for short-term, short-time, transient staff that turn over as often as flapjacks on the griddle of a Pancake Man fundraiser. Part has to do with the nature of the work, appealing to a young person who needs a job to fund other more stimulating interest, but I would be willing to bet that more often than not, staff leave a job because it’s just not a fun place to be.

There is a dermis of self interest in this objective, especially in the early days when I spent more waking hours in the kitchen than in my own home. If I am going to devote that much time to my labors, it better be a destination I look forward to showing up. If I dread getting out of bed in the morning to go to work at a place I created, I have become The Man for myself. I have written my own death sentence.

There should be more to any job than a two week paycheck. There needs to be camaraderie. There needs to be motivation to learn and grow in skill and knowledge. There should always be a chance to hear feedback, and always more positive than negative. Every good place of employment will seek to provide these elements and more. Productivity will be less of an issue to scrutinize when employees like what they do, and the people with whom they are doing the work.

It’s an honor to see my staff come back in on their days off, meeting with another coworker, to have a bite to eat. This says two things to me. One: “I still like eating the food I make and serve other people.” Two: “I don’t hate this place.” It does help that they can eat at a discount, but a markdown alone doesn’t go very far in changing an unenthusiastic attitude or opinion very effectively.

Ken Blanchard wrote an important thought years ago that has stuck with me from his little book on management titled, The One Minute Manager. He says “catch somebody doing something right.” Most employees only hear from the boss when they screw up, not when they’ve done a good job. I like to call it “seeing people.” I saw how you scrubbed cleaned the floor in the dishroom…I saw how you handled that customer with grace and kindness…I saw how you stayed late and got the rest of that prep done…Thank you. I appreciate it.

I have a great staff. They are the reason I can take today off without fret. They are the reason you had great bread and great soup at lunch. My staff facilitated the experience you had with your friends last Friday night. They are the reason you want to sit at the bar so you can chat with them and see the action up close.

I know I don’t say it enough, but thank you, Staff. We have a great place to work.

Making Pasta from Scratch

In defense of scratch made components, here is a visual explanation of why we are committed to making as much of what we serve from raw ingredients. It is a lesson in craftsmanship, which I believe is often times confused with artisanal. Pardon my beef with semantics, but here's how I keep the two clear in my mind.

Art is the act of creating something new, whereas Craft is the act of creating something the same. Art has its focus on pushing boundaries and limits. Craft, on the other hand, knows the importance of restriction for the sake of a desirable end game. Art and Craft both have their place in the kitchen, and one must know their post times in order to bring them into the right race on schedule

Yet both have their strengths that can easily morph into a liability. The Name of Art can be used as an excuse for hiding a lazy streak. When a chef keeps saying he’s trying to do something out of the box, examine the outcome carefully. He could easily just be flying by the seat of his pants and not know what the hell he is doing. Art deserves better that spontaneous regurgitation and calling it good.

{pasta dough}

On the other hand, the Achilles Heel for the Craftsman can be the fear of trying anything new. Sticking to the same tried and true method is what makes the Craftsman who he is, but in the end, the food might get boring without an occasional shot of creativity.

{pasta rack}

This being said, making pasta is a craft. It is not an art. You want to reproduce the exact same quality, texture and taste from the manipulation of four otherwise basic ingredients every single time. Not much wiggle room at the bench here. You apply the same techniques over and over again, and therein lay a level of comfort in its reliability.

{pasta on plate}{ring mold}

What the Chef does on his day off

{click for photo}If you are thinking of ownng your own business, don't do anything until you have read and understand the E-Myth. Nothing prepared me better for realizing that being a chef is more than just cooking. Some guys are able to hire the tedious, yet crucial tasks out, but until you can get to that point, be prepared to bust it at the spreadsheet as well as the cutting board.

Objective #3 for 2010

A third objective for 2010:

• To attract and maintain a loyal customer base via WOM

The busier you get, the more selective you need to be when it comes to anything that demands your time. This objective gives me reason to just say no to countless sales calls for marketing gimmicks. I tell the caller that we are committed to marketing our business through word of mouth and would not be interested in their product. When they push back with their scripted, conditioned response, I ask them what it's like to have a job trying to sell me something I don’t need. The awkward conversation usually ends right after that.

I will admit that am skeptical about the effectiveness of most media advertising. I can’t tell you the last item I purchased because of a commercial on TV. If anything, I tend to be cynical about how products are presented and find ads more of a means of humor and mockery than useful information. We all look forward to the spots shown during the Super Bowl, but do they translate into anything more than watercooler talk on Monday?

We have stuck to a plan to market our business through people with whom we have some connection rather than through a massively anonymous approach. We manage three primary means of dispensing information to people who request it, and believe if they are inquiring, we’ve already established interest. A person can easily unsubscribe at their will, so if they want to stop getting information from us, it can cease immediately, unlike the mountains of junk paper mail I send right through the shredder and into the recycle bin as soon as I retrieve it from the mailbox at home.

Call it self-serving or just a good business, but we like partnering with groups for events that have a mutual benefit. We’ve hosted new beer release parties for the Modern Monks Brewing Consortium. Since they sell us beer and we sell it to you, we tap both networks to create a win/win scenario. In two weeks we are having a Wine & Food Tasting for Woodsmoke, an African themed business started by local entrepreneur Sean Coetzee. As we take opportunity to serve his fans, they may in turn become our fans, as well.

In our technologically fueled Information Age, we suffer from a glut of data that is absolutely useless. As a business man, I want my marketing to be concise, useful and to the point. I don’t want to waste your time, because I don’t want to waste mine, either.

Objective #2 for 2010

A second objective we are setting for ourselves this year:

• To be a prominent reference point for Lincoln’s culinary opinion.

If experts were to do a story about role of sports in Lincoln, to whom are they going to speak? Obviously the Husker football program is going to play a major part in telling that story. So if a food writer, researcher or other seeker of information wants to know what is developing in our town in the area of food and its enjoyment, I would like to find myself on the top of the list of choices.

I love to write and talk about my business, but if I can get you to speak about it for me, I’ve multiplied my efforts. The more people I can have telling others to come eat at my restaurant, the more energy I can spend on making certain the experience is congruent with the story that is being told.

We have set a goal of achieving some kind of media recognition beyond Nebraska and outside the Midwest. If we can continue to build a broad reputation for what we are doing, it only helps reinforce in our team the importance of our work.

With the Internet, any customer is a potential international food critic. Anyone can go online to any number of travel or food related web sites and leave a review of their experience at bread&cup, either favorable or not. I do a Google search of these sites regularly to find out what is being said and share my findings with my staff. I remind them regularly, that the guest at table 51 could be from Food and Wine or from Beatrice; that guest still has access to a world wide pen.

My chef blog is another point of reference for outsiders to learn more about what we are doing, and the why’s behind our means and methods. I enjoy writing as much as I do cooking, and so I have committed to keep regular posts here.

But the seduction of getting noticed can never supersede the pleasures of doing what we do on a day to day basis that is drawing the attention in the first place. Our work of creating an outstanding environment for conversation and reflection with the service of simple food and drink, with as much sourced locally as possible, is foremost. A positive review is the icing, not the cake.

The Kitchen and the Table

For every business leader, there comes a time when a sober assessment of one’s business is crucial in determining the next step to take. For many eating establishments in Lincoln in the last two years, that step has been to get out of the game. Gratefully for us, considering that direction is not necessary. We need to make sure we are taking steps forward, and thus, how far?

It is not a stretch for me to say that the approach we are taking to food and drink is unique not only to Lincoln but to many of our out of town guests who tell me they wished they had a place like ours in their city. And while I would like to take credit for some new and original idea, the concept of bread&cup is merely based on the outcome of this simple inquiry; what do people really want? We had a prediction, rolled the dice and are now happy that our number keeps coming up.

Which is more satisfying, to eat your dinner out of a bag that was handed to you through your driver’s side window? Or to sit down to a scratch made meal made by a face that will tell you what you are eating and that tastes far superior? And if your objection says, “But I’m in a hurry, man!” again, it reinforces my point, you want convenience over substance and you are willing to organize your lifestyle around that desire. Other companies may not, but my business plan takes the latter into consideration first.

Occasionally, when a customer likes what they see in our restaurant, I explain it this way, I tell them we are trying to shorten the distance between the kitchen and the table. This is what happens at home, and why the kitchen always becomes the most crowded room during a party. It’s why my kitchen is open, and why I try my best to come out and visit with you at the table. In shrinking that distance, it reconnects you to something that makes you human.

The metaphor of reducing the distance between the kitchen and the table is another way of saying that we believe what people really want is to reconnect the stomach with the soul. Ours has been severed by the Knife of Speed and Convenience, and we hope to sew it back together with the timeless thread of Conversation and Reflection. When I write, “We’ll set the table; you bring the conversation.” our implied meaning is that verbal human exchange over the practice of consuming simple food and drink will nourish far more than an empty stomach.

Objective #1 for 2010

I’ve set four objectives for our restaurant in 2010. I am a firm believer in the “aim at nothing; hit it every time” school of thought. I am not educated or experienced in the finer points of business management, but I am convinced of the fact that a simple plan can be as effective, if not more so, than a long, detailed one. I post these as an exercise in clarity for my sake, but I hope you will enjoy seeing behind the scenes of what it takes to make a restaurant successful.

1. To maintain an outstanding environment for conversation and reflection

An online poll by a local marketing firm posted last year showed that we have achieved this mark. Over 80% of the respondents said they like coming to our place for conversation. Food and interaction go hand in hand. The majority of people who eat at our place do so with someone else. But eating alone is nothing to be ashamed of. We have many regulars who come in with their book, journal, or just a full mind needing a place to untangle the thoughts, and a little food and a glass of wine assists in the process.

Decisions we’ve made recently were run through this filter. We added a small, hot breakfast menu to provide another reason for people to utilize our spot in the mornings for a meeting, mentoring session or a quiet place to start the day. We are trying to boost awareness of Wine After 9, an evening wine and dessert feature available after our dinner service. Where do you go after the movie, the play or when you’re just not ready for the date to end, and you don’t want caffeine and you don’t want the noise of the college bars? We want to be top on your list of choices.

This year we are also contemplating adding a Happy Hour with food that reflects our value for simplicity. Our biggest question now is finding out if there is a market for it? Do people in Lincoln want more out of their Happy Hour than cheap bar food and penny pitchers of beer? Some have said to build it and they will come, but I need a little more info first.

The reason we put conversation before food is because people still go out to eat and meet to chat at places that serve food of marginal quality. Ours is not to try and change the culture first, but to flow with our culture and provide a superior product, one that may garner attention and lead to an epiphany that there is a better way to eat.

Keep us in mind. We feed your need for conversation, all day long.