SheeFood

Bouncing Back with a Little Help From Friends

“No way!” I shrieked as I watched a feature on the NBC Nightly News this week about Nick’s Pizza & Pub (Chicago) about ready to shut down—a victim of the down economy. Just a few months ago, I interviewed the owner, Nick Sarillo, for a QSR magazine article, “5 Brands You Should Know About (But Don’t).” His was my favorite interview of the five. Nick is so passionate about what he does, his employees’ success and helping the community. He has a fiscal huddle with his young employees weekly and goes over the profit-and-loss statement with them, allowing them the opportunity to sign up for and own a “line item” in either column, devising a plan to control the cost or profit.

Beyond that, here’s what I said of Nick’s Pizza in the QSR article:

The company’s marketing is built solely on giving to community fundraisers in which 15 percent of a day’s sales go to the selected cause. It could be to help a school band, hockey team, Boy Scouts, or, recently, it was to raise money for a local family’s medical need. The group to benefit from the donation often hands out fliers, calls the newspaper, or promotes through social media, so the restaurant itself never has to advertise.

For its 2010 efforts, the company received the National Restaurant Association (NRA) Illinois state Restaurant Neighbor Award in the small business category.

So intriguing and successful are his ways that Nick was asked to speak at a workshop session at the NRA show in May (“Wake Up! It Ain’t the Marketing, It’s the Experience!”). I was one of the mob turned away at the door because the room was already full.

And so, now he was featured on the national news, not because he was about ready to shut down, but because he reached out to the community and asked them to please come in and eat there and save the business. And they did. Anyone who has ever had a piece of Nick’s Pizza & Pub is loyal and they came to the rescue.

It’s a great testament to what happens when a restaurant builds a caring community culture.

It actually reminds me of a Bible verse: Luke 6:38  Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. 

Tell me what you think.

Jody

A Salute to Coffee Moments

On vacation this past week, I discovered the glue that holds Canada together. It’s not a unified government, nor is it ice hockey. It’s not a celebrity or a television station. It is clearly Tim Hortons—the Starbucks of Canada. Not that they don’t have Starbucks. But Tim Hortons is their coffee/donut chain (on every corner and discussed among TV news anchors to fill conversation). Life without Tim Hortons would be unlivable in Canada.

And so, seated on the airplane at the end of my Canada vacation, I noticed the flight attendant checking seat belts and closing overhead bins was clutching her cup of Tim Hortons. Odd. Wouldn’t you need both hands to do that job? Not in that moment. A bin wouldn’t close as she wrestled with a piece of over-sized luggage one-handed. She was not forfeiting her Tim Hortons for a lousy carry-on. Rather, a passenger unbuckled, popped up and jammed the suitcase further back to close the bin. Job done.

To be fair, a cup of coffee eclipses reason for many people. The cult following of Starbucks is equally or more so matched at Tim Hortons. I conclude that it’s “the moment” that coffee lovers must have. The U.S. and Canada clearly have cultivated a coffee culture.

That culture goes beyond Starbucks and Tim Hortons. An independent coffee shop can be just as compelling. And it’s not just the coffee takeaway; it’s the experience inside the shop—the smell, the comfy seats, the feeling of comradery, the topic of conversation. This “third place” experience between home and work can be just as motivating to the restaurateur as to the patron.

And so, I encourage chefs who are passionate about coffee to consider trading the fine-dining restaurant in for an independent coffeehouse. Build it and they will come. Include a small, thoughtful menu based on the location, the clientele and the time of day you anticipate the most business. Put yourself in charge of “the moment” in your area.

For a more thorough treatise on this idea, go to the right under “my articles” and click on “Brew Your Ideals,” an article I wrote for the October 2011 issue of National Culinary Review magazine. Then let me know what you think.

Jody