"Yeah," Spike said, standing in the dining room of Fraunces Tavern on Pearl St. in New York. "This place has been in continuous operation since 1762. That's 252 years, if I'm not mistaken." Now 75 years old, Spike Walton had spent almost 60 years working as a Sous Chef in New York's great hotel kitchens. "I've eaten here many times over the years. I've made it my business to eat in all of New York's legendary restaurants."
RESTAURANT CAPITAL
We all blame those nasty bankers for the 2008 recession. “They’re always up to some kind of swindle, and they dupe us poor innocents into all kinds of self-destructive behavior.” Restaurateurs usually attach negative emotion to the finance function. They are “intimidated” by the banker, “resent” the needed but unwanted financial partner, “loath” the loan shark, and “despise” the cold-hearted landlord.
If we wish to become successful small business entrepreneurs, we must grow beyond our negative beliefs about borrowing and lending. We must take destructive emotions out of the financing function and go about building our businesses based on positive beliefs about capital and how it can be used effectively to achieve our goals.
YOU ALREADY HAVE ALL THE CAPITAL YOU NEED:
Rehab Blog: SOMETHING
Louis the XIV is a fifty-eight year old overweight skin-head biker with tats from head to toe who favors gold chains. That’s why they call him, Louis the XIV. He’s my sponsor.
I met him at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in 1995, my first day out of rehab.
“What are you lookin at?” was the first thing he said to me.
I was only 16 years old and wearing khakis and a polo shirt. “I’m looking for a sponsor,” I replied in a shaky voice. “They told me I needed to find a sponsor right away.”
URBAN ROOFTOP GARDENING: ARTICLE
Alice Waters opened her legendary restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California in 1971.
Consistently ranked among the World's 50 Best Restaurants, Chez Panisse is famous for its
organic, locally-grown ingredients and for pioneering California cuisine.
While studying in France, Alice lived at the bottom of a market street where she shopped for
local produce and prepared simple fresh foods in order to enhance the experience of the table.
She eventually returned to California and opened Chez Panisse. Realizing the difficulty in
sourcing fresh, high-quality ingredients, Waters began building a network of local farmers,
artisans, and producers.
WHEN TO TURN COMPETITORS INTO ALLIES
Too often we think of our competitors as enemies we must keep at arm’s length. Primitive
instincts cause us to put distance between ourselves and competitors we see as a threat to our
business. Modern business thinking has evolved beyond instinct to an understanding that in
certain circumstances our competitor can often be our ally.
Product synergies are usually overlooked by competitors. Take a more careful look
TOP 3 SKILLS OF GREAT RESTAURANT MANAGERS
Howard Johnson, the legendary founder of the Howard Johnson's restaurant chain, visited one of his restaurants every day. Even after the chain numbered more than one thousand restaurants, Mr. Johnson never spent an entire day in his headquarters office. Asked how he could find the time to visit restaurants daily, he replied, "Because that's where the customer is. I want to see what he sees, meet the servers, eat the same food and sit where he sits. You can't run a restaurant if you don't know your customer."
A TALE OF TWO BUSBOYS
Pablo is quick; quick to smile…quick to volunteer…quick to be of service…quick to do what needs to be done. He is only a busboy, but you can see that he believes being of service is his opportunity to succeed. Everybody loves Pablo. The wait staff is always eager to work with him and regular customers strain to catch his attention and enjoy the smile he instantly bestows. You can feel his energy in the dining room whenever he is scheduled to work. This humble busboy has become one of our restaurant’s main attractions.
Tony knows his business. He is not just working his way through college as a bus-boy; he is planning to become the restaurant’s manager when he graduates.
HOW TO IMPROVE RESTAURANT PROFITABILITY
BENCHMARK eatery: BLOG POST
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Appearing at: THE COUNTY BOWL - Saturday, September 20, 2014, 7:00 P.M.
Do not miss the return to the County Bowl of the greatest living legends of rock and roll, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash. It is impossible to exaggerate the historic and cultural significance of this iconic rock and roll trio.
They bridged the '60s and '70s with their songs about peace and love in a time of war.
ON THE ALLEY: BLOG POST
OUT BACK...HAVING A SMOKE
This is only our opinion, but it's high time somebody said something.
THE ISSUE: The rich get rich but the poor get poorer. The Clark estate down on East Beach just past the boathouse was deeded by the eccentric Huguette Clark to Lori Ann Sellers on a page Ms. Clark tore out of the book she was reading at the time. Sellers claims the old lady took a liking to her during a chance encounter back in 1985 and wrote "Cabrillo mansion yours!" on the page, signed it, and gave it to her.