Time Is On Their Side
Veteran restaurateurs reveal their secrets of longevity and share advice and future plans.
Monica Velgos reports.
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Aureole—20 years
Charlie Palmer, New York City
Secret to your longevity? Progressing, rather than changing. Always having the attitude that we can do it better, even after all these years.
Do you think we're facing tough times? I don't worry about not having customers. But it will be more important than ever to provide a great experience for somebody because they may be eating out less than they did before, so you want to be the one they come to.
Best advice? Be financially responsible, give good value, and provide incredible food and service. Also, develop great people and let them know they can do whatever they want to if they put their mind to it. I'm lucky to be surrounded by the people that I have with us.
Next on your plate? We're moving Aureole to One Bryant Park in the spring. We'll have a casual barroom where everything is à la carte, a more formal 55 seat dining room with a prix-fixe tasting menu, and a private room like we never had in the brownstone. We signed a 25 year lease. I intend to be there 25 years, believe me.
White Dog Cafe—25 years
Judy Wicks, Philadelphia
Secret to your longevity? I own the property and live upstairs! We host events about sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, foreign policy, and community arts. We provide a place where people can connect to their values. We're known for caring and being engaged in the community. We're always building our model, growing deeply rather than broadly.
Do you think we're facing tough times? Things are going to change forever, it's not just a recession. Switching from an oil-based economy to alternative fuel energy will take us years to get on our feet.
Best advice? Buy from local farmers. Operate in an environmentally sustainable way. It's economical: my solar panels for heating water save me $800 to $1,000 a month.
Next on your plate? Through our nonprofit, White Dog Community Enterprises, we'll open a youth-run all-organic restaurant in a low-income community with its own demonstration garden. I'm also working on my exit strategy, to turn the cafe over to the next generation of leaders I'm cultivating there. My next 25 years I want to dedicate to the Local Living Economies movement. When we're entering our senior years, we should teach what we've learned.
Bottega—20 years
Frank Stitt, Birmingham, Alabama
Secret to your longevity? We focus on the regions of Italy and offer a level of sophistication in food, wine, and service that's unusual for this part of Alabama. It appeals to the big medical community and the financial people here.
Greatest challenge? Getting people to try our more unusual dishes. I'll even take the rabbit-braising pan into the dining room with its aromas and show people—it gets them curious. And my wife, who's an artist and runs the front of the house, sometimes says "we need perfume," so we cook garlic in olive oil with thyme, rosemary, and lemon and get it smoky and go around the room with it during service.
Luckiest break? Important national writers like Johnny Apple and John Mariani found us early on. And winemaker Jim Clendenen from Au Bon Climat has made our house Pinot Noir and Bottega "Southside Red" for 15 years.
Next on your plate? The Bottega cookbook comes out January 1. We'll be putting one of those Ferrari-red Berkel salumi slicers on the bar. There's something in me that would still like to open a steakhouse. My wife would like to do the greatest taco stand ever.
Ray's Boathouse Restaurant and Cafe—35 years
Russ Wohlers, Seattle
Secret to your longevity? Our ability to adapt and take risks to offer new exciting things.
Greatest challenge? Hiring talented people and finding ways to measure the success of our efforts. If you can measure it, you can manage it.
One way you measure success? January is slow, so we give guests who dine with us in December a gift certificate redeemable for January (valued at $15 in the cafe and $30 in the restaurant). We know how many we give out and how many are returned. A space on the certificate captures contact information and comments.
Luckiest break? We found great partners and people to help develop the concept and restaurant. And we got great advice from our fire and casualty insurance agents after the fire that burned Ray's to the water on May 26, 1987.
Best advice? Understand your market and do a better job than anyone else at providing the whole package. Each encounter a guest has with your staff and your product must be impressive.
Next on your plate? We've just redesigned our logos and Web site with "timelessness" in mind.
Casablanca—30 years
Sari Abul-Jubein, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Secret to your longevity? In Cambridge, faculty comes and goes, corporations come and go. So even though I'm a neighborhood restaurant in Harvard Square, my customer is a changing customer. I immerse myself in food and restaurant trends and modify Casablanca as times change.
Greatest challenge? In 1990, our lease ended and the landlord renovated. We were invited back, but I couldn't get a loan. I had to try and raise money during an economic downturn. Fortunately, 37 investors came to the rescue with $280,000 and kept the Casablanca tradition going.
Luckiest break? I picked the right staff. I'm only on my fourth chef since 1991. Our current chef, Camillo Diaz, worked his way up under Ana Sortun and Ruth Ann Adams.
Best advice? To keep the love affair with this business, don't lose your creativity. Otherwise, it becomes a machine that you want to keep well oiled but there is nothing human about it, nothing soft about it at all.
Next on your plate? The 30 year celebration reminded me that I need new ways—with the Internet and such—to discover newer, younger customers as the older ones move out of the core crowd.
Upperline—25 years
JoAnn Clevenger, New Orleans
Secret to your longevity? Our staff, first, and then passion mixed with persistence. Having a core identity and evolving from there. And understanding the "restorative" meaning behind "restaurant": making sure people feel good after the hassles of the day. It isn't the actual food but how people feel during the experience of sitting in the restaurant.
Greatest challenge? We reopened 6 1/2 weeks after Katrina. It was very, very difficult. We had to pull the carpets up, scrape the boards clean, and throw out tons of spoiled, toxic food ourselves—there was no one to hire to get it out. We opened with only four employees, 40 seats, and four entrées. But the dishes were all pre-Katrina—that was important. And we had tablecloths. And people just coming back to their homes saw there were no banks, no schools, no grocery stores. When they came to Upperline they were in tears, hugging each other and seeing their neighbors for the first time after the storm. Of all the things I've done in my life, that was the most gratifying. It was the biggest challenge, the biggest sadness, but it also gave us a way of paying back.
Your best strategies for boosting business? Create events, like theme dinners, to keep your guests connected and so they can reaffirm their interests. Keep them authentic, with guest excitement in mind, or else it's just a marketing gimmick. Keep track of guest data. For small restaurants, GuestBridge software is wonderful.
Next on your plate? Update the Web site, and keep looking at art and food promos—people who buy art still go out to dinner often. Redo the lists I give guests of my "favorite" New Orleans things—favorite views, gardens to drive by, restaurants, bookstores, etc.
Roy's—20 years
Roy Yamaguchi, Honolulu
Secret to your longevity? Our culture. Our ohana (staff). Aloha service, which is our commitment to taking care of our guests. Our chefs, who are creative and passionate while staying true to Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine.
Luckiest break? I was in Hawaii when locally sourced and produced food gained importance, and I met passionate people in our industry who believed in Hawaiian Regional Cuisine. I developed lasting friendships with chefs such as Alan Wong and Hiroshi Fukui.
Do you think we're facing tough times? I'd say "challenging" more than "tough." We'll do what we've always done: work smart, work hard, give value, be compelling and differentiating, watch finances, and treat our guests as we would treat our own families, so they'll keep us on the top of their lists.
Best advice? Stay focused, believe in yourself, surround yourself with passionate people, and listen.
Next on your plate? I just launched my first line of retail products through my new company, Da Farmer and the Chef Hawaii, and will be adding products all the time.
Arrows—20 years
Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier, Ogunquit, Maine
Secret to your longevity? Every year we take the money we've made and put it back into the restaurant. Regular guests enjoy how Arrows becomes more beautiful, special, and interesting.
Greatest challenge? There are 40,000 people in our area on any given day in summer compared to 500 to 800 in the winter. We have to budget very carefully and find ways to keep our dedicated staff in the off season. Our second restaurant, MC Perkins Cove, helps with that.
Your best strategies for boosting business? We're always thinking of ways to give our customers another reason to visit, with a Titanic dinner, say, or an alfresco garden harvest dinner. On Father's Day we were booked solid with a waiting list by turning Arrows into a steakhouse for the night. We keep calendars of prior years and try to book weddings or events in advance when we know we'll be less busy, like the first Friday in May.
Next on your plate? Running Summer Winter, our third restaurant, which opened in November in the Boston Marriott Burlington in Massachusetts. It features produce from our on-premise, four-season greenhouse. A lot of our Arrows customers live in that area. Our second book, Maine Classics, will have straightforward, very simple recipes divided into land, sea, farm, root cellar, woods, etc.
Mustards Grill—25 years
Cindy Pawlcyn, Yountville, California
Secret to your longevity? Consistency, friendliness, and a comfortable atmosphere. We give good quality for good value.
Greatest challenge? We had to replace our septic system. It was a huge political nightmare. I thought about throwing in the towel. We had to reduce our restaurant from 90 seats to 60. I'll be paying it off for the next 25 years, but the restaurant continues to do well. We're going along fine.
Luckiest break? Every day, at 11:25, I wonder if anybody's gonna come in here, and so far they've been coming on a regular basis. I don't take it for granted. I appreciate them every single time they walk in the door.
Do you think we're facing tough times? During downturns, I find that people don't go to Europe as much, so they'll come to the wine country. Our winter business in a bad economy is very slow, though. We trim shift hours across the board to keep all our people going. Luckily, our menu is incredibly flexible.
Next on your plate? I want to do a fun inexpensive cafe for breakfast and lunch.
Icarus—30 years
Chris Douglass, Boston
Secret to your longevity? We try to remain current and relevant, but we try to avoid trends. We've also been blessed with a dedicated staff. My key personnel average eight to 10 years.
Greatest challenge? Keeping things fresh in the restaurant as my infrastructure ages.
Do you think we're facing tough times? Rising fuel costs influence everything, so we have to sharpen our pencils, look at labor and costs of goods more carefully. But in general, the way I see people want to dine now is more frequently and less formally. There seem to be fewer temples of cuisine than there were 20 years ago.
Next on your plate? With Icarus at 30 years, I'm at a bit of a crossroads, at a point of trying to consider its future. In July I opened Tavolo, one block from Ashmont Grill in Dorchester. It's a casual Italian with low prices, rustic tabletops, full bar and lounge, and pizzas, pastas, panini. I'm expecting big take-out business there.
