Trust Your Partners, But Verify

Because we opened in such a rush, we didn’t have a POS system for the first couple weeks. Pierre lent us his iPad that he used for his businesses, already set up to accept credit cards and everything. He said he set up a separate account for the cafe and showed us how to use it for our sales. It wasn’t as good as a cash register when you have a line of customers, but it worked.

Choosing a POS system was easy. HarborTouch was the only one to call us back. Getting set up is straight forward but it takes some time to add your entire menu, even when it’s small. Then you have to set up your employees and train everyone. It was a good system and did what we needed. It’s amazing how many companies do not respond to your inquiries, but hound you months later to switch to their system – meaning they expect you to switch out your system, reenter all of your menu, retrain your people, and somehow merge your sales figures for the year.

We returned Pierre’s iPad, but didn’t see a deposit from him. I checked several times and finally asked him when we were going to get our credit card money that had gone through his iPad for the first couple weeks. After a couple reminders, I finally saw a deposit for $900+. It seemed like we had made more money than that, but every time I asked Pierre, he said that was it. He never showed us the figures in the iPad. He never gave us a report. He never gave us anything to verify this number. Was it correct? I have no way to know. I do know we made more credit card sales than that on every single tournament weekend after that. For us to make less than $1,000 in credit card sales for 2 weeks of business including a tournament weekend feels wrong.

My big mistake here was not seeing the writing on the wall and leaving the business right then. If your partner has to be reminded to deposit money into the checking account and doesn’t provide verification of the figures, there is something very wrong and you should cut your losses and get out. Run away as fast as you can.

Some Employees Need to Go

Even though I’ve been fat most of my life, I’ve always been very active. I used to work full-time, and then go home and participate in all sorts of activities – tennis, softball, bowling, camping, horseback riding, etc. I was only home long enough to eat and sleep. It was great!

So, it’s no surprise I thought I could open a restaurant. I’m no stranger to hard work and was ready to give it my all. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize my all was somewhat less than it used to be. Getting old is hell. Your brain feels the same as when you were younger, but your body takes hard work a little more personally and punishes you if you do too much. I worked all day, 7 days a week. Some nights, I could hardly walk when I got home and still hurt when I got up in the morning.

We hired people of all ages and in the beginning we paid them way too much. The pay rates were set by Pierre and Robbie and I trusted them to know. With more experience, I learned our pay was way out of line. And the people we overpaid didn’t even appreciate it. Some that we overpaid even stole from us. I could tell you a million stories about employees. Once I figured it out, the starting pay was a lot lower. It was still good money compared to other restaurants because we paid regular minimum wage. Customers don’t tend to tip in a snack bar type environment and we compensated for that.

I lost 35 pounds while eating pizza everyday. So you know I was literally working my a** off. I needed employees I could trust to give me time off, as a snack bar can often be run easily by 1 person. It was very hard to find people like that and sadly I trusted the wrong person more than once. And I kept employees longer than I should have just so I could go home. My recommendation is to let people go as soon as you see they are not going to respond to your personal improvement talks. Keep everything in writing and count the money and inventory often.

Do Your Employees Understand the Purpose of Plastic Gloves?

At the time we opened the cafe, Texas regulations said you could wash your hands and put on fresh plastic gloves or you could wash your hands twice and prepare the food with your bare hands. That may have changed in the last couple years, to push people to always wear plastic gloves when preparing food for public consumption. Sadly, that doesn’t insure that your food is protected.

I am shocked at how many people don’t understand why they are wearing gloves. If you watch closely, you will see what I mean. Some food handlers treat the gloves more like the gloves are protecting their hands rather than the food. As instructed, they wash their hands and put on their gloves. (Sometimes, they don’t even wash their hands they just put on the gloves.) Then they prepare some food, put their hands on their hips (contaminating the gloves), lean on the wall with their hand (contaminating the gloves), brush their hair back (contaminating the gloves), handle your money (contaminating the gloves), and go back to prepare more food still wearing the same gloves. I have seen this a number of times at national sandwich chains. Even the Hunt Brothers men who trained us, did these things.

You must instill the importance of protecting the food when you’re training your food handlers. If your employee touches ANYTHING other than food or sanitized dishes, no matter how briefly, they MUST CHANGE INTO FRESH GLOVES! Often, you have to watch them closely and start pointing out these movements as they do them, as many people are unaware of these subconscious habits or unaware of the significance of these habits.

Of all the mistakes I made in my restaurant endeavor, I believe this was a good catch on my part. A small but very important success. It’s one thing our restaurant definitely did right!

We Appreciate Your Support!

While the figure skaters didn’t seem to care if there was a food source in the building, there were lots of hockey families who totally embraced us. The after-school crowd patronized us frequently. It was so handy for them to come straight from school and eat while at the rink. Many families were there from 3pm – 8pm (or later), so it was great to be able to feed their children at the exact time it fit into their child’s hockey schedule. We got tons of compliments on our menu. Many families are trying to reduce the amount of fat in their diets and none of our food was fried. Their kids could carbo-load on french fries and chicken nuggets all day and none of it was cooked in grease. And of course we had plenty of ketchup and ranch dressing.

We did our best to be accommodating because these families were in the rink several days a week, week after week. We had 1 or 2 families whom we carried a tab for – but that was unusual because you don’t want to get stuck with people owing you money. We had many families with multiple kids in multiple sports, so sometimes they would pay ahead for their child to have dinner while they went to the football field for another child. When their child came off the ice, we would cook their meal fresh and hot. We also had a meal deal, especially during hockey camp, 1/4 pizza, fruit cup, squirt water bottle, and a cookie for $5.25. You can’t beat that.

The hockey families kept us alive. I think they supported us because we were handy and reasonably priced, and also because many of them are business people and know a business needs a lot of support to get started and keep going. If you want a business to be there when you need them, you must support them other times as well. I will always be grateful to the people who supported us, figure skaters and hockey players alike.

People Say They Want Healthy Food and Good Prices

Pierre said he had talked to lots of people and they all said they didn’t patronize the snack bar because it was never open and the food was expensive crap. They wanted yogurt, string cheese, smoothies, and salads. I loved that. I wanted to provide decent food at a decent price. We added all those things and more. Yet, we got almost no business from the figure skaters. There were 2 or 3 parents that were wonderful to us, but the rest just ignored us.

I finally told Pierre we just couldn’t cater to the figure skating crowd. We were eating so much expired food, we had to stop carrying yogurt and string cheese completely. Even Pierre’s friends and students didn’t support us. They bought from us maybe once every 6 months. The rest of the time, they would send someone to make a Starbucks run – and there wasn’t even one close by. So much for our fancy coffee machine. They would leave and come back with fast food fried chicken nuggets and then complain about being on a diet, when we had very good chicken nuggets from the oven.

Our 8 ounce coffee was $2.25 and 6 ounce chicken nuggets was $3.25. And they didn’t have to burn gas or time to buy from us. Still, they didn’t support us. It was brutal. And I was really starting to understand the importance of a ‘No outside food or drink’ policy. We were very reasonably priced for an arena environment. And yet, people who were in the arena for hours everyday didn’t support us, not even Pierre’s closest friends.

People say they want healthy food that’s reasonably priced, but do they really? Try filling a vending machine with healthy choices and see how much you sell and how much you eat yourself. I was so disappointed that we weren’t more popular. My mistake here was believing Pierre without talking to people myself. It might not have changed anything as people often say why they don’t do something but don’t change when that obstacle is removed. But talking to people may have given me a different perspective.

A Coffee Machine Costs How Much?

You must have coffee and hot chocolate in an ice arena. We opened the restaurant so quickly Pierre brought in a Keurig so we would have hot beverages. The Keurig was ok, but we needed something better long term.

There is one major coffee machine dealer in the Dallas area. Pierre, Robbie and I took a field trip day and headed over there to look at coffee machines. On the way, Robbie found one on craigslist for $4,500.00, if I remember correctly. It was barely used and sounded like it was in good shape. We looked at similar models at the dealer, which listed for $10,000-12,000. Talk about sticker shock. It’s coffee! Well actually, it’s coffee, espresso, latte, cappuccino, and hot chocolate. I guess Starbucks really has changed the world. I don’t drink coffee so I don’t get it.

It was very important to Pierre that we offer good coffee. I’m sure a lot of the parents wanted it, too. There are some people who are so stuck on Starbucks that they will never be your customer no matter what you do, but I’m sure there are also people who just want a good cup of coffee without having to get in the car to go get it. So we decided to buy the used machine. Robbie was sent to pick it up and try to get it for $3,500 + a bunch of Dallas Stars tickets. He took the coffee machine straight to the dealer for service. When they delivered it, they taught us how to use it and how to clean it every night. I have to admit it was a fabulous machine and we made the best hot chocolate in town. I can’t speak for the coffee but we did get a lot of compliments. We did not spend $1,000 on a milk refrigerator for our coffee machine. We bought a used Red Bull fridge and drilled a hole in the side for the milk tube.

It was also our goal to attract daytime customers with good coffee and a quiet place to work with free wifi. It was Pierre’s job to get the word out that we were open during the day for lunches, parties, business meetings, and people who just want to hang out and drink coffee while working on their laptops. After all, why pay rent on a big space when you only use it about 3 hours per day. The way to make money is to utilize your space to the fullest, not just expect the parents and skaters to eat there everyday. And honestly, only small children want pizza everyday.

Pre-Contract Discussions

I would like to tell you this story has a happy ending, but it doesn’t. At least not for me. Even now as I share my story, my heart aches and I have bad dreams from all the feelings that come to the surface as I type. I still truly believe if Pierre had engaged and done the things he said, we would have been successful and made some money. You’ll hear more about that in future chapters. Right now, it’s important for me to share a conversation with Todd, the general manager of the building.

Once Robbie and I had a copy of the contract and were deciding whether to sign, I was looking at the space one more time. Todd and I were walking across the lobby towards the snack bar. He encouraged me to follow the instructions in the contract about how to pay our rent. Todd explained that it was best to mail a check to Damon at the corporate office as the contract stated, rather than handing our check to Todd as some tenants had done. Todd went on to say that paying him was an inconvenience as he would have to carry the check over to the corporate offices himself and he preferred not to do that. It made sense. Why wouldn’t you follow the instructions in the contract?

Once again, I brought up adding exclusive food rights to our contract. Todd adamantly refused. I wasn’t happy, but Pierre had assured us he had talked to a lot of skaters and they would buy from us if we carried healthier food. So I felt we could win over the skaters to buy food from us. It’s my understanding the rinks enforced ‘no outside food or drink’ when they were in charge of the snack bars, but once they contracted out the food space they didn’t want to be bothered with policing the food situation. I don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds likely. Continuing with the cafe without exclusivity was probably the biggest mistake I made and you will hear more about it later as we continue with the story.

Todd also told me that he would add our cafe to his letters to the hockey teams when they were coming for a tournament. He said some teams might want to schedule a party or team lunch while they were here. Todd also said once we got our liquor license we should offer a deal to the adult teams to have pizza and beer in the locker rooms at the end of their games. These sounded like great ideas and good support from our landlord.

Pierre warned Robbie and me over and over that Todd was not to be trusted. I believed Pierre, but I wasn’t overly concerned because I didn’t think we would have to deal with Todd much as long as we paid our rent on time. Another huge mistake on my part. That will become quite clear as we continue on with the story. I lost so much in this endeavor – money, dignity, friends, confidence, time, health, etc. To this day, it takes everything I’ve got just to walk into that building. Thank goodness I no longer have any reason to go there.

To Fry or Not to Fry, That is the Question.

In most rinks, there are two distinct groups – Hockey Players and Figure Skaters. Hockey players tend to be carbo-loaders. They are usually male, play hard, and eat hardily. Figure skaters are always on a diet. They tend to be female, practice obsessively, and eat like birds. And of course, you have a lot of moms hanging around the rink and they are often on a diet, too. Previous food service at the rinks had been pizza, burgers, and a lot of fried foods. Mostly junk food. We wanted to change that.

I have been fat my whole life. I have probably lost the weight of several people in my lifetime and always gained the weight back. It’s a horrible struggle, so it was extremely important to me to offer healthy choices in our cafe. Pierre said he had talked to a lot of figure skaters and they all said they didn’t eat at the snack bars because the snack bars were never open and never had healthy food they could eat. I made the decision not to use the fryers or the grill at all. We would cook everything in the ovens, even the burgers and fries. Pierre and Robbie thought that was a great idea.

Since we opened in 2 short weeks, we only had pizza, wings (Hunt Brothers also does chicken wings), and a few other choices. After the big hockey tournament, we could add more menu items. And we did, but everything had to be cooked in the oven. I thought the oven french fries were great and we had a lot of people tell us how happy they were that we didn’t have fried foods. Parents didn’t have to say ‘no’ to their children when they wanted wings or fries because our food was virtually grease-free.

There is a big down side to this plan. The ovens can get very backed up when the restaurant is busy. We were only using 2 ovens and there were days we could have used 3 or 4 to keep up with business. We had asked the rink to pull out the fryers and grill to give us more room, but they refused. I’m still glad we chose to forego the fried foods. After all my struggles with weight, I want to help others make healthy choices.

Cannonball!

Open a restaurant in 2 weeks? We decided to cannonball right into the deep end. I started googling pizza. Hunt Brothers came up in every search. Even though I had never heard of them, I finally decided I should try them. Then I noticed they were only available in convenience stores near me. That couldn’t be good. I never think of getting good food at a convenience store. So one day I headed to the store nearest me that had Hunt Brothers. I looked in the frozen foods and refrigerators and didn’t see anything labelled Hunt Brothers. I had no idea it was something the store cooked and sold fresh and hot. I finally asked the attendant and he said they have it but their pizza oven was broken. I asked him if they were planning to fix the oven or if they didn’t sell much pizza and didn’t care that it was broken. See, I had no idea Hunt Brothers pizza was a thing. He said they planned on fixing the oven because the pizza was actually good and sold well. I couldn’t wait so I looked up the next closest store and headed there. The girl at this store said it would take about 45 minutes because the oven wasn’t on and would have to warm up. I ordered my favorite pizza and sat down to wait. I was shocked at how good the pizza tasted. Robbie and I scheduled a demo at the rink.

Robbie liked the pizza, too. While we were watching the demo, one of the hockey dads came over to the cage and asked when we would be opening. He said they couldn’t wait for some decent food in the rink. And beer, of course. I had never met Brent before, but he became a great customer and I appreciate his support during the time I had the cafe. We decided to be a Hunt Brothers pizza store. Rocky put up banners before he left and we scheduled training and opening with him. Rocky and John came to the rink on another day to test the ovens in the cafe. They were old and had not been cleaned and serviced regularly, so we would have to buy a new oven to cook the pizzas. I signed the contract and paid for the oven and supplies out of my own pocket.

Choosing a food supplier turned out to be easy. Sysco was the only one to call me back. And how fortuitous that turned out to be. Our rep, Mike, was a terrific mentor and got us all set up. He gave me good advice the whole time I ran the restaurant. Dr Pepper had their name on the building, so we had to carry Dr Pepper. Another easy decision and setup. Robbie had a friend draw our logo and make t-shirts for us. I had to call quite a few insurance agents before I found one who does restaurant liability. Got that done.

Robbie and I went to the bank and opened a checking account. Pierre was too busy to join us that day, so Robbie took Pierre another day so Pierre could sign a signature card and get a credit card. Robbie had a friend who needed a job, so we had one employee already. Everything was falling into place.

The rink did nothing to service the restaurant equipment or clean the space. There was grease from the fryers on the walls and especially on the big vent. Pierre had a friend come in with a power washer and clean the restaurant. It looked so much better.

Should you really open a restaurant in 2 weeks? Probably not, but we did it. One thing I want to point out here is, of the 3 equal partners who is doing most of the work? Me.

Get It In Writing

Surprise, surprise, the rink called to see if we were still interested in opening a restaurant. The big food service company had moved out on January 1, 2015 as planned and now the snack bar was empty and closed. Pierre, Robbie and I talked and decided we were interested. Pierre suggested we use his CPA because the CPA would do our books and payroll for a reasonable monthly fee. All 3 of us met with the CPA and discussed the plan. We would each put in $12,500.00 to start the restaurant. We agreed upon a name. The CPA suggested he set us up as an LLC.

The rink gave us a 5 year contract. For some reason they had put in the contract that we had to open as a Great Outdoors franchise. I was surprised that was in the contract. We explained we would be a pizza and burger place like all previous food providers. The rink was hesitant at first but agreed. I don’t know why they cared. Pierre still wanted to remain invisible, so Robbie and I would sign the contract. The rink had one stipulation. We had to open in time for a February hockey tournament. If we signed the contract, we would have 2 weeks to open a restaurant.

I had researched retail space in 2008 so I believed Pierre when he told us the rent was a good deal. It looked like a great deal. For a monthly fee, all utilities were included and we could use all the equipment in the space. There were 2 pizza ovens, 2 fryers, a burger griddle, an ice machine, refrigerators, a walk-in refrigerator freezer, a full bar with 2 stations and 2 taps, about 20 tables with 4 chairs each and bar stools, a Dr Pepper soda fountain, lots of shelves and cabinets, a 3 compartment sink, hand washing stations, and plenty of work space. No build-out would be needed.

Then we committed the ultimate sin. We didn’t put it in writing. Everything was happening so fast, we didn’t draw a contract with our plan to put in $12,500.00 each and each person’s responsibilities. The CPA would set up our LLC with each of us as 1/3 partners and I’m sure he put something in his hard-bound notebook as we described our plan, but we never wrote down our plan and signed it. WE NEVER WROTE DOWN THE PLAN!