FOR OWNERS SEEKING CREATIVE INSPIRATION TO REFINE THEIR NICHE
In 2022 some episodes will have a focus on cafes around the US--how much variety these is, how they build their businesses now matter how big or small they decide they want to be.
We hear from Hally Hansen, who owns Gourmandise in Salt Lake with her husband.
This episode takes you on a short journey around the world looking for the first coffeehouses. In 1675 the first coffeehouse opens in Boston, and leads to a circuitous journey to how we seek and find the cafe that matches each of our definition of what a cafe should be.
This episode serves as an introduction to future episodes on today's independent cafes. The reason for the focus is to uncover how an owner can choose to, or not to make their place from a simple community center, to a busy and growing business. We will hear how various owners define success and sustainability.
Please share your feedback. Leave a review, too. When you review podcasts, that makes that podcast easier to find for others. Holy Guacamole's mission is to support owners of independent restaurants, cafes and more. Thank you for listening and being a part of our community.
As the year draws to a close, take a moment to thank your community. As an independent restaurant owner, please thank your staff and your guests. In a busy world sometimes we need to hear how others are caring for and thanking staff. Take a moment to appreciate the world you are in and the people you are sharing the day to day.
Thank you for being part of the Holy Guacamole! community.
Faith Wachter got her start in social media when she was handed an additional set of tasks-- to run the social needs of a local public TV station, MPT. She diligently learned on the job building a skill set she discovered was marketable. She took a leap of faith (no pun intended) six years ago to start her own company. She was chosen as a guest because she has clients that are in many industries and can speak to what makes social media marketing successful.
We discuss basics. It's good to regroup as we close out 2021, and good to start planning out 2022. Consider planning 2 weeks out. Dig deep into who your ideal customer, then create your business' avatar and find the voice of your brand. If your business can capture those, then you'll be able to fly!
If your business is larger, and you can justify paying for someone to grow your social media presence, listen as Faith describes their rubric of services. Could be useful one day!
Have you fallen into some Social Media faux pas traps? Listen for more....
Follow their adventures on IG: https://www.instagram.com/faithwachterconsulting/
Being intentional is no easy thing. Being intentional in life, in career, and your restaurant requires minute actions. Profits requires intentional actions. Building strategy into business is how intention becomes reality. This episode shares some simple steps to creating a roadmap to a healthier, more profitable business.
Enjoy the episode. Share with restaurant owners, share with those eager to improve the state of independent restaurants in US.
John Shields is a talented and genuinely nice person. He's a chef/owner of Gertrude's Chesapeake Kitchen, author of 5 books, host of two television shows, James Beard nominee and now runs a non-profit to bring community together called Our Common Table.
It's our delight to have an entertaining and informative episode. You'll learn how a boy from Baltimore, brought up in a tightly knit Irish community was able to use his creativity and positive attitude to delightful heights in California. We'll let you listen for all the fun stories and laughter, followed by some smart and effective collaborations and community building for good!
Gertrude's Chesapeake Kitchen website at Baltimore's Museum of Art. Please follow and participate in social media.
Our Common Table website. Please follow and participate in Instagram and Facebook.
We are calling out for cafes. Cafes, big and small. Cafes with a scratch kitchen, or a cafe with commissary kitchen. Cafes only serving from an espresso bar, serving a minimalist food menu. All versions of the model accepted.
In the coming months and year we will explore many different models to learn what makes an independent cafe tick.
Captain Don has held a spot at the 32nd Street Farmers Market, every Saturday, year round, for the last 10 years. As one of many stalwart vendors, he spends his week fishing and delivering to a wholesaler, and holding some of his haul to sell to the market.
This episode focuses on Capt Don, one local vendor to represent the time, effort and exceptional focus on bringing the best they have to offer to sell directly at the farmers market. It's what makes our local foodshed healthy and vibrant.
Baltimore has a solid local food economy. It's important to recognize where are food comes from, and when it's local it's that much fresher and tastier. Knowing where are food comes from requires a little more time and curiosity to come to your local market. Chefs and residents are increasingly more curious.
Hear what life on the water is like for a modern day fisherman. He's catching according to what his State of Maryland permit allows. Captain Don shares a big picture view of sustainability, appropriate fishing, crabbing and gathering oysters.
Want to know more about Capt Don, and his chartered fishing tours, here is the website.
Louis Moskow is chef/owner of 315 Restaurant & Bar. He's been in Santa Fe, New Mexico creating a french focused menu for 27 years. This episode shows us how a fantastic wines list with a carefully curated menu can build a clientele that will keep coming back.
315's menu has never stopped serving locally sourced ingredients, and he shares how the relationships with the farms and farmers is not an option--it's the only way to serve a great meal. Chef Moskow is resolute in drawing attention to the good, seasonal ingredients he chooses for his menu.
The wines compliment the items on the menu. He is the chef in the kitchen, and he does not shy away from coming to guest tables and helping them choose the wine that best compliments the menu.
His team and staff are strong and consistent. Lately, in Sept/October several staff have left and Louis Moskow shared his struggles with us on the show
315 Restaurant and Bar website
Irena Stein is a Baltimore restauranteur for the last 20 years. That would be impressive on it's own. There is far more to Irena Stein, and it's a joy to share what many people do not know. She is a creative, and artistic human! She has allowed that artistic self to find a home in Alma Cocina Latina, with a variety of plants in the restaurant. Many plants. Inside the restaurant you'll see more than plants. Black and white photos on some walls, a stunning mural to accentuate her love of nature. Her love of nature does not stop in her ability to create an appealing space. She respect nature which the menu reflects by using local produce, minimizing waste, recycling and consistently building her business with sustainability in mind.
This episode is a conversation on beauty and art, and how releasing those aspects into your restaurant can create solace--for the managers, the bartenders, the chef, the servers, Irena (the owner), Mark (her partner)as well as every single guest. You feel nature surrounding you in this lovely restaurant. Today we invite you to listen, and then to look up the website and their IG.
Our guest is Steve Vilnit. He is known in the Chesapeake Food Shed for his deep knowledge in seafood, as well as farms. He knows the watermen and the farmers and has foster relationships between watermen and farms to chefs in the greater Baltimore region. After years working for the State of Maryland, and going above and beyond as a sales rep for JJ McDonnell (seafood) and Capital Seaboard (seafood and produce) he has taken a leap into photography.
Meal delivery is the topic of this episode. Barry Fleischmann owns and runs The Scratch Mill Kitchen. He has a rich history in hospitality. He's been serving catered dinners, wedding and corporate events for 30 years. He's owned his own restaurant in downtown Baltimore. During the pandemic he decided to add a new element -- Meal Delivery. As an owner he had to redo his website, and now sends weekly emails to his followers. He delivers throughout the metropolitan area three times a week. It's been a wise and healthy shift, and is now expanding further into cooking classes.
Meal delivery, also called online food delivery platforms, will have around 1.6 billion users throughout the world in 2021. It is an alternative to cooking at home, and an alternative to eating out.
Barry's website is The Scratch Mill Kitchen. If you are local, sign up for his email and start ordering!
if you run a restaurant, you continue to watch photography having a greater role in marketing. Today’s episode explores how restaurants can handle this topic on their own, or hire a good food photographer to take eye-catching images of your space and your food, as well as your team.
Cielo Rojo - Carolina McCandless and David Perez own this Takoma based authentic Mexican restaurant.
In the heart of Takoma Park, MD is this lovely Mexican restaurant. Carolina McCandless and David Perez -- husband and wife duo, own and run this fine casual spot.
Carolina sits across the proverbial kitchen table to tell us how she and David met, were in restaurants in California long before marriage and parenthood. Their journey into parenthood led them to leap out of expensive San Francisco, and back to her family in the DC area. Her Dad owns Amano, a women’s boutique in Takoma Park.
The decision to come east was purely about parenthood, not restaurant ownership. As luck, and her father would have it, they are now restaurant owners, serving tacos, burritos, mezcal and tequila. It’s a tiny space, which is why we chose to interview her. To hear how they are able to handle demand, and continue to grow. Listen to hear how they are answering that question.
Cielo Rojo’s website is a fantastic example of great information, while keeping their vibe in tact.
Two podcasting worlds collide in the episode. You'll hear how Ann Shafer and Martha Lucius took up podcasting in 2020. Ann is an art historian, art curator and all around lovely human. In the last year Ann created The Curator's Choice which is her musing of purchasing art Baltimore Museum of Art. Ann is also responsible for leading Platemark which explores the state of museums and issues that are unfolding now--pay equity, #metoo, cultural appropriation, and more.
Ann Shafer interviews Martha Lucius and explores how she became a restaurant owner, and then a restaurant strategist/consultant. They are long time friends, neighbors, fellow cyclists and now, podcasters. You'll learn the context for how Martha got into helping independents. There's a simple bio where Martha grew up eating food around the world, ran her two cafes for close to twenty years, watched and participated in the rise of independent restaurants, and now helps owners with the difficult parts of ownership.
Shameless promotion for Becky Redett who started Sassy Cyclist, which is woman's cyclist jersey company. Very clever design, Baltimore-based and naturally woman made.
Another shameless promotion for HEXFerments -- kimchi grilled cheese.
Enjoy the show. Reach out to Martha Lucius if you are interested in having your questions answered or wish to be a guest on air, please reach out to martha@marthalucius.com
What happens when a cafe, a bar and a dogpark come together as one? Bark Social.
Right now, in Bethesda, MD, and coming soon to Canton in Baltimore, MD. No doubt everyone will want one in their neghborhood. Get yourself a coffee and your dog a pupcicle!
Luke Silverman is one of the masterminds between this social delightful way to get out of the house and share the experience with one of the best members of your household--your dog.
What's on the menu? We talk about the pretzels that are so good, and handcrafted by a man who does not have a website, then their newest menu item: Grateful Pizza, who listeners will know from our a previous episode (48).
How easy is it to hire for Bark Social. Listen and find out!
We dig into the research and exploration stage of this wildly creative business, and it's service style. Learn a bit about how to navigate to gather investors. Luke kindly shared that he now knows it's okay to say "no" to investors who do not align completely align with your mission.
It's a lively conversation with a true entrepreneur. His family is in restaurants in NYC. He does not get excited about the idea of prepping food. He is thrilled to have you come in with your dog for a coffee, pretzel, pizza and playtime with your dog.
Website: Bark Social
IG: https://www.instagram.com/bark_social/
Krishna Aunty is the brainchild of Joseph Moroney. It's an online meal service. Enjoy homestyle Indian food, which is a much loved style of food in India, coveted more than restaurant food. Joseph;s quiet and appealing story, is wrapped with his love and attention to India's ginger, garlic and not-too-spicy flavors! Joseph's immersion in to Indian food starts as a Irishman, lawyer, curious about his wifes heritage and cuisine. His wife and family have been in the US for years. Early on her family could rarely find Indian cuisine, but the much loved cuisine from their region, Andra Pradesh, is far harder to find in the US, let alone Ohio. The menu is infused with a little heat, and definitively flavorful dishes, that range from vegan to vegetarian to meat dishes.
Our episode digs into the curious tale of this wonderfully creative Irishman in Baltimore, and explore why he chose such an unusual departure from his legal path.
If you are in Baltimore, you'll pick up your meal at Bmore Kitchen, details on their website. If you are out of town, we hope you will visit Baltimore soon, get dinner to go from Krishna Aunty! We see great potential for the concept and this smart, creative business plan Joseph Moroney created. Want to know more? His instagram game is fun and engaging. Enjoy your meal.
Chef Matthew Kenny's vegan restaurant has made a marked and joyful impression in Baltimore's Inner Harbor with Liora and Double Zero at 414 Water Street. Liora is the main focus of this episode, through the eyes of Bryson Keens, Liora's GM, longtime hospitalian and native here in Baltimore!
There are many challenges these days. We've already mentioned staff. Today's episode is focusing on two challenges that are recurring for many independent cafe/restaurant owners at this time.
