No one will tell you that being in the restaurant business is easy. The hours are long. The work is hard. Staying current on changes in laws, food preferences, and customer needs can have owners and managers in a never-ending quest of keep-up. But for those who play the long game, they adapt, they find joy in what they do, and they keep going, meal after meal, shift after shift, year after year.
“The thing about the restaurant business is that it’s often not any one big milestone or achievement, but rather a million little ones, all adding up to something greater than its parts,” says Jessica MacMurray Blaine, CEO and creative director of the Marché Restaurant Group, whose local establishments include Marché, Le Bar, Provisions Market Hall, Provisions South, and Magpie Coffeeshop.
Marché celebrates its 25th anniversary in September, but Blaine sees that success as the outcome not only of hard work and dedication, but on each day, each service, and each plate.
“The achievement is that we’re still doing this thing we love, welcoming guests, nourishing each other, every day, with real love for the food and the hospitality,” she explains. “It’s a complex ecosystem of crew and guests, a big philosophy of timeless, French inspired and locally sourced, and little details that makes it all work.”
Successful restaurants require a combination of innovation and repetition. They want to seek out new methods and new tastes and textures that can delight and entice customers to keep coming back. At the same time, they need to do the same thing, the same way, over and over to satisfy repeat customers who seek out a certain thing. Combined with the business, marketing, and regulatory requirements a restaurant’s key players must also manage, it can be challenging to stay motivated and prevent burnout.
Blaine finds her motivation by keeping her love of the work itself, and gratitude for what she does, front and center.
“I love the constant problem-solving,” she says. “I love the people I work with and the guests who make it interesting. I love the community of other restaurateurs in the area. And I love the creativity, especially in trying to find ways to be better and better every day, whether it’s in menu design or the music we play, new ways to develop our team or new ways to communicate with our customers.”
Plus, the ever-changing environment encourages ongoing learning. Blaine finds herself and the Marché team always learning something new. Bartenders, chefs, or bakers learn new techniques for the team to practice and master. A new or trendy ingredient becomes something to experiment with, come to understand, or find inspiration in. Blaine and the Marché team aim to maintain a space where the team can learn and perform at a high level, along with creating a broader space where people can connect, in person, over food and drink that’s been made with care.
“It’s tough work, but all in the service of something lovely: connecting with people through food, drink, hospitality,” says Blaine. “Helping people celebrate their milestones and enjoy themselves is a real honor. I’m grateful for the team that makes it happen in all of our restaurants each day, and that we have such a thriving community of talented people in our local food scene.”
Social media, broadcast media, online ads, you name it: Restaurants nowadays rely on many types of marketing. When Justin Scrivener wanted to open an upscale yet approachable restaurant in 2017, the co-owner of Scribles Bistro & Deli knew that the first three years would be crucial to failure, survival, or success — all the more so given the type of establishment he wanted to open. Scribles would have gluten-free options for every menu, from GF sandwich breads to the appetizers and salad dressings.
But as that crucial milestone became visible on the horizon, Scrivener, like pretty much anyone else on the cusp of 2020, had no idea what was about to happen to his industry and the wider world.
“A new restaurant making it though its first three years is always a key milestone,” says Scrivener. “Even more so, making it through Covid.”
While the last few years have not been easy from a business or social standpoint, Scrivener focused on doing what he could to keep Scribles open. Do they continue to deal with the long-term economic effects of the pandemic on staffing, dining out, and pretty much every facet of the restaurant industry? You bet. But Scribles has done something else too.
“We are happy to recently celebrate our five-year anniversary,” says Scrivener.
Key to finding a path for the bistro? Remembering to stay true to his mission and focus.
“We find motivation by taking pride in our restaurant,” explains Scrivener, “and by talking with other chefs and restaurateurs about restaurant ups and downs.”
After all, it’s rare that a business owner faces a challenge not faced by others in their industry. Through the hard times, Scrivener has kept his focus on serving his customers and his community, and on remembering to keep communication lines open between himself, his staff, and his colleagues.
“We are thankful for all of our service industry friends, family, and customers who helped spread the word,” says Scrivener. “We are happy to build our sandwiches on delicious hoagies from Reality Kitchen and we appreciate working with other small local businesses.”
As with Scribles, John “Gianni” Barofsky, co-owner of Beppe & Gianni’s Trattoria, also gives the pandemic the dubious honor of being the most difficult thing that the restaurant has gone through.
And that’s saying something: Like Marché, Beppe & Gianni’s has celebrated 25 years in its current location near Hayward Field. They know a thing or two about the ups and downs of business in an ever-changing community.
“We had very good, loyal customers who helped us through, and we appreciated that,” says Barofsky.
But when it comes to maintaining a full-service restaurant through economic troubles, pandemics, and a society and community with changing expectations around dining, Barofsky knows that customers are a big part of the equation. So is another group of people: long-term employees.
“We’ve had several who’ve been here since the beginning,” he says. “And others have been here eight, nine years. The longevity of our staff is something we’re really proud of.”
When Barofsky thinks about key milestones the restaurant has celebrated, he always comes back to the customers and the events that brought them through the doors.
“Our ongoing relationship with the university and track and field events have been key milestones,” he explains. “Olympic trials, track and field world championship, Prefontaine Classics, university graduations: These have always been key dates for us.”
After all, amazing food and drink can get people through the door one time, but it takes the right kind of service and atmosphere to bring them back year after year, occasion after occasion. That doesn’t just encourage customer loyalty. It helps Barofsky and his team stay engaged, motivated, and inspired, especially under the daily grinds of working in the restaurant world.
“We feel that we’re a family here. It’s a family-owned and family-run restaurant,” says Barofsky. “Our employees are part of that family. So are our customers. Being able to interact, to help our customers enjoy a night out, and make those moments special: That’s what it’s all about. If you can’t keep that mindset, it’s hard to make it in this industry.”
The community changes. New generations come of age. Barofsky also knows that what people expect from a restaurant meal is changing too.
It’s hard to have seen the community lose some of its notable full-service restaurants over the past few years. But from his decades of experience, Barofsky knows that with change comes not only challenge, but renewal. He can see the ebbs and flows in the market. He also sees a community that knows there’s a place for good, full service, upscale restaurants, and there will always be persevering entrepreneurs ready to make those concepts into reality.
As for Beppe & Gianni’s?
“We want to continue on into the future,” says Barofsky. “Twenty-five is just a starting place for us. We want to be here helping the community for a long time.”
Marché, 541/342-3612, 296 E 5th Ave., marcherestaurant.com
Scribles Bistro & Deli, 541/505-8766, 1123 Monroe St., scriblesbistroanddeli.com
Beppe & Gianni’s, 541/683-6661, 1646 East 19th Ave., beppeandgiannis.net
