Wow! I saw that I posted 1 time on the Unnecessary Supplement blog last year. I vaguely remember that post....
Some things have happened since we opened in 2013. Kind of a lot. The restaurant that we own, Hot & Soul, had lots of ups and downs. We made it onto the Cooking Channel show Road Trip With G Garvin, which was exciting, but it didn't create the tidal wave of customers that an appearance on Diners, Drive Ins & Dives might have created.
We got an overwhelming amount of support from the local media with articles. We also got nominated Best Brunch in 2014 from Broward New Times. We stopped brunch several months after that though, because it was just easier that way. Then we got nominated Best Restaurant in 2016 from Broward New Times. We also got mentioned in this article from Gold Coast Magazine which was one of the articles that means the most to us.
Our past 2 years were actually the hardest.... our sous chef moved to Asheville - as a lot of Fort Lauderdale natives seem to head to the hippie hills. The hole that she left was difficult to fill, so the work load that the sous chef usually did became split up between me, TFP, and our one cook that had been with us from day one. Eventually, our old prep cook came back to make gnocchi and dulce de leche custards 2 times a week, which was a huge help for us. The awesome thing was that our old prep cook was executive sous chef at another restaurant, Market 17, and eventually she became chef, but she still kept coming in twice a week, for the most part. But even so, I had to take on more prep so I did less paperwork. The restaurant got a little more dirty & dingy, more divey.
Of course, our busiest time came when we were the most short staffed. In 2017, we got reviewed on the local show Check, Please! South Florida. This show, this was the game changer. Right when it aired - new shows were played 3 times in the week they ran - we were busier than we had ever been. And every time this show had a rerun, we would get another pop. The only problem with this windfall of business was that it was a lot of work. I mean emotionally. The thing is, pre Check, Please, we weren't always crazy busy, but about 70% of our guests were regulars. They knew what to expect, they anticipated the specials to the point that if I didn't post the specials on Instagram right at 6pm when they were supposed to be ready, they would call and ask for the specials to be posted.
With this new influx of customers, they didn't get it. They studied the show, and asked for the Shepards pie. Which had been a special on the night one of the reviewers had come in for dinner. And in the scheme of specials, it was definitely not one of the best specials. It was shepards pie.
So, the regular menu had about 13 items, and the specials menu would have between 8 items (on a slower night) and 15 items. And it was always changing. But, the, ahem, the demographic of the viewership, they latched onto the idea of Shepards pie, and that's what they wanted. One lady who had never heard of Hot & Soul until the show aired, asked almost every day if we were going to have Shepards pie. It was a big deal that we have it in order for us to be granted her patronage. She was coming from far away, Hollywood, Plantation, or maybe Boca Raton, so she had to know ahead of time what she was going to have for dinner. Anyway, we relented and put shepards pie on the menu after like 5 straight days of her asking. And we called her & left a message to say that yes we would have Shepards pie tonight. But I think we had already pissed her off at that point & she never came in.
Anyway, through all these years, we never got rich or squirreled away our extra earnings for early retirement. Sure, we took a week long vacation every year. But sometimes we had to take out a loan to be able to afford it & pay the bills. A lot of people would say "congratulations on your success!" as I would be struggling to fend off the 2 headed snake (when payroll & rent would fall on the same week). I know financial success is different than notoriety, or professional capital, or even being minor local celebrities. But as far as bills are concerned, financial success is all that matters. And people would think we had it all, we worked together, and were married, and we just seemed like the happiest couple who had their shit together. I don't know how many people saw me cry in that restaurant, or saw the remnants of dried up tears on my face. Any job is not easy when you pour your heart, soul, & body into it as far as you can go. And you're not always going to get along with your coworkers under all that constant stress & pressure.
About a year & a half ago, we decided we weren't going to renew our lease at our current space. We were going to sell the restaurant & pack up the gang & move back to New Orleans, reestablish ourselves & open a restaurant there. TFP had to go back. So we got a broker. And the buyers came in. And we answered the same questions over & over. And a year went by. Finally some guys were interested. They were younger & optimistic. But, they didn't have good enough credit scores or enough money in the bank. So we kept going.
But then some Italian national who was still in Italy feigned interest. He had his broker send in a lowball offer, which we rejected. Then, a month later, he put in a reasonable offer, and we were excited. We were really going to leave all the bad experiences of owning a restaurant behind, & learn from our mistakes & triumphs. But then we met the guy. And he was like a character from a bad movie. And he brought in numerous other Italian characters from a bad movie. And he was untrustworthy, but our broker never appeared to think this deal might fall through. But it did. It dragged on for four or five months. And it fell through. After weeks of slow bullshit negotiations between the buyer & the landlord, they finally agreed on terms. We received this news on a Monday, although we were informed that the buyer had to go back to Italy because his son was sick & his wife had cancer & couldn't deal on her own. So we scheduled to close on the deal that Friday. The buyer would e sign, no problem. So, we posted on social media, & we contacted the local food reporter. And an outpouring of outrage & despair met our announcement. We pretty much broke our sales record every night for 3 nights. People waited for one to two and a half hours to get a table! I mean, before that, some people would walk out if they would have to wait more than ten minutes! And everyone took a lot of food home, to eat later. It was insane. It was bittersweet for sure.
But we also realized, that maybe we needed to stay in South Florida where our loyal fans were. If we moved out of town, we would have to, in a sense, start over. And either way, we were going to need investors. A few people were already approaching us about partnering, so we had to look into the possibility. And we are looking into the possibilities. We did a few pop ups at local breweries. The first one was insanely busy, and then after that they tapered off. Mainly the weather was against us. Now we are onto beer dinners. We have a few scheduled. We are in contract with another group who wants to buy the restaurant. So... the future is unknown, but we have hope. We were open 1 month shy of 5 years. And we did it on our own, our way. It's something to be proud of, but next time we want to do it better. We need help with the business side of things. And the FP can't be chained to the stove cooking all day and night. And yes, we can use some help with marketing. Our charming approach to marketing probably isn't the best way to stay engaged with customers and lure new ones. But, we are still here, and we want to come back bigger (a little bigger) and better. So... stay tuned.
Some things have happened since we opened in 2013. Kind of a lot. The restaurant that we own, Hot & Soul, had lots of ups and downs. We made it onto the Cooking Channel show Road Trip With G Garvin, which was exciting, but it didn't create the tidal wave of customers that an appearance on Diners, Drive Ins & Dives might have created.
We got an overwhelming amount of support from the local media with articles. We also got nominated Best Brunch in 2014 from Broward New Times. We stopped brunch several months after that though, because it was just easier that way. Then we got nominated Best Restaurant in 2016 from Broward New Times. We also got mentioned in this article from Gold Coast Magazine which was one of the articles that means the most to us.
Our past 2 years were actually the hardest.... our sous chef moved to Asheville - as a lot of Fort Lauderdale natives seem to head to the hippie hills. The hole that she left was difficult to fill, so the work load that the sous chef usually did became split up between me, TFP, and our one cook that had been with us from day one. Eventually, our old prep cook came back to make gnocchi and dulce de leche custards 2 times a week, which was a huge help for us. The awesome thing was that our old prep cook was executive sous chef at another restaurant, Market 17, and eventually she became chef, but she still kept coming in twice a week, for the most part. But even so, I had to take on more prep so I did less paperwork. The restaurant got a little more dirty & dingy, more divey.
Of course, our busiest time came when we were the most short staffed. In 2017, we got reviewed on the local show Check, Please! South Florida. This show, this was the game changer. Right when it aired - new shows were played 3 times in the week they ran - we were busier than we had ever been. And every time this show had a rerun, we would get another pop. The only problem with this windfall of business was that it was a lot of work. I mean emotionally. The thing is, pre Check, Please, we weren't always crazy busy, but about 70% of our guests were regulars. They knew what to expect, they anticipated the specials to the point that if I didn't post the specials on Instagram right at 6pm when they were supposed to be ready, they would call and ask for the specials to be posted.
With this new influx of customers, they didn't get it. They studied the show, and asked for the Shepards pie. Which had been a special on the night one of the reviewers had come in for dinner. And in the scheme of specials, it was definitely not one of the best specials. It was shepards pie.
So, the regular menu had about 13 items, and the specials menu would have between 8 items (on a slower night) and 15 items. And it was always changing. But, the, ahem, the demographic of the viewership, they latched onto the idea of Shepards pie, and that's what they wanted. One lady who had never heard of Hot & Soul until the show aired, asked almost every day if we were going to have Shepards pie. It was a big deal that we have it in order for us to be granted her patronage. She was coming from far away, Hollywood, Plantation, or maybe Boca Raton, so she had to know ahead of time what she was going to have for dinner. Anyway, we relented and put shepards pie on the menu after like 5 straight days of her asking. And we called her & left a message to say that yes we would have Shepards pie tonight. But I think we had already pissed her off at that point & she never came in.
Anyway, through all these years, we never got rich or squirreled away our extra earnings for early retirement. Sure, we took a week long vacation every year. But sometimes we had to take out a loan to be able to afford it & pay the bills. A lot of people would say "congratulations on your success!" as I would be struggling to fend off the 2 headed snake (when payroll & rent would fall on the same week). I know financial success is different than notoriety, or professional capital, or even being minor local celebrities. But as far as bills are concerned, financial success is all that matters. And people would think we had it all, we worked together, and were married, and we just seemed like the happiest couple who had their shit together. I don't know how many people saw me cry in that restaurant, or saw the remnants of dried up tears on my face. Any job is not easy when you pour your heart, soul, & body into it as far as you can go. And you're not always going to get along with your coworkers under all that constant stress & pressure.
About a year & a half ago, we decided we weren't going to renew our lease at our current space. We were going to sell the restaurant & pack up the gang & move back to New Orleans, reestablish ourselves & open a restaurant there. TFP had to go back. So we got a broker. And the buyers came in. And we answered the same questions over & over. And a year went by. Finally some guys were interested. They were younger & optimistic. But, they didn't have good enough credit scores or enough money in the bank. So we kept going.
But then some Italian national who was still in Italy feigned interest. He had his broker send in a lowball offer, which we rejected. Then, a month later, he put in a reasonable offer, and we were excited. We were really going to leave all the bad experiences of owning a restaurant behind, & learn from our mistakes & triumphs. But then we met the guy. And he was like a character from a bad movie. And he brought in numerous other Italian characters from a bad movie. And he was untrustworthy, but our broker never appeared to think this deal might fall through. But it did. It dragged on for four or five months. And it fell through. After weeks of slow bullshit negotiations between the buyer & the landlord, they finally agreed on terms. We received this news on a Monday, although we were informed that the buyer had to go back to Italy because his son was sick & his wife had cancer & couldn't deal on her own. So we scheduled to close on the deal that Friday. The buyer would e sign, no problem. So, we posted on social media, & we contacted the local food reporter. And an outpouring of outrage & despair met our announcement. We pretty much broke our sales record every night for 3 nights. People waited for one to two and a half hours to get a table! I mean, before that, some people would walk out if they would have to wait more than ten minutes! And everyone took a lot of food home, to eat later. It was insane. It was bittersweet for sure.
But we also realized, that maybe we needed to stay in South Florida where our loyal fans were. If we moved out of town, we would have to, in a sense, start over. And either way, we were going to need investors. A few people were already approaching us about partnering, so we had to look into the possibility. And we are looking into the possibilities. We did a few pop ups at local breweries. The first one was insanely busy, and then after that they tapered off. Mainly the weather was against us. Now we are onto beer dinners. We have a few scheduled. We are in contract with another group who wants to buy the restaurant. So... the future is unknown, but we have hope. We were open 1 month shy of 5 years. And we did it on our own, our way. It's something to be proud of, but next time we want to do it better. We need help with the business side of things. And the FP can't be chained to the stove cooking all day and night. And yes, we can use some help with marketing. Our charming approach to marketing probably isn't the best way to stay engaged with customers and lure new ones. But, we are still here, and we want to come back bigger (a little bigger) and better. So... stay tuned.
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