In the land of culinary arts, a restaurateur is simply someone who owns and manages a restaurant. (By the way, contrary to popular belief, there is no "n" in the word restaurateur).
Anywhoo....in the land of burritos and tacos, Chipotle has a position called Restaurateur. It's the next promotion after General Manager, and something very few people obtain. There are over 1,000 Chipotle's, and less then 10% of those have a Restaurateur in them. According to the website, Chipotle describes the position as:
As a Restaurateur you have a huge responsibility. You set the standard that all other managers strive for. You identify the strongest crews and train them to deliver the best customer experience. You focus on every aspect of the restaurant experience: food, service, and atmosphere. For you, no detail is too small. This results in a restaurant that is exciting for crews and customers alike that is also financially successful.
A person can only come a Restarautaeur if they have a **PERFECT** restaurant. The restaurant must be immaculate, and the people in it need to know about the 'culture'. There can be no low performers, and everyone must bring their A game 7 days a week. The Restaurateur is responsible for finding and developing new people, and turning them into future managers. As you can see, gaining this prestigious title is more about the team then the actual manager. Although it's the title of a single person, it's a title that the whole restaurant would receive.
After a restaurant becomes "perfect", it must then be recognized by the Area Manager, District Manager, so on, and so forth. Eventually, the restaurant gets put onto the "now" list. Once this happens, Monty and Steve, (co-CEO's of the company) can show up at any time to interview the crew members that work there. If they are impressed with the status of the restaurant, and what the crew members say about each other and the GM, then that GM is then promoted to Restaurateur. Simple, right? = /
I've met a few of these Restarautauers, and I felt pretty inspired. They eat/drink/live Chipotle 24/7, (something I find myself doing more and more). Of the 20 restaurants in/around the Boston area, NO GM currently holds this title. Although....
I don't know why, but I don't always believe in myself. Sometimes I just don't see what's right in front of my face. With that said, someone believes in me, and he happens to be my Team Director. (Mr. Corporate, in charge of ALL of New England and upstate New York. We don't like names here, so we'll use his initials, and call him DL). Part of me thinks this man is crazy, but I can't thank him enough. He's the man that promoted me to GM the day before my restaurant opened, and has supported me immensely ever since.
DL also believes we have the potential to become Boston's next Restaurateur restaurant. He was in about a month ago, and was very impressed with the progress we've made since opening day. We've been talking a lot since then, and he often checks in to see how we're doing. I'm never one to toot my own horn, but I'm almost certain he doesn't give this much "attention" to his other restaurants. He operates over 30, and calls us ALL THE TIME.
Last week our LSM stopped by for a "surprise" visit. She stayed for about an hour, and just watched how we worked and interacted. I found out a few days later she was there spying on us, to give the Boston leadership team an 'update' on our progress. Again, I'm not blogging to toot my own horn, but I caught wind of her email, and she made us out to be all stars. She came again today, doing the same thing. This time, she took a few of my crew members, one by one, and sat them down and talked to them for about 10 minutes each. One by one she picked their brain, asking them what they thought about their job, other crew members, and their opinion on ME.
Needless to say, she again left very very happy. She pulled me aside before she left today, and told me that we "inspire her". She thinks we're doing an amazing job, and is very excited with what she sees. She thinks that the Restaurateur level is within reach for us. She definitely made my day, and made an awesome week even better.
All of these people believe in us, I just wish I believed in us. People always come during the daytime, where my crew is stacked with all stars. Unfortunately, at night, and on the weekends, it's a totally different story. We've been struggling with finding good people since day one, and we're still having trouble. 1/2 of my crew is awesome, and the other 1/2 is horrible. I feel like we're teetering on the edge, and I'm still not sure which way we're going to go. They're bringing us down, and I need to get rid of them. I've been looking for people, walking the streets of Waltham with flyers. In an economy like this, I never thought it would be so hard to replace 6-8 (legal) people.
In the next 6 months, two things are going to happen. We're going to find good people, remove all low performers, and become Boston's only Restaurateur restaurant. Or, these low performers are going to hold us back, and we're going to become "just another Chipotle". I guess in the end, it all rests on MY shoulders.
Let's do it Needham St.
In other news, I've been having dreams. I dream about a girl from Michigan. I believe she's my polar opposite, and perfect match. I wish she was real.
Secret of thew Week:
