July 27, 2006 Issue

We’re opening a new restaurant. If we were opening in Destin it would be ho-hum. There is not much cause for celebrating a new restaurant in a town already overflowing with eateries. In Tuscaloosa, Ala. however, people seem to be excited to be getting a touch of our Gulf Coast flavor.

I’m involved with five restaurants in Northwest Florida. The challenge of opening a store in another state is offset by the excitement of having a chance to do things right this time. To take the things we’ve learned from our other restaurants and implement them in a new one is an invaluable opportunity.

I have never thought of myself as much of a businessman, a reluctant one perhaps, but after 27 years of doing restaurants there has to be some sort of philosophy behind what it is we do. So here goes.

We have never opened in a new building. It makes more sense to take over an existing structure (there are plenty of them) than to add to the sprawling construction that covers this country.

We advertise as little as possible, carefully choosing the venues in which we do advertise. Money spent on advertising can be used in many more valuable ways. Word of mouth is 10 times as effective and by being good corporate citizens and doing a good job, business will grow.

Our most valuable customers are the people we live with day after day. Locals like to be recognized. To do that you have to have long-term employees who are capable of taking care of their customers.

In the service industry, employees are everything. The biggest asset we have has nothing to do with waterfront property. What makes our businesses valuable and profitable is the people who run them.

Unlike many enterprises, we strive to blur the distinction between family and friends and work and play. If people are going to spend 40 hours a week at a job, that job had better involve more than just money. We do everything we can to help our employees and it’s not because we are particularly nice people. We bend over backwards for them because we’re smart and we appreciate how valuable they are. That includes everyone from the dishwashers and bussers to the top management.

We not only provide access to healthcare for our workers; we offer loans to people who the banks would laugh at. We have financed educations, homes, vacations and more. Through the kindness of a local attorney we provide legal help for all of our employees.

Several years ago after studying various 401k programs I finally found one that I thought met the needs of our people. After numerous meetings the provider of the program asked me when would be the best time for my employees to undergo screening. I suggested some time after Labor Day. Then, after thinking about it, I asked what kind of screening they were subject to.

“Urine tests,” I was told. “To make sure they don’t smoke pot.”

I almost fell out of my chair. I don’t know how many of the several hundred employees we had at the time might have smoked marijuana, and don’t really care. The qualified program we were about to sign up for was going to disqualify a sizable portion of my workforce.

These people give 40 hours a week of their lives to help us run a restaurant and I don’t feel I have any business knowing what they do when they are off work. A screening test for child abusers or wife beaters might be helpful. Marijuana use by people who are not on the job, in the comfort of their own homes, doesn’t concern me.

Many corporate restaurants have a non-fraternization policy. That, to me, is unreasonable. To expect people who work together and spend much of their time together and not development romantic relationships is ridiculous. We don’t have rules against that.

We don’t have many rules anyway. You do have to be on time. But aside from working hard, being pleasant, and using common sense, it doesn’t take many rules to run a restaurant.

I get several calls a week from security camera companies. After alerting me to the possibility that employees are stealing food, money and liquor from the restaurant these salesmen tout the newest program on the security market. Now, on a computer screen at your home, you can watch people steal from you while you sit quietly in your own living room. Well, what could be more relaxing than that? I’ll pass.

When possible, and it is difficult in Destin, we like to have an ethnically diverse staff. There is no legal or civil rights reason for this. It just makes things more interesting and colorful. We don’t have profiles for our front of the house staff. It doesn’t matter how cute your waitress is if she can’t get food to your table.

Our businesses need to make money. Otherwise they don’t survive. But the pursuit of money, in and of itself, is not an attractive one. If what we are doing isn’t fun, I have little interest in it. If the success we achieve is only on a monetary level; that is not enough. We want to be a vital part of every community we operate in. We take enough from the people around us. We should give back in equal or greater measures.

If you ever wander through Tuscaloosa, stop by Chuck’s…Fish. We’ll be the best restaurant, with the best staff that town has ever seen.

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