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César Chavez is credited with
saying, “The people who give you
their food give you their heart.”
Spend a few minutes around a restaurant owner and you’ll
quickly see how true that is. And while foodie television shows like
“Top Chef” and mainstays on the Food Network try to feed Americans’
seemingly insatiable appetite for culinary culture, they don’t
exactly reveal the true reality of restaurants. To get the full story,
we spoke with five alumni restaurant owners around the country.
Despite the brutal hours, high overhead, staff turnover, and
alarming failure rate, they open their doors each day, inviting in
patrons for first dates, sweet sixteens, business meetings, and
marriage proposals. Or at the very least, the small luxury of a warm
meal prepared by someone else.
“
Amy’s Ice Creams
and Phil’s Ice House
Amy Simmons, MBA ’92
Austin, San Antonio, Houston
If anybody gets the impression
that we’re the big guys, it hurts
my feelings,” says Amy Simmons,
owner of Amy’s Ice Creams and
burger joint Phil’s Ice House. “There’s
nothing corporate about us. It really
is organic. We love small business, we
love the creativity, we love competition
because it helps us be better. It
helps us all. There’s plenty of room for
everybody.”
Consider the company’s mission
statement: “To make people’s day.”
Simmons says it guides everything they
do and how they treat their investors,
employees, and customers. The philosophy
also helped Simmons keep the
company from straying too far from its
small business roots.
“Success typically is measured in
rapid growth, so I felt pressure,” she
says. “But I did step back and say, ‘Does
that match what feeds my soul’ and
the answer was, ‘No.’ It’s that personal
relationship with your community and
your employees where I feel I can make
the biggest difference in the world.”
That’s not to say Austin’s ice cream
maven is anti-business. She teaches
every employee about business principles
and involves them in cost reduction
and product improvement decisions.
“There’s nothing
corporate about
us. It really is
organic.”
Thanks to scoopers’ ideas and efforts,
Amy’s hasn’t needed to raise prices in
five years.
She also views her company as a
sort of business incubator, encouraging
employees to become entrepreneurs
while using Amy’s as a living case study.
Local businesses launched by former
Amy’s staffers include the Little City coffee
shop, Ozone Bikes, and Club DeVille.
“We want to let them know that they’re
not selling out by going into business, and
that there are really creative, compassionate
ways to go into business.”
Signature dish: Mexican vanilla ice
cream with strawberry crush’n
Biggest challenge of the restaurant
business: “Early on,
when finances are limited, it’s difficult
to attract people with experience elsewhere.
You have to find mentors outside
the business. It’s one of the reasons I got
my MBA—to have that network of brilliant
people.”
31 Flavors and Then Some:
Amy’s has created more than 1,000
flavors during its 27-year history. It
keeps up to 350 in rotation at one time.
Recent offerings include bacon, beer,
and habañero.
A Perfect Match: “Amy’s being similar
to Austin is not a mistake,” Simmons
says. “I spent two days here and knew it
was the perfect place to start the business.
It was an environment that felt
really at home for the concept.”
courtesy slow food truck
“Everything
is made from
scratch. We have
chef friends out
here who tell us,
‘Yours is the only
food truck that I
can eat at.’”
Oren Bass, BBA ‘05
Slow Food
Truck
Oren Bass, BBA ’05
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Let’s get one thing straight:
owning a food truck is not a
hobby. Don’t be fooled by the
kitschy trailers, tongue-incheek
names, and pop-up locations.
This is serious business.
“It’s almost like opening up a new
restaurant every day,” says Oren Bass,
chef and co-owner of the Slow Food
Truck in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Between the permits, location
scouting, and marketing, packing and
unpacking the truck every day, cooking
everything fresh daily, driving all over
South Florida and setting up shop in
any one of the multiple locations where
the truck stops, Bass has his hands full.
Not to mention the catering business he
and his partner also run.
But Bass takes comfort in the laid-back
atmosphere surrounding a food truck.
And in a region known for its upscale
dining and nightlife, Bass—who
attended culinary school after graduating
from McCombs—says he is proud to
serve gourmet cuisine that rivals many
brick-and-mortar restaurants. The truck
won second place for fan favorite and
critics’ choice at the 2012 Las Olas Food
and Wine Show, despite being the only
mobile competitor out of nearly 70 participating
restaurants.
The truck’s name refers to the “slow
food” movement, founded on fresh,
local, seasonal, and sustainable food.
“We’re a chef-driven food truck,”
Bass says. “Everything is made from
scratch. We have chef friends who tell
us, ‘Yours is the only food truck that I
can eat at.’ ”
Signature dish: Beef short rib
sandwich and warm Florida lobster
roll. Bass says a customer once drove
an hour and a half just to buy one of
their sandwiches.
Favorite Fort Lauderdale hot
spot: The Las Olas neighborhood
Biggest challenge of the restaurant
business: The hours
Brush with fame: Finished in the
top 10 of the Food Network’s “America’s
Favorite Food Truck” online contest
in 2011.
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