Don Day thanks photographer Niels Henriksen for bailing him out with pix for today’s post. Niels currently has a show (til February 27, 2014) in the gallery at Cafe Muro, Loreto #10B, in San Miguel de Allende.
There’s a myth (and an American Express ad) that says 90% of all restaurants fail in the first year. I wasted about two hours of my life this afternoon (no, I can’t really explain why, other than there’s some things you just have to know the truth about), exploring the internet for the real numbers. It’s actually more like 20% fail in the first year but, by the third year, it’s up to about 60%. Now would you step in the ring if you thought there was a more than 50/50 chance you were going to get knocked out in the first three rounds? Even Don Day’s not that stupid. Or is he?
I once had dreams of owning a restaurant. But then I remembered what it was like to work in one. When I was 17 years old, I had a hotel restaurant job where I worked from 5:30 am to 2:30 pm. Not so bad you say? Not so bad until you hear that I then had to come back to work from 6:30 pm to 11:00 pm. And you can imagine the problem of going to bed right after work when the job was in Cannes, France.
So why would anyone want to own a restaurant? Don Day’s father would say it’s because there are a lot of stupid people in this world. But my father was a little lacking in entrepreneurial spirit. Don Day would say the only way to really explain it is that, for some people, it’s the American dream. Or the Canadian dream. Or the Mexican dream.
The major problem with starting a restaurant is what’s commonly referred to as “bricks and mortar”. It’s the biggest investment when starting a restaurant and a major expense when operating one. And the operating expenses for a physical building aren’t just related to renting or buying that “bricks and mortar”. There are property taxes, insurance, utilities, signage, licensing fees, and cleaning expenses. All of this on top of the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs initially to turn the property into the restaurant.
In How to Manage Your Restaurant’s Critical Numbers and Avoid Financial Loose Ends, Chris Tripoli and Jim Laube state, “When looking to open your restaurant, most people will emphasize the importance of three things: location, location, location. Once you have opened, everyone will tell you that the three things you need to master to succeed are numbers, numbers, numbers.”
But what if you didn’t have to worry at all about location? And what if you had to worry much less about some of those numbers?
That’s the philosophy behind food trucks and why there are so many pop-up restaurants popping up in places like private homes, parks, factories, and traditional restaurants on the days they’re traditionally closed.
That’s also the philosophy behind some food businesses in San Miguel de Allende.
The only “bricks and mortar” Sylvia Stamatakis has is her own home. She operates a business called Greece On Wheels. She simply sends out a weekly menu, takes orders on the phone or by email and delivers the only (and therefore the very best) traditional Greek delights in town.
Yves Vincent’s business isn’t much different; he has a tiny bistro but it’s only open three days a week, is in his own living room and only seats eight. Most of his business is like Sylvia Stamatikis’ business. At Le Cochon qui Saute, Yves takes orders by phone or email and delivers. That plus the occasional catering job.
Boris and Jessi Olvera have a restaurant, the tiniest of San Miguel restaurants, about the least amount of “bricks and mortar” that you could ever get away with. Plus the restaurant is only open for late breakfasts and lunches, Monday to Friday. The rest of the time, when La Cocina wants to do a special dinner or a cooking class, Boris and Jessi use the kitchen and dining room of a friend.
Jessi told me, “We like it that way. You don’t have customers. You have an extended family. It’s like you’re inviting people into your own home,”
Though Don Day’s less than entrepreneurial father was always telling Don Day to turn that nasally nonsense off, Robert Allen Zimmerman was right, the times definitely are a changin’.
I met Warren North via an email. It’s a weekly email of specials, much like the one sent out by Sylvia Stamatakis and Yves Vincent. On it, there was something that really intrigued me, a thin crust pizza with bacon and clams. Now a thin crust pizza in San Miguel de Allende is harder to find than an eligible bachelor without an international airport full of baggage. Don Day was intrigued. I emailed Warren North. How would he like to bring his chef’s talents and his thin crust pizzas to a lunch for 12 hungry guys better known as The Gentlemen Who Lunch.
Warren said yes. Next up was to get the only guy Don Day knows who has a pizza oven, Don Day’s friend Cliff, to agree. Cliff agrees to almost anything that concerns good food. Cliff agreed. A date, a price and a menu were set and we were on.
Most people wouldn’t even think of having starters when they’re having pizza. The Gentlemen Who Lunch thought of having two.
First up was the most popular of Italian starters, bruschetta. Chef Warren prepared it with San Manzano tomatoes, Thai basil (Genovese basil is almost impossible to obtain in San Miguel), parmesan reggiano, pine nuts and a balsamic vinegar drizzle. Harry pronounced it the best bruschetta he’d ever had.
The second appetizer was calamari. Chef Warren sauteed it very simply with some red pepper flakes and bread crumbs. Squid is measured not so much on its taste as its tenderness and this was very tender squid.
Warren North calls his business Mi Cocina Creativa. Though its only a couple of months old and he doesn’t look much more than 30, his fascination with food goes back a lot further.
“Food has always been a huge part of my family. It is not solely a form of sustenance for us,” Warren told me. “It is an excuse to bring people you love around a table or even a vehicle to express your love and appreciation where sometimes words fall short.
“For as long as I can remember I stood around my mother and watched her cook. Sometimes when I was young, I would help or even get up early and make really bad scrambled eggs for the entire family. My curiosity took me to my first job at a butcher/deli. It was a whirlwind into the more hardcore side of the food industry. But after two years, I took a job at a bar and grill in Seattle as a busboy. Within a year, I was a waiter then a barback then to the coveted expediter position. I had a very good relationship with the head chef and one day a chance came along. He didn’t believe I could ‘hang’ on the line but was willing to give me a shot on the Sunday breakfast service. I did that for a number of months and the next summer I was working all morning shifts on the line. After some time, I eventually was promoted to line cook and grill. I worked summers and winters during college at the bar and grill. I even put in a little time at a pizza joint near my school in Spokane when I could.”
It was time for us to see if that early pizza experience had worked.
Cliff Avant had his pizza oven built last year. It’s based on the standards of the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana and is fired by mesquite. When it reaches its ideal temperature of almost 500°C (about 900°F), a pizza is done in about a minute and a half.
A Neopolitan style pizza is what’s commonly known as a thin crust pizza. It’s made from high-gluten flour that is kneaded by hand. A Neopolitan style pizza is what Warren North makes and, since the closing of the restaurant Piola, he is currently the only person in San Miguel that Don Day knows of who is doing it.
Chef Warren and his wife arrived in San Miguel de Allende about two years ago. He told me about his first experience here working in a “bricks and mortar” restaurant.
“We decided to spend the first two months in Spanish school but after one month I found a job in a small Italian place here in SMA”, Warren said. “It was named Buonissimo and was only open for about four months. Honestly, the food was great and I was lucky enough to be trained as a replacement to an experienced Italian chef. He didn’t speak English, I didn’t really speak that much Spanish yet, and the ayudante spoke neither English nor Italian. It was an interesting work environment to say the least. The chef wanted to travel the world and I was his replacement. Everything went great other than the owner running out of money after attempting to open the place just before the low season began. But that happens more often than not down here.”
Warren had agreed to make five different pizzas for us to sample and the first out of the oven was the gold standard of pizzas, the simple margherita with San Marzano sauce, mozzarella and basil. The crust was cracker crisp and perfectly charred. Don Day and the guys were having their first true Neopolitan pizza in San Miguel in months.
The margherita was followed by some more exotic toppings. There was a clam and pancetta with garlic, olive oil, thyme and lemon. An Italian sausage, tomato sauce, caramelized onion, red pepper flakes and provolone. A prosciutto, soft egg, garlic and arugula. And a thinly sliced potato, onion, garlic and rosemary. This was good pizza.
From Buonissimo, Warren North went to another bricks and mortar restaurant job, at The Longhorn Smokehouse in San Miguel.
“I was very well aware that the reason Buonissimo closed was for overhead costs,” Warren told me. “and during my year or so at the Longhorn, I was privy to all the financial comings and goings. So I have a very good idea of what it costs to run a storefront business here. And guess what? It is not cheap! Paying for rent along with food costs, gas bills, salaries, employee benefits, maintenance, and upkeep will drive you into the ground unless you are turning out food fast enough or have the client base to maintain yourself. But for the rest of us, it is a nearly impossible, very expensive road to have a sustainable, profitable business here.
“At first thought, I believed I could only serve people if I worked in one of two environments. One being on the line in a nice restaurant with decent food or the other being a storefront that I own. But now I realize I was incorrect in my thinking. And I don’t blame myself; it’s how most people would view the situation. Who would blame them? Every time you know that someone can cook really well, what do you tell them? ‘You should have your own restaurant!’ But that doesn’t have to be the case every time.”
Warren North was ready to start his own food business in San Miguel but exactly what.
“I thought to myself that my body and my marriage can’t handle the 70 hour weeks required for a head chef position in a busy restaurant and I also don’t have the financial ability to start a storefront. So I put my business degree to work and looked into starting my own home business. I thought with all these people and so many homes, there had to be a market for people looking for food outside of restaurants.
The last thing on the guys’ lunch menu was another classic Italian dish. The dessert was tiramisu. Don Day and, I think, all of the others, thought it was one of the best they’d ever had.
Italian is just one of the themes that Mi Cocina Creativa can build a lunch or dinner around. There’s also Mediterranean, Asian and Modern American. Each week a few of the dishes that are featured on Warren’s full menu, are offered for delivery. Last week, they included eggplant foccacia, spaghetti all’amatriciana and carne borracha. The previous week, that clam and bacon pizza was on the list and, no, you don’t need a pizza oven to heat it up at home.
“Not counting for my time, my start-up cost was very low,” said Warren. “Now ask any entrepreneur or business person, and they will tell you that keeping start-up or market entry costs low is a big key to a successful business endeavor. Being able to keep control on those costs lead to the start of my company.
“Even having 20/20 hindsight, I still wouldn’t change those initial decisions and philosophies. I still work to those beliefs and always will. The food industry is one of the toughest to survive with cash still in your pocket. But right now, Mi Cocina Creativa is doing very well and I am very pleased. People seem to like our food and we will always strive to improve.
“We like to give people the full experience in their home at a price point much lower than a restaurant. And people love not having to shop for groceries, prep, cook, and clean – they can just pour a drink and I’ll do the rest!”
Whatever the survival rate of restaurants. 80% after one year. Or 20% after one year. Don Day thinks the no “bricks and mortar” style of business is going to start making those failure rates move steadily downward. Don Day thinks Mi Cocina Creativa is going to be around an awful long time. Don Day is already talking to Warren North about an Asian lunch that will include another very hard to find in San Miguel dish, Vietnamese pho.
Mi Cocina Creativa is located in San Miguel de Allende Mexico. To receive a copy of their full menu and/or be placed on their weekly email for food that’s available for delivery that week, email Warren North at warrenjnorth@gmail.com or call him at 415 152 8382.
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