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For Restaurants, A Never Ending Pivot
Last week, I spoke twice by Zoom to the Ann Katz Festival of Books at the Jewish Community Center of Indianapolis. I’d hoped to go in person, but my back wasn’t up to four flights in 48 hours, since there are no non-stops from New Orleans to Indianapolis. (Many thanks to the JCC for its flexiblity).
My interviewer for both sessions was Martha Hoover of Patachou, Inc., one of the best known restaurant owners in Indianapolis, and someone who has received ample national attention. Martha is a six-time nominee for the James Beard Award as Outstanding Restaurateur, and she’s been named one of the most innovative women in the culinary world by Food & Wine Magazine.
Martha is a big believer in the ZingTrain seminars offered by Zingerman’s and she was deeply familiar with the concepts that I write about in Satisfaction Guaranteed.
Much more than talk about myself, however, I was interested in learning about Martha and the challenges she has faced during the pandemic.
One point she made during our conversations got my attention. We were speaking about the changes Zingerman’s made across its Community of Businesses to deal with the numerous changes required in the wake of Covid-19.
“Restaurants have always been subject to the pivot,” Martha said, “as competition increases, as pricing changes, as trends change — not just regarding food menu items but trends regarding workers and what workers can expect. That they are still pivoting does not surprise me.”
Even if pivoting was in restaurants’ DNA, “Covid was truly an accelerant,” Martha said. “We all mark March 16 —” when governors across the Great Lakes issued stay at home orders — “as a day of demarcation.”
Protecting her restaurant group
I followed up with Martha in a lively phone call. When the pandemic began, she operated 14 restaurants in the Indianapolis area. Five of them were her flagship Patachou cafes, which she began opening in 1989.
Patachou is breakfast and lunch focused, while Martha also has pizza places called Napolese and a farm-to-table focused nameplate called Public Greens. The shift from dining in to carry out caused her to immediately reassess the strength of her locations.
She closed three of them, but remarkably, she actually opened a carry out only spot called Apocalypse Burger, whose name was directly inspired by the situation in which restaurant found themselves.
Martha says she was able to do so because her enterprise had the systems in place to operate as well as a leadership team committed to getting through the immediate crisis.
In making such decisions, Martha says her organization looks at three steps: it understands the future risks, understands how to address them and also when to address them.
A few years ago, one of her restaurants experienced a terrible flood that forced it to be closed for a year. “That gave us an advance game plan of how to shut down a restaurant, and when to re-open a restaurant,” Martha says.
But there was no game plan in place for the order-taking technology that Martha discovered her restaurants would need once the pandemic took hold. “We were like dinosaurs,” she says. “We were fighting it. We talked ourselves into the idea that what we do is art” and that each interaction needed to be handled by employees.
Banishing pre-conceived notions
By January, 2021, her restaurants had caught up to modern menu technology. Beyond that came some fundamental shifts in thinking. Martha says her organization now regularly goes through “assumption exercises” which are meant to shake pre-conceived notions of doing business.
For instance, the concept that a restaurant is a four-wall experience. Carryout shattered that idea, but that meant that the hospitality portion of restaurant service still needed to be addressed. “It’s a total falsehood that people think restaurants are only about food. It’s so much more,” Martha says.
If she’s disappointed by any thing she learned in recent years, it’s that the public still doesn’t grasp the importance of restaurants to their communities. She constantly gets complaints about her menu prices, to the point where she posts an explanation to customers (something Zingerman’s also does).
But Martha, who is a lawyer, says that nothing will shake her from her determination to keep her enterprise afloat. By the end of 2023, she plans to open three more Patachou cafes, bringing the total to eight.
“This is really my life’s work,” Martha says.
Farewell to two game changers
The culinary world lost two women last week who can be justifiably described as game-changers.
Julie Powell, the food blogger whose book, Julie & Julia became a film starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, died of heart disease at age 49. Meanwhile, Gael Greene, the legendary New York Magazine restaurant critic, passed away at age 88.
Many of my New York friends were friends with Julie, who came onto the scene in the early 2000s with her intriguing project. She decided to cook all the recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the seminal cookbook co-authored by Julia Child, Louise Bertholle and Simone Beck.
It was a time-consuming, not to mention expensive project, and Julie slogged along in relative obscurity until her blog began to get attention from Web sites and national media. Then, she took a much-envied spotlight, garnering 400,000 page views per post, and bringing new attention to Julia Child in what turned out to be the last years of her life.
Julie’s work wasn’t universally heralded: Julia Child supposedly thought she was not serious enough. Veteran culinary writers sniffed at her sometimes profane approach. But she kicked off a trend that continues today, the idea of taking a cookbook and making every recipe.
Meanwhile, Gael was an enormously influential force during her years at New York Magazine, which stretched from 1968 to 2008 (she continued writing reviews for Crain’s New York Business until 2012). Her career was remarkable for its longevity and its relevance.
Gael went to enormous lengths to conceal her identity so that she could swoop into and out of New York restaurants undetected. Calling herself the Insatiable Critic, she wrote with sensuous zeal, left no prisoners when displeased, and helped transform dining from a special occasion event into regular entertainment.
I found her especially delightful, because she was from Detroit. She attended Central High School, which has spawned famous graduates including Freda Payne, Anita Baker and James Lipton. She then went to the University of Michigan before taking off for the big city and her first job at the New York Post.
More personally, she was the then-wife of my editor at New York Newsday, Don Forst, who spoke affectionately of her to me as “my Gael.” (They later divorced.)
Even more notably, Gael was one of the founders of CityMeals on Wheels, which has been incredibly helpful to New York’s senior citizen community and has fed hundreds of thousands of people since making its first deliveries.
Julie and Gael are already much missed, and it’s sad to lose them both at once.
The Semi-Finals Look Of The Great British Bake Off (SPOILERS AHEAD)
I’m patting myself on the back because I’ve correctly called three of the four people who are in the semi-finals of this season of the Great British Bake Off.
As revealed on Tuesday in Britain and Friday on Netflix, they are Abdul, Janusz, Sandro and Syabira. I was a little surprised to see Abdul make the cut, because I would have predicted that Maxy had a better chance. But she was booted this week.
Of the quartet, I could easily see Janusz, Sandro and Syabira making the finals, although Syabira has had a few shaky bakes in recent weeks. Abdul is a little bit of a wild card: he’s an engineer, like Andrew Smythe a few seasons back, and he has the poise that could suit future television projects.
Remember that the show allegedly judges the bakers fresh each week (if you believe that, I have a bridge up for sale), so no one is guaranteed a berth.
However, Janusz, Sandro and Syabira all fit the mold of a potential winner. Janusz is skilled and charming, and seems like a natural fan favorite. Sandro has a Type-A swagger that brings to mind Paul Hollywood, and whether he is in the final three or not, he seems like he is itching to have his own baking show after the season ends.
Syabira is downright adorable (that’s her, above), and she comes up with flavors and concepts that have never been seen on the show before. She’s somewhat reminiscent of Nadiya Hussain, who has been the shining star among the Bake Off champions.
Next week’s episode will be drama-filled as will the one after that. The coveted glass cake plate — and a culinary career — hang in the balance.
Who do you think has the best chance of winning? Weigh in!
We Have A Winner!
Congratulations to Susan Blankenship, who has won a copy of Gateau by Alexsandra Crapanzano. I re-read it this week, looking for some orange inspirations, and I know Susan is in for a treat.
The next CW giveaway will be announced next Sunday. Remember that paid subscribers are automatically entered. You can always convert your free subscription and support our journalism.
Congratulations, Susan!
Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman
My next two book appearances will take me back home. Next Sunday, Nov. 13, Zingerman’s Bakehouse Managing Partner Amy Emberling will interview me on the closing night of the Detroit Jewish Book Fair.
I really enjoyed the day I spent at the Bakehouse doing research for the book, including watching the coffee cake production line, and I’m sure we’ll talk about that.
On Nov. 17, I’ll travel down U.S.-23 to Toledo, for the Northwest Ohio Jewish Book Fair. My interviewer will be Kripke Enterprises CEO Matt Kripke, and there will be Zingerman’s snacks and treats on hand.
Please let me know if you attend any of my programs — and of course, I’m happy to sign books.
You can contact me at culinarywoman at gmail dot com. My Instagram accounts are @michelinemaynard for my writing and @micki_in_nola for my New Orleans adventures. I’m @culinarywoman on Twitter (although we’ll have to see how long I stay there) and there is a CulinaryWoman Facebook page.
Fall is now underway, and it’s bringing some maladies. Get a flu shot and your Covid booster, too. I’ll see our paid subscribers tomorrow with Red Beans and Advice and all of you next week.