How did you get involved with restaurants?
I’ve been in this business 42 years. My first job was when I turned 18 and I answered an ad in a newspaper in Endicott, New York. I call up and this guy answers the phone. Stu’s place. It was a bar. And I said, Who’s hiring? He goes, Stu Potter. So I got there, I came in, and a guy goes, can I help you? I go, I’m looking for Stu Potter. He goes, I’m Stu Potter. And I go, hi, I’m Stu Dixon, your next bartender. And he goes, what? Prove it. So I whip my wallet out. He looks and goes, you’re hired. That was it. He says, if you get bought a beer or drink, put a little shot glass in the back of the bar.
Stu walks back in about nine o’clock at night and there’s 17 shot glasses along the back of the bar. And he goes what the hell is that? I go, oh those are drinks people bought me. He goes, no way, when I bartend I don’t even get that many. So he closed down the bar and he and I and one of his buddies played that bowling game. And that was my introduction to the restaurant business.
Here, we’re growing into a really great lunch spot. You know, great salads, great soups, great sandwiches. A New York deli style thing. People come in and grab a sandwich, you know, and a couple of scoops.
Also flatbread pizzas. We’re going to do one with green chile chicken. And then we’re going to do my dad’s sandwiches. My dad always had a sandwich for lunch, along with a dill pickle. We’re going to have a panini press so we can make a couple of paninis or a Cuban and do like a hot sandwich of the day. And then we’ll do three salads. And then I’ve got a chicken chopped salad that I have a recipe for that’s to die for. People call it the chicken crack salad because it’s just so addictive.
I just want a little cafe on Canyon Road. My team shares in the profits. I’m a believer in profit sharing. As I make money, they make money.
We want to make this an event space on the weekends, where people come and have a drink and relax a little bit, maybe a movie night, who knows?
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