The Argonaut Project (A.K.A. The Tiny Boat): January 2007

This article was published a couple of years ago. Someone mentioned it to me last week, and suggested I post it. Hope it's still relevant............

Restaurants can change communities!

Maui Meyer

A version of this article was published in the spring newsletter of the Chef’s Collaborative, the recognized leaders of the “Slow-Food” movement, which is a group of restaurateurs attempting to reintroduce the art of healthy dining, back to the American people.

I’ve been in the hospitality business all my life, but I was unprepared for an interesting change that took place back in 1998 and has led my partners and I to altering the way we view life, and the hospitality industry. I found out that restaurants are a natural agent for change in a community. Read on and find out how.

I came to my adopted home for good in 1991 after graduating college. My new home was Hood River, Oregon, an old farming/lumber town that recently found a new life in the sport of windsurfing, and now enjoys some level of success in the “Extreme Sports!” afterglow.

“Something” drew me (and others) here. The easiest way to describe it was that it had a great quality of life, but that would be an oversimplification. It has a large set of basic elements that made me feel, well, whole.

I opened a restaurant, and the best we could do to serve our market was be a bar and grill. We met with moderate success, but still something was missing, all the pieces were not there for me personally. Over time, our staff began maturing and opening their own locations. Today they thrive as well. We are a close-knit community of businesspeople.

Then an interesting thing happened. In 1998, one of my managers (now a partner) suggested we go for “Green Smart” certification. It’s a program that got us thinking about our inputs and outputs as a restaurant. As we attempted to apply the “reduce reuse recycle” model to our business, more things started to happen.

Our food quality went up. Our costs went down. There was more cohesiveness in our staff. After a few months of this slight transformation, we began to question our vendors. Where was our food coming from? What REALLY was in it? The answers were so inadequate that we began retool our entire business.

We have, over the last few years, reduced our waste stream by almost 70%. We source our food locally, and almost immediately found that we can actually pay more because we waste less, and we get a better product out of it. Currently, we support four family farms with our accounts.

Our fish, when it is in season, is wild, net caught salmon. We receive forage direct from the pickers and our crop ranges from Morels to Chanterelles, Shiitakes, huckleberries, raspberries, and a litany of other less known products.

Additionally, we support our local dairy farmers and other suppliers from out of the area, choosing to use organic in every instance where the product is being fairly produced and traded. (It took a long time to convince some suppliers to stop charging a premium for handling “organic” products).

In short, we have thrived over the last years. But all of that, all of the success we have had pales in comparison to what has happened in the last year.

In this last year, our efforts became viral. The work, the ethic, and the concept of shopping locally, and building a business that has the triple profit motive of Community, Economy and Ecology, began to creep into other restaurants and into other businesses.

By using our structure as an example we’ve been able to show people that a healthier product not only tastes better, but it doesn’t have to cost more. (We serve many “organic” products and still have an average check of $12.00) We’ve helped other restaurateurs develop their own supply of local farmers to provide them with quality products, and they too have come to understand the importance of buying from local vendors, people who you can reach on the phone if you have real problems, and people who will return your dollar into the local economy again and again and again.

Now instead of figuring out how to make our restaurant sustainable, our community is considering how to make the entire town and county sustainable. Our actions have, in part changed the way 20,000 people will live their lives going forward.

At first it might not seem natural to have a bar and grill be such a part of this community change, but now we see that not only is it a natural part of proving that the sustainable model works, it is the logical platform from which to begin.

Where else but the restaurant you dine in regularly, should you be exposed to food that is actually better for you than the processed-chemically injected meat product you find in most stores?

What other place could have more impact than the trusted local restaurant where our patrons’ dine multiple times per week? In short, there is no better place from which to change the core of a community than through our patron’s taste buds. The daily actions of each and every one of the small, neighborhood restaurants across the country could have a similar, profound impact.

If you lead by example you can show that quality food, when grown with a respect for the environment and the local community, processed minimally, and served responsibly (in preparation and price) isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. Each plate that goes out the door proves over and over and over again that as restaurateurs we do not have to settle for the status quo. We can lead in our community vision, a vision of a whole life where community is created by business, and our food actually tastes like someplace.

Consider, as you close your books, count your inventory, and receive your products, what the far-reaching impacts of your actions are. Are you leading your community? If you are not, envision that you could, because just like a chef with specials to create, the raw products are all there in front of you to spread the word that your community doesn’t have to taste like every other community. It can be distinct, cultural, proud and self-reliant. It all begins at the plate you place in front of them.

Aim higher. You might find that piece of your business and your life that’s been missing all these years. The reason why we love what we do.

Just got back from the Oregon Business Summit. A Truly great day. In Oregon, many of the Civic minded business leaders and Policy makers were there. Quite impressive. Kulongoski, Wyden, Courtney, Minnis Kitzhaber, Westlund. Some flashes from the Day........

Judge Grasty and Laura Pryor, both concerned about Eastern Oregon's place in the plan.....Lane Schetterly cornered in the hall by friends and questions.........Ted Kulongoski walking around having casual conversations with people.......Ashley Henry and Nik Blosser getting Kudos from Dennis Wilde of Gerding Edlen, Paul Woodin, Gary and I cornering legislators and gaining participants for the Community Renewable Energy Association (CREA) A Big look member getting questioned on progress........Hustling to get numbers for Wyden's staff on the PL-106 Funds that went towards the Mt. Hood Search ($60K)...........

The Oregon Business plan has chosen Sustainability as their diferentiator for the State. It's a good one, and many of Oregon's companies are already leading the way. It's interesting to see it being fused into our DNA. Sustainability is, of course, our future, but it's jingoism without an action plan. Nothing excites me more that talking about sustainability in the business context. It's a total power tool.

Anyway, Great, intense day. Lots and Lots of great conversation with Ron, Les, Barbara, Bill Fashing and I.....