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By JOHN GROSSMANN
Big Bottom Market is a year-old restaurant and specialty food store in Guerneville, Calif., that also sells wine and locally made crafts. It is a moonlighting venture for its three owners, among them a San Francisco public relations executive, Michael Volpatt, who saw an opportunity to fill a local need after buying a weekend home in this Sonoma County town of 6,500.
THE CHALLENGE How to survive the lean months, October through April, when visitors to the Russian River getaway dwindle. After opening in July 2011, the market posted encouraging weekly sales of $20,000 to $24,000 in August — that plummeted to as low as $4,000 by November, prompting staff layoffs and an emergency retreat to assess options.
THE BACKGROUND Mr. Volpatt, who describes himself as a “serious foodie and serious oenophile,” had long dreamed of opening a specialty food and wine store. He decided to go ahead after settling deeper into the community of Guerneville, a once-booming logging town formerly known as Big Bottom for its location on the alluvial flats of the Russian River. Nowadays, the gay-friendly town is popular with weekenders and vacationers visiting nearby vineyards, kayaking on the river or hiking in nearby Armstrong Woods in what remains of the old-growth redwoods.
Mr. Volpatt, 40, would keep his lucrative day job: he owns half of a 10-year-old bicoastal public relations firm, Larkin/Volpatt Communications, serving clients such as the digital divisions of Publishers Clearing House and Hearst. Mr. Volpatt and his business partner, Kate Larkin, 45, who is based in New York, had already invested some of their earnings in real estate, including part ownership in an apartment building in St. Louis.
Both felt a market/breakfast and lunch spot was just what Guerneville needed. Chasing that opportunity was a leap into the unfamiliar world of retailing and restaurants but one they cushioned by entrusting the kitchen and market operations to a third founding partner with food and hospitality experience. Mr. Volpatt had become friends with Crista Luedtke, a San Francisco mortgage broker and hands-on owner of Boon Hotel and Spa and Boon Eat and Drink, two popular Guerneville businesses. With Ms. Luedtke overseeing day-to-day operations, Ms. Larkin acting as chief financial officer and Mr. Volpatt in charge of marketing, Big Bottom Market opened in a 1,500-square-foot Main Street storefront. The three partners provided $100,000 to transform the space, stock the shelves and supply operating capital.
The new look was hip-casual. Hardwood floors, plenty of barn board, funky metal chairs at nine tables, stools at a counter and a communal table. The executive chef, Tricia Brown, off a stint at New York’s Gramercy Tavern, created a menu featuring baguette sandwiches, soups and salads, and a signature-item-in-the-making: Big Bottom biscuits (regular, Cheddar and thyme, ham and cheese, even a “sea biscuit” with house-smoked salmon and capers and pickled red onions). The biscuit recipe belonged to Ms. Luedtke’s mother, who, as one of 20 employees, helped with the baking.
Sales rose like the biscuit dough in the peak summer weeks and then tapered off in September. Still, the business remained profitable, and with the biscuits getting good buzz, the fledgling owners pondered a spinoff venture, considering wholesaling batches of frozen biscuits beyond the ones they sold from their own freezer cases. Then, in October and November, the bottom fell out for Big Bottom. “At the rate you guys are going,” their accountant warned, “You’re going to have to close your doors.”
Yes, the owners had expected a downturn. “We thought maybe we’d lose about 30 to 40 percent of our business,” Mr. Volpatt said. But not 80 percent. “This is my first time at the rodeo, and I’ll tell you, we were freaking out.”
THE OPTIONS The owners immediately sought to stem the hemorrhaging expenses. They closed the market on Mondays and Tuesdays and trimmed staff. Then they gathered everyone for a crisis retreat and came up with the following ideas to save the faltering start-up.
¶ Revamp the wine inventory. Start by marking down the highest-priced wines to move them and help cash flow. Then restock with wines in the $12 to $15 range. While fine for the vacation crowd, average prices of $30 to $40 per bottle shot well past the budgets of local residents.
¶ Market directly to Guerneville residents. Create a new sandwich each month for a prominent local resident and consider such promotions as a Thursday Community Day when everything in the store — food, candles, crafts — would be 15 percent off.
¶ Open for dinner. Put a toe in the water with a $20 three-course meal on Wednesday nights.
¶ Add a catering component. Prepare party food for pickup and also for events held in the market for an added fee.
¶ Hit the road with a Big Bottom Market food truck. Increase sales and build the brand by turning the market’s popular biscuits into a movable feast.
¶ Tilt the business more toward biscuits. Market the proprietary recipe as “the next cupcake” and sell frozen, ready-to-bake biscuit dough wholesale into a leading gourmet market like San Francisco’s Bi-Rite. Then expand from there, regionally or even nationally
WHAT OTHERS SAY Ari Weinzweig, founding partner of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor, Mich.: “Since no one knows exactly what will work, trying a lot of complementary things makes sense. We often look to specials — high-demand items at a good price point that will help bring people in at off-hours. Additionally I would — and they may well have already done this — look at what else related to food and drink is not currently offered in town that could be added: product categories, services, etc. I’d also consider things that don’t generate income directly but that bring people to their business and get them to think about the store. Often they’re less than obvious: farm share pickup, classes on how to cater a party, hosting a food-writing group at an off-hour, local fund-raisers, classes for kids. Each small event or activity might only bring a few people but over time it adds up.”
Dave Hirschkop, owner of Dave’s Gourmet, a specialty food and hot sauce company in San Francisco: “Big Bottom Market’s situation is fairly typical for tourist-oriented areas. I would take a three-prong approach. Make sure that expenses are structured to match the seasonal income pattern — talk to the landlord about a modified rent structure and make sure not to overstaff during the off-season. Really focus on the local population for the off-season and adjust your offerings, pricing and promotions to appeal to them. Look for additional revenue options for the off-season — wholesaling food items, having cooking classes, selling specialty foods online.”
Sam Mogannam, owner of Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco, a community-oriented grocery store that stocks Big Bottom’s frozen biscuits: “Focus on delivering a product that the locals want and need, make sure it’s priced right, and give it to them with the most genuine service you can. If the locals don’t embrace and support it, the business will always struggle to survive. It will be difficult to maintain cash flow and to retain great staff so that the business can have the foundation and stamina it needs to thrive. The tourist months should be the gravy — what make the business profitable and worth all the effort of being in the food business.”
THE RESULTS Offer your thoughts on Big Bottom’s choices on the You’re the Boss blog at nytimes.com/boss. Next week, on the blog and in this space, we will give an update on how the market is preparing for the coming off-season.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/bu...l?ref=business
By JOHN GROSSMANN
Big Bottom Market is a year-old restaurant and specialty food store in Guerneville, Calif., that also sells wine and locally made crafts. It is a moonlighting venture for its three owners, among them a San Francisco public relations executive, Michael Volpatt, who saw an opportunity to fill a local need after buying a weekend home in this Sonoma County town of 6,500.
THE CHALLENGE How to survive the lean months, October through April, when visitors to the Russian River getaway dwindle. After opening in July 2011, the market posted encouraging weekly sales of $20,000 to $24,000 in August — that plummeted to as low as $4,000 by November, prompting staff layoffs and an emergency retreat to assess options.
THE BACKGROUND Mr. Volpatt, who describes himself as a “serious foodie and serious oenophile,” had long dreamed of opening a specialty food and wine store. He decided to go ahead after settling deeper into the community of Guerneville, a once-booming logging town formerly known as Big Bottom for its location on the alluvial flats of the Russian River. Nowadays, the gay-friendly town is popular with weekenders and vacationers visiting nearby vineyards, kayaking on the river or hiking in nearby Armstrong Woods in what remains of the old-growth redwoods.
Mr. Volpatt, 40, would keep his lucrative day job: he owns half of a 10-year-old bicoastal public relations firm, Larkin/Volpatt Communications, serving clients such as the digital divisions of Publishers Clearing House and Hearst. Mr. Volpatt and his business partner, Kate Larkin, 45, who is based in New York, had already invested some of their earnings in real estate, including part ownership in an apartment building in St. Louis.
Both felt a market/breakfast and lunch spot was just what Guerneville needed. Chasing that opportunity was a leap into the unfamiliar world of retailing and restaurants but one they cushioned by entrusting the kitchen and market operations to a third founding partner with food and hospitality experience. Mr. Volpatt had become friends with Crista Luedtke, a San Francisco mortgage broker and hands-on owner of Boon Hotel and Spa and Boon Eat and Drink, two popular Guerneville businesses. With Ms. Luedtke overseeing day-to-day operations, Ms. Larkin acting as chief financial officer and Mr. Volpatt in charge of marketing, Big Bottom Market opened in a 1,500-square-foot Main Street storefront. The three partners provided $100,000 to transform the space, stock the shelves and supply operating capital.
The new look was hip-casual. Hardwood floors, plenty of barn board, funky metal chairs at nine tables, stools at a counter and a communal table. The executive chef, Tricia Brown, off a stint at New York’s Gramercy Tavern, created a menu featuring baguette sandwiches, soups and salads, and a signature-item-in-the-making: Big Bottom biscuits (regular, Cheddar and thyme, ham and cheese, even a “sea biscuit” with house-smoked salmon and capers and pickled red onions). The biscuit recipe belonged to Ms. Luedtke’s mother, who, as one of 20 employees, helped with the baking.
Sales rose like the biscuit dough in the peak summer weeks and then tapered off in September. Still, the business remained profitable, and with the biscuits getting good buzz, the fledgling owners pondered a spinoff venture, considering wholesaling batches of frozen biscuits beyond the ones they sold from their own freezer cases. Then, in October and November, the bottom fell out for Big Bottom. “At the rate you guys are going,” their accountant warned, “You’re going to have to close your doors.”
Yes, the owners had expected a downturn. “We thought maybe we’d lose about 30 to 40 percent of our business,” Mr. Volpatt said. But not 80 percent. “This is my first time at the rodeo, and I’ll tell you, we were freaking out.”
THE OPTIONS The owners immediately sought to stem the hemorrhaging expenses. They closed the market on Mondays and Tuesdays and trimmed staff. Then they gathered everyone for a crisis retreat and came up with the following ideas to save the faltering start-up.
¶ Revamp the wine inventory. Start by marking down the highest-priced wines to move them and help cash flow. Then restock with wines in the $12 to $15 range. While fine for the vacation crowd, average prices of $30 to $40 per bottle shot well past the budgets of local residents.
¶ Market directly to Guerneville residents. Create a new sandwich each month for a prominent local resident and consider such promotions as a Thursday Community Day when everything in the store — food, candles, crafts — would be 15 percent off.
¶ Open for dinner. Put a toe in the water with a $20 three-course meal on Wednesday nights.
¶ Add a catering component. Prepare party food for pickup and also for events held in the market for an added fee.
¶ Hit the road with a Big Bottom Market food truck. Increase sales and build the brand by turning the market’s popular biscuits into a movable feast.
¶ Tilt the business more toward biscuits. Market the proprietary recipe as “the next cupcake” and sell frozen, ready-to-bake biscuit dough wholesale into a leading gourmet market like San Francisco’s Bi-Rite. Then expand from there, regionally or even nationally
WHAT OTHERS SAY Ari Weinzweig, founding partner of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor, Mich.: “Since no one knows exactly what will work, trying a lot of complementary things makes sense. We often look to specials — high-demand items at a good price point that will help bring people in at off-hours. Additionally I would — and they may well have already done this — look at what else related to food and drink is not currently offered in town that could be added: product categories, services, etc. I’d also consider things that don’t generate income directly but that bring people to their business and get them to think about the store. Often they’re less than obvious: farm share pickup, classes on how to cater a party, hosting a food-writing group at an off-hour, local fund-raisers, classes for kids. Each small event or activity might only bring a few people but over time it adds up.”
Dave Hirschkop, owner of Dave’s Gourmet, a specialty food and hot sauce company in San Francisco: “Big Bottom Market’s situation is fairly typical for tourist-oriented areas. I would take a three-prong approach. Make sure that expenses are structured to match the seasonal income pattern — talk to the landlord about a modified rent structure and make sure not to overstaff during the off-season. Really focus on the local population for the off-season and adjust your offerings, pricing and promotions to appeal to them. Look for additional revenue options for the off-season — wholesaling food items, having cooking classes, selling specialty foods online.”
Sam Mogannam, owner of Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco, a community-oriented grocery store that stocks Big Bottom’s frozen biscuits: “Focus on delivering a product that the locals want and need, make sure it’s priced right, and give it to them with the most genuine service you can. If the locals don’t embrace and support it, the business will always struggle to survive. It will be difficult to maintain cash flow and to retain great staff so that the business can have the foundation and stamina it needs to thrive. The tourist months should be the gravy — what make the business profitable and worth all the effort of being in the food business.”
THE RESULTS Offer your thoughts on Big Bottom’s choices on the You’re the Boss blog at nytimes.com/boss. Next week, on the blog and in this space, we will give an update on how the market is preparing for the coming off-season.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/bu...l?ref=business