Has anyone seen Cindy? Just wanted to get you looking for her right away...
Twenty years ago my parents bought The Black Bear Drive-In in our hometown of Northome, MN. I like to refer to The Black Bear as "the poor man's Dairy Queen" - it's a seasonal burger and soft serve ice cream joint that has been nestled on the edge of town for nearly 50 years. Originally called The Tip Top, The Black Bear serves the closest thing to fast food you'll find anywhere near Northome. My folks bought it from my mom's brother and his wife, who ran it for the two summers prior to the two summers we ran it. From mid-May until the end of August the "open" sign was on seven days a week, ten hours a day. My parents, my two sisters, my wife at the time and I, and a couple of other employees rotated shifts, with the family members taking the bulk of the hours. It was a money-making summer-destroyer. At the end of two exhausting summers my parents decided the money they made didn't compensate for the time they lost - no gardening, no fishing, no sleeping - so they sold the business and looked forward to the following normal, calm summer.
After getting out of the food business my folks became heavily involved in the Koochiching County Fair (try saying that three times fast with dry crackers in your mouth) and, with the help of some other local volunteers, have overseen a huge amount of growth in the community event. As each fair passed and attendance increased my family would marvel at the money exchange that took place between attendees and food vendors. It was hard to attract new vendors to a "small" fair, but those vendors weren't seeing what we saw - hundreds of hungry people and only two food stands. Every year we would lament the opportunity that had once again passed, that had we taken the time to put together some kind of concession, any concession, we could have pocketed several thousand dollars in just a couple of days. But motivation fades faster than memories, and within weeks of each fair the grand ideas for "next year" were pushed aside. Until one of us finally acted.
Late last summer my youngest sister purchased a food wagon. After months of dreaming, deliberating, and searching she found a great deal on a quality wagon and charged through the door of opportunity. She spent the fall and winter customizing the exterior and interior of the wagon, booking dates, experimenting with foods, and planning menus. She and I spent countless hours discussing food possibilities and business opportunities. Originally we talked about being a partnership but in the end she made the purchase so now she runs the show. And earlier this month the show debuted.
The Grandstand Concession Company opened for business on May 4 in Brainerd, MN at The Roundhouse Brewery. She has been taking the wagon to this location every Thursday and Friday in May, being helped each week by a variety of family members including her husband, our parents, our cousin, and her mother-in-law. I've made an appearance only at the two Saturday events we've attended but once my school year ends (three more days! three more days!) I'll become her right hand man for the summer. My main role in these early days has been to come up with as many bad ideas as possible for food and sales tactics, thereby allowing others' good ideas to shine through. I've done some cooking and customer relations, too, but bad-idea-guy seems to be my forte.
So far business has been slow, which has been a little disappointing but not unexpected. Small-town festivals, like the county fair in our hometown, were our target focus for income. We knew the brewery gig wasn't going to make us rich (again, I use "we" and "us" loosely....I'm still just bad-idea-guy, my sis is still the CEO) so we're thankful that we've pretty much broke even over the last few weeks. What we haven't made in dollars we have made in connections; we're starting to attract more repeat customers each week, and we've secured a few future gigs from happy customers that might make up for some of these slow days we've suffered through. And, quite frankly, slow days have allowed us to make mistakes without crippling the business while also giving us time to savor the hilarity of this adventure. For instance:
**Our second customer last Saturday came to the window wanting to know where Cindy was. She was dumbfounded at our lack of knowledge since we were obviously working in Cindy's wagon. When my sister finally convinced this woman that Cindy did not own the wagon and was not hiding in the wagon the woman then wanted to know if there were any wagons selling food across the street. Which there were. So she left. Without ever finding Cindy.
**Customer three didn't give a rip about Cindy but also wanted to know if there were any food vendors across the street. Which there were. So she left. Came within six inches of plowing into the side of The Grandstand with her car as she did so.
**The fourth customer asked about our breaded brat bites. After hearing what they were she exclaimed about how delicious they sounded and then walked away. Without ordering anything. She didn't eat cheese or peppers, two ingredients that run rampant through our menu.
**The next ten customers walked up to the wagon, stared at the menu, walked away from the wagon, and disappeared forever. Followed by an hour of business that could only be matched if we had parked the wagon on the dark side of the moon. Followed by our busiest day ever. Business is funny.
Life is funny, too. Twenty years ago my sister and I spent two summers working side by side selling food out of a hot kitchen while not finding much joy in doing so. I followed a path into education, she chose the world of social work. Halfway through those years we ended up living within 40 miles of each other, though rarely speaking and more rarely seeing each other. Now she's working on her education degree so she can have summers off to run the concession business while I'm on my knees with hope that the business succeeds so I can get out of education. And we're about to spend yet another summer working side by side selling food out of a hot "kitchen". But this time we're excited. Well, she's excited - I only get cautiously enthused.
So now I add another topic to my blog repertoire - Grandstand adventures. If you'd like to know a little more about the business you can visit the website here. You can also find The Grandstand Concession Company on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We hope you'll like us and follow us in real life even more than you do in the Interweb world.
Oh, and let us know if you ever find Cindy.
No comments:
Post a Comment