Ethos Vegan Kitchen Has a Winning Recipe!

Some restaurants have great food and some have great atmosphere, but VERY few have both. Today I discovered Ethos Vegan Kitchen, a neighborhood charm in across the street from Gaston Edwards Park in Orlando. Well, I didn't exactly "discover" it by accident, I found it after I did a search for vegetarian-friendly outdoor dining in Orlando. Ethos had some of the highest online ratings on various restaurant search engines such as my VegOut iPhone app where they hold a Five Star rating with 56 reviews! On Urbanspoon 90% of 372 people like it! According to Ethos customers, owners Laina and Kelly Shockley know how to please!

From the online photos and the view from the road, I wasn't so sure about the restaurant. But as soon as I stepped inside, I felt at home in this inviting atmosphere. The warm yellow and red tones on the walls are accented with brick and wood. The floors are partial tile and partial rough concrete. It works very well for this down-to-earth locally-owned restaurant. The lighting is just right--not too high or low. And the music is a mix of sensual tunes like Midnight In A Perfect World by DJ Shadow and Brown Skin Lady on Black Star, an album assembled by emcees Mos Def and Talib Kweli.

While I was in line, a talkative birthday girl celebrating her 40th randomly introduced herself to me. I told her it was my first time to this restaurant and she raved about the food telling me that everything on the menu is fantastic. She was talking among lots of her yogi friends in line telling them all about the fabulous food.

It was quick and easy to place an order. You order at the front register and then they bring the food to your table. The two tables near the front windows are great seating with a view of the park and lake. It's also a nice spot to sit if you're waiting for a friend to arrive before you place your order. The front windows are bright and beautiful in the daytime! And if you're inside, you can access free WiFi.

Near the back of the restaurant, there's a great area with not only tables, but also a couch and some chairs. It's a comfortable place to congregate and that's just where the 40th birthday girl was schmoozing with her friends.

No business is complete without local art! If the number of pieces were a measure of their commitment to local artists, then I would say that Ethos is very committed to the well-being of the local community--not only in providing tasteful vegan delights, but also in supporting local artists. In fact, when I asked about the art, one of the employees told me that they recently had an art show put together by their resident artist, Scott White.

"Resident artist?"

How many businesses can boast of their resident artist?

Apparently Scott recently coordinated an art show displaying collaborative art among local artists. How much more can one restaurant help create camaraderie among local artists and customers? Check out this creative concoction between Scott White and El Shanebo. Priced at only $60, this piece is sure to be adopted by a customer very soon! I like how they used both images and words in this work entitled "Go Robot."  Learn more about Scott at his website GhostsOfScottWhite.

After you've had a chance to check out some local art, be sure to check out the scenery. If you're near the front of the restaurant either inside or out, you can look across the street and through the park to see the lake. I saved the best for last. Not only can you get great healthy food here, but you can also sit outside and enjoy the your meal in a covered area. Rain or shine you can enjoy the fresh air, well at least as fresh as it can be alongside a street with occasional cars going by. And you can also enjoy the green plants in the eating area.

 

But that's not all that's right about this restaurant. They have three restrooms with signs on the door that say "bathroom." That makes so much sense! Other less efficient restaurants can learn from this. If the ladies room is locked at Chipotle or another restaurant where they label the doors "men" and "women," I often use the men's room because it's not an efficient use of any woman's time to wait for the women's room if the men's room is free! Yet so many obedient female customers do just this--they wait and wait and wait, and don't never complain to management! If you want to learn more about my restroom philosophy, check out my "Gotta Go" video on YouTube:

When I was planning my trip to Orlando, I thought about contacting owners Kelly or Laina in advance to see if I could interview them, but I didn't want my first experience to be swayed by people who have a vested interest in the business. I'm not even sure if they were in the restaurant for the majority of my time here, but I'm pretty sure they weren't there most of the time because I didn't see anyone who looked like them walking around the restaurant. 

That's even more points for this successful business--for their willingness to show their faces on the About page on their website and one more point for the fact that the customer experience is fabulous whether they're here or not.! I saw lots of happy customers coming and going and I didn't notice even one complaint or go-back! All the staff was friendly and you can learn more about them on the same About page. It's clear that the owners value their employees.

At most restaurants I have to search for ways to say more positive things than negative, but the opposite is true here. If I were to offer a few suggestions for improvement and potential for increasing profitability, here's what I'd say in order of priority: 

• Collaborate with a sustainable local greenscaper to improve the outdoor seating area by adding an enveloping, rejuvenating greenspace, perhaps even including some edibles.
• Offer consulting services to other locally owned healthful restaurants in Florida. You obviously have a tremendous scope of talents that other like-minded restaurant owners need.
• Open a second Ethos closer to a place with higher foot traffic, like St. Augustine please : )
• Set a goal to continuously increase your 50% organic food to higher percentages over time.
• Add more character and context to your restroom. When people are sitting around or standing in place for a minute or two, you have time to give them a message. Don't lose this opportunity.
• As it got dark, the track lighting on the ceiling felt a bit harsh--replace purple/redish bulbs with something less harsh. It distorted the color of the artwork after sunset. 
• Add free WiFi to the outdoor seating area.

Next time you're in Orlando, I highly recommend that you stop by here for at least one meal. I'm sure I'll be coming back!

Stir It Up at St. Augustine Beach

“I’ll do a Get up Stand up with a Nutty Mother,” says a barefoot young lady wearing a hot pink bikini, as she adjusts her dark sunglasses and green visor.

“And I’ll take The Boss with Good Karma,” says her friend in navy swim trunks as he shakes his foot sporting a white ankle bracelet. 

This is what you’re likely to see and hear if you’re in line at Stir It Up. You’ll find this Florida eatery on “A” Street just a few doors back from the St. Augustine Beach front. Locals regularly line up in tank tops, shorts and flip flops for their favorite “Veggie Heaven” menu items. Tourists find Stir It Up on their way to the beach or through the fantastic online reviews. “If all vegetarian food was this good I would consider becoming a vegetarian,” says one reviewer on TripAdvisor.

Look for a white house with blue trim and a line of customers on the front steps. Although this lunch spot has the right location, location, location, it also has the right burritos, quesadillas and salads made primarily from organic ingredients. Whether you’re looking for a turkey sandwich (Smokin’ Turkey), a vegetarian hummus burrito (burRita Marley), or a chicken quesadilla (Cheesy Chick), you’re in the right place. If you want vegan, be sure to ask. And a healthy beach lunch wouldn’t be complete without a fresh fruit “Natural Mystic” smoothie made with thirst-quenching tropical fruits such as bananas, mangos, pineapple and coconut.

This isn’t a typical restaurant where you walk through the front door to be greeted by a hostess. Here you walk up to the front door and look through a screen window to place your order. Nothing goes through the front door except your order and your cash. No credit cards. While waiting you can play with toy dinosaurs or leaf through magazines. If you’re here to stay a while, check out the community bulletin board to find a yoga class, concert, or apartment for rent. When your name is called, you pick up your food from the window next to the front door. 

You’ll see customers sipping smoothies at barstools pulled up to the front porch railings. From here you can read lyrics to Bob Marley’sStir It Up tune such as: “cool me down when I’m hot,” and “quench me when I’m thirsty,” which are painted in bright colors on the inside of the porch trim.

Yelp appropriately categorizes the ambiance as “hipster, dive-y and casual.”  In this 100% open air restaurant, you’ll feel like a welcome guest hanging out on a surfer’s porch which wraps across the front of the house and opens up to a large side deck extending to the entrance of the Pit Surf Shop.

You’re likely to see ladies in sun dresses eating at a black wrought iron table on the deck, and a group of surfer dudes under a thatch roof gazebo at the corner of the deck. You could see a family at the picnic table under palms in the front yard and a couple sitting at purple or white Adirondack chairs by the mailboxes. Wherever you sit, you’ll get to enjoy the beach breeze.

You might hear music coming from the kitchen, but what you’ll surely hear is “yums” and “ahs” in conversations among companions as they enjoy “positive food in a positive place.” This isn’t just a slogan at Stir It Up, it’s exactly what you’ll experience when you eat at the best lunch spot at St. Augustine Beach. Bob Marley says it best: “Your recipe is, darlin’, is so tasty.”

Chipotle Serves Healthy Fast Food

Check out this great ABC News Nightline interview with Steve Ells, Founder of Chipotle Mexican Grill:

If you haven’t already eaten at a Chipotle, take your next opportunity to try their fabulous food. It’s the best tasting and healthiest fast food around! Ells cares about the food served at Chipotle from start to finish, literally, not only for the people, but also the animals. Much of the food served in Chipotle is organic as well.

Harry's Broken Process Eats Up Time

Last night my husband and I drove to St. Augustine to enjoy an evening walk on the the beach and dinner. The walk on the beach was great, but the dinner experience wasn't as pleasant.
We strolled around St. Augustine checking out our restaurant choices. We passed by several for various reasons: we weren't  in the mood for Mexican, the music was too loud, the outdoor chairs didn't look comfortable, we didn't care for the musician, the wait for outdoor seating was too long, or whatever. And so we kept walking, until we came to Harry's of course, my husband's favorite restaurant in the ancient city.

Harry's has a quaint courtyard and they usually have a mellow live music on weekend evenings. My husband had Harry's on his mind before we even arrived, so I knew that he'd be disappointed if I chose another restaurant. But next time I probably will. 
 
We arrived at Harry's about 9:30 PM and we were told that we'd have about a 30 minute wait. So we got a drink and sat down on chairs in the outdoor waiting area. We sat down hoping to relax. About five or ten minutes later, two other couples with British accents joined us in the outdoor waiting area. Immediately, they started commenting about all the empty tables that we were looking at--some clean and some not so clean. They grew impatient quickly and the two men sat down at an empty table for two. A few minutes later, a waitress asked them to leave the table.
"We've been standing around staring at this empty table while our wives are holding their drinks on their knees," he said with his British accent. "What's the hold up?"
The waitress informed him that the kitchen was "backed up" and that they would be seating customers at this table soon. They had too many orders in the kitchen and they couldn't keep up.

In the meantime, we all joked critically about the empty tables, commenting about their slow service. The employees were all wearing black pants and black shirts so it was easy to identify three of them standing in a corner chatting.  If you know Harry, please let him know that it's not a good idea for customers to stand around waiting for service, while they watch three employees stand around talking. It gives us the impression that the customers here are a low priority.
The next time someone in black walked by the British customer, he asked, "Can you please let me know why we're standing in this waiting area when there are so many empty tables?"
"Our computer went down and our tech guy got in a fight with his girlfriend, so he left." The guys turned to us and brought us up to date with the latest report.
The next time I saw someone walk by in black, I asked if she could request the manager to come talk to us. A manager came out right away. She had black spiked hair and lips pursed with frustration. As soon as she came out to the courtyard, the people in black started looking busy. They walked over to the dirty tables, started wiping and pushing dirty dishes around. They ought to get some of these people back in the kitchen to lend a hand, I thought, to learn to make a salad or something!
"We've been looking at empty tables for almost half an hour. Is there a reason why we can't wait more comfortably at a table?"
"You've been waiting for 18 minutes on pager #152," she snapped. "We can't seat any more people or our kitchen will go down." I wondered how she knew our pager number. After getting home and downloading my pictures, my camera time showed 25 minutes between the time we arrived and the time I took a photo just after talking with the manager. I was irritated enough to check the time the next day!
When our pager finally went off and we went to the hostess station, I asked a young lady how long we had been waiting. "The pager time just cleared out," she said with a smirk. "Follow me please," she said as she grabbed two menus. I wasn't surprised that she wasn't tracking the promised time against the actual wait time. Their lack of appropriate measures was evident. If the restaurant had some better process measures in place, the manager could have improved customer service this evening. They obviously didn't have a goal of getting tables cleaned quickly or getting customers seated as quickly as possible.
We eventually got seated and had a good hot meal, but we certainly didn't have a romantic evening of conversation on Harry's patio as we had expected. Instead, we got caught up in conversation with other frustrated customers as we witnessed their broken process. We all agreed that we'd rather be waiting at a table conversing with our companions than standing on the sidelines. There weren't enough "waiting" seats for everyone who was waiting, even though there were plenty of chairs in the courtyard.
I shot a photo of my dinner plate when it arrived at 11:12 PM. If I had known we were going to wait more than an hour and a half for our dinner, I wouldn't have chosen Harry's.
If you're a hungry tourist in St. Augustine tonight, I don't recommend Harry's, but if you don't mind sitting or standing around in a nice courtyard for an hour or more, you might enjoy it.
We have visitors coming into town next week and we were planning on bringing about a dozen people to Harry's. Now we're working on Plan B. We've been going to Harry's occasionally for several years and this is the worst service we've ever experienced.
Does anyone know what's up with Harry? Is he doing OK? Even if a business is going down hill, it can survive by taking advantage of tourists who don't know any better. Tourists beware!
Harry could do any of the following to begin the journey of improving his customer satisfaction:

• put customer feedback cards on every table
• train the busboys and busgirls to help make salads when the kitchen gets backed up
• hire managers who have more empathy with customers
• redesign the measure that's forcing the hostess not to seat people at empty tables until the kitchen is ready

If you own or work for a business where you believe you can be doing a better job and would like help improving your processes, contact Dr. Lorraine today. Better now than later.

Write Down Your Processes for Goodness' Sake

"Last time I was here, I had no problem swapping mashed potatoes for the French fries. So why is it a problem today?" a customer retorts with frustration.

"When I bought the car, I was told your service policy was to wash my car every time it comes in for service, but half the time, you tell me my car is ready, but I'll have to wait longer if I want it washed."

Sound familiar? Ever had the rules changed on you?

Are you familiar with the Telephone game in which one person whispers a message into the ear of the next person? The way this game goes is that a group of individuals form a circle and one person starts with the original news. The information is transferred from one person to the next until it goes all the way around the circle. As the message comes back around, the last person communicates out loud to the whole group--and laughter breaks out as everyone comments on what they thought they heard.

This is a favorite party game around the world because it illustrates how much each person distorts the message to the extent that the final message is often completely unrelated to the original. The larger the group, the more erroneous the message becomes. It's downright funny how unreliable verbal communication can be. In a game the result is laughter, but in business, the result is leakage!

Now imagine relying on verbal communication in a company with dozens of employees? How about hundreds of employees, or even thousands. People are talking--you can count on it!It's management's responsibility to ensure they're all sending the same message. If top managers want to allow substitutions, do all of your employees permit customers to swap mashed potatoes for French fries? If it's your policy to wash all cars after servicing them, are you counting how many actually get washed? If these things aren't happening consistently, what impression do you think you're giving your customers?

So what does this mean to business owners and managers? It can be very expensive to count on verbal communication as the primary means of running your business. Verbal communication differs tremendously from person to person. Variability is the opposite of stability or standardization.

If every employee does things his or her own way, the customer ends up having a different experience each time he does business with you. Not only does your business success depend on putting standard practices into place, it also depends on being sure that they're getting carried out every day.

Variability means less predictability and more chaos for your employees and customers. If service or problem resolution is handled a different way each time it happens, customers become frustrated and typically even inform employees how things were done around here the last time. Erratic processes increase employee stress and lower customer satisfaction.

IBM Manager Bob Haataia suggests a good idea. Imagine the same circle game but with a new rule--the first person has to write the message on a piece of paper and read it quietly to their neighbor, then pass it on to the next person and so on, until it goes all the way around the circle. This game wouldn't be anywhere near as comical as the first because if everyone followed the rules, the first message would be exactly the same as the last.  You can count on it. You can predict it. No game!

If you had 10, 100, or even 1000 people standing in a circle, they could discuss other matters amongst themselves until the written message got around to the last person because they would already know how the game will end. It will end with everyone getting the same message.  There's no confusion and no stress. If a company has well-written procedures and work instructions and employees are properly trained in carrying out these good practices, then the organization has a much better chance at promoting their brand by giving their customers a consistent experience.

God delivered us a message through his son, but he made sure that there were people around to write down the stories. He didn't leave it to chance. If God thinks it's a good idea, I choose to agree.

Some people may interpret the written words a bit differently, and if they do, you have the opportunity to discuss the instructions or procedures to make it more clear to everyone.

Do you have a company mission statement? Are your core business processes written down? Do they support your mission? Is everyone marching in the same direction without tripping over one another?

If you said 'no' to any of these questions and would like help in standardizing best practices in your company, contact Dr. Lorraine for a consultation. Together, we can put together plan for you to standardize and continuously improve your processes and your profitability.

Are You Still Working on Your Salad?

One of my pet peeves is waiters who ask if I'm still working on my meal. First of all, I'm on vacation today, so I'm not "working!" But today when my husband and I went to lunch at the Cabana Cafe in Destin, FL, the waitress came to our table and asked me if I was still working on my salad. This is a very common misuse of the word work. Most people work to eat, not the other way around. And if I was working on my food, I'd be the one doing the cooking in the kitchen, not the one going to a restaurant so I didn't have to work to prepare the meal!

After she walked away from our table, my husband asked me why I didn't tell her that I wasn't working today. I usually return a comment back to servers saying something like, "No, I'm not working right now, but I am still eating." But it's a hopeless solution. For starters, some waitresses look at me confused when I say this, so what's the point anyway? I can go on correcting servers throughout the United States the rest of my life and not solve this linguistic faux pas and national epedemic.

Another interesting thing happened with the same waitress. After I placed my order for the Asian salad, she told me that this was a very bland choice and she suggested that I change my order. Huh, I thought? I thanked her for her opinion and glanced over the menu again. Nothing else on the menu looked as good as a salad with lettuce, fresh mandarin oranges, sliced almonds, cucumbers, red onions with ginger soy dressing. It sounded great to me!

"I prefer vegetarian, so I think I'll stick with this salad," I said. Since she said it was bland, I asked, "can you please bring extra dressing on the side?"

"Would you like chicken or shrimp with that?"

Huh, I thought again! "No thank you," I said.

I wonder if Wayne Anderson, the owner/manager is providing enough training for his staff? I know that Wayne is the owner because when we got our bill, it was attached with a clothes pin to a Cabana Cafe post card. The post card includes a picture of Wayne with his general manager, Mandy, and his coffee roaster, Sophie. I really like the gesture with the postcard and the wooden clothes pin with a joke written on it:

It's good for a man to believe in something. So I believe I'll have another beer.

Wayne's restaurant might survive simply because it's near the beach in an area that draws a lot of tourism. But Wayne's restaurant might not make it if he doesn't start asking his customers the two magical questions:

1. What is the one thing that you enjoyed most about your experience at the Cabana Cafe today?
   
2. What is the one thing we most need to improve?

If Wayne doesn't ask his customers these questions, he will be running his business blinded by the opinions of his own semi-loyal employees. I'd like to send my feedback to help Wayne with his business, but he has made it quite difficult for me to reach him. I didn't see or receive a feedback form when I was there today, and this evening when I looked at his website, I discovered that the website doesn't have a contact us area. I did, however, find an e-mail for a Wayne Anderson who is on the Board of Directors for the YMCA of Florida's Emerald Coast. If it is the same Wayne Anderson, then I'm impressed that he is giving to his community not only through a small business, but also through his community service to the YMCA.

The salad was very good. I wish Wayne the best with his business venture into his not-so-specialized coffee/cafe, pizza/salad buffet, lunch, dinner and everything-about-food ice cream shop.

The next time a waiter asks you if you're still working on your food, can you please help me out and tell them that you're paying them to work on your food? I think I'll ask Susie Ross of Waiter Training to help too.

Say "Yes" to Opportunities Boys & Girls

When I woke up this morning, I had no idea that today I would be introduced to the Boys & Girls Club of America (BGCA). It's amazing what wonderful surprises a day can bring. About 4 PM today, my husband and I received an offer to attend the annual Jacksonville Steak & Steak fund-raiser silent auction and dinner where the kids performed and ate with us. Each of the 400 table settings had a placemat that was an original piece of artwork from a child in the BGCA. I don't know of any restaurant, even among the best, where you can get this kind of personalization. We had front row seating and when the kids performed on the drums, it pounded a loud and powerful message into my heart.

Wake up! Feel the heartbeat of the community. Look into the eyes of the children and the adults who somehow came together this evening. Look into the children's eyes filled with hope, wonder, excitement and fear. Look into the adults' eyes filled with hope, burdens, wounds, caution and regrets.

Several years ago I attended a few personal growth workshops and each time participated in an activity that was very powerful. A group of 40-50 people stood in two circles, one inside the other, with the people on the inside circle facing people on the outside circle. We were standing fairly close to each other so that we could look into each others' eyes. We would look into each others' eyes for a few moments and then we would shift one spot to the left or right, looking into the next person's eyes without talking. Most of us didn't know each other, which meant that we were looking into the eyes of "strangers."

Once you look deep into the eyes of another person, by definition you're no longer "strangers." The other person is now a human right there in your face sharing a life moment with you. And that moment can never be taken away from your life experience or theirs. It's an opportunity and a calling.

This evening, Gary Saltsgiver of WJCT/Channel 7, asked the adults to look into the eyes of the kids that were sitting at our tables. And then he asked us to up the bid on Superbowl tickets to $3,750 and then to $4,000, and so on, to help support the kids. This was not run like a standard auction where the bidding was primarily entertainment filled with the pressure to bid in competition with other bidders. Gary asked us in a more normal cadence, instead, to bid to show our concern for the kids. I'm not a big football fan, but he really tempted me to bid, just because I wanted to offer something to the kids in the room.

This weekend my husband, Bob, is the MC for the N'spirations annual fund raiser and I'll also have the opportunity to share a message. I'm not sure of everything I want to say, but after today, I know that I want to ask everyone to look into the eyes of the people around them, not just at this event, but everywhere they go.

It's no coincidence that Bob & I ended up at the BGCA event this evening. It was a natural precursor to this weekend's N'spirations event. Once you make a firm decision to go to a certain place, commit to make it happen, and believe that it will happen, then all the pieces start to fall in place very quickly.

N'spirations has a lot in common with the BGCA. Both organizations have a mission to help kids succeed, regardless of their home life. The BGCA, however, is much more mature and has its programs nailed down. N'Spirations can probably learn a lot from the BGCA and/or link up with them.

Did you look into the eyes of others today?
How did it speak to your heart?
If you keep doing what you're doing now, how many people will reap the benefits?