During a special edition of So You Want to Run a Restaurant, Claudia Saric and Spencer Michiel came to us live from the Gordon Food Service Food Show in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Our hosts were joined by Mallory Squibb, co-owner of Squibb Coffee & Wine Bar.
Squibb is more than just an awesome concept. It’s also a family operation. Mallory launched Squibb alongside her dad Dennis almost a decade ago. Their cozy little shop on Wealthy Street proved quite popular with the local community, so Mallory and Dennis gradually expanded into a thriving multi-location operation.
Like a lot of restaurant industry lifers, Mallory began her journey to ownership entirely by chance with a single part-time job.
Nine years ago, Mallory was a college student majoring in English. The idea of owning a restaurant had not occurred to her at the time.
“My life was reading books and it was pretty boring,” confessed Mallory, “But that's what I thought I wanted to do. Then I found a job at a local coffee and wine bar and just fell in love with working with my hands and making drinks.”
After she worked there for a short while, Mallory’s dad approached her with an idea. “He wanted to invest in something,” recalled Mallory. “And he said, ‘Would you want to open up a coffee and wine bar in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I grew up?’ And I said, ‘I'll be there!’”
Mallory and Dennis continue to grow their footprint in the greater Grand Rapids area. In addition to their flagship space on Wealthy Street, they’ve also launched Sav Sav by Squibb in a bustling Grand Rapids culinary hub called Downtown Market, as well as Rise + Squibb and FiKA, both through a strategic partnership with Rise Bakery.
If you want some amazing insights from Mallory’s near-decade in the business, read on for highlights from our conversation. If you want to know which Squibb’s menu item Mallory calls “the best in Grand Rapids," you'll have to jump back to the top and watch the whole episode.
When Mallory looks back on the road to success, she says that she doesn’t see any mistakes in the rearview mirror. That’s not to say that everything has gone perfectly.
Instead, Mallory said, “There were just things that we needed to do to get where we are today – certain staffing problems, sourcing things, partnerships – all those things got us to where we are.”
All of the challenges, setbacks, and delays you face on the way to opening a restaurant force you to learn, adapt, and evolve. And this is ultimately what makes it possible to expand. As Mallory noted, “one of the biggest benefits of this approach has been scaling our business, because now we are in four locations, and we've learned a lot over that time period.”
Mallory reflected on perhaps the most important lesson she learned as the business grew into multiple locations. Mallory told us that “I think a mistake that I made was holding onto my responsibilities so tight.”
This is a common theme in small restaurants and family-owned businesses. You invest so much of yourself in building and launching your operation. When you’re used to overseeing every aspect of the operation, it can be hard to give up control over even the little things.
“Then,” said Mallory, “once you find people who can do the job and likely do it better than I was doing, then you can manage and be on the creative side, and take on ordering and take on community outreach and things like that.”
Ultimately, said Mallory, “just having good people on my team has been the biggest learning experience for me.”
One of the recurring themes in our conversations with owners and operators these days is the importance of curating a positive and memorable customer experience. Mallory is highly focused on this priority, and it starts with her unique but intuitive blend of coffee and wine offerings.
“My mission statement has always been ‘Coffee and wine can be very pretentious.’” she told us. So the big question for Mallory was, “How can we make them unpretentious and present them to people in a way that’s fun and exciting, and where you're learning something new?”
For Squibb’s, that means making “the highest quality products approachable for people and making people feel like coffee and wine are a treat. Now especially, how can we make it feel like a treat?”
Mallory said that this question has been at the top of mind when choosing coffee beans and grape varietals, when designing the menu, and when training her staff. “I want someone to look at our menu, ask a question, start a conversation with our staff, and have a learning experience,” she explained.
In the best-case scenario, cultivating great customer experiences can transform your restaurant into a space where real people make lasting memories. As a fixture in its Grand Rapids community, Squibb had become an important place in the lives of its customers.
We asked Mallory for a few customer tales. It turns out that love is constantly in the air at Squibb’s. “I've had multiple people get engaged at our shop,” said Mallory.
It’s also a popular spot for first dates, has hosted its fair share of engagement parties, and even served as the venue for one wedding. “I love that it feels like a special place for people,” said Mallory.
Squibb’s opened their newest spot, FiKA, just a few months ago, bringing the total number of locations to four. Mallory told us that with all of this expansion, she’s actively reevaluating a lot of the strategies they use to run the business.
“What I'm thinking about every day is how to streamline things,” said Mallory. “Having four locations, how can I place orders in an effective and cost effective way? How can I have three managers? Do we have a coffee director and a wine director? Do we have a creative team?”
With a smaller operation, these were things that Mallory and Dennis didn’t have to think about.
“But now, having almost 30 employees,” said Mallory, “it's time to make those systems.”
Whether you’re looking to expand your operation or you’re just looking for a better way to control costs in your restaurant, there is a solution that makes sense for you. In fact, there may be a few.
Not sure where to start? Try reaching out to one of our in-house restaurant tech experts for your free, personalized consultation and we’ll help you figure it out!