Kitchen Talk: Area restaurateurs talk strategy around food industry

B Magazine sat down with area food and beverage leaders to learn about their businesses What makes them unique, and the details behind giving customers a great experience.

Stephenie Gardiner Mom, Baker, Grinder Bon Bon’s of Cape Girardeau

Q: Why did you open Bon Bon’s?

Gardiner: “I was pregnant with my first kid. I started making cakes for my husband’s office. I tried to get into the farmer’s market, but I didn’t get in. I kept trying and trying and the next year I got in. We just kept growing and growing. It’s amazing because a lot of our story is divine intervention.

We bought a food truck, and I hated it. It was hard. We tried to sell pastries, but it never worked. No one would buy them. But then we decided to explore the place we are in now. I did not get the bid to buy the building, but the person who did offered me this space, and we worked together to build it out the way I wanted. There is definitely divine intervention in how all of this has worked out.”

Q: What is important for people to know about Bon Bon’s?

Gardiner: “We make everything from scratch, excluding our tater tots and French fries. So, yes everything is made from fresh products — homemade from scratch.”

Q: What was the thought process for the physical space of Bon Bon’s?

Gardiner: “Well, all of the colors in here are a representation of me. The pinks and blacks — all of it. I wanted it to be a place anyone could come to. I love the pink but didn’t want it to be a place guys couldn’t come and enjoy alone. When we were renovating, I would ask the construction guys if they would come here and eat alone. If they said no, I would change some things until one would say yes. I love the windows and natural light, too. People enjoy watching us bake cakes.

“The lounge (Bon Bon’s recently opened a lounge upstairs. This venue seeks to showcase local music artists for the community to enjoy) just opened. We had Ivas John come play last weekend. We wanted to create a cool place for people to hang out. We have couches, swings and open space to come and relax.”

Q: What is the thought behind your menu?

Gardiner: “We wanted to create items people eat at home so they could eat them out here. You think burgers and natural American food. We have a good mix of it all. Healthy options like salads and then influences from Germany and France are sometimes where our specials come from. Overall, we stick to American food, handmade fresh from scratch.”

Q: How do you want people to feel while they are here and when they leave?

Gardiner: “I want them to feel like they are a part of my family. And that goes for my girls, too, (referring to her employees) because they are my family. I want people to feel comfortable and want to come back. You don’t have to dress up or worry about your kids being loud. You are welcome. I want it to be comfortable. I hope when you see upstairs you get that same feeling (referring to the lounge).”

Q: Message to share with young entrepreneurs?

Gardiner: “It’s very hard and takes a lot of work. It’s taxing on relationships, personal and business. It is not easy. Don’t give up. Surround yourself with positive people. You have to surround yourself with positive people. Our word around here is ‘fabulous.’ We say it a lot. You’ll hear it in the kitchen. But I mean it, no matter what happens it’s going to be fabulous. You won’t have a lot of money. You have to love it.

“My mom said something important one time. She said, ‘You know you can be proud of this even if it fails.’ At first, I was like, ‘Thanks, mom,’” she said sarcastically. “But then I thought about it later and understood what she meant. Like even if this business doesn’t make it, I still can be proud because I tried. If I had never tried, I would never even know if it would be a success or not. So yeah, thanks mom. Really.”

Q: Books you’d suggest for people to read?

Gardiner: “‘Rich Dad Poor Dad.’ I think that was an important book for me. It helped a lot.”

Keller Ford Craft Taster, Learn by doing, Pioneer Primo Vino | Cask — Craft Spirits and Beer Lounge

Q: Why did you open Primo and Cask?

Ford: “Well, first of all that has been 12 to 13 years ago. At the time when we were looking to do this there was no one else doing it (referring to opening a specialty wine, beer and liquor store). So, we definitely saw a need for it. We wanted to focus on the higher end wine. I had always wanted to do something like this but never really knew how to start. A mutual friend introduced me to Jeff Mauer and Paul Dirnberger, and we began the process of opening Primo Vino. We started out just on the Primo side and did a little bit of spirits and craft beer but mostly craft wine.”

Q: What is important for people to know about Primo and Cask?

Ford: “My goal from day one is for this place not to feel like an uppity and stuffy place. Our goal is always to greet people when they walk in and make them feel more comfortable. We want them to feel able to let their guard down. Friendliness is important here.”

Q: What is the thought process behind your menu?

Ford: “Coming soon we will be implementing five or so food items. We have been doing Charcuterie boards since late last year. We have recently opened up our place on the Cask side to make it more of a lounge. We are excited to have Kate here now (Kate Velishek was recently hired to help operations at Primo Vino & Cask). We want to create good, delicious snacks and meals for people to enjoy while they are here.”

Q: What do you want people to feel and experience while here and after they’ve left?

Ford: “While here we want them to feel welcome, comfortable and well educated. We have classes where you can learn about wines. We hope when they leave they think, ‘That place is pretty cool. We should come back or bring someone there from out of town.’ We definitely try to put in the effort to make what we have to offer worth coming back. We want people to think this place was memorable.”

Q: What was the thought behind the environment here (physical space)?

Ford: “Well, the colors we used with the oranges and browns were to hopefully give this space a feel of being more Tuscan or at least Tuscan inspired. We knew we wanted to have a faux finish on the walls. We matched them with custom wine rocks because we wanted a combo of old world and modern blended. We wanted some elements of classic and modern in here. It’s a clash of the two.”

Q: Advice for someone thinking about having their own business (specifically food and beverage)?

Ford: “If it were up to me, I would tell someone if they want to own a restaurant or work in food and beverage you need to immerse yourself. Get experience. I would even require it for people. If you want to run a shop you need to work for a couple of years. Start as a dishwasher, line cook, then server, and so on. Same for tasting and becoming good at it. Some people may be able to taste a lot of things naturally. Others need a lot of training and repetition to refine their palette. Get a job doing what you love. If you want to own it someday, make sure it is something you love.”

Q: Anything I forgot?

Ford: “With this issue being the health and wellness issue, if you take excessive drinking out of the mix there are plenty of people who after a long week or stressful situation are looking for some sort of escape. I think taking some time for yourself is important. None of us do it enough. We don’t spend enough time on our own mental health or our families. Maybe after a long week or weekend on a Monday or whatever day you just need some time to decompress. Going to a nice restaurant or a Primo Vino or Cask and having a cocktail or two and chatting with some people about the Cardinals, business, the weather or whatever is just a little bit of stress relief. We can also focus more on unwinding and relaxing a little bit.”

Steven Pham Masters Student, Taiwan, Tea Expert Mana Tea

Q: Why did you decide to open Mana Tea?

Pham: “I have always been attracted by food and beverage since I was a kid, and I gained valuable experience about this industry when I was in Vietnam. The main reason why we founded Mana Tea is that we didn’t have a lot of options for these types of drinks in our area. We hope Mana Tea will be able to promote the diversity of food cultures to Cape locals.”

Q: What are the differences between milk tea and fruit tea?

Pham: “Fruit tea is a gentle combination of traditional loose-leaf teas, herbal teas and syrup, and of course fresh tropical fruits. Fruit tea requires precise temperature and amount to brew an excellent batch. Most importantly, we use the highest quality organic tea for our customers. Milk tea or “Boba Tea” (Bubble Tea) is a mixture of tapioca, which is different from white tapioca commonly known in the U.S. as “crystal tapioca,” milk and tea. The bubble (Boba) is made from black tapioca, possessing a jelly-like texture with high consistency.”

Q: What is important for people to know about Mana Tea?

Pham: “The most important thing for Mana Tea is to create the atmosphere. Besides the delicious choices of tea, we want to offer our customers a place to come and relax, work on homework, or play some games with friends.”

Q: What goes into making the menu?

Pham: “We decided to have a small menu to only offer the best to our customers. There are a lot of bubble tea recipes, but we want to have just 20 or so items of what we think people will actually enjoy. To bring out the best taste, we use handcrafted brown sugar which is distributed directly from Taiwan. Even though it takes time because of the supply chain issues, it’s important to us to have the right traditional ingredients for our teas. It makes us different because we don’t import from China. The drink is Taiwanese, so we want to make sure it stays true to its origin when we make it here. Syrup and everything comes from Taiwan.”

Q: What is an item(s) you really like?

Pham: “I’m confident in our brown sugar milk tea and the creme Brulee coffee. Recently we rolled out a different lemongrass peach tea. We kind of laugh and call it ‘LemonGrass Tea 2.0.’ We’ve received a lot of positive feedback from customers. We are excited to bring Vietnamese sandwiches or “banh mi” soon.”

Q: What do you hope people feel and experience while they are here?

Pham: “I really focus on customer experience. Once they get here, I hope they are getting a sense of it smelling great, tasting great and feeling great. When you come here, we use a white tea essential oil. It’s very fresh. I always tell my colleagues (his employees) when people come here to make sure to smile and make them feel good when they are here.”

Q: Any books you would recommend to readers?

Pham: “The Principle” by Ray Dalio. I thought it was mainly about finance and business when I first read it, but when I zoomed out, it was a lot more about life too, like interpersonal communication and relationships. It’s a good book.”

Q: Advice you would give to people thinking about starting their own business?

Pham: “You know, anytime is the time to start. Don’t waste your time. When you are young you think you have so much time. But everyone has that clock. Don’t waste it. I think you need to learn and spend time to experience. You know, if you open a business and you fail, it’s okay. Keep going. Never stop. Never hesitate.”

Su Hill Hard worker, Survivor, Passion Saffron Bistro | Chiang Mai

Q: Why did you decide to open Saffron 20 years ago?

Hill: “Well, at the time I was working for a hotel group. I was a food and beverage director managing all operations of hospitality for multiple locations. I noticed at the time there were not any Thai restaurants available in the area. I told my brother, and we talked about how it would be nice to have a Thai place here. One day he came to me and said, ‘Okay I signed the lease.’ I was like, ‘What?!’

“A short while later (four to five months) he decided we would not make it in this area for a Thai restaurant. I told him I cannot quit. I was still working at the hotel and had just bought a house. So, he let me buy him out and here we are.”

Q: What is important for people to know about Saffron?

Hill: “At the time we were located in what is now La Luna Mexican Restaurant. The owner of Crossroads Shopping Center, Judy Wilferth, gave us the opportunity to move in there. I wanted to create something to appeal to more of the audience we were serving. So, I created Saffron which is more of a half Japanese and half Thai style restaurant. Then in 2008, I wanted to downsize so we moved to where we are now (located in Regents Parc next to Cask and Primo Vino). We have been doing the menu with items people know like beef, chicken and sushi. We try to create a menu to attract the younger generation as well. We don’t use preservatives. We want to create dishes we can cook quickly. Not everybody is patient. We use fresh vegetables, meat and so forth. We want it to be very healthy and fresh. We try to be very creative and want to invite everyone to eat here.”

Q: What goes into the menu?

Hill: “We try to make our menu with items you will not find everywhere. After COVID, it can be hard because the food and restaurant industry is changing. It’s hard to get stuff in right now. Sometimes we pay double or triple what we used to pay to get in items. We hope guests come and try something different.”

Q: What do you hope people feel and experience when they come here?

Hill: “It needs to be comfortable when you come in. Not too cold. And clean. Cleanliness is my number one priority. Since COVID we have had to cut down on some of our seating. People don’t want to be congested. We use cream colors on the walls, reds and black shelves for the alcohol. We want it to be warm. And Megan (general manager) does a good job of keeping things green too. She takes good care of our plants. We want there to be green in here as well.”

Q: Books you would recommend?

Hill: “I think over time when you live life you actually become the book. I like to be inspired by great chefs. I was reading about French cooking recently. I love it. I also read about baking last night. I hope to do some baking here; for us too, for desserts. Despite my accounting background, I’m still trying to find better ways of improving myself, and constantly reading/listening to others. There are lots of books and websites now available. The challenge is usually just finding time to read.

“One of the simple books I usually recommend to my teams and young family members about general finance is ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki. It’s helpful. You have to keep up with the finances. You know with the economy it is not about what you make anymore. It’s about how you manage your finances.”

Q: Advice for someone thinking about owning their own business/restaurant?

Hill: “If you aren’t satisfied with what you are doing, just know you can always start now. Doesn’t matter how old you are. Right now, what I want is time. I want to have more time to help my staff and people. Having a business is like having a family. It is your family and it takes time. With any business it’s how much you want to put into it. You have to know you will not have instant customers. You have to have the passion, the willingness, and the love for what you are doing. You have to have something in you that you are ready to share with the community.”

Q: Anything I forgot?

Hill: “You have to have a clientele, but you also have to have a good product. All these years I have received so much support from people and other businesses in the Cape Girardeau area. I am so thankful for this. You cannot make something successful without the support of people around you, helping you. I am not always right. I am a hard worker and a survivor.”

DeWayne Schaaf Music Nerd, Former Drummer, Master Chef Celebrations Restaurant | Ebb and Flow Fermentations

Q: Tell me why you decided to take over the ownership and full operations of Celebrations?

Schaaf: “Sept. 23, 1998 was my first day here. I was a film student and had no intention of staying here. I had cooked since I was 14 years old. My path led me here for what I thought would be a short time. I had been cooking for a number of years but not with freedom and creativity. I also have always liked work. I am the type of person who enjoys working 70 to 80 hours a week. I think what drew me in was the immediate gratification. I could make something for someone and immediately get feedback. For someone in film, you may do a lot of work but then wait a very long time before getting any feedback. The plan for me to take over had been talked about for years and years with the former owners, James and Pat Allen. It made sense for me to take over as I had been the head chef for 20 years or so. My wife (April Schaaf) and I officially took over Dec. 23, 2017.”

Q: Tell me about this physical space. Is this an historical home?

Schaaf: “The beginning of this structure known as our Pop Room was built by Joseph Lansman (Joseph Lansman, a man who is attached to a surprising number of landmarks in Cape Girardeau and Perry counties. Some of his work includes building of the Burfordville Covered Bridge near Bollinger Mill) who was a master brick cutter and layer. I believe in the late 1960s, early 1970s John Boardman, who was a local architect, created the additional part of the building which is now our bar, blue room and library room.” (This area of the building has high ceilings. The aesthetic of the roof and unique angle at which it was constructed can be seen from inside the bar and library area.)

Q: Tell me about the ambiance and thought processes for the inside of Celebrations.

Schaaf: “On the bar side it has always been synonymous with Blue Dog. (George Rodrigue was an American artist who specialized in painting landscapes and eventually a series of pictures of blue dogs. Celebrations was commissioned for a special custom piece called, “Celebrating In Blue”.) We use a lot of red, black, white and blues for the colors on the wall. It’s very warm and welcoming.

“On the other side we went for even more red to be metropolitan and jazz influenced, per se. I wanted two different feels. I wanted there to be more of a traditional style fine dining and then back on the bar side more loud to give two distinct feels.”

Q: Favorite stories that have happened in these walls?

Schaaf: “A couple distinct memories come to mind. Stories I tell over and over. Like long time clientele. I started in ’98 and have been here 24 years. There are families where I met the kids when they were 5. Some were good eaters, so they ate the tasting menu and others were chicken fingers. I think it’s fun to watch the progress of people. You know, especially in the fast-paced culture we live in. ...

“Other fun memories come from when ‘Gone Girl’ was being filmed here. They were here all the time and some (Rosamund Pike) three nights a week. Morgan Freeman was here. I’m not a celebrity chaser by any means. We’ve seen a lot of movie stars dine here, some discreetly and some openly.”

Q: What is important for people to know who come here?

Schaaf: “This came up last night. We had a couple here who travel all over the world to eat. They spoke about how welcome they feel when eating here. I think that’s really important. There are people who are in a good mood when they get here and some that are not. I want our people here to give them an experience. I want them to feel a haven of serenity, as cheesy as that sounds.”

Q: Can you share about the menu at Celebrations? What goes into it?

Schaaf: “You know in terms of this being the Health & Wellness issue, I don’t think people would think of this place as ‘wellness’ in terms of nutritional wellness. However, I would dispute that many of our dishes are. We can be very vegetable heavy. While many of our dishes can be rich, buttery and creamy, we have just as many that are light and refreshing. Worrying about the nutritional composition solely removes all wellness from a dish. Mandating it only be nutritious takes away and removes the art. Food should not be math. It should be beauty and elegance. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use math in recipes. We do it all the time. However, sometimes you should just tear the numbers up and enjoy the night.”

Q: What is going on at Ebb and Flow Fermentations?

Schaaf: “A lot of people ask about Ebb and they don’t know what it is. That is kind of by design. I don’t want it to be pigeonholed into being just one thing. It is a place for the implementation of mixed fermentation. Ebb is kind of like the fun quirky cousin.”

Q: Can you speak about the music happening at Ebb?

Schaaf: “Music is really important to me at both places. I’ll start with the restaurant (Celebrations). I have heard too many Frank Sinatra songs at fine dining. Here we do some funk, some soul, and some jazz on the front side of the restaurant (the red side). On the backside (bar side) I like to have a little more mood. Funky grooves and everything from Fela Kuti (Afro jazz) to Tropicalia (Brazilian influenced). The music here is really like for 4% of the population. I want people to think, whoa did I just hear that? It’s very subtle. I don’t want it to be intrusive, but I want it to be fun.

At Ebb it just depends, because it’s catered to who is there. I may play some punk rock or James Taylor inspired playlist. The music on the courtyard is just as eclectic. We have ‘Grateful Thursday’ (Ebb and Flow hosts local and national artists for people to attend live music in their courtyard weekly), so we’ll have Grateful Dead. This week (interview completed May 27) we’ll have Gaslight Squares which is a 1920’s jazz band out of St. Louis. We have a punk show coming up. A polka band later in the fall. It’s a little bit of everything. I just want to have a place where musicians can play.”

Q: What is something coming up you are excited about?

Schaaf: “I am going to Carnivale Brettanomyces in Belgium in June. I was invited to come and speak at this event on one of my yeast creations, Mud King. It was a yeast blend I shared around the world several years ago. I think we will have around 15 different breweries who have used it. I am excited to hear from them and then get to bring back some of what I learn to Cape. I have shipped some of these yeasts to I think 52 countries and six continents.”