Latest / On Point With Jaclyn Jeffrey / On Point: Stephanie Webster, CTbites

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On Point: Stephanie Webster, CTbites · On Point With Jaclyn Jeffrey

0:00
SPEAKER_00: This episode is sponsored by Taekwondo Wilton.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned for their special offer.
0:10
SPEAKER_01: So welcome to Weston Today's On Point.
0:14
SPEAKER_01: This is a podcast where we have an opportunity to talk to really extraordinary people doing remarkable things that help us find different ways perhaps that we can look at the world, that we can look at our lives, and today that we can look at food and restaurants and the people behind them.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: So, Stephanie, this is an odd thing because I kind of our lives have intersected personally over the last year, but I kind of knew you before I knew you because I've been reading uh Connecticut Bites for for quite a while.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to get into all of what that is and how it came to be.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: But just a quick introduction.
0:49
SPEAKER_01: You're the founder and editor-in-chief of Connecticut Bytes.
0:52
SPEAKER_01: It's a digital food platform that you launched about 15 years ago.
0:56
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
0:57
SPEAKER_01: 15 years ago, yeah.
0:59
SPEAKER_01: And it's really become the go-to source for Connecticut's restaurant and culinary scene.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: And you've had a front row seat to seeing a whole lot of change here in Connecticut.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh I used to describe before we moved here, I used to describe Connecticut as just where you kind of pass through from New York to get to Boston.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but now it's just sort of exploded in many different ways.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: So we'll get into the history and how this all came to be.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: But first, I mean, you've had a front row seat to what's happening on the restaurant scene, the culinary scene, the people behind the restaurants.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, what do you think you understand now about that world that you would not have had you not launched Connecticut Bites?
1:44
SPEAKER_02: I have a lot more um sympathy and understanding and appreciation for what goes into this industry.
1:54
SPEAKER_02: I mean, people go out, they they they have their big night out, they sit down at these restaurants, they take a lot of things for granted, I think, generally.
2:02
SPEAKER_02: But once you get under the under the under the table a little bit, you realize that um it is a it is such a passion project.
2:11
SPEAKER_02: So many details have to be going like firing on the right cylinders to make a restaurant experience truly exceptional.
2:19
SPEAKER_02: And I just have a lot of empathy and love for the people who choose to make this their profession because it is a tough, tough profession.
2:28
SPEAKER_02: The margins are slim, the hours are crazy, the adrenaline is high.
2:32
SPEAKER_02: It's a lot can go wrong on any given day in the restaurant industry.
2:36
SPEAKER_02: So for people who choose to do this either in the front of the house or the back of the house, like thank God for you guys.
2:42
SPEAKER_02: Because it's it's honestly in the suburbs, this is our form of entertainment.
2:46
SPEAKER_02: Most people use restaurant dining as like their night out.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: So um, yeah.
2:52
SPEAKER_02: So I just I have an appreciation for what goes on in a lot of respect within it.
2:55
SPEAKER_01: Really good and point snapping.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: I hadn't I hadn't looked at it that way, but you're right.
2:58
SPEAKER_01: It is a major, major form of entertainment.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: We had an opportunity about two months ago to interview Bill Taby, and he gave us from his perspective, what you're talking about, the passion and what goes into it and how you how you create not just the food, but but the whole experience of what you've got.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: Experience, right?
3:15
SPEAKER_01: Right.
3:15
SPEAKER_02: So is it you need everything.
3:16
SPEAKER_02: You need front of house, you need back of house.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: It's a full it is a full experience.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: It's not just for sure.
3:23
SPEAKER_01: So you started your well, I don't know if you started, but your career includes photography, digital strategy, branding, web development.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: You lived in Manhattan, then you found your way to Seattle and now and now Connecticut.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: So what were you seeing when you got here or not seeing, as the case may be?
3:40
SPEAKER_01: How where did this come from, this whole idea?
3:43
SPEAKER_02: So, growing up in Manhattan, my parents actually were involved in hospitality on the design side.
3:48
SPEAKER_02: They were architects and interior designers, primarily for restaurants and hotels.
3:53
SPEAKER_02: So I grew up in kitchens, in restaurants, around chefs, and I loved it.
3:58
SPEAKER_02: I've always loved it.
3:59
SPEAKER_02: And you know, in Manhattan, like you want to be the go-to person, like, you know, the best bagel, the best black and white cookie.
4:05
SPEAKER_02: I always felt it was my job to be the advisor on all things food.
4:10
SPEAKER_02: So when we went to Seattle, um, you know, it's Seattle's an incredible place.
4:15
SPEAKER_02: The proximity to vineyards and farms, and this was like 20 something years ago, the food scene was kind of blowing up.
4:22
SPEAKER_02: And I had some like very epiphany moments out in Seattle that made me very passionate about um what I'm doing today.
4:29
SPEAKER_02: But when we came back to Connecticut, and I kind of wanted to live in Manhattan, to be honest.
4:35
SPEAKER_02: So CT Bytes is a little bit of a double entendre.
4:37
SPEAKER_02: I was like, it could be great.
4:39
SPEAKER_02: It could also really suck.
4:40
SPEAKER_02: I don't know, we'll find out.
4:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I like that.
4:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, in in my endeavors to sort of find the best food or locate the best farmers market or you know, find a cooking class, there wasn't a lot of information out there.
4:52
SPEAKER_02: There were a couple of bulletin boards like chow hound and Yelp and those kinds of things, but there wasn't really good in-depth information, the kind of information that you were and resources that you were able to find in urban centers, you know, things that I was used to in Seattle or um or New York City where I grew up.
5:09
SPEAKER_02: So I thought, you know, in my hunt to find all of these cool experiences and the best restaurants and the great taco shop, like I'm just gonna document it.
5:19
SPEAKER_02: I took my background in publishing, um, digital strategy, and I've always loved photography, kind of put it all together, put the website up, and my friends and I just started roaming around and eating places and documenting.
5:31
SPEAKER_02: And that's honestly how it started.
5:33
SPEAKER_01: So let me just stop you there for a second.
5:35
SPEAKER_01: So when you did all of this, did you have some longer-term vision of what you were creating, or is it just a fun thing to do?
5:43
SPEAKER_02: So, because my background was in digital strategy and branding, it was presented as a as a real brand.
5:50
SPEAKER_02: You know, it wasn't schlocked up there like a random blogger, just sort of like chatting about stuff.
5:54
SPEAKER_02: It was done very professionally and with intention.
5:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we did a brand exercise.
5:59
SPEAKER_02: We really like um we created a strategy for this that was theoretically going to highlight, you know, food, wonderful food in exurban markets, essentially.
6:09
SPEAKER_02: So you don't have to be in cities uh to find great eats.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: And that was sort of the concept, and life is too short for bad food.
6:17
SPEAKER_02: Uh so that's kind of where it started.
6:20
SPEAKER_02: We didn't, I didn't think I was gonna be making money.
6:22
SPEAKER_02: I didn't think, you know, there was not like a business intention from the very beginning, but it was an interesting way for me to kind of get used to Connecticut and explore the area, primarily Fairfield County at first, uh, gave me the opportunity to sort of, you know, make some friends in a different industry and just sort of explore.
6:40
SPEAKER_02: And honestly, it just took off.
6:43
SPEAKER_02: I made smart decisions, obviously.
6:44
SPEAKER_02: There were things done with intention.
6:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh I, you know, I made a lot of connections early on that were sort of feel-good relationships, where I think I think part of the integrity of CT Bytes is that I didn't come at it as a business to begin with.
6:58
SPEAKER_02: I came at it as let's talk to these chefs, let's go into these restaurants, let's support them, let's talk about what's going on in this industry because not a lot of people were highlighting the industry then.
7:08
SPEAKER_02: I think the chefs were thrilled to have someone who was shining a light on them.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: I think it's part of what helped the food industry grow in Connecticut, to be honest, without patting myself on the shoulder too much.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: The chefs will say, you know, it made a big difference to have someone talking about what they were doing.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: And I started it, like you, we had discussed this, sort of from a very positive point of view.
7:31
SPEAKER_02: I didn't want to be a food critic, food review site.
7:34
SPEAKER_02: I wasn't looking to review every restaurant in Connecticut.
7:37
SPEAKER_02: That was not what I wanted to do.
7:39
SPEAKER_02: I wanted to create a curated site that highlighted all the good stuff.
7:43
SPEAKER_02: Um, because you realize once you have a large following that you can support these restaurants, but if you do something negative, you can also destroy a restaurant very easy when you've got 150,000 readers.
7:56
SPEAKER_02: So that's kind of how it started.
7:58
SPEAKER_02: I've always been very philanthropic.
8:00
SPEAKER_02: The parts of this job I love the best are the ones that uh create community, build community, bring people together, and highlight the good stuff.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: So that's I was gonna ask you about that.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you've mentioned that before.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: This is not just a restaurant review site.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: It's the intent is to build community.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: And it sounds like you feel that you've certainly been able to do that.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: It feels that way as a reader.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: I I'm assuming it feels that way on the other side as well.
8:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it, I think it does.
8:26
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's why we've had success, is people people trust us.
8:31
SPEAKER_02: I always tell my writers when I have a new writer that's coming on board, you know, you know, the way you should write is if you're talking to a friend across the table.
8:39
SPEAKER_02: So if you're going to a restaurant you didn't like, you're probably not going to be having that conversation.
8:43
SPEAKER_02: You know, but if you're really excited about something, that's the conversation you're gonna have.
8:48
SPEAKER_02: So as we toured around, um that's sort of that's the vibe.
8:52
SPEAKER_02: And I think that helps with the community piece, the voice.
8:55
SPEAKER_02: I like to have all the different writers' voices kind of be unique.
8:58
SPEAKER_02: We love having new voices in there.
9:00
SPEAKER_02: We've had kids, we've had adults, you name it, we've had every possible person on this website.
9:05
SPEAKER_02: And I love that.
9:06
SPEAKER_02: I don't want it to be too rigorous or you know, straight-lined in a very particular way.
9:11
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we're not nobody on this site.
9:14
SPEAKER_02: There are certainly some real journalists, and there are people who are involved in culinary, but we're not Ruth Reichel.
9:19
SPEAKER_02: You know, we don't pretend to be that.
9:22
SPEAKER_02: So we are talking about food and profiles and people and experiences in a way that is um very approachable, I think.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: One of the other things I've noticed, and this is almost, I think it's always true for the most part.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: Um but it but but but the reviews are always when I say they're positive, I don't mean they're always glowing positive, but they're not critical and nasty kinds of reviews that that one can get accustomed to seeing.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: So it sounds like from what you mentioned a moment ago in terms of building community, et cetera, that that was that that was somewhat intentional.
9:56
SPEAKER_02: That was extremely intentional from the very beginning.
9:59
SPEAKER_02: And you'll see it in our mission statement.
10:01
SPEAKER_02: We set out to create a positive experience.
10:04
SPEAKER_02: And if we don't like a restaurant, we just don't talk about it.
10:07
SPEAKER_02: Now, if we go to a restaurant that we love and this dish wasn't that great, sure, we'll mention, you know, this could have been a little bit better, you know, and we'll also talk to the chefs and have a conversation if we don't like something.
10:20
SPEAKER_02: But again, like I said, you really can you really can destroy a restaurant if you go out there and attack them.
10:25
SPEAKER_02: Oh just from like a karma kind of standpoint, I just that was never, it was never of interest to me.
10:32
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think that it took a long time for my readers to understand that it was intentional and it was curated versus I was being paid to promote these restaurants.
10:42
SPEAKER_02: Right, right, right.
10:43
SPEAKER_02: Because certainly I have sponsored posts and things like that now, but back in the beginning, we certainly were not rolling in the, you know, we were not getting a lot of sponsorship deals on year two and three.
10:53
SPEAKER_02: And because it was all positive, I had to, you know, bounce a lot of flack back and forth about it.
10:58
SPEAKER_02: They understand now.
10:59
SPEAKER_02: It took some training, they they learn, they understand.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: And we heard from restaurants that people would come with the the review or the article to the restaurant.
11:08
SPEAKER_02: They would be they'd be ordering off a bail off of the article, and everyone loved that.
11:13
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I just think it's uh I just think it's a a nicer way to go about business.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: And it was a choice, you know, it's a lot of different ways to swing it.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's like our parents have you had anything nice to say, just don't say anything.
11:24
SPEAKER_02: Don't say anything at all.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I I wanted to ask you, so where did the restaurants come from that you do review?
11:31
SPEAKER_01: Do they come to you?
11:32
SPEAKER_01: Do you find them?
11:33
SPEAKER_01: Is it all the new ones opening?
11:35
SPEAKER_01: How does it happen?
11:36
SPEAKER_02: So it cut a couple different pathways to getting on CT Lite.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: So in the very beginning, obviously, we were just going to them.
11:43
SPEAKER_02: Nobody knew who we were.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: Once we started developing a name for ourselves, people did PR, obviously PR teams and restaurant PR, um, and the restaurants would start approaching us to come in.
11:54
SPEAKER_02: Now, again, it's sort of a slippery slope, and it's tricky because someone invites you in, you don't have a great meal, what are you gonna do?
12:01
SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna write about it.
12:02
SPEAKER_02: So there's there's certainly some of that.
12:04
SPEAKER_02: Uh, if we don't know the restaurateur or we're not familiar with the restaurant, we generally will go in blind.
12:11
SPEAKER_02: We will go in not so people don't know who we are.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's what I'm gonna ask.
12:15
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
12:15
SPEAKER_02: To avoid that situation.
12:17
SPEAKER_02: If we're doing like a taco shop or a casual pizza place, those kind of places, even a fancy restaurant, white, you know, white tablecloth, we will go in quietly first, unless they're unless it's a chef that really knows who we are.
12:28
SPEAKER_02: And then we're, you know, it is what it is, and we turn it into a more of a newsy article versus a food review article.
12:34
SPEAKER_02: But um, yeah, so that's sort of how we roll.
12:36
SPEAKER_02: So there are a lot of different channels.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: Readers reach out to us all the time, which is why we love the community aspect.
12:42
SPEAKER_02: We get DMs and emails constantly.
12:44
SPEAKER_02: Have you heard about this place?
12:45
SPEAKER_02: I really love this spot.
12:47
SPEAKER_02: And honestly, most of the readers on CT Bytes are very serious about their food.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: I mean, these are these are committed eaters.
12:53
SPEAKER_02: So we've gotten great intel.
12:56
SPEAKER_02: I just found about this, uh found out about this really cute tea shop up in Morris, Connecticut.
13:00
SPEAKER_02: Didn't know about it.
13:01
SPEAKER_02: You know, so we're gonna go check it out.
13:03
SPEAKER_02: So we have a lot of sort of ears, ears to the ground across the state.
13:08
SPEAKER_02: And because initially a lot of our uh writers did live in Fairfield County, it's wonderful to have people all over the state who are helping us sort of track down some of these restaurants because we're willing to travel, but sometimes we don't hear about everything.
13:20
SPEAKER_02: Right.
13:21
SPEAKER_02: So it's it's a lot of different, a lot of different ways that we find out about this stuff.
13:26
SPEAKER_01: So, Stephanie, you've had a chance to see a lot of restaurants open and close over the years.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: Um a two-part question.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: One, what do you think is behind a restaurant that does become successful?
13:39
SPEAKER_01: And have you grown uh enough in terms of your observations to see um some of the warning signs where you think this is probably not gonna cut it?
13:48
SPEAKER_02: Yes, uh, for sure.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: I think restaurants are tricky because they have to be operating at three different levels.
13:55
SPEAKER_02: They have to have three things that are that are firing in all cylinders to make it work.
13:59
SPEAKER_02: They need to have front of the house.
14:01
SPEAKER_02: So you need to have the staff, the GM, the servers, everyone there, friendly smiles, uh knowledgeable people who understand the menu and what they're doing there.
14:11
SPEAKER_02: And then you need to have obviously back of the house.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: You need to have people in the kitchen, a chef, uh team that is putting out great food that your guests are going to enjoy, an understanding of the market and seasonality and trends.
14:24
SPEAKER_02: And then you need to have someone who's a business side.
14:27
SPEAKER_02: And this is where a lot of restaurants fail.
14:29
SPEAKER_02: They don't understand the business piece, managing budgets, dealing with food costs, inventory, all the sort of things that, you know, some of it is the chef's job, but it's often an owner or a business person.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: They all need to be working at the same time for a restaurant to be successful.
14:44
SPEAKER_02: And then there are trends and all sorts of other things that come into play.
14:47
SPEAKER_02: But I generally can sense if something's gonna fail.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: It's almost like it shouldn't be a joke.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: It's not funny, obviously, to see a business fail.
14:55
SPEAKER_02: But I will go to a restaurant and I will turn to my writer and be like, you know, six months, eight months, a year.
15:02
SPEAKER_02: And you can almost always tell because it's somebody who either doesn't understand what's involved in this business getting into it.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: It's a, you know, a real estate guy or somebody who owns the apartment or whatever, the land there's like, I want to get into the restaurant industry.
15:18
SPEAKER_02: You can't just jump into the restaurant industry without having like a very good understanding or hiring someone who has a very good understanding of handling all three of those components, right?
15:28
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, it always makes me sad when you see a small sort of mom and pop business, you know, falling prey to that kind of situation.
15:36
SPEAKER_02: And those are less, um, less difficult to manage because there's not as much money put into it.
15:42
SPEAKER_02: You know, you could open up a taco stand and not put a ton of money into, you know, design and food cost because it's small, it's sort of limited.
15:50
SPEAKER_02: But once you start scaling up and you open one of these blockbuster gorgeous restaurants that have a one-year, you know, leeway roadmap, and then all the food costs, all the design costs, all this kind of stuff, and it fails because they didn't manage to nail all these parts, right?
16:06
SPEAKER_02: It's just a waste of money.
16:08
SPEAKER_02: It's such a shame, and it could have been probably could have been stopped.
16:11
SPEAKER_02: Um, also, sometimes people don't do their homework in terms of what price points, what a community's looking for, what they actually want.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: Um, you can put a really wonderful restaurant in a community that maybe isn't, they don't have the disposable income to afford that restaurant.
16:26
SPEAKER_02: Like you really have to do your market research and competitive analysis and kind of understand what niche is needed, understand the demographic in that area, because sometimes they don't mesh.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, there's a lot that goes into it, just like any business.
16:41
SPEAKER_02: But I think that restaurant industry runs on such slim margins that you kind of have to get all the pieces right to go into it.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you two-part question one.
16:52
SPEAKER_01: You've been doing this long enough, you live here as well.
16:55
SPEAKER_01: Um and for me, as an uneducated observer to all of this, uh it just seems like at least things in Fairfield County have seriously changed over the years.
17:06
SPEAKER_01: So, two-part question.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: One, um, do you agree?
17:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how do you think the the dining scene has changed in the area?
17:13
SPEAKER_01: And when you talk about that magic that you mentioned a moment ago um and what the community needs, what do you think is a kind of environment that would really excel here given what people are looking for?
17:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um I think that people wait, remind me of the first part of the what was the first question I'm focused on.
17:33
SPEAKER_01: How do you see do you think the scene, the dining scene has been changed immensely?
17:36
SPEAKER_02: It has changed immensely for a number of reasons, I think.
17:39
SPEAKER_02: And it certainly wasn't just the creation of CT Bytes.
17:42
SPEAKER_02: I think that you have chefs that I think after COVID and even around there that are wanting to get out of the urban market.
17:48
SPEAKER_02: So they're they're getting their start there, they're stodging at all the great restaurants, and then they're they're getting families and they want to settle down and they're coming out here.
17:55
SPEAKER_02: So you're getting a ton of chef talent out here.
17:58
SPEAKER_02: I think the fact that there is a platform where people are talking about, uh talking about the restaurants, that you have the Connecticut Restaurant Association and the Crazies Awards, which is like the Oscars for the restaurant industry, highlighting restaurants.
18:12
SPEAKER_02: Um some of our restaurants are going to James Beard.
18:15
SPEAKER_02: I think there's there's more sort of chatter, there's more PR around it, there's more of a there's more of a food scene out here.
18:21
SPEAKER_02: So all these things made it much, you know, more pleasing, um, makes it more interesting for a young chef or someone who's starting their career to come to Connecticut.
18:32
SPEAKER_02: You know, we're definitely not just a drive-thru state anymore in terms of culinary.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: Right.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: One of the things Bill mentioned, Bill Taby, when we interviewed him, was it's sort of a silent competitor here, with all the people that have come up here, you know, post-COVID or during COVID from the city.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh hopping on the train to go in the city to dinner is a whole other set of competitors that you don't really see them, but but it's there because it's easy access.
18:58
SPEAKER_02: Sure, sure, sure.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: And obviously, people who are very serious about their food are going to go into the city.
19:03
SPEAKER_02: They're gonna go to Boston, they're gonna go to Newport.
19:05
SPEAKER_02: You know, there's certainly food around here that's worth traveling for.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: But I do think that people, you know, if you work in the city and you're schlepping to work every day and you're commuting, you don't necessarily want to go into the city for dinner.
19:16
SPEAKER_02: And you know, you absolutely don't have to.
19:18
SPEAKER_02: There is staggeringly good food happening here.
19:20
SPEAKER_02: Like I'm looking at what's happening in Lichfield County, which is just blowing up from a hospitality, from hotel hospitality and restaurant hospitality.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: They're just, they're getting great chefs.
19:31
SPEAKER_02: They're people who are, they want to live here, they want to live in the country, they want to be out of the city.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think that it's very exciting.
19:39
SPEAKER_02: It's very exciting to see.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: And the more awards and the more attention that Connecticut gets in terms of our chefs, the more people want to come here.
19:48
SPEAKER_02: And then uh it draws additional talent because when you have a bunch of chefs that have, you know, have been nominated for James Beards and things like that, they're suddenly hot chefs that are really good.
19:59
SPEAKER_02: People want to come to Connecticut to work with those chefs.
20:02
SPEAKER_02: So I think you're getting, you know, it just keeps sort of snowballing in terms of the opportunities in Connecticut.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: Plus, a lot of the places that you mentioned, at least with this being a home base, aren't really that far to get to if you wanted to go for a nice dinner.
20:16
SPEAKER_01: It's not that far to travel.
20:18
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely not.
20:19
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely not.
20:19
SPEAKER_02: And I encourage people, I know a lot of people in Fairfield County sort of stick to Fairfield County.
20:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but you know, there's such exceptional food happening around this state, especially in the New Haven area, up in Litchfield.
20:32
SPEAKER_02: I mean, God, Mystic is like outrageous what's happening in that area due to one particular restaurant group, but it just keeps growing.
20:40
SPEAKER_02: So I think as you get pockets of talent, it's the same reason.
20:43
SPEAKER_02: And Bill was the sort of the grandfather in Westport.
20:46
SPEAKER_02: He was a pocket of talent here, and that inspired great chefs to come leave the city and leave other areas to come work and live out here.
20:54
SPEAKER_02: And I think that that's just continuing to happen.
20:56
SPEAKER_02: We're just getting better and better talent.
20:58
SPEAKER_01: So without asking you to be a fortune teller, either based either on what you what you envision or what you see, uh, or but also what you're actually seeing happen, uh, what do you think is most um or becoming more and most appealing to people in the area?
21:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I think that at this point in time, I think that fine dining has a place, the sort of white tablecloth, you know, tasting menus, et cetera.
21:22
SPEAKER_02: I think that for the moment, I think people are enjoying a little bit more of a casual dining experience.
21:28
SPEAKER_02: Now, casual, I mean visually casual, still has to be, still has to have a vibe, still has to be beautiful, uh, service still has to be great, the food still has to be great.
21:38
SPEAKER_02: You have to still be dialed in.
21:39
SPEAKER_02: But I do think that the era of the the very, very fancy, everyone gets served, you know, the the Russians sort of put the plate on the table at the same time, that kind of dining is a little out of favor.
21:50
SPEAKER_02: And some of that again was the pandemic.
21:52
SPEAKER_02: But I think that people are going out, they want to have a good time, they wanted to have a more casual feel, even if many of the components are still elegant.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Elegant and beautiful, but you know, sometimes a little more industrial, sometimes a little more, I don't know.
22:05
SPEAKER_02: I think cocktail culture is huge.
22:07
SPEAKER_02: I think people keep saying that people aren't drinking anymore, but the reality is people are still drinking.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: Cocktail culture is immensely huge.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I think people want a really interesting cocktail menu, whether you're fat washing your bourbon or whatever's going on, clarifying things.
22:23
SPEAKER_02: There's just people are looking for that.
22:24
SPEAKER_02: So if they are going to have a cocktail, they want it to be a really special cocktail.
22:29
SPEAKER_02: Like when I go out now, you know, alcohol, not so great for you.
22:33
SPEAKER_02: Try to scale it back a little.
22:34
SPEAKER_02: So when I have my cocktail, I want it to be incredible.
22:36
SPEAKER_02: I want it to be every bit as good as the dishes I am eating.
22:40
SPEAKER_02: So it's part of the whole culinary experience.
22:42
SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
22:43
SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, I think that's important.
22:45
SPEAKER_02: And I think people are expecting more live music at some of these venues.
22:49
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, if you look at what's happening in the city, I guess that's not necessarily Connecticut.
22:54
SPEAKER_02: I think people are are, I think it's our form of entertainment also.
22:59
SPEAKER_02: I think people are coming to restaurants to gather uh and they want to feel comfortable.
23:05
SPEAKER_02: They want to feel taken care of.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, you said that at the start.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: I hadn't really thought of it that way.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean, with all the stuff that is going on in Connecticut, et cetera, still from an entertainment point of view, it's not quite like there's something on every corner, like in the city.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: So becoming more entertainment.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: Let me just switch gears and ask you that this whole vast universe of social media.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: So you've got a lot of talk about this.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh food influencers, self-appointed critics, you know, food critics.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm sure there's good and bad uh about the influence of all of this on the whole culinary and dining scene.
23:41
SPEAKER_01: What do you think?
23:43
SPEAKER_02: So this has many layers to peel back.
23:46
SPEAKER_02: I think that I think for in some in some cases, having a large food influencer community can certainly highlight restaurants that you may never have seen.
23:59
SPEAKER_02: For instance, you know, we reported on Tacos 203, which is a tiny taco stand in the Metro North train station in Sono.
24:07
SPEAKER_02: Nobody would have heard about it.
24:08
SPEAKER_02: They don't have the PR budget, but you get a couple of influencers in their influencers in there talking about it, and all of a sudden they have a booming business there, and that's amazing.
24:17
SPEAKER_02: So that's the positive effect.
24:19
SPEAKER_02: And there's certainly some national influencers, whom I'm sure you know, who like to go to smaller mom and pop, you know, family-run places and really talk about them when they're good.
24:28
SPEAKER_02: And that really helps their businesses.
24:30
SPEAKER_02: So that's wonderful.
24:31
SPEAKER_02: The downside is there are an awful lot of influencers who don't know what they're talking about at all, who are doing it because they want a free meal, everything is an 11 out of 10, it's all a must-try.
24:41
SPEAKER_02: And and I think that that's really a shame because it just flatlines everything, right?
24:46
SPEAKER_02: You don't believe any of these people.
24:47
SPEAKER_02: You're like, what do you know?
24:49
SPEAKER_02: So someone once asked me if there are any influencers that I trust.
24:53
SPEAKER_02: And I trust the big, I trust people who actually have journalists and real people who have an understanding of food, like like Eater.
25:00
SPEAKER_02: Like, I, you know, I think infatuation is a pretty darn good job of actually, you know, coming up with content that is researched and trustworthy.
25:08
SPEAKER_02: And they're influencers, they're online.
25:11
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I think we have different, you know, decent taste.
25:14
SPEAKER_02: There are a couple of people that I have respect for, and there's certainly people nationwide that aren't doing a good job.
25:19
SPEAKER_02: I think it's tough for the restaurants because they feel like they have to give these people free food and attention, and it's sort of demanded, and there's a lot of pushback right now going a lot of.
25:29
SPEAKER_01: There's horror stories about that.
25:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's a lot of things there, and um it's it'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out.
25:37
SPEAKER_02: I do think that people are less tolerant of the guys, you gotta see this.
25:41
SPEAKER_02: It's great, it's so good.
25:42
SPEAKER_02: And what with with no information about the story, about the chef, about the the business.
25:47
SPEAKER_02: Like, what are we what are we actually doing here?
25:49
SPEAKER_02: Not just it's great, you gotta go, that's useless.
25:52
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's nice to see the food, but uh people need to be telling more of the stories and have to have an understanding of the food, the actual food that comes, you know, that that goes behind it.
26:04
SPEAKER_01: Well, speaking of the story, the one part that I was not going to let the uh interview with you not touch upon is you talked at the very beginning about philanthropy.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: You have a really big heart.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: And even though it was a while back, I did want to talk about what you did during COVID and the uh food for the front line.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: So you could talk a little bit, you can pat yourself on the back.
26:25
SPEAKER_01: It was amazing what you did.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: Not just what you did, but the fact that you did it, and I can't imagine a best and worst time, obviously.
26:33
SPEAKER_01: Crazy time.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: It was crazy.
26:35
SPEAKER_01: It was crazy.
26:36
SPEAKER_01: And and one thing that comes to mind, and I was so touched when I heard about when I heard about this, I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but there was a restaurant that opened like two weeks before COVID.
26:48
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember the one right on the post road?
26:50
SPEAKER_01: Now I don't it began with a T, that's all I remember.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: Two weeks.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: Two weeks, and that was it.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: Packed up, gone, shuttered, gone.
27:00
SPEAKER_01: So, but what you did was amazing, and I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I I couldn't let the interview go because I don't know how many people know about that.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: So tell us what you did.
27:10
SPEAKER_02: So um when the pandemic started and they were shutting down restaurants, and obviously, as like we've discussed earlier, very slim margins, and some of these restaurants are going month to month to pay their staff.
27:22
SPEAKER_02: They really need to be selling food in order to stay open.
27:26
SPEAKER_02: Uh, so when the restaurant started shutting down, and obviously, first responders and people on the front lines needed to eat while they were hustling, dealing with this insanity.
27:37
SPEAKER_02: Um, a friend of mine who was a chef, she had a child who was an EMT, and she thought, wouldn't it be nice if we could deliver some food to the EMT who are dealing with this craziness right now?
27:47
SPEAKER_02: Let's let's support our frontline workers.
27:50
SPEAKER_02: So she did that.
27:51
SPEAKER_02: And she thought, you know what?
27:53
SPEAKER_02: This is an interesting idea because we can actually help both sides of the equation.
27:57
SPEAKER_02: We can buy food from the restaurants that are struggling now, and we can use it to feed our frontline workers who need the help.
28:05
SPEAKER_02: And we basically we started a go sort of a GoFundMe.
28:09
SPEAKER_02: We raised, we raised some actual capital.
28:10
SPEAKER_02: I think we raised about$120,000.
28:13
SPEAKER_02: Um and we started to just sort of like people would reach out to me, restaurants that would say, Hey, we're going under.
28:20
SPEAKER_02: Like we we're not gonna make it another day.
28:22
SPEAKER_02: I need you, we would order food from them and we would have volunteers deliver it to the hospitals and um, you know, EMT organizations.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: And it was like a it became a real industry.
28:33
SPEAKER_02: It was wild.
28:33
SPEAKER_02: We kept a lot of restaurants in business, which was just it felt amazing.
28:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh people started to do this more nationwide.
28:41
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we were certainly one of the first ones out doing it, uh, and we created infrastructure around that.
28:46
SPEAKER_02: So it was we had three people involved.
28:48
SPEAKER_02: Um, I handled the restaurants, somebody else handled sort of bringing in the organizations that needed help the most.
28:55
SPEAKER_02: And then we had somebody else doing logistics.
28:57
SPEAKER_02: And we did it all the way through COVID.
28:59
SPEAKER_02: And when the frontline workers started getting, you know, the idea caught on.
29:04
SPEAKER_02: So lots of people were helping the frontline folks and emergency workers.
29:08
SPEAKER_02: So then we pivoted sort of towards the end, where people had been laid off from work for such a long time, all the all the hospitality workers didn't have jobs.
29:18
SPEAKER_02: So then we pivoted and we used the money to create like to purchase and get donations for pantry supplies.
29:24
SPEAKER_02: And we would sort of camp out at a restaurant and we'd build these boxes, like 100, 200 boxes filled with basics, milk and eggs and cheese and all this kind of stuff.
29:33
SPEAKER_02: And some of it was from local farms, and some of it was from Cisco, and you know, we figured it out, and some of it we just bought.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and the workers would come and they would just pick up boxes.
29:44
SPEAKER_02: And we tried to do that once a week at a different location every time, just to give people food.
29:50
SPEAKER_01: What blows me away about the story, I mean, it's a great story to begin with, but the fact that you did it in a time where I couldn't have imagined a harder, a greater time for the need, but a harder time to do it in the first place.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: I had to give you a chance to talk about.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: I know it was a while ago, but it's a great, great story.
30:07
SPEAKER_01: And it was a wonderful thing you did.
30:09
SPEAKER_02: It gives me chills all the time.
30:11
SPEAKER_02: And not because I think I'm so great, because it was so exciting, it was such a horrible time, but this made it made it okay in a way because you were doing something positive and it kept you busy when we were all sitting around.
30:24
SPEAKER_02: Look, we were all heavily masked.
30:25
SPEAKER_02: It was obviously we had, you know, we were all separated and we were packing boxes, we stayed six feet apart and followed all the rules, but yeah, it was great story.
30:34
SPEAKER_02: It was it was good stuff.
30:35
SPEAKER_02: It was good stuff.
30:36
SPEAKER_01: I just have a few last questions, but I couldn't go without you telling that that particular story.
30:41
SPEAKER_01: So, with everything that you see, what are you most excited that you see happen?
30:46
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be Fairfield County, it could be within the state.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: What is what are you most excited about?
30:51
SPEAKER_01: And what do you think might still be missing?
30:55
SPEAKER_02: Specifically in Connecticut.
30:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:58
SPEAKER_02: So I I think um I'm always excited about farm dinners, I'm always excited about chefs, you know, using local farms and seasonal produce to create tasting menus and things like that.
31:10
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I like the synergy of, you know, restaurants and farms.
31:15
SPEAKER_02: And that wasn't always the case.
31:16
SPEAKER_02: We take it for granted these days, but I do think we have like great leadership at some of these farmers' markets, and they're making there's new um new businesses that are making it even easier for restaurants to access farm food, um, food from local farms.
31:31
SPEAKER_02: So it's not as tricky, it's less expensive.
31:33
SPEAKER_02: So that's really exciting to me.
31:36
SPEAKER_02: Um uh what else?
31:38
SPEAKER_02: Wait, what wait, I've lost my.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: What might be missing?
31:43
SPEAKER_02: Oh, missing.
31:44
SPEAKER_02: The other thing that I think is exciting is we're getting a little bit more.
31:47
SPEAKER_02: Connecticut has been a little light.
31:49
SPEAKER_02: We have a lot of sushi, uh, we have a decent number of Thai restaurants.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: We're very light on really good Korean and really good Filipino fare.
31:58
SPEAKER_02: And we're just starting to get a few spots in there, so I think that's kind of exciting.
32:04
SPEAKER_02: So, like for me, the places that really turn me on are the little spots that the little the hidden gems, like I hate to use that term, but really the hidden gems, the taco shop you never would have seen, the little Filipino joint.
32:16
SPEAKER_02: Um, those are the places that make me happy.
32:19
SPEAKER_02: And I do think that those are thriving right now because I mean, maybe it's social media.
32:24
SPEAKER_02: People like people like that stuff.
32:26
SPEAKER_02: You know, they want to find the little, the random truck that's selling some Asian noodles that you could only get from some random part.
32:32
SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean, so just crazy stuff like that that's blowing up on social media, it also brings more of that.
32:38
SPEAKER_02: So I think that's I think that's fun.
32:41
SPEAKER_02: Um and I love Asian cuisine, so I'm hex.
32:43
SPEAKER_02: I hope we have more.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
32:45
SPEAKER_02: I'm waiting for it.
32:46
SPEAKER_02: I'm waiting for it.
32:47
SPEAKER_02: Uh, other than that, I don't know.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: All right, two last questions for you.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh so now you've been doing this now for 15 years.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: You've had a front row seat to to all of this.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, what still excites you enough about the restaurants, uh, the the the whole culinary experience where you say, I have got to let people know about this?
33:07
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
33:08
SPEAKER_02: The thing that really excites me, there's two things.
33:11
SPEAKER_02: I love I love the little teeny mom and pop stuff because I like the stories, I like the passion, I like to eat interesting food that isn't sort of like franchise run-of-the-mill.
33:22
SPEAKER_02: Like yes, I'm sure people can make a lovely piece of salmon, but like what really excites me is are some killer enchiladas from like a tiny little Mexican spot.
33:31
SPEAKER_02: So that stuff turns me on.
33:34
SPEAKER_02: Um I what excites me.
33:38
SPEAKER_02: I look, I like I like the spots that nobody's heard of.
33:43
SPEAKER_02: Like everyone wants to be the first person to find a new place.
33:46
SPEAKER_02: That's just that's that's the nature of social media, it's the nature of SEO, it's also the stuff that like floats my boat.
33:54
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I also like to hear the stories.
33:56
SPEAKER_02: I like to know about the people.
33:58
SPEAKER_02: That's what that's what really gets me going.
34:00
SPEAKER_02: So if the food is good and the person has a really fascinating story, and it some of these stories are wild, and you've got people coming from Guatemala with their brothers, and they open a bakery, and like they've put everything into this.
34:12
SPEAKER_02: And that's the stuff that I love to tell people about.
34:14
SPEAKER_02: I like to ensure that they're successful, I like to support those businesses.
34:19
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's way more exciting than you know, when a New York City franchise rolls in a speed brand, you're like, okay, what yeah, the food's probably great, but it doesn't excite me in the same way.
34:30
SPEAKER_02: I would rather support a small local business.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: Right.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: And this sort of leads into the last question I have for you.
34:36
SPEAKER_01: So with the front row seat again, as you know, that you've had into all of this, um what's the most important thing to you that you would like the average person like me to know either about restaurants, the culinary scene, the people behind them, knowing what you know and what a tough business it is and all the things you said at the start.
34:57
SPEAKER_01: What would you like the average person like me to know about this experience?
35:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
35:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh nothing, nothing enrages me more than watching a guest at a restaurant who is not respectful of their server and their staff, who send things back without, you know, really assessing it.
35:15
SPEAKER_02: I just, it is incredibly important that guests and diners understand what goes into the two courses that have been presented at your table.
35:25
SPEAKER_02: That it is, it is a staggering quantity of work and passion and creativity and business know-how and all, you know, all these things are happening that most people don't really understand or process.
35:38
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, being respectful to the team that is serving you this dinner, understanding that they are working their butts off to give you a wonderful dining experience, and it is a labor of love.
35:50
SPEAKER_02: Yes, it is a business, but the restaurant industry, you're not doing it because you're not doing it for the money.
35:54
SPEAKER_02: Right.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of other things you could be interested in.
35:56
SPEAKER_02: The only thing you can imagine doing, you are passionate about serving people and creating memorable experiences.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: And it is, it's it's a beautiful thing.
36:06
SPEAKER_02: Like it is a beautiful thing to do that for another human.
36:09
SPEAKER_02: It's like when a grandmother or mother or like a parent creates food for their family.
36:14
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's they're doing the same thing.
36:16
SPEAKER_02: That is what a chef is doing every single night is doing something beautiful for you.
36:20
SPEAKER_02: So appreciate it.
36:21
SPEAKER_02: Just appreciate it.
36:22
SPEAKER_02: Know what goes into it.
36:23
SPEAKER_02: Tip your servers, you know, just that is to me the most important thing.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: Well, without sounding too dramatic about it, I mean, everything you just described about that is what you do with your publication and what you bring, you know, to the industry.
36:37
SPEAKER_01: So it's obvious, I know, but just so no one it doesn't escape anyone.
36:41
SPEAKER_01: Where can everyone find Connecticut Bytes?
36:43
SPEAKER_02: You can find us on several platforms, obviously on the web at ctbytes.com, uh, Instagram, also at CTBytes, Facebook.
36:51
SPEAKER_02: We're not big on TikTok, but uh, you know, and seriously, reach out if you ever have a question, you've got a hot tip, you got intel, you've seen something interesting, reach out on social media.
37:01
SPEAKER_01: Stephanie, thank you so, so much.
37:04
SPEAKER_01: What you're doing is amazing.
37:05
SPEAKER_01: And like I said, I knew you before I knew you.
37:07
SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for your time.
37:09
SPEAKER_01: We really appreciate it.
37:10
SPEAKER_01: And thank you.
37:10
SPEAKER_01: My pleasure.
37:11
SPEAKER_02: Love talk, love talking to you.
37:15
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