Working in the restaurant industry from an early age for his
Grandparent’s restaurant, and then helping the new owners acclimate once it was
sold was a great starting point that helped Jeff be the restaurant owner that
he is today. From that restaurant he moved on to other food service jobs that
he held throughout college. Upon relocating to Chico, Jeff had the opportunity
to building many restaurants in the Chico area and learned all of the ‘behind
the scenes’ tricks for a restaurant – kitchen infrastructure, best placement
for kitchen equipment, how to build his own ceiling lights out of table lamps,
etc.
The concept
of opening a restaurant like Grana in Chico had been on Jeff’s mind for many
years, and when North Rim Adventure Sports opened a space on the corner of East
2nd and Wall Street he decided to take the opportunity because of
the great location.
Jeff’s
favorite thing about Chico is that the town has a smaller community with larger
city traits. He is a big believer in what Chico stands for with its diversity
and love of music and art, and wanted his restaurant to complement what Chico
has to offer. To Jeff, entrepreneurship
means “what you feel your community can sustain and what you can give back.” It
is this thinking, and Chico’s community support for programs like the farmer’s
market and keeping things local, that made it an easy choice for him to follow
the same thinking with his restaurant.
Even with
many challenges with some of the local farmers not being able to sell their
produce to him for wholesale prices, he has been able to work with some who now
are able to give him what he needs at the price that is still affordable. It is
his aspiration to be able to educate his customers and the community about
buying local and organic, and that being sustainable doesn’t have to be so
expensive. “Food can be incredibly simple and delicious with the right
ingredients.” Grana also gives back to the community by getting involved and
giving away gift certificates.
Some big
challenges that Jeff encountered with opening Grana was the building and permit
processes, and simply getting things done at the City level. “Chico could be a
lot more friendly to the entrepreneurs that make this city thrive.” He
referenced to the infrastructure work in Sacramento Mid-town and how that area
built up really quickly because entrepreneurs knew that they were being
supported by the city to go there, and now it is incredibly successful and
strong.
Jeff powers
on with the drive to be a little better every day, just as he wants his food
and wine to be that little bit better each day. Right now he is spending a lot
of his time working on the business rather than in the business where he’d like
to be, but is working on keeping personal staff morale high while he’s not so
involved with them.
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