March 29, 2024

Meet the Wine Guys

May 6, 2016

You might think Wine Guys Restaurant Group sounds like something big and corporate; but it’s actually just a bunch of friends who run local businesses. And you might think it sounds like a group of men, or a collection of wine shops. No, and no.

Wine Guys is the "umbrella name" for the owners of City Park Grill, Palette Bistro, and Roast & Toast Coffee & Café in Petoskey.

We sat down with Bob and Mary Keedy; Dick and Laura Dinon, Patrick Faylor and John Norman to talk about the origins of their business and its name, what’s to come in downtown Petoskey, and the challenges of running restaurants in northern Michigan. We gathered inside City Park Grill before it opened for lunch one weekday, and what became immediately clear was that this group is more than a collection of business partners – they’re close friends.

Northern Express: So the story began in 1993 with Roast & Toast, correct? Which honestly seems like ancient history now"¦like the place has been there forever.

Mary: Roast & Toast brought us to Petoskey. Bob and I were living in Georgia and wanted to move back.

Bob: We looked at more than one location before we settled on the current one. In fact we started by looking in Traverse City and didn’t find an appropriate space. The coffee thing then was still pretty early.

Mary: We also looked in metro Detroit.

Bob: Yes, but eventually we wanted to live up north but needed a location that would be success. And Roast & Toast did well from the beginning. It took a while to get the revenue there, but honestly the town embraced it from the beginning. Of course, that first winter was a little scary for more than one reason"¦ moving from Georgia"¦it was a leap of faith and quite and undertaking for us. But I think we came at a really good time. Originally our vision was a lot more coffee oriented; we now do a lot more food"¦

Express: So Roast & Toast is up and running. And then how did this whole restaurant group story begin?

Laura: Bob and Mary, Dick and I had moved here from bigger cities and we were disappointed in the restaurant scene. We just wanted a place where we could take our kids, enjoy a good dinner at a reasonable price, and have a nice wine selection. That’s why we did it, right?

Mary: Right. There were just very few options back then, and they were not kid friendly.

Mary: Dick and Laura were regular customers at Roast & Toast and I had eavesdropped about their wine conversations. We became friends and our kids were close to the same age. We also had a common interest: wine.

Bob: Certainly wine was going to be part of any restaurant we did. We wanted causal dining made from scratch, and at that time there were some corporate restaurants on the lower end and a lot of high-end places. There really weren’t a lot in the middle. Laura: Pretty much nothing.

Bob: So in May of 1997 we bought this [City Park Grill] building and completely changed the place, including the name. It had been the Park Garden for a long time [since 1888] and had a long history.

Express: And that was a popular move, or"¦?

Bob: Not initially, no. There were letters to the editor, people were not really excited about it. It took some time.

Dick: Initially we were looking at a storefront bistro with maybe 50 seats. We drew up plans, but that evolved.

Mary: Back then we all did everything around here.

Bob: Oh, yes. Everybody did shifts and then eventually John and Pat came on.

Laura: It wasn’t the primary job for me and Dick. We were and are practicing lawyers.

Dick: Right, so it was different from what I do during the day. It was fun, exciting, new"¦and dealing with kitchen staff was so much different than dealing with judges and lawyers all day.

John: Really? [Laughs].

Express: OK, so how did John and Pat enter the picture?

John: Actually these two [Dick and Laura] used to come to my restaurant back then in Charlevoix as frequent guests. When I closed my restaurant and they decided to open this, they got ahold of me. Laura gets the props for that!

Patrick: I started waiting tables here that first summer. And then it might have been "˜98 or ’99 when I became a manager.

Bob: Pat’s such a great operator. Great attention to the guests and the staff. And he just worked his way up. He said, "˜I want to be an owner,’ and so we put together a path to that.

Express: And how did Palette [Bistro] come to be?

Bob: Palette really was these two [pointing to Pat and John]. Like this [City Park], it was just a tremendous opportunity. We had been offered that property in the past"¦it just got to the point in I think 2010 that we couldn’t say no. And once we got in there and really looked at the place we saw it wasn’t setup for what it could become. It was really underutilized. We right away talked about a Mediterranean concept.

Pat: And that’s really when we started differentiating our roles within the company because the staff we had. So Chef John and I opened Palette as operators and we promoted a chef here.

Express: What are the roles today?

Bob: I’m currently the GM here. I also handle the P&L, the advertising, and whatever else needs to be done.

Patrick: I’m the GM of Palette Bistro, but I can float, too. I was the GM at City Park. My role is to be developing managers, and help bring those people up.

Laura: I’m a partner but I also make all the cheesecake at Palette"¦and handle any employee issues.

Dick: I handle insurance, most of the legal and liquor license issues. I also work a couple shifts at Palette.

John: I’m the culinary director and executive chef, and I handle development of both menus and also develop staff.

Mary: I pretty much do accounts payable, taxes and then of course run Roast & Toast.

Express: And business is good, even given much more competition now?

Bob: It’s great, and there’s never been a real sag. We have experienced periods where one place is more on a roll than another. But Palette had a great year, up big in sales last year. City Park is strong, and with the bar tends to be more cyclical; we’ve had some ups and downs here. Roast has been extremely consistent.

Mary: Every time something new opens in town you say, "˜oh, boy.’ But I do think it’s been reputation for us. Food’s always fresh and good.

Bob: But yes, it is much harder now. In the summer you don’t really notice, but in November and April, it’s just much harder. So you listen to marketing ideas, you stay driven to be better, you maintain a great staff by making sure they’re learning and being paid enough. It’s hard. People like these restaurants in the middle that are innovative at a price they can afford, and there are way more of those today.

Patrick: I also absolutely think we raised the bar here. People would look and say, "˜what’s City Park Grill doing?’

Bob: Another thing that’s changed is that the surrounding markets have have improved. You think about Harbor Springs, Boyne"¦ Traverse City is this food mecca now. Around here Petoskey was always clearly the dining leader, and we are still in the leadership position, but not like it was.

Express: Do you still see holes in this market, though? Opportunities?

Bob: I don’t think there’s necessarily one thing, but I know on thing we’re going to be more involved in is catering. I think we did a great job of keeping these places very different. We always look and if something presented itself we would think about it; you never can tell. But we’re pretty focused on this catering arm right now.

Patrick: We have lots of ideas, but everything bob said; you have to make sure you don’t cannibalize what you’re already doing, and that’s tough to do.

Express: What do you make of Petoskey as a whole and its future?

Bob: It continues to move forward. A few things like Petoskey Pointe would be helpful. More parking would always be good. But this town has so many tremendous assets"¦ Crooked Tree, Bay View, Bliss"¦

Laura: And we have some issues with a shortage of young professionals, but the Chamber is trying to address that with their Thrive 45 program, and I’m hearing tons of positives about that.

Mary: And there remains such a sense of ownership here. Everyone is so vested in local businesses and causes, even if they only live here for three months or less a year.

Bob: I had never lived in a small town. Huge change. One thing you notice right away is that people are very involved and giving"¦. you just naturally do it.

Laura: It’s who we are.

Express: And what about your own relationships? Partners? Friends? How does that work?

Patrick: It’s a combination, but professional first. We have pretty clearly defined roles, as we said. And just having worked together so long there’s a real camaraderie.

Bob: [Being in business together] changes relationships, but I’m amazed really at how well it has worked out. First I had to get used to working with my wife. I hadn’t done that before.

Mary: Thank goodness we opened City Park so we were apart! [Laughs]

Bob: Everybody brings something to the table. I’m sure we drive each other crazy from time to time, but we bring things that make the places better.

Laura: Bob, Dick and I are probably better friends than we were before.

Mary: Well, we basically raised our kids together and took vacations together. Throw in Pat’s kids, and it’s basically family. We all respect each other’s opinions and approaches.

Express: How did the name "Wine Guys" come to be?

Laura: That was our corporate name when we first opened City.

Bob: It was time to put more emphasis on a corporate name when we opened Palette, too.

Mary: I remember at one point early on we just needed to come up with something for a name!

Bob: There was probably some wine involved in the name’s development"¦

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