Wholly Stromboli, Fort Lupton, CO
Photo via Pizza Magazine
We had the pleasure to speak with Chef Melissa Rickman of Wholly Stromboli on IG Live to hear how she is making the most of the current service interruption and connecting with her community in Fort Lupton, Colorado. Her uplifting spirit gave us hope in finding the silver lining through these times and we thank you, Melissa, for sharing your ideas with us!
Here are a few of Melissa’s tips:
- Look at your challenges as opportunities. Use the extra time to review and refresh systems and policies. Focus on emerging better, leaner and stronger.
Melissa is taking this opportunity to catch up on business needs with everything from restructuring her menu and training employees, to repainting bathrooms and making sure they come out of this a stronger, leaner business.
- Cut menu items that are intensive on time and prep so that you can meet your needs day-by-day and adjust as needed.
Melissa pared down her menu by focusing on the amount of product and prep involved in each dish. Focusing in on what sells and what is easiest to execute allows her and her business to be nimble and evolve as the situation changes.
- Think about your long term goals as a business, and make sure any adjustments are in alignment.
For Wholly Stromboli, delivery is not a focus for the future, so it never became an option right now. Solutions should make sense now, but also in the future.
- Give back to your community in a way that makes sense for your time, your resources and your product.
Melissa reviewed her options for giving back to her community, and decided that a Curbside Spaghetti Dinner pickup made the most effective use of her resources, while safely bringing together the community and raising money for a local food bank. Publicized purely through social media marketing, it was a great success raising $8,000 in 23 minutes.
Watch the full interview for even more inspiration and actionable ideas.
Connect With Us @corto_olive for even more industry tips and stay tuned for another installment of our #TogetherWithChefs series!