The Wooster Inn: A Recipe for Success

continued …

… stir in a few pounds of value …

One of the secrets to filling the dining room every night is to shed the reputation of being exclusively a “special occasion” restaurant, says Bogucki. “I want us to be an everyday restaurant.” And how does this happen? The simplicity of the answer belies its complexity. “Keep the costs down.”

So far, the Inn has kept entrées under $20 and has kept wine mark-ups lower than many of their competitors. “But I’m going to have to look at that $20 barrier,” says Bogucki. The Inn’s profit margin is uniquely influenced because it is owned by a college that is committed to paying its employees fair wages and benefits. “We pay a benefit package that is 38 percent of our salaries,” says Bogucki. “That’s huge. That would not be the case in most restaurants.”

… vitality …

Although gentle dining is desirable, there’s such a thing as too gentle. “It used to be so quiet here, you could hear a pin drop,” Bogucki remembers. Although he valued his 60-plus crowd, he wanted to add a younger demographic. So he brought in a baby grand piano for music during meals and launched the popular Friday night Party on the Patio. Live bands, drinks, and free appetizers attracted as many as 400 people on warm summer nights. “It’s become the gathering place on Friday night,” says Bogucki. “It’s phenomenal. The Inn has always been a gem; it was ready to rock and roll.”

…and consistency.

The bottom line to any restaurant’s success is consistently great food, of course. A recipe replicated 100 times with consistently first-rate results is truly a great recipe. But when Bogucki arrived, he found gaps in uniform, high quality preparation.

His solution strategy was three-pronged. First, he computerized the restaurant’s processes, something that had never been done at the Inn. Second, he devised detailed instruction sheets for each menu item for the cooks and servers. And third, he creatively solved problem areas.Take, for example, the Inn’s signature house French salad dressing—highly popular and highly unpredictable.

“When I got here, we had lost a lot of money on the Inn’s expensive, blue-cheese dressing for the past six years,” said Bogucki. “We made the salad dressing in five-gallon batches. If it didn’t emulsify it would separate and look really disgusting. And then we’d throw it out.”

He took the dressing off the menu, and patrons squawked. His ultimate solution was to hire a Cleveland manufacturer to produce and bottle it under the Wooster Inn label. The first two months the dressing was for sale, 100 gallons were sold from the Inn alone. Sales should continue to go up when it debuts at local grocery stores. “It’s a way to produce the dressing economically and at the same time get our Wooster brand out there,” Bogucki says.

Catering bonanza

The strategy that put more patrons in the dining room has also sparked the Inn’s catering business. In 2005-06 the Inn catered 1,500 events, compared to 263 events in fiscal year 2003- 04. Another reason for the increased business was an administrative change in 1999 that put the Inn under the management of the College’s Hospitality Services, directed by Chuck Wagers. Although the College has owned the Inn ever since it opened its doors in 1949 (a gift from former chairman of the Board of Trustees, Robert E.Wilson, Class of 1914) this was the first time Hospitality Services managed it.

“When it was put under our division, we could share resources for the first time,” says Wagers. The partnership has allowed the Inn to accommodate larger events, because of access to the College’s staff and facilities. For example, the Inn recently catered a wedding dinner at Kittredge Hall and a reception at Lowry Center.

While Bogucki’s recipe for success includes nuanced flavorings, Wagers’ has just one key ingredient: People. “The Inn has the best staff it has ever had. The service, food quality, presentation— they all reflect enormous talent. And our patrons know that.”

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