Aroha Restaurant: The Yelp Effect

Before I go into this blog, let me start by saying that these first three weeks at the restaurant have been great! Our numbers have been increasing, we already have a large sum of regulars, and at least 90-95% of our customers have been happy with the food and service; there will always be those couple individuals who don't understand our concept (casual fine dining) or enjoy the food, as is the same for any restaurant in this world.

Since we've been opened, we've had a handful of Yelp reviews. For the most part, we've had a lot of 5 star reviews, and all but two are from people we've never met before. The people we know who did leave reviews, didn't leave them because we asked them to. They left them because they genuinely liked the food and their experience. They have been full paying, repeat customers, who live in the area and deserve to voice their opinions like everyone else.

The most mind-boggling thing to me is why other people who didn't enjoy the food feel the need in their reviews to accuse the other reviewers of being fake. Is there no room for different opinions anymore in today's society? Does everyone have to announce that they know best? The truth is, when we receive a review from a customer outlining a negative experience they had or witnessed, we take it seriously. We want to deal with every problem head on and fix it. When a customer has an issue at the restaurant and tells us, we always do what we can to turn their experience into a positive one. Because we always make sure to take care of customer complaints, I find it incredibly upsetting to see a customer bash our restaurant on Yelp without letting us address the complaint while they're at the restaurant.

We're a new restaurant, and like every new business there are always going to be a few hiccups. Unlike a lot of other businesses though, we want to see the hiccups. We want to deal with the problems and make everything as perfect as possible. However, without constructive criticism, it's impossible to truly know what is an issue and what isn't.

For example, if someone complains in a review that everything they ate was bland and not seasoned to their liking, while more than 95% of our 930 customers are all satisfied, does that mean that this individual's food wasn't done right in the kitchen that night, or does it mean they just prefer spicy food and all purpose seasoning? The truth is, without being told the complaint at the restaurant, we have no way of deciphering the root of the problem. Had this complaint been heard, we would've comped the meal, returned it to the kitchen, and the kitchen would've checked the food to see if there was something they did wrong. If they did it wrong, they'd know for next time. On the other hand, if it tasted as it should, that may just mean our food isn't this customer's cup of tea. We would still comp them the meal. People aren't meant to like all of the same things. If everyone was supposed to like the same thing, then every restaurant's menu, according to my tastebuds, would only offer salmon and shrimp sushi, a half rack of ribs with french fries, duck, and gluten-free pineapple-coconut fried shrimp. For some odd reason, I've accepted the fact that, lets say, the Cheesecake Factory hasn't added these food items in replacement of their 20 page menu that I can't actually eat anything from.

Some complaints are easier to deal with then others. On one hand, certain complaints about portion size we want to deal with, to satisfy our customers. However, it can certainly be confusing when 60% of your clientele tells you they're happy to finally go to a restaurant and not get an oversized portion they can't finish, and the other 40% tells you they're still hungry and need more. We're working on finding that happy medium for these customers but I'm sure it will take a little time to figure out. Because these comments are constructive and customers have suggested different things they'd like from more vegetables to giving amuse bouches, etc., we're actually able to look into the issue and work on solving it. We're not just given a string of complaints with no solution. I really appreciate the customers who have taken the time to give us these constructive critiques and help us try to improve our business.

At the end of the day, I have to remember to just listen, breathe, and understand that not everything is for everyone. I'm not going to lie. At 23 years old, I may recognize that that's the way the world works but it's still definitely not easy to hear someone bash a business you've put your heart and soul into. It makes it hard to sleep at night and because of my health issues, it can also make it hard to eat somedays. It's a lesson that I'm still learning and something I have to come to terms with. In the end though, I appreciate every single customer whether they have loved our restaurant or they haven't and still have constructively told us what positive changes they'd like us to make.

To those who have dined at our restaurant already, thank you! We love seeing your smiling faces and it's a pleasure to serve you. And for those who haven't, we hope to see you there and hope to make your experience a positive one. Remember, if you do have a critique, let us know. We want to hear from you and we want to make your experience just as magical as we have for our other guests!

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30990 Russell Ranch Rd Unit C, Westlake Village, CA 91362
© 2014 Aroha Restaurant.

Aroha: An Incredible Week Thanks to an Incredible Team!

It's funny. Every day for the past 7 months, people I meet have been scaring me about the restaurant industry. I have literally had people tell me that once the restaurant began, my life would be over. As someone who hasn't been in the industry before, I couldn't just shake off these comments. Part of me, a large part of me, constantly believed them. I was having panic attacks day and night, trouble sleeping, and even trouble eating.

Well, we're one week into this crazy industry and there's one thing I now know.

Everybody was wrong. My life isn't over. As a matter of fact, it's just the opposite.

My life is only beginning.

While it's been a lot of hours and a lot of work, I look forward to going to the restaurant every single day. Honestly, I crave it. Every single day, I get to go to the restaurant and feel lucky enough to work with such an amazing team of people.

Someone once asked us why we started a restaurant. And before we could answer, he said it was to make money. The funny thing is, that answer has never sat well with me, because honestly, that's not the reason we started a restaurant. Sure, to be successful we have to make money. I get that. But do you want to know why I always wanted to start a business? To prove to the world that you can run a successful business just by treating your employees right.

Gwith and I have both had such awful work experiences over the past five years. These employers believed that disrespecting their employees and yelling at them was the only way to be respected as "the boss". Ever since we hired our staff, we have taken a very different approach. We've had both smiles and laughs as friends and nightly meetings as team members. And guess what: We've been open for four days and we haven't had a single customer complaint. Not one. Everyone has raved about the food and the service. Not a single item has been sent back to the kitchen. Not a single customer has complained about the waitstaff. I've never owned a restaurant before so I don't know if that's normal, but Gwith seems pleasantly surprised every single day. I'm assuming that he's never experienced that before in all of the restaurants he's helped open.

Grand Opening night on our patio!

Right now, no matter what ever happens, I just want to say THANK YOU. Thank you to our amazing team who has helped make our dreams come true and already, worked so hard to make Aroha a success. Your enthusiasm and hard work warms my heart every day. To be able to come to work every day and see friendly, happy faces, is everything I could've ever asked for. And THANK YOU to our guests who have come in these past few days and discovered our restaurant. It was our pleasure to serve each and every one of you. We are thrilled that you enjoyed your experience and that we could make your day/night a memorable one. I can't wait to see what the week ahead brings! Please join us this evening for dinner and tomorrow for our very first Sunday brunch starting at 10 am! We hope to see you there!

Relaxing After Hours with our late night team: (left to right) Lexi Medrano, Brian Smith, Gwithyen Thomas, Christian Stolp, Ben Schlesinger, and Justine Thomas

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30990 Russell Ranch Rd Unit C, Westlake Village, CA 91362
© 2014 Aroha Restaurant.

Aroha Restaurant: One of The Best Days of Our Lives

Do you ever have one of those days you wish you could put on repeat? Yesterday was by far one of the best days of our lives. It started with hectic prep work, continued into an amazing function at the restaurant hosting the New Zealand Consulate General and his guests, and finished with possibly what will be the best surprise of our entire lives.

To begin with, we couldn't have asked for a better first trial run at the restaurant. The Consulate General, Leon Grice, and his 20 guests absolutely loved the menu we offered. While Gwith was busy working, I got the pleasure to dine at the table and hear all of the rave reviews. I heard everything from, "I usually never take pictures of my food but this is picture worthy," to "It's been such a long time since I had a memorable meal" and so many more compliments. Needless to say, every item we served was a huge hit, as well as our New Zealand wines. One lady wanted to know where she could get a bottle of our Sauvignon Blanc. Our sommelier had to let her know that as our wines are primarily from boutique wineries, most of our wines can only be found at our restaurant.

Us with Leon Grice and a few of his guests

Throughout the meal, we had at least thirty local customers walk up to the door asking if we were opened. We also started taking reservations this past week for our September 10th grand opening and our September 9th soft opening for locals. We're only seating 40 people for our soft opening and we are already 90% booked. I know everyone is dying to see the menu, and since I'm in such a good mood today, I'm going to release a couple more items! We have already announced some highlights on our website, but I'd love to mention two more items that we served yesterday.

Crispy Pork Belly with butternut puree, roasted feijoa, baby cress, and a vanilla-champagne dressing

Raspberry Creme Brûlée served with coconut and a raspberry-passionfruit sauce

This week, we also release a photo of Gwith's Venison Dish:

Award Winning Venison pan roasted with sweet potato, cherry compote, pistachio, and a vanilla parsnip purée

We will be releasing the full menu soon, but I have to say, I'm loving releasing teasers at the moment! It's exciting to give everyone an idea of what we're serving without giving too much away too soon. Before I move on to the next amazing part of the afternoon, I must thank the staff that we had on board yesterday: Noe Lopez (Sous Chef), Jordan Greig (Sommelier), Brian Smith (Shift Leader), Alan Treitman (Junior Line Cook), and Miguel Villalpando (Dishwasher). For a first trial run, everyone did an outstanding job and we couldn't be more excited to have you all on our team!

Shortly after the last guest left, my parents and sister stopped by to say hello. Little did we know, we were about to get the best surprise of our lives. As we're talking to them, Gwith received a call from his sister, Muirie, in New Zealand. He talked to her briefly and then the phone was passed around to me. As I'm talking to her, the phone suddenly cut out. A second later, I glance at the front door and Muirie is walking in with our niece Alex!!!! It's been 10 months since Gwith saw them last and over a year since I've seen them. We were expecting them out in a couple of weeks but they surprised us early. Gwith's expression was amazing. If things couldn't get any better though, just moments later, our brother-in-law, Marcus, and Gwith's brother Rohan, also came walking through the door! While we expected Muirie and Alex in a few weeks, we were told Marcus couldn't make it. As for Rohan, he's never been to the US since Gwith moved out here, so that was incredibly unexpected, to say the least. It's impossible to describe how amazing their surprise was. I'm still tearing up just writing about it. The fact that they came out here early to surprise us and show their love and support for us and the restaurant is indescribable. We couldn't be more grateful to have such an amazing family and so much aroha around us.

When my family first walked in, my sister came in with her camera. Frankly, Raishel loves to take pictures of EVERYTHING so Gwith and I didn't think anything of it. We are so grateful that she captured this amazing memory on video:

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30990 Russell Ranch Rd Unit C, Westlake Village, CA 91362
© 2014 Aroha Restaurant.

Aroha Restaurant: Floors are In, Sign is Up!...What's Left?

The clock is really ticking down now! Later this week, we'll be announcing our official opening date, along with a few signature menu items. I am eager to announce it but I also know that once we do, everything else has no choice but to fall into place.

For those of you wondering where we're at right now and why we haven't announced our opening date yet, here is what we're waiting on:

• The gas company. We've been in contact with them for the past month to have the gas line run to our restaurant so we can use our stoves. This is probably the most important thing on our list right now, as you can imagine! They're working on it and hopefully this week it will be completed.

• Internet. We're waiting to get the lines installed. Again, this week should be the week.

• Our Furniture. This I can give a definitive time table on! Our indoor furniture will be ready tomorrow, and our outdoor furniture will be ready on both Wednesday and Thursday!

This past week has been incredibly intense. As the countdown begins, it feels a little bit like an episode of 24. There's only so much time left in the season and still so much we need to complete by the end. It's all absolutely doable. If it wasn't, we would hold off on deciding our opening date. However, we have a date in our heads, and we are 95% sure that we'll be ready to open by then. It still doesn't stop us from having that ticking clock sound in our heads, though! In reality, our list is a lot less than it was a month ago. We started last month with a list of at least 40 reminders and this month, we have about 10 to complete. The hardest part for me is most of the things we're waiting on now, relies on other people. As confident as I am (deep down inside!) that they will be done by their deadlines, relying on other companies to get a job done always feels like a wildcard to me. But honestly, there's nothing I can do at this point to make these things happen any sooner, and I have to accept that.

Last week, we had our first round of interviews and I am beyond excited to say that we hired the shift leader for our front of house team! We will be interviewing a lot more employees this week and can't wait to have the full team together. In other news, we also met with our supplier and rep from World Wide Produce, Lynde, and gave her a list of all of the items we're going to need. There were some very interesting garnish items she had that we are also eager to try and hopefully serve to our customers! Last night, we received a copy of our wine list. We're ecstatic to announce that 60% of our list will offer New Zealand wines and all of our By the Glass wines will be from New Zealand! Besides a 60% New Zealand wine selection, all of our beers will be from New Zealand, as well as our soda and juice selection provided by Aroha Drinks. Speaking of, we got a sampler pack in the mail over the weekend:

Aroha Drink flavors include Sparking Blackcurrant, Sparkling Feijoa, Sparkling Rhubarb,
Ginger Lemon & Honey, Sauvignon Blanc & Saffron, and Elderflower & Green Currant

Construction wise, the flooring has all been installed, the LED lights are up on the soffits, the outdoor fountain is up and running, and the fencing has been put in for our patio! In the upcoming weeks, we will be getting our countertops, shelves, cabinets, and host station! We also received our menu booklets the other day. Our pet rabbit, Willow, is excited about all of the boxes of menus in our entryway! She's been enjoying climbing on them and even tried to open them herself.

The outdoor fountain

Over the weekend, we set up our phone. We had quite a fun time trying to get the answering machine to work! After Gwith recorded the greeting five times to get it perfect, we realized he recorded it in the wrong spot somehow. So, it took another five to ten tries just to get it right! We are happy to say the recording is finished, our phone is in, and it no longer makes loud obnoxious noises and speaks when someone calls to leave a message! YAY! The unfortunate part is, once we announce our opening date, we'll have to re-record the message...and then re-record it again when we open. It's okay though. He's doing it, not me...which means I just get to stand next to him and be entertained!

The best news of the week however is that our sign went up on Friday! We are so pleased with how it turned out! When we first looked at the property, this was the very first thing I envisioned. It's been amazing watching the entire vision of the restaurant come to life but seeing the sign, exactly where I pictured it back in March, is amazing.

As of today, this is what our restaurant looks like, pre-furniture (except for the outdoor couches and end table currently sitting inside!), with the complete wood floors and LED lights turned on!

We are so excited to finish the construction process and focus on our future customers and service! Stay tuned for the opening date and soft opening announcements!

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30990 Russell Ranch Rd Unit C, Westlake Village, CA 91362
© 2014 Aroha Restaurant.

Aroha Restaurant: Entering "Little Blossom" Mode

We're getting down to the wire now and I'd be lying if I said things weren't feeling intense. As a business owner, you never want to show your weakness because, supposedly, people may use it against you. But at the same time, if you willingly show and discuss your weaknesses, doesn't that make you stronger in the end? Doesn't it remove the shield and let you grow? It can be such a fine line. When interviewing employees, we've asked them what their greatest weakness is. If we expect our potential employees to confidently tell us their weaknesses, it's only fair that I'm able to confidently tell people mine.

So what's my weakness? I always want everyone to be happy and successful. The biggest things I agonize over with the restaurant is the worry that we'll hire that one employee that will seem perfect and then cause the biggest trouble or that we'll have food come out wrong at some point and disappoint a customer. The truth is, I know how to handle these types of situations, but I still don't want to experience them or have other people experience them. The hardest thing is that I want everything to be perfect and the realist in me knows that nothing is ever perfect. Even "perfect" people have their days. And that's okay.

You might be asking what got me into this reflective mood. Well, I have this app on my phone, Timehop, and I was looking at it this morning. Five years ago this month, my sister, my friend Rhiannon, and I began filming our TV pilot, Little Blossom. To be honest, reading those old posts has been inspiring. Why? Whenever I'm in crunch mode or business mode, I call it "Little Blossom Mode". It was the first time in my life that was exhaustingly strenuous and yet, undeniably exciting all at the same time. I worked 18 hour days, rarely slept, dealt with crisis after crisis, and yet loved every single moment of it. Why? Because I loved the feeling of positively leading a team.

Little Blossom Intro

Little Blossom was my first foray into management...and I don't just mean a few people. We hired 40 cast members, 15 extras, and 10 crew members... I was in charge of all of them. When we casted for Little Blossom, I was only 18 years old. Yet, I was casting and managing people from ages 13 to 65 on that set. It was a tough learning curve and I learned a lot throughout the experience. I learned that even if you want to be the nice boss, you still have to know how to take charge.  I had to turn down friends who auditioned for roles and I had to fire a friend during filming. It certainly was not an easy time. However, I would say that 92% of the cast was fantastic to work with. They understood that we were in charge and they respected us, therefore, we respected them. The other 8% was far trickier. The first time we ever had to deal with firing someone was absolutely insane. A week before filming, one of our leads decided that she wanted to change her entire character's personality. With only days to go and no time to audition other actors (this was Colorado, not LA!), my sister and I, in 24 hours, took out the ensemble cast script, removed her character entirely, and wrote in some new replacement scenes. Afterwards, we fired her. On a daily basis throughout the filming process we dealt with a small handful of actors trying to change the schedule, having mental breakdowns from the long strenuous days, or just refusing to get out of bed and come to the set. However, aside from those select people, we had an otherwise amazing cast who respected our schedule, the project, and us. These other 37 people worked hard and had a lot of fun because they gave us no reason to stress out about them or their work ethics.

Little Blossom Blooper Reel

The bottom line is, I believe in a respectful working environment. No employee should come into a job having to "earn" their bosses respect. Gwith and I believe in respecting everyone from the beginning. It is my hope that every person we hire for Aroha is a warm hearted, hard-working, and respectful individual. We want to be able to give people normal work days and time to spend with their family. We want to be able to create an environment where everyone enjoys coming to work and it doesn't feel like a chore. A work environment where our employees feel respected and are genuinely happy. I truly do believe this is all possible. If our employees are just as respectful of our business and us as we are of them, I know we can make Aroha a fantastic place to work!

In the upcoming weeks, there are going to be a lot of changes. The restaurant is going to be finished, our employees are going to be hired, and all around, things are going to get even more hectic than they are right now...if that's even possible! It's scary. It's intense. It's exciting. It's amazing. And it's August. It's five years later, and it's time I get back into that mindset. I'm entering Little Blossom mode. It's time to begin the ride.

Little Blossom Premiere

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30990 Russell Ranch Rd Unit C, Westlake Village, CA 91362
© 2014 Aroha Restaurant.