targeting the notables and quotables of kansas city
Bill Crooks believes in taking an active role in all his restaurants and has since 1987, when he co-founded PB&J Restaurants Inc. with fellow Gilbert-Robinson alumnus Paul Khoury. For Crooks, the restaurant business provides a creative outlet. "I've always been interested in using what I've learned, whether that's in my restaurants, gardening, education, or anything else," he says.
PB&J currently employs more than 1,000 workers and operates 35 restaurants in Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Colorado, including Yia Yia's, Paulo Bill's, Paradise Grill, Café Eau, Coyote Grill, Yahooz, and the company's flagship restaurant, the Grand Street Cafe. All but Yia Yia's and Yahooz are "concept"restaurants, or one-of-a-kind eateries designed around a word or feeling.
Crooks' imagination also extends into the areas of profit sharing and ingredient purchasing. All PB&J general managers and chefs are equity partners in the company, not just in their own individual restaurants. Crooks says this has a huge impact on turnover: Since 1987, only two partnership-level employees have voluntarily left the company. "Giving people ownership enables them to care about the business on a different level, and it inspires them to take greater pride in their work," he says.
Regarding ingredients, Crooks believes in buying locally. All of the chickens used in Kansas City-area restaurants come from Ottawa, Kan., and PB&J worked with farmers in Alden, Mo., to design a beef- and pork-purchasing program that created twelve new jobs. "We believe in putting money back into the community," says Crooks. "We'll go out of our way to use regional livestock."
In the next five years, Crooks hopes to position PB&J for controlled growth. "The joke around our company is that we never met a deal we didn't like," he says. "But in the end, we just love what we do."