Now Serving . . . Humble Pie

It began, innocently enough, with this:

“Hey, honey: I’ve got a great idea! Let’s build a waterfront resort!”

Searching for the correct words here, but from there, it’s safe to say that things became … interesting. A year after opening our resort at the Lake of the Ozarks, including Pebble Bay Club Grill, I have an entirely new respect for anyone who makes a living juggling back-of-the-house operations, restaurant/bar staff, customers, vendors, lenders and freeloaders. For starters.

All the more impressive, then, that the Kansas City area’s best restaurants are once again recognized by our influential executive readers as being the very best at what they do in this region. They are inspirations to every would-be restaurateur out there. More than that, they’re examples of what it takes to succeed in the hospitality sector. 

The nice thing about this particular line of work is that, even if your initial dreams come down a peg or two, there’s generally only one direction to go: Up. And the real secret to long-term success like we’ve seen with this year’s Best of Business winners is the knowledge that getting to the top is only part of the journey, one that has no end. Perfection is always the goal, yet almost paradoxically, it’s always another step out of reach. So we keep reaching.

One thing I’ve learned is that, though the lake region is just a two- or three-hour drive from Kansas City and St. Louis, it’s light-years away from being a sophisticated hospitality region. Some of the hurdles encountered over the past year have yet to come down completely, but our humble enterprise has already reached a milestone of sorts: Most restaurant ventures don’t stick around long enough to light the candle on their first anniversary cake. 

So what are the biggest impediments to success?

Hiring is Remarkably Difficult. Yes, I know it is in the big city, too, but it’s double the challenge at the Lake of the Ozarks. For one, as the fastest-growing region in the state of Missouri for the past 30 years, its influx of consumers and customers has vastly overrun the numbers of qualified workers. A lot of the new residents come here with their own families already grown. So with little enrollment growth among lake-area school districts, the result yields a challenged workforce. And not just for bars and restaurants: The entertainment venues and attractions, many of which require significant manpower, means we’re all trying to hire the same workers at the same time.

Seasonality Complicates Things. When summer comes to Kansas City, a lot of folks head out of town for a short duration, perhaps a few weeks in some cases. For the most part, though, they stick around, and any drop-off is made up in part with people coming here to vacation. It’s fairly stable year-round. At the lake? The
masses descend around Memorial Day, and it’s a thousand miles an hour right up through Labor Day weekend. Then what? You have to be prepared with what amounts to a second business model. In our case, we drew on what we knew at the magazine to fill the off-peak months: Executive lifestyles. Ingram’s has catered to the business community for 50 years, so it was a natural pivot during the slower times of the year to make our enterprise a gathering place for lake-region power hitters and networking. Think of it as a lake version of Ingram’s, with a terrific menu, drinks and a great environment.

External Factors. Face it: You can dot every “I” and cross every “T” with your preparations, but that impact stops at the front door. The lake region itself can present constraints. Such as:

• There’s a crying need for expanded health care, including a second trauma and sophisticated acute hospital or medical center. Lacking that, it’s tough to become a national-level retirement destination with the scale that can help keep businesses thriving year-round.  
• The Curriculum Gap. Because of the massive infusion of tax base at the lake and flat enrollment, the school districts are sufficiently funded. Schools in the region at the secondary level appear, however, to lack a comprehensive instructional program designed specifically to produce culinary and hospitality workers. These aren’t like most jobs, and the traditional K-12 system graduate is ill-equipped to work in high-intensity settings.
• Affordable housing, or lack thereof—including senior-living options—exacerbate the challenge that already exists with workforce numbers and quality. They can’t work for you if they can’t afford to live there themselves. 

I wanted to write and publish a book last year to coincide with Ingram’s 50th but I was way too busy. If I were to do so this year, the title of the book might read: Only in the Ozarks. We hope you’ll make Pebble Bay Club your destination soon.