Naomi Pomeroy: Analog Food.
My restaurant, Beast, was started with fifty thousand dollars. That is what the whole thing cost to build. It was sustainable because I didn’t take out a huge loan. The space was really small. Beast was going to be a play on the word bistro. Our plan was to do small tables and French-y bistro food. After we got our kitchen equipment, which was one electric convection oven, two electric convention burners (which we used for three years), and two little refrigerators, we realized it wouldn’t work. If someone came in and spent twenty-five dollars but spent three hours talking to friends, we would not stay in business. We needed more tables. The first thing about a business is that it has to be sustainable.
My biggest passion in the world is everybody doing what they want for a living. Ultimately, that is what saves the planet. Everyone would be happy. I had an incredible opportunity to do what I wanted to do in the restaurant but it was being dictated by the space. So I let the space talk to me. It was hard for me to say, “Put two big tables in here and charge more money.” That way we didn’t have to do as many covers to be sustainable.
When people are joyfully working the work is better. If people were truly passionate about coffee you would never have a bad cup of coffee. Portland is a great example because there are a lot of people who are truly passionate about coffee. We have so much good coffee here. There is so much great food here and incredible wine.
