Denver-based restaurant and jazz club Nocturne has been turning out top-notch food and music for nearly a decade. That kind of restaurant longevity can be elusive these days, so we sought out co-owner Nicole Mattson to share her secrets with us.
It's no secret that long-term survival in this industry can be challenging, and as an industry-veteran, Mattson knows this well.
“I always joke with people that restaurant years are kind of like dog years – eight years is similar to 40 years in any other industry,” said Mattson. “We've learned a ton of lessons along the way, and it’s really the old adage of, ‘What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.’”
5 Tips for Restaurant Success in The Long-term
Mattson shared her insights from nearly a decade in the business, including her views on achieving restaurant longevity, the secret to survival in challenging times, and general tips for restaurant success in any operating environment.
1. Hire with a focus on internal culture.
According to Mattson, one of the top takeaways from her years in the business is the importance of making thoughtful and culturally conscious hiring decisions. Good people can be a key to your restaurant longevity, just as bad hires can negatively impact your reputation, performance and bottom line.
As Mattson explained, “it’s important to figure out your mission and values and find questions that get at that in the interview process. When you hire people whose personal missions and values somehow overlap with your Venn diagram, you can start from a place of trust.”
“At Nocturne that’s often a love for the arts," she said. "We’ll get a line cook who's also a guitarist on the side or a host that’s also studying vocal jazz. It’s not necessarily something that we’re screening for, but it becomes one of those lightbulb moments during an interview.”
2. Create an experience for your guests.
Another key to restaurant longevity for Mattson is providing guests with a compelling reason to spend an evening in your establishment. In the aftermath of the pandemic, Mattson and her partner "switched to doing a dinner and show package, where people are purchasing the live music as well as a three-course dinner. And that was a great strategic decision. We haven’t looked back since.”
In fact, this new model helped Nocturne make inroads into the events market.
“It inherently created experiential dining. If you're going to make a reservation at Nocturne now, you’re committing to the full experience," Mattson said. "We’ve become a solid destination for birthdays, anniversaries, job promotions, and all sorts of celebrations. And I do think people want that – an experience that goes well beyond takeout and Netflix.”
3. Provide employees with a good work-life balance.
The restaurant industry struggles with notoriously high turnover rates. This can have a negative impact on consistency, quality control, and even restaurant longevity. Mattson stresses the importance of providing employees with flexibility.
She advised “having additional grace with staff when they need time off. It’s easy to be an old-school restaurateur, where you tell people, ‘It doesn’t matter how bad things are, you should still come in for your shift.’ But if you don’t feel good, you go home, and we’ll figure out how to adapt, even if it means closing off a section.”
For Mattson, this type of flexibility is an issue of mental health.
“There [has been] a big gap industry wide in having empathy around people’s health,” she explained. “Hospitality is a very fun industry, but we also have to give a lot of empathy to guests and that can cause burnout. It’s important that people get some time to themselves to reset.”
4. Offer competitive employee benefits.
Of course, strong work-life balance alone will not draw top talent to your business. In today’s challenging hiring environment, you also have to offer competitive benefits.
“[At Nocturne] full-time status is if you work 25 hours or more, and we offer sick pay, a matching 401K, and healthcare where we pair for half and they pay for half," said Mattson. "We have an employee assistance package, which provides three free therapist sessions and also some financial and legal assistance.”
In addition, their team pays “$30 per month for a wellness reimbursement that [employees] can use on things like a gym membership or yoga classes. We give up to $500 a year for educational reimbursement, so a lot of our front of house staff will do training through The Court of Master Sommeliers or WSET.”
5. Build bonding experiences.
Positive company culture is vital, not just to employee retention, but to creating a sense of opportunity, growth, and connection for team members.
“Our goal is to do an all-staff field trip every other year," she said. "This past week, we did our second to New Orleans for a healthy dose of jazz history, food, drink, and all the culture that city has to offer. In 2021, we dined around Portland and did Oregon’s wine country.”
The value of this investment may not be immediately obvious. But the long-term success of your business may depend on your ability to retain and motivate the very best of your employees.
”It might not always make sense on paper, but it does pay off," Mattson said. "If you’re operating out of a sense of abundance, it’s going to create a win-win between you and staff in the long-term. If you’re operating out of a sense of scarcity, you’re always going to be treading water. The longevity of employees, the bonding that the trips create, and the mental health of having some financial stability – those are all factors you can’t put a dollar figure around but that definitely make an impact.”
Improve Restaurant Longevity With Recruitment and Hiring Tools
As Mattson suggested, better recruitment and hiring practices may be the real secret to true restaurant longevity. But it can be challenging to find and connect with the top industry talent in this fiercely competitive hiring environment. Give your restaurant a competitive edge by leveraging cutting edge recruitment and hiring tools. Get started by comparing some of the top vendors in the industry.
