Robert St. John says he fell in love with bakeries while traveling around Europe. He dreamed of opening a bakery for nearly a decade before making his dream come true.
Little boy dreams. In my early years, my friends dreamed of being astronauts, soldiers and firemen. I wanted to be Darren Stevens in the TV series Bewitched. The prospect of being married to a beautiful witch who could conjure Benjamin Franklin into the middle of her living room with the twinkle of her eye appealed to me as a six-year-old. But what really fascinated me about the show was Darren Stevens’ job as an advertising executive. Even at that early age, I liked the prospect of coming up with creative ideas and presenting them to a client.
As the 1960s drew to a close, I became more and more obsessed with Marsha Brady and Laurie Partridge on TV, but my career dreams were leaning toward Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. I was no longer fascinated by sales pitches on Madison Avenue in a 32nd floor office, but by being on the road with the biggest rock’n’roll band in the world and everything that such a job seemed to entail – the groupies, the lifestyle, the music.
By the mid-1970s, my desires had changed: I went from wanting to be on stage at a rock concert to being the guy backstage writing about those concerts. Starting in the 1970s, I had a three-decade subscription to Rolling Stone magazine. The writer, Cameron Crowe—who was just a little older than me—was always on the road with the bands I loved. That became my dream job throughout high school.
When it was time to go to college, those earlier dreams had faded and I felt aimless. Having worked as a disc jockey at a radio station, I majored in communications. However, my main focus was partying. Since there were no jobs for a full-time partygoer, the lifestyle caught up with me and I dropped out of college.
Failing turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me because it forced me to get back into the workforce. I found a job managing a deli and fell in love with the restaurant business.
I fell fast and deep.
It really was love at first sight. I was completely infatuated with restaurants, food and the hospitality industry. My dreams became more focused, more reasonable and more attainable. I managed the deli department during the day and took another job as a waitress at night. I went back to college and got a degree in hospitality management. Between classes, I studied restaurant books in the library and stayed up late after my waitressing job to design menus and future restaurant concepts.
My original goal was to own just one restaurant so I could go to work in shorts and a t-shirt every day. But like most things in my life, plans changed. Instead of opening one restaurant at the beginning, I opened two next to each other on the same day.
Since then, I’ve implemented 24 concepts. Today, seven of them are in operation. Over the years, I’ve sold several of these earlier concepts, closed some when the lease ran out, sold the property in one, sold to partners in others, and redesigned nearly a dozen times. If you want to survive in this business for nearly four decades, you have to be willing to change, evolve, and keep moving forward. I’ve never driven a concept into bankruptcy, but I’ve closed a few, making sure to take care of the entire team and suppliers.
As a restaurant owner, my greatest talent is in concept development. We have a casual New Orleans-style restaurant that is our flagship, a neighborhood pub with four staffed bars and six indoor and outdoor bar areas, two Italian restaurants, a burger joint, and a breakfast/lunch cafe. We have opened several concepts that are in the various notebooks of restaurant concepts and ideas that I have dreamed up over the years. But there was no bakery.
I dreamed of a bakery for nearly a decade before I opened one. I fell in love with bakeries while traveling around Europe and felt a strong connection when eating freshly baked croissants in the morning. I had already been working in the restaurant industry for four decades when I finally got around to making a bakery a reality.
I am often asked which of our concepts I like best. That is not an excuse, but there is no right answer to that question. I love them all, just as I love my children, equally. Although, just like with my children, one may be a problem child at the moment, I have always believed that “business is problems, and a successful business is problems that are well managed.” The alternative is to give up the business, and I never plan to do that. I love them all, and I love them all for different reasons.
But opening a bakery has been my one dream for a long time. After a few dozen openings, and in an area of the industry that I was unfamiliar with as an owner, I knew we should slowly expand the bakery’s offerings. We first released breads. That’s what the team has been doing from the start. Next we focused on king cakes and made, in my opinion, one of the best cakes I’ve ever eaten. After Carnival, we focused on the pastry counter. We have half of the items down, but we’ve continued to refine others.
It was only a month ago when I brought a pastry chef from New Orleans that we began perfecting our croissants. It was a game changer for our little bakery. Not only are croissants my favorite pastry in a bakery—and my morning pastry in bakeries all over the world—but croissant dough is a workhorse. If the croissants aren’t right, neither are the almond croissants, chocolate croissants, ham and cheese croissants, chocolate almond croissants, Danish pastries, and a few other things.
After a few weeks of working with our team, the croissants tasted like my favorite bakeries across the country and even in France. It took a year, but if there’s anything I’ve learned over the years in the restaurant business, it’s that you have to keep moving forward to get better every day. Now that the croissants are how I want them, we’ll focus on other items in the pastry counter before we roll out cakes, pies and grab-and-go treats from our refrigerators and freezers.
I love bakeries. I love being a bakery owner. I love the morning hustle and bustle in the hours before opening. The wonderful aromas that come from the freshly baked loaves coming out of the deck oven and the beautiful, sweet smells that waft throughout the building every time the rack oven doors are opened. I love that people eat and socialize over croissants and coffee in the morning and meet up for cookies and cappuccinos in the afternoon. I especially appreciate that we can use the bakery as a cafeteria that can supply our other restaurants with freshly baked products daily.
Sustained success in the restaurant business rarely happens overnight. You have to be willing to persevere, change, evolve, admit mistakes and keep going. But you also have to keep dreaming. Keep at it.
Further.
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Recipe of the week: Homemade Boursin cheese and cucumber sandwiches
These homemade Boursin cheese and cucumber sandwiches are a delicious and refreshing treat, perfect for any occasion. The creamy, herb-infused Boursin cheese pairs beautifully with crisp cucumber slices to create a light yet tasty sandwich. These sandwiches are easy to make and make an elegant addition to your afternoon tea or a quick, filling snack.
Ingredients
Cheese
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp salted butter, soft
½ teaspoon Creole spices
¼ tsp chopped garlic
⅛ tsp thyme, oregano rosemary, chives, basil, dill, sage
1 tsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp half and half
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
⅓ cup sour cream
Sandwiches
1 cucumber, peeled and cut into very thin slices
½ cup grated red onions
12 slices of wheat bread
Instructions
Cheese
Place all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the dough hook, beat the ingredients on high speed until well combined, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally to make sure all ingredients are well combined.
Sandwiches
Divide the Boursin cheese mixture evenly between six slices of bread. Place the cucumber slices on each slice of bread, making sure to cover the entire surface of the bread. Divide the red onions evenly between the cucumber slices and top with the remaining bread slices. Cut the crusts off the sandwiches and cut each sandwich into three rectangles. Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
— Article courtesy of Robert St. John, Magnolia Tribune —
