When the owners of Grace Meat + Three, Rick and Elisa Lewis, announced a sister concept—Grace Chicken + Fish, a late-night, grab-and-go window utilizing some of the unused space—they anticipated the opening date would be October 4. And so it was—until the Lewis’ sneaked the window open a week early.
“Every restaurant needs a few nights of practice,” says Rick, “so in the back of our heads, we were thinking of doing that the weekend prior.” Which they did, and no one was happier than Rick. “We learned so much on those two nights,” he says, after feeding 50 customers on Friday and 100 on Saturday, which ended up being the perfect number. “We handled the crowd but realized we had to make some adjustments to be ready for the ‘real’ opening.”
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What the restaurateurs did—announce an opening date but quietly open earlier—is becoming the norm. Social media has made it so. Savvy restaurateurs have become more and more creative in getting in the necessary practice runs before amateur critics weigh in. (We addressed the phenomenon in today’s Ask George column.)
At Grace Chicken + Fish, guests order from a triple-window on one side of the building. The menu includes five fried proteins (chicken tenders, catfish, shrimp, tofu and wings), topped with sauces (choose from 10) and optional sides, such as fries, mac and cheese, creamy slaw, and house-made dill pickles.
The window opens at 11 p.m., and it stays open until 3 a.m. That timeframe became a learning experience for Rick. “In general,” he says, “people in The Grove like to have a good time and we saw a lot of…really happy customers at that window.”
After last week, he streamlined the menu and limited the options, making ordering easier and faster. “People at that hour want to order fast and eat fast; they don’t want to have to make a lot of decisions,” he says. “We were 86ing options on Friday night, and by Saturday night, we were singing.”
Another adjustment that Rick made was using sauce cups (for dipping) rather than direct saucing, learning the hard way that “less mess means less clean up.” He also put out a cold water jug to eliminate frequent requests for water. One thing he says he won’t be doing is selling alcohol.
“I was considering it, and now I’m not,” he says. “We’re selling soft drinks and Kaldi’s Cold Brew and thought CBD Seltzers would also be nice, with their calming properties and all.”
With a smile on his face, he adds, “And after last weekend, I’m adding Pedialyte to that list. I bet we sell a ton of that.”
