Entertainment & Stuff Pomfret, Connecticut “To Bean or not to Bean...?” TM #79 Issue 20 Number 4 October - December 2016 Free* Our Hidden Agenda his past August we celebrated our 27th anniver- great success with that since our beginnings, including sary. And as we head into our 28th year it is time ourselves, we are after all, a family business. T to let you know that The Vanilla Bean Café is It is not just about creating the environment where more than what it appears, we have been keeping a the right employee ‘shows up’, it is also about creating secret. To our regular customer who visits us for a meaningful and fun work with teams that like to work meal, it may seem like our core business model is pro- together, be challenged, engaged and appreciated. We viding quality hand prepared food in a friendly limited have developed a number of work philosophies that service environment. While this is true, we can’t fulfill help us with our mission of creating a space in which a on our offer if we don’t have present, engaged and young person can learn and thrive. We are essentially committed employees. Our primary concern as opera- an entry level job that comes with lots of education and tors has expanded from our commitment to proper food training to help them become a great employee, not just handling and overall consistent quality to creating an in the moment, but as an embodied practice that will environment that attracts the right employee, and then help them to succeed in whatever future employment educating and training these people to be great at what awaits them, or whatever entrepreneurial adventure they do. Essentially, our employees are our most valu- they take. We, along with most other restaurants, help able asset. The ones who are working with us today to educate and train the future work force. Half of all help to ensure that there is a job with us in the future adults have worked in the restaurant industry at some for other employees, thereby helping us to be a sustain- point during their lives. In fact, nearly one in three able business and job creator. Americans had their first job at a restaurant. It is We work to create a restaurant that entices the because of this that we take seriously the development ‘right’ person to want to work here, or to ‘self-select’ of our young employees. What they learn with us can and apply for a job with us. We have not advertised for have a great effect on them throughout their careers. employees in the traditional way in close to 20 years. While we know that most of them will not stay with us We always hire based on current employee recommen- for more than 3-4 years, we get a great co-worker in the dations as well as our customer recommendations. We moment and know that we have helped a young person also are firm believers in nepotism, as we have had get a good start in their future work endeavors. It is cont. on page 2 Cindy Kallet & Grey Larsen Book Your Next Event @ Connecticut Audubon In The Wine Cellar @ 85 Main Friday, October 7 @ 7:30 pm he Wine Cellar at 85 Main has received many T accolades since it’s opening. The old down- indy Kallet and Grey Larsen, each well-known stairs function room at 85 Main was complete- C and loved for their decades of music making, ly renovated and is now available for private parties, have spent nearly a decade in a joyful musical business meetings, special events and collaboration. Cindy is a superb singer, guitarist, song- regular dining when it is not booked writer, and multi-instrumentalist. Grey is one of Amer- for a private party. Contact Dawn at ica’s finest players of the Irish flute and tin whistle, as 860-928-1660 or send an email to well as an accomplished singer and concertina, fiddle, [email protected] for more informa- piano and harmonium player. c tion and available dates. c Sign up on our mailing list at www.TheVanillaBeanCafe.com Hidden AgendaContinued from page 1 Hidden Agenda important to note here that we do this for ourselves as working to create. well as for the employees. Our management is selfish- Because of the effort we put into being a place ly altruistic. where people want to work, we tend to keep employees One of our main philosophies is asking our employ- longer than the industry average, especially in our pri- ees the question ‘Who do you work for?’ It is essential mary age group of 17-23 year-olds. Many employees that they understand that the reason they are here is for love to work here and stay with us from high school themselves and the future that they are working to cre- and summers throughout their college years. We pay ate. Sure, they have short-term goals of gaining work them a little better than comparable jobs and really experience, making money and friends, etc. While the work to create a space in which they get to have fun as owners make the work possible and specifies the rules well as learn things. We are always cross training staff within which the work is per- and teaching them whatever they formed (the rules are also speci- step up to learn. We keep in fied by the federal and state gov- touch with many of our former ernments), it is the employee employees and are happy to see who works for themselves, to be them succeed, many in the the best they can be in the restaurant business. There are 4 moment, to embody effective restaurants in this area owned by working practices that will former employees. become their foundation for all So here we are celebrating 27 jobs they encounter in their years of business, and we are future. In our philosophy, the also celebrating 27 years of all of employee works for (in this the employees who have worked order): Themselves, The Cus- with us during that time. We tomer, Their Co-Workers and couldn’t have done it without Who Do You Work For? then the Owners (or people who them, and our hope is that their make it possible). This is all set up in what is called an world of work is just that much better for having action work flow circle (see graphic) that has the worked and learned effective practices with us. So employer working for the employee and their co-work- when you patronize our establishment(s), you are not ers to take care of the customer to effectively fulfill on only getting what you came in for, please know that our offer. If the employee is not here for themselves you are helping young people create a more effective with some story about their future, we find that they future for themselves and others. We thank you. c may not be a good fit for our work place. We can help them to if they are willing to make changes in their life Restaurant Facts at a Glance and accept responsibility for their future, but they must w1 million+: Restaurant locations in the US. make that choice. w14.4 million: Restaurant industry employees. We empower the employees to create their own w1.7 million: New restaurant jobs created by the teams, they can specify who they want to work with year 2026. and more importantly, who they don’t want to work w10%: Restaurant workforce as part of the over all with. We are firm believers in not tolerating slackers U.S. workforce. and whiners as employees and encourage our teams to w9 in 10: Restaurant managers who started at entry not put up with co-workers who are obviously not working with and for the team. We don’t fire people level. often, but, when we do, it is because they do not w8 in 10: Restaurant owners who started their indus embody the practice of working for each other. try careers in entry-level positions. Employees can recommend their co-workers for further w9 in 10: Restaurants have fewer than 50 employees. education or termination (or as we like to say, they get w7 in 10: Restaurants are single-unit operations. to ‘vote people off of the island’). We also get to teach wHalf of all adults have worked in the restaurant people how to quit if the job is not what they had in industry at some point during their lives. mind or what they want to do. This may sound weird, w1 in 3 Americans got their first job experience in a but people are not taught how to quit in an effective restaurant. manner that actually helps them and the future they are Source: National Restaurant Association The Vanilla Bean Café Accolades and Awards wants you to know... The New York Times The Vanilla Bean Café opened in 1989 with 16 seats “The food...is freshly made, well seasoned and extremely tasty.” The Vanilla Bean Café is owned by the Jessurun Family The Boston Globe We open 361 days a year. We close on: “...great food - homemade soups, sandwiches, Easter Sunday, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, burgers, and the best fish cakes around - in a Christmas Day relaxed atmosphere.” Business Hours: Yankee Magazine’s Travel Guide to New England Monday, Tuesday 7 am - 3 pm “Editors’ Pick” 1997, 2003 & 2004 Wednesday, Thursday 7 am - 8 pm “One of the outstanding reasons to visit Friday 7 am - 9 pm* New England.” Saturday 8 am - 9 pm*† Sunday 8 am - 8 pm* Connecticut Magazine Readers’ Poll Windham County - Various years Best Family Dining - Best Sandwiches *We may close early during colder months.