Pete Rheller

Opening your own restaurant for the very first time with little experience in the food and beverage industry can be a real killer. Trust me, I experienced all the ups and lows of running and owning my very own joint and I can still remember how difficult yet rewarding it was building my restaurant from the ground up. In this business you will never know what kind of blessings you will get from the most unexpected of ways. When I was just a rookie I didn’t have enough money to properly store all the liquor so I would normally chill the wine in the refrigerator storage where the vegetables were. One time a gentleman ordered the finest cabernet we had available so I took out our most expensive Sauvignon Blanc and served him the bottle.

To my embarrassment there was a small lettuce leaf on the side of the bottle and when the guy noticed he chuckled! He said “ its ok I used to be a restaurateur as well”. I was so embarrassed that I gave him the bottle compliments of the house. I didn’t really think it would pay off as well as it did because the next day a delivery of a wine storage refrigerator came to the restaurant courtesy of the gentleman. Turns out he now manufactured these wine cooling storage units, talk about a funny irony!