Audience Q&A from Here For Me LIVE with Renee Erickson
We're halfway through our Audience Favorite summer season and, as promised in the Season 2 finale, we have a new episode for you! The audience that joined us for Nicole's live conversation with Renee Erickson in April 2023 asked such great questions during the Q&A segment of the evening—and both Renee and Nicole had insightful responses—that we captured them all in a special mini-episode. Enjoy the inspiration and laughs from that magical night in Seattle.
Show Notes:
Visit Renee Erickson’s website
Read Renee’s 2014 profile in The Seattle Times, detailing some of the history mentioned in this episode
Learn about James Beard awards
Purchase Renee’s books, “Getaway: Food and Drink to Transport You” and “A Boat, A Whale, and A Walrus: Menus and Stories”
Visit the website for Sea Creatures, Renee’s restaurant group
Follow Sea Creatures on Instagram
Listen to all your favorite episodes of Here For Me on the website
Here For Me LIVE Sponsors and Partners
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Nicole: [00:00:03] Hey, everyone, it's Nicole here with a bit of fresh conversation for you in the midst of our audience favorite summer season. You may remember our first ever live episode from Season Two with the talented, lovely James Beard award-winning chef Renee Erickson. At the end of the live event, we opened it up to Q&A from the audience, and we got some incredible questions, like how Renee and her team pivoted their business during COVID, and the most important lesson Renee has learned. We couldn't just leave this terrific part of the evening on the cutting room floor. So here's the Q&A segment of Hear For Me Live with Renee Erickson.
Audience Question #1: [00:00:42] How long did it take you, you talked about Covid, to like find your feet, because obviously lots of restaurants, like there were unfortunately some closings, you know, but the ones who found their feet and stuck to like a cadence throughout the whole pandemic and were adamant about not opening until there was a vaccine, it seemed like they did better as opposed to start and stop.
Renee: [00:01:02] I mean, so we had, I think at that point, 11 locations and within two days we closed them all, basically. Yeah, it was that was like, I'll cry thinking about it. And it was like weird too, because like when I think back, like our I think we were at this like place where we kind of felt like we were getting it, you know, a little bit where we had like enough support. And Jeremy always talks about the restaurants, like the shoremen, we like forever, we're like stretched out. We had never like got our body back, caught up with the rest of us. So we were like kind of feeling like we were always just kind of chasing, trying to get it to feel right. And a lot of that we did ourselves like we were opening and expanding and doing all that. But with the pandemic, like, all of that just disappeared overnight. So what we did was we kept all of our chefs and all of our managers on the payroll and consolidated them into three locations. We kept some upper management kind of people. And then like Carrie Omegna, who was our wine director, who became our president, who's one of my best friends, I remember like calling me and she's just like, I'm quitting, like, you don't need a wine director, you know? So there was just a lot of people that kind of self-selected out because they're just like, “This is ridiculous.”
Renee: [00:02:15] Like, you're a restaurant. No one cares right now. So yeah, so we all ended up a group of us, we kind of like teamed up. I don't know if it was intentional. We kept the chefs that like were at like, well, Colin was at Wilmott’s, so like, he stayed there because we weren't going to like, put anyone else there. And then myself, Bobby, Alexa, Jeremy my business partner, and one other person I think at the time. Marley, (thank you) were at Whale Wins. We closed Walrus, Bateau, kind of collected around Jamie and Taylor and Carrie and a few other people. And we just kind of like we're like, okay, like here we go. And like, it was so weird because you work together so much and then all of a sudden, like, you can't talk to them, you can't be near them. There was just like no time for anything. And so it was just bizarre. So how long did that go on for? Like three months before, four months before? Oh, and prior to this, we had acquired Westward and decided to gut it January 1st, 2020. So that was great.
Renee: [00:03:09] And spend a lot of money to rehab an entire restaurant to open in March 2020. That didn't happen. So we had this massive debt and then this piling on for that. I would say that like getting our footing might be just now, honestly, staffing. I mean, we've all heard it. It's not specific to restaurants, but I think for a business that has hours where humans show up and expect things from you, it's really challenging. You can't, like not answer the phone and do it at midnight. So that's been really hard. And they're just, you know, Seattle was a really hard place to be in the pandemic, you know, especially on Capitol Hill. Like, I mean, we get broken into two or three times a week at the restaurants currently. Like Walrus got broken into on Monday. I think like, yeah, yesterday. It's just it's nonstop, so. Yeah. Um. But I have to say, like back to the partnership. Like Chad, who's the financial person, spent every minute of every day filling out every form on the planet for all the things that the government eventually tried to do to help businesses survive. So I'm, you know, incredibly grateful for that because I would have just been like, this is too much? I can't do this.
Nicole: [00:04:29] I'm closing all the restaurants.
Renee: [00:04:31] I mean, I would have not, I wouldn't have done it. I would just have been like, this is…I can't. Like so, Bateau still isn't open all of the days it's normally open because we just can't. Like we have people that are interviewed. Well, we call a bunch of people. We set up interviews. I would say like 80% don't show up. If they do show up, then we interview them and then we have a stage. And of that group, maybe like 25% might show up to the stage. Stage is when you come in like you pay them to like work with you to see if it works out. And then sometimes you hire them and then they don't show up. So it's just like it's like, unbelievably, like hysterically bad. I mean, and like, at this point, we're just like, all right, you know, you can't like, it's comical at this point because you're just like, what else are we going to do? But yeah, I would say now and, you know, thankfully, like, hopefully the sun stays. That's going to help a lot. Like having the warmth and having people kind of crawl out of their cave of Seattle will help restaurants, too. Because it's all restaurants even, well, maybe not all, but like almost all the restaurants spend seven months a year losing money to make money through the summer in Seattle. So it's just like you really like an early spring is just like, yeah, hell yeah. Like we are going to make you, you know. So but yeah, but yeah, I mean, we thankfully we were able to get a bunch of money from the government to pay staff. There's just so much that like I think in the moment, I don't know that I was even aware of how terrible it was because we were just like running to try to...
Nicole: [00:06:05] One in front of the other every day.
Renee: [00:06:05] Yeah, yeah. Drinking all the wine in the restaurant and..
Nicole: Yep, nobody else is. That's what it's there for!
Renee: [00:06:14] That was like actually part of my job where I was like I was like, “Well, nobody's going to buy rosé at Bateau, so I'm going to go steal all of the all of the rosé at Bateau and I'm going to take it to the Whale Wins and then we're going to sell it at the Whale Wins and then nobody's going to buy, you know, French wine, you know, whatever. Like we just shuffled shit all over the city to try to sell it like we would have sold anything and everything. Like, it was hysterical. Like we sold, like, ceramic things that I made. I'm like, sell it. I don't care. Like, just take their money. I don't give a shit how we get it.
Nicole: [00:06:41] Whatever it is that they want. They want stools, fine. Bar stools? Take it. Anything.
Renee: [00:06:46] Hysterical. So bad.
Audience Question #2: [00:06:49] Okay. So I have a short-answer question, a long-answer question, and a comment. So the comment is good for you for putting the people that you work with and the proprietors that you work with first, because I think that when you do that, you can feel that energy and you can taste the love that you have for the food and the purveyors and the people that you work with. So kudos to you because you can taste that love. The short-answer question, is your dog Jeffry named after Jeffry Mitchell?
Nicole: [00:07:20] Uh-huh.
Renee: [00:07:20] J-E-F-F-R-Y, very important. Also, the name of the color that all of our restaurants are painted, which is Jeffry White, which was the name of the little patch on his back that was this little like white patch, it was dumb, but we spent a lot of time painting white blotches all over the second Boat Street. I don't know if you know about white paint, but most of it has black in it, which is why it's like cold and kind of grim at times. And I was just like, I didn't understand this at the time. So I was just like, what is wrong with all, you know, you put it up and it was just like, it's gray. So I took Jeffry the dog to the paint store and I was just like, “THAT.”
Nicole: This color, the dog's fur, [00:08:00] this is what I want.
Renee: [00:08:01] Yeah. But yeah, he was named, yeah, he's no longer with us, but he is on the wall at Bateau now. He was on the wall at Boat Street and we moved his chalk drawing that Curtis did there.
Nicole: Curtis Steiner.
Renee: Yeah, Curtis Steiner. Yeah. Best dog. Sorry, Arlo, but…
Audience Question #3: [00:08:16] Yeah, sorry. Then my long-answer question for you is there's a couple 20-somethings that are here tonight, one of them being my daughter. And so…
Renee: [00:08:25] Great pants. Uh-huh. My favorite pants in the room. Sorry everyone else but love that for her.
Audience Question #3 cont.: [00:08:33] As she's about to launch on her own career and life. The risks that you took, they got you where you are today, what advice would you give to yourself and to her?
Renee: [00:08:44] Great question. Yeah. I mean, I don't know you, so I don't know what you're like in the world. But I would say just if there's any weird thing that you want to do, do it. Like this is probably not what parents want you to hear, [00:09:00] but like, it's like I remember like traveling and I think I had like a Citibank credit card or something like that. And I remember it would get to like my $5,000 limit all the time. And because I would go on trips and I would just be like, I'm going to make more money. I'm going to do this because otherwise I might not ever do this. So like, get a credit card. I'm sure you already have one and do shit, like go do whatever it is you want to do because like you're going to be 50 and all of a sudden you're like, “Oh, it's like harder.” You know, you have more obligations. So just like, whatever, whatever you want to do, do it. Don't like, listen to your inner like, worry. I remember before I bought Boat Street, I was in Europe and I was traveling and I had traveled with a girlfriend. We started in Ireland and we went to Wales and did all the things and we eventually ended up in Rome.
Renee: [00:09:50] I had gotten an English as a second language degree because I was like, I'm going to go to Europe, I'm going to get a job. And I made it to Rome. Still had no job. And my friend Valerie, who I was traveling with, I remember taking her to the airport and then taking the train back to the city. And I was in this, like, terrible hotel room up by the Termini train station. And I remember walking early in the morning to Piazza Navona to get on that orange phone that sadly is no longer there and call my mom. And this like for my you know, if you know Shirlee, this would be a shocking thing for her to say. She's just like, “What is…” I was like really sad and lonely and didn't know what I was doing and didn't have a plan. And she was like, “You're in Rome, for God's sake.” And I was just like, “You know, like, you're not going to, like, give me love and tell me like, it's fine?” She's just like, “What is wrong with you?” Like, and I was just like, “You're right. I'm in Rome. Shut up.” So, yeah, go see the world. It's real great.
Nicole: [00:10:49] Yeah, I would tack on to that. Stacy Harris gave me some great advice. I have two bits of advice that I'm tacking on to that. Stacy Harris said, “You can always make more money. You can't make more time.” [00:11:00]
Renee: Totally.
Nicole: Yep. So you can figure that out. And someone else said, “You're always going to be scared about something. You might as well be scared about the thing that you care about.”
Renee: I love that.
Nicole: And I was like, “Oh, that's good advice.”
Renee: [00:11:13] I bet your mom will feed you too if you come back and you have no money, so you'll be good.
Nicole: [00:11:16] Or just go to one of Renee's restaurants.
Renee: We'll give you a job.
Nicole: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. This is a good place to work. You want to work there. Question?
Audience Question #4: [00:11:28] I have a simpleton question, but I feel like an anomaly because I haven't lived here for a while and I've never been to any of your restaurants. So I was curious which one, in your opinion, is your favorite? Or give me your top two. And then same question like, have you ever thought of expanding into like another state or somewhere sunny or, I don't know…San Diego?
Renee: [00:11:55] Um…
Nicole: [00:11:57] Oh, it's so hard. I know it's hard.
Renee: [00:11:58] So I can give you the, like, PC version, which is it's seasonal. Like my favorite restaurants are based on the season, but this is like, not the financially wise Renee, but the one that just loves stuff. If I, like, had to pick one, I would keep Walrus, of all of them. And mostly I would say it's because it's the one that I think is the most me. But come eat all the oysters in summer. But they're garbage compared to the ones in March, February, January, December, November, October. Yeah. We sell like five times as many oysters in the summer. And thank you for all you wanting summer oysters. But oh, my God, like some oysters in the winter or spring actually are the best. So, feast right now before it before actually Saturday when the waters start to heat up. But then yeah, I would say like the other restaurant that I really love is Whale Wins, which is probably like it doesn't make any money. I love it…it breaks…it barely might break even this year. We'll see. It's like ridiculous. But I think for me it's like it feels like the most like European of all of our restaurants and that, like, it kind of gives you like a time of day to just hang out and have little bits and you can eat anchovies and sardines and all the things that I love.
Renee: [00:13:11] And, and we have a wood oven which makes food taste a million times better than it should. And the patio, we're putting a glass cover on it right now, which I'm still fighting about. We have this giant tree that I love that we planted there ten years ago, and we've had covers on it before and all of our employees because, you know, they want to make money and they want more people, and I love that, but I was just like, “We're not cutting the tree down.” Like we cannot cut the tree down. I don't care what happens. The tree can't go anywhere. So we finally found someone to build this like, contraption of a cover that's glass. And now my worry is, who are we going to pay to clean it every month because it's going to be gross. But yeah, so those are the two restaurants, I would say. And then what was your next question?
Audience Member: [00:13:53] You were talking about sun, and I was like…
Renee: [00:13:55] Oh. We had a donut shop in LA, okay, No one eats donuts in [00:14:00] LA. Well, we were on the west side, which was our own fault. We didn't do our due diligence, I don't think.
Nicole: You had a Porpoise there?
Renee: Yeah, we had a Porpoise there.
Nicole: [00:14:09] I didn't know this.
Renee: [00:14:10] Yes, in…in Brentwood. What the hell were we thinking? Yeah. No, totally. We should have been in, like, Los Feliz or something, but instead we were in Brentwood. But, um, yeah, that's a whole nother weird story, but, you know, like, it's a dreamy idea. It's not practical. So I want to travel, but not for work for the most part. Like, there are some trips that I'm happy to do that are work-related. But yeah, like that would…
Nicole: [00:14:41] Although even, if you follow Renee on Instagram, even when you guys were on vacation just recently in Todos Santos, I think? She's frickin’ cooking and the photos of like the food that you guys I was like, “Look at that!” I was just like, I love that. But that's just how much love you have for it, right? So I was enjoying the photos of like, the food that you were making on your vacation. That's beautiful.
Renee: [00:15:01] Yeah, it's good. It's. Anyone been to Baja? It's like magic. Four hours and you're in Mexico. So good.
Audience Question #5: [00:15:12] What is the most important mistake you've ever made?
Renee: [00:15:18] Um. Wow. Good question. You should have sent that to me in advance. Um. Most important mistake I've ever made. I mean, I think it's probably like learning to tell the truth and how I feel. I hold a lot of guilt around, you know, Susan and how that was handled.
Nicole: [00:15:43] But you were young and you were learning, like you said. I don't know that that's unusual.
Renee: [00:15:47] I mean, I think it's something that, like, I try to like, teach people to or it's just like if, you know, saying something now is so much easier than saying it, like saying something in a way that's not how you feel about something or how you want something to be in a like professional kind way versus like bottling it up and then like, you know, in my case, two and a half years later being like, “Wow.”
Nicole: [00:16:08] It comes out in another way.
Renee: [00:16:09] Yeah, no, it was bad.
Nicole: [00:16:11] Yeah. Or it comes out in resentment too, when you're just bottling it.
Renee: [00:16:14] Yeah, you don't…it's yeah. So I would say trying to just be really true to your vision and what you want for yourself and trust that it's not wrong to desire that you know and be able to be honest about that because it's, I mean, it's still hard. It's not easy. I don't know that I'm like, I've not mastered it, but I know that it's what I need to do, so…
Nicole: [00:16:36] And that's important. I think, is it Brené Brown that says, “Clear is kind.” Which is sort of like if you're just honest about something, everybody knows where you stand, right? As opposed to if you're bottling it up, nobody knows. You get resentful. It comes out in those two year later rages or whatever. It's like, just say it now and then everybody can move forward on the same page. And I think that's a really important lesson that you learned–maybe the hard way. But you learned it and clearly, you know, your partnerships now are benefiting from that. So that's good. Yeah, There's a lot of honesty and truth and love there. I think that's it. Thank you so much.
Renee: [00:17:15] Thanks for coming, everyone.
Nicole: [00:17:16] Thank you.
Nicole: Here For Me is produced by Lens Group Media in association with Tulla Productions. As is often said, it takes a village to make this podcast, and my deepest gratitude goes out to every person in that village: our producers Dave Nelson and Stacey Harris, our audio editor, J.D. Delgado, designer and illustrator Amy Senftleben, and our production assistant, Sarah Carefoot. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you'd follow the show, rate, review, and share it with people you love. You can also follow me on Instagram and Facebook at nicolejchristie. Until next time, thank you so much for listening. Here's to you being here for you…and to the power of choosing yourself.