Business is booming at Fred's in Uptown Butte
Pub Date: 11/1/2005
By Paul F. Vang
Renaissance: French, to be born again'; rebirth, revival.
Experience the renaissance in Uptown Butte. That is the marketing slogan of Fred Weiner, owner of Fred s Mesquite Grill in Uptown Butte.
It s more than a slogan'; it s a formula for success at this popular bar and restaurant, and an article of personal faith.
It also shows that sometimes making seemingly illogical decisions can be smart business.
Fred Weiner, age 53, is a native of San Francisco and wandered to Montana in 1970. He got a job as a cook at the Oxford cafe in Missoula. I kicked around Montana for awhile, with time in Kalispell, Missoula, and my sort of home base, Virginia City.
After gaining years of experience he figured out how to put his ideas to work, and in 1992 opened the original Fred s Mesquite Grill on Main Street in Bozeman. The people of the community loved my restaurant, he says of his business.
Still, he found that some of Montana s restrictive laws put him and other small restaurants at a distinct disadvantage. He spent some five years agitating and lobbying to get the rules loosened a bit until the Legislature came up with provisions for restaurants to get a cabaret license, enabling them to serve wine and beer.
When the law was finally changed, his was among the first restaurants in Montana to be granted a cabaret license. That helped a lot, he said, adding, I had a successful restaurant, but still didn t own my own property. I wanted a true dinner house of my own, including a full liquor license.
He sold his Bozeman-based business (now the Garage Soup Shack) and in February 2002 opened a new Fred s Mesquite Grill in Uptown Butte.
On the surface, this may seem to have been illogical.
Bozeman was (and still is) booming. As has been true most of the last several decades, Butte was struggling.
I can t tell you how many people came by here, when I was remodeling the building prior to opening, to tell me how many businesses had gone broke at this spot, Weiner says.
A coffee shop and a Montessori preschool were among the more recent enterprises that had come and gone at the location.
I wasn t worried. I knew what I was doing, he maintains. I came here with $100,000 and eight credit cards, Weiner recalls. He was able to buy his property for $60,000. It would have been worth $600,000 in Bozeman or Missoula.
He had another big reason for moving to Butte: Butte is the only larger city in Montana where you can get an inexpensive liquor license.
Weiner is passionate about giving his customers a complete dining experience, including a full choice of beverages. I believe if a person wants a highball before dinner, I want to make sure he has that opportunity and not have a reason to not come into my restaurant.
In Butte, when new restaurants open, they d better have their ducks in a row. People flock to every new restaurant that opens up. But if the fledgling restaurant operator doesn t deliver the goods right away, they re in serious trouble, because if things aren t right customers won't come back and they ll tell their friends not to go, as well.
In a business field that s inherently risky to begin with, Butte is no place to learn restaurant management as a hit or miss proposition.
Fortunately, Weiner was prepared.
I have a real passion for food. I cut my teeth in Bozeman and when I came to Butte I really knew what I was doing, he asserts. The new incarnation of Fred s Mesquite Grill was an immediate popular success.
Weiner describes his approach to food with one word: Fresh. He adds, I like to use local produce when available, and it means hand-cutting steaks, hand-patting burgers, and cooking over a super-hot mesquite grill.
Deep-fried onion rings are a popular menu item, and those onion rings are freshly cut and hand dipped in batter before deep-frying. It also means cleaning and changing the oil daily.
It s expensive, he says of his onion rings.
The meats are cooked over mesquite coals. Having a mesquite grill, without burning the place down, is an art, Weiner says. Once you know it, however, it s just another day at the beach. It s my schtick the best way to cook steaks and burgers. I call it cavern cooking. We also have great kabobs and ribs, and phenomenally fresh salads.
Weiner also believes in continual improvement in his facility.
In three years I ve relentlessly re-invested the money I ve made. I m continually improving the place. I love remodeling, he says, talking about the recent roofing job, and near future plans to pave the parking lot and rip up carpeting and install tile in the front entry.
Among his remodeling projects was an expansion of the indoor dining facility that doubled his dining capacity, and an outdoor patio that, in warm weather months, triples dining capacity from what he started with.
With the renovations, he also expanded the kitchen capabilities, though in summer months, with all tables, in and out, occupied, it s still a challenge.
It s basically cut it up and sell it, he says, adding, You don t get successful letting people wait for their food. It s just as much work to run a bad restaurant so why not work to have a good restaurant?
While Weiner works hard at his business, he also schedules time away from work.
My philosophy is to live to fight another day. You don t enjoy it if you re here all the time. He believes in delegation, adding, I m here enough to make sure it runs right. It boils down to good employees.
When he trains new staff, Weiner says, Initially it s a battle of wills proving your concepts. Eventually, they ll understand how it works.
About new staff, he says, I hand pick every employee. He says when he s interviewing prospective employees, I look for somebody that s doing something with their lives, adding that he occasionally asks, for example, When was the last time you called your mother? He says, It s a good question, and one that gives him a lot of information about a prospect s character.
Weiner says his employees tend to be a mixture of college kids and professionals.
He says, I think I ve been an example to the people who work here how to run a restaurant, and how to be part of a team where everyone cares. A lot of people have worked their way through college at my restaurant and they re all proud to work here and they make good money, too. They sometimes threaten that they re going to leave here and start a Red s Mesquite Grill or an Ed s Mesquite grill, he jokes.
Weiner says he pays employees up to 30 percent higher wages than other restaurants in the community, adding that, I also give regular raises and good Christmas bonuses, too.
It s great for the community, Weiner says of the job experience he provides employees. One of the things I teach is that no matter what they do, even if it s sweeping around the garbage cans, do a good job. It ll carry over to whatever else you do. I enjoy being a positive example.
Regarding his advertising slogan, Experience the renaissance in Uptown Butte, Weiner says it reflects his confidence that his initial decision to move the business to Butte was the right move. The more I m here in Butte, the more I like it, he says.
I think Butte has a great future. It s a great place for entrepreneurs. In Bozeman, you have to be a millionaire just to walk in I think I was the last of the little guys, adding that with bargain liquor licenses, There is a great enclave of great restaurants in Uptown Butte.
In fact, in recent TV commercials, Weiner took viewers by surprise when, after extoling the virtues of Fred s Mesquite Grill, he goes on to give a plug to the Uptown Cafe, the Acoma, and the Broadway Cafe, other well-known Butte Hill restaurants.
They re great restaurants, Weiner says of his competition, they create diversity and a better Uptown. People don t want to eat in the same place every night. I m a believer in a strong Butte, especially Uptown Butte.
I m a shameless promoter of myself, Weiner says. If you don t believe in yourself, you re not going anywhere. I like to shake things up a bit.
He believes his successful business has also been good for Butte. A lot of the time, when you do something good, it starts things rolling. I could teach an entrepreneurship class, I tell you that.
We live here and we love Montana. Restaurants are an integral part of every community. Restaurants are meeting places for families, a place for people to meet after basketball games for pizza.
"I just believe we ll have better communities if we have better restaurants. With good restaurants, more people will come to town, and probably stop in at a local casino, too.
As for the future, Fred Weiner isn t looking beyond Butte.
I can t tell you how many times people tell me how they re happy that there s a Mesquite Grill here in Butte. They often ask, How about a Fred s Mesquite Grill in Helena or Billings? I love putting out a unique product. It s not something I feel I could franchise.
I ve worked at getting a top crew, a good ambiance, and the people just love it.
Editor's note: We have enjoyed the Fred's dining experience ourselves and can say that he understands precisely what it takes to make a Butte restaurant succeed: quality service (his wait staff invariably smile and are engaging), quality food, generous portions, good variety and fair prices. He s got it all.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, Nov. 2005, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.