Business serves hungry workers

Source: Traverse City Record-Eagle
GAYLORD - Short Stop Grille owner Mark Miller bought a lunch wagon a year ago hoping to serve workers at industrial and construction sites.

Instead, he found a niche - hungry workers chained to their desks or with schedules that will not allow them to get way for lunch.

Miller still has the lunch wagon - now used for catering business meetings, weddings and parties. And he recently moved the Short Stop to the Quality Inn of Gaylord, after the Red Rose, a Chinese restaurant, moved into the building that used to house Mama's Kitchen.

Miller and wife Lorna, who handles salad preparation, opened the Short Stop Grille in February 2000 in a small storefront in a retail strip on Main Street just west of downtown Gaylord. Initially, Miller planned to stock the lunch wagon from the shop, but a strong response to his lunch deliveries led to a change.

The business opened after the telephone books were published, so Miller had to rely on the food and word-of- mouth to draw customers in. He also utilized a computer fax program as a medium to deliver a menu of daily specials such a pitas, gyros and specialty salads.

Now, Miller said he has up to 200 area businesses on his fax list and gets orders almost daily from Otsego Memorial Hospital and other health care offices, area factories and professional businesses. About 80 percent of his lunch business is deliveries and another 20 percent of his customers come to the restaurant to pick up their orders.

"It's the best communication," Miller said. "It doesn't cost much and it's great advertising."

The Short Stop Bar and Grille has a contract to serve breakfast to hotel guests and is open to the public for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He said most items on his menu are dishes he tried during the last year that received a good response.

"Most of the businesses in this town are geared for tourism, and they really go with that seasonality," he said. "During those downtimes - take now, for instance, spring break - there is nothing really happening in this town, the snow in melting and we're still doing a bang-up lunch."

Rob Gifford, executive director of the Michigan Restaurant Association, said the meals-eaten-away-from-home market has grown over the last 10 years because people don't want to take the time to cook and also don't want to take the time to sit in a restaurant. Even national chain restaurants are changing their establishments to accommodate take-out service.

"Time pressures have brought continued change in dining habits," Gifford said. "A person who used to bring a brown-bag lunch to eat at their desk may now be eating a prepared restaurant meal at their desk."

The Millers' kids, Dominick, 18, Adam, 16, Katie, 12, work at his business, which also employs 20 people.

Miller said he is eyeing other locations for the sports-themed restaurant in northern Michigan.

"I always knew cooking was something I could always do and something that was in my hip pocket if I ever needed to," he said. "The more we have faith and believe in what we're doing, the more good things will come."
Source: Traverse City Record Eagle