I know a few people over the years have questioned the Why behind the Restaurant Guide.  Today, I’m going to hopefully help you understand that the Guide was created from a Mom’s desperation. 

In March of 2020, we were getting ready to celebrate my youngest daughter’s birthday.  We had birthday plans in the works, reservations to make and she was working on her invitation list.  One week before her birthday, our plans ground to a halt.  I was working as an independent contractor for another company as well as part-time for an ambulance service.  At that time, my husband was working for 3 ambulance services.  He was full time for a service in the Green Bay area and part-time for two in Rural Wisconsin.  So, between the two of us, we had multiple meetings from a few different points of view.  My parent company was trying to help the rest of us figure out how we could support our communities.  Another fun fact, during this time, my dad was a semi-driver.  So, we’re trying to find the best way to help support our communities.  Without sales and customers, businesses close.  That’s not great for local economies.  So, we brain-stormed- several hundred publishers from around the country and a few in Canada. It was great for gaining perspective.  So, ambulance employees and truck drivers…..Both work a 24-hour day.   Want to take a guess what our biggest need is during our workday?  Food.  And being 24-hours, we need to know when we can get food when normal people are sleeping.  Now, restaurants had been determined to be “non-essential”.  Right??? 

So, restaurants starting doing to-go orders.  But, online menus and doordash hadn’t really caught on yet.  So, how do you know what you want to eat?  Semis and Ambulances can’t fit through the drive-through lane.  And some places don’t even have place big enough to park so they can walk.  So, I collected menus and hours from as many people as I could.  Here’s another fun fact, my daughter is a crazy picky eater.  When people ask about dietary restrictions, I tell them the list of things she can and will eat is shorter. Knowing when breakfast is served is vital in my house. So, again, collecting information as I could.  It ended up being a huge document, but not overly accurate because I was missing information.  Facebook and Google had hours wrong, prices were incorrect, menus hadn’t been updated.  It was a mess and I had no actual contact information for any of these restaurants.  The owners mostly ignored me.  I chatted with one several years later who said “I didn’t need to talk to you.  I had been in business for 30 years.  Everyone knew me.”  To which I answered,  “I didn’t.  I lived outside of the city limits and had recently moved to the area.  I knew nothing about you or your business and knew that there were several more people like me, struggling to find things about our new town.”  But, my site views for that article were through the roof.  So, I knew I was on the right path. 

When the other company and I parted ways, I decided to re-work the Restaurant Guide and fix the the issues I had with the original.  The first big change- it was going to be opt-in only.  Too many listings were wrong and my goal is to make things easier… not frustrating.  Next, I talked to my son who also became a semi driver during this time.  He shared with me some additional struggles even after the doors reopened, not everything opened for truckers. He explained how he chose restaurants. He helped with some suggestions for helping with tracking metrics.  When asked “How did you hear about us?”  No one remembers or admits it, not without incentives.  Then my sister tried to book a restaurant for a birthday party for our dad.  Then I casually chatted with someone who expressed concerns for a dietary restriction.  Then I hosted and attended several Epi-Pen/Anaphylaxis awareness classes and made a few more changes.  Every conversation I had with someone created another question for my Restaurant Guide participant form.  Then it became time to approach some restaurants.   They had their own feedback.  The cool thing about my approach, it’s not one-size fits all.  For one entry, it was over 2 weeks of updates and changes until we were both comfortable with the result.  For someone else, we made some adjustments to meet the definition of “affordable”. 

As I told another Restaurant Owner, “I’d rather work with you than see your doors close.” 

So here’s the deal, I’m not telling you some big marketing secret.  I’m just telling you want it takes to get me, my family and a few dozen people who felt comfortable sharing frustrations to get us to walk through your door.  I’m not twisting arms.  But, I also generally don’t go to a restaurant that isn’t in my restaurant guide.  Because of those dietary restrictions and other concerns, I generally won’t try someplace new before I get the interest form.  So, here’s another fun fact.  I also don’t accept a business into my guide until after I have done a “secret shopper” visit or 3.  Nope, it’s not just me and my laptop.  It’s not like the cartoons with the food critics that you can spot acting weird.  I recruit friends.  “Hey, I got a Restaurant Guide request, you up for a meal?” 

Every single question, every single line in that guide was carefully considered from multiple points of view.  When I say that guide is a labor of love, it really is.  I am a Mom desperate to feed multiple difficult, different dietary needs,  in a family that keep very weird hours and love breakfast for supper!

Becoming a hockey mom added some additional challenges, traveling away from home, on a tight schedule and some of the challenges in 2020 still exist.  Then add in trying to find “Today’s Specials” in a Sea of Facebook posts!  Who has time for that??!!

Right now the guide is still very small.  But, I know that when someone visits the restaurants in there, they’ll know what to expect.  Eventually I hope to find more restaurants that are the right fit.  Until then, I’m happy supporting the businesses that also support me. 

Do you think you might be the right fit?  Check out our Restaurant Guide here. Do  you have a suggestion for something I missed?  Let me know.  There’s always room for improvement!