From Courtroom to Kitchen- The Extraordinary Journey of Martha Hoover

I am a risk taker I like to fly the plane as I'm building it you're driving to the airport to pick up fielden green I wouldn't feed my family commodity food why would I feed my guest commodity food when was the moment the light bulb kind of hit like wow we've got something here from South bin to Evansville and everywhere in between this is get in the show focused on the hooer state and the incredible stories happening here today I'm Nate spangle founder of G Indiana and I will be your host for today's conversation JC har company is is your answer to navigating the apartment rental Journey with almost 50 years of creating enjoyable living experiences in Indiana you'll be sure to find your new home sweet home you're going to find 30 communities in the best areas Indiana has to offer Hamilton County downtown Indie Bloomington just to name a few along with five brand new luxury communities visit home ISJ cart.

com Nate to find their list of locations and reach out to one of their many dedicated leasing agents for a personalized tour tell them they sent you and they're they're going to take good care of you looking for a career in proper management you'll also find a list of open positions on their website along with all the reasons why jcr is named one of Indiana's best places to work want to sneak peek into Life as a JC har resident or associate be sure to check them out on Instagram at homes JC har or visit HJC har. com Nate one more time home is JC Hart today I'm joined by Martha Hoover the founder of won't stop Hospitality a restaurant group based here in Indianapolis which includes beloved local restaurants like Cafe patatu and Napoles with over 30 years of experience in the restaurant industry she has been a pioneering force in showcasing Indiana's local ingredients and fostering Partnerships with local farmers here in Central Indiana through her work Martha has helped transform Indianapolis into a culinary destination while also giving back to the community Through the patacho foundation which I am super excited to talk about the way that it's helping address youth food insecurity today we're going to be talking about Martha's food founder Journey what the real recipe for success is in the restaurant Biz and opportunities she seeing in Indiana and the life-changing impact of the patatu foundation Martha welcome to get in well thank you Nate I love it first off I love that you mention uh Evansville it's my husband's Hometown the pocket City and often is forgotten so thank you for highlighting it so often I I've actually really enjoyed EV so I've been down there a few times and they have a nice little downtown area and there are some really cool businesses that are growing in southern Indiana agree I was actually down also just north of Evansville in Jasper have you Jasper isper Indiana I love Jasper we were there and we went to there's this restaurant German restaurant called the Schnitzelbank and it is incredible okay so all those German restaurants in Southern Indiana all that's not a new restaurant is it that restaurant's been there for several restaurant Generations um I remember when I was dating my husband and going to Evansville we would go go to places like horse kutters I mean these restaurants that are Throwbacks but anyhow thank you for that and I'm going to make one slight correction I've been in this business for 36 years oh holy crap heyo 36 years almost 36 yeah okay and where was the start at like where was the beginning your first fora into the restaurant Biz 1989 Indianapolis Indiana 49th in Pennsylvania with my first restaurant Cafe poo so your first dip into this was starting a restaurant yeah I've said this often and it it uh it I hope the story never gets stale I opened my first restaurant having never worked in a restaurant having never worked in a for-profit business I was a sex crimes prosecutor working in public service and also I opened that first restaurant having no culinary background other than being I love to entertain I love to cook I love to eat I love to travel to eat and I also didn't know I was pregnant with my third child you know those were all things that when you take them together especially in 1989 when you go back Zoom back and understand what the food Community was like then what food culture was really what it wasn't because it didn't exist all those things are truly a recipe for disaster so take me back 1989 then what were like the top three restaurants or like the the staple places in Indianapolis where people were like oh I love XYZ restaurant well I think the to go back in 1989 you have to also understand no social media no computer no Instagram restaurants were of two types they were either of single mom and pop or they were mass produced and Indianapolis and Columbus Indiana 1989 were considered the test zones for all these mass-produced big big restaurants I heard this yeah no it's it's National franchises would like test out stuff here right yeah because they consider this Market to be so Mid America that and we didn't have a a huge amount of competition in the restaurant industry then with um restaurants that were ethnic or immigrant based restaurants because we didn't have those communities at Large you know so they came in and they opened up things like Olive Gardens and I don't know some the the Mexican Virgin of version of Olive Garden and you know the Italian version of this and and that's just where the restaurant scene was there really were no solid neighborhood restaurants and what set Cafe pasu apart at the very beginning from day one in 1989 was the fact that I opened in the neighborhood in which I lived and at the time I opened Cafe pesu at 49th in pen Cafe pachu was the first new tenant since 1940 in that Center for anyone that doesn't know the location at 49th and pen is Iconic to me right it's like you want to see the who's who of Indianapolis IN whether it's the business or culture Community like they're getting breakfast on Friday mornings uh at that location woohoo thank you absolutely so what was in it before you guys took over the Strip Center that was located was called hmer Co Corner still is had a dry cleaner the dry cleaner still exists but it's been through three owners since now it's a tide cleaner right right there yeah it's a national because you know we should probably talk about this this is what happens to all Industries these days it goes from Mom and Pop to scale some type of scale to some type of equity or investment to some type of Consolidated ownership that kind of thing I mean it's just happened in every industry including the restaurant industry so what was there initially was a dress shop barber shop a little antique store called hopes and the drugstore there was a drugstore where Cafe poo is currently located on the corner was the drugstore called hker Pharmacy and the original Cafe ptero was three doors north of the corner oh yeah see you're too young to remember this you probably were like still you know crawling on the floor 1989 I was non-existent okay I'm I'm a 97 baby so this is like well before my time so three doors North down towards where the the dry cleaner or like the cleaners is today wow and how big was the space 1,400 Square fet it was Tiny how many tables would you fit in I cannot never I'm sorry I'm one of these restaurant tourists don't give don't ask me tables and seats because I can't remember it's not that it was so far long ago all I know is this I opened it with just nothing but sheer audacity and thinking that I could do it in spite of the fact that in 1989 there was no food culture and in 1989 people did not not only did they not care about food or high quality food there was no such thing as neighborhood development and that was a good thing it was a good thing in retrospect for me because the pressure on new restaurants today when you open you better be able to deliver what you say you're going to deliver because the pressure is not only financially real but also you've got critics everywhere on social media you have people who whether or not not they travel they look at Instagram and they think they know because of Instagram what food's supposed to look like much more important to most people than what food is actually supposed to taste like or what it's supposed to be how it's supposed to be made how it culturally aligns whatever so it was a more innocent time which allowed me to learn my craft I really do considered a craft and an art allowed me to learn my art at the same time that it allowed my customers to learn the art as well really lovely time those first 10 years of growing together so you opened this in 1989 you'd never worked in a restaurant you'd been had a background in law you know what we're going to open a restaurant and and what what did you think your specialty or what was your specialty at also it wasn't we were going to open up a restaurant it was I am going to open up a restaurant and I want to point that out because restaurant and restaurant work was not highly regarded it is today people you know I used to always say it used to be when when I was growing up and I was a young I'm going to say a young adult by then uh when I first opened that was 36 years ago people didn't rever the restaurant world they thought that restaurants were the businesses that you went into as a plan B something cuz you had nothing weren't able to do anything else and people really really were disdainful about the industry so that was one handicap and then the other handicap is that I was a woman doing it and that also in 1989 was considered sacrilege you know there weren't a lot of women in food at the ownership level were you married at that time married with two kids I remember I was pregnant pregnant not knowing I was pregnant with my third so I was married two little girls didn't know as I opened that I was pregnant with my son David and that's a big jump right for because I don't know what the I'm just assuming the salary in in law is a little bit higher than the salary of starting a restaurant right and you have three kids or the third kid on the way that's not like an easy lifestyle change right no it wasn't but I had a calling I've had a calling regarding food since I was a young girl I loved what I did in law I thought it was really important it was really difficult but it wasn't what I wanted to do and I'm just a very you have to kind of know yourself and I've always known myself and I'm a very purpose-driven person and I thought that the purpose of my job in the legal world was an incredible purpose but it did not feed my soul and I just wanted to do something that fed my soul it's not like I decided to do food out of like this vacuum of nothing there was a a food scene happening but it wasn't happening in the midwest but it was happening on the coast as you could imagine cities like New York and San Francisco were OB obviously culinary centers The Culinary centers had not dripped out right and also I had the remarkable foresight or this goes to my kind of purpose-driven life my goal getting out of high school was to to go to Paris that's all I wanted to do and I didn't want to go to Paris this was a long time ago Nate I did not want to go to Paris to see all the art and architecture I did I mean I ended up doing that but I wanted to go truly for the what I consider to be the Holy Grail of Cuisine really yeah and I was supposed to be there for paid worked all through High School saved money took myself to Paris like flew over I uh wish I still had that paper ticket with all the the you know copies and the red thing in between the memograph thing first thing I did was go to a restaurant all I was supposed to stay for 2 weeks I ended up staying for 3 and a half months you like call back home to your family and said yep not coming home sorry no I called back to my family and said I need money I'm out of money and um because I you know I had stayed much longer but everything was less complicated everything was cheaper you know this is in the days where you were using Maps like real maps and it was also in a day when you didn't have these top 10 lists you weren't living by the list you were living by actually getting out and doing things so I you know talking to people getting recommendations in real time everything about it was less complicated but also in a sense a little more complicated cuz you had to do the work on the ground yes it wasn't just so you couldn't just go look at Google reviews and then Rank by highest stars or most reviews or whatever it's you had to go ask people or you had to actually walk in a place and try it yourself and take notes and then recommend it to somebody or have it be recommended you know that kind of thing so were you all I mean this seems like you're kind of a risk taker right like you graduate high school and you fly across the Atlantic to hang out for three and a half months in Paris or you leave a a career in the legal field to open up a restaurant like that seems like you're kind of a risk taker I am a risk taker it has been said about me before by people who worked for me that I like to fly the plane as I'm building it and I always I take that as a compliment I also have always said about myself that I'm someone who just dives into the deep end of the pool and I'm also not as I think most Risk Takers are I am not afraid of failure I don't think failure is the worst thing so we live in an era of where if someone opens a restaurant and it closes you know the ibj runs 10 days of articles on it it's the headline as if it is the mortal sin and I'm like no these are people who have tried something and for whatever reason whether it's Financial emotional personal I don't know what the reason is forever reason they decide to try something else or to get out of it no fault I am like go you you make that decision are you familiar do you know Scott Wise I know Scott of course Scott sat in that chair and we put that episode out and obviously incredible rise of Scotty's brew house and the decline of Scotty's brew house and just like all that by the end of it you know like he was on the front page of the ibj like you know beloved restaurant closes all this stuff as he got up I was like man I'm so inspired by him like the to like go through all that and then to like go back out and open another restaurant concept cuz he's like I love this like I can do this it can work and man that like you're talking about failing and and like you know the ibj all that stuff like that man's been through the ringer and still has the like passion to like still be in the industry like kudos to him it was wild I think I think a lot of Scott I think he also has grown and evolved and understands himself he understands the industry he understands the investment component of the industry and I'm glad that you mentioned him I've never talked to him about this so next time I see him I'm going to bring you up and thank you for bringing that to my attention there is no shame in these failures businesses are not static they they move they they grow they change they evolve and not everything last the way it started I me if if I was still running the business that I opened with in 1989 I should be out of business you know what I mean if we had not evolved if we had not grown if we had not changed the way we were doing things not because we were doing anything wrong but because you learn more and you bring that wisdom into what you're doing and how you're doing it well take us through that Evolution right so you opened with, 1400 square fet at the corner of 49th in pen yeah what was the focus of the the restaurant well again going back to 1989 the focus of the restaurant was to do something that in food that worked for me as a young mother which meant breakfast and lunch and that was another handicap because in 1989 it was all about dinner restaurants right in 1989 people were not going to restaurants the way you are going to restaurants restaurants were not considered to be third places they were not considered to be Community centered they were just considered mostly places for a meal mostly places for a celebratory meal people weren't going to restaurants five nights a week and when people went out they were thinking mostly of dinner and of course then there were the business lunch restaurants but breakfast and lunch was kind of left to that waffle Health genre I don't even know I've been to Cracker Barrel once in my life and there are a couple of restaurants I like the little square peg game the little square peg game at Cracker Barrel you know what I'm talking about like little golf tea game no because I think I literally walked in and walked out the smell B the smell of fake Maple bothered me so much that's fair that's fair is that fair but I used to always say that I'm going to my Tombstone which has changed a lot what I want written on my Tombstone but at one point it was going to be she never tried a White Castle I mean I've always been a bit of a food stop so that's fair but I guess my whole point is breakfast and lunch was not it was very mom and pop or it was very very very Main stream poor quality yep so you're you're opening a breakfast and lunch restaurant yeah cuz it worked it worked for my family other were there other restaurants in the area at that time 100% no Nate there was nothing okay so that's good and was at the time like I think of like that Meridian kler area right in there as like a lot of business centered individuals lived in that neighborhood was that still the case in 1989 it was not I mean it was always a lovely wonderful neighborhood it was what I would consider a drive-through neighborhood you know people live there but they there wasn't the emphasis on walkability you know in 1989 people did not expect amenities in their own neighborhood they were fine to get in the car and drive to the mall get in the car and drive to the grocery store get in the car car and drive somewhere even to destination restaurants right that's what it was things have changed so greatly and now we're in living a situation and I love this where neighborhoods are truly they want to be self-sufficient so you want to have your coffee shop your breakfast restaurant your dinner place your pizza place you know you want to have your little Pub your bar the less car time the better the less car time the better and so you're getting all these and that's always been the situation in New York think of everyone thinks of New York as this huge City it is huge City can't deny that but within that huge City are hundreds of pockets of neighbors and neighborhoods my oldest daughter has lived in Manhattan for the last 20 some years I have friends who live in Manhattan they almost never leave their five block radius they just don't they don't need to they've got their grocery store their restaurant their coffee shop their Cinemas their whatever so I think that's going going to be a trend that we see here as well which I love I think it's super and and you're seeing it right like there's that little and I would even say that the the spot at 49th and Pen kind of like has trickled like like from college all the way down there to Pennsylvania and and that whole little area is just super fun and it's cool to live over there and there's a few other like the 54th in college area with the grocery store there and fat Dan and 20 tap and the bulldog and half liters right around the corner and good like there are those little pockets all the way down College I feel like which is cool and I don't know what their data shows I'm sure that they do but I bet you 20% of people use those places like fat down like let's drive from caramel to Fat Downs I don't know if people do that but most of their clientele I bet can walk from Butler or so brro or whatever and go there which I love I think that's super cool U okay so take me back we're 1989 you open it what's the first day like how did things start in that ear those early years you know the saddest thing for me my big regret on the first day is that's the one time I wish I could go back with my cell phone and take pictures we took no pictures because it was just kind of a mad rush the first day was remarkably exhilarating in its chaos I didn't know what I was doing I unlocked the door and turn on a light I actually had customers I had customers that first day who remained steady customers for 20 years holy it was remarkable I could name them they were some of the mo most lovely and supportive people and they were all early adapters to going oh my gosh we have a restaurant to your point that we can walk to or drive to on the way to work you know that was a big part of our customer base with people going on the way to work I had a little baby I was cooking the baby was with me at the restaurant people think of puddle shoe is being really busy all the time it was a slow build it really was but by the third Sunday I was like oh my God by Sunday number three I understood the breakfast lunch restaurant model much better than I did on bre on day number one because then we started attracting the quote unquote Church crowd and those people came in probably wasn't massive numbers but to our inexperienced eyes they were massive numbers I had a chef back then a guy who started with me named Bruce I mean we were committed to making this restaurant successful he was not a really he was not a train Chef he had come up but he had worked in catering mostly he was by the way during an interview when I hired him he he said I really am hesitant to work for a woman I always when I do see him I tease them about that we ended up being great friends and great colleagues and he worked for me for almost 18 years so yeah in fact the granola that we sell now was a version of what we used to call Bruce's granola we've changed the recipe but at for the first 12 years or so we called it Bruce's gran cuz it was his recipe but I forgot your question Nate what was it we're just talking through those early years so steady business things are growing when was the moment when you the light bulb kind of hit like wow we've got something here almost from day one because when you say we got something I guess what I thought was something might differ from what somebody else thinks is something I realized that we were filling a hole that was there and I realized early on I'm talking 35 years ago that PO ofu as it existed in that tiny little space at 49th in pen was truly becoming a community center that was has always been what I thought our secret SAU was understanding the place we F in a community more so today people have remarkable choices as to where they can go to eat and people go to places for a variety of reasons most of the time believe it or not the food is not the reason they go they go because of the level of hospitality how they feel embedded how they feel welcome that's what makes people want to return to a restaurant day after day after day I was going to say do you think it is the food that might get them through the door the first time and it's the hospitality that get that makes them lifelong customers absolutely it's the Ambiance it's how it's how they're made to feel welcome how they're made to feel appreciated different than welcome appreciate and how they are served when did it go from one restaurant to your ambition kind of changes to build a a restaurant group we were doing well we were profitable year one which of course back in 1989 that was in its in and of itself an anomaly most restaurants did not last a year very few restaurants got to year three let alone year five but in year two or three I felt like I had it down enough I thought that there was opportunity for some expansion of putu and I went to a small another small location at River Crossing which is still in existence but but I expanded I moved locations within 49th and pen in year 15 of existence is that where you got the Corner Spot yes and that was because the drugstore went out of business and then then I the same thing happened at River Crossing U my initial location at River Crossing was about 1200 square ft I like small spaces that's one thing I think if we get to talk about trends like where restaurants are going one of the things that's happening in restaurant world right now everywhere is the return to small spaces there are lots of reasons for that we can talk about that but my restaurant but at 49th and Penn was I don't know 1,400 square feet the restaurant at River Crossing was 1,200 I think I can't where was it at at river crossing the existing pachu is on the hard corner and we were the next available position so we were interor I got you yeah as we started getting more successful I started looking for other opportunities I always thought this is good this is people are responding and I felt like there was talent in in town there were opper real estate opportunity and markets that were not served not just unders served but not served so I started on a very slow local expansion was the focus always around the premium ingredients yes so from day one like where were you sourcing your ingredients in those first couple in the first two locations from a farmer named Bill who would pull up in the afternoon in the summer with his pickup truck and say to be Martha got corn way and I'm not exaggerating Bill where was Bill's Farm at couldn't tell you haven't seen bill in 30 years because his life changed dramatically um I used to drive down talking about Evansville I used to drive down to Southern Indiana several times in the summer I stick my kids in my old Volvo station wagon and we would drive down to get posie County melons and Southern Indiana peaches the produce houses hadn't yet started serving local ppaz always says that I brought field greens to Indiana and arugula to Indiana we couldn't even get field greens locally I had to fly them in and we'd have to go to the airport in the early days to pick up stop something that now is so ubiquitous that I think Wendy's Has a Field green salad or did at some point no I mean 19 I am not kidding you you're driving to the airport to pick up field greens and by the way those field greens were expensive like in because you had to Freight them in it was absolutely an insane time but you refused to sacrifice quality of of your your artwork right your your concept that you were bringing to life I thought that my restaurant was an extension of my dining room at home and I always thought that I was entertaining people in other words I was I was a host to anyone who would walk in my restaurant and I wouldn't feed my family commodity food why would I feed my guest commodity food I also always saw myself as not being unique I think that's a critical component of the success of the company I built I didn't think I was unique and what I mean by then is I thought if I wanted this if I attach value to Quality I am sure there are a lot of people like me who attach value to Quality take me back to 1989 and just like the the growth up there through the last 30 years when people think breakfast a lot of times are thinking cheap inexpensive fast like throw some hash browns and some gravy and some biscuits on a plate and let's ride I I would say this is like my outside opinion it's like you pay for what you get at your restaurant right especially at P well here's the trick that people don't understand when they say you pay for what you get you pay for what you get everywhere restaurants when you get a399 meal don't deceive yourself you are paying for what you're getting and what you're getting is a remarkably poor quality food if price is what's the most important thing to you I get it here's another way to look at it I studied economics so I always bring things back to the subject that I'm So Into You have to Define value and when it comes to food most people most consumers Define value as the most for the least the most amount of food for the least amount of money that has been the American food model since the agricultural push the whole trick that you know the wo over people's eyes is that they are getting a bargain there are no Bargains in life especially when it comes to food and what happens when you buy into and insist on supporting the definition of value being the most amount of food for the least amount of money what happens is everyone who has been part of that process of producing that food is on the lower rung of the ladder when you don't prioritize the quality you also do not prioritize the lives and work of the people who have created those items there's a reason that we're getting $4.

99 t-shirts from like you know what has to go into that from sourcing to creating like to get it over here for for a $4. 99 shirt that's right and what it and what the Fallout the collateral is who's being hired how they're being treated how they're being paid you get where I'm going with this um so I think there needs to be a real switch and a real subject conversations at the very heart of it I believe so strongly that there is dignity in all work and that means that I think it's just [ __ ] in the food world that the person who distributes the food big Distributors make more money than the people who make the product or pay more money for the packaging than they do for what's inside the packaging I don't know these are things I think as a society we should be discussing at dinner tables are you familiar with the story of Patagonia I am and like I'm getting like very Patagonia just like vibes from the way you're building the way you've built your restaurants your company to the way that they built that where with a priority on quality where it's like you buy a Patagonia jacket or whatever it's supposed to be like hey for a long I think they just changed it for a long time it was free repairs now it might be like $5 patches or whatever I was just in the repair shop in Manhattan with some Patagonia that I've had for 20 some years at like the zippers field or something I think I paid almost nothing to have them fixed like you can ship them in I just did this with the jacket last year I happened to be in New York which is why I like oh I'll take my Patagonia stuff to the repair store where it's like this is the last jacket you're supposed to buy this is the last you know whatever shirt other things and I'm getting that VI where it's like you're paying for quality but you're also like people want to go work at Patagonia because they have such a good work life balance and they're treated well and they're they're paid well they're like good you know they they just treat their people right uh so I love that the whole ethos behind the brand that you've built it's ethos and that's what value that's what values mean it means your ethos and um you know one thing that I respect about Patagonia which I tried to emulate to be honest was this gap having a narrow gap between what I said we were and what we were most companies have a large gap some companies have a gigantic Gap and you know if again if your definition of value is the most for the least you're talking about a company with a large gap look at a major Fast Food commercial on your television and the burger or the chicken sandwich or whatever you see there looks really really good and go order it at your local fast food joint and talk about a gap between what you say and show you are versus what you actually are and it is pathetic honestly I want to give a huge shout out to our newest partner hope Plumbing now hope Plumbing serves Indianapolis in the surrounding areas when it comes to All Things Plumbing obviously that includes sewer and drain water heaters water softeners leak repairs stump pump gas lines plumbing inspections reverse osmosis system installation rouer services downspout installation and septic tanks what don't these guys do whenever I have trouble I make sure to call Hope Plumbing they always do a great job on my house they're going to do a great job on your house go to hoping.

com to check them out it reminds me Olive Garden for years ran commercials that claimed that they were artisanal products they co-opted the word artisanal to me that was offensive there is nothing artisanal they have since scrapped Those ads I think because the word highlighted their Gap and no one went oh my God they are actually making this pasta from scratch using you know time worn recipes and ingredients of high quity maybe at one time you know like the first Olive Garden there I don't even know that founding story of that but maybe but you know after you open your 400th store or whatever I don't know their founding story I'm going to make up because I believe I want this to be true and look we live in a time when you can make shed up and everyone believes it so I'm making this up about Olive Garden I think it was created out of a boardroom I don't think there was a little store named Olive Garden that got purchased by Darden and then blown to Smithers I think you're right I I I just like the first Olive Garden opened in Orlando Florida 1982 the restaurant was part of General Mills there boom wow that's impressive if it was open out of General Mills that's like for sure for sure right okay well let's go let's Advance down the road a little bit when did you open your next concept and what was your second concept it was petio and I think I opened that year 10 or year 12 so this would have been '90s sometime yeah and same location there in brero yes and what was the idea behind that concept because it's diff it's similar but different no it's very different I think similar in its attachment to Quality well is it also a breakfast and lunch Place yeah Sim so similar of like the time of day breakfast lunch dinner what it was I have been a Franco File since I was I told you I graduated from high school but let me think I was 17 and took myself to France and then started taking myself to France as often as I could afford luckily back then it didn't take a lot to do that and I you know I could stay in hosts and food was not there's that risk taker staying in hostil God so true so true and I have had a pretty lifelong habit going to Paris several times a year got a lovely group of friends there and I eat with I am a real a person of habit even though I'm a risk taker I hav't going to the same restaurants in Paris some of them I try new ones all the time but I always go to the same two or three that I've been going to especially with my husband we got married 44 years ago congrats 44 44 we're coming up to 44 and our honeymoon was spent in Paris and we went went to these restaurants uh 44 years ago that we still are going to and my idea to Loop it back to thread this needle patiu was my interpretation of a small French beastro and it took a good five six seven years for people to embrace it because people were you just said it they were confused they thought it was some version of pesu even though it was a very distinct to me very distinctively different with the much more um traditional French food focus and the service was different as well the unifiers were the attention to detail the attention to Quality and the way we treated staff and Community those were always the distinguishers okay I love that so your interpretation of a French beastro yeah um and and that's one there's only one location yeah right and it wasn't cuz there are multiple Napoles two two Napoles there are multiple P wait also how how do you pronounce pachu pachu pesu yeah I've been so me and everyone else are pronouncing it wrong we don't care as long as you come in there that's the good answer okay well I have to ask now then where did the name pesu where did that come from well so back in the day I worked in sex crimes prosecutor at the prosecutor's office I was a DA in the Maran County prosecutor's office and the uh first iteration of the sex crimes unit it was a long time ago and I was not I wasn't like the major boss there I was a deputy prosecuting attorney I mostly was doing screenings I had some trials I really loved what I was doing I'm one of these people also that I really love everything I do same I I really mean that like I can embrace it all I was a pain in the neck to Steve Goldsmith who was the boss the the big guy the guy who ran for office and was the prosecutor and set the tone the agenda for the prosecutor's office and for some reason I didn't know that I wasn't in the Inner Circle and I used to bother him relentlessly like at least three times a week I would just knock on his door he didn't have an open door policy I would knock on the door and he would look at me and he would go what now he used to call me a cream puff all the time because my ideas about prosecution were a little different than the prevailing wisdom at the time the prevailing wisdom was lock them up throw them away and I wasn't a very good lock them up throw them away type person now I was when I was doing sex crimes but when I left sex crimes and was doing other areas of prosecutorial law I was like man this is sad you know why don't we if people had jobs and if people were Ed educated you know maybe we would see less of this stuff that was a long time ago now while people Embrace that now they didn't embrace it then and he called me I would go in with these far-fetched ideas and he would tell me I was a cream puff okay poo is French for cream puff I love that so like what was used as a derogatory Mark towards you meant as a demeaning derogatory Mark became my re for life became your Cornerstone of the company totally that's incredible wow like talk about like looking at the haters right and being like you know what I'm going to take that nickname and I'm going to turn it into something spectacular I have since I was a young person had this weird Talent of understanding a weakness and making it a strength yeah I think that does not come naturally to a lot of people it weirdly came naturally to me I don't I know why I'm not like a genius but for some reason my personality my need for tenaciousness and to understand things I was like why is this thing that is determined to be a weakness how can I turn this weakness around and really embrace it and somehow make it my strength I love that well give us a scope for now you've been doing this so open the first restaurant in ' 89 over 35 years you've been doing this it's a full-blown Restaurant Group now give us a size and scope of of what the business looks like today well in June I sold a significant part of the business to a Mia culpa I did it I went to an uh I got is that private Equity private Equity so that we could expand Cafe potero it's very scalable very expandable it's also a very unique it's an out outlier in The Breakfast Lunch category and I think that there's lot of opportunity for expansion outside of Indianapolis with poosu was that a hard decision to make no no all right heck yeah why why not I have always truly believed in relying on Experts and you can't be an expert in everything and most entrepreneurs if they fail I believe they fail because they think that they are experts on everything and I think everyone every worker every employee every owner of a business every boss every whatever your title is I think at some point you have to appreciate and understand and internalize where your own rim of Competency is and I did not have the ability financially to open up 10 new restaurants in a short period of time outside of state of Indiana outside the city city of Indianapolis and I needed expertise and that's what I did I went and I found who I thought would give me expertise so this past June yeah sold a portion of the business yeah large portion and what's the what's the plan there well I I can't really speak to that I am not because it's a big secret but I'm out of operations and although I'm a board member to the new there is a new company they are crafting the expansion plan as we speak and I think by in 2025 I imagine there will be three to five new po shoes outside of the Indianapolis market and so did you break those off like is does this include Napoles and patiu is that how you pronounce that one you did you pronounced that Pichu ptiu right there now how can you say that well and you can't say poo I don't know it's just um yeah my my who your dialect I suppose with the sale was it just Pichu the sale was of the company and the company included all those assets the real focus of expansion is Cafe potero and I think it should be yeah and I'll tell you why the potero model is very successful a and two we provide a breakfast and lunch experience that is a elevated breakfast and lunch experience and okay so so I'm going to pull a question here and and I'm curious from my experience when I talked to Scott he said when he sold that the commitment to Quality when you bring private equity in can be tough right they some private Equity firms are focused on you know expanding their bottom dollar right their bottom line making more money is there still the continued focus is there the agreement like what is it still going to be a high quality product that that people are getting when they go to these restaurants I was promised that they would respect our our value attachment to quality time will tell I'm not part of operations and I I'm very hopeful I'm very hopeful that let's say the larger investment is a success and I think one of the things that will predicate success is the attachment to value and to qual how we Define value yeah I I love that and I think there's just a big focus on the foundation too and like the Restaurant Group supports the foundation the company I created uh won't stop Hospitality supported the foundation we were we were very involved in creating it there a firewall definitely between the two organizations but yeah it's got the name ptero on it so it should it's not just for greenwashing it's because it also is aligned with the values of my company won't stop Hospitality I'd love to talk about what the work the foundation is doing and the plan for that in 2025 and Beyond so the Potter Foundation is a small Grassroots organization with a very simple Mission and that is to to basically feed kids in school better quality food and measure the outcome and the outcomes of feeding children in schools better quality food are all positive so we have a program called po school that is our main program the vast majority of school cafeterias within the IPS ecosystem do not have working cafeteria like what do you mean by working cafeteria they don't have cafeteria ladies they don't have Cooks they have workers but most of the food is made elsewhere trucked in reheated in a microwave if it's hot kind of thrown to the kids in a brown bag and served in plastic you know wrapped in plastic it is lowest common denominator it goes to this equation right of most most amount of food for least amount of dollars that's right and when you do that you get the least quality product everyone understands that no one expects the schools to be serving Lobster and truffle that's not what what we're doing at all what we do is we go in we retrofit these cafeterias we bring back working kitchens we train staff and so the pteri foundation has a Workforce component that I think is critical to our success and critical to the impact because the impact is not just to the student it's to the people in the community who are working at the schools and being trained properly and also being trained and being hired for thriving wage jobs within the school okay so that's like kind of a twof fur you know it's a very big deal we measure our impact using IU Health and Riley Hospital they measure our impact and we we measure impact on a variety in variety of ways School attendance discipline performance so academic outcomes and health related issues so what we know is that when children are fed Traditional School food is the lowest common denominal quality food we know that there are issues with attendance there are issues with discipline there are issues with academic performance there are Health outcome issues as well diabetes and obesity we know scientifically when you feed children healthy food what happens is there is a reversal in those negative outcomes and we can prove in the schools in which we operate that we have greater attendance greater academic performance fewer disciplinary issues we also have Greater Community involvement parental involvement with the school we have a happier student body I mean these are really positive outcomes and the one and Better Health outcomes as well the one that encourages me the most is the fact that we have children who when they're fed properly in school and fed not only the properly in terms of the what they're eating but also the dignity in which they're being fed how they're being fed you know it's a big difference for a kid who's literally thrown a paper bag with peanut butter and jelly sandwich and SE and cellophane that does not connote to the child that they are worth more but when they have someone serving them something kindly knowing their name putting it on a plate and having them sit down boy there is a different in their perception of what they deserve so what we see across the board is an improvement in the child's attitude and in their ability to perform at school bottom line is food couldn't be this remarkable vehicle for social Improvement and if we can get kids who are educated better than what happens down the road kids are more productive as Citizens in their communities and that's what we want and you just you cannot set a child up for failure and our school food system that's currently in effect unfortunately has the impact of setting them up for failure I mean I could talk for another hour just about this whole I mean the school food system but also the nation's food system and all of the like stuff that's coming out about chemicals and all these things and and just like obesity rates over the last 50 years and things like like I think that it's very very interesting you are definitely a front runner in this but I think that there are many people that are like kind of opening their eyes to like we shouldn't be serving this to kids and we shouldn't be eating it ourselves My Hope Is that there's a bigger emphasis on the American food system uh this has been like my geeky like thing that I've been researching and learning about over the past probably like 3 to 5 months I think it's super fascinating I'm going to send you some charts and information that we use internally when we talk to people who are interested in our work there is a direct link in the 60s and I'm sorry in the early 70s schools moved away from cafeterias that were producing food they moved away from the lunch lady the people in line who serve kids lunch and they moved to this heat and serve model because why it saved money the downside was never taken into consideration like when you save money it's probably at a cost of lower quality right so that's what happened in these schools at the same time that the public school system changed their model of how to feed children we saw a spike in childhood obesity we saw a spike in lower test scores now you cannot tell me and I no scientist of credibility would say that these are isolated and unrelated within a extremely short period of time we saw these changes and how students learn how they act in school and how they and what their health is like and it was right I just listened to a podcast episode that talked about this and this change and they said go look in the 50s at a picture of a soldout New York Yankees game and he like look through the crowd and look at the body types and the kids and just the people and then look at one in 2024 and the amount of overweight and obese people you know and just like and the change is seemingly from a food system and you can just compare like what a stadium or what anything what a mass group of people looked like in 1950 something and N in 2024 and it's vastly different and it's terrifying a little bit I I could go so far and deep on this but I I think that's an awesome awesome foundation and an awesome mission to help Pioneer here in Indianapolis what schools are you currently operating in we are operate we're actually growing the program um one of my favorite schools is the emad school system which is on the far east side of Indianapolis I have figure out there we do a school off of Millersville we we're in are they elementary schools emad is elementary and middle school we're feeding you know hundreds of thousands of meals a year um through this school food model we are doing it remarkably successfully not only are we seeing the impact that we talked about but we also are educating and training workers and I'm very proud of that to let me leave you with this thought one of the reasons why I decided that the foundation was a necessary way for the company that I owned and operated to pay back the community I realized that I mean this kind of came over me I lived in Indianapolis the largest city in Indiana the capital city one of the wealthiest cities in the state of Indiana centrally located in the state of Indiana a historically agricultural State I still believe in arguably the wealthiest and most amazing country in the world I really believe that how do you have a City Indianapolis smack dab in the middle of a successful State that's AG has a huge agricultural background in the middle of the United States the wealthiest and strongest Nation on Earth yet 80% of the students who attend attend Indianapolis Public School live at or below poverty and face pervasive food insecurity you talk about I love talking about gaps you talk about a gap that to me was a gap that I could not tolerate just sitting by and going I understand it I'm not going to do anything to help it and that's when we started the potero foundation that's powerful that's powerful and I think as it continues to grow it's been around for all a years and we are growing the program because there is an acceptance of what we're doing mainly because we've got such strong data to Pro to provide and donors also we're a small organization which means that we're not like hoarding money we're using money to make a real impact and we've seen a real change in how people write checks right people don't just want to write check to make themselves feel good they want to write checks that they know the money is being spent to make an impact so thank you I would love coming back on and talking specifically about the foundation its growth what we're going to do our next steps oh we'll have a part two for sure I would love this you know we are currently involved with IPS and what we do now it feels like a drop in the bucket even though that drop is you know has lots of Ripple effects but when you think that there there is not a large city there is not a county even in Carmel even in Hamilton County which is considered a really wealthy County even there there are people who live with food in security and I'm sorry it should be like priority number one let's get our people fed properly I think the key is properly you can get them fed but it's like if you're still feeding them junk like then the outcomes are junk you get what you pay for if you're saying that this person because they're poor only deserves a meal that cost a dollar a meal that's not good it's not even good enough what you're saying and you started this conversation by this idea of you get what you pay for you get what you pay for when you buy a $22.

99 meal you're not getting a bargain you you just need to understand that and we're not feeding our kids a bargain we're feeding them poor quality food I think that's a mic drop on that holy smokes how can people support um the foundation and the work you're doing there always we're a very small organization um and we always need financial help it's interesting that this podcast is being taped on uh the week of giving Tuesday so thank you I hope that it gets pushed out people we always need treasure but we also need talent and we need people's time um there are opportunities to learn more on online of course and and you they can also stop by our offices anytime and arrange for a visit with one of our representatives to one of our schools one of our model schools to see how we do it in real time the how we do it in real time is life changing for people I love it when we're thinking about food Concepts in Central Indiana where do you see the biggest opportunity for for new restaurant tours um I think the biggest opportunity is still small neighborhood the restaurant industry is really being pressured by large groups that have have bought Concepts and are now coming in into Indianapolis and doing kind of a second wave of of the Olive Garden idea and these restaurant groups that are coming in they are extraordinarily well financed they are very strategic and what they're very strategic about is making things look unique and homegrown and you know individually concepted we need our our you know restaurant tours to open up small successful neighborhood restaurants to combat what's happening when you're not at one of your restaurants what are your favorite restaurants to hang at around town we're kind of creatures of habit and we live in the M kastor neighborhood and we like to support those restaurants we love eating at the bar at the Meridian we also were good friends with Steve Oakley uh we eat at his bar once a week once every two weeks Steve Oakley at Oakley's beastro and you know he you should he's been around for a long time his background is quite remarkable he worked for years for Charlie trod and I recommend watch Nate you watch the Charlie troter documentary because that's a name that probably means nothing to you but Charlie troter was a true innovator in the food industry and brought notori to American food and created the food scene in Chicago like no one else did it since his death I I think 10 years ago he's been widely erased from food world I he wasn't erased because he got cancelled you know for something he just the food is food world moves so quickly he didn't just stage he literally Chef under Chef Trotter and he brings a lot of that talent to the city I I love that uh what are the trends you're seeing in uh the the best restaurants in Indianapolis I'm seeing a real an overarching understanding that you have to start with hospitality a lot of restaurants were more interested in what's on the plate than what was in the building and how people were being treated I think there is a recognition that you have to get them both right you have to get the plate right but you also have to to get the service right I love that the next question is brought to you by our friends at or Fellowship they're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young Business Leaders across the state Martha what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self jump in the deep end of the pool do not be afraid of failure failure is not something that should bring shame failure is something that brings you growth and evolution and if you're not learning you're not alive oh that's so great oh my gosh I love that I also found here that you have been six time James Beard Foundation semi-finalist which is like the Oscars for the restaurant world right it is what did those Awards mean to you and your organization well they mean a lot their validation for sure of a governing body that measures excellence in the food and hospitality industry and it's more than a nod and a wink wink they are true validation that what we're doing is noteworthy if you had to pick one dish from any of your restaurants what would your one dish be it's a seasonal dish that is done at patiu called Coco van what is that and Coco van it's literally translates a French dish it's a Cuisine Gran it's a not a complex dish it's a chicken in red wine that's brazed in red wine and served with little potatoes and a little salad and it is probably my most favorite dish of all time and whenever I see it on a menu I order it and I had a bar setting experience when I was 12 years old tasting cocoa for the first time and at a little Country Restaurant strangely in Indiana in moresville Indiana see you don't know about this cu no one we need to talk about the restaurants that no longer exist as in part two we'll we'll hit that part two there was a restaurant called Shayan in moresville Indiana in a little Motel Street you on the highway in back in the day when you drove by motor motor lodges motor ends and it just so happened the prors were a married couple she was this woman from moresville who talked like she was a woman from moresville had a beehive kind of looked like a church lady married to a French chef and they had this delightful French restaurant called shean twice a year my family would drive to Shayan and have our most celebratory meals and they still set the bar and the chef chef chef Jean made a cocoa van that it was the loveliest dish I'd ever had moresville moresville no longer in existence by the way but darn well hey but you're keeping the that Legacy alive okay I have two pieces left for you hurry hurry first one I just found out that there is a secret menu item at pesu is this correct the the burger is that like a hidden menu type thing well it's on the menu but we only serve it at the locations that have the ability in other words the equipment to cook it and it is quite lovely a burger I mean that's not what I expect when I go but I'm impressed we put it on the menu where as I said and as as they build out new Potter shoes and include the equipment can update the equipment so that it we can make the burgers we realize with apocalypse Burger there was I mean who doesn't love a burger everyone and your final question what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana working man's friend oh what do you love about working man's friend there is nothing I don't love I love the fact that since I I started going there when I was lost in law school went to law school in Indianapolis and it was like a Friday afternoon hang for law students and medical students back in the day I absolutely adore the Simplicity I love the fact that they've been doing it this way since day one love the fact that it's familyowned and operated and I love the fact that women are are the owners and operators what do you have to get when you go to working man's friend a cheeseburger with a a bag of Laz potato chips there it is you heard it here Martha thank you so much for the time today this was awesome we're going to have to bring you back on for a part two to talk about the foundation and check in and make sure that they're taking care of your company right as they grow it and make sure our quality is still there go thank you thank you so much for this opportunity thank you for listening to this episode of get in if you like what you heard make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcast this show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level click the link in the description to see all of my gear recommendations at sweetwater.

com if you want to behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik toac @nate spangle thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the hooer state great we'll see you next time here on get in