The kitchen’s getting hot

Decades ago, Scott Cook may have ended up a rich man.

As the brains behind Ambrosia Bistro and Wine Bar in Spokane Valley and the recently opened Café Neo, which he co-owns with his wife, Kara, Cook may have been well on his way to starting what he refers to as a great, local restaurant dynasty of yore, like those started in the 1970s and ’80s by local legends such as Larry Brown (The Onion) and Cyrus Vaughan (Cyrus O’Leary’s).

But Cook doesn’t see that in his future.

“You buy a restaurant here, you’re buying a job, basically,” Cook said. “Yeah, a 90-hour-a-week job. You can make a living, but you’re never going to be rich.”

A long-time veteran of the local restaurant scene, Cook shakes his 8-ball and sees struggle. He sees an industry that’s increasingly dominated by corporate chains and suffocated by increasing costs, flagging profits and a torpedoed economy.

He says that recent closings – such as that of Stilos Restaurant in Liberty Lake and the Hedge House (again) on North Monroe Street – could be symptoms of a spreading plague.

“I hear a lot of talk from purveyors, and there are a lot of restaurants struggling right now,” Cook said.

That’s because more and more often the restaurant scene isn’t a place to get rich, or even to get comfortable.

It’s especially hard in Washington, Cook says, because state legislation usually favors restaurant employees over owners.

For instance, Washington is one of only a handful of states that don’t offer a tip credit when enforcing minimum wage for workers, so employers pay full minimum (in other states, restaurants can sink hourly pay to well below the minimum wage as long as tips make up the difference).

“(Paying full minimum) makes it great for employees,” Cook said, but harder on employers whose profit margins are already being slashed.

That fact – added to Business and Occupation taxes, syrup taxes, the cost of raw goods and more – means Washington restaurant owners, by recent averages, make a paltry profit of four-and-a-half cents on the dollar.

“And that was before gas prices went up,” Cook said. Because the price of gas seeps into everything – delivery, raw materials, you name it – the future only looks bleaker.

“I can almost guarantee you that four-and-a-half cents is going to be cut in half,” Cook said.

This is coming from a guy who opened his second restaurant earlier this summer. Let’s just say that while he’s not nervous about Café Neo’s future – neighboring Whitworth University’s fall semester waits around the corner – Cook wishes he had been given a magic 8-ball to warn him about the current growing storm.

“We started negotiations before gas prices increased and the economy turned,” Cook said, explaining that the opportunity was there and the wheels set into motion before the outlook turned so ominous.

“It’s not like I can just shut down and retool and open back up in a couple of months with something new,” he said. The profit margins are too slim for that.

In another industry, a guy in Cook’s position – with two restaurants to keep afloat in an unfriendly market – might turn tail and run. Ditch out on his new experiment and cut his losses.

Understanding why he doesn’t bail is an exercise in understanding the mind of an independent restaurant owner.

“You really have two types of people who open restaurants. You have the revenue people, and those are the types of people who get involved in chains,” Cook said. “Then you have the people who are in it just because they love it. So you get the Moxies and the Downriver Grills.”

Cook counts himself among the latter.

“Believe me, I’m not in it for the money,” he said. “We have our houses behind us. I have a lien on my house. Everything we own goes into this. You can lose everything in a heartbeat.”

So why do it? Why not get a job in advertising, or start selling Amway or something?

For Cook, the answer’s easy.

“The grease gets in your blood,” he said. “You’re surrounded by the same type of people that you are. People who love food, love hospitality, love serving people … When everything’s working, when everything’s clicking, there isn’t a better industry in the world.”