Jim Cruz

Every restaurant begins as a small, hopeful republic. You hire with the best intentions. You talk about family. About teamwork.

There was a time—recent enough to remember, distant enough to ache—when a meal ended with a nod, a

I want you to imagine a crowded sidewalk on a summer afternoon. The sun isn’t just shining — it’s

Some ideas are so simple and so beautiful they make you wonder why we ever built walls around commerce in

A Practical Guide to Handling “The Customer Is Always Right” We are in the business of hospitality. We are not

Something is happening right now. No alarms. No ceremony. Just a set of knives wrapped in towels, a jacket folded

There comes a moment—quiet, unsettling—when an owner looks around their restaurant and realizes the place no longer needs

There’s a particular sadness that creeps in when the light thins and the chairs on the sidewalk get stacked.

There are restaurants that run on spreadsheets and dashboards, and then there are restaurants that run on grease pencil wisdom

There’s a hard truth in this business that no amount of nostalgia can soften: you are no longer just