All in the Family Business With Ben Kulju
Few people remember their first time dining in a restaurant. Ben Kulju might be the exception, thanks to his father, who co-owns the Townline Pub & Grill in Green Bay, Wisconsin. While it’s a local favorite for many, the Townline Pub & Grill is more than a restaurant to Ben.
His father first bought the place when Ben was barely six months old, and it’s become a second home. Ben spent much of his time finishing homework as his dad closed for the night. Ben’s first job was at Townline, where he spent many afternoons clearing tables and running food before graduating to host and server.
Most teenagers see restaurant jobs as simple ways to earn cash. For Ben, working at Townline was more than that. It gave him a deep appreciation for how family-run businesses give back to local communities.
You never really outgrow being a restaurant kid. When I go back to the family restaurant, I still pick up a few shifts just to feel at ease again. It’s that much of a home for me.
These restaurants aren’t only a hangout spot for hungry guests craving a plate of fries. The Townline Pub & Grill sponsors local sports teams, donates gift cards for community fundraisers, and even hires inexperienced high schoolers looking for their first jobs. Without businesses like Townline, some cities might feel a little less familiar, less like home to their residents.
While he no longer runs food to tables daily, Ben is still drawn to helping restaurants achieve smoother operations. “Most restaurant owners wear multiple hats just to survive the day,” says Ben. “And when SpotOn helps ease some of the pressure, we do our job.”
When Ben first joined the SpotOn sales team, talking to restaurant owners seemed daunting. Ben knew they were busy with their day-to-day operations. Over the years, he saw how salespeople bombarded Townline, interrupting the workday with pitches for televisions, custom napkins, and so on.
“Restaurants want someone to help them grow, not another distraction,” says Ben. “You don’t want to create more noise with extra emails and phone calls. You want to help take some pressure off their day.”
His favorite interactions are when he encounters operators who haven’t heard of SpotOn at all. And they all react the same way, asking why he didn’t call them sooner. Customer service became an essential topic for Ben. “Who do you call when your service goes down?” he’d ask clients. “How often did your current point-of-sale system send hardware and software updates?”
Most restaurants couldn’t even provide Ben with a direct answer. From that point, Ben tries to understand the restaurant’s pain points and anxieties with their tech.
Ben even made sure Townline Pub & Grill got a much-deserved upgrade, switching from an old legacy POS system to the latest SpotOn point-of-sale suite. Handhelds immediately helped Townline servers streamline their operations. Servers no longer needed to run back to the main terminal to complete an order. Online ordering soon became his father’s favorite feature. When the restaurant saw a slight decrease in dine-in traffic due to nearby road construction, online ordering became Townline’s saving grace.
“For me, SpotOn is an all-in-one restaurant technology platform that brings all the little pieces of hospitality, like online ordering and reservations and loyalty programs, into one convenient place,” says Ben. And from what he’s seen with Townline, he’s glad to help continue the family business of unifying people and tech together to make life a little easier.