Studies show the longer the commute time, the less job satisfaction. It’s not just the job, coworkers, and task at hand—it’s how you get there. According to SpotOn Hospitality Specialist Jack Basilotta, satisfaction goes up exponentially when you commute by Funitel, the gondola-like transportation that he took to work each morning running food and beverage at a mountain lodge in Lake Tahoe. When the cash register tills were ready to go and pre-shift was in a good place, ski patrol sometimes gave Jack the green light to get first tracks down the mountain.
“The lifestyle was rad. It also gave me more responsibility. I saw how technology advanced the functions and operations of the restaurant.”
Since Jack made the great trek west post-college, he has filled his days with the rigor of restaurant work and the reward of the great outdoors. He originally moved to Santa Cruz to become a pro surfer. When that didn’t work out, Jack served tables at a high-end Chinese restaurant, where he gained a surf-friendly schedule, cash flow, and community of fellow surfer-servers who quickly became his roommates, bandmates, and friends.
Not one to choose between the beach or mountains, Jack moved to Lake Tahoe, where he wove himself deeper into the hospitality industry. He was battle-tested in the hospitality pressure cooker that is the ski resort cafeteria, where speed of service was everything. If they were going to reach sales goals, it had to be before the muddy, desolate shoulder seasons of early spring and pre-snow fall. “Technology has got to be fast. You can’t be lagging on credit card processing,” says Jack, “otherwise people will go somewhere else. They’ll pack lunches.”
“Expect the unexpected” is the restaurant operator’s mantra. Just as the floors are swept, the produce is delivered, and the wine is decanted, something will go wrong. The dishwasher leaks. The AC is on the fritz. An underground pipe burst and the sidewalk’s flooded.
“Running outdoor weddings, there was always some crazy variable,” says Jack, “a thunderstorm. A bear breaking into the trash. A guest getting drunk and jumping in the water.”
Jack worked his way up to restaurant management for a regional restaurant group, taking ownership of the beverage program. It was more than shaking and stirring. He ran recipe costing, weighed labor and ingredient shelf life, and negotiated with vendors.
He saw the value in a customizable restaurant point-of-sale system and learned their system backward and forward. He oversaw the rollout of a new system, training the staff and working through the growing pains. He navigated his team through the choppy waters of the pandemic. As a result, he bears the same battle scars as many of his clients, recalling the need to pivot weekly.
“Operators can have blinders on,” says Jack. The stress of day-to-day operations can inhibit future planning. In a challenging, competitive industry, hesitation toward new technology is self-preservation. But as a Hospitality Specialist, Jack observes with a full 360 view, bringing a consultative approach.
It helps that Jack is a local. He lives in Marin County and has frequented the destination farm-to-table concepts, oyster bars, and family-owned pupuserias that make Marin such a thriving and eclectic place to eat. “It’s a tight-knit restaurant community,” says Jack, “all the owners know each other and help each other out.” Dropping in to make a sale and disappearing is a non-starter, neither is that Jack’s style, anyway.
“The restaurant industry brings strangers together,” says Jack. Through the big group dinners, but also in the employee-guest interactions. It’s all about giving guests a magical, intimate experience that sends them out the door planning out who they can bring to the restaurant next. Jack knows life isn’t all powder days and lake swims. But at a great restaurant, when the distractions of the outside world fall away, it can feel that way.
