HELP SAVE STONE'S THROW CAFE FROM CLOSING

OurVision: 
 
"Cooking creates a sense of well-being for yourself and the people you love and brings beauty and meaning to everyday life. And all it requires is common sense – the common sense to eat seasonally, to know where your food comes from, to support and buy from local farmers and producers who are good stewards of our natural resources." ~ Alice Waters, Pioneer of the Good Food Movement
 
This statement by Alice Waters (an early advocate of the now well-established shift towards food made from fresh, local, organic ingredients) epitomizes the sort of cooking we envisioned when we first conceived of our “Farm to Table” restaurant, Stone’s Throw Café. This is the vision towards which we continue to strive every single day.


 
Who We Are:
 
We are Gary Wahl and Anne Hennen Barber, a married team and co-owners of Stone’s Throw Café, located in Morris, Minnesota. This small town on the prairie is a diverse, thriving community that supports agriculture, manufacturing, and a public liberal arts college. 
 
We might be what Wendell Berry, the Kentucky writer and farmer, calls “homecomers.” Having returned to Morris after twenty years away, we join a steadily growing movement of young people returning to small towns in rural areas, seeking better lives for themselves and their families, and hoping to reconnect with their roots. We are here because we want to be and we want Morris to be a better place because we are here.
 
We both grew up in Minnesota. Anne is returning to her childhood home in Morris where, during her formative years, she worked alongside her father at the Morris Theatre which he owned and operated. This experience sparked her lifetime love of movies and provided first-hand knowledge of what it is like to run a small-town business. Gary grew up in White Bear Lake, Minnesota and from high school through his years in graduate school worked at almost every type of restaurant in almost every role. We met in the 90s while attending the University of Minnesota, Morris. We moved away from Minnesota, continued our education, married, taught college classes, made art, had children, and then in 2013 moved back to Morris. Having spent most of our lives in higher education we were both ready for something new. Anne became the Morris Public Library Director. Gary began planning a restaurant for Morris that would showcase local producers and offer healthy, richly flavorful food. 
 


The beauty and meaning we bring to everyday life:

Much of Stone’s Throw Café’s menu features items made in house from scratch. Truly good food demands fresh ingredients and we are dedicated to building relationships with the local producers and suppliers of these ingredients. We have created a restaurant where people can “taste the place,” where people can eat good food produced in and on the land that we love. We recognize and appreciate the commitment to excellence demonstrated by our partners. It’s gratifying to engage in a conversation about the native plants and the root depth of their pastures with Laverne and Mary Jo Forbord, the owners of Prairie Horizonsand our source for organic pastured beef. The organic radishes and carrots that we house-pickle for our Banh Mi pork sandwich are delivered weekly directly from Davis and Tobin Bonk of Toad Hills Farm. No machinery, crating, bagging, shipping, and re-shipping required. Paula Feuchtenberger supplies us with the marvelous heirloom tomatoes essential for our renowned BLTs and house tomato soup.



 
We have chosen to use local food venders because of the quality of their products, but also because we know that reducing food miles helps alleviate our dependence on fossil fuels, reduce air pollution and cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. When, in January 2018, we purchased the building which houses Stone’s Throw Café, we wanted to take further steps towards improving the restaurant’s environmental foot print. To that end, we invested in redesigning the air replenishment duct work, upgrading to energy efficient led lighting, and installing a new water treatment system to improve the taste, function and efficiency of the water. We are committed to protecting our children’s future.
 
While healthy, savory, locally produced food is the cornerstone of our restaurant, we also strive to provide our community with a “sense of well-being” which extends far beyond the plate set before a customer. We have created a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing environment, tastefully lighted and decorated with art from local artists. 

 
Stone’s Throw Café has become a vibrant meeting place for community activities and events. We have hosted game days, receptions, organizational meetings, book clubs, and parties. We organized an afternoon of Christmas cookie decorating. We love showcasing local musicians. There is no other venue in town where a person can sip a fine wine or artisan beer while listening to live jazz or acoustic guitar. And while the dance floor isn’t big, the sound certainly is when the DJ starts spinning out her tunes.
 



OurChallenges:
 
Our original plan had been to create a small breakfast and lunch restaurant where people could find a creative, healthy, and delicious alternative to fried eggs and hash browns. But when an opportunity to buy a prominent space on Main Street arose, the plan was expanded to a full-fledged restaurant and bar. The business plan was deemed viable by the lenders and the cafe opened in May, 2018. The vision remained the same, but the change in scale led to a larger financial outlay than expected. 
 
Very quickly after opening, there were financial difficulties. We had spent much of the operating capital on improvements ahead of the opening but were unable to replenish that fund with a subsequent loan. Without that cushion, it was hard to compensate for the uneven ebb and flow of cash coming through a new business. The challenge was daunting and made more difficult by enormous staff turnover. It takes a special commitment to work in a restaurant dedicated to food preparation that is more complicated, more time-consuming, more sensitive to error than the average short order bar and grill.
 


Our plan for the future:
 
We have begun a series of strategies designed to reduce costs, increase traffic and increase sales. Some have already been implemented with positive results. Others will be implemented in the near future.
 
Reduce costs
·       Cut labor costs by 20%: 
·       Reduce open time to 3 days a week until sales warrant adding additional days
·       Reduce prep time
·       Reduce food waste with smaller batches of in-house foods
·       Introduce house wine on tap (less costly to transport, less wasteful because it lasts longer once opened)  
 
Increase sales by revising food and beverage offerings and enhancing customer service
·       Develop staff training programs to unify the customer experience across servers 
·       Offer weekly specials to introduce unfamiliar flavors and bring the adventurous eater back
·       Add food items (with a higher profit to cost ratio) that will appeal to a broad patronage
·       Subsidize our seasonally changing specials which showcase local produce and products with a core menu with broad appeal
·       Introduce a curated drink menu that features signature beverages with no-alcohol, low-alcohol, and strong drink options
·       Capitalize on our new automated espresso machine to offer specialty coffee drinks
·       Increase our lunch sales with designated take-out parking spots and an order-ahead menu
·       Introduce gourmet Sunday Brunch when sales warrant adding additional days
 
Increase Traffic through special activities
·       Obtain music license in order to expand our offerings of live and DJ music
·       Expand our special events (trivia nights, board game nights, rec games like ping pong, food classes such as “Wine and Food Pairings”)
 
Strengthen Visibility
·      Launch a radio ad campaign
·       Make outside improvements to attract customers (attractive signs highlighting specials, direct entrance from rear parking lot)
·       Use skipping stone logo to develop advertising merchandise (t-shirts, water bottles, and coasters)

 

Our request:
 
We need to raise money now if our restaurant is to remain open and continue to serve our community. We need $50,000.00 to pay off some outstanding obligations and stabilize our operations, convince our lenders that we deserve their continued support, and continue implementing our new marketing strategies.Without it, we will be forced to close Stone’s Throw Café. It is our belief (a belief echoed by many in our community who have urged us to turn to crowdsourcing for help), that Stone’s Throw Café is an important part of the Morris ethos, part of what makes this little town a good place to live, and worth saving. With your help, we can make that happen. Thank you for considering a donation. And if you aren’t able to donate right now, we understand. You can still be a great help by sharing our story with others who might.