After mis-step in Concord, Dressler's is Cooking

Business Today
March 1, 2011

After mis-step in Concord, Dressler's is Cooking

By V. Tom Gardner

Jon Dressler’s recipe for success includes the following:

Get a great chef, add friendly wait staff and toss in a solid manager. Place them in an easy-to-reach restaurant with a warm and inviting atmosphere while offering customers desserts made by Dressler’s mom and food that’s viewed as a great value. Repeat.

This is the recipe he has relied on to make Dressler’s restaurant a mainstay of Birkdale Village. It’s been there for over seven years; and while other restaurants have come and gone, Dressler’s has prevailed.

The restaurant represents his first foray as an entrepreneur. But the 47 year old Concord resident, and father of two, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Dressler got his first taste of the business in high school. His first job was at a Denny’s restaurant, where he washed dishes. It was a good deal: Dressler collected a pay check and got fed by the chefs.

After he began classes at Pennsylvania State University, he continued his restaurant experience by working for a small restaurant called Old Waterway. He was started as a bus boy, but soon worked his way up to become a waiter; a position which he enjoyed.

“I got to wear a nice shirt, take food to people, got fed by the chefs, worked in an air conditioned room, I got paid for it and I got tips too,” Dressler said.

After college, he moved to Chicago where he went to work for Morton’s Steakhouse. He started as a Day Manager, planning to be there for only a year. Six months into this job, he realized it would be a good training opportunity.

He learned everything he could. This included opening the Charlotte restaurant, where he met his wife, Kim, who oversaw the marketing. Eventually, Dressler decided to go out on his own and start his own restaurant.

After he announced his resignation on April Fools Day (most of his employees thought he was joking), Dressler got busy trying to find a suitable location.

When looking for a location for his first restaurant, Dressler picked Birkdale Village. It’s all about location. Not only did Birkdale have a well-recognized name, but as a mixed-use development with plenty of housing, it had the demographic that Jon was looking for: people over 20 with families and disposable income.

In addition, the development was centrally located in the Lake Norman area. By being a mere 20 minutes from Charlotte and Concord, immediately off I-77, Dressler thought the location was perfect.

And it has been. Dressler’s is a regional dining mainstay, despite the ups and downs of the economy.

But after having such a successful start, Dressler decided to open a restaurant closer to his home in Concord. He opened opened

Max’s Ally (named after his son and daughter) in the Afton Village development. Just off of I-85 at exit 54, the development was planned to be another mixed use area, with commercial and residential units.

Not only was the development supposed to have plenty of foot traffic, but Max’s Ally was across the interstate from a major shopping area.

In addition, it was between Charlotte and Salisbury in an area that doesn’t have much competition in the finer dining categories.

Dressler thought that this would be another success. It wasn’t.

The residential units were never developed because of the economy and Max’s Ally never developed the traffic that Dressler hoped for. In addition, its location never attracted the number of people from Salisbury or Charlotte that were expected.

While trying to make it work, Dressler was spending a disproportionate amount of time on Max’s Ally. Month to month, the bottom line varied-sometimes it was in the red, sometimes it was in the black.
So, after two years Dressler decided to cut his losses, and re-focus his attention on the Dressler’s brand.

“Max’s Ally was not as successful as I hoped it would be,” said Dressler. “(Selling it) reduced my stress load by 60 percent.”

As Dressler was selling Max’s Ally, he was also planning for another Dressler’s, this one in the Metropolitan development, just outside of Uptown Charlotte.

Again, for Dressler, the determining factor was the location. The Metropolitan is a mixed-use development with easy access to 277 as well as neighborhodds like Dilworth, Elizabeth and Meyers Park. At night, the restaurant is only about 20 minutes from Concord, Ballentyne and Gastonia.

Better yet, it features a good view of Uptown’s skyline.

Dressler, not wanting to take any chances on the new Metropolitan location, beefed up the marketing budget, about double what he spent opening in Birkdale.

By focusing his advertising campaign on print and radio, Dressler feels that he achieved the needed balance, and within the first year, his Dressler’s location at the Metropolitan posted a profit. “More than a dollar less than a half a million,” said Dressler.

Due to its location, Dressler admits the Metropolitan location feels more upscale than Birkdale to some people. The 20 foot ceilings, updated décor and skyline view give the restaurant an upscale feel.

The dinner menus are exactly the same (the Birkdale location doesn’t serve lunch), and his mother makes the desserts that are featured in both locations on an almost daily basis.

With so many restaurants to compete with, Dressler thinks his brand is still able to differentiate itself among a crowded field.

Having a great chef is indispensable — after all, there would be no customers without great food — but to him, offering good service, a personable staff, great value and a warm atmosphere, are the qualities that set his restaurants apart.

“I’m in a people-oriented business. We need to have the right people on the staff to execute (my) vision,” said Dressler.

Though he left Morton’s without a safety net, Dressler never regretted the decision to take the entrepreneurial route and start his own business. By becoming his own boss he shed the frequent conference calls and the accountability to somebody higher up.

“To me it’s not like a job; I watch people eat and drink,” said Dressler. “I host a party every night.”

Dressler has no plans to open a third restaurant. However, he has been mulling over the idea to eventually branch out into consulting.

Though he enjoys the day-to-day tasks associated with running two restaurants, consulting could be less stressful.

With 22 years of experience in restaurant industry and an MBA in finance, Dressler said, “It would be fun to share my knowledge with others.”