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| Calm During The Storm
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After Hurricane Isabel, Jim Eriksen and his team depended on creative thinking and a lot of hard work.
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Owner: Jim Eriksen
Concept: Caribbean food with an emphasis on seafood, oceanfront dining, signature Pusser’s rum drinks, meetings and celebrations, and hotel foodservice
Hotel Operators: Marriott
Number of Seats: 200 outside on dock; 190 inside
Check Averages: $42, dinner
Number of hotel rooms: 156
Number of kitchen employees: Between 41 and 48
What Hurricane Isabel left behind last September: Four feet of water
Number of hotel guests served continental breakfast the next morning: 750
Number of typical Saturday night covers in season: 1,000
Menu highlights: crab cake Annapolitan, $10.75;
jerk rubbed tuna steak, $19.75;
barbecued salmon tower, $17.50;
Haitian Creole Seafood Gumbo, $19.95;
olde English fish and chips, $14.95;
Pusser’s painkiller ice cream, the house specialty rum drink for dessert, $4.95
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| What does it take to pull a high-volume restaurant back together after a natural disaster? – Questions & Answers
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Before we get into the story about the storm, will you please give us some background on Pusser’s Landing?
There are currently seven Pusser’s Landing restaurants, five in the Caribbean and two in the United States. This location is an independent restaurant that leases space from the Marriott Corp., and also provides foodservice for the hotel.
The name “Pusser” comes from an old British rum, one that wasn’t available to the public but was rationed out daily to sailors in the Royal Navy from 1655 to 1970. In 1979 our company’s founder, Charles Tobias formed Pusser’s West Indies and resurrected the rum for the public.
Our restaurants focus on seafood and other island specialties as well as on a couple of classics from English colonial times and, in our case, some local coastal favorites, too. Our jerk seasoning, for example, isn’t available anywhere else. And as for the crab cakes, which are the most famous food in Maryland, I researched an old recipe from around the city’s founding and developed a special seasoning blend from that.
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What’s the setting like?
The Annapolis location is in a beautiful area, right on the dock, and is the only place downtown that’s right on the water. That makes it extremely popular, especially in nice weather.
The interior is done in a nautical theme, complete with antique wood tables, intricate boat models and a full hallway gallery of authentic historic photographs of the bay.
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How did you build the business?
When we opened several years ago, we really had to develop a reputation for the concept. We started out with six covers on our first Sunday and soon grew to a couple hundred. The advertising amounted to local papers, announcing special events on Monday and Tuesday nights and the major holidays, to drive business and spread word of mouth.
I think the menu offers Americans a true taste of the Caribbean with high-quality products. And that’s something unique. So in the end the menu really drives the business.
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So what happened during Hurricane Isabel?
The hotel became an
island. The storm hit on a Thursday night, and it didn’t even rain too much.
The tide and the wind did all the damage. We were under four feet of water: The
water destroyed the kitchen, the antique tables and chairs in the dining room,
and the wood floor. We waded around and salvaged what we could.
But there was also a big reunion party in the hotel – 750 people – and we had to make sure they had something to eat. So three or four of us ran to the grocery to pick up some food and juice for breakfast Friday morning and sandwich fixings for lunch. Then we went to work shoveling mud.
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What about the kitchen?
It was completely out of commission. But again we had hotel guests to take care of and were under the gun to get open for the general public. Plus, the biggest event of our year, The Boat Show, was due in town in three weeks. Sysco really helped me out and brought down a trailer for the weekend. We ended up keeping it for a month.
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How long were you down?
Well, we never stopped serving hotel guests and we were shut to the public only for that one weekend. By Monday about 40 percent of the menu was available. We have a lot of mise en place to prepare, and there just wasn’t room. Now, in the final stretches of the repair, we’re about 70 percent up to speed. That’s because there’s still no walk-in freezer, and we just got our permanent refrigerator recently. So I hope by the time this story runs, we’ll be totally back to 100 percent.
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Wow. That’s fast. What made the difference?
I’m proud of our staff. You know, people always say how the restaurant business is so tough and people can be difficult, but that just wasn’t the case with us. We worked together as a team and tried to stay motivated through the whole thing.
For me I just tried to look at the whole thing as a learning adventure. I had no choice. I mean, if you ask me how to make a soufflé, I can certainly help you out. But ask me what to do with four feet of water in my kitchen, and I have to learn fast. For a few weeks I was chef, purchasing agent, kitchen designer and equipment expert.
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I almost hate to ask: Are you ready for the holidays?
You bet. It’s a really exciting time for us. From our annual Thanksgiving Harvest Buffet to an elegant à la carte Caribbean Christmas dinner and all the catering parties in between, we’re really busy. Here on the East Coast, it seems as if everyone goes out to celebrate, and that’s great with me.
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