Hey, Tim. >> Hey, John. >> How are you? >> Good. How are you? >> Good. >> Good to see you. >> Thanks for taking time to work with this. This is Tim Turner. We're at his restaurant, one of them in Durango, Colorado, the Zia Taqueria. And Tim has done an awful lot in terms of greening, buying local, and whatnot, and he's going to give us the five minute tour. >> Sure. >> And show us some of the things that he's done. This is great, thanks again for taking time. >> Yeah, you're welcome. >> Glad we caught you between river trips. >> Right, exactly, or ski trips. Let's see, restaurants are traditionally energy consumers. And so I guess today we're going to talk a little about how restaurants can become a little bit more green, conserve some energy, treat the planet nicely. And just make the efforts to tread lightly. >> Tim, first of all, how about energy. I know you guys have done a lot in terms of solar. >> Right, so we embarked on, first off, photovoltaic solar. We tried to cover as much energy via photovoltaic as we could. We have a 15 KW system here at the north restaurant. And down south, we have about 45 KW PV system, and we have the solar hot water system. The investment in that came through a USDA grant to some extent, and also some federal tax credits. So over the course of about seven years, we worked our way up to roughly 52 KW PV system. And the hot water system that's still our hot water system down at the south location. >> How much of your energy use does that take care of? >> The 45 KW system takes care of 100% of the energy that we use at the south location, which is about 2,200 square foot restaurant. It's similar to this, maybe a little bit larger. This 15 KW system here, takes care of about 25% of the use of this restaurant. >> That's great, that's just great. And then obviously with the thermal hot water, you're saving energy. >> Yep, saving on burning fossil fuels. So we burn natural less natural gas down there with that hot water system. In the summer time, it's heated in the day past through, so were not touching water with any boost from natural gas. >> That's great, that's great. What sort of efficiency measures did you put in here to save energy? >> So early on, we had an energy consultant come in and study everything, from light bulbs to insulation up in the ceiling and any kind of cold or hot spot, that we needed to address. So the first things we did was, change out all of the light bulbs, which oftentimes triggers changing our fixtures. Move everything to LED, insulate. It was back when we were doing the caulking and the insulation. So it was caulk all the cracks, insulate, try and get this space in balance. Uh-huh, I know you're doing a lot with grow local, buy local. >> Yes. >> How about local sourcing, does that limit you in what you can offer? >> We've dialed in our local sourcing to generally have fresher food, cut down on our carbon footprint, create more local jobs, and just integrate our restaurants with local farmers. We've gone from trying to change our menu, to what can we grow that's on our menu, so we'll do greens year round in a freight farm, which we just recently purchased. We get greens from Twin Buttes, which is a farm where we bought two green houses and also bought a hoop house, to have season extension. We've worked with Mountain Roots Produce to do a lot of root vegetables for us. So they'll grown potatoes and onions that we use an abundance of, and they're also a good storage crop. >> As well as purple cabbage. So this year, they'll grown 100% of our purple cabbage. >> So I don't see a ton of dirt on your fingernails- >> [LAUGH] >> You're not out there reaping in the hoop house, are you? >> No, no, I'm a business guy. I'm not, I love food. I love food that's well executed, I love fresh food, and I also love Mexican food. So there was a niche in Durango that hadn't been filled yet, so we tried to fill it. >> And you've done really well. >> Yeah, it's been a really fun project. We've been at it for 12 years. It's a tiring business because it's every day you're open, and we're only closed four days a year. But I think the fun part for me, is how do we do the best we can for the community, for the environment? >> Can you talk a little bit about these grow houses? How was it featured in the newspaper a week or so ago? And it's a pretty innovative thing. >> It is, it's a refrigerated shipping container, that a new group out of Boston called Freight Farm, is selling for $85,000. They'll sell you a, they call it a turnkey. It requires a lot of work, but it's a turnkey hydroponic grow for any kind of head lettuce. And it grows vertically in towers. And so the lighting that they use, the key is on like three or four types of light spectrums that the plants need to grow. And one container could produce enough Head Lettuce for our mixed greens, and some of our shredded lettuce for that we use for tacos and burritos, and toppings on nachos. But one container could grow enough greens for one restaurant, for the entire year. >> Amazing. >> Yep. >> So here's something, and I haven't warned you about this question. What about wages? I mean, restaurant wages are traditionally pretty low. And you don't have much of a tip sort of situation. >> Right. >> So how do you overcome that? >> So there's a new Living Wage Coalition here in Durango. >> Right, [INAUDIBLE]. >> Yep, so we're a part of that. >> Good for you. >> We don't have a lot of turnover, and part of the reason is because we pay our people. We start everybody at $10 an hour for training, and then we gradually work them up to $13 to $15. We do have a tip jar that helps supplement that. We also have a 401(k) matching program, we don't have health insurance at this point in the game. >> Something to work on. >> Yeah, and it's also trying to keep, we have a target for our labor cost, and it's 32%. We've got a target for our cost of goods and that's 32%. >> Both of those have creeped up, labor to about 33%, cost of goods is hovering right now between 34.5% and 35% of gross revenue. So I think we're in line for a price change, which I don't really like to increase these prices, I want to keep them as low as we can. So a part of it, is going to be absorbed by our consumers. >> That's okay. >> Yup. >> So you mentioned you have long-term employees. Can you talk a little bit about Brooklyn? I mean, the turnover in the restaurant business has to be huge, I would think. And if you can combat that, you're saving money. >> Yeah, we're saving money on training. And treating someone as you would like to be treated, is the golden rule. And that's kind of how we operate. So we buy bicycles for staff, so they can ride their bike to work. We'll buy bus tokens for them if they want to ride the public bus. We bought Rec Center passes for people. And just trying like making loans to people to put new windows in their house. Or making loans to put new tires on your vehicle, or something like that. So we're pretty generous with helping staff out when they need help. >> That's great, that's great, you never hear about that. I would have never guessed. >> Right. >> So how about community outreach? And I ask this because, we can't see this, but right behind you is Animas Mountain. There was a traditional mud run up there, you got seven miles of rocky, rocky uphill and downhill. And I would come down here and get a free meal, sort of take an ibuprofen to ease my knees, you do a lot of that sort of stuff. Can you talk a little bit about that your attitude, about community outreach and whatnot. >> Sure, our marketing plan hinges on giving back to the community. We probably give about, last year I think it was roughly $80,000 that we put back into the community. Whether it is with gift cards, or whether it's with food, or just cash donations. My theory is, put it back in the community as opposed to putting it into newspapers, radio, that type of advertisement. Putting food in someone's mouth at an event, or giving them a gift card to come in and try us out, has always been, in my mind, more valuable than going out and advertising. And trying to get somebody to come in for a two-for-one special or a happy hour. >> Uh-huh, so how many organizations do you think you give to in a year? >> Somewhere between 80 and 100 per year that we donate to. We've got some regulars. >> Uh-huh, that's great, that's just great. So one of the things in the restaurant world, and I know very little about it, but I was talking to a friend who's CEO of Ivar's in Seattle. He said, over the life of a customer, because they get a lot of repeat, and I would think you do too, that person's probably worth 15 or $20,000 to them. Does that make sense? >> Sure, and then in our little town, I think it's probably worth more than that. I haven't done the numbers but we could do them real quick. $10 a visit, get them to come in 2 times a week, that's 20 times 52 weeks that's 1,000 times 12 years. >> A couple years. >> [CROSSTALK] 12,000 and one person. >> So what he says is, hand reasonable wages. They pay $15 an hour at Ivar's. And they give service people the right to give a gift card, if anything went wrong with an order. They go out to the table and that gift card is not $20, it's $200 or $100. And he said small price to make sure that we get that customer back. Then it seems to me that you've set yourself up, for that same sort of regenerative income or revenue. >> Yeah, that's the most challenging part of our restaurant, is to make sure someone leaves, having a good experience. And if they don't, have an open door policy, so they can come back and tell you that it wasn't good. And then figure out a way to get them to come back in and give you a try. I mean, that's our standard is come on back in, here's a $20 gift card, here's a $30, depending on what the size of their purchase was. Trying to give them something to get them back in the door. >> That's great. Anything else you can tell us about the restaurant industry, hospitality industry and sustainability. You've thought about it a lot so, do you have any insights you'd like to share? >> You know this business was started by my wife and l. We're not of big money, we don't have money behind us. We've taken harder in money and put it back into this business. Whether it's in form of solar panels, or green houses, or farm implements for tractors, people that are out ranching and were loaning their money, and getting product back in the form of a payment. I would say, make the right decisions with your profits and invest in the community. Invest in the local agriculture, if that's what you're into. And take measures to treat the Earth kindly. I mean there's so many opportunities, especially in this industry, to do the right thing. >> That's just wonderful. Thanks so much for your time. >> Yeah, you're welcome. >> Thanks.
