Several weeks ago my wife and I met a friend from New Zealand who was visiting North Dakota. We agreed to meet in Bismarck and chose the downtown restaurant Pirogue Grille.

Several years ago we frequented that restaurant, but because we live on the northern tier of the state, it’s hard to get to Bismarck on a regular basis.

But, when we met Kiwi Kate there, it was as if nothing had changed. The restaurant looked the same, the staff was nearly the same and the menu which was new each time you went to the restaurant, was still offering unique choices, many of them having to do with local foods.

In addition, as I sat there waiting for our meal, Ilene and Kate were deep into conversation so I just looked around the restaurant and watched a busy place operate.

The management had a full staff and it didn’t take a lot of effort to see that the kitchen staff and wait staff were all content in their jobs. This was a Saturday night and it was very busy, something that could stress out some people, but I didn’t see any of that, at least on the surface.

I also took note of downtown Bismarck itself. Thirteen years ago a new restaurant called Toasted Frog opened right across the street from Pirogue Grille. On the street it was said to be much better than Pirogue Grille and offered a better drink menu, etc.

This time, however, that downtown building was empty. We found out that Toasted Frog closed permanently last year in April.

Pirogue Grile survived direct competition right across the street. It took more than a decade, but the surviving restaurant continues to thrive.

It’s interesting to point this out, not because I’m trying to put in a plug for Pirogue Grille, but because in this day and age, when the service industry is having extreme difficulty getting employees to not only work in a busy environment like this, but stay and be content for many years, is a big plus.

What’s the secret? I don’t know, I’m not privy to Pirogue Grille’s business plan. What I do know is when we met owners Stuart and Cheryl Tracy in 2009, they had already been in business four years and were doing quite well.

We got to know them fairly well through our community supported agriculture venture. It was obvious several weeks ago that Stuart and Cheryl haven’t changed either. Cheryl greeted us and we had a nice chat as she seated us. Several minutes later Stuart, the head chef, came out of the kitchen to greet us, remembering us from a six-year absence.

This is a high-end restaurant and continues to be popular during a time when dining out has become more expensive. Why?
There may be a simple solution here. Stuart and Cheryl obviously treat their employees like a team, not as employees or helpers.

This place was operating like a well-oiled machine and it’s presumably because of those little things. After Stuart left our table, he quietly spoke to several wait staff before going back into the kitchen.

In a business like this, there have to be incentives to keep the employees happy. They may get a more competitive pay check, there may other benefits such as good health insurance or other perks like extended time off. Or, it could be just those little things like a pat on the back that make the employees feel like they are making a difference.

Whatever it is, it’s working like magic. There are a lot of restaurants in Bismarck and we’ve stopped at a lot of them, but we’ve never seen such a content place given how busy it was.

So I have to commend the Tracys, not just because I like the food, but because they are doing something to be successful in a grueling business world.