Tim Elliot - Stone Soup

Here we are again. This Friday I met with Tim Elliot, co-owner of Stone Soup, Burlington's non-traditional, buffet-style, jewish-vegetarian-indian-all-around-yummy-food cafe. We met over cups of coffee, sitting at one of Stone Soup's well-loved wooden tables, the smells of melting cheese and baking bread washing over us. Stone Soup is another spot in Burlington that I've been eating at for as long as I can remember, buying loaves of challah bread on Fridays and smothering it with butter when I was a kiddo, eating there annually on my sister's birthday, and most recently, racking up my father's tab there throughout my early teen years (sorry, dad!!!). Consequently, I've known Tim and Avery for a very very long time and was extremely pleased at both of their responses to being interviewed by me for this blog! Unfortunately, due to time limitations, I was only able to interview Tim, but I couldn't have been happier with the results.

So, without further ado, here we go!

Tim grew up in Southern New Hampshire, as a vegetarian and a homesteader. Naturally, he grew to value his environment and went to college hoping to be an environmentalist. Soon, he began to realize that college was not the place for him for two big reasons; the first was that he realized that he couldn't absorb education in the traditional college way and needed to learn in a more hands-on manner; the second was that he started to realize what the environmental movement actually was and didn't want to sit around and advocate for his beliefs, he wanted to go out and DO something about it.

Growing up in a liberal family within a very right-wing community, Burlington seemed a natural place for Tim to reroot himself. Along with Burlington having an extremely progressive voice as a whole, it also was a very happening place for a young man who considered himself to be in the "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" scene.

Tim tried for a long while to find a solid job here in Burlington, and had a background in working in restaurants since he was a teenager (he says there were two jobs for young people in his hometown; bagging groceries, or washing dishes. He chose the latter) and ended up snagging a job at Organum Natural Foods in the deli section. Though he was overqualified for the position he started in, he needed a job. We all know what that's like.

Organum was the health food store in town at the time, and though Tim had always been a vegetarian and had eaten healthily, he never really connected it with the work that he did and had only worked in traditional restaurant settings prior to this job. He ended up moving up to being the Deli manager and worked at Organum for seven years.

It got to a point where Tim could tell that Organum probably wasn't going to last much longer, and it was time for him to start looking for a new job. He put his resume out around town when someone told him that he should go talk to Avery Rifkin, who ran a vegetarian deli in town at the time. Tim sent Avery his portfolio and soon got a call from him, who said that Tim was overqualified to work for him but that he was about to start looking for a space to open a restaurant in Burlington, and asked if he wanted to go in on it together. Here's the kicker- Tim said no! He also said though, that if Avery started a restaurant, he'd happily work for him.

Months and months went by and a friend of Tim's receives an inheritance. Tim's friend told him that if he wanted to open a restaurant, he'll give him as much money as he needs to do it. Tim started to look around town at spaces for rent and eventually came in to look at the spot that Stone Soup is in now. The guy who showed Tim around mentioned to him that a guy named Avery Rifkin just came and looked at the spot before Tim did. Can you say fate? Tim decided he needed to call Avery and talk out some ideas and they quickly clicked and soon became business partners. About six months later, Stone Soup was opened.

Both Tim and Avery decided on some criteria for their restaurant to adhere to. First, they wanted to best quality kitchen equipment they could find, which of course all restaurant owners want in order to put out the best product they can.
Next, and this is a big one, they wanted to break some traditional restaurant rules and have theirs be a buffet, with a hot bar, a cold bar, and a counter full of baked goods. One of the big contributing factors that went into this decision was simply that cooking to order is super stressful, and its hard to have your product come out consistently as amazing as you want it to be depending on how busy you are and the quality of people that are cooking on the line. Having a buffet also helps reduce food-waste greatly, because they're not just putting out what portion size they think the customer will eat on a plate, they're putting a dish in front of them and saying "here, take as much or as little as you want." They also use a system called rehashing, where you take a dish from the night before, rehydrate it and put it out again. Tim and Avery can also decide what to cook for the day based on whatever produce they have an excess of, or what they know won't last too much longer, or whatever inspires them that morning!
Finally, both Tim and Avery got into the food business because they were super passionate about cooking. They wanted an environment that they would feel great about cooking in everyday, which is why they decided on having a kitchen that is open so that the customers can see the work that's being put into their food, with lots of wood and a very vintage/retro/natural feel about it. I asked Tim what his favorite part about owning a restaurant was, and he so simply answered, "my favorite part is that I get to do what I love everyday." From the most mundane tasks like cutting up veggies, and doing dishes, to cooking giant batches of curry, he's passionate about what he's doing, which is what all of us can hope for in a profession.

Tim told me that the hardest part about owning a restaurant is finding people to add to the staff at Stone Soup who are equally as passionate about food as he, himself is. It's hard to put out an amazing product everyday if only a third of the people working alongside you are as into it as you are, with the other two thirds counting down the minutes until they can go home. People strive for excellence when the people around them are doing the same, and that's true in almost any setting.

It seems to be a trend that when I ask about the most important aspect of owning a restaurant, the answers that I have so far received are that one can never underestimate the value of social equity in the restaurant business. Customers are one thing, and must be treated with respect if you want them to keep coming back (duh), but there is a network of people between the farm and the person eating the food that must be treated with equal amounts of respect. Everyone eats, and lots of people love to eat, so all the work that goes into putting a plate of food out must be valued or it just can't be a sustainable system.

I also asked Tim a bit about his other edible endeavors, the one I had in mind being Shy Guy Gelato, a fairly recent addition to Burlington's food community. Tim was approached by a local named Paul who spent a few years in Italy learning how to make kickass gelato, and wanted to share his passion with other people. He said yes, and began to help Paul to start his business. This got Tim thinking about what he wanted to do next, and decided that he wanted to share his success and happiness (maybe with a bit of luck) from owning Stone Soup with other people who were looking to pursue their dreams in the food industry. He's now considering starting a small consulting business in order to help locals make a living doing what they love to do, with himself as an example. He made sure to tell me that it doesn't really matter how much money you're making, or rather, that if you're making over a certain yearly salary, it certainly doesn't increase your happiness if you're doing something that you could care less about.

At the end of our chat, I asked Tim the golden question; "what is your favorite place to eat in Burlington?" His answer was (drumroll, please)..... Trattoria Delia.

Here's the thing about Trattoria Delia... I've never eaten there! Blasphemy, I know. Practically criminal, I know, I know!!!! After talking to my poppa about how well things went with Tim, he promised to take me to eat there before I go speak with Thomas Delia. (Everyone who knows my dad should hold him to this promise.) So everyone keep your fingers crossed and I'll certainly keep you updated :)

That's all for now! Hope everyone enjoys (even if it is just my grandparents reading this)! If you're into this blog, I'd love for you to show it to other people who might be equally as into it, as well as letting me know what other kinds of stuff I should be doing/writing about/thinking about as I continue with this adventure.