Kim Alter: Control Is the Growth Strategy

**Josh Kopel** (0:00)
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Again, you can sign up for free today just by going to restaurantbusinessschool.com. I'll see you there. Now, here we go.

**Kim Alter** (0:54)
We've had 20 to 26 percent profit every year we've been open even during the pandemic. I keep pretty low cost even though I only use like sustainable small farms and use high-end products just because I can monitor it. We don't have even a walk-in, so I really wanted to be able to control my cost.

**Josh Kopel** (1:13)
Welcome to FULL COMP, a show offering insight into the hospitality industry. Featuring restauranteurs, thought leaders and innovators. Served up on the house.
What if the most successful restaurant you could open wasn't the biggest, the busiest, or the most celebrated? It was the one you can control. Kim Alter didn't build Nightbird to chase stars. She built it to survive and more importantly, to profit. In an industry obsessed with growth and recognition, she chose discipline, tight cost, small footprint, and total operational control. In today's conversation, we unpack how Kim turned a 20 seat restaurant into a high margin business, why she was willing to run unsustainably in the short term to build long term stability, and how consulting sharpened both her standards and her boundaries. This is for every operator ready to stop chasing validation and start building something that lacks.

**Kim Alter** (2:17)
I've been working in a restaurant since I was in high school. So I guess that's where the path started. And I think I was going to want to be a doctor, was an AP, all the things. And then kind of got in the punk rock scene and really loved the restaurant lifestyle. And it just continued and the whole creativity of it and being able to understand the business and the numbers, plus be able to be creative and travel. I don't know, it seemed really enticing.
And moved to San Francisco at 18 and then just started working at places like Ocarello and Massa's and moved to Chicago for a minute. But one winter came right back to California, but was excited to see something different outside of California cuisine. And then I was kind of lucky enough to work at Manresa and Ubuntu and just changed my approach to sustainability and working in farms. So I worked on some farms and waited tables, was a captain and tried to explore everything since I didn't go to college and really understand every part of this business and then worked for the Pearson Group for five years running restaurants and then was able to open up Nightbird, which then morphed into Early Bird Hospitality. We're probably consulting on 20 restaurants right now, plus we have Linden Room, our bar and an extension of Nightbird, which is Night and Go.

**Josh Kopel** (3:32)
What I'm most interested in is the business of restaurants.
And I think that primarily the reason that that's the case is because great restaurants go out of business every single day. You know, like you worked with Jeremy Fox, and he just decided to shutter one of his concepts. David Kinch, right, is another great example of someone that did it for a really long time and then decided to go a different direction. What did you learn about the business of restaurants that you think most independents miss?

**Kim Alter** (4:01)
Well, I think that I took tidbits of everything that I learned from everywhere I've ever worked, especially in management roles and kind of learned how I didn't want to do things, but then also obviously how I wanted to do things. I was able to apply that to my restaurant.
Well I think a lot of people are chasing stars and chasing accolades, which trust me, we definitely want those things and we're excited to get a lot of validation throughout us being open. But in the end, I was running a business. I wanted to be an approachable restaurant. I wanted to be able to pay my staff to be able to offer things that other small businesses can offer and make it an enticing place to work. And I was able to do that through, I mean, kind of running an unsustainably in the beginning, like I didn't have a sous chef, I didn't have a pastry chef, I did all those things. I opened and closed the restaurant and then I work on my consulting business like on the line while I'm working a station, just kind of a little bit unsustainably. But then once I was able to get that team, it ran like a machine and I was able to be creative, go to the market, watch my food cost, be sustainable and offer things that larger companies offer their staff, even though I'm a small mom and I'm a little bit of a pop shop in the end.