Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Town.
Hi Brooke, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My husband, Jacob Town and I met at The Cracked Crab restaurant in Pismo Beach in 1999. We moved to San Francisco for school and life experience in 2001 and worked at a variety of restaurants over the following 12 years. Institutions such as Rubicon, Gary Danko, Spruce, Nopa, Nopalito and RN74 provided a learning platform for both of us.
We decided to move back to San Luis Obispo County in 2014. We traveled around the country in a 1966 VW Microbus for several months before actively seeking a restaurant space. In the summer of 2015, we opened our first restaurant in Grover Beach, The Spoon Trade. With the demand for our in-house sourdough increasing, we decided to open a bakery in the spring of 2018. Now, both operate on the west end of Grand Avenue, right across the street from each other.
We strive to provide excellent experiences using quality ingredients and attention to detail. We’ve been voted “best south coast restaurant” by our locals several years in a row. With this, Grover Beach continues to grow with the times allowing for a variety of visitors to pass through. As the area becomes more populated, Grover aka “the Brooklynn of the five cites” becomes a more inclusive and diverse place to live and visit. We look forward to this growth and the new friends it will bring our way.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Our location is the most challenging detail. We are about a mile away from the town of Pismo Beach, which gets all the action during busy months, leaving Grover overlooked.
Obviously, COVID was an extreme challenge, as we had to pay rent on space that we were not using in the same way. We got creative and integrated a variety of pivots to sustain both businesses during this CRAZY time. We lost regulars that didn’t agree with how we handled the situation and gained new loyal followers that just wanted to see us survive. We did!
The endless challenges of owning a small business still exist: mother nature (the weather), staffing, payroll taxes, credit card fees, utilities, food costs, education, creativity, motivation and consistency.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are known for serving American comfort food with a twist. For example, our biggest seller, Fried Chicken, is drizzled with honey and a side of kimchi. We grind our own bologna and make our own American cheese… we serve Ramen, Ratatouille, Tartare and local line caught fish. We have a 115 bottle wine list with several vermouth and sherry cocktails, along with an eclectic selection of beers.
I specialize service, hospitality & beverage direction, while my husband leads in cooking, recipes and kitchen skills.
We have extensive experience in these departments, but sometimes we MUST adapt our expectations to the skill set of our staff. As they become confident with certain tasks, we set the stage to learn more and teach more along the way.
This is a never-ending cycle.
Overall, we provide the whole package to our guests. We practice fine service and hospitality while offering quality ingredients that are locally and thoughtfully sourced. Our restaurant is casual but has a personality that welcomes all types of diners through the front door. We take pride in our community and the people willing to live, work and eat here.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
We worked for some of the top restaurants in SF, including several Michelin rated programs. Despite thriving in SF, we grew up in the area of SLO county attending grade school through community college.
My husband was born in Santa Maria and my family came to California in 1986.
We have several hundred spoons hanging in our entryway to remind people how special this tool is to us.
We won business of the year from our local chamber in 2021 and just recieved our second Wine Spectator award for our humble wine program.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thespoontrade.com
- Instagram: the_spoon_trade
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thespoontrade/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-spoon-trade-grover-beach?sort_by=date_desc
Image Credits
Most images are taken by Jennifer Olsen. The (one) image of fried chicken and waffle is taken by Rebekah Venturini.
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