Interview with Brent Walker, proprietor
Q: How did you get involved in this business?
A: We purchased the building in January and renovated the space to a restaurant in October.
Q: What distinguishes you from other businesses in your category?
A: Parker Garage is extremely dedicated to foraging the Colorado market in search of unique local products to incorporate into our daily and weekly menus. Our chef Duy Pham is a well-known, respected chef and a trendsetter with masterful approach to blending flavors and creating memorable dishes. Our commitment to the ranch menu and frequently changing featured items allows us to constantly tantalize our guests as the seasons change and the creative juices in the kitchen flow.
Q: What do you like best about your line of work?
A: We love the daily variety of challenges that the restaurant business throws at our team. We are a very experience-based restaurant, and being so new we have learned a lot about our guests and ourselves. The greatest part about the restaurant business is that there are never two days the same. The guests change every day and we challenge ourselves to provide them with as much variety as possible and get to know them on a personal level.
Q: What is your business’ biggest challenge?
A: The biggest challenge for most restaurants is turnover of employees and training costs. Being a start-up, we have been very pleased with the level of commitment and talent that has expressed interest in our business. We look forward to watching them grow and feel that we have a special team here to build a successful business around.
Q: Something people might be surprised to learn about you or your business:
A: The ultimate goal of a business like ours is sustainability and longevity, and our planning and strategy to accomplish these goals makes it very conservation oriented. Since every penny in this business counts, we monitor all the costs on a 15-minute sales basis. To reach our goal of paying off the enormous investment in the building and the production of the menu, we budget to only make five cents on every dollar a customer spends. The rest of that dollar is spent running the business. Labor and cost of goods are extremely high when you produce a menu from scratch every day, so that is a big commitment and it translates to an amazing finished product that we are so proud to put in front of our guests.
Profile
Business: Parker Garage
Address: 19420 E. Mainstreet, Parker
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday
Founded: 2014
Contact:720-389-8105,
Employees: 40
