Dale and Candi’s Cedar Lodge Restaurant

I’m currently driving the US in an Airstream Interstate Sprinter Van, while maintaining my normal work duties. I’m doing it to reconnect with what I’m most passionate about; business and writing. COVID was proof to me that I could work successfully from anywhere. Besides, I needed a change in perspective and I was feeling stagnant. As I’m out driving, I’ve come across the worst in business, and I’ve seen some of the best.

While visiting my siblings, they suggested we all eat at Dale and Candi’s Cedar Lodge Restaurant, in Calumetville, Wisconsin. Where is that? It’s in an incorporated town that probably has less than 50 residents.

If you just look up Cedar Lodge Restaurant, the place has A Google rating of 4.7 with 492 reviews, as of this writing. Just for sport, Canlis, one of the most exclusive and expensive restaurants in Seattle, has a 4.7 rating with 1,749 reviews. Dale and Candi do this all out in the middle of nowhere. The closest city, Fond Du Lac, WI is 21 minutes to the south. We drove an hour each way, just for dinner.

The food was very good and the place was packed with people on a Friday night. My brother said it’s like that all the time. I was sitting there thinking about how this place survives that far from a population center, and doesn’t just exist, but is filled to capacity on any given night. I noticed a few things that stood out immediately. First, the wait staff was some of the best I’ve met. Not just personable, but also keenly aware of everything going on around them. The reviews called it, “efficient.” They weren’t just working their table, they worked every table and would grab an empty plate, even if it wasn’t in their section.

In spite of our reservation, we still had a wait, but that too wasn’t a problem as we found space out on the deck for drinks, where they took our order before seating and serving us. The entire process was slick and satisfying and the outstanding in every way. It was clear that people were well trained in customer service and the whole thing ran like clockwork. I was as captivated by the orchestration of a busy restaurant as I was the banter with my siblings. Their success didn’t happen overnight either. The place opened in 1988, so I’m walking in 33 years later, for the first time. I’m seeing the results of years of practice.

What made the biggest impression on me was the obvious commitment to be better. That was the core reason for their success. The comparative cost to just be okay is only slightly cheaper, but a lot less work. That’s the point! Excellence takes work, and it takes commitment, and it takes continuous improvement, and it takes time. Dale and Candi obviously knew their business inside out, and they understood their customers. Imagine the work it took to draw people from an hour away every night for dinner. Yet, here it is, working marvelously.

That’s the point! The odds of success at such a remote location are very low. However, if you do it right, and make the commitment, amazing things will happen, especially when you earn thousands of fans over the years.

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