We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joleen Green. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joleen below.
Hi Joleen, great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.
It was very hard for me to take the risk to open up a restaurant, which I’ve never done before. But my back was up against the wall, and I had no choice. I pulled up my big girl pants and took a risk that definitely paid off. Investing so much money into something that you don’t know will work or not is huge! We decided to open the business in November 2019 and in the middle of planning everything Covid happened. So that made it even more scary.
At that point in my life, my husband had just passed away, and I lost our insurance and our income and everything so I didn’t really have anything else to lose and I decided to take the risk.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Lucys On Lighthouse is a gourmet hotdog restaurant in the heart of Pacific Grove. We sell 17 creative culinary hot dogs (or build your own), loaded tater tots, homemade chili, homemade macaroni and cheese, fried brussels sprouts with a homemade balsamic reduction and a tangy slaw. As well as beer, wine, mermaid mimosas, and 14 flavors of Mariannes Ice Cream made in Santa Cruz.
We are very unique to our area. There’s nothing like it around us.
There’s not a lot of family friendly establishments around here that you could hang out. Parents can have a beer, the kids can I have an ice cream and listen to live music every weekend in the beer garden in the summer. We are also dog friendly. We love our furry friends coming to visit. it’s so nice to be able to have lunch or dinner with your dog friend.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I find that organization is the number one skill that set me above the rest. Before opening Lucys On Lighthouse, I had an professional organization and cleaning business for 18 years. This definitely helped me in the restaurant business as well. Making sure that you have everything stocked appropriately and organized. You can find things when needed and it saves you money in the long run.
If I had to pick two other skills that help me in my journey, the first would be being kind. I make sure to greet all my customers when they walk through that door so they feel like they’re at home when they’re eating here. It keeps on coming back. I also treat my employees with respect, and we always have a good time at work.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
Owning a restaurant can definitely be overwhelming. During Covid we scaled our business hours down to three days a week for two years. When we opened we were six days a week and that was just too much. In order to be successful, we had to be closed during the really, really slow days of the week. We got a lot of grief for that because people can understand how we can make it and just three days a week. But it really gave us the opportunity to grow slowly the way we needed to instead of collapsing and being in over our head.
I’m so proud of what we’ve built here. And the challenges that we had to face and over come in the beginning Really is a testament to what an amazing business we have built.
Contact Info:
- Website: Lucyspg.com
- Instagram: @Lucyspg
