We were lucky to catch up with Amanda Adam recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Amanda , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

I’m an author, and wanted a cafe and restaurant with a literary theme and a British flair. My husband and I agreed on Bear & Dragon! My daughter Bridget was nicknamed little bear before she was born and it stuck. My son’s name, Drake, means dragon. So the name provides for strong branding and has meaning behind it! Guests will dine amongst stacks of books, traditional cottage decor, and a name they won’t forget.

Amanda , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My husband and I opened our food truck after moving back to my hometown with the aim of creating a path towards a brick and mortar location in the future, and here we are! We quickly became popular for our coffee and paninis, and our stickers started showing up all over town. Now here we are, about to open a brick and mortar location!

Prescott, Arizona is my hometown, but after high school and college I went abroad and lived and worked, and then lived in California on my sailboat for a while before moving to Los Angeles and attempting to get into screenwriting. I wrote a book adaptation for a NY Times bestselling author, and a couple others, but worked mainly in hospitality to pay the bills. I was recruited to back office for restaurants as well and so I have wide experience in hospitality for around 20 years, accumulatively. Bartending, floor managing, operations management, HR, bookkeeping, and special events – all within the restaurant industry. I worked closely alongside a few super successful restaurant owners, opening new locations and handling their needs to get things up and running, and I learned a ton along the way. I always grew my role and worked hard! I love the creativity that goes into hospitality: it is all about creating an experience. I’ve eaten in restaurants all over the world as I used to travel a ton in my 20’s and 30’s, and it’s fun to have a worldly understanding of the industry! Restaurants are hard work, but a lot of fun if you do it right and know what you’re doing! Creating the experience for guests that bring them back time and time again is an art. The details and desire to serve them and make it a great dining experience every time is something I truly enjoy doing. I also believe strongly in employee retention and morale, because it shows up at the table and in your food! Creating an environment that’s good for employees translates to a great experience for our guests, too.

My husband is a former Marine and has worked for many years for the government, but his passion is in design! He used to have a wood shop and built furniture; he’s collected and sold fine art; he’s gutted and remodeled and sold our former home; and has quite a book collection regarding interior design. He’s our interior designer on the restaurant! Hence we have a lot of custom design and furniture inside our new brick and mortar location that will give our guests that old world charm and cottage feel.

Our Chef, Ryan Turk, was an amazingly serendipitous find! His background and resume showed talent and promise for a strong backbone to what we are doing – and the menu he’s built for our upcoming dinner service is so exciting. We have had test kitchen nights that have blown us all away. He’s not playing around when it comes to flavor and dishes prepared to perfection. I don’t always love shrimp and grits – but his southwest take on this dish had me mopping up the sauce with a spoon. My Louisiana born and raised husband was almost emotional about how good it was! We are thrilled to have him and excited to unveil to our awesome community soon what we have in store!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Great product doesn’t get far without great friendly service. Reviews are usually written when a customer was delighted by their customer service. I truly enjoy my customers and talking with them while I’m preparing their coffee or sandwich. I care about their experience but I also care about them! It doesn’t hurt that I’m in my hometown either, as knowing people helps spread the word. I also have learned the power of social media and posting frequently! It’s a great way to help build your brand.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We paid out of pocket to start our food truck, always with the aim to pave the way to brick and mortar! We were told early on about the SBDC – and my sister told me they were having a state wide Moonshot Pioneer Pitch competition. After not being open for a year, we went and got third place regionally for our brick and mortar concept! We worked with our local SBDC thereafter and we are so glad we did. They were so empowering! They had our backs through the process of getting a loan. We cannot recommend working with your local SBDC more highly!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beardragon.cafe
• Instagram: Bear.And.Dragon
• Facebook: BearAndDragon
• Yelp: Bear & Dragon

Image Credits
Jess Phillips Photography (Prescott, AZ)