We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amber Park. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amber below.
Amber , appreciate you joining us today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?
Wanderlust Delicato is a hybrid of businesses. We are a retail cheese & wine shop, we are a restaurant with small plates and beer & wine service, and we have a beautiful teaching kitchen where we host cooking classes. So staffing a place like this can be incredibly challenging. When we first opened I tried to find people who had experience/expertise in one or more of the facets of the business. This worked out okay but over the years I’ve learned to seek employees with potential to exceed in all facets. And I’ve also embraced hiring young people. Like 15-18 year olds that are eager to work and trainable. It’s amazing to help them come out of their shell and be an inspiration to young women who can see themselves owning their own business someday. Our local schools also offer “work credits” that can be applied to their overall school credits. So they are paid, gain school credits, and experience to take with them to college and beyond.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’ve been working in the food & beverage industry for 26 years! From serving, bartending, management, wine sales, to now being an owner. I love the service industry and the people in it and the community at large. I had always wanted my own wine shop/wine bar as that has been my main passion. But while working in wine sales, I couldn’t find a cheesemonger to buy great artisan cheese from to pair with my amazing wines. Seeing the need for this in our area, I decided it was time to build it myself. My obsession over atlases and maps growing up, and travel I came up with concept of Wanderlust Delicato, when I’m lucky enough to satisfy my own wanderlust, I want the delicacies of the place I am visiting. So in Emiglia Romano Italy, it’s all about Prosciutto de Parma, Sangiovese, and parmigiana reggiano. The space I fell in love with was too expensive and big for just cheese and wine, so I played the numbers and concepts and cooking classes was such a natural fit. So in addition to being a cut-to-order cheese and charcuterie shop, we have an extensive wine retail, wine club, and restaurant dining for small plates. And of course cooking classes in our beautiful residential style teaching kitchen.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Resilience should be my nickname. I was 16 years old when I had my first child. What could have been devastating it gave me fire to prove people wrong. By the time I was 19, I had 2 kids and a college degree. But the service industry was where I wanted to be. I worked my way up through the ranks and was a general manager by 26. And in 2019 I opened Wanderlust, to be hit with a global pandemic after just 6 months. With restrictions in place I lost 2/3 of my business and was left with the essential, retail. I leaned in hard and was determined not to lose what I built. I looked at it like another curve ball and another way be resilient.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Word of mouth and social media. I have made the word “community” foremost in my mind from day one. I foster relationships with my peers, customers, vendors, etc. I donate to causes close to me. I offer my space to high schools teaching at risk kids how to cook simple foods. I do small business pop-ups to help launch other new businesses. These things have organically produced the kind of faithful customers that are more than happy to share my business with anyone who will listen. I have a really beautiful space that is difficult to get a bad picture of so people love to tag on social media.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Wanderlustdelicato.com
- Instagram: @wanderlustdelicato
