We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Haley Berry a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Haley, thanks for joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
I own a beautiful little spot called Fog Eater Cafe in the coastal town of Mendocino. We serve vegan southern food made from local produce and wild food. People swear by the seasonally changing pie and our creative list of low abv cocktails.
It is a dream to have my own spot that I run with my best friend, but my knees are starting to hurt, the bursitis in my hip needs regular injections, and I am frequently scrambling to make sure I can get off to attend my daughter’s dance recitals or school functions. Being a restaurant owner in your late 30’s is rough. Our cafe is small, and though very successful, the current model requires that my business partner and I work almost all of the floor shifts.
The stresses of owning your own business can cause many a dark moment. Slow months, unexpected expenses, wild fires, and pandemics have all caused me at one point or another to melt over my computer and groan “why the hell am I doing this?”
But I wouldn’t actually want to do anything else. Even with the increasing aches and pains and bi-polar nature of working in a seasonal tourist town, I absolutely love what I do. I get to listen to whatever music I like with the most interesting , hardworking folks who make me nearly pee my pants laughing, while also slinging wine and food that I am genuinely proud of. I love our guests (I know it sounds like empty, cheesy filler but I really do.)
Sometimes I image what it would be like to work for someone else…the security of knowing what my paycheck would be… being able to check out when I’m off the clock… there are benefits. But being your own boss and building your own little world brings me so much joy and fulfillment I think I’ll continue to happily serve people food and drink I love.
Haley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I grew up in the rugged, rural, Mendocino County. It is dead empty in the winter and packed to the gills in the summer and on holidays. As a precocious young girl, I knew I wanted to eventually settle back on the quiet coast, but first I had to explore.
I moved to New York City where I met Erica while working at Babycakes in the Lower East Side. Her combination of crazed attention to detail and lust for hard work mixed with a painfully dark sense of humor instantly drew me to her. We soon became the fastest cupcake frosters and most dedicated Babycakes girls to ever pop on the pink uniform. She was a serious worker, but also knew how to have fun. Work was always filled with inside jokes and often teary-eyed fits of giggles. We quickly became inseparable friends. Our 20’s took us away from NYC and we both happened to relocate to New Orleans. During my short stint there, I became trained to work behind the bar. This is really where my current career started to take shape.
Next up, I moved to San Francisco to be closer to home (Fort Bragg is about 3.5 hours north of the city.) There I was able to really cut my teeth as a fancy pants bartender and learn from some truly inspiring mentors. Erica came to visit, and I naturally took her up north to see my hometown. She was stunned. The wild expanse of the sea completely captivated her and we started making plans to move to Mendocino and start a cafe.
Erica is a long time vegan, and though I am very much a carnivore, there are few cooks I have been more moved by, Her food is soulful without being too decadent, adventurous without being too “tweasery” and always perfectly seasoned. Even though a vegan spot in a very small market is incredibly risky, I had enough faith in her ability to make perfect food and my front of house skills to start laying the ground work.
We started out hosting a series of pop ups at local farms. We started with a set of 20 mismatched china sets put together from the thrift stores, and started making our 4 course meals featuring the local farms of Mendocino. They were a massive success, selling out within hours. With each dinner, we bought more of our opening supplies, gathered more people for our mailing list, and perfected recipes that would be on our opening menu.
In 2019, after a year of pop-up dinners, we found our home: a little ginger bread looking redwood building in the center of Mendocino Village. Our compound now includes the Fog Bottle Shop and Wine Bar on the same piece of property and we are delighted to be selling our newly released cookbook at both spaces.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Our initial capital came from pop up dinners, a Hebrew Free Loan, personal savings, and a small KickStarter. It is hilarious to think of how little we raised back then since in only six and a half years prices have gone up so much!
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
There have been so many moments where things got sticky. The worst moment was in March 2020, watching the bank account dip to only $2k. I knew that even if we did reopen, I wouldn’t be able to pay the vendors for the food to stay open. We were in debt and had just started. Thankfully we received the 10k disaster relief grant and it allowed for us to reopen during the pandemic operating on take out and outside dining. We ended up having one of our busiest years on record.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fogeatercafe.com
- Instagram: fogeatercafe
Image Credits
Lucille Lawrence