We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mairead Buschtetz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mairead below.
Mairead, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Finding those key vendors can often be make or break for a brand. Can you talk to us about how you found your key vendors?
I had been trying to get into the wholesale business for seven or eight years. I always presented our food to fellow restaurateurs, and I always had successful meetings. However, I never managed to sign up a customer. In January of 2024, I decided to go about things differently and instead of me (the manufacturer) trying to find customers, I decided to find distributors whose job would be to find customers, instead.
I contacted our distributors and had them taste our food and two of the biggest distributors in Arizona, said yes!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
I am Irish, born & raised. I left home at 18 to study in Paris. I met a young French Chef two years later, and we opened our first restaurant together the same year!
Both my husband & I believe in using only the best ingredients. We do not like processed foods; we make our food from scratch. Our way is often very labor-intensive; however, we believe profoundly that you can taste the difference. We have a fine-dining French steakhouse in Chandler since 2016. We are family-owned and operated.
We opened a French artisanal bakery in Chandler in 2024. We apply the very same rules to this business. We import French butter and chocolate and Italian pistachios to make our pastries. My husband and I form a very good team; he is the super-talented Chef, with fantastic taste buds. I am the disciplined person in the office, who looks after the development, payroll, accounts, and everything a day in the restaurant business can bring ;) We are very hands-on; we do the deliveries ourselves, we replace any missing employees, we are always available, even when we are in a different timezone or someone misses their alarm at 4am. We have many French customers who find the taste of our food even better than in France!
Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?
Since we immigrated to the USA in 2013, we have bought or opened 7 businesses, 6 of which were restaurants. We choose to live these adventures because we are ambitious and because we want to have the maximum amount of people discovering our wonderful food. Nowadays restaurateurs do not choose the labor-intensive way of making food, however it is the best way and also the healthiest way. Up until now, American banks have never financed us, as we were only Visa or Green Card holders, so we have always had to use personal funds.
We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.
Since 2013 we have sold three businesses. Business owners must realize that it is one thing to find a buyer and then your landlord has to accept the new business to replace yours, however you are still responsible for your lease until the end. Out of the three businesses that we sold, two of the new owners eventually ran into financial difficulties. One of them lost his business and we like him, received registered letters every month, when he wasn’t able to meet the rent. It is a very scary situation, because if they ever can’t pay, you are responsible for rent until the end of the lease.
Contact Info:
- Website: quichesandpies.com ; cuisineandwinebistro.com
- Instagram: quichesandpiesaz cuisineandwinebistro
- Facebook: Quiches & Pies Cuisine & Wine Bistro
Image Credits
Laura Buschtetz