We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mitchell Wideman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mitchell below.
Mitchell, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?
The biggest challenges to profitability in our industry is food and labor cost. Food cost change real time everyday while your menu cost really cant without detriment to the customer. You always have to be analyzing your menu its a constant balancing act of maintaining quality food that is profitable and affordable to your customers. Labor is challenging because everything affects how busy any given day might be. We do our best to forecast our labor based off the past year of business however anything from bad weather to a large wedding in our small town can affect how many customers we get so you and your employees have to be flexible and mindful of labor cost at all times.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Hello My name is Mitchell Wideman. My business partner Drake Bequette and I started this idea in 2019. We were born and raised in Stanton, Missouri. About an hour outside of St. louis about five miles away from where our business Muddy Banks Brewing Co. currently stands. Drake and I are childhood friends we graduated from Sullivan Highschool in 2012 and both joined active duty service. I spent four years in the U.S. Navy doing two years at the Ceremonial Guard in Washington, D.C. and two years stationed aboard USS Lassen an Arleigh Burke class destroyer. Drake joined the marines as a combat engineer and quickly became a member of Marine Corp Special operations Command where he is currently on his 13th year of active duty service. in 2015 Drake married Makayla and they currently have 3 beautiful children together. While in the Marines drake started homebrewing which was the spark that ignited the idea of Muddy Banks. He got me into homebrewing and together across multiple states and sometimes oceans we created the beer recipes that we currently serve in our taproom today and laid the ground work for the business and brand. His wife Makayla quickly became a main force in making the brewery a reality. After 3 years of planning we started construction and Apr 9 2022 we opened our doors to the public.
The brand Muddy banks represents the people it serves. We are proud Missourians and have a deep connection to the abundant rivers and creeks that riddle the Ozarks. In our logo you will see a Missouri Mule atop a canoe. The mule is Missouris state animal. It represents the hearty nature of the folks around here. The canoe represents our connection to the water. We wanted to give the people of our town a place that they could call theirs. In our Spacious taproom and extensive outdoor patio we provided over 30 rotating craft beers and cocktails all brewed right here in Sullivan or around the area by another local brewery. We also provide a full menu of burgers made with local grown beef, smoked meat sandwiches, hand cut fries and various other home made items. We also provide live music every weekend throughout the year.
I want folks who have never been here before or are thinking about trying us out to know that we take the utmost pride and care in everything from crafting beers and burgers to providing our guest with a great relaxing experience with friends and family.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I believe anyone who has started a business or plans to must show resilience everyday. Especially throughout the planning process. There will be so many reason to quit and to give up. Once the business starts you dont have a choice you must be resilient to every challenge thrown at you. Sometimes they are big challenges that could affect the business in a big way sometimes you may need to show resilience towards your own self doubt. Whatever that may be whenever you take on the role of a business owner it becomes much bigger than just yourself. Your resilience is what inspires your people. Be resilient everyday.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
By popular demand and in hopes of generating more revenue we started Serving breakfast. Everyone loved it and it was very well received. Everything was going great until we noticed our lunch and dinner services suffering. As a brewery first that is our bread and butter that is where we have the most potential for alcohol sales which is our best margins. Myself and my people were just spread to thin and Against many of our customers wishes we had to stop serving breakfast to re focus on what got us to where we are.
Contact Info:
- Website: muddybanksbrewery.com
- Instagram: Muddybanksbrewing
- Facebook: Muddy Banks Brewing
Image Credits
Alex Covert