We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rick Beyer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rick, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I would like my legacy to be that I loved my family. I was someone who always gave people the benefit of the doubt and treated them with respect. That I respected people for who they were as people not how they dressed or the car they drove. That I cared about people and their well-being. That I understood the importance of my employees in relationship to the success of my business. That I showed up everyday be and did the best I could.

Rick, 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?

In a nut shell, I grew up in the business as my family owned a Bar & Restaurant & Hotel; for 60 years. I was too young to work in that business and it sold before I became of age. I began working in the restaurant industry at age 15 as a cook. Worked into management while still in high school. Married and started a family at 21, Bought my current restaurant business at 24, built my first home on the Lake at 31 , By the age of 38 I began building a Convenience store/ gas station / Taco Bell on the property next to my restaurant. To date I have owned & operated my restaurant 38 years and operated the Convenience center for 20 years. I have since sold the store and continue with the restaurant. I have been apart of several community organizations and spurred the formation of a local First Responders Group. So much of my businesses success is due to great people working for me. People that care and have pride of ownership in their job. My menu is best described as Comfort food, Roast beef, Chicken, Fish, mashed potatoes & gravy, Breakfasts with crispy hash browns, blueberry pancakes and much more. We joke around here, ” If you want to eat health food, Eat at home” LOL. What you can expect from A-Pine Restaurant is Consistent hours, Friendly & Courteous service and quality food in a clean & comfortable environment. We are located on a major highway surrounded by 2 county roads. Excellent traffic and access. I have faced several challenges as you could imagine over all these years including a Highway expansion project that I was involved with for over 20 years from the early planning stages to completion. Stressful and a huge learning curve dealing with different government agencies. Then the Co-vid Challenge. My thoughts, Some say Co-Vid changed everything, I say Co-vid only changes things if you allow it to change you. The effects are supply chain related and are slowly getting back to previous levels. Persistence ,Positive attitude and perseverance.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media, I partnered with a social media company to handle all platforms. Consistent information on all platforms is very important. I found through my own research that a majority of restaurants social media was not up to date, old information that told me they were not paying attention. As social media grew it was important to me that content be fresh and new information needed to be communicated through postings daily so that your audience would be compelled to pay attention. as far as reviews go, reviews are personal to me and anything negative hurts me personally. My social media company handles all the reviews with personal and positive responses. I conference call with them quarterly to set up up coming events & holidays.

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

I initially leased my business with a portion of the lease to be applied towards a down payment should I decide to purchase it., My Mom co-signed a loan for me to purchase the inventory to get started. When I decided to buy, my landlord sold it to me on Contract for Deed. I started out with only enough money to pay my first months rent for the business and it came with a mobile home to live in. . I was 24, broke, married with a 3 year old and my wife was expecting our 2nd child with no health ins. I never heard a negative word but looking back I can imagine not to many people gave us much of a chance.

Contact Info:

• Website: apinerestaurant.com
• Facebook: A-Pine Restaurant