Boloco is 29
Despite my best efforts to NOT celebrate any more anniversaries, Boloco carries on. Today marks 29 years since that first day of business in the bitter cold winter of 1997.
One beautiful restaurant remains. Downtown Boston. 50 Congress Street. A committed, generous, kind group of team members. And, thankfully, the business performs very well thanks to their efforts along with a fair landlord, suppliers who value our long term commitment to them through thick and thin, and a community that keeps coming back for more.
Many people I know well assume the story ended years ago because as leases came to an end (or were forfeited during Covid) it was a relentless series of closures. There's always surprise when I mention I'm heading to Boston to visit our last standing restaurant.
What keeps me engaged?
The passionate team members who want to be there, who have convinced me more than once to extend a long-ago expired lease even for short time frames.
The relentless goal to pay livable wages plus while maintaining healthy profit margins (last month, regular wages, overtime, profit sharing and tips of non-managerial hourly team members topped $26 per hour for the first time).
Using our restaurant as a Petri dish for innovative startup technology companies. In our latest investment, we carved out a healthy tranche on behalf of current and former team members who have contributed to my long-standing habit of being early, sometimes bleeding edge, adopters. It hasn't always been pretty, but in the off chance this one leads to success for the technology team, it will also include our restaurant workers. As it should.
I also love being in charge of store upgrades and installations. I insist on doing most of what I used to delegate myself these days. Not what my MBA professors instructed me to do, but it's how I enjoy spending time when I do get to visit.
29 years. Still here. Still grateful. 30 will be a stretch, but we've come this far, it's not unlikely (also not guaranteed) we squeeze another year out of this thing.
