Following trends, not fads, separates Big Burrito Restaurant Group
Oh, how Pittsburgh's food scene has changed since Bill Fuller arrived 20 years ago.
Fuller, 47, is the corporate chef at Big Burrito Restaurant Group, which owns and operates the Mad Mex restaurant chain and trendy establishments such as Casbah, Soba, Umi, Eleven and Kaya.
The Falls Creek, Pa., native returned to Western Pennsylvania in 1995 after spending several years in California's Bay Area. It was a time when wine bars were scarce in Pittsburgh and Market Square was a place to be avoided in the evening rather than have a nice meal.
The city's culinary offerings have become more plentiful and sophisticated since, which some credit to the influence of Big Burrito and its alumni.
Fuller, of Morningside, spoke with the Tribune-Review about changing tastes in Pittsburgh and challenges of staying ahead of trends. Below is an edited transcript.
Trib: What has changed since you came on board at Big Burrito?
Bill Fuller: So many things. One of the things that's changed is the availability of better products from locally grown foods, to cheeses, to fresh fish, to meat. The quality of the supply chain in Pittsburgh in the past 20 years is a million times better. That's due, of course, to there being more demand and more restaurants.
Trib: What do you think is more important: Giving people great cutting edge food or great service?
Fuller: I think people will come back for good food if a service is medium. I don't think they'll come back for bad food if the service is great. But they will put up with mediocre food if the service is really good or mediocre service if the food is really good always. But if it's just crappy food, no amount of service makes crappy food better.
Trib: Popular tastes can be pretty fickle. Given that food trends change so quickly, and you're faced with a lot more competitors in this market now, how have you guys tried to remain ahead of the curve?
Fuller: You can't win on every trend. What we do, is we watch what happens in food and try to decipher what's a trend and what's a fad. If it's a trend, we pay attention, and we adapt to the trend. Whereas if it's a fad, we kind of let it blow by. But the most important thing, more than trends is always being dedicated to look at the operation we do. The food we make. The products that we buy. Our service, our drinks. Everything we do and just keep trying to make it better. If our customers want to drink Cabernets, we find a nice big Cabernet that's delicious, that's a good price and we serve them that. We don't say, ‘We don't want to serve you Cabernet because we think it's boring and it's last year.' But if we also have a lovely Merlot or interesting Italian wine, (we'll) say, ‘hey, I'm glad you like that Cabernet, but we found this really good wine right here that's not so different in price and delicious, why don't you try it out?' So it's less about chasing the fad, it's about understanding the trends and it's just about looking at what we do and trying to do it well all of the time.
Trib: Where would you say you've made the biggest mistakes?
Fuller: There are times in the past we're we've made the mistake of trying to chase the fads and trends, and sort of just ending up running after our tails, then realized every fad isn't important. Another place we made mistakes as well is, one of our strengths is that we're really loyal to the people that work for us. We do a lot of giving people a second chance, a third chance, trying to work with employees of ours that have some problems that they're going through. Sometimes, we have situations where we should just walk away or let it go. Most recently I had a manager who was doing a good job but didn't think he was doing a good job. He had a low self-esteem and tried to quit, he tried to resign, and I tried to talk to him. And he ended up quitting anyhow, and he quit with short notice. So, I should have just let him work a notice out the first time around.
Trib: If not in your own restaurants, where do you like to eat around town?
Fuller: I like to go to Chengdu Gourmet in Squirrel Hill. It's delicious Szechuan food. That's my current favorite.
Trib: Any favorite dish?
Fuller: There's this chicken dish that's ridiculous. I eat it and I can't stop putting it in my mouth. My kids yell at me, Dad, stop eating it. You're sweating and I can't stop eating it. It's ridiculous. Chongqing-style chicken. It's like they dice chicken really small, dust it with some sort of flour and then deep fry it. It's like half chicken and half of it dry red chili that's so ridiculously hot. Then they toss it in this light sauce that has Szechuan peppercorns which kind of makes your mouth numb. It's just addictive, and that dish, I just shove it in my mouth until I can't function anymore. My kids think I'm a mess.
Chris Fleisher is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7854 or cfleisher@tribweb.com.
