Mike Raymer is a raconteur as well as a restaurateur and he loves to tell the small tales related to his journey and what he describes as "the bumps we sometime experience as we ride the culinary magic carpet!"
Raymer tells us that he was working in a New York City office just a short block from Rockefeller Center. One day he leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling, staring for a moment to let his mind wander. An expansive personality, one with the spirit of an entrepreneur, Mike was constrained by his buttoned-up life. He was thinking of wide open kitchens and white chef jackets. A doer, not a dreamer, Mike acted decisively when he discovered that he could buy Navajo Grill in Fredericksburg. He knew he was reaching outside his boundaries, "almost too far at first," but he persevered and now has prevailed.
"Ignorance was never more blissful than thinking you could cook a little in a white jacket, shake off the kitchen heat and walk the floor with a glass of wine and bow to the expected applause," says Raymer referring to his early days as a restaurateur. "It has been a humbling experience to say the least, and one I would not have missed for the world."
The former owner cared about the restaurant and "put me through a 90 day Boot Camp to see if I was game enough as well as talented enough to pull this off, before he would sell me the restaurant."
After the ninety-day trial period, the deal was made and Raymer had made the transition. He was following a dream, but without a restaurant background he had a few surprises. First of all was the fact that 16 hour work days that "began in the dark and ended in the dark" were considered standard operating procedure, and what he thought "had an air of glamour and sophistication quickly began to look and feel like back breaking, knuckle busting, in your face work! I have washed a lot of dishes." But he was bringing two things with him - organizational skills along with the all-important concern for his customers.
One of Raymer's beliefs is in quality. He is so insistent on using quality organic ingredients that when he heard of an organic farm for sale, he sold a house and bought a trailer which he parked near the farm. "We have rosemary, tomatoes, lettuce, even organic cactuses," he states, then adds that his goal is to start a cooperative.
Raymer has had three opportunities to create a second Navajo Grill, one in San Antonio, one in Boston, one in Dallas. Each time he said no, preferring to not spread himself thin. "I'm not in it for the money. I'd rather do this well."
Proof that he is succeeding is that his servers stay at Navajo Grill without rapid turnover. "They are family," says Mike.
We guess that Mike values family. His daughter is getting married. Don't try to eat at Navajo Grill that day. The restaurant will be closed.
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