Great meals start with fresh ingredients. Joe T. Garcia knows this well so it coddles suppliers to guarantee that if there is only one tomato in all of Forth Worth, Texas, they will get it.
Though the restaurant is not open for breakfast, this place has a crowded breakfast table. Family members and suppliers commingle readily during the breakfast hour. Friendships are developed, and the family grows.
Is there any way to carry the Joe T.'s model over to your own business? Of course. There are many businesses that we have studied that host breakfasts and lunches for their customers, suppliers and employees on a regular basis. At Opici Wine Group, the founders have eaten dinner with a customer every week for sixty years. Opici hosts parties for suppliers to introduce them to the customers. Business is not cut and dried. It is so much about feelings, especially when you are working to build something that will out live you.
