Have a seat inside O-Ku and take in the soft seating, the artwork, the uniforms, the incredible attention to detail. The staff looks you in the eye, knows the menu well and offers knowledgeable suggestions. It is one of those restaurants that’s full of intangibles, the kind that practically guarantee a desire to return.
Opening a restaurant like O-Ku is an expensive proposition, and I’ve helped a lot of restaurants figure out where they’re losing money. The key ingredient in hospitality must be profit because that allows businesses to grow, to hire, to effect repairs, give bonuses, allow for vacations and so on. With that in mind, I recently asked Steve Palmer of Indigo Road Hospitality, which operates Indaco and O-Ku in downtown Greenville, if he has a golden rule for a successful entrepreneur who wants to open a restaurant.
“Don’t. This is an incredibly hard way to make money and requires a high level of skill and competency,” Palmer said. “There are so many moving parts to a successful restaurant and if the staff’s paychecks don’t clear, no one wins. The restaurant business can be a license to lose a lot of money if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s something done best when people have been successful chefs or general managers that have earned their scars along the way and know how to manage those pennies.”
Palmer moved to Charleston in the late 1980s and worked his way up in hospitality as a dishwasher, busser, bartender and waiter. It was at the restaurant Magnolias where the fire was lit, and he realized people love to eat out not necessarily for a meal, but rather for an experience. Soon he was planning his own restaurant, yet he knew success is never guaranteed; it has to be carefully cultivated.
“Staff turnover can kill a hospitality business, and many operators don’t understand the price tag that hangs on the hiring process,” Palmer said. “Our employee-referral program is crucial to our success, and we show our team members how they can climb that company ladder. We believe in promoting from within and that stability and culture is defined by our internal hospitality. We believe that for our guests to have a hospitable experience, our team must have an internal hospitable experience. Culture has to start with a great working environment. It’s how we manage, how we address one another, how we treat one another, and that encompasses the entire work experience and it’s been one of our driving principles.”
“O-Ku” as a Japanese concept refers to the impression of a given space in which what is distant is perceived as closer, and perception unifies the interior and exterior, which sounds fitting given the sense of a unified staff all working together to unify the customer’s experience.
O-Ku, at 30 W. Broad St., serves dinner nightly.
“City Juice” is a colloquial term for a glass of tap water served at a diner. John Malik is a culinary adviser and broker with National Restaurant Properties. He can be reached at chefjohnmalik@gmail.com.
