The Crescent Cafe is in the heart of the Willamette Valley (Oregon wine country) in McMinnville, OR. It is the cutest little cafe with the best breakfast/brunch/lunch in the area — think elevated, country diner — the place you want to bring your parents or out-of-town friends when come to visit, mainly so you have another excuse to eat this week’s pancake special.

I have been working with the restaurant’s owner, Nora Lamb on business operations for the past three years. In the beginning our work was foundational:

Gain a deeper understanding financial elements as it pertains specifically to the Cafe.
Use those insights to develop specific growth goals and create a 1, 5, and 10 year strategic plan — more specifically to successfully move out of the pandemic’s lockdown or limited seating and into full capacity
Simplify and prioritize marketing efforts so they could exist with relatively little oversight or effort.
Streamline as many business operational processes as possible in order to continue gaining insights without “working harder” week after week.

From these beginning efforts, we began to see tremendous results:

DOUBLING REVENUE over the course of 18 months.
Largest annual profit in business’ 16 year history!
Easy and quick ability to accurately forecast revenue, margins, and profits for the week, month, and year.
Maintain a consistent staff through out the year (unheard of in the restaurant industry).
A new found confidence and strength in understanding all aspects of the business.
A shift from surviving the day-to-day to thriving and stepping into being seen as a staple in the McMinnville community.

Over the last six months, we have worked together to go beyond the foundational elements and into the next phase of growth for her business. One of the most challenging pieces of this was planning around something that was far outside of our control: the opening of the lease to the space directly behind the current restaurant’s footprint. And because we didn’t know if expansion was going to be an option, we made potential strategic growth plans for 3 different possibilities. We also laid out a rough, estimated schedule for what would need to happen IF the lease was able to be taken over.

Thankfully all that preemptive work paid off because things went from 0 to 60 FAST. The notification of being able to take over the lease came up with very little notice. And because there were other’s who would have been interested, the acceptance also needed to happen quickly. Since we had made plans around this scenario, we were able to hit the ground running.

The Crescent Cafe, opened with the expanded footprint on April 7th 2023. With this addition space, the Cafe has:

doubled the kitchen space — allowing the back of house staff to work more efficiently
added 5 more tables — cutting down wait times and seating more customers daily
expanded bakery’s capacity — allowing for added menu items and increasing to-go options

All of this was able to happen with only 6 weeks lead time, only closing for 2 days that would have normally been open, all WITHOUT taking any loans or having to bring in outside investment (again, unheard of for such a big project).

Homeroom’s role in the expansion was as follows:

high-level project management, verify schedule is on track throughout the process
outline a proposed budget and compare actuals
design exterior space
lend a helping hand when able (i.e. painting the exterior, shopping for supplies)
marketing strategy and execution for the expansion announcement
data analysis of sales and profits
forecasting for upcoming busy season

A quick walkthrough of the expanded space of the Crescent Cafe on opening weekend.

To say I am proud of the Nora and the Crescent Cafe is an understatement. She has worked tirelessly and it is so amazing to see such tangible results come from all of her hard work. It’s not often that as business consultants we get to see the efforts come to fruition in such a substantial way. There is no doubt that the Crescent Cafe will continue to thrive in the many years to come and I’m continuously grateful to be a part of it.

The Crescent Cafe - A Major Milestone Reached!