When Erin Wade ditched her partner-track law firm job to follow her dreams of opening a mac-and-cheese restaurant, her odds of success were low. The restaurant business is notoriously fickle, and she was starting with only her dad’s revered, cheesy recipe and a big dose of chutzpah.
But something magical happened: Wade’s Oakland restaurant, Homeroom, not only became an eatery beloved by locals, but also had a wildly devoted staff. The average tenure of restaurant employees in the United States is less than 90 days; Homeroom’s average is two and a half years. And all this while turning a profit, a real challenge in the restaurant industry.
So how did she do it? Wade has now shared her unlikely journey from unhappy lawyer to wildly successful leader of a high-functioning restaurant with a devoted (and happy) staff in a new book — The Mac & Cheese Millionaire: Building a Better Business by Thinking Outside the Box, debuting September 24.
Wade tells of designing a workplace that had a “dedication to connection at all levels.” A place where employees found purpose, joy, and a feeling of belonging. Wade worked hard, listened to her staff, told off customers who behaved badly, shared the company’s financial picture (in detail) with her employees, and jointly created restaurant success metrics with her crew that included important details like staff happiness.
One of the most powerful tools Wade with her female staff developed to feel safe and seen was an anti-harassment Color Code of Conduct. After an incident at the restaurant in which a manager failed to react when a female staffer felt harassed by a customer, the team came up with a color-coding system (yellow, orange, red) to rate any negative interactions servers had with the public. Managers then had a set of rules to follow that eliminated second guessing. Customers that got tagged red, were asked to leave. The “customer’s always right” motto had no place when it came to employee safety and well-being at Homeroom.
“The system we came up with virtually eradicated harassment at our restaurant and has the potential to significantly improve the lives of the one in ten Americans who work in hospitality,” says Wade. It’s since been adopted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and restaurants worldwide.
With Homeroom performing financially as, “one of the top 1% of restaurants nationwide,” as Wade writes in the book, she sold Homeroom in a multi-million dollar deal in 2021. The restaurant has since expanded to three locations. She still sits on Homeroom’s board and also works as a consultant, is a behind-the-scenes partner in the Los Angeles restaurant n/soto, and still lives in Oakland, near Lake Merritt. She sat down with Nosh recently to talk about her work, the ever-evolving restaurant business, and her Homeroom legacy.
What would you say are your achievements at Homeroom?
Erin Wade: I think it is statistically very unlikely for a restaurant to be around for a decade. Those that do are contributing to a neighborhood in a significant way. And Homeroom has been able to become a community institution. The reason behind that is that there’s such a great focus on making it such a genuinely warm place to eat, work, and be.
In Oakland during that time and in the world during that time — making it through a pandemic — it speaks to the quality of food and community and meaning to those communities.
Do you still stop by the restaurant?
Oh my god, yes. I’m there like all the time, I have four kids, we eat a lot of mac and cheese! I love the restaurant; it still feels like my baby.
I’m part of a blended family — my youngest is nine, and I have an 11-year-old girl. And then I have two stepkids who are 11 and 14, both girls. We could be a basketball team. Homeroom really does appeal to adults, too, but certainly when you have four hungry pre-teen kids who all play sports, we eat a tremendous amount of cheesy carbs
My kids have such a positive relationship with the restaurant; I really tried to expose them to the work that I did because I think it’s important. They had a desk next to mine in the office and it was pretty adorable. They would just do coloring while I did work.
And I taught them how to cook mac and cheese. They would frequently ask if they could cook their own there.
I did a TV interview when my daughter was five years old and she asked me, “When you die, can I be the boss of Homeroom?”
How has Homeroom changed since you sold it? Or what things have stayed the same?
The thing that’s still the same is pretty damn important: The food is still made the same with the exact same recipe. That is untouched!
The recipe that I grew up eating, my dad’s recipe, is still cooked to order. It has just about a quarter pound of cheese in it. There have been no edits to the food or changes to the caliber of the food. For a lot of restaurants, that’s the first to go.
When you have consulted other restaurants, in what ways have they changed how they operate?
I had a funny experience just this week. I went to dinner at True Laurel [in San Francisco] and on the wall was the poster we created at Homeroom to teach people how to use the harassment system. It’s used in a lot of places in the Bay Area and I’m always learning about more.
I was just recently on the faculty in residence at MAD Academy in Copenhagen and was teaching restaurateurs from around the world. We didn’t only teach our anti-harassment system, but also our open book finance and restorative justice systems.
It was great, I’ve done this with restaurants in the US, but business is done quite differently in Europe. I start off with teaching financial literacy and sharing your finances. I usually ask how many people have worked at a restaurant that shared finances with their staff. In the US, no one raises their hand. At MAD, half did.
There’s a higher degree of professionalism; the field is treated so differently there. But it’s still a very hard business to make money.
What restaurants have been founded by your former Homeroom staffers?
We really had a number of entrepreneurial folks who’ve gone to do things all over the place. I do think that’s the special sauce of Homeroom.
There’s Wingen Bakery in Livermore. They just got nominated for best sourdough by the SF Chronicle. They do very beautiful pastry. Jacob Croom has the My Friend Fernando popup and has gotten a lot of media attention. In Boise, Idaho, Good Times Bagels was launched by a former Homeroom manager [Kale Irwin].
How do you think restaurants in the East Bay are doing overall? What general advice would you give them?
I’ll be honest, it’s a pretty difficult time for restaurants in the Bay Area. Indeed, it is all over the country, it’s not unique to our region. Costs of goods have gone up dramatically. Costs of staff, the availability of staff … it’s a legitimately a really hard time to operate
That said, I hope that my book is more helpful and more necessary than ever because most of the ideas in it are free to do. They take time and energy to implement but they don’t cost money. But they can contribute to making places that are better places to work, that offer more meaning. In a time when you are being more crunched by financial pressures on every side, it’s a chance for people to dig out of that and create some more positive change.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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