A side of schmear

When a young man recently strolled into Judy Ott's Sarasota bagel store for a job interview, he was fresh off the beach, in shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops.

Ott is steadfast about employees having a neat and clean appearance, one of several tidy aspects of her management style. “Young man,” she told the prospective employee, “go home and get dressed.” He went home, and he came back better dressed, but he still didn't get the job. Says Ott: “Our needs weren't compatible.”

Ott, 63, maintains that kind of no-nonsense approach every day at the store she runs, Einstein Bros. Bagels. It's one reason why the restaurant, at the high-traffic Bee Ridge Road and U.S. 41 intersection, is one of the best performing stores in the Lakewood, Colo.-based chain, which has 600 locations nationwide.

Ott has been a runner-up for Einstein manager of the year four times, an award based mostly on sales and profit margins, and she won the award once. The store was one of the worst performers when she took it over, in 2002, and it has since gone from about $730,000 a year in sales to at least $1.8 million.

More growth could be forthcoming: Ott's store now includes a Caribou Coffee location, part of an extensive remodel project. The German conglomerate that owns Einstein, JAB Holding Co., also owns Caribou Coffee, a national chain of coffee stores with about 275 locations. The co-branding model was launched earlier this year, and Ott's store is the first one in Florida to go through the transformation. JAB Holding Co. acquired Einstein in a $374 million buyout last year.

The co-branding project with Caribou, says Ott, will allow her to expand the store's catering business, which is already about 25% of annual sales, because there will be more coffee and pastry options. The remodeled store, now open until 9 p.m., also has a stay-awhile coffeehouse feel, down to the four comfy chairs and fireplace.

Beyond food and drink, a big reason for Ott's success is exactingly simple. “You have to have a passion for perfection,” she says. “Your standards have to be high all the time.”

In day-to-day practice of that theory, Ott has basically written a field manual on how to get the most out of a young and often-fickle segment of the workforce: teenagers and millennials.
The key, she says, is to be overwhelmingly clear about expectations, and never back away from letting them know a task was not completed properly.

“The first time you allow an employee to get away with a substandard job, you are in trouble,” Ott says. “If they are cleaning a table, and they just redistributed dirt, I will tell them to go back and do it again.”

The perfection pursuit pays off. Of the store's 38 employees, about a dozen or so are teens who come from the three closest high schools: Booker, Sarasota High and Sarasota Military Academy. Word has gotten out about Ott's approach, and some parents have called to ask if she will hire their kid.

Ott's strategy with young people starts right away. “The first thing I look for is a big smile,” says Ott. “I can train people for what we do, but I can't teach attitude. If someone comes in with a sloppy appearance, I'm cautious about hiring them.”

Next is preparation. Act like you want the job is a big mantra. “You would not believe the amount of people who come in here for a job application or an interview without a pen,” she says.

A Pennsylvania native, Ott has been in the restaurant and hospitality business since she was a teenager, when she washed dishes at a family-owned place. She later was a district manager for Arby's in the Tampa region, and oversaw two Boston Market locations in the Sarasota-Bradenton area.

Ott says working in front of customers, and helping prepare the young workforce, provides constant motivation. “This job,” says Ott, “is never boring.”

Follow Mark Gordon on Twitter @markigordon