Front of the House: Firewood Café

The first Fireside Café, founded in February 1997 in the Castro District of San Francisco by brothers Garrett and Glenn Meyers, evolved from a simple philosophy: freshly prepared food doesn’t have to be expensive.

The Napa location in the Bel Aire Plaza opened two and a half years ago and is thriving in the shopping center. They have three other locations in the Bay Area, including a restaurant at the San Francisco airport.

The restaurant chain prides itself on making its own pasta and sauces, using fresh ingredients like Parmesan cheese, shiitake mushrooms, crisp local greens and mild Italian sausage to create what they call “California/Mediterranean” food. They make great individual pizzas customized to anyone’s taste.

It’s an interesting front-of-the-house model—they have no one general manager, but instead have rotating “managers on duty” who they empower to cater to customers. You order at the counter, and they deliver the food to your table.

I recently spoke with Kevin Westlye, President of Hi Flying Foods, the parent company of Firewood Café.

Julie: As an executive of the company, do you spend much time at the Napa Café?

Kevin: I try to visit once a week, sometimes more.

Julie: What are the advantages of being in a shopping mall?

Kevin: We’re fortunate that locals support us in addition to the shoppers.

Julie: As far as shopping malls go, you’re in a hot one.

Kevin: Certainly having some of the anchor tenants, like Whole Foods, helps. They attract people who like to eat fresh, organic food-- the same kind of food that we cook with.

Julie: How is the Napa café different from your other restaurants?

Kevin: We have a higher percentage of Napa Valley wines on the menu and we’re planning to focus the entire wine list on Napa appellation wines.

Julie: That will make Napa people happy.

Kevin: We know the community wants to support the local wine industry.

Julie: What niche do you fill in Napa that might not have been here before?

Kevin: We have a casual café that offers fresh ingredients, high quality food, where you can have dinner for less than $10. We’re not a pizzaria where you order an extra large and split it with your family. We offer individual pizzas.

Julie: Do you find Napa diners different than diners in some of your other locations?

Kevin:  One of the most interesting things in Napa is that the customers tend to buy up in the menu.  Our Napa location is more of a destination restaurant, where people sit down with a salad and then pasta or chicken or salmon – they tend to make it a whole meal.

Julie: What about people who like to sit down and be waited on? How do you persuade them to come in?

Kevin: If you have people come to the table and wait on you, you pay about 35% more for your meal.

Julie: At most restaurants, people are waited on at their tables. After customers order their meal at the counter, it’s delivered to the table?

Kevin: We can accommodate customers by delivering in stages if they want. Also, people come in and have great conversation and don’t necessarily want to be interrupted.