The 601 Journal
Stories, lessons and milestones from building an enduring hospitality company.
Follow Our Journey
Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about customer experience, although the more I think about it, the more I think what I really mean is hospitality. How someone feels when they walk into one of our places. Whether they feel noticed. Whether somebody is paying enough attention to recognize what they need before they necessarily have to ask for it. As we get closer to opening the new For Crepe Sake in downtown East Lansing, I’ve found myself thinking about this more and more.
When Belief Becomes Responsibility
When people talk about the pressure of building a business, they usually mean the obvious things. Cash flow. Payroll. Rent. Debt. Competition. The constant uncertainty of whether enough people will walk through the door, book the experience, buy the product, leave happy, come back and tell someone else.
Finite Games, Infinite Builders
I’ve had a rare stretch of uninterrupted time this week, sitting at the beach with nowhere to be and nothing competing for my attention. It’s the kind of space that doesn’t happen often, and when it does, it tends to surface thoughts that get buried in the pace of normal weeks. I picked up The Book of Elon and finished it in two days. Somewhere along the way, I ordered Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse, a book that had been sitting in the back of my mind for years but never quite made it to the top of the list.
The Teacher I Never Met
As we build The 601 Group, I find myself thinking less about what to copy and more about what to avoid.
That may sound counterintuitive. Most founders look for models. Playbooks. Case studies. Best practices. I do too. But over the past 25 years, I’ve had a vantage point that most operators never get.
People, Then Profits
Two weeks into owning and operating The Local Epicurean Grand Rapids, most of the decisions we’ve made don’t show up as wins on a P&L.
In It, On It, All In: Rethinking the Leadership Pendulum
One of the most common leadership mantras I’ve heard—especially as businesses scale—is that leaders must “get out of the weeds” and “work on the business, not in it.”
It’s well-intentioned advice. And in many ways, it’s necessary. Leaders can’t afford to be consumed by the day-to-day forever. Someone has to think about the bigger picture, the systems, the long-term strategy. Someone has to work on the business.
Building Standards of Excellence
When you’re building a business, it’s easy to get caught up in the scoreboard. Sales numbers, growth, expansion plans—they all feel urgent. But real, enduring success doesn’t come from chasing numbers. It comes from creating standards—clear expectations for how we do things, big and small—and then living by them every day.
When the Room is Buzzing
This past Thursday night, The Local Epicurean East Lansing hosted our largest private class yet: a full 60-person Pasta 101 experience.
Life. Work. One and the Same.
Steve Jobs once said, “[Work] is still my life but it is not all of my life.” I’ve always connected with that idea, though in my case, the line between the two can feel almost invisible.