Make It Craveable

I was recently talking with a friend about restaurants. I asked if his community had any craveable places to eat. I’m grateful we have some truly craveable spots in Castroville. I thought about that conversation again as I was digging into some monkey bread from Baked by Chef Grecia Ramos. My wife craves their croissants. If you’ve been, you know. As for me, I crave that monkey bread. It is just so good.

I’m also a huge fan of The Dough Station. Fantastic woodfired pizza. Castroville Barbecue Company serves barbecue that’s second to none. Castroville Café is great for lunch, and Elevate on Fiorella offers great food, along with a top-notch craft bar. Each of these places is unique and memorable. All craveable. All the kinds of places you want to go back to and bring others with you.

If you want a community that draws people in, whether for a day or a lifetime, you need places that are craveable. Places people think about during the week. Places they cannot wait to come back to. Places that might even show up in their dreams. I mean that. In my experience, too many towns settle for “okay,” “not bad,” or “pretty good.”

Let’s be honest, do you really expect someone to drive 45 minutes or more, passing by other restaurants and communities, just because you love your town and think it is special, only to have a meal that is fine? Or a shopping trip that is just average?

That mindset still surprises me. “It’s not that bad,” people say.

Recently, my wife and I visited a Texas town. I will keep the name to myself. We went online and searched for a good place to eat. We finally found the one that had the most recommendations. The one people said was the best of the best in town. You probably know where this is going. Just writing about it makes me feel a little sick.

The appetizer was pretty good. (There are those words again.) By the time we got to the bottom of the plate, we realized the nachos were sitting in some kind of puddle. Maybe oil, maybe something else. We will never know.

Then the entrées came. My sandwich was not good. Not even close. My mom made better sandwiches for me in middle school, and if I am saying that a turkey sandwich on Wonder bread could compete, then you get how bad it really was. My wife ordered the shrimp tacos. They were over cooked and underseasoned, not a good combination.

We barely ate our food. When the server, who we are pretty sure was also the owner, came to check on us, he offered some light jokes. No apology. No comment. He knew. He had never seen us before and probably figured he never would again.

Mediocre food and poor customer service, yet people wonder why their cities are not growing, why are businesses not coming, and why are visitors not returning?

Okay is not good enough. It might be fine for the locals. They have adjusted their expectations, but you cannot ask someone to drive miles for “fine.” That just does not make sense.

So now, think about your own town. What do you have that is truly special? What would make someone say, “You have to stop here”? What could actually get someone to take an exit off the highway just to check it out? What makes someone remember your place days or weeks later?

If the only thing you can say is, “Well, the locals like it,” then that is fine. If local support alone was enough though, you probably wouldn’t be in the situation you are in. In our community, over 60 percent of sales tax revenue comes from people outside the county. (If you really dig into the numbers, that number is closer to 80 percent.) That is not a coincidence, it’s a direct result of craveability.

So what should you do? Start with an honest assessment. Make a list. Call it “The Craveables.” What are the coolest places in town? If the list is short or empty, ask yourself why? What could we create here that people would go out of their way to experience? How can we help that happen? What role can the community play in building those places?

You will face pushback. That’s part of it. But if you do nothing, at least you will understand why nothing improves.

Good luck. I love communities. I love when they have places that are truly craveable. If you would love some feedback or help, just let me know.

Tonight, I am having woodfired pizza at The Dough Station. After all this talk about cravings, what else would you expect?