Satchel here, and I just wanted to thank Kyle Cox for his fine opinion piece in Tuesday's Alligator about my restaurant. You know, the most-asked question I get is "When are you going to open another location?" I don't know if I ever will. I have two small kids and a really nice life going on. I even have hobbies like gardening and painting. Opening another restaurant would simply mean driving back and forth a lot, trying to make sure both were outstanding.
I've got 45 employees now at Satchel's, 18 on a Friday night - that's enough! I can only think of two reasons to open another location. One is more money, which does not motivate me because I am doing fine. And the second would be so people didn't have to wait so long. Even though this could be a motivating factor for me because I feel bad that people have to wait so long, I'm not so sure if there wouldn't be a long wait at both locations. Running this one place takes a ton of energy - a ton. Opening more places seems it would make it more like a chain. I like the uniqueness created by only having one place. Maybe the next bumper sticker will be, "Satchels…There's only one."
Which reminds me of the latest sticker, "Sorry I'm late, I was at Satchel's."
Thanks again for the kind words about my shop. I go to great lengths to make a place where folks can have fun.
