Life Change: Opening an Eatery

Beth Lemke had worked as a marketer for years. In the rough and tumble of Silicon Valley, she'd been laid off a number of times. When she lost her job at 40, she saw it as a career opportunity in disguise. Now she could start the business she'd always dreamed of.

A Gathering Place

"Initially, I wanted to open a coffee house," Lemke says. "After college, I worked in a cute one in Willow Glen, California. It had a little bookstore and gallery and was a hub of the community."

Lemke had moved to Pacifica, on the California coast south of San Francisco. That's where she planned to launch her business. "I noticed that coffee houses aren't the centers they used to be. People are so isolated, tapping away on their iPads and PCs," Lemke says. She decided to open a different kind of eatery. "Wine bars were starting to pop up. They aren't windowless little caves anymore and they attract a lot of women." Pacifica has a growing tourist market and she figured the time was ripe for this kind of business.

Educating Herself

To prepare herself, Lemke took a business course at Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center in San Francisco. She's very glad she did. "You bond with fellow students, support each other, learn about resources available." The SBA was a resource too. "The SBDC (Small Business Development Center) has free consultants with professionals. I still use their restaurant consultant," Lemke says.

The other step in her business-education was a Vocation Vacation that put her together with a mentor in her chosen field, the owner of Everyday Wines in Portland, Oregon. "My Vocation Vacation really sealed the deal. My mentor told me all about her business, and the counseling provided by the Vocation Vacation staff had great value, especially for someone like me who isn't a great planner," Lemke says.

A Grape in the Fog began serving customers in April 2010. "It was a long soft opening," Lemke says. We planned the grand opening for my 41^st birthday in October. We had everything polished by then."

Building Traffic, Giving Back

Lemke is delighted by how her eatery has been embraced by the community. She hosts a special supper highlighting seasonal produce on Wednesday nights after the farmers' market. Her wine bar hosts fundraisers for a variety of causes, including the Pacifica Land Trust. Book clubs and church groups meet at her eatery.

Lemke's business has even added to her family. "I have a little chihuahua who just showed up at the wine bar, so I adopted her. Daphne comes to work with me. There's a puppy penthouse upstairs, and sometimes she comes downstairs and sits on a customer's laps. People ask for her."

The best things about business ownership, Lemke says, are the variety, the creativity, and the immediacy. "With your own business, you're in the driver's seat. This is a grownup coffeehouse, a gathering place like Cheers," Lemke says.

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