Speaker 1 (00:10):
I'm Amber Coburn. I'm Cassie Coburn and we own the Jawbone in White Sulphur Springs. It's a cocktail lounge and eatery,
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And it is part of a larger restaurant group that we're partners with our mom on as well. And so we have four restaurants and a thrift store and soon to be hotel. So our initial start with our business started when our mom opened up Bar 47 in 2014. So we grew up in the restaurant industry in high school, and we went to college at the University of Portland and a liquor license came up for sale. And, well, another important fact is we both got full ride scholarships from the Charles and Bayer Memorial Trust that's in Meager County. And so we had a small college account that our mom thought would be a good idea to invest in a liquor license. And we kind of always said that we would never own a restaurant, but we love White Sulphur springs, we love Meager County. And so we felt like if we brought something that White Sulphur didn't already have that it could be a really cool thing and add a lot of value to our community that gave us so much.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
And then we started the Jawbone after studying abroad in Australia. So we were looking at different concepts in Australia. We knew we were going to be starting a restaurant when we got back and we found a really cool one called Sneaky Tony's that, was kind of a speakeasy style bar and we really liked the concept, so we wanted to bring that concept back to White Sulphur Springs. Our initial idea was to be a full on speakeasy, but we realized that was a little, hopefully in 10 years we can do that, but right now we do have to be visibly noticeable for people to come into the restaurant. So we started with that idea and then based our decor and food around a 1920s theme. So we do classic 1920s cocktails and just cocktails in general, which aren't really found around White Sulphur Springs. There isn't a cocktail lounge. So we started with the cocktail idea and then did a 1920s decor.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
So I can answer that first as some characteristics that I feel have been really important in at least my part of our partnership is being able to pivot in difficult situations. You never know, and these are all from experience, when your door is going to fly out of the building from the wind or we're going to have a leak in the roof that causes our ceiling to fall in. So you just never know what's going to happen and being able to pivot and create solutions rather than just identify the problem. It's pretty easy to say there's a hole in the ceiling, but coming up with the plan to get it fixed and get back open I think is huge. And then with us being sisters and business partners, I think teamwork and not tallying what the other is doing because it just needs to get done. So I think that's really helped us and we've had to work on that.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
And I think some characteristics for me that have helped me manage our businesses is just being personable and a good leader. I feel like I lead by example, so I like to work alongside our employees and do the work with them instead of just telling them what to do. And that's really helped me build my relationships with my staff and also just build up our business and what needs to be done. And just getting it done together as a team is really important to me.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well, I think for me, being in Australia made me really appreciate the community that we grew up in. Being in a really big town where it's not that nobody cares who you are, but it's not the same as being in a town of a thousand and being able to go in literally any building in town and know at least one person that kind of knows who you are and what you're about. So I think it really made me appreciate our small town and the culture that we have here with agriculture, small business owners, women leaders especially. We have so many women leaders in Meager County. It's awesome. I think that it just made me really appreciate being from a small town and all that comes with it and hopefully being able to do something to help and make it better.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And also in Australia, just a fun fact, we got the liquor license when we were 19, so we weren't of drinking age and in Australia we, so we could really go around and see different bars and things that we haven't been able to do in the states, which was kind of a fun way for us to, I guess you could say research and development for the restaurants and just kind of see different ways of what people are doing in a different country that we could potentially bring back to the community, that's a unique experience. A challenge we've faced. Even just starting out, we opened in 2018 and, White Sulphur is still really small community and the concept that we are doing is out there for small rural Montana towns. So it's a fine dining cocktail lounge, which does require a chef and bartender with mixologist experience. So we are bringing a different concept to town and that was really hard right off the bat just to get even people to try new items on the menu and just bring new food to town. And so we had a hard time in our first year just even getting the business and people in the door, but then once we built up our reputation, it got a little bit easier to maintain that client base.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I think for me, a couple of challenges on just the business owner standpoint. I think employee retention, we love Meager County, but not everybody does. And so it has been a little bit difficult to find people that fit in really well with this community. And especially in the food and beverage industry, it can be a pretty brutal industry. And so I think finding those employees, it has been a challenge, but we've tried to get quicker and quicker with the turnaround if it happens and realizing that it's not the end of the world. We've been through losing an employee before we can do it again, and everything happens for a reason. And so the next one we'll either learn something or it'll be better. And then I think also on more of the leadership, just being young women, business owners, a lot of our employees are older than us and especially when we were 20, 21, 22 and still now, but it's a little bit tricky to, we just didn't have necessarily the skills quite yet to be real leaders and bosses, especially people that are older than us. And so that we've tried to really expand our professional development and try to get better at being assertive and just knowing that we're in this position for a reason and we just got to do what we need to do to keep it going.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
And just really quick off of that, another factor just being in rural Montana is surprisingly the weather really affects our business with people driving from Livingston or Bozeman to come eat with us. Sometimes we'll have a full book of reservations and if it snows or something crazy happens, we will lose all of our reservations for the night, which is unfortunate. But we have learned that the weather will affect us so we can kind of plan around that. One factor with bringing employees to town is that we and managing them, we do have to have learned that we need to provide housing. So we have to have employee housing options in town here in order to get the chefs and the servers with the experience that we need in order to bring them to town. So that's one thing that we've learned is that,
Speaker 2 (09:11):
And just in general, having housing, not housing for even unskilled people, we just have a huge housing issue.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
But just in order for us to get employees to come here, we need to have a housing option, which we learned quickly. So we do have a couple apartments that we have through the restaurant that we reserve specifically for employees.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I think one thing that I've learned in the hiring business, especially as we've grown over the last six years, I think initially we were really focused on skills and education, and then as we've gone through more employees, we've shifted that a little bit to more like, will our personalities work best together? I think a lot of skills, I mean we need a certain level of training, but I think most importantly is that they're a team player and will get along with the dishwasher, the server, us, the bartender, because it's such an intimate space. Our chef and our bartender literally work back to back and in front of customers. So I think that's kind of become a larger priority is personality and go with the flow attitudes.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
When we were first getting started, our community was a huge factor in keeping us in business when people weren't traveling into town. We do have to rely on our community to support us, and we created our space to do events and do community events in there. So we really are relying on our community to keep us in business here.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
And I think as far as Amber and I, we've tried to always be super involved in the community, and so we've tried to stay very active in our chamber of commerce. And I think the term neighbors helping neighbors. I mean, we put on a street dance with a couple of the other bars twice a year to bring business to Main Street. The brewery. Chris and Barry at Two Bassett had been really helpful. If we have a beer problem or the lines or anything like that, our construction companies, it seems like things only break on a Saturday night when things are super busy. So I mean, there's numerous times that we've had to just text the personal numbers of the construction owners and be like, is there anybody that can get down here? And things like that I think are special that we have here without actually having the services.
(11:59):
I mean, they really go out of their way to help us. And there's Sarah Calhoun with Red Ant's Pants has put on a lot of women's trainings and brought a lot of people to White Sulphur. And so our outreach has gotten a lot bigger because of things that they do. And of course our mom, we learned everything from our mom. I attended the Women in Business conference in Bozeman earlier this spring (2024), and I met Kassi and she talked a lot about the services. And then down the road I'll be joining the advisory committee, which I was told about through Avery Gold, who's another, she and Katie Bodecker own Showdown, our ski area, which is also another one that we partner with and love to do things with. And they're close friends of ours. And so she's going to be on that too. And so I'm really excited.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Something that's been really impactful in having this business is being able to take people out of their comfort zone. So that was kind of our goal when we started our restaurant, is to bring something new to the community and be able to offer something new to people that might not have the chance to go out to Bozeman to dinner or travel somewhere new. And we're able to kind of do that in our rural town without people having to travel. So say it's pork belly or a lamb dish, it might be something that somebody's never even thought about trying and they will try it. And it's really just special to be able to have that experience with our customers and do it in White, Sulphur Springs, Central Montana, and just provide a fun new experience for people.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
And I think something meaningful for me whenever it happens, we've had a few proposals over the years and I think that's such a special moment between couples and for them to share that with us and in our space. I mean, hopefully they'll remember that forever. And I just think that it's really cool that we get to be part of it and I love it and I hope we have more.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, and just to touch on that, we do even have some customers that will spend their anniversary with us every year. They do the same reservation every year, and it's really fun to see those relationships throughout the years.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, I think one thing that I would want to touch on is that, I mean, we work with family. Our mom started it, Amber and I joined, our sister has been part of it. Our brother has worked in the kitchen. So I just think it can really tear people apart, but it can also be a huge, I mean businesses, especially small ones, your budget is basically what's in the bank account. And so I think it teaches you so much about working with others, and there's just a lot more that you learn from small businesses rather than corporate. And I think it's brought us a lot closer. It's given us a real identity in our community that people know us for and is really a way that we can give back to our community just by having an open door on Main Street, which I think is such a huge deal.
