The Spice of Family Life

Ithink we can all agree that starting a business is hard work. And depending on your skill sets, many of us would admit that starting a business with your spouse is an even bigger feat. How about opening a restaurant with your spouse during a pandemic? Who would be crazy enough to do that? Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Stone Town Grill — created, owned and operated by myself (Jess) and my husband Marty Larghe. Yes, we opened a restaurant during the height of COVID-19. Yes, it is stressful. Yes, it e ects our marriage (how would it not). But it is not all doom and gloom. Let me explain.

To provide a little context, Stone Town Grill is a build-your-own salad, grain or noodle bowl with made-from-scratch sauces from cuisines all over the world. It is fresh and fully customizable, and it came to fruition from our love of travel and the way we cook and eat at home. With travel, we got introduced to di erent spice blends and avors that I worked to recreate at home. With home cooking, we value using fresh, whole ingredients and cooking from scratch as much as possible. Between Marty and I, we have nearly ve decades of restaurant experience (most of it Marty), so of course we daydreamed about having our own restaurant. In 2018, I started developing all the recipes and ideas for the concept. A er much tinkering, testing and planning, we decided to take the steps to start making our daydream a reality. In 2019, we found a property, a lender, a contractor and all the many dozens of services necessary to open a restaurant. Things were looking up, and we were planning a summer of 2020 opening! Everything was going our way. Then 2020 happened.

We all know about 2020. The short story of how it speci cally a ected us was that our summer opening became a post-Thanksgiving opening due to COVID19-related construction delays. Couple up opening during an undesirable time of the year with massive restrictions on dining out due to COVID-19, and the result was a quiet start to business. Since opening, Marty and I have worked in the restaurant nearly every day — which is exhausting — but also necessary right now. We have literally put blood, sweat and tears (so many tears!) into this work, and there is no guarantee it will all work out. But here are some reasons why it is all worth it to me no matter what happens.

First, even though this work is a tremendous source of stress and can bring out the worst in us, it also pushes Marty and me to depend on and support each other even more. We both know this restaurant would not exist if it was just one of us without the other. Though I may not always show it, I truly admire Marty’s knowledge and love of running a restaurant, and whenever a situation arises where I do not know what to do, I know he has an answer. And Marty is always bragging to customers, telling them, “My wife developed all the recipes!” When we have a good day, we celebrate together. When we have a down day, we support each other. When one of us is overwhelmed, the other tries to calm them. When one of us is having a bad day, the other tries to give them grace. And when we are both having a bad day, we learn not to take it personally. It is messy and stressful and tiring and chaotic, but it has pushed us to grow in our marriage and deepen our relationship with each other. We are truly partners in this crazy endeavor.

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Besides working daily with each other, all three of Marty’s kids work at Stone Town Grill. Kiana, Carter and Jaycie all work part time as servers, and it is the rst serving job for each of them (and the rst job ever for Jaycie). It is so encouraging to see how proud they are of their dad and how much they appreciate all his hard work. They all truly support and promote the restaurant, and it really means a lot to me and Marty to have them working alongside us. With everyone in the family working at Stone Town Grill, this is de nitely a locally owned and operated business.

So, while I long for the day when we have a “normal” work schedule, the support of family does encourage me to keep doing the work. And I cannot imagine doing this work with anyone except my husband!

Stone Town Grill

is located at 705 32nd Ave E, West Fargo. For more information, visit us online at stonetowngrill.com [ aw ]

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