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WBOC LEADING LADY
MICHELLE ROCHKIND
Cooking up a restaurant from scratch Alyssa Dearborn
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f there is one thing that the Heritage Café on South Crouse Avenue in Syracuse is known for, it is their variety of paninis. With flavors ranging from roasted vegetable to chicken bacon ranch, there is a flavour to satisfy most taste buds. “As far as our customers’ favorites, chipotle chicken hands down. I’ve never had a day where I haven’t sold at least five of them.” Michele Rochkind, the owner of the Heritage Café, said when asked about her most popular menu options. “Ice coffee.” she continued, “You’ll never have a day without selling iced coffee. And our number one specialty drink, it’s a tie every day between caramel macchiato and caramel turtle. But the number one thing that seems to bring people through the door is the paninis.” But the Heritage Café has more than just the typical café fair. It is also a place customers can enjoy a nutritious lunch that is also delicious. The balance between flavor and health is even reflected in the owner’s own favourite menu items. “I absolutely love our Greek salad.” she replied, “I just love vegetables, all vegetables, especially the briny ones like olives and roasted red peppers. I also love our roasted vegetable panini. That has tons of cheese— which, I love cheese, all the cheese—eggplant, spinach, and roasted red peppers again.” Although the Heritage Café is now open and serving the community, Michele Rochkind’s café did not have an easy start. Rochkind’s café journey included a move, some construction, a lot of research, and a large dose of learning. “My husband got pretty ill and we were living in Baltimore at the time.” Rochkind said, “And it was pretty hard juggling work and life with him being in the hospital. So, when I got the opportunity to move back and open a café in one of my family’s buildings, I jumped on it right away because being around family again, having help in that situation, was something I wish I had had.” Moving back to the Central New York area, as well as having her café’s location situated near University Hill, had a great influence on everything from the menu to the type of restaurant she would open. She saw a unique need in the community and filled it by providing something that the Syracuse restaurant scene did not already have. “When I moved back and was walking around Marshall Street, I was looking at everybody else and what my competition was going to be. I obviously wasn’t going to want to open a pizza joint or a wing joint or even a full-service place because Fagan’s already is there. So, the only place that—at the time—was open and doing anything like us was Bruegger’s, and they didn’t have anything like us. Sure, they had the coffee and they had the breakfast sandwiches, but they didn’t really go into lunch.” But even after conducting market research, before she could begin bringing chef-crafted food to the area, she had to teach herself how to be the businesswoman she is today. “I kind of walked into it blindly as a chef.” she said about building her business, “I didn’t know any of the business side, so it’s definitely been a journey and I’ve learned quite a bit. I’ve never had any issue from the food side, but learning about the business side, construction, hiring, firing people, customers, it’s been kind of crazy. So, what came to me as ‘oh, it’s going to be a cute, little café’ was not as simple as a cute, little, small café.”
AUGUST 2021
When asked about what she had to learn outside of being a chef, she replied, “I had to learn pretty much everything. We learn food costing in school, but that’s not our number one side of things. We don’t learn the business. We learn how to make the food. So, I had to teach myself food cost. I had to teach myself ordering. I also had to teach myself employee relationships - how to handle employees, how to hire them, how to fire them, how to handle them when they’re in your care essentially. Also payroll, tips, insurance. It goes on and on. It was definitely a lot of work, a lot of research. And from start to finish, it did take me two and a half to three years to build up Heritage through the construction and to teach myself enough to get the doors open. It’s definitely a lot harder than I think a lot of people think it’s going to be. But it’s doable.” Even with all of the usual issues that come along with opening a restaurant, there are even more obstacles for women in the culinary industry. As Rochkind explained, she was no exception. “I had an amazing chef that was my mentor in culinary school in Soho. Chef Ann was amazing. She taught me a lot of the employee side of things. I didn’t have a lot of great employers before that. It’s a very maledominated industry and, as such, you have to get used to that bit of sexism here and there. Learning from her, I found that she had seen both sides of it. And it’s definitely different between high-end kitchens and a café for sure. So, she taught me a lot on the employee side.” Even out of culinary school, Rochkind is still able to find support in a community of fellow businesswomen. Being a part of the WBOC allows her to find the business support she needs, but it also allows her to be an influence to other women looking to make their way in competitive industries. But what Michele Rochkind want her fellow businesswomen to know is to not let any industry intimidate you. “Just don’t be intimidated.” she said, “In the restaurant industry, a lot of women I find really are intimidated by this industry because it is so male dominant. And it’s very obvious that it is male dominated. Nobody is going to hold your hand and they can, at times, be a little rude. But at the end of the day, there are great resources for women out there. You just have to look and find them. And WBOC, for me, has been an amazing resource actually because I’m from Skaneateles, but I didn’t start my career here. And moving here—not really knowing anybody as an adult and as a business owner—they really, really helped me out with that.” Encouraging fellow businesswomen and making excellent food is only part of what Rochkind wants to do in her community. By combining her profession with that encouragement, she also wishes to use the café as a place for girls to learn valuable skills. “We were starting a program with the Girl Scouts of America before Covid hit. It was really fun and it was called ‘A Day at Heritage Café.’ [The scouts] would come in the morning and they would get their baking badge. They’d learn how to make our scones, which they had the basic scone that they did and then they added whatever mix-ins they wanted. Then they came upstairs and I taught them a whole marketing lesson. So, at the end of the day, they went home with three badges.” “I was actually a Girl Scout and I just remember Girl Scouts being boring.” she continued, “So I wanted to do something a little different TH E EDU C ATION EDITION
