About Us

Jim Brickle – Founder

In the summer of 1973 I unknowingly began a journey of a lifetime. When I walked past a renovation in progress of a local historical treasure the Willow Brook Inn in Fair Haven, NJ. I stopped to observe the workers as they were building. A huge pile of scraped linoleum flooring lay just outside of one of the lower entrance doors. “Hey kid! You want to make some money?” a man hollers out to me. “Sure!” I yelled back.

“Start taking this stuff across the parking lot and put it all in that dumpster!” Without any hesitation or knowledge of compensation, I began grabbing up as much linoleum chips as I could bundle in my arms and trudging them across to the dumpster. After watching my efforts for a few trips, the man was convinced that I was determined to accomplish what was asked of me, so he tossed an old galvanized can to help with my struggle. It had been a few hours’ toil by the time the sun was starting to set and I was nearly done. The man came out to tell me how impressed he was with my work ethic and I received his twenty dollars with a gigantic grin. I quickly thanked him and asked if I could help out tomorrow. He laughed and said “Sure kid, stop by if you want, we’ll find something for you to do.”

So I checked in most every day of the renovation and odd jobbed myself into the owner’s favor. At the end of the renovation it was now a new restaurant/club by the name of Lilly Langtry’s Saloon and Opera House. At this time he asked me, “How old are you kid?” I responded that I was twelve. “OOOH,” he said, “Well if you would like I can give you a job as a dishwasher, but you’ll have to ask your parents and you’ll have to get working papers.” Much to his surprise I showed up a few days later with the working papers and my parent’s blessings.

And so like so many of you reading this, my affair with the restaurant industry began at a very young age. I have spent some 37 years since that day toiling and learning every aspect and point of service in the industry, through dishwasher and busboy, to counter help at the sweet shop, to host, to prep, to salad bar set-up, to lunch cook (150 8oz. burgers an hour) to Garde Manger, to Roundsman, to Chef de Parte, to Sous Chef, to Saucier, to Banquet Chef, to Executive Chef, to Owner Operator. I will hopefully enjoy sharing many, many stories and anecdotes on this platform with you well into the future.

For the last decade I have been afforded the pleasure of working two careers. I have had the opportunity to have a food-service contract at a private yacht club. This service required my attention for three days a week, six months out of the year. With a hardened work ethic honed in the restaurant industry, what was I to do with the left-over time? Well, sales allowed me the flexibility to have two careers. Advertising and marketing became my chosen field.

Having seen the landscape change for both of my fields of passion, I have the experience to know that the time of a restaurateur and the demands of the new world of marketing with today’s technology, are as hard to emulsify as oil and vinegar. But, with skill, they may be made to work together deliciously.

My mission for the past year has been to work for my brotherhood of restaurateurs and take all of those necessary ingredients of internet marketing, social media, video marketing, email marketing, mobile marketing, search engine optimization, and more – and put it all on one plate – all while making it intuitive, and easy to manage, as opposed to just more burden. We are here for you to help teach and interact through our newsletters and webinars to make it as easy as possible for the most creative industry in the history of man to share with the world what you do and how you do it!

Fellow Chef and Marketeer,
Jim Brickle