The Year in Review

And so we say goodbye to the “double-naught” decade of the 21st century. Politically, environmentally and economically, it has been a decade which we will probably be happy to put behind us. But this is not a political, environmental or economic blog. This is the story of the Hot Flash Café, for which this has been the only decade—or 1/3 of a decade, to be more precise.

Which is not to say that the political, environmental and economic high jinks of the past year bore no influence upon the fate of the Hot Flash Café. Oregon was hit hard by the bursting of the bubble…in fact, it kind of blew up in our face. The industries that didn’t go bust and close their doors, cut back to the bare bones. Jobs disappeared and discretionary income dried up; and those of us in the service industry held on by our heels, teeth and fingernails while we watched our balance sheets fill up with red numbers.

For my part, I plotted my strategy early on in the crisis. I would put my head down, point my feet in a forward direction and

Just. Keep. Going.

As long as the doors stayed open and the bills got paid, I could not worry about the numbers. THE Numbers. The “Percent Increase Over Last Year” numbers by which I have measured our success since July 1, 2006. The numbers that had finally, finally started to fall into place in 2008. Until last December, anyway.

December 2008 was dismal—but it was hard to say whether it was the economy or the hideous weather (feet of snow!) that did us in. January 2009 almost convinced us that we might dodge the economic bullet. But the bottom fell out in February. And though we held on for single-digit decreases through October, we knew we were not going to get through the year unscathed.

Still, every week seemed to bring news about the performance of our industry in general, and our local competitors in particular, that led us to believe that perhaps we were faring better than the average little local restaurant. Or even the average giant chain establishment. A competitor up the highway tried everything but giving away food for free to put butts in the seats. We heard that another hadn’t paid their rent in three months. One local restaurant closed, re-opened under new management, and then closed again less than six weeks later.

Industry-wide, I read of famous fine-dining establishments shutting their doors when the demand for over-the-top gourmet meals disappeared. Employees of a Portland-based multi-unit franchise of a national chain arrived at work one morning to find their workplaces closed forever with no warning.

It was a mine field out there; if you let it, the bad news could intimidate to the point of paralysis.
But in the end, our concept, our “good food at low prices” appeal kept us solvent. Solvent enough to stretch out our necks and make some changes that might prove to make us—or break us. Changes that could set us up for a promising future. Or set us back on our heels, shaking our heads and wondering what hit us.

And though they haven’t taken us to the poor house, the jury is still out on many of those changes...

So, here are “THE Numbers:”

2009 % increase (decrease)
JANUARY 3.64
FEBRUARY (12.43)
MARCH (3.19)
APRIL 1.62
MAY (2.80)
JUNE (1.01)
JULY 1.58
AUGUST (1.61)
SEPTEMBER 6.19
OCTOBER (0.68)
NOVEMBER 13.64
DECEMBER 33.81


You might note the impressive turn-around of the last two months. For which I wish that I, and the aforementioned “changes,” could take credit. In reality, to quote a favorite fictional character of mine, “Random factors seem to have operated in our favor.”

We were lucky. Three of our local competitors closed their doors during the last three months of 2009.

There’s something to be said for being the last man standing…