Overcoming Impossible by Robert Irvine

Author:Robert Irvine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harpercollins Leadership
Published: 2022-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

BROKEN PARTNERSHIPS RESTAURANT: IMPOSSIBLE CASE STUDY

The Country Cow/Covered Bridge Farm Table

The Country Cow in Campton, New Hampshire, had a unique problem. Co-owners Kerry Benton and Jenny Leonzi were divorced. They had met while working together at another restaurant, dated for a couple of years, married, then opened the Country Cow ten days after tying the knot. The stress of running the business immediately spilled over into their marriage, which ended after sixteen months. But with their finances firmly entwined—and debt mounting—their business partnership, fraught as it was, endured.

From initial sales of $900,000 in the first year, that number fell by more than half as Kerry’s anger problems ran downhill to the rest of the staff; whenever something wasn’t right, he threw pots and pans and berated employees for not living up to his standard. Meanwhile, that standard was lousy. During my initial visit in 2014, customers complained about long wait times and the uninspired food they were served.

Naturally, Jenny was on the receiving end of a lot of Kerry’s abuse. While working with Kerry, I came to understand that his anger issues likely had their root in his relationship with his father, who rode him hard and pushed him for perfection. In a terribly emotional scene where we cleaned out the restaurant to start renovations, Kerry grabbed a few of his father’s vintage toys and wept openly, revealing that his need for money was so dire that a few years prior he had worked instead of attending his father’s funeral.

I felt terrible for Kerry, but also for the rest of the staff, which was forced to absorb the result of these unresolved issues. “Some people have drugs or alcohol. I have anger,” Kerry said. At the end of Day 1, I told him to go home that night and think hard. Did he really want to make the restaurant work or did he want out? Early the next day, Jenny and I got some shocking news. Kerry indeed wanted out. He signed over everything to Jenny on the spot and walked away.

Both parties felt that an enormous weight had lifted. I then took Jenny down to the river and asked her to let it all out. She threw rocks into the water, and with each stone she cast, she said goodbye to something terrible Kerry had called her during their lowest moments.

Armed with a newly remodeled restaurant and revamped menu, Jenny took the reins and charged ahead. So how did it go? I went to find out in an episode of Restaurant: Impossible Revisited in 2019. Five years had passed, but Jenny’s beautiful restaurant still looked pretty much brand new. It also had a new name. It was no longer the Country Cow, but the Covered Bridge Farm Table, which highlighted the restaurant’s calling card—a beautiful view of the adjacent river and covered bridge, which I loved. It wasn’t just Jenny putting her own spin on things or removing the last vestiges of the original partnership that created the restaurant; it was the perfect business decision.

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