Listen to the interview here!
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I am with George Zeppos. Hi, George.
George Zeppos: How are you?
Toni: I’m great. How about yourself?
George: I’m doing great.
Toni: You came out on this lovely day for ducks!
George: Beautiful summer weather we’re having here in Berks County. Love it!
Toni: No kidding. George, take a moment and tell us what you do.
George: I am the owner of two restaurants in Berks County. They’re locally owned and operated. One is The Hitching Post Bar and Restaurant in Leesport, Pennsylvania. The other is Willoughby’s Bar and Grill right in Wyomissing.
Toni: Great. Thank you very much for taking time to be here.
George: Thanks for having me.
Toni: Let’s go into the first question of the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
George: As a business owner, inspiration is anything, anyone, or any influence that allows me to go to a whole new level, that allows me to compete against myself and really raise the bar on myself to do a better business, to do a better service, and to be a better role model. Inspiration is something that allows me to test myself to do things bigger, quicker, faster every day and just get 1 percent better, 10 percent better, or just a percentage better every day with what I do, and that can be applied to business, to my family, to my marriage, to anything. It’s just taking me to a higher level every day with each activity and attitude that I have.
Toni: Is it something that inspires you to take that action, or is it that you inspire others to take that action?
George: The keys to leadership are relationships, but also transferring your skills. I think what inspires me is I have to self-lead. I have to motivate myself, and by doing so I believe I have the ability to motivate and inspire others. In return, I guess that comes back full circle to inspire me to do more.
I deal with a lot of employees. I deal with a lot of people in the community. Obviously, owning restaurants I’m serving dinner to 5,000 people a week, so it’s not just about my attitude, but it’s how I can impact those around me, how I can put them in a better attitude, a better place, a better environment, just a better experience. In return, that just inspires me to do more and more.
To answer your question – inspiration – I inspire myself by inspiring others, and when I see those around me being happy, it inspires me to do more.
Toni: Give me an example of a specific that you’ve put into practice here.
George: One of the unique things about the food business and any type of business or any type of meeting you have with someone … it’s interesting – a target doesn’t care if you hit a bulls eye yesterday. Every day it’s something new, and every day it’s yours to win or lose is how I look at things. When you’re dealing with the restaurant business, you might have a busy Friday night – but it doesn’t mean anything on Saturday. It’s that new day to make that difference. It’s that new day to really inspire your staff. It’s that new opportunity to make sure the food, the quality, the service, the whole experience is another bulls eye.
To give you a specific example is very challenging. All I know is that every day I compete against myself from the day before. Can I knock the ball out of the park? Can I get another home run? Can I win again? That’s what keeps me going, especially in the restaurant business where you’re dealing not only with regulars, but every opportunity is a chance to have a new regular by knocking it out of the park, wowing them, and giving them that ultimate experience with the service, the food, the whole atmosphere of the organization.
Toni: It’s basically creating moments of truth every single moment.
George: It really is, because when you own a restaurant or people are having dinner, it’s not your time – it’s their time. What matters is how they feel at that moment. I explained it once that owning a restaurant is kind of like a duck on a pond. You see a duck swimming calmly along the pond, but what you don’t see is underneath the feet kicking very rapidly. That’s how I have to act. I’m always running around, whether it’s in my head or in the kitchen or on the floor, but the experience is about what the customer feels when they come in there.
That’s really what matters in every single situation. It’s their time. It’s not mine. It’s their moment, not my staff’s. It’s about making sure that that is what matters, because they took time out of their family, their schedule to join us, and we want to again knock it out of the park.
Toni: That’s fantastic. Who in Berks County inspires you?
George: I would say my father. I have an extensive corporate background, extensive executive path in Corporate America in the financial industry, but I grew up in the restaurant business. Everything I’ve learned in the corporate world, college, to what I apply now in the day-to-day tasks of being a business owner, I learned everything from my father. He was an honest businessman in the community. He was an amazing father. He knew what discipline was. He knew what determination was. He had passion for the business. He believed in his community. He believed in himself.
I just remember growing up and watching the way he worked and the way he ran his businesses and the way he was with people. It was inspiration all day long, it truly was. It’s why I chose these legendary names like The Hitching Post and Willoughby’s, because I actually did know the owners. They were close members of the family, my father being one of the owners of The Hitching Post. They’re very big shoes to fill, and every day I pull into those parking lots I say, “Can I do what they did? Can I live up to those expectations? Can I exceed them?”
That is who inspired me the most – my father. He built from the ground up, he made it happen, and he provided for our family and for our community.
Toni: I love that, and I love the way it’s completely full circle, that you pull into the parking lot and hopefully you are inspired every day by the work that you do. I’m wondering, though, since this is the Get Inspired! Project, if you can recall – I know I’m throwing this one at you here – do you ever recall being inspired by a customer? Do you have a story that you recall?
George: Again, as I mentioned, we deal with so many different customers and we have a significant amount of employees. It’s some of the littlest things that truly inspire me. We had a waitress one time find an engagement ring and turn it in. It’s those acts of integrity and honesty. We have had people in the restaurant, customers of ours that have sent us these amazing letters, that have sent us pictures from their honeymoon that we’ve helped cater their wedding; that have invited us to their homes, to their events.
I guess that’s what separates just owning a restaurant to being part of a community and establishing new friendships. We have that relationship with our clients now. We have customers that come to us. The funny joke is, when I walk down the bar at Happy Hour, it’s all about hugging. All the customers, we’re all hugging each other. It’s every day, and my wife sees this, how much we love what we do because of the relationships that we have.
I don’t even feel comfortable calling them my clients. I call them my family, my friends. That’s not just because of me and my wife. It’s because of our amazing staff, from our bar manager to our managers to my chef, to my servers, to the busboys, to the hostesses. It all comes together to give it this amazing vibe that we have in our business, and again tying it back to how I get inspired. It’s just being part of that culture. Just being part of that.
We’re actually doing a wedding ceremony tomorrow night at The Hitching Post for two customers that are very dear to us that actually proposed at The Hitching Post, and they invited us to it. It’s going to be a joyous event. I did Dancing with the Stars last Friday for the Yocum Art Institute, and we saw our regulars actually get together and got a table to be part of that, to see my wife and I dance.
Toni: How cool is that?
George: It was unreal. I couldn’t believe it. I was so appreciative and grateful and honored that they were sharing that with us. We have all those types of stories, and that’s the great thing about having this locally owned, locally operated restaurant and locally staffed. We’re part of this community, and the community supports us back. It keeps us going. We love it.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
George: I would like to be remembered for being not just a business owner, but being a part of this community. I would love for my wife and my children … I want people to remember the good that we did, the great times that we had at the different restaurants. I want my children, if they want to continue in the family footsteps and carry on the restaurant legacy, that is their choice, and if they do so, I’ll be very proud of them. I hope that what I do today and how they see me in my restaurants and how they see the way my wife and I respect and love our clients, our community, our businesses, I would be honored if they can carry that and move forward in Berks County.
Toni: Well George, the fact that you are carrying the legacy of your father forward and remain inspired by him and the work that he did, the fact that you’re inspired by this community and you share that inspiration with your community, I would imagine that you’re already living that legacy.
George: Thank you for that compliment. I love being back home. I had a great childhood being brought up here in this business, and now it’s come across and we’re meeting new friends. It feels good to be part of something. It truly does.
Toni: Thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
