When a restaurant celebrates its first anniversary in business, that's cause for a blowout party. When a restaurant approaches its silver anniversary, with a quarter century of history behind it, the celebration is a little more refined. There's always another milestone over the horizon when you're a restaurant like Mise en Place.
"It's evolution versus change," explains Mise En Place co-owner Maryanne Ferenc. "If you change, you force people to change with you. With evolution we're all moving along together." That means that Mise is a very different place than when she and chef Marty Blitz opened back in 1986, but it's difficult for most people to point out exactly when and what changed. Probably because they changed along with the restaurant.
Ferenc knows exactly what's different. Blitz is still in the kitchen, exactly where he wants to be, and she still handles the catering and front of the house, but "we've grown complexities and layers," she explains. That's partially due to a much larger involvement in the community — Ferenc is an active ambassador for Mise — and partially due to expanded services like a larger catering business and the Sono Cafe at the Tampa Museum of Art. Mostly, though, it's because of the expanding Mise family.
"From the people perspective, it comes from trying to engage and involve and honor more than one vision or energy in the establishment," says Ferenc. "We have to ask, 'Who is Dave [Madera, Mise's general manager] and how does that get layered in what we do?'" Instead of just Ferenc and Blitz guiding the restaurant, it has evolved into a group effort.
"The whole idea to do the cocktail club was from Nate, the head bartender," says Ferenc. "He started and pushed it himself." Mise's catering manager Ann Frechette, who is celebrating two decades with Mise herself, convinced Blitz and Ferenc not to cut back on catering ventures. "In a time when we thought we might refocus away from social catering that might not be profitable, she convinced us that these relationships are valuable."
Where Mise has evolved the most, and where you can find the most added complexity, is in its much-expanded wine program. "In the beginning it was all California wines, because we didn't have a huge budget or space," reminisces Ferenc. Now, the wine list features hundred of bottles that span wine regions across the globe, guided and coordinated by Dave Madera. "The wine list has to reflect Dave. If you're going to do it every day, you have to love it, and the list reflects how Dave sees Chef's food and its relationship with the wine."
For Ferenc, wine is not only essential to life, it also illustrates the evolution of Mise.
"Wine really defines who we are," she says. "We want to constantly be moving. Chef's always moving as well; changing the menu is more about Marty than the clients, because he doesn't want to be bored."
And when the food changes, so does the wine list, as Madera adjusts to large and small alterations in Blitz's culinary focus that come monthly, or weekly. That means training staff, educating clients, and finding new wines that match the food. "Constantly fluid menu, constantly fluid wine list," Ferenc says. No pun intended.
Even here, evolution is the key.
"We've grown up with some of these people," says Ferenc, referring to wineries with which Mise has had a long-standing relationship. "Staglin started the same year we did. Celebrating with them and around them, it gives us a contact point."
At the core of Mise's success is another relationship that has evolved — that between Blitz and Ferenc. Married when the restaurant opened, the couple divorced almost a decade ago, but managed to keep their business relationship — and mutual respect — intact.
"From a professional standpoint it was really easy. It's not that we don't disagree, but there's no one else I'd rather work with. He understands what it means to make a business work — it's why we still have a lunch menu," laughs Ferenc. And the two Mise owners have clearly defined roles, which helps: When they can't solve a disagreement, Blitz gets the final say on anything relating to the food, while Ferenc is the final arbiter in other areas.
Ferenc can pinpoint unequivocally the keys to Mise's success over the past 25 years.
"Wine is such a huge piece of our lives; other than food it's what really keeps you going," she explains. "And people. It's wine, food and people."
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2011.
