OCONOMOWOC, WISCONSIN

BUILDING G&C

Turns out the food is the easy part.

BEFORE THE DOORS OPEN

Most people don't get to see how a restaurant comes to life.

They see the finished product. The doors open. The menus are printed. The paint is dry. Someone cuts a ribbon, and it looks like it all happened overnight.

It didn't.

A great restaurant is the sum of thousands of decisions, most of which nobody ever notices.

That's what this section is about. We're going to build G&C one decision at a time, and you're invited to come along for the ride.

This isn't market research. It's a conversation.

The Build

One decision at a time.

SPRING 2023
Historic view of Lac La Belle in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin
back here again.
TAKING INVENTORY

Turning 50 has a way of getting your attention.

My parents' health was declining, and I was spending more time driving back and forth to Wisconsin to help take care of them. Those trips gave me a lot of time to think. Probably more than I wanted.

About work. Family. Relationships. Where I wanted to live. And what I wanted the next part of my life to actually look like.

I'd built a career I was proud of. I had a good life by almost any objective measure.

But good on paper and right aren't necessarily the same thing.

So I started taking inventory.

Some things needed to change. Some needed to end. And a few things I'd been putting off until "someday" needed to stop being someday.

The restaurant was one of them.

I didn't have a building. I didn't have a menu. I certainly didn't have a sensible plan.

But somewhere on those drives between Chicago and Wisconsin, the idea started becoming less hypothetical.

Eventually I reduced it to three things. PASSION. PATIENCE. TIME.
AUGUST 2023
Life is short. I'm going to open a restaurant in Oconomowoc. THE IDEA  →
well. that settles that.
SEPTEMBER 2024
ROOM TO MOVE

Sometimes the plan changes for you.

For most of 2024, the restaurant was still an idea competing with a job that took most of my waking hours.

Then work changed.

After years of building and leading the practice, my role began to shift. I had more room to think about what came next, and fewer excuses for not doing something about it.

The restaurant stopped being something I might do someday.

Now I had to figure out whether I actually knew enough to do it.

JANUARY2025
THE SEARCH BEGINS

Now it needed a place.

I started watching commercial real estate in Oconomowoc.

FEBRUARY 2025
51
BACK TO SCHOOL

I already knew how to cook.

What I didn't know was whether I knew enough to actually run a restaurant.

So at 51, with five degrees already collecting dust somewhere, I started culinary school.

Food Entrepreneurship.

learn the business.
not just the food.
apparently five
wasn't enough.
SEPTEMBER 2025
TWO BUILDINGS

Two buildings.
One plan.

I went looking for one building.

I ended up buying two.

One was part of the plan. The other wasn't. Turns out that mattered.

ONE SEARCH. TWO BUILDINGS. →
went looking for one. of course there were two.
THE WORK BEHIND THE WORK VIEW 2025 COURSEWORK
JANUARY2026
BUILDING OWNERSHIP

Buying them was only the beginning.

Tenants. Roofs. Brick. Maintenance. The buildings stopped being an idea and became real work.

BUILDING OWNERSHIP →
JULY2026
Doug working in the Test Kitchen
THE FIRST MENU DECISIONS

Some things earned their place.

Pulled pork and grilled cheese passed for the Sandwich Company. Cheese curds passed for the future BBQ Company. The menu began becoming real.

ENTER THE TEST KITCHEN →
SEPT. 12026
G&C GOES LIVE

THE DOORS AREN'T OPEN.
THE STORY IS.

From here forward, you can watch it happen.

THE WORK BEHIND THE WORK VIEW 2026 COURSEWORK
TODAY

The line stops here because the rest hasn't happened yet.

If you've found your way here before we've opened our doors, you're early. And that's a good thing.

Pull up a chair.

We're just getting started.