Happy New Year!  2025 wow!  I know we say that every year, but somehow it always feels fitting and genuine.  The past number of weeks we have been working intently to win big in 2025.  Below, I will touch on just some of the things we are doing to ignite a successful year. 

            Beginning with tasty beer, winter Mug Club dinners kick off January 8^th.  Our guests will have the great fortune to experience our seasonal Udder Chaos Imperial Milk Stout in a glass and on a plate.  That’s right – on a plate too.  Praise be to our culinary team for creating this succulent recipe with our signature meatloaf (back by popular demand) accented with a rich Udder Chaos mushroom demiglace.  This is a special treat sure to Make ‘em Smile. 

            New menu items starting on January 8^th include a personal favorite of mine – the Chop Chop Chicken Salad.  This fresh mix of veggies, chicken and salami really enhance our entrée salad offerings.  A number of team members asked for more fish entrees.  To answer that, we are proud to feature a Parmesan Crusted Cod Fillet and Blacked Fish Tacos.  We also heard many requests for a pasta entrée and we have answered that with our Tuscan Mushroom Pasta with choice of Blackened Chicken or Blackened Prawns.  Rounding out the deliciousness is the Udder Chaos Burger with glazed onions, peppered bacon, blue cheese, roma tomato jam, arugula and zippy red vinaigrette.  Those are definitely Reasons to Return.

            Further to this newsletter, we will be sending out information on our January, and possibly beyond, Kids’ Special.  Great news for the kids and parents.  You will also be receiving information about new enhancements to our fabulous happy hour. 

            Kicking off the New Year we update our goals.  I am going to share two goals that I am focusing on as we kick off 2025.  The first is enhancing the guest experience.  The other day I read a quote that said something to the effect, “we don’t sell groceries we sell experiences.”  I would add that great groceries contribute to memorable experiences.  The point is to enhance those emotional ties with our guests every shift by dropping those rocks and boulders.  That is how we successfully cultivate loyal guests.  The second thing I am focusing on is cleanliness inside and out.  Everything will shine.  Everything will be clean and organized.  We will be proud of everything we present.

            Happy January birthday to:  LeRoy Hairston, Helen Teretto, Collin McNees, Daniel Henriquez Cabrera, Kris Findley, Jacob Kracht and Nick Kannarr.  

            A special “thank you” to the following team members who celebrate significant anniversaries with their Ramily this month:  Frederick Wright (7 years), Juan Tovar (8 years), Payton Lewis (6 years), John Larson (5 years) and Lenka Downs (11 years).  Thank you all very much.

“Goals give purpose.  Purpose gives faith.  Faith gives courage.  Courage gives enthusiasm.  Enthusiasm gives energy.  Energy gives life.  Life lifts you over the bar.”

~ Bob Richards, Pole Vaulter

Happy Holidays.  The warmest holiday wishes to each of you and your families.  Please ensure that every single one of our guests is embraced with the Ram’s holiday warmth and cheer.  That means festive decorations, warm atmospheres, holiday tunes, crisp uniforms, gift cards and Mug Club sales for presents, “Happy Holidays” table greets, warm smiles and “thank you’s”.  Drop those rocks.  Make ‘em Smile and give them Reasons to Return.  Holiday Game On!

                Ram Mug Club memberships are a memorable holiday gift – the gift that refreshes all year.  Sales to existing members have begun and sales to non-members commence on Monday December 16^th.  While we are talking about beer – Udder Chaos has tapped.  This tasty quaffer is a stellar collision of milk chocolate, cocoa nibs & dark roasted coffee.  Created deep within the Milky Way this decadent, dark matter sports 8.9% ABV and 28 IBUs and is proudly served in our special tulip glass.  Did you know that dark beers, like Udder Chaos, are a great source of antioxidants?  Antioxidants reduce the risk of chronic conditions and certain forms of cancer.  Beer is also an excellent source of Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Phosphorus, Niacin and Folate.  Cheers to our health.  One more thing on beer, during December our guests who tip a Blonde Ale will not only improve their health, but we will donate $0.50 for every pint sold in December to Child’s Play.  We are proud to support Child’s Play again this year in their work to improve pediatric patients’ lives with therapeutic games and technology.  Play brings happiness and happy kids are healthier kids.

Continuing with the holiday spirit, we are excited to offer guests a special deal on gift cards from Black Friday till Christmas.  Buy a $50 gift card and get a $10 gift card free.  Wow!

                Ram guests love our Wagyu Burgers.  I have raved about Wagyu recently and you have delivered the message to our guests.  Thank you.  Keep it up.  We just ended our Wagyu sales contest and the results were stunning.  Thank you to all for your commitment.  The results show that a commitment to salespersonship is all it takes.  More to come shortly from Mark Patterson on the keys to our Wagyu success. 

Random Trivia: Do you know that ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) love margaritas?  More to come.

                Game On everyone.  Happy Holidays. Go get ‘em and Make ‘em Smile.

In the month of December, we say Happy Birthday to:  Murph Minor, Amanda Helmke, Georgia Bradley, Kristina Warrilow, Kelly Van Matre, Austin Iverson and Vincent Falcone.

Thank you very much to the following team members who celebrate significant anniversaries with their Ramily this month:  Kayla Whalen (5 years), Angelina Basile (8 years), Codi-Rei Pezario (8 years), Stacey Moon (20 years), Marquise Davis (5 years), Indra Ramirez Patricio (11 years), Payton Sutphen (6 years), Robyn Ortiz (9 years) and Mary Wawrin (17 years).  Thank you all very much.

“Excellence is not a spectator sport.  Everyone’s involved.”

~ General Electric

Buttface Amber Ale wins Silver Medal at the Great American Beer Festival!  This is huge.  The GABF amber category has well over 100 entrants and Buttface took second place.  High fives to the Ram brewing team.  Please ensure that every guest is greeted with this news.  Buttface is smooth and malty with caramel and toffee flavors with a balanced hop finish.  A perfect quencher all year but particularly fitting as the weather cools.  I am immensely proud of our beer and its superior quality.  Go Buttface!

                Speaking of quality, in October’s newsletter I wrote about our new A5 Wagyu burger patty.  To repeat, our new A5 Wagyu burger is the best tasting burger I have ever tasted.  In the short-time this has been on the menu we have seen Wagyu sales skyrocket.  To celebrate this signature item, we are launching a sales contest on November 4^th, running through December 1^st.  The contest is for sub Wagyu patties on burgers or add Wagyu on salads.  Grand Prize is six New York steaks and six Wagyu patties, a bottle of one’s favorite adult beverage, a growler of Big Horn Beer (Silver Medal Buttface Amber???) and a $50 Ram gift card.  Runner-up will take home a $50 Ram Gift Card.  The restaurant with the most combined sales will win 8 New York steaks and 8 Wagyu patties to be presented to your top broiler chefs, as well as a growler of their favorite Big Horn Beer.  Game On!

                Let’s talk about Ram’s social media presence.  Thank you to all the teams for sending in your Halloween pictures.  The pictures looked amazing and really made our posted stories standout on our Instagram and Facebook accounts throughout the night. Our engagement for Instagram is the highest it has ever been at 177 accounts engaged this month and our following has increased to 2,277 followers. For our social platforms overall, our total engagement is 12,500 and total audience is 52,793.  These numbers show we are moving in the right direction, step by step.  We are constantly brainstorming to come up with new ideas for quality content that draws more people in is a constant priority. It requires creativity, audience insight, and a willingness to experiment. I appreciate those of you who send Gabbie Torgerson your fun ideas and participate in helping her create great content to post. We are open to your ideas to grow our audience as you’re the ones interacting with our customers most often and know our target audience well.  By staying attuned to trends, engaging with followers, and focusing on authenticity, we can create compelling content that resonates and builds a loyal community. Please follow @theramrestaurant on Instagram, RAM Restaurant & Brewery on Facebook, and @theRAM on X if you haven’t yet. Please ask your friends and guests to follow as well.  Game on!

                In November we send happy birthday wishes to:  Beckey King, Michael Royster, Ray Rios, Dan Levingston and Sandy Graves.  Game On!

                A heartfelt “thank you” to the following team members who celebrate significant anniversaries with their Ramily this month:  Trisha Watkins (17 years), Aaron Perreira (7 years), Eileen Robins (8 years), Michelle Sutter (5 years), Anna Jacobson (12 years) and Norma Aguirre-Ortiz (8 years).  Thank you all very much.  Game On!

“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you.  Never excuse yourself.”

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Ask any wise person in this business what the keys to success are and they will undoubtedly tell you two things:  Gracious Hospitality and superior quality.  Those are the two things where my mind wanders to when I am driving around.  I think about those things lying in bed at night.  Much of the conversations with my immediate team members focus on Gracious Hospitality and superior quality.  Look at the previous newsletters.  The Ram is a zealot when it comes to quality.  We do not compromise quality – period.  The same can be said for Gracious Hospitality.  Opening doors, smiles, eye contact, menu knowledge, salespersonship and “thank yous” are our lifeblood – the roadmap for our journey to success.

                With that in mind, I want to talk about hamburgers for a minute.  We test a lot of food items and products.  Perhaps we are looking to improve an existing item.  Sometimes a product is discontinued, and we test potential replacements.  Someone will recount an item they had elsewhere, and we’ll test that.  New features are always being sampled.  You get the picture.  That brings me back to hamburgers, burger patties and specifically Wagyu burger patties.  The Ram is unique in that we offer our guests the option to enjoy a Wagyu beef patty.  We have done so for years.  It is a differentiator for us and one we are proud to serve.  Which brings me to our new A5 Wagyu burger patty.     

                This new A5 Wagyu burger patty will begin shipping to the restaurants around October 11.  Over the years, me and James have tested more burger patties than either of us can remember.  We test for taste certainly which is derived from the type of meat in the burger and the fat content.  We also test for things like tenderness which comes from the weave and compaction of the ground beef.  Our new A5 Wagyu burger patty is, without a doubt / not even close, the best tasting burger patty we have ever tasted.  In James’s words, “It’s made from uniquely special breeds of cattle such as Japanese Black, Japanese Polled, and Japanese Shorthorn. These cattle are raised in highly controlled environments and fed a specialized diet to ensure the highest quality of marbled beef. We are the first restaurant MacDonald meats services to introduce this special blended proprietary RAM Japanese A-5 Wagyu burger. The flavor is remarkable and the best you and our guest will ever taste!”   This will Make ‘em Smile and give our guests Reasons to Return.  Game On for sure!

                On the Gracious Hospitality front, I want to recognize a few recent standouts who epitomize our drive to create those memorable moments.  Hyunjun (Trevor) Jang joined the Issaquah team in February.  He just pocketed a $500 Amazon gift card for winning our Summer Guest Check Average Contest.  How did he do it?  Trevor is committed to “selling”.  He commented that, “you cannot be afraid to sell” and did not miss an opportunity to do so.  He quickly embraced and executed the Ram culture of Gracious Hospitality we expect from our team members.  Trevor became a guest favorite by giving a professional, yet personal touch with his service coupled with deep product knowledge.  When the contest started in June, he was not the early front runner.  In fact, he was towards the bottom of the list, but he continued to focus on selling a little more with each guest experience and gradually moved up the leaderboard.  GCA results were tracked and posted daily for all to see.  Trevor came in each shift and checked his previous shift’s GCA results, made a goal to increase GCA just a little bit and then most shifts he would exceed that goal.  By the final month of the contest, he had ascended to the top of Issaquah’s service team.  Trevor achieved his success by making the price irrelevant (remember “the better the service the less price is a concern”) through his Gracious Hospitality and professional touch and develop tools to increase each guest check through the skills of his salesmanship.  Game On Trevor!  On the same note, high fives to the team at the Meridian Ram for using the same tools winning our summer beer contest and to the Issaquah Ram team for winning our summer appetizer and dessert sales contests.

                One more thing, get your taste buds ready for our new Pizza Knots!

                This month we say Happy Birthday to:  Arely Flores Ramirez, Jennifer Meehan, JT Tsiantos, Matthew Sweeney, Stephan Douglass, Brandon Escovedo, Angie Nelson and Banger Smith. 

                A special thank you to those who celebrate significant anniversaries with their Ramily in October:  Amanda Rush (6 years), Joshua Tucker (15 years), Dawn Hammond (36 years), Rebecca King (8 years), Melissa Nielson (5 years), Lindsey Laidler (7 years), Gary Withers (6 years), Jennifer Borchers (19 years), Kristina Findley (8 years), Brandon Escovedo (7 years), Tim Bunch (26 years), James Cassidy (41 years) and Marty Hillis (28 years).  Thank you all very much.  Game On!

“Concentrate on finding your goal, then concentrate on reaching it.”

~ Michael Friedsam

As I glance out the window, this late August morning, I see a mother walking through the parking lot with her daughter who looks to be around eight years old.  The little girl is dressed for school, backpack and all carrying a few books in her arms.  That sight sets off a flood of emotions within me.  I recall the annual end of summer mornings when my wife would make our boys pose for a picture with their backpacks before getting in the car for their first day of school.  Those are happy memories and emotions for me.  The funny thing is, that quick little glimpse of a mother and her daughter heading to school, while invoking warm memories and emotions of my kids on their first day of class, was somewhat counterbalanced by a tinge of dread.  You see I dreaded going back to school.  As a kid I loved summer and did not want it to end.  Growing up, I never accepted the purpose of school – at least some parts of school.  When I turned 38 years-old a wise friend told me that “learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”  That was when I finally understood.  Think about that.

                My point is- we live our daily lives with choices.  We can choose to grow or choose to rot.  I choose growth.  The Ram chooses growth.  Growth for our businesses means making those positive impressions on each and every guest that creates those everlasting memories and indelible positive emotions.  Dropping those rocks and boulders every shift, every day, every week, every month and every year is the key to success.  Smile, open doors, make eye-contact, know the menu and beer list backwards and forwards, Ram beer table greets, suggest menu items, sparkling clean restrooms, tidy parking lots and landscaping, gator fries, spotless silverware, 100% recipe adherence, the right atmosphere, clean menus, sharp uniforms, high fives, praise pays, accountability and more.  That is cultivating loyal guests for life.  That is Ram.

                I want to take a quick moment to highlight our new, late-night happy hour (s) starting on August 30^th.  Sunday through Thursday we will be open till 10:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday we will be open till 11:00 p.m.  On Saturday and Sunday we will be offering Happy Hour from 9:00 p.m. to close.  Our guests have asked for this, and these new hours will offer increased exposure to younger guests be it millennials / gen y’s and an incredible opportunity to cultivate that younger generation into loyal Ram guests.  Build those bonds.  Create those indelible emotions.  Drop those Rock and Boulders.  Game On!

                In September we say Happy Birthday to:  Kevin Martinez, Grace Huntley, Alycia Kaeka and Tim Bunch.

                A special thank you to the following team members who celebrate significant anniversaries with their Ramily this month:  Jennifer Hunt (28 years), Karlie-Jean Schmidlkofer (8 years), Amanda Gomez (6 years), Stephanie Gilmore (5 years), Helen Ledger (7 years), Courtney Casey (11 years), Tony Magallanes Davalos (7 years), Daniel Nadasky (6 years), Patricia San Agustin (11 years), Ronis Zumba Jacobo (11 years), James Campolo (8 years),  Maria Zolotsev (8 years), Nicole Hull (5 years), Benjamin Garcia Cantoran (8 years) and Banger Smith (18 years).  Thank you all very much.

“Dedication to excellence on any level, in any area, requires an intensity of emotional investment.”

~Theodore Isaac Rubin