Golden Fried Steinbach
(written July 30)
Sitting here just a few kilometres past the border into Ontario from Manitoba, I feel apprehensive and uncomfortable.
The past few days have been brilliant. Steinbach is a very special place for me, as it’s the home of Isaac Loewen and his family.
Isaac and I first met in 2012, when he came as part of the CMU Outtatown group to Squeah while I was leading the kitchen there. His plan for after the program was to study cooking, so during that brief time, we connected.
(isaac and julie)
Fast forward to 2014, less than a year into running 293 Wallace (what was my restaurant in Hope), an email came from Isaac, seeking a position to fulfill his practicum duties for his first year of school at Red River College. He would work for us for about four months, and what I remember most is a keen and motivated young individual, an open sponge ready to learn as much as he could and relentlessly accepting any and all challenges.
Throughout the years we have connected many times, whether visiting him in Winnipeg and eating at way too many restaurants in way too short of a time, his 6 (or so) month stint returning as a sous chef for 293 Wallace, his three months in Copenhagen where he stayed for a period at my place and got some international work experience, and being a groomsman at his wedding in the summer of 2018. With all those experiences, I’ve had the pleasure of having our relationship change from a mentor/mentee dynamic to truly a very special peer who I look up to very much.
His latest adventure has been a burger restaurant in Steinbach, called Golden Fried, and I’ve had the absolute pleasure of being able to walk portions of this journey with him, through our many phone calls together where he just shared about his successes and failures, and I get a chance to listen as he navigates through his first year of business.
(the menu board at Golden Fried)
Hanging out with the Loewen family is always such a rich experience. Isaac’s mother and father, Bonnie and Mark, seem to have endless experiences and lessons they’d like to share. I’ve always enjoyed connecting with Bonnie about spirituality, relationship dynamics, and leadership. With Mark, I always enjoy his travelling stories, drilling him with business questions, and learning to understand the intricacies in which he sees the world.
Julie, Isaac’s wife, is a partner and the lead baker for Golden Fried. In this season of their lives, she is quite busy at home, nurturing their newly born daughter, Quinn. Otto, Julie’s son, is always ready and willing to share his latest hobbies (at the moment, it’s Zelda), and is also a great companion for Ajah, Isaac’s adopted sister. Isaac’s brother, Jake, was also around, so it was a very busy time, as it always is there.
That being said, within that busy-ness, I always value the quiet and intentional moments, whether bright and early for breakfast and coffee with Jake and Mark, or a mid morning chat with Bonnie about book recommendations and life coaching. And no matter what’s going on in Isaac’s life at the time, we always end up having our late night chats around the fire, smoking cigarettes and talking about what’s going on in our lives.
(don't know if we fit the farmer look . . . though annika is closer than i am, i think)
There was also another reason for this trip, and that had to do with a request Isaac had made to me, that I lead a team building session for his team at Golden Fried. Though building a culture and a team within a restaurant has been something I’ve taken time to try and grow in, I had never led a session with team that wasn’t my own. So it was a stretching time, trying to navigate through whether the activites I had chosen were hitting the right marks, or whether the open discussion about mission statements and culture were sinking in.
The goal of the session was the allow the team to take a bit of a breath, to evaluate this crazy first year of being in business, and to put their fingers on what kind of culture they had developed together. It was interesting trying to find ways to walk the line between making sure I had things planned and trusting my intuition. I felt that at times, my plan got in the way of the magical moments that organically presented themselves, and it was tough to determine how much I should participate and when to just sit back and watch the team work.
There were some very valuable lessons learned, and I realized how much I enjoyed doing this kind of work.
(the golden fried team working together to re-evaluate the mission statement for their restaurant)
After a final evening of cooking dinner with Jake and hanging out with some friends from Winnipeg, we said our goodbyes the next day, having one last meal of burgers at Isaac’s place. Of course it was sad to leave, but it also felt weird. Up until this point, everything had a certain familiarity to it. Almost like a safety net. Venturing past Manitoba felt like pushing into the unknown, as silly as it sounds. It just seems unfamiliar.
So as I think through why I feel uncomfortable, it reminds me of how many things are up in the air right now. How many things are undetermined, how much unknown there is in my life. It also reminds me that I get nervous when I travel. I tend to imagine the worst possible outcomes for things, and then fear they will happen.
As these feelings and thoughts pass through me, I’m reminded of what Mark said to me while we had breakfast this morning. He said that he was always nervous before he went on a trip. But that nervousness is a good thing. It means that you are, in one way or another, pushing yourself.
I guess it’s time to push on.
(isaac's younger brother, jake)
