Page 20 - 914INC - Q1 2016

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Making Waves in
Westchester’s
Seafood Market
Eastchester Fish Gourmet has been one of the region’s top seafood spots for more than 30 years. No surprise that founder-owner Rick Ross knows just wEhat it takes to keep a company afloat. By Paul Adler
ven the most diehard business leader can’t say they wake up at 1 am to begin their workday— but Rick Ross can. That is when the devoted restaurateur heads to New York City’s Fulton Street Fish Market to pick up that day’s catch. With extensive praise from publications that include the New York Times, his longstanding seafood restaurant and market, Eastchester Fish Gourmet and Fish Market, have become county favorites. Below, Ross dishes on what it takes to remain a big fish in Westchester’s ultra-competitive pond.
What were some of your hopes and concerns when founding the restaurant?
My goal was to have a restaurant I could be proud of, where my employees would enjoy working and to which my custom- ers would return. Working for myself was also important to me. I worried about pay- ing the bills and keeping my customers satisfied. Running a restaurant, you just never know what’s around the corner, so you need to be flexible, and your staff has to be able to adjust, as well.
What does it take to maintain
a successful restaurant in Westchester?
Your staff is most important to your suc- cess—from the chef to the busboy to the dishwasher. We all have to work as a team, understanding that our goal is to make our customers happy. I’m fortunate that many of my staff members have been with me for a long time, especially in the kitchen.
How do you keep the
restaurant competitive?
I do so by ensuring that my staff provides feedback to the chef, manager, and others as to the good and the bad input from our customers. We also solicit feedback from our diners via comment cards, which I read and respond to personally when needed. We’ve been collecting comment cards for more than 10 years, so I have a
How did you get into
the restaurant industry?
One of my jobs out of college was working at Windows on The World, as the buyer of fish. I always knew I wanted to open a res- taurant and needed to learn from some of the best before I did. I saw that fish was get- ting more popular even back in the late ’70s as customers realized its health benefits.
What was the genesis of Eastchester Fish Gourmet and Fish Market?
I couldn’t afford to open my own restaurant, so I opened a retail fish store in
1981. In fact, I had two: one in Eastchester and one in Bronxville. The Bronxville store didn’t work out, because I didn’t have the right location, so I put all my energy into the Eastchester store, which was originally located where the restaurant is. We were busy, so I expanded to the adjoining store and created a casual seafood restaurant in 1987. With a lot of hard work, we decided to expand again and created a fine-dining seafood restaurant in 1997 and moved the fish market four doors down to its current location.
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Photograph by Stefan Radtke
POWER POINTS