Wuollett Family Runs A Restaurant Trifecta

The Lure family includes, from left, Ben Ehlers, Jody and Patsy Wuollett, and Elli and Ryan Lapolla. Photos by Len Villano.

Jody Wuollett has come to the conclusion that genes play a role in personal destiny. He has seen it in action with his family before him, in himself, and in his own growing family.

“I’m sure there’s some genetic reason why you want to serve people,” he said recently while sitting at a table on the serene patio of his family’s latest venture, Lure, a new seafood restaurant at the unofficial start of the new Sister Bay as you come down the hill, in what was formerly known as the Mission Grille.

Jody mentions that his mother Carol’s side of the family served in many northern Door restaurant operations.

“So it’s not odd that we’re in the restaurant business. It’s just odd to have so many of them,” he said.

Lure is the third northern Door restaurant Jody has opened with the help of his family. After 25 years, Mission Grille owners Gary and Mary Ann Guterman decided to retire after the 2015 season, which got the family thinking about adding to their growing restaurant dynasty.

It began in 2012 with the opening of Chop in Sister Bay, and then adding Pasta Vino in 2013 at Maxwelton Braes Lodge in Baileys Harbor.

Photo by Len Villano.

Many things about the idea of a third restaurant were appealing to the family, not least of which is that the family worked there as servers and cooks when it was the Mission Grille. Back in the day, Patsy also had a cleaning service.

“I cleaned houses,” she said.

“I’d be willing to bet you at least 30 people who come in here have houses we cleaned while raising our kids,” Jody said.

“We used to clean this restaurant every day,” Patsy said.

“Guess what?” Jody said. “We still do.”

Sister Bay’s investment in itself was another major factor in making the decision to stretch the family over three businesses.

“Sister Bay has made a tremendous investment in what you see, especially when you come down the hill at night,” Jody said. “We wanted to be a part of that. We’re from here. My kids went to Gibraltar. We’re not headed anywhere else. It was really about trying to support three families with three restaurants.”

The three families are Jody and Patsy, son Ryan Lapolla and his wife Elli, and daughter Tori and her husband, Ben Ehlers. Ryan leads the Lure kitchen. Elli serves at all three restaurants. Ben is a December graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in economics and a minor in entrepreneurship. He and Tori were married in May.

That was another reason for pulling the trigger on a new restaurant.

“The kids were getting married, Ben and my daughter Tori,” Jody said. “He wanted to be in the restaurant business, even though he has a degree in economics.”

“I worked with Jody and Patsy here at Mission Grille waiting on tables,” Ben said.

Waiting tables summers while earning a degree in economics is one thing, but entering the restaurant business after earning said degree is something else.

“It was just an opportunity that I saw as best for me,” he said. “Jody’s already mentioned he wants to be first choice for a great job. I wanted to be a part of it. I could have stayed in Madison or gone a lot of different places. Giving me the opportunity to be part ownership here is something I really didn’t want to pass up.”

And his degree comes in pretty handy, making him a valuable member of the team.

“He does all of the costing of every item that comes in,” Patsy said.

“We didn’t just jump into this,” Jody said. “We spent a lot of time modeling this restaurant off numbers in history that we had. It played perfectly into what he actually knows how to do. The intriguing part for him, I think, I already understood the economics of the restaurant business. I could teach him to apply what a standard for food costs is and what acceptable margins would be and variables, and they’re always there. He has the big spreadsheets that go out to the road. We have labor calculated for every day of the season.”

“It was using what I learned the last 4½ years in Madison and keying that in specifically on the restaurant industry,” Ben said. “I believe we run our businesses smarter by budgeting and forecasting. We have a plan, approach and budget, and we stick with it.”

“Ben’s also taken over the bar. We call him our mixologist as well,” Patsy said.

“Because he was just in school and Madison is nothing if not about craft beer and cocktails. And he drinks the most,” Jody added.

Part of the planning process for the new restaurant had to take into account that their steakhouse Chop is just at the top of the hill among the Country Walk Shops in Sister Bay. They did not want to compete against themselves.

“We wanted a complimentary concept rather than direct competition,” Ryan said.

Jody Wuollett. Photo by Len Villano.

“What do you think you’re going to get at Chop? Mexican food? I doubt it,” Jody said. “Lure is kind of the same idea. It’s fish and seafood. It’s a niche we really felt after vacationing in the south, especially Florida. This is a very common type of menu where the flavors are a little more bright and tropical. And quite honestly, this menu was designed to be healthier choices. Simply prepared fish with sweet potatoes and a sautéed vegetable is about a 400-calorie meal.”

Ryan said the popularity of the local food movement is evident in the amount of fresh Lake Michigan whitefish ordered at Lure.

“Whitefish, without a doubt, has been the most popular,” he said. “We’re getting it the same day. It was literally swimming that morning. Charlie Henriksen is supplying all our whitefish. People have been understanding the local side of it, and our whitefish sales have been through the roof.”

For more exotic seafood, Ryan works with Dave Peterson of Ellison Bay Express.

“He’s running all of our fresh fish up from Chicago two times a week,” Ryan said. “What that does for us, it takes out two middle men from the equation in order to get that fish to us. It’s going straight from the Chicago fish market and up to us the same day. He’s hand picking all our fish for us. It really gets us the highest quality, freshest and fastest. People can tell. Grouper sales have done really well, too. That plays in with the seasonal people who spend winters in Florida. That’s what they like to eat down there.”

“The halibut is amazing. The mahi-mahi, the tuna. Everything’s fresh. People just love it,” Patsy added.

“Again, modeling and forecasting come into play in that part of it too,” Jody said. “We don’t freeze fish, so we have two choices – sell it or toss it. So we have to be careful as we go along and keep track of these percentages. That’s the spooky part about it.”

“These are high dollar fish coming in here, so it’s not a lot of wiggle room to play,” Ryan said. “But we’re getting it down. This modeling is coming into play in figuring it out.”

To someone outside the business, running three restaurants seems like it could become a grind.

“We’re only open for dinner at all three restaurants,” Jody said. “People think the restaurant business is a grind. Well, it’s a grind if you’re up at 7 flipping pancakes and boiling fish at 8 o’clock at night.”

“We are closing on Sundays, except for the holidays, so that we can all have our family time,” Patsy said. “We’re all in the business and we need that one day. That’s something we’ve never done.”

“That’s the other part of what we try to be, a first choice for a great job,” Jody said. “Being off Sunday after getting the shit kicked out of you Saturday night, it just makes everybody’s life a little better. Less stress. We never get the time to enjoy Door County the way we should.”

Jody points out that they have heard from customers who have done the trifecta of restaurants in a weekend.

“Quite a few people,” Ryan added.

“We should give them a prize,” Jody said.