Christin Marvin: 0:07

If you are curious about getting sober, but uncertain about what living a sober life would look like while working in the restaurant industry, then this episode is for you. Today we are talking with Cliff Blauvelt, Denver restaurant owner, about his journey to sobriety, how it's impacted the success of his restaurant Bodega, and how he's built a team of like-minded people. Welcome to the no Hesitations podcast, the show where restaurant leaders learn tools, tactics and habits from the world's greatest operators. I am your host, Christin Marvin, with Solutions by Christin. I've spent the last two decades in the restaurant industry and now partner with restaurant leaders to help them overcome burnout, increase retention, reignite their passion and drive successful businesses. I also work directly with restaurant leaders through one-on-one coaching and group workshops to help them identify their blind spots, build their confidence and overcome challenges in their business. If you're curious about learning more, visit my website at ChristinMarvin. com/ Contact to book a 15-minute goal-planning session.

Christin Marvin: 1:20

This podcast is sponsored by ScheduleFly. Schedulefly provides a simple, web-based and app-based restaurant employee scheduling software backed by legendary customer service. If you are using pen paper, excel or fancy scheduling software with tons of bells and whistles that you don't use, schedulefly is perfect for your business. When I was a regional manager handling seven locations. Schedulefly was our go-to for scheduling. It's a great platform that I've ever worked with and their employee scheduling tool is awesome for shooting out mass messages about crucial restaurant updates. Visit ScheduleFlycom and mention the no Hesitations podcast to learn more and get 10% off. I hope you enjoy this episode, cliff. We're so excited, I'm so excited to have you on the show today.

Cliff Blauvelt: 2:12

Thank you.

Christin Marvin: 2:12

Cannot wait to share your story. Welcome, how are you?

Cliff Blauvelt: 2:15

I'm well. I'm well, I'm ready for the holidays, I'm ready to see the family, I'm ready to move beyond them and get to the new year and just keep moving. It's hard because you have these goals set up. It really is funny. I think for me it was a lot of your first of the year, or these are your new. I'm sorry I forgot what they're called your resolutions. That's it. You have these resolutions. But it really is a good time also for us to like really take a look back at what we've done and then reestablish that and move forward. Then, I think, with everybody, it's setting up your goals and getting your budgets and all those sort of your finances in order, so that way these can just run smoother. With information, this is our first year we get that actual historical data that we can look at. So we're good, we're in a good place and we're excited to be doing really the ownership sort of things and focus on the business and really see what is working and what we can do better.

Christin Marvin: 3:16

Yeah, it's so exciting that you've gotten through your first year. You've had some great success, which we're going to talk about here in just a little bit, and now there's this maybe some nervousness and uncertainty around. What does the next year look like? And it sounds like, from the economy thing you and I were just talking, it sounds like there's some good signs headed your way, but there's also a ton of competition in the Denver market and continues to be so excited to really give the listeners more of an insight into who you are and why you're doing what you're doing at Bodega and why they should come see you and have some delicious, delicious food for sure. So would you start by kind of taking the listeners through your journey to sobriety?

Cliff Blauvelt: 3:59

Sure. So I had, you know, I want to go to culinary school after college or, I'm sorry, after high school, and that wasn't like a real, a real degree back then being a chef. So what I kind of did is I just went through college, you know, it was I just I just got in the restaurants and I started like cooking on my own, learning on my own, while I was doing this real job training in this university that, you know, never really panned out, because it's not what I want to do in the first place. But I found, like kitchens and the thing with the kitchens was like I wanted to be a cook but I didn't realize the lifestyle behind it or any of that stuff, Cause obviously back then we didn't have all this information or fingertips, you didn't really know what was going on. So once I kind of landed in the kitchens, at that point it really struck that like these were my people, this is what I was meant to do.

Cliff Blauvelt: 4:46

It was a little bit of a, you know, this pirate atmosphere, like we could just do what we want, you know, drinking and hanging out and, like you know, creating these relationships with like-minded individuals, you know, from all sort of aspects of life like it's not, you know, it's certainly not your upper echelon, it's not the lower echelon, it's just like you get people from everywhere, where you get it's kind of a cool little melting pot of you know people who are in college trying to get degrees in the front of the house, so all this sort of fun stuff. But with that being said too, it's like you work hard, you play hard and you kind of build these relationships, but those are that turns into your family, these restaurants, every single one and I was, you know, I spent 10 years with the secret sauce with Stevens. So you spend 10 years with people. Yeah, you really like you develop these like serious, like long-term relationships, like family. But you know, with through that, there was a lot of this. What you do, this, what you're supposed to do, you're supposed to when you get in trouble, your forgiveness is a, you know, a shot. When you do well, you're you get a shot. When you anything, it's just it was very surrounded by that.

Cliff Blauvelt: 5:47

It was also back in the years, if you think of like the early, like Cochon and stuff, where it was like pork, whiskey, those sort of things, and I was just those were the trends and that's what we did. I had always kind of like party throughout high school and stuff like that too, to the point of like I put myself in some compromising situations. And you know, I was going through a, I was doing the training for the peer support, specialist training and for that certification for that. And during that I was talking about how I was kind of like jumping around couch to couch or like living here, living there, and so somebody mentioned they're like, oh well, you're homeless. And I was like, well, no, I wasn't homeless. Like I had a play, like no, you didn't have a home, you were homeless. And I was like, oh yeah, I guess I was, but I didn't think about it, I just thought this was normal. I, for me, it's just like I kind of made these things, that they seemed normal in my life and that was just how I was living, but to the extent of like, okay, when does that become unnormal? Right, and I had done really well with work, I had succeeded, I had been, you know, moved up in the ranks and I had, you know, I was successful, and I was successful while being drunk and whatever else you know was mixed in there too at the times. So I was, I was fortunate to where I could like make it all work together.

Cliff Blauvelt: 7:13

But you know, as you know, time goes on. You start losing friends, you start losing coworkers, whether it be to death or whether it be to you got to fire them. All those sort of things all kind of play a role in it and you're just, you still just continue to move because it's what you're supposed to do and this is you're supposed to work 70 hours and you kind of wear this chip on your shoulder like no, we work, we play hard, we do these things. And you kind of think that you're a badass and in a sense you are, but it's also like so destructive and you don't realize the destructiveness. But you're like no, I can get to out of the sleep and go to work, I can do all these things and I can be successful and I can be a chef and I can be well known and I can be all these things. But the reality is like you were just drinking to kind of mask the tiredness. You were just drinking as a crutch. You were drinking as a way to get through a lot of these other things in your life.

Cliff Blauvelt: 8:07

You know, and I discussed with my family a lot about Christmas and holidays since we're kind of there too what they didn't. They thought I was like not coming home because, like I wanted to hang out and party with my friends, where I thought I wasn't going home because this was like I was um, you know I was, I was just committed to my craft and I wanted to be at work and I wanted to do these things through the holidays and that's what you were supposed to do back then and that's what, like you know, only maybe the chef got off and everybody else worked. Um, so I just kind of thought of that was more of like what I was supposed to be doing in the long or like now, looking back, I realized that maybe some of it was me not wanting to go home because I did have to pull it together and not drink as much. But, um, again, I just I sort of just thought these were, this was just how the world worked, and I thought that everybody drank and I thought everybody did the same things that we did. But you know, I had an opportunity, like after 10 years, with um Stevens, where I moved to a Ruba and opened a restaurant, and with an American couple.

Cliff Blauvelt: 9:05

They were uh, they they didn't necessarily they had run a shack on the beach and they were selling brawlers and they had killed it. They did super. It was super popular. And then they wanted to get in a full service restaurant where they kind of brought me on. So as a general manager, chef, um, moving to a Ruba wasn't necessarily, it was also an escape. I just got in like a DUI and I found a way out of doing a lot of this stuff here and that was also my third DUI, just so we can talk about that Um. But so that was my third DUI. I we shouldn't had jail time attached to it did that. Um had two, two years of probation, had a bunch of uh classes and those sorts of stuff. But I kind of whizzed my way through the system, was able to get my jail time done really quick, moved to Ruba, had a private counselor, the drug testing and all that sort of stuff. I kind of whizzled through the system and um kind of went unnoticed and so whenever that whole thing.

Cliff Blauvelt: 9:55

So, ruba, I moved on with a wife too. But it's a party place and that's all you do again and everybody who comes and visits just keeps coming they. It's a very interesting um vacation place where people are like this is my 30th time here. Uh, they just like just keep coming back. They all have time shares, they have this sort of stuff. So you get to develop these relationships with friends. Well, they become friends, um, you know, and so again, it just keeps, continues to go on right.

Cliff Blauvelt: 10:21

So just like that, um, my wife and I at the time ended up. You know, it just wasn't. It wasn't healthy for anybody, it wasn't healthy for me, it wasn't healthy for her, it wasn't healthy with my relationship with alcohol. Things just kind of continue to progress. Um, so, but after a while we also realized that like, maybe I couldn't get my permit because of this DUI that I had back in the United States. So after about 18 months it was just kind of like lost its luster. I'm like this isn't fun, this is like we should go home.

Cliff Blauvelt: 10:54

Um came home and really realized like I had I had four months left for this probation that I had from the DUI before I left. So I had to be sobered. I was forced into like not being able to drink. I was forced into no, I wouldn't say forced, I was. I had terms on this probation, that I had to come, that I had to go along with Um, I wasn't forced, I've, I was the idiot in this whole thing, um, but so whenever I came back, I, you know, reenrolled I'm not the, the drug to like the, the UA's and all that sort of fun stuff that goes along with it and I was like, okay, you have to get this figured out because you have four months Um, so I quit, I quit everything and then came back and was just like this is what I'm doing.

Cliff Blauvelt: 11:33

My wife ended up leaving me about the first week that we were back in the country. Uh, I was like living in a house, my house that I bought, you know, before it moved. Um, but it sounds like living in my house. But everything was in a shipping container. I had a bloat mattress and a computer and that was it, and basically a suitcase.

Cliff Blauvelt: 11:51

Um, I really struggled with. Bomo is a real thing. I, I just I struggled with being alone. I think the the issue with being alone was the reality was it was scary and then having to be with your own thoughts and not being able to drink and not being able to do drugs and not be able to. So I was forced to basically sit in my apartment for my house for four months, um, you know, eventually my stuff came from Aruba, so like I got some more comforts of um trying to like create a home, um, but again it was without my my wife at that point it was ex-wife, um, so there was just a lot of other things.

Cliff Blauvelt: 12:26

When I started a job, I was the cornering director for the um cornering creative group, so the tap and burger and all I did is I just worked. I basically just like put my head down and just like worked and that was like really my main focus to help get me through some of this. Um, I ended up losing it, like, I got pretty healthy I don't know if it was healthy Um, I ended up losing a hundred pounds, I, probably depression, probably not drinking, probably a lot of those sort of um things that go along whenever you just have these drastic life changes right. So so it was. It was hard, it was messy and I was forced to be alone. I was forced to deal with a lot of things. I was forced to deal with the fact that, you know, I'd probably ruined my marriage, um, or alcohol. My relationship with drugs and alcohol had led to a lot of things.

Cliff Blauvelt: 13:09

And then, at all, kind of like I don't know if like your moment of clarity, um, I, you know, I've I never really had like a rock bottom, even being homeless I didn't really have a rock bottom. I just kept going and kept going. But I think that I had this moment of oh my gosh, um, everything that's ever bad that's happened to me. Well, there's been a common denominator, or like in its booths, and it was easy to be able to stop and point the finger at that. And so this, after those four months of like self reflection, work, um, growth, all that sort of fun stuff force growth, which isn't nearly as fun as like self growth. It's like actually like trying to do the work to to become better, but you're forcing, you're forced into that Um. But so I was able to like realize where the problem lied.

Cliff Blauvelt: 14:00

But, of course, now, four months goes by, your off probation, you probably started drinking again, right? So, and then me, I and this sounds horrible, cause it is, but I, so I had three DUIs, I couldn't stop drinking and driving, um, I don't know why. I don't know why I never, like, whenever I was drunk, I was like, no, we're going to drink and drive, or it doesn't matter to get in the car, we're going, um so. But I remember at one point thinking about selling my car that I just purchased because that was going to stop me from getting a DUI, and I was like if? And then it really hit me that, like this is where you live in your head, that you think selling a car is a better solution. And you're running three restaurants and building the fourth and you think selling your car is a better solution than not drinking. So I had, I just started dating somebody who had also just gone through a lot of her own personal growth, including she hadn't been drinking.

Cliff Blauvelt: 15:00

So whenever our paths cross, of course you know, naturally you take two alcoholics, put them together who are on and off, you start drinking. Then you kind of start going down this other road and at that point she was around and I realized about this, like selling the car situation, and we both just came to the conclusion. We're like, well, what's more important right now? Is our relationship more important or is drinking more important? Because we can't have both.

Cliff Blauvelt: 15:23

Um, and I came to the reality of, you know, I didn't, I didn't want to say I was an alcoholic. I didn't want to say any of these things. I didn't want these labels because they just sound scary, horrible. Also, I don't like admitting that I have weaknesses and that I can't take care of it or do it on my own. Um, so I essentially you know I had to live in now at this point I she had moved in, I had to live in partner and we just stopped drinking together and that was awesome to have that support. And then, you know, just like, built in there, you kind of have it. We went to some child meetings, we went to AA meetings, we went to every meeting you can think of, because we just wanted to see what it was, what it was like, where the support was, where the communities are, how to um learned to like, try and open up about this.

Cliff Blauvelt: 16:09

Uh, again, I really struggled with having, um, yeah, a weakness or some sort of problem or issue with alcohol, to the point where I came up with a way of saying, like this is why I don't drink, versus like I'm an alcoholic. It was like I just can't have a healthy relationship with alcohol and I know that, so I choose not to. Um, now, I don't care. Yeah, sure, I'm an alcoholic, yeah, I can't drink like a normal adult, so I don't, and that's I don't get to, and that's also fine, um, but it took a long time to get to that piece as well, or to like have that much self awareness and or peace, and or to be able to give up and be like, yeah, I've got a, I've got a problem with drugs and alcohol and I just can't do them. Um, I mean, I quit smoking like two or three times during all this and that was super hard to.

Cliff Blauvelt: 16:54

But why? You're kind of like going through everything. There's just all these other struggles and everything is like a struggle, and I never thought I was going to have fun again. I thought my life was over. I thought drinking was like a personality trait and that everybody expected me to be drunk and that I was always this wild, crazy, fun, human, um, who honestly, like didn't give a shit about anything else. I wasn't. I was.

Cliff Blauvelt: 17:17

I was drinking to be something that I thought I had to be, versus learning how to be who I was and like being accepting of, of who I was as an actual like really like nice, kind, caring, loving person, and I was trying to be this like badass um, that that I'm not Um, but I thought that that's who I was and it. You know, that was at least 25 years of my life of like drinking to be someone that I thought was cool or somebody that I thought people liked or something else, before I finally got to the point of like no, this is okay, but that all. Really, it doesn't happen overnight. It was super hard and it sucked. It was horrible. It was. I went through seven months of like thinking again where I was like never going to have fun. That fun was over. I was never going to have fun. I didn't. That was it Like. It was just like no, this is you just have to learn how to live a boring life.

Christin Marvin: 18:11

It's. It's interesting. I'm resonating with so many things that you're saying right now about changing your relationship to alcohol, really understanding why it's a part of your life in the first place and thinking that it is really a part of who you are. It's not who you are, it's what you do right, and it takes some time to separate that.

Christin Marvin: 18:27

But when you stop drinking, you have to figure out how to fill that void in that time, and boredom is, so is like, apparent everywhere. How did you I mean, I can't imagine being in your, in your home for four months With your mattress and your computer before your stuff showed up and you actually had something to be hands-on to do to fill some time how did you, how did you overcome that boredom?

Cliff Blauvelt: 18:55

Um, well, I think the reality was like I had to get through, I had to get rid of this, like through this, like end of this Fulfilling the probation aspect, and so I knew that I had to do it. It wasn't a matter of like, well, you can screw this up, because if I screwed it up I was going to jail for a year. So I have like that fear of because I don't, jail sucks and it's not fun, and like the idea of a year in jail is like the furthest thing I've ever like wanted to do in my entire life. I would probably run out of this country never, ever come back on. It was just the fear of that alone kind of kept me out of that. But you know it's hard because it's like all of your friendships in the restaurants, like that that's what they're doing, is they're going to the bar. So you can't you you kind of lose those friendships because you can't go to the bar, or I Just didn't trust myself go bar and it just didn't seem like a place I needed to be anyway. But so it was really tough to have to like I was like forced to sit and be quiet and like Deal with a lot of them, especially, like you know, going through the divorce as well. So I had I had plenty of really negative things to To just work through and kind of figure out. So I just kind of focused more in on that. Like you know, what was, why was I here? What did I do? What did I? You know, how did I deserve this, what it was? So I kind of, like you know, went through the guilt phase of first, but then I really started getting like comfortable with being alone, which I had never been alone because, like I've kind of gone, been in relationships for most of my adult like life, so it was just a learning how to be alone. But then, yeah, what do you do? So it is a lot of. I was fortunate I just started a new job, so I really just dove into the job. But again, we're taking like one addiction for another right. So you're just kind of like, okay, this is what I do and this is actually what my wife, my current wife, did too. Is she? She turned drinking into cardio, so she does cardio, that's one of her things that she does. But also, now that we're beyond that hump, you kind of realize like these were things we were doing for, also for ourselves and for our self-help and for our self-love and that sort of stuff. There was started.

Cliff Blauvelt: 21:06

You know you, you go through those first like three months of like ups and downs with Attitude, energy. You get to the third month or you're like I'm doing so great, you know your, your body like lies to you. You're doing so great, you should probably have a drink. You should probably reward yourself. You should probably and so I've, I've probably been going through these like and I've also.

Cliff Blauvelt: 21:26

Here's the Truth is, I've been trying to be sober for about 20 years. I can say on and off of like cool, not drinking. Six months as long as I made that I started drinking again. But it is that this is what my friends do, this is what I do. So, chow is helpful being able to see that there were like-minded people or like-minded individuals trying to find a way to also Help others and like explain my story was good and I think being able to get like the word out.

Cliff Blauvelt: 21:57

You know I've done some consulting and during this consulting that made some really strong friendships with people that have quit drinking since. So being able to tell the story and then, but I think the biggest thing is like really, it's like what can I do to continue like making myself better? And then some of that was just like Starting, like looking more into leadership, looking more in leadership books, looking more into personal growth, like all these other Things. Hobbies, though like I started snowboarding at 40. Like, for I've lived here for 30 years. I was just too home over to everyone to go. Yeah, but yes, I started like snowboarding and started playing golf again.

Cliff Blauvelt: 22:36

I started like the things that Became less important because alcohol was more important and alcohol is really right things I went back to and then I really realized I'm like, oh my god, I love snowboarding like I've never. I can go up by myself, I can do my own thing, I can be happy, I can have this time alone. But it's really really hard to get there, like that part was, it just seemed immelet and the list to like.

Christin Marvin: 23:03

get to this point of like where you're just okay being, being, being, being yeah, and it's interesting, right, when you drink for so long and it feels so much of your time and it's set, it is your primary hobby. That's how it was for us. Yeah, you have to start really learning what you enjoy doing all over again, and that takes time and trial and error, right.

Cliff Blauvelt: 23:24

Yeah, and like, fortunately, like cooking was always been something I've loved to do, so to be able to like and I also, I really like to work, I I just feel like it just makes me a better person and it like I, just I just like it, I like working, I like being a leader, I like cooking, I like being a chef, I like helping other people, I like all those things. So, you know, being able to continue on that path and be able to do those things I love, like I've I've never people like, oh you know, do you cook at home? I'm like, yeah, I cook at home all the time because I love cooking. Like, does my wife cook? No, I would never. Like I cook Because I love it. So I'm fortunate.

Cliff Blauvelt: 24:00

But like I want I worry about that and wonder about that with others, though, if you don't have that passion, if you don't have that, that, that are like trying to find like the community, to like that's one I struggle with with. So, just nowadays, it's like what is my community? And like I'm fortunate I have my wife. A lot of people don't have that, you know, they don't have their partner, they don't have those sort of things. So it is that trying to figure out? Like I, you know, I think I'm just working with some people in my staff and it's like, how do I get them to find that community outside of work too? Because like, yeah, we work together and yeah, we're creating something bigger, but it's still they go home to their house and they've got to deal with those things and they have to be alone. And you can, how many times somebody says like, oh, it gets better. You're like, don't say that. Like just don't say I don't, everyone, I know it doesn't, it's never gonna get better.

Christin Marvin: 24:52

And like, but it does, yeah, I can't tell anybody that yeah. What was it like for you to go back to work when you were sober? Because there there is that, there is that culture right, that everybody hangs out together Sometimes you drink during work, right, or you go out.

Christin Marvin: 25:10

You, you always go out after work together, and for me in a leadership position, it was a little easier for me to separate myself and say I'm not gonna go, but there were moments where I could never imagine working in the restaurant industry and not drinking right. And what was that like for you to go back into Work and be sober and talk about it? Were there some nerves there?

Cliff Blauvelt: 25:31

Yeah, and so I was fortunate where I had come on to Tappenberger, they had a chef who's doing some consulting. He is 10 years sober. I don't know if he ever wants me to say his name or not, but he, he was in your sober, so he, I got to kind of work directly with him for a little bit and that was a good one to just have like immediately. And also, starting in a new restaurant where, say, they didn't know who I was, they didn't know my, they didn't know drunk cliff or who I thought I was. So they, it was easier that way to like be completely removed from People that already have these expectations, or who know who you are, or these like no, that's just cliff, this way does he drinks, he parties, he's fun, he's wild, he's those things.

Cliff Blauvelt: 26:17

But so got to start somewhere different and just be like no, this is who I, kind of who I am, but going home, so that's a thing, though, right, it's like you, when you're done with work at five, you know, because it's and the culinary director position was more of a kind of a nine to five and then wherever needed, throughout the day sort of role.

Cliff Blauvelt: 26:36

So, like some days, you're done at three, right, and you go home, but then that's where it's like hard, right, because then you have to go home and be by yourself, whereas usually you're off at three and there's somebody at the bar you can go sit and drink with. Not having access to that or not being able to do that Certainly made me also understand, in the leadership role of this is really what you should be doing, not, but also like I'm single now, right, because my wife had left me, I'm trying to like find people to talk to, to date women Whomever may be, to like have some sort of relationships with or, you know, just like learn it how to date or whatever I was trying to figure out at the time. But a lot of that's also surrounded by boots.

Cliff Blauvelt: 27:20

Yeah, you know, if you're like going out on a date with somebody and being sober is like the scare, one of the scariest things in the world. Or was Trying to kiss somebody sober, like trying it, like holds them in hand, like any of those sort of Intimacy things within dating, within a partner sober was super scary. So a lot of it really turned into like first, which became exciting though, because then, you're, I was like really relearning how to live, even though I didn't know that that's what I was doing and I thought I was just torturing myself, honestly. But so I was fortunate enough to where I could start sober and be with sober people. But then I jumped out of that because four months after then I started drinking with the staff again and all those sort of things started happening.

Cliff Blauvelt: 28:03

And then I could see the disc like the disconnect there too, or the connect. That wasn't the good connect, it was a oh yeah, this guy is fun, he likes to party. Oh yeah, this guy, you know. So then having to like stop all that again, re-establish those Again. It's you think people care more than you do, like they don't care if you drink or not. I'm the one who has the issue with it, and I was the one who had to, like, figure out how to deal with that because, yeah, the staff thought it was fun, I drank for the month with them, but like they didn't care whenever I stopped. Yeah, you know, yeah, what was the moment for you?

Christin Marvin: 28:42

Where you decided. I'm gonna lean into this and and really focus on being sober. Honestly, it was.

Cliff Blauvelt: 28:56

It was kind of the. It was the moment with my partner and us realizing that things were just messy. And then, with the driving and the car situation, that's where I was like what are you doing? This seems like it's taking over things in your life. And again it was that back to that, like anytime I've ever been in trouble with the law or anytime I've ever been in jail or anytime any of these things have happened, it was all alcohol. So once I kind of like realized that that's when it was like why don't you just try and stop and just see what happens? Like I got sober for four months, really got healthy, started with like good habits, started meditating, started finding other things to kind of like enrich my life, and then went back to the bad. And then that's like the second went around, back to the bad. I was getting drunk or way faster, I was blacking out two or three drinks.

Christin Marvin: 29:50

You go right back to where you were drinking level wise. It's like crazy.

Cliff Blauvelt: 29:54

I like went back and it was like twice as bad, like three times bad. And every time I've gone back I've now noticed that, like you go back and it hits you even harder, to the point of, yeah, I mean I was definitely blacking out, I was just getting sloppy and I just realized, like this isn't who I want to be. So I just again. I've been fighting with sobriety for 20 years I think I finally with a partner that was actually very willing, understanding and also had her own issues. We liked the same things, which wasn't great, because you know you go out and you drink and then next thing, you know it's like wherever that leads you down the road that evening and it was we would we also were very jealous of each other. We're like, if she had a shot, I would have to have a shot, you know, and it was just like. So it really had the potential to be very destructive. We were somehow we were able to realize that, like what was more important, like our relationship or drinking, and that's kind of where we pulled together and decided like, okay, let's stop. But it took about seven months beyond that to really realize that like again, I thought I was never going to have fun, all these things. But then one day it just like clicked and I was like holy shit, like you're actually like living life, like you're creating memories, you're making memories, you're going to remember these things. Everything became a lot more worthwhile. It became less muddy, everything became easier.

Cliff Blauvelt: 31:24

And that's when it really stuck and I was like I'm never going to do that again, like I can't, like I just I can't go back to that because it was too hard. Like everything was hard, like being hungover, like the shame over is. Like what did I do, if you like? Looking back and I said, like waking up and like meeting a shot just to kind of get moving and to get through, or a shower, beer or whatever excuse you had for these things.

Cliff Blauvelt: 31:47

It all kind of made sense, but it just took a lot of time away from it and it took a lot of time of learning how to deal with these feelings I now have. Because that's the thing that sucks. It was, all of a sudden, these things that you've been putting away putting away putting away with drugs and alcohol or whatever it may be are now there and you've got to somehow face them and like it's hard because like it would be easier just to drink and let that go away, but it's still going to come back. So we were just really really lucky that we both had just kind of. It was to the point where we just had enough.

Christin Marvin: 32:23

Yeah, and tell me about from that moment where did bodega come from? How did like, where did that thought come from? When did you realize like okay, I can open my own business now.

Cliff Blauvelt: 32:36

So I've been, you know I've been fortunate where I got to work with like a lot of like really successful operators, you know, and you know, and I've been in cooking in Denver for over 20 years, so it's like you get to see all you know.

Cliff Blauvelt: 32:48

I came up way back in the day with you know, with, like Matt Selby and those guys and like getting to see that group of chefs and then see the younger group of chefs and you know, you just get. You get to learn a lot and you get to see a lot and you get to see how people operate and how they do things. And then you get to see the good and you get to see the bad and one of the things that like really realizes that, like you know, as a having just being a single owner, you can kind of you have control to do whatever you want, right? I saw a lot of successful wellness programs that people were trying to. You know, secret sauce was kind of the leading in the pack of this like sober week Now it's called healthy living week and like being able to see some of these other really cool aspects that you can do beyond, you know, if you're successful and if you can afford it and if you can do all these other things, because none of that stuff is cheap, like if you're juicing, that all costs money. But so I got to see the good and the bad behind it. But I got to see where, like, actual funds, like from fundraisers, can go and where they should go and all those sort of things. So you kind of get to learn those things and I was just like all right, I've gotten to see how to run this the way that I would want to run it.

Cliff Blauvelt: 34:06

And you know, and I had people that you know one of the things that people say is like well, you understand, when you have your own business, people say that to you a lot. Right, and I was just like no, I don't think I will, like I'm going to do it my way, it's going to work, and I was ballsy enough to think that that was actually true. But, with that being said, it's like I really wanted to care because, like one thing I've learned throughout my entire like leadership with past chefs, with all the good people that you worked for, is like the development of the staff and the development of the team, bringing people along with you, getting people like, how do you motivate people, getting people motivated and how do you keep them there with these jobs? And even if it is, you know, maybe not this ultimate fine dining chef job that they want, but you can still like get them motivated and get them into this job and like have them, you know, active and, just, you know, be being a part of the team. And that's where I like really realized that I had something that was kind of cool that people liked me and people like wanted to follow me, and so with that too, I was like, okay, well, we all know we have all these problems, we've all seen these.

Cliff Blauvelt: 35:12

You know the Anthony Bordains, you know the chef's die, all these things is like what, if we just try and do it a little bit differently? It doesn't have to be yeah, there's profit involved, yeah, you have to be able to pay your bills and yeah, you have to make money. And yeah, if you want to grow, all those things are super important too. But what I realized is, like a one soul owner, I don't have to split profits with anybody. I don't have to. I don't have investors, I don't have to pay off anybody else. I don't have any of these other things, that the loans I have or loans that I got. Everything is on me.

Cliff Blauvelt: 35:40

But, with that being said, I can take some of that, since I'm not splitting it 50-50 with another owner. I can put some of this money back into this team and continue to create just a better, healthier environment that people really care about and that people really do, because how many people are like, oh, we care so much. It's in everybody, every single restaurant where it's worth. It's in their mission statement about how much they care for their staff. Whether or not they do is on them. It's on paper, but it's almost like you have to say that now like no, we care, but do you really like? I don't know if you do, I just I wanted to make sure that people could tell that I actually cared. Yeah, yeah, I wanted to do something that wasn't really out there and it's not that isn't out there. There's plenty of places that also do it well. Yeah, there's some places that do it well.

Cliff Blauvelt: 36:30

I just wanted to bring something, but the booze thing was a big one for me, because it's me and my wife Kara the partner. She's also. You know, we've gone on this path together and it was just like, how can we bring this? Like, how do we really get people jobs at, aren't happy with where they are, or alcohol is a problem, or it's a trigger, or it's there or you know all these things. So that was a big one for us.

Cliff Blauvelt: 36:54

Now is a big thing with, like, becoming a peer certified peer support specialist. I really wanted to walk the walk, talk, to talk. If people had problems, we could talk to them. Hey, this is where you need to go. Let me get to these right places. Just having an actual experience and knowledge of what happens throughout with mental health is a big thing, mm-hmm. And we just want I want to make sure like I knew what I was talking about, I understood what people were saying whenever they have these like, whatever it may be, if disorders or whatnot, just that we, we had a home for people and it's kind of funny, like I mean I think they 10 out of 15 of our staff they don't drink right now. How did you?

Christin Marvin: 37:32

find those people.

Cliff Blauvelt: 37:34

Some of them found me. They've heard through the grapevine we I don't whenever we put out like fregz or any ads, um, indeed, whatever we Probably you say that we're a recovery, friendly work work environment. I think that's a big one. I've had a lot of people reach out being like hey, I'm struggling at this current job. If you have a position of love, like I want to be in the restaurants, I just don't know where to find a home. So Some of the also being in the restaurant for so long and everybody knowing me as this like one Human being that drank and partied but still like and I've always been a reasonable person, like I'm not a yell or not a screamer, I don't throw stuff, I don't treat people poorly, I always have a treat people with respect and that sort of stuff. So that also helps to like bring staff in because they know, they know how you, how you respond to things.

Cliff Blauvelt: 38:25

But a lot of them was, you know, they heard through the gate, find they had friends. Um, you know, we I don't hesitate to put it up if we're hiring, like put things up on chow. Uh, we don't have a problem with hiring, which is also, I think, kind of says it kind of speaks for itself as to what we're doing, because you know, everyone's like, well, are you short staffed? I'm like no, we're over staffed. Are you, you know? Are you having a problem finding people? I'm like no, we're not, and like we're paying a little bit more than most and like we are offering really good benefits. Um, just because it is part of the deal, like if you really do care, you really should do those things. So it was just. I think it all is kind of proofs in the pudding, really, and that's where people see it.

Christin Marvin: 39:09

Yeah, I and you've mentioned chow a couple times and I want to let it, let the listeners know I'll put in resources at the Just in the description of the episode here. But chow is a beautiful organization. I'm lucky to be on the board. But they offer mental health and substance abuse resources for the hospitality industry. So you can go to chow co co dot org for resources. They have free meetings every single day. They have women's meetings, um, men's meetings, mixed meetings In zoom or on zoom am in person, but they they offer a tremendous amount of resources, um cliff. I want to get back to Something that is kind of clicking for me right now. It sounds like Do you think that your retention of your employees is tied to this healthy lifestyle?

Cliff Blauvelt: 39:54

Um, you know, I think it helps. I do think that having alcohol in the workplace, as far as and I know a lot of places are moving away from it, and this was, you know, a lot of just my experience in the past but it does make things messier. It does, you know, create other issues. It does, you know, even to the point of, like people having drinks somewhere else and coming back to work, all those sort of things. So we just kind of eliminated it. You know, we're just like, it just isn't part of our culture, it isn't what we do. Even like our parties and stuff, we don't provide alcohol. Uh, and like I don't care if people drink and also, you know, like we do, we've done you know other like off-site events and if, like, somebody wants a beer, they can have a beer. I don't care. It's not. That's not really the issue, it's just more of the. It was just almost a way of like A different lifestyle, and so, like we, our hours are eight to three, two, so we have people that don't drink, also don't want to work late, and that was a big thing is like I, I the originally our hours could be eight to eight because I didn't want to work past eight and I don't want to ask anybody do anything that I don't want to do. So I was like I don't want to be up until past eight o'clock at night, so I'm not going to and I think people like understand that too Like I'm not going to Ask you to do things like I would never do. Um, but I do think that we've simplified like we have like really good benefits like everybody, if you're full time you get we pay for half of your insurance. Um, you know, access to the mental health. We pay for all of your vision and dental. So like we just like keep adding these things up onto and they're basically kind of balled into our wellness program. But I think that alone for Especially cooks, is like a big one to have Access. All these.

Cliff Blauvelt: 41:33

Um, we like said again, we pay more than most and it's just like we. Also it's fun, like I just want people to have fun. They want people to come to work. The joke was like I just want to do I built the restaurant to do hoodwretch in the kitchen with my friends. Like that was the joke and it was, it was a reality. Like that's what I want.

Cliff Blauvelt: 41:51

I want to build a kitchen where friends can come in, we can all cook, have fun. It's a collaborative kitchen. Everybody can do Whatever they want. They have a say I mean within reason but we all work on the same things. If somebody brings a project or an idea for a sandwich, we all will sit down and work on it and we'll talk about it 10 different ways. Whether we go back to the original it could be, but it's uh. The environment itself is Everybody's involved, and I think that also means a lot too when it comes to cooking and food, versus this hierarchy of chefs who probably you're drunk and not working as hard, and then you have these line cooks that are busting their hats. Um, and again, I know the culture is changing and it's really not all like that anymore. Um, but we just offer like a really cool place that people can come, do their thing, go home, have a life, because I think that's another one is. You know, even my managers. They only work 45 hours.

Christin Marvin: 42:44

Nice.

Cliff Blauvelt: 42:45

I don't need anybody. You're after 45 hours, like you're Just. Your quality of work goes down, your quality of life goes down and it's like I'm more of a Quality versus quantity. If you can come in and do this job in 40 hours, then work 40. If you're gonna do it in 45, great. But like beyond that, like if you're here for 50 hours, like what are you doing?

Cliff Blauvelt: 43:06

Like I don't there's nothing here to do that you should be here for that long um, but that's a big one too is like. I think having be able to offer that, like a lot of our cooks are on like four tens, so they they have three days off, they can go do whatever they want, and then I'm being home at four o'clock, so like cook dinner with your partner is, uh, pretty massive.

Christin Marvin: 43:25

Yeah, I mean it sounds like that the environment that you've created inside bodega Is one of collaboration, engagement, people are present, they're having fun. I mean, definitely sounds like something I want to be a part of from a guest experience a big one is like we might.

Cliff Blauvelt: 43:44

A big goal is like empowering people, right. So if I can get these line cooks to go their next jobs and be sous chefs, that's what I want. If I get the sous chefs go their next jobs and be executive chefs like that's what I want. If I can get everybody to know how to do everything inside of this restaurant they're probably not gonna call me it, you know, five in the morning when they can't figure something out because they probably already have this answer. So it also it helps my life by giving them the tools. But then it's like they all get to learn new stuff like you know we are in the process of. You know there is, there is some growth and I get to take you know drawings to the the line cooks and be like hey, this is what this looks like. Hey, this is what Financing looks like whenever you need to get there. Hey, this is what this is.

Cliff Blauvelt: 44:28

So like it's very open. I don't keep like we run open books, like management, we don't. Everything is extremely transparent, because also that builds trust, right. Like if I can get you guys to like see exactly what I'm doing. Know that I'm not back here sneaking any like tips or whatever this may be like no, this is everything. Um, I think that makes a big difference. We all see how, like a lot of these other places run Um, so I think what that too is like there is this. It's bigger. Like we want people to grow. Like we're gonna start doing the apprenticeship program with the C? Uh CRA.

Cliff Blauvelt: 45:00

So we've got a young, a young Girl who's been with us for a while. Um also doesn't drink. She's been like oh, she's about to be a year or so. We're just pretty rad. But she's like Trying to like figure out what she wants to do. We're like hey, like, let's give you In this management training program, because at least the management that you'll learn you can take with you no matter where you go. He's like leadership skills You'll be able to like. A lot of the restaurant skills kind of are transferable. Um, you know, obviously, depending on what, what the work to, but so that's a big one for us is like we're just really trying to give people the skills and the tools to like continue to grow and not just be stagnant. Clock punchers and sure, everybody's got some of those too, and they're everybody needs that. It's fun, um, but you know, beyond that we really like want to give people yeah, just some some more stuff out there than just work.

Christin Marvin: 45:52

One, one more question for you, and then I'll let you plug and let us know, let everybody know, where they can find you and um, what's the you know? Looking back now on your sobriety journey, how has being sober really led to the success of your restaurant and your life?

Cliff Blauvelt: 46:13

I mean, I think the easiest thing to think about is just like how less messy it is. You have just being like clear headed and being able to make like good decisions based on actual, like rational thought. Then drunk emotions are a big one, but it really helps you kind of settle into like what you want to do and focus on what you want to do and get that those like just clear headed you can just like you know really, but that's if you're driven and that's what you want to do and if that's the goal you want to take. But for me it was like I want to help people. How can I do that? Well, you can open a restaurant. How does that help people? It doesn't really too much. It gives some people some jobs.

Cliff Blauvelt: 47:00

But then beyond that, that was like hey, what can we do to like really continue to grow, continue to be of service and I know with like AA that's a big one is like this continued like service amongst what they do. You know what I'm out of. I've only been a couple of meetings, I don't really know too much about it to speak on it. But I think it is important to be able to like help others and like be able to like continue to tell your story, because I've I have a couple of people I know quit drinking because of my story and that alone like it is bigger and that's right. I like we'll be richer. If we can change lives that way, then we will be. If we have 1000 bodegas.

Christin Marvin: 47:33

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, I appreciate, we really appreciate you coming on and and sharing your story. It's powerful and relatable, and we need more of that in the world for sure.

Cliff Blauvelt: 47:46

It's been fun, it's been wild, it's been hard, but it's it's been fun and like, honestly, where I'm at now in life I would never change anything. I went through to get here and I'm so happy that I'm where I am and that, like I can continue on this way without just be able to give back, without having to drink and without and like knowing that, like this is, I'm living like a fulfilled life, finally, which is really cool.

Christin Marvin: 48:10

Yeah, and that's. That's great, and you're providing a wonderful environment for people to be successful as well. So kudos to you. Keep up the great work.

Cliff Blauvelt: 48:20

We're trying, thank you.

Christin Marvin: 48:22

So where can we find bodega?

Cliff Blauvelt: 48:25

Right now. So we are in our second year, just started our second year, but we are located over in the sunny side neighborhood of the north side of Denver. It's on 30th and clay, so it's almost 30th, and federal, right across street from Lever's Locobor, so it is like Highlands, berkeley, sunny side kind of area there will be. We are working on, like said least, negotiations for a second location right now. That's going to be more over in the Rhino coal neighborhood. But I live in coal.

Cliff Blauvelt: 48:55

Our big thing is we want to feed people in our neighborhood and we want to feed people in neighborhoods and like kind of give the community things that they don't have to be on just a for profit sort of restaurant. Like we really want to. We enjoy being a part of the company and are a part of the community and then trying to bring that more in. So we're excited to feed people kind of in our neighborhood and continue to grow and those sort of things. And honestly, right now there really is no end goal. It is just kind of keep giving, keep going with what, what the world's giving us. And we've been very, very fortunate. I say lucky, but I know like we've all worked our tails off to really get there, but I it's. It's pretty unbelievable to see where we are versus you know where, where I was 1015 years ago. It's, it's good, we're happy.

Christin Marvin: 49:45

Yeah, well, we're going to be. We're going to be out there in a couple weeks, so we're going to come see you for sure and just, it's been so exciting to follow your journey in the first year and see all the awards and accolades and shout out that you've gotten my friends so you know we those like turning in, you know we're there's, there's talks at the airport, there's all those other things.

Cliff Blauvelt: 50:04

But everybody like, wants you to like build these press, kind of just put everything together that you've gotten all year and so, like this year, we did 24 different like press releases on us. And we don't do, we don't pay for any marketing, we don't pay for any of that stuff. The only Kara, my partner, she does our Instagram and that's the only thing that we use to get it.

Christin Marvin: 50:27

It's working organically, it's crazy to think.

Cliff Blauvelt: 50:30

A lot of people spend a lot of money to get their name out. There we were just. It just works. So yeah, we're again. We're very, very fortunate.

Christin Marvin: 50:38

That's great. Well, we will. I'd love to have you back on the show soon, but we will see you very soon. And Denver, my friend, all right, all right, everybody. Subscribe and listen each week wherever you find your podcast, and be sure to follow me, Christin-Marvin, on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Solutions by Christin newsletter for more restaurant leadership tips. Thanks everybody, we'll see you soon.