Private Club Radio Show
Welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, the industry's weekly source for education, news, trends, and other current developments in the world of private clubs.
Hosted by the talented entertainer and industry expert, Denny Corby,
the podcast offers a unique perspective on the private club industry, featuring expert guests, product spotlights, predictions, and more.
Whether you're involved in a golf club management, yacht clubs, athletic clubs, or business clubs, the Private Club Radio Show is the essential podcast for
anyone seeking valuable insights and information on the latest trends and developments in the private club industry.
Private Club Radio Show
423: From Theater to Fine Dining: Sam Ohnesorge on Crafting Memorable Club Experiences
This episode explores the inspiring journey of Sam Ohnesorge , the Director of Food and Beverage at Erin Hills, who transitioned from a musical theater major to a leading figure in the golf hospitality scene. We delve into Erin Hills' unique "member for a day" experience, the importance of personalized service, and the preparations for hosting prestigious events like the US Women’s Open.
• Sam shares his path from theater to food & beverage
• Insights into the "member for a day" concept
• Importance of mentorship in career development
• Discussion on operational challenges at Aaron Hills
• Preparing for the US Women's Open event
• Emphasis on high-quality, personalized service
• The role of a sommelier in enhancing dining experiences
• Building lasting relationships with guests
• The growth and recognition of women in sports
• Future plans for enhancing the guest experience at Erin Hills
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Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, where we give you the scoop on all things private golf and country clubs, from mastering, leadership and management, food and beverage excellence, member engagement secrets, board governance and everything in between, all while keeping it fun and light. Whether you're a club veteran just getting your feet wet or somewhere in the middle, you are in the right place. I'm your host, denny Corby. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:In this episode I am chatting with my new friend, sam Onusorgi, who is the director of food and beverage at Aaron Hills in Wisconsin, and what a wonderful story and journey he has taken from a musical theater major dreaming of Broadway to becoming a certified sommelier and leader in some of the most prestigious clubs in the country. Aaron Hills is a really cool and very fascinating unique club that is open to the public and they do more in F&B in about four or six months than most clubs do in an entire year. But we're diving into how Aaron Hills creates a member for a day type of experience. We talk about the importance of personalized service, the magic of hosting unforgettable events like the US Women's Open they have coming up. Plus, he has some fantastic stories about mentorship, wine and what it's like to work at a club that blends Midwest charm with high-end luxury.
Speaker 1:This is a great episode, great conversation. Cannot wait for you to dive in Before we do. Big thanks to some of our show partners Kenneth's member vetting, concert golf partners and golf life navigators, as well as myself. The Denny Corby experience there's excitement, there's mystery. Also there's magic. If you're looking for one of the most fun member event nights your club can have, check out DennyCorbycom. So, private Club Radio listeners, let's welcome to the show. Sam Onasorgi.
Speaker 2:Fortunately I saw you're going to the Midwest regional one. Yeah, over in, is it?
Speaker 1:Illinois, this year I think. I think last year was Minnesota.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's right outside chicago. Yeah, um, I've got I'm out of town that week, but it was a fun time. It's gonna be a blast actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are always fun. Um, how do you pronounce your last name?
Speaker 2:ona sorgi, so it's actually german, like the german sorgi yep, the german pronunciation is onaazori and it means without worry, so no worries. Hakuna matata, that's basically by mantra. The german hakuna matata and anyone that knows me. They're like oh it's 100 fitting for sam say it again onus sorgi onusasorgi.
Speaker 1:Oh, so the H is kind of silent oh no, no no, well, not really Ona, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, onasorgi.
Speaker 1:Yeah, harji, yeah, my. When I see a name, my brain just goes you're screwed yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean I've gotten all pronunciations. I remember there was one time growing up playing sports in high school when it somehow came out like it was like Japanese and I was like I don't know where that came from.
Speaker 1:It was like Onosaki and I'm like what is? Going on right now Yo that is funny, that is good, that is good.
Speaker 2:It's never pronounced right. It took me to turn like 14 before I could spell it right I remember.
Speaker 1:So in in pennsylvania, where I'm at scranton, we used to have the area code 717 and then I forget how old I was and they were like, because of like so many numbers and they expect we're, you know this, your area is now going to be like five, five, seven, zero. I think. I was like I don't know like eight or something. I don't. I don't want to say too, too, too young or too old, but I remember they changed and I was like how am I gonna like I just learned my phone number. How am I gonna like this?
Speaker 2:this update just ruins everything that's like you lose the cloud. You're like I don't know a single per. I think I could maybe name three phone numbers in my phone, like off the top of my head.
Speaker 1:I think I know three of them I thought about that, that recently I was going through my head I'm like, would I be able to? And I was like five, seven, and I was going through like, was it this or this?
Speaker 2:it was like, oh my god, like this is embarrassing yeah, well, it's like going to get one call in jail. I'm like I just need to remember a phone number to make the call. Like I don't think I would know if I was in jail ever. I was like I don't know who I would call because I know, I swear to God, I have three phone numbers in my phone. That's so funny.
Speaker 1:Thank you for coming on, thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 1:We're going to have a fun chat.
Speaker 1:I mean, we already had a fun chat, because our first conversation was a blast Probably more more laughs than I'd like to, to admit, but no, it was just a really cool fun story of lateral moves, which which I don't want to say are important, but are just just just happen and moves or moves, but, but from the lateral move and then also from just going from private clubs to now a public club, that that I want you to talk about, because you have so much cool stuff going on there, so much is happening in a short amount of time, because it's only open for you know, a certain amount of time, but you pack a lot into it and giving people and you you've phrased it beautifully, which is giving people the private club experience who might not have access or the ability to have it, but just a beautiful club. But give us, give us a quick update of your background what, what got you? You know the 30,000 foot foot view. You know what got you into clubs and what, what, what got you to here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was I think we talked briefly last time too was I was a musical theater major in college and I had no clue what I was going to do. You know, wanted to be the big Broadway star and kind of realized quickly that that wasn't going to happen. Um, not that I was not good or anything, not, I don't know how to toot my horn but um, realized it wasn't like a path I wanted to take and was going into my senior year, had no clue what I wanted to do. No, I loved the game of golf and enjoyed working in the food and beverage side. You know, kind of growing up bartending, serving everything like that. And one of still my best friends today, sarah mcguire. She's the clubhouse manager out at southampton bath and tennis. We were in college at the time and she's like hey, we've got this trip with our CMA group for the UW Stout chapter. You know, everything's paid for. All you have to do is pay for your plane tickets, so your lodging is taking care of everything.
Speaker 2:I'm like OK, it's spring break, this was the conference down in San Antonio. I said what do I have to lose? So I jumped on a plane, had no clue what I was getting into, walked in blind to my you know, the CMA conference. They're like, oh, it has to be suit and tie. I don't think at that point I owned a suit or maybe even a tie. So I remember I went down to, like the local thrift store and I was like I just need a suit. Did not fit Like it was totally way too big, but I was like I need a suit, I need a tie. I was a college kid, I was broke, got on this plane to San Antonio, texas, and the first night everyone I was with was like, oh, we're gonna get some rest. You know they're really nervous for this club managers conference. You know it's a big. You know, as I see now, it's like a big time for students to get internships or jobs or anything out of school. And I'm like I'm in San Antonio on spring break, like I'm going to, I'm gonna go have a couple of drinks, like I'm going out of the town. Um, I sat at a bar and sat next to at the time who was the assistant manager at Chinook Hills and I didn't know it, and we sat and chatted for three, four hours and just you know, I remember he ordered a Patron silver on the rocks and I'm like, well, and I'm like, well, that's a drink. And then we just chatted, we sat and talked, never came up. What are you in town for? You know what brings you here. And then we kind of left that night.
Speaker 2:The next day I walk into the conference and he's like I want you on my team. He's like I'm offering you a job, I don't need to interview you. He's like I want you as a person, I'll teach you everything you need to know. And obviously I knew like Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, right Growing in the golf world, and I remember I walked out and I called my dad. I was like Dad, I already accepted a job at this small semi-private course in Wisconsin. I don't know how to tell him no or what do I do. And he's like it's Shinnecock Hills, like you get on a plane and you go to the Hamptons and you'll figure it out. So I went out to the Hamptons, had no clue I'm from a town of 4,000 people in Wisconsin and I walk in, I get off the airport, he picks me up from the airport and I'm all of a sudden in like the Hamptons and I'm thinking like white chicks, like all that stuff you think of the Hamptons. It's nothing like that at all.
Speaker 2:And the first night we had like a wine dinner for like 150 people and I kid you, not my manager. He looked at me. He's like all right, sam, start opening wine. And I looked him like dead in the eye Again. I was like he's like you don't know how to open a bottle of wine. I was like you told me to teach me everything. So he started, just he's like here, go, go, go. And like after that first night kind of just fell in love with not only food and beverage but wine in general. Kind of took that education, ran with it, advanced on the sommelier court of sommelier side.
Speaker 2:I was in the Hamptons for four years. I loved every second of it. It is as beautiful as people think it is, played some amazing golf courses and then I was at the point where Shinnecock Hills was a seasonal club, so they're on the open end of May till election day and then they shut down and they are a place that is straight golf and lunch, no breakfast, no dinner. We would do private dinners and such every once in a while, but it wasn't a massive food and beverage operation. They were strictly. They knew what they were really good at. They were a really good golf club and it was awesome but wanted more and we had the US Open in 2018.
Speaker 2:And a gentleman by the name of Will Duthie, who at the time was the GM of Columbia Country Club in Washington DC, was a really good friend with my GM at the time, nick Conlon. He came up and helped out for the week. He was just a helping hand. I mean, there was one day where you know, us Open security is tight and one of our famous drinks the Southside uses a lot of mint and I'm like I swear I ordered enough mint for literally like 17 weeks and we were out of mint and I told Will I was like I need you to go to the grocery store and smuggle mint in here, like I need you to put it in your trunk and get through security. And he got in his car, went to like every grocery store in the area, brought back mint and we got it in.
Speaker 2:And two weeks later he called me up and he's like hey, I spoke with Nick and, if you want, like I would love to have you as part of my team. I know you're kind of. We talked about how you're looking for something more and you know so, flew down to the DC area, checked it out, loved it, loved the vibe, and then ended up taking the job and moving down there and that's going from, you know, shinnecock Hills Golf Club serving lobster BLTs and fescue rescues to Columbia Country Club in DC that you know, on a regular night you'll have five, six banquets going on. We had three restaurants that served out of one kitchen that was about the size of maybe a half a kitchen.
Speaker 1:You just kept being like thrown into, like the lion's den.
Speaker 2:Yeah, from one extreme to like the next.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and kind of fell in love with it. I mean, that was that columbia country club is a 12 month operating club. You know their busiest food and beverage month is december. You know, between christmas parties, the restaurants all three of them rock and roll and you know, christ Christmas day, we're doing 1400, 1500 people for a buffet. Um, and really learned a ton there and learned a ton underneath will as well. And then, uh, this was now three years ago, will myself, uh, and the management team had been working on this, uh, capital improvement to renovate the clubhouse and roughly say, a 15 million dollar project, um, and it passes with like a 93 approval from membership. You know, 1500 members too. Like that's impressive.
Speaker 2:And will goes, hey, let's go grab a beer. And I'm like, yeah, let's go grab a beer, celebrate this just passed. And he sits down. He's just like white in the face and he's like I took another job and I'm like what? Like I never would have expected it. I mean, everyone there would have thought will would have been there for you know the rest of his career, um, and he moved up to round hill club and unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to go with him, um, and so I'm like, well, I'm going to sit through this renovation, get through it and learn some things, as I kind of again thrown into the lion's den like, here we go, sam, figure it out.
Speaker 2:Um, and then a week later I got a call from Aaron Hills and they're like hey, your name's been thrown around, are you interested? We're looking for a director of food and beverage. Um, and I'm originally from Wisconsin and there aren't a ton of you know, private clubs in the state of Wisconsin. It's not a big industry in the state of Wisconsin. I didn't even know about it until I went down to San Antonio and flew out here, stayed overnight on property and I remember I woke up at like 5 am just to see the kind of property come to life.
Speaker 2:And it's a pretty amazing property 650 acres, one 18-hole golf course, no pool, no spa. We've got a dining room. We serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and then we do events as long as they're tied to golf. And it went back to kind of like that five months we are busy from May to October. We do about $2.1 million in food and beverage alone in that month, in those months, and then we shut the doors and we don't open until next May. So getting that, you know there were some personal things going on with my family. That was just a time to get closer to home was the first real time that I took a lateral move, probably to just get closer home and get closer to family, and I wouldn't change it for anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you. It sounds like you have a pretty, pretty decent schedule and like the club is amazing. I mean to do those sorts of numbers some clubs don't even do that. You know, in in a 12 month period. Um, you know the uh, um, the CMAA and NCA and club benchmarking did the did a study. There's only you know the, the CMAA and NCAA and club benchmarking did the did a study. There's only, you know, of the clubs there's, you know there's only a handful that make it over like a million dollars, like a year, and that's and that's like everything. So you guys do that just in food and beverage. You're not even open for others. That's an.
Speaker 2:that's impressive your is your lodging is that open all, all year long, or is it? Everything shuts, yeah, everything shuts down and kind of the crazy when you get into, like the, and that was the other piece that I kind of wanted to learn about when I moved here and that doesn't fall, you know, necessarily under my responsibilities or my roles, but I wanted to learn the lodging side because I've never, I've never been with it on um the private and so we surprisingly had, I think last year, finished at about a 98% occupancy rate, which is we're pretty much full every night.
Speaker 2:And the weird things is the days that we aren't for, like July 4th, Memorial Day, Labor Day when all these other clubs are crazy busy we are extremely slow.
Speaker 2:But the lodging side. So we have five, four bedroom cottages and then we have an 11 bedroom lodge. So roughly, um, you know, on a regular night we'll have 50 to 60 ish people staying over um and creates that really intimate feeling. You know we could bust open another 30 bedroom hotel, yeah, but we don't want to. We want it to have that intimacy, we want it to feel like a private club. We don't want to be turning and burning tables. We want people, if they sit down at five o'clock and want to sit there for four and a half hours, like, let's, let them sit there and enjoy the sunset and the view for four and a half hours you know that that is a, that is something to be said.
Speaker 1:Um, because I think, whether people know it or not, sometimes, and even if they don't have to like flip a table, like they, they give you that like feeling of you know, like do I have to? Like leave? Like some people just give it off, that vibe, like I think we have to go, like they want this out, but that is so. Is that giving them the stink eye Like let's go? So is that like instilled into the staff, like don't rush. Like you know, obviously, if you want to get people's meals out accordingly, but like actually, I should say too, that's one thing I always appreciate is that at a really good restaurant, when the server can like watch and almost like feel, like you know, sometimes, like everything just comes out like it's not timed well, but like you just go to certain restaurants like it's just a really, it's just almost like a seamless, like right, as you're about to question where the food's at, like everything just comes at like the perfect time.
Speaker 1:Um, so is that part of the training there too? And kind of with the staff, like hey, listen, people are here for a good time. This could be their first time and their last, whatever, but like you just give them that like world-class experience. Like don't rush them. This is not churn and burn like. Is that part of the culture? Is that part of?
Speaker 2:yeah, so so our it's, I guess, a little bit differs. Our, our, our lunch is very, um, fast, casual. It's like sandwiches, salads, you know people are either they had too late of a night and they're late to the first tee, so they're looking for a sandwich in two minutes or they're grabbing a bite before they have to go hit a plane. Um, so lunch is kind of very, you know, fast, casual, more or less. And then we get into dinner, and dinner is interesting because a lot of golf resorts or public resorts they may be a public resort but anyone could come in from down the road and come have dinner at their property. Where, at Aaron Hills, you can only dine with us at Aaron Hills if you're staying or playing on the T-sheet that day. So people down the street aren't picking up for a Saturday night reservation at 7 o'clock to celebrate an anniversary.
Speaker 2:The number of times I get that if someone finds out I'm from Aaron Hills and they're like well, you used to be open to the public. When is that going to happen again? Never. But our philosophy is really you know it goes back to I think you said it before is people may never be here again. We need to give them the best experience that they can possibly have, and we really train and hire on just hire good people. You know, we don't need the best servers, we don't need the best bartenders, we need the best people here, because at dinner I want you to sit out there and have a conversation with them for 20 minutes and if the kitchen's got food in the window, we'll take care of it and run it for you here before.
Speaker 2:We have a small little note card I'm wondering if I have one around here that our servers fill at the end of the day and it's really Denny Corby Is he staying overnight? Where is he staying? Has he been here before? What are his preferences? Right, he loves, he thinks cheese curds are the same as mozzarella sticks. So don't offer the cheese curds. But and then we take that information and we use you know, jonas, like many private clubs do, and we plug that information in. So next time when our reservationist picks up the phone and answers that call, you know they have those notes in front of them. And that's another kind of unique aspect about us is you can't book anything online at Aaron Hills. You have to pick up the phone and call a reservationist.
Speaker 1:So it's not.
Speaker 2:We're not running on golf now or Expedia or anything like that. You physically have to pick up the phone and speak to someone on that first call and that's our first touch point of that human interaction. That's cool, yeah, and you know it's um. I think that's a cool point because people sometimes are like blown away by that Like whoa, like I actually talked to somebody, it wasn't an AI robot, it was a human being who's at Aaron Hills, who we train on you know the property, we train on our history, we train on our operations and we really set the tone from kind of that first phone call and going back to that, you know, have you seen the show the Bear? I have not.
Speaker 2:So great show, especially like if you're in the food and beverage and some of it's played up. But there's an episode in season two called Forks, where one of these grizzly brothers is like staging in a restaurant and he's literally just polishing forks for like a week and he asks the kitchen expo and the maitre d' like how do you guys do this every day? Kitchen expo and the maitre d like how do you guys do this every day? And the response was basically you never know, like the reasoning why people are here or if they can never come back here or ever afford it again. They're like. You know. Their mom may have saved up for a whole year to send their son to aaron hills to play one round of golf, and we get the opportunity to make that magic once they're here on property. Yeah, so yeah, that's really our kind of mantra is just be really good people, serve really good food and have really great conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Now I'm looking at you. Have a great site too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you can kind of like you see the clubhouse over top of it that looks out over the golf course, and the sun sets over the golf course every day, so it's one of the like most beautiful sunsets.
Speaker 1:so you can get it. Was it remind me, was the club? Did it used to be a private club or was it like a public city club or was it so? That's kind of a crazy story.
Speaker 2:Um, it used to be a farm. Like it was a farm, it was a. It was a cattle farm here in Aaron, wisconsin, and there was a. The original owner came out to the property and his goal was to bring a US open to the state of Wisconsin and he said this is the landscape that I can build this on. Original owner basically put everything he had and he made money off of like calendars, like Hallmark calendars and put everything in was put. Everything had this dream of bringing the US open to Wisconsin. Unfortunately didn't have the funds to kind of continue the process. So our current owner ran out of time, ran out of money.
Speaker 1:The calendars, the calendars. You know, the iPhone came out, I think, and people money, because the calendars yeah, the calendar stuff.
Speaker 2:You know, the iphone came out, I think, and people didn't buy calendars anymore and current owner bought it. And then, you know, a little bit little while after usg announced they're bringing a us open to wisconsin and it's really exploded on its growth since our current owner purchased it, you know, rebuilt a clubhouse up here that sits on top of the hill. It was actually a small world modeled to get the kind of same view you get at Shinnecock, with the patio, you know, and sitting and dining and overlooking the golf course, peeking it up. There was a lot of back and forth on. You know, people aren't going to want to walk up the hill after walking this whole 18 hole golf course, um, and now people come up just to see the view and check it out and everything like that. But yeah, so it's always been public course. Um changed a lot since really 2007.
Speaker 2:Um, but very young, we've hosted, uh, multiple USGA championships. We're one of like very few courses that have hosted or are set to host all of like the USGA's majors. So the women's open, the men's open, the men's amateur and the women's amateur. We just had another slew of major championships with the USGA, announced a few months back and really just focus on the game of golf, growing the game of golf and making it a great kind of destination place for people to travel from all over the world.
Speaker 1:What's it like going from a you know all the privately owned clubs to now this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's different. It's weird. It's a when you're on, I always joke. When you're on the private side, it's once you understand the operation and the people like it's easy. You know, it's the same things. Where Denny comes in and we know he always gets a, a Tito's martini dirty, you know and you come, you know pretty damn close.
Speaker 1:Side, pretty damn close.
Speaker 2:The food and beverage side is like you come into the bar we know exactly what you're going to have, we know you're having this, or we know you drink Miller Lite, or we know you do this. You like ice tea, no lemon, and you develop those relationships with people. You know there's people from DC and even New York, that members out there that still reach out and you know say hey, merry Christmas, sam. Maybe they're coming back later or coming back again, but creating the relationships has been kind of a void right now in the sense like you miss that side. You miss, you know, when you run a place that's kind of rocking and rolling for five months, you really just knock down the operation side and focus on that rather than, you know, really on the private side, honing on those special crazy moments I think we talked last time about it was a Christmas uh day and one of the members in DC was like looking forward to the rack of lamb.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We have the rack of lamb on the buffet. And he was just he was kind kind of joking, nudging me about how he was so disappointed. It wasn't, it wasn't like he was actually disappointed. And I went to our chef and I was like hey, I know we've got rack of lamb on the menu downstairs. Can we rip up some lamb and grill it off and I'll serve it to his table? And we grilled off some lamb I dropped at his table and this guy still like I have a voicemail in here.
Speaker 2:He called me like three weeks ago and he's like I was just remembering the lamb and I just wanted to you know, hope you're doing well and give you a call. And you know those relationships is I think sometimes you overlook them on the private side, like creating that relationship. You know they want to know about your family, they want to meet your family, you you know. So sometimes that's a different side and as far as you know, like the legislation and stuff goes like we don't have a board Right, um, we are a single owner. Our GM is um works remote 90% of the year which is a little bit interesting.
Speaker 2:Uh, he's based out of Denver, um, he's on property maybe five or six times or so a year, but really hires people because he thinks they're really good at what they do and trust them and instills like hey, if you want to do something you think it's right for the operation, go ahead and do it. Also, if you pick up the phone or shoot him an email, gets right back to you. So it's not that it's a negative side, it's just an interesting side from my end where it's like all right, you have this is your department. What you see fit, you know, go with it. If you need to run anything by me, I'm here to run it by. So yeah, different side you don't have committees. I don't have a host committee meeting. You don't have a house committee meeting. You don't have, you know, all these different committees. So it's definitely a little bit different.
Speaker 1:And sometimes it's easier, like if we want to change something, we change it.
Speaker 2:We don't have to jump through a bunch of different hoops.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we switch it up and we do something different and we want to really kind of keep evolving and growing at the same time, you know, holding on to our roots and who we are and what we do here, yeah.
Speaker 2:So what's next on the uh, on the horizon, with, with the club? Yeah so, um, this spring actually kind of it's not really on the horizon. Now it's almost right in front of us. Uh, end of may, the us women's open. So it's a really cool time of us. End of May, the US Women's Open. So it's a really cool time to be in women's sports. I think you look at like Caitlin Clark, she's not a golfer by any means, but she's really put kind of that women's sports on the map. That's coming up here end of May, first weekend in June.
Speaker 1:So how do you prepare for that? What are you doing to prepare for that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what we'll do? So it's a little bit interesting. So you look at like their big, big championship for the USJ is the men's US.
Speaker 2:Open. You know, the women's US Open is about a third of the size, a third to half, um. So USJ comes in and everything on course, like your concession stands, your VIP tents, anything really on course that'll be manned and managed by the USGA through a catering company. What our team will be responsible for that week is we will use our clubhouse and we are going to be in charge of USGA VIPs, future sites, so any private club or public golf course that is hosting this event in the next two, three, five, eight years. They usually send out Usually it's like a GM or a club president, so I'm sure a lot of people from the private side will be out here as USGA future sites VIPs and we'll run that for that week.
Speaker 2:And it's not going to be a crazy kind of busy week. I shouldn't say crazy busy, it would be crazy busy. We have open ones open here, but numbers wise it won't be, you know, unmanageable or anything kind of out of what we can really knock out of the park. But it's exciting to have USGA future sites, um, cause then it gives us an opportunity to really show off. I mean, we want to do cool stuff. We want people to be like Holy cow, they did this at Aaron Hills. You know we don't want to be, you know their coffee was terrible or you know we don't want the negative side. So we're going to kind of put all of our efforts into blowing that experience for USGA VIPs and future sites when they're here on property to really enjoy that time.
Speaker 1:And there's got to be a great buzz in and around the club before, during and after, like leading up. There must be an afterwards because, like the new people who are now coming in to you know play there, they must have a bunch of questions. So the staff must get like excited. There must be this like camaraderie, almost like tell me all about it, like who is it Like? I don't know. The cool thing is there's going to be a ton of like TV coverage.
Speaker 2:You know the deals that they sign. Now you know it is. I don't believe it's NBC. So, like Peacock will have coverage, nbc's main channel will have coverage. There'll be a ton of coverage and people are going to be watching this, especially if you're coming, say, the week after you're in a lock in and be like you know, lydia code just shot, hit this same shot. I'm about to hit and they'll probably duff it 12 feet. But like that's the cool experience you know and people will really lock into that experience. They were even doing it, you know, at the end of last year and we really try to arm and give our team as much information so they can share that with the guests. It's funny anytime I hire someone like do I need to know about golf Because I've never played or have no clue, and I'm like no, no, no, we'll fill you in with everything you need to know.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you how I started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me give you a hint. You ever open a bottle of wine before?
Speaker 1:Yo, your GM that night definitely went home and was like who did?
Speaker 2:I bring in.
Speaker 1:What did I do, Honey? How was his first day?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is gonna be a working project, but it's also crazy. There's a funny story too, is? I somewhat did the same thing a couple of years later, as I hired this gentleman. His name's Logan Block and no food and beverage experience. He was from the same. He actually grew up in the same hometown as me. He was four years younger.
Speaker 2:That's funny, but I knew he was a good kid. I knew he'd work his tail off and I knew he really wanted to learn and so I brought him out to Chinook Hot Hills and his first day we just did this brand new basement. We put this massive service elevator in there and it used to be like an old school, like dumb waiter, like the rope was probably 70 years old. And we put in this brand new service elevator and we needed to set up tables for a meeting or something. Later in the day and I was like hey, logan, can you go load up some eight foot tables? We need three of them.
Speaker 2:And he puts these eight foot tables in standing straight up, sends it accidentally to the top floor and actually goes through the roof of the clubhouse. And in my head I'm like don't you think you'd build a service elevator that has enough clearance and like through the roof and my gym at the time. He's like fire him. He's not going to make it. This hit the other. And I'm like calm down, whoa, whoa, whoa. And now the guy is the director of business operations at Sand Valley Golf Course, one of the top golf resorts not only in the state of Wisconsin but in the US, same owners as Band and Dunes and all those, and it really just goes back to hey, your first day may be a little rough, but if you get through it you'll be fine.
Speaker 1:His performance was through the roof. That's he performance review time through the roof.
Speaker 2:But yeah, now he's. You know, he's been really successful in the in the golf industry and every time I see him we always laugh about it. And my GM, nick, we always laugh about it. He's like I did not do that. I was like, yeah, you were ready to send him home from that roof. He's like it was a brand new elevator and we just laugh about it all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. Are you also a sommelier too?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so I certified. I think now 2000 and I think it was 2018. Went to the town of Portland, maine, which is one of my favorite cities in the US, certified there and really to go from not knowing how to open a bottle of wine.
Speaker 1:That is where I was going, and literally from like. And what was that process like?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it really kind of just fell in In my head. It was well, if I'm gonna be in this industry, I need to learn this industry. And you know food and beverage a lot of time wine looks into it or feeds into it, and so it was really kind of. Once I was done with college, you know love to keep learning reading and that was kind of what I threw everything into. Um, you know, my mom would call me on like a Tuesday night. She's like what, what are you doing? I was like I'm just tasting through some wines and talking through stuff, and she's like it's Tuesday. I'm like I'm learning, Um, but yeah, you, um, it's the history behind it.
Speaker 1:You know the art behind wine.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, these winemakers are really just glorified farmers. Um, there's a lot that goes into every single bottle of wine that's out there, including like Franzia, you know.
Speaker 1:Isn't that a?
Speaker 2:box. Yeah, it's like a box two-buck chuck, but the cool thing is there's just so much history behind it. You know so many wines, you know regions that used to be, you know, french, are now Germans because of World War II or anything along those lines. Like the history behind it and um being able to talk through it, um, it's just really really exciting. And um found a really good group of friends, uh, in the New York area. That was hey, hey, once a week let's drink a little wine and talk about wines, and you know taste through some stuff, um, and really just kind of fell in love with it. And now you know especially where I'm at. You know currently is it's a big part of my, my job, and every time that I get invited over to a holiday party or dinner or something, it's so Sam's bringing the wine. I'm like oh sweet, yeah, but but yeah, it's I, I love it. You know it's just it's. There's so much information and stuff that you can uncover as you kind of dig deeper into the wine world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I'm sure, just based off what I've heard, you know what you were saying about about the place too is now you have these people coming for this experience and now they're going to order a bottle and being able to talk about the yeah, the year and the notes, and whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's, you know, a lot of times. There's, uh, you know, a frequent handful of people that will come here four or five times a year. They may be in the Chicago area or they just love coming to this place. Really, now it's a hey, sam, pick out a bottle, bring us something and let's talk about it and drink through it and taste it. I was telling them hey, if you guys don't like it, we'll send it back. We'll taste it with the servers.
Speaker 1:I'm sure they'll enjoy learning about wines a little bit more, um, but that's kind of the servers are are bribing the, the people that don't like the bottle yeah say it's bad, it's just bad.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's a cool, it's just a great it's kind of like, you know, playing the game of golf is, you know, even with wine, you don't have to know be a great, it's kind of like you know, playing the game of golf is, you know, even with wine.
Speaker 2:You don't have to know be a great golfer to be able to hold your own on a golf course and talk with people about the game. But just having that general knowledge, um, and sharing that knowledge with our team, you know it equips them to really have that conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a. It's a, it's a cool way to connect with people too, or just another, another tool. I'm like it's just another way to just uh, it's just other weird stuff to know that. I mean, that's beyond you know stuff to know. But to me it's always like you know knowing a lot about a lot of things, or just or just knowing enough about a bunch. So it's being able to have conversations, just being able to connect with more people.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate you taking the time. My pleasure it's. You know I follow you guys, I follow. I'm big with CMA. I'll be out in Tampa. It's kind of that. You know you're again. I think we talked last time about how I mean, don't tell CMA. I said this like the education is great, but like just catching up with people, you know, talking, meeting in the hallways, grabbing a cocktail or something after education. You know that's the best part about conferences connecting with people from all over the U?
Speaker 1:S and the world in a short week's term and geek out about stuff that you enjoy and the club space. Yeah, thank you so much for coming on. Really, really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I'll see you in about a month.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:See you, bud. Hope you all enjoyed that episode. I know I did. You're enjoying the content. If you could do me a big favor, wherever you're consuming, give you're enjoying the contents. You can do me a big favor. Wherever you're consuming, give it a rating and a review. That would mean so much to me. I would really really appreciate. It Takes a couple seconds, costs nothing and means the world. That's this episode. Until next time, catch y'all on the Flippity Flip.
