This is how you create an inclusive culture, so people don’t leave

Building an Inclusive Restaurant Culture

At Wildfire in McLean, Virginia, partner Aaron Mervis takes an intentional approach when it comes to recruiting and maintaining a strong team.

“We lost a lot of people during the pandemic. When customers started coming back faster than employees did, it made 2021 and 2022 very, very challenging,” he says. “There just wasn’t the pool to choose from. Lettuce’s culture to begin with is so strong—we’ve always taken incredible care of our employees.” Mervis is referencing the culture of Wildfire’s Chicago-based parent company Lettuce Entertain You®.

“Our philosophy is simple: Take care of the employees, and they’ll take care of the guests,” Mervis says. “You really take care of the employees, and they’re the ones taking care of the guests. We spend a lot of time caring for our employees, listening to them, trying to accommodate what their needs are. If someone looks unhappy or sounds unhappy, we try to get to it before it becomes more of an issue. We try to keep them happy to begin with, so they don’t get unhappy.”

Celebrating Wins to Motivate the Team

Mervis focuses on celebrating the wins. “We like to read compliments they get online at meetings,” he says. “We have people guess who the review is about—it’s kind of fun. The servers root each other on and clap for each other. We try to run contests—something to motivate them to sell or focus on a certain item—and highlight the people doing well. It turns recognition into something motivating.”

Inclusive Culture

He also brings line cooks, dishwashers, bussers and front-of-house staff to meetings with managers. We make sure people know everyone’s names,” Mervis says. “I don’t like having divides—servers versus bussers versus line cooks. We really spend a lot of time making sure everybody feels like it’s one team. We do a lot to make sure the kitchen and the front of the house aren’t two separate restaurants.”

That includes having manager meetings together—right on the floor—so everyone can see them working together. “Every manager is approachable; servers don’t just go to front-of-house managers, they can go to anyone,” Mervis says. “Line cooks don’t just go to kitchen managers.”

Fostering a Family-Style ConnectionFamily Culture

Family-style connection remains part of the culture as well. “Back of house has a family meal,” he says. “Openers from front of house will join in. Once a year we’ll have a staff party. From January through March, there’s an employee 51% discount at any Lettuce restaurant. We encourage them to go—we’ll even help make the reservation. It’s a nice perk.”

Growth and Career Development

Promoting From Within for Long-Term Retention

Promoting from within is just as important. “We really, really promote from within,” Mervis says. “Quite often, our entire management staff has been promoted from within. I started as a host years ago. Our GM started as a server. Our chef started as a dishwasher. We have five Lettuce restaurants in this area, so there’s some cross-promotion. It’s another opportunity for someone to grow. We want people to see that this could be a career.”

Internships and Early Development ProgramsInternal Investments

The company also invests in development early. “We have a summer internship program—generally college students,” Mervis says. “It’s a two-part program. They work in teams to create their own restaurant concept. Partners from the company talk about marketing, accounting—all aspects of the restaurant. At the end, they present their concept to all the partners. The other half is: They actually work in the restaurant. They have a checklist of things they need to learn that the GM or partner goes through with them.”

Intentional Use of Technology

Even technology is approached with intention. “We use Gemini for AI assistance—mostly for organizing and summarizing meetings,” Mervis says. “Managers use it to polish emails. But I’m hesitant to use it for ordering or prep lists. If the computer does it for you, it doesn’t stick in your head. There’s still a lot of old-school pencil and paper. It’s a balance—I want to save time, but not at the expense of understanding it.”

Returning Focus to Growth and Team Celebration

After years of focusing on cost control, the team recently leaned back into growth—by celebrating each other. “This year we did the first big marketing push since pre-COVID,” Mervis says. “We celebrated our 30th anniversary as a division. For Lettuce, it’s usually word of mouth, but we saw a lot of return. Our most popular wine dinner this year was the 30th anniversary one—and it was the most successful one we’ve had.”

To hear from more US Foods customers and chef/owners who have taken steps to take better care of themselves and their teams, click here