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The team has been central to the success of Nixta Taqueria, the restaurant my wife and I started five years ago. Thanks to our team, Nixta has become one of the most popular restaurants in Austin, Texas. It has even been named a Food & Wine Restaurant of the Year.
Building and sustaining a strong restaurant team takes a lot of thought and effort. Several decisions have been key to shaping the Nixta team. Here are some of the most important.
Bring the staff together with family meals
In my mind, it all starts with the “family meal.” Ever since I began working in restaurants, I’ve loved the tradition of staff meals. You get a chance to connect with colleagues before the doors open, and you all start running around.
At Nixta, family meals take a couple of forms. Every day except Friday and Saturday, employees can choose two items off the menu. It makes such a difference when your team is familiar with the food you serve your customers. They can speak knowledgeably about the menu and make good recommendations.
On other days, the staff take turns preparing the family meal. I love learning about people this way. Often someone will prepare a family recipe, and they’ll end up talking about their upbringing and culture. The food tells a story.
Related: What the Nixta Taqueria Team Eats Before Dinner Service
One thing that’s different about Nixta from other restaurants where I’ve worked: It’s not just the culinary team that prepares the family meal. We throw servers into the mix, too. The experience gives the front-of-house team a feel for what our cooks go through every day. Just as important, it lets them share a part of themselves.
We’re not expecting anyone to prepare an elaborate, gourmet meal. I always say, “Cook what you know and cook with your heart, and delicious things will come from that.”
Invest in your employees
Building a strong team also involves showing appreciation and developing trust. Sometimes that means doing things you don’t often see in the restaurant business. For example:
1. Help employees grow. Any employee who has been with Nixta for at least a year is eligible to receive a $1,000 stipend for professional growth. Employees have attended management training, learned about winemaking, taken c chocolate-making classes, and more. These stipends allow us to thank employees for their good work and loyalty. We’re telling our people, “We see something in you that we like, and we’re willing to invest in you.”
This program has been huge for Nixta. Honestly, it’s a win for everyone. It helps with employee retention and morale. Plus, employees get to bring their new skills back to the restaurant. I hope other restaurants start developing employee-development programs like this.
2. Offer fair pay. At Nixta, we pool our tips and divide them evenly between the front and the back of the house. Our dishwasher gets the same tips as our server. We see that as the best way to run a restaurant because it takes the kitchen and the dining team working together for us to succeed.
Our lowest-paid employee starts off earning $15 per hour. We offer employees health, dental, vision, and mental health insurance. To do all this means that we don’t sell the cheapest tacos around. But our customers benefit from experienced, enthusiastic employees preparing and serving their food. When you factor in the high quality of the ingredients we source and how we hand-make our tortillas, we believe we offer our guests good value.
3. Let employees refresh and recharge. Nixta closes for a week in July and during the winter holidays and is also closed on Mondays. It stuns me that some restaurants stay open seven days a week, year-round. Restaurant work is exhausting, and everyone needs to recharge sometimes. And I don’t think it helps team morale to keep people from being with their families during the holidays.
Nixta employees can take personal days. We understand that people have lives outside the restaurant. Maybe they’re dealing with a family issue or a sick pet, or they need a mental health day. If you communicate it, we’ll support you. We’ll figure out how to cover for you. We have the attitude that together, we can make anything happen.
This is another policy that creates buy-in from the team. When they see the restaurant and their colleagues support them, they step in to help when another team member needs time off.
I’ve seen another benefit, too. When our employees are working, they’re all in and ready to do the damn thing — to deliver the best experience possible for our customers.
The power of supporting employees
For Nixta, investing in the team’s well-being and growth is a nonnegotiable. We hope more restaurants focus on supporting and developing their employees.
Your investment in your people will pay back many times over in ways you can’t even imagine.
