A Clean Pair of Eyes

1: Classy Chassis

SOOKIE

"Good morning Linda, we're here with Sookie Stackhouse, owner of Soup's Up, one of the hottest new restaurants here in Dallas. Thank you for having us, Sookie," a reporter by the name of Tiffany Valdez said as she turned to me with her microphone poised.

"Good morning, thank you for stopping by," I replied.

"So Soup's Up has been open eight weeks now. You're co-owner of Classy Chassis here in town as well. What made you want to branch out into the restaurant business?"

"Well I love cars, and I love food, and I love those ten years between the late fifties and early sixties. It was a great time for the auto industry, and back in those days the family dinner table was still the biggest meeting place. The restaurant gives me the chance to bring together the things I love most. Plus, you don't have to be a car enthusiast to be able to appreciate our modern takes on classic American diner meals," I told her.

"You're big on nostalgia," she commented.

"Absolutely. There was a lot of good happening at that point in America, and I like to calibrate that. Of course the restaurant also helps to promote Classy Chassis, which celebrates American history in its own way," I said with a smile.

I was delighted and surprised when Dallas's local news station requested the opportunity to come by for a segment on their morning show. Free publicity was something I would never turn down. Soup's On was doing well so far, but new restaurants were always under a huge amount of pressure not to lose their luster. The most important thing was that the food was good. Good food absolutely helped ensure that our doors would stay open in the long run.

To that end, I walked Tiffany through a sampling of what our most popular dishes were so far. In a lot of ways, what we served was modernized comfort food. Salisbury steak with smashed red potatoes, brisket sandwiches and coleslaw, bacon cheddar biscuits and gravy, fried chicken and loaded potato salad... I took the meals my grandmothers had been making for me since I was a little girl, and decided to serve them to the public. So far, it was a success.

Tiffany and the camera were also treated to a quick tour of the dining room, where we had a full service bar and a little gift shop set up by the hostess area so we could promote the garage, and give people something to do if they were waiting for a table to open up. All in all, the segment went well. I hoped that it would help bring even more awareness to Soup's On. I didn't want either of my businesses to fail. The restaurant was a completely different animal from the shop, but I loved the challenge of it.

In the end, both businesses played to my strength, which was talking to people. I was great at reading people and socializing. By nature I was a bit of a flirt. I got that from my mom. It caused my dad quite a bit of gray hair back in my teenage years, but being able to talk to people and charm them had been invaluable in my businesses.

Tiffany and her crew departed in enough time for the staff to get ready for lunch. We weren't open for breakfast... yet. I was considering expanding the hours, but I needed to talk to the manager about that. Sam Merlotte was running the day to day operation of the restaurant. I was there three days a week, at least for a few hours, and the rest of the time I was running around doing stuff for the garage.

"How'd it go?" Sam asked when I got back to the office.

"Great. I hope this gives us a boost." Our numbers were good, but they could always be better.

"Oh I'm sure it will. The word of mouth has been phenomenal already," Sam told me.

That was true.

I was seeing more and more Classy Chassis shirts around town. Our logo was a classic pinup girl with her arms up behind her head, and then the business name in front of her. "Classy chassis" was fifties slang that made a great double entendre. Soup's On followed in that vein.