THE LATE 1980’s & THE EARLY 1990’s
The development of our theme at Hudson’s happened on its own on an organic path driven by our customers first and foremost. It was a no brainer to keep the best sellers on the menu and that was how I listened to our customers and this is how they told me what they wanted to eat. Cash flow was speaking loudly in the early days, if it didn’t sell it was a liability, if it sold it was an asset. Fortunately, I had the safety net of my father who somewhat willingly infused more money in order to keep us afloat. It was after he passed, I was at his lawyer’s office cleaning up his will and other documents when his personal lawyer voluntarily told me that my father had asked him for guidance. I had asked my dad for another infusion of cash and this prompted my father to seek advice from his lawyer concerning my need for more money to which his attorney advised him not to invest any more money. Luckily for Hudson’s he didn’t take his lawyer’s advice. It is important to note; all of the early P & L statements did not paint an optimistic picture for our investors.
After we had depleted that last cash infusion I knew I needed to independently be much more creative to get more cash to stay afloat as we needed to keep the doors open so we could repay the investors. Our guests were very loyal and fortunately they were also affluent enough to allow them some wiggle room in their finances so I presented them with the opportunity of their lifetime! If they contributed $2,000.00 to Hudson’s bank account, they would receive in return a $4,000.00 credit at the restaurant. This was back in the olden days so I sent my proposal in the form of a letter via the old-fashioned snail mail. Much to my surprise, delight and relief there was a great response; Hudson’s received $36,000.00. This transaction was beneficial to me and the restaurant on so many different levels. The customers that invested monetarily also became emotionally invested in our success and became the very best customers a restaurant could ever hope for.
As it turned out, that was the last cash infusion we needed to make it beyond the “new” restaurant money woes and throughout all of this I became hyper aware of the value of every dollar. We were finally on a more level playing field where you could actually apply the theory of “make it before you spend it” rather than always being three steps behind. After years of experience in the restaurant business I had learned that a negative profit margin was a combination of costs that were out of line as there are many costs that have to be figured into the restaurant profit margin. You had to keep an ever-watchful eye on the spending in all areas, you had to be aware of food cost, wine cost, liquor cost, labor cost, etc.
Luckily Hudson’s had a very vigilant and top-notch bookkeeper – Collin Nelson. A quality bookkeeper keeps his thumb on the pulse of the business which allows the chef/operator/owner, i.e. me to concentrate on the food, creativity and promotion, three essentials for success.
The demographics of the Hudson’s guests changed throughout the years. In our early years customers would pack up their “roadies” and enjoy the drive out into the Hill Country while catching up on conversation during the road trip with a delightful dinner at the end of the journey. Now it is a frightening bumper to bumper drive out to the Hill Country and you wouldn’t dare to drive with an alcoholic beverage in the car much less your hand. Austin has changed from a 1980’s small simple town to a bustling city and with that comes big city traffic and big city laws. Lakeway and the surrounding area has grown to offset the customers that no longer make the Austin to Hudson’s drive.
Hudson’s was blessed to have a generous amount of media attention and from all different forms of media and therefore we never had to invest in costly advertising. We received positive reviews from newspapers, magazines etc. both locally and from all around the country. I received a “Top 50 Restaurant” review from Mimi Sheraton at Traveler Magazine. I was included in the PBS Series “Great Chefs of the Southwest” which spawned a book as a companion for the TV series which I was also included in.
Southwestern Cuisine was becoming quite the rage and Hudson’s was on the ground floor of this dining movement. Hell, I even got nominated for a James Beard award, Best Chef of the Southwest. During the Food and Wine Festival I hosted a young Bobby Flay who had just opened the Mesa Grill Restaurant and asked if he could do his festival prep at my restaurant. The media that got the most attention and had the biggest and most lasting impact on our business was on NPR “All Things Considered”. Linda Wertheimer was in town doing a bit on Title 9 at UT and did a little food story while she was in town which was the icing on the cake, so to speak. For her story, she came to Hudson’s and we did our back-strap of Texas Axis venison stuffed with smoked New England lobster served atop guava sour cherry sauce, referred to as Austin to Boston on our menu. While taping for the radio show, I took Linda on a very descriptive walking talking tour around the restaurant and kitchen ending the tour at the smoke house trying to bring the listeners with us; doing food on the radio is a little weird, but she liked it and it worked. It was months before it aired and I had completely forgotten about it when all of a sudden, I got calls from friends in Boston, NYC, Omaha, San Francisco, etc. Just another fun story on NPR that brought so many people from everywhere in the United States to dine at Hudson’s. For years customers told me the reason they came to dine at Hudson’s was because they heard about us on NPR, who knew it was so powerful.
As my star was rising my addictions were snowballing. My addiction to speed (meth amphetamines) began years ago in my Aspen restaurant days as it allowed me to stay focused while working long hours and then still be good to hit the slopes. Speed became my drug of choice as it was cheaper than cocaine and lasted longer but don’t get me wrong there was a time and place for things like coke, psychedelics, pot, downers, etc. Being a chef, my objective was to concoct the perfect recipe to find the perfect balance, not too high and not too low, but just right. If I made it home before the paperboy threw the morning newspaper I considered the day a perfect success! Of course, this was not a sustainable lifestyle if I intended to maintain a successful restaurant and live to a ripe old age so I ended up at rehab and let me add I ended up at rehab more times than most. The rehab facility that I came to prefer was located near the camp I had attended as 12-Year-old, so I called the rehab “Camp-Run-a-Muck”.
There are many funny stories about trying to get sober, but this is a food story so I will save those stories for another time. When I left rehab in 1990 for the last time and was finally truly clean and sober the fever for Southwestern Cuisine had reached its peak without me. I call the years I was too high to remember, the “lost years”, and I have often wondered where a sober Jeff would have gone and what a sober Jeff would have accomplished. Better late than never and fortunately, Hudson’s weathered all of my antics.
One of the reasons for Hudson’s longevity was what I didn’t do opposed to what I did do, I didn’t try and do a second Hudson’s on the Bend Restaurant. Rather, I created multiple other revenue streams that supported the restaurant. I wrote two cookbooks which was also great advertising for the restaurant, we sold gift certificates, I taught cooking schools where we featured Hudson’s menu foods, we created 11 finishing sauces that were available in local stores and at the restaurant and I sponsored very well received salmon fishing and cooking expeditions to Alaska.
Below is the recipe for the Austin to Boston atop Guava Sour Cherry Sauce. This may seem like a weird combination of flavors but it works and was one of our most popular menu items. You can use elk back-strap, large deer back-strap, beef tenderloin or large wild boar back-strap.
Ingredients
1 lb. lobster tail meat
1 back-strap
Salt
Pepper
Coat 1 lb. of lobster tail meat with sea salt & pepper. Then slather the tail meat with plain yogurt before smoking. The yogurt keeps it from drying out.
Smoke 1 lb. of lobster tail meat.
Cool and cut into 1” cubes and reserve for stuffing.
Cut your back-strap into 4” long pieces.
Salt & pepper the back-strap. I use sea salt and Madagascar black peppercorns.
With a boning knife pierce the end of the 4” back-strap.
Gently push it through the back-strap until the end of the knife appears out of the other end. Using both of your index fingers put them in each end of the back-strap (like Chinese finger traps). When your fingers meet in the middle rotate in a circular motion until you have created a 1” hole in the back-strap.
Stuff the 1” chilled and smoked lobster cubes into the back-strap until it is completely stuffed from one end to the other. If the lobster breaks out of the back-strap it’s OKAY. Once it’s grilled and sliced no one will know. Make sure the lobster is cooked thoroughly as a medium rare temperature on the back-strap will only warm the lobster.
Grill the back-strap 3-5 minutes on all sides. Use a probe thermometer to check the internal temperature. Stop at 125 or medium rare.
Slice each back-strap into 4 slices and serve atop guava sour cherry sauce, enjoy.
Guava Sour Cherry Sauce
Ingredients
1 cup guava paste (found in specialty stores)
1 cup sour cherries (dried)
2 tablespoon minced garlic
3 tablespoon minced shallots
2 tablespoons of butter
1 cup apple juice concentrate (4 to 1)
1 cup water
1 cup dark brown sugar
½ cup raspberry vinegar
½ tablespoon sea salt or to taste
Method
Melt butter in a sauce pan.
Sweat shallots and garlic until they are translucent. Add all the other ingredients and cook for 8 minutes on a simmer.
This will hold in your refrigerator for 3 weeks.
It’s tasty on grilled chicken or duck. Also tasty on grilled salmon.