Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Plotnick.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Sam. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I had been working as a line cook at Les Nomades when I started working on my own ideas for food. I collaborated with another cook at Les Nomades to make a pop-up dinner. That dinner gave brought about the question: what is the simplest operation that we would need to create to recreate this dinner in a restaurant? We came up with the concept of a 20 seat tasting menu only restaurant. Some of the faces have changed throughout the process but the idea has stayed the same. The restaurant is a vehicle for a collaboration with a small group of people to create a vision for service, food, and atmosphere. The outcome is Temporis.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As with the opening of any small business, and particularly restaurants, the road has not been smooth. Everything takes longer than you think. Every decision has more complicated variables and consequences that you can’t envision. It took us 4 hours in 4 meetings with different companies just to get the right toilet paper for the bathrooms. We had to return hundreds of dollars worth of toilet paper in the process. And that was just the toilet paper. The logistical and legal struggles of getting a liquor license, dealing with the zoning board, permit offices, accounting systems, purveyors, all of it take more time, money and patience than you realize. The more focused your vision is creative than the more unwilling you should be to compromise on the standards of your vision. As you push for that standard you’ll see the complexity of the operation grow exponentially.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Temporis story. Tell us more about the business.
We are a 20 seat restaurant that serves a single 10-course tasting menu. We are known for being an accessible yet modern fine dining restaurant. We have a wine pairing but we also offer wines by the glass, a bottle list, and cocktails. We have a hydroponic garden in the basement that provides us with fresh herbs, micro greens and sometimes even strawberries. Our tables are designed to present live greens and herbs from our basement garden at the table as a live, edible centerpiece.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’m certainly lucky to have the opportunities that I have had in life. But I think you just have to take every opportunity and make the best of it, and while you are running a business put yourself in a position where you’re not vulnerable to bad luck. It sounds obvious, but you won’t believe how many “bad luck” occurrences there are when starting a small restaurant. If you prepare yourself you won’t feel victimized and you’ll be in a position to appreciate all the good luck you will receive. For example, during the construction phase 48 hours before our scheduled plumbing and electrical inspection, we water leaking on our $10,000 electrical system for our LED lights. If we didn’t have quick backup plans, we would have lost $10,000 in electrical equipment and a month of time rescheduling the inspections. I literally couldn’t have had a worse leak location and at a worse time. Water leaking on all your electronics 48 hours before an inspection you scheduled a month out. I can think of dozens of more times when we were “unlucky,” I just had to learn to be prepared and to not be surprised by anything.
Pricing:
- $125 for our ten course menu.
- $95 for our wine pairing.
Contact Info:
- Address: 933 N Ashland Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622 - Website: TemporisChicago.com
- Phone: 773-697-4961
- Email: info@temporischicago.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/TemporisChicago/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/TemporisChicago/
Image Credit:
Neil Burger, Stephanie Zhao
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