SENIOR DINING
These evolved into Tasty Tuesdays, when he shared samples of two items he planned to include on the menus. He learned: Watch the salt content. They liked spicy, but not too spicy. Small plates were a hit. That summer, they ramped up to full- on parties. At the beer bash, residents snacked on appetizers and blind-tested nine beers—with the top-voted ones selected as those Huckels would put on tap at the bar. Shortly afterward came a larger party featuring a variety of bottles from wine distributors, and the residents’ votes chose the house wine. Huckels also hosted monthly potluck parties. “We have a lot of folks here who still enjoy cooking, and they’re very proud of that,” Huckels says. “I would do the entrée, like barbecue smoked brisket in July and turkey in November, and they’d bring the sides. That participation was really important and contributed to this sense of camaraderie.” As construction progressed, Huckels also brought the patiently waiting future residents on “hard hat tours” to see the upcoming new spaces. His favorite part of the tour was showing off the production kitchen’s Jade Cooking Suite, a state-of-the-art set of equipment in a design made popular by Thomas Keller: All equipment is contained in a central rectangle, with stations like grill and saute each self-contained with the refrigeration, tools and setups they need. “You can ‘turn and burn’ in those stations,” Huckels says. “The first couple weeks I did everything myself on the Jade. I could make omelettes, Reubens, entrees, all from a very small footprint so I wasn’t having to clean a giant production kitchen.” But as Aberdeen Ridge prepared in early 2024 to welcome its first residents that October, it was clear Huckels needed help. Sette joined that August through Cura, and additional team members— who are employed by PMMA—include a breakfast and lunch cook, a dinner cook (with a second coming on soon), a sous chef, a chef, a front-of-house supervisor,
a bartender and three servers. “I feel very strongly that you need the cream of the crop when hiring your core team,” Huckels says. “We have a very strong core who are all Swiss Army knives. If I have to ask a cook to do dishes, they’ll do anything that needs to be done. There is no ‘it’s not my job’; at this junction we just can’t have that. They’ve all been flexible and understanding—and it’s because they truly care about our residents.” WELCOME HOME That care is clear in personal touches like a welcome wagon, in which Sette visits each resident a few hours after move-in with a tray of snacks in hand: four Hawaiian sweet roll ham and turkey sandwiches, four-ounce homemade chocolate chip cookies, four bags of chips, a selection of fruit, and four bottles of water. “I walk up with that tray, and my first statement to them is, ‘Welcome home.’ You immediately see this sense of relief on their faces,” Sette says. “It’s just a kind way to say, ‘We see you. We’re happy you’re here. We welcome you to this community.’” With a maximum of two daily move- ins, that community is growing slowly but steadily. In the spring, Aberdeen Ridge is slated to open its largest residential building, and eventually the complex will be fully open as originally planned. “We’ve had a lot of roadblocks, but I don’t see them as problems; they’re opportunities,” Huckels says. “I’ve had the chance to get to know our residents well, and we listen very carefully to their input. As attentive and successful as we are with 40 residents, I want to do the same for the next 140 and 240.” GET TO KNOW ABERDEEN RIDGE’S ROBERT HUCKELS See what’s in store for Huckels’ operation, which was named FSD’s January Foodservice Operation of the Month.
Q: What is it that makes your operation excel? The dining experience is really important—but what people remember about it is not the chandeliers, or the fancy equipment, or the beautiful napkins. What they remember is the people, and how they were treated by the people. I’m lucky to be surrounded by quality people who truly care about what we do. When you have that, the rest takes care of itself. Q: What are your goals for the operation in the coming year? We have a monster project on our hands, with our buildings soon filling up with many more residents. Right now, we’re moving people into the 70-unit Vista building. In April, we’ll start putting residents into the Highlands, which is our largest with 100 apartments. After that we’ll go into the Cheyenne building, which is our memory and assisted care. Each of those areas will have their own fully functional satellite kitchens and dining rooms. When we’re done, in total we’ll have five kitchens operating at the same time. We’re really excited to get to that point.
QUARTERLY | Q1
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