Today we’d like to introduce you to Angela Winston.
Hi Angela, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My husband & I moved to Salida, CO from Fort Collins, CO to get away from the hustle and bustle of the Front Range. We saw the need for more restaurants and entertainment in Salida, and after making Salida our home for 4 years, we decided to open the High Side! Bar & Grill in August 2020, during the height of the pandemic. Was it crazy? Maybe. But sometimes you have to just go for it and put as much energy and positivity into something, and have faith that with the right people, hard work, and planning, everything is gonna be alright. Fast forward to present day, and our restaurant has become one of the best live music venues in this area, we are serving delicious food that ranges from wings and burgers to fresh Tuna Poke Bowls, to Sushi, to NFL game day classics, and not only are the tourists visiting us on a regular basis, but the locals (our most important customers) have embraced us and continue to make the High Side! a regular spot in town.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I bet no restaurant in history has been a smooth road. In the larger picture, our journey, so far, has gone relatively smooth. If you take a look at the smaller bumps in the road, we have definitely hit some potholes.
Some of our biggest struggles has been staffing. It is hard to find really good quality staff that care and help create a positive, fun, responsible environment. We strive for a team that is truly a team, who have each other’s backs and care about each other as if they were family. After being open a little over a year, we are proud to say we can feel the family environment now.
Along with that, there is a severe shortage in staffing that is happening around our entire country. Being in a small mountain town, this makes it even more difficult as our pool of people to choose from is very slim. There are many reasons this is happening:
1. Lack of affordable housing. How are people expected to survive and live in a small mountain town when Airbnb’s and short-term leases outnumber the long-term rentals available? How are people expected to pay insanely high rent prices on long-term rentals?
2. Government stimulus and extra bonuses for being unemployed. Why wouldn’t someone just collect unemployment if they makealmost thesame amount or more than actually working?
Another bump in the road has been the increase in entitled customers. I’m not sure why this is happening, but the amount of rude customers that have treated our staff and us with such impolite and rude attitudes is mind-blowing. I don’t remember people being as rude as they are now, even 10 years ago.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
High Side! Bar & Grill was born on August 6, 2020. My husband and I co-founded our restaurant, and have tried to make it as fun, consistent, and positive as possible. We are known for our delicious food, at great prices, as well as our always rotating daily specials. Last winter, we introduced sushi once a week and will continue with that this winter. It helps give some variety to the locals and keep our staff in a busy environment as well. We’re really proud of our hard work and the healthy and safe team environment we’ve created at the High Side!, where we offer wellness benefits after 6 months of employment with us. After working 6 months, employees are offered a membership to a local health co-op where they can access free blood work, free checkups, free telehealth, and more. We also offer to pay for half off a gym membership, and we are super proud to offer free mental health care to anyone who works for us at any time, regardless of how long they’ve been employed with us. One of our newest benefits is we’ve started offering a Simple IRA to employees, where we match a certain percentage of what they contribute. Thinking about retirement is important, even in the service industry, and we’re so happy we can help contribute funds to our employees’ retirement plans.
Having been in the service industry for about 20 years now, Chief (my husband) and I, know how there are people from all walks of life and with different challenges in their lives, and yet may not have the financial freedom to seek help. Because of this, we have founded a non-profit, Synergy in the Service Industry. The mission of this non-profit is to give free mental health care to anyone in the service industry in Chaffee County through Solvista Health Care. We have partnered with Solvista Health Care in hopes that this non-profit can one day grow to the entire state of Colorado, and eventually even larger. Solvista has 7 locations through Central Colorado, and we hope this non-profit can eventually grow to each of those areas.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
My husband and I talk about this often. We credit our success to our “hustle”, tenacity, and organizational skills. We both grew up in totally different states with very different backgrounds, but one thing we have in common is we’ve both always worked hard and hustled. You could call us both “hustlers” in the sense that no matter what needs to be done, we’ll get it done, without hesitation. There is always a way to get something done, it just might take a lot of hard work and you may have to get your hands dirty. We’ve never been afraid to get our hands dirty. If a toilet needs to be plunged, we’ll do it. If an unruly customer needs to be talked to, we’ll do it. If something needs to be mopped up, we’ll do it. You get the point. We’re hard, honest workers, and I don’t look at our business like we own it. I look at our business like we work there. Maybe that’s why our employees like working with us because we work WITH them.
Contact Info:
- Email: highsidesalida@gmail.com
- Website: https://highsidesalida.com/
- Instagram: @high_side_bar_and_grill
- Facebook: @HighSideSalida
