Paul Sartory takes a simple approach to food. He opens Outlaw Kitchens three times a week at 5 p.m. He offers one appetizer and a choice of three entrees and two desserts. He closes at 8:30 p.m.
See you next time!
The other four days, Sartory rests and cleans and preps for customers who arrive by word of mouth, an email or an occasional social media post.
“We’ve never really spent anything on advertising,” said Sartory, the kitchen’s owner and chef.
Evidently, he doesn’t need to.
An unconventional approach to business keeps Sartory in business. In 2012, Sartory and his wife Peggy Howe purchased a beauty salon in the Alta Vista neighborhood and made it their home. Five years later, they turned the front of their house into Outlaw Kitchens.
Positive reviews followed. A reputation grew. New patrons became regulars. Why pay to market a restaurant that has no trouble filling tables and chairs?
Well, Sartory does pay to participate in Restaurant Weeks, a biannual celebration that promotes more than 100 area eateries. For each customer that orders off the special Restaurant Weeks menu, Outlaw Kitchens contributes $5 to Culinaria, a local nonprofit that supports Restaurant Weeks.
Other eateries contribute less, from $1 to $4 per Restaurant Weeks customer. Whatever the amount, the investment yields benefits.
“We get a bump of maybe 10 or 15 percent,” Sartory said.
Since 2010, Restaurant Weeks has supported local eateries through sluggish seasons. Participating establishments offer three-course brunches from $20 to $30 and three-course dinners from $35 to $55.
Restaurant Weeks runs Jan. 17-31 and places fresh eyes on Outlaw Kitchens. The first week features a three course prix fixe menu of crispy saffron risotto, chicken fried steak and a flourless chocolate almond torte or apple blueberry cobbler. The cost is $55.
For another $30, you can pair the meal with a house beverage.
Patrons, however, may order off the house menu. They can select one of two a la carte dishes or a three course prix fixe. Culinaria collects no fee from regular menu purchases.
Outlaw Kitchens, like most eateries, experiences a post-holiday lull. Restaurant Weeks brings traffic, an injection of cash.
“There are several restaurants that do what Outlaw Kitchens does,” said Suzanne Taranto-Etheridge, Culinaria President and CEO. “They only participate in Restaurant Weeks because they see a higher influx of customers. That is their marketing strategy.”
Sartory, 67, grew up in Pittsburgh and graduated from high school in 1976. His mother encouraged him to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He graduated at age 20, studied with French chef Alain Ducasse in Monaco and returned to run the American Bounty Restaurant at the CIA.
Over the next 30 years, he opened several high-profile restaurants in the U.S. and taught at CIA campuses in Hyde Park, Napa and in San Antonio, where they moved in 2010.
His latest concept was born in an apartment in Mahncke Park. On Sundays, after a week of teaching at the CIA, Sartory cooked meals for friends on a four-burner stove. His wife made the deliveries. Operating a food service at home was illegal.
If authorities busted him, Sartory thought, it might be good for business. That never happened but the bootlegging operation inspired a name: Outlaw Kitchens.
While driving through the Alta Vista neighborhood, a house nearly 100-years-old caught Peggy Howe’s eye. The property had a quarter acre for gardens and an old barn for a workshop. Sartory and Howe bought it and transformed it into a farm-to-table restaurant with living quarters in the back.
“I had been driving around San Antonio for two years, looking for a spot that was commercial, residential and in a neighborhood with gardens,” Howe said. “I had passed by the property many times and had said to myself, ‘That’s the spot.’”
Nine years after opening, Outlaw Kitchens draws much of its business from a mailing list of 2,200 customers.
“They receive an email, usually on Monday, with pictures and descriptions of the upcoming weekly menu,” Sartory said.
A healthy customer base enables Outlaw Kitchens to thrive despite its limited service. So why open only three days a week for 3 ½ hours a day?
“So it’s manageable,” Sartory said.
The practice underscores the philosophy that drives the kitchen’s business.
Keep it simple.
