The Barstool Fund - Mad Mike's American Gourmet Inc.
Up next: Mad Mike's American Gourmet Inc. (Temecula, CA)
Mad Mike sells the World's Greatest Sausage. While Mad Mike’s is known for sausage previously only available to restaurants, hotels, and country clubs, they also make other gourmet products including: BBQ sauces, salad dressings, spices, mustards, and jams & jellies.
Reader Email
Hi Dave, We are a Family Business, focused on Family Values. When you come to our Store or Café, you will be treated like family, no different than if you came to our home.
When we started our company, we had many years of Experience in Foodservice, both in Restaurants and Distribution. Our Company started with just Sausages; we developed, marketed, sold and distributed Sausages to Restaurants, Hotels and Country Clubs. At Mad Mike's we Desired to be Different, and we decided to have Fun! Our Company started with 4 flavors, and we now have over 38 flavors and variations of Sausages.
When we moved to Temecula, California, we leased a former restaurant, and used it as our office and storage for a year. Then, year two we decided to add our store to the location for the sale of our Sausages retail, and to sell our mustards, sauces, jams , etc.
Temecula is a Wine Country area of Southern California, and we started to make friends with the wineries. We would do events sampling or serving our Sausages. We soon opened the Café for lunch, and started our Sausage Club, modeled after a wine club. We used the Café space in the evenings for our Sausage Club dinners, and for other special events. From the success of the Sausage Club, we soon followed with our Wine and Dine Club, our Rub Club of seasonings and spices, our Music Club with our Open "Mike" Night, which, like the other clubs, used our Café in the evening for Dinner and Music!
Then the Virus hit us!! It hit all of us! It hit us Hard! We lost almost all our business in the first month! Our wholesale business is Restaurants, Hotels and Country Clubs, and almost all of that business was gone over night, closed by the Virus restrictions. The wineries where we did special events were all forced to limit there business, and just like that, no Special Events! Our ClubHouseCafé, of course, was forced to limit service. Sometimes we had to totally close; almost never was inside dining allowed, and sometimes we were told no patio dining either. Our Store was allowed to stay open, and our Customers and Club Members have been amazing in supporting us when they can.
Because of almost a total closing of our business due to virus-related restrictions, we started an RSVP Meal Service for takeout and pickup. Each week we change the menu, email it to our customers on Monday, then they can place their orders Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, and they can pick up on Friday or Saturday. We are now on Week 47 of that program, and again, our Family of Customers have supported us enough to keep the lights on. Inspired by this RSVP Meal Program, we started our Angel Club, where we and our customers buy RSVP meals and donate them to Families or Individuals in Need. Since late August when we began, we and our Customers have donated 107 meals to those who needed it, and they all appreciated it. Next week we begin our newest Club, the Community Club. We are teaming up with local groups who need fundraising (traditional fundraising events have all been affected by virus restrictions too). Each of these local Businesses like Veteran Groups, Animal Shelters, Youth Sports, Youth Dance Studios, Youth Karate Studios, Youth Gymnastics, Church Groups, etc., have Members and Friends! When their Members and Friends purchase Community Club Meals from Mad Mike's, we will donate 21% of the pretax purchase price directly back to the Fundraising Group. (Why 21%?….. I hate 20, like 2020. LOL!)
So, Dave, these are the things we are trying to do to survive. Unfortunately it is not enough. We lost 70-80% of our revenue, but our rent is STILL 100%. Our insurances are still 100%; our Utilities and monthly expenses are still 100%; our Cold Storage and Transportation expenses are still 100%; etc.; but our revenue/sales are only 20-30% of what it used to be. We don't feel comfortable asking for help…. but you cant fight this Virus and its restrictions alone. We are losing a ton per month; we have taken much less of a salary; we have doubled our work level; our part time employees have lost some of their hours, but we always support them with as many hours as we can! Because our business expenses continue, we are running short on Surplus Funds that we have borrowed.
What can you help us with Dave? First of all, even if we don't get anything, because I know there are 1000's like me with similar stories, Please Keep Doing what you're Doing! I am Impressed with the way you and your company have stepped up to help Small Businesses, and especially the Small Businesses in my Foodservice Industry. Keep it up!! If we could get the Support, it will allow us to Continue to help our local Community in Big Ways. Somehow we will wake up from all this stronger and more focused than ever.
People like the name and logo of Mad Mike's, and when they learn MAD is an acronym for "Making A Difference" they like it even more!! Thank you for considering us to benefit from your Fund. I Promise, we will Make a Difference; we will Fight Hard to Survive; we will not give up; we will support our Employees; we will give all we can as long as we can to Support, our Customers, our Employees, our Family, and our Community. Our Job is to make them all Smile!