Over Cooked Fish

August 22, 2017

Tommy Spaulding

Blog

My friends tease me and say that I’m addicted to travel. I’m always on the move. I easily touch down in over a hundred cities across the globe every year between personal and business travel. Sometimes Jill and the kids join me. Some of the time I’m flying solo.

Folks develop all kinds of habits when you “live” on the road. A habit I’ve picked up over the last twenty years is becoming a foodie. I just love a great meal. I collect restaurants like a kid collects baseball cards. Every city I visit, whether in Kansas or St. Kitts, my goal is to research and identify the best restaurants in town. Over the years I have put hundreds of cities into my smart phone with a list of it’s top restaurants. Each city I visit, I fine tune my list. For example, when you are in Maui, you must eat at Mama’s Fish House. When you are in Ashville, NC, you have to eat at Curate. When you are in Jupiter, FL, Food Shack is a must. When in Siena, Italy, don’t miss Osteria da Divo. You get the picture. I’ve gotten quite the reputation with my “foodie list”. I receive a dozen or so e-mails each month from friends around the world asking where to eat.

Years ago, my college fraternity brother and I went in on a vacation residence club in St. Thomas. That is a fancy way of saying we bought a time-share! Anyway, I’ve been coming down to St. Thomas with my family regularly ever since. In fact, the entire Spaulding family is down here for two weeks of R&R.

St. Thomas has beautiful and warm people. Delicious coconut rum. Incredible sunsets. And near perfect weather. But what it doesn’t have is great restaurants. I have nicknamed St. Thomas the Land of Over Cooked Fish. I have been to over twenty restaurants on this island over the years and they must all go to the same culinary school – The School of Over Cooked Fish.

I have found a solution. If you take a $30 taxi ride into Red Hook, St. Thomas and catch the 5:00pm ferry to St. John (for about $50) and then take a $20 taxi ride to Caneel Bay, you will find one of the best restaurants in the Caribbean, if not the world. You will find ZoZo’s. And you will never have a bad meal at ZoZo’s. They know how to cook fish. We ate there last night. Restaurants either have great food, amazing service or incredible ambiance/views. Rarely do restaurants have all three. When they do, I call these restaurants triple threats. ZoZo’s is a triple threat!

This got me thinking.

Does your business or organization deliver over-cooked fish? Would your customers, clients and employees recommend your company? Is it on people’s favorite “list”? Is your organization a triple threat: great people, quality product and exceptional customer service? Is your organization so special that your customers would spend $100 and take two taxi rides and a ferry to use your product or service?

Customers will go out of their way to find quality. To give their business to people they can trust. They will walk, drive and fly to get it. Even take a ferry.

I think I’ll be eating chicken tonight!

Tuesdays with Tommy

Tuesdays with Tommy

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