Brunch is officially canceled, for now. But there’s a good reason. Spaghetti Westurn executive chef and owner Jason Saunders cut back operations to Wednesday through Saturday evening because the recently opened pasta restaurant in a Taylors neighborhood does really well at night and not so much during the day. So to prevent staff burnout, the one day, open-only-for-the-day shift got the axe.
“2020 was a good time for reflection,” Saunders says. “One of the core ideas was we don’t have to be open lunch and dinner seven days a week. I want to have the time to take care of family. It’s tough to take care of life sometimes.”
Originally from Asheville’s notable food and beverage community, Saunders spent the year prior to opening his concept thinking about what he needed and what that would mean for his staff.
Work-life balance
“I’m guilty of having a negative work-life balance,” he says. “When I was young, I worked hard and played hard. There’s more of an awareness in our industry now. We don’t make a whole lot of money. We don’t get benefits. When everyone’s gathering to celebrate, we’re working. We have to create our own pros.”
And that awareness has led him to open a restaurant that, when it grows to include additional locations, will continue that culture of balance he hopes to strike as Spaghetti Westurn becomes more established.
“We’re a start up,” he says. “What I can offer is that you’ll enjoy what you do. We’re a small staff, and we all have families.” This means his staff of fewer than 10 have Sundays off to play a round of golf and talk about anything other than work, along with the previously planned Mondays and Tuesdays when the restaurant is closed.
“A guaranteed weekend is something you don’t get in our industry,” he says. “We have such a small staff and don’t want to sink the ship by asking too much of anyone.”
He wasn’t thinking only about his staff when forming the Spaghetti Westurn concept, but also what the local patrons would be interested in. “I just want a cool place to hang out,” he says. “We’re different. We doubled-down on the western to set ourselves apart. It should be a fun casual atmosphere, but we can get as fancy as we want to.”
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Serving fresh, handmade pasta in a Taylors strip center has given Spaghetti Westurn a unique edge on a stretch of Wade Hampton Boulevard traditionally lined with chain restaurants.
“This is Phase 1,” Saunders says. “It has to be proven before we take anymore steps. It would appear that people don’t hate it.”
As for the next phase, which would mean additional locations, Saunders is in no hurry.
“We can have a plan, but I’m not trying to force a circle into a square,” he says. “I don’t want to be the person who opens up seven places horribly. We want to undersell and over-deliver.”
Fun facts Jason Saunders
Saunders is an avid thrift shopper: “My wife says I have a problem.” Every plate in the restaurant, other than the main pasta dishes, has been found.
He’s never traveled west of the Mississippi, though he has traveled in Europe, and plans to do more of that as soon as he’s able. First stop, however, is a honeymoon in Honduras he and his wife, Adrienne, didn’t get to take last year.
Saunders loves to camp, including the most primitive spots he can find around Asheville.
He and Adrienne are proud fur parents of a dog, Faulkner, and formerly stray cat, Pixie.
Saunders is sober, but he loves to take Adrienne out to their favorite bars – Exile (which makes a great mocktail) and Jianna, which he helped open, for the “coolest people-watching place in town.”
He thinks Greenville now is similar to Asheville before it became a celebrated dining destination: “This town has done an amazing job with the parks. If Greenville is going to be *that* town, it has to be more than a Main Street. The further we can move out from Main Street the better.”
