Carrabba's proprietor, on leaving his Palm Coast home

Palm Coast Observer
Opinion

A little more than two years ago, after four years of completing construction and set up of new Carrabba’s restaurants in Virginia and operating stores in the Metro D.C. market, I was asked by my superiors to relocate back to Florida.

When I first heard Palm Coast despite 20-plus years living in Florida beforehand, I, like many, had to Google it. I think my first comment was, I know where Palm Beach, Palm Harbor and Palm Bay are but where’s Palm Coast?

Wikipedia’s information — ITT, fires, not much else — didn't really set the stage. Ten days later, my 3-year-old son, Yanni, and 37-week pregnant wife, Rachel, and I hit the road and, on arrival in Palm Coast, of course, drove straight to the construction site (yes, Rachel was "thrilled"). It was little more than a hole in the ground at that point.

We had no idea that we had arrived in maybe the best place to live in Florida. A true community, a small town, really, but one with a big canvas.

Twelve days later, my daughter, Stella, was born at Florida Hospital, a blessed addition and a mark of our time here, though I didn't know it then.

I very quickly realized after being welcomed open-armed by many community leaders, including John Walsh, John Subers and Jon Netts (a lot of Johns — my dad’s name and my son’s, so, karmic, really — but I digress), that this was special place. A place like where I grew up where everyone knew everyone — no pressure for the new restaurant guy! A place with divided parkways, low profile signs, strict zoning, not like the rest of ticky-tacky, neon-and-billboards Florida that is prevalent on the U.S. 19 and U.S. 1 corridors on both coasts. A place with a commitment to nature and beauty in the landscape. A place full of displaced Yankees like me, I quickly realized, too. A place I have become very proud to call home.

We hired 80 locals and got to work. At first, like many new restaurants, we struggled to find our groove. Fortunately, we found it after about 4-5 months and were fortunate to finish the year No. 6 in customer satisfaction in our brand.

Those 80 locals we hired whittled down to about 35 and then were supplemented by about 20 more over that first year. Two years in, we have the highest customer satisfaction scores in our North Florida market, second in Florida and third among 245 stores nationwide.

This is a direct reflection of the wonderful people of this community, their high expectations and honest feedback. They embraced, me, my family, my team and our Carrabba’s philosophy. They let us know when we had opportunities to improve and, more importantly, they allowed us the space to do just that and kept coming back, more and more every month.

In year three, our sales and traffic are growing up 11% and No. 4 in results overall for our entire company, year to date 2015, and the future looks bright. On a personal note, the community embraced my wife and children from day one. We love living here. This is the example of what a 2015 community should be.

When, the business being what it is, my superiors came back recently and asked us to relocate again, as large companies do sometimes, this time to Tallahassee, the northernmost point in our North Florida region, our first reaction was, “No way.” We love Palm Coast. Why leave?

Opportunities, economics and plain old life being what they are, however, we soon realized that there was more work to do, new frontiers to conquer and new opportunities to seize, however bittersweet leaving again would be.

It happened fast, and though periodically I will be back to check up on the execution here, I will not get the proper opportunity to thank all of you, the people of Palm Coast, the members of this amazing community.

So in whatever way it can, I have prevailed on my friends at the Observer to help me deliver a heartfelt and sincere thank you to all of you our Carrabba’s customers, our neighbors, our friends.

I could not have asked for more, and I know you will support the gentleman we chose to step in for me here: Michael Brackenridge. I helped to select him and know that he will work hard and earn the trust and loyalty of you, our people — the same trust and loyalty that you have given to my team every single day.

This will continue to grow sales and profits. More importantly, that will define his success as he moves forward, leading the best team of employees in the Carrabba’s system.

I want to thank them, too, maybe most of all. They are your neighbors, your sons and daughters, my friends and my Carrabba’s family, really, and it is because of them that I was able to find the home here that Rachel and I will miss so much. Thank you, thank you. Thank you so much.

Mike Xifaras, is the proprietor of the Palm Coast Carrabba's.