The Interview
Gwen Butler
By John Koch, Boston Globe
Do you ever wake up thinking this is a hoax or a dream?
No, because I've always felt that something like this was going to happen to me. Even when I was scared about my future.
Who were you before the windfall?
I was a bartender; before that, the bar manager of Papa Razzi [on Dartmouth Street]. My life entailed working 14 hours a day pretty much every day of the week. I was very happy. I always feel my place is at work. My home life was unhappy, so I left when I was 16, and I've always supported myself. I never wanted for anything. I suppose it sounds like a one-dimensional life, but my work is very social. It's also spiritually satisfying: You're bringing people together, and I feel like it's kind of a ministry.
Were you making good money bartending?
Really good, $100,000 a year. People have a great misconception about the service industry.
Where were you headed before Erich Sager's gift?
As happy as I was, I was scared. All my life, I've wanted my own restaurant. My grandmother cleaned restaurants, and when I was little I used to go with her and hang out and eat ice cream. That's where it all started. But if I had to find several investors, my vision of the restaurant would be diluted. So I couldn't have written a better script: I have one investor who just handed me the money and let me do whatever I want. [Butler has a 25 percent stake in Zita and runs the company that owns it; her friend Chris Rapczynski, who built the restaurant, owns 15 percent; Sager has 60 percent.]
What did Sager see in you?
It's hard to answer without sounding conceited. I think what he saw is that I'm a real student of the business, and I love it, and he saw a good gamble, and he took it.
What is the concept behind Zita?
The idea of the design is a church: arched doorways, wrought iron, marble, mosaics, stained glass. You should be able to leave your troubles at the door. The cuisine is contemporary American. Chef is from the Capital Grille, so if you get the steak, it's the best. My favorite is cornflake-crusted fried chicken, actually oven-baked, with pecan-studded waffles. I live in the Back Bay, and there's nowhere to eat. How many nights a week can you eat French-Brazilian or Thai? I'm filling a void in the marketplace: People want regular food that they can eat every night. The biggest compliment that someone has ever paid me regarding a restaurant is, "I feel like this is my living room." When people take ownership like that, that is exactly what I'm looking for.
Are you tough enough to manage this business?
Yeah. It's a misconception that you have to be a hard-ass-the quickest way to put yourself out of business is to mistreat your staff. You are a great restaurant operator if you can make a 10 percent profit. You have to squeeze every nickel, but many owners and managers shoot themselves in the foot by mistreating their staff so badly that they end up stealing silverware and giving drinks away at the bar.
You're not feeling any fear?
No. I have a very clear idea of what I want to accomplish. Anyone who veers from that has got to go. And there are lots of people depending on this whole thing succeeding - I've got people's livelihoods in my hands. There will be 75 or so, some of them part time.
What does Zita mean?
The patron saint of waiters and waitresses. Designing a restaurant is like writing a story, and your themes and everything have to coalesce. I wrote down all of the elements. "Oh," I realized, "I'm describing a church." Then I realized the name had to be church-related but not too religious. I went online to the Catholic saints index. The last one was Zita, a cool name. It turned out she was the patron saint of waiters and waitresses and also the patron saint of domestic workers - she was a young 13th-century housekeeper in Italy, very pious, and she loved her job and felt she was serving God. She felt about housekeeping the way I feel about restaurant work.
What are your chances of success?
I know what the odds are: One in 10 restaurants succeeds. The reason is that so many people running them have no business doing it. Restaurants fail for three reasons: undercapitalization, lack of presence of ownership in the building, and then the intangibles, the love in the hearts of the operators, staff, and vendors.
Is this churchlike restaurant the family you never had?
It's true. I was born a Catholic. I don't go to church. I believe your religion and spirtuality come from within - you can have faith and be spiritual without doing certain rituals. I'm a very spiritual person, but I don't talk about God. Restaurants give me the family and the community that I never had. How do you get more nurturing than to feed another person and connect with them? To me, restaurants are sacred places and the happiest places on earth.
Aren't people jealous of your good fortune?
I never cared what anyone else thought about me.
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