Living a Double Life
Photography by Ruby Wallau
Biking down Shell Beach Road one day in 2017, the CEO of a multinational student housing business felt a surge of inspiration to start something new. Instead of trading one career for another, StudentRoomStay CEO Adam Lee decided, like some other local entrepreneurs, to add a new business to what he was already doing, and essentially lead a sort of double career life.
It’s an intriguing idea or vision that turns many 9-to-5 workers into eager food and drink business owners on the side. Pursuing a passion project has provided a great deal of opportunity for Adam, as well as The Backyard on Thirteenth Owner Russell Baker along with Conny Liegl, Owner, Manager and Chef of BaguetteAbout.it. But moonlighting doesn’t come without challenges.
When Adam first passed the rundown eight-unit complex that would later be home to Cape Cod Eatery & Taphouse, he envisioned a place to grab a drink and a cool sand area where kids could play. The open space out front was large enough to install firepits.
In between raising two kids with his wife Jen and running StudentRoomStay, an ed tech company focused on student housing globally, Adam contacted the landlord and inquired about leasing the property. “My wife and I always said that if we ever had a restaurant, we would want it to be about the experience. We always loved being able to sit down, enjoy some wine or beer with great food, all while our little kiddos kept themselves entertained in a fun area,” reminisces Adam.
As construction got underway, Adam considered menu and furniture options while working virtually with students through his online platform designed to make the house hunting experience both transparent and safe. His restaurant vision became a reality in 2019, as Cape Cod Eatery evolved from renderings to welcoming guests.
The New England inspired, seafood-centric restaurant boasts a menu of East Coast comfort foods like lobster rolls, clam chowder in bread bowls and crab cakes, along with West Coast touches like seared ahi tuna, and street corn. The aesthetic is equally on brand with white Adirondack chairs set underneath umbrellas on an expansive patio. The restaurant itself has a white and blue façade with a mock lighthouse off to the side. In the evenings, string lights and a fire pit light up the night. It’s all very Americana.
While his restaurant rises in popularity, StudentRoomStay has been positioning itself for an initial public offering in the next three years. “It’s all about the team. I spend about one hour per week at Cape Cod Eatery,” says Adam. “I lean on my managers Sabrina Diaz and Ryan Wiltfang, mainly, and meet with them weekly to encourage them and offer help.”
“Adam is an extremely busy person,” says Sabrina, “but he always makes time for me and anyone who needs him. We have meetings where I am not only able to go over the restaurant’s needs, but I pick his brain about anything. He is very open and wants to share as much knowledge as he can, so we can all be successful. It’s a group effort here.”
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About 40 miles further north on the 101 is The Backyard on Thirteenth, an outdoor wine and beer garden situated on a bustling corner in downtown Paso Robles. The owners are Russell Baker, Director of Worldwide Sales for a multinational software and IT company, and wife Amy Baker, an Administrator for a local charter school.
“My occupation in tech came far before being a small business owner,” says Russell. “I’ve been in the tech world for 25 years while I started developing the beer garden project five and a half years ago, and we actually opened our doors just two years ago — one month before COVID.”
Meanwhile, Amy works 80 percent of the time at the school, spending Fridays at The Backyard to help staff prepare for the weekend. “Next year,” says Amy, “I hope to work half-time at the school, which will allow me much more time to dedicate to the business and helping with the daily operations at the beer garden.”
Russell’s work in the software industry allowed him to travel the world, which grew his love and exploration of beer gardens. Biergarten in San Francisco, specifically, caught his eye. Every part of the structure was constructed from shipping containers — the kitchen, bar and restrooms — and traditional beer garden tables filled the largely outdoor space. Russell was inspired.
He spent the next few years saving money, researching and fine-tuning his business plan. But the vacant lots he had his eye on had already been secured by boutique hotel developers. On a whim, he decided to ask the owner of a longstanding local walk-up pizza restaurant if he could rent out the back of the lot. Fortunately, the lot had just been listed for sale, giving Russell an unexpected opportunity to buy the land and build his dream beer garden.
“We poured every bit of savings that we had intended to use to build the business into purchasing the lot,” Russell explains. “And we would just have to worry about coming up with more startup capital later on.” He saw the project through, while finding a way to balance the responsibilities of his day job.
“We have a general manager, and a great team of 15 employees,” continues Russell. “And we are lucky to have friends who are always willing to help out. I mostly work behind the scenes, using some skill sets I learned while working in the IT world over the past 25 years. Luckily, I am well organized and can survive on little sleep!”
All of the back and forth has been worth it for Russell, who remembers one day in particular. His father-in-law Jim Howe stopped in shortly after The Backyard opened. Not long after, he passed away. “I will always remember the smile on his face and will carry with me how proud he was of all that my wife and I had accomplished,” Russell shares.
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For Conny Liegl, Owner, Manager and Chef of the BaguetteAbout.it food truck, an instinct to hustle and a sharp work ethic are nothing new. Conny is now a User Experience Design Researcher for the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, but when she started the truck, she worked for Cal Poly. There she handled graphic design, front-end web design and user experience.
“After my remote workday, I step into the kitchen and work on new recipes that I can bring to the food truck events, or for catering,” she explains. “Shopping and prepping often happens in the evenings or on weekends. Time management can be challenging when large orders come in, but I truly enjoy cooking, so it doesn’t feel like work to me. Handling fresh ingredients, and especially baking, is my form of meditation.”
It’s a very different working scenario for Conny, who just a couple of years ago found on Facebook Marketplace the 1972 Ford truck that would become her roving restaurant. With her then business partner, she spent about 10 months restoring the vehicle until June 2020 when they began serving food from it around the county.
Much of the time, the truck can be found at San Luis Obispo County wineries. It’s no secret that wine pairs well with bread, but Conny actually went the extra mile, so to speak, to build her business.
“I noticed that many vineyards did not offer food — or just a very limited selection,” explains Conny. “So I surveyed 60 or so locals and asked what kind of food they would like at a winery. Sandwiches were the top requested item, along with shareable plates. Voilà! The idea for BaguetteAbout.it was born.”
Between baking baguettes and dreaming up designs, there’s no shortage of work for Conny. “Some days, or weeks now, definitely feel like there aren’t enough hours, and I sometimes make fun of my ‘midnight cakes’ that get baked late at night,” shares Conny. “Both jobs are so radically different. I am in front of a computer versus communicating with people for hours at a time.”
Where she spends her tech job identifying so called “pain points” in the user experience, baking bread also involves customer satisfaction. Conny’s tech job requires some graphic design, but it might be the creativity in the kitchen she most looks forward to. “I always loved cooking for others and grew up baking and preparing food for my family with my grandma. For me, food creates community and brings loved ones together.”
A double life may mean twice the work, but for Conny, Adam and the Bakers, it’s also double the reward.
