Keep it Local: Local Ocean Seafoods with Tony Bixler

Transcript

Dirty Freehub 0:20

Today we feature local Ocean Seafoods, a restaurant and fish market in Newport, Oregon. President Tony Bixler is not only an integral part of what makes local Ocean a thriving community, but also passionate about food and exceptional services. Tony shares with us about what it’s like to own a business on the coast. The transition to employee owned and where Oregon Coast seafood really comes from a majority of the time. So tell us a little bit about your business, local Ocean Seafoods, kind of where are you located? How did you get started? Give us the rundown.

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 0:52

Yeah. So local Ocean Seafoods is a restaurant and fish market. On Newport’s historic bayfront. We’re right across from the boats that we buy our fish from. We were founded in 2005 by Laura Anderson and Alpizar. Laura grew up in a fishing family, and her family had a small boat that she worked on as she was growing up, and she ended up working in seafood restaurants up in Washington near her small hometown. And Alpizar, he was based off the Oregon coast and had several boats of his own. So they teamed up to create local Ocean Seafoods. And 25 with the goal of highlighting the local species, which are a lot of times a little under underutilized and not really in the spotlight here on the Oregon coast.

Dirty Freehub 1:41

That’s very cool. And could you tell us about how you kind of transitioned the business to employment and what that’s like as a business owner?

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 1:47

Yeah, in 2022 we transition to a form of employee ownership called a Perpetual purpose Trust. You may be familiar with that model. Patagonia recently transitioned to that same model of employee ownership. It’s fairly new in Oregon. It’s starting to be a little bit of a movement as legacy owners are looking to further the legacy of the business and not just sell to the highest bidder. they want their mission and their values to carry on. Another big movement is trying to find more equity for the employees who are doing the work. So for Laura, as she was working through this process of learning about this type of employee ownership, it made a lot of sense to her. She did not want to see the legacy she had built as a business kind of go away overnight if someone were to buy it and then change how we do things. Took a year and a half to make it happen. There was a lot of legwork and legal stuff to sort out and financing and all of that, but we’ve been employee owned now for about two years and I’d say it’s going well. One thing that might be interesting to touch on that’s been important for us over the last few years has been our transition to a service charge instead of a tipped model in restaurants. Most restaurants in the US rely on tips for a good portion of their service staff. The tipped wage is lower than the average minimum wage or the federal minimum wage in some states is as low as $2.13 an hour. We moved to a service charge because we found that there’s a lot of problems with the tipping system. It can lead to a lot of wage inequality. In fact, the American tipping system came about. It actually has roots in slavery, which is a huge issue after the Civil War. A lot of slaves were being emancipated and looking for work, and they got hired on at restaurants and other hospitality jobs for zero wage. And they only earned what the tips that they were given. And in some states, you know, if you’re only making $2 an hour, that’s kind of still happening. It’s it’s just not good. So we’ve tried to move away from that model. We’re also very seasonal out here on the Oregon coast. So if you’re relying on tips for a big part of your income, if it’s really slower, there’s a store or there’s some issue why there’s not a lot of customers, you can really not have enough to pay your bills. So we’ve moved away from that and moved to a more living wage for our team. So they’re earning a high wage hourly. So no matter if they’re doing site work or opening or closing, they’re still earning a wage like a traditional job would be. So that’s been, I think, overall pretty positive. But I think for the customers, it’s a little bit hard to wrap your mind around why our goal is that we’re just providing excellent service to every customer. And if there’s an issue, then the business should handle it, not take it out on a server. There’s a lot of reasons why we moved away from that, and because we have we’ve been able to raise our wages for our culinary team. In the first year, we we were able to raise their wages about 35%. We have health insurance for all full time employees. They’re able to take advantage of that dental insurance and they can take advantage of using their sick hours. If they don’t use those, they can convert them to paid time off. So that’s those are all things that are really hard for a single independent restaurant to pull off. So between that and the employee ownership transition, I think that’s been a real way we can move in that direction of getting more of our team earning living wages and have access to health care, which is a huge deal and something that most single restaurants can’t offer.

Dirty Freehub 5:41

Yeah, it sounds like you’re all doing. I’m sure there’s a lot of growing pains, too, but it sounds like it’s some overall really positive changes.

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 5:47

Yeah, I think so. It’s it’s. Our industry right now is going through a lot of change. So I think a lot of people see some of their favorite restaurants going away. And it’s it’s challenging for sure. But I think we’re set up with some of these changes to be a little bit more resilient than many others.

Dirty Freehub 6:07

And why is it important to have, like from your perspective, why do you think it’s important to have like locally owned businesses?

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 6:13

When when I travel, I want to know where do the locals eat or do they shop? So that’s usually where I’ll start, is starting to ask around people that seem like they know where

Dirty Freehub 6:26

Yeah,

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 6:27

the local spots

Dirty Freehub 6:28

the local secrets.

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 6:30

are local secrets. And that can be, I imagine, in in with with bikes. That’s really important too, as you get to that area and you you’re asking where are the local spots that I should be riding? So food, that’s really important because there’s a lot of economic benefit to the community when you when you choose a local restaurant or a local store or shop, those employees are more likely to to keep the money in their community. Economists, though, call economic leakage where that money will leave the community and you’ll never see it again. So for us specifically, we we buy our fish local. So that goes to a small independent, fisher, and they shop and eat in our area too. So that money just stays. And it kind of creates this cycle where it can have a huge impact and that money will get spent three or four or five times before it leaves our area. When it comes to the food side, buying local has huge impacts. Sustainability is huge. The less that food has to travel, the the less impact on the environment. Less carbon footprint. That’s a big deal. Also, where we’re doing the legwork to make sure we’re buying sustainable species that aren’t in danger. A lot of times when you’re buying meat or seafood from across the world, there’s a lot of other issues going on. Sad to say, but, you know, slave labor is a big thing in fisheries. A lot of farms in Asia are experiencing huge amounts of human trafficking. So not to get into some of the horrible things, but we don’t have to worry about that here on the Oregon coast for buying local. And we know our fishers face to face. And there’s no there’s no layers in between that things can get lost.

Dirty Freehub 8:18

Yeah. No, as much as it can be hard, there’s a I find that from, you know, speaking with people on the coast especially, there’s a lot of like history there too. And yeah, sometimes some industries have some darker sides to it too.

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 8:30

Yeah, we moved away from buying Mexican prawns, for instance. They’re one of the few species that we just we don’t have big prawns here on the Oregon coast, but people still really want to have them. So we from the beginning of our business, we would buy sustainable wild Mexican prawns. But there were so many questions around the sustainability and the practices of the Mexican government in regulating those fisheries. We ended up moving away from them and we only buy U.S. prawns. Now that’s one of the few things we don’t buy locally. But even then there’s just a lot of questions there. There’s a lot of abuses that are happening in in the U.S. government. Every fishery has to be sustainable. So just buying U.S. seafood makes a huge difference, whether it’s right outside of your door, we’re blessed to have that. We’re really lucky to have that resource. Not everyone does. So just buy an American seafood is a big deal.

Dirty Freehub 9:29

Yeah. Even though you’re mentioning it’s not local. There’s some, there’s some reasoning behind that one.

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 9:34

Mm hmm.

Dirty Freehub 9:34

More than like 90% of the seafood served up the coast is not usually from Oregon, from what I’ve heard. And I know as a cyclist, we need to support like kind of these local businesses. So how can we encourage people to do this more?

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 9:47

That statistic was based on a study commissioned by the Oregon Coast Visitors Association, and it really is backed by data. There’s a lot of reasons for that, and I won’t go into all of those. But the fact is that there’s a lot of fish being served on your fish and chips plate on the coast that is not from Oregon at all. But we do have very, really good species that are perfect for fish and chips, The rockfish and ling cod and the quotas for those fish aren’t being caught all the time. So we do have a lot of opportunity here to eat more local fish. And similar to what I spoke about before, about the economics of it. When you when you buy that local fish as opposed to from out of state or even out of the country, there’s a lot bigger impact to the people who prepare your food and who catch your food. It’s a big deal to them to buy local. So I think a good starting point would be and I’ll shout them out again. The Oregon Coast visitors Association. They see a huge opportunity for Oregon on a big stage to to move in that direction where more of the seafood is staying local. We’re buying less from out of state. So going onto their website, they have some great resources for customers and consumers. They have what’s called their food trail program. So you can go on there and it’s all split up by segments of the state and it shows which markets, restaurants and other. Places where you can buy food or drink. Which places are serving local? And I think they really do the legwork to help sort that out. I mentioned before to just just asking the locals, when you’re at the front desk of your hotel or maybe the Airbnb owner might be a good way to check in if you’re staying in the area, see where they recommend, and then asking your server to if you’re at a restaurant, say, Hey, what do you have that’s local? If they have trouble answering that question, you might not be in the right spot. Or maybe they just haven’t been given the tools to know the answer to that question. But I was at a conference this year and the the conference, one of the speakers was talking about this exact thing about the 90% fish not local, and they served a buffet at this conference. And I asked one of the one of the workers, I said, you know, where is the salmon from? And it took about 25 minutes for them to come back to tell me that the salmon was from the Atlantic region, which means that the Atlantic farmed fish, which is just not local. And there’s a lot of other issues with that. Anyways, just asking and and that can help to point you in the right direction.

Dirty Freehub 12:30

Mm hmm. Yeah. It’s interesting because maybe some conferences work to get local stuff, but some are kind of in that like business zone of probably just like these are vendors, for example.

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 12:40

Yeah.

Dirty Freehub 12:41

Yeah.

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 12:42

Yeah. And I think I think a lot of your listeners are probably really health conscious too. So for us in seafood, wild fish is just generally more nutritious. The density of the of the nutrients in the fish is just a lot higher. So there’s that too. It may cost a little bit more sometimes to get local or or wild or natural or organic. It’s going to help your long term health. if you’re making those decisions regularly.

Dirty Freehub 13:14

Yeah. Thanks. That’s a good reminder, too. And where could people purchase local Ocean Seafoods products

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 13:20

Yeah. So we’re primarily here on the bay front. We do have a fish market, so you can come in, buy some fish to cook at home we do ship some. We don’t have a huge shipping program yet maybe in the future we’ll build that out. But we’re pretty busy down here at our restaurant, so we haven’t figured out the e-commerce part completely. We do also offer seasonal meal kits during a lot of the holidays. We’ll do what’s called our dock box program. So we have ready ready to cook meal kits, you know, really simple 15, 20 minutes. You can have a fresh meal on your table.

Dirty Freehub 13:56

as well?

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 13:56

We do all this tosses in the chopping for you. So it’s it’s very easy and kind of fun, too. So that is one way customers can find us. All that information is available on our website or social media is a great way to keep up with us.

Dirty Freehub 14:12

Well, thank you so much for sharing some of this insight in the story with local Ocean Seafoods.

Tony Bixler – Local Ocean Seafoods 14:17

Yeah, you’re welcome. Thanks for having us.