Eastside Entrepreneur

Latitudes Cafe Chris Hamm

Back in 1987 when Chris Hamm graduated New Richmond high school he took off straight for O.U. He believed a degree would be the key to his future. Majoring in event marketing and management he found 4 years later his education led him to the Riverfront Coliseum.
The pay was meager; the job was, “filling in the gaps.” Chris soon realized he would be working every weekend and every night for next to nothing. “My boss had been there for ten years, and he was making less than many of my friends who have just graduated. ” After three months Chris left.
Chris had a friend who was working for Honda, he had called Chris to tell him about a position opening at the Honda trading center in Marysville, Ohio. Chris asked, “what’s the job?” he was told, “importing aluminum for Honda.”
Chris’s reaction was simple, “Ok, I don’t know anything about importing and the only thing I know about aluminum is I hold it in my hand when I drink beer”. Nevertheless Chris attended the interview and got the job.
Helping Honda to create an importing company to supply all Honda’s North American companies was a great learning experience for Chris. Not to mention a great paycheck as well. In two years Chris had helped grow a company from nothing to over $100 million.
Enter Ford. Ford Motor Co. contacted Chris, told him they were impressed and wanted Chris to help with Ford’s global aluminum operations, “I said that’s great!...they threw this big number at me and I went for it and moved to Detroit”. “I went up there 26-27 years old...running around making deals...investing Ford in a $1.5 billion aluminum plant in Australia...it was fun." ”Fun” as it may have been, Chris’s dislike for Detroit eventually led him back to Cincinnati. Chris had an offer to start a metals trading company here with a 40% share. In six months he bought out the other 60% and entered his first real entrepreneurial endeavor.
With the metals trading company doing well and secured with long term contracts Chris brought in brother Ryan to oversee the day-to-day management. “I had time on my hands...I had always had an idea about opening up a restaurant...I liked the whole idea of figuring out something that made sense.” Chris spent 10-12+ hours at work every day over the past several years. That schedule gave him little opportunity to cook at home. ”I ate out at least 5-6 days a week..I would go out with my girlfriend...I would always sit at the bar, you get the best service at the bar...I would order like three or more appetizers and one entree and split it all up. So I thought what a great concept...instead of having to commit to only one meal you could order 4 or 5 things and sample more of a variety.” Chris began research into the idea and in fact found it was a very old concept, the Spanish had been doing it for ages. It was called Tapas, meaning “top”. The Spanish say it was created when pubs started serving toast as a “top” for your glass to keep the flies out. The toast was gradually replaced by other, more appetizing treats. The Tapas style of smaller portioned inexpensive pub food has since flourished in Spain and Europe.
The hunt begins. Searching for a suitable location Chris looked at existing restaurants for sale. ”I talked to a lot of people who owned restaurants...I learned that when you buy an existing place it’s hard to get the chance to make up for what you paid for it so you’ve got to buy it right. I tried to buy several places, all fell through, it came down to price...they just wanted more than I was willing to pay.” Two months later (after the businesses declined badly) the locations Chris had originally put a offer on called back to say they would meet his price, “by that time I had already moved on.” Chris had decided to buy a building and build a restaurant from scratch. When asked if it was a good decision Chris said, “It’s a lot of back and forth...you don’t really know which way to go...if you buy it in place, everything is already there and you open up a lot faster...from a cash flow standpoint you’ll spend less money.” “There’s a part of me that says if your going to do this the way you’ve dreamed about for years do you really want to try to fix someone else’s problems and end up with equipment that may or may not work from day to day, so I thought let’s do this from scratch and do it right...buy new equipment with warranties...design the space to meet our standards and our concept.”
Chris’s mother called to tell him there was a great location currently housing a coffee shop in downtown Milford. It was doing poorly and was up for sale. Chris stopped by, took a look at the building and decided it would work. The only problem was it needed a lot of work to get it in functional form. “I made plans to remodel the space...knock this wall out...put a bar over here..and so on.”
When asked if it went as planned Chris said, “We bumped our heads on a lot of things...it’s a learning curve...you get through it...you make mistakes...hopefully they’re not big ones.”
As the building came to completion it was time to refine and finalize the menu. “I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but a concept is hit from all sides by other factors”. “We achieved what we set out to do...it’s easy to let your concept get torn down.” Tapas menu concept intact and a martini bar stocked to the brim, Chris opened the doors. Milford Latitudes was now in business. Chris was now an entrepreneur times two.
The business was fairly slow (but sure) at first, however Chris remained confident in it’s success “A lot of people make the mistake of not being patient enough to make it last...maybe the sales are not quite what you expected or maybe they drop a bit...the next thing you know your getting pool tables and a Golden Tee machine because 5 or so people say they’ll be there everyday if you do, but you can’t be everything to everyone.” “We’re creating a concept that people wouldn’t just say If you open one of these I’ll go to it...we’re bringing them something that maybe they like that they didn’t know they like.”
The paint at the Milford location was barely dry yet Chris was already putting together the plans to open a second location in the Anderson Towne Center. “It all comes down to an ultimate strategy...I want to evolve from my vocation (metal trading) to being something else.”
The grand opening at the new location was miserable, two severe thunderstorm fronts passed by complete with torrential rains and lightning “we had six people at the bar...you almost had to laugh.” Since that turbulent opening night Latitudes has quickly grown. Maybe it’s the live music six nights a week, or perhaps the superb menu, or maybe it’s the wine list that rivals anyone in the city. No, I think it’s the great combination of everything. The Eastside has been hungry for an upscale adult restaurant for some time now. So far we’ve been stuck with sports bars and chicken wings or pretentious posers, (not to mention the conglomerate corporate cowards). Chris put his finger to the pulse and diagnosed the cure correctly.
“ It all comes down to creating a place people like to go to”. Sounds simple right? The truth is restaurants come and go, they are considered high-risk businesses by banks and investors. Regardless of how much money you throw into them if the public does not embrace your concept you will be looking for a realtor.
Eastsiders have embraced Chris’s concept wholly, Latitudes is now home to affluent adults as well as blue-collar patrons. It all comes down to a matter of taste, not class. Anyone who appreciates quality without compromise will appreciate the Latitudes experience. I can’t wait to see what Chris has up his other sleeve.