After a long day of work at Shaker Heights CC, while staring into his own fridge, Executive Chef Chris Wolf got a crazy idea for a new program for SHCC members.
With the cold winter months quickly approaching us in Cleveland, Ohio, my General Manager, Preston Smith, challenged the team here at Shaker Heights (Ohio) Country Club to think out of the box and come up with ideas to drive sales and provide a service, with a value, to our members.
Together, we have brought our members a Family Takeout program that has been successful and other promotions such as Wine Down Wednesdays, Thankful Thursdays, and even Dine-In Igloos. But it was not until I was standing in front of my refrigerator at home, after a long day at the Club, staring into it, trying to figure out what kind of “mystery box” meal I was going to prepare myself without disturbing my wife when it dawned on me: Condiments!
Every refrigerator across the country has a door full of dressings, sauces, and condiments packed full of artificial ingredients and preservatives. Why not offer our members a variety of these items, using our own signature recipes and fresh ingredients from our kitchen at the club emblazoned with our logo?
I quickly went to work converting recipes, ordering bottles and labels so that we could start selling these items before the holiday season.
We think our members are going to really enjoy this program and that these items will even make a great gift for their friends and family members.
At the launch we will offer nine bottles including four sauces and five dressings as well as two cookie doughs and one ice cream flavor with the hopes of possibly expanding or substituting our selections based on the seasons. The four sauces we are currently offering include Peanut Butter and Jelly Wing Sauce, Chipotle Soda Pop, Spicy Buffalo Sauce, and Chef’s Mustard BBQ.
The five dressings include Classic Blue Cheese, Balsamic, Champagne Vinaigrette, Caesar, and Small Batch Ranch.
Our two cookie dough flavors are Chocolate Chip and Chocolate M&M, and our ice cream is Candy Mash.
We are selling our sauce line at $16.00/each, dressings at $18.00/each, cookie doughs at $15.00/each, and ice cream at $9.00 per pint.
Keeping mindful of our members that are older and don’t want to travel to the grocery stores during tough times, as well as those who are working from home on a daily basis, we are also starting a line of pre-packaged meals that are refrigerated so our members can buy them and put them in their refrigerator at home for future meals. We will offer a variety of items including curried chickpea and vegetables over basmati rice, kung pao tofu, chicken paprikash, and beef pot roast and mashed potatoes. These menus will change on a bi-weekly basis and be available to pick up daily or pre-ordered.
All of us here at Shaker Heights Country Club are excited about these opportunities to serve our members, and I, for one, am really impressed by how our team here has come together to market, promote, and inspire one another to push further in hopes of providing our membership a fun, healthy, safe, and exciting product campaign that provides a service and value to their homes while not at the Club.
