CBRI 1

Enduring The Test of Time

It has been over a generation, two and a half decades, one quarter of a century or more precisely
26 and a half years since Cattle Baron Restaurants was first founded in Portales, NM in 1976.
Needless to say there are numerous reasons for the success of our company, or ingredients for that
success if you will. Sure we have great looking buildings, most of which are fairly new or remodeled,
great menu/value, service, food and are in markets with eager customers to open our doors. But
most importantly it's the PEOPLE. That's right, it's you the staff of dedicated professionals. Without
this essential ingredient we couldn't boast of our twelve restaurants (more expansion planned) with
four very exciting and unique concepts consisting of steak/seafood, bar/grill, Italian and Mexican
along with another in the works. Now that's a plateful. Sounds crazy, well it might be just a tad.
One of the most frequently asked questions of me besides how and where I got started at such a
young age is "you know I really love the Cattle Baron but just where on Gods green earth did you
come up with that Farley's deal in Ruidoso". No pat answer for that one but I'll give it a stab. When I
start visualizing or conceptualizing, as they like to call it in the industry (you know, it's the vision
thing in 3 dimensional color of course), a brand i.e. Farley's (done a number of years ago) my
endorphins kick in, much the same way a runner gets what they call a "runner's high". Often times
this conceptualizing is done in an impromptu setting or brainstorming with other key creative
PEOPLE long before there is even a name picked for the new concept. Once the core of the theme
has been established for this new concept and it is determined that the resources and the talent at
the operations level is there to pull it off we then go to town. I bring in the team consisting of various
outside consultants or professionals such as designer/architect, menu engineering, kitchen
equipment specialist, contractors, etc., all of which put their thumbprint or input to the project in
some fashion or another. Some of these people have been working with me and been on this team
for nearly 20 years. Having said that, I'm more of a broad-brush stroke kinda guy, letting others fill
in the canvass with the small details like artwork, sorta speaking. Now here is where it really gets
fun. We start looking in our own organization such as the Cattle Baron in Lubbock, Texas for a
person that had previous experience with the concept on the drawing board who may already
possess some of the skills we are going to require. Once all is said and done and after the name is
picked, market identified, location acquired, project budgets established, preliminary construction
schedules released, rough drafts of the menu circulated and not necessarily in that order, the one
big looming question I have always asked myself as well as others is, 'do we have the PEOPLE to
make this happen' before I give the thumbs up. A veteran server that took particular pride in being
part of our organization and asked how the company became so successful can sum up the answer to
this question. I replied "its PEOPLE like you who helped make this happen".
Getting back to the Cattle Baron, our original flagship core brand, it is the Cattle Baron that has
been a work in progress since day one and continues to evolve to this day with the same basic
philosophy it started with in '76. Sure there have been many renovations, particularly in the last 18
months with a complete make-over of the Las Cruces and Roswell Cattle Barons, what is referred to
as retooling the image, so when you walk into a Cattle Baron it truly says Cattle Baron, even if you
never read the sign on the street or the building. Remember earlier when I referred to the "fun
part" of all of this (and it still is fun). Now here's to all 700 plus employees down in the trenches
doing the hard part and still having fun, my hats off to you who truly make this happen.
Here's to the next 26 years!
May God bless you.

Jeff Wilson, C.E.O./Founder