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WINSTON-SALEM - Scott Gerding grew up in Gatlinburg, Tenn., where his folks ran a pancake house in the Smoky Mountain tourist mecca. When he grew up, Gerding swore to himself, the restaurant life would not be his.
Naturally, he ended up owning his own restaurant, Twin City favorite Midtown Cafe & Dessertery. In a famously risky business, where failures are more common than successes, Gerding has proved that the restaurant business can be profitable, and fun to boot.
"In spite of what I said all those years growing up, I backed myself into the restaurant business and have thoroughly enjoyed it," Gerding says.
The Midtown Cafe & Dessertery has prospered by following a basic recipe: Make as much as possible from scratch, pick a single, convenient location and stick to it, and keep employee turnover to a minimum by making it a good place to work.
This approach was not the original plan, however. Gerding, who earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from Wake Forest University, abandoned a life in Atlanta as a real-estate lender for a Fortune 100 firm in 1987, moving back to WinstonSalem with his wife, Brenda, a graduate of Salem College.
The two had an idea: A dessert-only cafe,...