Mike Jalili reports to his office just before noon.
In preparation for dinner traffic, the Touch restaurant lounge doubles as meeting space for the first of four staff powwows.
Seated on a plush couch, Jalili coaches new Touch wine director Sam Ghandehari, in an adjacent armchair, on how to build a wine list and make recommendations.
“You want a big pinot list. Pinot is like merlot now,” Jalili advises, admitting his wine knowledge was “so bad” when he and brother Billy started Bijan’s in 1997 in downtown Springfield. “Also, get your purveyors to give you bottles to try.”
Jalili’s day starts well before the post-lunch wine discussion, though. Seven days a week, the restaurateur begins with Yoga.
“In the restaurant business, I need this to clear my mind,” he says before starting a 9 a.m., 75 minute session of advanced Yoga with Loa Freeman at Success Naturally. “She’ll put us through torture. She’s the best.”
Three women stream into the Galloway Village studio before Jalili’s Yoga mentor Brad Feuerbacher arrives. Jalili says it took Feuerbacher a year to convince him to try Yoga. Now, more than four years into practicing, Jalili balances the high-stress restaurant business with the calming exercises.
After Yoga, Jalili’s morning routine takes him to The Buzz for a cool-down organic coffee with Brad and Jen Feuerbacher and a free-weight workout at YMCA before his organic egg-white omelet lunch at Touch.
With three meetings left on the afternoon docket, Jalili stops by his office above the Touch lounge. Behind his chair sits a bobblehead doll of girlfriend Jackie Stiles created after she won WNBA 2001 Rookie of the Year honors. He and Stiles, a former Missouri State University basketball standout, are two years into a relationship after a chance meeting in Flame Steakhouse’s downstairs lounge.
“Let’s go to Shiraz,” Jalili says to catering coordinator Summer Redfearn, referring to the private corner room downstairs. Two cooks already are seated at the table as Jalili and Redfearn arrive.
The team quickly matches jam-packed calendars and updates catering jobs such as a wedding ceremony and a political fundraiser at private residences. “Before you leave, make sure the house is spotless,” Jalili remarks, his iPhone buzzing. Jalili uses text messaging to communicate with staff inside the restaurant and between he and brother Billy’s other holdings – Flame, Zan and Midnight Rodeo – which employ 200 combined.
Three texts are soliciting donations, which Jalili says he’s happy to contribute. “It’s that time of year,” says Carl Moss, Jalili’s veteran kitchen and catering manager.
The conversation moves to a pharmaceutical dinner and a Persian night that Touch will host complete with a belly dancer.
“We’ve got to get a St. John’s menu put together for the gala,” Redfearn says of an event with an expected 250 guests.
“I’m changing the menu, too,” Jalili adds, signaling he’ll spend an afternoon at Barnes & Noble to get his creative juices flowing. “You’re going to be busy next week. It’ll be fine. We’ve just got to be ready mentally and physically.”
After the room clears, Jalili calls Bill Rowe, former Missouri State University athletic director, to discuss an auction item Jalili is donating for a fundraiser.
“Let’s do a progressive dinner for six,” he says, suggesting four courses at Touch and four at Flame with dessert and drinks in the Red Room. He recommends limousine service through Fisk Transportation. “People pay big bucks for that. Just tell them to come hungry.”
At 3:45 p.m., Jalili sits down with Touch’s co-managers to discuss personnel issues, then he bounces into the kitchen at 4 p.m. to a greeting of “What’s up, Mike?” He grabs a handful of spoons and starts tasting the prepared sauces. “Ted, you chopped your garlic way too much,” he notices as the pace begins to pick up in the kitchen.
As the clock ticks closer to the dinner hour, the young kitchen staff is abuzz – the noise of blenders drowning out small talk, trash bags hauled off, vats of potatoes boiling, a tray of bacon-wrapped filet mignon floats by. Jalili mixes his own sauce without measuring a single ingredient.
“I was always drawn to the kitchen,” explains Jalili, who was born in Tehran, the capital of Iran, and got his restaurants start as a bus boy in New York. “That’s my thing.”
Jalili breaks from the noise to quiz a new waiter on his menu acumen. “If I ask for a martini, what do you say?” he asks, before finally getting a satisfactory answer. “For every ‘No,’ there’s always a ‘Yes,’” Jalili reminds the newcomer before giving his stamp of approval. Had the waiter not passed, he’d be sent home to study for the night.
Fifteen minutes before 5 p.m., Jalili throws on his chef’s coat and holds court in the kitchen with his wait staff to review the evening’s special: a six-ounce South African coldwater lobster dipped into Andy’s custard, seasoned and deep fried for $23.95, and paired with a Rhone wine.
“Give them something to talk about,” he says in the pep talk before the team samples the dish and wine. “Fantastic with the lobster. It’s got a beautiful fruit and an earthiness to it.”
He closes: “Two minutes for the guests feels like two hours. What are you waiting for, Maddie?”
“Nothing, here I go,” a young waitress says, exiting the kitchen.
The dining room and lounge activity peaks after 6 p.m. and slows before 9. Jalili ducks out around 8:30 to Flame, where the dinner rush is later in the evening.
At 10, he heads to his Millwood home for a bowl of oatmeal and more yoga before calling it a night.
Fourth and final businessperson to be featured in Springfield Business Journal's Day in the Life special series[[In-content Ad]]
