Page 45 - Holly Carney Issue (3)

She trained in Europe and Fund, Microsoft, and Disney. She had
learned to shop and prepare Women of Distinction helped these clients design their corpo-
food the European way; shop- rate kitchens and when you do that it is a
ping daily for fresh food and very intimate relationship . This made her
herbs to create magnificent realize one important fact that has stayed
meals. Soon she transferred to the marketing department with her, “You are only as good as the people you surround
for the European Restaurants division. She then met her yourself with.”
current husband, who worked for the same company in a dif- Through her job with the Poway Chamber she ended up
ferent division. Toni claims the attraction was that “I always doing events at the Bernardo Winery and fell in love with it.
smelled like food, so he would follow me around until he She told her husband that she wanted to open a little shop at
finally asked me out” the winery. She fell in love with the Sicilian owners since it
Toni always had a desire to own her own restaurant and she was her heritage as well and they reminded her of her fam-
also loved the event planning side of the business. Over the ily. She inquired as to the availability of shops in the win-
years she had handled everything from corporate picnics for ery. They told her there were none, but it looked as if Café
50,000 to intimate luxury dinners for 6 corporate executives. Merlot would shortly be up for sale. She was on her way to
It was at this point that Toni’s new husband got a promo- a meeting and got so excited at the prospect of buying this
tion and they were relocated to Madison, Wisconsin. The little oasis, her legs started shaking and she had to pull over
Compass Group did not want to transfer her so she made to the side of the road. She called her husband and told him
a decision (after 12 years with them) to leave the company that she was buying Café Merlot. Toni realized it was finally
and follow her husband to Wisconsin. She then ventured time to put Toni first. So many sacrifices and struggles had
into Non Profits and worked at the Madison Convention and been endured over the years, but as she says, “They weren’t
sacrifices at the time, they were just what needed
to be done.” She was ready to do something that
she wanted. Her daughters were both grown
and phenomenal women. (One of her daughters
is a firefighter and the other works with her in a
health and wellness company, a second business
that Toni owns with her daughter) It took three
months for Toni to convince the current owner
to sell Café Merlot to her. Her dream was finally
coming true. She would own her dream res-
taurant. She now puts many hours into running
Café Merlot, but says “When you love what you San Diego
do, you never will work another day in your life… Woman
you just don’t think of it as work.”
Her psychology background has come in handy
while running her business, she is definitely in 45
tune with her employees needs and desires.
Elizabeth, one of Toni’s long-term employees and
biggest fans can’t help but gush about her boss,
“I have never worked for anyone as wonderful as
Toni, she is always there to help anyone in need.
You couldn’t ask for a better boss.” Toni is a firm
believer in not asking her employees to do any-
Visitor’s Bureau selling events for them. Toni loved Madi- thing that she wouldn’t do herself. She is hands on, knowing
son and loved her new job. She learned Tourism and then how to work every aspect of her business. She has always
went back to school and earned her Bachelor’s Degree in believed that to succeed you have to know everything about
hospitality and hotel management. One day she received a your business -from the bottom up.
call from her daughter, who lives in San Diego, telling Toni One of Toni’s specialties is designing kitchens and she has
that she wanted to buy a franchise and she wanted her Mom done it for some of the top firms across the country. One of
as her partner. Toni’s husband wanted to relocate to San her clients was John Nuveen, the premier municipal bond
Diego, but Toni wasn’t so sure. house in Chicago. Lee Iococa was their biggest client. The
They eventually bought “The Little Gym” with the plan being boardroom held 24 people and she was preparing the room
that they would live part of the year in San Diego and part in for a luncheon for the top executives when she noticed a
Madison Wisconsin. They then decided to relocate to San chunk of meat or grizzle that ended up on the floor of the
Diego full time. She called the Compass Group after 8 years boardroom from an earlier function.
and they hired her right back to handle the Western States. She quickly picked it up in her hand when she spotted the
She worked there for a year when her daughter once again CEO of the company entering the board room with Lee
called and told Toni about a job at the Poway Chamber of Iacoca. Dressed in her chef coat and apron she assumed
Commerce, two blocks away from their business. Toni inter- she would blend into the background and no one would
viewed and got the job, although she kept in touch with a lot notice her.
of her high powered clients like Geico, Sony, Intuit, Firemen’s
July/August 2008