SeaFood Business

JUL 2012

SeaFood Business is the global trusted authority for seafood buyers and sellers. We are the seafood industry's leading trade magazine with more than 30 years of experience. Our coverage is based on the "business" of buying and selling seafood.

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Top Story those relationships is crucial, she says, and she values them as partnerships. To Swordfi sh, caught by the Pilikia, is the signature dish at Bluewater Grill. keep product in the cases, she also works closely with Ahold USA's marketing and mer- chandising departments on item mix and specifi cations, and believes in the 80/20 rule (80 percent of seafood sales are on 20 percent of the SKUs). But she also knows you can't just send the same product in the same volume to each and every store and expect success. "A good lobster salad is extremely important in New England while the right crab off erings are essential to Maryland customers," she says. "With procurement, the knowledge required de- mands a broader scope of understanding about sourc- es, market conditions, cost of goods and so forth. I try to keep my mind open and learn as much as I can from those around me." on California's stunning Santa Catalina Island, next spring. T e Wrigley fam- ily (of chewing gum and Chicago Cubs fame), who created the Catalina Island Conservancy that now stew- ards 88 percent of the island's land, asked Ulcickas and Staunton to be a part of the town's development initia- tives by opening a restaurant there. "It's sort of like Nan- tucket without the million- dollar homes," he says. "T e town of Avalon is a gem. It's poised for a next golden age, like of the '40s and '50s." T e new site should bump parents instead of two and a love for the restaurant busi- ness!" says Ulcickas, 50. "Hospitality is in my blood." Ulcickas (ull-CHISS- M any fi nd their way to the seafood or restau- rant industries accidentally. For Jim Ulcickas, it was more like destiny. After his parents divorced when he was 9 years old, he spent his summers on Maine's Mount Desert Is- land (MDI), washing dishes and cooking steamed clams at Abel's Lobster Pound, which still stands today on the shore of Somes Sound. In high school and college, Ulcickas worked for his sis- ter's business on MDI, Har- bor Bar, which specialized in ice cream sandwiches made with fresh-baked cookies dipped in chocolate. And the man his mother re-married was Curtis Blake, founder of Friendly's Restaurants. "I ended up with four 22 SeaFood Business July 2012 kuss) is now the father of two children (ages 5 and 7) who he and his wife Ju- lie Ann are raising at their home in Santa Ana, Calif. T e Williamstown, Mass., native and Dartmouth Col- lege alum has been living on the left coast for nearly 25 years, all of them working as After Dartmouth, where he was an All-American la- crosse goaltender, Ulcickas spent six years with Grace Restaurant Co. in New York and Irvine, Calif., where he worked in fi nance, marketing, purchasing and operations. Later he joined American Restau- rant Group in Newport Beach, Calif., where he was controller of Spoons, a $35 million division encompass- ing 20 restaurants. "If we were to use only one [sustainability] reference, we probably wouldn't sell farm-raised salmon or shrimp. That wouldn't be smart." — Jim Ulcickas, proprietor, Bluewater Grill a restaurant executive. Blue- water Grill, the restaurant he co-founded in 1996 with business partner and Sydney, Australia, native Richard Staunton, is the culmination of a life in foodservice. Now the number that "Jimmy U," as he is often called, cares most about is fi ve — three Bluewater Grill restaurants in Southern Cali- fornia, one in Phoenix and a fi fth due to open in Avalon, Visit us online at www.seafoodbusiness.com the company's annual sales up from nearly $18 million to more than $20 million. Ulcickas says the company's commitment to sustainabil- ity was a major factor in at- tracting that opportunity. "Our customers appreciate us for taking the lead, and it helps us stand out from the competition for all the right reasons," he says. "We believe almost all of the products we sell will meet our defi nition of sustainable by year's end. It is not diffi cult. We are not selling a commodity at Blue- water Grill." Ulcickas is the kind of guy who'll roll up his sleeves: He doesn't just stack the Monterey Bay Aquarium's

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