Editorial, continued.

   We also have a feature article about Izzy Galicia of Mannex Consulting. Izzy is a specialist on Lean Manufacturing who helps reduce manufacturing costs for companies while improving the quality of their products. We attended an covered the ITT Technical Institute Tech-Fest held at their campus in Lathrop on May sixth.

   Tech-Fest is where the technical school displays the work and activities of their students for employers to see and judge. We also feature another excellent article by Kevin Richter of the Tracy Toastmaster’s club on how Toastmasters helped him overcome his discomfort with speaking. Toastmasters is an excellent opportunity for business people to make contacts and to develop confidence in speaking in front of groups.

   One of the most requested items for the Tracy Business Journal is for information on the restaurants in the area that are suitable for business lunches or dinners. We decided to visit two restaurants this month with an eye toward doing reviews for the journal. The first one we tried was a large chain restaurant near the West Valley mall. The results were disappointing to say the least.

   After being seated we discovered the wine glasses still had small amounts of wine left over from the previous occupants of the table and had not been replaced with the rest of the dishes. The appetizers were provided with fewer dishes than occupants at the table. There were several more quality issues, but the server capped it off by leaving one of those little black folders and forgetting to put the bill into the folder. Not a lot of confidence left after waiting a half hour for a table.

   At the opposite end of the spectrum is The Great Plate in downtown Tracy. The restaurant has recently been remodeled and the service has always been very good. Many have adopted it as a favorite lunch and dinner spot for meeting with clients, because there will be no embarrassments. As a person on a low carbohydrate diet, I know the servers will adjust the menu to make the meals conform better to my diet. My only recommendation to The Great Plate is to play Jimmy Buffet music to better match their décor.

    Some of the companies we have covered have not survived the last year. Noted among them are The American Dog, which closed its doors after having their rent raised. My last conversation with Ray Rhead is that he is still catering events with his award winning hot dogs.

   The Greytful Dog Barkery and Botique also closed its doors a month ago to move over the hill to Pleasanton where Jane  McNamara has opened a larger store in Historic downtown Pleasanton. Although she had done an excellent job in developing a good client rapport, she simply needed more traffic in front of the store that fit her operation. We at The Tracy Business Journal wish the best of luck to both Jane and Ray for their continued operations.

   May marks the first anniversary of early beginnings of The Tracy Business Journal. We have interviewed a lot of interesting businesses during the last year and have enjoyed highlighting local businesses. Although we will continue to be based here in Tracy, we are expanding our coverage area to include the Tri-Cities area of Tracy, Stockton, Modesto, and all cities in this region of the Central Valley.

   We look forward to bringing more features about the local businesses and will soon be writing about companies and events throughout our new coverage area.

Keith T. Chiles MBA

Return to the Table of Contents