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Growing the dining biz during challenging times

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Mike Switzer, host of the South Carolina Business Review

The restaurant industry has gone through quite a few challenges since the pandemic. Many restaurants did not survive. And many workers in the industry did not return, even to those establishments that made it. Yet some restaurateurs are not only thriving but expanding. Mike Switzer interviews Steve Cook, owner of Saluda’s restaurant, Arroyo Tacos and Tequila, and Il Bucato Pizza in Columbia, S.C.

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After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.