By 
B&B’s Pickle Barrel is a familiar stop in Fort Collins for the everyday hungry lunch-goer. With an endless menu of items that have been dear to people’s hearts since the restaurants opening in May of 1988, owner Beth Smith has experienced the ups and downs of maintaining the restaurant, from losing her business partner to packaging sandwiches for enthusiasts to take to loved ones in Alaska. When I met with her one day in her office, which is tucked behind the bustling kitchen, it was immediately clear that she was the real deal and can’t be stopped.
MM: The Pickle Barrel is a huge staple in Fort Collins, but what about you? Where does your story start with Fort Collins?
BS: The first time I came through Fort Collins, we were really young. I went to a two-year college in Boston and my girlfriend and I traveled across the country in a van, and her family was here. So, we went to California and Niagara Falls and Vegas for 3 months, and then we came back for Fort Collins and lived in Lakewood. I worked at Azar’s Big Boy Restaurant. It was a couple years that time, and then I went back to New Hampshire for a year, and then I lived in Arizona for a year before I came back up here. At that point I was about 21, working at a couple of restaurants. I worked at one called Clovers that was right up Laurel Street. It’s not there anymore, it turned into a pizza place, and it closed on December 20th. That’s when I got my job a Bennigans. That’s where I met my partner, Bob.
MM: I couldn’t help but notice the huge mural of Fort Collins in the restaurant.
BS: We did a remodel three years ago and took away a lot of the things that people were used to. We used to have hockey jerseys on the ceiling and these big cabinets that came out that held the liquor. It just needed to be freshened up a little bit, and the people who did the remodel just left the walls blank. Andrew, my bartender, is an artist. He does all of our artwork, and he did that mural for us. I said, “I want the city of Fort Collins in here with all the breweries and Poudre Canyon and all kinds of stuff.” He’s really good with faces, so most of the people on that wall have all been employees here.
MM: It sounds like you’re very employee oriented with how you run your business. The environment feels close-knit.
BS: Yes, my employees stay. Andrew’s on year twelve, Bethany is on year eight. I have kind of had three groups of people, starting 30 years ago, and those guys all stayed eight to ten years and then the next group eight to ten years. It makes it so much easier to run this place because these people know what they are doing. I love my employees, they work really hard. I am still friends with people who worked here twenty-five years ago and now they have kids of their own. Eight couples have met here, got married, and had kids. That has kind of been really fun.
MM: When I walked in, you seemed so hands-on with your business alongside your employees, in contrast with how I imagine a lot of people are when they own a business.
BS: The restaurant business is a lot. I’ve been busy, it keeps me really busy. It is a hard business to run because you have to watch everything. People walking in the door, the timing of it, keeping things fresh, keeping track of when things come out, my college-age employees. There’s a lot of work involved in restaurants, and I think people who have never done it don’t really understand it.
MM: Don’t you have kids? That seems like…a lot.
BS: But we’re women and we do do it all! Thank god my kids are older now. It was a lot. It was a lot after my partner left in ’94 because from then it’s just been me. But I always seem to hire really awesome people that get it. They see it.
MM: Did you ever do all this while you were a single mom?
BS: My kids were teenagers when I went through my divorce, but I still did it. I was my sons Cub Scout leader for five years, on top of doing this. I know, look at me, I’m just going to make myself sound awesome.
MM: No! You are awesome! It sounds like you’re so involved and you are defying everything and getting your business done.
BS: I just think women do it all the time, you have no choice. You have to pay the bills, you have to do everything, so you just do it. For me, I had a crib for my son in my office so he could come to work with me. My daughter, Jessica, was probably three days old, and I had her at work. I used to have a backpack, and she would be in the backpack while I was ringing people up on the register. It’s a really hard choice for women to make to be able to get ahead in their career and whatever they want to choose and also have a family. I was very lucky because I could bring my kids right here with me, sitting in my office, breastfeeding and writing down a bill.
MM: Have you ever been underestimated in your ability to just do it?
BS: At the beginning, when my partner was still here, some people would only talk to him. But I feel like it has gotten so much better in the 30 years that I have been doing this. Now, they have no choice but to deal with me, you know? There is nobody else. I have been doing this for such a long time. I started this when I was so young, so everything has been trial and error, learn as I go. I haven’t had schooling on how to manage employees and how to do this and that. I really had to figure out everything. Every day is a learning experience.
MM: If I asked your kids about your work ethic, what would they say?
BM: They would probably say I am a really hard worker because they see it. They watched me do it. I grew up in a family business. My dad owned a big boarding kennel in New Hampshire. We would board and groom dogs, and we sold fish in our pet shop. I grew up working. Every Christmas, every Thanksgiving, we had to walk by our gifts to go walk the dogs and feed them before we could do anything. So I worked, I worked somewhere when I was five years old on up. So I just have that ethic engrained in me. I don’t know what it is.
