Excellence Un-Tapped!
Excellence Un-Tapped!
Restaurateur Sean Drought brings his thoughtful hospitality philosophy to Everett’s waterfront with Tapped and the Net Sheds—a rooftop taphouse and year-round fish market rooted in local history. With a simple, focused menu and a name that honors the fishermen who once worked nearby, the space reflects Drought’s belief in doing a few things exceptionally well. Read on to see how he’s crafting more than high-quality brews —he’s shaping a culture.
Tap house founder shares restaurant’s secrets
BY ELLEN HIATT
All photos by Marcus Badgley
If I told you that Sean Drought, restaurateur, was charismatic, I wouldn’t be wrong. But I might be misleading. His energy is, indeed, charismatic. He attracts people who want to connect with him in meaningful ways. He brings an energy into a room that makes you wonder what he’s got to say. But don’t think it’s a shallow charm at work. His intensity is only matched by his genuine vulnerability. And it’s a winning combination for a man in a leadership role.
“He is the most genuine person you’d ever want to meet and he really wants what’s best and he settles for nothing less than excellence. Because that’s what our people deserve,” said Cynthia Kelly, Executive Director of the Mukilteo YMCA, “partner in crime,” mentor and mentee.
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“He thinks I’m a mentor?” she asked, sounding a little incredulous. Kelly is among a handful of people Drought says he is inspired by and seeks advice from. “If anything, he’s been my mentor,” she said.
Drought acknowledges relationships are a two-way street, and we “get as much as we give.” But he’s unusual in that he’s in the business of building relationships over and over again, and creating environments where people’s best selves have a chance to thrive. He hopes he’s provided that for his three children, as well: Aidan, a Seattle Pacific University student, Connor, a Cornell graduate, and Hannah, who is studying to be a therapist at Pepperdine University. Aidan has his father’s entrepreneurial spirit and started his own business, Cascade, a clothing retailer.
The three have created their own support system, he said, and are each other’s best friends, weathering their own family’s challenges.
“Restaurants aren’t hard. Life is hard.” Chris Szymanski may not have known it, but he was echoing an idea that his boss has based his life’s work on: It’s not about what you do; It’s about who you do it with.
Drought’s leadership style focuses on the middle 60% of people who show up everyday for themselves, the guest, and for their teammates. Perhaps, he explained, they need a little more encouragement, attention, support and appreciation.
“We reward attitude and effort over ability,” he said. “In the long run it is simply not even a question.”
In most cases, the top 20% of your team will be high achievers and only a few may even stay with you, Drought shares. “This is a compliment and we are excited to see what opportunities life presents them.” Another 20% may not stay because they’re not cut out for it, or they just don’t see themselves working there. But 60% of your hires, if you’re careful, can be motivated to deliver, he said. And it’s not the salary that keeps them around. It’s the tight knit relationships they create with each other and the support they get from their leadership teams and the guests and communities they serve.
This attitude permeates the establishment, and it keeps the guests coming back. Trivia Wednesday at Tapped is packed, as is just about any other day. About 70% of their customer base is regulars, Szymanski said. It’s where people come to engage and connect with each other after work.
“Tribal transcends teams,” Drought explained. It’s building a community of people who commit to each other and to the work. The culture of the place is what drives the delivery.
“We have a group of humans who care about each other and the communities they serve.” — Sean Drought
No one can replicate our team and that is the most special and unique advantage we have,” he said.
Ivo Schillbach said that’s a hard thing to put into a business plan – the human factor. Yet it’s the most important one.
“That’s something that’s new to me,” added Schillbach, who has spent his life in finance, and jokingly calls his partnership with Drought a “midlife crisis career.”
“I’m along for the ride,” he said, adding he’s always learning from Drought.
On Drought’s office wall is a quote from Alice Waters: “Dream more than others think practical. Expect more than others think is possible. Care more than others think wise.”
Those are words Drought lives by, manifested in a hospitality career, bolstered by a master’s degree in organizational development.
“I think it’s more important to start with the right group of people, not the idea,” said Drought.
With his partners in The Way Group Hospitality (“great friend” and fellow restaurateur Brian Radford, and mentor Schilbach) there are three Tapped Public House locations (Mukilteo, Camano Island and Mill Creek) and the group is opening a fourth in this summer’s expansion at the Port of Everett marina, along with a brand new venture in a year- round fish market as well as a blossoming catering business.
You won’t hear Drought take credit for these achievements, though. He’ll tell you about what he’s learned from others, how his partners or friends have seen him at his worst, or given him support to be his best.
“I am without a doubt not the most effective or talented restaurateur. My goal is simply to gather amazing humans who all have hearts for serving others,” he said, with characteristic humility.
Tapped also cultivates community by giving back. Tapped partnered with the YMCA of Snohomish County to deliver 2,500 fully-prepared Thanksgiving meals to families in need.
“The communities we have the privilege of serving support our mission of giving back. For example, this year alone 150 volunteers supported the Thanksgiving initiative. We simply facilitated our team’s and the community’s desire to support their neighbors.”
It’s that cultivation of relationships and of people that strengthens his own capacity and has opened the door for this newest venture at the marina.
Drought acknowledges everyone’s humanity, and his own, as well as the idea that everyone is “broken in some way.” But it’s not about that, he said. “That’s a given.” In fact, he references a leadership book that summed up what it is to be a flawed human in a leadership role, and that he “leads with a limp.”
“It’s about how our broken pieces fit together to make ourselves, each other, and the communities we serve stronger.”
