doesn't matter. It's why they say West End Cafe is " where lunch never ends" - though Shay confides that line was first uttered by a kitchen helper who said it in dismay over the never-ceasing food orders.

West End serves up the kinds of meals people can afford and that taste good. The atmosphere inside is crisp and modern, and the people munching on the fries look very much like they're from the neighborhood.

Once a bus boy

Shay learned the tricks of the trade from the ground up. He moved to Winston-Salem from upstate New York in 1971 and took a job as a bus boy at a steak house, the now defunct Lob-Steer Inn. He worked days on end with no break, absorbing how good restaurants operate.

Though working the main floors, he always kept an eye peeled to the kitchen. "I kept looking at the cook back there flipping steaks and the fire popping up," Shay says. "It looked like something I wanted to do."

So upon finally taking a day off, Shay opted not to relax at home but to shadow the cook. He did this for many months and after a time that cook moved on and Shay was promoted.

It led to another gig as manager of a local steak house. By 1980, Shay was a savvy restaurateur. Only problem was it looked as if his employer was about to go out of business.

'We started like bullet out of a gun. The worst problem we've got too much business, and that's not a problem'.

DAVID MARTIN
PART OWNER OF WEST END CAFE

Then he saw a classified ad. Jason & Mary's, a venerable West End neighborhood diner, was looking for a buyer. Shay had found a new calling - restaurant owner.

Some 17 years passed. Shay had renamed the spot West End Cafe and slowly but surely filled out the once sandwiches-only menu with more diverse fare. Business soon was bustling.

Alas, the old building was coming up for an inspection, and Shay figured it wasn't going to pass newly stringent codes. Time for another change.

Taking on partners

Enter David Martin and Stacy Griffin. Martin was a bartender at the nearby West End Opera House club, and Griffin manager of a downtown night club. Shay would handle much of the back-office work, budgets and operations management, with Griffin and Martin supervising out front..

Together they scraped up enough money - and go some more from a bank - to take over and fix up a neighboring commercial property that had mostly been used for storage.

It is 3,000 square been and has windows overlooking Grace Court, a popular park in the heart of West End. The long wood bar stretches the length of the front area. Plenty of small businesses are within walking distance, and being on the edge of downtown gives it other automatic traffic.

"We started like a bullet out of a gun," Martin said. "The worst problem we've got is too much business, ad that's not a problem."

Contrast West End's wild success with Southbound Bistro. The same partners - with the addition of Martin's wife, Christine O'Neill - also own and operate the more expensive and finer establishment, less that a mile away.

Business is by no means bad at Southbound, but is is slow enough tat Shay is talking about introducing some more "value" items on the menu. He wants to end the perception that Southbound, housed in a vintage railway station, is only for special occasions.

Expansion Plans

The New Year has found Shay already scratching an old itch. Things are running smoothly enough again at West End Cafe that he is thinking bigger.

Shay has been talking with the developers of the soon-to-be renewed downtown Winston-Salem entertainment area, and thinks a second West End Cafe or something with a twist may fit in nicely. He also points to the current restaurant's vacant

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: West End Cafe
Owners: Stacy Griffin, David Martin, Robert Shay
Address: 926 W. Fourth St., Winston-Salem
No. of employees; 30, part-time and full time
Year established: 1997 in current location
1999 sales: More than $1 million
Biggest problem: "Labor. You get these guys that come in, say they want a job, work until the next paycheck and then leave. It's tough to keep people."
Solution: A more rigorous interviewing process:
Telephone: 723-4774

upstairs, with 3,000 square feet begging for tables.

The partners still carry a significant debt load, but the cash flow is strong and

the future appears right.

For Shay, the allure is not just in making a comfortable living. He seems to have been born with the need to feed people. It started way back when he was in the Boy Scouts and he was appointed cook.

Sure, it was a dinner of freeze-dried items, but when his fellow scouts thanked him, Shay was pleased and wanted to feed them more.

Today, he and his partners feed plenty. "Nobody makes a lot of money in this business," Shay said. "It becomes more than just about money."