Popular Mendocino Coast restaurant to be given away in essay contest

Wanted: restaurateur with writing skills to take ownership of renowned Fort Bragg bistro and bar. Price: 250 words and $100.

In an unusual marketing scheme that is sure to garner the interest of chefs who want their own restaurants but don’t have the cash, the owner/chef of Mendo Bistro plans to give his much-lauded 16-year-old business to the winner of an essay contest. Applicants must pay a $100 entry fee and explain why they should be given the restaurant and Barbelow, the bar located downstairs from the eatery. The offer does not include the building itself, which is leased.

Nicholas Petti and his wife, Jaimi Parsons, who manages the front of the restaurant, decided on a contest because they didn’t just want to take the standard sales exit from the restaurant business.

“We wanted to do it in a fun way,” said Petti, who has long been drawn to roads less traveled. He’s an amateur magician who likes to put on shows for children and was a professional musician in his 30s.

The contest also is a way to pay forward the break he got from supporters who believed in him when he launched the 88-seat restaurant with just a dream in his heart and a beat-up-truck to his name in 1999.

“We want somebody else to carry those dreams forward and pursue dreams of their own,” Petti said.

While one lucky person could be getting a business for nearly nothing, it’s not exactly a giveaway. The contest terms state that at least 7,500 people must apply - earning Petti at least $750,000 - or it could be canceled and the contestants’ fees returned.

Petti is not the first to utilize an essay-writing contest to sell a business.

Innkeeper Janice Sage won her Maine bed-and-breakfast in such a contest in 1993 and offered it up earlier this year to contestants willing to pay $125 each. There were 7,255 entries, earning her a little over $906,000, according to the Portland Press Herald. A couple from the U.S. Virgin Islands won, but the sale was quickly challenged by contestants alleging the game was fixed in favor of the winning couple. A police investigation subsequently found the contest was properly run, with precautions taken to hide the identities of the contestants from the judges making the decision.

In Petti’s contest, entrants’ identities also will be kept from the judges, including Petti, who will whittle down the number of essays to 20. The finalists will be turned over to a panel of three judges, whose names are kept secret and who are unrelated to the sponsors and have no vested interest in the business.

Because of the strict requirements for fairness in such contests, no current or former Mendo Bistro employees are eligible.

The essays will be judged on their writing structure, creativity and content, including applicants’ qualifications to run a restaurant and their vision for its future.

Petti said he and his wife are passing on their beloved but all-consuming restaurant business so they can spend more time with family, including their parents and son, Marlon.

“We have a 9-year-old son,” he said. “Everyone with kids knows this time is fleeting. It won’t be too much more time before he won’t want to hang out with mom and dad.”

And: “I’m 52. I did not see myself doing this when I am 70,” Petti said.

Petti already has a new career underway. He began teaching at Mendocino College’s culinary school five years ago while continuing to manage the bistro’s kitchen. He’s now a tenured, full-time teacher at the school and ready to make a full transition.

But he’ll miss his restaurant family - including the employees and customers - and is hoping the eatery and its dedicated workers will wind up in good hands.

“I hope they step in and embrace the staff and turn them into their own family,” he said of the eventual winner.

Interested, qualified persons must submit their applications before Dec. 18. Applications and information about the contest are available at mendobistro.com/pdf/OfficialContestRules.pdf.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MendoReporter.