Celebrated chef brings patience, experience to Campo

A decade ago, Mark Estee says, he would hurry out to raise more money from investors if he learned that the lease on a potential restaurant location was more costly than he'd figured.

But now that Estee has 10 years experience in the business, and now that the world is a different place than it was a decade ago, he took a different approach with his plans for Campo, the downtown Reno restaurant that opens in early November.

For starters, he's been a lot more patient.

He's had his eye on the 3,900-square-foot location at 50 N. Sierra St. it faces the Truckee River in The Palladio for a couple of years.

Leases were pricier when he first started talking with the property owner.

And negotiations were substantially complicated by Estee's need for $200,000 in improvements for installation of a hood-venting system that's needed for the wood-fired pizzas and hand-made pastas that are the centerpiece of the menu at Campo.

Cheney Construction of Washoe City has been general contractor on the improvements. Larry Henry Architecture of Reno handled design.

By early this year, lease negotiations had progressed far enough that Estee began drumming up the first of $545,000 he'd raise from a small group of local investors, relying on his experience as the founder of Moody's Bistro and Lounge in Truckee. He's also developed Burger Me, a burger-and-fries restaurant with locations in Reno and Truckee.

While he launched Moody's Bistro from his experience as a cook in some of the world's best kitchens, he spends more his time these days behind a computer as he develops management systems.

"The transition has not been easy," says Estee, who dreams of the day that his management systems are running so smoothly that he once again can devote most of his energies to cooking.

But for the moment, he's at work a couple of hours before sunrise making a multitude of decisions how to finish the floors of the new restaurant, how much money to put into lighting fixtures, how to fill Campo's roster of 40 employees from 300 applicants who showed up at a job fair a couple of weeks ago.

"The hardest thing is making the decisions," he says. "I really pay attention to all of those things."

And he's finding every opportunity to market Campo. He stops passersby by the Riverwalk and invites them to come back when the restaurant is open. He's preparing social media campaigns, cooking demonstrations, media nights, special events, e-mail campaigns.

"I'm not the guy who hangs the sign outside and expects people to come in," he says.

But he paid close attention to the potential of the market long before he started thinking specifically about the concept of Campo.

Doing cooking demonstrations at Whole Foods Market in Reno three years ago, Estee was amazed by the crowds in the store a demographic that clearly cared about the quality of its food.

Another selling point: The 4,000 members of the Great Basin Community Food Co-Op, who raised $500,000 for a new facility at 240 Court St.

That, Estee says, further demonstrated the commitment of a significant group of consumers to quality foods.

The menu at Campo seeks to fit into that space, offering what Estee has dubbed "rustic cooking" that changes daily and is built around seasonal offerings.