Buenos Grill owner fits his passions into his business

Many people find they meet friends through their jobs. Spending eight-plus hours a day with someone often turns a co-worker into a friend.

But how often do business owners claim the majority of their friends are customers, too?

For Greg Butler, co-owner of west Reno's Buenos Grill with wife Mimi, finding friends at work is the most natural thing on earth. As he's working at the restaurant, which specializes in fish tacos and burritos, he'll see what he calls "like-minded people" ... folks with bikes on their cars, ski lift ticket on their jackets, and he'll start asking questions. "How were the runs?" or "Where'd you ride?" These conversations lead to new rides or an update on mountain conditions, but more often, they have lead to new friends.

This interest in outdoor recreation is what led Butler into the restaurant industry. Growing up in Huntington Beach, Calif., he was an avid surfer, and working at night suited his passions best. Restaurant work fit that bill.

After moving to Lake Tahoe, to the top of Kingsbury Grade to live with his father, Butler commuted to the University of Nevada, Reno. But on snowy winter days, school would often lose the battle of what to do that day.

"I'd be outside, shoveling all this fresh snow off my car, thinking, 'go to school ... go powder skiing ... go to school, go powder skiing' and skiing almost always won," he says with a laugh.

School served as more than just a skiing diversion. It's also where he met his wife, Mimi, a Reno native. Butler had been working at the Chart House restaurant in Tahoe as a cook, waiter, and in management for five years, but six months after getting married, he took a job at the Newport Beach, Calif., Chart House that was about to open.

Butler kept working his way up the Chart House ladder, eventually moving to Portland Ore., to manage one of the Top 5 of the chain's 65 restaurants. But he knew the only way to keep moving up was to become a regional manager, and they traveled too much. He didn't want to be away from his family, and the Chart House was becoming a little more corporate-oriented after an acquisition.

After 16 years with the company, he decided it was time to take what he'd learned and open his own place.

He and Mimi started looking around Portland for a restaurant site, but while they were visiting Mimi's parents in Reno, they were at Walden's Coffeehouse and saw a sign for a restaurant site. It looked perfect, so they went for it.

It helped that they had friends and family in the area to generate buzz for the new restaurant. Friends and family also helped with childcare as he and Mimi worked nonstop to get things started.

Why focus on fish tacos? Butler talks about the first fish taco he ever had. He was in high school, around 1978, and he and some friends were surfing in Baja, Calif. A woman walking down the beach was selling her day's catch. The boys had tortillas and salsa, so they figured they might as well put it all together.

"I've always been a Mexican food fan; it's nice and easy. I probably ate Mexican food four days a week before Buenos; now it's about 8 days a week," he jokes.

Nice and easy are perfect descriptions for Butler's life philosophy, as well as his favored cuisine. His favorite saying is "do what you love, and make sure you have balance in your life." To that end, despite working a minimum of five days a week in his restaurant, Butler managed this last year to surf 25 days and ski 65 days. Butler makes sure most of his fun is a family affair. His son Cole is a very good skier and is, "all about the Chutes, and he's learning to surf," Butler says. His daughter Hannah, while only 7, likes to hang out in the restaurant and work the counter.

"(The kids) love it. It's very much a neighborhood restaurant, which is what he always wanted. We live in the neighborhood, our kids go to the school around the corner, Mimi is the PFA president ... this is our home," he says. "Reno is the perfect area. Everything is right outside your door."

Or inside your restaurant, in Butler's case. One of his latest sporting adventures is running 24-hour relays with a local team called the Cathouse Dogs. The team recently ran a relay from Gettysburg, Penn., to Washington, D.C., and while Butler was busy serving food, the team competed in last month's Reno-Tahoe Odyssey. Running three to four legs of a 24-hour race might not be everyone's cup of tea, but Butler says it's fun, especially running in the middle of the night.

And how'd Butler discover his latest sport? By approaching some Buenos Grill customers who were talking about it, of course.