D. Ford Mennel ’02 D. Ford Mennel works today on the periphery of the hospitality industry, but his career has been built solidly on the foundation he got from the Mercyhurst hospitality program. He’s president of The Mennel Milling Company, which has been milling wheat into four in Fostoria, Ohio, since 1886. Mennel fours are used in many foods, from cake mixes and cookies to gravies and soups. The company also sells to major mix manufacturers and bakeries that cater to the fast food and restaurant trades. “My Mercyhurst education taught me teamwork and how to interact professionally with others,” Ford says. “I also learned to try and look at things diferently and to not accept the frst solution.” He says he uses the skills in cost controls, budgeting and stafng that he developed here every day. He’s especially grateful for the hands-on real-world experiences he was ofered. “And I always cherished the time spent in The Grotto completing our foods labs and restaurant operations classes. We had wonderful professors including Daryl Georger, Brenda Moore, John and Brenda Wolper, and Mike Alleruzzo who identifed with us as individuals and not just numbers.” Ford had several job ofers when he graduated, even though the travel and tourism industry was reeling after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He joined Tharaldson Property Management, which owned 300 hotels nationwide, including some near Erie’s Millcreek Mall where he had worked during his college years. (He had also done an internship with the Westin Hilton Head Resort and Spa.) As a property support manager, he traveled to hotel operations throughout the Great Lakes Region before settling into positions at company hotels in Toledo, Ohio, and Rio Rancho, New Mexico. He then left Tharaldson to take a management position at the Hilton Nashville Downtown, and probably would have stayed in Nashville had his father not encouraged him to join the family business. The emphasis on community involvement that he learned at Mercyhurst has propelled Ford into service with a variety of community organizations. He’s chair of a nonproft nursing home board, vice chair of a local economic development corporation, president of a startup nonproft skilled trades educational center, and chair of an angel investment club. His hobbies are real estate investing and Michigan football, and he’s active on the Walker College of Business Advisory Board.
Steve Kaczerski ’13 & Loan Vu ’13 One reviewer says S & L’s All-American Diner provides “the best American comfort food you will ever fnd in all of Vietnam.” Another lists several “must-try” menu items, like chili fries, Philly cheesesteak and vanilla milkshakes. Steve Kaczerski and Loan Vu, who met as hospitality management students at Mercyhurst and married in 2014, have carved out a unique niche in Hanoi’s crowded restaurant market with the diner they opened late in 2016. It was a huge step, but both agree their Mercyhurst educations prepared them well, teaching them everything from menu planning and costing to restaurant design to training. Loan is a native of Vietnam who always dreamed of studying abroad, but didn’t realize she was cut out for the hospitality industry until she took an intro course at Mercyhurst. Steve arrived already knowing he had a passion for restaurants and hospitality after years of part-time and summer jobs at a restaurant near his home outside Philadelphia. Steve and Loan both point to their Wine and Spirits class as their favorite Mercyhurst memory, not only because of the enjoyable subject but because it’s where they met. Their frst partnership was on their fnal class project. But Loan says she also loved Erie’s winters. “Coming from Vietnam, I had never seen snow in my life, and I couldn’t help falling in love with Mercyhurst’s winter wonderland.”
Both are grateful for their hands-on experiences in the Grotto Dining Room and Marriott Café and for the variety of internships that helped them explore their feld. For Steve, a placement at the Sheraton Erie Bayfront Hotel led to a job post-graduation in 2013. He relocated to Vietnam about two years later. Before deciding to open the diner, he managed a boutique hotel in Hanoi’s Old Quarter and then a fne dining French steak and wine restaurant in the city’s West Lake District. Loan did a summer internship at Sheraton Erie as well, plus assignments at Springhill Suites by Marriott and back home at the InterContinental Hanoi Westlake Hotel. After her 2013 graduation, she worked in retail at Macy’s for a while before returning to her homeland, a detour that she says taught her a lot about customer service. She was a management trainee at Softel Metropole Hanoi until opening the diner. Now they’re sharing responsibilities as owners and general managers of S & L’s All-American Diner, spending long hours every day training and supervising their staf, making sure food quality and presentation meet their standards, visiting with customers to get their feedback, and closely monitoring costs. When they can get away from the diner, they enjoy traveling through Southeast Asia, including a trip to the Philippines during the recent Tet holiday; exercising and swimming. They’re expecting their frst child, a daughter, in July.
He and his wife, Kate, were married last summer.
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