- Married couple Jeff Dinnebeil and Megan Lingsweiler, owners of The Standard Restaurant in Toledo, Ohio, treated their full staff to a three-day Royal Caribbean cruise stopping in Bimini and Nassau in early January.
- The owners covered flights and cruise tickets, closed the restaurant for the trip so employees would not lose wages, and added holiday bonuses on top.
- The idea came after the couple took their own family cruise the previous year and decided to share the experience with the people they credit for the restaurant’s success.
The owners of a Toledo, Ohio, restaurant scrapped their usual staff holiday party this year and instead shut down for three days to take their entire team – cooks, servers and all – on an all-expenses-paid Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas.
The Standard Restaurant is owned by married couple Jeff Dinnebeil and Megan Lingsweiler. In early January, they took dozens of their employees – plus a few former staffers and loyal customers – on a three-day cruise that stopped in Bimini and Nassau.
The owners covered both flights and cruise tickets. They also closed the restaurant entirely for the trip, so no one would lose shifts or wages while they were away, and holiday bonuses landed on top of all of it.
For one cook, Andrew Jackson – nicknamed Duke – the trip was a stack of firsts. He told the Toledo Blade he was anxious about most of them.
“At first, I was nervous because I’ve never been on a cruise. I’ve never been in a plane. I’ve never been anywhere,” he said. “I had never been in the ocean before.”
Chef Dinnebeil eventually convinced him to step into the water.
“But once I got in there, it was everything,” Jackson said.
The days were filled with karaoke nights, beach visits, scavenger hunts, basketball competitions, and large group dinners where the team got to sit down together away from the lunch rush. By the time the boat docked back in Florida, something had shifted.
“Everybody went on there as employees, and when we left and went back home, everybody was like family,” Jackson said.
Server Allison Latta said the trip cemented what she already felt about the place.
“My co-workers are like family,” she said. “It is honestly incredible.”
Another server, Dejah Griffith, picked out the part she has not been able to shake.
“They not only care about you as an employee, but also truly care about your overall well-being as a person,” she said.
The idea began the year before, when Dinnebeil and Lingsweiler were on their own family cruise. They came home wondering whether they could share the experience with the people they say keep their restaurant standing.
For Dinnebeil, the answer was easy.
“It was the best thing we’ve ever done,” he said. “Our staff is everything. They’re the blood, life, and the heart of that restaurant.”
