Birmingham entrepreneur serves up team spirit in new venue

He's a professional optimist, the guy big companies used to hire to make teams out of isolated employees.

One year ago, Mike Forrest was an entrepreneur feeling successful: He had a company with five employees and a $200,000 contract with General Motors Corp.

Now that's all gone. The company vanished in a single telephone call, when a GM official called to say, "Sorry, Mike."

GM was lurching toward bankruptcy and his company, CCI LLC, was left behind.

Without it, he lost his three-bedroom house in Clarkston and abandoned his business projections. The one-year plan. The five-year plan. All gone.

Now, at 36, after 15 years building his business, Forrest is chatting behind the counter at the Maple Leaf Cafe, a Birmingham diner where he works as a "one-man band" -- waiter, night manager, the go-to guy running Fish Taco Fridays and Blue Plate Specials.

"This isn't what I anticipated or hoped for," says Forrest, matter-of-factly.

Like other Metro Detroit firms that contracted with automakers, Forrest's business didn't survive the bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM.

The single father of two young children was a team-builder, the guy you hired to create high-sensation experiences for employees -- "trust me" falls into waiting arms or walks with a new buddy across a rope 40 feet in the air. But in the midst of corporate trauma, training dollars disappeared. "It's a cyclical business," says Forrest, "but never like this."

What do you do when your dreams go on hiatus?

"At first I was in total denial, thinking: OK, I'll diversify," says Forrest, of last October and November. But financial panic was everywhere, as the credit markets collapsed. After a brief "wave of delusional energy," Forrest faced up to reality.

He lost his house, which he'd been buying on a land contract. Detroit real estate looked appealing, and he invested, just as prices plummeted further. His plans for one of his new buildings, a historic Hamtramck newspaper building, foundered with the economy. Banks no longer wanted to lend for renovations; tenants got harder to find.

To save on rent, he moved into another Hamtramck building he co-owned last summer. But a few weeks ago, he was robbed at gunpoint walking home.

"It was scary: They rolled up on us, the doors flew open, and three guys were standing there, guns drawn."

He lost the 20 bucks in his wallet and the confidence to live in an increasingly crime-ridden area. Now he's moved into a friend's Birmingham house, newly appreciative of suburban tranquility, friends that stick by him and a job that pays his bills.

The Maple Leaf's owner, George Swanson, called Forrest in late August, asking him to fill in for a few nights. "We needed help and I thought, 'We can call Mike Forrest,' " says Swanson. For the cafe owner, struggling to keep his small eatery going in tough times, and for Forrest, reinventing his life, it's been a good match.

Together, they've been cooking up ideas to drive more traffic into the spot, which now offers Mexican food at night, with a health-foodie twist. "It's the best Mexican food around," insists Forrest.

"He's a fun guy with a team-building spirit," says Swanson.

The team isn't the size of an automotive plant staff, but the spirit is there and growing.

Waiter, night manager and maitre d' at night, Forrest says, "It's just me and the cook. I'm kind of a one-man band here at night."

He and Swanson have lots of ideas. Last week, they bought a slew of blue plates for a $4.99 Blue Plate Special -- meatloaf, turkey, comfort food.

A year ago, as an entrepreneur, the prospect of dishing up fish tacos on Friday ("They're great. You need to try them!") wasn't on his menu.

But Forrest, who helped train corporate employees to work together in crisis, is now using those lessons for his own corporate crisis. "I'm working with positive people, looking ahead."

The Blue Plate Special beckons.