The idea had always glowed—however faintly—in the back of Steve Oldham’s mind. He jokes about it now, saying that just like every other missionary who returns from Brazil, he came home with dreams of starting his own Brazilian steakhouse.
And like many other returned missionaries, rather than starting a restaurant empire, Oldham enrolled at Brigham Young University. He married, graduated in accounting, and got a job at Price Waterhouse as an accountant.
And so Brazil flickered, but the idea still continued to faintly glimmer in the back of his mind.
It would take a decade before Oldham and a partner would make Brazilian steakhouses a runaway success across the Mountain West and nearly twenty years until he and a friend launched Tucanos Brazilian Grill near the mouth of Provo Canyon.
A Day in the Life of Steve
Today, with restaurants sizzling in three states, Oldham spends much of his time looking at real estate for new locations, going over contract negotiations, and developing employee training. He tries to visit each of his restaurants every month and is currently overseeing the remodeling of the Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tucanos. He also meets daily with his director of operations.
“I do whatever needs to be done,” he says. “Whether that’s meeting with employees or going over building plans.”
Like many other businesses, Tucanos has a mission statement that highlights the characteristics Oldham wants to see in his employees and in their business practices—with the training to back it up. The company teaches workers to develop qualities like integrity, hard work, respect, and honesty. The last is what Oldham calls the “One More Thing” principle—something he believes helps to differentiate his business.
“The principle means that we are always looking for that extra thing we can do to extend our guest service beyond the expected,” he says. “It’s also constantly striving to be better in some way today than we were yesterday.”
Stepping into the Real World
Before graduating from the Marriott School summa cum laude in accounting in 1989, Oldham began interviewing with the nation’s big eight accounting firms.
One of them, Price Waterhouse, had an office in Salt Lake City and made Oldham a good offer. The office was small, which would give Oldham the opportunity to work on all sides of the audit. Plus, Oldham says, the company had that “big, blue logo.” After spending four years at the Y, it seemed like a natural fit.
Shortly after joining Price Waterhouse, Oldham learned that the company had clients in Brazil. “Price Waterhouse was by far the biggest firm in South America,” he says.
Looking for an excuse to visit São Paulo, Oldham made a deal with his boss: Oldham would check up on Price Waterhouse clients there if the company helped cover travel expenses.
His boss liked the idea, and Oldham took his first trip back to Brazil. He worked with a few clients and showed an aptitude for doing business in a foreign country. It wasn’t long after he returned that his boss called him in and asked if he wanted to move to São Paulo.
At the time, Oldham viewed it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Now he calls it a big decision point that shaped the rest of his life.
He and his wife, Janae, talked at length about the offer. With young children, four-year-old Tyson and three-year-old Audrey, a move to Brazil seemed like a huge leap into the unknown. Oldham credits Janae for even entertaining the idea, considering how far out of her comfort zone the move would be.
In 1993 the family moved south and Oldham took the position of audit supervisor for Price Waterhouse’s office in Brazil, working on a number of large accounts. A short time later, he was promoted to manager.
Finding a Way Home
Now, more than fifteen years later, the family still looks at its time in Brazil as an amazing experience. It didn’t take the kids long to pick up Portuguese, and the whole family soaked in the culture. Even now, the family still sings “Happy Birthday” in Portuguese.
But after a year in São Paulo, it was becoming apparent that staying for multiple years would be hard. São Paulo was huge, busy, and at times felt dangerous. It had been the adventure of their lives, but it was also stressful.
“Price Waterhouse wanted us to stay long term,” he says. “But we didn’t feel like that was what was best for our family.”
Steve and Janae started discussing the next step, looking for a way to return to the United States while staying employed.
The couple had a friend in São Paulo who worked for PepsiCo Restaurants International who told Oldham to send over a résumé. It was 1994 and the company was looking at acquiring the Pizza Hut franchisee in the city.
Oldham made the switch and became manager of finance for PepsiCo. The company put him in charge of handling the tax issues and finances involved with the Pizza Hut acquisition, and he spent the next six months, still in Brazil, helping the project go through.
“Most of my work was reconciling and figuring out how to resolve tax issues between the two countries and the business groups involved,” Oldham says. “It was a delicate balancing act.”
Shortly after, a position opened at PepsiCo’s main office in Wichita, Kansas. The job was manager of finance and accounting for the international Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants, and Oldham decided to apply.
“Having lived in São Paulo, my wife and I were more than willing to move to Wichita,” he says.
In a Booth at Outback Steakhouse
Wichita was a transition for a family that had been swept up in the cultural vibrancy of Brazil. The new relative calm and quiet seemed to suit everyone fine. But Kansas is still Kansas.
With little to do, Oldham could feel the need for an outlet. Ideas of creating a Brazilian steakhouse began to resurface.
A Brazilian friend from São Paulo had transferred to Wichita with PepsiCo at the same time Oldham had, and the two would chat about starting a steakhouse.
A lot of it was idle talk, Oldham admits. But that changed one night while Steve and Janae were out to dinner with their Brazilian friends at the local Outback Steakhouse.
The conversation had turned—once again—to opening a restaurant, and the wives, tired of hearing about it, told the men if they were serious about the venture to quit scheming and do something.
The men decided to call their wives’ bluff. Oldham put together a business plan and his friend sought investors.
In 1995 there were only three Brazilian steakhouses in the United States—in New York, New Jersey, and Los Angeles. “The concept hadn’t really done anything,” Oldham says.
They found their backing and Rodizio Grill was born. By June 1995 the first restaurant in Denver opened its doors.
The Window Washer
Denver was a natural choice for Oldham, who grew up in Littleton, Colorado, in the early 1980s. His father worked for Martin Marietta, one of the state’s biggest employers, which later merged with Lockheed to become Lockheed Martin.
A giant in the aerospace industry, Martin Marietta was a good employer for the elder Oldham, but it held little appeal for young Steve. Early on he knew engineering wasn’t going to be his thing.
“I’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit,” he says.
So much so, that as a young teenager Oldham set out to make a name for himself in his neighborhood with a window washing business.
And although the business only left Oldham with wrinkled fingers, he knew he could be successful in the business world. All around him were adults setting good examples.
“I looked at some of my Young Men leaders—one of them was a prominent attorney and another was a respected businessman,” he says. “I saw the types of people they were. It showed me a path I could follow.”
A New Start
In Denver, Rodizio grew quickly as the restaurant became a runaway success. But after four years Oldham felt the need to break ties with his partner.
“There are always differences of opinion on how a business should be run,” he says. “We didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things.” Oldham acknowledges that the split was painful, but he also knew he could take the experience and move forward.
“I left with my family, and I left with my testimony,” he says. “I knew those were the important things.”
Following the split in 1999, some old colleagues from Price Waterhouse contacted Oldham. They were working on the Riverwoods project in north Provo and wanted a Brazilian steakhouse in the development.
Oldham loved the idea. He called on Joe Heeb, a friend from the Wichita days, and asked if he wanted to join in.
Together they worked on a plan and in 2000 they opened Tucanos Brazilian Grill in The Shops at Riverwoods. During the next few years, they would go on to open additional locations in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Salt Lake City; and Boise, Idaho.
A Grilling Guru
With a new restaurant, Oldham wanted a new outlook and a new way of managing employees. That desire sparked an idea.
As simple as it may look on paper, for Oldham it was a pretty big epiphany: “If you teach people the right principles, they could make better decisions,” he says.
The company developed a list of nine governing principles that would push employees to perform at their best. The first tells employees they are the most important resource Tucanos has; employees are encouraged to have high values and be teachable.
At the start of each shift at each of the restaurants, employees go over the principles before they walk out on the floor. “We think that’s been a key to our success,” Oldham says.
A decade later, Tucanos Brazilian Grill continues to grow. The company is preparing to open a new location and the original Provo restaurant still has lines out the door on weekends.
The idea that once flickered in the back of Oldham’s mind has become fully illuminated, shining brightly on nearly every aspect of his life. And looking back, Oldham sees the growth in himself, his family, and his career. Through his experiences, he’s learned that people make the biggest difference in reaching success, which is why he continues to find ways to teach his employees and build them up as individuals.
“I don’t believe there are a lot of self-made people out there,” he says. “We make each other.”
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Article written by Rob Rogers
Photographed by Bradley Slade
About the Author
Rob Rogers is a reporter with the Billings Gazette in Billings, Montana. He graduated from BYU in 2001 with a degree in communications.
