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LA Aims to Rebuild Ahead of Super Bowl, Olympics · Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence

0:13
Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping it Up. I'm your host, Mike Hallen,
0:16
Speaker 1: the senior Restaurant and Food Service Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
0:20
Speaker 1: Our research and that of bi's five hundred analysts around
0:22
Speaker 1: the globe can be found exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal. Today,
0:26
Speaker 1: we're joined by Kyle Kavanaugh, founder of Maine and Maine.
0:29
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me, Kyle.
0:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're here and I look forward to diving in.
0:34
Speaker 2: There's a lot to talk about what's going on on
0:36
Speaker 2: the West Coast, that's for sure. I'm sorry I missed
0:38
Speaker 2: the team at ICR, but a lot of us were
0:40
Speaker 2: staying home to take care of business, if you will. Yeah,
0:43
Speaker 2: you were missed.
0:45
Speaker 1: For those of you that don't know Kyle, he's located
0:47
Speaker 1: in La County. So you know, when we exchanged texts
0:50
Speaker 1: last week, my Green texts, I was very happy to
0:54
Speaker 1: hear that you and the fam made out okay during
0:56
Speaker 1: the wildfires.
0:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, thank you. I appreciate it. You know,
1:00
Speaker 2: it was it was a pretty broad outreach from a
1:03
Speaker 2: number of people, as you could imagine, friends from all
1:06
Speaker 2: over the world, you know, just they just don't know
1:08
Speaker 2: where you reside when you're when you're a Los Angeles resident,
1:11
Speaker 2: so I had a tremendous amount of outreach, which was comforting. Uh,
1:16
Speaker 2: you know, but as I was taking the incoming text
1:18
Speaker 2: and the incoming messages, I was sending as many on
1:20
Speaker 2: outgoing to a friends and family that I knew resided
1:25
Speaker 2: in these areas, and and and then on top of it,
1:29
Speaker 2: you're you're monitoring, you know, just that the news as
1:34
Speaker 2: much as you could and much as the information there was.
1:36
Speaker 2: And there was so much uh, I guess, political banging
1:41
Speaker 2: going on early stage that I think a lot of
1:45
Speaker 2: people forgot what was really at hand, which is actually
1:48
Speaker 2: in need of those people that were losing their homes
1:50
Speaker 2: and losing their businesses and and losing everything devastation, right,
1:53
Speaker 2: But everybody was it was picking, picking partners to go
1:56
Speaker 2: beat up on and and I think everyone lost in
1:59
Speaker 2: this process without a doubt. But it was it was
2:03
Speaker 2: comforting to get text from you and like I said,
2:05
Speaker 2: from friends all over the world, and and those that
2:07
Speaker 2: I sent the messages to. Michael, one of the some
2:11
Speaker 2: of the disappointing things were, you know, I hope you're safe,
2:14
Speaker 2: and I hope you're okay, and I hope your family
2:16
Speaker 2: is okay. And like your spon my response to you is, yeah,
2:19
Speaker 2: I'm great, thank you for reaching out. I got the
2:21
Speaker 2: responses that, actually, no, I'm not I'm in a hotel room,
2:26
Speaker 2: and and our home was lost, and I'm with my
2:28
Speaker 2: kids and and actually I don't know who my next
2:31
Speaker 2: move is right kind of stuff. So those are those
2:33
Speaker 2: are obviously great disappointing responses to get back. And then
2:36
Speaker 2: I would get a number for days that were I'm
2:43
Speaker 2: actually traveling, I'm on holiday, right, these friends that are
2:46
Speaker 2: on holiday and they're not aware of if their home
2:49
Speaker 2: was spared or not. And thankfully the two that were
2:56
Speaker 2: on holiday, their homes were spared, and there were people
2:59
Speaker 2: their homes were spared, you know, just as you see
3:01
Speaker 2: in the media coverage. But it was, it was it
3:05
Speaker 2: was a struggle and still is a struggle, and we're
3:06
Speaker 2: trying to do what we can. I am in the
3:09
Speaker 2: real estate realm. I'm the restaurant realm, so I'm on
3:12
Speaker 2: the front end of it. We're on the commercial real
3:14
Speaker 2: estate side, so a lot of the people who we
3:16
Speaker 2: lost homes were either on finance or commercial real estate
3:19
Speaker 2: were in that space. And then on the business side
3:22
Speaker 2: operating businesses, you know, are affected clearly by it, So
3:26
Speaker 2: thank you for reaching out.
3:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure thing, man, it must have been scary and
3:30
Speaker 1: it's heartbreaking and it's still going on now with the.
3:33
Speaker 2: Hughes fire right.
3:35
Speaker 1: You touched a little bit on what you do at
3:38
Speaker 1: mean and mean you know, what motivates you to start
3:41
Speaker 1: the business, what has it evolved into, and what does
3:44
Speaker 1: it specialize in, the business has.
3:46
Speaker 2: Been around for thirty plus years. I've been I've been
3:49
Speaker 2: in the real estate front, site selection. I just saw
3:52
Speaker 2: something on a bio I had the other day since
3:54
Speaker 2: eighty seven, and I couldn't do the math. I got
3:57
Speaker 2: a birthday coming up on Saturday. I don't feel that old.
3:59
Speaker 2: But but the math that was was definitely rounding the
4:02
Speaker 2: corner of a lot of stars in that process, and
4:05
Speaker 2: a lot of experience and and and it has given
4:08
Speaker 2: me the opportunity to pick and choose who I get
4:11
Speaker 2: to work with. I dove into the restaurant, into the
4:16
Speaker 2: commercial real estate realm early stage, literally in the in
4:21
Speaker 2: the early nineties. I was on the site selection side,
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Speaker 2: and I picked. I chose food and beverage for a
4:26
Speaker 2: couple of reasons. You know, the old adage of who
4:30
Speaker 2: I've always used and I borrowed it from a friend
4:33
Speaker 2: of mine. Is that winter loser got a booze is
4:35
Speaker 2: what people allowed to say. So in a good market
4:37
Speaker 2: there's there's the need for entertainment of that level, and
4:40
Speaker 2: a bad market there's a need for that entertainment and
4:42
Speaker 2: that level. So I felt, I felt food was always
4:46
Speaker 2: a good place. Food is a congregation environment. It's all
4:49
Speaker 2: about family, and it's about getting together with your friends
4:53
Speaker 2: and spending some time and and but most importantly getting nourishment.
4:56
Speaker 2: So it and and that's the neat part about where
4:59
Speaker 2: it's evolved is is you know, where are we in
5:02
Speaker 2: the wellness space? How are people consuming product? What are
5:05
Speaker 2: they consuming? Who's paying attention? So there's a lot of
5:09
Speaker 2: humanitarian side of it, I guess, you know. It makes
5:12
Speaker 2: you think about what you're putting in your body.
5:14
Speaker 1: I'm not like that.
5:15
Speaker 2: I'll take anything, and it starts with tequila, you know,
5:18
Speaker 2: bring me another one. We have a lot of fun
5:20
Speaker 2: in that process doing research and development. But in the
5:23
Speaker 2: restaurant space, it is all about family. And the restaurant
5:26
Speaker 2: people that I know treat each other with respect because
5:29
Speaker 2: it's a very competitive business and you got to lean
5:32
Speaker 2: on your brother and sisters every once in a while
5:34
Speaker 2: to get better results and share information. So I actually
5:38
Speaker 2: like it. So we're site selection advisors. We do strategic
5:42
Speaker 2: growth for startups. I like to say we take them
5:45
Speaker 2: from two to two hundred. However, one of our larger
5:47
Speaker 2: clients that we work with on a brokerage capacity is
5:51
Speaker 2: a Chicken concept from Atlanta, which has you know, thousands
5:55
Speaker 2: of units. I'll leave them out of the dialogue as
5:58
Speaker 2: the specific names, but they are great organization, been very
6:01
Speaker 2: loyal to us for twenty years and we've been very
6:03
Speaker 2: loyal to them, and you learn a lot. You know,
6:06
Speaker 2: they're the top chicken performer in the QSR segment, and
6:09
Speaker 2: if they're the top QSR segment performer, let alone chicken.
6:13
Speaker 2: So it's nice to see the successes of these operators
6:17
Speaker 2: and be close in the trenches with them. And then
6:20
Speaker 2: it's it's also great to be in the kitchen with
6:23
Speaker 2: culinary trained I'm not culinary trained individuals who have such
6:27
Speaker 2: a passion for the food and trying to take their
6:30
Speaker 2: product from the kitchen and translate it to the consumer
6:33
Speaker 2: on the street and in a shopping center or wherever
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Speaker 2: it may be. It's a neat evolution that we've been
6:39
Speaker 2: part of for over thirty years.
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Speaker 1: Great man. Yeah, this industry is filled with a lot
6:43
Speaker 1: of great people and you fit right in win or
6:45
Speaker 1: lose your booze. That's that's interesting you say that. You know,
6:49
Speaker 1: that reminds me of my stock trading days when I
6:52
Speaker 1: was in my twenties. You know, it's like you had
6:54
Speaker 1: a big day, then you go out and celebrate you
6:56
Speaker 1: had a bad day. Well, maybe you have a couple
6:57
Speaker 1: of drinks.
6:59
Speaker 2: It's very true. And we're learning a lot about that.
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Speaker 2: You know, alcohol consumptions down. I think that's just an
7:04
Speaker 2: aging population. It's also learning a lot about some of
7:06
Speaker 2: the attributes that are positive and negative. And they alternative
7:10
Speaker 2: alternatives are out there that people don't you know, raise
7:13
Speaker 2: an eyebrow about there. They're becoming commonplace. So but but
7:17
Speaker 2: the food element is a real part of of the family.
7:20
Speaker 2: You learn so much around the kitchen table and you
7:24
Speaker 2: you you really become who you are in our society.
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Speaker 2: And I think restaurants are the same right and I speak,
7:30
Speaker 2: I speak holistically. Is a is a place right And
7:34
Speaker 2: you you know a lot of first jobs people haven't
7:36
Speaker 2: been in the restaurant industry. So it's to me, it's
7:40
Speaker 2: just always been a good connectivity in commercial real estate
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Speaker 2: and food because everybody can relate, right, everybody can relate
7:47
Speaker 2: to some degree for sure.
7:49
Speaker 1: How's the real estate market in California for restaurants now?
7:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's it's a great question, thank you.
7:55
Speaker 2: One of the things that I'm super excited about. You know,
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Speaker 2: Los Angeles has been beat the heck and in the
8:00
Speaker 2: last four years in California, in particular San Francisco. We're
8:06
Speaker 2: doing a lot of business in San Francisco right now.
8:08
Speaker 2: I'm heading back up on Monday. It was there last
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Speaker 2: week and I got to say, you know, nine months
8:13
Speaker 2: ago when I were working there walking through the city,
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Speaker 2: there's you know, there's you've got a more than a
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Speaker 2: fair share of homeless, more fair more than a fair
8:21
Speaker 2: share of uncomfortableness and and and prime associated with it.
8:25
Speaker 2: In San francisco's really turned the corner. They have a
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Speaker 2: new mayor up there. I think that's made a big
8:29
Speaker 2: difference for that city. But for Los Angeles in particular.
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Speaker 2: I'm super excited for us in California and in Southern
8:35
Speaker 2: California because we have three pretty monumental events coming up,
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Speaker 2: uh in the next three and a half four years.
8:42
Speaker 2: You know, we've got World Cup that is coming to town.
8:45
Speaker 2: We've got a Super Bowl coming back to town. But most importantly,
8:49
Speaker 2: we have the Olympics in twenty eight right. And when
8:53
Speaker 2: you're when you're on a world stage of that nature,
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Speaker 2: a lot of things happened. One it brings the best
9:00
Speaker 2: of the best to the table to exude what the
9:04
Speaker 2: persona is of a city. Right, So you got a
9:07
Speaker 2: lot of people that are really good at what they
9:09
Speaker 2: do talking to each other about how it can be
9:12
Speaker 2: better and how our city can be reflected as a
9:14
Speaker 2: better location. You know, I had a great, lovely experience
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Speaker 2: this summer I had. It was very privileged to go
9:20
Speaker 2: spend a couple of days in Paris and go to
9:23
Speaker 2: the Olympics in Paris and just see what that town
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Speaker 2: did and how it reacted differently during an Olympic event. Right. First,
9:30
Speaker 2: First of all, there's just too many people at the Olympics,
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Speaker 2: is what the first thing fay. So the most of
9:34
Speaker 2: the Parisians headed south and dove into the Rose. But
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Speaker 2: for those that were in town, it was a lovely experience.
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Speaker 2: It was cure, it was safe, It was clean. It
9:43
Speaker 2: was great, the restaurants all that thrive, and I hope
9:47
Speaker 2: for the same for Los Angeles. Right, it's you're on
9:50
Speaker 2: a world stage and there's a lot looking at us.
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Speaker 2: So in light of all the banter that goes back
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Speaker 2: and forth from from political parties and people beating each
10:00
Speaker 2: other up, they're they're going to eventually realize we better
10:03
Speaker 2: hold hands and hug or we're gonna make a real
10:06
Speaker 2: asset of ourselves in this process. And I think that
10:08
Speaker 2: that's going to be great, And hopefully that comes to
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Speaker 2: light and people don't position where it doesn't get anything done.
10:14
Speaker 2: It's have experienced that. But when it comes to Los Angeles,
10:18
Speaker 2: I think they did a really good job in eighty
10:20
Speaker 2: four and I'm looking pretty excited for them in twenty eight.
10:23
Speaker 2: So you're gonna you're gonna have a lot of eyes
10:26
Speaker 2: on this city for the next three or four years.
10:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, those are some huge events. And I had read
10:32
Speaker 1: earlier today that all of the venues for the Olympics
10:36
Speaker 1: have been spared by the fires, which was good news.
10:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's a good good question. You know,
10:42
Speaker 2: I was looking at something on all the structures that
10:45
Speaker 2: have been destroyed and the acreages have been destroyed and
10:49
Speaker 2: the events were spared. But like you said, Michael, we're
10:53
Speaker 2: not out of it. Right. We have a huge fire.
10:57
Speaker 2: And just as I was diving into bed last night,
10:59
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, where where where is my fire safe?
11:02
Speaker 2: And you know, you think about all these things and
11:04
Speaker 2: how much have I pushed the cloud? And what is
11:06
Speaker 2: our evacuation plan? When I talk to my friends that
11:09
Speaker 2: were in the Palisades and no longer have homes, they
11:12
Speaker 2: didn't have these plans in place, right, And and in
11:15
Speaker 2: restaurants there aren't really evacuation plans for for restaurants and
11:19
Speaker 2: employees and retailers, and and more importantly, now that it's
11:25
Speaker 2: been destroyed, what's the reintegration plan? Right? What's the rea
11:30
Speaker 2: we all we all know we can run to the
11:32
Speaker 2: hills and we can run to wherever what's our what's
11:34
Speaker 2: our safe place and and our rally spot and go
11:36
Speaker 2: stay at our friends, which a lot of my friends
11:38
Speaker 2: were doing. And everybody opened their homes. And you know,
11:41
Speaker 2: but if you had a if you had a spare bedroom,
11:43
Speaker 2: and I called a half dozen of my friends, like
11:45
Speaker 2: I got my sons off at college, I got an
11:47
Speaker 2: extra guest room I got, I'll just you know, I'll
11:51
Speaker 2: light up the the bar, come over. We'll try to
11:54
Speaker 2: make light of what you're experiencing, and and and and
11:57
Speaker 2: make sure you know there's going to be a lighter
11:59
Speaker 2: day tomorrow. And so the reintegration is really the hard part.
12:03
Speaker 2: When you have to run for the hills, how do
12:04
Speaker 2: you get read back to where it is? And that's
12:07
Speaker 2: that's what I think is most highly affecting are It's
12:09
Speaker 2: going to highly affect the restaurant business. Right when I
12:12
Speaker 2: when I talk to our restaurant clients and friends round tables,
12:17
Speaker 2: you know, you just kind of discuss how's life and
12:20
Speaker 2: how are things going. The restaurants that were surrounding these
12:25
Speaker 2: areas and the ones that are in uh, the ones
12:28
Speaker 2: that have the ability to to provide takeaway or comfort food.
12:37
Speaker 2: Those guys were all up right. So if you think
12:39
Speaker 2: about it, if you've ever been in the natural disaster, I
12:41
Speaker 2: don't know if you're around during nine to eleven or
12:44
Speaker 2: any of the events we have them out here with
12:45
Speaker 2: earthquakes and fires in the Southeast with the hurricanes, But
12:49
Speaker 2: anytime you go through something like that, the first thing
12:51
Speaker 2: you really want to do is is go find your
12:54
Speaker 2: family and hug them, right, and you want to you
12:56
Speaker 2: want to have this safety and security of it. The
12:58
Speaker 2: second thing you want to do is you got to
13:00
Speaker 2: nourish yourself in that process. It's like it's like, let's
13:03
Speaker 2: get together and everybody's safe. Okay, who's going to go
13:06
Speaker 2: run and get sandwiches? Who's going to do that? And
13:08
Speaker 2: the last thing you want is really the stress of
13:11
Speaker 2: cooking in your own kitchen, right, And you almost don't
13:14
Speaker 2: feel like you should have that privilege of it. So
13:17
Speaker 2: you either go dine out and you just talk about
13:20
Speaker 2: how the world's tragedies are affecting you. And so most
13:25
Speaker 2: of these restaurant touris I've spoken to have actually seen
13:27
Speaker 2: an uptick in that right because of that. And I
13:30
Speaker 2: think that's great, right, is that that we are their
13:33
Speaker 2: place where they feel most comfortable, meaning the restaurant industry,
13:37
Speaker 2: they feel the most comfortable that they can go take
13:38
Speaker 2: their family and then and rejoice and be to together
13:42
Speaker 2: with their friends and know that it's going to be
13:44
Speaker 2: a better day. Right, So I'm happy about that. The
13:49
Speaker 2: I started a foundation with Hell and Lao from Clear
13:51
Speaker 2: Pass Solutions a couple of years ago called Step Up
13:54
Speaker 2: to the table and we are. We're meeting with Helen
13:57
Speaker 2: on Saturday, and we're going to repush the initiative that
13:59
Speaker 2: we put back in twenty twenty, which was during the
14:03
Speaker 2: COVID years, where we were starting a challenge of gift cards,
14:07
Speaker 2: where at the time we said it was a gift
14:09
Speaker 2: could give three times, and it was you know, it
14:12
Speaker 2: was around the holidays. It was in the fall of
14:14
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty that we started it. And I would
14:16
Speaker 2: challenge you, Michael that you know i'd give good buy
14:19
Speaker 2: my four gift cards from my favorite dining establishment, and
14:22
Speaker 2: I challenge you to do the same, because you're you
14:25
Speaker 2: were pumping money into the system that they needed drastically
14:28
Speaker 2: at the time because all these restaurants were closed, and
14:31
Speaker 2: then you kept these people employed and appreciative to and
14:37
Speaker 2: then you gave that gift card to a third you know,
14:41
Speaker 2: the second round was you gave the gift card to
14:43
Speaker 2: your friend. I now give the gift card to whoever,
14:45
Speaker 2: because I could use it for myself, but you most
14:48
Speaker 2: likely give it out. That's what they're all about. That's
14:50
Speaker 2: round two of the giving. And then round three is
14:53
Speaker 2: when that person actually goes to the restaurant, right, and
14:55
Speaker 2: that experience that they get at the restaurant. So so
14:58
Speaker 2: step up the tables that have a great initiative in
15:01
Speaker 2: the COVID years and we've we've kept it around and
15:05
Speaker 2: we under and what we want to do this round
15:08
Speaker 2: is to challenge and or advocate for people to go
15:14
Speaker 2: dine at those restaurants that have stepped up. So you know,
15:19
Speaker 2: we have good friends over at the Kava Organization, Cobber Grill,
15:22
Speaker 2: and and and all these these Chipotle you would pick
15:26
Speaker 2: once David young Bergo was on the phone with him
15:28
Speaker 2: over at Stonefire. All these restaurants that stepped up and
15:32
Speaker 2: provided to La Fire Department and provided to first responders
15:37
Speaker 2: during all this this this tragedy. We I think society,
15:42
Speaker 2: our community now owes them that endorsement. Go dine with them,
15:47
Speaker 2: go shop with them, because they were helping the frontline
15:50
Speaker 2: responders keeping you know, the forty thousand acres of fires
15:54
Speaker 2: that did burn to forty thousand to not one hundred thousand, right,
15:58
Speaker 2: And it's just mind boggling when you think about the
16:01
Speaker 2: acreage of the burden of the polace, these twenty three
16:03
Speaker 2: thousand acres or whatever it is. Yeah, what Manhattan's I
16:07
Speaker 2: think I read with like fourteen thousand acres, right or
16:09
Speaker 2: something like that. Right. It's just it's just the size
16:12
Speaker 2: and the magnitude of it is just really mind bog. Sorry,
16:15
Speaker 2: I'm pretty passionate about it, so I get a little
16:17
Speaker 2: long winded.
16:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have question now, But it's great. It's great
16:20
Speaker 1: to support chains and restaurant tours that are stepping up
16:24
Speaker 1: to your point. You know, I think I saw shake
16:26
Speaker 1: Shack and some others also, Yeah, I agree.
16:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're trying to compile a list in our in
16:31
Speaker 2: our community, like who who is it that has actually
16:34
Speaker 2: made that impact and and how can we help them?
16:37
Speaker 2: How can you know what is what is the next step.
16:40
Speaker 2: There's short term, midterm, long term effects that this whole product.
16:43
Speaker 2: The short term is we got we got to find homes.
16:45
Speaker 2: We got to find you know, thousands of people displaced.
16:48
Speaker 2: Communities are gone as you know, right, and schools. You know,
16:52
Speaker 2: I was on the phone with one friend and you
16:54
Speaker 2: didn't have an office, you didn't have a house, you
16:56
Speaker 2: didn't have a church, did have a grocery store. His
16:58
Speaker 2: kids didn't have a school. So he's a he's a
17:01
Speaker 2: he's a he's a candidate for complete relocation, which is
17:04
Speaker 2: good and bad, right because because they give the cancer
17:06
Speaker 2: for the next person to come in in four years
17:08
Speaker 2: when they can rebuild literally four years unfortunately. And then
17:13
Speaker 2: it also gives them a chance to go look at
17:14
Speaker 2: an opportunity. And in other communities. I was on the
17:17
Speaker 2: phone with a buddy of mine and in Palm Beach
17:19
Speaker 2: this morning talking about, uh, you know, people the migration.
17:23
Speaker 2: It's just you know, you guys, someone when you got
17:26
Speaker 2: a twenty five million dollar home that burns down, you know,
17:29
Speaker 2: there's very few places in the country that you want
17:31
Speaker 2: to go reload that All Beach happens to be one
17:33
Speaker 2: of those, and they're actually getting activity right for for
17:37
Speaker 2: those reasons we have it. I live in Newport Beach
17:40
Speaker 2: is where I reside, and we've had a big migration
17:44
Speaker 2: because Palisies and and Altadina all these are great, great communities,
17:50
Speaker 2: not that anybody should uh suffer, but but these are
17:53
Speaker 2: communities that have just the backbone of of of your
17:58
Speaker 2: neighbor is your brother or your sister, and it's it's
18:02
Speaker 2: really hard just to drop in and feel collected and
18:04
Speaker 2: feel part of that in a restaurant. In my opinion,
18:07
Speaker 2: is one of those places you can do it right.
18:09
Speaker 2: You could always make a friend at a restaurant and
18:12
Speaker 2: you might not even know the person who lives next
18:14
Speaker 2: door to you, but you probably know some people of
18:16
Speaker 2: the restaurants down the street. Yep.
18:19
Speaker 1: So you know, it was a lot widely publicized that
18:22
Speaker 1: Californians moved out of the state after COVID, you know,
18:27
Speaker 1: and I think I've also read that there's some some
18:29
Speaker 1: concern that, you know, the destruction is going to cause
18:32
Speaker 1: prices to rise even higher after after the rebuild. You know,
18:36
Speaker 1: are there fears about people moving out of La County?
18:41
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean you there, let's call them fears or
18:45
Speaker 2: opportunities right there. I think that just post Post nine
18:49
Speaker 2: to eleven in Manhattan, there was a regientifocation of the
18:52
Speaker 2: city that brought new blood to the town. COVID the
18:56
Speaker 2: same thing, you know, you know, half of Wall Street
18:59
Speaker 2: moved to to Paul Beach right or to Miami whatever
19:03
Speaker 2: it is. And and what that really does is it
19:05
Speaker 2: creates that opportunity for new energy and new perspective. You know,
19:08
Speaker 2: most of those people that do move, they're they're they're scarred,
19:12
Speaker 2: they're tired, they're tainted. They just want to get out
19:15
Speaker 2: of whatever they're in. And there's and they're not, there's
19:17
Speaker 2: not the fight to remain. You know, I talked to
19:21
Speaker 2: you know, my friends that are that are true you know,
19:26
Speaker 2: let's call it natives. They don't want to go anywhere.
19:28
Speaker 2: California is a great city. It's got a great talent,
19:30
Speaker 2: it's got a great state. It's got a it's got
19:32
Speaker 2: its own complications. Like every state, it has its own complications.
19:36
Speaker 2: And people left California for for economy. They left California
19:40
Speaker 2: for politics, and they and they left California but for
19:43
Speaker 2: greater opportunity. And what that, frankly does is it just
19:46
Speaker 2: opens a slot for somebody else to come in, right,
19:49
Speaker 2: and and we welcome that, right, We welcome that because
19:53
Speaker 2: because if you're bringing something to contribute, you know, an offering,
19:58
Speaker 2: an idea, a commerce or or you know, you know, consumption,
20:03
Speaker 2: come on out right. And if you're if you're tired
20:07
Speaker 2: and you don't want to be in California, there's plenty
20:09
Speaker 2: of places.
20:09
Speaker 1: To go outside of California. What are the hot real
20:12
Speaker 1: estate markets that uh, you're you know that you're operating
20:16
Speaker 1: in that you're seeing, So I.
20:18
Speaker 2: Hit up to back in San Francisco on Monday. But
20:21
Speaker 2: I'm I'm on the Texas for for uh a couple
20:24
Speaker 2: of days of looking at real estate and conference. Right,
20:27
Speaker 2: sun Belt states are still solid. This is the week
20:30
Speaker 2: to talk about some Belt states. They they they're freezing
20:34
Speaker 2: right in New Orleans and in the show. And that's
20:37
Speaker 2: kind of crazy to think of it, how it's impacting.
20:39
Speaker 2: And you know, weather impacts restaurants all the time. It
20:41
Speaker 2: closes restaurants, closed the places down, and and you know
20:45
Speaker 2: the fires did that to us. But but I still
20:47
Speaker 2: like the Sunbout states a lot. I've been doing a
20:49
Speaker 2: lot of business in Florida. You know, there's some states
20:51
Speaker 2: that are much easier to do business in than others.
20:55
Speaker 2: And and so I'm still a big proponent of that.
21:00
Speaker 2: Uh in in so the navigation of of host efficiencies
21:05
Speaker 2: where time is money. That's why you see people move
21:08
Speaker 2: into these smaller markets. You know. I think I think
21:11
Speaker 2: some cities are I'm a I'm a big sand in Nashville,
21:13
Speaker 2: but I think some cities are going to hit their hit,
21:16
Speaker 2: their hit their plateau, if you will, you know, not
21:21
Speaker 2: hitting their stride, but their hit their plateau. I think
21:24
Speaker 2: the West side of I think the West coast of
21:26
Speaker 2: Florida is is you know, going to be for the
21:29
Speaker 2: next six, seven, eight years, is still going to see
21:32
Speaker 2: see massive movement because of because just migration people can't afford.
21:36
Speaker 2: It's kind of like it's kind of like the areas
21:38
Speaker 2: outside of the inner cities, not inner cities, but it's
21:40
Speaker 2: called the suburban areas of of of southern California. They saw,
21:44
Speaker 2: they saw a massive growth because you couldn't afford to
21:46
Speaker 2: live in those areas, right, you get priced out. So
21:49
Speaker 2: I think I think these communities that are relevant get
21:52
Speaker 2: priced out. And and excuse me when I say relevant
21:56
Speaker 2: meaning proximity in there, or they're relevant in their proximity.
22:00
Speaker 2: You know, you don't want to move ten hours away
22:02
Speaker 2: from your family, but an hour you'll move away. And
22:04
Speaker 2: if you can afford a bigger home, a bigger place.
22:06
Speaker 2: So I think west Feld support is going to see
22:08
Speaker 2: a lot of that. Personally, that's just you know, in
22:10
Speaker 2: my personal opinion watching an observation of home growth and stuff.
22:15
Speaker 2: And in Texas, Texas has a lot to offer, sitting
22:17
Speaker 2: in the middle of the country, so to speak. So
22:20
Speaker 2: it's it's a business friendly environment.
22:23
Speaker 1: Great, Yeah, it's crazy with the fires and now the weather.
22:27
Speaker 1: Restaurant industry just hasn't had much luckilately. Man, we finally
22:31
Speaker 1: have some really easy year over year sales comparisons to
22:33
Speaker 1: LAP and then we get hit with some of this stuff.
22:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was, I was looking at some numbers and
22:40
Speaker 2: performing and and you know, in COVID, we used to
22:42
Speaker 2: say that that the flat was the negative. The flat
22:45
Speaker 2: wasn't a new positive. Right, if your sales flat, you're positive.
22:49
Speaker 2: And the good thing about natural disasters and or weather
22:54
Speaker 2: is that a new day comes tomorrow, a new you know,
22:59
Speaker 2: someone will back into your restaurant or your retail store.
23:02
Speaker 2: You know, retail. Retail has it's it's similar challenges. Right,
23:05
Speaker 2: food is much greater necessity than an extra jacket. But
23:08
Speaker 2: but so I think that that trends a little bit
23:11
Speaker 2: faster and quicker if you're if you're if you're tracking it,
23:14
Speaker 2: so when it comes to the weather related or disaster related,
23:18
Speaker 2: it's a shorter recovery period. COVID was a strong one
23:22
Speaker 2: for for restaurants, and in the paradigm that took place
23:24
Speaker 2: on how people consume really shifted the personalities and some
23:28
Speaker 2: restaurants and we worked with some some product offering in
23:32
Speaker 2: the dessert segment. You used to walk in and it
23:34
Speaker 2: was an indulgence, and you look at the product right
23:36
Speaker 2: on the counter, and you bought two, you bought five,
23:38
Speaker 2: you bought too many. But now you know when when
23:42
Speaker 2: COVID changed how you could touch and play and feel
23:44
Speaker 2: and and and and it became a uh a shift
23:48
Speaker 2: to a pre order consumption pre ordering things. It's different
23:53
Speaker 2: when you're ordering off your handheld or off the phone.
23:56
Speaker 2: Old school is that you don't necessarily overconsume. Probably good
24:03
Speaker 2: for the waistline, bad for the performance of the of
24:07
Speaker 2: the of the unit. Right, So I'm okay thinking that
24:12
Speaker 2: there's going to be a new day tomorrow. Yep.
24:14
Speaker 1: So post pandemic, you know, standalone units with a drive
24:19
Speaker 1: through or locations that could support one.
24:22
Speaker 2: We're all the rage.
24:23
Speaker 1: Is that still what most chains are looking for? You
24:28
Speaker 1: know what other types of locations are popular? Right?
24:33
Speaker 2: Yeah? Very you know, besides the drive through, it was
24:37
Speaker 2: open air. You know how much patio could I get? Right?
24:40
Speaker 2: Because people wanted they wanted to dine in the patio.
24:44
Speaker 2: So there were there were adoptive laws that took place
24:46
Speaker 2: in California that accommodated the communities where like when you
24:50
Speaker 2: travel in Europe and you have these patio pods that
24:53
Speaker 2: drop out in the in the summertime. Winter time is
24:56
Speaker 2: a little chilly, so they get rid of these patio pods.
24:59
Speaker 2: You see a lot more of that being adopted here
25:02
Speaker 2: on the West Coast because people just want to be outdoors.
25:04
Speaker 2: Kind of sounds kind of funny because we have great weather.
25:06
Speaker 2: We can use it eleven twelve bunch a year except
25:09
Speaker 2: for the rain season. So I think that's another thing
25:12
Speaker 2: that kind of changed because of of COVID. You're seeing that.
25:17
Speaker 2: But the greatest is is cogregation, Like where do I
25:20
Speaker 2: feel part of a community and where can I go
25:24
Speaker 2: even if you're you know, alone, and you go sit
25:27
Speaker 2: it in a part Think about any park of Manhattan,
25:30
Speaker 2: just go to you know, you just sit and watch
25:31
Speaker 2: people in any one of them and they just feel
25:35
Speaker 2: like they're part of a community and you feel being
25:37
Speaker 2: part of it. Sit at a bar, at a restaurant,
25:39
Speaker 2: those that dine at the bar, they feel like they're
25:41
Speaker 2: part of the community. So I think that there's that
25:43
Speaker 2: congregation that is that is more prevalent. You know, the
25:48
Speaker 2: restaurants are in herds now as opposed to individuals. They
25:52
Speaker 2: will want to kind of be around each other. Like Tuesday,
25:55
Speaker 2: I dined for Italian and Friday I dined for Mexican cuisine.
26:00
Speaker 2: And I'm going to the same intersection, the same place,
26:02
Speaker 2: the same corners of the same centers. But but I'm
26:05
Speaker 2: getting my variables and there's good crossover. But it's the
26:09
Speaker 2: congregation very interesting. All right.
26:12
Speaker 1: What's your favorite LA restaurant? Antana's okay? All right, so
26:17
Speaker 1: next time, I don't know if you've.
26:18
Speaker 2: Never had it. I haven't been around fifty plus years.
26:22
Speaker 2: It is outstanding Italian restaurant in West Hollywood, and it
26:26
Speaker 2: is uh, it's it's a It's a great place for
26:29
Speaker 2: you to experience next time you're in town.
26:31
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I'm due for I'm due for a
26:33
Speaker 1: trip out in June. I think I think we should
26:35
Speaker 1: hit that up.
26:36
Speaker 2: Man. Yeah, let's do it, all right, good stuff?
26:39
Speaker 1: Thanks for doing this, Kyle. Where can our listeners go
26:41
Speaker 1: to find out more about Maine and Maine?
26:44
Speaker 2: Uh? Good question? Maine and Maine? Inc Is it's m
26:48
Speaker 2: A I n A and d M A I n
26:50
Speaker 2: I n C. Must be one of the longer U
26:53
Speaker 2: l rs out there, but Maine End Maine, Inc. Is
26:55
Speaker 2: our website. And you know, I'm fortunate enough to be
26:58
Speaker 2: the founder of a company that really has done a
27:01
Speaker 2: really good job. But I'm not the reason it's done
27:03
Speaker 2: a great job. It's because of the team that we've built,
27:06
Speaker 2: and we're highly specialized. And if you go to the website,
27:10
Speaker 2: look look to the other people, don't look to me,
27:12
Speaker 2: because they are actually way better than I am at
27:15
Speaker 2: their specialty. But I look forward to meeting you wherever
27:18
Speaker 2: you are.
27:19
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear it. Thank I want to thank
27:21
Speaker 1: the audience for tuning in. If you liked our discussion,
27:24
Speaker 1: please subscribe and leave a review. Check back soon for
27:26
Speaker 1: another episode of Chopping It Up.