Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Building a Casual Mediterranean Empire: Pita Mediterranean Street Food's Journey to 30+ Locations | Restaurants & Franchises Series

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Building a Casual Mediterranean Empire: Pita Mediterranean Street Food's Journey to 30+ Locations | Restaurants & Franchises Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
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how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
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they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:18
the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their
0:21
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:24
how they've overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispotti
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and today's guest is Noir Rabbi, founder of Pita Mediterranean
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Street Food, a fast casual destination for fresh, delicious
0:36
and affordable Mediterranean cuisine.
0:38
You'll find all kinds of beautiful and flavorful foods
0:42
such as traditional and chicken, yuros, St.
0:45
Pitas Mesa spreads, rice bowls, salads, and desserts.
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Founded in 2016, they already have over 30 locations in metro
0:54
Atlanta and the Southeast United States.
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No word draws upon his 22 years of restaurant expertise as he
1:00
aims to recreate his childhood experience of his mom's kitchen.
1:04
Colorful foods, delicious aromas with family and friends gathered
1:08
for a meal. They are a fresh to order
1:10
concept that does all their food 100%.
1:13
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1:45
Now back to our guest today, the CEO of PETA Mediterranean Street
1:49
Food nor. I appreciate you making the time
1:52
to Share your story today. Anthony, thank you for having
1:55
me. I'm excited about the broadcast.
1:58
All right, so Newark, before you started PETA Mediterranean
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Street Food, you had worked in restaurants for years, including
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another concept that you started called the Beirut.
2:09
Talk to me about how those early restaurant experiences LED you
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to starting the Beirut. Absolutely.
2:16
So when I first moved to this country when I was 10 years old,
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I quickly started in the restaurant industry as a Buster
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went into the dish pit, which is we call the dish area in the
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restaurant business, and then continued my my growth into the
2:35
into prepping and into the kitchen.
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So for many years that is, that's all I did and that's all
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I learned is the back of house and I became very familiar with
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it. And I took that on to manage a
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couple different small concepts in the Ohio area.
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And so we, we transitioned down to Georgia to open our first
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restaurant back in 2007, which came to a halt due to the, the
3:02
economic crisis. And we waited it out till about
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2010 when we, when we purchased the existing restaurant that was
3:10
the Mediterranean and we turned it into the Beirut.
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So a year into it, we opened up the Beirut and and that's that's
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where we're at now. And so do you still run and
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operate the Beirut? Is that in existence?
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I do not, not any longer. We took the Beirut and I ran it
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for about a year until I spun it off and created the fast casual
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concept which formerly known as PETA by the Beirut.
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So PETA had a history of starting in 12/12/2012, we
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opened our first location under the name PETA by the Beirut.
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And it was a fast casual version of the Bay really with a similar
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menu but more on a fast casual side.
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And when we spun that off, I, I personally found a great success
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in, in, in the fast casual segment and I, and I began to
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love and appreciate it more than I do the fine dining segment.
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So that's how Pita was born. OK, so you went from the Beirut,
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now you've got the Pita street food concept.
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When did you feel like you knew that you really had something
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with with this new PETA street food concept?
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When when did you feel like we've got something we can
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really build on here? So I think it was when we, we
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opened our first location 12/12/2012 not, not not long
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after that we, we began our, our second, the opening of our
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second location in 2013. Once the second location opened,
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we had the traction that we knew we had something is when I had
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the idea of like, OK, we want organic growth, we want to grow
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this internally and see where it takes us when we get into the
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Atlanta and outside the perimeter.
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Market, you specifically mentioned 12/12/12 is the date
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that you opened. Was there any particular
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significance to those numbers? It just kind of happened that
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way. I can assure you it just
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happened that way. OK.
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And is 12 your lucky number now No print that on all your
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shirts. Nope, just OK that was just a a
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nice happenstance. OK, so you start out with one
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location you went to two. It takes you know, in my
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experience talking with business leaders, business founders is it
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takes a certain set of skills to be able to start something brand
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new, get it off the ground, maybe get that first location,
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even the you know the next two or three.
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But to go from that to where you are now with think he's got 33
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locations now, is that right? 3 corporate, 30 franchises.
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That's, that's a whole nother set of skills that not everybody
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who has the skills to be a founder can grow into, right?
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You're putting a management team in place.
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You have to learn to delegate. You can't be doing everything
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and always have your finger on the pulse of everything.
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Talk to me a little bit about what that transition was like
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for you during during this growth process.
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Absolutely. So I think when we we took a
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deep dive into franchising in late 2016 when we had a lot of
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potential franchisees really come to us and say, hey, we want
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to open up a Peter location. We love the concept.
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So when we took that deep dive into franchising and we began to
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sell at the end of 2016, it really gave me the opportunity
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to understand the business from a different perspective.
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One, what it takes to run a company when you have multiple,
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multiple people involved in the process.
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You know what is it? You know what it took for us to
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create the franchise disclosure document.
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Number one, you know what kind of systems we had to put in
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place for that franchise disclosure document.
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Because for you to become a franchise, you have to have
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those systems in place to incorporate into those documents
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so that the franchisees that are buying your concept and, and and
6:56
believing in your concept have something of a playbook to play
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on. So that's how our our initial
7:02
response to the franchise was that we built the system
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internally and we utilize that system in that playbook to grow
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into our future perspective franchise locations.
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Talk to me about the decision to grow using the franchise model
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as opposed to continuing to open more corporate owned facilities.
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So at the time we started franchising, we had five
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corporate locations and that was that was that had been our
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vision since day one of us growing the concept organically
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and not from a franchise perspective.
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You know, I, I come back to the, the demand that played a big
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part for us of people wanting to open kind of swayed me in the
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direction of us. Maybe we do have something here
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that we can take and and grow. Now I understand the
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difficulties of of growing a franchise, you know, having so
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many different owner operators involved and understanding you
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know how how the concept will be taken from there with so many
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different locations, so many different ways to operate a
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store. From day one, we incorporated
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our products to be made in the central kitchen and that allowed
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us to control the product during our growth strategy.
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So having that control from day one, it kind of assisted us in
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the in the franchise model because it alleviated a lot of
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the issues that would come from a franchise concept.
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You know, when you go to a location, let's say in Atlanta
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and you have the hummus in the Euro and you love it.
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And if you go to a location down in Florida and you have the
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hummus in Europe and there's a discrepancy in taste, we don't
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have that because we control the, the back end of it, the
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production of the sauces and the proteins.
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It's all made in essential kitchen distributed out.
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So at the franchise level their their responsibility is to cook
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the product, to order and and take care of the guests.
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Yeah. You mentioned that pretty early
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on you were having potential franchisees coming to you
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inquiring about possible opportunities.
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That says a lot about something that you guys were doing.
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What? What is it that you guys are
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doing that was so attractive to people that they were raising
9:09
their hand before you were asking for volunteers?
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I think, I think it has 100% to do with the food.
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The food that we were serving and we still continue to serve.
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It is beyond phenomenal, especially in our eyes and our
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franchisees. We sold the concept to the
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franchisees because they were sold on the food.
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The Mediterranean concept that we brought out and the food and
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the flavors and the profiles is what really, you know, sold the,
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the, the perspective franchisees and the current franchisees are
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with us on the concept. And what is it that's so
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different about your food? Is it fresh or certain spices
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that you're using? Talk to me a little bit about
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that. So obviously the Mediterranean
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diet plays a big part in our, in our, in our growth strategy one
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right, it's healthy. We use fresh ingredients, olive
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oil, different spices, different flavours, you know, shawarmas,
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hummus, things that resonate with a lot of people that, that
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have that exposure of travelling abroad.
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And, you know, you, you, you combine that with the, with the
10:12
healthy meaning of Mediterranean food and, and the clean eating
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of Mediterranean food. It kind of really played into
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one and it kind of just, you know, really took off from there
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for. Us talk to me a little bit about
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the customer experience. They walk in.
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Are they, you know, is it a quick service restaurant?
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They order from a counter and you know, some people take away,
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some people sit down. Is there a drive through to tell
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me what the typical restaurant's like?
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So the typical restaurant, and I'll kind of go back to day one
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when we built the concept, we kind of followed.
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We, we looked at Chipotle as our, OK, well, Chipotle's doing
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a fast casual model, right? We took it and we said, OK, what
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can we do differently to piggyback off of that, but at
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the same time do something where we have fresh to order food.
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So we took that fast casual concept.
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We made it where you order at the counter.
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So you enter into our restaurant, you go to the
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counter, you order your food. It's an open kitchen concept.
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So you see everything being done in front of you.
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There's nothing done behind the walls.
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We, we are creating your food made fresh to order.
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And from day one, that's been our model and that's, we
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continue to accept it. That's what separates us from a
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lot of different concepts is that you're not going down the
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line and adding so many different things to a thing to
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a, to a bowl or a PITA or whatever that is that you're
11:25
getting you order off the menu. We create that product for you,
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fresh made the order and we deliver it to you in 10 minutes
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or less. That's pretty impressive.
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So they're not getting it at the counter.
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They're ordering there and then they're going to sit down and
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it's being brought to them. Absolutely.
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Yep, Yep. And at the same time we give you
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that, that open kitchen concept so you can see your food being
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your, your meat being shaved off the comb, the grilled chicken
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being cooked on the grill, on the char grill, your pita being
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made in front of you. So that we we expose ourselves
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to the customer so they feel one-on-one with us.
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Total transparency on what's going on.
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This is how your food is made. Yeah.
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Tell me about the decision to go 100% halal, and maybe actually
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first start by explaining what that means for people listening
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who aren't familiar with that. Sure.
12:10
So so you know, and and from the roots of it all, Beirut was at
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open under halal and we continued that process all the
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way through. We knew the importance of having
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halal, having a halal concept as during that time frame and even
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continuing on now was really important to us from our roots
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being from Lebanon. So halal is a lawful and
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prohibited way of, of slaughtering meat in a way,
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right? And not only that, but there's
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different items like like different sauces and different
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desserts that might have things that are prohibited in the halal
12:45
concept, right? So we took that halal aspect of
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our business and continuous. So we, we advertise and we are
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100% halal concept and we take that on from from the day one we
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started until until the end of day.
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So we're going to continue doing using our 100% halal brand.
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And so is that been more challenging for you to find
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suppliers that can meet those criteria for you here in the in
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the Southeast United States? Absolutely.
13:17
I wouldn't say it. It was not challenging as it is
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more so from a cost perspective, right?
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So when you go to a halal or even if you say a kosher thing,
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it's really tough because the product pricing increases
13:30
dramatically, right? So if you have if you're buying
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a pound of the steak or a pound of meat at $2.00, when you go to
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a halal aspect of it, you're buying it at maybe 250.
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And that plays a big, big part for us in, in the, in the full
13:43
cost aspect of it. But it's also beneficial because
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our franchisees love it and our and our and our customers love
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it. You know, a lot of times we'll
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get phone calls of saying, hey, are you guys hello?
13:55
And we say, yes, we have certifications at every single
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location. You're more than welcome to come
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in and see the halal certificates where we get our
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proteins from and we provide those for any customer that that
14:05
requires it. And for those people who are
14:07
listening, that maybe halal is kind of a, a, a new concept for
14:11
them. What would why would this be
14:13
interesting to them? Is it, is it a cleaner process?
14:17
Is it kind of paint a picture on on why somebody who's just
14:20
learning about it for the first time might might be interested
14:23
to partake in this? I think more than anything it's
14:26
more of a religious thing, right?
14:28
So from religious background, it's halal is something that you
14:31
know that is driven from a religious point of view, right?
14:35
It doesn't change anything for the actual customer, right?
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That's not looking for it. It's not going to, it's not
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going to taste any different. It's just more of a religious
14:46
aspect of it in the way that it's like a permissible food for
14:49
the people who are looking for halal.
14:52
Gotcha. So let's talk a little bit about
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what your growth plans look like, What we're at 33 locations
15:00
right now, What's coming down the Pike here in the next
15:03
several months? So super excited to talk about,
15:06
you know, what we just signed, we just signed a 14 story store
15:09
deal with Walmart, which is amazing.
15:11
We're taking over, you know, pre-existing restaurants that
15:14
were in there and, and, and they're not kiosks, but they're
15:17
actual physical restaurants. So we signed a deal with them
15:20
to, to start opening up actual brick and mortar stores inside
15:24
the Walmarts. And we're going to run and
15:27
operate those like we do any store with third party delivery,
15:31
with catering, with, you know, customers, dining and take out,
15:36
you name it. And then in the pipeline, we
15:38
have another 6 brick and mortar stores coming within the six to
15:40
eight months, one in Panama City Beach, a couple more in Georgia
15:45
and a couple more in Alabama. The 14 locations in Walmart,
15:51
that sounds like a pretty fun opportunity.
15:54
Was there any thought to, hey, maybe we'll just try one or two
15:58
there to see how it goes versus let's just jump all in with, you
16:03
know, 14 right out of the gate? Well, so when, when the, when
16:08
the deal was brought to us, it was brought to us for almost
16:12
like a national brand, right. So we can go anywhere in the
16:14
United States that they've had availability.
16:17
So we looked at it and we decided they just the way that
16:21
we've grown our concept organically and from in and
16:24
going out it's we found much better success focusing on our
16:27
territories and reaching out to let's say we want to open one in
16:30
California or one in Arizona, which didn't make sense because
16:34
there's a lot of lot of pipeline deals that have to come into
16:37
play for us to make that happen. So we took on the majority of
16:41
the available locations in Georgia and we sent it out to
16:45
our prospective franchisees and one individual really took all
16:48
the Georgia locations, which really simplified our decision
16:51
making because it was, it was his decision to say, hey, I want
16:55
all the Walmart territories in Georgia and that's why we signed
16:58
those deals in there. OK, that makes sense.
17:00
And you guys had actually been offered even more locations
17:04
across the US to like, hey, there's, there's a whole supply
17:08
chain pipeline here. I mean you're, you're 100%
17:10
halal, right? You control the the production
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of all your proteins and your sauces and essential kitchen.
17:17
You've kind of got your arms wrapped around what that is like
17:21
in the geography that you're at in the Southeast United States.
17:24
Things change a lot when you know you've got to develop that
17:28
same pipeline or figure out a way to ship all that stuff all
17:30
the way across the country. So that obviously played a big
17:34
part in your decision. Like let's just stay where we're
17:36
comfortable in right now, where we've got that supply chain
17:39
built up. Absolutely.
17:41
And, and Anthony, I'll touch a little bit on it, why we decided
17:44
to do that because a few years back we had sold 21 locations in
17:48
Chicago in the Chicagoland area TO11 master franchise.
17:52
And, and we learned a lot through that process.
17:55
And that process really opened up our eyes of what it takes to
17:59
grow across the country into the Midwest, from the Southeast to
18:02
the Midwest. And it really takes a lot from a
18:05
franchise perspective to do that, you know, understanding
18:08
the DCS that we have in play with our current partnership
18:11
with U.S. Foods, what does it take to take
18:13
our proprietary proprietary items up there?
18:15
How many skews of those proprietary items are
18:18
recommended to be sold to stay in the pipeline up there?
18:21
What do we have to do and deliver from our central home
18:24
base in Atlanta, GA to them? You know, how do we manage the
18:27
stores up that way? So we learned a lot from the
18:31
from the Chicago store opening. And it kind of really, I'll tell
18:36
you, they put us, they gave us a real perspective of like, OK,
18:39
maybe we grow organically. Let's build our pipeline from
18:42
within and continue to grow that way organically because it made
18:45
more sense from all aspects of the business.
18:49
So did the Chicago locations not work out then?
18:53
What was so we opened one during the pandemic, we opened our
18:56
first location and due to the to the issues of of of distribution
19:02
and operations and management, we ended up shutting the store
19:05
in 2023. Yep.
19:07
But we never really master agreement at that at in the in
19:11
the Chicagoland area. OK, so talk to me about what
19:17
that roller coaster must have been like, right?
19:19
You, you get excited, you, you had a deal for, you know, 20
19:22
locations and a new part of the country, you know, as a business
19:26
owner, you're, you're hyped. You're like, yes, like this is
19:29
great growth. We can be in a, you know, a
19:31
great city in, in, in the Midwest and and then things
19:35
don't materialize. What you know, talk me through
19:40
that. Yeah.
19:41
So again, like you, you hit it spot on.
19:43
It was super exciting at the beginning.
19:45
We had, we were, we were head over heels to sign 21 locations
19:49
in the Chicago area. There are some things that that
19:52
the viewers need to understand and, and, and when they're
19:54
looking at a franchise concept, when you're going into states
19:58
that are not franchise friendly. And I'll, I'll speak on
20:01
Illinois, for instance. There are many aspects of of the
20:06
city of Illinois that you have to understand when you go to
20:08
franchising, which you cannot, you can sign as many locations
20:12
as you want, but you cannot collect the franchise fee on
20:14
more than one location per as as they open.
20:18
So from a financial perspective, it really it it, it affected us
20:22
because we had to invest so much time, money and effort to be
20:25
able to be franchisable in the state of Illinois, number one.
20:28
Number two, we had to wait for each location to open to be able
20:32
to collect the franchise fee and understanding those rule and
20:37
those laws that come into play for many states that are are
20:41
part of that franchise law is is number one.
20:44
So make sure that you have a great franchise attorney that
20:46
can kind of guide you in the right direction, understanding
20:49
that you know your growth strategy in those markets need
20:52
to be very well calculated and and understanding your your
20:58
distribution pipeline so. So you shake off sort of the,
21:05
the disappointment from that experience and you came through
21:08
it with some really powerful lessons about understanding the,
21:11
the, the franchising laws in different States and maybe even
21:15
more importantly than that, understanding the challenges of
21:17
distributing to a much wider geography.
21:20
So I'm looking at your website now.
21:22
I see you guys have a location in South Carolina, lots of
21:26
locations in Georgia, one in Florida, some in Alabama, and
21:30
there's a lot more coming. What what are the geographies in
21:34
the territories that you guys are looking to continue growing?
21:37
Where are you looking for new franchise opportunities?
21:41
I think Florida, North Carolina, Alabama and and South Carolina
21:46
is kind of our target territory. We're really hyper focused on
21:49
the Southeast. We love, we love that area.
21:53
We understand the clientele in that area.
21:55
We understand that the capabilities that we have to
21:57
fulfill the needs of our franchisees in those areas.
22:00
Now I will not rule out anything outside of the Southeast as long
22:04
as we have a multi unit deal in place.
22:07
Because that multi unit deal allows us to negotiate with the
22:10
DCS and our, you know, our supply chains of giving them the
22:15
idea of like OK, we have a three or A5 unit deal going on in
22:18
Tennessee or Oklahoma or Texas, you know, that allows us to kind
22:22
of gauge our growth with them. Would you consider something in
22:26
the Chicago area again, or do you feel like you've been burned
22:30
once and that that was enough? You know, I will say this to all
22:34
the viewers, Chicago is is an amazing market, but it's a very,
22:37
very, very tough market. There is a lot of direct and
22:40
indirect competition. So I say for anybody that's the
22:43
halal concept or even the Mediterranean concept going in
22:46
the Chicago area, do your due diligence, understand the
22:49
market, understand where you're going.
22:50
And if, if if I had to do it all over again, I think it would, it
22:54
would highly be unlikely for us to go back because we've learned
22:57
our lesson. We understand that market now
22:59
and we know what it takes to go in there.
23:01
But it would, it would require, it would require a lot of
23:06
manpower for us to reconsider that.
23:09
Understood. I'm looking at your website and
23:11
I see that you offer catering here.
23:13
Is that a significant part of your business?
23:16
Absolutely. I think the catering business
23:18
right now is running about 25 to 30% of our business, which is
23:21
the number. And again, that's heavy flow.
23:25
It comes and goes during, you know, we had a great quarter too
23:28
because of graduations and and a lot of things that happened.
23:33
And during the summertime, obviously it dies down, it picks
23:35
back up when school comes back around and stuff like that.
23:38
So, yeah, it's, it's a great aspect of our business,
23:42
absolutely. Yeah, I'm looking at some
23:44
pictures here on your website, and the presentation's
23:46
beautiful. I mean, not only does the food
23:48
look delicious, but it's a nice, bright, colorful presentation.
23:52
You know, something you'd be proud to set out at a graduation
23:56
party or a a birthday or whatever it may be.
23:59
Absolutely. You know, we, we strive to have
24:01
the fresh Mediterranean food as, as part of our concept, the
24:04
colorful, the, the healthy choices, the grilled chicken,
24:08
the hummus, things that resonate with people that they, they,
24:12
they want to change, they want to do something different other
24:14
than the pizzas and the hamburgers and, and the BBQ,
24:17
right. So, so it's a good spin for for
24:19
and a good change for people to to to have.
24:24
Noor what? What's your favorite thing on
24:25
the menu when you walk into one of your restaurants?
24:27
What do you like to get? Steaks or warm up pita every day
24:32
all day you. You walk in, they say, hey,
24:36
Noor, we got your, we got your regular coming out for you.
24:38
No. I'll be honest with you, I walk
24:41
in, I go straight to the kitchen.
24:42
One of my favorite things to do is work in the kitchen.
24:44
So I I will go in and, and start making food for customers
24:48
because this, this is my passion.
24:49
It's my hobby. That's what I love to do.
24:51
How would you describe what your your active role is in the
24:54
company? Now what?
24:55
What are the hats that you're wearing these days?
24:57
Well, it's, it's, I hate to say it, but it's really sad because
25:00
I'm out of the I'm out of the restaurant, right.
25:03
So I deal with a lot of back office emails, contracts,
25:07
negotiations, you know, different territories, Realtors
25:11
looking for, you know, looking for new spaces.
25:15
By the way, I'm not complaining. I'm just telling the people who
25:18
are passionate about food, when you start to grow concept in the
25:21
business, you slowly have to remove yourself from the
25:25
restaurant and and start taking off things that are different
25:28
than what you're used to normally.
25:31
But and and what? Yeah, you went from being a food
25:34
man to a businessman. There you go.
25:37
That's part of the ongoing transition.
25:38
Yeah, I get it. You know, and as a businessman,
25:43
you know, one thing that all business leaders need to do is
25:46
keep, you know, their eye constantly on the bottom line.
25:48
And there's two ways that you can sort of affect that number.
25:52
You know, one is looking to boost sales.
25:54
Another is, you know, how to decrease costs.
25:57
I'm curious as you think about both of those levers, they're,
26:00
they're particularly creative things that you've tried and
26:03
found success with in boosting sales or lowering costs?
26:08
To everyone listening, there's one solution to all the
26:11
problems. Sales cure all.
26:14
It's simple as that. Sales cure all and and and, and.
26:18
I drive that you know, to, to all our, our current stores and
26:23
our and our franchisees and prospective franchisees this
26:25
serious girl. When sales are coming in,
26:28
everything is great. When things are down, you know,
26:30
a lot of lot of issues begin to arise with food cost and, and
26:34
distribution and menu pricing and labor and, and we've come
26:39
out of a pandemic, right. So we know every quarter was
26:43
something new, whether it was labor, it was distribution, it
26:46
was high food cost. So sales Kuro and I, I drive
26:50
that that that hammer into that nail every single day.
26:54
And and it's and again, I'm talking to the people that are
26:57
listening Sales Kuro. So you mentioned the pandemic.
27:01
Let's talk a little bit about that.
27:03
Sorry to pick at a scab, but I know that that was a a tough
27:06
time for a lot of people, in particular people in, you know,
27:10
the restaurant and hospitality space like yourself.
27:12
How did you guys keep going through all of that?
27:16
You know, it was, it was a shock at the beginning.
27:19
It really was, I think from from day one when things, when things
27:24
took a turn, we, we, the first thing we did, we obviously shut
27:27
down our dining rooms and focused on curbside pickup only,
27:32
you know, to the then we pivoted over to the third party, which
27:35
took a huge leap. I mean, it was, it was a, a game
27:40
changer and a saver for, for a lot of the people in the
27:42
restaurant industry, right? Having that third party really
27:45
kept our doors open. Talking about like Uber Eats and
27:47
places like that, yeah. Eats and DoorDash and Grubhub
27:51
and all those just having the opportunity for people to order
27:54
from us and for us not having the capability of delivering
27:57
that product, it really opened our eyes.
28:00
Now from the pandemic, the Uber Eats and the DoorDash and
28:03
Grubhub, you know, continues to play a big part of our business,
28:06
close to 35 to 40%. No kidding.
28:09
Huge. Part of our business and it kind
28:12
of feeds off the question you had before, you know, how do we
28:14
combat food costs and, and paper costs and chemical costs when
28:18
we're, we're, we're diverting so much of the funds on the third
28:21
parties, right. So we, we took the initiative of
28:24
of adjusting the menu prices on all third parties to be able to
28:27
absorb those those those costs that are coming in from them.
28:34
And I'm kind of curious, you know, when was it that you guys
28:39
felt like, OK, we've finally broken through the pandemic,
28:42
Like we're we're finally back on kind of more normal footing?
28:47
I think we're going to make it. I think we're going to be all
28:49
right. Yeah, I think the late into 2022
28:53
we did, we did, you know, and I, I can't say stress enough that,
28:56
you know, all the programs they had during the pandemic for the
28:59
restaurant industry were amazing.
29:01
And we fought hard for our franchisees to make sure they,
29:04
they knew how to fill out the certain, you know, for the
29:07
different, you know, different programs they had for us to help
29:10
these guys from the employee the ertc program to the SBA programs
29:17
and all that. You know, that helped us really
29:21
transition into 2022 from 21 into 2022.
29:24
And things got better for us in late 2022 where we start seeing
29:27
a lot of dining customers come into play.
29:30
We started seeing a lot more catering orders come into play.
29:33
The offices start opening back up and, and you, we have, we
29:37
have had an amazing 2023 and even a better 2024 now.
29:41
So we know it's bad. That's terrific.
29:43
Yeah. I think one thing that surprised
29:45
some people, and myself included, is, you know, as we
29:48
were going through the pandemic and right, we were ordering more
29:52
food curbside. We were more ordering more of
29:55
our, you know, products and goods online instead of going to
29:57
physical stores. You know, a lot of people,
30:00
myself included, thought, hey, this is going to be a more
30:02
permanent transition even once. And in whatever way it happens,
30:06
the pandemic subsides. You know, people got used to
30:09
sort of a new way of operating. And I think the thing that
30:11
surprised me, and I'm curious to hear your viewpoint on this is
30:14
once things started opening back up, man, we realized how much we
30:18
missed being out in public, being around other people, going
30:23
places to have these experiences.
30:25
And, you know, it just we love our homes, we love our
30:27
apartments, but getting outside, you know, being able to to be
30:31
around other people. Were you worried during the
30:35
parts of the pandemic that things might not come back to
30:37
the way that they were? Absolutely.
30:40
And and even to today, Anthony, we have not gotten back to our
30:45
pre pandemic in store traffic numbers.
30:48
We have not it's, it's, it's there, we're almost there.
30:52
But we, it's 2024 and the pandemic's what maybe a year and
30:55
a half behind us and we're still not to our pre pandemic in store
30:58
traffic numbers. And that plays a big part of of
31:01
how the the whole economy shifted and the and the consumer
31:05
perspective on on food and ordering fast casual food you
31:09
shifted to to go into a more simplified way delivery take out
31:14
to go that aspect of it. Let's talk about your team for a
31:19
moment. You know, in a competitive job
31:21
market, recruiting and retaining good employees can be even more
31:25
challenging. I'm curious, what are some
31:27
things maybe that you've tried and found success with to
31:31
recruit, Retain good staff? I'll start with that corporate
31:34
team. Our corporate team has been with
31:35
us since a lot of them since day one of our inception, you know
31:40
starting part time and going into full time with us.
31:43
You know, we've, we've had a close knit corporate upper
31:46
management team that we've we've kept closely guarded and, and we
31:50
work together as a team and, and I appreciate each and every one
31:54
of them 100%. Without them, we couldn't, we
31:56
wouldn't be where we're at now at the store level.
31:59
You know, we, we rely heavily on our general managers to, to take
32:03
lead and build, build out their, their, their team member
32:07
schedules. We have found to retain
32:11
employees by paying decent wages, but at the same time
32:15
offering the tip program. And that's something we can do
32:17
deep dive into if you'd like. But once we introduce that, that
32:20
tip program, it's helped, it's helped retain a lot of employees
32:26
in, in our, in our system. Now we know in the fast food,
32:31
fast casual industry, in the restaurant industry, we have, we
32:35
have change over every single day.
32:37
So retaining those employees means a lot to us because hiring
32:40
somebody new requires time, effort and a lot of money,
32:43
right? So once we introduce the TIP
32:45
program, it's helped retain a lot of the know the the
32:49
management team that are in place now.
32:52
Tell me more about this tip program.
32:54
So a tip program kind of launched again, very close to
32:58
the pandemic time frame where, you know, a lot of food was
33:00
being taken to go. And it's something on the, on
33:04
our POS system that's offered to the to the consumer.
33:07
And they have the the capability of tipping on any order, any
33:10
percentage they want based on how they feel they they were
33:14
served. Now, granted, we're not a full
33:16
service restaurant, so we're not waiters and waitresses that are
33:19
coming to you and serving you, but you know, it's, it's helped
33:22
out tremendously and, and, and a lot of our customer base really
33:25
appreciates the hard work that we're putting in.
33:28
And I think honestly, our open kitchen concept plays a big part
33:31
of that tipping because they are seeing what we're doing for them
33:35
in terms of creating the food. And it's kind of derived from
33:38
that. They're saying, you know what,
33:39
my food's being made fresh to order.
33:41
He's working hard, he's got 10 tickets on the line, he's
33:43
running like crazy or they're running like crazy and they give
33:46
that extra one or two or three percent added on to their bill.
33:51
I think this is actually a really good thing that that we
33:53
brought up here, because I know a lot of people, they go to a a
33:56
quick service restaurant, they see a tip jar out or, you know,
34:00
on the credit card thing, you know, it's asking for a tip and
34:02
they're like, what, what am I tipping for?
34:05
You know, they're not coming to my table.
34:06
They're not bringing me my drink.
34:08
You know, it's like, no, they're not waiting on me like this is
34:11
this is quick service. But but I think you, you've got
34:14
a great comeback to that. It's like, look what's going on
34:17
back here. Like these, these men and women,
34:19
they're hustling, right? They're, they're moving around.
34:21
They're working hard to make your food and bring it to you
34:24
with a smile. And you know what, what, what
34:29
does it hurt you to give a little bit of extra, you know,
34:31
appreciation for that, right? I, I, you know, a lot of it is,
34:34
is customer service driven too. You know, when you come into a
34:37
store and A and A and an employee or a team member greets
34:40
you, it automatically shifts your, your mindset how you're
34:46
going to be served, right? If they're greeting you with a
34:49
smile at the register, as a consumer, you, you go out of
34:54
your way to make that tip happen because you're, you feel
34:57
welcome. When you feel welcome and you
34:59
feel appreciated, you have nobody has a concern of tipping.
35:02
It becomes almost, you know. I'm happy to do it.
35:07
Yeah, mandatory, I'd say to do it because you know, when I go
35:10
to a restaurant and I feel welcome and I feel appreciated
35:13
that I'm there and the, and, and then and the team members are
35:15
happy. You know, I, I, that energy
35:18
really resonates with me and it resonates with a lot of
35:20
customers too. So it's it's a lot of that is
35:23
driven from that perspective. Noor, what's something you wish
35:27
you could teach a younger version of yourself?
35:30
Oh boy. You want to get into that, huh?
35:33
Absolutely. If there was something I want to
35:40
to younger version of myself, I would probably tell them to slow
35:46
down. Interesting.
35:49
And slow down and, and I say that if you'd like me to kind of
35:53
elaborate on as a young entrepreneur, you're excited
35:58
about everything that's happening around you.
36:00
You're excited about all the things that that come with, with
36:04
people wanting the franchise, not knowing what it takes
36:08
financially, mentally and from a family perspective, You know,
36:12
the time that it takes, it will takes you away from your family.
36:15
Slow down, analyse, understand, you know where you want to go
36:20
and it's not, it's easier said than done, right?
36:23
People? This, you see the dollar signs
36:25
you see, the growth you see, hey, listen, I've worked so hard
36:28
for this. You know, a lot of times I get
36:30
the question, would you do it all over again?
36:31
I don't think I would. I really don't.
36:34
I'm here now and I will never let go.
36:36
But if, if I had a chance to do it, it, it requires a lot of
36:43
mental and financial and responsibility.
36:50
It does, especially if you're going at it alone, right, which
36:53
we are. We're going at it alone.
36:55
We don't have VC, we don't have PE money, we don't have
36:58
investors, we don't have different partners.
37:00
I'm going at it alone. So it's different.
37:02
If you're going at it alone, slow down and and, and, and
37:06
forecast your future and understand the financial and the
37:09
mental capabilities that you have.
37:12
But it's interesting to hear you say that.
37:14
You know, if you had a chance to do it all over again, maybe you
37:17
wouldn't. What?
37:18
What might you do instead, do you think?
37:22
You know I would. It goes back to what I said
37:26
earlier. I find passion being inside the
37:29
restaurant, right? I find passion being around the
37:33
team members and cooking and joking in this open, open
37:36
kitchen concept. This is what I say.
37:39
The amount of responsibility you have as your concept continues
37:43
to grow when you're doing it on your own, It's it's, it's, it's
37:47
a really tough pill to swallow. And I'm, I'm just talking to the
37:50
people right now, right? So it's not something that's
37:54
when you go at it alone that's easy to take on.
37:57
So that's why I say I would, I would go back and maybe focus on
38:02
two or three locations that allows me to be in those
38:05
specific stores, take care of my customers, be happy with with
38:10
who's coming in and, and, and really provide them an
38:14
experience every single time they come in.
38:16
Yeah, I think what I hear you saying is you have a lot of
38:19
gratitude for where you are now. You're never going to let go.
38:22
You're going to keep, you know, letting this this beautiful
38:25
concept that you've created continue to grow, you know, as
38:28
it as it's allowed. But man, there's a big part of
38:32
you that misses, you know, being there in the restaurants, making
38:35
the food every day. You, you kind of got away from,
38:38
you know, a little bit of the fun part of it.
38:40
And Oh yeah. I get that conflict.
38:42
Yeah. What's?
38:45
Go ahead, Nora, follow up on that.
38:47
Again, we're, we're, we're shooting for the moon right now,
38:50
right? So there's no stopping not just
38:52
for myself, but not just for our company, not just for my family,
38:55
but for the franchisees as well, you know, building a brand that
38:58
they are excited about and they've invested into.
39:01
And we want to make sure that we, we, we answer to that.
39:05
And so we, we are going to go as, as as hard and as fast as we
39:10
can go because now we have the systems in place, We understand
39:13
what it took to get to this point.
39:14
So it's easy for us to multiply by two or three.
39:17
It's no difference anymore, right?
39:19
But yeah, being back in the store is is is definitely
39:22
something that's that puts a big smile on my face.
39:28
Are there specific mentors, books, or maybe learning
39:34
experiences, the masterminds that have been helpful for you?
39:38
Have you? Have you, as you've gone through
39:40
your professional career, you know?
39:43
I'm a self-taught individual, right?
39:46
So I don't read a lot of books. I do listen to a lot of
39:50
podcasts. I find podcasts very intriguing.
39:52
I find interviews very intriguing.
39:54
I learn a lot from them. You know, reading different
39:58
magazines that have to do with the restaurant industry plays a
40:01
big part in, in my vision and what I'm doing as we continue to
40:05
grow. But but yeah, I I am a
40:07
self-taught individual man. What are some of your favorite
40:11
podcasts or or specific people who have been interviewed that
40:15
you you like to listen to? No, I love restaurant business
40:18
podcast because they they interview a lot of different
40:21
people from different from different areas of the
40:24
restaurant industry. So that's one of my go to's.
40:26
It's easy to listen to. It's about 30 to 40 minutes
40:29
long. You take it on a drive when
40:31
you're driving somewhere like that.
40:33
And then you kind of just get the perspective of what people
40:36
are going through in the industry and what they're doing
40:38
to combat different things. Noah.
40:41
What's a fun fact that most people would know about you?
40:46
Fun fact, I love cars and I love my family.
40:50
Tell me about your family, Married kids.
40:53
Married to a beautiful wife, Carol, and my three beautiful
40:56
children, Mila and Nyan Rain, which by the way, they all work
41:00
inside the stores when we're there.
41:02
How old are they? They are 11/8 and four.
41:05
What's the four year old do in the in the store room?
41:07
Well. He tends to just eat and just
41:10
run around around. But the the the my oldest
41:13
daughter, Mila loves to be on the register.
41:15
So when I'm, when we go for a site visit, you know, she'll hop
41:18
on the register, take care of a couple customers and then my
41:21
well, she's 9 now. I'm sorry, my 9 year old, she,
41:24
she can make a Peter like nobody.
41:26
She knows the menu inside and out and she can do any Peter
41:29
that comes to the POS system. So do you think they're likely
41:33
to step into the family business at some point?
41:36
No, I would love them to, I really would.
41:39
It's something that they're passionate about.
41:41
You know, every time we go to the store, the first thing they
41:42
want to do is put on a PITA shirt and a PITA hat and hop
41:45
back there and work. Obviously that's not feasible at
41:48
a lot of locations because they're not corporate owned, so
41:51
we can't just throw them back in the franchise location.
41:53
But yeah, they, they, I think they're passionate about it.
41:57
That's fun. You mentioned you like cars.
41:59
What kind of cars? Oh, anything, I'm, I, I love
42:04
anything when it has to do with with cars, fast cars, trucks,
42:07
you name it. It's just my hobby, right.
42:09
So that's, that's what I love about, about that.
42:11
I love collecting them, passing them down to my son, you know,
42:15
or my daughters when I, when I get older.
42:18
Any fun new menu items that are coming or something that's been
42:21
recently released? I'm so glad you asked that
42:23
question because it's, it's and, and, and we, we try to stay true
42:28
to our Mediterranean routes as much as possible.
42:30
But when it comes to a LTO, which is a limited time offer
42:33
that we like to offer, we like to put a little spin on it.
42:36
And what we're launching July 22nd of 2024, we're launching
42:40
the Euro Philly, right. So it's an Amoroso role with the
42:45
Euro meat with onions, Peppers and mushrooms with the provolone
42:48
cheese. And we also do with our with our
42:51
grilled chicken. So you have the chicken or the
42:53
euro option. It's called the Euro Philly.
42:56
And how long will that be available?
42:57
Starting at the end of July to when?
42:59
Till about the end of the year. OK.
43:02
So we run our Lt. OS.
43:04
Pre pandemic we used to run our Lt.
43:05
OS about three months. Post pandemic we're running
43:08
about five to six months to give them the shelf life that they
43:10
need to get the end to get the actual raw data that we need to
43:14
to analyze and say was it successful?
43:16
Was it not because we're basing it off of you know, 30 plus
43:19
locations. So we really need to run it for
43:21
about 5 to six months. And so it's sort of like an
43:24
audition period. If it does well, maybe it
43:26
becomes a permanent feature on the menu.
43:27
Or do you do you like the funness of sort of cycling
43:31
through new ideas? Yeah, no, we like the, the fun
43:34
idea, the fondness of, of cycling of new ideas, because,
43:37
you know, it opens up our, our customers, our consumer base,
43:39
right. So you never, nobody, you know,
43:43
you never think of when you're a Philly, right.
43:45
So us introducing that into the market of like, oh wow, you know
43:48
what, let me try because Philly is, is a very well known
43:51
sandwich, right? I I'm infatuated with that
43:53
sandwich, so us putting the stand on it kind of brings in a
43:56
different perspective on things and it allows us to try new
43:59
things we're not without bringing in too many new items
44:01
into the store because we always have to look at the skews that
44:04
we run inside the stores as well.
44:07
You know, nor before we went live and we were kind of going
44:10
through the tech setup, you mentioned to me some of these
44:14
new locations that you're opening up are going to be in a
44:18
much more efficient structure. Can you talk more about what
44:21
that means? Sure.
44:22
Yeah. And, and we want to hyper focus
44:25
on the Walmart locations. We're going to go kiosk heavy
44:28
where it kind of kind of allows the the customer to order from,
44:32
from a kiosk point of sale system.
44:35
And you know, having the, the, the, the integration of the
44:39
third parties into our our POS system.
44:41
So we no longer need all the iPads sitting at the front
44:44
register that you see at a lot of different restaurants.
44:46
Everything's integrated into our POS system that spits out the
44:49
ticket or it comes up on our kitchen screens internally.
44:53
So, so some of our, our tech plays are really rely on, on our
44:57
current partnership with with Toast and what we've done with
45:00
them to integrate the third party, integrate the kiosks and
45:03
into the stores and allow the customer to order on their own.
45:09
And I'm going to assume that this is going to reduce the the
45:14
the amount of employees that you need to rely on, which is
45:16
probably helpful to franchisees in a really competitive job
45:19
market like this. Yeah, I mean, we tested it
45:22
during the pandemic. One of the first things we we
45:24
did during the pandemic was, was kind of introduced of kiosk
45:28
because, okay, we barely have anybody to work.
45:31
We can't find people to come into work.
45:33
Well, we introduced the kiosk that kind of alleviated one
45:35
individual from our, our, our lunch and dinner lineup, right?
45:39
That helps out tremendously. It also when you have a line out
45:42
the door, it allows people to go and, and bypass and go to the
45:45
kiosk in order, which allows you not to have to stay in the line
45:48
and wait for the next person to finish up their order process.
45:51
So yeah, it's, it's helped us tremendously introducing the
45:54
kiosk and, and the technology into also when it comes to our
45:58
app and our online ordering platform as well.
46:01
You know, we made it so easy that a customer driving to the
46:05
store, just right before they leave to the store, they can
46:07
order their product and then that's the moment they pull up,
46:10
it's grab and go. Nora, I just have one more
46:14
question for you. But before I get to that, I want
46:16
to do 2 things. Folks, if you're listening today
46:19
and you like today's content, please hit the subscribe, like
46:22
or share button on your favorite podcast app.
46:25
Nora, I want to tell people the best way to get in touch with
46:28
you. What's that?
46:30
Best way is to go on our website petastreetfood.com and hit a
46:35
submit a contact us form. OK.
46:39
Last question for you. I'm curious in the next five
46:42
years, where do you see your business and your industry
46:45
going? What are the big changes that
46:47
are coming? Well, there's a lot of direct
46:51
and indirect competition coming into the Mediterranean segment.
46:53
So separating ourselves from from from the current segment
47:01
plays a big part for us. We want to, we want to get to
47:04
100 locations. Absolutely.
47:06
I think that has been our goal for a while now.
47:08
And I think the pandemic's behind us.
47:10
So reaching 100 location, proving our concept out and
47:14
then, you know, finding a VC or PE to take us to the next level
47:19
is, is kind of our goal. And that's, that's kind of our
47:22
our vision for the future. Any timeline for getting to that
47:26
100 locations? You know, I would put it between
47:30
3:00 and five years realistically, you know, 'cause
47:33
we will be at close to 50 locations by Q1 of 2025.
47:39
So that then we're halfway there.
47:41
Once we get to the 50 locations, momentum takes plays a big part
47:45
in our growth strategy and you know new new trade areas and new
47:50
franchisees come into play. Well, there's just some exciting
47:53
plans ahead. Be looking forward to following
47:56
your success. Nowhere and know where I want to
47:59
be the first one to. Thank you for making the time to
48:02
Share your story today. I really appreciate it.
48:05
Anthony, it was a pleasure. I really appreciate you and
48:08
thank you everybody for listening.
48:11
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
48:14
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
48:16
today.