Latest / The Weekly Run / Beach Towns and Bagel Madness | #9
Transcript
- Jeff Perera: What's up, Aaron? Welcome back to The Weekly Run. How you doing today? Aaron: I am doing great. I'm doing great. And unlike last time, I mean it. I don't know. I don't have to frame that, but like that correlates to what I said before the show started. So I can actually call you greatness today. Jeff Perera: Ha! I love it. I love it. Greatness has been achieved. Listen, there's a lot to talk about this week because I feel like we spent a lot of time together this week and it's rare but fun and I'm really, no doubt, I'm glad to have done it. ⁓ I think it's worth mentioning that Jess Bagel Run was an honoree at the Grow FL Awards this ⁓ Aaron: It was rare. Barely recently. Jeff Perera: We took home a little hardware, which was pretty exciting, and you got to relish in that experience. Aaron: Hey, it is not often when the tech guys get trotted out. So I'm appreciative that I was thought of. Normally, it's marketing and other people get to cut and schmooze and do all that. And we have to stay in our caves. But you took me out for an evening. And I really appreciate that. I just want to say that. That meant lot to me. Jeff Perera: It was wonderful to have you. Got to see you in your suit and your bagel dunks, looking fly. It was a vibe. Aaron: Hey, nobody, you know, we talked about this. I'm out of the wedding phase. ⁓ You know, anybody that I would know at this point would be on second or thirds, you know, much more low key events. you know, just when do ever get to try out that suit? You know, you get to pull that suit out and use it. So, dust it off and put it to work. Jeff Perera: Yes, yes. Gotta do it, that's amazing. But that was fun, so we did that. Aaron: Which you had two this week, or this past week, right? Like didn't, I was thinking you had to go somewhere else on Saturday. Jeff Perera: Yeah ⁓ Saturday night, yes, we were nominated for a big orange award, which is the West Orange Chamber of Commerce. ⁓ Like big award weekend. We did not win. We were nominated. It's a difficult place to win awards, the West Orange Chamber of Commerce. ⁓ Some companies that are in the West Orange Chamber of Commerce that you might have heard of before, Walt Disney World. Aaron: No. Jeff Perera: Universal Studios. I don't know if you know these businesses, but they're in the same chamber as Jeff Bagel Run which is sort of crazy to me, but ⁓ you know. Aaron: Yeah. Hey, listen, this is like the Oscars or something, know? If you're a news, you're just an upstart actor, actress, know? Sure, if you're in the category of middle street, you're like, all right, know, hey, I'm just happy to be here. Jeff Perera: Happy to be here. Happy to be here. When they get up there and they're like, all the honorees are deserving, I'm like, thank you. Yeah, the real award was just being nominated. Yeah. I'll get you, Disney. ⁓ But yeah, it was an award show weekend, but it was great. It's nice to sometimes step back and... Aaron: Have it be considered. Yes, this was the real award. Yeah, exactly. Secretly you're like, ⁓ the next shooter. That's right. Jeff Perera: relish a little bit in the accomplishments, but you know, right back to it opening another store. Aaron: Well, was gonna say, especially with the last, I don't know, lost track, it's like last month, last five weeks. So where in the bagel verse are you today, right now, as we're recording? Jeff Perera: It's been many, many. ⁓ I am in Neptune Beach, which is just outside of Jacksonville, Florida and It's beautiful. It's I've never been here before I've been to JAX Beach Yeah, not specifically Neptune Beach this kind of brings up something that I want to talk about with you Aaron because I feel like I Feel like you'll appreciate this as a I ⁓ know. I just think you're gonna appreciate this ⁓ Aaron: ⁓ another area. ⁓ really? You will leave that blank there. I'm dying to know what it is. That's the after show. Jeff Perera: Here's my hot take, here's my hot take, Aaron. All beach towns are the same. Aaron: So that's a hot take. I will give you that. Jeff Perera: That's a hot take. All beach towns are the same. Aaron: So I'll give you a little bit of history on me. So, because I find that interesting. First off, love the beach. I'm a beach person. Orlando was, don't know what happened. I'm from ⁓ England originally and I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna go down to Florida ⁓ you know, like I'm gonna surf and scuba dive and live this beach lifestyle. And somehow I ended up further from the beach than I have ever been in my life. I live in a peninsula and somehow I'm like geographically. the furthest from the, yeah, mean the thickest center is part of this peninsula. Equidistant from beaches in the worst way. So, right, mistakes have been made. But, I appreciate beaches. And so I've seen beaches in New England, in the mid-Atlantic, seen beaches all throughout Florida, East Coast, West Coast. I consider myself connoisseur of beaches, beach towns specifically. I think you're right in that every beach town Jeff Perera: In the middle. Yay. Aaron: has the same, it's a vibe thing. They all have a different color maybe, but at the end of the day, you know you're in a beach town. Jeff Perera: think Abby said it best today. It's like all beach towns are the same. They're just in a different font. Aaron: Okay, yep, she... She just... Jeff Perera: Right? Beach Town, Times New Roman. Beach Town, Helvetica. Beach Town, Comic Sans. And that describes the vibe. They're exactly the same, different font. Aaron: Sheeshie. ⁓ sheesh. She has nailed it. I actually, I will yield that. That is... Because, you you go to a beach town and you're like, here's what I'm gonna find. I'm gonna find a Dairy Queen in this town. Even if it's the last Dairy Queen, those be the last ones that they ever close anywhere in the country, if that business ever goes that route. ⁓ Jeff Perera: Yep. Aaron: ⁓ The Bia Dairy Queen. More pharmacy stores than really you think you'd need for a population. Like the population density of CVS and Walgreens and everything else to residents per GDP for that area. It's very high. ⁓ And everything is at half speed. These are just common in a good way. I actually like it, but like it's very universal. Jeff Perera: Yes. I was gonna say, this is all to say that while beach towns are all kind of the same, this is not a bad thing. You know what you're getting when you get here. You're on beach time. You can expect sand everywhere. Aaron: Not at all. I still love it. Jeff Perera: I grew up like over the summers visiting my grandparents at their condo, is in Pompano Beach, Florida. Their condo was on the beach and we would take the elevator down, walk out to the beach. And it was, it was a great experience. And, but they're all the same. There's, you know, a convenience store, a Five and Dime. There's a like some kind of grocer where you're paying way too much money for a gallon of milk or a box of cereal. But About convenience because it's there you don't have to go to the mainland. You know you're not like going back over the bridge You're not fighting traffic All this to say we're open Yes, I've you got to go to the causeway I don't want to go to the causeway Oh, there's a great new restaurant open. It's over the causeway. It's a it's totally a thing Yes, yes, well our store here in Neptune Beach is on the correct side of the causeway it is it is on the correct side Aaron: Causeway life. Excellent, I was gonna ask. I was gonna ask. Jeff Perera: It's on the correct side of the causeway, right on Atlantic Boulevard. ⁓ And it's an absolute vibe. People are ⁓ happy, they're a little slower. ⁓ The lines long because it's busy, but they don't seem to care because what else do got to do? Aaron: See. Yes! Listen, and I will say this, my opinions on a solid beach day is it's about the food planning. Like the food planning all happens in the morning and then it's all about shooting the rest of the day with that prep, right? That's why pub subs are just game changers for any solid ⁓ beach afternoon. But that's what's so beautiful about bagels. You got nowhere to be until the morning. You're going to go get your spot. You're just sort of collecting things. Get some breakfast. Throw it in. You're not in a rush. Nobody's in a rush. The beaches are there. Jeff Perera: I heard from at least three people today, they're like, this is such a great spot. It's on the way to the beach. Can't wait to swing through, some bagels and coffee and go get our spot. Like that is going to be a part of someone's. And I hadn't really like, you know, we have another beach store and I don't want to leave them out because I don't, didn't do this podcast when that store opened. Isle of Palm, South Carolina is also a vibe. mean, this thing is like. on the beach. You can pretty much walk out the back door and throw a seashell over the dune. Aaron: That is beach town variant where it's actually island. It's a subsection of beach towns that are island towns. Jeff Perera: This is true, there is a subset of beach towns that are also islands. We experienced that a lot in Florida too, just with the like, inter-coastal waterway dividing and like, creating like single bridges, going over to these like, densely populated areas for like, you know, two days a week on Saturday and Sunday, or sometimes like, spring break hits. So, ⁓ I was absolutely just thrilled with this store opening today. ⁓ It was soft opening, it was soft. It was exactly as we wanted it to be. Aaron: It's Exactly. Exactly. How was it? Soft opening today. Jeff Perera: The team is like working up, they did plenty of transactions today, had lots of practice, met a lot of community members. It was really a nice soft opening day. it? Yes, it was all about the reps. It wasn't frantic. It felt good. It was, it was really nice. It was nice to know that, you you couldn't really hear the beach crashing a couple blocks away, but it's there and you know, the ocean is right there. Aaron: you want get the reps in. Listen, nobody told me that this opening was blocks from the beach. That would have changed the very limited involvement that I normally participate in openings, non-corporate openings. So if you told me... Jeff Perera: Well, there's still a chance. Aaron, still a chance. There was one text snafu today. The cash ⁓ register will not open upon tender. So don't know why. Can't figure it out. Aaron: I thought so. Should have called me when I drove right up. Straight. Mmm. I know exactly why I'll tell you. ⁓ I can't tell you it's an on-site thing. It's an on-site thing. You should have just taken a picture of the castro like in the perspective of having the beach behind it. It's been like problems I would left immediately. Dropped everything. Big emergency. Jeff Perera: It's an on-site thing, you're gonna have to come up. ⁓ ⁓ Bagel Emergency. that's, yeah. So we're in a beach town. It's great. Neptune Beach opens. And I don't want to leave them out as well. Rollsville opened in North Carolina as well today. They soft opened. Ryan McEvoy opened his second store. So really excited for him. Aaron: Correct me if I'm wrong, first double, first double opening we've ever done. Have we ever done two at once? I don't think so. Jeff Perera: I don't think so. think this is the first time we've done two at once. If it's not the first time, it's just the second time. We haven't done this often where they're opening on the same weekend. So I think I know. Aaron: Danielle would know, painfully. She would know for sure. Jeff Perera: Yeah, she, yeah, I'm for that. Has like a trauma wound. Not because, not because she's, you know, got like an eidetic memory or anything like that, but just because of the trauma. Aaron: Exactly, ⁓ This would burn in. Jeff Perera: No doubt. But yeah, two stores today, Grand Openings for both on Friday. ⁓ Two great markets. Rollsville has been a long time coming. I'm really excited for Ryan and the team there to get that one open. They've worked really hard and the store is beautiful. I got to see it. I guess it's firsthand if you see it FaceTime. Does that count firsthand? I would call it secondhand if it was someone else's FaceTime. Aaron: I think so. I think so. In today's world, why not? Jeff Perera: because then I'm not really there, but like having been there, it's great. I'm excited for both of these openings. And as discussed a couple of weeks ago on the pod, ⁓ this Neptune Beach franchise group is fun. They are hyped, they are all about it. It's just great hanging out with them and they've been a good time. Aaron: I was going to say you had predictions that this was going to be a nice and smooth and just really well done opening. Jeff Perera: Yes, I had predicted that this group was going to have, was going to be, they were super excited. think I said they were excited. They're texting, they're like, when you come in, what's happening? They're just really in it. They're fully like geared up. It's just, it's really great. And the team they've hired and the excellence that they're demanding is, is really great. It's really great. So. Aaron: Well, I mean, worth noting too that we give you credit for ⁓ like one of your other predictions from our beginning of the year ⁓ predictions section show. I'm not really sure how to classify that, but when we did predictions, you, one of has already come true. Jeff Perera: There's a lot of year, ⁓ I know exactly what it is, Aaron. I've been waiting for this moment. I know exactly what it is. The year is still young. It is only, it is only, you know, two or three weeks into this, but yes, I predicted that Madison, Alabama and the Huntsville market and the Gordons would crush and that they would be a top store out of the gate. And what happened, Aaron? Aaron: Do you remember which one that is? Hahaha! None of mine have, so let's let you take credit for the one. And that happened. Almost ⁓ to the detail. It was a great launch. was smooth. It had a monster opening weekend for them. It was great. Jeff Perera: That happened. Sure did. Bye! And they're going strong, still killing it. So it's been a great run of new store openings. I am excited for a pause. We have a spring break pause. Like this feels like, I'm telling you, like I know spring breaks are starting all over the country right now, but we are on spring break here in, I don't know, the 16th, I think is it official, officially starts. Aaron: The timing couldn't be any better, honestly, for us in Florida. Aw, that's like a week, We're all on everybody's calendars. Jeff Perera: It's like a week away, right? Yeah, yeah. It's like right there. And it couldn't come soon enough. I'm ready for a little recharge. And then, yeah, you know, right back to it. Aaron: I'm curious I enjoy spring breaks as an adult, as parent, a thousand times more than I ever did as a kid. ⁓ It is a calendar for me. I can't wait for it. I'm excited about it. One of my favorite times during the year. I just really like spring break. Jeff Perera: i- Spring Break is super fun. I do love it as an adult. I think I loved it as a kid as well. We weren't like a family that really did a lot of travel, but like I said, my grandparents lived like right on the beach and we would just go stay with them at their condo. And that was sort of like a built-in Spring Break. They were like 20 minutes south of us from where I grew up. Aaron: That's a pretty self-suffering break. maybe this is more commentary on me. Growing up in Maine and it's like, know, whatever, we might've had ours a little bit later. you know, it's more like, ⁓ there's no spring. Jeff Perera: Yeah, I mean it was Ha Well, I was gonna say your spring started in what, like, There was no spring. You went from winter to, like, what felt like spring everywhere else. Aaron: Less winter? I don't know. It's not great. It's not great. Jeff Perera: I mean, now you flip the side, right? Where you live in Florida. So it's like the three seasons or four seasons we have are like summer light, summer, very, very summer. And then like, the doldrums of summer. Like those are the, those are the seasons we get here. So. Aaron: Listen, I'm all for it. So this is what you're gonna, this is the truly funny part is, I know how to say most, but a of people in Florida that might go somewhere else, right? Especially for us, you know, I know people that are like, oh, we like to go do a quick, catch the end of like the ski season or something like that. And they go somewhere else. I go further south. I'm like, This is still not hot enough for me. This still not. I want my summer now. I don't want to wait three more weeks for, you know, what will be summer here. I'm like, I need it now. It's mid-March. So we just head straight down until we run out of highway in the Keys and just that's where we spend spring break. And I'm like, just all the time. don't, our current winter right now, it's too much. It's too much. It's too much winter. Jeff Perera: Nice. That's awesome. too much winter. I will spend the first half of spring break in San Diego, Sans family. I'm at a conference out there and then restaurant franchise and innovation show. Danielle will be on a cruise with the kids and then I will join her for the back half of that and we'll have a little weekend getaway with the kiddos. So it'll be a busy one. Aaron: ⁓ that's right, guys have show, right? But you're not joining on the cruise. It's when they get back from the cruise. Jeff Perera: So they're gonna do a Monday to Friday, and then they'll do a back-to-back sailing and join for the Friday to Monday. Aaron: Okay, I was hoping that you were gonna like Helicopter into the boat and like meet them and something serious The bagel the bagel copter Jeff Perera: That'd be sick. That would be sick. I mean, could you... I couldn't imagine. We do not have a helicopter, Aaron. Please don't put that out there. People will think we're successful or something. Aaron: Listen, it's all about having those stretch goals, you know? Jeff Perera: Listen, I mean, we are like in the middle of Bagel Wars right now. I don't want to dramatize it too much, but like the Bagel Wars are heating up. And if you're a fan of this pod and you're a fan of Bagels, you probably know that there is, there's just a lot going on in the Bagel verse right now. Aaron: Yes! It's a bingo verse, yeah? That's the thing now. Jeff Perera: There's just a lot happening. ⁓ You know, our friend, San Silverman is doing Bagel Fest West Coast. He's got that happening. I think it's this month. And then, ⁓ you know, some of our competitors are opening in places are. They're chasing us into markets. ⁓ Wild, there's, I don't know, we talked about when we opened our Tampa location, how we are literally across the parking lot from another bagel shop. that's also trying to scale and grow their business. it's a, there's another one, 0.7 miles from that. So it's, it's heating up People are starting to fill the void. Jeff's Bagel Run is filling the void. There's a few others out there. And it's just really interesting to see it heating up, to see us open in a town where four bagel shops are opening in the same week is crazy. Three bagel shops. I might be exaggerating. It might be just two, but whatever. You know what saying. I mean, we're opening right now in the Jacksonville market, and there is a competitor opening the same week. Yeah. Aaron: ⁓ yeah, completely. Are you kidding me? How close are they proximity to the shop? Jeff Perera: That's it. Jacksonville is kind of like Houston. It's one of these metros that is just, they just keep annexing the name Jacksonville and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And so, ⁓ yeah, there's, I don't know. It's probably like 12 miles away in an hour and a half by car. Yeah, it's far. It is, it's pretty far. It's like on the other side of town. So, but it's just an interesting to be right now. The bagel wars are heating up. Aaron: ⁓ yeah, it's a city of cities. Yeah, that's a very Florida thing. Jeff Perera: If you want, can send you some articles, they're fun to read. Aaron: Always. I'm curious, do ⁓ the wars go? I mean, it's, while you think about that, you I was having a conversation with some friends the other day, and we were sort of reminiscing on different food trends over the years, ⁓ and... ⁓ There's been some interesting ones and they have different life cycles and some sort of come and stay and other ones are quick in and out and other ones sort of evolve a couple of times and maybe become something different. so food's just a very interesting cultural thing, especially in America. I'm curious, Where do you think this goes from where it is today to whatever it might be? Jeff Perera: Yeah, bagels are kind of commodity food to some degree, are a bit more ⁓ Where do the bagel wards go? I think it goes to where you lean in the most of the community. I just think that the bagel wars will wage on and I think if you look at the Northeast as a model for concentrations of bagel shops per 500,000 people, it's like a ridiculous number. It's like in the double digits, numbers of bagel shops per 100,000 people and it's like compared to the Midwest where it's like one. Aaron: Interesting. Jeff Perera: They're just not out there. If you're from New Jersey, you're driving down Route 9, every jug handle has a bagel shop, right? It doesn't matter where you get off, you're going to hit a bagel shop. so this concentration of shops in the Northeast is kind of, I think it dulls the... awareness of just like how few bagel shops there really are in other places in the country. And so you're a Northeasterner and you show up in a place and you're like, oh, where's the bagel shop? You're like, oh, you got to drive 45 minutes across town to get it. You're like, that's crazy because I can get a good bagel at the bodega when I just go down from my apartment in the city, you know, and I believe what's going to happen is in this market where, Aaron: I see. Jeff Perera: the one that invests in that community the most is going to be the one that, ultimately wins hearts ⁓ and mouths and stomachs that guest. ⁓ Aaron: So was going to jump in and say that I what's interesting about what you just said, is somebody that's sort of seen both lives growing up in New England and then being down here for the last far too long. I think the difference is that reality, is that it's not really a fad food. It's a new food to a lot of markets, potentially, if you've grown up in those markets and you've just never had access. but it's actually kind of a staple breakfast item. Kind of like pizza, right? Like pizza's everywhere, right? Like pizza might go through waves of popularity, but it never dips below a certain thing. Whereas I haven't seen a cupcake shop since the early, since like the 2010s as an example of something that was massive and then sort of faded away. And so I think the difference is, is like you said, when I have this for breakfast, when I have this for lunch, as just food versus is this a treat? Is this something special? Is this a one-off? it's interesting because it's really a battle over expanding a known food item ⁓ very specific regions across the whole country. But it's proven, like people, like in New England, they're everywhere. Like New York, I was laughing about your New York comment because talking about the density, I don't have to, can walk five feet anywhere in New York City and get a bagel. And again, they're not great. Car bagels aren't great necessarily, but like, they're literally pervade every so many blocks, like on the street. They're so ubiquitous. It's easier to get a bagel than it is to get, They're literally everywhere. Jeff Perera: Yes. Yeah. It's probably easier to get a bagel than a taxi in New York City. Aaron: Yeah, that's definitely true. There's a lot of both, but one's easier. Jeff Perera: You know. I mean, the bagel war caught me, I could go on and on about this, but like, you just totally made me think of like the dirty water hot dog carts. And like, have you seen, you probably haven't, but did you know that there's like a halal truck now that's like people line up for hours in advance? Yeah, yes. I'll send you the link. It's, ⁓ it looks incredibly good. I kind of want to go just, maybe we should take the pod on the road. Take a flight up there. Try it. Aaron: my god. Now, in New York City... ⁓ my gosh, we'll take the helicopter. Jeff Perera: Yeah, yeah, all the way to New York. Take the look out. We should go to New York and just eat cart food for a day. That could be fun. Aaron: You ⁓ I think that's, and then we get, what is the, what's the zoning for us to do a ⁓ Jeff's pop-up? I'm sure it's not easy. Like just on the corner, just a basket. Jeff Perera: I have talked to Katrina about doing a like time, like a time square pop up, just like put the tent and like a couple tables out and just sling bagels out of that and like the middle of time square. think it'd be so much fun. Aaron: Just clean this time. No, I see I will, you know, all terrible marketing ideas I'm down for. So I'll give you my two cents on this. I think it needs to be like stadium vendor, giant, something you have to wear it. Okay. You have to be walking around and serve and have tongs. Yes. Yes. And you just have to. Jeff Perera: Hahaha ⁓ yeah, Yeah, but like the straps and ⁓ sign me up. Let's go. We could get like a whole like street team. Aaron: Exactly, and Eddie can follow along in the Bagel Man outfit and you can just literally serve out hot bagels out of this box strapped to your stomach. Jeff Perera: What a vibe. We can make this happen. It doesn't have to be New York City. We can do that anywhere. We should be doing this, Aaron. It's like guerrilla marketing with bagels. Aaron: Yes! Yes! Listen. Yes, I just yeah, somebody else with a boombox like just walking around. Yeah, exactly. Jeff Perera: ⁓ Yeah, it's madness, Aaron. Total madness. Aaron: It's what I'm here for. It's the bad ideas. I've got plenty. Let me know. Jeff Perera: Well, you had one very good idea, speaking of madness, you had one very good idea and, you know, Bagel Madness is kicking off. I mean, it's actually happening right now. It's live. So Bagel Madness has gone digital this year and I'm, I'm like, I'm thrilled. I am like so hyped that we have a real bracket. Aaron: It's live. It's there. Jeff Perera: that you can bill out in our app to pick your favorite bagel. I should probably back up and inform the 12 listeners who have no idea what we're talking about. But Bagel Madness is very much March Madness for the NCAA basketball tournament kind of style where we have one bagel face off against another bagel in a head-to-head competition. ⁓ the winner moves on and how we choose the winner is really not up to us. It's up to you as a consumer because the bagel that sells the most the day that they are competing or featured, yeah, are the ones that advance. And so you really, for your bagel to win, you really have to get behind it by going and buying one or six or 12 or however many you want. Aaron: Featured, That's how you vote. Jeff Perera: You vote with your mouth. Biting pickles, eating them. That's weird. Stomach. You vote with your stomach. I don't know. Aaron: Yeah. We'll leave that part to Katrina, that's fine. Jeff Perera: We'll figure that out, yeah. But you, actually how you vote is on, your vote counts, how you pick is in the app. And so I highly recommend you download the Just Big or Run app from your app store. It's available in the Apple App Store and in the Google App Store. Aaron: It is, it's, it's, ⁓ it's kind of wild to me. And there's, it's that feature, which the team did an amazing job on. ⁓ It works great. It looks great. I honestly, just thinking back to last year when we did this, I guess analog is what we're going to say. A lot of computers involved still, but you know, we did it. I just remember like we're sending stickers around and we've got posters and Jeff Perera: it. ⁓ yeah. Aaron: It was like a lot of logistics to run this thing last year. And I remember when the idea first floated up about doing this and Justin was like, ⁓ so that's awesome. So it's going to be real, right? And we're like, we're just going to this poster. It was like more of a marketing thing. He's like, no, we can do it for real, right? Like all these bagels are good. Like he just took it as literal that it was going to be a bracket that played out. like, can we do this? And turns out that we could. Jeff Perera: Yep. Aaron: And we did last year. was a lot of fun. People really got into it. And then to think that we went from that to then now this year with digital menus and it's all integrated and then app experience for people to sort of follow along and, you know, surprises in there. And it's just, it's wild to me that how it comes together. This is one of those things where I think you really nailed it before saying like, The community aspect of it, like it's not just the food. We're not trying to just put food in front of you and make it super transactional. Like this is fun for us. It's fun for me. It's fun for our teams and like to do this kind of things. Cause it's kind of insane in an awesome way. And so I'm just, it's so great that we have fans that love to engage in this stuff with us and we get to do these things. And I don't know, you told me again in engineering school that I'd be making. a March Madness, you know, if us and the team is going to make a, we're going to make a March, basically, you know, March Madness bracket app for bagels. I would have told you, okay, I don't know. Moving on. You're crazy. No, no, no, no. I didn't think that the world had that in it. Jeff Perera: You would not have you would have not believed yourself. Yeah, it is pretty It's pretty insane so I I want to make sure that we we drill enough hype into this that people actually go and download the app right now and Sign up for loyalty. So if they haven't downloaded the app, they're gonna want to sign up for loyalty so they can compete in the competition but the bagel madness bracket is sweet versus savory. we have, you know, you know how bagel teams are seeded in the tournament to the east or the west, whatever. And so we have our teams, our bagels seeded into sweet versus savory. And so the competitors on the sweet side are blueberry, cinnamon, sugar, last year's champion, by the way, churro bagel, sprinkles, banana bread, cinnamon roll, lemon blueberry, blueberry pancake, funnel cake. Aaron: about that. Jeff Perera: There are some very good sweet bagels in this bracket. And then on the savory side, you've got last year's runner-up, garlic bread. Pepper Jack everything, Mike's Hot Honey everything, brand new entry, making it into the fourth seed, pretty crazy. Tomato grilled cheese, the Chatfield bagel, loaded baked potato, and another new one, like recently new, French onion soup. The savory side is stacked. I mean, I feel like the savory side came to win, but I don't know if it can beat the sweet side. Aaron: Did you fill out your bracket already? Has your bracket been completed? Jeff Perera: I did. My bracket's been completed. I made it public. I posted it on my personal Instagram. I believe cinnamon roll is gonna be the winner this year. Cinnamon roll. I think the cinnamon roll bagel has a lot going for it. One, it's a strong competitor. You know, this is a bagel that definitely punches above its weight. It's sweet. It has icing on top of it. Every time we put it out there to market, it's a top seller. Aaron: Excellent. Cinnamon roll. Wow. All right. That's a... ⁓ Jeff Perera: I also think it's got great name recognition. mean, if you have no idea, if you go into a bracket and you have no idea about which bagel to choose, you're gonna pick cinnamon roll. Cinnamon roll is gonna win down the line. Aaron: So this is very similar then to like those of us that might not be as NCAA basketball knowledgeable and we just do like the mascot pick is what you're saying. This is where cinnamon roll really carries in the picks. They're like of course this one's gonna be. Jeff Perera: Yes, 100%. Cin- Cin- Cin-Cinema-Roll carry. Cin-Cinema-Roll is like mascot pick. You're like, oh, it's, oh, the dolphin's cute. Like, worst team ever, right? Like, so I think it's fair to say that this is a mascot pick. So, yeah. Aaron: I respect that. I'm just thankful that that because I've got my pick. I've got I have the Mike's hot honey going all the way. That's my pick. That's just that's it. That's an amazing bagel. You know, but here's the thing. I didn't set out saying that I went to the back bracket and that's just as each as each match went down. That was who was at the end. And I'm like, OK, this makes sense. Jeff Perera: Bold choice. Aaron: You know, they earned it a game at a time. But what I will say is somebody who's just pulling for the savories, I'm savory bias, but somebody's pulling for the savories. I am very glad that maple bacon did not make the cut on the sweet side because I had that yesterday. And ⁓ my God, that is a new classic. That was so good. Jeff Perera: That bagel was so is so good that bagel definitely plays next year for sure Maybe and you really have I have to wonder where does the maple bacon bagel sit though? It sort of plays on both sides of the sweet and savory line Aaron: It's stuck in... ⁓ That's why that's why it's it would just maybe it needs to be a bubble team. I have to have extended next year and a half. Like, like that play. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Uncategorized flavor profile. But it was amazing. And I will say that there's very few bagels just because I really like spreads. There's very few bagels that I would just eat completely straight. And that bagel ate completely straight, like not sliced, fresh from the oven. Jeff Perera: We have to like a play-in. As the play-in. Yeah, we'll have a play-in game. ⁓ my gosh, That's like. Aaron: ate it like a donut. Amazing. It's a good noodle. Jeff Perera: Mm-hmm. It really good bagel, I know. That was a really good bagel. I was so happy for, I saw somebody, the baker that had created or brought that bagel, I don't know if they created it or like brought that, was it like the instigator of bringing that bagel to, kind of to the forefront during our, our, uh, what am I saying? Baker's Choice, thank you. So the baker that- Aaron: biggest choice? Jeff Perera: brought that bagel to the forefront during Baker's Choice, posted a story on their personal Instagram and the bagel run reshared it saying like, yeah, like how they're like, my bagel, that made it to Baker's Choice on a national level, which I think is really cool. That's the part that's super fun about doing this, right? Here's a baker in a store, Claremont, Florida, created a bagel and now it's sold in. Aaron: awesome. Jeff Perera: 31 stores yesterday. Aaron: And we've been on a run there because, honestly, that will come back. That bagel was too good. That's in the rotation now. But from this last Baker's Choice, we've had three features, four features. Like what is the run now? I feel like this last Baker's Choice produced like a lot of graduates. Jeff Perera: ⁓ that- Yeah. Well, we've had two and I teased, we had two so far and I teased two in the future. So yes, there's, there's like four for sure. And I think, ⁓ yeah, the, the teams really added themselves with a lot of great bagels. Cause we had the Mike's Hot Honey Pepperoni a week or so ago, a couple of weeks ago, and then now, maple bacon. so those two are there. And then we have coffee crumb cake, I think coming in. Aaron: such a strong adding this last one. Jeff Perera: a couple of weeks. It's just there's so many good ones. So it's Aaron: It reminds me of a great story out of like the scaling days of McDonald's where they actually, these stories, again, and I'll say their stories only because I've not validated each and every one of them, but like there's a lot of stories of how a lot of like pretty well-known menu items came from franchisees and came from the system that then became staples on the menu. I always, I always thought that was really cool about that story, because this was when they were big and growing and definitely established at that point. wasn't like the very, very early days. so I think that's awesome that one, that brands do that. And then I think it's fun. I'm enjoying that part of it for us to really be so collaborative with our locations and with our operators and just getting that feedback and seeing what they bring to the table. It's really fun. Jeff Perera: 100%. Yeah, it's super fun. And I think next year, when we're at like, you know, 60 plus stores in January, trying to wrangle Baker's Choice is gonna be, it's gonna be a logistical nightmare that I probably will not have to deal with. But it will be fun nonetheless. Aaron: Could you imagine? It's gonna take like six months to set up. Hey So you have to bake all of them, Jeff. have to bake all 60 individual recipes each time. Jeff Perera: I know. So I didn't, I didn't bake them. I let, we let them run with it. Like if they thought it was a good bagel, they baked it and they ran with it. So we didn't actually do any taste testing this time. think previously when we've done this, had seven stores. I could bake seven bagels and taste test ⁓ them. 25 was a little bit more challenging, but next year I think we'll probably run the same playbook. I mean, why not? These bakers know what their community's interested in. They know what tastes good. I know. Aaron: Yeah. So good. Jeff Perera: I know. I'm trying to figure out a way to get the wonton bagel to make it into the rotation. Aaron: I'm I'm waiting. That one still blew me away. Jeff Perera: Thinking about, I'm thinking about doing an international flavors week for the bagel of the day. We can bring back za'atar, we can do monton, we can have the Irish soda bread come back. We can have, ⁓ what was it? ⁓ we can do like the bean and cheese burrito or the taco bagel back. So I think there's a couple of opportunities for us to lean into some of these. Aaron: Cool. ⁓ yeah, last year I was... I can't wait for the, like, represent your region battle. You know, a couple years from now we're across the whole country and it's like, all right, you know, I want the, whatever, like, whatever cliche I had. I like to do any, like, regional cliches, but like. Jeff Perera: That'll be fun one day. Somewhat, well somewhat, think one of the stores did like a biscuits and gravy one, which is very much like a southern type of southern food. I mean, if we're ever out in California, they're definitely gonna have like some kind of avocado bagel for sure. Aaron: Exactly, or I want the, you know, the, where's the gumbo bagel? Like, I don't know, like I really want, I want, you know. Which stores kind of already do a little bit, but it'll be funner when we have even more. Jeff Perera: ⁓ yeah. Regional, regional, regional delicacies, you know? Absolutely. Well, Bagel Madness is live right now, I think. Aaron: That's right. Jeff Perera: Let me get this right. Alright, so Bagel Madness is live right now in our app. You can play along, download the app, sign up for loyalty, pick your bagels, see who's going to win, and then go eat. Go eat them. Yeah, you got to put your bracket has to be in by March 15th, right? Because we start eating these bagels on March 16th. So March Bagel Madness starts March 16th. And if you want to play along, you got to sign up. It's going to be exciting. Aaron: You gotta get it before we start. Yes. Exactly. Jeff Perera: Join what now? Over 2,000 of your closest friends are playing along right now too. I think you said. Aaron: Yeah, last I checked. That was the out of the gate. ⁓ Jeff Perera: That was the first like four days of three days of signups was like 2000 people signed up, which is crazy to me. It's crazy. We haven't even marketed this. Like people are just like opening their app and they're like, ⁓ what's this big old madness thing? Great. Let me play. ⁓ Aaron: It's crazy You know, yeah, I want to say there was, so we launched it Sunday, Sunday morning with the intent of, you know, communicating it formally on Monday. And I want to say we had 1,500, so it helps like the very first day just because it was visible. And I'm like, yeah. Jeff Perera: They just like open their app to order their regular bagels and like, ⁓ Fill out my bracket. I know, I played this game before. Yeah. Aaron: I should do this. That's right. This is important stuff. mean, this is really, is, basketball's great and all, but like bagels, like, come on. Jeff Perera: Bagels... bagels above all. Bagel life chose me. Aaron: That's right, get that bag away. That's right, you can't, you can't. Jeff Perera: ⁓ my goodness. Alright, well get your brackets in. have till March 16th. Aaron, this has been so fun. I'm glad we got to talk bagels. Again, like what a life we live. This is... Aaron: It's too easy. This is like, you know, again, this chooses you. You can't write the story. Well, you know, I can't wait for you to be back next week and chilling out and you know, the launch team getting a little break before the next crush. Jeff Perera: It's so good. So good. that's going to be nice, have a training team to have a little break and then kind of get back to it. maybe we'll be able to do Taco Tuesday at the office again. Aaron: Hey, it was a fan spirit. Jeff Perera: I'm just saying, you know, maybe the guys will listen to the pod if you commit to like another food day. Aaron: Well, you know that I think they will do just about anything for food. So I think that's a fair trade. Jeff Perera: Dessert got them to the office, Taco Tuesday got them to the office. Katrina was kicking around the idea of like a bagel pizza or like a pizza bagel Monday, so. Aaron: Ha Listen, even if they don't show up, if it's a bagel pizza event, I'll eat their share. I'll take credit for their share. If they come, fine, but if they don't, then I'll handle it. That's all. Jeff Perera: ⁓ I love it, I love it. You'll handle it, you'll take down the pizzas for them, that's great. That's amazing. Alright well Aaron have a great weekend, I'll see you next week. Aaron: Exactly. Same to you my friend, have a good one. Jeff Perera: Bye.