Latest / Restaurant Misfits / EP 57: Brad Kilgore | Mastering Fine Dining & Business Growth

Transcript

EP 57: Brad Kilgore | Mastering Fine Dining & Business Growth · Restaurant Misfits

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Is there another way to get a portal jump like that? That isn't a QR
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: NFC, so near field communication chip. Yeah . Right. And so basically what it is, is this could be an NFC chip. Sure. And all you do is
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Just put your phone near it. You literally just , and
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: You just tap it. Basically, the only problem with NFC chips and is because people don't know what they are.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Well, what if you just hit it inside your menu board and it just said, tap here. You could do that. I'm like , literally in the menu. I'm probably gonna start next week.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Oh my God. So the menu is the NFC chain ? Correct .
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Oh my God. So you have the,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: The menu .
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah . It says tap
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Here, and then it says tap here if you wanna see more, basically to
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Order. Oh, yeah.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Oh my God.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: It could seriously , uh, you could , this is , you could build a , a , like a vase and it could be at the bottom of the vase. You totally could do that. And it look a centerpiece for your table. Oh my . And it's just , God , this is , tap it . Wow. This is really good. Uh , edit that out. Yeah. , edit this out.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Brett Linkletter, CO and co-founder of Dine Line , a restaurant growth agency. We help restaurant brands of all sizes grow and scale to new heights, whether that means opening new stores or increasing revenue at existing locations. We have a done for you model where we take care of all the work for our clients on the marketing front. And we also have a unique software solution called dio , which allows owners to showcase their restaurant in the best light possible online, while also turning guest interactions into data to increase profits. Right now, your listening to our podcast Restaurant MyFi , where we'll discuss all things related to restaurant marketing, management, and everything else in between. Growing a restaurant business, scaling a restaurant today takes much more than having grit and hustle in this age . It's about utilizing the newest technology, educating yourself on new platforms and trends, and having a deep understanding of how this industry is changing. This podcast is dedicated to keeping you up to speed with the latest and the greatest through interviewing the biggest and the best in the restaurant industry. As always, we appreciate you for being here, and we hope you enjoy the show. Brad . How are you? I'm great.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: How's it going?
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I'm good, man. I'm good. We finally , uh, it looked like we got our , our warm weather back in Miami. It was like freezing two weeks ago.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I know. It's good. You get to it cross , right? Throw on like a couple sweaters or jackets that sit in the corner of the closet, you
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Know ? Yes . Well , a hundred percent. Um, well, Brad , I'm super excited to chat with you. Uh , I did
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Same quite a
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Bit of research on you, and you, and you have , uh, a really, really interesting story. Your success and what you've done in all your different brands is , is phenomenal by the way. Thank , congrats. Thank you . Yeah . I appreciate it. Um, for those who maybe aren't aware of who you are or what you've done, can you give us just like a brief of what you do currently? Yeah,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Uh , well, I'm a chef, you know, at the core. Mm-hmm . I've started cooking and working in kitchens like well over 20 years ago and , and as a teenager and got into fine dining. So on that way up, you know, I wanted to do my own thing, be an entrepreneur, and , uh, started opening restaurants. Had several, you know, before Covid and after Covid . And what I'm doing now, the new company I started is I do developer partnerships and work with hotel brands, et cetera , and then run their food and beverage programs or insert concepts. And that's what I'm in the middle of now. Yeah.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I man this , it's incredible. And you're traveling on a regular basis between here? Uh, San Francisco,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Hon . Honduras
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Actually. Honduras man. How do you Yeah, Mexico.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: This is crazy. Yeah.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: . How often are you moving around?
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Uh, nonstop, actually. It's , uh, you know, I just hit like the highest level on the, you know, executive platinum on travel, you know , as a member . Oh my God. I didn't see, I always thought that was like unobtainable and then here I am, you know? Wow.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: , man. I'm jealous actually. 'cause I, so I'm from California. Yeah. My fiance's Brazilian. And so we always joke that my music the, the perfect spot for us. 'cause we're going back and forth between here to California to Brazil all the time, and I'm still not even close. So I, I respect that .
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: It's for me to this love , like a , a , a build mode investment, you know? Yes. It's not a forever thing. Yes.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah . But, wow. Um, really cool man. I , I love to hear that. And I guess like, let's, let's go to the beginning. Sure. So, so how did this all happen? How did you find your way into the food and beverage space? Like, tell us about that. Right,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Right. Uh, actually the young age of like 10 years old. Wow. Um , my best friend's older brother at that time was the coolest guy we knew. And he got a job at , uh, a breakfast brunch joint mm-hmm . And we started working, basically washing dishes , uh, on the weekends, Saturday mornings, Sunday mornings, started getting kind of that first paycheck, and I was like, oh, there's a little bit of freedom. You know, you can, I can go buy that video game or whatnot. I wanted for sure, that grew into general interest of what was happening in the kitchen. Um , the first job they gave me was french toast and pancakes on, on the flat top. And , uh, and then they started yelling orders of toast and, you know, five or six different types of toast. And they would yell it out. I would listen, I'd put 'em in the toaster, and I guess I didn't, you know, mess that up. So, yeah , , they, they , I love it . They kept me on the line. So from there it went , um, just a huge interest in cooking and being in kitchens. And so, you know, little opportunities up on the way up, Hey, what is that kitchen doing? You know, am I into catering? Am I into a restaurant thing? And this is all in high school. Um, and I took a really , um, elevated culinary program in high school. Then it was later on recognized as like, the best in the country. And James Beard recognized and Wow. Um, that gave me this fine dining itch and that, that hit my path to Michelin star restaurants.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Wow. That's incredible, man. I, I, and it's, it's interesting. It's interesting to see, I think, so we, you know, we've worked with over like 2000 different brands, and what I've always noticed is the difference between the brands that really succeed or not are the brands that have a killer chef like yourself, but also are business-minded. Right. Um, it's, it's oftentimes, man, you , you must have a great product and service, right? You , you must have a great team, you must have great staff, you must provide an amazing experience. But also you , you have to understand the business. And you definitely do at this point. I mean, with multi stores all over the place, you can't be in all places all at once. It manages how , how do you , how do you deal with that? Right? What's that look
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Like? Um , you know, there's no magic wand. It takes a lot of hard work , uh, pre-planning and great team, like, like you said . Yeah . Um , I can't be everywhere. I can't do everything. Uh , we do our best to instill systems. Like even my, my prep sheets for the kitchen are , are color coded, and there , there's multiple different categories. You're constantly doing your own par , or sorry, you're set with the par, you're doing an inventory. The , the chef is giving , um, the priority, which is color coded, et cetera. It's being checked off. So we're looking for consistency by doing that. Mm-hmm . Um, at the same time, all our recipes are to the gram or sometimes to the half a gram. Wow. Um , so the idea is that, you know, if I'm the chef and I kind of look at myself as the culinary director of my own company , um, because I have chefs running the outlets and mm-hmm . And , and they have, you know, their kitchen to run, and I don't even wanna step on their toes sometimes in the way of that's their world together. We're cooking, you know, my vision and, and a lot , sometimes our vision based on for sure how long they've been with the team. Right. Um, so systems and , and a short answer is absolutely trying to put those in a world that's run, you know, by humans. And we have to balance that out
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: For sure. Systems and processes, having proper SOPs, I can respect that for sure. Um, where do you get your, like, inspiration for your new dishes? Like, where does that come from?
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, for a long time, inspiration came from general interests of, of, with travel, right? Mm-hmm . And , you know, now I'm traveling so much for work. It's , it's work-based travel. But when it's leisure, you kind of let your mind go a little bit. Uh , you might get a, a flavor combination that you haven't had and your mind starts running. Um , I had a dish years ago that staring out the window to the clouds , uh, from the airplane. And I came back and I made like a , a pasta dish with Parmesan clouds of three different textures to mimic like, oh my god , what I, what I saw. Um , whoa. It was pretty cool. That's, I , I always, that sticks to my head of what can be done on an airplane. That
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Is the coolest thing ever. Yeah ,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: It was. I liked it.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. , that's awesome . That
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: One stuck to me, so,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Okay. And, and I, I , um, what , what do you think, okay, so like, what comes to mind for you when you think of like, what, what is like a , a Brad Kilgore signature? Like, what is, like, if , if I'm going to one year , one year menus, what , what do you, what do you hope , um, to create? You said you talk about consistency, right? Like , what is, what is the signature taste or look or experience you want your guests to have?
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Right? Um, recognizable but new. Mm . So that's really where I found myself. I get excited as a chef. I love classics. I mean, if you catch me on my day off, I'm not going to a super modern molecular restaurant. I'm probably getting like Pomodoro sauce, you know, on my tag elli , like , you know , um, I do love red sauce Italian. Um, me too. I know, right? It just hits.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: How do you not like that ? Right ? It's the best.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Like , so I put on one of my venues, I have , uh, the ultimate chicken parm is what I call it. Nice. And it's taken like every step that a chef can do to a chicken , uh, to where, you know, we brine the chicken, then we air dry it, we remove all the bones, but then we put the meat back together. So it's boneless, but the, the thigh and the breasts are one piece. Again, gently pound it out, do a double cooking process to it, and then it has like, all the layers you expect, plus like, chili crisp and fried capers and fennel pollen.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Oh God , I'm getting hungry, man. You're talking about this.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Right? And you get it, and it's like a really elegant chicken parm. Wow.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: That is awesome.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: So not everything is a direct twist of a classic, but I think when people go out to eat, they want to kind of close their eyes and like, like, be comfortable, you know?
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Is it almost maybe like, nostalgic, but new at the same time? Absolutely. But yeah. Yeah. I can, I can , as you're describing this, that's like what come , what comes to mind? I'm thinking about this. Ah , this is amazing. This sounds good. Right ? But it's new at the same time. Correct. Yeah. Um, so you're, you're based here in Miami, or you're all over , okay. So you're still based here, but you're just traveling all over the place.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Correct. Yeah. Got it . I , I live here. Um , I'm in Miami, you know, two to three weeks a month. Right now it's probably about two. Yeah,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: For sure. You're all over the place. Yeah. Uh, that's awesome though, man. That's the , you're in an area of growth. That's the , that's the most fun to be in. Um, and how do you go about growing and scaling your brand? I mean, is it when you look at what you're doing in store versus also what you're doing online? Talk to me about that. Because you, dude, you got a really, really cool online presence too. I looked you up, I watched a ton of your reels videos, all that got a kind of a vibe of who you are. .
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: . That's good to know. I hear . Yeah . And I'm
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Liking it. I'm liking it. But what do you like? 'cause here's the thing, right? Yeah . So, you know, we we're , we , we help restaurants go help, we help them find more people to come in store , right? Plain and simple, right? Um, but I always tell restaurant owners, Hey, like, I can bring someone in store . You gotta do the rest, right? Sure , yeah . Someone's not gonna wanna come back if their b just tastes like rubber. Of course. But like, from your side, what, what are you doing right now to go ahead and acquire more customers, get more customers, get people to know who you are in your brands, right? What's that process look like?
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Um, interesting. I mean, I think there's still the need for a classic gorilla marketing at the way of like, yeah. Trying to connect with people mm-hmm . Um , connect with them directly. And the other part is return customers. And what I tell my team , uh, especially in our new project in San Francisco, cafe Sebastian , um, because, you know, San Francisco, Cisco , excuse me, is like on its way back up, right? Mm-hmm . It's , it's kind of in its own rebuild mode . That's
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Good to know, by the way.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Uh , it's, it's beautiful what they're doing to , and the new mayor and everything. Um, that all being said, I said, guys, we will win , win one customer at a time. So basically when they return to their office or back to their friend group mm-hmm . And they say, wow, I just stumbled upon this place, or I happen to see it online. And I went in and I , and I got a bite to eat. It's their word of mouth that is gonna get our return. And there's more than just a food that's gonna get us there when they walk in smile and, and smile because you're happy to see them and you're happy to see them because a restaurant feeds energy wise off of being full. And also, let's face it, like the revenue that goes directly into, you know, the waiters and waitresses pockets and, and the whole house. Right?
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: 100% .
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: So , so be be happy when they walk in the door and , and smile and be genuine. And we've worked really hard to create that culture. And actually the whole team creates that culture. It's not just us talking about it at lineup. It's, you know, everyone.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: A hundred percent. Do you have like, any specific strategies or maybe tips you can share with the audience of what you do specifically? So like, once they're in store, right? So you said smile, right? Yeah . Um, God , I , I watched another podcast like this was a couple months back, and this guy was saying , uh, when someone is going to leave the restaurant , uh, he has his hostesses like offer like a mint or something, like something like that, right? That's on their way out. And then , uh, they on purpose run back or go back to, I don't know , wherever the mints were, to get one more for them to give 'em two on their way out. And he said specifically with this, like, well, if it's, if you're, if you're giving these mints while you're getting the bill, he sees the tips go up higher. And , um, I don't know . That's cool. He , he claims
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: That it works for , it's like a final gesture.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's like a final gesture. Like, oh, here's one for you. Oh, let me get one more for you. Runs back and the tips go up, it gets increased . I , I don't know if it's true or not,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: We do something similar is , uh, please make sure, listen, it's busy. You might be walking by the front door, people pay their check and some get up and walk out immediately and some wait 15, 20 minutes, finish your coffee and finish their conversation. So being able to time and like walk up to the table and hit it at the right time is, is nearly impossible. But what I always ask for my team is when you catch somebody getting up and going to the door, and you can tell that they're gonna leave the restaurant mm-hmm . Just walk 'em to the door, thank them, easy. Right. And get some , uh, you know, eye contact and, hi, thank you for coming in. Please let us know if there's anything we can do for sure. You know, extending that extra, let me know if there's something else we can do, or if we can see you again. People feel that genuine connection and it's real. Right?
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: It is. It is. Uh, now, now that I also know you're here at Miami most of the time, what do you think about the Miami space restaurant space these days? I mean, I, I, so I'm new here. Yeah . By the way, I've only been here for about two years. Okay. And , uh, I'm born, raised in Southern California. I spent a lot of time in Brazil. Now I'm here , uh, very happy to be here. I love the city. Right. But for someone who is operating heavily in this city, what do you think about the restaurant space here? What do you think about the brands here? What do you think about the restaurant culture and all that? Right . I'm just kinda curious of your opinion.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I've been in Miami going on about 13 years now. So the thing about Miami is it's constantly moving and transformed a lot. It's , it's constantly transforming. Um, and more than I think many other cities. I've gone back to other cities I've worked in, and you're like, okay, there's still a lot same here. Right, for sure. Um, in Miami, you know, people are still experience driven and even , um, the locals are out to have a good time. There is a element of, of party that gets folded into what used to be a club scene is now like a restaurant club scene. And, you know, that differentiates from other cities. Other cities are watching in , you know, Miami's all over social. It's , it's, no, it's crazy, right? It's no secret , you know? Um, and so other cities are, are saying, look what they're doing. And they're bringing that same style , uh, around the country. Now, simultaneously, we have become a chef-driven concept city where when I first got here, it was about hotels, and the hotels had the nicest restaurants. Mm . You know, I worked at the Mander Oriental and the St . Regis in Bell Harbor , uh, because that's what was the driving force in the culinary world for sure. Um, and you know, now it's about the independent restaurateur , uh, and chef, chef driven concepts
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: For sure. So
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: The long story short, I mean, although the club restaurants are probably doing anywhere from five to 10 x , uh, you know, in sales numbers , um, they also cost five to 10 x to run To operate. Yeah . To operate. So , um, I've, you know, I've heard, you know, there's good and bad with both sides of it for sure. Right.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Because I, I'll say this, I, I think, honestly for me, like , um, I, I'm, I'm a little bit sick of the whole club restaurant scene. I'm, I'm like, Hey, man, like, food's not that good. It's also like four times the price. Yeah . Like , what , what are we doing? It's also
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Diff it's really difficult to do 500 covers and like Yeah . Do really great food, dude. For sure. Like, there is an imbalance there.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't, I don't wanna bring up like, certain brands 'cause I , you know, we're here on a podcast, like it's gonna be public, but there's, there's some very big concepts here. You could probably guess some of the concepts. We'll talk maybe about it after that
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: There's dozens at this point. There's,
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: There's dozens that have launched. We're like the hype for like three months, and now they're empty. Yep . They're totally empty. And I think, I think part of it is, well, here's also an area of frustration. I think I've, I've seen and spoken to a lot of people in the space. What's up with some of these restaurants? Just tacking on a , a 22% service fee for no reason. Yeah. 22% .
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Right. Well, you know, that begs the conversation of, in general Yeah. Americans , uh, as an overall, we don't really understand the value of food. Um, we've been given from our childhood 99 cent meals. And so then everyone's like, well, a burger should be a dollar. Where if you really think about the grinding of the flour , um, the harvesting of the lettuce, the of course raising of the beef and the cattle, and then butchering it and shipping it 2000 miles across the United States. You know, we're in Florida, Florida's 700 miles , 650 miles long. Like, nothing's coming from Florida. Anyway , so , uh, yeah . Very, very little. So that all being said, then we're like, oh, that's an expensive, you know, dish or plate. Um, and, and most restaurants are single digits. Right. And margin , uh, where hardly any other business in the world is running off single digit , uh, margins. For sure. For sure . And so , uh, the , our way of accepting prices is skewed and it's , it's actually inaccurate .
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I, I'm actually a big proponent of like charging more if , if you need, but removing the service charge if , if you can. Um ,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I mean , yeah. I think it's a , it's a cultural issue that we have and it's a communication issue. Yeah.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: If there's, if there's one tip we've told a lot of our clients is, is like, like you mentioned, like we have a lot of clients where for , for five, six years. And we've, we've, we've been with them this whole time and we've seen the margins just dissipate over the last couple years. Yeah . Right. Overhead . So , and so I've always told them, Hey, look, you with inflation, eight to 10%, let's say you , you , you gotta raise your prices, man. You , you have to. But I think, I think the public perception is like when you go somewhere and you see the price on the menu, and then you get tacked on the 22%, it is , might as well just be the noble price of whatever it's gonna be. I
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Mean, I have a restaurant where we have sandwiches and it's pretty hard to price a sandwich over 20 bucks. Yeah. But I really should. Yeah. You know , and we run that like 17 to $19. Yeah. And then I, I have a stake one and it's stake so's 26, 20 $7. But like, I feel what you're saying in general, I should be adding 30% to like all my prices. Yeah . In order for things to really even out. But then the shock value from the customers standpoint is,
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: I see what you're saying. Okay. So I see where it's coming from. There's only,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: You get , you get a hundred points, right? If you imagine a dollar bill and you start shaving away. And so let's say a , a standard restaurant pre inflation was 12 to 15% margin. Well, that still stays the same. And then you increase the cost of the cleaning supplies, 1% shave off one of those, you increase labor, several percent shave off 5%. We're now down to about eight points or so. It's tough. There , you start shaving. 'cause nothing else has changed people's , uh, you know, perception of how much they should pay for their food in general. It went up a little bit, but not as much as everything else. I
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: See what you're saying. Interesting. Okay. So,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: So it's an uphill battle. To go back to the question of the service charge, I , we do 8% of one of my concepts. Yeah . Um, and so we're, we're not up there in the 22. Um ,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah . 8% is reasonable
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Though. It's reasonable. And it also allows, like the customers still be excited about the service they got and leave extra, you know ,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: 100% they
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Still leave 20. But I'm saying sometimes people live 25 or , or whatever . Totally.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: I I'm just saying it , the , the whole 22, I even saw the 24%. I mean , well , such an obscure number ,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: 24% . I mean , to , to , to look at like , Jesus , a hundred dollars steak and no , it's gonna cost you 125 plus tax. Yes. So 135, I mean, that's hitting the wallet. Yeah.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man. It's just, it's just
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Crazy. I haven't seen that yet. Yeah .
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: I forgot which the concept was. And I'm almost happy. I don't remember. 'cause I would've said it on the podcast. ,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: It's gotta be printed on the menu, by the way . Yeah. It
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: And it is . Okay , good . It is . But I , it was such, oh , it was like such an aggravating realization.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: We should do the math for you. Like on the menu. Yes . You know , 12 , you know, I always go back to like a mixed green salad. Can you imagine how much work, there's like five, seven different lettuces in the mixed screen . Yeah. Imagine how much work it is to grow those, cut those, wash those, or here, here's
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Box the ship, em , here's my other frustration and
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: We wanna pay $10 for a salad.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: It's, or thinking about this, it's one thing to have a service charge, full service, sit down, everything that goes into it. I can respect that. Some of these QSRs are doing it too. Yeah. 20% q I'm not gonna say the name. one . The one of the brands starts with a p ends with an eta , .
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Um , what the heck? Yeah , I , you can, I think you can decline it. Um, yeah . You should have the option to ,
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: It's, it's crazy man. It's, it's, it's like one of those things. But, but here's, but, but then ,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Well that's when we need services, you know, like yours that can help find those pennies later . Well ,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Here's the other problem . Here's other problem is like, you look at like, let's just say Uber Eats, right? Yeah. You're taking 30% in some cases, like that's brutal, right? So I ,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: That's just pass through revenue for an operation to where you just have cash flow . Yeah.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: And
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: That's wrong. And if you really, if you ran a business basically only off that and you started with 10 grand, you'd eventually run outta money. Yeah. You might stay alive for a year and a half and pay your salaries and whatnot . Mm-hmm . As those points overtake margin. Right. Because if you're making 30% in a qsr, kudos. Yeah. You're doing great. Um , but if you're making anything less than 30% and you're giving , I know someone else I
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Know ,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: I know the math, maths , you're gonna run out
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: It a hundred percent. It , it seems like, so from our side, right? We're , we're on the tech space and we were talk about just pre-packaged a little bit, but I was excited about the restaurant space in general because we were finding restaurants , um, earlier on. We did a lot of e-commerce in the beginning and we, we started working with a , a couple restaurants just out of kind of pure chance . And , um, I always was kind of against the restaurant space initially when we started our company because I, I knew it was tough to track a return. That's the only reason. I
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Mean, every, everyone in history has said it's a tough
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Industry. Right . It's , it's just a tough, you know, so I'm like, alright , if I'm choosing a niche of brands to work with, e-comm is very simple. E-comm is like, Hey, if I'm wanna sell like a t-shirt online, let's say the T-shirt's , 30 bucks, and let's just say from when running my ads, I can see that my cost per acquisition, which by the way, I can track because it's all online, it's all tracked. Right. I know when you went to checkout, I know you went to thank you page, I know you got the email confirmation. That's a purchase. It's all tracked online. So if I can see that for every five, $10 I spend, I sell a t-shirt for 30 bucks. And product cost included on profitable, dude, I'll keep scaling that all day long.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Right . Also, a t-shirt doesn't deteriorate while hanging on the rack. Yeah,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah .
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: True . Like a hamburger will.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Exactly. . So I was, you know, when we first were starting our business, and it's been over 10 years now, you know, restaurant space was something that I was like, Hmm . Like, I don't know. Right. But then we worked with a couple brands in LA and , um, one of my first concepts we worked with is actually a brand called Original Tommy's. Have you heard of them? I
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Haven't. Yeah . They're ,
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Uh , they're like a fast food chain based out of LA They got like 32 stores. Wow. Family friend of ours, they were legendary brand, been around for 70 plus years, but never touched digital, I mean, ancient brand. So they
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Scaled like that just
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: So we worked with them and within the first three months, their storewide sales went up 5%. And for me, I thought, you know, it was kind of funny. I was going to the meeting after the first quarter of working with them , but I was like, we're gonna get fired. Yeah. This is for , we're done. This is it. And they were like, celebrating, oh my God. A 5% lift. Sure . And I was thinking to myself, the e-commerce returns we work with we're , if we don't do a two x return every month, they're like losing it. Two x return, three x return, and I got a 5% lift .
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Five . Yeah. Five points is the greatest thing .
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: It's the greatest thing I've ever seen. And so I thought to myself, wait a second.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Maybe there is something
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: There . Maybe there's some cool opportunity here. That's cool. And so we kept diving into it further and further. And then the more we learned, the more we realized that like, man , no one knows what they're doing when it comes to marketing. Um, right. It
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: As an operator, most restaurateurs at least that, you know, I know are run into , um, worked their way up in the industry one way or another. Yeah. And, and marketing wasn't as necessary in the old school operations because I think so yeah, it was word of mouth, obviously, you know, the internet and, and advertising on the internet hadn't really been forward for a long, you know, forever. For sure. And so now it's such a highly competitive market. I mean, a lot of it came from real estate , uh, creating all these new retail stores, right? Yeah. Like a building. And you have all the empty retail downstairs and they just started plugging restaurants for sure . Into it. So it's just this whole circle that's caused it. And , and you need to act. Yeah . You know , you have to respond to it.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: 100%. I mean, it's, it's interesting because, so out of every brand we've ever spoken to , um, I've only seen one brand doing their marketing, I think , um, an amazing job. It's , it's the Cheesecake Factory .
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: So you gotta have respect for those guys.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah . . But it's hilarious. Yeah. And what was interesting is, I I, I remember the meeting and I was, I met with them and I was, we're talking about how do you track your cost per acquisition? How do we see that, hey, you're spending X amount on ads, which was
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: A lot like , prove to me the marketing's working or Exactly . Or worth the in investment. Right.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: And they, and, and they had a system and they were tracking store visits, and they were doing this like four years ago when we spoke. Right. And so I was like, Hey, you know, this is one of me , one of the first meeting I've ever had where I'm like, Hey, I , I , I can't help you. I can't help you, , you're awesome. Keep doing what you're doing. 'cause it's awesome. I don't wanna take away from that. I'll
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Take an Asian chicken salad by way .
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: It was like a mutual, like, respect. I was like, ah , you guys are awesome. But , um, it's, it's very interesting , uh, speaking also of tech and , and more on this topic. I mean , uh, world's changing quick with ai. Yeah . Are you guys doing anything operationally with AI yet? What , what's that look
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Like ? Not yet. We absolutely have been discussing it, especially in San Francisco. Mm-hmm .
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: I , I could imagine. Yeah. We ,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah , we hosted Ted ai , um, at the Transamerica Pyramid where I'm Oh wow. Food and beverage operator. Yes. So , um, I mean, we hosted one of their events. They had a big , um, weekend and I think it was September. Uh , so, you know, a lot of those conversations are happening. The thing is, is uh , people in general I think are, are weary of technology and it's like, I just want to have a nice warm meal. Don't shove a computer in my face. Mm-hmm . So , but I actually use for lunch, not for dinner. We use a QR code , uh, for ordering because it's hyper efficient. Um, so I , for sure I have it embedded in a image. So, you know, it's still, you look at it in QR code, but it looks nice. It's an acrylic frame on the table. Amazing . You're still sat with the hostess, you're greeted at the front door. Hostess says, how many in your party would you like to sit inside or outside? Mm-hmm . Um , grabs the menus in the silverware, brings you the table, hands you the menus and say , when you're ready to order, please just scan with your phone. We actually avoid the word QR code. Um , yeah. And I've seen people walk in, sit down and get like maybe a cold food item that's quick to, in three or four minutes they have it on the table. Wow. Yeah. Which allows us to get, you know, we're in a downtown area. People need efficient lunches for sure. The other part about it is you got three or four people at a table. One guy gets a call, gotta go back to the office, he can tab out and pay for his For sure. Well , and if somebody wants to , what do you
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: Guys use? What , what's the system you guys use for that?
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I use Toast. Okay . That's nice. Yeah . And so I'm using Toast like globally and, and using Toast Payroll, extra Chef . Wow. Everything is integrated. So, you know , amazing . It's a little bit of a lift to , to get it going. There's a lot of data entry and for sure. Um , at the same time, it's like we're all operators, so it's like, oh, I've gotta spend four hours doing data entry, but I also need to run the floor. Um, so yes. You know, we, you know, a lot of restaurants in f and b just, we don't have like six people in an office, like for sure . Plugging away for us. Um, so , uh, but we're almost in the position to where you can just log in and see what's happening and , um, 100% . And it's super efficient for us.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: So I'm so happy you brought this up. Um, Raphael over here is probably already knows what I'm gonna say , but , uh, man, that is an amazing opportunity for you. You know why every single person who scans that QR code is an opportunity for data.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: We, he hinted at that. Yeah, I know. Huge.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Right? So, do you know currently that if someone hits that QR code, if you're, if if, is there a way to put like a , a megapixel on that or like a Google tag? Basically these are , these are basically highly
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Likely. Um, and
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: There's this , this is basically, but
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna act like I know exactly what that is either. Okay. .
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Okay . So lemme , lemme explain. Okay. So what, what this is, so let's go back to the e-commerce example. Sure. If , if I want to sell TV, remotes, whatever, I'm strange item 'em to sell. But let's just say I sold that.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I bought that remote
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Before you bought that . Okay. So we bought . Yeah . So, so if I'm , if I'm selling these remotes , uh, how do, if I'm running an ad to sell these remotes, for example, how does Meta know that you sold the remote on your eCommerce site, which is not owned by Meta, right. They're different. Right? Right. You put , uh, a pixel there. So what that it's a
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Trackable element.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's basically a code that you put on the page. And so if I'm gonna check out, I see the item, I go add to cart , I go check out and I get to a thank you page, right? So basically each URL is like gonna fire something back to meta. If you got to that page. So if I go to an add to cart, that's an add to cart tag, right? Mm-hmm . So, oh, we got someone from an ad to get to add to cart. Okay, now we got someone from add to cart to check out and then finally to thank you page, right . Confirmation of purchase. Right. So that's how Meta knows that the sale happened and they say, Hey, guess what? It costs you $10 to get that sale,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: But the more sales, that number could go down, right? Totally . The
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Volume so that it can, it can optimize. Yeah . So as it learns more and more , so think about this, if, if , um, if I run an ad to a hundred people, let's just say to buy this remote again , right? And let's say my targeting is people ages 20 to 60 , um, married, single, whatever , um, that also have an interest in tech. Fine. Super general, I then fine from running the ad that out of the, I don't know , a hundred people I reached that, I don't know , 80% of them were like ages 30 to 40. And were also like recently engaged. That's learnings that my ads are gonna get so that when I run another ad to a hundred people, I might only target that segment. Sure .
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Right , right . Because you find more success in that segment. Totally. So where are you running these ads? Uh , on meta platforms?
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Me ? Yeah. Me all meta. You could do, yeah . I mean, it'd be Facebook, Instagram mostly. Right, right, right. Um, but you know, then same thing
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: For people . I like how Instagram ads used to be stuff. You're like, why would anyone buy that junk? And now you're like, I'm gonna click on that. Yeah . I ha
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: It's seriously the moment stuff gonna change the game the moment that , uh, it's funny, the moment that , uh, apple Payments came out mm-hmm
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: .
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: I, dude , I buy things so quickly on, on , on on Instagram. It's just too easy.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: Boom, boom,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Boom. It's the double click's almost annoying. It's like, I don't want to double click . Yeah . Just , just
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Do , do you guys have the same thing for, to, I'd imagine if someone comes in they check out just Apple payment, I'm sure you Yeah, apple. Yeah, exactly. Same
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Thing , right ? Absolutely. And , and so it's things , it's a way to put , you sign each QR code to the table so it knows exactly where it's going and the whole so good . You know , we have the kitchen display system, the , you know , of course the kitchen , uh, printers. I mean, it operates as if the server was there. But here , here's the way, at first, you know, there, of course there's a percentage of apprehension mm-hmm . Um , at the same time, it's one, you don't have to flag somebody down if you want to get another glass of line . Totally . You just press click it. It's a , uh, and I wanted to also still make our service personable. Mm . Again, this is lunch that we do breakfast and lunch for sure. That we do it where you need, you know, they're very habitual dining times. Mm-hmm . So, you know, lunch, if you find a salad or that roast chicken that you like or whatnot, that you can get out within your budget and get back to where you need to be. Like, I'll hit the same lunch spot pretty regularly. Yeah. And coffee in the morning is like on your way to work. Yeah. Um, so you need to be efficient. And we're finding balance
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: For sure. So, so back to the , yeah, back to the QR code. And I know we don't only send QR code 'cause it's kind of like, yeah , it's, I think people just associate it with Covid
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Now. Yeah . We just go scan the image with your , just scan
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: This thing, whatever. Right, right . But no, you guys, you guys are sitting on a big opportunity with that. And I, I think you are, because I have to, I'd have to look into it specifically. Like that page , it's , it's just going to your menu, I assume, right? Yeah. Okay .
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Um , it's a toast tab. Yeah.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah . So , but it's just straight to the menu. It's not like there's ,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah , it's not a pdf . DF it's, it's a click buy , you know, 100%
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: With ,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: With pull downs, you know, if you need to,
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: I wonder, I wonder, I , I'd have to look into it to see, but if there's a way where you can put a meta tag , basically, here's what's happening. Just like our e-commerce example where someone got to the thank you page, dude, if someone's in your restaurant and they scan your menu, right, there's a pretty good chance they're a customer. Right? Like they're in your restaurant. Yeah , absolutely . They , exactly. So like , let's just call it, it's a hundred percent
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: . Well , you know, I , I'm thinking out loud, you know, going to Toast app , maybe we , we could control the QR code, right? The Q QR code could go to eBay if we wanted to. Right? Totally. So, so maybe the first page is , uh, please enter your name. Yeah . And then from there you click, this is my name, and then it takes you to the Toast app 100% . And then you're able to put in your order after that, there's, there's , so then
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: I got some ideas for you for sure. Right. But moral of the story is,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: By the way, I'm not the only person using this system. So there's probably . Yeah . So a few customers out there for you. A hundred
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Percent. It's
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Okay. I can help , uh, show that . I would love
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: That . How this works. I mean, this is, but this is, this is like, so I can't, again totally from , I came from the eCommerce world. This is the stuff that excites me because this is the kind of stuff where like we're problem solving right now. And this opportunity could be massive for you guys are all listening. Because the truth is, think about this main problem in the restaurant space. Tons of people come to the restaurant location, they engage with the brand online, but every single month, thousands of data points are just lost. Nothing happens, right? Yep . Where if you are a business and you're operating purely off your website, dude, it's all digital. Well, also,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Right , for this one example , uh, you know, dinner, we're 85% reservations, 15 walk-in. Yep . It's by far the opposite for lunch. Mm-hmm . The other day, you know, we had less than 10 reservations. We did 120. Yeah . Everybody walked in. So you're not, you know , can I get a table? Not often. Are you gonna take somebody's name? It's, yes. We have a table available. Let me walk you to your table. You know, not , not everyone wants to give their name and they haven't made a reservation. One , it's be sat, get their salad and get out the door. Totally . So, you know, I look at our list and it's just walking , walking , walking , and walking . But there's another opportunity as you're putting to get their data. It's a huge
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Job . But , but even, even if people making reservations, so you're collecting that information, but what about, I don't know their guests , their who they're with their party.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: Right. So like, imagine a world where, I mean, how many, I know you opened a new restaurant Wynwood, by the way. I I want to , I gotta check it out. Oh,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Popup. Yeah. We actually, we finished it a couple months ago. Oh , got it, got it. Okay . And , uh, but we're under construction and Fort Myers . I heard it . It was , you guys did really, really well. Yeah. The concept was cool. That, that's like my heart and soul. Oh,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: That's amazing. Yeah . Okay. So I wanna revisit that. That's okay , cool .
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: That's , that's gonna be , and I can talk about that concept a little . Oh
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: Hell yeah. But just wrapping up this, this last idea here, I mean, basically, man, look, you're in an opportunity where every single person that comes to your restaurant scans that thing will say that thing. Right? Not QR code . You , you
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: the image.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: You , you , you have an opportunity to remarket to them. Yeah. And , and it's, you , you talked about remarketing a little bit earlier, but like, it it is so cheap Yeah . To remarket versus new acquisition. Right. Um , do you guys, do you guys do any online ordering? Yes. Okay.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So you can order direct through our website, which also goes through Toast Toast tab . Um, and then we're on DoorDash and we're gonna increase those , uh, other
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Platforms . Yeah . So , so like , thinking about this, this is like the easiest campaign in the world. Someone comes to your restaurant, and by the way, this brand we're talking about with the QR codes at the table,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Cafe Sebastian. Okay.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: So how many guests you guys are getting per month at that location?
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Uh , we just started dinner like two weeks ago. So I , the data that I have is two months worth of lunch. What would
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: You , what would you guess? Monthly.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Less than 3000. Like 2,500, 3000. Let's , okay . For lunch. So ,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: Okay. Let's just call 3000 though, right ? Yeah . 3000, right? It's over a quarter 9,000. Yeah. Right. Great. Right. 9,000 data points. Right. Geez . Right . And so imagine, imagine this world, someone comes in, they scan that thing, Hey, real simple. Remarketing game across a marketing campaign across Instagram, dude, hey, we also do online ordering. Click here right now and get 5% off your first order when you order direct.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Right. Easiest campaign in the world. Now that you're saying it , you know, we have the coffee shop, we have the ice cream shop, and Yeah. We're not, you know, we don't count necessarily how many people come through those. 'cause it's to go food , right ? Or ,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: Or cross promotions for example. Right. So like , uh, one of the brands we were talking with here in Miami , uh, they launched a, a massive restaurant. Huge. And , uh, did very well for the first six months. Fortunately, not doing as well later, but they still have some other concepts that have done really, really well. And I was like, Hey, if we get this thing going with some of these things at the table that you scan , right? , you now have an opportunity to cross market all your other venues. Right? So for you also multiple stores, let's just say ice cream or, or coffee or dinner or whatever, it doesn't matter. Like you're, you're accumulating data of all your visitors, of which now you can use that data to remarket. Yeah. Right? And the cool thing too, for your situation, sorry. No, for you, I was just saying , man , you got an awesome personal brand too. Like, you , you, you can market all this under your name. Hey, I'm so , I'm so glad you came to our restaurant here. Have you tried this right or
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: This right . Easy. Yeah. We're gonna start branching out a lot more. And , um, I know one thing that I need to get better at is like , uh, like reels and, you know, live video and the editing of, you know ,
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: Dude, but some of , some of your videos I was watching, like, I think you just need to do more of the what you doing ?
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: I just to do more of them . You , because it's not like , because I'm an operator too, so I'm just like in it . Yeah . You know, because I ,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: I saw a couple cool ones. I saw one with you. I don't, what were you , you were putting prosciutto on something. Oh,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: That was my restaurant. Honduras. Yeah. Yeah. Um , that, that went over really well. That blew up. I remember , uh, dude, I actually , uh, the content was, these guys are so good. They're , they're locals in , in San Pedro Hula , and they do all our content. Yeah. Um, and they've, that restaurant now has more followers than I do. Um , wow. So the restaurant has 40,000 and it just follows me. And they've done such a great job on the
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: Content. Dude , you , if you just, I watched that like three times.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: Just
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: . I , no . 'cause I , I like to , before I have a guest on the podcast Sure . Id like to do my research and kind of get , again, get your vibe, whatever. And you, you come off so authentically you cool. And you, I think if you just do more of that.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: I know, I know. I need to just, you
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: Know , do it , you know , it's , it's kind of crazy. Like it's, you don't have to figure out what to do. You , you just do more of it literally. Yeah . That's it. Right . If you just do more of that, you will explode. And what's interesting for me, and not to go too far into this topic, but , uh, so I , I told you I spent a lot of time in Brazil. My, my fiance is Brazilian, and so I , I lived in Brazil most of 2023. And brands down there are putting like 10 x more attention onto their Instagram than we do here. Yeah. It's so interesting. But they don't run ads. They don't, I mean, they don't even ,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: It's just content. Touch
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: It. It's just content. And what I've noticed there for a lot of restaurants there is the majority are using that thing at the table that you scan really majority. Yeah. Yeah. And the reason they do is because you can have a menu in multi-languages. Um, you can showcase the pictures of the items. Um, most Brazilians speak Portuguese. It's, it's in no other languages. Like 2% speak English or something. Yeah . Very small. So, so for them, it's, it's, you know, a lot of international people coming and traveling. It's just easier to have the lang the menu with multi-languages. Sure . At the table. Right . So , um, but it's the , the level of output they put in content is nuts. That's cool. Um, but the other thing which is really weird actually, is they don't , um, Brazilians like, don't use Google to find restaurants. Oh yeah. It's strange. Like, they, they don't search.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, I,
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: At all,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I, I tried like , um, uh, what's the competitor? DuckDuckGo or something. Okay. Yeah. And then there's , uh, the, the , the Microsoft one. I've tried other search engines and it's like , uh, yeah , all right , I'm going back to Google.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: But they don't immediately , they don't , they don't even use a search engine period. So I , um, we have I
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Friends just drive around the streets or
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: No, no. they use , yeah , they , they use Instagram. They use Instagram.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Hey, how's your restaurant ?
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah. They just drive around and look. No, they, they use Instagram.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: So why can't very
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: Heavy on
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Instagram. Listen is bigger . Why can't you search on Instagram yet?
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: You can
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Like
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: Sort of , but not , it's not , it's not as good as Google. Of course, right? Yeah.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Like what's the deal with that? Why can't I just look up content about chicken Parmesan?
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, I mean, honestly, with
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: AI should be able to handle that. So,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Oh man, I love that you asked this.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: It's so annoying. No , no . That's why TikTok crush
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: It . Okay . The reason I love that you asked this actually, well , I shouldn't say this, but I'm gonna say it anyway. End of the year, we're launching a social app that does exactly this. There you go. You can search items on menus. It's specifically built for restaurant .
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: Oh . So if you're like, totally into foe and I gotta find it
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: 100% . That's
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: Cool. I like
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: That . Yeah . Um , you can search,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Can it recognize the image? Because sometimes it won't be written or said,
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: Can you? What? Well ,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: Well , well , the, the search engine. Be able to recognize an image over , uh, written or, or verbal. I don't
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: Know yet . But we should, we should definitely look into that.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Because like in the background, it could have like fried rice. Somebody's into that and it's like on the table .
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right. That's a good idea. Um, we've had some really interesting ideas from our team too, of like categories of restaurants. So, you know, like on Spotify, how you can search like different genres or whatever. I ,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: I had a great idea. Keep going. Right ?
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: Okay. This is awesome. So like, you can search things like, oh , like best espresso, martinis, whatever. Yeah . Or, or like , uh, Rafa idea for like best bathrooms. What
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: About ? Oh , that's a big one. Bon
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Ones , right? Like , good stuff. Or like, you know ,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: What about your playlist and my playlist?
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: Do we have that too? Yeah.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah . You gotta have that. So it's like, what's your like Asian ethnic food playlist? Hundred percent . Right ? 100% . And then what is your red sauce? Italian. There's ,
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: Or like, even, even like, okay, so have , you've been to Ushi here ? Yeah, of course. Okay . Yeah . Lot ushi here. I think they're amazing. They've been a great job. My only problem is I never remember what I got. 'cause it's all in Japanese, right? So , so . So , so I , I don't , I don't know what I got. And so I recommend going to a lot of my friends and I , I had dunno what to tell them to get. And so literally last time I went, I just took a picture of the receipt and it was in that moment I was like, if I can just like save these items and so I can remember what I had and then I can send this to you or a friend or whoever. Right . Or remember myself. Sure. That's a huge value
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Add. So you could almost like, sort of like a memory if you will. You save the totally set of images or whatnot . So check this out
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: Too. When you go to a restaurant and part of the product is, is like , uh, you scan that thing to look at the menu. So the menu's like social, you'll be going to a restaurant. Let's just say we follow each other on the app. You'll go to the restaurant, you'll see that I was there. Oh, Brett was here. And you'll be able to see the things I liked on the menu, right?
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Because you have connections , uh, bingo, your friends were here, whatnot . It'll recognize that here's what they liked by the way, you know, you could put it directly onto the menu itself too, so you don't need to have it, you
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: Know ? Oh, exactly. Yeah . So that's, that's, that's what's happening. Right. And , uh,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: Is there another way to get a portal jump like that, that isn't a qr
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: Uh, NFC chip, right? Yeah. The only ,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: So could you embed a chip into your menu board? So we,
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: We actually, I have, I have one there , there in F-C-N-F-C . So near field communication. Yeah . Chip. Right. And so basically what it is, is this could be an NFC chip. Sure . And all you do is just put
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Your phone near it. You literally,
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: You tap it, basically. So it's the same thing. The only Okay. The only thing,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: And you can customize 'em , it could go to any website you wanted . Right .
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: The , the only problem with NFC chips and is because people don't know what they are.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: Well, what if you just hit it inside your menu board and it just said, tap here.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: You could do that. I'm like ,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Literally in the menu. I'm probably gonna start next week.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: Oh my God. So the menu is the NFC chain ? Correct . Oh my God. Wait, this could be insane. Wait a sec . I can get the
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: Menus . I can get the menus built. Let's do this. Oh
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: My God. So you have the , the venue holding .
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah . It just
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: Says tap here . And then it says tap here if you wanna see more, basically to order. Oh, yeah. Oh my God.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: I'm freaking out inside right now, actually .
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: It could seriously , uh, could , this is , you could build a , like a vase and it could be at the bottom of the vase. You
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: Totally could
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Do that. And it a centerpiece for your table. Oh
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: My. And it's just , God , this is , tap it . Wow. This is really good.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: Uh , edit that out.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. . Yeah . Edit this out. Don't tell anyone , anyone . This idea is too good. Oh my God. This is, this is legit. Yeah. Here we go. We can , we can make this right. Like a hundred percent done . Um, wow.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: I'm sure those things cost 25 cents, or like I'm sure they're
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: Yes . They're like, they're like 4 cents. Right. We make 'em , uh, I have one on me. Where is it? It's in my backpack over here. I'll , I'll show you after. But yeah, there's like , we , we make them like these little, they're like these little like dots. We call them dots. Yeah. And , um, it's
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Quite literally a bad word, the QR code. So again, that's why we avoid it. Yeah . So , um, but the , the process is acceptable.
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: You know, we call 'em actually , we call them in restaurant activations. IRAs. Got it. And the reason we call it that is, again, we try to avoid that word, but it's, it's, it's truly, and it's an activation. Someone scans that. Now I have the opportunity to see who they are, where they came from. Man , I can even see which website they were on prior to visiting your menu website. Right. It's insane.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Now , uh, is there an element to where you gotta have boundaries with people's privacy? 'cause that's important too, to recognize, like, yeah , they have an opt in , opt out .
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah . There is. So the US is a little bit more lenient with this versus, like Europe, for example. Yeah, of course. Um, you know, like the obvious one. But basically , uh, okay. Within our productio , like , do you have
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: To accept terms?
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: Uh, yes. So if you're collecting a phone and email address, right. You need to like, yeah. It's an
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Opt-in. And so the customer has the opportunity right then to say no and just carry on with
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: Their data . So here's what I'll say. And I think this is the first time I've , uh, said this on a podcast live, but I've told a lot of people, it's not like a , some secret. So whatever you do also have the ability, the , the ability, sorry, to, if someone scans that thing, also collect their phone and email and even address of where they live without their consent in certain states. Wow . Uh, there's, there's a company called, and you can look it up. You wanna look it up? retention.com. Mm-hmm . Uh , you basically put a code that would be on your website. And this can , and this is not just for like the restaurant space, put this an e-commerce website, whatever. And it'll literally populate an Excel sheet of someone's first name, last name, email, phone, and potentially home address. The only thing we
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Don't do that, by the
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: Way. Yeah, yeah. We don't either. , the only reason I also recommend just like not doing it, even if you can't get that information, is you get one, you got one bad egg of someone who complains. Well , that's why I
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Thought it was important for it's worth to have the opportunity to opt in , opt out , you know, recognize privacy . It's
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: Better, it's better to , to have privacy . An actual opt-in privacy setting . Yeah.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: 'cause there's certain mm-hmm . How often do I tell a popup on my, no, you don't send me notification. No. Don't know where my , like you're , you're a ruler app. Why do you need to know my location? For sure. Yeah .
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: But it's, it's interesting. 'cause like , I think it's, it's so funny. I have a good friend of mine, I'm from Orange County originally, and a good friend of mine, literally, maybe it was like we were in high school , um, years and years ago, he was doing QR codes before QR codes were even a thing. Right. And , um, I remember when he started doing this, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. But way back then too, you , you know, you needed a special app and people didn't really understand it Market .
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah . It wasn't , uh, embedded in your camera phone. Yeah. It
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: Was just, it , you know, no one understood it. And so the has been kind of failed. And then , uh, COVID came out and it became, oh my God, everyone's doing QR codes. But it got this negative stigma. I feel like now at this point, we're finally at the point where everyone gets it. The negative stigma is still somewhat here, but it's, it's kind of gone down a little bit.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: It's settling a little bit.
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: It's settling a little bit.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: It's not sexy though. Yeah.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: It's not
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: Cool. It doesn't look cool. Yeah. It looks a little like governmental, you know, like . Yeah . You know, but there's,
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: But there's a way, there's , I think there's a way to make it cool.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And that's why I embedded it Yeah . In , uh, the logo of a wine bottle. Yeah. And the wine bottle is next to a loaf of bread, and it's in a, that's definitely
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: Style.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah . Um , you know , it's there. But that , that was my way of, of making it. But now I think we've got a new way. Well
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: Think . Yeah. I think, I think this is nuts . This idea. You know, actually what got me, so just about QR codes is I was in Brazil and I was , I was with my fiance on a date, and I , again, Brazilians speak Portuguese. And anyone watching, they don't speak Spanish. A lot of Americans think they speak Spanish. Right. It's insane . Americans. Americans,
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Everybody just speaks Spanish. Right. It's ,
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: It's just like, what the hell, man ? So my
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: Wife's from Honduras.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah . So I am , we're we're sitting there and I , I , I scan the menu and to my surprise that the menu is in English, and I'm thinking to myself, what the hell? Like , right . You know, so I , I asked my fiance, is , is your menu in also in English? She's like, no , it's in Portuguese. What the heck?
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: Uh , it recognized,
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: Dude, it's crazy. So I asked the waiter like, what's going on? He goes, oh, it's kind of a cool menu. Right. Smart. It recognizes that the settings in your phone Right . Are in English. And it changed. Cool . Automatically. That's cool . That's super cool. Oh my God.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Wow .
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: So it was , it was in that moment, and
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: It's almost like a , uh, you're uncomfortable when you're in another country and you don't know their language and you're about to order food. You're just like that anxiety. Yeah . You know, moment , uh, you know, you're like, okay , for sure. Am I gonna get one? Am I gonna order something I like? Yes . 2:00 AM I gonna , you know, be able to communicate with them. And then it kind of breaks that wall down
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: A hundred percent.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: And I mean, it's almost a, a visual version of, now we have the AirPods that like translate. Yeah. It's like doing it for you.
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: So you wanna know my prediction also for all this, you know how like AR is becoming a thing, augmented reality. Yep . Um, wearing the glasses. Have you bought any of these? Have you tried these glasses before you
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: Seen them ? Uh , I've played with them a little bit. I had never purchased meta glasses . I created a whole concept , um, it about it. Um, but the, the hardware hadn't really caught up to the software. Yeah. And one, it was just , uh, kind of heavy and, and totally cumbersome. Um, but things are going in the right direction. So I have a pretty cool idea,
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: I think in the next three years. Legit. Yeah. We're all gonna wear these things and you're gonna go to a restaurant, you're gonna look at that thing on the table, the thing mm-hmm . And the menu just gonna pop up in your glasses. Yeah. That's what's happening.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Well , there's a lot of other things that can integrate into your experience more than just reading a menu .
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: Like even if, if you can control sound as well individually. Oh, wow . And you can filter out and filter in the room , uh, a little bit. But if you're into rock and roll and I'm into rap , we could be listening to different playlists.
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: Oh my God.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: I'll just stop there. But I
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: Know it's exactly though. Right. Um, that is so, so cool. Something I saw recently too that I think you might appreciate if you're looking to AI also for like online ordering. Have you ever used goPuff, the app? Yeah . Okay . I use goPuff all the time.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: I ordered Mountain Valley Spring Water off of
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: It. Oh, did me too. Yeah . They have all these like , great deals all the time too. Awesome. So, anyway , uh, have you noticed when you order and then they send you like that text of your confirmation of order? Yeah . And every time it's like a custom message based on your order .
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: Pretty efficient. And it feels personalized. It's
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: Always personalized. Yeah. I'll order Mountain Valley Water, and it's like, oh, you must be thirsty. Hope you get hydrated . I'm like, what the hell? Like, but , but thanks . This is, this is something that like you could totally do in your business for online orders. Yeah.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: And like, even if you're batting at like a 95% on that message, it's pretty good. Yeah. You know, like, it could be off a little bit and like Totally. Uh , the water's not for me, dude.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: And here's the thing, now we're on a podcast and we're talking about it because it was such, was such an interesting experience. Yeah. Free marketing for them. Right. So, you know, I, I just think that the , the restaurant space is, is one of those industries where owners are so set in their ways. You definitely don't seem like you're set in your way though. You seem like you're always kind of innovating and doing something new and different.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Trying to, I'm open to input, you know, you and, and many people that are in these adjacent industries mm-hmm . Um, looking in. This is this kind of renaissance, if you will. Um mm-hmm . Is new. So I think we're all open arms to it. And also like your world, digital world moves at a much faster pace. Yeah . Um , and it's nice to have people looking back into what we do because , um, we don't always have time to learn about these other spaces for sure. Um , and then you're right. You know, we're already putting in 12 hours plus. So it's like, you want me to learn another thing? Like, I know I still, I I'm still putting out the same fires from the last 20 years, but it's necessary. Well , a
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: Hundred percent. It's so interesting. Um, before we wrap up this episode, I wanted to hear about the , the popup in Wynwood and then what's coming? 'cause I know that's a super exciting topic. Tell me about that. How did it go? Yeah , what's next? So
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: I wanted to try out something different as a , a fusion of Italian and Japanese. Mm . Um, that the cuisine name from out of Japan, the , their term for it is called esi . Uh , which is a cool name. Uh , but we don't really have any reference to it. Um, at the same time, I'd kind of been cooking like this for a very long time. I'd love to cook in , eat Italian. I worked in Italy twice. Uh , I like American red sauce . Italian is from Sicily, so it's in my blood. Super cool. Um, but then, you know, the flavors and techniques coming from Japan specifically umami had really been a driving force in my creativity and , uh, food focus for better part of a decade or longer. Right. So I kind of thought about it. I'm like, well, I've been putting a little bit of red miso and white soy sauce in my tomato sauce for some time. Um, tomatoes have one of the highest levels of natural umami period. So if you think about the two cuisines, you can get noodles in umami and pasta and umami parmesans, like the highest umami laden ingredient. So like, there's these parallels. Well then you just start enhancing things with one layer or another. Uh , the carbonara we use , uh, a judo judo egg yolk folded into a Pecorino cream and then topped it off with black sesame. Oh my god. And , and truffle that . So good. It was pretty ridiculous and people really enjoyed it. And the noodle, we did a uon noodle. The Uon is basically Papa Deli . Right. But it's got a little more bounce to it. Oh. So we use a Han Yama , excuse me, Han Yama is a flat wide uon style noodle , um, that gave us that Papa Deli texture and look, oh my God, close your eyes. You're eating carbonara as you taste it coming out. You're getting all these other elements that, that bring the two cuisines together. Wow. So I rolled with it. Uh , so oi is the name of it. Uh, we had a popup run , um, here in Wynwood. It went great to the point where people in California, New York and Florida came to me and said, Brett , I think this is a scalable concept. Do you wanna work together? And the first one is under construction, probably be done by the beginning of the summer. And Fort Myers , um, wow.
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: Right. Man , it and , and it's, and it's recognizable, but new like you're
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: Saying it , it's , yeah. We , it's amazing. Did a , a chicken parm Kaso sando . So Kaso sando , everyone's like, you know, it's been hyped for a couple years now. Yeah. And no longer needs to be $150 a five wagu going in the sandwich. Yeah. And , uh, I mean, it's in seven 11 in Japan, right? Yeah . And it's a cutlet. So chicken report cutlet that's cold and breaded. Wow. That's the original one. So we're doing , um, we brine it in Doshi and Parmesan rind. Oh . We bread it, we fry it, we do our marinara mozzarella
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: Cheese . I need , I need, I need to try this. And
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: Then chili crisp on , on a Japanese mayonnaise emulsified with capers.
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, this is so awesome, man.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah . So it's fun, it's exciting. It's cool. And uh , also that , that price point there was made not to break your bank also.
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Wow. But as you're describing it, like the UDA noodle, it's like the Papa Deli . Like it just makes sense. Yeah .
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: It's , it's like kind of never thought of . Aha. Like wow.
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: That's so interesting. Yeah . I mean, it's so interesting. I think you , you can't help but just wanna go try it. Yeah. Like, just the idea of it that's like the , that'll be like the , see, when I look , when I look at brands that are like, good to market, right? Like , um, again, I always tell my team like, Hey, if , if , if we're just marketers, right? So it doesn't matter how good I am or good anyone, is anyone that you're hiring, I , if food's not good service isn't there, people aren't coming back. Marketing doesn't work. I always joke that marketing's a truth accelerator. When you got something really great, dude, all we're gonna do is accelerate the success you're already seeing . Gotta more people know about you, talk about you. Right. All that. But if it's not so great, it does just the opposite. You're gonna get more bad reviews. . Right. . But like this concept as you're describing it, I can already see like the ads for it or like what you'd post
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: About it. It's a fun, exciting concept. It's a
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: Super interesting concept.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: Like the Negroni , uh, with made with Sake mm-hmm . And Blood orange. And then we got this, you know, you know, you, a lot of times you wanna pour it on like a single rock, right? Yeah. You're negroni cold. Well , we got like this cute little , uh, panda bear ice , um,
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: Mold.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: Oh , that's epic . And it's like, you know, holding something in its hand and you're pouring the Negroni over it. .
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: That's so good.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: Uh , lamb brusco spritz with yuzu , and like ,
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: See , dude , you , you are a marketer. You're a natural marketer. This is , this is amazing. But this is the kind of stuff too where, like, I tell this a lot of podcasts is like food that tastes amazing, but also is, is so photo worthy. You know, you , you like, people are gonna take pictures of that and share that. I mean, come on. How do you not Little cute panda right there . You gotta , I know , right? You need to. Right . You have to. Um, uh, just a couple minutes before we wrap this up. How do you , how do you, how do you continue to get better? Do you , do you read any books, listen to any podcasts? What do you do on a regular basis to get better at the same time?
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: Uh, I think, think right now it's, listen to my team is a , an important part, right? Yeah . You know , uh, discussing about, you know, where are the gaps , uh, how , how they can be filled and, and kind of like opening that door where I think a lot of times when you're an operator, you're like, stuck. And it's like, it's gotta be my way. And , um, you know, just regimented. Uh, that's one way that I like open up. I talk to other operators pretty regularly. What's working, what isn't working nice. Um , you know, do you , do you have like
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: A group of operators you , you meet with or talk with regularly?
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: No, it's something that's been on my mind. I wish. There's of course, you know , um, people that are successful I have a lot of respect for. But , um, and in general, podcasts, you know , um, there's, you know, David Chang's podcast has been around for a long time, but he puts on some of the best operators in the country and they really get out there and tell you what's working for them and what's not. You know, it's pretty candid. Um , but that's one I listened to regularly. I ,
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: I thought about that for a while , is, is trying to get like a group of guys in MySpace that, I don't know are similar in the industry, but just have different approaches. Yeah . And I thought that was, you know, I , I don other
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: Industries do it. Yeah. Um, they, they find success in it. I hear from some of my, my property partners that , um, you know, are in different businesses and, and they basically feed off each other. Then they might be in completely different businesses, but yeah , they're able to bounce things off of each other. And it's something that our industry is a little behind on.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's funny, like , uh, , we , we sometimes just talk to our clients, Hey, if you had a great experience, you know, we'd , we'd love you to share your experience with other restaurant tours . You think you'd benefit from our service. And some, some owners, they say, Brett , if, if we have the success here that we're hoping we're gonna have with you guys, I'm not gonna tell anyone. I wanna keep you guys just for myself. I wanna be the only restaurant using you guys. Like , come on, man. Like ,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: please. . Right. So well is , there's a element to your business that is basically in the background. You don't, the customer doesn't necessarily
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: Know. So two , so two sides of the business , uh, the agency total in the background. So we're just operating off our clients' channels and platforms. Right. So you would never see us, our software is also customer facing . So you , you would see, right. Brands using dio , our software, like you scan the menu, there's a little logo at the bottom of dio , so it's recognizable, but it's subtle. Like, we don't want to , it's, it's about the brands, right. So we don't want to be in there, in front of everyone's face, but at the same time, like, we want some recognition. Yeah . obviously.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: Well just like a restaurant, A little word mouth . Right.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: Totally. Yeah. But it's, it's super interesting. And then, man , this has been super awesome. Anyone who's interested in maybe like, learning more about you or checking out some of your brands, what's the best way for them to find you online?
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, Instagram, I , I didn't jump into TikTok yet, and I, you know, we talked a little offline. You should totally do TikTok too . I'm gonna push , I'm gonna push more in , uh, the reels world and , um, you know, possibly TikTok . Yes . It's just, it works so well. Also, it's fun. It's, it's something that , uh, I think people that are just like core operators, it's very different to step back and take a second. Let's shoot a video, you know? Yes. Um , and then go sit down and edit it. Like, there's all these things that are unnatural, but , um, Instagram's the best way to find me and there'll be more, more content.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: Hell yeah. I can't wait, man. I'm excited to see it too. Thank you. Well , appreciate for your time, man . I'm , I'm super excited. Hundred percent . Glad to hear that you were here also full time . We got chat more for coffee another time soon. And , um, I'm gonna check out some of your concepts. Thank you, man. Appreciate it, man. Talk .
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: Appreciate it .