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How Haley Nutter-Sitek Built Seven Restaurants Through the 2-2-2-2 Rule · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
• 0:08
  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:11
  their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
• 0:14
  adversity. Let one idea from today shape
• 0:18
  what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotosbodi and
• 0:21
  today's guest is Hayley Nutter Siddik, owner and director of
• 0:24
  Hospitality at Crown Restaurant Group in Cincinnati, OH.
• 0:29
  They are a family owned and operated collection of
• 0:32
  restaurants founded in 2018, known for their welcoming
• 0:36
  atmosphere and made from scratch approach to new American dishes.
• 0:40
  Their mission is to bring a warm, family style hospitality
• 0:43
  experience to diners while offering a diverse range of
• 0:47
  culinary options through several unique restaurant concepts
• 0:50
  around the city. Under Haley's leadership, Crown
• 0:54
  Restaurant Group has grown from a single gastro pub into
• 0:57
  multiple locations. She focuses on creating
• 1:01
  memorable guest experiences, training front of house teams,
• 1:04
  and ensuring each concept maintains its own identity while
• 1:09
  upholding the same high standards.
• 1:11
  Before joining Crown Restaurant Group, Haley gained valuable
• 1:14
  experience in both recruiting and hospitality, which helped
• 1:17
  shape the people focused culture that she encourages today.
• 1:21
  Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
• 1:24
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• 2:11
  All right, back to our guest today, Owner and director of
• 2:14
  hospitality of Crown Restaurant Group.
• 2:16
  Haley, thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
• 2:19
  Yeah, absolutely excited to be here.
• 2:22
  So where did you first get a taste of the restaurant
• 2:24
  industry? Oh, boy.
• 2:26
  I would say, I mean, I always think everyone starts in high
• 2:30
  school at some point, whether it's, you know, hosting, busing.
• 2:34
  And for me, that was it. I started as a host, such as a
• 2:37
  local family place up the street from my house, and that was
• 2:42
  really where I got the feel for the buzz of a restaurant.
• 2:45
  I mean, it wasn't anything fancy by any means, but it was a
• 2:47
  community. I think that drew me into that
• 2:50
  specific job and was like, oh, I could probably do this, which in
• 2:53
  turn is what made me want to do culinary for my degree in
• 2:57
  college. But I would say the actual like
• 3:00
  fine dining and love of food came during my college years
• 3:04
  more when I was working through college.
• 3:06
  So, but I would think the community part, which really is
• 3:09
  like, oh, I could do this was high school.
• 3:11
  So yeah. But you didn't stay in
• 3:14
  restaurants. You left for a while and then
• 3:16
  came back. Oh, yeah, no, I never intended
• 3:20
  to do restaurants. I was a performer when I was
• 3:22
  younger. I also played tennis.
• 3:24
  I thought I was going to be either a Broadway star or
• 3:28
  country star. You know those aspirations.
• 3:30
  I was just go to Alabama and wanted to do sports medicine and
• 3:33
  wanted to play on the tennis team where I was going to marry
• 3:35
  a cowboy. All those things.
• 3:36
  Those are my little teenage girl dreams.
• 3:39
  So I definitely did not stay in restaurants.
• 3:43
  I think when I got into the serving side and, you know, you
• 3:45
  can see the money and that stuff, that kind of drew me back
• 3:48
  in. But yeah, no, I took a break
• 3:52
  even in my adult years once we started the family, as my
• 3:55
  husband's career started to, you know, expand a little bit, I
• 3:58
  took a back seat so I could watch our son when we lived in
• 4:01
  Miami to kind of let him do that.
• 4:04
  And in Miami, the restaurant hours are totally different than
• 4:06
  they are pretty much anywhere else.
• 4:08
  So I needed more of that nine to five job and I sat behind the
• 4:11
  desk for a little bit and no offense to anyone who does that,
• 4:14
  just not my thing. I need to be up and at them or
• 4:17
  for whatever reason my back enjoy standing for longer longer
• 4:20
  periods of time than it does sitting so.
• 4:23
  So what eventually drew you back into the restaurant space and
• 4:26
  inspired you guys to start your own restaurant?
• 4:29
  I think, I think the idea was always to be back in the
• 4:33
  restaurants. You know, part of being in a
• 4:35
  relationship is also like, if it's very give and take, that
• 4:37
  there's sacrifices here and there.
• 4:39
  And my husband and I were set from the gecko.
• 4:43
  We got married. We got married young and we
• 4:46
  looked at each other. And, you know, I think probably
• 4:49
  one of the biggest conversations we had before we got married was
• 4:52
  OK, if someone's career started taking off before the others,
• 4:56
  like who was going to one of us would be the one that
• 4:59
  compromised a little bit on that.
• 5:00
  And he got a great opportunity right out of college, which took
• 5:04
  us to Chicago and then Chicago to Miami.
• 5:06
  And it was we had help in Chicago.
• 5:08
  I was actually the only one in my family not born in Illinois
• 5:12
  outside of Chicago. So we already had the child care
• 5:15
  aspect handled there as well. So when we went to Miami and
• 5:19
  didn't have that, it was like, OK, it was my time to kind of
• 5:22
  step back and let him do what he needs to do to kind of learn and
• 5:25
  evolve in one of the biggest food cities, I think in our
• 5:28
  country. So.
• 5:30
  But it was also in that time watching him kind of give so
• 5:34
  much of himself to a company that yes, they did value him,
• 5:41
  that that wasn't the case. I think it was just, it really
• 5:44
  pulled on the family aspect that we wanted to have.
• 5:47
  Like we weren't able, like he wasn't there Christmas morning
• 5:50
  and I would go, you know, 16 hours without seeing him because
• 5:53
  he'd have to be at work super late and then super early
• 5:57
  because everything fell on him. He was in a leadership position
• 5:59
  there. And really looking at ourselves
• 6:01
  in the mirror and what we wanted our future to be.
• 6:03
  Is this the type of life we want to live with our family?
• 6:06
  You always working for somebody else?
• 6:07
  Or is this something that we can, you know, try to tackle and
• 6:10
  build ourselves? And that's kind of when we
• 6:12
  started building our first concept, Crown Republic, when we
• 6:16
  were still in Miami, knowing we would come back to Cincinnati
• 6:19
  and kind of set down roots there.
• 6:22
  So I want to explore a little bit of that time that you were
• 6:24
  in Miami, you moved to Chicago, but you got a lot of family
• 6:27
  there. So that, that's great, wonderful
• 6:29
  support system. Now you moved to Miami.
• 6:31
  Did you know anybody there? No, not at all.
• 6:35
  That was, we actually started N we started in the Boca area
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  because that was where the first restaurant was opening in the
• 6:42
  Delray Beach area and then they ended up expanding.
• 6:45
  He got the opportunity to take over both restaurants within a
• 6:49
  year of opening their first. That speaks to my husband's
• 6:53
  talent and I could go on and on about that.
• 6:55
  But yeah, no, that was literally we also had a son at that time,
• 6:59
  which I mean, that could be a story for a later day.
• 7:02
  We had our son in college. So that was another reason why
• 7:04
  we kind of decided right from the get go that we were going to
• 7:09
  have to really grind hard while we were young is either, you
• 7:12
  know, we kind of take slow pass to get to where we need to go,
• 7:14
  or it's like we grind now. And that was kind of why that
• 7:16
  one decision came up to whoever got the opportunity was going to
• 7:22
  the other person would take a step back so we could care for
• 7:24
  our son Aiden. But yeah, I, when I step back,
• 7:26
  it was literally me and my son Aiden, best friends, just, I
• 7:30
  think he was, he was 3 when we moved there, so it was just me
• 7:34
  and him. And I was like, gosh, what do I,
• 7:35
  what do I do? Like beach every day.
• 7:38
  I mean, we're both. So I'm a redhead with fair skin
• 7:41
  also. This isn't realistic for us.
• 7:43
  And yeah, so I think I, I did about six months maybe with just
• 7:48
  me and him while Anthony was like grinding and getting his
• 7:50
  footing. And there's a couple, we are
• 7:53
  fortunate that a couple people from Chicago that Anthony worked
• 7:56
  with came down. So we had a little tiny
• 7:57
  community, like maybe of six people that kind of helped.
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  And obviously people would love to visit us from Cincinnati and
• 8:06
  New Jersey. They've come down to visit.
• 8:08
  But yeah, that that's hard. It's it's crazy when you have so
• 8:11
  much community for, you know, especially when you have a kid,
• 8:14
  right? So when you have a child and you
• 8:16
  have that community and then that's taken away, you don't
• 8:19
  realize how fortunate you are in the in those moments until it's
• 8:22
  gone. So that was definitely
• 8:24
  adjustment. But yeah, now we're.
• 8:27
  'Cause you, you, you're craving that like human adult contact.
• 8:32
  You're with your child all day and that's great, that's
• 8:34
  terrific. But at some point, you want to
• 8:37
  talk more than just goo goo Gaga, right?
• 8:40
  Oh my gosh, I, I even say that now, like when I'm with my kids,
• 8:43
  because you know, they're now where they're all in school,
• 8:46
  which is great. But like before when you're home
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  and then you go to work, that transition of getting out of,
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  you know, the kid talk to adult talk.
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  I have to have at least an hour of like like euphemisms or like
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  1 liners that come from like Bluey or come from Disney
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  Channel to like get into adult mode because I'm like, I'm so
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  sorry. I've just been with my kids all
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  day. My staff likes to make fun of me
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  for it all the time because I literally have this awkward
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  interaction with people until I'm like, OK, I could do this.
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  I'm like I have been around other.
• 9:14
  No early morning meetings for Haley.
• 9:16
  We've got to give her adjustment time there.
• 9:18
  No, no, OK. So you start cooking up this
• 9:20
  idea while you're in Miami, and then how do you guys finally
• 9:24
  pull the trigger? Like, where do you get the money
• 9:26
  from? How does that move actually take
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  place? Well, so my family is born and
• 9:32
  raised or like when they moved to Cincinnati when they had me
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  back in the 90s, like we they sat down route.
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  So like I'm born and raised Cincinnati and my husband's from
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  New Jersey and his dad always wanted to support him as soon as
• 9:47
  he committed to culinary school. His dad's like whatever, like it
• 9:50
  one day if you have a restaurant, I want to be part of
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  it. So we actually the idea of our
• 9:56
  restaurant came from a drunken night in college with all of our
• 9:59
  culinary friends. I actually wasn't even part of
• 10:01
  the drunken night. It was a a guy's night out.
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  They ended up creating this gastropub idea.
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  And you know, as we my husband actually the reason we kind of
• 10:13
  had this like, OK, it's time moment.
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  He was working so much. He ended up falling asleep
• 10:18
  behind the wheel driving home from work one day.
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  Not like just, I think he had maybe like a 1516 hour shift and
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  just was in traffic at a red light and just like fell asleep
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  and I had just found out I was pregnant with our second son.
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  I'm like, this is not it. Like we cannot, it's not worth
• 10:35
  your well-being and your health. And it's not, it's not fair to
• 10:38
  our kids. It's not selfishly, it's not
• 10:40
  fair to me. But that was kind of our wake up
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  call to be like, OK, this is when we have to kind of start
• 10:45
  figuring out what our next move is.
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  And our buddies from culinary school were like, again, anytime
• 10:51
  they come to visit, like we talked about this restaurant.
• 10:53
  And so it started with this idea from this junk night.
• 10:57
  Hey, this is a Scatio pub. It was, if I may have like a
• 11:02
  little play on words, they were catering an event for Providence
• 11:06
  College. So Johnson and Wales is
• 11:08
  Providence is a very small little city and all these
• 11:10
  colleges in Rhode Island are very close proximity.
• 11:12
  So they were at a bar. Providence College kids were
• 11:15
  there. They had to do some sort of mock
• 11:17
  wedding event for a class that they were taking.
• 11:20
  Ran into my friends and we're like, oh, you're Johnson Wales,
• 11:24
  can you cater our wedding? Yeah, why not, You know, like
• 11:27
  exchange numbers and then literally the next week,
• 11:28
  Johnson? Wales is a culinary A renowned
• 11:31
  culinary school for folks. Yep.
• 11:32
  Yeah, yeah, sorry. Yeah.
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  So Johnson, Wales, they have a couple, they had a couple
• 11:36
  locations back in our days. I think now they just have two,
• 11:38
  but their main one was in Providence, RI.
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  So yeah, so it started there and they had to cater this fake
• 11:45
  wedding and they were making the menu for it.
• 11:48
  And they typed out or attempted to type out Fine Cook Catering,
• 11:52
  but did find Cock Catering instead, put a rooster on it as
• 11:56
  the logo and just ran with it. And at that point, it was kind
• 11:59
  of a joke because it was just like a, you know, a silly little
• 12:02
  college thing, you know, province College.
• 12:05
  But now that's why if you look at our Crown Republic gastropub
• 12:09
  logo, there's a rooster on it because we're just trying to pay
• 12:12
  homage to like, really the roots of what kind of started this
• 12:15
  idea. So but yeah, that's kind of when
• 12:18
  we and with Anthony, he worked in Chicago, He worked under
• 12:22
  Dynamic group. And at the time, they only had a
• 12:24
  couple Russians. Now they're really big.
• 12:27
  But he worked at a gastropub and loved the idea of like, you
• 12:30
  know, the fusion of this rustic American, like all these
• 12:33
  different cuisines that kind of come to, you know, America's
• 12:36
  like a melting pot. So why not have a restaurant
• 12:38
  that literally has all these different flavors combined and
• 12:42
  just to a really great food that's just so much more than,
• 12:44
  you know, like burgers and wings, you know, So our ideas
• 12:49
  were really big. We really, when we moved after
• 12:51
  you work in a city like Chicago and Miami, coming to a place
• 12:54
  like Cincinnati really had to kind of hone in on, you know
• 12:59
  what, what the clientele here would like.
• 13:01
  So I think we were a little bit too bold when we first started,
• 13:04
  but you know, part of being the menu was too big.
• 13:07
  Restaurant owners. Well, I want to say big.
• 13:10
  I would say flavor ideas like we had a chicken, a chicken liver
• 13:16
  cream spinach, which was so good.
• 13:19
  It was like a great like he served it.
• 13:20
  We served it with pickled onions and like a mustard Masada.
• 13:24
  We had lamb ribs on there when we first started.
• 13:27
  So think 2018 and Cincinnati, I don't know.
• 13:30
  And this is nothing against Cincinnati by any means.
• 13:33
  Love Cincinnati and I'm pretty sure everyone knows this.
• 13:35
  So I feel like I can say this, but there's a saying that if the
• 13:38
  world were to end, Cincinnati would end 10 years later.
• 13:40
  Have you ever heard that? You're a little behind the curve
• 13:42
  on the trends. Is that the idea?
• 13:45
  Yeah, so like we, we're so excited about all this stuff and
• 13:48
  some people loved it and some people, oh, this is great.
• 13:50
  And then other people like, what is this?
• 13:51
  So, you know, really just being adaptable to really knowing the
• 13:54
  city. And I mean, it didn't take us
• 13:56
  long to figure out we're just like, OK, we got to, we got to
• 13:59
  hone in on our ideas a little bit.
• 14:00
  It wasn't like we had a large menu at all because we we still
• 14:03
  started doing all of our own breads from scratch, all of our
• 14:05
  own pastas. But yeah, it was really just
• 14:08
  like, OK, what, what do these people want to see?
• 14:11
  You know, when you go from again, like Miami and Chicago,
• 14:13
  who literally like everyone's like trying everything, but
• 14:17
  they're now serving like, I think the big, big is fried
• 14:19
  chicken caviar, you know, like, you know, anyone who just wants
• 14:21
  to try anything like in Cincinnati, They are they're
• 14:24
  creatures of habit and they like good.
• 14:26
  They want a. Burger, they want their crispy
• 14:28
  chicken or you know, yeah, they want the the traditional comfort
• 14:31
  food. Sure, yes.
• 14:32
  And we do have an A phenomenal burger and we have so many
• 14:35
  things. And I think also we had to kind
• 14:37
  of get the city's trust, right. They didn't know who we were.
• 14:40
  I mean, it didn't matter that I was born and raised or I'd never
• 14:42
  done anything in, you know, the restaurant ground when I had
• 14:45
  been here and I hadn't been back since I left high school.
• 14:48
  So really just allowing people to come into our space, getting,
• 14:52
  letting them get to know us was a huge part of, I think, what
• 14:55
  made it successful. I, I told my staff from the
• 14:58
  gecko when we were hiring. I want you to know I'm not great
• 15:02
  with names, phenomenal with faces.
• 15:03
  Anyone will tell you this, but like it takes me a while to get
• 15:06
  to know names, but I could tell you your whole life story before
• 15:08
  I could probably tell you your name.
• 15:10
  I don't know why that's my little, my little issue that I
• 15:13
  have, but I told myself, know their faces, know their names.
• 15:16
  We're right under a apartment building or condo building.
• 15:20
  So I was like, these people are going to be coming in all the
• 15:22
  time, Like know who they are, like create your regulars.
• 15:26
  And it's not, it's by no means a dive bar or like just it just
• 15:29
  became like that. Our, our whole company motto is
• 15:32
  extending a seat at our family table because that's what we
• 15:34
  wanted to feel like. When you walk in, someone should
• 15:36
  greet you by name and then sit down.
• 15:40
  Tell us about your day, you know, like we'll give you your
• 15:43
  space and respect your time with whatever you're doing.
• 15:45
  But really we want you to have this great dining experience
• 15:48
  that makes you feel like you're back at being at a family table.
• 15:50
  Bring the joy and the love of the conversation around eating
• 15:52
  again. I even told them if they're out
• 15:54
  on their phones and you're watering them, refilling the
• 15:56
  waters, try try to get them out of that.
• 15:58
  Like what brings us downtown tonight?
• 16:00
  Are we seeing a show? Like I nothing bothers me more
• 16:03
  than when I'm out and I see people now.
• 16:07
  OK, side note, I have kids, right?
• 16:10
  I will let my kids while we're figuring out what to eat,
• 16:13
  Anthony and I will like, do your tech time, do whatever you need
• 16:15
  to do so we can get this food in.
• 16:17
  But as soon as the food hits the table, everything goes away.
• 16:19
  We're talking about things. So like I always say, like bring
• 16:22
  the conversation around it, talk about the food.
• 16:24
  Like we literally do everything from scratch.
• 16:26
  If they're if they seem like they're enjoying something, tell
• 16:28
  them why we have that. All of our food kind of has a
• 16:31
  story behind it anyway. So that was really.
• 16:33
  Really coached people to get a little bit more involved with
• 16:37
  the clientele because you want them to be regulars.
• 16:40
  You want them to feel comfortable there.
• 16:42
  You know, kind of like Norm from Cheers.
• 16:44
  They walk in, everybody knows your name kind of a thing.
• 16:46
  So how far were you into the life cycle of that first
• 16:49
  restaurant before? You're like OK, things are
• 16:51
  finally clicking. Oh gosh, it took a minute.
• 16:58
  It took a minute and. This is a year or two.
• 17:02
  Full transparency, it was really, really hard.
• 17:05
  I don't think people talk about everyone's like, oh, you know,
• 17:08
  you're a business owner. This is so exciting.
• 17:09
  I literally felt like a fraud for the first couple months
• 17:12
  because it was. It's hard because when we were
• 17:16
  building the restaurant, right, it's not something that just
• 17:19
  happens overnight. This is like a long winded
• 17:21
  thing. I was the stay at home mom.
• 17:23
  I had two sons at this point who I was with all the time.
• 17:27
  While Anthony was still trying to you know why we're still
• 17:30
  trying to get finances while we were building a restaurant,
• 17:32
  while he was still working, like all these things that we were
• 17:34
  juggling. Then we get into it and the city
• 17:37
  wasn't. They weren't responding like
• 17:39
  they should. Anthony was getting calls from
• 17:41
  Miami like come back down. We miss you.
• 17:44
  Like where So we're working where people like they don't
• 17:48
  understand the food. But then he's getting calls over
• 17:50
  here, like come back, you need to come here.
• 17:52
  People like Miami misses you. And it was hard.
• 17:54
  So like, personally, we had that struggle of like he was valued
• 17:58
  in this city, this amazing city. And like, people aren't
• 18:01
  understanding what we're doing now.
• 18:02
  It's not that they didn't value it.
• 18:03
  I just don't think they understood it at the time.
• 18:06
  And then I had like people like, oh, you must be so proud.
• 18:09
  Meanwhile, my kids are pissed off at me all the time.
• 18:11
  They're either crying or mad because they don't.
• 18:13
  I went from being with them, they're constant every day to
• 18:15
  not even being existent. So it's like they only wanted
• 18:18
  me, but they also hated me at the same time.
• 18:20
  And because it was like, where are you?
• 18:22
  Like, why haven't you been here? But come back.
• 18:24
  And it was, oh gosh, it was. I'll never forget it.
• 18:27
  I think it was Father's Day that year and everyone was coming in
• 18:31
  like, you must be so proud of yourself.
• 18:32
  This is so exciting because they watch us build this dream,
• 18:35
  right? And now we're living it.
• 18:37
  And I literally like had my son at the time.
• 18:40
  He was three or going to be 3 that year.
• 18:43
  He was just like, like, I think he was like playing with me or
• 18:47
  just having a tantrum, who knows?
• 18:48
  It was, you know, almost three years old and I literally was
• 18:52
  just like, I think I sat him down and I went into the other
• 18:54
  room and I just started bawling. I was like, I, I, what am I
• 18:57
  doing? You know, like, Oh my gosh, I, I
• 18:59
  should, I should feel so excited about this, but I can't.
• 19:01
  I feel like a failure and something I felt like I was so
• 19:04
  good at, which was mothering. And now I'm like, you know, I
• 19:06
  know I'm good at, you know, my job and stuff, but like, what is
• 19:10
  how it was just oh gosh, so like that was the start of it.
• 19:14
  And then again, trying to figure out what came from the
• 19:19
  adaptability of what dishes we could serve.
• 19:22
  Gosh, we were about six months in and we were like, I don't
• 19:25
  think this is going to work. Like we could not.
• 19:27
  I mean, I, I mean, hard nights, emotional nights, just like this
• 19:34
  What what anywhere else would this work?
• 19:36
  Would this have worked if we stayed in Chicago?
• 19:37
  Would this have worked if we stayed in Miami?
• 19:39
  Like anything like and then completely.
• 19:42
  Doubting yourselves? Oh my gosh, yes.
• 19:44
  And I you're. Feeling terrible about being a
• 19:46
  parent. You're feeling terrible about
• 19:47
  being restaurateurs and business owners.
• 19:49
  You guys have got this emotional tug of war going on in multiple
• 19:53
  directions. And it was such a small team.
• 19:55
  It was literally Anthony myself after I had that meant that
• 19:59
  little breakdown at Father's Day.
• 20:01
  My eldest sister, I'm the youngest of five girls.
• 20:03
  So she came in and she was in a transition in her life and she
• 20:07
  just saw me and she's like, I'm going to come help you.
• 20:10
  I have, I have some free time. I'm going to come help you.
• 20:12
  And she came in as a host just to because again, I was, I
• 20:15
  wasn't only the manager, I was also running the door.
• 20:17
  I was also, you know, training employees.
• 20:19
  It was everything I loved doing, but it was a lot for one person.
• 20:23
  And then to go home and give everything I had also to my
• 20:26
  kids. It was just, oh gosh, like I
• 20:28
  said, draining. So she came in and loved it.
• 20:31
  And she was a teacher for years, I think she over 15 years.
• 20:36
  And so she already had that knack for just building into
• 20:39
  people and teaching and coaching.
• 20:41
  And so she's now with us. She's been with us and she's our
• 20:43
  director of operations. And I don't know what I would do
• 20:45
  without her, but it was that little glimmer of hope, at least
• 20:48
  for me, that really helped kind of get me.
• 20:53
  AI would not have made it through it without her for sure.
• 20:55
  And the support of the family. But it was, we literally had
• 20:59
  this conversation, Anthony and I, where we were like, I don't,
• 21:02
  I don't what like finances were depleting.
• 21:06
  Like we knew we had a, you know, provide for a family.
• 21:09
  We knew we want to do this, but maybe it wasn't our time.
• 21:11
  Like all the questions, like what if we didn't what it, you
• 21:14
  know, all those doubtful things. And we had a, a reviewer come in
• 21:19
  from Cincinnati magazine and Cincinnati magazine's definitely
• 21:22
  the biggest probably publication within Cincinnati when it comes
• 21:25
  to restaurants and reviews. And he's he's no longer with him
• 21:30
  now. I think he moved on after COVID,
• 21:31
  but he came in and we didn't know.
• 21:35
  We knew they could come in, right?
• 21:36
  Like, but again, we didn't know anywhere.
• 21:38
  We're new to the city. We didn't know what they looked
• 21:40
  like. I mean, we could Google, but
• 21:41
  they don't tell you when they're coming in.
• 21:42
  They do it under a different name.
• 21:44
  So how they did is they come in twice.
• 21:46
  They come in with a group and they just kind of observe and
• 21:48
  like whatever. And then they come in singularly
• 21:51
  where they ask more questions and it's more of like a date
• 21:53
  night situation. So he came in and we didn't
• 21:59
  realize it the first time, like my host who we do, we did have
• 22:02
  photos at the front and my host was like this might be him, but
• 22:05
  I'm not sure. And I'm like, Oh, I had already
• 22:07
  left for the night at that point.
• 22:08
  Brenda and I had switched because we would do I wasn't
• 22:10
  working double S anymore. I had I had a yin to my Yang.
• 22:13
  I would do AM and PM and then we would switch and I was like, Oh
• 22:16
  my gosh, like, you know, you don't really do anything
• 22:18
  special. It's just more so like we
• 22:20
  weren't changing what we're doing.
• 22:21
  We just would like to make sure that we knew if someone
• 22:23
  important was coming in. He came in then and then he
• 22:27
  ended up coming in another time and then the article came out.
• 22:30
  I want to say it was April maybe of 2019.
• 22:33
  So definitely farther. Like again, we're in the next
• 22:36
  year. We've been struggling.
• 22:37
  We've gone through all that and it it that's what changed
• 22:42
  everything for us because no one had really known like they knew
• 22:46
  we were there. We had our regulars, we had our
• 22:48
  built insurance. But again for Cincinnati, for
• 22:51
  people that they just go to where they're going and we were
• 22:53
  kind of off the beaten path. So Cincinnati you had, when we
• 22:56
  wanted to open our restaurant, we wanted to be on Vine Street,
• 22:58
  which is kind of like our restaurant row, if you will.
• 23:02
  Is it, is it High Street in Columbus?
• 23:04
  That one, you know, kind of think of like that kind of it's
• 23:07
  like 1 St. of really good restaurants where like that's
• 23:09
  where we want to go. But the city didn't want another
• 23:12
  restaurant there. They wanted to pull we're in the
• 23:15
  in the business district where we're right down the street for
• 23:18
  PMGPMG. We're right down the like a
• 23:20
  block away from our fair enough. They need more restaurants over
• 23:22
  there for the business crowd and for the residents.
• 23:25
  So that's where we're located or that's where they wanted to put
• 23:28
  us. And again, such a blessing, you
• 23:30
  know that they did looking back and then I could touch on that
• 23:33
  later. But so that happened and.
• 23:36
  Talk about this review. Like what?
• 23:38
  What changed when it came out? So he said something and he
• 23:42
  talked about our food and he talked about, but what he
• 23:46
  normally doesn't do is talk about our service.
• 23:48
  And I, I think it's the quote was, and I'll probably misquote
• 23:52
  it because I don't have it memorized by any means, but he
• 23:53
  said everyone within the restaurant is unusually turned
• 23:57
  on. Like from the moment you walk in
• 23:59
  the building to the people that are bussing your table to, you
• 24:02
  know, as you walk to the bathroom, like everyone is just
• 24:05
  engaged. And that is how we and like he
• 24:07
  said that comment. And that for me was like, Oh my
• 24:12
  gosh, I do know what I'm doing. That was like, you know, you
• 24:14
  know, you know what you're doing.
• 24:15
  It was. The validation that you it was
• 24:17
  the. Validation.
• 24:18
  And I think that's what set us apart because anyone can have
• 24:22
  good food, like anyone could create a great dish.
• 24:24
  And even if it's not great food is very easy to fix.
• 24:27
  Like you, we, we know, overcooked your steak.
• 24:31
  Let me get you another one. Not a problem at all.
• 24:32
  It'll be up and shortly. But what you can't fix is good
• 24:36
  service. I really feel like service is
• 24:38
  what sets the tone and what keeps people coming back.
• 24:41
  And that's why I trained myself to get to know people when they
• 24:43
  walk in the building because I want people to be like, Oh my
• 24:46
  gosh, I want to go see them. I had such a good experience
• 24:48
  because that person made it personal to me, whoever that is.
• 24:51
  And it doesn't matter which one of our restaurants you go into
• 24:53
  now, like you will get the same feeling of our service at any of
• 24:56
  our, even though they're all different.
• 24:57
  You know, it might be more fine-tuned at our steakhouse
• 24:59
  than it is at our gastro pub, but that feeling that you got
• 25:02
  during that service should be the same universally throughout
• 25:04
  all of our concepts. So that for us came and that
• 25:08
  changed everything. So that came out.
• 25:10
  We had someone from a pretty big restaurant company come in the
• 25:15
  next day and literally said that he read that part.
• 25:18
  And this is, I don't a big corporation.
• 25:22
  I should say it's a very big restaurant group that is now in
• 25:25
  multiple cities that has a huge reputation.
• 25:27
  They came in and said, I read this to my staff because this is
• 25:30
  what it's about that one sentence and I was.
• 25:33
  So that was super validating as well.
• 25:35
  And then again within the next couple months, then we were
• 25:37
  approached to do another location and I was like, do you
• 25:41
  not remember just like a few months ago?
• 25:43
  So three CDC who is a not, not-for-profit here in
• 25:47
  Cincinnati, they basically take buildings like, and, you know,
• 25:52
  try to bring business back into Cincinnati.
• 25:54
  And they kind of are the landlords of Cincinnati amongst
• 25:57
  other people, But we have a great relationship with them.
• 26:01
  But they're like, Hey, we want you to sorry, go ahead.
• 26:03
  Yeah. So I want to understand what
• 26:05
  happened to the business itself. So I understand that this
• 26:07
  feedback was incredibly validating at a time that you're
• 26:10
  doubting yourselves and you're feeling this tug of war in
• 26:12
  multiple directions. But what happened to the sales?
• 26:16
  What happened to? Sales just, I mean, again,
• 26:19
  people, because if you, if you're a creature of habit,
• 26:22
  you're going to where you always know.
• 26:23
  So that just put us on the map. So people are like, oh, we're
• 26:26
  going to see a show at Aronoff. We literally share a parking lot
• 26:29
  with them before shows. We had people like we would have
• 26:32
  show turns. It was just like nonstop.
• 26:33
  We went from like never getting reservations like or people
• 26:38
  again. We had people come in, but just
• 26:39
  not what we envisioned it to come to literally just being
• 26:42
  like booked out doing 3-4 table turns.
• 26:45
  You know, we're open for lunch as well as dinner.
• 26:48
  So we had the business crowd where we'd have Oh, they're
• 26:51
  like, oh, we walked by you all the time.
• 26:53
  We just never thought, we just thought you were fried chicken
• 26:55
  joint because you had a rooster. No, we're not.
• 26:57
  So it's like people just started to like look more into us and
• 27:00
  like took a chance on us finally, like, Oh, we, we saw
• 27:03
  this and so excited you're here. And then another restaurant, you
• 27:06
  know, it made people start wanting to come to this area.
• 27:10
  Another restaurant end up taking up the other location on the
• 27:13
  other side of the building from us.
• 27:14
  So like, again, it really just put us on the map and like,
• 27:18
  again, that, like you said, validated everything we already
• 27:21
  knew to be true. But it's really hard to kind of
• 27:23
  feel that way, you know, when you don't see, you know, kind of
• 27:27
  the fruits of your labor, if you will.
• 27:28
  So yeah, so totally took over. And then within a couple months,
• 27:33
  then we were asked to do another location.
• 27:34
  Like, we love what you're doing here.
• 27:35
  Why don't you try on this side of the town, which it was
• 27:38
  literally is 2 blocks from Vine Street, which is where, I mean,
• 27:41
  everything is very close. But like when I say it's by
• 27:44
  Washington, our second location was beautiful space.
• 27:49
  I mean, we turned it down originally when they asked.
• 27:51
  This was like, we were just like a couple months ago.
• 27:53
  Like, why don't we do it? Like, how is this going to work?
• 27:55
  You know, how do we move on from this to another one?
• 27:58
  Are you crazy? Like, again, not because we
• 28:00
  didn't want to, but it's like we haven't even been open a year
• 28:03
  yet. Like let's get our let's let's
• 28:04
  ride this wave that we're now like seeing where people are
• 28:07
  coming in and enjoying it and coming back before we do another
• 28:10
  one. But we ended up doing the other
• 28:12
  one. But So what was the second
• 28:13
  concept? So the second concept is what
• 28:15
  we're getting ready to open in Columbus as well, it's La Santi.
• 28:19
  So La Santi is a boutique Italian steakhouse.
• 28:22
  And where we opened it is right next to Music Hall.
• 28:26
  It's right next to a park, Washington Park, which is a huge
• 28:28
  park in Cincinnati that does a lot of stuff like that brings
• 28:32
  people in from every like, you know, it's right down the street
• 28:34
  from the FC stadium. It's great location, great
• 28:37
  patio. And so one thing that we do is
• 28:41
  outside of two locations were second generation, it's like
• 28:45
  second generation restaurant space, so or company.
• 28:48
  So we'll take spaces that have already been restaurants and
• 28:50
  then we will just reconcept them into like what we would do with
• 28:53
  them. So this space was already an
• 28:55
  existing restaurant. Really we just had to put a lot
• 28:59
  of interior work into it to kind of make it into this steakhouse.
• 29:02
  It's in a historic building, so we couldn't change the layout.
• 29:05
  A very intimate, very small, but in this area of the city, there
• 29:09
  was no steakhouses. So we're like we could do what
• 29:13
  it my husband really good out because he's Italian, which is
• 29:15
  pastas, you know, highlight that, but then do steaks and do
• 29:18
  it differently than other steakhouses.
• 29:20
  So we specialize in steaks by the outs.
• 29:22
  So we have our own in house butchery program.
• 29:25
  So at Los Santi specifically, we will cut in the morning.
• 29:28
  We do fillets, we do strips and we do rib eyes and however the
• 29:32
  butcher cuts them is how we'll sell them at night.
• 29:33
  So like fillets can be 7 and 8 oz strips can be, you know,
• 29:37
  11/12/13 rib eyes will be 14/15/16, you know, like and
• 29:40
  then you just pick what size you want based off of how you want
• 29:42
  it. Then you know, we'll bring in
• 29:44
  like special steaks for, you know, holidays and stuff like
• 29:47
  that. But that's literally what it is.
• 29:49
  So you don't have to commit to going in and getting a 32 ounce
• 29:51
  rib eye, you know, or anything like that.
• 29:53
  You can and we're a zero waste kitchen.
• 29:55
  So all of our beat balls are all the trimmings and all of our
• 29:58
  ground beef for our burgers comes from the trimmings of our
• 30:02
  steak. So I mean it was just like a no
• 30:04
  brainer in order to kind of utilize product at both of our
• 30:08
  locations and they kind of fed off of each other.
• 30:11
  So that's and all of our all of our restaurants now when looking
• 30:16
  back at it, it's kind of funny and serendipitous, if you will.
• 30:19
  So we're like, how do we, if we're going to do this, like,
• 30:23
  how do we make it like a Cincinnati brand?
• 30:25
  Like we are so excited to be part of the city and like, how
• 30:28
  do we pay homage to that? And so I don't know if you knew
• 30:32
  this, but La Santi Der comes from La Santaville, which was
• 30:36
  the original name of Cincinnati. So Cincinnati was, yeah.
• 30:40
  So Cincinnati was originally supposed to be named La
• 30:42
  Santaville that it sounded too French.
• 30:45
  So they changed it to Cincinnati from Cincinnati as who is I
• 30:48
  think the general that did it. And my husband like again, from
• 30:50
  not being from Cincinnati, he knew so much more about the
• 30:53
  history and it made me look like so dumb.
• 30:55
  I'm like, I was born and raised here and I any of this, but we
• 30:58
  were like, OK, so. And our, our crown Republic
• 31:01
  gastro pub, our rooster already had a crown on it, which we did
• 31:03
  because we were going to be part of Cincinnati, which is the
• 31:05
  Queen city. So like we can like Losanti.
• 31:08
  We we literally had less than 24 hours to submit a name for this
• 31:11
  restaurant, our second restaurant.
• 31:13
  And I was like, I don't, I don't know anything we came up with.
• 31:16
  We just didn't feel out. And he's like, what about
• 31:18
  Lasanti? I was like, why?
• 31:20
  Like what? And they said it was and he had
• 31:22
  done all this research. I was like, I love it.
• 31:24
  And then again, it stays with the Cincinnati and the Queen
• 31:26
  City thing. And so, yeah, so we ran with
• 31:29
  that. And that was that was October of
• 31:33
  2019 is when we got that one open.
• 31:36
  OK, so you're just getting that one open, getting things
• 31:39
  rolling, maybe finding some traction when the world goes
• 31:43
  into lockdown. The world goes into lockdown.
• 31:46
  We were open I think for six, maybe six months.
• 31:50
  And also I was pregnant with my third at the time.
• 31:52
  So that was another reason why I was like, like they approached
• 31:55
  us prior to me finding out I was pregnant.
• 31:58
  But I was like, Oh my gosh, do we like to just make things hard
• 32:01
  on ourselves? I guess we thrive in chaos.
• 32:03
  I don't know, but yeah, we, I honestly, what a what a crazy
• 32:09
  time. It kind of, I don't know if it
• 32:14
  was because of the service standards we set at Crown
• 32:17
  Republic that got us through COVID, but the people that
• 32:21
  showed up for us during the lockdown, again, we had a great
• 32:24
  first six months. The the location was great.
• 32:28
  People were excited to have that sort of concept in this side of
• 32:32
  the city. But yeah, I mean, none of us
• 32:36
  were prepared for what happened there.
• 32:38
  I literally gave birth 5 days before lockdown and I it was
• 32:46
  going to be the first child. We have three.
• 32:49
  It was going to be our first kid that Anthony was going to be
• 32:52
  able to be home with me and do paternity leave.
• 32:54
  He had set it all up and I was so excited to have that when I
• 32:58
  was like, he hasn't done any of these night feedings or anything
• 33:02
  like that because he was always working these crazy hours.
• 33:04
  But I was, I felt robbed of that.
• 33:08
  I was so angry for so obviously for so many reasons, but also
• 33:10
  like how blessed I was because we, we ended up shutting down
• 33:14
  Lausanne. I mean, everything shut down.
• 33:16
  But when they were when they started to let us reopen, we
• 33:21
  were able to do Crowd Republic. And because everything we did
• 33:24
  was from scratch, we had an advantage because we were able
• 33:28
  to start doing like take home pasta kits.
• 33:30
  We would do lasagnas, we would do egliant parms, any product
• 33:33
  that we could get. We were small fish in a, in a
• 33:36
  big pond at that point because it was only basically, yes, 2.
• 33:39
  But we had only been open for, you know, a few months at La
• 33:42
  Santi. So like any product that was
• 33:44
  leftover or anything that we could get, we started to tailor
• 33:47
  our menus to serve whatever we could.
• 33:51
  So we would do like different pop ups a day.
• 33:53
  And I would be home with the three kids, newborn and my 2
• 33:56
  little boys posting on Instagram.
• 33:59
  Like this is what we have today. Like let us know what you want.
• 34:02
  And it was my, my husband, my sister Brenna, who's our
• 34:05
  director of operations and like two other people that went into
• 34:10
  the space. And then we just did to ghost
• 34:12
  and the amount of people that showed up for us gift cards.
• 34:15
  We we did an online shop apparel like people, people that moved
• 34:19
  like away that were like, how do we support you through this?
• 34:21
  Like just they might, they're like, we'll buy these for when
• 34:24
  we come back and visit. Don't know when it'll be, but
• 34:26
  like people really showed up for us and it was it, it was gosh,
• 34:31
  it was so humbling because I was like bigger picture thing like
• 34:34
  This is why we do what we do. It's it's to create a community
• 34:38
  and they did, they got us, they got us through that.
• 34:42
  Our staff was amazing through that.
• 34:44
  Obviously no one could really come in.
• 34:46
  It had to be very, very close, a tight knit team because of the
• 34:50
  regulation. So when everyone was able to
• 34:53
  come back and work, we still had our same staff, you know, like
• 34:56
  they wanted to come back, They still wanted to be part of it.
• 34:59
  And then when we reopened, it's almost like because so people
• 35:02
  were so excited to just be out and be in community again.
• 35:05
  Like our business skyrocketed after COVID, but we really
• 35:08
  couldn't both locations and we could not have gotten through
• 35:13
  that. I think if it wasn't for the
• 35:15
  foundation and the relationships we set at our first location.
• 35:18
  Again, building into not just focusing on the food, but
• 35:21
  building into the relationships of the people that continue to
• 35:25
  support us throughout that. Like, I don't, I mean, I don't
• 35:28
  want to think what it would have happened, but like, we were so
• 35:31
  fortunate to get through that because people again, they're
• 35:34
  like, they would come and be like, oh, we brought some, we
• 35:35
  bought some of your T-shirts from your online store.
• 35:37
  We're like, we're so glad that you were able to reopen your
• 35:39
  doors because again, like 6 months isn't a lot of time to
• 35:42
  set your roots down. So you know, what's interesting
• 35:45
  about this, Haley, is I talked with a lot of my guests about
• 35:48
  the importance of relationship building.
• 35:50
  And frequently it comes up in the context of you are leaving
• 35:56
  one place of employment and now what you know.
• 35:58
  And, and if you have developed a good network up to that point,
• 36:02
  then you've got better opportunities to find, you know,
• 36:05
  your next gig. And in your case here again, the
• 36:09
  importance of relationship building, But you were doing it
• 36:11
  with the clients, right? And you were really impressing
• 36:13
  upon your frontline staff the importance of interacting,
• 36:17
  asking questions, giving advice, just, you know, get to know
• 36:20
  these people. And in very much the same way,
• 36:24
  those relationships not only carried you through the
• 36:27
  pandemic, but then once the doors opened back up, you guys
• 36:30
  were off to the races. Oh yeah, it was gosh, again,
• 36:35
  goes back to like, because people would come in and be
• 36:37
  like, hey, how are your kids doing?
• 36:38
  How's your mom? Like it was more of like, is
• 36:40
  everybody OK? How's it was more talking about
• 36:43
  like how everyone did throughout the pandemic.
• 36:47
  I haven't seen you in so long. It's so good to see your face.
• 36:49
  I'm so excited to serve you again.
• 36:51
  And you know, another thing that we built off of I, I don't, when
• 36:56
  I interview people, I obviously look at a resume to see if they
• 37:00
  have like, you know, basic, you know, I should just say work
• 37:03
  ethic, not even like the skills for a restaurant.
• 37:06
  Because for me, it's all about how I feel when I'm interviewing
• 37:09
  you, Are you making eye contact? Are you trying to connect with
• 37:11
  me? Or are you just kind of going
• 37:13
  through the motions? Like I can train food, I can
• 37:15
  train you how to serve. I can't train you how to be a
• 37:17
  good person and how to connect with people.
• 37:19
  So if I don't feel like you can connect with me, there's no way
• 37:22
  you're going to be able to connect with a guest, you know,
• 37:24
  and one guest coming in doesn't make our business.
• 37:27
  It's the repeat guest. And that's what we need.
• 37:29
  And I need to get, I need to be confident that you were going to
• 37:32
  create an experience for people to come back.
• 37:35
  So literally, I'll look like going back to like our staff
• 37:39
  coming back. I think.
• 37:41
  And another thing we I think we do differently is there will
• 37:44
  always be some sort of upper leadership within the restaurant
• 37:48
  at all time. Like at that point in time,
• 37:51
  Anthony and I were always working shifts like up until
• 37:55
  probably a couple restaurants ago, like we Anthony's still
• 37:59
  there a lot. I'm I kind of again going back
• 38:02
  to that. I had to kind of take a back
• 38:03
  seat as our kids are, you know, getting more involved in sports
• 38:05
  and stuff like that to get them where they need to go.
• 38:09
  But everyone would always say they're like, I've never worked
• 38:13
  at a restaurant where literally you see ownership or you see the
• 38:16
  DO or you see the food and beverage direct like because we
• 38:19
  would want to be involved. We want people to know our
• 38:21
  faces. We're, we're very much an open
• 38:22
  company like that where like we are attainable people because if
• 38:26
  they don't think we're like, if our staff thinks that we're, if
• 38:31
  we want to do the job we're asking them to do, why would
• 38:33
  they want to work for us? You know, and we have like I, we
• 38:36
  open up restaurants with these people.
• 38:38
  We literally work alongside of them.
• 38:40
  So they get to know us and then obviously because we're growing
• 38:43
  business, we have to go on to the next venture.
• 38:45
  But we come in and we try to know your name.
• 38:47
  We have about 300 employees now. So it's a little bit harder.
• 38:49
  As I said, I'm not great with the names, but I know their
• 38:51
  faces and I know what position they are.
• 38:53
  And I always say when I'm walking in or I'm leaving, like
• 38:56
  thank you so much for being here.
• 38:57
  We appreciate you so much. Like have a great chef, like you
• 39:00
  know where to find me if you need any kind of thing so.
• 39:02
  So I kind of want to Fast forward a bit because, you know,
• 39:06
  here we are very beginning of 2026.
• 39:08
  You guys are at 7 current locations.
• 39:11
  You're coming 90 minutes up by 71 to Columbus.
• 39:15
  That's a pace of roughly 1A year.
• 39:18
  Even as you factor in those hardships in the early days
• 39:22
  until you got that one key review and then having to plow
• 39:26
  through all the crises around the pandemic, when do you feel
• 39:31
  like you're really hit your stride and you guys started, you
• 39:35
  know, coming up with new concepts on a more regular
• 39:37
  basis? Well, if I'm being completely
• 39:42
  honest with myself and everybody else, I don't think I'm never
• 39:46
  the one that's like the what's next kind of like I am.
• 39:49
  But my husband is the one that sees totally like this is what I
• 39:53
  think we need to do and I think we should do it.
• 39:54
  And I've been that person where I'm like, also, let's slow down
• 39:57
  and like plateau for a minute, enjoy what we're doing.
• 40:00
  I've been the one that's been more reserved because I think I
• 40:03
  saw, I think probably PTSD for what I saw in Miami and him
• 40:07
  working as much as he did. I'm like.
• 40:09
  Just let's, let's, let's chill for a minute.
• 40:11
  But I also think in, in, to be successful in business, you have
• 40:15
  to be able to take risks and you have to be able to kind of push
• 40:19
  yourself, push yourself into that next chapter.
• 40:23
  Because as soon as you're comfortable, that means like,
• 40:26
  it's probably not like if you're comfortable, that means you're
• 40:28
  complacent in my mind. Like I need a, we need to be
• 40:30
  doing more. And also, I think we set the
• 40:33
  standard with our staff, like we started to have people that are
• 40:37
  like, hey, if I want to grow, what does that look like?
• 40:41
  And we, we looked around like I, we don't know because we had
• 40:44
  never thought of somebody believing in US enough that they
• 40:46
  wanted to be part of whatever our future was, which was such a
• 40:50
  beautiful thing. And we're like, OK, so we will
• 40:52
  have to open more restaurants because, and I think you
• 40:54
  mentioned this earlier, you know, when you're talking about
• 40:59
  like growth and stuff and as you move, move on, like we obviously
• 41:05
  we might not be for everybody and we get that.
• 41:08
  But if we can give them whatever tools that they need to grow in
• 41:11
  their future, obviously would love for it to be with us.
• 41:13
  But if it's not with us, we ending on, I think you were
• 41:16
  talking about like the relationship as you know, in the
• 41:18
  network that you create. Like we, we want you to be as
• 41:22
  successful as you can in whatever field you can.
• 41:24
  If that's with us, fantastic. If it's not, we will get you and
• 41:27
  set you up for whatever successes you are going to need
• 41:29
  because how you perform at your next job is a reflection of us
• 41:33
  as well. And that's how we feel.
• 41:34
  So again, we've had so many people grow with that's why
• 41:38
  we've grown so quickly. They're like what's next for us,
• 41:40
  What's next for us? And we're like, OK, so.
• 41:42
  And then again with the opportunities with three CDC
• 41:45
  created, we ended up taking over, you know, this, the rest
• 41:48
  of that I said had opened up on the other corner of Crown
• 41:51
  Republic in that building. Like we ended up taking over
• 41:53
  that space, which is now a Rosie's Italian concept.
• 41:57
  But kind of going back to your question about when we thought
• 42:00
  we were, you know, what kind of made it work.
• 42:03
  I mean, we know what works, but we also know that we've had to
• 42:08
  like Rosie's was not supposed to be Rosie's Italian.
• 42:11
  It was actually Rosie's cocktails and pies.
• 42:13
  My husband wanted a New Jersey pizza place in Cincinnati.
• 42:18
  And I was very, I was like, you can't come to Cincinnati and say
• 42:21
  that this is the best pizza. Like we don't.
• 42:23
  We were raised on chains. And I can say that because I'm
• 42:25
  from here, but like there's great pizza, but I don't care if
• 42:27
  it's from Papa John's or Domino's because I just wasn't
• 42:30
  raised with pizzerias on every other corner up on the East
• 42:32
  Coast. So like, so Auntie's like I just
• 42:34
  want my tomato pie. And I'm like, you can't call it
• 42:36
  a pie either. Because when I went to Rhode
• 42:38
  Island and everyone's telling me let's go get a tomato pie, I'm
• 42:40
  like, I don't think I would like that because I was literally
• 42:43
  thinking of pie crust with tomatoes layered in it.
• 42:45
  So we, you know, we kind of butted heads on that one a
• 42:49
  little bit, but, and that was right after.
• 42:51
  So we had signed that lease pre COVID, like right before the
• 42:55
  shutdown, like hey, we'll take over this space.
• 42:56
  And then COVID happened. So like the original concept
• 42:59
  totally changed when we had to reopen.
• 43:01
  We're like, OK, how do we make this successful in a location
• 43:04
  that or in a, in a time where we wanted it to be a late night
• 43:08
  cocktail bar that served pizza because all the residences were
• 43:12
  coming down like after their nights out at Crown and like
• 43:15
  would want to hang out and have an extra drink, But it wasn't
• 43:18
  like it's still a restaurant. So it's kind of hard to create
• 43:20
  that kind of late night vibe there.
• 43:22
  So we're like, oh, we'll do this.
• 43:22
  And this concept. Well, that didn't exist after
• 43:25
  COVID. There was no late night vibes.
• 43:27
  So we changed that up and then it went great for 3030 days.
• 43:32
  And then we had a drunk driver run right through our
• 43:34
  restaurant. So we had to shut down and it
• 43:36
  was like, luckily we were closed at that time because if we were
• 43:40
  open, people would have definitely died.
• 43:43
  It was crazy. And but again, that was during
• 43:47
  the time where literally you couldn't get anything.
• 43:49
  We were closed for over 90 days because we couldn't get the
• 43:51
  framing for our windows like, and then after that, all the
• 43:55
  stuff that we had hired there, we put in our other location.
• 43:58
  So they still had a job, but then we couldn't find people to
• 44:01
  work at once we reopen. So it was literally bare bones,
• 44:05
  like skeleton for work at this place.
• 44:06
  And we couldn't do another PR launch around our reopening
• 44:10
  because we had already done that.
• 44:11
  And it was just like, oh, they're open again at that.
• 44:14
  I mean, that was hard. And we ended up looking at
• 44:18
  ourselves and being like, this isn't going to work because we
• 44:20
  couldn't get, we had everyone going to Crown Republic, which
• 44:24
  was literally you had to walk past if you were coming from
• 44:26
  PNG, you had to walk past Rosie's to get to Crown
• 44:29
  Republic. Excuse me?
• 44:32
  And people just weren't coming in because they didn't
• 44:34
  understand what it was. They were like, what is this
• 44:35
  place? Excuse me, I apologize.
• 44:39
  So Anthony was literally like, OK, we got to reconcept and I'm
• 44:43
  like, I mean, what do you mean you got to excuse me?
• 44:47
  Goodness gracious. There's a lot of effort and a
• 44:50
  lot of time that goes into coming up with the menu, the
• 44:54
  what the ambiance, what the decor is going to be like.
• 44:56
  It's not just like. I tell you.
• 44:59
  That easy. I'm like when I tell you when
• 45:02
  Anthony's like or when people are like, Oh my gosh, this must
• 45:05
  be so great to work with your partner.
• 45:06
  And I'm like, yeah, it is. But also like, like, because
• 45:09
  when you try to leave it all work out the door and you come
• 45:12
  in the house, but you're like, I got to reconcept.
• 45:14
  He gave me two weeks, 2 weeks to totally change the decor in
• 45:17
  there and totally reconcept that restaurant.
• 45:20
  And I did it and it went from Rosie's cocktails and pies,
• 45:22
  which is this like bright fun, like cocktails that were, we
• 45:25
  have like flaming limes in it and like, like matcha man, just
• 45:29
  super fun, like eclectic cocktails with like, again,
• 45:33
  great food, but like to being a red sauce restaurant.
• 45:36
  And it's all of his family recipes and it's literally
• 45:41
  eggplant parm and chicken parm. And but he was right.
• 45:45
  He, he recognized that it wasn't going to do well.
• 45:48
  And we can continue to watch it, the numbers decline, or we can
• 45:51
  be proactive and accept like, hey, this didn't work.
• 45:54
  It worked for the 1st 30 days that we opened and people loved
• 45:57
  it, but it's not going to work now.
• 45:58
  So like, how do we do this, change it?
• 46:00
  And it is, I mean, it's one of one of our most profitable
• 46:03
  restaurants right now. People love it.
• 46:05
  And it's literally just his family recipes.
• 46:07
  And again, going back to that Cincinnati tie, my name is
• 46:10
  actually Haley Rose and my nickname was Rosie growing up.
• 46:13
  But Rosie is also the name of the Red Legs mascot, the female
• 46:18
  Red Legs mascot. So it's still playing into that
• 46:20
  whole, that Cincinnati theme there as well.
• 46:23
  But Rosie's is killing it. And people love like our
• 46:27
  eggplant parm is made like a lasagna and people talk about
• 46:31
  that like they're like, Oh my gosh, this is the best eggplant
• 46:33
  parm I've ever had. And I'm not, I'm he already
• 46:37
  knows this. Sorry.
• 46:38
  I always feel bad saying it, but I am actually not like an
• 46:41
  Italian girl. I'm not someone that likes red
• 46:42
  sauce. This will make his grandma flip
• 46:44
  over in her grave, rest her soul.
• 46:46
  But like his, his grandma's name was Grace.
• 46:49
  And so we now sell her gravy because those E coasters,
• 46:53
  certain parts of Italy call it gravy.
• 46:55
  You came from a certain part of Italy into the United States.
• 46:58
  But Gracie's gravy, we now jar that because like, how do you
• 47:01
  get this gravy? Like we would sell it during
• 47:03
  COVID just in pints if people wanted pasta kits or like, you
• 47:06
  guys need to jar this. So last year we just had an
• 47:08
  opportunity and we did it. And now we sell Gracie's gravy.
• 47:10
  And there's a photo of my husband and his grandma, like
• 47:12
  right when you walk in the restaurant because he's the one
• 47:14
  who taught, She's the one who taught him how to cook and his
• 47:16
  love of food. And it's again, all the recipes
• 47:19
  he learned sitting right next to her in the kitchen.
• 47:21
  So that's what it is. And she's doing great.
• 47:25
  Haley, I'm just chuckling a little bit because people who,
• 47:28
  you know, follow the show, they understand that my favorite
• 47:31
  question asked in the interview is about a a big serious
• 47:34
  challenge that you've overcome, how you got through it, what you
• 47:36
  learned. But I feel like we have been
• 47:39
  covering multiple. But if if you had a bigger one
• 47:43
  in mind for that question, I don't, I don't want to cut it
• 47:45
  out, but there's certainly other places we can go with the
• 47:49
  discussion here. Well, I when you said that or
• 47:53
  when, Oh my gosh, I'm getting so excited to talk about how all my
• 47:56
  sinuses of this weather are killing me.
• 47:59
  When you said like, you know, preemptively like this might be
• 48:02
  a question. I was like, gosh, which one do I
• 48:05
  pick? Because so many I, I could think
• 48:09
  about ones that even got me to where we're at today.
• 48:12
  Like that happened in college. You know, if I talk about ones
• 48:15
  in business, that's literally an everyday challenge.
• 48:17
  Like we're in them all the time. Yeah, let's shift gears then,
• 48:21
  because I want to hear more about your hospitality program.
• 48:24
  I know that this is something that really sets you guys apart.
• 48:26
  Tell me more about that. Yeah, kind of going back when we
• 48:30
  had that review come out, I was like, again, that that
• 48:33
  gratification of knowing like, oh, this, this is what people
• 48:38
  want. They do.
• 48:38
  They do respond to how we're treating them.
• 48:40
  And it is something, I mean, we have so many great restaurants
• 48:43
  in Cincinnati, but like, what is going to make people choose us
• 48:47
  over over them? You know, So again, going back
• 48:50
  to building into that. And that's now his what what he
• 48:54
  said in the magazine is now in our employee handbook.
• 48:56
  And we're like, if you if you can't meet this like criteria,
• 49:00
  if you don't think that you can work as a team in this space,
• 49:04
  then you're not going to be able to work for us because it really
• 49:07
  is. I mean, you're only as strong,
• 49:08
  as strong as your weakest link. So like when you come into our
• 49:11
  space and let's be honest, serving can be a very
• 49:14
  competitive industry, right? How many tips can I make or how
• 49:16
  many people are going to request me coming in or can I get my
• 49:19
  name on any reviews? Yeah, that's all great because
• 49:21
  that kind of fuels how you want, you know, your service to be
• 49:24
  anyways. But it's also like if somebody
• 49:27
  has a bad experience, they're not coming back.
• 49:29
  So how can you help your team while that diner or while that
• 49:34
  guest is within our our building to make sure that they do come
• 49:37
  back? So literally it's would we if
• 49:41
  something happens or if someone you know, if someone misses like
• 49:44
  a greet, that's because we have very specific roles like you
• 49:48
  have to say we have a 2222 roll 222242 within the 1st 2 minutes.
• 49:54
  They have to be greeted with. If someone comes within 2 feet
• 49:58
  of you, you have to acknowledge them.
• 49:59
  Hi, how's it going like welcome, you know, whatever that is 2
• 50:04
  inches. So if a guest glass gets with
• 50:08
  beverage, whether it's water or a cocktail or anything, if
• 50:11
  there's only two inches left of that glass, if it's water,
• 50:13
  you're refilling it. If it's a beverage, may I get
• 50:16
  you another one? I'd love to refresh that glass
• 50:17
  for you just to because it's like, I don't know if maybe
• 50:22
  you've ever noticed this, but if your glass is empty and you're
• 50:25
  like kind of on the fence of ordering another drink, if it's
• 50:28
  empty and you're waiting it for it to be refilled, you're
• 50:29
  probably not getting another one at that point, right?
• 50:32
  So like you kind of having that wherewithal to be like, let me
• 50:35
  refill that for you. So you don't have to think.
• 50:37
  That's another thing like don't let the guests think when
• 50:39
  they're in here, that's your job.
• 50:40
  You're the salesperson, you're the one that's kind of tailoring
• 50:42
  this experience. Like they need to just sit and
• 50:45
  enjoy and be like, Oh my gosh, from start to finish.
• 50:47
  Like I didn't even realize I was just, it was just like a like a
• 50:50
  boat ride. I just got to sit back and
• 50:51
  enjoy. So and then the other one is 2
• 50:55
  bites. So you drop off food no matter
• 50:58
  what course. Like how's our steak prepared
• 51:00
  this evening? Is it cooked to our liking or
• 51:02
  how are we enjoying that pasta dish?
• 51:03
  Because if for whatever reason it doesn't need to be up cooked,
• 51:06
  like within two minutes, you're making sure you rectify that
• 51:10
  situation. Or if it's not, if it anything's
• 51:13
  not to our liking within two bites, I'm going to let you know
• 51:16
  that I'm aware or that I'm going to take care of whatever issues
• 51:20
  you're having. So then that way it doesn't
• 51:21
  impede on your dining service. Let me get you something in the
• 51:23
  meantime while I fix whatever problem if there's a problem,
• 51:26
  because you don't also want to wait more than two bites and
• 51:29
  then their, their dinner's pushed aside and they're sharing
• 51:31
  off somebody else's because, oh, you know what?
• 51:33
  It was just a little under for me.
• 51:34
  So I'm just not going to eat it. Like, that sucks.
• 51:36
  That's not what we want for you. So we have very specific rules
• 51:39
  when it comes to how are you. Yeah, 42.
• 51:43
  That's sounds like 2-2. Because what do you say?
• 51:45
  I'm like, did I get the four? But yeah, so that's a huge rule
• 51:49
  of ours. And then also like again, you're
• 51:51
  only like I said, you're only as strong as your weakest player.
• 51:53
  So like if, if you notice somebody like your team member,
• 51:58
  because depending on what you know, where you're at in
• 52:01
  sections and server sections, you know, walking around dining
• 52:05
  rooms as you're checking on your tables, just to help your, to
• 52:08
  help your teammates out. You know, like if I see like a
• 52:11
  glass that's not filled and I know that that server's at
• 52:13
  another table, just, you know, answering questions or doing
• 52:15
  whatever, why wouldn't I ask if they want that?
• 52:18
  Because again, it's like you want to make sure that that
• 52:20
  person comes back because you know, they're not your table now
• 52:23
  they could be next time, right? And it's, I think that's kind of
• 52:27
  what the reviewer were saying. And like everyone was in tune
• 52:31
  and turned on because so many people touched this table not to
• 52:33
  talk to him, but just like again, to assist him in whatever
• 52:37
  if it was like needing an extra fork or if it was like refilling
• 52:42
  his water, like. And again, doing it with a
• 52:44
  smile. Just like being in that presence
• 52:46
  that knows like, hey, we know that you're here to enjoy your
• 52:49
  experience and we're going to make sure that that happens kind
• 52:51
  of thing. So, yeah, I think that's really
• 52:53
  just the basis of that whole program if.
• 52:57
  I'm, I'm starting to connect the dots because everybody would
• 53:00
  like, everybody in the restaurant business would like
• 53:02
  for their hospitality to come across the way that you're
• 53:05
  describing. Not everybody has been able to
• 53:08
  pull that off and execute on that.
• 53:10
  And I'm thinking, tell me if I'm correct or if there's things
• 53:14
  missing here. A big reason that you're able to
• 53:17
  pull this off is that you get very specific with the training
• 53:20
  and the instructions that you give.
• 53:21
  The 222 two rule, right? As an example of that.
• 53:25
  Also the way that you were describing earlier how you
• 53:29
  interview people, you know, you're checking the resume, is
• 53:32
  there a work ethic? They're not necessarily looking
• 53:34
  for restaurant experience, but mostly you're looking for, are
• 53:37
  they looking you in the eye? Are they engaging with you?
• 53:40
  Does it seem like they're a people person?
• 53:42
  Because that's the kind of thing that you can't teach.
• 53:46
  I think those are sort of two big pillars, 2 big reasons why
• 53:49
  you guys are successful in pulling this off.
• 53:51
  Is there something else in that landscape that I'm not paying
• 53:54
  attention to? I also think, I mean, you also
• 54:00
  have to know who's in your restaurant as well.
• 54:02
  Like there are people that come in that have all the the
• 54:05
  experience in the world that like, you know, that they'd be a
• 54:08
  great fit and a huge asset to your team.
• 54:09
  Because also there's some people that probably could benefit from
• 54:12
  learning from like a restaurant server, you know, like a
• 54:15
  lifelong restaurant server. And we get people and we employ
• 54:18
  them and they're fantastic. But really like you have to
• 54:23
  think of staff members as like units as well.
• 54:27
  So like when I'm interviewing someone, if I think that it only
• 54:30
  takes like 1 bad apple to kind of mess with the tree, if you
• 54:35
  will, right? So that's also something I'm
• 54:37
  very cognizant of. And I tell you know, our GMs,
• 54:42
  I'm not involved as much in the hiring, like a, yes, we set the
• 54:44
  foundation, but I, I fully trust in these people that I've put in
• 54:48
  positions to do the hiring now that they are upholding like
• 54:50
  those standards that we've set. But like really, if I mean a
• 54:57
  service is also you can feel it when you walk in the room if
• 55:01
  something's not right or I can't like if someone's like had a bad
• 55:05
  day or if someone's going through something.
• 55:07
  Like I also train my leaders and I don't like the term managers
• 55:10
  we only use because I feel like with management.
• 55:12
  It kind of reminds me of that poster within elementary school
• 55:15
  growing up when it's like, I think it was like Pharaoh, like
• 55:18
  a pharaoh or something, when he's like standing on his throne
• 55:21
  and pointing and all the slaves are pulling him.
• 55:23
  And then it was like the difference between a manager and
• 55:26
  a leader. And then the leader, the bottom
• 55:28
  part of it is Pharaoh or whoever the king was in front of all of
• 55:32
  his people, helping them pull. So that's really the mentality I
• 55:35
  try to create. I'm like, you're going to be on
• 55:37
  that floor with them. You're going to be on that floor
• 55:39
  making sure the 2222 rule is being implemented.
• 55:42
  You're going to be talking to guests, you're going to be a
• 55:43
  presence so that your team feels like you're with them in this
• 55:47
  and you're not going to let them go through the trenches alone.
• 55:49
  So, but if someone, but also by being there, you can feel like,
• 55:53
  hey, something's going on with the server.
• 55:55
  Did he just have a negative interaction with someone or did
• 55:57
  he feel like he just messed up? Or is it something outside of
• 56:00
  work that's now affecting them? So training them to pull them
• 56:04
  off the floor. Hey, what's going on?
• 56:05
  Do we need to talk about this? Is this something that we can,
• 56:07
  you know, work through right now?
• 56:08
  Because I'm noticing it's affecting you, which is
• 56:10
  affecting kind of the flow. So really being, I mean,
• 56:14
  cognizant of what the vibe in the restaurant is at all times,
• 56:19
  knowing that a negative vibe can literally trickle, right?
• 56:22
  It's a trickle down effect. So that's, that's a huge part of
• 56:27
  it as well. And you know, our staff and I
• 56:30
  think the reason they wanted to come back after COVID or just we
• 56:32
  have staff that's been with us literally since day one, like
• 56:36
  our director of operations. Obviously our food and beverage
• 56:39
  director started as a bartender and has worked his way up like
• 56:42
  her GM that's coming to Columbus and run Losanti.
• 56:45
  She started as a bartender at one of our locations here and
• 56:48
  it's like what's next for me? I will go somewhere and she
• 56:50
  wanted and she was like, what about Columbus?
• 56:52
  She I have family there. Perfect.
• 56:53
  So she's running our restaurant there.
• 56:56
  But I excuse me. I also think it goes to show
• 57:01
  that the community you create within your restaurant space,
• 57:04
  like over the summer we lost one of our employees to suicide and
• 57:10
  it was at our flagship. He had been with us for a few
• 57:14
  years and obviously his memorial was going to be during one of
• 57:19
  our shifts. And we, you know, as a team,
• 57:22
  you're talking about closing down, but our team members from
• 57:25
  our other locations decided to cover all the shifts of the
• 57:28
  staff members that we're going to go to his memorial.
• 57:32
  And that in of itself, I think speaks to the type of culture we
• 57:36
  create, not just with our guests, but with our team.
• 57:39
  Like we literally are a family. We want people.
• 57:42
  We all go through days where we don't want to go to work.
• 57:44
  I mean, and I, I still have those, but when I go to work,
• 57:47
  I'm going to be around people that I know support me and are
• 57:50
  going to lift me up and are going to make me like feel
• 57:53
  better. And I would much rather be in
• 57:55
  that situation than be at home and smoking.
• 57:57
  And you know what I'm saying? So that's a huge part of our
• 58:00
  culture as well. And I think that's why people
• 58:02
  like to stay with us because we want people to feel like they're
• 58:07
  family again, not just as guests, but as our staff.
• 58:10
  Like again, I want to be able to be home with my kids because if
• 58:15
  I didn't have staff members that believed in me and supported me
• 58:17
  to be able to be home with my kids, right?
• 58:19
  So I just want to make sure that when people come into us, they
• 58:23
  know our hearts, know who we are, not just from a guest
• 58:27
  perspective, but from an employee perspective, because I
• 58:30
  don't, I would never want to not work for someone or like not
• 58:35
  know who I'm working for. I feel like that just adds to
• 58:38
  the passion that they have when they're in that space, which
• 58:40
  leads into their service as well.
• 58:41
  Like I know who my quote UN quote boss is, right?
• 58:45
  I don't like that term, but like, I know the owner of this
• 58:47
  restaurant, I know their hearts, I know their families, you know
• 58:50
  what I'm saying? So I think that's also a huge
• 58:52
  part of our hospitality program as well.
• 58:56
  I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your one of your team
• 58:59
  members, but wow, what what a great emblem that team members
• 59:04
  from other locations came in to fill shifts so that the
• 59:07
  restaurant could stay open and everybody could attend the
• 59:10
  service. I think that's just that speaks
• 59:12
  volumes about the kind of organization that you're
• 59:14
  running. What's behind the decision to go
• 59:17
  to Columbus? I really think that, again, kind
• 59:24
  of going back to like day one, like this was never part of the
• 59:27
  plan. And I think part of growth is
• 59:30
  evolving and pushing yourself and going into other cities with
• 59:34
  something like, I'm sure my husband would say he would love
• 59:37
  to go back to his hometown in New Jersey or New York or
• 59:40
  whatever. But it's like, OK, what's
• 59:41
  tangible for us right now and what's something that we feel
• 59:44
  like we would not lose? Like that whole bit that I just
• 59:49
  spoke to is that that piece where people know who we are.
• 59:51
  Right. I want people to still know who
• 59:52
  we are. So where I'm located is, I don't
• 59:56
  know. Are you familiar with Kings
• 59:58
  Island? I am.
• 1:00:00
  I OK, so we live out there, giant.
• 1:00:02
  Theme park. Folks, that giant theme park,
• 1:00:04
  Yeah, sorry, but so that's where we're at.
• 1:00:07
  So I'm about 30 minutes from all my businesses downtown and I'm
• 1:00:11
  about an hour and 10 minutes depending on the flow of
• 1:00:15
  traffic, if you will. So it's still like a tangible
• 1:00:18
  thing that we can get to and still be present and still
• 1:00:21
  support our staff. And that's really where we want
• 1:00:24
  to start as we kind of grow into other cities.
• 1:00:27
  And again, Columbus, I mean, I went up there all the time going
• 1:00:31
  out Kosai field trips, you know, stuff like that.
• 1:00:34
  One of my best friends growing up went to OSU, huge Buckeye fan
• 1:00:38
  and what a great city. Just, I mean, Anthony and I go
• 1:00:42
  up there all the time for date nights have already created a
• 1:00:44
  huge community there. And I just think the promise of
• 1:00:49
  what that city is doing. I think there was an article
• 1:00:50
  that came out last year that said it's one of the fastest
• 1:00:53
  growing cities in America right now.
• 1:00:55
  And that kind of excites us. And where we're going in
• 1:00:58
  Columbus is the Franklinton area.
• 1:01:00
  So it's it's newly being developed.
• 1:01:03
  It kind of is giving us the vibes that Crown Republic gave
• 1:01:05
  when we first there. You know, there wasn't many
• 1:01:07
  restaurants there right now, but it was all residences and
• 1:01:09
  businesses. And that's kind of why we picked
• 1:01:12
  that space because it kind of gave us that like like this
• 1:01:14
  could, if we get in on the forefront of this is this could
• 1:01:17
  be a huge, you know, for the future of this company.
• 1:01:19
  So again, staying super tangible to where we're at personally,
• 1:01:25
  like commute wise, like we can get there if need be and we're
• 1:01:29
  going to be up there training. We just, you know, we got a
• 1:01:31
  little short term apartment for our team.
• 1:01:32
  We're going to pull our team members from Losanti here to
• 1:01:34
  help train. So again, everyone can really
• 1:01:36
  understand that because I think it's something if you don't
• 1:01:39
  experience it for yourself, it's kind of hard to like you can
• 1:01:41
  speak to it all you want, but like I think experiencing it is
• 1:01:44
  a totally different beautiful thing.
• 1:01:46
  So if we can pull staff members from here, which we are like our
• 1:01:50
  chef of La Sante here is going to go help opening up.
• 1:01:52
  We have already have our chef there.
• 1:01:54
  Like I said, our GM that's been there since September.
• 1:01:56
  That's kind of building into the roots there and hiring
• 1:02:00
  currently. So yeah, that for us, Columbus
• 1:02:03
  was the best way to kind of dip our toe into the possibility of
• 1:02:08
  what it looks like to go into other cities where it still
• 1:02:10
  feels close enough that we can still be part of it and immerse
• 1:02:14
  ourselves in it. And also challenge us to see,
• 1:02:16
  OK, if we can do Columbus, what's next?
• 1:02:19
  I mean, our dream would try to be within 4 hours because that's
• 1:02:23
  still workable for us since that is a very centrally located
• 1:02:27
  city. So if it is Lexington OR
• 1:02:30
  Louisville or Columbus or Indy or whatever that looks like,
• 1:02:34
  that's kind of where we wanted to start to see if it's
• 1:02:36
  something we can even do. Yeah, spread your wings while
• 1:02:39
  still staying close to the nest. What is the projected opening
• 1:02:43
  date? So right now, well, it was
• 1:02:48
  supposed to be July of last year, but I think we're looking
• 1:02:53
  the week after Valentine's Day is really what we're shooting
• 1:02:55
  for. We don't want it to be any
• 1:02:56
  further than that. But honestly, after, you know,
• 1:03:00
  going through the snowstorm, like dealing with everything
• 1:03:02
  here, I'm kind of glad we're not opening, you know, dealing with
• 1:03:04
  the chaos of weather and the untangibles that you can't
• 1:03:07
  really plan for. You know, we're up there once a
• 1:03:10
  week now checking progress. I think we're getting all of our
• 1:03:12
  inspections done in the next couple of weeks.
• 1:03:14
  So, yeah, it's moving. So again, hopefully the week
• 1:03:17
  after Valentine's Day, we're going to get through that crazy
• 1:03:20
  service that we'll have here and then focus all of our energy up
• 1:03:23
  there. Well, fingers crossed then
• 1:03:25
  you'll be open by the time this interview hits live.
• 1:03:27
  So folks be checking it out. Yeah, Haley, I've just got one
• 1:03:31
  more question for you today. But before I ask, I want to do 3
• 1:03:33
  quick things. First of all, anybody who wants
• 1:03:36
  to get in touch with Haley, she's given us her e-mail
• 1:03:39
  address, Haley, which is Haley. Haley at CRG Cincy, CINC, y.com,
• 1:03:47
  Haley at crgcincy.com. And we'll have that in the show
• 1:03:50
  notes for folks too. Also, if you're enjoying the
• 1:03:54
  show, a quick comment or review on your favorite podcast app
• 1:03:57
  goes a long way towards helping others discover our show.
• 1:04:00
  So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now.
• 1:04:04
  And as a reminder, if you want to get more restaurant employees
• 1:04:07
  access to therapists, doctors and prescription meds that, as
• 1:04:11
  paradoxical as it seems, actually increases your
• 1:04:14
  company's net profits, reach out to us at Add Back benefits.com.
• 1:04:18
  So last question for you, Haley. A year from now, what is 1
• 1:04:21
  specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?
• 1:04:28
  Professionally, I just think just an upward trend of
• 1:04:34
  business, you know, I think this the past year was very rough on
• 1:04:37
  our industry. The year before, you know, we
• 1:04:40
  thought it was like, oh, that was a rough year, but 2025 will
• 1:04:43
  be great. And then 25 kind of, I mean,
• 1:04:45
  Cincinnati got a lot of news over the summer.
• 1:04:50
  So it kind of hit us pretty hard personally with Cincinnati, even
• 1:04:53
  though I know it's kind of like a nationwide thing, but I just
• 1:04:57
  honestly just I mean, it might seem so like, you know, sugar
• 1:05:03
  coated, if you will, or butterflies and rainbows, but
• 1:05:06
  honestly just success with everybody that everyone just
• 1:05:09
  feels like they can breathe a little bit and not feel so
• 1:05:12
  strained and that people just again are get back out to
• 1:05:17
  sitting across the table and enjoying a great plate of food
• 1:05:20
  with fantastic service. That's just that seems so silly.
• 1:05:23
  I may be, I may be minuscule, but like for me, that's I just
• 1:05:27
  want people to enjoy going out again and really want to do it
• 1:05:31
  more. And just remember, you know,
• 1:05:33
  that food is what unites us and brings us together.
• 1:05:36
  And I think we could use a lot more of that so.
• 1:05:39
  Love it. Hayley Nutter Siddik from Crown
• 1:05:42
  Restaurant Group I want to be the first to thank you for
• 1:05:44
  sharing both your time and your story with us today.
• 1:05:47
  I really appreciate you being here.
• 1:05:49
  Thanks, I enjoyed it, lot of fun.
• 1:05:51
  Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
• 1:05:53
  podcast. Thanks for learning with us
• 1:05:55
  today.