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Firebirds’ Differentiated Experience Lifts Sales · Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence

0:11
Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping it Up. I'm your host, Mike Hamlon,
0:14
Speaker 1: Senior Restaurant and Food Service analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Our
0:18
Speaker 1: research and that a bi's five hundred analysts around the
0:21
Speaker 1: globe can be found exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal. Today,
0:24
Speaker 1: we're joined by Steve Kislow, the CEO of Firebirds Wood
0:28
Speaker 1: Fired Grill. Thanks for joining me, Steve, my pleasure. Thanks
0:32
Speaker 1: for having me so first creating Nashville and Vegas for
0:36
Speaker 1: our FDC. We've had similar travel schedules, man.
0:40
Speaker 2: Indeed, indeed, it's good, always good running into.
0:42
Speaker 1: You, for sure. Man. Same in my research. I saw
0:46
Speaker 1: you graduated from Villanova. I saw I saw the Wallcatcher
0:51
Speaker 1: plus twelve hundred to win the Big East this year.
0:53
Speaker 1: You probably never saw odds that low when Jay Wright
0:56
Speaker 1: was at the Helm.
0:57
Speaker 3: Huh, No, it's been it's been a rough, rough couple
1:00
Speaker 3: of years. I actually noticed on your bio that you
1:02
Speaker 3: were Georgetown about I'm a little bit older than you,
1:05
Speaker 3: but it looks like we were there around the same time,
1:07
Speaker 3: so definitely definitely a rivalry back then. We really haven't
1:12
Speaker 3: haven't been quite as relevant in the last couple of years,
1:14
Speaker 3: for sure.
1:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, Georgetown's like plus ten thousand. I think when the
1:19
Speaker 1: big East the Cooley is off to a rough start.
1:23
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think it was my my freshman year
1:26
Speaker 1: was that big eia scheme between Ai and ray Allen. Yep,
1:34
Speaker 1: you know that was that was pretty wild. That was like,
1:39
Speaker 1: you know, there hasn't been many good Georgetown teams since then.
1:43
Speaker 3: I was a huge, huge college basketball fan, especially for
1:45
Speaker 3: the last you know, ten or fifteen years. There was
1:47
Speaker 3: a lot to celebrate, but you get spoiled when you
1:50
Speaker 3: have a decade that good.
1:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, man showed how important coaching is. All right, man,
1:55
Speaker 1: let's get into it. Almost twenty two years of Firebirds.
1:57
Speaker 1: You must love that place. Tell me about your experience
2:01
Speaker 1: through the years and how the brand is evolved.
2:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, definitely a lot to be proud of. Careers
2:10
Speaker 3: started thirty five years ago at you know McDonald's actually uh,
2:14
Speaker 3: you know, fat fast food, and fell fell in love
2:17
Speaker 3: with the restaurant business then. And really what attracted me
2:21
Speaker 3: to Firebirds is pretty similar to what attracted me to
2:24
Speaker 3: to McDonald's years ago. Just the ability to make a
2:27
Speaker 3: difference in people's lives, whether it be team members or
2:30
Speaker 3: or consumers. You know, one shift at a time, one
2:33
Speaker 3: meal at a time. It's just a it's a it's
2:35
Speaker 3: a really fun business that has has treated me well
2:39
Speaker 3: and certainly have enjoyed some success. You know, Firebirds is
2:44
Speaker 3: a really you know, a lot of tenure on the team.
2:47
Speaker 3: I mean there, I'm twenty two years and believe it
2:50
Speaker 3: or not, there's a there's quite a few a lot
2:52
Speaker 3: like me that we've worked we've worked together for a
2:55
Speaker 3: long time and you know, kind of founder founder selected
2:58
Speaker 3: and you know, been around understand the culture that that
3:02
Speaker 3: our founders you know, had in mind when they created
3:05
Speaker 3: the when they created the brand. So it's been it's
3:08
Speaker 3: been a heck of a journey for sure. You know,
3:10
Speaker 3: I think maybe one of the most interesting parts of
3:14
Speaker 3: it was twenty two years ago, as you know, there
3:17
Speaker 3: wasn't a lot of There wasn't a lot of polished casual.
3:21
Speaker 3: It was kind of an emerging category. There's a lot
3:23
Speaker 3: of a lot of folks that have joined the party now.
3:25
Speaker 3: But I think that's probably what was the most interesting
3:29
Speaker 3: part to me is I had spent time obviously in
3:31
Speaker 3: fast food and fast casual and in casual dining, and
3:34
Speaker 3: then you know, I had had some years with Mortons
3:36
Speaker 3: to Chicago Steakhouse too. So I think that that blend
3:40
Speaker 3: of casual dining and fine dining, and then when I
3:43
Speaker 3: had an opportunity to you know, put my thumbprint on
3:46
Speaker 3: something that was kind of in the middle and bring
3:48
Speaker 3: some of those nuances of fine dining into the more
3:51
Speaker 3: approachable and casual format of casual dining, was just kind
3:55
Speaker 3: of a fun, a fun and perfect blend for me.
3:58
Speaker 1: Very cool. Can you talk a little bit about the
4:00
Speaker 1: menu for the listeners that aren't familiar.
4:03
Speaker 3: Sure, Well, as you said in the name Firebirds wood
4:07
Speaker 3: fired grill, you know, there are no on off switches
4:11
Speaker 3: on our grills. We we source all of our woods locally.
4:17
Speaker 3: You know, I think the journey really starts when you're
4:19
Speaker 3: in the parking lot and you get out of your
4:21
Speaker 3: car and you can just smell that, you know, wood
4:23
Speaker 3: burning kind of brings you back to you know, campfires
4:28
Speaker 3: and the way that cavemen you know, cooked in that
4:30
Speaker 3: primitive format, you know, thousands of years ago, and there's
4:33
Speaker 3: something really cool about that. You know, we're loading that
4:35
Speaker 3: live wood into that grill all day long and it's
4:38
Speaker 3: it really imparts, you know, pretty unique, pretty special flavor
4:42
Speaker 3: bold flavor profile into the food and all those proteins,
4:45
Speaker 3: especially that we're cooking on the grill.
4:47
Speaker 2: Uh.
4:48
Speaker 3: And then you know, over the years, as our as
4:49
Speaker 3: our bar program has continued to evolve, it's not just
4:52
Speaker 3: the food that's that's getting nuances of you know, of
4:55
Speaker 3: char and fire, but uh, it's the bar program as well.
4:59
Speaker 3: You know, a really good blend of lunch versus dinner.
5:03
Speaker 3: We got about thirty percent of our mixes lunchtime, so
5:07
Speaker 3: you know, plenty of sandwiches, oversized salads and proteins on
5:12
Speaker 3: the lunch menu, and on the dinner menu you've got
5:14
Speaker 3: a great selection of steaks and seafoods and pastas. I
5:18
Speaker 3: think the beauty of the brand is that there's really
5:20
Speaker 3: no veto vote. I mean, there's a little something for
5:23
Speaker 3: everybody when you're coming into to a Firebirds.
5:27
Speaker 1: Very cool. How much of the business's alcohol and off premise.
5:32
Speaker 3: You've got about eighteen percent of the business is coming
5:37
Speaker 3: from the bar. You know that that's not as a
5:40
Speaker 3: function of total net sales, so that includes all the
5:41
Speaker 3: off premise business we do as well. Off premise, we're
5:46
Speaker 3: just north of fifteen percent, which is a combination of
5:49
Speaker 3: traditional to go delivery as well as you know, kind
5:53
Speaker 3: of a new catering channel that's still really in its infancy.
5:58
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of talk about how the younger
6:00
Speaker 1: generations are drinking less and just people in general are
6:03
Speaker 1: cutting back on alcohol. Have you seen that. Where's the
6:06
Speaker 1: alcohol mix versus you know, twenty nineteen.
6:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the it's really I think it's less
6:13
Speaker 3: about them drinking less and more about kind of how
6:16
Speaker 3: they're drinking and what they're drinking. You know, if you
6:20
Speaker 3: go back ten years ago, wine was king, you know,
6:23
Speaker 3: and you know, the craft beer craze was you know,
6:25
Speaker 3: was still an important part of the business. And now
6:28
Speaker 3: we're seeing, you know, some erosion on the wine and
6:32
Speaker 3: beer side, while the liquor side is really growing right
6:36
Speaker 3: and and I think the different categories it was, you know,
6:39
Speaker 3: it was it was bourbon, you know, somewhere in the five, six,
6:43
Speaker 3: seven years ago. Now the real growing channel is is tequila,
6:48
Speaker 3: mezcal and all the agave spirits. I think it's gonna
6:51
Speaker 3: be interesting to see on the on the bar side,
6:53
Speaker 3: kind of what's that next category. I you know, I
6:57
Speaker 3: can hypothesize and say it feels it feels like is
7:00
Speaker 3: probably coming next, because there's you know a lot of
7:03
Speaker 3: folks out there that are doing some pretty fun and
7:04
Speaker 3: exciting things, you know, in uh with with rum spirits.
7:08
Speaker 1: Cool. Yeah. I was watching a video yesterday. It was
7:11
Speaker 1: about growth, brand growth and tequila category and it was
7:14
Speaker 1: interesting how all these like single sourced, additive free tequilas
7:19
Speaker 1: were kind of blowing up at the expense of some
7:21
Speaker 1: of the cause of egos of the world.
7:23
Speaker 3: Yep, it's a it's a big, it's huge growing category
7:26
Speaker 3: and there's a lot of conversation you know around the
7:28
Speaker 3: additive around the additive side.
7:30
Speaker 2: Too, So it's it's exciting.
7:32
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's I think there's I think part
7:34
Speaker 3: of what people loved about wine and beer ten years
7:37
Speaker 3: ago was that, you know, they all kind of had
7:40
Speaker 3: a story to them, and you know, on the alcohol
7:43
Speaker 3: side it they didn't quite embrace that yet. And now,
7:47
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know whether it's the celebrity piece
7:49
Speaker 3: that is kind of, you know, really come into the
7:51
Speaker 3: picture that have helped the story part of it. But
7:53
Speaker 3: I think the different alcohol brands, you know, again, whether
7:57
Speaker 3: they be bourbon or tequila or whatever, they all kind
7:59
Speaker 3: of to have a story behind them now too, and
8:01
Speaker 3: I think people are getting more interested in that. They
8:03
Speaker 3: want to they want to know there's a story behind
8:05
Speaker 3: what they're drinking.
8:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. How many units do you have now?
8:11
Speaker 1: And where is the change strong geographically? And I guess
8:14
Speaker 1: who's your core customer?
8:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, uh, sixty four.
8:17
Speaker 3: We just opened number sixty four this past this past Monday,
8:23
Speaker 3: And there's twenty one different states that we operate in.
8:28
Speaker 3: Very strong in the southeast, but we're you know, we're
8:31
Speaker 3: as far south as as Fort Lauderdale, as far north
8:34
Speaker 3: as you know, Ohio and western Pennsylvania, as far west
8:38
Speaker 3: as Arizona, so pretty widespread. And we've you know, we've
8:41
Speaker 3: we've already you know, have the proven portability with respect
8:45
Speaker 3: to the brand across all those different states. But I
8:49
Speaker 3: would say are the strongest part of the brand is
8:52
Speaker 3: is in the southeast, the Carolinas, Virginia, which is where
8:56
Speaker 3: we began back in back in two thousand in in Charlotte,
9:00
Speaker 3: North Carolina. As far as our customer goes, you know,
9:03
Speaker 3: it's it's everybody out there. I think I think the
9:06
Speaker 3: cool part about you know, I alluded to it earlier, uh,
9:09
Speaker 3: in being kind of in the middle of that fine
9:11
Speaker 3: dining and casual dining is that you know, folks from
9:14
Speaker 3: you know, the left side of the chart, are you know,
9:17
Speaker 3: are trading up for a little bit more money for
9:20
Speaker 3: a you know, a sexier facility, you know, elevated food.
9:25
Speaker 3: I think we focus a little bit more on the
9:27
Speaker 3: mechanics of service as well as the feeling of hospitality
9:31
Speaker 3: and you know ingredients that we use again that would
9:33
Speaker 3: fired grill. Our bar program, you know, is all handcrafted cocktails.
9:40
Speaker 3: So I think we definitely appeal to a you know,
9:44
Speaker 3: to an audience that is willing to spend just a
9:46
Speaker 3: little bit more, uh, for an elevated experience. And then
9:49
Speaker 3: if you think all the way to the right side
9:50
Speaker 3: of the graph with with the fine dining folks, they
9:53
Speaker 3: realize they're going to come to Firebirds And it's an
9:55
Speaker 3: incredible value because for a fraction of you know, that
10:00
Speaker 3: one hundred dollars check average, you can get you know,
10:03
Speaker 3: a very similar experience with some of the same nuances,
10:05
Speaker 3: but in maybe a more you know, approachable format.
10:10
Speaker 1: Great. How big are your units and how much they
10:13
Speaker 1: cost to build?
10:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, so our smallest units are somewhere between fifty one
10:19
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty three hundred feet, which is which is
10:21
Speaker 3: a little bit more of what we build today. And
10:24
Speaker 3: then we've gone as large over the course of the
10:26
Speaker 3: last two decades, as large as like eighty three hundred feet,
10:29
Speaker 3: but we don't, you know, we won't build a box
10:31
Speaker 3: that big now. Really, we've got two prototypes. There's a
10:35
Speaker 3: fifty three hundred and a sixty three hundred. The biggest
10:38
Speaker 3: difference is a private dining room. If we're you know,
10:41
Speaker 3: if we're in a market that's real close to healthcare,
10:43
Speaker 3: we think that there's you know, enough class a office
10:46
Speaker 3: to do a private dining room. We do that, but
10:49
Speaker 3: most of what we're building now is in that fifty
10:51
Speaker 3: three hundred about a seven hundred square foot patio. We
10:56
Speaker 3: look for somewhere between thirty and thirty three tables and
11:00
Speaker 3: dining room, and then you know, the bars and I
11:03
Speaker 3: size too. We've got you know, about eight tables typically
11:05
Speaker 3: in the bar, you know, plus the actual bar seating.
11:08
Speaker 3: And we've over the years evolved the patio from a
11:12
Speaker 3: true outdoor space with no lid to a completely enclosed
11:17
Speaker 3: space where.
11:18
Speaker 2: We can use it all year long.
11:19
Speaker 3: And then really through COVID, we learned that you know,
11:21
Speaker 3: people really you know, they they enjoyed, wanted those outdoor spaces,
11:25
Speaker 3: and that's really hasn't gone away. So we really haven't
11:27
Speaker 3: gone back to those fully enclosed patios, but it's sort
11:30
Speaker 3: of an evolution between the two. Now we've got you know,
11:33
Speaker 3: hard lids, we're spent a little bit money more money
11:36
Speaker 3: to soften up the patios with some really great landscaping
11:39
Speaker 3: around it. So we've we're not quite where we were
11:41
Speaker 3: twenty years ago, but you know, we don't have the
11:44
Speaker 3: completely enclosed space either. We've just created a really nice
11:46
Speaker 3: outdoor space and really from a cost to build standpoint,
11:50
Speaker 3: it just kind of depends on, you know, whether we're
11:53
Speaker 3: on an end cap or you know, or a ground up.
11:55
Speaker 3: But the beauty of the brand really not flying under
11:59
Speaker 3: the radar anymore, is that developers really want us in
12:02
Speaker 3: their centers, you know, versus the usual suspects and casual dining.
12:06
Speaker 3: You know, people are are looking for firebirds in the center.
12:09
Speaker 3: So you know, we're we're taking advantage of some of
12:11
Speaker 3: that additional t I dollars and you know, we're we're
12:14
Speaker 3: anywhere from from three to four and a half million
12:17
Speaker 3: you know, to build the to build the boxes.
12:20
Speaker 1: Is there any other uni economic data you'd like to share,
12:23
Speaker 1: au VS margins stuff like that.
12:25
Speaker 3: Au V's are approaching six million, Our store level EBITDA
12:33
Speaker 3: is north of north of twenty percent. Performance right now
12:38
Speaker 3: is great. You know, I'm sure the rest of the UH,
12:41
Speaker 3: the rest of the industry experienced a lot of what
12:44
Speaker 3: we did, at least in the very beginning of the year,
12:46
Speaker 3: with some with some really tough year over year weather
12:50
Speaker 3: delta stuff. But really the first half of the year
12:53
Speaker 3: we've spent you know, cawing back from that tough first
12:56
Speaker 3: five or six weeks. UH second half of the year
12:59
Speaker 3: have had some really good momentum. You know, we're positive
13:02
Speaker 3: same source sales, you know, load to middle single digits,
13:07
Speaker 3: and you're to date where we're positive UH same store
13:10
Speaker 3: sales as well.
13:11
Speaker 2: So it feels really good where we are right now.
13:13
Speaker 3: Black Box Comps tells us we're outperforming UH the casual
13:18
Speaker 3: dining set as well as polished casual, So it feels
13:21
Speaker 3: really good where we are where we are today. I
13:23
Speaker 3: think I think a lot of that has to do
13:25
Speaker 3: with I mean, everywhere you read and everybody you talk to,
13:27
Speaker 3: and frankly, every everything everyone's doing out there is all
13:29
Speaker 3: about value. We believe that you know, value is values
13:36
Speaker 3: an equation, right, I mean, it's it's it certainly is
13:39
Speaker 3: related to price, but it has everything to do with
13:42
Speaker 3: what you offer all year long, not just gimmicky you know,
13:46
Speaker 3: promotional discounts, and we try to do that all year long.
13:49
Speaker 3: I don't I don't believe that there's anything that we're
13:51
Speaker 3: doing differently today than we were doing two years ago.
13:55
Speaker 3: We've got some evergreen stuff on the menu that really
13:58
Speaker 3: screams value, and we may message more about that, but
14:01
Speaker 3: it's not you know, there's not thirteen ninety five you know,
14:05
Speaker 3: three course menus or anything like that. It's still you know,
14:08
Speaker 3: we don't want to jeopardize the integrity of the brand.
14:10
Speaker 3: We think we think the value speaks for itself.
14:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's no need to. I mean, you're performing
14:15
Speaker 1: by a pretty wide margin. Man. It sharp feels like
14:17
Speaker 1: and looks like, based on the black Box Intelligence data,
14:21
Speaker 1: that we were in a restaurant recession this year, right,
14:23
Speaker 1: So mid to low single a load to mid single
14:26
Speaker 1: digits into our sales competent is very impressive in this.
14:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's consistent, it's consistent with what we did
14:32
Speaker 3: back in eight oh nine. I mean, I think in
14:35
Speaker 3: those tougher climates, you know, again, when you're positioned between
14:40
Speaker 3: casual and fine dining, I think there's a certain amount
14:42
Speaker 3: of insulation there where you may have some guests that
14:47
Speaker 3: reduce their cadence during those times and kind of maybe
14:50
Speaker 3: move to the left into the more casual price point.
14:53
Speaker 3: But while that's happening, you have the folks that are
14:56
Speaker 3: going find dining more often that are reducing the cadence there,
14:58
Speaker 3: and they're coming to us. Whoever we may lose to
15:01
Speaker 3: the left, we're gaining from the right, And I think
15:03
Speaker 3: that's what's that's helped us in all of these different
15:06
Speaker 3: you know cycles that we're that we're that we've been in,
15:08
Speaker 3: and you know we'll be in the future. Let's face it, great,
15:11
Speaker 3: are you having any issues finding good locations now? And
15:15
Speaker 3: how many restaurants do you expect to open in twenty
15:17
Speaker 3: twenty five. The short answer to the first part of
15:20
Speaker 3: the question is is is no. There's a lot of
15:24
Speaker 3: really good real estate out there right now. We are
15:27
Speaker 3: blessed with a brand that developers are excited about. So
15:33
Speaker 3: while they're you know, it's competitive, you know, it's we're
15:37
Speaker 3: We've got a really good product that the developers want,
15:40
Speaker 3: you know, want us in, So, you know, I think
15:42
Speaker 3: that's that's that's a good place to be. We're going
15:45
Speaker 3: to open six to eight restaurants in twenty twenty five.
15:49
Speaker 3: We are we're fully baked at this point. All of
15:51
Speaker 3: the leases are signed and we're under development on all
15:54
Speaker 3: of those. And I would say it's you know, it's
15:56
Speaker 3: gonna be another eight and twenty twenty six as well.
15:59
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty six is about halfway done and we're already
16:02
Speaker 3: working on some twenty twenty seven sites. I think to
16:05
Speaker 3: get the best real estate, you've got to be two
16:08
Speaker 3: years out. I mean, I think that's that's the number.
16:12
Speaker 3: Construction timelines have gotten better than they were, you know,
16:16
Speaker 3: in the last two or three years, but they're still
16:18
Speaker 3: a little longer than they, you know, than they were
16:20
Speaker 3: five years ago. So I think if you're if you're
16:22
Speaker 3: out for a plus real estate, you've got to be
16:25
Speaker 3: you know, you've got to be two years out, which
16:27
Speaker 3: is where we sit today.
16:27
Speaker 2: It feels pretty good.
16:29
Speaker 1: And what percentage of new store gms are brought in
16:32
Speaker 1: from other five Birds restaurants.
16:34
Speaker 3: High percentage either the GM or the chef. We always
16:40
Speaker 3: try to have least one of those two, if not
16:42
Speaker 3: both be from another location, and if for some reason
16:46
Speaker 3: it's not possible, we will. You know, we'll hire a
16:50
Speaker 3: year out before a restaurant's opening to make sure that
16:53
Speaker 3: we can put that seasoning on them and they can
16:54
Speaker 3: spend that time in grade in a location, running a location.
16:58
Speaker 3: You know, even if it means absorbing some of the
17:00
Speaker 3: costs that the travel has, it's it's worth it to
17:04
Speaker 3: make sure that we have the right people. And that's
17:05
Speaker 3: that's that's what it's all about. You surround yourself with
17:07
Speaker 3: great people, great things are going to happen.
17:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, smart, Are you willing to share your employee turnover metrics?
17:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
17:14
Speaker 3: We are from a from a management standpoint, you know,
17:17
Speaker 3: we've always been kind of in that industry leading twenty
17:20
Speaker 3: percent number, and that's that's our target.
17:23
Speaker 2: Every year.
17:24
Speaker 3: We try to stay below twenty percent. During during the
17:27
Speaker 3: tougher years of COVID, it got a little higher into
17:30
Speaker 3: kind of the mid mid to high twenties, and right
17:33
Speaker 3: after that it's right back down into the low twenties,
17:35
Speaker 3: high teens, and then from an hourly perspective, you know,
17:39
Speaker 3: we kind of hang somewhere between the ninety and one
17:42
Speaker 3: oh two, you know, for for hourly.
17:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, those are numbers we're proud of.
17:47
Speaker 3: We spent a lot of resources, a lot of time
17:50
Speaker 3: on what I like to refer to as the holy
17:53
Speaker 3: trinity of success in this business, which is selection, training,
17:56
Speaker 3: and environment. And we spend a lot of time providing
17:59
Speaker 3: the resources to people to prepare them for the position.
18:03
Speaker 3: And then you know, we try to motivate and get
18:06
Speaker 3: people excited about working in a in a safe, high energy,
18:09
Speaker 3: high energy type environment.
18:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could stop. Those are great numbers. Do you
18:15
Speaker 1: have any Are you willing to share any of your
18:18
Speaker 1: plans to help drive scenes start sales growth in twenty
18:20
Speaker 1: five you know.
18:23
Speaker 3: We we're going to continue to focus on innovating that
18:27
Speaker 3: the guest experience, right. I think that what I what
18:30
Speaker 3: I would want to share is just back to the
18:32
Speaker 3: whole idea of I think we spoke a little bit
18:35
Speaker 3: about it when we were together either at Create or
18:38
Speaker 3: or r F d C. But the idea behind data
18:43
Speaker 3: and using data maybe more as information. I think over
18:49
Speaker 3: the course of the last quarter of a century, now
18:52
Speaker 3: that we've been open, we've collected terabytes and terabytes of data,
18:58
Speaker 3: and I think we thought we were on, you know,
19:00
Speaker 3: the cutting edge, but I don't think we really knew
19:02
Speaker 3: what to do with the data at the time. There's
19:05
Speaker 3: a lot of different silos out there that we're collecting it.
19:08
Speaker 3: We are spending a lot of time and resources now.
19:10
Speaker 3: I wish we would have started a little bit sooner,
19:12
Speaker 3: but I love the direction that we're in and what
19:14
Speaker 3: we're doing today. We're spending a lot of time and
19:17
Speaker 3: resources now aggregating that data and putting it in a
19:23
Speaker 3: more accessible format to help us make great decisions for
19:26
Speaker 3: the business. An example of that is marketing automation. You know,
19:31
Speaker 3: we're gonna know we already know, you know from a
19:35
Speaker 3: check detail standpoint, you know what Mike Halen loves based
19:39
Speaker 3: on what you come into the restaurant in order, you know,
19:42
Speaker 3: we build a profile on individual guests because you know
19:46
Speaker 3: you're you're a busy guy, and whether it's how we
19:50
Speaker 3: how we create the experience for you when you come
19:52
Speaker 3: in the restaurant, or how we market to you. There's
19:55
Speaker 3: no reason for us to you know, market to you
19:57
Speaker 3: with pictures of stakes and different things that we're doing
20:00
Speaker 3: in the restaurants. With Ribbi's if you're a vegetarian. So
20:04
Speaker 3: I think really digging into that and being a lot
20:07
Speaker 3: more efficient in how we market to people take them on,
20:11
Speaker 3: you know, a far more personalized journey, you know, versus
20:16
Speaker 3: just you know, same thing for everybody.
20:18
Speaker 2: You know, we're going to know that.
20:19
Speaker 3: You normally come in eight times a year, but you
20:23
Speaker 3: haven't been in, let's say, in ninety days, and we're
20:25
Speaker 3: going to be able to reach out and just remind
20:27
Speaker 3: you that we exist. It doesn't mean that you're going
20:28
Speaker 3: to get a you know, an email for a seventeen
20:31
Speaker 3: dollars stake. It means we're just going to say, hey,
20:33
Speaker 3: you know, remember we were part of your starting rotation
20:35
Speaker 3: and for some reason we fell off, so we want
20:37
Speaker 3: to remind you that we're here. So I think leaning
20:39
Speaker 3: into that automation, personalizing the experience, that's our loyalty program.
20:47
Speaker 3: I think there's there's an opportunity to differentiate yourself by
20:51
Speaker 3: having a loyalty program. But if it's the same as
20:54
Speaker 3: everybody else's and you don't find a way to personalize it,
20:57
Speaker 3: then it's not really a true.
20:58
Speaker 2: Point of differentiation.
21:00
Speaker 3: I think in the polished space, we've got to figure
21:03
Speaker 3: out ways to you know, make that loyalty program more
21:06
Speaker 3: about you know, being very specific to the individual consumer
21:09
Speaker 3: versus just how many points are you able to you know,
21:12
Speaker 3: to build and get a you know, get a free
21:14
Speaker 3: dinner or something like that.
21:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to your point, that's why we've seen so
21:18
Speaker 1: many chains have to revamper loyalty programs in the last
21:21
Speaker 1: year or two. Right, It's because they weren't working. They
21:24
Speaker 1: weren't differentiated for sure. Yeah.
21:26
Speaker 3: You know, i'd say probably the the other.
21:30
Speaker 2: Thing that we're leaning into. You know, when you when
21:32
Speaker 2: you think.
21:32
Speaker 3: About points of differentiation for Firebirds, you've got, you know,
21:37
Speaker 3: twenty years ago, the fact that we were in the
21:39
Speaker 3: Polish casual space was our point of differentiation. But you know,
21:42
Speaker 3: as we talked about earlier, there's there's so many more
21:45
Speaker 3: great brands that have joined the party. Now we've you know,
21:47
Speaker 3: we have kind of frankly allowed our our consumers the
21:51
Speaker 3: one that's shared with us. You know, what are you know,
21:53
Speaker 3: what makes us different? And I think that there's three
21:56
Speaker 3: main things. One is the fire that I spoke about earlier.
21:59
Speaker 3: It's you know, I think that there's other folks that
22:02
Speaker 3: that cook on a wood fired grill. I don't think
22:04
Speaker 3: anybody leans into it quite like we do with you know,
22:06
Speaker 3: not only the food, not only the beverages, you know,
22:10
Speaker 3: different parts of the facility, whether it's you know, really
22:13
Speaker 3: cool fire features that we have in the restaurant, will
22:16
Speaker 3: use charred wood and charred brick, and how we build
22:18
Speaker 3: the buildings, so we really lean into the fire. That's
22:21
Speaker 3: that's that's one point that we what we'll continue to do.
22:24
Speaker 2: The second is just.
22:25
Speaker 3: The whole idea of you know, elevated or extraordinary experiences
22:28
Speaker 3: and how we bring some of fine dining into a
22:31
Speaker 3: more cozy casual type format, whether it be you know,
22:35
Speaker 3: replacing your you know, your your martini glass with a
22:39
Speaker 3: chilled glass, you know, whether whether it be you know,
22:43
Speaker 3: a folded napkin at the table, you know, you know,
22:46
Speaker 3: certain things like that that are bringing just little bits
22:48
Speaker 3: and pieces of fine dining into the casual space. And
22:51
Speaker 3: then the third, which I think as a you know,
22:54
Speaker 3: as a father of four with my youngest being six,
22:57
Speaker 3: I think our affinity for families really is a point
23:01
Speaker 3: of differentiation, if you if you think about fine dining
23:04
Speaker 3: for sure, and really even the folks in the Polish
23:07
Speaker 3: casual space, I think we stand alone in the concepts
23:12
Speaker 3: that really lean into the family and have that affinity
23:16
Speaker 3: for families. And you know, whether it be our award
23:19
Speaker 3: winning Kids Menu that we've worked with Kids Live Well
23:22
Speaker 3: program in order to create you know, not only you know,
23:25
Speaker 3: great options, but healthy ones too. And then even our
23:28
Speaker 3: Kids menu itself talks a lot about the Firebirds values.
23:31
Speaker 3: You know, we talk about our I teach values integrity, trust, empathy, accountability, caring,
23:36
Speaker 3: humility and like so, as a dad, I sit at
23:38
Speaker 3: the table and my kids are opening up their little
23:40
Speaker 3: menu and they start talking about dad, you know what's
23:43
Speaker 3: humility and they're doing their puzzles, but it's bringing up
23:45
Speaker 3: cool conversation with parents. So you know, something that's that
23:48
Speaker 3: is that we're That's always been in our in our
23:51
Speaker 3: playbook and a big part of who we are and.
23:53
Speaker 2: What we do.
23:54
Speaker 3: But we're creating a or we have created a junior
23:57
Speaker 3: chef program that's in test right now in about fifteen
23:59
Speaker 3: resta as that you know, now you may be an
24:03
Speaker 3: Inner Circle member, which is sort of our loyalty program.
24:05
Speaker 3: But part of that Inner Circle member you as Mike Kalen,
24:09
Speaker 3: if you have two kids that is noted somewhere in
24:12
Speaker 3: your profile as well, So we're not only talking to
24:15
Speaker 3: you about steak that you love, but also the fact
24:19
Speaker 3: that you know, it's back to school season, and again
24:21
Speaker 3: we're personalizing that that experience and leaning into the fact
24:25
Speaker 3: that you know, we have that affinity for families.
24:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, very cool. I love that. I love what you're
24:30
Speaker 1: doing on the kids menu. That's it's really cool. And
24:33
Speaker 1: then obviously you know, I see your vest, our guests
24:35
Speaker 1: can't see you. But the Alex's Lemonade Standard partnership.
24:39
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, something that we are really proud of. We're
24:43
Speaker 3: about twelve years now, a little more than twelve years
24:46
Speaker 3: that we've partnered with Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, which is
24:49
Speaker 3: a national charity for pediatric cancer research. You know, just
24:55
Speaker 3: a perfect partnership for us. Obviously, it's lemonade. We sell lemonade.
25:00
Speaker 3: You know, they're amazing partners. They put the money to
25:02
Speaker 3: really good use, and you know, we like to say
25:04
Speaker 3: that we're you know, we're participating in helping find a
25:08
Speaker 3: cure for cancer, one cup at a time. You know,
25:09
Speaker 3: we've raised we've raised four million dollars over the course
25:12
Speaker 3: of the last twelve years.
25:14
Speaker 2: I'd like to say pound for pound.
25:15
Speaker 3: You know that we are we are one of their
25:16
Speaker 3: biggest partners and it's something that we're really proud of.
25:21
Speaker 3: H And frankly, we are team members as well as
25:24
Speaker 3: our guests really come along that journey with us. I mean,
25:27
Speaker 3: it's it's on our menu, it's on the kid's menu.
25:29
Speaker 3: It's something that we're communicating on a regular basis, and
25:32
Speaker 3: it resonates. I mean, people really think about Firebirds and
25:36
Speaker 3: als F as a true partnership. It's not something that
25:38
Speaker 3: we just picked to check a box to say that
25:41
Speaker 3: we're participating. It's something that our employees believe in and
25:45
Speaker 3: you know, they take a lot of pride in it.
25:47
Speaker 1: Aweso, man, the tchipp gears a little bit. How much
25:50
Speaker 1: inflation do you expect this year and how much price
25:53
Speaker 1: do you intend to take?
25:54
Speaker 3: I think it's the same story that you're hearing from
25:56
Speaker 3: everybody else out there. You know it's gonna be it's
25:58
Speaker 3: gonna be low single digit. It's fortunately, you know, over
26:02
Speaker 3: the last few years, obviously there's been you know, plenty
26:04
Speaker 3: of price that's been taken. We were probably a little
26:07
Speaker 3: bit late to the party over the last few years
26:09
Speaker 3: on how we took price partially because you know, we
26:12
Speaker 3: saw our traffic was was growing, you know, really aggressively,
26:17
Speaker 3: and we didn't think that there was a reason to
26:19
Speaker 3: I think we've caught up at this point, and you know,
26:21
Speaker 3: I'm comfortable with where we are. I would say twenty
26:24
Speaker 3: twenty five, we should expect somewhere between two and three
26:27
Speaker 3: and a half percent will probably be the number. That's
26:31
Speaker 3: that's that's what we're looking at as we as we
26:32
Speaker 3: finish up our plan for the new year.
26:35
Speaker 1: I don't know if you have any overlap with him,
26:37
Speaker 1: but I ran into Max Hoberman. I got to speak
26:41
Speaker 1: with him at our DC Super sharp guy. How was
26:45
Speaker 1: the partnership with Barnett Station gone to date?
26:49
Speaker 2: They're they're the real deal.
26:51
Speaker 3: We are really excited to be with with GSP and
26:54
Speaker 3: part of that family. You know, I've been fortunate to
26:57
Speaker 3: work with some really good private equity over the course
27:00
Speaker 3: of the last twenty years, from Angela Gordon to je
27:03
Speaker 3: Whitney and now Garnett Station. You know, you know some
27:07
Speaker 3: of the Garnett Station guys, So you know, I spoke about.
27:09
Speaker 2: Data a little bit earlier.
27:10
Speaker 3: You know, the it's it's great to have a partner
27:13
Speaker 3: that supports both our culture and has a great culture
27:17
Speaker 3: of their own. And it's great to have a partner
27:20
Speaker 3: that understands data the way that they do. And they've
27:23
Speaker 3: been really supportive, you know, with respect to the resources
27:27
Speaker 3: necessary in order for us to take that game to
27:29
Speaker 3: the next level. So it's been a it's been a
27:31
Speaker 3: it's only been eighteen months, you know, but so far
27:35
Speaker 3: it's been a great relationship.
27:37
Speaker 2: You know, all the guys are great.
27:38
Speaker 1: Matter.
27:38
Speaker 3: I just talked to Max, you know, late yesterday afternoon,
27:41
Speaker 3: and I'm sure I'll be I'll be talking to them
27:42
Speaker 3: probably over the course the next couple of days. They're
27:45
Speaker 3: uh you know, when the phone rings and it's whether
27:47
Speaker 3: it's Max or Jordan or Matt or Alex. You know,
27:49
Speaker 3: you see those you see those names on the phone,
27:51
Speaker 3: and you're excited to talk to them because there's it's
27:53
Speaker 3: always a good conversation.
27:55
Speaker 1: Good stuff. Man. All right, So what's your favorite order.
28:00
Speaker 2: Uh favorite order for for Firebirds menu item? Man?
28:04
Speaker 3: The the Cajun Cajun Rabbi. Hands down, it has been
28:07
Speaker 3: my favorite forever.
28:09
Speaker 2: You gotta go.
28:12
Speaker 3: Uh No, I think it's we had the chili rub
28:15
Speaker 3: it was at one point it was the chili rub
28:17
Speaker 3: Rabbi and it's kind of evolved into the Cajun, but
28:20
Speaker 3: that was my favorite of Morton's too to.
28:21
Speaker 1: Be Franks with man.
28:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, all grotten potato, all grotten potatoes with it is
28:27
Speaker 3: definitely uh is definitely the side. It's uh, it's it's
28:31
Speaker 3: good stuff. And I like to start dinner off with
28:34
Speaker 3: with a tequila cocktail and usually a glass of red
28:36
Speaker 3: wine uh with with the steak. And then certainly our
28:40
Speaker 3: our double black Diamond Martini is definitely our signature cocktail.
28:44
Speaker 2: You'll see that on every bar when you come in.
28:46
Speaker 3: That's that's twenty one days infused pineapple and pineapple vodka.
28:50
Speaker 2: So it's uh, it's it's good stuff for sure.
28:53
Speaker 1: We have similar food and drink taste, my friend. Thanks Steeve,
28:58
Speaker 1: thanks for doing this. Where can the audience go to
29:00
Speaker 1: find their nearest Firebirds and what social media platforms is
29:04
Speaker 1: the brand big on?
29:06
Speaker 3: We are definitely big on Facebook, Instagram.
29:12
Speaker 2: You know you can go you can.
29:14
Speaker 3: Go right on our website Firebirds Restaurants dot com to
29:17
Speaker 3: find your nearest location. Like I said, twenty one twenty
29:20
Speaker 3: one states, you know sixty four locations, so you know
29:25
Speaker 3: more than likely there's one somewhere near you, you know.
29:28
Speaker 3: And again, you know, we're polished, casual. There's a lot
29:32
Speaker 3: of different ways that our guests interact with us, whether
29:34
Speaker 3: it's whether it's traditional to go or delivery or catering,
29:37
Speaker 3: or brunch or lunch or dinner. A lot of really
29:40
Speaker 3: really good stuff out there, you know. I like to
29:43
Speaker 3: say that we're not you know, we're not special occasion
29:45
Speaker 3: where every occasion there's just a there's a little something
29:47
Speaker 3: for everybody, for a lot of different a lot of
29:49
Speaker 3: different opportunities to engage with the brand good stuff.
29:53
Speaker 1: And I want to thank the audience for tuning in.
29:56
Speaker 1: You like the episode, please share it with your friends
29:58
Speaker 1: and colleagues. Check back soon for a discussion with Tom Ryan,
30:01
Speaker 1: the co founder at Tom's Wide Bar.