Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Scratch-Made Success: How Lauren Coulter Created a Biscuit Empire | Restaurants & Franchises Series

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Scratch-Made Success: How Lauren Coulter Created a Biscuit Empire | Restaurants & Franchises Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:03
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:07
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:10
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:13
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:15
today's guest is Lauren Coulter. She's the owner, integrator, and
0:20
chief biscuit eater at Biscuit Belly, a southern inspired, fast
0:25
casual dining concept that began in 2020 in Louisville, KY.
0:30
Biscuit Belly focuses on serving scratch made biscuits and the
0:34
unique brunch menu, bringing authentic southern flavors to
0:38
communities near and far. The company's mission is to
0:41
deliver memorable meals that unite people over delicious
0:44
food, all while nurturing a strong community connection.
0:48
Lauren's journey from pharmacy to restaurant ownership is
0:52
incredible, highlighting her passion for quality food and
0:56
dedicated community involvement. Her achievements include owning
1:00
previous establishments like Luvino, which quickly became a
1:04
local favorite. She's also celebrated for her
1:06
hands on leadership style. Lauren's story of transitioning
1:11
careers and thriving in the hospitality world is sure to
1:14
inspire you. Now before we get into all that
1:16
good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
1:19
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Add Back benefitsagency.com. Now back to our guest today, the
1:50
Chief biscuit Eater at Biscuit Valley.
1:53
Lauren, I appreciate you making the time to Share your story
1:55
today. Thanks.
1:57
It's a tough job. Somebody's gotta do it.
2:00
It's all about sacrifice, huh? Yep.
2:02
All right, So Lauren, tell us in your own words, what is Biscuit
2:05
Belly? Oh man, Biscuit Belly is an
2:10
incredible breakfast option that really pulls together unique
2:17
flavors, a really chef driven menu with the fast casual
2:21
concept. So we want it to be delicious
2:25
and we want to be able to get you in timely, so sort of in and
2:29
out quickly. You don't have to have this long
2:32
experience for it to be a great, you know, fulfilling experience
2:38
overall. So we focus down on big, hearty
2:41
biscuit sandwiches, and we have a variety of other options for
2:45
healthier, lighter eaters as well.
2:49
And so is this strictly breakfast?
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Does it go into lunch? Or do you have some lunch
2:53
options? So we focus down on breakfast,
2:55
brunch, lunch. We close around 22 to 3:00
2:59
depending on the day of the week.
3:00
So lunch we people. But you know, people come to us
3:04
because they love our house made biscuits.
3:07
So they're coming in. They know that if they're coming
3:10
in for breakfast or lunch, they might not need to eat for the
3:15
rest of the day, you know, maybe something like for dinner.
3:17
So it is a a full meal and it's a delicious one.
3:22
OK, I'm looking at the menu on your website here you got to
3:25
tell me what a bone nut is. Couple of things with the bone
3:29
nuts. So the bone nuts are just small
3:32
biscuits that we fry up kind of like doughnuts, but for us, you
3:36
know, on the backside of the, you know, curtain.
3:40
They're also a good way for us to avoid having waste.
3:43
So when we are cutting biscuits, you know, there's only a certain
3:48
amount of time that you can need dough before it gets overworked.
3:52
And so we cut out biscuits and then we do 1 refold and re cut.
3:58
But then there's all this excess dough.
4:00
So we use that to cut these tiny biscuits and that's what we use
4:05
for our bonus. Because something happens to the
4:07
quality of the biscuit if you were to take sort of those scrap
4:10
pieces and try to put them back together to make more biscuits
4:13
from it. Yes, it gets overworked.
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It's not the same, it doesn't rise.
4:17
So this is just a way as an operator to mitigate waste and
4:24
to also offer something sweet at the end of your meal if you if
4:28
you are so inclined. What would people find on the
4:31
healthier side of things? Because I mean, I'm looking at
4:33
your menu here and I, I wasn't hungry before we started this
4:36
interview. But I mean, there's, there's a
4:38
lot of really good looking and I love breakfast sandwiches and
4:42
you guys have a lot of great ones here.
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But if somebody's looking for something maybe a little bit on
4:45
the lighter side, what might that look like?
4:47
Oh yes, we've got three different omelets.
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One's a veggie omelet and that is one of my go TOS.
4:53
It's not our kind of take on it is an inside out omelet.
4:57
So have you ever gotten an omelet like in a big line like
5:01
at a hotel? And it's kind of has this weird
5:04
look about it. Like to me omelets often they
5:09
can look a little odd. And so my big thing was I just
5:14
don't want it to look like a weird hotel omelet.
5:17
And so we do this play on like an inside out omelet where a lot
5:21
of the ingredients are on top. So you feel that freshness of
5:24
those ingredients. We have one that's got our, I
5:29
believe some pork called the smoke show.
5:32
And then we have one more that is escaping me.
5:37
My other go to though is our bowls.
5:42
So you can kind of build your own breakfast bowl, but they
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have a base of either grits or our fried like our home fries.
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And so if you do grits, you can get vegetables all on it.
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I usually get an overeaty easy egg and some guacamole.
6:00
It is so good. So yeah, that's my those are my
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2 faves. And it looks like you've got
6:08
some interesting coffee drinks here too.
6:11
Oh man, so we, our coffee is so good.
6:16
I will say recently we did kind of a coffee and cocktail
6:21
overhaul and really tried to tap into a little bit more of what
6:26
the consumer is leaning into. So I'm sure you've seen in every
6:30
corner of the brown sugar shaken tap of drinks or we added in a
6:37
espresso martini, which is super fun.
6:41
We serve it in a rocks glass, you know, with a couple pieces
6:44
espresso beans on the top, and it's delightful.
6:48
Now you say martini. Is there alcohol in it?
6:50
Oh yeah. Yes.
6:51
OK, so you have a. Your locations have a liquor
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license. Correct.
6:55
So that's one of the differentiators of Biscuit
6:58
Belly. If you'll notice, some of the
6:59
bigger brands have recently started adding mimosas.
7:02
We go outside of that. So we are doing breakfast
7:05
cocktails, we do Bloody Mary that people come in for and the
7:13
espresso martinis, a couple other just like Tequila Sunrise,
7:17
only 5 or 6 alcohol or liquor skews.
7:20
Obviously we're based out of Kentucky.
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I don't think I said that, but so we have to have some sort of
7:26
bourbon Y drinks. So we definitely have our take
7:29
of an old fashioned and just some of those elements.
7:34
Alcohol overall only makes up about 7% of our mix of food and
7:41
Bev. But you know, it's really
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important because it differentiates us.
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And then also the cost of goods on alcohol are typically a
7:49
little better than others. Better margins on that, Yeah.
7:52
And it makes it a really fun weekend experience for folks.
7:57
A weekday? I don't know.
7:58
No judgments, Would it? No judgment.
8:00
Yeah, we typically have like groups of nurses, for instance,
8:03
that get off shift at 7:00 AM and they come in.
8:05
So we'll have for a while. And here locally we, I think we
8:08
still do it. We do this kind of early morning
8:10
happy hour just for kicks, and that's always fun.
8:14
That's a great point, right? A lot of people coming off late
8:17
shift like this is, you know, the equivalent of their happy
8:19
hours. So, you know, being
8:22
accommodating to those folks, too.
8:24
OK, So Lauren, you and your husband originally went to
8:27
school and worked as pharmacists, correct?
8:31
Now. Pharm pharmacist, that's a
8:32
pretty good job. Like what drew you sort of away
8:36
from that and into opportunities outside of pharmacies?
8:40
Pharmacy is a good job. It is a it's very tough and I
8:44
think it's probably one of the more undervalued elements of
8:50
healthcare that people can be pretty nasty now.
8:54
I worked in retail and I feel like that my many years working
8:59
there really set me up for a success on focusing down on the
9:03
customer and you know what, what they want kind of creating that
9:08
element of being a yes person that I think adds value to our
9:11
team overall. My husband took a job teaching
9:16
at a pharmacy school and so that was very different and he really
9:22
enjoyed it actually. But he, he just always had this
9:27
itch to do something else and to do, you know, something where
9:31
he's running his own thing. And so when we met, I mean, the
9:35
first night that he that we met, he said to me, someday I'm going
9:38
to own my own business. And I think at the time he
9:40
thought it would be a pharmacy on his own pharmacy.
9:43
But you know, as you grow and you, you learn a bit about
9:48
pharmacy, how, how the sausage gets made.
9:52
It's like maybe, maybe we'll stay away from that.
9:54
So we kind of ventured into these paint and drink places.
9:59
It's it was called Uptown Art and we opened two of those.
10:05
Those were great. As a new business owner, there
10:09
was a very low barrier to entry. So the pricing, everything was
10:13
very low. It didn't cost a lot to build
10:16
out the space. And again, I think the best
10:21
thing about that is it really taught us the element of
10:25
customer service and just creating a overall quality
10:29
experience. So if you've never been to one
10:32
of these, you come in and there's a teacher at the front,
10:34
like teaching you how to paint something.
10:36
And on Friday and Saturday nights, I mean, we would pack in
10:39
70 people and they're, you know, learning how to paint a
10:43
flirtily. Like, there's, there's everybody
10:46
in this city of Louisville has to have a Dang flirtily hanging
10:48
in. There.
10:49
My wife spent one of these. She loved me.
10:50
Had a glass of wine. Yep.
10:52
Came back with a painting that she had no idea that she was
10:56
even capable of. Yeah.
10:58
And the more people enjoy the wine, the better the paintings
11:01
get, you know? But really, people were coming
11:05
and they were drinking our wine. And to be candid, our wine was
11:08
not good. Like, it was just kind of cheap,
11:11
you know, whatever wine. And being in Louisville where
11:14
bourbon is so big bourbonism, you know, bourbon tourism is so
11:18
large, we really saw this space and this need for the one
11:25
focused restaurant that wasn't hoity.
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So a very approachable place where you could get a just a
11:33
glass of a $200 bottle if you wanted to.
11:37
So we opened Luvino and ultimately grew that to five
11:43
locations. And our differentiator there was
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we had, you know, in our heyday had 60-70 ones by the glass and
11:52
they were just each one. As we grew, they just got so
11:57
beautiful. You know, our first one was very
12:01
simple and we kept it, you know, neat and clean and just a very
12:07
simple layout. But then as we grew, adding in
12:12
some real character and elements of, you know, fancy was really
12:17
important. So we had two of those here in
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Louisville, two in Indianapolis area and one in Cincinnati.
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Through all of that, my husband was like, we should open a
12:31
biscuit place. And I was saying nobody in law
12:35
is going to want these biscuits. Like we're from Georgia.
12:38
We, you know, people here are not that country.
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And we started meeting with our chef from Louvino and just
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having kind of tastings, like fun tastings.
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And we started spending time like dealing with branding and
12:57
creating a name and a logo and what would this look like?
13:00
And you know, the colors and what are the things you want
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people to feel when they walk inside?
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Like Biscuit Belly was the first thing that we did where we took
13:08
a real forward thinking approach instead of just like, hey, let's
13:15
do this today. So it was really intentional.
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And the thing that I love is even though, you know, our menus
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have changed over time, some of those core pieces are are
13:28
staying, you know what, what we want people to feel when they
13:32
walk inside, kind of our personality.
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All of that has been set from the get go.
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And it really helps us as we're even just hiring and and firing,
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you know, it's kind of helped us around our core value piece.
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How can we be this authentic thing of who and what we were
13:54
and who and what we are in our core and still evolve.
13:58
So yeah. Let me ask a few follow up
14:01
questions on this, Lauren. So you, you and your husband
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kind of had the hankering to start something.
14:07
You know, when you first met him, even from very early on, he
14:10
said, I want to own my own business one day.
14:12
Thought it would be a pharmacy. You made the comment that once
14:14
you kind of see how the sausage is made, like what was it about
14:19
the pharmacy industry in particular that you were like,
14:22
thanks, but no thanks? Well, I worked for a large
14:26
insurance provider and like I transitioned from retail to a
14:32
large insurance provider. And when you just see the
14:37
reimbursement, for instance on medications, you know, you have
14:42
to really just pump them out to make any money.
14:46
There isn't any sort of dollar value attached for that like.
14:54
The service. Yeah, like the experience piece
14:57
or the engagement piece between you and your your customer.
15:02
And that's probably what troubles most people in
15:07
pharmacy. And to be candid, I hope that
15:09
nobody who's listening is in pharmacy school.
15:12
But I can't tell you how many DMSI get from people that were
15:16
in my pharmacy class or other pharmacists that are like, how
15:20
did you do this? How did you get out?
15:22
I went out and so I don't miss that element of it at all.
15:30
You know, I think, and I think most pharmacists get into it
15:33
because they want to help people and really you're just kind of
15:37
like a machine, you know, to to get the the meds out as quick as
15:41
possible. So it wasn't for me, it's for
15:45
some, it's for a lot of people, but.
15:48
It's just for me, understood you had other things that you wanted
15:50
to try and so you and your husband, you started one of
15:54
those, the Uptown art, one of the paint and have a glass of
15:58
wine. That kind of led to the idea of
16:00
opening up Lovino. Is Lovino still around?
16:03
We sold it in 2020, but it is still around some of the
16:09
locations they chose to open other things and some of the
16:13
locations and. So you've got Lovino, you've
16:17
got, what is it, 5 or 6 locations?
16:20
And then you're like, oh, this is going well.
16:24
Rather than opening more locations of this concept that
16:26
we've kind of figured out, let's shift gears entirely and get
16:29
into biscuits. Well, I think the thing there
16:34
was, so we opened two here in Louisville and then we opened a
16:41
couple in like 2 hours away and we really struggled with having
16:49
the right people to be able to have oversight and engagement so
16:53
that it didn't feel like we were two hours away.
16:57
You know, opening a brick and mortar place hours from where
17:00
you live is so much more challenging than you think it's
17:04
going to be. And I think we knew we can't
17:08
grow this anymore, let's try something new.
17:12
And then ultimately this was kind of like the newer thing.
17:17
My husband is always like thinking about what, what can we
17:20
do next? What can we do next?
17:22
And I have to reel now I reel that in like I'm like, no, no.
17:27
But at the time, you know, he was thinking about what could be
17:30
next. And we truly opened Biscuit
17:33
Belly thinking it could be something we would grow in those
17:36
same cities. But then once we kind of saw
17:39
the, the, what's it called? Just the unit economics of it,
17:50
yeah. The the financials, it looked
17:51
better for for biscuits than it did for Luvino.
17:55
And I mean, Luvino, well, biscuit belly became something
17:59
where we realized, hey, this is franchisable like the unit
18:03
economics made it so it has a lower barrier to entry.
18:07
We could grow, you know, essentially with other people's
18:10
money, we could bring in experts and then not be on our payroll.
18:17
They could be franchise partners.
18:19
And so all of that looked appealing.
18:22
And then the the concept itself was appealing, you know, from a
18:26
franchise lens. So additionally, Luvino was a
18:33
very expensive to open with 6070 wines by the glass.
18:36
You have pretty intense training.
18:39
And so we knew the value and having something that, you know,
18:45
essentially you could have somebody start working in on day
18:48
one, whereas Luvino, you really couldn't do that.
18:51
So just little things like that really matter, like they all add
18:56
up, you know, when you're making these bigger decisions.
18:58
So when did the first biscuit belly open?
19:01
In 2019 and. Also right before Covic.
19:04
Right before Covic, yes, May 2019.
19:07
May of 2019 How were those first 6-8 months before Kovid?
19:12
Hit oh, I mean they were awesome.
19:14
We, so we opened one in May and I mean two months in my
19:19
husband's like scouring, you know, trying to find a place for
19:22
another location. We found one and opened it in
19:25
December of 2019. So we had two, Yeah.
19:30
That's fast. It was very fast.
19:32
That was a second Gen. space, so it didn't need, you know, all
19:36
the build out work that often comes with opening restaurants.
19:40
It was previously a Zoe's, so had kind of a similar setup as
19:44
we were looking for with AQ line and everything.
19:48
So it was just kind of a nice, great opportunity to step into
19:51
that space and we could do it for cheap.
19:54
You know, a lot of restaurant tours that I talked to, they
19:56
opened one location and it's a grind for many years before they
20:02
kind of finally start to get things figured out.
20:04
Things are clicking for them and they're like, OK, now we can
20:08
think about opening a second location.
20:09
You guys went through that in a span of about six or seven
20:13
months of like, not only is this working well enough that we
20:16
would like to open a new one, but you actually got it opened.
20:20
Well, I think that that speaks to all the work that was done
20:26
prior to opening the first store.
20:28
Like I think that a lot of times people open a restaurant without
20:32
really figuring out who they are, what they want to be in
20:36
that space. And then, you know, I think if
20:38
you know those things going into it, it, it makes a lot of the
20:45
question marks very easy to answer.
20:49
So, you know, I'm not going to say it was all perfect.
20:52
You know, I'm sure like we had, you know, our cost of goods was
20:55
high and it, it wasn't ideal, but it was still making great
21:02
money. And I mean, we were having our
21:05
issue was we would have a line around the door, we would have
21:08
people driving by and they would see the line and be like, oh,
21:12
never mind, we'll go somewhere else.
21:13
So we're like, okay, we're going to, we're going to do this again
21:16
so that they can just, you know, divide and conquer here.
21:20
How were those first days? Like how did you get people in
21:22
the door the first time? I mean, it's it's one thing when
21:25
you've got that line going around the door.
21:27
Yes, you do have some people who are going to keep going, say I
21:30
don't have time for that. But it's also like very
21:33
eye-catching, great word of mouth like that place must be
21:35
good. We're going to have to put that
21:36
on our To Do List. But how did you kind of get the
21:39
the hype going in the early days?
21:41
I. Mean Louisville is such a foodie
21:43
town. People don't I don't think
21:46
appreciate that until they come and visit We have Sullivan
21:49
University is a big like chef maker here and a lot of great
21:57
chefs you know Michelin star or they've been on TV or you know
22:00
been on Top Chef. They are here in Louisville.
22:03
And so the restaurant community is also oddly tight.
22:11
So at our soft openings, I mean, other chefs are coming in, you
22:15
know, they're all friends. They they all like help each
22:19
other instead of it being like a a combative space.
22:24
It's kind of this everyone, if we help, everyone will do
22:27
better. And I really just and thankful
22:32
that we have that sort of environment.
22:34
It almost hurts you because if you were not on your P's and Q's
22:38
like on day one, then you get, you know, knocked around a
22:44
little bit. So we learned that with Loudino
22:49
opening, we thought, oh gosh, it's going to take forever to
22:52
get people in here and that was not the case.
22:54
So just a different, the more Biscuit Belly locations we open
23:01
outside of Louisville, the more I've learned like that's a
23:04
little bit unique here. In terms of people give you a
23:09
little bit more grace when you're first opening or you're a
23:12
little bit slower for people to discover you.
23:15
Know that they are ready to come, like they are looking for
23:19
the new thing. They want to be at, you know,
23:22
the new spot and they aren't sitting back and waiting for
23:27
some sort of marketing to come to them.
23:29
People are actively searching it out here.
23:31
And so I think a learning curve for us has been in a market, you
23:36
know, in a, a new market. Like we just open in Charlotte
23:41
where we had no presence in North Carolina and we're we're
23:44
in Raleigh. But that's far enough that it
23:48
was tough. But they, they've opened two
23:50
stores within two months of each other and really had to like,
23:55
OK, how do we get people in the door?
23:58
And then once we got that happening, you know, but we
24:02
really had to amp up our PR marketing efforts for those
24:06
locations just because we were the new kid on the block and
24:08
people were not searching out. Do you feel like that has
24:12
anything to do with maybe biscuit places are a bit more
24:15
common in the South? And so people are like, oh,
24:18
another biscuit place. Whereas you know where you guys
24:21
were in Louisville, this was a little bit new, a little bit
24:24
novel, like, Oh yeah, this is something cool, Let's try it.
24:27
100% I do think that's part of it.
24:29
There's other concepts that have opened that maybe the experience
24:34
is lacking. And so people will think, oh, if
24:37
this is the same sort of fast casual experience, I don't want
24:40
to go blow my money there. But then we are often called out
24:44
in reviews like don't go to X, go to Biscuit belly.
24:48
The experience is better. And so that really shows you
24:51
that's powerful. The difference.
24:53
Yeah, in what what people what people are saying and and just
24:59
the value of the experience, like we can't put a dollar value
25:03
on that, but how important we can put a dollar value on how,
25:08
you know, that Yelp review or that Google review, you know, So
25:13
I just think that piece us focusing hard on that is has
25:20
been the the thing that sets us apart and made us.
25:23
So very easy to get people into the door.
25:26
In your original Louisville locations, the two locations
25:29
you're talking about, North Carolina, it was a little bit
25:32
slower early on. Sounds like you guys tried some
25:35
marketing. What did you do that worked to
25:37
kind of help flip the switch there?
25:39
A. Couple of things we've, I think
25:44
one thing that worked for them was that they did open two
25:48
really close together, not in terms of location, but from a
25:52
time span perspective. And so we were able to to kind
25:58
of attack a bigger market and leverage those dollars probably
26:04
a little bit better. But really it is we do a lot at
26:09
Biscoe Belly leaning into the influencer piece.
26:12
I mean that has been really key I think in the success of a lot
26:17
of our stores. And then gosh, I mean, I think
26:24
having and working with some PR folks that are unique to an area
26:31
is really important. We've in the past used like
26:35
national PR brands and, and that's great and they do a
26:38
great, great job. But when you're opening
26:40
localized stores, like there is something about, you know the,
26:45
the anchor at the local CBS affiliate who knows this person
26:51
and works with them all the time.
26:53
And I think that really helped us that we shifted gears on that
26:56
front a little bit. Yeah, OK.
27:02
Tell me more about the franchise opportunity.
27:05
Sounds like very quickly you guys had some traction of your
27:08
own. You're like, oh, we're on to
27:09
something here. People love the food, they love
27:12
the menu, they love the the overall ambiance and the
27:15
experience. We're going to open up some of
27:18
our own locations additionally. But like we really are on to
27:21
something here. Like the way to really grow this
27:23
quickly is through the franchising model.
27:26
And So what does that look like? What?
27:29
Why is that something people should consider?
27:32
Well, for us, how do I even start this?
27:39
I mean, I think that when I think of challenges and yet
27:45
great outcomes, I mean, franchising is such a beast.
27:49
And people, how many times I've heard now people be like, I'm
27:53
just going to start franchising my blah.
27:56
And I am like, Oh my gosh, like there's so much.
28:01
It's a lot of work that goes into it, yes.
28:04
Huge legal expense, lots of processes to build out, got to
28:07
document. Anything, yes.
28:09
And I mean on one hand it is incredible.
28:14
You know, when you look at some of our operators, like we have
28:17
been lucky enough to partner with a number of franchise
28:20
partners who love working with early brands, early stage brands
28:25
and who are great at helping us. Like they know, OK, this isn't
28:30
working, what can we do? And they know they can come to
28:32
us and like we can figure stuff out together.
28:35
That's the beauty of working with a small brand.
28:39
But then there's also that challenge of like we're trying
28:42
to attract these really high level franchisees and we got to
28:48
make sure then that our systems would support would be something
28:53
that they would want to come to, right.
28:56
So it's, it's definitely been a challenging space to be in.
29:03
The best sales tool, the best franchise sales tool you can
29:08
have is your current franchisees.
29:11
And so ensuring that they have a good experience is paramount.
29:17
And you know, I think for Chad and I like Chad, he loves
29:22
working. He wants to work every second of
29:23
the day like that is his, he loves working.
29:26
And so he is always been great to respond quickly to, to be a
29:33
sounding board when needing, when needed.
29:35
Like he takes anytime a franchise partner calls, he is
29:38
answering that phone and talking to them.
29:40
And I think that has benefited us.
29:44
And then sometimes it, it kind of hurts us.
29:47
Like we want to grow bigger and faster and be able to have all
29:51
these team members to do all the things, but we have to be
29:55
fiscally responsible. So our team is pretty small.
29:59
I mean, it's me and Chad. And then we have AVP of
30:04
training, AVP of operations and a marketing director and that is
30:11
the core for all the functions of the work that we do.
30:14
So you know, time is our limited resource, so.
30:20
So for those folks out there who maybe they're looking for an
30:23
opportunity, they're considering some different franchises, what
30:26
do you think sets Biscuit Belly apart from some other things
30:30
they might be looking at? I mean, I think that first of
30:34
all, our just our time, our time like our breakfast and lunch day
30:39
parts, we can attract A-Team member or an employee base that
30:45
I would say is a bit higher, like kind of a higher quality
30:52
team member. Because the people who are
30:55
saying, yes, sign me up for a job where I come in and bake
30:58
biscuits at 6:30, like they're not going out and, you know,
31:01
getting crazy the night before. So we often have team members
31:05
who are moms who they love this because they can come into work
31:11
and then pick up their kid from school every day and be a part
31:14
of the evening activities. So I think that that piece has
31:18
really, it's really important, especially now post COVID where,
31:22
you know, work at home is such a thing that people want.
31:27
I think focusing on the team member experience, like the
31:32
people, the companies that are doing that are the ones that are
31:35
thriving. So that's one kind of value add
31:39
or value prop that we would have.
31:42
The other is that there just isn't a whole lot like there's a
31:47
lot of opportunity in this space.
31:48
I mean, we're not talking about pizza or hamburgers like.
31:53
Just not a lot of competition people doing something similar
31:56
to you. You guys are different from a
31:58
lot of the other opportunities that are out.
32:00
There and the ones that are there, you know, you've got some
32:02
awesome full service options, but they're, you know, maybe a
32:08
little higher price point. Sometimes people don't want to
32:11
do the full on, you know, sit service sort of feel so oh God,
32:16
I just feel like we've got a really good thing going with
32:20
with what we what we do, even just the people to run our
32:26
locations. I mean, the fact that we aren't
32:28
full service means that we don't have to have as many bodies, you
32:31
know, in the stores, so. And it sounds like maybe as
32:36
compared to other fast casual environments, maybe you don't
32:40
have quite the same level of employee turnover.
32:43
We don't. It is, I mean, fascinating to
32:47
me. I love that we have, you know,
32:48
team members. I was putting up a couple of our
32:51
team members anniversaries, like I just have like a big year
32:56
calendar for everyone to kind of see and here's everything
32:59
happening and I always put in anniversaries and birthdays on
33:04
it. And we've got four year and five
33:06
year team members. I'm like, good grief.
33:08
Like it really hits you hard that this is their, you know,
33:12
this is kind of a lifer brand because it's it does help with
33:18
that work life balance. You know, when our front of
33:21
house, I mean when they close at 2, they're often out by 2:30.
33:25
So I think and, and on weekends we close at 3:00.
33:29
If they're out like they, that means they can still go to a
33:31
friend's birthday party, you know, they can still do all
33:33
these things. So all of that kind of helps us
33:37
I think level up as compared to some of the competitors out
33:40
there. You know, I know one of the ways
33:43
that you kind of frame the experience there, Biscuit Belly
33:46
is kind of about Southern flavour, southern hospitality.
33:52
Can you talk about what that means to you personally, Lauren,
33:56
and how you kind of have that shine through the the brand
34:00
experience for the customer? Oh yeah, that has been the most
34:04
important thing. So biscuits is in our name.
34:07
We want people to know we make our biscuits from scratch every
34:10
single day. And so we're talking about in
34:14
the mornings, you know, they are making a small thing of dough to
34:18
get through a morning rush to give them time to make a full
34:22
thing of the I mean, it's, it is a process.
34:24
And a number of the things that we do in house, your jam is made
34:28
in house. Like so much of what we do is
34:32
literally made with love. And so in the last, the last two
34:37
to three openings that we've had, we decided to bring the
34:43
guest kind of into that experience by way of having a, a
34:48
window that they can actually see into our kitchen.
34:52
They can see and it's right in front of the biscuit maker's
34:55
station. And so, you know, when we were
34:57
going down this path, we're like, uh oh, what if some, you
35:00
know, a piece of hair falls and somebody picks it and, you know,
35:02
you're like, but it has been nothing but great.
35:07
It people like. Sorry, sorry Lauren, this is a
35:10
window that's inside of the restaurant where they can see
35:12
into the back kitchen or this is on like an an exterior wall.
35:15
No, it's inside the restaurant. So when guests are coming
35:19
through the queue line, they see that team member, you know,
35:23
rolling out the deck and punching the biscuits.
35:26
I mean, they they get to be a piece of it.
35:28
And on on weekends, especially when maybe the lines a little
35:32
longer are our biscuit makers will often like take dough and
35:37
kind of throw it at the window at kids or just try to bring in
35:40
that element of experience so that people know like this, this
35:45
is not just popped in an oven. You know, this is like made
35:50
fresh and we have to let them rise and then they go in the
35:53
oven. And I mean, it's a whole thing.
35:55
And if you're not, you got to time it.
35:57
If you let it overcook, it's no bueno.
35:59
So just focusing in on that piece I think has been key
36:04
because you're growing up, like my mom wasn't a big cooker, but
36:10
one of my best friends, her grandma did dot did dot.
36:17
She made fresh biscuits every morning, every single morning.
36:21
And so for me, you know, waking up in this country house and
36:25
getting up and running in there to, to get some biscuit like
36:28
that was Joy to me. And oddly enough, my friend's
36:32
mom was named Joy. That's funny.
36:34
But bringing kind of a piece of that, even though, you know,
36:39
maybe you're not running out, let's be honest, very few people
36:42
know how to make like homemade delicious biscuits.
36:45
And so if we could bring that element, you know, that's the
36:49
key, That's the food side. I think the experience side,
36:54
again, is just as important. I mean, it's so important
36:57
actually, when we met, we met in December to kind of look at 2025
37:02
and you know, we run on EOS. So we're we're doing our annual
37:08
off site and my husband is just like whatever he's into, I call
37:14
it gate. Like we had bacon gate for a
37:16
while, yogurt parfait gate. Now it's like experience gate.
37:22
And, and it's almost to the point where I'm like, Oh my dear
37:25
God, what do we need to do so that you feel heard and you feel
37:29
like, you know, we are acting on these things.
37:33
But I mean, his, he rolled it out to our whole system, you
37:38
know, on in the first week of January.
37:42
Like having somebody as a designated guest ambassador is
37:46
where he wants, like he wants it to say, Lauren guest ambassador.
37:50
And that'd be my only job. For for the entire company or at
37:54
each location. At each location, so as they are
37:57
deploying, you know, team members who are picking up food,
38:01
who are delivering your coffee, delivering your food, they want
38:03
to have a, he wants there to be a designated person and he's
38:06
willing to put the money, you know, pay for that person to be
38:11
the guest ambassador. So he wants them to come up and
38:14
say, hey, Anthony, you know, not just how was your experience,
38:17
but are you guys visiting? Are you around here?
38:19
Like have that kind of special touch.
38:23
And and so that's why I mean he's just focused hardened.
38:28
There is, I will say there is all sorts of data to show that
38:32
if there's some like stat that he digs into with us, like if
38:37
people have one bad experience, they are 47% less likely to go
38:42
back or something like that to a restaurant that says something.
38:46
I mean that is dollars. Like we've spent so much money
38:49
acquiring this new customer and then for them to not come back
38:53
for something that's avoidable is just nuts.
38:55
So really levelling up that. And then if for the last I guess
39:03
18 months now we in 23, we made this thing like no more systems,
39:08
no new systems. We're going to try to because
39:12
like when you start a business, you have 100,000 sales people
39:15
coming at you like, look, you could buy this and do this, you
39:19
could buy this, you could do this.
39:20
And ultimately you have to decide like that data or that
39:26
system is awesome, but I don't even have a person that can
39:29
manage it right now, you know? And so in 23, we really were
39:33
like, no new systems. And also what can we scale back?
39:37
And so we kind of systematically scaled back and we added one
39:43
system and it's called Ovation and it helps us speak to our
39:48
guest. So after you come in, you get a
39:51
text that just says, hey, two question or two questions.
39:55
How was your experience? And you rate it according to
39:57
emojis like frown, a :) down to a mad face.
40:01
And if it's a four or five, like a extra smiley or a happy, it
40:08
pushes them to leave a review. If it's a three or less than we
40:14
say what happened and it communicates that right to the
40:17
store operator and allows the operator to speak immediately to
40:21
that guest and to fix the issue so that then they aren't taking
40:27
to the, you know, Google Airways and blasting us.
40:32
The guest recovery piece is is so important.
40:35
And so that has been one of the best elements that we've added
40:41
over the last three years just so that we can talk more to the
40:44
guests. And it allows you to look at
40:45
like root things like what are we consistently seeing, where do
40:48
we need to input, inject some training.
40:52
It's really helped with all of that.
40:54
You know, I've never met your husband, but I feel like I know
40:57
him because I have many of the same elements in me, very common
41:04
traits. And lots of entrepreneurs that I
41:05
talked to, you know, you're, you're always coming up with new
41:09
ideas. You're always looking for ways
41:11
to turn the dials and tweak things on ideas that are already
41:14
working. I'm curious, does that kind of
41:19
parlay into the food experience? Like, are you guys always like
41:23
experimenting with new foods Or since you've been open for, you
41:27
know, a few years now, do you feel like the menu is kind of
41:29
set where it is? I feel like our menu is pretty
41:34
set, but I think we have to always have an element of seeing
41:41
and noticing what's around and leaning into it so that you can
41:45
stay relevant. Obviously a good way to do this
41:48
is through limited time offerings and we've had a
41:52
variety of those over the last three to four years.
41:55
And this is the first year where we're just like rinse and
41:58
repeating the ones that worked. So we we took a pretty
42:01
data-driven approach to the last two years of Lt.
42:04
OS and we're like, OK, what's skinny this down?
42:07
What, what were the things that were absolutely loved?
42:10
And we really are trying to just make that better now.
42:16
I love what you said just now about taking something that
42:20
works and and turning the dial a little bit, because that's a
42:25
really nice way of saying it. I mean, yes, my husband is a
42:31
classic visionary and I am a classic.
42:34
Like, no, it's fine, It's fine. I don't want to change it.
42:39
Like I want it to be the same. So it's a really good, you know,
42:43
this visionary guy with this like, what can we actually roll
42:47
out, push out? What do we have the bandwidth or
42:50
even the, you know, skill set to do right now?
42:52
Like we're really, I think that's what makes this a good
42:55
team. You know, and it's so important
42:58
and it can be very difficult to sort of find that balance
43:01
between the integrator and the visionary.
43:03
And especially when you, you know, it's a married couple, you
43:05
know who, you know, you're sharing your entire lives
43:08
together. And, you know, I, I've seen this
43:12
sort of play out in different instances.
43:14
And sometimes it can be helpful for that visionary to have a
43:19
hobby outside of work where they can kind of turn the dials and
43:24
tinker and, you know, kind of scratch that part of their brain
43:28
that needs scratched on a regular basis just to kind of
43:32
keep them from maybe fiddling with something that doesn't need
43:34
fiddled with. I literally I have come to
43:37
appreciate this more and more. Like in the last year, I'll
43:40
write my mother-in-law like notes and I'll say, well, Chad
43:47
wants to go buy this old car and, you know, tinker around
43:52
with it for two years and then sell it.
43:55
And I'm like, at least it's not a restaurant.
43:57
And then and then like, you know, we'll get an e-mail from
44:00
his dad. It's like, look at this old
44:02
Woody I bought like this old car.
44:05
And I'm just like, oh, he gets this honest.
44:08
But to your point, it does shift the gears a little bit in ways
44:13
that don't impact our team like it impacts me, but it keeps them
44:17
safe and. That's important, yeah.
44:19
You don't want to give them whiplash.
44:21
Sort of changing directions too. Oh yeah, and that's yes.
44:25
You know, Lauren, I, I understand that community
44:27
involvement plays a pretty big role in your business model.
44:31
I'm curious to hear how local partnerships have kind of helped
44:35
to shape the the growth and the culture there at Biscuit Belly.
44:39
You know, that's a great question.
44:41
I think that is something that we spent, you know, three years.
44:47
So we opened in 2019-2020 was COVID and I mean, just the chaos
44:53
that ensued there was, we were just treading water, little
44:57
ducks, you know, just, and it wasn't until about a year and a
45:04
half ago, year over a year ago, we were actually at our annual
45:08
meeting last December and it really became clear that we were
45:15
disjointed from a community involvement perspective.
45:19
And, you know, we would get asks and we'd give out gift cards and
45:22
we, you know, we, we'll do those things, but we were not being
45:26
intentional around any of our like, who do we want to align
45:30
with and what do we want to do? So we've spent some time
45:35
overall, when you talk to our team members, they like for us
45:39
to focus down on organizations that help with food insecurity.
45:45
So we've gotten a bit more involved with an organization
45:50
feed Louisville here and they, they have like a a waste aspect.
45:53
They'll come pick up your leftover food, but then you
45:56
know, some other kind of community giving aspects.
46:00
I think that has been really key in just the awareness of like,
46:07
hey, we're lucky we get to serve all these people, but they can
46:11
also afford to come in here and, you know, spend $25 on them and
46:17
and their partner for breakfast. So let's figure out ways that we
46:23
can help people that maybe can't do that.
46:25
And it's not always, it's not always directly through food,
46:29
but it's ultimately like food pantry food, you know, dividing
46:35
things up and making bags and like just things like that.
46:39
Getting involved with the, the community on that front has been
46:43
important personally, especially after COVID.
46:48
I mean, I was always the type of person to say yes to things and
46:53
always, you know, hey, can you be on this committee or can you
46:56
help put on this event or can you help?
46:57
And I would always say yes, yes, yes.
46:59
And then COVID kind of forced us all to like, shut it down.
47:05
And then I just became very particular about what I added
47:10
back. Does that make sense?
47:13
So now I feel like I do a whole lot less, but I'm able to give
47:19
more to. The more focused, yeah, your
47:22
efforts are more focused in that community involvement now.
47:25
You know, Lauren, we've we've sort of touched on this, I've
47:26
heard you mention COVID several times, but we haven't really
47:29
talked about what that was like for you guys going through it.
47:33
You know, March 17th hits, Everybody's got to close their
47:37
doors, figure out a different way.
47:39
What what did you guys do? Were you able to do curbside?
47:41
Were you able to to pivot at all?
47:44
Yeah, we were. It was not pretty.
47:49
You know, we my poor husband, you know, when you tell a
47:53
visionary like turn your brain off, I think that that like, it
48:01
was definitely some of the darkest times in our lives.
48:04
You know, and oddly enough, I had worked at this insurance
48:10
company for 9 years, I think, and I had scaled back to part
48:16
time years ago to just help Chad.
48:17
But in December of 2019, when we really were like, OK, we're
48:22
going to grow biscuit belly, I put in my notice for March, like
48:29
March 15th or whatever. Like I gave them plenty of
48:32
notice to transition. And my last day, they had a
48:39
lunch brought in. And that was the day that
48:41
everyone at that company got an e-mail saying we've had our
48:44
first employee with COVID, everyone go home.
48:47
And so they were literally like waiting on this lunch to come in
48:49
for me. And then everyone left and I
48:52
mean, they have not been back like in the same, you know,
48:57
since. So I left this, you know, great
49:02
job to basically just make sure my husband was OK.
49:07
Like, I mean, I could have probably stayed at that point,
49:10
but I was like, I need to make sure he's OK.
49:13
And, you know, it was like everything coming down one day,
49:16
you know, you can apply for this one day, you can do that.
49:19
And then, oh, the next day actually, no.
49:20
And oh, you have to have a million employees.
49:23
And yeah, it was just like the the communication was so
49:30
challenging. And then on top of that, again,
49:32
what I said like that visionary mind just being told like sit
49:37
down and shut up. You know, you can't do anything
49:40
right now. That was wild.
49:43
And so those were challenging times.
49:46
Now the one, there was two good things that came out of it.
49:51
Number one, I mean, prior to that we did not do any take out
49:54
like we didn't need to. We didn't want to take out costs
49:57
so much more because of all the paper and plastic and you know,
50:01
it, it requires even more time to put things in a box and put
50:06
that box in a bag and then get that to where it's going as
50:09
compared to just an order in a restaurant.
50:13
Additionally, when you're thinking about third party
50:15
delivery services, I mean these people, you know, they take 30%
50:19
of your, of your top line revenue.
50:21
I mean, it's just a racket. And so that was definitely a
50:27
struggle, but we learned how to then do this take out.
50:32
We learned how to do it well. As we started growing, we were
50:36
able to negotiate a little bit with some of these companies.
50:40
We were able to figure out prior to franchising, like how do we
50:44
how do we make this easy? Because at, you know, at the
50:46
time, DoorDash would send you a tablet and Uber Eats would send
50:49
you a tablet and you know, you'd have all these, this hardware
50:54
and it was such a pain to deal with.
50:56
And so we figured out, OK, we need to, we need to invest in
51:01
this space. We need to make it so that the
51:03
team doesn't have to have tablets.
51:05
It needs to be a seamless experience for our team members.
51:09
And so we learned a lot in that time.
51:13
We also learned, hey, throwing gravy on that biscuit and
51:16
sending it with a DoorDash driver for 25 minutes.
51:19
By the time the the guest gets it, it's like, but so we learned
51:27
the things that we needed to change to be, you know, to
51:32
function well in that space. And then the other thing was
51:39
that is really the time we spent developing the franchise stuff.
51:46
So we launched franchising in October of 2020 and that was
51:51
because we were pretty much able to to designate, you know, six
51:55
months to like that was the focus that became the the things
52:01
that we were going to work on. And so it allowed my husband
52:04
that like that sense of purpose, you know, kind of reinvigorated
52:08
that visionary piece. And so that was the only other
52:13
good thing that came out of it. I mean, even now take out still
52:18
2527% of our business like it's, it's not going away, right?
52:23
Things have shifted. It's it's a much bigger
52:25
percentage of most fast casual dining environments now.
52:27
Yep, for sure. So we talked about sort of this,
52:32
the particular challenge of COVID.
52:34
But maybe aside from that, Lauren, I'm kind of curious to
52:37
hear from you as you think back over your life, your career,
52:41
maybe a serious challenge, a different one that you have
52:45
experienced, overcome and what that was like and some lessons
52:49
learned going through it. I'd say one of the toughest
52:58
lessons for me was more around the people aspect, I think.
53:06
So when we opened Biscuit Belly, we hired a couple people that
53:12
were from Luvino, you know, had been with us for years that we
53:16
loved. And they're like, this is a good
53:19
cool opportunity for you to do something new and as a way to
53:23
elevate them. And I remember early on when,
53:27
when I went to a, a conference of sorts for like emerging
53:33
franchisors, this guy did a a talk and he was saying, look,
53:38
the people that get you to store four and five, they're not the
53:42
same as the people that can get you to store 30 or 40.
53:46
And I remember being like, whatever, like these people will
53:50
be with us forever. And you know, as you grow and
53:55
you realize, man, we don't have the A+ players, the A+ talent to
54:06
get us where we need to go, That is hard.
54:11
That's a hard reckoning. These are people that you care a
54:13
great deal about. They've given you everything
54:16
that they've got. Yeah.
54:17
Yes, and you do a lot of self searching because you like here
54:23
I'm almost setting this person up for failure because I'm angry
54:27
that they cannot accomplish XY and Z.
54:29
But they've never done that before.
54:32
So you know, there is internal struggles with that being an
54:38
early brand, early stage brand. How in the heck am I supposed to
54:44
get an A+ person who's done this before when they make, you know,
54:50
250 grand at these other brands? Like how, how do we do this?
54:56
And so there's a lot of that, like, OK, well, what can we not
55:01
have to afford something like that?
55:04
And I think all of that was really challenging.
55:11
I don't like, like, I hate. I do not like for somebody to
55:16
not like me. Like I'm one of those people.
55:17
I want everyone to like me. I don't have to be your favorite
55:19
person. But like, I would hope Anthony
55:21
would leave and be like men. That's a nice human.
55:24
You know, she's a good kind of person.
55:26
And I really, I was decent at holding people accountable.
55:32
Not great. But once I was having to really
55:35
hold people accountable to things that they didn't know
55:37
how, like how or what to do. I mean, that's on me.
55:42
I never gave them the tools to be able to accomplish those
55:46
things. So we had to go back to the
55:49
drawing board and really evaluate like what what can we
55:54
do? What do we want to do and what
55:56
can we afford to do? That Venn diagram is really
56:00
quirky. So, you know, we had to let go
56:04
of some people. Ultimately, it was the best
56:07
decision of both of our times. You know, when you look back,
56:10
you're like, we should have done that a long time before, but.
56:15
It's so hard and painful in the moment.
56:17
It is so hard. You've got a personal bond with
56:19
those people. Yeah, the people aspect is
56:23
definitely the toughest. Yeah, Lauren, I've just got one
56:27
more question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
56:29
do 2 things. First of all, everyone listening
56:31
today, I know that you love today's content because Lauren
56:34
has been a A+ guest. So please hit the share, like or
56:38
subscribe button on your favorite podcast app.
56:41
Lauren, I also want to let people know the best way to get
56:43
in touch with you. What would that be?
56:45
Yeah, I mean my e-mail. I answer my e-mail, you know,
56:49
lauren.coulter@biscuitbelly.com. I'm on LinkedIn.
56:53
I'll be candid. I get hit up by probably 50
56:57
salespeople a week. So it's hard for me to
57:01
differentiate the outreach if people write not a salesperson
57:07
or hey, you know, heard, you hear like I'll be like, OK, but
57:12
usually if I don't, you know, if it's it's past the first couple
57:15
lines and I feel like it's a sales pitch, I'm like.
57:19
Time's limited. Yep, you got.
57:20
It you. Got to find some efficiencies
57:22
there. Yes.
57:23
So we'll include a a link to your LinkedIn profile as well as
57:27
your e-mail address, laurenitsspelledlauren@biscuitbelly.com.
57:35
So last question for you, Lauren, I'm kind of curious to
57:37
hear what do you see are the big changes coming in your industry
57:41
in the next couple of years? I think the focus down on
57:51
experience is going to continue. Like I don't think that's going
57:55
to go away. This is hard.
58:03
Is there more of a movement to tech?
58:05
I hear some people talking about AI, are you guys thinking about
58:09
or leaning into that yet? You know we get.
58:12
We are not because we are so focused on experience, we are
58:16
not leaning all the way in to tech from a guest perspective.
58:22
We are leaning into it in ways that it'll help our team
58:25
members. But you know, how many times
58:29
have the people selling like the the things where people could
58:34
just walk up and order. I mean that is key that that
58:38
they, we are not that brand like that is not us.
58:43
I think anything that can decrease friction between US and
58:48
the guest is going to thrive. Anything kind of like Ovation,
58:57
anything where we can hear from the guests before, like hear
59:00
their anger or their sentiment prior to them going in, putting
59:05
it on review sites, I think those pieces will thrive.
59:12
I think that we're going to see more like consolidation, but
59:19
more from a like brands kind of closing and shifting into fewer
59:27
locations only because I think the consumer is willing to pay a
59:32
premium for quality. I think the days of like, I
59:37
think the days of like 2 for $2.00 stuff is dwindling.
59:43
I think people are like, what is that that I'm eating?
59:46
You know, and you know, I think that's where biscuit belly can
59:55
level up in. I mean we're, we are putting in,
59:59
we're we're purchasing. High quality product and yeah,
1:00:04
it's a higher price point, but you know, like what you're
1:00:07
putting in your body. I mean, people can literally see
1:00:10
you, you know, not making the sausage, but making the
1:00:14
biscuits, right? You've got that window now where
1:00:16
people can see what that process is like, Like, oh, that's
1:00:19
handmade from scratch, right? Right now, just right before I
1:00:22
put it in my belly. They can see us opening, you
1:00:24
know, getting bags of berries and putting it on the skillet
1:00:29
and, you know, cooking it down. And, I mean, they can see so
1:00:33
much of that. And I think that piece is more
1:00:37
and more important to the consumer, just knowing what
1:00:42
you're putting in your body. Yeah, for sure.
1:00:45
Well, Lauren, I want to be the first one to thank you for
1:00:46
sharing both your time and your story with us today.
1:00:48
I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
1:00:52
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:00:55
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:00:57
today.