Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Stephan Harman on Why FUSIAN Is Still a One-of-One Concept 16 Years In

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Stephan Harman on Why FUSIAN Is Still a One-of-One Concept 16 Years In · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. As you listen today, let what
0:17
idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
0:21
and today's guest cried on a drive home from Aspen.
0:25
He had spent 2 1/2 years working at a hotel, making Sunday sushi
0:29
parties with friends and realizing that the most
0:32
expensive thing about a sushi roll was never the fish.
0:36
It was the assumption that you needed a formally trained chef
0:39
to make it worth eating. He left Colorado not because he
0:43
had a business plan, but because a childhood friend spotted an
0:47
empty niche in downtown Cincinnati and told him to come
0:50
back. What followed was 15 years of
0:53
mistakes, momentum and a growing conviction that sushi could be
0:57
for everyone. Meet Steven Harmon, Co founder
1:00
of Fusion, a fast casual sushi concept he started in 2010 that
1:06
now runs seven locations across Ohio.
1:09
He also Co founded Pace Line Restaurant Partners, an
1:12
incubator nurturing the next generation of food concepts.
1:16
And he has set his sights on 100 Fusion restaurants in the next
1:20
decade, all without having ever taken outside money. 15 years in
1:27
and he is still building the thing he almost talked himself
1:30
out of. But before we get into all that
1:33
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All right, back to our guest today, the Co founder and CEO of
2:28
Fusion, Steven Harmon. Thanks for making the time to
2:31
Share your story today. Thanks for having me.
2:33
I'm I'm excited to be here. All right, so Steven, you
2:36
graduated in 2008 with a degree and entrepreneurship at a time
2:41
when those kinds of degrees weren't really a thing.
2:45
When you got to that stage, did you have a specific idea in your
2:49
head or were you just kind of trying to stay afloat and figure
2:52
out, you know, one day at a time?
2:55
Yeah. You know, I think, you know,
2:57
graduated College in 2008. Like you mentioned, 2008 was a
3:03
weird time to try to get a job. You know, you had the financial
3:07
crisis selling, you know, for another company didn't really
3:12
seem like something that was particularly interesting to me.
3:15
And, you know, I, I, I think I did what any person who wouldn't
3:21
know or didn't know what they wanted to do would do and moved
3:24
out to Colorado to do a little bit of skiing, do have a little
3:28
bit of fun, work with my friends, learn a little bit
3:32
about hospitality. And, you know, basically take a
3:34
victory lap, if you will, from college and say, you know, I
3:38
didn't, I didn't really have anything locally.
3:39
And I, I, I frankly was looking for a little bit of adventure.
3:45
And that took me. That took me out to Colorado.
3:48
And so you had some friends out there you like to ski, and you
3:52
found some work in what Were you working in a hotel or
3:55
restaurant? Yeah, so I worked at a hotel.
3:57
You know, our, our mission at, at Fusion is connecting people
4:01
through collaboration, culture and cuisine.
4:03
And you know, interestingly enough, I think that predated
4:07
Fusion. You know, I, my, my sister had a
4:09
friend who she had met through some friends.
4:13
And when I told her I was when I was interested in moving to
4:16
Colorado, she said, you need to talk to my friend.
4:18
He could probably hook you up with a job.
4:20
And I said any job will do. And I became what was known as
4:25
the as a Gant Man, which was a resort in Aspen called the Gant,
4:31
which is it's a great place, but was kind of a legacy job.
4:34
You know, it's kind of a little bit of a fraternity, if you
4:37
will. You know, this, this, this
4:39
resort was built in the 60s or 70s.
4:41
And the Gant Man position was responsible for being a bellman
4:46
for guests, picking people up at the airport, taking them to the
4:49
hotel, driving them around town. Every now and then you get a
4:52
family and that wants to go mountain biking or skiing
4:54
together. And so kind of a mobile
4:56
concierge, if you will, for, for, for our guests.
5:00
And, and I think one another neat thing about the hotel was
5:04
it was it's a, it's a, it's a condo as well.
5:07
So there were owners that would, that would lease the, or rent,
5:10
I'm sorry, rent out their, their condo.
5:12
So you had this mix of of transient guests and you had a
5:16
mix of owners who would come and enjoy their property.
5:19
And you just got to meet some really cool people from all
5:22
around the world and, you know, learn people's names, which I
5:26
think is always so important. And was this your first time
5:30
cutting your teeth in hospitality?
5:33
Of sorts. I, I, I worked as a caddy in
5:36
high school, you know, I worked in a, in a bag room at a local
5:40
Country Club. And, you know, I think that
5:43
service is just one of those things that, you know, when
5:46
done, when done from the heart, is it just gives you tremendous
5:50
joy, you know, making others happy.
5:51
And so, you know, whether it was college clubs or, or being a
5:56
caddy and performing a service on the golf course, I think it I
6:00
think it's always kind of been in my nature to, you know, make
6:04
other people's experiences more enjoyable.
6:07
So even from a young age when you were a caddy, it wasn't like
6:11
you got out to Colorado and there was some powerful mentor
6:14
that kind of showed you the ropes.
6:16
Yeah, no, it was, you know, I think it was, I think, I think
6:19
you to be, to be to be hospitable is probably to be
6:24
genuine as well. And so I think that it kind of
6:26
was something that just kind of lived within me.
6:28
And, you know, I just take so much joy in meeting other people
6:31
and learning their stories. So it really wasn't about a
6:34
formal training or, you know, going to school for hospitality
6:38
so much as, you know, tell me a little bit about yourself and,
6:41
you know, if you're interested, I'll tell you a little bit about
6:42
me too. I love that.
6:45
OK, so walk us back to how these Sunday sushi parties got
6:49
started. Yeah, So, you know, I was, I was
6:55
21 years old in a resort town. There's, there's somewhat of a
7:01
barter economy. You know, I'll give you a ride
7:03
to the airport if you hook me up for a dinner or no, if you, if
7:08
you could take my shift tomorrow so I can go skiing, that'd be
7:11
great. You know, typically at the end
7:14
of the season, there'd be raffles for hotel stays.
7:17
If you, you know, brought, you know, brought people in for a
7:21
concierge dinner to learn about a new, a new restaurant in town.
7:24
But, you know, total, total barter economy.
7:27
I had a friend from from New Zealand who owned a whitewater
7:30
rafting company and he'd be like, I got an extra spot.
7:33
If you want to come, just make sure you tell the guests that
7:35
began about it. And we so I think a lot of it
7:39
was, you know, just kind of experiencing other people's
7:44
other people's kind of day job. Aspen's tiny little town.
7:49
But at the time there were really four places to get sushi,
7:51
which if you think about a small town is a lot.
7:55
You could go to the grocery store, you could go to Nobu, had
7:59
a restaurant there, Matsuhisa. There was kind of the locals
8:03
place, which was Kenichi. And, you know, there was really,
8:08
you know, getting dressed up, paying a lot of money to go to
8:11
Matsuhisa or Kenichi or maybe sacrifice.
8:14
Fancy restaurants at the time. Yeah, very fancy restaurants.
8:17
And, you know, you might get a free drink from the bartender.
8:20
You might get, you know, a free edamame, but you know, you're
8:23
still you're still going out with friends.
8:25
And we it was kind of reserved for special occasions.
8:27
I mean, if it was your birthday, we'd get a group of friends
8:29
together, rent A room or you would go alone, right?
8:33
And you'd sit at the bar and, you know, maybe learn some a
8:36
thing or two from the sushi chef.
8:38
The other option was to go to the grocery store, which was
8:40
good for on the go, but really you kind of compromised.
8:45
You probably compromised a little bit of quality, but
8:47
really also kind of the unknown of when was this made?
8:49
What's in it? You know, how long has it been
8:52
here and maybe not getting exactly what you'd like?
8:56
And so, you know, we really, we would, we would try to use, you
9:01
know, Sunday dinners just as kind of friends.
9:04
You know, we, we were bunked up pretty tight, you know, in town
9:07
there's just not a whole lot of space.
9:08
And so, you know, we'd sometimes it'd be spaghetti dinners,
9:11
sometimes it'd be, you know, make your own pizzas.
9:15
But we went and got all this food from all these ingredients
9:18
from, from the local grocery store.
9:19
And there's a butcher shop as well where we got, we got our
9:22
fish from. And we just started kind of
9:24
making sushi, you know, and, and, and for no other reason
9:27
than it was different, right? You know, it's easy to boil a
9:29
pot of water and make pasta. You know, pizza feeds, feeds an
9:33
army. But, you know, there was there's
9:36
there's some novelty about rolling your own sushi roll and
9:39
trying to make it look nice. And I think that kind of caught
9:42
on, you know, how people are like, oh, you doing sushi this
9:45
weekend? Like, yeah, sure.
9:46
And then, like, it got into like, you know, why don't you
9:49
just go make your own roll? You know, And then people would
9:52
start making their rolls. And who made the best roll?
9:54
Who made the prettiest roll? Who who wanted cream cheese with
9:57
their tuna, who wanted avocado with their tuna, who liked it
9:59
spicy, who liked it sweet? And so, you know, really,
10:02
everybody ended up making their own rolls.
10:04
And, you know, we would just put them on a platter and and, you
10:07
know, probably drink some wine or some beer and, and kind of
10:11
let the let the Sunday sundown kind of come down and start our
10:15
week out fresh. And so, you know, I think, I
10:17
think it was never an intention for us to take that and make a
10:22
restaurant out of it. It was really just, you know,
10:25
trying to feed as many people as we could on a budget.
10:28
And so that that was probably kind of the genesis to at least
10:33
learning how to make sushi. And so was there somebody in the
10:36
group who already knew how to make sushi, or were you guys
10:39
using YouTube videos or what were you doing?
10:41
Yeah, Well, I mean, I think we learned a lot from sitting at
10:44
the bar at Kenichi. You know, I think, you know,
10:46
sometimes the chef would would come up and he he'd say, you
10:49
know, what do you want today? And you kind of have a
10:51
conversation about it. And you surprised me, right, You
10:53
know, omakase style. And so I think that we had at
10:58
least visual experience of like, you know, how how it works.
11:02
But yeah, it was probably a combination of maybe some early
11:05
YouTube videos and some, and some trial and probably more
11:09
trial and error than anything. You know, at at its core, sushi
11:14
is really about prep. You know, it's slicing your
11:16
fish, slicing your green onions, slicing avocado, finding fresh
11:20
produce, which frankly is, you know, I, I'd say the easy part,
11:25
I think the, the, the hardest part about the whole sushi
11:27
endeavor is making sushi rice consistently.
11:30
So, you know, you can, you can at least at home, you know, you
11:34
can make two different pots of, of, of rice and they turn out
11:37
completely different. How much you season them, how
11:40
much you mix them with, with sushi vinegar, even.
11:43
What kind of rice are you using? You mean there's so many
11:46
different varieties of rice. And so, you know, I think from
11:49
from a perfection standpoint, perfecting the rice, you know,
11:53
was always the hardest part and continues to be the hardest
11:55
part. And what can you say about what
11:58
you figured out the keep it stable?
12:03
You know, it's interesting. I, I think we, we've really kind
12:06
of gone full circle on this week.
12:09
You know, first of all, you get what you pay for so that you
12:10
know, it's, it's, it is always worth it to buy a premium rice.
12:14
You know, frankly, rice cooks differently in the summer than
12:17
it does in the winter, depending on the humidity in the air,
12:20
depending on the temperature that the water comes out of the,
12:23
the tap, you know, whether the crop was harvested this year or
12:27
last year, you know, you can, you can age rice like a, like a
12:30
wine. So some, you know, some chefs
12:32
prefer, you know, an older rice to a newer rice changes the
12:35
moisture content that's in the rice, broken kernel or broken
12:39
grains versus whole grains. So, you know, I think what have
12:43
I learned is, is it it always pays to to buy a premium rice
12:47
because the milling process changes from from manufacturer
12:51
to grower. And, you know, it's, you know,
12:55
even most recently we, we, we just actually completely
13:00
overhauled our rice, our rice process to become a more
13:03
consistent as we continue to scale.
13:05
And so, you know, through trial and error, I'd say, you know,
13:10
it, that that is the jet, you know, it, it is about being, you
13:13
know, buying, buying a great rice.
13:14
But also the Japanese philosophy of just perfection is in every
13:17
single nuance of, of, of the process.
13:20
And so you have to be really disciplined on, you know, how
13:24
much you wash it, how much you soak it, how much you, you know,
13:26
how long you cook it for, how long you let it hold for how
13:28
much you know, rice vinegar do you mix with it?
13:31
So it's, you know, it's, it's, it's about being precise.
13:35
So what's interesting to me is, and we're skipping ahead
13:37
obviously, but you've been doing this 15 years or so.
13:40
Do I have the timeline roughly right?
13:42
OK. And you're telling me that you
13:44
just recently did an overhaul on your RICE process?
13:48
I mean, you guys have been learning, tweaking, learning,
13:50
tweaking all along the way. And here you are, 15 years in
13:53
and something as foundational as the RICE you still found an
13:56
opportunity to do not a tweak, but what you called an overhaul.
14:01
Yeah, you know, the IT comes to consistency.
14:04
So when you have 7 restaurants operating as north as Toledo and
14:07
as South as Cincinnati and you know, it's, it's so interesting.
14:10
Even the water in Greene County is harder than the water in
14:15
Cincinnati. You know, you have, you have
14:17
things that you cannot control for.
14:19
You know, if it's, it's still, if again, the water's coming out
14:22
of the tap at a colder temperature, we have to take a
14:24
temperature of the water. But, but ultimately what it
14:27
comes down to is, you know, I wasn't happy with the
14:29
consistency we're getting with, you know, from restaurant to
14:32
restaurant. And, you know, our teams were
14:34
doing the best they could to follow our, our standards as,
14:37
as, as closely as possible. But, you know, inevitably there
14:42
were, there were, there were things about our, our, our rice
14:45
that just, we're not, we're not creating consistency that we
14:48
like. And so we actually went out and
14:50
founded a Japanese chef to, to kind of look at our rice process
14:54
and say, like, you know, we got to be able to do this coast to
14:57
coast. We got to be able to do this,
15:00
you know, consistently. And if there's one thing that's
15:02
important, if there's one thing that's important, it's that our
15:04
rice is perfect. You know, not having good rice
15:09
is like, you know, an ice cream shop without a can't, without a
15:11
cone, you know, you just can't serve it.
15:12
And so, and so we, we, we went through, we probably tried four
15:17
or five different varieties of rice.
15:19
We tried four or five different processes.
15:21
We tried to standardize some more of kind of the critical
15:26
control points of how long do we let it soak for how long, how
15:30
much do we wash it, how vigorously do we wash it?
15:33
And ultimately the outcome was like I, I've been keeping a
15:36
tally in my head as a, as I think I'm 10 and we just did
15:39
this, you know, two weeks ago, you know, it took us six months
15:42
to do something that, you know, has just seen the light of day
15:45
sick, you know, two weeks ago. And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm happy to
15:48
report that I think I've eaten at the restaurant 10 times and
15:50
I'm 10 for 10 on perfect rice. So, you know, it's, it's really
15:54
about, it's really about, you know, one, our, our, one of our
15:58
core values is Kaizen, right? Like our, our rice was never
16:01
bad. It just wasn't good enough.
16:03
And so Kaizen is this Japanese philosophy of, of continuous
16:07
improvement. So if we can just get 1% better
16:10
on our rice, if we can get 1% better, you know, on our, on
16:13
our, on our process, then the outcome will become much better.
16:16
And so we just felt that this was the right thing to do in
16:19
order to, you know, continue to create a consistent experience
16:22
at all of our restaurants. OK, so let's back up, Steven,
16:24
because I want to see, I want to go walk through how you got from
16:28
Colorado to Ohio and how this first location came about.
16:33
We mentioned in the intro that you're doing this drive across
16:38
the country and you know, you break down into tears.
16:41
So walk us through why were you coming back?
16:43
Why were you leaving Colorado? You know, it was, it was this,
16:47
this is interesting, interesting kind of paradigm shift.
16:53
You know, when I was a child, I would, you know, I was in Boy
16:57
Scouts as an Eagle Scout, you know, kind of that Colorado life
17:01
was in my DNA. You know, my, my, my parents
17:05
were super supportive, you know, go out, have fun.
17:09
I, I have, I actually have more family in Colorado than I do in
17:11
Ohio. And so, you know, it just kind
17:14
of was, I just felt home, you know, in the Colorado Rockies
17:19
and whether it was Aspen or any town in Colorado, just that felt
17:22
like home. And so, you know, I think that
17:25
it was that moment in time where I've been there for two years.
17:30
I knew that I was not going to make a career out of being a
17:33
bellman. I, I loved it.
17:37
But you know, I, it was time to get a quote UN quote real job.
17:41
I didn't even know what that real job was.
17:43
And I think that the opportunity was, you know, move home, you
17:48
know, start a business and, you know, try it.
17:52
And I think it was, I think I, I think I was, I was sad because
17:55
I, I was leaving the most beautiful place in the world to
17:58
go to a place that was so familiar.
18:01
You know, I was leaving the active lifestyle that I knew
18:03
that, you know, was so readily available.
18:06
You know, I had made a whole new set of friends, you know, from,
18:10
from all over the country that I wasn't going to see every day.
18:13
And, you know, I, I think that on the surface, I, I loved
18:17
everything about my life. You know, I, I really did.
18:21
And, you know, I just had this realization that like, this
18:24
chapter is probably over, you know, come out and visit, still
18:28
love to go visit, still have friends there, but, you know,
18:30
this chapter is over and I'm going on a different path than
18:34
than than most of my other friends that chose to stay.
18:37
And, you know, I, I think it was probably a little bit of it was
18:40
probably a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty.
18:45
You know, I had never worked in a restaurant before in my life.
18:47
You know, I was, you know, I was going to have to hire people.
18:53
I was going to have to, you know, probably fire people.
18:56
I was going to have to, you know, figure out how this
18:58
concept was even going to work. I was going to have to, you
19:01
know, find, you know, find what my place was going to be in this
19:06
in this new endeavor. And, you know, I think at the
19:10
time, I probably felt like a step backwards.
19:12
You know, I had so much momentum doing what I was doing.
19:14
But, you know, I had faith and trust that I was going, you
19:16
know, to create something bigger and better that would hopefully
19:19
afford me to come out there, you know, when I had my own family.
19:21
And so that, you know, that that was probably where the the tears
19:25
came in was mostly fear, Fear and, you know, in a sense of
19:29
closure. So when you're coming back, you
19:32
already have in mind what it is you're going to do when you get
19:36
to Ohio, you're going to start this business.
19:39
And so we kind of laid the foundation for the idea came
19:42
from, right these Sunday sushi parties.
19:44
But how did you get from a Sunday sushi party to I'm going
19:47
to open a restaurant that does this help us with that bridge?
19:51
Yeah, so I mean, I it really was this like, you know, you talk
19:53
about connecting people through collaboration, culture and
19:56
cuisine. You know, one of one of my Co
19:59
founders was was working as a commercial real estate agent in
20:02
Cincinnati and he kind of had this Eureka moment that was
20:05
like, you know, there's no sushi in downtown Cincinnati.
20:09
And you know, he he he's like, you know, Cincinnati is downtown
20:13
Cincinnati is the most heavily populated area from the hours of
20:16
nine to five in Ohio. You know, it's people come
20:20
downtown. They work at Procter and Gamble,
20:21
they work at Kroger. They work at, you know, these
20:23
Porch Porch 500 companies. And he said, you know, sushi
20:26
doesn't really exist down here in a way that people can access
20:29
it for lunch. He had met a chef and thought
20:34
that maybe they could open an all you can eat sushi buffet.
20:38
You know, that did not sound like something that was
20:40
scalable. It didn't sound like something
20:41
was fresh, did not sound like something was was, you know,
20:47
maybe going to appeal to the next generation, if you will,
20:52
because if sushi has to be one thing, it's going to be fresh.
20:56
And then and then we had to capitalize from 11, basically 11
21:00
to 3, you know, the lunch hours. So.
21:03
So really, you know, he had found this location.
21:07
It was 5000 square feet. It was it was 2 floors.
21:10
It was a former, it was a dilapidated former urban mall,
21:15
downtown Cincinnati Mall, Tower Place Mall.
21:19
This, this space had no business being a restaurant.
21:21
It had no infrastructure. It had a two-story fountain,
21:23
which we thought was pretty cool.
21:25
But but really, I mean, this, this place was, you know, I
21:29
think you could put all of our current restaurants inside this
21:32
space. It was so cavernous.
21:34
But you know, he had negotiated free rent for a year.
21:37
And I think after that it was like 1000 bucks a month.
21:39
And so it was like, it's very inexpensive for us to get
21:43
started and really try this, this this new concept out.
21:47
My other Co founder, Zach was living in in Columbus selling
21:51
mortgages. He came down 1 morning and he
21:54
said, this looks pretty cool. I want to be a part of it.
21:57
And, you know, showed up on Monday and said, let's do this.
22:00
And so really you had the three of us kind of arm in arm, you
22:03
know, working towards, you know, working towards this vision of
22:07
how do you make sushi in a fast casual environment, a place that
22:10
you want to work, that you can work, you know, that that has
22:13
great music playing, has fresh food, something a place you'd
22:16
want to eat every day. And you know, it, it, it really
22:21
was kind of a, a, you know, a, a combination of all three
22:26
personalities coming together into, into the restaurant.
22:31
And So what did it look like in those first days when you opened
22:35
up? What were you guys serving?
22:38
What were you seeing in terms of foot traffic?
22:40
Walk us through it. Yeah, Let's see what I got to go
22:49
so far back. The, you know, the walls were
22:52
basically painted by us. You know, the, the, the the sign
22:56
on the front door was hung by us.
22:59
You know, we were called Soho Sushi at the time.
23:01
We weren't even fusion yet. I think the, the name was
23:05
actually the last thing that we could figure out.
23:09
But you know, day one, we we opened, I still have a picture
23:13
somewhere of our first customer and, you know, to no fanfare.
23:18
We didn't do any marketing or anything.
23:19
We just kind of opened and we kind of let our, our hospitality
23:23
bug take, you know, take hold, you know, learning people's
23:26
names, learning what they liked about it, you know, talk about
23:29
vulnerability, you know, like, do you like our food?
23:32
You know, I think people could clearly look at us and see that
23:35
we weren't, you know, using our family heirloom recipes here.
23:39
You know, we're really trying to make something that people
23:41
really enjoyed. And so, you know, it, it, it
23:44
became a, it became a, a feedback loop with our customers
23:48
of, you know, if they like it or not.
23:50
The first day I think City beat magazine came in and wrote a
23:52
story about us, they said, you know, we've never had hot sushi
23:56
before. And we're like, oh, no, like we,
24:00
we're serving, we're serving steaming hot rice.
24:03
This is not going to, this is not going to go over well.
24:05
But they, but I remember the article said the guys were so
24:08
nice and so friendly that we're going to give them a month and
24:10
come back. And you know, after that day
24:13
after, after that, that article was published, we called her
24:15
friend Taka, who is in California, who's, he's a
24:19
manufacturer of sushi equipment. And I said, and we said, how do
24:22
we, how do we make this rice batteries?
24:24
Like I told you, you were going to need it.
24:26
It's going to be $13,000. I think we had $0.00 in the bank
24:30
and you know, Taka put the machine on a plane, flew in the
24:35
next day. And from then on, you know, our
24:37
rice was, was much better than it was day one.
24:40
And even like I said today we're still perfecting it.
24:42
But but you know, I think we knew it was working when we saw
24:45
the, you know, the return customers, right, the people
24:49
that came in maybe after not the great experience to see it, you
24:52
know, our improvements. But, you know, any restaurant
24:56
you ever go to, you know, must survive on on repeat business
25:01
unless you're in a hotel or unless you're in an airport or
25:03
something. And we must survive on repeat
25:05
business. And so, you know, it's really
25:08
about making sure that we were creating an environment that
25:10
was, you know, friendly, clean, and a place that people wanted
25:13
to come back. And so all of that came from
25:15
from kind of the feedback that we're getting from our
25:17
customers. So Steven, what was the rice
25:20
machine that they this guy flew out from California's $13,000
25:25
piece of equipment? What was it going to allow you
25:27
to do differently? Yeah, as you said on the
25:29
original kind of on the intro to the podcast, you know, a lot of
25:32
the expensive sushi historically here in the United States has
25:35
been due to the labor, you know, bringing, bringing in an
25:37
expertise from overseas. We we tried, we we did, you
25:42
know, a trial run of I guess I have to back up a little bit.
25:45
We did a trial run of trying to make sushi on the fly in a fast
25:48
casual environment, laying the rice out by hand, cutting it by
25:51
hand. And we just realized that we
25:53
were never going to create the consistency and speed that we
25:55
needed in order to really capitalize on it.
25:58
Downtown Cincinnati lunch. So I had found a a guy on the
26:01
Internet just threw some just threw some, you know, research
26:07
who who owned a company here in the United States.
26:10
So it was that was automating some sushi sushi robots.
26:15
So they had what we call a rice sheeter, which would essentially
26:20
print out a perfect square of rice with the perfect portion.
26:24
Not print. What do you mean by?
26:25
Print some some people call it a printer, some people call it a a
26:31
a sheeter, but basically it lays a sheet of rice down.
26:34
That's that's, you know, a perfect rectangle to fit on the
26:38
nori or the soy wrap. So does this machine cook it and
26:42
then good good. Question So we cook the rice
26:46
this this machine goes through a series of rollers.
26:49
So think of like a dough sheet or something like that.
26:52
You know that a bakery might use basically put in your, your
26:55
cooked rice. It goes through a series of
26:57
rollers and lays out a perfectly portioned rice rice sheet, which
27:03
is the the basis of every sushi roll.
27:07
And so we learned about that machine and then the other, the
27:11
other, you know, I guess technical pieces is, is, is
27:16
cutting a sushi roll. So in some sushi rolls are 6
27:19
pieces, some are 8 pieces. Ours are 10 pieces.
27:22
And so we had to find a machine that would allow us to cut 10
27:25
perfectly, you know, sized pieces every time.
27:28
This gentleman Taka, who, you know, also had also the machine
27:34
that service this and, and, but, you know, Japan, these are
27:37
largely used for schools, hospitals, you know, large
27:41
format food facilities. But for us, we basically took it
27:47
and said, we want to make a sushi restaurant using these.
27:50
So he, so he originally came out to show us these products and
27:55
he, he kind of winked and said, you know, you guys are going to
27:57
want the rice machine. I'm just telling you now.
28:00
And what's the rice machine? Rice machine perfectly mixes,
28:05
call it 20 lbs of rice with sushi vinegar and cools it off
28:10
in about 5 minutes. So, you know, traditionally you
28:13
want a sushi roll to be right around 98° body temperature.
28:18
When it comes out of the rice cooker, it's 212° because it's
28:21
boiling. And so, you know, I guess
28:24
historically or traditionally, you would see, you know,
28:27
Japanese sushi chefs put rice in a big large bamboo bowl and
28:30
maybe have a fan, you know, that they're that they're cooling the
28:34
rice down, mixing the, the sushi vinegar with it.
28:37
This automates that process. And so, you know, he kind of
28:40
winked and said, you're going to want this.
28:41
And we said, no, no, no, we'll figure it out.
28:43
We'll, we'll, we'll use the fan, We'll use the bamboo dish.
28:46
And he goes, OK, well, if you need me, call me.
28:48
And the next day we were like, we need you.
28:50
And he, he came and he gave us essentially the machine off his
28:56
back and said, I told you, we're going to need it.
28:58
And, you know, Tak has been, has just been a wonderful human
29:00
being to us. He was at my wedding.
29:02
He's taken us on tour, tour of Japan for a couple weeks and
29:07
really kind of shown us that what we're doing at Fusion, you
29:11
know, might not be the most traditional thing, but but in
29:13
many ways it is a very Japanese thing to make it accessible and
29:17
fun. And so, you know, Fast forward,
29:20
Fast forward, you know, 16 years, we, we have, let's see,
29:24
we have 5 minimum five of his machines in all of our
29:30
restaurants just to help with that consistency piece.
29:33
So let me see if I understand all this correctly.
29:36
A big part of what has made sushi so expensive is because
29:40
it's a labor intensive and a big part of that labor has been this
29:44
process of preparing the rice. And and so now these machines
29:49
that you have several of is one of the things that's allowed you
29:53
to help make your sushi more accessible to folks.
29:56
Totally, Totally. Yeah.
29:58
And then it's it's, you know, when you when you take the
30:01
ingredients of a sushi roll and just lay them out, you know,
30:04
it's not that dissimilar to what you might have for dinner.
30:06
You know, they're like, today we have sweet potatoes, we have
30:09
cream cheese. We have, we have chicken, we
30:12
have tuna, we have roasted salmon, carrots, avocados.
30:16
So, you know, most of the ingredients that go into sushi
30:19
really aren't that, you know, obscure.
30:25
So, so it was really about taking familiar ingredients,
30:28
showcasing them in a, in a fresh way and automating the pieces
30:33
that, you know, typically take a lot of, a lot of, you know, I
30:37
would say culinary experience. So we do, we do all the prep in
30:41
our restaurants to, to break whole ingredients down to, to,
30:45
you know, sushi roll or we also serve bowls, portions.
30:49
And then we, we utilize the, the technology to really help us,
30:53
you know, standardize not only the consistency, but also the
30:56
efficiency. You know, it, we can, we can
30:58
make, you know, this, this, this sheeter that I'm talking about
31:00
can, can pump out 150 sheets, you know, in probably 30
31:05
minutes. So you know, it's a, you know,
31:08
and then this, these aren't secrets, right?
31:10
These are right in front of you. When you come into our
31:12
restaurant and you walk down the line, you see these things.
31:14
Frankly, they're pretty cool Talking point for for first time
31:17
guests. So I want to go back to the fact
31:21
that you guys were able to open this restaurant without any
31:24
outside money. And I understand part of this,
31:26
right, because negotiated free rent for a year and then it's
31:29
$1000 a month after that. Even still, you've got to have a
31:33
little bit in savings to be able to, you know, buy the fixtures,
31:37
you know, get the equipment to buy the food.
31:39
Where were you guys getting those funds?
31:42
Yeah, so, so we, we have an Angel investor who was the the
31:45
father of my two partners put up the original money to paint the
31:50
walls, so to speak, and put, put the sign on the door.
31:54
He was the guy that we called when we said, Oh no, we need,
31:56
we, we need this, this piece of machinery.
31:59
And on credit to him, he was like, he's like, absolutely, you
32:03
need that. That makes so much sense.
32:04
And we're like, Are you sure? But you know, from there, you
32:09
know, it was, it was, you know, it was pretty rapidly.
32:12
We felt like we were on to something.
32:15
You know, we open, I think our second restaurant 18 months
32:19
later. You know, we, we had, we all had
32:21
a little bit of savings, you know, from, from, you know,
32:24
maybe call it high high school birthday parties and high school
32:29
jobs and, you know, maybe a little bit leftover from
32:31
Colorado. But, but we cashed out our, our
32:35
Iras 4 O1 KS and we basically used it as a down payment for a
32:41
second restaurant, which we were able to get the bank to listen
32:43
to us, you know, but it's, it's not always about the money to,
32:48
to open another restaurant. Sometimes it's about getting the
32:50
landlord to even listen to you, you know, being a 23 year old,
32:55
you know, LED company with no credit, no runway.
33:00
You know, sometimes it's about the landlord to, you know,
33:03
believe in you and, and you know, find you to be credit
33:06
worthy. So, you know, I, I think that,
33:09
you know, we, we've, you know, spent 16 years, I would say,
33:13
bootstrapping this through, you know, trial and error through,
33:18
you know, we've worked with the SBA, we've worked with
33:20
landlords. But you know, really the
33:23
catalyst was, it was that first, first investment.
33:26
You know, I think, I think we opened our first restaurant for
33:27
like $130,000, which, you know, I guess 16 years later sounds
33:32
like nothing. But you know, I think, I think
33:35
probably $50,000 of that was the sushi machine.
33:38
So, you know, we really, we really took a Midwest approach
33:42
to this, you know, getting this restaurant off the ground.
33:44
And I think that, you know, the best lessons are always the ones
33:49
that are hardest learn. So, you know, it's, you know,
33:51
we've, we've, we've made plenty of mistakes along the way.
33:55
You know, I don't know if, you know, the 23 year, 23 year old
33:58
me would have, you know, taken on investment and had 100 by
34:02
now. Or, you know, if you know, if 16
34:05
years later we're sitting here with seven really, really
34:07
awesome restaurants, what, what is the best path?
34:11
But I think that the path that we've chosen so far has really
34:14
afforded us to, to really build this thing, you know, with a
34:18
very solid foundation because we've been limited on the, you
34:21
know, on the capital side. You guys have just learned how
34:24
to be incredibly efficient. And so where did that second
34:28
location open up? First one was in downtown
34:30
Cincinnati. Yeah.
34:31
So my, so, my so, my partners and I were from, from Dayton,
34:33
OH. So it was about 45 minutes up
34:36
the road in Dayton. I had gone to the University of
34:39
Dayton and you know, which was about 5 minutes from our
34:42
childhood home. And they had built a building, I
34:46
don't know, maybe in 22,006 maybe and really didn't fill up.
34:52
It was right at the gateway of the university.
34:55
We, we knew about the, the property again, one of my
34:58
partners was a, was a commercial real estate agent.
35:02
And so he, you know, made a phone call and said, yeah, you
35:05
know, they've, they've had a little bit of trouble leasing
35:06
the space. It was again, 2008, you know,
35:08
there wasn't a whole lot of, you know, economic development in
35:11
the area. And we, we got what we thought
35:14
was a good deal 5 minutes from our, from our house and being 23
35:17
years old, you know, our friends were, some of our friends were
35:21
still in town. Our friends parents were still
35:22
in town. We could really advertise, if
35:25
you will, or market our restaurant to our hometown
35:27
community, which I think really, you know, was was was
35:31
invaluable. We always said that we wanted,
35:34
we always said that we wanted critical and loyal customers,
35:37
right. And so I think that going back
35:40
home afforded us critical and loyal customers.
35:42
Like if we had a bad day, if we had, you know, bad batch of
35:45
rice, they weren't going to hold it overhead.
35:47
They'd come back and we had the relationship where we can invite
35:50
them back. And I think that, you know, you
35:53
even take that theory of of critical and loyal customers and
35:56
you expanded out to Ohio. I think that, you know, the
35:59
Midwestern kind of approach is is there's there is a lot of
36:02
loyalty here and there is a lot of like I would say, moderate
36:06
personalities that allow you to, you know, kind of fail your way
36:09
upward. And you know, I think that, you
36:12
know, that second location certainly allowed us to, you
36:15
know, kind of trial and error a little bit more having two
36:18
restaurants. And then as we grew from there,
36:20
you know, we, we went and found our, our, our, our people who
36:23
are, you know, critical and loyal that we bit maybe didn't
36:26
know. Critical and loyal.
36:28
And so were these the folks that helped to steer you because you
36:32
guys started out with the rolls and then at some point you added
36:34
bowls? And how did that happen?
36:38
You know, I think it was a logical kind of menu expansion.
36:42
You know, one of the things that we noticed is, is when we first
36:46
opened is that females loved us. You know, it was, it was the
36:51
perfect portion for the, for the, for, for the, the female
36:55
appetite. You know, as we kind of realize
36:59
that, you know, as, as inevitably, you know, our
37:02
customer base grew, we, we kind of got some feedback that, you
37:06
know, maybe one role wasn't quite filling enough and two
37:10
roles kind of put you out of that price point.
37:13
And so, and then we, you know, and then we looked at our menu
37:18
ingredients. We said, well, these can be
37:19
served in a bowl. Poke was certainly kind of
37:22
growing as a, as a, as a segment, you know, you had other
37:26
fast casual serving food and bowls.
37:28
You know, we basically said, you know, people are craving our
37:31
fresh, fresh ingredients. It doesn't necessarily have to
37:34
be bite size sushi rolls. It could be a salad.
37:37
It could be, you know, a rice and salad mixed, you know, base
37:42
putting all the traditional, all kind of all the familiar flavors
37:45
of fusion into a bowl kind of allowed us to kind of create a
37:48
hardier, you know, meal option, helped with the dinner segment,
37:51
helped with, you know, the hardier eaters, you know, and as
37:55
you kind of play that forward, you know, I think we probably
37:58
did that, I don't know, 10 years ago, you know, you play that
38:02
forward. Sushi still makes up the
38:04
predominant, you know, mix of our sales, but it kind of gives
38:08
you another dining occasion too. So you might not want to roll
38:10
today. Maybe you're craving a bowl, but
38:13
you might want to roll tomorrow. And so, you know, it, it's
38:15
really given us, you know, kind of another vehicle to, you know,
38:19
to, to service customers appetite for lunch and dinner.
38:22
So I'm in Columbus, OH, I've actually had the pleasure.
38:26
It's just a couple miles from where I live.
38:28
You're a Grandview, OH, location.
38:31
I visited several times. And so I, you know, I can tell
38:33
listeners that those bowls, that's what I'm drawn to and
38:37
talk about hearty. I get typically 2 meals out of
38:41
one of those things. So it's a, it's a great value
38:44
and they're real tasty. And it's the kind of thing where
38:47
you go down the line and right, you, you sort of choose your
38:49
base, whether it's the rice or it's the salad or a combo of the
38:52
two, and you choose your protein.
38:54
And then there's all these other toppings, ingredients that you
38:58
can mix into it. Yep, that's exactly right.
39:02
You know, we, we, we, we say that we're Asian inspired,
39:05
right? And so like, you know, you're
39:07
going to we, we have a, we have a roasted chicken that we roast
39:10
in house that, that, you know, I would say in, in its pure form
39:15
is a pretty neutral flavor. But when you mix some of the
39:17
sauces and dressings that we have, you know, with it, you
39:22
know, you kind of have a, you know, Asian American fusion of,
39:25
of flavors in a bowl. And we can kind of take
39:28
advantage of some modern dietary preferences, you know, whether
39:32
it's gluten free, you know, watching your macros, you know,
39:36
eating Whole Foods. I think that's really where
39:38
we've been able to, you know, kind of stand out is, is, is to,
39:42
you know, serve, serve ingredients that maybe you can't
39:44
get everywhere else. I mean, again, most of what we
39:47
do is slicing and dicing. So these are mostly served in
39:49
their, you know, raw form. You know, we roast our asparagus
39:52
and we roast our chicken. You know, we, we put roasted
39:55
sweet potatoes on the menu, you know, during the cooler months.
39:57
But, but generally speaking, you know, we, we call it eating with
40:01
your eyes. So you walk down the line,
40:03
you're like, I like that ingredient.
40:06
I think that would go really well with my with my rice.
40:09
Yep, I can vouch. That's exactly what it feels
40:12
like. And so you guys, when you
40:14
started this 15 or 16 years ago, you were an innovative concept,
40:20
right? This kind of thing wasn't really
40:22
being done anywhere. Now, 16 years later, how many
40:26
competitors are copying what you guys do and nipping at your
40:30
heels? You know, it's interesting.
40:33
Sushi is, is more popular than it's ever been in the United
40:36
States. You know, we, we, we, we have
40:40
frequently, I mean, I have young kids, but frequently, frequently
40:43
we have 5 year olds, 6 year, 6 year olds coming in to to eat
40:47
sushi, you know, so, so sushi as a, as a, as a meal item has only
40:53
grown in popularity when I look across the kind of competitive
40:57
set, Of course, you know, you could probably throw any fast
41:00
casual restaurant, regardless of cuisine into the competitive
41:03
set. You know, you can even throw
41:04
grocery stores in into the competitive competitive set.
41:07
This these days with, you know, Whole Foods is a restaurant, you
41:11
know, in many ways. And so the the unique thing that
41:14
we do is, you know, custom, custom sushi rolls, 10 pieces
41:18
meal size sushi rolls. We really haven't seen anybody
41:22
doing it. I don't know if that makes us
41:25
still innovative and and and pushing the envelope or just the
41:28
only one who's who's who's really gone all in in it.
41:32
So yeah, I think that, you know, 16 years later, I'd still think
41:35
we're a one of one concept. You know, I think that as we
41:37
look to, to, to the future, you know, we're, we're so perfectly
41:44
set up for for delivery. You know, our food travels well.
41:47
It's not like a, a French fry, which, you know, if you put it
41:50
in a box and you put it in a bag and you put it in the car and it
41:52
gets there 30 minutes later, it's no longer crispy hot French
41:56
fry. You know, our, our product
41:59
arrives nearly identical to how it how it left our restaurant.
42:03
And so, you know, as you look at the proliferation of delivery,
42:06
if you look at the proliferation of online ordering, order ahead,
42:09
curbside pickup, you know, even even, you know, pick up windows,
42:14
which we have not gone there yet, but I think is a logical
42:17
expansion to a future, to a future prototype.
42:22
You know, our food just travels so well.
42:24
And I think that, you know, we, we continue to to, you know, in
42:29
many ways make sushi more accessible to to to the masses.
42:33
And, you know, I've always said, if you love sushi, you'll love
42:36
us. If you don't like sushi, you'll
42:37
love us. You know, I mentioned the six
42:39
year old 6 year olds eating sushi.
42:41
We have a peanut butter and Jelly roll, you know, and, and I
42:43
think that's a, you know, it's a, it's a good gateway into the
42:46
world. Peanut butter and Jelly like
42:47
inside of the rice is that. Yeah, exactly.
42:49
So, so this was a this was an idea of one of my partners who's
42:53
who's now wife went to summer camp and they would make peanut
42:56
peanut butter and sushi roll, peanut butter and Jelly sushi
42:59
rolls where they'd take essentially called a tortilla
43:04
and put peanut butter and Jelly, roll it up, cut it into little
43:06
spirals and call it peanut butter and Jelly sushi.
43:09
Well, we said, what if we use a soy wrap white rice, which is a
43:12
little bit sweet, put creamy peanut butter and and Jelly in
43:15
it, roll it up and cut it. And, you know, if you close your
43:18
eyes and eat a peanut butter and Jelly roll, I mean, it is, it is
43:22
one part dessert and one part the familiar flavors of your
43:25
childhood. And so, you know, it's, it's a
43:28
good, it's a good, you know, conversation starter, but it's
43:31
also a great, you know, we, you know, it's great for kids.
43:33
It's great for adults who feel like it.
43:36
Oh, that's fun. I wonder if I can get my kids to
43:38
try that. We're going to have to give it a
43:39
shot. So I love this story up to this
43:42
point, right? 7 restaurants, you guys, you
43:46
know, didn't take outside money. You're doing this, bootstrapping
43:50
the whole thing. But now you've got a pretty
43:52
audacious goal. You want 100 restaurants in 10
43:56
years. How are you going to do that?
43:59
Are you going to start taking outside money?
44:00
Are you going to franchise? What's the plan?
44:03
Yeah, I if I had that answer that you know, that the, the,
44:07
the, the fully baked out plan, I'd probably be there by now.
44:10
But you know, I think of what it starts with is perfecting the
44:12
model, right? So we talked about things about,
44:14
we talked about ideas like perfecting our rice and, and,
44:18
you know, making sure that, you know, our our model is
44:21
repeatable. You know, frankly, you know,
44:24
we've spent 15 years really trying to hone in on, you know,
44:28
having the right players on the team, you know, having the right
44:30
leadership in the restaurants, you know, having a good
44:33
expectation on financial returns of a, of a, of a restaurant, You
44:38
know, with delivery, as I was just mentioning, like, you know,
44:41
we don't need 12 restaurants in the market anymore because of,
44:44
because people are so encouraged to, you know, to, to get their
44:49
food delivered. And so, you know, it's really
44:51
about, you know, you know, how, how do, how do we strategically
44:55
position restaurants across a given market?
44:58
And so, you know, a lot of a lot of that goal is predicated on us
45:03
being able to show consistent returns and consistent
45:06
operations. And so I'd say over the last 18
45:09
to 24 months, we've just become really dialed on, on, you know,
45:14
on, on kind of quote, UN quote, the model as we look to grow,
45:18
You know, I think that, you know, franchising is certainly,
45:22
you know, a, a way to grow. You know, they're, they're this,
45:28
this much of the US economy has grown through franchising.
45:32
You know, from, from a small business standpoint, I would say
45:36
my, my preferred franchise, you know, would be someone who
45:40
operates restaurants and understands how to operate
45:43
restaurants. At the same time, I think that,
45:46
you know, you know, finding outside capital that can kind of
45:50
share in the risk, but also share in the reward and helping
45:53
identify future markets, you know, leave our home state of
45:56
Ohio. You know, I, I, I mentioned to
45:58
you earlier, we're a little seasonal, you know, through the
46:01
winter months here in Ohio. So, you know, what does it look
46:03
like if we go someplace more temperate?
46:04
What does it look like if we go into a, to a, a city that looks
46:08
and feels like, say a Columbus, OH, but with, with, with, you
46:12
know, a more consistent, you know, climate?
46:15
I think it, it is probably the logical next phase.
46:19
You know, ultimately I, I, I think if it works in Dayton, OH
46:22
and it works in Columbus, OH, it could work anywhere.
46:26
But these are testing grounds for restaurants.
46:28
Yep, absolutely. I mean, we're in Toledo, we're
46:30
in Cincinnati, we're in Columbus, we're in Dayton, you
46:32
know, yeah, I, I, I think that you, you, you open one up in
46:36
Nashville or Charlotte and, you know, you're, you're, you're
46:41
going to see a lot of the same type of people walking in the
46:45
door and enjoying our food. So, you know, I think I think
46:48
the first step is to is, is, is to, you know, find a partner
46:52
that that would help us kind of continue to prototype to
46:55
continue to build. So then we can have a little bit
46:58
more of a cleaner package if we did choose to franchise from
47:00
there. But ultimately, you know, the
47:03
the biggest driver for for growth for me is, is, is really
47:06
about our team. You know, you know, growing the
47:09
restaurant, you know, business can only happen at, at the speed
47:15
in which your team, you know, can, can, can continue to, to,
47:19
to grow. And so much, much of much of
47:21
kind of my purview on, on growth is having the right people on a
47:24
team that they can support the growth.
47:26
And so, you know, I have, we have, we have an amazing team.
47:29
Our, our restaurant operators are awesome.
47:31
Our team members are awesome. You know, if I never had to hire
47:35
someone from the outside, that would be amazing.
47:37
But you know, creating, creating career paths for for our team to
47:41
grow is is super motivating for me.
47:46
So say more about the team because tight labor market,
47:48
right, hard to find good folks, hard to hold on to them.
47:52
How do you approach that from, you know, a hiring a retention
47:55
standpoint? Yeah.
47:56
You know, one of my favorite questions as I'm going around
47:59
the restaurants is why do you work here?
48:01
You know, I mean, why, why do you why do you work here?
48:03
You can work anywhere. You know, you look across the
48:05
street and there's a Panera Bread, there's a Chipotle,
48:08
there's a, you know, any, any, you know, call it large
48:12
restaurant operators typically right in our front yard or
48:15
backyard. And I think what makes Fusion so
48:18
unique is, is, you know, we're not standing over Friars all
48:21
day. We're not sitting, We're not,
48:23
you know, standing over, you know, you know, large prep
48:27
lines, cook lines, you know, it's, it's a very clean
48:30
environment. People like working with their
48:32
friends. So I think that we have a, you
48:34
know, a pretty good team dynamic on the restaurants.
48:40
You know, it, it, it's a good question.
48:42
I, I would tell you that, you know, being a founder LED
48:46
company, being a small company, I think, you know, we're able
48:50
to, to, to move pretty quickly and, and, and pivot and, and
48:54
pivot pretty quickly and give people maybe opportunities that
48:57
they wouldn't find in other restaurants.
48:58
And so, you know, we have 15 years in and all of our managers
49:02
are saying we're still getting, we're just getting started.
49:04
And I'm like, yeah, that's exactly right.
49:06
You know, we spent 15 years building the foundation of this
49:08
thing. And, you know, if you want to,
49:10
you know, work on an opening team, when we inevitably go to
49:14
Charlotte or Nashville, that that starts now.
49:17
And so I think that the career path, you know, is kind of a
49:20
big, big fish in a little pond, right?
49:21
We're, we're a small company that's growing and, and, and
49:25
people see, you know, a career kind of honing their, their
49:29
craft in a sushi restaurant. So, you know, I, I, I think
49:33
that, you know, in many ways, you know, the, the restaurant
49:37
business has this, has this stigma that, you know, it's a
49:40
high turn of industry. I, I really couldn't agree less.
49:44
People don't really leave the industry.
49:45
They just go to another restaurant shop.
49:46
So our focus is on just be becoming a great employer.
49:50
So, you know, they, they find their home here at Fusion and
49:53
not, you know, chasing the next shiny object.
49:57
Shifting gears on you now, Steven, what's 1 of the hardest
50:00
things you've ever had to overcome personally, and what
50:03
did it teach you? Yeah.
50:05
You know, I, I think that, you know, it's interesting you, you
50:12
have this 3 legged stool, some people call it, you know, your
50:15
family, your business and yourself.
50:18
And you know, I, I've loved the business for a long time.
50:22
You know, I've, I've loved the, I've loved the business longer
50:24
than I've known my wife. I've loved the business longer
50:27
than I've known my kids, but I don't want them more.
50:31
I don't want them more. But you know, when you when you
50:33
have passion for something, it's it's sometimes hard to find that
50:36
balance of the three three legged stool, right?
50:38
You Kick It Out and you know, the the three legged stool will
50:41
inevitably fall. You know, and I think that one
50:43
of the hard kind of lessons that I've kind of had to live with
50:48
even recently is is, you know, just a life happens, right?
50:53
You know, I lost my father two years ago and you know that that
50:58
was, you know, it was an emotional time, obviously.
51:03
And you know, it, it was. How do you how do you give this
51:08
the space that you really wanted to have knowing that you also
51:11
have, you know, a business to run and a family to take care
51:13
of? And, you know, I think just
51:15
finding that that that that time, you know, some people call
51:19
it a clarity break just to kind of exhale a little bit.
51:23
You know, it's, it's, it's, it's really, it's really, I, I think
51:28
that so much of maybe the entrepreneurial mindset or, or
51:32
just career mindset in general is go, go, go, right.
51:35
It's just on to the next thing, on to the next thing, on to the
51:38
next thing. But taking time in a moment just
51:40
to appreciate, you know, life happening, you know, celebrating
51:43
some wins, you know, serving the ones that you love, taking
51:48
vacation. You know, it's like, I think, I
51:50
just think finding that time, you know, to just kind of
51:54
exhale, knowing that hard decisions are going to come,
51:57
hard moments are going to come. You know, people come into the
52:00
business, people leave the business, people don't people
52:03
end up not being who you thought they were, you know, and, and
52:06
you might have to, you know, separate or, you know, or, or
52:11
just, you know, kind of being a giver, you know, can, can
52:15
certainly, you know, certainly manifest, you know, I, I think
52:22
different, different, you know, outcomes that that maybe you're
52:25
not always aware of. And so I, I, I think just
52:27
balancing the entire, you know, kind of whole of life around
52:32
trying to run a business and have it be successful while
52:35
taking moments to kind of appreciate along the way is
52:37
sometimes just become, you know, you kind of get in this, this,
52:40
this mode that just, you know, is, is go, go, go.
52:42
And, you know, I think that anything is only worth doing if
52:46
you can enjoy the journey. And so, you know, taking those
52:48
moments in time just to stop, pause and say, you know, this is
52:52
good. So was the passing of your
52:55
father kind of a catalyst for you to think more about taking
53:00
the time to stop and breathe and enjoy all of these other moments
53:04
in life? Yeah, I mean, yeah, totally.
53:10
You know, I, I also think it's a, it's a reminder that I am a
53:14
father, right. And, you know, there's there's
53:17
also being being, you know, as as is present of a father as as
53:22
I can. But yeah, I mean, the the the
53:26
passing of time is the is this thing that is kind of an enigma,
53:30
but you're just enjoying it. And, and, you know, I think
53:34
that, you know, I think that, you know, just think that, that,
53:40
you know, just think that, that, you know, just recognizing that,
53:47
that, you know, there's, there's a, you know, that, that there's
53:57
a, there's a, there's a, there's a, what is it a commencement
54:01
speech that I love. It was at Kenyon University, you
54:04
know, it was called this is water.
54:07
And it's a story about this goldfish who's going through the
54:10
water and older goldfish passes these younger goldfish and says,
54:13
Hey, kids, how's the water? And they go and the kids go,
54:16
what is water? And I think that, you know, the,
54:20
the passing of my dad is recognizing that we're only here
54:22
for a short amount of time. Give as much love as you can,
54:26
enjoy every moment that you can because you know, it, it sounds
54:30
trivial, but you just, you just don't know how long it's going
54:32
to last. And so, you know, how do you,
54:33
how do you take a moment, You know, to, to really, how do you
54:40
take a moment to take a moment, but also trust, trust the people
54:43
that you've put in place to, you know, carry, you know, carry the
54:47
sail. If, if there's a moment in time
54:48
where you just don't want to or you can't, or, you know, you're
54:51
going to be away. And so I think that a lot of it
54:53
is just, you know, you know, has, has really put things into
54:57
perspective of saying like, you have a team, you know, we can
55:00
rely on the team. You don't have to be there for
55:02
everything. You don't have to, you know,
55:04
meddle and things that aren't important when, when there may
55:06
be more important things that don't even involve work, you
55:09
know, happening in your life. So in 2020 you Co founded
55:15
Baseline Restaurant Partners so that you could help to incubate
55:18
new food concepts. You're still at a stage where
55:22
you're focusing on growing your own brand.
55:25
Why take on this extra weight? Yeah, I mean, I think that
55:29
COVID, you know, was this moment for restaurants that was a
55:33
little crazy, just put put it lightly.
55:38
You know, you saw a lot of proliferation of, you know,
55:41
people who, you know, basically just had to try to figure
55:45
something out, right? So and people got furloughed and
55:48
they were like, you know, how can I make money during this
55:51
time? You had restaurants, vacating
55:54
spaces, You had you had dining rooms that were essentially
55:59
empty. And at the same time, there was
56:02
like this opportunity of like, how do we, when everybody else
56:06
is kind of like, you know, maybe, you know, hurdling a
56:10
little bit and kind of protecting how, how do you take
56:12
this moment to like maybe be a little, you know, just be a
56:17
little, a little bold and say, you know what?
56:20
We're, we're, we're just going to go the opposite way, You
56:23
know, And I think what, what really happened was, you know,
56:28
we, we had a, we have a restaurant in Columbus that that
56:32
is kind of bifurcated just by its very nature.
56:34
It's an old gas station service station.
56:37
So there's four garage bays that are kind of, you know, 2, the
56:40
garage bays point north and two of the garage bays point West.
56:45
And so there's kind of this natural delineation between the
56:49
space. And so we basically looked at
56:51
half that space, which sat big, you know, sat, which was our
56:54
dining room, which sat empty during COVID and said, how do
56:56
we, how do we turn this into a space that can continue to serve
57:00
food, that can continue to serve, you know, maybe a
57:03
completely different product? And during that time, we had, we
57:06
had met a, a young man who was making pizza out of his out of
57:09
his home and had, had, had a, had a, a list of miles long of
57:17
people who wanted to try his pizza.
57:19
And, you know, I think he was making four to seven pizzas a
57:21
night. And just the math wouldn't ever
57:24
really allow him to get through the entire list, you know, in a,
57:28
in a meaningful amount of time. And so, you know, for, for very
57:31
little for, I guess for at the time for, for, you know, very
57:37
little activity happening in in, in that part of the restaurant.
57:43
We said, well, if we put a pizza wet restaurant in there, then we
57:45
can help this young man, you know, make pizza.
57:48
We can help, you know, kind of be the call it backbone of of
57:51
the restaurant, whether it was, you know, payroll or insurance
57:55
or you know, the online ordering, the delivery delivery,
57:58
the you know, the the food vendors, you know, we can.
58:01
Guys have all this infrastructure in place would be
58:03
so helpful for him. Exactly, exactly.
58:05
And, and, and so, you know, we and, and I think there was a
58:10
little bit of altruism there too.
58:11
Is, you know, I mean, I didn't get into this business by
58:13
myself, you know, and someone took a risk on me and, and, and
58:16
my partners and, and, you know, said, you know, you can do it.
58:20
And so I think that that was, that was probably part of it
58:23
too, is how do we help others get into business knowing that
58:25
we were not an expert at pizza. We're not an expert at, at, at,
58:29
you know, other cuisines. We, we really just know sushi in
58:32
this format really well. And so, you know, I think during
58:35
COVID, it kind of gave people a, a test kitchen, a way to have a
58:39
place to go. I think was so important during
58:41
those times, you know, when, when, you know, kids were being
58:45
educated from, from their computer at home and no parents
58:48
were probably trying to work in the other room, you know, on the
58:51
Zoom call. I think that, I think that the
58:54
restaurant business was, was one of those business where at least
58:57
you still had a place to go. And, you know, we opened, we
59:01
opened Pete's restaurant in Clintonville and we opened a
59:04
chicken restaurant in a fried chicken restaurant in Dayton.
59:06
Both, both, you know, we, we, we supported from a, from an
59:10
infrastructure standpoint, but really weren't, you know, our
59:14
business plans, you know, they were, they were, they were young
59:16
people who wanted to get into the restaurant business that we
59:18
could help kind of support. You know, I would say during the
59:22
interim of what was COVID, we've since we're no longer in the
59:27
pizza business and we, we still have the fried chicken
59:29
restaurant in, in Dayton, which is, you know, it's its own, its
59:33
own, you know, operational, operational structure.
59:39
But you know, ultimately it, it, you know, the Paceline
59:42
restaurant partners was, was was really founded for us to
59:45
continue to, you know, maybe use some of our back end support and
59:50
help other, other restaurants, you know, get, get a start in
59:56
the time where, you know, restaurants were restaurants
1:00:00
were kind of in in limbo. Is this still in action today
1:00:05
or, you know, now that things have opened back up and we're
1:00:08
kind of back to more normal, focusing more on fusion?
1:00:13
Yeah, I would tell you that that that fusion is our, is our, is
1:00:17
our core focus. You know, Honey Bees chicken in,
1:00:22
in Dayton, it, it essentially shares a wall with, with our
1:00:25
fusion at the University of Dayton.
1:00:28
I, I will tell you, I think the chicken at, at Honey Bees is, is
1:00:31
amazing. It's, it's incredible.
1:00:34
You know, we, we brine it for 24 hours.
1:00:36
We have a, we have a proprietary breading, we have a spicy
1:00:39
breading. It's amazing, you know, and, and
1:00:42
it's familiar, it's a familiar food to a lot of people.
1:00:46
As we kind of look to the future, you know, I think we're
1:00:49
going to kind of use these two concepts as, as, you know, as,
1:00:53
as opportunistic as possible, knowing that fusion is really is
1:00:56
really our, our catalyst for growth.
1:00:58
I think it's on the leading, leading edge of, of, of, of
1:01:02
restaurant concepts. If an opportunity for honey bees
1:01:05
presents itself, we'll certainly look at it.
1:01:06
But we think that Fusion could be, you know, from a, from a,
1:01:10
from a growth standpoint really takes a lot of boxes.
1:01:14
Yeah. Steven, I've just got one more
1:01:16
question for you today. But before I ask that, I want to
1:01:18
do 3 quick things for the audience.
1:01:20
First of all, go to their website, fusion.com,
1:01:24
FUSIANFUSIAN fusion.com. And if you want to reach out to
1:01:31
Steven directly, you can find him, Steven Harmon Fusion on
1:01:35
LinkedIn. And Steven is spelled with an
1:01:38
ASTE STEPHANSTEPHAN Stephen Harman fusion on LinkedIn, and
1:01:46
we'll have links to all that in the show notes for folks.
1:01:48
And Speaking of the show, if you're enjoying it today, a
1:01:51
quick comment or review on your favorite podcast app goes a long
1:01:54
way towards helping others discover our show.
1:01:57
So I appreciate you taking a quick moment to do that right
1:01:59
now. And as a reminder, you can get
1:02:02
your QSR employees access to therapists, doctors and
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business is valued. Contact us today at AD MEC
1:02:15
benefits.com. So last question for you,
1:02:18
Steven. A year from now, what is 1 very
1:02:20
specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?
1:02:24
One specific thing I hope to be celebrating a year from today,
1:02:31
what's today, today's Saint Patrick's Day.
1:02:34
So I think that a year from now, I think we would have a, have a
1:02:39
second market identified for us to grow outside of Ohio and a
1:02:43
plan to do so. You know, I think we, we have,
1:02:46
we have the team in place. We're, we're, we're, we're ready
1:02:50
to go from up from a conceptual standpoint, it's kind of all
1:02:53
the, the pieces of, of identifying the new market,
1:02:57
looking at kind of a new prototype, so to speak of, you
1:03:00
know what, what is it? What is a fusion of 2027 look
1:03:03
like versus the fusions that exist today from a spatial
1:03:06
standpoint, from a market standpoint, accessibility
1:03:09
standpoint, I think that would be a huge win.
1:03:13
Can you say more about what it is that you're thinking of
1:03:17
changing in the new template? Yeah.
1:03:23
I mean, I think that, I think that we are so set up so well
1:03:28
set up for, for convenience, right?
1:03:31
You know, in a, in a world of, of dining auctions, what we, we
1:03:34
really thrive on, on convenience.
1:03:38
The, you know, if I go back 15 years, we opened a restaurant
1:03:43
that was 3200 square feet. You know, I, I think that we
1:03:46
could open a restaurant in half that space. 15 years ago we were
1:03:50
50% dine in, 50% carry out. So 100% of the customers had to
1:03:54
come into the restaurant to get their food.
1:03:56
Now you know, we're probably 15 to 20% dine in, 30% carry out,
1:04:02
30% order ahead whatever remaining port portion it, it
1:04:06
is, is delivery. And so, no, we, we really have
1:04:09
been able to, you know, find all these new kind of ways to
1:04:15
interact with guests where they are.
1:04:16
And so, you know, I think, I think the fusion of the future
1:04:19
is smaller. I think it's got fewer seats.
1:04:21
I think it's got a pickup window.
1:04:22
I think it's got, you know, optimize for online ordering.
1:04:26
One of the things that we don't want to sacrifice is, is just
1:04:29
that perception and, and the reality of how fresh our food
1:04:32
is. And so we feel that if people
1:04:34
can come into our restaurant experience, our team experience,
1:04:37
our, our, our freshness for at least that first visit, they may
1:04:40
transact with us online delivery through a drive through window,
1:04:44
picking up on the way home from work or or do a soccer game.
1:04:47
And so I, I would say that, you know, creating more efficient
1:04:51
spaces that allow us to kind of efficiently produce, you know,
1:04:58
officially make our product while our, our food, while also
1:05:02
kind of creating a, an infrastructure for, for multiple
1:05:05
sales channels would be, would be the dream.
1:05:08
Makes a lot of sense, right, The the way people are consuming at
1:05:11
restaurants has changed radically since COVID, which is
1:05:13
what you're alluding to with, you know, the percentage that's
1:05:17
now you know, take out to delivery, etcetera.
1:05:21
Yeah, yeah. And I think that, you know, I
1:05:24
think that when we inevitably get to a new, a new, a new, a
1:05:29
new market outside of Ohio, I think it'll be a, a very new
1:05:33
experience for, for, for the people who've not been able to
1:05:36
enjoy this yet. And so I still think that when
1:05:39
people come and enjoy our, our, our, our restaurant for the
1:05:42
first time, it's, it's a little bit of a Eureka moment that I
1:05:46
hope to share with people far and wide.
1:05:49
Fun stuff, Steven Harmon from Fusion.
1:05:52
I wouldn't be the first to thank you for sharing both your time
1:05:54
and your story with us today. I really appreciate you being
1:05:56
here. Thank you.
1:05:57
Thank you. I appreciate you having me.
1:05:59
It's fun. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:06:02
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:06:04
Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put
1:06:07
that into action today.