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Velvet Taco’s Dover on Culinary Roots, Culture · Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence

0:09
Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping It Up.
0:11
Speaker 2: I'm your host, Mike hallon the senior restaurant and food
0:13
Speaker 2: service analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence. Our research and that of
0:17
Speaker 2: bi's five hundred analysts around the globe can be found
0:19
Speaker 2: exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal.
0:22
Speaker 1: If you enjoy the pod, open up.
0:23
Speaker 2: Your phone right now and give us a five star
0:26
Speaker 2: review on Apple or Spotify. Today we're joined by Clay Dover, CEO,
0:30
Speaker 2: president and taco maker at Velvet Taco, a chain specializing
0:34
Speaker 2: in culinary forward global tacos.
0:37
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me, Clay.
0:39
Speaker 3: You got it.
0:40
Speaker 4: Appreciate it you having me. Man.
0:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I'm glad we connected recently.
0:44
Speaker 2: You didn't You didn't know this, but you've been on
0:46
Speaker 2: my list of potential guests for a little while now.
0:50
Speaker 3: Oh you got only smart guys on here and smart women.
0:54
Speaker 3: I listen to your pod. I'm a big fan of
0:56
Speaker 3: you guys. Tell a friend this is where all the
0:58
Speaker 3: all the smart people come. So I appreciate you making
1:01
Speaker 3: an exception.
1:03
Speaker 1: You can't fool me quite Listen. We've done some stuff together.
1:10
Speaker 2: We did a panel together for our friends at black
1:12
Speaker 2: Box Intelligence. I know you hate it when people in
1:15
Speaker 2: the industry call restaurants stores or units. So let's see
1:19
Speaker 2: if I can go an entire episode without slipping up.
1:24
Speaker 3: Store is like the gap man. People people windows shop
1:27
Speaker 3: at stores. We're in the restaurant business. It's an experience.
1:31
Speaker 3: Bonds are made at restaurants. Restaurants are special places. So yes,
1:35
Speaker 3: it makes my skin call a little bit, but that's
1:37
Speaker 3: our I get it. I get it.
1:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I appreciate that. I appreciate that, and I you know,
1:44
Speaker 1: I write for a living though.
1:46
Speaker 2: You know, only someone can take to pump the word
1:48
Speaker 2: restaurant in empower units.
1:50
Speaker 3: Units Units are like widgets.
1:56
Speaker 2: All right, man, why don't you start by giving us
1:58
Speaker 2: a little bit of history about brand and tell us
2:01
Speaker 2: what attracted you to the opportunity back in twenty seventeen.
2:04
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, yeah, no, I mean look, Velvet Taco was
2:07
Speaker 3: started in twenty eleven by a couple of restaurant entrepreneurs,
2:11
Speaker 3: Randy Dwitt and Jack Gibbons.
2:14
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, no, they're great.
2:16
Speaker 3: They're with front Runner, They've started multiple brands. They're kind
2:20
Speaker 3: of serial entrepreneurs. Twin Peaks, sixty Lines they started back
2:24
Speaker 3: in twenty eleven, a little taco culinary forward concept called
2:29
Speaker 3: Velvet Taco. You know, it was chef driven. It was
2:33
Speaker 3: in a fast casual space, really ahead of the thinking,
2:38
Speaker 3: fresh to order and kick ass margaritas and crazy tacos,
2:44
Speaker 3: you know, chicken Tika, marsala, the original taco. I just
2:49
Speaker 3: had some crazy tacos on it. Here in Dallas is
2:52
Speaker 3: where they started. They sold you know, our margarita is
2:55
Speaker 3: at the again. A lot of the original things are
2:57
Speaker 3: still on the menu, made with Teqi the base, so
3:00
Speaker 3: kick ass margarita, this was what what we call them.
3:04
Speaker 3: They started at a WTF weekly Taco features, so at
3:08
Speaker 3: new Taco every week. So the original chef, chef John Frankie,
3:12
Speaker 3: just kind of came up with these crazy culinary ideas.
3:16
Speaker 3: It started out slowly, but guests started catching on. They
3:20
Speaker 3: opened a few more and at four restaurants. In late
3:23
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen early twenty seventeen, they sold the brand to
3:28
Speaker 3: EL Catterton and you know, kind of the startup arm
3:33
Speaker 3: of L. Catterton. And that's when they brought me in
3:37
Speaker 3: at that acquisition to help write the next chapter of growth.
3:41
Speaker 3: My role was basically to scale the brand and then
3:44
Speaker 3: we started opening restaurants and expanding and in late twenty
3:49
Speaker 3: twenty one, we had a strategic sale to some great
3:51
Speaker 3: partners Lenda Green, Leonard Green Partners out of California. Catterton
3:55
Speaker 3: stayed on one with the Front Frontner Group and today
3:58
Speaker 3: we have fifty two total restaurants domestically, it's been a
4:04
Speaker 3: great ride. Forty eight of those are company owned. We
4:07
Speaker 3: have four license agreements. We've got an airport location with
4:12
Speaker 3: our partners of Latrone's in Houston. We've got a casino location,
4:15
Speaker 3: and the original founders have a couple of locations. So
4:18
Speaker 3: we're in eight cities, big cities Dallas, Nashville, Benex, Houston,
4:23
Speaker 3: and Austin, and they continue to grow. We've growne about
4:26
Speaker 3: twenty percent annually, kind of very steady, consistent strategic growth.
4:32
Speaker 4: And this fall will open up in London.
4:35
Speaker 3: So we'll start an international growth plan. We've got some
4:38
Speaker 3: other big air force lined up like Dallas, DFW, Houston International,
4:43
Speaker 3: et cetera. And look, it's an awesome fun brand, lots
4:47
Speaker 3: of culture, lots of excitement, lots of innovation. We do
4:51
Speaker 3: crazy tacos. I mean the beauty is is that you
4:54
Speaker 3: can do anything in the taco. I just put in
4:57
Speaker 3: a tortilla we've been lasagna, taco, We've got we've done Lambshashuka,
5:03
Speaker 3: We've done all kinds of things with our tacos, And
5:06
Speaker 3: so what attracted me that the brand was just kind
5:10
Speaker 3: of forward thinking around culinary. You know, I've always been
5:14
Speaker 3: a big fan. You know, I spent seven plus years
5:17
Speaker 3: at Raising Canes establishing that brand and growing it to
5:21
Speaker 3: two hundred plus restaurants. The ability to take some of
5:25
Speaker 3: those learnings and put those into play with a brand
5:29
Speaker 3: so special as well the taco to partner with great
5:33
Speaker 3: private equity group, both Al Catterton and Leonard Green Partners,
5:37
Speaker 3: has been phenomenal. And just to grow the brand has
5:40
Speaker 3: been great. We've got a great team, we've got a
5:43
Speaker 3: great brand, and yeah, it's just been a great, a
5:46
Speaker 3: great time here and you know, I feel blessed to
5:49
Speaker 3: be able to be part of it and to be
5:51
Speaker 3: able to be.
5:51
Speaker 4: Part of the ride.
5:53
Speaker 1: Very cool. How have you put your stamp on the
5:55
Speaker 1: on the culture of Velvet Talk?
5:58
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, look, culture's got to be intentional, I think,
6:04
Speaker 3: you know, with with everything, like culture is everything. I think,
6:11
Speaker 3: like when I look back, you know at places where
6:15
Speaker 3: I've been before, like at Raising Canes, we scaled without
6:18
Speaker 3: losing our culture because we defined it early and operationalized it.
6:22
Speaker 3: Even though they're look, it's an amazing brand, Aga Pod
6:25
Speaker 3: and then it's done an amazing job. But you know,
6:28
Speaker 3: the culture is still the culture that it was when
6:30
Speaker 3: it was sixty restaurants when I started there in Louisiana.
6:34
Speaker 4: You know, Yeah, it's important.
6:36
Speaker 3: It's the perfect box, it's the five areas of focus.
6:38
Speaker 3: I mean, we laid out the game plan, the same
6:40
Speaker 3: thing we've done here. We pulled all the operators in
6:43
Speaker 3: the room and we sat down and we said.
6:45
Speaker 4: You know, what are we going to stand for. What's
6:46
Speaker 4: going to be our mission and vision?
6:48
Speaker 3: And we did things like be relentless, be a rebel,
6:52
Speaker 3: stand together. One of our core values is kick gas
6:55
Speaker 3: and take names.
6:56
Speaker 4: Picture that going around and doing.
6:58
Speaker 3: A roadshow to private actually the investors or people who
7:01
Speaker 3: are interested in the brand and with a straight face
7:03
Speaker 3: telling it on not one of our core values was
7:05
Speaker 3: kick ass and take names. I did that.
7:07
Speaker 4: Our logo is a crest. It's a logo crest.
7:10
Speaker 3: If you get that tattooed, I write a check to
7:13
Speaker 3: cover the cost of that, or if you get one
7:16
Speaker 3: of our core values tattooed. If you're a team member,
7:18
Speaker 3: we don't say employee, we say team member or drive member.
7:21
Speaker 3: We reimburse you for that, and you'd be surprised how
7:24
Speaker 3: many people do it, And so that's part of it.
7:27
Speaker 3: We bring a tattoo artist to our GM commerence, so
7:29
Speaker 3: we get tattoos of tacos and sayings and the logos
7:34
Speaker 3: and things like that. So it's just a fun part
7:37
Speaker 3: of culture. Culture is what happens when you're not in
7:40
Speaker 3: the room.
7:42
Speaker 4: So we look at.
7:46
Speaker 3: Metrics, we look at engagement, and we look at guest satisfaction.
7:49
Speaker 3: But I also think it's things like listening tours. We'll
7:52
Speaker 3: go out and we'll talk to our team members and
7:54
Speaker 3: our tribe members. We'll ask are the values being lived
7:59
Speaker 3: and if they're not, or if there's changes, will adapt
8:01
Speaker 3: and will make adjustments. We'll do customized music for our
8:07
Speaker 3: team members based on the region. I mean, there's just
8:09
Speaker 3: little things like that. We do our uniforms, our t
8:13
Speaker 3: shirts that are customized and we let the tribe our
8:17
Speaker 3: team vote on them and coterly will refresh the uniform
8:23
Speaker 3: based on their votes. And so it's little things like that.
8:25
Speaker 3: It's transparency that we ensure cultural consistency and relevance for
8:31
Speaker 3: our brand, and you just got to stay on top
8:33
Speaker 3: of that. And I think that that's part of the
8:36
Speaker 3: importance of culture.
8:38
Speaker 4: It's not you know, some.
8:40
Speaker 3: Plaque that you put up in the back of the
8:42
Speaker 3: restaurant that has some saying it's living the brand every day.
8:47
Speaker 3: I'm real passionate about culture. I think that it resonates.
8:50
Speaker 3: It starts internally, and then the guests see that, they
8:54
Speaker 3: see the excitement of your team, your tribe, and that
8:57
Speaker 3: connects the brand across market. I mean, as you grow
9:01
Speaker 3: and scale, how do you how do you take that
9:03
Speaker 3: from four restaurants to fifty restaurants, from fifty restaurants to
9:07
Speaker 3: two hundred restaurants. If you're based in Arizona or in
9:10
Speaker 3: our case, Dallas, how do you have that same experience
9:13
Speaker 3: in Chicago?
9:14
Speaker 4: It can be tough, and that's where brand sometimes struggle.
9:17
Speaker 2: Well, I love the attention to detail, man, that's really cool.
9:20
Speaker 2: And it seems like, you know, the owners really had
9:26
Speaker 2: a kind of irreverent type of you know what, the
9:30
Speaker 2: WTF and the kick ass mad is right, and so
9:33
Speaker 2: it just seems like you're a perfect fit for it.
9:35
Speaker 3: Man. Yeah, I mean, look, you've got to understand the
9:39
Speaker 3: original DNA of your brand. I think it's important to
9:43
Speaker 3: understand the things that the brand originally stands for and
9:46
Speaker 3: what makes it successful. I think as you grow in scale,
9:50
Speaker 3: you always want to have that, so it's important to understand, Like,
9:53
Speaker 3: you know, Randy Douitt is still on our board, Jack Gibbons,
9:57
Speaker 3: I just tested the other night, and I go have
10:00
Speaker 3: lunch on a regular basis. We're using the original chef
10:05
Speaker 3: with our chef V. Chef Vanessa, Sorry, CHEFV is amazing.
10:09
Speaker 3: And you know, you always got to tap into those
10:12
Speaker 3: things that made the brand unique. And sometimes I think
10:15
Speaker 3: as brand's restaurant brands specifically grow, it's real easy to
10:20
Speaker 3: lose sights of those things that made you unique and special.
10:23
Speaker 3: And sometimes you just got to take a pause and
10:25
Speaker 3: just go, Okay, take a step back, Let's look at
10:28
Speaker 3: what made the brand unique and special in the first place.
10:32
Speaker 4: And you know, don't lose sight of those.
10:34
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's really easy to go, well, you know, we're
10:36
Speaker 3: going to fix some operational efficiencies and maybe we save
10:40
Speaker 3: some money by doing it this way, or it's easier
10:43
Speaker 3: to buy this product and instead of the original, like
10:47
Speaker 3: I mean, some of the unique wtfs that we've done.
10:49
Speaker 3: When you're talking about a penner hash, we buy our
10:52
Speaker 3: pannier from India and that's core to our DNA. One
10:56
Speaker 3: of our biggest demographics are people from India.
11:02
Speaker 4: We have tea.
11:04
Speaker 3: Our Tika Chicken is our number one selling taco. Like
11:08
Speaker 3: that thing was developed by a chef Neville who is
11:12
Speaker 3: now the head chef over at Chipotle years back. It's
11:16
Speaker 3: a unique recipe with seventeen different ingredients that go into
11:20
Speaker 3: the Tika sauce. Like, that's one of those sacred things
11:23
Speaker 3: that I don't want to really mess with. Now you go, Okay,
11:25
Speaker 3: how long can you scale doing fifty two different unique
11:29
Speaker 3: wts every week. I'm going to try to do that forever,
11:35
Speaker 3: you know, as you scale and grow, I'm going to
11:37
Speaker 3: figure out a way to scale that and process it
11:39
Speaker 3: because I think that that's one of our carcore brand,
11:44
Speaker 3: you know, sacred cows. And you just got to say.
11:46
Speaker 4: Okay, how do you do that?
11:48
Speaker 3: And part of our brand is a irreverent, fun kind
11:52
Speaker 3: of you know, angle around it, and yeah, you got
11:56
Speaker 3: to just embrace that and and make sure that it
11:58
Speaker 3: seeps through through the entire organization. And look, it's the
12:02
Speaker 3: brand is bigger than any one person. The brand will
12:05
Speaker 3: continue to live forever. When it's fifty restaurants, one hundred resturants,
12:08
Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty restaurants.
12:10
Speaker 4: And how do you how do you infuse that in London?
12:14
Speaker 3: How do you infuse that? When you become a worldwide phenomenon?
12:17
Speaker 3: And I talk about global domination.
12:21
Speaker 2: That's really interesting. How high do your WTF tacos mix?
12:25
Speaker 2: And are they usually at a premium price point?
12:29
Speaker 3: You know, we take a different approach to the WTF.
12:33
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's a on trend flavor profile. Sometimes it's around
12:39
Speaker 3: a holiday or perhaps like for example, one of our
12:44
Speaker 3: better selling ones is our blazon for twenty which we
12:48
Speaker 3: sell on April to twentieth. It's got a PC and cheese,
12:52
Speaker 3: it's got a Cheeto's dusted chicken tender, it's got fruity pebbles,
12:58
Speaker 3: it's a stoner a taco.
13:01
Speaker 4: But it sells really well.
13:02
Speaker 3: It's a six to seven percent mix, so it's a
13:05
Speaker 3: higher mixing item I think generally sell pretty well.
13:09
Speaker 4: The awareness level of it for our core guests is
13:13
Speaker 4: very high. So the awareness level, so we've got a
13:17
Speaker 4: we have a loyalty database with almost a million members,
13:20
Speaker 4: which are.
13:20
Speaker 3: Very proud of. We've been working on it for quite
13:23
Speaker 3: a while and so we use that for a lot.
13:24
Speaker 4: Of data mining.
13:26
Speaker 3: I'm a little bit of a data gee, don't don't
13:28
Speaker 3: tell anybody. I know. You know that, but I don't
13:31
Speaker 3: like people to know that. But we've got a very
13:34
Speaker 3: robust database of guests and the awareness level.
13:38
Speaker 4: Is like ninety percent of them.
13:40
Speaker 3: Knowing about our WTF and actually, you know, when it
13:44
Speaker 3: comes out on a Wednesday, we get those guests coming
13:47
Speaker 3: in and trying it. So we get a surge on
13:49
Speaker 3: Wednesdays of guests that come in. And if you go
13:52
Speaker 3: on our website and download our app, you actually can
13:56
Speaker 3: see four weeks in advance of the upcoming wtfs out
13:59
Speaker 3: of comings, so you know, it generates around a four
14:03
Speaker 3: or five six percent. Sometimes we have them as high
14:06
Speaker 3: as seven or eight percent. You know, Like one of
14:09
Speaker 3: my favorites is a chicken parmesan, which is literally chicken
14:13
Speaker 3: parmesan and a parmesan.
14:14
Speaker 4: She's encrusted tortilla.
14:16
Speaker 3: But again, you get it for one week and then
14:19
Speaker 3: it's gone and it's gone forever until maybe it might
14:23
Speaker 3: come back another week. But first another year, but it's
14:27
Speaker 3: here and then it's gone. But what it does allow
14:30
Speaker 3: us to do is to stay ahead of the trends,
14:32
Speaker 3: and it allows our chef to be able to look
14:34
Speaker 3: at flavor trends that are coming, things that are happening,
14:38
Speaker 3: and there are times when there are you know, things
14:40
Speaker 3: that are happening that well, we'll make a twist and
14:43
Speaker 3: we'll change and we'll twist it out and you know,
14:45
Speaker 3: we'll be able to see. Sometimes we'll charge your premium.
14:48
Speaker 3: Sometimes it'll be more on a value side. It just
14:51
Speaker 3: depends on what the objective is.
14:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting and six seven percent, I know an
14:56
Speaker 2: initial look, it doesn't sound that high, but when you're
14:59
Speaker 2: talking tacos and people are ordering two or three tacos
15:02
Speaker 2: at a time, that's a pretty good mix.
15:04
Speaker 4: It's a pretty good mix.
15:05
Speaker 3: I mean, anything north of three or three or four
15:08
Speaker 3: percent is pretty good. You know, we'll do some unique
15:11
Speaker 3: flavors sometimes and it won't do as well. Look, we'll
15:14
Speaker 3: learn about that. I mean the beauty of what we do.
15:17
Speaker 3: It keeps us on the cutting edge. And when clearly
15:20
Speaker 3: I'm biased, I think that we're the premiere prest casual
15:23
Speaker 3: taco concept out there and might.
15:26
Speaker 4: Think I'm the we're the premiere brand, period.
15:28
Speaker 3: But you know, we have a database of over four
15:33
Speaker 3: hundred different tacos that I can tell you how well
15:36
Speaker 3: they sold, the flavor profiles, how they how they mixed,
15:40
Speaker 3: what they cost. I can tell you, you know, the cogs.
15:43
Speaker 3: I can tell you everything about it, and we then
15:47
Speaker 3: can adjust and tweak and so for example, as we
15:50
Speaker 3: go international, and let's say we go to a country
15:53
Speaker 3: that is predominantly vegetarian, for example, I have a whole category,
15:59
Speaker 3: not only on my or menu, have vegetarian items. I've
16:01
Speaker 3: got years of experience of trying vegetarian items. We just
16:05
Speaker 3: had a asparagus and lesson.
16:08
Speaker 4: WTF Now that one didn't sell.
16:09
Speaker 3: At six percent? But you know what, I know exactly
16:12
Speaker 3: how well it sold. I knew what it took from.
16:14
Speaker 3: I know how long it took the prep. I have
16:17
Speaker 3: all the recipes, I have all the costs. I know
16:20
Speaker 3: how what we sold it for. I know what I
16:21
Speaker 3: would do again. So it's a constant learning. And you
16:26
Speaker 3: know that's what makes Velvet Taco unique and fun is
16:29
Speaker 3: that you know what other taco concepts could you go.
16:33
Speaker 4: To and say, hey, you have a chicken fryed oyster taco. Yeah,
16:37
Speaker 4: actually we do.
16:39
Speaker 3: I can tell you the recipe, I've got all the
16:42
Speaker 3: promotional materials, i can tell how much costs. I can
16:44
Speaker 3: tell you how well it's sold. So that's what makes
16:47
Speaker 3: us relique.
16:49
Speaker 1: One of the reasons one of the things cool outside.
16:53
Speaker 2: You know, you mentioned there was a large Indian American
16:56
Speaker 2: consumer base. What does your customer look like in terms
16:59
Speaker 2: of in terms of age, education and stuff like that.
17:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, we have a we have a slightly more
17:10
Speaker 3: well off guest. So look, our check average is around
17:14
Speaker 3: twenty four to twenty five dollars and that's a check average.
17:18
Speaker 3: Our ppa is around seventeen to eighteen dollars, So our
17:21
Speaker 3: our tacos are five six dollars each. And yeah, you're
17:24
Speaker 3: gonna order two or three. You're gonna get a margarite
17:27
Speaker 3: in and possibly a side. So look, we are not
17:30
Speaker 3: you know, a lower income or households or roughly around
17:33
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand dollars, so you know, it's an it's
17:37
Speaker 3: also a little slightly older. So while we're irreverent and
17:40
Speaker 3: we're loud and like, you know, a younger client tells.
17:44
Speaker 4: Love us, college kids love us.
17:46
Speaker 3: The kids with Mona Dad's credit cards really love us.
17:50
Speaker 4: You know, we do well in the suburbs.
17:52
Speaker 3: We do well in the urban locations as well, but
17:55
Speaker 3: it is a slightly you know, a suburb.
17:57
Speaker 4: A younger, younger.
17:59
Speaker 3: Family do really well. We have a high to go mix,
18:04
Speaker 3: as a lot of fast casuals do, and we continue
18:07
Speaker 3: to see that going up. You know, we do a
18:12
Speaker 3: pretty decent amount of alcohol. So we do have, as
18:15
Speaker 3: I mentioned before, kick ass margaritas which are made with
18:19
Speaker 3: tequila and some other stuff, so they're pretty strong with
18:23
Speaker 3: our liquor mixes in the teams, so mid teams.
18:27
Speaker 4: So we do that.
18:28
Speaker 3: We don't have bars, so it's not a full full bar,
18:31
Speaker 3: but we've got a few different drinks that will that
18:34
Speaker 3: will sell.
18:35
Speaker 4: So our demo is slightly older.
18:37
Speaker 3: I think they're folks that their late thirties and forties
18:41
Speaker 3: that want to be younger and want to be cool.
18:43
Speaker 3: But they're also adventurous. You know, we call them flavor seekers.
18:46
Speaker 3: There are people who have the disposable income. They're trying
18:50
Speaker 3: new things, but also they may be crushed for time.
18:52
Speaker 3: Our our ticket times are you know, you're going to
18:56
Speaker 3: go up, you're going to place your order it's going
18:57
Speaker 3: to take us six to eight minutes to make your food.
19:00
Speaker 3: We don't have freezers, we don't have microwaves. We're gonna
19:03
Speaker 3: make your tacos or now we have some bowls. We've
19:08
Speaker 3: we've innovated a bit and have some new exciting bowls
19:10
Speaker 3: that we can shout about. But we're gonna make your food.
19:13
Speaker 3: We're gonna make you know, a variety of items fresh
19:17
Speaker 3: for you right away and bring them out to you
19:21
Speaker 3: or package them up and send them along the way.
19:24
Speaker 3: But they're gonna be unique flavors that you're willing to try.
19:29
Speaker 3: Whether they're Indian flavors, whether they're Korean fried rice, whether
19:33
Speaker 3: it's fish and chips that's got a curre a oli
19:36
Speaker 3: on them. You know, we've got all kinds of things.
19:40
Speaker 3: We've got a Chris Potts and egg that's got herb
19:43
Speaker 3: goat chase smoke set or avocado cram, chili, butter, pepper,
19:47
Speaker 3: bacon and stallions on it that come out and as
19:51
Speaker 3: a as a head turner, it's also a great late
19:54
Speaker 3: night you know munchies if it's if it's after nine pm,
19:58
Speaker 3: it's a great after bar.
20:00
Speaker 4: Snack as well.
20:01
Speaker 3: So you know, it's definitely someone who has some disposable income,
20:07
Speaker 3: and so that's helped us. You know, in the current
20:09
Speaker 3: economic times, we didn't feel it as much recently as
20:14
Speaker 3: you know some of the other lower end restaurant concepts.
20:19
Speaker 3: We didn't feel the impact as much because our consumers
20:23
Speaker 3: have that disposable income.
20:25
Speaker 1: And what's your split between lunch, dinner, and late night.
20:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, so look, we've got lunch is around thirty five
20:32
Speaker 3: thirty eight percent, dinner is p forty eight to fifty.
20:37
Speaker 4: Percent, and then late nights fifteen So, I mean, if.
20:40
Speaker 3: You wanted a round it up, thirty five and fifteen so,
20:44
Speaker 3: and we call late night after ten pm. So many
20:48
Speaker 3: of our restaurants were open until two in the morning,
20:51
Speaker 3: especially some of our urban locations, so think downtown Chicago
20:55
Speaker 3: and Dallas, and in the suburbs, our tagline is open
20:59
Speaker 3: really late, so make sure that we're the last thing open.
21:02
Speaker 3: Look in some of our suburbs were it's midnight. But
21:06
Speaker 3: on weekends, you know, we'll be open until two or
21:09
Speaker 3: three o'clock in the morning. And obviously on weekends that's
21:12
Speaker 3: a big chunk of our business. But we're still a
21:15
Speaker 3: dinner driven business. It's forty eight I think the last
21:18
Speaker 3: number I saw was around forty eight percent dinner, and
21:21
Speaker 3: you know, thirty seven percent lunch.
21:24
Speaker 4: Lunch has been great.
21:26
Speaker 3: You know, Look, we're continually seeing more and more guests
21:30
Speaker 3: shift into delivery and to go business as a lot
21:35
Speaker 3: of fast casual is and I just think that, you know,
21:39
Speaker 3: guests are looking for convenience, and it's.
21:43
Speaker 4: Up to us as restaurant tours.
21:44
Speaker 3: I just fell with Taco to provide that same sort
21:46
Speaker 3: of experience. And look, I'd love you to come into
21:49
Speaker 3: our restaurants. Our restaurants are beautiful, our game and our
21:53
Speaker 3: crew is hospitable and nice. I'd rather you eat my
21:56
Speaker 3: food as soon as I'm making and it's steaming hot
21:59
Speaker 3: in my college name, and you can sit down and
22:02
Speaker 3: enjoy margarita. And you know, no, no, two restaurants are
22:06
Speaker 3: designed exactly the same. I've got different footprints and different designs.
22:10
Speaker 3: I've got converted gas stations, I've got you know, all
22:13
Speaker 3: kinds of unique.
22:14
Speaker 4: Things about my restaurant.
22:15
Speaker 3: But I still think guests are looking for that convenience
22:18
Speaker 3: and grabbing food to go.
22:19
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, yeah, for sure, staffing restaurants at.
22:24
Speaker 4: Late night, it's always challenging. Late night has always been
22:27
Speaker 4: of a challenge. We do offer a premium.
22:29
Speaker 3: From an hourly standpoint, from a management standpoint, it's been
22:33
Speaker 3: a little bit of a challenge. We definitely are the
22:35
Speaker 3: second job that's helped us from an hourly team member standpoint,
22:39
Speaker 3: from a cash aire and back to the house standpoint.
22:41
Speaker 3: You know, we can be that second job for a
22:43
Speaker 3: lot of our of our tribe members. So you know,
22:46
Speaker 3: from a shift standpoint, it's been better over the last
22:51
Speaker 3: couple of years, and so you know it's it's been good.
22:55
Speaker 4: But we have to pay a premium.
22:57
Speaker 3: There's a late night wage rate that we pay, and
23:01
Speaker 3: I will tell you it gets rocking in some of
23:03
Speaker 3: our restaurants.
23:03
Speaker 4: It's fun.
23:04
Speaker 3: Nothing more fun than doing a late night tour and
23:07
Speaker 3: downtown Austin at one in the morning, that's always fun.
23:12
Speaker 4: For Nashville, Downtown Nashville is fun too.
23:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll have to join you on one of those, man.
23:17
Speaker 3: Come on, Mike, let's do it.
23:19
Speaker 1: Sounds like a party. I know you mentioned ye to
23:23
Speaker 1: red Bull for sure.
23:27
Speaker 2: You know you mentioned there's a lot of different formats,
23:29
Speaker 2: but generally on average, I know averages can be dangerous,
23:33
Speaker 2: but how big are the restaurants what's the AUV and
23:37
Speaker 2: what kind of volumes are your top restaurants doing.
23:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, you know, we're private, so I
23:42
Speaker 3: can't get into all the details, but are on average
23:45
Speaker 3: we're around twenty five hundred square fee.
23:49
Speaker 4: We've got all kinds of shapes and sizes.
23:51
Speaker 3: I've got as small as food hall locations that are
23:55
Speaker 3: four hundred square fee. I've got restaurants that are on
24:00
Speaker 3: two thousand square feed. We've got end caps, we've got
24:04
Speaker 3: uh well, we've got a couple of inlines. Most of
24:06
Speaker 3: them are free standing. We've got some conversions from old restaurants,
24:11
Speaker 3: you know, some retros.
24:13
Speaker 4: Look, we will find any space that we possibly can.
24:15
Speaker 4: It's getting harder and harder.
24:17
Speaker 3: Landlords are not giving the same ta that they were
24:21
Speaker 3: you know, a few years ago. Construction and building costs
24:23
Speaker 3: are getting higher and higher, so that's cachely to be
24:27
Speaker 3: a challenge. We have drive throughs, we have pickup windows,
24:30
Speaker 3: we have none at all, So we've got every every shape, size,
24:35
Speaker 3: et cetera. But on average around twenty five hundred square feet.
24:39
Speaker 3: As far as volumes, we're around three and a half million,
24:42
Speaker 3: three six on average. Some of our higher performing restaurants
24:46
Speaker 3: are around high five almost six million dollar restaurants, so
24:51
Speaker 3: you know, it gets it gets busy. You know, our
24:54
Speaker 3: suburb locations, we have a lot of really strong locations.
24:58
Speaker 3: You know clearly the restauran that are open until three
25:01
Speaker 3: in the morning, you know, the Austins, the Nashville, some
25:05
Speaker 3: of the booming towns are.
25:06
Speaker 4: The higher volume restaurants. We're lucky.
25:09
Speaker 3: I mean, if you think about where we're located, we've
25:12
Speaker 3: got some great, big cities with lots of growth, the Dallases,
25:16
Speaker 3: the Houston's, Austin, Nashville, Chicago. You know, we've got a
25:22
Speaker 3: very robust pipeline, uh where we can continue to grow
25:26
Speaker 3: in those markets. And and then a you know, look,
25:29
Speaker 3: I'm I'm a big fan of discipline growth. So last
25:32
Speaker 3: year we opened in Phoenix, we started in Old Township, Scottsdale.
25:36
Speaker 3: That's our new market for last year. We've got two
25:38
Speaker 3: more sidelined up for the end of this year and
25:42
Speaker 3: beginning into next year.
25:44
Speaker 4: We're opening in.
25:45
Speaker 3: Raleigh, North Carolina, and that'll be our next new market.
25:48
Speaker 3: And look, I want to open one great restaurant at
25:51
Speaker 3: a time, So we want to be controlled. We want
25:55
Speaker 3: to make sure that we do it right. You know,
25:58
Speaker 3: it's it's it is important that we grow the brand correctly.
26:03
Speaker 3: We're opening in London, which will be a big step
26:06
Speaker 3: for us internationally. You know, we're going to send a
26:09
Speaker 3: whole team over there and make sure that we do
26:11
Speaker 3: it right. I mean, we talked about, you know, stretching
26:14
Speaker 3: across the US, how about stretching across the pond. So
26:18
Speaker 3: we think that there's a big growth opportunity internationally for
26:21
Speaker 3: our brand.
26:22
Speaker 4: I mean, we are international tacos, so you.
26:25
Speaker 3: Know, we have got a lot of opportunities international lots
26:31
Speaker 3: lined up there.
26:32
Speaker 4: We want to open one first and then and then
26:35
Speaker 4: you'll hear a lot more from an international side.
26:38
Speaker 1: Is that one franchise their company owned.
26:40
Speaker 3: That is a franchise that's a partnership with the group
26:44
Speaker 3: that we feel very excited about growing. And look, we've
26:48
Speaker 3: got a few different groups that we've been talking to.
26:51
Speaker 3: There's a lot of excitement about our brand. Again, when
26:55
Speaker 3: you look at our menu, you look at the flavor
26:59
Speaker 3: profile and what we can do under the banner of
27:02
Speaker 3: Velvet Taco. It's an international taco concept, so you know,
27:07
Speaker 3: the sky's really the limit there. And we've we've got
27:11
Speaker 3: several partners that were lining up to do. But again,
27:15
Speaker 3: we want to do one restaurant, one successful restaurant at
27:18
Speaker 3: a time.
27:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, smart in the US, what percentage of your new
27:23
Speaker 2: gms are brought in from other Velvet Taco restaurants?
27:27
Speaker 3: Oh? Great question. Oh that's that's the magic one, right.
27:30
Speaker 3: Internal promotions. We're sixty two internal promotes for GM. That
27:38
Speaker 3: number is getting bigger and bigger as we grow. Our
27:42
Speaker 3: goal is seventy five percent. You know, we have because
27:47
Speaker 3: of the day parts, we generally carry four manager teams
27:51
Speaker 3: for salary manager teams and some of our restaurants are
27:53
Speaker 3: even five. You know, our goal is to get to
27:57
Speaker 3: seventy five percent. We find that the six s rates
28:00
Speaker 3: for our internal promotes are.
28:01
Speaker 4: Much better than external and you know, but look.
28:06
Speaker 3: We find great talent wherever we can. We have an
28:08
Speaker 3: intense training program. It's a three month training program.
28:11
Speaker 4: Today.
28:12
Speaker 3: We actually just we have a weekly people pipeline. So
28:15
Speaker 3: just like you have a new restaurant pipeline plan, we
28:18
Speaker 3: have a people pipeline plan that we just went over
28:20
Speaker 3: yesterday with our head of bops and had people. We
28:22
Speaker 3: have eighteen managers in training right now. Don't ask me
28:26
Speaker 3: their names, but I do know that it's eighteen and
28:30
Speaker 3: various different locations. We've got some restaurants that we're opening
28:33
Speaker 3: up through the balance of a year, so some of
28:34
Speaker 3: those are for them.
28:35
Speaker 4: But yeah, it's intense.
28:37
Speaker 3: I mean it's look, our menu is complex. It's not
28:40
Speaker 3: easy that the ingredients are difficult. We've got all kinds
28:45
Speaker 3: of you.
28:46
Speaker 4: Know, different things that go on.
28:48
Speaker 3: It's it's not a cut the bag, open and heat
28:51
Speaker 3: it up type stuff. So there's real cooking, real culinary,
28:54
Speaker 3: real prep that goes on in our restaurants. We've got
28:57
Speaker 3: things like goju Jan sauce. Uh, We've got you know,
29:03
Speaker 3: Consumme dipping for our tacos, and so there's there's real
29:07
Speaker 3: product that goes on, and there's real nice skills. There's
29:10
Speaker 3: real training, there's real development. So it's you know, you're
29:14
Speaker 3: gonna get real training, real culinary skills when you come
29:18
Speaker 3: and work at Albataco.
29:21
Speaker 1: Very cool.
29:22
Speaker 2: How's the new bowl launch going so far? And and
29:25
Speaker 2: how are they different from your competitors.
29:28
Speaker 3: Ah bulls.
29:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, so look.
29:33
Speaker 3: We well, look, our name is Velvetaco. I think that
29:39
Speaker 3: we we've we've played and thought about bulls. I think
29:43
Speaker 3: that part of part of trends and staying in front
29:46
Speaker 3: of things is always looking at what's coming up next.
29:50
Speaker 4: I think that, you know, when you think.
29:53
Speaker 3: About bulls, you know everybody's doing it. You know, it's
29:57
Speaker 3: it's one of those things that is is here. You know,
30:01
Speaker 3: we've got the opportunity to look at our guests and
30:06
Speaker 3: trends and how we're being used, et cetera. So we
30:10
Speaker 3: about a year ago actually we started doing some testing
30:13
Speaker 3: and some consumer feedback and some panels, and we started
30:17
Speaker 3: asking guests, you know, is this that our brand? So
30:19
Speaker 3: it goes back again to how does it fit our brand?
30:22
Speaker 3: Is this something that our guests would allow? You know,
30:26
Speaker 3: how would it be accepted? We did some online testing
30:30
Speaker 3: and then we did some in person testing, and then
30:33
Speaker 3: our chefs started putting some things together, and you know,
30:38
Speaker 3: we did an alpha restaurant test and so we did
30:41
Speaker 3: a complete makeup all the way along, and then we
30:44
Speaker 3: we tested it in some restaurants in the market. I
30:48
Speaker 3: would tell you that it has gone extremely well. Guests
30:54
Speaker 3: have embraced it. They have told us that the flavors
30:57
Speaker 3: of velvet taco is what matters. That's that's what they
31:01
Speaker 3: think of for velvet taco.
31:02
Speaker 4: It's not necessarily just that.
31:04
Speaker 3: It comes into taco. It is about the flavors of
31:07
Speaker 3: velvet taco coming through. And so we launched Velvet Bowls
31:13
Speaker 3: in April and it has done extremely well. Now, I
31:17
Speaker 3: would tell you also that you know, we saw, similar
31:20
Speaker 3: to the industry, a general trend, we had some challenges
31:24
Speaker 3: in the first quarter. The market in which we tested
31:27
Speaker 3: Bulls outperformed the rest of our system by you know,
31:31
Speaker 3: eight hundred basis points.
31:33
Speaker 4: I mean, it was like night and day.
31:35
Speaker 3: And we were, okay, how you know, is this what
31:39
Speaker 3: we need to be doing? And I was like, all right,
31:41
Speaker 3: let's let's let's go. So we rolled it out system
31:45
Speaker 3: wide and we have been on a nice run here
31:48
Speaker 3: for the last quarter.
31:50
Speaker 4: We have been now ninety days in.
31:53
Speaker 3: We have been tracking and monitoring it with We work
31:57
Speaker 3: with the group Signal Flair, who you know shout out.
32:00
Speaker 3: I think one of your prior guests because I'm a
32:02
Speaker 3: listener to the pod, mister Lucanoff and his group. You know,
32:05
Speaker 3: they they do a great job of tracking. So, I mean, look,
32:09
Speaker 3: we have seen great results from our bulls bull transactions
32:15
Speaker 3: have gone up. It's on more than a quarter of
32:18
Speaker 3: our checks. We have seen more spending, so slip sales
32:23
Speaker 3: are up. We're out performing black Box now, which hasn't
32:27
Speaker 3: always been the case. We have seen our comp sales
32:31
Speaker 3: and our overall sales going up. Bold buyers are spending
32:36
Speaker 3: more than non bowl buyers.
32:39
Speaker 1: What's what's the price on the on the bowl and
32:41
Speaker 1: so the bulls.
32:42
Speaker 3: Look here, here's the difference. Here's why our bulls are different.
32:45
Speaker 3: They are curated bulls. So we have taken our flavors
32:50
Speaker 3: and we have curated them. So we have a spicy
32:52
Speaker 3: Tika chicken bowl. It's got the Tika sauce, it's got
32:56
Speaker 3: right at crema. It's got red cabbage, it's got cucumber,
32:59
Speaker 3: it's got tied basil, it's got butter cilantro Buzzmammy rice.
33:02
Speaker 4: Like we curate our bowls.
33:05
Speaker 3: It is not a hey, I want this, I want this,
33:07
Speaker 3: I want this now. I will tell you forty six
33:10
Speaker 3: percent of them are customizing their bulls, which is an
33:13
Speaker 3: interesting stat. And we've got a Rotistry chicken and a
33:17
Speaker 3: stakehool kind of an entry level that's still got charred tomato,
33:21
Speaker 3: poblano salsa. It's still got you know, groacamole included in.
33:26
Speaker 4: The price for eleven fifty. By the way, it is,
33:30
Speaker 4: it is basically two and a half taco.
33:32
Speaker 3: So from a value standpoint, it is a lot of food.
33:37
Speaker 4: You know, we did all the comparisons with guests.
33:41
Speaker 3: The feedback was, wow, this is a value I did
33:44
Speaker 3: withhold the shirts that say black is included, you know,
33:48
Speaker 3: the marketer and me, I.
33:50
Speaker 4: Had all kinds of ideas, but I decided not to.
33:54
Speaker 3: I love my guys over there, Scottboro. It's my guy.
33:56
Speaker 3: So look, I think that there's a value lay there.
34:01
Speaker 3: You know, for eleven fifty, you.
34:04
Speaker 4: Get this giant meal.
34:07
Speaker 3: And the other thing too, Like we've got a seasoned
34:09
Speaker 3: veggie bowl. We've got a Mexicali shrimple that's selling really well.
34:13
Speaker 3: Like who else has a shrimple? You know, if you
34:16
Speaker 3: look at the competitor set, we've got a black and shrimp.
34:19
Speaker 3: It's got Napa slaw, roasted corn, pico, seracchioli, guacamole, micro cilantro,
34:25
Speaker 3: but at cilanta basmati rice and if you use it correctly,
34:30
Speaker 3: I mean it's four hundred and sixty calories.
34:32
Speaker 4: I mean it's a phenomenal bowl. It'll fill you up, and.
34:34
Speaker 3: It's it's it's it's good for you as well. So
34:38
Speaker 3: they're uniquely crafted by our chef. It's not hey give
34:42
Speaker 3: me that taco and maket a bowl. They are crafted bowl.
34:46
Speaker 3: So there's about six bowls. You know. Look it's there
34:51
Speaker 3: are guests that are going to say, well, I'm ordering
34:53
Speaker 3: a We have a smash burger talk that sells really well.
34:58
Speaker 3: We have guests that like, can I get that as
35:00
Speaker 3: a bullet? Not yet, No, we might have looked at
35:04
Speaker 3: it and didn't pass our rigorous tests. So we're curating them.
35:09
Speaker 3: They're unique flavors. I think the value component. Look, I
35:13
Speaker 3: think it hit at the right time. I think the
35:16
Speaker 3: value component was the right play. I think that the
35:19
Speaker 3: flavors are hitting. I think it's unique developed taco. And
35:23
Speaker 3: we're seeing the visitor return rates come up. So signal
35:29
Speaker 3: Flare helps us.
35:31
Speaker 4: And again I don't want.
35:31
Speaker 3: To geek out on the data because I'll ruin my rep.
35:36
Speaker 3: They track credit card data. We know from our loyalty
35:40
Speaker 3: database when and how quick they come back. But they're
35:43
Speaker 3: coming back more often, they're spending more, the attachment rate
35:48
Speaker 3: is higher. They're also making you know, they're making more visits,
35:53
Speaker 3: they're spending more, they're buying more alcohol, which is interesting
35:57
Speaker 3: to go has been a big win. And so if
36:00
Speaker 3: you think about a bowl you put a lid on,
36:02
Speaker 3: it carries well, travels well. And then when we did
36:06
Speaker 3: our post feedback, guests are saying, well, you know, I
36:09
Speaker 3: can take it back to my desk, I can eat
36:11
Speaker 3: it with a fork, I can take it on an airplane.
36:14
Speaker 3: It travels easier, there's better leftovers. I don't have tacos
36:19
Speaker 3: that I have to eat and then I got to
36:20
Speaker 3: put them in a box and take them home. All
36:23
Speaker 3: those things that you know, as someone who's been with
36:26
Speaker 3: the brand for eight and a half years, I go, well,
36:28
Speaker 3: of course, who doesn't want to eat pacos with their hands?
36:31
Speaker 3: You know, I want to touch the food and I
36:33
Speaker 3: want to live the brand like not everybody wants to
36:36
Speaker 3: do that.
36:38
Speaker 4: We're seeing more female guests.
36:41
Speaker 3: And then also bowls with the purpose. So I think
36:45
Speaker 3: there's an interesting trend that we're going to start seeing
36:49
Speaker 3: of guests wanting to know what's in their food. And again,
36:56
Speaker 3: as a leader, I think that you have to always
37:00
Speaker 3: be looking down the road, and part of spotting trends
37:04
Speaker 3: is knowing what's coming. And I don't look. I don't
37:07
Speaker 3: think that bulls is a new trend, but I do
37:10
Speaker 3: feel that you have to identify what's coming down the road.
37:14
Speaker 1: So what's next for bulls?
37:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's a really good question, Mike.
37:17
Speaker 3: I think when you look at the future, not just
37:22
Speaker 3: for us, but just in the industry in general. You know,
37:25
Speaker 3: a lot of folks are doing bowls, lots of brands
37:27
Speaker 3: are doing bulls.
37:28
Speaker 4: I think, you know, number one, protein is king. You're
37:32
Speaker 4: seeing that. I think that's what we're also benefiting from.
37:36
Speaker 3: We're seeing one and it's almost like forty I think
37:40
Speaker 3: the last at I saw was thirty eight percent of
37:42
Speaker 3: our bulls. People are adding protein onto it. I would
37:45
Speaker 3: guess that that's happening in other brands, but for us,
37:48
Speaker 3: people are adding extra protein on is the number one
37:51
Speaker 3: modifier to our bulls, which is helping add check average.
37:54
Speaker 3: So protein is king. I also think that people I
37:58
Speaker 3: shouldn't say. I think our trends and everything, all of
38:00
Speaker 3: our data is saying that people want to know what's
38:03
Speaker 3: in their goals. So I think the quality of the food.
38:07
Speaker 3: I think, look, you see the trends, gym memberships are up.
38:11
Speaker 3: People are you know, over the whole comfort food of covid.
38:15
Speaker 3: I think we're eating more healthier. They want to know
38:19
Speaker 3: what's in their food, and so I think that you're
38:22
Speaker 3: going to see a trend towards understanding, whether it's menu.
38:26
Speaker 4: Labeling or meal prep, more of a.
38:29
Speaker 3: Health conscious I think you're standing now with beef cannol,
38:32
Speaker 3: for example, Like that's a trend, and it's not so
38:36
Speaker 3: much it's just a consciousness of what is in the food.
38:40
Speaker 4: I think you're seeing that again.
38:41
Speaker 3: Not to get political, but you know, make America healthy again.
38:45
Speaker 3: It's just a consciousness that's out there. I think you're
38:49
Speaker 3: going to see that with bulls, like what is in
38:51
Speaker 3: that ball? You can make a bowl really healthy or
38:54
Speaker 3: it could be very unhealthy. And I think that you're
38:58
Speaker 3: going to see more and more people get more conscious
39:00
Speaker 3: about that, and more and more flavor pops. I think
39:04
Speaker 3: you're going to see more flavors more, you know, instead
39:07
Speaker 3: of just generic bright things lettuce protein, and I think
39:14
Speaker 3: that there are other brands out there that have capitalized
39:17
Speaker 3: on them.
39:17
Speaker 4: Not to mention you know, any competitors or any other
39:20
Speaker 4: Bowl companies, but I think you know.
39:22
Speaker 3: Whether it's mediterrane or other flavors, I think that's just
39:25
Speaker 3: a unique spin where guests are saying, Okay, I've done bowls,
39:27
Speaker 3: like I want to try a different spin.
39:30
Speaker 4: I want to try it black and shrimp.
39:31
Speaker 3: Again, we sell a great amount of shrimp bowls, and
39:35
Speaker 3: just like when we look at it's like who else
39:37
Speaker 3: does that?
39:39
Speaker 4: Not? I couldn't find anybody quite.
39:41
Speaker 2: Frank, Honey girl, that's the only other one I could
39:43
Speaker 2: think of, and that you guys don't really.
39:45
Speaker 4: Over don't have any Yeah, we don't overlap on them. Yeah,
39:48
Speaker 4: but I mean any of the big guys, like shrimp
39:50
Speaker 4: is not one, you know.
39:51
Speaker 3: I mean think about a salmon bowl or you know,
39:55
Speaker 3: unique flavors and just different different trends. I just again,
40:01
Speaker 3: I think the exciting thing about art industry and when
40:06
Speaker 3: when you're when you're leading a brand, you just have
40:10
Speaker 3: to keep an eye on trends. And I know that
40:12
Speaker 3: you know we're talking about bulls, but it really is
40:14
Speaker 3: just staying ahead of the curve.
40:16
Speaker 4: There's there's certain trends that come up and it doesn't
40:19
Speaker 4: have to be.
40:21
Speaker 3: You know, Indian fusion heaps or grain serachs of peppers
40:25
Speaker 3: that are hot. It could be nostalgia. Nostalgia is a trend.
40:29
Speaker 3: I mean, look at the biggest brand out there right
40:32
Speaker 3: now with uh, you know snack wraps.
40:35
Speaker 4: You know that's a trend.
40:37
Speaker 3: Nostalgia is a trend and people can capitalize on that.
40:40
Speaker 4: I mean, I Asian flavors is a trend.
40:44
Speaker 3: You mentioned, Hey, what's brought to development top of the
40:46
Speaker 3: ability to capture on a trend. And if you're a CEO,
40:50
Speaker 3: if you're an executive, if you're a chef, your job
40:53
Speaker 3: your responsibility is to stay ahead of the trend. If
40:56
Speaker 3: you're seeing it in another restaurant, if you're walking into
41:00
Speaker 3: fill in the blank chain restaurant and you go, wow,
41:03
Speaker 3: look at that, let's let's do snack wraps. Also, it's
41:06
Speaker 3: not a trend. You're done, You're over. You can't do that.
41:09
Speaker 3: You need to be looking outside of the walls. You
41:11
Speaker 3: need to be going to an Asian supermarket. You want
41:15
Speaker 3: to have a fun date night or take your kids.
41:18
Speaker 3: They used to take my kids to Asian supermarkets and
41:22
Speaker 3: wander the halls or wander the aisles, and they like
41:26
Speaker 3: they used to laugh, but like they remember that on
41:29
Speaker 3: the ground now, but they remember, like remember we used
41:32
Speaker 3: to wander, you know, the supermarket with Asian stuff and
41:35
Speaker 3: we had all kinds of crazy things and we'd bring
41:37
Speaker 3: them home and we cook them and we tried these flavors.
41:39
Speaker 4: Like that was so cool, Dad. That was R and
41:42
Speaker 4: D for me.
41:43
Speaker 3: I mean I worked for Payway. I brought that over
41:46
Speaker 3: here to Velvet Taco. I mean that was my exploration
41:50
Speaker 3: as just a leader of a restaurant concept because that's
41:54
Speaker 3: where I.
41:54
Speaker 4: Got my inspiration.
41:55
Speaker 3: And I go back to the chef and say, hey,
41:57
Speaker 3: have you ever heard of Tamerman? And you're like, yeah, no, kidding, thanks,
42:02
Speaker 3: Like you know, like, hey, have you ever heard of
42:04
Speaker 3: filling the blank?
42:07
Speaker 4: You know, go jous on. It's this fermented rice starch,
42:11
Speaker 4: it's this paste.
42:12
Speaker 3: It's got this building heats right, Like the chef would
42:14
Speaker 3: be like, yeah, thanks, thanks, CEO appreciate that. I know that,
42:17
Speaker 3: but like those are the things that we should be doing.
42:20
Speaker 3: And when you're in a brand, you have to look
42:22
Speaker 3: down the road and go what's coming, not what's right
42:25
Speaker 3: in front of me.
42:26
Speaker 2: Well, it's a good place to play because you know,
42:28
Speaker 2: eaters and consumers are becoming more adventurous in the United
42:31
Speaker 2: States big time, and also being able to play in
42:36
Speaker 2: indulgent as well as healthier is a nice place to
42:39
Speaker 2: play because those two things tend to outperform than than
42:44
Speaker 2: the chains in the middle.
42:45
Speaker 4: They totally do.
42:46
Speaker 3: No. You look, our our consumers are getting more wise,
42:53
Speaker 3: they're getting more adventurous, They're going to have more disposable dollars.
42:58
Speaker 4: I mean, look, the beauty of our sad luck, the
43:02
Speaker 4: beauty of our.
43:03
Speaker 3: The beauty of our industry is that consumers will continue
43:08
Speaker 3: to go out to eat. They're just going to decide
43:11
Speaker 3: where to go. It's dependent on external factors. Unemployment, you know,
43:15
Speaker 3: unemployments what four point one percent right now, So we've
43:18
Speaker 3: got a somewhat stable economy. It's it all depends on
43:23
Speaker 3: you know, tax ree funds are coming up, so I'm expecting,
43:26
Speaker 3: you know, a nice little push. It all just depends
43:30
Speaker 3: on external factors and where they're going to go out
43:32
Speaker 3: to eat.
43:32
Speaker 4: Are they going to go?
43:33
Speaker 3: You know, casual dining right now is getting a surge because,
43:37
Speaker 3: as you mentioned, I think in earlier pots they haven't
43:40
Speaker 3: been a lot of buildouts of casual dining. There's been
43:43
Speaker 3: overbuild of QSR fast casual somewhere in the middle. Like,
43:47
Speaker 3: there's all these factors. People aren't suddenly just going to say,
43:50
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm just going to start cooking. They
43:52
Speaker 3: just decide where they're going to spend their dollars, and
43:55
Speaker 3: it's up to us in the industry to go, okay,
43:57
Speaker 3: how do we meet those demands there? It's a value play,
44:01
Speaker 3: whether it's a lifestyle and a way in which we
44:04
Speaker 3: meet the guests. You know, coming out of COVID weave
44:09
Speaker 3: all the taco or our team looked and saw there's
44:13
Speaker 3: going to be a demand for takeout, and so we
44:16
Speaker 3: leaned into it. We put in kds I, changed out
44:19
Speaker 3: the pos I, went from a legacy system and put
44:22
Speaker 3: in TOAST. We started building takeout windows and drive throughs.
44:28
Speaker 3: You know, it wasn't rocket science, but real lined into
44:31
Speaker 3: it and looked further ahead and we came out stronger.
44:34
Speaker 3: And it's easy to say that years later. It didn't
44:36
Speaker 3: feel that.
44:37
Speaker 4: Way at the time. But you just have to.
44:40
Speaker 3: Anticipate those things and go, okay, are we going to
44:42
Speaker 3: meet this challenge going forward? Or are we going to
44:45
Speaker 3: sit back and be reactionary or be proactive? And look,
44:50
Speaker 3: the consumers are still going to go out to eat.
44:52
Speaker 4: They're going to.
44:53
Speaker 3: Decide whether it's a triple dipper that's going to get
44:56
Speaker 3: their attention or is it going to be a snack
44:59
Speaker 3: wrapped two ninety nine And depending on where they're at,
45:02
Speaker 3: that's going to drive their decision making.
45:05
Speaker 2: Well, listen, man, you're either growing or you're dying, right
45:08
Speaker 2: either you know it's one.
45:10
Speaker 1: Of the others. So you got to stay through with
45:14
Speaker 1: your go to menu order.
45:17
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, I mean chicken tika of Marsala is always
45:20
Speaker 3: my go to. It rotates a little bit, but I
45:24
Speaker 3: mean you can and my mouth start and water. And
45:26
Speaker 3: right now I've got a I've got a restaurant, our restaurant,
45:28
Speaker 3: sport offices right outside of restaurant. So that GM loves
45:31
Speaker 3: it because I was put in my.
45:32
Speaker 4: Order for a chick and tika.
45:34
Speaker 3: That is uh, that is the original, the original taco
45:38
Speaker 3: and uh, it is a go to. You can't go
45:41
Speaker 3: wrong it is. It is a great taco.
45:44
Speaker 1: It's good stuff.
45:44
Speaker 2: And you have some some great men tacos on that menu,
45:47
Speaker 2: So that's saying something.
45:48
Speaker 4: Thank you, man.
45:49
Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
45:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, and thanks for joining.
45:52
Speaker 4: Look, Mike, I appreciate it. Great pod, listen to it.
45:56
Speaker 4: I'm a big fan.
45:57
Speaker 3: Thanks for educating everybody out there, and I appreciate you
46:01
Speaker 3: taking the time and letting me pontificate. I feel like
46:04
Speaker 3: I did way too much talking, but thank you so much.
46:06
Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
46:07
Speaker 1: You're great man.
46:08
Speaker 2: I also want to thank the audience for tuning in.
46:10
Speaker 2: If you liked the discussion, please share it with your
46:12
Speaker 2: friends and colleagues. Check back soon for another interview on
46:15
Speaker 2: chopping it up.