Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / How Bobby Stuckey Transformed a Learning Disability Into Hospitality Excellence at Frasca

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How Bobby Stuckey Transformed a Learning Disability Into Hospitality Excellence at Frasca · 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. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Bobby Stuckey. He is the founder and partner of
0:20
Frasca Hospitality Group, A company dedicated to delivering
0:24
warm and thoughtful hospitality through restaurants like Frasca
0:28
Food and Wine, Pizzeria Alberico, Tabernetta, and Sunday
0:33
Vinyl. Their goal is to make people
0:35
feel welcomed by offering genuine service, flavorful
0:38
cuisine and curated wines, and spiritless.
0:42
Bobby's leadership has helped shape this mission across all
0:46
their locations, ensuring guests receive attentive care and
0:49
culinary experience. Under his guidance, Frasca
0:52
Hospitality Group has earned respect for its innovative
0:55
approach to hospitality. Bobby has been recognized with
0:58
two James Bier Foundation awards, outstanding service and
1:02
outstanding wine service. Before founding Frasca, he
1:05
worked as a sommelier at the French Laundry and the Little
1:08
Nell, gaining hands on experience in fine dining.
1:12
He has become a trusted voice in the industry shaping what top
1:15
tier hospitality looks like today.
1:17
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2:01
All right, back to our guest today, Bobby Sucky from Fresca
2:04
Hospitality Group. Thanks for making the time to
2:06
Share your story today. Anthony, thanks for spending
2:09
some time with me. So Bobby, you are known as
2:13
someone that really places a lot of emphasis on the larger
2:17
importance in the overall beauty of the restaurant industry.
2:20
But take us back to the beginning for you.
2:23
How did your journey in the restaurant industry first start?
2:28
I started as a bus person in 1983.
2:32
I was, I'll be really frank, I, I was a really, it's not that I
2:37
didn't want to be a good student, I just really
2:40
struggled. I'm in my mid 50s and I got, I
2:43
didn't get diagnosed to be dyslexic until I was literally
2:48
in college. So my grade school, middle
2:51
school, high school years, those that was a tough time for me and
2:57
I found the restaurant industry and it was one of the few places
3:02
where I got positive reinforcement outside of the
3:06
home. I'd really loving parents, great
3:08
family, but maybe didn't get the greatest positive reinforcement
3:13
at school and the restaurant industry as a bus person.
3:19
As a kid, I was getting that positive reinforcement and it
3:23
really left me under the tent per SE.
3:27
What does that mean under the tent?
3:28
Under the tent means like everyone does not everyone some
3:32
some tents they don't invite people.
3:35
I was lucky enough to the hospitality industry invites
3:39
everybody under the tent, not just me.
3:41
If you're new, new to the country and you don't speak the
3:44
language, if you're you've gotten fired from another job,
3:50
the restaurant industry is there for you.
3:51
If, God forbid, you made a mistake and you were
3:54
incarcerated, the restaurant industry is there for you.
3:57
I was one of those people that was allowed under the tent to
4:01
really thrive. Because up until that point, you
4:06
felt like you'd been left out of a lot of tents because of your
4:09
undiagnosed dyslexia. School was really hard for you.
4:12
And there's probably people like, come on, Bobby, why don't
4:15
you get this? This is basic stuff.
4:16
Like, how many times do we have to tell you, Right?
4:19
Yes. Yeah.
4:21
And that has to be really demoralizing as a young kid
4:23
who's trying to just figure things out.
4:25
Yes. Yeah.
4:28
And so you started as a bus person.
4:31
You worked your way up. Before you started Fresca, you
4:35
had worked at some really iconic establishments like The French
4:38
Laundry and the Little Nell. What were some of the pivotal
4:41
lessons from those early experiences that still guide the
4:45
way you lead Fresca today? I think both Little Nell and the
4:49
French Laundry, the leadership teams there were both really
4:55
formative for me. I'll start with the little no
4:58
because that was first Eric Calderon and who was the general
5:02
manager and Connie Thornburg, the food and beverage director
5:05
at that time for that perfect Nexus of they had a lot of
5:10
leadership, they had a lot of experience, but they were really
5:16
thoughtful leaders. They really, not just with me,
5:19
with everyone, pulled us into the performance that we needed
5:24
to be able to do. They did a really great job at
5:26
that. And then, you know, moving on to
5:29
the French Laundry in 25 years ago, that was just such an
5:36
exciting time to be there. And Thomas Keller and his
5:40
partner Laura Cunningham were just such great leaders and
5:44
really gave me a set of tools that I still use everyday.
5:48
I I use things from both those experiences all the time.
5:53
How did the opportunity to open your first restaurant come
5:56
about? It was more not really an
6:02
opportunity, it was a necessity. My wife's mother passed away
6:10
when we're at the French Laundry and we left there to move here
6:16
to open frost of food and wine 21 years ago to be close to my
6:22
wife's father. He was living in Golden.
6:25
We're actually sitting it right now.
6:27
I'm in the the private dining room of Pizzeria Albarico, which
6:30
is named after my wife's family. So that's next door to Frasca.
6:35
So we really came to Boulder to be close to my father-in-law and
6:42
there weren't a lot of jobs for what I did in 21 years ago in
6:48
Boulder. There weren't a lot of wine
6:50
positions, high end restaurants that I can go work at.
6:54
So I had to do the next obvious thing and open a restaurant
6:59
because they gave me a place to work.
7:02
Now let's be fair, that's not the next obvious thing.
7:04
Like starting a business is really hard.
7:07
Starting a restaurant is even harder.
7:09
Certainly would have been easier to go find employment somewhere
7:13
else, but I think there was something that it sort of
7:15
infected you in your blood about the business by that point. 100%
7:19
I am so passionate about the restaurant industry.
7:23
I feel very lucky for Oscar. Our group has been around for 21
7:28
years and I still get super excited fired up to be on the
7:33
floor every night. And I want to hear more about
7:36
the different restaurant concepts that you have.
7:39
But I want to come back to something we were just touching
7:41
on because I, I can tell that you've got really strong
7:44
feelings about kind of the larger importance of the
7:47
restaurant industry and its place in overall society.
7:51
Can you say more about that? Yeah, I mean, I look at the
7:54
restaurant industry. Is this beautiful sleeping giant
7:59
sitting under all of society's nose without anyone paying
8:03
attention? Is the IT is very exciting but
8:10
most people don't realize this that it is the biggest employer
8:18
for private sector other than healthcare in North America.
8:23
Wow, I didn't think I realized. That it's 12 times the size of
8:27
the airline industry. It dwarfs the airline industry.
8:32
So you're saying there's a lot of employment opportunities
8:34
here? Lot of employment, lot of
8:37
chances for people of all walks of life to be an entrepreneur.
8:41
And then what also is so special about the restaurant industry,
8:46
look at think of it as you're like 8th grade biology class.
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The restaurant is the what you would learn in 8th grade is the
8:55
cornerstone species of the ecosystem.
9:00
We're the cornerstone species of the US economic system because
9:07
not only are we the huge employer, the ripple effect of
9:12
our industry effects when things are going well, so many things
9:17
positively. No other industry has the levers
9:23
to positively in fact impact the economy like US did.
9:29
Just isn't a fact of that. And are you saying that's
9:32
because of the number of people that you employ?
9:35
And so when the restaurant industry is good, when you're
9:38
able to employ more people, now those people have funds to go
9:42
and spend other places in the economy.
9:45
Is that am I connecting the dots correctly here?
9:47
Little bit, but also the ecos, the the cornerstone species
9:51
theories. OK, farmers can sell to us,
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linen companies are selling to us.
9:57
We take so much things to open our doors every day.
10:02
Then it brings so many people up.
10:05
All the other businesses that you guys buy from helps to turn
10:10
that flywheel. The economy as well.
10:12
Yeah, yeah. You know, when we were dealing
10:16
with the pandemic across the United States five years ago, we
10:21
saw it immediately. You saw pork farmers could not
10:26
butcher pork because they're the pork industry needed U.S.
10:30
Open. Even though everyone is at home
10:35
eating, people eat differently when they go to the grocery
10:40
store, then their diner. And I heard something when I was
10:45
because I was very active during the pandemic helping the
10:49
Independent Restaurant Coalition.
10:51
I was on phone with congressman and senators across the United
10:55
States. And you would hear from a pork
10:58
farmer in Iowa talk about, hey, a little diner doing breakfast
11:04
seven days a week goes through a lot more bacon than a grocery
11:10
store. That's interesting.
11:14
So. We're more likely to consume
11:16
bacon if we go to a restaurant. Yeah, or so many other things,
11:22
tomatoes, lettuces, all those things.
11:28
So it really turbocharges the industry when we're healthy.
11:36
That makes a lot of sense. And I, and I also want to go
11:40
back to what you were saying about your, your undiagnosed
11:43
dyslexia. And I'm curious if if you found
11:47
this to be true for you, because I talked with a number of other
11:50
business leaders, founders that have been on a similar path,
11:55
undiagnosed dyslexia or learning disability.
11:59
And they really struggled in school and their brains didn't
12:03
work and sort of the traditional sense.
12:05
And so they had to, whether consciously or not, figure out
12:09
other ways to sort of develop their brains and, and other
12:13
skills to develop so that they could pursue, you know, their
12:18
own form of success in life. And, and a lot of those folks
12:21
now look back on those really hard and challenging times with
12:24
a sense of gratitude because now they have skills and, and can do
12:29
things in ways that other people can't.
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Does any of this ring true for you?
12:32
Oh 100%. I mean, I'll be 56 in September.
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So I am firmly of that Generation X group that we
12:42
didn't really understand the learning disabilities like we do
12:45
now. And I grew up in Phoenix, AZ,
12:48
which might have been academically maybe a little bit
12:52
even more behind in that time period.
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Nothing against it, just a fact of life.
12:58
And so it wasn't, I just didn't fit into how we learned.
13:03
If you I didn't fit into the bell curve properly, maybe I was
13:07
over to one side or the other side too much.
13:10
But Mother Nature is interesting.
13:13
She will give any of us a different set of skill sets if
13:19
you don't have the the the normal skill sets.
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So I find that my I had a different form of how I
13:29
remembered things. Maybe I was forced to memorize
13:33
more cuz reading and writing were so hard.
13:38
So that gave me a skill set that I use everyday.
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It allowed me to see things differently.
13:46
And the most important thing I think it gave me is I had to
13:53
work so hard at such a young age to be below average or average,
14:01
that my work ethic, I have to be careful with my coworkers, that
14:09
my work ethic, tolerance is just different than theirs.
14:15
And it's not that I'm better or they're not better.
14:19
It's that my work ethic became so robust from trying just to be
14:26
average, that when you find yourself in a profession that
14:30
you like and that you're doing well with and you already have
14:33
that work ethic, it's like turbocharged.
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So there's a lot of times where maybe my team's like, hey,
14:39
Bobby, pump the brakes. Slow it down, buddy, slow it
14:45
down. No, I get that.
14:47
And I have a lot of respect for that.
14:49
You know, you, like you said, you had to, you had to work
14:51
extra hard just to be average or even below average at the time.
14:56
So now you found your groove, you found an area that you can
14:59
really excel in, but now you can't turn that dial back very
15:02
easily. And so you're you're
15:04
supercharged. And I know that the so the
15:07
Frasca Hospitality group, the name is inspired by the kind of
15:11
the informal Frasca's of Northeastern Italy.
15:15
Can you share the story behind that tradition and how it
15:18
influences your approach to restaurants?
15:20
So our part of Italy that frost has come from is a part of Italy
15:25
called Friuli Venezia Julia. So that is the part of Italy
15:29
next to modern day Slovenia and the southern border of modern
15:36
day Austria. But up until 19/17 it was part
15:40
of Austria. And these wine country
15:44
restaurants, which were denoted by the branch at the end of the
15:48
driveway or over the door or next to the garage, that denoted
15:53
A Frasca, which was this casual eatery for the neighborhood to
15:59
come in to get maybe one or two simple plates, a glass of Tokai
16:05
Friolano or Pinot Bianco and get on with their day.
16:10
And that was our inspiration was that region of Italy, Friuli
16:14
Vanessa Julia. So if you're inspired by Friuli
16:17
and you're in Boulder, Co, what is the best name you could have
16:23
would be a Frasca. And so why was that your
16:26
inspiration? Did you spend some time
16:28
traveling there? I had before we open for sure,
16:31
but when I was studying to become a master simulier 30
16:34
years ago, I would study how I studied for theory for the
16:38
master simulier. I would study about wine, read
16:42
the wine, the the region, the cuisine, the culture of any
16:46
given region. And so I did that with
16:49
everything, Spain, Burgundy, Alzas, Champagne, whatever,
16:56
Italy of course. And when I was reading about for
17:00
you, Lee, I don't know why, but there was this amazing pull to
17:06
learn more about that region. And I feel so lucky because the
17:11
region's given me so much. It's given my guest so much.
17:15
It's giving my employees so much that region.
17:17
I think we lucked out, Lachlan Dennett and I finding that
17:22
region because I think if we had any other region that we fell in
17:27
love with, I don't know if we would have been as reciprocal.
17:32
It's just something about it really spoke to you and and it's
17:34
been you guys have had a lot of really good momentum from the
17:37
early success. So I've never had the pleasure
17:40
of being in one of your restaurants kind of paint a
17:43
picture for us. What is the customer experience
17:45
like? Well, you're as a customer,
17:49
you're entering one of our homes.
17:52
I like last night I worked at Tavernetta, but I walked over
17:56
into Sunday Vinyl and helped out over there for a moment.
18:00
And really everybody on the team hypothetically should be
18:08
contributing to making that guest feel warm and invited.
18:14
And so you, it's not uncommon to have a guest be finishing their
18:20
plate of pasta and it'd be me to clear their plate.
18:25
And that's normal. As I said earlier, I started
18:29
bussing tables and you know, in the early 80s and I'm still
18:34
bussing tables. So maybe I'm someone who really
18:37
sticks in my lane. But it because of me sticking in
18:41
my lane of bussing tables. It encourages the whole team to
18:46
everyone contribute the same way.
18:48
I was going to say, Bobby, you've got to be busy enough
18:50
that you got more things to do than bus a table.
18:53
Like what? Why is that on your to?
18:55
Do list. I wouldn't see it any other way,
19:00
Anthony. I mean, that's if I'm going to
19:04
be part of service with that team that night.
19:06
Like tonight I'm at Frasca, tomorrow night I'm at Pizzeria
19:10
Albarico, Friday night I'm at Austria Albarico.
19:13
I circle back again to Frasca on Saturday night.
19:17
If I'm with that team that night, I have to be a
19:21
contributor equally as every team member, no matter where
19:25
they are in the process. It's like wherever the team
19:28
needs you, wherever the client, wherever the guests need you,
19:32
that's where you're showing up. Is your ship by example, right?
19:37
Yeah. So I want to talk about the
19:39
James Beard Awards. And let's assume for a moment
19:42
that somebody's listening and they don't know who James Beard
19:45
is. They don't understand the
19:46
significance of the awards. Before we talk about the awards
19:50
that you won, tell us why these awards are so important.
19:57
Well, we have a really beautiful industry and but I'm not a lot
20:02
of light has shined on our industry and the James Bayard
20:06
Foundation has been one of the great stalwarts of showing this
20:12
beautiful industry to mainstream America and not through a
20:18
reality television show, not through a contest, but.
20:24
As a award ceremony and a mentorship, they do a lot of
20:29
mentorship to to to restaurant tours, but their awards are like
20:35
our Oscars and it really opens up mainstream America to
20:41
understand what's going on in there in the industry.
20:46
So tell us about the two because you got not one but two of these
20:50
James Beard Awards, one for outstanding service, another for
20:54
outstanding wine service. What do these mean?
20:57
I'm embarrassed to say this. We actually got our one this
21:01
June for outstanding restaurant in the country.
21:05
So there's three. Oh my gosh.
21:07
Say that. That's awesome.
21:09
So yeah, that was an emotional night.
21:14
So we've got 3. So outstanding wine service is
21:18
really based on frost that was awarded to Frasca for building a
21:23
wine culture for the community. That was done 100% by the great
21:31
team members past and present that have worked so hard over
21:38
the 21 years. You know, past have been the
21:42
Nate Readies, the the the Grant Riddles, the Matt Mathers.
21:46
Present would be the Jeremy Schwartz, the Shawn Perez, the
21:51
Zach and of course our our corporate wine director for the
21:56
company that our fearless leader Carlin Carr.
21:59
They they really have done so much.
22:04
And then the hospitality award, which used to be called the the
22:09
Outstanding Service Award, we won that in 2019 and that was
22:15
really beautiful for the team because it shined a light on
22:20
that. It's about the whole team taking
22:23
care of the guests. I love that they changed the
22:26
name to the Outstanding Hospitality Award.
22:28
I think it's really important. Service is what you do to
22:32
someone. Hospitality is how you make
22:34
someone feel. More interesting.
22:38
That actually my speech in 2019 was I, I thank the foundation
22:45
and I asked can we change the name so.
22:49
Right, right on stage as part of your acceptance.
22:51
Speech. I didn't write a speech, so
22:53
that's what came out. It was like all motion, but I
22:57
was nice that they listened to my speech and they changed it.
23:00
I thought it was really for the better because hospitality
23:03
doesn't just have to be service captains and Maidor DS and
23:08
similes. Hospitality can be done by a
23:11
chef, by a dishwasher, by a kitchen person.
23:17
We, a front of the house person. All of us can participate.
23:21
What does that look like though? And when they're trying to give
23:24
out, you know, determine who gets this award, like how are
23:26
you measuring that? What is over the top hospitality
23:30
look like? I think they do it by checking
23:33
in with peers. And I mean, I've never been part
23:36
of the the awards process, but I think they are checking in on
23:41
these restaurants to see what they're doing in that sense.
23:45
And then this year's award was outstanding restaurant.
23:49
It was something we had been nominated for a few years ago,
23:52
but not recently. We got nominated this year.
23:56
And I told the whole team that is the win be nominated one of
24:02
five restaurants, 4 restaurants in the country for outstanding
24:07
restaurant. That's the win does not look at
24:09
anything else. And then with each day getting
24:13
closer to the awards, Sergey, our general manager at Frasca, I
24:21
think would ask me every day, hey, what do you think our odds
24:25
are? And I said, Sergey, would you
24:26
quit it? We've already won.
24:29
And then Jr. lead bartender would say, hey, Bobby, what do
24:36
you think our odds are? And then Jeremy Schwartz or our
24:41
lead simile would ask, what are our odds?
24:45
Our chef Ian, chef Sonny Kelvin, the whole team were like, do you
24:51
think we have a shot at it? I was like, guys, everyone stop.
24:54
That's not the important thing. We're winners already.
24:57
We're one of the five. Finalists.
24:58
You're one of the finalists, man.
25:01
They were persistent. And then you guys ended up
25:04
winning. And they kept needling me and I
25:08
said I don't want to think about that.
25:10
And then we went to the awards as a team.
25:12
We we did not get to have Chef Ian with us because he had a
25:17
bigger responsibility. He and his wife had just had
25:22
their first born. Oh boy.
25:23
Child so he didn't get to go, but he had a lot more important
25:28
things going on and we went to the awards and we sat there it's
25:32
the second last award so you sit there for 4 1/2 hours stressing
25:36
out and and then it happened so. Yeah.
25:40
And and tell me about the emotion that came up in the
25:42
moment that it was announced. It was so overwhelming.
25:46
I think if you look at my Instagram profile, one of the
25:52
posts down there a little bit is when it happens.
25:56
Someone had got in on film from me getting my team on state age,
26:04
me addressing the the room. It was so emotional.
26:07
I think we're still emotional about it three months later.
26:12
So how many? I mean, where do I want to go
26:16
with this? Like are there different
26:17
categories for best restaurant or is it just best restaurant
26:20
overall? It's like best Italian
26:22
restaurant, best French restaurant.
26:24
Well, it's just outstanding restaurant.
26:26
There's other categories for other disciplines like there's
26:29
pastry there, wine service, but for.
26:33
Restaurants, you guys got it #1200025I mean, that's, that's
26:39
something else. And and So what does that do for
26:43
business? You guys see an increase in
26:45
reservations, foot traffic, phone calls?
26:48
Yeah, I think you a lot of positive things happen.
26:53
First of all, I think the community gets excited even if
26:57
they're not going to come eat with you at at your fine dining
27:00
restaurant. They're proud in Boulder,
27:04
they're proud in Denver metropolitan area, they're proud
27:07
in Colorado. Did that happen?
27:09
So right there, that's a real positive.
27:13
You know, Frosca's small, we're like 18 tables.
27:16
So yes, it is increases business, but it can only
27:22
increase so much because we don't have many tables.
27:26
But it fills things out beautifully for sure.
27:30
But I think the powerful part is what it does to the community.
27:36
It affects people positively that might not even every eat it
27:40
at your restaurant. There's a pride.
27:44
So going back to the early days, I'm how soon after opening your
27:50
first restaurant did you think, oh, we're really on to something
27:53
here? Like this is established, it's
27:57
working, this is going to be successful.
28:01
I still get nervous everyday, so I don't think we've ever figured
28:07
it out. We're always learning.
28:10
We're always the the goal posts in the rest all of business, but
28:15
specifically in the restaurant industry, the goal posts get
28:18
changed all the time. Could be economic crisis, it
28:23
could be a pandemic, it could be legislation by your local City
28:28
Council or state legislatures. Any of these things can change
28:32
your goal posts. So because our industry, the
28:38
restaurant industry operates on such tiny margins, we don't get
28:43
a chance to breathe a big sigh of, oh, we've made it.
28:49
We constantly live, not just me, all our whole industry.
28:55
We constantly live in this very nervous state of are we going to
29:04
lose it all or is it going to be a great night because our
29:08
industry works on such small margins.
29:11
I remember my father Larry, AKA the Lizard, is what we call him
29:17
around here. He doesn't say much, but when he
29:21
does, he really says things really saliently.
29:24
And he was a former. He's a retired entrepreneur, but
29:27
not in the restaurant business. But he sure does pay close
29:30
attention to what his son does. And he he, he every once in a
29:35
while will send me a nugget of information.
29:38
And during the pandemic, not the pandemic, during the last
29:42
economic crisis in 2008, nine, when all those banks were were
29:47
were were were going under, we had those TARP funds.
29:53
If you remember those TARP funds where we bailed out the banks.
29:58
And if you look at those funds, they weren't allowed to make
30:01
more than 20% profit while getting this or something like
30:06
that. My dad found this bit of
30:08
information. He goes find it ironic that if a
30:11
business is getting bailed out, they're not allowed to make more
30:14
than 20% profit, but your industry average is 6% profit.
30:20
Man, Bobby, you're in the wrong business.
30:23
You should be in the failing bank business, huh?
30:26
Like, is that crazy? Like little bit like our
30:30
industry is so fragile at all times.
30:34
And that's what is the magic of the restaurant industry is that
30:41
the whole industry works like a swan above the water, looking
30:46
graceful, making everyone think that the restaurant industry is
30:50
so beautiful and serene and underneath your defeat are going
30:56
so fast trying to stay above water.
30:59
And yeah. You know, I had the chance to
31:05
recently read the book Unreasonable Hospitality.
31:08
I'm sure you're familiar with. I've had so many of my guests in
31:13
and outside of the restaurant industry recommend that book and
31:16
one of my guests actually sent it to me.
31:17
So I finally read it. It gave me a little bit of, you
31:20
know, insight into, you know, what goes on kind of behind the
31:24
scenes. I, I think I'd like to hear from
31:26
your point of view, Bobby, what kinds of things you guys look to
31:32
do on a daily basis to continue to escalate and elevate is
31:37
probably the better word, elevate that hospitality
31:40
experience. Some of the examples in the book
31:43
were just like, man, you're already delivering a great
31:45
experience. Why not just sort of keep it
31:47
there, but like how do you guys look at that?
31:50
Yeah, I will. First of all, Wilbur Adair's
31:52
book is amazing and he's an amazingly bright, brilliant
31:57
human being. Great guy.
32:00
You ever get to meet him? He's wonderful.
32:02
His dad's awesome. His wife saw some really good
32:06
group of people there. He's brilliant.
32:11
I think it depends on the restaurant you're in, what
32:16
you're able to execute because each restaurant has a different
32:23
cadence, pattern and whatever. But what we try to do is make
32:28
sure all the restaurants from the pizzeria to the fine dining
32:33
Frasca and everything in between, is that we're thinking
32:37
about the guests, we're being empathetic.
32:40
We realize, we try to realize that hospitality is not about
32:45
us. It's not about our program, it's
32:48
not about our restaurant. It's about the guests that's
32:50
coming in the door or who's calling for a reservation.
32:54
And that's really hard for us to do in the United States.
32:58
We invented the selfie. We are about ourselves.
33:03
We do a lot of great things in the United States.
33:06
I wouldn't say the humble craft of hospitality is part of our
33:13
DNA of a culture. So it's almost, it's exhausting
33:19
for people to embrace in the process and the craft of
33:23
hospitality because it has to be relentless.
33:28
It has to be every day, it has to be every moment.
33:32
You, it can't just be about when you turn the light switch on and
33:35
the guests come in. You got to be doing it at all
33:40
times. And that's really hard.
33:41
We're not natural at that. Can you maybe give a specific
33:45
example of a way that you elevated hospitality?
33:48
Because here I'm thinking about it and I'm outside the industry.
33:51
What do I know? Like I go to a restaurant, like
33:54
I, I want a friendly waiter. I, you know, want my food to
33:56
come in a reasonable amount of time and taste good and be at
33:59
the right temperature. But beyond that, like I don't
34:02
know that I'm really expecting anything more.
34:06
Like what? What is it that you could do to
34:08
really wow somebody? So last night I got a really
34:13
great night. Last night I was working on
34:15
Tavernetta and there was a gentleman that came in.
34:18
I hadn't seen him in 25 years. I used to take care of him 30
34:22
years ago at the Little. Now it was such a delight to
34:26
have him in there. He was in Denver for a business
34:30
conference, and he had two young men with him, and they were
34:40
talking about that they were going to go to Rome and Venice
34:45
in November, and I'm pouring wine there.
34:49
They're not talking to me. They're talking them to
34:51
themselves. And one person's like, oh, you
34:54
go to Italy a lot. Do you have any ideas?
34:58
I said, yeah, here's my card. If you e-mail me, I'll be more
35:03
than happy to help you out with your trip.
35:05
I get an e-mail this morning. I got done with my morning run.
35:09
I, one of my emails is from Andrea, one of the guys sitting
35:12
there yesterday. And I'm like, oh, he really is
35:16
he this is his I Terry. He's going to Venice for two
35:18
days, Bologna 2 days, Rome for three days.
35:21
And I just took a moment, sent him a list, couple restaurants
35:26
of each, what days they're closed In case you're there on a
35:30
Sunday, Monday, go to this place because Ali Tessieri in Venice
35:34
is closed Sunday, Mondays, but local is open on Monday Tuesday.
35:38
Real Insider. Secrets, yeah.
35:41
And that wasn't part of the cost of the roast chicken and the
35:45
brunello, but it was just listening, realizing that
35:53
someone's about to do a vacation.
35:54
That's really important. Yeah, I like that.
35:58
I'm curious, though, why so many different restaurant concepts?
36:03
You know, I think about a place like McDonald's.
36:06
They came up with a good idea, they refined it, It works really
36:10
well, so they replicated the heck out of it.
36:13
Why not do the same thing? You've got a great restaurant,
36:17
Just go with that one concept. Wouldn't it be easier to
36:20
reproduce? That it depends on the
36:23
restaurant. I mean, we started with Frosco,
36:26
which is on you can't duplicate Frostville.
36:30
What do it again, because it's not about me.
36:34
It's the terroir like when wine we talk about terroir, the
36:38
terroir of that space, the employees that make it up the
36:45
the the destination of going to a fine dining restaurant based
36:49
on free to leave the netsy of Julia.
36:51
You can't do many more of those. That that that's that that
36:54
voices its own deal. I'm sitting in Pizzeria
36:58
Albarico. We could do a couple more of
37:01
these for sure, or Austria Albarico.
37:04
We've done 2 tavernettas. But some things you can do a
37:09
couple more of and some you can't, and that's OK.
37:15
It's OK that I can't do another Frasca, but first I want to.
37:23
Understand why you can't do another Frasca though it.
37:26
Is it because you feel like you you should have cheapen it by
37:30
copying it? Is there something about the
37:32
physical structure that like everything about it, the.
37:35
Staff that makes it that restaurant, how the guests
37:40
interact with it and also the region to be based on freely.
37:44
Venetia Julia. Not every community can support
37:50
a fine dining restaurant based on Freely.
37:52
That thing is such an oddity. It's just it's own.
37:58
What's it different about the food from that region?
38:01
So much matter of fact, when we first opened, I used to get
38:05
guests so upset because we're funny.
38:08
And in the United States, my, my business partner, Lachlan, he
38:11
lived in Paris, went to culinary school in Paris.
38:15
He worked in Paris. He doesn't ride his bike up to
38:19
Frasco with a baguette and a bat and a beret on.
38:22
He doesn't like field Parisian. But an American can go to their
38:28
20th anniversary trip to Florence for five days and they
38:33
come home and they're an Italian expert.
38:36
That's just human nature because Italy is so inviting.
38:41
But what that guest doesn't realize is not all of Italy is
38:49
Ribolita in in Tuscany. Italy is a country that only
38:55
became unified in the 1860s. So it has many more diverse food
39:02
types. So when you find a place like
39:06
for you leave it on. See, Julia, that really we joke
39:09
about no Americans go to other than our guests and our staff.
39:15
It's hot. It takes so much to tell that
39:19
story. It's really hard and a lot of
39:23
guests get freaked out. They're like, what is Lee Krofi?
39:27
What is Chalzone, What is Frico? I just named like three of the
39:31
most typical dishes and for you, Lee.
39:34
And I've never heard of any of them.
39:36
Exactly, and it raises people's cortisol level.
39:43
They want their they. They want their traditional
39:46
pasta parmigiano. They want their.
39:48
Experts. They went to Florence on their
39:50
20th wedding anniversary. Can't take that away from them.
39:54
Well, and you know, and I can echo some of this, my dad's from
39:56
Italy and and. Remember of guests with your
39:59
last name. Yeah, I know it shocks
40:01
everybody. And, you know, I grew up having
40:05
some of the best homemade Italian food for my grandmother.
40:08
But as I got. Older, went to college, you
40:10
know, restaurants, Italian. I discovered cuisine that we'd
40:15
never grown up with. And I was like, pesto.
40:18
I've never heard of pesto. And I'm like, I love this.
40:21
And where was this growing up? And my grandma was like, hey,
40:24
that just wasn't popular in our region.
40:26
And so we didn't know what it was.
40:27
So I, I get what you're saying, but what, what would people find
40:31
are the flavors from that region?
40:33
Like how? How would you?
40:33
Describe that region is the northern part historically of
40:38
what was the Roman Empire. So the town of Chimidali, that
40:43
was kind of like the northernmost fortress of the
40:46
Roman Empire, huge Roman community in Aquileia, right on
40:50
the sea in Grotto. So is the northern part of that.
40:54
It's the western border of what we now in modern day speak call
41:02
Eastern Europe. So Slovenia, above that you've
41:06
got Austria and Hungary. They call it middle Europe
41:12
because they look at it as middle.
41:13
Here in the United States, we call that Eastern Europe.
41:16
And then we're the southern part of what was the Austrian Empire
41:22
at its peak. So when you're in Trieste, the
41:26
port city of for you leave it at Si Julia and you stand on the
41:31
Piazza Unita. You can tell that the Austrians
41:35
put a lot of thought into that Piazza of, hey, look, this is
41:42
you're entering our empire. So it was all three of those
41:48
major cultures with other little cultures combining at all times.
41:55
And because Trieste was the port city for the whole Austrian
41:59
Empire, they had so many different food products coming
42:05
through there to go up to Vienna.
42:09
It just became so diverse. You see things like gnocchi with
42:15
maybe poppy seeds on it. You might see smoked ricotta
42:21
versus cured ricotta, like with this smoky, almost meaty smell,
42:26
but it's just cheese that has been smoked.
42:31
Interesting. You might see raw fish
42:33
preparation, peshe crudo done beautifully.
42:37
So it's all these things combined.
42:39
Love it. I've heard you talk about what
42:42
you call career worthy compensation and obviously a
42:46
positive work culture. Can you share some examples of
42:50
how that approach benefits not only your team members, but your
42:53
guests as well? Yeah, when you have an
43:00
organization that can compensate properly and add benefits, and I
43:08
have a whole bent on that because societally I really
43:12
think something's gone a little weird.
43:17
I think it's great when Obama came up with Obamacare and they
43:21
came up with the arbitrary number of 26 is when you get off
43:26
your parents insurance. But what I don't think they
43:29
realized is now you have a 25 year old, which is solidly an
43:35
adult has never thought about insurance yet.
43:38
That is a bit of a, that's a chink in the armor of that whole
43:43
idea. I don't think they've thought
43:46
that through until now as someone who is employs a lot of
43:49
young people. But when you are an organization
43:54
that adds has a matching 4-O1K fully vested after one year like
43:59
we do, and we've had that for close to two decades, an
44:04
insurance program for our staff, then you have it opportunity for
44:10
people to have real careers in our industry.
44:15
And it doesn't matter where they come from.
44:18
You can come from Nepal, you can come from Des Moines, IA, you
44:23
can come from Venezuela, doesn't matter.
44:28
You can come to work at a restaurant like this, You can
44:31
provide for your kids, you can have benefits insurance, your
44:36
family can be on insurance. And then what happens is they
44:40
can stay longer, they can be with you, they can have growth
44:46
with you and that positively affects the gas.
44:52
You got less turnover, you've got better employees, and that
44:56
just leads to better customer experience.
44:58
Yeah, yeah. I I will say and this is not a
45:02
knock on the current Z generation.
45:06
Not a knock, just an observation.
45:09
It is interesting. Sometimes it takes me a while to
45:13
wake up, but it really dawned on me recently because I'll sit
45:18
down to mentor some employees if they're leaving and stuff it.
45:22
And then I started doing some research after I had these
45:25
experiences with my staff. Is that so many of them or about
45:33
1/2 a decade behind on thinking about benefits and the
45:40
importance Because I I don't know how old you are, but I've
45:45
already stated I'm in my mid 50s.
45:47
When I graduated from high school you had two choices.
45:50
You were either immediately off your parents insurance or you
45:55
were enrolled in college and you got it through there.
45:59
So by the time you were 25 years old, even if you couldn't write
46:05
at 18, afford insurance, you and your peer group talked about
46:09
those things. You and your peer group might
46:12
look for a job that has those now.
46:16
It's not even they they don't have to think about it.
46:22
And I think it holds them back at looking at compensation
46:26
packages. As they're moving on to another
46:29
opportunity, this isn't something that's really on their
46:32
radar. They're thinking, how much am I
46:34
going to make per hour? You know, do I get any paid time
46:36
off? Like those kinds of things?
46:38
The benefits just you're saying in your experience just hasn't
46:41
been part of the vocabulary. No, we, we, we have a thing
46:46
where employees can like put in ideas to ownership.
46:50
And I had a young person say, hey, why don't we get rid of the
46:56
benefits and just give us more PTO?
47:04
And I was like, you know, you got to listen.
47:06
Everyone's idea is important, but maybe they didn't know what
47:11
they were saying. Yes, they're 23 years old.
47:15
They don't have to worry about benefits.
47:19
They're on their parents insurance and.
47:23
They're probably pretty healthy. Yes, yeah.
47:26
But then I'm really lucky that I have employees that are raising
47:30
3 kids, 4 kids with us. They hear that and they're like,
47:36
what are you talking about? Different perspectives.
47:40
And they're both great human beings, but because of what we
47:45
did with that safety net, it has given us young adults that
47:53
haven't thought about that yet. And I think they're a little,
47:56
they're about 1/2 a decade behind thinking about it.
48:01
As the hospitality landscape continues to involve, what do
48:04
you envision as the next frontier for Fresco Hospitality
48:08
Group? The next frontier for us.
48:14
More locations of the same concepts, new concepts taking
48:18
your same concepts, refining them.
48:21
You know, I, I, I, I personally don't enjoy growth at all, but I
48:26
learned that I was really selfish.
48:29
So if you look at the first six years of Frasca, no other
48:33
restaurants, it was very successful.
48:36
It was doing its thing. We didn't expand.
48:41
Then we opened up a little pizzeria next door to us and we
48:43
did that for 13 years. My business partners were like,
48:48
Bobby, you're so selfish. And I'm like, what?
48:53
I think that's kind of rude. I'm like, why?
48:56
And they're like, well, if we don't grow and you're the GM of
49:02
Frasca for the next 50 years, no one gets to move out.
49:08
And then I started thinking about this and then I started
49:12
thinking about how long our whole system is because food
49:17
journalists, right? Oh, I hate that they've
49:20
expanded. I wish it was just one
49:22
restaurant. The whole system is selfish and
49:28
not thinking about the employees growth.
49:31
So I never want, I would prefer if I never heard a journalist
49:35
say that because what they don't realize they're doing, because
49:38
it took me a while to figure it out also is that that's being
49:41
selfish. And now that we've been able to
49:44
grow, people have been able to grow in our company and their
49:50
lives have become better. I just got done.
49:52
Peter Hogan, my business partner, and I just sat down
49:56
with one of our leaders in our company talking about growth.
50:01
They're coming to us. Where's my next move?
50:05
Where is what can I do in this company?
50:09
So going back to that original selfishness of mine, I'm not
50:14
comfortable with growth, but I have to help lead the team in
50:20
growth so I can provide opportunities for these great
50:26
employees that want it. So then we have to say, does it
50:30
work financially? Is the team ready?
50:34
Here we go. And So what growth do you think
50:38
is on the horizon? Anything that you can give voice
50:40
to yet? I don't have anything in the
50:43
hopper right now. We are looking at some
50:48
opportunities outside of the state of Colorado.
50:51
I don't know if they'll happen, but you know, I'm from
50:55
Scottsdale, Phoenix area. I would love to have a
50:58
restaurant down there someday. I think there's some really
51:02
exciting markets out there, but we we've something hasn't landed
51:08
yet. Gotcha.
51:09
Well, we'll continue to check in.
51:11
Meanwhile, let's take a little detour.
51:13
I want to hear Bobby about a serious challenge that you had
51:17
to overcome, whether it was something personal or
51:19
professional. How did you get through that and
51:22
what did you learn? OK, it's ironic that you're
51:26
asking me this today because I just told my business partner
51:29
this story. So I have to collect some like
51:33
personal pieces for the Julia Child Foundation because I
51:39
accidentally won the Julia Child award this year.
51:41
And they're, they're presented in October accident like an
51:45
exhibit at the Smithsonian. So I've got to like go through
51:50
my wife and I on our day off where I had to go through some
51:53
boxes of like some memorabilia of our my career.
51:58
And I found this ruler like a 12 inch ruler.
52:06
And it represents both the pain and hardship and what came
52:13
through that. So I mentioned earlier, we've
52:17
already discussed I was undiagnosed till College of
52:21
being dyslexic. So I'm also from a generation.
52:28
We didn't know much about this. And I'm not blaming my third
52:32
grade teacher. I'm just pointing out something
52:35
that happened. My dad and my granddad before
52:38
that were in insurance. So I was really proud of my dad.
52:44
And so I had. My dad used to have these date
52:46
books that said Stuckey Insurance and he had these
52:51
rulers and notebooks. So I had all three all the time.
52:57
I use those date books until he retired.
52:59
That's what I write all my training logs in as a runner as
53:02
a kid and I would show up at school.
53:05
I knew I was a struggling kid. So I try to sit at the front to
53:09
try to get it whatever info it was third grade and the teacher
53:14
asked us to write our and this is so how much times have
53:21
changed. They didn't ask what your mom
53:23
did. They asked what did your dad do
53:26
right now you you would ask what do your parents do?
53:29
But they weren't that sophisticated in 19, whatever
53:33
that would be 78, third grade. They're like, what did your what
53:40
do? Everyone had to write what their
53:41
father did for a living. And I got up in front of the
53:45
class to write insurance and I couldn't write insurance.
53:51
Did not aspell it. I would kept having problems in
53:55
front of the whole class and my teacher not meaning to be a
54:00
total, I'm not going to use the word, but she was like, what's
54:06
your problem? Look at your desk.
54:10
It's all over your desk. It's on your ruler, It's on your
54:14
your date book and it's on your notebook.
54:18
Why can't you write this? And it really hurt my feelings.
54:23
It like traumatized me. I've kept that ruler ever since.
54:31
And so I was like showing my my wife that ruler.
54:34
She's like, you know, this is great, but maybe we get some
54:37
therapy about this ruler. You know, she was joking, but
54:40
she was wow, that ruler really meant shows that perseverance of
54:48
as a third grader. And look, I think because of
54:54
that teacher and how it was for me as a kid that when I found
55:01
busing tables as a young teenager, it really helped me
55:10
because there was something that I was good at then maybe other
55:13
kids my age weren't good at. No one in my house knew how to
55:17
do that like. Yeah, I could see that being a a
55:22
real emotional roller coaster of a moment.
55:24
I mean, you're you're very proud of your dad and his insurance
55:28
business. You're excited to get up in
55:32
front of the the class and write insurance.
55:33
This represents, you know, a lot of family pride and that you
55:37
struggled in that moment. And it's you already know that
55:40
you're, you know, a struggling student.
55:41
Some things come harder to you and you don't understand why.
55:44
And now the teacher calls you out in front of everybody.
55:47
It's one thing for you know her to belittle you one-on-one.
55:51
That's enough. But now to do it in front of
55:52
your all your friends and your classmates that that leaves its
55:55
mark. And So what do you do with this
55:58
ruler now? Is this going in the the
56:00
exhibit? I know I got to ask my team if
56:03
that should go in the exhibit or should stay at my desk because
56:06
it's like it's so my career that.
56:10
Ruler Yeah. And there's a lot encompassed in
56:14
that. And so you should have glossed
56:17
over today. I accidentally won the Julia
56:19
Child's award. What?
56:20
What is this award and how did you accidentally win it?
56:23
Well, I don't know how I won it, so that's why it's an accident.
56:27
The Julia Child Foundation. And I'm lucky enough to be of
56:31
the age that I got to take care of Julia Child both at the
56:34
French Laundry and the Little Nell.
56:36
And my mom was a incredible fan of Julia Child.
56:42
Her foundation, which is based in Santa Barbara, where she
56:46
lived, has a award once a year, the Julia Child Foundation award
56:54
for people in excellence in the culinary arts.
56:59
And I got a call this this May. It was May saying, hey, you've
57:06
been nominated for this and you have won this.
57:09
And so the award ceremony will be in October in Napa, and it'll
57:15
be beautiful. I, I, my, they asked me to have
57:21
a mentor there. So Thomas and Laura from French
57:24
Laundry are going to present me and then I'm going to present,
57:27
you know, I'm going to have one of my mentees, someone who came
57:30
from our organization that has gone on to great things, Grant
57:34
Reynolds, who literally grew up in our restaurant and now has
57:38
multiple restaurants in New York City, Parcell and Parcell Wine
57:43
Company have him there. It's going to be.
57:46
Wonderful. Tell us about your wine label,
57:49
Scarpetta. Yeah, we started that about,
57:53
well, we're open 21 years. So we started that 19 years ago
57:56
when we opened, as I was joking earlier that no one knew where
57:59
Friuli was. It was really hard to write a
58:02
wine list of Friulana wines 21 years ago, especially by the
58:07
glass. When you write a wine list by
58:11
the glass, let's say you're a 60 seat restaurant and you're so
58:15
young Blanc, or in our case you're Friolano that in Fridal
58:19
probably need 2 cases a week, probably need 100 cases a year.
58:26
Well, there weren't 2 cases a week to even get through the
58:29
month of Freelano in Colorado 21 years ago.
58:35
The importers didn't keep enough of that on stock.
58:38
And so we tried to at first go to Freeli to some of our friends
58:44
and say, hey, can we make 100 cases, figure get a couple real
58:49
quiet weeks in January. So you got 50 weeks, two kids.
58:53
We need 100 cases of Freelano. And that's how Scarpetta
58:57
started. It wasn't meant to be in all 50
58:59
states. It was meant to help develop, to
59:04
come up with some great wine by the glass, options for frost,
59:08
the food and wine, this Freelano, newish Freelano
59:12
restaurant. And then it has grown.
59:15
My business partner, Lachlan, he really runs the company now and
59:19
gets all the credit for how much it's grown.
59:22
It's in all 50 states. We have a small importing
59:25
company called Benvenusa that's kind of dovetails in there
59:30
because at the same time that we were developing Scarpetta, we
59:33
were out there helping free Alano families find importation
59:39
into the US because we needed them here.
59:41
And after doing that for 18 years and, and now that
59:44
Scarpetta is robust enough with a sales team and all that we've,
59:49
we have about, you know, a few producers that we bring in from
59:53
freely and one from Chianti Glass.
59:56
Wow. That's incredible, that growth
59:58
that you saw just from trying to get to a few cases of wine a
1:00:01
week that you guys could use yourself.
1:00:04
One more question for you, Bobby today.
1:00:06
But before I ask it, I want to do 2 things.
1:00:08
First of all, everyone listening.
1:00:09
Pause for just a second. Go to your podcast app that
1:00:12
you're listening on right now. Go ahead, leave us a comment.
1:00:15
Like us. Share, follow, subscribe.
1:00:18
Not only does it help make sure that you get more great
1:00:20
interviews like this in your feed, but it helps others find
1:00:23
the show too. Bobby, I want to let people know
1:00:26
the best way either to get in touch with you personally to
1:00:29
follow your story, or to get in touch with your restaurant
1:00:32
group. What would that be?
1:00:34
Yeah, the best way would just e-mail me to the info account at
1:00:38
infoandfrascafoodandwine.com. So that's the first restaurant
1:00:42
is called Frasca Food and Wine, and that is the name of the
1:00:45
whole hospitality group, Frasca Hospitality Group.
1:00:49
And you can go there, or if you're in Denver, you go to one
1:00:52
of our restaurants there, Sunday, Vinyl, Tabernetta, Osri
1:00:55
Alberico. But you know, you could just go
1:00:58
to the info account, send me an e-mail.
1:01:01
We'll include links to the e-mail on the website in our
1:01:04
show notes for everybody. So last question for you, Bobby,
1:01:06
you and I reconnect a year from now and you're celebrating
1:01:09
something big. What's that one thing you're
1:01:11
celebrating? A year from now, one year from
1:01:23
now, I hope I'm celebrating some more staff members, kids going
1:01:33
to college. OK.
1:01:38
So I am a huge advocate of universities that specifically
1:01:50
try to help first generation college students.
1:01:55
It's a big passion of mine. So if I do public speaking,
1:02:00
there's a fee for me to public speak and when my team sends the
1:02:03
e-mail to engage, that fee shows right off the top that that this
1:02:08
1st 25% of it goes to this scholarship fund.
1:02:15
The the for I went to a university called Northern
1:02:19
Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ and that school is really
1:02:25
focused and I really commend them on 1st generation college
1:02:31
students. They have a very ambitious goal
1:02:34
to have a very high percentage, like 40% first Gen. really big
1:02:39
ask. So I get really excited when
1:02:43
last week's school started and I saw one of my employees get
1:02:49
emotional, the right emotion that their daughter or son was
1:02:54
going to college. Love it.
1:02:57
Bobby Stuckey from Fresca Hospitality Group.
1:02:59
I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time
1:03:02
and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.
1:03:04
Thank you, Anthony. Thank you so much.
1:03:07
Thanks for having me. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:03:09
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:03:11
Thanks for learning with us today.