Put down the ramekins: How Joe Fontana built Fry the Coop to 10 locations | 077

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My name is Joe Fontana.
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I am the founder and owner of Fry the Coop here in Chicago.
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We have uh 10 restaurants building our 11, and we are uh taking over the world one chicken sandwich at a time.
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Joe Fontana didn't set out to become a Nashville hot chicken guy.
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He just couldn't find a sandwich he loved anywhere in Chicago.
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So he built it himself.
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He's the founder of Fry the Coop, now 10 locations deep with an 11th on the way, and one of the most vocal Seven Shift users we've ever had on this show.
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Today, Joe walked me through the moment he realized he had to stop fortune sauces and start building systems, the hiring philosophy that matters more than the resume, and the marketing playbook behind a video that pulled in 20 million views, including the time he put on a chicken costume, danced on the side of the road.
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My name is DJ, and you're listening to the pre-ship by Seven Chips.
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Joe, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
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Absolutely.
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Thank you for having me.
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Absolutely.
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So I want to dive in.
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I want to, you know, get the kind of the origin story from you about how you how you started Fry the Coop, how that began for folks that have not heard the story before.
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Um then I want to learn how you got to 10 locations and then you know where you're going and like what are the actual kind of tactics behind that, like the day-to-day stuff that you needed to do to grow, you know, while keeping your soul and and keeping the restaurant special.
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So yeah, how did this all begin?
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Yeah, I grew up my first job being a valet in hospitality.
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I worked for a restaurant group that had a valet company that had restaurants all over Chicago.
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So I loved being in hospitality, ended up getting into bartending, did that through my whole 20s, and then got the corporate job, which I absolutely hated.
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And I didn't realize until six years of being in a corporate job that I just needed to get back into hospitality.
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My wife was pregnant, so I needed to do something to like support my family.
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And I kind of coupled opening a business with what I loved, which was hospitality and restaurants.
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And so Born was Fry the Coop.
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I just had these memories of like when, you know, the box would open and you can just the fried chicken smell would just take over the room.
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So I just fell in love with it.
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And then I hadn't had fried chicken in a while.
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And I went to some restaurant in San Diego and had this chicken sandwich, which I was just obsessed with.
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I was like, what is going on?
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What is this?
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So I pulled the manager over and I was like, what is this?
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And he's like, well, we gave it a cute name, but it's really a Nashville hot chicken sandwich.
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And I was like, What is Nashville hot chicken?
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So I just became obsessed with the flavor, the combo from just personally loving it.
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And then I kind of realized that you couldn't find it anywhere.
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So I was just making it at home.
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And at that time, this is now 2015, 2016.
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You just couldn't find it anywhere.
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So I became obsessed and I was making it at home just because there was nowhere to get it.
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And I realized, like, hey, like, I love this.
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Um I think other people would like this too.
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And uh I loved in and out burger too.
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So I kind of coupled this idea of like the simple menu of in and out burger, but like matched with these like gourmet, you know, Nashville hot chicken sandwiches.
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So that first location, let's let's let's dive into that.
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When did you know it was time to expand?
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When would when did you realize you were ready for that?
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Were you just so busy?
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You know, so I originally had a concept called Meatball Republic.
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I'm Italian, I grew up making meatballs with my grandma.
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So my original idea of like I'm gonna open up a restaurant, a business, was this meatball concept.
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The meatball thing, which didn't work out, I couldn't find a location, I couldn't raise enough money to open up this.
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It was a very complicated concept, and there was a lot of moving parts there.
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And so when that fell through, I was kind of devastated.
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And when I came up with the idea for Fry the Coop, I knew that it was a scalable business.
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Like where the meatball concept was not scalable.
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Maybe you could have one or two locations.
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But once I started diving in the details about like, you know, this really simple in and out menu style, I was like, oh, this is like replicable.
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So another little tidbit is I was living in California and to open up Fry the Coop in Chicago, where I grew up, my family, we had to move back.
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So we sold our first house in California, moved back.
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So to answer your question, I knew from day one that like this was gonna be a scalable thing, and that was like real intentional.
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And I told my wife, I said, Hey, if we're gonna like sell the farm in California and like leave our dream life to like go back to Chicago, like I'm gonna open up something that's gonna like take care of our family.
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I'm not just creating like a job for myself, if that makes sense.
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No, that makes sense.
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So it was designed, you know, with those lessons from the meatball concept designed to be something that you could grow and and and you know, did you have a number of locations in mind or was the sky's the limit right from the beginning?
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The idea was to open up 15 locations.
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And granted, I want to let you know, I didn't have any experience, even open up one restaurant, you know.
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So, like, but I set the goal like, hey, like we can get to 15.
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So as soon as we opened up the doors, I was already in the mindset of like, hey, how do I get to location number two?
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And uh, sure enough, like, you know, we focused on the systems, the processes.
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I hired, I didn't, I'm not a chef, so I hired a chef and he helped kind of create the uh replicable recipes, uh, things that like you know could have systems around them because I'm more of a front of the house guy, so I kind of knew what I didn't know, and that would basically, you know, like pave the foundation to like grow to the next location.
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So I'm curious with that first location, were you designing systems in mind like to expand, like you know, kind of curious about like hiring and trading, right?
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When it was just you at that first location with that opening team, you know, were you designing something that you knew was going to scale, or were you just kind of trying to get that first restaurant going first and figure it out?
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I think you know, when you're in that mode, you're you're kind of winging it, you know, from like the get-go.
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And there was basically one when we had two restaurants, now I'm going, you know, it's year two, I'm going back and forth like a maniac, and we're trying to open up number three.
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And and I was saving all the money too.
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So I'm saving all every penny we had.
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I have this like drip account that I'm keep pushing money over to.
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So we were trying to save aggressively to like use that cash to open up the next door.
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I'm looking for second generation restaurants, so I don't have to put in a hood, build bathrooms.
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Like I'm trying to open up like for the least amount of money as possible to get into a space.
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But as we had the two, one day I'm portioning sauces and it took me about two hours.
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And I'm sitting over all these little two-ounce cups and I'm portioning.
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And I just realized at that point, I go, I gotta put down, you know, I gotta put down the rag, I gotta put down the sauce, and I gotta pay someone to do this so I can help like grow the business.
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So that was a really hard like moment when I realized, like, hey, we gotta like really focus on systems.
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I need to get out of doing the work inside the restaurant so I can focus on the trainings, putting together like, you know, packages, the culture, putting together tests for our team, like really like honing in on like, hey, I need to set up a uh a system where I can train everybody, hire good managers, and then have them, you know, have our team do the work.
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I can't keep doing this running back and forth.
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And you know, when you work seven days a week and I got little kids at home, you know, it's you know, it gets it gets challenging quick.
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You can only work so many days in a row before you are just burnt to a crisp.
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What did it look like when you kind of sat down to start designing some of those systems?
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You know, what was that process like for you?
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Well, you gotta get your foundation of like, you know, what are your core values?
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What are like the main things in the company?
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I was so proud because, you know, someone had said something.
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They were like, if you went around any company and you asked them, what makes you successful?
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Why are you guys successful?
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What is your secret sauce?
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And they said, I bet everyone in the company would give you a different answer.
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And that, like, I was like, okay, at Fry the Coop, everyone's gonna have the same answer.
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So I boiled it down to great service, great food, great cleanliness.
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So those were the three.
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And so we hosted these training meetings with our team.
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We call them all staff trainings.
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And there'd be a Saturday or a Sunday, we'd get everyone together, a couple hours in the morning, and I would go over.
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And so I created these like training packages where I would basically like, you know, go over all the details of who we are, what our core values are, what we do, what we believe in, um, really kind of laying down the foundation.
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And then I made everybody, you know, hey, what's our secret sauce?
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And everyone would be like, Great service, great food, great cleanliness.
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And it would almost got to the point where people were like annoyed with me, you know, because I'd be like, What's our secret sauce?
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And they'd like roll their eyes, like, we know, Joe.
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It's great service, great food.
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But it was like, I was like, that's right, because like everybody knows, you know.
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So it was really getting everybody on the same page.
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And then I think then going forward after you get to that third, fourth, fifth location, it was really training our GMs.
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And I learned we we call them store leaders because we really feel like they are leaders in the company and they're leaders for their store.
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We try to practice extreme ownership where they feel like they're, you know, it's their store, they own it, it's their team.
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And then we shifted to kind of like training them so they train their team.
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So now we arm them with all the training materials, the SOPs that they need, and we really drive home.
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And one of the big things too was oh, Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
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That is like something that I really pushed on our team too.
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I'm like, you got because most people, when they quit a company, they quit because they don't like their manager.
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And the second reason is because they were never praised, like no one ever told them they did a good job.
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So we we created this culture where we would like give our managers thank you cards and we'd be like, hey, here's 10 gift cards for Starbucks for 10 bucks.
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Like, write your who write your A players thank you card and put a little gift card in them.
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And so we kept constantly doing little things like that to like praise our team, make sure they're taken care of, make sure our managers know like what's most important.
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Uh we would do these trainings and then we would make them take a little test, you know, and then we go over the test with everybody.
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Um, one of my favorite questions was, what do we sell?
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And it'd be like, We sell fried chicken, we sell chicken sandwiches, we sell happiness, and we sell, I forget, like we sell sushi, you know.
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But the the answer, the right answer was we sell happiness.
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So, you know, you go over that question and you'd be like, What do we sell?
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What's the number one thing we sell here?
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And everyone would be like, happiness.
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And you'd be like, That's right, you know, and then I'd say, What business are we in?
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Are we in the restaurant business?
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Are we in the hospitality business?
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Are we in the people business?
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And the answer is we're in the people business.
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So just going over those things and making sure everyone's on the same page is so key.
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And it's something you can never let up on either.
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It is a constant, non-stop, you know, thing that you have to practice.
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Yeah, that's something I I chatted about in a previous episode, was just like when you're in that position, every day is like the first day.
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Yeah, you're only as good at the time.
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Yeah.
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I'm curious in in the process.
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So, you know, food, great service, food, and cleanliness, which I like the cleanliness is up there.
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Usually it kind of falls on the wayside.
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Which of those was hardest to kind of systematize for you guys in the in the early like what which one of those three was the hardest to kind of get operationally sound?
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Great service is always like a challenge, you know, because there's a certain level of like personality, you know, and the labor force sometimes it's challenging, you know.
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You put out a job description and you get only three applicants, and two of them or one of them only shows up, you know, and you're like, Oh, you got a heartbeat?
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Great, all right, you start tomorrow, you know.
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Uh, which you don't like to hire that way, but sometimes like that's just a reality, you know.
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And if you had the choice, you would hire somebody who really like gets pleasure of helping other people, you know.
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I call it the hospitality bug, but like that's like a key feature you would need to give great service.
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And not everyone has that, you know, not everyone gets pleasure or joy off of helping other people.
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Yeah.
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So it's really more of a hiring challenge than it is like, you know, once someone's in, you can I'm not saying it's easy, but you can teach them the the ways you clean the tables and the bathrooms.
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You can teach them how to fry the chicken, how to, you know, how to make the sauces.
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But it's just, you know, systematizing that great service really is starts more so before they're even, you know, by choosing who you're bringing in.
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Absolutely.
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And and great restaurant tours know that people come for good food or great food, even, but they come back for the great service over and over and over again.
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And your restaurant is dead in the water if you had everyone just visit one time.
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You're never gonna make it, you'll be closed within a year.
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You need people to come back over and over and over and over and over again, and they come back for great service.
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So, what are some of the things you look for, you know, you guys when you when you're hiring to kind of provide the level of service that, you know, has helped you get to where you are today?
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There's certain things that certain questions you ask for a profile of person, or like, you know, what's the key to to growing a team for you for you guys?
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So interviewing is an art, and I think the first part of the interview is you just ask questions.
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You don't let them ask you any questions.
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You wait, you know, they can ask questions at the end, but the first like 90% of the interview is you just asking questions, even if they're like, hey, I have a question, you're like, save it to the end, you know.
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I'm I'm interviewing you, you know.
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But I always tell our team, you know, when you're interviewing somebody, like, would you want to go have a beer with them?
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Would you want to hang out with them outside of work?
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Like, would they fit inside the culture here?
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You know, because anyone can interview.
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I can tell you how hard I work and you know, fool you, you know, and pull a wool over your eyes.
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But I think like a key is like, you know, do you get along with that person?
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Would you hang out with them?
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And if they pass that test, usually you can train them anything in the restaurant, you know.
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And we've kept our systems and we created the business in a way where it's super simple to use.
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Everything we do, we try to make it really, really simple.
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Like I can train anybody on it.
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And so if you have a good attitude, if you're, you know, fun to hang out with, um, that kind of thing.
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You ever go to the movies?
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No.
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Do you have any friends?
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No.
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It's like, well, I don't think you're gonna work out here.
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So I think, like, you know, if you find out someone who's like, oh man, I love hiking, you know, my friends and I, we go kayaking, we throw a kayak in the truck, and we go to this place, and you know, if they have interesting stories and they have things that like excite them and they can get into, then it's like, okay, like you actually have a personality, like you actually like to get out and like do stuff, you know.
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So those are some of the key traits we look for.
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You mentioned like the the Starbucks cards, for example.
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Is that like more of a like an operational thing, or are you like you kind of just empower managers with some sort of like uh discretionary budget, you know, monthly to kind of do what they see fit to kind of give their team some some love?
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You know, I felt I feel like over the years we found out that you really have to push them.
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It's the same thing.
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You have to push them to praise their team and to thank them and to write these thank you cards.
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They don't do it on their own.
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And so even though you try to adopt a culture or get them to adopt the culture of doing those praisings, it's something you constantly have to remind them and then like show up to be like, hey, here's your thank you cards.
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Like, write them, you know.
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Like, hey, write, write me a list of your five best team, you know, members right now, and I'll write them down real fast.
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They know exactly who the best are.
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You're like, great, those people are reliable, they make your life easier, they clean, they give great service, everything, you know.
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So it's like praise those people, you know.
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And you try, you know, you you you set the tone in the culture, but you know, when you're not in the restaurant, and also too, I don't, you know, we have over a couple hundred employees now.
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I don't know most of their names.
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You know, I used to know everyone's name in the company, I don't know their names anymore.
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So it's like they're not really my employees anymore, they're your employees, so you have to praise them.
00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:34.159
Like, I don't know on your team who's doing a great job, you know, you do because you're there every day in the restaurant working with them.
00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:39.440
So there's a shift that happens there, and yeah, it's something you got to keep pushing.
00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:43.519
And then as far as like you mentioned, just keeping those those training processes like super simple.
00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:47.840
When did you kind of stop feeling the need to like have like a lot of control over everything?
00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:54.720
Is like that part of it, or you know, what's the kind of best way to keep those things simple without kind of maybe getting too too involved?
00:16:54.960 --> 00:17:02.080
I used to have a 40-page document training material, you know, 40 pages is like a mini book.
00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:04.240
We try to boil it down to one page now.
00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:04.640
Wow.
00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:09.519
You gotta fit all that training material, boil it down to like the one page.
00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:22.640
The other thing is like, you know, if you go through an hour, hour and a half training with somebody or a team and you talk about 75 different topics, you know, how many of those topics actually stick in their brain?
00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:28.559
So we've kind of over the years like, hey, like what are the main bullet points that I need them to know?
00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:32.079
What's like the simplest form I can get it down to?
00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:35.279
And those one pagers are beautiful.
00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:36.799
Yeah, that sounds great.
00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:37.519
40 to 1.
00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:41.039
And that maybe I mean, do you feel like that is a lot to condense?
00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:45.680
Does anything get lost in the name of simplicity to you, or is it yeah?
00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:53.359
I I mean, obviously, you want to I always tell everybody I want everything in my brain to go into your brain, but it's like impossible.
00:17:53.519 --> 00:18:08.799
I have a decade now of running restaurants and then five years before of learning and honing the skills, and you know, so like how do you transfer, you know, almost 20 years of hospitality into like a one pager, you know?
00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:14.799
So, like, for example, our service, I boiled it down to literally like six bullet points.
00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:21.440
It's like, make sure you say hi when they come in, you know, make sure you're making eye contact and don't be transactional.
00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:27.279
Make sure you are getting it for them accurately, politely, enthusiastically.
00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:33.359
Touch their table, check on them, you know, make sure everything's going right and say goodbye when they leave, you know.
00:18:33.519 --> 00:18:35.359
It's like yeah, the good stuff.
00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:37.200
Yeah, still the good stuff, yeah.
00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:37.680
Cool.
00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:41.519
Okay, so I want to, you know, uh talk a little bit about scheduling naturally.
00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.319
You know, how's your approach to that changed as you've grown?
00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:46.160
Do you have cross-store employees?
00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:53.920
Like, what's kind of been the you know, the best practices you've learned from a labor cost and scheduling um standpoint with your growth?
00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:57.759
First of all, I am a huge seven shifts fan, huge.
00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:00.000
I might be your guys' number one fan here.
00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:12.720
I we we started out with hot schedules back in the day, and uh hot schedules was a decent tool until they sold the company and then it went down in smokes.
00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:18.240
But adopting seven shifts, I mean, holy cow, it's been a game changer.
00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:21.920
And I think we've been with seven shifts for maybe five years now.
00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:27.359
It is one of the best scheduling softwares, if the not the best on the market, hands down.
00:19:27.519 --> 00:19:38.720
I'm only saying that because I, you know, I'm at a level now where I know software and I know technology enough, you know, to where I can confidently say seven shifts is crushing scheduling.
00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:45.279
And I think with seven shifts, it's allowed us to really schedule easily.
00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:54.559
And then, you know, and I've seen it grow over the years now, and just now seeing all the details that our managers can actually see while they're scheduling.
00:19:54.720 --> 00:20:05.519
Like starting off from availability, you know, we have a lot of high school kids on our team, they put in their availability, and that is like a game changer because it's constantly changing, you know.
00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:11.599
Oh, I was available Saturdays when I started, but now I'm not available Saturdays anymore because my friends want to go party every Saturday, you know.
00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:20.880
And so there's like there's so many different things that change, and you know, it allows our team to basically change their availability and put it in.
00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:25.440
So every time our leaders are making the schedule, they're able to see that.
00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:34.079
The communication piece, too, because there's so much communicating with your team members when you're trying to, you know, book all these schedules.
00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:40.079
You know, our high school kids they play sports, they're in extracurricular activities that you know they have a lot going on.
00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:46.319
Then summer comes up, everyone's availability opens up, school starts, all of everyone's availability goes away.
00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:55.759
I mean, it's very complex when you start getting all those people's lives, you know, in their schedules involved into one, you know, work schedule.
00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:01.440
I think that's really helped us putting parameters too around, you know, the labor model.
00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:05.519
So our managers know when they're scheduling, if they're actually going over.
00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:15.599
We've really honed in on like how many hours they should have per week that they're allowed to put on the schedule, and they have to kind of stay under those hours.
00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:19.519
And the more they stay under, the more they're they're they get profit sharing.
00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:20.960
So that helps with that.
00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:23.519
So there's like there's so many key things.
00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:30.559
Labor and cost of goods sold in the restaurant are the two biggest expenses hands down.
00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:38.400
And so the more you can focus on those and hone them in, uh, that's where you're gonna find your profit.
00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:39.200
Yeah.
00:21:39.279 --> 00:21:42.160
And I mean, like, you know, the availability of course is is helpful.
00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:46.559
Is there any other kind of things you found have been helpful to keep that labor cost in check?
00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:50.720
And then I definitely want to talk about cogs because the you know, the the beef tallow situation.
00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:51.680
I want to get into that.
00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:52.319
But labor.
00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:57.519
I want to learn a little bit, just you know, if there's any other kind of things you found have been successful.
00:21:57.839 --> 00:21:59.759
You know, one of the things that I love.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.000
Is the uh attendance records.
00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:05.359
So we just had to let someone go.
00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:18.640
And part of the evidence of us showing, like, hey, like it was time for you to get off the bus was that they were late like 60% of the time, you know, and then also the no no call no shows.
00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:32.160
So having all that data available to kind of know, because I always say, you know, you you can have a great team member, but if they're unreliable, they are I don't care how good they are when they work.
00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:34.400
Doesn't matter, they're not reliable for you.
00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:35.839
They're you're dead in the water.
00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:49.440
I want to get a little bit into some of the marketing fun stuff, but uh you know, other than the attendance records and having that insight, are there any other kind of labor cost management things that you found you know helpful as you've grown?
00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:51.920
Well, I will tell you a really fun story.
00:22:52.079 --> 00:23:02.160
Probably my favorite feature from an ownership standpoint from Seven Shifts, most of our team were on their Snapchats, like 80% of them.
00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:10.000
So I started making these one-minute Snapchats, like, hey, it's Friday, here's the update, here's going on what's going on in the business, that kind of thing.
00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:14.400
But eventually it faded off because, like, you know, that was hard to keep up with.
00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:18.319
I couldn't track anything, you know, so it was really hard to get out a message.
00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:20.240
Like, so we have 10 restaurants now, right?
00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:25.599
10 separate locations, plus we have a commissary team, plus we have our office team.
00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:30.720
I mean, it's basically like 12 separate businesses and they're all in different locations.
00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:36.160
And like, like I said, I don't get to interact with a lot of them face to face anymore.
00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:40.000
So through Seven Shifts, I can make announcements.
00:23:40.160 --> 00:23:47.839
And what I do is I make YouTube videos that where we do training videos, we do announcements when we have LTOs.
00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:53.680
I actually create a YouTube video explaining that we kind of make it like a social media video.
00:23:53.839 --> 00:23:58.960
So we add music behind it, we edit it like they're watching TikTok, you know, that kind of thing.
00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:13.039
And then I put the messages out through SevenShifts, and everybody, I have almost a hundred percent watch rate from our team on the announcements on Seven Shifts, but it's able to me to talk to them.
00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:17.039
They get to know me because I get to kind of like share my messages through them.
00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:20.319
I get to tell them about culture, customer service.
00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:22.400
We go over, you know, anything.
00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:24.880
I mean, yesterday we had it was National Wing Day.
00:24:25.039 --> 00:24:36.480
We did a wing special where we did these ranch wings with covered in ranch powder, and uh, I got to create the training videos for 200 employees and they all executed it great.
00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:37.119
I mean, great.
00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:42.319
We had like five star views all day yesterday, but I was able to do that through seven shifts.
00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:45.920
It's been a game changer, literally.
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:46.880
Awesome.
00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:48.880
So a couple more system kind of questions.
00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:51.759
You know, you talked about like the GMs and you know that ownership.
00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:59.279
Do you mandate like any sort of one-on-one meetings with with staff or staff meetings, like a specific cadence, pre-shifts, or monthlies?
00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:05.920
I know you said you kind of had those all-staff meetings, but is there anything on the sit like systematized there, you know, that's that's mandated from you?
00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:09.839
Yeah, and we've gone through different iterations of that throughout the years.
00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:20.799
Um, we like to have our district leaders meet with our uh store leaders and their shift leaders once a month at the restaurant, and we just go over, you know, everything.
00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:23.279
But it's kind of nice to all get on the same page, you know.
00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:32.079
We have stores that are an hour apart geographically, and they would never know each other had we not all come to the office and get together and go over.
00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:32.960
Nice.
00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:33.920
That's awesome.
00:25:34.160 --> 00:25:49.839
And then as far as you know, culture building, any other kind of things that you do on the maybe on the store level, like you know, events or you know, some maybe benefits outside of the traditional kind of normal benefits, anything that's you know, you found to be effective.
00:25:50.240 --> 00:26:00.240
Well, my friend owns a 1936 Chicago fireboat that he does tours on the river here in Chicago.
00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:05.359
It's a historic, awesome architectural tour kind of situation.
00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:09.599
So we did team meetings, team appreciation parties.
00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:13.680
What I found out was that that ended up being a little bit of a bad idea.
00:26:13.839 --> 00:26:18.400
So we've kind of 86 those big uh everyone get together and have parties.
00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:24.400
I can tell you they were great for the culture, you know, a lot of bonding, a lot of getting together.
00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:27.599
It was a lot of fun to get everyone outside of work.
00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:31.759
However, yeah, that kind of you know bit us in the butt a little bit.
00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:44.640
So one of one of the ideas we're gonna have for our next store leader meeting, all the heads, we're gonna go to a bowling alley and just instead of doing it at the office, we'll we'll probably have a little bit of a meeting, but you know, at least we'll have some fun doing it.
00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:46.960
We used to do dinners, things like that.
00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:53.200
I feel like you have to get more creative the, you know, the bigger you get as a company, and you know, it gets harder and harder.
00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:59.200
I mean, I heard Starbucks one time had a uh meeting at 30,000 GMs that they brought in.
00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:05.599
They had to rent uh like a football stadium to have a meeting, you know, and it's like, how do you do that with that many stores?
00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:13.119
So I think I've been trying to focus my attention to where it's like, hey, your store, you have to praise your team, you have to build the culture.
00:27:13.359 --> 00:27:29.359
And then I'm just curious, you know, one last question, kind of on the system side, like what's more important, I guess, for like the you know, the owner you, you know, or like the store kind of the heads of the stores to focus on versus like delegating that stuff to some of the shift leads or managers or GMs.
00:27:29.599 --> 00:27:35.599
I think as an owner, you gotta set the vision and really set the culture and the tone for the company.
00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:46.480
And then you also have to storytell, like no, like and you talked about Sean WoeChap, who is the best, you know, and he always says, no one's coming to tell your story.
00:27:46.640 --> 00:27:47.680
Like, no one's coming.
00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:50.079
So you have to tell it over and over and over again.
00:27:50.240 --> 00:28:20.960
So I really think like as a founder of a company, it's your responsibility to like have the vision, you know, tell your story, make sure your team knows your story, make sure they're buying in on it, make sure, you know, you're really setting the foundation with your core values, your secret sauce, like what makes you successful, and then you know, making sure that they're living out that that vision, you know, and it's and we were kind of talking about a little earlier, it's like you always have to have your thumb on the pulse.
00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:23.519
You're only as good as you were yesterday.
00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:27.440
Today's a new day, and you always have to keep pushing and pushing and pushing.
00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:31.759
And especially in the restaurant business, you can never let up on that.
00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:32.640
Absolutely.
00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:36.000
I want to get into some of the like the marketing stuff to do because I know that's fun.
00:28:36.079 --> 00:28:38.079
You know, we're almost kind of coming up on our time here.
00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:42.559
But just last question on the labor cost side, that seems like you have got under control.
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:48.000
On the on the cog side, I know that the you know the commitment to beef tallows doesn't make that easy.
00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:49.359
I'm curious how you make that work.
00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:52.160
I'm I'm just you know, honestly more curious myself.
00:28:52.240 --> 00:28:54.559
Uh, I I I understand the benefit of it, right?
00:28:54.640 --> 00:28:57.839
Like it it really is better, but have you ever kind of wavered on that?
00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:01.519
Or like, you know, you're just very steadfast in in this is what makes us special.
00:29:01.759 --> 00:29:07.599
There's a couple convictions that you have to have in uh in your life personally and in business.
00:29:07.839 --> 00:29:11.119
For me, beef tallow is a non-negotiable.
00:29:11.359 --> 00:29:16.079
And I think a part of it is like it's it's become a core thing in our brand.
00:29:16.160 --> 00:29:25.519
It's a differentiator of us as a business to all the other businesses because they are getting cheap and they're using vegetable oil and cheap oils that they're frying in.
00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:29.599
The main thing I think for a restaurant is you want your food to taste the best.
00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:33.599
You want, you know, you want your food to be the best of the best.
00:29:33.839 --> 00:29:39.200
And beef tallow, frying in beef tallow for us makes our food taste incredible.
00:29:39.440 --> 00:29:44.720
So to me, it's like, yeah, could I be more profitable if we switched?
00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:47.519
But then it's like, okay, but now we're not going to taste as good.
00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:53.839
And maybe we would lose sales, you know, less people would come because it doesn't taste as good as when you do fry on beef tallow.
00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:55.920
Butter is a key thing there too.
00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:01.759
We use real butter when we toast our buns, we are lathering up real butter in there.
00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:12.240
And butter is crazy expensive, and there's a lot of the Cisco's of the world that'll come to you and say, Oh, I have this fake butter that's gonna cost half the price.
00:30:12.319 --> 00:30:14.240
And you know, no one's gonna tell.
00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:15.440
Trust me, they tell.
00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:20.960
And before you know it, you got no customers because your food doesn't taste good and you cheaped out, you know.
00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:27.039
So I think stick to your convictions, you know, try to be the best of the best, and good things will happen.
00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:27.440
Cool.
00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:30.319
Let's get into some of this marketing stuff because it's it's a lot of fun.
00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:32.960
And we just talked about it, and I was just watching some of the stuff.
00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:36.400
You know, I know the chicken costume was kind of the very beginning of that.
00:30:36.559 --> 00:30:40.480
Uh can you take me back to your what was going on in your head that day?
00:30:40.799 --> 00:30:54.799
Yeah, you know, we had no customers and we had no money coming in, and I had four employees sitting around doing nothing, and everyone's got this, you know, you don't want an empty restaurant and you look around at the employees, and everyone's got this sad puppy dog look on their face.
00:30:54.960 --> 00:30:57.839
And it's yeah, you're waiting for like a tumbleweed to kind of just pass through.
00:30:58.559 --> 00:30:59.359
Exactly.
00:30:59.839 --> 00:31:04.880
Uh, so I did what any self-respecting, you know, restaurant owner would do.
00:31:04.960 --> 00:31:11.039
I went to the Halloween store, got a chicken costume, and started dancing on the side of the road to get customers in.
00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:14.000
No, I really think you do got to tell your story.
00:31:14.240 --> 00:31:21.200
You have to get out there, and you don't just tell your story once, you tell it over and over and over and over again.
00:31:21.279 --> 00:31:25.039
And just when you think you've told it enough, tell it again and again and again.
00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:33.200
One of the things I studied a lot of restaurant tours in New York City, and I always heard them talk about publicists, and I was like, publicists.
00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:38.000
Like I thought that was for like a celebrity, you know, like wow, what would a restaurant eat a publicist?
00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:45.599
But I realized like in New York, you're like dead in the water, you know, the rents are so high, you need customers nonstop there.
00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:51.599
So they hire publicists, they try to get on TV, the Today Show, you know, the whole food network thing.
00:31:51.839 --> 00:31:58.000
And so I took a leap of faith and uh three months into our first restaurant, I hired a publicist.
00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:01.039
Uh, we've still been working together almost a decade later.
00:32:01.200 --> 00:32:06.319
I recommend it to any restaurant tour in a big city, not just any publicist.
00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:08.079
You got to find a great publicist.
00:32:08.400 --> 00:32:10.720
And and different publicists do different things.
00:32:11.039 --> 00:32:20.079
They'll, you know, some focus on media like nationally, some focus on local news, TV stuff, versus like written.
00:32:20.240 --> 00:32:30.000
So you got to find out kind of what your goal is and then find the publicist that can really, you know, knows that sector of the media.
00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:32.240
So great publicist.
00:32:32.480 --> 00:32:35.039
Social media has been a game changer too.
00:32:35.200 --> 00:32:46.240
I don't think people still to this day understand, like, you know, I think there's only about four percent of people who are on social media actually do the posting, like actually get in front of the camera and do it.
00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:48.079
It's a really small percentage.
00:32:48.240 --> 00:32:50.880
So it's like an advantage for you as a business owner.
00:32:51.039 --> 00:32:55.359
Like get in front of the camera, like start telling your story, start talking about your restaurants.
00:32:55.759 --> 00:33:02.319
We send an email, the email list has grown to 111,000 people as of yesterday.
00:33:02.480 --> 00:33:04.319
And we just storytell every week.
00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:06.960
We send out an email and it's all about storytelling.
00:33:07.119 --> 00:33:12.640
We're not selling you anything, we're not trying to get you to do this or that, we're not trying to get you to click on a link.
00:33:12.799 --> 00:33:16.720
It's literally just, hey, here's what's going on in our business, here's what's happening.
00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:21.519
And you would not believe how many people I run into who are like, oh, you're Joe.
00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:22.400
I get your emails.
00:33:22.480 --> 00:33:23.359
I love your emails.
00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:28.720
So I think it's with marketing, it's another non-stop constantly.
00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:30.559
You're only as good as you were yesterday.
00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:30.960
Yeah.
00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:39.440
And we we write down a list of videos, we try to come up with hooks, we come up with ideas of, you know, hey, what can we, what's relevant?
00:33:39.599 --> 00:33:41.279
What do we got going on in the business?
00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:42.240
You just film.
00:33:42.319 --> 00:33:44.000
Some videos go crazy.
00:33:44.160 --> 00:33:48.480
We've had a couple handfuls of videos that have gotten millions and millions of views.
00:33:48.799 --> 00:33:54.160
I have some videos that I think are just slam dunk and they get like 200 views, you know?
00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:56.640
Like there's videos where I'm like so pumped.
00:33:56.720 --> 00:33:58.480
We spent so much effort and time.
00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:00.400
The idea was so funny.
00:34:00.559 --> 00:34:06.079
I even think the video turned out good, but for whatever reason, it just, you know, doesn't do that well.
00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:09.920
But it's like you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
00:34:10.079 --> 00:34:12.880
So keep taking shots, keep making videos.
00:34:13.119 --> 00:34:14.960
I think everyone's got a story to tell.
00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:17.599
And it's so easy just to like, how did you start?
00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:20.320
You know, why did you buy your product from there?
00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:21.039
Why is this?
00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:22.320
Why the why do you do that?
00:34:22.559 --> 00:34:23.280
How'd you hire?
00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:25.360
You know, it's like, why do you use seven chips?
00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:27.920
Like anything you can talk about anything in the business.
00:34:28.079 --> 00:34:29.519
It's interesting to someone.
00:34:29.760 --> 00:34:30.239
I'm curious.
00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:37.119
You know, you got kind of the early success seem to be from like the local kind of local TV, you know, Chicago local TV.
00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:46.639
I mean, do you think that that's still viable for folks, or is it really just kind of over the years become just social media being, you know, the main the main effort?
00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:51.440
Is that something you're still kind of exploring, those those other publicists, the you know, things like that?
00:34:51.679 --> 00:35:04.079
Yeah, it's a it's a great question you're asking because as time goes on, it seems like we're being inundated with you know, in society with everything, and less people are watching TV, you know.
00:35:04.719 --> 00:35:14.480
What I will say though is that we had a WGN segment that we did that maybe had like 250,000 people watched it live, which is incredible, right?
00:35:14.559 --> 00:35:15.599
That's a great number.
00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:21.039
But then they put that on the internet and it got like two million views on the internet.
00:35:21.519 --> 00:35:26.639
So, like you never know when something's gonna pop or something's gonna hit.
00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:37.039
So I do think there is a benefit to watching or to being on the local TV shows, the emailing, the text messages, the you know, billboards.
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:42.480
I mean, it's like, you know, in marketing, I never understood this, and I get it now.
00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:49.039
Marketing is the main like core, but there's about 40 categories that all lead to marketing.
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:50.800
And it's like, okay, which one do you do?
00:35:50.960 --> 00:35:52.480
Well, the answer is you do all of them.
00:35:52.639 --> 00:35:56.480
You do every single one, and it's a lot of work, it's not easy, you know?
00:35:56.639 --> 00:36:07.679
Uh so you you do all of them and you keep chipping away at them, and you know, you just start and you try this and you try that, and then eventually, you know, things start to kind of uh click.
00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:12.400
But it yeah, marketing's something that you gotta work on, you know, diligently.
00:36:12.880 --> 00:36:13.199
Yeah.
00:36:13.280 --> 00:36:17.360
I mean, do you I mean now you're kind of you spend a day a week filming?
00:36:17.519 --> 00:36:22.079
I mean, for someone who maybe has a couple of a couple locations, maybe they don't have a full day.
00:36:22.239 --> 00:36:29.519
Do you recommend you find it easier to just kind of batch it together, come up with a few ideas and and bang them out, or just kind of just get started?
00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:50.159
Yeah, so I had found a social media person who had kind of like a blog social media following, and I courted her to kind of like be our social media person, so we pay her, and that helps because she basically helps film and then goes back and edits them so that like takes that off my plate.
00:36:50.320 --> 00:36:59.280
If you don't have the funds to do that, I think right now it's also easy just to hold the phone up in front of your face, press record, and just start talking, you know.
00:36:59.519 --> 00:37:01.039
Try to focus on a hook.
00:37:01.199 --> 00:37:05.519
The formula that we try to use is you know, you the hook is really, really important.
00:37:05.679 --> 00:37:09.280
So you need to hook somebody in with the first three seconds you've got.
00:37:09.440 --> 00:37:15.840
Then you want something interesting, funny, or educational in the middle, and then finally you need a payoff at the end.
00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:21.599
So the payoff is something that says, Oh, that's hilarious, oh, they got me, oh, I didn't know that.
00:37:21.840 --> 00:37:32.000
It's the it's the moment that you like it, you share it with your wife or you know, someone you love or your friend, oh, you got to see this, this is funny, and maybe you comment, you know.
00:37:32.079 --> 00:37:45.920
If you get someone to like a post, share it with their friend and comment on it, that's like the creme de la creme because you can go crazy, you don't have to go so crazy, but I think it's just start and start doing it, and you'll see the benefits, you know.
00:37:46.480 --> 00:37:46.960
Awesome.
00:37:47.119 --> 00:37:49.360
Yeah, and then how do I mean how do you decide?
00:37:49.760 --> 00:37:55.599
Do you know, like how do you decide what's worth putting out there and what like have you figured that out yet?
00:37:55.679 --> 00:38:00.079
Like you said, stuff you think is great gets no views, and then is it just really just kind of trusting?
00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:02.159
Is it just shots on goal kind of thing?
00:38:02.400 --> 00:38:04.480
Yeah, I I think it really is shots on goal.
00:38:04.559 --> 00:38:09.039
You know, it's like how many times can you get up to bat and you can hit you never know.
00:38:09.199 --> 00:38:13.119
I mean, we had a we had a post, I made fun of the McDonald's CEO.
00:38:13.280 --> 00:38:14.000
Yeah, I saw that was great.
00:38:14.159 --> 00:38:14.880
Did you see that one?
00:38:15.119 --> 00:38:16.559
I mean, literally nailed it.
00:38:16.719 --> 00:38:19.599
And I didn't, I had to watch this thing on Friday.
00:38:19.760 --> 00:38:20.960
I thought it was so funny.
00:38:21.039 --> 00:38:23.599
I couldn't believe that the McDonald's people let them put it out.
00:38:23.679 --> 00:38:26.960
And I watched it again Saturday, and then Sunday I text our team.
00:38:27.039 --> 00:38:28.719
I'm like, hey, we got to make a parody on this.
00:38:28.800 --> 00:38:29.920
This is hilarious.
00:38:30.079 --> 00:38:38.719
I I didn't know that I and like 400 other CEOs had the same idea, you know, coming up that week, but we kind of beat it a little bit because we got to Monday.
00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:41.599
That video, it took us two minutes to record.
00:38:41.760 --> 00:38:47.440
I had watched it so many times in disbelief that I knew how to like replicate it, you know.
00:38:47.679 --> 00:38:51.360
Took, I swear to Christ, it took us two minutes to film this thing.
00:38:51.519 --> 00:38:56.239
It got over 20 million views collectively on the internet, you know what I mean?
00:38:56.320 --> 00:38:57.119
Like, that's crazy.
00:38:57.199 --> 00:38:58.960
That's like viral, viral, viral.
00:38:59.280 --> 00:39:01.039
So you just never know.
00:39:01.199 --> 00:39:06.400
I think you just put stuff out, some stuff clicks, some stuff doesn't, you know, just put it out there.
00:39:06.880 --> 00:39:07.280
Awesome.
00:39:07.440 --> 00:39:08.880
And then Sam had a question too.
00:39:09.039 --> 00:39:11.199
You've been posting like the QA videos on YouTube.
00:39:11.519 --> 00:39:13.440
What's the story behind that?
00:39:13.679 --> 00:39:16.239
Is that like a tactic for AI or something?
00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:18.239
Or like what's the yeah?
00:39:18.320 --> 00:39:19.679
I didn't do the best job on those.
00:39:19.760 --> 00:39:25.199
I actually want to redo them, but okay, YouTube, and this is a great, great question you're uncovering here.
00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:33.599
We found out that YouTube now with the AI, they actually transcribe your words and they're using these into searches.
00:39:33.760 --> 00:39:39.840
And YouTube, uh, next to Google is the second largest search engine on the planet.
00:39:40.079 --> 00:39:46.079
And so I heard some advice that hey, like there's people asking questions about your business.
00:39:46.159 --> 00:39:47.599
You know, what time are you open till?
00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:49.920
Do you guys have vegetarian food?
00:39:50.079 --> 00:39:51.039
Are you kid friendly?
00:39:51.280 --> 00:39:52.079
Can I bring my dog?
00:39:52.239 --> 00:39:52.960
Do you have a patio?
00:39:53.199 --> 00:39:55.119
You know, all these questions that are answering.
00:39:55.360 --> 00:40:01.679
So the idea was just start recording, make a video answering each one of those questions.
00:40:01.840 --> 00:40:04.320
So write down 30, 50 questions.
00:40:04.480 --> 00:40:12.000
It took an hour, took me one hour, and I recorded, I think, 30 questions that people are searching the internet asking about our business.
00:40:12.159 --> 00:40:13.760
And then you just answer the question.
00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:15.119
Hey, my name's Joe.
00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:15.840
I'm here today.
00:40:15.920 --> 00:40:17.599
And the question is, do you have a patio?
00:40:17.840 --> 00:40:20.320
And the answer is yes, three of our locations have a patio.
00:40:20.559 --> 00:40:22.480
This location, that location, and that location.
00:40:22.639 --> 00:40:24.079
Come visit us at Friday the Cube.
00:40:24.239 --> 00:40:24.559
Thanks.
00:40:24.719 --> 00:40:27.280
And then the next question, you don't need to record a separate video.
00:40:27.360 --> 00:40:29.920
So I did that, and uh, not the best videos, right?
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:32.079
They're just like my phone on a tripod.
00:40:32.159 --> 00:40:34.559
I just didn't record, but whatever.
00:40:34.719 --> 00:40:36.719
Now I didn't do it for views.
00:40:36.880 --> 00:40:41.920
That one was for the search engine optimization of exactly.
00:40:42.719 --> 00:40:43.519
That makes sense.
00:40:43.599 --> 00:40:44.159
That's interesting.
00:40:44.239 --> 00:40:46.159
Yeah, I guess then you search with what are your hours?
00:40:46.239 --> 00:40:47.519
Do you have vegetarian, blah, blah, blah?
00:40:47.599 --> 00:40:50.400
And then it'll pull this transcript and then AI overview or whatever.
00:40:50.639 --> 00:40:53.440
Because location, location, location for restaurants.
00:40:53.599 --> 00:40:56.880
But nowadays, a part of that is where can you be found on the internet?
00:40:57.199 --> 00:40:58.719
You know, and are you found on the internet?
00:40:59.119 --> 00:41:00.639
It's part of the location, exactly.
00:41:00.800 --> 00:41:01.039
Cool.
00:41:01.119 --> 00:41:01.920
So we're almost at time.
00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:03.920
I I want to jump to just kind of the growth.
00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:05.440
You know, you've got 10 locations.
00:41:05.519 --> 00:41:08.239
I know you have, you know, aspirations of many more.
00:41:08.480 --> 00:41:12.320
What has to be kind of true now before you can grow more?
00:41:12.480 --> 00:41:14.400
Like, is there something that you still need to figure out?
00:41:14.480 --> 00:41:16.000
Or like, how are you gonna go from 10?
00:41:16.079 --> 00:41:19.199
You know, you went from zero to one to one to ten, and now, like, how do you go?
00:41:19.360 --> 00:41:20.320
How do you keep going?
00:41:20.559 --> 00:41:22.880
Yeah, and it's really tricky to grow.
00:41:23.039 --> 00:41:27.679
And I realize there's not many restaurant groups that have, you know, over 10 locations.
00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:37.519
Even when you start to get over 20 locations, it gets very scarce because I think that it takes a lot of capital to grow and to open up more restaurants.
00:41:37.760 --> 00:41:44.880
And at some point, you know, it's like this paradox to where, like, as you grow, you need more capital to run the business.
00:41:45.039 --> 00:41:50.400
You need more people in the business to help with the operations, and so you got to pay those high salaries.
00:41:50.559 --> 00:41:57.840
And so your cash flow gets kind of sucked up by running the business, and then it leaves less money to grow.
00:41:58.079 --> 00:42:02.800
And so, my audacious goal is to open up 75 stores over the next 10 years.
00:42:03.119 --> 00:42:08.400
And honestly, funding is a really hard part of that because it gets tricky.
00:42:08.480 --> 00:42:10.320
Because do you give away part of your business?
00:42:10.559 --> 00:42:12.079
Do you go to private equity?
00:42:12.239 --> 00:42:18.800
You know, do you don't want, you know, and it's always the fear that you bring a fox into the hen house and they're gonna screw things up.
00:42:19.039 --> 00:42:35.039
And so you want to keep the integrity of the brand, but you want to grow thoughtfully, you don't want to grow too fast, you don't want to grow too slow, you know, you want to be able to kind of find this like, you know, porridge is just right, you know, mentality with Goldilocks.
00:42:35.360 --> 00:42:38.400
And so I think that's a challenge that we're trying to figure out.
00:42:38.559 --> 00:42:50.079
I've learned, you know, most investors want to see a business at$20 million in revenue with at least$2 million in EBITDA, if not more.
00:42:50.320 --> 00:42:54.960
And so, you know, it's around a 10%, 10 to 14 profitability.
00:42:55.199 --> 00:42:58.559
If you can do that, then you can raise some investment.
00:42:58.800 --> 00:43:00.320
Restaurants have been really hard lately.
00:43:00.400 --> 00:43:01.920
The cost of goods keep going up.
00:43:02.079 --> 00:43:04.559
You can't, you can only charge your customers so much.
00:43:04.800 --> 00:43:09.840
So restaurants right now are kind of in this, like, you know, you're a rock between two hard places.
00:43:09.920 --> 00:43:22.239
And so I think like that's the challenge is like, how do you grow at a good pace with good profits and maintaining the whole balance of everything, the tightrope balance?
00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:28.400
You know, I need about 30 million dollars, maybe more, 40 million to open up 75 locations.
00:43:28.719 --> 00:43:33.360
So, you know, not a lot of investors are like, oh, sure, yeah, 40 million dollars.
00:43:33.519 --> 00:43:35.360
Where do you want me to write the check to?
00:43:35.519 --> 00:43:42.639
You know, so there's a lot of if ands, and you don't want to pay too much interest, you don't want to give up your whole business.
00:43:42.960 --> 00:43:47.360
Anything exciting that's coming up soon this year, anything you want to share about what's going on?
00:43:47.519 --> 00:43:59.760
I know people can obviously follow you and and pretty much get a day to day download into what you guys are up to, but I guess that, and then also just any any like kind of tips for someone in the in you know in the early days.
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:07.039
Days with growth aspirations, like you know, something you wish you could have told yourself when you were kind of going from those like, you know, one to two to three locations.
00:44:07.360 --> 00:44:08.480
Yeah, I think so.
00:44:08.559 --> 00:44:10.639
We are building a commissary right now.
00:44:10.800 --> 00:44:12.480
It's gonna be our 11th location.
00:44:12.559 --> 00:44:17.360
So we're gonna have a storefront, we're gonna have our commissary, and we're gonna build our office in there.
00:44:17.599 --> 00:44:23.119
And that is gonna kind of lay down the foundation for us to grow a lot of these restaurants as well.
00:44:23.280 --> 00:44:25.199
We do one thing really, really well.
00:44:25.360 --> 00:44:29.360
I don't recommend a commissary if you have different concepts, doesn't really work.
00:44:29.440 --> 00:44:34.079
But if you have a single concept, commissaries can work in scale.
00:44:34.239 --> 00:44:35.199
So that's coming up.
00:44:35.280 --> 00:44:38.480
That's gonna be the biggest spend we've ever done as a company.
00:44:38.639 --> 00:44:44.880
But then we're kind of under the gun to open up more locations quickly after that to support the commissary.
00:44:45.679 --> 00:44:53.440
So we're trying to bring a lot of the manufacturing internally and skip the middlemen, the distributors, be our own distributor.
00:44:53.840 --> 00:44:56.000
So that's been pretty exciting for us as our team.
00:44:56.159 --> 00:44:59.280
That's gonna really help us get the foundation for growth.
00:44:59.599 --> 00:45:04.639
And then, you know, advice for if you're at the one, two locations, three locations.
00:45:04.880 --> 00:45:14.400
I think here's my advice you have to be really sure if you want to grow more than this, because I've actually taken a pay cut after rough five restaurants.
00:45:14.480 --> 00:45:19.119
I've taken a pay cut after restaurant six, taken a pay cut on seven, pay cut on eight.
00:45:19.280 --> 00:45:26.000
So I've actually we've had to hire more people, meaning I've had to like give up my salary to kind of do that.
00:45:26.320 --> 00:45:29.119
And it gets really, really tricky.
00:45:29.280 --> 00:45:34.800
And now we're at this point where like I have to get to like 20 restaurants till I can like have a pay raise again.
00:45:34.960 --> 00:45:37.360
That might be years away, you know.
00:45:37.519 --> 00:45:49.599
And so if you're at the two, three location, you might find a really good balance where the operations aren't too out of control, you have a good lifestyle, you can manage them and really have a good life.
00:45:49.760 --> 00:45:56.559
If you want to grow more than that, you're going down a rabbit hole and you got to dig deep if you really, really wanna, you know, do that.
00:45:56.800 --> 00:46:00.880
It could be worth it, but it's gonna be the hardest thing you've ever done.
00:46:01.039 --> 00:46:15.519
And SOPs, systems, processes, training your team, treating your team like gold, taking care of, you know, the aspect of the business, watching your KPIs like a hawk, good finances.
00:46:15.920 --> 00:46:17.519
Those are so, so important.
00:46:17.760 --> 00:46:23.599
Timely finances, just being really on top of the pulse on every you know, category.
00:46:23.920 --> 00:46:28.960
Your administration and your operations has to be lock stock and smoking barrels.
00:46:29.199 --> 00:46:34.239
I could give you the Bible to fry the coop right now, everything, all the recipes, everything.
00:46:34.400 --> 00:46:38.960
I could even build a restaurant for you and just give it to you, and that's only about five percent of it.
00:46:39.199 --> 00:46:53.199
The 95% is the day in and day out running the business, the operations, the emotions, the people, dealing with all the weird situations that happen, sexual harassment, customers getting hurt in the dining room, lawsuits.
00:46:53.360 --> 00:46:56.239
I mean, you name it, it's it's a lot.
00:46:56.400 --> 00:46:58.400
So, you know, that's that's my advice.
00:46:58.639 --> 00:46:59.440
It's all doable.
00:46:59.840 --> 00:47:00.639
So it could be worth it.
00:47:00.880 --> 00:47:01.440
All doable.
00:47:02.000 --> 00:47:02.880
Okay, awesome.
00:47:02.960 --> 00:47:06.320
So if I've never been to Fry the Coop, what what should I order?
00:47:06.559 --> 00:47:10.079
I mean, me, I I can't eat I can't eat gluten anymore, unfortunately, too for me.
00:47:10.159 --> 00:47:11.039
Yeah, here yeah.
00:47:11.440 --> 00:47:13.199
What's your favorite thing on the menu?
00:47:13.280 --> 00:47:14.079
What's your go-to?
00:47:14.480 --> 00:47:16.239
What's your go-to product?
00:47:16.559 --> 00:47:22.320
Well, I will tell you for the gluten freeze out there, we have uh naked wings that we sell, fried and beef tallow.
00:47:22.559 --> 00:47:23.599
Those are gluten-free.
00:47:23.679 --> 00:47:26.079
Our beef tallow french fries are gluten-free.
00:47:26.239 --> 00:47:30.960
Our coleslaw is gluten-free, so you can come in and get a nice uh eat some beef tallow wing.
00:47:31.360 --> 00:47:35.920
If I'm in from in town for the show next year, maybe I'll add it to my stuff for sure.
00:47:36.079 --> 00:47:36.639
Absolutely.
00:47:36.880 --> 00:47:40.800
But uh no, I think the best thing on our menu is our Nashville hot chicken sandwich.
00:47:40.880 --> 00:47:43.599
You can get it mild, medium, hot, insanity.
00:47:43.679 --> 00:47:44.960
You can get as hot as you want.
00:47:45.119 --> 00:47:48.559
It's got coleslaw on there, double fried, and beef tallow.
00:47:48.639 --> 00:47:52.880
Uh our beef tallow fries, we do them just like McDonald's used to do them back in the day.
00:47:53.119 --> 00:47:54.239
So those are pretty special.
00:47:54.400 --> 00:47:57.519
You'll be leaving happy, rubbing your belly of happiness.
00:47:57.920 --> 00:47:58.559
Awesome.
00:47:58.719 --> 00:48:02.960
Well, Joe, thank you so much for just you know being generous with your with your knowledge and your time.
00:48:03.039 --> 00:48:07.920
I know you're running, you know, 10 stores plus, and you know, you don't have all uh you have plenty to do.
00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:11.519
So thank you for taking the time out of your day, you know, and your business to talk to us.
00:48:11.840 --> 00:48:16.559
Hey, I am a huge Seven Chips fan, so and a client, so this is an honor.
00:48:16.719 --> 00:48:18.400
Thank you guys for having me.
00:48:19.840 --> 00:48:22.079
Three things stuck out with me after this episode.
00:48:22.239 --> 00:48:24.400
The first is Joe's sauce portioning moment.
00:48:24.639 --> 00:48:30.400
With two locations in, he was spending two hours hand portioning sauce cups and realized that that's the wrong use of his time as an owner.
00:48:30.639 --> 00:48:35.599
If you're still doing the work instead of building a system for that work, that's the tell it's time to change something.
00:48:35.840 --> 00:48:38.000
The second is the six bullet point training.
00:48:38.239 --> 00:48:41.679
Joe used to hand new hires a 40-page manual, practically a book.
00:48:41.840 --> 00:48:46.719
Now it's one page, six bullet points, because most of what you cram into a training session never sticks anyway.
00:48:46.960 --> 00:48:50.400
Simpler isn't a compromise, it's usually the more effective version.
00:48:50.639 --> 00:48:52.880
Third is the hire for personality before skill.
00:48:52.960 --> 00:49:01.199
Joe's litmus test is whether he'd want to grab a beer with someone because you can train almost anything in the restaurant, but you can't train the hospitality bug into someone who does not have it.
00:49:01.440 --> 00:49:02.400
And that's the show.
00:49:02.559 --> 00:49:05.119
Thank you to Joe Fontana of Fry the Coop for joining us.
00:49:05.199 --> 00:49:10.239
You could find him at any of Fry the Coop's 10 Chicago locations, or follow along on his social media channels.
00:49:10.400 --> 00:49:11.119
Can't miss him.
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If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a review and share it with someone who needs it.
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And reach out to us at podcast at servantships.com.
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As always, I'm DJ, and this has been another episode of Appreciate.