The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill Preps for Lift-Off, with President Bob Andersen

Speaker A: Each September here at AH QSR we host our annual event, the QSR Evolution Conference which brings together the top leaders in the industry for three days of content networking and collaboration. Hear from leaders at brands like Chick Fil, a Burger King, White Castle, Shake Shack and more as we jam pack 170plus speakers into the agenda for a content forward experience in Atlanta unlike any other. Registration is now open@qsrevolutionconference.com or send me a message on social.

Speaker B: Be in the room where it all happens. Hello everyone and welcome to the latest episode of QSR Uncut. I'm your host Danny Klein, the editorial director here at qsr. And so this week we're joined by Bob Anderson, president of the Great Greek Mediterranean Grill, also on the verge of being a 2 uh time speaker at the QSR Evolution Conference as I shamelessly plug our September event. So did have a podcast about that the other day specifically. But again if you want to come here Bob, speak in person, which I have a feeling you're going to want to do after listening to him here today, you're welcome to come register online or shoot me a message. But anyway, that said Bob, Shameless plugs away. I want to as always give you a chance here to introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about your background and also talk a little bit about the brand. I know it's 15, 15 year anniversary here but for those who might not have come across it in life, uh, what's going on at the Great Creek.

Speaker C: Sure, absolutely. And it's great to be with you Danny. Thanks for, thanks for having me. And I look forward to the uh, event as well in, in September. Um, so, so yeah, a little bit about my background almost at 30 years in, in the restaurant business. Um, I've been really fortunate to be able to get many different perspectives um, from this business. I've been a corporate ah, executive C suite president and in the middle of that experience I was uh, a franchisee. I was a multi unit restaurant, uh, operator and multi brand as well. Did that for seven years. Built about eight restaurants, had about 300 employees. So that experience really rounds out um, my perspective as um, I'm in the position I am now, um, most recently here I'm the president of the Great Greek. We are uh, we're nearing 100 units as you mentioned. The brand itself just turned 15 years. It originated out in uh, Henderson Nevada. We started franchise franchising it in 2018. So uh, so it hasn't been really a long time. Um, of those hundred stores, most of our Restaurants are less than. Over half of them are less than 24 months. We're having excellent results. Our AUVs are spectacular. Um, and the Grant brand's really in a great place to continue our growth. We've assembled an amazing team for our brand to support our franchisees. Really focused on driving best, uh, in class unit economics, uh, for our operators.

Speaker B: Yeah. So before we get a little deeper into the brand, I do want to ask you kind of about your career journey. And, you know, I think there's a lot of people in, in the world who probably either are sitting in corporate wondering what life would be like as a franchisee, and then I'm sure there's a lot of franchisees who are going, man, I'd like to be in corporate. So I wasn't dealing with, um, you know, all these things I'm dealing with every day. So. So from kind of both sides of the aisle there, I mean, what, what advice would you give? I mean, what's kind of the biggest difference between being a, uh, franchisee and, you know, say, being the president of an emerging chain?

Speaker C: Well, I mean, obviously you can imagine there's a big difference in showing people and coaching them on how to run a restaurant or running a restaurant, running a team. So that separation right there is quite different. I think what I find our franchise operators really appreciate about my experience is when we're making decisions, we're making those decisions with really an understanding of what's having impact, both negative and positive on that business. You know, I've had to write those construction checks, um, building a restaurant. You know, I've had delays in opening a restaurant and the frustrations in that and hiring team members and developing managers and leading a team and having that growth. So, um, you're in many cases 2, 3 levels closer to that, um, and it's very intense, um, but it's very rewarding. I mean, it's a people business, um, and you have a lot more contact, I would say, as a franchise operator with, um, customers, um, and direct impact on those frontline team players, um, which I really enjoyed a lot. That piece of, uh, the business I started on the corporate side. I don't think without that experience I would have maybe had the confidence to go and say, hey, I want to go operate my own restaurant. So that was invaluable to me. I really cut my teeth on the development side, um, of this business. So the experience of being a franchise operator really rounded out my skillset. So I went from being very strong on the development side. While I understood Operations, it was a lot different, um, when you're running your own restaurants as far as the initiatives for operations, marketing and pulling all together. So, um, it's very much different. They're both very intense. Um, they're just at like, your focus point is on different places. The leadership, though, is the same. It requires the same type of leadership. Especially when you're trying to deliver an experience, a high level experience to a customer or a guest is like, how do you lead a team? How do you motivate a team? I don't see that much different, but granular part of it, um, can be very much different, um, as well.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think obviously the thing that usually goes through somebody's head is that it's different to work for a company versus working for yourself. But, you know, working yourself is one of those things that are. Working for yourself has, you know, benefits, uh, of course, but then also more risk. Right. So, you know, there's sort of like two sides of whether or not you want to, you know, get into the trenches and not have, you know, that sort of daily routine of a corporate type job. But I do think at the end of the day, like you were mentioning, some of the kind of principles of, of operations are the same across those two divisions. It's just whether or not you want to do it with a whole group or you want to do it kind of on your own with, you know, corporate franchisor there hanging in the background to support.

Speaker C: So, and the impact happens real time. Right? It happened like you making decisions, you're rolling, you're feeling all that right away. So, you know, like I said, you're closer to it. But it was a phenomenal experience for me. And all those, all that skill set I developed there translates to what I do now and to me as an executive, it gives me a huge advantage, um, over my peers who've not been in that situation. It's quite different than running corporate operations. And we've run corporate operations. I run corporate operations as well. It's just, it's just very much different for the, for the reasons you mentioned. Um, so it was a great experience. Really was.

Speaker B: So, um, what year did you start at the Great Greek or how long have you been there?

Speaker C: Um, uh, this month is May, so this is seven years for me. So been leading this brand for seven years. It's been five. As the president previous, I was executive vice president of the brand. We had more than one brand. So when I first came to ufg, I led multiple brands, two different brands and um, you know, five years ago the decision was we got something special here. Let's really focus our time and effort in making this best in class Mediterranean, uh, franchise business.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So that was kind of where I was going to go next with this is talk about the landscape there with the brand, you know, seven years ago and kind of where you're at today. I mean, Mediterranean as a category has gotten so, um, buzzy recently. Right. You know, of course you've got, you've got kind of one large, quick scaling concept, you know, sort of taking that banner. But at the same time, I think for most consumers it's no longer the confusing. What is this idea that maybe it was a long time ago, but people are very interested in it. You know, they want to eat this way. I think the health benefits are something that are pretty clear. But at the same time Mediterranean, at least to me, there are so many different avenues that exist within that category that, you know, go beyond just kind of like, let me get hummus and you know, like whatever it might be. But, um, yeah, I mean, just kind of talk about how that has changed seven years to now and where you see sort of the uh, opportunity. Because it does strike me as though that tide has really lifted and, you know, offers a little bit of a chance to really grow through it.

Speaker C: Yeah, definitely 100%. I mean, um, you know, when I first looked, when I first looked at the brand seven years ago, um, there were things that really stood out to me and I didn't know Mediterranean, like I knew it like I know it today. But I could see all the positives of being in the Mediterranean space as it related to the consumer first. That's kind of what I looked at first. Does this space resonate with the consumer? And then the part B was the business side of it. And this is now pre Covid. Right. So taking a look at the business then, Mediterranean was just a blip. It was just starting to. People were seeking out healthier, better, uh, for you food. As you know, the medical community's been promoting Mediterranean diet, uh, as the most heart healthy diet for probably two decades now. So that, that piece has always been there. And I always thought, well, all these brands trying to uh, back then make this correlation that we were healthy. Right. Or whatever it is about their food might be healthy. Um, and I thought it was just a lot more compelling story that the medical community is saying, hey, this type of food is the best type of food, um, if you want to eat a heart healthy diet. So that consumer piece is really where it started for me. And I would tell you still today, seven years later, I would say that's the wind behind our sails that is still growing in momentum, meaning that that wind behind us is still pushing. I would say we're still in the early third. You know, it's not widely adapted here in, here in the States or even around the world. And we're growing and talking to people around the world. There's no clear dominant, um, leader in the franchise side of this brand. So it's fragmented, um, from that standpoint. And we're going to be that brand. Like that's our mission, is that we're going to be, uh, the dominant, um, brand in this, um, space that gives franchise operators an opportunity to be in this part of the business. So it really though, it's those tailwinds behind us of what the consumer wants. Right. I want better for me, I want healthy, I want customizable. But at the same time I'm getting a little fatigued on going down the line and give me a little bit of this, give me a little bit of that, give me a little bit of this into, uh, a bowl. So we're finding our consumers looking for, um, not just a better food experience, but also a better service level experience. So we're delivering that on that front and that's, you know, that's where we've been really able to thrive on the business side of that equation is we don't need a big space. We get a higher than average check. Our people come back more often because it's healthy. Uh, I launched the better burger brand early in my career and I learned that people put themselves on a food eating schedule. I can only have burgers maybe once a week, once a month, once, two, whatever it is. People don't do that in the Mediterranean space. They can eat a salad every day with chicken. They can come for lunch and also come for dinner and not miss a beat and not feel guilty about it. So those are huge advantages for us.

Speaker B: Yeah. So for people listening, I'm going to try to edit this out, but you might have heard my dog a second ago. He's dreaming, apparently. Um, so my dog has made in the past a lot of appearances on the podcast. This is my puppy now, Humphrey, who apparently is whining right behind me. So I apologize for that.

Speaker C: But I was, I thought it was my guys over here in the studio.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, he's like sitting by my chair whining. So, you know, I'll try to edit that out. But you know, if you hear him whine again, he's ah, he's three months old. So he is what he is. Um, yeah, no, I think so. I think that's a really good point, Bob. I mean, I think I feel that way too about Mediterranean cook cuisine in general. And one of the reasons that I personally like it is because I do think it's a lot more flexible than some of the diets you see out there. You can be a little bit more indulgent. You could try different proteins. You're not just, you know, cutting everything. You're not going crazy like a carnivore diet or some of these things that are out there in the world. And yet there's also the science to back up that it's a good way to eat with a lot of variety. And you know, the, the point that you made there about the franchise side though, I think that really can't be understated because that is a unique part of what you all are doing at scale here. And I'll talk about that model a little bit, how it's growing and you know, some of it coming from existing. You know, I'm sure you get a lot of perspective, uh, outbound leads coming in these days too. But yeah, talk about the, what the profile looks like, the operators and the health of the system. There's, you know, kind of where you see it going.

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Speaker C: Yeah, when we're, when we're talking to people about being an operator franchisee for the brand, it always starts with the person, you know, what's their passion? You know, are they passionate about hospitality? Are uh, they passionate about delivering great food and a great experience? Because that's our brand. I mean that's the culture of the brand. That's the culture of the Mediterranean space, right? Is people having this experience not just with food, but around the communal table with people being happy and friendly. So we're always looking at that culture piece first. Does that personality fit and does someone believe in that principle? That's a really important part, um, of this business. And there's plenty of other restaurant concepts that don't require that for us. That's the starting point. The part B is what kind of business person is someone, what kind of business experience do they have? Have they built teams and led teams and been successful, um, in their career, um, at that. And because that's the most important thing that we do as an operator or leader is you build a team who will therefore go out and deliver that experience to, uh, to a guest. So those are the two main things, you know, that we really want to focus on. And we want to make sure, um, that that skill set is there. We can teach people at a very high level, at a very high rate. I mean, we've, I think over half of our restaurants are less than 2 years old, but we still get regularly about 17, 1800 pieces of feedback every week. And we rank 5.6, uh, 4.6, 4.7 out of 5 stars. So at a very high rate, we're showing people how to execute and we can do that in a short period of time. Training, being a leader, right? Having passion, those are things that we can't teach in training school. We can give them the tools to be a better leader. Um, so those are the things that we want people to bring to the space. If they have restaurant experience, that's great. If they don't have restaurant experience, that's okay too. If we have the right person, if they have the restaurant experience and they don't fit the other piece, that's a pass for us, um, as well. So as we look through our operators and say, hey, who are the most successful? So I did this exercise with my team. Let's go rank the best restaurants. Okay, that's easy. And let's go rank the best operators, leaders and their team. And they're almost identical. Like the top quarter is the top quarter. The second quarter is just almost identical. So that's just a clear distinction for us and that we constantly are developing. That will also bring development and leadership and those kind of things. But that's a long term, long term play. And it's something that we're constantly challenging our system at the restaurant piece, how to execute a, uh, food item, right? How to have a great experience, how to handle customer service. Uh, man, there's nobody better in the business than us at Doing that.

Speaker B: Yeah. So here's the question. I'm sure you get asked this a lot, but how do you figure out if somebody has passion? You know, I mean, is there a certain way that you kind of learned over the years to judge that in a prospective franchisee? You know, because for all of us, I mean, in the sector, of course, you're getting leads, how you're getting them, either through your website or, you know, through some, you know, campaign that you're running. But beyond the liquid capital of somebody and, you know, calling them and seeing what they're about, like, what kind of questions do you ask them or when you meet them, to figure out if they are, in fact, you know, the type of person that you're looking for?

Speaker C: Yeah. So one of our requirements, and there's many things to look at, but I'll choose one that really stands out, is that, uh, they have our food, that they taste our food, they experience the restaurant. They will do that with a representative of our company, whether it's me or one of our development team, whoever it is, they're doing that at least once, probably multiple times, with someone from, um, our organization. And when you're sitting there doing that and having that conversation, um, it will tell you a lot about a person, but overall, it's talking to them also about life and their life experiences and those kind of things. And you can tell who's passionate or not passionate or, um, committed to it. Like, passionate about something doesn't always mean you're very vocal. Uh, it means passion to us, too. Means it's just very important to you.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker C: I'm very focused on this being this way or doing something that way. That's a form of passion for us. It doesn't have to be a very, uh, very vocal person who's at, uh, someone who's a major personal force in a dining area. Um, that's a small part of that equation, but I think it comes back to what's really important. Now, the nice thing about the Mediterranean space is how it resonates across many different cultures. So people identify with our food a lot more than any other type of food. I've been involved with, and I've been in subs, I've been in burgers, I've been in pizza, I've been in chicken. I bet there's none of those places compare to that passion that I see with people, that it brings them back to something, usually culturally, and that really resonates, um, with people's passion and then their connection to the food. Um, and just to take that one step further, I was speaking, ah, at the Culinary Institute of America's, um, World of Flavors convention last fall. Someone made a presentation and it was all about Mediterranean food. And one of the facts they deliver is that there's 23 countries around the world that consider Mediterranean their home country food. Okay. So if you think about that, how that's just reaching so cross culturally, um, it's just a tremendous, uh, advantage for us. So that usually comes out, oh, this is kind of like we had when I was growing up or whatever, that recipe. I grew up in an Italian, uh, Southern Italian family. Part of them, like, we have some of those same things are part of that culture that we try to push out in a brand. So finding those kind of, um, things separates it. You know, it really takes it another notch for us.

Speaker B: Yeah, that was kind of what I was trying to say at the beginning in a less articulate fashion, you know, where it was like, you know, Mediterranean is Middle Eastern, it's Spanish, it's, you know, you have like this whole coast and places, and there's so many different variabilities within it. You know, I think a lot of times people don't really realize that, you know, you could go get tapas and sort of, it's technically Mediterranean food. Right?

Speaker C: Yeah. You know, and that's the whole thing. It connects. There's. There's no barrier for us to teach people the food. Like, it's. It's just so prevalent. It's. And it's easy and it's simple. So, you know, go back to what you were saying earlier. Like, this momentum in this space, besides the obvious, the healthy, it's just so easy to identify with and understand it. But there's also culturally, so many connections to it, and you add on, it's healthy. You know, our guests tell us the number one reason why they come, um, to the great Greek is because of the flavor of our food. So it still goes back to this, hey, you gotta deliver great flavor. And Mediterranean's always gonna deliver this. Really simple ingredients, great flavor. Um, and it's a connector. Yeah, that's an advantage.

Speaker B: And this is just a personal feeling, but I've always thought that that's kind of the biggest difference between Mediterranean and, like, plant based, uh, you know, a lot of chains and, you know, we had one on here a few weeks ago. On the QSR side. I respect what they're doing. Obviously, they have a very strong audience in that world, but there are a lot of products in that space that I think you know, a lot of the, the way that it works is you kind of try it and then you go, well, you know, that was better than I thought it was going to be. Or, you know, that wasn't as bad as I thought was going to be. And then it's always to me been a bit of a struggle to say, okay, well, how do you actually get frequency out of something where you're just like trying it out of interest? But I think in the case of Mediterranean cuisine, and again you're seeing this in, in some of the fast scaling concepts like yourself, is that people just like eating it. Um, and it may sound simplistic, but, you know, it's both a switch in lifestyle from some of the other things that are out there, but then also something that I think people just really enjoy. And that's one of the things that does kind of make me interested to see. Like, where will we be in five years from now? You know, will you have a Mediterranean concept as large as, you know, into the thousands? I think you probably will. Um, but yeah, we'll see. So, you know, you kind of hinted at the international side, which goes on with what we're talking about here. I mean, talk about that opportunity because it sounds like it's coming. You know, it's going to make your life even more complicated, Bob. But, uh, yeah, what's some of the white space there that you're kind of entering?

Speaker C: Yeah, and we're okay with complicated and we're okay with the challenge. We've done it here domestically with the brand, I mean, where we feel there was an opportunity to serve our great experience, our food, our service experience to a guest. We figured out the supply chains and all those pieces. We continue to do it, we continue to get better here. The international, um, expansion that we're having is just, it's just crazy. It's phenomenal. And, um, it goes back to what I was saying earlier, that people all over the world are saying the same thing. They want healthy, they want easy, they want great flavor, they want convenience. Uh, everyone's saying the same thing around the world and then they're all saying, wow, this is our food, this is my food. And so it initially started out of, out of the exposure to international individuals here domestically. Just they visited our restaurant, they had a great experience. They're asking to say, we want to bring it to our country. That started about two years ago that we started pursuing those interests. The reach out to us happened really probably from day one. We would get people trick in that we were Just parking to the site. About two years ago, we made an intentional focus on their opportunities internationally. It's time to put it on our radar and think about how do we do that with the Great Greek. Fortunately for the Great Greek, as I mentioned to you earlier, uh, we're part of the UFG Family United franchise group. We had at that time 11 other brands. We're in 80 different countries. We have 1600 locations. So operating internationally was not new to the organization. So we had those resources, we had that knowledge, um, and that was a huge advantage for us. So we actually have uh, support teams around the world, whether it's Australia in Europe and the uk. In fact we have a group here today from uh, the UK visiting us. And um, you know, we have a local office in the uk. We have already expanded, uh, to Canada where we have three units. Uh, we just two weeks ago opened units in Cairo and Queensland, Australia. Um, and so, um, we have five international restaurants open, just doing really, really good. Um, and we have uh, an agreement we just signed with a large, large franchise food operator out of Guyana and six other countries in the Caribbean. Uh, that's extremely excited. They're going to get some restaurants open here really quick. So that is really starting to escal really fast for us. Uh, and again going back to being a leader of a brand where we're nearing 100 restaurants. I'm fortunate enough to be part of United Franchise Group and have all these resources. We actually already have a global team. We've had a global team for a year and a half now that consists of five other people. Um, so I have a team that's just focused on that global um, expansion. Whether it's opening restaurants, it's supply chain, it's supporting, uh, those operations. So we're already positioned to be able to do that and really uh, accelerate that. So the more interest that comes into us, uh, we'll be able to meet that moment which we are now. Um, and we'll continue to do that now that global team allows us also to make sure we're really driving here domestically. We have an amazing team here. Uh, domestically, uh, as well, we've grown about 40% year over year. Domestically, uh, being the fastest growing Mediterranean brand, we might be up there, and I think we're up there in restaurant space overall and we're continuing to track that this year, next year we're looking how do we get that to 50 to 75. So all the real estate people out there watching this podcast, give me a call. We're looking for Sites.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about the US side. I mean, I had a real estate guy on here some point. I don't remember when that was, maybe two months ago. But, but you know, the, I think, I think the kind of sentiment across our industry is that you got this kind of mixture of spaces coming up. But also things are pretty expensive, you know, so development is always going to be a complex equation of mixing in that ROI with, you know, whether or not you can take a space and turn it into what you want. But I mean, what do you, what are you seeing out there? I mean, how kind of realistic is some of the targets? I mean, I'm sure you've kind of seen the same headlines I have. I mean there's some, some, there's some big brands that are growing a lot faster right now than I think people have realized. You know, you've got like the largest growth in 24 years from McDonald's of all people. Even, you know, Tim Hortons has grown faster than they have in 10 years and so on and so forth. So there is growth to be had. As complicated and difficult as it might be to uh, to execute sometimes.

Speaker C: Yeah, it's, it's, hey, this is the restaurant business. I mean, you have to be up for this, this business and you have to be up to the challenge of this business because those challenges are always there, but the rewards are phenomenal. And so we like to compete in that way and we compete every day, um, in that way. But to answer your question directly, because I like what you said, the news cycle is negative and it's always negative. And the more negative it is, the better really great brands do.

Speaker A: That's true.

Speaker C: And we consider ourselves a really great brand because we're positioned against all those negatives. In fact, for the first quarter, um, our year over year sales were a little over 4, uh, percent, which I think Mediterranean fest casual is flat to negative. We have a history of always way outperforming, um, what's happening in the space by usually double, um, and we do that because we don't pay attention to the news cycle. We pay attention to what that consumer, um, is looking for. And we see it, we see there's this to consumers, right? There's the person who's making over 100,000 and the person who's making, um, less than 100,000 and it's quite different. And the experience delivers. So you have to have value on your menu. That's where the McDonald's is really coming in and doing well. But we have that value on our menu too. And so we're fighting for that customer, the customer who wants better, healthy, big desk. The price is not to drive an issue. We have something great for that customer too. So we're able to hit on all cylinders when it comes to how are we positioned to what's going on in the environment. We're almost hedged both ways if you think about it. So for us, it's penetrating markets, building awareness, and driving that customer base into our restaurant, regardless if they're above or below that line. And we continue to, we're positive in traffic, we're positive, uh, in sales. Our marketing team's doing a phenomenal job. But our operators in frontline people are the ones who are really making, making the difference on, on that front when you take the business model of it, right? Because at the end of the day, companies or franchise operators, they need to make money, right? And so how does that model work? And for us, we don't need 3500, 4000 square foot restaurants. Give me 15, 16, 1800 square feet. Give me 35, 40, 50 seats. Um, because I'm going to do a lot of business in that dining room, but I'm going to do a ton of business outside. People are going to take out, people are going to get delivered, we're going to do a ton of catering. And our food is perfect for all those. It holds really well, travels really well. If you want, uh, vegetarian, we got great flavor vegetarian. If you want gluten free, have at it. We got a bunch of things gluten free. If you want, like me, you want protein, you want some chicken, we got great flavored chicken. So we're able to accommodate all those dietary requirements, uh, as well. So the positioning for us works well. Maximizing that space works really well. But the one thing where we really thrive at, and I would say our operations team likes to talk about the most, is how we leverage our labor. So our productivity to a labor hour is off the charts. I'll put it up against any business without missing a beat on, um, the service level that we're delivering, which is very high. So our average check's a little bit higher, our labor is a little bit lower. So the productivity of that really becomes a big advantage for us. People want to be in the restaurant business, they want to be in this space. We align perfectly with where the consumer is going. Not just now, but long term. People are always going to want to be healthy and more healthier. Um, and then the business model is perfectly, perfectly positioned um, for people really to drive high volumes, which is, which is required, or flexible footprint, they want to be in a stadium or university or in those places too, have some great performance and those a little bit different. Um, but if we have a suburban restaurant that has 55, 60 seats, we kill it there too. So we got execution and performance at all the formats. Um, which right now becomes a huge advantage for us. Especially when the challenges are real estate. When you're competing with the best brands in the world for a space, Great Greek might not be at the top of their list. And that's okay. But I'm okay if I get a couple of really good spaces and we'll continue to change that position because people want our use, they want our customer, um, in their center. So that becomes an advantage for us too.

Speaker B: Yeah. So I have to follow up on one thing without of course giving away trade secrets. That point on labor productivity I think is something that anyone listening to this is probably heard and said. You know, how. Because I, I think this industry wages are going up. Of course, you know, I think I, I just saw, you know this, I wrote this story a couple weeks ago about, you know, one of the larger players. Their turnover went up almost 30% year over year at the crew level. You know, I, obviously I'm not, I don't know that that's an industry wide reality, but it's always going to be a challenging thing in our business given the cycles of, of part time labor and you know, people, you know, doing other things with their careers. But sure, I mean, how are you kind of getting productivity out of, out of the workforce? Because that is I, I think at the end of the day probably the thing that haunts us the most. Right?

Speaker C: Yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's not easy. If it were easy, everyone be doing it, right? Uh, so, so it's not easy. And as I mentioned earlier, we have a phenomenal team on uh, multiple different fronts that get after this every day to get that result. And it's not just one thing, but I'll start it from the bottom and work it back. One, it has to start with an operating system that's efficient and easy to execute. So our menu is really simple. It's easy to execute our food items. Okay. So we can train people really quickly and proficiently or said another way to be proficient really quickly. Okay. And so we can do that. And then we work on pace, right? We do, we do big hours, big sales and hours. So the pace at that proficiency becomes something we Focus on. So for us that base piece now is working on that training, training, um, our operators, training the managers to the front line people. We're rolling out uh, a digital training, uh, platform right now. That's going to boost that for us even better. It's going to bring our content right to that frontline person on their mobile device at need, at the point of need. So we're speeding up even that part of the process. Hopefully now to take that. The first 10% is easy to grab. It's that next to, and that next two. And so that's what we're running out. But that training has to be focused on delivering that um, that efficiency in putting those things together. The second piece to that is the makeup of our value proposition which allows us pricing so building up price base into what it is we're producing. Um, and I think I mentioned earlier, our average ticket and our price point is above, it's about a little over $30 is our average ticket. So it gives us a huge advantage when our ticket is higher, our PPA is higher and we're really efficiency at that labor. So that combination of those two things creates, excuse me, an amazing dynamic. With that said, you have to deliver, right? You have to deliver on the food and you have to deliver um, on what we call the service level experience. So if you were eating in our restaurant, you'd get your food, um, staged out to you, right? If you had, ah, an appetizer or a dip or a salad or a soup, that would come first in your entree. If you had a lamb or a steak, we'd ask you how you want to cook. So I customize it comes out on a real plate, real silverware, fork and knife, dessert to follow after your meal. Um, so it's the closest thing to a full service experience in a convenient casual dining restaurant. And the final thing is when you're done with your meal, you get up and leave. You don't have a tray, you don't have to clean up your bowl, whatever it is, and bring it over to the trash receptacle. We don't even have trash receptacles in our restaurant. Whether people recognize that or not at the time, consciously they do, uh, subconsciously. And that's part of the experience that we've been able to create. But that experience creates a value, uh, along with the flavor and all those other things that we made that allows us to get a, get a price point.

Speaker B: Yeah. You know it's funny, uh, I was just gonna say Bob, it's funny There's a fast casual in our space that used to not have trash cans. And I remember talking to many years ago and they kind of mentioned like, oh, yeah, we don't know if people like, realize we don't have trash cans until they go to look for it. And then, you know, we take the plate and all that. But years later they added trash cans. The model changed a little bit. And I could tell you from like a consumer standpoint, it was the most notable noticeable change, like, of, uh, maybe anything that I've seen on a service, because it was one of those things that maybe you didn't realize it when it wasn't there, but you realized it when it was there, I gotta say. So it was a huge departure from how it felt when there were no trash cans. It's just like these little small things. Right. They make a really big difference in our industry, 100%.

Speaker C: You know, there's the experience with the food and then there's this conscious service experience you get. But there's like an ambient experience like, that people are having in a restaurant. Whether it's just the smell of the food, it's the music, it's just people smiling and being friendly at working, walking a certain pace. Most restaurant operators discount that piece. And I would tell you, for us, it's almost the most. It's not the most important piece, but it's the magnifying piece.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker C: If that makes sense. Like, they're all really important. But when you click on all three of those, like, this is really special business. And there are other restaurant companies who do that too. Um, but there's not a lot of them because people aren't focused on the whole picture. They're just trying to drive a labor or trying to drive a food cost. We try to drive the value of the experience so I don't have to take food off the plate. Um, instead of raising prices, we took price increases and we didn't miss a beat. We don't like doing it, but, you know, we built enough value, um, enough equity in our value, didn't. We didn't even get. I don't. We got one complaint. I didn't, I didn't hear about it. We didn't get many at all.

Speaker B: Yeah, I, I think that, I think it's. I think it was someone who told me the other day that a good deal is a good value. Um, and so, you know, what is a good deal? A good deal is probably going to come down to a lot of different things and not just what you charge Someone. But before I let you go, though, Bob, I gotta ask you one final to come full circle here on our shameless, uh, plugs. But. All right. So, Evolution Conference. You were there last year. Tell me something you're looking forward to this year.

Speaker C: Well, uh, I'm going to tell you

Speaker B: more than one thing.

Speaker C: I actually, it's one of my favorite conferences, and I rate my conferences by content and energy of the people. And at, uh, that particular conference, it always has great content and it's always new and fresh. But the energy of the people and the engagement of the people at that conference is more than any other that I go to. Maybe part of it is that it's moving so fast and the technology's moving so fast. Um, the question I get the most is what is the great Greek doing with AI? That's on everyone's top mind. And fortunately for me, I'm part of an organization. Our CEO, Ray Titus at UFG grabbed us, I think it's over two years ago. I mean, it was a little over two years ago, Grabbed all the leadership and organization and said, guys, if you haven't heard about this, there's something called AI, okay? And it's going to be changing everything that we do. It's going to make us much more productive. Get to know it, learn it, try it, engage it, bring it to your brands. That's over two years ago we started doing that. So I would say right now for us, our teams gets, uh, a lot more productivity out of it. We do some really cool things on it that used to take, uh, a lot of time to do. Um, so the data piece for us, it's been there for a while, like extrapolating data and insights. It's just getting better. All our vendors, it's a requirement of, uh, and we got some really good ones. There's some really great insights we can get now, especially relative to the customer and what's happening, uh, with the customer. But when people ask me, like, what. What is getting me most excited about AI? And I kind of touched on this last year at that conference, and we're working on those initiatives this year. So I'm hopeful at the conference I could have some measurable updates for people. But it's going from this data centric AI to customer centric AI. How could I use AI to make that customer experience, I explained before, better, or make us more efficient or drive that productivity rate, um, even higher? That's what we've been running at now for the last year, is how do I take it? Customer centric to improve our business magic and make the engagement with our brand better for the person. So how do I use technology to make our experience more personal and engaged with us?

Speaker B: Yeah, we're recording this in early May. So I'm a couple of weeks away from the NRA show here in Chicago. I don't know if you're planning to attend that, but. But I mean the number one thing last year when I went. And I always like to walk the tech alley because it's. I mean it's just a weird place but. But watching it evolve over the. I think I've been going to this conference now, I guess 11. This will be my 10th time. Well, whatever. The point being, like, seeing it go from like, everything's a POS to uh, all the robots, like four years ago that suddenly there were no robots. And I remember my observation last year was that the AI, to your point, had kind of shifted from that data to the customer. And we were. They were able to show me some like, actual case study data to show where it was working, which in like prior years they were just basically showing me capabilities of the software versus, like, what it was actually addressing. So I'm very interested this year that's going to be probably, at least on the tech side, the number one thing. I'm going to go and look because I want to see from the different providers there, many of them are POS systems that have that AI, uh, component. But I want to see what are you actually doing? Because, uh, I think that's going to be the story because I think the operators that are visiting their booths are going pretty well beyond this idea of just walking up there and going like, hey, I want some AI. What can you do? I think they want to see what it actually can achieve. And so I'm just going to be like, that's probably number one on my list this year to go watch the floor.

Speaker C: The future is going to be really exciting with what we can do with AI. Here's the approach that I would say that the Great Greek is taking. Different than I see with probably too many of my peers, or just business in general is like, we're not letting AI lead us, we're trying to lead the AI with what our initiatives are, what our focusing is. And the tech people who I engage with, they really appreciate it because they don't know the restaurant side of the business. So they need that piece too. Because AI is really about the outcome, define the outcome, and then we can bring the AI to the outcome and then add to it. And so that's where I'd encourage all my peers in the industry is don't wait for AI to lead. You lead your business into AI. Uh, your AI may look very much different than what my AI looks, but use that strength and that power of that engine, and that's where we're seeing some really good success. One, but two is just. We keep challenging that to what else. What is there new. What can we do that relative to our business? Like, instead of, you know, I hear people doing chat gbt. Great, that's good. It's a really good tool. But, man, you are really missing the big picture. If you're just looking at data and it's just helping you get insights on your data, that's great. We do it. I do it all day long. Okay. But if you're using it to increase revenue and productivity and drive and take profit margin back so you can make more money, like that is the ultimate goal of what we're trying to do.

Speaker B: Yeah, I really like that framework. I. I think, like, even for us, the way that I've tried to phrase is, like, we should be teaching rai, not letting it replace our creativity. These are very different things. But, like, I see it both sides. You know, I see people who just go, well, you know, I don't want to do this. I'll just feed it into here and pop me back some, like, free, you know, outlines and bullet points to send somebody. But, you know, then I see other

Speaker C: people m are saying how tough this business is.

Speaker B: Yeah, exact. Right. And then I see the same people who use it to actually, like, train it to use, like make them a smarter person. So going to be fascinating. I mean, I think, Bob, we could probably talk about that specific subject for another 47 minutes. But I do, you know, I probably should let you go so you can get back to your actual job in life. But, uh, I really do appreciate you stopping by. You know, looking forward to catching up in Atlanta at our conference. Uh, yes. You know, it's amazing that it's not as far away as it. I would like it to be, to be honest, but that's how it goes, uh, in the conference planet world. So, you know, really appreciate you joining us today and sharing your insight. So will be interesting and exciting to follow the brand in the years to come.

Speaker C: Thank you, Danny, it's always good to see you and thank you for having me.

Speaker B: Of course. And for everybody out there who's listening, as always, we appreciate it. And we'll see you on the next one.