Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Mic check.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: 1, 2, 1, 2.
[00:00:03] Speaker A: There you go. 2, 6, 2, 6. All right. This is Episode. We don't know yet. We're still figuring that out.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: We wonder every time. I think we're. No, I'm not even gonna guess.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So let's call it Episode, the one you're listening to, which is the most important one. So. Shit yeah. Thank you for tuning into the Shit yeah show.
[00:00:20] Speaker C: Shit yeah.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Got Chris Smith here, Kai Syphax over here.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Shit yeah. We're gonna introduce and get a lot more details about you because you are ogz.
[00:00:29] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: And. And that is exciting. From 2017. And then my co host, Dahlia. Dahlia Simpson. Shit yeah. Going to be keeping us on the clock 26 minutes if we can. So going to keep it tight and. And tight. Yeah. So the Shit yeah show, if you haven't watched before, I hate the restaurant business, but I love it. The restaurant business at any time will make you say, shit, yeah. And at any time, it will turn into a complete shit show. And so we talk about three things in the restaurant business. We talk about what sucks about the restaurant business, what you love about it that makes you say, shit, yeah. And then what you're doing to change it, what you like in your company or our company that you think we're doing that is maybe innovative or really just changing the restaurant business for the better. I think if you're doing that in your business and you're doing that in life, trying to make things better, growing, there's fulfillment in it, and you're also giving to other people. It's impacting other people in a positive way. So, man, this is how long we've been trying to get you on the podcast.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: A few months now.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:32] Speaker C: Our schedules just have not been.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: It hasn't lined up. Usually when we're trying to do it, you're scheduled to work. So we go way back to, I think, actually. Who brought you in? William leflower.
[00:01:42] Speaker C: William laflower.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: William Leflower. Always William Laflower. All roads lead back to Bandana Burger and William leflower.
[00:01:49] Speaker C: And ironically, he brought me in from Barbaritos, which is actually where Bandana Burger is now.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Let's get weird. That is very. That is. That is probably crazy. It is. When the sage is being burned going around Barbaritos, there's like burrito demons popping out or something. I don't know, Chupacabras, but that's pretty funny. So. Yeah. So William leflower was on a previous episode.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I checked it out, man.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: One of the most talented restaurant people I've ever met. Best recruiter, I think, out there. For sure he can sell, I don't know, shit to a shit something, but he can sell anything to anybody. It really is an unbelievable talent. And he sold you on Zunzies when you're at Barbaritos. And So that was 2017. We had Zunzies at that time, two years. So we had bought it at the end of 2014 from Johnny and Gabby. And at that time, we were really gearing up to open our Atlanta location. So we were, like, trying to get things right. Really dial it in. And I remember he was speaking like, dude, this guy Kai is awesome, you know? And you came in and you were a rock star right off the bat.
[00:02:52] Speaker C: Yeah. So when I first came in, it was pretty cool because I came in as a manager in training, and I. The guy who ran the kitchen quit like, my second week. And everybody's like, nah, you don't want the kitchen. It's so horrible up there. Cause at the old location, it was upstairs. We had a little box AC, but it was like 100 degrees in there. There were holes in the floor. It was crazy. And I remember I was like, I made it like a personal mission to learn and run that kitchen.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: And there was like, you did it, man. I felt so bad. I'm so happy we're. I'm so happy we're out of that place because of how bad of the conditions were that were grandfathered in. Somebody got paid something or somebody knew something about somebody that they were allowed to operate in a fire stairwell. And in those conditions. Right. I have the original health inspection of that location, which is wild. I should frame that up because it was 100. It should have been a 26 and not a good 26. Yeah.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: And it didn't make any sense in.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: The archives in the office. So that location. How many times did you fall down the stairs and slip?
[00:03:55] Speaker C: Countless. But I got back up. Yeah.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:59] Speaker C: I didn't spill the bread most of the time. Didn't drop anything on the way down most of the time.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:03] Speaker C: Maybe on the way back up a few times.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Yeah, that was rough. That was. I mean, just thinking back of that, you really can't make it up of that location. It was just one of those locations that, you know, we could spend hours talking about on here.
You know, maybe we could talk about what was great about that place. You know, so actually, let's talk about what sucks about the restaurant business, and then we'll. We'll add, like, a layer to it of. And Then a York street story about what sucks. So. So we'll do that.
[00:04:33] Speaker C: All right.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: So you've been in a lot of different restaurants. What restaurants? How do you get in the restaurant business? Which I always like to ask.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: Yeah, so my first restaurant job was with Carrabba's on the south side as a busser over. Over a summer. I came down to Savannah over the summer one year, and I started working there, and it was interesting.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: It was a big operation. I used to love the triple grill until it got very small.
[00:04:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:56] Speaker C: But from where?
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Where did you.
[00:04:58] Speaker C: I'm from D.C. i was at Penn State in college. Over the summer, my cousins talked me into coming down and just hanging out. And, yeah, I got a job there. And, yeah, it was awesome.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: No, that's. That's. Yeah. So Penn State to Savannah, to Carrabba's. And then after that, where'd you go? Was it Barbaritos?
[00:05:16] Speaker C: Yeah, then I was with Barbaritos.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:18] Speaker C: I left Savannah for a while, went to California, came back to Barbaritos, and that's when William started popping up, trying to do food trades.
And I love the Godfather. I love the Conquistador. So it was like, yeah, come in. I was like, oh, if I'd known you were coming, I would have made extra guacamole, because he would get an absurd amount of guacamole in our trades. But, yeah.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that's pretty interesting. That sounds like William. Once he is hustle harder is one of our zoom. These hustles harder. Our second pillar of our marketing strategy, and he was a big, huge part of that aspect of it. So that's how you got into it. And then, obviously, William pulled you into Zunzies. Now let's talk about all that experience that you've had. So you've worked at other restaurants since. So this happens a lot is you come into Zunzies and then you leave.
[00:06:06] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: And you come back, and you leave, and you come back and leave. Right. And in the process, you know, I always say, you know, that you're never the same person stepping in the same river. Right. Each time you come back, you're a different person with different experiences, different perspective. And also, the river is different.
[00:06:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Right. So same thing in the restaurant business. Each time you come back, it's like a different version of what we are and what you are. And I think we both appreciate each other more and more with that. So with those different things that you've done, what do you say is like the number one thing that sucks about the restaurant? Business, it's.
[00:06:39] Speaker C: Let's see. The number one thing that sucks about the restaurant business is just being able to roll with the punches when they aren't how. What?
[00:06:47] Speaker A: They're not what you expect when they're punching you.
[00:06:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Like repeatedly. And then it's like one day it's.
[00:06:53] Speaker C: Like your team, someone won't show up and it throws off the whole flow. Another day a product will be out. So it's just like learning how to roll with that stuff. Right now we got the construction going on at the store, so it's like, I know back in the day we only had a patio. But our guests have come to expect more and not being able to give them the full shit show experiences. Sometimes a shit no for us is the same way that's a shit now for the customer.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: So this entire process, if you didn't know, we're currently renovating our Downt Zunzabar, the first Zunzabar location. Pole bar is getting gutted. Whatever you think you know of Zunzabar in that location.
So it's about to change. We're about to do some amazing things. All focused on really our team saying shit. Yeah. Our fans saying shit. Yeah. And it's really exciting. But in the process it's. We're constantly going back to our values. We're talking about with our district manager Nicholas, with Kevin. I keep saying, okay, what are we doing that sucks about the restaurant business? And then is it a shit yeah. Experience the team first. Right. Franchisees. So that, you know, in this case it doesn't apply. And then our fans and we're making decisions that are actually bad financially for the business, but good for our people as much as we can. And then also for our fans. And we're actually asking them, you know, and what's incredible is I think we're like crushing five star reviews with no indoor seating. Right.
We've had those things.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: And not that it's makes any sense, but.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: But it's the. But our people are doing. Our people aren't focused on.
[00:08:23] Speaker C: We're still going above and beyond for the guests. So it's like.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: And think about this. Yeah, think about this. From that we used to get a five star shit yeah. Experience in a parking lot patio next to a dumpster with rats trying to, you know, killing rats at the doorstep. You know, one of my crazy stories there, the grease trap stinking and all this stuff because of the people.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: Were focused on the guest. The guests were watching what was going on and it was like, okay, they care. They're trying, they're doing the best that they can. And that's like the biggest thing in this business. It's just people serving people and they're watching what's going on. Right. And then so our people are really shining through this process, really rolling with the punches. And it's, you know, I'm excited to get to the other side of it because it's gonna be better for everybody. So, you know, you talked about rolling with the punches. I think what that is is we ask, you know, we'll actually go and ask the number. What's your number today?
[00:09:17] Speaker C: My number today was a nine this morning. I'm still at a nine now.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go. Hopefully you'll be at a 9.9. You know, we're never a 10 because there's always, you know, that next level.
[00:09:27] Speaker C: I don't become a 10 very often.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: There you go.
Festivals are 10. When he goes to a festival, he's like 26. Yeah, there you go. Exactly. There's some honeys at the festival. Honeybees maybe. There you go.
Delia, do not laugh.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: I'm gonna go nine as well.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: Nine Chit chat. Yeah, I'm a nine because I really enjoy this. This is like really what I get passionate about is our people. You know, we've got a great huge wave. Like I think we can all feel the swell happening with all the change and great growth coming. And it's like having people that have been there right at the bottom of the mountain as we're climbing really makes it more fun in my seat. So, you know, I'm a nine. We talk about what number you are. And it's one of the things that sucks about the restaurant business is we're dealing with a lot of personalities and personal problems. And as a manager, it's really tough to take the temperature of everybody. So we can rapid fire in a meeting, what's everybody's number? And we get a good pulse of what the team's really their number is. And if everyone's a 4 out of 10, it's going to be a shitty day. Right. So we have to choose it. And that's like a high level skill that if people can learn that one thing in life, choosing their state, choosing what to focus on, there's always something bad to focus on. There's always something good to focus on. Right. We always have that option.
[00:10:44] Speaker C: In my past, I've had issues where it's like, did I really have a bad day or did I have a bad 30 minutes or 15 minutes? And then I sat there and thought about that for a long time. As opposed to actually having a bad day. It's like, no, I just hung on one bad moment instead of appreciating the fact that I got through that moment. And then there's more to deal with after that, you know.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Shit, yeah. No, that's it. You know, it's. And especially in this business, I mean, you'll have one for one customer, you know, one that. That will just be ridiculously bad. Right. And it can set you off. Right. And so that's where we, like, lead with love, you know, and give, give, give to try to, you know, change their state. But it's kind of an easy thing if people are coming in at one number and we're raising it right with a goal, making them say, shit, yeah, our business will grow as long as we're, you know, having that transaction happen. So. All right, what, you know, you're in the restaurant business, you've been doing it for a long time, you choose to be in it. What makes you say, shit, yeah, why do you choose to be in it?
[00:11:40] Speaker C: So I just. I have a large passion for making the food. I enjoy seeing people eating the food. As of lately, I've been.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Do you watch them from afar?
[00:11:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: I was hoping you say anything.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, like, like whisper, like you're anticipating sauce for them. Yeah.
[00:11:58] Speaker C: But not weird.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Not weird. Yeah. But I would never do that. Like.
[00:12:03] Speaker C: But I greatly enjoy the process of making the food. I've recently. I was working in front of house only for a while, but I've recently transitioned to doing both back house and house.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: That was the goal. Yeah, yeah. When you came back, I said, I want you to learn that. You learn the service side.
[00:12:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: We're going to have a great program. So restaurants are not good at training bartenders. I've been in the bar business now for a couple of years, and that's one of the things that we're going to really focus on. We brought on Tony Edgerton. Oh, he was on the podcast recently, and our vice president of beverage.
The big focus we're going to have in this location as we grow is we're going to have three tiers of bartenders. So you're going to be start off as a lunch bartender. Tier one. Tier two would be happy hours, same menu. And then you're going to turn into a tier three mixology program that's going to be on par with anybody, anywhere with the quality of the program we want. So we can really train up Our goal is for it to be a resume builder. That's one of those things you probably wouldn't expect. But we strive for excellence and we want to use our bar program to be cutting edge. And we also want to take people who want to learn new things, like yourself. We want to be a place where, hey, you know, go work there for a year and you'll be able to learn the bar program. So if that's of interest.
[00:13:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm actually. Yeah, I've already spoke to Tony about it. I'm looking forward to learning the bar side. That's the only.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: It's going to be really good. Yeah.
[00:13:17] Speaker C: That's the only aspect that I. I don't know at this point. So I'm excited to get my hands on.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: And we built a whole new bar just for you to learn, Adam.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: And so what's cool, you know, one of the reasons that I know you keep coming back, you know, with the wave and that swell that's about to happen is, you know, the restaurant business and why I really like it and you're in this seat is the upward mobility, the opportunities that it creates is, you know, you've got a degree, you know, one depends state. You know, you've got that education. You know, this is what you're doing. But now, you know, with you like festivals, you like to travel, you know, we're building a certified training unit, but downtown we'll have multiple locations around the Southeast that we're using for training. Training locations. But there's a team that we're going to build. And so by you having this background right in the kitchen now, service now going to the bar, that's what we need is really fully cross trained to be able to bring that. Bring that passion, the storytelling. And so I'm excited for that opportunity for you because you've been talking about that for a long time. I'm having that conversation in, you know, since 2017. It's like this is where we're going and people think it's going to happen fast.
[00:14:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: But to understand.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: It's like you've seen it.
[00:14:26] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: You've seen it. I mean, we've gone through a lot.
[00:14:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: You know, with it.
But it's still. It's going like this, like this.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: And I think it's a level better every day.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: It's vision, it's persistence, kaizen, 1% better. And, you know, one of my favorite moments is we, you know, did the. The wheel of life, the umbrella.
[00:14:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:45] Speaker A: And you're one of the first people we did it with.
[00:14:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: So, you know, eight areas of your life where, you know, you analyze that and, you know, I think about that. I saved a lot of those. It's pretty cool. And binary. I think you might have been there for binary. I can't remember. No, you weren't. That was. That was. That was before.
That's a different. Different thing for a different day. HR probably wouldn't have liked it.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Different day.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Different day.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Different day.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it got intense. But you were either in or you're out. It was like you're either a zero or you're one. If you were a zero, you were fired.
Yeah, that was when I was having a clean house, so. Okay, so what sucks? What do you love. What did you love about York Street? Because it was like, I miss York. I've never had more fun than a.
[00:15:26] Speaker C: Certain magic to it. It was like.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: And smell.
[00:15:28] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. But. But just the inter. The guests, it was just. It was just the way we were able to go above and beyond their expectations. It was like there'd be a wall down the street. I feel like that. That brick wall should have, like, a mural of people standing on it, like, in line.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: That'd be pretty cool.
[00:15:46] Speaker C: But it was just like, we would. Just the puns, the joking with the guests, then going around to the. Out of the back door, to the patio on the side, making sure everything is good with them. How we do, like, the 26 guests would get the free sandwich from the. From the kitchen.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Even back then, we were doing that. Yeah.
[00:16:01] Speaker C: And it was just.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:16:03] Speaker C: The tea samples, it was.
[00:16:06] Speaker A: So, you know, what it did is it taught me that it really didn't matter about the facility. Like I always said, like, it's lipstick on the pig. We're gonna operate a clean restaurant with excellent service, very high standards. Like, we did everything very, very well there. Yeah. Right. At the highest standard. But the facility wasn't great with what we had. Right. So it was like this. They didn't expect it. And so that's what actually was what wowed everybody. And I've been mindful of that as we've grown. The concept of, you know, the expectation of.
To make your fans, to make your team say it. Shit, yeah. You have to have this expectation. And now it's tough because people are expecting. They look at our reviews now. I think we're six months, averaging a 5.0.
[00:16:54] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: It's insane. Right. And so there's a lot of reasons why, you know, of. Of that. It's focused. It's great people. It's retention. All of those things we, you know, we're figuring out, and we're really poised to be able to grow. So that location, I think for me, we're probably coming on close to 26 minutes, so we'll definitely be getting you back because there's a lot more. A lot more stuff. I'm good. Okay. I kind of feel like my internal clock. Right. It's ticking.
The. Let's see, York Street. For me, one of my craziest memories was I remember on St. Patrick's Day that a person couldn't find a porta Potty.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: And they popped a guy, popped a squat. A doocy in the street right in front of the restaurant.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: Shut it down. Shut everything down.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:42] Speaker C: That's a shit show. That was.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: That was a shit show. It's like, what do you do? Right?
[00:17:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: Yeah, that is. Yeah. You know, and there's a whole lot of y'all watching.
[00:17:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: That was crazy.
What did I learn?
[00:17:53] Speaker B: St. Patrick's Day. Happy St. Patrick's Day.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: What I loved about it, so that probably sucks about that location is people who have been pooping in the street.
Second would be things I like about it. Loved about it was. I loved working QC in that location. Yeah, Kenny. Or you were rocking chicken. Or you were on bread a lot.
[00:18:10] Speaker C: I love bread. Yeah.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: You're doing tea samples. You're doing puns, Right? Oh, you gotta try our tea. It's a necessity. I drink so much, I tee my pants. That'd be a pity, right?
You know, you spill it on your shirt. You have a T shirt. We just went on and on and on with it.
[00:18:26] Speaker C: Taste buds to infinity and tion.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: There you go. See, it was fun. And, like, it was this little. They were waiting to get in. They got in there, we got weird with them. We, like, took as much money as we could. Like, here, you have to have a tea. You have to have a sandwich. Yeah. Here's a sticker. Bought a Popsicle, did the whole thing. They were happy. We gave them free bottles of sauce if they liked the sauce. And it was just. It was.
It was a great place to start a brand and do it and keep the torch going. So there you go. That's some good ones. What do. Let's see.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: I have a question.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: I'd love to hear about your timeline, because I know you're one of the few people who have fully worked at three or four locations.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Because you were in Atlanta.
[00:19:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Actually, four of five Locations because you were York street and downtown, the Savannah.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: I was at York street from 2017 until 2018. 18. Then from 2018 to 2019, I was in Atlanta. And then I came back to York street until we opened the new location in 2020.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Atlanta. I'm gonna turn my hat around for Atlanta. There we go.
[00:19:33] Speaker C: Yeah. Atlanta was a. Was a beast.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Don't cut me with the gang sign.
I won't.
[00:19:38] Speaker C: I won't.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: I'm sorry.
[00:19:39] Speaker C: I did it.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: I'm sorry.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Not gonna do that.
[00:19:42] Speaker C: Yeah. Then from Atlanta, I came back to York Street. Then we transferred to Drayden, and then I left for a little while. And then I came back when we. Right after we opened the Tybee location. And I spent last summer on Tybee. And now I'm back on Drayden.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: I mean, you're back on Drayton in it.
[00:20:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Now we're back on Drayden.
Yes.
And the reason why is, like, you have a standard that, you know, you uphold it and there's passion. Live with passion. Be a pro. You have your own standard. And I think that's one of those things, is you've been very consistent along the way on yourself. You've just been a consistent trajectory, which is awesome. No, it's good to go through that timeline.
We've changed a lot. You know, we've kept a lot of things, moved mountains. We've changed a lot, you know, And I think that's why Shit. Yeah. Is so important, is because that has never changed. It's actually enhanced. I look at the company and I go, I'm not in there every day. But look at our reviews and look at our team and all the metrics we look at. It's like, there's no way that we're not following through with that.
And over time, that's gonna win. It'll help us through problems with our vendors when we can't buy the same chicken we had at York Street. Cause they're no longer making it. Because our bread bakery. And then the second bread bakery, they go out of business. Right, right. It's like. And then everybody's complaining about it. We're like, hey, the world has changed. We can't just. We're not gonna start baking our own bread doesn't exist anymore. We couldn't bake our own bread in York Street. That's totally the case. We can't do it. You gotta know what you gotta do. And now we've got an amazing bake there that's going to take it to the best bread We've had.
[00:21:18] Speaker C: Y'all were trying some new breads out the other day that look really good.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: It was incredible.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: It's so good.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it's the best bread. It is. It is out of this world. French bread, crusty, soft. You know, all the. All the adjectives are there with it, but it's like, that's. That's what's. You know, I don't know. It's. Don't know where I was going with it, except you've seen a lot of the ups and downs of the business, all the changes.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: You've seen things.
[00:21:40] Speaker A: You've seen things, but we polish things.
You've seen things that are still here.
So we can do like a. After the podcast filming of, like. Okay.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: After Dark.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: After Dark. After Dark.
It's getting. It's getting a little wild here now.
So what do you think the restaurant business is in need of a change? What do you think that we're doing as a company, you know, and possibly, you know, what do you do in your own right that you feel like you try to do to help the.
[00:22:07] Speaker C: Restaurant business so well with Zunzies, I love that we do, like our Zunzies Fest four times a year. I remember we used to do it monthly, and that was a bit hectic.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: So I do things in extreme. Here's what I do. I do everything in extreme to launch it, knowing it's gonna get watered down. Everybody will water it down, right? But, you know, it's like, we're gonna do this every day. We're gonna do this once a month, right? And then. Cause it needs to have an impact, and everybody needs to know I'm serious. And then I know we'll come to center, right? And that's just one of those things that I've learned, that if I bring it in at what's gonna be acceptable.
[00:22:43] Speaker C: Then it's not gonna.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: Then the bar's gonna lower, it will lower. So we gotta go 126% and then come down to that.
[00:22:50] Speaker C: Gotcha.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: But no, once you work with me for a while, you understand that.
[00:22:55] Speaker C: But I love that we do that.
I love just the interactions with the guests where it's like, you could tell they're not having a great day, and then by the end of the interactions, they're smiling, they're saying, shit. Yeah. And they're leaving with a bottle of sauce and a smile. I'm like, that makes you feel good.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: A bottle of sauce can make you say shit. Yeah. And so if you think about this, the restaurant business Sucks, but life is pretty hard. Yeah, life sucks a lot of times. Like, it's full of problems. It's. You've got your whole wheel of life, your whole umbrella of all the areas of your life that you have to manage, and there's always some problems going on. And if we can be the place where it's like, man, I can go there and they're going to make me say, shit, yeah. And then make a great sandwich, wings, cocktail, whatever it is, you know, pull yourself out, then we've got a great business model, and it takes great people like you to be able to do that. And nothing, you know, Zoom Z Fest is one of those first things that I was like before we franchise, I'm going to get every crazy idea out.
[00:23:50] Speaker C: There in there, because no other restaurant is doing anything like it.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: But you can't launch it, because franchisees will be like, no, that's a cost I didn't buy. I didn't sign up for that. So that's why we've been 10 years of like, let's do this, let's do that, Build it into it, bake it into the DNA. So they know that that's what.
[00:24:07] Speaker C: It's the standard when they come.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: That's what the standard is. Why do we do Zoom Z Fest? The restaurant business sucks.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: We hear change to sign up for the crazy.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: They sign up for the crazy. Exactly. They beg for the crazy. They want the crazy. Do it again. Because everything is so. There's so much inundation of stuff that you have to be a little weird. You have to say, shit. Yeah. You know, you got a dank vehicle driving in Atlanta to get attention, shout.
[00:24:30] Speaker C: Out to Chico and then.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: And so to wrap up with that, one of our. Our values is, you know, let's get weird.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: And so, you know, I think what that is is really creating an environment to where you can thrive. Your gift, your personality, whatever's weird about you can be embraced, and that's allowed to shine. You know, I think that's, you know, that's what. That's what we're winning as a company. And so that's certainly happening with you, Kai.
[00:24:57] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: So happy to have you here. You may leave and come back, but you're always coming back and we're saying shit. Yeah. Together. Are you going to do dank or shit? Yeah, I'm going to do shit.
[00:25:07] Speaker C: Yeah. The dank's a little thick.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: You know. Some people like a little thick, you know. All right, let's go ahead. Shake it up and be mindful Every once in a while I get a sploater. Yeah, yeah. If you get a sploater, you get a free T shirt and you get more free stuff until you're happy. So just basically until you're.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: That's true. That's true. But don't fake a sploater.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: And don't shake it like a baby over there. Just kidding.
There you go.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: Good. No splitters here.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: No splitters there.
[00:25:42] Speaker C: Shit, yeah.
[00:25:43] Speaker A: Shit, yeah.
And what's good about this? Every time we do it, it's quality control. Yeah, it's quality control. And it's our commitment to.
[00:25:53] Speaker B: I keep them all in my fridge.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: You keep them all in your fridge?
[00:25:55] Speaker B: And I use them.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: Nice. You should date them and see, like, which tree grows out of which one over time.
[00:26:01] Speaker B: Tree.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You know, like all the. All the fungi. Right.
[00:26:05] Speaker C: Maybe the dank ones.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: There's a ph content. We're good. All right. Cheers. Yeah, man, thanks.
