Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: We're live with this guy. It's a dopity do day.
That's how we're going to do it. Right? I'm gratefully alive today with William leflower. Dopity, dopity do, man. We just had a amazing podcast. We try to do these back to back to make everybody not have to set up and break down and do that all the time.
But, man, we're so good. It's like people like you, people like Matt at Origin Coffee, just doing things that inspire me. And the restaurant business is not full of a lot of inspiring things. When they grow. Start growing, it's like the money starts making people change.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: It does.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: And it sucks to see. And so just being able to talk and I told you when you.
We'll go ahead and do the intros and all that stuff. But when you ventured and said, I'm going to do my own thing, one of the things I told you is.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Like, I was already doing my own thing.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: You were already doing your own thing. You were.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: For months. I was hiding it from him. Yeah.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: And I was paying you while you're doing it. Yeah. In the exact same way. In the exact same way that you're trying to steal my people. Here you go. I want you on my team, William. I want you on my team, William.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: There you go. So William leflower, Banana burger. Plus new stuff going on. Yeah.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: We actually just opened this Sunday on Martin Luther King Jr. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: You're very good at relationships. I'm gonna 26 extra business, buddy. Don't worry.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Yes. Invite. Invite the person that has. Hopefully I had, like, 1% impact on you.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: No. Yeah.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Yeah. It wasn't that, though. I didn't value relationships when I was back then, so. It's true. It's, like, rubbed off on you. Yeah.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: I just know he's a busy guy, so. Yeah.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: I always have time for you.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Oh, thank you.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: 26 minutes.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: That's all.
Yeah. But we. We opened up actually two new restaurants in downtown Savannah in the same day. So we opened up a bar and restaurant called the West Broad Bandshell, and we opened up a coffee shop, and it's called the Orient Espresso.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: So it took me a second, but I love it called alliteration sort of things. So William is the most talented and probably creative restaurant guy that I've ever worked with. Right. It's one of those things that I need more William in my life, but not too much. Right. It's like there's a level of discipline and Time in regards to it.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: I appreciate that.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: When we lived together in Atlanta, it was too much.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: It was a lot. It was too much, a lot.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: What's your greatest.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Working together, you know, dining together, sleeping.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Together in separate rooms.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: Doors closed.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: HR HR Was the living room. Yeah.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's the. You know, there's things that you have to do. It's like, yes, let's rent multiple apartments and just blow cash when we have none. When we're trying to do stuff.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: It's just. You do what you have to do.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: The first night we had that apartment, we didn't even have beds.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: We did.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: We did. We didn't have beds.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: You should have staged it. You should have, because it would have helped us.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Yeah. His. His wife came in one day, and there was nothing in the refrigerator, so she went and stocked the refrigerator.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: These are good stories. Okay. So incredible. Now you're three concepts. You've got it going.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Yep. Three concepts. And we actually have a fourth one on the way as well. We're doing a build out in the middle of town for a smoothie and salad bar.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Nice. What's that called?
[00:03:16] Speaker B: It's called blended.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Blended. Yeah. Blended chit. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: But it's blended, like D. I D. I like it.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Yeah. No, Very good. So awesome to see the growth. Yeah.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: And we're doing some awesome stuff over at the West Broad bandshell. It's actually a fusion restaurant.
It's more of, like, an upscale casual. So you go in and there's a waiter, has a full bar.
We actually like right down to the wire. Got the liquor license. So that was really awesome. Thank you to the city of Savannah. Thank you to the state of Georgia. Thank you, Georgia. Yeah. But it's actually like, came together so serendipitously. I have some amazing partners in the business. A great friend of mine, Michael Yoon, who has, you know, strong roots back to Korea. And my. My favorite people in the city of Savannah, Tanika and Romy. With Tanika and the chef. They owned a catering business here in town and had a food truck. And we just really hit it off. We. We sat at Bandana Burger for some hours, became really close friends, and, you know, you know, struck out together.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: So it's really awesome. Romy's doing amazing stuff in the kitchen. You got to come check it out. It's at 5:14. Martin Luther King Jr. Boule. We had a parking lot right next door. One of the only places in downtown Savannah that has a parking lot. We Have a huge patio. We're going to be having live music.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: We didn't have the formal location. It's been a few different things.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: It's been so many different restaurants over time. It's. It's deep rooted in live music. So there's a history back there with King Oliver. You know who King Oliver is?
Okay.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: So he has lunch at our restaurant. Oliver's lunch is that.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: That's hilarious. That. That is a funny little connection. King Oliver was one of the founding fathers of jazz music here in everywhere. Really? Yeah. So he had King Oliver's creole jazz band. He moved to Savannah in the later years of his life. A little bit sadder of a story, but a lot of people would come into the city to get some knowledge from him. He was pretty much like the teacher of Louis Armstrong. So there's a big plaque on the side of the building that's dedicated to King Oliver, and we try to keep that spirit alive. We have a big mural inside of the restaurant. Restaurant. We're gonna be doing live music. We just did an event with the Savannah Music Festival with eight talented singer songwriters. We got another event on the 8th of March with some awesome kids groups here in Savannah. It's coming together really, really well. And it's a Korean inspired soul food. So Tanika and Romy, they dropped the mic on this one. They really did.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: So one of the things that you're the best at, it's funny because you and Kevin Nelson are probably two people that couldn't be more opposite.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Not be more opposite. And I drink.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: I, I, I don't drink. Diet coke.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: There you go. There you go.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: And he doesn't smoke meats.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: There you go. No, it's all good, though.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: What my partners and my partners and I are, are actually trying to come up with, like, the perfect elevator pitch for this restaurant because there's so much going on. But it's a, it's a beautiful, beautiful spot. We redid the inside. Painted bread.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: So let's talk about that. Let's. Let's talk about that at a later time. We'd love to kind of dive into it. Want to visit it. Wanting to get the full tour of what? The vision.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: It'll blow your mind.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Oh, I know it will. And, you know, the thing is, you have all of the things to do it, right? And so it's a matter of, you know, you know, what happens to a bandana burger when you focus your attention on that. And that's one of those questions of growth and why you're doing that, that we can talk about. But I've got back to Kev Nelson. You guys are both the two most talented recruiters I've ever seen.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: The difference is he's really, really, really good on management and leadership. And you're phenomenal at the frontline guy. Kevin is, too. He's done it all. But it's. He's. That's where, like, he specialized in. You want to get that guy for that role, to run 30 restaurants, to be able to do it and nail it. Right. And build a dynamic team that's going to be all over the country. And how old is Kevin? He is. He refuses to tell.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: I got some years. Some years.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: So you have some years.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: He's like a mystical figure. He was never really born.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: He'll never really die. The best part I love is that our office has these massive doors.
You. You hear it, and then you hear it go back, and it's like he's coming out of the cave.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Right. It's pretty fun. But. But you're so different, yet you're so un. Like, I just cut you the dots because I'm like, these two are people in my life. You are so incredibly talented on both ends of the spectrum, and you need both of that. Right. That's there. And he's able to come down to that. That level of. You know, I say come down to the level of. Of. Because he grew up in the business. He was McDonald's a GM at 21. He came in from the bottom and up and so started from the bottom.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Now we're here. Right?
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's it. And so he understands and relates to it. It's why he has empathy for. For everybody in the restaurant business. But he's.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Someone actually asked me today, they said, how long have you been in the restaurant business? And I have been in the restaurant business or adjacent to the restaurant business for almost 20 years. Which is. Which is odd.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Now.
Yeah. So incredible stuff. And this is our. What? Second, third podcast.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And so, you know, we know it sucks, you know, about the restaurant business. We'll bring up other stuff on these. We'll probably do rapid fires. So it's like, what currently sucks about the restaurant business?
[00:08:56] Speaker B: What? What currently sucks about the restaurant business.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: That'S getting your liquor license in Savannah. Yeah. That Judy Jones is the best.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: No, Judy Jones is. She really is Judy Jones. Amazing.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: A million times better. It's still. It's still a little.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: All of folks down at the revenue department, all of the. All the.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: So much.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: Everybody is. Is so kind, and they want you to succeed.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: They really do.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: You know, if you do.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Feeling of it was like it was a nuisance, and there's really hasn't been a shift to celebrate that, you know, with that, so. But what. What's sucking right now?
[00:09:28] Speaker B: You guys are just trying to get.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: In good with the city right now.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: No, no, no, no, no. We're already in good with the city.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: Hey, the whole system's greasing somebody.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: That's a.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: That's a really hard question to ask. But to go back to your other point about what do you do now? That is. I just got to give it up to my great team. I have an amazing team. Bandana man. Yeah, right? Dan the bandana man.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: I'm so proud of him.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Yeah, he's a fantastic dude. He's my.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: He's a black tie bandana. Yeah, it's like black ties.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: And then you go, oh, yeah. But I know I have an amazing support system, and, you know, we're constantly working on those relationships. So you go down to Bandana Burger, and you're gonna see those same people. We have great retention of these awesome, awesome humans. They really are. And they just. They want to give it back to the F. They really do. They want to give it back to the team, and they're going to do anything that it takes to make sure that we stay in. Elevate every single day. So even right now, they're knocking it out of the park. I just got off the phone with them. They were so busy this morning, which was. Which was awesome. I was actually on the radio doing. Doing the St. Jude a thon. Raising money for kids, cancer for St. Jude.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: So add to the list for our nonprofits for fundraisers.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Yeah. So I spent the whole day just jumping back and forth from radio stations, and it was amazing to see that team was just upholding the standard and really going above and beyond that. So.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: So it's cool. I watch. I watch the things that you're doing. And we created a lot of. Just the culture associated with that.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Yeah, we spent a lot of time on that Zunzies.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: We built it. And you're taking your own twist on it. Like. Absolutely. Bandana Burger. Bandana Burger is the next billion dollar chain. Yeah, it's the next billion dollar chain. Yeah.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: I appreciate that.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: And what it is, though, is it's how do you take this and standardize it? Right?
[00:11:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Because we're weird in Our own. Right. We do things radically different. I understand our business better than ever. And it takes a Kevin Nelson to be in the mix. Right. And it's not like, you know, there's that balance that's there of finding it. Because you want to standardize the bandana experience, which is unique to the individual. Right. In doing that. And you want to celebrate that at scale, without sanitizing it. Right. It's like, you know, here's what it is. A worn bandana is a lot different than a new bandana.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Oh, for sure. It's so weird.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: It's not as comfortable.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: So, like, when you go ahead and you start doing cookie cutter, you know, locations like that. And I'm gonna go ahead and call out Dave's Hot Chicken now. Dave's Hot Chicken just opened. Phenomenal. CEO.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: They actually opened tomorrow morning.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, so it's opening in Savannah.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: It's opening in Savannah tomorrow morning. I'll be there for the opening. So.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: So Phillips is a CEO, Right. Awesome. This dude, he had Wetzel's pretzels. So, so, so good. Shout out to him.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: The story behind that place, too, is phenomenal. And Zunzi started off that way. Bandana Burger started off that way. They started off in a parking lot.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Here you go, though. I'm going to call it out. They're going public. Yeah, they're going public. At a million dollar valuation.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: Well, when you got people like Samuel Jackson and Drake and all of these individuals pouring into the pot, it's, it's.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: But what's going to happen now?
[00:12:38] Speaker B: They're already an international.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: What's going to happen when everybody gets their check and they go to the next thing?
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Well, that's something. That's something that's different about what we're doing at Bandana Burger, too, is if you've been with me since the start, you know, it has elevated every step of the way. Better, produce better. I mean, I don't want to sound like Papa John's or anything like that, but. No, it's. It's literally like every step of the way where we've upgraded the packaging, we've upgraded the. The salmon, we've upgraded the shrimp, we've upgraded the crab, we've upgraded the meat, and we still have opportunities to make it that much better. I hate when you go into a place like, I don't know, I don't have that. That same view of what a Big Mac was at one point.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Right. Well, if they ask Kevin. Kevin.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: He invented the Big Mac. When I look at pictures Every time. Yeah. When I look at pictures online of, like, what the Whopper looked like back when.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: So Five Guys actually would never allow photos of pictures. Sorry, Pictures of their burgers. They would never do it. So it's always been wrapped. Talk about Five Guys. Interesting. Okay, take the hat off. When I saw a sign in the window of the Five Guys in downtown that Five Guys is catering. Oh, they're disconnected. They. They sold out on the money.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: Well, when I first started catering, when I first started at Five Guys, When I first started at Five Guys, we weren't even really doing takeout. There was no delivery.
[00:14:03] Speaker A: No. They were so obsessed about it, and now they're doing catering. I'm sorry, but they were lose their mind. We used to talk about it, Kevin and I. Now Kevin and I. Hey, Five Guys. Five Guys. You're off the mark again. Really expensive. Now you have catering.
[00:14:19] Speaker B: You know what I always laugh at? And I think you never said it. I think about this all the time. The first time I ever did the Five Guys University, there was Jerry Morell, and he said, we will never serve milkshakes, ever.
You will never see us serving milkshakes. And I went to Chris and I was like, I think that they're gonna start serving milkshakes.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: And so what's funny about that is here's what we talked about.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: The first, like, six months of them serving milkshakes, they still showed that video to the new employees. So you would learn how to make the milkshakes. And then it would be the founder, and he would be like, we're never serving milkshakes. That's great.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Right? And so let's talk. You know, that is. The restaurant business sucks. They're doing their best they can to do training. It's stale once you do it. It's a little thing that gets missed. Someone sees it. There's a culture that we. We're not. We're not fixing that right away. And now it's sending a mixed message of not alignment on values.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: So folks will come into Bandana Burger and they'll remember me from Five Guys. They'll be like, I know you at Bay Street. I'm like, that was like 12 years ago.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: Experience. They remember you. The energy, Right? And so this is the unique thing that I'm finding in this is we're gonna help you scale. We're gonna help you scale.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And I joke around too, because, like, people will come in and they'll be like, what. What makes you different than, like, all the other burger chains? Like, what makes you different than five guys. And I like to joke around and just be like, we're not five guys. We have five fries. Because we do. We have five different types of french fries.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: I love that you do that. Yeah.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: And. And I. It's. It's just a little bit of a joke, but also just a nod to all the people that they love French fries.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: Well, that's funny of it is they're not fresh cut fries that you serve, right?
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Oh, no. But.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: And so what's good about it is, is the spectrum, because some people don't like. You know, everybody likes french fries, but the ones they like.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: So I was right. I need to touch on this because I think that this is really important and this touches on what we're. What we're doing in the future is we read Danny Myers setting the table.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: Yes, right.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Danny Meyer, amazing restaurateur. He actually went from like, fine dining.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: To opening up your Shake Shack.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: Yeah. And he spent like a million dollars testing Danny.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: Mr. Aman, if you don't know when I saw you speak, I have your signed copy from the five Guys conference.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. But amazing, dude. And he tested out these french fries. He went over, he was like, I'm not gonna serve frozen fries. But then they winded up going to frozen fries anyways. And he touches it, touches on it. And we were talking about the same thing. What we're doing is we went from Bandana Burger, which is crushing it open till 5am tonight. And we're now.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Tonight?
[00:16:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, tonight. We are now doing, like, beds in there. No, no, no. Now we're doing an upscale casual. And people say, well, how did you go from.
A lot of your fast casual restaurants were bred from people that started off in fine dining or started off in more of like an upscale casual. We're doing it the other way around. So it's gaining that trust with the fan, with the guest, and that. That's where the smoothie and salad shop comes into play. I, you know, it blows people's mind all the time. I'll tell them. I've been a vegan actually for like, going on eight years now, right? Yeah, yeah. Going on eight years. I haven't eaten any meat. And people will be like, well, you own a burger shop. And I'm like, well, Biggie doesn't get high on his own supply. Right. That's what he's said.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: So they're like, well, why don't you open up a vegan restaurant? Every vegan restaurant in Savannah has closed even Though they were so phenomenal. Right, right. I think that it's because they, they only really had a lot of vegans going to the restaurant, you know, to get the non vegan to get Chris to come to the restaurant.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: I was vegan for almost a year. You were? As I was learning the market and I realized that vegans don't eat all the fake meat. Meat.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: As I was creating the menu, I was like, I did it on purpose.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: Because they like the vegetables.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: I saw impossible. And, and, and what?
[00:18:08] Speaker B: A lot of them steer clear of that.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: It was impossible. And what's the other one?
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Beyond.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: Beyond. I saw it and I was like.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: And they're great products. Don't get me wrong. They're great.
[00:18:16] Speaker A: They're entry level Meatless Monday guys.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: And I think it's also an entry level. Right.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Like it is. They're Meatless Monday. Let's not eat meat, let's eat chemicals.
[00:18:24] Speaker B: A lot of people. Well, a lot of people will start off on that and then they'll move to. But what I was touching on is we open up Bandana Burger, crush it. We open up a fat. Like a more dining experience with a bar. We gain the trust there. We do the coffee shop. We gain the trust there. Now we do a salad and smoothie shop. And everyone that loves our other brands are gonna come to the salad and smoothie shop. Now they're coming there once a week. Right. They're coming there. They're skipping their meatless Mondays. They may be getting a salad now. They trust it as a whole. They trust the restaurateur feel of. And now they're gonna come to the vegan restaurant that I have planned for 2026. Right. So as you start to grow and you start to do these things, you don't have to, like Chris said, do a cookie cutter. Same thing over and over and over again, which you see a lot of people do. You can go and you can expand and do something different. And Chris did that with Zunzibar. You know, Zunzies and Zunzibar, even though they have this great synergy, they are.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: Two separately different and actually they're getting more different. So we're separating them.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: You know, Zunzies is our South African inspired sandwich wings, know chips award winning. It's evolved. We've narrowed it down. Now it's going to be a 1200 square foot takeout delivery catering model.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: That's what it really should be.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: And it's going to be small. And it's. The experience is execution. Right. So it's like, it's quick, it's accurate. Like, every time I order a takeout, it's wrong. It's like, you know, I don't care about the service from a friendliness. It's takeout, delivery, catering. Nail the execution. It's logistics, business. Make it hot, make it fresh, and do that Atlanta, shout out to them the highest rated restaurant in that whole area. Larry.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Larry. Crushing it.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: And I'm gonna go ahead. Chipotle. Larry, you know, came to Chipotle and you and what we talked about. Well, I'm gonna pivot to this, because we don't have a lot of time, and we'll get you back on to talk about this. The growth that you have. Unbelievable. Completely not surprised with it. Right? You have all of the elements of it. The key is being able to attract more talent and scale the location. We're opening in Jacksonville.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Your relationships are the most important part about this.
People are coming to me, and they're asking me, well, how are you doing what you're. I'm doing it because Romy is amazing in that kitchen. He's the best partner that I could ever ask for. His wife, Tanika, she's the best as well.
Together, they really make this awesome team that they deserve it more than anyone in the city. They really do. They had the most fire takeout and delivery in their truck, and people knew them from that. Now that they're seeing them do this on these nice plates with nice glass, with the flower on the table, and everything is made fresh in house. When Romy comes out of the kitchen, he's proud to wear that chef jacket. You know, people are scared to partner with people. I would never be scared to partner with great people.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: So one of your talents is you are a phenomenal read on people.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: Like, there's a human lie detector. You're really, really good. Your emotional intelligence is off the charts. The hard things that you've had in your life, I think, have led you to have that for sure business. Right? It is the most important thing, and it keeps relating relationship, relationships. It's why you're so good. When I say William is able to walk into a kitchen. Right. And. And go steal people, it's because. Probably because he's talked to them before. Many, many times. He's planted seeds. He's built the relationship of doing it. And then there's the day that he goes, today's the day, right? And that's it. And it's like, hey, I got an opportunity for you. And he works it, and you got to do that, and that's keep on.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: Bringing great people into the fold. My. My brother Matt. Matt, he just moved down from New Hampshire like two weeks ago, and he's already there. He works at the Band Shell. He works at Bandana Burger. He's happy to be there because the people are great. I gotta give a shout out to Michael Yoon, my partner, me, Tanika and Romy's partner. An amazing dude. I. I like to say I honestly think he's one of the best human beings I've ever met. And he does the same thing. He's an amazing read on people. He actually had never worked in a restaurant. Ever. Never worked in a restaurant. We had met each other because a writer for Eater had come into the restaurant to Bandana Burger to do an article on us, and he came to try the food with her. Okay. We hit it off. It was supposed to be 30 minutes. It lasted four hours. We became super close and we said, hey, we're gonna open up a restaurant together. He had done so many things with business. He's the most professional person. He scaled things to an ungodly amount, you know, and he said, said, I'm gonna get into the restaurant. I said, well, you've never done it before. You know that. He came into Bandana Burger and he was there until 5am every night, learning the ins and outs of the business.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: So it's hustle harder. There's these values. Values are critically important and you have to figure out what your values are.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: For your 1x business, Bandana Burger should have similar but different values. Yeah, right. That are there for your. Different concepts. You'll align on it. But there's. That a. There's a, like a soul to it. There's a spirit animal of every restaurant.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's, that's, that's funny because West Broad Bandshell's little tagline is where Seoul meets Seoul because it's a Korean inspired menu.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: Oh, there we go. Yeah. So all of that, I want to pivot. We'll get you back on again. I cannot wait for the new podcast studio because we're going to be doing a podcast every day and being able to celebrate what's happening in amazing businesses.
[00:23:50] Speaker B: Hey, real quick, because I do got to give a shout out. My wife Anita. Okay. I would never be able to do this without her. I used to. I would break down and she was like, you know, so many people believe in you. I believe in you. Why don't you just do this for us? Do this on your own. I would never be able to do it without her.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: Having a wife who believes in you is the most important key.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: And she is. There she is. She's in the trenches with us.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: It's your sex, your belief in yourself because you need that. It's the most important. Your wife, your significant partner. Whatever you're in. Right. It will make or break you. Yeah. And it is the most important thing. I'm blessed to have the exact same thing with Mary Catherine. Right. And you know, it's because this business is hard and so it's just cool to see that because if she said, are you sure? Do you really want to do it now? She believes in me and she's right there.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: She's the best. She's the best grill person.
[00:24:45] Speaker A: You know, you're friction.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: She's the best. She's the best expo. She's the best waitress. But above all, she's the best wife.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: You know, she is. She's wildly consistent in her state.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:54] Speaker A: She is just a cons like I love. She is such a great, like balance to you. So good. I'm going to go ahead and stop there for a second. I know we're coming up. It's 226. Yeah. Very, very good sign there. 26. Love it. I want to go ahead and talk Chipotle.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Every time I talk to you, we're going to Chipotle talk.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: It's going to be burrito talk. Whatever the hell we want to talk about it. Let's walk about it. Yeah.
So. So what do you think about the Chipotle CEO, what he did to Chipotle?
What do you think?
What do you think Chipotle right now?
[00:25:30] Speaker B: I think it happened over time. I don't want to say that he necessarily did it. I think that over time it has kind of come to the point where somebody did it.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: I take ownership. If your brand changed at 100 locations that you're responsible for and you were there for the majority of the time.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Totally. I don't think that he. I don't think that they have enough people that are boots on the ground.
[00:25:55] Speaker A: That care about that are seeing the team.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Because I know that there are people that still work for Chipotle. I have a lot of friends that still work for Chipotle and I know that there are still Chipotle's out there that crush it.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: They do.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: There are ones that still crush it.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: And I'm like, am I back in 2008? Yeah. Am I in a time war?
[00:26:14] Speaker B: Chris will message me from all over the country. And he'll be like, this one sucks, and this one sucks.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: I was at ucf. UCF in Florida, where we're open. A location, most likely. And I went 20 minutes in line through Plateau. It's negative throughput.
[00:26:27] Speaker B: They're allowing more people to enter the space too. There's an amazing burrito shop here in town. Local 1. Hilton Head as well. Java Burrito. Java Burrito crushes it.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Let's get Java Burrito.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Yeah. The founders of Java Burrito. Amazing, amazing people, amazing family. They crush it. And I've talked to so many people. I talked to someone today that told me that they could see their progression go from Chipotle to. To Sir Churros to. And you know what?
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Killer on the GRA Board, the Georgia Restaurant association with. With the founders of Churros. Yeah, great dude. Yeah, great dude.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: But he's got to listen up and. And see that this is what happens, right? You have where your dining room doesn't get touched and you. And these things don't get done.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: It's standard.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: It is a standard.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: So you need the Kevin. Yeah, Kevin is the one. And it's why I don't have a fast.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: You know, the. The one thing me and Kevin hit it on really well is, is it really starts in the bathroom, right?
[00:27:22] Speaker A: Oh, yes.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: If you clean the bathroom and you take a lot of time to make that bathroom perfect, then it really flows into your dimension.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Bathrooms too. We went through it, I know, in the inside of Chipotle. I have two sets of plans at Chipotle, right. I look at it and I go, that's all fine and dandy. But when you go in there, they lost the 13 characteristics. They're like at one. Maybe there's a polygon.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: Hey, you're gonna see it too, because we started it already. We started making all of our burgers into burritos, and it blew up so much that I actually couldn't do. It would ruin the experience that we had already. So my wife and I say all the time, 20, 27, sister location, bandana burrito, where all the burritos are wrapped in bandanas.
I actually opened up Bandana burger in an old burrito shop, which it was a Barbaritos, which I loved Barbaritos. But they had some of the same issues go on. Where they weren't guest weren't fan focused. So.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: Well, I'm, you know, I bring up Chipotle. I want them to turn around. And a part of this is we're going to start talking about what the turnaround looks like at Chipotle in it, because the stock goes up, but service and quality goes down at some point. When does that catch up to it? Yeah.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: How does that make sense?
[00:28:37] Speaker A: And then 1, and then also 2. The same guy that did it there is now in the biggest chain of coffee, I think, in the world, Starbucks. Right. I think they're the biggest in the world. There's probably one in China that. Have you.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: Have you started looking into the. The new CEO of Red Lobster?
[00:28:50] Speaker A: I think I've seen who he is. Yeah.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: He's like the youngest CEO.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I saw that.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: Yeah. If you watch some of his interviews and what he's focused on and how he's getting out there, boots on the ground, I think that that's. That's where it. Because he's giving it back to the guests and the fans and really trying to take that whole kind of thing that's going on with them and make it. Make it elevate.
[00:29:11] Speaker A: Well, you know, change has to happen. 10% of our business is always up for challenge and change. We're never a fully baked product.
[00:29:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: And so on that note, right?
[00:29:22] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:29:22] Speaker A: Baked half. Baked dank sauce. Yeah.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: I'm not gonna.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: There you go. You're not gonna do it. Tongue in there a little bit, buddy. No. Let's get weird.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Every time I see Chris do this, I'm like, oh, my God. You know. You know what? Chris told me one time he would never put sauce on the table because little kids, like.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: I'm just drinking sauce by myself. Go ahead and have a little pretend. Yeah. It's not a sploader. All right, go. The guy who invented the dank sauce is not eating the dank sauce. Go. Go figure. Well, take it home.
So proud of you.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: Rocket ship about to happen.
[00:30:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Appreciate that.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Awesome, man.
