Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Right, let's go. Shit yeah.
Episode 23.
Probably. Probably.
Shit yeah.
Excited to be back in our home office for this podcast.
Tyler Cook is the man who makes it all happen and appreciate you putting all the energy into getting it into the office so we can do this more often.
Really excited about the guest we have today for the Shit yeah. Show, we have Tony Lang. So if you don't know, if you haven't seen kind of some updates on the expansion plans that we have, Zunzibar is growing. We have a location in Jupiter, Florida, that is currently under construction, slated to open in the third quarter of this year.
And when you do that, you get to grow your org chart and you get to bring on amazing people.
And like I've said before, one of the best parts of this business is all the different people that you get to engage with.
And so as we enter the Florida market and we have so much of the company's time, energy going into it. It's a really, really important role. And so, Tony Lang.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Shit, yeah.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Shit, yeah, man. So happy to have you here.
You got here on Monday.
And so it's the first week of training.
Did some onboarding. You know, we talk about the restaurant business sucks. Onboarding is one of those things that usually places don't do a good job.
Really happy to have Danelle, who's on our team, who has really improved that part of our business. And so, yeah, really excited to have you here.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Pumped.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: I think you said you had watched a couple of episodes.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: I have. I listened to them.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: On my drive up from Fort Myers.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Nice. Okay. And you didn't know that you were going to be on the podcast on your first day?
[00:01:55] Speaker B: I didn't think day three, I'd be on the podcast.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: Yeah. So, you know, a big part of that is podcasts have a lot of people that are on there, but they're not usually, you know, especially in the restaurant business, they aren't interviewing the most important people to the business. And for us, the Shit yeah. Promise has six stakeholders.
Your team is number one, then your fan, your franchisees, your fans, your community partners, your vendors, investors. And so it's been really fun being able to talk to our best people and new people that we get, get on board and celebrate them and give them the opportunity to share their story. So I think that's really what life is about, is we all have a story. It's being written as we go, and you have a story that got you here. And now there's some new chapters that are coming up. Absolutely. So, Tony Lang. Let's see.
I always like to start with, how do you get into the restaurant business? That's one of the best questions.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Unlike you, I didn't choose this path. It was thrown on me.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: No. My dad worked in restaurants growing up. He was a night manager at a sandwich shop that scaled to about 50 locations in Pittsburgh called Permani's.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: And then see him when he was working 11pm to 7am to go down and visit him at midnight. At 2 years old, you want to hang out with him, you get to stand on a bar stool and flip some cheesesteaks.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: I don't think there's labor laws back then. I'm not sure, but. No, it was fun.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: No, no. Labor laws were quite different. I've talked to people that have been in the business for a long time, and they were in there in a family business doing dishes or, you know, if they just were needed to make some extra money and there was a local owner, they, you know, would give them that opportunity. It's one of those cool things about this business, and I think it creates that bug a lot of times.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: Does.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: And now, growing up, my whole life, I wanted to be in the restaurants. I liked the cooking aspect. I liked everything about it.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Got it.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: So I begged and begged to get. Let me work there. And it was. You have to wait till you're 16.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: So did he tell you, like, hey, stay away from it? Or was he, you know, what kind of the feedback?
[00:03:41] Speaker B: Not as much as he should have, I think. No, no, no, he loved it. Like I said, he did the graveyard chip for years and then daytime, so it was a little different. But, yeah, okay. He loved the business. And like I said in high school, college, you can't beat that money.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: It's just nothing else is paying you at 16 to 18 years old what you can make in a restaurant.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: And so I think that can become a trap for a lot of people. And I say you get lost in the sauce in this business is where you get, you know, it's kind of like the golden handcuffs, where you're like, well, why would I go to college or maybe do something else when I can make this kind of money doing this? And I enjoy it.
And I think it's also part of. Sometimes restaurant business is looked down upon. It's like, hey, why are you going? The restaurant business, that's one of the things we want to bring light to. And I really believe if you haven't asked Chatgpt, what the next five years, year by year is going to look like with AI and robots and then even get crazier and say go year by year over the next 10 years.
The world is rapidly changing and I believe I've been invited to participate in a board for the college that I went to at the University of Florida. They have a new tourism, hospitality and events school. And I was talking to the head of that and she's written a couple books on AI and they're putting a lot of energy into it as what I believe and why a lot of billionaires and very rich people are investing in really experiential based businesses, sports teams. You're seeing people, you know, you see pop stroke, topgolf. People want experiences nowadays. And so the restaurant industry is certainly one of those places where people are really addicted to going out and having great experiences. And so there's so much, I believe opportunity as white collar jobs talking to somebody who they just lost. They just graduated from a great college with a finance degree.
They can't get a job in finance. It's like a hiring freeze from those big companies because they know AI is going to be able to do more than the rate that's needed to hire people.
Where does that person go? There's opportunity in the restaurant industry, but what it is is you have to look at it through a different lens. You really have to be a pro, one of our values and see the upper mobility and then really focus on personal and professional development. Very little of what I learned in finance school and entrepreneurship do I really use on a daily basis. Right. A lot of it's just self taught through mentors that I've had as well. So with that 16 years old, that's when he first like legally got in there and got a paycheck.
Got it. Okay, so you're kind of breaking the rules for a little while.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: A little bit.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: Yeah. That's okay.
I believe in operating in the gray a little bit. I think if it's very black and white, you know that gray, there's areas that aren't undefined. Those are the unchartered waters. I believe that's where you can win and that's why we do a lot of things different.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: So yeah, one of the things that does suck is you said it is kind of looked down upon. There's so many opportunities in this business to grow and do so many different things. Oh yeah. New site locations, menu design. I mean there's so many different paths in this business but it does stuff that it's kind of looked down upon. And the old school mentality wasn't to grow and move your team up. There was. There was the office, the back house, and then there was the almost expendable servers.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Expendable bartenders. Yeah.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: Well, it's just everybody's a number, and it's like, if you don't like it here, then we're gonna find another server or do that. And it's very hard to grow your business with that attitude.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: And I think it's changing now because the culture after Covid, it was so hard to staff. I think you got people back into nurturing and just. The business has changed back to more of a prestigious right. Kitchens are going back to scratch food bars, going back to craft cocktails. It's just. It's changing the perception of the microwave, fast food. You're heating something up and bringing it out to me, and I'm paying you for it.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: After Covid, the money got tightened. It changed the industry a lot, certainly.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: And people are very mindful of where they spend money. They care about, why the company exists, you know, what are they doing with their profits, if there are any in this business, you know, with that. So that was 16. Till when do you work there?
[00:07:47] Speaker B: I worked there all through college.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: I went to school for finance.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Okay. So we've got that in common there, which is good.
It's a numbers business. You have to know your numbers to be able to perform.
So really excited that you bring that skill set to the company. Give me a quick resume kind of what you've done.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: After college, I moved to Florida for a little bit. I lived in Vero Beach. I got the taste of Florida.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Great spot there.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Yeah. I had an opportunity when I was 14. I worked at a produce store in the strip district in Pittsburgh. Strip district's super cool. It has a bunch of different shops, Italian restaurants, everything. And so I worked there at the produce store that was legal just on Saturdays. But the owner, he wanted to get into the restaurant there business. He had a failed attempt. And then he called me when I was in Florida at school. He educated, you know, the restaurant business. I'm looking to do this again. We give it a shot. So I left Florida. I went back up to Pennsylvania.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: All right.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: And then we scaled a company, and we started the sandwich shop in 2008.
We opened a college sports bar next to it in 2012. And we opened a higher end.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: Elevated concept in 2015. Had 66 beers on draft and craft cocktails and a scratch kitchen. And then we did some consulting on A couple things after that got beat up pretty bad during COVID Yeah, there was a few things that happened in the company, so ended up dissolving.
So I had some free time for the first time in 15 years.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: All right.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: And I went back to Florida.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: Got it.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: So we'll find something there.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: And so basically you came on and then you were spearheading the majority of that.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. At the beginning, I was small. It was 800 square foot little sandwich shop.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So a very entrepreneurial experience.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is. I've worn all of the hats and to wear all the hats and do it very well, it is a lot of work. You gotta be extremely resourceful and really be able to pull out and see things in people that maybe other people can't see. Right. It's like, you know, most corporate companies would say, well, you can't do the job, but you can't afford to just hire all racehorses. When you're a startup, you have to be able to extract and see things in people that maybe someone else hasn't seen and then be able to build them up and be able to grow from there to then at some point you can then bring in the pros like we've done. And really every department, you being here to where you can bring in with the growth, people that are really excited about what's going on, but then also have those skill sets to be able to execute at the level we're talking about.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: So I love the entrepreneurial background because that's really in our DNA that's there. So we'll have a lot more conversations about that.
So in Florida, you came back.
What was that kind of your next step of your resume there?
[00:10:25] Speaker B: It was kind of a step down. I went to Twin Peaks. There's something working for someone. Haven't done that.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Not step down to Twin Peaks. Yeah, the Peaks of that.
Yeah.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: But yeah, so. And it was a great learning experience. Had some good mentors there. Then I got the opportunity to move to Fort Myers, work in Margaritaville.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Another great experience. And it is very in line with this company, the vibes, the experiences. So that's why when I saw this, I wanted to jump at the opportunity because this, this is exciting.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And you know, we're, as we venture into franchising and we've got, you know, a franchise location opening. The Villages, we have Jupiter opening up.
We're gonna have our Jacksonville location. So some really exciting updates there that we'll be able to talk about and maybe we'll do A. A live one from one of the locations that we have. We've got our team down in Jupiter right now checking out the construction, which is. Which is great. But that, you know, you took the entrepreneurial background, which a lot of people don't ever venture into, that got into it. But then you're able to get to a certain point through growing and being successful to then be able to get, you know, enough of a resume to where then you're able to get into a corporate system. And I think, you know. So how long were you at Twin Peaks?
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Little over a year.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: Okay, so you'll see some of that. And then Margaritaville. Hello.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: A little over a year.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Okay, so now you're getting a taste of the corporate culture.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: And so now we get to go into my three favorite questions. What sucks about the restaurant business?
[00:11:51] Speaker B: I mean, we touched on some of it already. One, my first thing would be the perception. It is. Was the perception. It was almost below blue collar. You're just kind of here. You're here to serve us. And that doesn't make anybody feel good.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: And I mean, you know, your teams, people go in every day. They want to give their best. They want to be top of the industry. Everybody comes to work with them. Great mindset. Yeah.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: You know, Kevin always says, no one comes here to do a bad job.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Exactly right.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: And I believe everybody is trying to become the best version of themselves. I think everybody is trying to live whatever dream they have and pursue that. Life is very hard.
Right. And especially if you're in the restaurant business, it's. I think it's what. It's definitely one of the hardest businesses.
So you're in that, and then you've got. There's so much money to be made in it.
And so you've got this whole dynamic of it's terribly hard.
It's really a monster.
And so let's kind of maybe talk about. Let's just one thing that sucks about it, and then I'm gonna talk about your entrepreneurship versus corporate experience.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: I would say the biggest thing is the stress in this industry. It can wear anybody down. I've seen people that have the best resume, all the talent in the world. If the stores aren't set up correctly and the management's not correct, it's going to burn everybody out. I mean, it's small things, writing good schedules, just having the proper people. But a lot of that's out of your control. I mean, we saw this after Covid. Staffing was hard. People are afraid to get sick. They're afraid to come back to work. So what do you do once those floodgates open? People have been cooped up. They all expect that service they used to get, and it's not there anymore. So that becomes stressful for the whole team because you just don't have the pieces to the puzzle. And that's probably the hardest part of this business to me.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: And so I think that's why I'm so big on the shit. Yeah. Experience. The shit. Yeah. Promise. Fee. The 2.6% that we charge is because it's focused on the experience, right?
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: And I believe, you know, the majority of our customers have, you know, two eyes, two ears. They see what's going on.
And if you can just communicate. Right. You may have been having a terrible day, but that little extra, if you're a server or a manager, you just go, hey, we're getting killed today. Right.
So, so sorry. Right.
And you just kind of concede that because they see what's going on. They see you hustling hard. Right. Hey, you know, are you worried about being in and out quick, or are you here to just chill? Right. Then I can focus on the expediency of that one guest and what their needs are, but I think it's just people talking to people doing that. And then you have the shit. Yeah. Promise fee to where when those perfect storms happen, where it can be a shit show at any time. In the restaurant business, you have that insurance as the manager or the server. Hey, I'm so sorry I had that experience. Please text us via the 26 Club. And then you've got people in our office and in operations that are there responding. Right. And then we execute the shit. Yeah. Promise. And we're excited about it because now it's all working to where we know we're gonna mess up. Serving thousands and thousands of people, multiple locations, we're going to mess up. Right. And when you mess up now, all of a sudden they're like, I don't want to go back. Right. They don't expect to talk to a real person, especially in the AI world. So really, it's to empower everybody at the store level to just say, hey, when we have a bad day, just push them to there. And then we have a team in place to fix those problems.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, economically, too. Now, times are tough. Everybody's pension dollars. So when people are choosing to spend money with you at your locations, they do deserve that experience, and they should.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Get it every time, and that's it. And they don't really care that you're having problems in your own business. They're like, we showed up today and wanted to get the experience of what it is, and that's why we're so big on the experience is for some people, you know, a ticket time is fine. If it's 20 minutes further, it's five. The management, the team, the servers, everybody has the bartenders. They gotta have the sensory acuity to do that. And I think that's where it goes into running a great business. The disciplines of the business, having those fundamentals, the foundation that's there that we've been so big on and why we've really grown slow over the past 10 years. Our 20th anniversary, that's why we've grown, to build a foundation to where we can really just be a rocket ship and take off and know who we are, know why we're in business, who we serve here to serve, our team in the service industry, number one. And then what are our values? Right. The disciplines are what keep us together. And that's why Kevin's so big in this piece of it, because we're in the bar business. I'm sure you have stories of the bar business.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: There's plenty.
[00:16:20] Speaker A: And, you know, discipline is what keeps it on track. I think that's where our goal is, to redefine what a bar franchise is. Right. And I believe the magic in that is the service industry. You're gonna see some amazing things we're about to do for the service industry outside of our 50% off, we do for all service industries. Seven days a week, a service industry night. More engagement on that contest.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: For.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: For bartenders, some really cool stuff coming down the pipeline. Just to really engage is the goal.
Let's see, what do you love about it? Because you're in it. It was a little bit of. It's all you did.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
I mean, we can expand. What? You said the service industry. The service industry is a fraternity. It's one of the biggest families on the planet.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: If you're a service industry vet or even new to it, you go to any bar in your restaurant, you speak their language, they speak your language. And it just makes. It's a community. And I mean, any new city I travel to, my advice comes from bartenders. That's who I go there.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: You go.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Where do you go on your days off? What's the area like? And they're more than willing to engage with you just because it's the mindset. We go through the same thing day in, day out. I Know your struggle. You know my struggle. So it's a community and I love that part of the business.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: And that's really it. You know, I do not like spending money on marketing. I don't like doing it. I want to lead with our product and I also want to lead with our people. And I believe by us focused on engaging the service industry in the way that we're about to and really focus on serving them.
I believe that if we have a phenomenal happy hour, it's a place that they enjoy going, having a good time, they're being treated. We're raising the bar to where they're like VIPs that are in the industry.
And then when we're opening in tourist destinations just because naturally we've got beach bars. And I wanted to open a concept that was fun to visit.
It's a place where they can go right, and then not have to pay the tourist prices as service industry. But if they also love it, it's always the question that you're asked and if you' bartender or servant, hey, where's the great happy hour? Where's live music? You're on a trip, you just want to go to one of those places. That's why it's built in our DNA of right now. You know, seven days a week, live music, all locations really, really good happy hour. We just want to be known for those things. And then have all the service industry ideally sending people to us. Hey, of course, come to my restaurant that I'm bartending at and come back again. But here's another place that I like. Yeah.
And so that's the goal of that.
Let's see, what do you think is probably one of the hardest things about the restaurant business? What's something that you think really needs to change overall as an industry?
[00:18:53] Speaker B: The pace could probably in a lot of areas could be pushed higher for a lot of the staff members.
I mean, Florida, it's different. Our minimum wage for services is $10.98.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Now.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: It's gonna go up again. It goes up every year in September. So a lot of that old stuff stuck in it now.
Free market capitalism, you let it happen. How it works, one employer's paying more, they'll probably get the better staff. So I think that's just what it is. It was just for so long that it was just almost overlooked. So I think that honestly needs to change a lot because it's management, entry level manager. A lot of them make 50,000 and they're working 60 hours a week and no overtime. I mean, it really gets them.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Yeah. I always say you cannot pay someone enough to stay in the restaurant business.
There's some brands out there that are wildly successful. One is Waffle House to where, you know, their GMs make six figures. A waffle House, that's crazy. Yeah. But they're responsible for a 24, 7 operation that there's even a Waffle House index to where if Waffle House closes, you want to get out of dodge. There's some bad stuff happening, right? So that comes with that. That's those golden handcuffs. It's like, so they're tied to the business because of money and also the pain associated with it. It's like, hey, if that's what you're doing right, then it comes with that. And so it's almost like there's a built in hazard pay built into the business that a lot of companies figure out that they do that. But I think it's a lot more than that. I think work life balance too. Work life balance. Kevin. Kevin talks about, you know, there's four reasons people work for a business. You know, for, you know, in the restaurant business, it's, you know, there's the financial, right. There's personal growth, there's quality of life, and there's professional growth. And people at different stages of their life are looking for different things.
[00:20:33] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: When I was 21, opening my first restaurant and doing that, I didn't care about quality of life. I was all in. Right. Didn't really care about the money because it was like, that'll come later. I don't have a lot of responsibilities now. Married, kids, growing company. I can't work the 80, 90, 100 hour weeks that I did before because I have other responsibilities. And I think that's one of the, you know, I'm obsessed about solving the problems of the restaurant business, really because it solves the problems for our frontline people to where it's a better experience for them. And then if we can create a better quality of life inside the four walls of their business and they're happy, I believe the financials will come. And then in order for them to grow in this business, I said it earlier, they have to be committed to personal, professional growth. It's not just about, you know, I have a college degree.
It's a culture of constant and never ending improvement and learning and being, you know, just constantly wanting to be able to improve yourself to meet the demands of what the business is shifting. And, you know, you said something about the minimum wage. I'm all for all that stuff, right? Danny Meyer, one of the best restaurateurs in the world, the founder of Shake Shack, Union Square Hospitality.
Amazing. The book, setting the table.
I was watching CNBC during COVID and he said, it really doesn't matter. He said, this problem is happening to everybody. And if you look at it like the wine business and you go, there's changing weather all the time. There's droughts, there's rainy seasons. But in the end, the best winemakers will always make the best wine. And so when you're in a season of change and now AI is going to disrupt everybody's career, Everybody's going to be disrupted by this. I see this as the biggest opportunity for us to really expand, right. To just explode our business, because we're going to embrace that, but then be focused on the people side of the business in that and leverage it to where it's better for our people. And then we can really just hopefully, like, like you said, be the best winemaker, right. At all times, no matter what happens in this changing world. Yeah, yeah.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: There's six people in the community. I mean, the stakeholders. That's where it's at.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: That's it.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: If you're taking care of those people, they're going to take care of you.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: That's it. And the more engaged they are in your business, right. I believe the better business you have. And so that's why we have the text club. That's why we have that for our team and our fans.
That's why we do some other things with that. So, man, I always say, as the company grows, we're only as good as the people and how they're growing. And for us to have you on board to be training right now for this Jupiter that's happening in probably. Well, Kevin knows exactly the day that he's targeting and he has a countdown. He always says we're not on the eight year plan, but when that does open, after two and a half years of development, of trying to get it, I have complete confidence that you're a guy to be able to do it. And excited to be able to work with you, man.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Very excited.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
All right, thank you. Tony Lang chit chat. All right, now we've got to take a soyuka sauce, so you can pick. One of my favorite things is, you know, which sauce you would like for breakfast and do that. Looks like someone may have got a little into that one already.
You know, I like the dank.
I think I'm gonna test the dressing with that one.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Drizzle dressing.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Little drizzle. I think I might do the dank.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
I'll go with the shit.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: Yeah, that's off brand. All right.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: He doesn't open with his.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: This one has the drizzle pour. It's different. It has a little. So you can drizzle.
So you can drizzle it. So. And I can do some drops.
Get weird with it.
There you go. All right. Gotta pop the top.
Yeah, Right.
I think you have experience with exploding sauce bottles. Yeah, a little bit. That was a good season of our sauce experience.
All right.
All right.
There you go. You love it. Yeah, you love it.
How was it? Fantastic. Yeah. All right.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: Appreciate you.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Let's go.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:24:48] Speaker A: Very good. Awesome job. Yeah, fantastic.
Really good.
