Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, thank you, Tyler Cook. If you don't know, this podcast is produced by Tyler. Tyler, the one and only. He's always cooking. Content creator. Putting out some fire stuff with Riz.
Yeah, yeah.
Yes. You can just walk through and. Yes.
No, Tyler is. Tyler's the man.
Excited to get back with the podcast going. Thanks for the production, my man. Today excited. Episode 24, Getting Closer to the lucky number.
We might just do, like, 26.1, 26.2, and just do all the decimals going. We're actually gonna do that.
That'll be pretty good once we get there, but, yeah, I got Olivia. Lafayette.
Oh, didn't know we had that. There you go.
So. So Olivia is with us. You can kind of give a little bit of a background of that. And then. Hold on. That Chico. Scott, you've seen Chico before on a podcast episode. Not sure which one it is. If you don't remember what it is, it had to be, like, at least, like, probably number four or five. Okay. Yeah. We were pretty thirsty back then. No one wanted to do it. And Chico signed up. It was like, I'll go ahead and do it.
But we go way back to 2018 when we opened. Yes. He was the unofficial official GM of Atlanta, and then he just Houdini'd us one day because the restaurant business sucks. Indeed.
But excited to be here. This is the shit. Yeah. Show. It's where we talk about what we love about the restaurant business, what sucks about the restaurant business, and what needs to change about it. And then I always like to ask the question of how you got into the restaurant business. So we know how you did. Right.
Probably know how I did, and if you watch these. But excited to have you here and talk about your restaurant experience and then the cool things that you're doing with us now of just the evolution of what. What you can do in the restaurant and then how it can really turn into something that you're passionate about.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
I started hosting at. I think I was 15 at that point. 15 or 16. I was able to drive.
So I was hosting at just, like, a local restaurant where I lived. And I think I was the youngest person on the team there was.
But they all loved me. I had a great time. It was a lot of bussing tables and practicing my tray holds, but, you know, not really executing them to the. The best of my abilities.
Yeah. I want to make sure that my voice is loud. Yeah. And then I took a little break when Covid happened, just because, you know, everyone did, I think. Yeah.
Yeah.
And then when I got here, I focus on school for about a year, did some nannying, but I started work at Texas Roadhouse. I want to say I was there for about six to eight months.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: And I was in Savannah.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. I was doing the to go window there. So I wasn't fully serving, but I was, you know, interacting with guests, but also in the kitchen, and that in itself was a whole experience. But then I switched to Zunzies.
I think I've been with you guys about over a year now.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Amazing.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: So. So. And I love it. It's awesome.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Yes. So that's the restaurant experience.
Let's see. That brought you here. Awesome. What. I guess let's talk about loans. It was Texas Roadhouse.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Now, they're a fantastic company.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Like, they've. Their history is really, really good. They've got a great operating partner model, I believe. Is that right?
[00:03:39] Speaker B: Yeah. They have everything just about nailed down to a T. They know how they want things done. And I feel like it's pretty standard amongst every single store that you.
So they had a very strong, like, this is what we do. This is what we stand for. This is how we do it.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: So I feel like they had a very good, strong model. But the roles. Yeah.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: The restaurant industry in Savannah is not for the faint of heart.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: No, it's not.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: Restaurants struggle here a lot. Just be. For whatever reason, it's a tough market for restaurants. I think there's a lot of them, and there's not enough people for them.
There's other people that are necessarily trained as well.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: Yes.
Yeah. There have been people that I've worked with, and I'm like, I don't know how you got here.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Because this is not what you should be doing.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: If they hired you and they hired me.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Yeah, There you go.
No, the restaurant business can be like, if you have a pulse. Right.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: You're there.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that's one of the big realizations that, you know, we've been there before. It's like, it can be bad. In my. In my restaurant career as we developed, you know, there are times where it's like, a pulse is better than no pulse. Yeah, you are.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: You know, you need the body there.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: Because I'm the pole.
I've got to, you know, wear all these hats as a. As a, you know, entrepreneur and business owner, and you're doing it all sometimes. So it's. It's tough.
But, yeah. You know, I think it all comes back to just being a good steward of the People you already have.
Right. And so that's. That's it. And it's such a hard business to make money, and then labor gets crunched and you're dealing with all of that. So I'm happy to hear that. Overall, it was a good experience.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it was great. I mean, I really enjoyed it. It was great for me at least, because I hadn't had a ton of experience in like a.
What do you want to call it, commercial kitchen. Because the place I worked at before was very small. It was a smaller kitchen. So it was nice being able to be in like a regular sized kitchen and being around the hustle and bustle that most restaurants have.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: So. Yeah. And there's hustle and bustle in those big. Those big chain kitchens. Yeah, they're pumping out.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Chaotic. Yeah.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Well, awesome. And so that led you to working with us now. Now over a year, I guess. Let's. Let's just kind of dive into it. So in. In your restaurant experience, what do you say is the thing that just kind of sucks about the restaurant business? That just, you know, it's just kind of in the DNA?
[00:06:07] Speaker B: I honestly. Not just in the restaurant business itself, but how people look at the restaurant business, especially recently.
Tipping culture is really bad. It's a lot of.
Well, you either get, you know, your other customer service people, your service workers that tip great, or you get the people that are like, I'm not here to pay your paycheck. Here's a dollar on a 50 tab.
So it's those tables like that that either make or break your night.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: So that's kind of my biggest thing, at least in the restaurant industry, is.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: The, you know, what we could do is you could do if you don't leave a tip, then we do an automatic tip.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: You know?
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Yeah, true.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: I mean, there's no. There really aren't that many rules in, like, in business.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Everyone's thing is tipping isn't mandatory. It's optional. I tip on service. Okay. Okay. If you have a bad server, don't tip them. Great.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: And I don't like automatic tipping.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: And that's a big thing as we're entering South Florida and Jupiter. Like a lot of restaurants in Miami, it's just 20% tip. It's built into it. You know, we do the shit. Yeah. Promise fee. But that's because you want to guarantee that our team is empowered to. If we ever have an issue that they can refund and gift card text on the 26 Club. We want our fans to know that if they come in a restaurant and it sucks because we have an employee who's having a bad day or just we suck and it's one of the bad days. Serving thousands of people that they can reach out and then we'll take care of it. Right. It's just a little bit insurance for it.
But yeah, the, the tipping culture. I've noticed, my wife and I were talking about it of like we get like amazing landscaper, but like there's like a tip line on our landscaping.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: There's tipping on everything.
[00:07:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Right. And so it's like it just now everything is a tip and then it. I think that's negatively impacting the restaurant business.
Good thing in the big beautiful bill, if it's beautiful to you. I don't know. There was one thing in it. It's big and it's something and I don't even know what's in it. So I'm just. I think the name is hilarious. Yeah. The triple B.
But there's, I think it passed to where there's not. There's no taxes on tips, up to $25,000.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: I did hear about that.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is really huge for the restaurant industry and for our team.
I'm sure HR is working on the details of all of that. There's something like that going on. But here's what I would say with all of that is the restaurant industry is in a constant state of change.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: It makes it really, really difficult if you're just operating a model and thinking that it's gonna work over the next five years. It's like you gotta be willing to change and create a culture of innovation and flexibility that's there. And I'm proud of our team as we're making changes to navigate that. That's why we're changing our menus and branding and doing all these things. It's really forward thinking.
Sorry to hear about the tipping culture and what that is. I know when we look at our tipping reports, it looks like our team is doing pretty well in general from that standpoint, which is good. And I think that. Shit. Yeah. Experience drives that for sure.
Let's see, what do you, you know, what do you like most about the restaurant business?
[00:09:19] Speaker B: I really love the people that I'm surrounded by. I feel like it's a lot of like minded individuals who kind of have the same thought process and we all kind of know how to work as a team, not just, you know, I'm here to make my money, screw everyone else. It's like we all know how to work together. Hey, do you need this? Hey, do you need that? I've had a lot of.
A lot of my co workers, like when we're in a rush and they can usually tell when I'm looking a little flustered, they'll be like, hey, do you need anything? And usually it's like, no, I'm okay. But I appreciate it. So I think we have a very strong team, at least at Zunzies that all really know each other and really understand what each person needs. So I really like that.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Well, very good. Yeah. You know, servant leadership is thrown around a lot, and I think the easiest way is just if you're. It's just helping each other.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Hey, how can I help you? And then as a. As a manager, a leader in the organization, sensory acuity of being able to look and say that person looks like they're a little flustered. Right. Or they're working harder than they should. You know, on a shift, if it's well run, everybody should be working equally as hard or not as hard.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Right. It shouldn't be that. There's like 20% of the people are running around doing everything. That's a mismanaged shift. And there's times where it's like everybody is redlining just because it's that kind of day and you're exceeding the sales. But I think that's. That's good to hear that we've got that going on. You know, you've been there through some transition of management.
How's it going with Brad?
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Oh, I love Brad. Brad and Scott, I think they're both great.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Really great at knowing when we need stuff and, you know, just checking in and making sure that we're, you know, on task for the evening and just have everything set up for success.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Good, good. Yeah, he's. Man, he's done amazing things. You know, I'm so excited to have him down there just for. For him, you know, he's taking the opportunity to take our flagship location to the next level with. With all the upcoming changes we have from menu design and the interior and the lounge seating that we're getting out there. Tiki Torch is coming here soon. Yeah, I like fire.
Yes.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: That'll be good for the bugs.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. And that'll set the vibe for the fall football season coming up. Well, part of the process of you coming to Zoonzibar, you're at SCAD right now and studying social media. Social media. So what does studying social media look like in college?
[00:11:44] Speaker B: So at least at scad we do a little bit of the analytics side, but also the content side as well as marketing.
So we're required to take classes like in graphic design, marketing and advertising business and then as well as social media. So we learn about, you know, obviously what's super big right now is like meta. That's kind of getting behind everything right now. So we've learned about that, but also learning about how to look at analytics and use those to our advantage.
So a little bit of that and then content. What makes good content? What is content? You know, what you should be looking for in content, stuff like that.
And then obviously using like the Photoshop apps so that you're kind of well rounded and versed in kind of a little bit of everything.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Gotcha. What's. So it's your senior year, what are you seeing?
I mean, obviously there's meta up at Tick Tock. Yeah, there's been, there's once again so much change and where the attention is.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: I personally feel like you. It depends on what you're trying to do for yourself on social media. If you want, you know, videos to go viral a lot of the time, I would say Tick Tock, Tick Tock is where you need to be if you want to get a good platform and blow up, that's where you go. But if you want to post more regularly and just kind of have it less seriously, I would say Instagram. Instagram reels.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Yeah. What are you most passionate about?
[00:13:14] Speaker B: Good question.
I enjoy TikTok just because it's a very easy, user friendly platform to use and I feel like the Explore page itself is very wide in its diversity on what it shows you.
I feel like with Instagram reels, it tailors more to what you like, so it's a little bit harder to get stuff out there to wider audiences.
So I just personally like TikTok more. But Instagram is also great.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: I'm excited we're taking strategy with our social media to where we really want the handles to be a reflection of the brand on Instagram.
The Polaroids that we're doing are awesome. I had a meeting yesterday with the founder of a 3,000 unit restaurant chain and was talking about the social media and showed it and he was blown away of what he believes is the future is really, you know, authenticity in this world that everything is fake and you just don't know what it is. I'm just like, you know, it just hit him of like, man, that's a real genuine emotion.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: That's captured. You don't get 10 takes on a Polaroid. It's like everybody, like everybody got their, their smile on and then pairing it up with what's going on. I think that's, you know, that's how we're looking at it. And then TikTok is where I'm really excited about this. Of what we're going to focus on the service industry.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: And really highlight our people and highlight everything we're doing with half offer service industry.
The service industry night. And really just having fun on that because the service industry is the engine of the service industry.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: And so, you know, highlighting them and what was said on our last podcast of just really elevating the service industry and it's not something that it's. Well, and here's what I would say. Don't look down on the service industry because over the next five years due to AI, you might find yourself not being an accountant anymore or a doctor, but you might be in the service industry because the robots are coming.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: And if you don't think so.
Yeah, they are. If you don't think so, ask ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude or whatever. Say, hey, what's going to happen over the next five years? Go ahead and ask it that question.
And it gets weird. Okay. It's like 90 million jobs are supposed to be replaced or displaced over the next five years. You think about what that looks like. And so I'm just so excited to be in this industry because there's so much opportunity. I think it's one of the last movers. I think as people are being removed and displaced, people are going to come to hospitality, I think certainly sports, entertainment, travel. But going out, eating, drinking, just having a good time with people.
I think what we do with the shit. Yeah. Experience and then the Zunzabar brand specifically of just trying to be a place where you can find your umbrella, have a good time. I think as the world changes, it's gonna be more and more sought after to be able to find those little sanctuaries, that authentic interaction, man, it's gonna be. It's gonna be crazy.
Well, so now you've got the social media and so it's an internship right now that you've got and working on the creative side side with Sarah Armstrong, our social media manager.
So I just love that coming from operations because I'm an ops guy at heart. I think I am. Kevin would say I'm probably not. I try to figure out what I am. I'm like, I'm a boy or a man. I hope a man. I hope so there you go. But I'm a man.
Okay. No, it's defending you.
What needs to change about the restaurant business besides me being crazy?
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Good question. She's like, that's about it. I mean, I feel like people's, I guess, expectations maybe of the restaurant industry itself.
I think.
I mean, as a whole, it's not perfect. There's obviously always going to be flaws in it.
But I think people go in to restaurants a lot recently expecting perfection and that everything is tailored to them and, you know, the customer is always right. But I personally don't believe that's true. Yeah, I. I try and be. I try to agree.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: There's crazy people that are not right.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: I try me, everyone halfway. But there's only so many times I can meet you halfway. When you ask me to pick the ice out of your water, like, that's.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Once again, I come back to the experience is we don't want you to have to fight that battle.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: It's like if they're not happy. Right. For sure. Get a manager. But then refund, gift card. They're paying for it. Right. Just get them to where you're not having a deal. It gets so awkward sometimes.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Where it's like. It's like this standoff.
What else?
[00:18:01] Speaker B: I didn't order that. And I'm like, but you did.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: Right. And so do you want to argue with that or do you want, you know, like, it's. That's just the business we're in. I think what it is, too, is it's expensive to go out.
[00:18:15] Speaker B: Yes, it is.
[00:18:16] Speaker A: It's expensive to operate restaurants. Restaurants are. It was that they've been downgraded to like. Like, I don't know, it was like despair or something. It was like a terrible, like. Oh, man. They like the. The level of disrepair, I think, is what it was. It was actually downgraded to like that of an entire industry that is the second largest employer in Georgia. Right. And you go, that's a big deal. Well, it's. If restaurants aren't charging prices right now that it looks expensive when you look at the menu, they're losing money. Yes. There's not like ones that are. That are operating if it's not expensive from a little bit of a sticker shock. Now it's on the business to provide more value than that. To provide a shit. Yeah. Experience to make sure it's perfect when you mess up, fix it, and then go above and beyond.
But that's. I think that's. To me, that's what sucks. Right now is. It is just everything is expensive. Expectations are really high because of it. It's one of the still extremely hard to operate. And you know, I don't know that it's never get back to anything different that I think it's. I think the industry is going in the wrong direction. And that's why I say the restaurant business sucks. We're here to change it. As our vision statement is it takes great people that say, hey, we're not here just to about the restaurant business now we're PG13.
But yes, but you know, it's been a while to go back to PG 13. I know, I know. I was like, oh, that's right. That's it.
Yeah, but you know it. But actually just say, hey, we, we align with you on that and here's how we can, you know, work together to fix it.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: So.
Well, so happy to have you on board with us at that location, taking a passion that you have, obviously that you're in at the amazing Savannah College of Art and Design, learning social media and then putting into use in real life in a fast growing business with Zoom Zoonza bar in the 26 Club.
Well, what's your favorite sauce?
[00:20:22] Speaker B: Probably the drizzle.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: The drizzle. I'm gonna drink that one drizzle for you.
Oh, you already said. I mean a man only does not a shit, so. Oh, no, man, you're the dank dealer that gives me bubble guts.
You're the dank dealer.
All right, well, episode 24.
Episode 24 is. Is mumbo wrap. That's a wrap. Am I actually drinking this? There you go. Little sip of Ruski. I'll take a sip.
There you go. Are we gonna cheers? Yeah, you gotta shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it.
I'll give it a good shake.
Did a couple times. There we go. All right, Cheers. Cheers.
Yeah, you can pretend if you want, but there you go. I thought it.
That's some good dink. There you go.
Thanks for participating in the sauce. Spearmint.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: And thanks for being a part of the team.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for having me.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, see you. I love you.
