Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping It Up. I'm your host, Mike Hallon,
Speaker 1: the senior Restaurant and Food Service Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Speaker 1: Our research and that a bi's five hundred analysts around
Speaker 1: the globe can be found exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal. Today,
Speaker 1: we're joined by Andy Rebin, chief Experience Officer at Cava.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me, Andy.
Speaker 2: Hey, Mike, great to see you again.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Man, it's been over a year and a half.
Speaker 1: We're long overdue for this episode. Man, it's great to
Speaker 1: finally catch up with you. Thank you again for having me.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: For sure. Man, So when we met, you were the
Speaker 1: CMO at l Poyolco. Now you've been at Kava for
Speaker 1: almost a year and a half. Man, time flies. Can
Speaker 1: you talk about the culture that Brett and the team
Speaker 1: have built there.
Speaker 2: For sure, Kava's culture is really aligned with our mission
Speaker 2: of bringing heart, health and humanity to food. It really
Speaker 2: drives everything we do. Everything we do is grounded in
Speaker 2: the Mediterranean Way, where food is at the center of connection.
Speaker 2: We implore a spirit of generosity to our guests, team members,
Speaker 2: in community. It's really ingrained in the culture. We have
Speaker 2: a special feature called the Love button, which I know
Speaker 2: has gained some traction in social media. But if someone's
Speaker 2: having a bad day, we want to treat a regular
Speaker 2: and say thanks for coming in. And also some of
Speaker 2: our newer guests have the opportunity to experience that. We
Speaker 2: really create engaging experience through delicious, innovative and naturally good
Speaker 2: for you food. It helps people eat well and live
Speaker 2: well and it's really food without compromise. And our company
Speaker 2: culture is aligned with the heritage and values of our founders.
Speaker 2: I know you mentioned Brett and Ted, Iike and Dimitri.
Speaker 2: They really focus on that generosity, warmth and welcoming everyone
Speaker 2: to our table. So it's a really beautiful culture and
Speaker 2: it was a huge reason why I joined the.
Speaker 1: Organ So what's different about the new Project Soul store design.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's incredible. It really reflects elements of our heritage
Speaker 2: and culture. It makes our physical channel even more experiential
Speaker 2: and welcoming. Consumers still want to dine out, and Project
Speaker 2: Soul really allows us to re emphasize what it means
Speaker 2: to have Mediterranean hospitality. We reflected this in our new
Speaker 2: Wicker Park location, which features some of these elements, and
Speaker 2: we continue to refine the model we've rolled out a
Speaker 2: few so far in twenty twenty four. You can actually
Speaker 2: check out our newest freestanding Project Soul location on McPherson
Speaker 2: Boulevard in Fort Worth, Texas, and you'll notice there's softer seating,
Speaker 2: increased greenery, and really a warmer brand palette to create
Speaker 2: a comfortable, welcoming environment and really better express our concept essence.
Speaker 2: So I'm really excited for you to check that one out, Mike.
Speaker 1: Very cool. I'm looking to go plant shopping this weekend. Man,
Speaker 1: I need more greenery in my apartment.
Speaker 2: I love it all right.
Speaker 1: So you were CMO at Lpoil Loco. So how does
Speaker 1: your current role differ from your last one?
Speaker 2: So current role is Chief Experience Officer. I lead the marketing,
Speaker 2: digital and catering teams and really focus on that end
Speaker 2: to end user journey from everything that the customer does
Speaker 2: before they get into our restaurant. So all of our advertising,
Speaker 2: everything that would motivate a consumer to choose us, whether
Speaker 2: it be helping inform the menu strategy, really building the
Speaker 2: life cycle marketing capability through our loyalty program, and then
Speaker 2: building the off premise in group occation through catering and
Speaker 2: It's really a cool opportunity at Kava because it really
Speaker 2: focuses on all elements of what that experience means. We're
Speaker 2: rapidly growing across the United States and really trying to
Speaker 2: build that experience from day one and even before consumers
Speaker 2: find out about the brand. It's a really great opportunity
Speaker 2: for us to build that journey and think about how
Speaker 2: all our different touch points are going to help inform
Speaker 2: the vision of cop for the future.
Speaker 1: Awesome man. Yeah, and you see a lot about how
Speaker 1: it's bringing Mediterranean cuisine, so I guess to a lot
Speaker 1: of parts of the country that didn't have it prior.
Speaker 1: Do you have any data on how fast Mediterranean's growing
Speaker 1: in the US?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, we believe Mediterranean is obviously the next major
Speaker 2: cultural cuisine category. It's ranked number one diet eight years running.
Speaker 2: As our nation has become more diverse, consumers are craving
Speaker 2: more bold, interesting flavors, and consumers are also increasingly focused
Speaker 2: on wellness but really unwilling to trade taste for health,
Speaker 2: and Mediterranean definitely checks a lot of those boxes. We
Speaker 2: have over seventeen billion combinations at Kava, so it's one
Speaker 2: of those cuisine categories that you can dip your toe
Speaker 2: into lamb or Harisa chicken, or hummus or tasiki. It's fun.
Speaker 2: I love love the food. I can get something unique
Speaker 2: every single day. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: No, it's cool, man. I'm a huge fan of Mediterranean
Speaker 1: food and cobs great. So, yeah, you don't have to
Speaker 1: sell me. Talk to me about the importance of value
Speaker 1: in this economy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, value is very important. I think you've seen as
Speaker 2: fast food restaurant chains have become a little bit more expensive,
Speaker 2: the value equation of kava is becoming more reasonable for
Speaker 2: consumers to trade up. You know, many times you find
Speaker 2: two or three dollars difference between the menu prices, and
Speaker 2: when you think about kava. Our food is delicious. You
Speaker 2: bring in that Horisa chicken, you bring in hummus, rice,
Speaker 2: super greens. It's really a full, complete meal. And many
Speaker 2: consumers can have one or two meals out of our
Speaker 2: food because our portions are very generous. And so you know,
Speaker 2: you think about what value means. It's really about consumer experience.
Speaker 2: It's about the food and really welcoming environment. And we
Speaker 2: do that at our restaurants and through our digital channels.
Speaker 1: Awesome. Yeah, and I noticed no price hikes in California, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, We've we've maintained a very good price value experience
Speaker 2: equation in our California market for sure.
Speaker 1: And that's good man. I mean, I've seen outperformance in
Speaker 1: the companies I cover. Unfortunately I don't cover Cave yet.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping soon. But you know, for Winkstop and Texas
Speaker 1: Roadhouse are two names that really come to mind that
Speaker 1: underpriced competitors, and it's really helped their traffic. Can you
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about how the IPO has impacted sales?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's difficult to tease out one thing as you
Speaker 2: look at our revenue growth, but the IPO clearly increased
Speaker 2: brand awareness and the interest which helps drive some of
Speaker 2: the sales on the near and long term. But you know,
Speaker 2: we've really focused on building what it means to be
Speaker 2: a category defining Mediterranean brand, and you know, the IPO
Speaker 2: was one of several different levers that I think we've
Speaker 2: pulled to really increased brand awareness across the United States.
Speaker 2: We really have leaned into our social media. It's been
Speaker 2: a huge part of our growth strategy and it's been
Speaker 2: effective from a cost perspective as well as just making
Speaker 2: sure that people feel that accessibility and that personality, and
Speaker 2: so it's definitely been a combination of factors that has
Speaker 2: helped really increase that brand awareness.
Speaker 1: I think I saw that customer awareness is about forty percent.
Speaker 1: How much has it have grown over the last few years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, awareness is growing as we've expanded our presence across
Speaker 2: the country. We have more than three hundred and forty
Speaker 2: restaurants now in twenty five states in the District of Columbia,
Speaker 2: and like I stated earlier, we have an extremely passionate
Speaker 2: fan base on social media who have followed us and
Speaker 2: have reposted a lot of earned media has helped support
Speaker 2: that brand awareness as well as our CpG business has grown,
Speaker 2: so people are making the connection between the restaurant and
Speaker 2: what we sell in CpG. So brand awareness has grown.
Speaker 2: It's been really exciting to see as we've opened up
Speaker 2: more locations and had a more well rounded media strategy.
Speaker 1: Yeah awesome, I'm the Red Pepper Hummus for years.
Speaker 2: Local that's awesome. So here, so yeah, thank you?
Speaker 1: Yeah so yeah, yeah. Man, I'm customer. I've been a
Speaker 1: longtime customer, both in and outside the restaurant, dude, and
Speaker 1: this is just you know, This is a small sample size,
Speaker 1: this is my local kava, but it sure seems like
Speaker 1: the customers are getting younger.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, we have a broad appeal across
Speaker 2: ages and genders, geographies and market types. It's really one
Speaker 2: of the things that's made the company successful. We don't
Speaker 2: talk about the specific demographics, but we do do well
Speaker 2: among some of our younger consumers, and like I stated earlier,
Speaker 2: lots of diversity. From a background perspective, they really create
Speaker 2: bold and interesting flavors over the more standard cuisine. Eating
Speaker 2: is a form of self expression, and so with our
Speaker 2: Mediterranean way hospitality, delicious and differentiated food, it clearly resonates
Speaker 2: with this cohort.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's definitely been They've definitely taken over my local
Speaker 1: kava for sure. Man grilled steak that was has been
Speaker 1: highly successful for you. I think even on the call,
Speaker 1: Brett said it was even more successful than you had expected.
Speaker 1: You know, is there anything interesting about who's ordering that
Speaker 1: the demographics of the customers that are ordering that order.
Speaker 2: We don't really talk about the demographic deal, you know,
Speaker 2: detail for competitive reasons, but our menu with steak and
Speaker 2: it really has broad appeal. You know, we've seen it
Speaker 2: ordered at lunch, at dinner. It's light, it feels really good,
Speaker 2: especially when you pair it with our super greens. It's
Speaker 2: a really delicious entree to have throughout the day, and
Speaker 2: so we've seen customers order it at all day parts
Speaker 2: in all types of customer bases.
Speaker 1: So I'm usually a Lamb meatball guy, So i haven't
Speaker 1: had the steak. Yeah, I'm going to have to try it.
Speaker 2: Sounds like that might be dinner tonight in the Haleen household.
Speaker 1: Dude, it might be. I you know, I'm we eat
Speaker 1: a lot of steak and ground beef here, so you know,
Speaker 1: when I go out, I try not to eat it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I know what's going to happen. I'm going
Speaker 1: to get the grilled steak and it's can be awesome,
Speaker 1: But then I'm also going to be like I need now,
Speaker 1: i need Lamb meet Ball. So I think you might
Speaker 1: get an incremental visit from me this month.
Speaker 2: Amazing, thank you.
Speaker 1: So on the last Ernie's called, Brett mentioned there were
Speaker 1: some gaps in the menu that you're going to try
Speaker 1: to attempt to fill through innovation. Is there anything you
Speaker 1: could share about those gaps?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think to offer just a little clarity there.
Speaker 2: Guests have been asking for a beef option, so we
Speaker 2: saw a perceived gap and we felt we could fill
Speaker 2: it with steak. It's already something for there's really already
Speaker 2: something for everyone at Kava, and we really felt like
Speaker 2: steak was another opportunity to add to that. Everyday Craving
Speaker 2: shared this earlier, but seventeen billion possible combinations, and we
Speaker 2: really try to use our culinary authority and strength and
Speaker 2: innovation to provide that newness for the guests. We really
Speaker 2: try to offer items that aren't available elsewhere and then
Speaker 2: put our spin on it. Grilled steak is obviously seasoned
Speaker 2: with our bold Mediterranean spices, sun dried tomatoes, smoky a
Speaker 2: lepo pepper, It's fired on our grill. You really can't
Speaker 2: find anything else like it, So I'm excited that you're
Speaker 2: gonna have it for dinner tonight. And then we recently
Speaker 2: came out with garlic ranch peda chips. It's our first
Speaker 2: ever new peda chip flavor. Peda chips have been a
Speaker 2: cult favorite both in the restaurants and on social media,
Speaker 2: and we really felt like there was an opportunity to
Speaker 2: lean into it.
Speaker 1: My son, he'll like to hear that he likes to
Speaker 1: peda chips. I'm going to give you one of my
Speaker 1: cooking secrets.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: I use Aleppo on my steaks too, so it sounds
Speaker 1: like it's right up my alley. And you mentioned social
Speaker 1: media advertising is doing well for you. I guess where
Speaker 1: do you do? You know where have you been most
Speaker 1: successful on social media? And do you have any plans?
Speaker 1: Are there anything big coming up either this year and next?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So social media continues to be a strong in
Speaker 2: cost effective marketing strategy for us, particularly with people in
Speaker 2: driving consideration. Our campaigns have been affected because they've been organic, authentic,
Speaker 2: and really expressed that genuine love guests have for Kava.
Speaker 2: What I really like about it too is as we've
Speaker 2: opened up in new markets like Chicago, there was a
Speaker 2: really growing speculation about when we were getting ready to open,
Speaker 2: and once we opened, we had incredible amount of receptivity
Speaker 2: for that Wicker Park location. We had a organic video
Speaker 2: post by a guy by the name of Cody Premer
Speaker 2: who did something called make me your Favorite. It has
Speaker 2: over forty million views now and many of our brand
Speaker 2: fans were passionate before they work with us. So a
Speaker 2: great example would be Lindsay Horan. She's captain of the
Speaker 2: US women's soccer team. Her and her team reached out
Speaker 2: to us heading into the Olympics, and she loves our
Speaker 2: food and incorporates it into her training regimen. And she
Speaker 2: has an extensive and growing following.
Speaker 1: And I saw your testing some ads on connected TV.
Speaker 1: So what kind of av bump do you think you
Speaker 1: can get from National Advertising?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we ran a very small test several months ago.
Speaker 2: It performed well, and we continue to learn and we
Speaker 2: continue to be focused on digital, social and earned media.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's something I'm going to be watching, you know,
Speaker 1: because you know, obviously it's more online and connected media now,
Speaker 1: but you know, TV ads still have an ROI and
Speaker 1: you know there's some examples of some chains. I once
Speaker 1: say when National man, they kind of blew up Sonic
Speaker 1: pop Eyes. You know, from what I know of Kava,
Speaker 1: it's always been a leader in terms of, you know,
Speaker 1: in restaurant technology, right and so I know that you
Speaker 1: have your fingers in a lot of different technologies right now.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about the Connected Kitchen initiative?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're really in the second wave of our digital
Speaker 2: transformation at Kava and the Connected Kitchen initiative is just
Speaker 2: another example of our attempt to continue to lean into it.
Speaker 2: And so we're using data driven and gen AI tech
Speaker 2: to drive quality and consistency, increase order accuracy, and boost
Speaker 2: our speed of service. So we're running a small pilot
Speaker 2: of AI video tech that monitors how quickly ingredients on
Speaker 2: the in restaurant makeline are being depleted, and it also
Speaker 2: alerts the team in real time for prep and cook
Speaker 2: batch amounts. So it's a really really neat technology and
Speaker 2: it's going to really help us as we continue to grow.
Speaker 1: Okay, very cool, and there's been talk about some labor
Speaker 1: model improvements right I think is hourly turnover improved twenty
Speaker 1: eight percent in the second quarter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're we're also doing some testing on labor deployment,
Speaker 2: so we're reallocating hours to deliver better food, better hospitality,
Speaker 2: and more efficient speed of service. This test is progressing.
Speaker 2: It's in twenty nine restaurant where net neutral labor dollars
Speaker 2: and labor hours in the test locations. We're really focusing
Speaker 2: on more time to coach and train and more time
Speaker 2: to interact with guests and a more positive work environment
Speaker 2: and we'll continue testing throughout twenty twenty four, with hopefully
Speaker 2: the intent to rollout in twenty twenty five if the
Speaker 2: results meet the expectations.
Speaker 1: All right, great, And then I also saw something about
Speaker 1: real time guess feedback technology. What's out of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're doing restaurant health testing. That technology that really
Speaker 2: allows us to try to keep a finger on the
Speaker 2: pulse of the business down to the specific locations, and
Speaker 2: it really supports our teams in consistently delivering an exceptional
Speaker 2: guest experience.
Speaker 1: Awesome. All right, So the most important question, what's your
Speaker 1: favorite kava order?
Speaker 2: My favorite kava order spinach, brown rice, I get hummus,
Speaker 2: two scoops of eggplant, I do half horisa chicken, half
Speaker 2: roasted veggies, tomato, onion, tomato, cucumber, feta, pickled onions, avocado,
Speaker 2: and then I do either scub or I do Greek vinagrette.
Speaker 2: I have that down to a tea. That was the
Speaker 2: easiest question of the day.
Speaker 1: You do have that? You do have that down to
Speaker 1: a tea? Because it's gonna take me a little while
Speaker 1: to think about everything. But now I'm a lamb meatball guy.
Speaker 1: I have I definitely herisa crazy feta and that red
Speaker 1: pepper Hummus pickles, hot peppers. I'm definitely missing some other
Speaker 1: stuff in there, but yeah, Covas CoV is great man.
Speaker 1: And you guys, you guys do a great job. Man.
Speaker 1: I I'm I'm very excited to continue following this story
Speaker 1: and hopefully covering it pretty soon. Well, listen, man, thanks
Speaker 1: for joining me. This was a lot of fun. It's
Speaker 1: great to see you. You know, obviously our guests can't
Speaker 1: see you, but it was good to see you. It's
Speaker 1: been a while.
Speaker 2: Great to see you too, Mike, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I want to thank the audience for tuning in.
Speaker 1: If you liked the episode, please subscribe and leave us
Speaker 1: a review. Check back soon for another installment of Chopping
Speaker 1: It Up.