Speaker 1: Welcome Office hours, when we sit down with the chief
Speaker 1: executives shaping the world and answer your most pressing questions
Speaker 1: about leadership, career, and life. I'm Mike Steib and today
Speaker 1: we welcome to the show. One of the funnest guys
Speaker 1: I know, Michael Stillman, is CEO of Quality Branded Restaurants
Speaker 1: and one of the most respected restaurant tours in America.
Speaker 1: Five of his restaurants are in the top fifty grossing
Speaker 1: in the nation, and nobody you will ever meet throws
Speaker 1: a party like Michael Stillman. I'm so glad to have
Speaker 1: you on the podcast.
Speaker 2: Man, pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1: This is going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: I'm excited.
Speaker 1: How many martinis do your restaurants produce every year?
Speaker 3: You know what, that's a very good question. I would
Speaker 3: say probably about one hundred thousand martinis a year. One
Speaker 3: hundred thousand martinis a year. But honestly, I think being
Speaker 3: called the funnest man that you know, yeah, or one
Speaker 3: of the funnest man I want to know, is probably
Speaker 3: talking about the highlights of my week top five. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm glad to hear it.
Speaker 1: One hundred thousand marties. If this was a consulting case interview.
Speaker 1: We would have to go, we would have to size
Speaker 1: the number of how many people go to the rest
Speaker 1: How many people go to the restaurants every year? It's
Speaker 1: twelve restaurants.
Speaker 3: Approximately, you know, one hundred and twenty five to one
Speaker 3: hundred fifty thousand on average, so you annually. Yeah, so so.
Speaker 1: One fourth of them have three or four of martable
Speaker 1: or a million. So over a million people go to
Speaker 1: the restaurants every year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, over a million people.
Speaker 1: One hundred thousand per restaurant, one.
Speaker 3: Hundred twenty five to one hundred fifty thousand per restaurant
Speaker 3: on average.
Speaker 1: Geez, from the outside, somebody would not appreciate that. You
Speaker 1: come in to the restaurant, you sit, you eat, and
Speaker 1: you leave. How much volume you guys are doing every day.
Speaker 3: It's a lot. People always take a look at it and
Speaker 3: they say, oh, you seem so crowded at seven o'clock.
Speaker 3: And I said, but are you crowded at five o'clock?
Speaker 3: Are you crowd at nine o'clock? Or you crowded at
Speaker 3: two o'clock.
Speaker 1: I can't get a table. I can get a table,
Speaker 1: but you can't get a table. We have got a
Speaker 1: bunch of questions from folks, some who are big fans
Speaker 1: of your restaurants, some who just love restaurants in general.
Speaker 1: A lot of people want to understand how the business works.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to go right to the first one.
Speaker 1: It is from our friend Michael Misslansky. Michael was on
Speaker 1: the pod a couple of weeks ago and he left
Speaker 1: a question for you, and his question is, as a frequent.
Speaker 2: Visitor to your restaurants, you have an amazing ability to
Speaker 2: build restaurants that are so much fun for the consumer,
Speaker 2: which I think is not usually the case. So often
Speaker 2: restaurants are built for the executive chef. How is it
Speaker 2: that you kind of bottle that differently in every restaurant
Speaker 2: to create these wonderful experiences no matter where you go.
Speaker 1: Tell all of us what does it take to make
Speaker 1: for a fun night, or a fun restaurant or a
Speaker 1: fun vibe. That's an incredible question. I like the question,
Speaker 1: and the questionner. You know, I would start with saying,
Speaker 1: lighting something on fire always helps. Okay, what kind of
Speaker 1: things do you generally let on fire? I mean, you
Speaker 1: can light anything on fire. You can like drinks on fire,
Speaker 1: you can like food on fire, you can like guests
Speaker 1: on fire.
Speaker 3: You got to put them out. But you know, you've
Speaker 3: got to make a show. You've got to make a
Speaker 3: little bit of a spectacle, you know. Honestly, I think
Speaker 3: we think about ourselves as having sort of a reverend
Speaker 3: sense of humor, and I think that's part of the
Speaker 3: core of fun is starting by not taking yourself so seriously. Right.
Speaker 1: So I got to drink at Quality branded and it
Speaker 1: came in a ceramic peacock of some sort and I
Speaker 1: had to kind of drink out of the tail. It
Speaker 1: was a good drink, but it was definitely a scene.
Speaker 3: My wife is a corporate attorney, and she complained to
Speaker 3: me that those drinks looked too unprofessional for how to work.
Speaker 3: I said, you know what you gotta you know, ride
Speaker 3: the Horse came in on and I think that's a
Speaker 3: perfect example, though. I think, you know, an unexpected twist,
Speaker 3: you know, can shake people out of the norm. And
Speaker 3: you know, especially in the corporate environment, you know that
Speaker 3: that sort of sets a tone, It separates us out,
Speaker 3: and it sort of allows everyone you were with to
Speaker 3: sort of have a break in their normal action and
Speaker 3: in a way that sort of, you know, mix us
Speaker 3: things up. And I think it creates the opportunity for
Speaker 3: fun a lot.
Speaker 1: Now I can I can imagine pulling that off for
Speaker 1: a dinner party. You're serving a million customers a year
Speaker 1: across a dozen restaurants. You guys must do well over
Speaker 1: one hundred million dollars of turnover every year. How do
Speaker 1: you scale that? How do you scale fun and surprise
Speaker 1: and joy?
Speaker 3: That is one of the most complicated questions, and I
Speaker 3: think it's something we think a lot about because obviously,
Speaker 3: in your most amazing, you know, mom and pop restaurant,
Speaker 3: you are dealing hands on with the owner you know
Speaker 3: every single day, and they know you, they've high touch.
Speaker 3: So I think a lot of it is about trying
Speaker 3: to make sure that people understand, you know, your core ideaology,
Speaker 3: and to sort of look for the right sort of
Speaker 3: candidates to be in your organization that get what you're
Speaker 3: all about. But I think beyond that, I think a
Speaker 3: lot of it is sort of just setting the tone
Speaker 3: early and allowing them the freedom to sort of work
Speaker 3: into your core you know, conceptspe you know, and sort
Speaker 3: of building from their ideas and extrapolating on them. So
Speaker 3: part of it is creating programming that's sort of unique
Speaker 3: and special, a lot of like table side service, a
Speaker 3: lot of sort of you.
Speaker 1: Know, so this is like you do the special caesar
Speaker 1: salad at the table, you do the butter service at
Speaker 1: the table. That kind of stuff is additive and fun.
Speaker 3: It's a big part of what we do. But I
Speaker 3: think more than that, I think it's sort of allowing
Speaker 3: people the opportunity at scale to create their own sense
Speaker 3: of fun, especially the people work for us. Then they
Speaker 3: have a natural aptitude for what you're trying to do,
Speaker 3: and they understand sort of the vibe of what you're
Speaker 3: trying to create, and it becomes more organic. So there's
Speaker 3: pieces about.
Speaker 1: We got a question from Marisol in Dallas, Texas. She
Speaker 1: texted it in asking eighty percent of restaurants go out
Speaker 1: of business in two years. Yours seem to be thriving.
Speaker 1: So what is the secret to making profitable restaurants? So
Speaker 1: you told us how to make fun restaurants, but your
Speaker 1: restaurants make dough.
Speaker 3: Yeah, how do you do it? It's a complicated industry.
Speaker 3: I would say, you know, we think a lot about
Speaker 3: who the audience is. And I know that sounds so crazy,
Speaker 3: but I think when it comes down to it, so
Speaker 3: many people go into restaurant business for passion, but they
Speaker 3: think less about what their audience wants. They have a
Speaker 3: tremendous idea, they have something to share, they have the
Speaker 3: recipes of their family, but does it connect with the
Speaker 3: location they found and the people that are there. It's
Speaker 3: as basic as saying, where am I going to be?
Speaker 3: What do these people really want as a starting point?
Speaker 3: And can I build that consistently over time? You know,
Speaker 3: in a way that really satisfies that. And I think
Speaker 3: that sounds so basic, but you know, time and time again,
Speaker 3: when people come to me and they say I want
Speaker 3: to open a restaurant and they talk me through their idea,
Speaker 3: you know it's it's three or four layers down before
Speaker 3: I get to the premise of you know, where you're going.
Speaker 3: What it is like, is that what that audience wants,
Speaker 3: you know, is.
Speaker 1: A starting So when you think your restaurants, it's Smith
Speaker 1: and Malenski, it's a Manhattan steakhouse, it's been around for
Speaker 1: decades and decades, who's that audience? Who's that the audience
Speaker 1: you think about for that restaurant.
Speaker 3: So you know, when my father built Smith Wansky in
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy seven, there were two classic New York steakhouses
Speaker 3: at the time. When was the Palm, the original Palm,
Speaker 3: and one was Chris Sella's, which is no longer Rounds.
Speaker 3: And he wanted to create, you know, a new version
Speaker 3: of a time classic. And part of his thought was
Speaker 3: to build a menu that actually had a bigger wine program,
Speaker 3: which wasn't really the thing at the time at a steakhouse,
Speaker 3: and to focus on American wine, which was just starting
Speaker 3: to become prominent in the late seventies and early eighties,
Speaker 3: and to sort of highlight a larger range of food.
Speaker 3: Like he had very specific ideas, and I think he
Speaker 3: felt like those key attributes were things that were differentiators
Speaker 3: for what the audience already he knew what they liked.
Speaker 3: He wanted to be around what people liked, but he
Speaker 3: felt like he could create elements that they would like
Speaker 3: even more that made it unique.
Speaker 1: Key you know, and his audience. Presumably this was late seventies.
Speaker 1: It's a guy's in seventy seven trading stocks or selling
Speaker 1: insurance and then going out for stakes after work. So
Speaker 1: a lot of corporate, a lot of you know, great
Speaker 1: advertising was across the street, and all the classic law
Speaker 1: firm and a lot of that sort of power brokers.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think he said, I see what
Speaker 1: they like. Can I create the next iteration, something more unique,
Speaker 1: something more special? But I think he built it on,
Speaker 1: you know, a core. And if someone was at the
Speaker 1: opening and they came to the restaurant today, would they say,
Speaker 1: this is the same restaurant. This is still Smith and Wielenski's.
Speaker 3: You know, My hope would be that someone would come
Speaker 3: and would say, this hasn't changed in forty five years.
Speaker 3: And I'm sure you've heard this before, but my knowledge
Speaker 3: of the amount of things we have tweaked and product
Speaker 3: and pulled during that time to make it feel like
Speaker 3: the product that an audience in twenty twenty three would
Speaker 3: want but still feel timeless is probably the hardest of
Speaker 3: all the things I work on it.
Speaker 1: But it's maintained its essence. I believe so now that
Speaker 1: if we drove that guy across town yeah to Bad
Speaker 1: Roman Yeah, and said this is the same restaurant tour,
Speaker 1: what would you think.
Speaker 3: It would be?
Speaker 1: It's different, extraordinarily challenging for them to believe it. So
Speaker 1: in case anyone our audience hasn't been there or it
Speaker 1: isn't on Instagram. This is the most Instagram famous restaurant
Speaker 1: I think in the world.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's getting there.
Speaker 1: Tell our audience about Bad Roman.
Speaker 3: Bad Roman. You know what's funny is my father when
Speaker 3: he came to Bad Roman, he said, you know, this
Speaker 3: is so different from anything I've ever done. And I said,
Speaker 3: you know, the irony is, this is the essence of
Speaker 3: what you've done in a different way. It is meant
Speaker 3: to be, you know, a maximalist reinterpretation of Italian. It's
Speaker 3: meant to be layers upon layers, like overwhelming sensory overload.
Speaker 3: Fun you know so much so you know that you
Speaker 3: can't help but smile and disengage. It's supposed to overwhelm
Speaker 3: you and really immerse you. Right.
Speaker 1: Our next question is from Carlos and Scottsdale.
Speaker 2: You know, we lost so many businesses and restaurants during COVID.
Speaker 3: Wondered how you kept yours alive during that time.
Speaker 1: This was a tough time.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 1: It was tough for everybody, but for you guys. It
Speaker 1: was illegal to go to a restaurant.
Speaker 3: It was extraordinarily challenging. We lost four of our employees
Speaker 3: in April of twenty twenty to COVID, and we had
Speaker 3: eleven hundred employees and we went down to thirty employees
Speaker 3: and slowly we built it back up to having fifteen
Speaker 3: hundred people now. It was insanely challenging, as I think
Speaker 3: for everyone it has been, and I think we, you know,
Speaker 3: had to focus on the core of what we were
Speaker 3: about and look, honestly, without government intervention, without the city's help,
Speaker 3: without a lot of creativity, without a lot of people
Speaker 3: working for us, sacrificing in so many ways, and friends
Speaker 3: and people helping out, and our you know, all the
Speaker 3: people went to our restaurants, stepping up and coming out
Speaker 3: and helping our people, like none of it would have worked.
Speaker 3: But I think it started with those employees. The power
Speaker 3: of wanting to have those people back in the door,
Speaker 3: to be able to have them working again, to be
Speaker 3: able to great for that, I think that created the
Speaker 3: energy for us. And I think we we pivoted to
Speaker 3: like crazy stuff outdoors, we pivoted to, you know, as everyone,
Speaker 3: we pivoted everything we could, but we try to maintain
Speaker 3: the dna of what worked for us before, and for us,
Speaker 3: that was you know, leaning into our people, you know,
Speaker 3: and leaning into our sense of fun in humor, especially
Speaker 3: in such a dire time, and trying to like create
Speaker 3: some really unique and funny moments in what was such
Speaker 3: a you know, challenging time.
Speaker 1: Now, I made a stake in thirty five degree weather
Speaker 1: at one of your restaurants outside and it was like
Speaker 1: we were so in my life. Kevi and I were
Speaker 1: so eager to get back, we get back to normal life,
Speaker 1: that we were willing to do abnormal things to be
Speaker 1: close to it.
Speaker 3: I remember when we first when people started to dine outside,
Speaker 3: we created some you know, larger scale, more unique outdoor
Speaker 3: dining and we were one of the first people to
Speaker 3: do it. And people said, how do you give the
Speaker 3: foresight to do that? How'd you know, Isaac? We didn't know.
Speaker 3: For I didn't think we were creating something that we
Speaker 3: would use for a year and a half or two years.
Speaker 3: I thought we were creating a sense of fun of marketing, uh,
Speaker 3: something people walk by and be like stunned. You know
Speaker 3: that that well, people were trying to and I said,
Speaker 3: I think, I said, I'm willing to sacrifice the kind
Speaker 3: of financial, you know, thing to be creative and to
Speaker 3: have a moment. And it made people smile, and it
Speaker 3: made people excited again it.
Speaker 1: You didn't just tent some tables, You built weig structures
Speaker 1: outside one of yours had a botchy ball court or something.
Speaker 3: It built a giant structure, you know, made of grass
Speaker 3: or fake grass. It looked like a giant wall from
Speaker 3: a you know, French tuileries garden. And everyone who walked
Speaker 3: by in the middle of Midtel, Manhattan, and at the
Speaker 3: time it was a crazy feeling here smiled and were
Speaker 3: amazed and it felt so good to be able to
Speaker 3: just create anything at that moment, just like to create something,
Speaker 3: and that was so relevant and important. And I think
Speaker 3: it just you know, one for people to be able
Speaker 3: to eat anywhere and have that community, but be able
Speaker 3: to see something that that felt creative and inspiring when
Speaker 3: everything was all being shut down and closed in. I
Speaker 3: think people really reacted well to that. And that was
Speaker 3: really our intent because we didn't really think, you know,
Speaker 3: and honestly we hope that we weren't going to use
Speaker 3: it that look.
Speaker 1: Caroline in Denver.
Speaker 3: Hi Rest, that seemed like a chaotic business.
Speaker 2: We'll kind of set back to your experience.
Speaker 3: And how do you handle the unexpressed uh, you know,
Speaker 3: the biblical uh you know, plagues, floods, fires, pestilens. You
Speaker 3: just you know, check mark down the list and it's
Speaker 3: all of the above and that Senate and Health inspectors
Speaker 3: and then some. I mean, we have had so many
Speaker 3: floods that I actually, you know, thought about how many
Speaker 3: different floods we had at openings that I've done over
Speaker 3: the years. It's, you know, an insane business of incredibly
Speaker 3: moving parts, and you know, it's it's literally, you know,
Speaker 3: it's a you have to be able to roll up
Speaker 3: your sleeves, to want to roll up your sleeves at
Speaker 3: the most insane moment. And I remember a quality meets
Speaker 3: seventeen years ago, about a month and we had the
Speaker 3: most important critic at the time, and we had a
Speaker 3: flood outside and our kitchen was in the basement and
Speaker 3: it overflowed through the facilities and it flooded the whole kitchen.
Speaker 3: While you had a critic, while we had a critic
Speaker 3: putting in orders, and we had people on crates milk crates.
Speaker 3: There was like a foot and a half of water.
Speaker 3: It was streaming down the stairway to the kitchen. You
Speaker 3: could not go to the bathrooms because we was streaming
Speaker 3: through the bathrooms. We were just I hope this person
Speaker 3: doesn't need to go to the bathroom. And we continued
Speaker 3: to try to serve the whole restaurant, like piling through
Speaker 3: this water around an hour until this person left, because
Speaker 3: we just said we're going to do it. We have
Speaker 3: no other option. And you know, I can think of
Speaker 3: time and time again, like part of it is the
Speaker 3: creative will and group to to in some ways want
Speaker 3: for that moment, you know, to say, what are you
Speaker 3: going to bring at me? Because we're going to roll
Speaker 3: up our sleeves and be ready for it. There's a
Speaker 3: mentality in our business like that.
Speaker 1: I was going to opening night at Zuzu's and then
Speaker 1: and then there was the kitchen burn down or something.
Speaker 3: We have had that was the second fire on opening nights.
Speaker 3: You know, it starts to look like insurance for it
Speaker 3: after a while, Michael keep having these these fires, opening
Speaker 3: electric fires.
Speaker 1: So and when I guess our our our caller wants
Speaker 1: to know what do you do about it? It sounds like
Speaker 1: you just you just grind on. You get the crates.
Speaker 1: You if there's a fire, you fix you, you put
Speaker 1: it out, you fix it, you get back to work.
Speaker 1: Is there any particular takeaway other than just expect it
Speaker 1: to happen and do your best. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: it's tried to say, but I think those moments are
Speaker 1: the moments where you can create the most union experiences
Speaker 1: long term for your guests and for your employees. And
Speaker 1: you know, the first time it happens, you're insane, and
Speaker 1: solely over time you realize these are the moments where
Speaker 1: you know you will bond as a team and create
Speaker 1: a strength if you can get through it. And you know,
Speaker 1: if you handle those moments well for your guests and
Speaker 1: you understand that. And I think that's like any business,
Speaker 1: grisis creates opportunity, And it's really true.
Speaker 3: You have to look at that moment and and sort
Speaker 3: of roll up your sleeves and say, I'm an opportunity here.
Speaker 3: As crazy as it sounds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, something has been happening all the time. That's the job.
Speaker 1: That's what they need us for.
Speaker 3: It's we're therefore you need a lot of miniature fire extinguishers.
Speaker 1: Literally, well it's also code, so it's exactly right, all right.
Speaker 1: The next one is from Alex in Virginia Beach.
Speaker 3: I own a small business and you helping Google reviews
Speaker 3: dominate my life. How do you handle negative reviews that
Speaker 3: might hurt your business? I usually just respond online with
Speaker 3: go somewhere else. Do you really?
Speaker 1: That was a lot of musk said that to the
Speaker 1: advertisers this week and more and more colorful language. I
Speaker 1: don't imagine that that's what you do? What did you
Speaker 1: do when The New York Times called bad Roman a
Speaker 1: coked out ruby Tuesdays? We made hats for everyone in
Speaker 1: our office. Did you this was a real review? Folks?
Speaker 1: At times was like, what is this place? That's so wild?
Speaker 1: They couldn't handle it? And you guys completely owned it.
Speaker 3: Every time we get a kind of facetious review now,
Speaker 3: or a sarcastic review, or there's a funny sort of
Speaker 3: line and it has a twinge of truth because it's
Speaker 3: part of our core and we are trying to be
Speaker 3: funny and silly, we'd take it and we own it.
Speaker 3: And I literally make hats. I make hats and say
Speaker 3: pleasantly gimmicky. I would get pleasantly gimmicky. I would get
Speaker 3: a tattoo if I could. That's said pleasantly gimmcky. Some
Speaker 3: it said pleasantly gimmicky. And I told everyone in my office.
Speaker 3: I wish I could have that tattoo because I said,
Speaker 3: that's right, that's right, that's right. We're trying to be fun.
Speaker 3: We're trying to, you know, have people smile. And you
Speaker 3: know they can take that and give in another tone.
Speaker 3: But we know what our people want and it's it's
Speaker 3: a massive amount of people, and there's legitimacy to that
Speaker 3: over time, and you know what your audience wants, and
Speaker 3: you know you're creating something that over time is consistently
Speaker 3: So you got to own those sort of comments and
Speaker 3: know that's that's true to who you are and that's okay.
Speaker 1: And you really leaned into the Instagram thing with bad
Speaker 1: Roman too. Oh absolutely, you had an ad campaign. I
Speaker 1: was thrilled, you know, I said, you know, there was
Speaker 1: a there was a slew of articles and I think,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of media was concerned and they're
Speaker 1: concerned about influencers and how strong they are. And it
Speaker 1: surprises me how incredibly strong influencers are and how they
Speaker 1: can create. And I think they wrote a lot of
Speaker 1: negative everybody's in restaurants taking photos and everybody's too obsessed
Speaker 1: with this, and you know, I thought to myself, people
Speaker 1: like this.
Speaker 3: They like to have fun, they like to take pictures
Speaker 3: of their stuff. They probably do it a little too much,
Speaker 3: but they are enjoying themselves. They are back out, they
Speaker 3: are sharing experiences, and I don't think they do like
Speaker 3: electric to be lectured. And I said, yeah, we're owning
Speaker 3: this and we're saying, yeah, we're having fun and we
Speaker 3: know people want to take photos and share them and
Speaker 3: we're you know, creating around that to a degree, and like,
Speaker 3: I don't think there's anything wrong with that, and like
Speaker 3: why should they be lectured after enjoying that there is
Speaker 3: a place for very serious food and I love that
Speaker 3: there's a place for you know, very casual food, and
Speaker 3: there should be a place for fun food. You want
Speaker 3: to take photos up and share and that is the
Speaker 3: majority of the audience out there. So we so got
Speaker 3: a bunch of ads that said as much I love it.
Speaker 3: And what did the ads say? I'm trying to remember
Speaker 3: all the best lines. I mean one of them was
Speaker 3: like on the Internet but in real life and that's
Speaker 3: so cool.
Speaker 1: So, uh, Priya in Miami called this one in you've.
Speaker 4: Expanded into multiple new markets, what have you learned about
Speaker 4: geographic expansion and do you find that diners are different
Speaker 4: from one city to the next.
Speaker 3: Human beings are different from one block to the next
Speaker 3: in New York City, let alone every city. I think
Speaker 3: I've learned a lot of humility, you know, and an
Speaker 3: understanding that that, you know, the nuances of what people
Speaker 3: want are very different, you know, all over and uh,
Speaker 3: I think the amount of creativity and uniqueness in cities
Speaker 3: across the US is incredible. And if you're going to
Speaker 3: bring a product in our business into another city, you
Speaker 3: better really understand that audience. You better really understand what
Speaker 3: they're looking for. I think that, you know, really goes
Speaker 3: back to that same point. I think you have to
Speaker 3: approach it with an intense amount of humility to sort
Speaker 3: of say, you know, is this audience interested in some
Speaker 3: Can I do something for them that's unique? Right? Can
Speaker 3: I do something for them that they would want?
Speaker 4: Not?
Speaker 3: You know, can I show up?
Speaker 1: So it's not can I take Smith and Molensky to Boston,
Speaker 1: it's what is the diner in Boston need from us?
Speaker 3: Are they excited and looking for a classic steakhouse and
Speaker 3: in this area? Is that's something that I think they
Speaker 3: would really enjoy, that would fit, that would make sense
Speaker 3: can we create something that fits their interests, you know,
Speaker 3: and maybe it needs to be tweaked, and maybe it
Speaker 3: needs to be understood. It needs to have the core
Speaker 3: of who we are, but it also needs to be
Speaker 3: able to be malleable to the intent of that audience.
Speaker 3: And that's a fine balance, you know.
Speaker 1: It's terrific. It's It's good advice about any product and
Speaker 1: any service is that it starts with the consumer, your servant.
Speaker 1: It sounds crazy, Jonathan in New York.
Speaker 3: I know Smith and Malenski had started by her father.
Speaker 4: Do you enjoy working with family? Is it harder to
Speaker 4: keep a family business?
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear your perspective.
Speaker 4: Day.
Speaker 3: I loved working with my father. I love, you know,
Speaker 3: working with him even now and we don't work as
Speaker 3: Hawpen together. He's eighty seven now, but we still talk
Speaker 3: every day every day, and it was extremely hard. Clearly,
Speaker 3: I think being able to step into a family business
Speaker 3: is something that is unique and special. It goes without
Speaker 3: saying that there's a stepping stone and help and a
Speaker 3: legacy and a different thought in any business, whatever it is,
Speaker 3: but also a level of complexity, and I think, you know,
Speaker 3: for me it was it was a lot of opportunity
Speaker 3: around being able to step into a business that, you know,
Speaker 3: my father was in, but also a lot of concern
Speaker 3: and pressure and thought. And for me, my father never
Speaker 3: really wanted me to go into his business. He wanted
Speaker 3: me to He wanted me to be like him. He
Speaker 3: was an entrepreneur, He believed in entrepreneurs. He said, go
Speaker 3: do be an entrepreneur. But I think when I became
Speaker 3: passionate about the business, he wanted to work with me,
Speaker 3: and we enjoyed being together. Worked with Danny Meyer first, right,
Speaker 3: I worked for Danny Meyers when I first got out
Speaker 3: of college. You know, I used to work in political
Speaker 3: work like you. I used to do a range of stuff.
Speaker 3: I thought I wanted to go in the art business.
Speaker 3: And then I, you know, ended up working for Danny
Speaker 3: for a year or so, and I just kind of
Speaker 3: got the bug. And I went to my father and
Speaker 3: I said, I I really like this, and he said,
Speaker 3: you should like something else, anything else on this, And
Speaker 3: I said, no, I really think you liked this. And
Speaker 3: he said, well, if you think you like it, you
Speaker 3: got to go on the road and you've got to
Speaker 3: be a restaurant openings, and you got to see if
Speaker 3: you can handle that and what you like, and then
Speaker 3: come back in a couple of years and tell me
Speaker 3: if you want to be right.
Speaker 1: It was like you put you in the closet with
Speaker 1: a box of cigars and said you had to smoke
Speaker 1: them all so you'd never smoke another cigar.
Speaker 3: A little bit, and I came back and I was
Speaker 3: like cigars. But I mean, I think the thing I
Speaker 3: never really thought about was our relationship, and that was
Speaker 3: the best thing that I got out of all of it.
Speaker 3: It was the hardest thing, but like.
Speaker 1: There's got to be a two edged sword through. I've
Speaker 1: never wanted a boss's approval and the way that I
Speaker 1: would want my father's approval.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was a I don't know if there
Speaker 3: are more edges to a sword than two, but yes,
Speaker 3: but there was a depth to that relationship. If it works,
Speaker 3: it's harder, it's like louder, it's tougher, it's more consider
Speaker 3: it's got to be two neewers with a lot of energy.
Speaker 3: There is a lot of yelling and curtsying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, dads as bosses don't do the compliment sandwich that
Speaker 1: MBA anail managers do when.
Speaker 3: They're giving feedback it is a very different world, but
Speaker 3: it has rewards you know that I think you know
Speaker 3: are hard to replicate.
Speaker 1: That's really cool. We've got one more Seth and Austin.
Speaker 1: I actually got a few questions like this, So this
Speaker 1: is representative of what the audience really wants to know
Speaker 1: from you. How do I get treated like a VIP
Speaker 1: of my favorite restaurant? And how do I get a
Speaker 1: table when the restaurants are all booked up? This is
Speaker 1: really everybody sat through this whole thing about the restaurant
Speaker 1: business just to find out how.
Speaker 3: Do we get You're going to have to send an
Speaker 3: email to mike' stive, but generally, I mean and so
Speaker 3: I have a friend who when he moved to New
Speaker 3: York City, his dad said, you have to pick your
Speaker 3: favorite restaurant, and you have to go in.
Speaker 1: And see the see the mid er d and you
Speaker 1: have to give him this much money in an envelope
Speaker 1: and make sure he knows your name and your phone number.
Speaker 1: And that was one way, and he still gets tables.
Speaker 1: There are no problem.
Speaker 3: Does that work?
Speaker 1: What are the tricks?
Speaker 3: You know? It's changed a lot. I think there are
Speaker 3: a lot of people who are trying to create a
Speaker 3: little more professionalism around this. You know, we're partnered with
Speaker 3: a group called Blackbird that just opened, and one of
Speaker 3: their ideas is basically to create a platform for individual
Speaker 3: restaurants to sort of offer this relationship to their customers
Speaker 3: in a sort of symbiotic way, which I think is
Speaker 3: really interesting because I think on scale businesses like ours
Speaker 3: want to create VIPs and regulars, and people want to
Speaker 3: be VIPs and regular.
Speaker 1: It's really awkward to ask, how do I become your idea?
Speaker 3: It's hard to create that that relationship, and I think
Speaker 3: there's a lot of creativity going on in our industry
Speaker 3: around how to maybe doing that. You know, there's organic
Speaker 3: ways and and honestly, it's less about handing people money
Speaker 3: than than having them get to know you. I mean
Speaker 3: getting to know the people in the restaurant, the bartenders,
Speaker 3: the matre dizos, and being nice. You know, is is
Speaker 3: more important than than spending money. I will tell you
Speaker 3: they genuinely, you know, everyone is there to make money,
Speaker 3: but being nice it's as simple as that. In a
Speaker 3: lot of ways, a lot of things about that. You
Speaker 3: can tell what the airport is going to get their
Speaker 3: middle seed moved, and who isn't when as soon as
Speaker 3: they start talking to the to the person at the desk,
Speaker 3: you just tell it is it is. You know, the
Speaker 3: person who hands the one hundred dollars at the door
Speaker 3: and acts a certain way is very rarely getting what
Speaker 3: they want. It's it's you know, it's not about I
Speaker 3: think it's about creating that symbiotic relationship because it's a
Speaker 3: tough business and people are there.
Speaker 1: And they do it to make people happy, and they
Speaker 1: should be true, they should be you should give it back.
Speaker 3: And they love regulars. They want that. It creates community
Speaker 3: for the people work in a restaurants. So I think
Speaker 3: it's just about understanding they want it as much as
Speaker 3: you do. It's just creating that organically. It's as simple
Speaker 3: as making a friend in some ways. You know, it's
Speaker 3: how you have to think about it. Michael has been fantastic.
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming on my podcast.
Speaker 3: It is my pleasure.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having really really enjoyed this one. Friends, That
Speaker 1: one was super fun.
Speaker 3: Michael.
Speaker 1: I mean, he runs amazing restaurants. He's a fantastic guy.
Speaker 1: He treats his people so well. If you ever have
Speaker 1: the chance to go to any of the quality branded restaurants,
Speaker 1: quality Meats, Quality Eats, Quality Italian, all the ones we
Speaker 1: talked about as well. Uh, don't miss the opportunity. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a really fun night. What I take away
Speaker 1: from this conversation and I just wanted to say it
Speaker 1: for our audience before you head out and tackle everything
Speaker 1: you're going to tackle this week. Michael clearly thinks so
Speaker 1: hard about his audience and what his audience needs and
Speaker 1: wants from him and how to deliver it, which is
Speaker 1: so different than saying I want to have a steakhouse
Speaker 1: or I want to launch a digital app that does X,
Speaker 1: Y or Z. It's saying I want to do a service.
Speaker 1: I want to make somebody else's life better, and how
Speaker 1: can I do it through my business, And whether your
Speaker 1: business is taking customer calls or working on marketing campaigns
Speaker 1: or getting the numbers in on time, I'd encourage you
Speaker 1: to go through that same exercise. Who is it you're
Speaker 1: really excited to serve and how's the work that you're
Speaker 1: doing serving that person? And if you don't get to
Speaker 1: a good answer, you know We've also come up with
Speaker 1: a lot of ideas in this podcast for how to
Speaker 1: find your purpose, how to find your direction in your career.
Speaker 1: I tell you it's important. I get a lot of
Speaker 1: joy out of my work because I'd like the people
Speaker 1: I work with and the people I work for, and
Speaker 1: I wish that for all of you too. So we
Speaker 1: had some amazing guests coming up in the next few weeks.
Speaker 1: We have a CEO who's helping to cure cancer you're
Speaker 1: going to get to hear from soon. Another entrepreneur who
Speaker 1: I think you're going to have a really good time with.
Speaker 1: I'd want you to text or call in your questions
Speaker 1: at two one, three, four, one nine oh five nine six,
Speaker 1: or you can always just hit me up on LinkedIn, Instagram,
Speaker 1: et cetera. At Mike Steib I want to thank Michael again,
Speaker 1: and of course Jen, Cara, Meg, Jada, Matt and the
Speaker 1: whole team at Blue Duck Media. They helped pull this
Speaker 1: all together. I want to thank Bahed who's here in
Speaker 1: the studio making it work. We've got Dylan, Sasha, Gay,
Speaker 1: Nathan and Christine at iHeart and our friends Ben and
Speaker 1: the team at William Morris Endeavor for all their support.
Speaker 1: Office Hours is a production of Blue Duck Media and
Speaker 1: it's distributed by iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3: Remember friends.
Speaker 1: We dropped new episodes every Wednesday morning, but not next week.
Speaker 1: It's Christmas, so we're taking the week off and we'll
Speaker 1: be back in the new year. Until then, I want
Speaker 1: to wish everybody the happiest of holidays. I want to
Speaker 1: thank you for being a part of this podcast this year.
Speaker 1: I look forward to seeing you again in two thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty four. Until then, take care of your people,
Speaker 1: have a wonderful rest of the year, and stay on
Speaker 1: your grind. Bye everybody,