1
00:00:02,200 --> 00:00:06,800
Speaker 1: This is Masters in Business with Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio.

2
00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:09,920
Speaker 1: This week on the podcast, I have a special guest.

3
00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:12,480
Speaker 1: His name is Cameron Mitchell. He is the author of

4
00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:16,120
Speaker 1: a new book about his career in the restaurant industry,

5
00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:19,840
Speaker 1: and he also happens to be uh, the founder and

6
00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:24,440
Speaker 1: CEO and soon to be chairman of Cameron Mitchell Restaurant Group.

7
00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:28,760
Speaker 1: I found our conversation quite fascinating if you're interested in

8
00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:33,120
Speaker 1: the restaurant industry and what it's like to develop a

9
00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:38,040
Speaker 1: restaurant concept and expand it from one restaurant too many

10
00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:42,919
Speaker 1: across the country. Uh. They have five thousand employees and

11
00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:46,760
Speaker 1: their restaurants of a variety of different names, probably best

12
00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:51,360
Speaker 1: known as Ocean Prime Um, generate over three hundred million

13
00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:54,320
Speaker 1: dollars a year and revenue. Uh. You'll find this to

14
00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,920
Speaker 1: be a fascinating conversation. So, with no further ado, my

15
00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:07,480
Speaker 1: conversation Cameron Mitchell. My special guest today is Cameron Mitchell.

16
00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:10,960
Speaker 1: He is the founder of the Cameron Mitchell Restaurant Group,

17
00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:14,759
Speaker 1: now twenty five years old and employing five thousand people

18
00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:19,640
Speaker 1: in sixty restaurants across the country. Cameron Mitchell restaurant group

19
00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:24,000
Speaker 1: generates over three hundred million dollars in annual sales. Mr.

20
00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:27,559
Speaker 1: Mitchell was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young,

21
00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:30,880
Speaker 1: as well as Small Business Person of the Year by

22
00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:33,479
Speaker 1: the U s. S b A. He was also named

23
00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:37,880
Speaker 1: to fifty New Tastemakers by the Nation's Restaurant News magazine,

24
00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,520
Speaker 1: and he is the author, most recently of Yes Is

25
00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:44,080
Speaker 1: the Answer. How faith in people and a culture of

26
00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:49,760
Speaker 1: hospitality built a modern American restaurant company. Cameron Mitchell, Welcome

27
00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:52,040
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg. Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here.

28
00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:56,520
Speaker 1: So let's let's discuss a little bit about your background.

29
00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:00,360
Speaker 1: You didn't seem when you were growing up like somebody

30
00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,800
Speaker 1: who was going to find his way into a chef's talk.

31
00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,400
Speaker 1: How did you get interested in restaurants and cooking? It

32
00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:10,160
Speaker 1: doesn't appear this is something you were very passionate about

33
00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:14,000
Speaker 1: as a child. Now, I it depends on how far

34
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:16,520
Speaker 1: back you want to go. But I had a troubled

35
00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:19,560
Speaker 1: childhood into troubled youth, and struggled in high school and

36
00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:23,200
Speaker 1: ran away from my home and dropped out of high

37
00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:26,760
Speaker 1: school when I was fifteen, and my folks were divorced

38
00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:29,160
Speaker 1: and my mom didn't have any money. And so when

39
00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:32,720
Speaker 1: I came back would have been my junior year, I

40
00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:34,520
Speaker 1: didn't have any money for lunch money, and she couldn't

41
00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:36,120
Speaker 1: give me lunch money. And I needed to work. I

42
00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:38,480
Speaker 1: need to get a job. And so I got a

43
00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:42,680
Speaker 1: job in es a local local steakhouse Washington dishes for

44
00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:46,720
Speaker 1: two sixty hour and did that in bus tables and

45
00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:49,560
Speaker 1: prepped a little bit through my junior and senior year

46
00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:53,080
Speaker 1: in high school. And that's how I found my entree

47
00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:55,800
Speaker 1: into the restaurant business. So, so let's talk about that,

48
00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:58,640
Speaker 1: because you described in your book sort of being a

49
00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:03,160
Speaker 1: terrible employee, constantly being late. You were suspended, you put

50
00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:07,560
Speaker 1: on thirty days notice, and you describe an epiphany where

51
00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:11,280
Speaker 1: you realized, Hey, this restaurant thing is really interesting. What

52
00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:14,680
Speaker 1: explained what that moment was like and how it changed

53
00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,560
Speaker 1: your whole life. Well, I was just turned ninety at

54
00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:19,120
Speaker 1: the time. I've been out in high school for about

55
00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:21,760
Speaker 1: a year, and I was living at home with mom,

56
00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:26,880
Speaker 1: working for beer money, working for the man, not uh boy,

57
00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:30,639
Speaker 1: but not yet a man, and um, just really squandering

58
00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:35,240
Speaker 1: and UM I was working two jobs in the restaurant business,

59
00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:38,240
Speaker 1: and I had trouble getting to work on time in

60
00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:41,680
Speaker 1: the morning, and I got put on three days suspension

61
00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:47,080
Speaker 1: in thirty days probation. So midway through that probationary period,

62
00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:48,880
Speaker 1: and I'm just trying to fare what I want to

63
00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:51,080
Speaker 1: do in my life. And then I just have been struggling,

64
00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:52,840
Speaker 1: and so I don't want to go right after college

65
00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:54,360
Speaker 1: because I don't want to go to college not knowing

66
00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:57,640
Speaker 1: what I wanted to do. So UM, I have suspended

67
00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:00,240
Speaker 1: for three days, put on thirty days probation. And during

68
00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:02,400
Speaker 1: the middle of that probationary period, it was a Friday

69
00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:06,040
Speaker 1: afternoon and I was during shift changed, and I was

70
00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:08,800
Speaker 1: working AM cook that day and a PM host at

71
00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:12,360
Speaker 1: the same restaurant. Yes, and that restaurant was a very

72
00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:15,080
Speaker 1: busy restaurant, would probably do a thousand people that day

73
00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:17,800
Speaker 1: between lunch and dinner. And UM, four o'clock in the

74
00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:21,520
Speaker 1: afternoon shift change the restaurant, the restaurant's half full, the

75
00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:24,680
Speaker 1: bar is packed with happy are uh. The AM shift

76
00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:27,120
Speaker 1: was trying to leave, the PM shifts trying to come on.

77
00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:29,840
Speaker 1: The managers are barking orders, and it's kind of pandemonium

78
00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:32,480
Speaker 1: in the kitchen, and time froze. I looked across the

79
00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:36,760
Speaker 1: line in the kitchen and I said, I absolutely love this.

80
00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:38,479
Speaker 1: This is what I'm going to do the rest of

81
00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:40,200
Speaker 1: my life. I'm going to be in the restaurant business.

82
00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:43,800
Speaker 1: So I worked my double shift and I went home

83
00:04:43,839 --> 00:04:45,640
Speaker 1: that night and I wrote out my goals. I said,

84
00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:47,000
Speaker 1: I was going to go to the culinary. It's two

85
00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,400
Speaker 1: of America in Hyde Park, New York. I had heard

86
00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:52,359
Speaker 1: about that. I'm nineteen years old, and I was gonna graduate.

87
00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:54,359
Speaker 1: I was gonna become executive chef by the time I

88
00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:58,200
Speaker 1: was twenty three, general manager of twenty four, regional manager

89
00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:01,520
Speaker 1: twenty six, vice president oper as a thirty, and president

90
00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:03,800
Speaker 1: of a restaurant company by the time I was thirty five.

91
00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:07,680
Speaker 1: Those are those are ambitious. And I woke my mom

92
00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:09,000
Speaker 1: up at one in the morning, so I know what

93
00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:10,919
Speaker 1: I want to do with myself the rest of my life.

94
00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:13,800
Speaker 1: And she was quite relieved, needless to say. I got

95
00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:16,680
Speaker 1: up the next morning and now I was working for

96
00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:19,200
Speaker 1: my I did a complete hundred return. I was working

97
00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:23,200
Speaker 1: for myself, for my future, for my career. I had

98
00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:25,400
Speaker 1: the best attitude in the kitchen. I was the hardest

99
00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:28,839
Speaker 1: working guy in the kitchen, and I the day before,

100
00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:30,880
Speaker 1: I was the laziest guy in the kitchen, a lousy

101
00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:33,520
Speaker 1: attitude and working for the man and working for beer money.

102
00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:37,200
Speaker 1: So now you are change, Yes, I guess so for

103
00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:39,840
Speaker 1: people who may not have ever worked in the kitchen,

104
00:05:40,040 --> 00:05:42,040
Speaker 1: and I was a waiter and a short order cook

105
00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:46,839
Speaker 1: in college, there's really especially during a rush, there's a

106
00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:51,240
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of energy and sort of a controlled chaos.

107
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:54,120
Speaker 1: Is that exactly? That's a that's a great way, And

108
00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:56,760
Speaker 1: for people who haven't experienced it, I could see how

109
00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:01,039
Speaker 1: there's a tremendous lure there because it's always different every

110
00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:04,359
Speaker 1: day and there's so much stuff going on. What was

111
00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:08,280
Speaker 1: it about that moment in time that had you flipped

112
00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,880
Speaker 1: from being the bum in the kitchen to the hardest

113
00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:14,040
Speaker 1: working guy in the building. Well, I just needed to

114
00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:16,600
Speaker 1: find my way. I need to have my goal and

115
00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:19,160
Speaker 1: that was the key difference. That was totally the key difference.

116
00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:21,560
Speaker 1: And once I I've been goal warning it ever since.

117
00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:24,239
Speaker 1: I still have on my desk today my fourth quarter

118
00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:27,360
Speaker 1: goals for my career for the next fifteen years. So

119
00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:30,960
Speaker 1: I've been a goal center since day one and and

120
00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:33,839
Speaker 1: it's worked well for me, and I'm still doing it today.

121
00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:38,240
Speaker 1: So the Juvenary Institute of America is described has been

122
00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:41,920
Speaker 1: described as the Harvard of food prep. You had written

123
00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:44,880
Speaker 1: there are three kinds of c I A students, those

124
00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:46,719
Speaker 1: gonning to be chefs, those who want to be in

125
00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:50,960
Speaker 1: the restaurant business, and those who were lost. How did

126
00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:53,080
Speaker 1: you know that you didn't want to be a chef

127
00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:55,240
Speaker 1: but wanted to actually be in the restaurant Well, it

128
00:06:55,279 --> 00:06:56,760
Speaker 1: goes back to my goals. I knew I want to

129
00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:58,560
Speaker 1: be a president of a restaurant company, and I said

130
00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:00,920
Speaker 1: to myself at nineteen, Yeah, So I said, if I,

131
00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:04,119
Speaker 1: uh uh, if I'm any president of a a restaurant company,

132
00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:05,840
Speaker 1: I'd better know about food. And I was already working

133
00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:07,400
Speaker 1: in the kitchen, but I didn't know anything about food.

134
00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:09,039
Speaker 1: So I said, I'm going to go to the CIA

135
00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:11,679
Speaker 1: and learn about foods. And you they turn you into

136
00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:13,800
Speaker 1: a chef even if you don't want to be a chef,

137
00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:16,480
Speaker 1: and if you want to be in the management side,

138
00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:20,000
Speaker 1: they still teach you how to cut. Oh, exactly exactly.

139
00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:23,679
Speaker 1: Those fundamentals and those basics I still work with today

140
00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:27,080
Speaker 1: and have been formed the base for my knowledge to

141
00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:30,600
Speaker 1: build my career from. Let's discuss a little bit the

142
00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:35,880
Speaker 1: process you go through in quote unquote finding great people.

143
00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:39,120
Speaker 1: A lot of executives say that's the most challenging thing

144
00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:42,800
Speaker 1: they do is hiring, and sometimes you never know who's

145
00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:44,760
Speaker 1: going to turn out to be great or not. You

146
00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:48,680
Speaker 1: think you came up with a solution, tell us about it.

147
00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:53,320
Speaker 1: The two questions I could ask thousands of times is

148
00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:55,240
Speaker 1: where do you Where do you get such great people?

149
00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:58,480
Speaker 1: And how do you deliver such great service? And I

150
00:07:58,520 --> 00:08:01,320
Speaker 1: tell people the answer to the same, to essentially both questions,

151
00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:04,400
Speaker 1: we get the same people everybody else gets. I actually

152
00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:07,200
Speaker 1: don't think it's that hard to get great people, uh,

153
00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:10,760
Speaker 1: because I think everybody operate on the premise almost everybody's great.

154
00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:13,600
Speaker 1: We just treat people great, and we inspire people to

155
00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:17,320
Speaker 1: grow and learn and uh, and we care about them tremendously,

156
00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:19,320
Speaker 1: and they in turn care about us, and they want

157
00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:21,600
Speaker 1: to deliver great service, and they get excited about our

158
00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:25,119
Speaker 1: company and they want to build their career. And it's uh,

159
00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:29,680
Speaker 1: such a positive momentum that permeates the entire organization. So

160
00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:33,520
Speaker 1: you don't hire great people. You hire people and allow

161
00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:36,120
Speaker 1: them to become great. Correct. And that's exactly right. That

162
00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:38,600
Speaker 1: seems like that's a challenge to do. How do you

163
00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:43,480
Speaker 1: take a regular person in jobs that could be long, tiring,

164
00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:48,160
Speaker 1: stressful and make sure that those folks always have a

165
00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:52,640
Speaker 1: good attitude and always are you know, uh, striving for

166
00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:55,560
Speaker 1: that the sort of greatness you describe, well, I think

167
00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:58,840
Speaker 1: those long, hard hours not having a great attitude is

168
00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,520
Speaker 1: a standard uh uh image of the restaurant business, if

169
00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:05,120
Speaker 1: you will. But in our company it's not quite the same.

170
00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:09,680
Speaker 1: Our company our number one value as our associates come first.

171
00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:12,840
Speaker 1: I see. I tell people that our company is built

172
00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:15,319
Speaker 1: by its people for its people. Were not built for

173
00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:18,720
Speaker 1: our investors, were not built for me. We're built for

174
00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:22,160
Speaker 1: our people. You describe in your book a book that

175
00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:26,920
Speaker 1: you found very influential, which was the customer comes second,

176
00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:32,040
Speaker 1: which is somewhat counterintuitive and very much not how the

177
00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:37,280
Speaker 1: usual management books discuss treating customers. Explain what the customer

178
00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:40,840
Speaker 1: comes second actually means to your corporate culture. Well, we've

179
00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:44,120
Speaker 1: all heard of the customer comes first. That's preached almost everywhere,

180
00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:46,880
Speaker 1: and here I am, as CEO of a restaurant company.

181
00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:50,559
Speaker 1: I would say, our customers do not come first. Our

182
00:09:50,679 --> 00:09:53,920
Speaker 1: associates come first. I'm even rasien enough to say we

183
00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:57,280
Speaker 1: don't even have a direct relationship with our customers. We

184
00:09:57,360 --> 00:09:59,800
Speaker 1: have a direct relationship with the people we work with,

185
00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,800
Speaker 1: eight and day out. Our customers, who I call guests,

186
00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:05,280
Speaker 1: come to see us once a week, once a month,

187
00:10:05,400 --> 00:10:10,240
Speaker 1: once a year, sometimes once never gone forbid. But uh,

188
00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:13,319
Speaker 1: we have the direct relationship with our people. So I look.

189
00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:16,240
Speaker 1: I described it as a triangular relationship. We take care

190
00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:18,800
Speaker 1: of our people, are people take care of our guests,

191
00:10:18,800 --> 00:10:21,800
Speaker 1: and our guests take care of our company. So that's

192
00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:25,120
Speaker 1: how we do it. So obviously corporate culture is a

193
00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:28,920
Speaker 1: big part of that. How do you go about building

194
00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:34,040
Speaker 1: a corporate culture that encourages staff members to try to

195
00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:37,280
Speaker 1: get to yes? How do you ingrain that into the

196
00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:41,120
Speaker 1: philosophy of a restaurant company. Well, it starts with us.

197
00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:44,079
Speaker 1: You know, um, we say yes to our people all

198
00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:48,800
Speaker 1: the time and they know that, and so, uh, yes

199
00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:53,000
Speaker 1: is the answer. What's the question? Permeates every single corner

200
00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:56,640
Speaker 1: of our organization And it might be as simple as

201
00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:00,000
Speaker 1: a manager talking with some friends and hey, we're gonn

202
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:02,360
Speaker 1: a out of town in three weeks for a long weekend.

203
00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:05,120
Speaker 1: You want to go? And he doesn't say or she

204
00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:07,920
Speaker 1: does not say, I have to ask my boss, they

205
00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:10,400
Speaker 1: say yes, I can go, no problem, and then they

206
00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:12,559
Speaker 1: go tell their boss they're gonna be away for a weekend,

207
00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:16,480
Speaker 1: coming up here. And so, uh, that freedom and that

208
00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:19,480
Speaker 1: belief that it's it's good for me, it's good for you,

209
00:11:19,559 --> 00:11:23,200
Speaker 1: and so our whole team operates on that. So my office,

210
00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:27,480
Speaker 1: we don't have a vacation schedule, we don't have fixed hours.

211
00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:30,920
Speaker 1: We we we initially when it was just a handful

212
00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:33,040
Speaker 1: of us, called it big boy rules. Hey, you know

213
00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:35,520
Speaker 1: what you work is, come in, do your work. If

214
00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:37,120
Speaker 1: you've done it three and you want to go home

215
00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:40,000
Speaker 1: in three, who cares? And we assume you're not going

216
00:11:40,080 --> 00:11:43,880
Speaker 1: to be abusive on vacations. But one can imagine when

217
00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:48,000
Speaker 1: we're twenty five people, your thousands of people, how do

218
00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:50,480
Speaker 1: you make sure that people aren't taking advantage of being

219
00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:55,280
Speaker 1: abusive of that? Well, our culture, in many ways, UH

220
00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:58,120
Speaker 1: deals with that. But in particular I've always led the

221
00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:03,319
Speaker 1: organization believing we lead the organization for nine percent of

222
00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:05,320
Speaker 1: the people that are good, not the one or two

223
00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:07,400
Speaker 1: percent of the people that are bad. And so, yes,

224
00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:10,760
Speaker 1: do we have people to take advantage of us? Sometimes

225
00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:14,280
Speaker 1: yes we do, but we don't let that affect the

226
00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:17,480
Speaker 1: positive work environment that we have in a great company

227
00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:20,200
Speaker 1: culture that we have for the other of our people

228
00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:24,000
Speaker 1: to enjoy. And and you're one of the executives who

229
00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:27,320
Speaker 1: feels that your job is to help everybody else correct

230
00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:30,920
Speaker 1: do their jobs. And I'm gonna throw another quote at you. Uh,

231
00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:34,079
Speaker 1: instead of worrying so much about how I did my job,

232
00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:38,000
Speaker 1: I switched my energy to helping other people do their jobs.

233
00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:42,720
Speaker 1: This was another epiphany moment you describe. Tell us about

234
00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:47,560
Speaker 1: what triggered that that reversal and and how is it

235
00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:51,840
Speaker 1: helped you in business since then? Well, it changed my life.

236
00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:56,559
Speaker 1: One day as a younger general manager, I got I

237
00:12:56,640 --> 00:12:59,440
Speaker 1: was working my tail off ninety hours a week, and

238
00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:02,760
Speaker 1: I thought how successful the restaurant would be was how

239
00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:05,080
Speaker 1: well I did my job and how hard I worked.

240
00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:08,559
Speaker 1: And uh, my boss called me into his office and uh,

241
00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:11,320
Speaker 1: so you just had a clandestine me with eight servers

242
00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:13,800
Speaker 1: who were gonna have mutiny on the bounty and either

243
00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:16,040
Speaker 1: I go or they go. And he said, listen, he's

244
00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:17,640
Speaker 1: gonna stay, but I want you to stay and let

245
00:13:17,679 --> 00:13:19,840
Speaker 1: me talk to him. And so he told me about

246
00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:21,360
Speaker 1: this meeting and I was shocked. I thought I was

247
00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:24,480
Speaker 1: doing a great job and but I wasn't even focused

248
00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:26,440
Speaker 1: on new people. I wasn't even worried about the people.

249
00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:28,800
Speaker 1: I was running around, falling around the restaurant, making sure

250
00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:31,840
Speaker 1: they were doing their job right, etcetera, etcetera, with a

251
00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:35,520
Speaker 1: fine tooth comb and driving them nuts. Basically, So I

252
00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:38,679
Speaker 1: UH said to him, I said, I'll change my attitude.

253
00:13:38,679 --> 00:13:42,000
Speaker 1: I'll change my way. And I read several books, and

254
00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:45,240
Speaker 1: I thought, and I reflected, and I created, uh this

255
00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:49,520
Speaker 1: leadership style of working UH through the people. We're here

256
00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:52,360
Speaker 1: to support our people. And and then when I realized,

257
00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:54,640
Speaker 1: it's not how well I do my job, it's how

258
00:13:54,679 --> 00:13:57,600
Speaker 1: well everybody else does their job is what's important. I

259
00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:01,120
Speaker 1: and all my focus was on support all of my

260
00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:04,240
Speaker 1: fellow associates that worked in that restaurant, and the whole

261
00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:07,360
Speaker 1: thing changed on it on a time. So, how do

262
00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:10,600
Speaker 1: you spot talents when you're when you're looking to bring

263
00:14:10,679 --> 00:14:15,120
Speaker 1: on executive chef or even even a sous chef, or

264
00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:18,400
Speaker 1: or someone at the front of the restaurant, host or

265
00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:21,640
Speaker 1: hostess or a manager. What are you looking for in

266
00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:24,320
Speaker 1: that process? What do you think you could just pretty

267
00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:27,320
Speaker 1: much take anybody and move them into that role. We

268
00:14:27,400 --> 00:14:30,440
Speaker 1: pretty much believe we can take about anybody. So we

269
00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:34,440
Speaker 1: don't really do much outside hiring. Ninety percent of our

270
00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:37,480
Speaker 1: people come in from the hourly associate ranks and prove

271
00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:40,560
Speaker 1: themselves at that point and and get promoted and grow

272
00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:42,920
Speaker 1: with our company. Not to say we don't outside higher

273
00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:45,400
Speaker 1: but very rarely. I don't want people to work and

274
00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:47,200
Speaker 1: build their careers with the company and to have us

275
00:14:47,240 --> 00:14:50,040
Speaker 1: outside hire someone on top of them after they worked

276
00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:54,160
Speaker 1: for the company for years. So talent really identifies itself

277
00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:58,280
Speaker 1: through their job performance. As we move along, let's talk

278
00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:01,880
Speaker 1: a little bit about the book you wrote. Yes is

279
00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:05,280
Speaker 1: the answer, And I have to start with the Milkshake

280
00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:08,680
Speaker 1: story because it's got a little bit of five easy

281
00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:11,360
Speaker 1: pieces to it, a little Jack Nicholson and then a

282
00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:15,160
Speaker 1: little twist ending you and your wife are out with

283
00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:19,040
Speaker 1: the family at a restaurant and you obviously can look

284
00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:23,000
Speaker 1: at all the items on the menu, and if they

285
00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:25,400
Speaker 1: have bread and they have cheese, you should be able

286
00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:29,560
Speaker 1: to get a grilled cheese. Accept Some places say no,

287
00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:33,880
Speaker 1: tell us about that that moment, which I found amusing

288
00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:36,440
Speaker 1: it while we're dating ourselves that we know Jack Nicholson

289
00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:40,360
Speaker 1: and five easy pieces, right, So it's the film buffs

290
00:15:40,360 --> 00:15:43,720
Speaker 1: who are younger will certainly know of the of the

291
00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:46,960
Speaker 1: movie and the famous chicken salad scene. You can find

292
00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:50,040
Speaker 1: that on YouTube if you're not familiar with the of

293
00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:52,960
Speaker 1: the movie. But you're at you're at the restaurant. What happened?

294
00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:55,000
Speaker 1: So I wanted a grilled cheese sandwich. I had my

295
00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:57,280
Speaker 1: four year old, my two year old with me, my

296
00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:00,120
Speaker 1: wife and my mother and father in law, and so

297
00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:01,880
Speaker 1: I want to get a grilled cheese from my four

298
00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:04,240
Speaker 1: year old son. And uh, the gal says, we don't

299
00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:06,720
Speaker 1: have grilled cheese. I said, okay, So I end up

300
00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:09,760
Speaker 1: ordering a club sandwich. Hold the turkey, hamlets, tomato, bacon.

301
00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:11,920
Speaker 1: So they had the bread, they had the cheese, and

302
00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:13,920
Speaker 1: they had the grill. How Hard said, if you can

303
00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:16,800
Speaker 1: saute this on both sides, that be fabious. So I

304
00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:21,120
Speaker 1: get that cheese turkey club. So then I asked her

305
00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:25,040
Speaker 1: for a chocolate milk shake for my son, and she was, well,

306
00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:27,520
Speaker 1: all we have is a Hoggandah smoke shake. It's like

307
00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:31,400
Speaker 1: a quart of soft whipped ice cream. It's huge. It's

308
00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:33,440
Speaker 1: way too big for your son. We just can't do it.

309
00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:36,560
Speaker 1: And I said, okay, I said, can I will you

310
00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:38,760
Speaker 1: ask your manager. So she goes to ask her manager.

311
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:41,280
Speaker 1: I see the manager shake her head. No. She comes

312
00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:43,920
Speaker 1: back says, we can't do it. I said, okay, well

313
00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:45,920
Speaker 1: can you have your manager come over to see me?

314
00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:47,680
Speaker 1: And my wife starts to kick me under the table.

315
00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:49,440
Speaker 1: Don't do this, And I said, I just want to

316
00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:52,160
Speaker 1: know why. Can I assume your wife has seen this

317
00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:55,720
Speaker 1: movie before. I mean, this is not the first time, right,

318
00:16:55,880 --> 00:16:59,080
Speaker 1: you've experienced what should be a yes and no, and

319
00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:01,960
Speaker 1: you're just just miffed by the whole prod exactly, And

320
00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:04,800
Speaker 1: I want to know why. So uh, she comes over

321
00:17:04,840 --> 00:17:07,400
Speaker 1: and she says, well, uh, the thing is, we pre

322
00:17:07,480 --> 00:17:09,200
Speaker 1: portion our ice cream, and we give your son a

323
00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:10,800
Speaker 1: little bit of ice cream. What are we gonna do

324
00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:13,040
Speaker 1: with the rest? Now, I've been in the restaurant business

325
00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:14,760
Speaker 1: at this point in time twenty plus years. I know

326
00:17:14,840 --> 00:17:17,480
Speaker 1: no one's in back pre portioning the ice cream. And

327
00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:19,199
Speaker 1: I say, okay, I said, well, will you can you

328
00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:23,360
Speaker 1: make a chocolate milk for me? She now, she's great hospitality. Absolutely,

329
00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:25,600
Speaker 1: I'll get your chocolate milk and starts to turn away.

330
00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:29,440
Speaker 1: I said, hold on a second. She had hot, too

331
00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:31,560
Speaker 1: hot desserts on him menu It said a hot carrot

332
00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,800
Speaker 1: one carrot cake and chocolate. Brannon is hurtess and all

333
00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:37,720
Speaker 1: amode to? I said, what's all amode me? She's well,

334
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:39,600
Speaker 1: that's a scoop of ice cream. I said, perfect. Can

335
00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:41,040
Speaker 1: I get an order of all a mode to go

336
00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:43,960
Speaker 1: with my chocolate milk? And she said yes, but she

337
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:47,240
Speaker 1: chastised me. She said, this okay, sir, but it'll be expensive,

338
00:17:47,359 --> 00:17:49,840
Speaker 1: and she was visibly upset with me and my wife.

339
00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:52,160
Speaker 1: By the way, while you're all amoting this, hey run

340
00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:54,159
Speaker 1: the whole thing through the blender, and now it's that

341
00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:58,920
Speaker 1: milk exactly. So I get the milkshake. And a couple

342
00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:02,159
Speaker 1: of weeks later, on the keynote speaker at aison lunching

343
00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:05,399
Speaker 1: for our local business magazine, I'm telling the story how

344
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:08,479
Speaker 1: the answers, yes, what's the question? Or yes is the answer?

345
00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:11,520
Speaker 1: What's the question? However you want to phrase it? Um,

346
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:14,800
Speaker 1: And I tell the story. And so about two weeks later,

347
00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:17,120
Speaker 1: a gal comes up to me on the street. She said,

348
00:18:17,359 --> 00:18:19,399
Speaker 1: my husband saw you speak at the Hyatt, thought she

349
00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:21,359
Speaker 1: did a great job, and I want to take you

350
00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:23,399
Speaker 1: up on your milkshake story. And so he went into

351
00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:24,960
Speaker 1: one of your restaurants to the bar in order to

352
00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:26,879
Speaker 1: try to order a chocolate milkshake, and they said no.

353
00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:29,960
Speaker 1: And it's like she punched me right in the stomach,

354
00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:32,360
Speaker 1: right there in the street. Tonight, I went into our

355
00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:36,760
Speaker 1: Monday morning executive community meeting, fired up and said, you know, uh,

356
00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:39,080
Speaker 1: our yes is the answer. What's the question? Is not

357
00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:42,280
Speaker 1: permeating our organization well enough. We need to correct this.

358
00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:44,960
Speaker 1: And so we started a brainstorm and we started, well,

359
00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:47,359
Speaker 1: let's tell that story, Let's make a video of that story,

360
00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:51,280
Speaker 1: and uh, let's do milkshake pins Let's make milkshake the

361
00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:55,040
Speaker 1: icon of hospitality and CM are all great stuff, and

362
00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:59,360
Speaker 1: people have little milkshake going on right now. And basically

363
00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:02,920
Speaker 1: it says if someone asked for something a milkshake or otherwise,

364
00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:08,560
Speaker 1: if you could deliver it the answer exactly. So I Uh,

365
00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:11,119
Speaker 1: every new associated starts the company goes through a for

366
00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:14,399
Speaker 1: our orientation into the company culture and philosophy and values

367
00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,159
Speaker 1: and so forth, and we make every new associate that

368
00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:19,399
Speaker 1: starts with the company of chocolate milkshake that day, and

369
00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:22,840
Speaker 1: we take a lot further than that. We make thousands

370
00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:25,760
Speaker 1: of chocolate milk shakes every year. We start every major meeting,

371
00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:29,840
Speaker 1: every staff meeting with a milkshake, toast to everybody, celebrating

372
00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:33,040
Speaker 1: great people, delivering genuine hospitality, and yes is the answer.

373
00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:36,919
Speaker 1: What's the question? So how do you how do you

374
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:43,280
Speaker 1: make sure that the customer experience is consistent across all

375
00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:48,400
Speaker 1: of those different locations, different suppliers, different regions, different managers,

376
00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:51,560
Speaker 1: different staff members. If I walk into a camera Mitchell

377
00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:54,760
Speaker 1: Restaurant here, there or elsewhere, am I going to get

378
00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,960
Speaker 1: the same hospitality in the same meal or is it

379
00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:02,600
Speaker 1: going to vary widely? But you're gonna get the same

380
00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:05,840
Speaker 1: We are in UH coast to coast, were as far

381
00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:09,200
Speaker 1: west as Beverly Hills to New York and everywhere in between.

382
00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:12,199
Speaker 1: And we talked about our culture and values. You know,

383
00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:16,439
Speaker 1: we have the same training programs across the company, we

384
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:21,160
Speaker 1: have the same standards, etcetera. But our culture and values

385
00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:25,639
Speaker 1: UH is the backbone of what we do. And I

386
00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:28,919
Speaker 1: look at it this way, Um, we teach our people

387
00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:31,960
Speaker 1: our culture and our values. We teach them how to think,

388
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,000
Speaker 1: and if they know how to think, they'll know what

389
00:20:34,119 --> 00:20:38,280
Speaker 1: to do. And so early in our earlier years, our

390
00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:40,640
Speaker 1: culture and values as we spread out of town did

391
00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:42,480
Speaker 1: not resonate as well as it did out of town

392
00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:44,720
Speaker 1: as it does in town. Why what do you think that?

393
00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:48,600
Speaker 1: Because we opened our restaurants without a town people and

394
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:51,720
Speaker 1: so forth, and we uh didn't really know how to

395
00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:54,639
Speaker 1: transfer that culture and those vous. We didn't we brought

396
00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:57,040
Speaker 1: people in. We thought if we hired it outside manager,

397
00:20:57,080 --> 00:20:58,960
Speaker 1: then come in for eight to twelve weeks and train

398
00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:01,520
Speaker 1: and and learn. And it's just not that way. So

399
00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:04,960
Speaker 1: can you change twenty years of experience in ten weeks now?

400
00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:08,080
Speaker 1: Now we take usually take six months to a year

401
00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:10,520
Speaker 1: for an outside hire to really adapt and learn to

402
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:14,480
Speaker 1: our culture. So today we won't open a restaurant without

403
00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:18,160
Speaker 1: a homewre own management team in that restaurant. And it's

404
00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:22,240
Speaker 1: very important to inculcate that culture uh into that new property,

405
00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:26,399
Speaker 1: no matter where it is. So restaurants are notorious for

406
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:30,320
Speaker 1: having a very high failure rate. You described the second

407
00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:34,800
Speaker 1: restaurant you opened as, Uh, you're you're prepping, You're in

408
00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:39,399
Speaker 1: the empty building. A police officer comes in and, uh,

409
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:41,800
Speaker 1: he's just checking on the building. What he's doing here? Oh,

410
00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:44,680
Speaker 1: we're opening a new restaurant here. And at that point,

411
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:46,600
Speaker 1: after you already committed on the lease and you've already

412
00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:51,000
Speaker 1: raised money and we're under construction. Yeah, hey, what's this neighborhood? Like?

413
00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:53,520
Speaker 1: Is it safe? And he kind of surprised you with

414
00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:57,280
Speaker 1: his answer, didn't he? Right there, there's been some some trouble,

415
00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:00,240
Speaker 1: wasn't there. Yeah. So it was seven o'clock at night,

416
00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:03,440
Speaker 1: you know, the construction team's gone. I'm just it's a beautiful,

417
00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:05,919
Speaker 1: clear night, and I'm talking to the police officer. I

418
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,200
Speaker 1: look across, you know, a couple of blocks down the way.

419
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:11,920
Speaker 1: I see a lady dressed provocatively walking down the street.

420
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:13,959
Speaker 1: And I said to him, a lady in the evening.

421
00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:18,239
Speaker 1: That's in the evening early And I said, uh uh,

422
00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:20,760
Speaker 1: she prostituted. He was, oh, yeah, there's a bunch of

423
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:24,439
Speaker 1: them down there, but there's some hotel dinner. And I said, well,

424
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:26,879
Speaker 1: is this a safe area? You know? Yeah it is,

425
00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:28,760
Speaker 1: but you know, we had someone got killed. I was

426
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:32,200
Speaker 1: just seen two nights ago across the street here blood everywhere,

427
00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,520
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, my goodness, what have I done? So?

428
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:37,840
Speaker 1: And but you meanwhile, that restaurant was around for what

429
00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:42,920
Speaker 1: seven years? Yeah, But generally speaking, when a new restaurant launches,

430
00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:48,360
Speaker 1: that's that's a u The triumph of optimism over rationality,

431
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:52,159
Speaker 1: isn't it. Most restaurants don't even last two years, right,

432
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:55,840
Speaker 1: So how do you how do you manage that those

433
00:22:55,920 --> 00:23:00,520
Speaker 1: challenging odds and continue to open restaurant after restaurant. Well,

434
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,800
Speaker 1: that particular restaurant I say, made enough to feed a

435
00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:06,520
Speaker 1: cat for seven years. But anyways, and that was a mistake.

436
00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:08,480
Speaker 1: And we've made mistakes and make lots of mistakes. And

437
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:11,639
Speaker 1: I look at his batting average. Um, I look at

438
00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:13,720
Speaker 1: every five restaurants I opened, one is not going to

439
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:16,600
Speaker 1: do very well or might even close. The other three

440
00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 1: or what I call singles, doubles or triples, and then

441
00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,000
Speaker 1: and the other one, the fifth one is a home

442
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:22,719
Speaker 1: run out of the park. And so you average from

443
00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:25,159
Speaker 1: all together, I get five good ones. So we know

444
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:27,600
Speaker 1: we're gonna get mistakes, but we've we've gotten better our

445
00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:30,280
Speaker 1: craft along the way. And you know, I go back

446
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:34,000
Speaker 1: to um when the high failure rate in the restaurant business,

447
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:35,080
Speaker 1: to me is a little bit of them in this

448
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:39,800
Speaker 1: misnomer simply put, Uh, a lot of people want to

449
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:42,080
Speaker 1: be in the restaurant business, and they it's kind of

450
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:46,080
Speaker 1: very relatively low barrier gentry as far as cash. Still

451
00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:48,399
Speaker 1: a couple hundred grands to open any rest for your

452
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:50,399
Speaker 1: first one, maybe you can get away with that. You know,

453
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:53,000
Speaker 1: we spend millions of dollars today to open our restaurants,

454
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:55,720
Speaker 1: but certainly my first one was four hundred and put

455
00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:58,200
Speaker 1: it that way. But uh, I always say, people don't

456
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,800
Speaker 1: walk around a grocery store pushing a grocery cart saying

457
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:02,600
Speaker 1: I want to be a grocer, but they do go

458
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:06,560
Speaker 1: to restaurants. Let's say I want to And so if

459
00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:08,560
Speaker 1: you think if you take out the people that maybe

460
00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:10,560
Speaker 1: really shouldn't be in the restaurant business, out of that

461
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:12,760
Speaker 1: equation and the success rates a little bit higher. But

462
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:16,800
Speaker 1: because of that um it creates a lot of failure rate.

463
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:22,440
Speaker 1: So assume you have access to plentiful capital, especially your shop.

464
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,240
Speaker 1: You have a good track record for twenty five years.

465
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,680
Speaker 1: What's the most challenging thing about launching a new restaurant?

466
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:32,359
Speaker 1: Is it the location? Is it? The theme? Is that

467
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:36,679
Speaker 1: the food? What? What's the biggest challenge? Well, you already

468
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:38,880
Speaker 1: took my first challenge out of the picture. Has capital

469
00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:42,120
Speaker 1: access to plentiful capital? That's never been the case. It's

470
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:44,639
Speaker 1: it's a lot of capital. And you write in the book,

471
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:48,480
Speaker 1: how challenging. It was to constantly come up with every

472
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:52,560
Speaker 1: restaurant is four or five years ago, not not now,

473
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 1: that's today. That's two million dollars right right, exactly so,

474
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:58,159
Speaker 1: and if you're in New York, it's five millions. We

475
00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:01,040
Speaker 1: spent eleven million open New York. Really that's a lot

476
00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:03,760
Speaker 1: of money. Was it worth it? Very much? So? And

477
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:09,320
Speaker 1: I'm assuming Beverly Hills isn't cheap eve okay, we're so

478
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 1: that raises the question. You have a lot of restaurants

479
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:16,400
Speaker 1: in Ohio and Columbus. I would imagine that's much less expensive.

480
00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:19,000
Speaker 1: And if you could attract as much of a crowd,

481
00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:22,840
Speaker 1: are are those restaurants more profitable or are they not

482
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:25,639
Speaker 1: capable of doing the volume of a New York or

483
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:29,720
Speaker 1: l A both? I mean, it's it's it's a We

484
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:33,120
Speaker 1: talked about return on investment. It's about volume and uh,

485
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:37,080
Speaker 1: you know capital invested. So yes, there's less capital invested,

486
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:39,879
Speaker 1: but the lower the volume, so you might have the

487
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,720
Speaker 1: same return on investment as we have out somewhere else.

488
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:47,520
Speaker 1: So what are the other mistakes that that restaurateurs make?

489
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:51,000
Speaker 1: I have to assume being eneralized, we will take a

490
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:54,440
Speaker 1: break for dinner and we'll finish by midnight. Um, I

491
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:58,720
Speaker 1: under capitalization. I've heard from other restaurateurs. What what else

492
00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:03,000
Speaker 1: is an issue? Obviously by the book, Yes is the answer.

493
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,440
Speaker 1: What's the question? Is all about your values and your

494
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:08,800
Speaker 1: beliefs and your philosophies. I think are very important. A

495
00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:12,040
Speaker 1: lot of people start out. I don't even have any

496
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:14,800
Speaker 1: values written down, or any mission or anything. Don't even

497
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:18,600
Speaker 1: understand that. So that's that's first and foremost of my book. Uh,

498
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:23,439
Speaker 1: Understanding brand and brand development. Restaurant brand development. Uh, you

499
00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 1: know I'm gonna have a barbecue restaurant that's super healthy. Also,

500
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:31,400
Speaker 1: which is it? You're right, you can't have everything has

501
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:34,040
Speaker 1: to be congruent all the way across the brand. So

502
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:36,960
Speaker 1: an even restaurant branding itself has taken me years to

503
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,360
Speaker 1: really understand and and and maybe get a little good

504
00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:43,400
Speaker 1: at it. Now here's mine naivete as a foodie here

505
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:46,679
Speaker 1: in New York. If the food is really good, you

506
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:48,160
Speaker 1: really have to go out of your way to mess

507
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,000
Speaker 1: that up. Am I wrong? Once you get to wow,

508
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:54,600
Speaker 1: this food is great? Is that sufficient or does that

509
00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 1: not get it done? Well? That's just I think one

510
00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:59,640
Speaker 1: leg of the stool. What are the other likes well,

511
00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:03,400
Speaker 1: sir service, and you can debate whether food or service

512
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:06,879
Speaker 1: is more important or there's different studies on both. I

513
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 1: think they're about equal. Really, I'm surprised to hear that, Yeah,

514
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,720
Speaker 1: you remember bead service, but you don't you know, I can't.

515
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:17,719
Speaker 1: I can tell you about a million spectacular meals, but

516
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:22,640
Speaker 1: I don't recall every saying this waiter. Usually they're unobtrusive,

517
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 1: and when the service is really really good, you almost

518
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,600
Speaker 1: don't notice it. Right, unless you're in the industry, I

519
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:31,720
Speaker 1: can't help but notice it. You're not going to go

520
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,159
Speaker 1: to a place that's got great food even though the

521
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,439
Speaker 1: services loudy. Sometimes you have a bab But also you're

522
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 1: not gonna go to a place with great service and

523
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:42,480
Speaker 1: lousy food. Correct. Correct, So that's why I say, Hence,

524
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,679
Speaker 1: I think they're both equally important. Then, uh come as

525
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:47,760
Speaker 1: the ambiance, which is a lot of that is the

526
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: uh unobtrusive things that you may not even necessarily realize

527
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 1: whether you like or don't like. You know, you might right,

528
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:56,399
Speaker 1: you might sit in the restaurant saidies don't really like

529
00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: this place. You may not know why exactly, but maybe

530
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:01,399
Speaker 1: the lighting is not right or the music is not right,

531
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:05,920
Speaker 1: all those intangibles to a certain extent, and then marketing.

532
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:08,960
Speaker 1: You know, Um, you can't really have a successful restaurant

533
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 1: unless you also know how to market yourself because if

534
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 1: you're you don't have a great location, people need to

535
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 1: find you. So you have to spend a lot of

536
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:18,320
Speaker 1: time and energy and tuning your horn to a certain

537
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:20,800
Speaker 1: extent in marketing yourself. So it's really those are the

538
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 1: four legs of the stool in my book. So let's

539
00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:26,919
Speaker 1: talk about another intangible. You mentioned the music and the lighting.

540
00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:30,600
Speaker 1: I have some favorite places my wife refuses to go

541
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:34,600
Speaker 1: to on weekends because it's so crowded and it's so loud.

542
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:37,080
Speaker 1: It's not relaxing. You want to go on a Thursday

543
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:40,320
Speaker 1: or Sunday, I'm happy to, But Friday and Saturday night

544
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:42,960
Speaker 1: it's a zoo. Is that an issue you have to

545
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:46,240
Speaker 1: deal with or is that just my Uh? It certainly is.

546
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 1: You know, noise and sound is certainly an issue. We've

547
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 1: had to add soundproofing to restaurants along the way. But uh,

548
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:55,320
Speaker 1: you know, first of all, little energy has got to

549
00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 1: be right. I say, people go out to be stimulated,

550
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:02,320
Speaker 1: not to sedate it. So, uh, in a restaurant tours

551
00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: nightmare is an empty, quiet nighting room, so we don't

552
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 1: want those. So, uh, think about where we're coming from,

553
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,400
Speaker 1: and we we want loud. We want that energy. Energy

554
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:14,120
Speaker 1: breaves energy earlier. The staff is happier, the guests are happier,

555
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:16,920
Speaker 1: everybody's excited. Um. But you have to be able to

556
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:18,440
Speaker 1: talk at the same time. You have to be able

557
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 1: to converse and enjoy yourself. That that's pretty reasonable. We

558
00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 1: have been speaking to Cameron Mitchell. He is the founder

559
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,520
Speaker 1: and CEO of the Cameron Mitchell Restaurant Group. If you

560
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:32,880
Speaker 1: enjoy this conversation, be sure and check out our podcast extras,

561
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 1: where we keep the tape rolling and continue discussing all

562
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 1: things food related. You can find that at iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher,

563
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:46,200
Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot com, wherever your finer podcasts are sold. We

564
00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:50,360
Speaker 1: love your comments, feedback and suggestions right to us at

565
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:54,000
Speaker 1: m IB podcast at Bloomberg dot net. Check out my

566
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 1: daily column on Bloomberg dot com slash Opinion. You can

567
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,520
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at rid Halts. I'm Barry Rehults.

568
00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 1: You're listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. Welcome

569
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:13,920
Speaker 1: to the podcast, Cameron, Thank you so much for doing this.

570
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:19,720
Speaker 1: I am a a foodie and I've gone out to

571
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:25,920
Speaker 1: Michelin Star restaurants all over the world. I'm very happy

572
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 1: trolling my way through Chinatown finding random Malaysian restaurants or

573
00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:36,320
Speaker 1: Shanghai soupi buns or someone someone on Lynnette Lopez from

574
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:41,920
Speaker 1: Business Insider on Twitter mentions that there's this restaurant in

575
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:47,160
Speaker 1: Flushing called Galaxy Dumpling House, which goes, oh, they're opening

576
00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 1: a new location, they're testing out a franchise concept. And

577
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:53,000
Speaker 1: I said to her, we, you know, have some people

578
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: do a pub crawl to go to a bunch of cars.

579
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 1: We did a dumpling crawl through Queen through my birthday

580
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:03,080
Speaker 1: year ago, through Flushing Queens. We went like a dozen.

581
00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 1: I got home, I didn't eat for two days. It

582
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 1: was just that's a lot of dumpling. Galaxy Dumpling has

583
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 1: like a hundred different dumplings on the menu. It's just

584
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 1: and they're all, you know, individual hallmade. So I was intrigued.

585
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 1: But when I saw your book and I saw your

586
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,880
Speaker 1: your history, um, I was kind of intrigued by it. Um.

587
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by the idea of taking a successful restaurant

588
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:35,760
Speaker 1: concept and expanding it elsewhere, be it franchise or or

589
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:38,680
Speaker 1: your own approach. And every now and then I'll see

590
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:42,720
Speaker 1: you a little restaurant and say, this is little place

591
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:45,760
Speaker 1: not too far from where I live called Cactus Cafe.

592
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: It's just really good, simple Mexican food and grilled proving

593
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,640
Speaker 1: chicken in in a room smaller than we're sitting in

594
00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:56,800
Speaker 1: right now. And I was saying, every time I see

595
00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:59,360
Speaker 1: this place, some they could open a hundred of these

596
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 1: if they were wanted to. The stuff is it's not

597
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:05,760
Speaker 1: there's a million of these little places like that. This

598
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 1: is different, it's unique. I'm shocked nobody ever did that.

599
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 1: So I have to ask you, when you come up

600
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 1: with a concept that's successful, are some of these successful?

601
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:19,320
Speaker 1: Is just not translatable? It's just lightning in a bottle

602
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:23,280
Speaker 1: and it's that one location. And are you ever surprised

603
00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:25,720
Speaker 1: when something that you thought, oh, this is pretty good

604
00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 1: but not spectacular, and then it has legs in it

605
00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:30,800
Speaker 1: it keeps going? How do you How does that process

606
00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:33,600
Speaker 1: go from hey, this is a pretty good restaurant idea,

607
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 1: now they were a hundred of them. Well, it's kind

608
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 1: of a multi prompt question. I think. You know, not

609
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,400
Speaker 1: every restaurant operator wants to build multiple restaurants. Not every

610
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 1: you know, an under a restaurant operator wants to live

611
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:50,080
Speaker 1: on an airplane and travel all the time like we do. So, um,

612
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:52,320
Speaker 1: I personally wanted to build a national brand. I wanted

613
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: to do that, so we we kind of looked for

614
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:57,680
Speaker 1: it and we worked it. And building a national restaurant brand, uh,

615
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 1: takes a lot of time and effort, years years of

616
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 1: time and refinement of that brand. So it's not as

617
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:07,120
Speaker 1: simple as just replicating you're right, there is Uh, there's

618
00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:10,360
Speaker 1: certain regionalities of the country. You know, barbecue doesn't necessarily

619
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: travel all over the country. It's just different, especially different

620
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 1: types of barbecue. So there's just a lot goes into it.

621
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:20,120
Speaker 1: And I think just having a individual successful one restaurant

622
00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 1: doesn't always mean as translatable to build across the country

623
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:26,920
Speaker 1: or across the town. So now, what is the rusty bucket? What?

624
00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:32,920
Speaker 1: What is that? It's a corner sure foot hundred corner

625
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:36,760
Speaker 1: neighborhood tavern concept. It's uh, we put in affluent suburbs.

626
00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:39,280
Speaker 1: It's a great place. We really say it kind of uh.

627
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:43,120
Speaker 1: Uh is the default vote? You know, you've got kids,

628
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:45,480
Speaker 1: you want to go out to dinner? Uh you don't,

629
00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:47,479
Speaker 1: you know where wore the kids be happy? Where were

630
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:49,480
Speaker 1: mom and dad be happy? And that's where we're really

631
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 1: basically bedroom pasta's, pizzas, that sort of thing, but good

632
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 1: food from scratch, great environment. You know, the bar is

633
00:33:57,800 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 1: right in the middle of it. You're gonna have people

634
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 1: drinking at the bar and still walking with your kids

635
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:03,200
Speaker 1: and feel very comfortable. And it's that kind of place.

636
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,320
Speaker 1: So it's really those affluent suburbs were in six states

637
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:09,680
Speaker 1: right now around the country. So a chain like the

638
00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:14,160
Speaker 1: twenty three how large can that get? Is that something

639
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:16,800
Speaker 1: you would want to expand to two hundred restaurants or

640
00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:19,520
Speaker 1: is it you just have to find the right place

641
00:34:19,520 --> 00:34:21,480
Speaker 1: where it's a good fit. Well, we're still working on that.

642
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:25,920
Speaker 1: You know, casual dining itself and is um probably one

643
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:28,440
Speaker 1: of the more challenge parts of the restaurant business. So

644
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:33,000
Speaker 1: fine dining where Ocean Prime brand lies is doing very well.

645
00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:36,319
Speaker 1: We all know fast casual is doing very well. It's

646
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 1: it's uh um competitive, that's the thing that's saturated, you know,

647
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:44,560
Speaker 1: And I've never wanted to get into that fast casual

648
00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:47,280
Speaker 1: business because of that where do you draw the line

649
00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 1: on fast casual above, like, um, well, you know it's Chipole.

650
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:56,240
Speaker 1: You know everybody, everybody want to do the Chipole delivery model,

651
00:34:56,239 --> 00:35:00,279
Speaker 1: and and everybody wanted the success of Chipotle, and you

652
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:01,879
Speaker 1: know you've had a lot of failures along the way

653
00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:04,439
Speaker 1: with that too. And but you have everybody her brother

654
00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:06,920
Speaker 1: throwing money on it, trying to get into it, and

655
00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:09,479
Speaker 1: I've just uh tried not to do that. I didn't

656
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:12,160
Speaker 1: want to do that. What about all the burger chains

657
00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:15,600
Speaker 1: that are coming out to challenge McDonald's, some of which

658
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:18,279
Speaker 1: have really taken off very quickly. Sure, I mean shake

659
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:21,040
Speaker 1: Shack is actually a good example. Five Guys Burger is

660
00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:24,799
Speaker 1: another good example. Uh this At one point, I had

661
00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:28,360
Speaker 1: our vice president operations leave us because he wanted to

662
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:30,800
Speaker 1: do a burger joint and start to burger craze, and

663
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:32,640
Speaker 1: I didn't want to get involved with it. I mean,

664
00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:36,319
Speaker 1: that's a very competitive space and you have all the

665
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:40,919
Speaker 1: legacy McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, um go down the list,

666
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:45,919
Speaker 1: Arby's Summer margins. So that's a tough business that would imagine. Yeah,

667
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:48,600
Speaker 1: it's just something I prefer not to get into. So

668
00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:54,120
Speaker 1: Fast Casual is Chipotle and Higher. Yeah, you're not in

669
00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:56,239
Speaker 1: the fast cast. That's that we would call that as

670
00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:59,120
Speaker 1: limited service. There's counter service, etcetera. I'm we're in a

671
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:02,920
Speaker 1: full service space. The full service space is the casual

672
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:05,520
Speaker 1: brands like a Rusty bucket. You know, you can put

673
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:07,760
Speaker 1: Applebeas and Chili's in there if you want. There's others.

674
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:11,760
Speaker 1: Then there's upscale casual, and then there's the fine dinings.

675
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:14,840
Speaker 1: So we play in all three of those those segments.

676
00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:19,360
Speaker 1: Are there any upstir scale casual restaurants that have managed

677
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 1: to build more than just a local footprint, Well, sure,

678
00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:29,640
Speaker 1: the uh the national standard bearer, gold standard is Houston's

679
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:33,640
Speaker 1: uh said, polished casual segments. You know, those are who

680
00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 1: really the rest of us aspire to be cheesecake factories

681
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:39,239
Speaker 1: in it and that genre, you know, not as good

682
00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:44,200
Speaker 1: as Houston's. But on that genre there is respectable, huge,

683
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:46,520
Speaker 1: huge media. It's a little bit it's a different approach.

684
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:50,520
Speaker 1: But along those lines and and and those are the

685
00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:54,200
Speaker 1: you know, then there's the fine dining brands like Ocean Prime.

686
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:59,920
Speaker 1: That isn't a major markets across the country. So New

687
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:03,800
Speaker 1: New York pass some rule on New York City about

688
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:06,120
Speaker 1: if you have more than five restaurants with the same

689
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:09,960
Speaker 1: name in New York, there was certain disclosure requirements of them.

690
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:13,319
Speaker 1: So the Houston's and some other similar chains in New

691
00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:16,800
Speaker 1: York basically, well, we'll just change a couple of exacts

692
00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:20,680
Speaker 1: and thanks for the silly rule. Yeah. Um, there's the

693
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 1: national rule to that. Over twenty units, you have to

694
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:26,880
Speaker 1: label all your menu items with the calorie counts and

695
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:29,800
Speaker 1: all that. I think that's what the New York and

696
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:32,920
Speaker 1: you know that's UM. The jury is still out on

697
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:36,000
Speaker 1: really how that's affecting restaurants. I was talking to a

698
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:39,400
Speaker 1: CEO of another restaurant company that has done that, and

699
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:41,680
Speaker 1: and it's just shifted the way people order. It hasn't

700
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 1: really affected their business volume. So what does it do.

701
00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:47,040
Speaker 1: It affects the dessert order. Yeah, when they see lobster

702
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:52,040
Speaker 1: mashed potatoes or grotten at calories, they're ordering something else,

703
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:54,840
Speaker 1: but they're still ordering. So it hasn't really UM. And

704
00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:57,560
Speaker 1: you know where you believe and that I believe in

705
00:37:57,600 --> 00:37:59,520
Speaker 1: freedom of choice, and you know, people can do what

706
00:37:59,560 --> 00:38:03,919
Speaker 1: they want. The problem is once you put the calories down,

707
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:09,879
Speaker 1: you're nudging people in one direction or another. I guess, Um,

708
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:13,760
Speaker 1: let's talk about tipping. I that's a big issue some people.

709
00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 1: I was just in Iceland, where there is no tipping

710
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:20,520
Speaker 1: on the entire island, and when they told us that,

711
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:22,799
Speaker 1: I was kind of shocked. Although everything is kind of

712
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:26,120
Speaker 1: expensive there, so it's obviously no free lunch, it's built in.

713
00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:31,160
Speaker 1: That said, it was kind of nice not having to

714
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:33,799
Speaker 1: worry about it to think about it. Where do you

715
00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:37,800
Speaker 1: land on the should we have tipped servers or should

716
00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 1: we just pay them a salary and build that into

717
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:45,080
Speaker 1: the price. Well, I definitely differ on that than our

718
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:47,399
Speaker 1: friend Danny Meyer, who's leading the charge on the note

719
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:50,319
Speaker 1: tipping program. And I understand what he's trying to do.

720
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:52,760
Speaker 1: He's trying to bridge that gamp and the disparity between

721
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:55,080
Speaker 1: front of the house associates and back of the house

722
00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:58,879
Speaker 1: associates people and people in the dishwashers, the bus by

723
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:01,480
Speaker 1: people in the back. They're they're not making a whole

724
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:04,959
Speaker 1: lot of money compared to the bartenders, waiters, correct hostess.

725
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:07,600
Speaker 1: And I understand it. But uh, and again the jury

726
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:09,800
Speaker 1: is still out on whether it's really working or taking

727
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:12,919
Speaker 1: hold in his company, he's doing it, and he's making

728
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 1: that decision and trying to change the way we do business,

729
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:18,759
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of pushback. Um, you know, I'm

730
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:21,440
Speaker 1: trying to reserve judgment on that. I'm trying to keep

731
00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:26,040
Speaker 1: an open mind. But I don't really like that personally.

732
00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:28,400
Speaker 1: I like the tip, I like gratuity. I like uh,

733
00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:31,800
Speaker 1: great servers make more money than not so great servers.

734
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:36,200
Speaker 1: Think that's great. And now we on other hand, uh,

735
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:38,520
Speaker 1: tip of the hat to Danny. I mean, we're trying

736
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:40,520
Speaker 1: to take care of our back in the house associates

737
00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:43,319
Speaker 1: more and and and still able to do that and

738
00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:46,279
Speaker 1: giving them raises and paying them more along the way. Um,

739
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:47,960
Speaker 1: but you know, not everybody's cut out to be in

740
00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:49,520
Speaker 1: front of the house. Not everybody's cut out to be

741
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:52,200
Speaker 1: in the back of the house, and not everybody, uh

742
00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:55,200
Speaker 1: makes the same amount of money across America. So it

743
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 1: is what it is to a certain extent, and I

744
00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:01,400
Speaker 1: do personally like to up and I think it's one

745
00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:04,920
Speaker 1: of the great hallmarks and hospitality. So one of the

746
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,319
Speaker 1: questions we didn't get to during the broadcast portion was

747
00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:13,720
Speaker 1: the different regions in the country. Um, you mentioned Beverly Hills,

748
00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:18,760
Speaker 1: what about further up the West coast, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle.

749
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:21,840
Speaker 1: Are you in in those locales or are you interested

750
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,799
Speaker 1: in going there? Well, Uh, they're tougher markets to do

751
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:28,200
Speaker 1: business in because of the regulatory requirements and so forth.

752
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 1: But and we had a deal in actually Seattle, and

753
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:36,200
Speaker 1: we passed on that deal because of that. However, we're

754
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:39,080
Speaker 1: working on a project currently in San Diego, and we're

755
00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:42,439
Speaker 1: currently looking up in northern California. So um. And there's

756
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,440
Speaker 1: lots of great successful restaurants in California. Portland is a

757
00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:49,400
Speaker 1: fantastic food city, really good food city. Although people have

758
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:52,840
Speaker 1: told me that it's very difficult to move the needle.

759
00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:58,120
Speaker 1: If you need any sort of local government waiver or approval,

760
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:01,680
Speaker 1: it's can And there's a lot of independence. There's a

761
00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:07,320
Speaker 1: huge independent dining scene in too. So um. That's probably

762
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:10,399
Speaker 1: we might not be top of our list in terms

763
00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:13,920
Speaker 1: of national destuls. So you started in Ohio. What about

764
00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:19,360
Speaker 1: places like Chicago and Indianapolis and other major cities in

765
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:23,080
Speaker 1: the industrial Midwest, Sir, we're in uh we you know,

766
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:26,319
Speaker 1: we started building outside of Columbus in the Midwest. So

767
00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:31,640
Speaker 1: we're in Chicago, We're in Detroit, Indianapolis, Columbus. Um. Natural

768
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:33,440
Speaker 1: Movement from there in Florida. You know, we have a

769
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:36,440
Speaker 1: lot of those are where are you? Are you in Florida? Yeah,

770
00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 1: we're in Naples, Tampa, and Orlando, and we're looking now

771
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:45,040
Speaker 1: on the east coast, the Boca North Miami Palm Beach area.

772
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 1: And which which concepts do you want? Really? So you

773
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:53,360
Speaker 1: want to go high up, high ends in all those places? Correct? Correct?

774
00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:56,200
Speaker 1: Very very interesting. Yeah, Ocean Prime is the brand we're

775
00:41:56,200 --> 00:41:59,640
Speaker 1: building for the time being. Um, you know, we're you know,

776
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:03,480
Speaker 1: we may build more Rusty Buckets. Like I said, we

777
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:06,680
Speaker 1: have two concepts within our our independent group that we're

778
00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:08,879
Speaker 1: looking to maybe take outside. So I have to ask

779
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:12,240
Speaker 1: you a naming question, a brand new question. Ocean Prime

780
00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:18,880
Speaker 1: it sounds very high end, you fresh seafood, Prime, Steak

781
00:42:19,160 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 1: sounds great. Rusty Bucket isn't a name that comes to

782
00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:27,360
Speaker 1: mind about a restaurant. What what's the concept? Like the

783
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:31,200
Speaker 1: branding concept? It's casual. That name kind of came out

784
00:42:31,239 --> 00:42:35,239
Speaker 1: as a fluke and um and took off and it

785
00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:37,080
Speaker 1: has legs. But yeah, when we go to new markets,

786
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:38,960
Speaker 1: people like what is that? And we have to explain

787
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:43,040
Speaker 1: a little bit more. And restaurant naming itself is very

788
00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:45,880
Speaker 1: challenging because that name you want to reflect on what

789
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:48,879
Speaker 1: that brand is. It's just like Prime exactly, So how

790
00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:53,680
Speaker 1: does rusty? Yeah, but there are there are examples to

791
00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:56,360
Speaker 1: that that you know, have broken that mold to a

792
00:42:56,360 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 1: certain to me easier or not to me. I hear

793
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:01,520
Speaker 1: Rusty buck and I'm like, do I want a Rusty

794
00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:04,560
Speaker 1: bucket of food? It's it's so countintuitive, but I know

795
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:07,239
Speaker 1: that's been a very successful chain for you guys. So

796
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 1: whatever that quirkiness is, it seems to catch ps. But

797
00:43:12,520 --> 00:43:15,719
Speaker 1: but once people once it's in the neighborhood, people kind

798
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,560
Speaker 1: of it stays with them and it's like, oh, the

799
00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:23,240
Speaker 1: Rusty Bucket, it's a very different Um. It's not McDonald's clearly,

800
00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:26,360
Speaker 1: and it's not Ocean Prime, um, but it seems to

801
00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:28,879
Speaker 1: have found a sweet spot right in the middle. Well,

802
00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:30,600
Speaker 1: what you get is people say, let's just go to

803
00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:36,399
Speaker 1: the bucket, and it's just the bucket that that's that's

804
00:43:36,440 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 1: really interesting. So we went over tips um, and we

805
00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:46,319
Speaker 1: went over branding. I have to just a little bit,

806
00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:50,880
Speaker 1: just just put a toe into the con restaurant concept

807
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 1: creation because you describe in the book, you describe the process,

808
00:43:57,320 --> 00:44:00,000
Speaker 1: but it's very generic. You don't get into the specifics.

809
00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:06,279
Speaker 1: So I for my own curiosity, how do you come

810
00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:09,719
Speaker 1: up with the brand new concept that's different from are

811
00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:13,319
Speaker 1: you going to other restaurants? Is it brainstorm storming? How

812
00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:16,120
Speaker 1: do you come up with, Oh, this is a new idea,

813
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:19,600
Speaker 1: let's test it out, and now it's in fifty cities.

814
00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:23,719
Speaker 1: How does that happen? Uh? Well, I'm not sure there's

815
00:44:23,760 --> 00:44:26,399
Speaker 1: really a lot of new ideas out there. It's just

816
00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:30,680
Speaker 1: your version of your artistic impression of someone else's new

817
00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:34,799
Speaker 1: idea and the twenty people painting the fields out the

818
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:38,520
Speaker 1: window exactly. So I think, you know, in every restaurant

819
00:44:38,520 --> 00:44:40,880
Speaker 1: we've done kind of has a story to it, you know.

820
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:43,959
Speaker 1: Um we have a restaurant called the Barn at Rocky

821
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:47,799
Speaker 1: four Creek and it was an old barbecue restaurant, and um,

822
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:50,200
Speaker 1: our guy said, they called us and said, hey, we've

823
00:44:50,280 --> 00:44:51,840
Speaker 1: gone out of business. Would we like to put a

824
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:55,799
Speaker 1: restaurant there? And I said, no, we don't want to

825
00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:58,279
Speaker 1: this barbecue replace this bar now, we don't want to

826
00:44:58,320 --> 00:45:03,560
Speaker 1: do it. And I remembered, uh as I was saying that, Uh, well,

827
00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:05,880
Speaker 1: the one of the top grocering restaurants in the country

828
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:08,480
Speaker 1: is called the Angus Barn in North Carolina, and it's

829
00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:11,720
Speaker 1: the top restaurant in North Carolina. And I said, boy,

830
00:45:12,120 --> 00:45:14,359
Speaker 1: this barn is perfect for that concept. It could be

831
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:18,640
Speaker 1: perfect is the concept of the they say, uh, upscale

832
00:45:18,719 --> 00:45:21,840
Speaker 1: casual steakhouse, kind of a little little bit of a

833
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:25,680
Speaker 1: Ralph lauren Field. It's not fine dining, it's not all

834
00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:31,200
Speaker 1: white tablecloth, but it's it's approachable and um, between cat

835
00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:34,960
Speaker 1: fast casual and fine dining, well somewhere between fine dining

836
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:38,440
Speaker 1: and upscale cats just a little bit up there. But

837
00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:42,520
Speaker 1: and and we did it. We have another restaurants site

838
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:47,200
Speaker 1: in our short north of Columbus that this location became available.

839
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:50,279
Speaker 1: And this is back when the gastropub craze was going

840
00:45:50,320 --> 00:45:53,200
Speaker 1: on across the country. And and so we said, you know,

841
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:55,839
Speaker 1: I called the land ord up. He said, what are

842
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:57,560
Speaker 1: you gonna push? I said, I don't know, but I'd

843
00:45:57,600 --> 00:46:00,239
Speaker 1: like the site. But they'll be fried chicken with street

844
00:46:00,719 --> 00:46:03,439
Speaker 1: street tret shots sauce on it. And you're exactly In fact,

845
00:46:03,480 --> 00:46:06,160
Speaker 1: I was just there last night. So um, you know

846
00:46:06,440 --> 00:46:09,640
Speaker 1: it's just two pans now Ocean Prime. You know, we

847
00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:12,600
Speaker 1: we wanted to build a high end steak and seafood restaurant,

848
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:14,759
Speaker 1: and we didn't want to necessary Botto Steakhouse, and so

849
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:17,120
Speaker 1: that's how that it was. Original name was Mitchell's Ocean

850
00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:21,200
Speaker 1: Club and when we sold to Ruth Chris, I sold

851
00:46:21,239 --> 00:46:25,200
Speaker 1: the name Mitchell's specifically, so we saw had Caram's restaurants,

852
00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:27,319
Speaker 1: but it was Mitchell's Fish Market and I couldn't call

853
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:30,359
Speaker 1: Mitchell's Ocean Clubs. So that's when we rebranded and came

854
00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:33,719
Speaker 1: up with Ocean Prime and we felt it fit the

855
00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:37,279
Speaker 1: the concept perfectly. I know I only have you for

856
00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:40,000
Speaker 1: a certain amount of time, So let's jump to some

857
00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:45,640
Speaker 1: of our favorite questions that we ask all of our guests. Uh,

858
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:48,959
Speaker 1: nobody's gesturing at me yet, but sometimes they'll wave and say,

859
00:46:49,080 --> 00:46:52,279
Speaker 1: we have Uh, you know, I get the bring bring

860
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 1: the plane into the carrier. Um tell us the most

861
00:46:56,600 --> 00:47:00,359
Speaker 1: important thing? People don't know about your background? Although after

862
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:01,719
Speaker 1: the book, I don't know if there's a whole lot

863
00:47:01,719 --> 00:47:04,920
Speaker 1: of stuff. Yeah, that's a tough question because I am

864
00:47:04,960 --> 00:47:07,879
Speaker 1: an open book and its talks about that, and yes

865
00:47:07,960 --> 00:47:11,040
Speaker 1: is the answer. What's the question I would say? If

866
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:15,000
Speaker 1: what people really don't know about me? As I'm still

867
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:19,520
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, I'm still chicken little. I'm still scared every day.

868
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:24,600
Speaker 1: And uh, even with the national success we've had, I

869
00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 1: still wake up every morning and check our numbers and

870
00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:30,080
Speaker 1: see how we're doing. And and I'm nervous all the time.

871
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:33,880
Speaker 1: So that's that's a surprising answer. You you mentioned the

872
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:37,359
Speaker 1: fourth quarter for a Cameron Mitchell. Really at this point

873
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:40,000
Speaker 1: I should ask you, what what are your plans for

874
00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:43,920
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter? Well, two things one uh, and I'm

875
00:47:43,920 --> 00:47:47,799
Speaker 1: working on this currently is to move to truly a

876
00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:51,480
Speaker 1: chairman's role within the company, which is chief strategy officer,

877
00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:55,920
Speaker 1: if you will, uh. And then really uh chief steward

878
00:47:55,960 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 1: of the company and and legacy and stewardship of the

879
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:02,400
Speaker 1: organization and really about part and partial. While we were

880
00:48:02,440 --> 00:48:04,200
Speaker 1: at the book, guess as the answer, what's the question

881
00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:07,880
Speaker 1: is to share that knowledge and to tell that story. Uh.

882
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:12,080
Speaker 1: We uh were the lead donner. I'm opening and sharing

883
00:48:12,120 --> 00:48:14,799
Speaker 1: the fundraising efforts to build new eighty thousand square foot

884
00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:19,400
Speaker 1: Hospitality Management School and Columbus at Columbus State College. Um,

885
00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:22,360
Speaker 1: we are opening to Bud Dairy Food Hall, which is

886
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:27,360
Speaker 1: uh takes ten restauranateurs, young buddy restaurateurs will be in

887
00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:29,520
Speaker 1: this space. And our goals to help and we run

888
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:31,480
Speaker 1: the bars, and we run the food hall. We curated

889
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:34,640
Speaker 1: these restaurants, and our goal is to help take these

890
00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:39,400
Speaker 1: restaurateurs to bricks and mortar restaurants along the way. Um,

891
00:48:39,440 --> 00:48:42,120
Speaker 1: just all about the young leaders in our company, working

892
00:48:42,120 --> 00:48:45,640
Speaker 1: with them and helping build their careers, etcetera. Tell us

893
00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:51,680
Speaker 1: about some of your early mentors who helped guide your career. Yeah,

894
00:48:53,239 --> 00:48:56,800
Speaker 1: I didn't have really uh a lot of early mentors

895
00:48:56,800 --> 00:49:01,000
Speaker 1: and who I talked with. I believe people could have

896
00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:05,200
Speaker 1: mentors that they don't even necessarily know. Rich Melman and

897
00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:08,160
Speaker 1: Chicago that's entertaining your restaurants was certainly one of mine.

898
00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:12,520
Speaker 1: Norm Brinker from Chili's his book and he's been inspirational

899
00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:17,000
Speaker 1: to me. Dave Thomas from Wendy's his story. Um, there's

900
00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:20,279
Speaker 1: lots of those. Herb Color, CEO of Southwest Airlines. I

901
00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:24,080
Speaker 1: think their story and how he ran a business is incredible. So, um,

902
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:26,000
Speaker 1: those are some of the people I looked up to

903
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:28,120
Speaker 1: as I was coming up the ladder. You mentioned a

904
00:49:28,160 --> 00:49:31,600
Speaker 1: few books. What are some of your favorite books? Um,

905
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:34,799
Speaker 1: My all time great favorite book is good to Great.

906
00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:37,480
Speaker 1: Jim Collins. I'm a Jim Collins disciple. I think he

907
00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:40,040
Speaker 1: was instrumental in that book, was instrumental in helping turn

908
00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:42,960
Speaker 1: our company around and ultimately resulted in the sale of

909
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:45,840
Speaker 1: the fish Market. It's been instrumental in the ability of

910
00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:49,959
Speaker 1: the Ocean Prime brand itself. And um, so I love

911
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:53,560
Speaker 1: all the management books pat Lyncone. Uh, I've read every

912
00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:57,960
Speaker 1: single Spencer to the Who Moved My Cheese? One Man Manager,

913
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:00,800
Speaker 1: all those leadership books, I've it too. I find it

914
00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:04,120
Speaker 1: was very valuable. So and you you mentioned in your book, Um,

915
00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:07,640
Speaker 1: the Customer Comes Second. Any other books from your book

916
00:50:07,640 --> 00:50:12,440
Speaker 1: you wanna bring up a reference? Uh? Well, the Customer

917
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:14,880
Speaker 1: Comes Second was from how Rosen Booth that that was

918
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:20,080
Speaker 1: inspirational in helping me write the company Culture and Values. Uh. Um,

919
00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:22,600
Speaker 1: I think yes is the answer. What's the question I

920
00:50:22,640 --> 00:50:27,520
Speaker 1: think will be hopefully people. UM tell us about a

921
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:34,440
Speaker 1: time you've failed and what you learned from the experience. Um.

922
00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:37,080
Speaker 1: I'd like to think I've never totally failed. I've been

923
00:50:37,160 --> 00:50:42,720
Speaker 1: knocked down many, many, many times, and um the biggest Uh.

924
00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:45,239
Speaker 1: But I would think failure in my experience was we've

925
00:50:45,239 --> 00:50:48,759
Speaker 1: had restaurants fail, etcetera. I've made some mistakes there, but

926
00:50:49,000 --> 00:50:52,239
Speaker 1: really after two thousand eight, we just sold you know,

927
00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:54,720
Speaker 1: two thirds of our business for ninty two million dollars,

928
00:50:54,719 --> 00:50:58,239
Speaker 1: and I in my humorists and my ego, and I

929
00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:01,520
Speaker 1: ran out and signed a bunch more leases. I was

930
00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:06,360
Speaker 1: gonna uh another twenty plus million dollars in development. I

931
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:08,839
Speaker 1: was gonna rebuild the even that we sold and uh

932
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:10,520
Speaker 1: it took ten years to build. I was going to

933
00:51:10,640 --> 00:51:13,200
Speaker 1: rebuild it in three years. And and then the great

934
00:51:13,239 --> 00:51:17,160
Speaker 1: crash happened, you know, eight, and these restaurants didn't perform well,

935
00:51:17,320 --> 00:51:19,799
Speaker 1: and I almost ran a company off a cliff in

936
00:51:19,800 --> 00:51:23,360
Speaker 1: two thousand nine. It took some really lousy entrepreneuring to

937
00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:25,520
Speaker 1: get us into that mess, and it took some really

938
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:27,840
Speaker 1: hard work and great entrepreneuring to get us out of

939
00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:30,760
Speaker 1: that mess. So if a young millennial or a college

940
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:33,040
Speaker 1: grad came to you and said they were interested in

941
00:51:33,320 --> 00:51:36,319
Speaker 1: going into the restaurant business, what sort of advice would

942
00:51:36,320 --> 00:51:40,640
Speaker 1: you give them? First and foremost, anybody started a business,

943
00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:43,360
Speaker 1: I would say, get some experience. You know, we have

944
00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:45,560
Speaker 1: a lot of these young eighteen eight twenty year old

945
00:51:46,080 --> 00:51:48,160
Speaker 1: two I wanted to just graduate from college, start their

946
00:51:48,239 --> 00:51:51,200
Speaker 1: business and make a bazillion dollars, And I think people

947
00:51:51,239 --> 00:51:54,040
Speaker 1: need to get experience first, first and foremost and work

948
00:51:54,120 --> 00:51:57,319
Speaker 1: for some successful companies and understand what it takes to

949
00:51:57,360 --> 00:52:01,600
Speaker 1: be successful. UH. Secondly, they better think about their values

950
00:52:01,600 --> 00:52:03,520
Speaker 1: and their culture and what they stand for and get

951
00:52:03,560 --> 00:52:07,279
Speaker 1: those identified right away. And thirdly, you had to be

952
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:11,440
Speaker 1: willing to UH work your tail off and be knocked

953
00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:14,799
Speaker 1: down and get right back up. And entrepreneuri has been

954
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:16,520
Speaker 1: one of the toughest things I've ever done in my life,

955
00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:19,840
Speaker 1: if not the toughest thing. And our final question, what

956
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:22,959
Speaker 1: do you know about the restaurant industry today? You wish

957
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:25,399
Speaker 1: you knew twenty five years ago when you were first

958
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:28,160
Speaker 1: launching Oh, sure, you know. I think the biggest thing

959
00:52:28,200 --> 00:52:31,560
Speaker 1: I've learned really is the power of branding UH and

960
00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:34,400
Speaker 1: how to develop restaurant brands and how important that is

961
00:52:34,480 --> 00:52:36,719
Speaker 1: and that the brand, all the brand touch points and

962
00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:41,280
Speaker 1: the brand DNA UH is congruant with everything across that brand.

963
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:44,600
Speaker 1: So that took us a long time to learn, and

964
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:47,319
Speaker 1: it takes years to really refine a brand and really

965
00:52:47,360 --> 00:52:50,680
Speaker 1: to create a successful brand doesn't happen overnight. H quite

966
00:52:50,760 --> 00:52:54,480
Speaker 1: quite interesting. We have been speaking with Cameron Mitchell. He

967
00:52:54,760 --> 00:52:58,800
Speaker 1: is the founder and chairman of the Cameron Mitchell Restaurant group.

968
00:52:59,440 --> 00:53:02,560
Speaker 1: If you and joy this conversation, we'll be sure and

969
00:53:02,600 --> 00:53:06,320
Speaker 1: looked up an Inch or down an Inch on Apple, iTunes, Stitcher,

970
00:53:06,400 --> 00:53:10,200
Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot com, wherever final podcasts are sold, and you

971
00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:14,240
Speaker 1: can find any of our other two hundred and prior

972
00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:17,680
Speaker 1: podcasts over the past four years. We love your comments,

973
00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:20,560
Speaker 1: feedback and suggestions. Be sure and write to us at

974
00:53:21,239 --> 00:53:24,920
Speaker 1: m IB podcast at Bloomberg dot net. I would be

975
00:53:24,960 --> 00:53:27,440
Speaker 1: remiss if I did not thank the crack staff that

976
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:32,239
Speaker 1: helps put together these conversations each week. Medina Parwana is

977
00:53:32,320 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 1: our producer, Attica val Bron is our project manager. Taylor

978
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:40,320
Speaker 1: Riggs is our booker. Mike Batnick is our head of research.

979
00:53:40,920 --> 00:53:45,040
Speaker 1: I'm Barry Ridholtz. You've been listening to Master's Business on

980
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:46,040
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio.