Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping it Up. I'm your host, Mike Hallen,
Speaker 1: Senior restaurant and food Service analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. I'm
Speaker 1: excited to introduce today's guest, Scott Taylor, CEO of walk
Speaker 1: On Sports Bistro. Thanks for doing this, Scott, Thanks for
Speaker 1: having me. Man, good to see you. Good to see
Speaker 1: you too. Man, it's been too long, has it has?
Speaker 1: First things first, what's blackout Bingo? Oh dude, it's fun?
Speaker 1: So uh you saw our so man, Um, we came
Speaker 1: up this cool idea. Yeah, Like my wife and I
Speaker 1: owned this time share, Like what do you do with
Speaker 1: the time share? And like we always had these extra
Speaker 1: weeks and so we just started thinking about how can we,
Speaker 1: you know, give out this week like somebody on the
Speaker 1: team for doing cool stuff. And so we just came
Speaker 1: up with this idea of Fiestas. It's four games of chance,
Speaker 1: no skill required. So starts off with um dice and
Speaker 1: if you make it through that round, then you get
Speaker 1: into rock Paper scissors. If you make it past that round,
Speaker 1: then you get into like war like the card game,
Speaker 1: like ever gets the most and then it's blackout Bengo
Speaker 1: and whoever wins Blackout Bengo wins a trip, and all
Speaker 1: we tell them is like, you're gonna need a passport
Speaker 1: and sunscreen, or you're gonna need this or that. And
Speaker 1: then so this year we sent a guy to Putzkana.
Speaker 1: One of the guys in our it department was just
Speaker 1: super cool, So just a culture builder. And of course
Speaker 1: it's a half day. We started drinking margarita is at
Speaker 1: like eleven, So I guess that's where the blackout comes from. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody kind of blacks out at the end. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you blot all your numbers, you get that's great, and
Speaker 1: we'll get grandma, Yeah, that's awesome, and we'll get more
Speaker 1: into the culture because I think it's very important to
Speaker 1: the story here. But uh, for the listeners that don't
Speaker 1: uh that don't know walk ons, uh, can you talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about how the chain got started? Sure?
Speaker 1: So uh founders were both uh walk ons on the
Speaker 1: LSU basketball team back in the late nineties, and so
Speaker 1: if you don't want to walk on as a walk
Speaker 1: on as a non scholarship athlete. Basically they're the practice squad,
Speaker 1: they said them. They had the last two seats on
Speaker 1: the bench. Um, but you know, their job is a
Speaker 1: practice against the starters to make them great, you know.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, Brandon landry Our is our founder
Speaker 1: and chairman of the board here and I think his stories.
Speaker 1: He played twelve minutes a senior year. For the whole season,
Speaker 1: they didn't play a lot. You know, that's like you're
Speaker 1: doing super super clean up or either winning really big
Speaker 1: or just getting destroyed. So like put the walk Ons in,
Speaker 1: let them get them in, you know. But what's cool
Speaker 1: about it is, you know, first off, they figured out
Speaker 1: real quick they weren't going to play in the NBA
Speaker 1: um and so came up with this idea, you know,
Speaker 1: traveling around the country going all these great college campuses
Speaker 1: in the SEC you know, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, and all
Speaker 1: these campuses had that place to go, you know, right
Speaker 1: by campus by the football stadium and bat Rouge and
Speaker 1: LSU didn't have anything on the on the side of
Speaker 1: campus where he had all the basket the Maritage Center,
Speaker 1: the Tiger Stadium, alex Box for baseball, and so they
Speaker 1: there was this great piece of land that came available
Speaker 1: to share a private done with the LSU, and Brandon
Speaker 1: got his dad to like buy it quick. Had this
Speaker 1: idea for a restaurant, and his dad says it was
Speaker 1: good real estate. I don't know if my son would
Speaker 1: ever be a good restaurant tour, but it wasn't a
Speaker 1: bad investment. So he bought the dirt, you know. And
Speaker 1: then these guys are in college kind of did this
Speaker 1: as a school project. Um, the walk Ons restaurant got
Speaker 1: to see on the project just because they weren't restaurant guys. Um,
Speaker 1: you know. And uh, but what was cool the the
Speaker 1: professor said, hey, if you guys are serious, I like
Speaker 1: the idea. I'll help you long term put this together
Speaker 1: in a business plan, which he did. Very cool. Um.
Speaker 1: Then you know, get out of school. They aped a
Speaker 1: little bit bartending here there trying to figure out the
Speaker 1: restaurant business, you know, started going to banks the finance
Speaker 1: kind of to get this thing going. And you know,
Speaker 1: first six banks and you guys are great, but no way,
Speaker 1: too much risk get on the restaurants. You have no assets,
Speaker 1: like we're not gonna do anything. And so you know,
Speaker 1: but they went to the seventh bank. That Walkome mentality
Speaker 1: kicked in. Never take no, you know for an answer,
Speaker 1: and seventh banks said, you know, if you guys are
Speaker 1: willing to bust your tail, We'll back you, you know.
Speaker 1: And so they got that SBA loan back in the
Speaker 1: two thousand and two and open the original restaurant, which
Speaker 1: is right across the parking lot from our office here
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three September two thousand and three.
Speaker 1: So it's been a cool run bag. Think about that
Speaker 1: date real quick. We come back to do it September.
Speaker 1: What's happening in the fall September if you're in a
Speaker 1: campus in South Southeastern Conference freaking football, So you're going
Speaker 1: to open a ten thousand square foot three and fifty
Speaker 1: seat restaurant with no experience right from football starts. So yeah,
Speaker 1: like the early nickname for walk ons were weight ons
Speaker 1: or walkout or you didn't want to get you want
Speaker 1: to eat it? When you got it, it was just
Speaker 1: like it was just bad, bad, bad as it could be.
Speaker 1: And you know, but you know, the brand really kind
Speaker 1: of grew with these guys, and I think the fact
Speaker 1: that they were walk on so they just endeared themselves
Speaker 1: to the community. And you know, like, sorry, Michael, we
Speaker 1: messed up your lunch for the sixth time in a row,
Speaker 1: and please give us another try and here's more gift
Speaker 1: cards and you know, and so you know, those early
Speaker 1: years of just you know, getting kicked in the teeth
Speaker 1: and not know what you're doing, they just kind of
Speaker 1: figured it out and enrolled. But I think that sense
Speaker 1: of humility, sense of just you know, being honest and
Speaker 1: always being open to help, just trying to get better,
Speaker 1: not being big head. I'm the founder, man, don't you know,
Speaker 1: Like they really kind of figured it out as they went.
Speaker 1: And here we are today with in seventy five restaurants
Speaker 1: and eleven states and growing and the fact that they
Speaker 1: were well in the list, and I guess that's part
Speaker 1: of the reason why you're still here. Can you talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, how you when and how you first got
Speaker 1: Volpa walk Ons. So it's it's a it's funny story. So,
Speaker 1: you know, the restaurant business a small business. Everybody knows everybody.
Speaker 1: And so you know, I've been with Befo Bradies in
Speaker 1: Tampa and we'd sold our concept in private equity and
Speaker 1: I had this you know, period of time I was
Speaker 1: helping with the transition and then I had some time
Speaker 1: I could chill. They were paying me, you know, to
Speaker 1: sit at home, and I think one week into riding
Speaker 1: my bike, I'm like, this sucks, Like I gotta do something.
Speaker 1: And then a friend of mine reached out so that
Speaker 1: she was working with these guys in Baton Rouge. Do
Speaker 1: you mind your funny story, I won't say it, like,
Speaker 1: can you help me write a food safety program? That's
Speaker 1: kind of where they were at still in twenty ten,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, sure. It came up and you know,
Speaker 1: got to meet with some of the team and saw
Speaker 1: some of the opportunities that were here from a food
Speaker 1: safety standpoint at that point, and there was you know,
Speaker 1: for a freshed eyes coming in. There was just so
Speaker 1: much that needed to be done, you know, and it's like,
Speaker 1: how do you like deliver the message? I know what
Speaker 1: your baby, but your baby needs a bath and some
Speaker 1: new clothes, you know. But it's it's got a great concept,
Speaker 1: and these guys were like, man, if you can help
Speaker 1: us be better, we just wouldn't be better. Man, thank
Speaker 1: you for coming. And I'm like, I'd never met entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: founders that were so humble and just like tell us
Speaker 1: what we need to do, like we just want to
Speaker 1: be better. And so that that's kind of where it clicked.
Speaker 1: For me, and I was going back and forth from
Speaker 1: Tampa for a while before I decided I would move
Speaker 1: my family to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and uh, but we
Speaker 1: moved here, and you know, in twenty eleven, I've been here. Gosh,
Speaker 1: well in thirteen years. It's been a good run, very cool. So, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I covered Buffalo while Wings before I went private,
Speaker 1: and the impact of the sports calendar on sales was
Speaker 1: incredible and you kind of alluded that alluded to that
Speaker 1: talking about the walk On's first first store. How much
Speaker 1: to do sports impact your planning and how seasonal is
Speaker 1: your business? You know, early on it was very seasonal,
Speaker 1: you know, And you know the original location or LSU
Speaker 1: sales would fluctuate. Even in twenty ten, we would fluctuate.
Speaker 1: Sales would drop off sixty seventy percent when campus was
Speaker 1: empty because we were just that place for students or
Speaker 1: when there was a game. Today, I think our sales
Speaker 1: dip maybe ten percent when the students are gone, because
Speaker 1: we're very much a restaurant. And you know, early on
Speaker 1: walk Ons walk on those on that path to being
Speaker 1: a prototypical sports bar for a long time, and so
Speaker 1: we're relying on games and food was kind of secondary.
Speaker 1: But we've really changed that mindset where we're very much
Speaker 1: a restaurant. So you know, uh, sporting events are kind
Speaker 1: of we call land yap. You know, it's a little extra,
Speaker 1: but no, man, we don't rely on sports. It's Football's fun,
Speaker 1: but it's crazy and people sit longer, you know, I
Speaker 1: like a Wednesday night. Man, people are coming in and
Speaker 1: roll and returning tables and we can do the same
Speaker 1: kind of volume because they're coming for the food and
Speaker 1: that's kind of the hero. Now. Yeah, and you have
Speaker 1: a unique menu. Are there any signature dishes you think
Speaker 1: your customers have to try? And what are some of
Speaker 1: the most popular items that you sell? Yeah, so, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, we have amazing burgers. We sell a bunch
Speaker 1: of burgers. But I think the duck and on dewey
Speaker 1: gumbo will change your life. I think the crawfish a
Speaker 1: tooth fe which is just a traditional South Louisiana don't
Speaker 1: call the soup because it's not a soup, it's not
Speaker 1: a gravy, it's not a bisk i don't language call.
Speaker 1: But it's just really good, fantastic. So that's probably twenty
Speaker 1: percent of the menu is traditional Louisiana cuisine, but I
Speaker 1: would do you know, the Voodoo shrimp and grits, you know,
Speaker 1: big jumbo sixteen twenty golf shrimp. We peel in house
Speaker 1: fresh stuff with cream cheese, halapino wrapped with bacon served
Speaker 1: or sweet corn grits. I mean, some good stuff. And
Speaker 1: then also if you're if you're a dessert person, if
Speaker 1: you're not, we make Chris Crispy Cream donut bread pudding
Speaker 1: in house with all all donuts in it. Um, it's ridiculous, dude,
Speaker 1: it is ridiculous. So you definitely I would do that
Speaker 1: the donut put it for sure. Oh that sounds fantastic
Speaker 1: and making me hungry. I had earnings Darden's earnings this morning,
Speaker 1: so I haven't been able to eat yet. Oh, so
Speaker 1: have you changed the menu since the start of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of peers in the industry have
Speaker 1: have kind of paired the menu and they've tried to
Speaker 1: put some more maybe new items on the menu that
Speaker 1: travel well, um has what's been you know, what's been
Speaker 1: walk onto policy on that? Yeah, So you know when
Speaker 1: the pandemic hit, we were we were watching like we
Speaker 1: were probably some of that people saw it coming that
Speaker 1: they could be like what it was was shutting everything down.
Speaker 1: But I was like, man, people are gonna be getting
Speaker 1: to go like something, They're going to freak out, Like,
Speaker 1: let's just have some things in queues. So we added
Speaker 1: a lot to our menu with to go family meal
Speaker 1: pack things like that. We were doing margaritas to go
Speaker 1: because it's Louisiana, you can do that. We had that
Speaker 1: stuff kind of rolling early. Um. And then when the
Speaker 1: when we had to shut down our dining rooms, we
Speaker 1: kept the full menu or a lot of restaurants I
Speaker 1: think cut way back because of labor and which, like
Speaker 1: we just wanted to continue to serve what we serve.
Speaker 1: And and so you know, things we've added, things that
Speaker 1: have changed. You know, to Go is still I mean, god,
Speaker 1: start to Go went from like you know, seven eight
Speaker 1: percent to like fando of dining rooms, right, But we
Speaker 1: were we were fortunate because we had had created this
Speaker 1: love for the food that we clawed back eighty eighty
Speaker 1: five percent of our sales at new dining rooms just
Speaker 1: which was ridiculous. And so you know, I don't think
Speaker 1: most sports you know, think of most sports bars and
Speaker 1: people like let's get those freeze with or fire cheese sticks.
Speaker 1: You know, like they were coming in for a fresh
Speaker 1: salmon and stick, like maybe really good food. So but
Speaker 1: you know, certain things travel better than others. Fried foods tough,
Speaker 1: and so we looked at packaging, We looked at alternative
Speaker 1: things for sides, introduced some different stuff that you know
Speaker 1: probably traveled traveled a little easier. But um, we've always
Speaker 1: kind of had our our thumb on the pulse of
Speaker 1: like just being innovative with the food. It's got to
Speaker 1: be flavorful. You know, we don't buy anything that's pre
Speaker 1: bredit or frozen that goes in a fry, I mean
Speaker 1: very much a scratch kitchen. So you know, it gave
Speaker 1: us a chance to kind of innovate. And then you know,
Speaker 1: there was a value point where people were freaking out
Speaker 1: and they didn't have jobs, and so you had that.
Speaker 1: But you know, we kind of settled back into just
Speaker 1: like this cadence of like quality food and then driving
Speaker 1: technology on the side of like carry out okay cool. Uh,
Speaker 1: and we touched on the culture at the top and uh,
Speaker 1: it really seems to be a strong differentiator differentiator for
Speaker 1: the brand. So can you talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the culture. The rumble uh and uh if you if
Speaker 1: you'd like to share any you know, employee turnover turn
Speaker 1: So like cultures everything, man, I think, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I think restaurant people in the restaurant business. It's it's, uh,
Speaker 1: we're just not supposed to be successful. Like if you're
Speaker 1: a kid and you tell your parents that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be in the restaurant business, So like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: Like when you're gonna get a real job. I remember
Speaker 1: my parents like, when are you going to get a
Speaker 1: real job? Stop doing that restaurant thing. What'd you go
Speaker 1: to college for. I'm like, oh my god, you know
Speaker 1: you can make money, mom and dad. Right. But um,
Speaker 1: so there's that underdog mindset that we have at walk On,
Speaker 1: which is that, you know the walk On you're the underdog,
Speaker 1: and so we kind of leverage that in our culture
Speaker 1: that you know, everybody's got a story team before self
Speaker 1: about the name on the front, not the back. And
Speaker 1: so we corral everybody there because like I said, we're
Speaker 1: just not supposed to be good, right, And even even
Speaker 1: our elected officials set we were unskilled workers at some point.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, come, come work, Come work on the
Speaker 1: line out of Friday Night. I'll show you. But nobody's
Speaker 1: saying anything, right, so you know, but for us cultures, everything,
Speaker 1: you know, the rumble is something. It's really cool and
Speaker 1: I was just talking to somebody about it the other day.
Speaker 1: It's it's authentic because it came from a point of
Speaker 1: like when we sucked the worst in what we were
Speaker 1: doing and we'd opened a restaurant. It's twenty eleven, you
Speaker 1: open a restaurant in the laugh yet and we'd never
Speaker 1: been owned for our food and we were fifty fifty
Speaker 1: food alcohol in Baton Rouge and we opened this first
Speaker 1: restaurant out of the market. But it was really I
Speaker 1: was I was still coming back and forth. It was
Speaker 1: my menu with Brandon, but we basically just amped it
Speaker 1: up fresh everything. Food was amazing. As we opened this
Speaker 1: restaurant and seven million dollars restaurant, we're doing eighty percent
Speaker 1: food and just getting our getting our ass kicked, honestly
Speaker 1: every day. And so the fourth day we were open, somebody,
Speaker 1: I don't know who did it, said we should start
Speaker 1: doing to go worse because we were like barely keeping
Speaker 1: our head above water, not doing anything to go and
Speaker 1: so I remember like seeing all these tickets. There's when
Speaker 1: we had tickets and I'm like, what all these tickets
Speaker 1: were to go? And like the guy on expo had
Speaker 1: like tickets wrapped around and packed and like nobody know where,
Speaker 1: what food was going where. I'm like, we're just like
Speaker 1: crashing and burning and people are pissed off. And I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I went up to the hostess and
Speaker 1: we put this little note on the door that said
Speaker 1: closed for a gas leak. We didn't have a gas
Speaker 1: but it was done. It was the only way that
Speaker 1: we could get everybody out of the restaurant somewhat orderly fashioned,
Speaker 1: and they didn't hate us. They were more like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, you guys gonna be okay, Like, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: gonna be okay, We're gonna be fine. We're worried about
Speaker 1: your safety, you know, and it's like they've got it
Speaker 1: contained back there. It's just more of a cautionary thing,
Speaker 1: you know. And we emptied the restaurant out and just
Speaker 1: sat there and looked at each other like, man, we
Speaker 1: have got to stop being scared. We've got to be
Speaker 1: better prepared. There were some things we needed to change
Speaker 1: and how we opened up, but like the biggest thing
Speaker 1: is like, man, we've got to come in here prepared
Speaker 1: to kick ass, not getta ask kicked every day and
Speaker 1: so that rumble was a release of frustrations. We busted plates,
Speaker 1: punched holes and walls. I mean just like went nuts
Speaker 1: and let's get it all out now. Because we closed
Speaker 1: at two o'clock, we were closed for the day. We
Speaker 1: may have drank a beer or two, but like when
Speaker 1: we come in tomorrow morning at seventy am, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be ready because we're gonna we're gonna kick ass. And
Speaker 1: so that rumble we do it every day, twice a
Speaker 1: day at every restaurant, and it just signified it's it's
Speaker 1: our rally call to like let's kick ass. No, it's
Speaker 1: I really appreciate your ability to think on your feet.
Speaker 1: The guess like was fantastic, and a mentor that said, man,
Speaker 1: just shake stuff up, and I was like, I remember
Speaker 1: texted and I was like, guess what I did. He's like, dude,
Speaker 1: like kind of it's like kind of sucks, but it's cool. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: very cool. Um, whatever you need to do to survive, right, Um,
Speaker 1: is there any you know, employee turnover data that that
Speaker 1: you're willing to share. I mean, has that that kind
Speaker 1: of culture helped helped you in that aspect? Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know so I think, um, people go back to code,
Speaker 1: it'll be like it's still there, I guess. But like,
Speaker 1: you know, when you had to furlough all your people,
Speaker 1: you know what a shitty word like nobody like, but
Speaker 1: you had to basically let all your people go because
Speaker 1: you didn't have a job or a bartender or a
Speaker 1: server or a bus or and most of your kitchen staff.
Speaker 1: And so you know, we're a debt free company. What
Speaker 1: had happened. I remember having a conversation with Brandon and
Speaker 1: Drew Brees when our partners, like guys were probably gonna
Speaker 1: have a little debt. We gotta take care of our people,
Speaker 1: and we made sure we fed everybody every single day
Speaker 1: at every restaurant, like come get a meal, meal for
Speaker 1: your family. And we just kept in touch with them
Speaker 1: every week and a newsletter what's going on, try to
Speaker 1: get them all unemployment. I remember talking to these third
Speaker 1: party delivery guys just getting our people set up to
Speaker 1: drive vehicles to deliver. So he just had jobs, you know,
Speaker 1: And then then listen, I'll give the credit Randy to
Speaker 1: win his crew and Dallas came up with for a
Speaker 1: little kitchen and I saw it. Actually, my wife saw
Speaker 1: it on Facebook and something. She's like, Scott checked this out.
Speaker 1: So I hit a Brandy said, man, I said, I
Speaker 1: love your idea. I want to steal it, but can
Speaker 1: we partner because I want to get our people back
Speaker 1: to work too, And so he was like, yeah, we
Speaker 1: had a marketing Remember we had a marketing zoom with
Speaker 1: his team and our team, and there's somewhat competitors day
Speaker 1: on Twin Peaks at the time too. I'm like, let's
Speaker 1: just figure this out. And and gosh, like eighty thousand
Speaker 1: meals we've served with for a little kitchen. But all
Speaker 1: that being city's about turnover. We got our people back
Speaker 1: to work. We didn't put a note on the doors
Speaker 1: call this number for your final check. We engaged, we
Speaker 1: stayed engaged, and like when we were able to hire
Speaker 1: people back, they came back and the people that treated
Speaker 1: like their teammates like crap came to us to work.
Speaker 1: So we've not had an issue getting staffed up. We
Speaker 1: don't have a now hiring banner in front of our restaurant,
Speaker 1: but a lot new because we just treat our people
Speaker 1: right and then not turnover. I mean, everybody's got turnover.
Speaker 1: I think if we have turnover a lot of times, yeah,
Speaker 1: we could hire the wrong persons whatever, But man, I
Speaker 1: think that we got over a way to try to
Speaker 1: figure out how we're going to impact somebody's life. And
Speaker 1: that's like when I talked to our to our operators,
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, yeah, this is a rough business if
Speaker 1: if it doesn't have a higher purpose somewhere, like it's
Speaker 1: just kind of you get beat up, punch in the
Speaker 1: face a lot, you know, a lot, a lot of
Speaker 1: grace and appreciation. But you know, if you go back
Speaker 1: and see how you're creating a path for somebody and
Speaker 1: creating an environment where the team is bigger than the
Speaker 1: individual and people just feel like they're part of something
Speaker 1: even though they don't stay in the restaurant businessman just
Speaker 1: haven't had some moment where you impacted that individual. So
Speaker 1: that's that's like such a mission with the team, so
Speaker 1: they don't typically leave. Yeah, just feel like they're part
Speaker 1: of something cool and we're gonna be there for them.
Speaker 1: So yeah, no, it's awesome. Um, how many units do
Speaker 1: you have right now? And what's the split between the
Speaker 1: company owned and franchise units. So we have seventy five
Speaker 1: locations was opened in Auburn just outside of Auburn, Alabama.
Speaker 1: Last month. We have seventy two franchise, three corporate. We
Speaker 1: had up to nine corporate which we sold strategically to
Speaker 1: franchise groups when they were coming in, so they kind
Speaker 1: of have a training location, you know. But our our
Speaker 1: plan is to continue to add some corporate locations because
Speaker 1: you got to skin in the game, and you know,
Speaker 1: franchise he's always wondered, are you living off the top
Speaker 1: line or do you understand what it's like to live
Speaker 1: off the bottom. And so we've got a understand and
Speaker 1: reap the benefits and feel the pain, you know, so
Speaker 1: that we're making good decisions. But our strategy can be
Speaker 1: more kind of like getting into a newer market, maybe
Speaker 1: planning a flag and building out some corporate locations and
Speaker 1: maybe you know, working with a franchise group to take
Speaker 1: those over. Then we'll go do it again so we
Speaker 1: can be good. You understand the costs to build them,
Speaker 1: the costs to operate them, all that stuff. Man, if
Speaker 1: you're if you're just sitting on the sideline going. I
Speaker 1: know it's more expensive, you know, but you gotta do it, Like,
Speaker 1: we just need to be in it so we can
Speaker 1: feel it. So I think there's something to be said
Speaker 1: for building and running them, selling and building and running them,
Speaker 1: selling them as even being fully engaged in the cycle.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of yeah. I think it's critical to
Speaker 1: have no I think that's critical to having a healthy
Speaker 1: relationship with your franchisees for sure. Okay, so how fast
Speaker 1: you're growing? How many units are you looking to build
Speaker 1: this year? Are they? You know, how many of those
Speaker 1: are franchised? And I guess what percentage of franchisees opening
Speaker 1: units are coming from within your system? So hopefully we'll
Speaker 1: open fifteen to eighteen this year, um, and our pace,
Speaker 1: we'd love our pace to be at that twenty UM,
Speaker 1: because there's a lot that goes into opening a restaurant.
Speaker 1: We put a tremendous amount of support with seventeen eighteen
Speaker 1: people on the ground for three weeks. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just a we're in it, right and so uh it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's not it's it's quality versus quantity on that side. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, early on it was a lot of
Speaker 1: kind of somebody who knew somebody with the early franchise
Speaker 1: e Um, but man, we've got we've got folks that
Speaker 1: were NFL athletes. It's interesting. Our deal is a almost
Speaker 1: like we're matchmakers because you've got somebody who's got the
Speaker 1: net worth that wants to get in it, but they
Speaker 1: have no desire to run it. And you've got somebody
Speaker 1: who's a seasoned restaurant executive that wants to kind of
Speaker 1: work for themselves. Maybe they don't have everything to put
Speaker 1: it together to do the deal, and we kind of
Speaker 1: put them together and it's kind of magic from there. So, um,
Speaker 1: that's kind of where we will if we really focus
Speaker 1: on it. But yeah, I mean corporate growth. I said,
Speaker 1: we'll do some things probably in twenty four, but this
Speaker 1: year we all franchise growths. Okay, very cool. What are
Speaker 1: you using to help inform your site selection? So we
Speaker 1: work with East Site Analytics, which kind of lays out
Speaker 1: and they're a great program. There's a lot of them
Speaker 1: out there. You know, the more the more data points
Speaker 1: and the more you have restaurants have been opened for
Speaker 1: a while, the better the data. But the perfect scenario
Speaker 1: is a franchise in the market that's from that market
Speaker 1: because at that point, obviously the locations I'm almost kind
Speaker 1: of irrelevant as long as you can have good access
Speaker 1: and you don't have to be off the interstate with
Speaker 1: a sign and you know, we don't have a certain
Speaker 1: traffic count number you have to have because honestly, the
Speaker 1: most best performing restaurants for in these tertiary markets where
Speaker 1: you know, you're just kind of the big dog in town,
Speaker 1: and and so it really has the franchise e has
Speaker 1: a lot to do with the site selection, and the
Speaker 1: size of the market has a lot to do, you know,
Speaker 1: with the franchise too. And we love these little markets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's great if the franchise e has a connection
Speaker 1: already to that market, right, because community is so huge, right,
Speaker 1: it's a big part of what Chick fil a does, right, absolutely, Man,
Speaker 1: They'll they'll outperform a corporate restaurant all day long because
Speaker 1: they're just they're in it, man. And then even with
Speaker 1: think about COVID, you know, if you own it, your livelihood,
Speaker 1: everything's on the line for you. Like you're you're resilient,
Speaker 1: you're innovating, you're out there, like you're not taking anything
Speaker 1: put at you, you're going after it. And so that's
Speaker 1: why I think franchise systems with great franchise ease survive. Man.
Speaker 1: They didn't just survive, they thrived because failure was not
Speaker 1: an option. Man, that's you've gotten, you know, everything on
Speaker 1: the line. So, um, I think that's what helped us. Quite.
Speaker 1: That's great. Uh, that's for sure. Man. Restaurant the restaurant
Speaker 1: industry and restaurant tours are definitely very resilient. They've they've
Speaker 1: proven that over the last year few years. Nothing else
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, you know, I think what's what's
Speaker 1: pretty cool about our deal? So, you know, franchising, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people get into it just because like, oh,
Speaker 1: it sounds great to make a bunch of money. And
Speaker 1: you know, you know, Drew Brees bought our company in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. You know, the two founders separated in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: and so Brandon uh stayed here and with us. But
Speaker 1: we were just talking about franchising. I'd come from a
Speaker 1: franchise background, Drew Brees as a franchise he was Jimmy Johnson,
Speaker 1: So him coming in and I remember Drew Brandon, myself
Speaker 1: and our other partners sitting down just talking about like
Speaker 1: if we're gonna franchise, you know, what do we want
Speaker 1: to do? And I remember Drew's agent talking about kind
Speaker 1: of their experience as a franchise and they had a
Speaker 1: good experience, but like, you know, what were the points
Speaker 1: of pains with franchise eas And it's typically marketing money
Speaker 1: and then what do I have to buy? And how
Speaker 1: much money you're making on the back end and when
Speaker 1: you make me buy right? And so it's like why
Speaker 1: don't we if we come up something that's transparent, there's
Speaker 1: no gotchas. You know that they can see where their
Speaker 1: marketing money comes in. That all actually gets spent in marketings,
Speaker 1: not paying part of my salary or a bonus. It's
Speaker 1: like it's media's media. And then if we're getting supply chain,
Speaker 1: we're negotiating on your behalf. We're not making gumbo and
Speaker 1: then shipping and you got to buy it from most
Speaker 1: of the marketing it up ten bucks. Just being transparent
Speaker 1: and open and clean would be the way to start it.
Speaker 1: And then the other part being man like let's build
Speaker 1: the infrastructure, let's let's let the higher for the vision
Speaker 1: not to need the vision is be you know, the
Speaker 1: best franchise or possible. It means we've got to get
Speaker 1: those people nout, make sure they're the right culture fit,
Speaker 1: they don't flame out that we need. We have them
Speaker 1: on board before we have to have them. And so
Speaker 1: those are things that you know, I'll give a shout
Speaker 1: to Drew and Brandon and Rick and at the time,
Speaker 1: just like, you know, we're not going to make any
Speaker 1: money for a while, but let's build something on the
Speaker 1: front end so that it'll pay the dividends on the
Speaker 1: back end. And it really has because we've done very
Speaker 1: well today. But I think if I be not invested
Speaker 1: in all of that on the front end culturally support wise,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't be where we're at today. Very cool. Is
Speaker 1: there any unit economic data that you'd like to share? Yeah, well, sales,
Speaker 1: I can talk about that, right unless some of the
Speaker 1: issue with NFDD. So we're excited to know out there.
Speaker 1: I think we have one of the leading kind of
Speaker 1: avs in the industry. We're just shy at five point
Speaker 1: one million per unit, so the economics are good at
Speaker 1: that volume, right, and uh, you know, we we focus
Speaker 1: on one thing we've learned during COVID, which is crazy
Speaker 1: is that, you know, we opened restaurants with no dining rooms,
Speaker 1: which is crazy to go on because they were in
Speaker 1: a construction they had to open. And then we opened
Speaker 1: gosh seven or eight with fifty percent ocumancy, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty five percent ocumancy, but we saw it fifty. We're
Speaker 1: setting national sales records, like doing more volume with half
Speaker 1: the dining room shut down. So it's like, we don't
Speaker 1: need all these seats. Number one, the kitchen was way
Speaker 1: more efficient. We could turn tables faster and get the
Speaker 1: food out faster. So you know, from the eight thousand
Speaker 1: square foot model, we went to seven and now we
Speaker 1: would have a six just over two hundred teats instead
Speaker 1: of two hundred and eighty seats, and it generates the
Speaker 1: same volume. But the economics flow from the cost of
Speaker 1: labor to build it. Everything just flows so much better.
Speaker 1: So that's that's always our focus, like how do we
Speaker 1: what do we take out we're not getting credit for
Speaker 1: and then if we don't need that, let's just streamline
Speaker 1: it to to do it. So the economics are getting
Speaker 1: better and better and the sales are fantastic. Are there
Speaker 1: any tech upgrades that you're working on? And can you
Speaker 1: talk about the process of selling franchisees on the benefits
Speaker 1: of upgrading their technology early. Yeah, So, I mean every
Speaker 1: single piece of tech I think we're upgrading changing this year.
Speaker 1: I mean pretty much everything POS system, loyalty, online ordering,
Speaker 1: order aggregate or order the table our Kadias system in
Speaker 1: our kitchens. We are absolutely upgrading every single thing across
Speaker 1: the board. What we were able to do was work
Speaker 1: with suppliers and sentenced to fund most of that for
Speaker 1: our franchisees because it could be a big sticker shock,
Speaker 1: you know, but once again, you're you're you're working with
Speaker 1: the supplier. It's like work with us here because one
Speaker 1: day we'll be here and like, let's have a long
Speaker 1: term partnership. So we spend a lot of time figuring
Speaker 1: out how to get this to the franchise em without
Speaker 1: hitting them with a big shock price tag. Well listen,
Speaker 1: it's all been tested embedded. So like we know when
Speaker 1: you put in an online order aggregator and what that
Speaker 1: means basically you've got Ubree, store, Dash, all these different things.
Speaker 1: And so unless you have an aggregator, you've got all
Speaker 1: these tablets in your kitchen and you've got to take
Speaker 1: this order, then you've got to transpose it and put
Speaker 1: it into your pos and there's errors and it's clunky.
Speaker 1: And when that aggregator hit man to go sales, boo.
Speaker 1: We went to handhelds with toast from a loha um table.
Speaker 1: Turn times went up faster, the food got the kitchen
Speaker 1: was less stressful. So like there's there's a positive to
Speaker 1: every single thing we've done in the franchise ees or
Speaker 1: just let's roll, you know, because they know that, you know,
Speaker 1: tech is going to be what drives functionality and efficiency,
Speaker 1: and so that's this year is all about functionality and efficiency.
Speaker 1: But we have a whole side little thing going this
Speaker 1: innovation cool stuff on tech that how do we differentiate
Speaker 1: you know, fourth bar environment ATTDS? What can we do
Speaker 1: with tech to mac? You know, when a game's not on,
Speaker 1: what are you doing inside the four walls to kind
Speaker 1: of you know, create some things and AI like it's
Speaker 1: super weird. I don't know a lot about it other
Speaker 1: than it's like can do everything. And so how do
Speaker 1: I get to know you that you're a Yankees fan
Speaker 1: and you like to eat out on Tuesdays? And I
Speaker 1: connect with you somehow? And I just hit you up
Speaker 1: at the right time when you're thinking about me, and
Speaker 1: you come in and we're always friends. And so there's
Speaker 1: just there's this whole relationship that you can create with
Speaker 1: technology with customers and it doesn't have to be about
Speaker 1: points and a free cheese fry once you spend one
Speaker 1: hundred bucks. We can do a lot. Yeah, it's cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And going back to you know, and this kind of
Speaker 1: ties back to what you said earlier on how important
Speaker 1: it is to have some restaurants having some skin on
Speaker 1: the skin in the game, right, so you can roll
Speaker 1: out the technology first yourself. Yeah, we're testing it all ourselves.
Speaker 1: We're experimenting on ourselves big time. And so and they
Speaker 1: like that. Listen, we punch ourselves in the face and
Speaker 1: a couple of things too, and they're kind of like, okay,
Speaker 1: giggling a little bit, but like, at least we did
Speaker 1: it to ourselves. Ye, so that you know, we don't
Speaker 1: want to I mean, your your integrity is everything, right,
Speaker 1: So you want to put something out there if you
Speaker 1: don't have it fully thought through and vetted, and the
Speaker 1: data has got to support all the decisions you're making.
Speaker 1: Because thus use a franchise. Ord's so easy to like
Speaker 1: just here you go, you gotta do this, you got
Speaker 1: to do that, And I think that's where you got
Speaker 1: these weird relationships with franchise ords and franchise ease. But man,
Speaker 1: they see the painstaking process we go through and that
Speaker 1: we make these decisions based on the data, not because
Speaker 1: it's something I like or the Brandon wants to do
Speaker 1: or it's like no, it's like it's going to drive
Speaker 1: the business and here's what supports it, and then they're
Speaker 1: all in. You know, nobody likes to be told to
Speaker 1: do unless they see the you know, the benefit of it. Um,
Speaker 1: how are you seeing financing tightening up at all for
Speaker 1: your for your franchise ease? Yeah? You know what's it's interesting, Like, um,
Speaker 1: depending on what you're trying to go after. There was
Speaker 1: a point you know, when you look at real estate,
Speaker 1: there's ground leases. Ground leases are crazy because you know,
Speaker 1: they own the dirt and you got to try to
Speaker 1: build on something which you can't finance that. So those
Speaker 1: are always hard. Um, but it's not really there's there's
Speaker 1: so many different ways to do it and um, you
Speaker 1: know what what's been interesting and you know, kind of
Speaker 1: a sad byproduct Onega in covid Is. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of available real estate of former restaurants that are great locations,
Speaker 1: and like man our strategy, we can get in there
Speaker 1: and bring life back to a building that was a
Speaker 1: TGI Friday's or a different brand, and let's go in
Speaker 1: there and do that because it opens quicker, the economics
Speaker 1: are there. Um, it's less for the franchise, he out
Speaker 1: of pocket and we can get up and run. And
Speaker 1: and those guys did a great job on real estate selection.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're they're brand just kind of lost its way
Speaker 1: over time, but and that's not a dog on Fridays,
Speaker 1: like I like Fridays. But you know, there's just just
Speaker 1: real estate available. So that's that's kind of gone after it.
Speaker 1: That is way more bankable. Um, because you're doing equipment
Speaker 1: loans and renovation loans. You're not doing big takedown buildings
Speaker 1: and um, so we found creative ways to work it out.
Speaker 1: That's great. And I'm sure the fact that you know
Speaker 1: you have seventy five units and you're growing your AUVs
Speaker 1: is helping as well. Oh yeah for sure. Um. All right,
Speaker 1: so I recently read that small Sliders Small Sliders was
Speaker 1: spun out out of walk On. So I had the
Speaker 1: pleasure of meeting Maria Rivera recently we did a panel together.
Speaker 1: Um Ri is awesome. Yeah, she's great man, super sharp.
Speaker 1: Um does walk On still have an investment in that
Speaker 1: chain or any of the other brands? Um that the
Speaker 1: guy's kind of created early on in the process. So
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting. This is Brandon is the consummate
Speaker 1: entrepreneur brandan Landry, So this was his idea and we
Speaker 1: helped him bread to lie in the first one here
Speaker 1: that opened in Baton Rouge, and you know, uh from
Speaker 1: just procedures and recipe like just to kind of get
Speaker 1: it launched. Um. But no, that's it's fully independent. Um.
Speaker 1: Uh it's a really cool brand, you know with the
Speaker 1: uh the storage containers and that deal the avs there.
Speaker 1: I mean, like said Maria's rock Stars, He's gonna do
Speaker 1: amazing things there. But no, we're just fans from the sideline. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's all my way home. So actually I eat too
Speaker 1: many of them. Um. I would say they're like healthy,
Speaker 1: might be lying they're not, but they're delicious, so you
Speaker 1: know they're Uh, they've got a really cool brand and
Speaker 1: and uh uh Single Focus, which is even better. Right,
Speaker 1: Burger's rise like shakes and you know, and that's that's
Speaker 1: pretty sweet. And they're doing some good volumes. So but
Speaker 1: now we're uh, we'll watch. Now Brandon's got some other
Speaker 1: cool things he's developing. There may be another one down
Speaker 1: the line that will kind of help birth. But you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm happy we're focused. We used to years
Speaker 1: ago we had uh pizzerias called Schlitz and Giggles. We
Speaker 1: had these ires pubs, we had nightclubs, we had catering companies.
Speaker 1: And it's nice to have one brand to focus on
Speaker 1: because we can put all our love, attention and effort
Speaker 1: to drive walk Ons. And I said, we'll just cheer
Speaker 1: from the sidelines for Marie and her team. They're gonna
Speaker 1: kill it. Yeah, that's great. Um, And I guess going
Speaker 1: back to um Brandon being the creative guy. Is it
Speaker 1: true that the first walk Ons uh didn't have a kitchen?
Speaker 1: So no, it's uh so you know, part of that
Speaker 1: journey for those guys, you know, like walk Ons traveling,
Speaker 1: but so the story is traveling back from University of Tennessee.
Speaker 1: I think they got we're able to score was the
Speaker 1: LSU do not do well? Um, so all the starters
Speaker 1: are sleeping, you know, Jack and Brander wide awake in
Speaker 1: play a minute. So I just started douling on a napkin.
Speaker 1: And of course you're nineteen twenty, twenty one, twenty two,
Speaker 1: you're thinking about the bar, and so like the drawing
Speaker 1: is god of funny. She got like detailer, where the
Speaker 1: TV's are gonna go, the Papa shot, We're gonna put
Speaker 1: helmets here, all this stuff, and like the dining room.
Speaker 1: Really the bar they drew pretty cool, but not even
Speaker 1: an arrow to like kitchen this way or so you know,
Speaker 1: like that's kind of what happens when you open up.
Speaker 1: And they said the early days, um, they knew how
Speaker 1: to pour a crown of code, but all right, getting
Speaker 1: burgers out of the kitchen on it was a journey.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, so we like to tease teas burn
Speaker 1: about that. That's why the early the early years were
Speaker 1: a little rough, because you can think about a kitchen. No,
Speaker 1: it's cool, man, but you know it's such a great
Speaker 1: story and and uh, you know, I appreciate that walk
Speaker 1: on mentality. Man. You know it's it's uh, it's great,
Speaker 1: and it's taking the chain really far. It's it's been
Speaker 1: it's been great to see. It just resonates. Man. Everybody's
Speaker 1: got a story. Everybody's got an underdog story, and you know,
Speaker 1: and and you just kind of go through that. And
Speaker 1: like I said, you know, starting any kind of a business,
Speaker 1: you know, it's our twentieth year, really twenty years old
Speaker 1: in September. Most restaurants don't make it a year, you know,
Speaker 1: So to make it twenty years as a testament to
Speaker 1: the brand and really to Jack and Brandon the day
Speaker 1: to fight through those early years. And then but man,
Speaker 1: we've got an amazing team. We've built her now that
Speaker 1: truly that's where the that's where the magic happens. And
Speaker 1: then met dude, I'm just a guy on the zoom
Speaker 1: with you today, but like the rock stars or not
Speaker 1: on here today. But man, I couldn't be more proud
Speaker 1: of the team that works here. And they're what's making
Speaker 1: this happening. And they're all underdogs. Man, They're all got
Speaker 1: their story. Everybody's got their deal here, and we're pretty humble.
Speaker 1: I tell everybody. Man, Like, we get a lot of accolades,
Speaker 1: but I'm like, do not get caught up in your headlines. Man,
Speaker 1: just keep your head down and stay focused. And I
Speaker 1: used to tell them, let's try to suck less today
Speaker 1: than yesterday. We're never really good, it's gonna suck less,
Speaker 1: so kind of just stay humble man, like no egos,
Speaker 1: keep it light, you know, but never get caught up
Speaker 1: in your headlines for sure. Yeah, well you're doing a
Speaker 1: great job there, and you're doing a great job of
Speaker 1: staying humble. All right, We're gonna close out on a
Speaker 1: closet a question about the NC Double A tournament. Who
Speaker 1: do you have winning it? Ah, Yukon, Man, I'm so
Speaker 1: you know I was. We'll see, We'll see. I don't know,
Speaker 1: like I've got depends which bracket you asked me about
Speaker 1: what the walk Ons bracket Yukon, I actually have it
Speaker 1: to be in the first place, So all right, nice man,
Speaker 1: because there's a lodge of people picked Alabama. So I'm
Speaker 1: just and I've got Alabama going a little white a
Speaker 1: little ways into it. But like as soon as they fall, man,
Speaker 1: like twelve people for all out of the brackets. So like, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. See, I'm I'm a big East guy, Georgetown guy,
Speaker 1: and Yukon with all their crazy chants and all that stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had them dropping out in the first round. Obviously
Speaker 1: I was very wrong, but I think that was more
Speaker 1: wishful thinking than anything. Yeah, dude, I'm a Florida Gator.
Speaker 1: We didn't even make it in the first round. The
Speaker 1: n I t you know, so like yeah, motion, I'm
Speaker 1: not a Yukon fan, but like, I don't know, just
Speaker 1: they find a way to get it done. Man, we'll see,
Speaker 1: we'll see, I'll touch basically the one that's done. See
Speaker 1: see pulled it off. All right, good luck, man, I'm
Speaker 1: rolling with the UCLA. All right, there you go, there
Speaker 1: you go. So all right, well listen, thanks again for
Speaker 1: doing this happening. Man. This was fun. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. You're great. Um, I'm excited to
Speaker 1: continue to follow all the success that walk On's uh
Speaker 1: going to continue to have moving forward. For our listeners,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us. If you liked the episode, please
Speaker 1: tap on the bell to subscribe, and don't don't be
Speaker 1: afraid to leave us a review. See man. Thanks Thanks Scott,