Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Let's get a
Speaker 1: read on the state of the hospitality industry, and we
Speaker 1: have the two perfect guests to do that with. We're
Speaker 1: joined by Todd English. He is master chef and partner
Speaker 1: of the English Hospitality Group. Also with us is Keith Burkhard.
Speaker 1: He is Chief of staff over at the English Hospitality Group.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's a leading global operator, owner and developer
Speaker 1: of restaurants, hotels and nightlife venues. Great to have you
Speaker 1: both with us and Todd. I want to start with
Speaker 1: you because I see in your notes that you're abandoning
Speaker 1: the traditional hospitality business model. What does that mean? Um, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I think we have you know, just sort
Speaker 1: of in all my years of going through the business
Speaker 1: of of of restaurants and owning small restaurants and then
Speaker 1: being involved at hotels and casinos and various aspects of
Speaker 1: how people dined in the various venues. Is I think
Speaker 1: what you're seeing in many ways is a shift in
Speaker 1: in sort of the expectations of the customer. Um, certainly
Speaker 1: they're uh pent up right now, especially coming out of
Speaker 1: pandemic because there are pent up pins up. Um need
Speaker 1: to be out and the social and get out of
Speaker 1: the house. And you know, I think maybe there's even
Speaker 1: more appreciation for what restaurants are doing today in the
Speaker 1: hospitality industry because, um, you know when people who had
Speaker 1: to sit around for a year or two years without
Speaker 1: being able to go out, and I think they realized, Wow,
Speaker 1: we really missed this part and we are these gregarious
Speaker 1: creatures that need to go out and socialize. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: hear that. Hey, um, I should know Todd is joining
Speaker 1: us on the phone from l A. Keith, you're joining
Speaker 1: us from Thailand. So, Keith, we really appreciate you staying
Speaker 1: up late to join us here on Bloomberg Business. We
Speaker 1: come on in here, Keith Burkard, you are chief of
Speaker 1: staff at English Hospitality Group, and weigh in on what
Speaker 1: you were just hearing from Todd, because yeah, I want
Speaker 1: to hear how the landscape looks right now as we
Speaker 1: are all satisfying that pent up demand to get out there,
Speaker 1: because hey, as we learned today, it's pretty still pretty
Speaker 1: hard to find employees out there for these properties. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say that's one of the biggest challenges right
Speaker 1: now in hospitality and that goes for all, um you know,
Speaker 1: to to your hospitality groups, not to specifics um to
Speaker 1: certain ones, but really identifying what your strengths are in
Speaker 1: whatever hospitality venture you have, you have to make sure
Speaker 1: you surround it with the right amenities and amplification that
Speaker 1: the market is looking for. And that goes, you know,
Speaker 1: not just domestically in the United States, but internationally. As
Speaker 1: Todd was saying, what what areas are you focusing on
Speaker 1: and how are you creating that consumer volume on a
Speaker 1: consistent basis? And so Todd, I want to go back
Speaker 1: to the phrase you used, pent up demand do When
Speaker 1: I hear pent up, it's sort of implies a burst
Speaker 1: and then a sort of a fade. And obviously, I
Speaker 1: mean this conversation that we're having, it's uh, against the
Speaker 1: backdrop of a lot of recession fears, and I'm wondering,
Speaker 1: you know, how you're thinking about the economic environment as
Speaker 1: you expand I mean, I think, yeah, Keeps and Eye
Speaker 1: have this as our daily conversation on many different fronts
Speaker 1: that as far as is uh, you know, we and
Speaker 1: I certainly you know, we were very fearful of this
Speaker 1: sort of recession or pending recession, you know, hitting um
Speaker 1: the fact that yes, at some point, the new the
Speaker 1: newness or the reintroduction of being able to go out
Speaker 1: again and and socialized and being restaurants. UM. Change Obviously
Speaker 1: the economic uh you know uh decreased as far as
Speaker 1: you just people being afraid of sending money again and
Speaker 1: going out. So UM, I think all those having said
Speaker 1: I yet to see a lot of that slept yet,
Speaker 1: and I don't think we've seen it in even our restaurants.
Speaker 1: But you know, we are very treading, very cautiously, treading
Speaker 1: very cautiously and looking at every aspect of the business.
Speaker 1: You know, I think he does that, you know, the
Speaker 1: signs and codes of every day, you know, getting sort
Speaker 1: of the idea of getting making sure they were not overstaffed,
Speaker 1: making sure that we watch all our numbers very closely.
Speaker 1: I taught I want to go back to something that
Speaker 1: you said before we went to break and it's the
Speaker 1: idea of not necessarily seeing softness anywhere around the world.
Speaker 1: What can you tell us about regional differences here in
Speaker 1: the US and outside of the U S when it
Speaker 1: comes to demand. Um, As we do sort of get
Speaker 1: through this reopening here. UM. I think, well, that's a
Speaker 1: very interesting question, but I think it's it's spit in
Speaker 1: the a couple of categories, depending on sort of the
Speaker 1: the type of cuisine the restaurant. It is sort of
Speaker 1: the the neighborhood you're in, you know, if you look
Speaker 1: a sort of South Florida now or where you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know in on beach area that you know. Obviously
Speaker 1: there's certain categories of UM of of types of restaurants.
Speaker 1: They're always going to kind of flourish because depending on
Speaker 1: the clientele, their economic situation, UM, whether they have kids,
Speaker 1: they don't have kids, you know, that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: how how that plays out, and sort of what they're
Speaker 1: daily average way of leading is UM. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I think what we try to do is diversify as
Speaker 1: much as we can in our portfolio. All the restaurants
Speaker 1: we listed are all across all categories from you know,
Speaker 1: from luxury to to uh more fast casual UM and
Speaker 1: I think, you know, giving people different options helps us
Speaker 1: maintain a pretty consistent um UH business. Depending on what's
Speaker 1: going on in the world, we always to have some
Speaker 1: category that will be filled in one way or the other.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the cannabis category because it is
Speaker 1: like that transition. That transition this definitely called my eyes.
Speaker 1: So tell me about Last Leave, Keith, come back in here,
Speaker 1: so as I understand it. Uh, you have mac and cheese,
Speaker 1: pasta olive oil. Tell me tell me about that endeavor. Sure.
Speaker 1: So Last Leaf was general you know, kick started during
Speaker 1: COVID because we knew that there was a large consumer
Speaker 1: based at home and consumers in the cannabis world did
Speaker 1: not have other optionality in the space, and we focused
Speaker 1: on primary food groups, not focusing on gummies, chocolates, um
Speaker 1: and traditional cannabis consumption uh Todd you know, had a
Speaker 1: lot of connective uh components to cannabis throughout the years,
Speaker 1: and we said, all right, what type of products are
Speaker 1: humors touching on an everyday frequency? And those were oils, spices, rubs,
Speaker 1: et cetera. And we created lastly, which is cannabis and
Speaker 1: fused primary food group edible products. And we've been very
Speaker 1: successful as these touch and have a micro dose and
Speaker 1: component to it with both THHC, CBD, CBNU. And we
Speaker 1: know that this industry is slowly evolving, especially in the
Speaker 1: pharmaceutical industries. H They see it as a threat because
Speaker 1: it comes from a natural source versus some of the
Speaker 1: inorganic compounds, and it actually works. It actually works, we're
Speaker 1: finding in most categories. That's so interesting time. I mean, well,
Speaker 1: go ahead, sorry, go ahead, No, No, I mean, I
Speaker 1: just I think also one of those ways that you
Speaker 1: can I it's always really started out this whole idea
Speaker 1: that's really the health benefits and things that we've been
Speaker 1: approached by all sorts of different in all sorts of
Speaker 1: different categories, you know, from doctors, from medical facilities, from
Speaker 1: children's hospitals, etcetera. So I think, you know, that's a
Speaker 1: huge category that I think is still being discovered. And
Speaker 1: I said, you know, I think that is getting m
Speaker 1: played down by the big farm. You know, big farm.
Speaker 1: It doesn't want to it's getting threatened by it a
Speaker 1: little bit. And so we are big fans of those
Speaker 1: components of it as well. Hey, Todd, when when you
Speaker 1: look out across and I like, I don't mean this
Speaker 1: in a pejorative sense, but literally like you're you're trying
Speaker 1: to build an empire here. You know, you want restaurants, hotels,
Speaker 1: nightlife events, ghost kitchen venues. You've got the cannabis element
Speaker 1: to here. When you look out across the different properties
Speaker 1: you have, where are you seeing the biggest area for growth? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, I still there's still huge, huge, uh. From
Speaker 1: the standpoint of of convenience in meaning food the delivery
Speaker 1: that we still haven't seen the interesting come down. Um.
Speaker 1: So this would be the ghost kitchen side of things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: ghost ghost kitchen. But how do you how do you
Speaker 1: replicate what you do what people have come become accustomed
Speaker 1: to visiting your restaurants, how do you replicate that in
Speaker 1: a delivery sense in a ghost kitchen because it's more
Speaker 1: than just the food when you have that experience in
Speaker 1: one of your restaurants. What is a ghost kitchen? Can
Speaker 1: we just define that first? Okay, Yeah, that's a good question, Todd.
Speaker 1: You want to take you want to take it away? Yeah?
Speaker 1: That that was started I think by travelers. Yeah, from
Speaker 1: Travis from Uber. Yeah, Travis Kline with cloud kitchens correctly,
Speaker 1: and he did cloud kitchens. And then so the whole
Speaker 1: term ghost kitchens meaning that it was a secret place
Speaker 1: that people made food or a warehouse that necessarily was
Speaker 1: not seen by anyone. It was just a place where
Speaker 1: they had a kitchen so that their turn ghosts not
Speaker 1: being seen. Basically, the idea is to create it exclusively
Speaker 1: for delivery, so you have, you know, the food being
Speaker 1: made in a place that doesn't actually look like a
Speaker 1: kitchen or look like a restauran. Yeah, not a restaurant. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just the kitchen and we're in a warehouse, you know,
Speaker 1: with less ranked and less overhead. And that's a good
Speaker 1: idea that you can blow the truck into or the
Speaker 1: delivery guys who get into and out easy. So, Keith
Speaker 1: as as chief of staff, how are you really leaning
Speaker 1: into this idea of of of delivery and and creating
Speaker 1: this creating this sort of sort of extension of the brand.
Speaker 1: It's a good, good question. Uh. Basically, what we're doing
Speaker 1: is we're partnering with really strong operators, not both in
Speaker 1: the US but globally because you need to have the
Speaker 1: right technology partner wherever you do this. But Todd has
Speaker 1: built i would say at this point, over a hundred
Speaker 1: brands in his career. So for us, this is a
Speaker 1: quick little pivot for Todd, especially to position a lot
Speaker 1: of brands on all different cuisine fronts, which makes Todd
Speaker 1: really really strong chef not not know, because he's not
Speaker 1: one to mention. He has multiple different skill sets and
Speaker 1: we have approximately nine to fifty brands that we can
Speaker 1: put into these technology platforms. And also you see that,
Speaker 1: you know Amazon, you see Walmart retailers. The food delivery
Speaker 1: on the grocery front is changing dramatically as Well's interesting
Speaker 1: and another component where Todd has already been thinking. Todd's
Speaker 1: Todd's a very interesting creature. He's tend to twenty years
Speaker 1: ahead everyone else in the food space. Well, we love
Speaker 1: having you guys on. That's the voice of Keith Burkar,
Speaker 1: chief of staff for English Hospitality Group. Also Todd English
Speaker 1: Master chef and partner at English Hospitality Group. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys taking the time and joining us this afternoon. Katie,
Speaker 1: that is gonna do it for Bloomberg Business Week on
Speaker 1: this Friday, August five. Thank you so much for us
Speaker 1: and for kids. Really appreciate it. You're listening to Bloomberg Radio.