Jeremy Julian
Jeremy Julian
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
restaurant, talk, bit, opportunity, business, scott, menu, brand, franchisee, concept, people, experience, packaging, love, part, audience, little bit, catering, pancakes, challenge
Scott (66%), Jeremy (33%), Intro (1%)
I
Intro
0:02
This is the restaurant technology guys podcast helping you run your restaurant better?
JJ
Jeremy Julian
3:48
Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys podcast. I think our audience out there for joining us as I say every time when we get on the air, I know you guys have got lots of choices. So I appreciate you guys coming in and hanging out with us. Today is one of my favorite type of episodes because we get to talk to a restaurant tour. Today we are joined by Scott and I’m gonna let Scott introduce himself here. Scott, tell us a little bit about who Scott is. And then we can talk a little bit about what you get to do day in and day out. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, Scott Moffat, president and chief operating officer of sunny St. Cafe, based here in beautiful Columbus, Ohio, on one of the rare sunny days that we enjoy here. You know, I’m a restaurant food guy. I’ve been doing this pretty much all of my working life. And my story is pretty simple. I started out working in restaurants as a waiter and bartender when I was in college, and then later through graduate school. And I was actually tending bar adults, which was a spin off concept from TGI Fridays right there in your hometown of Dallas, Texas. And I was talking to a gentleman by the name of Tom slaughter, who was the recruiter for Fridays. And I was sort of a
SM
Scott Moffitt
5:00
lamenting the fact that you know, I had spent a lot of time in college preparing for a career that wasn’t feeling right for me anymore. And, you know, Tom, you kind of sat back and thoughtfully said, Well, Scott, have you ever thought about the restaurant business as a career? And I said, By Jove, I have not needed to pull you out, you know, kind of facetious, but seriously, he helped me, you know, sort of change my perspective a little bit. And I went back, and I rewrote my resume, such as it was, to reflect more of my restaurant experience versus my scholastic experience. And I was fortunate enough to be hired for my first salary restaurant job there in Dallas, without Chico, which is your local Tex Mex casual.
SM
Scott Moffitt
5:45
Yeah, and then just, you know, just loved it just stayed in that and have just been in the industry. You know, since then, to current I think, for all intents and purposes, I have touched every portion of our business, or the training or operations, real estate construction, certainly franchise, sales, franchise development, and now in the president and CEO, or just sort of a hat that covers all of those types of responsibilities. So I’m a restaurant guy.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
6:17
I love that. I love that. And I would, I’m going to ask a secondary question, because I was just talking to a colleague who’s been with our company for a little over a year, just this week, I was at a trade show with him. And one of the things he started to recognize this, how many people have followed a similar career path to you? Why do you think that is, Scott, because, and I think it’s interesting. And I think as we talk to talk a little bit more about what you get to do with something street, I think it’d be an interesting continued conversation, because I think that’s part of the path that you guys have taken. But there’s so many people that started as a bartender, as a server as a busboy as a dish person, and make their way up and recognize how much they love this industry and how much they love to be around the people and such.
SM
Scott Moffitt
6:59
Yeah, you know, a couple of things. And looking back on it, you know, I think the restaurant industry was the first equal opportunity employer out there, there wasn’t, there wasn’t anything that held you back in the industry, other than your ability to perform and produce results. So there were a tremendous opportunity, if you were motivated, and you’re excited, and you were able to get the job, and particularly on the operation side of the business, then there was nothing to hold you back. For me, one of the things that was most compelling was just the dynamic environment. I mean, it’s it’s different every day, it’s a new challenge every day, it’s a very social opportunity. You gotta love to be around people and work with people, you’ve got to, you’ve got to be as quick on your feet, and you got to be a little bit of a risk taker, you got to be active, you got to like to be up and around. And, you know, as I as I moved through my career and move more out of the restaurants into the corporate office, the hardest transition was to get used to doing what I’m doing today, which is sitting by a desk and looking at a computer, versus, you know, being in the restaurants. And you still got to do that, you know, I’ve got to get out a couple of times where we can just be in the stores and talk to the employees. And most importantly, you know, talk to the guests and get a chance to visit and talk with them. So it’s a dynamic, fun environment, there a lot of opportunities. And once once it gets in your blood, you just can’t can’t shake it.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
8:24
It’s definitely tough to get out of that. And another conversation I was having that, that it’s a good reminder is so many of our best memories, if you look back, surrounded some form of food, and oftentimes that’s at a restaurant and so Absolutely, there’s celebrations there’s there’s, you know, celebrations of life and when somebody passes away or celebrations for somebody graduating or getting married, a lot of times those those happen in and around the restaurant. So a lot of those things end up being really impactful for a lot of people. It’s like a giant family table. Absolutely. So talk to me a little bit about your current role would talk to me a little bit about for those that are unfamiliar with something Street Cafe, you and I talked free show, I’ve gotten the privilege of of eating and one of your restaurants. But for those that are unfamiliar, what is Sonny Street? Let’s talk a little bit about what the brand is. And then we talk a little bit about the history and kind of what you guys are doing.
SM
Scott Moffitt
9:10
Yeah, you bet. As I mentioned, you know, we’re in Columbus, Ohio. We’ve been, we’ve been around since 2006 and 2007. Were a breakfast and lunch concept 630 to 230. Primarily, we think of ourselves in a kind of a chef driven menu, it’s you know, it’s fresh food handmade. With but you’re very approachable. You know, you’ll come in and you’ll see a lot of your favorites. But you know, our chef likes to change it up a little bit, give it a little twist, make it something a little bit different than maybe what you can do out of your own pantry. We’re very much community centric, you know, we tend to operate in our communities ourselves and our owner operators and franchisees tend to be very invested in their communities. So we’re very much a local a local shop. We have ties to the surrounding area. So we we enjoy being of the environment of the customer centric type role. We don’t do, you know, we don’t do a lot of TV promotions, you know, we’re not on the radio a lot. So we, you know, we make our customers and our friends, you know, one person at a time and tons of repeat business, and we just really enjoy that about our concepts specifically.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
10:28
I love that because, again, one of the other things that I often think about is is the restaurants are that are part of the fabric of the community. And so where are you guys geographically? Scott? How big are you guys, what you know, kind of you guys is corporate headquarters and where you’re sitting is in Ohio. But talk to me a little bit about, you know, kind of the breadth of how big is the brand? Are they out for those that are less familiar. So we’ve got
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Scott Moffitt
10:48
that we’ve got 22, restaurants open and operate and our 23rd under construction. We’ve got eight restaurants in the Columbus metro area, one restaurant a little further north outside of Cleveland, here in Ohio. We’ve got four restaurants in Metro St. Louis, we’ve got seven restaurants in your neighborhood, the Dallas Fort Worth area, we’ve got an outpost in Carbondale, Illinois, as well as Huntsville, Alabama.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
11:14
That’s awesome. So there’s been a lot of competition. You, you and I talked about it again, the better breakfast concepts, there’s been quite a bit both and you guys have been around for some years? And what do you think that’s resonating with audiences, because it’s not just your brand, there’s others that are out there that are on the better breakfast that’s got a twist on kind of just pancakes and eggs and bacon. And I love that about about the the creativity, but why do you think that’s resonating so much with audiences out there and consumers?
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Scott Moffitt
11:44
Yeah, a couple of things. You know, I think, first and foremost, there’s a lifestyle associated with the concept. With our hours of operation and the type of business that we have, it’s a really kind of a fairly gentle way of being in the restaurant business. Because you can still have a very successful business, and you’ll be home in time to pick up the kids from school, you know, to have a family dinner together. And to still enjoy, you know, that that portion of your work life balance. So I think, I think that’s kind of what drives are particularly, you know, if you’re an owner operator, or if you have, you know, one or two sources, if you’re a giant company and you’re opening these, then that lifestyle component may not necessarily be as important. But if you’re an investor and an entrepreneur, you look at that and say, you know, I want to do this, I want to build something for my family, but I still want to be a part of my family’s life while I’m doing it. So even you know, that having been said, you know, the restaurant business is still challenging, you know, we’re, we’re closed two days a year, you know, on all the holidays and fun days that you’d like to have off, those are your busy days, you know, so you’re in your restaurant doing your thing. But nonetheless, it still gives you that opportunity to grow your business and your family. So that’s kind of one, too, you know, for the most part, at least for us in our concept. I always take this with a grain of salt, it’s still relatively affordable to be in business with us. And, and I say that because it’s it’s a lot of money, it’s always a lot of money, when it’s your money, and I get it. But when you look at the estimated total initial investment, for a concept, like ours, you know, versus you know, fast food or full service, full service, Danner type operation, we were probably, you know, about half of what the investment would be. So it’s a little bit more attainable, I think, for some of the folks that want to do this. So I would say, you know, those are kind of maybe the two biggest reasons I have my head that I can think of.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
13:43
Yeah, I appreciate that. That explanation, and I think it’s, you know, I guess to go direct at you, you talked about the 22 units in the, in the 23rd that’s being built, are they all owned by the group that you get to run in Ohio or, you know, talk to me a little bit about what the ownership style looks like, and, and what does it look like to be part of the family for, for lack of a better term?
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Scott Moffitt
14:06
Gotcha. So we’re, you know, we own and operate 10 of the 22. So the other 12, our franchisees, so we, you know, we’ve got a fair amount of skin in the game, we sort of like that, you know, 5050 balance. So we, we’ve, we enjoy the successes that our franchisees enjoy, and we also face the same challenges that they face. So, you know, we’re operators as well as franchisors.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
14:35
Perfect, perfect. So, I’m gonna pivot a little bit to the food, what is the experience like when I come into a sunny street again, you talk about your chef being being creative and and he comes up with some fun stuff. So for those that haven’t experienced the brand, talk to talk us through the experiences. Is it like any other breakfast and lunch place? Or, you know, and again, I know because I’ve been but try and paint the picture for our audience out there that are less familiar and haven’t had the privilege of checking things out.
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Scott Moffitt
15:01
Yeah, you know, we like you know, first and foremost to be comfortable, you know, we like to greet you, when you come in, you know, we have a, we place a strong emphasis on creating that direct connection between the guests and the service staff. So, you know, we’d like to bring you in, we’d like to chat with you a little bit, we’d like to get you seated comfortably. We like to make some suggestions, we, you know, we do a fair number of, you know, Billboard specials, and, you know, local specials, some things that, you know, might not be on the menu, particularly seasonally, we, we make regular changes to the menu. So, we like our staff to be educated and be able to engage with the guests to understand what type of experience that you’re looking for. You know, so we have, you know, by far and away our biggest, we’re still pancakes, bacon, eggs, hashbrowns. Right, that’s, that’s a huge portion of the business. But we also have, you know, we have some heart healthy options for you. We have raps, we have salads, we have some super decadent opportunities for me, if you want to come in and have smallest pancakes, my friend, we can, we can help you out on that. So it really is definitely, when I say that I feel that our menu is approachable. You know, sometimes when you go into a restaurant, particularly a higher end restaurant, you get that menu and you look at it and you get a little bit embarrassed, because you don’t really know what some of that stuff is, you might not know how to approach it, or how to pronounce it. We try not to be that way, we try to make something very recognizable. But when we have the opportunity to spice it up a little bit, we will. And one of the hallmarks of our menus, we do hand cut fresh fruit, which is always been a big portion of the concepts, a big part of the concept. And people really sparked to that. So we’ve got we’ve got a variety there that will I think appeal to certainly the kids and mom and dad and recently we’ve introduced a limited alcoholic beverage program so he got a Moser Bloody Mary out there if that what needs to scratch this Sunday morning an itch for you.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
17:12
I love it. I love it. And I know that one of our brands that I work with talks about the no veto rule, you know, I happen to be a father of four. And so if any of my kids don’t want to go to some place, so the fact that you’ve got an approachable menu, I mean, if you’ve raised kids, you know that oftentimes when a kid raising phase, that’s the time when you need to make sure that that their their their menu, the menu is resonating with that our
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Scott Moffitt
17:36
audience don’t you know?
JJ
Jeremy Julian
17:39
So, I’m gonna get a little personal here. So what is your favorite? Your favorite go to menu item for Sunday Street. And then what’s your I’m going to splurge today because because I’ve eaten well all week menu item, it’d be intriguing to hear what
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Scott Moffitt
17:55
I can I can tell you that my sports pancakes is my, that’s my, that’s my treat item. Because we, you know, we have I’m very fortunate I get to taste and test everything. And when the chef and the operations guys are playing around with that, like guys, we got to have this, I mean, you just got to have it. So it’s one of those things if if you’re in like you and your family, you’d be one of those opportunities where you would come in, he would order that, and he would all be able to share it, I’m not sure that you can sit down and really just want to knock out a plate of that. But you can certainly you can certainly get around with it. And then other than that, honestly, I’m a basic guy. They can a guy you know, I’m pretty straightforward. I like crispy hashbrowns I like to have a pancake on the side. It’s a little bit of syrup, a little bit of butter. That’s a nice, that’s a nice treat. Although I do like some of the the tech snacks, actually, we we’ve opened some restaurants in Texas. And we got we got bit by the Tex Mex bug. So we’ve we’ve got some kind of Kelly anthy items on there that appeal to if you want something a little bit spicier and more unique.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
19:03
I did I did recognize that on the on the menu when I got to get to eat at the store that was local. So well I appreciate you sharing a little bit of your own. And I have only gone in myself without my children. And I’ve got three teenagers at home. And so I’m wondering if I can challenge any of them to eat the s’mores pancakes by themselves because
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Scott Moffitt
19:22
you got to do it.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
19:23
I will certainly be checking that out over the next couple of weeks before school starts again. Just go talks to me now. You know you alluded to it earlier. You guys are a franchise. I know that some you guys are looking to grow. You guys are looking to grow. What does it look like as an owner operator, you know, you were telling me a story pre show and I’d love for you to repeat it for our audience out there about what does it look like, you know, what does it look like as a as somebody that might want to engage in ownership? You know, we talked about the brand we talked about what the experience might look like as a consumer, but now I’m in the market to go start a breakfast concept you talk About the, you know, being able to get hit home for for, you know, picking up the kids from school and or, you know, getting a soccer practice and whatnot. What does the engagement look like? And how can our audience engage? If they if they want to explore more about what Sonny Street is, and? And how ownership for the local community might, might look?
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Scott Moffitt
20:17
Yeah, absolutely. Well, the first thing that I would suggest is they just hit the WWW dot sunny street cafe.com. You know, we understand that in today’s world, you know, kind of an immediacy of information is super important to have. So we’ve tried to make the website very informative, and, you know, hit some of the highlights of the key questions that folks ask. So that the very quickly, they can understand whether or not the opportunity is appropriate for them. If after that review, you know, they feel comfortable and want to take the next step, then there’s, there’s a mechanism built on the website, it’s pretty simple, you know, give me a name and email address, and we’ll reach out and we’ll find you. Generally, we set up an exploratory call, you have access to my calendar. So you get that and you can find a time that works for you. And we do an introductory call, it’s usually about 30 minutes. And, and really, that’s very similar to what we’re doing right now. You know, we’ll just chat. Because I won’t say that we’re, you’re not in the sales opportunity. But really, what we’re what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to find out whether or not where we are, and what we do is a good fit for the prospective franchisee with wherever they are on what they want. So one of my mentors many years ago, told me something that I try to remember, every time I speak to somebody, in that if you’re in a sales or development type role, and you’re talking more than listening, you’re probably not doing a very good job. So I try to remember that when I engage with somebody and just understand, you know, where they’re at, and what they’d like to do and what their aspirations are, understand what their timeframes are, whether or not you know, they’re going to be hands on in the business, whether or not they have any family members that they want to participate in whether or not they have any geographical restrictions or whether or not maybe they’ve already got a space that they’ve looked at and said, Yeah, I think this would be a great spot for a restaurant. So, you know, by by doing that, you know, we can understand more specifically, what information we need to provide to the prospective franchisee so that they can evaluate the opportunity. And that really is kind of my role fundamentally, is simply to facilitate the exchange of information between us in a prospective franchisee, and then ultimately between a prospective franchisee, and then our existing franchisee so that they can talk firsthand with folks that have lived it, and can give them some pretty solid advice going forward.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
22:49
That’s a great approach, because I’ve dealt with lots of restaurant tours over the years that that are, it’s all about, let me just get the next franchisee and let me get them where they sign on the dotted line, let’s go let’s grow up grow the brand, without respect to making sure that they’re the right people. Because if they’re not the right people, ultimately, it can hurt the brand. Scott, I guess one more question as it relates to that is is are you looking for Restaurant Brands that have existing restaurants, you know, have been in the restaurant business for a million years are you know, Are you guys okay with with people that that have worked in restaurants and are now looking for ownership? Or as a ownership profile? As you’re looking at audiences? Again? We’ve been in I’ve been in the restaurant business for quite some time. I’ve seen brands that are like, Oh, do you have the franchise fees to sign up and it doesn’t matter whether you’ve ever set foot in a restaurant, you can buy it, you can be an absentee owner. And then there’s some that are really stringent, like you get beyond, you know, do you want people with multiple brands succeed me a little bit about what the right profile is? For an ownership group?
SM
Scott Moffitt
23:52
Right. So currently, the majority of our owners have not had prior restaurant experience interest. So yeah, right. And so we know that’s that’s that’s not I mean, we have, you know, we have a gentleman down in your, in your neck of the woods, who, who had some experience, but prior to that, you know, that the majority? No. So we feel very strongly that by going through our training program, we can help you gain the necessary skills to be successful. So consequently, for Sunday Street Cafe, if not a requirement that you have previous experience, nor is it per the contract or the agreement required that you be the owner operator hands on, although I will tell you, I I will say you know restaurants make lousy investments unless you’re willing to get in there and work at these things don’t run themselves. They’re very dynamic. So I certainly encourage at least during the initial period of ownership that a stakeholder be involved on the day to day The operation now, you know that having been said, you know, kind of the gold standard for franchisors out there are, you know, a well heeled, multi brand operator that has an existing infrastructure in place that’s looking for a non competing brand to build up the geography. We all would love that.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
25:20
I just say everybody wants that. All the experience. The challenge, though, sometimes even in that, Scott is, is that, then they want to bring all of their ideas and tell you how to run your brand. And it’s like, well get out of here, you bought into my brand, I’m not writing into what you’re doing. It’s a challenge there.
SM
Scott Moffitt
25:36
Yeah, absolutely. A lot of times when you when you when you talk to those guys they look at and one of the first things they want to do is say, Well listen, you know, we’re paying rent on this space, you know, 24/7, and you’re only open from 630 to 230. How about we do a dinner day part, and we can really drive those top line sales. So I this I love great ideas, and I love being challenged. But But But clearly, sometimes there are fits for the concept that they don’t always work out. So that having been said, you know, I, I feel very comfortable in making our opportunity available for scenic sealian operators that don’t have any previous experience, we of course, would welcome multi unit operators. And we do have a facility in our agreement that offers some incentives for a three store deal and going forward. And we do have an area representative type program, which is really sort of taking the business to a different level where we have some shared revenue streams with a developer in an area, they have some responsibility that opens from a number of restaurants in a specific period of time. So I won’t say that one brand, one size fits all, but we have a multitude of opportunities that are available from single Demo
JJ
Jeremy Julian
26:45
Day. And I think that’s, that’s great. I love that you’re, you’re open to those things. It’s just It’s always funny, because you and I both been in the business for a while and you’ve watched these guys, you know, they want to, they want to they want to do these things. It’s like Stop it. You know, we’re not gonna we’re not gonna we’re not gonna become a different brand because you now are a franchisee?
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Scott Moffitt
27:02
Absolutely. Absolutely.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
27:04
So and I probably know the ideal, but what is the ideal profile? Is it you know? Is it 10,000 square feet? Is it 5000 square feet? Is it 3500 square feet? Is it in suburban? Is it in, you know, urban areas? Talk to me a little bit about what is it rural on a highway? Talk to me a little bit about what ideal, you know, profiles look like and where you’re finding
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Scott Moffitt
27:24
success? You betcha. So what we’d like to see is between 3030 400 square feet of leased space, with some opportunity for either outside seating or proper patio. Typically, our preferred locations are in grocery store anchored neighborhood shopping centers. Usually on a street that carries between 15 and 35,000 cars a day, we typically are more suburban than we are urban. We’d like to be in the communities that we service. Whenever possible, we’d like to be on the going to work side of the road. And in terms of disposable income and demographics, we generally skew a little bit higher on disposable income, demographics geographically, you need to have at least 25,000 people in a two or three mile radius. That is one of the restaurants.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
28:22
I have never heard the phrase on the going to work side of the road. Yeah, interesting. But but but it makes a lot of sense. Because if I’m driving to work, and I need to get you know, grab myself a bite to eat, and it’s I’ve got to go up up a lane and turn around, you lose probably 25% of your traffic, if not more.
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Scott Moffitt
28:38
Listen, I gotta tell you ingress and egress to your fear center is super important because young people are pressed for time. And sometimes, you know, making that hard left hand turn, will will knock you out of the block, you’ll be able to be a disqualifier. So you got to be super accessible, you’ve got to have a lot of ready parking, you’ve got to be visible from the street. So the nuance of any site selection opportunity, as many of those boxes you as you can check, the veteran you’ll because it’s the site, the one thing you can ever change about your restaurant, where you put it,
JJ
Jeremy Julian
29:11
where it’s at, yeah, location, location, location, everybody’s heard it. I’m going to ask one last question, or one kind of series of questions. Scott related to off prem. You know, obviously, you guys had a pivot, you know, with COVID. And such, we’re kind of on the backside of that, but everybody has a has a different strategy as it relates to off prem. What is Sunday streets, you know, relation to off prem, whether it’s calling orders, whether it’s takeout orders, breakfast is a is a day part that struggles at times and off prem unless you’re in quick serve. And so I’d love to just kind of know, what’s your guys’s theory and how have you guys tackled any of that?
SM
Scott Moffitt
29:45
I have to tell you, to your point. You know, we went from a hustling bustling breakfast and lunch restaurant, to close dining rooms. And you know, in it in our role, when you look around like it’s mighty scary. So right, you gotta you got to figure out what you got to do, and you got to do it pretty quickly. So we embrace the off premise model pretty, pretty broadly. You know, to put it in perspective, you know, prior to COVID. You know, we’re off premise two or 3% of our business, right? It just, it just wasn’t a thing for us. Yep. Now sustainable we, you know, we’re, you know, we’re mid double digits. What we’re doing? Yeah, I mean, it really, it really created for us a day part that we didn’t have before. Yeah, we also had a very robust catering program prior to COVID. And quite frankly, when we were wringing our hands during that time, we didn’t know if that was ever going to come back, right? Because catering was typically directed to groups, and groups didn’t look like it was going to be thing going forward. So don’t get together during COVID. Yeah, there you go. But, but man that came back. So it sounds it’s kind of hard to say this. But there were certain blessings that were afforded as a result of the opportunities that COVID required us to do, that helped us grow our business in a way that we had unexpected prior to the COVID pandemic. So we just now we’re in the midst of a remodel of our downtown restaurant, which is just down the block from where I’m sitting in downtown Columbus, and we, you know, we’ve got a, we’ve got a dedicated pickup area, you know, for folks that come in, it’s just amazing to see how folks in general have gotten used to, you know, the grab and grow portion, you know, pre ordering, ordering, online ordering on the website, all of that, if you’re, the tech stack has become so much more important. So it really has helped us in our business model significantly, because the catering piece came back stronger than before. And then the off premise piece. And third party is just really a phenomenal part of the business, though.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
32:05
Yeah. And it’s interesting, because you’re not alone in that, that most people were in the single digits or, you know, low double digits, but but they’ve now figured out how to do it, because you had to know different said, and then once you figure it out, you’re like, hey, this is an additional day part that I hadn’t considered before, that if I stand for it, and ensure that we’re doing it, well, people will continue to come back because they got used to it. You know, we
SM
Scott Moffitt
32:31
talked earlier about, you know, some folks wanting to create that third dinner day part as part of our breakfast ones concept. And of course, we’re not amenable to that. However, the off premise and the catering piece is in fact that that other day part that you can take advantage of. And if you’re diligent you can do well, you know, it, there’s some challenges, right, because, you know, nothing gets colder faster than eggs. But your packaging, you know, became a big part of the equation, tailoring some aspects of the menu to food that travels better, you know, particularly on the catering program that you take, it’s not like you’re catering your entire menu, you’re looking for the opportunities within your menu that lend themselves particularly well, you know, for being delivered on premise. And we did and also, you know, we did, and still do some ghost concept, the kind of things you know, we run some burrito concept of our restaurants down there in Texas, and matter of fact, and you pick up a couple of shekels by doing that as well. So it’s kind of fun.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
33:30
I wish I would have known that we probably would have talked a little bit about it. And I know we’re getting closer to time here, Scott. So I guess I want to have you double click real quick. And I know I said, I said, we’re getting close to time, but I want to, I want you to talk about the evaluation process that you guys had for food that’s traveling, because I think it’s probably one of the things that when we talk about guests experience that that restaurant tours, don’t consider as often as they should wishes, when you get to packaging is incredibly important. Guests communication was really important. Sure, making sure that the products that you put in there, do travel well, or take them off the menu because you’re not going to deliver on the guest experience. So talk to me about that process. You guys obviously had to do it really, really quickly. But as it’s become 10% or more of your day, talk to me a little bit about what you guys think about and how you guys evaluate that and change.
SM
Scott Moffitt
34:17
Yeah, 100%. And to circle back on packaging, that was one of the first things that we need to do. Because, you know, the the day and age is just throwing a bunch of stuff in a Styrofoam clamshell that don’t cut it. You know, you learn pretty we learned pretty quickly by looking at the competitive set to look at folks that are out there that had those programs and we’re doing it well. And you know, you can you can cut down the learning curve pretty quickly. If you’re willing to say, You know what, these guys are doing it. Well, I want to do it like that. And then you’re working with our broad liner to make sure that we can get that packaging available. And then you’d mentioned it earlier. You can’t It’s crazy to think you’re going to cater and deliver your entire And you have to help people not make mistakes by tailoring your menu, it’s super hard to deliver Eggs Benedict, you know, it’s just, I mean, we do it, we can, but you know, there are, you know, there are six different packaging components that go along with that. And in addition to that, you know, in some instances, we provide reheating instructions, right so that young people get back and know how to get out. So there was an element of trial and error. There certainly was an element by learning what’s out there already. In the in the environment, you don’t we work closely with our broad liner to see what we can get in. And of course, at that time, you know, with the restrictions in the supply chain, stuff got real expensive, and really
JJ
Jeremy Julian
35:44
hard to get from packaging, but the brand that’s doing four times more with that broad liner gets the first dibs on it,
SM
Scott Moffitt
35:51
you don’t you know it? So it was challenging, and it was a lot of work. But man, I tell you what, if you’re willing to put in the time, and pay attention to it, the dividends that it pays are just incredible.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
36:03
Yeah. And I love the some of the process you went through because I tell this to to our our customers often as is, go look at what your competitors are doing. Good talk to your partners, you already have a business partnership, whether it be with us foods or Cisco and say what is everybody else doing? Because those restaurants every day watching them do it well, or watching them go, Hey, we just bought 10,000 of these clamshells. And they all suck. Get me new ones in here. And you know, and don’t make that same mistake. Am
SM
Scott Moffitt
36:30
I right? Absolutely. Absolutely. You, you got to really make it as you said, you got to take advantage of the resources that are already in place to help you. And if you can do that, you’ll you’ll she’ll shorten that learning curve, and it’ll cost you a lot of restaurant. Mistakes in the restaurant business are super expensive. You really want you to kind of minimize those as best you can.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
36:53
Yep, absolutely. Well, Scott, I, I know we we’ve taken this conversation all over the place and to our audience, guys, we know that you guys have got choices. But why don’t you give us one last time? How did they learn more about sunny St. How do they get involved however they they discover and have a conversation with you beyond just listening to you and I sit here and chat for 30 minutes or so you?
SM
Scott Moffitt
37:14
You’ve added WWW dot Sonny street cafe.com It’s quick and easy. And I’ll make it convenient for you as well.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
37:23
Awesome. Scott, thank you so much for for educating us on kind of the things that you guys did to our audience guys. Like I said, You guys have got lots of choices. So we appreciate you guys spending time each and every week when we post one of these podcasts. If you haven’t already subscribed, whether it’s to the podcast on the audio, or to our YouTube channel, please go do that. And Scott, thank you and have a fantastic day.
SM
Scott Moffitt
37:43
Jeremy appreciate the opportunity. You have a good case as well.
I
Intro
37:49
Thanks for listening to the restaurant technology guys podcast. Visit restaurant technology guys.com For tips, Industry Insights and more to help you run your restaurant better
