Month: May 2024

Do you remember when you first started in this industry? Do you remember the excitement and the optimism. Back then we believed that anything was possible. What if we never lost that? What could we have achieved?

Want to Grow Your Business Fast? Check Our Guide by Josh Kopel on Restaurant Marketing Strategies.

Today we talk to Brittney Valles. A restaurateur that carving her own path in this industry and, along the way, showing us what’s possible when you pair talent and hard work with a brilliant mind and endless optimism.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

[2:07] Unconventional mentorship in an unconventional industry

[4:43] The benefits of delegation

[8:45] Getting it right: Creating consistency in inconsistency

[11:15] Creating a brand: The value in saying yes

[12:20] Lessons in partnership: It’s a marriage.

[15:10] Pretending to be humble: You’ll never get there if you don’t put yourself out there

[17:52] Gogo’s Tacos: Building a brand that stands for something better

[21:20] Being mission-driven: Intention is everything

[22:22] Pushing back: Defending the cost of doing business well

[26:09] Sticking to your guns: Not everyone is your customer

[29:09] Using influence for the greatest good

[30:05] The power of winging it

For more on Gogo’s Tacos and her foundation visit https://www.gogostacos.com

FULL COMP is brought to you by Yelp for Restaurants: In July 2020, a few hundred employees formed Yelp for Restaurants. Our goal is to build tools that help restaurateurs do more with limited time.

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CLICK HERE to Chat with Josh

Free Download: 5 Steps to Achieve a 15% Net Profit

We have a lot more content coming your way!

Be sure to check out the FULL COMP media universe by visiting:

FULL COMP

Restaurant Marketing School

The Playbook

Industry Town Halls

We have several new projects launching in 2021. Here’s a preview!

Restaurant Marketing School

Hosted by famed digital marketer Eric Siu and Michelin-rated restaurateur Josh Kopel, RMS provides daily digital marketingtips, giving restaurateurs the tools they need to communicatewith theirexisting customers and reach an entirely new customer base. Each episode is only 4-7 minutes, providing bite sized, actionableinformation that listeners can implement in theirrestaurants that day.

Release Schedule: Monday-Friday

Season 1 launches 1/11/21

Restaurant Influencers: The Playbook

Restaurant Influencers offers readers a peek at the playbook of successful restaurateurs from across the country. Informative and actionable, these are the stories, tools and resources that will ensure the hospitality industrythrives.

Digitalpublication launches 1/18/21

Release Schedule: Daily

SignUp for Our Weekly Newsletter: https://pineapplepost.news

Booktime on my personal calendar: https://bit.ly/3otQm8z

Downloadour restaurant recovery guide: https://bit.ly/2ZAcmo0

Wantto streamline your front-of-house operations and increase sales? Head over to http://restaurants.yelp.com/fullcomppodcast toclaim your free page and learn more about these powerful tools for your business.

The pandemic did not pick favorites. No business owner was immune from the debilitating effects of the quarantine. Big restaurateurs with big restaurants and big rents need big plans to weather this storm. On this episode we chat with Celebrity Chef Adam Perry Lang who shares how he’s been affected and his strategy for rebounding.

Click to sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Click here to book time on my personal calendar.

Click here to download our Restaurant Recovery Guide.

Want to streamline your front-of-house operations and increase sales? Head over to http://restaurants.yelp.com/fullcomppodcast to claim your free page and learn more about these powerful tools for your business.

SHOW NOTES

• Work-life balance has always been a challenge
• Managing work time
• Priority lists
• 50% of the work you won’t see coming
• What is needed through this time is leadership
• We can’t delegate that at this time
• Showing up is 90% of it
• Adam has been working around the clock to keep things running
• Josh does not want to compromise on time with family again
• We get to look within and prioritize what is important
• Adjusting how we work though it is tough to imagine
• Imagining a new future
• Customer behavior won’t be the same when we go back to work
• People will be skittish until we have a vaccine
• Restaurants are the cornerstone of socializing
• Will fear stop people from coming out to restaurants?
• Leasing issues won’t go away any time soon
• Dealing with concerns and fear
• Maintaining momentum
• There is so much that we are not in control of
• Show up as best you can
• Love what you do
• There is so much to think about when running a restaurant now
• Pre-opening checklist
• Heath and safety regulations
• Creating resilience
• There is no one failure
• You make a mistake, step back and adjust
• His mom gave him a poster saying “in every crisis, there is an opportunity”
• Focussing on Adam’s passion helps him get through hard times
• Redefining success
• Success in Jan 2020
• Anticipating the opening of Hamilton in the theater next door
• Motivating the team
• Feeling good at the end of the day
• Success after the pandemic hit
• Trying to be grateful for opportunities
• How can we help people in need?
• Being involved in St Joseph’s center
• Donate a meal for every meal produced to less fortunate and home-bound elderly
• The Mealbridge
• Frontline foods
• Feeding frontline hospital workers
• Making a safe environment
• Spoke to staff openly and honestly
• Making all staff feel comfortable and safe
• Shifting from fine dining steak restaurant to creating comfort food at a low price
• The restaurant is staying afloat
• No aim to make profits
• Sales volume is 5-10% of what it was before
• It is about survival
• The future of the restaurant
• Shifting to BBQ
• Lower check average
• Comforting

The team over at Mezli believes the restaurant of the future won’t need employees and they’ve invested over $3 million dollars to prove it. Mezli is a fully automated restaurant with no employees. They launched last week and have come on the show to share how it’s gone and where it’s going.

For more on Mezli visit

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Full Comp is brought to you by Yelp for Restaurants: In July 2020, a few hundred employees formed Yelp for Restaurants. Our goal is to build tools that help restaurateurs do more with limited time.

We have a lot more content coming your way! Be sure to check out our other shows:

Restaurant Marketing School

Restaurant expert videos & webinars

The future of restaurant marketing is the current state of marketing in every other industry: data. Marketing is no longer about compelling diners to come to our restaurants, it’s about compelling them to give us their contact info so that we can start a conversation.

Today’s marketing strategy is more about them than it us about us. Leading the charge into this brave new world is Matt Plapp, a seasoned marketer who’s practicing what he preaches by offering more value than he’s taking.

Today we discuss his most recent effort, the book Restaurant Marketing That Works, in which he lays out the strategies and tools he uses to help restaurants scale to massive proportions. By the end of today’s conversation, you’ll have the plan you need to market like the big guys do.

You can buy Matt’s book “Restaurant Marketing That Works” on amazon today.

________________________________

SignUp for Our Weekly Newsletter

Booktime on Josh’s personal calendar

We have a lot more content coming your way! Be sure to check out the FULL COMP media universe by visiting:

FULL COMP

The Happy Mouth Morning Show

Restaurant Marketing School

The Playbook

When the pandemic hit and delivery became king, it was an ugly process all the way around.

The transition to delivery and takeout was wrought with issues on our end. And the delivery companies bit off way more than they could chew.

But, for the most-part, we’ve figured our end out. Our offering, packaging and workflow are exactly where they need to be 18 months later.

But can the same be said for the delivery companies?

Today we chat with Ben Jones, the founder of Skipcart who’s betting big that value in delivery will be defined by who’s most reliable, not the cheapest.

Together we’ll analyze the current hurdles related to delivery and what Skipcart is doing to overcome them.

For more on Skipcart go to https://www.skipcart.com

FULL COMP is brought to you by Yelp for Restaurants: In July 2020, a few hundred employees formed Yelp for Restaurants. Our goal is to build tools that help restaurateurs do more with limited time.

________________________________

CLICK HERE to Chat with Josh

Free Download: 5 Steps to Achieve a 15% Net Profit

We have a lot more content coming your way! Be sure to check out the FULL COMP media universe by visiting:

FULL COMP

Restaurant Marketing School

The Playbook

Industry Town Halls

How many articles have you read about “the restaurant of the future?” It conjures visions of robot cooks and digital menus but no one really talks about how big it is or the steps the proprietor took avoid the massive failure rate we’ve been saddled with in the past.

I think that, more than anything, the restaurant of the future is sustainable and built to last a lifetime. Ed Szymanski and Patricia Howard of Dame believe that too and today they walk us through the bulletproof strategy they implemented to secure the future of their restaurant and their careers.

That’s Ed Szymanski & Patricia Howard of Dame. For more on the restaurant go to https://www.damenewyork.com

________________________________

SignUp for Our Weekly Newsletter

Booktime on Josh’s personal calendar

We have a lot more content coming your way! Be sure to check out the FULL COMP media universe by visiting:

FULL COMP

The Happy Mouth Morning Show

Restaurant Marketing School

The Playbook

I’ve always viewed the restaurant industry as risky but Chef Sam Marvin sees no risk. He’s able to pump out hit after hit without missing a beat. From Bottega Louie to Echo & Rig, the chef has proven that success in the hospitality industry is a formula and it’s a formula we can learn. On today’s show, we’ll be discussing the formula he used to turn Bottega Louie into a 10 million dollar blockbuster.

Click to sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Click here to book time on my personal calendar.

Click here to download our Restaurant Recovery Guide.

Want to streamline your front-of-house operations and increase sales? Head over to http://restaurants.yelp.com/fullcomppodcast to claim your free page and learn more about these powerful tools for your business.

SHOW NOTES

Started a consulting job in LA

Met a family who dined at the consulting restaurant 89 times over 10 months

Father of the family was son of CEO of Hilton

Pitched him on the idea for Bottega Louie

Spent 2years working closely to create the restaurant

Restaurants have opened the same way fro 100years

Key pillars of focus

Shift from restaurant business to experience business

Goal to create egocentric gratification in guests

Investing in experience

Keeping average check mid-range

Goal to bring guests back 3 times per week

Industry goal is one guest to come back every 90 days

Focusing on the human psyche

Tapping into subconscious

130 metrics including the 5 key pillars

Example: $1300 leather-bound reservations book

Example: Intentional confusion whe a guest walks in because restaurant is open plan. Create opportunity for connection from hosts

Opportunities during tragedy

Bottega Louie opened during economic crash of 2009

Invested over $6million on the opening

Opportunities and tragedy move at equal pace

Inspiration from European restaurants

Laduree inspired macarons

Italian is the #1 food genre in the world

Why choose Downtown LA

Has a reputation of being homeless town

Research showed surrounding restaurants were doing well

Research on local population

Size of population

Average income

Average check amount per restaurant

Bottega Louie made $8-9million

Zero profit in year one

Investing in the future

Four points for decision-making

Good for employee

Good for investors

Good for guests

Good for community

Why Sam left Bottega Louie

Stayed for 5.5years

Wanted to control his own destiny

Gained business knowledge

Strategy to open a new restaurant

Figuring out what the community needs

Finding gap in the market

Lots of Research and Development

Echo & Rig strategy

Studying surrounding steakhouses in Las Vegas

$28 or $88 check average – nothing in between

Decided on $53 check average

Studying the weight of meat

Steakhouses serve large steak because it is the norm

Do guests really need 30z steaks?

Decided to serve best possible steak at smaller size

Is Covid going back to zero?

Everything has changed

Grand revenue numbers hide flaws

Previously needed to make over $90k a week to make a profit

Retooling to create bigger and better businesses

Feeling excited about the future

Improving delivery

Elevated packaging

Making guests feel special even outside the restaurant

As you know, I've coached hundreds of restaurateurs to scale profitability through effective marketing and optimizing operations. These bonus episodes serve as mini-coaching sessions where I provide you with quick lessons to help you achieve the same amazing results without spending a dollar on marketing and advertising. Enjoy!

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Full Comp is brought to you by Yelp for Restaurants: In July 2020, a few hundred employees formed Yelp for Restaurants. Our goal is to build tools that help restaurateurs do more with limited time.We have a lot more content coming your way! Be sure to check out our other content:

⁠Yelp for Restaurants Podcasts⁠

⁠Restaurant expert videos & webinars⁠