December 19, 2024 ⢠40 mins
In this episode of Butternomics, host Brandon Butler sits down with Gocha Hawkins, the dynamic entrepreneur behind Gocha's Breakfast Bar and several other successful ventures. Gocha shares her inspiring journey from cosmetology to the culinary world, highlighting the importance of consistency, quality, and community support in building a thriving restaurant business. She discusses the challenges and triumphs of expanding her brand, the critical role of a strong team, and the innovative strategies she employs to keep her customers coming back. Gocha also delves into her retail products, including her popular pancake mix and hot sauce, and her plans for a shared kitchen space to support other food entrepreneurs.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I feel like consistency, giving great service. Those things allowed
us to be able to go to the next level
because that's what people want. Like, people know that they
have choices. And you're in Atlanta, there's a restaurant almost
on every other corner, and people open the restaurants every
day because they feel like it's so easy until they
(00:22):
get in there and realize that it's not as easy
as it looks. But you have to be consistent for sure.
And I think that's what allows us to continue to
open up more restaurants in the community because people realize
we can go anywhere, and if you're not giving us
consistency or quality product, then we're going to the next restaurant.
(00:46):
So it's just that easy.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of butter Nomics. I'm
your host, Brandon Butler, founder CEO of Butter atl and
today we got a special guest in the building for
lots different reason, missus Goshey Hawkins, go set. How you
doing today?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I'm doing fantastic, Brandon. How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I was any better? I'd be you.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I don't know about that. I don't know if you
want to have all those hats to it.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
How you feel all these hats. What hat you talking about?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
A lot?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I know, cause you've got lots of restaurants, you got lots.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Of stuff going on, lots of things.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Lots of things. So let's talk about some of these
lots of things. You know, you've been you've been running
these businesses, these restaurants, you've been growing. How's everything looked going?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Everything's going fantastic. Like I couldn't imagine, you know, probably
fifteen years ago that I would be in this position.
But I'm happy to be in this position for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And let's talk about So how did you get started?
Like what was your first like, how did you actually
get into the restaurant business? What inspired you to get started?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well, I what people don't know about me is that
I've always cooked that home. So a lot of my
friends they would come over and I would cook, and
you know, my friends, they would say, you show open
a restaurant. And I never thought my food was that good.
But two thousand and seven, I was going to open
a restaurant back in Orlando when I lived there, and
(02:08):
then the market crashed in two thousand and eight, and
so I felt like, Okay, well it's not a good
time to open a restaurant, that maybe I should wait.
So I moved to Atlanta twenty ten, and then twenty
ten I went back to doing hair because that's what
I knew I can't my background is cosmetology, and so
(02:28):
I did that for thirty years, and twenty fourteen I
moved on the southwest side of town off Cascade, and
when I moved over there, I was very shocked at
the community that it did not have anything over there
to offer. You know, if I wanted great food, I
(02:49):
had to drive thirty minutes away. I moved from Atlantic Station,
where there were so many options, and if I wanted
great food, I would just walk out my door and
there's you know, options. So when I moved on that
side of town, I was like, wow, this is a shop.
You know. I felt like the community was at a disadvantage,
and I felt it would be the perfect time to
open a restaurant at that time. And I found a
(03:12):
space and the rest was history.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
And so that's how Gochet's Breakfast Bar was born.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Absolutely, Now I love breakfast. This is my favorite meal
of the day, me too. What inspired you to start this,
like all day breakfast based restaurant?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I felt like, you know, people can eat breakfast anytime
of the day. We've been so caught up in the
world with breakfast that it's only for breakfast. And I
feel like you compare you know, breakfast items with anything
to make it anytime of the day, you know, And
that's what I did.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Okay, So we got talking and I also added a bar.
Well that helps out because let me tell you something.
You know, what I like with my grits is like,
you know, maybe a little shot or something like that,
or you know, little little Bailey's in my coffee sometimes.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
You know what I mean, kickers for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
But you know, now we got to ask the million
dollar question, what's that sugar on grits?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
You know?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
That's like, look, look, look, you want to get people
pissed off in Atlanta. You don't talk about who did
you vote for? You Democratic Republican? You ask them do
you put sugar on your grits?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Now?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I will say I am a huge advocate for putting
sugar on grits. I think it is the right way
to eat them. But I got to understand, like, how
did you how did how did you you know, even
come about that? Like is that something that you just
culturally have always done. Did you grow up like that
or how did you kind of understand it? That was
like one of those cultural things you can tap into.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I think it depends on where are you from. Where
are you from?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I mean, I'm from out here, but my dad is
from LA. My dad is from LA and I kind
of like, I think I got it from that side
of the family a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Most people who put sugar in their grits there from
up north. I'm originally from Detroit and that's what we did.
We put sugar in our grits. And then when I
came to the South, my grandparents lived in the South
and they use butter, salt, and pepper. So you know,
either way, I've had both. I'm not mad at either
(05:06):
one of them. But now that I'm more on the
healthier side, I kind of stick to the salt pepper.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Okay, but you still, you know, you can respect the
sugar in the grits. To you, you don't roll your
eyes when somebody wants to put a little bit on that.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Now, what I will roll my eyes at is ketchup
in the grits.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Where do you do that at they do that? I've
seen jelly. I've never seen ketchup in grits.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
They do ketchup.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I see somebody putt ketchup and arrested around me. I'm
calling the police.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I've never seen my life now, even with your restaurant, right,
Like you know, it's not just about you know, the
food and everything, it's about an experience. Like when you're
putting all that stuff together, you know, how do you
kind of figure out what you want the experience to
look like? Do you you know, does he just tap
into you know, other experiences, the other restaurant you've been to.
Do you say, you know what, this is something that
(05:52):
I haven't seen before, and I want to kind of
add this element, like what goes into crafting an amazing
experience for you in the food space.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
For me, it's about out how I want to be treated.
I kind of always put myself in the equation when
I come up with different policies and things like that.
So if I go to a restaurant, I don't want
to sit down and there are crumbs in the seats.
(06:19):
I want to make sure that I'm being greeted at
the door on first sight. I want to be I
want to feel like I'm valued as a customer. And
so those are some of the things that I think
about when I'm creating an experience for any you know,
part of the brand.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And so when you're building all that in like, is
that is it tough to get people and getting a
start of phone in line and helping you, you know,
craft that experience and making it consistent. Because again, I look,
we've had a lot of amazing people on this podcast.
One of the things I always kind of hear people
talk about is team and getting the right people on
and getting the right people off too right, because yeah,
exactly hire slowly, fired quickly, but sometimes even in your space,
(06:56):
you got to hire fast and fire fast, I'm guessing.
But like, how important is team and getting people on
the same page to you know, what you do.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That's extremely important. That's one of the number one goals
in business is to make sure that you have a
great team because you can't do it by yourself. Coming
from the background of doing hair, it was just me
and an assistant, so and I didn't really need an assistant,
but I could really do everything pretty much by myself.
(07:25):
But what I found when opening this business, there's no
way you can do it by yourself. So it's extremely
critical to make sure that you have a great team,
and to find that great team is probably one of
the hardest things to do because a lot of times
you can interview people to the nine, you can vet
(07:46):
them all you want, but once they start working for
you is when you actually get to see what they
bring to the table. And a lot of times most
of that paperwork is it doesn't add up.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
No, absolutely, you know, I've got a lot of people
that work for me in different areas and they do
a lot of service based works too. But one thing
I kind of always say is, you can't work for
me until you work for me. It's something I've kind
of learned over the years. And so with a lot
of times I'll even hire people for like test projects
or small projects too, Yeah, just to get just to
get to understand like what their work product is, Right,
what are some other hacks that you've kind of learned
(08:20):
over the years. It says like that helps you figure
out how to get the right people on the bus.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So we give them paid stodges, and so what that
is is basically come in and work for us for
three days and we pay them. Yeah, and we get
to see how they move around, how they you know, direct,
and just how they interact with the staff, and just
to see if they're a great fit or not. How
(08:46):
they moved. Do they move fast, do they move slow?
Are they messy? Are they clean? You know, those things
are important because a lot of people everybody say, oh, yeah,
I'm MOULTI tasks, I'm good with working you know, fast paced,
high volume, and then they get there after you've hired
at them and they can't even keep up. Yeah you know,
of course, we know you don't know our system, but
(09:06):
we're paying you to be a manager based on your resume,
so that should already be in you. I shouldn't have
to come in and train you how to be a manager.
But our process is yes, but not how to be
a manager. So you get to see that when you
bring them in.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
For as Dodge, Yeah, get a chance to see that
that work product. Like in real and four k as,
we kind of say, right, yeah, now when you came here,
did you come here with the plan and vision to
open up a restaurant or were you just moving to
Atlanta for the culture and everything else.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I was moving to Atlanta because I had actually just
gotten out of a relationship and it was pretty bad,
and I was starting over, you know, and so I
wanted to just come here and start over. And I
really wasn't even thinking about the restaurant at the time.
But you know, after being here sometime the industry started
(09:59):
changing and I just felt like, Okay, maybe it's time.
Once I moved to the Southwest Side.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
It was definitely different time.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I mean, because you think about it, you have, like
every single mayor that's been in office in Atlanta, they
live on that side of town. So why is that
community at a disadvantage? That was very surprising to me,
And so.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
How did you go from zero to one once you
kind of had the idea and the inspiration to do this.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I had a good product, and with a good product consistency,
we were able to deliver and we were able to
open up our next restaurant during the pandemic. So I
feel like consistency, giving great service, those things allowed us
(10:51):
to be able to go to the next level because
that's what people want. Like, people know that they have choices,
and you're in Atlanta, there's a restaurant almost on every
other corner, and people open the restaurants every day because
they feel like it's so easy until they get in
there and realize that it's not as easy as it looks.
But you have to be consistent for sure. And I
(11:15):
think that's what allows us to continue to open up
more restaurants in the community because people realize we can
go anywhere, and if you're not giving us consistency or
quality product, then we're going to the next restaurant. So
it's just that easy.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, And speaking of that, like, what's kind of a
big misconception that you've learned or you think people have
about the restaurant business now that you've been doing it
for a while, Like, say, you think people think it's easy,
that they can just stand one up. What's kind of
the biggest misconception.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
That you've learned That people feel like they can just
open a restaurant because they are somebody and they can
just let people run it and it's going to succeed.
And most time that's not the case.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
It's usually not.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So I trying to give it a dinner for the
doubt and say in most cases, so, I mean that's it.
I think for me being a part of my restaurant
on a regular basis, I think that's part of key,
you know, just making sure that I'm involved and making
sure that I'm continuously walking the walk as I talk it,
(12:29):
because I'm not a person who just goes in and
delegate and say do this, do this, do that. They
actually get to see me working and whatever I ask
you to do is something that you've seen me do.
So I think that's one of the reasons why we've
been able to be so successful.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, and you know one of the things I also,
you know, really love about your story is again, even
beyond the restaurant you've got, you know, you do amazing
like retail products and you know other things too, right,
like how do you start the envision and say, you
know what, We're not just going to do a restaurant.
We're going to have our own hot salt, We're going
to have our own pancake, mixed own grit's. Like, how
do you kind of those things kind of start to
(13:07):
come to life.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Well, you know, the guests they demand those things. You know,
when the guests come in the restaurant and they're continuously
talking about your product and how they want it. They
want you to open up here, they want you to
open up there, and you're like, well, I'm not going
to be able to do that, but I can make,
you know, something that you can have at home to
create for yourself. And it's just like go Shake's breakfast
(13:31):
bar in your own home. And so that's what I did.
I developed things based off of demand, and even in
my restaurants, I do that based on demands in the community.
So all of my locations they have been based off demand.
There's nothing in the community, and I feel like it's
a great opportunity to bring something to the community. Yeah,
(13:53):
that's what has happened over the years.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You know, it's somebody that you know. Also, you know,
it does a lot of like serve space businesses. Sometimes
I get a little burnt out. I'm like, you know what,
I wish I could just sell people something that came
in a small, medium and large. It wasn't didn't have
to be bespoked, didn't have to be customed. And that's
one thing I love about like having like actual products. Right,
it's just like, look, I know you might like this,
but here's kind of an extension of me that you
can kind of take to go with. But at the
(14:18):
same time, this is how it comes in this size.
You know, no, you can't send it back if if
it's not ready, or you know no, it doesn't come
in different sizes. It's like, how do you go from
zero to one and launching a product? Like how is
that experience when you say, okay, I want to actually
come out my own pancake mix or something right, Like,
how do you actually make those things go from just
an idea to reality?
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Well, first you have to research and figure out who
can make the product. I mean that's not an easy
thing to find because a lot of times people want
you to buy this big batch of products and you
don't know how the product is going to sell or
how it's going to do, and you're stuck with all
this product. You've fished out all this money and now
(15:02):
you have all this product and so you're just sitting
waiting trying to sell it. So you have to really
figure out who's your market and who can make the
product for you with what fits in your budget. So
that's important. And then making sure that you have a
(15:23):
great test product. You know you want to test it,
give it to a couple of people and get their
opinion about it and see if there's anything that you
need to tweak and once you get a great product
and you found the right vendor to make the product,
then you go from there and make sure that you
can market the product. And you know, for me, it's
not hard at all because people come to the restaurant
(15:43):
all the time and when they taste the product, they're like, wow,
this is really good. And so our servers a part
of their twelve steps is to make sure that they're
educating the guests on the retail products and that they
are able to buy the product and take get home
with them and they still have a piece of Groceet's
breakfast far in the house. So that's been working really well.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It seems like some people might be worried if you know,
if they're selling the product, people might not come back
and they think they can do it themselves. Like, you
don't ever get concerned about people thinking they can just
take negotiate experience at home and not come check out
the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Even if they take it home, it makes the same
We create an experience in the restaurant. People want to
be a part of that experience. You know, it's a
whole vibe you come to the restaurant. We have people
who come there every single day, every single day, and
they purchase our food. They sit there, they have a
good time, they have conversation, they have drinks, and people
(16:39):
like that. They like being in a great atmosphere where
they can bring their friends, family, you know, dates or whatever.
They have a good time. That's what it's all about.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Now you're a chef a business owner, you know you've
got multiple locations, just how do you balance like the
creative side of what you want to do with the
business side, Because I'm sure you probably get the opportunity
to get pulled in lots of different directions.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
You kind of have to make those hard choices.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
It's the hardest thing ever, you know, with being a
restaurant tour you know, you wear many hats and it's
constantly balancing act and you never really figure it out
because when you're an owner, you're constantly thinking about what's
going in a bit, what's going on in the business,
(17:38):
making sure that they're doing the right safety protocols, and
making sure that your health inspection ready at all times,
making sure that you know they're following, making sure they're
checking IDs. It's a lot of things that goes into
being a restaurant tour, so trying to balance that and
also trying to keep up with the creativity of it
(18:00):
all by developing new recipes and new menu items. It's
a lot, but it's not impossible. And that comes along
with making sure that you've got a great team. I
haven't found the perfect team, you know, to help me
in every aspect of the business, but definitely it's a
(18:22):
help for where I am. I have a lot less
responsibilities than they used to have with the team that
I have right.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Now, I'm sure that's taking some of the stress.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Well what's it like?
Speaker 3 (18:35):
You know that?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I think that's a thing that a lot of people
struggle with too, right as you know, entrepreneurs, a lot
of times, you know, it's hard to let certain things go.
You know a lot of people sometimes feel like, you know, nobody,
like nobody's gonna ever do it, just like you. And
so one thing I always kind of tell people is, look,
at a certain point, you got to let certain things go,
and you have to get comfortable with and saying you
know what, if somebody can do this seventy five eighty
(18:58):
percent as well as I would do it, like that's
worth you letting it go. How did you kind of
deal with that when we got to that point where
maybe you're not the one in the kitchen as much,
you're not the one like making some of these things.
Were you able to let that go or was that
a process within itself.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Well?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I used to be in the kitchen every single day
until last October. This time last year, we started filming,
and that's when I realized, after the filming was over
that the restaurant still was running and nothing had happened
disastrous and I still had restaurants. So after that, I
(19:36):
realized that I can kind of start doing other things,
you know, And it was very hard. I think if
I had not started filming again, it wouldn't have I
probably would still be in there right now. Yeah. So
now I'm in there probably four days a week, not seven,
So that makes it a little bit easier for me.
(19:58):
I get a chance to try to be a little
bit more creative and offer more ideas, and I run
my Instagram page, so it's kind of here's me an
opportunity to do that a little bit more too.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
So Yeah, what were some of the key hires that
kind of helped you let go of some of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
The management team, I have a brand Excellence manager. Her
goal is to solely focus on training and make sure
that every person that comes in either restaurant that they're
fully trained the go shape breakfast bar standard. And so
once that happened, that was great. She had been on
(20:38):
our team for about four years and we moved her
into that position, and that's been extremely helpful to know
that everyone is getting trained the exact same way. Before
it was I'm gonna pair you up with this person,
We're gonna pair you up with that person, and of course,
you know, people were doing different things. So once we
got one consistent trainer, that was the key for us.
(21:02):
And then I had one of my best friends who
always told me that, you know, I need to open
a restaurant. She became one of my top managers, which
handles like all my marketing and anything just surround my
brand on how it's being exposed and being presented. That
(21:23):
was a big help for me too. And just having
people that has your best interests, you know at heart,
that's important. People that you can trust, and those people
that I have on my team right now are critical.
And I have like one of my best friends who's
He's been my friend for like thirty years. He works
for me, and he's the one who handles like all
(21:46):
my special sauces. I would never give anybody my recipes,
and so he's the only person I trust to go
in and make all my sauces because I don't allow
anybody to make them. So he's the only person that
I trust to make them. He's been my RANFO over
thirty years.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
So yeah, I love the idea of a we call
a brand excellence manager. Yeah, for a couple of different reasons. One,
I mean that's something that I've had to work on
a lot in my business. I tell my team all
the time. I think that onboarding is like one of
the most critical moments when you bring people on because
you're kind of indoctrinating them into the way you do things. Yes, right,
and very easy for you to kind of let that
(22:24):
part slide. But then what happens is if you don't
get people all on the same patient beginning, they start
getting their own bad habits in or to your point,
you know, somebody trained them on kind of how they
take shortcuts and not like the right way to do it.
And so again I love that idea. I guess my
question is how do you even come up with that though? Like,
were you're working with a consultant or you know, do
you have like a mentor or somebody that you were
(22:44):
working with that says, you know, these are the kind
of roles you should think about help you scale your business.
Or is it just something that you came up with
yourself and said, you know what, this is a pain
point that I'm noticing and I know we need somebody
to do this. Like how do you kind of figure
out what roles you needed as you were kind of
trying to grow and scale the so that you could
step away and do other things a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah, it's pretty much, you know, consulting. Like my friend
I told you who handles all of my the way
my products are handled. Laurie. She basically she and I consult.
We've been best friends also for about twenty something years,
and so we just sit back and talk as three
of us, and so we sit back and talk about
(23:23):
different ideas and you know, things about the business on
what's needed and how we can do it. And sometimes
I listen and sometime I don't.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
That's in charge, right, Yeah, So they have.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Some great ideas though, and I take a lot of
them and we put them together with some of the
things that I want to talk about and how I
want to see things, and we make it work.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
No, I'm telling you right now, I'm eyeing this, this
lemon pancake mix. You know, mind, this is pretty hard.
I might have to borrow that my kids and see
how they like it.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah, they're gonna love it.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
But like what inspire some of these different you know,
on some of these recipes that you come up with, Well.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
We have people who come from all around the world
and they talk about how they've had pancakes in so
many different places and they've never experienced the type of
pancakes that we offer. And when they tell me that,
it makes me feel really good. And so I'm like, okay, well,
we need to put these in a box and box
them up with them and so that that's you know,
(24:23):
some part of the development on how some of these
things came about. Our honey hot sauce is paired with
you know, our fish and grits now and our breakfast pizzas,
and these are some of the products that people just
actually love, you know. Halapayo cheese grits, Like, who's really
making those anywhere? So you know, these are just very
you know, interesting items that really sell really well in
(24:45):
the restaurant, and we want to sell them. We want
everybody to have them.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
And then you all have a food truck too, right, Like,
how did that extend and how does that kind of
create new opportunities for the business.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Oh wow, So the food truck came about during the
pandem So when the pandemic came, we never did to
goost before that because I'm such a person who's I'm
very visual. I don't like taking food to go when
I go to a restaurant because I like my food
hot and fresh, and I know that once I take
(25:16):
it out the restaurant, it's not the same experience. So
we never did to ghost. Well, when the pandemic came,
we didn't have a choice but to do to Goos
because there was nothing else going on in the world. Well,
when we opened back up, when everybody came back outside
and they was doing this whole by black support Black,
we were ambushed and we were like, we have to
(25:41):
get a food truck because AT and T wasn't going anywhere.
So we didn't have room to expand at the time,
and so we got a food truck because the way
times were ridiculous because we had so many to gos
and then we had in house guests and trying to
put the two together, and we have four screens of
(26:02):
nothing but to goals, and so the experience was just
going down because we just couldn't do it all. Well,
we got the food truck and we decided to pull
the food truck out in front of the restaurant and
do all the to goals on the food truck, and
that was a lifesave. That was the game changer for sure.
So now we do all the to go orders on
the food truck and we do great in house dining now,
(26:26):
so we can get you in and out fifteen twenty minutes,
you know, get your food out. And so that was
the best thing that we've ever been able to do.
And now AT and T is gone, So now we're expanding.
We're gonna knock the wall down and take half of
the AT and T store, and then that way we
are able to cut down on the lines outside and
(26:48):
be able to give a better experience for people to
get in.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Congratulations. Expansion is always good.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
I'm sure it comes with in the new set of headaches.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Right Like, now you've probably got contractors over there trying
to balance out how they expand while also keeping the
business running.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Yeah, so that's the next headaches. So we were supposed
to have already expanded, and that was supposed to have
been done in October. Well, the AC took a while
for them to get because of all the things that
were going on in the economy. We finally got the
air conditioning. Then we were waiting on the meter. Once
we got the meter, well we still haven't gotten the meter.
(27:24):
Then they decided, oh, we need to change the plans
and do something. But now they're ready, and now I'm like,
what's the holidays? And I'm not ready now because now
their sin is gonna take two to three weeks and
I'm just like, it's the holidays. Now I can't close
down during the holidays. So now probably won't happen till
first of January.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
So yeah, these are the things people don't understand that
you got to deal with when it comes to something,
right Like, it's these other little nuanced things like even
once you get the food part taken care of, it's again,
(28:04):
I want to expand, but these people are trying to
push me do one thing. The air conditioner is late.
Now I can't get this thing going, and I got
to kind of work through these other issues that I
think people don't really see. They just see kind of
the finished, shiny products.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Sometimes like Instagram or social media in general, well.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You know, that's just highlights. It's alway still people all Instagram.
It's just highlight reels and stuff. It's not always the
crazy stuff where you know you're walking in there and
it's dusty all over the place, and you know you're
building stuff out. But even as you've been going through
all this, what's been some of your proudest moments, you know,
as you've you know, built these different businesses and the
different retail lines out, what.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Makes me really proud probably would be just to see
the guests continuously supporting us, you know, and even though
the economy is very hard and it's a lot going on,
people are strapped for money and things like that, to
see that they're continuously coming in supporting us means a lot.
(29:02):
Because the economy is not in a place where everyone
wants it to be, and so for someone to spend
their hard earn money with you on a consistent basis
is extremely important to us as a community, and it
just makes me realize that we have a great community
(29:24):
and we need to make sure that we're continuously being
consistent and delivering on the product and the experience.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, I mean that shows up because you definitely have
a loyal kind of community and fulwing here in Atlanta.
How is you know, one thing we in lantd we
always talk about is culture, right, Like, how is Atlanta's
culture influenced the way that you've grown your businesses out?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I don't think the culture really had a lot of
influence on me. I feel like just my community itself
just being supportive, you know, Like when I first went
to South Fulton, like I had the mayor, I had
you know, city councilmen. They were all supporting the brand
(30:06):
because we were a new business to the city of
South Fulton and they wanted to make sure that we
were successful and they wanted to make sure that we
knew that we had their support in being able to
be in that community. So that was they were you know,
sending people our way. They were talking about us all
(30:28):
the time and even during the pandemic. You know, we
received grants just to help feed people, so that they
really were a supportive community for us. So I don't
think the culture itself really changed us in any type
(30:50):
of way, you know, but the support definitely and definitely.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
In South Fulton.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
I mean, you know, it's an interesting part of you know,
Atlanta's kind of an extension in a lot of ways, right,
Like it's it's not downtown, but at the same time,
it does feel like there's a really tight knit kind
of community down there of people and businesses and everybody
kind of knows each other in a certain sense. Do
you get that same kind of feel?
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Oh? Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, anything I need in the city
of South Fulton, I can just pick up the phone
and call. It's really that simple over there, you know.
Like now we're getting ready to open an Atlantic Station,
so I don't think it's gonna be that easy over there,
but yeah, I've heard that it's not that easy anyway.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
So well, Atlantic Station seems like a full circle moment,
especially because you used to live there. Yeah, you know,
now you're coming back to open up your new business there.
How do you feel about that?
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I feel really good about that. You know, it's right
and back of where I used to live at. So yeah,
I think that's really great. Atlantic Station is a popular,
you know, attraction for Atlanta, and yeah, I just feel
like it's going to be a no brainer for sure.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
And especially I mean Atlanta has so many great things
on the horizon. We got the Super Bowl coming up,
the World Cup coming up. I mean you all are
going to be kind of positioned to be right in
the middle of a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, already, yeah, definitely always ready. We're delayed
on that as well, but yeah, but it's happening.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
That's good. Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Well, with all these different products you have going on,
just how do you kind of figure out, you know,
what your next goal is going to be? Like, how
do you kind of prioritize what next?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
You know, I always sit back and kind of review
the market and see what's needed. And right now, the
next step would be a share kitchen space. So that's
something basically if you have a food truck or if
you have you might cater at home, and now you
need a catering kitchen or a commissary kitchen is what
(32:53):
they call it. But you don't have anywhere to go
to make the food. Then you can come to the
share kitchen in space and you can rent it out
and you can do everything you need to do there
because we're provide almost like your own little restaurant. Yeah,
and that's what we're doing now. So that's the next step.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
That's amazing. I mean, you know, I always tell people
I think, you know, when you see opportunities, there's a
couple different ways to look at it. For example, you know,
back when they had the California gold rush back in
the days, right, a lot of people went to California
looking for gold, but there was a lot of money
to be made selling picks and access. And I kind
of feel the same way, especially when you're trying to
talk about this whole shared kitchen right, Like, you're also
(33:34):
you understand what the people who are also kind of
doing similar things need from a resource standpoint, and so
by opening up that shared kitchen, you're kind of giving
people those resources while also creating value and opportunities you know,
for you, yourself.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
And your team. Yes, see, that takes understanding, you know
what I mean absolutely.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
I mean I look at it like if you think
about all these salon suites that they're doing right. You know.
I want to be on that next wave of shared
kitchen spaces, you know, because I think that's something that's needed.
Everybody can afford a brick and mortar, right, So that's
(34:11):
the next thing for us.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And food trucks I think are legally required a lot
of times actually have like a standard kitchen somewhere too. Yeah,
they have to have a common commisary kitchen.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Absolutely, and so we'll be there to provide it for them.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Then you have people to do like ghost kitchens and
stuff like that. So there's a lot of people that
want to try stuff and they don't know how to
necessarily get started. So it kind of opens you up
to and it even helps position you honestly is like
a thought leader and a leader in that space in general.
Like now you kind of become the og triple og
as they kind of say, right, like, if you know,
if you need help, not only do you have the resources,
but you have the expertise because you've been doing it yourself,
(34:45):
and people can kind of believe in that and trust
the things that you put out.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yeah, I mean, and the goal is to make money
while you're sleep, you know, I don't want to always be,
you know, in my restaurants, always you know, working. So
I figured that these things that I've done provides the
opportunity to be able to make money while I'm sleeping.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
So what would a little Ghostet say to Gotet now
if she knew all these amazing things you were working on, She'd.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Be like, girl, you did that? Can you believe it?
I'd be like, girl, I can't believe it, but it's there,
you know. And so I developed a cookbook as well.
And so the reason why I developed the cookbook was
because I wanted people to be able to create experiences
(35:34):
at home as well. Cooking is like something from the soul.
You not a cook.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
I am an amazing cook, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
That's so amazing. That is so amazing. There was a
lot of people who cannot cook, you know, there's a
lot of people who cannot cook. And you know, a
part of the cookbook that I made it was like
meals under thirty minutes, and we weren't ready to launch
that as well. So this, yeah, so that goes along
with the retail branding.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, I mean personally, the reason why I got into cooking,
I mean, I grew up my dad and my mom
taught me how to cook and as over the years,
I mean, I cook a lot, but like I actually
really enjoy.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Bacon a lot more.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
And the reason why I enjoy baking is because I
always tell people, like, my life is very unstructured. As
an entrepreneur, I don't usually get to follow directions. I'm
the one who has to figure everything out, and so
bacon gives me that like one moment where I can
just follow directions and just I get the result that's desired, right, Because.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Cooking is more like art, bacon is science.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Bacon says, you turn that oven on four hundred degrees
and you put a cup of flour in, Like you
better put a damn cup of flour in, right, you know.
With with cooking, you're like just give a little pinch
of this, a little dash of that. But that's something
that I learned over the years from me personally, is
I enjoy baking because it allows me to just kind
(36:54):
of relax and just I know what comes next for
once I'm not the one who has to kind of
figure it out. Do you get that same kind of
you know, experience when you're do those things?
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Yeah, absolutely. I'm not a baker. And the crazy part
is I've just started bacon, and when I tell you
it is so like terrifying because it's not anything that
once it comes out the oven, if it's not right,
it's over. You know, at least cooking on the stove.
(37:23):
You can change it up once you know you're done,
you can taste it's cool, but cook bacon it has
to be like really exact, I mean exact. It's very intimidating.
But you know, I've been doing it a lot lately
and I've been experienced, you know, experimenting with it, and
I'm actually kind of liking it a lot, but it
(37:44):
is very intimidating. I will say, like, seriously, I don't
messed up quite a few things, but because you know,
you think you can just you ain't really got to
be But it.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Really does have to be exact exact.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Yeah, it really does.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
It's cool though, if someone could take one lesson or
one message from your journey to building all these amazing
brands and restaurants and products and cookbooks and all this stuff,
Like what do you think that would be?
Speaker 1 (38:13):
I say it all the time. Got to be consistent,
You got to be persistent, and you have to make
sure you do your research to be able to have
knowledge on whatever it is that you want to do.
And building a team, making sure that you're finding the
(38:33):
right team for you. All those things are extremely important.
And invest in yourself. Don't give up because everybody's not
going to say yes. And being that they're not going
to say yes, you got to figure out creative ways
to still make it happen. Don't give up, period.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Well, look, this has been an amazing conversation. Before we
get out of here. How can people support you? How
can they find your product? How can they get to
the restaurant? Like where they need to go?
Speaker 1 (39:03):
It can go to go shas breakfast Bar dot com
and they'll find all the retail products. And we also
have the Cooking with Gachet book that pre orders up
and social media is Gauchet Hawkins or Gachet's Breakfast Bar.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Well, look y'all heard it, go set.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Thank you so much for coming in and congratulations on
this amazing journey. Congratulations on the expansion and all the
things you're working on. We can't wait to see what
happens next. I got a good friend of mine, my
boy Eric Gordon, always bringing me down there to the spot,
tell me about it. So it's great to get a
chance to finally meet you in person. Yeah, thank you,
and you know, we can't wait to see how all
this amazing stuff is going to continue to happen for you.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, well, when it comes, make sure you come to
the Grand Open. It's going to be amazing.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
We'll be out. Are is that an invite?
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (39:46):
Okay, we're there then don't threaten me with a good.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Time for sure, and make sure you check out Gaschet's
Tapas Bar. You know that's on the southwest side too.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Okay, Yeah, well, look this has been amazing. Go say
thank you so much for coming out. And uh that's
the pod, y'all we out.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
You've been listening to buttteron Nomics and I'm your host,
Brandon Butler. Comments feedback. Want to be a part of
the show, send us an email today at hello at
butterdomics dot com. Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia
at iHeartMedia by Ramsey, with marketing and support from Queen
and Nike. Music provided by Mister Hanky. If you haven't
already hit that subscribe button and never missed an episode,
(40:24):
And be sure to follow us on all our social
platforms at butter dot Atl. Listen to Button Nomics on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I feel like consistency, giving great service. Those things allowed
us to be able to go to the next level
because that's what people want. Like, people know that they
have choices. And you're in Atlanta, there's a restaurant almost
on every other corner, and people open the restaurants every
day because they feel like it's so easy until they
(00:22):
get in there and realize that it's not as easy
as it looks. But you have to be consistent for sure.
And I think that's what allows us to continue to
open up more restaurants in the community because people realize
we can go anywhere, and if you're not giving us
consistency or quality product, then we're going to the next restaurant.
(00:46):
So it's just that easy.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of butter Nomics. I'm
your host, Brandon Butler, founder CEO of Butter atl and
today we got a special guest in the building for
lots different reason, missus Goshey Hawkins, go set. How you
doing today?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I'm doing fantastic, Brandon. How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I was any better? I'd be you.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I don't know about that. I don't know if you
want to have all those hats to it.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
How you feel all these hats. What hat you talking about?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
A lot?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I know, cause you've got lots of restaurants, you got lots.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Of stuff going on, lots of things.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Lots of things. So let's talk about some of these
lots of things. You know, you've been you've been running
these businesses, these restaurants, you've been growing. How's everything looked going?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Everything's going fantastic. Like I couldn't imagine, you know, probably
fifteen years ago that I would be in this position.
But I'm happy to be in this position for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And let's talk about So how did you get started?
Like what was your first like, how did you actually
get into the restaurant business? What inspired you to get started?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well, I what people don't know about me is that
I've always cooked that home. So a lot of my
friends they would come over and I would cook, and
you know, my friends, they would say, you show open
a restaurant. And I never thought my food was that good.
But two thousand and seven, I was going to open
a restaurant back in Orlando when I lived there, and
(02:08):
then the market crashed in two thousand and eight, and
so I felt like, Okay, well it's not a good
time to open a restaurant, that maybe I should wait.
So I moved to Atlanta twenty ten, and then twenty
ten I went back to doing hair because that's what
I knew I can't my background is cosmetology, and so
(02:28):
I did that for thirty years, and twenty fourteen I
moved on the southwest side of town off Cascade, and
when I moved over there, I was very shocked at
the community that it did not have anything over there
to offer. You know, if I wanted great food, I
(02:49):
had to drive thirty minutes away. I moved from Atlantic Station,
where there were so many options, and if I wanted
great food, I would just walk out my door and
there's you know, options. So when I moved on that
side of town, I was like, wow, this is a shop.
You know. I felt like the community was at a disadvantage,
and I felt it would be the perfect time to
open a restaurant at that time. And I found a
(03:12):
space and the rest was history.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
And so that's how Gochet's Breakfast Bar was born.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Absolutely, Now I love breakfast. This is my favorite meal
of the day, me too. What inspired you to start this,
like all day breakfast based restaurant?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I felt like, you know, people can eat breakfast anytime
of the day. We've been so caught up in the
world with breakfast that it's only for breakfast. And I
feel like you compare you know, breakfast items with anything
to make it anytime of the day, you know, And
that's what I did.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Okay, So we got talking and I also added a bar.
Well that helps out because let me tell you something.
You know, what I like with my grits is like,
you know, maybe a little shot or something like that,
or you know, little little Bailey's in my coffee sometimes.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
You know what I mean, kickers for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
But you know, now we got to ask the million
dollar question, what's that sugar on grits?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
You know?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
That's like, look, look, look, you want to get people
pissed off in Atlanta. You don't talk about who did
you vote for? You Democratic Republican? You ask them do
you put sugar on your grits?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Now?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I will say I am a huge advocate for putting
sugar on grits. I think it is the right way
to eat them. But I got to understand, like, how
did you how did how did you you know, even
come about that? Like is that something that you just
culturally have always done. Did you grow up like that
or how did you kind of understand it? That was
like one of those cultural things you can tap into.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I think it depends on where are you from. Where
are you from?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I mean, I'm from out here, but my dad is
from LA. My dad is from LA and I kind
of like, I think I got it from that side
of the family a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Most people who put sugar in their grits there from
up north. I'm originally from Detroit and that's what we did.
We put sugar in our grits. And then when I
came to the South, my grandparents lived in the South
and they use butter, salt, and pepper. So you know,
either way, I've had both. I'm not mad at either
(05:06):
one of them. But now that I'm more on the
healthier side, I kind of stick to the salt pepper.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Okay, but you still, you know, you can respect the
sugar in the grits. To you, you don't roll your
eyes when somebody wants to put a little bit on that.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Now, what I will roll my eyes at is ketchup
in the grits.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Where do you do that at they do that? I've
seen jelly. I've never seen ketchup in grits.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
They do ketchup.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I see somebody putt ketchup and arrested around me. I'm
calling the police.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I've never seen my life now, even with your restaurant, right,
Like you know, it's not just about you know, the
food and everything, it's about an experience. Like when you're
putting all that stuff together, you know, how do you
kind of figure out what you want the experience to
look like? Do you you know, does he just tap
into you know, other experiences, the other restaurant you've been to.
Do you say, you know what, this is something that
(05:52):
I haven't seen before, and I want to kind of
add this element, like what goes into crafting an amazing
experience for you in the food space.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
For me, it's about out how I want to be treated.
I kind of always put myself in the equation when
I come up with different policies and things like that.
So if I go to a restaurant, I don't want
to sit down and there are crumbs in the seats.
(06:19):
I want to make sure that I'm being greeted at
the door on first sight. I want to be I
want to feel like I'm valued as a customer. And
so those are some of the things that I think
about when I'm creating an experience for any you know,
part of the brand.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And so when you're building all that in like, is
that is it tough to get people and getting a
start of phone in line and helping you, you know,
craft that experience and making it consistent. Because again, I look,
we've had a lot of amazing people on this podcast.
One of the things I always kind of hear people
talk about is team and getting the right people on
and getting the right people off too right, because yeah,
exactly hire slowly, fired quickly, but sometimes even in your space,
(06:56):
you got to hire fast and fire fast, I'm guessing.
But like, how important is team and getting people on
the same page to you know, what you do.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That's extremely important. That's one of the number one goals
in business is to make sure that you have a
great team because you can't do it by yourself. Coming
from the background of doing hair, it was just me
and an assistant, so and I didn't really need an assistant,
but I could really do everything pretty much by myself.
(07:25):
But what I found when opening this business, there's no
way you can do it by yourself. So it's extremely
critical to make sure that you have a great team,
and to find that great team is probably one of
the hardest things to do because a lot of times
you can interview people to the nine, you can vet
(07:46):
them all you want, but once they start working for
you is when you actually get to see what they
bring to the table. And a lot of times most
of that paperwork is it doesn't add up.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
No, absolutely, you know, I've got a lot of people
that work for me in different areas and they do
a lot of service based works too. But one thing
I kind of always say is, you can't work for
me until you work for me. It's something I've kind
of learned over the years. And so with a lot
of times I'll even hire people for like test projects
or small projects too, Yeah, just to get just to
get to understand like what their work product is, Right,
what are some other hacks that you've kind of learned
(08:20):
over the years. It says like that helps you figure
out how to get the right people on the bus.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So we give them paid stodges, and so what that
is is basically come in and work for us for
three days and we pay them. Yeah, and we get
to see how they move around, how they you know, direct,
and just how they interact with the staff, and just
to see if they're a great fit or not. How
(08:46):
they moved. Do they move fast, do they move slow?
Are they messy? Are they clean? You know, those things
are important because a lot of people everybody say, oh, yeah,
I'm MOULTI tasks, I'm good with working you know, fast paced,
high volume, and then they get there after you've hired
at them and they can't even keep up. Yeah you know,
of course, we know you don't know our system, but
(09:06):
we're paying you to be a manager based on your resume,
so that should already be in you. I shouldn't have
to come in and train you how to be a manager.
But our process is yes, but not how to be
a manager. So you get to see that when you
bring them in.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
For as Dodge, Yeah, get a chance to see that
that work product. Like in real and four k as,
we kind of say, right, yeah, now when you came here,
did you come here with the plan and vision to
open up a restaurant or were you just moving to
Atlanta for the culture and everything else.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I was moving to Atlanta because I had actually just
gotten out of a relationship and it was pretty bad,
and I was starting over, you know, and so I
wanted to just come here and start over. And I
really wasn't even thinking about the restaurant at the time.
But you know, after being here sometime the industry started
(09:59):
changing and I just felt like, Okay, maybe it's time.
Once I moved to the Southwest Side.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
It was definitely different time.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I mean, because you think about it, you have, like
every single mayor that's been in office in Atlanta, they
live on that side of town. So why is that
community at a disadvantage? That was very surprising to me,
And so.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
How did you go from zero to one once you
kind of had the idea and the inspiration to do this.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I had a good product, and with a good product consistency,
we were able to deliver and we were able to
open up our next restaurant during the pandemic. So I
feel like consistency, giving great service, those things allowed us
(10:51):
to be able to go to the next level because
that's what people want. Like, people know that they have choices,
and you're in Atlanta, there's a restaurant almost on every
other corner, and people open the restaurants every day because
they feel like it's so easy until they get in
there and realize that it's not as easy as it looks.
But you have to be consistent for sure. And I
(11:15):
think that's what allows us to continue to open up
more restaurants in the community because people realize we can
go anywhere, and if you're not giving us consistency or
quality product, then we're going to the next restaurant. So
it's just that easy.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, And speaking of that, like, what's kind of a
big misconception that you've learned or you think people have
about the restaurant business now that you've been doing it
for a while, Like, say, you think people think it's easy,
that they can just stand one up. What's kind of
the biggest misconception.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
That you've learned That people feel like they can just
open a restaurant because they are somebody and they can
just let people run it and it's going to succeed.
And most time that's not the case.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
It's usually not.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So I trying to give it a dinner for the
doubt and say in most cases, so, I mean that's it.
I think for me being a part of my restaurant
on a regular basis, I think that's part of key,
you know, just making sure that I'm involved and making
sure that I'm continuously walking the walk as I talk it,
(12:29):
because I'm not a person who just goes in and
delegate and say do this, do this, do that. They
actually get to see me working and whatever I ask
you to do is something that you've seen me do.
So I think that's one of the reasons why we've
been able to be so successful.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, and you know one of the things I also,
you know, really love about your story is again, even
beyond the restaurant you've got, you know, you do amazing
like retail products and you know other things too, right,
like how do you start the envision and say, you
know what, We're not just going to do a restaurant.
We're going to have our own hot salt, We're going
to have our own pancake, mixed own grit's. Like, how
do you kind of those things kind of start to
(13:07):
come to life.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Well, you know, the guests they demand those things. You know,
when the guests come in the restaurant and they're continuously
talking about your product and how they want it. They
want you to open up here, they want you to
open up there, and you're like, well, I'm not going
to be able to do that, but I can make,
you know, something that you can have at home to
create for yourself. And it's just like go Shake's breakfast
(13:31):
bar in your own home. And so that's what I did.
I developed things based off of demand, and even in
my restaurants, I do that based on demands in the community.
So all of my locations they have been based off demand.
There's nothing in the community, and I feel like it's
a great opportunity to bring something to the community. Yeah,
(13:53):
that's what has happened over the years.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You know, it's somebody that you know. Also, you know,
it does a lot of like serve space businesses. Sometimes
I get a little burnt out. I'm like, you know what,
I wish I could just sell people something that came
in a small, medium and large. It wasn't didn't have
to be bespoked, didn't have to be customed. And that's
one thing I love about like having like actual products. Right,
it's just like, look, I know you might like this,
but here's kind of an extension of me that you
can kind of take to go with. But at the
(14:18):
same time, this is how it comes in this size.
You know, no, you can't send it back if if
it's not ready, or you know no, it doesn't come
in different sizes. It's like, how do you go from
zero to one and launching a product? Like how is
that experience when you say, okay, I want to actually
come out my own pancake mix or something right, Like,
how do you actually make those things go from just
an idea to reality?
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Well, first you have to research and figure out who
can make the product. I mean that's not an easy
thing to find because a lot of times people want
you to buy this big batch of products and you
don't know how the product is going to sell or
how it's going to do, and you're stuck with all
this product. You've fished out all this money and now
(15:02):
you have all this product and so you're just sitting
waiting trying to sell it. So you have to really
figure out who's your market and who can make the
product for you with what fits in your budget. So
that's important. And then making sure that you have a
(15:23):
great test product. You know you want to test it,
give it to a couple of people and get their
opinion about it and see if there's anything that you
need to tweak and once you get a great product
and you found the right vendor to make the product,
then you go from there and make sure that you
can market the product. And you know, for me, it's
not hard at all because people come to the restaurant
(15:43):
all the time and when they taste the product, they're like, wow,
this is really good. And so our servers a part
of their twelve steps is to make sure that they're
educating the guests on the retail products and that they
are able to buy the product and take get home
with them and they still have a piece of Groceet's
breakfast far in the house. So that's been working really well.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It seems like some people might be worried if you know,
if they're selling the product, people might not come back
and they think they can do it themselves. Like, you
don't ever get concerned about people thinking they can just
take negotiate experience at home and not come check out
the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Even if they take it home, it makes the same
We create an experience in the restaurant. People want to
be a part of that experience. You know, it's a
whole vibe you come to the restaurant. We have people
who come there every single day, every single day, and
they purchase our food. They sit there, they have a
good time, they have conversation, they have drinks, and people
(16:39):
like that. They like being in a great atmosphere where
they can bring their friends, family, you know, dates or whatever.
They have a good time. That's what it's all about.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Now you're a chef a business owner, you know you've
got multiple locations, just how do you balance like the
creative side of what you want to do with the
business side, Because I'm sure you probably get the opportunity
to get pulled in lots of different directions.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
You kind of have to make those hard choices.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
It's the hardest thing ever, you know, with being a
restaurant tour you know, you wear many hats and it's
constantly balancing act and you never really figure it out
because when you're an owner, you're constantly thinking about what's
going in a bit, what's going on in the business,
(17:38):
making sure that they're doing the right safety protocols, and
making sure that your health inspection ready at all times,
making sure that you know they're following, making sure they're
checking IDs. It's a lot of things that goes into
being a restaurant tour, so trying to balance that and
also trying to keep up with the creativity of it
(18:00):
all by developing new recipes and new menu items. It's
a lot, but it's not impossible. And that comes along
with making sure that you've got a great team. I
haven't found the perfect team, you know, to help me
in every aspect of the business, but definitely it's a
(18:22):
help for where I am. I have a lot less
responsibilities than they used to have with the team that
I have right.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Now, I'm sure that's taking some of the stress.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Well what's it like?
Speaker 3 (18:35):
You know that?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I think that's a thing that a lot of people
struggle with too, right as you know, entrepreneurs, a lot
of times, you know, it's hard to let certain things go.
You know a lot of people sometimes feel like, you know, nobody,
like nobody's gonna ever do it, just like you. And
so one thing I always kind of tell people is, look,
at a certain point, you got to let certain things go,
and you have to get comfortable with and saying you
know what, if somebody can do this seventy five eighty
(18:58):
percent as well as I would do it, like that's
worth you letting it go. How did you kind of
deal with that when we got to that point where
maybe you're not the one in the kitchen as much,
you're not the one like making some of these things.
Were you able to let that go or was that
a process within itself.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Well?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I used to be in the kitchen every single day
until last October. This time last year, we started filming,
and that's when I realized, after the filming was over
that the restaurant still was running and nothing had happened
disastrous and I still had restaurants. So after that, I
(19:36):
realized that I can kind of start doing other things,
you know, And it was very hard. I think if
I had not started filming again, it wouldn't have I
probably would still be in there right now. Yeah. So
now I'm in there probably four days a week, not seven,
So that makes it a little bit easier for me.
(19:58):
I get a chance to try to be a little
bit more creative and offer more ideas, and I run
my Instagram page, so it's kind of here's me an
opportunity to do that a little bit more too.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
So Yeah, what were some of the key hires that
kind of helped you let go of some of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
The management team, I have a brand Excellence manager. Her
goal is to solely focus on training and make sure
that every person that comes in either restaurant that they're
fully trained the go shape breakfast bar standard. And so
once that happened, that was great. She had been on
(20:38):
our team for about four years and we moved her
into that position, and that's been extremely helpful to know
that everyone is getting trained the exact same way. Before
it was I'm gonna pair you up with this person,
We're gonna pair you up with that person, and of course,
you know, people were doing different things. So once we
got one consistent trainer, that was the key for us.
(21:02):
And then I had one of my best friends who
always told me that, you know, I need to open
a restaurant. She became one of my top managers, which
handles like all my marketing and anything just surround my
brand on how it's being exposed and being presented. That
(21:23):
was a big help for me too. And just having
people that has your best interests, you know at heart,
that's important. People that you can trust, and those people
that I have on my team right now are critical.
And I have like one of my best friends who's
He's been my friend for like thirty years. He works
for me, and he's the one who handles like all
(21:46):
my special sauces. I would never give anybody my recipes,
and so he's the only person I trust to go
in and make all my sauces because I don't allow
anybody to make them. So he's the only person that
I trust to make them. He's been my RANFO over
thirty years.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
So yeah, I love the idea of a we call
a brand excellence manager. Yeah, for a couple of different reasons. One,
I mean that's something that I've had to work on
a lot in my business. I tell my team all
the time. I think that onboarding is like one of
the most critical moments when you bring people on because
you're kind of indoctrinating them into the way you do things. Yes, right,
and very easy for you to kind of let that
(22:24):
part slide. But then what happens is if you don't
get people all on the same patient beginning, they start
getting their own bad habits in or to your point,
you know, somebody trained them on kind of how they
take shortcuts and not like the right way to do it.
And so again I love that idea. I guess my
question is how do you even come up with that though? Like,
were you're working with a consultant or you know, do
you have like a mentor or somebody that you were
(22:44):
working with that says, you know, these are the kind
of roles you should think about help you scale your business.
Or is it just something that you came up with
yourself and said, you know what, this is a pain
point that I'm noticing and I know we need somebody
to do this. Like how do you kind of figure
out what roles you needed as you were kind of
trying to grow and scale the so that you could
step away and do other things a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah, it's pretty much, you know, consulting. Like my friend
I told you who handles all of my the way
my products are handled. Laurie. She basically she and I consult.
We've been best friends also for about twenty something years,
and so we just sit back and talk as three
of us, and so we sit back and talk about
(23:23):
different ideas and you know, things about the business on
what's needed and how we can do it. And sometimes
I listen and sometime I don't.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
That's in charge, right, Yeah, So they have.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Some great ideas though, and I take a lot of
them and we put them together with some of the
things that I want to talk about and how I
want to see things, and we make it work.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
No, I'm telling you right now, I'm eyeing this, this
lemon pancake mix. You know, mind, this is pretty hard.
I might have to borrow that my kids and see
how they like it.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah, they're gonna love it.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
But like what inspire some of these different you know,
on some of these recipes that you come up with, Well.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
We have people who come from all around the world
and they talk about how they've had pancakes in so
many different places and they've never experienced the type of
pancakes that we offer. And when they tell me that,
it makes me feel really good. And so I'm like, okay, well,
we need to put these in a box and box
them up with them and so that that's you know,
(24:23):
some part of the development on how some of these
things came about. Our honey hot sauce is paired with
you know, our fish and grits now and our breakfast pizzas,
and these are some of the products that people just
actually love, you know. Halapayo cheese grits, Like, who's really
making those anywhere? So you know, these are just very
you know, interesting items that really sell really well in
(24:45):
the restaurant, and we want to sell them. We want
everybody to have them.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
And then you all have a food truck too, right, Like,
how did that extend and how does that kind of
create new opportunities for the business.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Oh wow, So the food truck came about during the
pandem So when the pandemic came, we never did to
goost before that because I'm such a person who's I'm
very visual. I don't like taking food to go when
I go to a restaurant because I like my food
hot and fresh, and I know that once I take
(25:16):
it out the restaurant, it's not the same experience. So
we never did to ghost. Well, when the pandemic came,
we didn't have a choice but to do to Goos
because there was nothing else going on in the world. Well,
when we opened back up, when everybody came back outside
and they was doing this whole by black support Black,
we were ambushed and we were like, we have to
(25:41):
get a food truck because AT and T wasn't going anywhere.
So we didn't have room to expand at the time,
and so we got a food truck because the way
times were ridiculous because we had so many to gos
and then we had in house guests and trying to
put the two together, and we have four screens of
(26:02):
nothing but to goals, and so the experience was just
going down because we just couldn't do it all. Well,
we got the food truck and we decided to pull
the food truck out in front of the restaurant and
do all the to goals on the food truck, and
that was a lifesave. That was the game changer for sure.
So now we do all the to go orders on
the food truck and we do great in house dining now,
(26:26):
so we can get you in and out fifteen twenty minutes,
you know, get your food out. And so that was
the best thing that we've ever been able to do.
And now AT and T is gone, So now we're expanding.
We're gonna knock the wall down and take half of
the AT and T store, and then that way we
are able to cut down on the lines outside and
(26:48):
be able to give a better experience for people to
get in.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Congratulations. Expansion is always good.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
I'm sure it comes with in the new set of headaches.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Right Like, now you've probably got contractors over there trying
to balance out how they expand while also keeping the
business running.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Yeah, so that's the next headaches. So we were supposed
to have already expanded, and that was supposed to have
been done in October. Well, the AC took a while
for them to get because of all the things that
were going on in the economy. We finally got the
air conditioning. Then we were waiting on the meter. Once
we got the meter, well we still haven't gotten the meter.
(27:24):
Then they decided, oh, we need to change the plans
and do something. But now they're ready, and now I'm like,
what's the holidays? And I'm not ready now because now
their sin is gonna take two to three weeks and
I'm just like, it's the holidays. Now I can't close
down during the holidays. So now probably won't happen till
first of January.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
So yeah, these are the things people don't understand that
you got to deal with when it comes to something,
right Like, it's these other little nuanced things like even
once you get the food part taken care of, it's again,
(28:04):
I want to expand, but these people are trying to
push me do one thing. The air conditioner is late.
Now I can't get this thing going, and I got
to kind of work through these other issues that I
think people don't really see. They just see kind of
the finished, shiny products.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Sometimes like Instagram or social media in general, well.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You know, that's just highlights. It's alway still people all Instagram.
It's just highlight reels and stuff. It's not always the
crazy stuff where you know you're walking in there and
it's dusty all over the place, and you know you're
building stuff out. But even as you've been going through
all this, what's been some of your proudest moments, you know,
as you've you know, built these different businesses and the
different retail lines out, what.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Makes me really proud probably would be just to see
the guests continuously supporting us, you know, and even though
the economy is very hard and it's a lot going on,
people are strapped for money and things like that, to
see that they're continuously coming in supporting us means a lot.
(29:02):
Because the economy is not in a place where everyone
wants it to be, and so for someone to spend
their hard earn money with you on a consistent basis
is extremely important to us as a community, and it
just makes me realize that we have a great community
(29:24):
and we need to make sure that we're continuously being
consistent and delivering on the product and the experience.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, I mean that shows up because you definitely have
a loyal kind of community and fulwing here in Atlanta.
How is you know, one thing we in lantd we
always talk about is culture, right, Like, how is Atlanta's
culture influenced the way that you've grown your businesses out?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I don't think the culture really had a lot of
influence on me. I feel like just my community itself
just being supportive, you know, Like when I first went
to South Fulton, like I had the mayor, I had
you know, city councilmen. They were all supporting the brand
(30:06):
because we were a new business to the city of
South Fulton and they wanted to make sure that we
were successful and they wanted to make sure that we
knew that we had their support in being able to
be in that community. So that was they were you know,
sending people our way. They were talking about us all
(30:28):
the time and even during the pandemic. You know, we
received grants just to help feed people, so that they
really were a supportive community for us. So I don't
think the culture itself really changed us in any type
(30:50):
of way, you know, but the support definitely and definitely.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
In South Fulton.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
I mean, you know, it's an interesting part of you know,
Atlanta's kind of an extension in a lot of ways, right,
Like it's it's not downtown, but at the same time,
it does feel like there's a really tight knit kind
of community down there of people and businesses and everybody
kind of knows each other in a certain sense. Do
you get that same kind of feel?
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Oh? Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, anything I need in the city
of South Fulton, I can just pick up the phone
and call. It's really that simple over there, you know.
Like now we're getting ready to open an Atlantic Station,
so I don't think it's gonna be that easy over there,
but yeah, I've heard that it's not that easy anyway.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
So well, Atlantic Station seems like a full circle moment,
especially because you used to live there. Yeah, you know,
now you're coming back to open up your new business there.
How do you feel about that?
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I feel really good about that. You know, it's right
and back of where I used to live at. So yeah,
I think that's really great. Atlantic Station is a popular,
you know, attraction for Atlanta, and yeah, I just feel
like it's going to be a no brainer for sure.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
And especially I mean Atlanta has so many great things
on the horizon. We got the Super Bowl coming up,
the World Cup coming up. I mean you all are
going to be kind of positioned to be right in
the middle of a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, already, yeah, definitely always ready. We're delayed
on that as well, but yeah, but it's happening.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
That's good. Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Well, with all these different products you have going on,
just how do you kind of figure out, you know,
what your next goal is going to be? Like, how
do you kind of prioritize what next?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
You know, I always sit back and kind of review
the market and see what's needed. And right now, the
next step would be a share kitchen space. So that's
something basically if you have a food truck or if
you have you might cater at home, and now you
need a catering kitchen or a commissary kitchen is what
(32:53):
they call it. But you don't have anywhere to go
to make the food. Then you can come to the
share kitchen in space and you can rent it out
and you can do everything you need to do there
because we're provide almost like your own little restaurant. Yeah,
and that's what we're doing now. So that's the next step.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
That's amazing. I mean, you know, I always tell people
I think, you know, when you see opportunities, there's a
couple different ways to look at it. For example, you know,
back when they had the California gold rush back in
the days, right, a lot of people went to California
looking for gold, but there was a lot of money
to be made selling picks and access. And I kind
of feel the same way, especially when you're trying to
talk about this whole shared kitchen right, Like, you're also
(33:34):
you understand what the people who are also kind of
doing similar things need from a resource standpoint, and so
by opening up that shared kitchen, you're kind of giving
people those resources while also creating value and opportunities you know,
for you, yourself.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
And your team. Yes, see, that takes understanding, you know
what I mean absolutely.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
I mean I look at it like if you think
about all these salon suites that they're doing right. You know.
I want to be on that next wave of shared
kitchen spaces, you know, because I think that's something that's needed.
Everybody can afford a brick and mortar, right, So that's
(34:11):
the next thing for us.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And food trucks I think are legally required a lot
of times actually have like a standard kitchen somewhere too. Yeah,
they have to have a common commisary kitchen.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Absolutely, and so we'll be there to provide it for them.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Then you have people to do like ghost kitchens and
stuff like that. So there's a lot of people that
want to try stuff and they don't know how to
necessarily get started. So it kind of opens you up
to and it even helps position you honestly is like
a thought leader and a leader in that space in general.
Like now you kind of become the og triple og
as they kind of say, right, like, if you know,
if you need help, not only do you have the resources,
but you have the expertise because you've been doing it yourself,
(34:45):
and people can kind of believe in that and trust
the things that you put out.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yeah, I mean, and the goal is to make money
while you're sleep, you know, I don't want to always be,
you know, in my restaurants, always you know, working. So
I figured that these things that I've done provides the
opportunity to be able to make money while I'm sleeping.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
So what would a little Ghostet say to Gotet now
if she knew all these amazing things you were working on, She'd.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Be like, girl, you did that? Can you believe it?
I'd be like, girl, I can't believe it, but it's there,
you know. And so I developed a cookbook as well.
And so the reason why I developed the cookbook was
because I wanted people to be able to create experiences
(35:34):
at home as well. Cooking is like something from the soul.
You not a cook.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
I am an amazing cook, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
That's so amazing. That is so amazing. There was a
lot of people who cannot cook, you know, there's a
lot of people who cannot cook. And you know, a
part of the cookbook that I made it was like
meals under thirty minutes, and we weren't ready to launch
that as well. So this, yeah, so that goes along
with the retail branding.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, I mean personally, the reason why I got into cooking,
I mean, I grew up my dad and my mom
taught me how to cook and as over the years,
I mean, I cook a lot, but like I actually
really enjoy.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Bacon a lot more.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
And the reason why I enjoy baking is because I
always tell people, like, my life is very unstructured. As
an entrepreneur, I don't usually get to follow directions. I'm
the one who has to figure everything out, and so
bacon gives me that like one moment where I can
just follow directions and just I get the result that's desired, right, Because.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Cooking is more like art, bacon is science.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Bacon says, you turn that oven on four hundred degrees
and you put a cup of flour in, Like you
better put a damn cup of flour in, right, you know.
With with cooking, you're like just give a little pinch
of this, a little dash of that. But that's something
that I learned over the years from me personally, is
I enjoy baking because it allows me to just kind
(36:54):
of relax and just I know what comes next for
once I'm not the one who has to kind of
figure it out. Do you get that same kind of
you know, experience when you're do those things?
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Yeah, absolutely. I'm not a baker. And the crazy part
is I've just started bacon, and when I tell you
it is so like terrifying because it's not anything that
once it comes out the oven, if it's not right,
it's over. You know, at least cooking on the stove.
(37:23):
You can change it up once you know you're done,
you can taste it's cool, but cook bacon it has
to be like really exact, I mean exact. It's very intimidating.
But you know, I've been doing it a lot lately
and I've been experienced, you know, experimenting with it, and
I'm actually kind of liking it a lot, but it
(37:44):
is very intimidating. I will say, like, seriously, I don't
messed up quite a few things, but because you know,
you think you can just you ain't really got to
be But it.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Really does have to be exact exact.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Yeah, it really does.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
It's cool though, if someone could take one lesson or
one message from your journey to building all these amazing
brands and restaurants and products and cookbooks and all this stuff,
Like what do you think that would be?
Speaker 1 (38:13):
I say it all the time. Got to be consistent,
You got to be persistent, and you have to make
sure you do your research to be able to have
knowledge on whatever it is that you want to do.
And building a team, making sure that you're finding the
(38:33):
right team for you. All those things are extremely important.
And invest in yourself. Don't give up because everybody's not
going to say yes. And being that they're not going
to say yes, you got to figure out creative ways
to still make it happen. Don't give up, period.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Well, look, this has been an amazing conversation. Before we
get out of here. How can people support you? How
can they find your product? How can they get to
the restaurant? Like where they need to go?
Speaker 1 (39:03):
It can go to go shas breakfast Bar dot com
and they'll find all the retail products. And we also
have the Cooking with Gachet book that pre orders up
and social media is Gauchet Hawkins or Gachet's Breakfast Bar.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Well, look y'all heard it, go set.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Thank you so much for coming in and congratulations on
this amazing journey. Congratulations on the expansion and all the
things you're working on. We can't wait to see what
happens next. I got a good friend of mine, my
boy Eric Gordon, always bringing me down there to the spot,
tell me about it. So it's great to get a
chance to finally meet you in person. Yeah, thank you,
and you know, we can't wait to see how all
this amazing stuff is going to continue to happen for you.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, well, when it comes, make sure you come to
the Grand Open. It's going to be amazing.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
We'll be out. Are is that an invite?
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (39:46):
Okay, we're there then don't threaten me with a good.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Time for sure, and make sure you check out Gaschet's
Tapas Bar. You know that's on the southwest side too.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Okay, Yeah, well, look this has been amazing. Go say
thank you so much for coming out. And uh that's
the pod, y'all we out.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
You've been listening to buttteron Nomics and I'm your host,
Brandon Butler. Comments feedback. Want to be a part of
the show, send us an email today at hello at
butterdomics dot com. Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia
at iHeartMedia by Ramsey, with marketing and support from Queen
and Nike. Music provided by Mister Hanky. If you haven't
already hit that subscribe button and never missed an episode,
(40:24):
And be sure to follow us on all our social
platforms at butter dot Atl. Listen to Button Nomics on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Brandon Butler
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