May 12, 2025 • 18 mins
Every Just Salad employee is trained in culture, connecting with customers and the consistency of product and hospitality, according to founder and CEO Nick Kenner. In this episode of Choppin’ It Up, Kenner sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence’s senior restaurant and foodservice analyst, Michael Halen, to discuss how the chain’s operations help set it apart from competitors. He also comments on Just Salad’s growth plans, diverse customer base and the tightening consumer environment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome to Chopping It Up. I'm your host, Mike Allen,
a senior restaurant and food service analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Our research and that a bi's five hundred analysts around
the globe can be found exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal.
If you enjoy the pod, I'd love it if you
could leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Today
we're joined by Nick Kenner, founder and CEO of Just Salad.
(00:34):
Thanks for joining me, Nick.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, thanks for having me. Mike appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So are you a native New Yorker?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Are you No, I'm Jersey. I'm a Jersey guy man.
So I saw that your office is actually right down
the street from our Bloomberg's New York flagship. And I
saw that you went to Colgate, So I thought, maybe
you know.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Having strayed too far from New York City in life,
so actually one of my bigger personal regrets. But I
do love it.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Okay, So you grew up in the city I grew Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Grew up downtown in Greenwich Village and yeah, went to Colgate, graduated,
came back, got a job in finance, quit started Just Salad,
and I've been in New York City ever since.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
A very cool So what inspired you to start just salad?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, the first thing was actually to answer a question directly. Actually,
in some ways it was seamless web. I was twenty four,
was my turn to order lunch for the entire trading floor,
and everyone wanted a salad and I went on to
and no one was specific about where it was from. Right,
(01:48):
these were the days where there was no one in
midtown specializing in salad, and so people were getting salads
from a suit place called Hale and Hardy from places
like packs Metro, and of course when everyone got them,
people would complain about the quality and the options. And
(02:09):
so that was kind of an epiphany moment where if
someone I realized, if someone just did salad, but did
it really well and specialized, there could be a big opportunity,
not just in New York City, but you know nationally
as well.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
What did you trade?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I was moved all over the place. It was kind
of a I was working at a hedge fund, and
as people would get fired, they would put me as
an assistant to going from the consumer retail analysts to
a person running the syndicate desk. Eventually I ended up
working for a great guy named Peter Jepson doing you know,
handling the helping him handle the macroeconomic book.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Okay, cool, Yeah, I was an equity pop prop trader
in a previous life. And about the salads, man, we
used to I worked at Sadodi covering restaurants prior to Bloomberg.
I guess it was early twenty teens, and we actually
had a salad spot that we found on Lexington. It
was like maybe around the high forties, I guess maybe
(03:09):
forty eighth and lex And they did a great salad
and we were there almost every day for five dollars
and fifty cents. They would pack that thing with so
much protein, you know, and me and my friends were
there probably four days a week, maybe you know, Fridays
we would treat ourselves to something a little bit nicer.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
But if Fridays or the weekdays for most salads in general,
it's it's a pizza and Burger's thrive on Fridays for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Man. So I'm assuming at some point the menu was
in fact just salad.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yes, yes, when we started it was it was just salad.
And then yeah, we started with a reusable bowl program.
Actually we were only selling salads in reusable bulls. Then
we realized two things. One people wanted more than salad
from us. They wanted things that were healthy, fast and affordable.
(04:02):
And not everyone want was going to reuse their bull
and so people were throwing those out. So about a
year in we quickly pivoted. We added wraps, and we
started to have disposable bowls as well to accommodate those
that we're not going to reuse. And today, I mean,
(04:22):
now it's the menu. Is it's ironic given the name
because we're probably more diversified in health than anyone in
the salad category. We sell smoothies, we sell warm bowls,
we sell wraps, soup, and we just introduced something called
marketplates a couple of weeks ago. So we're really anything
(04:43):
where we feel we can create a great culinary product
that's fast and healthy and affordable, we're gonna try and do. So.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
How many restaurants are there currently, and what's a split
between your company owned and franchise units.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
So we're virtually all company owned, and I mean we
have three that are franchised out of ninety eight, and
so we're coming up on one hundred locations, and we're
all over the northeast, so Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut,
(05:20):
New York, Long Island. And then we're also got twenty
five restaurants in Florida everywhere from Orlando down to South Florida,
Port Saint Luci in between. And then we're in the
Chicago area as well.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
All Right, So I saw you raised some money recently,
So should that should that be an indication? Is that
an indication that you're going to be primarily focused on
building company owned units going forward?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yes, yeah, that's a good rate. Yeah, we're not franchising
right now, so you know, the capital is meant to
just continue to accelerate our growth. So we we open
ten restaurants roughly in twenty twenty three, we open twenty
restaurants in twenty twenty four, and we'll hopefully open thirty
(06:09):
restaurants this year, and we'll continue to ramp up a
company owned growth.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Okay, cool. This leads me into a few different questions.
I guess let's start here. How big are the restaurants
and how much do they cost to build?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, I mean the restaurants, it really depends based on
are they urban, are they suburban, but you know, call
it roughly two thousand square feet and net build out
costs are typically around eight hundred and fifty.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
K Okay, is there any other un economic data you'd
like to share, cash on cash returns, whatever it might be.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, I mean, we we've the business model is in
a very good place. I say that humbly because you
know it wasn't always the case, but certain in the
last few years we've hit a lot of goals that
we've had. One of them was getting above twenty percent
store lovely bit on margins, which we're significantly above that.
(07:08):
Now we're above the two million AUV that we'd always wanted.
And most importantly, these are all like means to an end.
The most important, like you said, is cash on cash
return and you know we're typically around forty to fifty
percent or more on that. So it's been it's been
a great business the last couple of years, and want
(07:30):
to continue to keep that going.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, strong. What percentage of your new store gms are
brought in from other existing just sellid restaurants.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That's a great question. Virtually all our general managers have
been line level employees, assistant managers or supervisors at existing locations,
so we have an unbelievable farm team, we call it.
And we don't hire on the operations level outside general
(08:03):
managers almost ever. Sometimes there are unique situations in newer
markets where someone doesn't want to raise a hand and
move to but that hasn't been an issue in Florida,
by the way, But typically it's just existing employees who
see the opportunity. And you know, speaking of Florida, we
(08:24):
have a husband and wife that had been with us
in New York for over ten years and they moved
down to Florida together to run separate locations. Our regional
director who heads up Florida. She worked with me at
our second location in a basement, doing all of the
deliveries for Midtown together. She ended up actually moving to
(08:49):
Florida year to ahead of just salad working at a
Chase Bank, and then when we moved there, she raised
her hand and now she's our regional director, which has
been pretty pretty amazing journey for both of us there.
So yeah, I mean, we really on the operation side,
we want our employees to see the growth, to see
(09:10):
the opportunity, and I think it can be somewhat discouraging
when you're bringing in people from the outside with quote
unquote great resumes, right Starbucks, Chipotle, whatever it might be,
and putting them over people that have been busting their
butt at your company for years. That's something we've really
tried to avoid.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, that's great, and it keeps the culture intact.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, and culture is a big part of operations for us.
We have something called the three c's, so every location,
every employees trained on it. It starts with the culture,
creating a culture of positivity, opportunity, and growth, and then
it leads to connection with the customers. We want to
connect with every guest that comes through, and we want
(09:55):
to have consistency, consistency of product and consistently see of hospitality.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Wh's a core customer.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
There is no core customer for Jess Salad. It is
a extraordinarily broad customer.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
We have.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Really we have locations in Midtown, New York, We're in Harlem,
We're in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You know we're in these are
these are radically different demos from each other. Then and
even in Florida, you know, we'll be in Brickle but
we'll be in Port Saint Lucy or Pembroke Pines. So
(10:32):
you know, Pembroke Pines, the average household income is about
high seventies equal to US household income. Brickles off the charts.
It worked for really anyone that's middle income, upper income,
and even lower middle income. I think there's just a
(10:52):
giant desire in this country to have healthy food that
tastes great, that's actually affordable, and I think we're delivering
on that better than anyone col Do you.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Think that's a bigger opportunity maybe on the coasts than
it is in Middle America?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
No, I mean, I think we're kind of seeing from
the average household income in the markets that we exist
in the Northeast and Florida that there's a huge opportunity
all over the country. And so you know you're you're
going to see that in our site selection in the
coming years as well.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
What's the split between lunch and dinner?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
So suburbs it's about sixty forty in favor of lunch,
and then although that is that is changing with the
release of the marketplates, our dinner's actually going up pretty significantly,
and urban's like anywhere from seventy or eighty percent. Lunch
just is a lot of a lot of these areas
empty out at night.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Okay, I see you're getting into the drive through game
this year. Are you having any issues finding good locations,
be it drive through or traditional in how many restaurants
and would you say about thirty ish or so this year?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah, So we'll open around thirty restaurants this year, about
one or two we'll be drive throughs. Drive through real
estate's impossible to get in the markets we operate, so
it's certainly not a need to have, but if there
is a good opportunity, we'll do it. And we're not
doing pick up lanes like at Chipotle. We're doing actual
(12:25):
drive through lanes where you can point and shoot and
get what you want at that time. You don't have
to download our app or anything like that. And so
we think that's a huge part of disrupting fast food
is doing drive through and doing it well. And so
far we've had a great experience. We open our first
one in Livingston, New Jersey. The drive through is doing
(12:46):
really well for us, and they'll be There'll be more
on the way when there's opportunities.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
All right, So that's it. There's two near me. I
have not been yet, but there's a Clifton location and
Livingston location for mail have.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Come come on check it. I mean, where are you
in Jersey?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I live in Verona, New Jersey, right next to Moncley.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Okay, yeah, that's well, we'll try and get closer to
you then.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, so when I'm out running my errands on Saturday,
I'll swing by the Livingston drive through. How are you
looking to drive Seamstar sales growth this year?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Good question. I mean, we were coming off double digit
same store sales since twenty eighteen with the exception of
COVID twenty twenty, and unfortunately, I could say with confidence
this year very unlikely. It's going to be double digits
this year. It's certainly a harder consumer environment, and I
(13:43):
think there's been dramatic tailwinds to just salad and the category,
and I think it's a little more of a market
share game this year because they're just you know, doesn't
seem to be the consumers. Seems like it's tightening a
little bit. So with that, you know, we're launching our
(14:06):
Loyalty this summer. That's gonna be a big part of
Q three, Q four and and the future, and it'll
be offering instant rewards to our customer and some other
at this point confidential, but really fun, amazing gifts for
(14:26):
our customers. And then marketplaces has been a big boon
that's going to have tailwinds. So we only released that
about three weeks ago, it's already besides salads, our biggest category,
and people the feedback has been amazing in a lot
of ways. I think it's our one of our best
culinary products we've ever put forth, and I think that
(14:48):
will create a new occasion for customers who come to
us for salad but might want something heartier at night
or on weekends, and I think that should help drive
sales uh there as well. And then there's the general look.
We're in the restaurant business. The food's got to continually
get better and it's hard to define, but when it
gets better, you get more customers. And so there's constant
(15:10):
culinary innovation that's happening all the time, including this year.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Obviously, commodity prices have been swinging around with a lot
of the tariff news and headlines, and so I guess
how much inflation are you expecting at right now for
the year, and how much price do you intend to take?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, impossible to say. No one knows where this ends up.
If it ended up where it is today, not much.
All our food pretty much comes from America, with the
exception of Mexican avocados, where Canadian and Mexican agriculture are
excluded from the terrorists as of now. So on the
(15:52):
food side, not much. There could be significant packaging costs
and significant cost to kitchen equipment, and it's too hard
to know. Ultimately, Look, if it looks like it's truly
affecting our margins, we will, you know, have to take price.
(16:14):
But I don't think at this point it's it's it's
it's too hard to know what that actual effect is.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
What was your plan for price coming into the year.
All right, good stuff? So when I when I pull
up to the drive through Saturday, what should I order?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Well, I gotta know a little bit more about you, Mike,
So are you do you like chicken? Are you vegan?
Do you like spicy? So?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I like spicy, I like chicken. You know I like steak.
You know, protein's big, I.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Would say so. The crispy chicken peblano is always a
crowd pleaser. That's a salad. The spicy chicken sees a
wrap might be up your alley. And if you're looking
for something hardier and you don't want a salad, the
Tazeki market plate pro tip with like a little siracha
on the yok cucumber is pretty amazing. So those are
(17:03):
my favorites right now.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Those all sound fantastic. What's your personal favorite? Number one
go to order?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I eat it four times a week, so at this
point there is I have to mix it up. But
right now I've been odeing on the marketplates, either the
Pesto or the Tazeki my all time in terms of
what I've ordered the most itch just out. The Tokyo
super Greens is an amazing one. And the Crispy Chicken Peblano,
(17:32):
I don't do Krispy chickens. I sub that out for
our braised chicken, which my opinion is the best chicken
in all of fast casual or fast food is amazing.
That's that's what gets me excited.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
All right, good stuff, You gave me a few things
to try. That pesto is right on my alley too, man,
so I think you're gonna have to try that one.
This was great, Thanks again for doing it.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Nick. Was nice to meet you. Yeah, nice to meet
you and appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, you got it. Where can listeners go to find
their nearest Just salad?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Just go to just salid dot com and click on
the order now now I'm kidding, it's just salad dot
com and you can click on locations and it'll show
show you what's closest.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
All right, great? And uh, which social media channels are
you big on?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
We have an actress salad At on Instagram and uh,
you know, we have a LinkedIn profile, but Instagram is
the best place to find us.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
All right, good stuff. I also want to thank the
audience for tuning in. If you like the discussion, please
share it with your friends and colleagues. Check back soon
for an interview with Vishal Augerwal, the founder and CEO
of Checkmate
Welcome to Chopping It Up. I'm your host, Mike Allen,
a senior restaurant and food service analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Our research and that a bi's five hundred analysts around
the globe can be found exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal.
If you enjoy the pod, I'd love it if you
could leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Today
we're joined by Nick Kenner, founder and CEO of Just Salad.
(00:34):
Thanks for joining me, Nick.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, thanks for having me. Mike appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So are you a native New Yorker?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Are you No, I'm Jersey. I'm a Jersey guy man.
So I saw that your office is actually right down
the street from our Bloomberg's New York flagship. And I
saw that you went to Colgate, So I thought, maybe
you know.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Having strayed too far from New York City in life,
so actually one of my bigger personal regrets. But I
do love it.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Okay, So you grew up in the city I grew Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Grew up downtown in Greenwich Village and yeah, went to Colgate, graduated,
came back, got a job in finance, quit started Just Salad,
and I've been in New York City ever since.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
A very cool So what inspired you to start just salad?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, the first thing was actually to answer a question directly. Actually,
in some ways it was seamless web. I was twenty four,
was my turn to order lunch for the entire trading floor,
and everyone wanted a salad and I went on to
and no one was specific about where it was from. Right,
(01:48):
these were the days where there was no one in
midtown specializing in salad, and so people were getting salads
from a suit place called Hale and Hardy from places
like packs Metro, and of course when everyone got them,
people would complain about the quality and the options. And
(02:09):
so that was kind of an epiphany moment where if
someone I realized, if someone just did salad, but did
it really well and specialized, there could be a big opportunity,
not just in New York City, but you know nationally
as well.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
What did you trade?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I was moved all over the place. It was kind
of a I was working at a hedge fund, and
as people would get fired, they would put me as
an assistant to going from the consumer retail analysts to
a person running the syndicate desk. Eventually I ended up
working for a great guy named Peter Jepson doing you know,
handling the helping him handle the macroeconomic book.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Okay, cool, Yeah, I was an equity pop prop trader
in a previous life. And about the salads, man, we
used to I worked at Sadodi covering restaurants prior to Bloomberg.
I guess it was early twenty teens, and we actually
had a salad spot that we found on Lexington. It
was like maybe around the high forties, I guess maybe
(03:09):
forty eighth and lex And they did a great salad
and we were there almost every day for five dollars
and fifty cents. They would pack that thing with so
much protein, you know, and me and my friends were
there probably four days a week, maybe you know, Fridays
we would treat ourselves to something a little bit nicer.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
But if Fridays or the weekdays for most salads in general,
it's it's a pizza and Burger's thrive on Fridays for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Man. So I'm assuming at some point the menu was
in fact just salad.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yes, yes, when we started it was it was just salad.
And then yeah, we started with a reusable bowl program.
Actually we were only selling salads in reusable bulls. Then
we realized two things. One people wanted more than salad
from us. They wanted things that were healthy, fast and affordable.
(04:02):
And not everyone want was going to reuse their bull
and so people were throwing those out. So about a
year in we quickly pivoted. We added wraps, and we
started to have disposable bowls as well to accommodate those
that we're not going to reuse. And today, I mean,
(04:22):
now it's the menu. Is it's ironic given the name
because we're probably more diversified in health than anyone in
the salad category. We sell smoothies, we sell warm bowls,
we sell wraps, soup, and we just introduced something called
marketplates a couple of weeks ago. So we're really anything
(04:43):
where we feel we can create a great culinary product
that's fast and healthy and affordable, we're gonna try and do. So.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
How many restaurants are there currently, and what's a split
between your company owned and franchise units.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
So we're virtually all company owned, and I mean we
have three that are franchised out of ninety eight, and
so we're coming up on one hundred locations, and we're
all over the northeast, so Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut,
(05:20):
New York, Long Island. And then we're also got twenty
five restaurants in Florida everywhere from Orlando down to South Florida,
Port Saint Luci in between. And then we're in the
Chicago area as well.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
All Right, So I saw you raised some money recently,
So should that should that be an indication? Is that
an indication that you're going to be primarily focused on
building company owned units going forward?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yes, yeah, that's a good rate. Yeah, we're not franchising
right now, so you know, the capital is meant to
just continue to accelerate our growth. So we we open
ten restaurants roughly in twenty twenty three, we open twenty
restaurants in twenty twenty four, and we'll hopefully open thirty
(06:09):
restaurants this year, and we'll continue to ramp up a
company owned growth.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Okay, cool. This leads me into a few different questions.
I guess let's start here. How big are the restaurants
and how much do they cost to build?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, I mean the restaurants, it really depends based on
are they urban, are they suburban, but you know, call
it roughly two thousand square feet and net build out
costs are typically around eight hundred and fifty.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
K Okay, is there any other un economic data you'd
like to share, cash on cash returns, whatever it might be.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, I mean, we we've the business model is in
a very good place. I say that humbly because you
know it wasn't always the case, but certain in the
last few years we've hit a lot of goals that
we've had. One of them was getting above twenty percent
store lovely bit on margins, which we're significantly above that.
(07:08):
Now we're above the two million AUV that we'd always wanted.
And most importantly, these are all like means to an end.
The most important, like you said, is cash on cash
return and you know we're typically around forty to fifty
percent or more on that. So it's been it's been
a great business the last couple of years, and want
(07:30):
to continue to keep that going.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, strong. What percentage of your new store gms are
brought in from other existing just sellid restaurants.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That's a great question. Virtually all our general managers have
been line level employees, assistant managers or supervisors at existing locations,
so we have an unbelievable farm team, we call it.
And we don't hire on the operations level outside general
(08:03):
managers almost ever. Sometimes there are unique situations in newer
markets where someone doesn't want to raise a hand and
move to but that hasn't been an issue in Florida,
by the way, But typically it's just existing employees who
see the opportunity. And you know, speaking of Florida, we
(08:24):
have a husband and wife that had been with us
in New York for over ten years and they moved
down to Florida together to run separate locations. Our regional
director who heads up Florida. She worked with me at
our second location in a basement, doing all of the
deliveries for Midtown together. She ended up actually moving to
(08:49):
Florida year to ahead of just salad working at a
Chase Bank, and then when we moved there, she raised
her hand and now she's our regional director, which has
been pretty pretty amazing journey for both of us there.
So yeah, I mean, we really on the operation side,
we want our employees to see the growth, to see
(09:10):
the opportunity, and I think it can be somewhat discouraging
when you're bringing in people from the outside with quote
unquote great resumes, right Starbucks, Chipotle, whatever it might be,
and putting them over people that have been busting their
butt at your company for years. That's something we've really
tried to avoid.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, that's great, and it keeps the culture intact.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, and culture is a big part of operations for us.
We have something called the three c's, so every location,
every employees trained on it. It starts with the culture,
creating a culture of positivity, opportunity, and growth, and then
it leads to connection with the customers. We want to
connect with every guest that comes through, and we want
(09:55):
to have consistency, consistency of product and consistently see of hospitality.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Wh's a core customer.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
There is no core customer for Jess Salad. It is
a extraordinarily broad customer.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
We have.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Really we have locations in Midtown, New York, We're in Harlem,
We're in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You know we're in these are
these are radically different demos from each other. Then and
even in Florida, you know, we'll be in Brickle but
we'll be in Port Saint Lucy or Pembroke Pines. So
(10:32):
you know, Pembroke Pines, the average household income is about
high seventies equal to US household income. Brickles off the charts.
It worked for really anyone that's middle income, upper income,
and even lower middle income. I think there's just a
(10:52):
giant desire in this country to have healthy food that
tastes great, that's actually affordable, and I think we're delivering
on that better than anyone col Do you.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Think that's a bigger opportunity maybe on the coasts than
it is in Middle America?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
No, I mean, I think we're kind of seeing from
the average household income in the markets that we exist
in the Northeast and Florida that there's a huge opportunity
all over the country. And so you know you're you're
going to see that in our site selection in the
coming years as well.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
What's the split between lunch and dinner?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
So suburbs it's about sixty forty in favor of lunch,
and then although that is that is changing with the
release of the marketplates, our dinner's actually going up pretty significantly,
and urban's like anywhere from seventy or eighty percent. Lunch
just is a lot of a lot of these areas
empty out at night.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Okay, I see you're getting into the drive through game
this year. Are you having any issues finding good locations,
be it drive through or traditional in how many restaurants
and would you say about thirty ish or so this year?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah, So we'll open around thirty restaurants this year, about
one or two we'll be drive throughs. Drive through real
estate's impossible to get in the markets we operate, so
it's certainly not a need to have, but if there
is a good opportunity, we'll do it. And we're not
doing pick up lanes like at Chipotle. We're doing actual
(12:25):
drive through lanes where you can point and shoot and
get what you want at that time. You don't have
to download our app or anything like that. And so
we think that's a huge part of disrupting fast food
is doing drive through and doing it well. And so
far we've had a great experience. We open our first
one in Livingston, New Jersey. The drive through is doing
(12:46):
really well for us, and they'll be There'll be more
on the way when there's opportunities.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
All right, So that's it. There's two near me. I
have not been yet, but there's a Clifton location and
Livingston location for mail have.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Come come on check it. I mean, where are you
in Jersey?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I live in Verona, New Jersey, right next to Moncley.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Okay, yeah, that's well, we'll try and get closer to
you then.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, so when I'm out running my errands on Saturday,
I'll swing by the Livingston drive through. How are you
looking to drive Seamstar sales growth this year?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Good question. I mean, we were coming off double digit
same store sales since twenty eighteen with the exception of
COVID twenty twenty, and unfortunately, I could say with confidence
this year very unlikely. It's going to be double digits
this year. It's certainly a harder consumer environment, and I
(13:43):
think there's been dramatic tailwinds to just salad and the category,
and I think it's a little more of a market
share game this year because they're just you know, doesn't
seem to be the consumers. Seems like it's tightening a
little bit. So with that, you know, we're launching our
(14:06):
Loyalty this summer. That's gonna be a big part of
Q three, Q four and and the future, and it'll
be offering instant rewards to our customer and some other
at this point confidential, but really fun, amazing gifts for
(14:26):
our customers. And then marketplaces has been a big boon
that's going to have tailwinds. So we only released that
about three weeks ago, it's already besides salads, our biggest category,
and people the feedback has been amazing in a lot
of ways. I think it's our one of our best
culinary products we've ever put forth, and I think that
(14:48):
will create a new occasion for customers who come to
us for salad but might want something heartier at night
or on weekends, and I think that should help drive
sales uh there as well. And then there's the general look.
We're in the restaurant business. The food's got to continually
get better and it's hard to define, but when it
gets better, you get more customers. And so there's constant
(15:10):
culinary innovation that's happening all the time, including this year.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Obviously, commodity prices have been swinging around with a lot
of the tariff news and headlines, and so I guess
how much inflation are you expecting at right now for
the year, and how much price do you intend to take?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, impossible to say. No one knows where this ends up.
If it ended up where it is today, not much.
All our food pretty much comes from America, with the
exception of Mexican avocados, where Canadian and Mexican agriculture are
excluded from the terrorists as of now. So on the
(15:52):
food side, not much. There could be significant packaging costs
and significant cost to kitchen equipment, and it's too hard
to know. Ultimately, Look, if it looks like it's truly
affecting our margins, we will, you know, have to take price.
(16:14):
But I don't think at this point it's it's it's
it's too hard to know what that actual effect is.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
What was your plan for price coming into the year.
All right, good stuff? So when I when I pull
up to the drive through Saturday, what should I order?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Well, I gotta know a little bit more about you, Mike,
So are you do you like chicken? Are you vegan?
Do you like spicy? So?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I like spicy, I like chicken. You know I like steak.
You know, protein's big, I.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Would say so. The crispy chicken peblano is always a
crowd pleaser. That's a salad. The spicy chicken sees a
wrap might be up your alley. And if you're looking
for something hardier and you don't want a salad, the
Tazeki market plate pro tip with like a little siracha
on the yok cucumber is pretty amazing. So those are
(17:03):
my favorites right now.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Those all sound fantastic. What's your personal favorite? Number one
go to order?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I eat it four times a week, so at this
point there is I have to mix it up. But
right now I've been odeing on the marketplates, either the
Pesto or the Tazeki my all time in terms of
what I've ordered the most itch just out. The Tokyo
super Greens is an amazing one. And the Crispy Chicken Peblano,
(17:32):
I don't do Krispy chickens. I sub that out for
our braised chicken, which my opinion is the best chicken
in all of fast casual or fast food is amazing.
That's that's what gets me excited.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
All right, good stuff, You gave me a few things
to try. That pesto is right on my alley too, man,
so I think you're gonna have to try that one.
This was great, Thanks again for doing it.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Nick. Was nice to meet you. Yeah, nice to meet
you and appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, you got it. Where can listeners go to find
their nearest Just salad?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Just go to just salid dot com and click on
the order now now I'm kidding, it's just salad dot
com and you can click on locations and it'll show
show you what's closest.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
All right, great? And uh, which social media channels are
you big on?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
We have an actress salad At on Instagram and uh,
you know, we have a LinkedIn profile, but Instagram is
the best place to find us.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
All right, good stuff. I also want to thank the
audience for tuning in. If you like the discussion, please
share it with your friends and colleagues. Check back soon
for an interview with Vishal Augerwal, the founder and CEO
of Checkmate
Host
Michael Halen
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