August 1, 2025 • 46 mins
What other restaurant can you go to and get a chicken-fried oyster taco? Velvet Taco CEO Clay Dover sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence senior restaurant and foodservice analyst Michael Halen in this episode of the Choppin’ It Up podcast to discuss the chain’s unique menu and fun, irreverent culture. He also comments on the chain’s opportunities for top-line growth, including US and international development, as well as its new bowl launch.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Chopping It Up.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm your host, Mike hallon the senior restaurant and food
service analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence. Our research and that of
bi's five hundred analysts around the globe can be found
exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
If you enjoy the pod, open up.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Your phone right now and give us a five star
review on Apple or Spotify. Today we're joined by Clay Dover, CEO,
president and taco maker at Velvet Taco, a chain specializing
in culinary forward global tacos.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Thanks for joining me, Clay.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
You got it.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Appreciate it you having me. Man.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, man, I'm glad we connected recently.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You didn't You didn't know this, but you've been on
my list of potential guests for a little while now.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Oh you got only smart guys on here and smart women.
I listen to your pod. I'm a big fan of
you guys. Tell a friend this is where all the
all the smart people come. So I appreciate you making
an exception.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
You can't fool me quite Listen. We've done some stuff together.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
We did a panel together for our friends at black
Box Intelligence. I know you hate it when people in
the industry call restaurants stores or units. So let's see
if I can go an entire episode without slipping up.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Store is like the gap man. People people windows shop
at stores. We're in the restaurant business. It's an experience.
Bonds are made at restaurants. Restaurants are special places. So yes,
it makes my skin call a little bit, but that's
our I get it. I get it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, I appreciate that. I appreciate that, and I you know,
I write for a living though.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
You know, only someone can take to pump the word
restaurant in empower units.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Units Units are like widgets.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
All right, man, why don't you start by giving us
a little bit of history about brand and tell us
what attracted you to the opportunity back in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Oh gosh, yeah, no, I mean look, Velvet Taco was
started in twenty eleven by a couple of restaurant entrepreneurs,
Randy Dwitt and Jack Gibbons.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Well, yeah, no, they're great.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
They're with front Runner, They've started multiple brands. They're kind
of serial entrepreneurs. Twin Peaks, sixty Lines they started back
in twenty eleven, a little taco culinary forward concept called
Velvet Taco. You know, it was chef driven. It was
in a fast casual space, really ahead of the thinking,
(02:38):
fresh to order and kick ass margaritas and crazy tacos,
you know, chicken Tika, marsala, the original taco. I just
had some crazy tacos on it. Here in Dallas is
where they started. They sold you know, our margarita is
at the again. A lot of the original things are
still on the menu, made with Teqi the base, so
(03:00):
kick ass margarita, this was what what we call them.
They started at a WTF weekly Taco features, so at
new Taco every week. So the original chef, chef John Frankie,
just kind of came up with these crazy culinary ideas.
It started out slowly, but guests started catching on. They
opened a few more and at four restaurants. In late
(03:23):
twenty sixteen early twenty seventeen, they sold the brand to
EL Catterton and you know, kind of the startup arm
of L. Catterton. And that's when they brought me in
at that acquisition to help write the next chapter of growth.
My role was basically to scale the brand and then
(03:44):
we started opening restaurants and expanding and in late twenty
twenty one, we had a strategic sale to some great
partners Lenda Green, Leonard Green Partners out of California. Catterton
stayed on one with the Front Frontner Group and today
we have fifty two total restaurants domestically, it's been a
great ride. Forty eight of those are company owned. We
(04:07):
have four license agreements. We've got an airport location with
our partners of Latrone's in Houston. We've got a casino location,
and the original founders have a couple of locations. So
we're in eight cities, big cities Dallas, Nashville, Benex, Houston,
and Austin, and they continue to grow. We've growne about
twenty percent annually, kind of very steady, consistent strategic growth.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
And this fall will open up in London.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So we'll start an international growth plan. We've got some
other big air force lined up like Dallas, DFW, Houston International,
et cetera. And look, it's an awesome fun brand, lots
of culture, lots of excitement, lots of innovation. We do
crazy tacos. I mean the beauty is is that you
can do anything in the taco. I just put in
(04:57):
a tortilla we've been lasagna, taco, We've got we've done Lambshashuka,
We've done all kinds of things with our tacos, And
so what attracted me that the brand was just kind
of forward thinking around culinary. You know, I've always been
a big fan. You know, I spent seven plus years
(05:17):
at Raising Canes establishing that brand and growing it to
two hundred plus restaurants. The ability to take some of
those learnings and put those into play with a brand
so special as well the taco to partner with great
private equity group, both Al Catterton and Leonard Green Partners,
has been phenomenal. And just to grow the brand has
(05:40):
been great. We've got a great team, we've got a
great brand, and yeah, it's just been a great, a
great time here and you know, I feel blessed to
be able to be part of it and to be
able to be.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Part of the ride.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Very cool. How have you put your stamp on the
on the culture of Velvet Talk?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Well, I mean, look, culture's got to be intentional, I think,
you know, with with everything, like culture is everything. I think,
like when I look back, you know at places where
I've been before, like at Raising Canes, we scaled without
losing our culture because we defined it early and operationalized it.
(06:22):
Even though they're look, it's an amazing brand, Aga Pod
and then it's done an amazing job. But you know,
the culture is still the culture that it was when
it was sixty restaurants when I started there in Louisiana.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
You know, Yeah, it's important.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
It's the perfect box, it's the five areas of focus.
I mean, we laid out the game plan, the same
thing we've done here. We pulled all the operators in
the room and we sat down and we said.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
You know, what are we going to stand for. What's
going to be our mission and vision?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And we did things like be relentless, be a rebel,
stand together. One of our core values is kick gas
and take names.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Picture that going around and doing.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
A roadshow to private actually the investors or people who
are interested in the brand and with a straight face
telling it on not one of our core values was
kick ass and take names. I did that.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Our logo is a crest. It's a logo crest.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
If you get that tattooed, I write a check to
cover the cost of that, or if you get one
of our core values tattooed. If you're a team member,
we don't say employee, we say team member or drive member.
We reimburse you for that, and you'd be surprised how
many people do it, And so that's part of it.
We bring a tattoo artist to our GM commerence, so
we get tattoos of tacos and sayings and the logos
(07:34):
and things like that. So it's just a fun part
of culture. Culture is what happens when you're not in
the room.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
So we look at.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Metrics, we look at engagement, and we look at guest satisfaction.
But I also think it's things like listening tours. We'll
go out and we'll talk to our team members and
our tribe members. We'll ask are the values being lived
and if they're not, or if there's changes, will adapt
and will make adjustments. We'll do customized music for our
(08:07):
team members based on the region. I mean, there's just
little things like that. We do our uniforms, our t
shirts that are customized and we let the tribe our
team vote on them and coterly will refresh the uniform
based on their votes. And so it's little things like that.
It's transparency that we ensure cultural consistency and relevance for
(08:31):
our brand, and you just got to stay on top
of that. And I think that that's part of the
importance of culture.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
It's not you know, some.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Plaque that you put up in the back of the
restaurant that has some saying it's living the brand every day.
I'm real passionate about culture. I think that it resonates.
It starts internally, and then the guests see that, they
see the excitement of your team, your tribe, and that
connects the brand across market. I mean, as you grow
(09:01):
and scale, how do you how do you take that
from four restaurants to fifty restaurants, from fifty restaurants to
two hundred restaurants. If you're based in Arizona or in
our case, Dallas, how do you have that same experience
in Chicago?
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It can be tough, and that's where brand sometimes struggle.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well, I love the attention to detail, man, that's really cool.
And it seems like, you know, the owners really had
a kind of irreverent type of you know what, the
WTF and the kick ass mad is right, and so
it just seems like you're a perfect fit for it.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Man. Yeah, I mean, look, you've got to understand the
original DNA of your brand. I think it's important to
understand the things that the brand originally stands for and
what makes it successful. I think as you grow in scale,
you always want to have that, so it's important to understand, Like,
you know, Randy Douitt is still on our board, Jack Gibbons,
(09:57):
I just tested the other night, and I go have
lunch on a regular basis. We're using the original chef
with our chef V. Chef Vanessa, Sorry, CHEFV is amazing.
And you know, you always got to tap into those
things that made the brand unique. And sometimes I think
as brand's restaurant brands specifically grow, it's real easy to
(10:20):
lose sights of those things that made you unique and special.
And sometimes you just got to take a pause and
just go, Okay, take a step back, Let's look at
what made the brand unique and special in the first place.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
And you know, don't lose sight of those.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Sometimes it's really easy to go, well, you know, we're
going to fix some operational efficiencies and maybe we save
some money by doing it this way, or it's easier
to buy this product and instead of the original, like
I mean, some of the unique wtfs that we've done.
When you're talking about a penner hash, we buy our
pannier from India and that's core to our DNA. One
(10:56):
of our biggest demographics are people from India.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
We have tea.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Our Tika Chicken is our number one selling taco. Like
that thing was developed by a chef Neville who is
now the head chef over at Chipotle years back. It's
a unique recipe with seventeen different ingredients that go into
the Tika sauce. Like, that's one of those sacred things
that I don't want to really mess with. Now you go, Okay,
(11:25):
how long can you scale doing fifty two different unique
wts every week. I'm going to try to do that forever,
you know, as you scale and grow, I'm going to
figure out a way to scale that and process it
because I think that that's one of our carcore brand,
you know, sacred cows. And you just got to say.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Okay, how do you do that?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And part of our brand is a irreverent, fun kind
of you know, angle around it, and yeah, you got
to just embrace that and and make sure that it
seeps through through the entire organization. And look, it's the
brand is bigger than any one person. The brand will
continue to live forever. When it's fifty restaurants, one hundred resturants,
(12:08):
two hundred and fifty restaurants.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
And how do you how do you infuse that in London?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
How do you infuse that? When you become a worldwide phenomenon?
And I talk about global domination.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
That's really interesting. How high do your WTF tacos mix?
And are they usually at a premium price point?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
You know, we take a different approach to the WTF.
Sometimes it's a on trend flavor profile. Sometimes it's around
a holiday or perhaps like for example, one of our
better selling ones is our blazon for twenty which we
sell on April to twentieth. It's got a PC and cheese,
(12:52):
it's got a Cheeto's dusted chicken tender, it's got fruity pebbles,
it's a stoner a taco.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
But it sells really well.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
It's a six to seven percent mix, so it's a
higher mixing item I think generally sell pretty well.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
The awareness level of it for our core guests is
very high. So the awareness level, so we've got a
we have a loyalty database with almost a million members,
which are.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Very proud of. We've been working on it for quite
a while and so we use that for a lot.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Of data mining.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
I'm a little bit of a data gee, don't don't
tell anybody. I know. You know that, but I don't
like people to know that. But we've got a very
robust database of guests and the awareness level.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Is like ninety percent of them.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Knowing about our WTF and actually, you know, when it
comes out on a Wednesday, we get those guests coming
in and trying it. So we get a surge on
Wednesdays of guests that come in. And if you go
on our website and download our app, you actually can
see four weeks in advance of the upcoming wtfs out
of comings, so you know, it generates around a four
(14:03):
or five six percent. Sometimes we have them as high
as seven or eight percent. You know, Like one of
my favorites is a chicken parmesan, which is literally chicken
parmesan and a parmesan.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
She's encrusted tortilla.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
But again, you get it for one week and then
it's gone and it's gone forever until maybe it might
come back another week. But first another year, but it's
here and then it's gone. But what it does allow
us to do is to stay ahead of the trends,
and it allows our chef to be able to look
at flavor trends that are coming, things that are happening,
(14:38):
and there are times when there are you know, things
that are happening that well, we'll make a twist and
we'll change and we'll twist it out and you know,
we'll be able to see. Sometimes we'll charge your premium.
Sometimes it'll be more on a value side. It just
depends on what the objective is.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah, it's interesting and six seven percent, I know an
initial look, it doesn't sound that high, but when you're
talking tacos and people are ordering two or three tacos
at a time, that's a pretty good mix.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
It's a pretty good mix.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I mean, anything north of three or three or four
percent is pretty good. You know, we'll do some unique
flavors sometimes and it won't do as well. Look, we'll
learn about that. I mean the beauty of what we do.
It keeps us on the cutting edge. And when clearly
I'm biased, I think that we're the premiere prest casual
taco concept out there and might.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Think I'm the we're the premiere brand, period.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
But you know, we have a database of over four
hundred different tacos that I can tell you how well
they sold, the flavor profiles, how they how they mixed,
what they cost. I can tell you, you know, the cogs.
I can tell you everything about it, and we then
can adjust and tweak and so for example, as we
(15:50):
go international, and let's say we go to a country
that is predominantly vegetarian, for example, I have a whole category,
not only on my or menu, have vegetarian items. I've
got years of experience of trying vegetarian items. We just
had a asparagus and lesson.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
WTF Now that one didn't sell.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
At six percent? But you know what, I know exactly
how well it sold. I knew what it took from.
I know how long it took the prep. I have
all the recipes, I have all the costs. I know
how what we sold it for. I know what I
would do again. So it's a constant learning. And you
know that's what makes Velvet Taco unique and fun is
that you know what other taco concepts could you go.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
To and say, hey, you have a chicken fryed oyster taco. Yeah,
actually we do.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I can tell you the recipe, I've got all the
promotional materials, i can tell how much costs. I can
tell you how well it's sold. So that's what makes
us relique.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
One of the reasons one of the things cool outside.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
You know, you mentioned there was a large Indian American
consumer base. What does your customer look like in terms
of in terms of age, education and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, no, we have a we have a slightly more
well off guest. So look, our check average is around
twenty four to twenty five dollars and that's a check average.
Our ppa is around seventeen to eighteen dollars, So our
our tacos are five six dollars each. And yeah, you're
(17:24):
gonna order two or three. You're gonna get a margarite
in and possibly a side. So look, we are not
you know, a lower income or households or roughly around
one hundred thousand dollars, so you know, it's an it's
also a little slightly older. So while we're irreverent and
we're loud and like, you know, a younger client tells.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Love us, college kids love us.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
The kids with Mona Dad's credit cards really love us.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
You know, we do well in the suburbs.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
We do well in the urban locations as well, but
it is a slightly you know, a suburb.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
A younger, younger.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Family do really well. We have a high to go mix,
as a lot of fast casuals do, and we continue
to see that going up. You know, we do a
pretty decent amount of alcohol. So we do have, as
I mentioned before, kick ass margaritas which are made with
tequila and some other stuff, so they're pretty strong with
(18:23):
our liquor mixes in the teams, so mid teams.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
So we do that.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
We don't have bars, so it's not a full full bar,
but we've got a few different drinks that will that
will sell.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
So our demo is slightly older.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I think they're folks that their late thirties and forties
that want to be younger and want to be cool.
But they're also adventurous. You know, we call them flavor seekers.
There are people who have the disposable income. They're trying
new things, but also they may be crushed for time.
Our our ticket times are you know, you're going to
go up, you're going to place your order it's going
(18:57):
to take us six to eight minutes to make your food.
We don't have freezers, we don't have microwaves. We're gonna
make your tacos or now we have some bowls. We've
we've innovated a bit and have some new exciting bowls
that we can shout about. But we're gonna make your food.
We're gonna make you know, a variety of items fresh
for you right away and bring them out to you
(19:21):
or package them up and send them along the way.
But they're gonna be unique flavors that you're willing to try.
Whether they're Indian flavors, whether they're Korean fried rice, whether
it's fish and chips that's got a curre a oli
on them. You know, we've got all kinds of things.
We've got a Chris Potts and egg that's got herb
(19:43):
goat chase smoke set or avocado cram, chili, butter, pepper,
bacon and stallions on it that come out and as
a as a head turner, it's also a great late
night you know munchies if it's if it's after nine pm,
it's a great after bar.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Snack as well.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
So you know, it's definitely someone who has some disposable income,
and so that's helped us. You know, in the current
economic times, we didn't feel it as much recently as
you know some of the other lower end restaurant concepts.
We didn't feel the impact as much because our consumers
(20:23):
have that disposable income.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
And what's your split between lunch, dinner, and late night.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, so look, we've got lunch is around thirty five
thirty eight percent, dinner is p forty eight to fifty.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Percent, and then late nights fifteen So, I mean, if.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
You wanted a round it up, thirty five and fifteen so,
and we call late night after ten pm. So many
of our restaurants were open until two in the morning,
especially some of our urban locations, so think downtown Chicago
and Dallas, and in the suburbs, our tagline is open
really late, so make sure that we're the last thing open.
(21:02):
Look in some of our suburbs were it's midnight. But
on weekends, you know, we'll be open until two or
three o'clock in the morning. And obviously on weekends that's
a big chunk of our business. But we're still a
dinner driven business. It's forty eight I think the last
number I saw was around forty eight percent dinner, and
you know, thirty seven percent lunch.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Lunch has been great.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
You know, Look, we're continually seeing more and more guests
shift into delivery and to go business as a lot
of fast casual is and I just think that, you know,
guests are looking for convenience, and it's.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Up to us as restaurant tours.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
I just fell with Taco to provide that same sort
of experience. And look, I'd love you to come into
our restaurants. Our restaurants are beautiful, our game and our
crew is hospitable and nice. I'd rather you eat my
food as soon as I'm making and it's steaming hot
in my college name, and you can sit down and
enjoy margarita. And you know, no, no, two restaurants are
(22:06):
designed exactly the same. I've got different footprints and different designs.
I've got converted gas stations, I've got you know, all
kinds of unique.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Things about my restaurant.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
But I still think guests are looking for that convenience
and grabbing food to go.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Unfortunately, yeah, for sure, staffing restaurants at.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Late night, it's always challenging. Late night has always been
of a challenge. We do offer a premium.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
From an hourly standpoint, from a management standpoint, it's been
a little bit of a challenge. We definitely are the
second job that's helped us from an hourly team member standpoint,
from a cash aire and back to the house standpoint.
You know, we can be that second job for a
lot of our of our tribe members. So you know,
from a shift standpoint, it's been better over the last
(22:51):
couple of years, and so you know it's it's been good.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
But we have to pay a premium.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
There's a late night wage rate that we pay, and
I will tell you it gets rocking in some of
our restaurants.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
It's fun.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Nothing more fun than doing a late night tour and
downtown Austin at one in the morning, that's always fun.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
For Nashville, Downtown Nashville is fun too.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, I'll have to join you on one of those, man.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Come on, Mike, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Sounds like a party. I know you mentioned ye to
red Bull for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
You know you mentioned there's a lot of different formats,
but generally on average, I know averages can be dangerous,
but how big are the restaurants what's the AUV and
what kind of volumes are your top restaurants doing.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah, I mean, look, you know, we're private, so I
can't get into all the details, but are on average
we're around twenty five hundred square fee.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
We've got all kinds of shapes and sizes.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
I've got as small as food hall locations that are
four hundred square fee. I've got restaurants that are on
two thousand square feed. We've got end caps, we've got
uh well, we've got a couple of inlines. Most of
them are free standing. We've got some conversions from old restaurants,
(24:11):
you know, some retros.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Look, we will find any space that we possibly can.
It's getting harder and harder.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Landlords are not giving the same ta that they were
you know, a few years ago. Construction and building costs
are getting higher and higher, so that's cachely to be
a challenge. We have drive throughs, we have pickup windows,
we have none at all, So we've got every every shape, size,
et cetera. But on average around twenty five hundred square feet.
(24:39):
As far as volumes, we're around three and a half million,
three six on average. Some of our higher performing restaurants
are around high five almost six million dollar restaurants, so
you know, it gets it gets busy. You know, our
suburb locations, we have a lot of really strong locations.
You know clearly the restauran that are open until three
(25:01):
in the morning, you know, the Austins, the Nashville, some
of the booming towns are.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
The higher volume restaurants. We're lucky.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
I mean, if you think about where we're located, we've
got some great, big cities with lots of growth, the Dallases,
the Houston's, Austin, Nashville, Chicago. You know, we've got a
very robust pipeline, uh where we can continue to grow
in those markets. And and then a you know, look,
(25:29):
I'm I'm a big fan of discipline growth. So last
year we opened in Phoenix, we started in Old Township, Scottsdale.
That's our new market for last year. We've got two
more sidelined up for the end of this year and
beginning into next year.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
We're opening in.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Raleigh, North Carolina, and that'll be our next new market.
And look, I want to open one great restaurant at
a time, So we want to be controlled. We want
to make sure that we do it right. You know,
it's it's it is important that we grow the brand correctly.
We're opening in London, which will be a big step
(26:06):
for us internationally. You know, we're going to send a
whole team over there and make sure that we do
it right. I mean, we talked about, you know, stretching
across the US, how about stretching across the pond. So
we think that there's a big growth opportunity internationally for
our brand.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I mean, we are international tacos, so you.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Know, we have got a lot of opportunities international lots
lined up there.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
We want to open one first and then and then
you'll hear a lot more from an international side.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Is that one franchise their company owned.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
That is a franchise that's a partnership with the group
that we feel very excited about growing. And look, we've
got a few different groups that we've been talking to.
There's a lot of excitement about our brand. Again, when
you look at our menu, you look at the flavor
profile and what we can do under the banner of
(27:02):
Velvet Taco. It's an international taco concept, so you know,
the sky's really the limit there. And we've we've got
several partners that were lining up to do. But again,
we want to do one restaurant, one successful restaurant at
a time.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, smart in the US, what percentage of your new
gms are brought in from other Velvet Taco restaurants?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Oh? Great question. Oh that's that's the magic one, right.
Internal promotions. We're sixty two internal promotes for GM. That
number is getting bigger and bigger as we grow. Our
goal is seventy five percent. You know, we have because
(27:47):
of the day parts, we generally carry four manager teams
for salary manager teams and some of our restaurants are
even five. You know, our goal is to get to
seventy five percent. We find that the six s rates
for our internal promotes are.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Much better than external and you know, but look.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
We find great talent wherever we can. We have an
intense training program. It's a three month training program.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Today.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
We actually just we have a weekly people pipeline. So
just like you have a new restaurant pipeline plan, we
have a people pipeline plan that we just went over
yesterday with our head of bops and had people. We
have eighteen managers in training right now. Don't ask me
their names, but I do know that it's eighteen and
various different locations. We've got some restaurants that we're opening
(28:33):
up through the balance of a year, so some of
those are for them.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
But yeah, it's intense.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I mean it's look, our menu is complex. It's not
easy that the ingredients are difficult. We've got all kinds
of you.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Know, different things that go on.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
It's it's not a cut the bag, open and heat
it up type stuff. So there's real cooking, real culinary,
real prep that goes on in our restaurants. We've got
things like goju Jan sauce. Uh, We've got you know,
Consumme dipping for our tacos, and so there's there's real
product that goes on, and there's real nice skills. There's
(29:10):
real training, there's real development. So it's you know, you're
gonna get real training, real culinary skills when you come
and work at Albataco.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
How's the new bowl launch going so far? And and
how are they different from your competitors.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Ah bulls.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Yeah, so look.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
We well, look, our name is Velvetaco. I think that
we we've we've played and thought about bulls. I think
that part of part of trends and staying in front
of things is always looking at what's coming up next.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
I think that, you know, when you think.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
About bulls, you know everybody's doing it. You know, it's
it's one of those things that is is here. You know,
we've got the opportunity to look at our guests and
trends and how we're being used, et cetera. So we
about a year ago actually we started doing some testing
(30:13):
and some consumer feedback and some panels, and we started
asking guests, you know, is this that our brand? So
it goes back again to how does it fit our brand?
Is this something that our guests would allow? You know,
how would it be accepted? We did some online testing
and then we did some in person testing, and then
our chefs started putting some things together, and you know,
(30:38):
we did an alpha restaurant test and so we did
a complete makeup all the way along, and then we
we tested it in some restaurants in the market. I
would tell you that it has gone extremely well. Guests
have embraced it. They have told us that the flavors
of velvet taco is what matters. That's that's what they
(31:01):
think of for velvet taco.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
It's not necessarily just that.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
It comes into taco. It is about the flavors of
velvet taco coming through. And so we launched Velvet Bowls
in April and it has done extremely well. Now, I
would tell you also that you know, we saw, similar
to the industry, a general trend, we had some challenges
in the first quarter. The market in which we tested
(31:27):
Bulls outperformed the rest of our system by you know,
eight hundred basis points.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
I mean, it was like night and day.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
And we were, okay, how you know, is this what
we need to be doing? And I was like, all right,
let's let's let's go. So we rolled it out system
wide and we have been on a nice run here
for the last quarter.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
We have been now ninety days in.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
We have been tracking and monitoring it with We work
with the group Signal Flair, who you know shout out.
I think one of your prior guests because I'm a
listener to the pod, mister Lucanoff and his group. You know,
they they do a great job of tracking. So, I mean, look,
we have seen great results from our bulls bull transactions
(32:15):
have gone up. It's on more than a quarter of
our checks. We have seen more spending, so slip sales
are up. We're out performing black Box now, which hasn't
always been the case. We have seen our comp sales
and our overall sales going up. Bold buyers are spending
(32:36):
more than non bowl buyers.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
What's what's the price on the on the bowl and
so the bulls.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Look here, here's the difference. Here's why our bulls are different.
They are curated bulls. So we have taken our flavors
and we have curated them. So we have a spicy
Tika chicken bowl. It's got the Tika sauce, it's got
right at crema. It's got red cabbage, it's got cucumber,
it's got tied basil, it's got butter cilantro Buzzmammy rice.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Like we curate our bowls.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
It is not a hey, I want this, I want this,
I want this now. I will tell you forty six
percent of them are customizing their bulls, which is an
interesting stat. And we've got a Rotistry chicken and a
stakehool kind of an entry level that's still got charred tomato,
poblano salsa. It's still got you know, groacamole included in.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
The price for eleven fifty. By the way, it is,
it is basically two and a half taco.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
So from a value standpoint, it is a lot of food.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
You know, we did all the comparisons with guests.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
The feedback was, wow, this is a value I did
withhold the shirts that say black is included, you know,
the marketer and me, I.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Had all kinds of ideas, but I decided not to.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I love my guys over there, Scottboro. It's my guy.
So look, I think that there's a value lay there.
You know, for eleven fifty, you.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Get this giant meal.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
And the other thing too, Like we've got a seasoned
veggie bowl. We've got a Mexicali shrimple that's selling really well.
Like who else has a shrimple? You know, if you
look at the competitor set, we've got a black and shrimp.
It's got Napa slaw, roasted corn, pico, seracchioli, guacamole, micro cilantro,
but at cilanta basmati rice and if you use it correctly,
(34:30):
I mean it's four hundred and sixty calories.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
I mean it's a phenomenal bowl. It'll fill you up, and.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
It's it's it's it's good for you as well. So
they're uniquely crafted by our chef. It's not hey give
me that taco and maket a bowl. They are crafted bowl.
So there's about six bowls. You know. Look it's there
are guests that are going to say, well, I'm ordering
a We have a smash burger talk that sells really well.
(34:58):
We have guests that like, can I get that as
a bullet? Not yet, No, we might have looked at
it and didn't pass our rigorous tests. So we're curating them.
They're unique flavors. I think the value component. Look, I
think it hit at the right time. I think the
value component was the right play. I think that the
(35:19):
flavors are hitting. I think it's unique developed taco. And
we're seeing the visitor return rates come up. So signal
Flare helps us.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
And again I don't want.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
To geek out on the data because I'll ruin my rep.
They track credit card data. We know from our loyalty
database when and how quick they come back. But they're
coming back more often, they're spending more, the attachment rate
is higher. They're also making you know, they're making more visits,
(35:53):
they're spending more, they're buying more alcohol, which is interesting
to go has been a big win. And so if
you think about a bowl you put a lid on,
it carries well, travels well. And then when we did
our post feedback, guests are saying, well, you know, I
can take it back to my desk, I can eat
it with a fork, I can take it on an airplane.
(36:14):
It travels easier, there's better leftovers. I don't have tacos
that I have to eat and then I got to
put them in a box and take them home. All
those things that you know, as someone who's been with
the brand for eight and a half years, I go, well,
of course, who doesn't want to eat pacos with their hands?
You know, I want to touch the food and I
want to live the brand like not everybody wants to
(36:36):
do that.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
We're seeing more female guests.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
And then also bowls with the purpose. So I think
there's an interesting trend that we're going to start seeing
of guests wanting to know what's in their food. And again,
as a leader, I think that you have to always
be looking down the road, and part of spotting trends
(37:04):
is knowing what's coming. And I don't look. I don't
think that bulls is a new trend, but I do
feel that you have to identify what's coming down the road.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
So what's next for bulls?
Speaker 4 (37:15):
Yeah, I think that's a really good question, Mike.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
I think when you look at the future, not just
for us, but just in the industry in general. You know,
a lot of folks are doing bowls, lots of brands
are doing bulls.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
I think, you know, number one, protein is king. You're
seeing that. I think that's what we're also benefiting from.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
We're seeing one and it's almost like forty I think
the last at I saw was thirty eight percent of
our bulls. People are adding protein onto it. I would
guess that that's happening in other brands, but for us,
people are adding extra protein on is the number one
modifier to our bulls, which is helping add check average.
So protein is king. I also think that people I
(37:58):
shouldn't say. I think our trends and everything, all of
our data is saying that people want to know what's
in their goals. So I think the quality of the food.
I think, look, you see the trends, gym memberships are up.
People are you know, over the whole comfort food of covid.
I think we're eating more healthier. They want to know
(38:19):
what's in their food, and so I think that you're
going to see a trend towards understanding, whether it's menu.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Labeling or meal prep, more of a.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Health conscious I think you're standing now with beef cannol,
for example, Like that's a trend, and it's not so
much it's just a consciousness of what is in the food.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
I think you're seeing that again.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Not to get political, but you know, make America healthy again.
It's just a consciousness that's out there. I think you're
going to see that with bulls, like what is in
that ball? You can make a bowl really healthy or
it could be very unhealthy. And I think that you're
going to see more and more people get more conscious
about that, and more and more flavor pops. I think
(39:04):
you're going to see more flavors more, you know, instead
of just generic bright things lettuce protein, and I think
that there are other brands out there that have capitalized
on them.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
Not to mention you know, any competitors or any other
Bowl companies, but I think you know.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Whether it's mediterrane or other flavors, I think that's just
a unique spin where guests are saying, Okay, I've done bowls,
like I want to try a different spin.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
I want to try it black and shrimp.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
Again, we sell a great amount of shrimp bowls, and
just like when we look at it's like who else
does that?
Speaker 4 (39:39):
Not? I couldn't find anybody quite.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Frank, Honey girl, that's the only other one I could
think of, and that you guys don't really.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Over don't have any Yeah, we don't overlap on them. Yeah,
but I mean any of the big guys, like shrimp
is not one, you know.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
I mean think about a salmon bowl or you know,
unique flavors and just different different trends. I just again,
I think the exciting thing about art industry and when
when you're when you're leading a brand, you just have
to keep an eye on trends. And I know that
(40:12):
you know we're talking about bulls, but it really is
just staying ahead of the curve.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
There's there's certain trends that come up and it doesn't
have to be.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
You know, Indian fusion heaps or grain serachs of peppers
that are hot. It could be nostalgia. Nostalgia is a trend.
I mean, look at the biggest brand out there right
now with uh, you know snack wraps.
Speaker 4 (40:35):
You know that's a trend.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Nostalgia is a trend and people can capitalize on that.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
I mean, I Asian flavors is a trend.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
You mentioned, Hey, what's brought to development top of the
ability to capture on a trend. And if you're a CEO,
if you're an executive, if you're a chef, your job
your responsibility is to stay ahead of the trend. If
you're seeing it in another restaurant, if you're walking into
fill in the blank chain restaurant and you go, wow,
look at that, let's let's do snack wraps. Also, it's
(41:06):
not a trend. You're done, You're over. You can't do that.
You need to be looking outside of the walls. You
need to be going to an Asian supermarket. You want
to have a fun date night or take your kids.
They used to take my kids to Asian supermarkets and
wander the halls or wander the aisles, and they like
(41:26):
they used to laugh, but like they remember that on
the ground now, but they remember, like remember we used
to wander, you know, the supermarket with Asian stuff and
we had all kinds of crazy things and we'd bring
them home and we cook them and we tried these flavors.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
Like that was so cool, Dad. That was R and
D for me.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
I mean I worked for Payway. I brought that over
here to Velvet Taco. I mean that was my exploration
as just a leader of a restaurant concept because that's
where I.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Got my inspiration.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
And I go back to the chef and say, hey,
have you ever heard of Tamerman? And you're like, yeah, no, kidding, thanks,
Like you know, like, hey, have you ever heard of
filling the blank?
Speaker 4 (42:07):
You know, go jous on. It's this fermented rice starch,
it's this paste.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
It's got this building heats right, Like the chef would
be like, yeah, thanks, thanks, CEO appreciate that. I know that,
but like those are the things that we should be doing.
And when you're in a brand, you have to look
down the road and go what's coming, not what's right
in front of me.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Well, it's a good place to play because you know,
eaters and consumers are becoming more adventurous in the United
States big time, and also being able to play in
indulgent as well as healthier is a nice place to
play because those two things tend to outperform than than
the chains in the middle.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
They totally do.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
No. You look, our our consumers are getting more wise,
they're getting more adventurous, They're going to have more disposable dollars.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
I mean, look, the beauty of our sad luck, the
beauty of our.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
The beauty of our industry is that consumers will continue
to go out to eat. They're just going to decide
where to go. It's dependent on external factors. Unemployment, you know,
unemployments what four point one percent right now, So we've
got a somewhat stable economy. It's it all depends on
you know, tax ree funds are coming up, so I'm expecting,
(43:26):
you know, a nice little push. It all just depends
on external factors and where they're going to go out
to eat.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
Are they going to go?
Speaker 3 (43:33):
You know, casual dining right now is getting a surge because,
as you mentioned, I think in earlier pots they haven't
been a lot of buildouts of casual dining. There's been
overbuild of QSR fast casual somewhere in the middle. Like,
there's all these factors. People aren't suddenly just going to say,
you know what, I'm just going to start cooking. They
just decide where they're going to spend their dollars, and
(43:55):
it's up to us in the industry to go, okay,
how do we meet those demands there? It's a value play,
whether it's a lifestyle and a way in which we
meet the guests. You know, coming out of COVID weave
all the taco or our team looked and saw there's
going to be a demand for takeout, and so we
(44:16):
leaned into it. We put in kds I, changed out
the pos I, went from a legacy system and put
in TOAST. We started building takeout windows and drive throughs.
You know, it wasn't rocket science, but real lined into
it and looked further ahead and we came out stronger.
And it's easy to say that years later. It didn't
(44:36):
feel that.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
Way at the time. But you just have to.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Anticipate those things and go, okay, are we going to
meet this challenge going forward? Or are we going to
sit back and be reactionary or be proactive? And look,
the consumers are still going to go out to eat.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
They're going to.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Decide whether it's a triple dipper that's going to get
their attention or is it going to be a snack
wrapped two ninety nine And depending on where they're at,
that's going to drive their decision making.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Well, listen, man, you're either growing or you're dying, right
either you know it's one.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Of the others. So you got to stay through with
your go to menu order.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
Oh gosh, I mean chicken tika of Marsala is always
my go to. It rotates a little bit, but I
mean you can and my mouth start and water. And
right now I've got a I've got a restaurant, our restaurant,
sport offices right outside of restaurant. So that GM loves
it because I was put in my.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
Order for a chick and tika.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
That is uh, that is the original, the original taco
and uh, it is a go to. You can't go
wrong it is. It is a great taco.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
It's good stuff.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
And you have some some great men tacos on that menu,
So that's saying something.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
Thank you, man.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
Yeah, and thanks for joining.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
Look, Mike, I appreciate it. Great pod, listen to it.
I'm a big fan.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Thanks for educating everybody out there, and I appreciate you
taking the time and letting me pontificate. I feel like
I did way too much talking, but thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
You're great man.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
I also want to thank the audience for tuning in.
If you liked the discussion, please share it with your
friends and colleagues. Check back soon for another interview on
chopping it up.
Welcome to Chopping It Up.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm your host, Mike hallon the senior restaurant and food
service analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence. Our research and that of
bi's five hundred analysts around the globe can be found
exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
If you enjoy the pod, open up.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Your phone right now and give us a five star
review on Apple or Spotify. Today we're joined by Clay Dover, CEO,
president and taco maker at Velvet Taco, a chain specializing
in culinary forward global tacos.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Thanks for joining me, Clay.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
You got it.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Appreciate it you having me. Man.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, man, I'm glad we connected recently.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You didn't You didn't know this, but you've been on
my list of potential guests for a little while now.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Oh you got only smart guys on here and smart women.
I listen to your pod. I'm a big fan of
you guys. Tell a friend this is where all the
all the smart people come. So I appreciate you making
an exception.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
You can't fool me quite Listen. We've done some stuff together.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
We did a panel together for our friends at black
Box Intelligence. I know you hate it when people in
the industry call restaurants stores or units. So let's see
if I can go an entire episode without slipping up.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Store is like the gap man. People people windows shop
at stores. We're in the restaurant business. It's an experience.
Bonds are made at restaurants. Restaurants are special places. So yes,
it makes my skin call a little bit, but that's
our I get it. I get it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, I appreciate that. I appreciate that, and I you know,
I write for a living though.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
You know, only someone can take to pump the word
restaurant in empower units.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Units Units are like widgets.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
All right, man, why don't you start by giving us
a little bit of history about brand and tell us
what attracted you to the opportunity back in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Oh gosh, yeah, no, I mean look, Velvet Taco was
started in twenty eleven by a couple of restaurant entrepreneurs,
Randy Dwitt and Jack Gibbons.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Well, yeah, no, they're great.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
They're with front Runner, They've started multiple brands. They're kind
of serial entrepreneurs. Twin Peaks, sixty Lines they started back
in twenty eleven, a little taco culinary forward concept called
Velvet Taco. You know, it was chef driven. It was
in a fast casual space, really ahead of the thinking,
(02:38):
fresh to order and kick ass margaritas and crazy tacos,
you know, chicken Tika, marsala, the original taco. I just
had some crazy tacos on it. Here in Dallas is
where they started. They sold you know, our margarita is
at the again. A lot of the original things are
still on the menu, made with Teqi the base, so
(03:00):
kick ass margarita, this was what what we call them.
They started at a WTF weekly Taco features, so at
new Taco every week. So the original chef, chef John Frankie,
just kind of came up with these crazy culinary ideas.
It started out slowly, but guests started catching on. They
opened a few more and at four restaurants. In late
(03:23):
twenty sixteen early twenty seventeen, they sold the brand to
EL Catterton and you know, kind of the startup arm
of L. Catterton. And that's when they brought me in
at that acquisition to help write the next chapter of growth.
My role was basically to scale the brand and then
(03:44):
we started opening restaurants and expanding and in late twenty
twenty one, we had a strategic sale to some great
partners Lenda Green, Leonard Green Partners out of California. Catterton
stayed on one with the Front Frontner Group and today
we have fifty two total restaurants domestically, it's been a
great ride. Forty eight of those are company owned. We
(04:07):
have four license agreements. We've got an airport location with
our partners of Latrone's in Houston. We've got a casino location,
and the original founders have a couple of locations. So
we're in eight cities, big cities Dallas, Nashville, Benex, Houston,
and Austin, and they continue to grow. We've growne about
twenty percent annually, kind of very steady, consistent strategic growth.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
And this fall will open up in London.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So we'll start an international growth plan. We've got some
other big air force lined up like Dallas, DFW, Houston International,
et cetera. And look, it's an awesome fun brand, lots
of culture, lots of excitement, lots of innovation. We do
crazy tacos. I mean the beauty is is that you
can do anything in the taco. I just put in
(04:57):
a tortilla we've been lasagna, taco, We've got we've done Lambshashuka,
We've done all kinds of things with our tacos, And
so what attracted me that the brand was just kind
of forward thinking around culinary. You know, I've always been
a big fan. You know, I spent seven plus years
(05:17):
at Raising Canes establishing that brand and growing it to
two hundred plus restaurants. The ability to take some of
those learnings and put those into play with a brand
so special as well the taco to partner with great
private equity group, both Al Catterton and Leonard Green Partners,
has been phenomenal. And just to grow the brand has
(05:40):
been great. We've got a great team, we've got a
great brand, and yeah, it's just been a great, a
great time here and you know, I feel blessed to
be able to be part of it and to be
able to be.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Part of the ride.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Very cool. How have you put your stamp on the
on the culture of Velvet Talk?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Well, I mean, look, culture's got to be intentional, I think,
you know, with with everything, like culture is everything. I think,
like when I look back, you know at places where
I've been before, like at Raising Canes, we scaled without
losing our culture because we defined it early and operationalized it.
(06:22):
Even though they're look, it's an amazing brand, Aga Pod
and then it's done an amazing job. But you know,
the culture is still the culture that it was when
it was sixty restaurants when I started there in Louisiana.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
You know, Yeah, it's important.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
It's the perfect box, it's the five areas of focus.
I mean, we laid out the game plan, the same
thing we've done here. We pulled all the operators in
the room and we sat down and we said.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
You know, what are we going to stand for. What's
going to be our mission and vision?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And we did things like be relentless, be a rebel,
stand together. One of our core values is kick gas
and take names.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Picture that going around and doing.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
A roadshow to private actually the investors or people who
are interested in the brand and with a straight face
telling it on not one of our core values was
kick ass and take names. I did that.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Our logo is a crest. It's a logo crest.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
If you get that tattooed, I write a check to
cover the cost of that, or if you get one
of our core values tattooed. If you're a team member,
we don't say employee, we say team member or drive member.
We reimburse you for that, and you'd be surprised how
many people do it, And so that's part of it.
We bring a tattoo artist to our GM commerence, so
we get tattoos of tacos and sayings and the logos
(07:34):
and things like that. So it's just a fun part
of culture. Culture is what happens when you're not in
the room.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
So we look at.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Metrics, we look at engagement, and we look at guest satisfaction.
But I also think it's things like listening tours. We'll
go out and we'll talk to our team members and
our tribe members. We'll ask are the values being lived
and if they're not, or if there's changes, will adapt
and will make adjustments. We'll do customized music for our
(08:07):
team members based on the region. I mean, there's just
little things like that. We do our uniforms, our t
shirts that are customized and we let the tribe our
team vote on them and coterly will refresh the uniform
based on their votes. And so it's little things like that.
It's transparency that we ensure cultural consistency and relevance for
(08:31):
our brand, and you just got to stay on top
of that. And I think that that's part of the
importance of culture.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
It's not you know, some.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Plaque that you put up in the back of the
restaurant that has some saying it's living the brand every day.
I'm real passionate about culture. I think that it resonates.
It starts internally, and then the guests see that, they
see the excitement of your team, your tribe, and that
connects the brand across market. I mean, as you grow
(09:01):
and scale, how do you how do you take that
from four restaurants to fifty restaurants, from fifty restaurants to
two hundred restaurants. If you're based in Arizona or in
our case, Dallas, how do you have that same experience
in Chicago?
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It can be tough, and that's where brand sometimes struggle.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well, I love the attention to detail, man, that's really cool.
And it seems like, you know, the owners really had
a kind of irreverent type of you know what, the
WTF and the kick ass mad is right, and so
it just seems like you're a perfect fit for it.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Man. Yeah, I mean, look, you've got to understand the
original DNA of your brand. I think it's important to
understand the things that the brand originally stands for and
what makes it successful. I think as you grow in scale,
you always want to have that, so it's important to understand, Like,
you know, Randy Douitt is still on our board, Jack Gibbons,
(09:57):
I just tested the other night, and I go have
lunch on a regular basis. We're using the original chef
with our chef V. Chef Vanessa, Sorry, CHEFV is amazing.
And you know, you always got to tap into those
things that made the brand unique. And sometimes I think
as brand's restaurant brands specifically grow, it's real easy to
(10:20):
lose sights of those things that made you unique and special.
And sometimes you just got to take a pause and
just go, Okay, take a step back, Let's look at
what made the brand unique and special in the first place.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
And you know, don't lose sight of those.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Sometimes it's really easy to go, well, you know, we're
going to fix some operational efficiencies and maybe we save
some money by doing it this way, or it's easier
to buy this product and instead of the original, like
I mean, some of the unique wtfs that we've done.
When you're talking about a penner hash, we buy our
pannier from India and that's core to our DNA. One
(10:56):
of our biggest demographics are people from India.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
We have tea.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Our Tika Chicken is our number one selling taco. Like
that thing was developed by a chef Neville who is
now the head chef over at Chipotle years back. It's
a unique recipe with seventeen different ingredients that go into
the Tika sauce. Like, that's one of those sacred things
that I don't want to really mess with. Now you go, Okay,
(11:25):
how long can you scale doing fifty two different unique
wts every week. I'm going to try to do that forever,
you know, as you scale and grow, I'm going to
figure out a way to scale that and process it
because I think that that's one of our carcore brand,
you know, sacred cows. And you just got to say.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Okay, how do you do that?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And part of our brand is a irreverent, fun kind
of you know, angle around it, and yeah, you got
to just embrace that and and make sure that it
seeps through through the entire organization. And look, it's the
brand is bigger than any one person. The brand will
continue to live forever. When it's fifty restaurants, one hundred resturants,
(12:08):
two hundred and fifty restaurants.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
And how do you how do you infuse that in London?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
How do you infuse that? When you become a worldwide phenomenon?
And I talk about global domination.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
That's really interesting. How high do your WTF tacos mix?
And are they usually at a premium price point?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
You know, we take a different approach to the WTF.
Sometimes it's a on trend flavor profile. Sometimes it's around
a holiday or perhaps like for example, one of our
better selling ones is our blazon for twenty which we
sell on April to twentieth. It's got a PC and cheese,
(12:52):
it's got a Cheeto's dusted chicken tender, it's got fruity pebbles,
it's a stoner a taco.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
But it sells really well.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
It's a six to seven percent mix, so it's a
higher mixing item I think generally sell pretty well.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
The awareness level of it for our core guests is
very high. So the awareness level, so we've got a
we have a loyalty database with almost a million members,
which are.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Very proud of. We've been working on it for quite
a while and so we use that for a lot.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Of data mining.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
I'm a little bit of a data gee, don't don't
tell anybody. I know. You know that, but I don't
like people to know that. But we've got a very
robust database of guests and the awareness level.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Is like ninety percent of them.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Knowing about our WTF and actually, you know, when it
comes out on a Wednesday, we get those guests coming
in and trying it. So we get a surge on
Wednesdays of guests that come in. And if you go
on our website and download our app, you actually can
see four weeks in advance of the upcoming wtfs out
of comings, so you know, it generates around a four
(14:03):
or five six percent. Sometimes we have them as high
as seven or eight percent. You know, Like one of
my favorites is a chicken parmesan, which is literally chicken
parmesan and a parmesan.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
She's encrusted tortilla.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
But again, you get it for one week and then
it's gone and it's gone forever until maybe it might
come back another week. But first another year, but it's
here and then it's gone. But what it does allow
us to do is to stay ahead of the trends,
and it allows our chef to be able to look
at flavor trends that are coming, things that are happening,
(14:38):
and there are times when there are you know, things
that are happening that well, we'll make a twist and
we'll change and we'll twist it out and you know,
we'll be able to see. Sometimes we'll charge your premium.
Sometimes it'll be more on a value side. It just
depends on what the objective is.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah, it's interesting and six seven percent, I know an
initial look, it doesn't sound that high, but when you're
talking tacos and people are ordering two or three tacos
at a time, that's a pretty good mix.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
It's a pretty good mix.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I mean, anything north of three or three or four
percent is pretty good. You know, we'll do some unique
flavors sometimes and it won't do as well. Look, we'll
learn about that. I mean the beauty of what we do.
It keeps us on the cutting edge. And when clearly
I'm biased, I think that we're the premiere prest casual
taco concept out there and might.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Think I'm the we're the premiere brand, period.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
But you know, we have a database of over four
hundred different tacos that I can tell you how well
they sold, the flavor profiles, how they how they mixed,
what they cost. I can tell you, you know, the cogs.
I can tell you everything about it, and we then
can adjust and tweak and so for example, as we
(15:50):
go international, and let's say we go to a country
that is predominantly vegetarian, for example, I have a whole category,
not only on my or menu, have vegetarian items. I've
got years of experience of trying vegetarian items. We just
had a asparagus and lesson.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
WTF Now that one didn't sell.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
At six percent? But you know what, I know exactly
how well it sold. I knew what it took from.
I know how long it took the prep. I have
all the recipes, I have all the costs. I know
how what we sold it for. I know what I
would do again. So it's a constant learning. And you
know that's what makes Velvet Taco unique and fun is
that you know what other taco concepts could you go.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
To and say, hey, you have a chicken fryed oyster taco. Yeah,
actually we do.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I can tell you the recipe, I've got all the
promotional materials, i can tell how much costs. I can
tell you how well it's sold. So that's what makes
us relique.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
One of the reasons one of the things cool outside.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
You know, you mentioned there was a large Indian American
consumer base. What does your customer look like in terms
of in terms of age, education and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, no, we have a we have a slightly more
well off guest. So look, our check average is around
twenty four to twenty five dollars and that's a check average.
Our ppa is around seventeen to eighteen dollars, So our
our tacos are five six dollars each. And yeah, you're
(17:24):
gonna order two or three. You're gonna get a margarite
in and possibly a side. So look, we are not
you know, a lower income or households or roughly around
one hundred thousand dollars, so you know, it's an it's
also a little slightly older. So while we're irreverent and
we're loud and like, you know, a younger client tells.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Love us, college kids love us.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
The kids with Mona Dad's credit cards really love us.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
You know, we do well in the suburbs.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
We do well in the urban locations as well, but
it is a slightly you know, a suburb.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
A younger, younger.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Family do really well. We have a high to go mix,
as a lot of fast casuals do, and we continue
to see that going up. You know, we do a
pretty decent amount of alcohol. So we do have, as
I mentioned before, kick ass margaritas which are made with
tequila and some other stuff, so they're pretty strong with
(18:23):
our liquor mixes in the teams, so mid teams.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
So we do that.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
We don't have bars, so it's not a full full bar,
but we've got a few different drinks that will that
will sell.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
So our demo is slightly older.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I think they're folks that their late thirties and forties
that want to be younger and want to be cool.
But they're also adventurous. You know, we call them flavor seekers.
There are people who have the disposable income. They're trying
new things, but also they may be crushed for time.
Our our ticket times are you know, you're going to
go up, you're going to place your order it's going
(18:57):
to take us six to eight minutes to make your food.
We don't have freezers, we don't have microwaves. We're gonna
make your tacos or now we have some bowls. We've
we've innovated a bit and have some new exciting bowls
that we can shout about. But we're gonna make your food.
We're gonna make you know, a variety of items fresh
for you right away and bring them out to you
(19:21):
or package them up and send them along the way.
But they're gonna be unique flavors that you're willing to try.
Whether they're Indian flavors, whether they're Korean fried rice, whether
it's fish and chips that's got a curre a oli
on them. You know, we've got all kinds of things.
We've got a Chris Potts and egg that's got herb
(19:43):
goat chase smoke set or avocado cram, chili, butter, pepper,
bacon and stallions on it that come out and as
a as a head turner, it's also a great late
night you know munchies if it's if it's after nine pm,
it's a great after bar.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Snack as well.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
So you know, it's definitely someone who has some disposable income,
and so that's helped us. You know, in the current
economic times, we didn't feel it as much recently as
you know some of the other lower end restaurant concepts.
We didn't feel the impact as much because our consumers
(20:23):
have that disposable income.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
And what's your split between lunch, dinner, and late night.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, so look, we've got lunch is around thirty five
thirty eight percent, dinner is p forty eight to fifty.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Percent, and then late nights fifteen So, I mean, if.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
You wanted a round it up, thirty five and fifteen so,
and we call late night after ten pm. So many
of our restaurants were open until two in the morning,
especially some of our urban locations, so think downtown Chicago
and Dallas, and in the suburbs, our tagline is open
really late, so make sure that we're the last thing open.
(21:02):
Look in some of our suburbs were it's midnight. But
on weekends, you know, we'll be open until two or
three o'clock in the morning. And obviously on weekends that's
a big chunk of our business. But we're still a
dinner driven business. It's forty eight I think the last
number I saw was around forty eight percent dinner, and
you know, thirty seven percent lunch.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Lunch has been great.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
You know, Look, we're continually seeing more and more guests
shift into delivery and to go business as a lot
of fast casual is and I just think that, you know,
guests are looking for convenience, and it's.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Up to us as restaurant tours.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
I just fell with Taco to provide that same sort
of experience. And look, I'd love you to come into
our restaurants. Our restaurants are beautiful, our game and our
crew is hospitable and nice. I'd rather you eat my
food as soon as I'm making and it's steaming hot
in my college name, and you can sit down and
enjoy margarita. And you know, no, no, two restaurants are
(22:06):
designed exactly the same. I've got different footprints and different designs.
I've got converted gas stations, I've got you know, all
kinds of unique.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Things about my restaurant.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
But I still think guests are looking for that convenience
and grabbing food to go.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Unfortunately, yeah, for sure, staffing restaurants at.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Late night, it's always challenging. Late night has always been
of a challenge. We do offer a premium.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
From an hourly standpoint, from a management standpoint, it's been
a little bit of a challenge. We definitely are the
second job that's helped us from an hourly team member standpoint,
from a cash aire and back to the house standpoint.
You know, we can be that second job for a
lot of our of our tribe members. So you know,
from a shift standpoint, it's been better over the last
(22:51):
couple of years, and so you know it's it's been good.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
But we have to pay a premium.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
There's a late night wage rate that we pay, and
I will tell you it gets rocking in some of
our restaurants.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
It's fun.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Nothing more fun than doing a late night tour and
downtown Austin at one in the morning, that's always fun.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
For Nashville, Downtown Nashville is fun too.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, I'll have to join you on one of those, man.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Come on, Mike, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Sounds like a party. I know you mentioned ye to
red Bull for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
You know you mentioned there's a lot of different formats,
but generally on average, I know averages can be dangerous,
but how big are the restaurants what's the AUV and
what kind of volumes are your top restaurants doing.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah, I mean, look, you know, we're private, so I
can't get into all the details, but are on average
we're around twenty five hundred square fee.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
We've got all kinds of shapes and sizes.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
I've got as small as food hall locations that are
four hundred square fee. I've got restaurants that are on
two thousand square feed. We've got end caps, we've got
uh well, we've got a couple of inlines. Most of
them are free standing. We've got some conversions from old restaurants,
(24:11):
you know, some retros.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Look, we will find any space that we possibly can.
It's getting harder and harder.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Landlords are not giving the same ta that they were
you know, a few years ago. Construction and building costs
are getting higher and higher, so that's cachely to be
a challenge. We have drive throughs, we have pickup windows,
we have none at all, So we've got every every shape, size,
et cetera. But on average around twenty five hundred square feet.
(24:39):
As far as volumes, we're around three and a half million,
three six on average. Some of our higher performing restaurants
are around high five almost six million dollar restaurants, so
you know, it gets it gets busy. You know, our
suburb locations, we have a lot of really strong locations.
You know clearly the restauran that are open until three
(25:01):
in the morning, you know, the Austins, the Nashville, some
of the booming towns are.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
The higher volume restaurants. We're lucky.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
I mean, if you think about where we're located, we've
got some great, big cities with lots of growth, the Dallases,
the Houston's, Austin, Nashville, Chicago. You know, we've got a
very robust pipeline, uh where we can continue to grow
in those markets. And and then a you know, look,
(25:29):
I'm I'm a big fan of discipline growth. So last
year we opened in Phoenix, we started in Old Township, Scottsdale.
That's our new market for last year. We've got two
more sidelined up for the end of this year and
beginning into next year.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
We're opening in.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Raleigh, North Carolina, and that'll be our next new market.
And look, I want to open one great restaurant at
a time, So we want to be controlled. We want
to make sure that we do it right. You know,
it's it's it is important that we grow the brand correctly.
We're opening in London, which will be a big step
(26:06):
for us internationally. You know, we're going to send a
whole team over there and make sure that we do
it right. I mean, we talked about, you know, stretching
across the US, how about stretching across the pond. So
we think that there's a big growth opportunity internationally for
our brand.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I mean, we are international tacos, so you.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Know, we have got a lot of opportunities international lots
lined up there.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
We want to open one first and then and then
you'll hear a lot more from an international side.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Is that one franchise their company owned.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
That is a franchise that's a partnership with the group
that we feel very excited about growing. And look, we've
got a few different groups that we've been talking to.
There's a lot of excitement about our brand. Again, when
you look at our menu, you look at the flavor
profile and what we can do under the banner of
(27:02):
Velvet Taco. It's an international taco concept, so you know,
the sky's really the limit there. And we've we've got
several partners that were lining up to do. But again,
we want to do one restaurant, one successful restaurant at
a time.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, smart in the US, what percentage of your new
gms are brought in from other Velvet Taco restaurants?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Oh? Great question. Oh that's that's the magic one, right.
Internal promotions. We're sixty two internal promotes for GM. That
number is getting bigger and bigger as we grow. Our
goal is seventy five percent. You know, we have because
(27:47):
of the day parts, we generally carry four manager teams
for salary manager teams and some of our restaurants are
even five. You know, our goal is to get to
seventy five percent. We find that the six s rates
for our internal promotes are.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Much better than external and you know, but look.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
We find great talent wherever we can. We have an
intense training program. It's a three month training program.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Today.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
We actually just we have a weekly people pipeline. So
just like you have a new restaurant pipeline plan, we
have a people pipeline plan that we just went over
yesterday with our head of bops and had people. We
have eighteen managers in training right now. Don't ask me
their names, but I do know that it's eighteen and
various different locations. We've got some restaurants that we're opening
(28:33):
up through the balance of a year, so some of
those are for them.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
But yeah, it's intense.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I mean it's look, our menu is complex. It's not
easy that the ingredients are difficult. We've got all kinds
of you.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Know, different things that go on.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
It's it's not a cut the bag, open and heat
it up type stuff. So there's real cooking, real culinary,
real prep that goes on in our restaurants. We've got
things like goju Jan sauce. Uh, We've got you know,
Consumme dipping for our tacos, and so there's there's real
product that goes on, and there's real nice skills. There's
(29:10):
real training, there's real development. So it's you know, you're
gonna get real training, real culinary skills when you come
and work at Albataco.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
How's the new bowl launch going so far? And and
how are they different from your competitors.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Ah bulls.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Yeah, so look.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
We well, look, our name is Velvetaco. I think that
we we've we've played and thought about bulls. I think
that part of part of trends and staying in front
of things is always looking at what's coming up next.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
I think that, you know, when you think.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
About bulls, you know everybody's doing it. You know, it's
it's one of those things that is is here. You know,
we've got the opportunity to look at our guests and
trends and how we're being used, et cetera. So we
about a year ago actually we started doing some testing
(30:13):
and some consumer feedback and some panels, and we started
asking guests, you know, is this that our brand? So
it goes back again to how does it fit our brand?
Is this something that our guests would allow? You know,
how would it be accepted? We did some online testing
and then we did some in person testing, and then
our chefs started putting some things together, and you know,
(30:38):
we did an alpha restaurant test and so we did
a complete makeup all the way along, and then we
we tested it in some restaurants in the market. I
would tell you that it has gone extremely well. Guests
have embraced it. They have told us that the flavors
of velvet taco is what matters. That's that's what they
(31:01):
think of for velvet taco.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
It's not necessarily just that.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
It comes into taco. It is about the flavors of
velvet taco coming through. And so we launched Velvet Bowls
in April and it has done extremely well. Now, I
would tell you also that you know, we saw, similar
to the industry, a general trend, we had some challenges
in the first quarter. The market in which we tested
(31:27):
Bulls outperformed the rest of our system by you know,
eight hundred basis points.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
I mean, it was like night and day.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
And we were, okay, how you know, is this what
we need to be doing? And I was like, all right,
let's let's let's go. So we rolled it out system
wide and we have been on a nice run here
for the last quarter.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
We have been now ninety days in.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
We have been tracking and monitoring it with We work
with the group Signal Flair, who you know shout out.
I think one of your prior guests because I'm a
listener to the pod, mister Lucanoff and his group. You know,
they they do a great job of tracking. So, I mean, look,
we have seen great results from our bulls bull transactions
(32:15):
have gone up. It's on more than a quarter of
our checks. We have seen more spending, so slip sales
are up. We're out performing black Box now, which hasn't
always been the case. We have seen our comp sales
and our overall sales going up. Bold buyers are spending
(32:36):
more than non bowl buyers.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
What's what's the price on the on the bowl and
so the bulls.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Look here, here's the difference. Here's why our bulls are different.
They are curated bulls. So we have taken our flavors
and we have curated them. So we have a spicy
Tika chicken bowl. It's got the Tika sauce, it's got
right at crema. It's got red cabbage, it's got cucumber,
it's got tied basil, it's got butter cilantro Buzzmammy rice.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Like we curate our bowls.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
It is not a hey, I want this, I want this,
I want this now. I will tell you forty six
percent of them are customizing their bulls, which is an
interesting stat. And we've got a Rotistry chicken and a
stakehool kind of an entry level that's still got charred tomato,
poblano salsa. It's still got you know, groacamole included in.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
The price for eleven fifty. By the way, it is,
it is basically two and a half taco.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
So from a value standpoint, it is a lot of food.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
You know, we did all the comparisons with guests.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
The feedback was, wow, this is a value I did
withhold the shirts that say black is included, you know,
the marketer and me, I.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Had all kinds of ideas, but I decided not to.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I love my guys over there, Scottboro. It's my guy.
So look, I think that there's a value lay there.
You know, for eleven fifty, you.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Get this giant meal.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
And the other thing too, Like we've got a seasoned
veggie bowl. We've got a Mexicali shrimple that's selling really well.
Like who else has a shrimple? You know, if you
look at the competitor set, we've got a black and shrimp.
It's got Napa slaw, roasted corn, pico, seracchioli, guacamole, micro cilantro,
but at cilanta basmati rice and if you use it correctly,
(34:30):
I mean it's four hundred and sixty calories.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
I mean it's a phenomenal bowl. It'll fill you up, and.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
It's it's it's it's good for you as well. So
they're uniquely crafted by our chef. It's not hey give
me that taco and maket a bowl. They are crafted bowl.
So there's about six bowls. You know. Look it's there
are guests that are going to say, well, I'm ordering
a We have a smash burger talk that sells really well.
(34:58):
We have guests that like, can I get that as
a bullet? Not yet, No, we might have looked at
it and didn't pass our rigorous tests. So we're curating them.
They're unique flavors. I think the value component. Look, I
think it hit at the right time. I think the
value component was the right play. I think that the
(35:19):
flavors are hitting. I think it's unique developed taco. And
we're seeing the visitor return rates come up. So signal
Flare helps us.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
And again I don't want.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
To geek out on the data because I'll ruin my rep.
They track credit card data. We know from our loyalty
database when and how quick they come back. But they're
coming back more often, they're spending more, the attachment rate
is higher. They're also making you know, they're making more visits,
(35:53):
they're spending more, they're buying more alcohol, which is interesting
to go has been a big win. And so if
you think about a bowl you put a lid on,
it carries well, travels well. And then when we did
our post feedback, guests are saying, well, you know, I
can take it back to my desk, I can eat
it with a fork, I can take it on an airplane.
(36:14):
It travels easier, there's better leftovers. I don't have tacos
that I have to eat and then I got to
put them in a box and take them home. All
those things that you know, as someone who's been with
the brand for eight and a half years, I go, well,
of course, who doesn't want to eat pacos with their hands?
You know, I want to touch the food and I
want to live the brand like not everybody wants to
(36:36):
do that.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
We're seeing more female guests.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
And then also bowls with the purpose. So I think
there's an interesting trend that we're going to start seeing
of guests wanting to know what's in their food. And again,
as a leader, I think that you have to always
be looking down the road, and part of spotting trends
(37:04):
is knowing what's coming. And I don't look. I don't
think that bulls is a new trend, but I do
feel that you have to identify what's coming down the road.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
So what's next for bulls?
Speaker 4 (37:15):
Yeah, I think that's a really good question, Mike.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
I think when you look at the future, not just
for us, but just in the industry in general. You know,
a lot of folks are doing bowls, lots of brands
are doing bulls.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
I think, you know, number one, protein is king. You're
seeing that. I think that's what we're also benefiting from.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
We're seeing one and it's almost like forty I think
the last at I saw was thirty eight percent of
our bulls. People are adding protein onto it. I would
guess that that's happening in other brands, but for us,
people are adding extra protein on is the number one
modifier to our bulls, which is helping add check average.
So protein is king. I also think that people I
(37:58):
shouldn't say. I think our trends and everything, all of
our data is saying that people want to know what's
in their goals. So I think the quality of the food.
I think, look, you see the trends, gym memberships are up.
People are you know, over the whole comfort food of covid.
I think we're eating more healthier. They want to know
(38:19):
what's in their food, and so I think that you're
going to see a trend towards understanding, whether it's menu.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Labeling or meal prep, more of a.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Health conscious I think you're standing now with beef cannol,
for example, Like that's a trend, and it's not so
much it's just a consciousness of what is in the food.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
I think you're seeing that again.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Not to get political, but you know, make America healthy again.
It's just a consciousness that's out there. I think you're
going to see that with bulls, like what is in
that ball? You can make a bowl really healthy or
it could be very unhealthy. And I think that you're
going to see more and more people get more conscious
about that, and more and more flavor pops. I think
(39:04):
you're going to see more flavors more, you know, instead
of just generic bright things lettuce protein, and I think
that there are other brands out there that have capitalized
on them.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
Not to mention you know, any competitors or any other
Bowl companies, but I think you know.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Whether it's mediterrane or other flavors, I think that's just
a unique spin where guests are saying, Okay, I've done bowls,
like I want to try a different spin.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
I want to try it black and shrimp.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
Again, we sell a great amount of shrimp bowls, and
just like when we look at it's like who else
does that?
Speaker 4 (39:39):
Not? I couldn't find anybody quite.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Frank, Honey girl, that's the only other one I could
think of, and that you guys don't really.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Over don't have any Yeah, we don't overlap on them. Yeah,
but I mean any of the big guys, like shrimp
is not one, you know.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
I mean think about a salmon bowl or you know,
unique flavors and just different different trends. I just again,
I think the exciting thing about art industry and when
when you're when you're leading a brand, you just have
to keep an eye on trends. And I know that
(40:12):
you know we're talking about bulls, but it really is
just staying ahead of the curve.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
There's there's certain trends that come up and it doesn't
have to be.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
You know, Indian fusion heaps or grain serachs of peppers
that are hot. It could be nostalgia. Nostalgia is a trend.
I mean, look at the biggest brand out there right
now with uh, you know snack wraps.
Speaker 4 (40:35):
You know that's a trend.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Nostalgia is a trend and people can capitalize on that.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
I mean, I Asian flavors is a trend.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
You mentioned, Hey, what's brought to development top of the
ability to capture on a trend. And if you're a CEO,
if you're an executive, if you're a chef, your job
your responsibility is to stay ahead of the trend. If
you're seeing it in another restaurant, if you're walking into
fill in the blank chain restaurant and you go, wow,
look at that, let's let's do snack wraps. Also, it's
(41:06):
not a trend. You're done, You're over. You can't do that.
You need to be looking outside of the walls. You
need to be going to an Asian supermarket. You want
to have a fun date night or take your kids.
They used to take my kids to Asian supermarkets and
wander the halls or wander the aisles, and they like
(41:26):
they used to laugh, but like they remember that on
the ground now, but they remember, like remember we used
to wander, you know, the supermarket with Asian stuff and
we had all kinds of crazy things and we'd bring
them home and we cook them and we tried these flavors.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
Like that was so cool, Dad. That was R and
D for me.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
I mean I worked for Payway. I brought that over
here to Velvet Taco. I mean that was my exploration
as just a leader of a restaurant concept because that's
where I.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Got my inspiration.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
And I go back to the chef and say, hey,
have you ever heard of Tamerman? And you're like, yeah, no, kidding, thanks,
Like you know, like, hey, have you ever heard of
filling the blank?
Speaker 4 (42:07):
You know, go jous on. It's this fermented rice starch,
it's this paste.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
It's got this building heats right, Like the chef would
be like, yeah, thanks, thanks, CEO appreciate that. I know that,
but like those are the things that we should be doing.
And when you're in a brand, you have to look
down the road and go what's coming, not what's right
in front of me.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Well, it's a good place to play because you know,
eaters and consumers are becoming more adventurous in the United
States big time, and also being able to play in
indulgent as well as healthier is a nice place to
play because those two things tend to outperform than than
the chains in the middle.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
They totally do.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
No. You look, our our consumers are getting more wise,
they're getting more adventurous, They're going to have more disposable dollars.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
I mean, look, the beauty of our sad luck, the
beauty of our.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
The beauty of our industry is that consumers will continue
to go out to eat. They're just going to decide
where to go. It's dependent on external factors. Unemployment, you know,
unemployments what four point one percent right now, So we've
got a somewhat stable economy. It's it all depends on
you know, tax ree funds are coming up, so I'm expecting,
(43:26):
you know, a nice little push. It all just depends
on external factors and where they're going to go out
to eat.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
Are they going to go?
Speaker 3 (43:33):
You know, casual dining right now is getting a surge because,
as you mentioned, I think in earlier pots they haven't
been a lot of buildouts of casual dining. There's been
overbuild of QSR fast casual somewhere in the middle. Like,
there's all these factors. People aren't suddenly just going to say,
you know what, I'm just going to start cooking. They
just decide where they're going to spend their dollars, and
(43:55):
it's up to us in the industry to go, okay,
how do we meet those demands there? It's a value play,
whether it's a lifestyle and a way in which we
meet the guests. You know, coming out of COVID weave
all the taco or our team looked and saw there's
going to be a demand for takeout, and so we
(44:16):
leaned into it. We put in kds I, changed out
the pos I, went from a legacy system and put
in TOAST. We started building takeout windows and drive throughs.
You know, it wasn't rocket science, but real lined into
it and looked further ahead and we came out stronger.
And it's easy to say that years later. It didn't
(44:36):
feel that.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
Way at the time. But you just have to.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Anticipate those things and go, okay, are we going to
meet this challenge going forward? Or are we going to
sit back and be reactionary or be proactive? And look,
the consumers are still going to go out to eat.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
They're going to.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Decide whether it's a triple dipper that's going to get
their attention or is it going to be a snack
wrapped two ninety nine And depending on where they're at,
that's going to drive their decision making.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Well, listen, man, you're either growing or you're dying, right
either you know it's one.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Of the others. So you got to stay through with
your go to menu order.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
Oh gosh, I mean chicken tika of Marsala is always
my go to. It rotates a little bit, but I
mean you can and my mouth start and water. And
right now I've got a I've got a restaurant, our restaurant,
sport offices right outside of restaurant. So that GM loves
it because I was put in my.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
Order for a chick and tika.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
That is uh, that is the original, the original taco
and uh, it is a go to. You can't go
wrong it is. It is a great taco.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
It's good stuff.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
And you have some some great men tacos on that menu,
So that's saying something.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
Thank you, man.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
Yeah, and thanks for joining.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
Look, Mike, I appreciate it. Great pod, listen to it.
I'm a big fan.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Thanks for educating everybody out there, and I appreciate you
taking the time and letting me pontificate. I feel like
I did way too much talking, but thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
You're great man.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
I also want to thank the audience for tuning in.
If you liked the discussion, please share it with your
friends and colleagues. Check back soon for another interview on
chopping it up.
Host
Michael Halen
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