This podcast episode features a compelling dialogue that underscores the significance of innovation and partnership within the culinary industry, particularly through the insights of Ryan Giffin, a prominent figure in Florida's commercial kitchen sector. Fresh from a notable acquisition, Giffin is dedicated to facilitating access to high-quality equipment for food service operators, thereby enhancing operational efficiency in their establishments. Additionally, we are privileged to engage with Chef Thomas Mandzik, whose extensive culinary expertise enriches the conversation as he prepares two exquisite dishes, all while sharing his insights on leadership and the delicate balance between artistry and accountability in the kitchen. This episode serves not only as a celebration of culinary excellence but also as a testament to the collaborative spirit that drives the food industry forward. Join us as we delve into the intersection of culinary artistry, business acumen, and community support, reflecting on the essence of service in the hospitality sphere. Plus Operation BBQ Relief co-founder, Stan Hays.
Takeaways:
- This episode highlights the significance of serving those who serve others in the culinary industry.
- Ryan Giffin discusses the importance of partnerships in providing essential resources to operators.
- Chef Thomas Mandzik shares his creative process in balancing artistry and accountability in the kitchen.
- The podcast emphasizes the role of storytelling in connecting with customers and enhancing the dining experience.
- Listeners learn about the challenges and opportunities in the commercial kitchen equipment market.
- The discussion includes innovative approaches to service and technician training in the food industry.
- Why we need non-profits with Stan Hays
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You've just stepped inside theWalk and Talk podcast, number one
in the nation for food lovers,chefs and storytellers.
I'm Carl Fiordini, your host,shining a light on the flavor, the
hustle, and the heart of the industry.
We're the official podcast forthe New York, California and Florida
restaurant shows, the PizzaTomorrow Summit, the US Culinary
Open at nafm, and the NorthAmerican media platform for the Burnt
(00:22):
Chef project recorded at IbisImages Studios where food photography
comes alive.
I get the first bite.
Find out more info at the Walk.
And talk dot com.
This week on the Walk and Talkpodcast, we're joined by Ryan Giffen,
a driving force behind one ofFlorida's fastest.
Growing commercial kitchen companies.
Fresh off of a majoracquisition, Ryan's helping operators
(00:44):
access high end equipment frombrand new builds to refurbished staples,
all while deepeningpartnerships with brands like Middleby.
His mission, to serve thosewho serve others and make the business
of food just a little easier.
Behind the line in thekitchen, we'll be joined by chef
Thomas Manzik, executive chefat the tampa club.
With 30 years of culinaryexperience, from hotel leadership
(01:06):
to private dining, and evenlaunching his own fine dining barbecue
concept, Chef Thomas bringscreativity, edge and real world perspective
to everything he plates.
He's cooking two dishes livein studio while we dive into his
story, his leadership style,and how he balances artistry with.
With accountability.
It's business, it's food, it'scommunity, all in one episode.
(01:29):
Let's get into it.
All right, so Thomas.
Yeah.
Talk about the raviolis.
I started with the duckbecause that's one of my favorite
dishes to do and I like to doall the parts of it.
And so I confit the duck leg,a little caramelized shallot, ricotta.
(01:49):
And then to make sure that youknew that I didn't buy those from
Publix, I roasted some beetsand then blended it in with the pasta.
So I didn't say talk about theduck dish.
Right.
I said talk about that ravioli.
It was so good.
First of all, the duck cooked perfectly.
Right.
But that ravioli was different.
It was just different.
(02:10):
And I really appreciate whatyou did to make it different.
You came with your A game today.
Thank you.
I mean, you already saw someof what John was putting out there.
Oh, yeah.
With photography.
Right.
Dope.
If John did all my pictures,I'd be a billionaire chef right now,
I tell you.
Well, we can make that happen.
All right, so let's talk aboutthe next dish.
(02:30):
Yes, sir.
So on our menu at the Tampa Club.
We have a grouper, obviously,Tampa, and we plantain crust it just
like, you know, with the freshplantains, a little Joe Robichon
ode with making them look likefish scales, and then that roasted
pineapple curry and thejalapeno risotto, then finishing
(02:53):
it off with a little blueberry caviar.
So that was a really pretty dish.
This is the first time a dishslipped through where I didn't get
a bite.
Yeah, it was the first time ever.
There were 161 episodes intothis podcast, and I've never.
And this is the first one, butit looked beautiful.
Thank you, sir.
All right.
I'm a little disappointed,frankly, but whatever, I'm gonna
(03:15):
get through it.
John, you have some.
We might have.
Look at the guys.
Yeah, they got the.
They got the dirty looks faces there.
Okay.
All right, chef, look, 30years you've been in the business.
First of all, you're acreative guy.
You were once a tattoo artist.
I was, yeah.
I didn't know that until today.
Yeah.
All right.
Do you still do that on theside somewhere?
(03:38):
That's one of the topquestions everybody asks when I tell
them that, but definitely not.
No.
Do you have the guts to do itif somebody asked you?
Oh, yeah, because it doesn'tmatter what it looks like.
Right.
You know, a little bit behindthe curtain, I guess I've got the
guts to tell you I could do itin a couple of days, you know, come
down here and cook.
I can definitely put a taxiright there on the chest of yours.
(03:58):
No regrets.
No Regards, man.
We'll spell attack that for you.
Yeah.
All right, well, let's.
Let's real quickly, let's justkind of.
Let's touch on that creativity.
You go from tattoo artist.
You have to have some sort ofa love for art.
Yes, sir.
(04:18):
Life happens.
Things happen.
You go from, you know, sittingwith the ink pen.
Now you're with the tweezers.
Definitely, definitely withthe tweezers and the sauces.
But there is definitely mix ofboth, you know, the colors, the parts
of the body, AKA also theplates, kind of making them line
up.
You know, where's it best tomake things land?
(04:40):
What?
Color coordination.
But the difference is with thefood, you also have to make sure
it tastes good.
Chef, when you're plating adish or you're going to ink somebody,
Right, how are you judgingcolor palette?
And how are you judging thecomposition of the arm, the plate,
et cetera?
I wish I had, like, atechnique or some type of math equation
(05:01):
on how I do that.
But it's just really feeling,and it's a hundred percent the truth
in that.
Could be the.
The dish drives it.
In other words, the part ofthe body.
Or it could be the color, youknow, or just simply the request
on both.
You know, is it something thatthey really want?
Is it.
Is blue their favorite coloror our peaches in season?
(05:24):
All right, let's talkequipment, and let's talk acquisitions.
You know what?
Let's actually usher on the.
Ryan Giffen, welcome to the program.
Thank you for having me.
Carl.
We met about a year ago, andwe've been talking about this, and
it's a pleasure to be here,and really awesome to see what you
built.
Thank you.
And by the way, you drove in,you're from South Florida.
(05:46):
Yeah, Palm Beach.
Palm Beach.
It's a humbling, really greatfeeling when people travel more than
an hour to get here.
It blows my mind.
So thank you, sincerely.
And that goes for everybody inthe room right now.
But let's kind of find outwhere you came from.
Sure.
Tell us a little bit aboutyour story.
Yeah.
(06:06):
Where to start?
You know, I was born andraised in South Florida, and I went
off.
I was a college baseballplayer, and when I came.
Came back and, you know,decided to, you know, look for a
job or, you know, I thought itwas going to be a high school teacher.
And a couple things happened.
You know, I actually.
We talked a little bit aboutcrypto in my story.
I got into bitcoin early, andthat kind of gave me some.
(06:30):
Some something to move with entrepreneurially.
And I was already getting intodistribution to restaurants, and
I wanted to.
You know, I kind of thought atthe time as well, that, like, if
I could become a successfulbusiness person, maybe people take
me more seriously if I talkedabout crypto.
That was kind of an idea.
And, you know, I kind of.
I fell in love with theindustry from there.
You know, in college,actually, I was playing baseball.
(06:51):
My wife used to laugh at mebecause she was then my girlfriend,
but I would always say I atefor nutritional purposes.
I had a very bland diet.
Didn't eat dessert, anythinglike that.
And it wasn't until, you know,I started getting clients in restaurants,
and they invite me out and I'deat the food.
I was like, wow, there's somuch more to food.
So that was the kind of the journey.
And then a commercial kitchen stop.
(07:11):
You know, after just doingdistribution of chemicals and hygiene
products in 2017, I wanted todo something more entrepreneurially.
And that's when commercialkitchen stop was Founded and we came
to market in 2020, and fromthere, you know, we thought we were
just going to do E Commerce,to be honest.
And then we.
I hired a gentleman who wasvery good at design build, and he
(07:32):
kind of opened up my eyes to alot of different things, Designing
the concepts and, you know,procuring the equipment.
And then we just kept ongoing, you know, so we talked about
our mission is to serve thosewho serve others.
So kind of be the backbone forpeople like Chef here, because those
are the relationships I have,and his relationships are with the
customers.
And we want to make sure thoseguys are standing tall and have the
right resources to operate.
(07:52):
And we just kind of said,well, how can we do that?
And our guiding light is justto make buying food service equipment
and supplies as easy as possible.
So we just became veryvertically integrated.
When we met at the show andsomebody had told me, hey, there's
this fellow Ryan.
He's going to come by.
I'm like, okay, what's he do?
(08:13):
And they said bitcoin.
And I'm like, I don't.
What.
He go, no, no, you don't understand.
This doesn't fit into food.
We're about the industry.
And I think it was Pooch.
Pooch said, no, man.
He, like, has equipment.
He does this whole thing.
And I was like, okay, it turnsout you're a cool cat and you're
deep embedded into the industry.
(08:35):
And when you started talkingabout your story when we met, it's
pretty dynamic in how youstarted because, you know, you had
some luck, good fortune, Ishould say, with bitcoin.
And that kind of.
And that kind of moved youforward with your whole industry,
you know, restaurant industry operation.
How do you go from beingsuccessful, short period of time,
(08:58):
you're talking four or fiveyears, and you had your first acquisition.
Congratulations, by the way.
I appreciate it.
How does that happen?
A lot of hard work, a lot oflate nights, very, very few days
off.
And the sweat equity is, youknow, you got to put the work in.
In general.
And I would say, you know,just kind of be intuitive, you know,
(09:19):
look at.
There's a good book to read,you know, who Moved my Cheese?
I think that's the name of it.
So, you know, when you findsomething that.
That works, kind of doubledown on that.
So that's whether we movedinto actually during COVID when it
was very hard to get equipment.
This is actually kind of funny.
I was trying to break into thedesign build world, and the factories
had long lead times, and Iknew there was Very specific pieces
(09:40):
that people would want to have25 week lead times.
So I was just putting inmassive purchase orders, praying
I would sell it by the time itshowed up.
But I had 25 weeks to try tosell these things.
And I started going around tojobs and just getting their lead
times.
And meanwhile, these operatorsare, you know, are paying rent, they
have pressure from thelandlord, they need to get open.
So that was one of my firstbig swings that allowed us to really
(10:03):
break into that industry.
And that's a lot of.
Let me interrupt you.
That's major stones to dothat, looking.
Back at it, because theaverage, the.
Average piece of equipmentcost is probably 15 grand.
An average restaurant to buildcheap is for one piece.
Yeah.
You know, somewhere around 3to $500,000 for your average restaurant.
Average restaurant, you know,food service, equipment package.
(10:25):
Yeah.
So here you are, you'resaying, oh, like here's the, the
top 10 items that, you know, arestaurant tour or a chef is going
to need.
And you're.
And you're taking POS on that yourself.
Yeah, it seemed logical at thetime, looking back at.
Seemed like it was a littlebit of a riskier move.
But, you know, it's kind of,you know, we do personality indexing
(10:47):
too, for hiring staff.
We're up to about 60 employees.
And, you know, so my profilecame back as Daredevil, and it all
kind of started to make senseas I look back at things, as I jumped
into more what appeared to bevolatile things to do, whether it
was crypto or doing somethinglike that.
And that was kind of, youknow, a big swing for commercial
kitchen stuff to break intothat industry and get it, start building
(11:09):
a big name and design build inthe South Florida region.
All right, so how do I get myhands on one of these tests?
I'll text it to you.
It's eight minutes undivided attention.
You'll learn more about yourself.
And it's actually scary whenyou start to read it.
It's like, oh my God, that isso true about me.
All right, all right, all right.
Is it like one thing becauseis it one link for like me and John
or is two separate things?
(11:29):
I could just share it alongand then it'll come to me and I'll
shoot the data.
Okay.
Because I'm going to send oneto my wife too.
Just put it out there.
And for restaurant owners thatare listening, we use Culture Index.
A bigger one in the industryis Myers Briggs.
But it's just a big thing tomake sure if you're looking for an
employee, especially if you'relooking to maybe duplicate some of
a similar personality set, youcan't have a company full of daredevils.
(11:52):
It would fall apart.
So you need to hire morelogical people, maybe.
So it's very useful tool.
That and some other systemsthat we developed that we can maybe
talk about.
Serving those who serve others.
That's a hell of a mission statement.
How do you and your company execute?
So we think there's three waysto accomplish that.
(12:14):
It's through a vertical integration.
So everything that we can doto not have to outsource something.
So a lot of dealers will justsell something, leave it at your
back door.
Then you call the plumber.
You call, you know, a companythat install my ice machine or my
plumbing supplies or installmy combi oven.
The more we can control ourdestiny, the more I can control the
customer experience and makesure he's happy.
(12:35):
You know, a lot of dealers geta bad reputation for outsourcing
to a company that maybe didn'tdo the right job.
So that's, you know, very important.
Secondly, solutions based partnerships.
So we part when we do makepartnerships, like I was telling
you earlier about in this area.
Teco Gas restaurant ownersdidn't realize they had large subsidies
on their gas appliances thatthey could spend that they.
(12:55):
When they pay their monthlybill, it subsidizes funds.
But they had to get equipmentfor it.
So I became a partner withthem because.
And we gave away probably4,000 fryers over the last couple
years that the customersdidn't have to pay for.
Looking for partnerships like that.
And then my favorite one andthe way we accomplished that is just
having a healthy disregard forthe impossible, which is a Larry
(13:16):
Page quote I took years ago.
And I have it on my wall andit's on our website.
And those are the three wayswe feel like we accomplished that.
If the bear would have hadyou, it would have probably only
been two episodes where theywere trying to put the restaurant
together instead of the whole season.
Yeah, seriously, I gotta catchup on the bear.
Spoiler alert.
Sorry.
Yeah, take it easy.
All right.
(13:37):
I binge watched the first twoseasons and I got the third to get
into Chef.
Do you see any value inrefurbished equipment?
You know, I think that whenyou come with refurbished equipment,
it's a luck of a draw, so to speak.
You can have those momentswhere you lucked out and got the
right one, but in the end,paying a little bit extra to make
(14:00):
sure that you got the warrantyand everything behind it.
It's probably the Best move inthe long run.
All right, so Ryan, what kindof impact are you seeing with operators
who are actually taking ashot, a risk in purchasing something
refurbished versus brand new?
Well, I believe for usedequipment, there's pieces that are
(14:23):
very logical to buy pre ownedpieces that are not overly mechanical.
So something like a Hobartmixer, it's $25,000 new and it's
a very basic piece of equipment.
But you can buy used from usfor about $8,000 and they last forever.
Some of them are much olderthan we are in this room.
Some of them are built in the 60s.
(14:43):
They just run forever.
So it's a very logical pieceto buy.
Pizza deck ovens also can be $30,000.
You can buy it from us for $12,000.
And again, they're very basicpieces of equipment.
There's like four main pieceson there now with some other pieces.
I don't necessarily recommendbuying used because the imports have
been so impactful, but what weare watching right now is the impact
(15:04):
of tariffs.
And now they're actuallymaking the delta between a used piece
and an imported piece furtherapart where a customer demographic
needs to exist there.
And I do try to warn people oncertain pieces.
The best thing about the usedpiece is the price.
So outside of that, like Chefsaid, you're taking a shot.
We do try to back it up with a60 day warranty.
(15:25):
So I'll sell it to you.
Anything the first 60 days ison me.
But I can't warranty thatpiece forever.
You know, the best thing isthe price with that if you need to
get by with it.
Before we go further, let mesay that we have another guest in
the house.
We have the Stan Hayes, who isthe co founder of Operation Barbecue
Relief, which is a disasterrelief nonprofit.
They've served approximately13 million meals.
(15:47):
Stan is a competitivepitmaster and he was also a 2017
top 10 CNN Hero nominee, whichI think is super cool.
He's the man and hisoperation, the great team that he
has with him, they are helpingcommunities through crisis and they're
doing it with the power of barbecue.
I just want to welcome Stan tothe program.
(16:10):
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
I also know that you'rechomping at the bit.
You wanted to jump in on therefurbished equipment?
Yeah, absolutely.
Go ahead, baby.
What do you got?
You know, look, I, I thinkwhen we.
Well, first of all, when Istarted out, we, we didn't have the,
the funds to go for, you know,new equipment.
Especially when you're talkingabout equipment like tilt skillets.
(16:30):
And things like that.
You know, they're very expensive.
Hobart, you know, Buffalochoppers, things like that.
We, We.
We couldn't buy new, so webought a lot of refurbished.
You know, we got stuffdonated, and we still have to today
because there's times that weneed more equipment, and because
of the lead times, because ofthe tariffs right now, everything
that's going on, like, youknow, if there's a major disaster
(16:53):
or in, you know, last year'scase, to back to back across, you
know, multiple states thatwe're working in.
I was trying to buy smokers.
I was trying to buy tilt skillets.
I was trying to buy, like, Iliterally changed direction when,
you know, heading to theCarolinas to stop in St. Louis to
wait for a store to open up tosee a tilt skillet that they had
(17:15):
advertised on FacebookMarketplace, because I could not
find them.
And so there's a time and aplace, I think, for all of them.
But there's certain pieces ofequipment, like Ryan said that, hey,
you should look at, you know,and Hobart's got a lot of them.
But, you know, I mean, when itcomes to a tilt skillet, yeah, it's
(17:36):
there.
There can be a game changerfor you.
So what I'd like to do for youthen is give you my personal cell
phone number so you don't haveto wait for the store to open up.
Just call me anytime, and I'llgo open the door, and we'll get you
the tilt skillet.
No problem.
No, absolutely.
Look, I really think that one,this is how communities are built.
This is how making theseconnections are a huge part of what
(18:01):
I do.
And finding somebody that cando something quickly sometimes isn't
easy.
And to be honest, tilt skillsis another one of those items.
I talked about mixers and deckovens, but tilt skills, too high
price points, very simplepieces of equipment.
We refurbish them.
And the cost of ownership,generally after.
After you own it, is not very high.
So if you have any post issuesthat they tend to last a long time.
(18:23):
So if that's an important itemfor you, love to help you out in
any capacity.
Let's talk storytelling andvisibility in the commercial equipment
space.
Can you give me some reasonswhy it's important?
Storytelling?
I always think telling a storyis important, you know, especially
when you're trying to relateto a customer that you don't necessarily
agree with the decisionthey're making.
And let's say it's buying,let's say it's a critical piece for
(18:45):
them.
Right.
And you can't unless everyonetell someone they're wrong and you
just know better.
Just tell them the story andthey can relate to that.
I use that quite often likelet me tell you a story about how
this happened there.
For some reason, they takethat information much better than
I just know more than you.
Right.
They want to hear from otherowners and operators and referrals
that can share in their experience.
(19:06):
I don't know why humanpsychology works that way, but that's.
It is extremely impactful.
We're living in a time whereeveryone has access to everyone that's
good and bad equally becausewe're inundated with, you know, the
plastic, fake, dare I say,influencer types, which there's a
(19:30):
place for, but that's the majority.
So when you're talking aboutreal storytelling and real empowerment
or real emotion or real lifeoccurrences, for me, that's what
we do here at Walk and Talk.
We're storytelling.
This is the Walk and Talk podcast.
(19:52):
It's not the Carl Fiadini podcast.
It's not about me.
It's about you guys, gals,whoever comes on the show.
Let's talk Middleby and howyou leverage their innovation kitchens.
Middleby is a large companywith a lot of resources.
They're publicly traded, sothey have the ability for large R
(20:13):
and D budgets.
And I don't know if you guysare familiar with something called
the mic.
The MC out in Texas is theirwhole innovation kitchen really trying
to think forward about whathuman consumption looks like in terms
of how we'll execute menus aslabor costs rise.
Looking for more automation in kitchens.
And you're seeing a lot ofvery futuristic things happen that
are not, you know, you're.
(20:33):
The chains are starting toreally test them.
I think it'll be a whilebefore, you know, Chef and his country
club line has a robot takingout fries for you.
But, you know, at some pointit's going to be a very logical decision
to make rather than, you know,paying someone to do it.
And you know, they're just onthe front.
They have the R and D budgetsand the capacity to do it, you know,
and everything from operatorsexpenses too.
(20:54):
You want to look at energyefficiency, the cost of tonal ownership
of it.
So it's been a great resourcefor us, you know, also along with
well built companies and the marketplace.
But we've been a big partnerwith them.
If you're in South Florida,they have test kitchens in both Clearwater
and Fort Lauderdale.
If you're, you know, we'llplug ourselves later.
If you're interested intesting equipment, feel free to reach
out to me and I can get you infront of the equipment before you
(21:16):
buy it.
You know, before you make that decision.
At the Napham show, I actuallysaw the robot fry thing.
Chef Russell over at, atMiddleby, he, he was nice enough
to give us a tour.
Cool cat, great company.
The equipment is going to come around.
Yeah, I mean it's basically atyour fast food stops already.
(21:37):
Be careful, chef.
Hey, somebody's got to pushthat button.
You know, that's me.
And I view it as just afurther automation.
You know, humans used to, weused to wash dishes by our hands,
right.
And then we got a dishwasherthat we pressed a button and just
further, you know, innovationwithin the place in the marketplace
to make things more efficient.
How are you using media whenit comes to showrooms or a sales
(21:59):
strategy?
To be honest, that's somethingthat we, I don't feel like we're
doing a good job at.
We have two showrooms, we havelots of inventory, probably a couple
million dollars worth of inventory.
And you know, we're trying to.
The company we just acquiredjust does Facebook marketplace offerup,
ebay and they get tremendousfoot traffic.
Over 60 invoices a week.
(22:20):
You know, transactions takeplace within the store.
And it's very basic and it'svery, you know, from the perspective
of everything you do, Carl,you do incredible work, very poor
quality.
And that's something thatwe're going to focus on.
We've brought on a newdirector of sales and revenue that
is, you know, very forward thinking.
He's actually the founder ofHurricane Grill and Wings.
He built it to 35 stores andsold it to Fab Brands.
(22:41):
So, you know, for the firsttime in a long time, I feel like
I have someone really strongto rely on that I can really build
out more robust customerfacing experiences to get them in
the store.
And to poke a little bit offun at my industry too.
It, the industry is a littlebit, you know, there's a lot of secession
planning going on, we'll say.
And you know, there's.
That's one reason why I wasexcited to get into it.
(23:02):
Someone had to sell this stuff.
It does feel under competitiveto be honest.
At times sometimes I think I'mreally good, but I just also think
that our market's a little bit behind.
You know, maybe I'm not asgood as I think I am.
Are you making sales?
We're doing all right.
Then you're doing good?
Yeah, yeah.
I mean that, that's the barometer.
There is, you know, green,black, where are you?
(23:23):
You know, man, not for nothing the.
And off topic, the.
It's a situation where youhave a 60 day warranty off of your
refurbished equipment.
That's awesome.
Because if you've only got 15,20 grand and you're, you don't know
where to put it.
Right.
Yeah.
Or you don't know if youshould really buy that tilt skillet
(23:45):
because you don't know whereit's coming from.
A marketplace.
But if you can back that upand that just.
I think that's amazing.
Yeah.
Seriously, you kill yourreputation if customers just rolling
the dice on a piece, you gotto make sure it works.
And you know, for that.
Yeah.
For restaurants and peoplelike me and you know you're going
to be able to sell morebecause of that.
(24:05):
Because not only are you beingable to back it, but you're giving
more of a personal.
The part of it where we wantto give you those chances.
But at the same time they'relike, I don't know if it's going
to break it to me and youknow, next week or something like
that.
So I think that's a good move.
And not stay off topic.
But if, you know what I havefound is you just got to warn them
(24:25):
up front because if the unit,they buy a used unit and it does
have an issue in the first orsecond week, they're going to be
like, oh, you sold me a lemon.
They often will buy usedequipment with new expectations.
I'm like, no, I'm going to payfor it.
It's going to be okay.
Like, you know, so that's,that's part of the, you know, you
just really try to get infront of it.
Like tell them like the bestthing is the price.
And I got here for 60 days andkind of you just got to present it
(24:50):
correctly.
Right.
You set customers expectations appropriately.
Other than robots and frenchfries, where do you see the next
innovation or disruptionhappening in the equipment field?
What we're working on rightnow is to get more vertically integrated
on service.
So right now we don't, werefurbish our own equipment and sell
(25:10):
it, but we don't go out in thefield and fix it ourselves.
So I think what we're workingon is internally AI agents.
The labor pool for techniciansis not very strong.
Not a lot of people, you know,the trades in schools and colleges
are people are going doingdifferent majors that are not getting
their hands dirty.
So what we're trying to do isinvest in a robust AI system that
(25:33):
can help technicians, youngerones, go through a system protocol
and speak to an agent in AIsoftware to learn how to fix it.
So that's something that wefeel like customer experience, maybe
chef can share.
It's not always the bestexperience getting that equipment
fixed, and it's not always asfast as you need.
And just the labor pool isreally challenging.
And that's where we see thenext big move coming for our company.
(25:55):
If somebody listening wants toexplore a work opportunity with you,
where do they go for that?
It depends on what departmentthey're looking for.
They can reach out to me withmy information.
I can put them in the right direction.
So we have a sales operation.
So if they want to do some ofthe sales and marketing, Chris oversees
that department.
We also have operationsdepartment that is really operation
(26:18):
services.
So if they want to dotechnical, it's our director of services,
Spencer Mullins.
And then if they want to workin finance, our director of finance
is my partner, Maria Alberto.
That's how she would we letthe three department heads do their
hiring.
Sam, you're in Tampa Bay.
You're a good dude.
You're helping a friend on a move.
And the timing was right foryou to be here in studio today.
(26:39):
Yeah.
Putting that aside.
And I'm glad you made it.
And I'm glad actually everyonehere got to kind of experience what
we do in studio.
But you got something coolcoming up here in a few weeks.
Yeah.
Can you.
Can you kind of share whatthis event is about?
Yeah.
So the event is Salute toAmerican Heroes, and it's going to
be at the OCC Roadhouse inClearwater, Florida.
(27:02):
And it's really to celebrateour heroes.
You know, those, those firstresponders, those veterans, the people
that are always out theregiving to their communities.
It's time for us to celebrate them.
And so it's going to be, Imean, a huge day you got.
Paul Senior is going to bethere on site unveiling a new motorcycle
that he's designed for a veteran.
(27:23):
You're going to have a musicartist named Jesse G. Who's written
a song for a gold star momafter learning her story about her
loss of her son.
So there's going to beprobably some tears that go along
with this, but a lot ofpatriotic people that will be coming
out to help celebrate our heroes.
(27:44):
And it's going to end withPaul Sr.
Senator Jay Collins and othersthat are going to be there to give
this lifetime achievementaward to a guy who is a true patriot.
Not only Served as Special Forces.
But then after Special forcesbecame a first responder 9 11, he
(28:04):
was on site and he started anon profit called Greybull.
And the man, you know, I wantto say single handedly, but it wasn't.
There was a lot of hard workfrom others, but the vision to go
over during this recent crisisin Israel to bring back, you know,
Jewish Americans who had noway to come back because the airspace
(28:26):
was closed down.
You know, they were takingpeople out of Israel to Jordan and
other, you know, to fly backto the States.
And this is his vision to do that.
So we're going to be awardinggentleman's name is Brian Stern.
We're going to be awarding himthis lifetime achievement award because
it isn't about being acelebrity or anything else.
(28:47):
It's about being a patriot andbeing a hero in so many people's
eyes.
And so this day is going to befull of things like that.
We're going to have otherspeakers that are coming out that
are decorated military andfirst responders to show that this
community is much bigger thana lot of the rhetoric sometimes out
(29:09):
there and hate that you hear.
Number one, this is terrific.
Appreciate you coming on theshow to talk about it and to share
that this event is coming up.
How do people find out aboutthe event though?
It is salute to americanheroes.com you can buy tickets there,
(29:31):
you can buy tables.
Companies want to get involved.
There's opportunity there tohave a little booth where you can
talk about what you do.
Myself and five othernonprofits are part of this because
we all have programs thatcelebrate our heroes.
And so we've come together toreally try to make this a big event.
(29:53):
Yeah, man.
So you said August 17, right?
Yep.
To 5pm I plan on being thereand I'm looking forward to it.
And to meet a real American badass.
You know, there's going to beseveral of them there.
Yeah.
So yeah, no, it'll be a greatevent and it's a great venue.
Those see Roadhouse is a greatplace and so it'll be a great day.
(30:17):
Yeah.
And I'm, I really admire whatyou're doing and I look forward to,
I mean we met today and Ialready look forward to doing something
with you.
Awesome.
Seriously.
General question.
Ryan, you first.
You're in distribution andsupport and you work with teams.
(30:38):
What's the key to getting buyin from these people on your role?
To do the right work for anyother organization.
And I even bring this to myson's baseball team, which I coach
as well.
Establishing company core values.
Something that, it'sincredible when you, when you put
out what you expect inbehavior and what you find tolerable
(30:59):
and what you will praise andwhat you will fire over.
If core values, like therecould be issues with performance,
but if you're not embodyingcompany with core values, there's
no chance for you.
So briefly, everyone in ourcompany needs to pursue progress.
They need to have extreme accountability.
They have each other's backand they have, have a desire to do
the right thing.
If you do those four things,you have a great thing going and
also just helps everyone kindof police themselves.
(31:21):
And they'll, they'll praiseothers when they do those things
for them and they'll callthose out accordingly.
And as now we now employ adecent amount of people, it really
has allowed the healthyculture to permeate throughout, and
I believe it's one of ourbiggest growth engines.
Servant leadership is a thingthat should be embraced and cultivated
(31:42):
inside of an organization.
Chef, how are you getting buyin from, say, a line cook and a hostess
up in the front?
What are you doing inside the restaurant?
Mainly, and two things istrust and accountability.
You know, trusting, numberone, that they're going to do the
job that we ask them to do.
We're giving the tools andshow them.
(32:02):
But the other part is too, ismuch like Ryan said, is accountability.
You know, they find a way tomanage themselves.
Most of the time there's,there's plenty of times that I'm
doing this or I'm inGreenville and one of the other clubs
now, and one of the bestthings is that that club still runs
the way it's supposed to.
And it does.
It takes the hostess, it takesthe busters, runners, the stewards,
(32:26):
and my team back there in thekitchen, the chefs, all synergizing
and making it happen everynight to the point where I get text
messages and phone calls frommy members that are saying, hey,
we love the new menu or welove the raviolis and things that
we did that lobster raviolis.
And I'm not even there doing it.
And I'm so proud to be ableto, to text them back or let them
(32:47):
know on the, on the phone,hey, I'm not even there right now.
And that's.
That to me is the win.
Stan.
So you're doing this samescenario, but on the macro level,
because you're doing this inmultiple states, you're doing this
with multiple organizations,you're doing this with, you know,
multiple potential, you know,donators, people who are going to,
(33:11):
you Know, try to work with youto kind of see the common goal when
it comes to crisis.
Master, how does this fit with you?
Well, I think it goes back tofirst, what you said.
Servant leadership is hugebecause I've got 30 employees, but
I got thousands of volunteers.
The best way to put it, Iguess, is you got to show them what
(33:33):
you expect, get their buy in.
But part of the way to do thatis I expect my team to be there.
And if I expect my team to doit, you know, to show the volunteers,
that means I expect myself todo it.
You know, I'm one that doesn'tlead from, you know, a tower.
I lead.
I lead from the front, youknow, so I'm not afraid to go do
any.
(33:53):
Anything out there.
Do I like to do everything out there?
Hell, no.
You know, I don't want to bein the dish pit after, after the
day, you know, when you're,you're sitting there and the smokers
haven't been cleaned for twodays, and they've been running for
24, you know, hours a day fortwo days.
I mean, but it has to happen.
And, you know, so I thinkthat, you know, being leading from
(34:15):
the front and showing thatyou're not afraid to do it, to show
the volunteers, to show yourteam, it helps get that buy in.
You know, it helps create theculture that you want in the organization
to know that, hey, he's goingto go do it, or if we ask him, he'll
go do it.
I may not do it all the timeanymore, but I'm not afraid to do
(34:38):
it just because you've got toshow that.
So I think there is a lot ofsynergy across what everybody's saying
here, and it's still people,and people is the main thing here.
Yeah, we talked aboutautomation and all of these other
things, and it'll make it easyin some ways when there's automation
because that person won't think.
Think about whether they wantto do it or not, do it or not do
(35:00):
it timely or, hey, am I goingto look at my phone to see what happened
on social and get behind, Callout sick or call out sick.
But my unique challenge,though, sometimes is that volunteer,
because volunteers, thingshappen in their life and they may
(35:20):
not show up that day becausesomething happened to them.
And let's face it, I, youknow, we get volunteers from the
area that have been impacted,so something may happen that keeps
them from coming back, eventhough you were relying on.
So you also have to be able tobe nimble.
There's healing for people whohave gone through whatever that disaster
(35:43):
is, that crisis.
The healing comes from themparticipating in whatever effort,
corrective effort, a fix orwhatever rescue, whatever it may
be.
They need that.
Yeah, no, we've had manyvolunteers that maybe we've taken
care of in a disaster who payit forward to another community,
(36:03):
too, because they weren't ableto get out there at that time, but
they remember that meal thatthey received.
You know, we call it thehealing power of barbecue because
of that.
Right.
We, you know, we call it theone hot meal that matters.
We don't talk about themillions of meals that we serve.
We talk about that one hotmeal because that one hot meal compounds
(36:24):
every time.
That's incredibly powerful.
People ask me, you know, manyquestions, and I will tell you the
one thing that I find thathappens to almost every volunteer
and employee is the thingcalled, you know, what's your why?
And I tell people what you'regoing to find, your why.
Someday while you're out therevolunteering, you know, it's going
(36:46):
to be, you know, my why.
Happened in a parking lot inJoplin, Missouri.
Our very first disaster.
About three days in, watched acar pull in the parking lot.
Beaktail.
You know, it was in the storm,and all I could see was this little
lady sitting in this car wasstuff piled up all around her.
(37:06):
And all I could think of is,that's probably everything she has
left in her life piled intothat car.
She got out of her car andstarted walking, and she just sort
of standing in the middle ofthe parking lot, and I was like,
oh, I'll see if she needs something.
So I walked over and said, canI help you?
And she's like, I heard Icould get a meal here.
And I ushered her over towhere the food service line was and,
you know, talked to her for aminute and everything and went on
(37:30):
to do something else.
And I turned back, and thereshe is in the same place now with
Neil, but now she's crying.
I'm like, oh, my God, what happened?
And to me, you know, as I walkover there and I'm trying to make
sure everything's okay, shewas like, I just need to know who
to thank.
I was like, man, it's just apulled pork sandwich.
(37:52):
And she said, it has nothingto do with the sandwich.
It has to do with the factthat we weren't forgotten that people
like you came to our community.
You showed us love, you showedus that, yeah, there's a sandwich
in here, but there's so muchmore to your actions.
(38:12):
And it blew me away.
There's many times I thinkabout that little old lady in that
parking lot.
And the reason I'm doing whatI do.
That little old lady issomebody's mother, grandmother, sister.
Yep, aunt.
One of the wisest things I'veever heard is from a lady.
I don't know her name.
Stan, you're doing the good work.
(38:33):
I know that everybody here atthe table in whatever capacities
that they can.
I'm pretty sure you made, youknow, four friends today.
You know that.
That are going to put, well,three, because we already knew each
other that are going to totethe line.
So, Chef, what's thehospitality industry missing right
now?
(38:54):
100%.
I really think that it's rightback to.
It's a 100 hospitality.
That's what's missing is justmaking sure that we didn't forget
the mission.
And the mission is, is that we serve.
Stan.
I think it's a cultural thingwhere, you know, a lot of people
think that that job is not for them.
(39:15):
You know, we've gotten away from.
We talked about getting awayfrom the trades and getting away
from that part of it that Ithink people are looking past this
as an opportunity for them.
Brian.
Yeah.
Adding to that, and I talkedabout it earlier, is looking.
So we are hiring for servicetechnicians in the field.
If you think you're capable ofdoing it, we'll come in and train
(39:37):
you.
We definitely know it's a buoyin the market that we are hoping
to solve, but it's definitelymissing the hospitality industry
to make sure we have propersupport to keep restaurants up and
running quickly and efficiently.
Every answer was the correct one.
Look, you guys, sincerely, thethree of you, coming out today was
really amazing, and you eachbrought something special to a content
(40:01):
production today.
To the podcast, to thecooking, just the overall vibe and
camaraderie of the place.
How do we find you all?
Look me up.
Thomas Manzig at indeed.
Everything else, The Tampa Club.
Ryan Giffen on LinkedIn.
And yep, that's Giffen.
G. I. Yeah.
No, not Griffin.
Giffen.
Scottish.
Not Irish.
(40:22):
Operation Barbecue Relief.orgis a website, and all of our socials
are OP BBQ Relief.
Or you can search us onLinkedIn at Operation BBQ Relief.
Awesome.
Again, Chef Ryan, Stan, John,I don't have anything nice to say
to you.
All right?
You don't want to open your mind?
(40:43):
You don't want to talk, man.
You don't want to sayanything, man.
I love you, baby.
All right, we are out.
You've just stepped inside theWalk and Talk podcast, number one
in the nation for food lovers,chefs and storytellers.
I'm Carl Fiordini, your host,shining a light on the flavor, the
hustle, and the heart of the industry.
We're the official podcast forthe New York, California and Florida
restaurant shows, the PizzaTomorrow Summit, the US Culinary
Open at nafm, and the NorthAmerican media platform for the Burnt
(00:22):
Chef project recorded at IbisImages Studios where food photography
comes alive.
I get the first bite.
Find out more info at the Walk.
And talk dot com.
This week on the Walk and Talkpodcast, we're joined by Ryan Giffen,
a driving force behind one ofFlorida's fastest.
Growing commercial kitchen companies.
Fresh off of a majoracquisition, Ryan's helping operators
(00:44):
access high end equipment frombrand new builds to refurbished staples,
all while deepeningpartnerships with brands like Middleby.
His mission, to serve thosewho serve others and make the business
of food just a little easier.
Behind the line in thekitchen, we'll be joined by chef
Thomas Manzik, executive chefat the tampa club.
With 30 years of culinaryexperience, from hotel leadership
(01:06):
to private dining, and evenlaunching his own fine dining barbecue
concept, Chef Thomas bringscreativity, edge and real world perspective
to everything he plates.
He's cooking two dishes livein studio while we dive into his
story, his leadership style,and how he balances artistry with.
With accountability.
It's business, it's food, it'scommunity, all in one episode.
(01:29):
Let's get into it.
All right, so Thomas.
Yeah.
Talk about the raviolis.
I started with the duckbecause that's one of my favorite
dishes to do and I like to doall the parts of it.
And so I confit the duck leg,a little caramelized shallot, ricotta.
(01:49):
And then to make sure that youknew that I didn't buy those from
Publix, I roasted some beetsand then blended it in with the pasta.
So I didn't say talk about theduck dish.
Right.
I said talk about that ravioli.
It was so good.
First of all, the duck cooked perfectly.
Right.
But that ravioli was different.
It was just different.
(02:10):
And I really appreciate whatyou did to make it different.
You came with your A game today.
Thank you.
I mean, you already saw someof what John was putting out there.
Oh, yeah.
With photography.
Right.
Dope.
If John did all my pictures,I'd be a billionaire chef right now,
I tell you.
Well, we can make that happen.
All right, so let's talk aboutthe next dish.
(02:30):
Yes, sir.
So on our menu at the Tampa Club.
We have a grouper, obviously,Tampa, and we plantain crust it just
like, you know, with the freshplantains, a little Joe Robichon
ode with making them look likefish scales, and then that roasted
pineapple curry and thejalapeno risotto, then finishing
(02:53):
it off with a little blueberry caviar.
So that was a really pretty dish.
This is the first time a dishslipped through where I didn't get
a bite.
Yeah, it was the first time ever.
There were 161 episodes intothis podcast, and I've never.
And this is the first one, butit looked beautiful.
Thank you, sir.
All right.
I'm a little disappointed,frankly, but whatever, I'm gonna
(03:15):
get through it.
John, you have some.
We might have.
Look at the guys.
Yeah, they got the.
They got the dirty looks faces there.
Okay.
All right, chef, look, 30years you've been in the business.
First of all, you're acreative guy.
You were once a tattoo artist.
I was, yeah.
I didn't know that until today.
Yeah.
All right.
Do you still do that on theside somewhere?
(03:38):
That's one of the topquestions everybody asks when I tell
them that, but definitely not.
No.
Do you have the guts to do itif somebody asked you?
Oh, yeah, because it doesn'tmatter what it looks like.
Right.
You know, a little bit behindthe curtain, I guess I've got the
guts to tell you I could do itin a couple of days, you know, come
down here and cook.
I can definitely put a taxiright there on the chest of yours.
(03:58):
No regrets.
No Regards, man.
We'll spell attack that for you.
Yeah.
All right, well, let's.
Let's real quickly, let's justkind of.
Let's touch on that creativity.
You go from tattoo artist.
You have to have some sort ofa love for art.
Yes, sir.
(04:18):
Life happens.
Things happen.
You go from, you know, sittingwith the ink pen.
Now you're with the tweezers.
Definitely, definitely withthe tweezers and the sauces.
But there is definitely mix ofboth, you know, the colors, the parts
of the body, AKA also theplates, kind of making them line
up.
You know, where's it best tomake things land?
(04:40):
What?
Color coordination.
But the difference is with thefood, you also have to make sure
it tastes good.
Chef, when you're plating adish or you're going to ink somebody,
Right, how are you judgingcolor palette?
And how are you judging thecomposition of the arm, the plate,
et cetera?
I wish I had, like, atechnique or some type of math equation
(05:01):
on how I do that.
But it's just really feeling,and it's a hundred percent the truth
in that.
Could be the.
The dish drives it.
In other words, the part ofthe body.
Or it could be the color, youknow, or just simply the request
on both.
You know, is it something thatthey really want?
Is it.
Is blue their favorite coloror our peaches in season?
(05:24):
All right, let's talkequipment, and let's talk acquisitions.
You know what?
Let's actually usher on the.
Ryan Giffen, welcome to the program.
Thank you for having me.
Carl.
We met about a year ago, andwe've been talking about this, and
it's a pleasure to be here,and really awesome to see what you
built.
Thank you.
And by the way, you drove in,you're from South Florida.
(05:46):
Yeah, Palm Beach.
Palm Beach.
It's a humbling, really greatfeeling when people travel more than
an hour to get here.
It blows my mind.
So thank you, sincerely.
And that goes for everybody inthe room right now.
But let's kind of find outwhere you came from.
Sure.
Tell us a little bit aboutyour story.
Yeah.
(06:06):
Where to start?
You know, I was born andraised in South Florida, and I went
off.
I was a college baseballplayer, and when I came.
Came back and, you know,decided to, you know, look for a
job or, you know, I thought itwas going to be a high school teacher.
And a couple things happened.
You know, I actually.
We talked a little bit aboutcrypto in my story.
I got into bitcoin early, andthat kind of gave me some.
(06:30):
Some something to move with entrepreneurially.
And I was already getting intodistribution to restaurants, and
I wanted to.
You know, I kind of thought atthe time as well, that, like, if
I could become a successfulbusiness person, maybe people take
me more seriously if I talkedabout crypto.
That was kind of an idea.
And, you know, I kind of.
I fell in love with theindustry from there.
You know, in college,actually, I was playing baseball.
(06:51):
My wife used to laugh at mebecause she was then my girlfriend,
but I would always say I atefor nutritional purposes.
I had a very bland diet.
Didn't eat dessert, anythinglike that.
And it wasn't until, you know,I started getting clients in restaurants,
and they invite me out and I'deat the food.
I was like, wow, there's somuch more to food.
So that was the kind of the journey.
And then a commercial kitchen stop.
(07:11):
You know, after just doingdistribution of chemicals and hygiene
products in 2017, I wanted todo something more entrepreneurially.
And that's when commercialkitchen stop was Founded and we came
to market in 2020, and fromthere, you know, we thought we were
just going to do E Commerce,to be honest.
And then we.
I hired a gentleman who wasvery good at design build, and he
(07:32):
kind of opened up my eyes to alot of different things, Designing
the concepts and, you know,procuring the equipment.
And then we just kept ongoing, you know, so we talked about
our mission is to serve thosewho serve others.
So kind of be the backbone forpeople like Chef here, because those
are the relationships I have,and his relationships are with the
customers.
And we want to make sure thoseguys are standing tall and have the
right resources to operate.
(07:52):
And we just kind of said,well, how can we do that?
And our guiding light is justto make buying food service equipment
and supplies as easy as possible.
So we just became veryvertically integrated.
When we met at the show andsomebody had told me, hey, there's
this fellow Ryan.
He's going to come by.
I'm like, okay, what's he do?
(08:13):
And they said bitcoin.
And I'm like, I don't.
What.
He go, no, no, you don't understand.
This doesn't fit into food.
We're about the industry.
And I think it was Pooch.
Pooch said, no, man.
He, like, has equipment.
He does this whole thing.
And I was like, okay, it turnsout you're a cool cat and you're
deep embedded into the industry.
(08:35):
And when you started talkingabout your story when we met, it's
pretty dynamic in how youstarted because, you know, you had
some luck, good fortune, Ishould say, with bitcoin.
And that kind of.
And that kind of moved youforward with your whole industry,
you know, restaurant industry operation.
How do you go from beingsuccessful, short period of time,
(08:58):
you're talking four or fiveyears, and you had your first acquisition.
Congratulations, by the way.
I appreciate it.
How does that happen?
A lot of hard work, a lot oflate nights, very, very few days
off.
And the sweat equity is, youknow, you got to put the work in.
In general.
And I would say, you know,just kind of be intuitive, you know,
(09:19):
look at.
There's a good book to read,you know, who Moved my Cheese?
I think that's the name of it.
So, you know, when you findsomething that.
That works, kind of doubledown on that.
So that's whether we movedinto actually during COVID when it
was very hard to get equipment.
This is actually kind of funny.
I was trying to break into thedesign build world, and the factories
had long lead times, and Iknew there was Very specific pieces
(09:40):
that people would want to have25 week lead times.
So I was just putting inmassive purchase orders, praying
I would sell it by the time itshowed up.
But I had 25 weeks to try tosell these things.
And I started going around tojobs and just getting their lead
times.
And meanwhile, these operatorsare, you know, are paying rent, they
have pressure from thelandlord, they need to get open.
So that was one of my firstbig swings that allowed us to really
(10:03):
break into that industry.
And that's a lot of.
Let me interrupt you.
That's major stones to dothat, looking.
Back at it, because theaverage, the.
Average piece of equipmentcost is probably 15 grand.
An average restaurant to buildcheap is for one piece.
Yeah.
You know, somewhere around 3to $500,000 for your average restaurant.
Average restaurant, you know,food service, equipment package.
(10:25):
Yeah.
So here you are, you'resaying, oh, like here's the, the
top 10 items that, you know, arestaurant tour or a chef is going
to need.
And you're.
And you're taking POS on that yourself.
Yeah, it seemed logical at thetime, looking back at.
Seemed like it was a littlebit of a riskier move.
But, you know, it's kind of,you know, we do personality indexing
(10:47):
too, for hiring staff.
We're up to about 60 employees.
And, you know, so my profilecame back as Daredevil, and it all
kind of started to make senseas I look back at things, as I jumped
into more what appeared to bevolatile things to do, whether it
was crypto or doing somethinglike that.
And that was kind of, youknow, a big swing for commercial
kitchen stuff to break intothat industry and get it, start building
(11:09):
a big name and design build inthe South Florida region.
All right, so how do I get myhands on one of these tests?
I'll text it to you.
It's eight minutes undivided attention.
You'll learn more about yourself.
And it's actually scary whenyou start to read it.
It's like, oh my God, that isso true about me.
All right, all right, all right.
Is it like one thing becauseis it one link for like me and John
or is two separate things?
(11:29):
I could just share it alongand then it'll come to me and I'll
shoot the data.
Okay.
Because I'm going to send oneto my wife too.
Just put it out there.
And for restaurant owners thatare listening, we use Culture Index.
A bigger one in the industryis Myers Briggs.
But it's just a big thing tomake sure if you're looking for an
employee, especially if you'relooking to maybe duplicate some of
a similar personality set, youcan't have a company full of daredevils.
(11:52):
It would fall apart.
So you need to hire morelogical people, maybe.
So it's very useful tool.
That and some other systemsthat we developed that we can maybe
talk about.
Serving those who serve others.
That's a hell of a mission statement.
How do you and your company execute?
So we think there's three waysto accomplish that.
(12:14):
It's through a vertical integration.
So everything that we can doto not have to outsource something.
So a lot of dealers will justsell something, leave it at your
back door.
Then you call the plumber.
You call, you know, a companythat install my ice machine or my
plumbing supplies or installmy combi oven.
The more we can control ourdestiny, the more I can control the
customer experience and makesure he's happy.
(12:35):
You know, a lot of dealers geta bad reputation for outsourcing
to a company that maybe didn'tdo the right job.
So that's, you know, very important.
Secondly, solutions based partnerships.
So we part when we do makepartnerships, like I was telling
you earlier about in this area.
Teco Gas restaurant ownersdidn't realize they had large subsidies
on their gas appliances thatthey could spend that they.
(12:55):
When they pay their monthlybill, it subsidizes funds.
But they had to get equipmentfor it.
So I became a partner withthem because.
And we gave away probably4,000 fryers over the last couple
years that the customersdidn't have to pay for.
Looking for partnerships like that.
And then my favorite one andthe way we accomplished that is just
having a healthy disregard forthe impossible, which is a Larry
(13:16):
Page quote I took years ago.
And I have it on my wall andit's on our website.
And those are the three wayswe feel like we accomplished that.
If the bear would have hadyou, it would have probably only
been two episodes where theywere trying to put the restaurant
together instead of the whole season.
Yeah, seriously, I gotta catchup on the bear.
Spoiler alert.
Sorry.
Yeah, take it easy.
All right.
(13:37):
I binge watched the first twoseasons and I got the third to get
into Chef.
Do you see any value inrefurbished equipment?
You know, I think that whenyou come with refurbished equipment,
it's a luck of a draw, so to speak.
You can have those momentswhere you lucked out and got the
right one, but in the end,paying a little bit extra to make
(14:00):
sure that you got the warrantyand everything behind it.
It's probably the Best move inthe long run.
All right, so Ryan, what kindof impact are you seeing with operators
who are actually taking ashot, a risk in purchasing something
refurbished versus brand new?
Well, I believe for usedequipment, there's pieces that are
(14:23):
very logical to buy pre ownedpieces that are not overly mechanical.
So something like a Hobartmixer, it's $25,000 new and it's
a very basic piece of equipment.
But you can buy used from usfor about $8,000 and they last forever.
Some of them are much olderthan we are in this room.
Some of them are built in the 60s.
(14:43):
They just run forever.
So it's a very logical pieceto buy.
Pizza deck ovens also can be $30,000.
You can buy it from us for $12,000.
And again, they're very basicpieces of equipment.
There's like four main pieceson there now with some other pieces.
I don't necessarily recommendbuying used because the imports have
been so impactful, but what weare watching right now is the impact
(15:04):
of tariffs.
And now they're actuallymaking the delta between a used piece
and an imported piece furtherapart where a customer demographic
needs to exist there.
And I do try to warn people oncertain pieces.
The best thing about the usedpiece is the price.
So outside of that, like Chefsaid, you're taking a shot.
We do try to back it up with a60 day warranty.
(15:25):
So I'll sell it to you.
Anything the first 60 days ison me.
But I can't warranty thatpiece forever.
You know, the best thing isthe price with that if you need to
get by with it.
Before we go further, let mesay that we have another guest in
the house.
We have the Stan Hayes, who isthe co founder of Operation Barbecue
Relief, which is a disasterrelief nonprofit.
They've served approximately13 million meals.
(15:47):
Stan is a competitivepitmaster and he was also a 2017
top 10 CNN Hero nominee, whichI think is super cool.
He's the man and hisoperation, the great team that he
has with him, they are helpingcommunities through crisis and they're
doing it with the power of barbecue.
I just want to welcome Stan tothe program.
(16:10):
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
I also know that you'rechomping at the bit.
You wanted to jump in on therefurbished equipment?
Yeah, absolutely.
Go ahead, baby.
What do you got?
You know, look, I, I thinkwhen we.
Well, first of all, when Istarted out, we, we didn't have the,
the funds to go for, you know,new equipment.
Especially when you're talkingabout equipment like tilt skillets.
(16:30):
And things like that.
You know, they're very expensive.
Hobart, you know, Buffalochoppers, things like that.
We, We.
We couldn't buy new, so webought a lot of refurbished.
You know, we got stuffdonated, and we still have to today
because there's times that weneed more equipment, and because
of the lead times, because ofthe tariffs right now, everything
that's going on, like, youknow, if there's a major disaster
(16:53):
or in, you know, last year'scase, to back to back across, you
know, multiple states thatwe're working in.
I was trying to buy smokers.
I was trying to buy tilt skillets.
I was trying to buy, like, Iliterally changed direction when,
you know, heading to theCarolinas to stop in St. Louis to
wait for a store to open up tosee a tilt skillet that they had
(17:15):
advertised on FacebookMarketplace, because I could not
find them.
And so there's a time and aplace, I think, for all of them.
But there's certain pieces ofequipment, like Ryan said that, hey,
you should look at, you know,and Hobart's got a lot of them.
But, you know, I mean, when itcomes to a tilt skillet, yeah, it's
(17:36):
there.
There can be a game changerfor you.
So what I'd like to do for youthen is give you my personal cell
phone number so you don't haveto wait for the store to open up.
Just call me anytime, and I'llgo open the door, and we'll get you
the tilt skillet.
No problem.
No, absolutely.
Look, I really think that one,this is how communities are built.
This is how making theseconnections are a huge part of what
(18:01):
I do.
And finding somebody that cando something quickly sometimes isn't
easy.
And to be honest, tilt skillsis another one of those items.
I talked about mixers and deckovens, but tilt skills, too high
price points, very simplepieces of equipment.
We refurbish them.
And the cost of ownership,generally after.
After you own it, is not very high.
So if you have any post issuesthat they tend to last a long time.
(18:23):
So if that's an important itemfor you, love to help you out in
any capacity.
Let's talk storytelling andvisibility in the commercial equipment
space.
Can you give me some reasonswhy it's important?
Storytelling?
I always think telling a storyis important, you know, especially
when you're trying to relateto a customer that you don't necessarily
agree with the decisionthey're making.
And let's say it's buying,let's say it's a critical piece for
(18:45):
them.
Right.
And you can't unless everyonetell someone they're wrong and you
just know better.
Just tell them the story andthey can relate to that.
I use that quite often likelet me tell you a story about how
this happened there.
For some reason, they takethat information much better than
I just know more than you.
Right.
They want to hear from otherowners and operators and referrals
that can share in their experience.
(19:06):
I don't know why humanpsychology works that way, but that's.
It is extremely impactful.
We're living in a time whereeveryone has access to everyone that's
good and bad equally becausewe're inundated with, you know, the
plastic, fake, dare I say,influencer types, which there's a
(19:30):
place for, but that's the majority.
So when you're talking aboutreal storytelling and real empowerment
or real emotion or real lifeoccurrences, for me, that's what
we do here at Walk and Talk.
We're storytelling.
This is the Walk and Talk podcast.
(19:52):
It's not the Carl Fiadini podcast.
It's not about me.
It's about you guys, gals,whoever comes on the show.
Let's talk Middleby and howyou leverage their innovation kitchens.
Middleby is a large companywith a lot of resources.
They're publicly traded, sothey have the ability for large R
(20:13):
and D budgets.
And I don't know if you guysare familiar with something called
the mic.
The MC out in Texas is theirwhole innovation kitchen really trying
to think forward about whathuman consumption looks like in terms
of how we'll execute menus aslabor costs rise.
Looking for more automation in kitchens.
And you're seeing a lot ofvery futuristic things happen that
are not, you know, you're.
(20:33):
The chains are starting toreally test them.
I think it'll be a whilebefore, you know, Chef and his country
club line has a robot takingout fries for you.
But, you know, at some pointit's going to be a very logical decision
to make rather than, you know,paying someone to do it.
And you know, they're just onthe front.
They have the R and D budgetsand the capacity to do it, you know,
and everything from operatorsexpenses too.
(20:54):
You want to look at energyefficiency, the cost of tonal ownership
of it.
So it's been a great resourcefor us, you know, also along with
well built companies and the marketplace.
But we've been a big partnerwith them.
If you're in South Florida,they have test kitchens in both Clearwater
and Fort Lauderdale.
If you're, you know, we'llplug ourselves later.
If you're interested intesting equipment, feel free to reach
out to me and I can get you infront of the equipment before you
(21:16):
buy it.
You know, before you make that decision.
At the Napham show, I actuallysaw the robot fry thing.
Chef Russell over at, atMiddleby, he, he was nice enough
to give us a tour.
Cool cat, great company.
The equipment is going to come around.
Yeah, I mean it's basically atyour fast food stops already.
(21:37):
Be careful, chef.
Hey, somebody's got to pushthat button.
You know, that's me.
And I view it as just afurther automation.
You know, humans used to, weused to wash dishes by our hands,
right.
And then we got a dishwasherthat we pressed a button and just
further, you know, innovationwithin the place in the marketplace
to make things more efficient.
How are you using media whenit comes to showrooms or a sales
(21:59):
strategy?
To be honest, that's somethingthat we, I don't feel like we're
doing a good job at.
We have two showrooms, we havelots of inventory, probably a couple
million dollars worth of inventory.
And you know, we're trying to.
The company we just acquiredjust does Facebook marketplace offerup,
ebay and they get tremendousfoot traffic.
Over 60 invoices a week.
(22:20):
You know, transactions takeplace within the store.
And it's very basic and it'svery, you know, from the perspective
of everything you do, Carl,you do incredible work, very poor
quality.
And that's something thatwe're going to focus on.
We've brought on a newdirector of sales and revenue that
is, you know, very forward thinking.
He's actually the founder ofHurricane Grill and Wings.
He built it to 35 stores andsold it to Fab Brands.
(22:41):
So, you know, for the firsttime in a long time, I feel like
I have someone really strongto rely on that I can really build
out more robust customerfacing experiences to get them in
the store.
And to poke a little bit offun at my industry too.
It, the industry is a littlebit, you know, there's a lot of secession
planning going on, we'll say.
And you know, there's.
That's one reason why I wasexcited to get into it.
(23:02):
Someone had to sell this stuff.
It does feel under competitiveto be honest.
At times sometimes I think I'mreally good, but I just also think
that our market's a little bit behind.
You know, maybe I'm not asgood as I think I am.
Are you making sales?
We're doing all right.
Then you're doing good?
Yeah, yeah.
I mean that, that's the barometer.
There is, you know, green,black, where are you?
(23:23):
You know, man, not for nothing the.
And off topic, the.
It's a situation where youhave a 60 day warranty off of your
refurbished equipment.
That's awesome.
Because if you've only got 15,20 grand and you're, you don't know
where to put it.
Right.
Yeah.
Or you don't know if youshould really buy that tilt skillet
(23:45):
because you don't know whereit's coming from.
A marketplace.
But if you can back that upand that just.
I think that's amazing.
Yeah.
Seriously, you kill yourreputation if customers just rolling
the dice on a piece, you gotto make sure it works.
And you know, for that.
Yeah.
For restaurants and peoplelike me and you know you're going
to be able to sell morebecause of that.
(24:05):
Because not only are you beingable to back it, but you're giving
more of a personal.
The part of it where we wantto give you those chances.
But at the same time they'relike, I don't know if it's going
to break it to me and youknow, next week or something like
that.
So I think that's a good move.
And not stay off topic.
But if, you know what I havefound is you just got to warn them
(24:25):
up front because if the unit,they buy a used unit and it does
have an issue in the first orsecond week, they're going to be
like, oh, you sold me a lemon.
They often will buy usedequipment with new expectations.
I'm like, no, I'm going to payfor it.
It's going to be okay.
Like, you know, so that's,that's part of the, you know, you
just really try to get infront of it.
Like tell them like the bestthing is the price.
And I got here for 60 days andkind of you just got to present it
(24:50):
correctly.
Right.
You set customers expectations appropriately.
Other than robots and frenchfries, where do you see the next
innovation or disruptionhappening in the equipment field?
What we're working on rightnow is to get more vertically integrated
on service.
So right now we don't, werefurbish our own equipment and sell
(25:10):
it, but we don't go out in thefield and fix it ourselves.
So I think what we're workingon is internally AI agents.
The labor pool for techniciansis not very strong.
Not a lot of people, you know,the trades in schools and colleges
are people are going doingdifferent majors that are not getting
their hands dirty.
So what we're trying to do isinvest in a robust AI system that
(25:33):
can help technicians, youngerones, go through a system protocol
and speak to an agent in AIsoftware to learn how to fix it.
So that's something that wefeel like customer experience, maybe
chef can share.
It's not always the bestexperience getting that equipment
fixed, and it's not always asfast as you need.
And just the labor pool isreally challenging.
And that's where we see thenext big move coming for our company.
(25:55):
If somebody listening wants toexplore a work opportunity with you,
where do they go for that?
It depends on what departmentthey're looking for.
They can reach out to me withmy information.
I can put them in the right direction.
So we have a sales operation.
So if they want to do some ofthe sales and marketing, Chris oversees
that department.
We also have operationsdepartment that is really operation
(26:18):
services.
So if they want to dotechnical, it's our director of services,
Spencer Mullins.
And then if they want to workin finance, our director of finance
is my partner, Maria Alberto.
That's how she would we letthe three department heads do their
hiring.
Sam, you're in Tampa Bay.
You're a good dude.
You're helping a friend on a move.
And the timing was right foryou to be here in studio today.
(26:39):
Yeah.
Putting that aside.
And I'm glad you made it.
And I'm glad actually everyonehere got to kind of experience what
we do in studio.
But you got something coolcoming up here in a few weeks.
Yeah.
Can you.
Can you kind of share whatthis event is about?
Yeah.
So the event is Salute toAmerican Heroes, and it's going to
be at the OCC Roadhouse inClearwater, Florida.
(27:02):
And it's really to celebrateour heroes.
You know, those, those firstresponders, those veterans, the people
that are always out theregiving to their communities.
It's time for us to celebrate them.
And so it's going to be, Imean, a huge day you got.
Paul Senior is going to bethere on site unveiling a new motorcycle
that he's designed for a veteran.
(27:23):
You're going to have a musicartist named Jesse G. Who's written
a song for a gold star momafter learning her story about her
loss of her son.
So there's going to beprobably some tears that go along
with this, but a lot ofpatriotic people that will be coming
out to help celebrate our heroes.
(27:44):
And it's going to end withPaul Sr.
Senator Jay Collins and othersthat are going to be there to give
this lifetime achievementaward to a guy who is a true patriot.
Not only Served as Special Forces.
But then after Special forcesbecame a first responder 9 11, he
(28:04):
was on site and he started anon profit called Greybull.
And the man, you know, I wantto say single handedly, but it wasn't.
There was a lot of hard workfrom others, but the vision to go
over during this recent crisisin Israel to bring back, you know,
Jewish Americans who had noway to come back because the airspace
(28:26):
was closed down.
You know, they were takingpeople out of Israel to Jordan and
other, you know, to fly backto the States.
And this is his vision to do that.
So we're going to be awardinggentleman's name is Brian Stern.
We're going to be awarding himthis lifetime achievement award because
it isn't about being acelebrity or anything else.
(28:47):
It's about being a patriot andbeing a hero in so many people's
eyes.
And so this day is going to befull of things like that.
We're going to have otherspeakers that are coming out that
are decorated military andfirst responders to show that this
community is much bigger thana lot of the rhetoric sometimes out
(29:09):
there and hate that you hear.
Number one, this is terrific.
Appreciate you coming on theshow to talk about it and to share
that this event is coming up.
How do people find out aboutthe event though?
It is salute to americanheroes.com you can buy tickets there,
(29:31):
you can buy tables.
Companies want to get involved.
There's opportunity there tohave a little booth where you can
talk about what you do.
Myself and five othernonprofits are part of this because
we all have programs thatcelebrate our heroes.
And so we've come together toreally try to make this a big event.
(29:53):
Yeah, man.
So you said August 17, right?
Yep.
To 5pm I plan on being thereand I'm looking forward to it.
And to meet a real American badass.
You know, there's going to beseveral of them there.
Yeah.
So yeah, no, it'll be a greatevent and it's a great venue.
Those see Roadhouse is a greatplace and so it'll be a great day.
(30:17):
Yeah.
And I'm, I really admire whatyou're doing and I look forward to,
I mean we met today and Ialready look forward to doing something
with you.
Awesome.
Seriously.
General question.
Ryan, you first.
You're in distribution andsupport and you work with teams.
(30:38):
What's the key to getting buyin from these people on your role?
To do the right work for anyother organization.
And I even bring this to myson's baseball team, which I coach
as well.
Establishing company core values.
Something that, it'sincredible when you, when you put
out what you expect inbehavior and what you find tolerable
(30:59):
and what you will praise andwhat you will fire over.
If core values, like therecould be issues with performance,
but if you're not embodyingcompany with core values, there's
no chance for you.
So briefly, everyone in ourcompany needs to pursue progress.
They need to have extreme accountability.
They have each other's backand they have, have a desire to do
the right thing.
If you do those four things,you have a great thing going and
also just helps everyone kindof police themselves.
(31:21):
And they'll, they'll praiseothers when they do those things
for them and they'll callthose out accordingly.
And as now we now employ adecent amount of people, it really
has allowed the healthyculture to permeate throughout, and
I believe it's one of ourbiggest growth engines.
Servant leadership is a thingthat should be embraced and cultivated
(31:42):
inside of an organization.
Chef, how are you getting buyin from, say, a line cook and a hostess
up in the front?
What are you doing inside the restaurant?
Mainly, and two things istrust and accountability.
You know, trusting, numberone, that they're going to do the
job that we ask them to do.
We're giving the tools andshow them.
(32:02):
But the other part is too, ismuch like Ryan said, is accountability.
You know, they find a way tomanage themselves.
Most of the time there's,there's plenty of times that I'm
doing this or I'm inGreenville and one of the other clubs
now, and one of the bestthings is that that club still runs
the way it's supposed to.
And it does.
It takes the hostess, it takesthe busters, runners, the stewards,
(32:26):
and my team back there in thekitchen, the chefs, all synergizing
and making it happen everynight to the point where I get text
messages and phone calls frommy members that are saying, hey,
we love the new menu or welove the raviolis and things that
we did that lobster raviolis.
And I'm not even there doing it.
And I'm so proud to be ableto, to text them back or let them
(32:47):
know on the, on the phone,hey, I'm not even there right now.
And that's.
That to me is the win.
Stan.
So you're doing this samescenario, but on the macro level,
because you're doing this inmultiple states, you're doing this
with multiple organizations,you're doing this with, you know,
multiple potential, you know,donators, people who are going to,
(33:11):
you Know, try to work with youto kind of see the common goal when
it comes to crisis.
Master, how does this fit with you?
Well, I think it goes back tofirst, what you said.
Servant leadership is hugebecause I've got 30 employees, but
I got thousands of volunteers.
The best way to put it, Iguess, is you got to show them what
(33:33):
you expect, get their buy in.
But part of the way to do thatis I expect my team to be there.
And if I expect my team to doit, you know, to show the volunteers,
that means I expect myself todo it.
You know, I'm one that doesn'tlead from, you know, a tower.
I lead.
I lead from the front, youknow, so I'm not afraid to go do
any.
(33:53):
Anything out there.
Do I like to do everything out there?
Hell, no.
You know, I don't want to bein the dish pit after, after the
day, you know, when you're,you're sitting there and the smokers
haven't been cleaned for twodays, and they've been running for
24, you know, hours a day fortwo days.
I mean, but it has to happen.
And, you know, so I thinkthat, you know, being leading from
(34:15):
the front and showing thatyou're not afraid to do it, to show
the volunteers, to show yourteam, it helps get that buy in.
You know, it helps create theculture that you want in the organization
to know that, hey, he's goingto go do it, or if we ask him, he'll
go do it.
I may not do it all the timeanymore, but I'm not afraid to do
(34:38):
it just because you've got toshow that.
So I think there is a lot ofsynergy across what everybody's saying
here, and it's still people,and people is the main thing here.
Yeah, we talked aboutautomation and all of these other
things, and it'll make it easyin some ways when there's automation
because that person won't think.
Think about whether they wantto do it or not, do it or not do
(35:00):
it timely or, hey, am I goingto look at my phone to see what happened
on social and get behind, Callout sick or call out sick.
But my unique challenge,though, sometimes is that volunteer,
because volunteers, thingshappen in their life and they may
(35:20):
not show up that day becausesomething happened to them.
And let's face it, I, youknow, we get volunteers from the
area that have been impacted,so something may happen that keeps
them from coming back, eventhough you were relying on.
So you also have to be able tobe nimble.
There's healing for people whohave gone through whatever that disaster
(35:43):
is, that crisis.
The healing comes from themparticipating in whatever effort,
corrective effort, a fix orwhatever rescue, whatever it may
be.
They need that.
Yeah, no, we've had manyvolunteers that maybe we've taken
care of in a disaster who payit forward to another community,
(36:03):
too, because they weren't ableto get out there at that time, but
they remember that meal thatthey received.
You know, we call it thehealing power of barbecue because
of that.
Right.
We, you know, we call it theone hot meal that matters.
We don't talk about themillions of meals that we serve.
We talk about that one hotmeal because that one hot meal compounds
(36:24):
every time.
That's incredibly powerful.
People ask me, you know, manyquestions, and I will tell you the
one thing that I find thathappens to almost every volunteer
and employee is the thingcalled, you know, what's your why?
And I tell people what you'regoing to find, your why.
Someday while you're out therevolunteering, you know, it's going
(36:46):
to be, you know, my why.
Happened in a parking lot inJoplin, Missouri.
Our very first disaster.
About three days in, watched acar pull in the parking lot.
Beaktail.
You know, it was in the storm,and all I could see was this little
lady sitting in this car wasstuff piled up all around her.
(37:06):
And all I could think of is,that's probably everything she has
left in her life piled intothat car.
She got out of her car andstarted walking, and she just sort
of standing in the middle ofthe parking lot, and I was like,
oh, I'll see if she needs something.
So I walked over and said, canI help you?
And she's like, I heard Icould get a meal here.
And I ushered her over towhere the food service line was and,
you know, talked to her for aminute and everything and went on
(37:30):
to do something else.
And I turned back, and thereshe is in the same place now with
Neil, but now she's crying.
I'm like, oh, my God, what happened?
And to me, you know, as I walkover there and I'm trying to make
sure everything's okay, shewas like, I just need to know who
to thank.
I was like, man, it's just apulled pork sandwich.
(37:52):
And she said, it has nothingto do with the sandwich.
It has to do with the factthat we weren't forgotten that people
like you came to our community.
You showed us love, you showedus that, yeah, there's a sandwich
in here, but there's so muchmore to your actions.
(38:12):
And it blew me away.
There's many times I thinkabout that little old lady in that
parking lot.
And the reason I'm doing whatI do.
That little old lady issomebody's mother, grandmother, sister.
Yep, aunt.
One of the wisest things I'veever heard is from a lady.
I don't know her name.
Stan, you're doing the good work.
(38:33):
I know that everybody here atthe table in whatever capacities
that they can.
I'm pretty sure you made, youknow, four friends today.
You know that.
That are going to put, well,three, because we already knew each
other that are going to totethe line.
So, Chef, what's thehospitality industry missing right
now?
(38:54):
100%.
I really think that it's rightback to.
It's a 100 hospitality.
That's what's missing is justmaking sure that we didn't forget
the mission.
And the mission is, is that we serve.
Stan.
I think it's a cultural thingwhere, you know, a lot of people
think that that job is not for them.
(39:15):
You know, we've gotten away from.
We talked about getting awayfrom the trades and getting away
from that part of it that Ithink people are looking past this
as an opportunity for them.
Brian.
Yeah.
Adding to that, and I talkedabout it earlier, is looking.
So we are hiring for servicetechnicians in the field.
If you think you're capable ofdoing it, we'll come in and train
(39:37):
you.
We definitely know it's a buoyin the market that we are hoping
to solve, but it's definitelymissing the hospitality industry
to make sure we have propersupport to keep restaurants up and
running quickly and efficiently.
Every answer was the correct one.
Look, you guys, sincerely, thethree of you, coming out today was
really amazing, and you eachbrought something special to a content
(40:01):
production today.
To the podcast, to thecooking, just the overall vibe and
camaraderie of the place.
How do we find you all?
Look me up.
Thomas Manzig at indeed.
Everything else, The Tampa Club.
Ryan Giffen on LinkedIn.
And yep, that's Giffen.
G. I. Yeah.
No, not Griffin.
Giffen.
Scottish.
Not Irish.
(40:22):
Operation Barbecue Relief.orgis a website, and all of our socials
are OP BBQ Relief.
Or you can search us onLinkedIn at Operation BBQ Relief.
Awesome.
Again, Chef Ryan, Stan, John,I don't have anything nice to say
to you.
All right?
You don't want to open your mind?
(40:43):
You don't want to talk, man.
You don't want to sayanything, man.
I love you, baby.
All right, we are out.
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