October 11, 2025 • 38 mins
Thousand-cover Sundays, a half-size kitchen, and a turkey-pot burner pulling fry duty, this conversation opens inside the controlled chaos that forged a chef who would later run a multi-unit brand.
We sit down with Rob to trace the arc from CIA grad and PM kitchen manager to executive chef, GM, Sysco corporate chef, and now COO of the recently rebranded Taste Unlimited, unpacking what it actually takes to scale beyond a single line while keeping soul, branding, and standards intact.
We revisit the 1998 Virginia Beach dining boom and pull hard-won lessons from the line: building speed without losing quality, improvising when equipment falls short, and navigating menus when a $9.99 prime rib was still a thing. Rob explains the leap from back-of-house to full P&L responsibility, the Sysco years spent educating top customers, and the lost art, and current opportunities, of food shows, where chefs learn by seeing whole animals broken down, testing gear, and building relationships that still move product and careers.
The playbook for small-batch makers gets specific. Work with your state Department of Agriculture. In Virginia, leverage Virginia’s Finest and the Virginia Specialty Food Association for endorsements, shared booths, and buyer intros. Backpack your samples into national shows like Fancy Food, hit the seminars, and walk up to speakers and buyers. It’s boots-on-the-ground, not magic, and one container order can change the year. When we turn to growth of Taste, we get an inside look at brand discipline: protecting trademarks, defending visual identity, and growing to nine stores plus catering, e-commerce, and a bakehouse without chasing every trend.
We close the convo on culture and ownership. Taste’s ESOP conversion brought 150 team members into the cap table, aligning pride with performance and giving sandwich makers to drivers a real stake in outcomes. Guests may be dining out less, but they’re demanding better; operators who reinvest in people, process, and product win. If you care about restaurant operations, brand building, or getting your sauce from garage to shelf, this one is packed with moves you can use today.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend in food, and leave a quick review, what was your biggest takeaway?
Visit and support Taste at https://www.tasteunlimited.com/ and on IG at https://www.instagram.com/tasteunlimited/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:24):
All right.
Kristen, we're here again, againand again and again.
We're gonna always be here,aren't we?
SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
We are always, we're not going anywhere.
We're not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_03 (00:30):
So if you want us to go somewhere, just turn off your
channel because it's nothappening.
It's on you.
Rob Reaper's sitting here withme today.
This guy right here, me and himgo way back.
Okay, way back to we were justtalking, discussing uh culinary
world, all things culinary,burnt hands perspective.
We talk about everything fromdishwashers all the way up to
the bar to uh getting wasted onthe line, and then we move over
to other parts of the uh of thefields of professionalism, um
(00:53):
growth, uh, everything to now aCOO, Mr.
Rob here.
So this was an amazing thing,bro.
So we started in 1997, we weretrying to calculate 98.
So we started in 1998, and thisshows the diversity of my realm
in the in the culinary worldbecause at that time I was front
of the house and you were backof the house.
You had a great surfboard shirt,I believe.
(01:14):
Or maybe a parrot's on it.
Something like that.
What they made us wear is partof my trauma.
You know what I mean?
I PTSD from that.
SPEAKER_00 (01:24):
From surfing having to wear that shirt.
Kind of like the flur in themovie, if you had enough flair
on your vest.
SPEAKER_03 (01:29):
Kinda, man.
It was cheesy as fuck.
They made us wear these blackshorts, black sneakers, and
these ridiculous rayon shirtsthat had like parrots and
surfboards and shit on them.
It was ridiculous.
It was almost like the old surfstyle jackets.
Remember?
The hypercolor?
Hypercolor shit like that.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
So anyway, it's the best.
SPEAKER_03 (01:49):
You come in, we're all sitting there, they want to
make an announcement at thetime.
Chuck Sass was a great chef atthe time.
He was running the whole place.
Uh, still is involved quite justsaw him a couple days ago.
He's getting ready to retire inNovember.
Wow.
We're talking about guysretiring when they were just
starting when I met him.
I'm getting old.
So Chuck would bring the broughtyou in to the kitchen, and this
was Mahima's.
(02:09):
So this was a huge turnover,just people coming in from
everywhere.
It was like the hypercenter ofVirginia Beach dining at the
time in the 90s.
I mean, this place on a Sundaywas absolutely mobbed.
We were making$1,000 on a doubleshift as a waiter in 1998.
It was insane.
It was one of thehighest-grossing uh restaurants
(02:29):
in Virginia at the time.
And probably I'd put that upagainst other states too.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So what happened was we had thisguy come in, chef wanted to make
an announcement.
Um, we have a new guy coming in,and let's talk about what he
said.
Let's let's throw this outthere.
SPEAKER_04 (02:45):
It was it was terrible.
It was uh I came in as a I thinka PM kitchen supervisor, moved
here Friday Memorial Dayweekend, and started at Miles on
Saturday.
And my introduction to the linewas by Chuck, who was also a
fellow CIA grad.
He looked down the down the lineof this is when Johnson Wales
was still in Norfolk.
SPEAKER_03 (03:06):
So you graduated from Culinary Institute of
America.
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_04 (03:09):
Right.
Um and uh he looked down theline and said, What is a hey
guys?
I have a question.
What does a Johnson Wales gradcall CIA grad?
And I'm like, oh boy, this isnot gonna be good.
And he looks down and goes,boss, and I'm like, oh god, this
is really this is myintroduction.
Yeah, they immediately hate you.
SPEAKER_03 (03:29):
But that was funny because I was there for that.
And I remember that.
It's crazy.
I mean, this was in 1998, andhere you are sitting here now.
So between our lives, right?
Our lives from 1998 to now,crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (03:43):
Yeah, a lot has changed.
You know?
Well, you met him, but it was ayear before I met you, so yeah,
around the same time.
We all came up through so manychanges in the industry and
watching it go up and down andthe beach.
SPEAKER_04 (03:54):
Yeah, and and it was a windy path to get to get here
too.
I know we've all seen somethings, but man, um yeah, it it
it I think we've all changed aspeople.
And I mean my career path haschanged because of family.
SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
Well, yours changed a lot.
SPEAKER_04 (04:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:11):
Because I mean, we're going from my mom was
talking about being in thekitchen, and what when did you
actually leave the kitchen as achef?
When was the last time you werechefing in a kitchen?
SPEAKER_04 (04:21):
Well, so I did four years, my first four years at
May's Ma's was as the executivechef.
And then I wanted to learn thethe other side of the business.
So made a I mean a split secondshotgun decision.
My w my soon-to-be wife didn'teven know about it.
Went in and uh I think we're wehad just opened Rockfish and uh
(04:43):
Johnny Kay had given his noticeand I said, I want his I walked
in the truck's office after amanager meeting, I said, I want
his job.
And it was like mid summer.
And uh he's like, All right, andI had pretty much had 30 days to
learn what I needed to learn andhire my replacement, which was
Kevin Sharkey.
(05:04):
Yeah.
Um, uh, in order to go toRockfish.
SPEAKER_03 (05:08):
And you know what's funny about that?
Johnny Kay gave his notice andthen so did I.
Uh-huh.
I think a lot of people did.
Yeah.
Because he was a great guy.
Yep.
He was a great leader.
Yeah.
And I don't remember exactlywhat happened to him to make him
give that notice.
I don't remember if it was lifeor if it was something work
force related.
I don't remember because I wasprobably high or fucking drunk
or something.
So I don't remember why, but Ijust remember that when he did,
it was the big uproar because wewere all young and we all
(05:29):
followed the leader type ofthing.
SPEAKER_04 (05:31):
Yeah, yeah.
And that was that was the firstpart of kind of the disbanding
of our team because we had, youknow, we had uh just an amazing
management team, and then thatwas followed by followed by the
Hilton opening.
And while the Hilton wasopening, I got to do other
stuff, like I opened Piseria andTortugas, and and managed to
come back to Moz before I left.
SPEAKER_03 (05:49):
So yeah, you have your hands in some really good
spots down there, and a lot ofthem are based around the
seafood world, things like that,just because of where we are at
the beach.
So the Virginia Beach is youknow synonymous for what we have
indigenously, and that'sseafood.
Yeah.
Oyster's crabs, stuff like that.
So uh moving up to that, so youstarted at um you started right
out the gate as the guy.
(06:11):
So when you got into that, we'regonna talk about that just for a
minute because it's it'sintriguing, I think, to anybody
listening.
That when you start, you comeout of the CIA, you go in there
Memorial Day weekend, which isthe weekend, and you're saying,
okay, here you go.
What now, how old were you rightthen?
Well, so I was 21.
So I was about uh about a yearout of culinary school.
(06:31):
And how long did it take you torealize that holy shit, there's
a lot going on in this kitchenright now, and there's a lot of
people who already know what thefuck they're doing, and I gotta
figure this out so I can be aboss, but yet I gotta ask them
what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_04 (06:43):
Well, my uh, you know, I was just a I I was just
a uh uh PM kitchen manager,supervisor, whatever.
So my job description was dowhatever Fred does.
So Fred was the sous chef at thetime.
Right.
And uh so I followed Fredaround, and remember you
probably remember our chef, whowas Thomas, the New York real
(07:04):
loudmouth.
All I could hear is him in mysleep screaming.
Um, but you know, we going rightinto that, it was it was a it
was an eye-opener.
I mean, it was we were doing thethousand covers a night, and uh
it was just a complete, completeass kicker.
SPEAKER_03 (07:22):
People don't realize what that means when you say a
thousand covers a night.
That means you cooked twothousand things.
The people don't understand thatwhen you have a cover, they're
eating more than one thing,they're having a bunch of stuff.
Thousand covers a night in arestaurant, not a banquet, not a
not a hall, not a dining weddingparty.
We're talking about a fuckingrestaurant.
You turn on the damn computer,you punch in your orders, and
(07:45):
they come in the tickets.
And I remember ticket line, therail for the ticket line was
absurd.
You hear it in your sleep, andthe tickets were still coming
out in 20 minutes.
Yeah, yeah, but we still had 20,25, 30 minute ticket times at
most.
Right.
And uh cranking it, justcranking it.
SPEAKER_04 (08:00):
Well, and you had the sushi bar going off, you had
raw bar going off in separateparts, you had a banquet going
out the back door on the otherend of the building.
It was right, and then thekitchen was half the size.
SPEAKER_03 (08:09):
Half the size.
SPEAKER_04 (08:10):
Wow, so it was a line, it was it was one line.
Would you have like 12, 16burners?
With a turkey pot burner on theback that we cooked wings in a
big pot.
Yeah, with the thermometer init.
SPEAKER_03 (08:21):
Um to make sure, just keep dumping oil.
It it it was nuts.
SPEAKER_00 (08:25):
That's crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (08:26):
That's crazy.
People don't realize what wehave to do sometimes as chefs to
uh uh compromise or umimprovise.
But you made it happen, you makeit happen.
So the turkey pot, people don'tunderstand this either.
Cooking a fry, frying food on aturkey pot is very hard because
that shit, as soon as you putwings in it, that temperature
drops.
SPEAKER_04 (08:43):
And we were boiling.
Oh, you're boiling them becausewe we we poached our wings and
then jeweled them and droppedthem and then filled the pot up
again and poached them about 10times.
SPEAKER_03 (08:51):
You had to.
There was no way you couldn'tcook them fast enough the other
way.
Yeah, I'm not gonna.
So you had to poach them out.
You know, there's not a lot,there's a lot of people that
actually do that.
Yeah, sometimes it's better.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
If you do if you poach themproperly, you get a lot of moist
wing at the end.
Yeah, because we breaded themand then and then par-fried them
and then sold them like maniacs,man.
But that's when wings were like25 cents plant toisters and
(09:11):
wings.
Yeah.
That was costing us back in theday, a pound of wings was what?
$2, maybe?
Yeah.
Dollars something.
Yeah.
And junk.
SPEAKER_04 (09:19):
That's when we were we had lobsters for$9.99.
Prime rib and lobster night for$9.99.
SPEAKER_03 (09:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (09:24):
Imagine that now.
SPEAKER_00 (09:25):
Thinking about it.
SPEAKER_03 (09:25):
Right.
I don't even know who's sellingprime rib right now, let alone
for$9.99.
Yeah.
I was talking to my chef Andrealast night, my uh sous chef
here, uh, chef de cuisine, andwe were talking about going to
get a nice piece of prime rib.
And we're like, where do youeven go around here to get a
good piece of prime rib?
Where?
Who has that anymore?
Is it like a bacon?
SPEAKER_00 (09:41):
There's specials.
I've seen specials pop up at acouple of times.
Yeah, but they're usuallythey're usually one night.
It's not a big, it's not a primerib.
Yeah, we need some prime.
SPEAKER_04 (09:49):
Yeah, you're not getting a fret.
SPEAKER_00 (09:50):
And you're not getting it for$9.99.
Right.
SPEAKER_04 (09:52):
And normally, if you have if you're eating prime in a
restaurant, it's not a prime ribthat was cooked to or or uh
cooked at the beginning of thenight.
It's it was probably cooked theday before, and they're just
bringing up the temp in some aujus or whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (10:04):
Something yeah, that they're doing.
So I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (10:06):
It's hard to find.
SPEAKER_00 (10:07):
It is for sure.
SPEAKER_03 (10:08):
So what when you when you you said you went to
Johnny Kay, right?
You you did that, you took onthat job.
So that was a manager.
That was a GM operating partner,Robert.
Okay.
Yeah.
So that makes you out of thepark, out of the kitchen, yeah,
and more into the finances.
Is that what led you into goingto let's talk about taste where
you are now?
Because that's a huge road, too.
How you've been there for howmany years?
SPEAKER_04 (10:30):
Well, yeah, so there I've been I've been at Taste for
10 and a half years, but beforethat I was with Cisco for nine
and a half years.
SPEAKER_03 (10:36):
So it's a whole nother That was a whole nother
venue.
That's when I went back to thekitchen.
But but now you're the COO.
So now what what that means isyou had to go from the kitchen
to Cisco or sorry to the frontof the house, GMing.
Yeah, and then from there out ofthe restaurant completely
selling back to the kitchen inCisco, then from Cisco moving to
where you're back to buying fromvendors, it was a yeah, not so
(11:00):
much Cisco, but you're back tobuying from purveyors in a
sense, right?
So there that you you're on theroller coaster of restaurant
life right there.
Yeah.
And what does it take?
What do you ever miss being onthe line and just being keeping
it simple like that, or are youfucking glad as hell you're not?
SPEAKER_04 (11:13):
So the best job I think I ever had, which I took
for granted, was the corporatechef role at Cisco, and that was
my first four and a half years.
And I mean, that role was justtake care of our top customers.
And I got to travel all over,take chefs to New York City, to
California.
Um it was it was probably thebest job I ever had.
SPEAKER_03 (11:38):
So you were basically a liaison for all good
things.
Yeah.
Like I'm gonna take care of you,I'm gonna party with you.
Yeah, I got to do.
SPEAKER_04 (11:44):
And that's when, and honestly, that's when you know,
that was the truly the fun daysof Cisco.
You know, when I could when Icould take uh we had a food show
at the ocean front, and I hadBobby Golwasser, his father, um
with Ness that you know, theyused to have Ness and Meets, and
he came in.
We got an engine lift, and hishis 90-year-old dad came in and
(12:07):
knocked down a side of beef.
And you know, I just wanted atthose shows, I just want to give
chefs something they don't seeevery day.
It chefs these days and kidscoming out of school, they don't
see they're used to receiving apiece of beef and then maybe
cutting it into steaks, or mostof them are buying pre-cut
steaks now, you know.
Right.
SPEAKER_03 (12:24):
They don't see I don't think that's a skill
thing.
I think that's more of anaffordability at this point for
cost of food costs, costcontrol, uh purchasing the
amount of here.
I have as an executive chef andowner for me, I I always
struggle and juggle because it'sa matter of do what do I do with
this excess of the excess stuff.
So if now that the meats andeverything are so expensive per
(12:45):
pound, what in that pound am Igetting?
Is it worth it to buy the leancuts or is it worth it to buy
the whole piece and butcheranymore?
Not so much.
Now it costs more for bones tomake a friggin' demi than it
does for some of the cheapercuts of meats.
When bones they used to give tome just for buying their meat.
Right.
You know what I mean?
So it's a hard, it's a hard pillto swallow right there.
And that that changes.
(13:05):
But back to the food show thing,my question for you on that is I
agree with you 100%.
You learn so much from a foodshow.
If you go there with a mind thatthat's what you want to do is
learn, there's so many thingsout there.
Do you recommend to newer chefsnow?
It seems like they don't go tofood shows.
SPEAKER_04 (13:21):
Well, food shows are few and far between, I think.
Um, you know, I learn now fromnational shows.
So we went to um we went to NRAthis year in Chicago.
Um, and that's got thetechnology that's got everything
from food.
SPEAKER_03 (13:39):
Did you go as a um a customer or did you go as you
set up there to be seen as well?
SPEAKER_04 (13:44):
No, we bring we we brought a group um from Taste.
Um we go try and go every yearor every other year, but yeah,
as we grow, we need to followthe technology and and you know,
with full service catering, youknow, there's there's things
coming out every day.
SPEAKER_03 (13:58):
And we're gonna hit on that subject in a little bit.
Actually, Kristen's gonna hitthat up when it when we talk
about the branding and keepingthe brand strong because that's
key, that's essential for it, isstaying educated.
Yeah, but we'll get back to thatpart in a minute.
But you know, back to the chefsand the kids learning and going
to these events.
I remember when I was young,going to a food show was all the
deal.
You know, if you go up toMaryland to the Cisco show back
(14:18):
then, it was a three-day eventand it would include alcohol,
drinking, going to these thingshung over.
Half the half the cooks andchefs that went couldn't make it
to the next day because theywere all hung over.
It was a lot of fun.
And then these events, like yousaid, they're cutting slabs of
meat, they're showing technique,they're showing demos, they're
giving pan demos, and they'regiving things away.
It was a really good event, youknow.
Um you think we should bringthat back or what?
(14:39):
How do we do that?
SPEAKER_04 (14:40):
Well, I think COVID killed a good portion of it.
Plus, you know, marketing fundsare, you know, they're reducing
marketing funds, productsgetting costing more.
But I know there's still somepurveyors that are doing big
shows, but there's also onesthat have scaled down immensely.
You know, there's not a big showat the Virgin Virginia Beach
anymore.
Right.
Um, it's moved to a smallershow.
(15:01):
Um, but I enjoy the showsbecause you get to see it.
It's in front of you.
I'm more of a hands-on, youknow, we do a lot on the
internet, but sometimes you justwant to touch it, feel it, see
it.
SPEAKER_03 (15:10):
You have to.
I think I I think look, you canyou can put pictures of food on
the internet all day long, butif you can't really taste it or
experience it, you're you'reonly using the sense of eyes,
the sight, the vision, and yourthought process.
Right.
So, like you said, it's a veryimportant to smell the room,
hear the clanking, hear thenoise, hear the commotion.
But you know, like everything inthe world, it's hard to put on a
(15:30):
show right now becauseeverything that costs so much to
do it.
You can't even rent a hall rightnow at a realistic price to put
a show on.
You can't someone like me whowants to bring my sauces and
stuff to a show, it costs somuch to get in the show that
you're you're not even it's notworking out on your profit.
Yeah, you're gonna use most ofyour profits for the year to
just pay for that show to makeyour profits back that you spent
to be there.
(15:50):
It it's it's it's almostimpossible because of the I call
it greed.
I don't call it necessity, Idon't call it essential, I call
it greed.
You know, everybody wants tomake money now off of the they'd
rather make all the money nowoff this one show and never have
a show again instead of makingmoney slowly over the course of
10 years and letting that coursegrow.
You know, that's what it seemslike to me.
SPEAKER_04 (16:11):
Yeah, so but there are outlets.
I there are outlets for smallbatch producers, though, to get
into those shows.
And a lot of it, um, you know,the Virginia Specialty Food
Association, Department of Ag,they help fund getting you
there.
They also do um collaborativebooths where it's getting
they're bringing multipleproducers into one booth.
(16:33):
And some other guys that arealready going to the show will
bring your product with them togo and display on your behalf.
Sure.
But if you can justify a returnon that investment, absolutely.
If somebody's gonna go and buy acontainer full of sauce, it just
made your it just made your day.
Yeah, you know, but you neverknow.
(16:53):
But there are local shows, soevery other year in Richmond,
there's a um uh a producer showfor Virginia producers at the
convention center.
So that show will be next year.
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (17:05):
Well, these are all great things and great tips you
have, and maybe uh you can youcan help provide for people
listening out there who aretrying to figure out.
I'm sure if Virginia has it,it's uh so does every other
state.
And this because this show iswatched all over the world,
really, um, can't really helpyou outside this country.
That's on you.
However, in this country, uh itall runs through the same type
of algorithms and all that stuffall the way around.
(17:27):
So I think that if you had somegood points or tips that we
could put out there, or or ifyou could just tell us now where
where can someone like myself oranyone making hot sauces or any
type of thing go?
Where where can they go lookright now to get some of this
assistance you're talking about?
SPEAKER_04 (17:40):
The the first thing I would say is if you're a
Virginia producer, work with theDepartment of Ag and get set up
with them.
Um Virginia Finest Program isamazing.
They do full endorsements of allyour products, get your stamp on
your label.
Um, but then I've been part ofthe Virginia Especially Food
Association for a long time, andtheir whole goal is to get
(18:02):
Virginia small batch producersto the shelves and make the
relationship between big box umpurveyors like Cisco's and PFGs
of the world, as well as thetastes of the world.
So we we provide a playground togo and bring those two
communities together.
SPEAKER_03 (18:21):
So merge, and then hopefully in that merge, one
connects with the other.
Some product out there is juststands right out in one of these
bigger packages, might pick itup.
Is that the goal of theVirginia?
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04 (18:31):
But also, you know, for someone like you that's just
starting a bottle, it's a greatplace to say, hey, I need a
bottler.
Hey, I need I need labels.
Hey sources, I need to get thisproduct vetted with
nutritionals.
Um so same playground, it justallows people to network within
the community to get theanswers.
Because a lot of you have thehot sauce guys that are
(18:52):
producing out of the garage, youknow, that love their hot sauce,
but they just don't know how toget it from here to here.
Right.
SPEAKER_03 (18:58):
And that's and the other thing is can they get it
from here to here without theassistance?
It's very hard.
It took me a lot of money and alot of time and a lot of stress
and nonsense to get to where Iam with my jars.
And I'm sure because it's thefirst run, the first batches,
I'm I did a lot wrong.
Yeah, but I'm willing to takethat risk because you have to,
you know, there's only one wayto get it out there.
SPEAKER_04 (19:17):
But there is an investment to get it off the
ground.
Sure.
SPEAKER_03 (19:20):
It's a risky one.
SPEAKER_04 (19:21):
Yeah, because you have to be able to purchase the
ingredients to make that firstbatch.
And maybe it's not right and yougot to do it again.
SPEAKER_03 (19:28):
So commitment.
You got to put your faith in theperson who's bottling.
Right.
There's a lot to it.
So this is a conversation thatcan go on and on and on.
And it kind of leads into, youknow, the chef world.
There's a lot of chefs out therewho I really tell them all the
time if you want, if you thinkyou have something good, try and
get it out there.
Because as long as you'reworking for someone in a
restaurant, which is where weall pretty much started, and
(19:50):
pretty much 95% of us are,right?
Um, you have to get your productoutside of that.
So without disrespecting whereyou are or who you're working
for or with, you know, you needto go on podcasts like this and
stuff and listen to theseavenues.
I didn't know about theseavenues before.
I learned them when it was alittle bit too late, but it's
never too late.
Never because I'm just gonna nowI've got the hard part out of
(20:12):
the way.
Now I can listen to what theyhave to say on the next level.
SPEAKER_04 (20:14):
Well, see, you're you've hit the cross thread of,
okay, now I got this stuff.
Now what do I do with it?
Right.
You know, you've got a greatlocation opening up, but just
say you want to get into the bigbox stores.
Sure.
You know, trying to get ameeting with Kroger or Harris
Teeter or Trader Joe's orWegmans is not easy.
Correct.
But that's where theseplaygrounds open up those doors
and go into the shows andbumping into the buyer from
(20:36):
Wegmans and saying, Oh, hey.
SPEAKER_03 (20:38):
What is the now when the when you're talking about
the board you were on, which youjust stepped down from, what was
that again?
The Virginia Specialty FoodAssociation.
So now you're throwing that outthere and people are listening,
oh, cool, I can just get intothat.
Now, let's take how simple itsounds and add in the rigma row
to getting stuff actually done.
What what does that turnaroundprocess look like, even if
you're involved with the withthem?
Once you get involved with them,yeah, how far does it take
(21:00):
before you're actually put infront of somebody or you see
some sort of uh relevant uh youknow outcome of it?
SPEAKER_04 (21:06):
Well, you know, the well, the first part is getting
it getting it in the bottle, andthat could take an undetermined
amount of time because you gotto go through the steps to get
it vetted.
So I'm in the bottle.
Once you're in the bottle, nowyou got to get it from point A
to point B.
So first thing I would I wouldsay is you need to start getting
meetings, and sometimes it's anintroduction through, you know,
(21:28):
we've got a lot of mentors withSpecially Food Virginia
Specialty Food Association, aswell as the Specialty Food
Association, which is a globalgroup.
So fancy food show, we talkedabout that, winter show is
coming up.
Just go as an attendee with abackpack full of sauce.
Right.
You know, it's bumping intothose connections along the way,
sure.
Uh making introductions, goingto all the forums and the the
(21:50):
educational seminars.
So when you're sitting at aseminar and some of the big guys
are the ones speaking, wait forthat thing to end and walk up
and say, Hey, can I introducemyself?
You know, boots on the ground.
Yeah, you've got to, you've gotto do the dirty work and you've
got to be aggressive.
You can't people don't just cometo you unless you've got a great
podcast and you're, you know,worldly now that you know now
(22:12):
now they're seeing the sauceeverywhere.
But um you've got to go andyou've got to you've got to
grind it out and you've got tomake those connections.
But the shows um and therelationships are the ones that
are gonna get you there.
It's hey, talking to this guy,oh, he knows this guy.
Yeah, let's yeah, make anintroduction.
SPEAKER_03 (22:30):
Um right.
So it's all great food forthought.
So with that being said, I'mgonna uh I'm gonna take a little
break from talking and letKristen do what she does best.
And uh she does a lot of greatthings.
However, you really focus andyou're really good at the
branding aspect of life.
And um, so I'm I'm interested inwhat you have to say to him
because I'm now I'm gonna sitback and listen to someone.
I know.
I'm gonna take the.
SPEAKER_00 (22:57):
But going back to taste itself, their brand, I
mean, the ethos, how youoperate, and you've been with
them for 10 years now.
How many locations are there atthis point?
SPEAKER_04 (23:07):
We've got nine business units, nine nine
stores, um and getting ready toopen up the 10th.
SPEAKER_00 (23:14):
That one soon.
SPEAKER_04 (23:16):
Uh looks like an early November opening.
SPEAKER_00 (23:19):
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (23:20):
So it's still metal studs right now.
SPEAKER_00 (23:22):
Um this will come out around then, so we should be
able to, you know, that'll beour that'll new.
SPEAKER_04 (23:26):
That'll be our new Pungo store.
Um, and then we also have fullservice catering division, we
have a specialty division, um,and we have our taste bake
house, um, and we havee-commerce.
So we've got multiple businessunits, and we have the cafe in
Norfolk in the Chrysler Museum,Zinnia Cafe.
SPEAKER_00 (23:46):
Oh, okay.
So well, and you guys, the branditself, I mean, it's it's pretty
much stayed true since thebeginning, you know, founded.
It was 1973.
SPEAKER_04 (23:53):
1973.
Um, you know, when John Prudentand uh family and friends bought
the business in 2006, the firstthing they did was the rebrand
to the taste block letters awayfrom uh Taste Unlimited, but
Taste Unlimited is stillsomething that's very uh near
and dear to our core, and umyou'll still find us at
(24:14):
Tasunlimited.com.
SPEAKER_00 (24:16):
And so all of that has stayed the same.
So when were you there for thatrebrand when they refreshed
everything?
SPEAKER_04 (24:21):
So in 2006, I had just gone to Cisco.
Okay, but interestingly enough,we were trying to get their
business.
So I flew with John, Peter Coe,the founder, and uh a few
others.
Uh we've we actually flew toZingerman's uh in our Ann Arbor,
Michigan.
(24:41):
And I consider Zingerman's oneof the top markets in the world.
Um sandwich shop started asandwich shop in a little a
little Jewish deli in a in ahouse, and the thing is an
empire.
Um and they've been one of ourpeers, so we've we've followed
them very closely.
But yeah, that I've seen it uhall the way through.
But in when I trans transitionedinto sales in Cisco in 2010, um
(25:07):
Tace was one of my firstcustomers.
So that I had about four to fiveyears at in sales supporting
them and being part of thebusiness.
So I kind of followed them thewhole way.
I felt like I was part of theteam already.
SPEAKER_00 (25:20):
Yeah, so you knew that whole kind of trajectory of
changing through.
So when it comes to you guys,and you're now the COO, so chief
operating officer, and you dealwith kind of overseeing a lot of
those, how important is themarketing and the branding to
you guys now as far as likepercentage budget?
How do you allocate for that?
SPEAKER_04 (25:36):
Um, I mean, marketing's huge the the brand
is is huge for us.
We protect our brand and ourintellectual property um very,
very, very well.
Um we every day or multipletimes a month, we're getting uh
we're getting messages fromloyal customers saying, Hey, I
(25:59):
was just in Florida last weekand I saw this place open.
It's called Taste of Miami.
And and then you look and it'sour same block letters and same
format on the menu, and youknow, it pops up.
We I was out running last yearin Chicago, and hey, what do you
know?
Taste of Chicago.
SPEAKER_03 (26:16):
And so you think people are seeing it and trying
to get away, or they've beenhere before, right?
And they're trying to get awaywith doing it over there and
acting like they invented it.
SPEAKER_04 (26:23):
Right.
We we have a very transientcommunity.
Um, people love vacationing inVirginia Beach.
They're like, oh, I think Ithink I can make this idea
happen here, but what they don'trealize is how far our reach is
and how loyal our our guestfollowing is.
SPEAKER_03 (26:39):
It makes me laugh how people can go to Chicago and
think they're gonna get awaywith it and forget that you were
also here and saw it.
So other people are also gonnago there and see it.
Yeah, you saw it, you took it,you went to Chicago, like you're
gonna get away with it.
There's gonna be other peoplefrom here that go back to
Chicago and see it, dude.
Yeah, protecting our brand COOrunning down the street.
SPEAKER_04 (26:55):
Yeah, protecting our brand is a it's a full-time job.
SPEAKER_00 (26:58):
You have a trademark on taste.
SPEAKER_04 (26:59):
Yeah, and if you and if you don't protect it, you run
the risk of losing it.
So um, yeah, we and we're alwaysgoing after new uh domain names
and you know uh yeah, so we'vegot taste.online, we've got uh I
th I believe taste.com is onethat we've been after for a
while, but some guys justholding on to it for a bit.
(27:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:21):
I think a lot of smaller restaurants like they
don't understand that when youare opening a business or you're
looking at a business that youcan grow or scale or franchise,
that you have to do all the workagain, like we always call the
unsexy work before opening thebusiness, is going to USTPO,
looking at trademarks, saying,Hey, can I use this name?
I mean, taste is a verywidespread word, but you're able
to trademark or cut certainparts of it.
(27:43):
So, I mean, for you guys, yeah,that most businesses don't
understand that aspect of it,that it is very important to
protect it once you have atagline or a name.
And you guys are protecting itfiercely because you're growing
and you have to.
SPEAKER_04 (27:55):
Yeah, and there's multiple aspects.
Like um, I I think it was like10 years ago Pampered Chef
rolled out the good life.
And we also own the word, thethe phrase the good life.
So we went after Pampered Chefand sent him a letter and cease
and desist.
And they had a year to eliminatethat from their packaging.
And yeah, you know, again, it'sit's protecting who we are makes
(28:19):
us who we are and and keepingthings unique to us, and um, we
constantly do that with ourfood, our packaging.
This year, our one of our uhannual goals is actually
increase our internal brandingof more taste-branded products.
SPEAKER_01 (28:34):
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (28:35):
Um so taking things that we love and seeing if we
can make them ourselves or finda great partner to put our put
our name on them.
SPEAKER_03 (28:41):
And also a branding, you have to have the creative
energy to continue creating andcoming up with more concepts and
always staying relevant and newand trending.
So, how does the new trends indining experience how does it
affect you guys?
So you have you're a sandwichshop.
That must have been a huge turnfor the gluten-free world.
You know, all the things thathappen like that now, that must
be something for you guys.
You have to really focus onkeeping up with you have a
(29:03):
majority of people, you have toplease kind of everybody in
order to stay relevant becauseyou're such a diverse offering,
right?
SPEAKER_04 (29:10):
Yeah, so we pride ourselves on pragmatic growth or
you know, pace growth, and um togo and jump immediately onto
something that's a trend, likefor instance, um, beef tallow.
We like all of a sudden thisthing hit hard, put the whole
industry into a tizzy.
Everybody's like, oh, we gottago to a beef tallow.
(29:31):
And now months later, it's like,all right, let's just you know,
let's just ease it back andlet's look at the studies.
And you know, we we're lookingat the GLP1 uh trend now with
more protein added stuff, butyou know, with gluten-free, we
uh John John's wife was aceliac, so you know, there's a
(29:52):
lot of focus from the early dayson creating more gluten-free
products.
So we have dedicated gluten-freeboards and we have a lot of and
allergens are huge for us, so wehave dedicated space and cutting
boards for allergens, and youknow, making sure we're doing
everything we can to protect ourour our our clients.
SPEAKER_03 (30:08):
Not only protect, but serve.
Everybody gets the same energycoming in the door.
SPEAKER_04 (30:12):
And with that, it's a confidence too.
You know, we want them to feelconfident that we have the
systems in place to protectthem.
SPEAKER_03 (30:19):
Yeah, sure.
Yeah, that's amazing.
That's really good.
So moving forward in the future.
What do you think?
I mean, I always ask this toquestions, especially with chefs
who move around the theindustry.
What what do you feel about theindustry in the future coming
up?
SPEAKER_04 (30:33):
You know, I think um you know we're in a we're in a
weird time with um with whatwhat people are looking for.
It's you know, there's yeah,there's a lot of trends out
there right now, but people alsoaren't going out to eat as much.
We're fortunate.
Um we just had a business reviewlast week and um and uh our
(30:56):
purveyor said, man, you guys arecompared to a lot of other
people we're looking at, youknow, your purchases are up and
your sales are up, and you know.
SPEAKER_03 (31:04):
I'm blessed with that same problem, I guess you
can call it.
It's great.
I think what you're saying isright, less people are going out
to eat, but I got a feeling tosay it differently.
I I think that less people aremore people aren't putting up
with shit anymore.
Right.
And and all the red lobsters andall the big chains and all these
things that were to have justbeen feeding the masses crap are
(31:25):
slowly starting to get attackedand dwindle because people are
demanding better.
And and and if you bring betterand quality and pay attention to
your ingredients, pay attentionto your staff, and stop trying
to line.
This goes for smaller restaurantowners or one single office or
two bill, you know, stop tryingto line your pocket with every
profit you can possibly get, youknow, and pay more attention to
(31:46):
put it back in the restaurants.
It's okay to make money, man.
We're all doing it for a reason,okay?
Even the people working here aredoing it for a reason.
Everybody needs to make money,right?
But, you know, I do want to livea decent life.
I do work my ass off to live adecent life.
However, I have a cap on that.
Everything needs to go back intothe next phase of this
operation.
Uh, the the ingredient research,the bottling sauces.
(32:08):
I could have taken all the moneyit took to do that, said, screw
it, just made money off thesauces here and just pocket line
my pockets.
Right.
That's only gonna last so long,you know.
If you add to the culinary worldall the time, I think people are
expecting that, they see it,they feel it, and they're
walking into restaurants orsandwich shops, that it's
obvious their money is goingback to them because it keeps
they keep smiling and comingback, you know.
SPEAKER_04 (32:29):
Yeah, we're I mean, we're constantly looking at
reinvesting in not only thetools to make our people's lives
easier, but the facade to makepeople, you know, you and it's a
lot of what we learned back inthe PHR Gold Key days is you
know, you have to keepreinvesting in your your
businesses, you have to have aplan to keep making them look
cutting edge and and comfortablefor guests to walk into and make
(32:51):
them go, wow, this place isnice.
But you know, for us it's it'sabout every day's a struggle to
improve our processes and ensurethat every guest that walks into
one of our stores is getting aconsistent experience.
Right.
You know, we have a diversestaff from 16-year-olds, you
know, all the way to retirement,past retirement age.
(33:13):
And you know, we have great,great, great people.
We have a great culture, andit's just making sure that our
guests are getting that samefood, the same experience when
they walk in, the music's theright, the lighting's right,
there's just so many things thatgo into it.
Um, but it's a daily struggle,and and training is something we
spend training and process.
SPEAKER_03 (33:35):
If you have a process, a standard operation,
uh operating process orsomething, you have to have that
because every person from that16-year-old to whoever's in
between, they may be greatpeople, but their perception of
what is good is different inevery one of them.
So you have to take away thatthe amount of the perception
they get, you know what I'msaying?
The amount of say they have, andyou have to have a standing
(33:56):
operating procedure that worksto make that consistently
happen, consistency happen.
Right.
SPEAKER_04 (34:01):
And for us, nobody, nobody realizes what's involved
in a menu change.
Like we went from changing, uh,we had coming out of COVID, we
had a very we stripped the wholeplace down, you know, it's bare
bones, we're doing what we dobest, and then we've gradually
been expanding out, and then werealize we've dialed it up too
far and now we're scaling back.
So we're changing the menu threetimes a year, but that requires
(34:22):
about three months of you know,RD, of trying new products.
We're we're rolling out a newmenu on October 1st, but it's a
it's like 130-line spreadsheetwith boxes to check uh from the
marketing materials, thetraining materials, the training
videos for every item.
Like it's it's a it's a lot.
The branding, it's it's it's alot to get it rolled out.
SPEAKER_00 (34:43):
Yeah, you just have good systems, which we say
systems save lives.
So you guys have systems.
SPEAKER_04 (34:48):
Yeah, systems and it's great to have good systems,
but you also have to have greatpeople that can execute them.
SPEAKER_00 (34:53):
Well, you guys include your employees a lot
more than other companies aswell, because uh you went
through that shift.
SPEAKER_04 (34:58):
Yeah, we just converted to an eSOP.
SPEAKER_00 (35:00):
So yeah, which I don't if you can explain that to
people what that is.
SPEAKER_04 (35:03):
It's an employee stock ownership uh program plan.
And you just did that last yearor in November.
Yeah.
So there's 150 employees uh thatare on the the ground floor of
uh the new ownership.
SPEAKER_00 (35:16):
So they're all invested in the company.
SPEAKER_04 (35:18):
Yep, and once you're into the plan, you're in it um
until you leave.
So okay.
SPEAKER_00 (35:23):
So they stay invested through through the
their time there.
SPEAKER_04 (35:26):
Yep, so they have to be full time and work a thousand
hours the previous year.
SPEAKER_00 (35:29):
And they make money off of that.
SPEAKER_04 (35:31):
I mean, they're it's it's basically we're creating a
retirement plan for all of ourpeople.
SPEAKER_00 (35:36):
Wow.
That's impressive.
I don't know, I I know I'veheard other companies talk about
doing that.
I've been talking about yeah, Imean, we've talked about it, but
it's you know, you never know inactuality how has that played
off for you know profits,numbers, growth, like it's been
amazing.
SPEAKER_04 (35:51):
And I I believe there's only six thousand eSops
in the country.
SPEAKER_00 (35:54):
Really?
SPEAKER_04 (35:54):
Um the risk still or no?
It's a it's it's it's hard.
It's very hard.
But most employees that convertto an eSop, um, there's a
there's a huge reward becauseyou have more people invested in
the outcome.
Sure.
So um give someone a givesomeone a reason to care and
they're gonna absolutely they'rethey've got they've got shirts
(36:15):
that say owner on the back, youknow.
Um walk it around.
Which one are you talking to?
Yeah, I'm I own the place, socome talk to me.
Right, okay.
Um but yeah, the sense of pridefrom you know, from uh a guy or
girl making sandwiches tosomebody in our commissary
kitchen to somebody loadingtrucks in the warehouse and
(36:36):
delivering every day.
You know, these they're just allproud, they could say they're
owners of the company, which isI can see them all standing
around the dock talking aboutthis like in Tommy Boy at the
beginning.
Yeah.
We need to save the company.
Well, you were there, but thenfor all the part-timers going,
man, you know, I I I think if Ican work a few hours, a few more
hours.
I mean, we have people that areseasonal that are still making a
(36:57):
thousand hours, you know, theycould be uh caterers.
Sure.
And uh, but yeah, once you'rein, you're in.
And then uh, you know, you aslong as you work with us, um,
it's there and you can continuecontinues to grow.
SPEAKER_00 (37:09):
So I'd like updates on that as you guys move through
like how it how it goes for thecompany.
Cause I think in this industrythat is important.
And a lot of people don't knowabout it, they don't know that
option is there.
So that's that's a good one.
That's different.
I like that.
SPEAKER_03 (37:22):
Well, Rob, it's been awesome, man.
I'm glad you're here.
We could talk all day, butlisten, I know you're busy.
You're busy as hell.
And just the fact that you wereable to sneak in here, we've
tried to line this up for forbut this is like the fourth time
we tried.
Yeah.
With the with the schedulesbeing how they are and
everything else, yeah.
I was I was really glad to haveyou come here and talk because
what you have is a lot ofinformation on this stuff and
people listening.
Um, you know, like I said, wetalk about all kinds of
(37:44):
different things, and there'sall kinds of different
listeners.
And then this is you got a lotof educational stuff here.
SPEAKER_00 (37:49):
That was awesome.
Yeah, anything you want to plugright before we go into it.
Yeah, where can everybody findeverything?
SPEAKER_04 (37:53):
Um I mean, really, you can go uh find us anywhere
on the web fromtasteunlimited.com, the
taste.online.
Um, we've got you come in andshop at any of our stores, you
can buy online, um, you couldorder online.
So um, yeah, just a great place,uh community gathering spot, and
we welcome everybody out.
SPEAKER_00 (38:13):
Yeah.
Love it.
Well, we love we love yourplace.
So I was just telling them Ijust had chicken salad the other
day.
SPEAKER_03 (38:18):
If you're in the Hampton Roads area, go to the
Taste Unlimited.
Think of my man Rob here.
Think about your stomach and howgood it's gonna be treated.
Think about coming back toVirginia and just don't think
about taking a name and stealingit and going to Chicago and
trying to make something.
SPEAKER_00 (38:29):
Sorry, we're all coming for you now.
That's lame back up.
SPEAKER_03 (38:32):
All right.
Well, listen, I'm gonna say itlike I always say it.
Chow for now.
SPEAKER_00 (38:35):
All right, chow for now.
SPEAKER_03 (38:37):
Thank you.
All right.
Kristen, we're here again, againand again and again.
We're gonna always be here,aren't we?
SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
We are always, we're not going anywhere.
We're not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_03 (00:30):
So if you want us to go somewhere, just turn off your
channel because it's nothappening.
It's on you.
Rob Reaper's sitting here withme today.
This guy right here, me and himgo way back.
Okay, way back to we were justtalking, discussing uh culinary
world, all things culinary,burnt hands perspective.
We talk about everything fromdishwashers all the way up to
the bar to uh getting wasted onthe line, and then we move over
to other parts of the uh of thefields of professionalism, um
(00:53):
growth, uh, everything to now aCOO, Mr.
Rob here.
So this was an amazing thing,bro.
So we started in 1997, we weretrying to calculate 98.
So we started in 1998, and thisshows the diversity of my realm
in the in the culinary worldbecause at that time I was front
of the house and you were backof the house.
You had a great surfboard shirt,I believe.
(01:14):
Or maybe a parrot's on it.
Something like that.
What they made us wear is partof my trauma.
You know what I mean?
I PTSD from that.
SPEAKER_00 (01:24):
From surfing having to wear that shirt.
Kind of like the flur in themovie, if you had enough flair
on your vest.
SPEAKER_03 (01:29):
Kinda, man.
It was cheesy as fuck.
They made us wear these blackshorts, black sneakers, and
these ridiculous rayon shirtsthat had like parrots and
surfboards and shit on them.
It was ridiculous.
It was almost like the old surfstyle jackets.
Remember?
The hypercolor?
Hypercolor shit like that.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
So anyway, it's the best.
SPEAKER_03 (01:49):
You come in, we're all sitting there, they want to
make an announcement at thetime.
Chuck Sass was a great chef atthe time.
He was running the whole place.
Uh, still is involved quite justsaw him a couple days ago.
He's getting ready to retire inNovember.
Wow.
We're talking about guysretiring when they were just
starting when I met him.
I'm getting old.
So Chuck would bring the broughtyou in to the kitchen, and this
was Mahima's.
(02:09):
So this was a huge turnover,just people coming in from
everywhere.
It was like the hypercenter ofVirginia Beach dining at the
time in the 90s.
I mean, this place on a Sundaywas absolutely mobbed.
We were making$1,000 on a doubleshift as a waiter in 1998.
It was insane.
It was one of thehighest-grossing uh restaurants
(02:29):
in Virginia at the time.
And probably I'd put that upagainst other states too.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So what happened was we had thisguy come in, chef wanted to make
an announcement.
Um, we have a new guy coming in,and let's talk about what he
said.
Let's let's throw this outthere.
SPEAKER_04 (02:45):
It was it was terrible.
It was uh I came in as a I thinka PM kitchen supervisor, moved
here Friday Memorial Dayweekend, and started at Miles on
Saturday.
And my introduction to the linewas by Chuck, who was also a
fellow CIA grad.
He looked down the down the lineof this is when Johnson Wales
was still in Norfolk.
SPEAKER_03 (03:06):
So you graduated from Culinary Institute of
America.
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_04 (03:09):
Right.
Um and uh he looked down theline and said, What is a hey
guys?
I have a question.
What does a Johnson Wales gradcall CIA grad?
And I'm like, oh boy, this isnot gonna be good.
And he looks down and goes,boss, and I'm like, oh god, this
is really this is myintroduction.
Yeah, they immediately hate you.
SPEAKER_03 (03:29):
But that was funny because I was there for that.
And I remember that.
It's crazy.
I mean, this was in 1998, andhere you are sitting here now.
So between our lives, right?
Our lives from 1998 to now,crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (03:43):
Yeah, a lot has changed.
You know?
Well, you met him, but it was ayear before I met you, so yeah,
around the same time.
We all came up through so manychanges in the industry and
watching it go up and down andthe beach.
SPEAKER_04 (03:54):
Yeah, and and it was a windy path to get to get here
too.
I know we've all seen somethings, but man, um yeah, it it
it I think we've all changed aspeople.
And I mean my career path haschanged because of family.
SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
Well, yours changed a lot.
SPEAKER_04 (04:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:11):
Because I mean, we're going from my mom was
talking about being in thekitchen, and what when did you
actually leave the kitchen as achef?
When was the last time you werechefing in a kitchen?
SPEAKER_04 (04:21):
Well, so I did four years, my first four years at
May's Ma's was as the executivechef.
And then I wanted to learn thethe other side of the business.
So made a I mean a split secondshotgun decision.
My w my soon-to-be wife didn'teven know about it.
Went in and uh I think we're wehad just opened Rockfish and uh
(04:43):
Johnny Kay had given his noticeand I said, I want his I walked
in the truck's office after amanager meeting, I said, I want
his job.
And it was like mid summer.
And uh he's like, All right, andI had pretty much had 30 days to
learn what I needed to learn andhire my replacement, which was
Kevin Sharkey.
(05:04):
Yeah.
Um, uh, in order to go toRockfish.
SPEAKER_03 (05:08):
And you know what's funny about that?
Johnny Kay gave his notice andthen so did I.
Uh-huh.
I think a lot of people did.
Yeah.
Because he was a great guy.
Yep.
He was a great leader.
Yeah.
And I don't remember exactlywhat happened to him to make him
give that notice.
I don't remember if it was lifeor if it was something work
force related.
I don't remember because I wasprobably high or fucking drunk
or something.
So I don't remember why, but Ijust remember that when he did,
it was the big uproar because wewere all young and we all
(05:29):
followed the leader type ofthing.
SPEAKER_04 (05:31):
Yeah, yeah.
And that was that was the firstpart of kind of the disbanding
of our team because we had, youknow, we had uh just an amazing
management team, and then thatwas followed by followed by the
Hilton opening.
And while the Hilton wasopening, I got to do other
stuff, like I opened Piseria andTortugas, and and managed to
come back to Moz before I left.
SPEAKER_03 (05:49):
So yeah, you have your hands in some really good
spots down there, and a lot ofthem are based around the
seafood world, things like that,just because of where we are at
the beach.
So the Virginia Beach is youknow synonymous for what we have
indigenously, and that'sseafood.
Yeah.
Oyster's crabs, stuff like that.
So uh moving up to that, so youstarted at um you started right
out the gate as the guy.
(06:11):
So when you got into that, we'regonna talk about that just for a
minute because it's it'sintriguing, I think, to anybody
listening.
That when you start, you comeout of the CIA, you go in there
Memorial Day weekend, which isthe weekend, and you're saying,
okay, here you go.
What now, how old were you rightthen?
Well, so I was 21.
So I was about uh about a yearout of culinary school.
(06:31):
And how long did it take you torealize that holy shit, there's
a lot going on in this kitchenright now, and there's a lot of
people who already know what thefuck they're doing, and I gotta
figure this out so I can be aboss, but yet I gotta ask them
what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_04 (06:43):
Well, my uh, you know, I was just a I I was just
a uh uh PM kitchen manager,supervisor, whatever.
So my job description was dowhatever Fred does.
So Fred was the sous chef at thetime.
Right.
And uh so I followed Fredaround, and remember you
probably remember our chef, whowas Thomas, the New York real
(07:04):
loudmouth.
All I could hear is him in mysleep screaming.
Um, but you know, we going rightinto that, it was it was a it
was an eye-opener.
I mean, it was we were doing thethousand covers a night, and uh
it was just a complete, completeass kicker.
SPEAKER_03 (07:22):
People don't realize what that means when you say a
thousand covers a night.
That means you cooked twothousand things.
The people don't understand thatwhen you have a cover, they're
eating more than one thing,they're having a bunch of stuff.
Thousand covers a night in arestaurant, not a banquet, not a
not a hall, not a dining weddingparty.
We're talking about a fuckingrestaurant.
You turn on the damn computer,you punch in your orders, and
(07:45):
they come in the tickets.
And I remember ticket line, therail for the ticket line was
absurd.
You hear it in your sleep, andthe tickets were still coming
out in 20 minutes.
Yeah, yeah, but we still had 20,25, 30 minute ticket times at
most.
Right.
And uh cranking it, justcranking it.
SPEAKER_04 (08:00):
Well, and you had the sushi bar going off, you had
raw bar going off in separateparts, you had a banquet going
out the back door on the otherend of the building.
It was right, and then thekitchen was half the size.
SPEAKER_03 (08:09):
Half the size.
SPEAKER_04 (08:10):
Wow, so it was a line, it was it was one line.
Would you have like 12, 16burners?
With a turkey pot burner on theback that we cooked wings in a
big pot.
Yeah, with the thermometer init.
SPEAKER_03 (08:21):
Um to make sure, just keep dumping oil.
It it it was nuts.
SPEAKER_00 (08:25):
That's crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (08:26):
That's crazy.
People don't realize what wehave to do sometimes as chefs to
uh uh compromise or umimprovise.
But you made it happen, you makeit happen.
So the turkey pot, people don'tunderstand this either.
Cooking a fry, frying food on aturkey pot is very hard because
that shit, as soon as you putwings in it, that temperature
drops.
SPEAKER_04 (08:43):
And we were boiling.
Oh, you're boiling them becausewe we we poached our wings and
then jeweled them and droppedthem and then filled the pot up
again and poached them about 10times.
SPEAKER_03 (08:51):
You had to.
There was no way you couldn'tcook them fast enough the other
way.
Yeah, I'm not gonna.
So you had to poach them out.
You know, there's not a lot,there's a lot of people that
actually do that.
Yeah, sometimes it's better.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
If you do if you poach themproperly, you get a lot of moist
wing at the end.
Yeah, because we breaded themand then and then par-fried them
and then sold them like maniacs,man.
But that's when wings were like25 cents plant toisters and
(09:11):
wings.
Yeah.
That was costing us back in theday, a pound of wings was what?
$2, maybe?
Yeah.
Dollars something.
Yeah.
And junk.
SPEAKER_04 (09:19):
That's when we were we had lobsters for$9.99.
Prime rib and lobster night for$9.99.
SPEAKER_03 (09:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (09:24):
Imagine that now.
SPEAKER_00 (09:25):
Thinking about it.
SPEAKER_03 (09:25):
Right.
I don't even know who's sellingprime rib right now, let alone
for$9.99.
Yeah.
I was talking to my chef Andrealast night, my uh sous chef
here, uh, chef de cuisine, andwe were talking about going to
get a nice piece of prime rib.
And we're like, where do youeven go around here to get a
good piece of prime rib?
Where?
Who has that anymore?
Is it like a bacon?
SPEAKER_00 (09:41):
There's specials.
I've seen specials pop up at acouple of times.
Yeah, but they're usuallythey're usually one night.
It's not a big, it's not a primerib.
Yeah, we need some prime.
SPEAKER_04 (09:49):
Yeah, you're not getting a fret.
SPEAKER_00 (09:50):
And you're not getting it for$9.99.
Right.
SPEAKER_04 (09:52):
And normally, if you have if you're eating prime in a
restaurant, it's not a prime ribthat was cooked to or or uh
cooked at the beginning of thenight.
It's it was probably cooked theday before, and they're just
bringing up the temp in some aujus or whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (10:04):
Something yeah, that they're doing.
So I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (10:06):
It's hard to find.
SPEAKER_00 (10:07):
It is for sure.
SPEAKER_03 (10:08):
So what when you when you you said you went to
Johnny Kay, right?
You you did that, you took onthat job.
So that was a manager.
That was a GM operating partner,Robert.
Okay.
Yeah.
So that makes you out of thepark, out of the kitchen, yeah,
and more into the finances.
Is that what led you into goingto let's talk about taste where
you are now?
Because that's a huge road, too.
How you've been there for howmany years?
SPEAKER_04 (10:30):
Well, yeah, so there I've been I've been at Taste for
10 and a half years, but beforethat I was with Cisco for nine
and a half years.
SPEAKER_03 (10:36):
So it's a whole nother That was a whole nother
venue.
That's when I went back to thekitchen.
But but now you're the COO.
So now what what that means isyou had to go from the kitchen
to Cisco or sorry to the frontof the house, GMing.
Yeah, and then from there out ofthe restaurant completely
selling back to the kitchen inCisco, then from Cisco moving to
where you're back to buying fromvendors, it was a yeah, not so
(11:00):
much Cisco, but you're back tobuying from purveyors in a
sense, right?
So there that you you're on theroller coaster of restaurant
life right there.
Yeah.
And what does it take?
What do you ever miss being onthe line and just being keeping
it simple like that, or are youfucking glad as hell you're not?
SPEAKER_04 (11:13):
So the best job I think I ever had, which I took
for granted, was the corporatechef role at Cisco, and that was
my first four and a half years.
And I mean, that role was justtake care of our top customers.
And I got to travel all over,take chefs to New York City, to
California.
Um it was it was probably thebest job I ever had.
SPEAKER_03 (11:38):
So you were basically a liaison for all good
things.
Yeah.
Like I'm gonna take care of you,I'm gonna party with you.
Yeah, I got to do.
SPEAKER_04 (11:44):
And that's when, and honestly, that's when you know,
that was the truly the fun daysof Cisco.
You know, when I could when Icould take uh we had a food show
at the ocean front, and I hadBobby Golwasser, his father, um
with Ness that you know, theyused to have Ness and Meets, and
he came in.
We got an engine lift, and hishis 90-year-old dad came in and
(12:07):
knocked down a side of beef.
And you know, I just wanted atthose shows, I just want to give
chefs something they don't seeevery day.
It chefs these days and kidscoming out of school, they don't
see they're used to receiving apiece of beef and then maybe
cutting it into steaks, or mostof them are buying pre-cut
steaks now, you know.
Right.
SPEAKER_03 (12:24):
They don't see I don't think that's a skill
thing.
I think that's more of anaffordability at this point for
cost of food costs, costcontrol, uh purchasing the
amount of here.
I have as an executive chef andowner for me, I I always
struggle and juggle because it'sa matter of do what do I do with
this excess of the excess stuff.
So if now that the meats andeverything are so expensive per
(12:45):
pound, what in that pound am Igetting?
Is it worth it to buy the leancuts or is it worth it to buy
the whole piece and butcheranymore?
Not so much.
Now it costs more for bones tomake a friggin' demi than it
does for some of the cheapercuts of meats.
When bones they used to give tome just for buying their meat.
Right.
You know what I mean?
So it's a hard, it's a hard pillto swallow right there.
And that that changes.
(13:05):
But back to the food show thing,my question for you on that is I
agree with you 100%.
You learn so much from a foodshow.
If you go there with a mind thatthat's what you want to do is
learn, there's so many thingsout there.
Do you recommend to newer chefsnow?
It seems like they don't go tofood shows.
SPEAKER_04 (13:21):
Well, food shows are few and far between, I think.
Um, you know, I learn now fromnational shows.
So we went to um we went to NRAthis year in Chicago.
Um, and that's got thetechnology that's got everything
from food.
SPEAKER_03 (13:39):
Did you go as a um a customer or did you go as you
set up there to be seen as well?
SPEAKER_04 (13:44):
No, we bring we we brought a group um from Taste.
Um we go try and go every yearor every other year, but yeah,
as we grow, we need to followthe technology and and you know,
with full service catering, youknow, there's there's things
coming out every day.
SPEAKER_03 (13:58):
And we're gonna hit on that subject in a little bit.
Actually, Kristen's gonna hitthat up when it when we talk
about the branding and keepingthe brand strong because that's
key, that's essential for it, isstaying educated.
Yeah, but we'll get back to thatpart in a minute.
But you know, back to the chefsand the kids learning and going
to these events.
I remember when I was young,going to a food show was all the
deal.
You know, if you go up toMaryland to the Cisco show back
(14:18):
then, it was a three-day eventand it would include alcohol,
drinking, going to these thingshung over.
Half the half the cooks andchefs that went couldn't make it
to the next day because theywere all hung over.
It was a lot of fun.
And then these events, like yousaid, they're cutting slabs of
meat, they're showing technique,they're showing demos, they're
giving pan demos, and they'regiving things away.
It was a really good event, youknow.
Um you think we should bringthat back or what?
(14:39):
How do we do that?
SPEAKER_04 (14:40):
Well, I think COVID killed a good portion of it.
Plus, you know, marketing fundsare, you know, they're reducing
marketing funds, productsgetting costing more.
But I know there's still somepurveyors that are doing big
shows, but there's also onesthat have scaled down immensely.
You know, there's not a big showat the Virgin Virginia Beach
anymore.
Right.
Um, it's moved to a smallershow.
(15:01):
Um, but I enjoy the showsbecause you get to see it.
It's in front of you.
I'm more of a hands-on, youknow, we do a lot on the
internet, but sometimes you justwant to touch it, feel it, see
it.
SPEAKER_03 (15:10):
You have to.
I think I I think look, you canyou can put pictures of food on
the internet all day long, butif you can't really taste it or
experience it, you're you'reonly using the sense of eyes,
the sight, the vision, and yourthought process.
Right.
So, like you said, it's a veryimportant to smell the room,
hear the clanking, hear thenoise, hear the commotion.
But you know, like everything inthe world, it's hard to put on a
(15:30):
show right now becauseeverything that costs so much to
do it.
You can't even rent a hall rightnow at a realistic price to put
a show on.
You can't someone like me whowants to bring my sauces and
stuff to a show, it costs somuch to get in the show that
you're you're not even it's notworking out on your profit.
Yeah, you're gonna use most ofyour profits for the year to
just pay for that show to makeyour profits back that you spent
to be there.
(15:50):
It it's it's it's almostimpossible because of the I call
it greed.
I don't call it necessity, Idon't call it essential, I call
it greed.
You know, everybody wants tomake money now off of the they'd
rather make all the money nowoff this one show and never have
a show again instead of makingmoney slowly over the course of
10 years and letting that coursegrow.
You know, that's what it seemslike to me.
SPEAKER_04 (16:11):
Yeah, so but there are outlets.
I there are outlets for smallbatch producers, though, to get
into those shows.
And a lot of it, um, you know,the Virginia Specialty Food
Association, Department of Ag,they help fund getting you
there.
They also do um collaborativebooths where it's getting
they're bringing multipleproducers into one booth.
(16:33):
And some other guys that arealready going to the show will
bring your product with them togo and display on your behalf.
Sure.
But if you can justify a returnon that investment, absolutely.
If somebody's gonna go and buy acontainer full of sauce, it just
made your it just made your day.
Yeah, you know, but you neverknow.
(16:53):
But there are local shows, soevery other year in Richmond,
there's a um uh a producer showfor Virginia producers at the
convention center.
So that show will be next year.
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (17:05):
Well, these are all great things and great tips you
have, and maybe uh you can youcan help provide for people
listening out there who aretrying to figure out.
I'm sure if Virginia has it,it's uh so does every other
state.
And this because this show iswatched all over the world,
really, um, can't really helpyou outside this country.
That's on you.
However, in this country, uh itall runs through the same type
of algorithms and all that stuffall the way around.
(17:27):
So I think that if you had somegood points or tips that we
could put out there, or or ifyou could just tell us now where
where can someone like myself oranyone making hot sauces or any
type of thing go?
Where where can they go lookright now to get some of this
assistance you're talking about?
SPEAKER_04 (17:40):
The the first thing I would say is if you're a
Virginia producer, work with theDepartment of Ag and get set up
with them.
Um Virginia Finest Program isamazing.
They do full endorsements of allyour products, get your stamp on
your label.
Um, but then I've been part ofthe Virginia Especially Food
Association for a long time, andtheir whole goal is to get
(18:02):
Virginia small batch producersto the shelves and make the
relationship between big box umpurveyors like Cisco's and PFGs
of the world, as well as thetastes of the world.
So we we provide a playground togo and bring those two
communities together.
SPEAKER_03 (18:21):
So merge, and then hopefully in that merge, one
connects with the other.
Some product out there is juststands right out in one of these
bigger packages, might pick itup.
Is that the goal of theVirginia?
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04 (18:31):
But also, you know, for someone like you that's just
starting a bottle, it's a greatplace to say, hey, I need a
bottler.
Hey, I need I need labels.
Hey sources, I need to get thisproduct vetted with
nutritionals.
Um so same playground, it justallows people to network within
the community to get theanswers.
Because a lot of you have thehot sauce guys that are
(18:52):
producing out of the garage, youknow, that love their hot sauce,
but they just don't know how toget it from here to here.
Right.
SPEAKER_03 (18:58):
And that's and the other thing is can they get it
from here to here without theassistance?
It's very hard.
It took me a lot of money and alot of time and a lot of stress
and nonsense to get to where Iam with my jars.
And I'm sure because it's thefirst run, the first batches,
I'm I did a lot wrong.
Yeah, but I'm willing to takethat risk because you have to,
you know, there's only one wayto get it out there.
SPEAKER_04 (19:17):
But there is an investment to get it off the
ground.
Sure.
SPEAKER_03 (19:20):
It's a risky one.
SPEAKER_04 (19:21):
Yeah, because you have to be able to purchase the
ingredients to make that firstbatch.
And maybe it's not right and yougot to do it again.
SPEAKER_03 (19:28):
So commitment.
You got to put your faith in theperson who's bottling.
Right.
There's a lot to it.
So this is a conversation thatcan go on and on and on.
And it kind of leads into, youknow, the chef world.
There's a lot of chefs out therewho I really tell them all the
time if you want, if you thinkyou have something good, try and
get it out there.
Because as long as you'reworking for someone in a
restaurant, which is where weall pretty much started, and
(19:50):
pretty much 95% of us are,right?
Um, you have to get your productoutside of that.
So without disrespecting whereyou are or who you're working
for or with, you know, you needto go on podcasts like this and
stuff and listen to theseavenues.
I didn't know about theseavenues before.
I learned them when it was alittle bit too late, but it's
never too late.
Never because I'm just gonna nowI've got the hard part out of
(20:12):
the way.
Now I can listen to what theyhave to say on the next level.
SPEAKER_04 (20:14):
Well, see, you're you've hit the cross thread of,
okay, now I got this stuff.
Now what do I do with it?
Right.
You know, you've got a greatlocation opening up, but just
say you want to get into the bigbox stores.
Sure.
You know, trying to get ameeting with Kroger or Harris
Teeter or Trader Joe's orWegmans is not easy.
Correct.
But that's where theseplaygrounds open up those doors
and go into the shows andbumping into the buyer from
(20:36):
Wegmans and saying, Oh, hey.
SPEAKER_03 (20:38):
What is the now when the when you're talking about
the board you were on, which youjust stepped down from, what was
that again?
The Virginia Specialty FoodAssociation.
So now you're throwing that outthere and people are listening,
oh, cool, I can just get intothat.
Now, let's take how simple itsounds and add in the rigma row
to getting stuff actually done.
What what does that turnaroundprocess look like, even if
you're involved with the withthem?
Once you get involved with them,yeah, how far does it take
(21:00):
before you're actually put infront of somebody or you see
some sort of uh relevant uh youknow outcome of it?
SPEAKER_04 (21:06):
Well, you know, the well, the first part is getting
it getting it in the bottle, andthat could take an undetermined
amount of time because you gotto go through the steps to get
it vetted.
So I'm in the bottle.
Once you're in the bottle, nowyou got to get it from point A
to point B.
So first thing I would I wouldsay is you need to start getting
meetings, and sometimes it's anintroduction through, you know,
(21:28):
we've got a lot of mentors withSpecially Food Virginia
Specialty Food Association, aswell as the Specialty Food
Association, which is a globalgroup.
So fancy food show, we talkedabout that, winter show is
coming up.
Just go as an attendee with abackpack full of sauce.
Right.
You know, it's bumping intothose connections along the way,
sure.
Uh making introductions, goingto all the forums and the the
(21:50):
educational seminars.
So when you're sitting at aseminar and some of the big guys
are the ones speaking, wait forthat thing to end and walk up
and say, Hey, can I introducemyself?
You know, boots on the ground.
Yeah, you've got to, you've gotto do the dirty work and you've
got to be aggressive.
You can't people don't just cometo you unless you've got a great
podcast and you're, you know,worldly now that you know now
(22:12):
now they're seeing the sauceeverywhere.
But um you've got to go andyou've got to you've got to
grind it out and you've got tomake those connections.
But the shows um and therelationships are the ones that
are gonna get you there.
It's hey, talking to this guy,oh, he knows this guy.
Yeah, let's yeah, make anintroduction.
SPEAKER_03 (22:30):
Um right.
So it's all great food forthought.
So with that being said, I'mgonna uh I'm gonna take a little
break from talking and letKristen do what she does best.
And uh she does a lot of greatthings.
However, you really focus andyou're really good at the
branding aspect of life.
And um, so I'm I'm interested inwhat you have to say to him
because I'm now I'm gonna sitback and listen to someone.
I know.
I'm gonna take the.
SPEAKER_00 (22:57):
But going back to taste itself, their brand, I
mean, the ethos, how youoperate, and you've been with
them for 10 years now.
How many locations are there atthis point?
SPEAKER_04 (23:07):
We've got nine business units, nine nine
stores, um and getting ready toopen up the 10th.
SPEAKER_00 (23:14):
That one soon.
SPEAKER_04 (23:16):
Uh looks like an early November opening.
SPEAKER_00 (23:19):
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (23:20):
So it's still metal studs right now.
SPEAKER_00 (23:22):
Um this will come out around then, so we should be
able to, you know, that'll beour that'll new.
SPEAKER_04 (23:26):
That'll be our new Pungo store.
Um, and then we also have fullservice catering division, we
have a specialty division, um,and we have our taste bake
house, um, and we havee-commerce.
So we've got multiple businessunits, and we have the cafe in
Norfolk in the Chrysler Museum,Zinnia Cafe.
SPEAKER_00 (23:46):
Oh, okay.
So well, and you guys, the branditself, I mean, it's it's pretty
much stayed true since thebeginning, you know, founded.
It was 1973.
SPEAKER_04 (23:53):
1973.
Um, you know, when John Prudentand uh family and friends bought
the business in 2006, the firstthing they did was the rebrand
to the taste block letters awayfrom uh Taste Unlimited, but
Taste Unlimited is stillsomething that's very uh near
and dear to our core, and umyou'll still find us at
(24:14):
Tasunlimited.com.
SPEAKER_00 (24:16):
And so all of that has stayed the same.
So when were you there for thatrebrand when they refreshed
everything?
SPEAKER_04 (24:21):
So in 2006, I had just gone to Cisco.
Okay, but interestingly enough,we were trying to get their
business.
So I flew with John, Peter Coe,the founder, and uh a few
others.
Uh we've we actually flew toZingerman's uh in our Ann Arbor,
Michigan.
(24:41):
And I consider Zingerman's oneof the top markets in the world.
Um sandwich shop started asandwich shop in a little a
little Jewish deli in a in ahouse, and the thing is an
empire.
Um and they've been one of ourpeers, so we've we've followed
them very closely.
But yeah, that I've seen it uhall the way through.
But in when I trans transitionedinto sales in Cisco in 2010, um
(25:07):
Tace was one of my firstcustomers.
So that I had about four to fiveyears at in sales supporting
them and being part of thebusiness.
So I kind of followed them thewhole way.
I felt like I was part of theteam already.
SPEAKER_00 (25:20):
Yeah, so you knew that whole kind of trajectory of
changing through.
So when it comes to you guys,and you're now the COO, so chief
operating officer, and you dealwith kind of overseeing a lot of
those, how important is themarketing and the branding to
you guys now as far as likepercentage budget?
How do you allocate for that?
SPEAKER_04 (25:36):
Um, I mean, marketing's huge the the brand
is is huge for us.
We protect our brand and ourintellectual property um very,
very, very well.
Um we every day or multipletimes a month, we're getting uh
we're getting messages fromloyal customers saying, Hey, I
(25:59):
was just in Florida last weekand I saw this place open.
It's called Taste of Miami.
And and then you look and it'sour same block letters and same
format on the menu, and youknow, it pops up.
We I was out running last yearin Chicago, and hey, what do you
know?
Taste of Chicago.
SPEAKER_03 (26:16):
And so you think people are seeing it and trying
to get away, or they've beenhere before, right?
And they're trying to get awaywith doing it over there and
acting like they invented it.
SPEAKER_04 (26:23):
Right.
We we have a very transientcommunity.
Um, people love vacationing inVirginia Beach.
They're like, oh, I think Ithink I can make this idea
happen here, but what they don'trealize is how far our reach is
and how loyal our our guestfollowing is.
SPEAKER_03 (26:39):
It makes me laugh how people can go to Chicago and
think they're gonna get awaywith it and forget that you were
also here and saw it.
So other people are also gonnago there and see it.
Yeah, you saw it, you took it,you went to Chicago, like you're
gonna get away with it.
There's gonna be other peoplefrom here that go back to
Chicago and see it, dude.
Yeah, protecting our brand COOrunning down the street.
SPEAKER_04 (26:55):
Yeah, protecting our brand is a it's a full-time job.
SPEAKER_00 (26:58):
You have a trademark on taste.
SPEAKER_04 (26:59):
Yeah, and if you and if you don't protect it, you run
the risk of losing it.
So um, yeah, we and we're alwaysgoing after new uh domain names
and you know uh yeah, so we'vegot taste.online, we've got uh I
th I believe taste.com is onethat we've been after for a
while, but some guys justholding on to it for a bit.
(27:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:21):
I think a lot of smaller restaurants like they
don't understand that when youare opening a business or you're
looking at a business that youcan grow or scale or franchise,
that you have to do all the workagain, like we always call the
unsexy work before opening thebusiness, is going to USTPO,
looking at trademarks, saying,Hey, can I use this name?
I mean, taste is a verywidespread word, but you're able
to trademark or cut certainparts of it.
(27:43):
So, I mean, for you guys, yeah,that most businesses don't
understand that aspect of it,that it is very important to
protect it once you have atagline or a name.
And you guys are protecting itfiercely because you're growing
and you have to.
SPEAKER_04 (27:55):
Yeah, and there's multiple aspects.
Like um, I I think it was like10 years ago Pampered Chef
rolled out the good life.
And we also own the word, thethe phrase the good life.
So we went after Pampered Chefand sent him a letter and cease
and desist.
And they had a year to eliminatethat from their packaging.
And yeah, you know, again, it'sit's protecting who we are makes
(28:19):
us who we are and and keepingthings unique to us, and um, we
constantly do that with ourfood, our packaging.
This year, our one of our uhannual goals is actually
increase our internal brandingof more taste-branded products.
SPEAKER_01 (28:34):
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (28:35):
Um so taking things that we love and seeing if we
can make them ourselves or finda great partner to put our put
our name on them.
SPEAKER_03 (28:41):
And also a branding, you have to have the creative
energy to continue creating andcoming up with more concepts and
always staying relevant and newand trending.
So, how does the new trends indining experience how does it
affect you guys?
So you have you're a sandwichshop.
That must have been a huge turnfor the gluten-free world.
You know, all the things thathappen like that now, that must
be something for you guys.
You have to really focus onkeeping up with you have a
(29:03):
majority of people, you have toplease kind of everybody in
order to stay relevant becauseyou're such a diverse offering,
right?
SPEAKER_04 (29:10):
Yeah, so we pride ourselves on pragmatic growth or
you know, pace growth, and um togo and jump immediately onto
something that's a trend, likefor instance, um, beef tallow.
We like all of a sudden thisthing hit hard, put the whole
industry into a tizzy.
Everybody's like, oh, we gottago to a beef tallow.
(29:31):
And now months later, it's like,all right, let's just you know,
let's just ease it back andlet's look at the studies.
And you know, we we're lookingat the GLP1 uh trend now with
more protein added stuff, butyou know, with gluten-free, we
uh John John's wife was aceliac, so you know, there's a
(29:52):
lot of focus from the early dayson creating more gluten-free
products.
So we have dedicated gluten-freeboards and we have a lot of and
allergens are huge for us, so wehave dedicated space and cutting
boards for allergens, and youknow, making sure we're doing
everything we can to protect ourour our our clients.
SPEAKER_03 (30:08):
Not only protect, but serve.
Everybody gets the same energycoming in the door.
SPEAKER_04 (30:12):
And with that, it's a confidence too.
You know, we want them to feelconfident that we have the
systems in place to protectthem.
SPEAKER_03 (30:19):
Yeah, sure.
Yeah, that's amazing.
That's really good.
So moving forward in the future.
What do you think?
I mean, I always ask this toquestions, especially with chefs
who move around the theindustry.
What what do you feel about theindustry in the future coming
up?
SPEAKER_04 (30:33):
You know, I think um you know we're in a we're in a
weird time with um with whatwhat people are looking for.
It's you know, there's yeah,there's a lot of trends out
there right now, but people alsoaren't going out to eat as much.
We're fortunate.
Um we just had a business reviewlast week and um and uh our
(30:56):
purveyor said, man, you guys arecompared to a lot of other
people we're looking at, youknow, your purchases are up and
your sales are up, and you know.
SPEAKER_03 (31:04):
I'm blessed with that same problem, I guess you
can call it.
It's great.
I think what you're saying isright, less people are going out
to eat, but I got a feeling tosay it differently.
I I think that less people aremore people aren't putting up
with shit anymore.
Right.
And and all the red lobsters andall the big chains and all these
things that were to have justbeen feeding the masses crap are
(31:25):
slowly starting to get attackedand dwindle because people are
demanding better.
And and and if you bring betterand quality and pay attention to
your ingredients, pay attentionto your staff, and stop trying
to line.
This goes for smaller restaurantowners or one single office or
two bill, you know, stop tryingto line your pocket with every
profit you can possibly get, youknow, and pay more attention to
(31:46):
put it back in the restaurants.
It's okay to make money, man.
We're all doing it for a reason,okay?
Even the people working here aredoing it for a reason.
Everybody needs to make money,right?
But, you know, I do want to livea decent life.
I do work my ass off to live adecent life.
However, I have a cap on that.
Everything needs to go back intothe next phase of this
operation.
Uh, the the ingredient research,the bottling sauces.
(32:08):
I could have taken all the moneyit took to do that, said, screw
it, just made money off thesauces here and just pocket line
my pockets.
Right.
That's only gonna last so long,you know.
If you add to the culinary worldall the time, I think people are
expecting that, they see it,they feel it, and they're
walking into restaurants orsandwich shops, that it's
obvious their money is goingback to them because it keeps
they keep smiling and comingback, you know.
SPEAKER_04 (32:29):
Yeah, we're I mean, we're constantly looking at
reinvesting in not only thetools to make our people's lives
easier, but the facade to makepeople, you know, you and it's a
lot of what we learned back inthe PHR Gold Key days is you
know, you have to keepreinvesting in your your
businesses, you have to have aplan to keep making them look
cutting edge and and comfortablefor guests to walk into and make
(32:51):
them go, wow, this place isnice.
But you know, for us it's it'sabout every day's a struggle to
improve our processes and ensurethat every guest that walks into
one of our stores is getting aconsistent experience.
Right.
You know, we have a diversestaff from 16-year-olds, you
know, all the way to retirement,past retirement age.
(33:13):
And you know, we have great,great, great people.
We have a great culture, andit's just making sure that our
guests are getting that samefood, the same experience when
they walk in, the music's theright, the lighting's right,
there's just so many things thatgo into it.
Um, but it's a daily struggle,and and training is something we
spend training and process.
SPEAKER_03 (33:35):
If you have a process, a standard operation,
uh operating process orsomething, you have to have that
because every person from that16-year-old to whoever's in
between, they may be greatpeople, but their perception of
what is good is different inevery one of them.
So you have to take away thatthe amount of the perception
they get, you know what I'msaying?
The amount of say they have, andyou have to have a standing
(33:56):
operating procedure that worksto make that consistently
happen, consistency happen.
Right.
SPEAKER_04 (34:01):
And for us, nobody, nobody realizes what's involved
in a menu change.
Like we went from changing, uh,we had coming out of COVID, we
had a very we stripped the wholeplace down, you know, it's bare
bones, we're doing what we dobest, and then we've gradually
been expanding out, and then werealize we've dialed it up too
far and now we're scaling back.
So we're changing the menu threetimes a year, but that requires
(34:22):
about three months of you know,RD, of trying new products.
We're we're rolling out a newmenu on October 1st, but it's a
it's like 130-line spreadsheetwith boxes to check uh from the
marketing materials, thetraining materials, the training
videos for every item.
Like it's it's a it's a lot.
The branding, it's it's it's alot to get it rolled out.
SPEAKER_00 (34:43):
Yeah, you just have good systems, which we say
systems save lives.
So you guys have systems.
SPEAKER_04 (34:48):
Yeah, systems and it's great to have good systems,
but you also have to have greatpeople that can execute them.
SPEAKER_00 (34:53):
Well, you guys include your employees a lot
more than other companies aswell, because uh you went
through that shift.
SPEAKER_04 (34:58):
Yeah, we just converted to an eSOP.
SPEAKER_00 (35:00):
So yeah, which I don't if you can explain that to
people what that is.
SPEAKER_04 (35:03):
It's an employee stock ownership uh program plan.
And you just did that last yearor in November.
Yeah.
So there's 150 employees uh thatare on the the ground floor of
uh the new ownership.
SPEAKER_00 (35:16):
So they're all invested in the company.
SPEAKER_04 (35:18):
Yep, and once you're into the plan, you're in it um
until you leave.
So okay.
SPEAKER_00 (35:23):
So they stay invested through through the
their time there.
SPEAKER_04 (35:26):
Yep, so they have to be full time and work a thousand
hours the previous year.
SPEAKER_00 (35:29):
And they make money off of that.
SPEAKER_04 (35:31):
I mean, they're it's it's basically we're creating a
retirement plan for all of ourpeople.
SPEAKER_00 (35:36):
Wow.
That's impressive.
I don't know, I I know I'veheard other companies talk about
doing that.
I've been talking about yeah, Imean, we've talked about it, but
it's you know, you never know inactuality how has that played
off for you know profits,numbers, growth, like it's been
amazing.
SPEAKER_04 (35:51):
And I I believe there's only six thousand eSops
in the country.
SPEAKER_00 (35:54):
Really?
SPEAKER_04 (35:54):
Um the risk still or no?
It's a it's it's it's hard.
It's very hard.
But most employees that convertto an eSop, um, there's a
there's a huge reward becauseyou have more people invested in
the outcome.
Sure.
So um give someone a givesomeone a reason to care and
they're gonna absolutely they'rethey've got they've got shirts
(36:15):
that say owner on the back, youknow.
Um walk it around.
Which one are you talking to?
Yeah, I'm I own the place, socome talk to me.
Right, okay.
Um but yeah, the sense of pridefrom you know, from uh a guy or
girl making sandwiches tosomebody in our commissary
kitchen to somebody loadingtrucks in the warehouse and
(36:36):
delivering every day.
You know, these they're just allproud, they could say they're
owners of the company, which isI can see them all standing
around the dock talking aboutthis like in Tommy Boy at the
beginning.
Yeah.
We need to save the company.
Well, you were there, but thenfor all the part-timers going,
man, you know, I I I think if Ican work a few hours, a few more
hours.
I mean, we have people that areseasonal that are still making a
(36:57):
thousand hours, you know, theycould be uh caterers.
Sure.
And uh, but yeah, once you'rein, you're in.
And then uh, you know, you aslong as you work with us, um,
it's there and you can continuecontinues to grow.
SPEAKER_00 (37:09):
So I'd like updates on that as you guys move through
like how it how it goes for thecompany.
Cause I think in this industrythat is important.
And a lot of people don't knowabout it, they don't know that
option is there.
So that's that's a good one.
That's different.
I like that.
SPEAKER_03 (37:22):
Well, Rob, it's been awesome, man.
I'm glad you're here.
We could talk all day, butlisten, I know you're busy.
You're busy as hell.
And just the fact that you wereable to sneak in here, we've
tried to line this up for forbut this is like the fourth time
we tried.
Yeah.
With the with the schedulesbeing how they are and
everything else, yeah.
I was I was really glad to haveyou come here and talk because
what you have is a lot ofinformation on this stuff and
people listening.
Um, you know, like I said, wetalk about all kinds of
(37:44):
different things, and there'sall kinds of different
listeners.
And then this is you got a lotof educational stuff here.
SPEAKER_00 (37:49):
That was awesome.
Yeah, anything you want to plugright before we go into it.
Yeah, where can everybody findeverything?
SPEAKER_04 (37:53):
Um I mean, really, you can go uh find us anywhere
on the web fromtasteunlimited.com, the
taste.online.
Um, we've got you come in andshop at any of our stores, you
can buy online, um, you couldorder online.
So um, yeah, just a great place,uh community gathering spot, and
we welcome everybody out.
SPEAKER_00 (38:13):
Yeah.
Love it.
Well, we love we love yourplace.
So I was just telling them Ijust had chicken salad the other
day.
SPEAKER_03 (38:18):
If you're in the Hampton Roads area, go to the
Taste Unlimited.
Think of my man Rob here.
Think about your stomach and howgood it's gonna be treated.
Think about coming back toVirginia and just don't think
about taking a name and stealingit and going to Chicago and
trying to make something.
SPEAKER_00 (38:29):
Sorry, we're all coming for you now.
That's lame back up.
SPEAKER_03 (38:32):
All right.
Well, listen, I'm gonna say itlike I always say it.
Chow for now.
SPEAKER_00 (38:35):
All right, chow for now.
SPEAKER_03 (38:37):
Thank you.
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