September 22, 2025 • 33 mins
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guides podcast, host Jeremy Julian speaks with Jarrod Bravo from Salad House. They discuss how Jarrod navigated the growth of Salad House from a single pizza restaurant to a prominent salad-focused brand across the northeast. Key topics include the importance of effective training, refining the menu based on data, and leveraging technology stacks like Toast POS and Ovation for operational efficiency and customer feedback. Jarrod shares insights on their journey to franchising, overcoming early challenges, and future growth plans. This episode is a valuable listen for anyone interested in scaling a restaurant brand through technology and effective operations.
00:00 Salad House
01:10 Introduction and Guest Introduction
01:48 The Early Days of Salad House
02:33 What Makes Salad House Unique
04:02 The Founder’s Story
06:08 Challenges and Growth
07:36 Franchising Journey
09:35 Tech Stack Evolution
19:06 Discussing the Tech Stack
19:47 Customer Review Platform: Ovation
22:18 Streamlining the Menu
25:05 Franchising and Growth
26:37 Personal Stories and Success
30:49 Signature Dishes and Unique Selling Points
32:48 Conclusion and Contact Information
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
This is the Restaurant Technology Guides
podcast, helping you run yourrestaurant better.
In today's episode, I am joinedby Jared Bravo.
Jared runs the IT stack andreally operations and training
(00:22):
for the team at Salad House.
The Salad house team has beenincredible to watch, grow, and
continue to really what startedas a.
Pizza restaurant turned salad.
You know, they turn it into asalad restaurant that has some
really exceptional food and isgrowing all over the northeast.
Uh, Jared and I talk in depthabout what it takes to run a
successful brand, some of themistakes that they made and how
(00:44):
they continue to grow.
Uh, they actually recently werealso recognized in Nations
Restaurant News as one of thosetop, uh, growing fast concepts,
and so I'm excited to see andhear how things go for them.
If you don't know me, my name isJeremy Julian.
I am the Chief Revenue Officerfor CCBs North Star.
We sell the North Star point ofsale platform for multi-units.
(01:05):
Please check usout@cbsnorthstar.com and now
onto the episode.
Jeremy Julian (01:10):
welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
As I like to say, each time westart these podcasts, I know you
guys have got lots of choices,appreciate the time and
appreciate, you guys, giving mefeedback as well.
Today is a fun episode'cause Ilove, these episodes of kind of
people that started early with abrand and, Jared's no exception
and really watched them grow.
(01:30):
But Jared, why don't youintroduce yourself to our
listeners and then we can talk alittle bit about, What you get
to do professionally.
Jarrod Bravo (01:36):
Absolutely, guys.
my name's Jared Bravo.
I work for Side HouseFranchising.
I'm also a franchisee myself.
I've been with the company since2011 and excited to share my
journey.
Jeremy Julian (01:47):
Awesome.
And when did the brand start?
Because if you started in 2011,I know at least from yours and
my, early conversations, therewasn't a whole lot of salad
houses out there when you gotstarted with the brand.
I
Jarrod Bravo (01:56):
There was not.
we, again, 2011 was our firstlocation and, we didn't even
have a twinkle in our eye aboutfranchising.
We were just, I was a cashierworking my way up.
I was actually working at the,Owner's pizzeria that he had
before he even went into saladhouse.
And when he decided to sellthat's where I transferred to
Salad House.
And it probably took us about ayear, but we realized we had
(02:17):
something special there and weprobably didn't start thinking
about franchising till 2015,maybe late 2015.
And then we got hired a lawyer,franchise lawyer, got some
documents and opened our firstone in 2017.
Jeremy Julian (02:33):
Awesome.
for those that, haven't gottento experience the brand, and
again, I shared with you that,I, I dunno, between smash
burgers and, smash burgers andsalad, our mutual friend Rev,
who did the intro to us, to usboth, I, I'll text some pictures
of my salads that I'mreplicating the damn salads from
salad house or text somepictures of, Of the, of the
smash burgers they make out onthe griddle outside.
But, I guess share, share withour audience that hasn't had
(02:54):
time to, to get to a salad houseor hasn't had the privilege of
getting there.
What is Salad House talk?
Talk us through
Jarrod Bravo (02:59):
guys.
The name's probably a littleconfusing, but, once we decided,
we thought maybe about changingit.
We were a little too late to theprocess.
But, we're a healthy brand.
Started in New Jersey,specialize in craft made salads,
create your own salads, make upabout 60% of our sales.
But in addition to that, we haveappetizers.
grain, warm grain bowls.
50% of our locations do somesmoothies or a type of
(03:21):
refresher.
And, I think what sets us apartfrom these other salad concepts
out there is we have food foreverybody.
You can come get a fried chickensandwich with bacon, cheddar
cheese, and ranch, or you can,come here and get a extremely
healthy salad with all thevegetables you want.
Pick your own dressing.
And I think variety is what setsus apart.
Jeremy Julian (03:40):
Love that.
Is that where the brand started,Jared?
Is that kind of, when you guysstarted, I know, pizza to a
salad house, and I'd love to,and I know you guys have evolved
the brand over the last, 15 orso years.
And so was it primarily justtrying to, capture that sweet
green craze?
And again, I'm gonna say sweetgreen just'cause I wanna
probably the, nationwide saladfocused concepts.
Is it trying to capture that,that, and then you guys continue
(04:01):
to pivot as time has gone
Jarrod Bravo (04:02):
let's take it to square one, The founder, Joey
Chaffey, amazing person.
He, he has a family delipizzeria that's been there
since.
The early eighties.
Still there today, Choffy'sPetri in Springfield.
he got a restaurant degreeworking under his dad and his
older brother just learning thefamily biz when he was 13.
And, he was doing it for most ofhis life, but then he wasn't
(04:23):
sure if he, that's what hewanted to do.
He, did some Wall Street stuff,got a series seven, was going to
the city a lot.
And when he was gonna the city,he was always stopping at like a
sweet green or chopped or thesesalad places.
But living in Livingston, NewJersey, coming home, he was, he
couldn't get anything like that.
Here he is, like none of thiswas in the suburbs.
And I don't want to take theshine away from him if he ever
(04:44):
decided to do a podcast'cause hehas a pretty incredible story.
But, he was actually late towork one day.
and it was nine 11,unfortunately.
Very sad, but it's a wake upcall for him and he realized he
wanted to pivot and didn't seehimself being the nine to five
guy all the time in New YorkCity.
And he was driving home onenight, saw a for sale, four
(05:04):
lease sign right there, drivingthrough Melbourne, back up to
Livingston and put a pen topaper and really drew up the
idea for salad house.
I think that's where the varietycomes in.
Being in the pizzeria.
When he first started, we hadcreate your own pizzas on our
menu we had.
Pasta dishes.
We had mama's baked Turkeymeatballs along with some salads
and we were 1500 square footrestaurant with, 14 seats inside
(05:27):
trying to do this.
Men like a diner size menu with80 items on there.
it was pretty unique.
it was fun.
Jeremy Julian (05:34):
say.
That sounds awesome.
it quite honestly, it feelsfunny to, to think about, it's
almost like mom's kitchen.
what do you feel like today and,at a diner hit, your Jersey guy?
So diners are the thing, buteven at that, I know, you and I
were talking prior to hittingthe record button.
After say nine or 10 o'clock inthe suburbs, there's nothing to
eat other than diner, food andjersey it feels and and
typically when you go onto thediner menu, even though they've
(05:54):
got lots of menu items, nothingis healthy, from that
perspective.
And nothing's, again, it tastesgood, especially after you've
had a couple of adult beverages.
But it's, it's certainly isn'tone of those things where you're
like, oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonnaeat healthy tonight on my way
home from work.
Jarrod Bravo (06:06):
Exactly.
Jeremy Julian (06:08):
I guess you guys have had to hone down and hone
the menu in.
So talk us through what is theconcept?
is it full service?
is it counter service?
Jarrod Bravo (06:15):
we're a quick surf.
come up order at the counter.
You can have a seat.
We will definitely bring it outto you.
But, 70% of our business isthese third parties, online
pickup orders, delivery, andtakeout.
Especially since the wholepandemic, we've really just, we
used to be heavy in store.
just the whole online thing, thepresence has changed everything.
And, I think we got lucky withour tech stack that we were able
(06:38):
to set ourselves up early forthat success.
And, yeah.
Jeremy Julian (06:42):
Yeah, no, and I'd love for you to talk through
some of that.
'cause you moved up from acashier at the pizzeria to
cashier at salad house to now,you you're running quite a bit
of the operational side ofthings.
So talk us through that journey.
'cause again, you guys havegrown, at this point, how many
solid houses are there total?
Jarrod Bravo (06:58):
Yeah, we have, 20 open right now, 19 in New
Jersey, one open in Brooklyn.
We have six in variousconstruction phases.
We're coming to Jersey City,Staten Island, Westchester, New
York.
we signed a franchisee down inVirginia, very exciting for us,
and we actually signed two downin Maryland.
So we have our work cut out forus the next year.
Jeremy Julian (07:17):
Yeah.
So as you guys have beengrowing, you talked about
refining the menu, but, talk usthrough how the tech stack is
even built to hit that 70%.
'cause I don't wanna say youguys are unique in that regard,
but, so few brands have beenable to figure out how to do it
effectively and how to makemoney going off-prem with
products.
I guess just in general.
Jarrod Bravo (07:36):
Yeah.
it actually goes back to ourvery first franchisee sale,
which was in 2017.
It was to, two brothers, Jerryand Chaz, Ike.
Jerry's actually the chairman ofour company now got involved
with the company, loves it somuch, but, we sold our first
franchisee in 2017.
It was new to us.
It was new to super new to me.
I was very young at the time.
I think I was 21, 22.
So I learned everything justfrom making a lot of mistakes.
(08:00):
But, Joe believed in me, trustedme, and I was at least
responsible on time.
So at least he had that with me,And, so we sold it and it was
great.
We had a great relationship.
Open come opening day.
It was a disaster.
it was so bad.
We had lines out the door.
People weren't trained properly.
I take full fall for that.
it was a huge learningexperience for me.
(08:21):
and for a whole year we werelike, we were getting these bad
reviews of people just oh, theservice there was bad.
It took forever to get my salad.
It took forever to get my food.
And, Honestly, we did$700,000 insales our first year, which, our
average unit volume now is 1.7,and that same store is now doing
over 2 million a year in sales.
So it's just funny to see howfar we've come, but we had two
(08:43):
to three years where we just hadto clean up our process and we
stopped selling franchises.
We, we messed up.
We felt like we did Jerry andChaz wrong.
We felt like we weren't therefor them or providing them the
right product.
So we took a step back.
Refined everything.
They stayed with us.
They trusted the process.
They wanted to get involved andhelp us, which was just, if they
didn't do that, who knows wherewe'd be today, because they
(09:05):
still believed in us.
And it, it was really nice.
We didn't have the SOPs inplace.
I had trainings, trainingmaterial.
Maybe the staff didn't read it.
I wasn't making sure they weregoing through the training
material.
We had to refine it and, Anotherthing we didn't have was data.
We were using Harbor Touch, POSat the time, not sure if you're
familiar with them.
They Exactly.
they worked for us at the time.
(09:25):
They offered a very nicesolution to get open and get
through the door pretty quicklywithout much cost out of pocket.
But we realized it wasn't thebrainchild we needed, so we
needed to switch our POS.
Everything connects at the POS.
that's the brain of ouroperation.
And I think, Eric Kraus was hisname.
He was our tow sales rep at thetime.
I don't think he's with themanymore, but, he was always
(09:46):
coming into the store and I wasjust always blowing him off
'cause we weren't ready.
And one day he just came in andit was the right time.
I was like, we actually need anew POS system, Eric, let's do
the demo.
Let me see everything you cando.
And we brought him down to, youcan call it an office, but it
was a room with some fold upchairs with me, Jerry and Joey
just kinda like making a thinktank there'cause we couldn't
even afford to lease an officeat the time.
(10:08):
And, He put on such an awesomepresentation, and we did some
research on some other pos andjust affordability at time.
We, we thought toast was the wayto go and we, they were still
new in 2017.
They were just getting theirfoot in the door.
But, I think they've proven tobe probably one of the biggest
players in the game now.
And we made a right decisionbecause all the tech stack we've
added on since then has a directAPI integration with Toast has
(10:30):
made, it's helped us reduce ourmenu, make educated data driven
decisions for the brand.
Jeremy Julian (10:35):
Yeah, no, and I'd love to, to rewind just a little
bit about that store and why wasit such a disaster?
You talked about not having theSOPs and for those people that
are out there that are at thisjourney of going, I got a really
successful restaurant.
I got three really successfulrestaurants, but it's an owner
operator that's in those storesthat might have started their
early how.
I guess if you had to do itagain, what would you have done
(10:57):
differently outside of the techstack?
And I'll, we'll talk about thetech stack here in a few minutes
and I'd love to, to dig into whyit was so much more effective
than Harbor Touch.
But across the board, there'sthings that you talk about,
Jared, even operationally, evenfrom a, we didn't do it right
and these guys were able to,they came along with you on the
journey for those couple ofyears to figure it out.
and I guess for those peoplethat are out there that are
sitting here listening, going,you know what?
(11:18):
I've got a really successfulsandwich shop and I want to go
franchise.
What are the things that youlearn that you, hey, if you had
to do it again, you would'veensured that you did properly
Jarrod Bravo (11:28):
Like I.
It's definitely comes down totraining the staff and doing
some kind of soft open with yourfriends and family, working out
some kinks, getting somepositive feedback beforehand.
it's
Jeremy Julian (11:38):
training, like how to make a salad or training
about what a salad house, about,
Jarrod Bravo (11:43):
a salad, coming in, what you have to do day to
day.
restaurant Depot runs inventory.
there was so much stuff thatlike I learned from doing in the
store that I thought if you findthe right person, you just
replicate it for the next store.
And it's not like that.
They need some in-depthtraining.
I need you coming to work withme at an existing location for
two months, three months.
(12:03):
'cause I can give you a pen andpaper, you can study it, but
until you're in it.
you really don't know what toexpect when you're running a
restaurant.
And we got into Westfield.
I, all the people got theirtraining.
They did what they could, butthe expo wasn't talking to the
cook, who wasn't talking to thesandwich maker, wasn't talking
to the salad people, itemsweren't ending at the expo
completed.
There was missing ingredients.
(12:24):
There was just, I could go onand on about the
Jeremy Julian (12:26):
No, I love it.
These are the types of thingsthat I want our listeners to
hear because I, it's amazing.
Funny enough, I have a friendhere in town who's oh, I'm gonna
start a, I'm gonna start arestaurant.
I'm like, dude, you have noidea.
I've been doing this for 30years.
It is so hard and there's somany things that go into it and
when it operates well, which itsounds like you guys are at that
place where you guys are able tojust start to crank, crank these
(12:47):
things out.
'cause you've got your systems,your processes in place, but
without it.
You end up having a store thathas the capability to do two
plus million dollars, only doing$700,000, not making any money.
Owners aren't happy franchise oris not happy, customers aren't
happy.
So across the board it's just,you sunk a whole bunch of money
and time and effort intosomething that's not working.
(13:07):
But now taking it back a fewyears, that was what, seven,
eight years ago?
You guys are at a place whereyou're like, oh no, we have to
make sure that they understand.
What does it take to, to prepthe line for these things and
then we can get into the dataand why is the data so important
about it?
But, ensuring that you canoperate the restaurant
appropriately is huge, right?
Because you're gonna have happyguests if you do, and you're
(13:28):
gonna have really unhappy guestsif you don't.
Jarrod Bravo (13:30):
I think establishing a hierarchy in the
beginning too is very crucial.
they went through a hiringprocess and they hired cashiers
and salad people, and kitchenand prep cooks.
And, but they were relying on usto answer all the questions
where it's needed a manager inplace.
But these guys came from theinvestment world who just wanted
some entrepreneurship and theirown thing and opened us out
house and they were looking tous for these answers.
(13:51):
and after the, the initial 30days were there for helping them
training there, there was nohierarchy set for them on who's
in charge of what.
And th this is.
If we took a step back and wechanged everything, we couldn't
sell, we would not sell anotherfranchise.
And we knew we'd fail if wetried to sell another one, even
if people were inquiring becausethe reason we even got to
(14:12):
Westfield was because of ourcustomers in Melbourne and
Morristown.
Jerry was a customer inMelbourne.
He saw our takeout thing filledwith 50 orders every lunch.
he was getting great customerservice.
He loved the food and that'swhat inspired him to open one.
And he loved it.
And we did fail him when wefirst started.
and it was, I really took it toheart because, Joey's the
(14:33):
founder.
He is got his pizzeria.
he trusted in me to be thedirector of ops.
he gave me equity in thecompany.
He really believed in me at sucha young age.
And, I felt terrible and it wasjust nice that I got that second
chance, took a step back and wedid things the right way and we
had to hire some people for somehelp, I couldn't be a one man
show, and that, that's, and thetech stack helped with that too.
Jeremy Julian (14:54):
No, and I'd love to, to dig in a little bit.
So you talked about the POSB inthe heart of what it is that you
do.
What were you not getting out ofyour previous system?
And again, you guys were onHarbor Touch, product is, I
think since Sunset and they'vemoved on to something else.
And, and now you're on toast andobviously they've had a
fantastic run from 17.
What were you getting out oftoast that you weren't getting?
(15:15):
For, from, from your previoussolution that helped you operate
the business better, bothremotely and on property.
Jarrod Bravo (15:21):
I wanna say so much getting out.
It just, toast made it easy.
It was a cloud-based system.
They had a lot of APIintegrations.
They worked with so many otherof these tech companies that
Harbor Touch didn't, and it wasTech Stacks that we were
interested in.
Wasn't sure if they were great,but we couldn't even explore the
option because they weren'tintegrating with Harbor Touch.
oddly enough, like when I firststarted at Soundhouse, we were
(15:42):
in that weird phase wherepeople.
Started having online ordering,right?
and I was getting fax machinesof an order.
I'd get it in, I'd have to putit into the POS system.
I'd get their credit card numberdown at the bottom.
Not very safe for security.
I'd have to type it in, put inthe zip code.
And it was just, it took me fiveminutes to put in one online
order and you go through a lunchrush where it's starting to make
(16:04):
sense now and people are gettingused to it and you're getting 20
faxes at once and like youalmost have somebody dedicated
just putting in online orders.
Then you throw in DoorDash.
On top of that, we're part ofthe DoorDash phase where
somebody used to call us, giveus the order on DoorDash.
A driver would come in with aDoorDash credit card, pay for
the order and just be gone.
it was so like, interesting tome.
(16:25):
I didn't understand it, and it'slike hindsight, I wish it would,
it was new now, and I invested,I wouldn't even be here right
now.
I'd be in a yacht.
Jeremy Julian (16:32):
it's funny that you say that'cause I have, my
fourth child is, was born in2015 and for, like a baby gift,
somebody got us a DoorDash giftcard and I work in the industry
and my wife was home.
I went back to work, baby'sprobably two months old or
whatever.
I went back to the office andone day she got, she's I don't
know what this thing is.
Orders essentially on theirwebsite from KFC, just
(16:53):
literally, and KFC had run outof chicken air.
potato wedges.
And so the DoorDash driver'ssitting in the drive through
talking to the speaker box,calls my wife at home and goes,
and so I laugh about it'cause itwas probably 2015, maybe early
2016.
And he is do you want the mashedpotatoes or do you want the cole
slaw instead of this?
Because that's what, that'sessentially how the DoorDash
stuff, started years ago is theywould go around and they take
(17:14):
the orders on the web.
Then they'd send somebody overto this property, go order in
person and bring the food to'em.
to think about, that was whereit was in 2015, 2016 to where it
is today.
Now it represents, better than50% of your orders it sounds
like.
Is that fair?
Jarrod Bravo (17:27):
Abso, third party makes up 43% of our orders.
A
Jeremy Julian (17:30):
Wow.
That's incredible.
That's incredible.
and that's, so toast, having theintegrations to these third
parties was huge.
So talk a little bit about thejourney towards online ordering,
just in general and taking thattransition from web, faxes
coming in and somebody keying tonow having it come straight
Jarrod Bravo (17:48):
Really happened for us because Joey was like,
Hey, Jared, like what?
What can I do to help you?
You seem stressed a lot.
And I'm like, Joe, I can't keepputting these, excuse my
language, he's goddamn faxesinto the POS here.
It's killing me.
At lunch, I got people comingin, we got a line out the door
and I have to worry about thisfax machine and getting it in.
We looked at toast and it justmade sense for us.
And they had the online orderingpackage where everything comes
(18:10):
right into the POS and it spitsout all the tickets at the right
fire and prep time to all yourstations.
And I was like, this is what Ineed.
This would help us so much.
And that's where our journeystarted with toast.
And then we slowly startedgetting these other integrations
they introduced us to at thefirst time.
What was the name of the companyfor order aggregation?
It was Checkmate.
(18:30):
It's a checkmate.
that was our first orderaggregator, and I thought it was
like, to me, I thought it wasinsane.
Jeremy Julian (18:37):
before the founder of Checkmates been on
the show.
it's funny'cause even that, it'slike crazy to me to think that's
less than 10 years ago thateven, existed with all these
third party aggregators.
And even in, you guys were inthe New York area that it felt
like back then there was a newone that would pop up every week
from Caviar to, you name it.
And a lot of
Jarrod Bravo (18:54):
I was like, mesmerized with that.
Like I could place a, an orderon my phone and within five
seconds it's hitting all myprinters in the restaurant.
I was, it was just likeabsolutely bonkers to me.
Jeremy Julian (19:05):
Yeah.
Love that.
So talk us through the rest ofyour tech stack so I know.
and again, I would tell youencourage everybody out there if
you don't already have anaggregator that's taking these
third party orders and enteringthem.
There's a Chinese place we go toand they've still got the stupid
tablets, and in the middle of mymeal I hear them ding and I hear
them sitting.
It's not that hard in today'sday and age.
(19:25):
our point of sale platform hasit.
Almost everybody out there hasthe capability to have those
orders come straight in.
It is not a cost.
It is an investment in yourbusiness.
And having somebody like yousitting there, taking these
orders and reentering them, hugedisservice to the brands if you
haven't already done it.
and I.
Jarrod Bravo (19:40):
flooded market.
It's a hundred dollars a monthguys.
All your orders come in, allyour third parties.
it's worth every penny.
Jeremy Julian (19:46):
Yep.
Yeah, no, so one of the thingsthat you brought up earlier,
Jared, was just customerreviews, and I believe you guys
use a customer review platformto give you guys feedback and to
be able to engage with guestswhen they give you negative
feedback.
Is that, talk us through some ofthe, some of what you guys are
doing there and how you think itreally helps the brand.
Jarrod Bravo (20:02):
if you ask any one person or company what their
favorite tech stack added toSalad House was, it would be
Ovation back in.
they're gonna have to pay me forthis,
Jeremy Julian (20:10):
Yeah.
Zach's been on the show too.
Good, dude.
but no, they're amazing.
And I think it's, but it's realtime feedback.
It's not this, let me go into a14 digit code that's on, it's
like real.
So
Jarrod Bravo (20:21):
we added
Jeremy Julian (20:21):
why it's so
Jarrod Bravo (20:22):
last August, so we haven't even been on with them
for a year yet.
And it's just been incredible.
Not only for our customers, butfor our franchisees.
They have all come to us and sayhow much they love it, because
we can handle a problemimmediately.
If a customer's unhappy, theyget a survey 30 minutes after
they've ordered.
They can voice theirfrustrations to us and we can
(20:43):
answer them right then andthere, and we could solve it
before it ever gets to a Googleplatform, a Yelp review, and not
just before it hits there.
We also want that customer.
We don't wanna lose thatcustomer and we wanna make them
happy and learn from ourmistakes, and we're able to give
them instant.
I can't tell you how many timesI've messaged someone within two
minutes of that messagingovation.
I'm like, hi, I'm Jared.
I'm the owner.
And they're like, oh my God.
(21:04):
I wasn't even expecting reply.
And the owner's replying to me.
Here's.
$5 off.
I'm gonna talk to my staff.
We're gonna work on thismistake.
Sorry, this was missing fromyour order, and it's just been
incredible for us.
so they keep track of anything,three stars and below.
They consider a losing customerand I can send them a reward and
I'll keep track if they orderagain and we win back.
(21:26):
Anyone who's left three stars orbelow, we've won back 96% of
those customers to come andorder from us again.
Jeremy Julian (21:32):
Yeah, it's incredible, especially in
today's day and age when trafficis down, people are struggling
to get new guests in the door.
You gotta keep the guests happythat you have.
And on any given day, any one ofour restaurants, there's tens of
thousands of them out there.
They're gonna have a bad day,they're gonna have produced a
bad product, they're gonna havenot read the receipt properly
and put tomatoes on a salad thatthey shouldn't have put tomatoes
(21:52):
on the salad and the guest isnow frustrated about it.
So being able to have a systemin place, not hey.
Text the owner.
again, I've seen the, Hey,here's the owner and now I gotta
drive there.
You're talking about 43% of yourorders, and I think he said 60
plus percent are from eitherfirst party or a third party.
They're not even coming into thedoor.
So you gotta be able tocommunicate with them.
(22:13):
And if you can't, you lose thosecustomers and they're gone
forever.
What other pieces of tech.
again, Jared, you brought upeven being able to change your
menu based on customer'sbehavior.
Talk to me a little bit abouthow, you said you guys
streamline your menu based onthe data.
Talk to me about where that camefrom.
'cause that, again, I think menubloat, you talked about early
days, you guys were selling,meatball subs and pizzas and
(22:35):
everything else.
How and why did that happen?
Jarrod Bravo (22:37):
Absolutely.
So again, this goes back to usopening up in Westfield.
It was, there was too manymoving parts.
We had create your own pizzas,chicken salad, salad bar.
The fryer station.
The grill station.
It was just way too much.
Jeremy Julian (22:49):
One of these days I wanna meet this guy because I,
dude, he sounds awesome, and atthe same time, doesn't want to
have to operate this every day.
So I'll let you keep going.
Jarrod Bravo (22:57):
so one of the first things we did, we got
toast and we just started pilingdata for three, three to six
months.
Tons of food, data.
What is everyone buying?
And we realized, hey, you knowwhat?
Joey's father-in-law reallyloved the calamari salad, loved
it so much.
We all loved it.
Guess what?
It doesn't sell.
Take it off the menu.
it, it's just because we loveyou.
(23:17):
You can't love a product.
That like you can love it, butif it's not selling, you gotta
be, you gotta be able todistance yourself from it and
realize it's not working foryour brand.
And we reduced our menu by 40%.
And it was such a game changer.
It made operations easier.
We were able to focus on do onthose things that we're selling.
We were able to focus on doingthose things correctly and
(23:37):
making them better because wedidn't have to worry about
making pizzas or making pastadishes at the salad concept.
And we were able to really honein on the food prep for the
salads and the things that we'reselling.
Since then, have we added, I'dsay we added on about 15% back
onto that menu, but we were ableto do it with a just very.
driven with a purpose, usingingredients that are already on
(23:59):
our menu, but maybe bringing itin a different sauce or just one
other item to make a whole newdifferent product.
So it's not operationally toughfor everybody, but it's easy to,
keep something new and freshingfor our customers.
Jeremy Julian (24:11):
Yeah, and I'd love for you to talk through how
you guys even manage that,because there's an emotional
component to the calamari saladand I see these brands that get
menu bloat and it's hard toexecute.
It's.
Impossible to franchise and growbeyond that, because that
original store might have hadthe space to do this calamari
salad, but now you guys aretrying to get into spaces that
(24:32):
might not be able to do that.
How did you guys walk throughthat journey internal to the
business?
Or are you guys just you knowwhat, it's data driven because
the data says one thing and thenthe owner's eh, I like that Mom
needs to be able to get hergrilled cheese with
Jarrod Bravo (24:44):
We definitely
Jeremy Julian (24:45):
though it never sells.
Jarrod Bravo (24:46):
we definitely bumped heads in our office about
what's staying on the menu orwhatnot, but at the end of the
day, we were all able to put ourdifferences aside and say this
is the data guys.
there's no what ifs here?
It's yes or no.
It sells, or it doesn't.
it's very clear cut.
And, some of the decisions weretough, but overall it was better
for the brand.
Jeremy Julian (25:04):
I love it.
So now let's talk growth.
Jared, how are you guys?
you talked about it in the onsetand when I asked about stores,
you guys have got what, six Ithink you said, in development
currently.
Where are you guys at on thatjourney and what does that look
like for potential franchisees?
What are you guys looking for?
You looking for investors thatare absentee?
You looking for investors thatare in the store?
Are you're looking for, Growinglike wildfire.
(25:25):
while we're recording this acouple weeks ago, Dave's hot
chicken sold for a billiondollars.
I remember talking with themwhen they were early on.
They had two stores and Iwatched them grow like wildfire,
Talk to me a little bit aboutwhere Salad House is at and
their franchising journey.
I.
Jarrod Bravo (25:39):
we don't mind either.
we prefer somebody who's, whowants to get his hands dirty.
Owner operators.
we just get along with thembetter because we're owner
operators.
Every single person on ourcorporate team owns or is
invested in a salad house andthey have equity and they've
gone there and worked the store.
So they see things from bothlenses.
but we're also not opposed toinvestors.
What we've come to realize nowthat we have 19 stores is we
(26:02):
have some.
Really good managers, saladchoppers that don't have room
for growth where they're atright now, because you know
they're running a great store,but they deserve an ownership so
we can get investors to backthem.
Maybe they give them a little 5%sweat equity'cause they're gonna
run the store and take it alloff them.
And it's been such a success forus.
(26:22):
we have one guy who wasfantastic actually working here
in Westfield.
him and his wife now own threefranchises'cause we set him up
with investors and he justcrushed it for them.
And now they're opening theirthird one in Wall Township, New
Jersey.
Jeremy Julian (26:35):
I love that.
That's awesome.
you also said that not only didyou start, you got a little bit
of equity, but I think you haveyour own store.
is that, so did I hear youcorrectly?
How do you manage that?
How do you manage both being onthe brand side and managing a
store?
That's gotta be tough.
Jarrod Bravo (26:48):
Yeah.
you need good people around you.
I was, I actually made themanager somebody I trained under
me in Morristown and I took himalong for me with that ride.
But, it, it wasn't easy.
And lemme tell you something, Ibelieved in this brand so much
and, I was a cashier.
I was working here.
We were a franchise.
We're not making any money.
I don't come from money.
I was saving every dollar.
I had to get to Montclair to apoint where I was like, tell my
(27:10):
wife, Hey, we're taking out thisloan.
I'm going to my friend.
I asked him for$30,000 just toget the store open.
But I believed in myself and, Iknew the brand and I opened it
in 2021.
it was during the pandemic.
I took a shot on myself.
I think'cause of that, maybe Igot a decent lease deal, which
kind of helped in my favor.
But, it's been a great success.
In the first six months I wasthere day and night, but I had
(27:32):
my guy Justin, who was trainingunder me in Morristown, and I
take care of him very well and.
He makes Montclair so easy forme.
I go in a couple days a week, Icheck in with my staff, see if
they need anything, make surethey're doing all right.
But he's really the heart of theoperation now and it surrounding
yourself with those good peoplesis how you can go on to do other
projects.
Jeremy Julian (27:54):
and you shared a little bit of kind of your guys'
unit economics.
if your average stores are doingover a million and a half in a
primarily salad, and I guessmeal periods, you guys are only
open for lunch and dinner, orare you guys open for breakfast
as well?
Jarrod Bravo (28:06):
Lunch and dinner.
All our stores are some open at11, some 10 o'clock, and we
close at either eight or nineo'clock.
Jeremy Julian (28:12):
Perfect.
so that's pretty serious volumein, this concept.
When I think about franchisegroups and I think about,
obviously there's some that arefranchise, Chick-fil-A and
McDonald's, they're doingsignificantly higher volume, but
a lot more expensive to open up,I'm sure, than a salad house.
you guys are doing prettysignificant volume.
It sounds like you guys areworking your way down the I 90.
Five corridor, is that kind ofwhere you guys are at or are you
guys looking to get outside ofeven the, the, I don't wanna say
(28:34):
tri-state'cause you're really, Iguess you're getting to Maryland
and Virginia now, that central,central east coast area.
Jarrod Bravo (28:39):
Yeah, look, if we have a pretty solid real estate
team behind us, Sabre RealEstate, they do a ton of,
demographics for us, whether itbe household incomes, daytime
working populations, what theaverage person will spend on a
meal.
Like, all that stuff's veryimportant to us.
We seem to strive when we'renear gyms, doctors' offices,
lawyers' offices, officebuildings, catering.
(29:00):
that's, we need the daytimepopulation.
70% of our business is lunch.
12 three, which is probablyopposite from a lot of
restaurants.
Monday through Friday.
We're booming Saturday andSunday.
we do well still, but we're notlike the sit down restaurants
where you're gonna go and youneed, you can't even get a
reservation.
That's not us.
Jeremy Julian (29:17):
Okay.
Yeah.
love it.
so what's the future look like,Jared?
What's the future look like, forthe brand?
I guess let's start there andthen I'd love to get a little
bit of your thoughts on thetech.
you probably keep an eye on someof those competitors like Sweet
Green, they had that store inChicago that was completely
autonomous.
No, no bodies inside and I don'tknow, it doesn't sound like you
guys are quite there on thatjourney, that was a huge
(29:37):
investment,
Jarrod Bravo (29:37):
We're not a fan of them, of the Rob Robots, not
Sweet Greens.
and in all fairness to a SweetGreen, a just salad, a chopped.
are we seeing what they'redoing?
Do I follow them on Instagram?
Of course.
But we're focused on being thebest version of Salad House.
I'm not trying to replicate asweet Green.
I'm not trying to be a chop.
I'm not trying to be a justsalad.
We're focused on us, we're andour customers, and we feel like
(29:58):
we've just built something alittle bit different than them,
and not that there we're anybetter or worse than them.
We're just, we're us, we'resalad house.
we're not trying to be the nextsweet green.
We're not trying to be the nextdrought or the,
Jeremy Julian (30:09):
Okay.
Yeah.
Awesome.
what else did we miss?
Jared, what else would you wantthe world, if this was their
first time hearing about saladhouse that you would want them
to, to hear about?
Jarrod Bravo (30:18):
yeah.
I think it just goes back to ourteam and how we're all invested.
Since we're still so young andgrowing our corporate team's, 12
people, you, we care about allof our franchisees.
you're part of our family.
You can get the owner, thefounder, me, our brand
marketing, our CMO, our CFO.
You can call us, you can textus.
we're just there.
We wanna see you succeed.
We're a small team and, we'renot some huge corporation yet.
(30:41):
we're not there.
hopefully maybe one day.
But, you're really getting,you're getting all of us and
we're dedicated to you, and thisis what we're focused on.
Jeremy Julian (30:48):
I love that.
last question that I ask any ofthe restaurant people, what is
the go-to one or two items?
If I'm coming into salad houseand it's my first time there, do
I, is there something on themenu yet that's the Jared
special?
that they can just order theJared special.
Maybe at your store you can justtell your staff and they know
what to get you.
But what would be the one or twothings that you would say if you
had never been to a salad house?
(31:09):
You have to check out because itjust sets you apart from some of
those other brands.
Jarrod Bravo (31:12):
honestly, the buffalo poppers.
I actually have a funny storyabout that.
I was actually, I was cominghome from a bar one night.
I was pretty drunk and I hadthese wonton wrappers in my
fridge and I had like Italiancold cuts.
I put like ham salamis, someItalian dressing, and I fried'em
up in a pan.
I was like, oh, these are prettygood.
So I started experimenting themwith them at the salad house,
but I was like, oh, the cold cutstuff's not working.
And I just did, buffalo chickenwas hot at the, it's super hot
(31:35):
now, but back in 2017 it wasjust getting.
Started and I started makingthese buffalo poppers and then
we put'em as a special and theybecame the number one selling
appetizer, on our menu acrossthe brand, across 10, 12 stores.
And people were coming in justfor those.
So I definitely suggest you trythose.
It's just some grilled chicken,some buffalo sauce, some pepper
jack cheese.
And this popper we give you ablue cheese or ranch.
(31:57):
So deep fried, it's a littleunique.
Jeremy Julian (31:59):
love it.
That sounds really good.
Jarrod Bravo (32:00):
as far as salads go, Fiesta chicken salad, once
it was added to our menu, it'sheld the number one spot for
probably a decade now you gotta,and it's like a Mexican inspired
salad.
You got romaine corn, blackbeans, tomato, avocado, some
black and grilled chicken.
Very good.
And back to that one thing thatkind of sets us apart, I forgot
to mention this.
proteins or chicken, steak,salmon, shrimp.
(32:24):
All grill to order.
You order that you can see theguy.
You can look through our window.
You can see him putting it onthe grill, salt and peppering
it.
It takes five.
Jeremy Julian (32:32):
not sitting in a lexan where somebody's scooping
it on top of the salad.
it's getting made while you're,while the rest of the salad's
getting prepared.
That's really cool.
Jarrod Bravo (32:39):
So if you order steak, you can go round to the
window.
You'll see the guy putting it onthe grill, salt and peppering
it, and then seeing himfinishing it on your salad.
Jeremy Julian (32:47):
That's incredible.
Jared, thank you so much forsharing the story.
thank you for, I honestly, Ilove watching entrepreneurs that
started young, started to figureit out, and really even those
people that are humble enough toadmit that they made mistakes
while they were going throughthis.
So thank you for sharing thatstory.
I can't, can't wait to get toone of the stores.
I know I said this to you priorto, jumping on'em.
Bum that I can't.
And when I stupid rev in hisfricking Instagram, I sit and
(33:09):
watch him and I'm like, dammit.
there's a concept local here inDallas that's, that's similar.
But, after I heard you talkabout some of these things, it's
oh, I gotta figure out how to gomake some of that stuff.
so I appreciate you sharing.
how, where do they go?
Check out, is it salad house.comto learn about franchising?
Is that where you guys are at?
Jarrod Bravo (33:22):
that is correct.
The salad house.com.
We have a franchising pagethere.
You can go link you right out toit.
Little form you fill out.
Someone will reach out to you ifyou're ever interested.
Jeremy Julian (33:31):
Awesome.
thank you again for your time.
To our listeners, guys, make ita great day.
Speaker (33:36):
Thanks for listening to The Restaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
Visit restaurant technologyguys.com for tips, industry
insights, and more to help yourun your restaurant better.
This is the Restaurant Technology Guides
podcast, helping you run yourrestaurant better.
In today's episode, I am joinedby Jared Bravo.
Jared runs the IT stack andreally operations and training
(00:22):
for the team at Salad House.
The Salad house team has beenincredible to watch, grow, and
continue to really what startedas a.
Pizza restaurant turned salad.
You know, they turn it into asalad restaurant that has some
really exceptional food and isgrowing all over the northeast.
Uh, Jared and I talk in depthabout what it takes to run a
successful brand, some of themistakes that they made and how
(00:44):
they continue to grow.
Uh, they actually recently werealso recognized in Nations
Restaurant News as one of thosetop, uh, growing fast concepts,
and so I'm excited to see andhear how things go for them.
If you don't know me, my name isJeremy Julian.
I am the Chief Revenue Officerfor CCBs North Star.
We sell the North Star point ofsale platform for multi-units.
(01:05):
Please check usout@cbsnorthstar.com and now
onto the episode.
Jeremy Julian (01:10):
welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
As I like to say, each time westart these podcasts, I know you
guys have got lots of choices,appreciate the time and
appreciate, you guys, giving mefeedback as well.
Today is a fun episode'cause Ilove, these episodes of kind of
people that started early with abrand and, Jared's no exception
and really watched them grow.
(01:30):
But Jared, why don't youintroduce yourself to our
listeners and then we can talk alittle bit about, What you get
to do professionally.
Jarrod Bravo (01:36):
Absolutely, guys.
my name's Jared Bravo.
I work for Side HouseFranchising.
I'm also a franchisee myself.
I've been with the company since2011 and excited to share my
journey.
Jeremy Julian (01:47):
Awesome.
And when did the brand start?
Because if you started in 2011,I know at least from yours and
my, early conversations, therewasn't a whole lot of salad
houses out there when you gotstarted with the brand.
I
Jarrod Bravo (01:56):
There was not.
we, again, 2011 was our firstlocation and, we didn't even
have a twinkle in our eye aboutfranchising.
We were just, I was a cashierworking my way up.
I was actually working at the,Owner's pizzeria that he had
before he even went into saladhouse.
And when he decided to sellthat's where I transferred to
Salad House.
And it probably took us about ayear, but we realized we had
(02:17):
something special there and weprobably didn't start thinking
about franchising till 2015,maybe late 2015.
And then we got hired a lawyer,franchise lawyer, got some
documents and opened our firstone in 2017.
Jeremy Julian (02:33):
Awesome.
for those that, haven't gottento experience the brand, and
again, I shared with you that,I, I dunno, between smash
burgers and, smash burgers andsalad, our mutual friend Rev,
who did the intro to us, to usboth, I, I'll text some pictures
of my salads that I'mreplicating the damn salads from
salad house or text somepictures of, Of the, of the
smash burgers they make out onthe griddle outside.
But, I guess share, share withour audience that hasn't had
(02:54):
time to, to get to a salad houseor hasn't had the privilege of
getting there.
What is Salad House talk?
Talk us through
Jarrod Bravo (02:59):
guys.
The name's probably a littleconfusing, but, once we decided,
we thought maybe about changingit.
We were a little too late to theprocess.
But, we're a healthy brand.
Started in New Jersey,specialize in craft made salads,
create your own salads, make upabout 60% of our sales.
But in addition to that, we haveappetizers.
grain, warm grain bowls.
50% of our locations do somesmoothies or a type of
(03:21):
refresher.
And, I think what sets us apartfrom these other salad concepts
out there is we have food foreverybody.
You can come get a fried chickensandwich with bacon, cheddar
cheese, and ranch, or you can,come here and get a extremely
healthy salad with all thevegetables you want.
Pick your own dressing.
And I think variety is what setsus apart.
Jeremy Julian (03:40):
Love that.
Is that where the brand started,Jared?
Is that kind of, when you guysstarted, I know, pizza to a
salad house, and I'd love to,and I know you guys have evolved
the brand over the last, 15 orso years.
And so was it primarily justtrying to, capture that sweet
green craze?
And again, I'm gonna say sweetgreen just'cause I wanna
probably the, nationwide saladfocused concepts.
Is it trying to capture that,that, and then you guys continue
(04:01):
to pivot as time has gone
Jarrod Bravo (04:02):
let's take it to square one, The founder, Joey
Chaffey, amazing person.
He, he has a family delipizzeria that's been there
since.
The early eighties.
Still there today, Choffy'sPetri in Springfield.
he got a restaurant degreeworking under his dad and his
older brother just learning thefamily biz when he was 13.
And, he was doing it for most ofhis life, but then he wasn't
(04:23):
sure if he, that's what hewanted to do.
He, did some Wall Street stuff,got a series seven, was going to
the city a lot.
And when he was gonna the city,he was always stopping at like a
sweet green or chopped or thesesalad places.
But living in Livingston, NewJersey, coming home, he was, he
couldn't get anything like that.
Here he is, like none of thiswas in the suburbs.
And I don't want to take theshine away from him if he ever
(04:44):
decided to do a podcast'cause hehas a pretty incredible story.
But, he was actually late towork one day.
and it was nine 11,unfortunately.
Very sad, but it's a wake upcall for him and he realized he
wanted to pivot and didn't seehimself being the nine to five
guy all the time in New YorkCity.
And he was driving home onenight, saw a for sale, four
(05:04):
lease sign right there, drivingthrough Melbourne, back up to
Livingston and put a pen topaper and really drew up the
idea for salad house.
I think that's where the varietycomes in.
Being in the pizzeria.
When he first started, we hadcreate your own pizzas on our
menu we had.
Pasta dishes.
We had mama's baked Turkeymeatballs along with some salads
and we were 1500 square footrestaurant with, 14 seats inside
(05:27):
trying to do this.
Men like a diner size menu with80 items on there.
it was pretty unique.
it was fun.
Jeremy Julian (05:34):
say.
That sounds awesome.
it quite honestly, it feelsfunny to, to think about, it's
almost like mom's kitchen.
what do you feel like today and,at a diner hit, your Jersey guy?
So diners are the thing, buteven at that, I know, you and I
were talking prior to hittingthe record button.
After say nine or 10 o'clock inthe suburbs, there's nothing to
eat other than diner, food andjersey it feels and and
typically when you go onto thediner menu, even though they've
(05:54):
got lots of menu items, nothingis healthy, from that
perspective.
And nothing's, again, it tastesgood, especially after you've
had a couple of adult beverages.
But it's, it's certainly isn'tone of those things where you're
like, oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonnaeat healthy tonight on my way
home from work.
Jarrod Bravo (06:06):
Exactly.
Jeremy Julian (06:08):
I guess you guys have had to hone down and hone
the menu in.
So talk us through what is theconcept?
is it full service?
is it counter service?
Jarrod Bravo (06:15):
we're a quick surf.
come up order at the counter.
You can have a seat.
We will definitely bring it outto you.
But, 70% of our business isthese third parties, online
pickup orders, delivery, andtakeout.
Especially since the wholepandemic, we've really just, we
used to be heavy in store.
just the whole online thing, thepresence has changed everything.
And, I think we got lucky withour tech stack that we were able
(06:38):
to set ourselves up early forthat success.
And, yeah.
Jeremy Julian (06:42):
Yeah, no, and I'd love for you to talk through
some of that.
'cause you moved up from acashier at the pizzeria to
cashier at salad house to now,you you're running quite a bit
of the operational side ofthings.
So talk us through that journey.
'cause again, you guys havegrown, at this point, how many
solid houses are there total?
Jarrod Bravo (06:58):
Yeah, we have, 20 open right now, 19 in New
Jersey, one open in Brooklyn.
We have six in variousconstruction phases.
We're coming to Jersey City,Staten Island, Westchester, New
York.
we signed a franchisee down inVirginia, very exciting for us,
and we actually signed two downin Maryland.
So we have our work cut out forus the next year.
Jeremy Julian (07:17):
Yeah.
So as you guys have beengrowing, you talked about
refining the menu, but, talk usthrough how the tech stack is
even built to hit that 70%.
'cause I don't wanna say youguys are unique in that regard,
but, so few brands have beenable to figure out how to do it
effectively and how to makemoney going off-prem with
products.
I guess just in general.
Jarrod Bravo (07:36):
Yeah.
it actually goes back to ourvery first franchisee sale,
which was in 2017.
It was to, two brothers, Jerryand Chaz, Ike.
Jerry's actually the chairman ofour company now got involved
with the company, loves it somuch, but, we sold our first
franchisee in 2017.
It was new to us.
It was new to super new to me.
I was very young at the time.
I think I was 21, 22.
So I learned everything justfrom making a lot of mistakes.
(08:00):
But, Joe believed in me, trustedme, and I was at least
responsible on time.
So at least he had that with me,And, so we sold it and it was
great.
We had a great relationship.
Open come opening day.
It was a disaster.
it was so bad.
We had lines out the door.
People weren't trained properly.
I take full fall for that.
it was a huge learningexperience for me.
(08:21):
and for a whole year we werelike, we were getting these bad
reviews of people just oh, theservice there was bad.
It took forever to get my salad.
It took forever to get my food.
And, Honestly, we did$700,000 insales our first year, which, our
average unit volume now is 1.7,and that same store is now doing
over 2 million a year in sales.
So it's just funny to see howfar we've come, but we had two
(08:43):
to three years where we just hadto clean up our process and we
stopped selling franchises.
We, we messed up.
We felt like we did Jerry andChaz wrong.
We felt like we weren't therefor them or providing them the
right product.
So we took a step back.
Refined everything.
They stayed with us.
They trusted the process.
They wanted to get involved andhelp us, which was just, if they
didn't do that, who knows wherewe'd be today, because they
(09:05):
still believed in us.
And it, it was really nice.
We didn't have the SOPs inplace.
I had trainings, trainingmaterial.
Maybe the staff didn't read it.
I wasn't making sure they weregoing through the training
material.
We had to refine it and, Anotherthing we didn't have was data.
We were using Harbor Touch, POSat the time, not sure if you're
familiar with them.
They Exactly.
they worked for us at the time.
(09:25):
They offered a very nicesolution to get open and get
through the door pretty quicklywithout much cost out of pocket.
But we realized it wasn't thebrainchild we needed, so we
needed to switch our POS.
Everything connects at the POS.
that's the brain of ouroperation.
And I think, Eric Kraus was hisname.
He was our tow sales rep at thetime.
I don't think he's with themanymore, but, he was always
(09:46):
coming into the store and I wasjust always blowing him off
'cause we weren't ready.
And one day he just came in andit was the right time.
I was like, we actually need anew POS system, Eric, let's do
the demo.
Let me see everything you cando.
And we brought him down to, youcan call it an office, but it
was a room with some fold upchairs with me, Jerry and Joey
just kinda like making a thinktank there'cause we couldn't
even afford to lease an officeat the time.
(10:08):
And, He put on such an awesomepresentation, and we did some
research on some other pos andjust affordability at time.
We, we thought toast was the wayto go and we, they were still
new in 2017.
They were just getting theirfoot in the door.
But, I think they've proven tobe probably one of the biggest
players in the game now.
And we made a right decisionbecause all the tech stack we've
added on since then has a directAPI integration with Toast has
(10:30):
made, it's helped us reduce ourmenu, make educated data driven
decisions for the brand.
Jeremy Julian (10:35):
Yeah, no, and I'd love to, to rewind just a little
bit about that store and why wasit such a disaster?
You talked about not having theSOPs and for those people that
are out there that are at thisjourney of going, I got a really
successful restaurant.
I got three really successfulrestaurants, but it's an owner
operator that's in those storesthat might have started their
early how.
I guess if you had to do itagain, what would you have done
(10:57):
differently outside of the techstack?
And I'll, we'll talk about thetech stack here in a few minutes
and I'd love to, to dig into whyit was so much more effective
than Harbor Touch.
But across the board, there'sthings that you talk about,
Jared, even operationally, evenfrom a, we didn't do it right
and these guys were able to,they came along with you on the
journey for those couple ofyears to figure it out.
and I guess for those peoplethat are out there that are
sitting here listening, going,you know what?
(11:18):
I've got a really successfulsandwich shop and I want to go
franchise.
What are the things that youlearn that you, hey, if you had
to do it again, you would'veensured that you did properly
Jarrod Bravo (11:28):
Like I.
It's definitely comes down totraining the staff and doing
some kind of soft open with yourfriends and family, working out
some kinks, getting somepositive feedback beforehand.
it's
Jeremy Julian (11:38):
training, like how to make a salad or training
about what a salad house, about,
Jarrod Bravo (11:43):
a salad, coming in, what you have to do day to
day.
restaurant Depot runs inventory.
there was so much stuff thatlike I learned from doing in the
store that I thought if you findthe right person, you just
replicate it for the next store.
And it's not like that.
They need some in-depthtraining.
I need you coming to work withme at an existing location for
two months, three months.
(12:03):
'cause I can give you a pen andpaper, you can study it, but
until you're in it.
you really don't know what toexpect when you're running a
restaurant.
And we got into Westfield.
I, all the people got theirtraining.
They did what they could, butthe expo wasn't talking to the
cook, who wasn't talking to thesandwich maker, wasn't talking
to the salad people, itemsweren't ending at the expo
completed.
There was missing ingredients.
(12:24):
There was just, I could go onand on about the
Jeremy Julian (12:26):
No, I love it.
These are the types of thingsthat I want our listeners to
hear because I, it's amazing.
Funny enough, I have a friendhere in town who's oh, I'm gonna
start a, I'm gonna start arestaurant.
I'm like, dude, you have noidea.
I've been doing this for 30years.
It is so hard and there's somany things that go into it and
when it operates well, which itsounds like you guys are at that
place where you guys are able tojust start to crank, crank these
(12:47):
things out.
'cause you've got your systems,your processes in place, but
without it.
You end up having a store thathas the capability to do two
plus million dollars, only doing$700,000, not making any money.
Owners aren't happy franchise oris not happy, customers aren't
happy.
So across the board it's just,you sunk a whole bunch of money
and time and effort intosomething that's not working.
(13:07):
But now taking it back a fewyears, that was what, seven,
eight years ago?
You guys are at a place whereyou're like, oh no, we have to
make sure that they understand.
What does it take to, to prepthe line for these things and
then we can get into the dataand why is the data so important
about it?
But, ensuring that you canoperate the restaurant
appropriately is huge, right?
Because you're gonna have happyguests if you do, and you're
(13:28):
gonna have really unhappy guestsif you don't.
Jarrod Bravo (13:30):
I think establishing a hierarchy in the
beginning too is very crucial.
they went through a hiringprocess and they hired cashiers
and salad people, and kitchenand prep cooks.
And, but they were relying on usto answer all the questions
where it's needed a manager inplace.
But these guys came from theinvestment world who just wanted
some entrepreneurship and theirown thing and opened us out
house and they were looking tous for these answers.
(13:51):
and after the, the initial 30days were there for helping them
training there, there was nohierarchy set for them on who's
in charge of what.
And th this is.
If we took a step back and wechanged everything, we couldn't
sell, we would not sell anotherfranchise.
And we knew we'd fail if wetried to sell another one, even
if people were inquiring becausethe reason we even got to
(14:12):
Westfield was because of ourcustomers in Melbourne and
Morristown.
Jerry was a customer inMelbourne.
He saw our takeout thing filledwith 50 orders every lunch.
he was getting great customerservice.
He loved the food and that'swhat inspired him to open one.
And he loved it.
And we did fail him when wefirst started.
and it was, I really took it toheart because, Joey's the
(14:33):
founder.
He is got his pizzeria.
he trusted in me to be thedirector of ops.
he gave me equity in thecompany.
He really believed in me at sucha young age.
And, I felt terrible and it wasjust nice that I got that second
chance, took a step back and wedid things the right way and we
had to hire some people for somehelp, I couldn't be a one man
show, and that, that's, and thetech stack helped with that too.
Jeremy Julian (14:54):
No, and I'd love to, to dig in a little bit.
So you talked about the POSB inthe heart of what it is that you
do.
What were you not getting out ofyour previous system?
And again, you guys were onHarbor Touch, product is, I
think since Sunset and they'vemoved on to something else.
And, and now you're on toast andobviously they've had a
fantastic run from 17.
What were you getting out oftoast that you weren't getting?
(15:15):
For, from, from your previoussolution that helped you operate
the business better, bothremotely and on property.
Jarrod Bravo (15:21):
I wanna say so much getting out.
It just, toast made it easy.
It was a cloud-based system.
They had a lot of APIintegrations.
They worked with so many otherof these tech companies that
Harbor Touch didn't, and it wasTech Stacks that we were
interested in.
Wasn't sure if they were great,but we couldn't even explore the
option because they weren'tintegrating with Harbor Touch.
oddly enough, like when I firststarted at Soundhouse, we were
(15:42):
in that weird phase wherepeople.
Started having online ordering,right?
and I was getting fax machinesof an order.
I'd get it in, I'd have to putit into the POS system.
I'd get their credit card numberdown at the bottom.
Not very safe for security.
I'd have to type it in, put inthe zip code.
And it was just, it took me fiveminutes to put in one online
order and you go through a lunchrush where it's starting to make
(16:04):
sense now and people are gettingused to it and you're getting 20
faxes at once and like youalmost have somebody dedicated
just putting in online orders.
Then you throw in DoorDash.
On top of that, we're part ofthe DoorDash phase where
somebody used to call us, giveus the order on DoorDash.
A driver would come in with aDoorDash credit card, pay for
the order and just be gone.
it was so like, interesting tome.
(16:25):
I didn't understand it, and it'slike hindsight, I wish it would,
it was new now, and I invested,I wouldn't even be here right
now.
I'd be in a yacht.
Jeremy Julian (16:32):
it's funny that you say that'cause I have, my
fourth child is, was born in2015 and for, like a baby gift,
somebody got us a DoorDash giftcard and I work in the industry
and my wife was home.
I went back to work, baby'sprobably two months old or
whatever.
I went back to the office andone day she got, she's I don't
know what this thing is.
Orders essentially on theirwebsite from KFC, just
(16:53):
literally, and KFC had run outof chicken air.
potato wedges.
And so the DoorDash driver'ssitting in the drive through
talking to the speaker box,calls my wife at home and goes,
and so I laugh about it'cause itwas probably 2015, maybe early
2016.
And he is do you want the mashedpotatoes or do you want the cole
slaw instead of this?
Because that's what, that'sessentially how the DoorDash
stuff, started years ago is theywould go around and they take
(17:14):
the orders on the web.
Then they'd send somebody overto this property, go order in
person and bring the food to'em.
to think about, that was whereit was in 2015, 2016 to where it
is today.
Now it represents, better than50% of your orders it sounds
like.
Is that fair?
Jarrod Bravo (17:27):
Abso, third party makes up 43% of our orders.
A
Jeremy Julian (17:30):
Wow.
That's incredible.
That's incredible.
and that's, so toast, having theintegrations to these third
parties was huge.
So talk a little bit about thejourney towards online ordering,
just in general and taking thattransition from web, faxes
coming in and somebody keying tonow having it come straight
Jarrod Bravo (17:48):
Really happened for us because Joey was like,
Hey, Jared, like what?
What can I do to help you?
You seem stressed a lot.
And I'm like, Joe, I can't keepputting these, excuse my
language, he's goddamn faxesinto the POS here.
It's killing me.
At lunch, I got people comingin, we got a line out the door
and I have to worry about thisfax machine and getting it in.
We looked at toast and it justmade sense for us.
And they had the online orderingpackage where everything comes
(18:10):
right into the POS and it spitsout all the tickets at the right
fire and prep time to all yourstations.
And I was like, this is what Ineed.
This would help us so much.
And that's where our journeystarted with toast.
And then we slowly startedgetting these other integrations
they introduced us to at thefirst time.
What was the name of the companyfor order aggregation?
It was Checkmate.
(18:30):
It's a checkmate.
that was our first orderaggregator, and I thought it was
like, to me, I thought it wasinsane.
Jeremy Julian (18:37):
before the founder of Checkmates been on
the show.
it's funny'cause even that, it'slike crazy to me to think that's
less than 10 years ago thateven, existed with all these
third party aggregators.
And even in, you guys were inthe New York area that it felt
like back then there was a newone that would pop up every week
from Caviar to, you name it.
And a lot of
Jarrod Bravo (18:54):
I was like, mesmerized with that.
Like I could place a, an orderon my phone and within five
seconds it's hitting all myprinters in the restaurant.
I was, it was just likeabsolutely bonkers to me.
Jeremy Julian (19:05):
Yeah.
Love that.
So talk us through the rest ofyour tech stack so I know.
and again, I would tell youencourage everybody out there if
you don't already have anaggregator that's taking these
third party orders and enteringthem.
There's a Chinese place we go toand they've still got the stupid
tablets, and in the middle of mymeal I hear them ding and I hear
them sitting.
It's not that hard in today'sday and age.
(19:25):
our point of sale platform hasit.
Almost everybody out there hasthe capability to have those
orders come straight in.
It is not a cost.
It is an investment in yourbusiness.
And having somebody like yousitting there, taking these
orders and reentering them, hugedisservice to the brands if you
haven't already done it.
and I.
Jarrod Bravo (19:40):
flooded market.
It's a hundred dollars a monthguys.
All your orders come in, allyour third parties.
it's worth every penny.
Jeremy Julian (19:46):
Yep.
Yeah, no, so one of the thingsthat you brought up earlier,
Jared, was just customerreviews, and I believe you guys
use a customer review platformto give you guys feedback and to
be able to engage with guestswhen they give you negative
feedback.
Is that, talk us through some ofthe, some of what you guys are
doing there and how you think itreally helps the brand.
Jarrod Bravo (20:02):
if you ask any one person or company what their
favorite tech stack added toSalad House was, it would be
Ovation back in.
they're gonna have to pay me forthis,
Jeremy Julian (20:10):
Yeah.
Zach's been on the show too.
Good, dude.
but no, they're amazing.
And I think it's, but it's realtime feedback.
It's not this, let me go into a14 digit code that's on, it's
like real.
So
Jarrod Bravo (20:21):
we added
Jeremy Julian (20:21):
why it's so
Jarrod Bravo (20:22):
last August, so we haven't even been on with them
for a year yet.
And it's just been incredible.
Not only for our customers, butfor our franchisees.
They have all come to us and sayhow much they love it, because
we can handle a problemimmediately.
If a customer's unhappy, theyget a survey 30 minutes after
they've ordered.
They can voice theirfrustrations to us and we can
(20:43):
answer them right then andthere, and we could solve it
before it ever gets to a Googleplatform, a Yelp review, and not
just before it hits there.
We also want that customer.
We don't wanna lose thatcustomer and we wanna make them
happy and learn from ourmistakes, and we're able to give
them instant.
I can't tell you how many timesI've messaged someone within two
minutes of that messagingovation.
I'm like, hi, I'm Jared.
I'm the owner.
And they're like, oh my God.
(21:04):
I wasn't even expecting reply.
And the owner's replying to me.
Here's.
$5 off.
I'm gonna talk to my staff.
We're gonna work on thismistake.
Sorry, this was missing fromyour order, and it's just been
incredible for us.
so they keep track of anything,three stars and below.
They consider a losing customerand I can send them a reward and
I'll keep track if they orderagain and we win back.
(21:26):
Anyone who's left three stars orbelow, we've won back 96% of
those customers to come andorder from us again.
Jeremy Julian (21:32):
Yeah, it's incredible, especially in
today's day and age when trafficis down, people are struggling
to get new guests in the door.
You gotta keep the guests happythat you have.
And on any given day, any one ofour restaurants, there's tens of
thousands of them out there.
They're gonna have a bad day,they're gonna have produced a
bad product, they're gonna havenot read the receipt properly
and put tomatoes on a salad thatthey shouldn't have put tomatoes
(21:52):
on the salad and the guest isnow frustrated about it.
So being able to have a systemin place, not hey.
Text the owner.
again, I've seen the, Hey,here's the owner and now I gotta
drive there.
You're talking about 43% of yourorders, and I think he said 60
plus percent are from eitherfirst party or a third party.
They're not even coming into thedoor.
So you gotta be able tocommunicate with them.
(22:13):
And if you can't, you lose thosecustomers and they're gone
forever.
What other pieces of tech.
again, Jared, you brought upeven being able to change your
menu based on customer'sbehavior.
Talk to me a little bit abouthow, you said you guys
streamline your menu based onthe data.
Talk to me about where that camefrom.
'cause that, again, I think menubloat, you talked about early
days, you guys were selling,meatball subs and pizzas and
(22:35):
everything else.
How and why did that happen?
Jarrod Bravo (22:37):
Absolutely.
So again, this goes back to usopening up in Westfield.
It was, there was too manymoving parts.
We had create your own pizzas,chicken salad, salad bar.
The fryer station.
The grill station.
It was just way too much.
Jeremy Julian (22:49):
One of these days I wanna meet this guy because I,
dude, he sounds awesome, and atthe same time, doesn't want to
have to operate this every day.
So I'll let you keep going.
Jarrod Bravo (22:57):
so one of the first things we did, we got
toast and we just started pilingdata for three, three to six
months.
Tons of food, data.
What is everyone buying?
And we realized, hey, you knowwhat?
Joey's father-in-law reallyloved the calamari salad, loved
it so much.
We all loved it.
Guess what?
It doesn't sell.
Take it off the menu.
it, it's just because we loveyou.
(23:17):
You can't love a product.
That like you can love it, butif it's not selling, you gotta
be, you gotta be able todistance yourself from it and
realize it's not working foryour brand.
And we reduced our menu by 40%.
And it was such a game changer.
It made operations easier.
We were able to focus on do onthose things that we're selling.
We were able to focus on doingthose things correctly and
(23:37):
making them better because wedidn't have to worry about
making pizzas or making pastadishes at the salad concept.
And we were able to really honein on the food prep for the
salads and the things that we'reselling.
Since then, have we added, I'dsay we added on about 15% back
onto that menu, but we were ableto do it with a just very.
driven with a purpose, usingingredients that are already on
(23:59):
our menu, but maybe bringing itin a different sauce or just one
other item to make a whole newdifferent product.
So it's not operationally toughfor everybody, but it's easy to,
keep something new and freshingfor our customers.
Jeremy Julian (24:11):
Yeah, and I'd love for you to talk through how
you guys even manage that,because there's an emotional
component to the calamari saladand I see these brands that get
menu bloat and it's hard toexecute.
It's.
Impossible to franchise and growbeyond that, because that
original store might have hadthe space to do this calamari
salad, but now you guys aretrying to get into spaces that
(24:32):
might not be able to do that.
How did you guys walk throughthat journey internal to the
business?
Or are you guys just you knowwhat, it's data driven because
the data says one thing and thenthe owner's eh, I like that Mom
needs to be able to get hergrilled cheese with
Jarrod Bravo (24:44):
We definitely
Jeremy Julian (24:45):
though it never sells.
Jarrod Bravo (24:46):
we definitely bumped heads in our office about
what's staying on the menu orwhatnot, but at the end of the
day, we were all able to put ourdifferences aside and say this
is the data guys.
there's no what ifs here?
It's yes or no.
It sells, or it doesn't.
it's very clear cut.
And, some of the decisions weretough, but overall it was better
for the brand.
Jeremy Julian (25:04):
I love it.
So now let's talk growth.
Jared, how are you guys?
you talked about it in the onsetand when I asked about stores,
you guys have got what, six Ithink you said, in development
currently.
Where are you guys at on thatjourney and what does that look
like for potential franchisees?
What are you guys looking for?
You looking for investors thatare absentee?
You looking for investors thatare in the store?
Are you're looking for, Growinglike wildfire.
(25:25):
while we're recording this acouple weeks ago, Dave's hot
chicken sold for a billiondollars.
I remember talking with themwhen they were early on.
They had two stores and Iwatched them grow like wildfire,
Talk to me a little bit aboutwhere Salad House is at and
their franchising journey.
I.
Jarrod Bravo (25:39):
we don't mind either.
we prefer somebody who's, whowants to get his hands dirty.
Owner operators.
we just get along with thembetter because we're owner
operators.
Every single person on ourcorporate team owns or is
invested in a salad house andthey have equity and they've
gone there and worked the store.
So they see things from bothlenses.
but we're also not opposed toinvestors.
What we've come to realize nowthat we have 19 stores is we
(26:02):
have some.
Really good managers, saladchoppers that don't have room
for growth where they're atright now, because you know
they're running a great store,but they deserve an ownership so
we can get investors to backthem.
Maybe they give them a little 5%sweat equity'cause they're gonna
run the store and take it alloff them.
And it's been such a success forus.
(26:22):
we have one guy who wasfantastic actually working here
in Westfield.
him and his wife now own threefranchises'cause we set him up
with investors and he justcrushed it for them.
And now they're opening theirthird one in Wall Township, New
Jersey.
Jeremy Julian (26:35):
I love that.
That's awesome.
you also said that not only didyou start, you got a little bit
of equity, but I think you haveyour own store.
is that, so did I hear youcorrectly?
How do you manage that?
How do you manage both being onthe brand side and managing a
store?
That's gotta be tough.
Jarrod Bravo (26:48):
Yeah.
you need good people around you.
I was, I actually made themanager somebody I trained under
me in Morristown and I took himalong for me with that ride.
But, it, it wasn't easy.
And lemme tell you something, Ibelieved in this brand so much
and, I was a cashier.
I was working here.
We were a franchise.
We're not making any money.
I don't come from money.
I was saving every dollar.
I had to get to Montclair to apoint where I was like, tell my
(27:10):
wife, Hey, we're taking out thisloan.
I'm going to my friend.
I asked him for$30,000 just toget the store open.
But I believed in myself and, Iknew the brand and I opened it
in 2021.
it was during the pandemic.
I took a shot on myself.
I think'cause of that, maybe Igot a decent lease deal, which
kind of helped in my favor.
But, it's been a great success.
In the first six months I wasthere day and night, but I had
(27:32):
my guy Justin, who was trainingunder me in Morristown, and I
take care of him very well and.
He makes Montclair so easy forme.
I go in a couple days a week, Icheck in with my staff, see if
they need anything, make surethey're doing all right.
But he's really the heart of theoperation now and it surrounding
yourself with those good peoplesis how you can go on to do other
projects.
Jeremy Julian (27:54):
and you shared a little bit of kind of your guys'
unit economics.
if your average stores are doingover a million and a half in a
primarily salad, and I guessmeal periods, you guys are only
open for lunch and dinner, orare you guys open for breakfast
as well?
Jarrod Bravo (28:06):
Lunch and dinner.
All our stores are some open at11, some 10 o'clock, and we
close at either eight or nineo'clock.
Jeremy Julian (28:12):
Perfect.
so that's pretty serious volumein, this concept.
When I think about franchisegroups and I think about,
obviously there's some that arefranchise, Chick-fil-A and
McDonald's, they're doingsignificantly higher volume, but
a lot more expensive to open up,I'm sure, than a salad house.
you guys are doing prettysignificant volume.
It sounds like you guys areworking your way down the I 90.
Five corridor, is that kind ofwhere you guys are at or are you
guys looking to get outside ofeven the, the, I don't wanna say
(28:34):
tri-state'cause you're really, Iguess you're getting to Maryland
and Virginia now, that central,central east coast area.
Jarrod Bravo (28:39):
Yeah, look, if we have a pretty solid real estate
team behind us, Sabre RealEstate, they do a ton of,
demographics for us, whether itbe household incomes, daytime
working populations, what theaverage person will spend on a
meal.
Like, all that stuff's veryimportant to us.
We seem to strive when we'renear gyms, doctors' offices,
lawyers' offices, officebuildings, catering.
(29:00):
that's, we need the daytimepopulation.
70% of our business is lunch.
12 three, which is probablyopposite from a lot of
restaurants.
Monday through Friday.
We're booming Saturday andSunday.
we do well still, but we're notlike the sit down restaurants
where you're gonna go and youneed, you can't even get a
reservation.
That's not us.
Jeremy Julian (29:17):
Okay.
Yeah.
love it.
so what's the future look like,Jared?
What's the future look like, forthe brand?
I guess let's start there andthen I'd love to get a little
bit of your thoughts on thetech.
you probably keep an eye on someof those competitors like Sweet
Green, they had that store inChicago that was completely
autonomous.
No, no bodies inside and I don'tknow, it doesn't sound like you
guys are quite there on thatjourney, that was a huge
(29:37):
investment,
Jarrod Bravo (29:37):
We're not a fan of them, of the Rob Robots, not
Sweet Greens.
and in all fairness to a SweetGreen, a just salad, a chopped.
are we seeing what they'redoing?
Do I follow them on Instagram?
Of course.
But we're focused on being thebest version of Salad House.
I'm not trying to replicate asweet Green.
I'm not trying to be a chop.
I'm not trying to be a justsalad.
We're focused on us, we're andour customers, and we feel like
(29:58):
we've just built something alittle bit different than them,
and not that there we're anybetter or worse than them.
We're just, we're us, we'resalad house.
we're not trying to be the nextsweet green.
We're not trying to be the nextdrought or the,
Jeremy Julian (30:09):
Okay.
Yeah.
Awesome.
what else did we miss?
Jared, what else would you wantthe world, if this was their
first time hearing about saladhouse that you would want them
to, to hear about?
Jarrod Bravo (30:18):
yeah.
I think it just goes back to ourteam and how we're all invested.
Since we're still so young andgrowing our corporate team's, 12
people, you, we care about allof our franchisees.
you're part of our family.
You can get the owner, thefounder, me, our brand
marketing, our CMO, our CFO.
You can call us, you can textus.
we're just there.
We wanna see you succeed.
We're a small team and, we'renot some huge corporation yet.
(30:41):
we're not there.
hopefully maybe one day.
But, you're really getting,you're getting all of us and
we're dedicated to you, and thisis what we're focused on.
Jeremy Julian (30:48):
I love that.
last question that I ask any ofthe restaurant people, what is
the go-to one or two items?
If I'm coming into salad houseand it's my first time there, do
I, is there something on themenu yet that's the Jared
special?
that they can just order theJared special.
Maybe at your store you can justtell your staff and they know
what to get you.
But what would be the one or twothings that you would say if you
had never been to a salad house?
(31:09):
You have to check out because itjust sets you apart from some of
those other brands.
Jarrod Bravo (31:12):
honestly, the buffalo poppers.
I actually have a funny storyabout that.
I was actually, I was cominghome from a bar one night.
I was pretty drunk and I hadthese wonton wrappers in my
fridge and I had like Italiancold cuts.
I put like ham salamis, someItalian dressing, and I fried'em
up in a pan.
I was like, oh, these are prettygood.
So I started experimenting themwith them at the salad house,
but I was like, oh, the cold cutstuff's not working.
And I just did, buffalo chickenwas hot at the, it's super hot
(31:35):
now, but back in 2017 it wasjust getting.
Started and I started makingthese buffalo poppers and then
we put'em as a special and theybecame the number one selling
appetizer, on our menu acrossthe brand, across 10, 12 stores.
And people were coming in justfor those.
So I definitely suggest you trythose.
It's just some grilled chicken,some buffalo sauce, some pepper
jack cheese.
And this popper we give you ablue cheese or ranch.
(31:57):
So deep fried, it's a littleunique.
Jeremy Julian (31:59):
love it.
That sounds really good.
Jarrod Bravo (32:00):
as far as salads go, Fiesta chicken salad, once
it was added to our menu, it'sheld the number one spot for
probably a decade now you gotta,and it's like a Mexican inspired
salad.
You got romaine corn, blackbeans, tomato, avocado, some
black and grilled chicken.
Very good.
And back to that one thing thatkind of sets us apart, I forgot
to mention this.
proteins or chicken, steak,salmon, shrimp.
(32:24):
All grill to order.
You order that you can see theguy.
You can look through our window.
You can see him putting it onthe grill, salt and peppering
it.
It takes five.
Jeremy Julian (32:32):
not sitting in a lexan where somebody's scooping
it on top of the salad.
it's getting made while you're,while the rest of the salad's
getting prepared.
That's really cool.
Jarrod Bravo (32:39):
So if you order steak, you can go round to the
window.
You'll see the guy putting it onthe grill, salt and peppering
it, and then seeing himfinishing it on your salad.
Jeremy Julian (32:47):
That's incredible.
Jared, thank you so much forsharing the story.
thank you for, I honestly, Ilove watching entrepreneurs that
started young, started to figureit out, and really even those
people that are humble enough toadmit that they made mistakes
while they were going throughthis.
So thank you for sharing thatstory.
I can't, can't wait to get toone of the stores.
I know I said this to you priorto, jumping on'em.
Bum that I can't.
And when I stupid rev in hisfricking Instagram, I sit and
(33:09):
watch him and I'm like, dammit.
there's a concept local here inDallas that's, that's similar.
But, after I heard you talkabout some of these things, it's
oh, I gotta figure out how to gomake some of that stuff.
so I appreciate you sharing.
how, where do they go?
Check out, is it salad house.comto learn about franchising?
Is that where you guys are at?
Jarrod Bravo (33:22):
that is correct.
The salad house.com.
We have a franchising pagethere.
You can go link you right out toit.
Little form you fill out.
Someone will reach out to you ifyou're ever interested.
Jeremy Julian (33:31):
Awesome.
thank you again for your time.
To our listeners, guys, make ita great day.
Speaker (33:36):
Thanks for listening to The Restaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
Visit restaurant technologyguys.com for tips, industry
insights, and more to help yourun your restaurant better.
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