September 29, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guides podcast, Jeremy Julian, Chief Revenue Officer at CBS Northstar, interviews Frank Paci, CEO of Newk's Eatery. Frank shares insights from his extensive career in the restaurant industry, detailing Newk's history, menu innovations, operational strategies, and the brand's response to COVID-19. They discuss the importance of simplifying operations for consistency, leveraging technology like digital ordering and kiosks for customer convenience, and the significance of catering and delivery services. Frank also provides an overview of Newk's franchise opportunities and future growth plans.
00:00 Newks
01:17 Meet Frank Paci, CEO of Newk's Eatery
01:35 The Origin and Growth of Newk's Eatery
02:39 Dining Experience at Newk's
04:25 Menu Highlights and Innovations
06:39 Operational Simplifications and Quality Control
17:01 Adapting to COVID-19 and Evolving Business Strategies
20:21 Catering Business and Its Challenges
24:44 Technology and Future Growth
29:42 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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.
Are you ready to unlock thesecrets behind restaurant growth
and innovation?
In this episode, we dive deepwith the CEO of Newk's Eatery,
Frank, and we uncover somepractical tips, some real
(00:26):
incredible insights that he hasbeen able to acquire over his
entire career that spans back tomultiple brands and he's really
doing some amazing things atNewts.
Um, if you don't know me, myname is Jeremy.
Julian, I'm the Chief RevenueOfficer at CBS Northstar.
Wrote The North Star Point ofSale solution for multi-units.
Please check usout@cbsnorthstar.com and now
(00:49):
onto the episode.
Jeremy Julian (00:51):
Welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
As I say, each and every time,you guys have got lots of
choices.
So thanks for hanging out today.
I got a chance to speak to Frankbefore I hit the record button.
I'm gonna let him introducehimself, but, he is, leading a
brand that, is near and dear tomy heart.
once I moved to Texas, it becameone of the staples in our.
and our going out to eat typeof, environments.
(01:12):
But Frank, why don't youintroduce yourself before we
jump into kind of the brand thatyou get to lead nowadays.
Frank Paci (01:17):
Great, thank you.
yeah.
I'm Frank Paci.
I'm the CEO of Newk's Eatery.
been in the restaurant businessfor a long time.
I spent some time at, burgerKing, pizza Hut, McAllister's
Deli and Corner Bakery.
love the business and, happy tobe here to talk about it.
Jeremy Julian (01:32):
Awesome.
you, you shared a little bit ofthe history of where you're
working.
I'd love for you to walk, walkour audience through that,
because it's a, I don't say it'sa regional brand, but it hasn't
necessarily gotten to anationwide prominence quite yet
as far as Newks.
So where did it come from?
What is it, talk me through alittle bit of what the brand is
for those that haven't had the,the privilege to experience it.
Like my, my family and I
Frank Paci (01:50):
Right.
Yeah.
So Newk's was originally foundedin, uh, Jackson, Mississippi was
actually founded by the samefolks that founded McAllister's
Deli.
and so.
The Newcomb family foundedMcAllister's Deli, sold it off
to private equity, uh, and thendecided to create the Newk's
brand after their non-competeexpired.
Um, and Chris Newcomb, who wasthe founder of the business, uh,
(02:14):
used to say all the time that hefixed all the things that he
didn't like with, uh,McAllister's.
And so, one, as a brand,sandwiches, salad soups, pizza.
Which helps our dinner day part,on the business.
And, we're mainly in thesoutheast, have almost a hundred
locations, strong in,Mississippi, Alabama, Texas.
actually I have a great businessin, Atlanta metro area.
(02:36):
that's the story on Nuke.
Jeremy Julian (02:38):
Awesome.
And again, for those thathaven't experienced it,
primarily when I'm a dine-incustomer, it's, it's fast
casual, go up to the counterorder, call your number like a
McAllister's or a, a Panera or acorner breaker.
Um, again, for, for thatconsumer, that hasn't been
there, that's kind of theexperience, right.
Frank Paci (02:54):
Yeah.
So you order the counter, thenwe deliver the food to you.
it's a self-serve drinks.
One of the hallmarks of thebusiness is we have a basically
a 32 ounce, effectively, like astadium cup, that we'll rotate
in seasonally.
and so we have, self-servedrinks.
So the whole thought being that.
Uh, you know, you order yourfood, you get your drinks, you
sit at the table.
(03:15):
Hopefully the food is out therein a short period of time.
obviously, you know, we, wepride ourselves on having.
Uh, great quality food, um, andgreat service on, on the
business.
Uh, we have in store freebreadsticks if you come in and,
and get that.
We have a condiment bartypically where, um, you can get
Parmesan and, uh, differentsauces and, and spices and
(03:39):
things like that.
So, uh, uh, but that's, youknow, that's the, the brand.
It's, um, about 45% of ourbusiness is dine in.
Uh, 55 is off premise, includingabout.
12% in catering.
Uh, we do a nice, nice sizedcatering business as well, in
the area.
Um, do great catering during thehome games at, at SEC.
(04:01):
you know, especially for, youknow, founded in Oxford,
Mississippi.
The old misses, uh, is a great,uh, guest for us.
So.
Jeremy Julian (04:10):
That's funny.
I was, I was, one of my son'sfriends is an ole Ms.
Guy.
And he was actually over at thehouse last night, on summer
break.
And we were actually talkingabout your guys' brand.
I said, oh, I got this interviewwith the CEO.
And so he is oh, we love goingover there.
sounds like they, they'vepartaken during those SEC
football game weekend.
you mentioned menu selection.
Frank, I'd love to walk, ourlisteners through.
has pizza always been on themenu?
(04:30):
You talked about it part of thedilemma that I find with brands
that, that are primarily saladsand, and sandwiches is that they
only really hit it outta thepark during, the lunch period.
And then they struggle to evenstaff and bring people in during
the dinner period.
You mentioned that pizza helpswith that, that dinner period.
I guess first and foremost, haspizza always been on the menu?
I actually enjoy the pizzapersonally, and so for me, it's
(04:52):
one of my go-tos when I'm there.
So I'd love to understand, hasit been there, what does it
contribute to, just overall andwhy is it something that, that
you think differentiate youguys?
Frank Paci (05:02):
Yeah, it, it's always been on the menu.
Um.
Um, and I, to your point, if youlook at most fast casuals, they
do struggle at dinnertime.
and as you know, pizza tends toskew more dinner than lunch,
right?
And so, uh, now we do sell a lotof pizza at lunch.
Pizza's about 15% of our sales.
and one of the things that wedo.
(05:22):
Uh, from a value standpoint iswe do a pairings.
Um, so it's, you know, we do ahalf pairings where you can do
half sandwich and cup of soup orhalf salad.
Um, but we also do a largepairings where we, you know, one
of, we do a large sandwich whereyou can get a large sandwich and
a half salad and a cup of soup,but we also do a pizza.
Where you can get a pizza and asalad, for example, as a, and
(05:45):
they're all kind of one price.
Now, when you get the premiumitems, there's a premium
upcharge.
So if you get our spicy shrimppizza as an example, there's an
an upcharge for that.
Uh, but, and we'll run,campaigns obviously to try to
drive.
So the great news about.
A pizza dinner.
Uh, one of the things we do as afamily meal deal is two pizzas
and a Caesar salad, which we'llrun for, between 20 and$24, uh,
(06:09):
depending on the market thatwe're in.
which when we run thosepromotions, we'll see Additi
incremental sales in the dinnertime, which is great'cause we've
got, you know, the staff there.
And if we can drive those sales,uh, that's a great thing for us
to do.
So, uh, you know, and it's also.
You know, we have a kids' pizza,which is great for kids, right?
So there's some, there's a lotof different functions that the
(06:31):
pizza actually performs for ourbusiness.
So.
Jeremy Julian (06:33):
No, and I think it's great because it does, give
you the ability to have thatdifferentiation.
If I'm not feeling like asandwich or I'm not feeling like
a salad.
And even for me, it's like I,and the other thing I guess I'd
love to understand is how do youguys keep the quality as high as
you do?
Because it's the product itself,both on the pizza side and
really even in just thesandwiches and salads you guys
have some of the best qualityfast casual food.
I'm saying this as a fan of thebrand, but it really is one of
(06:56):
those things where.
At the price point, you guyshave done a really good job of
ensuring that it's fresh, it'sclean, the brand is always
really clean.
every time I've ever been highlevel of service, you've got
this condiment bar.
Is it, how do you guys ma manageto keep the quality as high as
you do, Frank?
Frank Paci (07:13):
Part of it is.
Is, uh, is simplifying theoperation, right?
I mean, the, the big challengeyou've got in the restaurant
business, right, is everybodyknows the hourly folks turn over
a lot, right?
And so if you're not, um, makingthe operations, uh, simple, uh,
it's really difficult toexecute.
So our cooking platform, youknow, so.
(07:33):
It's interesting.
We don't have any microwaves instore.
Okay.
Our cooking platform isprimarily a conveyor ovens,
right?
So we'll have a conveyor stackovens, the pizzas go on one
level, the sandwiches go onanother level.
Um, and it's, you know, you makethe, you make up the sandwich on
the right side, run it through,and then you top it when it gets
out with the lettuce and tomatoand whatever it gets topped
(07:55):
with, right?
And so I think, you know, partof that, and then, you know, we
use top premium qualityingredients, right?
I mean, if you look at.
The Turkey that we're buying thechicken, you know, we're buying
fresh chicken and, and cookingit up, right?
We're, we have shrimp, we have,uh, salmon, uh, on the menu,
which, if you look at most ofthe fast casual guys out there,
(08:15):
they're not running those kindof proteins like we are.
And but like I said, we've triedto make it as simple as possible
so that you can get theconsistency, of the product and
design, design it in a way thatit's hard to screw it up, let's
put it that way.
Jeremy Julian (08:29):
Well, and that's the thing that I, I think as you
grow outside of your coremarket, it, you do have to
simplify.
So you talked a lot about kindof your guys' cooking
corporation and kind of whatother areas did you simplify?
You've been at the brand, Ithink a little over four years
now.
What are the things, did youfind Frank that.
You've seen at Newts that you'vebeen able to simplify to help
operators to, to be moreeffective.
(08:49):
'cause even before we hit therecord button, you and I were
talking about just some of thesethings that you're like, well,
if we make it hard for thesehourly employees, they turn over
more often because it's hard,it's a hard job and they don't
necessarily want to be there.
Um, so figuring out how tosimplify.
So primarily in food prep orwhere, where are the other areas
that you guys said, Hey, let'sgo make this simpler for our
team members?
Frank Paci (09:08):
Yeah, I mean it's both food prep and recipe,
right?
So we used to do a lot of.
Of prep, like we'd get a 40pound block of cheese in and
slice that down, and then,everything would then run
through the oven.
So to me it's really about.
What's the final product thatthe guest gives?
How do we differentiateourselves with that product?
Right?
So when we talk about havingbetter quality proteins and
(09:30):
whatever, that's part of theexperience.
Having the, our, you know, ourbread is going through the oven
and, and, and getting kind ofcooked as part of that.
So when you're getting asandwich from Newk's on our
Parisian roll, it is a, thewarm, the bread's warm, the
proteins are warm.
All those things give you, Ithink those.
Signals of quality andfreshness, uh, that it's made
(09:52):
just for you.
You know, our salads areabundant and, you know, we use,
you know, fresh on, on all thosethings.
So, but as an example, um, thatI show of, of ways to do that
is, uh, when I, you know, I getthere, I always look at, one of
the things we always look at isactual versus theoretical cost,
right?
And, and that's something whereyou're training the kitchen
(10:12):
employees to say, Hey, here'sthe spec.
Make the product to the spec.
Right?
The reason we've made it to aspec is because we feel like
that spec is what the guest is,is expecting from us.
So, as an example, I noticedthat we were wasting pepperoni
and I'm saying, okay, great.
How are we wasting pepperoni?
and then, uh, then I had a, atheory that says, okay, great,
(10:32):
well, on our pepperoni pizza, weuse 12 slices of pepperoni.
On our sausage and pepperoni, weonly put spec six.
And so I ordered from.
Four different restaurants andthree of the four, when the
pizza came, it had 12 slices ofpepperoni on the sausage and
pepperoni.
And we said, okay, so what'sgoing on here?
It's hard to train these guys toput 12 on one, on six on
(10:54):
another.
Let's just put 12.
Okay?
The guest is gonna get more.
Let protein, I can price itaccordingly.
And it makes it easier for us totrain if I'm not say, Hey, do
this one, this one and that,'cause then that person's gotta
remember that, right?
When we've got job aids and allthose other kinds of things like
everybody does.
But I think there's ways whereyou can design the processes to
(11:16):
make it simpler for consistentexecution at the store and know
what your cost of goods is gonnabe on those things.
Jeremy Julian (11:22):
Yeah.
And I think it's amazing, andagain, you, you and I shared
prior to hit and record, justthe fact that you evaluate those
things.
And I think all too often I seebrands that kind of set it and
forget it and hope that, youknow, they don't go back and
look at the data to be able tomake decisions and then go
figure out what is it and is itsomething, because quite
honestly, and I'm, I'm gonna saythis, not to be rude, there's a
(11:42):
lot of people that would justsay, just train them better.
Just tell them to go put sixpepperonis on the half, versus
your idea that says, no, let'smake it simpler for that end
user to make it better productfor the end consumer.
We're gonna raise the price alittle bit to, to cover that
extra cost.
But, all too often I've seenoperators, it's like, well,
people are just dumb out there.
We just need to make them do itbetter.
(12:03):
Um, and I love the fact thatyou've said no.
Let's figure out how to make itsimpler for that, that team
member that is turning over asoften.
Is that kind of just yourphilosophy in general is how do
I make it as simple for the enduser as possible?
Frank Paci (12:14):
Yes.
it's always been, I had thisepiphany when I was working at a
previous brand that if you thinkof everything on a, like a two
by two, right?
There's differentiation and thenthere's operational complexity,
right?
I wanna live in thedifferentiation, high
differentiation and lowoperational complexity, right?
(12:36):
So even when we look at LTOproducts, we're evaluating those
LTO products is gonna be, Hey,is this gonna be, is this gonna
be a differentiated productthat's gonna be easy to execute
versus a differentiated productthat's gonna be difficult to
execute, right?
I can.
I can make great products in thetest kitchen with the chef,
right?
But can I replicate that in ahundred stores across with, 17
(12:59):
year olds, 18 year olds, runningthe business, right?
Jeremy Julian (13:02):
Yeah, who started, who started 48 hours
Frank Paci (13:04):
absolutely.
So there's a lot of things likethat.
And then, there, and so to yourpoint, it's always kinda looking
and saying, what can we do?
one of my other, one of myothers is, we have a great
Italian sandwich.
I mean, tons of flavor on that.
When I got there, um.
One of the things that I lookfor on actual versus
theoretical, I can tell youright, the stuff you use the
most is gonna have the mostdollar amount, right?
(13:26):
I'd flip that around, say, okay,where do I have the most
percentage waste?
Right?
If I'm wasting 50% of something,it may not be a lot of dollars,
but obviously there's somethingwrong in the process where I'm
wasting something there.
I'm wasting 50% and one of thethings that popped out was on
this Italian sandwich, there wasa Mortadella CAPA Cola.
salami and ham, right?
(13:47):
And you know, we're using oneounce of Mortadella, one ounce
of capital.
Well guess what?
We were wasting 50%'cause we'renot using it fast enough because
it's not being used anywhereelse.
so I went to our founder, Chris,and said, Hey.
You know, we're wasting all thisstuff.
I think, you know, we got tonsof flavor on this with the
sauces.
I think we had a, you know,double doubled the salami,
(14:08):
remove the, the capa cola andthe pepperoni and put some more
ham on that.
Right.
And I think, you know, with allthe sauces, I think you're still
gonna have a great product.
and he was like, oh my God, youcan't, you know, it's one of my
favorite sandwiches.
We can't do this.
Right.
And so, uh, we, we made thechanges'cause we were, like I
said, we're just costing us alot of money on that.
Right.
Three months later, I get anemail from it.
(14:29):
It looks like the Italiansandwich sales are going up.
I said, well, part of that, partof that, Chris is, is that not
all the guests know whatMortadella is, right?
I know from a culinarystandpoint, that's an elevated
product, but if I'm a guest andI don't know what is, I'm
probably not gonna order thatsandwich.
You've made it a much moreaccessible sandwich and it's
still a great sandwich.
Right, and so, I mean, just kindof different things that you can
(14:52):
look at from a culinary, I'vealways kinda looked at.
What I'll call a culinary ops tosay, okay, great.
Here's what we're doingculinarily.
Here's what's happeningoperations wise.
How do we close that gap so thatwe can make sure we can execute
it on a regular
Jeremy Julian (15:08):
and I think it's a great example, Frank, where
you killed a darling that mighthave, in some places, not they,
they might not have had theconfidence that says, Hey, this
Italian is great, and if we wereto just tweak it, you know, by
this 10% or 20%, you're gonnaend up having a more consistent
product that you're selling moreof.
I love the fact that you werebold enough to go to the founder
and say that, because I find.
(15:28):
All too often people go, mygrandmother always eats the
grilled cheese, bacon, grilledcheese, and I can't take the
bacon grilled cheese off.
I don't care how hard it is toexecute.
We're never gonna, or we'regonna always slice the cheese.
'cause that's the way we startedwith the fact that you're able
and willing to, evaluate thosestandards that they had because
it really didn't change thebrand that much.
(15:49):
It, you know, it, it actuallymade it harder to execute and
harder to keep it consistent.
And so, um,
Frank Paci (15:54):
you could re, I could re, I could reinvest those
dollars somewhere else, right?
Because that, part of thisright, is, we all know the
challenges in this business oflabor costs and product costs
and whatever, right?
You there, there's, if you'regot inefficiencies on there, if
you can figure out how to limitthose.
Inefficiencies, you couldactually invest that money
(16:15):
somewhere else, right?
And so, yeah, no, do I wannaspend more money on, on training
this stuff?
training's an important part ofthe business, right?
but if I'm gonna train somebodythat to, to do something that's
gonna be difficult for them todo, it'd much, much rather make
it be simpler for them to do
Jeremy Julian (16:31):
Yeah, I love
Frank Paci (16:32):
with well without, and also without degrading the
quality, right?
that's
Jeremy Julian (16:35):
with, without, you've gotta take the guess into
effect and the fact that youguys are willing to test those
things.
But again, I find all too oftenif you're like, well, this is
who we are.
We're not changing it.
It's like, well, is that reallywho you need to be to compete in
today's day and age?
And I think we have found otherbrands that never were able to
get off that mark and evaluate.
The, kind of the standards andthey go, you know, they go the
(16:56):
way of the Doda bird becausenobody's willing to challenge
who, who they are and what theydid in the past.
Frank Paci (17:02):
I think, talking about COVID and whatever, right?
COVID forced some of this stuff,right?
There were certain things thatyou had to do to survive through
COVID and, it transformed ourbusiness from being more dine
into more off premise, but also.
You know, it made you look atthe menu and say things like,
you know, things like that.
(17:23):
Probably if it wasn't for COVID,would we have changed the
account?
I don't know.
Right.
But I think there were thingslike that, which is to say, hey,
you know, it's a great lesson tosay, Hey, always question what
it is that you're doing, and.
And how do you, how do youevolve, right?
Because the brands arecontinually evolving.
I mean, I, you know, I look at,look back and say, Hey, the menu
(17:44):
used to have this on it.
Now it has this, the consumertastes evolve, right?
And, and how do you access thebrand?
what's the definition ofconvenience, right?
As you continue to, to look at,uh, the, the guest's Right?
I mean, I laugh because, Ialways tell people, Hey, I got a
newspaper delivered every dayuntil I didn't.
and so you, it's things likethat where, things are always
(18:05):
changing.
If your brand is not evolvingwith that, I think you could get
left behind.
Jeremy Julian (18:10):
Well, and you, you told me a story that I'd
love for you to share with ouraudience, Frank, about pre
COVID, where, you know, salesfell off the cliff once COVID
hit and as they were pickingback up, you guys maintained
your off-premise business, butpicked back up and, on, on the
dine-in, you know, when prior toCOVID, I think you'd shared with
me you guys were more than 50%in Dine-in, and now you're more
than 50% off-prem.
(18:31):
And I'd love to have you bothtell that story and then talk
about the lessons that youlearned.
Both from a menu selectionperspective and even from a
staffing perspective for ourlisteners.
Frank Paci (18:40):
so two things happened, right?
Uh, so, so I wasn't there duringCOVID, so I can just tell you
anecdotally what happened,right?
From looking at the historical.
Trends.
But basically if you, I used todo a sta, I did a stack chart,
and I still do a stack chartwhich says, here's how much is
to go, here's how much is onpremise.
Here's how much is digital,here's how much is delivery.
Right?
Well, obviously, you know, weare 60% dine in, well the day
(19:03):
COD hits, that's 60% goes tozero.
Right.
And what you see is you see theimmediately jump in digital
ordering and, and to go anddelivery right.
Jumps up.
And then as.
as COVID starts to unwind, youstart to see the dine-in
business start to slowly pickup.
But what you don't see is youdon't see any change in the
(19:26):
off-premise business basically.
So, you know, it's one of thesethings where maybe the guest had
never tried to do digitalordering, had never tried to do
these kind of things, and theyhad no choice but.
To make those.
And once they did it, they said,Hey, you know what, this is much
more convenient.
And you know, I, I, I like thisexperience.
And so that stayed, but thedine-in kind of built back.
(19:47):
And so when you look at kind ofhistorically what's happened to
our sales, you know, we'verecovered the dine-in, but kept
the delivery and I think untilkind of almost, the middle of
last year, then you started tosee.
The delivery and kind of maybedine-in leveled up.
'cause there was still some ofthat is what I would call
normalization to, to pre COVIDtimes.
(20:10):
and obviously it's different bylocation.
certain locations do a lot morecatering than other locations
do.
But that's just an average whenyou look at it.
Jeremy Julian (20:17):
Well, and I, that was really where my next line of
questioning was going, Frank.
Is, is, is I've talked withother CEOs both on the show and
just kind of in life about theircatering business.
Catering has been hard to getback for a lot of brands.
Help me understand how you guyswere able to not only maintain
some of the catering businessbecause.
Not all offices are back to theoffice.
Not everybody's kind.
(20:37):
You know, so much of cateringwas during meal periods, during
the lunch period.
It was catering this businessmeeting and those kind of
things.
You guys obviously have beenable to figure out, at least in
some stores how to do that.
How has that been effective?
Product selection.
Selection is always easy, youknow, am I gonna have, you got
soup, you got salads, you gotsandwiches.
Those typically travel reallywell.
Pizza travels really well, youknow, so that that put you guys
(20:58):
in the top percent there.
And even going back out andselling catering has not been
easy for a lot of brands andthey've struggled to make back
to those pre COVID numbers oreven, many of'em are just like,
you know what, we're not evendoing catering.
And it's very productive.
It ends up, leveling out some ofyour sales volume.
So how have you guys been soeffective at doing that?
Frank Paci (21:16):
It's really, been a combined focus.
we have a director of cateringsales.
He does a fantastic job, hasgreat relationships, but we've
also.
So leaned heavily on ezCater,and the ezCater business and
really looking at stores on a.
semi-monthly basis to say, okay,where are we in the queue and do
we wanna spend some additionalmoney to promote, uh, where we
(21:39):
get on the ECA business?
So that's really, been one ofthe ways that we've picked it
up.
And I, and, and as you said, Imean, I think our product lends
itself to catering, right?
So, um, and we've also doneproduct development.
We added wraps as a, uh, as anadditional product because we
know that that travels well forcatering, which we didn't have
wraps until.
A fourth quarter of last year.
(22:00):
Right.
So that was, part of that was,you know, when we look at, think
of menu innovation.
The menu innovation is what dowe do?
And we're actually looking at,at different packaging for
catering.
Right?
So we can do some, we actuallydo some hot catering where we
do.
Uh, sliders where, you know, wewill, we'll provide the protein
hot, so like for the Newk's qwith the chicken and the Q sauce
(22:22):
comes in there.
And then we'll give you smallbuns where you can make your own
sliders as part of it.
So, so part of that is part ofit's packaging, part of it is
menu innovation, and part of itis, um, using the resources like
ezCater.
uh, to grow that business and,and just, you know, building the
relationships.
Uh, we have some franchisees doa phenomenal job on catering,
so.
Jeremy Julian (22:41):
and for those that have not made that
investment, what, I mean it, I'mcertain it contributes both to
the top line and to the bottomline of those stores that, with
the franchise groups that aredoing that is that, I guess for
those that are sitting out here,they're like, Hey, we don't have
a catering business on.
I haven't made that investment.
that might be running adifferent brand.
Why would you encourage them toconsider making that investment?
Frank Paci (22:59):
one of the challenges is obviously ezCater
charges you commission, right?
and so there are some challengewith that.
But the other part of that, thenwe've also leaned on deliver
that to actually deliver.
'cause one of the challengeswith catering is if is that la
the last mile of catering tosay, how do I get that to the
guest without taking my manageroutta the store during my key
(23:21):
lunch?
Time period.
And
Jeremy Julian (23:23):
because nobody wants catering at 9:00
Frank Paci (23:24):
Yeah.
Jeremy Julian (23:25):
a lunch meeting.
Frank Paci (23:25):
yeah, we've actually done where we've got, we've
leveraged kind of outsizedoutsource resources on both
ezCater and deliver that to, toleverage that.
We've had franchisees who use,DoorDash to drivers to, to
deliver catering, ahead of thepeak lunchtime.
And, typically the cateringorder is a significantly larger
order.
(23:46):
So when we look at that, whereyou also.
Kinda leveraging labor, right?
So when you look at it and say,okay, great, yeah, I'm paying a
commission and I'm paying someof these other things.
But if you look at that asincremental sales, it's, we
think it's profitable.
It, it might make less as apercentage, but from a dollar
margins, I learned a long timeago, you take dollars to the
(24:06):
bank, not percentages to thebank, right?
Jeremy Julian (24:08):
try and remind my team that all the time, it's you
know what, if I'm gonna makethis amount on the same device,
I don't care if it's, 10% less.
we're just working from adifferent cost basis than we
are.
to your point, I don't deliver,I don't deposit percentages, I
deposit dollars.
Frank Paci (24:20):
Yeah.
When we, yeah, when we look at,when we look at sales, I mean
managing, uh, labor on a salesper labor hour basis, right.
when, when we manage that, we doa different factor on the
catering orders'cause you'rekind of doing that bulk assembly
as opposed to, you know, in theline of fire, at the heat of
lunch kind.
You know, making sandwiches andsalads, right?
A little bit, a little bitdifferent in terms of the effort
(24:41):
that goes into that.
So.
Jeremy Julian (24:44):
Awesome.
One last, thread, Frank.
You guys have recentlyreinvested, in the system in
kind of tech to make techenabled.
I know, you and I talked alittle bit about putting kiosks
out.
Talk to me a little bit aboutthe thought process to going
there, because again, as aconsumer.
It's a, you know, it issomething convenient.
You know, you talked about thatbeing one of the pillars that
you always think about.
(25:04):
Why was both, you know, havingan app and having, you know, the
ability to order on ezCater somany different ways to make the
brand accessible, includingin-store kiosk.
Why was that something you guysconsidered going after in your,
in your concept?
Frank Paci (25:16):
again, to me it's one of the keys has always been
about convenience, right?
And so to me, I wanna be able tomeet the guests on how they want
to do it.
They want to get delivery,that's great if they want to
get, pick it up in store, ifthey want to order at the kiosk.
obviously at lunchtime we, wewill get, we'll tend to get
lines right.
having an extra.
(25:37):
Place to order.
And it's interesting, I, I wasactually in the store once and
their, the cashier was availableand the person said, Hey, they
wanted, they wanted to use thekiosk, right?
And so, you know, I look at, youknow, and this kind of gets
into, you know, different agegroups, right?
I mean, I look at.
Uh, some of the, the youngerfolks today, and they'd much
rather text than talk on thephone, right?
(25:58):
When I was, when I was comingup, you talked on the phone,
right?
They want to text, so they wantto have that, they don't want to
have that interaction, or theydon't wanna feel that pressure
of, Hey, I have to I'm holdingup the line here.
I have to make this toughdecision of whether I want a
pizza or a sandwich, or a soupat Newk's.
I can go over the kiosk and takemy time and not feel that
pressure right.
behind me.
(26:19):
And, and so, you know, just, Ithink, I think it's one of those
things is that we do, we, wealso have, you can order from
the table, right?
Because I mean, I, I alwaysthink about the fact that my
phone is a kiosk, right?
And so I can order it fromanywhere.
and we still take phone orderstoo.
I mean, so if you think about, Imean, it's funny'cause we'll
look at these daily reports.
It's okay, great.
(26:39):
I had a phone order, I had agrab and go order.
I had a digital pickup order.
I had a order to go in thestore.
I had a dine-in order.
I had a, I had a.
Newk's.com delivery.
I had a third party deliveryorder.
It's oh my God, how manydifferent ways do you want to
access that?
but the reality is that, theguest wants to access it in
different ways.
And we're trying to make that asconvenient as possible for them.
Jeremy Julian (27:00):
Well, and I think, like you said earlier,
you made it easy for the, forthe staff members too.
'cause you guys have integratedthe stack so that it, it comes
through as if it was a cashierorder.
It's not this disconnectedsystems where they're having to
manage 12 different systems.
I know that was part of yourguys' reinvestment.
So not only are you making iteasier, easier for the staff
members, but you guys are alsospending the time to make it
easier for the consumer.
so what's the future?
Hold Frank for Newts.
(27:21):
Like, where are you guys at?
Where are you guys growing?
talk to me a little bit aboutwhat does the growth trajectory
look like and what are you guyslooking for in potential
business partners to help, helpmake the brand more accessible?
Frank Paci (27:30):
Yeah, I mean, obviously one of the key, the
keys for us is to get the right,uh, franchise.
Partners in this business,right?
And so I think there's a, a lotof opportunity, you know, fast
casual continues to grow as abusiness.
I think there's a lot ofopportunity for, folks out there
who are in the restaurantbusiness who want to grow with
a, with a great brand to growwith the Newk's brand.
I mean, we're obviously strongin the southeast, but we're
(27:52):
looking to expand, up from ourcore base.
So lots of opportunities in theCarolinas for us.
in, we're already in Tennessee,but Tennessee, Kentucky, uh,
from Texas up into, we've gotone store in Oklahoma.
We've actually just signed afranchisee in, in Kansas.
Uh, and we've got a new storethat opening in, uh, north
(28:12):
Georgia as well, that kind ofgoing into South Carolina.
So, uh, and we have, we have astrong presence in North
Florida.
So I think there's a, you know,for me it's always easier to, to
grow from your contiguous,especially with distribution
and.
All those kind of things wherepeople already know the brand.
So it's, I, I love when we poston social media and we'll get
(28:33):
all these, bring, bring theNewk's to this town and that
town.
Right?
So it's great.
You, you, you feel, feel greatthat they've got kind of this
pent up demand to, to go toplaces.
And, uh, you know, one of thethings we've done is we've also
modified the concept because nowthat we don't do as much.
Uh, on premise, we can do it ina smaller facility.
(28:53):
So we've actually got somesmaller locations that we've
opened, uh, that are, are, youknow, great'cause obviously it's
lower construction costs, loweroccupied occupancy costs on
those things which kind of makethe store, uh, unit level
economics be better.
So.
Jeremy Julian (29:09):
Yeah, I love that.
and where would people learnmore?
How do people engage to figureout how to learn more about
kinda what the franchise systemmight look like?
if, if they're at that placewhere they're like, I love that
concept.
I've been, I was at it, an oldmiss game, and I had it, now I
gotta go.
I went there and now I want onelocal.
What does that look like?
Is it just jumping on the
Frank Paci (29:27):
Yeah, if you, yeah, if you go to Newks.com, at the
top there's a franchise you canpull up.
We actually have a walkthroughthat you can walk through a
restaurant and see that.
and, yeah, that's the best wayto do that.
And we'll have someone get incontact with you if that's
where, if you're interested inthat.
Jeremy Julian (29:42):
Wonderful.
for my restaurant people, Ialways ask this question, what's
your go-to menu item?
And for those that, what's yourpersonal and then what's your,
Hey, somebody's never been tono's.
What should they, what shouldthey experience?
Frank Paci (29:52):
Well, it's interesting.
My personal is the Newk's Qpizza, which was actually, we
had the nu the, our top sellingsandwich is the Newk's Q.
So if you don't know anythingabout Newk's, you need to do the
Newk's Q or the Newk's favoritesalad, which is the bestselling
salad.
Um, but one of our employees,long-term employees said, you
know that the Newk's cube is awhite barbecue sauce.
(30:14):
That would be great on a pizza.
And so we actually, as at thatemployee suggestion, we made a
pizza and it's like our thirdbestselling pizza, the Newk's
cube, because it, it's a, it's aunique pizza product.
It's a.
You know, white barbecue sauce,chicken, bacon and, and
jalapenos.
So, uh, when I'm going toNewk's, that's my favorite.
So, uh, I know that I can eat awhole one at a setting, but it's
(30:36):
great'cause then I get to haveit twice.
So,
Jeremy Julian (30:39):
I love it.
I love it.
thank you for sharing.
every time I talk to restaurantpeople, they're like, oh, I can
tell you my favorite.
And then, half the time theywanna modify it, they take that
next cube, but they're like, oh,you gotta put extra jalapenos on
it.
or tell'em to mix in someregular barbecue sauce to it.
Or, my wife used to work atIn-N-Out, growing up and so I
always tease her'cause she'salways got, she doesn't eat
cheeseburgers.
This.
Anywhere else the same way shedoes at Inn Out, same thing with
(31:00):
her fries.
She doesn't have'em the same waythat she hasn't, but she worked
at Inn Out and so she squeezesLemon on'em and it's like this
weird thing.
I'm like, babe, you never putLemon on anything else but at
In-N-Out because you spend somany hours there, you end up
coming up with some crazycreations.
Frank Paci (31:12):
It is amazing the number of modifications that we
get on products, right?
which is great.
that's.
that's part of it.
Make it your own.
And yeah, it's funny'causeyou'll see this and say, oh, I
want this, add this, take thisoff of it.
It's oh my God.
Yeah, absolutely.
So you, then you wonder whyevery once in a while the
order's not accurate becauseyou're like standing on your
head to do the thing.
(31:33):
But, you gotta work on it.
all the time.
Jeremy Julian (31:35):
I love it.
Frank, thank you so much forsharing the story.
I love, uh, I, again, I I, I'm ahuge fanboy myself.
I have some of those stadiumcups in my, uh, in my pantry are
just in the other side of thatwall, and I wish I would've
grabbed one to show it to you.
on the show to our listeners,guys, we know that you guys got
lots of choices, so thanks forhanging out.
Um, if you haven't alreadychecked out newts.com, check out
their franchising webpage.
great concept.
(31:56):
I would highly encourage youguys if you guys are in the
franchising space to check itout.
Again, if you haven't alreadysubscribed, please do so and
make it a great day.
Speaker (32:04):
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.
Are you ready to unlock thesecrets behind restaurant growth
and innovation?
In this episode, we dive deepwith the CEO of Newk's Eatery,
Frank, and we uncover somepractical tips, some real
(00:26):
incredible insights that he hasbeen able to acquire over his
entire career that spans back tomultiple brands and he's really
doing some amazing things atNewts.
Um, if you don't know me, myname is Jeremy.
Julian, I'm the Chief RevenueOfficer at CBS Northstar.
Wrote The North Star Point ofSale solution for multi-units.
Please check usout@cbsnorthstar.com and now
(00:49):
onto the episode.
Jeremy Julian (00:51):
Welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
As I say, each and every time,you guys have got lots of
choices.
So thanks for hanging out today.
I got a chance to speak to Frankbefore I hit the record button.
I'm gonna let him introducehimself, but, he is, leading a
brand that, is near and dear tomy heart.
once I moved to Texas, it becameone of the staples in our.
and our going out to eat typeof, environments.
(01:12):
But Frank, why don't youintroduce yourself before we
jump into kind of the brand thatyou get to lead nowadays.
Frank Paci (01:17):
Great, thank you.
yeah.
I'm Frank Paci.
I'm the CEO of Newk's Eatery.
been in the restaurant businessfor a long time.
I spent some time at, burgerKing, pizza Hut, McAllister's
Deli and Corner Bakery.
love the business and, happy tobe here to talk about it.
Jeremy Julian (01:32):
Awesome.
you, you shared a little bit ofthe history of where you're
working.
I'd love for you to walk, walkour audience through that,
because it's a, I don't say it'sa regional brand, but it hasn't
necessarily gotten to anationwide prominence quite yet
as far as Newks.
So where did it come from?
What is it, talk me through alittle bit of what the brand is
for those that haven't had the,the privilege to experience it.
Like my, my family and I
Frank Paci (01:50):
Right.
Yeah.
So Newk's was originally foundedin, uh, Jackson, Mississippi was
actually founded by the samefolks that founded McAllister's
Deli.
and so.
The Newcomb family foundedMcAllister's Deli, sold it off
to private equity, uh, and thendecided to create the Newk's
brand after their non-competeexpired.
Um, and Chris Newcomb, who wasthe founder of the business, uh,
(02:14):
used to say all the time that hefixed all the things that he
didn't like with, uh,McAllister's.
And so, one, as a brand,sandwiches, salad soups, pizza.
Which helps our dinner day part,on the business.
And, we're mainly in thesoutheast, have almost a hundred
locations, strong in,Mississippi, Alabama, Texas.
actually I have a great businessin, Atlanta metro area.
(02:36):
that's the story on Nuke.
Jeremy Julian (02:38):
Awesome.
And again, for those thathaven't experienced it,
primarily when I'm a dine-incustomer, it's, it's fast
casual, go up to the counterorder, call your number like a
McAllister's or a, a Panera or acorner breaker.
Um, again, for, for thatconsumer, that hasn't been
there, that's kind of theexperience, right.
Frank Paci (02:54):
Yeah.
So you order the counter, thenwe deliver the food to you.
it's a self-serve drinks.
One of the hallmarks of thebusiness is we have a basically
a 32 ounce, effectively, like astadium cup, that we'll rotate
in seasonally.
and so we have, self-servedrinks.
So the whole thought being that.
Uh, you know, you order yourfood, you get your drinks, you
sit at the table.
(03:15):
Hopefully the food is out therein a short period of time.
obviously, you know, we, wepride ourselves on having.
Uh, great quality food, um, andgreat service on, on the
business.
Uh, we have in store freebreadsticks if you come in and,
and get that.
We have a condiment bartypically where, um, you can get
Parmesan and, uh, differentsauces and, and spices and
(03:39):
things like that.
So, uh, uh, but that's, youknow, that's the, the brand.
It's, um, about 45% of ourbusiness is dine in.
Uh, 55 is off premise, includingabout.
12% in catering.
Uh, we do a nice, nice sizedcatering business as well, in
the area.
Um, do great catering during thehome games at, at SEC.
(04:01):
you know, especially for, youknow, founded in Oxford,
Mississippi.
The old misses, uh, is a great,uh, guest for us.
So.
Jeremy Julian (04:10):
That's funny.
I was, I was, one of my son'sfriends is an ole Ms.
Guy.
And he was actually over at thehouse last night, on summer
break.
And we were actually talkingabout your guys' brand.
I said, oh, I got this interviewwith the CEO.
And so he is oh, we love goingover there.
sounds like they, they'vepartaken during those SEC
football game weekend.
you mentioned menu selection.
Frank, I'd love to walk, ourlisteners through.
has pizza always been on themenu?
(04:30):
You talked about it part of thedilemma that I find with brands
that, that are primarily saladsand, and sandwiches is that they
only really hit it outta thepark during, the lunch period.
And then they struggle to evenstaff and bring people in during
the dinner period.
You mentioned that pizza helpswith that, that dinner period.
I guess first and foremost, haspizza always been on the menu?
I actually enjoy the pizzapersonally, and so for me, it's
(04:52):
one of my go-tos when I'm there.
So I'd love to understand, hasit been there, what does it
contribute to, just overall andwhy is it something that, that
you think differentiate youguys?
Frank Paci (05:02):
Yeah, it, it's always been on the menu.
Um.
Um, and I, to your point, if youlook at most fast casuals, they
do struggle at dinnertime.
and as you know, pizza tends toskew more dinner than lunch,
right?
And so, uh, now we do sell a lotof pizza at lunch.
Pizza's about 15% of our sales.
and one of the things that wedo.
(05:22):
Uh, from a value standpoint iswe do a pairings.
Um, so it's, you know, we do ahalf pairings where you can do
half sandwich and cup of soup orhalf salad.
Um, but we also do a largepairings where we, you know, one
of, we do a large sandwich whereyou can get a large sandwich and
a half salad and a cup of soup,but we also do a pizza.
Where you can get a pizza and asalad, for example, as a, and
(05:45):
they're all kind of one price.
Now, when you get the premiumitems, there's a premium
upcharge.
So if you get our spicy shrimppizza as an example, there's an
an upcharge for that.
Uh, but, and we'll run,campaigns obviously to try to
drive.
So the great news about.
A pizza dinner.
Uh, one of the things we do as afamily meal deal is two pizzas
and a Caesar salad, which we'llrun for, between 20 and$24, uh,
(06:09):
depending on the market thatwe're in.
which when we run thosepromotions, we'll see Additi
incremental sales in the dinnertime, which is great'cause we've
got, you know, the staff there.
And if we can drive those sales,uh, that's a great thing for us
to do.
So, uh, you know, and it's also.
You know, we have a kids' pizza,which is great for kids, right?
So there's some, there's a lotof different functions that the
(06:31):
pizza actually performs for ourbusiness.
So.
Jeremy Julian (06:33):
No, and I think it's great because it does, give
you the ability to have thatdifferentiation.
If I'm not feeling like asandwich or I'm not feeling like
a salad.
And even for me, it's like I,and the other thing I guess I'd
love to understand is how do youguys keep the quality as high as
you do?
Because it's the product itself,both on the pizza side and
really even in just thesandwiches and salads you guys
have some of the best qualityfast casual food.
I'm saying this as a fan of thebrand, but it really is one of
(06:56):
those things where.
At the price point, you guyshave done a really good job of
ensuring that it's fresh, it'sclean, the brand is always
really clean.
every time I've ever been highlevel of service, you've got
this condiment bar.
Is it, how do you guys ma manageto keep the quality as high as
you do, Frank?
Frank Paci (07:13):
Part of it is.
Is, uh, is simplifying theoperation, right?
I mean, the, the big challengeyou've got in the restaurant
business, right, is everybodyknows the hourly folks turn over
a lot, right?
And so if you're not, um, makingthe operations, uh, simple, uh,
it's really difficult toexecute.
So our cooking platform, youknow, so.
(07:33):
It's interesting.
We don't have any microwaves instore.
Okay.
Our cooking platform isprimarily a conveyor ovens,
right?
So we'll have a conveyor stackovens, the pizzas go on one
level, the sandwiches go onanother level.
Um, and it's, you know, you makethe, you make up the sandwich on
the right side, run it through,and then you top it when it gets
out with the lettuce and tomatoand whatever it gets topped
(07:55):
with, right?
And so I think, you know, partof that, and then, you know, we
use top premium qualityingredients, right?
I mean, if you look at.
The Turkey that we're buying thechicken, you know, we're buying
fresh chicken and, and cookingit up, right?
We're, we have shrimp, we have,uh, salmon, uh, on the menu,
which, if you look at most ofthe fast casual guys out there,
(08:15):
they're not running those kindof proteins like we are.
And but like I said, we've triedto make it as simple as possible
so that you can get theconsistency, of the product and
design, design it in a way thatit's hard to screw it up, let's
put it that way.
Jeremy Julian (08:29):
Well, and that's the thing that I, I think as you
grow outside of your coremarket, it, you do have to
simplify.
So you talked a lot about kindof your guys' cooking
corporation and kind of whatother areas did you simplify?
You've been at the brand, Ithink a little over four years
now.
What are the things, did youfind Frank that.
You've seen at Newts that you'vebeen able to simplify to help
operators to, to be moreeffective.
(08:49):
'cause even before we hit therecord button, you and I were
talking about just some of thesethings that you're like, well,
if we make it hard for thesehourly employees, they turn over
more often because it's hard,it's a hard job and they don't
necessarily want to be there.
Um, so figuring out how tosimplify.
So primarily in food prep orwhere, where are the other areas
that you guys said, Hey, let'sgo make this simpler for our
team members?
Frank Paci (09:08):
Yeah, I mean it's both food prep and recipe,
right?
So we used to do a lot of.
Of prep, like we'd get a 40pound block of cheese in and
slice that down, and then,everything would then run
through the oven.
So to me it's really about.
What's the final product thatthe guest gives?
How do we differentiateourselves with that product?
Right?
So when we talk about havingbetter quality proteins and
(09:30):
whatever, that's part of theexperience.
Having the, our, you know, ourbread is going through the oven
and, and, and getting kind ofcooked as part of that.
So when you're getting asandwich from Newk's on our
Parisian roll, it is a, thewarm, the bread's warm, the
proteins are warm.
All those things give you, Ithink those.
Signals of quality andfreshness, uh, that it's made
(09:52):
just for you.
You know, our salads areabundant and, you know, we use,
you know, fresh on, on all thosethings.
So, but as an example, um, thatI show of, of ways to do that
is, uh, when I, you know, I getthere, I always look at, one of
the things we always look at isactual versus theoretical cost,
right?
And, and that's something whereyou're training the kitchen
(10:12):
employees to say, Hey, here'sthe spec.
Make the product to the spec.
Right?
The reason we've made it to aspec is because we feel like
that spec is what the guest is,is expecting from us.
So, as an example, I noticedthat we were wasting pepperoni
and I'm saying, okay, great.
How are we wasting pepperoni?
and then, uh, then I had a, atheory that says, okay, great,
(10:32):
well, on our pepperoni pizza, weuse 12 slices of pepperoni.
On our sausage and pepperoni, weonly put spec six.
And so I ordered from.
Four different restaurants andthree of the four, when the
pizza came, it had 12 slices ofpepperoni on the sausage and
pepperoni.
And we said, okay, so what'sgoing on here?
It's hard to train these guys toput 12 on one, on six on
(10:54):
another.
Let's just put 12.
Okay?
The guest is gonna get more.
Let protein, I can price itaccordingly.
And it makes it easier for us totrain if I'm not say, Hey, do
this one, this one and that,'cause then that person's gotta
remember that, right?
When we've got job aids and allthose other kinds of things like
everybody does.
But I think there's ways whereyou can design the processes to
(11:16):
make it simpler for consistentexecution at the store and know
what your cost of goods is gonnabe on those things.
Jeremy Julian (11:22):
Yeah.
And I think it's amazing, andagain, you, you and I shared
prior to hit and record, justthe fact that you evaluate those
things.
And I think all too often I seebrands that kind of set it and
forget it and hope that, youknow, they don't go back and
look at the data to be able tomake decisions and then go
figure out what is it and is itsomething, because quite
honestly, and I'm, I'm gonna saythis, not to be rude, there's a
(11:42):
lot of people that would justsay, just train them better.
Just tell them to go put sixpepperonis on the half, versus
your idea that says, no, let'smake it simpler for that end
user to make it better productfor the end consumer.
We're gonna raise the price alittle bit to, to cover that
extra cost.
But, all too often I've seenoperators, it's like, well,
people are just dumb out there.
We just need to make them do itbetter.
(12:03):
Um, and I love the fact thatyou've said no.
Let's figure out how to make itsimpler for that, that team
member that is turning over asoften.
Is that kind of just yourphilosophy in general is how do
I make it as simple for the enduser as possible?
Frank Paci (12:14):
Yes.
it's always been, I had thisepiphany when I was working at a
previous brand that if you thinkof everything on a, like a two
by two, right?
There's differentiation and thenthere's operational complexity,
right?
I wanna live in thedifferentiation, high
differentiation and lowoperational complexity, right?
(12:36):
So even when we look at LTOproducts, we're evaluating those
LTO products is gonna be, Hey,is this gonna be, is this gonna
be a differentiated productthat's gonna be easy to execute
versus a differentiated productthat's gonna be difficult to
execute, right?
I can.
I can make great products in thetest kitchen with the chef,
right?
But can I replicate that in ahundred stores across with, 17
(12:59):
year olds, 18 year olds, runningthe business, right?
Jeremy Julian (13:02):
Yeah, who started, who started 48 hours
Frank Paci (13:04):
absolutely.
So there's a lot of things likethat.
And then, there, and so to yourpoint, it's always kinda looking
and saying, what can we do?
one of my other, one of myothers is, we have a great
Italian sandwich.
I mean, tons of flavor on that.
When I got there, um.
One of the things that I lookfor on actual versus
theoretical, I can tell youright, the stuff you use the
most is gonna have the mostdollar amount, right?
(13:26):
I'd flip that around, say, okay,where do I have the most
percentage waste?
Right?
If I'm wasting 50% of something,it may not be a lot of dollars,
but obviously there's somethingwrong in the process where I'm
wasting something there.
I'm wasting 50% and one of thethings that popped out was on
this Italian sandwich, there wasa Mortadella CAPA Cola.
salami and ham, right?
(13:47):
And you know, we're using oneounce of Mortadella, one ounce
of capital.
Well guess what?
We were wasting 50%'cause we'renot using it fast enough because
it's not being used anywhereelse.
so I went to our founder, Chris,and said, Hey.
You know, we're wasting all thisstuff.
I think, you know, we got tonsof flavor on this with the
sauces.
I think we had a, you know,double doubled the salami,
(14:08):
remove the, the capa cola andthe pepperoni and put some more
ham on that.
Right.
And I think, you know, with allthe sauces, I think you're still
gonna have a great product.
and he was like, oh my God, youcan't, you know, it's one of my
favorite sandwiches.
We can't do this.
Right.
And so, uh, we, we made thechanges'cause we were, like I
said, we're just costing us alot of money on that.
Right.
Three months later, I get anemail from it.
(14:29):
It looks like the Italiansandwich sales are going up.
I said, well, part of that, partof that, Chris is, is that not
all the guests know whatMortadella is, right?
I know from a culinarystandpoint, that's an elevated
product, but if I'm a guest andI don't know what is, I'm
probably not gonna order thatsandwich.
You've made it a much moreaccessible sandwich and it's
still a great sandwich.
Right, and so, I mean, just kindof different things that you can
(14:52):
look at from a culinary, I'vealways kinda looked at.
What I'll call a culinary ops tosay, okay, great.
Here's what we're doingculinarily.
Here's what's happeningoperations wise.
How do we close that gap so thatwe can make sure we can execute
it on a regular
Jeremy Julian (15:08):
and I think it's a great example, Frank, where
you killed a darling that mighthave, in some places, not they,
they might not have had theconfidence that says, Hey, this
Italian is great, and if we wereto just tweak it, you know, by
this 10% or 20%, you're gonnaend up having a more consistent
product that you're selling moreof.
I love the fact that you werebold enough to go to the founder
and say that, because I find.
(15:28):
All too often people go, mygrandmother always eats the
grilled cheese, bacon, grilledcheese, and I can't take the
bacon grilled cheese off.
I don't care how hard it is toexecute.
We're never gonna, or we'regonna always slice the cheese.
'cause that's the way we startedwith the fact that you're able
and willing to, evaluate thosestandards that they had because
it really didn't change thebrand that much.
(15:49):
It, you know, it, it actuallymade it harder to execute and
harder to keep it consistent.
And so, um,
Frank Paci (15:54):
you could re, I could re, I could reinvest those
dollars somewhere else, right?
Because that, part of thisright, is, we all know the
challenges in this business oflabor costs and product costs
and whatever, right?
You there, there's, if you'regot inefficiencies on there, if
you can figure out how to limitthose.
Inefficiencies, you couldactually invest that money
(16:15):
somewhere else, right?
And so, yeah, no, do I wannaspend more money on, on training
this stuff?
training's an important part ofthe business, right?
but if I'm gonna train somebodythat to, to do something that's
gonna be difficult for them todo, it'd much, much rather make
it be simpler for them to do
Jeremy Julian (16:31):
Yeah, I love
Frank Paci (16:32):
with well without, and also without degrading the
quality, right?
that's
Jeremy Julian (16:35):
with, without, you've gotta take the guess into
effect and the fact that youguys are willing to test those
things.
But again, I find all too oftenif you're like, well, this is
who we are.
We're not changing it.
It's like, well, is that reallywho you need to be to compete in
today's day and age?
And I think we have found otherbrands that never were able to
get off that mark and evaluate.
The, kind of the standards andthey go, you know, they go the
(16:56):
way of the Doda bird becausenobody's willing to challenge
who, who they are and what theydid in the past.
Frank Paci (17:02):
I think, talking about COVID and whatever, right?
COVID forced some of this stuff,right?
There were certain things thatyou had to do to survive through
COVID and, it transformed ourbusiness from being more dine
into more off premise, but also.
You know, it made you look atthe menu and say things like,
you know, things like that.
(17:23):
Probably if it wasn't for COVID,would we have changed the
account?
I don't know.
Right.
But I think there were thingslike that, which is to say, hey,
you know, it's a great lesson tosay, Hey, always question what
it is that you're doing, and.
And how do you, how do youevolve, right?
Because the brands arecontinually evolving.
I mean, I, you know, I look at,look back and say, Hey, the menu
(17:44):
used to have this on it.
Now it has this, the consumertastes evolve, right?
And, and how do you access thebrand?
what's the definition ofconvenience, right?
As you continue to, to look at,uh, the, the guest's Right?
I mean, I laugh because, Ialways tell people, Hey, I got a
newspaper delivered every dayuntil I didn't.
and so you, it's things likethat where, things are always
(18:05):
changing.
If your brand is not evolvingwith that, I think you could get
left behind.
Jeremy Julian (18:10):
Well, and you, you told me a story that I'd
love for you to share with ouraudience, Frank, about pre
COVID, where, you know, salesfell off the cliff once COVID
hit and as they were pickingback up, you guys maintained
your off-premise business, butpicked back up and, on, on the
dine-in, you know, when prior toCOVID, I think you'd shared with
me you guys were more than 50%in Dine-in, and now you're more
than 50% off-prem.
(18:31):
And I'd love to have you bothtell that story and then talk
about the lessons that youlearned.
Both from a menu selectionperspective and even from a
staffing perspective for ourlisteners.
Frank Paci (18:40):
so two things happened, right?
Uh, so, so I wasn't there duringCOVID, so I can just tell you
anecdotally what happened,right?
From looking at the historical.
Trends.
But basically if you, I used todo a sta, I did a stack chart,
and I still do a stack chartwhich says, here's how much is
to go, here's how much is onpremise.
Here's how much is digital,here's how much is delivery.
Right?
Well, obviously, you know, weare 60% dine in, well the day
(19:03):
COD hits, that's 60% goes tozero.
Right.
And what you see is you see theimmediately jump in digital
ordering and, and to go anddelivery right.
Jumps up.
And then as.
as COVID starts to unwind, youstart to see the dine-in
business start to slowly pickup.
But what you don't see is youdon't see any change in the
(19:26):
off-premise business basically.
So, you know, it's one of thesethings where maybe the guest had
never tried to do digitalordering, had never tried to do
these kind of things, and theyhad no choice but.
To make those.
And once they did it, they said,Hey, you know what, this is much
more convenient.
And you know, I, I, I like thisexperience.
And so that stayed, but thedine-in kind of built back.
(19:47):
And so when you look at kind ofhistorically what's happened to
our sales, you know, we'verecovered the dine-in, but kept
the delivery and I think untilkind of almost, the middle of
last year, then you started tosee.
The delivery and kind of maybedine-in leveled up.
'cause there was still some ofthat is what I would call
normalization to, to pre COVIDtimes.
(20:10):
and obviously it's different bylocation.
certain locations do a lot morecatering than other locations
do.
But that's just an average whenyou look at it.
Jeremy Julian (20:17):
Well, and I, that was really where my next line of
questioning was going, Frank.
Is, is, is I've talked withother CEOs both on the show and
just kind of in life about theircatering business.
Catering has been hard to getback for a lot of brands.
Help me understand how you guyswere able to not only maintain
some of the catering businessbecause.
Not all offices are back to theoffice.
Not everybody's kind.
(20:37):
You know, so much of cateringwas during meal periods, during
the lunch period.
It was catering this businessmeeting and those kind of
things.
You guys obviously have beenable to figure out, at least in
some stores how to do that.
How has that been effective?
Product selection.
Selection is always easy, youknow, am I gonna have, you got
soup, you got salads, you gotsandwiches.
Those typically travel reallywell.
Pizza travels really well, youknow, so that that put you guys
(20:58):
in the top percent there.
And even going back out andselling catering has not been
easy for a lot of brands andthey've struggled to make back
to those pre COVID numbers oreven, many of'em are just like,
you know what, we're not evendoing catering.
And it's very productive.
It ends up, leveling out some ofyour sales volume.
So how have you guys been soeffective at doing that?
Frank Paci (21:16):
It's really, been a combined focus.
we have a director of cateringsales.
He does a fantastic job, hasgreat relationships, but we've
also.
So leaned heavily on ezCater,and the ezCater business and
really looking at stores on a.
semi-monthly basis to say, okay,where are we in the queue and do
we wanna spend some additionalmoney to promote, uh, where we
(21:39):
get on the ECA business?
So that's really, been one ofthe ways that we've picked it
up.
And I, and, and as you said, Imean, I think our product lends
itself to catering, right?
So, um, and we've also doneproduct development.
We added wraps as a, uh, as anadditional product because we
know that that travels well forcatering, which we didn't have
wraps until.
A fourth quarter of last year.
(22:00):
Right.
So that was, part of that was,you know, when we look at, think
of menu innovation.
The menu innovation is what dowe do?
And we're actually looking at,at different packaging for
catering.
Right?
So we can do some, we actuallydo some hot catering where we
do.
Uh, sliders where, you know, wewill, we'll provide the protein
hot, so like for the Newk's qwith the chicken and the Q sauce
(22:22):
comes in there.
And then we'll give you smallbuns where you can make your own
sliders as part of it.
So, so part of that is part ofit's packaging, part of it is
menu innovation, and part of itis, um, using the resources like
ezCater.
uh, to grow that business and,and just, you know, building the
relationships.
Uh, we have some franchisees doa phenomenal job on catering,
so.
Jeremy Julian (22:41):
and for those that have not made that
investment, what, I mean it, I'mcertain it contributes both to
the top line and to the bottomline of those stores that, with
the franchise groups that aredoing that is that, I guess for
those that are sitting out here,they're like, Hey, we don't have
a catering business on.
I haven't made that investment.
that might be running adifferent brand.
Why would you encourage them toconsider making that investment?
Frank Paci (22:59):
one of the challenges is obviously ezCater
charges you commission, right?
and so there are some challengewith that.
But the other part of that, thenwe've also leaned on deliver
that to actually deliver.
'cause one of the challengeswith catering is if is that la
the last mile of catering tosay, how do I get that to the
guest without taking my manageroutta the store during my key
(23:21):
lunch?
Time period.
And
Jeremy Julian (23:23):
because nobody wants catering at 9:00
Frank Paci (23:24):
Yeah.
Jeremy Julian (23:25):
a lunch meeting.
Frank Paci (23:25):
yeah, we've actually done where we've got, we've
leveraged kind of outsizedoutsource resources on both
ezCater and deliver that to, toleverage that.
We've had franchisees who use,DoorDash to drivers to, to
deliver catering, ahead of thepeak lunchtime.
And, typically the cateringorder is a significantly larger
order.
(23:46):
So when we look at that, whereyou also.
Kinda leveraging labor, right?
So when you look at it and say,okay, great, yeah, I'm paying a
commission and I'm paying someof these other things.
But if you look at that asincremental sales, it's, we
think it's profitable.
It, it might make less as apercentage, but from a dollar
margins, I learned a long timeago, you take dollars to the
(24:06):
bank, not percentages to thebank, right?
Jeremy Julian (24:08):
try and remind my team that all the time, it's you
know what, if I'm gonna makethis amount on the same device,
I don't care if it's, 10% less.
we're just working from adifferent cost basis than we
are.
to your point, I don't deliver,I don't deposit percentages, I
deposit dollars.
Frank Paci (24:20):
Yeah.
When we, yeah, when we look at,when we look at sales, I mean
managing, uh, labor on a salesper labor hour basis, right.
when, when we manage that, we doa different factor on the
catering orders'cause you'rekind of doing that bulk assembly
as opposed to, you know, in theline of fire, at the heat of
lunch kind.
You know, making sandwiches andsalads, right?
A little bit, a little bitdifferent in terms of the effort
(24:41):
that goes into that.
So.
Jeremy Julian (24:44):
Awesome.
One last, thread, Frank.
You guys have recentlyreinvested, in the system in
kind of tech to make techenabled.
I know, you and I talked alittle bit about putting kiosks
out.
Talk to me a little bit aboutthe thought process to going
there, because again, as aconsumer.
It's a, you know, it issomething convenient.
You know, you talked about thatbeing one of the pillars that
you always think about.
(25:04):
Why was both, you know, havingan app and having, you know, the
ability to order on ezCater somany different ways to make the
brand accessible, includingin-store kiosk.
Why was that something you guysconsidered going after in your,
in your concept?
Frank Paci (25:16):
again, to me it's one of the keys has always been
about convenience, right?
And so to me, I wanna be able tomeet the guests on how they want
to do it.
They want to get delivery,that's great if they want to
get, pick it up in store, ifthey want to order at the kiosk.
obviously at lunchtime we, wewill get, we'll tend to get
lines right.
having an extra.
(25:37):
Place to order.
And it's interesting, I, I wasactually in the store once and
their, the cashier was availableand the person said, Hey, they
wanted, they wanted to use thekiosk, right?
And so, you know, I look at, youknow, and this kind of gets
into, you know, different agegroups, right?
I mean, I look at.
Uh, some of the, the youngerfolks today, and they'd much
rather text than talk on thephone, right?
(25:58):
When I was, when I was comingup, you talked on the phone,
right?
They want to text, so they wantto have that, they don't want to
have that interaction, or theydon't wanna feel that pressure
of, Hey, I have to I'm holdingup the line here.
I have to make this toughdecision of whether I want a
pizza or a sandwich, or a soupat Newk's.
I can go over the kiosk and takemy time and not feel that
pressure right.
behind me.
(26:19):
And, and so, you know, just, Ithink, I think it's one of those
things is that we do, we, wealso have, you can order from
the table, right?
Because I mean, I, I alwaysthink about the fact that my
phone is a kiosk, right?
And so I can order it fromanywhere.
and we still take phone orderstoo.
I mean, so if you think about, Imean, it's funny'cause we'll
look at these daily reports.
It's okay, great.
(26:39):
I had a phone order, I had agrab and go order.
I had a digital pickup order.
I had a order to go in thestore.
I had a dine-in order.
I had a, I had a.
Newk's.com delivery.
I had a third party deliveryorder.
It's oh my God, how manydifferent ways do you want to
access that?
but the reality is that, theguest wants to access it in
different ways.
And we're trying to make that asconvenient as possible for them.
Jeremy Julian (27:00):
Well, and I think, like you said earlier,
you made it easy for the, forthe staff members too.
'cause you guys have integratedthe stack so that it, it comes
through as if it was a cashierorder.
It's not this disconnectedsystems where they're having to
manage 12 different systems.
I know that was part of yourguys' reinvestment.
So not only are you making iteasier, easier for the staff
members, but you guys are alsospending the time to make it
easier for the consumer.
so what's the future?
Hold Frank for Newts.
(27:21):
Like, where are you guys at?
Where are you guys growing?
talk to me a little bit aboutwhat does the growth trajectory
look like and what are you guyslooking for in potential
business partners to help, helpmake the brand more accessible?
Frank Paci (27:30):
Yeah, I mean, obviously one of the key, the
keys for us is to get the right,uh, franchise.
Partners in this business,right?
And so I think there's a, a lotof opportunity, you know, fast
casual continues to grow as abusiness.
I think there's a lot ofopportunity for, folks out there
who are in the restaurantbusiness who want to grow with
a, with a great brand to growwith the Newk's brand.
I mean, we're obviously strongin the southeast, but we're
(27:52):
looking to expand, up from ourcore base.
So lots of opportunities in theCarolinas for us.
in, we're already in Tennessee,but Tennessee, Kentucky, uh,
from Texas up into, we've gotone store in Oklahoma.
We've actually just signed afranchisee in, in Kansas.
Uh, and we've got a new storethat opening in, uh, north
(28:12):
Georgia as well, that kind ofgoing into South Carolina.
So, uh, and we have, we have astrong presence in North
Florida.
So I think there's a, you know,for me it's always easier to, to
grow from your contiguous,especially with distribution
and.
All those kind of things wherepeople already know the brand.
So it's, I, I love when we poston social media and we'll get
(28:33):
all these, bring, bring theNewk's to this town and that
town.
Right?
So it's great.
You, you, you feel, feel greatthat they've got kind of this
pent up demand to, to go toplaces.
And, uh, you know, one of thethings we've done is we've also
modified the concept because nowthat we don't do as much.
Uh, on premise, we can do it ina smaller facility.
(28:53):
So we've actually got somesmaller locations that we've
opened, uh, that are, are, youknow, great'cause obviously it's
lower construction costs, loweroccupied occupancy costs on
those things which kind of makethe store, uh, unit level
economics be better.
So.
Jeremy Julian (29:09):
Yeah, I love that.
and where would people learnmore?
How do people engage to figureout how to learn more about
kinda what the franchise systemmight look like?
if, if they're at that placewhere they're like, I love that
concept.
I've been, I was at it, an oldmiss game, and I had it, now I
gotta go.
I went there and now I want onelocal.
What does that look like?
Is it just jumping on the
Frank Paci (29:27):
Yeah, if you, yeah, if you go to Newks.com, at the
top there's a franchise you canpull up.
We actually have a walkthroughthat you can walk through a
restaurant and see that.
and, yeah, that's the best wayto do that.
And we'll have someone get incontact with you if that's
where, if you're interested inthat.
Jeremy Julian (29:42):
Wonderful.
for my restaurant people, Ialways ask this question, what's
your go-to menu item?
And for those that, what's yourpersonal and then what's your,
Hey, somebody's never been tono's.
What should they, what shouldthey experience?
Frank Paci (29:52):
Well, it's interesting.
My personal is the Newk's Qpizza, which was actually, we
had the nu the, our top sellingsandwich is the Newk's Q.
So if you don't know anythingabout Newk's, you need to do the
Newk's Q or the Newk's favoritesalad, which is the bestselling
salad.
Um, but one of our employees,long-term employees said, you
know that the Newk's cube is awhite barbecue sauce.
(30:14):
That would be great on a pizza.
And so we actually, as at thatemployee suggestion, we made a
pizza and it's like our thirdbestselling pizza, the Newk's
cube, because it, it's a, it's aunique pizza product.
It's a.
You know, white barbecue sauce,chicken, bacon and, and
jalapenos.
So, uh, when I'm going toNewk's, that's my favorite.
So, uh, I know that I can eat awhole one at a setting, but it's
(30:36):
great'cause then I get to haveit twice.
So,
Jeremy Julian (30:39):
I love it.
I love it.
thank you for sharing.
every time I talk to restaurantpeople, they're like, oh, I can
tell you my favorite.
And then, half the time theywanna modify it, they take that
next cube, but they're like, oh,you gotta put extra jalapenos on
it.
or tell'em to mix in someregular barbecue sauce to it.
Or, my wife used to work atIn-N-Out, growing up and so I
always tease her'cause she'salways got, she doesn't eat
cheeseburgers.
This.
Anywhere else the same way shedoes at Inn Out, same thing with
(31:00):
her fries.
She doesn't have'em the same waythat she hasn't, but she worked
at Inn Out and so she squeezesLemon on'em and it's like this
weird thing.
I'm like, babe, you never putLemon on anything else but at
In-N-Out because you spend somany hours there, you end up
coming up with some crazycreations.
Frank Paci (31:12):
It is amazing the number of modifications that we
get on products, right?
which is great.
that's.
that's part of it.
Make it your own.
And yeah, it's funny'causeyou'll see this and say, oh, I
want this, add this, take thisoff of it.
It's oh my God.
Yeah, absolutely.
So you, then you wonder whyevery once in a while the
order's not accurate becauseyou're like standing on your
head to do the thing.
(31:33):
But, you gotta work on it.
all the time.
Jeremy Julian (31:35):
I love it.
Frank, thank you so much forsharing the story.
I love, uh, I, again, I I, I'm ahuge fanboy myself.
I have some of those stadiumcups in my, uh, in my pantry are
just in the other side of thatwall, and I wish I would've
grabbed one to show it to you.
on the show to our listeners,guys, we know that you guys got
lots of choices, so thanks forhanging out.
Um, if you haven't alreadychecked out newts.com, check out
their franchising webpage.
great concept.
(31:56):
I would highly encourage youguys if you guys are in the
franchising space to check itout.
Again, if you haven't alreadysubscribed, please do so and
make it a great day.
Speaker (32:04):
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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