May 2, 2025 • 16 mins
Lawrence Longo, serial food entrepreneur and founder of Off the Menu, joins Zack to share how building craveable products, creating genuine hospitality, and staying relentlessly simple have driven his success across multiple brands. As CEO of Prince Street Pizza, Irv’s Burgers, and The Bar Next Door, Lawrence talks about what it really takes to create businesses guests love—and how passion and great teams make it all possible. From launching viral pop-ups to building award-winning brands, he breaks down why consistency, hospitality, and product obsession matter more than trends. Whether it’s pizza, burgers, or cocktails, Lawrence shows how great guest experiences start long before the first bite.
Zack and Lawrence discuss:
- Building craveable experiences guests can’t forget
- Keeping operations simple while scaling multiple concepts
- Creating authentic hospitality instead of just transactions
- Balancing digital convenience with genuine guest care
- Why consistency and product obsession beat chasing trends
- Tune in to hear how Lawrence’s people-first approach and passion for great food are redefining hospitality at every level.
Thanks, Lawrence!
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/bigshot/
https://www.instagram.com/princestreetpizza/
https://www.instagram.com/irvsburgers/
https://www.instagram.com/thebarnextdoor/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Give an Ovation, the restaurant guest
experience podcast.
I'm your host, zach Oates, andeach week I chat with industry
experts to uncover realstrategies and actionable
tactics to help you create afive-star guest experience.
This podcast is powered byOvation, the feedback and
operations platform built formulti-unit restaurants.
It gives you the insights youneed without annoying your
(00:21):
guests with endless questions.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today I am so excited Ihave someone who is just I mean,
as someone with the last nameOates calling someone a serial
entrepreneur is a real thing,and so I am excited to welcome
Lawrence Longo on.
He is the you ready for this.
Founder and CEO of Off the Menu, ceo of Prince Street Pizza,
(00:42):
ceo of Irv's Burgers and a verybusy man.
Lawrence, welcome to thepodcast.
Thanks for having me, zach.
So, first of all, where do youget all these hours in a day to
be CEO of three companies andyou do speaking and marketing
and podcasting?
How do you have time to do allthis?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's a great team around me.
Hopefully, you know I'm hiringall the right people to help us
paddle the canoe to get us fromwhere we need to go.
I think I love what I do, so itdoesn't feel like work.
So the only thing that I wantto get away from my work for is
my family and maybe to playhockey once in a while.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I see all those hockey sticks behind you.
Love that.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I still walk with my hockey sticks.
You can see them in thebackground.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I know I see all those hockey sticks behind you
Love that man.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
But it's like I tell everybody in the food business
is that if you're in it to makea quick buck, you're in the
wrong business.
Truly, truly, you need to lovewhat you're doing in order to be
successful, and I think that'sand just have a passion for
people, have a passion for foodand just doing things right.
I'm proud of the product, ofeverything I do.
(01:47):
I'm proud of the brands, so itmakes it easy.
I hate that part of it justbecause I love it so much.
If you don't love it, it'sprobably a miserable experience.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Well, okay, but you have got some pretty different
things that you're doing and, bythe way, I didn't even mention
all the stuff you're doing.
You've got even other projectsyou're doing.
So and, by the way, I didn'teven mention all the stuff
you're doing.
You've got even other projectsyou're doing.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I saw that you just had an award recently about one
of the top bars in America.
Yeah yeah, bar Next Door wasone of the 50 best bars in North
America.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Man, that's wild.
So what's the secret to successin terms of how do you do so
many things well when peoplestruggle often to just do one of
those things well?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I think keeping things simple Any of the
businesses that I run I'm nottrying to do too much.
We're keeping it simple.
The bar next door is just aneighborhood bar with high-end
craft cocktails.
I had a location beside PrinceStreet and I was like what works
best beside a pizzeria?
Well, it's either ice cream ora bar.
(02:51):
So I opened up a bar on theside of it and the idea was just
create that third place, thatplace where you go before drinks
, you go after work, you goafter dinner.
It's a place where, hopefully,the bartenders know your name,
they know your drink and it's aplace that you can go regularly
to Nothing too trendy, nothingthat's going to be like the
(03:13):
flavor of the week and justreally great customer service
and really great product.
I tell everybody, if you haveone thing on your menu that's
craveable, that people will keepcoming back every week for it.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Oh, yeah, I mean there's a restaurant down the
street and they have this dishthat is unreal, like 11 out of
10.
And the other dishes they haveare great too.
Like it's an overall greatrestaurant but that one dish is
so memorable and it's socraveable that I love going back
to that place, as long as I canget a reservation, because it's
(03:49):
always booked up.
But I mean, like it's just likehere in Utah, michael McHenry
just does a great job buildingrestaurants that have cool
brands, cool vibes and supermemorable food.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, yeah, that's it .
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You keep it simple, you do those things right and
with a craveable product, youshould be successful the norm of
(04:29):
a food entrepreneur,restaurateur, and that's why I
think in your LinkedIn, Ibelieve you call yourself a food
entrepreneur, not arestaurateur, which I find
interesting.
But tell me a little bit aboutOff the Menu and how that
started.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, off the Menu.
So my background was in moviesand television and content
really comic books, graphicnovels, children's storybooks
and just really like content isking type of mentality and I
created a show called Off theMenu.
Never made it to air, I sold ita few times but I realized just
(04:58):
because, like in my contentdays is that you really had to
own the IP if you wanted to ownthe series or own the show.
And so what I did was I createdan app called off the menu and
what I did was I sourced all thesecret menu items at all the
restaurants across North Americathat had secret menu items and
(05:18):
I emailed it to like 25 of myfriends being like hey, I just
created an app.
It was when everybody was likecreating apps, right, but I just
wanted to do it because I lovefood so much and I wanted to
like create this world of offthe menu.
And I launched the app and itgot in crazy amount of downloads
and now I'm an app entrepreneur.
(05:40):
But I raised a little bit ofmoney and quickly ran out of
money.
It was like, oh shit, what do Ihave to do?
Well, you have to have a realbusiness.
You can't just source secretmenu items.
And what problem are yousolving?
And what I realized wasrestaurants closed down.
60% of restaurants are closedwithin the first two years or
first 12 months, and then 80% ofrestaurants are closed within
(06:00):
the first five years.
So basically, 80% of peoplegetting the restaurant business
aren't even making their moneyback.
And I was like, well, how can Isolve that problem?
Through secret menu items.
And what I realized was secretmenu items drove foot traffic
into the restaurants.
It created a viral, social kindof marketing, and those are
(06:23):
things that could helprestaurants survive.
When I first tried to, I waslike, okay, well, I'm going to
charge restaurants to be on theapp.
All the restaurants were likewe're not paying you.
You got to.
Can you prove that you're goingto have this foot traffic?
So I flipped it and I was likeyou know what?
What I'm going to do is I'mgoing to charge the customers
(06:43):
$20 a month and what they'regoing to get is they're going to
get one free secret menu itemevery day at a restaurant in
their area.
So, instead of having an appthat curated all the secret menu
items, I turned it into a foodclub.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Oh, very cool.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Learning my mistakes now is I didn't need to do every
single day.
Somebody got a free item.
I should have just focused onone restaurant, one item, and
drove all the traffic there.
But at off the menus peak, Ihad over 4,000 users in LA and
it was a real business.
I wasn't raising money, it wasa business that was running
itself.
But what happened was I neededto figure out customer
(07:21):
acquisition strategy and how doI get people on the app.
And one of the things wasthrough experiences and I
created this event called theBurger Showdown, which was a
live event in 2017 or 18.
And I had, like Marshmello andShea Mitchell and Tommy Lee,
create their own burgers andthen bring them to this festival
(07:44):
and then all the people thatcame to the festival will get to
try these burgers.
And I did it for the LA times.
And then in 2018, I did aPrince street pizza pop-up.
I asked the owners of Princestreet pizza if I could do a
national pizza day bring Princestreet to LA.
And that kind of like wasgangbusters 300, 300 people
(08:05):
waiting in line for three hoursin the foreign rain and I had
like probably 200 signups ontothe app that week.
It was like, oh wow, this isreally more importantly is like
people love this product.
People really are dying forthis square Sicilian pizza with
these cup and curl pepperonisand the spicy sauce.
So, with these cup and curlpepperonis and the spicy sauce.
(08:26):
And then after that I didTender Fest, a Chiffon Tender
Festival but with that Irealized whoa, this craveable
product, everything I learnedfrom off the menu of like why
restaurants fail, what drivesthem, what makes a successful
product, I felt like PrinceStreet had all those things so I
asked could I open one up in LA?
(08:47):
Opened one up in LA and thesame thing.
I had lines and two zip codesand it was really exciting and I
didn't put an investment intoburgers never say die, which was
the first LA smash burger that,since pretty much all of
America's kind of tried to copy,but burgers never say die was
the first like authentic, reallycool hype smash burger yeah in
(09:09):
Los Angeles.
That's kind of how it allstarted with the experiences,
and then since later, I'vecreated the whole krabby patty
collab experience for spongebobsquare pants.
That is.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
I thought that is so cool man yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So I think just knowing what's cool having a
good palate I love food and Iguess I know what's good and
what the average person's goingto crave.
In a way, I think if anythingwas strong at anything, that
would probably be it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
See, I think that is just so cool because, at the end
of the day, like we said, it'sthe guest experience.
And so, as you're looking atall these varied experiences
from events to restaurants toapps what do you think is the
most important aspect of theguest experience or the customer
experience?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Authenticity and quality I would say is big, and
then the speed and ease, rightLike the convenience of what I'm
doing.
And then really, at the end ofthe day, we say service but it's
really hospitality.
I mean, if you're servicing,it's a transaction.
If you're giving hospitality,you really like the customer,
(10:15):
really feels like they careabout the business, cares about
the customer.
Yes, so I think I feel likethat's the digital integration,
from whether that's mobileordering or a loyalty program.
It's having a seamless like.
(10:37):
Digital integration is somethingI'm not necessarily great at
right now but we strive to everyday to get better.
I know it's a part of theculture, the food culture.
Gen Z doesn't need the humanconnection because they're like
this all the time.
So at first I was like nokiosks, no kiosks, no way.
And then you're thinking aboutyourself well, if that kiosk
(11:00):
experience is exciting and isgood, maybe it's not that bad
and I hate to say that.
But you know, when I saw shakeshack and the guy I look up to,
danny Meyer, doing kiosks,you're like, ok, maybe we got to
think twice about kiosks in therestaurant.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Well, because honestly, it's like and I'll I
rarely do this, but I think thatmaybe you'd agree with me I'd
like to push back a little bitagainst.
Gen Z don't need connection.
I think that they're in theirphones because they're looking
for connection.
I just think how they getconnection is different than
prior generations because theygrew up with so much technology.
They get connection through atext message.
(11:37):
They get connection throughthat response back and forth,
and through, like thepersonalization.
Look at someone in the eye,shake in the hand.
And when we were kids, the onlyway that I could get people's
phone numbers is I had a littledigital card and it was like I
(11:58):
could type in people's names andphone numbers and it could
store 250 names and phonenumbers and that was my cell
phone, and then I would use thatto go and call my friends,
right, but we didn't have thetechnology, and so it was so
much more about the face-to-facestuff, right, absolutely,
absolutely.
And I love what you're saying,though, about like that
convenience factor, because ifyou don't have that, people
(12:20):
aren't even going to try you out, right Exactly, I mean.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
or they're going to try you out once and they're
going to get frustrated and thenthey're not going to come back.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Unless your food is so good that, like the soup Nazi
, you know your food is so goodyou can treat people like shit.
They'll still come back.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
And you go to, I guess Chances are that's
probably not your restaurant,right?
If you're listening to this,Definitely definitely not.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I mean, especially with competition out there.
It's like people secret recipesaren't so secret anymore
because somebody could take arecipe, go to a lab, figure out
exactly how you made it and makeit themselves.
So people copy all day long.
People are copying that arespicy spring pizza opening up
I'm opening up an herbs andplanet Hollywood and there's a
(13:04):
not going to name the pizzeriaright beside it, but it's
literally an exact rip off ofPrince Street Pizza with a
different name.
I was like oh and I, so Iordered the King Street pizza.
It's so funny.
It's like well, the sauce isn'tgood, it's not cooked through
like Prince Street, they're notusing the Greek cheese, the
pepperoni it's a rip off butit's not the same pepperoni and
(13:26):
they're not cutting it the same.
So all the little things thatthey're doing to copy are
totally off, which makes it notlike it doesn't hit you.
It's not like a punching you inthe face.
Oh, wow, that's an amazingslice.
But even if you have a greatproduct, you have to have great
hospitality 100% love that.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Now, lawrence, I know you know a lot of people in the
industry.
Who's someone that we should befollowing?
Who's someone that deserves anovation?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah, yeah, especially for this podcast.
I'm going to give an ovation toPreston Lee and he has a
company called the 30% Rulewhich I've hired and he helps me
with all of my front of househospitality and really training
almost training the staff, buttraining the trainers because
(14:12):
that's the most important thingis who's training your staff and
like, how are you training themto train your staff and you
continually train and retrain.
That, for me, is a guy I'd liketo give a shout out to, preston
Lee.
Uh, the 30% rule.
Every restaurant has got to betaking their front of house
(14:33):
seriously.
It's the first touch point ofthe restaurant, before they even
get the food.
Hello, how are you?
Welcome to Irv's.
Welcome to Prince Street,welcome to wherever restaurant
you are having that connection.
Welcome to Moe's.
Welcome to Moe's, Whatever itis he helps restaurants do that,
so that's my shout out Awesome.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
And now, Lawrence, where can people go to find and
follow you and your brands?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So me personally is at Big Shot B-I-G-S-H-O-T.
And just so you know, I gotthat Instagram name not because
of how it sounds, it's more.
It was when I first joinedInstagram.
It was a filter app for photos,so I was going to take the big
shot.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
No way you legit have big shot.
That is your legit Instagram.
Yeah, that is nuts.
Well, I am adding one to your23,700 followers.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
And I'm not awesome on Instagram personally, like
I'm not.
And then Prince Street PizzaErzburgers Bar next door,
underscore, underscore.
And then a new one on the otherside of prince street, west
hollywood's gonna be opening anice cream shop called hall pass
ice cream oh nice, yeah well, Idon't forget about sparky sports
(15:49):
bar oh, sparky sports bar inmalibu.
That's right.
How do you forget?
I love that man.
Because we're redoing ourliquor license and everything.
It's been closed for a oh,sparky Sports Bar in Malibu.
That's right.
How do you forget it?
I love that man, because we'reredoing our liquor license and
everything.
It's been closed for a coupleof months and Malibu has been an
absolute disaster.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Oh geez, I love that you got that much stuff going on
, though.
Lawrence man, I'm so gratefulyou came on the podcast, and
Lawrence, for showing us thatyou actually can't find 30 hours
in the day.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you so much for joiningus and give an ovation.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Thanks so much for having me.
This was great Thanks forjoining us today.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
If you like this episode, leave us a review on
Apple podcasts or your favoriteplace to listen.
We're all about feedback here.
Again, this episode wassponsored by Ovation, a
two-question, sms-basedactionable guest feedback
platform built for multi-unitrestaurants.
If you'd like to learn how wecan help you measure and create
a better guest experience, visitus at OvationUpcom.
Welcome to Give an Ovation, the restaurant guest
experience podcast.
I'm your host, zach Oates, andeach week I chat with industry
experts to uncover realstrategies and actionable
tactics to help you create afive-star guest experience.
This podcast is powered byOvation, the feedback and
operations platform built formulti-unit restaurants.
It gives you the insights youneed without annoying your
(00:21):
guests with endless questions.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today I am so excited Ihave someone who is just I mean,
as someone with the last nameOates calling someone a serial
entrepreneur is a real thing,and so I am excited to welcome
Lawrence Longo on.
He is the you ready for this.
Founder and CEO of Off the Menu, ceo of Prince Street Pizza,
(00:42):
ceo of Irv's Burgers and a verybusy man.
Lawrence, welcome to thepodcast.
Thanks for having me, zach.
So, first of all, where do youget all these hours in a day to
be CEO of three companies andyou do speaking and marketing
and podcasting?
How do you have time to do allthis?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's a great team around me.
Hopefully, you know I'm hiringall the right people to help us
paddle the canoe to get us fromwhere we need to go.
I think I love what I do, so itdoesn't feel like work.
So the only thing that I wantto get away from my work for is
my family and maybe to playhockey once in a while.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I see all those hockey sticks behind you.
Love that.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I still walk with my hockey sticks.
You can see them in thebackground.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I know I see all those hockey sticks behind you
Love that man.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
But it's like I tell everybody in the food business
is that if you're in it to makea quick buck, you're in the
wrong business.
Truly, truly, you need to lovewhat you're doing in order to be
successful, and I think that'sand just have a passion for
people, have a passion for foodand just doing things right.
I'm proud of the product, ofeverything I do.
(01:47):
I'm proud of the brands, so itmakes it easy.
I hate that part of it justbecause I love it so much.
If you don't love it, it'sprobably a miserable experience.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Well, okay, but you have got some pretty different
things that you're doing and, bythe way, I didn't even mention
all the stuff you're doing.
You've got even other projectsyou're doing.
So and, by the way, I didn'teven mention all the stuff
you're doing.
You've got even other projectsyou're doing.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I saw that you just had an award recently about one
of the top bars in America.
Yeah yeah, bar Next Door wasone of the 50 best bars in North
America.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Man, that's wild.
So what's the secret to successin terms of how do you do so
many things well when peoplestruggle often to just do one of
those things well?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I think keeping things simple Any of the
businesses that I run I'm nottrying to do too much.
We're keeping it simple.
The bar next door is just aneighborhood bar with high-end
craft cocktails.
I had a location beside PrinceStreet and I was like what works
best beside a pizzeria?
Well, it's either ice cream ora bar.
(02:51):
So I opened up a bar on theside of it and the idea was just
create that third place, thatplace where you go before drinks
, you go after work, you goafter dinner.
It's a place where, hopefully,the bartenders know your name,
they know your drink and it's aplace that you can go regularly
to Nothing too trendy, nothingthat's going to be like the
(03:13):
flavor of the week and justreally great customer service
and really great product.
I tell everybody, if you haveone thing on your menu that's
craveable, that people will keepcoming back every week for it.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Oh, yeah, I mean there's a restaurant down the
street and they have this dishthat is unreal, like 11 out of
10.
And the other dishes they haveare great too.
Like it's an overall greatrestaurant but that one dish is
so memorable and it's socraveable that I love going back
to that place, as long as I canget a reservation, because it's
(03:49):
always booked up.
But I mean, like it's just likehere in Utah, michael McHenry
just does a great job buildingrestaurants that have cool
brands, cool vibes and supermemorable food.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, yeah, that's it .
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You keep it simple, you do those things right and
with a craveable product, youshould be successful the norm of
(04:29):
a food entrepreneur,restaurateur, and that's why I
think in your LinkedIn, Ibelieve you call yourself a food
entrepreneur, not arestaurateur, which I find
interesting.
But tell me a little bit aboutOff the Menu and how that
started.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, off the Menu.
So my background was in moviesand television and content
really comic books, graphicnovels, children's storybooks
and just really like content isking type of mentality and I
created a show called Off theMenu.
Never made it to air, I sold ita few times but I realized just
(04:58):
because, like in my contentdays is that you really had to
own the IP if you wanted to ownthe series or own the show.
And so what I did was I createdan app called off the menu and
what I did was I sourced all thesecret menu items at all the
restaurants across North Americathat had secret menu items and
(05:18):
I emailed it to like 25 of myfriends being like hey, I just
created an app.
It was when everybody was likecreating apps, right, but I just
wanted to do it because I lovefood so much and I wanted to
like create this world of offthe menu.
And I launched the app and itgot in crazy amount of downloads
and now I'm an app entrepreneur.
(05:40):
But I raised a little bit ofmoney and quickly ran out of
money.
It was like, oh shit, what do Ihave to do?
Well, you have to have a realbusiness.
You can't just source secretmenu items.
And what problem are yousolving?
And what I realized wasrestaurants closed down.
60% of restaurants are closedwithin the first two years or
first 12 months, and then 80% ofrestaurants are closed within
(06:00):
the first five years.
So basically, 80% of peoplegetting the restaurant business
aren't even making their moneyback.
And I was like, well, how can Isolve that problem?
Through secret menu items.
And what I realized was secretmenu items drove foot traffic
into the restaurants.
It created a viral, social kindof marketing, and those are
(06:23):
things that could helprestaurants survive.
When I first tried to, I waslike, okay, well, I'm going to
charge restaurants to be on theapp.
All the restaurants were likewe're not paying you.
You got to.
Can you prove that you're goingto have this foot traffic?
So I flipped it and I was likeyou know what?
What I'm going to do is I'mgoing to charge the customers
(06:43):
$20 a month and what they'regoing to get is they're going to
get one free secret menu itemevery day at a restaurant in
their area.
So, instead of having an appthat curated all the secret menu
items, I turned it into a foodclub.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Oh, very cool.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Learning my mistakes now is I didn't need to do every
single day.
Somebody got a free item.
I should have just focused onone restaurant, one item, and
drove all the traffic there.
But at off the menus peak, Ihad over 4,000 users in LA and
it was a real business.
I wasn't raising money, it wasa business that was running
itself.
But what happened was I neededto figure out customer
(07:21):
acquisition strategy and how doI get people on the app.
And one of the things wasthrough experiences and I
created this event called theBurger Showdown, which was a
live event in 2017 or 18.
And I had, like Marshmello andShea Mitchell and Tommy Lee,
create their own burgers andthen bring them to this festival
(07:44):
and then all the people thatcame to the festival will get to
try these burgers.
And I did it for the LA times.
And then in 2018, I did aPrince street pizza pop-up.
I asked the owners of Princestreet pizza if I could do a
national pizza day bring Princestreet to LA.
And that kind of like wasgangbusters 300, 300 people
(08:05):
waiting in line for three hoursin the foreign rain and I had
like probably 200 signups ontothe app that week.
It was like, oh wow, this isreally more importantly is like
people love this product.
People really are dying forthis square Sicilian pizza with
these cup and curl pepperonisand the spicy sauce.
So, with these cup and curlpepperonis and the spicy sauce.
(08:26):
And then after that I didTender Fest, a Chiffon Tender
Festival but with that Irealized whoa, this craveable
product, everything I learnedfrom off the menu of like why
restaurants fail, what drivesthem, what makes a successful
product, I felt like PrinceStreet had all those things so I
asked could I open one up in LA?
(08:47):
Opened one up in LA and thesame thing.
I had lines and two zip codesand it was really exciting and I
didn't put an investment intoburgers never say die, which was
the first LA smash burger that,since pretty much all of
America's kind of tried to copy,but burgers never say die was
the first like authentic, reallycool hype smash burger yeah in
(09:09):
Los Angeles.
That's kind of how it allstarted with the experiences,
and then since later, I'vecreated the whole krabby patty
collab experience for spongebobsquare pants.
That is.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
I thought that is so cool man yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So I think just knowing what's cool having a
good palate I love food and Iguess I know what's good and
what the average person's goingto crave.
In a way, I think if anythingwas strong at anything, that
would probably be it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
See, I think that is just so cool because, at the end
of the day, like we said, it'sthe guest experience.
And so, as you're looking atall these varied experiences
from events to restaurants toapps what do you think is the
most important aspect of theguest experience or the customer
experience?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Authenticity and quality I would say is big, and
then the speed and ease, rightLike the convenience of what I'm
doing.
And then really, at the end ofthe day, we say service but it's
really hospitality.
I mean, if you're servicing,it's a transaction.
If you're giving hospitality,you really like the customer,
(10:15):
really feels like they careabout the business, cares about
the customer.
Yes, so I think I feel likethat's the digital integration,
from whether that's mobileordering or a loyalty program.
It's having a seamless like.
(10:37):
Digital integration is somethingI'm not necessarily great at
right now but we strive to everyday to get better.
I know it's a part of theculture, the food culture.
Gen Z doesn't need the humanconnection because they're like
this all the time.
So at first I was like nokiosks, no kiosks, no way.
And then you're thinking aboutyourself well, if that kiosk
(11:00):
experience is exciting and isgood, maybe it's not that bad
and I hate to say that.
But you know, when I saw shakeshack and the guy I look up to,
danny Meyer, doing kiosks,you're like, ok, maybe we got to
think twice about kiosks in therestaurant.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Well, because honestly, it's like and I'll I
rarely do this, but I think thatmaybe you'd agree with me I'd
like to push back a little bitagainst.
Gen Z don't need connection.
I think that they're in theirphones because they're looking
for connection.
I just think how they getconnection is different than
prior generations because theygrew up with so much technology.
They get connection through atext message.
(11:37):
They get connection throughthat response back and forth,
and through, like thepersonalization.
Look at someone in the eye,shake in the hand.
And when we were kids, the onlyway that I could get people's
phone numbers is I had a littledigital card and it was like I
(11:58):
could type in people's names andphone numbers and it could
store 250 names and phonenumbers and that was my cell
phone, and then I would use thatto go and call my friends,
right, but we didn't have thetechnology, and so it was so
much more about the face-to-facestuff, right, absolutely,
absolutely.
And I love what you're saying,though, about like that
convenience factor, because ifyou don't have that, people
(12:20):
aren't even going to try you out, right Exactly, I mean.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
or they're going to try you out once and they're
going to get frustrated and thenthey're not going to come back.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Unless your food is so good that, like the soup Nazi
, you know your food is so goodyou can treat people like shit.
They'll still come back.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
And you go to, I guess Chances are that's
probably not your restaurant,right?
If you're listening to this,Definitely definitely not.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I mean, especially with competition out there.
It's like people secret recipesaren't so secret anymore
because somebody could take arecipe, go to a lab, figure out
exactly how you made it and makeit themselves.
So people copy all day long.
People are copying that arespicy spring pizza opening up
I'm opening up an herbs andplanet Hollywood and there's a
(13:04):
not going to name the pizzeriaright beside it, but it's
literally an exact rip off ofPrince Street Pizza with a
different name.
I was like oh and I, so Iordered the King Street pizza.
It's so funny.
It's like well, the sauce isn'tgood, it's not cooked through
like Prince Street, they're notusing the Greek cheese, the
pepperoni it's a rip off butit's not the same pepperoni and
(13:26):
they're not cutting it the same.
So all the little things thatthey're doing to copy are
totally off, which makes it notlike it doesn't hit you.
It's not like a punching you inthe face.
Oh, wow, that's an amazingslice.
But even if you have a greatproduct, you have to have great
hospitality 100% love that.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Now, lawrence, I know you know a lot of people in the
industry.
Who's someone that we should befollowing?
Who's someone that deserves anovation?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah, yeah, especially for this podcast.
I'm going to give an ovation toPreston Lee and he has a
company called the 30% Rulewhich I've hired and he helps me
with all of my front of househospitality and really training
almost training the staff, buttraining the trainers because
(14:12):
that's the most important thingis who's training your staff and
like, how are you training themto train your staff and you
continually train and retrain.
That, for me, is a guy I'd liketo give a shout out to, preston
Lee.
Uh, the 30% rule.
Every restaurant has got to betaking their front of house
(14:33):
seriously.
It's the first touch point ofthe restaurant, before they even
get the food.
Hello, how are you?
Welcome to Irv's.
Welcome to Prince Street,welcome to wherever restaurant
you are having that connection.
Welcome to Moe's.
Welcome to Moe's, Whatever itis he helps restaurants do that,
so that's my shout out Awesome.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
And now, Lawrence, where can people go to find and
follow you and your brands?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So me personally is at Big Shot B-I-G-S-H-O-T.
And just so you know, I gotthat Instagram name not because
of how it sounds, it's more.
It was when I first joinedInstagram.
It was a filter app for photos,so I was going to take the big
shot.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
No way you legit have big shot.
That is your legit Instagram.
Yeah, that is nuts.
Well, I am adding one to your23,700 followers.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
And I'm not awesome on Instagram personally, like
I'm not.
And then Prince Street PizzaErzburgers Bar next door,
underscore, underscore.
And then a new one on the otherside of prince street, west
hollywood's gonna be opening anice cream shop called hall pass
ice cream oh nice, yeah well, Idon't forget about sparky sports
(15:49):
bar oh, sparky sports bar inmalibu.
That's right.
How do you forget?
I love that man.
Because we're redoing ourliquor license and everything.
It's been closed for a oh,sparky Sports Bar in Malibu.
That's right.
How do you forget it?
I love that man, because we'reredoing our liquor license and
everything.
It's been closed for a coupleof months and Malibu has been an
absolute disaster.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Oh geez, I love that you got that much stuff going on
, though.
Lawrence man, I'm so gratefulyou came on the podcast, and
Lawrence, for showing us thatyou actually can't find 30 hours
in the day.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you so much for joiningus and give an ovation.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Thanks so much for having me.
This was great Thanks forjoining us today.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
If you like this episode, leave us a review on
Apple podcasts or your favoriteplace to listen.
We're all about feedback here.
Again, this episode wassponsored by Ovation, a
two-question, sms-basedactionable guest feedback
platform built for multi-unitrestaurants.
If you'd like to learn how wecan help you measure and create
a better guest experience, visitus at OvationUpcom.
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