August 2, 2022 • 39 mins
This episode was originally published as part of the Restaurant Growth Podcast. It has been rebranded as part of The Pre-Shift Podcast as of January 2023. The information presented may no longer be up-to-date and may differ from the viewpoints and insights currently shared on The Pre-Shift Podcast.
Zunzi’s has one promise: to make everyone walk away saying “Shit Yeah!” Chris Smith, alongside his role as CEO, is the protector of that promise.
In this episode, we chat with Chris about the culture at Zunzi’s and Zunzibar: the why behind it, how they maintain it, and what they hope it will do for their guests, community, and most importantly, their team.
The Restaurant Growth Podcast is presented by 7shifts and hosted by DJ Costantino.
About 7shifts
Since 2014, 7shifts has helped restaurant managers schedule, evaluate, and communicate with their workforce. Our team is comprised of people who live and breathe restaurant culture and strive to help our customers simplify team management, every single day.
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Host & Producer: D. J. Costantino
Producer: Samantha Fung
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
D.J. Costantino (00:02):
Hey everybody, what is going on?
Welcome back to the latestepisode of the restaurant growth
podcast by seven chips.
I'm DJ your host.
And on this show, we bringtogether the best minds in the
restaurant industry to bring youbig insights and new ideas to
help your restaurant grow todayon this show.
We're welcome.
Chris Smith.
Chris is the founder and CEO ofZZI and Z Zabar, a south African
(00:23):
inspired sandwich shop and barwith locations in Savannah and
Atlanta, Georgia.
Chris also has his titleprotector of the promise.
What does that mean?
Well, ZZI is unabashed abouttheir strong culture, but the
goal of not only making a greatplace to work, but improving the
lives of people that work there,as well as the community around
them, we get into just how theygo about doing that and more in
the latest episode, as always.
(00:43):
We'd love to hear from you dropus a line at podcast at seven
shifts dot.
Tell us what you think, who youwant to hear.
And without further ado here isChris.
Chris Smith (00:52):
Chris, how are you today?
Living the dream, man?
How are you?
D.J. Costantino (00:56):
I'm doing pretty good.
Living the dream too.
Welcome.
And thank you for joining ourpodcast.
Chris Smith (01:02):
Excited to be here.
Thanks for having me.
D.J. Costantino (01:04):
Awesome.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, um, let's just kick it rightoff.
Tell us a little bit about, um,zis, how you started it and how
you got your start in therestaurant hospitality industry.
You got it.
Chris Smith (01:13):
So Zuzi is, uh, a south African inspired takeout
delivery and sandwich shop.
We started in Savannah, Georgia,2005.
It was started by our originalfounders, Johnny and Gabby.
Debe.
South African guy who married aSwiss, a Swiss gypsy kind of a
crazy lady, kinda joke around.
She's like the most interestingwoman in the world.
(01:35):
And then looking at a Greekrestaurant on the river in
Savannah.
And, um, I found ZZI, it soundslike it's almost like a
religion.
I found Zi though when I was afive guys franchisee in
Savannah.
Oh, wow.
So I got business.
I was actually really had nointent of being in the
restaurant business, had anintent.
Own my own business someday.
(01:56):
My plan was to, um, go to lawschool, went to the university
of Florida.
And while I was there around2005, 2006, tried five guys
burgers and fries.
When I was in school therebacked visiting with family and
kinda long story short, itsnowballed into, uh,
conversation with my parentsinstead.
Me making money, going to lawschool, them taking that money.
(02:19):
They said would, they would payfor law school and buying five
guys franchises in coastal,Georgia and South Carolina while
I was in college.
So massive leap of faith forthem.
Yeah.
Um, which shows, you know, verygood parents, probably, uh,
believing a little bit too muchin their son in doing that, but
took that leap.
And then, um, I actually workedFriday, Saturdays and Sundays,
(02:41):
my senior year in 2000.
To, um, train at five guys witha franchisee.
I was their first mentor intheir mentorship program.
They were rolling out and thenopened up about six months
later.
And, um, it was off to theraces, baptism by fire, as they
say.
D.J. Costantino (02:57):
Very cool.
Uh, did they need any convincingreally?
Or they were just kind of downfor it when, uh, when you
pitched that
Chris Smith (03:02):
to them.
Yeah.
You know, we always grew up withmy dad making super Dave burgers
and it was like, you know, itwas always the best burger that,
that, that, that we would have.
And, um, so we always enjoyedburgers and then, you know, we
ate there and we're like, man,this is like the best burger out
there.
It's pretty bonafide fancyhamburger stand.
And I was like, that's somethingI could actually do.
(03:24):
And then it, you know, itsnowballed into doing it.
D.J. Costantino (03:28):
Very cool.
Um, so when did you make thejump from the five guys to
Chris Smith (03:32):
Zen's?
Yeah, so the process was our,our development agreement with
five guys, which we started inour first location open in 2007
was for seven locations.
So ended up building threelocations in the first two
years.
So it was a really quickstartup, had three, the time I
was 23 and, um, Almost an edgeof burning out, uh, at that
(03:54):
stage.
But yeah, stop the growth hireda director of operations, hired
an office manager and sort ofscale up our, our small
business.
And then that's set to open upfour more locations.
Through 2000 and, uh, 15 didthat, but, um, very cool.
Tried ZZI in 2008, when I hadmoved to a, to Savannah to open
our second location and fell inlove with it, actually that
(04:16):
first time I was there,everybody had said, go try this
amazing hole on a wall divesandwich shop.
And I rolled up there and therewas a line of 50 people and the
patio had these janky, you know,old rainbow umbrellas with
secondhand furniture, piecedtogether, and people eating on
buckets next to a grease trapand a dumpster.
And it was just had all of thecharacter that you would imagine
(04:38):
of a, you know, an old hole in awall sandwich shop.
And so in that moment, as I waseating Aquita door and drinking
our south African.
Um, I said, someday, I'm gonnabuy this in franchises,
franchises model.
And so I kinda put that out inthe ether and I would go at
least once a month, talk toJohnny if Gabby was there and
she was in the kitchen, say hito her and always ask him, Hey,
(04:59):
if you ever wanna sellerfranchise, let me know.
And so I got a call, actually,my, my downtown five guys
location.
So happy.
I had a good manager who wasthere at the time.
Answer the phone.
And it was, Johnny's trying toget ahold of saying he wants to
sell his restaurant.
And so immediately the managercalled me and I'm happy.
He didn't throw it in the redbook or something and it just
get lost And so, uh, got thatphone call.
(05:23):
And at that time I was lookingat other franchises and nothing
was getting me super excited.
So it was the perfect timing.
We were looking to diversifiedportfolio and I was like, man,
I'm not 30 yet.
I still got a little bit ofenergy in the tank.
And, uh, let's go ahead and kindof get to the other side.
And, uh, and so that's what setit off.
Very cool.
D.J. Costantino (05:42):
And then, so now you have the second location
in Atlanta, is that
Chris Smith (05:45):
correct?
Yeah, so, uh, the process atthat time, we bought it at the
end of 2014 and immediately puta point of sales system in, got
our sales mix, tried to doeverything we could
operationally to streamlineoperations, build sales, get our
call, everything in line.
Cause it was a mom and pop.
You can kind of run that.
Yeah.
A little different, but with ourgoals, we had to put some
(06:07):
systems in place.
And so we did that for about twoyears.
Got it.
To where it needed to be almostdoubled sales in that amount of
time.
And then we said, okay, let's,let's figure out what a
prototypical location would be.
And at that time, our model waslooking to be like, what are
Orlando location was?
Which was just a fast casualtakeout delivery sandwich shop
and cap 2000 square.
(06:29):
So we did that in 2018, openedthat location and spent a lot of
time on R and D to develop ourmenu.
We opened the Atlanta locationand we went there because we
wanted to learn, uh, it wasn't asituation.
Yeah.
Let's open a restaurant and makesome money.
It was let's open a restaurantin a market where we don't have
brand awareness and it reallypressure test the model.
And so we spent two yearsrefining that, getting it to
(06:52):
where it needed to be, thenCOVID hit.
And so we got COVID twolocations operating and I said,
okay, Let's go back to our homebase closed, you know, um,
Atlanta had more challenges withCOVID than Savannah did.
So closed that for a few months.
Yeah.
And then focused on Savannah anddoing that.
And during that time, our leaseran out of that location.
(07:13):
And so we were having to find a,find a spot after 15 years, the
landlord didn't want arestaurant anymore.
It was an old office buildingand really, it was a blessing in
disguise.
A, a fantastic piece of realestate became available.
Two blocks away.
We were able to pull the triggeron that.
And that's what triggered us tocreate our new model, which is
zis plus Zabar, which were ourtakeout delivery sandwich shop
(07:36):
operating at 600 square feet.
But we lead with the full beachbar experience.
So full liquor beer line, andit's really transformed our
entire operation to where wewere, you know, a 1.6 million
model.
And, uh, which is great for afast casual, and especially with
what we do.
And now our, our model'strending, uh, almost a 4
million.
(07:56):
Wow.
D.J. Costantino (07:57):
That's amazing.
Yeah.
Those, uh, alcohol sales really,uh, give you a little boost.
Yeah.
So right now it's
Chris Smith (08:02):
about 5% of our sales.
Really what it did for us is it,it, you know, it allowed us to
operate in what, what we nowconsider the experience side of
the business before we were justa good sandwich shop and food, a
lot of takeout deliveringcatering.
And so that bucket wasconvenience.
And so now post COVID people arecertainly, um, used to
(08:24):
convenience, third partydelivery, online, ordering all
of the tech that's, that'sreally impacted the restaurant
business.
That's our core business.
We've thrived through that, butnow with the reopening of the
economy, and if people arecraving an experience, people
really aren't anymore.
Just, you know, leaving thehouse to go eat a meal to.
(08:44):
Fill the hunger need that'sthere.
They want to get up.
They want to go out, have a goodtime, have a full experience.
And so we've built that, thatwhole restaurant and really the
bar to lead the, the experience,live music, um, experiential
marketing in there.
It just it's perfect forInstagram TikTok, everything
that you want to be able tomarket your business.
(09:04):
Absolutely.
D.J. Costantino (09:05):
And another big piece of that marketing that I
see is talking about your, yourculture.
I know you have a tagline, youknow, and, and on the website as
well.
You, you know, you're listed asthe protector of the promise.
So tell me a little bit moreabout zis, um, culture.
Chris Smith (09:20):
Right.
So, um, having been afranchisee, you know, I, I
definitely have a, a strongfeeling that culture is one of
the big differentiators between,uh, the most successful brands
and the, and the ones thataren't.
And I think it's criticallyimportant as you go into
franchising to have a super welldefined culture that, uh, really
on steroids, I joke around thefirst four letters of, of
(09:43):
culturist cult.
And so if it's not that draw.
And you can't talk about it thatway, then not in a negative way,
but a franchisees is probablygonna water it down a little
bit.
So it's gotta be a hundredpercent.
So that way, if it's diluted alittle bit, it's still gonna be
there.
And we spent a couple yearsreally focusing on defining that
(10:03):
I even took two years in thattime where I had five guys and
Zuzi to figure out my lifepurpose and said, if I'm gonna
go, yeah.
This business and go all in onthis, I know it's gonna be
really hard.
I've already done it once as afranchisee.
It's gonna be really hard as afranchisor to, to get to that
stage.
I need to align my life purposewith my business and purpose and
figure that out.
(10:24):
So I really took that to heartand it's, it's been very
fulfilling in the process.
Um, so going back to the title,um, you've got protector of the
promise and what that is isthat's our motto, which is shit.
Yeah, shit.
Yeah.
It's our motto.
Um, it.
It started with Johnny at ouroriginal location.
It was just kind of this, thisfun thing with this south
(10:45):
African accent, he would sayshit.
Yeah, baby.
What I recognized when I thoughtwas our team was saying it and
more, and equally as important,our, our fans were saying it I'd
walk down the street in a ZYshirt and you'd hear a, a shit
yeah.
From alley or something.
And it's like, what's the valuefor a brand that your guests are
(11:05):
actually saying your motto.
There's just do it, you know,but I'm not sure many people see
a pair of Nike shootings say,just do it.
Or if they eat a McDonald'smeal, right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Loving it, you know, but is ifthey see it right now, they say
shit.
Yeah.
And so there's a lot of equityin that, even in just the single
location.
Absolutely.
And so I, you know, saw that andI said, okay, well that's gonna
(11:25):
be our brand promise.
So our it's our promise thatwhenever anybody engages with
our business as a customer, wewant them to leave saying shit.
Nice.
And so, and what is that?
I'll go ahead.
yeah.
And so it's, it's different thanbeing the best sandwich or the
best product.
It's a feeling that's associatedwith it.
It means we connected with thatfan, that guest, we turned them
(11:47):
into a fan.
And so even, you know, there'ssome reviews out there that
they'll put an essay on Yelp or,or Google.
And I'm standing it I'm like ifthey didn't say shit, yeah.
We didn't check the box, maybe afive star review and it's a
perfect review, but it's missingreally that intangible that we
didn't connect with the guests.
And we're very focused on that.
It's actually expanded as we'vegrown the business and we've
(12:10):
seen the impact of all of thestakeholders.
It's now our promise to our sixstakeholders.
And so in that order, we get ourteam is number one, our
franchisees.
Yeah.
Number two.
We've got our fans, numberthree, our communities, four
vendors, and then investors.
And so we want, as you makedecisions, we wanna make
decisions that we know our teamis gonna say shit.
(12:31):
Yeah.
And then it moves all the way upin that our team franchisees,
you've got your, your fans.
And, um, a good example of thatis I went into a very, very
popular, fast casual chain.
you know, there's a lot ofthings that are a lot of
decisions that are made from theboardroom and there's a
disconnect in the front line.
(12:51):
And so there was a nationalchain that had rolled out a
vegan option.
I went in there, asked for themanager to get their feedback on
it.
It was a bunch of ads.
I'm the super bowl.
And I asked them yeah, about itand they go, don't get it.
Get the other vegan optionmillion.
It's a dollars.
Oh.
And you go, there's adisconnect.
Thousand a location.
Yeah.
(13:12):
And, and there's that issue.
And so I think culture canreally blows that gap.
D.J. Costantino (13:16):
Absolutely.
And what did that process looklike?
You know, developing thatculture and how did you really,
you know, was there a momentthat you knew you needed to
develop it more?
Um, you know, and then how doyou go in and, and sit down and,
and really kind of hammer itout, give yourself, you know,
the language is important, howyou present it is important.
What was that process?
Chris Smith (13:35):
Yeah.
So in that process of figuringout my life purpose and trying
to figure out what I reallyenjoy about the business, I
really enjoyed my time at fiveguys, where I was able to see
our team members start off,drink the company Kool-Aid and
just work with us and bepromoted from within and watch
their life change in theprocess, go from being a fry,
(13:57):
cook all the way up to being aGM benefits and making money.
And they're buying a car in ahouse and having a family and
kids.
It's and, you know, they, theyreally took the opportunity by,
by the horns and ran with it.
And that was extremelyfulfilling, especially as a
hands on franchisee, but there,you know, for as many of those
cases, as, as there, there were.
(14:19):
There were also thesesituations, which if you're a
restaurant operator, you fullyunderstand this, you'll invest
all of this time in these team.
And some of the team membersit's high risk human capital,
meaning you can invest threeyears.
Yeah.
To get someone over be thatthey're about to be a GM to open
your next location.
And two weeks before opening,they're like, sorry, Chris, I
gotta move to, you know,Tennessee.
(14:42):
For whatever reason.
And you're like, but we've spentthree years and bad about it.
And it's almost like Houdini is,you know, they just disappear
and it wasn't the thingsnecessarily that we were doing
in the business to cause it, itwas always things in their life.
It could be an addiction that wedon't know about.
It could be a bad relationship.
It could be, yeah.
They made more money and nowthey're spending too much and
(15:04):
they're in over their head.
They don't know how to manage.
It could be just the stress ofnow this new role.
And they, the things in theirlife are making that it's kind
of overwhelming them.
Their life isn't able to supportthe new responsibilities and
the, the time associated withit.
So I said, man, we gotta figureout something that can really be
focused on the team member andimproving their life.
(15:27):
So, and it kind of have a pulseon it and I think great
managers.
They do that.
They know what's going on in,in, in their team members'
lives.
They're having those, you know,one minute conversations a day,
you know, to have a pulse.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I really wanted to make that thekey is, is that our team, isn't
just becoming a better sandwichmaker or bartender or whatever,
but they're actually, their lifeis getting better in the
(15:49):
process.
And it's an aspirational goal ofthe company.
I think goal of be aspirational.
They should pull you towardswhere you're trying to.
And, um, and so from a, abusiness standpoint, you say we
have some things we've got big,bright rainbow umbrellas that
are pretty cool.
We've got a motto that shit.
Yeah.
You've got an interesting menu.
The name ZZI, you know, a lot ofthings to work with.
(16:12):
And I said, yeah, you know, thisrainbow umbrella is, is kind of
ending up to be a symbol of thecompany.
And I said, you know what, ifthat could represent a team
member's.
So you'd say there's eight areasof your life.
So there's different areas thatwe just talked about, that the
rainbow umbrella represents yourteam member's life or, or, or
anybody's life for that eightareas of your life.
(16:33):
You've got your body, yourhealth, you've got your mind,
your emotions, your mentalstate.
You've got your relationshipsthat you have.
Um, you've got your time.
You have your career.
You've got your finances, yourmoney.
You've got a sense of giving andcelebrating your life and you
have your spiritual and lifepurpose.
Yeah.
What we would like to have inour life is to where each of
(16:56):
those areas, we feel really goodabout it when you really analyze
your life and you look at'em indifferent areas and you rate'em
from one to 10 and say,physically, I feel like I'm a
four and well, then why?
Right?
And then mentally, I feel likeI, and financially I'm a three.
If you add all that together anddivide it by eight, you now have
a life.
And then, so it's a quick way tosay, Hey, you know, how are you
(17:18):
doing in life?
And then how can you, you know,make some changes in that.
And as a company, when I wasdeveloping all of that, I was
like, man, a way to, to reallyprove this out is what if we got
to, you know, a hundred, 200,300 locations and we had life
scores on every team.
Yeah.
Great businesses measure allsorts of KPIs.
(17:39):
Well, what if you knew how yourteam felt about their life,
right?
And then you could see thisstores sales are down and
turnovers high.
Well, cuz their life score islow, you know?
Right.
Yeah.
And so's going on?
What can you do as a companyabout that?
And so as we grow the company, Ireally wanna focus on the more
(18:00):
we grow, the more we can give.
And in that process, we cancreate resources for our team.
It's really tough when someonejust breaks up with their
boyfriend, girlfriends,significant other, and you're
at, it's a busy Friday shift andthey're walking in managers in
the weeds and, and the person'scrying and they're like, I'm so
sorry to hear about that, but,uh, can you clock in we're
(18:20):
understand, right.
Be a lot if they called eight byfive shit.
Yeah.
And there was someone to talk toem, so yeah,
D.J. Costantino (18:28):
Absolutely coming up with the culture, um,
is a huge portion of it andreally sitting down and kind of
distill.
and making that promise, but Ithink kind of executing on it is
another, of course, huge part ofit.
Um, you know, what are some ofthe kind of tactical ways that
you're able to keep and makesure that people's life scores
are up or what are the waysyou're going in talking to staff
(18:50):
and, and figuring out and justmaking sure that that promise is
actually being kept.
Chris Smith (18:54):
Yeah.
So, you know, so ex explainingwhat, what, what, we just went
over our mission as a company.
Is to inspire others to becomethe best version of themselves.
You have that umbrella, that'sthe representation of it.
Um, the idea is the more fullyour umbrella is the more people
you can fit under it.
Right?
So if you're, if your life isreally full, then it's in, then
(19:14):
you're able to help people underit.
If you're struggling an areait's hard to help somebody.
And so that's kind of the wholepremise of it.
And as a company, as we grow, wecan do the same thing, uh, the
stakeholders of our life.
One of the things we do on adaily basis that I think.
Really really strong.
And it helps us on, on justmanaging and it helps young
managers is we'll have our teammeeting each shift and we don't
(19:36):
ask our team how they're doing.
We ask what their number is.
Cause if you ask how you'redoing, you usually get a BS
answer.
Right.
It's I'm good.
Yeah.
I'm good.
You know exactly.
Yeah.
Dog could have been hit by.
still good.
Cause that's just how John is,but he's having a day cause he
just doesn't wear it on hisshoulder.
Well, When you ask'em what theirnumber is.
(19:59):
And what we say is zero.
I can't be doing any worse.
10 I'm peaked out in life.
I'm maxed out.
Like I'm never gonna do anybetter.
Five is just kinda Luke warm.
I'm I'm living in life where youwant to be is I'm a seven to
eight is I know where I am.
Right.
I'm kind of, I, I have an ideaof my life score of my umbrella.
I know where I wanna be.
(20:21):
And I'm actively workingtowards.
Right.
Yeah.
And so that's the sweet spot andwe, and we talk about that.
And so it's like rapid fire.
Everybody knows how it works.
What's your number?
What's your number?
What's your number?
And some days it's like,everyone's, it's like the
average is a three.
And on those days, right.
Manager just gotta be like, allright guys, well, we all just,
can't close up and go to thebeach to have a better day.
(20:44):
You know, let's all decide to bea seven or an eight, the next
six hours.
Let's just, you know, choose tohave a great day.
There's no reason to, just, to,to bring it down other days.
Yeah, everybody's really good.
And it's, it's exciting.
And then there's some days whereone or two people are, are
struggling and they're having arough.
and everybody knows that we'reall gonna have a rough day
(21:04):
sometimes.
So it could be that yeah, itallows, especially helps young
managers, right?
Young manager, emotionalintelligence.
They don't really know how togauge all that stuff, but this
it's like, all right, well, Johncame in today and he's always a
seven.
Well, now he's a five.
Now I can talk to John, pull himaside.
(21:25):
Maybe John needs a break.
Yeah, go ahead and, and, andtake a, take an employee meal
and, and take a break first.
Or maybe we don't put John onthe front lines, um, where he is
on the register or in a veryhigh customer of service
position.
Maybe they're doing prep ordoing project cleaning or
something else that they're nothaving to engage at that high
level that's needed.
(21:45):
Um, maybe they they're the firstones to be cut just so they can
go ahead and have some extra.
Allows you to manage a shiftmuch better, and also gives you
a pulse as a manager.
Absolutely.
It's probably the best day today tool that we use that ties
to our mission.
Yeah.
And it's one of those things.
D.J. Costantino (21:59):
It it's, you know, someone will come in and,
and if you don't really ask, youdon't ever know, right.
Someone could need that extraattention.
You can't really rely on peopleto guess based on kind of body
language.
I think sometimes people just.
They'll come into work andthey'll just try to put their
best foot forward, even ifthey're having a really rough
day for something other reason.
So it kind of gives managerssay, oh, well, maybe I need to
pay attention to Chris today.
A little extra, instead of justkind of assuming everything is
(22:20):
good.
Chris Smith (22:21):
So you got it.
Exactly.
And do you
D.J. Costantino (22:24):
track kind of those scores anyway?
Like do you record themanywhere?
Just kind of see how people areover time or
Chris Smith (22:29):
yeah.
So pre you know, for, for that,on those, on, on the daily
basis, that's actually a, agreat idea.
It would be just nice to be ableto take a note and, and then do
an average.
We perform, which is like our,our wheel of life or our, our,
uh, umbrella of life that we've,we built out as a spreadsheet
and, and it can be done duringCOVID.
It was just a wild west for us.
(22:49):
And, you know, having that,yeah.
The fundamentals of the culture,we all know, know why the
company exists, what we'reworking towards, but it's kind
of like when the worlds on fire,it's tough to like, do those
kind of evaluations.
Yeah.
So
D.J. Costantino (23:03):
we're, we're how you feeling today?
zero.
A lot of zeros,
Chris Smith (23:08):
right?
Yeah.
So past two and a half years,um, the culture was able to get
through it and really pressuretested it, which was good.
That's awesome.
So we're gonna get back to itand I think long term, I'd love
to get an app that that would bein place.
And it's just as you clock in,go ahead and knock it out and it
would be a great way to do it.
Yeah.
And on a monthly or quarterlybasis, the same thing.
And then you could have all ofthe data and, uh, and resource
(23:29):
would be pretty.
D.J. Costantino (23:31):
Absolutely.
I think, uh, I think we canprobably help out with that.
Uh, so
Chris Smith (23:35):
I'll let you know.
So, um, so another thing that wedo tie to our culture is, uh, we
do a monthly event called ZZIFest.
Oh, cool.
Um, and so what this is, it'sour way to say thank you to our
six stakeholders for being apart of our business and helping
us grow to this point and to thefuture.
So it's the second Tuesday ofevery month.
(23:56):
And it allows us to have touchpoints with our six
stakeholders.
So we've got our fans, we giveaway through our community app,
a text messaging app.
You can join that and then we'llsend out a code for you to bring
in you get a free chickensandwich or can keys to door or
a vegan option, the rising sun,a six inch.
And then, um, and so you cancome in and get that you can buy
(24:17):
chips, drinks, cookies, anyextra stuff.
And, uh, 26% of the sales goesto a local nonprofit.
So we partner with a nonprofitthat would, uh, be aligned with
our mission.
And, uh, we partner with them,do the press release, create the
awareness.
Um, they usually come and, youknow, set up a booth so they can
share what they do with, withthe fans popping in.
(24:37):
And then we also close early andhave a team party for our team.
So from six to eight, on thatday, we close a five close up
from six to eight we'll order,some food.
Um, everybody can have twodrinks at the bar and it's a
chance for us to all gettogether and just kind of hang.
Be thankful for the success ofthe business.
Maybe talk a little bit aboutwhy we're in business, the
culture and all those sort ofthings.
(24:58):
Nice.
You know, we, aren't trying tobe too heavy during that time
after we just of course putthousand sandwiches and six
hours, you know, it's just a, afun day for us.
So you've got our fans takencare of, you've got our team
taken care of, uh, the communitywe're engaging with.
Sponsored by our vendors.
So it's one of those things thatwe want our vendors to be a part
of, all of our agreements thatwe put in place they'll be
(25:20):
discounting or providing productfor us.
So we can, um, basically thegoal of it's a break even day in
doing it.
Yeah.
Our vendors, I'm sorry, ourinvestors and our franchisees
win because it's this reallyatomic bomb.
I, I say of marketing ofGoodwill in the community,
spreading awareness of why we'rein business.
Hitting a lot of people engagedin our business that haven't
(25:40):
heard about us.
We, you know, sponsored ADSSthrough social media to join the
community and then they can optin and it's been unbelievable,
almost 80% of the, of the peoplethat come our first time.
Um, our local bands don't wannawait in line for an hour to get
a free sandwich.
Those come in.
They, they love our business.
Um, but it's a great way to getpeople in the door.
D.J. Costantino (26:00):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a great, you know, I thinkthat's like, it is pretty
genius.
It hits pretty much every box.
Right?
Of course.
You're, you know, doingsomething for your team, doing
something for your guests.
It's customer acquisition, it'smarketing content, it's vendor
relations.
It's investor relations.
So yeah, it it's, uh, that's agreat, really awesome idea that
just, I.
Really is one, one day a monthwhere you get to kind of hit on
(26:23):
all those notes.
Chris Smith (26:24):
Yeah.
And you know, we wanted to plantthat flag before we franchised.
It's tough to roll something inI've talked to a bunch of
founders, CEOs of, of largerchain.
And the one thing they say isabsolutely love the idea of it.
We can never do it because ourfranchisees wouldn't buy into it
at this stage.
And so, right.
You know, we want a verypolarizing culture.
We want franchisees that are ahundred percent sold on the
(26:48):
culture.
I always tell people, you know,the, the first step of our
franchise process is, uh, introcall with our director of
franchising.
If it checks that box, fill theapplication out.
The, the third step is to, is anhour call with.
And I taught culture.
Like I am on this call for aboutan hour and, uh, yeah.
Talk about cost of goods orlabor or profitability.
(27:08):
I tell you to go buy pennyJohns.
So yeah, I was just, we aren'tlooking for a thousand
franchisees.
We get, you know, the rightfranchisees that, that
understand the culture.
Uh, we know we're gonna besuccessful with that.
And, um, absolutely was zoom deFest.
One of the reasons we wanted todo it as well, we wanted a KPI
of our business.
(27:29):
So we wanted to align our growthwith something that was
unlimited.
And there's, there's always thequestion.
How big do you wanna grow yourbrand?
Right.
And for some people, right.
I talk to inspire brand CEO.
They're like, oh, you can open a500 in a couple years and then
right.
Talk to independent operator.
And you're like, I wanna open,you know, three in Florida.
They're like three in the nexttwo years.
What, and there's this.
(27:49):
Right.
Doesn't make sense.
And so I said, what's one thingthat's unlimited that we could
do it.
And that's giving there's nomatter how big you get, there's
always be a need to give to thestakeholders, open up a location
in a community that'sunderserved.
That's not operating up, youknow, a great restaurant that
can serve at stakeholders.
And so with that DY Fest as aKPI, our target giving per
(28:13):
location is$26,000.
And, um, and so that's 12 monthsa year that we're doing that.
So you're looking just over$2,000 per you Fest Don into a
local nonprofit.
And so that way we can show justlike you would have sales, you
would have labor cost of goods,your, you know, average review
score, NPS different things thatyou're looking for for us, we
(28:35):
have giving on there so we cansay, okay, we now open a new
location.
There's there should be another$26,000 minimum, a.
And then as that grows, you cansee the impact you have as a
company just built in it's justinto your DNA.
D.J. Costantino (28:48):
Absolutely.
And it's kind of like putting aKPI on culture, which is very
tough to do, cuz it's such a,you know, a thing that just, it
has so many things, but I thinkif you're not, if you're solid,
If your culture's not solid atthat location, if you're
franchisee, you're probably notgonna hit that number because
you're unorganized or peoplearen't really down to do it, or,
you know, the relationships arestrained and I, I think that's
(29:10):
a, a great way of, of tracking
Chris Smith (29:12):
it.
Yeah.
And, and, you know, I thinkthat's a good, a good point
during COVID.
It was just, you know, it's ahard time.
And we had been doing zoom Festfor a while.
We had probably almost two yearsuntil COVID hit.
We talked to our team and therewas just like, man, we're worn
out.
It's been busy with busyrestaurant, you know, top, top
rated takeout, catering sandwichshop in Savannah, Atlanta, same
(29:35):
thing.
And I said, Hey, our team, isn'tsaying, you know, shit.
Yeah.
About this.
Let's pause it.
And I put that out on social.
I said, our team just isn'tready.
Just.
To do zoo Z Fest.
They're just burning the can atboth ends.
And we're gonna pause it for afew.
So we, and we did that a fewtimes and our, our fans really
appreciated that.
And I think that's part of thesocial media.
(29:55):
It's really designed to be arelationship.
It's not supposed to be thebrand talking totally what it's
supposed to be a conversation.
D.J. Costantino (30:01):
Yeah, absolutely.
If you're not able, if you don'thave like, is it kind of like
put your mask on before you putthe other mask on?
Like, if you're not there andyou're not feeling good, you
can't really give to otherpeople or else it's just not
gonna.
You're gonna take away from it,you know, at the end of the day,
so, correct.
Um,
Chris Smith (30:16):
so that's zoomies, um, and it drives a lot of what
we do.
Yeah.
Zoom.
So that's, that's how it startedzooms a bar is what we're, you
know, now super excited about.
Yeah.
We've been a, a fast casualtakeout, takeout delivery
catering shop for a long time.
Now we lead with this full barexperience and we did that
because there was reallyfranchisees in our own corporate
(30:37):
locations to have the, the bestopportunity to succeed.
So we're taking best of fast,casual, limited menu QSR marry
that with the best of fullservice, having high profit bar,
we've got frozen drinks so wecan, you know, move, move those
quickly.
And then you've got a tip wagemodel.
So you've got labor savings anda tip wage model.
(30:58):
You've got, um, experience andthat's, what's, what's really
been amazing watching all thatcome together.
And then we've leveraged.
Yeah.
With toast as our partner withpay at the table with unique QR
code ordering, we have threekiosks in the operation around
our hundred seat.
Patio is 60 seats inside, andthen we have handhelds.
Um, so we really want guests.
Now, some guests want full, afull experience.
(31:21):
They want to sit at a table andbe left alone and they're on the
QR code and the food comes tothem and it's great.
And they got their headphones onthere's others that don't wanna
place their order on a QR code.
And we've got a server thereable to do.
But it's allowed our service nowto take twice the amount of
sections they can make moremoney.
And, uh, that combination justbeen amazing over the past year.
(31:41):
That's incredible.
And
D.J. Costantino (31:42):
that's the, is that what you're franchising is
the Zs of bar.
Chris Smith (31:45):
We are, so it's, it's both it's Zs of bar plus
zoom like this dual brandedconcept.
Very cool.
And so that's been.
It's been a lot of fun withthat, with the mission and
culture and how it ties to Zuzi.
So you've got the rainbowumbrella and it represents your
life.
Yeah.
Thing we just talked about ourlogo for SZA bar is that rainbow
umbrella sitting in a cocktail.
(32:06):
And so our mission of ZZA bar isto inspire you to celebrate your
life.
And so everything we do, we wantto own the place in our, our
fans' mind that when somethinggreat happens in.
Let's go celebrate at zones ofbar.
Uh, life's too short to justgrind the whole time, uh, take
that light absolutely a while,throw that umbrella in a
cocktail and then throw it back.
(32:27):
And so everything we do isdesign from live music,
experiential marketing, neonsigns, uh, the waste designed to
really, you know, we've got shotskis.
You've got beer shot combos,reasonably priced spot on li
mimosa, uh, really fun, happyhour, uh, two hours a day, half
off the entire bar, seven daysa.
We do these things.
If you really wanna just be aplace where people can always
(32:49):
have a good time and, and knowthat.
D.J. Costantino (32:52):
Yeah.
And, and with that culture, Ithink, you know, it's also
ensuring that that's not at theexpense of the people that work
there too.
It's um, you know, everyone'shaving a good time, including,
including the employees,
Chris Smith (33:03):
correct?
Yeah.
And, and, you know, I think froma fast casual standpoint, fast,
casual and QSR, fast food can bea grind.
And so taking our model.
That is, you know, we're a highvolume sandwich shop.
We're pushing out hundreds andhundreds of sandwiches a day in
this operation.
They're allowed to kind of be apart of a really fun atmosphere
(33:25):
and bar because of that, it'snot just a sandwich shop,
pushing out sandwiches.
You've got live music, you'vegot the music playing, you've
got this, this whole interactiongoing.
And, uh, that's really helped usin regards to attracting our
team members as.
Yeah, absolutely.
D.J. Costantino (33:39):
On top of that amazing culture.
And with that, I guess, youknow, my last question is really
like, kind of directed at, youknow, listeners and people that
wanna improve their restaurantculture, you know, where should
people start if they, if theykind of identify, you know,
maybe my culture could use somework, you know, what's the most
important, important place to,to kind of start that
conversation.
Chris Smith (33:57):
Um, I think if you're the, the owner of the
founder of the business, I thinkyou gotta start with yourself
and say, why are you really inthe.
You know, I think that's, that'scritically important.
Um, for me, it's not just tomake money.
There's so many better ways tomake money than the restaurant
business.
And, um, so, you know, reallyfocus on trying to figure out
why you exist, sort to alignthat with the business and that
(34:18):
way, when you have those toughdays, you at least know you're
working towards that.
For me, our vision statement inthe company is the restaurant
business sucks.
We're here to change it.
So we tell our team, you know,we, we lead with that.
The restaurant business sucks.
Our franchise sales process, therestaurant business sucks.
We're here to change it.
what we say is when you changethose things in the restaurant
(34:41):
business, um, you create valuefor stakeholders.
When you improve scheduling,ordering R and M facilities,
you've got HR, all these things,there's death by a thousand cuts
that you can complain about.
Yeah.
Uh, we joke around, you gottalearn to eat shit and like it in
this business.
and so, you know, you you'llcreate value for the
(35:01):
stakeholders in, in, in doingthat.
And one of the ways we're doingit.
So you at ZY Fest is one way.
We're super excited.
August.
We're about to launch a program.
Restaurant employees have justbeen devastated over the past
couple years with COVID.
Now you've got inflation goingon.
Gas prices.
There are some of the peoplethat eat at restaurants and bars
the most.
(35:22):
And so we're launching somethingcalled 86, 26 from two to six.
Okay.
I've mentioned number 26throughout it for the letter Z
Zi ZZA bar, but it's, if you'rein the restaurant business,
you're an employee hospitalitybar.
If you come into Zi between twoto six, every single day will
86, 20 6% of your.
(35:44):
Okay.
and so it's when very cool shipchange.
It's usually the slower time ofthe restaurant.
And so, yeah, I look at that andI say, what if every restaurant
did that?
What if every restaurant yeah.
Took care of O other restaurantemployees from two to six,
usually the slowest time of thebusiness you're still paying for
over.
You got people there.
There's food being.
(36:04):
It would decrease the cost ofliving of restaurant employees
across the board, just from themdining out from, from, you know,
two to six at that time by 26%.
Right.
Absolutely.
Just makes sense.
Yeah.
And, uh, and you know, I thinkthat the way to do those sort of
things is, you know, we're gonnado those things like a ZZI Fest
(36:25):
that are very aggressive.
We're gonna do 86, 26 from twoto six, very aggressive.
And my goal is through growingour business, doing things our
way, and what we believe is theright way we can create
influence in the business, geton podcast.
Like you shifts, tell our storyand, uh, yeah.
And hopefully inspire otherpeople to think outside the box
(36:45):
and, uh, align their growth withgiving.
D.J. Costantino (36:48):
Absolutely.
And I think it is just soimportant to acknowledge, I
think the industry's, uh,shortcomings, cuz you could
easily just say yeah, thisindustry sucks.
Like you're saying that's justwhat it is.
get over it, hear it all thetime.
But I think what you're sayingis it does suck and we need to
change that.
And let's, you know, you see theopportunity in it.
I think there's a lot of greatrestaurant owners that are
(37:09):
beginning to see thatopportunity saying, you know,
this can be a great industry towork in, to work for hat's off
to you and, and the team for,for kind of recognizing that
and, and looking to make thosechanges.
Chris Smith (37:19):
Well, thank you.
It's, uh, change is hard whenyou're trying to do things that
people don't understand.
Yes.
It'll get them kinda scratchtheir head and sometimes your
team members.
Or like, huh?
Why are you doing that?
And I think it's why havingculture from the start of why
you're in business and havingthat well defined, it kind of
gives you permission to dothings outside the box.
(37:41):
Absolutely.
D.J. Costantino (37:42):
And with that, um, where can folks find you?
Chris Smith (37:45):
Yeah, so right now we've got our ZZI zooms of our
location is in downtownSavannah.
Uh, we have our fast casualmodel and that is in Atlanta.
We are, uh, in the process,we're keeping the whole Florida
market for corporate locations.
So we're working on a jointventure deal.
Right now, goal is to open threelocations in the next 24 months.
Very good.
We got some franchise dealspending right now in North
(38:08):
Carolina and Tennessee.
We're selling franchisesdifferently.
I think that part of thefranchise business is the way
franchises are sold.
I've never seen more people getinto my pocket with our brand
than, than announcingfranchising.
And so we're taking all that inhouse.
We wanna do a different, and,um, we're really excited to see
(38:28):
where it's gonna take us.
D.J. Costantino (38:29):
Absolutely.
So Atlanta, Savannah now, andsoon to be, you know, all across
the Southeast.
So got it.
Um, very exciting.
And thank you so much again forcoming on the show today.
Chris Smith (38:39):
Shit.
Yeah.
DJ.
I'm excited.
Appreciate your time.
D.J. Costantino (38:42):
Shit.
Yeah, Chris.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks again for checking outthe restaurant growth podcast
presented by seven shifts.
We're so grateful to ourlisteners and we'd love to hear
from all of you.
Send us an email to podcastseven shift.com and check us out
on social we're at seven shiftson all.
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button and we'll see
you next week.
Hey everybody, what is going on?
Welcome back to the latestepisode of the restaurant growth
podcast by seven chips.
I'm DJ your host.
And on this show, we bringtogether the best minds in the
restaurant industry to bring youbig insights and new ideas to
help your restaurant grow todayon this show.
We're welcome.
Chris Smith.
Chris is the founder and CEO ofZZI and Z Zabar, a south African
(00:23):
inspired sandwich shop and barwith locations in Savannah and
Atlanta, Georgia.
Chris also has his titleprotector of the promise.
What does that mean?
Well, ZZI is unabashed abouttheir strong culture, but the
goal of not only making a greatplace to work, but improving the
lives of people that work there,as well as the community around
them, we get into just how theygo about doing that and more in
the latest episode, as always.
(00:43):
We'd love to hear from you dropus a line at podcast at seven
shifts dot.
Tell us what you think, who youwant to hear.
And without further ado here isChris.
Chris Smith (00:52):
Chris, how are you today?
Living the dream, man?
How are you?
D.J. Costantino (00:56):
I'm doing pretty good.
Living the dream too.
Welcome.
And thank you for joining ourpodcast.
Chris Smith (01:02):
Excited to be here.
Thanks for having me.
D.J. Costantino (01:04):
Awesome.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, um, let's just kick it rightoff.
Tell us a little bit about, um,zis, how you started it and how
you got your start in therestaurant hospitality industry.
You got it.
Chris Smith (01:13):
So Zuzi is, uh, a south African inspired takeout
delivery and sandwich shop.
We started in Savannah, Georgia,2005.
It was started by our originalfounders, Johnny and Gabby.
Debe.
South African guy who married aSwiss, a Swiss gypsy kind of a
crazy lady, kinda joke around.
She's like the most interestingwoman in the world.
(01:35):
And then looking at a Greekrestaurant on the river in
Savannah.
And, um, I found ZZI, it soundslike it's almost like a
religion.
I found Zi though when I was afive guys franchisee in
Savannah.
Oh, wow.
So I got business.
I was actually really had nointent of being in the
restaurant business, had anintent.
Own my own business someday.
(01:56):
My plan was to, um, go to lawschool, went to the university
of Florida.
And while I was there around2005, 2006, tried five guys
burgers and fries.
When I was in school therebacked visiting with family and
kinda long story short, itsnowballed into, uh,
conversation with my parentsinstead.
Me making money, going to lawschool, them taking that money.
(02:19):
They said would, they would payfor law school and buying five
guys franchises in coastal,Georgia and South Carolina while
I was in college.
So massive leap of faith forthem.
Yeah.
Um, which shows, you know, verygood parents, probably, uh,
believing a little bit too muchin their son in doing that, but
took that leap.
And then, um, I actually workedFriday, Saturdays and Sundays,
(02:41):
my senior year in 2000.
To, um, train at five guys witha franchisee.
I was their first mentor intheir mentorship program.
They were rolling out and thenopened up about six months
later.
And, um, it was off to theraces, baptism by fire, as they
say.
D.J. Costantino (02:57):
Very cool.
Uh, did they need any convincingreally?
Or they were just kind of downfor it when, uh, when you
pitched that
Chris Smith (03:02):
to them.
Yeah.
You know, we always grew up withmy dad making super Dave burgers
and it was like, you know, itwas always the best burger that,
that, that, that we would have.
And, um, so we always enjoyedburgers and then, you know, we
ate there and we're like, man,this is like the best burger out
there.
It's pretty bonafide fancyhamburger stand.
And I was like, that's somethingI could actually do.
(03:24):
And then it, you know, itsnowballed into doing it.
D.J. Costantino (03:28):
Very cool.
Um, so when did you make thejump from the five guys to
Chris Smith (03:32):
Zen's?
Yeah, so the process was our,our development agreement with
five guys, which we started inour first location open in 2007
was for seven locations.
So ended up building threelocations in the first two
years.
So it was a really quickstartup, had three, the time I
was 23 and, um, Almost an edgeof burning out, uh, at that
(03:54):
stage.
But yeah, stop the growth hireda director of operations, hired
an office manager and sort ofscale up our, our small
business.
And then that's set to open upfour more locations.
Through 2000 and, uh, 15 didthat, but, um, very cool.
Tried ZZI in 2008, when I hadmoved to a, to Savannah to open
our second location and fell inlove with it, actually that
(04:16):
first time I was there,everybody had said, go try this
amazing hole on a wall divesandwich shop.
And I rolled up there and therewas a line of 50 people and the
patio had these janky, you know,old rainbow umbrellas with
secondhand furniture, piecedtogether, and people eating on
buckets next to a grease trapand a dumpster.
And it was just had all of thecharacter that you would imagine
(04:38):
of a, you know, an old hole in awall sandwich shop.
And so in that moment, as I waseating Aquita door and drinking
our south African.
Um, I said, someday, I'm gonnabuy this in franchises,
franchises model.
And so I kinda put that out inthe ether and I would go at
least once a month, talk toJohnny if Gabby was there and
she was in the kitchen, say hito her and always ask him, Hey,
(04:59):
if you ever wanna sellerfranchise, let me know.
And so I got a call, actually,my, my downtown five guys
location.
So happy.
I had a good manager who wasthere at the time.
Answer the phone.
And it was, Johnny's trying toget ahold of saying he wants to
sell his restaurant.
And so immediately the managercalled me and I'm happy.
He didn't throw it in the redbook or something and it just
get lost And so, uh, got thatphone call.
(05:23):
And at that time I was lookingat other franchises and nothing
was getting me super excited.
So it was the perfect timing.
We were looking to diversifiedportfolio and I was like, man,
I'm not 30 yet.
I still got a little bit ofenergy in the tank.
And, uh, let's go ahead and kindof get to the other side.
And, uh, and so that's what setit off.
Very cool.
D.J. Costantino (05:42):
And then, so now you have the second location
in Atlanta, is that
Chris Smith (05:45):
correct?
Yeah, so, uh, the process atthat time, we bought it at the
end of 2014 and immediately puta point of sales system in, got
our sales mix, tried to doeverything we could
operationally to streamlineoperations, build sales, get our
call, everything in line.
Cause it was a mom and pop.
You can kind of run that.
Yeah.
A little different, but with ourgoals, we had to put some
(06:07):
systems in place.
And so we did that for about twoyears.
Got it.
To where it needed to be almostdoubled sales in that amount of
time.
And then we said, okay, let's,let's figure out what a
prototypical location would be.
And at that time, our model waslooking to be like, what are
Orlando location was?
Which was just a fast casualtakeout delivery sandwich shop
and cap 2000 square.
(06:29):
So we did that in 2018, openedthat location and spent a lot of
time on R and D to develop ourmenu.
We opened the Atlanta locationand we went there because we
wanted to learn, uh, it wasn't asituation.
Yeah.
Let's open a restaurant and makesome money.
It was let's open a restaurantin a market where we don't have
brand awareness and it reallypressure test the model.
And so we spent two yearsrefining that, getting it to
(06:52):
where it needed to be, thenCOVID hit.
And so we got COVID twolocations operating and I said,
okay, Let's go back to our homebase closed, you know, um,
Atlanta had more challenges withCOVID than Savannah did.
So closed that for a few months.
Yeah.
And then focused on Savannah anddoing that.
And during that time, our leaseran out of that location.
(07:13):
And so we were having to find a,find a spot after 15 years, the
landlord didn't want arestaurant anymore.
It was an old office buildingand really, it was a blessing in
disguise.
A, a fantastic piece of realestate became available.
Two blocks away.
We were able to pull the triggeron that.
And that's what triggered us tocreate our new model, which is
zis plus Zabar, which were ourtakeout delivery sandwich shop
(07:36):
operating at 600 square feet.
But we lead with the full beachbar experience.
So full liquor beer line, andit's really transformed our
entire operation to where wewere, you know, a 1.6 million
model.
And, uh, which is great for afast casual, and especially with
what we do.
And now our, our model'strending, uh, almost a 4
million.
(07:56):
Wow.
D.J. Costantino (07:57):
That's amazing.
Yeah.
Those, uh, alcohol sales really,uh, give you a little boost.
Yeah.
So right now it's
Chris Smith (08:02):
about 5% of our sales.
Really what it did for us is it,it, you know, it allowed us to
operate in what, what we nowconsider the experience side of
the business before we were justa good sandwich shop and food, a
lot of takeout deliveringcatering.
And so that bucket wasconvenience.
And so now post COVID people arecertainly, um, used to
(08:24):
convenience, third partydelivery, online, ordering all
of the tech that's, that'sreally impacted the restaurant
business.
That's our core business.
We've thrived through that, butnow with the reopening of the
economy, and if people arecraving an experience, people
really aren't anymore.
Just, you know, leaving thehouse to go eat a meal to.
(08:44):
Fill the hunger need that'sthere.
They want to get up.
They want to go out, have a goodtime, have a full experience.
And so we've built that, thatwhole restaurant and really the
bar to lead the, the experience,live music, um, experiential
marketing in there.
It just it's perfect forInstagram TikTok, everything
that you want to be able tomarket your business.
(09:04):
Absolutely.
D.J. Costantino (09:05):
And another big piece of that marketing that I
see is talking about your, yourculture.
I know you have a tagline, youknow, and, and on the website as
well.
You, you know, you're listed asthe protector of the promise.
So tell me a little bit moreabout zis, um, culture.
Chris Smith (09:20):
Right.
So, um, having been afranchisee, you know, I, I
definitely have a, a strongfeeling that culture is one of
the big differentiators between,uh, the most successful brands
and the, and the ones thataren't.
And I think it's criticallyimportant as you go into
franchising to have a super welldefined culture that, uh, really
on steroids, I joke around thefirst four letters of, of
(09:43):
culturist cult.
And so if it's not that draw.
And you can't talk about it thatway, then not in a negative way,
but a franchisees is probablygonna water it down a little
bit.
So it's gotta be a hundredpercent.
So that way, if it's diluted alittle bit, it's still gonna be
there.
And we spent a couple yearsreally focusing on defining that
(10:03):
I even took two years in thattime where I had five guys and
Zuzi to figure out my lifepurpose and said, if I'm gonna
go, yeah.
This business and go all in onthis, I know it's gonna be
really hard.
I've already done it once as afranchisee.
It's gonna be really hard as afranchisor to, to get to that
stage.
I need to align my life purposewith my business and purpose and
figure that out.
(10:24):
So I really took that to heartand it's, it's been very
fulfilling in the process.
Um, so going back to the title,um, you've got protector of the
promise and what that is isthat's our motto, which is shit.
Yeah, shit.
Yeah.
It's our motto.
Um, it.
It started with Johnny at ouroriginal location.
It was just kind of this, thisfun thing with this south
(10:45):
African accent, he would sayshit.
Yeah, baby.
What I recognized when I thoughtwas our team was saying it and
more, and equally as important,our, our fans were saying it I'd
walk down the street in a ZYshirt and you'd hear a, a shit
yeah.
From alley or something.
And it's like, what's the valuefor a brand that your guests are
(11:05):
actually saying your motto.
There's just do it, you know,but I'm not sure many people see
a pair of Nike shootings say,just do it.
Or if they eat a McDonald'smeal, right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Loving it, you know, but is ifthey see it right now, they say
shit.
Yeah.
And so there's a lot of equityin that, even in just the single
location.
Absolutely.
And so I, you know, saw that andI said, okay, well that's gonna
(11:25):
be our brand promise.
So our it's our promise thatwhenever anybody engages with
our business as a customer, wewant them to leave saying shit.
Nice.
And so, and what is that?
I'll go ahead.
yeah.
And so it's, it's different thanbeing the best sandwich or the
best product.
It's a feeling that's associatedwith it.
It means we connected with thatfan, that guest, we turned them
(11:47):
into a fan.
And so even, you know, there'ssome reviews out there that
they'll put an essay on Yelp or,or Google.
And I'm standing it I'm like ifthey didn't say shit, yeah.
We didn't check the box, maybe afive star review and it's a
perfect review, but it's missingreally that intangible that we
didn't connect with the guests.
And we're very focused on that.
It's actually expanded as we'vegrown the business and we've
(12:10):
seen the impact of all of thestakeholders.
It's now our promise to our sixstakeholders.
And so in that order, we get ourteam is number one, our
franchisees.
Yeah.
Number two.
We've got our fans, numberthree, our communities, four
vendors, and then investors.
And so we want, as you makedecisions, we wanna make
decisions that we know our teamis gonna say shit.
(12:31):
Yeah.
And then it moves all the way upin that our team franchisees,
you've got your, your fans.
And, um, a good example of thatis I went into a very, very
popular, fast casual chain.
you know, there's a lot ofthings that are a lot of
decisions that are made from theboardroom and there's a
disconnect in the front line.
(12:51):
And so there was a nationalchain that had rolled out a
vegan option.
I went in there, asked for themanager to get their feedback on
it.
It was a bunch of ads.
I'm the super bowl.
And I asked them yeah, about itand they go, don't get it.
Get the other vegan optionmillion.
It's a dollars.
Oh.
And you go, there's adisconnect.
Thousand a location.
Yeah.
(13:12):
And, and there's that issue.
And so I think culture canreally blows that gap.
D.J. Costantino (13:16):
Absolutely.
And what did that process looklike?
You know, developing thatculture and how did you really,
you know, was there a momentthat you knew you needed to
develop it more?
Um, you know, and then how doyou go in and, and sit down and,
and really kind of hammer itout, give yourself, you know,
the language is important, howyou present it is important.
What was that process?
Chris Smith (13:35):
Yeah.
So in that process of figuringout my life purpose and trying
to figure out what I reallyenjoy about the business, I
really enjoyed my time at fiveguys, where I was able to see
our team members start off,drink the company Kool-Aid and
just work with us and bepromoted from within and watch
their life change in theprocess, go from being a fry,
(13:57):
cook all the way up to being aGM benefits and making money.
And they're buying a car in ahouse and having a family and
kids.
It's and, you know, they, theyreally took the opportunity by,
by the horns and ran with it.
And that was extremelyfulfilling, especially as a
hands on franchisee, but there,you know, for as many of those
cases, as, as there, there were.
(14:19):
There were also thesesituations, which if you're a
restaurant operator, you fullyunderstand this, you'll invest
all of this time in these team.
And some of the team membersit's high risk human capital,
meaning you can invest threeyears.
Yeah.
To get someone over be thatthey're about to be a GM to open
your next location.
And two weeks before opening,they're like, sorry, Chris, I
gotta move to, you know,Tennessee.
(14:42):
For whatever reason.
And you're like, but we've spentthree years and bad about it.
And it's almost like Houdini is,you know, they just disappear
and it wasn't the thingsnecessarily that we were doing
in the business to cause it, itwas always things in their life.
It could be an addiction that wedon't know about.
It could be a bad relationship.
It could be, yeah.
They made more money and nowthey're spending too much and
(15:04):
they're in over their head.
They don't know how to manage.
It could be just the stress ofnow this new role.
And they, the things in theirlife are making that it's kind
of overwhelming them.
Their life isn't able to supportthe new responsibilities and
the, the time associated withit.
So I said, man, we gotta figureout something that can really be
focused on the team member andimproving their life.
(15:27):
So, and it kind of have a pulseon it and I think great
managers.
They do that.
They know what's going on in,in, in their team members'
lives.
They're having those, you know,one minute conversations a day,
you know, to have a pulse.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I really wanted to make that thekey is, is that our team, isn't
just becoming a better sandwichmaker or bartender or whatever,
but they're actually, their lifeis getting better in the
(15:49):
process.
And it's an aspirational goal ofthe company.
I think goal of be aspirational.
They should pull you towardswhere you're trying to.
And, um, and so from a, abusiness standpoint, you say we
have some things we've got big,bright rainbow umbrellas that
are pretty cool.
We've got a motto that shit.
Yeah.
You've got an interesting menu.
The name ZZI, you know, a lot ofthings to work with.
(16:12):
And I said, yeah, you know, thisrainbow umbrella is, is kind of
ending up to be a symbol of thecompany.
And I said, you know what, ifthat could represent a team
member's.
So you'd say there's eight areasof your life.
So there's different areas thatwe just talked about, that the
rainbow umbrella represents yourteam member's life or, or, or
anybody's life for that eightareas of your life.
(16:33):
You've got your body, yourhealth, you've got your mind,
your emotions, your mentalstate.
You've got your relationshipsthat you have.
Um, you've got your time.
You have your career.
You've got your finances, yourmoney.
You've got a sense of giving andcelebrating your life and you
have your spiritual and lifepurpose.
Yeah.
What we would like to have inour life is to where each of
(16:56):
those areas, we feel really goodabout it when you really analyze
your life and you look at'em indifferent areas and you rate'em
from one to 10 and say,physically, I feel like I'm a
four and well, then why?
Right?
And then mentally, I feel likeI, and financially I'm a three.
If you add all that together anddivide it by eight, you now have
a life.
And then, so it's a quick way tosay, Hey, you know, how are you
(17:18):
doing in life?
And then how can you, you know,make some changes in that.
And as a company, when I wasdeveloping all of that, I was
like, man, a way to, to reallyprove this out is what if we got
to, you know, a hundred, 200,300 locations and we had life
scores on every team.
Yeah.
Great businesses measure allsorts of KPIs.
(17:39):
Well, what if you knew how yourteam felt about their life,
right?
And then you could see thisstores sales are down and
turnovers high.
Well, cuz their life score islow, you know?
Right.
Yeah.
And so's going on?
What can you do as a companyabout that?
And so as we grow the company, Ireally wanna focus on the more
(18:00):
we grow, the more we can give.
And in that process, we cancreate resources for our team.
It's really tough when someonejust breaks up with their
boyfriend, girlfriends,significant other, and you're
at, it's a busy Friday shift andthey're walking in managers in
the weeds and, and the person'scrying and they're like, I'm so
sorry to hear about that, but,uh, can you clock in we're
(18:20):
understand, right.
Be a lot if they called eight byfive shit.
Yeah.
And there was someone to talk toem, so yeah,
D.J. Costantino (18:28):
Absolutely coming up with the culture, um,
is a huge portion of it andreally sitting down and kind of
distill.
and making that promise, but Ithink kind of executing on it is
another, of course, huge part ofit.
Um, you know, what are some ofthe kind of tactical ways that
you're able to keep and makesure that people's life scores
are up or what are the waysyou're going in talking to staff
(18:50):
and, and figuring out and justmaking sure that that promise is
actually being kept.
Chris Smith (18:54):
Yeah.
So, you know, so ex explainingwhat, what, what, we just went
over our mission as a company.
Is to inspire others to becomethe best version of themselves.
You have that umbrella, that'sthe representation of it.
Um, the idea is the more fullyour umbrella is the more people
you can fit under it.
Right?
So if you're, if your life isreally full, then it's in, then
(19:14):
you're able to help people underit.
If you're struggling an areait's hard to help somebody.
And so that's kind of the wholepremise of it.
And as a company, as we grow, wecan do the same thing, uh, the
stakeholders of our life.
One of the things we do on adaily basis that I think.
Really really strong.
And it helps us on, on justmanaging and it helps young
managers is we'll have our teammeeting each shift and we don't
(19:36):
ask our team how they're doing.
We ask what their number is.
Cause if you ask how you'redoing, you usually get a BS
answer.
Right.
It's I'm good.
Yeah.
I'm good.
You know exactly.
Yeah.
Dog could have been hit by.
still good.
Cause that's just how John is,but he's having a day cause he
just doesn't wear it on hisshoulder.
Well, When you ask'em what theirnumber is.
(19:59):
And what we say is zero.
I can't be doing any worse.
10 I'm peaked out in life.
I'm maxed out.
Like I'm never gonna do anybetter.
Five is just kinda Luke warm.
I'm I'm living in life where youwant to be is I'm a seven to
eight is I know where I am.
Right.
I'm kind of, I, I have an ideaof my life score of my umbrella.
I know where I wanna be.
(20:21):
And I'm actively workingtowards.
Right.
Yeah.
And so that's the sweet spot andwe, and we talk about that.
And so it's like rapid fire.
Everybody knows how it works.
What's your number?
What's your number?
What's your number?
And some days it's like,everyone's, it's like the
average is a three.
And on those days, right.
Manager just gotta be like, allright guys, well, we all just,
can't close up and go to thebeach to have a better day.
(20:44):
You know, let's all decide to bea seven or an eight, the next
six hours.
Let's just, you know, choose tohave a great day.
There's no reason to, just, to,to bring it down other days.
Yeah, everybody's really good.
And it's, it's exciting.
And then there's some days whereone or two people are, are
struggling and they're having arough.
and everybody knows that we'reall gonna have a rough day
(21:04):
sometimes.
So it could be that yeah, itallows, especially helps young
managers, right?
Young manager, emotionalintelligence.
They don't really know how togauge all that stuff, but this
it's like, all right, well, Johncame in today and he's always a
seven.
Well, now he's a five.
Now I can talk to John, pull himaside.
(21:25):
Maybe John needs a break.
Yeah, go ahead and, and, andtake a, take an employee meal
and, and take a break first.
Or maybe we don't put John onthe front lines, um, where he is
on the register or in a veryhigh customer of service
position.
Maybe they're doing prep ordoing project cleaning or
something else that they're nothaving to engage at that high
level that's needed.
(21:45):
Um, maybe they they're the firstones to be cut just so they can
go ahead and have some extra.
Allows you to manage a shiftmuch better, and also gives you
a pulse as a manager.
Absolutely.
It's probably the best day today tool that we use that ties
to our mission.
Yeah.
And it's one of those things.
D.J. Costantino (21:59):
It it's, you know, someone will come in and,
and if you don't really ask, youdon't ever know, right.
Someone could need that extraattention.
You can't really rely on peopleto guess based on kind of body
language.
I think sometimes people just.
They'll come into work andthey'll just try to put their
best foot forward, even ifthey're having a really rough
day for something other reason.
So it kind of gives managerssay, oh, well, maybe I need to
pay attention to Chris today.
A little extra, instead of justkind of assuming everything is
(22:20):
good.
Chris Smith (22:21):
So you got it.
Exactly.
And do you
D.J. Costantino (22:24):
track kind of those scores anyway?
Like do you record themanywhere?
Just kind of see how people areover time or
Chris Smith (22:29):
yeah.
So pre you know, for, for that,on those, on, on the daily
basis, that's actually a, agreat idea.
It would be just nice to be ableto take a note and, and then do
an average.
We perform, which is like our,our wheel of life or our, our,
uh, umbrella of life that we've,we built out as a spreadsheet
and, and it can be done duringCOVID.
It was just a wild west for us.
(22:49):
And, you know, having that,yeah.
The fundamentals of the culture,we all know, know why the
company exists, what we'reworking towards, but it's kind
of like when the worlds on fire,it's tough to like, do those
kind of evaluations.
Yeah.
So
D.J. Costantino (23:03):
we're, we're how you feeling today?
zero.
A lot of zeros,
Chris Smith (23:08):
right?
Yeah.
So past two and a half years,um, the culture was able to get
through it and really pressuretested it, which was good.
That's awesome.
So we're gonna get back to itand I think long term, I'd love
to get an app that that would bein place.
And it's just as you clock in,go ahead and knock it out and it
would be a great way to do it.
Yeah.
And on a monthly or quarterlybasis, the same thing.
And then you could have all ofthe data and, uh, and resource
(23:29):
would be pretty.
D.J. Costantino (23:31):
Absolutely.
I think, uh, I think we canprobably help out with that.
Uh, so
Chris Smith (23:35):
I'll let you know.
So, um, so another thing that wedo tie to our culture is, uh, we
do a monthly event called ZZIFest.
Oh, cool.
Um, and so what this is, it'sour way to say thank you to our
six stakeholders for being apart of our business and helping
us grow to this point and to thefuture.
So it's the second Tuesday ofevery month.
(23:56):
And it allows us to have touchpoints with our six
stakeholders.
So we've got our fans, we giveaway through our community app,
a text messaging app.
You can join that and then we'llsend out a code for you to bring
in you get a free chickensandwich or can keys to door or
a vegan option, the rising sun,a six inch.
And then, um, and so you cancome in and get that you can buy
(24:17):
chips, drinks, cookies, anyextra stuff.
And, uh, 26% of the sales goesto a local nonprofit.
So we partner with a nonprofitthat would, uh, be aligned with
our mission.
And, uh, we partner with them,do the press release, create the
awareness.
Um, they usually come and, youknow, set up a booth so they can
share what they do with, withthe fans popping in.
(24:37):
And then we also close early andhave a team party for our team.
So from six to eight, on thatday, we close a five close up
from six to eight we'll order,some food.
Um, everybody can have twodrinks at the bar and it's a
chance for us to all gettogether and just kind of hang.
Be thankful for the success ofthe business.
Maybe talk a little bit aboutwhy we're in business, the
culture and all those sort ofthings.
(24:58):
Nice.
You know, we, aren't trying tobe too heavy during that time
after we just of course putthousand sandwiches and six
hours, you know, it's just a, afun day for us.
So you've got our fans takencare of, you've got our team
taken care of, uh, the communitywe're engaging with.
Sponsored by our vendors.
So it's one of those things thatwe want our vendors to be a part
of, all of our agreements thatwe put in place they'll be
(25:20):
discounting or providing productfor us.
So we can, um, basically thegoal of it's a break even day in
doing it.
Yeah.
Our vendors, I'm sorry, ourinvestors and our franchisees
win because it's this reallyatomic bomb.
I, I say of marketing ofGoodwill in the community,
spreading awareness of why we'rein business.
Hitting a lot of people engagedin our business that haven't
(25:40):
heard about us.
We, you know, sponsored ADSSthrough social media to join the
community and then they can optin and it's been unbelievable,
almost 80% of the, of the peoplethat come our first time.
Um, our local bands don't wannawait in line for an hour to get
a free sandwich.
Those come in.
They, they love our business.
Um, but it's a great way to getpeople in the door.
D.J. Costantino (26:00):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a great, you know, I thinkthat's like, it is pretty
genius.
It hits pretty much every box.
Right?
Of course.
You're, you know, doingsomething for your team, doing
something for your guests.
It's customer acquisition, it'smarketing content, it's vendor
relations.
It's investor relations.
So yeah, it it's, uh, that's agreat, really awesome idea that
just, I.
Really is one, one day a monthwhere you get to kind of hit on
(26:23):
all those notes.
Chris Smith (26:24):
Yeah.
And you know, we wanted to plantthat flag before we franchised.
It's tough to roll something inI've talked to a bunch of
founders, CEOs of, of largerchain.
And the one thing they say isabsolutely love the idea of it.
We can never do it because ourfranchisees wouldn't buy into it
at this stage.
And so, right.
You know, we want a verypolarizing culture.
We want franchisees that are ahundred percent sold on the
(26:48):
culture.
I always tell people, you know,the, the first step of our
franchise process is, uh, introcall with our director of
franchising.
If it checks that box, fill theapplication out.
The, the third step is to, is anhour call with.
And I taught culture.
Like I am on this call for aboutan hour and, uh, yeah.
Talk about cost of goods orlabor or profitability.
(27:08):
I tell you to go buy pennyJohns.
So yeah, I was just, we aren'tlooking for a thousand
franchisees.
We get, you know, the rightfranchisees that, that
understand the culture.
Uh, we know we're gonna besuccessful with that.
And, um, absolutely was zoom deFest.
One of the reasons we wanted todo it as well, we wanted a KPI
of our business.
(27:29):
So we wanted to align our growthwith something that was
unlimited.
And there's, there's always thequestion.
How big do you wanna grow yourbrand?
Right.
And for some people, right.
I talk to inspire brand CEO.
They're like, oh, you can open a500 in a couple years and then
right.
Talk to independent operator.
And you're like, I wanna open,you know, three in Florida.
They're like three in the nexttwo years.
What, and there's this.
(27:49):
Right.
Doesn't make sense.
And so I said, what's one thingthat's unlimited that we could
do it.
And that's giving there's nomatter how big you get, there's
always be a need to give to thestakeholders, open up a location
in a community that'sunderserved.
That's not operating up, youknow, a great restaurant that
can serve at stakeholders.
And so with that DY Fest as aKPI, our target giving per
(28:13):
location is$26,000.
And, um, and so that's 12 monthsa year that we're doing that.
So you're looking just over$2,000 per you Fest Don into a
local nonprofit.
And so that way we can show justlike you would have sales, you
would have labor cost of goods,your, you know, average review
score, NPS different things thatyou're looking for for us, we
(28:35):
have giving on there so we cansay, okay, we now open a new
location.
There's there should be another$26,000 minimum, a.
And then as that grows, you cansee the impact you have as a
company just built in it's justinto your DNA.
D.J. Costantino (28:48):
Absolutely.
And it's kind of like putting aKPI on culture, which is very
tough to do, cuz it's such a,you know, a thing that just, it
has so many things, but I thinkif you're not, if you're solid,
If your culture's not solid atthat location, if you're
franchisee, you're probably notgonna hit that number because
you're unorganized or peoplearen't really down to do it, or,
you know, the relationships arestrained and I, I think that's
(29:10):
a, a great way of, of tracking
Chris Smith (29:12):
it.
Yeah.
And, and, you know, I thinkthat's a good, a good point
during COVID.
It was just, you know, it's ahard time.
And we had been doing zoom Festfor a while.
We had probably almost two yearsuntil COVID hit.
We talked to our team and therewas just like, man, we're worn
out.
It's been busy with busyrestaurant, you know, top, top
rated takeout, catering sandwichshop in Savannah, Atlanta, same
(29:35):
thing.
And I said, Hey, our team, isn'tsaying, you know, shit.
Yeah.
About this.
Let's pause it.
And I put that out on social.
I said, our team just isn'tready.
Just.
To do zoo Z Fest.
They're just burning the can atboth ends.
And we're gonna pause it for afew.
So we, and we did that a fewtimes and our, our fans really
appreciated that.
And I think that's part of thesocial media.
(29:55):
It's really designed to be arelationship.
It's not supposed to be thebrand talking totally what it's
supposed to be a conversation.
D.J. Costantino (30:01):
Yeah, absolutely.
If you're not able, if you don'thave like, is it kind of like
put your mask on before you putthe other mask on?
Like, if you're not there andyou're not feeling good, you
can't really give to otherpeople or else it's just not
gonna.
You're gonna take away from it,you know, at the end of the day,
so, correct.
Um,
Chris Smith (30:16):
so that's zoomies, um, and it drives a lot of what
we do.
Yeah.
Zoom.
So that's, that's how it startedzooms a bar is what we're, you
know, now super excited about.
Yeah.
We've been a, a fast casualtakeout, takeout delivery
catering shop for a long time.
Now we lead with this full barexperience and we did that
because there was reallyfranchisees in our own corporate
(30:37):
locations to have the, the bestopportunity to succeed.
So we're taking best of fast,casual, limited menu QSR marry
that with the best of fullservice, having high profit bar,
we've got frozen drinks so wecan, you know, move, move those
quickly.
And then you've got a tip wagemodel.
So you've got labor savings anda tip wage model.
(30:58):
You've got, um, experience andthat's, what's, what's really
been amazing watching all thatcome together.
And then we've leveraged.
Yeah.
With toast as our partner withpay at the table with unique QR
code ordering, we have threekiosks in the operation around
our hundred seat.
Patio is 60 seats inside, andthen we have handhelds.
Um, so we really want guests.
Now, some guests want full, afull experience.
(31:21):
They want to sit at a table andbe left alone and they're on the
QR code and the food comes tothem and it's great.
And they got their headphones onthere's others that don't wanna
place their order on a QR code.
And we've got a server thereable to do.
But it's allowed our service nowto take twice the amount of
sections they can make moremoney.
And, uh, that combination justbeen amazing over the past year.
(31:41):
That's incredible.
And
D.J. Costantino (31:42):
that's the, is that what you're franchising is
the Zs of bar.
Chris Smith (31:45):
We are, so it's, it's both it's Zs of bar plus
zoom like this dual brandedconcept.
Very cool.
And so that's been.
It's been a lot of fun withthat, with the mission and
culture and how it ties to Zuzi.
So you've got the rainbowumbrella and it represents your
life.
Yeah.
Thing we just talked about ourlogo for SZA bar is that rainbow
umbrella sitting in a cocktail.
(32:06):
And so our mission of ZZA bar isto inspire you to celebrate your
life.
And so everything we do, we wantto own the place in our, our
fans' mind that when somethinggreat happens in.
Let's go celebrate at zones ofbar.
Uh, life's too short to justgrind the whole time, uh, take
that light absolutely a while,throw that umbrella in a
cocktail and then throw it back.
(32:27):
And so everything we do isdesign from live music,
experiential marketing, neonsigns, uh, the waste designed to
really, you know, we've got shotskis.
You've got beer shot combos,reasonably priced spot on li
mimosa, uh, really fun, happyhour, uh, two hours a day, half
off the entire bar, seven daysa.
We do these things.
If you really wanna just be aplace where people can always
(32:49):
have a good time and, and knowthat.
D.J. Costantino (32:52):
Yeah.
And, and with that culture, Ithink, you know, it's also
ensuring that that's not at theexpense of the people that work
there too.
It's um, you know, everyone'shaving a good time, including,
including the employees,
Chris Smith (33:03):
correct?
Yeah.
And, and, you know, I think froma fast casual standpoint, fast,
casual and QSR, fast food can bea grind.
And so taking our model.
That is, you know, we're a highvolume sandwich shop.
We're pushing out hundreds andhundreds of sandwiches a day in
this operation.
They're allowed to kind of be apart of a really fun atmosphere
(33:25):
and bar because of that, it'snot just a sandwich shop,
pushing out sandwiches.
You've got live music, you'vegot the music playing, you've
got this, this whole interactiongoing.
And, uh, that's really helped usin regards to attracting our
team members as.
Yeah, absolutely.
D.J. Costantino (33:39):
On top of that amazing culture.
And with that, I guess, youknow, my last question is really
like, kind of directed at, youknow, listeners and people that
wanna improve their restaurantculture, you know, where should
people start if they, if theykind of identify, you know,
maybe my culture could use somework, you know, what's the most
important, important place to,to kind of start that
conversation.
Chris Smith (33:57):
Um, I think if you're the, the owner of the
founder of the business, I thinkyou gotta start with yourself
and say, why are you really inthe.
You know, I think that's, that'scritically important.
Um, for me, it's not just tomake money.
There's so many better ways tomake money than the restaurant
business.
And, um, so, you know, reallyfocus on trying to figure out
why you exist, sort to alignthat with the business and that
(34:18):
way, when you have those toughdays, you at least know you're
working towards that.
For me, our vision statement inthe company is the restaurant
business sucks.
We're here to change it.
So we tell our team, you know,we, we lead with that.
The restaurant business sucks.
Our franchise sales process, therestaurant business sucks.
We're here to change it.
what we say is when you changethose things in the restaurant
(34:41):
business, um, you create valuefor stakeholders.
When you improve scheduling,ordering R and M facilities,
you've got HR, all these things,there's death by a thousand cuts
that you can complain about.
Yeah.
Uh, we joke around, you gottalearn to eat shit and like it in
this business.
and so, you know, you you'llcreate value for the
(35:01):
stakeholders in, in, in doingthat.
And one of the ways we're doingit.
So you at ZY Fest is one way.
We're super excited.
August.
We're about to launch a program.
Restaurant employees have justbeen devastated over the past
couple years with COVID.
Now you've got inflation goingon.
Gas prices.
There are some of the peoplethat eat at restaurants and bars
the most.
(35:22):
And so we're launching somethingcalled 86, 26 from two to six.
Okay.
I've mentioned number 26throughout it for the letter Z
Zi ZZA bar, but it's, if you'rein the restaurant business,
you're an employee hospitalitybar.
If you come into Zi between twoto six, every single day will
86, 20 6% of your.
(35:44):
Okay.
and so it's when very cool shipchange.
It's usually the slower time ofthe restaurant.
And so, yeah, I look at that andI say, what if every restaurant
did that?
What if every restaurant yeah.
Took care of O other restaurantemployees from two to six,
usually the slowest time of thebusiness you're still paying for
over.
You got people there.
There's food being.
(36:04):
It would decrease the cost ofliving of restaurant employees
across the board, just from themdining out from, from, you know,
two to six at that time by 26%.
Right.
Absolutely.
Just makes sense.
Yeah.
And, uh, and you know, I thinkthat the way to do those sort of
things is, you know, we're gonnado those things like a ZZI Fest
(36:25):
that are very aggressive.
We're gonna do 86, 26 from twoto six, very aggressive.
And my goal is through growingour business, doing things our
way, and what we believe is theright way we can create
influence in the business, geton podcast.
Like you shifts, tell our storyand, uh, yeah.
And hopefully inspire otherpeople to think outside the box
(36:45):
and, uh, align their growth withgiving.
D.J. Costantino (36:48):
Absolutely.
And I think it is just soimportant to acknowledge, I
think the industry's, uh,shortcomings, cuz you could
easily just say yeah, thisindustry sucks.
Like you're saying that's justwhat it is.
get over it, hear it all thetime.
But I think what you're sayingis it does suck and we need to
change that.
And let's, you know, you see theopportunity in it.
I think there's a lot of greatrestaurant owners that are
(37:09):
beginning to see thatopportunity saying, you know,
this can be a great industry towork in, to work for hat's off
to you and, and the team for,for kind of recognizing that
and, and looking to make thosechanges.
Chris Smith (37:19):
Well, thank you.
It's, uh, change is hard whenyou're trying to do things that
people don't understand.
Yes.
It'll get them kinda scratchtheir head and sometimes your
team members.
Or like, huh?
Why are you doing that?
And I think it's why havingculture from the start of why
you're in business and havingthat well defined, it kind of
gives you permission to dothings outside the box.
(37:41):
Absolutely.
D.J. Costantino (37:42):
And with that, um, where can folks find you?
Chris Smith (37:45):
Yeah, so right now we've got our ZZI zooms of our
location is in downtownSavannah.
Uh, we have our fast casualmodel and that is in Atlanta.
We are, uh, in the process,we're keeping the whole Florida
market for corporate locations.
So we're working on a jointventure deal.
Right now, goal is to open threelocations in the next 24 months.
Very good.
We got some franchise dealspending right now in North
(38:08):
Carolina and Tennessee.
We're selling franchisesdifferently.
I think that part of thefranchise business is the way
franchises are sold.
I've never seen more people getinto my pocket with our brand
than, than announcingfranchising.
And so we're taking all that inhouse.
We wanna do a different, and,um, we're really excited to see
(38:28):
where it's gonna take us.
D.J. Costantino (38:29):
Absolutely.
So Atlanta, Savannah now, andsoon to be, you know, all across
the Southeast.
So got it.
Um, very exciting.
And thank you so much again forcoming on the show today.
Chris Smith (38:39):
Shit.
Yeah.
DJ.
I'm excited.
Appreciate your time.
D.J. Costantino (38:42):
Shit.
Yeah, Chris.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks again for checking outthe restaurant growth podcast
presented by seven shifts.
We're so grateful to ourlisteners and we'd love to hear
from all of you.
Send us an email to podcastseven shift.com and check us out
on social we're at seven shiftson all.
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button and we'll see
you next week.
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