June 30, 2023 • 18 mins
The Pre-Shift Podcast presented by 7shifts breaks down everything you’ve ever wanted to know about running a restaurant better. Conversations with some of the biggest names, newest players, and industry innovators bring key insights into how they grew their businesses. Host DJ Costantino asks probing questions to get to know restauranteurs, chefs, and executives better and find out where they came from, how they got to where they are, and what lessons they learned along the way.
On this episode, we’re joined by Jason Hammel, Chef and Owner of Lula Cafe
Guest Bio
Chef and owner Jason Hammel grew up in New Haven, CT and is the product of a tight Italian family. He studied writing at Brown University and then traveled in Italy where an accidental stay in an apartment above a produce market left a lasting impact and presaged his career as a chef. Upon returning to the U.S., he received his M.A. in English and moved to Chicago where he met his wife, musician and Lula co-founder, Amalea Tshilds. They live in Logan Square with their two children, Ismene and Cass.
Hammel’s writing has appeared in Bon Appetit and Lucky Peach/MAD feed. He is currently working on a cookbook to be released by Phaidon.
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Credits
Host & Producer: D. J. Costantino
Producer: Samantha Fung
Editor: Fina Charleston
About 7shifts
7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention app designed to help restaurants thrive. With an easy-to-use app and industry-specific solutions, 7shifts saves time, reduces errors, and helps keep costs in check for more than 50,000 restaurants.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello and welcome back to the Pre-Shift podcast
presented by Seven Shifts.
My name is DJ and I'll be yourhost, bringing you stories,
advice and strategies fromrestaurant industry leaders.
Today, i'm joined by JasonHamill.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
My name is Jason Hamill.
I am the chef owner of LulaCafe in Logan Square in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Jason Hamill opened Lula Cafe in Chicago's Logan
Square neighborhood back in 1999.
And more than 20 years later,the award-winning Farm to Table
institution is one of the city'smost celebrated restaurants.
For an industry with a highrate of first-year closures,
Lula Cafe's longevity is atestament to what Hamill calls a
youthful mindset.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I mean, i think about this all the time, as I'm
hoping to do another 25 maybe,or at least another five or 10.
So what are the conditions thatallow a restaurant to last as
long as it does?
I think we have a long historyin the neighborhood that even
(01:04):
predates us.
We sort of inherited a spaceand a lot of goodwill And I
think really focusing on thefoundations of our origin, which
is being young and beinginterested in community and
connections between people,really focusing on that on a
daily basis, is what has kept ussort of young and fresh into
(01:29):
our 20s.
So I think staying open tochange, having sort of a
youthful mindset, a beginner'smindset, is one of the reasons
why we've made it this far, andkeeping that will be, hopefully,
the reason we keep going.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And that youthful mindset permeates through
everything from menu to the teamexperience.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
There is an element to that in the cooking, meaning
we're willing to try new dishesand new ideas in the food, not
repeat dishes, not just recyclethings that we've done in the
past.
I mean that's a lot easier Butwe've never done that because it
creates a new aha moment in arestaurant.
(02:15):
I also think it's reallyrespecting the paths of the
young people who work for us,trying to work with them on what
they want to do with theirlives and being engaged with us.
I have a lot of great peoplewho are studying to be
psychologists or in bands anddoing a lot of creative work,
(02:37):
and really being engaged withthem and allowing them to thrive
in the space also sort of keepsyou open to change and
maintains that beginner'smindset.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Lula has also been able to maintain many long
standing employees byrecognizing that restaurants can
be a career and recognizing therole that a restaurant job can
have in someone's life.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I mean Natalie Sternberg is our director of
hospitality.
She's been there since day one.
Local cost is a server who'sbeen there over 15 years.
My executive chef's been overthere over 10, so a lot of
people.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
What do you think has enabled like, what about the
restaurant?
has enabled people to stayaround for that long?
I mean, nowadays it's rare forpeople to stay at a restaurant
for three months, six months,let alone 10 years.
What have you done to create anenvironment where people are
making it a career?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I mean, i think I certainly think the restaurant
in the free has always been acareer for certain folks And I
want to emphasize that that'svery possible for people,
especially when they also haveother pursuits that could work,
whether it's raising a family ordoing that kind of thing or
(03:59):
it's creative pursuits.
I think that those sort of pathscan cohabitate well.
That said, i think like whythey stay?
I think because I mean I hopethat they're treated with
respect and compensated fairlyand that they like the team And
(04:21):
that being part of this team issomething that's important to
them in their lives and thatthey contribute a whole lot and
it would not be what it iswithout those people.
And in the pandemic we had moreprevious to the pandemic I had
a staff that had been there fora really long time And we
certainly I certainly felt thepain of losing some long term
(04:45):
employees, not to otherrestaurants, but just to the
industry in general, when thepandemic happened and we came
back.
So the ones that have stayedare even more special, like more
integral to the space and theplace, and people come looking
for them and want to talk tothem, and there is much a part
(05:07):
of Lula, as I am.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
On Lula Cafe's website.
They list their mission andvalues, which include creating
joyful moments for the communityand promoting care, respect,
integrity, safety andtransparency.
I've linked to the full versionin the show notes, but
something that caught my eyewhen reading them while prepping
for my chat with Jason was thatthey were revised on June 8th
2021.
And I wanted to understand whyand what went into that revision
(05:31):
.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
The pandemic gave us, as with many people, time to
reflect, and obviously theindustry has a lot of reflecting
to do And we just wanted toformalize the reflection process
.
So we set up a weekly meeting.
There were only, i think thereare eight or 10 of us at that
(05:54):
point And we were not open forbusiness like regular business,
we were just doing takeout.
We did that for a really longtime And we met every week to
say, well, what are we about?
What do we want to be aboutonce the imagined return to
business actually happens?
Let's list a number of valuesthat we had pre-pandemic and
(06:16):
some aspirational values Andmeet to discuss that.
And we continue to have.
We hope we have a meetingscheduled tomorrow with the
management team to continue totalk about the mission and
vision of the restaurant.
I think it's important torecognize that reflection and
thoughtfulness about who you areand what you want to be and how
(06:38):
you want to live is important.
But then you have tooperationalize the ambitions you
have ethically And, if you wantto live, lead a value oriented
and value first business.
it's not just about writing itdown, but it's about performing
it and behaving it every day.
That's where the hard partcomes.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Totally.
What were some of the thingsthat changed when you kind of
went in and reworked that vision?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Sure, i mean the obvious one that a lot of people
talk about is that we took on aservice fee model and changed
to minimum wage, which we hadbeen using previously to do what
we could to rectify thehistoric imbalance between the
front and the back of the housein terms of compensation.
We made a lot of progresstoward that.
(07:31):
It's not a perfect situation byany means.
Tipping and restaurantcompensation in the United
States is really fraught withcomplexities and difficulties,
but we made a stab at it andwe're sticking with it.
It's working for us and it didhave an impact on for the better
on a lot of people's lives.
(07:52):
We also added some benefitsthat are we had always had 401K
and health insurance as benefits, but we did add parental leave
and we also have a better thanindustry standard PTO policy and
also vacation pay for peoplewho've stuck with us for a while
(08:17):
.
The longer you work, the morepaid time off you will get.
So I do have people who cantake vacations now paid
vacations.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
One of the biggest changes that Amel made was a
shift from paying the tippedminimum wage or subminimum wage,
to paying above the minimumwage.
After decades of running theold model, the transition wasn't
the smoothest, but it did leavethe positive changes for the
business, including better staffwell-being, better retention
and little issues hiring.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
See, it was difficult .
We didn't do well in thebeginning.
It took us time to reallyfigure things out.
That said, we were committed toit in terms of a value, so we
stuck with it during some somerougher moments and now we feel
like we're in a good place withit.
But that was simultaneous tocoming back and we had limited
(09:09):
seating and there were the wholefight over vaccinations and
just the whole turmoil of thepandemic.
It wasn't a fair playing fieldin terms of trying a new model
out, of course, and it did taketime to settle into it.
(09:29):
But yeah, it's certainlydifferent.
There's a lot of conversationaround it.
I haven't found it likenecessarily good for the
business, but it's great for alot of people on the team.
If you're only profit minded,it's not the best choice for a
lot of people, but if you'retrying to take care of folks and
(09:53):
level out the playing field, itcould be a good choice for some
folks.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Now, it's one thing, of course, to write down and
codify your core values, but, aswe covered on the show a few
times, you do have to put theminto practice.
It's different for everyrestaurant, every leadership
team, every business, but theway that Hamill tackles this is
through training and providingopportunities for education.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I mean, one of the things that I think is lacking
in restaurants is leadershiptraining for management.
We're trying to get there.
It's really difficult to dowhen you're busy all day long,
every day.
So I think if a value iseducation and like you're having
your staff meetings and you'redoing wine tastings and you're
(10:37):
teaching cooks how to cook andyou know, and it's all about you
know, teaching people who donot know something, that
something so that they grow Andthen they grow and then they
become managers and then likejust everything stops, you know,
i mean for them.
That's a huge problem.
It's very endemic in theindustry that like learning
(10:57):
stops at the you know managerstage.
You become a sous chef andyou're like, okay, i got to do
the orders and clean at the endof the night and check people
out And like there's no likedevelopment.
So that's something we'retrying to work on.
So operationalizing that meanslike providing opportunities for
people to grow and educate andeven if they're managers.
Another, you know, if respectingyou know folks identity is
(11:21):
something that is a value, likereally paying attention to their
needs and you know their lifeneeds, whether it's like you
know, a scheduling situation orlike a communication identity
situation, like reallyrespecting that in your language
and your in your behavior.
That can be operationalized,and I mean there's there are
(11:45):
many examples like that, but thebiggest one is, you know,
really giving healthy feedbackon a more regular basis, which
does not happen enough in ourindustry and does not have
enough in my restaurant.
That's one of the top thingsthat we're trying to focus on
now is like giving constructivehelp, helpful feedback, in a
(12:06):
timely manner so that people cangrow, rather than like punitive
or controlling.
You know, you know feedbackonce there's a problem, so
that's that's another way thatwe can operationalize that, by
like scheduling this and likemaking sure my managers meet
with team members on a regularbasis, etc.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
The communication, transparency and education that
Jason talks about tells thestory of how the restaurant
industry has evolved, and notjust since 2019.
Having owned and operated Lulasince 1999, jason has a unique
lens as to how the industry haschanged the resources to do
their jobs effectively meanslike really listening and then
responding to needs and requests.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So I think what's different now is I spend a lot
less time doing like a lot lesstime cooking, or like being on
the line, in a lot more timetrying to process how to be a
better communicator as anorganization Like what parts of
the organizations are not likecommunicating in the most
(13:13):
effective way and which onesneed more support to be able to
communicate better.
And then let's try to listen tolisten in an empathetic and
active way so that I can makethe changes, cause restaurants
are all about change.
I mean, it's like constantlyabout adapting and change and
(13:34):
working on your feet.
So I think that employeesexpect a lot of transparency and
communication and they deservethat, and that's what those of
the standards we're trying tomeet.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Absolutely, and that's been kind of.
maybe that's what the biggestchange, i think overall and like
in terms of they say, you know,the employees now are not the
ones that of 10 years ago, oryou know, there's a lot of talk
about that kind of stuff andthis new generation wants
different things, but I think atthe very core of it, they just
want to be communicated with,like in a clear and concise way.
(14:08):
that's not like leaving peoplein the dark.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
For sure.
I mean, and there was also alot of, there was a lot of
exploitation of people and not,you know, not in every
restaurant, but in many, and youknow people are rightfully
aware of that and have learnedto set boundaries to themselves.
And that is, you know, 100% thedirection we need to go.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Another piece of that puzzle is technology.
Lula opened online orderingscheduling software and KDSs did
not exist.
But while Hamel recognizestheir utility, he also knows
that there are just some thingsthat tech cannot replace.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I think it's very helpful.
I mean, certainly, schedulingsoftware is incredibly,
incredibly helpful when you havea team of 100 people, you know,
needing to switch shifts andcommunicate with each other Like
that's been a really helpfulchange to adapt to that.
I think that there are parts ofmy job, frankly, that like I'm
all about AI taking over.
(15:13):
I mean, like I am expediting a600 person brunch, i mean
looking at all those tickets andlike you know my 51 year old
brain, like processing how manyof certain items are on fire, at
what time and when to fire thenext batch Like a computer could
definitely do a better job thanme.
(15:33):
I don't think that the computerwould be very good at
motivating the folks that are onthe line to like cook
well when they're dealing withthat.
So, like I would love a systemand, like you know, toast seven
shifts.
Anybody like hear me out likethat would process the
information that's coming in away that would like better suit
(15:55):
the line in terms of expediting.
So I think that technology isprobably gonna come sooner than
later, you know, and I wouldlove to use it.
I don't think that would changethe fact that I want to stand
in front of them and say, likeyou know, that egg I'd like to
do you to, you know, not usethat egg and use that one.
(16:16):
And this is why, because thatone looks better than this one.
And this is why, and like thecooking technique can be changed
to produce the better quality,or just like to joke with them
and be like you know, when it'sbusy like that, you need some
camaraderie, you need some likeyou know, you need to feel like
the you know we're, you knowhaving fun at what we're doing
(16:38):
and not just getting beat up.
So that's gonna still be myrole and to try to inspire and
teach.
My role does not need to becounting how many modified
plates there are in a you know100 person pickup.
You know that's that could.
Technology could do that better.
So yeah, there's some thingsthat human touch will never be
replaced by, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
As Lula Cafe enters a third decade of operations,
Hemel and his team are lookingto continue to evolve and keep
that curious mindset that's keptthem going throughout the years
.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I do want to advocate in the industry to sort of
continue leading with values andcare and kindness.
So that's going to continue todevelop in our space And I want
to develop like people who wantto grow.
(17:31):
On our team I have a number ofpeople who want to keep learning
and do new things And I'd liketo be part of that process with
them.
So I don't know where that'sgoing to lead, but I've got
great, great people on my teamthat want to grow.
So my next 25 years, orwhatever, are going to be about
(17:53):
supporting those people andtheir growth and continuing to
provide like a community spacethat's kind and generous and
thoughtful.
So that's just like you knowthat's kind of business as usual
, but also nothing's usual inrestaurants.
You know like it's a tough roadand like a challenge And you
(18:14):
know I'm sure that there'll besome surprises down the road.
And like we have excitingthings.
We have a cookbook coming outin October And you know we're
looking forward to supportingthat in some fun ways.
So there's going to be a lot offun things that are going to be
coming out.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Thank you for joining us for the pre-shift podcast
presented by Seven Shifts.
Be sure to follow us on socialmedia for new episodes and bonus
content And, as always, myinbox is open.
Dj at sevenshiftscom.
Let me know what you think ofthe show, who you want to hear,
or just say hello, we'll see younext time.
Hello and welcome back to the Pre-Shift podcast
presented by Seven Shifts.
My name is DJ and I'll be yourhost, bringing you stories,
advice and strategies fromrestaurant industry leaders.
Today, i'm joined by JasonHamill.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
My name is Jason Hamill.
I am the chef owner of LulaCafe in Logan Square in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Jason Hamill opened Lula Cafe in Chicago's Logan
Square neighborhood back in 1999.
And more than 20 years later,the award-winning Farm to Table
institution is one of the city'smost celebrated restaurants.
For an industry with a highrate of first-year closures,
Lula Cafe's longevity is atestament to what Hamill calls a
youthful mindset.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I mean, i think about this all the time, as I'm
hoping to do another 25 maybe,or at least another five or 10.
So what are the conditions thatallow a restaurant to last as
long as it does?
I think we have a long historyin the neighborhood that even
(01:04):
predates us.
We sort of inherited a spaceand a lot of goodwill And I
think really focusing on thefoundations of our origin, which
is being young and beinginterested in community and
connections between people,really focusing on that on a
daily basis, is what has kept ussort of young and fresh into
(01:29):
our 20s.
So I think staying open tochange, having sort of a
youthful mindset, a beginner'smindset, is one of the reasons
why we've made it this far, andkeeping that will be, hopefully,
the reason we keep going.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And that youthful mindset permeates through
everything from menu to the teamexperience.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
There is an element to that in the cooking, meaning
we're willing to try new dishesand new ideas in the food, not
repeat dishes, not just recyclethings that we've done in the
past.
I mean that's a lot easier Butwe've never done that because it
creates a new aha moment in arestaurant.
(02:15):
I also think it's reallyrespecting the paths of the
young people who work for us,trying to work with them on what
they want to do with theirlives and being engaged with us.
I have a lot of great peoplewho are studying to be
psychologists or in bands anddoing a lot of creative work,
(02:37):
and really being engaged withthem and allowing them to thrive
in the space also sort of keepsyou open to change and
maintains that beginner'smindset.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Lula has also been able to maintain many long
standing employees byrecognizing that restaurants can
be a career and recognizing therole that a restaurant job can
have in someone's life.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I mean Natalie Sternberg is our director of
hospitality.
She's been there since day one.
Local cost is a server who'sbeen there over 15 years.
My executive chef's been overthere over 10, so a lot of
people.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
What do you think has enabled like, what about the
restaurant?
has enabled people to stayaround for that long?
I mean, nowadays it's rare forpeople to stay at a restaurant
for three months, six months,let alone 10 years.
What have you done to create anenvironment where people are
making it a career?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I mean, i think I certainly think the restaurant
in the free has always been acareer for certain folks And I
want to emphasize that that'svery possible for people,
especially when they also haveother pursuits that could work,
whether it's raising a family ordoing that kind of thing or
(03:59):
it's creative pursuits.
I think that those sort of pathscan cohabitate well.
That said, i think like whythey stay?
I think because I mean I hopethat they're treated with
respect and compensated fairlyand that they like the team And
(04:21):
that being part of this team issomething that's important to
them in their lives and thatthey contribute a whole lot and
it would not be what it iswithout those people.
And in the pandemic we had moreprevious to the pandemic I had
a staff that had been there fora really long time And we
certainly I certainly felt thepain of losing some long term
(04:45):
employees, not to otherrestaurants, but just to the
industry in general, when thepandemic happened and we came
back.
So the ones that have stayedare even more special, like more
integral to the space and theplace, and people come looking
for them and want to talk tothem, and there is much a part
(05:07):
of Lula, as I am.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
On Lula Cafe's website.
They list their mission andvalues, which include creating
joyful moments for the communityand promoting care, respect,
integrity, safety andtransparency.
I've linked to the full versionin the show notes, but
something that caught my eyewhen reading them while prepping
for my chat with Jason was thatthey were revised on June 8th
2021.
And I wanted to understand whyand what went into that revision
(05:31):
.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
The pandemic gave us, as with many people, time to
reflect, and obviously theindustry has a lot of reflecting
to do And we just wanted toformalize the reflection process
.
So we set up a weekly meeting.
There were only, i think thereare eight or 10 of us at that
(05:54):
point And we were not open forbusiness like regular business,
we were just doing takeout.
We did that for a really longtime And we met every week to
say, well, what are we about?
What do we want to be aboutonce the imagined return to
business actually happens?
Let's list a number of valuesthat we had pre-pandemic and
(06:16):
some aspirational values Andmeet to discuss that.
And we continue to have.
We hope we have a meetingscheduled tomorrow with the
management team to continue totalk about the mission and
vision of the restaurant.
I think it's important torecognize that reflection and
thoughtfulness about who you areand what you want to be and how
(06:38):
you want to live is important.
But then you have tooperationalize the ambitions you
have ethically And, if you wantto live, lead a value oriented
and value first business.
it's not just about writing itdown, but it's about performing
it and behaving it every day.
That's where the hard partcomes.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Totally.
What were some of the thingsthat changed when you kind of
went in and reworked that vision?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Sure, i mean the obvious one that a lot of people
talk about is that we took on aservice fee model and changed
to minimum wage, which we hadbeen using previously to do what
we could to rectify thehistoric imbalance between the
front and the back of the housein terms of compensation.
We made a lot of progresstoward that.
(07:31):
It's not a perfect situation byany means.
Tipping and restaurantcompensation in the United
States is really fraught withcomplexities and difficulties,
but we made a stab at it andwe're sticking with it.
It's working for us and it didhave an impact on for the better
on a lot of people's lives.
(07:52):
We also added some benefitsthat are we had always had 401K
and health insurance as benefits, but we did add parental leave
and we also have a better thanindustry standard PTO policy and
also vacation pay for peoplewho've stuck with us for a while
(08:17):
.
The longer you work, the morepaid time off you will get.
So I do have people who cantake vacations now paid
vacations.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
One of the biggest changes that Amel made was a
shift from paying the tippedminimum wage or subminimum wage,
to paying above the minimumwage.
After decades of running theold model, the transition wasn't
the smoothest, but it did leavethe positive changes for the
business, including better staffwell-being, better retention
and little issues hiring.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
See, it was difficult .
We didn't do well in thebeginning.
It took us time to reallyfigure things out.
That said, we were committed toit in terms of a value, so we
stuck with it during some somerougher moments and now we feel
like we're in a good place withit.
But that was simultaneous tocoming back and we had limited
(09:09):
seating and there were the wholefight over vaccinations and
just the whole turmoil of thepandemic.
It wasn't a fair playing fieldin terms of trying a new model
out, of course, and it did taketime to settle into it.
(09:29):
But yeah, it's certainlydifferent.
There's a lot of conversationaround it.
I haven't found it likenecessarily good for the
business, but it's great for alot of people on the team.
If you're only profit minded,it's not the best choice for a
lot of people, but if you'retrying to take care of folks and
(09:53):
level out the playing field, itcould be a good choice for some
folks.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Now, it's one thing, of course, to write down and
codify your core values, but, aswe covered on the show a few
times, you do have to put theminto practice.
It's different for everyrestaurant, every leadership
team, every business, but theway that Hamill tackles this is
through training and providingopportunities for education.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I mean, one of the things that I think is lacking
in restaurants is leadershiptraining for management.
We're trying to get there.
It's really difficult to dowhen you're busy all day long,
every day.
So I think if a value iseducation and like you're having
your staff meetings and you'redoing wine tastings and you're
(10:37):
teaching cooks how to cook andyou know, and it's all about you
know, teaching people who donot know something, that
something so that they grow Andthen they grow and then they
become managers and then likejust everything stops, you know,
i mean for them.
That's a huge problem.
It's very endemic in theindustry that like learning
(10:57):
stops at the you know managerstage.
You become a sous chef andyou're like, okay, i got to do
the orders and clean at the endof the night and check people
out And like there's no likedevelopment.
So that's something we'retrying to work on.
So operationalizing that meanslike providing opportunities for
people to grow and educate andeven if they're managers.
Another, you know, if respectingyou know folks identity is
(11:21):
something that is a value, likereally paying attention to their
needs and you know their lifeneeds, whether it's like you
know, a scheduling situation orlike a communication identity
situation, like reallyrespecting that in your language
and your in your behavior.
That can be operationalized,and I mean there's there are
(11:45):
many examples like that, but thebiggest one is, you know,
really giving healthy feedbackon a more regular basis, which
does not happen enough in ourindustry and does not have
enough in my restaurant.
That's one of the top thingsthat we're trying to focus on
now is like giving constructivehelp, helpful feedback, in a
(12:06):
timely manner so that people cangrow, rather than like punitive
or controlling.
You know, you know feedbackonce there's a problem, so
that's that's another way thatwe can operationalize that, by
like scheduling this and likemaking sure my managers meet
with team members on a regularbasis, etc.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
The communication, transparency and education that
Jason talks about tells thestory of how the restaurant
industry has evolved, and notjust since 2019.
Having owned and operated Lulasince 1999, jason has a unique
lens as to how the industry haschanged the resources to do
their jobs effectively meanslike really listening and then
responding to needs and requests.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So I think what's different now is I spend a lot
less time doing like a lot lesstime cooking, or like being on
the line, in a lot more timetrying to process how to be a
better communicator as anorganization Like what parts of
the organizations are not likecommunicating in the most
(13:13):
effective way and which onesneed more support to be able to
communicate better.
And then let's try to listen tolisten in an empathetic and
active way so that I can makethe changes, cause restaurants
are all about change.
I mean, it's like constantlyabout adapting and change and
(13:34):
working on your feet.
So I think that employeesexpect a lot of transparency and
communication and they deservethat, and that's what those of
the standards we're trying tomeet.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Absolutely, and that's been kind of.
maybe that's what the biggestchange, i think overall and like
in terms of they say, you know,the employees now are not the
ones that of 10 years ago, oryou know, there's a lot of talk
about that kind of stuff andthis new generation wants
different things, but I think atthe very core of it, they just
want to be communicated with,like in a clear and concise way.
(14:08):
that's not like leaving peoplein the dark.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
For sure.
I mean, and there was also alot of, there was a lot of
exploitation of people and not,you know, not in every
restaurant, but in many, and youknow people are rightfully
aware of that and have learnedto set boundaries to themselves.
And that is, you know, 100% thedirection we need to go.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Another piece of that puzzle is technology.
Lula opened online orderingscheduling software and KDSs did
not exist.
But while Hamel recognizestheir utility, he also knows
that there are just some thingsthat tech cannot replace.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I think it's very helpful.
I mean, certainly, schedulingsoftware is incredibly,
incredibly helpful when you havea team of 100 people, you know,
needing to switch shifts andcommunicate with each other Like
that's been a really helpfulchange to adapt to that.
I think that there are parts ofmy job, frankly, that like I'm
all about AI taking over.
(15:13):
I mean, like I am expediting a600 person brunch, i mean
looking at all those tickets andlike you know my 51 year old
brain, like processing how manyof certain items are on fire, at
what time and when to fire thenext batch Like a computer could
definitely do a better job thanme.
(15:33):
I don't think that the computerwould be very good at
motivating the folks that are onthe line to like cook
well when they're dealing withthat.
So, like I would love a systemand, like you know, toast seven
shifts.
Anybody like hear me out likethat would process the
information that's coming in away that would like better suit
(15:55):
the line in terms of expediting.
So I think that technology isprobably gonna come sooner than
later, you know, and I wouldlove to use it.
I don't think that would changethe fact that I want to stand
in front of them and say, likeyou know, that egg I'd like to
do you to, you know, not usethat egg and use that one.
(16:16):
And this is why, because thatone looks better than this one.
And this is why, and like thecooking technique can be changed
to produce the better quality,or just like to joke with them
and be like you know, when it'sbusy like that, you need some
camaraderie, you need some likeyou know, you need to feel like
the you know we're, you knowhaving fun at what we're doing
(16:38):
and not just getting beat up.
So that's gonna still be myrole and to try to inspire and
teach.
My role does not need to becounting how many modified
plates there are in a you know100 person pickup.
You know that's that could.
Technology could do that better.
So yeah, there's some thingsthat human touch will never be
replaced by, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
As Lula Cafe enters a third decade of operations,
Hemel and his team are lookingto continue to evolve and keep
that curious mindset that's keptthem going throughout the years
.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I do want to advocate in the industry to sort of
continue leading with values andcare and kindness.
So that's going to continue todevelop in our space And I want
to develop like people who wantto grow.
(17:31):
On our team I have a number ofpeople who want to keep learning
and do new things And I'd liketo be part of that process with
them.
So I don't know where that'sgoing to lead, but I've got
great, great people on my teamthat want to grow.
So my next 25 years, orwhatever, are going to be about
(17:53):
supporting those people andtheir growth and continuing to
provide like a community spacethat's kind and generous and
thoughtful.
So that's just like you knowthat's kind of business as usual
, but also nothing's usual inrestaurants.
You know like it's a tough roadand like a challenge And you
(18:14):
know I'm sure that there'll besome surprises down the road.
And like we have excitingthings.
We have a cookbook coming outin October And you know we're
looking forward to supportingthat in some fun ways.
So there's going to be a lot offun things that are going to be
coming out.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Thank you for joining us for the pre-shift podcast
presented by Seven Shifts.
Be sure to follow us on socialmedia for new episodes and bonus
content And, as always, myinbox is open.
Dj at sevenshiftscom.
Let me know what you think ofthe show, who you want to hear,
or just say hello, we'll see younext time.
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