November 20, 2025 • 7 mins
John Barker, President of the ORHA covers everything from dining out to "Mocktails" as we head to the holiday season
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Legacy Retirement Group dot Com phone lines, where we find
John Barker, the president of the Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
John, Good morning, How are you my friend?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Good Mike. Hey, if you want some drama, come into
the back of one of our restaurants a Friday night.
You'll hear yelling, You'll hear you know, plage flying through
the air, you know what I mean, bells ringing, you
know what I mean. We could we can bring some drama.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Maybe, like maybe like next Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving,
when everyone's going out to eat and hanging out with friends,
and that there's bound to be some drama on that night.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
That's the night it's like the busiest night of the
year for our bars and buries and all that kind
of good stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
This is a I mean, between now and the end
of the year, John, I would imagine is a great
stretch for restaurants in Ohio. Is you know, people are
kind of getting into the holiday spirit and getting festive
and going out and having lunches and dinners and happy
hours and so forth.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah, for you know, for restaurants and everybody that is hospitality,
the hotels, everybody. This is it. I mean, this is
where in many cases, all during the year, you're just
kind of breaking even and then you get that about
I call it a forty day sprint, right, and uh
it's starting next week just before Thanksgiving all the way
through New Year's, New Year's even even New Year's Day,
and restaurants and people harvest this differently, right, But those
(01:15):
that do, like big banksgiving things and catering huge time
year holiday parties. But even you know, all these sports
that are like jammed in towards the end of the
year and bowl games start to happen, are pizza and
wings restaurants. This is it, man, this is this is
go time, the super Bowl, you know for them, no doubt,
and uh so big, big time of year. And and
even like there's some other even our like bakeries and
(01:38):
our donuts shops. This is a big time of year
because people stop more often and you know, maybe pick
up a box of donuts and take it to the
office or you know, to some holiday party nearby, and
you're starting to see all these themed donuts. And you know,
you ever go to Buck Eyed Donuts or somewhere and
you see all these things. Yeah, I'm taking excell one,
because that one looks so good, a little Christmas trees
(01:58):
on it.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Do you have any speaking with John Barker from the
Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance, do you have any point
of sale data that tracks this, As you said that
the forty days sprint at the end of the year,
I'm sure you've got some sort of data about the
average check size and transactions and all of that.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah, so our average check size goes up depending on
the type of restaurant. If it's fast food, that doesn't
change too much. They do get more traffic though, because
people are traveling more, getting up exits and you know,
going to see friends and families and stuff like that.
But our sit down restaurants absolutely checks go up, and
it's on average between ten and twenty percent. The reasons
it's a little slippery is because people are drinking less.
(02:38):
Those checks used to go up even higher, right, because
people go out and order extra bottles of wine and
everybody's more festive. But you know, drinking's down. Drinking is down.
Most of our operators nationally are reporting, you know, alcohol
sales are down about ten to fifteen percent, and so
it's like we're trying to work through all that. Now
they're pretty innovative. They're coming up with these mocktails. Have
you had one of these? Mic I mean it's you know, uh,
(03:01):
you know, it looks like all it looks like a drink,
you know, and it has you know, sprits are in it
and has all this stuff. And people love these things
so they don't have alcohol. It just becomes a new
way for you know, restaurants and bars to be creative.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Everything but everything but the booze essentially, right, is that younger?
Is that the younger.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Customers that are that are doing that, that are kind
of staying away from the alcohol and going to the mocktails.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
It is and part of it's, you know, mahan. Part
of it's just all the information it's available about about
you know, the potential impact of alcohol in our bodies
and so forth. And you know, younger, the gen Z
generation is definitely into this. And that's if you remember,
that's when you actually start to drink a lot, you know,
when you're in your late teens. I'm just telling you
that I heard this from friends, you know, But you know,
(03:47):
so that's a big impact because knowingly is that you know,
booster sales. That's a big profitability piece and you know
that big one to do a bar and if you
buy a mocktail for fifteen dollars, I mean, that's a
nice profitability opportunity for you know, for the operator.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
No doubt. Absolutely. What about the costs to restaurants.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Now, we had talked a couple of times over the
course of the year, John about you know, some of
the tariffs on food. I mean, we've talked about beef
prices are absolutely insane, insane, and I think those are
still pretty high.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
But any any movement.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
On tariffs that are affecting your members in the restaurant
world in Ohio.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, absolutely, So we put out some guidance on this.
The tariff relief came out last week, and so it's
going to be on some really important things. Beef is
the big one, right because six ninety nine to pounds
is what beef was, you know, just just this week,
and that's that's forty percent higher was a year ago.
But everything's up. Coffee, not everything. The coffee is up,
like things that we really want as Americans. I can't
(04:40):
exist without it. That that tariff relief is going to
start to you know kick in. Well, we talked to
our operators. As soon as that kicks in. They got
to go back to their suppliers and renegotiating, right and
make sure they get their cost down so that they
have some relief. Because you know, the inflation piece, you know,
on food is up about thirty five percent across all
food over the last four years, so that goes all
the way back to the previous administration. It has settled
(05:03):
down a bit, you know, now we're running back to
normal kind of inflation. It's just that it's so high
over these last four years. The charac relief will be helpful,
very much so. And it's such an important part of
the year because, like I say, you know, many restaurants
this is when they make their money. This is it
forty days and so getting the costs down a little bit,
working with your suppliers and of course you know you've
got to run your restaurant great and take carry your
(05:25):
customers all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
For sure, John, have you ever been out to eat
on Thanksgiving for dinner?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
You ever? You often?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Do?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
You do that? Very often?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
You know, we did, our families done it a couple
of times, and it breaks with tradition because that's usually
a time where you gather at a home. But just you know,
people lives change and kids get older and so forth,
and you know, so we've done it a couple of
times and it ended up being a lot of fun,
right and it's you know, and I talked to the
gms and my business. I talked to the you know,
the general manager, and I talked to the servers. Are
you okay be in here today? Like you know, they
(05:54):
just feel like it's really hard. And he said, you know,
I choose this because this is a big It's a
big day for me too. Because now those restaurants that
are open, busy, uh you know, the people to go in,
like you and I or whatever will go in. We
tip a little bit more, right sure, the average average
tip right now is right around nineteen point two percent.
That's the latest number that came out. People were tipping
(06:15):
at nineteen point two percent in the Midwest. We tip
a little more because we're you know, we're just more
thoughtful about all that. But tipping goes up on holidays
and because people just want to thank their servers and
take you know, take care of the people in the restaurants.
So servers like to work at that. They make a
lot of money.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I bet they do, and it is You're right, it
is fun.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I've only done it once and it was one of
the most memorable Thanksgivings I've had, you know, as an adult,
because it was different. I mean, you're right, Mike, and
our grandparents probably spending in their graves because it's not traditional,
and you know, Grandma wants the turkey and the you know,
the the dry stuffing. But it is fun to go
out and not have to worry about, you know, prepping
the turkey and making all the food and then then
(06:54):
the cleaning up. There is something very nice about that.
I maybe not every year, but you know, once in
a while, it's it's kind of a cool different twist.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Well, and you just think about people like if you
have two sides of your family, you gotta you know,
get one. You go on Thanksgiving maybe and maybe you're
traveling back and forth, so you actually Thanksgiving might be
on a Friday, you know, with your family like that,
So you go out to a restaurant, and so restaurants
play an important role and a lot of catering goes on.
You you think about it, it takes like City Barbecue or
Schmid's and places like that where you can just say,
(07:22):
let them take care of it, right, I'll just go
pick it up. In many of our fine downing restaurants,
Camra Mitchell, you know, they do a lot of that.
It's fantastic and mom and pops do it and so
that's that's an offen.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Absolutely, people take advantage of too. Yeah,
Legacy Retirement Group dot Com phone lines, where we find
John Barker, the president of the Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
John, Good morning, How are you my friend?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Good Mike. Hey, if you want some drama, come into
the back of one of our restaurants a Friday night.
You'll hear yelling, You'll hear you know, plage flying through
the air, you know what I mean, bells ringing, you
know what I mean. We could we can bring some drama.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Maybe, like maybe like next Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving,
when everyone's going out to eat and hanging out with friends,
and that there's bound to be some drama on that night.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
That's the night it's like the busiest night of the
year for our bars and buries and all that kind
of good stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
This is a I mean, between now and the end
of the year, John, I would imagine is a great
stretch for restaurants in Ohio. Is you know, people are
kind of getting into the holiday spirit and getting festive
and going out and having lunches and dinners and happy
hours and so forth.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah, for you know, for restaurants and everybody that is hospitality,
the hotels, everybody. This is it. I mean, this is
where in many cases, all during the year, you're just
kind of breaking even and then you get that about
I call it a forty day sprint, right, and uh
it's starting next week just before Thanksgiving all the way
through New Year's, New Year's even even New Year's Day,
and restaurants and people harvest this differently, right, But those
(01:15):
that do, like big banksgiving things and catering huge time
year holiday parties. But even you know, all these sports
that are like jammed in towards the end of the
year and bowl games start to happen, are pizza and
wings restaurants. This is it, man, this is this is
go time, the super Bowl, you know for them, no doubt,
and uh so big, big time of year. And and
even like there's some other even our like bakeries and
(01:38):
our donuts shops. This is a big time of year
because people stop more often and you know, maybe pick
up a box of donuts and take it to the
office or you know, to some holiday party nearby, and
you're starting to see all these themed donuts. And you know,
you ever go to Buck Eyed Donuts or somewhere and
you see all these things. Yeah, I'm taking excell one,
because that one looks so good, a little Christmas trees
(01:58):
on it.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Do you have any speaking with John Barker from the
Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance, do you have any point
of sale data that tracks this, As you said that
the forty days sprint at the end of the year,
I'm sure you've got some sort of data about the
average check size and transactions and all of that.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah, so our average check size goes up depending on
the type of restaurant. If it's fast food, that doesn't
change too much. They do get more traffic though, because
people are traveling more, getting up exits and you know,
going to see friends and families and stuff like that.
But our sit down restaurants absolutely checks go up, and
it's on average between ten and twenty percent. The reasons
it's a little slippery is because people are drinking less.
(02:38):
Those checks used to go up even higher, right, because
people go out and order extra bottles of wine and
everybody's more festive. But you know, drinking's down. Drinking is down.
Most of our operators nationally are reporting, you know, alcohol
sales are down about ten to fifteen percent, and so
it's like we're trying to work through all that. Now
they're pretty innovative. They're coming up with these mocktails. Have
you had one of these? Mic I mean it's you know, uh,
(03:01):
you know, it looks like all it looks like a drink,
you know, and it has you know, sprits are in it
and has all this stuff. And people love these things
so they don't have alcohol. It just becomes a new
way for you know, restaurants and bars to be creative.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Everything but everything but the booze essentially, right, is that younger?
Is that the younger.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Customers that are that are doing that, that are kind
of staying away from the alcohol and going to the mocktails.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
It is and part of it's, you know, mahan. Part
of it's just all the information it's available about about
you know, the potential impact of alcohol in our bodies
and so forth. And you know, younger, the gen Z
generation is definitely into this. And that's if you remember,
that's when you actually start to drink a lot, you know,
when you're in your late teens. I'm just telling you
that I heard this from friends, you know, But you know,
(03:47):
so that's a big impact because knowingly is that you know,
booster sales. That's a big profitability piece and you know
that big one to do a bar and if you
buy a mocktail for fifteen dollars, I mean, that's a
nice profitability opportunity for you know, for the operator.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
No doubt. Absolutely. What about the costs to restaurants.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Now, we had talked a couple of times over the
course of the year, John about you know, some of
the tariffs on food. I mean, we've talked about beef
prices are absolutely insane, insane, and I think those are
still pretty high.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
But any any movement.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
On tariffs that are affecting your members in the restaurant
world in Ohio.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, absolutely, So we put out some guidance on this.
The tariff relief came out last week, and so it's
going to be on some really important things. Beef is
the big one, right because six ninety nine to pounds
is what beef was, you know, just just this week,
and that's that's forty percent higher was a year ago.
But everything's up. Coffee, not everything. The coffee is up,
like things that we really want as Americans. I can't
(04:40):
exist without it. That that tariff relief is going to
start to you know kick in. Well, we talked to
our operators. As soon as that kicks in. They got
to go back to their suppliers and renegotiating, right and
make sure they get their cost down so that they
have some relief. Because you know, the inflation piece, you know,
on food is up about thirty five percent across all
food over the last four years, so that goes all
the way back to the previous administration. It has settled
(05:03):
down a bit, you know, now we're running back to
normal kind of inflation. It's just that it's so high
over these last four years. The charac relief will be helpful,
very much so. And it's such an important part of
the year because, like I say, you know, many restaurants
this is when they make their money. This is it
forty days and so getting the costs down a little bit,
working with your suppliers and of course you know you've
got to run your restaurant great and take carry your
(05:25):
customers all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
For sure, John, have you ever been out to eat
on Thanksgiving for dinner?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
You ever? You often?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Do?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
You do that? Very often?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
You know, we did, our families done it a couple
of times, and it breaks with tradition because that's usually
a time where you gather at a home. But just you know,
people lives change and kids get older and so forth,
and you know, so we've done it a couple of
times and it ended up being a lot of fun,
right and it's you know, and I talked to the
gms and my business. I talked to the you know,
the general manager, and I talked to the servers. Are
you okay be in here today? Like you know, they
(05:54):
just feel like it's really hard. And he said, you know,
I choose this because this is a big It's a
big day for me too. Because now those restaurants that
are open, busy, uh you know, the people to go in,
like you and I or whatever will go in. We
tip a little bit more, right sure, the average average
tip right now is right around nineteen point two percent.
That's the latest number that came out. People were tipping
(06:15):
at nineteen point two percent in the Midwest. We tip
a little more because we're you know, we're just more
thoughtful about all that. But tipping goes up on holidays
and because people just want to thank their servers and
take you know, take care of the people in the restaurants.
So servers like to work at that. They make a
lot of money.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I bet they do, and it is You're right, it
is fun.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I've only done it once and it was one of
the most memorable Thanksgivings I've had, you know, as an adult,
because it was different. I mean, you're right, Mike, and
our grandparents probably spending in their graves because it's not traditional,
and you know, Grandma wants the turkey and the you know,
the the dry stuffing. But it is fun to go
out and not have to worry about, you know, prepping
the turkey and making all the food and then then
(06:54):
the cleaning up. There is something very nice about that.
I maybe not every year, but you know, once in
a while, it's it's kind of a cool different twist.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Well, and you just think about people like if you
have two sides of your family, you gotta you know,
get one. You go on Thanksgiving maybe and maybe you're
traveling back and forth, so you actually Thanksgiving might be
on a Friday, you know, with your family like that,
So you go out to a restaurant, and so restaurants
play an important role and a lot of catering goes on.
You you think about it, it takes like City Barbecue or
Schmid's and places like that where you can just say,
(07:22):
let them take care of it, right, I'll just go
pick it up. In many of our fine downing restaurants,
Camra Mitchell, you know, they do a lot of that.
It's fantastic and mom and pops do it and so
that's that's an offen.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Absolutely, people take advantage of too. Yeah,
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.