July 30, 2025 • 42 mins
DIG's CMO Jessica Serrano reveals how the chef-driven fast-casual chain rebuilt its brand identity, scaled from Manhattan to suburban markets, and leveraged AI for better customer insights. Learn about their hyper-local marketing strategy, loyalty program transformation, and unique chef-operator model that maintains scratch-cooking quality across 33+ locations while expanding beyond urban cores.
This episode brought to you by: INFI — Self-ordering made simple.
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FastCasual #RestaurantMarketing #ChefDriven
Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/
Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.
Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory
This episode brought to you by: INFI — Self-ordering made simple.
👉 Visit infi.us to schedule a demo and see how INFI can work for your business.
http://bit.ly/infi-FCN
FastCasual #RestaurantMarketing #ChefDriven
Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/
Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.
Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of Fast Casual Nation. The
podcast has started at all. Today is going to be
a good one. You guys are not going to want
to miss this one because we're going to talk about
menu strategies, how to sell it, how to make it
more appealing for your guest, and joining me today, of
course is the one the only share candler. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm great? What's up?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I am It's been busy. I had a busy morning.
I'm trying to run around. I had two kids in camp.
Things were going nuts. I thought i'd get back to
the studio and I was like running just right on time.
But fortunately, as usual, you guys are always on top
of it. Yeah. Hey, listen, we got a good one today.
We're going to get into that and more with this
(00:43):
particular guest. I think you guys are going to love her,
Jessica Serona, coming over from dig So stay tuned right here.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
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(02:03):
We're back here on Fast Casual Nation, diving into the
industry around menu development, how to market it, and really,
I think this is the magic behind building really aggressive
growth restaurant brands is how well the marketing is set
up with the menu itself. With that in mind, I
know you have a story to cover. Coffee, beer burger
(02:27):
prices are inching up? What's going on here?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, So we just took a look at Toast's menu
price monitor. They kind of looked at the many prices
of their one hundred and forty thousand restaurants on their
platform and they have found that, like you said, coffee
beer and burger prices are up, but wings and burritos
are kind of holding steady. Interesting, So we have a
story there. You can kind of click on that and
dive right in. You can look at the graphs for
(02:52):
the data nerds who like to nerd out one.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Hundred forty thousand restaurants on the Toast platform.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Man, they should be sponsoring the podcast for all the
love we're giving them.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Right, Well, they are publicly traded, so I could guess.
I guess that really if you think about it, one
hundred and forty thousand restaurants, that's less than ten percent.
But even though that's that's a pretty significant market share
for point of sale, considering there's like sixty point of
sale companies, so exactly.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
And I mean it's a lot of restaurants to I mean,
for these stats, right, if that's at one hundred, if
these are at one hundred and forty thousand, I feel
like we can probably mirror that to the rest of them.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So I wonder if that's international as well.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
You know, I think it is interesting.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I think we are international. I'll have to look into that.
But yeah, eggs are still up, the wings are down.
So we had a wing guest on not too long ago,
so that that's good news for him. That beers up,
which is interesting because you know that's supposed to be
that's supposed to be the cheap stuff, right but not
so much right now.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, on the year over year prices. Let me go
back to the scene to the screen real quick to
show this has got a good chart on this all
the way back here from April of last year versus
where we are now June of now, even though it's
it seems to have peaked and is dipping down on
the wing prices. So good for them on you know,
(04:16):
on the wing side of it. So yeah, well this
is competitive. I think the key here as we get
into more restaurants that because this is a question we
ask all the time is will restaurants take price again?
You know this year. What's the feedback you're getting right
now from CEOs.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Oh, yes, they're good.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I think they're definitely going to take prices what.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
They have to. They just have to.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I mean when they're cost that much. And I think
customers kind of get it. I mean they understand. They
may not like it, but I mean they're seeing the
same price issues at the grocery stores as well.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So I don't well, and I think the point being
around price is there's enough narrative around the inflation rate.
You know, we saw the inflation rate yesterday edge up slightly.
I think it went to two point seven, which was
just right on what anticipation was. But if you look
at the inflation overall, I guess this is the argument
I would have, is that inflation since the first of
(05:16):
the year is down in comparison, you know, to what
we've seen over the past several years. So I just
wonder if consumers are maybe going, wait a minute, maybe
this needs to be split up a little bit with
you know, the different companies out there. You know, maybe
supply side needs to take a little bit, you know,
the retail side needs to take a little bit, the
importer needs to take a little bit and kind of
(05:38):
spread it out across the.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, it'll it'll be interesting to see which ones which
items stay up and down in how restaurants, you know,
if they trade things like if they trade the beefs
up right now, so are they trade I think it
look for pork instead of beef. I mean, you can't
really burger restaurants can't replace everything, but you know you
can do CEOs to offset those costs.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
All right, Well, listen, let's dive in a little bit
with a chief marketing officer. We get a few of
those on the show, and today is a good one
and that is miss Jessica Serrano coming into us from DIG.
So welcome in, Jessica. How are you hi?
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Thanks for having me. I'm great. Thanks.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah. So okay, first of all, you know we've never
had DIG. I remember Adam I met him many many, many,
many many years ago, and him and Michael Lestoria used
to hang out together. Do you remember Michael? Oh, pizza, Jesus.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Pizza, Jesus, get along hair. He looks like a homeless person.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I'm going to try to find a photo while we're
doing the podcast. I'll bring one up of Adam, me
and Michael and we're at an event and together. It
looks like a rock band. It was so cool anyway. Adam,
of course, one of the original founders of DIG. So listen,
let's get into it. What are you doing over at DIG?
Give us a little bit about where you are at
(07:04):
DIG and kind of your track into this space because
we don't get a chance to see as many women
leaders as we would like, so we always like to
take time when we have one.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
But I was just killing Jessica that we had in
the last two weeks. We've had amazing that's true.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
That's true. We haven't got some good ones, that's.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Right, right, all, all right?
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Well, Well big update is DIG is now dig In again.
So we bounded in twenty eleven as dig In Seasonal
market And for those listening that aren't familiar with the concept,
Dig is a seasonal scratch food, fast casual concept out
of the Northeast. We have over thirty restaurants and our
menu is very ven centric, but we also have lots
(07:46):
of great delicious proteins. But it's served in a market
line format, so you choose your size and you choose
your protein. And we recently decided to bring back the D.
So a few years ago, the team had kind of
consolidated the name to dig.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
With the vision.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
That gave room to think about many different iterations of
what did could be. But you know, a lot has
changed since I joined in twenty twenty two post COVID,
and we've been really focused on the core again, and
so we went through this interesting journey of realizing that
our brand fans kind of knew us as dig In
(08:25):
and missed that and still called us that. And so
we just recently launched our summer campaign and had some
fun with bringing back in.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
It's harder centric. But you do have meat too, right, yes.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Yeah, so we have lots of as you had pulled
up there on the website. We have broccoli and sweet
potatoes and cauliflower, lots of really delicious roasted vegs that's
very nutrient dense. People really love it because it's healthy
food that's hot, so it's a little more dense than
you know, it's more cravable than a salad. But we
(08:57):
also have lots of those hue protein So there you've
got our risk it that we launched for the summer,
speaking of protein innovation. But we you know, our fans
love us for our charred chicken, our salmon, so yeah,
there's something for everyone, whether you're vegan or carnivore or
in between. Very cravable menu. We also have sandwiches, which
(09:17):
we introduced in the last year as well.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So okay, so with all of that happening around, interesting
that you guys went back to that frame of the
marketing component since customers kind of I would agree. I
think you see brands that launch. We've seen this on
a few brands that have kind of come through the
ranks and have been built over time that they you know,
the customer kind of identifies the brand as its own thing.
(09:44):
How do you first of all, how well, before we
jump into that, I want to get back to dig
for a second. Dig in for a second. How many units? Now?
What is the footprint looking like today from versus what
it may be looked like a few years back.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
So we're at about thirty three at the moment, will
open probably another four before the year's out. And prior
to COVID, the locations were primarily concentrated in Manhattan. We
also have had a presence in Boston for quite some time,
but as you can imagine, COVID was a big resetting point.
(10:21):
When all of your restaurants are in a city that
completely shut down and never quite fully rebounded in terms
of return to office, we had to close some of
those locations that just no longer made sense in Manhattan,
and we've been shifting our focus into growing in suburban markets.
So we've opened five new markets, and in my time
(10:43):
of being with the brand. And so it's been an
interesting journey as a marketer because, as you can imagine,
you know, opening the twentieth one in Manhattan versus the
first one in Stanford, Connecticut or in Washington, d C.
Has been a challenge from a messaging stone point. So
how do we explain what DIG is to somebody who's
(11:04):
never heard of it and sees vegetables, but once understand,
you know, you also have protein. What is this concept
all about? Especially in this category where you know, there's
a lot of kind of technic concepts or you know,
very specific form right Burger's wings as you were just
talking about, and DIG has never really fit well into
a box.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
It is scratch food, it's seasonally cooked.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
It's served on a market line, but it satisfies a
lot of different cravings and occasions.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah, And I think the cool thing is that as
we see this evolution of fast casual kind of going
into you know, these outer markets. Now, I would agree
with you. I think it kind of refines how maybe
brands are going to be built in the future. It's
good that we have you know, social and there's a
lot of you know, kind of decentralized models of how
(11:57):
you can do marketing today. You don't need radio and
TV as much anymore, so, which used to be very localized.
What is what has been the core strategy for you
guys to build.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Well?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
We do.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
We have made quite an investment in field marketing, so
we have folks that are specifically dedicated to these different
regions and we've really been focusing on building community. So
before six weeks, eight weeks before we even open, we
have boots on the ground that is getting to know
that community, and that's you know, going into the neighboring businesses,
introducing ourselves, doing a cookie drop, a catering menu drop,
(12:33):
joining the local you know, small business organizations, inviting the
yelp elites from the community to come in. So we
do a lot at the local level to start to
build that relationship and help people to understand the brand.
And we find that that paired with traditional marketing around
you know, email, paid social, is the right combination to
(12:54):
ensure that we hit the ground running in new markets.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Interesting so so that that seems like a good measure
for being able to get it done. How do you
measure results? What's been the I mean because obviously this
is one of the key things. How do you correlate
that to sales? You know, how do you guys go
out and decide what you're going to invest in in
(13:18):
terms of you know, different marketing strategies based on that.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Sure, well, it always comes down to sales, right, So
ultimately at the end of the day, are we hitting
the goals and ramping when it comes to new restaurant openings?
But there's a lot of lead indicators that we're on
the right track for that. So some of the things
that we do with the field marketing team is anytime
they're creating assets, you know, there may be a promo
(13:43):
code associated with it, and they're tracking you know, are
these efforts that I'm doing actually driving people into the
restaurant and converting So it's a combination of things that
are you know, we drive sales overnight, but we build
a brand over time. So some things are harder to
measure than others. But we're always looking for ways to
track back to the impact of those initiatives in driving
(14:04):
people into the restaurants.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, for sure, what is the tech stack you guys
are using for all this stuff?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Now?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Kind of just give me a framework of Hey, this
is where we start, this is what we do in store,
this is how we reach out to customers. What's the.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Well, it's been a journey because previously dig had a
custom web and app product, and really over the last
few years, the restaurant technology has just is so strong.
There's so many great tools out there that we've actually
been working to bring it back in and leveraging some
of these white label kind of out of the box solutions,
(14:45):
which has been a big win for us. So we
currently are on toast from a POS standpoint, our web
is powered by OLO. We do have a semi custom app.
We work with an agency called its plane Air that
has helped us to develop that product, and thanks is
our loyalty program which we also have evolved our loyalty
(15:07):
program over the last year. We leveraged lomos for guest feedback,
we leveraged Cladyo for email, so we are tapped into
quite a few different tools to help deliver cool.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
This omni channel experience.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Mentioned that you rehauled your loyalty app a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
What did you change? What was different?
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Yeah, So when I joined in twenty twenty two, we
had five dollars off fifty, so a dollars off framework,
and it always just really nagged at me because my
concern was that we were discounting a guest that was
not looking for a discount, and that it wasn't actually
driving the frequency.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
It wasn't a changing behavior.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
It was almost like a surprise and delight that, hey,
every fourth transaction, my goal is ten dollars instead of fifteen.
And so we worked with Thanks to evolve to points based,
which is, you know, very much I think the way
that the majority of the industry is heading, and so
now you can redeem you know, your points off of
different parts.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Of the menu.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
But what I've been more excited about than just that migration,
which expectively has helped reduce the discount rate, is that
it's helped us to change the relationship with our customer
to be less transactional and more experiential. So beyond just
the points, we're doing a lot of fun, surprise and
delight thing. So, for example, we brought back cauliflower on
the menu, which is a fan favorite. We get dms
(16:32):
all the time. If cauliflowers not on the menu, people
are like, I can't keep doing this with you dig
in like, where's my cauliflower? And so when we brought
it back, we sent an email to our loyalty audience
and said, hey, the first twenty five people that order it,
we're going to send you a hat. And the hat
just says cauliflower on it. You know. So doing those
kinds of fun things merchandising early access, we've been doing
(16:55):
a lot of access pass Like this Monday was National
Mac and Cheese Day.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
We did we Mac and cheese.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Is one of our most beloved sides, but we made
these mac and cheese bytes served with honey, and we
just sent an email was like, hey, if you want
to come down to our nohole location today is freez
to purchase. So we're having a lot of fun now
by making our loyalty program more than just transactional. But
how do we create a relationship with the people that
you know, because it's a big deal for someone to
(17:23):
download our app, right, Like, nobody wants to have a
bunch of apps, So how do we make it worth
it for you to keep us.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
In your phone?
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Okay, so that's good. Those are good connection points because
I think this is something that you know, it was interesting.
I was watching one of your reels share on the summit,
you know, and it was showing some of the executives
talking about, you know, what the industry has lost in
terms of the hospitality. You know. Who was I think
(17:53):
it was Jeff Alexander. He said, we used to be
called before all this mess, we used to be called
the hospitality industry, and now we're called the food.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Industry industry exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And I was like, yeah, that hurts. That hurts a lot,
you know when you think about, you know, customers. I
think he's right, is that have we lost this? And Jessica,
when you're dealing with customers like that, how do you
guys bring that hospitality feel back into you know, our
(18:24):
business because I think Fast Casual probably has one of
the best opportunities to do it.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Yeah, that's a great point. I mean it is, honestly,
it is why we brought back the word in. It's
such a small thing, it's just three letters, but it
is dig in does signal something that is, you know,
we're inviting you into our kitchens and we want to
treat you like a guest in our in our home
and in our kitchen. And I wrote that down food
(18:49):
from food Industry back to hospitality industry because that is
an interesting point, and I think one of the challenges
is the whack a mole that operators can experience to
deliver both a good in person experience but also you know,
we're on them about it's got to be on time
and accurate, and how do you handle that You've got
all these tickets coming through for delivery and there's a
(19:11):
person right in front of you that wants to be
you know, attended to immediately. So it's a challenge delivering
a you know, a proper omni channel experience. And the
other thing that has really shifted over the last year
is over the last few years is we've all become e.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Commerce businesses kind of whether we like it or not.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
And I think that can can pull away from the
focus on hospitality. And so we do try as much
as possible to handle the guest.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Feedback. We take as much of that.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
Off of the frontline operators as much as possible, and
really try and encourage guests to reach out to us
and make that as frictionless as possible. And you know,
you know, AI is such a hot button term and
it's not something that we're leveraging in our kitchens by
any means. But I do think that guest experience is
one of the major areas that the hospitality industry can
(20:06):
can benefit from AI, you know, because it used to
be the number of tickets that we get as digital
transactions grow has really climbed over the years, and we've
had to grow our guest experience team as a result.
And at the same time, I think we live in
the age of this unreasonable consumer. That's like, when I
DM somebody, I want an immediate response, and it's really
(20:27):
not acceptable for someone to wait twenty four hours for
a response about, you know, an issue that they had
with their order. So we have been starting to experiment
with experiment with AI agents, and the key is finding
the right partners that have the right integrations so that
they can actually address a guest issue holistically, right, because
(20:51):
there's nothing more annoying than talking to a chatbot for
five minutes only for them to tell you that you
need to be handed off to someone else and so
the future right.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
And then they're like it was not helpful, No.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
It wasn't helpful, But how do we, you know, get
and have.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
A seamless recovery?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
That's Cheff Matt and he's showing some love and fun there.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Hey, that's not a bad idea. Maybe we have Matt
trained the agent.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
It could be massive voy, you know, it could be
massive voice that they hear the order totally.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
So, how has been the feedback so far of some
AI integration for the guests.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Well, we have actually gotten it succeeded my expectations at
insights because prior to AI, we were using traditional guest
feedback tools like an MPs score, right, how is your
order day one through five? And on an aggregate you're
getting some sort of like pulse on how you're doing.
But when we put these partnered with this being called
(22:00):
be Heard Last, and we've put these phone numbers on
the on the tables in the restaurants, and people started
texting these agents and it's like talking to chat GBT.
So when the agent's like, how was your experience today,
they're not saying one through five, They're saying things like, well,
it was good, but there weren't enough high chairs or
fastest seating in this restaurant is kind of uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
I wish you had fountain drinks.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
And so we have been getting these deeper insights ironically
from people having these conversations directly with agents. So we're
really excited to continue to leverage that in the places
where it makes sense, because if overdone, I think you
lose the hospitality. But if it's done in a way
that it allows the restaurants to focus on giving better
(22:48):
in person experiences, and that's a win for everyone.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
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you there. That's one thing that you're correct on is
that the more we talk to operators here, it's not
that they're trying to replace the human experience. It's, you know,
(24:40):
it's that they're trying to garner more information. It's kind
of like prompt engineering. If you think about how, you know,
how you're building a good AI LLM. We're doing this
right now on many of our businesses, and prompt engineering
has become almost the number one thing, you know, on
how to really deliver back the information or at least
(25:01):
be able to extract it out, you know, so you
can act on it. So I would agree with you.
I think that's a big part of it. So digital,
you guys are all over this. Obviously, I was scanning
through your Instagram pages. I see a lot of food
in there. But tell me how you are able to
connect with the amount of demographics that you connect with.
(25:25):
So we have a tool that we built many years
ago where we analyzed social and I went in and
I analyzed your social platforms on primarily on Instagram, and
looked at the demographic of who was engaging who wasn't
all that And you're one of the few brands that
I've seen from teenagers to people that are in their
(25:48):
sixties plus that are connected. How do you what is
that I have not seen that?
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Thank you for noticing that. Well, our social strategy we've
also evolved over time because we live in this world
that is all about the algorithm. So it used to
be about followers, It's not about that anymore. It's about impressions.
You have to earn your way onto the for you page, right,
and so you have to create content that people actually
want to engage with. And so we found that the
real stars are chefs. So that's why you know you'll
(26:20):
see lots of different members of the big team in
our social content. It's not just one R and D chef.
Every single restaurant is run by a chef operator. And
so we're going into real kitchens and saying, hey, you
just we launched brisket. Show everybody how it's made. So
we're not gatekeeping. We're showing the real recipe of how
we make things. And on the one hand, what we're
(26:41):
trying to do is inspire people to cook, ironically, even.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
Though we're in the.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Even though we're in the business of feeding you when
you don't feel like cooking. I think by showing people
behind the scenes what we do, it helps them to
understand what we mean when we say scratch cook because
that's kind of an overused term, but this is scratch cooking.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Right you can tell, So you can tell.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, yeah, showing so much of it.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
In the kitchen too, I mean, you're you're really kind
of going behind the scenes here.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
This almost looks like vangining, but those big yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
I mean, I think that's what is kind of unique
about Dig, and I think it's why, you know, even
in an environment where people are being cautious what they're spending,
it's almost like people are trading down perhaps from what
would be a full service experience in paying tips, and
they can come to a destination like Dig and have
(27:37):
just as good of a meal, but you know, at
an affordable price. And so in terms of how we're
broadening our relevance, which has been a very intentional piece
of our strategy, is that our core audience prior to
COVID was a very homogenous one, which was young office professionals.
They worked in Manhattan, they had discretionary income, they wanted
(27:59):
a fast meal. They're walking the market line there, I
want this, I want this, I want this, they got
their AirPods in. It was a very specific experience, and
we had to really think about how do we make
this experience relevant to people beyond that, parents, empty nesters
that maybe are trying to dig for the first time
in these new markets. What we realized is that the
(28:19):
real thread and insight is that we cook what you'd
cook if you cooked, regardless of where you're at in
your life.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Right.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
So if you're a young office professional and you got
way too many things that you're trying to do in
a day, you're trying to you know, eat right, you know,
kill it at work, meditate all the things that you're
supposed to do, you know, to live a full life,
and then come home and meal prep for the week, right,
And so like it's a lot, but that thread is
(28:47):
it's a universal thread through every chapter of life, right,
because then in their next chapter, you know, I'm a mom,
I have twins.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
It sounds like you do too. It's like we're just.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Trying to put a meal on the on the table
midweek that everybody can feel good about that everyone's actually
going to eat.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
And so that's a universal thread.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
It's just talking about the fact that we cook so
you don't have to, whether you are a young professional
trying to feed yourself a healthy lunch or a parent
trying to figure out how to feed the whole family.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
And I think.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
That that that's why you're seeing that this this is
resonating with you know, many demographics.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Jessica.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
You mentioned something earlier that caught my attention. You said
that each location is led by a chef operator. So
does that mean you have to be like, if you're
going to run a restaurant, if you're going to be
an owner or whatever, you have to be a chef
as well trained or can is that learned or how
does that work?
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Well, you know it really started you mentioned Adam Eskin
when we started. Uh, you know, there was a time
where we really were actually even there were quite a
bit of chefs that were coming to us from fine dining.
And now we've we've brought in that aperture because we
feel like, true, everyone is a cook, but what we
(30:02):
mean by that is when you come in and you're
running a dig you're not a GM. Everybody who walks
into a dig in is going to cook. I mean
even at the support team level. You know, my first day,
the very first thing I did as the head of
marketing and Dig was I learned how to make pesto
for for service that day.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
So a chef operator.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Is really designed to ensure that this restaurant is cooking
these scratch cook meals in a way that is consistent
with all of the other restaurants, so that you have
a consistent experience across locations, and that's really rare in
this industry, right. I remember when when I was joining
dig In, a peer of mine said, oh, you know
(30:43):
what is going to be really challenging when you join
dig is you know, for example, we make a kill
caesar salad. He's like, do you know how hard it is?
This is another a chef. Do you know how hard
it is to make kale caesar salad consistently across you know, multilocations,
because kale is a about washing it and making sure
that you you know, that is well washed so that
(31:04):
it doesn't have that bitter taste to it. Yes, So
that's what we mean by chef operators is they're focused
on actually delivering a well cooked and consistent experience. And
we do use kind of a French brigade style system,
so we have sous chefs and when you join the
team as an hourly it's also.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Dance chef and training. We also have dancers working there.
This guy should be on Broadway. Come on, man, these
people are having fun behind the scenes. I love this brand.
This is so crazy.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
Thank you. Yeah, we try not to take ourselves too seriously.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Well, I think the point you hit on is is
kind of creating that very unique experience, which it appears
that you guys are doing a lot of. You brought
up Adam I had. I was looking for that photo
while we were doing them. We'll try to see if
I can share it, because this is hilarious. The the here.
I'll ring it up here just to show you. This
(32:04):
was like when was this This was in maybe in
twenty seventeen or twenty sixteen, I'm not sure, but it
was back in the day. There's Adam right there, and
there's Michael, the story of the guy from MPSI. Anyway,
Adam I used to have a lot of debate about
(32:26):
this very issue of whether or not fast casual could
ever truly be considered a chef driven concept. Now this
is back in the day when chefs were not in
fast casual, okay, and we would argue this late into
the night. Many times. I was on the side, well,
(32:50):
Adam was on the side that yes, it can be done.
Me the idiot, was on the side, I don't know
if you can scale it. I'm like, I'm arguing with him,
how do you scale a chef? You know, because it's
so unique and so you know.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
There's just the whole farm to tack.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
How do you do it?
Speaker 1 (33:07):
You know, obviously exactly obviously dig figured out a way
to do it, But that is something that I think
customers now expect. Are you finding that to be the
case with customers expecting this elevated experience even though you're
doing it at you know, thirteen bucks a bowl.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Definitely, consumers want the end. They want you know, great
tasting and better for me and a good value.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
They want all the things. And I think we've you know,
we've been doing a.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Good job of finding what that balance is because we
do think that this concept has substantial legs to scale,
and so there's been some decisions that we've had to
make to shift focus to making sure that we can
continue to deliver this elevated experience. You know, we used
to have a farm out. You know, we probably don't
need to be in the farming business, so we made
(34:04):
some changes so that we could really but we really
believe that scratch cooking is a key point of difference
in in this uh this category. So you know, Cheryl,
you mentioned farm to table and we we will continue
to have lots of seasonally relevant vegetable innovation, but we
did find that it got.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
A little kind of like table stakes.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
Like everybody now is talking about the farmers that they know.
But one thing that we feel is truly differentiated about
Digging is that we cook from scratch, and so it's
about so we're always trying to find ways to do
that in a way that is trainable.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Right, So we have we have a.
Speaker 5 (34:47):
We have some a team that's called Culinary Operations and
so these are you know, former chef operators that have
elevated into a multi unit role where their job is
going out and tasting the food and getting feedback and
making sure that each of these sides and proteins are
delivering a consistent experience. So we you know, we choose
(35:09):
to resource and structure the team in support of this vision,
and we think that that's the right bet.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
So, Jessica, speaking of scaling, is franchising ever on the
table or are you guys going to stick to owner
to operated only inside?
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Yeah, I do.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
I do believe that because of the care that goes
into this, it's something that we feel we are uniquely
positioned to execute. So no plans to franchise in the
immediate term. The real goal here is to grow it intentionally,
so you know, you'll you'll also notice that we've focused
on the northeast.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
You know, we could try.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
And and you know, we get dams all the time,
winning and open in La or Austin. Right there's there's
no shortage of interest in it. But for now we're
growing in clusters and kind of planting more flags and markets.
We already have presence in Affinity and so it's going
to be you know, an intentional expansion.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
We're okay. So that being said, what do you look
for when you're trying to identify a new market and say, okay,
that's a dig in market, you know, because you could
look at you know, I think Florida. I would look
at you know, Western Florida or Broward County as a
dig in market because it's got a lot of people
(36:28):
that are very outdoor active. You know, they're looking for
always looking for healthy, but they want that elevated experience.
How do you identify that in markets right now?
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (36:38):
I mean I think there are a lot of markets
that did could resonate in and there is a particular
profile of guests that we know that that our food
resonates with and so that could definitely urban dense markets.
That's proven. But when we think about suburban markets, what
are those kind of bedroom communities outside of key suburban
(37:01):
markets that perhaps have a little bit of a gap
in terms of a cravable affordable guiding options.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Who does that's Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
It's from a from a fast casual.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean, because there's certain
markets where, like especially in the Northeast, where you get
these suburban communities that get you know, nine Italian restaurants,
you know, and that's all there is in that community,
and there's no real good fast cash I mean maybe
PANERAA Chipotle drops in, but it's not really an option
(37:39):
to go in and find something like you find it again.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
So yeah, like where I live outside of Kansas City,
we have like every chicken restaurant known demand, but we
have no salad concepts or health health fold concept So
I'm waiting for somebody to to fill that niche here.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
We'll see exactly, all right.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
So what's on Let's talk about future roadmap what it
looks like for you guys. Is there anything that you
can announce today because Sharon I like breaking news, okay
on this podcast, A record. This is going to be recorded,
but it will air in one week. So consider this
under embargo already. Okay, what do you come on, Give
(38:19):
us something, Give us something.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
Well, we should have recorded this a couple of weeks
ago then, because we just as mentioned, you know, we
just did our name change, and we just rolled out
our summer menu and so right now we're working on
the next crop. So uh, you know, we'll have our
fall menu which will launch in September, and I will
share that there will be some protein innovation on this
(38:44):
menu that is new to brand and quite differentiated from
the category.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
So how is that?
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (38:52):
I like that differentiated from the category. Interesting. I'm gonna
have to think about this one category. This will big good,
This would be good. I'm thinking bison or something off,
you know, is something exotic maybe because that's what a
chef would do. That's exactly what a chef.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Or buffalo Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, exotic.
Speaker 5 (39:14):
But I will say it's something that I'll say this
fall is digs dig into super Bowl because what we
do really well is hot, new, trans dense food, and
so we really like to pull out all the stops.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
It's interesting, like soup season, I have an idea for it.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
I have an idea for you. Okay. Have you ever
heard of hatch chili?
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (39:39):
I have.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Okay, So you know they have this huge season, hatch
chili season in New Mexico, And if you've ever been
to New Mexico, they'll ask you red or green, you
know kind of thing. Nobody knows what I'm talking about,
but that's it's it's a very New Mexican fair kind
of thing. But they have hatch chili. Burgers are like
(40:01):
the best burgers I have ever had because it's not
like a kilipino. It's like it's it's spicy, but not
like rip your face off hot. That would be a
great addition hatch chili into dig the shot, put that
into the culinary mix.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
Yeah, you know, we want of the proud of yourself.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Sometimes, you know, I get lucky.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
Good ideas come from everywhere.
Speaker 5 (40:25):
You know, our teams that do family meal every week,
and so I'm always seeing pictures of what they're cooking
for the teams. And sometimes, you know, the best ideas
come from even family meil.
Speaker 4 (40:35):
So I'll pass that one along.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
I like it all right, Listen, this has been a
good one. Jessica, thank you so much for coming in
on the podcast today. We definitely you're going to look
back on dig here in a few months and Chera
and I will be covering that topic of what these
new menu items are. I'm sure of it. So thanks
for coming in. We appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
Thank you. It's my pleasure you bet all.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Right, So a good one there. First of all, guys,
if you have not subscribed to the podcast, do that
right now whether you're listening on the audio side, But
if you are listening on the audio side, jump over
to the YouTube channel. Just search saver FM. Fast Casual
Nation is always right there kind of front and center,
because that's where you'll get a chance to see all
this stuff that we were just talking about, and that's
(41:21):
the extra omni channel approach to podcasting that this podcast
brings to you. So, anyway, anything new share that we
should mention to the audience for we cut loose.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Yeah, we are about to unleash the nominations for the
Top thirty Catering Executive will nominations open on July twenty eighth.
So last year was our first year. We did it
and it was awesome. We had over one hundred people.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
How people get involved, So.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
You nominate yourself. So July twenty eighth, you can check
Fastcasual dot com for the link to nominate. You can
dominate yourself or other people, and then we will our
judges panel will go through and pick the top sixty
that we think is there to be on the list,
and then we will push it out to social media
and the top thirty with the most votes on LinkedIn, Facebook,
all the channels will be recognized as the top thirty
(42:11):
and we will have at the Fast Casual Executive Summit
in October. We have a catering workshop that will be
following that on October seventh, and we will recognize those
folks on that at the workshop and at the nice.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
All right, Top thirty. There you go, guys. Make sure
and visit Fastcasual dot com for that. Of course, if again,
if you haven't subscribed to the show, do that and
we'll catch you next time right here on Fast Casual Nation.
So yeah,
Welcome back to another episode of Fast Casual Nation. The
podcast has started at all. Today is going to be
a good one. You guys are not going to want
to miss this one because we're going to talk about
menu strategies, how to sell it, how to make it
more appealing for your guest, and joining me today, of
course is the one the only share candler. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm great? What's up?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I am It's been busy. I had a busy morning.
I'm trying to run around. I had two kids in camp.
Things were going nuts. I thought i'd get back to
the studio and I was like running just right on time.
But fortunately, as usual, you guys are always on top
of it. Yeah. Hey, listen, we got a good one today.
We're going to get into that and more with this
(00:43):
particular guest. I think you guys are going to love her,
Jessica Serona, coming over from dig So stay tuned right here.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
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(02:03):
We're back here on Fast Casual Nation, diving into the
industry around menu development, how to market it, and really,
I think this is the magic behind building really aggressive
growth restaurant brands is how well the marketing is set
up with the menu itself. With that in mind, I
know you have a story to cover. Coffee, beer burger
(02:27):
prices are inching up? What's going on here?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, So we just took a look at Toast's menu
price monitor. They kind of looked at the many prices
of their one hundred and forty thousand restaurants on their
platform and they have found that, like you said, coffee
beer and burger prices are up, but wings and burritos
are kind of holding steady. Interesting, So we have a
story there. You can kind of click on that and
dive right in. You can look at the graphs for
(02:52):
the data nerds who like to nerd out one.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Hundred forty thousand restaurants on the Toast platform.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Man, they should be sponsoring the podcast for all the
love we're giving them.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Right, Well, they are publicly traded, so I could guess.
I guess that really if you think about it, one
hundred and forty thousand restaurants, that's less than ten percent.
But even though that's that's a pretty significant market share
for point of sale, considering there's like sixty point of
sale companies, so exactly.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
And I mean it's a lot of restaurants to I mean,
for these stats, right, if that's at one hundred, if
these are at one hundred and forty thousand, I feel
like we can probably mirror that to the rest of them.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So I wonder if that's international as well.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
You know, I think it is interesting.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I think we are international. I'll have to look into that.
But yeah, eggs are still up, the wings are down.
So we had a wing guest on not too long ago,
so that that's good news for him. That beers up,
which is interesting because you know that's supposed to be
that's supposed to be the cheap stuff, right but not
so much right now.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, on the year over year prices. Let me go
back to the scene to the screen real quick to
show this has got a good chart on this all
the way back here from April of last year versus
where we are now June of now, even though it's
it seems to have peaked and is dipping down on
the wing prices. So good for them on you know,
(04:16):
on the wing side of it. So yeah, well this
is competitive. I think the key here as we get
into more restaurants that because this is a question we
ask all the time is will restaurants take price again?
You know this year. What's the feedback you're getting right
now from CEOs.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Oh, yes, they're good.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I think they're definitely going to take prices what.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
They have to. They just have to.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I mean when they're cost that much. And I think
customers kind of get it. I mean they understand. They
may not like it, but I mean they're seeing the
same price issues at the grocery stores as well.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So I don't well, and I think the point being
around price is there's enough narrative around the inflation rate.
You know, we saw the inflation rate yesterday edge up slightly.
I think it went to two point seven, which was
just right on what anticipation was. But if you look
at the inflation overall, I guess this is the argument
I would have, is that inflation since the first of
(05:16):
the year is down in comparison, you know, to what
we've seen over the past several years. So I just
wonder if consumers are maybe going, wait a minute, maybe
this needs to be split up a little bit with
you know, the different companies out there. You know, maybe
supply side needs to take a little bit, you know,
the retail side needs to take a little bit, the
importer needs to take a little bit and kind of
(05:38):
spread it out across the.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, it'll it'll be interesting to see which ones which
items stay up and down in how restaurants, you know,
if they trade things like if they trade the beefs
up right now, so are they trade I think it
look for pork instead of beef. I mean, you can't
really burger restaurants can't replace everything, but you know you
can do CEOs to offset those costs.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
All right, Well, listen, let's dive in a little bit
with a chief marketing officer. We get a few of
those on the show, and today is a good one
and that is miss Jessica Serrano coming into us from DIG.
So welcome in, Jessica. How are you hi?
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Thanks for having me. I'm great. Thanks.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah. So okay, first of all, you know we've never
had DIG. I remember Adam I met him many many, many,
many many years ago, and him and Michael Lestoria used
to hang out together. Do you remember Michael? Oh, pizza, Jesus.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Pizza, Jesus, get along hair. He looks like a homeless person.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I'm going to try to find a photo while we're
doing the podcast. I'll bring one up of Adam, me
and Michael and we're at an event and together. It
looks like a rock band. It was so cool anyway. Adam,
of course, one of the original founders of DIG. So listen,
let's get into it. What are you doing over at DIG?
Give us a little bit about where you are at
(07:04):
DIG and kind of your track into this space because
we don't get a chance to see as many women
leaders as we would like, so we always like to
take time when we have one.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
But I was just killing Jessica that we had in
the last two weeks. We've had amazing that's true.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
That's true. We haven't got some good ones, that's.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Right, right, all, all right?
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Well, Well big update is DIG is now dig In again.
So we bounded in twenty eleven as dig In Seasonal
market And for those listening that aren't familiar with the concept,
Dig is a seasonal scratch food, fast casual concept out
of the Northeast. We have over thirty restaurants and our
menu is very ven centric, but we also have lots
(07:46):
of great delicious proteins. But it's served in a market
line format, so you choose your size and you choose
your protein. And we recently decided to bring back the D.
So a few years ago, the team had kind of
consolidated the name to dig.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
With the vision.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
That gave room to think about many different iterations of
what did could be. But you know, a lot has
changed since I joined in twenty twenty two post COVID,
and we've been really focused on the core again, and
so we went through this interesting journey of realizing that
our brand fans kind of knew us as dig In
(08:25):
and missed that and still called us that. And so
we just recently launched our summer campaign and had some
fun with bringing back in.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
It's harder centric. But you do have meat too, right, yes.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Yeah, so we have lots of as you had pulled
up there on the website. We have broccoli and sweet
potatoes and cauliflower, lots of really delicious roasted vegs that's
very nutrient dense. People really love it because it's healthy
food that's hot, so it's a little more dense than
you know, it's more cravable than a salad. But we
(08:57):
also have lots of those hue protein So there you've
got our risk it that we launched for the summer,
speaking of protein innovation. But we you know, our fans
love us for our charred chicken, our salmon, so yeah,
there's something for everyone, whether you're vegan or carnivore or
in between. Very cravable menu. We also have sandwiches, which
(09:17):
we introduced in the last year as well.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So okay, so with all of that happening around, interesting
that you guys went back to that frame of the
marketing component since customers kind of I would agree. I
think you see brands that launch. We've seen this on
a few brands that have kind of come through the
ranks and have been built over time that they you know,
the customer kind of identifies the brand as its own thing.
(09:44):
How do you first of all, how well, before we
jump into that, I want to get back to dig
for a second. Dig in for a second. How many units? Now?
What is the footprint looking like today from versus what
it may be looked like a few years back.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
So we're at about thirty three at the moment, will
open probably another four before the year's out. And prior
to COVID, the locations were primarily concentrated in Manhattan. We
also have had a presence in Boston for quite some time,
but as you can imagine, COVID was a big resetting point.
(10:21):
When all of your restaurants are in a city that
completely shut down and never quite fully rebounded in terms
of return to office, we had to close some of
those locations that just no longer made sense in Manhattan,
and we've been shifting our focus into growing in suburban markets.
So we've opened five new markets, and in my time
(10:43):
of being with the brand. And so it's been an
interesting journey as a marketer because, as you can imagine,
you know, opening the twentieth one in Manhattan versus the
first one in Stanford, Connecticut or in Washington, d C.
Has been a challenge from a messaging stone point. So
how do we explain what DIG is to somebody who's
(11:04):
never heard of it and sees vegetables, but once understand,
you know, you also have protein. What is this concept
all about? Especially in this category where you know, there's
a lot of kind of technic concepts or you know,
very specific form right Burger's wings as you were just
talking about, and DIG has never really fit well into
a box.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
It is scratch food, it's seasonally cooked.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
It's served on a market line, but it satisfies a
lot of different cravings and occasions.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah, And I think the cool thing is that as
we see this evolution of fast casual kind of going
into you know, these outer markets. Now, I would agree
with you. I think it kind of refines how maybe
brands are going to be built in the future. It's
good that we have you know, social and there's a
lot of you know, kind of decentralized models of how
(11:57):
you can do marketing today. You don't need radio and
TV as much anymore, so, which used to be very localized.
What is what has been the core strategy for you
guys to build.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Well?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
We do.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
We have made quite an investment in field marketing, so
we have folks that are specifically dedicated to these different
regions and we've really been focusing on building community. So
before six weeks, eight weeks before we even open, we
have boots on the ground that is getting to know
that community, and that's you know, going into the neighboring businesses,
introducing ourselves, doing a cookie drop, a catering menu drop,
(12:33):
joining the local you know, small business organizations, inviting the
yelp elites from the community to come in. So we
do a lot at the local level to start to
build that relationship and help people to understand the brand.
And we find that that paired with traditional marketing around
you know, email, paid social, is the right combination to
(12:54):
ensure that we hit the ground running in new markets.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Interesting so so that that seems like a good measure
for being able to get it done. How do you
measure results? What's been the I mean because obviously this
is one of the key things. How do you correlate
that to sales? You know, how do you guys go
out and decide what you're going to invest in in
(13:18):
terms of you know, different marketing strategies based on that.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Sure, well, it always comes down to sales, right, So
ultimately at the end of the day, are we hitting
the goals and ramping when it comes to new restaurant openings?
But there's a lot of lead indicators that we're on
the right track for that. So some of the things
that we do with the field marketing team is anytime
they're creating assets, you know, there may be a promo
(13:43):
code associated with it, and they're tracking you know, are
these efforts that I'm doing actually driving people into the
restaurant and converting So it's a combination of things that
are you know, we drive sales overnight, but we build
a brand over time. So some things are harder to
measure than others. But we're always looking for ways to
track back to the impact of those initiatives in driving
(14:04):
people into the restaurants.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, for sure, what is the tech stack you guys
are using for all this stuff?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Now?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Kind of just give me a framework of Hey, this
is where we start, this is what we do in store,
this is how we reach out to customers. What's the.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Well, it's been a journey because previously dig had a
custom web and app product, and really over the last
few years, the restaurant technology has just is so strong.
There's so many great tools out there that we've actually
been working to bring it back in and leveraging some
of these white label kind of out of the box solutions,
(14:45):
which has been a big win for us. So we
currently are on toast from a POS standpoint, our web
is powered by OLO. We do have a semi custom app.
We work with an agency called its plane Air that
has helped us to develop that product, and thanks is
our loyalty program which we also have evolved our loyalty
(15:07):
program over the last year. We leveraged lomos for guest feedback,
we leveraged Cladyo for email, so we are tapped into
quite a few different tools to help deliver cool.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
This omni channel experience.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Mentioned that you rehauled your loyalty app a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
What did you change? What was different?
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Yeah, So when I joined in twenty twenty two, we
had five dollars off fifty, so a dollars off framework,
and it always just really nagged at me because my
concern was that we were discounting a guest that was
not looking for a discount, and that it wasn't actually
driving the frequency.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
It wasn't a changing behavior.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
It was almost like a surprise and delight that, hey,
every fourth transaction, my goal is ten dollars instead of fifteen.
And so we worked with Thanks to evolve to points based,
which is, you know, very much I think the way
that the majority of the industry is heading, and so
now you can redeem you know, your points off of
different parts.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Of the menu.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
But what I've been more excited about than just that migration,
which expectively has helped reduce the discount rate, is that
it's helped us to change the relationship with our customer
to be less transactional and more experiential. So beyond just
the points, we're doing a lot of fun, surprise and
delight thing. So, for example, we brought back cauliflower on
the menu, which is a fan favorite. We get dms
(16:32):
all the time. If cauliflowers not on the menu, people
are like, I can't keep doing this with you dig
in like, where's my cauliflower? And so when we brought
it back, we sent an email to our loyalty audience
and said, hey, the first twenty five people that order it,
we're going to send you a hat. And the hat
just says cauliflower on it. You know. So doing those
kinds of fun things merchandising early access, we've been doing
(16:55):
a lot of access pass Like this Monday was National
Mac and Cheese Day.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
We did we Mac and cheese.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Is one of our most beloved sides, but we made
these mac and cheese bytes served with honey, and we
just sent an email was like, hey, if you want
to come down to our nohole location today is freez
to purchase. So we're having a lot of fun now
by making our loyalty program more than just transactional. But
how do we create a relationship with the people that
you know, because it's a big deal for someone to
(17:23):
download our app, right, Like, nobody wants to have a
bunch of apps, So how do we make it worth
it for you to keep us.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
In your phone?
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Okay, so that's good. Those are good connection points because
I think this is something that you know, it was interesting.
I was watching one of your reels share on the summit,
you know, and it was showing some of the executives
talking about, you know, what the industry has lost in
terms of the hospitality. You know. Who was I think
(17:53):
it was Jeff Alexander. He said, we used to be
called before all this mess, we used to be called
the hospitality industry, and now we're called the food.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Industry industry exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And I was like, yeah, that hurts. That hurts a lot,
you know when you think about, you know, customers. I
think he's right, is that have we lost this? And Jessica,
when you're dealing with customers like that, how do you
guys bring that hospitality feel back into you know, our
(18:24):
business because I think Fast Casual probably has one of
the best opportunities to do it.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Yeah, that's a great point. I mean it is, honestly,
it is why we brought back the word in. It's
such a small thing, it's just three letters, but it
is dig in does signal something that is, you know,
we're inviting you into our kitchens and we want to
treat you like a guest in our in our home
and in our kitchen. And I wrote that down food
(18:49):
from food Industry back to hospitality industry because that is
an interesting point, and I think one of the challenges
is the whack a mole that operators can experience to
deliver both a good in person experience but also you know,
we're on them about it's got to be on time
and accurate, and how do you handle that You've got
all these tickets coming through for delivery and there's a
(19:11):
person right in front of you that wants to be
you know, attended to immediately. So it's a challenge delivering
a you know, a proper omni channel experience. And the
other thing that has really shifted over the last year
is over the last few years is we've all become e.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Commerce businesses kind of whether we like it or not.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
And I think that can can pull away from the
focus on hospitality. And so we do try as much
as possible to handle the guest.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Feedback. We take as much of that.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
Off of the frontline operators as much as possible, and
really try and encourage guests to reach out to us
and make that as frictionless as possible. And you know,
you know, AI is such a hot button term and
it's not something that we're leveraging in our kitchens by
any means. But I do think that guest experience is
one of the major areas that the hospitality industry can
(20:06):
can benefit from AI, you know, because it used to
be the number of tickets that we get as digital
transactions grow has really climbed over the years, and we've
had to grow our guest experience team as a result.
And at the same time, I think we live in
the age of this unreasonable consumer. That's like, when I
DM somebody, I want an immediate response, and it's really
(20:27):
not acceptable for someone to wait twenty four hours for
a response about, you know, an issue that they had
with their order. So we have been starting to experiment
with experiment with AI agents, and the key is finding
the right partners that have the right integrations so that
they can actually address a guest issue holistically, right, because
(20:51):
there's nothing more annoying than talking to a chatbot for
five minutes only for them to tell you that you
need to be handed off to someone else and so
the future right.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
And then they're like it was not helpful, No.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
It wasn't helpful, But how do we, you know, get
and have.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
A seamless recovery?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
That's Cheff Matt and he's showing some love and fun there.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Hey, that's not a bad idea. Maybe we have Matt
trained the agent.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
It could be massive voy, you know, it could be
massive voice that they hear the order totally.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
So, how has been the feedback so far of some
AI integration for the guests.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Well, we have actually gotten it succeeded my expectations at
insights because prior to AI, we were using traditional guest
feedback tools like an MPs score, right, how is your
order day one through five? And on an aggregate you're
getting some sort of like pulse on how you're doing.
But when we put these partnered with this being called
(22:00):
be Heard Last, and we've put these phone numbers on
the on the tables in the restaurants, and people started
texting these agents and it's like talking to chat GBT.
So when the agent's like, how was your experience today,
they're not saying one through five, They're saying things like, well,
it was good, but there weren't enough high chairs or
fastest seating in this restaurant is kind of uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
I wish you had fountain drinks.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
And so we have been getting these deeper insights ironically
from people having these conversations directly with agents. So we're
really excited to continue to leverage that in the places
where it makes sense, because if overdone, I think you
lose the hospitality. But if it's done in a way
that it allows the restaurants to focus on giving better
(22:48):
in person experiences, and that's a win for everyone.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
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you there. That's one thing that you're correct on is
that the more we talk to operators here, it's not
that they're trying to replace the human experience. It's, you know,
(24:40):
it's that they're trying to garner more information. It's kind
of like prompt engineering. If you think about how, you know,
how you're building a good AI LLM. We're doing this
right now on many of our businesses, and prompt engineering
has become almost the number one thing, you know, on
how to really deliver back the information or at least
(25:01):
be able to extract it out, you know, so you
can act on it. So I would agree with you.
I think that's a big part of it. So digital,
you guys are all over this. Obviously, I was scanning
through your Instagram pages. I see a lot of food
in there. But tell me how you are able to
connect with the amount of demographics that you connect with.
(25:25):
So we have a tool that we built many years
ago where we analyzed social and I went in and
I analyzed your social platforms on primarily on Instagram, and
looked at the demographic of who was engaging who wasn't
all that And you're one of the few brands that
I've seen from teenagers to people that are in their
(25:48):
sixties plus that are connected. How do you what is
that I have not seen that?
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Thank you for noticing that. Well, our social strategy we've
also evolved over time because we live in this world
that is all about the algorithm. So it used to
be about followers, It's not about that anymore. It's about impressions.
You have to earn your way onto the for you page, right,
and so you have to create content that people actually
want to engage with. And so we found that the
real stars are chefs. So that's why you know you'll
(26:20):
see lots of different members of the big team in
our social content. It's not just one R and D chef.
Every single restaurant is run by a chef operator. And
so we're going into real kitchens and saying, hey, you
just we launched brisket. Show everybody how it's made. So
we're not gatekeeping. We're showing the real recipe of how
we make things. And on the one hand, what we're
(26:41):
trying to do is inspire people to cook, ironically, even.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
Though we're in the.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Even though we're in the business of feeding you when
you don't feel like cooking. I think by showing people
behind the scenes what we do, it helps them to
understand what we mean when we say scratch cook because
that's kind of an overused term, but this is scratch cooking.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Right you can tell, So you can tell.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, yeah, showing so much of it.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
In the kitchen too, I mean, you're you're really kind
of going behind the scenes here.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
This almost looks like vangining, but those big yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
I mean, I think that's what is kind of unique
about Dig, and I think it's why, you know, even
in an environment where people are being cautious what they're spending,
it's almost like people are trading down perhaps from what
would be a full service experience in paying tips, and
they can come to a destination like Dig and have
(27:37):
just as good of a meal, but you know, at
an affordable price. And so in terms of how we're
broadening our relevance, which has been a very intentional piece
of our strategy, is that our core audience prior to
COVID was a very homogenous one, which was young office professionals.
They worked in Manhattan, they had discretionary income, they wanted
(27:59):
a fast meal. They're walking the market line there, I
want this, I want this, I want this, they got
their AirPods in. It was a very specific experience, and
we had to really think about how do we make
this experience relevant to people beyond that, parents, empty nesters
that maybe are trying to dig for the first time
in these new markets. What we realized is that the
(28:19):
real thread and insight is that we cook what you'd
cook if you cooked, regardless of where you're at in
your life.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Right.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
So if you're a young office professional and you got
way too many things that you're trying to do in
a day, you're trying to you know, eat right, you know,
kill it at work, meditate all the things that you're
supposed to do, you know, to live a full life,
and then come home and meal prep for the week, right,
And so like it's a lot, but that thread is
(28:47):
it's a universal thread through every chapter of life, right,
because then in their next chapter, you know, I'm a mom,
I have twins.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
It sounds like you do too. It's like we're just.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Trying to put a meal on the on the table
midweek that everybody can feel good about that everyone's actually
going to eat.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
And so that's a universal thread.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
It's just talking about the fact that we cook so
you don't have to, whether you are a young professional
trying to feed yourself a healthy lunch or a parent
trying to figure out how to feed the whole family.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
And I think.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
That that that's why you're seeing that this this is
resonating with you know, many demographics.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Jessica.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
You mentioned something earlier that caught my attention. You said
that each location is led by a chef operator. So
does that mean you have to be like, if you're
going to run a restaurant, if you're going to be
an owner or whatever, you have to be a chef
as well trained or can is that learned or how
does that work?
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Well, you know it really started you mentioned Adam Eskin
when we started. Uh, you know, there was a time
where we really were actually even there were quite a
bit of chefs that were coming to us from fine dining.
And now we've we've brought in that aperture because we
feel like, true, everyone is a cook, but what we
(30:02):
mean by that is when you come in and you're
running a dig you're not a GM. Everybody who walks
into a dig in is going to cook. I mean
even at the support team level. You know, my first day,
the very first thing I did as the head of
marketing and Dig was I learned how to make pesto
for for service that day.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
So a chef operator.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Is really designed to ensure that this restaurant is cooking
these scratch cook meals in a way that is consistent
with all of the other restaurants, so that you have
a consistent experience across locations, and that's really rare in
this industry, right. I remember when when I was joining
dig In, a peer of mine said, oh, you know
(30:43):
what is going to be really challenging when you join
dig is you know, for example, we make a kill
caesar salad. He's like, do you know how hard it is?
This is another a chef. Do you know how hard
it is to make kale caesar salad consistently across you know, multilocations,
because kale is a about washing it and making sure
that you you know, that is well washed so that
(31:04):
it doesn't have that bitter taste to it. Yes, So
that's what we mean by chef operators is they're focused
on actually delivering a well cooked and consistent experience. And
we do use kind of a French brigade style system,
so we have sous chefs and when you join the
team as an hourly it's also.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Dance chef and training. We also have dancers working there.
This guy should be on Broadway. Come on, man, these
people are having fun behind the scenes. I love this brand.
This is so crazy.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
Thank you. Yeah, we try not to take ourselves too seriously.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Well, I think the point you hit on is is
kind of creating that very unique experience, which it appears
that you guys are doing a lot of. You brought
up Adam I had. I was looking for that photo
while we were doing them. We'll try to see if
I can share it, because this is hilarious. The the here.
I'll ring it up here just to show you. This
(32:04):
was like when was this This was in maybe in
twenty seventeen or twenty sixteen, I'm not sure, but it
was back in the day. There's Adam right there, and
there's Michael, the story of the guy from MPSI. Anyway,
Adam I used to have a lot of debate about
(32:26):
this very issue of whether or not fast casual could
ever truly be considered a chef driven concept. Now this
is back in the day when chefs were not in
fast casual, okay, and we would argue this late into
the night. Many times. I was on the side, well,
(32:50):
Adam was on the side that yes, it can be done.
Me the idiot, was on the side, I don't know
if you can scale it. I'm like, I'm arguing with him,
how do you scale a chef? You know, because it's
so unique and so you know.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
There's just the whole farm to tack.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
How do you do it?
Speaker 1 (33:07):
You know, obviously exactly obviously dig figured out a way
to do it, But that is something that I think
customers now expect. Are you finding that to be the
case with customers expecting this elevated experience even though you're
doing it at you know, thirteen bucks a bowl.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Definitely, consumers want the end. They want you know, great
tasting and better for me and a good value.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
They want all the things. And I think we've you know,
we've been doing a.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Good job of finding what that balance is because we
do think that this concept has substantial legs to scale,
and so there's been some decisions that we've had to
make to shift focus to making sure that we can
continue to deliver this elevated experience. You know, we used
to have a farm out. You know, we probably don't
need to be in the farming business, so we made
(34:04):
some changes so that we could really but we really
believe that scratch cooking is a key point of difference
in in this uh this category. So you know, Cheryl,
you mentioned farm to table and we we will continue
to have lots of seasonally relevant vegetable innovation, but we
did find that it got.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
A little kind of like table stakes.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
Like everybody now is talking about the farmers that they know.
But one thing that we feel is truly differentiated about
Digging is that we cook from scratch, and so it's
about so we're always trying to find ways to do
that in a way that is trainable.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Right, So we have we have a.
Speaker 5 (34:47):
We have some a team that's called Culinary Operations and
so these are you know, former chef operators that have
elevated into a multi unit role where their job is
going out and tasting the food and getting feedback and
making sure that each of these sides and proteins are
delivering a consistent experience. So we you know, we choose
(35:09):
to resource and structure the team in support of this vision,
and we think that that's the right bet.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
So, Jessica, speaking of scaling, is franchising ever on the
table or are you guys going to stick to owner
to operated only inside?
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Yeah, I do.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
I do believe that because of the care that goes
into this, it's something that we feel we are uniquely
positioned to execute. So no plans to franchise in the
immediate term. The real goal here is to grow it intentionally,
so you know, you'll you'll also notice that we've focused
on the northeast.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
You know, we could try.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
And and you know, we get dams all the time,
winning and open in La or Austin. Right there's there's
no shortage of interest in it. But for now we're
growing in clusters and kind of planting more flags and markets.
We already have presence in Affinity and so it's going
to be you know, an intentional expansion.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
We're okay. So that being said, what do you look
for when you're trying to identify a new market and say, okay,
that's a dig in market, you know, because you could
look at you know, I think Florida. I would look
at you know, Western Florida or Broward County as a
dig in market because it's got a lot of people
(36:28):
that are very outdoor active. You know, they're looking for
always looking for healthy, but they want that elevated experience.
How do you identify that in markets right now?
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (36:38):
I mean I think there are a lot of markets
that did could resonate in and there is a particular
profile of guests that we know that that our food
resonates with and so that could definitely urban dense markets.
That's proven. But when we think about suburban markets, what
are those kind of bedroom communities outside of key suburban
(37:01):
markets that perhaps have a little bit of a gap
in terms of a cravable affordable guiding options.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Who does that's Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
It's from a from a fast casual.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean, because there's certain
markets where, like especially in the Northeast, where you get
these suburban communities that get you know, nine Italian restaurants,
you know, and that's all there is in that community,
and there's no real good fast cash I mean maybe
PANERAA Chipotle drops in, but it's not really an option
(37:39):
to go in and find something like you find it again.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
So yeah, like where I live outside of Kansas City,
we have like every chicken restaurant known demand, but we
have no salad concepts or health health fold concept So
I'm waiting for somebody to to fill that niche here.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
We'll see exactly, all right.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
So what's on Let's talk about future roadmap what it
looks like for you guys. Is there anything that you
can announce today because Sharon I like breaking news, okay
on this podcast, A record. This is going to be recorded,
but it will air in one week. So consider this
under embargo already. Okay, what do you come on, Give
(38:19):
us something, Give us something.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
Well, we should have recorded this a couple of weeks
ago then, because we just as mentioned, you know, we
just did our name change, and we just rolled out
our summer menu and so right now we're working on
the next crop. So uh, you know, we'll have our
fall menu which will launch in September, and I will
share that there will be some protein innovation on this
(38:44):
menu that is new to brand and quite differentiated from
the category.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
So how is that?
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (38:52):
I like that differentiated from the category. Interesting. I'm gonna
have to think about this one category. This will big good,
This would be good. I'm thinking bison or something off,
you know, is something exotic maybe because that's what a
chef would do. That's exactly what a chef.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Or buffalo Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, exotic.
Speaker 5 (39:14):
But I will say it's something that I'll say this
fall is digs dig into super Bowl because what we
do really well is hot, new, trans dense food, and
so we really like to pull out all the stops.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
It's interesting, like soup season, I have an idea for it.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
I have an idea for you. Okay. Have you ever
heard of hatch chili?
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (39:39):
I have.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Okay, So you know they have this huge season, hatch
chili season in New Mexico, And if you've ever been
to New Mexico, they'll ask you red or green, you
know kind of thing. Nobody knows what I'm talking about,
but that's it's it's a very New Mexican fair kind
of thing. But they have hatch chili. Burgers are like
(40:01):
the best burgers I have ever had because it's not
like a kilipino. It's like it's it's spicy, but not
like rip your face off hot. That would be a
great addition hatch chili into dig the shot, put that
into the culinary mix.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
Yeah, you know, we want of the proud of yourself.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Sometimes, you know, I get lucky.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
Good ideas come from everywhere.
Speaker 5 (40:25):
You know, our teams that do family meal every week,
and so I'm always seeing pictures of what they're cooking
for the teams. And sometimes, you know, the best ideas
come from even family meil.
Speaker 4 (40:35):
So I'll pass that one along.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
I like it all right, Listen, this has been a
good one. Jessica, thank you so much for coming in
on the podcast today. We definitely you're going to look
back on dig here in a few months and Chera
and I will be covering that topic of what these
new menu items are. I'm sure of it. So thanks
for coming in. We appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
Thank you. It's my pleasure you bet all.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Right, So a good one there. First of all, guys,
if you have not subscribed to the podcast, do that
right now whether you're listening on the audio side, But
if you are listening on the audio side, jump over
to the YouTube channel. Just search saver FM. Fast Casual
Nation is always right there kind of front and center,
because that's where you'll get a chance to see all
this stuff that we were just talking about, and that's
(41:21):
the extra omni channel approach to podcasting that this podcast
brings to you. So, anyway, anything new share that we
should mention to the audience for we cut loose.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Yeah, we are about to unleash the nominations for the
Top thirty Catering Executive will nominations open on July twenty eighth.
So last year was our first year. We did it
and it was awesome. We had over one hundred people.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
How people get involved, So.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
You nominate yourself. So July twenty eighth, you can check
Fastcasual dot com for the link to nominate. You can
dominate yourself or other people, and then we will our
judges panel will go through and pick the top sixty
that we think is there to be on the list,
and then we will push it out to social media
and the top thirty with the most votes on LinkedIn, Facebook,
all the channels will be recognized as the top thirty
(42:11):
and we will have at the Fast Casual Executive Summit
in October. We have a catering workshop that will be
following that on October seventh, and we will recognize those
folks on that at the workshop and at the nice.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
All right, Top thirty. There you go, guys. Make sure
and visit Fastcasual dot com for that. Of course, if again,
if you haven't subscribed to the show, do that and
we'll catch you next time right here on Fast Casual Nation.
So yeah,
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