May 21, 2025 • 35 mins
Join Paul Barron and Cherryh Cansler as they explore fast casual's global expansion with brands like Teriyaki Madness and Mason's Famous Lobster making international debuts. Discover how beverage innovation—from craft mocktails to full bars—is reshaping the segment while fast casual continues to outperform both QSR and casual dining in same-store sales. The hosts analyze Chili's strategic positioning against QSR, discuss the $20+ hourly wages transforming restaurant labor markets, and preview FastCasual.com's 10th anniversary Top 100 gala plus blockchain payment solutions that could eliminate processing fees for operators.
FastCasualNation #RestaurantInnovation #FoodserviceTrends
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
FastCasualNation #RestaurantInnovation #FoodserviceTrends
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):
We're back here on another episode of Fast Casual Nation,
the podcast that started it all.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Of course, joining me today is miss share Chanceler. How
are you?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
What's up? Pow are you? I'm great, It's going to
be good.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is the week to prepare for the biggest gala
and fast casual known to man.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
That is the top one another coming up? What's what?
Anything new?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Well, this is our tenth anniversaries.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
We have a whole bunch of new stuff, so we
have We've even figured out a different way to compile
the list, so we'll get into all that. But we're
really excited and we have twenty five extra people that
we are recognizing extra brands. So usually we do seventy
five brands and twenty five executives to make up one hundred,
but we decided to go for one hundred brands this
(00:44):
year and then the twenty five executives.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Nice, So it's going to be a packed room then,
Oh yeah, for sure, there Radison new.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
What is it Sunday Night or Saturday?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yes, Sunday Night, yep. And it's Stressed to impress. We're
giving away Best Stressed Awards, you know, So I can't
wait to see everybody in their sparkles and men included.
You know, zach Oates had his sparkle jacket all last year,
which he won the award for, so we'll see. So
now we have named it the Stacy Kanaan Zach Oates
Best Dressed Award because they won the first year, so
(01:16):
they're going to go it away.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Stacey. Stacey was very proud of that. Last year was
favorite thing.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Yeah, the of the year who cares about careers, she
has much stressed.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Hey, we're going to talk about not only what's happening
globally for fast casual, but also talk a little bit
about Saint Storre's sales performance because this is a big
deal in terms of where the growth sector is going,
both for casual dining, full service, and especially fast casual.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Is fast casual.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Maybe going to be the first one that performs out
of this somewhat downturn if you want to call it that.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
But we'll be right back covering that.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
My name is Paul Baron. As the early pioneer in
fast casual, I've seen the industry evolve from just a
few operators to the most sought after segment by consumers
around the world. Now we're planning to shape its future.
Tap into decades of my expertise identifying the emerging brands
and tech winners in the space, Saber Capital will be
(02:40):
fueling the next generation of fast casual innovation.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
All Right, we're back here with Shrek Cansler coming in
from Fastcasual dot Com. And of course the biggest topic
today right now, Shera is fast casual is going global.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And you look at the amount of brands that are
out there on a global scale, this is more than
I've ever seen. I mean there's always been you know,
especially in Europe fast casual concepts out there. Have you
just been seeing more brands or what has been your
opinion of how.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yeah, like you said, there's always been some brands who
have gone global, right, So it's not hugely new, but
I'm seeing like even just this week, we've gotten a
lot of news that stories that we've written or even
smaller brands are you know, making their international debuts. And
you know, Tarioky Madness, we just wrote a story about
it opened in El Salvador last week. So I thought
(03:36):
that was interesting because you know, they're a smaller brand
that I think they have less than two hundred brands.
So it's interesting and you know, we have, obviously.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Salvador good growth.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, there's been.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
A few that have been in and out of here
because there's been a handful of international brands that have
tried to make it in the WHOA wait a minute,
I'm just seeing something here. The franchise reported twenty one
percent increase in system like gross sales.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah, they had a great year last year, which is
why they're on the Fast Casual top one hundred list
this year.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
That is, that's a big number. What so what do
they attribute that to?
Speaker 4 (04:15):
They just operations. And they rolled out this new executive plan.
If you scroll down there toward the bottom of the story,
you can kind of see it a little bit more
information about it.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, right, so interesting.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
We also introduced the Executive Franchise Package, aim to experienced operators,
allow them an unlimited number of locations for a single
franchise fee.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Oh okay, they're cutting some fees there, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, that'll do it. Now.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
It's got one hundred and sixty five units across three countries.
Is it mostly South America?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Well, their growth is obviously mostly in the US, but Maryland. Yeah, Okay,
they're basically okay, yeah, yeah, they're based in Denver. So
that's a interesting, interesting brand, I think, especially for a
smaller brand.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So we'll see.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
You also have this one right here, and this one
is Mason's famous Lobster Lobster.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, and they just did like a deal.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
I think they've had a couple of restaurants opened in
Italy last year and the same guy that they partnered
with is going to open he says up to one
hundred in the next eight years, like in Spain and Switzerland.
So and that's a relatively small brand as well. So
it's just kind of interesting seeing these smaller guys come
out and you know, going global, it makes makes you.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
A lot of there, you know, and you wonder about
a couple of things because there's been a handful.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I remember Poyo, Campero.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
There's been a couple of South American brands that tried
to make it here in the United States didn't do
that great.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You also have to go back to one of the
original brands, if I can remember their name.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
They were a concept when we use to print Fast
Casual magazine.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
This was one of the brands that made it.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Guys what's their name, I'll get it before the show
is over. But they came in with a really sleek design.
It was very euro style and they came in. They
opened in Dallas. We went to their location. It was
a big brand.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
It was like it was a European brand, more focused
on pizza and Italian I'll get it. It's I might
even have a cover of the magazine around here on
that one.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
But that brand, I thought, holy moly, this is going
to be one that absolutely goes nuts, right And they didn't.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
They spun out.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So that was the thing that I thought was kind
of interesting as we see more of those. The other
one that reminds me of this one is I'll show
this one on it and you probably have seen this
one before, and that is Cafe Nero if you watched
this brand yet. So we went to Boston on the
documentary and kind of covered what they were doing. This
(07:06):
of course came out of the UK. They're doing pretty good,
but that's a good example of some of their interior.
I used to think this is one of the best
designed coffee shops and you know dessert concepts out there.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
This is a UK born brand.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Okay, so some.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Will make it. Some won't.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
It's very intriguing to see how Fast Casual seems to
be a global, you know, as a.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Global There's an Australian coffee brand too. I can't think
of the name. It's like a coffee shop. It's getting traction.
They've opened here too.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Listen, there's a lot a lot of interesting I.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Mean, when you look at four Barrel, you look at
the original blue bottle, A lot of those were upscaling
coffee pretty heavily. But there's been a lot of new
brands that have started to break in, which is I
think still they're young, and I wanted to get your
opinion on this. When you look at and growth right
now we're going to talk about the same store sales
here in the moment, but when you look at brand
(08:05):
growth and you think about where the chicken category is
going right now, where the drink category is going with
someone like a Swig, et cetera, then these emerging concepts,
do you think the regional Fast Casual is the sweet spot.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Or yeah, I think I think they're definitely the regional is.
I'm interested though, in the drink brands right now, the
dirty soda brands like Swig for example, because they're gaining
a lot of traction. But also I remember when the
cookies gained a lot of attraction, and the yogurts and
the you know, the little cakes, and so it's like
(08:46):
they had their moment in their son and some of
them are still around, but a lot of them closed.
So I'm wondering if you know, it's going to be
more like restaurants embracing more drinks like dirty sodas like Ziggi's.
You know, they're a coffee shop, but now they have
dirty soda they're testing it on the menu, or it's
going to be these drink only brands that survive.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So yeah, and I.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Think the coffee, the coffee scene is going to be interesting.
I think this might be the one you're talking about, Bluestone.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Lane, that's right, Yeah, yeah, Bluestone We had them on
the show. They've been on this podcast before. We've had
their team on a pretty good They do a pretty
good job. I think overall, I'm going to flip over
to their Instagram so you can get a little bit
better of an.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Insight on them, because they're getting into exactly what you're
talking about, and that is these derivative drinks that are
coming off of the category of coffee only, which is
kind of to me is a good strategy.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
But do you think this can hold? What is your thought?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
I think that I think this is a good idea
where that they're going away just from the coffee. I mean,
it's like when Duncan Donuts went away from the donuts
and now it's just Duncan. So obviously, when you can
add more menu items, that's always great. So but yeah,
I'm just interested to see if the drink only brands
(10:09):
can sustain. I mean, are the swigs of the world
going to start doing other stuff or are we going
to get food just like.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
The coffee shops have expanded their menus.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Well, I think the and to your point exactly, is
that you're dealing with kind of a new era brand
leader which is starting to, you know, pop in some
different and unique concepts.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
But in your opinion, I mean, we've had a lot
of really good brands here on the show just in
the past ten weeks. Good Burger, the Sandwich People, the
people in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
We just have Rome on last week.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
We're gonna be publishing next day, or if you guys
are listening to this last week. But the point being
is is that some of these brands have been able
to hold and grow slowly. They haven't broken like a
Kava or a sweet cream.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Right Rome has you know, been here around fifteen years,
six locations, not not huge like a Kava, but still
you know, staying power, very.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Good staying power. So that's my point is, do you
feel like you're seeing more of the micro fast casual brands?
And when I say micro under twenty five units that
are doing really well, I can think of Charles Billillis
over at Suvla Rome example, a handful down here in Florida.
There's been a whole series of brands that have kind
(11:33):
of revamped, including Lime Fresh, which used to be a
powerhouse Fresh Mechs company. I mean, it just seems like
there's a different dynamic building in fast casual right now.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Are you seeing that as well?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I think the brands that have been around but aren't
huge but are growing, like Curry Up now. You know,
they have a very awesome culture that's unique and they
lean into that. And I mean they obviously innovate with
new trends and stuff, but they stick to what they're
what they know, you know, Room Yeah is all about
it's fresh and healthy food, for example, and you know,
(12:10):
they they've expanded the menu, which we talked with him about,
but they've stayed true to that sustainability focus.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
So I think that's important for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, I've looked at this brand a few times. We're
gonna have to get them on the show. I don't
think we've had them.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
And I like the fact that, to your point, they're
staying with the concept of, you know, very unique flavors.
The menu itself is unique enough, even though it does
have a lot of the elements that I think are
resident in a lot of concepts out there. You know,
they've got the rito side of it. But you know,
I do like the bowls, their strategy of what they've done.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I went to one of these locations and experienced it
for the first time last year, and I was pretty surprised.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I mean, really good food.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, because I'm not a big fan of this particular
kind of food.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Oh yeah, no, I love it. It's delicious.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I get that.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
I mean, you.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Got to have that love. But they've done a couple
of other cool things.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
To me.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
They have They have a bar concept. I can't think
of the name of it.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Pedal or Mortal or something, so they have yes, yes, yes,
and pestle.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
So that concept looks really cool.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
I've never gotten to visit that the bar, but those
drinks look amazing, so I think that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
And so not all of not all.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Of his locations have the bar, but that's a differentiating
factor for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Do you think we're going.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
To see I mean, because we talked about this before,
we had you know, several brands on here recently who
have done beer.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
And wine pretty well or mocktails.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Do you think we're going to see a signal to
get the movement in alcoholic beverages?
Speaker 3 (14:03):
In fact, I do, Yeah, I do.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
I think alcoholic and non alcoholic definitely, because you know,
we're we're running out of ways to stand out, and
people are using fast casual brands more and more like
they used to use the Applebee's and Chilis of the world.
They're going there to hang out with their friends. I mean,
obviously they're stilly doing carry out and delivery. But you know,
we have in in Kansas City, we have this really
(14:28):
great medi training fast casual restaurant called Meddies. There's four
or five of them here. It's a regional casual brand.
You order out the counter, then sit down, but they
have live music, they have a full bar. You keep
going up to the counter to order drinks. I keep
telling them they need to get QR codes to put
them on the table so I don't have to leave
on table to order drinks. But I think I mean,
(14:48):
and we we go there a lot. We used to
go to the local bar, and now we're like, well,
let's go to Meddies. The food is better, it is fresh,
it's meant, you know, it's healthy, but we can still
have our happy hours. So I think a lot of
brands are looking into that, and they should. I mean,
the check spind alone is you know, astronomical.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Well, and this is something that I had a chance
to where we do our due diligence on new brand investments.
So our team has been talking to a lot of
founders and this is a topic that comes up often.
One thing though, that came up last week when we
were talking with founder in South Carolina. Fairly new concept,
(15:27):
but they're starting to implement mocktails because obviously you don't
mean the liquor license for a mocktail, but you can
sell it apparently and market it very similarly similarly to
alcoholic beverages.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, so it creates almost allure.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
He said that the marketing has been very effective on
what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
This is kind of a it's a I won't call
it a skunk works, but they're testing it.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
In private right now of how well it's doing at
two locations, and he said the performance and the response
from consumers has been significant, so.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So much so that they're most likely going to roll
this out. They have a master bar person that is
now building the cocktail Wow, excluding the.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Spirits of course, but apparently they're using all sorts of
ingredients that are.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Like a craftscktail.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, unique to mocktails and like fast casual they're building it,
you know, kind of that differentiator, which.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Is to me, could be a big deal. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Well it's smart. I mean it's smart.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Since we've we've been talking, almost every episode, gen Z
has come up, you know, they have now they're the
the new cohort that has the money and most of
them can't drink, and they love to go order those
you know, fancy drinks, whether it's like, yeah, a sip
or a swig or if it's at you know, their
local restaurant, and they're getting to order, like they get
to order when we go to Muddies. They get to
(17:01):
order their own version of that, and it's like seven
to me.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, And it opens up a whole new demographic because
it's the under eighteen crowd now on twenty one crowd
know where you are, So a lot of opportunity there
for sure. So the beverage, I talked to Larry Reinstein
a couple of weeks ago and he and I were
talking about beverage.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Being kind of the surprise of this year and last
year in terms of performance.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
But what else is a surprise is the same store
sales performance right now past eight quarters. I'll give you
guys just some updates on this. McDonald's had a dip
in Q two of twenty four and then they rebounded
a little bit, but they themselves not necessarily performing as
well as they have been. And I'm kind of running
(17:49):
down the QSR side RBI, which is Popeisberger King. They
had some growth in twenty three, but it faded in
twenty four. We saw a spin off of that, and
of course Starbucks has really suffered overall. My question do
you share is with what we're seeing now in twenty
(18:09):
four in the first quarter of twenty five, slowing QSR
sales is a little bit concerning to me because that
typically is not happening even in downturns in markets.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
What do you think is going on here?
Speaker 4 (18:24):
I think, I mean, I've said it a few times
on this podcast. I think people are scared. They're holding
onto their money. They're scared about the market, the tear tariffs,
so I mean, and it trickles down right. Customers are
holding on to their money, so restaurants aren't investing in
tech and stuff that they normally would. So everybody's just
kind of hanging out trying to figure out what's going
(18:45):
to happen next.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I have a prediction.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
I think that this market, if it holds in terms
of consumer downturn, even though this week's inflation print was lower,
I think it was off by one point two point
three versus two point four, and we're seeing at least
some economic recovery, which I think though with the tariffs,
(19:11):
we won't see the real prints on that till next
inflation report, and possibly the slowing jobs this may Here's
my prediction here on the show is that your first
is that QSR is going to realize that fast casual
is the bulletproof segment because when times are tough, people
(19:34):
are scaling down from casual and fine into fast casual.
When times are good, people are scaling up from QSR
into fast casual because they get spent a little bit
more money. And most of the time fast casual is
robbing from casual dynings. So it's like the one little
perfect spot. To my thesis is that QSR, who has
(19:59):
tried this before work, they're going to come back to
the table.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Oh yeah, I mean we've been We've seen that the
last I mean since fast casual was born, I would say,
you're twenty years ago.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Always dip in and dip out. McDonald's came in with Chipotle,
Dobo was a deal with Wendy's. You know, everybody's in
Baja was even in that mix. Yep.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Talking about tries, you know, everybody tries it in the
bit and then the casual dining people are trying it.
I mean, I really haven't seen you tell me, I
haven't seen a casual dining restaurant to launch a fast
casual that it's like exploded yet.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I mean we've seen yeah here and there.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, but I think it's it's.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
We're going to get into the point, I think now
where they have no choice to be able to spin
off a concept. I mean, I was a little disappointed
with Golden Corral when they spun off their program and then.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
They did it again. They rated it again six months ago,
so that that.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Was to me, I thought, Okay, that's just not necessarily
understanding consumer yet and probably not having a supply chain
in place to deal with that because it is a
different kind of.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You know setup obviously. But the fact is is that
when you look.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
At San store sales right now, this segment still is overperforming.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
You've got Wingstop, Cava. Those are pretty much been the
top performers both being out there. In terms of the
public side of things.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Chipotle got hit with some sales and traffic numbers but
has been holding fairly decently even though they're going to
new you know, whole new team. But also the other
thing is Shakeshak, which is the one that I think
is going to be maybe come back to stardom. They
have kind of relaunched their whole operation side. They're building
(21:44):
out there. Have you seen their Atlanta based in theatre.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
That innovation lab that they're trying to test things to
see if they can cut some cut some costs for
their prototypes and smaller.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Sure, let's call the Shakeshack guys. Let's go there and
do a podcast.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
I think we should. I think that would be great.
They probably let us do it, of.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Course they would. Yeah, we'll get them. We're going to
get our producers on that one, guys. And if we
can get inside the innovation lab. I've done it once.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I've been behind the wall once, not with Shakeshack, but
with another brand, And maybe they'll what they don't show
you is is what's.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Really happening over here. They give me the regular stuff
outside here and I can talk them out of it.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Yeah, and then we need to go to Chipotle's also
their innovation lab, and then we can kind of compare.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
That'd be cool.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
We have a lot of stuff on the books we have.
You know, we got to do our door dashers, get the.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Drum delivery thing out in San Francisco. I'm thinking road to.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I want to go under I want to go undercover
and like be a door dash driver just for like
a day. I could just do it here, bring my
camera and you know, see what people do and yeah,
what people do?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Okay. The idea that.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
We had with with postmak or with the door dash
last week, it was pretty cool because it's it's one
that I think it would be interesting to see how
drivers think of customers when they're doing delivery, you know,
I mean, because that is a is a challenge I
think everybody's trying to figure out right now, is how
do you create brand extension when you don't have a
(23:20):
person that's working for you.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Do you think that if you were in the door
dash vehicle you'd be able not to steal a French fry?
Because I don't know if I'd be able to not
steal a French fry.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I would be the best door dash driver.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I mean I would make tips so good.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
I would come up and I would have costumes and skits.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I would bring.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Flowers, you know, gum just like those I give you
the water bottles and in the candy and the mints.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
That's what we would be fun.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
But the good thing is is that Fast Casual is
outperforming right now. When you look at all the other sectors,
and if you look at you know comparison. I think
there was numbers on dyning brands. Here we go, let's
pull this up. This is one that is a bit
concerning because this one, to me is one of the biggest,
and that of course when you look at dine brands
(24:16):
in general. This is Applebee's, ihop Fuzzies, you guys know them, but.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
They had a little bit of a downturn. So when
you look at their mix, it's pretty interesting. Off premise sales.
Let me kind of say, boom zoom in on that
for you.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Oh yeah, seven straight quarters of negative same store sales.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
That's terrible.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So this to me is one hundred and ninety five
million to two of two from twenty four. So this
is the point I'm getting at, is that casual, outside
of Chili's, which has been kind of an anomaly in
the industry, the casual dining sector I think.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Is hemorrhaging users. I think they're hemorrhaging to fast casual,
which might be the re and that we're.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Not seeing massive fists in a really tough time right
now in Cheas.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Really is back to our beverage conversation. I mean, there
they're killing it on their beverage. You know they're having
done a good job teens and like fun ltos, like
they're they're really standing out from Applebee's and their other
competitors that way.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
We did a whole thing on this on Masterminds. We
probably should cover this, you know, here on this show
as well. But one thing that we broke down I'll
bring up the just to show you guys a little
bit more. By the way, if you're not watching the
video version of this podcast, jump over to YouTube right now.
I know you're probably listening while you're getting ready for
(25:43):
a shift. That's okay, listen to the audio. But if
you can get over to YouTube, just search saber fm
and you'll find all this. So when we're talking about things,
we usually show a lot of this, but this was there.
This was the thing that I thought was so interesting.
So what do you see here on this screen that
we're showing right now? It just screams in your face.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
Like the deal, the three and the drink.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I like that, that's good. But the QP they're going
after the quarter powder right there in your face.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I mean, that's ballsy, man, That is all it is.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Like, Hey, McDonald's, we don't care.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
I suck at McDonald's.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
We're going for it. Here's a happy hour too. By
the way, you can get Modela.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
And yeah, Asperger exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
I love it. Look at this. I mean that even
looks like a big mac is quarter powder.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Does that not look like a like oozing out in
the sauce? Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
This is this is really close. I can't imagine that.
I look at that.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Man, They are really getting in on the jo. This
is a I think this has been their reason, you know,
the reason that they've been able to really reconnect with
the consumer and outperform the casual sector, which this is
a concern. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Well they have been really good at value too, with
their pick three So you know, people are like, oh,
I get these three things and it's twenty bucks. Well,
now when I go through son and for McDonald's, I'm
spending almost that much anyway, so I might as well
go have a nice sit down meal with you know,
a friend or whatever.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Speaking So that that is one thing that I would
say if I had a concern for the industry, it
would be that casual dining cracks the code because right now,
I mean, the problem is they have brand affinity to
overcome with gen Z and millennials, meaning they have kind
(27:47):
of adapted to.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
The fast casual concept. They understand it. You know, it's no.
Speaker 7 (27:51):
Tip, usually higher quality, faster, a little bit cheaper, but
not a lot, you know than casual and cool and
hip or environment.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
You know, so it's a pretty almost a slam dump.
But if you get more Chili's concepts out there, that
could remap it a little bit. Could they take away
from fast casual?
Speaker 4 (28:14):
I think it's definitely something we have to watch out for.
And you said no tip, but now fast casual is
almost every fast casual you have. Then they turn the
screen around and expect you to tip for handing them,
and people get so.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Mad about it.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So much pressure.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah, there's so much pressure. You feel like an asshole
if you don't tip them.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
But the part of the point of going to a
fast casual is to save the cost, so you don't,
well that.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
What are you doing that would require.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
You're making an hour? Like when I have a server,
I love to tip. You know, they're making three year
absolute hour, but when you're making.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
You know, fifteen bucks an hour to hand me a drink.
But I still tip because I feel like a dick
if I don't I feel terrible, Oh.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Do it, do it? Don't do it?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Now.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
I understand most of the time they're splitting and that
that's one thing. But yeah, the cost of labor right
now for fast casual that's escalating up. A lot of
it are quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
I've seen now fast casuals paying over twenty dollars an hour,
absolutely for good employees. So this is the thing I
think that.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
I live in Missouri and Taco Bella is paying seventeen
dollars an hour in that small you know, it's not
a high market like California or New York or whatever.
It's a very affordable market, and we're still having to
pay that. They're having to pay that to get anybody
to work there.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Well, I think the key is is that with the
space we'll kind of wrap this up here.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
But what you're telling what we can tell you right
now is when.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
You look at first of all, a couple of things
have come out of this regional share of thanks. Regional
are going to be the kings, which I agree, Yeah,
I think QSR is going to find a way to
invade Fast casual maybe finally, and do it in a
way that right, you know, is done, right, if they
can pull it off.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I don't know which QSR will do it, but there
will be one or two.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
I mean I think Taco Bell is the closest right now.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, I would agree, Yeah, Taco Bell PDQ might.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I mean, they could probably get close to getting maybe
a version of it that would go in line get
away from you.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
And that's also more of a regional brand, right that's
out of Florida.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
We don't have those up here, So yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
They go. I would say they're more of a head
to head with raising Canes.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Okay if you think about where Chicken is and where
PDQ has kind of gone, but the price difference is
very clear and different, so I think that will be
a unique thing. Lots of things happening here in the
space right now, Sharon, I will continue to break this down.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
The NRA show is coming up. The top one hundred
is happening. Is there anything at the NRA show that
you're looking forward to see?
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Well, I have been reading all about the robots that
we're going to see in the AI.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
There's a huge focus, is there.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
So my I think my top priority is going to
be walking the show and trying to figure out who
is winning in that space because it's everywhere, so and.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I have a hard time.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
I have a hard time figuring out like which ones
are legit, like who who is going to make it
or who is just like I can tell you, okay, good,
tell me I can.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Well, if I saw them, I could tell you okay. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Because we we get so many AI and agentique developers
and companies on our other show on PBN, mainly because
it's related to you know, we covered tech AI crypto
and ironically this is a great story. I just had
(31:43):
Dan Kim on the show or on PBN sure yesterday.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
I don't know if you know who he is. Do
you know he is?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Yes, yep, we the guy or the right Yeah, so Dan.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, he was the original founder of the frobio set. Yeah,
this is the OG of fro Yo. So Dan Kim
comes on. I guess he's working for coinbase.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Oh wow, he's.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Running bizdev for Coinbase and he's about to roll out,
which is probably something we should talk about. We got
to get this topic at one of the events.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Food yet is he still doing any restaurants or no,
he's completely out.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yeah, So this is a huge topic that is being
we're probably going to do a whole segment on this
show about this. So coinbass is rolling out a new
developer API for for devs that are building payment integrations
for retail and e commerce, okay, And it's all happening
because of the integration with stable coins, which is right
(32:46):
now the biggest stable coin provider in the United States
is a company called Circle. They have a stable coin
called USDC, so think of it as a US dollar
but digital. It's backed by Treasury, so it's one hundred
percent back, just like a US is, so very stable,
one to one, very fast liquid all that. So here's
what coinbase is trying to do, and it's being led
(33:08):
by a guy that knows the pains of the restaurant industry, okay,
and that is they're trying to flip the script on
the merchant fees because there's no fees to do a
transaction on the blockchain and get paid. We do it
all the time with our own businesses, and it's amazing
(33:31):
to me the turnaround the float.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
The issue that you have.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
With MasterCard and Visa, I think master Card and Visa
have better pay attention because this make it big quick,
especially if you cut out two to three percent on
merchant fees and your float is instantaneous.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yeah, you know, so it's a big topic.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
We're going to be They got Dan in the right
spot then, because.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
He's yeah, he's perfect. I'll send you a link to
the show.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
So kind of listening on it because it's a it's
a really good interview in the sense of what he's
hitting on and where this is going to impact the industry.
I think the restaurant in hospitality industry is probably going
to be one of the key spots that will get
hit in a good way, you know. But I think
it's going to create competition for beson MasterCard.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
That they haven't had, which is highly needed.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
If you all, it's coming, it's coming. We are ready
for a next generation of payments. Guys, get ready. It's
going to happen. And I imagine that we're going to
see stable points moving in much quicker than you can imagine. Anyway,
Share always good to catch up.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
We're going to be covering the a little bit of
after the Interra show, but more importantly, we're going to
be announcing the top one hundred.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Absolutely, I can't wait to see your outfit. I wonder
if it'll be black boy, I'm really a predictable black suit.
I know. I was like, my wonder, it's going to
be black on black on black, it'll be black.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
I'm black. But we're going to announce next week on
the show, we'll talk about the winners and have some
fun with that.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
So if you guys stick around on this, I know
you're out there cranking it in the industry, So make
sure and subscribe to the show.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
That's all we ask of you. Become a loyal listener
or viewer of Fast Casual Nation. We'll catch you next
time right here.
We're back here on another episode of Fast Casual Nation,
the podcast that started it all.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Of course, joining me today is miss share Chanceler. How
are you?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
What's up? Pow are you? I'm great, It's going to
be good.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is the week to prepare for the biggest gala
and fast casual known to man.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
That is the top one another coming up? What's what?
Anything new?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Well, this is our tenth anniversaries.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
We have a whole bunch of new stuff, so we
have We've even figured out a different way to compile
the list, so we'll get into all that. But we're
really excited and we have twenty five extra people that
we are recognizing extra brands. So usually we do seventy
five brands and twenty five executives to make up one hundred,
but we decided to go for one hundred brands this
(00:44):
year and then the twenty five executives.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Nice, So it's going to be a packed room then,
Oh yeah, for sure, there Radison new.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
What is it Sunday Night or Saturday?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yes, Sunday Night, yep. And it's Stressed to impress. We're
giving away Best Stressed Awards, you know, So I can't
wait to see everybody in their sparkles and men included.
You know, zach Oates had his sparkle jacket all last year,
which he won the award for, so we'll see. So
now we have named it the Stacy Kanaan Zach Oates
Best Dressed Award because they won the first year, so
(01:16):
they're going to go it away.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Stacey. Stacey was very proud of that. Last year was
favorite thing.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Yeah, the of the year who cares about careers, she
has much stressed.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Hey, we're going to talk about not only what's happening
globally for fast casual, but also talk a little bit
about Saint Storre's sales performance because this is a big
deal in terms of where the growth sector is going,
both for casual dining, full service, and especially fast casual.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Is fast casual.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Maybe going to be the first one that performs out
of this somewhat downturn if you want to call it that.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
But we'll be right back covering that.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
My name is Paul Baron. As the early pioneer in
fast casual, I've seen the industry evolve from just a
few operators to the most sought after segment by consumers
around the world. Now we're planning to shape its future.
Tap into decades of my expertise identifying the emerging brands
and tech winners in the space, Saber Capital will be
(02:40):
fueling the next generation of fast casual innovation.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
All Right, we're back here with Shrek Cansler coming in
from Fastcasual dot Com. And of course the biggest topic
today right now, Shera is fast casual is going global.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And you look at the amount of brands that are
out there on a global scale, this is more than
I've ever seen. I mean there's always been you know,
especially in Europe fast casual concepts out there. Have you
just been seeing more brands or what has been your
opinion of how.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yeah, like you said, there's always been some brands who
have gone global, right, So it's not hugely new, but
I'm seeing like even just this week, we've gotten a
lot of news that stories that we've written or even
smaller brands are you know, making their international debuts. And
you know, Tarioky Madness, we just wrote a story about
it opened in El Salvador last week. So I thought
(03:36):
that was interesting because you know, they're a smaller brand
that I think they have less than two hundred brands.
So it's interesting and you know, we have, obviously.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Salvador good growth.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, there's been.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
A few that have been in and out of here
because there's been a handful of international brands that have
tried to make it in the WHOA wait a minute,
I'm just seeing something here. The franchise reported twenty one
percent increase in system like gross sales.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah, they had a great year last year, which is
why they're on the Fast Casual top one hundred list
this year.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
That is, that's a big number. What so what do
they attribute that to?
Speaker 4 (04:15):
They just operations. And they rolled out this new executive plan.
If you scroll down there toward the bottom of the story,
you can kind of see it a little bit more
information about it.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, right, so interesting.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
We also introduced the Executive Franchise Package, aim to experienced operators,
allow them an unlimited number of locations for a single
franchise fee.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Oh okay, they're cutting some fees there, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, that'll do it. Now.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
It's got one hundred and sixty five units across three countries.
Is it mostly South America?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Well, their growth is obviously mostly in the US, but Maryland. Yeah, Okay,
they're basically okay, yeah, yeah, they're based in Denver. So
that's a interesting, interesting brand, I think, especially for a
smaller brand.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So we'll see.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
You also have this one right here, and this one
is Mason's famous Lobster Lobster.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, and they just did like a deal.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
I think they've had a couple of restaurants opened in
Italy last year and the same guy that they partnered
with is going to open he says up to one
hundred in the next eight years, like in Spain and Switzerland.
So and that's a relatively small brand as well. So
it's just kind of interesting seeing these smaller guys come
out and you know, going global, it makes makes you.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
A lot of there, you know, and you wonder about
a couple of things because there's been a handful.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I remember Poyo, Campero.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
There's been a couple of South American brands that tried
to make it here in the United States didn't do
that great.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You also have to go back to one of the
original brands, if I can remember their name.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
They were a concept when we use to print Fast
Casual magazine.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
This was one of the brands that made it.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Guys what's their name, I'll get it before the show
is over. But they came in with a really sleek design.
It was very euro style and they came in. They
opened in Dallas. We went to their location. It was
a big brand.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
It was like it was a European brand, more focused
on pizza and Italian I'll get it. It's I might
even have a cover of the magazine around here on
that one.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
But that brand, I thought, holy moly, this is going
to be one that absolutely goes nuts, right And they didn't.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
They spun out.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So that was the thing that I thought was kind
of interesting as we see more of those. The other
one that reminds me of this one is I'll show
this one on it and you probably have seen this
one before, and that is Cafe Nero if you watched
this brand yet. So we went to Boston on the
documentary and kind of covered what they were doing. This
(07:06):
of course came out of the UK. They're doing pretty good,
but that's a good example of some of their interior.
I used to think this is one of the best
designed coffee shops and you know dessert concepts out there.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
This is a UK born brand.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Okay, so some.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Will make it. Some won't.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
It's very intriguing to see how Fast Casual seems to
be a global, you know, as a.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Global There's an Australian coffee brand too. I can't think
of the name. It's like a coffee shop. It's getting traction.
They've opened here too.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Listen, there's a lot a lot of interesting I.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Mean, when you look at four Barrel, you look at
the original blue bottle, A lot of those were upscaling
coffee pretty heavily. But there's been a lot of new
brands that have started to break in, which is I
think still they're young, and I wanted to get your
opinion on this. When you look at and growth right
now we're going to talk about the same store sales
here in the moment, but when you look at brand
(08:05):
growth and you think about where the chicken category is
going right now, where the drink category is going with
someone like a Swig, et cetera, then these emerging concepts,
do you think the regional Fast Casual is the sweet spot.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Or yeah, I think I think they're definitely the regional is.
I'm interested though, in the drink brands right now, the
dirty soda brands like Swig for example, because they're gaining
a lot of traction. But also I remember when the
cookies gained a lot of attraction, and the yogurts and
the you know, the little cakes, and so it's like
(08:46):
they had their moment in their son and some of
them are still around, but a lot of them closed.
So I'm wondering if you know, it's going to be
more like restaurants embracing more drinks like dirty sodas like Ziggi's.
You know, they're a coffee shop, but now they have
dirty soda they're testing it on the menu, or it's
going to be these drink only brands that survive.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So yeah, and I.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Think the coffee, the coffee scene is going to be interesting.
I think this might be the one you're talking about, Bluestone.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Lane, that's right, Yeah, yeah, Bluestone We had them on
the show. They've been on this podcast before. We've had
their team on a pretty good They do a pretty
good job. I think overall, I'm going to flip over
to their Instagram so you can get a little bit
better of an.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Insight on them, because they're getting into exactly what you're
talking about, and that is these derivative drinks that are
coming off of the category of coffee only, which is
kind of to me is a good strategy.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
But do you think this can hold? What is your thought?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
I think that I think this is a good idea
where that they're going away just from the coffee. I mean,
it's like when Duncan Donuts went away from the donuts
and now it's just Duncan. So obviously, when you can
add more menu items, that's always great. So but yeah,
I'm just interested to see if the drink only brands
(10:09):
can sustain. I mean, are the swigs of the world
going to start doing other stuff or are we going
to get food just like.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
The coffee shops have expanded their menus.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Well, I think the and to your point exactly, is
that you're dealing with kind of a new era brand
leader which is starting to, you know, pop in some
different and unique concepts.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
But in your opinion, I mean, we've had a lot
of really good brands here on the show just in
the past ten weeks. Good Burger, the Sandwich People, the
people in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
We just have Rome on last week.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
We're gonna be publishing next day, or if you guys
are listening to this last week. But the point being
is is that some of these brands have been able
to hold and grow slowly. They haven't broken like a
Kava or a sweet cream.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Right Rome has you know, been here around fifteen years,
six locations, not not huge like a Kava, but still
you know, staying power, very.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Good staying power. So that's my point is, do you
feel like you're seeing more of the micro fast casual brands?
And when I say micro under twenty five units that
are doing really well, I can think of Charles Billillis
over at Suvla Rome example, a handful down here in Florida.
There's been a whole series of brands that have kind
(11:33):
of revamped, including Lime Fresh, which used to be a
powerhouse Fresh Mechs company. I mean, it just seems like
there's a different dynamic building in fast casual right now.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Are you seeing that as well?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I think the brands that have been around but aren't
huge but are growing, like Curry Up now. You know,
they have a very awesome culture that's unique and they
lean into that. And I mean they obviously innovate with
new trends and stuff, but they stick to what they're
what they know, you know, Room Yeah is all about
it's fresh and healthy food, for example, and you know,
(12:10):
they they've expanded the menu, which we talked with him about,
but they've stayed true to that sustainability focus.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
So I think that's important for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, I've looked at this brand a few times. We're
gonna have to get them on the show. I don't
think we've had them.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
And I like the fact that, to your point, they're
staying with the concept of, you know, very unique flavors.
The menu itself is unique enough, even though it does
have a lot of the elements that I think are
resident in a lot of concepts out there. You know,
they've got the rito side of it. But you know,
I do like the bowls, their strategy of what they've done.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I went to one of these locations and experienced it
for the first time last year, and I was pretty surprised.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I mean, really good food.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, because I'm not a big fan of this particular
kind of food.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Oh yeah, no, I love it. It's delicious.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I get that.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
I mean, you.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Got to have that love. But they've done a couple
of other cool things.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
To me.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
They have They have a bar concept. I can't think
of the name of it.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Pedal or Mortal or something, so they have yes, yes, yes,
and pestle.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
So that concept looks really cool.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
I've never gotten to visit that the bar, but those
drinks look amazing, so I think that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
And so not all of not all.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Of his locations have the bar, but that's a differentiating
factor for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Do you think we're going.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
To see I mean, because we talked about this before,
we had you know, several brands on here recently who
have done beer.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
And wine pretty well or mocktails.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Do you think we're going to see a signal to
get the movement in alcoholic beverages?
Speaker 3 (14:03):
In fact, I do, Yeah, I do.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
I think alcoholic and non alcoholic definitely, because you know,
we're we're running out of ways to stand out, and
people are using fast casual brands more and more like
they used to use the Applebee's and Chilis of the world.
They're going there to hang out with their friends. I mean,
obviously they're stilly doing carry out and delivery. But you know,
we have in in Kansas City, we have this really
(14:28):
great medi training fast casual restaurant called Meddies. There's four
or five of them here. It's a regional casual brand.
You order out the counter, then sit down, but they
have live music, they have a full bar. You keep
going up to the counter to order drinks. I keep
telling them they need to get QR codes to put
them on the table so I don't have to leave
on table to order drinks. But I think I mean,
(14:48):
and we we go there a lot. We used to
go to the local bar, and now we're like, well,
let's go to Meddies. The food is better, it is fresh,
it's meant, you know, it's healthy, but we can still
have our happy hours. So I think a lot of
brands are looking into that, and they should. I mean,
the check spind alone is you know, astronomical.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Well, and this is something that I had a chance
to where we do our due diligence on new brand investments.
So our team has been talking to a lot of
founders and this is a topic that comes up often.
One thing though, that came up last week when we
were talking with founder in South Carolina. Fairly new concept,
(15:27):
but they're starting to implement mocktails because obviously you don't
mean the liquor license for a mocktail, but you can
sell it apparently and market it very similarly similarly to
alcoholic beverages.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, so it creates almost allure.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
He said that the marketing has been very effective on
what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
This is kind of a it's a I won't call
it a skunk works, but they're testing it.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
In private right now of how well it's doing at
two locations, and he said the performance and the response
from consumers has been significant, so.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So much so that they're most likely going to roll
this out. They have a master bar person that is
now building the cocktail Wow, excluding the.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Spirits of course, but apparently they're using all sorts of
ingredients that are.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Like a craftscktail.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, unique to mocktails and like fast casual they're building it,
you know, kind of that differentiator, which.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Is to me, could be a big deal. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Well it's smart. I mean it's smart.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Since we've we've been talking, almost every episode, gen Z
has come up, you know, they have now they're the
the new cohort that has the money and most of
them can't drink, and they love to go order those
you know, fancy drinks, whether it's like, yeah, a sip
or a swig or if it's at you know, their
local restaurant, and they're getting to order, like they get
to order when we go to Muddies. They get to
(17:01):
order their own version of that, and it's like seven
to me.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, And it opens up a whole new demographic because
it's the under eighteen crowd now on twenty one crowd
know where you are, So a lot of opportunity there
for sure. So the beverage, I talked to Larry Reinstein
a couple of weeks ago and he and I were
talking about beverage.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Being kind of the surprise of this year and last
year in terms of performance.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
But what else is a surprise is the same store
sales performance right now past eight quarters. I'll give you
guys just some updates on this. McDonald's had a dip
in Q two of twenty four and then they rebounded
a little bit, but they themselves not necessarily performing as
well as they have been. And I'm kind of running
(17:49):
down the QSR side RBI, which is Popeisberger King. They
had some growth in twenty three, but it faded in
twenty four. We saw a spin off of that, and
of course Starbucks has really suffered overall. My question do
you share is with what we're seeing now in twenty
(18:09):
four in the first quarter of twenty five, slowing QSR
sales is a little bit concerning to me because that
typically is not happening even in downturns in markets.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
What do you think is going on here?
Speaker 4 (18:24):
I think, I mean, I've said it a few times
on this podcast. I think people are scared. They're holding
onto their money. They're scared about the market, the tear tariffs,
so I mean, and it trickles down right. Customers are
holding on to their money, so restaurants aren't investing in
tech and stuff that they normally would. So everybody's just
kind of hanging out trying to figure out what's going
(18:45):
to happen next.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I have a prediction.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
I think that this market, if it holds in terms
of consumer downturn, even though this week's inflation print was lower,
I think it was off by one point two point
three versus two point four, and we're seeing at least
some economic recovery, which I think though with the tariffs,
(19:11):
we won't see the real prints on that till next
inflation report, and possibly the slowing jobs this may Here's
my prediction here on the show is that your first
is that QSR is going to realize that fast casual
is the bulletproof segment because when times are tough, people
(19:34):
are scaling down from casual and fine into fast casual.
When times are good, people are scaling up from QSR
into fast casual because they get spent a little bit
more money. And most of the time fast casual is
robbing from casual dynings. So it's like the one little
perfect spot. To my thesis is that QSR, who has
(19:59):
tried this before work, they're going to come back to
the table.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Oh yeah, I mean we've been We've seen that the
last I mean since fast casual was born, I would say,
you're twenty years ago.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Always dip in and dip out. McDonald's came in with Chipotle,
Dobo was a deal with Wendy's. You know, everybody's in
Baja was even in that mix. Yep.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Talking about tries, you know, everybody tries it in the
bit and then the casual dining people are trying it.
I mean, I really haven't seen you tell me, I
haven't seen a casual dining restaurant to launch a fast
casual that it's like exploded yet.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I mean we've seen yeah here and there.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, but I think it's it's.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
We're going to get into the point, I think now
where they have no choice to be able to spin
off a concept. I mean, I was a little disappointed
with Golden Corral when they spun off their program and then.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
They did it again. They rated it again six months ago,
so that that.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Was to me, I thought, Okay, that's just not necessarily
understanding consumer yet and probably not having a supply chain
in place to deal with that because it is a
different kind of.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You know setup obviously. But the fact is is that
when you look.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
At San store sales right now, this segment still is overperforming.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
You've got Wingstop, Cava. Those are pretty much been the
top performers both being out there. In terms of the
public side of things.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Chipotle got hit with some sales and traffic numbers but
has been holding fairly decently even though they're going to
new you know, whole new team. But also the other
thing is Shakeshak, which is the one that I think
is going to be maybe come back to stardom. They
have kind of relaunched their whole operation side. They're building
(21:44):
out there. Have you seen their Atlanta based in theatre.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
That innovation lab that they're trying to test things to
see if they can cut some cut some costs for
their prototypes and smaller.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Sure, let's call the Shakeshack guys. Let's go there and
do a podcast.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
I think we should. I think that would be great.
They probably let us do it, of.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Course they would. Yeah, we'll get them. We're going to
get our producers on that one, guys. And if we
can get inside the innovation lab. I've done it once.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I've been behind the wall once, not with Shakeshack, but
with another brand, And maybe they'll what they don't show
you is is what's.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Really happening over here. They give me the regular stuff
outside here and I can talk them out of it.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Yeah, and then we need to go to Chipotle's also
their innovation lab, and then we can kind of compare.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
That'd be cool.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
We have a lot of stuff on the books we have.
You know, we got to do our door dashers, get the.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Drum delivery thing out in San Francisco. I'm thinking road to.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I want to go under I want to go undercover
and like be a door dash driver just for like
a day. I could just do it here, bring my
camera and you know, see what people do and yeah,
what people do?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Okay. The idea that.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
We had with with postmak or with the door dash
last week, it was pretty cool because it's it's one
that I think it would be interesting to see how
drivers think of customers when they're doing delivery, you know,
I mean, because that is a is a challenge I
think everybody's trying to figure out right now, is how
do you create brand extension when you don't have a
(23:20):
person that's working for you.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Do you think that if you were in the door
dash vehicle you'd be able not to steal a French fry?
Because I don't know if I'd be able to not
steal a French fry.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I would be the best door dash driver.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I mean I would make tips so good.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
I would come up and I would have costumes and skits.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I would bring.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Flowers, you know, gum just like those I give you
the water bottles and in the candy and the mints.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
That's what we would be fun.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
But the good thing is is that Fast Casual is
outperforming right now. When you look at all the other sectors,
and if you look at you know comparison. I think
there was numbers on dyning brands. Here we go, let's
pull this up. This is one that is a bit
concerning because this one, to me is one of the biggest,
and that of course when you look at dine brands
(24:16):
in general. This is Applebee's, ihop Fuzzies, you guys know them, but.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
They had a little bit of a downturn. So when
you look at their mix, it's pretty interesting. Off premise sales.
Let me kind of say, boom zoom in on that
for you.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Oh yeah, seven straight quarters of negative same store sales.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
That's terrible.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So this to me is one hundred and ninety five
million to two of two from twenty four. So this
is the point I'm getting at, is that casual, outside
of Chili's, which has been kind of an anomaly in
the industry, the casual dining sector I think.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Is hemorrhaging users. I think they're hemorrhaging to fast casual,
which might be the re and that we're.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Not seeing massive fists in a really tough time right
now in Cheas.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Really is back to our beverage conversation. I mean, there
they're killing it on their beverage. You know they're having
done a good job teens and like fun ltos, like
they're they're really standing out from Applebee's and their other
competitors that way.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
We did a whole thing on this on Masterminds. We
probably should cover this, you know, here on this show
as well. But one thing that we broke down I'll
bring up the just to show you guys a little
bit more. By the way, if you're not watching the
video version of this podcast, jump over to YouTube right now.
I know you're probably listening while you're getting ready for
(25:43):
a shift. That's okay, listen to the audio. But if
you can get over to YouTube, just search saber fm
and you'll find all this. So when we're talking about things,
we usually show a lot of this, but this was there.
This was the thing that I thought was so interesting.
So what do you see here on this screen that
we're showing right now? It just screams in your face.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
Like the deal, the three and the drink.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I like that, that's good. But the QP they're going
after the quarter powder right there in your face.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I mean, that's ballsy, man, That is all it is.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Like, Hey, McDonald's, we don't care.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
I suck at McDonald's.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
We're going for it. Here's a happy hour too. By
the way, you can get Modela.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
And yeah, Asperger exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
I love it. Look at this. I mean that even
looks like a big mac is quarter powder.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Does that not look like a like oozing out in
the sauce? Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
This is this is really close. I can't imagine that.
I look at that.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Man, They are really getting in on the jo. This
is a I think this has been their reason, you know,
the reason that they've been able to really reconnect with
the consumer and outperform the casual sector, which this is
a concern. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Well they have been really good at value too, with
their pick three So you know, people are like, oh,
I get these three things and it's twenty bucks. Well,
now when I go through son and for McDonald's, I'm
spending almost that much anyway, so I might as well
go have a nice sit down meal with you know,
a friend or whatever.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Speaking So that that is one thing that I would
say if I had a concern for the industry, it
would be that casual dining cracks the code because right now,
I mean, the problem is they have brand affinity to
overcome with gen Z and millennials, meaning they have kind
(27:47):
of adapted to.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
The fast casual concept. They understand it. You know, it's no.
Speaker 7 (27:51):
Tip, usually higher quality, faster, a little bit cheaper, but
not a lot, you know than casual and cool and
hip or environment.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
You know, so it's a pretty almost a slam dump.
But if you get more Chili's concepts out there, that
could remap it a little bit. Could they take away
from fast casual?
Speaker 4 (28:14):
I think it's definitely something we have to watch out for.
And you said no tip, but now fast casual is
almost every fast casual you have. Then they turn the
screen around and expect you to tip for handing them,
and people get so.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Mad about it.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So much pressure.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah, there's so much pressure. You feel like an asshole
if you don't tip them.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
But the part of the point of going to a
fast casual is to save the cost, so you don't,
well that.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
What are you doing that would require.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
You're making an hour? Like when I have a server,
I love to tip. You know, they're making three year
absolute hour, but when you're making.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
You know, fifteen bucks an hour to hand me a drink.
But I still tip because I feel like a dick
if I don't I feel terrible, Oh.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Do it, do it? Don't do it?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Now.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
I understand most of the time they're splitting and that
that's one thing. But yeah, the cost of labor right
now for fast casual that's escalating up. A lot of
it are quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
I've seen now fast casuals paying over twenty dollars an hour,
absolutely for good employees. So this is the thing I
think that.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
I live in Missouri and Taco Bella is paying seventeen
dollars an hour in that small you know, it's not
a high market like California or New York or whatever.
It's a very affordable market, and we're still having to
pay that. They're having to pay that to get anybody
to work there.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Well, I think the key is is that with the
space we'll kind of wrap this up here.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
But what you're telling what we can tell you right
now is when.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
You look at first of all, a couple of things
have come out of this regional share of thanks. Regional
are going to be the kings, which I agree, Yeah,
I think QSR is going to find a way to
invade Fast casual maybe finally, and do it in a
way that right, you know, is done, right, if they
can pull it off.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I don't know which QSR will do it, but there
will be one or two.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
I mean I think Taco Bell is the closest right now.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, I would agree, Yeah, Taco Bell PDQ might.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I mean, they could probably get close to getting maybe
a version of it that would go in line get
away from you.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
And that's also more of a regional brand, right that's
out of Florida.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
We don't have those up here, So yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
They go. I would say they're more of a head
to head with raising Canes.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Okay if you think about where Chicken is and where
PDQ has kind of gone, but the price difference is
very clear and different, so I think that will be
a unique thing. Lots of things happening here in the
space right now, Sharon, I will continue to break this down.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
The NRA show is coming up. The top one hundred
is happening. Is there anything at the NRA show that
you're looking forward to see?
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Well, I have been reading all about the robots that
we're going to see in the AI.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
There's a huge focus, is there.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
So my I think my top priority is going to
be walking the show and trying to figure out who
is winning in that space because it's everywhere, so and.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I have a hard time.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
I have a hard time figuring out like which ones
are legit, like who who is going to make it
or who is just like I can tell you, okay, good,
tell me I can.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Well, if I saw them, I could tell you okay. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Because we we get so many AI and agentique developers
and companies on our other show on PBN, mainly because
it's related to you know, we covered tech AI crypto
and ironically this is a great story. I just had
(31:43):
Dan Kim on the show or on PBN sure yesterday.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
I don't know if you know who he is. Do
you know he is?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Yes, yep, we the guy or the right Yeah, so Dan.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, he was the original founder of the frobio set. Yeah,
this is the OG of fro Yo. So Dan Kim
comes on. I guess he's working for coinbase.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Oh wow, he's.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Running bizdev for Coinbase and he's about to roll out,
which is probably something we should talk about. We got
to get this topic at one of the events.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Food yet is he still doing any restaurants or no,
he's completely out.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yeah, So this is a huge topic that is being
we're probably going to do a whole segment on this
show about this. So coinbass is rolling out a new
developer API for for devs that are building payment integrations
for retail and e commerce, okay, And it's all happening
because of the integration with stable coins, which is right
(32:46):
now the biggest stable coin provider in the United States
is a company called Circle. They have a stable coin
called USDC, so think of it as a US dollar
but digital. It's backed by Treasury, so it's one hundred
percent back, just like a US is, so very stable,
one to one, very fast liquid all that. So here's
what coinbase is trying to do, and it's being led
(33:08):
by a guy that knows the pains of the restaurant industry, okay,
and that is they're trying to flip the script on
the merchant fees because there's no fees to do a
transaction on the blockchain and get paid. We do it
all the time with our own businesses, and it's amazing
(33:31):
to me the turnaround the float.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
The issue that you have.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
With MasterCard and Visa, I think master Card and Visa
have better pay attention because this make it big quick,
especially if you cut out two to three percent on
merchant fees and your float is instantaneous.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yeah, you know, so it's a big topic.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
We're going to be They got Dan in the right
spot then, because.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
He's yeah, he's perfect. I'll send you a link to
the show.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
So kind of listening on it because it's a it's
a really good interview in the sense of what he's
hitting on and where this is going to impact the industry.
I think the restaurant in hospitality industry is probably going
to be one of the key spots that will get
hit in a good way, you know. But I think
it's going to create competition for beson MasterCard.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
That they haven't had, which is highly needed.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
If you all, it's coming, it's coming. We are ready
for a next generation of payments. Guys, get ready. It's
going to happen. And I imagine that we're going to
see stable points moving in much quicker than you can imagine. Anyway,
Share always good to catch up.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
We're going to be covering the a little bit of
after the Interra show, but more importantly, we're going to
be announcing the top one hundred.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Absolutely, I can't wait to see your outfit. I wonder
if it'll be black boy, I'm really a predictable black suit.
I know. I was like, my wonder, it's going to
be black on black on black, it'll be black.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
I'm black. But we're going to announce next week on
the show, we'll talk about the winners and have some
fun with that.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
So if you guys stick around on this, I know
you're out there cranking it in the industry, So make
sure and subscribe to the show.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
That's all we ask of you. Become a loyal listener
or viewer of Fast Casual Nation. We'll catch you next
time right here.
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