March 26, 2025 • 47 mins
Discover TikiTaco, the innovative Kansas City fast casual brand making waves in the restaurant industry. CEO Eric Knott shares how this emerging restaurant concept blends technology, creative Mexican-inspired cuisine, and strategic growth, attracting 600 new customers through third-party delivery in just one month. With locations ranging from walkup windows to full-service spaces, TikiTaco represents the future of fast casual dining - offering scratch-made food, unique menu items like Thai fried chicken tacos, and an adaptable business model that's positioned to capitalize on the fast casual market's projected growth to $150 billion by 2028.
Sponsored by: Fast Casual Executive Summit - Join top restaurant leaders at the 20th annual Fast Casual Executive Summit to tackle industry challenges, explore emerging trends, and gain actionable insights — all while building valuable connections. https://fastcasualsummit.com/
FastCasualDining #RestaurantInnovation #TikiTaco
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
Sponsored by: Fast Casual Executive Summit - Join top restaurant leaders at the 20th annual Fast Casual Executive Summit to tackle industry challenges, explore emerging trends, and gain actionable insights — all while building valuable connections. https://fastcasualsummit.com/
FastCasualDining #RestaurantInnovation #TikiTaco
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):
Back here on another episode of Fast Casual Nation, the
podcast that started it all. And of course my name
is Small Baron and my co host, Miss Shrik Chandler.
How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm doing great here in Kansas City. It's sunny and beautiful.
Finally the snow is gone.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I go from one extreme to another.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
You're calling for snow again today and yesterday was seventy.
But luckily we're nice and sunny, so we shall see.
It's really windy, but other than that, we're good to.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Go from park is to bikinis. It feels like in
Kansas City on every other day had we have a
fantastic show.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Today.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
We are going to dive in deep on an emerging
brand there in your backyard, Shara. So it's going to
be a good one. And I think one thing to
look at when you look at Tiki Tako is the
idea of emerging brands and in these powerful segments like
Fresh Mechs and when you look at Mexican in general.
(00:55):
This will be a good I think, a good conversation
for sure. We're going to dive in deep, so it'll
be an awesome show. You guys stick around and we'll
be right back. All right, we're back here on the
(01:23):
Fast Casual Nation podcast. Shara. I walk over and I
get into my fast casual mindset, and when I do that,
I go to the website and I go to Fastcasual
dot com. And of course, you guys made some new updates.
So tell me a little bit about it. What happened here?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Now?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
We have a totally new look.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
We are i'd like to say, modernized and keeping up
with trends in the industry, with what people like to
look at. We have a lot more photos going on here,
we have a lot more headlines, so we're really excited
about it.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
It's just a way that.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Just you know, we've been around twenty years now and
we needed a new look, so it was time for
a makeover.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
We launched on Friday. I like it too. I'm being
used to it.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
It looks good. I think it is also even better
organized than it was previously. So I've kind of migrated
to this news and media section, which is really a
good rolling list of content. You guys have a good
spot for the podcasts as well, so all the podcasts
are going in there. Any news on the front end
(02:30):
here that I'm looking at I've got a lot of
headlines here.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
No, I'm supposed to be an objective reporter, but I
am partial to my Kansas City brands because born and
raised here. So I was excited to get some news
this week about Betty Ray's ice Cream, which is a
very popular, locally kind of owned ice cream shop in
Kansas City and they are now franchising. They open their franchise,
first franchise, and they're ready to go to seven more cities.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
It's a really yeah, it's a close Menver, Oklahoma City, Telsa,
which Wow, that's good.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
They're a very cool brand.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And what's also cool about them is that Matt Chateau
is their owner and they own shot. Their family has
owned Chateau Milk like a dairy farm for like one
hundred years, and he recently bought this that he raised
ice cream shop not too long ago, and since he
took over a few years ago, he's really pushing the
expansion in the franchising. So it's exciting to see, you know,
(03:24):
a local brand with local culture kind of push out
and going to other cities.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, for sure, Well you know that's what uh that's
really I think where the genesis of growth in fast
casual comes from is these emerging brands that become powerhouses
in these regions, which is why we like to get
these founders on to kind of talk about what they're
you know, what their magic sauce is and and really
kind of the strategies that they've been able to build
(03:50):
these emerging brands, because going from one to two is
like the holy grail in the restaurant industry because everybody
think thinks it's really easy, but that is like the
biggest leap forward is when you go to two restaurants
and then obviously there's you know, scale from there as well.
So we're going to dive into the conversation today with
Eric Nott, who is the chief executive officer over at
(04:12):
Tiki Tako, and we'll bring him into the show and
I think it's gonna be a good one for sure.
So Eric, how are you?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I'm good? How are you?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Excellent? Excellent? So great to have you on the show.
You're there in Sheriff's backyard. So you guys must go
out and do a fast casual tours in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Have cocktails. He came to my birthday party a couple
of weeks ago. So that was that was a good time.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I did, I did. Yeah, I'm here in Kansas City
as well too. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, So give us a quick rundown. I'll put you
up there on the top left. Give us a quick
rundown of where you guys are right now, size scope,
a little bit about Tiki in general.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, So Tiki Taco, my partners originally bought the first
one over on thirty ninth Street, midtown, Kansas City. They
built two more over a course of about four years,
fifty fourth in Trust and then downtown over the Park.
They are world famous photographers, and I think they realize
(05:13):
pretty quickly that, you know, building restaurant chain is a
little bit more difficult, so they looked for someone to
come in, so I joined the team back in July.
But we are basically a Southern cal Mexican style restaurant.
We're fast casual, but we do offer all of the channels,
(05:33):
right so if you want to do a kiosk or
online order you want to use, we have a full
service bar, we have patios. So basically we're kind of
this hybrid of you can come in use a kiosk,
if you want something quick, you can get it delivered
to your house. You can come and enjoy some marguerite
onto patio now that it's seventy degrees in Kansas City
(05:54):
and not below zero, or you can set at a
full service bar as well. Now our bar is limited,
you know, it's not something you're gonna come in and
find a ton. We sell mostly margarita's and beers. But
really our deal is real simple. We have scratch made kitchen,
so all of our food is prepped in house. We
do four hour long carnitas el pastor on the spit
(06:16):
every day. Really cool environment. It's bright when you come in,
especially in the winter time. I learned this first winter
that when you come in it's jury outside. It's nice
to come into a building this live and a lot
of action and bright. But yeah, so it's just a
really laid back environment, great culture. But yeah, that's a
(06:39):
little bit about it so far.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
How old is the brand?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
The brand itself was started in twenty seventeen by the
original founder and then, like I said, my partners bought
it in twenty twenty. I joined last year and our
course of action really from July was let's standardize everything
from operations, marketing, bring in technology. When I started, we
(07:04):
had quick books and toast. That was our tech stack,
and since then we've brought on thirteen different technologies. And
the whole idea really is to automate things, to get
information faster, to make decisions more quickly, and then also
limit the amount of overhead that's needed to continue to grow.
(07:25):
So that took us probably five six months, and then
we standardized and signed contracts with partnerships like our food
distributor just signed with Pepsi last week, so we wanted
to get that set up and then now it's kind
of growth mode, right So we were talking just before
we got on. We have the three open and operating.
(07:46):
We have a food truck that runs Kansas and Missouri.
We are in construction and Oleifa, Kansas right now. We
just signed a lease over in Shawnee, Kansas last week,
which should be a pret quick build there. We have
a pop up shop on Tuesdays at Cambridge Kansas Health
(08:06):
Systems down on thirty ninth Street. And then the breaking
news right now is we're getting ready to put a
shop in HIV Arena as well. Oh wow, So we've
got a lot going on at the moment, and you
know the I guess the unique thing about our brand
is that we can go as small as about twelve
to thirteen hundred square feet, and then we can take
(08:27):
a space up to three thousand square feet. So Oleitha,
Kansas twenty nine hundred square feet, Shawnee, Kansas is fourteen
hundred square feet. So we have the ability to pretty
much fit into any of these second gen available spaces
that come they come open.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I was looking at Google Maps, and you know, it's
cool because you can go into images and see the
variations of all your units and sizes from the what
looks to be a standalone drive through in one of
the units, and then a what looks to be an
inline and a very you know, kind of unique neighborhood
(09:05):
that looks to be it couldn't be more than Is
that the one that's fourteen hundred square feet?
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, So we our original location thirty ninth Street started
as just a walk up window and then we ended
up taking over the space beside us building a dining room.
Our second location is the one with eighty person patio.
So it's massive outside, a little bit too small on
the inside, I think for Kansas City. Uh. And then
(09:31):
The third location is in a downtown area and an
inline space, so we currently aren't doing any drive through,
but I think there is an opportunity in the future
that if we find an end cap space with the
drive through, we can kind of mirror what Chipotle does
with online ordering third party kind of get that congestion
outside of the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
That's cool, Charo. They've been revealed on the Top twenty.
What tell me about that?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, so we do a fast casual brands to watch
emerging Brands Top twenty every year and Tiki Tako made
it this year. And the cool thing about this list
is that once you make it, you can never be
on it again, and it's for really up and coming
emerging brands. The editorial board looks at their growth. You know,
Tiki Taka has been around not terribly long, but they're
(10:20):
just now starting. They brought Eric on with a purpose
of growing, so that's interesting. And then the menu, they
have a really cool menu. There's a lot of innovation
when it comes to it, where like there's some Korean
tacos and there's a lot of vegetarian options. My favorite
is this, like tacos soaked and sauce that's.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
My favorite one. So they're doing a lot of cool things.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
So it's kind of and it has a very local vibe,
like I have a little crop top that it's like
locals only, So I mean, you feel people like you
feel like a local, even if you're not. When you
go in, you feel like, Okay, this is my place.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So I like it.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Attention well, I think, you know, this is something that
attributes to emerging brands that you know, obviously we like
to feature here on the show, and I know with
the summit, that's you know, a lot of what you
see in terms of the attendees, and even I am
always blown away at the amount of growth this sector
has had. I was just looking at some of the
data that you had there on that report. Sixty five
(11:13):
point two billion set to hit what is this one
hundred and fifty billion by twenty twenty eight? Yeah, how
is how in the world would this almost double well
over double in.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I think it's brands like Eric's, you know, these smaller
brands who are than You're going to double insize Eric
in the next you know, couple of years and then
double again.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I'm sure, and you're not the only one. So I
mean that's past.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Casual has always been the hot, the hot sector that
everybody wants to be in.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So yeah, for sure, definitely a good one.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Well, I think talking with just add color to that,
like fast casuals. So you've got your quick service, you
know change and then you have your casual dining chains.
But the problem is with inflation over the last two
years or so that you know, people don't want to
spend that extra twenty percent et cetera to sit down
and have you know, actual service. And then QSR now
(12:05):
if you look at prices, has now kind of crept
into vast casual pricing. So you're going to get an
elevated experience just like you you know, you think you
would in a casual dining scenario, but you're going to
be an elevated experience for the same price and the
value prop is so much better coming to a fast casual.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
You can set out a patio and have a margarita.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Also, I mean that is a total casual doting experience,
but you're still not doing that tip and that the
extra service.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
There was a there was a concept in Dallas called
Village Burger Bar that did a similar concept there with
bar you know, beer and wine concept, and they had
you know, small patios. They were in Knox Hender scenario.
I used to live in that area and I used
to go there, and I was amazed at how much
throughput they could get in and out of the restaurant,
(12:52):
whether it was the patio expansion and the walk up.
They had a little counter, just a handful of tables,
but you know, one I was just kind of analyzing
how many tickets they could turn in a lunch. Is
that the case with you guys? Can you guys generate
a lot of volume in a short period of time?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yeah? So, I mean our menu, I would tell you
it's very simple in a way, but somewhat complicated on
a few menu items. So you know, for perspective, at
that Ku Med pop up shop, we do about one
thousand tacos in two hours. So when you think about,
you know, being able to get through put from a
(13:30):
timing aspect, it's very simple. When it comes to a
taco standpoint, we get a little bit more complicated with
the burritos. We like to put curly fries in our
burritos and you know, do some Asian fusion with our
tie fried chicken taco, which is you know, fried chicken temporo,
fried chicken tossed in you know, an Asian sauce with
a cabbage, jalapeno cremas coal saw on top. So we
(13:54):
do have some of those things take a little bit
more time. But what I would tell you is is
that for us, all of our process to prep the
food is what takes the longest. It's not executing it
when you're coming in and ordering. So like I said earlier,
it takes whether it be four hours to do our
carnadas or hour and a half just to do our
(14:16):
ground beef. You know, those items are what take the
time when you come in and order. It. For us
to execute those items is relatively fast. I wouldn't put
us in like a fast food We can't get your
food in less than a minute or something like that.
But by the time you come up, you order, you
go get your drink, you grab your napkins, you have
(14:38):
a seat, then you might wait a minute or two
for your food.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Gotcha, Okay, that's I think this is one of those
categories you mentioned it earlier, where you know QSR has
elevated to a certain extent, even though I think if
third party is involved, fast casual gets really priced out,
you know, because of just the fees that are involved
with whether it's a del every end or the delivery
the fees themselves. I was just looking at Chipotle Balls
(15:04):
the other day doing an analysis on uber eads across
all of the fast casuals that were around us, and
I was blown away by the ticket price on that.
Are you guys dealing with much third party right now?
What's kind of your business?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Yeah? So, actually third party is about twenty percent of
our business. Total off prem is about thirty five, so
we're seeing about sixty five right now percent you know,
actually visiting the units themselves. But you know, I think
third party sometimes gets a bad rap. I think that
you know, people will say their commissions too high, or
(15:41):
you know, whatever the case may be. But I think
it's just like anything else, you have to figure out,
you know, from your concept, how do you deliver that
in a way where you're not price gouging the customer,
but also you're working with the algorithms behind the third party.
So we use another technology to help us with that
(16:01):
and then kind of analyze our ROI on whether it's
the marketing aspect the sponsored ads, you know. So we've
been playing that game over the last several months, and
I really think we found a sweet spot where, you know,
I went to door dash and Uber when we first
when I first got here and said, listen, I want
to charge my customers less and so therefore I'm going
(16:23):
to need you to charge me less and then we'll
increase traffic and we'll both win. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
What did they say to that?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
They said, sure, they dropped it. They dropped and one
they dropped us ten percent on.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
The other account.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
That's right. Well, and you know, with that kind of volume,
just from you know, again a couple of unit Taco
shop and going into expansion, you know, our volume, I
would I would assume I've never had anyone say this,
but I would assume from in Kansas City, it's probably
a very high number. If we're doing twenty percent of
our total revenue is coming through third party.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Do you see you guests doing you know, discovery on
your brand through third party or is it you know,
existing guests. I mean, I don't know if you can
track that data, but what is your fa Okay, what
do you guys find?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So it's funny That's the one part I didn't comment on.
Is also, even if you're not making as much money
off of a third party order as you would if
someone came to you, the reality is is that if
you're not on those third party sites, then you're losing
market share to somebody else, because somebody else is there.
Number two, if some of them may be sitting at
(17:34):
home and never even heard of tiki tako and just
pops up on their banner. They try it one time
and now they love it and they come to the restaurant.
But to answer your actual question and where you're going,
is we run a lot of new time guests only
on third parties. So if you're if you're a recurring customer,
you're not able to get that. And it's a free
I think right now it's a free chips and salsa.
(17:56):
Last month I might have been a free chips in case,
so whatever it is. But to answer with a little
bit of a data point, last month, the month of February,
we had six hundred new guests use the platforms.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Wow, it would you amazing?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
That's exactly And you know, six hundred. Maybe the promo
did it, maybe it didn't. You never really know, but
even if I gave away chips and sauce to the
six hundred new people, I'd do that every single month,
every day for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, Are you seeing this across the board share where
brands are actually getting maybe a little bit more out
of these third party guys.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, I'm actually we were talking about that just now
at the Restaurant Branch Resnidation summit last week. A couple
of people were saying, you know, yeah, they used to
take thirty percent and it was terrible. But just by
talking to them a little bit and asking for a discount,
I mean just asking, they're going to work with you,
and they're more apt to work with you, especially some
of I don't even I don't think you have to
(18:57):
be a bigger brand, but just maybe a brand that's
well known in that area. They want those upcoming emerging
brands on their platforms.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
They're ready to play ball.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Well, it's good for marketing, right, I mean, because you
look at it almost whether it's super Eads, post Mates,
whichever platform. A lot of that is almost like in
some cases I'll go into Uber just to find out
if there are new restaurants, you know, in the area
that have now come online. So that's intriguing that you're
getting that much eric in terms of new guests, because
(19:28):
I imagine once you tag them there, the likelihood is
you get that repeat customer that most likely will come
in and check you out now, and especially with all
that you guys have to offer, that's a good probably
a win win because it is more of a marketing component.
What about the competition there there in Kansas City? What
would you say, is their competitor.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
My competitor? Did you say? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Well, I was asking sure who she thinks. I'm kind
of curious what her opinion is on because many people
would say, well, maybe it's Chipotle.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Yeah, obviously it's like to in Kudoba.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
But I mean, Kansas City has a a kind of
a big Hispanic area down at a Softwst. Traffic way,
So I'm assuming that that's probably some of your competitors,
but it's still a different vibe. So you can tell
me if I'm wrong here.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
That's funny. It's funny, right, like do you if we
talk direct competition here locally, it's probably someone like Tacos
for Life or Taco Naco or you know, someone like that.
But the funny thing is is our first location is
right across from the street from Chipotle and it does
incredible volume. So and I'm not saying they don't they
(20:39):
I know they do it, but you would think, you know,
And so I think also fast casual in itself, just
not just direct competition is also my competition. Right, so
you look at whether it be Cova is breaking into
Kansas City, I'm sure that will be Chipotle, even sometimes Panera,
like all of that is still competition. But I think
(21:01):
that you know, for us, it's like, we just want
to be the place that you can come get really
good food in a cool environment with some really cool
people taking care of you. And if I can tap
all these different resources utilizing technology with whether it's you know,
we use loop AI, we use Bicky for customer data.
(21:22):
So yeah, we're probably a little bit over built on
our tech stack. But I also run this and we're
going to grow three to four restaurants this year with
three people outside of the stores.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
When you first came on, I think you guys, you
had three restaurants and you said you only had toast
and quick books, and now you have a lot of tech.
So coming from a brand like PDQ that you know you.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Had some tech.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
What was like the first thing that you came in
and said, this is the first piece of tech I
need to get going or we're not going to make it.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
That was easy. That's an easy question. It's ovation with
Marquee and and I'm you know, Zackson have to start
paying me here soon. But yeah, the reason is is
because like I've never lived in Kansas City and I've
been to Tiki Tako two and a half times before
I actually started, So I need as much feedback from
(22:13):
the customer as possible. And I'm not even referring to
whether they had a good experience. I'm talking about how
they feel about the brand or the menu items, the ambiance,
the people. And so that was number one for me.
Is I want and really I go beyond that. And
I didn't have a technology for the second part. But
the first part was easy, bring on autovation. I got
(22:35):
flooded with you know comments, right, whether it's mostly good,
some really great, and then some that said, hey, you
need to change this. But the second piece is a
little bit more manual, and that's getting feedback from the
team that works in the stores. Right, what do you
like what don't you like, what would you like to
see change, what's making your life more difficult? Right? So
(22:55):
it's getting all of that. That was like those first
few months. But Ovation and then mark Key, you know,
online listings everything. People they want to find a taco,
They're going to go to Google and say taco's near me, right,
So I had to make sure our presence online was
at least where it needed to be or working that way.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, it's so good to hear you say that. Is
that you're soliciting feedback. Obviously we've seen a variety of
these feedback loops that have really kind of helped the
industry grow. But a lot of times to your point
is the feedback can either be overrun, you know, where
you just get so much of it, and then how
do you dissect it? You know, how do you be
able to drill down to it and actually act on
(23:35):
something that can help the brand?
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Yeah? The easy like Ovation makes it really easy. They
have a dashboard and they use AI to kind of
read through all the comments put up, Hey, these are
your top five things you need to worry about. Here's
the five things you're doing really well. You can segment
it by location, time of day. I mean, you can
get what they call it analysis paralysis if you want
to eat, you know, going down that rabbit hole. But
(23:58):
I'll tell you. You know the other thing is, yes, me
and my partner that runs operations, and then even my
marketing manager, Like we tackled it first the first month
or two and then we actually transitioned it over to
the general managers. So now they own that feedback for
their store. Now, obviously we can still see into it
(24:20):
and give direction, but we wanted them to own their restaurant. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
We're kind of going through our section on consumer preferences,
so I think you're hitting on all that. However, the
one area is drive through because your your restaurant isn't
drive through in every location, and you have a lot
of variations on your store model when you expand, will
drive through be in the theme or will it be
(24:45):
just one of the you know, the prototypes that you
guys build out on.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yeah, I think the old school drive through is just
not for us, just because we cannot execute fast enough
for somebody's you know, what their expectation is from a
drive through, Right, people want to go through a drive through,
They want in and out in minutes. And that's with
a line, not a line. I mean, how the Chick
fil A's of the world they can pump two hundred
(25:11):
cars or something crazy. You know, we can't because we're
making everything from scratch. We just can't get into that world.
But I do think that if we have an opportunity
to get into an end cap that already has a
drive through window, that we would try and move some
of that business that's coming through three three PD or
online order pick up, you know, outside, more convenient for them,
(25:33):
they don't get out of the car, more convenient for
me because we're not taking up real estate, you know,
shoving the phone in my face saying hey, I'm here
to pick up SHARE's order. You know. So yeah, but
no again, the prototypes. You made this comment, and it's
kind of like our thing is like we like the weird,
queerky buildings, and you know, I mean you should look
(25:57):
at when we get done with Shawnee and probably three
months or four months, we took this little fourteen hundred
square foot old Mexican restaurant and we're going to completely
blow it up and out in the outside. We're gonna
have an eighty person patio that's covered three and a
half seasons. I'm that's huge. It's gonna be like yeah,
so we like that fun, cool stuff. Like I said,
(26:20):
my partners, three of my partners are in photography and
cgi and food styles and they have multiple businesses here
in Kansas City. But thank god for them because I'm
not really the creative branding guy, and they take care
of all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
I mean, like the merchandise that you guys have, the
hats and the shirts and everything. I mean, they're really cool.
So it's about that awesome vibe. You can tell that
they're artists involved.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
It's a good miss. It's a good mix because we
have we have six six total partners on the cap table.
Three of them in branding, photography, marketing, one in real
estate and construction, and then two of us in kind
of the operations world and been running restaurants for a
long time. There you go. Yeah, so we dropped. We
dropped different themes, right, so a lot of you know
(27:09):
something Miami Miami Vice we just dropped. And then Chiefs
colors on the shirts.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Right, So Chera, you've got one of these probably right.
They're a big Kansas City fan, you know, is is
Travis going to be leaving or I'm hearing signs? Or
is he coming back?
Speaker 4 (27:33):
He's coming back one more year, one more year.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
At least we've got to go to a football game together. Share.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
That would be so fun.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I love I love football. Benefit I've been to the
Arrowhead Stadium. It was mostly I think it was on
a big twelve championship game that I went there many
many million years ago.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Because I went to tailgating. It's just amazing. So yeah,
the three of us will have to go.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I love it. We'll do it. But any chance, okay,
you say.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
That, get Tiki Taco cater to do.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
With cater there you go.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
You never know where one might end.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Up breaking breaking news.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
We're in conversations with a couple.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Let's just leave it at that, all right, Well, that's right,
we'll find Do you know the stadiums are I think
they you know, here in Miami they did a whole
and I'm not sure in what you guys have there
in in the Kansas City Stadium, but here Miami they
have this whole new ring that is almost all fast
(28:33):
casual concepts for during the season. They you know, they
drop in Shakesheck was the original that kind of came
into it. But then from there, I bet there's fifteen.
I went last year and there's probably fifteen different concepts
and they're all fast casual concepts that are popular.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
We have in Kansas City, the Casey Current Is are
women's professional soccer team, the only stadium in the world
built for women's sports, and every every restaurant in that
is a locally owned restaurant. Most of them are fast casual. Yeah,
so it's cool. You go in there and you're getting
the whole local experience. And I think a lot of
stadiums are going to that. They're still going to be
you know, some big ones in every stadium, but I
(29:12):
think a lot of them are going to that look
to show that local flavor.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Same thing with our airport.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
We have a lot of local brands in there as
opposed to the big chains.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
So yeah, I think most are going to go to
a mix. Right, So I think from my experience, you
have your big guys like GOK View Group and HMS
host and all air marks, and so what they'll do
is they'll carve out like twenty percent of the stadium
and say we want some local brands in there so well.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
And it's good because I think obviously it gives good
exposure to you know, people that are either coming in
from out of town, you know, they get a chance
to kind of see the whole flair of that particular city,
or it's just you know, patrons that probably already frequent
those brands and love to see those in there. So
it's cool. Let's talk about challenges and opportunities, you know,
(30:00):
with the sector right now. Many people looked at twenty
to twenty five as if you looked at it at
the end of last year prior to the election, you thought, Okay,
we're going to see a resurgence. I've had a couple
of people at sam Ocasan just last week we were
talking about this at the guy over at Bloomberg also
(30:22):
talking about this, one of their lead analysts over there,
and they were very pro positive at the end of
last year. Now they're a little bit more sensitive to
whether or not we're going to see growth. Do you
think this for you, Sharah, do you think we're going
to see growth in twenty twenty five four, whether it's
sales growth or unit growth.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
I'm not sure. I'm nervous.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Just from the people I was talking to at the
summit last year who had a lot of growth plans.
They're kind of on pause right now with the tariffs
and the food costs. So if that doesn't get taken
care of, I think we might be sold for a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
About you, Eric, are you hit with any of these?
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Yeah, So, I don't know. What I think is that
people are always going to eat out, and I think
that you're going to have people like myself probably challenge
some other people, and you're always going to have this churn,
right You're in this churn of legacy one hundred unit,
five hundred unit, thousand unit chains that start to struggle
(31:20):
a little bit in areas where you have emerging new things.
But I think that you know, restaurant in the restaurant
is in itself is one of the most resilient. I mean,
we figure out, we figure out anything, whether it's COVID,
labor struggles, this and that. So while I think that
you know, we'll probably lose a point or two, you know,
(31:42):
for a while while while the supply chain thing gets
figured out, but I'm optimistic that, you know, we will
get through it. And I think the restaurant industry. Also
two other things. One is that I think technology we
finally caught up in the restaurant business. I think we're
very far behind five years ago, so I think we're
getting information faster to make better decisions. And I think,
(32:05):
at least from my perspective, I think that we are
peer group in the restaurant business is not one where
we're trying to fight each other. It's almost to the
point where we're trying to share information so that, you know,
rise all tides, kind of rise all boats or whatever
the saying is.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Yeah, yeah, well I think you know. The Fast Casual
Summit is one of the places that, at least I've
always remembered as a place where people would kind of
pull their guard down and share ideas, especially in the
fast casual category. I don't know why it is this
way here, because when you get into casual dining. I've
met with a lot of CEOs in the casual dining
(32:43):
sector fine dining. These guys are much tighter to the
best on their strategies and what they're planning to do.
I don't think they would share now. Granted, many of
them are publicly traded companies, so it probably makes a
bit of a difference, but still it's pretty amazing to
see the fast casual industry stay as true to form
as it has share. Okay, you look at the issues
(33:06):
right now when you when you think about the categories,
because fresh Max obviously avocado one of the biggest ones.
We listened to Scott boat Right talk about this last week,
I think on the show, and one of the things
that he hit on was the diversification of their supply chain.
Have you talked to founders or CEOs that have done
(33:28):
that right now, have already said, hey, we've already covered
this this whole issue, and we're we're going to be okay, I.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Think there are most of them are looking into it
right now.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
It seems like they're early.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Starting to say, oh oh shit, got to got to
figure out how to get avocados from different places and
tomatoes from different places because the prices are not going
to be great.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
So yeah, yeah, well, I think the key there is,
like like you know, you just said, I think the
key there is for you is the ability to kind
of flex with what the market is doing, you know,
And that's the one thing though, I think the market
does a really good job with at least a fast
casual market does a really good job with inflexing both
(34:11):
to the consumer demand the economic side of it, whether
it's through you know, different menu offerings, et cetera. That
brings us to the last topic on opportunities, and that is,
how do you guys pipeline new stuff, you know, whether
it's new menu, new unit, what's the what's the thought process?
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Yeah, so you know we do monthly specials. So I'll
just use that as an example. Right, So it's been
part of the brand before I was here. It's going
to continue to be part of the brand, and it
gives our chef some creative inspiration. Number one and number
two it's it gives that I come in once a
week customer and I get street tacos every single time.
(34:56):
Just a chance to try something different. But I think
from a strategy perspective, I think too many people get
too far behind it and then they're racing to try
and figure it out. So we do ours a quarter,
which is still probably not long out enough, but we
do ours a quarter at a time. Okay, so we'll
we'll do innovation basically like the first month of that
(35:18):
quarter for the following quarter. So we've already got going
in obviously for the second Q two already done. We're
starting to think about three Q at this point, do
we stay far enough ahead of it? And then what
I've noticed in Kansas City is you got to be
careful with trends because something may pop off on the
East or West coast and it's they're all about it.
(35:38):
But here in Kansas City, it's like, Okay, we're not
quite ready for that yet, you're a little bit ahead
of it. Right. So I give you an example. I
swung and miss I wanted to do a Berria ramen
while it was cold here in December, right, And so
if you get you go on the East coast, Chicago,
West coast, Berrie is like, it's crazy, how pop and
(36:00):
it's popular. The taco is popular for us. But we
ran that specially and we sold like two hundred or
something like that for the whole month. So my point
of saying that is we're also using data every year
to say, Okay, we have a four to twenty burrito
going next month for April, and we've had it three
years in a row, and it does like crazy amount
(36:22):
of sales. People love it, so that one's coming back, right.
So basically we've built up this arsenal of like five
or six items that come back every year, and then
we have six or seven months to play with new stuff. Yeah,
but I guess that's how we go about the food.
We put a lot of work in the first three
months and looking at the data and saying, hey, this
(36:43):
taco is not selling very good, so why are we
either one let's fix it or two let's get rid
of it. Right. So the one I'm referring to is
a grilled fish taco. We ended up taking it off
the menu. No one wanted to buy it. But I
think we use data a lot to make decisions. I
think too many leaders probably make decisions based on what
(37:03):
they feel or how they feel, versus letting your customer
or your team tell you the information that they feel
and then using data to kind of back it up and.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Then for you pricing here. Wow, this is very competitive.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Yeah, I mean if you go you go down to tacos,
and I mean I don't know of a lot of
places that you can get a taco, you know, like
a street soft or crunchy taco for three bucks. I mean,
I just I just don't and even some of our
grilled shrimp Beria four nine. And obviously you go into
(37:40):
those burritos, it can get pricey. I mean you're talking
about a twelve inch towardtilla with freshly cooked ground poor
couple medium fried eggs, peppers, onions, rice. I mean you're
getting a lot of value there too.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
This is a good it's a good menu. And I
think one thing on the drink section, because you guys,
of course have gone with a lot more on the
side of of you know, libation side. But are you
are you going into any other I know, I see
you have Gerrito's on here.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Yeah, so we can just signed with pepsi right, Like,
so you're phasing out coke.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Yeah, we did actually, but a couple of things the
drinks we're big time really Margarita. We have a couple
on there, like Paloma or my Tie, but Margarite is
our thing on the on the alcohol side, and we
just rolled out alcohol to go in our Missouri locations
as well, so you can now buy either a singular
double you know, Margarita to go and then with the beverage.
(38:39):
It's kind of interesting, you know, our vibe people are
really into bottled sodas, so like the Lass bottled sodas.
So we have right now six or seven Rito's flavor
of Horito's. We have Topo Chico I talked, I dropped
it earlier. We did sign with Pepsi, so we're going
to put fountains in and go all of our bottled,
(38:59):
our plat stick bottled into Pepsi. But yeah, so we
try and keep a wide variety, but also not keep
things that aren't selling. Again, going back.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
To that data, Yeah, I think that, well, this is
a good mix, and I think you have such a
unique look and feel, you know, that is different than
what I've seen, at least in the fresh mech sector.
Obviously is one of the reasons when Sharon and I said, hey,
we should get the Eric on the show. This would
be a good one to cover. With that being said,
(39:30):
Eric trends going forward from here, because many people would say,
you know, just follow what's happening in the regionals, what's
happening at the nationals, you know, on the bigger fast
casual brands, But you guys don't seem to do that.
So tell me what you're seeing as far as as trends,
whether it's this year or beyond in fast casual.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
This is going to be a long answer, two parted.
First part is that I think we've all seen trends
with food, right. We went through a bigger burger craze,
then we went through a pizza craze. Then we had
a real small yogurt frozen yogurt phase, and then Chicken's
been crazy, right. So, but one thing I've not seen
(40:14):
big ups and downs is tacos. Why I'm at Tiki
Tako right, It's like I've never really met anyone that
said I don't like tacos. They may like a different
tortilla or a different protein or whatever they may say.
But I think from Mexican and that's why it's gotten
so popular here lately. Is trending Asian and Mexican I
think are the next two trends that will pop off.
(40:37):
But I think the real important fact here is is
that I think we went because of COVID. We went
too far. The pendulum swung too far into pre made
frozen food to get it out, and I think it's
making a massive swing back the other way, where people
want fresh made from scratch ingredients again served at because
(40:57):
the value proposition is the reality is I'm selling fresh
made things at the same price as other people are
dropping it out of a fryar, out of a bag
into a fryer, So that expectation from a value proposition
is going to come back to fresh and greedy here.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Yeah, I think good to hear seeing fresh ingredients and
also just prep time. I think people will notice. They'll
they'll clearly see the quality difference, I think quickly. So
you guys are it's probably going to without a doubt,
going to pay off for you guys too. What about
you share? Do you think give me if you were
selecting three categories. I know you get to do this
every day, but when you're selecting three categories, thinking all right,
(41:35):
this category could continue as a star. I mean you
look at chickens growth, it's been dynamic. You look at
fresh max to a certain extent, and then maybe ethnic
I would still throw kava in there, you know, to
a certain lair. What do you think do you think
we'll see that as bakery cafe cafe got a chance anymore?
Speaker 2 (41:53):
I'm actually seeing several in the last couple of weeks,
some new bakeries coming up, But no, I think it's
mostly going to be Asian fresh mex And and like Mediterranean.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
That's still like that fresh. Yeah, the crazy pitas of
the world.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
We just had Charles Bellilla's on the on the show
last week. While you were gone, Cherah, you missed a
great episode. You were out working, man, you're doing summit
and he's uh, he's with Suvla out of San Francisco
and that have you been to that location yet or
any of his locations you got to go to when
next time you're out there, you've got to visit that locate,
(42:30):
any of his stores. It is one of the most
dynamic Greek locations I've seen yet, so very cool. Eric.
It has been great having you on the show today. Man,
the minute I stepped foot in Kansas City, I am
going to a tiki taco.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Well, thanks so much for having me. And I'm going
to hold you to that too.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
I'm going to I'm going to set out on the
patio and relax. Nice spring day. That's thinking about hot.
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Well, I'm from Tampa, so I'm ready for it.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
There you go, my man, There you go. That's for sure.
It's been good having you. Thanks again for stopping and
we appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Thanks again.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
You beat all right, so what a great I love these.
We are absolutely getting some rock stars on the show.
And by the way, you guys, if you want to
become a guest, of course, you can reach out to
Shara right there at Fastcasual dot com. You can visit
our show page. We have a little guest inquiry. We
(43:29):
always leave that in the links to where you can
fill out something and get into our producers so you
can possibly get on the list. But right now the
line list is pretty long on founders and new brands
and all that kind of stuff coming at us, so
it's going to be huge. Now is the Top one
hundred in full swing of decision to make process.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
We have got all the data. We are now sifting
through the data and my goal. There's so much data
thanks to our partnership with Loop who's helped us collect
all of that. I'm hoping to let the winning brands
know by Monday so they can start making travel plans
for the Past Casual Top.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
One hundred gala on Maying in May. Right, Yep, it's a.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Sunday night, so Past Casual kind of owns the Sunday
night experience. If you're lucky enough to make the list.
So we will have our top one hundred gala. I
call it the Academy Awards of the Industry. I have
the best Stressed category again, so everybody will be donning
their sequence and suits and it should be fun. But
I'm I'm kind of stressed right now because there's so
(44:34):
much data and so many brands that have nominated themselves
and we are we're going to have We're going to
have a very exciting list to announce pretty soon.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Do okay, I have a question. Out of the all
the ones that submitted this year, do you have a
percentage that are first timers or people that you had
never seen before coming through?
Speaker 2 (44:59):
So we I do have a few that have never
nominated themselves, But there hasn't been anybody on the list
that you know, we haven't been covering that we haven't
known about.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Okay, So you're keeping it.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
And the one thing to keep in mind is there
are so many fast casual brands that if you don't
nominate yourself, we do not add you to the list.
So like, well, there may be a brand that you
are like, wow, why aren't they on it? While if
they didn't nominate themselves they're out of the work, or
if someone didn't nominate them, you know, because.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
You have to remember that. Everybody that's listening this year,
you've got to remember that, get in there and nominate.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
Because there could be thousands.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
I mean, so it's not really fair for I feel
like it's not very fair for me to be like,
oh oh, this brand is really great, but they didn't
take the time to nominate themselves, so I'm going to
throw them in the list. Nope, you have to care
enough about it to like market yourself either.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Yeah, well, listen, it's going to be We're gonna be
covering a lot of that through April into May as
as the Fast Casual one hundred gets closed. So obviously
continue to watch and listen. If you guys are not
subscribed on our YouTube channel right now, do that these
shows have been really popping off. We again great coverage
on these lots of listeners. Uh, if you're over on
(46:10):
whether you're on Spotify, you're on podcast Guru, one of
our web or the new podcast two point zero apps,
make sure and leave a comment. We always love to
get those as well. Share. We will see you and if.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
You want to be a sponsor, if you want to
be featured or yes your ads, let us know we're
we are happy, Zach.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
If you're listening at Ovation.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
I'm going to send this to Zach now. I want
to say, hey, you had to You had a customer
Testimonia on the show.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
The next one you got to pay up.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
It's time for you two dollars. Oh my god, what
was that? That was John Cusack? Johnsack better off dead.
Oh my god, that's like the best line in movies ever.
I want by two dollars that kid facing him forever. Anyway,
now that we're down the rabbit hole, there it has.
(47:03):
We'll see you guys next week right here on Fast
Casual Nation.
Back here on another episode of Fast Casual Nation, the
podcast that started it all. And of course my name
is Small Baron and my co host, Miss Shrik Chandler.
How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm doing great here in Kansas City. It's sunny and beautiful.
Finally the snow is gone.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I go from one extreme to another.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
You're calling for snow again today and yesterday was seventy.
But luckily we're nice and sunny, so we shall see.
It's really windy, but other than that, we're good to.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Go from park is to bikinis. It feels like in
Kansas City on every other day had we have a
fantastic show.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Today.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
We are going to dive in deep on an emerging
brand there in your backyard, Shara. So it's going to
be a good one. And I think one thing to
look at when you look at Tiki Tako is the
idea of emerging brands and in these powerful segments like
Fresh Mechs and when you look at Mexican in general.
(00:55):
This will be a good I think, a good conversation
for sure. We're going to dive in deep, so it'll
be an awesome show. You guys stick around and we'll
be right back. All right, we're back here on the
(01:23):
Fast Casual Nation podcast. Shara. I walk over and I
get into my fast casual mindset, and when I do that,
I go to the website and I go to Fastcasual
dot com. And of course, you guys made some new updates.
So tell me a little bit about it. What happened here?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Now?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
We have a totally new look.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
We are i'd like to say, modernized and keeping up
with trends in the industry, with what people like to
look at. We have a lot more photos going on here,
we have a lot more headlines, so we're really excited
about it.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
It's just a way that.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Just you know, we've been around twenty years now and
we needed a new look, so it was time for
a makeover.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
We launched on Friday. I like it too. I'm being
used to it.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
It looks good. I think it is also even better
organized than it was previously. So I've kind of migrated
to this news and media section, which is really a
good rolling list of content. You guys have a good
spot for the podcasts as well, so all the podcasts
are going in there. Any news on the front end
(02:30):
here that I'm looking at I've got a lot of
headlines here.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
No, I'm supposed to be an objective reporter, but I
am partial to my Kansas City brands because born and
raised here. So I was excited to get some news
this week about Betty Ray's ice Cream, which is a
very popular, locally kind of owned ice cream shop in
Kansas City and they are now franchising. They open their franchise,
first franchise, and they're ready to go to seven more cities.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
It's a really yeah, it's a close Menver, Oklahoma City, Telsa,
which Wow, that's good.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
They're a very cool brand.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And what's also cool about them is that Matt Chateau
is their owner and they own shot. Their family has
owned Chateau Milk like a dairy farm for like one
hundred years, and he recently bought this that he raised
ice cream shop not too long ago, and since he
took over a few years ago, he's really pushing the
expansion in the franchising. So it's exciting to see, you know,
(03:24):
a local brand with local culture kind of push out
and going to other cities.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, for sure, Well you know that's what uh that's
really I think where the genesis of growth in fast
casual comes from is these emerging brands that become powerhouses
in these regions, which is why we like to get
these founders on to kind of talk about what they're
you know, what their magic sauce is and and really
kind of the strategies that they've been able to build
(03:50):
these emerging brands, because going from one to two is
like the holy grail in the restaurant industry because everybody
think thinks it's really easy, but that is like the
biggest leap forward is when you go to two restaurants
and then obviously there's you know, scale from there as well.
So we're going to dive into the conversation today with
Eric Nott, who is the chief executive officer over at
(04:12):
Tiki Tako, and we'll bring him into the show and
I think it's gonna be a good one for sure.
So Eric, how are you?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I'm good? How are you?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Excellent? Excellent? So great to have you on the show.
You're there in Sheriff's backyard. So you guys must go
out and do a fast casual tours in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Have cocktails. He came to my birthday party a couple
of weeks ago. So that was that was a good time.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I did, I did. Yeah, I'm here in Kansas City
as well too. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, So give us a quick rundown. I'll put you
up there on the top left. Give us a quick
rundown of where you guys are right now, size scope,
a little bit about Tiki in general.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, So Tiki Taco, my partners originally bought the first
one over on thirty ninth Street, midtown, Kansas City. They
built two more over a course of about four years,
fifty fourth in Trust and then downtown over the Park.
They are world famous photographers, and I think they realize
(05:13):
pretty quickly that, you know, building restaurant chain is a
little bit more difficult, so they looked for someone to
come in, so I joined the team back in July.
But we are basically a Southern cal Mexican style restaurant.
We're fast casual, but we do offer all of the channels,
(05:33):
right so if you want to do a kiosk or
online order you want to use, we have a full
service bar, we have patios. So basically we're kind of
this hybrid of you can come in use a kiosk,
if you want something quick, you can get it delivered
to your house. You can come and enjoy some marguerite
onto patio now that it's seventy degrees in Kansas City
(05:54):
and not below zero, or you can set at a
full service bar as well. Now our bar is limited,
you know, it's not something you're gonna come in and
find a ton. We sell mostly margarita's and beers. But
really our deal is real simple. We have scratch made kitchen,
so all of our food is prepped in house. We
do four hour long carnitas el pastor on the spit
(06:16):
every day. Really cool environment. It's bright when you come in,
especially in the winter time. I learned this first winter
that when you come in it's jury outside. It's nice
to come into a building this live and a lot
of action and bright. But yeah, so it's just a
really laid back environment, great culture. But yeah, that's a
(06:39):
little bit about it so far.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
How old is the brand?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
The brand itself was started in twenty seventeen by the
original founder and then, like I said, my partners bought
it in twenty twenty. I joined last year and our
course of action really from July was let's standardize everything
from operations, marketing, bring in technology. When I started, we
(07:04):
had quick books and toast. That was our tech stack,
and since then we've brought on thirteen different technologies. And
the whole idea really is to automate things, to get
information faster, to make decisions more quickly, and then also
limit the amount of overhead that's needed to continue to grow.
(07:25):
So that took us probably five six months, and then
we standardized and signed contracts with partnerships like our food
distributor just signed with Pepsi last week, so we wanted
to get that set up and then now it's kind
of growth mode, right So we were talking just before
we got on. We have the three open and operating.
(07:46):
We have a food truck that runs Kansas and Missouri.
We are in construction and Oleifa, Kansas right now. We
just signed a lease over in Shawnee, Kansas last week,
which should be a pret quick build there. We have
a pop up shop on Tuesdays at Cambridge Kansas Health
(08:06):
Systems down on thirty ninth Street. And then the breaking
news right now is we're getting ready to put a
shop in HIV Arena as well. Oh wow, So we've
got a lot going on at the moment, and you
know the I guess the unique thing about our brand
is that we can go as small as about twelve
to thirteen hundred square feet, and then we can take
(08:27):
a space up to three thousand square feet. So Oleitha,
Kansas twenty nine hundred square feet, Shawnee, Kansas is fourteen
hundred square feet. So we have the ability to pretty
much fit into any of these second gen available spaces
that come they come open.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I was looking at Google Maps, and you know, it's
cool because you can go into images and see the
variations of all your units and sizes from the what
looks to be a standalone drive through in one of
the units, and then a what looks to be an
inline and a very you know, kind of unique neighborhood
(09:05):
that looks to be it couldn't be more than Is
that the one that's fourteen hundred square feet?
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, So we our original location thirty ninth Street started
as just a walk up window and then we ended
up taking over the space beside us building a dining room.
Our second location is the one with eighty person patio.
So it's massive outside, a little bit too small on
the inside, I think for Kansas City. Uh. And then
(09:31):
The third location is in a downtown area and an
inline space, so we currently aren't doing any drive through,
but I think there is an opportunity in the future
that if we find an end cap space with the
drive through, we can kind of mirror what Chipotle does
with online ordering third party kind of get that congestion
outside of the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
That's cool, Charo. They've been revealed on the Top twenty.
What tell me about that?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, so we do a fast casual brands to watch
emerging Brands Top twenty every year and Tiki Tako made
it this year. And the cool thing about this list
is that once you make it, you can never be
on it again, and it's for really up and coming
emerging brands. The editorial board looks at their growth. You know,
Tiki Taka has been around not terribly long, but they're
(10:20):
just now starting. They brought Eric on with a purpose
of growing, so that's interesting. And then the menu, they
have a really cool menu. There's a lot of innovation
when it comes to it, where like there's some Korean
tacos and there's a lot of vegetarian options. My favorite
is this, like tacos soaked and sauce that's.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
My favorite one. So they're doing a lot of cool things.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
So it's kind of and it has a very local vibe,
like I have a little crop top that it's like
locals only, So I mean, you feel people like you
feel like a local, even if you're not. When you
go in, you feel like, Okay, this is my place.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So I like it.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Attention well, I think, you know, this is something that
attributes to emerging brands that you know, obviously we like
to feature here on the show, and I know with
the summit, that's you know, a lot of what you
see in terms of the attendees, and even I am
always blown away at the amount of growth this sector
has had. I was just looking at some of the
data that you had there on that report. Sixty five
(11:13):
point two billion set to hit what is this one
hundred and fifty billion by twenty twenty eight? Yeah, how
is how in the world would this almost double well
over double in.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I think it's brands like Eric's, you know, these smaller
brands who are than You're going to double insize Eric
in the next you know, couple of years and then
double again.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I'm sure, and you're not the only one. So I
mean that's past.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Casual has always been the hot, the hot sector that
everybody wants to be in.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So yeah, for sure, definitely a good one.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Well, I think talking with just add color to that,
like fast casuals. So you've got your quick service, you
know change and then you have your casual dining chains.
But the problem is with inflation over the last two
years or so that you know, people don't want to
spend that extra twenty percent et cetera to sit down
and have you know, actual service. And then QSR now
(12:05):
if you look at prices, has now kind of crept
into vast casual pricing. So you're going to get an
elevated experience just like you you know, you think you
would in a casual dining scenario, but you're going to
be an elevated experience for the same price and the
value prop is so much better coming to a fast casual.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
You can set out a patio and have a margarita.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Also, I mean that is a total casual doting experience,
but you're still not doing that tip and that the
extra service.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
There was a there was a concept in Dallas called
Village Burger Bar that did a similar concept there with
bar you know, beer and wine concept, and they had
you know, small patios. They were in Knox Hender scenario.
I used to live in that area and I used
to go there, and I was amazed at how much
throughput they could get in and out of the restaurant,
(12:52):
whether it was the patio expansion and the walk up.
They had a little counter, just a handful of tables,
but you know, one I was just kind of analyzing
how many tickets they could turn in a lunch. Is
that the case with you guys? Can you guys generate
a lot of volume in a short period of time?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yeah? So, I mean our menu, I would tell you
it's very simple in a way, but somewhat complicated on
a few menu items. So you know, for perspective, at
that Ku Med pop up shop, we do about one
thousand tacos in two hours. So when you think about,
you know, being able to get through put from a
(13:30):
timing aspect, it's very simple. When it comes to a
taco standpoint, we get a little bit more complicated with
the burritos. We like to put curly fries in our
burritos and you know, do some Asian fusion with our
tie fried chicken taco, which is you know, fried chicken temporo,
fried chicken tossed in you know, an Asian sauce with
a cabbage, jalapeno cremas coal saw on top. So we
(13:54):
do have some of those things take a little bit
more time. But what I would tell you is is
that for us, all of our process to prep the
food is what takes the longest. It's not executing it
when you're coming in and ordering. So like I said earlier,
it takes whether it be four hours to do our
carnadas or hour and a half just to do our
(14:16):
ground beef. You know, those items are what take the
time when you come in and order. It. For us
to execute those items is relatively fast. I wouldn't put
us in like a fast food We can't get your
food in less than a minute or something like that.
But by the time you come up, you order, you
go get your drink, you grab your napkins, you have
(14:38):
a seat, then you might wait a minute or two
for your food.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Gotcha, Okay, that's I think this is one of those
categories you mentioned it earlier, where you know QSR has
elevated to a certain extent, even though I think if
third party is involved, fast casual gets really priced out,
you know, because of just the fees that are involved
with whether it's a del every end or the delivery
the fees themselves. I was just looking at Chipotle Balls
(15:04):
the other day doing an analysis on uber eads across
all of the fast casuals that were around us, and
I was blown away by the ticket price on that.
Are you guys dealing with much third party right now?
What's kind of your business?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Yeah? So, actually third party is about twenty percent of
our business. Total off prem is about thirty five, so
we're seeing about sixty five right now percent you know,
actually visiting the units themselves. But you know, I think
third party sometimes gets a bad rap. I think that
you know, people will say their commissions too high, or
(15:41):
you know, whatever the case may be. But I think
it's just like anything else, you have to figure out,
you know, from your concept, how do you deliver that
in a way where you're not price gouging the customer,
but also you're working with the algorithms behind the third party.
So we use another technology to help us with that
(16:01):
and then kind of analyze our ROI on whether it's
the marketing aspect the sponsored ads, you know. So we've
been playing that game over the last several months, and
I really think we found a sweet spot where, you know,
I went to door dash and Uber when we first
when I first got here and said, listen, I want
to charge my customers less and so therefore I'm going
(16:23):
to need you to charge me less and then we'll
increase traffic and we'll both win. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
What did they say to that?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
They said, sure, they dropped it. They dropped and one
they dropped us ten percent on.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
The other account.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
That's right. Well, and you know, with that kind of volume,
just from you know, again a couple of unit Taco
shop and going into expansion, you know, our volume, I
would I would assume I've never had anyone say this,
but I would assume from in Kansas City, it's probably
a very high number. If we're doing twenty percent of
our total revenue is coming through third party.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Do you see you guests doing you know, discovery on
your brand through third party or is it you know,
existing guests. I mean, I don't know if you can
track that data, but what is your fa Okay, what
do you guys find?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So it's funny That's the one part I didn't comment on.
Is also, even if you're not making as much money
off of a third party order as you would if
someone came to you, the reality is is that if
you're not on those third party sites, then you're losing
market share to somebody else, because somebody else is there.
Number two, if some of them may be sitting at
(17:34):
home and never even heard of tiki tako and just
pops up on their banner. They try it one time
and now they love it and they come to the restaurant.
But to answer your actual question and where you're going,
is we run a lot of new time guests only
on third parties. So if you're if you're a recurring customer,
you're not able to get that. And it's a free
I think right now it's a free chips and salsa.
(17:56):
Last month I might have been a free chips in case,
so whatever it is. But to answer with a little
bit of a data point, last month, the month of February,
we had six hundred new guests use the platforms.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Wow, it would you amazing?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
That's exactly And you know, six hundred. Maybe the promo
did it, maybe it didn't. You never really know, but
even if I gave away chips and sauce to the
six hundred new people, I'd do that every single month,
every day for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, Are you seeing this across the board share where
brands are actually getting maybe a little bit more out
of these third party guys.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, I'm actually we were talking about that just now
at the Restaurant Branch Resnidation summit last week. A couple
of people were saying, you know, yeah, they used to
take thirty percent and it was terrible. But just by
talking to them a little bit and asking for a discount,
I mean just asking, they're going to work with you,
and they're more apt to work with you, especially some
of I don't even I don't think you have to
(18:57):
be a bigger brand, but just maybe a brand that's
well known in that area. They want those upcoming emerging
brands on their platforms.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
They're ready to play ball.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Well, it's good for marketing, right, I mean, because you
look at it almost whether it's super Eads, post Mates,
whichever platform. A lot of that is almost like in
some cases I'll go into Uber just to find out
if there are new restaurants, you know, in the area
that have now come online. So that's intriguing that you're
getting that much eric in terms of new guests, because
(19:28):
I imagine once you tag them there, the likelihood is
you get that repeat customer that most likely will come
in and check you out now, and especially with all
that you guys have to offer, that's a good probably
a win win because it is more of a marketing component.
What about the competition there there in Kansas City? What
would you say, is their competitor.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
My competitor? Did you say? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Well, I was asking sure who she thinks. I'm kind
of curious what her opinion is on because many people
would say, well, maybe it's Chipotle.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Yeah, obviously it's like to in Kudoba.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
But I mean, Kansas City has a a kind of
a big Hispanic area down at a Softwst. Traffic way,
So I'm assuming that that's probably some of your competitors,
but it's still a different vibe. So you can tell
me if I'm wrong here.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
That's funny. It's funny, right, like do you if we
talk direct competition here locally, it's probably someone like Tacos
for Life or Taco Naco or you know, someone like that.
But the funny thing is is our first location is
right across from the street from Chipotle and it does
incredible volume. So and I'm not saying they don't they
(20:39):
I know they do it, but you would think, you know,
And so I think also fast casual in itself, just
not just direct competition is also my competition. Right, so
you look at whether it be Cova is breaking into
Kansas City, I'm sure that will be Chipotle, even sometimes Panera,
like all of that is still competition. But I think
(21:01):
that you know, for us, it's like, we just want
to be the place that you can come get really
good food in a cool environment with some really cool
people taking care of you. And if I can tap
all these different resources utilizing technology with whether it's you know,
we use loop AI, we use Bicky for customer data.
(21:22):
So yeah, we're probably a little bit over built on
our tech stack. But I also run this and we're
going to grow three to four restaurants this year with
three people outside of the stores.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
When you first came on, I think you guys, you
had three restaurants and you said you only had toast
and quick books, and now you have a lot of tech.
So coming from a brand like PDQ that you know you.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Had some tech.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
What was like the first thing that you came in
and said, this is the first piece of tech I
need to get going or we're not going to make it.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
That was easy. That's an easy question. It's ovation with
Marquee and and I'm you know, Zackson have to start
paying me here soon. But yeah, the reason is is
because like I've never lived in Kansas City and I've
been to Tiki Tako two and a half times before
I actually started, So I need as much feedback from
(22:13):
the customer as possible. And I'm not even referring to
whether they had a good experience. I'm talking about how
they feel about the brand or the menu items, the ambiance,
the people. And so that was number one for me.
Is I want and really I go beyond that. And
I didn't have a technology for the second part. But
the first part was easy, bring on autovation. I got
(22:35):
flooded with you know comments, right, whether it's mostly good,
some really great, and then some that said, hey, you
need to change this. But the second piece is a
little bit more manual, and that's getting feedback from the
team that works in the stores. Right, what do you
like what don't you like, what would you like to
see change, what's making your life more difficult? Right? So
(22:55):
it's getting all of that. That was like those first
few months. But Ovation and then mark Key, you know,
online listings everything. People they want to find a taco,
They're going to go to Google and say taco's near me, right,
So I had to make sure our presence online was
at least where it needed to be or working that way.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, it's so good to hear you say that. Is
that you're soliciting feedback. Obviously we've seen a variety of
these feedback loops that have really kind of helped the
industry grow. But a lot of times to your point
is the feedback can either be overrun, you know, where
you just get so much of it, and then how
do you dissect it? You know, how do you be
able to drill down to it and actually act on
(23:35):
something that can help the brand?
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Yeah? The easy like Ovation makes it really easy. They
have a dashboard and they use AI to kind of
read through all the comments put up, Hey, these are
your top five things you need to worry about. Here's
the five things you're doing really well. You can segment
it by location, time of day. I mean, you can
get what they call it analysis paralysis if you want
to eat, you know, going down that rabbit hole. But
(23:58):
I'll tell you. You know the other thing is, yes, me
and my partner that runs operations, and then even my
marketing manager, Like we tackled it first the first month
or two and then we actually transitioned it over to
the general managers. So now they own that feedback for
their store. Now, obviously we can still see into it
(24:20):
and give direction, but we wanted them to own their restaurant. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
We're kind of going through our section on consumer preferences,
so I think you're hitting on all that. However, the
one area is drive through because your your restaurant isn't
drive through in every location, and you have a lot
of variations on your store model when you expand, will
drive through be in the theme or will it be
(24:45):
just one of the you know, the prototypes that you
guys build out on.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yeah, I think the old school drive through is just
not for us, just because we cannot execute fast enough
for somebody's you know, what their expectation is from a
drive through, Right, people want to go through a drive through,
They want in and out in minutes. And that's with
a line, not a line. I mean, how the Chick
fil A's of the world they can pump two hundred
(25:11):
cars or something crazy. You know, we can't because we're
making everything from scratch. We just can't get into that world.
But I do think that if we have an opportunity
to get into an end cap that already has a
drive through window, that we would try and move some
of that business that's coming through three three PD or
online order pick up, you know, outside, more convenient for them,
(25:33):
they don't get out of the car, more convenient for
me because we're not taking up real estate, you know,
shoving the phone in my face saying hey, I'm here
to pick up SHARE's order. You know. So yeah, but
no again, the prototypes. You made this comment, and it's
kind of like our thing is like we like the weird,
queerky buildings, and you know, I mean you should look
(25:57):
at when we get done with Shawnee and probably three
months or four months, we took this little fourteen hundred
square foot old Mexican restaurant and we're going to completely
blow it up and out in the outside. We're gonna
have an eighty person patio that's covered three and a
half seasons. I'm that's huge. It's gonna be like yeah,
so we like that fun, cool stuff. Like I said,
(26:20):
my partners, three of my partners are in photography and
cgi and food styles and they have multiple businesses here
in Kansas City. But thank god for them because I'm
not really the creative branding guy, and they take care
of all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
I mean, like the merchandise that you guys have, the
hats and the shirts and everything. I mean, they're really cool.
So it's about that awesome vibe. You can tell that
they're artists involved.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
It's a good miss. It's a good mix because we
have we have six six total partners on the cap table.
Three of them in branding, photography, marketing, one in real
estate and construction, and then two of us in kind
of the operations world and been running restaurants for a
long time. There you go. Yeah, so we dropped. We
dropped different themes, right, so a lot of you know
(27:09):
something Miami Miami Vice we just dropped. And then Chiefs
colors on the shirts.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Right, So Chera, you've got one of these probably right.
They're a big Kansas City fan, you know, is is
Travis going to be leaving or I'm hearing signs? Or
is he coming back?
Speaker 4 (27:33):
He's coming back one more year, one more year.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
At least we've got to go to a football game together. Share.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
That would be so fun.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I love I love football. Benefit I've been to the
Arrowhead Stadium. It was mostly I think it was on
a big twelve championship game that I went there many
many million years ago.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Because I went to tailgating. It's just amazing. So yeah,
the three of us will have to go.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I love it. We'll do it. But any chance, okay,
you say.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
That, get Tiki Taco cater to do.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
With cater there you go.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
You never know where one might end.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Up breaking breaking news.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
We're in conversations with a couple.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Let's just leave it at that, all right, Well, that's right,
we'll find Do you know the stadiums are I think
they you know, here in Miami they did a whole
and I'm not sure in what you guys have there
in in the Kansas City Stadium, but here Miami they
have this whole new ring that is almost all fast
(28:33):
casual concepts for during the season. They you know, they
drop in Shakesheck was the original that kind of came
into it. But then from there, I bet there's fifteen.
I went last year and there's probably fifteen different concepts
and they're all fast casual concepts that are popular.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
We have in Kansas City, the Casey Current Is are
women's professional soccer team, the only stadium in the world
built for women's sports, and every every restaurant in that
is a locally owned restaurant. Most of them are fast casual. Yeah,
so it's cool. You go in there and you're getting
the whole local experience. And I think a lot of
stadiums are going to that. They're still going to be
you know, some big ones in every stadium, but I
(29:12):
think a lot of them are going to that look
to show that local flavor.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Same thing with our airport.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
We have a lot of local brands in there as
opposed to the big chains.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
So yeah, I think most are going to go to
a mix. Right, So I think from my experience, you
have your big guys like GOK View Group and HMS
host and all air marks, and so what they'll do
is they'll carve out like twenty percent of the stadium
and say we want some local brands in there so well.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
And it's good because I think obviously it gives good
exposure to you know, people that are either coming in
from out of town, you know, they get a chance
to kind of see the whole flair of that particular city,
or it's just you know, patrons that probably already frequent
those brands and love to see those in there. So
it's cool. Let's talk about challenges and opportunities, you know,
(30:00):
with the sector right now. Many people looked at twenty
to twenty five as if you looked at it at
the end of last year prior to the election, you thought, Okay,
we're going to see a resurgence. I've had a couple
of people at sam Ocasan just last week we were
talking about this at the guy over at Bloomberg also
(30:22):
talking about this, one of their lead analysts over there,
and they were very pro positive at the end of
last year. Now they're a little bit more sensitive to
whether or not we're going to see growth. Do you
think this for you, Sharah, do you think we're going
to see growth in twenty twenty five four, whether it's
sales growth or unit growth.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
I'm not sure. I'm nervous.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Just from the people I was talking to at the
summit last year who had a lot of growth plans.
They're kind of on pause right now with the tariffs
and the food costs. So if that doesn't get taken
care of, I think we might be sold for a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
About you, Eric, are you hit with any of these?
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Yeah, So, I don't know. What I think is that
people are always going to eat out, and I think
that you're going to have people like myself probably challenge
some other people, and you're always going to have this churn,
right You're in this churn of legacy one hundred unit,
five hundred unit, thousand unit chains that start to struggle
(31:20):
a little bit in areas where you have emerging new things.
But I think that you know, restaurant in the restaurant
is in itself is one of the most resilient. I mean,
we figure out, we figure out anything, whether it's COVID,
labor struggles, this and that. So while I think that
you know, we'll probably lose a point or two, you know,
(31:42):
for a while while while the supply chain thing gets
figured out, but I'm optimistic that, you know, we will
get through it. And I think the restaurant industry. Also
two other things. One is that I think technology we
finally caught up in the restaurant business. I think we're
very far behind five years ago, so I think we're
getting information faster to make better decisions. And I think,
(32:05):
at least from my perspective, I think that we are
peer group in the restaurant business is not one where
we're trying to fight each other. It's almost to the
point where we're trying to share information so that, you know,
rise all tides, kind of rise all boats or whatever
the saying is.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Yeah, yeah, well I think you know. The Fast Casual
Summit is one of the places that, at least I've
always remembered as a place where people would kind of
pull their guard down and share ideas, especially in the
fast casual category. I don't know why it is this
way here, because when you get into casual dining. I've
met with a lot of CEOs in the casual dining
(32:43):
sector fine dining. These guys are much tighter to the
best on their strategies and what they're planning to do.
I don't think they would share now. Granted, many of
them are publicly traded companies, so it probably makes a
bit of a difference, but still it's pretty amazing to
see the fast casual industry stay as true to form
as it has share. Okay, you look at the issues
(33:06):
right now when you when you think about the categories,
because fresh Max obviously avocado one of the biggest ones.
We listened to Scott boat Right talk about this last week,
I think on the show, and one of the things
that he hit on was the diversification of their supply chain.
Have you talked to founders or CEOs that have done
(33:28):
that right now, have already said, hey, we've already covered
this this whole issue, and we're we're going to be okay, I.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Think there are most of them are looking into it
right now.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
It seems like they're early.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Starting to say, oh oh shit, got to got to
figure out how to get avocados from different places and
tomatoes from different places because the prices are not going
to be great.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
So yeah, yeah, well, I think the key there is,
like like you know, you just said, I think the
key there is for you is the ability to kind
of flex with what the market is doing, you know,
And that's the one thing though, I think the market
does a really good job with at least a fast
casual market does a really good job with inflexing both
(34:11):
to the consumer demand the economic side of it, whether
it's through you know, different menu offerings, et cetera. That
brings us to the last topic on opportunities, and that is,
how do you guys pipeline new stuff, you know, whether
it's new menu, new unit, what's the what's the thought process?
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Yeah, so you know we do monthly specials. So I'll
just use that as an example. Right, So it's been
part of the brand before I was here. It's going
to continue to be part of the brand, and it
gives our chef some creative inspiration. Number one and number
two it's it gives that I come in once a
week customer and I get street tacos every single time.
(34:56):
Just a chance to try something different. But I think
from a strategy perspective, I think too many people get
too far behind it and then they're racing to try
and figure it out. So we do ours a quarter,
which is still probably not long out enough, but we
do ours a quarter at a time. Okay, so we'll
we'll do innovation basically like the first month of that
(35:18):
quarter for the following quarter. So we've already got going
in obviously for the second Q two already done. We're
starting to think about three Q at this point, do
we stay far enough ahead of it? And then what
I've noticed in Kansas City is you got to be
careful with trends because something may pop off on the
East or West coast and it's they're all about it.
(35:38):
But here in Kansas City, it's like, Okay, we're not
quite ready for that yet, you're a little bit ahead
of it. Right. So I give you an example. I
swung and miss I wanted to do a Berria ramen
while it was cold here in December, right, And so
if you get you go on the East coast, Chicago,
West coast, Berrie is like, it's crazy, how pop and
(36:00):
it's popular. The taco is popular for us. But we
ran that specially and we sold like two hundred or
something like that for the whole month. So my point
of saying that is we're also using data every year
to say, Okay, we have a four to twenty burrito
going next month for April, and we've had it three
years in a row, and it does like crazy amount
(36:22):
of sales. People love it, so that one's coming back, right.
So basically we've built up this arsenal of like five
or six items that come back every year, and then
we have six or seven months to play with new stuff. Yeah,
but I guess that's how we go about the food.
We put a lot of work in the first three
months and looking at the data and saying, hey, this
(36:43):
taco is not selling very good, so why are we
either one let's fix it or two let's get rid
of it. Right. So the one I'm referring to is
a grilled fish taco. We ended up taking it off
the menu. No one wanted to buy it. But I
think we use data a lot to make decisions. I
think too many leaders probably make decisions based on what
(37:03):
they feel or how they feel, versus letting your customer
or your team tell you the information that they feel
and then using data to kind of back it up and.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Then for you pricing here. Wow, this is very competitive.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Yeah, I mean if you go you go down to tacos,
and I mean I don't know of a lot of
places that you can get a taco, you know, like
a street soft or crunchy taco for three bucks. I mean,
I just I just don't and even some of our
grilled shrimp Beria four nine. And obviously you go into
(37:40):
those burritos, it can get pricey. I mean you're talking
about a twelve inch towardtilla with freshly cooked ground poor
couple medium fried eggs, peppers, onions, rice. I mean you're
getting a lot of value there too.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
This is a good it's a good menu. And I
think one thing on the drink section, because you guys,
of course have gone with a lot more on the
side of of you know, libation side. But are you
are you going into any other I know, I see
you have Gerrito's on here.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Yeah, so we can just signed with pepsi right, Like,
so you're phasing out coke.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Yeah, we did actually, but a couple of things the
drinks we're big time really Margarita. We have a couple
on there, like Paloma or my Tie, but Margarite is
our thing on the on the alcohol side, and we
just rolled out alcohol to go in our Missouri locations
as well, so you can now buy either a singular
double you know, Margarita to go and then with the beverage.
(38:39):
It's kind of interesting, you know, our vibe people are
really into bottled sodas, so like the Lass bottled sodas.
So we have right now six or seven Rito's flavor
of Horito's. We have Topo Chico I talked, I dropped
it earlier. We did sign with Pepsi, so we're going
to put fountains in and go all of our bottled,
(38:59):
our plat stick bottled into Pepsi. But yeah, so we
try and keep a wide variety, but also not keep
things that aren't selling. Again, going back.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
To that data, Yeah, I think that, well, this is
a good mix, and I think you have such a
unique look and feel, you know, that is different than
what I've seen, at least in the fresh mech sector.
Obviously is one of the reasons when Sharon and I said, hey,
we should get the Eric on the show. This would
be a good one to cover. With that being said,
(39:30):
Eric trends going forward from here, because many people would say,
you know, just follow what's happening in the regionals, what's
happening at the nationals, you know, on the bigger fast
casual brands, But you guys don't seem to do that.
So tell me what you're seeing as far as as trends,
whether it's this year or beyond in fast casual.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
This is going to be a long answer, two parted.
First part is that I think we've all seen trends
with food, right. We went through a bigger burger craze,
then we went through a pizza craze. Then we had
a real small yogurt frozen yogurt phase, and then Chicken's
been crazy, right. So, but one thing I've not seen
(40:14):
big ups and downs is tacos. Why I'm at Tiki
Tako right, It's like I've never really met anyone that
said I don't like tacos. They may like a different
tortilla or a different protein or whatever they may say.
But I think from Mexican and that's why it's gotten
so popular here lately. Is trending Asian and Mexican I
think are the next two trends that will pop off.
(40:37):
But I think the real important fact here is is
that I think we went because of COVID. We went
too far. The pendulum swung too far into pre made
frozen food to get it out, and I think it's
making a massive swing back the other way, where people
want fresh made from scratch ingredients again served at because
(40:57):
the value proposition is the reality is I'm selling fresh
made things at the same price as other people are
dropping it out of a fryar, out of a bag
into a fryer, So that expectation from a value proposition
is going to come back to fresh and greedy here.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Yeah, I think good to hear seeing fresh ingredients and
also just prep time. I think people will notice. They'll
they'll clearly see the quality difference, I think quickly. So
you guys are it's probably going to without a doubt,
going to pay off for you guys too. What about
you share? Do you think give me if you were
selecting three categories. I know you get to do this
every day, but when you're selecting three categories, thinking all right,
(41:35):
this category could continue as a star. I mean you
look at chickens growth, it's been dynamic. You look at
fresh max to a certain extent, and then maybe ethnic
I would still throw kava in there, you know, to
a certain lair. What do you think do you think
we'll see that as bakery cafe cafe got a chance anymore?
Speaker 2 (41:53):
I'm actually seeing several in the last couple of weeks,
some new bakeries coming up, But no, I think it's
mostly going to be Asian fresh mex And and like Mediterranean.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
That's still like that fresh. Yeah, the crazy pitas of
the world.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
We just had Charles Bellilla's on the on the show
last week. While you were gone, Cherah, you missed a
great episode. You were out working, man, you're doing summit
and he's uh, he's with Suvla out of San Francisco
and that have you been to that location yet or
any of his locations you got to go to when
next time you're out there, you've got to visit that locate,
(42:30):
any of his stores. It is one of the most
dynamic Greek locations I've seen yet, so very cool. Eric.
It has been great having you on the show today. Man,
the minute I stepped foot in Kansas City, I am
going to a tiki taco.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Well, thanks so much for having me. And I'm going
to hold you to that too.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
I'm going to I'm going to set out on the
patio and relax. Nice spring day. That's thinking about hot.
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Well, I'm from Tampa, so I'm ready for it.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
There you go, my man, There you go. That's for sure.
It's been good having you. Thanks again for stopping and
we appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Thanks again.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
You beat all right, so what a great I love these.
We are absolutely getting some rock stars on the show.
And by the way, you guys, if you want to
become a guest, of course, you can reach out to
Shara right there at Fastcasual dot com. You can visit
our show page. We have a little guest inquiry. We
(43:29):
always leave that in the links to where you can
fill out something and get into our producers so you
can possibly get on the list. But right now the
line list is pretty long on founders and new brands
and all that kind of stuff coming at us, so
it's going to be huge. Now is the Top one
hundred in full swing of decision to make process.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
We have got all the data. We are now sifting
through the data and my goal. There's so much data
thanks to our partnership with Loop who's helped us collect
all of that. I'm hoping to let the winning brands
know by Monday so they can start making travel plans
for the Past Casual Top.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
One hundred gala on Maying in May. Right, Yep, it's a.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Sunday night, so Past Casual kind of owns the Sunday
night experience. If you're lucky enough to make the list.
So we will have our top one hundred gala. I
call it the Academy Awards of the Industry. I have
the best Stressed category again, so everybody will be donning
their sequence and suits and it should be fun. But
I'm I'm kind of stressed right now because there's so
(44:34):
much data and so many brands that have nominated themselves
and we are we're going to have We're going to
have a very exciting list to announce pretty soon.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Do okay, I have a question. Out of the all
the ones that submitted this year, do you have a
percentage that are first timers or people that you had
never seen before coming through?
Speaker 2 (44:59):
So we I do have a few that have never
nominated themselves, But there hasn't been anybody on the list
that you know, we haven't been covering that we haven't
known about.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Okay, So you're keeping it.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
And the one thing to keep in mind is there
are so many fast casual brands that if you don't
nominate yourself, we do not add you to the list.
So like, well, there may be a brand that you
are like, wow, why aren't they on it? While if
they didn't nominate themselves they're out of the work, or
if someone didn't nominate them, you know, because.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
You have to remember that. Everybody that's listening this year,
you've got to remember that, get in there and nominate.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
Because there could be thousands.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
I mean, so it's not really fair for I feel
like it's not very fair for me to be like,
oh oh, this brand is really great, but they didn't
take the time to nominate themselves, so I'm going to
throw them in the list. Nope, you have to care
enough about it to like market yourself either.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Yeah, well, listen, it's going to be We're gonna be
covering a lot of that through April into May as
as the Fast Casual one hundred gets closed. So obviously
continue to watch and listen. If you guys are not
subscribed on our YouTube channel right now, do that these
shows have been really popping off. We again great coverage
on these lots of listeners. Uh, if you're over on
(46:10):
whether you're on Spotify, you're on podcast Guru, one of
our web or the new podcast two point zero apps,
make sure and leave a comment. We always love to
get those as well. Share. We will see you and if.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
You want to be a sponsor, if you want to
be featured or yes your ads, let us know we're
we are happy, Zach.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
If you're listening at Ovation.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
I'm going to send this to Zach now. I want
to say, hey, you had to You had a customer
Testimonia on the show.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
The next one you got to pay up.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
It's time for you two dollars. Oh my god, what
was that? That was John Cusack? Johnsack better off dead.
Oh my god, that's like the best line in movies ever.
I want by two dollars that kid facing him forever. Anyway,
now that we're down the rabbit hole, there it has.
(47:03):
We'll see you guys next week right here on Fast
Casual Nation.
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