The Fast Casual Taco Boom: Building The Perfect Brand 🌮

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, we are back here on the Fast Casual
Nation podcast, the one that started it all here in
the fast casual sector. Joining me today, of course, is
my co host, Miss shri Chandler. How are you.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm doing great, trying to stay cool here in Kansas City,
where it has been upper nineties, almost one hundred.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
So hey man, the Midwest is a lot hotter than
people think, you know, so just remember that when you're
out there trying to figure out what place you want
to move to to avoid the heat. Not Kansas City exactly,
you know. But the barbecue is good, yes, for sure,
exact courts. All right, so let's get into well, let's
kind of tease a little bit about we're going to

(00:37):
be talking about today. We have a very special guest
coming in from Velvet Taco and we're going to be
diving into the whole taco explosion taco boom in the
fast casual sector. But we're going to throw you a
couple of curveballs and we have a plot twist in
this one, so it's going to be fun. You don't
want to miss this one. Stick around. We'll be right back.

(01:12):
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(02:04):
we are back here on Fast Casual Nation, and of
course we're going to dive in deep here real quickly
to a couple of points. Obviously, we'll talk about Velvet
Taco a little bit. And I noticed you guys had
a news story on this one. Give me, give me
the rundown, yep.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
So we have a couple things.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Velvet Tacos all the rage this week. So they are
launching their annual WTF contests where they let customers pick
what's going to be in the tacos recipes and things,
so that should be fun. And then this one that
we're looking at right now is just an interview with
our CEO, Clad Doover, who will be at the Vial
Executive Summit in October. He kind of goes through what

(02:43):
he'll talk about with online engagement and promotions, so he
kind of gives a sneak preview so you can know
what you're going to hear from him at the summit
in October.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Interesting. Okay, all right, so good. So you feel like
there's a few key promotions that are that are working
for the industry right now.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean the social media obviously, the TikTok
from obviously, but this promotion that Bilvit Taco does is
pretty interesting because it really gets the customers involved. I
think I read that they had had eight hundred entries
over the years. It's like the four time I've done it.
But I'm sure Brooke can tell us more about that.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, okay, well, this is this is something that I'm
continuing to look at as we track a lot of
these brands. You know, from an investment side, and always
look at the social products. And the first thing that
we do as a team. We have a research team
that goes in and will analyze the concept that maybe

(03:41):
we're going to do an investment in. But then we
look at all of the social media platform concepts and
accounts of their competitors, and we look for that crossover
between their guests and also kind of what they're doing
strategic wise. I've actually found that it seems a little
bit redundant right now in terms of like certain brands

(04:07):
seemed I don't know if they're copying off each other
or it's it's not like I've seen brand new concepts
and very you know, unbelievably innovative that nobody else is
doing it. It's a little bit unusual.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
The kind of always followed the menu trends too, right, So.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yes, yes, you know their fish.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Tacos and at the time of the march and everything.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
So it's crazy. Hey, we've got we got earnings news
coming in from Starbucks as well. So there they're five
step recovery plan. That sounds unusual. Five steps to recovery.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Just in the earnings call yesterday, their CEO was laying
out several things that they were going to do to
basically turn this thing around. And if you scroll down
a little bit, you can see they're really going all
in on their Green Apron initiative, which is spitting like,
I think, five hundred million dollars in labor us, you know,
to hire people to make to make the training better.

(05:07):
They're going to revitalize the store experience, so you know
they're going to spend one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
per store to kind of remodel each one to make
it warmer. They're also talking about launching the coffee House
of the future, which everybody says they're going to do that,
so we'll see basically just a smaller drive through version
cost lust to build. And of course, innovation the buzzword

(05:29):
always innovating with menu trends. They're talking about protein, coffee,
coconut water, energy drinks. Also rolling out a new Starbucks app,
which I don't know why they would do a new
app since it's like the number one app ever, but.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, I think the app is good. I just don't
know how nimble Starbucks can be, even with Nickel at
the helm. I think the nimble nature of a lot
of these brands that we're seeing work. You know, we
had Cali Coffee on you were in your hiatus of
fun Times, and that was a really good conversation. I

(06:05):
think you would have liked that one. By the way,
that episode did really well on YouTube. I don't know
if I think it's the Cali Coffee brand. They're kind
of a thing, so, but my point was is that
they're very nimble. These guys are constantly doing stuff, so.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's easier to be nimble when you don't bazilion locations.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, yeah, well, hey, that's right. That's the key there.
When you don't have a whole bunch going on, it's
a little easier to be nimble for sure. All right, guys,
we are going to bring in our guest and this
is going to be a treat because I think when
you look at a lot of the people that we
bring on too fast casual Nation, many times we don't

(06:49):
get a chance to talk to the real stars. I
think the CEOs are great. Don't get me wrong, CEOs.
We love you, we want you back. But I love
it when we get a he has to see the
rest of the team, and that is the case today.
We're going to bring in Brook Perry, who's the VP
of marketing over at Velvet Taco. So, Brooke, welcome to

(07:10):
the show.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Thank you. I'm excited to talk with you today.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Yeah. So we're going to get into all this good stuff.
Normally it is Clay Dover's mug representing taco of velvets.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Vet jacket, that all.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
He's got the whole thing, you know, the real cool
hip thing going. You know, I know Velvet Watch episode two.
I know he's going to watch it. He's gonna read watch.
He's going that Paul Baron, I'm gonna get.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
You will We're giving we're giving him a break this week.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Oh that's good, okay, all right, all right, well, hey
give us a rundown of where you guys are right now,
a little bit, how you got going in the business,
and uh, what's the you know, size scope of Velvet
Taco today.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah. Absolutely so. Velvet Taco, for those that aren't aware,
is a fifty two unit taco concept. We are not
your average taco shops, so we say all the time,
we're really trying to redefine what a taco can be.
So we don't serve just Mexican or text Mexs inspired tacos.
We draw inspiration from cultures all over the world and

(08:12):
deliver those flavors to our guests in a taco format
and now a bowl format as well, with the bowl
extension that we just added to our menu, which I'll
probably talk to you a little bit more about. Today.
We are in eight states with thirteen major dms and
growing rapidly, so exciting growth happening this year. We have

(08:33):
our first international location opening in Broadgate Circle in London
later this year. Continuing continuing to grow domestically as well.
We just announced we'll be opening in DFW Airport next year,
which is exciting. That will be a nice non trab
location for us. So lots of growth on the horizon.
I think you know. One of the most unique things

(08:55):
about our brand is our relentless innovation. We have something
called our Weekly Taco Future, better known as the WTF.
I always joke that I'm really glad they figured out
how to do this before I joined, because we we train, source,
and market a new taco across more than fifty locations
every single week of the years. That's fifty two ltos
every year, and we have that down to a science.

(09:20):
So it's it's a lot of fun, and it keeps
our teams always learning and dealing with constant change, which
I think is good. It keeps us on our toes.
Probably the most special thing though about our brand is
our team. So we call our team a tribe, and
it's kind of the tribe mentality and the best way.
It's all for one and one for all. We have
a lot of fun working at all. That taco is

(09:42):
more of a lifestyle than just a job for most
of our team, which is cool. A lot of our
team members have all that taco tattooed or you know,
one of our core values tattooed. We'll actually pay for that,
and you'd be surprised on me, Yeah, you'd be surprised me.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, that should be an ad in for your hiring.
We pay for tats.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
It's part of our benefits package actually, and yeah, well
we'll pay for it if it's a if you just
want to get a taco, or if you want to
get the logo or any of our core values tattooed,
and and lots of team members take us up on that.
So anyway, really really exciting time for us. Lots of
growth on the Horizon and you know kind of couldn't

(10:27):
be more excited to be a part of the team.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Well, good, I'm glad to see that. You know, Clay
Dover finally found a brand that he could do well at.
No brand is doing great. I'm just messing with Clay.
He knows that he is such a good friend. Listen,
Clay and I go back so far. And it's funny

(10:51):
because the first Velvet Taco I went to was your
Knox Henderson place. I think you had three units when
Randy to Wait was just getting started. Yeah, in love
with that brand at that time. I was like, this
is going to revolutionize tacos, you know, and of course
you guys have, so congrats to everything you guys are doing.

(11:12):
Is that is that location still open, the little one
right there on the corner of Knox Henderson.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
You know, Unfortunately we had a great lease agreement that
was for ten years and unfortunately couldn't renew it, so
we're no longer open there, But we have sixteen locations
across DFW, so still you know, really strong.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Where would be the best location in uptown in Dallas?

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Our uptown location? Just the Uptown Okay, Yeah, that's that's
close to Steptown.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
That's where when I lived in Dallas. That's the place
I lived near and that was where I hung out.
So it was all all up in there, So it
was it was great.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Well, when you come back, you'll have to check us out.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
I'm gonna we're gonna get there because we're going to
Dallas in the next little bit. I'm a big cowboy fan,
so you know, of course, cowboys and the chiefs do
not get along, you know, But that's beside the point.
I put that aside. I don't worry about that.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Hey, we have America's team.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
This arrowhead thing is always messing with me.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
You know, America's teams.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Sharah, what are you finding in the taco sector right now?
That one? I guess? First of all, where do you
think Velvet Taco went from a standpoint of all the
taco brands that are out there, how do you kind
of balance them? And what would you kind of lead
off here in terms of questions?

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Well, I think that it's very interesting with all of
the brands popping up, Like we have Tiaki Taco here
in Kansas City, and you know they have five units.
But you know they've said that they're trying to kind
of build that culture.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
That Velvet Taco has.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
So I guess my first question is, how are you
protecting you know, protecting that? So when you see all
these other up and I mean emerging brands who are
kind of getting some excitement because they're new, how are
you kind of protecting you know, that reputation.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
Yeah, So, as as Velvet Taco continues to grow, that's
going to be a constant challenge that we face, and
it's been one that we face for a long time.
Now we're coming up on our fourteen year anniversary as
a brand, so we've we've been around the block for
for a minute. I think that, you know the most
important part of just staying you know, competitive, is staying

(13:34):
true to our brand, staying true to our roots. We
have this being down to a science. So it is
Velvet Taco is not an easy operation. Are We're a
scratch kitchen. Our tacos are a prep recipe on top
of prep recipe. Everything is made from scratch down to
the sauces, and it's not easy to replicate. I think

(13:54):
other brands certainly will continue to pop up and find
great success us, but we really believe that if we
stay true our model and you know, true to the
fourteen years of history and learnings that we have, will
continue to keep that competitive edge.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
I think the scratch kitchen might give you the angle
even though you're kind of the chef driven concept of
what you guys do, just the creative nature of these tacos,
what you put on the menu is pretty cool. You
also get very diversified.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
I was going to say that two ltos every ltos,
but you guys have one every week. So I mean,
do you have like a chef and a person who
heads that up or do you just take franchises ideas
or how does that work?

Speaker 3 (14:39):
Yeah? So right now we have a company owned business model,
so no plans to franchise, at least domestically in the
near term. And we have a director of culinary who
is amazing. Her name is Vanessa Willis, and she is
super creative I think really embodies the rebellious nature of
the brand, and that's what we really try to bring
forth in our WTS program, coming up with fifty two

(15:03):
new recipes, not just new recipes, but recipes that will
resonate with guests and also be executable. In our restaurants
is no easy task, and so that's a huge focus
of her role. And what I love is we get
to do taco tastings each month and try all of
her new creations and just makes amasure.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Is there a job that I can apply for on
that one?

Speaker 3 (15:28):
I feel like that would be a great marketing campaign,
like Chief Taco Tasting Officer?

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Who apply?

Speaker 3 (15:36):
Okay, I'll let you know. I'll let you know when
we post that one. But she leads our culinary innovation
and does a really really good job of bringing flavors forward.
We never want to just follow trends that are happening today.
We want to be at the forefront of trends that
are going to happen forrow next year, two years from now,
and so she does a really good job of predicting

(15:57):
what those are and allows us to be one.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Well, I got to ask, what are the top what's
the top sellers right now? What are the like the
Kings of Velvet Taco and queens.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah, so our number one sellers always our spicy teaka
chicken that is really and it's a super flavorful, super
memorable taco and it has always been our number one sellar.
We also sell a lot of our slowristed Angus briskets
that comes to the cheese crusted tortilla. So I think

(16:28):
those yeah, yeah, those beef. Yeah yeah, we're I mean
with with such a base in Texas, you know, we
like our we like our win.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
That's a big winner, I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
Right is the state you said eight states? What is
the state that you have the least number in right now?

Speaker 3 (16:46):
Arizona. So we just opened in old Town Scottsdale. We
have one location in that in that market, but more
coming soon with Paradise Sally. Next.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, you have Lauderdale open. I go to that one often,
which is not too far from US. Is Florida. Total
count in Florida.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
Right now, one in Florida too. So we're in Fort
Lauderdale in Florida, and we're in Phoenix as well. Oh yeah,
so this are.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Gonna be big markets for you. I think you've got
to go to Bocan next. Then you hit win Wood.
You need a win Wood thing like down by Walt Grace.
This is such a walk Grace kind of. I don't
know if you guys have ever checked out Walt Grace
and Winwood, but it's basically porsches and guitars.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
I'll flag it with our I'll flag it with our
real estate team. We are we are hyper focused on growth.
We're excited. There's a ton of white space just in
existing markets. You know, we could open dozens of restaurants.
Been opening a new market.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
And it's a very it's a very kind of hipster
kind of you know community. I don't even know how
you would compare it to somewhere in Dallas, maybe kind
of uptown a little bit, but very very artsy, very
artsy do all.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
With the artistic types. Yeah, we'll have to check it out.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yeah, well, it's mostly where if you go down to
our Bosl, it's like the genesis of art Bosl in
Miami is right there, which reminds me, Chera, you got
to come to art Bosl this year.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
I would love to.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
I kind of music your music Lover was.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
In Tampa or I was in Miami last year and
I almost got to go, but it just worked.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
It's a great it's a great thing. That would be
a good pop up for Velvet Taco hit that tell Clay,
let's do a pop up down there. I have a
cyber truck. I'll wrap it like a taco.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
Okay, hey, we'll take you up on that.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
But I'll take it down there. We'll wrap it like
a taco velvet taco will serve tacos out of the
back of it for a pop up and when would
you know, give away some free crypto, just do some
crazy stuff. Let's do this.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
I love it. I love it. We've done I'm soaby
food and wine for the last couple of years.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
There you are. Yeah, that's a great one.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yes, so we didn't have we didn't have a cyber truck,
so I think that would really.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
There you go, I got one. I got one for you.
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you there. Let's get into a couple of other things
tech marketing how do you mix the two. You guys
have a really good app, which I like, but when

(20:56):
you think loyalty, this is the argument. I think share
and I go back and forth on because to me,
I hate loyalty apps. I hate them. I don't want
to I don't want to be part of the sheeple,
you know. I just don't want to be that. I
want to have something that is unique and connected to
the brand and it feels it feels warm and gooey

(21:17):
like your beef taco.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
Well, I I feel you, and I think people. You know,
we were reluctant to give up space on our home
screen too for another app. We've had a ton of
success with our loyalty program. It's called the Velvet Room,
and we really try to connect with people in a
different way than you know, other loyalty programs connect with them.

(21:46):
So we're seeing huge growth of the program year over year.
We're at I think eight hundred and seventy thousand members
of our loyalty program, which at fifty two locations is huge.
So that's more that's more members per location than Starbucks
in Chipotle, so huge. Yeah, just do that. We have

(22:08):
very engaged guests. Guests really love our brand and want
to interact with us. We we also have seen growth
of loyalty transactions as well, which you would expect. So
twenty six percent of our sales have a loyalty number
attached to them, so that's a fourth of the business
is coming through that program.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
We near any brands that high, Sarah, definitely, that's extremely
high for.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
Fast casual It's hwh you see numbers like that with
like coffee brands or super brands that are more functional
or built around rituals where you're going every single day,
and you know points points are part of our program,
but what we see is guests really are using it
for convenience, They're using it as a way to engage
with us, and we also have we realize we have
a lot of work to do with our app. We're

(22:56):
not just one to settle for for what we have today.
So we're working on some really cool personalization segmentation targeting,
very techy to really connect with guests from a like
a brand to human standpoint. We want when we talk
to guests, we want to feel like it's a text

(23:17):
from their best friend, not like they're being marketed to.
And so we're working to streamline some of our communications
to do that, so you won't feel like you're part
of the herd?

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Are you guys AI for that kind of personalized or
where are you at right now?

Speaker 3 (23:34):
Yeah, So we we're using AI really in our checkout
flow more than anything. So we have suggestive up selling
during our checkout flow where we're using AI to predict
what the guests would want to add to their order
based on what's in their cart and based on what
previous you know, guests have ordered with those items. So

(23:54):
that's that's been really cool and has had an impact
on average check we're also doing outside the app, using
AI for some predictive medals too, So we're working with
a group that's able to help us figure out, Okay,
if you take price on this item or in this market,
here's how that will play out over the next six
months to twelve months. If you launch this brand promotion,

(24:17):
here's what we think it'll do to your sales overall
over time. And so that's been really helpful as we
plan for the future.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah. Social right now, it looks like Instagram is kind
of one of your top destinations. Are you guys spending
a lot of time and effort on this. How are
you managing it? What's the strategy behind it?

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah? I am a big believer in social media. I
actually so. One of my first jobs out of college
was working for Jombajuice at their headquarters. I oversaw social
media for the brand, and it was kind of the
first time social media was a real job. Like everyone
kind of thought it was a joke when I graduated
and I was like, yeah, I'm I've taken a social
media marketing job. You know that. It was such a

(25:06):
different time back then though, you know, brands didn't really
have social strategies. We're just kind of figuring it out.
But super super fun job and really made me believe
in the power of social media in a way I
just don't think I would have had I not had
that experience. So one of the first hires that I
made when I joined the Velvet Taco team was somebody

(25:26):
to oversee social media as the core part of their job.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Got to do it? Yeah, do it?

Speaker 3 (25:33):
We have that in house. What were you going to say?

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Which? Which platform do you feel has the most opportunity
for you guys?

Speaker 3 (25:42):
So we've had the most success on Instagram, but I
think the one with the most opportunity is definitely TikTok.
We you know, continue to invest time and energy into
that platform. I think the biggest mistake that brands make
is they treat social as a sales tool. Social media
is not a sales tool. It's a brand tool. It's
a way to connect authentically with your audience. We're seeing
that be especially important with gen Z. They see through

(26:06):
it if you're if they're being marketers to they want
they want to see them. They want to see brands
engaging with things that they care about in an authentic way.
So it's important that the content and all look over polished.
I think a lot of brands use agencies for their
social content and they end up with really beautiful content
that is not resonating with people because it just feels inauthentic.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Do you guys use like paid influencers or what's your
strategy around that.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yeah, we we do engage with influencers, both paid and
trade partnerships, and have a lot of success with those collaborations.
But we've actually seen a ton of success just with
brand created content too. So our social manager goes out
into the restaurants and films and you know, posts that

(26:51):
content and we actually went viral twice last year, so
we got over thirty million views between the two videos
that went viral.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
And okay, well you have to tell us what went viral.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
Well, I joke with her, I'm kind of glad you
didn't ask me to approve the first post because I
probably wouldn't have. But that's the thing, like people like
to see see brands take a risk. So the first
was of just tying our margaritas to a funny trending meme.
At the time, it was I don't know if you
know Gypsy Rose, we won't get into controversial, but you know,

(27:28):
we did a little a little meme video with her
and it went viral before I knew it had been posted,
so it was that was good. We took a risk
with that one. And then another one was just you know,
an idea that our our social team had here at
the office, and it was it was a trend that
we jumped on early. I think a lot of brands

(27:48):
wait too long to jump on the trend. So I
always say, if we're not one of the first brands
to do it, we shouldn't do it because we've never
want We never wanted to like you agree with that.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
I know people because I talk to CEOs and founders
all the time, and I just tell them, guys, you
got to take a little bit more risk, you know,
and get out there first because you can always apologize,
you know, if something kind of hits the wrong courd
on social But just try try things, and I think
people will look at that much more authentically versus if

(28:19):
you structure it. I've got to get marketing doing this,
and everybody's got to do all this, and John Renner
has to look at it and then you know that's
an inside joke.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
I've worked for big brands where you have a huge
legal team and it really stifles creativity. I love working
on a brand that is a little bit smaller, where
we do have an appetite for risk and we do
some of those bold activations and so far it's really
paid off.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Soomer, with your customer driven WTF contest coming up, I'm
assuming that is going to be a huge opportunity for
some social media for some TikTok. So are you guys
having behind that.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yeah, absolutely, it's a huge It's something we do every
year or well, we started a few years ago and
we continue to do. We love engaging with guests in
a way that other brands don't really engage with their guests,
and so we basically opened opened a contest where guests
can submit a recipe for a for their idea for WTF.

(29:26):
Our chef will select a winner, and she'll fly out
to the market that the winner is located and spend
a day with them in the kitchen innovating and they'll
finalize the recipe, tweak the recipe, and that's of course
a huge, huge social opportunity. So we'll get content of
that work session and that's how we'll promote it. That

(29:49):
taco will run on National Taco Day in early October.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Tells about the weirdest have some weird recipes? Are there
some really crazy combos that people have submitted?

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Yeah? There there are always some some crazy ones, and
sometimes what we'll do is we'll share those on social
like honorable mentions just for being crazy. Some of the
names too, are like mildly offensive, which we hear at
the office. Love like we love to sit around and
be like, what you know what crazy beings that should.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
Be a taco by itself.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Mildly offensive, I'll add it to my name bank. That's
good for WTS.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, these are too. These are way too g rated
for me. I don't I don't like any of these.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Burdens and boy humor, you know, I'm out.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
I will say my very favorite all the taco taco
is the burn Ins Taco. It is so delicious. And
I'm not even a big like meat eater or like
barbecue person, but that one is just it's so good
and it's one.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Of them that should be doing well in Kansas City
for sure. Shah. I mean, come on, you got barbecue,
glazed brisket, creamy whole, small house brind, pickles, crispy onions
on a SS seed bun.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, I have my arm that las on your one though,
that las on you one looks amazing.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Also, they do look good. These are fun. I love
the I love the concept too. I think this is
such a win for you guys before we get into,
you know, dealing with kind of where this boom is
going to go next and how we're going to see
fast casual roll into this. If there's one area right

(31:31):
now that you guys are building in, because I remember
I don't know if it was Houston or which location
it was that Clay was telling me about drive through.
Is that still a thing for you guys? Are you
going to do it? What's what's the plan?

Speaker 3 (31:44):
Yeah, taco lanes are still a beIN so we we
love when we have the opportunity to open a location
with a drive through. It's it is a little bit
of a challenge because I think naturally when you have
a drive through, guests expect if faster experience, and with
us being a scratch kitchen, that does create a challenge
of just making sure that the guest expectation is not

(32:06):
that I'm going to get my food in two minutes.
It's there's still you know, we'll get it out quickly,
but there's there's still a level of culinary you know
that's happening. But yes, huge sales driver for us. It's
not a requirement. So we will open a location even
if it doesn't have a tackle lane, but you know,

(32:27):
it especially catches our attention if it does.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
That's interesting. One last question inside joke here is do
you guys do anything for Elvis' birthday?

Speaker 3 (32:38):
You know we we don't always, but in the past
we have run a velvet all this. Yeah, that's the Yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
I got to do it on January.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
Okay, I'll add it to our list for next year.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
We're giving our so much good stuff here share she's
going to have to hire us as marketing consultants.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
I love it. You'll be hearing from me and I
Every year for Halloween make my team dress up as
something velvet, Taco beamed and so one year we all
dressed up as wtfs and my digital marketing manager was
the velvet all this.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, velvet elvis. I love it. I love it. All right,
So let's talk about this next generation. You know, we're
talking about gen Z mostly, and it seems as though
so many brands are starting to customize their offerings, their marketing,
even in some cases their brand mission to kind of

(33:31):
adapt to this next generation of consumer. How are you
guys dealing with that? What's the do you have like
a little line list of these are the things we
got to do in the next few years to really
address this.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
Yeah, so we're definitely thinking about gen Z and gen
Alpha behind them, right because here pretty soon that's going
to be the hot topic. But what we're finding is
that historically guests or not even guests, just people tried
new foods and new flavors because they thought they would
enjoy that food or flavor. Now, especially with gen Z,

(34:07):
they're trying it to be able to say that they
tried it. They want the experience of trying that new
cuisine or that new food type. And I think yeah,
and I think it goes hand in hand with social media.
They want to be able to share it with their
followers and their friends. They want to be able to
integrate it into their identity. You know, ivell that tako

(34:29):
we talk a lot about, Like the guests who are
eating our wtfs, they're not just trying the taco of
the week. They really are saying like, I'm bold, I'm adventurous,
I try new beings like it's that's what it says
about them. And I think gen Z very much embraces that.
So I think, you know, what we're predicting is like

(34:49):
experience over function becoming really even more important than it
is today. I think we're one of the brands that's
poised to manage that and provide that for gen Z.
But I'd say that's the biggest thing that we're focused on.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
I have a whole bunch of cool ideas. I'm going
to scent of to Clay that you guys should be doing.
So I've got a whole list. I've been making notes here.
I got lots of good stuff from you, Brooke. So
we're going to get into the velvet campaigns here soon.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
Awesome. I love it. I love it.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Let's talk about next up? All right, So you talked
about gen Z a little bit. You look at future
trends going forward, Shira, what do you when you look
at the number of brands that you're following right now
in the taco sector, is there anybody that you would say, hey,
here is a velvet taco disruptor.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Well, I mentioned earlier. I think Tiki Tako is Tiki.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
We had the guys on.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
We did, we had them on, you know. I mean
they have a long way to go. I think they
have five or six brands. So yeah, it's locations.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
But anything else you're seeing out there in the market.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
I mean, do you want me to like actually name drop.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yes, yes, Brooke needs to know who her competition is
so she can go down there and get some deep
dives on them.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
I'm not going to name drop, so you should.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
Okay, like chronic coacos of course, there's one out of
DC district Tacos that I think is interesting. That's probably
the main two taco deli I think is interesting. So
this isn't Yeah, well yeah, Texas, yeah for sure. Austin,
Houston and Dallas interesting.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
Okay, well there you go, Brook, you got a line
list there those are because listen, great brands need great competition. Yeah,
because it pushes you forward, It keeps you on your edge.
It's the best thing I tell brands all the time.
You want a you need your you know, Ali needed
his his competition out there to be the greatest, you know, so.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
His competition in the face. We don't get to do that.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
We do it metaphorically, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
I think there's a few velvet punches coming in for
the market, so watch out for that, Brook. Okay, give
me give me two predictions for the fast casual sector
in the next three years. What do you think is
going to be the next little edgy? Could be food,
could be tech, could be concepts. What do you feel?

Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah, so, well, tons of tons of things, but I
think it really the big two are the experience of
our function, just continuing to build experiential, you know, restaurant
experiences for guests. I think for a long time, fast
casual has been about function, and so it's the experience,

(37:48):
like it's matching the experience of a more full service
or polished casual dining experience with the function of fast casual.
So I think we're going to see that more and more,
especially just de demanding it. And then I think that
the old lto model is not going to continue to
work for brands so that it has in the past.

(38:10):
Social media has sped up the life cycle of these
trends so much so a trend used to have this
longer breadth of time where it was relevant. Now it's
like a flash in the pan. And if you can't
jump on it and create really quickly, then it's old news.
Like we saw that with Dubai chocolate. That was a
huge thing and now you know, it's there's still some

(38:31):
buzz that people aren't really talking about it like they
were even a month ago. And so the ability to
be nimble and jump on those trends with ltos is
going to be increasingly important again, like Velvet Taco is
really fortunate that we are nimble and we are able
to activate quickly because we do have fifty two ltos year,
It'll be interesting to see how brands that don't have

(38:51):
that ability or able to act execute it.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Well, everything's so digital now you don't really need much
in store, so the pop is kind of gone. Everything's
moving now to mobile. So it's easy enough, you know
from a transportability standpoint, at least from the graphic and
the development side. The key is going to be supply chain.
You know, how do you go through into menu distribution

(39:16):
and getting that done? If you do a lot of
what do they call that where you mix the ingredients
of these guys, you know these culinarias utilization, Yeah, you
know those those We had one of those scientists on
the other day. You know, he was much smarter than
we were, so I just was listening to what he
was saying. But yeah, cross utilization where they use that
pipeline redistributed into a lot of menu items. That could

(39:40):
be your secret weapon. Maybe you guys are onto something.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
If you think you guys would ever do like regional
like ltos by region obviously like Kansas City for example,
would love the bur ends, but you know other locations
might not. Is that something you think about or is
it always going to be a relocation has gets the
same treatment.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
So with with the WTF program, we've not done that
just because it's you know, one week only, and but
we will create wtfs that are inspired by one of
our markets and then tell that story across the entire business.
We have done regional menus in the past, so and
that's that's something We still have a few tacos in

(40:22):
San Antonio that are unique to that market. Sometimes when
we open a new restaurant will open with the taco
that's unique to that that market, especially in new market opening.
So those are things that that we do sometimes. But
you know, isn't really part of our bigger strategy moving forward.
But you bring up a good you bring up a

(40:42):
good point with cross utilization, I think that's something else
that gives us a competitive edge. A lot of taco
concepts are using the same flavors. It's like rinse and
repeat with a couple of differences and recipe. Really, if
you look at our menu, there are like every single
taco is different with different ingredients, and there's you know,
not a lot of cross utilization of ingredients. So it

(41:04):
keeps us really unique and every taco is a different experience.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
Yeah for sure. Well, and I think you know the
scenario that plays out so much is many many brands
they get kind of stuck in a rut and now
I think the favor of the flavor profiles, but also
the customers and this next generation they are in. And
this kind of matches up with your other prediction there,

(41:31):
and that is, you know, kind of this experiential component
because if you can create that from a culinary standpoint
as well as you know, deliver it on the brand level. O. Man,
that's like a double edged sword. That'll be awesome. You
guys will be wielding it for sure. All Right, Brooke,
well I can tell we're going to probably have you
back on the show because you passed our test.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
And oh good, I didn't know I was being tested.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
But yes, we have a test. It is a test
if you get a second show at the Fast Casual.
I mean, this is the biggest podcast in the industry.
This is not some slouch podcast. This is like the
podcast all right, No.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
It's the It's the highlight of my year. For sure.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
There we go. See that's what I'm talking about. So
you pass the test, we'll get you back on the show.
I have I have a feeling that you have something
you're not telling us.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
There there might be some some big news. So I
knew it. I knew it.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
There's something she's not telling us.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
Ery very exciting at all.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
The taco okay, all right, Well typical you know, played
Dover style, always working in the back room, doing things
back there.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
You know he's got a master plan.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
I see him. I seem he's Is he outside your
office right now?

Speaker 3 (42:50):
No, I've I've put a do not disturb sign up
that he did get. I think he walked past and
gave me a funny look like.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
Up to today. I love it all right. Well, listen, Brooke,
it's been great having you again. Thanks so much. You guys,
make sure and jump over to Velve to talk if
you haven't been to one and check it out. Of course,
if you're out there competing against them, well good luck.
Hopefully you guys will make it through. But we appreciate
you coming in. Thanks so much.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Thanks for having me. It was fun.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
You bet all right, Chera, this is this has been
a good one. We have the nominations for the top
thirty movers and shakers. Just as a reminder for everybody
for catering.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
So, yeah, it's going to close in a couple of weeks,
So nominate yourself or your favorite catering true and we
will be announcing that the top thirty list in September
our second year. Yeah, you can see a couple of
the winners from last year.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Yeah there's Sam Stanovich.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah, child, And then what's really cool about that? So
we'll pick the top thirty and then or five of
those people will join us at the Fast Casual Executive
Summit in October to talk.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
Oh okay, it's the top.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
Catering strategy during a whole session dedicated to catering.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
And then we also figned August seventeenth.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Yes, so you have plenty of time, but you know,
the sooner the better you get for a review.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Very very cool, very very cool. Listen a lot happening
in the fast casual sector right here. If you guys
have an idea for the show, you can send that
over to Shaa. What Sharon, what's your email over there
for everybody to spam share.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
A C SO C H E R R y h
C at net World Media Group.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
There you go send it to shera she kind of
works with our team. We get try to get the
best of the best on here and we get man,
we have a lineup coming. It is like the what
is it the dream team? I call it the dream
Team of Fast Casual right now the back half of
this year dream Team of Fast Casual.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Up through October.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
So it's crazy, it's crazy, and we love it. We
are growing fast, as I said. Now savor over two
hundred and sixty thousand subscribers over on YouTube. To make
sure and subscribe over there, and Fast Casual Nation the
hottest podcast out there. You guys need to stay around
for this one because it's it's going to get fun.

(45:23):
This is just the beginning. We have so many ideas
of what we're going to be doing here. It's going
to blow you guys away.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
To quit my other job and just be a full
time podcast.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
There you go. That's what we need to do, go
daily or something. I love it. That would be that's
hard work.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
Forget.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
I said that, Forget, I said that.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
We don't scare him off anyway.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
All right, it was a great scene to share it.
We'll get you guys next week right here on Fast
Casual Nation. See you

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