April 23, 2025 • 48 mins
Fast Casual Nation hosts Paul Barron and Cherryh Cansler interview Cassidy Jones, founder of Atlanta's LOL Burger Bar, who reveals how she's disrupting the better burger segment with creative menu items like acronym-named burgers and over-the-top "freak shakes." With two locations already operating and plans for a food truck, Jones shares her ambitious franchising strategy, social media marketing approach including celebrity collaborations, and advice for entrepreneurs while demonstrating how her female leadership provides an advantage in the male-dominated restaurant industry.
FastCasualInnovation #BurgerBusiness #RestaurantEntrepreneurship
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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
FastCasualInnovation #BurgerBusiness #RestaurantEntrepreneurship
Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/
Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.
Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're back here on the Fast Casual Nation podcast, the
one that started it all right here in the fast
casual sector, of course. Joining me today is miss Shrik Cansler,
my co host.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I'm great? How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We are going to fly to Atlanta today.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
We are going to meet with one of the most
awesome startup fast casual brands I've seen yet. It is
going to be a rock star show. You guys don't
want to miss it. Stick around. My name is Paul Baron.
(00:50):
As the early pioneer in fast casual I've seen the
industry evolve from just a few operators the most sought
after segment by consumers around the world. Now we're planning
to shape its future. Tap into decades of my expertise
identifying the emerging brands and tech winners in the space
(01:11):
sabor capital. We'll be fueling the next generation of fast
casual innovation. All right, we're back here on Fast Casual Nation.
Cher We have got a lot to talk about, and
we've got an awesome guest coming in today as well
from Lol Burger bar So we're going to be getting
to Cassy a little bit in a minute. But I
(01:31):
want to kind of cover a few topics. First of all,
how are things going in the industry with what you're
seeing right now in terms of challenges by the industry.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's a little shaky. It's a little shaky. My inbox
has been flooded with people wanting to talk about how
we're going to get through the tariffs. Yeah, so I have.
We've written a couple of blogs on that, or ran
a couple of blogs on that. Basically, you know what
we're going to do to you know, all the all
the of thecados and tomatoes come from Mexico, and all
(02:02):
the booze comes. Yeah, Mexico has the tequila and Europe
has the champagne. So people are kind of freaking out
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So do you think this is changing the strategy for
operators yet or do you feel like they're just kind
of they're aware of it. They haven't started initiating price
yet taken.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, they haven't started taking price yet. But I was
just at the Chicken Salad Chick Franchise conference last week
and they were definitely talking about when they were going
to need to take price. Interesting, you know, it's definitely coming.
They're they're talk other restaurant rants are talking about, you know,
changing up their menu. What can we replace avocados with?
You know what can we margaritas have tequila? What are
(02:48):
we going to do? So they're they're definitely thinking about it.
I think everybody's in the same boat of like, what
are we going to do? So, yeah, haven't seen a
lot of specific changes yet, but I'm assuming we will
see menu changes in the next few weeks for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
A lot of news in the market as well, Scooters.
I saw this on your site. In the tech sector,
they revamp their loyalty platforms, so now they're going into points,
I guess now.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Which is good.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
But you know, this gets back into I guess the
pressure on consumers to be able to get them to
come back to restaurants. What you have to do as
a restaurant brand. Let me kind of highlight a couple
of things.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
If you guys.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
By the way, if you're listening to the audio version,
you can catch the video version so you can actually
follow along. Program is introduced flexibility for members through expanded redemption,
so now that include nearly every item on the menu.
I didn't realize they had items that weren't loyalty qualified.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I didn't know that until we ran the story, so
it was interesting. I like their status. It's kind of cute. Buddy,
your writer die, so.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I like the writer diet the only way to go. Man. Yeah,
I'm wondering.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Areas have like a copyright on that they should.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
But that's the point of a loyalty program, right, is
turning your people into writer or dies. So yeah, we
wrote about Blaze the same thing. They rolled out a
new loyalty platform with thanks this week, and so everybody's
trying to you know, to offer in sennas to get
their people to come back.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
What is going on over at Lunchbox? I saw this
story as well, and I was surprised at this move
offering free order aggregation.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
What what's there?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I think, Well, you know, they have a new CEO,
James Blockers and Nobile have been working together to bring
this to fruition. I think it's really smart, especially when
we talk about restaurants trying to figure out ways to
cut costs. You know, these fees to aggregate can be
anywhere from you know, fifty to two you know, a
(04:53):
month per location. So and as James and Nobile have said,
it should have always been free, and so now they've
made it, and so I wonder if everybody will end
up making it free. We'll have to see.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
This is going to put some pressure on the market
for sure, you know, in terms of the competitors within
that sector, you know, from both on the catering side.
I think you look at if we're going to see
innovation in catering, it's going to come through tech, and
you know that's you know, Lunchbox obviously been one of
the leaders out there, but many people have also said, hey,
(05:26):
maybe this isn't the only solution. Maybe there's some other
alternatives out there. So it's going to be something to
watch for sure. I had a couple of other stories
that I wanted to hit on, and I was going
at this one right here, and this was over on
Restaurant Dive, and I wanted to get your opinion on
this one because this, to me was a brilliant move
(05:46):
by Chili's. So they did a pop up that is
doing their financing fast food meals and they're digging at
rising prices. Now you get to remember Chili's casual dining,
but they're going after fast food. So I loved it.
Fast food financing. What did you think about that?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I think that's I think that's really cute. And Chili's,
we've talked about this before, has had a pretty cool turnaround.
I mean they were kind of exactly yeah, I mean
they were not really relevant. In the past couple of years.
They've elevated their drink venues. They have espresso, Martini Lto
so they're definitely coming.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
After their sales around numbers are out.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, they have three for me or whatever. So the
price points really competing with the fast casual sector.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Let me ask you, do you think that the gen
z and millennial audience guest have said, Okay, maybe this
is the casual dining that can compete with fast casual.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I definitely think millennials are like, because I'm an old
millennial and I've got friends now who are like, oh,
let's go to Chili's. There they've got a new lto
and you know, so that's interesting. You know, my gen
Zers never choose Chili's. I mean they go, they go,
they're going to get free food. So yet TVD, I.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Guess we'll see. We'll see.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Hey, let's bring in our guests today. And that of
course is miss Cassidy Jones. She's coming in from Atlanta
from a concept called Lol Burger Bar. I've been researching
this one for a little bit. I like the look
of this one as an early stage fast casual, so
it could make the front runner list. We'll see, Cassidy,
(07:26):
how are you hey, guys, how are you excellent?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Excellent? Let me stack you up on top.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
What is going on in Atlanta with this burger bar
thing you have started? Give us a rundown.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Atlanta is on fire, So we are super excited. We
have Lol Burger Bar. We have our Atlanta location. We
just opened up our p Street Corners location, which we
call PTC.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
And collaboration with a food.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Hall that's super popular here called Politan Road. And we
have a food truck on the way. So we are
on fire, just ready, you know, excited, and we're loving
it every moment.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I love the name, but it doesn't mean laugh out loud, right.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
No, it doesn't.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
It doesn't, So it actually stands for live out loud.
I wanted to, you know, create a brand that had
some meaning behind it. A lot of times, you know,
we go into life and we already have this stigma on.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
What we should do who we should be, what you.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Know, career we should follow, or what path we should
follow based on, you know, where where we're born, what
families were from. So l OL stands for live out Loud,
and I wanted to encourage people to be the best
version of who you want to be, Like, this is
your life, you only have one life to live. I
kind of fell into that, you know, that stigma a
(08:52):
little bit. I went to college, you know, got a
good job, got married, had a nice family, and you know,
got a nice government job. But it was I was
still being called by entrepreneurship, and you know, I had
a few little side hustles here and there, but I
never really took the step to go pull on entrepreneurs
(09:13):
So I've been in this space for the last four
or five years now.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
So why restaurants though, Do you have a food service background,
journey thing or what means? Do you want to get
into the fast casual business?
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Actually no, Everybody asked me that all the time, like
did you go to culinary school?
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Are you a chef? And I'm like, absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And the truth of the matter is, I actually do
not even like cooking. I love eating out. So you know,
my family and I we love trying different restaurants. But
I have a background in business marketing. I have a
background and project management, so when it comes to you know,
building things, especially businesses, I kind of have that part
(09:58):
as a gift. So structure, you know, building your sps,
you know, putting your processes, your systems in place.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
That's kind of like stuff that comes easy for me.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So yeah, you guys have two locations. The first location
very successful there in Atlanta. You now moving to the
second one. We talked a little bit about on the
pre show. You're getting ready to launch a food truck.
Explain kind of the strategy to grow there within the
Atlanta market.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
So when when I started this, I wanted to I'm
really big on presentation, right, so I wanted to look
like I was already a big brand. So from the website,
from the menu, from the way that we you know,
operate and you know, offering loyalty programs to customers. A
(10:50):
lot of the small, you know, mom and pop shops
are not really doing this type of you know, our
level of presentation just yet. So I did some jump
out of the gate. And you know people always ask
are you a franchise? How many locations do you guys
have Is this the only location? And that's the reaction
(11:12):
that I wanted to get, because the future is franchising,
I wanted to kind of start there.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, well, you got to get the you know, you
got to get the business model down first. Obviously you've
got some for your well, your branding and marketing shows
through on your website. I'll bring that back up for
people who are you know, watching this on the on
the YouTube side of things.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
But Romick Burger's.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
First of all, these images are ridiculous. I mean, come on,
did you guys get a food stylist for this or
what was the deal?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Actually that was actually done by a local photography company
here in Atlanta. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
The baked beans oozing out over I mean come.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
On, yeah, this is definitely food porn all the way.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
The Yellow Prizes had me had been going earlier this morning.
I was like, Delicious, what do you do?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
How do you come up with the menu?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
What I mean, this is not just your everyday burger menu,
So you guys have quite a bit of a different appeal.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Yes, yes, So the whole goal was to create something different, right,
everybody saw this smash Burger craze. I love gourmet burgers,
so of course that's that's the start of it, right,
But then I wanted to, okay, cool, you know, social
media is like super light, like popular with the influencers,
(12:36):
you know, so how can I like have a great
product that's creative that social media would kind of jump
on board with. So I kind of came up with
the creative menu and all of our I don't.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Know if you if you've looked at our menu, but
I'm pretty sure you have.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
All of our burgers are acronyms it and they actually
describe the burger, so you know, the actual different types
of burgers that we have, they all have a story
behind them.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
So for example, the lo.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
O L which is kind of like our the first
burger that is on our menu, and it's named after
the brand. This is a burger that I cook for
my family all the time, and my family loves this
burger and it's it's gonna be spicy mao. You're gonna
have grill peppers on it, grill aon and gouda cheese.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
So we eat this at home.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
So why not make this, you know, our one of
our signature burgers, And then you have our Yolo Burger.
The Yolo Burger is a pool pork sandwich on top
of a burger.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Right.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
I love pool pork. I grew up eating pool pork.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
All of my uh, all.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Of my people that are from Georgia. I don't know
if you remember, but there used to be a barbecue
place called Maliirs Barbecue. It was out in Fattville, Georgia,
and they had the best barbecue. My grandfather, we would
travel there almost every weekend just to eat the barbecue.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
I mean, you guys could become like as famous as
the Varsity with this kind of venue.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
You think about.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
It, that's like one of the.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Go to spots in Atlanta. Okay, something that you have
on your menu right here?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Explain this.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Let me bring it back on screen because I think
this is the first time in fast casual history I
have ever seen this done.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And that is we're out of stock. Explain how the
id K Burger is out of stock. Please tell me
it's not true?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Please?
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Yes, yes, so I d K is actually one of
our more popular burgers because we're the only be well
the only burger spot in the area that actually does
vegan burgers. And you know, we know that there's a
market for it, so it's just kind of hard to
get the vegan burger. So we use the impossible patties,
(15:03):
and the impossible patties they're kind of, you know, hard
to come by sometimes, so we're looking into finding different
distributors that you know, we can fall back on as
a backup in case.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
Uh, you know, our main distributor is out of stock.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I mean, come on, that's not that's a regular burger.
So why is that one out of stock? You're creating
I know what you're doing demand. You're creating this pent
up demand, this this idea of oh my god, I
can't get that. Yeah, I got to go there before
the other ones go.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Out of stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
What's the WTF burger have on it?
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (15:42):
So that one is actually kimchi, that's our chem chi burger.
So we put that one out of stock to kind
of you know, you're you're kind of on point with
it a little bit. We do kind of and this
is I probably shouldn't say this, but.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
We do that, uh to kind of you know.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Generate that, oh, this must be a popular burger. We
do it for the burgers who actually do not sell
very well.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
She's giving away secrets here.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
It would be very truthful.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah, I like the I like the Fomo burger, which
is chicken because chicken always should always want to be
beef in my opinion.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Yes, yeah, and that's why because it has a fear
of missing out always chick on the menu.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
So, I mean this is great because you could expand
your burger menu obviously into the gen Z vernacular, which
is unlimited. You know what's being done out there. So
and also I think it's very uh, it's very social.
I was looking at your let me bring up your
your TikTok feed. This is uh something that I thought
(16:46):
was very very fantastic. If you guys want to learn
if a brand is doing that right, just go look
at the general TikTok feeds on what they're for the
term of the restaurant. And you guys have a ton
of of people that are just putting out amazing user
generated content on your on basically on what you guys.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Are serving up here.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Great obviously great food photography here by those by those
people that are really only.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Having two locations. I mean, this is very viral.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
This could easily win out and I've noticed that, uh
in a lot of cities. I've talked to several influencers
here recently that what they're finding is this is how
restaurant discovery is done, you know, for regular consumers and
people under the age of forty. Most of the time
they go to TikTok to find you know, win would
best burger boom, It's going to show up on the
(17:41):
TikTok feed, you know. So same thing here with Atlanta.
Do you guys do anything to kind of you know,
stimulate that a little bit through the influencer side.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Yeah, So we actually two things.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
So one we go and we actually pay some of
the fluencers who have like super high engagement, will actually
pay them, and then we'll give them, you know, a
free meal just so they can do a collab with us.
Which leads me into my next thing that we're getting
ready to start doing is collapse, and not only collapse
(18:17):
with food influencers, but collabse with celebrities. So yeah, so
this is going to be something super game changer. I
don't want to say too much about it just yet,
but this is like it all right on the show.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
When you come up with your first collab, we want
you and your and your collab partner on the show.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Okay, okay, looking to collaborate local like sports people and
stuff like in the area, like college athletes or even
bigger than not.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
So the idea is the following, because ultimately it's a
marketing place. We want to collab with people who have
super engagement, a lot of influence with their followers. So
that weekend cross collaboration where we actually can piggyback off
of their you know, following.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Its a game and build our and grow our following.
That's kind of the idea behind it.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Well, you know, sports is going to be a hot
spot for that now with especially with the new NCUA
A for collegiate athletes that'll open up in Atlanta. I mean,
you've got a lot of great sports teams obviously, both
in college and pro, so that might be good. But
there's also a lot of celebrities that live in Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Atlanta exactly.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Yeah, So I actually have we're kind of still negotiating everything,
but my second location, I actually partnered with someone to
do that location and he loved it so much that
he actually is investing into the brand now and coming
in as a partner. And he has a successful valet
(19:54):
business where he valets for all of the celebrities, you know,
private event as private parties. You got.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Food truck.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Here we go, she's telling us. Now she's got an inside.
This is good. This is so good.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I love the way you think you are putting it
from mental to next level. I wish more brands would
do stuff like this. This is so much fun.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Definitely the food truck brand.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
So the food truck is something that I've been wanting
and needing to do since I started this, but it's just,
you know, been kind of a daunting thing to do.
So it's like now I'm at a point where my
strategy because like I said before, franchising is the goal.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
Right, eventually I want a franchise.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
So now we have two brick and mortar locations and
then we have the food truck. So the food truck
is also a marketing play. We're going to be a
rolling billboard. The goal is to basically build, and this
thing is gigantic. We got the twenty two, really the
(21:06):
biggest one that we can find, and it's you know,
so it's being built out now. But the idea is
to wherever we go, see that brand and see that
picture and the you know, on the side of the
food truck, and just create that experience everywhere we go,
because that's really been our biggest challenge is just getting
the word out. I've always told people it's not the
(21:29):
fact of getting people to come back, because eighty percent
of our customers or our business is return customers.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yeah, the biggest part, or the biggest challenge is actually getting.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
Them to come for the first time.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Interesting.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
So yeah, so this food truck is definitely going to
be a marketing play.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
We've already we.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Don't even have the food truck yet, it's still being built,
and we already have five bookings already booked up.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
So this is work for building the food truck out.
I mean, how much equipment is required for your particular
I mean, because you've got wings in there, would you
be just deserving the entire menu or would it be
shrunk down for food truck.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
No, it's going to be shrunk down for the food
truck just for speed purposes, because a lot of our
burgers are very intricate and they have a lot of
toppings on it. So we're simplifying the menu just to
make it.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
You know, more efficient.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
So, but we're going to do you know, pretty much
the full menu in regards to wings, fries, burgers, and
we're also going to be doing our milkshakes.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Okay, so you can have a milkshake machine in there
as well. How do Okay, well, let's talk about most
shakes for a second. Are these handdipped or how do
you guys do it?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yeah, so they're got to be real ice cream. We
use premium brands for the milkshakes, and you know, we
make them right there on the spot. And I don't
know if you want to go to our Instagram but
to show people the actual milkshakes. But these are not
just regular milkshakes. They're actually all they're actually called freak shakes. Shakes,
(23:05):
freak shakes.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
I am rolling through your Instagram and I'm getting lost
in the food.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Okay, so it's a term.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
It's a term that was actually originated, I believe in Australia.
And all it is it's an over the top milkshake.
So you have the milkshake at the bottom, which comes
in a twelve ounce Mason jar that's a souvenir jar
that customers can keep with our logo on it.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
And then the top. Yeah, and then the we decorate.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
The loaded fries ice cream.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
Yeah, oh yeah, fully loaded like that.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah, I like that. So this is okay. So that
what is that shake called right there that I'm showing,
So that.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
Is the w t p A which stands for where
the party.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
At the milkshake is where it's at?
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Yeah, the part the party is in your mouth and
your belly in the shake.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
That's where the party is at.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
How many shakes do you have on the menu?
Speaker 4 (24:17):
So right now we have about five shakes on the
menu that we actually it's a variation. We only use
two ice creams. We use vanilla ice cream and cookies,
and but we do five different variations with those two
ice creams.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Are you guys doing l t O s every once
in a while for the burgers and the milkshakes? How
does that work?
Speaker 5 (24:39):
LT?
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Like?
Speaker 4 (24:44):
We have one not for the burgers, well, actually yes
we do. So for the milkshakes, we do one that
has a it's like a pumpkin spice milkshake.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
It's vanilla ice cream.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
We add pumpkin spice flavoring into it and we put
at a sweet potato pile on top, so that one
is seasonal, but we don't really do a lot of those,
so I'm actually kind of revamping our menus to maybe
remove that one. But the seasonal burgers that we're doing
are most more so tied to campaigns, so like Burger Week,
(25:19):
you know, stuff like that, And you know, these collaborations
that we're getting ready to start doing are going to
be you know, like a seasonal thing and it's only
going to be for you know, a limits of time.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
So let's go back to the original, the origin story,
because you know, again, choosing the industry, the fast casual
industry is your launchpad. Uh, I think was brilliant because
we need more people like you for startup concepts, and
especially in here, I'm seeing innovation, but I haven't seen it,
you know, next level. I would definitely put you guys
(25:49):
on next level for new brands coming into the space
because I think a lot of people kind of go
a little bit safe, and you guys did not go safe,
which is very cool. But what was the acquisition process
when you started in twenty twenty three, because I saw
a little bit about a Korean burger joint that was
that a transition or did you start there and then said,
(26:12):
this won't work, I need to flip it.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
No, So I actually used to own I used to
be a nightlife That was my first introduction into restaurants.
So I used to own a nightlife franchise and that's
kind of where I got my feet wet in learning
the business of owning a restaurant. But from there, I
didn't really like the night life scene and being up
(26:37):
late at night coming home four o'clock in the morning,
so I needed to find a transition. But I had
discovered that I enjoyed, you know, running a restaurant, So
I was like, you know what, I love burgers, So
why not just open up a burg spot?
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Right that?
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, how want did it take? You come up with
this menu?
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Literally two days? The website was up like three days,
a few days.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
This is the way I would want to eat it.
So I'm just going to put all my stuff on.
Every Body will lie.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
No, you're absolutely right. That's exactly how it came up,
exactly how I came up.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Those are usually the best ideas, you know, is the
ones that come up like that because they're just you know,
they're obvious for you, you know, your personality in it.
This episode is brought to you in part by Gusto,
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Speaker 1 (29:00):
This is crazy, all right. So franchising kind of in
the background. You've got obviously a clear marketing edge, but
when you jump into the franchising space, operations are really critical.
So let's talk unit economics for a minute. How big
is the store? You know, how much equipment?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Heavy?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Laden on equipment from a house? Do you get a
lot of takeout? Give me kind of the metrics that
you're working with.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
So our store, the Atlanta store.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
So backing up a little bit, So I acquire it
used to be a Korean burger spot.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
And the owner wanted to get out of the business,
so I purchased it for her from her and basically
all the equipment because it was a Burger spot.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Was already slipped it there.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
That's kind of yeah, So that's kind of how that happened.
And I just changed around the core and at my label,
my logo and everything there, but it's my that look
is about twelve hundred square feet and we do a
lot of takeout there. And in Atlanta, I'm not sure
about other cities, but I know in Atlanta you have
(30:10):
to have a either commissary or you have to have
a kitchen tied to your food truck. So a lot
of people who don't have a break and mortar kitchen
they're using you know, these ghost kitchens or commissaries or
something like that.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
So we are.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Actually in a process of transitioning our home store kitchen
into being our food truck spot.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
We already do.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
All of our catering out of it because it's a
smaller location. We have about forty seats in there, so
we do a lot of takeout.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
When we introduce catering, now that's our catering front, so we.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
Do a lot of catering out of there, and then
it'll eventually be you know, our food trucks front. So
that's kind of how we use it, use that space there,
but our second location and we partner with Politan Growth,
which is a popular food truck and a food truck
with food a hall brand here in Atlanta, And.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
So that's actually just the foods all.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
So when it comes to, you know, structuring, there's four
different types of l ols that I that I vision.
You have your quick service or your counter service, which
is our first location.
Speaker 5 (31:25):
We have the foods call, you have the food truck.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
And then the next location that we open is going
to be a full service location. That one is going
to be more of a kind of a bar type feel,
full bar TVs everywhere, kind of censored around sports.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
How the alcohol yet on the menu at the other
locations like beer and stuff yet not yet.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
I'm playing around with the idea, but because the first
location is kind of small, I'm you know, kind of
going back and forth to see if it's going to
actually you know, make sense as far as cost wise.
Politan role the food hall actually does have alcohol, but
we don't control the license, right Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Well, I think a lot of concepts now in fast casual,
we're starting to see a little bit more elevation at
least into beer and wine, some of which have started
to go into full you know, cocktail menus, so it's
interesting to see that stretch to share.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Do you think that's going to work the booze?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Yeah, I definitely, But I think booze always works, so
bring on yeah right, Yeah, to your point about the
food halls especially, I mean most of the food halls
that I've been in or I've reported on, have one
big bar in the middle and then all the brands around.
So it's like you can all get your favorite fast
casual food and still get your booze and congregate and
(32:46):
you know, it's a party, like you said, Like you
said so and I think and I think people are
seeing you know, check spins increasing obviously when you have alcohol.
So it just depends on I guess you know what
we were talking about earlier with the tariffs and the
source and obviously you've got to be smart about what
friends you're bringing in.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Right, So, Cassidy, on the on the franchising front, how
long before we would see you know, an FDD come
out of you guys story you're you're going to start
offering it to.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
My goal is I've actually already been speaking with a
few different franchise companies who actually, you know, kind of
support this, and my goal is by the end of
the year will already start the process.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Okay, all right, And is it going to be are
you trying to do it on.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Your own or are you going to partner with one
of these you know, like Friends Smarts, those kinds of
companies out there.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
So I've I've kind of got my mind set on
Chris with Franchise Marketing Systems.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
I really like him.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
He's actually he has an office here local in Atlanta,
so I can kind of put.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
My hands on when I need to.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
But I kind of I like that that group of
of guys, and I feel like they would be you know,
very supportive and initially getting us started, getting us off
the ground, and then once we learn because we don't
know that side of the business, Like I've been a
franchise Z, but I've never been a franchise or.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
Right, so this is going to be a learning curve
for me.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
So once I learned that side of the business, then
we can kind of branch out and start creating our
own sales teams for it.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I'm just going to say one word, patience.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Patience.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
I hope you have it because when you're dealing with
franchisees patients, because everybody's got their own idea of how
they should run your brand right right.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
And but that's the thing though, you know, when I
used to be a franchise e, that was kind of
my pain point because I had so many big ideas
on what could make the brand, you know, better, because
I'm physically there in it. A lot of times, the
franchise ors are not in the brand, you know, they're not.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
In the business.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
So I actually want to create, you know, some type
of board or some type of system that allows them
to voice those opinions and maybe.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
We'll you know, because I'm not this in all.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Say all, there's so many people out there, there's so
much smarter than I am, so why not you know.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Yeah, it's a balance though. I remember I was talking
to this yeah you know, a few weeks ago and
he said, you know, it's a balance because they're franchisees
for a reason. If they wanted to have their own
entire brand and market everything there, then they then they
need to become, like you did, a franchise or the
important of keeping that branding. So the franchises have to
(35:38):
respect that we're successful. For a reason, you have to
stay in line with corporate but also, you know, like
you said, open up some communications.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
They don't.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Don't fall to the priva of ruling by committee. It's
never work. Yeah, you got to you once you build
something that works. I've seen this in dozens, if not
hundreds of brands where they've opened up the idea of
letting the franchisees come in and implement change. And what
(36:09):
started was a good concept and what has resulted is,
you know, scare them. Yeah, it's just a little crazy.
So listen, you got something that is working, and if
you can prove it out on sales and in growth
and brand appeal, you should hold that line. Man, hold
(36:31):
it like with the last of your soul. Don't let
it go. That's a hard one. I've seen many guys
jump in and jump out of that business because of that.
Let's get into the future. Obviously, you guys are moving
pretty quick to franchise. So do you do you anticipate
any more store openings this year?
Speaker 4 (36:53):
So if I do another one, so we're going to
start the process of franchising, just to get the paperwork
and everything out of the way. Probably towards the end
of this year, but I do want to open up
one more location, and that's going to be our full
service location.
Speaker 5 (37:08):
Because my goal is I want to have all of.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
The different concepts that a franchise you could potentially open.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
I want to have all of those open so that
they can see what each one looks like.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
When you say full When you say full service, are
you meaning where servers come to your table and take
the order or is it still counter service but there's
also a bar.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
Yeah, so it's going to be so you're going to
have a server, but not in a sense of the
traditional server, right, So you're still going to come in
and we're actually transitioning our Atlanta store into this now.
But they'll come in, they'll place their order on the
kios because I'm really really into AI and just mosology
(37:49):
and it saves so much money on labor too, But
that's another conversation, right, So they'll come in, they'll place
their order on the kios. It's very simple to do.
The ticket will come out, but we'll still have someone
there to kind of guide them through. It serves as
a service leader, is what we call them, and they'll
(38:09):
go to their table, they'll bring their food out, they'll
refill their drinks, so they'll kind of be a runners
runner similar to that.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, that's still fast casual.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Yeah, because well, if they're wanting like another cocktail, do
they go back up to the kiosk or is there
a QR code or a server will get it.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Then after that, like tho'se QR codes right on the
table where they can order from their phone. Yeah, so
if they don't, if they don't want to go to
the kiosk, they can still order from their phone.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
So are you guys using toast what POS are using?
Speaker 4 (38:38):
So we use Toast at my Atlanta location and pretty
much any location that I open that's an independently on location,
including the franchisees, it will be Toast.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
We absolutely love Toast.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
The system is pretty efficient, many variations.
Speaker 5 (38:57):
Yeah, it's reporting.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
Reporting is great. But at Politan Role we actually use Square.
Not a fan of it, but that's who they use,
so we kind of have to follow, you know, there's
because we're a.
Speaker 5 (39:08):
Vendor from Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yeah, yeah, probably because of their integration into the rest
of the you know the rest of the units in there. Okay,
so very cool in terms of strategy. I like the
fact that you guys are going to go for it
on franchising. When you look at franchising, though, I guess
the first question is are you going to narrow it
down geographically to where you can keep your supply chain
(39:34):
intact or southeast or are you going to open this
up nationwide?
Speaker 4 (39:40):
So initially the strategy is to start local. We want
to build out, build out Georgia first, and then we'll
start expanding to neighboring states, so Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, so
the space that you know, touch Georgia. And then because
the biggest thing is we got to have a team
that is able to support them. You got to think
(40:00):
about you know, travel, can they drive to these locations
or do we have to pay for flights for them
to go out to these locations? Yeah, and training bringing
the franchise in because obviously our our you know, home
office is here in Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
So you got to consider all of that as well.
And we have your team now, yeah, yeah, and I
and I have I have, but we haven't even touched Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
We haven't even touched the circus of Atlanta, so much
to you know, to explore in Georgia, so many opportunities.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
So like the Buckhead area of Atlanta, I see a
lot of growth out there. Would where are you guys
related to say Buckhead that that retail center.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
So the Atlanta location is like on the I like
to tell people it's on the backside of Buckhead, right,
So it's where the homes are.
Speaker 5 (40:49):
So if you go, you know, through the neighborhoods.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
It'll put you, it'll put you right on peace Stree,
which is in that Bucket area.
Speaker 5 (40:57):
So we're literally maybe ten five to ten minutes from Bucket.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
That's a lot of fast casual concepts are in the
Buckheaded area, so it's very competitive. There was a concept
in there. I'll try to remember they're in Atlanta. It
was a burger concept. They were very young too. It's
the name escapes me, but they I'm not sure if
they're still there now.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
I've got to go look and see.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
Who.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Would you say, are your competitors in the better burger
business in Atlanta right now?
Speaker 4 (41:31):
Well, if you if you include smash burgers, we have
a lot of competitors because you know, everybody's in the
smashburger phrase. But some of the big ones would be Grindhouse,
Killer Burgers. NFA is like the token burger of you know, Atlanta,
but they kind of specialize in smash burgers, So I
(41:52):
don't really like comparing our burgers to the smash burger
market because it's totally different. But definitely you know, Ryan House,
h and F Burgers, our Home and.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
Bitch, they're you know, kind of in there with us
as well.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
So yeah, those are the local change and then of
course we have the bigger that's.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
A pretty good roster right there when you when you
look at Atlanta, which is I wouldn't have necessarily called
them a burger hot spot, but they seem to becoming that.
You know, a lot of new age brands building in there,
like yourself, which is kind of cool to see because
I don't know what you think, Jerr about this, but
(42:32):
I feel like the better burger segment was getting a
little tired. What do you think it.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Was like like seventy years ago, it was like kind
of the cool, really hot, cool sector, and then you know,
it got a little un Yeah, and then we saw
some brands kind of open and fail and it kind
of evened out, which always happened. So yeah, but you know,
I love a good burger, so I'm happy to see
that we're kind of getting a revival there.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
I feel like this now, though, seems to be a
phase for more artisanal burgers rather than better Burger. It's
it's a completely different style than what we've seen in
the past, the smash burgers. I think obviously what we
saw with Burger five, which was a train wreck down
here in South Florida. Everybody was trying to to make
(43:23):
it so cookie cutter, you know, and it it never
elevated beyond what you could get at Wendy's or Burger King,
ra McDonald's, you know, So there wasn't enough differentiation.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
And even though at the beginning though, at the big
like it was like that menu was cool, you know.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Yeah, I remember Tom, you know Tom Ryan, when he
you know, when he first started going on that it.
I love the concept we did about He's in the documentary,
you know, when we did Better Burger for the Vast
Casual Nation documentary, we went to Denver spent time with Tom,
and you know, he gave us the whole concept of
the smash burger, and you know, the theme was really
(44:04):
at that time was great. But that's a decade ago. Right,
So now I think these artismal spots are I think
you're onto something, Cassidy, I think you're onto something.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Yeah, probably if you can keep the artisanal vibe while
you expand. Though that's the hard part, right It is
hard looking it like super awesome and cool and big
and huge deliciousness. But then when you're trying to franchise,
then you like what Burgerfi. You know, you kind of
cut back on the special to grow quicker.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Okay, last question to you, as a female CEO in
a startup brand in one of the most competitive sectors
in the industry, fast casual, when you look at the
big challenges that you've faced in just the last couple
of years, you know, for other women leaders that are
out there right now, what would you say is, hey.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Guys, watch out for this, Ladies watch out for this.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
Honestly, I don't have a watch out for the ladies
because I feel like being a female actually helps because
they're this is a male dominated and just restaurants in
general is a male dominated. So when you have a
creative brand and then people find out that it's owned
(45:21):
by a woman, they're even more excited about it. So
I've seen a lot of positivity come from it, but
I've always been, you know, the type of.
Speaker 5 (45:32):
Person where I don't really look at that kind of
thing anyways.
Speaker 4 (45:34):
But if I did have any advice, I would just say,
find your passion, find your niche, and just stick to it.
You're gonna have distractions, so social media. You're going to
see other companies that are maybe growing faster than yours,
that are doing you know, bigger things, or you're going
to see a brand and you're gonna want to copy
(45:55):
that brand.
Speaker 5 (45:56):
Don't your brand.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Yeah, just say, just stay true to your your initial
creative concept and eventually, you know people will see it.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Yeah, love water down your idea.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Cassy coming in from Lol Burger Bar. You guys check
it out. If you're in Atlanta, you got to go
buy and check this crazy menu out. It is one
for the books. This might be one of my new faves.
As soon as I get there, I got to go
try it though. So I'm going to Atlanta. You know,
it's not a bar trip coming out of South Florida.
I just zip into Atlanta, go eat Burger Bar or
(46:34):
loll Burgers, and I'll be good to go.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
Cassie, thanks again for coming in on the show today.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (46:40):
Oh, thank you guys for having me Mane. It's been
it's been a ball. I had a great time.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
Good deal. We like to do it that way. Thank you.
Coping in.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
All right, I'm gonna put you down in the green
room and Cheryl, let's take it out. This is a
big one again, more fantastic brands. The lineup here on
Fast Casual Nation is unstop exactly.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
The place to be if you want to hear about emerging,
up and coming brands for sure.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Well it's good, good strategies for you guys out there.
If you're listening to the podcast right now, make sure
and jump over here to the YouTube channel which is
just save fm. Now over two hundred and twenty thousand
subscribers are watching this channel, so check it out. Sharon
and I drop a podcast and a video weekly so
(47:28):
you guys will get the best of the best.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Of the industry. And of course, so we've.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Got some big news coming down the pipe. Will be
announcing very soon.
Speaker 3 (47:36):
Yeah, we have a you know, let's give him a
little hint we.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
Have I'll let you do it well.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
Our own collaboration coming up between Paul's team and Fast
Casuals perfect pitch, so we will. We'll reveal that next week.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
Yes, next week, we're going to be talking about that.
It's going to blow your mind, guys, So stay tuned
right here, don't miss any episodes. Get that little like
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on Fast Casual Nation
We're back here on the Fast Casual Nation podcast, the
one that started it all right here in the fast
casual sector, of course. Joining me today is miss Shrik Cansler,
my co host.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I'm great? How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We are going to fly to Atlanta today.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
We are going to meet with one of the most
awesome startup fast casual brands I've seen yet. It is
going to be a rock star show. You guys don't
want to miss it. Stick around. My name is Paul Baron.
(00:50):
As the early pioneer in fast casual I've seen the
industry evolve from just a few operators the most sought
after segment by consumers around the world. Now we're planning
to shape its future. Tap into decades of my expertise
identifying the emerging brands and tech winners in the space
(01:11):
sabor capital. We'll be fueling the next generation of fast
casual innovation. All right, we're back here on Fast Casual Nation.
Cher We have got a lot to talk about, and
we've got an awesome guest coming in today as well
from Lol Burger bar So we're going to be getting
to Cassy a little bit in a minute. But I
(01:31):
want to kind of cover a few topics. First of all,
how are things going in the industry with what you're
seeing right now in terms of challenges by the industry.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's a little shaky. It's a little shaky. My inbox
has been flooded with people wanting to talk about how
we're going to get through the tariffs. Yeah, so I have.
We've written a couple of blogs on that, or ran
a couple of blogs on that. Basically, you know what
we're going to do to you know, all the all
the of thecados and tomatoes come from Mexico, and all
(02:02):
the booze comes. Yeah, Mexico has the tequila and Europe
has the champagne. So people are kind of freaking out
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So do you think this is changing the strategy for
operators yet or do you feel like they're just kind
of they're aware of it. They haven't started initiating price
yet taken.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, they haven't started taking price yet. But I was
just at the Chicken Salad Chick Franchise conference last week
and they were definitely talking about when they were going
to need to take price. Interesting, you know, it's definitely coming.
They're they're talk other restaurant rants are talking about, you know,
changing up their menu. What can we replace avocados with?
You know what can we margaritas have tequila? What are
(02:48):
we going to do? So they're they're definitely thinking about it.
I think everybody's in the same boat of like, what
are we going to do? So, yeah, haven't seen a
lot of specific changes yet, but I'm assuming we will
see menu changes in the next few weeks for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
A lot of news in the market as well, Scooters.
I saw this on your site. In the tech sector,
they revamp their loyalty platforms, so now they're going into points,
I guess now.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Which is good.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
But you know, this gets back into I guess the
pressure on consumers to be able to get them to
come back to restaurants. What you have to do as
a restaurant brand. Let me kind of highlight a couple
of things.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
If you guys.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
By the way, if you're listening to the audio version,
you can catch the video version so you can actually
follow along. Program is introduced flexibility for members through expanded redemption,
so now that include nearly every item on the menu.
I didn't realize they had items that weren't loyalty qualified.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I didn't know that until we ran the story, so
it was interesting. I like their status. It's kind of cute. Buddy,
your writer die, so.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I like the writer diet the only way to go. Man. Yeah,
I'm wondering.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Areas have like a copyright on that they should.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
But that's the point of a loyalty program, right, is
turning your people into writer or dies. So yeah, we
wrote about Blaze the same thing. They rolled out a
new loyalty platform with thanks this week, and so everybody's
trying to you know, to offer in sennas to get
their people to come back.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
What is going on over at Lunchbox? I saw this
story as well, and I was surprised at this move
offering free order aggregation.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
What what's there?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I think, Well, you know, they have a new CEO,
James Blockers and Nobile have been working together to bring
this to fruition. I think it's really smart, especially when
we talk about restaurants trying to figure out ways to
cut costs. You know, these fees to aggregate can be
anywhere from you know, fifty to two you know, a
(04:53):
month per location. So and as James and Nobile have said,
it should have always been free, and so now they've
made it, and so I wonder if everybody will end
up making it free. We'll have to see.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
This is going to put some pressure on the market
for sure, you know, in terms of the competitors within
that sector, you know, from both on the catering side.
I think you look at if we're going to see
innovation in catering, it's going to come through tech, and
you know that's you know, Lunchbox obviously been one of
the leaders out there, but many people have also said, hey,
(05:26):
maybe this isn't the only solution. Maybe there's some other
alternatives out there. So it's going to be something to
watch for sure. I had a couple of other stories
that I wanted to hit on, and I was going
at this one right here, and this was over on
Restaurant Dive, and I wanted to get your opinion on
this one because this, to me was a brilliant move
(05:46):
by Chili's. So they did a pop up that is
doing their financing fast food meals and they're digging at
rising prices. Now you get to remember Chili's casual dining,
but they're going after fast food. So I loved it.
Fast food financing. What did you think about that?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I think that's I think that's really cute. And Chili's,
we've talked about this before, has had a pretty cool turnaround.
I mean they were kind of exactly yeah, I mean
they were not really relevant. In the past couple of years.
They've elevated their drink venues. They have espresso, Martini Lto
so they're definitely coming.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
After their sales around numbers are out.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, they have three for me or whatever. So the
price points really competing with the fast casual sector.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Let me ask you, do you think that the gen
z and millennial audience guest have said, Okay, maybe this
is the casual dining that can compete with fast casual.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I definitely think millennials are like, because I'm an old
millennial and I've got friends now who are like, oh,
let's go to Chili's. There they've got a new lto
and you know, so that's interesting. You know, my gen
Zers never choose Chili's. I mean they go, they go,
they're going to get free food. So yet TVD, I.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Guess we'll see. We'll see.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Hey, let's bring in our guests today. And that of
course is miss Cassidy Jones. She's coming in from Atlanta
from a concept called Lol Burger Bar. I've been researching
this one for a little bit. I like the look
of this one as an early stage fast casual, so
it could make the front runner list. We'll see, Cassidy,
(07:26):
how are you hey, guys, how are you excellent?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Excellent? Let me stack you up on top.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
What is going on in Atlanta with this burger bar
thing you have started? Give us a rundown.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Atlanta is on fire, So we are super excited. We
have Lol Burger Bar. We have our Atlanta location. We
just opened up our p Street Corners location, which we
call PTC.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
And collaboration with a food.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Hall that's super popular here called Politan Road. And we
have a food truck on the way. So we are
on fire, just ready, you know, excited, and we're loving
it every moment.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I love the name, but it doesn't mean laugh out loud, right.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
No, it doesn't.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
It doesn't, So it actually stands for live out loud.
I wanted to, you know, create a brand that had
some meaning behind it. A lot of times, you know,
we go into life and we already have this stigma on.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
What we should do who we should be, what you.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Know, career we should follow, or what path we should
follow based on, you know, where where we're born, what
families were from. So l OL stands for live out Loud,
and I wanted to encourage people to be the best
version of who you want to be, Like, this is
your life, you only have one life to live. I
kind of fell into that, you know, that stigma a
(08:52):
little bit. I went to college, you know, got a
good job, got married, had a nice family, and you know,
got a nice government job. But it was I was
still being called by entrepreneurship, and you know, I had
a few little side hustles here and there, but I
never really took the step to go pull on entrepreneurs
(09:13):
So I've been in this space for the last four
or five years now.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
So why restaurants though, Do you have a food service background,
journey thing or what means? Do you want to get
into the fast casual business?
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Actually no, Everybody asked me that all the time, like
did you go to culinary school?
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Are you a chef? And I'm like, absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And the truth of the matter is, I actually do
not even like cooking. I love eating out. So you know,
my family and I we love trying different restaurants. But
I have a background in business marketing. I have a
background and project management, so when it comes to you know,
building things, especially businesses, I kind of have that part
(09:58):
as a gift. So structure, you know, building your sps,
you know, putting your processes, your systems in place.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
That's kind of like stuff that comes easy for me.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So yeah, you guys have two locations. The first location
very successful there in Atlanta. You now moving to the
second one. We talked a little bit about on the
pre show. You're getting ready to launch a food truck.
Explain kind of the strategy to grow there within the
Atlanta market.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
So when when I started this, I wanted to I'm
really big on presentation, right, so I wanted to look
like I was already a big brand. So from the website,
from the menu, from the way that we you know,
operate and you know, offering loyalty programs to customers. A
(10:50):
lot of the small, you know, mom and pop shops
are not really doing this type of you know, our
level of presentation just yet. So I did some jump
out of the gate. And you know people always ask
are you a franchise? How many locations do you guys
have Is this the only location? And that's the reaction
(11:12):
that I wanted to get, because the future is franchising,
I wanted to kind of start there.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, well, you got to get the you know, you
got to get the business model down first. Obviously you've
got some for your well, your branding and marketing shows
through on your website. I'll bring that back up for
people who are you know, watching this on the on
the YouTube side of things.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
But Romick Burger's.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
First of all, these images are ridiculous. I mean, come on,
did you guys get a food stylist for this or
what was the deal?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Actually that was actually done by a local photography company
here in Atlanta. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
The baked beans oozing out over I mean come.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
On, yeah, this is definitely food porn all the way.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
The Yellow Prizes had me had been going earlier this morning.
I was like, Delicious, what do you do?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
How do you come up with the menu?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
What I mean, this is not just your everyday burger menu,
So you guys have quite a bit of a different appeal.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Yes, yes, So the whole goal was to create something different, right,
everybody saw this smash Burger craze. I love gourmet burgers,
so of course that's that's the start of it, right,
But then I wanted to, okay, cool, you know, social
media is like super light, like popular with the influencers,
(12:36):
you know, so how can I like have a great
product that's creative that social media would kind of jump
on board with. So I kind of came up with
the creative menu and all of our I don't.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Know if you if you've looked at our menu, but
I'm pretty sure you have.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
All of our burgers are acronyms it and they actually
describe the burger, so you know, the actual different types
of burgers that we have, they all have a story
behind them.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
So for example, the lo.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
O L which is kind of like our the first
burger that is on our menu, and it's named after
the brand. This is a burger that I cook for
my family all the time, and my family loves this
burger and it's it's gonna be spicy mao. You're gonna
have grill peppers on it, grill aon and gouda cheese.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
So we eat this at home.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
So why not make this, you know, our one of
our signature burgers, And then you have our Yolo Burger.
The Yolo Burger is a pool pork sandwich on top
of a burger.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Right.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
I love pool pork. I grew up eating pool pork.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
All of my uh, all.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Of my people that are from Georgia. I don't know
if you remember, but there used to be a barbecue
place called Maliirs Barbecue. It was out in Fattville, Georgia,
and they had the best barbecue. My grandfather, we would
travel there almost every weekend just to eat the barbecue.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
I mean, you guys could become like as famous as
the Varsity with this kind of venue.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
You think about.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
It, that's like one of the.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Go to spots in Atlanta. Okay, something that you have
on your menu right here?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Explain this.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Let me bring it back on screen because I think
this is the first time in fast casual history I
have ever seen this done.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And that is we're out of stock. Explain how the
id K Burger is out of stock. Please tell me
it's not true?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Please?
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Yes, yes, so I d K is actually one of
our more popular burgers because we're the only be well
the only burger spot in the area that actually does
vegan burgers. And you know, we know that there's a
market for it, so it's just kind of hard to
get the vegan burger. So we use the impossible patties,
(15:03):
and the impossible patties they're kind of, you know, hard
to come by sometimes, so we're looking into finding different
distributors that you know, we can fall back on as
a backup in case.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
Uh, you know, our main distributor is out of stock.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I mean, come on, that's not that's a regular burger.
So why is that one out of stock? You're creating
I know what you're doing demand. You're creating this pent
up demand, this this idea of oh my god, I
can't get that. Yeah, I got to go there before
the other ones go.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Out of stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
What's the WTF burger have on it?
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (15:42):
So that one is actually kimchi, that's our chem chi burger.
So we put that one out of stock to kind
of you know, you're you're kind of on point with
it a little bit. We do kind of and this
is I probably shouldn't say this, but.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
We do that, uh to kind of you know.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Generate that, oh, this must be a popular burger. We
do it for the burgers who actually do not sell
very well.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
She's giving away secrets here.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
It would be very truthful.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah, I like the I like the Fomo burger, which
is chicken because chicken always should always want to be
beef in my opinion.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Yes, yeah, and that's why because it has a fear
of missing out always chick on the menu.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
So, I mean this is great because you could expand
your burger menu obviously into the gen Z vernacular, which
is unlimited. You know what's being done out there. So
and also I think it's very uh, it's very social.
I was looking at your let me bring up your
your TikTok feed. This is uh something that I thought
(16:46):
was very very fantastic. If you guys want to learn
if a brand is doing that right, just go look
at the general TikTok feeds on what they're for the
term of the restaurant. And you guys have a ton
of of people that are just putting out amazing user
generated content on your on basically on what you guys.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Are serving up here.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Great obviously great food photography here by those by those
people that are really only.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Having two locations. I mean, this is very viral.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
This could easily win out and I've noticed that, uh
in a lot of cities. I've talked to several influencers
here recently that what they're finding is this is how
restaurant discovery is done, you know, for regular consumers and
people under the age of forty. Most of the time
they go to TikTok to find you know, win would
best burger boom, It's going to show up on the
(17:41):
TikTok feed, you know. So same thing here with Atlanta.
Do you guys do anything to kind of you know,
stimulate that a little bit through the influencer side.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Yeah, So we actually two things.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
So one we go and we actually pay some of
the fluencers who have like super high engagement, will actually
pay them, and then we'll give them, you know, a
free meal just so they can do a collab with us.
Which leads me into my next thing that we're getting
ready to start doing is collapse, and not only collapse
(18:17):
with food influencers, but collabse with celebrities. So yeah, so
this is going to be something super game changer. I
don't want to say too much about it just yet,
but this is like it all right on the show.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
When you come up with your first collab, we want
you and your and your collab partner on the show.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Okay, okay, looking to collaborate local like sports people and
stuff like in the area, like college athletes or even
bigger than not.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
So the idea is the following, because ultimately it's a
marketing place. We want to collab with people who have
super engagement, a lot of influence with their followers. So
that weekend cross collaboration where we actually can piggyback off
of their you know, following.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Its a game and build our and grow our following.
That's kind of the idea behind it.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Well, you know, sports is going to be a hot
spot for that now with especially with the new NCUA
A for collegiate athletes that'll open up in Atlanta. I mean,
you've got a lot of great sports teams obviously, both
in college and pro, so that might be good. But
there's also a lot of celebrities that live in Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Atlanta exactly.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Yeah, So I actually have we're kind of still negotiating everything,
but my second location, I actually partnered with someone to
do that location and he loved it so much that
he actually is investing into the brand now and coming
in as a partner. And he has a successful valet
(19:54):
business where he valets for all of the celebrities, you know,
private event as private parties. You got.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Food truck.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Here we go, she's telling us. Now she's got an inside.
This is good. This is so good.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I love the way you think you are putting it
from mental to next level. I wish more brands would
do stuff like this. This is so much fun.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Definitely the food truck brand.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
So the food truck is something that I've been wanting
and needing to do since I started this, but it's just,
you know, been kind of a daunting thing to do.
So it's like now I'm at a point where my
strategy because like I said before, franchising is the goal.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
Right, eventually I want a franchise.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
So now we have two brick and mortar locations and
then we have the food truck. So the food truck
is also a marketing play. We're going to be a
rolling billboard. The goal is to basically build, and this
thing is gigantic. We got the twenty two, really the
(21:06):
biggest one that we can find, and it's you know,
so it's being built out now. But the idea is
to wherever we go, see that brand and see that
picture and the you know, on the side of the
food truck, and just create that experience everywhere we go,
because that's really been our biggest challenge is just getting
the word out. I've always told people it's not the
(21:29):
fact of getting people to come back, because eighty percent
of our customers or our business is return customers.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yeah, the biggest part, or the biggest challenge is actually getting.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
Them to come for the first time.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Interesting.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
So yeah, so this food truck is definitely going to
be a marketing play.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
We've already we.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Don't even have the food truck yet, it's still being built,
and we already have five bookings already booked up.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
So this is work for building the food truck out.
I mean, how much equipment is required for your particular
I mean, because you've got wings in there, would you
be just deserving the entire menu or would it be
shrunk down for food truck.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
No, it's going to be shrunk down for the food
truck just for speed purposes, because a lot of our
burgers are very intricate and they have a lot of
toppings on it. So we're simplifying the menu just to
make it.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
You know, more efficient.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
So, but we're going to do you know, pretty much
the full menu in regards to wings, fries, burgers, and
we're also going to be doing our milkshakes.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Okay, so you can have a milkshake machine in there
as well. How do Okay, well, let's talk about most
shakes for a second. Are these handdipped or how do
you guys do it?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yeah, so they're got to be real ice cream. We
use premium brands for the milkshakes, and you know, we
make them right there on the spot. And I don't
know if you want to go to our Instagram but
to show people the actual milkshakes. But these are not
just regular milkshakes. They're actually all they're actually called freak shakes. Shakes,
(23:05):
freak shakes.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
I am rolling through your Instagram and I'm getting lost
in the food.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Okay, so it's a term.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
It's a term that was actually originated, I believe in Australia.
And all it is it's an over the top milkshake.
So you have the milkshake at the bottom, which comes
in a twelve ounce Mason jar that's a souvenir jar
that customers can keep with our logo on it.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
And then the top. Yeah, and then the we decorate.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
The loaded fries ice cream.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
Yeah, oh yeah, fully loaded like that.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah, I like that. So this is okay. So that
what is that shake called right there that I'm showing,
So that.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
Is the w t p A which stands for where
the party.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
At the milkshake is where it's at?
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Yeah, the part the party is in your mouth and
your belly in the shake.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
That's where the party is at.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
How many shakes do you have on the menu?
Speaker 4 (24:17):
So right now we have about five shakes on the
menu that we actually it's a variation. We only use
two ice creams. We use vanilla ice cream and cookies,
and but we do five different variations with those two
ice creams.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Are you guys doing l t O s every once
in a while for the burgers and the milkshakes? How
does that work?
Speaker 5 (24:39):
LT?
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Like?
Speaker 4 (24:44):
We have one not for the burgers, well, actually yes
we do. So for the milkshakes, we do one that
has a it's like a pumpkin spice milkshake.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
It's vanilla ice cream.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
We add pumpkin spice flavoring into it and we put
at a sweet potato pile on top, so that one
is seasonal, but we don't really do a lot of those,
so I'm actually kind of revamping our menus to maybe
remove that one. But the seasonal burgers that we're doing
are most more so tied to campaigns, so like Burger Week,
(25:19):
you know, stuff like that, And you know, these collaborations
that we're getting ready to start doing are going to
be you know, like a seasonal thing and it's only
going to be for you know, a limits of time.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
So let's go back to the original, the origin story,
because you know, again, choosing the industry, the fast casual
industry is your launchpad. Uh, I think was brilliant because
we need more people like you for startup concepts, and
especially in here, I'm seeing innovation, but I haven't seen it,
you know, next level. I would definitely put you guys
(25:49):
on next level for new brands coming into the space
because I think a lot of people kind of go
a little bit safe, and you guys did not go safe,
which is very cool. But what was the acquisition process
when you started in twenty twenty three, because I saw
a little bit about a Korean burger joint that was
that a transition or did you start there and then said,
(26:12):
this won't work, I need to flip it.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
No, So I actually used to own I used to
be a nightlife That was my first introduction into restaurants.
So I used to own a nightlife franchise and that's
kind of where I got my feet wet in learning
the business of owning a restaurant. But from there, I
didn't really like the night life scene and being up
(26:37):
late at night coming home four o'clock in the morning,
so I needed to find a transition. But I had
discovered that I enjoyed, you know, running a restaurant, So
I was like, you know what, I love burgers, So
why not just open up a burg spot?
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Right that?
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, how want did it take? You come up with
this menu?
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Literally two days? The website was up like three days,
a few days.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
This is the way I would want to eat it.
So I'm just going to put all my stuff on.
Every Body will lie.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
No, you're absolutely right. That's exactly how it came up,
exactly how I came up.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Those are usually the best ideas, you know, is the
ones that come up like that because they're just you know,
they're obvious for you, you know, your personality in it.
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(27:31):
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Speaker 2 (28:56):
To get started. See you there.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
This is crazy, all right. So franchising kind of in
the background. You've got obviously a clear marketing edge, but
when you jump into the franchising space, operations are really critical.
So let's talk unit economics for a minute. How big
is the store? You know, how much equipment?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Heavy?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Laden on equipment from a house? Do you get a
lot of takeout? Give me kind of the metrics that
you're working with.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
So our store, the Atlanta store.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
So backing up a little bit, So I acquire it
used to be a Korean burger spot.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
And the owner wanted to get out of the business,
so I purchased it for her from her and basically
all the equipment because it was a Burger spot.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Was already slipped it there.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
That's kind of yeah, So that's kind of how that happened.
And I just changed around the core and at my label,
my logo and everything there, but it's my that look
is about twelve hundred square feet and we do a
lot of takeout there. And in Atlanta, I'm not sure
about other cities, but I know in Atlanta you have
(30:10):
to have a either commissary or you have to have
a kitchen tied to your food truck. So a lot
of people who don't have a break and mortar kitchen
they're using you know, these ghost kitchens or commissaries or
something like that.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
So we are.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Actually in a process of transitioning our home store kitchen
into being our food truck spot.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
We already do.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
All of our catering out of it because it's a
smaller location. We have about forty seats in there, so
we do a lot of takeout.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
When we introduce catering, now that's our catering front, so we.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
Do a lot of catering out of there, and then
it'll eventually be you know, our food trucks front. So
that's kind of how we use it, use that space there,
but our second location and we partner with Politan Growth,
which is a popular food truck and a food truck
with food a hall brand here in Atlanta, And.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
So that's actually just the foods all.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
So when it comes to, you know, structuring, there's four
different types of l ols that I that I vision.
You have your quick service or your counter service, which
is our first location.
Speaker 5 (31:25):
We have the foods call, you have the food truck.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
And then the next location that we open is going
to be a full service location. That one is going
to be more of a kind of a bar type feel,
full bar TVs everywhere, kind of censored around sports.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
How the alcohol yet on the menu at the other
locations like beer and stuff yet not yet.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
I'm playing around with the idea, but because the first
location is kind of small, I'm you know, kind of
going back and forth to see if it's going to
actually you know, make sense as far as cost wise.
Politan role the food hall actually does have alcohol, but
we don't control the license, right Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Well, I think a lot of concepts now in fast casual,
we're starting to see a little bit more elevation at
least into beer and wine, some of which have started
to go into full you know, cocktail menus, so it's
interesting to see that stretch to share.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Do you think that's going to work the booze?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Yeah, I definitely, But I think booze always works, so
bring on yeah right, Yeah, to your point about the
food halls especially, I mean most of the food halls
that I've been in or I've reported on, have one
big bar in the middle and then all the brands around.
So it's like you can all get your favorite fast
casual food and still get your booze and congregate and
(32:46):
you know, it's a party, like you said, Like you
said so and I think and I think people are
seeing you know, check spins increasing obviously when you have alcohol.
So it just depends on I guess you know what
we were talking about earlier with the tariffs and the
source and obviously you've got to be smart about what
friends you're bringing in.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Right, So, Cassidy, on the on the franchising front, how
long before we would see you know, an FDD come
out of you guys story you're you're going to start
offering it to.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
My goal is I've actually already been speaking with a
few different franchise companies who actually, you know, kind of
support this, and my goal is by the end of
the year will already start the process.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Okay, all right, And is it going to be are
you trying to do it on.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Your own or are you going to partner with one
of these you know, like Friends Smarts, those kinds of
companies out there.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
So I've I've kind of got my mind set on
Chris with Franchise Marketing Systems.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
I really like him.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
He's actually he has an office here local in Atlanta,
so I can kind of put.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
My hands on when I need to.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
But I kind of I like that that group of
of guys, and I feel like they would be you know,
very supportive and initially getting us started, getting us off
the ground, and then once we learn because we don't
know that side of the business, Like I've been a
franchise Z, but I've never been a franchise or.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
Right, so this is going to be a learning curve
for me.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
So once I learned that side of the business, then
we can kind of branch out and start creating our
own sales teams for it.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I'm just going to say one word, patience.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Patience.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
I hope you have it because when you're dealing with
franchisees patients, because everybody's got their own idea of how
they should run your brand right right.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
And but that's the thing though, you know, when I
used to be a franchise e, that was kind of
my pain point because I had so many big ideas
on what could make the brand, you know, better, because
I'm physically there in it. A lot of times, the
franchise ors are not in the brand, you know, they're not.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
In the business.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
So I actually want to create, you know, some type
of board or some type of system that allows them
to voice those opinions and maybe.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
We'll you know, because I'm not this in all.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Say all, there's so many people out there, there's so
much smarter than I am, so why not you know.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Yeah, it's a balance though. I remember I was talking
to this yeah you know, a few weeks ago and
he said, you know, it's a balance because they're franchisees
for a reason. If they wanted to have their own
entire brand and market everything there, then they then they
need to become, like you did, a franchise or the
important of keeping that branding. So the franchises have to
(35:38):
respect that we're successful. For a reason, you have to
stay in line with corporate but also, you know, like
you said, open up some communications.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
They don't.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Don't fall to the priva of ruling by committee. It's
never work. Yeah, you got to you once you build
something that works. I've seen this in dozens, if not
hundreds of brands where they've opened up the idea of
letting the franchisees come in and implement change. And what
(36:09):
started was a good concept and what has resulted is,
you know, scare them. Yeah, it's just a little crazy.
So listen, you got something that is working, and if
you can prove it out on sales and in growth
and brand appeal, you should hold that line. Man, hold
(36:31):
it like with the last of your soul. Don't let
it go. That's a hard one. I've seen many guys
jump in and jump out of that business because of that.
Let's get into the future. Obviously, you guys are moving
pretty quick to franchise. So do you do you anticipate
any more store openings this year?
Speaker 4 (36:53):
So if I do another one, so we're going to
start the process of franchising, just to get the paperwork
and everything out of the way. Probably towards the end
of this year, but I do want to open up
one more location, and that's going to be our full
service location.
Speaker 5 (37:08):
Because my goal is I want to have all of.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
The different concepts that a franchise you could potentially open.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
I want to have all of those open so that
they can see what each one looks like.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
When you say full When you say full service, are
you meaning where servers come to your table and take
the order or is it still counter service but there's
also a bar.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
Yeah, so it's going to be so you're going to
have a server, but not in a sense of the
traditional server, right, So you're still going to come in
and we're actually transitioning our Atlanta store into this now.
But they'll come in, they'll place their order on the
kios because I'm really really into AI and just mosology
(37:49):
and it saves so much money on labor too, But
that's another conversation, right, So they'll come in, they'll place
their order on the kios. It's very simple to do.
The ticket will come out, but we'll still have someone
there to kind of guide them through. It serves as
a service leader, is what we call them, and they'll
(38:09):
go to their table, they'll bring their food out, they'll
refill their drinks, so they'll kind of be a runners
runner similar to that.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, that's still fast casual.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Yeah, because well, if they're wanting like another cocktail, do
they go back up to the kiosk or is there
a QR code or a server will get it.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Then after that, like tho'se QR codes right on the
table where they can order from their phone. Yeah, so
if they don't, if they don't want to go to
the kiosk, they can still order from their phone.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
So are you guys using toast what POS are using?
Speaker 4 (38:38):
So we use Toast at my Atlanta location and pretty
much any location that I open that's an independently on location,
including the franchisees, it will be Toast.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
We absolutely love Toast.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
The system is pretty efficient, many variations.
Speaker 5 (38:57):
Yeah, it's reporting.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
Reporting is great. But at Politan Role we actually use Square.
Not a fan of it, but that's who they use,
so we kind of have to follow, you know, there's
because we're a.
Speaker 5 (39:08):
Vendor from Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yeah, yeah, probably because of their integration into the rest
of the you know the rest of the units in there. Okay,
so very cool in terms of strategy. I like the
fact that you guys are going to go for it
on franchising. When you look at franchising, though, I guess
the first question is are you going to narrow it
down geographically to where you can keep your supply chain
(39:34):
intact or southeast or are you going to open this
up nationwide?
Speaker 4 (39:40):
So initially the strategy is to start local. We want
to build out, build out Georgia first, and then we'll
start expanding to neighboring states, so Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, so
the space that you know, touch Georgia. And then because
the biggest thing is we got to have a team
that is able to support them. You got to think
(40:00):
about you know, travel, can they drive to these locations
or do we have to pay for flights for them
to go out to these locations? Yeah, and training bringing
the franchise in because obviously our our you know, home
office is here in Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
So you got to consider all of that as well.
And we have your team now, yeah, yeah, and I
and I have I have, but we haven't even touched Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
We haven't even touched the circus of Atlanta, so much
to you know, to explore in Georgia, so many opportunities.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
So like the Buckhead area of Atlanta, I see a
lot of growth out there. Would where are you guys
related to say Buckhead that that retail center.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
So the Atlanta location is like on the I like
to tell people it's on the backside of Buckhead, right,
So it's where the homes are.
Speaker 5 (40:49):
So if you go, you know, through the neighborhoods.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
It'll put you, it'll put you right on peace Stree,
which is in that Bucket area.
Speaker 5 (40:57):
So we're literally maybe ten five to ten minutes from Bucket.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
That's a lot of fast casual concepts are in the
Buckheaded area, so it's very competitive. There was a concept
in there. I'll try to remember they're in Atlanta. It
was a burger concept. They were very young too. It's
the name escapes me, but they I'm not sure if
they're still there now.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
I've got to go look and see.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
Who.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Would you say, are your competitors in the better burger
business in Atlanta right now?
Speaker 4 (41:31):
Well, if you if you include smash burgers, we have
a lot of competitors because you know, everybody's in the
smashburger phrase. But some of the big ones would be Grindhouse,
Killer Burgers. NFA is like the token burger of you know, Atlanta,
but they kind of specialize in smash burgers, So I
(41:52):
don't really like comparing our burgers to the smash burger
market because it's totally different. But definitely you know, Ryan House,
h and F Burgers, our Home and.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
Bitch, they're you know, kind of in there with us
as well.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
So yeah, those are the local change and then of
course we have the bigger that's.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
A pretty good roster right there when you when you
look at Atlanta, which is I wouldn't have necessarily called
them a burger hot spot, but they seem to becoming that.
You know, a lot of new age brands building in there,
like yourself, which is kind of cool to see because
I don't know what you think, Jerr about this, but
(42:32):
I feel like the better burger segment was getting a
little tired. What do you think it.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Was like like seventy years ago, it was like kind
of the cool, really hot, cool sector, and then you know,
it got a little un Yeah, and then we saw
some brands kind of open and fail and it kind
of evened out, which always happened. So yeah, but you know,
I love a good burger, so I'm happy to see
that we're kind of getting a revival there.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
I feel like this now, though, seems to be a
phase for more artisanal burgers rather than better Burger. It's
it's a completely different style than what we've seen in
the past, the smash burgers. I think obviously what we
saw with Burger five, which was a train wreck down
here in South Florida. Everybody was trying to to make
(43:23):
it so cookie cutter, you know, and it it never
elevated beyond what you could get at Wendy's or Burger King,
ra McDonald's, you know, So there wasn't enough differentiation.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
And even though at the beginning though, at the big
like it was like that menu was cool, you know.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Yeah, I remember Tom, you know Tom Ryan, when he
you know, when he first started going on that it.
I love the concept we did about He's in the documentary,
you know, when we did Better Burger for the Vast
Casual Nation documentary, we went to Denver spent time with Tom,
and you know, he gave us the whole concept of
the smash burger, and you know, the theme was really
(44:04):
at that time was great. But that's a decade ago. Right,
So now I think these artismal spots are I think
you're onto something, Cassidy, I think you're onto something.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Yeah, probably if you can keep the artisanal vibe while
you expand. Though that's the hard part, right It is
hard looking it like super awesome and cool and big
and huge deliciousness. But then when you're trying to franchise,
then you like what Burgerfi. You know, you kind of
cut back on the special to grow quicker.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Okay, last question to you, as a female CEO in
a startup brand in one of the most competitive sectors
in the industry, fast casual, when you look at the
big challenges that you've faced in just the last couple
of years, you know, for other women leaders that are
out there right now, what would you say is, hey.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Guys, watch out for this, Ladies watch out for this.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
Honestly, I don't have a watch out for the ladies
because I feel like being a female actually helps because
they're this is a male dominated and just restaurants in
general is a male dominated. So when you have a
creative brand and then people find out that it's owned
(45:21):
by a woman, they're even more excited about it. So
I've seen a lot of positivity come from it, but
I've always been, you know, the type of.
Speaker 5 (45:32):
Person where I don't really look at that kind of
thing anyways.
Speaker 4 (45:34):
But if I did have any advice, I would just say,
find your passion, find your niche, and just stick to it.
You're gonna have distractions, so social media. You're going to
see other companies that are maybe growing faster than yours,
that are doing you know, bigger things, or you're going
to see a brand and you're gonna want to copy
(45:55):
that brand.
Speaker 5 (45:56):
Don't your brand.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Yeah, just say, just stay true to your your initial
creative concept and eventually, you know people will see it.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Yeah, love water down your idea.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Cassy coming in from Lol Burger Bar. You guys check
it out. If you're in Atlanta, you got to go
buy and check this crazy menu out. It is one
for the books. This might be one of my new faves.
As soon as I get there, I got to go
try it though. So I'm going to Atlanta. You know,
it's not a bar trip coming out of South Florida.
I just zip into Atlanta, go eat Burger Bar or
(46:34):
loll Burgers, and I'll be good to go.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
Cassie, thanks again for coming in on the show today.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (46:40):
Oh, thank you guys for having me Mane. It's been
it's been a ball. I had a great time.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
Good deal. We like to do it that way. Thank you.
Coping in.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
All right, I'm gonna put you down in the green
room and Cheryl, let's take it out. This is a
big one again, more fantastic brands. The lineup here on
Fast Casual Nation is unstop exactly.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
The place to be if you want to hear about emerging,
up and coming brands for sure.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Well it's good, good strategies for you guys out there.
If you're listening to the podcast right now, make sure
and jump over here to the YouTube channel which is
just save fm. Now over two hundred and twenty thousand
subscribers are watching this channel, so check it out. Sharon
and I drop a podcast and a video weekly so
(47:28):
you guys will get the best of the best.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Of the industry. And of course, so we've.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Got some big news coming down the pipe. Will be
announcing very soon.
Speaker 3 (47:36):
Yeah, we have a you know, let's give him a
little hint we.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
Have I'll let you do it well.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
Our own collaboration coming up between Paul's team and Fast
Casuals perfect pitch, so we will. We'll reveal that next week.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
Yes, next week, we're going to be talking about that.
It's going to blow your mind, guys, So stay tuned
right here, don't miss any episodes. Get that little like
on the YouTube channel right now. Make sure and subscribe
if you hadn't hit the bell, do that because that
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