Reyes of Mecha Noodle Bar said, “We’re both sons of immigrant par- ents, so both of our parents took a tre- mendous risk and kind of reimagined what the future for them could look like. Because of that, we live in a grati- tude and for us it’s important to find a way to build a company that’s not just transactional but transformational.” Powell of Puttshack noted the tech- nology-forward mini-golf concept, will open its 20th location in November. “It was started by the founders of Top Golf,” he said. “The golf balls have proprietary technology and track ev- ery shot that you make, so you can’t cheat.” The high-end casual-dining expe- rience adds to the concept’s impact, Powell said. “We have local things in the menu,” he said. “In Nashville, we have tail- pipes, but think of it like a larger ver- sion of a spring roll.” Scott, co-founder of Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ, said he has picked up a lot of Southern respect for barbecue after living in the South for 12 years. “For me, it’s just trying to make sure the next one is better than the previous one,” Scott said, adding that the tradi- tion is much like that of casual-dining chain Texas Roadhouse, which is the “need to push forward into the future and modernize and take it to different communities.” Wolos of Tacombi said his concept started selling tacos out of a Volkswa- gen on the Yucatan Peninsula. “At its core,” he said, “the experi- ence that we’ve created is very much rooted in the heritage.” Now based in New York City, Ta-
tomer primarily comes to your restau- rant because the food tastes good,” he said. “We only have seven items on the menu, so these better be the best darn items that we can possibly serve our customers.” With 28 restaurants in California, he said, the company has neither changed portion sizes over the past four years nor raised prices, to main- tain its value proposition. The third principle, he added, is the guest experience. “We spend no money on advertis- ing,” Tremblay said. “All of our busi- ness is word of mouth. We just focus on those three items, and it seems to be paying off.”
combi reinvests in the experience, Wolos said. “We’ve been meticulous about all the little details that make up the cus- tomer experience,” he said. “When we opened up the first taco stand in Mexico” he recalled. “We wrote in our company constitution that we had a responsibility to give back to Mexico, to give back better.” Tremblay of Angry Chickz said he knew the chicken category was very competitive. “We, as a brand, focus on three very simple principles: the first principle is the quality we really are passionate or fanatical about the quality of our prod- uct and at the end of the day the cus-
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