Your fourth quarter update from Nations Restaurant News
Fall 2022
Full steam ahead INTERACTIVE INDUSTRY UPDATE
How to navigate the speed bumps as you build your brand
Manage rising costs Build your tech stack Retain your best people
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Nobody can run a successful restaurant in isolation. To effectively navigate the myriad challenges facing their businesses, leaders need insights, inspiration, ideas and support — particularly from their peers. To that end, Nation’s Restaurant News recently brought together hundreds of restaurant executives, entrepreneurs and though leaders the second annual CREATE: The Future of Foodservice event in Denver. For two days some of the sharpest minds
in the industry swapped stories and strategies on such topics as technology, menu development, supply chain, labor and leadership. We’ve gathered some of the best ideas, case studies and outside-the-box thinking from these leaders—in their own words.Throughout this issue you can hear their insights, study their successes and absorb their advice. We hope it inspires creativity and innovation within your own business.
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CONTENTS
table of
Sam Oches Editor-in-Chief
Never Resist Change
Build Brands That Resonate
Christi Ravneberg Director of Content Integration
Features
Alicia Kelso Executive Editor
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How to be people-first in a touchscreen world 04
What guests really want: Unforgettable experiences
How to right-size your tech stack 22
marketing clutter 06
How to break through
Leigh Anne Zinsmeister Group Managing Editor
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CREATE video recap ICYMI: Sessions from Create: The future of foodservice in Denver, Colorado Podcast Spotlight: Introducing First Bite, a new daily podcast from the editors of Nation’s Restaurant News
The secret to better recruitment and retention
Ron Ruggless Senior Editor
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When it comes to supply chain, there are no shortcuts for restaurants Operator Spotlight: 6 emerging brands weigh in on growth strategies, labor challenges and rising costs
Bret Thorn Senior Food and Beverage Editor
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On the cover Los Angeles-based HomeState draws a crowd with its Texas-style tacos, queso and frozen margaritas. Photo credit: Jakob Layman for HomeState See page 20 for more.
Joanna Fantozzi Senior Editor
Partner Spotlight
6 Savor Eat
17 Entegra
11 Acxiom 13 Custom Channels
23 Pepper the App 25 Radar
Holly Petre Digital Editor
www.nrn.com
How to be people-first in a touchscreen world
The secret, according to the 2022 CREATORS Award winners, is to never resist change
The 2022 CREATORS Award panel featured leaders from Wendy’s, Capriotti’s and Wing Zone, Ascend Hospitality, Bonanno Concepts, Dine Brands and Smokey Bones
“A few years ago, I personally would have laughed at you if on a Wednesday night you asked me for one of our housemade pastas to-go,” James O’Reilly, CEO of Smokey Bones said. “But we tried it at one of our stores during the pandemic and it singlehandedly turned the store around […] that restaurant has turned into one of our top three restaurants, and the chef that had the idea for takeout is now our director of operations two years later.” The moral of the story? Don’t be resistant to change, especially during a time of industry-wide upheaval and listen to what your people want. Capriotti’s and You’ve got to do new things whether you like them or not because the writing is on the wall, and if you don’t embrace the change, you’re going to be playing catchup. Ashley Morris CEO, Capriotti’s & Wing Zone
Joanna Fantozzi Senior Editor
Whether you’re a company as large as Dine Brands, or an emerging brand like Denver-based Bonanno Concepts, the key to successful restaurant industry growth is putting people first by listening to your customers’ changing needs. This was a major theme shared by the 2022 CREATORS Award winners at the recent CREATE conference in Denver, as representatives from the winning
brands — Wendy’s, Capriotti’s/Wing Zone, Ascend Hospitality, Smokey Bones, Bonanno Concepts, and Dine Brands — discussed taking calculated risks for big payoffs.
Watch the
CREATORS Content Here!
Before the pandemic, Florida-based barbecue chain Smokey Bones would never have classified itself as a takeout restaurant, but as customer needs have changed in the past couple of years, the company has been open to going with the flow.
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Wing Zone CEO Ashley Morris felt similarly about embracing third-party delivery in 2020, though initially he wanted to be patient and wait it out. But Morris’ team encouraged him to fully embrace third-party delivery as the future of the hospitality experience and he is grateful for that push: “Thanks to the cell phone, the do-it-yourself consumer is going to continue becoming this newer generation of people who […] don’t necessarily need as much service as historically has been seen in hospitality,” Morris said. “You’ve got to do new things whether you like them or not because the writing is on the wall, and if you don’t embrace the change, you’re going to be playing catchup.” One of the hottest (and most divisive) new tech toys that restaurant industry leaders either love or hate is the metaverse. But while some brands have shied away from virtual interactivity, Wendy’s has completely embraced it, and has become a leader in the Web3 marketing space. Wendy’s vice president of national marketing Lindsay Radkoski said that their venture into the Wendyverse was a “calculated risk” that they plan to make a long-term play out of. “For us the big internal discussion going on was, ‘we’re not going to do it just to check a box and get a headline,’” she said.“We’re going to do it to engage with our customers over a long period of time.” That virtual engagement of being able to play basketball with the Baconator in virtual reality will naturally translate into customer actions in the world, including increased digital sales. This — our panelists agreed — is what digital hospitality looks like in the modern era: listening to customers both in the digital world and in the “real world” and translating that to stronger consumer
relationships. At Dine Brands, CEO John Peyton said, they accomplished this through customer segmentation on social media and embracing what they call the “spirit of entrepreneurialism.” “We all knew that we wanted to get more guests to come and try us but we needed to meet them where they were,”Peyton said.“Now we have segmentation that allows us to target individuals based on what they what decisions they make when they’re hungry and where they get information from. So, for example, you know, if someone is more focused on quality of ingredients, we might use Instagram to reach them, but if someone is interested in our viral menu items, then TikTok is a great place.”
Applebees gif
The big takeaways from this year’s CREATORS honorees? Listen to your customers, don’t be resistant to change, and get comfortable with taking risks, whether it’s an interaction at a restaurant or on a screen: “What can we do in that 60 to 90 minutes of customers dining in our restaurants that will lead them to want to tell others about their experience?” Jeffrey Fredrick president and partner of Ascend Hospitality said. “[…] So that they feel compelled to take out their phones and capture that moment and share it? They’re really being our ambassadors to the consumer, and that begins and ends with the experience in our four walls.” Applebee’s “Fancy Like” ad showcased its ability to listen to fans and respond quickly to pop culture. Dine Brands CEO John Peyton called the song “a gift from the heavens.” “If our fans are going to be there, we want to be there too”
Wendy’s
Lindsay Radkoski of Wendy’s talks with NRN’s Holly Petre about the burger brand’s ongoing journey into the metaverse and how its mission to “show up as a human” — not a faceless corporate entity — drives decision making.
How to break through marketing clutter
CREATE headliner Bonin Bough urges creativity to unlock attention Restaurant operators serve customers distracted on many levels, from smartphones to daily life, and they need to find hacks to break through the clutter, according to marketing expert, investor and author Bonin Bough. Bough, gave the “Hackonomy 2.0” keynote address at the second annual CREATE: The Future of Foodservice, a gathering of restaurant leaders presented by Nation’s Restaurant News in Denver. “I think people forget that creativity is the largest unlock of attention,” Bough said, urging operators to look at their businesses to make sure they have room for that inventiveness and originality. Bough, who is is the co-founder of Group Black, host of CNBC’s Cleveland Hustles and former chief growth officer of Triller, is also the author of “Txt Me (646-759-1837),” a book that promotes the use of text messaging as a marketing platform and includes his actual mobile phone number in the title. “I think the restaurant industry right now is going through transformation,” Bough said, citing the growing number of virtual restaurants available on third-party delivery platforms. “I know it seems scary.” Bough said one of the biggest transformations has been those virtual brands that can employ underutilized assets and capacity in kitchens, and that give restaurants an opportunity to fight differently in the marketplace. Bough had experience in growth for food and beverage brands as an executive at Mondelēz International and PepsiCo. He has been named to the Forbes 40 Under 40 list, Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business and Ebony’s Power 100. He was involved in such campaigns as the Honey Maid graham crackers’ “This Is Wholesome” effort, which drew criticism in some quarters for its interracial and same-sex couples, and the gay-rainbow-filled pride Oreo.
Bough said restaurant operators can evolve their businesses to connect with consumers in a rapidly changing digital world. “How do you break your process?” he asked the group. “But most importantly: How do you break yourself so you continue to create value over and over again?” Restaurant operators must find ways to break through the clutter that customers are facing, he added. “We have become the most distracted society in human history,” Bough said, “but people will never admit they’re distracted.” With smartphones and other communications devices, society has tried to become adept at multitasking. But multitasking divides attention. Bough cited a study by the American Psychiatric Association that looked at performance of mobile phone text users compared to marijuana smokers and found the latter group’s result was twice as good as the former. “If you take anything from today, it’s that you’re better off being a pothead,” he said with a laugh. The COVID pandemic proved that companies, especially those operating restaurants, can shift quickly to accommodate changes in business conditions. “The thing that I took away from it is how resilient humans can be,” he recalled. “We had to change overnight. We didn’t have a choice.” That innovation serves businesses well, even when not dealing with the changes caused by a pandemic, he said.“The most important thing I’ve learned,” Bough noted, “is that you have to immerse yourself in the process of innovation.”
Want more? Watch Bonin Bough’s full keynote address, “Hackonomy 2.0” here.
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Video Link
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info@savor-eat.com savoreat.com
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The secret to better recruitment and retention
Struggling to find and keep good employees? Take a closer look at your company culture, experts say
and behave and how they show up,” Stover said. “For Shake Shack, our culture is really about creating an elevated experience for our guests, but more importantly it’s about taking care of our teams.” Stover said Shake Shack recently has had more than 2,800 employees advance to new opportunities within the company, some of whom had been through the company’s Shift Up program to help train new managers. “We practice what we call enlightened hospitality,” Stover added. “Essentially it’s about priority being placed on the people that work in your organization. And when you take care of them, they’re going to take care of every other stakeholder that’s part of your ecosystem.” Lawlor said Smokey Bones measures success of its culture by doing annual surveys and pulse questions for hourly workers when they clock in. In addition, the Smokey Bones executive team has conducted a virtual town hall meeting with managers across the company every Thursday since April 2020, during the early weeks of the pandemic. “We provide a business update,” Lawlor explained. “We give functional updates. … Then at the end we have a Q&A session. We take the hard questions and a lot of the things that helped us shape and navigate our actions throughout the pandemic came out of these sessions. …. We find out so much information from our field leaders and by breaking down the communication barriers in establishing trust with them on that we have to be able to respond in a meaningful way.”
Ron Ruggless Senior Editor
Culture can help foodservice companies recruit and retain employees, restaurant leaders said during “Culture: Your Single Point of Difference,” a panel session at CREATE: The Future of Foodservice in Denver.
The panelists included: Dave Boennighausen, CEO of Broomfield, Colo.-based Noodles & Company; Meredith Cagigal, vice president
Watch the Culture Panel Content Here!
of foodservice channel strategy and execution at the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co.; Hal Lawlor, chief operations officer of Aventura, Fla.-based Smokey Bones; and Idris Stover, director of diversity, equity, inclusion and culture at New York-based Shake Shack. It was moderated by Sam Oches, editor in chief of Nation’s Restaurant News.
Culture be difficult to define, they said, but Stover provided a succinct explanation: “It’s the beliefs and the values that translate into behaviors that drive decision-making to drive the environment in which people work and ultimately that impacts the guests.” can Employees need “to feel and touch our culture, because it’s how people will act
“Every aspect of our lives is so personalized. [Employees] want that type
of personal experience.”
Dave Boennighausen CEO, Noodles & Company
Cagigal said Coca-Cola managers work to remain engaged with employees quarterly as well as
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Executives from The Coca-Cola Company, Smokey Bones, Shake Shack and Noodles & Company shared their advice for building better company culture at CREATE in Denver.
conducting pulse surveys about how the workers are feeling about the world and the Coke culture. “We focus on really listening to our associates and then adjusting our practices accordingly,” she said. Boennighausen said the two years of heightened COVID concerns, as well as travel and other restrictions, has corroded the best barometer of culture — the energy felt feel when walking into a restaurant. Executives must make an effort to communicate transparency, and even a vulnerability, he said. Diversity and equity programs can help, Stover added. “We took a hard look at our workforce back in 2020 and realized that we had 53% women overall and 76% people of color, so we looked at leadership rates and the ladder to the home office,” she said. “We did the hard work of taking an internal look, and then we put some pen to paper and we set some goals.” Cagigal said the Coke team has looked at those with disabilities as well and created equity accountability councils, made up of both employees and representatives of the communities, to advise the company on diversity. Reflecting the community should dovetail with what workers want and need from their jobs, the panelists said. Boennighausen said smartphones are an example of how younger employees view their place in the community: They are the blue dot on maps and the world is centered around them, and Spotify allows them to personalize their music. “Every aspect of our lives is so personalized,” he said of the younger employees and what they want from workplace culture. “They want that type of personal experience.”
Figuring out a 4-day work week at Asian Box 29 min
50 min
Noodles & Company: Personalizing the employee experience
3 emerging brand CEOs talk labor challenges
Shake Shack: Providing a clear path for growth
4 restaurant leaders discuss their struggles with labor, supply chain and more 34 min
Smokey Bones: Being transparent with the team
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Operator Spotlight brought to you by
Next Level Burger CEO on the future of plant-based restaurants Matthew de Gruyter, CEO of Next Level Burger, talks with Nation’s Restaurant News senior editor Joanna Fantozzi about how the growing plant-based burger chain appeals to vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters alike as it pursues ambitious growth. Hear how the brand is managing the rising costs of both food and wages as it expands.
How Milkshake Concepts is incubating the next big restaurant brand Imran Sheikh, CEO of Milkshake Concepts, talks with Nation’s Restaurant News senior editor Joanna Fantozzi about what’s next for the Dallas-based multiconcept restaurant group, which includes such concepts as Stirr, Vidorra, Serious Pizza, Dirty Bones, The Finch and more. Hear how Milkshake identifies which of its concepts have the strongest growth potential and what’s next for the company as it enters a “hypergrowth phase.”
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info@acxiom.com acxiom.com
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Operator Spotlight brought to you by
Chaia Tacos CEO shares tips for how growing brands can scale Bettina Stern, co-founder and principal of Chaia Tacos, talks with Nation’s Restaurant News digital editor Holly Petre about how the plant-based taco concept is positioning itself for major growth. Hear how Chaia has expanded its leadership team to strengthen operations and pivot from its early stage, founder-driven model into a highly efficient and scalable operation.
How strategic site selection fueled Project Pollo’s early growth Lucas Bradbury, president of Project Pollo, talks with Nation’s Restaurant News editor-in-chief Sam Oches about how the plant-based chicken concept is shaping the future of the plant-based market. Hear how the brand has built a foundation of strong company culture and how it has capitalized on attractive real estate sites to take its concept nationwide.
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Operator Spotlight brought to you by
Sixty Vines CEO: How wine could become “the new coffee” Jeff Carcara, CEO of Sixty Vines, talks with Nation’s Restaurant News editor-in-chief Sam Oches about how the growing brand makes wine and wine country cuisine approachable and affordable for customers. Hear why Carcara says wine on tap is the best way to experience wine by the glass and why wine might become the new coffee.
Pizza and superheroes: Inside the unique culture of Zalat Pizza Khanh Nguyen, founder of Zalat Pizza, talks with Nation’s Restaurant News senior food and beverage editor Bret Thorn about how the fast-growing brand is building a one-of-a- kind company culture that encourages transparent communication and gives employees superhero “call signs.” Hear how the brand uses its laser focus on employees and an obsession with perfect pizzas to fuel big growth plans.
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Let’s CREATE the Future Together!
SAVE THE DATE! Oct. 2-4, 2023 Palm Springs, California
Nation’s Restaurant News is headed to California for another unforgettable meetup of the best in restaurant leadership — and we want YOU to join us. Engaging speakers: Learn from the best minds in the business Ask the Experts: Peer-to-peer discussion on tech tools, labor, menu trends and more Restaurant tours: Experience Palm Springs exciting restaurant scene Pop-Up Food Festival: Immerse yourself in the latest menu trends Creators & Hot Concepts Awards: Celebrate the industry’s top innovators Festival parties: Cocktails, conversation and authentic connection
Visit CREATE ONLINE for more info!
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When it comes to supply chain, there are no shortcuts for restaurants
It’s crucial for operators to be flexible and nurture distributor relationships
Joanna Fantozzi Senior Editor
Although the supply chain was a disaster during the peak of the pandemic for every retail and consumer goods industry, including foodservice, the challenges have not abetted in a post-COVID world; they’ve just evolved. Supply experts are quick to point out the issues that labor struggles and pricing surges have had on their companies, from not being able to get products on time or struggling to afford ingredients and packaging that they’ve never had an issue with purchasing in the past. While operators might hold out hope for a secret hack to somehow get around supply chain shortages and pricing increases, experts say there is no shortcut when it comes to maintaining a stable supply chain. Success comes down to building solid relationships with your distributors and being flexible about where your ingredients come from or finding substitutions if necessary. “I think at the start of 2022, we were thinking,‘We’re finally going to feel some relief,’ because we were seeing prices decrease a bit even with inflation and there was some stabilization,” said Maryam Chaney, vice president of food and beverage at private equity firm Savory Fund, which owns and operates several emerging concepts. “But now there are other factors like staffing shortages and avian influenza that have caused people to shift from turkey and chicken and go to pork and beef, which has caused a new floor for beef pricing…
For an Asian-influenced concept like Teriyaki Madness, many of its supply chain woes come from trying to ship ingredients overseas.
Supply chain issues were a perfect storm [in 2020] that became an earthquake and now we’re having a radioactive meltdown on top of that.” The operators we spoke with consistently lamented the same supply chain issues over and over: astronomical pricing and issues with international shipping challenges. Whereas 2020 and 2021 were the years of scarcity and product shortages, now labor challenges and the trucking crisis have caused commodity costs to skyrocket. Almost all restaurant operators raised menu prices to keep up with commodity cost inflation. Denver- based Teriyaki Madness CEO Michael Haith said that his company raised prices like everyone else, but is being conscientious of margins, franchisee profitability needs, and what the consumer would actually be willing to pay.
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“We really try and maintain the lowest cost possible to our customer, and I think they appreciate that,” Haith said. “But because we offer a fast-casual, high-quality product, they’re going to be willing to pay a little more and they also understand prices are going up everywhere. No one likes inflation, but we’re all weighing quality vs. value.” For an Asian-influenced concept like Teriyaki Madness, many of its supply chain woes come from trying to ship ingredients overseas. A particularly thorny conundrum was the Sriracha sauce shortage, for which the company had to find a substitute. Haith also said that the brand has had a lot of issues with distributors from China. “One of the most egregious examples was we had soy sauce being shipped over from China and it was stuck on a boat in Los Angeles Harbor,” Haith said. “They were actually putting it on planes and flying it in for us. … We’ve started to offshore or buy many of these ingredients domestically, and we’re willing to pay a little bit more in order to guarantee the consistency of supply.” Teriyaki Madness is not the only company switching over to mostly domestic suppliers to avoid complications from overseas shipping. Smoothie King may not have to deal with poultry sourcing headaches, but fruits and vegetables can be challenging to source domestically. Smoothie King vice president of supply chain Barbara Mayrand said that the company has begun nearshoring ingredients (or shipping from a nearby country instead of far away) to ensure more consistent ingredient availability and pricing. “A lot of our fruits and vegetables are brought in from outside of the country because some tropical fruits just aren’t grown in the United States, like pineapple,” Mayrand said. “So, instead of having just one or two pineapple suppliers, we have five. …We were previously only buying pineapple out of Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, and now we got Costa Rica approved as an additional growing area. … With all of the ports backed up, you could have your pineapple sitting off the coast of California for four months in a freezer container.” For Texas-based smoothie chain, Smoothie King, nearshoring goes hand in hand with diversification of suppliers. Many operators are trying to increase the number of distributors they have relationships
with, because you never know when disaster will strike — from labor shortages to crop failures or a shipping boat sitting off the coast of Los Angeles. Panera Bread has a similar strategy. “You have to have multiple supply partners to be able to innovate,” said Gregg Waterman, chief supply chain and manufacturing officer at Panera Bread. “We need to have ownership of that recipe and we intend to have secondary suppliers. That doesn’t mean they won’t be a partner of ours, but you have to establish [that you have multiple partners] early on so you’re not stuck. And if there’s an issue with one supplier you have another one to turn to… Suppliers know that they’re not 100% predictable.” When creating new menu items, Panera always consults and works closely with its food and beverage innovation team to make sure that they are introducing plentiful suppliers (and strong relationships) to create multiple backups for new ingredients. For example, when Panera introduced its new chicken sandwiches earlier this year, the company had multiple chicken suppliers that participated in the development process from the start. “Previously, we may have just had one supplier that we partnered with from the beginning,” Waterman said. “It creates the spirit of a more competitive environment when distributors are involved in the creative process from the beginning.” One of the downsides to working with multiple providers is ensuring consistency of quality no matter where you source your chicken or pineapple from. Focus Brands is in the midst of a multi-year plan to simplify its supply chain, and will work on decreasing its number of suppliers by 2025. The company is also working on a supplier score card to look at the relationship.
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“We have a lot of single source dependency, and work to identify matches and find suppliers that can produce similar guest experiences,” Waterman said. “Our culinary team has dedicated resources toward that, and the process could sometimes take months or even a year to fine-tune and create a match that will taste the same coming out of different plants.” Whereas most of the operators we spoke with were ramping up the number of distributors they work with daily, this strategy doesn’t work for everyone. Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon’s parent company, Focus Brands, is working on streamlining the number of distributors and suppliers its partners with to manage fewer SKUs and simplify the company’s supply chain. “The reality is that any one of our brands alone does not have significant purchasing power,” said Anissa Mandell Chance, senior vice president of supply chain at Focus Brands.“So you really have to depend on leveraging the aggregate spend across all brands in order to bring that benefit. The way we do that is by doing more with less; instead of having too many suppliers, products and SKUs, we … look at how we are able to get more products with fewer suppliers, which enables us to manage our price outline more effectively.” Chance said that she and her team are able to negotiate as a portfolio, rather than as individual brands so they can, for example, negotiate a contract for chicken with both Moe’s Southwest Grill and Schlotzsky’s at the same time. Focus Brands is in the midst of a multi-year plan to simplify its supply chain, and will be working on decreasing its number of suppliers by 2025. The company is also working on a supplier score card to look at multiple aspects of the supplier’s relationship, including pricing and overall quality to help improve or reevaluate partnerships. Relationships with suppliers are the backbone of any restaurant’s supply chain success, whether you’re a national chain or a small independent restaurant. Each of the experts interviewed for this
story stressed the importance of having a close relationship with their suppliers, especially now when macroeconomic pressures make it challenging to get ingredients at reasonable prices. Smoothie King, for example, works with its distributors to create automated reports and predictive analytics to know exactly what each distributor has for each item and can react (and purchase) accordingly. “We look at our distributors not just as suppliers but as partners,” Mayrand said. “If you leverage these relationships, maybe you will get more preferential treatment versus somebody who just sees it as a transactional relationship.” Panera similarly stressed the importance of close relationships with suppliers, and even utilizes these relationships to help manage increased costs. Before the pandemic, Panera started rethinking its relationships with suppliers and began developing secondary and tertiary relationships as backup in case things went south (as they did in 2020 and 2021).The team has since been able to identify issues within the supply chain, like product availability, consistency and quality and tweak these items based on constant conversations with suppliers. “We’re always looking for feedback from suppliers and looking at how we can improve quality and resiliency or lower costs,” Waterman said. “There’s no magic bullet. It requires constant monitoring, communication, and agility. We can’t anticipate everything that comes at us, but we can try to stay ahead of the curve and have a plan.” “We’re always looking at how we can improve quality and resiliency or lower costs. There’s no magic bullet. It takes constant monitoring, communication and agility.” Gregg Waterman Panera Bread
Inside one fast-casual brand’s journey to build its own supply chain 55 min
What guests really want: Unforgettable experiences
The leaders of 4 emerging restaurant concepts share how they’re building brands that resonate
she said. But she saw what was possible working for Keller. “I said I really want to provide this level of access to more people … and I’ve proven that you can.” “It’s experience that today’s guest wants,” said Jeff Carcara, CEO of Sixty Vines, a six-unit chain by Dallas-based restaurant group FB Society that, true to its name, offers 60 wines out of kegs, allowing customers to taste wine for free and buy 2-ounce pours for as little as $4. “Pre-COVID, there was a lot of chatter … [that] casual dining was dead. But really it’s transactional dining that is kind of dying on a full-service level,” he said. “Providing adventure and discovery every time you walk in our restaurant, that’s an experience and what guests are really looking for.” Sixty Vines also has a sustainability mission that Carcara said resonates with customers: “For every keg of wine we tap we save 26 bottles from going into a landfill,” he said, adding that wine from kegs is more consistent. “The last glass is as good as the first,” he said. Pairing those wines with food from wine-growing regions from around the world also makes for great discovery, he added. “Literally you walk in there and have a different experience every night of the week,” he said. Sustainability is also part of the mission of the two other Hot Concepts winners, Project Pollo and PLNT Burger, which both serve only meatless food. PLNT Burger (pronounced “plant burger”), had an early leg up by partnering with Whole Foods Market, where it opened its first location in 2020, as well as being founded by celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn. But director of strategic marketing
Bret Thorn Senior Food & Beverage Editor
Creating positive vibes and a great guest experience are essential to running a successful restaurant, according to this year’s winners of the Hot Concepts award, which the editors of Nation’s Restaurant News give to brands that have the potential to make a lasting impact on the American dining landscape. During a discussion at the second annual conference of CREATE: The Future of Foodservice, leaders of Project Pollo, Sixty Vines, PLNT Burger, and HomeState, all shared the points of distinction of their brands. The panel was moderated by Andrew Smith, managing director of the venture capital Savory Fund. “We’re sharing a unique story that you can’t find anywhere else,” said Briana Valdez, a Texas native who founded HomeState in Los Angeles to satisfy her own craving for the food and hospitality of home.The alumna of Thomas Keller’s Bouchon restaurant, who had also been mentored by P.F. Chang’s founder Paul Fleming, now has grown the concept to five units, providing not only Texas-style tacos with premium ingredients, but also a welcoming environment with great music and design meant to make people feel comfortable and welcome. Valdez said the mix of customers who visit the restaurants between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., including families and young people as well as dressed up business people having power lunches, creates great energy. “Everybody told me at the beginning that you can’t serve tacos with this high level of integrity of food,”
Watch the Hot Concepts Content Here!
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PLNT Burger
Project Pollo
Sixty Vines
HomeState
Jonah Goldman told CREATE attendees that the brand would have been successful even without its Whole Foods partnership. “The brand itself is hot,” he said. “The partnership with Whole Foods certainly allowed us to do proof- of-concept in a way that I think was lean and cunning … but what makes us hot is the deliciousness, the chef-crafted part of our brand. We have some of the best burger chefs in the world who lend their culinary expertise to our menu,” he said. “We aim to be the best burger joint in the world. It shouldn’t matter that we’re plant-based or animal-based at all. We just want to deliver a superior product.” But PLNT Burger also has a mission that he said adds to its appeal. “It’s uplifting. It’s fun and empowering for a guest to come and enjoy the classic comfort foods they know and love and connect to the environmental impact, to feel good about themselves physically, morally [and] economically.”
Playing on the word “hot” in Hot Concepts, he said “you can’t be the hottest girl at the dance unless you know what attracts other people to you.” That means paying attention to customers and responding to their needs. Project Pollo is a vegan concept founded two years ago in San Antonio, Texas, by Lucas Bradbury, serving a meatless version of chicken developed by Tindle and coated in proprietary breading and seasonings, along with salads, fries and oat-milk shakes. It has since grown to 15 locations and is on target to reach 20 units by the end of the year, and 12 units per year going forward, with about half of them being franchised. “I think it’s a great time to be in this [plant-based] space. I think it’s the tip of the iceberg of where it’s headed. I think guests are looking to consume a variety of different proteins and I think encompassing what we have to offer [as part of their options] is an exciting thing.”
Bringing Texas tacos and hospitality to the West Coast
HomeState
Briana Valdez, founder of HomeState, talks with NRN’s Sam Oches about how the Texas-inspired brand is finding its footing in the Los Angeles market by tapping into the universal customer desire for comfort and hospitality.
How to right-size your tech stack
Don’t be distracted by bells and whistles: technology experts discuss the basics of figuring out what your business needs — and what it doesn’t
“Every restaurateur needs to have a POS system that’s right for their business with real-time reporting that lets you make decisions on the fly,” Savory Restaurant Fund’s Smith said. “Things move so quickly in this industry that you need to give the power to your people on the front lines. POS systems are clunky so get one that’s right for you.” But whatever you do, make sure you don’t have more than one POS system—even if it’s hard to choose— because it’s so difficult to get them to work together. “BurgerFi was family-run company with four POS systems floating around which was a logistical nightmare,” Goodhew, the brand’s CTO said. “The first focus was to consolidate around a single POS for one brand and single online system.”
Joanna Fantozzi Senior Editor
One of the biggest questions restaurant operators have but not enough are actually talking about, is “how do I build my tech stack?” With more and more technology vendors popping up, receiving funding, and reaching unicorn status weekly, the topic of building out your tech stack has become complex even for veteran operators. During the third installment of the CREATE Emerging Restaurateur Live Learning webinar series hosted by Nation’s Restaurant News’ editor-in-chief Sam Oches and Savory Restaurant Fund’s managing director Andrew K. Smith — Otto Othman, CEO of Pincho; Leigh Gower, CTO of Dutch Bros Coffee; Dan Simpson of Taziki’s Mediterranean Café; and Karl Goodhew, CTO of BurgerFi — sat down to discuss the challenges and trends in the world of restaurant tech vendors lately. Here are some of the crucial takeaways from the session: Choose one POS system (and make sure it’s a good one)
It’s (usually) better to prioritize unsexy tech
While it may be more fun to talk about robots, the metaverse and AI in the drive-thru, oftentimes the most crucial technology you
can invest in is the less-splashy tech like credit card security, human resources systems (like training and onboarding), and data management. “There are a lot of shiny objects, and they can be very alluring,” Taziki’s Simpson said. “But a lot of times, the simple solution really meets the needs of your business. Don’t’ feel like you’re failing because you don’t have the biggest tech. A basic set of tech can carry you for a long way—don’t get sucked into all of the bells and whistles.”
One of the crucial lessons to learn from building a tech stack is to not take on more than you can chew. Pick a POS system that’s right for you: It will be different based on your size, category and needs):
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make sure you have a platform where you can get the data out of that and have co-ownership of it.”
Don’t’ feel like you’re failing because you don’t have the biggest tech. A basic set of tech can carry you for a long way—don’t get sucked into all of the bells and whistles.” Dan Simpson Taziki’s Mediterranean Café
Figure out what your brand needs
Prioritization is one of the biggest challenges an operator can face when it comes to tech, and unfortunately there’s no easy answer because the
tech stack map looks different for everyone.
You’re never too small to build out your tech stack
“Figure out what really is unique to your particular brand and that’s where you should home in,” Dutch Bros Coffee’s Gower said. “Knowing the experience we are looking to bring to life, I ask vendors to supply us with use cases where they’ve already d some engagements and to describe what that looks like.”
It’s a mistake to think that smaller restaurant groups can’t be leaders in the technology space. Just ask Otto Othman, CEO and cofounder of 10- unit fast-casual brand, Pincho.
Not all tech works for everyone – like kiosks and QR codes Since we’ve learned that tech is not one-size-fits- all operation, it should be noted that some technology pieces are either “love it or
“When we first built Pincho, we had to make tech partnerships work even with our small brand,” Othman said, adding that they signed on with Olo early on even as a very small brand. “If you’re going to build 100 restaurants, you have to solve tech stack issues right now. We’ve evolved as we’ve grown and now that we have six restaurants in the pipeline, we are well set-up to make tough decisions early on.”
hate it.” Goodhew said that BurgerFi has really leaned on kiosk technology because their customers like the experience and they’re budget-friendly to install and run (about $5,000 for each restaurant). Smith said that he thinks though that kiosk technology will eventually fade quietly because the technology sometimes frustrates customers. Similarly, while QR codes are very popular with many brands still in the wake of the pandemic, Goodhew thinks that they will go away as customers become more accustomed to just ordering from their phones without the need of a QR code.
Data capture is one of the most important things to check off
One of the most important resources a restaurant’s tech department can have? Customer data.While previously, third-party delivery companies have come under fire for keeping customer data under lock and key, now there
are several solutions to unlocking your customer’s information, including delivery app add-ons like DoorDash Drive or even other platforms. With customer data, you can figure out who your target demographic is and send personalized marketing blasts. “When I got here the brand was 18 years old and we had lots of data pools disconnected from each other,” Dan Simpson said. “You need to make a good POS choice that allows you to co-own the data. If you’re really heavy on mobile or online ordering, you need to
Want more? Get practical tips for how to build your brand in the Emerging Restaurateur Live Learning Series. Click here to register.
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https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=M5SnViPVuz4
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ICYMI:
BONIN
Hackonomy 2.0: Bonin Bough, Marketing Guru, Investor, Author Bonin Bough tore up the stage at CREATE with his high energy keynote presentation on creating value and growth opportunity by breaking things—whether it is breaking from tradition, process, or simply the way you’ve always done things. Bonin is one of the foremost-awarded marketing executives in his field. The host of The Cleveland Hustles, Author of Txt Me and one of the youngest C-suite executives in a Fortune 50 company, Bonin has spearheaded some of the largest global marketing campaigns across digital, mobile, TV, print and experiential, including the premier of the first ever 3D printed food product for Oreo.
HOT CONCEPTS
TEXAS PETE
Hot Concepts: Panel Discussion The 2022 Nation’s Restaurant News Hot Concept winners are some of the most innovative restaurant industry leaders who are poised to become the next big chain. These emerging growth chain leaders gathered at CREATE for a lively panel discussion to discuss how new business models, on-trend menus, social purpose missions and new segment approaches have put them on the fast-track for growth. This panel was moderated by Andrew K. Smith, Managing Director, Savory Restaurant Fund.
Chefs from four top restaurant brands competed during the 10th annual Texas Pete® Kitchen Hero Cook-Off benefiting No Kid Hungry at the Nation’s Restaurant News CREATE: The Experience. Check out the action-packed highlights from this cooking competition and find out who won.
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SESSIONS FROM CREATE: THE FUTURE OF FOODSERVICE IN DENVER, COLORADO
CULTURE
Culture: Your Single Point of Difference Learn how building a strong culture can fuel innovation, employee retention and growth from four leading foodservice brands, Shake Shack, Noodles & Co., Smokey Bones and The Coca-Cola Company. Watch this interactive panel discussion, moderated by Sam Oches, Editor-in-Chief of Nation’s Restaurant News during the CREATE: The Future of Foodservice conference.
CREATORS
The CREATORS The winners of the 2022 Nation’s Restaurant News CREATORS Awards shared their keys to success during this high-spirited panel discussion at CREATE. Whether they’re reimagining the customer experience, forging a path into the metaverse or investing in employees’ mental health, these 7 leaders from Bonanno Concepts, Ascend Prime Steak & Sushi, Wendy’s, IHOP, Capriotti’s & Wing Zone, Smokey Bones and Dine Brands represent the height of innovation and creativity in the restaurant industry. Moderated by Sam Oches, Editor-in-Chief of Nation’s Restaurant News, this panel discussion is a can’t miss session.
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PODCAST SPOTLIGHT Go behind the headlines as Nation’s
Restaurant News’ expert editors break down the hottest issues in the industry and talk one-on-one with the newsmakers and innovators on three signature podcasts
About First Bite
Nation’s Restaurant News’ is proud to introduce its newest podcast, First Bite. Hosted by digital editor Holly Petre,
this daily podcast is your morning burst of news, followed by a deep dive into one of the trending stories of the day. Get the headlines alongside your first cup of coffee, plus additional context from an NRN senior editor.
McDonald’s + Krispy Kreme = match made in heaven? 8 min
Get a closer look at the new collaboration between two quick-service giants and hear how the move illustrates a bigger trend that has emerged throughout the past few years.
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