Forktales

• Extended stay and select service brands are in their portfolio
• Trial and error and understanding the consumer more makes execution a lot easier
• You could have the best brand, the best food, the best offering but you still have to make the consumer happy
• Having the right conversation with a potential employee about what their career goals are is essential to hiring the right people. Having this conversation makes for more meaningful employment.
• Understanding how people’s lives have changed and understanding what they need form an employer helps put them in a better position.
• Multiplying Company Culture
  • How can you disseminate the culture from a central source?
  • By multiplying culture, there’s room for bad apples
  • This is where consistency really comes in
• If you pick the right talent, they can understand what the end goals are quicker 
• Future for PeachState
  • Growth in different markets where they feel they can execute
• Old Fashioned w/ toasted pecans and anything savory on the menu. Loves bar fries. 

• “Hospitality evolves every single day” -Ricky
• “Creating an offering where the locals like it and the locals want to be a part of it is very important versus just the guest…. What is the other offering that people in the area want to be around” -Ricky
• “Good F&B is fun” -Ricky
• “We need to start taking F&B much more seriously as ownership groups and hospitality management companies” -Joseph
• “You’ve got to understand the guest, if you don;t understand the guest, you can’t offer what they’re looking for” – Ricky
• “The basis of a great hotel experience is rooted in service” – Joseph
• “Authenticity is key” -Ricky
• “Hospitality talent will always come to hospitality” – Ricky
• That’s just the hallmark of a great leader,someone who is not afraid and not hesitant to roll up their sleeves, get dirty” -Joseph
• “If we start with the why and end with the why, the how becomes so much easier” -Ricky

• Extended stay and select service brands are in their portfolio
• Trial and error and understanding the consumer more makes execution a lot easier
• You could have the best brand, the best food, the best offering but you still have to make the consumer happy
• Having the right conversation with a potential employee about what their career goals are is essential to hiring the right people. Having this conversation makes for more meaningful employment.
• Understanding how people’s lives have changed and understanding what they need form an employer helps put them in a better position.
• Multiplying Company Culture
  • How can you disseminate the culture from a central source?
  • By multiplying culture, there’s room for bad apples
  • This is where consistency really comes in
• If you pick the right talent, they can understand what the end goals are quicker 
• Future for PeachState
  • Growth in different markets where they feel they can execute
• Old Fashioned w/ toasted pecans and anything savory on the menu. Loves bar fries. 

• “Hospitality evolves every single day” -Ricky
• “Creating an offering where the locals like it and the locals want to be a part of it is very important versus just the guest…. What is the other offering that people in the area want to be around” -Ricky
• “Good F&B is fun” -Ricky
• “We need to start taking F&B much more seriously as ownership groups and hospitality management companies” -Joseph
• “You’ve got to understand the guest, if you don;t understand the guest, you can’t offer what they’re looking for” – Ricky
• “The basis of a great hotel experience is rooted in service” – Joseph
• “Authenticity is key” -Ricky
• “Hospitality talent will always come to hospitality” – Ricky
• That’s just the hallmark of a great leader,someone who is not afraid and not hesitant to roll up their sleeves, get dirty” -Joseph
• “If we start with the why and end with the why, the how becomes so much easier” -Ricky

• LSD = Lobster, Steak and Duck. The Ultimate Surf n Turf.
• Marrying Chinese Cuisine w/ an American SteakHouse was the beginning of Brooklyn Chop House. 
• All dumplings are made to order at Brooklyn Dumpling Shop
• Book – “Damn Good Dumplings”
• Introduced new foods to all of his daughters in dumpling format by making them at home
• Stratis’ dad would say 12 hours was a half day. That was his mentality with his business. 
• Stratis’ dad would say “I can tell you how you’re running your restaurant by turning your garbage upside down.” Seeing where the waste is and seeing how inefficient your operation is.  
• Automat – Everyone who tried to bring it back failed because the whole wall became a metal box. The automat is substituting cashiers and logistical personnel. 
• Brooklyn Dumpling Shop was the first restaurant that has sold 140 franchises before opening store 1.
• Robotics can help with consistency in restaurants since there’s no human error
• Brooklyn Dumping Shop as a name as it extends out of Brooklyn – Brooklyn has a lot of cache. Brooklyn is a marketable term. 
• Bacon Cheeseburger Dumpling would be the last dumpling he would eat before he dies.

• “Leaning on tech, we can allow the integrity of the product to remain” -Stratis
• “I always thought the dumpling was so fascinating to me on how it needed to re-emerge and be re-emagined” -Stratis

• 3rd generation restaurateur
• Grandfather was the probably first Greek restaurant owner in NY in 1910
• 20 yrs old, left fam business and opened some restaurants on his own the last 30 years

• LSD = Lobster, Steak and Duck. The Ultimate Surf n Turf.
• Marrying Chinese Cuisine w/ an American SteakHouse was the beginning of Brooklyn Chop House. 
• All dumplings are made to order at Brooklyn Dumpling Shop
• Book – “Damn Good Dumplings”
• Introduced new foods to all of his daughters in dumpling format by making them at home
• Stratis’ dad would say 12 hours was a half day. That was his mentality with his business. 
• Stratis’ dad would say “I can tell you how you’re running your restaurant by turning your garbage upside down.” Seeing where the waste is and seeing how inefficient your operation is.  
• Automat – Everyone who tried to bring it back failed because the whole wall became a metal box. The automat is substituting cashiers and logistical personnel. 
• Brooklyn Dumpling Shop was the first restaurant that has sold 140 franchises before opening store 1.
• Robotics can help with consistency in restaurants since there’s no human error
• Brooklyn Dumping Shop as a name as it extends out of Brooklyn – Brooklyn has a lot of cache. Brooklyn is a marketable term. 
• Bacon Cheeseburger Dumpling would be the last dumpling he would eat before he dies.

• “Leaning on tech, we can allow the integrity of the product to remain” -Stratis
• “I always thought the dumpling was so fascinating to me on how it needed to re-emerge and be re-emagined” -Stratis

• 3rd generation restaurateur
• Grandfather was the probably first Greek restaurant owner in NY in 1910
• 20 yrs old, left fam business and opened some restaurants on his own the last 30 years

• How do you get moms and pops prepared to deal with franchisees?
  • Describes it likes having kids, no one is ever really ready
  • There are things you can do or have in place that make the process easier and make you more successful
  • You have to have a mindset that’s prepared to convert to a franchisor mindset
  • You aren’t in the restaurant business anymore at this point
  • Be willing to learn and do the extras to make it happen
  • When you get into franchising, you have to get back into the startup mindset
  • It’s rewarding if you’re willing to out in the time and effort to get to that point
• How do you prepare clients to “parent” the franchisees?
  • You have three jobs when you franchise your business
    • Sell
    • Train
    • Support
• Franchise companies that don’t do well fail at one or more of the above 3 (sell, train, support)
• Figure out which area/s you’re the strangest at and place a team around you that can fill in the gaps
• If you can have consistent support with the franchisees, that really makes a difference
• Clients will sometimes bring in mystery shoppers, not to say “I got ya” but to say “Where are you falling short?”
• Biggest challenges for franchisees during and as we come out of the pandemic
  • Franchisees that were doing well, were hit financially however they figured out a way to implement ideas from corporate, sorted out takeout program
  • Ones that didn’t figure it out decided to temporarily or permanently close
  • Tom spoke with a client and they said the one thing that saved them during the pandemic was their email list. They were able to do outreach to their customers because of that. 
• What is the perspective on full service? Will it continue to be viable?
  • Doesn’t foresee full service not existing. There will always be a place fo full service
  • The Experience Economy book

• How do you want your customer to feel when they leave? Whatever that feeling is, work backwards from there. How do you get to that feeling that you want them to have?Begin with the end in mind
• What elements do potential fransors need to have in place in order to succeed in today’s reality and tomorrow’s reality?
  • Want to make sure you have a profitable business
  • Make sure there’s at least a national customer base for your product or service and that it’s not niche
  • Can you train someone to do what you do in a reasonable time period? Anywhere from a week to 8 weeks?
• Profitability
  • Likes to see a 20% return on cash inves

• Started 10 years ago with 1 seafood restaurant.
• They’ve grown to 6 different restaurants.
• Di was a professional poker player until he decided to get into the restaurant world
• Tuyet Nhi was part of the original founding team for HEHG

“The health focus has always been a part of our identity” – Tuyet Nhi

• Inspired by Danny Meyer in the beginning. Read the book “Setting the Table”.
• One of the themes in the book is “No matter what happens, you always write the ending”. For example, if a guest has a bad experience, you write the ending. You get the chance to make it right. 
• Tony Hsieh – founder of Link Exchange. His book is “Delivering Happiness”. Delivering happiness to all of his customers and all of his employees. They read his book and it became a part of their culture.
• Radical Candor is a book that all management team is required to read. 
• Their culture is inspired by Google culture
• Expansion plans are in the future. A big project is coming at the end of the year
• Menu Item final meals
  • Tuyet Nhi – Roll Play pho
  • Di – Chasin’ Tails w/ Au Dang Sauce and fried basket of calamari Teas n You bubble tea
• Hehfood.com, @chasintailsss, @rollplaygrill, @teasnyoutea, @happyenedingseatery, @leidpoke

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