Forktales

Myles is the Vice President of Operations at Wing Zone, a restaurant with nearly 80 locations in 25 states that offers “bigger, better, flavor-fuzed wings, plus burgers, tenders & more.” 

The COVID pandemic has increased the pressure on restaurant owners and managers to implement programs that reward employees and boost employee morale. 

It’s important for restaurant leadership to sometimes roll up their sleeves and work alongside employees and engage with employees at the ground level. 

Wing Zone is constantly evolving its offerings and the experience it provides to customers and hopes to implement the “2.0” experience currently in use in test markets across all Wing Zone locations.   

There are a lot of negative perceptions about the use of robotics and technology in the restaurant industry. Robotics should be repositioned as a way to accentuate and strengthen the customer experience.  

“The restaurant industry is a tough industry to be in because you have to be on all the time. To find people who are up for that challenge and excel at it is really difficult.”  – Joseph

“If you don’t do a great job of continually engaging (your employees) and continually developing them, they sometimes take their eye off of it and they don’t know what’s next for them and that’s when they start to look (for employment) at other places.”  – Myles

“It’s almost like flipping that historic JFK quote on its head and saying, “Ask not what you can do for my company, ask what my company can do for you.’” – Joseph

“There’s a perception across all industries that there are fat cats at the top who are just raking in the dough and laughing their way to the bank and building their financial empires on the backs of the busboy, and it’s just not true.”  – Joseph

“Every guest experience is more valuable than it was five years ago.” – Myles 

“(Robotics and technology) enhances the internal audience experience. Who wants to stand over a fryer for eight hours and at the end of your shift you’re covered in grease? If we can automate that, we can enhance our (employee) experience.” – Myles

Alistair is a partner at KitchenSync, finance, HR, marketing, and the advisory team behind some of the fastest-growing independent restaurant groups. He also owns seven restaurants in the San Francisco bay area. 

Most restaurant owners have a culinary background or are the first or second-generation owners and they might not have a formal business education or business experience. KitchenSync provides services that many restaurant management teams might be missing. 

A lot of people in the restaurant industry are benchmarking 2022 and 2021 against 2019, not 2020. Effective benchmarking depends upon where your restaurant is located (regions with restrictions vs. regions without) and what type of restaurant you own (delivery, drive-thru, or dine-in).  

DoorDash and Uber Eats are generating a huge amount of foot traffic digitally and have become the marketplace where you start your dining search.  

Grocery gained a lot of market share during the pandemic and has moved heavily into prepared foods.

“When we talk to startup restaurants or restaurants similar to yours where the restaurant has been started by the father and then handed down, one thing that seems to be missing or is a weak area are those back office systems.” – Joseph 

“The numbers are the foundation. If you’ve got good, accurate numbers with which to make decisions from, that’s a really great starting point. The numbers don’t lie, they don’t get emotional. You’re either making money or you’re not. ” – Alistair 

“A restaurant is, in many ways, really complex but, in many ways, it’s very simple. It comes down to sales, cost of goods sold and labor.” – Alistair 

“Consumer behavior (in the COVID era) has fundamentally changed. You’ve had behavior existing one way for 18 months to two years – that’s a lot of time to retrain behavior.” – Alistair 

“A lot of people haven’t updated their business models to reflect that we’re moving from a traditional model of on-prem to a full omnichannel model, which is the same thing that happened to retail 10 years ago.” – Alistair 

“When you can get great food delivered to your door, the question becomes, ‘Why should I want to come and sit in your restaurant?’” – Joseph  

“The paths ahead (in the restaurant industry) are plentiful and no one really talks about it enough. This really is a place where you come in unskilled and you can thrive. It truly is one the last places where a meritocracy is alive and kicking.” – Joseph 

Chad is an absolute pioneer when it comes to cryptocurrency and NFTs in the restaurant space. In this episode, he takes the time to break down the basics of the blockchain, crypto and NFTs, how restaurants can capitalize, and what the future looks like in this space. It’s a brave new world and Chad’s company Devour is one you’ll hear about more and more.

Chad has spent his entire career in the restaurant technology sector. He and his fellow co-founders at Devour began paying attention to blockchain, crypto and NFTs in the restaurant space in 2020.

With non-fungible tokens (NFTs), one is different from the other. That means they can have different utility, value, etc.

We’re currently at the early phase of NFTs becoming mainstream and delivering various benefits.

People assigned value to NFTs because they were a new thing, but then they realized that there was a status associated with owning an NFT.

For restaurants, some NFTs are focused on utility. Gary Vaynerchuk’s restaurant, Flyfish Club, is billed as “the world’s first NFT restaurant, and uses NFTs to give token-holders access to the restaurant.

NFTs are the most useful technology for restaurants right now. Crypto is less useful because it doesn’t solve a current problem for restaurants.

Restaurants can give away NFTs, make customers earn the NFT or sell the NFT.

NFTs can be used by restaurants to give token-holders exclusive access to various menu items.

The metaverse is an online space that utilizes the fundamentals of the blockchain. It can incorporate cryptocurrency or NFTs. There’s not much use right now for restaurants in the metaverse.

The keys for widespread NFT adoption and understanding are increased use in gaming and increased use by big brands.

“I like to put (blockchain) in really simple terms. It’s a kind of database. A database that’s very, very difficult or near impossible to hack. All the information is there, it’s secure and it’s visible to everybody.” – Chad

“NFTs really started to come onto the scene in 2019, and 2021 was an insane year for them and 2022 will be even bigger.” – Chad

“There’s a lot of value that can be assigned to NFTs to unlock real world experiences. So NFTs are the very first thing that restaurants can get a ton of value and utility out of.” – Chad

“Because NFTs are registered on the blockchain, the blockchain essentially serves as verification of authenticity. So when someone shows their NFT, there’s gotta be a way for the restaurant to ensure that that NFT is, in fact, registered on the blockchain and is an authentic NFT.” – Joseph 

“You can’t get a burger in the metaverse, but you can create a virtual restaurant.” – Chad 

“If there’s going to be a team that’s going to help restaurants navigate this crazy, always-evolving world well, it’s going to be (Devour).” – Chad 

00:00.00vigorbrandingHey, everyone today I’m joined by my friend Chad Horn he is the co-founder of devour which is a lovely word and a lovely name. Um, we are going to get into the nitty-gritty of devour but also everything that they’re touching on right now. I’m really excited about this episode. Um, but before we hop in chat say hello give a little bit of backstory.

00:17.10Chad Horn _ DevourHello Joseph first. Thank you for having me on your program this morning a quick backstory on me is I’ve done my whole career virtually in the restaurant technology sector so you know that’s where I fell in love with restaurants. Restaurant peop

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I am joined by Sam Sanovich you might know him as Chicago sam he is the senior vice president of franchise leadership of a newer concept called big chicken and we’re going to talk all about chicken today. We’re gonna have a lot of talks about the industry because Sam is. Um, I would say beyond veteran he’s an icon so ah Sam say hello and why don’t you give a little bit of backstory for those who don’t know.

00:24.20SamWell thanks Joseph for having me today on your show I am super excited to be with you talk big chicken talk about the background. Let’s talk about the industry. There’s so much great stuff going on. Um I wish I could say we were in the post covid era but we’re still dealing with it across the country.

00:38.70vigorbrandingCase.

00:42.46SamBut we’re we’re learning how to adapt to the new norms and continue to push forward. So I’m super excited to be here with you today and thanks for having me a little bit about my background I’ve been in the industry north of twenty plus years. Um, a johnson of wales graduate out of the providence rhode island campus and upon graduation left and worked for Marriott which at that point in time was my dream job and had the opportunity to be within Marriott open hotels do some exciting projects with Marriott. And because of networking and and a lot of the foundation that I learned over the years I was on some boards early in my career and had great mentors and people who really looked out for me and. Ah, created a situation where I got to be an early Ceo of a convention visitor bureau in the state of Illinois where I represented 4 counties and 33 communities to do their destination tours of marketing from there I got recruited into the national restaurant association educational foundation. And the national restaurant association itself. Um, prior to leaving the association I was head of product partnerships and strategic alliances for the association where I had a unique position to help the form the and Nra’s fast casual and pizzeria councils create the tech tour. Do some really unique things that combined my experience in industry my passion for hospitality and then because I was blessed so much in my career at the association to really be able to leverage and give back and create programming to help others. With that I met some again. Great people some great mentors and had and had the opportunity with Don Fox to join the firehouse subs brand um as an area developer in a franchisee here in Chicago and got to grow with the brand for 6 years and one day got a call from a longtime friend who was interviewing for the Ceo O role of beer big chicken and beer park and we were talking and saw the opportunity at hand and said you know we’ve always wanted to work together and. Said if you know there’s a role in an opportunity I’d I’d love to do it. You know, continue that passion because this is a relationship industry. Ah the hospitality industry is and he said let’s do it and he got the role and I was his first hire and for the last seven months we

03:19.98SamWe we all know that this industry is a marathon and not a sprint but we came out of the blocks and we’ve been sprinting for the last seven months and working with our partner shaquiel and and the great team at big chicken to help develop and grow the brand. So it’s ah.

03:23.58vigorbrandingA.

03:36.34SamThe 20 years seems like a flash and it’s been a great ride and I’ve met thousands of great people and and the whole Chicago Sam Thing came about with a kind of a funny story because as the internet was emerging. You know everybody was looking for that cool Twitter handle and when I was at the association I always talk about Chicago. So people just coined me Chicago sand because I was the unofficial brand ambassador for the great

The Johnny’s Pizza House is one of the American Dream playing out from Johnny Huntsman’s first location in 1974 where he introduced the people of North Louisiana to pizza, the whole way to 2022 where the brand is now fully owned by the employees. JPH has been dominating the region for decades with their family-forward, sharing is caring attitude. In this episode, I sit with friend and former client, Melvin Delacerda to unpack the magic that makes JPH a fantastic place to work.

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I am joined by longtime friend and client. Ah, Melvin Dalierta who is the president and Ceo of Johnny’s pizza house Melvin say hello give a little bit of backstory.

00:11.27Melvingood morning joseph good good see my friend um my name’s Melvin Delaserta I have been started working with Johnny’s pizza house in high school and not just last month turned sixty years old so that gives you an indication of how long I’ve been with this company. Um, started in high school just because that’s where all of my buddies were working had no intention of it turning into a career but I hit it at the right time and the company proved to be ah, a good place to to work and I enjoyed it enjoyed The people enjoyed the restaurant. Industry and so like said it’s all these years later I’m I’m still here with with Johnny Pizza started out at the very bottom of course. Yeah I was only sixteen years old so you know was busing tables and cutting up meat and shredding cheese and just all the things you do in a restaurant and. Worked my way up eventually got into the the area of human resources with the company and eventually moved on up into the position I’m in now.

01:17.47vigorbrandingNice yeah, and I think your your journey is not dissimilar from a lot of other folks in the organization if I recall so for for those who are not familiar with Johnny’s pizza house. It is a multi-unit brand out of. Ah, based in West Monroe Louisiana which is the northwest of the state technically correct or kind of north central ish yep and then but it’s all across the the north mostly the northern part of Louisiana you’ve gotten down to to baton rouge but haven’t quite cracked into.

01:37.31MelvinYeah, North East yeah

01:51.44vigorbrandingNew Orleans which is obviously what most people will be familiar with Louisiana um, ah, can you describe the service model and and basically how it’s worked compared to like some of the other major piece of chains.

01:52.90MelvinRight? and.

02:02.68MelvinWell, you know we Johnny started this company back in 1967 so we’re coming up on our fifty fifth anniversary and when he first started. Company and in Monroe Louisiana which has crossed a river from where our headquarters is it was probably I think the second pizza place in the whole area. So needless to say when he started he had to introduce people to pizza they they literally did not know what pizza was. He had learned the craft going to school in Iowa where he went to college and brought it down here and and was originally but was making it for his friends and at the poker game and that sort of thing and they encouraged him to you know you need to do this for the public. So starting out like said. Johnny had to sell other things you know to hamburgers and you know he had a grill so and then at the same time he offered the pizza and introduced it to the to the people needless to say as a result of that I think. His brand and and his company became very emotionally a part of the people here in North Louisiana you know they were probably third or fourth a generation of customers now and so he need us to say we we have a a st

Alex as an amazing story to tell. His family started the renowned deli, Canter’s, in Los Angeles.

He went on to start Ordermark, a system that consolidates the online ordering and third party delivery brands into one device and central hub.

From there he launched Nextbite, a leader in virtual restaurant brands.

In this episode, we discuss his journey, and tap into the various aspects of virtual brands and how to launch them and market them successfully. 

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I am joineded by my friend Alex Kantor he is the Ceo and cout co-founder of Nextbyte which where you are going to tap into a bunch until then Alex say hello give a little bit of backstory.

00:10.27Alex CanterHey, thanks so much for having me and yeah as mentioned my name is Alex Cantor Ceo and co-founder of nextitee and also fourth generation of cantors delhi in Los Angeles which is one of the largest and oldest restaurants in l la. Started by my great grandfatherfa ninety years ago and just like my father and my grandfather I grew up working in the family business waiting tables at 12 years old working my way up through all the different positions and eventually became in charge of all things new bringing in new technology and proving to my family that. Change can be a good thing I heard a lot growing up if it’s not broken. Don’t fix it but also really enjoyed running around to all these restaurant conferences and signing up for whatever was available really trying to expand the the cantors brand outside of the 4 walls of the restaurant. Reaching customers everywhere wherever they were and experimented a lot with delivery enjoyed enjoyed the ah the benefit of being on all these great revenue streams from uberries to doorda. Ah all these these apps eventually grew delivery for cantors to be over 30% of our revenue which was. Couple million dollars a year just in just in delivery orders and yep, just a little bit and and the staff in the restaurant hated me because I was the one who brought in all this new technology. We had 9 tablets, 2 laptops and a fax machine to manage all of those incoming orders.

01:28.12vigorbrandingJust a little bit.

01:44.15Alex CanterUm, so we ah you know we had ah a bit of an operational nightmare to solve and that’s what prompted me to eventually start a tech company to help restaurants usher them into the new digital age to help them reach these customers outside of their 4 walls through this new manageable software and solution that we built. Sort of partnering with thousands of restaurants and have really evolved the business now to expand our product offerings into into virtual restaurants and all this other crazy stuff which we can get into it a bit but that’s the backstone.

02:13.44vigorbrandingYeah I Love that? Yeah, So you know what I love most about that is I think it really is the pathway of the American dream. Its immigrant family sees the opportunity onces a bite of that pun intended of that American dream and then through the generation’s hard work passing down. Um, and I think that’s one of the reasons why I love this Industry. So Absolutely much is your story isn’t the only one and I think it’s It’s such a wonderful path to get ahead. Um, so before we hop fully in let’s sort out some misconceptions from the proverbial Horse’s Mouth. What are the differences between virtual restaurants Ghost Kitchens and dark Kitchens because we hear them tossed around.

02:58.73Alex CanterYes, so these are ah these are

Michael and I have a great discussion about the nuances and details of selling catering and developing strong catering programs for restaurants.

00:00.00vigorbrandingGot you? Okay hey everyone welcome to the show today I am joined by Michael Atis he is the founder president and Ceo of cater and which we’ll get into what caters and does in a minute but for now Michael say hello give a little bit of backstory.

00:00.16Michael attiasTs atis.

00:15.59Michael attiasHey, how’s it going. Thanks for having me on your podcast. Super excited like probably a lot of the listeners started off 16 years old washing dishes at a restaurant in Memphis did such a bad job. They made me a bus boy thirty days later worked my way in every position ended up in college working for this barbecue startup called Cory’s barbecue friend of my friend of the family neighborhood friend father started it or my way up there. Um left there after college they were I had a sales job hated it. I fired my boss said you need another month that said no just fired me now went back to corrkies and told them I wanted to be 1 of their first franchisees I worked for half the day for free to learn the operations I’d never managed run open a restaurant waited tables to pay my bills just got married just bought a house. And probably 3 four months in I talked to guy and his wife to write a million dollar check and back me on a first restaurant. So as a result of that I realized um like I don’t like to work I’m lazy people. Color efficient didn’t want to work nights or weekend. So I focused on. Being a business person that has a restaurant then a restaurant person and learned how to build use direct mail direct marketing built catering sales so out of 104 c restaurant. We were doing 3000000 a year a million of it was in catering then I started. Running around speaking teaching info products coaching newsletter business on you know how to double your profits with catering in your restaurant and get paid to promote your brand and then when I sold my restaurant in o five I built caters in it was called. Restaurant catering systems um to be catering software for restaurants and now we do restaurants caters and about to launch private party room booking software so you know if you’ve got a restaurant you do catering and you have private party rooms our our system will run everything a to z. So that’s sort of like the out the long elevator speech exactly yeah, it’s about how long it takes to get there.

02:29.45vigorbrandingI love it. Yeah, the the elevator in the empire state building speech so I love it. So let’s dive in indicatoring. Um, you know we you know at the Helm of vior. We’ve talked with a lot of clients about how to boost catering sales and so on and so forth. But.

02:41.40Michael attiasI.

02:48.55vigorbrandingI Think what we saw is a little bit prior to the pandemic if you were in some of the major cities, especially let’s say around the Bay area. Um catering was taking a hit like people weren’t going into the office those lunches those meetings weren’t happening and then of course the pandemic. Just.

03:05.32Michael attiasUm.

03:07.35vigorbrandingSquash The whole damn thing. So whatever you seen as a remedy as we try to get back to full capacity in offices. Is there a remedy and and how have you helped clients kind of cope with the lack of sales.

03:20.62Michael attiasWell, you know I forgot where I read like technology doubles every five years right? Like if you think about you know my first cell phonee was a flipflown and you’d be lucky to get like a 1 megapixel picture that was grainy on your phone now I have an iphone that has more computing

• Silkie’s is located in Historic Springfield area of Jacksonville – Biscuits, fried chicken, and champagne
• Spice blend line available on Amazon – 5 spices in a gift set with recipe cards
• Launching new sauce line in January/Feb of 2022
• Why Champagne and Chicken? Did an event in South Beach food and wine festival called Chicken Coop which was fried chicken and champagne. Everyone loved the food they made and wife suggested bringing it back to Jacksonville
• Closed original southern barbecue restaurants in anticipation of a move
• Quarantine opened the opportunity to open the concept
• Cooks for Oprah Winfrey since 2014
• Named after a beautiful chicken called a Silky
• Talked about beating Bobby Flay on the show Beat Bobby Flay. Challenged him with Chicken and Dumplings.
• Discussed how he got to cooking for Oprah and other accolades:
• “Whatever your goals are professionally, you don’t look for ‘i want to cook for these people’ you look for ‘hey I want to be the best I can be in my profession.'”- Kenny Gilbert
• “Every chef is an artist” – Kenny Gilbert
• Mom’s recipe was traditional and great

00:00.00vigorbrandingHey everyone today I’m joined by my friend chef Kenny Gilbert of silkie’s chicken champagne bar and chef kenny brands ah Kenny won’t you give everyone a little bit of backstory and say hello.

00:10.20Chef KennyWell, thanks for having me um, gosh I’ve been in the business for the better part of thirty plus years professionally I’ve run everything from fine dining ah restaurants to luxury brand. You know if I Haven and foster our hotels. Um, you know been a corporate chef for restaurant group worked in the caribbean did a little bit of everything I currently have a restaurant in Jacksonville Florida. It’s called silky’s chicken and champagne bar. We’re located in Historic Springfield area of Jacksonville. We’ve been open exactly a year we’re focused on biscuits and fried chicken and champagne and all in between um, cool little fast casual kind of a upscale fast casual concept counter service where best basic guests can walk in. We don’t take reservations. You just walk in place an order. With the cashier. We give you a number you you know you get your drink immediately and then sit down and we deliver your food and we’re hands off. We’ve kind of opened this concept based on having you know what? all the everything that’s going on with covid and whatnot an uncertainty. We wanted to have something that was a you know, low overhead. Um, that still was able to put out a quality product. So we’ve been doing that and it’s been very well received and I also have chef Kenny brands. Um, which we have ah a lot of different things rolled up into that but we have ah I have my spice blends that I sell on Amazon. As well as my website http://chefkinnyilbert.com we have 5 spices that we feature and they come with in the gift set. It comes with recipe cards and a nice little gift box. You can also buy individually and buy bulk by way of the website. Um. So I’ve been doing that for a long time and we’re getting ready to launch our so sauce line as well. That’s should be coming out by the end of January in yeah, that’s about it or home.

02:09.57vigorbrandingSo so you’re so you’re not busy at all, you’re you’re just kind of bored. Um, no, that’s great. So we’ll get into the the retail line in a minute but I wanted to dig into first. The inspiration between combining fried chicken this like southern classic staple. With champagne and I presume sparkling wine I presume you’re not a champagne pu

• “A bad location can destroy an otherwise fantastic concept” – Joseph Szala
• Starting with the premise and understanding within that what an occupancy budget, projected revenue, and lease is important and difficult
• Value is another element. How do you know if a neighborhood will value the concept and what you make.
• Confidence is the third way. Not just in human tuition but fuel it with data science.
• Discussed Borne reporting system and the difference between the single address reports and the growth and scale fuller system
• Borne looks at travel into the neighborhood ending with POS spend/transaction to garner insights into demand in the neighborhood
• Navigator system is for multi-unit brands. It has insights into market research, demand, behaviors, etc to find where a brand should scale.
• What makes for a bad location? So many factors go into the thought process for a good decision so it’s hard to pinpoint one thing that makes for a bad restaurant location. 
• Proof by Existence of Another Brand – Allowing successful brands dictate a “good location”
• Traffic Approach – Does it have traffic patterns needed to succeed?

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend Gregory Nasser he is the Ceo of born which we will unpack. It’s an amazing system I’m so pumped about it but before we do that gregory say hello and give a little backstory.

00:13.25Gregory Don NasserHey, hey what’s up forktail nation. So Gregory Nassar out here in the bay area in California Twenty five plus years in the restaurant hospitality business I opened my first restaurant in 2006 early 2006 and sold it. Right? before the recession in 2008 went on to work with some phenomenal organizations throughout the United States and in 2019 had my entrepreneurial juices going and hooked up with one of the senior engineers at Linkedin and we started born. A restaurant location intelligence company and just real excited about the work. We’ve been doing and thank you for having Assange Joseph

00:58.52vigorbrandingOf course, yeah, and and it’s a fantastic system one that I’ve been enamored with we’ve used it for some of our clients I know some other agencies I’ve used it for some of their clients. Um, and and there’s a lot of story to tell there? Um, but let’s start at at the beginning a little bit here. So. For those in the industry a while we know that this industry is sure about food a little bit but it starts with real estate. It is about location and a bad location can absolutely destroy an otherwise fantastic Concept. So. What has been some of the the challenges or the toughest things for restaurants here is when it comes to finding the right location in your experience.

01:42.47Gregory Don NasserYeah I mean I think there’s there’s quite a few different buckets here. Um I think obviously starting with the actual premise the availability of the premise and then understanding within that what occupancy budget would look like given a projected revenue. And or lease expectation. Ah, usually we see a lot of restaurant closures just based on that one fact and so having those things aligned is super important and you know relatively hard the other the other item that we we really want to understand and or we see. A lot of trouble with is value and how does and how do you know a guest or a neighborhood is going to value your concept as planned and that value is a key word because people see value across cuisine and across check average in different. Ah, ways in different markets across the United States so values is really i

00:00.00

vigorbranding

Um, yeah, cool hey everyone today I am joined by Adam Gallone he’s the president and Cmo of promante brothers out of ah, well based in western pa but rapidly growing Adam thanks for coming on the show say hello and give a little bit of history.

00:00.00

Adam

It says ready to record. Okay I think we’re meant perfect.

00:13.30

Adam

Yeah, hey Joe thanks for having me Adam Golum frommany brothers eighty nine year old iconic restaurant chain based in Pittsburgh I’m the president chief marketing officer just celebrated 3 years with the brand but have about twenty plus years in restaurant grocery store can be in store marketing and business management.

00:36.67

vigorbranding

That nice. so so I know because I grew up around a bunch of Steelers fans. So promante is an institution to say the least if you’ve watched any football games that are based in um in the Steelers nation as it were they probably covered promani every once in a while.

00:52.41

Adam

And.

00:55.25

vigorbranding

Um, but for those that don’t know explain the magic of romane brothers.

00:57.70

Adam

Yeah, so first off huge Steelers win last night end of the big ben era probably I think he’s still going to come back for another year just to pull it over everybody but found it in 1933 um, the idea was it was a sandwich cardt and the idea was that and there’s about 5 different stories out there but truck drivers in the produce yards of Pittsburgh only had 1 hand to eat so Joe Permani had this brilliant idea of taking french fries coleslaw tomatoes, cheese and meat and putting it all between 2 fresh baked. Slices of italian bread and fast forward to 2022? The brand is thriving growing but still true to its iconic roots to this tied to this amazing iconic sandwich. We call it almost famous but it truly is a famous sandwich and it’s. Ah, great ties to Pittsburgh but it’s really been able to transcend the Pittsburgh steelers and grow beyond that into kind of the the enemy territories.

01:58.44

vigorbranding

Yeah, it’s It’s actually amazing I mean rare is the case that I really focus in on food of course food matters. The quality of food. The flavor of the food people liking it of course matters. But usually it’s so much more and I think um with promante it really does start with that iconic sandwich. It’s ah. It is. It is truly a game day decadent meal it and it’s it and it’s delicious, right.

02:20.84

Adam

Yeah mean it’s It’s a it’s like a pound of food little unknown fact, there is less calories in a permani sandwich than in a chipotle burrito so you know you can that little known unknown fact. But yeah I mean it is a decadent. Oh you know.

02:30.90

vigorbranding

Oh well? Yeah, um.

02:39.60

Adam

Unbelievable kind of like all meal in 1 thing sandwich often imitated never duplicated and and then you know as the years have gone on. You know we’d love to have everyone have a sandwich every time they come in but we know that people want more than that. So we’ve expanded our menu with pizza and wings salads burgers. You know.

02:56.71

vigorbranding

Um, yeah.

02:58.65

Adam

Just really grow in the menu to give you kind of more variety even though the sandwich is still the hero of of the concept.

03:03.85

vigorbranding

Yeah, and and a hero it is for sure and it’s definitely talked about I mean once you’ve had a manty sandwich you you tend to tell a lot of people. Um, back back in 2018 you you joined the brand as cmo and then after a few years you you took the ah the helm you know as pr