Restaurant Legends

One of the main reasons I’ve stayed in the hospitality industry is the comradery and sense of family that are the backbone of every level of restaurant.

I was fortunate to find something very similar in the podcasting world. When I first contacted Eric Cascciatore he was very open and giving to a new and less experienced podcaster. I remember him saying “after listening to a few episodes I may not have started my podcast because I didn’t think I could do it as well”

So, after being a guest on my podcast, he wanted to get me to do an episode on his. Of course I agreed and here is the result. I’ll be posting the video version in a week or two after he gets it loaded to his You Tube channel.

You can find this episode and about a thousand others with the leaders in the restaurant industry at www.restaurantunstoppable.com or on You Tube at https://www.youtube.com/@RestaurantUnstoppable

Enjoy

Wyatt Evans, a participant in the Heritage Fire event coming to Canterbury Park in Minnesota the afternoon of Sunday June 25th. 

Wyatt’s team from Jester Concept’s P.S Steak will be cooking meat over live fire along with other chefs from around the Twin Cities. In other words, it’s a Chef’s idea of fun under the summer sun. Or, Imagine charcoal grilling burgers in your backyard times ten.

The ever-growing food culture of the cities made the Heritage Fire Tour a natural stop to showcase the talent and innovation of the restaurants using local ethically raised heritage breed pork and beef along with local sustainably grown heirloom vegetables and fruit.

You can find more information on the event and tickets on their website, www.heritagefiretour.com

We started our conversation with Wyatt talking about his plans for the Heritage Fire Tour then moved on to learn more about Wyatt Evans and his life in the industry.

This episode was first released in May of last year, only three months into the Ukraine/Russia conflict/war. Kyiv had already experienced a few missile strikes, but it felt to everyobne that the coming spring would be somewhat normal. But, here we are nearly one year later wirh thousands of deaths, destroyed infrastucture and familys. Ive been trying to get hold of Maria, but sketchy Wi-Fi and her constant movement to find safety has made reconnecting very difficult. So in retrospect and to keep awarenss high in an effort to help my friends in Ukraine here is a conversation of resilence and hope.

From the May, 2022 posting;

Maria Banlko is just one of the hospitality people that are the lesser-known heroes of the Ukrainian war with Russia. These restaurant industry veterans are trying to hold their country together with the guts to stay in place and keep their lights on. They’re using their hospitality instincts to find ways to keep their business running while organizing volunteer kitchens that feed their neighbors, the front-line workers in hospitals and clinics and the military whenever they needed it. The voice you heard at the top is Maria Banko. She’s an outspoken, determined woman working with a multi-concept company called The Gastro Family of Restaurants.

Maria is their communications director handling public relations for the constantly pivoting restaurant company while sometimes volunteering in one of the Gastro Family kitchens to help box a few meals, to be delivered to various organizations in need of food. She passionately describes the reasons and results of the war as she sees it.

We came out with so much material I’ve created a special episode with the rest of our conversation on the how essential the food culture will be in re-building the country after the war. It will be posted soon.

 Podcast Music:

Moonlight Night – Traditional Ukrainian Folk Song

Bright Flow – William Benkert

Break The Barrier – Edgar Hopp

Nearly every major city has a particular sandwich that residents can claim as the original home of that sandwich. These are some the very well-known hand held’s like Cheesesteak, French Dip, Cuban, Loose Meat , Smoked Brisket, Chopped Pork, Fish Taco, Po’Boy and on and on. For as long as I can remember as a Chicago native the hot dog, the one that’s dragged through the garden and without ketchup BTW, as the Chicago Icon. But recently, the Italian Beef is beginning to take its place as the favorite Chicago sandwich. And it was the “The Bear”, which you heard a small snippet from earlier along with the attention of food writers from around the country that has put the Italian Beef sandwich front and center. We’re talking with a man whose family has lived the adventure of Italian Beef for over 40 years. Joe Buonavalanto, leader of the Chicago restaurant chain of about 26 stores scattered around the Chicago metro has readied his company to grow even larger through franchising. We started the conversation with my personal experiences of Italian beef at a restaurant I visited quite often. That was Mr. Beef which was the shooting location for the series BTW and, as I found out, at onetime was a Buonavalanto family business.

Why chat with another podcast host about the same thing you focus on in your own posdcast? Well, the best way to describe it is to listen for yourself to hear why the wisdom of the overview revieved by an itelligent host is why.

We started our conversation with the timeline of events that brought him to the world of podcasting. Even after growing up in restaurants, Eric’s dreams were set on aviation to become a commercial pilot. But the call of the restaurants were still too strong for Eriuc to ignore. The fascinating conversation covered a lot ground about the past present and future on the industry.

Berkley California can be known as the seat of social and political protest, the birthplace of the hippie lifestyle and most recently as the nova of many culinary stars. Jeremiah Tower, Mollie Katzen and of course Alice Waters just to name a few. Gregoire Jacquet, a denizen of the Gourmet Ghetto as he calls it opened his small sandwich shop in Berkley about 20 years ago. Gregoire, the restaurant, gained a reputation for fresh locally sourced menus that changed with the season. He’s grooming his business now for a foray into the world of franchising. And, he’s also designed a custom box for his food that solves some of the problems of transporting food while keeping a quality of freshness. We started our conversation early one morning… Go to the website www.restaurantlegends.com for links to Gregoire and information on an of our podcast partners 1851Franchise.com https://1851franchise.com/gregoire/top-5-reasons-to-buy-a-gregoire-franchise-2718858#stories Gregoire Restaurant https://www.gregoirerestaurant.com/ Franconnect https://www.franconnect.com/

On the way to discovering the how’s and whys of tipping I was able to discern some of the pros and cons with a little more clarity and I’ve boiled down to three major points that I’ll discuss in this episode on how changing the tipping culture can help re-structure restaurants into a healthier business that is less vulnerable to failure.

First up is the staff. The people who make the restaurant happen every day. Let’s unpack some of the issues and see if it will ever be possible for the American restaurant industry to be a workplace with the wages, benefits and defined career paths to management or ownership that other industries are able to offer. Some larger restaurant companies are well on their way to offer these opportunities. But it’s still a rare and nearly impossible practice for the small chain or independent. My hope is to see the restaurant business taking the opportunity at this moment to go through a period of re-building post pandemic. I’ll try to point to a possible course that may give an answer, setting the industry in the direction of the “new normal” greatly discussed in March of 2020 when the pandemic brought this 355-billion-dollar business to a screeching halt.

Music;

I've Found My Way - Hallman

Sosso - Magnus Ludvigsson

Keep Showing Up - John T. Graham

Defining Mexican restaurants as only nachos and chimichangas is much like never looking beyond eggrolls and Chow Mein when trying to describe a Chinese restaurant menu.

On this podcast I have Michael Harvey from Charleston South Carolina talking about Jalisco. A restaurant he and his partner have built examining the depth of Mexican cuisine and introducing his market to the varied ingredients and techniques of Mexico from the indigenous to the modern.  

Among other things we discuss is the big chance the first restaurateur who tries to re-define a restaurant style takes when their market may not be ready for the lesson. But, with a strong belief in the power of good food, a little resilience and sometimes deep pockets owners can persevere and find success thus opening the doors for others to follow solidifying the new menu style as the next step in that cuisine.

Whenever you try to be that sunflower in a field of dandelions, you either run the risk of being chopped down because of your uniqueness or become the example for others to follow. That result is still undecided for Michael and Jalisco.

Jalisco Taqueria & Tequila

Cassique Clubhouse Kiawah

Popmenu Answering

Music;

MFC, TATA Music

Eric Sheffer did what may be unthinkable to some or life saving to others and that’s leaving a successful career in advertising and entertainment. Move about 2300 miles to the other side of the country and jump in headfirst into a tough industry known for its difficulty and high failure rate…hospitality.

When I was given the opportunity to talk with Eric, I jumped at the chance mainly to talk about his back story. Most who do what he did have tried and field. Eric describes his success as being able to find the secret sauce that allowed him to make Asheville North Carolina his new home first with fine dining restaurant Savoy which became Vinnie’s Neighborhood Italian when the recession made the Savoy secret sauce untenable. Now under the banner of Sheffer Hospitality there’s a second Vinnie’s, fresh seafood place called Jettie Rae’s, a catering company a wine label.

Throughout, Eric has been an active leader in his community through his activism and philanthropy. He calls his drive as being a serial entrepreneur. Always looking for opportunities then jumping in with both feet to make them a success.

The Scheffer Hospitality Group

Popmenu.com/legends

Music;

Stompin' at the Savoy - Benmy Goodman

Times We Had - Mid Knight

Ciao Ciao - Trabant 33

 

I’ve been messing around with hospitality technology as it started developing in the mid 80’s. At that time, most programs were centered om enterprise systems, meaning bean counting programs.  

The ever-present digital marketing we know today was in its infancy then. Restaurant owners and end users were left out of the development process that was obviously built by graphic artists and code writers rather than users.

So it came down to a lesser of two evils decision for most operators when it came time to invest in this new digital world. Do I look for the cheapest solution or the easiest to use solution? The problem was that either answer was wrong. Operators were left with high startup costs and complex training for the management team.

Fast forward to the post pandemic heavily bruised restaurant business of the 21st century and every day it becomes clearer to both operators and programmers that in order to strive in the industry, operators need to make marketing, catering and online ordering digitally driven.

So, this is a perfect time for Popmenu to come along with operator driven programs and designs to give the operator a leg up over the competition. Brendan Sweeney is leading his company to be the go to digital marketing experts.

CRM – customer relations management

On Prem – on premise sales (dining room, counter etc)

Off Prem – off premise sales (take-out, delivery, catering etc.)

SMS – short text messages, primarily mobile to mobile

Music;

Times We Had – Mid Night