Restaurant Operator

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, talks to Jason Sobocinski and Etkin Tekin, co-founders of Haven Hot Chicken out of Connecticut. While the chicken market may be saturated, Sobocinski and Tekin found a niche for hot chicken, and the rest is history.

Tekin and Sobocincki have history when Tekin worked for Sobocincki at a restaurant he owned years ago. During his interview, Tekin told his boss he'd like to open a business with him someday. They stayed in touch as Tekin opened his own businesses and in 2018, Tekin contacted his former boss about a business opportunity he had.

That business? A Nashville hot chicken concept.

"There was nothing like it in Connecticut," Sobocinski said. He wanted to do a brand, however, and initially said no. He was invited to meet the other two founders, and Sobocinski was "blown away" by them and the food. He was in.

Tekin said there was a story created behind the brand they wanted to create, and at the same time they were doing rigorous recipe testing.

"After three or four months of work, I just felt like something was missing in the organization," Tekin said. That would have been Sobocinski, who Tekin said always created a brand with his restaurants.

The brand has recently grown from four stores to nine in just 10 months.

To learn more about Haven Hot Chicken's operations, listen to the podcast in its entirety at the top of the page.

The food truck industry has continued to expand at a rapid pace. In 2023, there were over 52,600 food trucks in the U.S., according to data from IBISWorld. However, it is not an easy business to enter, as it requires careful planning to select the right truck, equipment, and branding.

In today's episode of the Restaurant Operator podcast, Jordan Schild, president and CEO at Premier Food Trucks, shared several tools to food truck success with moderator Bradley Cooper, editor of Food Truck Operator.

He noted in the podcast that one common mistake food truck operators do is purchasing a used truck as an attempt to save money, only to face very expensive repairs and lost sales down the road. He instead said that it's very important to get a great truck up front, and the cost savings will come over time.

He shared other insights including:

The three biggest features every food truck needs.

• How to make a food truck stand out.
• Avoiding key early mistakes.
• How Premier Food Trucks helps operators.
• Listen to the podcast in full above.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Kevin King, who recently took over Donatos Pizza last October as president and CEO. Under King's leadership, the brand is embracing strategies to keep it relevant for both new and existing customers amidst rising pricing wars in the pizza industry.

Donatos started in 1963 when its founder, Jim Grote, started a small pizza shop in the sound end of Columbus, Ohio based on principles and values that even today make Donatos a standout in the pizza industry.

The brand is founded on three tenets: lead with love, follow the Golden Rule and do the right thing.

"If we do those, we know we'll have a successful business in the end," King said.

Donatos has 180 traditional restaurants across the U.S. and 270 units inside Red Robin restaurants.

"Donatos has always been about abundance, great toppings, great quality and super consistent," King said.

To learn more about the Donatos Pizza story, click the link at the top of the page.

Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube channel for more great podcasts with industry leaders.

In our latest episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, talks to Jill Chapman, director of corporate partnerships with CORE Gives, an organization that helps restaurant employees in need.

"CORE is a national non-profit," Chapman said. "We provide financial support to food and beverage service employees in this industry. It's a crisis, whether it's an injury, health issue, a natural disaster, death in the family (or) domestic abuse. Really, honestly there is a need for this because there's so many times that service employees — if one of these things happens — they're working reduced hours or none at all, and quickly, stress, hopelessness and fear — they all quickly creep in."

CORE steps in and helps employees financially so they can focus on what's important. It's about bridging the financial gap so employees can resume working "without leaving a trail of debt behind," Chapman said.

To learn more about CORE Gives and how restaurant employees can apply, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Don't forget to subscribe to Networld Media Group's YouTube page.

In this day and age, offering a guarantee with your business plan is nearly a given. For kiosk brand GRUBBRR, the GRUBBRR Guarantee is an integral part of the brand's ethos.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, speaks with GRUBBRR Chief Revenue Officer Parrish Chapman about the brand's guarantee.

Chapman said the GRUBBRR guarantee is simple: the kiosk brand guarantees its work and stands behind it.

"We know operators today have a lot of cost pressures, they have a lot of news about their business and operations, what they really need to do to improve their operations, how to automate and the GRUBBRR Guarantee at the highest level is saying if you do business with GRUBBRR and our kiosk platform, we will guarantee our results or you don't pay us," Chapman said. "It's that simple. We want operators to know when they go with GRUBBRR that they can trust us, that we're a great business partner and we're going to help their operations."

Restaurant brands are lots of pressure, including the rising cost of goods, recruitment and retention, the economy and more. GRUBBRR kiosks shift labor pain points away from the POS and increases speed of service.

"The benefits are really huge and we wanted to echo this out to the marketplace and let operators know that we believe so much in it that we are standing behind our ability to be a successful technology platform for their business," Chapman added.

To learn more about the GRUBBRR Guarantee, listen to the podcast in its entirely. Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group podcast channel.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Mary Jane Riva, CEO of California-based Pizza Factory.

The brand was founded in 1985 in two small California towns and will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year. Riva and her husband, Bob, came aboard as franchisees in 1990 and opened five of their own Pizza Factory locations. In 2012, the founders were ready to leave and sold the company to the Rivas.

"The culture of Pizza Factory is so much about community and it's individuals being able to come and work in a town or a city. Some of our stores are in really small towns, so it allowed people who wanted to be self-employed and live in a small town and actually accomplish that," Riva said.

Pizza Factory connects with its communities with owner/operators who are residents of the towns their shops are in.

The brand was recently acquired by Wonder Franchises. "After 12 years, it can to a point where I knew it was time to bring on some extra resources," Riva said. "Another set of eyes, and bring on that support system that I felt that as an office and for the franchisees, really we are the steward of the brand. The franchisees are who we work for, and I felt that is was time to bring on another set of eyes and that youthfulness."

With rapid changes in social media, digital and tech stacks, Wonder will help Pizza Factory into the future. "Bringing them on was one of the ways I felt we could support the franchisees better as well as accelerate growth."

Listen to the podcast to learn more about Pizza Factory and Wonder Franchises future. Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube Channel.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of QSRweb and Pizza Marketplace, talks with Fred Burmer, CEO of roast beef brand Lion's Choice.

Lion's Choice got its start in 1967 and is a legacy brand in St. Louis with 30 restaurants. The brand uses top round roast beef that is hand-trimmed and slow roasted for at least three hours in the restaurant every day.

"It's really butcher-shop quality," Burmer said. The roast beef is sliced razor thin which gives it a "great flavor and texture that really sets us apart."

There's also a secret seasoning on the roast beef for added flavor.

Burmer said consistency can be a challenge with so much done in-house.

"That's very, very important," he said, adding the same type of ovens at all the stores helps keep the recipe the same no matter the store.

To learn more about the secret to Lion's Choice's success, click the link at the top. And don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube channel.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to John Stetson, CEO of Florida-based Stoner's Pizza Joint.

The brand was founded in 2013 in Savannah, Georgia. The first location had a stone oven, which is from where the brand takes its name. Though the brand enjoys its double entendre namesake, there's actually no cannabis involved in the recipes, though Stoner's does use it in its marketing.

"We kind of pivot depending on the marketing we're in," Stetson said. "If we're on a college campus, I think we're very outgoing with the name. If you go into one of our locations we'll have #legalizemarinara, #ownajoint, #getbaked -- those kinds of play on words of cannabis and pizza simultaneously. But, then you go into some other demographics where it's more of a community and it doesn't resonate as well. We, in those markets, will drop the 'Joint' from our signage as 'Stoner's Pizza.'"

He said he doesn't want to lose that family of four ordering a pizza on a Friday night and the franchisees strive to be local pizzerias in their respective communities. The brand also delivers to a lot of schools, so it's cognizant of how the brand stands in the community.

"We use it to our advantage when we can and obviously pull back when we need to," Stetson said.

To hear how Stoner's Pizza Joint is weathering the economy and more, click the link above.

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In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, chats with Darren Spicer, co-founder of Carolinas-based Clutch Coffee, which has 13 locations.

Spicer said customer experience is one of the things that sets Clutch Coffee apart from competitors.

"It's from the moment you drive onto the property, and the environment we have and the music that's playing outside, the runner who's outside taking that order face to face, all the way through picking up that drink," he said, adding "and taking that first sip before you leave. That's a huge element for us."

The brand doesn't compromise on quality, Spicer said, and works with an award-winning roaster out of Washington state whom he said is fantastic at what they do.

To learn more coffee secrets from Clutch Coffee, listen to the podcast in its entirety above. Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube channel here.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of QSRweb and Pizza Marketplace, talks to Craig Haley, president of barbecue brand Smokey Mo's TX BBQ.

The brand launched in 2000 to fanfare from local residents and has 20 restaurants across central Texas with several more under construction.

"We're just getting started spreading barbecue out to the rest of the world," Haley said.

With Texas such a barbecue-competitive state, how does Smokey Mo's compete in a saturated market?

"I think for us, it's really about just caring about the product, so we're a neighborhood barbecue," Haley said. "We're a smaller format barbecue than a lot of the other chains that are out there. We're more similar in size to, really, some of the craft barbecue locations, and what we do is we're incredibly consistent. We have a training process and recipes, and we're not relying on one person's expertise. We've really learned how to get the understanding of how to create the barbecue and spread it out to our store managers and our cooks and pitmasters and cutters in the store."

To learn more about how Smokey Mo's creates its tasty barbecue and how it operates, listen to the podcast above. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel.