In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Landon Eckles, cofounder and CEO of Clean Juice. This certified organic juice and healthy eats chain has enjoyed fast growth since it first debuted in 2014, and now boasts over 130 locations. To accommodate its growth, Clean Juice made a huge brand pivot: It’s no longer bottling its juices in-house, but rather has centralized that process in one facility. Landon joined the podcast to talk about that decision to ditch a major founding component of Clean Juice and how it’s ultimately been a great decision for the business.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why: 

• If your brand promise is a high-quality or nutritious menu, your customer will forgive you for taking price
• The bigger issue with supply chain today might actually be packaging and utensils
• If you are not growing with the economies of the scale that you're creating, you are dying
• Don’t be afraid to kill your darlings
• You have to look at the whole picture when making a significant brand change
• The worst thing you can say is “we’ve always done it that way”

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected]. 

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Justin Rosenberg, the founder and CEO of Philadelphia-based Honeygrow, which has 31 locations in 7 markets on the east coast. The fast casual was a hot commodity after launching in 2012, but by 2018 the business had become bloated, forcing Honeygrow to close some locations. Justin joins the podcast to talk about some of the mistakes that were made, how he’s refined the brand by learning from those mistakes, and what other restaurant entrepreneurs should know before they scale their concept.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why: 

• You should minimize your G&A expenses and focus on great people instead
• Sometimes you need a moment to catch your breath and refine your model
• There is untapped potential in smaller markets
• Don’t get too bogged down in complex technologies
• If you’re starting a concept from scratch, don’t just clone what’s popular
• Mistakes can be awesome — so long as you don’t make them again
• Don’t let your ego get in the way of your brand’s potential

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected]. 

In this special encore presentation of a conversation published on Take-Away earlier this year, Sam talks with Lauren Bailey, cofounder and CEO of Postino Wine Café. This was one of Sam’s favorite conversations of 2022, particularly because of the many practical tips Lauren has for younger restaurateurs on how to scale their businesses (including how she compares a restaurant’s early years to the band Foo Fighters’ first album).   

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

• Running a restaurant is both an art and a science
• Your first big challenge as an emerging restaurateur is learning that you can’t be everywhere at every time 
• Forced creativity is vital to the life of an emerging brand leader 
• If you want to maintain that creativity, you have to be intentional about it
• Think about raising capital when you don’t need money
• Know what you want to accomplish with your concept — and whether you can do what it takes to get there
• Don’t waste the gift that is your younger years

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected]. 

In this special encore presentation of a conversation published on Take-Away earlier this year, Sam talks with Jason McGowan, the cofounder and CEO of Crumbl Cookies. This was one of Sam’s favorite conversations of 2022, particularly because of how Jason lays out the strategy for what it takes to scale a successful franchise.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

• The key to franchise growth is unit economics
• You should prioritize your existing franchisees’ success over adding more and more franchisees
• A unique concept to the marketplace helps you score prime real estate
• A laser focus on your core menu item can establish you as the leader in the space
• Rapid expansion can be a good thing but only if you have the systems in place to support it

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected]. 

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam shares his top take-aways of 2022. After 48 episodes and hundreds of practical tips from an elite group of restaurant industry leaders, Sam zeros in on these 11 points as some of the most useful and relevant based on where we are today as an industry.

To hear more from the 11 leaders featured in this episode, check out the episodes below:

• Chris Smith, CEO of Zunzi’s
• Sofia Deleon, founder of El Merkury
• Todd Penegor, CEO of Wendy’s
• Hanson Li, founder and CEO of Lazy Susan
• Lauren Bailey, cofounder and CEO of Postino Wine Café
• Jeff Chandler, CEO of Hopdoddy
• Jason McGowan, cofounder and CEO of Crumbl Cookies
• Jeff Appelbaum, CEO of Salted
• Cassie Ghaffar and Sandy Nguyen, cofounders of...

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Phil Petrilli, the founder and CEO of Untamed Brands, parent company to New York City-based Mediterranean fast casual Taïm and Columbus, Ohio-based fast casual Hot Chicken Takeover. Petrilli spent 13 years at Chipotle, and he founded Untamed in 2020 as an investment company that recognizes potential in emerging fast-casual concepts that he thinks could follow a similar trajectory as Chipotle. 

In this conversation, you’ll find out why: 

• Emerging concepts often lose steam after three or four locations
• The past few years have been a wake-up call for a lot of restaurant founders
• The potential of an emerging brand begins and ends with the food
• Simplicity is essential to scalability
• Don’t lose sight of what’s most important to your customer experience

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected]. 

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Kelly Roddy, CEO of WOWorks, a relatively new portfolio company made up of 6 brands: Saladworks, Frutta Bowls, Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, The Simple Greek, Barberitos and Zoup. All 6 of these brands are fast casuals focused on customizable, better-for-you food, and Kelly joined the podcast to talk about why WOWorks is so committed to one type of concept and the benefits of big portfolio companies.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why: 

• Guests don’t know how to build out recipes, but they do know which ingredients they like
• Sometimes it makes sense to just fly one type of plane
• Portfolio companies are about more than shared services
• “Better for you” encapsulates a lot more categories than you think
• You should be thinking less about brick and mortar and more about distribution points

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected]. 

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Norman Wu, the cofounder and CEO of Seattle-based Conscious Hospitality Group (CHG), which leverages conscious practices like paying employees more than minimum wage, using sustainable materials and sourcing sustainable product. CHG’s signature brand, Just Poke, is going from 15 locations at the beginning of 2022 to an expected 31 by the end of the year. Norman joins the podcast to talk about how putting people over profits makes good business sense, how scale is everything when it comes to running an eco-friendly business, and how the company’s ethos was key to Just Poke’s incredible growth in 2022.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why: 

• Customers are willing to pay a premium to support brands they think are doing things the right way
• A strong brand ethos can help you scale more quickly
• Customers are more perceptive than ever about sustainability — but you should still communicate it as much as possible
• Eco-friendly products and practices aren’t as expensive as you think
• A conscious business may be more expensive, but ultimately leads to positive ROI
• Brands that align with customers’ values might be recession-proof

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected]. 

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Yaron Goldman, the CEO of Rib & Chop House, a casual dining concept based in Bozeman, Montana, that is part of the Finally Restaurant Group and has 13 locations across the Mountain West. Yaron joined the podcast to talk about how they’ve streamlined the concept to prepare for their just-launched franchise program, what he thinks about the impending recession and its impact on high-end concepts like his, and how loyalty has become more and more about providing access and exclusivity.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

• You can streamline prep and production without sacrificing quality
• You can’t grow if you’re not consistent
• It pays to be a big fish in a small pond
• If you treat your loyalty members like royalty, they will pay you back
• Customers find value in how they feel in your restaurant, not just in how much they pay
• In full service, the back of the house is where we should expect to see most tech innovation

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected]. 

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Stacey Pool, chief marketing officer for Noodles & Company. The brand has spent the past few years evolving its digital storefront and leveraging data to refine and personalize the customer experience. Stacey joins the podcast to talk about how those efforts helped Noodles weather the instability of the past few years, plus how those strategies can improve the guest experience, dictate customer behavior and communicate the company’s unique personality.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

• Your brand position or mission statement should show up wherever you engage with guests
• Your rewards program is a data jackpot and backstop against economic volatility
• Data can help you convert casual customers into loyal ones
• Little acts of kindness inside your restaurants can go a long way
• If you take care of your GM, they will take care of everything else

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected].