The Main Course

While the food and beverage portion of a meal is the main focus, restaurateurs also develop other aspects of the business to create a unique experience. Service is one. The design and layout of a restaurant also matter. Everything from ambiance to color, to sound, and to lighting.

On this episode of The‌ ‌Main‌ ‌Course‌‌ ‌Host,‌ ‌Barbara‌ ‌Castiglia‌ ‌talked ‌with‌ ‌Steve Starr,‌ ‌the‌ ‌Founder and Chief ‌of‌ ‌StarrDesign,‌ ‌which helps emerging restaurant concepts define and design their brand to build lasting value. The duo spoke about restaurant design, what goes into it and how the pandemic altered how restaurants are approaching their restaurant design.

Starr’s career in restaurants started when he was young. His family owned them for four generations before his father decided not to participate in the family business. His Mom made sure that he and his sister gained a wealth of experience, with a particular focus on serving people.

“The best way they believed to do that was to literally do that,” Starr said. “Whether it was working in family restaurants or other restaurants, we had to work in restaurants.”

His time working in restaurants taught him a great deal, as one would expect. He picked up how to run operations and serve guests, and it also allowed him to work a variety of positions. It also taught him the most important thing he learned in his life.

“I also learned that I don’t want to be a restauranteur,” Starr said. “So, I decided to take the other side of the family business, which my mom is now a retired interior designer, so I ended up going to architecture school.”

He thought he would design housing, but by chance, one of his first jobs was with a small firm that worked on restaurants. He realized through this work that restaurant design is what he loved.

Listen to learn about how Starr feels about good design and operational efficiency deliver guest expectations.

Technology is an ever-increasing presence in restaurants. Over the past year, restaurants have scrambled to move to contactless services to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. But, Tim McLaughlin did contactless before contactless was cool.

On this episode of The Main Course, host Barbara Castiglia talked with Tim McLaughlin, the CEO of GoTab. GoTab is a Restaurant Commerce Platform (RCP) used by large- and mid-sized restaurants, breweries, bars, and hotels. GoTab uniquely allows patrons to order and pay through a server (old school), or directly from their mobile phones (contactless ordering and payment - new school), or blend the two experiences all on one tab, through its easy-to-use mobile point-of-sale (POS), contactless ordering and payment features, and kitchen management systems (KMS).

“As many people in hospitality know, payments are a friction point and not a fun point of dining” - Tim McLaughlin

The duo dug into contactless payment and GoTab, which started in 2016. McLaughlin started his career in e-commerce and was attempting to solve the pain point of payment in restaurants. He opened his own brewery and started to see the pain points of restaurant life. One of those payments was payment.

“As many people in hospitality know, payments are a friction point and not a fun point of dining,” McLaughlin said. “There were not solutions I thought were very good.”

So, he started GoTab on the side. It didn’t take off because it only focused on payments. So, they set out to solve another pain point: ordering. They launched several versions of their software that allowed users to order through their phones.

Experiential dining has always been a special segment combining outstanding service, unique moments, and delicious food. But it came to a halt during the pandemic. On The Main Course, host Barbara Castiglia spoke with Barry McGowan, CEO of Fogo de Chão, a Brazilian steakhouse. He shared how the brand pivoted and how they’re now expanding to deliver joy to customers.

McGowan is in love with hospitality, spending most of his life in the industry. From his first job at McDonald’s to working with Chili’s to opening restaurants across the world, hospitality is in his blood. On joining Fogo de Chão, he said, “I loved the concept and the brand, the authenticity of it all.”

As a leader of the brand, McGowan explained they started innovating. “We introduced seafood, Brazilian brunch on weekends, new ways to create experiences. For six years, we had positive organic growth.”

Then the pandemic hit, and experiential dining wasn’t an option. The brand pivoted, offering to-go for the first time. “We needed a new revenue channel. We started with a product list and butchered meats. Within three days, we had to-go offerings.”

Once it was safe to open, the company added more labor to focus on more service and hospitality. “We leaned into what we’re good at and what consumers want,” McGowan said.

McGowan also spoke about the 12 Safety Promises, based on health and safety guidelines.

Expansion of the brand is what’s next, with several new locations opening. They also have a Next Level Lounge and butchery on the way. McGowan described the future, “We’re well-positioned and offer more ways to explore and enjoy because steak is stale offering. You can have a variety of steak and other meats along with exotic foods. Guests can experience things they’d never buy in the grocery store.”

Restaurants have always placed importance on hygiene. With local, state, and federal guidelines, it was top of mind. However, the pandemic shifted it into a new spotlight, one that diners care more about. Talking about restaurant hygiene, The Main Course host Barbara Castiglia welcomed Di Neal, Regional Marketing Manager for Tork. Tork is a global provider of hygiene products and services across many industries. 

“The industry faced significant difficulty in 2020 with many restaurant closures. Many changed operations to meet customer demands. Hygiene was always an important factor. Now, it’s pushed to the forefront,” Neal commented. 

The shift in mindset happened to the operators and consumers. Guests are now more aware of how the restaurant is keeping everything clean and sanitized. “Customers are looking at things like wiping down tables after every use and if their takeout is in tamper-proof packaging,” Neal added. 

To quantify customers’ expectations, Neal spoke about the Essentials Initiative Survey conducted by Tork’s parent company Essity. 

“It’s a global study conducted every two years. We had over 15,000 respondents from the general public aged 16 to 85. It reflects attitudes and behaviors around hygiene and health,” Neal described. 

One key finding from the study should have operators on notice not to let the guard down on hygiene. The study revealed that 60% of consumers have higher hygiene expectations of restaurants. That change is likely due to the pandemic and having greater awareness around cleanliness in general. 

Neal also discussed technology’s role in hygiene, from online ordering to QR codes replacing paper menus to software that supports hygiene activities.

Ghost kitchens are now part of the vernacular, as delivery became the go-to for restaurants during the pandemic. Those trends, coupled with the lack of commercial kitchen spaces for food startups, led Camilla Opperman and Samantha Slager to launch Nimbus, a hybrid between a traditional commissary kitchen and a ghost kitchen. The Main Course host Barbara Castiglia spoke to them about the concept and the future of ghost kitchens.

Opperman explained the business. “We offer premium commercial kitchens for lease. We have ghost kitchens dedicated to delivery options. We also have shared spaces that are rentable by the hour or day.”

Their space, located in NYC’s lower east side, also has a front of house perfect for dinner parties and studio kitchens to create content.

The idea for the concept came to Opperman when she searched for a kitchen to start a concept. “None of the solutions were appropriate, so I pivoted to solve the problem.”

Opperman met Slager through a mutual friend, and her background in sales and marketing made the pair a great team. “I was blown away by the idea and opportunity,” she added.

They opened the kitchen during the pandemic, which turned out rather well. Slager said, “People came to us who had lost their spaces as well as operators that were figuring out delivery and needed to expand to new markets.”

Besides providing the facility and infrastructure, Nimbus also connects members to preferred partners to help with marketing, ingredient procurement, and labor.

In discussing the future of the segment, Opperman believes things look bright. “Ghost kitchens like Nimbus are the future. The old restaurant infrastructure isn’t set up for delivery. With in-dining experiences coming back, restaurants will need space to facilitate delivery. Our front of house is also designed for events. Its’ the best of both worlds.”

Meatless Monday, first introduced in 2003, is a movement that’s still going strong. This global campaign seeks to encourage consumers to cut out one day of meat a week. So, what’s new with Meatless Monday, and how can restaurants tap into its power? Campaign director Dana Smith joined Barbara Castiglia on The Main Course to talk about it.

Smith, who has a background in culinary marketing, oversees the program and day to day, working with partners, restaurants, chefs, and other stakeholders. “Our objective is to ensure that those eating on Monday have incredible, delicious options,” she said.

Smith’s team, which most are surprised is so small, can do so much globally. Their website is full of factual, science-based information on the health and environmental benefits of going meatless. “All these resources are free on our website. We have recipes, data points, and how to start a program.”

They work with many restaurants, from local favorites to global chains. Smith shared that Starbucks had a recent promotion, offering $2 off on plant-based breakfast items. She also noted, “Mondays can be a slow day for restaurants. We know from our partners that once they created a Meatless Monday offering, they increased traffic.”

Some of that is due to the virality of the campaign and the awareness around it. “A restaurant can easily tap into the campaign by using the hashtag. Last year the Meatless Monday hashtag had over a billion impressions,” Smith commented.

Castiglia also asked Smith about meatless trends. Smith noted they publish a top list of recipes every year, and a favorite is Jamaican Jerk Tofu. Another is a veggie meatball. “Plant-based versions of popular items are the way to go. Finding what your customers like then swapping out works well. We have hacks on swaps on the website, too.”

The pandemic briefly took away one of the world’s beloved institutions - the coffee shop. As the world opens up, the opportunity to sit down in a noisy cafe will soon rear its head. But, coffee shops had to figure a way to survive during the pandemic. Many pivoted to a pickup model, while some also added e-commerce as a way to sell their beans online.

The Main Course Host Barbara Castiglia talks with Nick Stone, the Founder, and CEO of Bluestone Lane Coffee, an Australian premium coffee and lifestyle brand, about how the company adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic down under. The duo also talked about what the dynamic coffee roaster has in store for the future.

Stone opened the coffee shop in 2013. A former athlete and investment banker, he loved the competitiveness and collaboration in both arenas. He always enjoys being a part of high-performing teams, and he brought this energy to the Australian coffee scene.

“To deliver a premium service in a very consistent way, you have to have that ethos that you’re continually improving,” Stone said. “It’s incremental gains every single day. It’s very akin to being a part of a high-performing sports team, where you’re training every day to improve, and you try to find an edge.”

With lost revenue initially, Stone laid off 650 employees as their revenue plummeted 91 percent. But, as the company pivoted to an e-commerce model, it grew its revenue by 260 percent. One of the things that helped them during this was their new subscription model. With the revenue increase, they plan to reopen their 51 stores and continue their expansion plans.

Paul Shapiro is not your average entrepreneur. He is the author of Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and The World and the CEO of The Better Meat Co. These projects stem from his passion for food sustainability. He talked with host Barbara Castiglia on this episode of The Main Course.

“I grew up with a love of animals,” Shapiro said. “I’ve always felt, We, human beings, treat animals in ways that are pretty deplorable.”

In addition to his love for animals, he noted that future generations would be taken back by the way we treat animals, especially the animals that end up on our plates for consumption. “They’re going to be pretty shocked,” he said.

Shapiro has spent a lot of his life trying to figure out ways to improve our coexistence with animals. He worked for years trying to get laws passed that improved the life of a farm animal. One example was getting egg-laying chickens out of the small cages where they laid eggs.

“About five or six years ago, I started wondering if technology would do even more,” Shapiro said, “to help improve the treatment of animals, besides trying to persuade people what we are doing is wrong.” He elaborated that the United States was once a whaling nation, but now we care about them. It happened because we no longer needed their resources.

It led him down the path of clean meat, without the downside of raising farm animals, so people can still have the same food without the cruelty.

Data and technology are used in restaurants but not used to build relationships. It’s mainly used to track customer purchases, track inventory, scheduling and reservations. Joel Montaniel, the CEO of SevenRooms, wanted to change that. He talked with Barbara Castiglia on The Main Course about data and how operators can build better relationships with customers.

Montaniel always wanted to build businesses and be an entrepreneur. He started in finance, and he got paid well, but it was an unfulfilling job.

“But, I wasn’t getting that itch scratched,” he said.

His passion for restaurants started when he found himself going to them during his free time. He didn’t have much free time, so he wasn’t able to attend them enough to become a regular. This piqued his curiosity and passion for restaurants. It started on the customer side but eventually led to the business side.

The idea for SevenRooms came when he noticed that if you didn’t attend a restaurant enough, they wouldn’t know anything about the customer. “They were numbers, not faces.”

“No matter what we could do for the consumer, the operator needed to pay for a role,” Montaniel said.

That was their lightbulb moment: Instead of focusing on the consumer, what if we focused on the operator.

SevenRooms helps restaurant operators leverage customer data to improve the experience. As part of their service, they offer Pickup and Delivery solutions; Reservation, Waiting, and Seating Management; Data and Guest Profiles; Guest Engagement, and Marketing.

“In the early days, typical to a lot of startups, we wanted to become a company that was all about technology helping businesses build relationships with people,” Montaniel said. In restaurants, relationships and people are the most important thing. It’s all about who you know. Technology is mostly transactional and focuses on purchases, etc. They wanted to change this perspective.

Franchising is critical to the restaurant world, but not every franchisee is successful. So, what’s the secret recipe? Franchise expert, speaker, and author of The Wealthy Franchisee Scott Greenberg joined The Main Course host Barbara Castiglia to shed light on the subject.

Greenberg started his career as a professional speaker and leadership coach. Looking for a second stream of income and a “lab” to try out concepts, he ventured into the franchise world. For the next 10 years, he ran Edible Arrangements stores. His speaking career then moved into franchise events. 

“I was looking at the differences between struggling and top-performing franchisees. After a while, I kept hearing the same themes. A franchise is a scientifically sound experiment. You have people running the same business with different results. I wanted to define the variables.”

In doing so, Greenberg looked at the human element of success—how people think, lead, and serve. “Thinking is getting rid of subjectivity to make data-driven decisions. Leading is about developing others, and serving is building connections, not just transactional relationships.”

The human element to Greenberg also meant ego is the enemy of service. “If your focus is yourself, then you aren’t focusing on those that matter—your team and customers,” he added. 

Greenberg’s speaking career and interactions led him to write the book as a resource and truly defined a wealthy franchisee. There are three parts to achieve this, financial return, controlling time, and quality of life. Without all three, true wealth is elusive. 

He shared some stories from the book, including how a franchisee took underperforming locations and made them the top, dispelling the myth that success is all about location. He also spoke about Jersey Mike’s owner and his unique support for franchisees. 

Greenberg also offered advice for franchisees in building their teams. “Define the most important traits for that role and ask questions to see if they demonstrate these. You also need to prepare them for the culture, not just train them for the job.”