How do ambitious brands punch above their weight class? Today we’re chatting with Carolyn Walker of Response Marketing, an agency that specializes in helping the little guys compete with the big guys. In our conversation we tackle the big misconceptions when it comes to restaurant marketing and Carolyn provides actionable information on how we can better position our brands to not only compete, but to win.  For more information on Response, visit https://response.agency/.  ____________________________________________________________ Full Comp is brought to you by Yelp for Restaurants ..read more

The only thing I ever wanted was to own my own bar…until I owned that bar. Then the only thing I wanted was to own a bar and a restaurant. There’s something within so many of us that pushes us to scale, despite the overwhelm that we’re are already suffering from. Charles Bililies took a different route with Souvla. His growth has been measured and strategic and I believe there’s much we can learn from his methodical process. In today’s conversation we discuss his strategy for scaling and the benefits he’s enjoyed from taking the patient path.  For more information on Souvla, visit https ..read more

Fred Castellucci’s story is a familiar one. He grew up in his family’s restaurant, worked there through high school, and then pursued higher education to chart a new path for himself. But, like for so many of us, Fred got sucked right back in. This is where things get interesting. When Fred jumped back into the family restaurant, he turned it around. He then opened more restaurants and, today, he and his family own 10 restaurant concepts. Today we chat about how Fred turned the tide of that struggling restaurant into a wave of prosperity for his whole family.  For more information on Fred ..read more

In most cases, the folks that help start a great restaurant concept are not the folks running it at scale. Most leaders within a startup fail to meet the new challenges they’re presented with in a larger organization. But not Bob Ray. Bob went from managing a single restaurant location to COO, overseeing the massive growth of the Margaritas Mexican Restaurant chain over the last 30 years. In our conversation today, we discuss the kind of leader Bob was and what kind of leader he had to become to scale a small restaurant into a big company.  For more information on Margaritas Mexican Resta ..read more

What does restaurant college look like? Where would you go if you wanted to learn how to create a sustainable business and a global restaurant brand? If you said TGI Fridays, today’s guest, Ricky Richardson would agree with you. Over his decades long career at TGI Fridays, Ricky learned the tactics, tools, and strategies that this massive company used to take over the globe. He then turned around and used that same blueprint to help scale Eggs Up Grill into a regional giant. Today, he shares that blueprint with us.  For more information on Eggs Up Grill, visit https://eggsupgrill.com/. __ ..read more

Marketing is hard. It’s hard because it’s nondescript and it’s a moving target. Restaurant marketing looked different in 2020 than it does in 2023. But there are experts in the field and we’re chatting with one today. Meet Paul McEnany. Paul is the founder of Plein Air, a marketing agency that specializes in helping great restaurant brands grow. Today he unpacks the same gameplan he gives the big guys, so that we can use it too. For more information on Plein Air, visit https://www.itspleinair.com/. ____________________________________________________________ Full Comp is brought to you by Yelp ..read more

Tyler Simmons wants to sell your trash. Our industry is famous for the amount of waste we create and Tyler is here to help. Today we’re talking about Too Good To Go, a company dedicated to eliminating food waste by elevating trash to treasure through innovative marketing and powerful tech tools. In an industry desperate for reasonable solutions to foundation problems, this just might be one.  For more information on Too Good to Go, visit https://toogoodtogo.com/en-us/. ____________________________________________________________ Full Comp is brought to you by Yelp for Restaurants: In July ..read more

What comes to mind when you hear the words “vegan food.” For many of us, it’s burlap clothing and plates made of cardboard, but Steven Salm is out to change that. Steven founded Planta, a vegan restaurant that transcends every boundary placed on that genre of food. The branding, the buildout, and the culinary program all speak to what it is: one of the most compelling restaurant concepts in the last 20 years–even for carnivores. In our conversation today, we unpack the strategy he developed and executed to bring veganism into the mainstream on a national level. For more information on Planta ..read more

Before Cyrus Batchan became a bar owner and a Michelin-rated restaurateur, he was a lawyer and that’s what drew me to this conversation. How many nights have you laid awake wondering if tomorrow was the day you were going to get sued? We’ve all consulted with lawyers in the past but I wanted to see how a lawyer-turned-restaurateur would go about setting himself up for success and limiting his liability. Today we chat with Cyrus about the things to do and the things we should avoid in an effort to become a better restaurateur. For more on his latest project, visit https://www.camphor.la/. _____ ..read more

Jack McGarry has achieved the accolades most of us dream about. He’s been awarded the best bartender in the world and his NY bar, The Dead Rabbit, was awarded the distinction of Best Bar in the World, a few years after that. But that’s not the end of Jack’s story. Since hitting the top, Jack has redefined excellence through the lens of bar ownership and has spent the last several years working to become the best owner he can be. Today, we discuss what that looks like in theory and how it manifests itself in practical application. For more information on The Dead Rabbit, visit https://thedeadra ..read more