Fast Casual Nation Restaurant Podcast

In this special keynote session from Fast Casual Global, host and pioneer of the fast casual segment, Paul Barron, explores how Consumer insights and brand connections will create the next phase of growth in food service.Three Key Points:Fast casual continues to expand and is now busting over 150 billion dollars in revenue in the U.S. alone, and Globally fast casual revenue is estimated at approximately half a trillion dollars. Food away from restaurants is going to be the big factor, and will continue to scale. For comparison, we saw food away from restaurants in 2019 at 51%, those numbers are estimated to reach somewhere around 68 to 73% by 2026.The dynamic shift in landscape has driven the fast casual space to create some new models such as piloting and drive thru restaurants. Several fast casual concepts have and will continue to shift into this space. The big challenge with new model concepts will be limitations in real estate and unit economics. Brands will need to be creative to stay competitive. Tweetable Quotes:"I think we will see continued menu innovation, mainly around the aspect of limiting the menu requirements so that you can diversify in the way that you're delivering the product versus on-premise and off-premise..” - Paul Barron“If you take delivery and still keep technology in the hunt, there is a big opportunity here. It's going to be wide open space, I think for drone delivery companies and also some of these robotic delivery companies” - Paul Barron"When you look at fast casual trends, the one thing that I want you to consider is the dynamic growth in ghost kitchens and virtual brands will be the next layer that we'll see in this space,” - Paul BarronWould you like a high-quality virtual event for your business, featuring premium content? Please reach out to our virtual events team to create your own today! Click to learn more about our Foodable.IO Virtual Platform and check out our upcoming events!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fast-casual-nation--3598490/support.Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory

The Fast Casual Nation Podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurants who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, I chat with Amanda Powell, vice president at Coolgreens about their training program, fresh food vending machines, and expansion plans. Powell brings twenty-five years restaurant experience to Coolgreens. She has been a regional training manager, general manager, and has developed training programs prior to arriving at Coolgreens. She says, “I arrived at Coolgreens as the director of operations of training and have spent the last several years streamlining their training processes, menu innovations in working with developing the franchisees, and growing our brand. And then I was promoted to vp of operations in 2019 and now we are here today.”Powell currently runs the franchise operations and directly works with the general managers and the franchisees. She also handles the IT Department and does all of the online learning, training videos, and management systems. She says about training, “one of my favorite things to do is write training programs. Over the years I have learned that our team members learn better by watching videos and just seeing things more visual learners. So I've incorporated that into our training and so when you get hired, you go through several courses like our new team member packet and then there's a hospitality packet because you know we think all restaurants should be full of hospitality at all times.”I asked Powell about being a mission-driven and people-focused organization, she says, “people are the best thing about the restaurants from our team members to our guests. You know our goal is to serve healthy, delicious food but we want to assure all of our guests and team members are well taken care of. We refer to this as a hospitality hug or a hospitality blanket as you will. We want our team to feel special and welcomed every day every shift.” She adds, “Our struggle is hiring as most places are but during the pandemic we actually did not lose anybody and we had people want to come work for us because it is a great place to work because our GMs just always have that hospitality within them and they share it with our teams.”When it comes to Coolgreens company values Powell shares, “one of them is the coolest hospitality, I just feel that it's just the things I love about restaurants, if you have a clean restaurant and you have great food and you have great hospitality, you will win over every guest and every team member every time. So it's just a big focus of hospitality.” To hear how Coolgreens took on the challenges of the pandemic, adapted to the supply chain shortages, and about the rollout of Coolgreens Markets, listen to this episode of Fast Casual Nation on Apple Podcasts.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fast-casual-nation--3598490/support.Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory

In this session from Fast Casual Global, host Paul Barron chats with Josh Chanin, Energy Efficiency Consultant of California Energy Wise and Jonah Goldman, Co-founder, Director of Strategic Marketing of PLNT Burger, to explore the reasons why emerging and startup brands are the new pioneers on how restaurants will be created. Three Key Points: It's no secret that consumers drive the trends. In fact, keeping up with modern consumer trends has become a necessity. For brands to continue to see growth they will need to know what consumers are doing and what they are interested in to be able to engage with them and ultimately win their business. The digital transition has been a major element in the industry over the past year and a half. It has changed everything from the ordering process to app development. Brands will need to continue to enhance their digital business to keep consumers connected in order to create loyalty and drive sales. Startups will need to focus on quality and innovation to overcome labor, technology, and equipment challenges when building out their units. Businesses should consider ROI for every decision made regarding startup purchases in order to scale, reduce operating costs and increase profits.Tweetable Quotes:"Startups are pretty much the one thing that is really, I think, at this point in the game, becoming the lifeblood of the restaurant industry. The startup opportunity is going to be one that, especially in fast casual, is going to be pretty much unmatched in the coming years for the restaurant industry." - Paul Barron "We have to recognize the reality that today the majority of consumers are looking at their phone for their next meal, and it will make or break companies if they can pivot and exist and flourish in a digital marketplace. We certainly recognize that, and we really value our digital presence and we're always trying to improve and scale that as well."-Jonah Goldman"I think a big trend that we're going to see over the coming years is people realizing how to market how sustainable their business is to their customers and show them that they are an energy efficient business, or they're doing their part to save energy." -Josh Chanin Would you like a high-quality virtual event for your business, featuring premium content? Please reach out to our virtual events team to create your own today! Click to learn more about our Foodable.IO Virtual Platform and check out our upcoming events!With California Foodservice Instant Rebates, you could save up to $4,000 per unit on high-efficiency commercial foodservice equipment. Choose from a variety of qualifying products and get valuable Instant Rebates as a discount on your invoice – no paperwork, no waiting. Find a participating dealer and qualifying products at www.caenergywise.com/instant-rebates.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fast-casual-nation--3598490/support.Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory

The Fast Casual Nation Podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurants who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, I chat with Devin Handler, vice president of brand marketing at Naf Naf Grill about restaurant trends, marketing tactics, and chicken schnitzel. Handler shares how he got started in the industry and restaurant marketing, he says that his background was nontraditional. He started in the advertising agency world in creative and moved into insight and strategy. Handler says he began just falling in love with the idea of using insight and consumer behavior to drive meaningful communications that help grow businesses. He talks about making a change and working for Qdoba Restaurant Corporation which had thirty restaurants when he started and they had over eight hundred when he left the company. Handler talks about joining Naf Naf after Greg Willman had come on board as chief executive officer. He talks about Willman’s vision for the brand saying, “I've never met anybody so all in on a brand in my life and I think that gives you a little bit of an idea of how important this brand is to him and how much potential he thinks it has.” He adds, “we want to make middle eastern mediterranean cuisine a mainstream favorite across the United States, one because it needs to be and then two because it's a very interesting way to keep the world you know sort of adventurously eating and exploring new things but doing it in a way that is healthful.” Naf Naf was started by Sahar Sander, who wanted to take the food and flavors of his childhood and bring them to his new home in America. Handler says Sander wanted to do it in a way that created the idea of sitting around the grill or the table and having a great meal, making lasting memories and hopefully connections that happen only over a meal.When it comes to Middle Eastern cuisine, Handler says “I do believe that people are opening up to that. I think while there are sort of educational hurdles for let's say mainstream America there is this desire to get out there and find new things and taste new things.” To hear Handler’s take on off-premise, marketing strategies, Fan The Flame, and Naf Naf’s expansion plans, listen to this episode of Fast Casual Nation on Apple Podcasts.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fast-casual-nation--3598490/support.Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory

The Fast Casual Nation Podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurants who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, I chat with Austin Samuelson, co-founder and chief executive officer at Tacos 4 Life about the challenges of getting into the restaurant business and their mission to fight world hunger. Samuelson talks about how he and his wife, Ashton heard a statistic in 2009 in reference to the number of children that were impacted by starvation and malnutrition worldwide and saw it as a solvable problem. Inspired by the efforts of the shoe brand TOMS, they set out to develop a brand where guests come together to create a world where starvation no longer exists. Samuelson shares some of the struggles they were faced with in the beginning, including learning how to make pizzas in a commercial oven in the garage, while living in the basement of Samuelson’s parents, being turned down by banks multiple times and turning to a crowdfunding site for their first Tacos 4 Life. Samuelson says about that time, “We had no idea what we were doing, it was a really fun faith journey for us. It was a fun experiment, it was even fun learning how to do that as a married couple.”Samuelson talks about how a trip to Africa where they volunteered and helped feed children gave them the drive to develop a new concept and a different type of cuisine. They went from a pizza restaurant to opening Tacos 4 Life finding a way to be profitable and still fight world hunger. Tacos 4 Life in 2019 launched online ordering, which Samuelson says he was thankful for since they had not only launched online but had been developing a loyalty app too as the pandemic was starting. He says, “so we were really really fortunate to be able to lean into that and we saw our percentage of transactions going through the app, I mean just skyrocketed. Pre pandemic we were three percent online orders, whereas today we're bumping twenty percent and so that was an area we of course adapted curbside and are still leaning into curbside.”To hear more about Tacos 4 Life’s mission, their pipeline of additional technologies, how they are coping with the impact of the labor shortage, and plans for expansion, listen to this episode of Fast Casual Nation on Apple Podcasts.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fast-casual-nation--3598490/support.Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory

The Fast Casual Nation Podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurants who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, host Paul Barron chats with Chris Dull, chief executive officer at Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers to discuss the brands growth and insight on franchising. Dull says, “today Freddy’s operates four hundred and fifteen restaurants. We operate in thirty four states really spanning all the way from California to New Jersey and as far down as Florida and and all throughout California.” He adds, “Our footprint we have thirty company owned restaurants and the remainder of our units are operated by franchisees.” When Barron asks Dull about his thoughts on franchising, he says, “I think that franchising is an excellent vehicle to growth. I think that Freddy's is a great example of a brand that's been very responsible in the way that they've franchised their concept when done right, I think you end up with excellent committed operators that know local markets better than a corporate entity that are based in the singular state and so I really think that franchising is a smart way to expand a brand and drive excellence in operations.” Dull talks about the three pillars of operations of partnering with a franchisee, which he says revolves around the concept of extreme cleanliness, the highest quality of products, and genuine guest service. Dull adds, “when you visit a Freddy's location you should experience something that's out of the ordinary good all the way around and we have people that we like to affectionately refer to as FredHeads who just absolutely love our concept. Love our brand. Love our food.”The bulk of Freddy’s business historically came from their dining rooms although ninety nine percent of their restaurants have drive-thrus. Dull says, “over the last two and a half years there's been a real focus on shifting some of our operational development and technological development to being fast and being accessible via drive-thru which very fortuitously for us was you know in the crosshairs when we rolled into Covid where our dining rooms were closed in totality and so Covid was a compounding effect. It forced us to be even better and to focus even more so on how we were able to serve our guests outside of our dining room.” To hear what Dull says about shifting from their old ways, focusing on technology, and adopting third party delivery providers, tune into this episode of Fast Casual Nation podcast on Spotify.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fast-casual-nation--3598490/support.Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory

The Fast Casual Nation Podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurants who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, host Paul Barron chats with Cosmo Magliozzi, founder of Pasta 78 to discuss preparing to create a fast casual brand and developing it for expansion. Magliozzi talks about his introduction to what would become the birth of fast casual concepts back in the nineties, being inspired by Chipotle, and how his mentors and friends Joey Ciolli and Eric Grennwald of Grimaldi’s Pizzeria helped Magliozzi get his brand launched. One year prior to opening Magliozzi says, his goal was to be able to make fresh pasta, cook it in under four minutes, and get it into a bowl and served. He adds, “you can make fifty to sixty pounds of pasta in less than an hour.” In November of 2020 Magliozzi says they opened their doors and then the pandemic. Since they have been building the brand and Pasta 78 is at the top of the list when fresh pasta is searched in Google. Magliozzi says, when they entered the space, third party delivery like DoorDash, GrubHub and UberEats saved the restaurant industry. He adds, if you were already an established business it was a lot easier to go online to order but being new they would have to find your restaurant first. Barron asks Magliozzi about the next generation of consumers, he says Pasta 78 has embraced TikTok and they began inviting bloggers and influencers to come to the restaurant for a free meal. Magliozzi says he had late teens and early twenties coming in, even the millennials were coming. Pasta 78 had a video go viral getting fifty six thousand hits, which drove business to the restaurant. To hear more from Magliozzi about the positive impact of social media, the importance of delivery, and Pasta 78’s future growth plans, tune in to the episode of Fast Casual Nation on iTunes.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fast-casual-nation--3598490/support.Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory

The Fast Casual Nation podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurateurs who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, host Paul Barron gives a deep dive into the latest hiring stats, fast casual trends, and vaccination requirements for restaurant and hospitality workers.Following in the footsteps of Walmart, Google, Tyson Foods, and other large corporations, McDonald’s has put in place a vaccine mandate for its U.S. corporate employees. The requirement will go into effect September 27.“With labor already at a pressure cooker point, the question is going to be how this will apply to restaurants in the franchise community,” says Barron. “There’s going to be all kinds of new case law on this. This policy by McDonald’s could definitely spark a heavy amount of interest, especially with the Delta variant.”Chipotle is also considering whether to require vaccines for all of its employees, including at the store level. At the same time, restaurants have seen a hiring boom, hiring 1.3 million employees since January—a 15 percent increase from July 2020.According to the latest Foodable Labs data, loyalty visits are up by 3.9 percent amongst the top 50 fast casual concepts. Takeout also saw a 9.4 increase in July, with 53.7 percent of fast casual consumers increasing their at-home ordering.“Everything has been skewed over the past 18 months because everything is moving in that [at-home ordering] direction,” adds Barron. “There has also been a 129 percent rise in plant-based options in fast casual menus… this bodes well for the industry. Still, the question always comes back to taste: if we see more products make it to the menu, will they perform well in terms of sales?”Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fast-casual-nation--3598490/support.Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory

Guest: Mike LaVitola, Co-Founder & CEO of FoxtrotBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fast-casual-nation--3598490/support.Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory

Guest: Jeff Dickerson, Head of CloverBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fast-casual-nation--3598490/support.Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory