Joshua Sharkey (09:49.21)I don't want to belabor this because I think we already talked about it. Yeah, I don't want to we already talked about this but but I hear what you're saying and by the way I think table service can still be an exceptional restaurant and I remember running table service at bark when we had beer and wine and Telling my staff like hey, yeah, they're gonna come up and get another another like pint or you know another thing to tap but you're gonna go to the table and check on them see how they're doing and
Matthew Conway (09:52.354)News
Joshua Sharkey (10:13.452)when you have time you'll get it for them. Sure. And you'll clear things for them. And it was it more of a hybrid, which I bet it is.
Matthew Conway (10:20.238)And to wrap this idea up, which I think is something important, which people who worked for me in New York for 15 years will attest to, I used In-N-Out Burger as an example of great hospitality on a regular basis at pre-service. In-N-Out, when you go to one in California, they exude hospitality from the moment you walk in the door. They make eye contact with you often when you're not the first person in line while you're still waiting, but I'll be right with you, sir.
and they work through the line, they treat you just with a level of white glove service when you're at the counter that feels good. It's a fast food restaurant that doesn't have table service. But if you go to an In-N-Out and you don't feel the hospitality, even in the drive-through, you can feel it. It's part of the signature of what they do. The burger's great. The fries suck. Everybody agrees on that. People go back because it feels good to go there compared to a normal fast food restaurant. And that is the essence of hospitality.
Joshua Sharkey (11:16.042)Okay. I want to bring something up just to shout out some friends of mine, but then also I think it's an interesting topic too, is Wonder this week acquired Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken. And if you've been following Wonder, they started as some delivery, they acquired Grubhub to get a bunch of distribution, they acquired Tastemade to layer on advertising and eyeballs.
They acquired Blue Apron, which is more distribution and more sort of ways in which to consume food. And I've ordered one a bunch of times where we live and it's really good. Like I get tree papaya. It's fucking delicious. everything I've gotten is like really well executed. mean, my John Adler, we both know from Perche and Franny's is in culinary there. They have like some incredible people there. They have an enormous amount of cash. I didn't think that they were going to start acquiring. Actually, no, that's not true.
I did think they were going to start acquiring brands. And I remember when I teasing it out and asking them earlier on and they're like, no, no, we're just building this infrastructure. But it is, I think this is a big deal that the, a company like wonder with the amount of capital that they have with someone like Mark Lohr, who is a brilliant entrepreneur is we were talking about private equity starting to roll up, you know, restaurant groups, but like, what does this mean when a company like wonder can start to acquire brands?
get, some liquidity for, you know, for Eric and Bruce where they still have the, you the rest of their sit down. And, and what does that mean for, for, you know, for concepts that they're building? I think it's incredible. I'd love to hear what you guys, what do you guys think? I know we were talking about like the vestures versus acquisitions, but it's a pretty, it's, it's a pretty interesting direction for them.
Michael Jacober (12:58.318)I can start with this one. I'll just start by saying, I have no idea what wonder is trying to do. And I'm not sure they do either. I think that if you, you know, you talked about how they began, how they started, they didn't start as a delivery business. They started as a, this like food truck that would show up in front of the house and like cook a meal and deliver the meal.
as it was being cooked in front of someone's home. That clearly was a horrible idea when it comes to, you know, just simple economics. You just couldn't provide enough meals to enough people at night to make any money on a poor truck basis. And then I don't know if you remember that a truck like exploded or set on fire and then they scratch that whole idea. They started going towards a brick and mortar model. I think that this is an example of a
And I'm not an expert on wonder. won't try to act like I am one, but I think this is an example of, you know, someone with wildly deep pockets who is an incredible storyteller who has been very successful in another industry, who has beliefs that he can disrupt the quick service restaurant category. Whatever pivots they've made along the way can sort of be
Chopped up to this idea, not to dissimilar from Tesla, which is like, we're not just a restaurant where this and where this and where this to kind of deflect the idea of putting a very simple multiple on the business to capture what would be, you know, A regular restaurant multiple. You can't say, you can't say wonder is a restaurant business because they own all these other verticals within the can't say it's a distribution. Yeah.
Joshua Sharkey (14:52.77)I vehemently disagree, but let me share why. And it's so interesting you brought up Tesla, because Tesla's a great corollary to this. believe what, I mean, look, Mark didn't know the restaurant space that well. He quickly, I think, learned and pivoted from trucks to physical locations and delivery, but he's doing the same thing that Tesla's doing. It's fully integrated model. Restaurants already are somewhat of like a fully integrated
business, right? Like we manufacture and we provide the product to the customer and we, you know, that's all happening where it's not a factory that the food is made at and then shipped somewhere and then someone else buys it. It's all happening in restaurant, but it's a terrible, you know, it's a, it's, it's not a great business model when there's not a ton of economy of scale and it's not fully integrated. What Mark, I mean, yet, but like the way he's, he's trying to fully integrate everything. So he owns,
Michael Jacober (15:43.988)growing food and he's not distributing
Joshua Sharkey (15:51.084)You know, he's taking on the manufacturing. He's got massive, you know, I just had John on the podcast last week and they were talking about their, you know, their, supply chain, you know, approach.
Michael Jacober (16:00.396)they bought with blue apron they bought
Joshua Sharkey (16:02.638)Well, they bought Blue Raypen, but Blue Raypen also had a really good supply chain.
Michael Jacober (16:05.678)company that that also did the co-manufacturing that they brought us
Joshua Sharkey (16:09.398)Wow. But the idea is that, you know, he's got the full stack of everything, right? So he probably will start to buy agriculture or invest in agriculture because it's the entire life cycle of the food getting, you know, produced, sent to the restaurant, produced in the restaurant and not just served at the restaurant, but then served at scale everywhere and owning the last mile of the delivery of that.
and owning the advertising of it through, you know, that's probably why he acquired Tastemade and owning the frequency by leveraging, know, Blu-ray print and things like that. So when you're not getting a you get this thing. And I imagine he probably will start to invest in agriculture as well. And then if he starts to acquire a lot of these brands because he can't create all the IP, but if he can start to like add some liquidity to chefs that like build really incredible IP, it's a win-win for them too.
But then he's got this fully integrated thing where, by the way, the food is fucking good. And like you can get it, you know, from directly from Wonder, you can get it from, from DoorDash. You can get it obviously from RubHub. I think the model is just, you know, instead of restaurants being this sort of, you know, one part of the, of the food system, he's trying to make the entire food system, you know, consolidated into, into this business model, which if you have enough scale and you can get enough capital to get there.
you're going to insane margins. Imagine if you're not paying 30 % to Grubhub. Imagine if you're not paying the markup from the producer to the distributor to the sub distributor.
Matthew Conway (17:46.542)Do you like this from a consumer standpoint or do you like this from a money?
Joshua Sharkey (17:50.114)Yeah, I think from a consumer standpoint, means you can control a lot more of the, first of all, the supply chain. You can make sure that you have really good traceability. mean, obviously there's benign, you can go about it the right way, but you can control the traceability of the entire supply chain.
Michael Jacober (18:05.262)How is that different? Like, why does the consumer care about...
Matthew Conway (18:09.922)You never answered the question. Do you like it from a consumer standpoint or you like it from a money-making standpoint? You're turned on by the fact that this guy's controlling every aspect of
Michael Jacober (18:18.894)Well, I don't like it.
Joshua Sharkey (18:19.662)I I like that. I like the fact from a business model standpoint I love that it's vertically integrated because he starts to you know like decompress all the margins that crush a food business Which that's great and if you have enough if you have enough capital to to get to that scale then you're gonna have Insane margins like you're blow out blow away the margins
Michael Jacober (18:41.228)think that the story that every venture-backed business tells, like, we can just raise enough capital to get to this scale, then it's such this big if-then. What happens when you just can't raise more capital?
Joshua Sharkey (18:54.452)So yes, but so I think that is true, but it also it's not that I don't think that that that approach is wrong I don't think like that from a from a first principle standpoint that approach is wrong No one's executed on it. Well, you know where you've tried all these companies crabbit But they just didn't execute on it well and I think that they're executing on this very well and they're bringing the right people in and so from a business model standpoint I like it from a consumer. I buy it all the time and it's fucking delicious. So from a consumer perspective
Michael Jacober (19:21.464)But it's being subsidized. Your experience is being wildly subsidized by venture dollars and Mark Blore's money. now. This business is not able to stand up on its own. probably, if I'm being honest, it's never going to be able to stand up on its own. But even if is so complex. You're building the amount of complexity that you're baking into this business with all these different... But that same Again, it's exciting.
Joshua Sharkey (19:42.702)The same premise that means that like Tesla can't stay on Banzang, but Tesla's buying the buying the metal to make the parts, it's making its own batteries.
Michael Jacober (19:52.686)You could argue Tesla's a meme stop. You could argue Tesla is just an investment in Elon Musk's vision. It's a car company, right? They make... It's not really a car company because they do...
Joshua Sharkey (20:02.222)Yeah, but it's throwing
Throwing off a ton of cash flow, mean it's growing, it's not real.
Michael Jacober (20:10.926)What was Tesla's E? Let's look up Tesla's earrings.
Joshua Sharkey (20:18.402)is that matter and had some notes well
Matthew Conway (20:20.526)Yeah, I just think the bottom line is when the money does actually come through with all of these savings, when you're talking about margins, they're never going to make it to the consumer. The rich guy that put up all that money, to Mike's point, that's not really an actual sustainable business is going to take those profits like the medical industry or anybody else who has vertical integration, which to me, again, I think that's a fancy term in the tech world that in the food world doesn't make sense. I think you want your farmer to be separate.
from your last mile delivery source for many reasons. But again, I think you get big eyes because of the the backside of it and the money. But from the consumer standpoint, I don't want the same guy can farming my food that also does the last mile delivery. I think ultimately it dilutes it.
Joshua Sharkey (21:04.674)I understand the danger in it, right? But there's also, look, restaurants have terrible margins because of all of those factors, right? All of the markup along the way, and then all the dependencies along the way. And if it's done right, again, if it's done right, if it's executed well, and they have the right approach. I think they have the right approach. They're hiring the right people.
They're buying the right kind of brands. They're working with the right kind of brands. This is not like, know, Joe Schmo pizza coming. This is, you know, they got like serious, you know, like food that they're working with in serious teams, like making sure it's executed well. So I think if they can continue it, which I, if they can, it's a, it's a pretty incredible model. looks like Tesla, by the way, reported.
Michael Jacober (21:59.874)They're trailing 12 price earnings, 395 share price to earnings. To put things in perspective, know, what did Chrysler or what did GE trade on a price area? It's much closer to a car company. So the reason Tesla is getting away with this crazy multiple is because they're not just a car company, right? That's what they find, but no one really can say what they are now. And it seems like Lure's methodology is probably going to be something similar.
Joshua Sharkey (22:29.174)Yeah, well, I think so. also that's also how you get, you know, the benefits of, you know, cross utilizing all the different parts of the, you know, of the supply chain and different business models. mean, SpaceX would be a very hard business to continue without Starlink. So you could argue like, well, it's valued on all these things, but like because of that, actually, you know, subsidizes, you know, all these other things. And then it allows, you know, as they combine them together, you can put like data centers and I mean, there's a, there's a lot of value from like adding these things together.
Tesla had almost $3 billion in EBITDA last quarter. Last quarter, you know?
Matthew Conway (23:03.842)I'm falling asleep. I'm sleeping.
Michael Jacober (23:04.652)no, I didn't see that. Yeah.
Joshua Sharkey (23:08.012)Alright, well, Matt, you have a taquito spot. Okay, but like fast forward, your burrito and then your taquito spot and you have ten of them. And then somebody wants to you know, buy that from you and just make sure that it gets scaled across the country. Is that something that you would not be interested in?
Matthew Conway (23:13.186)No, I don't. I'm a burrito spot.
Matthew Conway (23:33.742)I didn't say that I wouldn't be interested in scaling, did I?
Joshua Sharkey (23:37.196)No, I mean, like if similar opportunity to blue ribbon fried chicken popped up with your burrito concept and after you've scaled a bit, that be, would you be interested in working with Wonder in a similar capacity? Of course.
Matthew Conway (23:50.254)But what does that have to do with me, my feelings about the whole situation? I don't know. It doesn't have anything to do with anything.
Joshua Sharkey (23:54.872)Good question.
Okay. All right. Moving right on. Let's move on.
Matthew Conway (24:00.654)Moving on a prayer.
Michael Jacober (24:03.872)Let's talk about solo dining. That's kind of an interesting and weird.
Joshua Sharkey (24:08.994)Okay, well, some quick stats here.
Matthew Conway (24:12.59)I love solo dining. It's one of my favorite things to do.
Joshua Sharkey (24:15.916)Well, it's growing significantly. Reservations for one increased 22 % year over year. still only account for less than 1 % total book reservations, but the 22 % increase. Solo diners becoming more socially normalized, particularly among women. Diners are using solo meals as intentional reset time. Some, especially women, are scouting restaurants for future group outings or dates.
Michael Jacober (24:22.126)2020 and 2025.
Joshua Sharkey (24:44.174)And restaurants are beginning to merchandise and market towards solo diners signaling that they view them as a meaningful niche audience. So it's continuing to grow. I don't know if there's a, if there's a common thread here, but also weekday dining is jumping up a bunch. So Tuesday reservations are up 15 % year over year and weekday dining is, not weekend dining is, is not growing at even anywhere near the same, same rate.
Matthew Conway (25:13.038)Can you guess my number one reason why I love to dine alone? I don't have to share, baby. You eat everything you order is what you get. get to-
Joshua Sharkey (25:20.129)my
Joshua Sharkey (25:23.95)That's my number one reason for not wanting to die alone.
Matthew Conway (25:26.606)Yeah, we're not the same creature, my friends.
Joshua Sharkey (25:31.736)I feel so much like FOMO when I go alone. Either I order way too much food because I still want to try a bunch of things or I'm like, man, I really want to try that and that, but I...
Matthew Conway (25:44.15)You don't go to restaurants that you've been to before, like there's not like maybe you just don't get out enough like well Yeah, then like you're just every time you're going out you're looking for this you have to try the whole menu Sometimes you're going to a place you've been to 20 30 times like there's a Mexican restaurant that I went to for lunch Twice a month or you know what it once a month for 10 years. I didn't look at other people with FOMO I'd love to go sit at the bar and order my lunch and not have to share
Michael Jacober (26:11.278)Sitting at the bar, sitting at the bar as a solo diner, but would you think to make a reservation and sit at a table by yourself?
Matthew Conway (26:18.37)No. Always buy the bar.
Michael Jacober (26:21.398)It always made me very curious. I would see it, you know, every once in a while as an operator. It always made me wonder like, why? what-
Joshua Sharkey (26:31.488)But if solo, if solo reservations are up 22%, I imagine if this is actually a pattern that actual solo dining is up way more. Yeah, sure, they're sitting, they're reserving. So it's probably up way more. I don't get to go out to eat more than once a month now, maybe twice a month. this is not, I'm not a good example of.
Matthew Conway (26:50.83)If they showed up, if I showed up and they put me at a table, I wouldn't be like, no, I have to sit at the bar, but I don't make a reservation to sit at a table. just walk in and look for a space for one, which is usually something you can find. And if the place that I'm into is busy, again, it's usually when I'm traveling in a city, I go to the next place and find a place that has room for me. And everything kind of happens for a reason. You usually end up finding some pretty cool spaces and conversations by being a solar diner. Uh, you brought them up last week and I think we can't have this little topic without.
mentioning him, Keith McNally has made a point of his career of taking care of solo diners. You get a complimentary glass of bubbles as part of his core values going back to like Odeon days for all single diners because you want single diners to feel comfortable. Brett brags about it.
Michael Jacober (27:40.398)What do you think could be happening on a macro level that is creating this uptick? Cause obviously you, we can all agree. Yeah. Walking into a restaurant as a, as a walk-in sitting at the bar feels like that doesn't feel like anything groundbreaking yet. I love doing that. People have been doing that for years. So what is it about people getting onto a reservation booking business and booking a table for one? Like what could be happening?
And I wonder, is there like an age demographic? there a-
Joshua Sharkey (28:13.61)If I'm going to a if I like one of the reasons that that I read for why solo dining is up so much is because of remote work and People people, you know because they're working remotely more they you know They still want to go out to dinner so they're you go by themselves because they don't have like teams in an office But I also like if you're if you're if you're remote But then you have to travel more if I'm going to a new city to see I don't know if you have to go see clients or something and I know I want to go out to eat and I I would maybe book a reservation for myself just to make sure I got some place good
Michael Jacober (28:43.96)So from a corporate perspective, think, I mean, that would be drowning, you know, solo corporate dining, but what about like your entertainment time?
Matthew Conway (28:51.482)The fact that instead it was like, you know, the trend was female dominant, at least Sharkey's numbers that he was citing. think, honestly, I think there's a lot of fatigue. You know, we've talked about this in earlier episodes, but I think like, just like fatigue of interaction, whether it's in person or social media email, the fact that so many people are constantly needing to like be on with people and like,
Even 10 years ago, there was so much more downtime where you weren't required to be interacting with another person. And now through technology, like you can sit at your desk and constantly be pinged by the person sitting next to you through like inter, you know, office chat boxes that aren't even open to the public, let alone people who are re emailing you, texting you, social media, DMs. think people feel overstimulated. So I think the idea of unplugging, which we've discussed with young youth, uh, I think it's across the board. I don't know if there's an age demographic.
attached to this, but I would imagine that a lot of people really just enjoy the idea of going out and like not having to cook or even have a conversation with a boyfriend, lover, husband, family about just sitting down and having somebody do the work for you and not having to have a big conversation about it. think people probably really enjoy that these days more so than
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Michael Jacober (31:14.034)I have to think that if it's skews towards female and I don't actually think this is a male or female thing. When you're dining alone and you, know, the concept just to unplug from all these mediums that we're attached to. We'll think that that's happening. I think when you're dining alone, you're with your phone, you're texting, you're chatting and you're stabbing pictures. I actually kind of disagree with that. question is like, why are people, and if that's the case, why would, why are people all of sudden feeling
Like this is a, this is a new thing that I want to experience. It's super interesting.
Joshua Sharkey (31:49.006)Before we dive into that, can we just talk for a minute about the pronunciation that Matt had of fatigue versus fatigue?
Matthew Conway (31:57.048)What is that?
Michael Jacober (31:57.944)Who Who says fatigue?
Matthew Conway (32:00.814)Did I say foot fatigue? What that? Probably just talking too fast.
Joshua Sharkey (32:02.242)You said fatigue,
But you said it multiple times. It wasn't like a... Well, I'm gonna go have some asparagus a little later tonight.
Matthew Conway (32:07.736)Fade Sorry
Matthew Conway (32:13.11)If you put the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable,
Joshua Sharkey (32:15.63)happens. Speaking of dining, I'm going to Babo tomorrow. I'm excited for Mark's new... Hello? No, my feature sales is in town. that was funny.
Matthew Conway (32:22.861)Yeah
Matthew Conway (32:30.197)So him you made a reservation on your own.
Joshua Sharkey (32:32.398)So I'm excited to see Mark, you know, in that space. I love Bobbo. I used to live around the corner from Bobbo when I was, living in Greenwich Village and I would go there, you know, solo dining. would go to the bar and I would get the lamb. What was it like the lamb's tongue and the, the sweetbreads. Man, was so that that place was just so good. Andy, when Andy was the chef, well, I mean, obviously in battalion. Great rush. Yeah, start, start, start took it over. So.
Michael Jacober (32:56.654)Star owns it now, right?
Joshua Sharkey (33:01.442)I'm excited for that.
Matthew Conway (33:02.19)I can hit you with more controversial hot tape.
Joshua Sharkey (33:07.95)Let's hear it. Come on. Bring it on.
Matthew Conway (33:10.904)Babo was a very good restaurant. I think there's a ceiling for Italian food. I have a hard time getting too excited about eating out at an Italian restaurant, man. There's only so many ways that you can impress me with a noodle. know Italian restaurants are more than a noodle. Like what I loved about Babo is that they weren't scared to use heart and tongue and the shit you see when you actually go to Italy. Like other Italian restaurants in New York are like, here's your fried calamari and...
Joshua Sharkey (33:24.204)It's like.
Matthew Conway (33:38.53)You know, pesto, and it's like, think they were some of the first, from my vantage point at least, I'm sure there were neighborhood restaurants, but like the big fancy restaurant getting all the press, they were the first one that was like, yeah, your appetizers are heart, you know, tongue, the innards, the cool things. That to me, I thought was cool about it, but it's like for me, Italian food, I have a hard time getting up for Italian food.
Michael Jacober (34:00.526)When you say there's a ceiling for it, what do you mean by a ceiling? Cause there's plenty of like remarkable remittal and starred restaurants that are personal in Italy, gripping Italian food. And, uh, like, there, uh, is, is it like a chaturia only as like, what is it that, uh, you mean by there's a seat, there's a ceiling.
Matthew Conway (34:22.446)I've been very fortunate and blessed to eat at a lot of three Michelin star restaurants across the world. I've never eaten at one in Italy to be just transparent there. like having meals at Del Posto or Babbo or some of the iconic Italian institutions in the U.S. Again, like Del Posto was a very good restaurant. I just don't think it has the same depth that you get in. And it was something that was widely debated before I think Del Posto was the first
four-star New York Times restaurant, and forever there wasn't ever an Italian one, and people were saying, Italian food's just as good as French. Maybe I agree with the reasoning behind that. Like, I think there's more technique and diversity and depth of just concepts of dishes, let alone whatever in, let's say, French food or Asian food than there is in Italian food. And that may be like a generalization, but I think you kind of have to generalize food. I'm sure if I were to eat at a great three-star Michelin restaurant in Italy,
I would be floored, but maybe a lot of the technique and experience that they're using isn't just Italian because most three Michelin star restaurants rely on a lot of different cultures for, to, craft a three Michelin star experience, which is why, which makes them exceptional. They're mind blowing, right? They're a trip to go out of your way. Del Posto at its best. I eat there, you know, fairly frequently over the years. I thought it was a very good restaurant. never felt like it was like wowing me. Right.
Joshua Sharkey (35:50.306)I think we're, if we're thinking about just a great red, it's funny, you were talking about Red Hook Tavern. Italian food is one of those things that you just, you just need to execute really well. You're not going to invent new things. the purpose of it is not to, but like the approach to it and like how well you make it. Like I think like Evan Funk makes incredible food. had an amazing meal at Mother Wolf. It was awesome. And it was, you know, like they're making Italian food and it can be an incredible restaurant, credible experience. Now, it be, when you think of three star Michelin?
And that kind of like avant-garde things. Yeah, maybe that's not the case, but it's the same way that when you sit down, you have like perfect shrimp cocktail and a perfect BLT and a perfect burger. When you have a perfect pasta, like I think PJ makes incredible pasta and like, you know, his like bomba dip and things like that.
Matthew Conway (36:36.878)What was their place over in the West Village? Around corner from bark? The Babo group? Lupa. Huh?
Joshua Sharkey (36:43.736)Still at Loopa.
Michael Jacober (36:45.592)think Lupa there first. I think Lupa was their first restaurant, wasn't it?
Matthew Conway (36:49.416)Is it still there? It may still be there. But for the longest time, they had a guy that made their pasta and he made it for Babo and then went on to Del Posto. But I think he originated at Lupa, where at least the lore on the street was. All I know is on a freezing cold day, which I know you guys have been experiencing in New York, you I lived in the East Village. You walk across, you know, you walk across to the West Side, pull up a bar seat at Lupa by yourself and order a bowl of bucatini alla matriana and...
Joshua Sharkey (36:51.116)yet again i think it is
Matthew Conway (37:18.488)That was to me the height of Italian cooking to Sharkey's point. Like that, you didn't need to do anything to fancy that up. That in and of itself was as good as Italian food gets to me. Seriously.
Joshua Sharkey (37:30.914)Yeah, well, I mean, but I think that's the point is that you when you don't try to mess with it and you just do it really well. But and by the way, I think Terese is an incredible example. I know you've been to Tracy to play.
Matthew Conway (37:43.009)I've really wanting to go, apparently it's a little hard to get into.
Joshua Sharkey (37:47.406)It is very hard to get into.
Matthew Conway (37:49.48)Again, I'm not trying to knock Italian food. I am at all. I think Italian food is a huge part of everybody that loves foods like general rotation period. Like that's, that's a no brainer. I just think if I'm going for like super high end, like some of the meals that I've had at Junsik or Atomix like Korean high fine dining, who the heights and levels of that versus Italian to me are just, and maybe it's because a lot of the flavors are more exotic to me.
than Italian food, you know? Maybe it's because I'm westernized too much and I don't get out and experience fermentations and things that are like so common in Korea. But for me, it's like so much more exciting. There's such a higher bar. But again, that might be a me thing to be completely fair. I need to be more culture.
Joshua Sharkey (38:36.974)Breakfast day part is also increasing. There's a 19 % year over year increase in reservations.
Matthew Conway (38:44.334)Where are you citing these stats from? from right here. Yeah.
Joshua Sharkey (38:47.198)There's a, I mean it's a lot of like, you know, now I have to go find the source. No, no, I just-
Matthew Conway (38:51.918)was curious if you're like just like on on a AI or if you're like on a certain website
Joshua Sharkey (38:57.358)Like the- so the ones that- the source I've been using most are McKinsey, the Food Institute, and- Herbie, come here. My dog is freaking out because my wife has a party going on downstairs and he thinks that there's
Michael Jacober (39:12.462)Attack.
Matthew Conway (39:14.803)How do know you have kids and noon parties?
Joshua Sharkey (39:18.418)Well, there's a two hour delay. Well, anyways, yeah. So there's a 19 % increase in reservations year over year at 9 a.m. 15 % increase 10 a.m. Breakfast dates are increasing. Yeah. for breakfast, I think they're saying that breakfast is generally lower cost than dinner. Inflation and lifestyle pressures are pushing consumers toward more affordable dining occasions.
Matthew Conway (39:20.878)Pretty downstairs at noon.
Matthew Conway (39:34.719)that was
Joshua Sharkey (39:46.68)So it's benefiting from both economic trade down behavior and social repositioning. Breakfast dates. Interesting. Breakfast dates a good idea.
Michael Jacober (39:53.966)It's a very good idea. There's, there, I was going to say there's been a lot of innovation in the category and there's been a lot of concepts that have really been hyper-focused on breakfast. You know, some of them can think of snooze, snooze, know, they're, took an investment from stripes in terms of like multi-unit restaurant development. Just the category in general has really become much more advanced than it used to be. Breakfast drinking. Uh, and, I wonder, is this,
Joshua Sharkey (40:21.378)Two hands says a lot too. Have you been to two hands?
Michael Jacober (40:24.47)I'm not gonna do hands. I mean, but-
Joshua Sharkey (40:26.734)For the longest time in New York, La Ponga to the end was like, you went there for breakfast. It was like, it's a nice thing. You had the communal tables and you get the big mug of coffee. But it is actually, a really smart date move.
Michael Jacober (40:35.241)I'm going there on Friday.
Matthew Conway (40:40.524)I've never heard anybody actually say the whole name out. Everybody just calls it LPQ.
Michael Jacober (40:44.287)Thank you.
Joshua Sharkey (40:47.278)The first time I actually heard about it was John George was like in an article talking about that he goes there for breakfast all the time and they made it sound really, really good. And I mean, there's tons of them now. I mean, we're fine, obviously, know, they acquire.
Matthew Conway (41:00.782)Our number one request at the burrito shop is breakfast burritos.
Joshua Sharkey (41:04.462)Breakfast burritos, I went through a phase last year where I bought tons of chorizo and like all the things for breakfast burritos and I would, like I cooked off the chorizo, I cooked off a bunch of steak like I sous vide it and then diced it up and then in the morning I would just sear off some steak with some chorizo, egg, avocado. It's like the best breakfast, there's so much protein and you need to throw some hot sauce in there. Breakfast burrito is our, I had a really good one in Austin. I don't remember where it was, took me, but it was really good.
Michael Jacober (41:32.878)It was Torchy's tacos based out of Austin. I know. it was. Uh, I went there for the first time in, uh, probably 2010, 2009, 2010. They were hyper-focused on breakfast tacos. I there was two locations at the time. It was like, it was super innovative and places were packed. It was awesome.
Joshua Sharkey (41:54.998)Matt, what's your take on rice in burritos? Yeah, I don't know what you're
Matthew Conway (41:58.808)Filler. Why would we do French fries at the press? couldn't.
Joshua Sharkey (42:03.394)He got a flour tortilla. you putting rice in there?
Michael Jacober (42:05.688)French fries, that's a San Diego thing, right? It's like a, it's a Cali thing.
Matthew Conway (42:10.478)I mean, they, I mean, they call it a California burrito. So yeah, it's a California thing, but you see it all over the Southwest. know, like Phoenix and just the Southwest in general has fries and burritos. I think they refer to it as a California burrito, even in Arizona or New Mexico, but maybe originated in San Diego. used to eat them a lot in San Diego, but theirs is a little bit more of like, ours is pressed. There's a restaurant in San Francisco on the, by the ballpark called Garaje.
And they do, they call it a Zapato and it's similar. It's like, it's more pressed like on a, on a Foreman grill. So it's got lines on it type of situation. But, that's kind of the inspiration was this pressed California burrito, not this big round thing, but something that like the cheese all melts on the inside, kind of more of a cross between a quesadilla and a burrito than it is a big fat burrito like you used to get in San Diego.
Michael Jacober (43:03.15)Do you press on, on, on any press or do you, do you go by hands?
Matthew Conway (43:07.096)Flat, flat top and it's pressed with like a small sheet. Yeah, we do them, you know, 10 at a time. like, yeah.
Michael Jacober (43:13.783)I think.
Joshua Sharkey (43:18.222)I was in Greece, in this tiny town south of Thessaloniki, they had gyros there. They had french fries in them. By default they just put french fries in the gyro.
Matthew Conway (43:32.77)In France, they call them tacos and they're literally what we serve at the press, but they call them tacos. It's a Middle Eastern fast food concept, especially all over the South of France. You order a taco and it's a burrito with fries in it. My business is very unoriginal in the South of France.
Joshua Sharkey (43:52.59)Do you guys do breakfast at Tiplung?
Matthew Conway (43:56.992)or a wine bottle. No. Or open a floor.
Joshua Sharkey (43:59.47)Go ahead and put your burritos. don't know if you have a window for breakfast burritos.
Matthew Conway (44:03.182)At the burrito shop, the press? 1130 to 230, Monday through Friday. People asked, I was there this morning, people asking me for breakfast burritos this morning. He was actually offering to cook, which is usually my answer. My answer is usually, hey buddy, if you want to cook the burritos, we'll think about opening. And he was like, oh, we're just telling your chef, you know, people get hungry before 1130, maybe you should open in the morning.
Joshua Sharkey (44:24.526)Alright, we're on this topic of solo dining, breakfast dining. Maybe it's because I'm old and I try to go to sleep early, but I'm a big fan of early bird. Like I want a five o'clock reservation and I want to be out of there by seven. What's your guys thoughts on that?
Michael Jacober (44:42.208)Isn't that like a young kid's thing? Like, like you're, you're, you're like in a weird spot. your kids aren't that young anymore.
Joshua Sharkey (44:45.314)No.
Joshua Sharkey (44:48.988)mean because I have young kids.
Even when I have a babysitter and I could be out late, I still, I don't want to be eating at nine o'clock at night.
Michael Jacober (45:00.078)Nine o'clock's a little late, but...
Joshua Sharkey (45:01.678)But if you get a 730 reservation, 738 o'clock reservation, you get in, get some drinks, you get some apps. You're having entrees at like 845, 9 o'clock. You're have dessert around 9, 15. You know, it's late. It's late,
Michael Jacober (45:16.894)But five o'clock dining, mean, it's like, obviously this is Seasville, but it's not even dark yet. Right. And it doesn't even get dark while you're dining. You don't get that, like that mood transition. I mean, I care.
Joshua Sharkey (45:31.67)I don't need it to be dark to have a cocktail.
Michael Jacober (45:34.136)You don't need to be dark to have a cocktail, but you need like some sort of like mood transition throughout the dining experience. mean, five o'clock dining, isn't that like, you're basically living in Boca Raton, you're in your mid to late seventies and you're.
Joshua Sharkey (45:52.184)mean 530 is okay. Once you start getting to 6 p.m., that's when I'm like teetering on, I don't know. I have a 545 reservation at Babel tomorrow and I'm like, that's about it.
Michael Jacober (46:05.58)And none of that, none of that is just because that's what's available.
Joshua Sharkey (46:09.164)now i would take a look at over seven thirty and you would think
Michael Jacober (46:11.618)Would prefer a five if there were two options, you'd the 545 or a cell.
Joshua Sharkey (46:15.406)100 % 100 % I don't want to like then I'm also having a drink at like nine o'clock at night, you know and
Matthew Conway (46:22.062)My goodness. You're supposed to have a cocktail when you're supposed to have a drink. Yeah, I can't.
Michael Jacober (46:22.946)Yeah, it's me.
Joshua Sharkey (46:27.432)That's late. You know, gotta wait three hours, you know, three hours before bed, no drinks, you know.
Matthew Conway (46:32.686)with doing everything early, I'm fine with like whatever that doesn't bother me, like do you, but I'm not with you on this one. think. Night time. You want this, you want the sun to go down. I agree with that. But also just like if you travel anywhere outside of your little bubble, everybody eats at eight 30 or later. You go to Spain, you go to Europe, you go to Asia. These people are all eating. The restaurant doesn't even fucking open until seven 30 in France. Like you couldn't even.
Joshua Sharkey (46:41.122)I didn't think you'd
Michael Jacober (46:56.686)3 and a 10
Matthew Conway (47:01.614)If you 545 you show up, there's nobody even there. They're all relaxing, taking a nap, which is what you should be doing so that you can have a nine o'clock dinner reservation. That was aggressive.
Joshua Sharkey (47:11.47)by way, it recommendation. You know what the worst is when I have to go out west if I'm going to Vegas or L.A. and I have a dinner and it's an 8 o'clock dinner. Now I'm eating and it's that night that I get in and so now I'm starting to eat at 11 o'clock at night my time and at 1 a.m.
Michael Jacober (47:20.287)And now you're
Michael Jacober (47:29.646)What even do? What do you do? Are you like pulling up a little, you know, the X to the table? Like how do you, how do you even handle it? You, you're right.
Joshua Sharkey (47:36.97)grind through it, you know? Yeah. Put my big boy pants on. Just get it done.
Matthew Conway (47:42.158)Yeah, if you didn't know Sharkey, this is just a farce for me to be your life coach, you know? It's not aggression, it's just me telling you how you should live your life publicly. It's not as normal.
Joshua Sharkey (47:52.91)Speaking of having drinks at nine, where's the St. Joseph? You said there were six bottles.
Matthew Conway (47:58.322)I've done it. Well, to be honest, I'm actually going to get it directly after this because it's in storage. But the reason why I haven't bothered yet is because it's too cold to ship. You live in a very cold place.
Joshua Sharkey (48:10.072)Got it.
Matthew Conway (48:11.412)So I was like, I can't ship because it's cold. And then I looked at your weather. There might be a window to ship early next week, but if temperatures are below something, I can't ship it because if it gets stuck overnight, the corks push out.
Joshua Sharkey (48:19.383)Okay.
Joshua Sharkey (48:24.238)Okay, that makes sense.
Matthew Conway (48:27.086)But it looks like there's probably gonna be a window coming up here pretty soon. So I'm gonna go get him so I'm ready to just pop it in the mail as soon as it's warm enough to do so.
Joshua Sharkey (48:38.262)Is it worth it to get a stag's leap? The local wine shop by me has like a stag's leap. They were like, we'll give you a good price on it. Like, is it?
Matthew Conway (48:45.774)They're gonna give it a price, because nobody wants to buy it.
Joshua Sharkey (48:48.758)Is it worth it? Okay. What about a Banffy? Montepulciano, you like those?
Matthew Conway (48:55.486)I've had some great bottles of old Bonfee Brunello, but I've actually visited last year. I went to Brunello and went to visit it, but yeah, they can be great. They're the era of greatness has kind of been gone by. mean, there's still make high quality wines, but like the great, great era and those wines are super expensive. Yeah. Can be great.
Joshua Sharkey (49:18.19)There was one at the shop that was like 89 bucks.
Matthew Conway (49:21.134)Like you're like in Shav, like don't run from greatness. Like you're in a good spot here. Let's drink some more Shav. Like I'll just, take two cases. I'm like, it doesn't really work that way. You happen to find one of a wine that's extremely hard to get. I'll peel some for my personal seller for you. Don't you worry, I got you. But like, you're not, this isn't just a commodity that you can get easily.
Michael Jacober (49:27.638)The fish has-
Joshua Sharkey (49:28.384)I'm waiting for
Joshua Sharkey (49:44.366)Okay, well I didn't know that. I had no idea. Matt, do want to pick the next topic? There's a bunch still here on the dais. Is it called a dais?
Matthew Conway (49:46.258)You've got good teeth, as I said.
Matthew Conway (49:57.954)I would never say that, I would say...
Joshua Sharkey (49:59.928)Now that would be people. We could talk about James Beard nominees. We could talk about, I don't think you're gonna want to talk about predictive AI in farming, there's a big revolution happening there.
Matthew Conway (50:11.118)You've already bored me with part of this episode, I think we can save that for another day.
Joshua Sharkey (50:16.118)What bored you? Did I talk about wonder?
Matthew Conway (50:19.928)Getting into Tesla.
Talk about Tesla. think it's a... It's just not... It's like a lot of people want to opine about shit that's like... I don't know. I'd rather talk about something else.
Joshua Sharkey (50:33.806)You're not a
Michael Jacober (50:34.158)It's very relevant when talking about it.
Matthew Conway (50:37.939)I understand, and that's why I kind of just stayed quiet, like, bored me.
Joshua Sharkey (50:42.648)How about this, and maybe this goes nowhere, but there is a rise, I think there's a rise of these, I don't know what you call them, like sort of like more grandiose style restaurants, more expensive, that are actually good too. know, you see, I mean, Simon's doing it with, you know, great class palatial coat and you have, I think Mother Wolf's a good example of it. Major Food Group does a bunch of them. If you know the Riviera dining group, like Miele in Miami, they have the highest AUV of any restaurant in the country.
I hope
Michael Jacober (51:13.983)What is it? What is it?
Joshua Sharkey (51:15.97)I don't remember, I have to Google it, it's in seven, eight, and the guy runs an incredible operation. know, he runs a really, really tight ship and they actually like, operate with, they operate really tight even though they don't have to, which is really impressive too. But there's this like big restaurant, you know, it's like big and grandiose and there's a lot more of them. I think about like, you know, when I went to Mother Wolf in LA, it felt very Balthazar-esque. It was a huge restaurant, massive, you know? It's so hard to...
operate these things, you know, when you have, when the restaurant margins are the way they are, you know, if you can do 15 million, 20 million top line in a restaurant, even if you have 10%, 8 % margins, it's not bad.
Michael Jacober (51:58.39)I think they're cool. think, I would never have the balls to open one. They're super expensive. the risk is breezy high. You have to have a ton of confidence in not just yourself, but you know, your ability to, to put spots in those seats. Cause if you miss on a few minutes on a $14 million build out, that's a huge fucking mess.
So your risk is just insanely high, but when they work, mean, I'm sure the
Joshua Sharkey (52:34.392)When they work, it's just, Michael Stillman's a really good example. Alan and Michael Stillman with Quality Branded. mean, those are big rest...
Michael Jacober (52:39.896)Yeah, those are big bucks.
Joshua Sharkey (52:42.184)Spend a lot of dollars on them and they crush it.
Matthew Conway (52:45.226)For me, I'm not worried about the build out of butts and seats. Like usually they pick locations where you're pretty safe on those things. What scares me about that is training hiring. Fuck dude. It's so hard to keep a, I've got six people on my team and it's just difficult to keep people hired and trained and motivated to go out and like deliver a high level of hospitality. Like in a monster place like that, where your free service is 200 people or whatever it takes to do.
I fucked, what a nightmare it would be to be the general manager of
Joshua Sharkey (53:18.328)Yeah, but you have, there's enough top line where you have... That are like, that for you.
Michael Jacober (53:20.686)you can
Matthew Conway (53:24.93)I, yeah, of course I understand how it works. just think it dilutes it all down. You know, I don't know if it's still there, but what was Stephen Starr's place in the meatpacking district? That place was fucking enormous.
Michael Jacober (53:36.256)booty con.
Matthew Conway (53:37.87)I mean, back in the day, I actually had good meals there and there'd be like a thousand, twelve hundred people in the room at once. And they were like,
remember but
I was really impressed by the quality of food and service given this sheer volume that they were doing night in, night out. I thought it was really impressive. of course it can be done. I'm just saying, I wouldn't be worried about the butts in the seats. I'd be worried about training people to give in today's world post-COVID, finding the staff to, even if you have sub generals to go out and do that. And it's a tough world.
Joshua Sharkey (54:12.61)Yeah, it is a big risk, but if you think you can get the butts in seats, I almost feel like it can be less risk because you have so much top line. Who the hell's The hardest thing about a restaurant is, you know, top line solves a lot of problems. You know, because you can, you have more wiggle room with the, you know, when you have more top line and you can figure out the margins and you have more resources to figure out the margins when you increase top line. But if you're struggling with top line, it's really hard to make it work.
It's almost like less risk, but.
Michael Jacober (54:43.796)You could also argue that it's less risk just because there are only so many of those types of, there's only so many people who are going to build restaurants that are that big and that exciting.
Joshua Sharkey (54:55.084)Does Charleston have any of those? Does Charleston have anything of that nature? No.
Matthew Conway (54:56.814)Anywhere.
Michael Jacober (55:01.102)Yeah, I can't think of anything off the of my head.
Matthew Conway (55:04.014)Ordinary is pretty big, but falls way, way short of being that massive. We had dinner there, Shirky. It's got that second deck. It's a pretty old bank. It's pretty, it's pretty like lofty size wise, but like I think 300 covers is probably a huge service on the bigger side of the service for them, maybe not including the bar. So it's like, that's not that crazy. Leon's does very serious volume, but it's not, it's not enormous. No, but I mean, they, they're open, you know, seven days a week.
Michael Jacober (55:28.718)That's not huge now.
Matthew Conway (55:33.462)lunch all the way through dinner, is rare here. And so they like turn out some pretty impressive numbers from that space, but it's not massive like that. Charleston can't really support that, to be honest. Just it's a pretty small town, you know, like there's times of the year where, you know, weeks or even stretches of the year where tourism is pretty low just because of the way that, you know, the year ebbs and flows. So it's like,
Joshua Sharkey (55:44.013)Why?
Matthew Conway (56:00.864)If you're a massive restaurant, you're not going to be able to fill yourself when there's not people from out of town here. Hanks is pretty big downtown and they do pretty robust business, but it's like, there's still days or parts of the year where, know, like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, those types of restaurants are very like quiet. So it pays off in the end because there's so many busy weekends where you just pack it in, but it's not like New York city. It's not, or it's not like a big city, Miami or anything. Charleston is pretty.
pretty tiny. But... is VoodooCon still there? I don't know if it's still there.
Michael Jacober (56:35.978)Steven Spielberg had a really cool quote about Budokan. It's still there. Yeah. He said, you know, walking into Budokan, feels like I'm walking onto a movie set. that was kind of Steven's stars. think that's what made him full restaurateur was that he was creating these experiences that were.
Joshua Sharkey (56:39.982)Still there.
Joshua Sharkey (56:56.622)Spice Market was supposed to be like that too.
Matthew Conway (56:58.68)Just gonna bring it up.
Michael Jacober (56:59.736)Vice Marker
Matthew Conway (57:02.156)Just gonna bring up Spice Market. That might have been the best food I've ever had at a massive, massive place.
Michael Jacober (57:09.934)I did not so good dining experience there, but remember the space is cool. There's food and
Matthew Conway (57:15.79)was definitely ambitious. can imagine they served a lot of really shitty meals there over their time, but like I had a few good, good, good meals and some mediocre ones, but like what a crazy space it was. Like I remember the bathrooms were downstairs and like they had a private space down there and maybe it was like semi-private.
Michael Jacober (57:33.002)They had public dining down there too, yeah. They had a full second floor, I'm sure.
Matthew Conway (57:36.184)I remember going down there like in the holidays and there was just like models, Coke on the tables, bottles everywhere. Seriously, it was like walking into like a private club, but it was just 9 PM on a Friday night in December. it literally looked like literally drugs, bottles, beautiful women's model is just great. was like, and I was just like using the bathroom and you look over and like, wow, what a, what a world. And I know a couple of people that worked there in like elevated management.
Like I know people who ran the beverage program and said that that was just the norm. It was just a place for people to let their hair down, literally.
Joshua Sharkey (58:12.632)Do you remember Ninja?
Matthew Conway (58:14.358)Yeah, of course. I actually went to Ninja.
Michael Jacober (58:17.486)What was Ninja? I don't remember.
Matthew Conway (58:18.904)Rebecca, you walked in and they served you in a dark room.
Joshua Sharkey (58:23.244)And they were ninjas.
Matthew Conway (58:24.908)Actually, dress like ninjas.
Michael Jacober (58:26.86)Wait, like a dark room, you couldn't see anything? There was a place in France that, in Paris, that did that.
Matthew Conway (58:33.378)It might have only been part of the dinner that they made it dark, but like you had a ninja serving you and seating you. It was all, it was all done by ninjas. But I don't think, if I remember you weren't sitting in a room with anybody else, right, Chuckie? was, it was like you had your own little cubicle and they did cool things like turn the lights off and other things while they ninja'd you.
Yeah, that was
Joshua Sharkey (58:58.446)You know, there was, I think that Ippudo is a great restaurant and it's like a chain. I think there's a chain out of Japan that came to New York. you guys ever go to Ippudo? Yeah. I'm from Virginia, alright? I see... Okay, first of all, there was an English word that you were using and I think you're from America, so first language. But when you walked in, they would like... So they said something to you. Yeah, they were like the team...
Michael Jacober (59:09.678)That's a poot a pooto.
Matthew Conway (59:10.958)I think it is.
The letter's been I-
Matthew Conway (59:24.898)to ePoodle.
Joshua Sharkey (59:27.799)The team would say something to you, they would like, not when you walked in, not in the waiting area, but then once you got into the restaurant, they would...
Matthew Conway (59:33.39)When you walk into a Japanese restaurant, all the Japanese chefs greet you.
Joshua Sharkey (59:37.39)Yeah, it was something that they greeted with, I forget what it was, but I always loved every time. It can't wait for the greet-a-thet. It was good though.
Matthew Conway (59:45.166)The pizza was a real treat.
Joshua Sharkey (59:48.472)Yeah, I mean.
Matthew Conway (59:49.614)And if you're ever confused, Mike, it was actually called Ninja.
Joshua Sharkey (59:53.442)I can't.
Michael Jacober (59:53.966)it was a and this is a very good
Matthew Conway (59:56.942)was on the same block as Mark 4 June, so was literally like... It was on the same... I didn't have to cross a street to get to it. So eventually once I was like, we gotta go try this out, right? Are we?
Joshua Sharkey (01:00:10.062)Are we having him on? Are we gonna do that or?
Matthew Conway (01:00:13.198)They're talking to me? Yeah. About what?
Joshua Sharkey (01:00:16.174)Are we going to have him on? Shall I invite him?
Matthew Conway (01:00:18.712)He would not accept that's not a good topic publicly.
Joshua Sharkey (01:00:22.508)Okay. All right. I thought we said that was a possibility, no problem. Okay.
Matthew Conway (01:00:26.924)I think you did, but... Ninjas, digress, solo dining.
Joshua Sharkey (01:00:32.866)Well, look, think we have a good topic that we're going to dig into next week with tips.
I texted Eli because I thought that he was part of that conversation and I was like, hey man, we're going to talk about tips tomorrow if you want to join. And he's like, yeah, I'm a little tied up then, but thanks. And I was like, wait, were you in that conversation? And he's like, no.
Matthew Conway (01:00:56.664)Didn't you have a personal assistant email me? So what do they do if they don't keep you organized?
Joshua Sharkey (01:01:00.108)Yeah, but-
Joshua Sharkey (01:01:04.354)Well, this was a very specific time.
Matthew Conway (01:01:05.964)I know, but you're like, Mike Madden's calling people the wrong name, you don't know how to pronounce a poodle, like, what's going on here?
Joshua Sharkey (01:01:13.208)First off, Jules is great. He's fantastic.
Matthew Conway (01:01:16.75)I fired him on the spot. Kidding, kidding. Can we do 10 a.m.?
Joshua Sharkey (01:01:20.206)So we'll talk about that next week. yeah, I think so. Hold on.
Matthew Conway (01:01:25.186)I'm actually going to be in New York, but I'm only there for 24 hours. I'm flying up Tuesday and flying home on Wednesday, but my flight's not until later in the day, but I have a business meeting for lunch.
Joshua Sharkey (01:01:35.278)Does 10AM work for you?
Matthew Conway (01:01:36.622)It works for me as long as works for Mike.
Michael Jacober (01:01:39.062)On Tuesday or on Tuesday.
Joshua Sharkey (01:01:40.13)On Wednesday.
Matthew Conway (01:01:40.494)I'll do it from the hotel room before I leave for my business lunch.
Joshua Sharkey (01:01:46.302)Alright, I just moved it.
Matthew Conway (01:01:49.255)And Arjan said that he can do 10am. You guys didn't get back to me via text, so I didn't confirm with him yet, but I'll send that now.
Joshua Sharkey (01:01:56.684)I'm going to be in Atlanta. no, I get back from Atlanta on Tuesday. We're doing a little like impromptu happy hour. If you know any restaurant folk in Atlanta, like let me know because I'll invite them. We're doing a little happy hour with our, like one of our customers at Castellucci Group.
Matthew Conway (01:02:11.126)Eduardo Otto Carrero, one of the great sunlays in the United States. History. He runs the Ford Fry Group.
Joshua Sharkey (01:02:19.565)Okay.
Oh yeah, yeah. I will, I'll shoot you a note. I'd love to invite him. Have some, we're gonna do the Iberian pig. Buckhead. All right, boys.
Michael Jacober (01:02:32.354)Guys, just want to say I'm sitting in my Jersey Mikes. I now own a Jersey Mikes. This is my first Jersey Mikes. Yeah. have customers in here.
Joshua Sharkey (01:02:48.231)Stand up a little bit so we can see your shirt. Where is it? don't see it. Do you see it?
Michael Jacober (01:02:53.058)I'm in Lake Bluff in Chicago. That's just outside of Chicago. Bluff, Illinois.
Matthew Conway (01:02:58.158)You a Jersey Mike and Lake Bluff?
Michael Jacober (01:03:02.19)Well, he built it. built a whole franchise, right? We're building three stores this year. So this is our first that we just opened. Congratulations. It's great. It's awesome. Their training is insane. They've got a whole team that comes in. It's three people that are with us for a week.
Joshua Sharkey (01:03:19.928)Really? How many people from their training team come to help? Wow. So do you have to open consecutive stores at a certain amount of time now?
Michael Jacober (01:03:24.014)Three. Three.
Michael Jacober (01:03:29.986)You know, it's in our development agreement that we should have our next one open in six months and then six months after that. But it's, it's rare that they penalize you. if you can't really meet that, it's an aggressive schedule. You know, we're actively looking for, for spaces in the markets that we bought. I'm really impressed with, I'm really impressed with how they do this. I mean, having owned independent restaurants, it feels like cheating. Like it really does.
Joshua Sharkey (01:03:48.888)How do you feel?
Michael Jacober (01:03:59.598)You basically sign a lease and then their whole design team comes in. They're just like throw the kitchen where it's supposed to be like, so they, they, and they recommend the architect. And then from there, they recommend the GC. You basically negotiate for, I don't know, 15 minutes with the general contractor, cause he's already built a hundred of them. You start construction, construction's 13 weeks. Then they hand you the keys. It's 13 weeks. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. And you have like a.
Joshua Sharkey (01:04:22.67)13 weeks?
Michael Jacober (01:04:28.834)bi-weekly call with a project manager that they, you know, that works for corporate. It's like, basically hand you the keys to a fully built restaurant. That's incredible. You don't have to do anything. That's why.
Joshua Sharkey (01:04:42.85)Yeah. What is the sourcing like?
Michael Jacober (01:04:46.658)the sourcing.
Joshua Sharkey (01:04:47.704)Like is it all like direct from their distributor?
Michael Jacober (01:04:50.446)So yeah, they have, they have, you know, a distribution network, but we buy from national distributors. So we just have accounts with whoever you would explain, US food, so spend a little, and we buy all our products directly from them. They show up. This operation is so simple. Yeah. I'm impressed. I'm really impressed with how to do it. Thanks man.
Joshua Sharkey (01:05:10.968)Congratulations. I hope in five years you're opening your first three of Matt's Burrito Shop.
Michael Jacober (01:05:17.688)Yeah?
Matthew Conway (01:05:18.838)I don't have that much time, I'm ready to roll baby.
Joshua Sharkey (01:05:21.23)Okay, in two years. Two years?
Matthew Conway (01:05:25.134)I'd love to get moving ASAP. The burritos are hot, they're delicious, people are outside begging for them. Well, what more can I do?
Joshua Sharkey (01:05:36.046)That's, mean, it really is the thing that I really admire about a really good franchise is the product isn't just the food, it's this whole repeatable business that they hand you.
Michael Jacober (01:05:46.134)Repeatable
really, it's the marketing and it's the support. That's really what you're paying for.
Joshua Sharkey (01:05:53.932)Yeah. Well, kudos to you,
Matthew Conway (01:05:57.528)Yeah, we've done. We've been averaging like one a minute to start services lately. Okay. That's wild. For the first hour at least. Yeah. We're for three hours and the first hour is averaging like anywhere from, you know, 50 to 70 in the first 60 minutes every day. So the tickets, we don't pre-make anything. The tickets just start spitting out at 1130 to the ground. And we're just like, tack, tack and bust them out.
Michael Jacober (01:06:02.158)That's awesome.
Matthew Conway (01:06:27.372)We don't have Tesla's EBITDA, but we're doing all right.
Michael Jacober (01:06:31.118)Oops, check.
Joshua Sharkey (01:06:33.71)Thanks so much for listening to the show. If you liked this episode or any other ones, you can actually check out more of this at getmes.com slash Josh. That's G-E-T-M double E-Z slash J-O-S-H. I have my podcast there, The Mese Podcast, plus some other shows and interviews. Starting to write some stories and blog posts, some recipes, recaps, things like that. So I think you'll enjoy it. Again, it's getmes.com slash Josh. G-E-T-M.
Thank you very much. Very grateful for all of you.
