Speaker 1: We are back here on the Restaurant Mastermind podcast, and
Speaker 1: today we're going to be diving into something that is
Speaker 1: going to be close to my heart, and that is
Speaker 1: the fast casual sector. It is going to be a
Speaker 1: good one. I got a lot of data for you
Speaker 1: guys on this one, and we have a very special
Speaker 1: guest coming in from Toastique. We'll break it all down
Speaker 1: for you. Paul. How are you.
Speaker 2: I am doing well, mister Baron. It's always a pleasure
Speaker 2: to be with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Did you know that fast Well, we kind of
Speaker 1: know that fast casual is the leading sector in terms
Speaker 1: of growth, but I did not realize that this could
Speaker 1: be a three hundred billion dollar market in as early
Speaker 1: as twenty thirty. I mean that that would be three
Speaker 1: hundred billion even if the if the industry creeps up
Speaker 1: to say one point two to one point three. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're talking about thirty, maybe thirty percent of the of
Speaker 1: the major Western markets controlled by fast casual. Were you
Speaker 1: aware of that? Was that big? Idalize?
Speaker 2: I wasn't aware of that number. But the reality is
Speaker 2: just that fast casual is the sweet spot, right, This
Speaker 2: is this is the this is the segment of the
Speaker 2: industry that's not only driving the most excitement, but it's
Speaker 2: also driving really the most the most revenue. And I
Speaker 2: think and one of the things we'll talk about today,
Speaker 2: when I heard that you're bringing on our special guests,
Speaker 2: Brianna from Testique, this is one of these. This is
Speaker 2: one of these hot brands. This is one of those
Speaker 2: brands that you can kind of like look at and say, Okay,
Speaker 2: I get it. I understand why all all of this
Speaker 2: excitement and huge expectations.
Speaker 1: Are happening well, and a lot of it is built
Speaker 1: around these, uh you know, these emerging categories. And and
Speaker 1: when you look at fast casual, which has been a
Speaker 1: star studded group of brands that have grown out of
Speaker 1: the freshmach space. Obviously Panera Bread came out of the
Speaker 1: baker cafe space. We've seen almost a winner in every category,
Speaker 1: the good for you category, which is kind of where
Speaker 1: I would put this, but it has a lot of
Speaker 1: uniqueness to it is one of those that is really growing.
Speaker 1: We're gonna dive in deep, so you guys stick around.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. My name is Paul Baron. As
Speaker 1: the early pioneer in fast casual, I've seen the industry
Speaker 1: evolve from just a few operators to the most sought
Speaker 1: after segment by consumers around the world. Now we're planning
Speaker 1: to shape its future. Tap into decades of my expertise
Speaker 1: identifying the emerging brands and tech winners in the space.
Speaker 1: Saber Capital will be fueling the next generation of fast
Speaker 1: casual innovation. All right, we are back here and today
Speaker 1: we are being joined by a special guest. And of
Speaker 1: course you guys have probably heard of this brand, but
Speaker 1: you may have never actually got a chance to hear
Speaker 1: a little bit about them. But we're going to bring
Speaker 1: on their CEO, Brianna Keith. How are you.
Speaker 3: I'm doing great? How are you guys.
Speaker 2: Having saked excellent?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So let's go into a couple of points with you, Brianna,
Speaker 1: Paul and I will kind of pepper you with questions
Speaker 1: on the concept of a brand. But what you guys
Speaker 1: have been able to do. First of all, for our audience.
Speaker 1: Some people may have heard of Toastek or have seen
Speaker 1: some of your locations. Give us a rundown on how
Speaker 1: big you guys are, what your focus is, Give me
Speaker 1: a kind of a foural one there.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So Toasteek we originated in Washington, d C. Back
Speaker 4: in twenty eighteen, and we are a gourmet toast and
Speaker 4: juice bar with also handcrafted coffee. Everything that we do
Speaker 4: is intentional at the highest quality that.
Speaker 3: We possibly can make things out of.
Speaker 4: You know, all of our juices are made in house,
Speaker 4: there's no added sugars or sweeteners.
Speaker 3: Our gourmet toasts are our specialty.
Speaker 4: All of our toppings are made in house, down to
Speaker 4: our peanut butter, pickled onions, our avocado smash. Everything on
Speaker 4: our toast is housemeade. And then we also have smoothies
Speaker 4: assay evils, again no hidden sugars sweeteners on them.
Speaker 3: And then we have a full express of our.
Speaker 4: Menu which that is actually something that we added a
Speaker 4: little bit later on to the brand which has really
Speaker 4: taken off. We partner with a local roaster that is
Speaker 4: hand selects their farms.
Speaker 3: Goes out and meets with them.
Speaker 4: They actually coach and train the farmers on how to
Speaker 4: grow their beans at the highest quality. So it's really
Speaker 4: just a high quality cafe. Currently we have forty two
Speaker 4: stores open. Yes, you can see our beautiful website on there,
Speaker 4: all of our beautiful toppings.
Speaker 3: It's really something for everyone.
Speaker 4: You know, we have something for someone who has dietary
Speaker 4: restrictions or as on a strict diet. But also we
Speaker 4: have something that's a little more you know, traditional breakfast
Speaker 4: or lunch. We have our smoked salmon toes with real
Speaker 4: cream cheese, pastami salmon, which is delicious. So whatever someone's
Speaker 4: in the mood for, we got them covered.
Speaker 1: Many how many total units?
Speaker 3: Right now we have forty two open.
Speaker 4: We will be opening around twenty five to twenty seven
Speaker 4: by the end of this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is huge, this is wit a bide the
Speaker 2: end of the year, Brianna. You have to understand we're
Speaker 2: basically setting like land speed records the number of number
Speaker 2: of locations you've already opened and have in development. I
Speaker 2: mean a little bit bigger than a golf clap for.
Speaker 1: Big bigger than the golf CP. I like that one. Okay,
Speaker 1: So what do you attribute the growth to right now?
Speaker 4: I think, honestly, from the beginning, the very first location
Speaker 4: was to create myself a job, and it exploded obviously
Speaker 4: into way much more than that. But from the very beginning,
Speaker 4: I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted the experience
Speaker 4: to be perfect, the quality to be perfect, the presentation
Speaker 4: to be perfect, and I think that's what really lends
Speaker 4: itself to the growth. You know, the details in everything
Speaker 4: that we do, everything that we touch really really reflects
Speaker 4: on the sales and the freshness and the quality.
Speaker 3: And I think really also, the fast casual, like.
Speaker 4: You mentioned, is a booming industry, and I think we
Speaker 4: learned how special the operation was through the pandemic because
Speaker 4: we actually don't have any cooking equipment, but everything's made
Speaker 4: in house, but just without that extra overhead, and we
Speaker 4: don't need to hire a cook or a chef to
Speaker 4: operate a toastyk, and so it makes it very scalable.
Speaker 3: And so starting in Washington, d C.
Speaker 4: Which is very touristy, we opened in the middle of
Speaker 4: somewhere at the Wharf, which was also a.
Speaker 3: New development itself.
Speaker 4: We saw people all across the world and people were
Speaker 4: just wowed by it. The feedback was amazing, and so
Speaker 4: that's I think really when it took off, people were like,
Speaker 4: I want to open one.
Speaker 3: How do we do this? Like you should.
Speaker 4: Franchise, And at that point in time, I didn't really
Speaker 4: understand franchising, and I never It's not something that ever
Speaker 4: crossed my mind. So I started to look into it
Speaker 4: and I think something that we're doing a little bit
Speaker 4: differently with franchising is really looking for owner operators, Like
Speaker 4: we want people that are part of the community, that
Speaker 4: have the same passion as I do to go represent
Speaker 4: Toasteek in their community. I think that's, you know, how
Speaker 4: we're going to be sustainable for many years to come
Speaker 4: with that passion behind.
Speaker 1: It, no doubt. What was your background.
Speaker 4: I had a degree or I have a degree in
Speaker 4: hospitality management and minor in business, but I've always worked
Speaker 4: in restaurants and in events, and after college I was
Speaker 4: working in events in downtown d C. But I think
Speaker 4: for me, I've always I'm very much a people person.
Speaker 4: I've loved enjoying talking to people, gaining to know people,
Speaker 4: and combining it with my passion for cooking just fresh,
Speaker 4: yummy food.
Speaker 3: It's kind of how Tosy came about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I read a quick article about uh, you know,
Speaker 2: in preparation for this podcast today. I was doing a
Speaker 2: little bit of research and I read a quote from you,
Speaker 2: and I'll just paraphrase, but you were you had you
Speaker 2: always you'd worked in restaurants, and you said you said,
Speaker 2: if I'm going to work this hard, I might.
Speaker 1: As well do it for myself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I love that because I mean, that's just it.
Speaker 2: One does not simply open up a restaurant withoutout the
Speaker 2: real understanding like this is just an app. This is
Speaker 2: something that you have to go in with full mind,
Speaker 2: body and soul in order for it to succeed.
Speaker 1: The idea of toast, the toast concept come from because
Speaker 1: this is one of the few. Obviously we've seen brands
Speaker 1: that have integrated avocado toast and all sorts of savory
Speaker 1: toast elements as a menu item. But this was really
Speaker 1: the first true concept that I saw built around the
Speaker 1: idea of this as a category. Where did that come from?
Speaker 3: For me?
Speaker 4: I just loved great quality of toast and bread, you know,
Speaker 4: very classic bread and butter. But I love, I do
Speaker 4: love a good carb and I feel like having one
Speaker 4: piece on their artists in bread topped with nice fresh toppings.
Speaker 3: It always just made me feel so good.
Speaker 4: Somethings you eat a really big sandwich, even if there's
Speaker 4: some healthy things on there, it always just made it
Speaker 4: weigh me down a little bit. And I'm very I'm
Speaker 4: a very visual person. So even when I was making
Speaker 4: food and toast for myself at home. I wanted to
Speaker 4: make it be beautiful and fresh and naturally colorful, and
Speaker 4: I feel like there's, you know, such an opportunity for
Speaker 4: open based sandwiches. You know, people overseas have been doing
Speaker 4: it for years and years, maybe just calling it tartines
Speaker 4: or open based sandwiches. But I think that you can
Speaker 4: that you can see the freshness, see the ingredients, and
Speaker 4: it tastes just as good, and then it'll still fill
Speaker 4: you up and you feel very satisfied, but it'll keep
Speaker 4: fueling you instead of weighing you down for the rest
Speaker 4: of the day.
Speaker 1: Are you finding the savory products flying on the menus?
Speaker 1: I noticed some of the things we just showed on
Speaker 1: screen a little bit there. One was like more of
Speaker 1: a peebee with bananas, peanut butter. It had strawberries on it,
Speaker 1: you know, some other elements in there as far as nuts.
Speaker 1: Are you finding there the cat When someone walks into
Speaker 1: a toasteek, do they think more I won't say dessert,
Speaker 1: but something that is more on the treat side versus
Speaker 1: the savory side. Or are you seeing a mix of both.
Speaker 3: I would definitely say a mix of both.
Speaker 4: I think people because we really only have one sweet
Speaker 4: toast or peanut butter crunch toast, and so people who
Speaker 4: come in for toast normally want something savory and then
Speaker 4: essentially everything else on our menu, the smoothies, the juice
Speaker 4: in bowls are going to be on the sweeter side.
Speaker 4: So our toasts do make up between like thirty to
Speaker 4: fifty percent of our sales depending on the location.
Speaker 3: And that's kind of what I wanted, you know.
Speaker 4: I want toast to be the specialty item, the thing
Speaker 4: that sets us apart, and it does show in our sales,
Speaker 4: you know, but we definitely do get like the peanut
Speaker 4: our crunch is one of my favorite that it's definitely
Speaker 4: a little bit more popular in the morning, but it's
Speaker 4: so good. So I think there's a lot of people
Speaker 4: that kind of work their way down the menu, trying every.
Speaker 3: Item to see what they like best and then coming
Speaker 3: back from more.
Speaker 1: So I'm going through the in you right now. We've
Speaker 1: got the gourmet toast components, handcrafted coffee, which I think
Speaker 1: is a good slide in there in terms of beverage bowls,
Speaker 1: which are good. I like the wellness shot component that
Speaker 1: is really is that a category that you're finding some
Speaker 1: growth in because we've seen a lot of beverage companies
Speaker 1: that have started to integrate wellness shots, you know, all
Speaker 1: sorts of you know, additives into the beverage category. You've
Speaker 1: got housemaid troops, Grab and Grow Go obviously, the collagen
Speaker 1: lattes another you know, potential win there. How big is
Speaker 1: the is the category from a beverage side of things,
Speaker 1: Do you see that as maybe one of the bigger
Speaker 1: growth opportunities for you guys?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think because we have a lot of beverages,
Speaker 4: you know, this movies, the youth, the college and lattes,
Speaker 4: coffee and the wellness shots. The wellness shots are actually
Speaker 4: huge seller and we okay develop those actually during the
Speaker 4: pandemic because we naturally saw people adding fresh tender into
Speaker 4: their smoothies and saw that demand. And truthfully, it's something
Speaker 4: that I've always wanted to create, but it always went
Speaker 4: on the back burner. And in the pandemic I had
Speaker 4: a little more time on my hands. We never closed
Speaker 4: a single day, but it allowed for us to get
Speaker 4: a little more creative and add.
Speaker 3: Some new things to the menu.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean, I think we have such a
Speaker 4: variety of options that even if you don't drink caffeine.
Speaker 4: We have juices, we have macha, we have other teas
Speaker 4: that you know, it doesn't have to be coffee. So
Speaker 4: I would say that that is a big component to
Speaker 4: our business.
Speaker 1: How big is the mix for you guys in terms
Speaker 1: of like third party you mentioned you didn't close during
Speaker 1: the pandemic. That meant it was all delivery. This seems
Speaker 1: like a product that travels or could travel very well,
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of.
Speaker 2: I asked, I was livery how well could it? How
Speaker 2: well does it travel? I mean toast, you know, when
Speaker 2: you have it, when it's loaded with stuff, I mean
Speaker 2: it could does it good?
Speaker 1: Soggy?
Speaker 4: That?
Speaker 3: Surprisingly? Surprisingly it does.
Speaker 4: And we actually the first two years of business, up
Speaker 4: until the pandemic, we didn't do.
Speaker 3: Any online ordering, no third parties.
Speaker 4: You physically had to be in our store to make
Speaker 4: a purchase because I was like, the smoothies are gonna mild,
Speaker 4: the toast is gonna get soggy.
Speaker 3: I'm not serving that.
Speaker 4: And then of course the pandemic came and we're like, Okay,
Speaker 4: we're going to do thor Dash, Uber Eats, Grip, We're
Speaker 4: gonna do it all. And I was very pleasantly surprised
Speaker 4: by the fact that no one really complained.
Speaker 3: Ever. We even have gotten.
Speaker 4: Reviews that were like, Wow, I'm actually surprised how well
Speaker 4: the toast traveled.
Speaker 3: And I think it's because we take a lot of
Speaker 3: care in all of our products.
Speaker 4: But when we're when someone orders a smoothie or a
Speaker 4: bowl or anything cold, we put it in the freezer
Speaker 4: until the driver comes.
Speaker 3: So we're really trying to get.
Speaker 1: That extra injection of coldness ASATRU exactly. Well, I like
Speaker 1: that is how big are the units are they in
Speaker 1: terms of square footage?
Speaker 4: Our sweet spy is around twelve hundred and fifteen hundred,
Speaker 4: our smallest just under one thousand, and our biggest is
Speaker 4: around twenty three hundred. But really where we find our
Speaker 4: sweet spot is around fifteen hundred. It's a nice mix
Speaker 4: of I would say, like sixty percent front of house
Speaker 4: forty percent back of house.
Speaker 1: You mentioned owner operator. You know you look at real estate,
Speaker 1: which is paramount I would think for a brand like this,
Speaker 1: because you've got to be in the right demographic, you're
Speaker 1: going to have the right kind of you know, expendable income,
Speaker 1: plus you're going to have to have a certain amount
Speaker 1: of exposure in terms of brand awareness. How do you
Speaker 1: guys go about that process of this many units open?
Speaker 1: Real estate is a big part of this whole game.
Speaker 1: How are you guys doing it?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean our biggest thing that we look for is,
Speaker 4: like you said, being in an area, a neighborhood where
Speaker 4: it's it's middle to upper class because we do have
Speaker 4: a product where you can eat every single day and
Speaker 4: still feel great about yourself. It's just a matter can
Speaker 4: can people to every single day. We don't want to
Speaker 4: be in a community where people will go once a
Speaker 4: month as a tree. And that's that's really what's most
Speaker 4: important to us. A very easy answer is the walkability,
Speaker 4: foot traffic. That's a that's a no brainer. We start
Speaker 4: in DC. Foot traffic's amazing for visibility. But we have
Speaker 4: so many locations that are in a suburb area where
Speaker 4: there's zero foot traffic, but it doesn't matter because it's
Speaker 4: you know, people will drive there because that's just the community.
Speaker 2: To cut it, then, looking at your your forty two
Speaker 2: somewhat locations, it is a nice mix of suburban and
Speaker 2: some other urban locations. I noticed that you you have
Speaker 2: a store in New York City now in Wryatte Park.
Speaker 2: That's that's fantastic, huge.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good spot.
Speaker 2: That's a really great spot. I'm wondering how's that working
Speaker 2: for you? Uh and and you guys on the sum
Speaker 2: you're just breakfast in lunch, right, We're not open during
Speaker 2: dinner dinner hours.
Speaker 4: Or our typical hours are either seven to five or
Speaker 4: seven to seven. We do have a few outliers outside
Speaker 4: of that, but are definitely our peak hours are breakfast, brunch, lunch.
Speaker 4: But the stores that are open till seven, or we
Speaker 4: do have one store open at say till nine on
Speaker 4: the weekend, we get a nice afternoon pop people leaving work,
Speaker 4: leaving the gym that will either come in for you know,
Speaker 4: a light dinner or something after. But we always start
Speaker 4: seven to five. That's really like where our sweet spot is.
Speaker 4: But we do actually have a handful of stores that
Speaker 4: also have a liquor license with healthier cocktails, so those
Speaker 4: all tend to have a nice like happy hour rush
Speaker 4: from that five to seven period as well.
Speaker 1: Has that has that been a big injection for you
Speaker 1: guys in terms of a brand to bring in a cocktail,
Speaker 1: want to license the process that you have to deal
Speaker 1: with from a staffing side of things, anything that has
Speaker 1: changed for you, because we haven't seen too much of
Speaker 1: that in the fast casual sector yet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's really it's it's absolutely optional and it's
Speaker 4: based you know, and DC was super easy to get
Speaker 4: and cheap where it made sense to try it out.
Speaker 4: But then there's places like New Jersey and Pennsylvania where
Speaker 4: you basically there's a limited number amount you have to spend,
Speaker 4: like one hundred thousand dollars, and that just doesn't make
Speaker 4: sense at all. So we kind of take it on
Speaker 4: a base by base. If one, if the franchise owner
Speaker 4: is interested, that's step one. Step two is looking at
Speaker 4: the state rules and regulations, how much it costs, to
Speaker 4: see if it makes sense. Because the brand obviously works
Speaker 4: perfectly fine without it.
Speaker 3: It just kind of elevates the brunch scene.
Speaker 4: You have opportunity to do happy hour specials, but we
Speaker 4: do keep it a very limited menu anyway. It's not
Speaker 4: a full bar where you can pretty much order any
Speaker 4: drink you want.
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Speaker 1: you there, Paul. Have you seen many brands, especially in
Speaker 1: the fast casual sector, start to move into the you know,
Speaker 1: especially into the limited cocktail scene.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, from what I've been tracking, it feels
Speaker 2: like it's it's less alcoholic, it's going.
Speaker 1: Out to the under mocktails a lot. Yeah, exactly, and you.
Speaker 2: Know, the non alcoholic beers, the athletic brewery and you know,
Speaker 2: and those types of things that seem to have movement. Uh.
Speaker 2: But I'd like to switch gears for a second and
Speaker 2: talk a little bit about technology, if that's for sure.
Speaker 2: I'm always fascinated when I talk to franchisers about how
Speaker 2: they coach their tech stack. And like Brianna, when you are,
Speaker 2: when you're scaling the way that you are, and you know,
Speaker 2: you have a brand that you know, let's face it
Speaker 2: is very gen Z oriented, right, so you need to
Speaker 2: have that that perfect blend of technol that convenience, personalization
Speaker 2: and convenience that technology usually affords. How do you approach
Speaker 2: your tech stack? I mean, do you have like a
Speaker 2: mandate for all new franchises or are they are they
Speaker 2: allowed to use whatever technologies they wish? What does how does?
Speaker 2: How does that work?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we try to keep it all in house.
Speaker 4: We have a loyalty program that we use and everyone
Speaker 4: uses the same pos the loyalty program, and that really
Speaker 4: helps gauge our customer, you know, just feedback and what
Speaker 4: they're ordering in data for us to analysize. And then
Speaker 4: also what's something that's really big for us is Google
Speaker 4: and Google ads and are and honestly even social media.
Speaker 4: Our brand is very aesthetic and it makes it pretty
Speaker 4: easy because nine out of ten people take photos of
Speaker 4: their foods. You know, of course that we need to
Speaker 4: make sure it's consistent and all the photos and everything
Speaker 4: is coming out great, but you know, posting on Google
Speaker 4: and social media, and then once you put a little
Speaker 4: ads spend behind that, that just elevates that in itself
Speaker 4: organically and the low push with AdSpend. So that's something
Speaker 4: that we really lean into because it's just naturally there
Speaker 4: and you know, if There's some people that some of
Speaker 4: our franchise owners that have some ideas or some things
Speaker 4: they want to try out.
Speaker 3: We're open to them, but that's kind of where our
Speaker 3: focus is right now.
Speaker 1: With not having a kitchen that is a traditional back
Speaker 1: of house, you know, with all the prep equipment, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like this could be something that at
Speaker 1: some point you could see some robotics play into this.
Speaker 1: Chipotle started to integrate this. We send a handful of
Speaker 1: others casual brands that have started use more tech in
Speaker 1: back house. Any potential there for you, guys, I don't
Speaker 1: think so.
Speaker 4: Maybe you can ask me at a later date, But
Speaker 4: I think something that has always been important to me
Speaker 4: is just the culture of the brand and the experience
Speaker 4: of the brand, and just from experience, our clientele is very,
Speaker 4: very talkative.
Speaker 3: And really relies on us.
Speaker 4: Like people always come in they say, oh, you know,
Speaker 4: I feel like I'm getting a little sick.
Speaker 3: What do you recommend?
Speaker 4: Oh I don't feel so great, or I just I've
Speaker 4: been traveling for two weeks. And really that's what's some
Speaker 4: you know, they trust us, you know, to help make
Speaker 4: recommendations and suggestions, and I think that's something that we
Speaker 4: provide ourselves in Like every all of our employees down
Speaker 4: to our part time people have a fifty question quiz
Speaker 4: that they need to pass before we've been working on
Speaker 4: the register, just so that they're able to answer questions
Speaker 4: like that. So I mean, I think what we do
Speaker 4: is is very detailed and really intentional that that would
Speaker 4: be hard for me to replace one of our great
Speaker 4: team members.
Speaker 3: With a robot. I could do it, but.
Speaker 1: Things like well, I like your attitude towards it. But
Speaker 1: at some point, you know, when you look at thousands
Speaker 1: of units, you know, let's assume you get up to
Speaker 1: thousands of units. You know, obviously food, cost labor, those
Speaker 1: are the two controllables that you have to deal with
Speaker 1: in the space. So it is going to be interesting
Speaker 1: to see how because I always look at it this way.
Speaker 1: I've seen operations where they've done some automation and when
Speaker 1: talking to their CEOs, most of the time they tell
Speaker 1: me they haven't reduced their staff. Instead, they've refocused their
Speaker 1: staff onto more customer facing value additions. And if you
Speaker 1: think about I was looking at this article right here,
Speaker 1: let me share this with you guys. This was a
Speaker 1: good one and it was all talking about guest experience,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times tech is usually the big
Speaker 1: lead factor on guest experience. And you look at speed
Speaker 1: what we're going to see in terms of personalization, which
Speaker 1: I think is the big key thing that you're you're
Speaker 1: you know, kind of alluding to there, that's going to
Speaker 1: be an opportunity I think in the future that could
Speaker 1: be big. What do you think, Paul, do you think
Speaker 1: we're going to see more robots or not?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: You and I feel like we always come back to
Speaker 2: the robot conversation in somebody, shape or form.
Speaker 1: Bearn it's a it's a forever question here, Well here's
Speaker 1: the kind of the question of the year right now.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, I think the with scale, uh, those opportunities
Speaker 2: really start to show up. And you know, it's interesting
Speaker 2: when I look at Brianna mentioned earlier about all of
Speaker 2: our menu items are scratch made, right. This is like
Speaker 2: every single ingred you are building menu items from scratch,
Speaker 2: which is really interesting, and I wonder with that, what
Speaker 2: kind of customization do you offer your customers, Like are
Speaker 2: you able to build your own toast or is everything
Speaker 2: kind of curated? And the reason why I asked that
Speaker 2: is because when I look at some of these huge,
Speaker 2: fast casual scale brands that really scaled well the Chipotle
Speaker 2: is the Kava. They seem to have these menu items,
Speaker 2: like these ingredients, where as a consumer, you can't make
Speaker 2: a bad decision.
Speaker 1: It's like every exactly well.
Speaker 2: With everything else. You know what I mean? Is that
Speaker 2: part of the plan, Like are you choosing your ingredients?
Speaker 2: You know? So like I can walk in and almost
Speaker 2: build just about anything and it's going to end up
Speaker 2: tasting good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's funny that you actually bring this up, because
Speaker 4: it's kind of an internal debate that we have because
Speaker 4: I think the big difference, at least as far as
Speaker 4: smoothies and asse roles go, if you put a bunch
Speaker 4: of stuff on chipol and your chipoli bowl or a
Speaker 4: salad or wherever, or a burger, it's like at any
Speaker 4: point in time you can pull out something.
Speaker 3: But like if you build your own smoothief, all that
Speaker 3: flavor is going in there and it's just gonna be
Speaker 3: one flavor. You know.
Speaker 4: However, all of our items besides our juice, so our smoothies,
Speaker 4: our bowls, our toasts are made to order, so lots
Speaker 4: of times people do they kind of take a base.
Speaker 4: They'll say, Okay, I want the smoked salmon, but I
Speaker 4: don't want.
Speaker 3: The cream cheese. Can we stub it for avocado?
Speaker 4: And so they kind of take a base and create
Speaker 4: it and it's made to order, so they can do
Speaker 4: whatever they want essentially, and kind of the same thing
Speaker 4: with the smoothies as well. They'll take a base that
Speaker 4: they like and then maybe sub the strawberries and have
Speaker 4: blueberries or something like that. But that is something that
Speaker 4: we do have an open kitchen concept, which I feel
Speaker 4: like our customers really appreciate too, especially for people who
Speaker 4: have allergies, so they can just watch their food being made.
Speaker 4: Gives them that little bit of comfort of Okay, yeah
Speaker 4: I'm allergic to final pineapples and pineapples go and get dink.
Speaker 3: Go in there.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean everything can be made to order.
Speaker 4: It isn't something that we promote just for the fact
Speaker 4: that I feel like we we spent a lot of
Speaker 4: time and our menu is we partnered with the chef
Speaker 4: to make it what it is today. So everything's in
Speaker 4: there for a reason, the balance the flavors and so
Speaker 4: you know, we like it to try to stick how
Speaker 4: it is. But of course, if people want to set.
Speaker 2: Your brand is I mean, it's quite beautiful, right. It
Speaker 2: really has this elevated look and feel, and you from
Speaker 2: the website to the different locations in the there's an
Speaker 2: elevated atmosphere.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try some of these toast recipes at home.
Speaker 1: They look pretty, they look good, luck gorgeous, they look
Speaker 1: so good.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like everything's like, like you said, in
Speaker 2: the very beginning brand, you were very detail oriented and
Speaker 2: you wanted everything to look perfect, and I feel like
Speaker 2: that's kind of the way it is. So I almost
Speaker 2: feel like it would be against brand to offer any
Speaker 2: customization because you're like, no, we put all the thought
Speaker 2: into this.
Speaker 1: This is what you want to keep you from messing
Speaker 1: it up.
Speaker 4: But we do realize that people do want to customize
Speaker 4: things and it makes it feel personal, which is why
Speaker 4: we actually also can make suggestions like our avocaves mass
Speaker 4: shows is the most popular. The marinated tomatoes on there
Speaker 4: is by far my favorite item that we make. That
Speaker 4: some people don't like tomatoes, so if they ask for
Speaker 4: without it, we will offer them, oh, do you want
Speaker 4: to do cucumbers instead? Or pickled onions, and still try
Speaker 4: to make that that toast still special if they are
Speaker 4: removing something.
Speaker 3: Okay, so that's something that we train to spend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good spin. Do you find
Speaker 1: and we'll kind of skip to the franchise strategy because
Speaker 1: you've talked about trying to get owner operator but do
Speaker 1: you find that the owner operators try to bring in
Speaker 1: their own style or their how consistent have you the
Speaker 1: brand stay now that you're franchising with owner operators? Is
Speaker 1: everybody kind of bought on board or do you kind
Speaker 1: of vet them in that way? What's the process there?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we have a pretty thorough and I don't know
Speaker 4: vigors is the right word, but a very great process
Speaker 4: to vet franchisees because people are people are everything to
Speaker 4: our companies, starting with the people working in the store
Speaker 4: and then of course our franchise owners. We're very people
Speaker 4: driven company and that's something that's important to us. So
Speaker 4: we want to make sure the people that are we're
Speaker 4: franchising with that they understand our vision and our mission
Speaker 4: and don't want to completely reinvent the whole wheel as far.
Speaker 3: As the menu goes.
Speaker 4: You know, the menu is what's tried and true, and
Speaker 4: we have data that we you know, when we go
Speaker 4: into a new market, we'll look to see if something
Speaker 4: doesn't sell, but that's normally not the case. But with
Speaker 4: the owner operator, we do want them to make their
Speaker 4: store their own, you know, without losing the insight of
Speaker 4: to seek in the menu. But we always work with
Speaker 4: a local artist that will do a mural that is
Speaker 4: relevant to their location and just doing little things like that.
Speaker 3: So no matter what story you walk into it, it's cool, see,
Speaker 3: but it's going to be a little different to make
Speaker 3: it their own.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, firehouse subs used to do well. They
Speaker 1: still do it, I think they have, but they ended
Speaker 1: up hiring an artist that goes into each each unit
Speaker 1: and builds out a mural to match that particular you
Speaker 1: know location that they're building on. It does personalize it
Speaker 1: and I think it also draws it down to the
Speaker 1: local level that a lot of people really like. When
Speaker 1: you start to see multi unit brands, they do like
Speaker 1: that local attachment for sure. Let's get into the last category,
Speaker 1: and that is the future of fast casual. This being
Speaker 1: a new sector, especially one that is leaning into what
Speaker 1: I would say is the perfect target audience for fast casual,
Speaker 1: and that's gen Z. What do you see in terms
Speaker 1: of opportunities and challenges down the road right now? In
Speaker 1: terms of the.
Speaker 4: Market, I mean, I think fast casual is really where
Speaker 4: the whole food industry is going. I feel like most
Speaker 4: of the fast casual restaurants are the ones that really
Speaker 4: made it through the pandemic and even thrides like I
Speaker 4: would say that to a seek scribe through the pandemic,
Speaker 4: and so it just expedited the trends that were already there.
Speaker 4: And I think it's exciting that we're, you know, fast
Speaker 4: casual I think used to be and maybe still it's
Speaker 4: a little bit like you think of like firs and
Speaker 4: fries and fried chicken and things like that. But breaking
Speaker 4: into a healthier fast casual is really what people want
Speaker 4: and they don't want to sacrifice their time to go
Speaker 4: sit for an hour at a restaurant to get something
Speaker 4: healthy or make it at home, like.
Speaker 3: Those are typically two only options.
Speaker 4: So if we can combine that whereas someone can still
Speaker 4: have something healthy and quick and be on their way
Speaker 4: do whatever they're doing, is really where the trends are going.
Speaker 3: And I don't think that's going anywhere.
Speaker 4: I think people are being more aware of what they're eating,
Speaker 4: leading a more active lifestyle, and I think it's exciting
Speaker 4: to see.
Speaker 3: It's really exciting.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean, I think that's just going to
Speaker 4: exped a year over a year to more kind of
Speaker 4: morph into fast casual for the people that are not
Speaker 4: in that sector yet.
Speaker 2: This concept, your concept in particular, feels very I mean
Speaker 2: so gen Z in the sense that I mean you
Speaker 2: can see this across any college campus like this to
Speaker 2: me feels like the perfect fit for a franchise opportunity
Speaker 2: on college campus locations. So I was going to ask you, though, Brianna,
Speaker 2: is there a concept out there or a brand that
Speaker 2: you are trying to emulate at all? Is there anybody
Speaker 2: is there a brand out that you're looking at and
Speaker 2: you say, you know, these guys are doing it right,
Speaker 2: I think we need to. I'd like to model our
Speaker 2: company a little bit more like them, if possible.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there, I actually don't think so. I think what
Speaker 4: we're doing is very unique. You know, there's a lot
Speaker 4: of coffee shops, a lot of juice bars, for sure,
Speaker 4: but I think what we're doing is something unique. I
Speaker 4: think starting with our buildouts using elevated, higher end finishes,
Speaker 4: we're using real wood, We have real plans, you know, glass,
Speaker 4: herring bone tile, all the little details that make it
Speaker 4: very welcoming. And people do want a brunch there, They
Speaker 4: want to meet their friends. If someone's visiting out of town,
Speaker 4: they're excited to meet them at Toasteek. But then also
Speaker 4: having I don't really like the phrase one stop shop,
Speaker 4: but really, if you just want a coffee, high quality coffee,
Speaker 4: we have. If you just want to juice their smoothie
Speaker 4: in and out, we have it. If you want to
Speaker 4: sit down and have a whole meal and substantial food,
Speaker 4: we have that.
Speaker 3: And I feel like there's really.
Speaker 4: Not other companies that are are kind of hitting and
Speaker 4: checking all the boxes. So we like to you know,
Speaker 4: we always say kind of we're our own competitor. We're
Speaker 4: always trying to better ourselves and do better, raise the
Speaker 4: bar for ourselves. So we still got a lot of
Speaker 4: word cut out for us. But I feel like we're
Speaker 4: on the right path.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, good luck to you guys, because I
Speaker 1: think the better for you category is going to be
Speaker 1: one that could see a large amount of growth. We've
Speaker 1: started to see a little bit of deviation. You know,
Speaker 1: Ethnic kind of was the winner over the last I
Speaker 1: would say last couple of years with Cova's breakout. Prior
Speaker 1: to that, it was you know, the traditional sectors like
Speaker 1: fresh mechs, you know, bakery, cafe, et cetera. But I
Speaker 1: think good for you. I think you're on something, Branda.
Speaker 1: So first of all, thank you so much for coming
Speaker 1: in on the podcast today. We appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Of course, Thank you so much. Guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been great having you. We're going to check
Speaker 1: back on Tostik as you guys continue to grow, so
Speaker 1: be on the lookout for that. But appreciate you stopping it.
Speaker 1: All right, excellent, All right, Paul, So there you have
Speaker 1: another big I think revelation for the categories that we're
Speaker 1: seeing right now grow the better for you. You and
Speaker 1: I talk about this quite a bit in terms of,
Speaker 1: you know, like the idea around gluten free, specialized menus,
Speaker 1: all those kind of components. Do you think that we're
Speaker 1: going to see copycat brands of this?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, you know it's funny, it's the humble piece of toast.
Speaker 1: All the taco was kind of that way, and how
Speaker 1: you look at where Kipaule and Baha Rush has kind
Speaker 1: of come.
Speaker 2: From the things though you know, when you look at
Speaker 2: a company like Toasteek and the culture and the you know, listen,
Speaker 2: this is a young company that's doing things quickly. These
Speaker 2: are growing fast folks that are just going fast and
Speaker 2: you know, just believing in themselves and moving. But when
Speaker 2: you when you look at like the big components of
Speaker 2: what makes the most you know, what is the winning
Speaker 2: formula for fast cat I think that checking the boxes
Speaker 2: on customization and freshness, convenience, uh, strong branding and focus,
Speaker 2: elevated atmosphere, smart expansion strategies. Right, So all of these
Speaker 2: different boxes they're they're they're ticking, so good for them.
Speaker 2: I think we're going to see more of this. I
Speaker 2: think we're going to see more special specialization.
Speaker 1: Uh and in the good for you category.
Speaker 2: In the good for you like you know, it's it's
Speaker 2: that attention to nutrition, eating well, feeling good. Like Brianna mentioned, Uh,
Speaker 2: this is something that you know you can eat every
Speaker 2: day and still feel good about.
Speaker 1: Well. They got a lot of variety too. I mean
Speaker 1: they're they're going after the beverage market. They have a
Speaker 1: great menu component. I love the idea of the additives
Speaker 1: which you get into the shots and all sorts of
Speaker 1: you know components there. I was really surprised when she
Speaker 1: mentioned cocktails at this because I wouldn't called that one.
Speaker 1: I did not know it in looking at the brand originally.
Speaker 1: So the flexibility of it's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we'll see see. I'm really interested. I'll be
Speaker 2: watching this one for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a good one. Listen. If you guys
Speaker 1: are not subscribed to the podcast, make sure and do
Speaker 1: that right now. If you're watching this on YouTube, make
Speaker 1: sure and hit the button, and of course hit subscribe
Speaker 1: there as well. It's just you know the button down below.
Speaker 1: And of course you guys can reach mister Paul Molinari
Speaker 1: where thin I find you these days?
Speaker 2: Can find me at Popcorn GTM dot com. We are
Speaker 2: helping all sorts of restaurant technology companies go to market
Speaker 2: and we're busy, but reach out to me. Yeah, love
Speaker 2: to connect.
Speaker 1: All right, You got it, all right. We'll catch you
Speaker 1: guys next time right here on the Restaurant Master RINDS podcast.
Speaker 1: See you sooner to stand past