Speaker 1: It's Adam West CEOs. You should know with me today,
Speaker 1: Michael McDermott che Cheese Restaurants.
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming by, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: All right, So the rumors have been well they're more
Speaker 1: than rumors now because I guess you guys there were
Speaker 1: rumors before there was anything efficient. But Chee Cheese is back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's It's something that I'd never had
Speaker 3: a desire to do over the last number of years,
Speaker 3: and I just.
Speaker 2: Last summer I actually was. I was.
Speaker 3: I'm a big, big proponent of meditation. I was meditating
Speaker 3: one morning and the thought came to me that I
Speaker 3: should bring Chee Chee's back, And.
Speaker 1: You, on your own, came up with this.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well I think it was like a divinely inspired moment, right.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm a big I definitely believe in that.
Speaker 3: And I ran up by my dad and my uncle
Speaker 3: Jack Michael. Jack actually used to be the vice president
Speaker 3: chie Chee's back in the day, ok, and he's now
Speaker 3: the chairman and Coco Marco's Pizza the the fourth biggest
Speaker 3: pizza chain in the country. And I always bounce things
Speaker 3: off of these guys, and so I bounced off my
Speaker 3: uncle Jack and he's like, you know, the only thing
Speaker 3: wrong with that is that I didn't come up with it,
Speaker 3: and he thought it was a great idea. So, but
Speaker 3: the problem was is that we didn't have the rights
Speaker 3: to the name. So so in eighty three Hormel got
Speaker 3: the rights to distribute Chichi's related products in the grocery stores.
Speaker 1: Was that the salside remember the commercials, the guy with
Speaker 1: the overcoat and yep, and the yeah that was again, yeah,
Speaker 1: the shortillas and margarita makes. I think they've got like
Speaker 1: twelve products and they're all over the country now. But
Speaker 1: and then then six, and then in two thousand and.
Speaker 3: Four the last sixty five Chi Cheese closed and so
Speaker 3: the trademark became available to full Mark, and so Hormel
Speaker 3: got it. And so for in order for me to
Speaker 3: do Chee Che's, I had to get I had to
Speaker 3: make an agreement with them.
Speaker 2: To use the name.
Speaker 3: Okay, So I approached their executive team with the idea
Speaker 3: of bringing Chee Chee's back, and they loved it, and
Speaker 3: we reached an agreement, and so now you know, we
Speaker 3: have the rights to do Chee Cheese throughout the country.
Speaker 1: I don't entirely remember Chee Cheese. I knew of it.
Speaker 1: I'm a little young for not totally young, but I
Speaker 1: mean there's probably some younger people. Can you tell me
Speaker 1: about the history what you know about Chee Cheese? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, having a relative part of it, you probably
Speaker 1: know some.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do.
Speaker 3: I mean so, so the first door opened up in
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy six, and was it here in Minnesota? It
Speaker 3: was that it was that Nickeolin in four ninety four.
Speaker 3: That was the first store, and uh, they ended up
Speaker 3: they ended up opening a couple more stores in the
Speaker 3: cities and then expanded it. Eventually the company went public.
Speaker 3: And the one thing with cheach is it did change.
Speaker 2: Ownership a number of times.
Speaker 3: So there was probably because they went private after going public,
Speaker 3: and so there was a number of ownerships of Chee
Speaker 3: Che's throughout the twenty eight years that was around.
Speaker 1: Okay, it seems like it was longer than that. Was
Speaker 1: it only twenty eight years?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know, you're see if you're better not.
Speaker 1: Technique, but it just I mean, that was such a seventy.
Speaker 2: Six to two thousand and four. What is that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, twenty eight you're right, Yeah, twenty eight years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, twenty eight years.
Speaker 1: I think it's been missed. Yeah, no, good move. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: because when you hear about different restaurants that are missed
Speaker 1: in the Twin Cities, that came up quite a bit.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: We actually, honestly, I didn't realize how much it was
Speaker 3: missed until we did a press release. We we did
Speaker 3: a press release in December, and I thought it would
Speaker 3: be picked up locally because this is where Chichie started,
Speaker 3: and I thought the trade magazines would pick it up.
Speaker 3: But I had no idea the coverage it that it
Speaker 3: that it received. We had over six hundred articles written.
Speaker 3: Every major news organization picked it up. It went viral
Speaker 3: on social media, and then I started reading the comments
Speaker 3: and all the people that had missed it, and get
Speaker 3: I can't tell you them the amount of letters and
Speaker 3: emails I've received from people that are thanking me for
Speaker 3: bringing it back.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, And so now you told me some stuff.
Speaker 1: I assume that this is public stuff that you told me,
Speaker 1: But I'm so I'll just ask you, where's your first location?
Speaker 3: So the first location we have announced, and that's going
Speaker 3: to be at the West End. So we're going to
Speaker 3: convert our Rojo Mexican grill to Chi Cheese, uh huh.
Speaker 3: And we're looking at third quarter of this year.
Speaker 1: Okay, And so I know that's because that's close to
Speaker 1: where where iHeart is, so Minneapolis, so we love it.
Speaker 1: So what's what happens to Rojo, Well.
Speaker 3: Goes away, That's what happened to so our planets convert
Speaker 3: the rows to Chi Che's and then you know, we're
Speaker 3: looking to expand it out of state. And we've had
Speaker 3: a number of people that already reached out to us
Speaker 3: that are interested in franchising the concept. We've had real
Speaker 3: estate developers reach out to us about locations. So you know,
Speaker 3: our goal is to get this first store open, but
Speaker 3: we definitely would like be in a position to expand
Speaker 3: the concept.
Speaker 1: Talking to Michael McDermott's CEO of Chee Cheese, which is
Speaker 1: apparently coming back, tell tell me a little bit about
Speaker 1: you did you Are you from Minnesota?
Speaker 3: So I was born in Minnesota, My parents grew up
Speaker 3: in Austin, lived until fifth grade. My dad moved to
Speaker 3: Arizona and I spent the next you know, most of
Speaker 3: the next thirty years there, and then twelve years ago
Speaker 3: my wife and I decided to move up here with
Speaker 3: our kids. For a number of reasons I had I
Speaker 3: had opened up Rojo, so that was here. We wanted
Speaker 3: the change of seasons, just a different environment. Scott still
Speaker 3: had gotten really big. So we've been here now for
Speaker 3: twelve years.
Speaker 1: And so you, I guess you already have a relationship
Speaker 1: maybe with Hormel or they say down there hormal Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my neighbor's from Austin. She told me that. I was like,
Speaker 1: what what does that mean? So did that help being
Speaker 1: from Austin developing this relationship?
Speaker 3: I don't know if that helped her now not, you know,
Speaker 3: like with the negotiations or or them being excited.
Speaker 1: About yeah anything. Yeah, I mean I.
Speaker 3: Think, uh, my uncle Jack as well does business with Hormale,
Speaker 3: so and he's been part of this is a part
Speaker 3: of my advisory board. So there's probably some connection there.
Speaker 1: And so you talked about you just had this idea.
Speaker 1: Did it come from? Is there anything that made you
Speaker 1: think one day more about this about bringing back chee cheese?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: Literally it was like a like a it came to
Speaker 3: me one morning. I mean it was I know, I
Speaker 3: had no thought what's over bringing it back every until
Speaker 3: that morning and then I then when that happened, I
Speaker 3: just literally ran with it.
Speaker 1: I thought you were kidding, But yeah, that's awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So do you I mean you don't really have any
Speaker 1: customers yet, right, I mean you haven't really opened officially.
Speaker 1: But what I mean, do you have a vision for
Speaker 1: for what serving your customers looks like?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean the so the concept. So what we're
Speaker 3: doing with Cheaches is we're bringing the concept forward, right, So,
Speaker 3: I mean there's going to be I know, we're going
Speaker 3: to get We're going to get emails, We're going to
Speaker 3: get comments that people are going to say, this is
Speaker 3: not the Cheachers I remember, right, And it's not intended
Speaker 3: to be the exact Cheaches that remember. Now, we are
Speaker 3: going to bring back a number of the items right
Speaker 3: that Chia Chees had. We have all the original recipes,
Speaker 3: so there'll be some familiarity with respect to the menu
Speaker 3: and with the decor. There's going to be some accents
Speaker 3: such as the hanging plants or the tile or some
Speaker 3: of the colors that we're using. But it's a new
Speaker 3: look and feel and a new menu. So the concept
Speaker 3: is being brought forward.
Speaker 1: I think for some people to say, it's not what
Speaker 1: I remember might be dishonest because they probably don't remember
Speaker 1: anything from right, it's from some of the nights they
Speaker 1: were there.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, you got to remember the last ones closed
Speaker 3: twenty what twenty one years ago? Yeah, so you know,
Speaker 3: if you're in your thirties, you probably right exactly, Well,
Speaker 3: you weren't old enough to drink I know that unless
Speaker 3: you were in your forties.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but many people probably were. Yeah. How how will
Speaker 1: you I mean, Mexican's not new to the Twin Cities
Speaker 1: by any means. How will you different differentiate yourselves other
Speaker 1: than I mean, you got the Chee Cheese name, which
Speaker 1: is a big bonus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we're definitely gonna leverage the name.
Speaker 3: I think you know what we do too in our concept,
Speaker 3: which we've done with when ConA Grill, which is another
Speaker 3: concept I started.
Speaker 2: We always have had a big bar.
Speaker 3: Presence, unlike some other maybe Mexican restaurants, and we'll continue
Speaker 3: that with che Cheese. But I think we'll differentiate ourselves
Speaker 3: from the experience people have when they walk in the
Speaker 3: doors and all of our food is made fresh from scratch.
Speaker 3: There's no third parties, there's nothing we don't know, there's
Speaker 3: not a microwave on the premise. I mean, everything is
Speaker 3: made that day. So I think from the quality of
Speaker 3: our food, the price point, and the ambiance of the atmosphere,
Speaker 3: I think will differentiate us.
Speaker 1: What challenges do you see starting up here? Maybe maybe
Speaker 1: the industry as a whole. I mean, I think you're
Speaker 1: we kind of see what what you're up against. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe we want to talk about that.
Speaker 1: What challenges are you up against?
Speaker 2: Well, I think.
Speaker 3: All restaurants have experienced a tough time over the last
Speaker 3: two years. I think with inflation, everything costing more, whether
Speaker 3: it be at the you know, at the gas station,
Speaker 3: at the grocery store. You know, prices have been increased.
Speaker 3: There's been so people, you know, one of the first
Speaker 3: things they can cut back on is going out to eat.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Right, So we're actually a pretty good economic indicator either
Speaker 3: of going into a tough time or coming out of
Speaker 3: a tough time. And and so I think there's been
Speaker 3: a lot of pressure in our industry with respect to
Speaker 3: the top line sales. And we've seen since COVID, we've
Speaker 3: seen a lot of pressure too on just hourly labor.
Speaker 3: You know, what we pay our hourly labor especially in
Speaker 3: the kitchen. It's going up over thirty percent since COVID. Wow,
Speaker 3: so you know we've raised prices like a lot of restaurants,
Speaker 3: but you can't raise prices to the point are enough
Speaker 3: to offset the increase in costs, both from labor and commodities.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you see pick up and delivery, because that's
Speaker 1: obviously taken off since COVID. We pick up sometimes I've
Speaker 1: never had anything delivered?
Speaker 2: Is that?
Speaker 1: What's your philosophy on that?
Speaker 3: It's just not a big part of our business now.
Speaker 3: It's probably three percent. There are other concepts that it's
Speaker 3: definitely a big part of their business. Yeah, but but
Speaker 3: for us, you know, we do do it, we will
Speaker 3: do it, but it's never been it's never been anything
Speaker 3: that's made a difference in our business.
Speaker 1: There's a place in Lakeville that we sometimes will go
Speaker 1: to and get takeout and I bring it home and
Speaker 1: I'm like, how do they come out ahead on this?
Speaker 1: Like there's just there's so much packing and just I
Speaker 1: don't know everything. It seems like it's hard to make
Speaker 1: a buck that way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, your margins are not great on delivery,
Speaker 3: but but it adds to the top line.
Speaker 1: Sure, what success stories do you have in your resume?
Speaker 3: You know what's so funny is I did my MBA
Speaker 3: and I thought, if I go back and teach, I
Speaker 3: will go back and teach a class. And all the
Speaker 3: things they don't teach you in school actually learn by
Speaker 3: doing it. So I've had a lot of things that
Speaker 3: you know, I've learned along the way.
Speaker 2: But I guess.
Speaker 3: You know, the one national chain I did was ConA Grill,
Speaker 3: you know that was that was a I stepped down
Speaker 3: a CEO of that company when we went public. I
Speaker 3: just was not there's a difference between starting a company
Speaker 3: and running a company, and I didn't want to run
Speaker 3: a public company. So that was the one national chain
Speaker 3: I did. I have done a number of other concepts
Speaker 3: along the way. I mean, Rojo has been a great success.
Speaker 3: I think as a you know, as a as a
Speaker 3: business owner CEO, I really changed a lot and how
Speaker 3: I approach running a business, and a lot of that
Speaker 3: is just my journey, personal journey of just my faith
Speaker 3: and and and and.
Speaker 2: How that's really.
Speaker 3: Been the foundation of of of how I approach business
Speaker 3: in general.
Speaker 1: So I didn't ask you, so you you actually did
Speaker 1: you start ro HO? I did Okay, that makes okay,
Speaker 1: it's all make you more said there, You're just like
Speaker 1: taking it over somehow, And I feel better about this
Speaker 1: now now.
Speaker 3: I think my strength has always been developing concepts and
Speaker 3: getting the people involved and raising the money and and
Speaker 3: then always having a really good operator that's been, you know,
Speaker 3: next to me along the way, so I and do
Speaker 3: what I've done.
Speaker 2: Without the people around me.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've always been really good at finding people
Speaker 3: that know how to do the things that I don't
Speaker 3: know how to do or I don't have the time
Speaker 3: to do. And I've just been really blessed with great people.
Speaker 1: Well Rojo was awesome, so yeah, yeah, are you ever
Speaker 1: a secret chopper? That'd be the best part. Could you
Speaker 1: ever go in there? And just I better try it?
Speaker 3: I mean, you know my own restaurants, Yeah sure, yeah,
Speaker 3: Well I can't go on my own restaurants with people, you.
Speaker 1: Know, I amises right, Yeah, no, I've never done that,
Speaker 1: but I can't help but when every time I go
Speaker 1: into a restaurant, I can't help but notice things that
Speaker 1: I would do differently A lot.
Speaker 2: Of times too, what they do right, yeah? Right? I
Speaker 2: mean you pick up ideas?
Speaker 1: Did you work in the restaurants at a young age.
Speaker 2: So I started out.
Speaker 3: Uh. My first job was washing dishes at a restaurant
Speaker 3: called Lafonda del Sol call mixing restaurant in high school.
Speaker 3: And I did that because I wanted to get the
Speaker 3: salca recipe. Oh, they had the best sauce in the world.
Speaker 3: I worked at night and they made it in the morning.
Speaker 1: Wait where was Lafonda's.
Speaker 3: Lefonda del Soul was at Scott Still and Shay, it
Speaker 3: actually just closed.
Speaker 2: It had been there for like fifty years.
Speaker 3: Okay, small little Mexican restaurant, and so I was never
Speaker 3: able to get the salsa recipe.
Speaker 2: But I started out.
Speaker 3: There and then I I worked you know, pretty much
Speaker 3: every position uh in the business over the next number
Speaker 3: of years.
Speaker 1: Why couldn't you get the saluca recipe? Was it that
Speaker 1: well they made it in the morning. Oh yeah, but
Speaker 1: but you'd think that that you could have talked on
Speaker 1: the people.
Speaker 2: Well they didn't write it down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and well it's good they make it right out
Speaker 1: of their head.
Speaker 2: That's yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, all right, tell me about being a leader.
Speaker 1: What is that? What does that mean to you? What
Speaker 1: does it feel like?
Speaker 2: Oh? I feel like you should be talking to my dad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I mean you talked about having other people,
Speaker 1: partnering with other people, the people who really know what
Speaker 1: they're doing. I get that, But what I mean they
Speaker 1: people look to you. You're obviously very successful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I I am.
Speaker 3: I am a big believer and making sure that I
Speaker 3: prepare myself each day to show up in a way
Speaker 3: that I would want a leader to show off. So
Speaker 3: I'm a big So we were talking about this before
Speaker 3: this interview, But I came to Minnesota thirty six years
Speaker 3: ago because I was at Arizona State University and I wasn't.
Speaker 3: I wasn't I wasn't graduating when I should have, and
Speaker 3: I had I had a big problem with alcohol. Came
Speaker 3: up here, went through treatment, and I changed, you know,
Speaker 3: totally turned my life around. And so I've been sober
Speaker 3: the last thirty five years. But part of that a
Speaker 3: big part of that process of my recovery has been
Speaker 3: a daily morning prayer meditation that I do, and I
Speaker 3: spent at least an hour every morning in peryer meditation.
Speaker 2: And and I really believe.
Speaker 3: That that is, you know, that is what sets me
Speaker 3: up for being a leader, being showing up for my
Speaker 3: employees and being a better listener, you know, making decisions
Speaker 3: not based on fear, but based on the principles I
Speaker 3: try to live by. So I don't have a philosophy
Speaker 3: like you know, this is how what a CEO should be. Like,
Speaker 3: I just tried to prepare myself each day every morning
Speaker 3: so that I show up hopefully in the right way.
Speaker 1: Well that's that's the philosophy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Is it hard to focus when you're doing I've
Speaker 1: tried different meditations at different points, not an hour, certainly
Speaker 1: not an hour and I can fifteen minutes, No way
Speaker 1: is it? Do you are you thinking about business or
Speaker 1: you know?
Speaker 3: Now you know what's funny is I got So this
Speaker 3: was about twenty five years ago. I got introduced in
Speaker 3: meditation through a guy that I you know, I really
Speaker 3: respected this guy and he carried himself in a way
Speaker 3: that I'm like, you know, I want what he has.
Speaker 3: And I asked him, I said, what do you do
Speaker 3: now to kind of have this type of piece and serenity?
Speaker 3: And He's like, I meditate every morning, and so I'm like,
Speaker 3: all right, I'm going to try that. Right, So I
Speaker 3: got an egg timer because there was way before smartphones
Speaker 3: and I set it for five minutes, and I sat there.
Speaker 2: In my living room in my apartment and.
Speaker 3: Closed my eyes and was quiet, and I was like,
Speaker 3: I think my egg timer is broken. I could swear
Speaker 3: five minutes a gone by, and I looked at my
Speaker 3: egg timer and it was like two minutes ago by.
Speaker 3: And I would rather run five miles barefoot and gravel
Speaker 3: and sit for five minutes. It was like the worst
Speaker 3: just experience. And so I'm but I kept with it.
Speaker 3: I kept doing it every morning, and gradually I was
Speaker 3: able to sit for five minutes and then said for
Speaker 3: ten minutes, and and and you know, so it's built
Speaker 3: up board today. I mean, I don't miss a morning,
Speaker 3: no matter where I'm at, no matter what I'm doing,
Speaker 3: no matter how sick I am. I spend in at
Speaker 3: least an hour every morning. And I've incorporated to a prayer.
Speaker 3: You know, I have a faith that I that you know,
Speaker 3: I believe in a power greater than me that I
Speaker 3: think is give me a second chance in life. And
Speaker 3: and so I try to connect to that. Do you
Speaker 3: sit on the floor when you do it? I sit
Speaker 3: on my couch. I used to sit on my floor,
Speaker 3: but my knees can't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I said on my guy and I and
Speaker 2: I tell you what.
Speaker 3: I work with a lot of guys that that try meditation,
Speaker 3: and and I really I'm a big proponent of guided
Speaker 3: meditations if you struggle with it. So there's a lot
Speaker 3: of people that just really can't sit still. They have
Speaker 3: a problem in the beginning. And so I believe in
Speaker 3: using guided meditations, and there's a ton of apps for it.
Speaker 3: But I think that can be really helpful. And it's
Speaker 3: not really how long you go, it's developing consistency.
Speaker 2: So if you can.
Speaker 3: Start doing it every morning, if it's for two minutes,
Speaker 3: and just build off of that. But find a place
Speaker 3: that you really like and and you know that as
Speaker 3: far as I if it's your in room or at
Speaker 3: your office or wherever it is, and find that place
Speaker 3: that you can go to every morning and and be quiet.
Speaker 1: I think there's probably different types or different ways of
Speaker 1: doing it too. It's still being quiet. I guess you
Speaker 1: got to be I mean, I can't walk my dogs
Speaker 1: and be quiet, But you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: different things maybe do they count? Would they be the
Speaker 1: same as you're looking for an hour or yeah, mowing
Speaker 1: the crass and I'm out there on my own. I wish, yeah,
Speaker 1: I wish I could sit there.
Speaker 2: You know what.
Speaker 3: There's moving meditations, there's walking in I and I've done
Speaker 3: them all, and I've done meditation with trees and everything.
Speaker 3: But I really am I'm a firm believer in incorporating
Speaker 3: at least you know, yeah, part of your day, your
Speaker 3: morning whatever, with just being quiet, okay, and just being
Speaker 3: still and connecting to you know, you think that there's
Speaker 3: nothing in that silence, but when you start doing it,
Speaker 3: you realize that everything is.
Speaker 2: In that silence.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Probably people in the restaurant industry could use a
Speaker 1: little bit of that, right, I'm just thinking, thinking ahead
Speaker 1: a little bit about it.
Speaker 3: Well, I tell you, you know, what's you know, what's
Speaker 3: really amazing is that when we closed down for COVID
Speaker 3: in March of that and all the restaurants close, and
Speaker 3: this is where my and this is what I'm talking
Speaker 3: about how this is used as being a leader and
Speaker 3: a CEO and so forth, is that we closed down
Speaker 3: and also my income went to zero. You know, I
Speaker 3: had no idea, like everyone else, what was going to happen.
Speaker 3: There was definitely a period of fear.
Speaker 2: I mean I was.
Speaker 3: There was about a week or two where I was
Speaker 3: like a little bit of a panic and and but
Speaker 3: through this daily practice that I have and in my
Speaker 3: belief in something greater than myself, I was able to
Speaker 3: get to a point where I totally trusted and believed
Speaker 3: that it was all unfolded into goodness and it was
Speaker 3: all going to be okay, and the fear went away.
Speaker 3: And so my decisions that I made for my business
Speaker 3: were not based on fear. They were based on rational
Speaker 3: thoughts and being present and having that attitude that it's
Speaker 3: all you know, the life was happening for me, not
Speaker 3: to me, And so I was able to make better
Speaker 3: business decisions as a result of that.
Speaker 2: And the same thing.
Speaker 3: You know, we're doing this crowdfunding for for for Chee
Speaker 3: Chees right now, But you know, I've always raised money
Speaker 3: through either friends and family or investment banks. And when
Speaker 3: we back in October of last year, we were looking
Speaker 3: to raise money for Chee Chees, and and I started
Speaker 3: the normal procedure of doing that, which is, you know,
Speaker 3: either calling people I know that have money or.
Speaker 2: Reaching out to investment banks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, nobody was like like we like I couldn't raise
Speaker 3: any money.
Speaker 2: I was like, I was like, oh my god, Like
Speaker 2: this is never.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, And instead of freaking out, you know,
Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, what's the next thing to do?
Speaker 2: And so I reached out to a friend of mine.
Speaker 3: He's like, hey, I know buddy of mine who raised
Speaker 3: money from crowdfunded.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I have no idea what that is. What
Speaker 2: is Like, I've heard of it, but like, what is that? Yeah?
Speaker 3: So I talked to somebody that had done it. I
Speaker 3: reached out to a number of companies that offer it,
Speaker 3: that have platforms, and we went forward with raising money
Speaker 3: for teaches and we're still doing it right now with
Speaker 3: start Engine. But it's so, you know, crowdfunding what it
Speaker 3: does is it allows people that typically couldn't invest in
Speaker 3: something that have done in the past invest. So typically
Speaker 3: ten percent of your investors are credited, and those are
Speaker 3: who we normally go after or you know that invest
Speaker 3: in our business. With crowdfunding, anybody can invest as low
Speaker 3: as two and fifty dollars and they get something. Then
Speaker 3: we get stock in the company. Yeah, you get stock,
Speaker 3: stock and cheach you. So we started this, I don't know,
Speaker 3: three or four months ago, cool, and it's been just
Speaker 3: we have almost like a thousand investors now and it's
Speaker 3: been amazing and we're going to continue doing it.
Speaker 2: But but my.
Speaker 3: Point is is that you know, this whole meditation stuff,
Speaker 3: it's allowed me to to be open, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: new ideas or new ways of doing things and not
Speaker 3: being stuck.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think if more people knew about that, more
Speaker 1: people be a part of it, maybe unless they've already
Speaker 1: what's the crowdsource of the crowdfunding?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we're we we we will continue to
Speaker 3: get you know, new investors every day, and uh, it's
Speaker 3: been a great I mean, it's been an amazing avenue
Speaker 3: or platform to raise money because really, unless you have
Speaker 3: friends and family that can put in three to five
Speaker 3: million investment, banks just aren't doing that today.
Speaker 2: They used to.
Speaker 1: The friends and family thing gets weird.
Speaker 3: Well, it gets hard, and there's not a lot of
Speaker 3: people that have got friends and family, got three family dollars.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I mean you do, you know, definitely not.
Speaker 2: But you know, it's it's just it's it's a tough environment.
Speaker 2: And so it's really been a great experience.
Speaker 1: Telling to Michael mcdermot's EO of Chi Cheese, first location
Speaker 1: opening in the West End in Saint Louis Park. You
Speaker 1: said third quarter, So as specific as you can be.
Speaker 2: That's expecific. Yes, I can say that word.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's your what's your thoughts on giving on philanthropy
Speaker 1: in that area?
Speaker 3: You know, I'm I definitely try to give back wherever
Speaker 3: I can, whether it be my time money. I'm as
Speaker 3: I mentioned before, you know, I the recovery community. I'm
Speaker 3: involved in being sober, and I just believe that, you know,
Speaker 3: there's no amount of giving back that I can do
Speaker 3: to equate to what I've been given.
Speaker 2: So I'm on the.
Speaker 3: Board of the retreat that's in Wayseeta, which is a
Speaker 3: treatment center for both my women. I uh uh, you know,
Speaker 3: always get involved in There's a number of local charities
Speaker 3: in town that that we do that we that we
Speaker 3: contribute to from a restaurant standpoint, and so I just
Speaker 3: I've always you know, I always make time too for people.
Speaker 3: I just was talking to a person the other day
Speaker 3: that's looking to get in the restaurant business, and so
Speaker 3: if there's somebody that is new to the business, they
Speaker 3: want to, you know, if there's something I can share
Speaker 3: with them.
Speaker 2: I always try to make time.
Speaker 1: Do you ever are you ever on the serving line?
Speaker 1: Are you ever playing stuff up or working behind the scenes?
Speaker 2: I I have.
Speaker 3: You know what, when we opened up the Rojo in
Speaker 3: Maple Grove, I was the lead one of the one
Speaker 3: of the bussers, actually the lead bussers. And and I
Speaker 3: actually love doing that because when I bust a table,
Speaker 3: maybe I'll talk to guests, Yeah, and find out how
Speaker 3: their experience was, you know what, when right when went wrong?
Speaker 1: And you say who you are when you do that, I.
Speaker 2: Don't unless it gets to a point where that's becomes.
Speaker 1: Obvious or whatever. But you're wearing a tie, No, I don't.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm wearing the same shirt the busses wear. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I look, I look like now, I look just like
Speaker 3: the rest of the rest of the team. But I
Speaker 3: I did that, especially.
Speaker 2: When we opened row Hoo.
Speaker 3: April Goova did that pretty much, you know, three four
Speaker 3: days a week for the first number of months we
Speaker 3: were open.
Speaker 1: Wow, not afraid to literally get your hands dirty, be
Speaker 1: in there in the in the in the field. That's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what are you hiring right now?
Speaker 3: Well, we're not specifically hiring for chee cheese we will
Speaker 3: be I think we're probably about three months out on that,
Speaker 3: but we're we're going to be keeping everyone that wants
Speaker 3: to stay, We're going to keep them on board.
Speaker 2: But we're definitely need more people.
Speaker 1: And the crowd funding where do we Where do we
Speaker 1: find that?
Speaker 3: So that's on start Engine Start engine dot com. They're
Speaker 3: the largest crowdfunding platform out there. Kevin O'Leary from Shark Town,
Speaker 3: so he's behind that company and they've been really a
Speaker 3: great company to work with. But if somebody were to
Speaker 3: want to, you know, check that out, if they go
Speaker 3: on the start Engine dot compage, they can just find
Speaker 3: che cheese there.
Speaker 1: Oh that's that's amazing. Anything else you want people to
Speaker 1: know about che cheese or about you?
Speaker 3: Well, you know what I'm excited about. Except my mom
Speaker 3: is still around. My mom you know that's my mom
Speaker 3: is che che else?
Speaker 2: You knew that?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah, so my dad started cheating. Somebody takes it,
Speaker 3: I know, right, so you named it for my mom.
Speaker 3: My mom is still around, my dad's still around. They
Speaker 3: are both going to be there at the opening. And
Speaker 3: I'll tell you one thing that that maybe to answer
Speaker 3: that question about what people don't know is that. So,
Speaker 3: my mom wore this seventies orange kind of pant outfit
Speaker 3: from Mexico at the grand opening in nineteen seventy six
Speaker 3: Coach Chee Cheese. She sent it to my wife. My
Speaker 3: wife is like the same build as my mom. Yeah,
Speaker 3: my wife is going to wear that opening night. Oh
Speaker 3: does your mom know this?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay, she said, yeah, surprise because this will be out
Speaker 1: before No.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, So she's going to wear that output opening night.
Speaker 1: Super cool, pretty cool. One thing I didn't ask. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you could say this yet. How did
Speaker 1: you have a vision for how big Chee Cheese gets.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, I mean we would.
Speaker 3: I think there's an opportunity for for sure, fifty stores
Speaker 3: in the Midwest, East coast and maybe one hundred. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but like I said, there's gonna be opportunities like in
Speaker 3: airports where oh yeah, we're chi Che's did not have
Speaker 3: that opportunity before when it was around the seventies and eighties.
Speaker 1: Returned to Richfield and a lot of restaurants I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, started in Richfield or had a big presence
Speaker 1: in Richfield.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that four ninety four strip, I mean, and I
Speaker 3: think that would be another great another great opportunity for us.
Speaker 2: All right, I mean it's all it's all location driven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course. All right, Michael McDermott che Chee's looking
Speaker 1: forward to third quarter twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: Yes, thank you, all right, do you want to join
Speaker 3: you those questions