Brand | KRG Hospitality

May 8, 2026by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

A Brand Does Not Start with a Logo or Menu

Most founders think a brand starts when the visuals begin.

Too often, founders kick things off by designing a logo. There’s a wishful menu. A color palette. An Instagram teaser. A friend’s design file. That feels like progress, like the “we’re finally doing this!” moment. So naturally, it becomes the focus.

But in hospitality, polished visuals can create a dangerous illusion: movement without clarity.

Because a logo can’t explain who the business is for. A menu can’t define positioning. And a beautiful brand deck can’t sell a weak concept, an undefined guest, or a business model to a savvy investor. Yet this happens constantly. Founders build the aesthetics first, then try to reverse-engineer the strategy afterward.

That sequence is backwards.

The strongest hospitality brands don’t start with design. They start with a point of view strong enough to shape every decision that follows. A clear understanding of who the brand is for, what role it plays in the market, what standards it protects, and why it deserves to exist in the first place.

Without that clarity, everything becomes reactive. The menu becomes guesswork. The marketing sounds generic. The guest experience feels disconnected. The visuals may look polished, but the business underneath them lacks structure, alignment, and direction.

And in a market where guests are more selective, investors are more cautious, and operating costs are less forgiving, that lack of clarity becomes expensive fast.

by Doug Radkey

Designing the logo and menu are fun, but they’re not where successful brands start.

Here’s what I see time and again, call after call.

The Discovery Call Pattern

There’s a version of this conversation that happens over and over and over again.

A founder books a call and I can tell immediately that they’re excited (which is great). They seem to have momentum early on in the journey. They have a space they are looking at, or maybe a lease they’ve already signed. They tell me they are ready to move quickly.

Then, they continue with one of three things:

“We already have a logo.”
“We’ve already built the menu.”
“We don’t need a feasibility study. I’ve lived here my whole life; I know the market.”

And every time, I ask the same question: What is your business model based on?

That’s usually where the room gets quiet. The logo was designed before the concept was pressure-tested. The menu was built before the market was understood. The visual identity was created before the guest was defined clearly.

We see this pattern constantly, and it exposes a sequence problem.

The Market Does Not Reward Aesthetics Without Clarity

This is the hard truth founders need to understand earlier on in the sequence.

A logo does not create demand. A menu does not create positioning. A pretty brand deck does not create investor confidence. What does is a point of view.

That point of view answers questions, such as:

Do we understand who we are?
Do we know where we’re going?
Do we understand why we’re doing this?
Do we know how we’re going to get there?

This is the essence of strategic clarity. Without answering those questions through the completion of a series of strategic playbooks, your logo is decoration. Your menu is guesswork, and your investor deck drives more questions than confidence.

This matters even more now because guests are more informed and more selective on how and where they spend their money. This is a signal that modern guests are making decisions faster, with more scrutiny, and with less patience for uncertainty.

If the brand is unclear, the market will feel that before the founder does.

What a Point of View Actually Is

A point of view is not a slogan.

It’s not “elevated comfort food,” or “modern yet approachable,” or “a neighborhood spot with a twist.” Those are filler phrases that sound polished, and they mean almost nothing.

A point of view is the strategic stance behind the brand. It’s the way the business sees the guest, the market, hospitality, and its own role inside both.

It gives shape to everything that follows:

The concept
The programming
The music
The service style
The price strategy
The visual identity
The marketing voice
The standards
The guest experience

A point of view is what makes a brand feel intentional. Without it, everything becomes reactive.

The founder builds a menu they personally like, not what the market wants or needs, or what will support the business model financially. The designer builds a logo they think looks cool before establishing the strategy, story, values, and personality. The space gets designed around trends instead of budgets, service, and guest experiences. The marketing ends up sounding like everyone else because there was no strategy tied to targeted guest profiles.

Does any of that sound familiar? That’s how generic hospitality brands are born.

A Logo is Not a Strategy

I want to be direct here because this misconception costs people a lot of money.

A logo is an identifier, not a strategy. A logo can only express something that already exists. It can’t invent clarity where there is none.

This is why so many early-stage hospitality brands look polished but feel hollow. The founder invested in visual assets before making strategic decisions, so the look arrives before the logic.

That’s backwards, and should no longer need to be explained. If the brand doesn’t know who it’s for, why it matters, what lane it owns and what standards it protects, then no visual system can save it.

In fact, a premature logo often creates false confidence. It makes the founder feel further along than they actually are. That’s dangerous, because confidence without clarity speeds up the wrong decisions throughout the planning and development process.

A Menu is Not a Concept

The same problem exists with menus. Founders often show up with 40-plus dishes and a list of beverage categories or 15 cocktails, and they feel prepared because the menu is already “done.”

The question is: What is the menu based on?

A menu should not start with creativity alone. It should start with the 14 fundamentals:

Target your ideal guest profile
An ideation stage of just 12-15 items
Competitive analysis and positioning
Economic factors
Flavor profiles
The talent pool to execute menu
Vendor management
Pricing strategies
Theoretical costs
Bar and kitchen layouts and equipment
Visual representations
Testing and feedback phase
Marketing and engineering
Training program for that menu

A menu isn’t just food or drink. It’s the primary signal for a successful business model.

If the concept is unclear, the menu becomes random. If the target guest is fuzzy, the menu becomes too broad. If the operations are not defined, the menu becomes expensive to execute. And if the point of view is missing, the menu becomes a list instead of a story.

That is why I say a menu should be the result of strategy, not the substitute for it.

Story First, Design Elements Second

Let me put this another way. A strong brand is built in this order:

Point of view: What do we believe, who are we for, and why do we matter?
Positioning: Where do we sit in the market, and what role do we want to own?
Guest Journey: What should it feel like to discover us, enter, order, stay, leave, return, and talk about us?
Operational reality: Can the experience be delivered consistently, profitably, and at standard?
Identity system: Now the logo, visual direction, menu language, and design cues can begin, and will start to make sense.

This is the order serious brands follow. Everyone else starts at step five and wonders why nothing feels cohesive.

What Happens When You Skip the Point of View

When founders skip this work, a few predictable things happen.

The brand sounds generic: The language becomes vague: “curated,” “elevated,” “authentic,” and “experiential.” Do those all sound familiar? These words get used because there’s no sharper perspective underneath them.
The menu overreaches: It tries to be too many things to too many people because nobody defined what the concept actually stands for.
The guest experience feels disconnected: The music says one thing. The food says another. The pricing says something else. The room looks polished, but the soul of the brand is missing.
Investors lose confidence: Remember, smart investors aren’t buying your taste. They’re buying into your clarity, systems, strategy, and ability to execute at a high level.
Teams struggle to execute: When the founder can’t clearly explain what the brand is trying to be, the team can’t possibly deliver it consistently.

The Discipline New Brands Need

This is the part founders don’t always want to hear, but they need to listen to it.

You don’t need to move faster, you need to think in the right order. You need to follow a tested sequence that drives success.

So, before the logo, before the menu, before the social accounts, before the branded packaging, and before the lease, you need a point of view.

That means doing the less glamorous work first:

Validating the opportunity
Studying the market
Identifying the concept
Defining the promise
Developing strategic clarity through playbooks

If you’ve already started, that isn’t a delay. If you’ve already started, this is protection. Because once the point of view is clear, everything else gets easier, I promise.

Your design becomes sharper, your menus become smarter, your marketing becomes more magnetic, your hiring becomes more intentional, your training becomes more consistent, your guest experience becomes more memorable.

This type of clarity 100 percent compounds.

The Takeaway Serious Founders Should Save

If you’re building a new hospitality brand, remember this: Your brand doesn’t start when someone designs a logo. It doesn’t start when someone writes a menu. It doesn’t start when you post the first teaser on Instagram. It starts the moment you can answer, with precision and confidence:

Why this concept and brand?
Why this guest and this market?
Why now, and why us?

That’s your point of view. And if you don’t have that yet, you don’t need more design; you need more strategic clarity.

Because in this industry, the brands that win won’t be the ones that look the best first. They’ll be the ones that know exactly what they stand for. That’s how a brand starts.

Everything else comes after.

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July 11, 2025by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Six Traits Quantify Cool

Six Traits Quantify Cool

by David Klemt

It’s difficult to visualize cool, so here’s a dog wearing doggles on a sportbike outside of a bar. Cool!

A team of researchers published the results of an experiment spanning several years, nearly 6,000 participants, and a dozen countries to quantify cool.

The international team’s paper, “Cool People,” was published by the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Alphabetically, the respondents are from: Australia, Chile, China (mainland and Hong Kong), Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States.

The team’s research identifies six attributes of being “cool.” Interestingly, while they focused on 13 different regions, attributes associated with being cool are found to be surprisingly stable.

For the most part, cool people share these characteristics across several countries and cultures.

“Coolness is socially constructed such that a person, object, or behavior is cool if people agree that it is cool and uncool if they agree that it is not. Thus, it is less important to know how scholars have defined coolness than to understand what people perceive to be cool and uncool. We therefore operationally define coolness as whether or not a person is subjectively perceived to be cool by an observer.”

Per the Cool People researchers, this is fairly universal.

Relevance to Hospitality

I’ve taken a look at “cool” before. My conclusions were that it’s an amorphous concept, and that most people know something is cool in the moment. So, it’s interesting to see that researchers tackled the topic over the course of five or more years.

“Okay, great,” you may be thinking. “What does this have to do with my business?”

Hospitality is, by its nature, social. Coolness is a social construct, and society (and the cultural subsets therein) decide what’s cool.

People support brands and businesses they think are cool; it’s really that simple. Being deemed cool by a significant number of guests is a key to long-term success for most brands.

This experiment inspired me to look at restaurants, bars, and hotels through the lens of the Cool People experiment. Can we apply the six Cool People attributes to a restaurant, bar, or hotel?

Let’s dive in, or whatever a cool person would say. I guess they wouldn’t have to say anything; they’d make their move and people would follow.

Extraverted/Extroverted

In simple terms, extroverts are perceived—a key word here—as sociable and outgoing. They enjoy being around other people, and want to interact in social settings.

If your restaurant, bar, nightclub, or hotel were a “cool” person, it would display characteristics of an extrovert: sociable, assertive, friendly, makes friends easily, talkative/communicative, enjoys groups, finds socializing energizing, and many others.

(Extraversion versus introversion goes much deeper, psychologically speaking, and I’m keeping things much less complicated here. Introverts can absolutely have the characteristics above.)

Were your venue and staff seen as extroverted (and therefore cool), it would be perceived by guests as welcoming and sociable, at the least. The experience would tell a story, and make guests feel like friends rather than being strictly transactional.

Look appealing? Sound like your business? It should, because that’s hospitality at its core.

Achieving this attribute requires leadership to make the right decisions, from branding and marketing to hiring, onboarding, and training, and also curating the vibe during every daypart.

Hedonistic

Hedonism is indulgence. It’s a focus on pleasure, and an aversion to pain.

Understand this: People can eat, drink, relax, and sleep at home. They don’t really need to visit your bar, restaurant, or hotel; they want to visit your business. People want to socialize, see, and be seen, to feel accepted and special.

Of course, you and your team have to make them want to visit and spend their time and money at your place. They want to leave their homes and be made to feel cool and special, but you need to do the work to lure them to your venue.

A hedonistic restaurant, bar, nightclub or hotel delivers a memorable experience that fulfills guest desires and surpasses their expectations (delivering pleasure). Hedonism in this sense also means ensuring a guest’s exterior stressors melt away while they’re spending time with you and your team (removing pain points).

In my opinion, truly cool people make others feel cool. So, you and your team need to do the same. Look at your touch points. Review your leadership’s approach to service recovery. Be honest about whether your team feels empowered to be themselves while adhering to your SOPs and expectations.

Why? Because your guests want to feel cool. They want to feel relevant, important, seen, and heard. Does your standard of service make guests feel cool?

Show your guests that you think they’re cool. Indulge their wants and needs, unreasonably so if possible. In turn, they’ll want to indulge their desire to socialize, eat, and drink at your place.

Powerful

In the context of your hospitality brand, powerful can be defined as influential.

Does your community view your bar or restaurant favorably? Do the locals in your market support and spend time in your hotel?

If you’ve led your business to becoming a destination for surrounding markets, it’s powerful. And if people aspire to be seen at your business, that’s influence, and therefore power.

Has your restaurant or bar become a destination for people in other cities, states, provinces, and even other countries? Congratulations, you and your team have built, and are running, a powerful concept.

The same is true if your business can scale successfully; a concept that resonates strongly with the public is powerful. (Interestingly, building a brand that can scale but doesn’t is also cool.)

Create a legacy brand, lead your business to achieve long-term success, and you’ll have built a powerhouse.

Adventurous

People perceive as cool any person who’s willing to try new things, and does so often. The reasoning is simple: adventure is cool.

Travel and exploration are cool, and all over social media. Overlanding—self-reliant travel to remote destinations—has surged in popularity over the past few years. The ADV (adventure) motorcycle segment is expected to grow by a billion dollars year over year for the next eight years.

People want adventure, excitement, and new experiences. Hospitality brands are positioned uniquely to fulfill this desire.

Offering guests a unique spin on even a single F&B item can be adventurous. Introducing guests to a new-to-them cuisine is you and your team taking them on an adventure. The same is true for unique amenities, or creating a new way for a guest to experience a space.

Interesting glassware, compelling F&B pairings, eccentric ingredients and presentations, distinct menus, cuisines not otherwise presented in a given market… Even how menus or checks are dropped can deliver an adventure.

Adventurous people are seen as cool. You know what’s even cooler? Being the adventure. Strive to become an escape and escapade.

Open

Along with being adventurous, cool people are viewed as “open.”

Curiosity is cool. Being open to new experiences and ideas is cool. Welcoming people from all walks of life is cool.

This characteristic of coolness is represented in multiple ways in hospitality. A restaurant or bar team can at once be open to new ideas internally, and provide the opportunity for guests to experience new items and experiences.

Empower your team to share their thoughts on your brand, marketing, menus, promotions, and the guest experience. Speaking generally, different generations and groups have different opinions on what’s cool, so ask them for their input.

Be open to change, embrace it, and see how quickly your restaurant, bar, or hotel becomes the cool place to seek out new experiences.

Autonomous

Ask someone if conformity is cool and they’ll likely pull a face and say no. Of course, that’s somewhat ironic since most people want to be—and want to be part of—what’s deemed cool.

Trying to be cool is inherently uncool; we expect cool people to be so effortlessly. It’s a double-edged sword, with cool on one side of the blade and uncool (or cringe, if you prefer) on the other.

Going against the grain, circumventing expectations, and doing their own thing? That’s what cool people do.

It makes sense, then, that a restaurant or bar that doesn’t do and offer what every other place is doing (autonomy) is cool.

From the researchers: “[I]f coolness motivates the spread of innovation, then coolness should be associated with creating and diffusing new ideas.”

To be blunt, most restaurants, bars, and hotels are selling the same shit. In recent years, some big personalities in the industry have been saying this quite plainly. One was on the Bar Hacks podcast recently.

So, if we’re all selling the same things to our guests, how can any concept be seen as autonomous, and therefore cool? It comes down to strict adherence to our vision, a commitment to developing a fully realized brand, our team’s focus on the guest experience, and unique interpretation of menu items.

Of course, that last element can go sideways, slipping away from “cool” and spiraling into confusion or frustration.

Give your guests the cool, unique experience only you and your team can deliver, but make it approachable and understandable. Otherwise, you’ve given them homework, not an escape from their everyday lives.

Cool vs. Good

There’s an additional, interesting component to the Cool People experiment.

Within their paper the researchers reference a Canadian experiment. The study found that Canadian students, at least up to 2012, “frequently” saw cool people as those who demonstrated five characteristics of admirable people: friendliness, competence, desirability, attractiveness, and trendiness.

(Personally, I’m disappointed Canada wasn’t included in the Cool People experiment. I’m comfortable saying the rest of the KRG Hospitality team joins me in my dissatisfaction.)

Cool People researchers posit that that cool people should be admired by others for their status as a cool person. But that leads to other questions: Shouldn’t we admire good people? If so, is cool the same as good?

The researchers were compelled to address those questions during their experiment. Put simply, they found that cool people are capable of being “good.” However, they’re defined, for lack of a better word, as being extraverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open, and autonomous. You’ll notice “good” isn’t on that list.

So, no, cool is not the same as good, as far as this particular experiment’s findings show.

You’re probably wondering now what characteristics are attributed to good people. Well, you’re in luck, because the Cool People researchers included them in their experiment: conforming, traditional, secure, warm, agreeable, universalistic, conscientious, and calm.

What would the perception of being “good” look like for a restaurant, bar, or hotel? I may just tackle that question in an upcoming article.

Cheers!

AI-generated image: Microsoft Designer

April 15, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

What’s Going on with Chili Crisp?

What’s Going on with Chili Crisp?

by David Klemt

I’m not convinced that AI platforms know much about chili crisp or human hands.

UPDATE (April 15, 2024): David Chang has reportedly stated that Momofuku will no longer enforce the “Chile Crunch” trademark. He made the statement on his The Dave Chang Show podcast.

A legal battle over a chili crisp trademark is spilling into the public arena, and people are taking sides and making their feelings known on social media.

More specifically, Momofuku appears to be defending its “Chile Crunch” and “Chili Crunch” trademarks vigorously. To say some people aren’t exactly fans of this legal news is an understatement.

To provide context for the unfamiliar, Momofuku is a restaurant group first established in 2004 by David Chang. By 2019, the group had expanded, opening 20 venues. In 2020, Momofuku Goods began selling some of its culinary products in the retail space.

Among the products carrying the Momofuku name and peach logo is Chili Crunch. This is the brand’s version of chili crisp, a condiment consisting of oil, fried chili pepper, and other elements, such as garlic and onion (and other peppers).

From what I can find, it’s widely accepted that chili crisp originated in China, and has been around for centuries. How many centuries? I have no idea.

However, I can say with certainty that Momofuku has owned the “chile crunch” trademark since 2023. And I know that Momofuku acquired the rights to that trademark from Chile Colonial, LLC. That acquisition was part of a settlement.

Interestingly, Chile Colonial took action against Momofuku last year for trademark infringement for using the product name Chile Crunch. The former had been selling its Chile Crunch since 2008, and registered the trademark in 2015.

Now, it’s Momofuku, who apparently licenses the trademark to others, taking action to defend the trademark. Toward the end of last month, the company applied to trademark “chili crunch.”

Cease and Desist

As several outlets have reported, a number of chili crisp producers have received cease-and-desist letters.

Eater has reported that one producer, Homiah, received such a letter after they renamed their Crispy Sambal product to Sambal Chili Crunch.

The letter reads, in part, “Momofuku trusts that Homiah did not adopt the CHILI CRUNCH mark in bad faith or with an intent to create confusion. But because trademark law requires brand owners to police use of their trademarks—and because Momofuku is concerned that consumers may actually be confused here—we write to request Homiah’s cooperation.”

One element of the requested cooperation is that Homiah stop using the name Sambal Chili Crunch within 90 days.

It seems that it hasn’t taken long for these legal requests to find their way to the public at large. And, yes, sides have been taken.

Sifting through the comments on Eater’s Instagram post about this situation paints a vivid, albeit not entirely unexpected, picture.

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A post shared by Eater (@eater)

“This is a great way to ensure that I’ll never buy Chang’s version,” reads one comment.

“If no one owns RANCH, no one should own this,” says another Instagram user.

“No, this is absurd. Heinz didn’t trademark ketchup, they trademarked Heinz, this is so ridiculous. He can trademark momofuko and the peach logo. But this is so stupid,” is a comment with nearly 400 likes.

Finally, there’s this simple statement: “You can’t trademark culture.”

Los Angeles Times columnist Jenn Harris would agree with that last comment. Addressing Momofuku’s legal actions, she writes, “I reject the notion that someone could exclusively own something so ingrained in my culture, a food I consider an intrinsic part of my identity.” You can, and should, read her column here.

Must Defend

There’s more at play here when it comes to trademarks.

Speaking in incredibly general terms—and without providing any legal advice—once a trademark has been granted, the owner must defend it. Failing to do so, which includes filing variations and taking action against others, can result in the loss of the rights associated with the trademark.

So, on one finger on one hand, Momofuku must defend “chile crunch” and, if granted, “chili crunch,” if the company wants to retain their trademark rights. On another, does the blame lie with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for granting the trademark in the first place?

Going deeper, should Momofuku have negotiated different settlement terms that wouldn’t preclude others from calling their chili crisp products Chile Crunch? I’m not remotely qualified to speak on the legal dispute between Chile Colonial, LLC, and Momofuku, so I can’t even begin to form an opinion. If the settlement was “pricey,” I understand Momofuku being sensitive about other products potentially cutting into their sales.

Per reporting, Susan Hojel, the owner of Chile Colonial, has said she was “going broke” defending the Chile Crunch trademark. Many of the cease-and-desist letters were going to large companies. In that sense, Hojel saw herself in the role of David, going after corporate Goliaths.

Now, however, the public views David Chang and Momofuku as Goliath, attempting to crush noble Davids. Therefore, I have to wonder if the real issue is public perception, not legality. After all, I’ve seen the label “trademark bully” affixed not to just Momofuku but Chang as well.

Worth It?

I don’t know what the answer is for the questions swirling around this legal fight. All I can do is wonder if defending this trademark is worth the backlash.

At the moment, we’re seeing comments expressing disappointment and disdain. What happens if those comments manifest in damaged brand perception?

Put another way, there’s defending your brand…and there’s defending your brand.

Image: Shutterstock. Disclaimer: This image was generated by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system.

February 27, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

The Fourth Member of Your Team

The Fourth Member of Your Team

by David Klemt

When looking at your organization, it’s crucial to realize ownership, leadership, and staff aren’t the only members of the team.

There’s another key member, and their input is among the most valuable. And you rely on them for the success of your business. They’re your guests.

It may seem painfully obvious that your guests are integral to the success of your business. After all, your registers won’t ring without guests coming through your doors, placing orders online or via phone, and spending their money at your venue.

When they become regulars—particularly vocal regulars who tell others about your great business—they transform into unofficial brand ambassadors. That’s fantastic marketing that tends to cost you nothing.

However, their importance goes beyond the monetary. Further, it’s more than just free marketing.

Menu Streamlining

Do your guests provide you with feedback? Actually, scratch that; let’s start again.

Do you provide your guests with a simple, convenient way to give you feedback? And do you seek more than a thumbs up or thumbs down for their experience at your restaurant or bar?

It can be difficult to streamline your menu, particularly if you’re unable to look at every item objectively. There are operators and chefs out there who get attached to their personal favorite menu items. That’s fine, until it’s not.

Perhaps a dish took a long time and a lot of work to get just right. Maybe it was a family thing and you’re proud of it.

But if you’re too proud of it and it’s not selling, it’s just costing you money. Keeping it on the menu hoping it will become a hit is bad for business.

A while back, when Bar & Restaurant Expo was Nightclub & Bar, Chef Brian Duffy shared a simple method for streamlining a menu. You run a product mix report, then separate them into three categories: rock stars, solid performers, and dogs.

The former are your top-selling items, and the middle category perform consistently. But the latter…they don’t sell. Worse, if they require ingredients that you don’t cross-utilize to make other dishes or drinks, they aren’t just stagnant, they’re costing you money.

If an item isn’t selling, that’s your guests—the fourth member of your team—letting you know they don’t want it. Removing such items is an easy way to begin the streamlining process. Some of the best bars and restaurants in the world audit their highly anticipated menu launches a few months after their release. Items that aren’t selling are refreshed or removed.

So, when you encourage your guests to give your feedback, ask them what they think about your menu. Also, ask your staff what guests are telling them about your food and drink.

Your Vision

If you’re anything like our clients (or you are one of our clients), you’ve spent a ton of time envisioning your perfect restaurant, bar, cafe, eatertainment concept, nightclub, or hotel.

With that comes a hypothetical but informed vision of the guest journey. You’ll have an idea of how your guests will use your space.

Well, what if your guests turn that idea on its head? How will you react if guests see your vision in a different way?

On today’s episode of the Bar Hacks podcast, guest James Grant says something that I have also been saying for quite some time: like me, he sees guests as an integral member of the team. They do, to a degree, have influence over your concept.

To paraphrase, Grant says guests are half of the reason people open and operate restaurants, bars, cafes, nightclubs, hotels, etc.

As an example, we have a client who saw their space a certain way. We helped develop their bar concept with their vision in mind. However, not long after opening, our client’s guests showed that they had a different perception of the bar. Our client adapted, and the bar team and guests are happy.

The brand didn’t change. Neither did the space, physically. Nor did the cocktail program. However, one key element did change, as far as the type of bar it was intended to be.

As another example, friends of mine opened a bar years back. The space was meant to be an upscale cocktail bar with a relaxed and sophisticated vibe. That vision was achieved, but influential guests added an element: the bar became a high-energy after-hours spot.

At first, my friends weren’t sure about this change or if they should encourage it. But when they saw that revenue and profits were up, well…sometimes change is a good thing.

Adaptation

You may be very proud of items you have on your menu. Along those lines, you may have a very specific vision for your F&B programs that tell the story of your brand and space.

If an item here or there doesn’t catch on, it doesn’t make you a failure. It can be disappointing if your personal favorite turns out to be a dud with guests; don’t take it personally. It’s just business. The items on your menu should earn money, not lose it.

And if a guest reads through your highly curated cocktail, beer, or wine menu and then orders something “basic,” that shouldn’t be seen as a personal affront.

Now, guests deciding your concept is something you never intended it to be is something else. If this happens, it requires looking at the experience, service, brand storytelling, and even the design with a critical eye.

That said, if none of that is “off,” and if your team is happy and profits go up because your guests see your business in a different way, it may be smart to adapt. This is particularly true if your team is making more money and the unexpected new direction is safe.

Operators have usually been creating their concepts in their minds for years. It can be a shock for guests to transform the business into something else.

But if the business is successful because of how guests decide to use it, is that a bad thing?

Only you can answer that question. It may be best for you to identify the “why” behind the possible concept disconnect and stamp it out. However, it may be best to lean into the unexpected new direction.

Image: Edge2Edge Media on Unsplash

April 15, 2022by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

The Uber Effect: Recruit and Retain

The Uber Effect: Recruit and Retain

by David Klemt

To better understand how to recruit and retain top talent these days we can simply look at what’s known as the Uber Effect.

We just got back from the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. The education was top-notch, featuring a wide range of restaurant industry experts.

One outstanding session illustrates the need for operators—chain and independent—to change their approach to recruiting and retaining staff.

Flexibility in the Workplace

According to Jennifer Grimes, senior vice president of client services for Service Management Group, people in the labor pool are after three things when seeking employment.

Generally speaking, they want better pay, better benefits, and better scheduling. Gone are the days of people focusing only on their paychecks.

And per Jim Thompson, chief operating officer of Chicken Salad Chick, the Uber Effect is largely responsible for this shift in focus. The Uber Effect refers to people realizing they can be much more in control of their careers.

In simplest terms, Uber drivers are in control of their workdays. They can work as often as they want, whatever hours they want, and wear what they want while working.

Of course, it’s not complete anarchy. There are rules, there are expectations, there are standards. However, there’s also flexibility.

Along with more flexibility in scheduling, people want the following:

workload balance;
ability to trade shifts;
better communication; and
paid vacations.

Today’s modern scheduling platforms make it simple for operators and their leadership teams to meet these expectations. With these apps, operators and leadership can:

assign specific roles to individual team members;
communicate clearly with staff;
allow staff to trade, drop, and pick up shifts; and
fill available shifts.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Thompson has an interesting anecdote about availability.

A Chicken Salad Chick manager conducting interviews didn’t proceed with a candidate. Asked by Thompson why they wouldn’t be moving forward, the manager pointed to the candidate’s availability.

During the interview, the candidate provided only a single day and the manager felt that wasn’t enough. However, Thompson disagreed with the manager’s assessment.

What if, Thompson posited Thompson, their availability filled a currently open shift? At least there would be one less shift for leadership to worry about.

But it went deeper than just that point. Good operators and leaders know that job interviews aren’t one-way streets. Candidates are also interviewing their potential employer.

What if this candidate provided limited availability because they’re unsure about a particular employer? They may not know the brand all that well, they likely don’t know the leadership team, and they don’t yet understand the workplace’s culture.

As Thompson says, “One size fits all is over.” Operators and their leadership teams need to be flexible.

It’s highly possible that just a few shifts in, if the narrow-availability team member is a good fit and finds the job engaging, they’ll broaden they’re availability.

Developing the Culture

Of course, the above scenario comes down to culture. And Thompson has an interesting thought on that operational element.

If an operator isn’t constantly developing their culture, it will grow stagnant. Maintaining the current culture isn’t good enough.

Failing to do so will ultimately lead to a decline in guest satisfaction. When that happens, a decline in traffic comes along with it.

It’s really rather simple: How an operator and the leadership team treats employees trickles down to guests. Unhappy and unsatisfied staff provide poor service. How long are guests going to tolerate negative guest experiences?

And no, simply offering competitive compensation doesn’t automatically equate to treating staff well.

“Competitive pay, to me, is the cost of entry,” says Thompson.

To this point, the COO, also the self-appointed chief smile officer, addresses how the restaurant chain respects personal time.

Chicken Salad Chick, founded in 2008, is closed on Sundays. This isn’t due to any religious influence. Rather, the founders, per Thompson, were influenced by what they perceived as a high divorce rate in the restaurant space.

So, the brand wants employees to have family time. That’s also why there stores are also closed by 8:00 PM. In some cases, they close at 5:00 or 7:00 PM. Again, personal and family time.

Could they generate more revenue if they opened earlier and closed later? Probably. However, their culture is crucial to their success.

Takeaway

If operators want to begin the process of truly developing a positive workplace culture, there are several questions Thompson suggests operators and their leaders should ask.

Is the brand purpose driven? Does focus on fun, family, and culture?

How can the business offer incremental value to staff? Are the pay and benefits competitive? Is the workplace safe and are their opportunities for staff to advance?

What’s the community like within the four walls? How’s the energy within those walls?

Are the processes and practices in place helping or hindering recruitment and retention? How can the processes be simplified so employees learn what they need to know quickly?

How flexible is the business, honestly? What’s being done to truly help leadership create better relationships with the team?

Finally, I’ll end on something interesting from Grimes. Analyzing employee engagement, SMG has found that isn’t just about compensation.

In fact, when it comes to what makes most people perceive their job as fulfilling, the top influencer is working with people they like. Second is salary and benefits. Third, rewarding work.

Operators need to adapt to employee expectations, just as they need to focus on those of guests. Sitting down with their leadership teams to discuss Thompson’s questions is a great first step toward developing a culture that works and rewards.

Image: Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

April 4, 2022by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

5 Books to Read this Month: April 2022

5 Books to Read this Month: April 2022

by David Klemt

This month’s engaging and informative book selections will help you develop next-level culinary, beverage and marketing skills throughout 2022.

To review February’s book recommendations, click here.

Let’s jump in!

My America: Recipes from a Young Black Chef

This book is scheduled to be released on May 17 of this year. I anticipate this cookbook by Chef Kwame Onwuachi, which includes 125 recipes, to come flying off the shelves. In addition to more than 100 recipes, Chef Onwuachi connects his personal journey to food, culture, and places. Pre-order My America now!

Paddy Drinks: The World of Modern Irish Whiskey Cocktails

Jack McGarry, Sean Muldoon, and Jillian Vose are back with their latest Dead Rabbit book. The trio’s latest release, Paddy Drinks, shares Irish whiskey drink recipes you’ll find on the actual Dead Rabbit menu. However, that’s just one portion of this informative book. Inside are whiskey flavor wheels, tasting notes, illustrations depicting whiskey production, and more. And if that’s not enough for you, David Wondrich provides the foreword.

Founder Brand: Turn Your Story Into Your Competitive Advantage

In Founder Brand, Dave Gerhardt explains why your brand’s story is one of the most valuable assets you own as an entrepreneur.

From the Amazon listing: “This is a tactical guidebook that first shows you how to tell your story, then how to put your story to use as a marketing strategy. You’ll learn how social media provides a bridge between you and your customers, the platforms that are appropriate for your business, and how to measure results to truly determine value.”

Finding Mezcal: A Journey into the Liquid Soul of Mexico

You don’t have to be a veteran bartender or spirits expert to know that mezcal continues to rise in popularity. Written by Ron Cooper, founder of artisanal mezcal brand Del Maguey, Finding Mezcal includes 40 cocktail recipes from bartenders and chefs; photographs; Cooper’s own artwork; and much more.

Bar Hacks: Developing The Fundamentals for an Epic Bar

Industry expert and KRG Hospitality president Doug Radkey wrote this informative and conversational book. This is the perfect read for aspiring or seasoned bar, pub, lounge, or even restaurant owners, operators, and managers looking for that competitive edge in operations. If you’re looking for both fundamental and in-depth planning methods, strategies, and industry focused insight to either start or grow a scalable, sustainable, memorable, profitable, and consistent venue in today’s cut-throat industry, Bar Hacks is written just for you

Image: Mikołaj on Unsplash

November 10, 2021by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

What Your Brand Can Learn from LEGO

What Your Brand Can Learn from LEGO

by David Klemt

When it comes to brands that enjoy nearly universal reverence, LEGO is a company with enviable presence and visibility.

Around the world, it’s difficult to find someone who isn’t aware of LEGO. It’s even more difficult to find someone who outright dislikes the brand.

Of course, we can say the strength of the LEGO brand boils down to them being a toy company that taps into nostalgia.

However, LEGO’s strength was recently revealed by tech columnist Jason Aten for Inc. The company, it turns out, approaches customer interactions in a “freaky” manner.

Fun

“Freaky,” as Aten explains in the Inc. article, stands for Fun, Reliable, Knowledgeable and Engaging.

When you look at those four words in the context of LEGO’s “freaky” approach, you can see the obvious links that can be made to hospitality.

Let’s start with Fun. This should be an easy one—your restaurant, bar or hotel should provide a fun guest experience.

Really, this should go without saying. If spending time at your hospitality business isn’t fun, why would guests return to spend their money on you?

Also, if your business is fun, your guests will become loyal, walking billboards for you. They’ll tell family, friends, and tourists they need to check out your restaurant, bar or hotel.

However, the guest side is only half of the brand equation. A brand that’s fun to work for as well is even more powerful. Your workers will help you recruit rock stars to add to add to the team if it’s fun working for you.

Think about it: If it’s fun to work for your brand, every team member is now a brand advocate.

Finally, think about your mental and emotional health as an operator. Running a business in this industry will always be difficult to some degree. Wouldn’t you be happiest operating a brand that’s fun and loved by guests and staff alike?

Reliable

Replace the Reliable with “consistent” and you can see where I’ll be going with this one.

While lately they never seem to be shy of controversy, McDonald’s is an excellent example for consistency.

After all, there’s a reason the company is the most-powerful fast-food concept on the planet. Not to malign the brand, but do you think it’s because they craft the best-tasting, highest-quality cheeseburgers?

No, it’s because McDonald’s demands consistency from all their locations. For decades, the company has dialed in their processes.

Global perception of the brand is that regardless of where in the world you visit a McDonald’s, the experience will essentially be the same. There may be menu items exclusive to certain countries or regions, but the core menu will taste the same.

One of the most effective ways to convert a person into a loyal guest is to ensure your experience is consistent.

The food, the service, the atmosphere, the energy… If it’s consistent—also known as reliable—your guests will return (if it’s consistently great, of course).

Knowledgeable

When of the most effective ways to turn a small guest issue into a huge one is to utter the following: “I don’t know.”

Guests hate those three words. Whether it’s a question about a menu item or one that’s about a problem, being told “I don’t know” is frustrating.

According to many reports throughout the years, Disney prohibits guest-facing staff from saying those three words. Instead, if they don’t know the answer to a question, they’re supposed to say, “I can find out for you,” or, “That’s a good question.”

And that’s just one example of ensuring you and your staff are knowledgeable.

Another example is educating your guests.

It’s fair to say that due to the nature of their positions, your bartenders and servers spend the most time engaging with your guests.

Sharing their knowledge of your menu items is a great way to upsell and create loyalty. It’s one thing to be able to rattle off a menu description; it’s quite another to be able to go deeper and share information beyond a short menu blurb.

Bartenders in particular are integral to educating guests. In a few moments, a knowledgeable bartender can introduce your guests to new spirits, beers, wines and cocktails.

That sharing of information demonstrates being Knowledgeable and Fun. And if guests return because of that element of the guest experience, it also embodies being Reliable.

Engaging

Put Fun, Reliable and Knowledgeable together. What do you get? A hospitality brand that’s Engaging.

Of course, that’s not all there is to building an engaging brand.

Social media, it should go without saying, leverages engagement. Your guests—and potential guests—can interact with your brand when they’re not physically at your location via your social channels.

Wendy’s is a compelling example of being Engaging. The brand’s Twitter account is famous for engagement and interaction. It’s also Fun (for their audience, not always so much for their targets) and Reliable (in the sense that we know what’s going to happen if you step to the Wendy’s Twitter admin).

However, I caution against attempting to copy what Wendy’s does on Twitter, lest you draw their ire. Like battle rappers had a long-standing rule against challenging KRS-ONE, hospitality and foodservice accounts should heed the rule against trying to battle Wendy’s on Twitter.

Guest-facing staff with great personalities, informative and fun tastings, special promotions, F&B-focused membership clubs, loyalty programs, and live entertainment are also examples of how you can build an Engaging brand.

They’re also examples of being Fun, Reliable and Knowledgeable. That’s because all four elements feed into one another.

So, take some time to consider what your brand communicates to your guests and staff. If it’s “freaky,” you’re on your way to being as beloved as LEGO.

Image: Xavi Cabrera on Unsplash

October 6, 2021by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

10 Words that Exemplify Leadership

10 Words that Exemplify Leadership

by David Klemt

During episode 50 of the Bar Hacks podcast, Travis Tober sums up restaurant and bar leadership in just ten words.

In fact, this seemingly “small” sentence explains leadership and buy-in for essentially every type of business.

Let’s take a look at what Tober, co-owner of Nickel City and owner Old Pal, says that resonates with me.

10 Important Words

So, what does Tober say during his first appearance on Bar Hacks that embodies leadership?

The following, about his general manager:

“He knows the brand just as good as I do.”

How do those words exemplify leadership and buy-in? For several reasons:

They illustrate transparency from the owners.
Those words show trust.
The ten words put buy-in and mentorship on display.
They show that the GM possesses a sense of ownership of the brand.
The brand is obviously defined clearly.

Buy-in is Crucial

As an entrepreneur, consider what you’re asking of the people who work for you. You’re expecting others to help you achieve your dream.

So, why would they take their role in your business seriously rather than only seeing it as a paycheck? The answer is simple: buy-in.

Staff want to feel as though they’re a part of something—they don’t want to work just to pay bills.

As difficult as it may be, an operator needs to trust the people they hire.

Why would you want them on your team—and you need to build a team, not just have employees—if you don’t trust them? Filling roles just to have bodies in the building is a losing strategy, labor shortage or not.

In addition to trust, there needs to be brand indoctrination. Every employee should be a brand evangelist for you and your business.

One of the most powerful recruiting and marketing resources at your disposal is your team. People they encounter should want to spend time and money at your business because of your team. They should want to work for you after observing your team at work and out and about.

If that’s not happening, something is wrong. Your team doesn’t trust you; doesn’t feel as though you trust them; doesn’t feel empowered; or doesn’t believe they’re really a part of your brand and business.

So, ask yourself a simple question: Can my GM, management team, and staff say they know my brand as well as I do?

Listen to episode 50 of Bar Hacks with Travis Tober on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Image: Damir Kopezhanov on Unsplash