Consulting | KRG Hospitality

January 11, 2023by krghospitality krghospitality No Comments

KRG Makes First Addition to Team for 2023

KRG Hospitality Makes First Addition to Team for 2023

Jared Boller joins the KRG Hospitality team, serving as the agency’s in-house beverage educator, trainer, and menu developer.

TORONTO, ONTARIO—Today, KRG Hospitality is delighted to announce a new addition to their team. Jared Boller, a professional mixologist with two decades of experience, will be available to the agency’s clients for beverage menu development and training. He’ll serve as KRG’s master mixologist for North America.

Boller’s creativity, passion, and humility as a professional mixologist have led him on a journey around the globe. He has established himself as an industry leader, developing award-winning beverage programs in restaurants, bars, hotels, and casinos in several markets, including Denver, New York, Florida, Toronto. Throughout his career, Boller has won several cocktail competitions, educated teams for brands and industry organizations, and appeared in numerous publications.

“Restaurants, bars, hotels, and hospitality are in dire need of not only great employees but educated employees who can execute an owner’s vision,” says Boller. “I look forward to the next stage of my hospitality career with KRG, helping to inspire the future generations in everything related to beverage. My life’s journey has led me to the perfect opportunity with the team at KRG to collectively build future and existing brands.”

Additionally, he was the featured guest on episode 12 of the Bar Hacks podcast. People curious to learn more about Boller can listen to his Bar Hacks episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.

With a growing list of accolades and numerous publications to his name, Boller most recently spent three years as the national whiskey ambassador for Proximo spirits. He prides himself on educating consumers and future bartenders on artistry behind the bar and providing history lessons to everyone that will listen. Boller is eager to share his extensive knowledge of spirits, cocktails, menu development, beverage innovation, and service.

“It’s an exciting time for KRG Hospitality, adding to the team just days into 2023,” says David Klemt, director of business development at KRG. “With Jared on the team our beverage programming, menu development and curation, training, and consulting will be even stronger. I know we’re all looking forward to our clients having the opportunity to work with Jared.”

About KRG Hospitality

KRG Hospitality is a storied and respected agency with proven success over the past decade, delivering exceptional and award-winning concepts throughout a variety of markets found within Canada, the United States, and abroad since 2009. Specializing in startups, KRG is known for originality and innovation, rejecting cookie-cutter approaches to client projects. The agency provides clients with a clear framework tailored to their specific projects, helping to realize their vision for a scalable, sustainable, profitable, memorable, and consistent business. Learn more at KRGHospitality.com. Connect with KRG Hospitality and the Bar Hacks podcast on social: KRG Twitter, Bar Hacks Twitter, KRG Media Twitter, KRG LinkedIn.

Image: KRG Hospitality

December 1, 2022by krghospitality krghospitality No Comments

KRG Hospitality Adds to Team

KRG Hospitality Enters New Era of Growth with Addition to Team

by David Klemt

Kim Richardson joins the KRG Hospitality team, representing Philadelphia and the Northeastern US region via the agency’s new license program.

PHILADELPHIA, PA—KRG Hospitality today announces an exciting new addition to the consulting agency’s team. Following several years of success, KRG is now entering a new phase of growth.

Kim Richardson, who has more than 23 years of experience in the hotel and restaurant industry, will represent KRG at the agency’s Philadelphia office. Further, Richardson will be KRG’s representative for the Northeastern region of the United States, serving Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

As the newest member of the KRG team, Richardson is excited to bring all her hospitality industry knowledge and experience to the Philadelphia area. From Five Diamond Hotels to brick-and-mortar restaurants, she has had her hands in the Philadelphia hospitality scene since moving to the city in 2003. With an admiration for the industry since a very young age, she has a passion for all things hospitality. Most importantly, Richardson brings with her a passion and eagerness to help grow the industry and lead others to success.

“There’s nothing more rewarding than understanding a client’s dream, perfecting it, and bringing that vision to life,” says Richardson.

This exciting new addition to the KRG team represents the launch of the agency’s new licensed consultant program. KRG operates in several key markets—Toronto, Las Vegas, Calgary, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Nashville, Orlando, and the Caribbean—and is planning to add more partners as regional representatives throughout 2023.

“As we move forward from the pandemic era, we look forward to positioning the brand for continued and further success,” says KRG Hospitality president Doug Radkey. “Creating a licensed consultant program provides us the opportunity to reach a wider audience, provide additional value and support for our clients, and help push this exciting industry forward.”

About KRG Hospitality

Image: KRG Hospitality

September 21, 2022by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Will Virtual Kitchens Persist?

Will Virtual Kitchens Persist or Go Brick-and-Mortar?

by David Klemt

Virtual kitchens and virtual brands are back in the headlines after a record-setting grand opening in Rutherford, New Jersey.

Well, I should clarify: A restaurant may now hold a specific record.

The restaurant in question is the first brick-and-mortar MrBeast Burger location. And the record it may hold claim to is most burgers sold in a single day by a single restaurant.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MrBeast Burger (@mrbeastburger)

Now, if you don’t spend much time on YouTube, you may not know MrBeast. So, here’s a quick rundown: He’s Jimmy Donaldson, a YouTube personality known for “expensive stunts.” In fact, he may be the pioneer of that type of content.

Right about now you may be wondering what this all has to do with virtual kitchens and brands. It’s quite simple, really. MrBeast was among the highest-profile virtual brands to launch during the pandemic.

Incredibly, MrBeast Burger boasts more than 1,700 virtual kitchen locations. And now, one brick-and-mortar MrBeast restaurant.

Leveraging Demand and Popularity

So, you’re an influential YouTube content creator with tens of millions of subscribers. Obviously, your channel is monetized. What else can you do to leverage your popularity?

Well, if there’s a pandemic crippling the globe and people are stuck at home, maybe you notice the demand for takeout and delivery. And perhaps you learn about something known as a “virtual kitchen.”

If you’re a foodie or maybe just a savvy businessperson, maybe you’d jump into the virtual space. It is, it goes without saying, much less expensive than opening your own restaurant. And if you perform well, that’s an excellent way to collect data and guest feedback.

Also, an efficient way to hone your brand without a lease, buildout or the overhead of a physical restaurant. In a way, a virtual brand is akin to a pop-up restaurant, only you can test hundreds of markets simultaneously.

Okay, so now let’s say you reach a rare milestone in the creator space: 100 million subscribers. MrBeast did just that in July of this year. Do you think you’d want to leverage the support of millions of fans willing to support you and your brand?

The first physical MrBeast Burger opened last week at the American Dream mall in New Jersey. Reports claim that over 10,000 people waited in line for the grand opening.

Oh, and that’s when the location may have claimed the aforementioned record: 5,500 burgers sold in one day. After just one day of operation, MrBeast wondered if the brand should franchise:

should we… franchise? @mrbeast

— MrBeast Burger (@MrBeastBurger) September 15, 2022

Virtual to Physical

This (potential) record-setting event brings virtual kitchens and brands back into the spotlight.

Of course, most virtual brands don’t have the same origin story as MrBeast. One hundred million supporters? That’s rarified air.

At any rate, virtual kitchens do offer potential physical restaurant operators a less expensive method of testing their concepts. Couple data collection and feedback with an accurate feasibility study and taking the next step may make sense. And it may make a tidy profit.

It’s possible we’ll see MrBeast franchise off the success of two years of operating virtually and opening a physical location. And it’s possible we’ll see other virtual brands expand beyond the virtual kitchen.

However, it’s important that virtual brand owners keep a few things in mind. One, online success doesn’t always translate to brick-and-mortar success. Two, the restaurant space doesn’t care about your subscriber count—the KPIs are entirely different here. Three, potential operators need to perform the proper studies—or retain an agency with experience performing them—rather than rushing into the restaurant space.

It’s highly likely we’ll see more virtual brands enter the physical restaurant world. How many will do so successfully remains to be seen.

Image: Eiliv-Sonas Aceron on Unsplash

2022 KRG Hospitality Start-Up Cost Guide & Checklist download

January 10, 2022by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

The 2022 KRG Hospitality Start-Up Guide

The 2022 KRG Hospitality Start-Up Guide

by David Klemt

The 2022 KRG Hospitality Restaurant Start-Up Cost Guide & Checklist is here!

If you’ve been putting off opening your restaurant concept, wait no longer. With our guide and checklist, you can make the best, informed decisions to open in 2022.

Yes, opening a restaurant seems daunting in 2022. However, industry intelligence firms such as Technomic have predicted measurable recovery this year in comparison to 2021.

Waiting for the time to be “just right” to open a restaurant just isn’t realistic. The longer one waits to make their move, the further ahead established and new operators can get ahead. Your desired location can be snapped up, competitors can build loyal customer bases, and things get more difficult overall.

That said, that doesn’t mean you should throw caution to the wind. We certainly don’t believe rushing into anything is a good idea. If anything, rushing rather than making informed, deliberate decisions is the antithesis of strategic.

So, what’s the desired middle ground between haphazard and hesitancy? Nimble and informed.

Our 2022 Restaurant Start-Up Cost Guide & Checklist provides useful financial information based on real-world scenarios. This will give you a realistic idea of how much start-up capital you’ll need to realize your entrepreneurial dreams this year.

What can you expect in our latest download? Take a look below.

Subsections

This is no three- or four-page quick-hit guide. Rather, the 2022 KRG Hospitality Restaurant Start-Up Cost Guide is 33 pages of real-world tips and data:

Start-up costs
Renovation costs
Scaled costs (four concept scenarios)
Restaurant operating guide

Checklist

Due to the tremendous job scope—in addition to the planning, organization, and communication requirements to start a successful restaurant—we highly recommend working with a team of professionals to save time and financial resources.

Below you’ll find a handful of the 500 unique tasks crucial to opening a restaurant.

Planning and Admin

You must: