Interview with Kittch CEO Brian Bedol about monetizing food content, innovating with digital storytelling, and becoming the Twitch + OnlyFans for the Culinary World.
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00:00 Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur.
00:03 My name is Sean Walsh, founder of Cali BBQ and Cali BBQ Media.
00:08 In life, in the restaurant business and in the new creator economy,
00:13 we learn through lessons and stories.
00:15 We are very grateful to Toast, our primary technology partner
00:19 at our restaurants, for believing in the power not only of technology,
00:23 but the power of storytelling for giving us the opportunity
00:26 to share the secrets of how do you expand beyond the four walls
00:30 of your restaurant business.
00:31 Today, we have Brian B.
00:33 Dahl, who is a icon when it comes to the media landscape,
00:38 who has launched something that is very exciting specifically for our space.
00:42 We're going to talk to him about not just his background, why he launched
00:47 what he launched, where Kitch.com is going
00:51 and how it can help our industry moving forward, how it can help creators,
00:55 how it can help chefs, how it can help restaurant owners.
00:58 Brian, welcome to the show.
01:00 Thanks for having me, Sean. It's great to be here.
01:02 So you can find Brian and Kitch at Kitch K-I-T-T-C-H.
01:09 Brian, I'm very excited to talk to you about that before.
01:13 But before we get going, I'd like to ask you, where in the world
01:16 is your favorite stadium, stage or venue?
01:22 You know, I guess as a loyal Clevelander, I have to say that
01:27 the what used to be the Indians, now the Guardian Stadium
01:31 is probably my favorite stadium anywhere.
01:33 OK, we're going to go to Guardian Stadium.
01:36 I'm going to talk to Toast, talk to Entrepreneur.
01:38 We'll talk to Kitch.
01:40 We're going to fill it with people in the hospitality space,
01:43 the storytelling space, the creator space that are playing the game
01:47 within the game, people that listen to this show, people that are trying
01:50 to level up, trying to build more profitable, more sustainable businesses,
01:55 raving fans.
01:56 And I'm going to put you on the pitcher's mound.
01:58 I'm going to say, Brian, you got LeBron James to invest in Kitch.
02:02 What was the pitch?
02:04 Pitch all of us.
02:05 What is Kitch and what are you building?
02:07 You know, it started during COVID and it started as a place
02:13 really for chefs and culinary creators to
02:19 help not just create a new business opportunity, but to,
02:23 you know, prevent them from falling off a cliff.
02:27 You know, I can speak for myself and LeBron and his partner,
02:33 Maverick Carter, have been great supporters.
02:36 But, you know, I think that that,
02:38 you know, they have always been charitable in so many ways
02:42 and they love food and they love the restaurant business.
02:47 And when I shared it was really with Maverick, what we were doing,
02:52 it was very quick to say, you know, we're in.
02:54 But the real vision behind it was that,
02:59 you know, I had I had started earlier in my career, a couple of
03:03 platforms in the sports world and.
03:07 A couple of platforms, some of the most iconic platforms,
03:11 not just in the sports world, but if you include Nick at night and Court TV.
03:15 Come on, don't don't be shy.
03:16 Give us the give us the goods.
03:18 Yeah, no, no, no.
03:19 I've been lucky to be in the right rooms and the right rooms.
03:23 You put yourself in the right rooms.
03:24 Tell us more.
03:27 So so, you know, early in my career, I actually I guess
03:33 I started in the restaurant business.
03:35 My first job was as a writer and advertising.
03:37 They used to write McDonald's commercials and hamburger helper commercials.
03:41 I was like the meat guy.
03:43 And I went to Hamburger University.
03:45 My my proudest degree.
03:47 And I went from there to work as a as a writer
03:53 and producer on the startup of MTV.
03:55 And then seriously, just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
03:59 When when Nick at night started or when when Nickelodeon,
04:04 without getting too esoteric on you, was sharing a satellite,
04:08 there was a shortage of satellites in the early days of cable.
04:11 And Nickelodeon was sharing a satellite with another channel
04:14 that got its own satellite.
04:16 So I happened to be in the room when, you know, the boss said,
04:19 we need to figure out what to do with Nick at night.
04:22 So we didn't go dark.
04:24 So the satellite didn't go dark.
04:26 And, you know, I was, you know, seriously, just in the right place
04:32 where she said, hey, you figure it out.
04:35 And it was really, you know, I think designed to be just a,
04:41 you know, temporary placeholder while they figured out something better.
04:45 And it worked.
04:46 And, you know, it became Nick at night.
04:50 And that was really the genesis of the first through business that I started was
04:55 I thought, wouldn't it be cool to do when Nick at night of sports?
04:59 And, you know, again, having grown up in Cleveland,
05:03 a lot of the greatest sports were in the rearview mirror.
05:06 And we're in San Diego.
05:08 We know we don't even have anything in the rearview mirror.
05:12 So at least we had a rearview mirror.
05:15 Yeah, we don't have that.
05:17 You know, as a kid, I used to go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.
05:22 And, you know, and so I thought, you know, you've got
05:26 you know, I'd gotten to know.
05:30 A little bit about the cable industry, just being around
05:34 and realize that the primary drivers were basically movies and sports.
05:39 And you had two or three nostalgic movie channels at the time.
05:43 And, you know, and I used to get goosebumps watching the old
05:47 deal, Jim Brown stuff and, you know, old Muhammad Ali fights.
05:52 And, you know, I think that the the magic moment
05:56 literally was I was helping run at the time
06:01 Six Flags, which owned Magic Mountain in L.A.
06:04 I was on an airplane on my way to visit Magic Mountain.
06:08 And the old classic Bud Green's fan
06:12 16 Days of Glory Olympic film was showing.
06:15 And it was about the the L.A.
06:18 Olympics. And I had been sort of in the back of my head,
06:22 been thinking about this naked night of sports.
06:24 And by the end of this documentary, 16 Days of Glory, I was so embarrassed.
06:29 I had tears streaming down my face as Mary Lou Retton
06:33 ran into the arms of Bella Carolli like this.
06:36 And if you remember the classic sports logo,
06:38 basically that that captured that.
06:40 And I looked around the plane and nobody had a dry eye.
06:45 You know, it was when you didn't have private TVs.
06:48 It was just like one big TV in each class.
06:51 And, you know, and there wasn't a dry.
06:54 And I thought, you know, if we could just capture those goosebumps,
06:58 that there's something here.
07:00 And I was lucky enough to meet a guy named Steve Greenberg,
07:04 who was actually Hank Greenberg, the legendary Hank Greenberg's son.
07:08 And we hit it off and convinced him to join me.
07:13 And, you know, we started classic sports.
07:17 So fast forward to, you know, how I got into, you know,
07:22 the real culinary world was, you know, at some point over the last,
07:27 you know, five or six years, I realized that I had become much better
07:31 at eating than I was at sports.
07:34 And so I figured it was time for the next chapter.
07:36 And in all seriousness, I've always, you know, loved chefs.
07:41 I've loved food.
07:42 I've had the privilege of getting to know them over the years
07:45 and eat at great places.
07:48 And during COVID began getting those phone calls that we all got.
07:53 You know, I'm falling off a cliff.
07:55 How do you I just don't know.
07:56 How do I do an Instagram live stream?
07:59 How do I do a zoom cooking class?
08:01 And, you know, I figured there must be a platform
08:06 like we had built in sports for chefs and culinary creators
08:11 to both connect with consumers and monetize what they were doing.
08:15 And, you know, we sort of jokingly called it, you know, the twitch of cooking,
08:22 which is how Kitsch came into being was, you know,
08:26 Kitsch was just the twitch of cooking at the time.
08:28 And, you know, we're surprised that it didn't exist.
08:34 And when we saw it didn't exist, you know, having that entrepreneur's disease,
08:38 I said, let's build it.
08:40 And so that was the, you know, long answer to a short question.
08:45 No, I love it.
08:46 And I mean, it's been described as the twitch and only fans combined
08:50 for the food world, and it's essentially the food network for a new generation.
08:54 What I'm fascinated with is obviously storytelling.
08:58 That's why we put on this show.
09:00 What we talk about is the four C's content, commerce, communication and community.
09:07 And essentially all of those things, they all live together,
09:10 not just in real life, but now online.
09:13 And how do you bring personalities and storytelling
09:16 into someone's home, into someone's device?
09:19 Be where people are.
09:21 When you look at building Kitsch and the opportunities that you have,
09:26 how did you position the platform so that you could actually help creators make money?
09:32 Well, you know, you captured it 100 percent in the way you described it.
09:38 It's about the storytelling.
09:41 It's the way you create that emotional bond is through storytelling.
09:46 And, you know, the best salespeople are not salespeople.
09:51 There are people who engage you in a conversation
09:55 and make you feel like you're privileged to buy something.
09:58 And I think that that, you know, our approach with Kitsch from the beginning
10:04 was this is really a platform for storytelling, for chefs to share their stories,
10:09 to share their inspirations, to share their aspirations
10:13 and to create these bonds with both their local community
10:18 and a much broader community where technology allows you to ship to.
10:23 And, you know, it was really built around that.
10:27 I mean, you know, one sort of tangential anecdote that that has always
10:32 driven my thinking is I remember once in an interview with Jeff Bezos,
10:37 hearing him talk about, you know, the the inspiration for Amazon
10:42 and one of the things that he said that really struck with me was that
10:47 the enabling technology for Amazon wasn't the computer or wasn't the Internet.
10:53 It was Federal Express.
10:56 And that a Federal Express didn't exist, Amazon would have never existed.
11:00 And that that was sort of his eureka moment was that there was now,
11:05 you know, he said it could have never existed with U.S. Postal Service.
11:09 It was there was this private delivery, ubiquitous delivery service
11:13 that you could trust to do overnight delivery.
11:15 And that was the equivalent of a digital end cap.
11:18 And, you know, so I think that that, you know, a lot of these things
11:22 and a lot of the inspiration behind Kitsch wasn't that others hadn't had the idea
11:27 or others hadn't had similar ideas.
11:29 It was just that moment in time where chefs had a real need.
11:36 They had obviously time because restaurants were closed.
11:39 People who loved to cook were stuck at home
11:45 trying to find new inspirations and things to do.
11:50 And I think that that X factor was that young people began to discover
11:56 that cooking was a fantastic, creative and social outlet.
12:00 It wasn't sort of an obligation.
12:02 It was something that was really enjoyable and creative
12:06 and not just a time suck, but something that allowed them
12:10 in their small communities as they began to sort of,
12:13 you know, have safe spaces in their homes or in their friends' homes,
12:18 that cooking became sort of a, you know, central activity of it.
12:24 And the other element was, you know,
12:27 one of my co-founders is an unbelievably creative and smart woman named Alana Karp,
12:34 who had been a co-founder of Plated, the meal kit company.
12:38 And, you know, she shared that when Plated started,
12:43 fewer than 10 percent of consumers had ever purchased groceries over the Internet.
12:50 And so their job was to convince people that it was OK
12:54 to buy groceries over the Internet.
12:57 By the time you were midway through COVID, you know,
13:00 almost the entire adult population
13:03 was by necessity buying groceries over the Internet.
13:07 Yes. So the issue of buying food online
13:11 was no longer the issue that it used to be.
13:15 So, again, it's sort of we looked at that as being our FedEx moment was
13:20 people are now willing and able to buy food digitally.
13:26 And that was in my mind what really
13:31 empowered, enabled us to get going.
13:34 Huge news toast.
13:36 Our primary technology partner at our barbecue restaurants in San Diego
13:40 and the primary technology partner of so many of the guests
13:44 that we have on this show have announced
13:46 they are expanding their business offerings with Google.
13:50 So now if you search on Google Maps and you sign up for toast
13:55 tables or toast waitlist, you will have the opportunity
13:59 to improve the digital hospitality experience of the guest.
14:03 Allow them to book through the maps into the toast reservation system.
14:08 One of the biggest difficulties that restaurant guests have
14:12 is when they search for your restaurant and they want a table.
14:14 They do not have an easy solution to book a table or to get on a waitlist.
14:19 This is huge news for the restaurant industry.
14:22 Huge news for guests and huge news for you, the restaurant owner.
14:26 Check out toast tables today and find out the new integrated solution
14:31 that they have.
14:32 This is something that we've wanted for a long time.
14:34 How do you integrate reservations, wait lists into your point of sale?
14:38 Toast has done it. Check it out.
14:40 I love the fact that, number one, it's obviously focused on community.
14:46 It's focused on content storytelling.
14:48 The commerce side is very interesting.
14:51 That's why we put on this show.
14:53 We believe that we're at this great intersection between the creator economy.
14:58 When we think of really good online storytellers, someone that's a great
15:01 YouTuber, a great tick tocker, someone that's great on Instagram, an influencer.
15:05 And then we have the original creators, which are business owners, entrepreneurs,
15:09 people that have been creating things since the beginning of time.
15:12 They're just not very good at the online storytelling part.
15:15 But we're at a point where platforms like what you're creating
15:19 can give creators who might not have the business acumen
15:24 to be able to set up the monetization side of how do you get in front of a brand
15:29 to help them talk about their knife, talk about their cooking,
15:33 where talk about the things that they have.
15:36 How is Kitsch helping on the brand side of monetization?
15:41 Well, you know, I would say that,
15:44 you know, a large part of what we've tried to do,
15:49 you know, a lot of it is trial and error, just like with a great recipe.
15:53 But, you know, I would say, you know, a large part of what we we've tried to do
16:00 is create a.
16:02 You know, I'll use the word marketplace,
16:05 but it's a much more personal experience than a marketplace,
16:08 but a marketplace between brands and creators.
16:10 Yes. Recognizing that
16:12 brands need creators to influence their audiences,
16:18 you know, because, you know, influencers are a surrogate for word of mouth.
16:23 There's no more powerful form of selling than word of mouth
16:27 and feeling like someone you know is recommending something.
16:31 And influencers are influencers
16:35 because they want to make a living using their influence.
16:38 And so, you know, that bond and we've worked with everyone
16:43 from the lamb console to the mushroom console to, you know,
16:49 all sorts of to Walmart and all sorts of different brands
16:53 that recognize the power of influencers
16:56 in creating this emotional storytelling bond.
17:02 I mean, again, it goes back to,
17:04 you know, if someone is selling you all the time, you don't want to hear
17:10 if someone is helping make your life better and make your life more joyful.
17:15 And they've got sort of, you know, hints and tricks and hacks
17:19 and stuff they use that that helps along the way.
17:23 You want that.
17:27 And so it's trying to not be in your face selling.
17:31 It's trying to help people experience the
17:36 joy of cooking and the joy of entertaining and the great,
17:41 the creative outlet of it and with with chefs
17:45 and other culinary creators, have them be sharing,
17:50 you know, what it is that they like to make and how they like to make it
17:53 and what tools they use.
17:56 Can you tell me more about the pickleball?
18:00 Why pickleball? What's Kitsch doing?
18:03 So so I'm going to start
18:08 by turning the tables and ask you, have you played pickleball?
18:11 I have played pickleball. I have.
18:14 OK. And, you know, the name of that space
18:17 between the net and sort of the first line, it's the kitchen.
18:22 It's the kitchen. Yes.
18:24 And so I was having lunch
18:29 as I talked about, I used to be in the sports business, was
18:32 having lunch with a friend of mine who
18:35 is a senior executive in programming at CBS Sports.
18:39 And we were talking, he was sharing with me how great
18:45 the ratings were for pickleball on TV unexpectedly
18:49 and how they were looking to double down on it.
18:52 And I had played a couple of times and loved it and sort of understood the
18:56 the appeal of it.
18:59 And somewhere in the course of the conversation, we began joking that
19:04 the only sport with a kitchen needs to have the best food in sport.
19:08 And so, you know, one thing led to another.
19:13 And I would say one of the things I've always enjoyed
19:17 about being an entrepreneur is that there are no rules.
19:20 Yes. And that, you know, we connected with a couple of the organizations
19:26 that were looking to grow pickleball.
19:28 And we went to them with that with a simple,
19:32 you know, pitch of the only sport with a kitchen
19:35 needs to have the best food in sport.
19:38 And, you know, it wasn't just sort of in a physical environment,
19:43 but it was recognizing that if we could associate
19:48 the kitchen with food, with pickleball,
19:52 it opened up a whole new sponsor category.
19:55 Typically in sports, food
19:59 is not a big underwriter of sports.
20:03 Yeah. You don't say
20:06 not unless you're McDonald's.
20:09 Well, that's that's right.
20:10 But but but as we all know, I shouldn't speak for you.
20:14 As as as my
20:17 food consumer body will share.
20:20 Yes. That, you know, there when I'm now engaging in sports,
20:26 it's with a bowl of chips on one side, a bowl of dip on the other side
20:30 and a pizza in front of me.
20:32 And, you know, so, you know, food is central to the sports experience.
20:37 Yeah, it's just never been so.
20:40 So anyway, so it was just one of these things where, you know, we said.
20:44 Pickleball has a kitchen, let's, you know, try to turn that kitchen
20:49 into the kitchen spelled KITCH apostrophe N.
20:53 Let's let's make it a kitchen.
20:56 Well, what I love about your background and that, you know, specific integration
21:01 for a brand is not just the awareness, but it's thinking outside of the box.
21:06 I think it's something that's so important for anybody
21:09 that's listening to this show to think about the opportunities
21:13 that we have now because of the Internet.
21:15 I mean, we we act like the Internet's been around forever, but it really hasn't.
21:19 When you think about how fast things have changed,
21:22 you know, you would think that somebody with your background
21:25 would be launching a TV show or, you know, something, a streaming show.
21:30 But yet here you are creating a platform, essentially a tech company
21:34 to help creators and restaurateurs to share their gifts with the world,
21:39 you know, to give them an opportunity to monetize.
21:42 You know, it's something that at the core belief of what we believe on this show
21:46 is that there's other opportunities for hospitality professionals
21:51 to build sustainable businesses, more profitable businesses
21:54 than what we typically see within the four walls of a restaurant.
21:58 When you can you tell me about Sag Harbor Kitchen?
22:02 Well, you know, it's it's I guess part of that.
22:07 That is that part of the story?
22:09 Part of that out of the box that you talk about.
22:11 You know, I'm some some days I feel like,
22:17 you know, somebody should have hit me on the head with a hammer
22:19 and put me back in that box.
22:22 But it's exciting that way.
22:25 Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
22:26 I think it's, you know, parts of it have been a combination
22:30 of the bear meets Hell's Kitchen.
22:34 But, you know, I was telling someone the other night, was it
22:38 you know, Yogi had some great yogiism about, you know, luck versus skill
22:43 that it was, you know, 75 percent luck and, you know, 80 percent skill
22:47 or something like that.
22:49 And, you know, I so so, you know, this this has been, you know,
22:54 Sag Harbor Kitchen has been, you know, 90 percent joy and 75 percent hell.
22:58 And but, you know, it feels like
23:03 it's not the head headlight of a train, but there's light at the end of the tunnel.
23:08 We actually have an amazing
23:10 new guest chef who is in the middle of starting.
23:15 I wish I could tell you about, but I can't yet.
23:17 Not yet. But, you know, I think that what I realized was and there were
23:24 there were, you know, two motivations behind Sag Harbor Kitchen.
23:28 One was the sort of, you know.
23:33 Everybody's fantasy of a certain generation of having their own shares.
23:39 And, you know, I just have always loved the hospitality business.
23:44 There was an amazing location not too far from where we live in
23:48 in Sag Harbor that was had become available.
23:52 And, you know, I knew enough to make me dangerous.
23:56 And I said, oh, this should be fun.
23:58 But fun and easy.
24:01 Yeah. But but, you know, the reality is, is I as I thought about it
24:06 and I thought about, you know, whether I was just, you know, partially insane
24:11 or fully insane, we're all I thought, you know, I thought.
24:15 Congratulations. Welcome to the club.
24:17 Yeah. Thank you.
24:18 I, you know, I realize that
24:20 one of the factors that was really important to my success
24:27 in the media business as as a business owner
24:30 was that I started as a writer.
24:32 I started as a producer.
24:34 I started as an editor.
24:35 I really understood it from the inside out.
24:38 So, you know, I wasn't just talking the talk.
24:41 I was walking the walk, you know, and understood when a producer came into my office
24:45 and said, I want to do this.
24:48 I could with credibility say, well, you know, that's a little bit too expensive
24:53 or that doesn't feel like it's the right way to do it.
24:55 What about this?
24:56 And I understood what they were trying to achieve.
24:59 And, you know, I was loving what was happening with Kitsch,
25:03 but realized that I was learning a new language
25:07 and that I could talk the talk.
25:09 But I didn't really understand when a chef would say, no,
25:12 I don't have time to do this stream or I don't have time to do this,
25:15 especially as we came out of covid.
25:19 I thought, you know, I realized that I really didn't understand
25:24 what they were dealing with on a day to day basis.
25:27 And I thought that the best way to create the best business
25:31 and the best product long term of the greatest service and the greatest value,
25:36 both for consumers and for creators,
25:38 was to actually try to step into their shoes.
25:42 And so Sag Harbor Kitchen has been a really wonderful.
25:48 I mean, I've learned more in the past three or four months
25:52 than I have in five years.
25:55 And, you know, you you you're you're smiling because, you know,
26:01 you know, learning, you know, I've somehow survived 15 years.
26:05 Yeah. Yeah.
26:06 You know, there's that business, you know, there's that that ancient proverb about,
26:11 you know, may your life be interesting, which is an insult.
26:13 You know, learning.
26:16 Yeah, I learned, for example, when I spoke to our
26:20 hot or our kitchen consultant
26:24 and I went through a list of equipment that I thought would be great
26:27 to have in the kitchen,
26:29 he said to me, how big is your hood?
26:32 And I said, what are you talking about?
26:35 And he said, well, you know, you've just specked about four hundred
26:38 and ten inches worth of equipment.
26:40 And so, you know, you must you must have like a 30 foot hood.
26:44 And it was the first time that I understood that you needed
26:49 to actually calculate how much room you had under the hood.
26:52 Yeah. You know, and for me, this was all, you know,
26:56 it was stuff that that that
26:59 made so much sense, but had never known.
27:04 Yeah. And so, you know, it's it's really been
27:07 an unbelievable experience,
27:13 learning experience, learning toast, learning Rezzy.
27:18 You guys use you guys use toast.
27:22 We we use toast and, you know,
27:27 and so it's really been sort of walking the walk.
27:31 It's amazing. And I think, you know, what's interesting for me
27:34 when I think of Kitsch and I think of you in the restaurant business,
27:39 worrying about the hood space and the equipment space.
27:42 What I think about is the long term of what you're building,
27:46 the things that we talk about on this show, which is this is an evolution
27:50 of what used to be an open kitchen.
27:52 The idea of an open kitchen was we had knocked down a wall
27:55 and let the rest let the guests inside the restaurant
27:58 take a look and see what the chef was cooking.
28:01 What I'm talking about, what you're building is how do you put cameras
28:05 into the kitchen so that the entire world, anyone that has access
28:10 can now be a part of that story?
28:13 And maybe they see a recipe that, you know, my wife is Bulgarian.
28:17 I go every year to Bulgaria.
28:19 I go to the village.
28:20 We eat Bulgarian food because I'm so active on social media.
28:24 I post pictures of Bulgarian food.
28:26 So all of the people that follow me, they now know about what Bulgarian dishes
28:31 are just because of storytelling, just because of our access.
28:35 When you think about I wish we had I wish we had spoken
28:39 two nights ago when I was sharing with someone
28:42 who was eating our watermelon salad, yeah, was asking what made it so delicious.
28:46 And I said, it's the Bulgarian feta.
28:49 Oh, you have a Bulgarian feta.
28:50 That's a Bulgarian magic.
28:52 And I said, it's the Bulgarian feta.
28:55 Unfortunately, the conversation didn't end there because he said,
28:58 tell me about Bulgarian feta.
29:00 Yes. And I sort of paused and I said, you know, it's the Bulgarian sheep.
29:04 It is. But but but, you know, I mean, it's really, you know,
29:11 what you're saying is so true.
29:13 But it gets to the heart of why I care about everything that we do.
29:17 I care about the people that listen to this show.
29:19 I care about, you know, the brands that have believed in us
29:22 that are doing the things we do.
29:23 I was so excited to have you on the show is that it's big.
29:28 We spend so much time in the hospitality business taking care of our village,
29:31 taking care of our community, trying to build a sustainable business
29:35 so that we can support those that work for us, our friends, our family.
29:38 And we do that. But it's bigger than that.
29:41 You know, it's bigger than that when you open up a restaurant.
29:44 But it can't be unless you have the tools, which now we have the tools.
29:48 We have smartphones.
29:50 We have we don't know and we don't need to go and create it
29:52 because someone like you has decided I'm going to go and build kitsch.
29:56 I'm going to figure out what we need to do to build a platform
30:00 that's exciting, that's accessible, and that's going to allow creators
30:04 and chefs to come into a space and share their gifts with the world.
30:08 What gets you excited about the future of the platform that you're building?
30:13 You know, I would say what gets me excited
30:18 and what makes me worried are very close to each other.
30:21 And it's it's really sort of, you know, very, very
30:26 directly related to what you're describing, because, you know,
30:30 I think that there's not enough conversation about
30:34 what I would describe as the the enemy in our midst.
30:39 And that is there are billions of dollars
30:45 being invested right now in ghost kitchens
30:50 to create pseudo fake brands that are done
30:55 without a human being with a story to tell behind it.
30:59 Yeah. And as an industry,
31:02 we've got the challenge of labor costs,
31:06 of real estate costs and all of those things that are very real.
31:10 But what a shame it would be if the human experiences
31:15 and the immigrants whose first restaurant, who first whose first jobs
31:19 in our country were in restaurants and then went on to open their own,
31:23 creating the amazing diversity of food that's available in this country.
31:27 If suddenly you had 10 conglomerates controlling
31:31 10,000 restaurant brands that they do a good enough job
31:36 in the the creation of those brands,
31:40 the consumers lose sight of the fact that these are just all conglomerate
31:43 driven brands, especially for delivery.
31:46 I'm in a place in the major urban markets where and so,
31:51 you know, I think that it's it's more important than ever
31:55 that chefs and creators get out front of it
31:59 and they tell their stories and they share their stories.
32:03 They create these bonds with a small and a large community that
32:09 that shows that they're human beings behind the food
32:14 and that there's passion behind it and there's love behind it
32:18 and that it's not just some cool logo on a menu.
32:22 And so, you know, for me, I think that what excites me
32:27 is the opportunity to create a deeper, deeper engagement
32:33 between creators and consumers and brands.
32:39 But what worries me is that if creators and chefs
32:45 don't take it seriously
32:48 and just feel like, you know, all I need is my little bricks and mortar.
32:53 And that's sort of as long as I do that, well, everything will be OK.
32:59 You know, it's it's not, you know, to try to scare people,
33:04 but it's they're going to wake up one day and realize that
33:07 they're at the bottom of a delivery page
33:12 and on top are 35 brands
33:16 that have deep, deep pockets and much lower costs.
33:19 And nobody cares.
33:21 And so, you know, for me, I really look at what we're doing as being
33:29 so important in not that what we're doing is important,
33:34 but the importance of saving a craft and saving a
33:40 a passion from sort of,
33:46 you know, really an industry that's spending as much money as they can
33:51 to try to disintermediate it.
33:53 So, you know, that's I I agree with you.
33:57 We we are in ghost kitchens.
34:00 We call them friendly ghost kitchens because we prefer to share the story
34:03 of where the barbecue is smoked at our original smokehouse.
34:07 And the more that we share the story, the the closer that the where
34:11 we distribute that barbecue, people are connected to it.
34:14 Yeah. When you and by the way, I think that there I agree with you.
34:20 I think that there's a very fine line between what I'll call conglomerate
34:24 or maybe not so fine conglomerate ghost kitchens
34:28 and creating business opportunities for entrepreneurs like yourself
34:32 who want to expand their businesses.
34:35 It's sort of like, you know, Airbnb, where you started with one room
34:38 and suddenly you own ten apartments and you have a business.
34:41 It's, you know, those to me, you know, it's sort of I look at ghost kitchens
34:47 as friend or foe is, you know, how do you how do you create
34:52 and grow what you're describing
34:55 wonderfully as friendly ghost kitchens
34:58 versus faceless conglomerate ghost kitchens?
35:02 I couldn't agree more.
35:03 I was very fortunate to spend some time with the former co-founder
35:08 of Uber, Travis Kalanick.
35:10 We were in his cloud kitchens.
35:11 I sat in front of him, you know, talked about our brand, Kali Barbecue,
35:16 Kali Barbecue Media, why I believe in friendly ghost kitchens, why I believe
35:19 in, you know, a rising tide lifting all ships, more stories being told.
35:24 You know, not just the individual stories of the kitchens,
35:27 but all of the kitchens telling a story on platforms like this,
35:31 on platforms like Kitsch.
35:32 I wish I had known about you at the time.
35:34 But for me, it's interesting because I truly believe this.
35:40 This is something that I live every single day.
35:43 I made an example when I was talking to Travis in front of his team
35:47 was that he should create the Yes Network.
35:50 That was my example.
35:52 Can you bring me back to why
35:55 specifically when you get down to the niche, when you niche down,
35:59 when you were a part of launching Yes Network, why in that idea,
36:03 the same idea of Court TV, the same idea of Nick at Night,
36:08 the same idea of ESPN Classic, it's so niche
36:11 that most people probably told you that it wouldn't work.
36:14 Yet we all know how successful all of those properties have become.
36:18 Yeah, you know, I think that that it's all about community.
36:24 And, you know, early in my career, someone said to me
36:28 that they would rather have a thousand people
36:32 who really care than one hundred thousand people who don't.
36:35 And, you know, and I think that if you
36:39 if you think about starting with a passionate, small community,
36:44 you realize that those communities are much bigger than they seem to be.
36:48 And that if you try to be everything to everybody
36:53 and go after these these broad brushstrokes,
36:57 you can never create these bonds,
37:01 this sort of eye contact
37:04 with everybody at once.
37:06 But you can have a very close relationship
37:10 with a very small community that starts to talk about you and helps you grow.
37:16 And, you know, and I think that that, you know, all of the businesses
37:21 that I've had the privilege of being involved in
37:24 sort of share that common bond of,
37:28 you know, not trying to be the biggest kid on the block,
37:33 but trying to serve a need that
37:39 sort of felt like if you I mean, you know, classic sports, a great example of,
37:46 you know, when my partner and I sat in this old fight promoter, Bill
37:51 Caton's little dusty office, looking at old Muhammad Ali films
37:56 and calling our wives.
37:57 And we said we'd be home at six and at eight.
38:00 We said we'd be home at nine and at nine.
38:03 We said we'd be home at 11.
38:04 We were there until probably three in the morning.
38:06 And we looked at each other and said, you know, if only people had access
38:12 to see what we're watching right now, they would watch it.
38:15 Is, you know, it begins with that.
38:19 You know, I'm one of those people who believes that you need to
38:24 to to really love the business that you're doing
38:27 is you need to create a business that you love.
38:31 And, you know, if you love it,
38:35 you can it becomes much easier to help others
38:39 understand what you love and to help them love it.
38:42 And so, you know, it's it's, you know, really for me, these these niches
38:49 turn out to be not so little.
38:52 But what makes them.
38:53 Available for entrepreneurs
38:57 is that they're small enough that the big conglomerates,
39:02 the the big companies look at them as being sort of meaningless mosquitoes.
39:08 And so, you know, it's sort of sneaking under their radar
39:12 of of not being too annoying
39:16 and building it in a bit in the dark.
39:20 Love it. So every single Wednesday, every single Friday
39:24 on the social audio app Clubhouse at 10 a.m.
39:26 Pacific Time, 1 p.m. Eastern Time.
39:29 We invite you, the listener, the viewer, somebody that's listening to the show
39:33 to come on stage, tell us about your restaurant.
39:35 If you're a creator, if you're in restaurant sales or marketing or technology
39:39 and we have digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
39:42 It's a chance for me to learn your story.
39:45 We are booked out on restaurant influencers for the rest of this year.
39:48 Once again, thank you to Toast for giving us that opportunity.
39:51 But if you want to be on this show, best way is to come on stage on Clubhouse
39:57 and pitch us your idea.
39:59 Every week we get a social shout out.
40:01 This week's shout out goes to Matt Wampler.
40:03 He is the tech founder of Clear Cogs.
40:07 We use Clear Cogs at Cali Barbecue.
40:09 Matt, thank you for showing up and bringing your leadership to the stage.
40:12 But I wanted to give Brian an opportunity.
40:15 One shout out. One person.
40:18 Part of the community, part of the team that you get to give a special
40:23 appreciation to.
40:25 Oh boy, is that tough.
40:27 Yeah, I know. It's on Entrepreneur.
40:29 It's going to be there forever.
40:30 Yeah, yeah. There's a...
40:33 You know, I love, the same way you love all of your kids the same.
40:38 I love all of our creators the same.
40:40 But there is one creator who,
40:45 you know, I would say is extra special to us, named Kara Hollinger,
40:49 who has, who goes by Calabama,
40:52 who during COVID used to lower breakfast
40:57 sandwiches from her fourth story fire escape in LA in a bucket.
41:01 And now has her own hot sauce and has really,
41:06 you know, built a business around what started during COVID,
41:10 serving her community with breakfast sandwiches lowered from her fire escape.
41:16 And just has the most wonderful, positive energy and spirit.
41:22 And, you know, I'm proud to give her a shout out.
41:26 I love it. And if somebody that's listening to this wants to get involved,
41:30 do they just go to Kitch.com or are you accepting new creators,
41:34 new restaurateurs?
41:35 We are. Go to Kitch.com.
41:38 There's a link to apply.
41:40 We're actively, you know,
41:44 accepting new creators and we've got some new technologies that are going to
41:49 be introduced over the next couple of weeks to couple of months that,
41:54 you know, we're super excited about and, you know, hopefully we'll
41:59 continue to fulfill the promise of creating business
42:03 opportunities for chefs and other culinary
42:08 experts that supplement their,
42:11 there can either be primary or supplementary opportunities.
42:15 It's fantastic. So I've got a couple of quick questions.
42:18 We believe in smartphone storytelling. So anybody that's listening to this,
42:22 no one's coming to tell your story.
42:24 So that's why we're grateful to have this incredible technology in our pocket.
42:29 But I want to know, does Brian have an iPhone or an Android?
42:32 iPhone.
42:34 Latest version or?
42:36 Close, close to latest version. It took me three years to,
42:41 I don't know if it's the latest latest, but it's, it's pretty, pretty recent.
42:45 Do you prefer texts or calls?
42:48 Text.
42:49 Do you prefer email or texts?
42:52 Text.
42:54 What is your favorite app that you use?
42:57 Resi.
43:06 Resi. Okay, nice. What is your least favorite app?
43:10 X.
43:15 Are you, you, you are on X. I'm following you on X.
43:21 Yeah. I haven't, I haven't posted on X in a long time, unless they're,
43:24 they're auto posts, but I'm pretty disappointed by
43:30 what's happened to what used to be a great platform.
43:32 Do you prefer photos or videos?
43:35 Videos.
43:38 How many emails do you get a day?
43:41 A hundred,
43:46 150.
43:48 Do you, are you an inbox zero or do you leave them on red?
43:51 Inbox billion.
43:55 Do you listen to music? Which music app do you use to listen to music?
44:03 Spotify.
44:05 Spotify. Fair enough. Well, Brian,
44:08 I truly appreciate the time if people want to connect with you.
44:12 I know you're on LinkedIn. Is that okay for people to absolutely LinkedIn and
44:16 connect with you there?
44:17 Yep. Absolutely. And if anyone's in the Long Island area,
44:20 we're always looking for cook servers, runners, busters.
44:24 So I'll give it that pitch too. That Sag Harbor kitchen is,
44:29 is rocking and we're growing. So,
44:36 I will send some friends over to Sag Harbor kitchen. And when I make it over,
44:40 I will, I will definitely come and see you as well.
44:42 We would love that.
44:44 And if you ever make it to San Diego, please come by for some,
44:47 some West coast barbecue.
44:48 Can't wait.
44:50 We have a, we have a barbecue media studio, so I'd love to show you around,
44:55 show you what we're building.
44:56 I'd love to see it. I'd love to see it.
44:59 Well, Brian, thank you so much for your time.
45:01 If you guys want to get in touch with me, it's at Sean P Walsh F S H a W N P
45:06 W a L C H E F. We are grateful.
45:09 Please share this episode with a friend and we will catch you all next week.
45:12 Thank you.
45:13 The best way that you can help us with the show is to subscribe and write a
45:17 review. We love the opportunity to connect with you,
45:21 no matter where you are on the globe, no matter what restaurant you are running,
45:25 please send us a DM on social at Sean P Walsh F.
45:29 If you are interested in toast,
45:31 if you want to improve your digital hospitality, please send me a DM.
45:35 I will get you in touch with a local toast representative.
45:39 We appreciate you listening to this show.
45:41 The best way that you can help the show is share it with a friend and we will
45:44 catch you all next week,
45:46 or we will see you on one of the digital playgrounds that we call social media.