Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen founders Yonnie Hagos and Ajay Relan were intentional in creating a mission-driven space. The Hilltop team (including entrepreneur/entertainer Issa Rae) consistently exceeds guest expectations with welcoming community spaces and family-like hospitality.
Watch now to learn about creating a place for the community, why to use new restaurant technology, and how coffee is a ritual.
Watch now to learn about creating a place for the community, why to use new restaurant technology, and how coffee is a ritual.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 - Welcome to Restaurant Influencers
00:02 presented by Entrepreneur.
00:03 My name is Sean Walchef,
00:04 founder of Cali BBQ and Cali BBQ Media.
00:08 In life, in the restaurant business,
00:10 and in the new creator economy,
00:12 we learn through lessons and stories.
00:14 We are filming at Hilltop Coffee and Kitchen
00:18 in downtown LA at one of the many locations
00:21 these gentlemen have mastermind.
00:23 I have AJ Rolan, Yoni Hagost, founders,
00:28 along with Issa Rae.
00:30 Thank you for having us.
00:31 - Thank you.
00:32 - Really, really appreciate it.
00:33 It's an honor for me to come to a location
00:38 that's closed now,
00:41 but when I walked in today at 1130 with my team
00:44 to get set up to shoot content,
00:47 I could feel the energy.
00:48 I could feel the vibe.
00:50 I could feel what I saw digitally.
00:53 This is a storytelling podcast.
00:54 This is a podcast where we teach the hospitality industry
00:59 that your story matters,
01:00 and what you guys are doing in the heart of Los Angeles,
01:03 where you're from, matters.
01:05 Can you share a little bit about the vision
01:08 of how did you two find each other?
01:10 Who found who?
01:13 - We kind of found each other.
01:14 I actually met Yoni about 15 years ago.
01:18 He was a bouncer at a really popular sports bar,
01:21 and we became friends,
01:23 and I actually had the privilege of watching him
01:26 really develop a passion for the restaurant industry,
01:29 become a manager, become an assistant general manager,
01:31 eventually becoming a GM,
01:34 opening the next location of that sports concept,
01:37 and we just stayed friends.
01:38 And in a very interesting turn of events,
01:40 we were able to acquire that establishment.
01:43 So that's kind of how we got in the restaurant business.
01:46 - What did you think of AJ when you met him?
01:48 - He drank a lot.
01:49 (laughing)
01:51 But I was serving him, so.
01:53 - Yeah, and you were drinking with him.
01:54 - And I was drinking with him.
01:55 - Oh, fair enough, fair enough.
01:57 - He was the enabler.
01:58 - So can you bring me to the mission statement?
02:02 I mean, I know there's multiple mission statements,
02:04 but I know that when you put something out into the world,
02:08 it allows the creative people that you bring onto your team
02:11 to have that vision.
02:12 Can you tell me about what we have up here on the wall?
02:14 - Yeah, so I think Hilltop was very mission-driven
02:18 and always intentional with the type of brand
02:20 we wanted to build,
02:21 as we were thinking about what was next for us
02:23 in our hospitality career,
02:25 what we wanted to kind of expand on,
02:28 you know, sports and drinking.
02:31 We kind of evolved out of that,
02:32 and we started thinking about
02:33 where we were spending a lot of our times.
02:35 We became dads, and we started thinking about
02:39 a lot of the spaces we were spending time in
02:41 were coffee shops.
02:42 And we thought that,
02:43 we had the idea to open our first location in South LA,
02:47 which is an area where both of us grew up,
02:49 an area that was,
02:50 spent a lot of our formative years,
02:52 kind of made us who we are,
02:53 and an area that is kind of long-deserved,
02:56 more just quality, sophisticated options.
02:59 And they just kind of come few and far between.
03:01 There's a lot of fast food options there.
03:03 There's some great local establishments,
03:06 but we thought we wanted to kind of bring everything
03:08 into the current day.
03:09 And we thought of the idea for Hilltop.
03:11 - So you guys had the sports bar business,
03:13 very successful.
03:14 This is kind of version 2.0, as you said,
03:17 becoming dads, going back to the roots.
03:20 Bring me into the creative process of brand building,
03:24 of the name Hilltop.
03:25 - That's, yeah.
03:28 - Well, to be honest, the name--
03:30 - You got that one?
03:32 - The name actually came from,
03:35 you know, we thought we found this location
03:36 that's very obscure,
03:38 kind of a terrible location, honestly.
03:39 - I know all about that.
03:41 - It's all in the back of a building.
03:43 And one day I was standing in the middle of the street
03:45 and I called Yoni, I was like,
03:46 we should call this cafe,
03:47 what do you think of the name Hilltop?
03:48 Because we were literally standing on the top of a hill.
03:51 And so that's where the origin came from.
03:53 But as we kind of thought more
03:55 about what we wanted to represent,
03:56 we knew we wanted to create a cafe or a coffee shop.
03:59 We knew we wanted to bring quality ingredients
04:02 to this community, this has long deserved it.
04:04 We knew we wanted to hire people from that community
04:07 or do our best and, you know,
04:09 do our best to teach leadership and entrepreneurship
04:12 through entry-level employment.
04:13 And then we, and then most importantly,
04:15 we wanted to create a space where our patrons
04:17 can come and do coffee shop.
04:19 Can we curse on here?
04:20 - Yeah, this is entrepreneurial.
04:21 - We wanted to create a place for people
04:24 to come and do coffee shop shit, right?
04:26 And it was a lot of creativity,
04:27 a lot of community organizing,
04:29 a lot of things that kind of advance humanity
04:30 who often start inside of a coffee shop.
04:33 So when you're thinking about the space that we wanted to,
04:36 to your point, like we wanted to create something
04:38 that had this energy built into it,
04:40 that had this vibe into it,
04:41 every step of the process, every step of the product,
04:45 whether the patron wasn't,
04:46 it wasn't in their patron's face or not,
04:48 it was something that we wanted to bleed
04:49 with every single choice that we made.
04:51 So we thought about just this idea,
04:53 what Hilltop actually meant.
04:54 It was just this thing that kind of connects us
04:56 all as human beings.
04:57 We're all climbing something.
04:58 We all have goals.
04:59 We all have obstacles that we need to overcome
05:01 to achieve those goals.
05:02 So we're all climbing our own hilltops.
05:05 - When you have a big vision,
05:06 the execution part is the part where you go,
05:11 'cause if you think about it, a coffee shop,
05:13 that's an incredible business.
05:16 You guys aren't a coffee shop.
05:18 You have phenomenal coffee, but you're a full-on restaurant.
05:21 You're a full-on gathering place.
05:23 Like you're a full-on hospitality brand.
05:25 How do you go, how do you take that
05:28 and actually execute it and go,
05:29 "Well, are we just doing pastries
05:31 or are we doing a full-on incredible menu
05:33 like all the things that you guys offer?"
05:35 - Yeah, I think, yeah, we approached it as a coffee shop
05:37 and I think a good, a sign of a good restaurateur
05:42 is really listening to your customers
05:43 and adjusting from there.
05:44 And that's exactly what we did.
05:46 We saw the P-mix and we saw what people wanted.
05:49 We saw what people were ordering
05:50 and we decided to expand on that.
05:52 And to speak to the execution part,
05:55 it's all about the team.
05:56 Like we've been very fortunate
05:58 to attract amazing people to our team
06:00 and it shows in our experience.
06:03 - How do you attract, I mean,
06:04 we can say attract people to the team,
06:06 but how does it actually happen?
06:09 - I think for us, we do a lot of manifesting.
06:11 (laughing)
06:13 - You tell people what's gonna go down.
06:15 - So we talk about it.
06:16 I mean, it's just having conversations and networking
06:19 and knowing when you find the right people.
06:21 Yeah, we're very slow to hire, right?
06:25 So we take our time, we make sure we have the right people
06:27 and every hire matters
06:29 and making sure everyone fits within the culture
06:32 that we're trying to build.
06:33 And we're very intentional about how we do that
06:36 and it's definitely showed.
06:39 - Has there been any mistakes or any stories
06:41 along the way of something that somebody
06:43 that's listening to this could learn
06:45 from going from one coffee shop to the second coffee shop?
06:48 - I mean, the big thing for us is slow to hire,
06:50 quick to fire.
06:51 Once you know someone's not gonna work,
06:53 it's time to move on.
06:54 'Cause it's pretty obvious.
06:56 And I think you fight that sometimes
06:59 just out of basic human nature,
07:00 just wanting to try to make something fit when it doesn't.
07:04 But I think moving on from people quickly saves them
07:06 and it also saves you.
07:08 So that's something that we really try to enforce.
07:11 - Every business is a family business.
07:14 Whether we like it or not,
07:18 how do you incorporate your family values into your business?
07:23 - I think to Yoni's point,
07:26 everything for us when building this brand
07:29 has really been intentional.
07:30 And a lot of it has come from our lived experience,
07:32 both from growing up in the community
07:33 that we launched this concept in,
07:35 as well as the families that are a lot of our peers
07:39 that we grew up with and now have young families.
07:41 And we effectively wanted to create something for ourselves.
07:44 We're filling a need for it.
07:45 We both now found a way to both now live back
07:48 in the community where we grew up.
07:50 So effectively everything that we built,
07:52 we're building for ourselves.
07:53 It kind of passes our taste tests,
07:56 both from a product standpoint,
07:58 but also from an experience standpoint.
08:00 And I think a big thing that's important for us,
08:04 particularly in this day and age,
08:05 is just kind of creating environments
08:06 that are conducive for connection.
08:08 There's so many different things that are,
08:09 to your point earlier when we were chatting before this,
08:12 is there's so many things that compete for our attention.
08:14 And how do we give people a reprieve,
08:17 even if it's for a moment,
08:18 even if it's from one of our team members,
08:20 greeting them with a smile,
08:22 to delivering a quality meal and a quality beverage.
08:25 So everything is really through this lens
08:28 of quality, connection.
08:30 And when we think about the impact that we make,
08:32 the best type of impact you can't measure, right?
08:34 It's how do you make somebody feel?
08:36 And there's no barometer for that.
08:38 You just kind of go with it.
08:40 - What does giving back look like
08:43 in an organization like yours?
08:44 - In terms of internally,
08:48 I think we really try hard to hire
08:51 from the communities that we're in
08:53 and taking those people that might not have
08:56 a lot of experience and training them up.
08:59 I think we're proud to say that every store manager
09:01 that we have of all four of our locations right now
09:04 has started off as a barista or a cook,
09:06 and they're all managers.
09:08 We actually had a moment,
09:10 we have a weekly leadership call,
09:12 and we went around,
09:14 'cause we were introducing everyone to a new employee,
09:17 and everyone said what they did before,
09:21 said that they're the new manager,
09:22 and everyone's, "I've been here for three, four years."
09:24 And it was just, even now,
09:25 it just kind of gives you goosebumps
09:27 just thinking about it.
09:28 We're actually living out this mission.
09:29 We're actually living out,
09:31 we're executing on what we wanted to do,
09:33 and it's working.
09:34 - Slawson, tell the story.
09:39 - So yeah, it's another labor of love
09:45 that's kind of rooted in attention,
09:46 but it was actually an idea that was thought of
09:48 inside of our Hilltop Slawson location.
09:52 It's a mission-driven venture capital firm
09:55 rooted in this idea of economic inclusion.
09:57 So it's a natural progression of everything
09:58 that we've done here at Hilltop,
10:00 except it's more, whenever we talk about
10:02 what it is that we do, we feed people.
10:05 In this case, we're feeding people,
10:07 literally, it's our business model.
10:09 Out of our old sports bar location,
10:11 we launched a community event that we host every month
10:15 that would, where we bring our regulars
10:17 and our friends together to feed people
10:19 experiencing homelessness in our local community there,
10:22 and now this new venture, we're able to feed people.
10:24 - What was that initiative called?
10:26 - It's called #Lunchbag.
10:27 - And how many cities did this initiative spread?
10:30 - It was amazing, man.
10:32 It was something that we thought of
10:33 that we started at the parlor and through social media,
10:35 it grew to over 150 cities all over the world.
10:37 - What is it?
10:38 - It's basically, it's kind of framed
10:41 as this party with a purpose,
10:43 and the whole idea, not dissimilar from how we kind of
10:47 promote and market our establishments,
10:49 is this idea of bringing people together
10:51 from diverse backgrounds that otherwise
10:52 may not necessarily be in a room
10:54 and giving them something that they don't necessarily
10:56 know that they need.
10:56 We all have this innate feeling that we,
10:59 there's 170 religions in the world
11:01 and you only have one thing in common,
11:02 and it's love thy neighbor and help your fellow man.
11:05 Lift other people up.
11:07 So, proud to say that that's kind of become,
11:10 proud to say that that's kind of become
11:14 core to the DNA of everything that we do.
11:16 - For you two, when you think big picture
11:21 and you think about, we're here in downtown LA,
11:24 tell me about this space before we go on.
11:28 - Yeah.
11:29 - Yeah, I think-
11:29 - Is this part of the master plan?
11:30 - Yeah, I mean, it's always been,
11:34 we wanna take LA from Pasadena to Long Beach, right?
11:37 From downtown to Santa Monica,
11:39 and really pepper in these hilltops.
11:42 And fortunately, our director of operations
11:44 had a relationship with the landlord here,
11:47 and we were able to kind of seamlessly
11:49 integrate into a space that's beautiful, right?
11:52 And we got to put our fingerprint on it,
11:53 and I think people really appreciate
11:56 what we've been able to do here.
11:57 - What else are you gonna do here?
11:59 This is gonna be released at a later time.
12:02 You can go ahead and break the news.
12:03 I'm sure the news, we'll already have B-roll footage
12:06 of what's happening.
12:08 - So, I'm sure AJ can talk more to the concept,
12:10 but we have a rooftop bar that we're gonna be opening here.
12:12 - You're gonna get lost up there?
12:13 - Pretty soon, yeah, we're gonna get lost.
12:15 - Tell us about what's gonna go down.
12:16 - Yeah, so, I mean, first of all, to Yoni's point,
12:18 having a hilltop on Hill Street,
12:20 which is exactly where we're located downtown,
12:23 was kind of a no-brainer, we had to do it.
12:25 And so, yeah, we had a great opportunity
12:27 to open a rooftop bar concept here,
12:29 partnered with the folks that are the owners
12:34 of the building, great folks,
12:35 and then had this idea to effectively take everything
12:39 that we had done, everything as a natural progression
12:42 of everything that we did before.
12:43 So, our sports bar was kind of the local staple.
12:48 It was an institution, it was open for 12 years,
12:50 and it was in West Hollywood,
12:51 which is a very fickle market.
12:52 So, it was, so this is more,
12:55 this is just an amazing opportunity
12:57 to be able to kind of juxtapose the urban environment,
13:01 sorry, juxtapose the urban environment
13:04 that we're in in downtown with something
13:05 that's really floral and plant-driven
13:07 and something that helps people.
13:08 We always say, during the week,
13:09 you can find your hilltop downstairs,
13:11 and on nights and weekends, you can get lost.
13:13 - You can come here before a Laker game?
13:15 - Exactly.
13:15 - Does that work?
13:16 - Yeah.
13:17 - Okay, good.
13:18 How did Issa come into the, Issa Rae,
13:20 how did she come into the picture?
13:23 - That was a funny story, actually.
13:24 Right before we opened up our Slauson location,
13:27 her show, "Insecure," had a storyline
13:30 around this block party that she was gonna throw.
13:33 And it was the day before we did
13:34 our friends and family opening,
13:36 and I looked at him, I'm like,
13:37 that block party's gonna be in this parking lot.
13:39 It is kind of a throwaway comment,
13:41 but to his point earlier on, we're--
13:43 - Building in public.
13:44 - We're some manifestors.
13:45 - Put your intentions out there.
13:46 - And then, you know, we were able,
13:48 we were fortunate enough to be really well-received
13:50 by the community out of the gate.
13:52 You know, people felt the intention
13:54 that we were putting into the brand,
13:56 and we had a bunch of mutual friends with her.
13:58 She grew up in the same neighborhood,
14:00 still lived in the same neighborhood,
14:02 and we were able to link up, get to know each other,
14:05 share a little bit about what we were doing with Hilltop,
14:08 and we kind of asked her, like,
14:09 what would you be doing if you weren't taking over Hollywood?
14:11 And her whole thing was like, I was,
14:14 I thought of, I spent a lot of time in coffee shops.
14:17 You know, if this thing didn't work out,
14:19 I'd probably have to work at a coffee shop.
14:21 And then I'm like, well, and then, you know,
14:23 she just had an innate love for just coffee shops
14:26 and the space and the creativity that they kind of bred,
14:29 and it was such an easy conversation to have.
14:31 We're like, we'd love to have you in the huddle.
14:33 This makes so much sense.
14:34 We can't think of anybody that's more aligned,
14:37 and that was five years ago.
14:38 - What kind of advice, because partnerships
14:41 with somebody that is as high-profile as she is,
14:43 they, most of the time, they might not work.
14:47 - Yeah.
14:48 - What kind of advice do you have to somebody
14:50 that's trying to do something with the best of intentions?
14:53 - It ultimately comes down to alignment, right?
14:56 You have to have an alignment of values,
14:57 an alignment of, you know, we've done stuff
15:00 with other folks before that are high-profile,
15:02 and to nobody's fault.
15:04 We just didn't, the brand alignment of who they were
15:07 and what they were, who they were in the world
15:09 didn't necessarily line up with what it was,
15:12 with the experience that we were creating for people.
15:14 And I think that customers nowadays are very smart.
15:17 They're very intelligent.
15:18 You were sharing how smart your kids,
15:20 your young children are in terms of college.
15:21 - My children are very smart.
15:22 My six-year-old and four-year-old are very smart.
15:25 They know when they're getting advertised.
15:26 - People can sniff out when you're full of shit, right?
15:29 And you just have to give the customer
15:31 all the credit in the world,
15:32 because there's a lot of things.
15:33 They could be spending their money anywhere.
15:35 And if for one minute, they don't feel like you're authentic
15:39 or the sincerity of intent is not there,
15:42 then, you know, you start to lose them.
15:46 For you, I know there's one woman in particular
15:50 that works behind the scenes to make all the magic happen.
15:53 She helped us set up these interviews today, this content.
15:56 She makes the story come alive on digital,
16:00 as well as all the other million things that she does.
16:03 How do you feel working with your wife
16:05 and how do you guys maintain balance and sanity as you do?
16:08 You also are a father.
16:10 - Yeah, yeah.
16:10 I mean, it has its ups and downs,
16:14 but overall, I don't think we could ask for anyone better
16:18 that really understands what we're trying to do.
16:21 There's a sense of safety there,
16:22 knowing that this person has your best interest in mind.
16:25 Because again, she is speaking for the brand
16:28 and she's walking through the dining rooms,
16:31 touching tables, speaking to all the guests.
16:33 Yeah, and I think we're very fortunate to have her around.
16:37 - At what scale does she get some help?
16:39 (all laughing)
16:42 - At how many restaurants?
16:44 - So that's, okay.
16:45 So you clearly had a conversation before.
16:48 (all laughing)
16:49 - No, I mean, we live in the media, the storytelling world.
16:52 And I mean, it goes for anybody.
16:54 I mean, we work with huge restaurant groups
16:56 that have one person running social,
16:59 one person that's responsible for email, the website,
17:01 for brand, for storytelling, for touching tables,
17:04 for creating content, for making video.
17:05 And it's like the bandwidth, but all of it's important.
17:09 Not only is it important, but it's all changing.
17:11 - So what we did in 2017 isn't what we're doing in 2023.
17:16 How do you guys look at it through the lens of,
17:19 should we be on TikTok?
17:20 Do we have to be on TikTok?
17:22 Should we focus just on Instagram?
17:23 How do you guys talk about that operationally from this guy?
17:27 - I think we understand what our bandwidth is
17:31 and we have our goals and things that we wanna achieve.
17:34 And once we have the capacity to be able to expand on those,
17:36 we have a couple of new brands
17:37 that are gonna be launching later this year and next.
17:41 And all of those will have TikTok channels
17:43 that they'll be native.
17:45 So I think that when you start a brand,
17:47 particularly a restaurant brand,
17:49 a lot of that love goes into launching the brand.
17:52 And then you have no choice but to play offense
17:55 because you're starting things off
17:56 and you're trying to get everything off the ground
18:00 and you're trying to teach people how to think
18:01 and talk about what it is that you're doing.
18:03 And then you kind of fall into the day-to-day operations
18:07 and you gotta do your best to kind of maintain that.
18:09 And I think that with social media has been a huge driver.
18:14 Everything has been organic.
18:16 She's done a phenomenal job of telling the story
18:20 and creating the content with very limited resources.
18:23 Another thing that I think that we,
18:26 something that she spearheads really well
18:28 is a lot of the community events that we do.
18:30 We have an event at our OG Slauson location
18:33 called Jamming on the Hill that brings people out,
18:36 brings local musicians,
18:37 gives people the ability to kind of showcase
18:39 their voice and their talents.
18:41 And it's something that just goes a really long way
18:44 with the community when you're just not open
18:46 from your regular operating hours
18:48 and you're opening up to do other things like that.
18:50 And a lot of that generates a lot of user-generated content,
18:54 which is great.
18:55 Word of mouth is the best 'cause it's free.
18:57 - When a brand is as creative and as collaborative
19:01 as you guys are, how do you say no?
19:03 - I think saying no is pretty easy
19:07 'cause you can kind of go going back to the idea of
19:10 when you have a sincerity of intent
19:13 around a specific mission,
19:15 it's a fantastic filter for not great opportunities
19:20 or people that are looking to take advantage
19:22 or kind of hop on the back of what it is you're building.
19:25 So pretty quickly, we can look at an opportunity
19:28 and we can kind of look at each other and say,
19:30 this feels aligned with what it is that we're trying to do
19:33 or it doesn't.
19:34 We can very easily say respectfully decline.
19:37 I think we say a lot of times we say no
19:39 more than we say yes.
19:40 - How big do you see this brand getting?
19:43 - We're gonna take over the world.
19:44 - Taking over the world.
19:46 Dubai locations?
19:48 - Yeah, I think short-term, California,
19:50 we wanna keep it California.
19:51 We wanna take over Southern California.
19:53 - California's the easiest state to operate.
19:54 - Yeah, exactly.
19:55 - We might as well do it there.
19:57 - But I think low-hanging fruit for us
19:59 is definitely Georgia, DC, East Coast.
20:04 I think we're gonna grow.
20:08 We're gonna go pretty quickly here in the next few years.
20:11 Yeah, but California right now,
20:13 it's California, Southern California.
20:16 - Do you think you've found the right real estate model
20:19 or is it gonna be flexible?
20:20 - Yeah, so the model that we're kind of using now,
20:23 so our downtown location and our Inglewood location,
20:26 we're calling them kind of like our flagship locations.
20:29 And we wanna take these larger locations
20:32 and have about three or four satellite,
20:35 smaller prototype stores that are about 1,500 square feet
20:38 and just kind of share services
20:40 and have those four stores operated by one manager
20:43 and that manager's kind of overseeing all of those locations.
20:46 We wanna kind of take that
20:48 and that's how we're gonna introduce the brand
20:51 to new areas, right?
20:53 So we'll take that model and we'll do that
20:55 and we'll know if it's gonna work.
20:57 And that should make it pretty easy to go into new spaces.
21:00 - Did you guys use Toast in your sports bar?
21:02 - We did.
21:03 - When did you onboard with them?
21:04 - 2017.
21:08 - 2017.
21:09 - Why did you switch?
21:10 What were you on before?
21:12 - Micros.
21:14 - You were on Micros?
21:15 - Yeah. - Why did you switch?
21:16 - 'Cause so we started,
21:18 we used Toast at our first hilltop location
21:21 and we just loved the ecosystem,
21:23 like just kind of,
21:24 we can keep everything within that Toast ecosystem.
21:26 So we decided to just kind of take it over to Parlor
21:28 and it was very easy to translate over and train staff.
21:33 And yeah, I think the biggest thing for me with Toast
21:35 is just you have your marketing all in there,
21:37 you have the costing, you have scheduling.
21:41 It's just, it's all inclusive and it's great.
21:45 - When you, I mean, for people that listen to this,
21:50 they either hope to open up restaurants or in restaurants,
21:53 the amount of scaling that you've done
21:55 through the pandemic is pretty incredible.
21:58 What kind of lessons have been learned?
22:00 Let's remove the pandemic as a variable.
22:02 What kind of lessons have been learned
22:04 from adding locations?
22:05 - To Yoni's point earlier, it's just all about the team.
22:12 You have to get people that are aligned with your vision
22:14 across the table.
22:15 You have to constantly calibrate that vision.
22:16 - How do you pay for the team if you don't,
22:18 if you need to scale,
22:19 but you don't have the cashflow
22:20 to pay for the talent that you want?
22:22 - It's a really good question.
22:23 It was a hard decision and we basically took the cash
22:27 from opening a store to bring on the team.
22:29 'Cause once we got to about two to three stores,
22:32 we really understood that the team is gonna be,
22:34 - It's the most important.
22:35 - That's the most important thing.
22:36 That's how we're gonna be able to,
22:38 that's gonna help us hit that inflection point
22:39 where we're just gonna kind of take off.
22:41 So we made it, it was a tough decision,
22:43 but I would say to your question
22:47 about something that we learned,
22:49 I think it's move slowly and really take your time.
22:53 When you're making these big decisions
22:54 and not feel like the outside pressure is to do things.
22:57 Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing.
23:00 I mean, when they reopened California for COVID,
23:04 we decided to keep it closed just to keep our staff safe.
23:07 And we made that decision
23:09 against what everyone else was doing.
23:11 And it ended up being the right decision
23:12 'cause we got shut down again.
23:14 And we were, it actually helped us in the long run
23:17 because now our customers got used to ordering
23:19 on third-party apps.
23:20 And that business has kind of stayed consistent from COVID,
23:25 but then we've been able to build on top of that,
23:27 we'd bring in more customers inside the space.
23:29 So we turned a negative into a positive.
23:32 Yeah.
23:33 - How do you look at training your team?
23:35 - With intention.
23:37 And yeah, like I said, once you know you have someone,
23:42 someone good, someone that's really bought into the culture,
23:46 someone that's gonna work alongside you,
23:51 you gotta do everything you can
23:52 to make sure they feel appreciated
23:54 and that they're a part of the team.
23:56 - What does hospitality mean
23:57 when someone walks into a Hilltop Cafe?
23:59 - Something that we've said from the beginning
24:02 is making sure that we leave people better
24:05 than we found them.
24:06 Right, so we want anyone, regardless of how you walk in here,
24:09 the goal is for you to walk out in a better mood.
24:14 And if that's through service, through quality of food,
24:16 through the vibe, through the music,
24:18 the little Easter eggs that keep your head up,
24:21 to breathe, those are all things that, again,
24:24 intentionally are put in the space
24:26 to make sure you walk out of here feeling better
24:28 than you came in.
24:29 - What kind of Easter eggs do you got hiding?
24:31 (laughing)
24:33 - So we're looking at keep your head up.
24:38 It's written above the wall.
24:40 When you walk into the restaurants,
24:42 there's signs and they're not,
24:45 they're done with intention.
24:47 They're done with meaning.
24:48 They're not done for Instagram.
24:49 They end up on Instagram,
24:51 but they end up on Instagram with a purpose.
24:53 - And they're really reminders for ourselves.
24:55 I mean, ultimately when you're building something
24:57 for yourself and you can kind of connect
25:00 on a human to human level with your customers
25:05 and they can feel that sincerity of intent.
25:08 I know that's something we keep kind of coming back to.
25:10 Every single detail is intentional and people feel that.
25:13 - When you look into the future, how far do you forecast?
25:18 Are you living in today?
25:20 - Yeah, I mean, I think we try to keep it at about two years.
25:25 - Two years?
25:27 - Yeah, we try to move two years at a time.
25:28 - When we look back on this interview in 2025,
25:31 we're gonna look back and see what have you accomplished?
25:34 What's on that plan?
25:35 - We'll definitely, we'll be at least at 15 stores.
25:38 - 15 stores.
25:39 - 15 stores with-
25:41 - So five stores per year.
25:42 - Yeah.
25:43 - We all, we got that?
25:44 Five stores.
25:44 (laughing)
25:47 - 15 stores, okay.
25:50 We have an airport location.
25:52 - Airport location.
25:53 - We're gonna have a rooftop location.
25:54 - Rooftop.
25:55 - Any other brands or we're all-
25:57 - Somerville, which is-
25:58 - Somerville, what's that?
25:59 - The supper club that we're building out on Slauson.
26:02 - How big is supper club?
26:03 - It's 6,000 square feet.
26:05 - You guys don't do anything small?
26:06 - No.
26:06 - We're not into boutique stuff?
26:07 - No, no, no.
26:08 - If we're gonna do it, we're going all the way.
26:10 - Go big or go home.
26:11 - Go big or go home.
26:13 Fair enough.
26:14 For you both as fathers,
26:19 what is important for you,
26:21 how you live this part of your life for your son?
26:25 I mean, I grew up, I didn't have a father.
26:27 My grandfather raised me and it made a profound impact
26:30 because he was there for me and he invested in my education
26:32 and now I'm fortunate that I have a son
26:35 and I have a daughter that I get to live this life
26:37 and also not work in the restaurant like I used to.
26:40 When my son was born is when we started this media company
26:43 and I was intentional in saying, I'm going to be there,
26:46 I'm going to travel with my wife to Bulgaria for you.
26:49 What are you guys doing?
26:51 Because as you open up all these stores,
26:53 we only have so much time.
26:55 How are you gonna be intentional
26:57 and know that you're gonna be there for your kid?
27:00 - Yeah, I mean, I think for something Yoni does
27:03 every Friday is he takes his son to every single door
27:07 to go visit each of the stores.
27:08 - I mean, it's really just leading by example, right?
27:11 And I think for me, I learned,
27:15 I might not be the smartest person in the room,
27:17 but I'm gonna outwork everybody
27:19 and I got that from my dad, right?
27:21 My dad was a general contractor
27:23 and he would force me to go to work with him on Saturdays
27:27 and I'd see how hard he worked,
27:29 I'd see the blood, sweat and tears
27:31 that went into everything
27:31 and I want to show that example to my son.
27:34 And I think, like AJ said, on Fridays,
27:37 I bring him with me, we check on all the stores,
27:39 we have a conversation about what we're gonna do
27:41 when we walk into the store,
27:42 how we're gonna say hi to people and all that
27:44 and I think it's immeasurable.
27:46 Like it's made such a big difference
27:48 in a little four-year-old that when he's older,
27:51 I think it's gonna really pay dividends like it did for me.
27:53 - Yeah, I think for me, similar to you,
27:55 actually I was raised by my mother and my grandmother
27:57 and my mom was an entrepreneur
27:59 and I saw how hard she worked,
28:01 really ran herself into the ground,
28:03 to be honest, on a daily basis
28:04 and I knew that that was not something
28:07 that I wanted, the type of parent
28:09 I wanted to be to my children.
28:11 So every Saturday, I'd walk with my son
28:14 up to our Slauson location,
28:15 he gets his acai bowl and his hot chocolate
28:17 and we hang out there for a couple hours
28:19 while he draws and colors and stuff
28:20 and take my daughter there after school
28:23 to get her fix as well.
28:26 But I think it's just a matter of
28:28 showing that anything's possible
28:29 and making sure that we're kind of pushing them
28:32 to find their own lane and to be kind
28:36 while they're going about their journey.
28:38 - So let me get this straight,
28:39 when you were six years old,
28:41 you were selling candy that you bought at the candy store
28:44 so that you could buy your own Jordans?
28:46 - I did do that.
28:47 - Are you gonna be teaching,
28:48 can you teach my son how to pick up his own Jordans?
28:52 Because I heard that story and I was like, six, wow.
28:55 - Yeah, no, that was, I mean, I don't think,
28:58 there's a lot of things that I did as a six-year-old
29:01 that I wouldn't wish on my six-year-old daughter.
29:03 But yeah, I mean, I think that it's important to share
29:08 that if there's something that you want to get,
29:09 you have to go out there and do whatever it is
29:12 that you can within reason and the confines of the law
29:16 to get it done.
29:17 And I think that that's something
29:18 that we're instilling in our children at this age
29:21 and something that I wish was instilled in me from,
29:24 I mean, I think that example is something that,
29:27 as funny as it might be in conversation,
29:29 it kind of set me up for everything else
29:32 that I've ever done. - 100%, absolutely.
29:34 So every single week we build community,
29:36 virtually it's a chance for you to come on stage.
29:39 We do audio events.
29:40 So one on LinkedIn, one on Clubhouse,
29:42 but if you send me a message @SeanPWolcheff on Instagram,
29:46 I'll send you the link.
29:47 We want to hear about your story.
29:49 If you're a creator, if you're in the hospitality space,
29:51 if you're in sales, marketing,
29:52 we got digital hospitality leaders from all over the globe
29:55 that connect to way to support each other.
29:59 We also do shout outs.
30:00 This week's shout out is to the entire
30:03 marketing team at Toast.
30:05 Thank you for this opportunity to host this show,
30:07 but also please go check out "Family Style."
30:10 These gentlemen are grateful that this is one
30:13 of our inaugural episodes of "Family Style."
30:15 So we'll put a link into that show,
30:17 but thank you for helping us play the game within the game.
30:20 You know, when I went to business school,
30:22 I was hoping for stories and lessons
30:25 of people doing real cool shit that I admired.
30:28 I didn't get it, so I eventually, I studied sociology,
30:31 but here I am coming full circle,
30:33 and I hope that you, the listener, you, the viewer,
30:36 that you learn from both of these gentlemen.
30:38 You have one chance.
30:38 Give me one shout out.
30:40 You each get to pick one person that gets a shout out.
30:43 Usually, the guest only gets one,
30:45 but you guys are two guests.
30:47 - I'm going to shout out Tara, my fiance.
30:50 - Tara, why?
30:51 - 'Cause of all the great she does for us
30:54 and all the hard work that she's put in,
30:55 and she needs to know that she's appreciated.
30:57 - She is very appreciated.
30:59 - Yeah, along the same lines of, like,
31:00 just shout my wife Hope out.
31:01 She's been incredible.
31:03 A lot of motivation, a lot of inspiration.
31:05 Definitely my views, so whatever it is
31:07 that I bring to the partnership,
31:08 a lot of the work that she does behind the scenes
31:10 to validate a lot of those ideas doesn't go unnoticed.
31:13 - And how can people connect with you guys?
31:15 What's the best digital playground?
31:17 - Yeah, if you're looking for us on Instagram
31:19 or across all platforms,
31:21 the business is @findyourhilltop,
31:23 and then we're just @yonihagos and @ajfresh.
31:28 - Have you found your hilltop?
31:29 - The funny thing about hilltops are,
31:32 once you get to your destination,
31:34 you realize that there's just another hill to climb.
31:36 So we kind of operate under this idea of,
31:38 like, there's no destinations, there's only milestones.
31:41 So when you kind of, like,
31:43 and that's what leads to a fulfilling life, right?
31:45 Like, you continue striving.
31:46 So I think once you find your hilltop,
31:48 what might be your hilltop today
31:50 might not necessarily be the same hilltop
31:52 three, six, 12 years from now.
31:55 - And for you, how can people connect?
31:57 Are you on social?
31:58 - Yeah, @yonihagos.
32:00 - @yonihagos, all right.
32:01 Beautiful.
32:02 We appreciate you guys.
32:03 Thank you for listening.
32:04 Please share it with a friend.
32:06 And as always, stay curious, get involved,
32:09 and don't be afraid to ask for help.
32:10 We'll catch you guys next week.
32:11 Want to give a special shout out again to Toast.
32:14 Thank you for believing in the power of storytelling.
32:16 Thank you for empowering restaurateurs
32:19 with technology that will improve their business.
32:23 Please share this show.
32:24 It's the only way that we grow.
32:26 Share the show with another restaurant owner,
32:28 with another content creator,
32:29 with someone in the hospitality space
32:31 that wants to level up.
32:33 We love people that are playing the game within the game.
32:36 The best way to connect with me is @SeanPWalchef,
32:40 S-H-A-W-N-P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F.
32:45 That's on Instagram.
32:46 It's the quickest way to get me,
32:48 or you can find me on LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook,
32:50 all the platforms.
32:52 We tell stories everywhere.
32:54 We're weirdly available, and we care about you.
32:56 We care about your story.
32:58 One day, we'd love to feature you on Digital Hospitality,
33:01 Restaurant Influencers, Family Style,
33:03 or any of the content that we do.
33:05 Please connect with us and share and subscribe.