Interview with Sei Less Founder Dara Mirjahangiry about social media networking, “white glove” service, and making waves in the media space.
Dara Mirjahangiry is hospitality veteran and owner/managing partner of the New York City Asian Fusion hotspot Sei Less. The restaurant became a reality after a chance conversation between Mirjahangiry and then Brooklyn Nets player, Kevin Durant.
Dara Mirjahangiry is hospitality veteran and owner/managing partner of the New York City Asian Fusion hotspot Sei Less. The restaurant became a reality after a chance conversation between Mirjahangiry and then Brooklyn Nets player, Kevin Durant.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Welcome to Restaurant Influencers
00:07 presented by Entrepreneur.
00:09 I am your host, Sean Walchef.
00:11 This is a Cali BBQ Media production.
00:14 In life, in the restaurant business,
00:16 and in the new creator economy,
00:18 we learn through lessons and stories.
00:20 I wanna give a special shout out to Toast,
00:22 our primary technology partner at our barbecue restaurants
00:25 for believing in storytelling,
00:27 for giving us the tools to help us sell more barbecue
00:30 to more people here in San Diego,
00:32 but also for giving us the opportunity
00:33 to have cool conversations
00:35 like the one we're gonna have here today.
00:37 Today we have a very special guest.
00:39 His name is Dara Mir Jahanjiri.
00:42 He is the co-founder of Say Less,
00:46 and that is @SayS-E-I-L-E-S-S.
00:51 If you are in New York, you know about this brand
00:55 because it's kind of a big deal.
00:58 So we're honored to have you on the show.
01:00 Dara, welcome.
01:01 - Thank you for having me.
01:03 - So we're gonna start with our favorite random question,
01:05 which is where in the world
01:07 is your favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
01:10 - It's gotta be MSG, you know,
01:14 the Mecca of New York City in basketball.
01:18 Diehard Knicks fan, so I would say Madison Square Garden
01:20 is definitely my favorite venue.
01:23 - Okay, cool.
01:23 We're gonna talk to Entrepreneur.
01:25 We're gonna talk to Toast, talk to some other brands,
01:27 and we're gonna put on a hospitality
01:30 storytelling conference, kind of like TEDx style,
01:33 and rent out MSG.
01:35 I'm gonna put you on center court,
01:36 and I'm gonna ask Dara, it's mic drop time.
01:40 Let us know who are you and what do you believe?
01:42 What are you building?
01:43 - My name is Dara Mir Jahanjiri,
01:47 and I'm born in Iran, grew up in New Jersey,
01:50 went to college in Syracuse,
01:52 worked in finance until 2008,
01:54 financial crisis, made a pivot to hospitality.
01:57 You know, I've been building my network for the last 15 years
02:01 and about two years ago, opened up C'est La'e, restaurant,
02:04 which was towards the tail end of the pandemic.
02:06 It was kind of like a culmination of all my work together
02:10 and, you know, really hit the ground running,
02:13 you know, the who's who of sports, music, media,
02:17 everyone, you know, came out to try the restaurant,
02:19 support it, and it's been an incredible two-year run.
02:22 I feel like we're just at the beginning
02:23 of what we're going to do with the brand.
02:26 And, you know, obviously we've done some pop-ups.
02:28 Most recently, we just did a pop-up in Indianapolis
02:31 for NBA All-Star Weekend, which was a great success.
02:34 So it's kind of evolving in the sense that, you know,
02:37 obviously we're gonna open up new locations
02:39 and expand the brand, but right now,
02:40 obviously New York City is our focus.
02:43 - Can you bring us back to the inception
02:45 of the brand, the name?
02:46 - Yeah, so it actually started,
02:48 I was having a conversation with Kevin Durant
02:50 right when he re-signed with the Brooklyn Nets.
02:53 And I've known Kev since he was on the Oklahoma City Thunder,
02:57 you know, early in his career.
02:59 So he was like, you know, we need a clubhouse in New York,
03:02 you know, after the game, somewhere where I can go
03:04 and, you know, feel like it's almost like a membership club
03:06 for the culture.
03:07 So shortly after that conversation, the pandemic hit.
03:11 So, you know, I went to LA, met up with Kev,
03:14 went to his house, continued the conversation.
03:17 And at the time, I really thought that New York City
03:19 was never coming back from the pandemic.
03:20 It was, you know, like the apocalypse hit New York City.
03:23 And obviously working in the restaurant business,
03:26 it was a scary time, you know,
03:28 didn't really know what the future held.
03:30 So I was kind of open to the idea of moving out to LA
03:33 and opening up the concept in LA.
03:35 You know, maybe a week into being in LA,
03:38 the riots break out in LA.
03:39 So now they're trying to open up a restaurant in LA
03:42 and literally there was no real estate agents
03:45 showing spaces, it was just a really upside down time.
03:49 So I came back to New York
03:51 and that's kind of when I put together the idea of,
03:53 you know, opening a membership club for the culture.
03:56 I started looking at spaces.
03:57 And at the time I was thinking of what's a great name
04:00 for a membership club.
04:02 And Say No More kept popping into my head.
04:06 And, you know, I thought about it,
04:07 I was like, that's just too wordy,
04:09 people might not get it, it's not really Asian.
04:11 So I was like, how do I make Say No More
04:15 more Asian and less wordy?
04:16 So Say Less popped into my head.
04:18 So I wrote down on a piece of paper, S-A-Y-L-E-S-S,
04:21 and I looked at it and I was like, that's not gonna work.
04:24 So I thought about how can I say say in a different rendition
04:29 and then Sensei popped into my head.
04:31 But Sensei is S-A-I.
04:34 So I wrote S-A-I-L-E-S-S and I looked at it
04:37 and I was like, that doesn't look right either,
04:38 change the A to an E and that's how Say Less was born.
04:41 - Was this your first restaurant concept?
04:44 - It was the first restaurant
04:46 that I opened and owned on my own.
04:48 Obviously I have partners,
04:49 but previously I was helping other people
04:52 open up their restaurants, but it wasn't my baby.
04:56 - When did the idea of having your own restaurant baby
05:00 become born?
05:01 - Probably 15 years ago.
05:04 Worked at one of the hottest restaurants
05:08 in New York at the time,
05:10 really understood what they were doing,
05:12 understood the business model, the network, the margins.
05:16 And I always thought it would be great
05:17 to be part of something like that on a bigger scale,
05:20 but obviously I was early in my career.
05:22 So I kept just kind of working, grinding, networking,
05:27 hoping that one day I'll get the opportunity.
05:29 Sadly enough, my previous bosses never wanted
05:32 to extend that opportunity to me.
05:34 I kind of pushed, I asked, I tried to prove myself
05:38 and I just learned that no one's gonna give you
05:42 an opportunity if they don't have to.
05:44 So I just kind of waited for the right timing
05:46 and the pandemic, as much as it was a difficult time
05:50 in the hospitality world,
05:51 it also created certain opportunities
05:52 that didn't exist before.
05:54 - What did you learn at Syracuse studying finance
05:57 and marketing that you actually use today?
06:00 - I guess the principles of a balance sheet.
06:05 Obviously a lot of people that open restaurants,
06:08 they worry about the glitz and the glamor
06:09 and the stuff that's forward facing,
06:13 but the backend stuff is really how you run
06:15 a profitable business.
06:17 So a lot of the accounting courses I took
06:19 and the financial courses I took
06:21 that I never thought I would be applying
06:22 to the hospitality industry are things that I use every day.
06:27 And it's not necessarily like sitting in front
06:29 of an Excel spreadsheet and crunching numbers,
06:31 but just the principles behind them
06:32 and inventory practices and different kinds
06:36 of accounting practices that I apply
06:38 to the day-to-day operation of the business.
06:41 - I saw that you studied abroad in Madrid, Spain.
06:45 - Yeah.
06:46 - Did you learn anything in Madrid?
06:47 'Cause I went to Alicante.
06:49 - Yeah, I learned that you don't eat dinner before 11 p.m.
06:52 and you take a nap in the middle of the day.
06:56 - Bring me back to the beginning.
07:04 You said for 15 years, you've been building your network.
07:07 What does it mean to build a network?
07:11 - So I've obviously been building my network
07:13 ever since I probably started working at 14 years old.
07:15 But in New York City in the hospitality business,
07:18 one of the reasons that I pivoted
07:20 from finance to hospitality was the financial markets
07:23 were upside down.
07:23 It was difficult to get a financial job at the time.
07:27 And I had experience in hospitality working
07:29 as a waiter during college,
07:31 thinking that it was just a temporary thing,
07:32 obviously to make ends meet while I was in college.
07:36 But in 2008, I decided to get back
07:38 into the hospitality world.
07:39 And my vision of it was that I'm gonna work
07:42 in this restaurant.
07:44 There's a lot of high profile people,
07:45 a lot of influential people there,
07:47 a lot of high net worth people.
07:49 And I'm gonna find myself a career or a job.
07:52 And that was gonna be a temporary thing.
07:55 As that evolved within nine months,
07:57 there was a little shakeup in the management hierarchy.
08:01 And I had the opportunity to become a manager
08:03 within nine months of starting to work there.
08:05 And that's really when I put the suit on
08:07 and I started building my own network.
08:10 The people that I worked with at the time,
08:13 they obviously knew a lot of the customers
08:14 from being there well before me.
08:17 And I realized that they were paying attention
08:20 to mostly the Upper East Side clients
08:22 that were frequenting the restaurant,
08:23 but they weren't really paying attention
08:26 to the music artists and the athletes.
08:28 And not just because they didn't care,
08:31 they just, sometimes they didn't know who they were.
08:34 And sometimes it was just a cultural difference.
08:36 A lot of the people I work with are Eastern European
08:38 and they just didn't understand the culture.
08:41 So that started at the restaurant,
08:44 but then it was before Uber existed,
08:45 before Facebook existed.
08:47 Not before Facebook, before Instagram.
08:50 And there wasn't that ability
08:53 to really post in real time.
08:54 Facebook was kind of, you take pictures
08:56 and then you post them on afterwards.
08:58 So I started the social media for the restaurant
09:00 and really got embedded in the culture of sports and music.
09:04 And a big part of that was through social media
09:07 and networking.
09:08 So just as I built their social media,
09:11 I built my following, built a brand for myself.
09:13 And that's really what networking is.
09:16 It's just being able to connect the dots
09:18 and also being genuine with people
09:20 and add value to people's lives.
09:23 - I love that, yeah.
09:24 One of my favorite Danny Meyers quotes is,
09:26 "ABCD, always be collecting the dots
09:29 "so that you can always be connecting the dots."
09:31 And social media is such an incredible tool.
09:34 Can you bring me back to Instagram specifically
09:37 of what were you doing in the early days
09:39 to build a community, essentially what you're doing?
09:43 - Yeah, so at the time I was about 30 years old
09:46 and I didn't really know what Instagram was.
09:49 - What year was this?
09:50 - This was probably like 2011 maybe.
09:55 - Okay.
09:55 - And at the time Instagram was primarily
10:00 for like creators and artists.
10:02 And some of my staff at the time
10:04 were 18 year old college students
10:07 and they were on Instagram.
10:09 And they would tell me,
10:10 "Oh, you need to make an Instagram."
10:11 And the problem was I signed up for an account
10:14 but no one that I knew was on Instagram at the time.
10:17 So it was like, I wasn't an artist or a creator
10:20 and my network of friends and family wasn't on Instagram.
10:23 It was kind of, it wasn't really mainstream yet.
10:26 So I did it, but then I quickly realized
10:30 that there was a huge value to it
10:32 in terms of hospitality in the restaurant.
10:35 So it kind of started out where like,
10:38 I would just take organic pictures of the food
10:40 and the venue and the restaurant when I would go out.
10:43 And then sometimes some of the celebrity clients,
10:46 but I wouldn't even post the pictures at first.
10:48 I would just kind of, like I had a stockpile of photos
10:51 that I didn't know what to do with.
10:52 And then when I joined Instagram,
10:54 that's when I was like, "Okay, well there's something here."
10:56 And it's actually ironically enough,
10:59 I had all these pictures maybe for like a year
11:02 and I didn't have anywhere to kind of put them out there.
11:04 When I posted them once, when I joined Instagram,
11:06 my boss called me up within an hour and he was like,
11:10 "I don't want you doing this," blah, blah, blah.
11:12 Like, you know, really like getting into me.
11:15 And I was like, listen, like these are people
11:17 that I kind of built relationships with.
11:19 A lot of the pictures are not even at the venue,
11:21 blah, blah, blah.
11:22 But he didn't understand the value of it at the time.
11:24 I think part of it was he didn't want me to,
11:26 you know, grow within his brand.
11:29 So I respected it, I kind of didn't push the envelope,
11:31 but then he realized I knew what I was talking about
11:33 maybe six months later.
11:35 And then he started letting me kind of take over
11:36 the social media of the restaurant
11:38 and really use it as a promotional tool for their brand.
11:41 - And what have you learned in that journey to,
11:43 you know, doing that back then
11:45 to what you do now on social?
11:47 - You know, as much as I'm a public person
11:51 in what I do for work,
11:52 I'm a private person in my personal life.
11:54 So, you know, trying to balance that where it's, you know,
11:57 it's good for my career,
11:59 but it's not intrusive to my personal life.
12:02 But, you know, it's kind of evolved.
12:03 There wasn't reels, there wasn't videos at the time.
12:05 It was just pictures.
12:06 You couldn't post more than one picture.
12:08 You couldn't change the caption after you posted it.
12:10 There was a lot of things that obviously evolved
12:12 that made it better for business purposes.
12:15 There was no insights.
12:16 It was just literally a photo.
12:17 And that was when hashtags were a thing.
12:19 So sometimes I look at my old pictures,
12:20 I was like, what was I thinking putting all these hashtags?
12:23 But that was the way I learned it from the beginning,
12:26 you know, and, you know, as I guess technology evolved
12:31 and, you know, there was more features on it,
12:34 you know, what I was doing then changed,
12:36 but the principles of it did not change.
12:39 - And now a quick break from restaurant influencers
12:41 to welcome our newest sponsor to the show.
12:44 It's Zach Oates, the founder of Ovation.
12:47 - Ovation is helping restaurants to improve operations
12:50 with the human touch.
12:52 We are a guest experience platform
12:54 for multi-unit restaurants like Friendly's,
12:56 Muya, PDQ, Taziki's, and even Cali Barbecue
12:59 with thousands of others that starts
13:01 with a two question survey and drives revenue,
13:04 location level improvement, and guest recovery.
13:06 So here's how it works.
13:08 The guest answers two questions.
13:10 The first one is how was your experience?
13:11 And then from there, happy guests are invited
13:13 to do things that are gonna drive revenue
13:15 and unhappy guests share privately what went wrong
13:18 so you and your team can resolve that concern in real time.
13:22 Our AI will even help you do that.
13:24 Then the magic happens.
13:25 We take all the public reviews,
13:27 we take all the Ovation feedback,
13:29 we categorize it using our AI
13:31 and give you detailed feedback
13:33 in 34 restaurant specific categories
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13:37 So we make sure that guests feel good, that you look good.
13:39 And if you're interested in learning more,
13:41 visit OvationUp.com/Sean
13:44 because any listener of Sean's is a friend of Ovation's.
13:47 (upbeat music)
13:50 - How do you give white glove service
13:57 to so many different personality types
14:01 that might have the same demands on the same given night?
14:04 - I mean, it starts with the food.
14:07 Really understanding what their palate is.
14:09 Some people are vegans, some people are vegetarians,
14:11 some people have gluten allergies,
14:13 some people want lofts or some people don't.
14:15 So just asking the key questions
14:18 of really understanding what the person wants.
14:20 Most of my regulars, I know their order by heart
14:22 and I don't even ask them, I say,
14:23 "Hey, do you want me to just send you out
14:25 "an assortment of the regular stuff?"
14:26 And they usually send out whatever you want.
14:30 I always ask them, "Are you really hungry?
14:31 "You're not hungry."
14:32 So just really, the food is the backbone of it all.
14:36 But then just, I guess, through the network again,
14:41 putting people in the same room
14:43 that come from different walks of life,
14:44 but then there's a common ground in introducing them.
14:47 So sometimes there could be an athlete and a music artist
14:49 that don't know each other, I kind of put them together.
14:52 So just really making people feel comfortable,
14:54 giving them an outlet where we have private dining rooms
14:57 and somewhere that they could come, feel comfortable.
15:00 It could be with their friends,
15:00 it could be with their family, their teammates, their label.
15:03 It doesn't matter who they're with,
15:05 they know that they have a private experience
15:07 and they're gonna enjoy themselves.
15:10 But the food is really the backbone of it all.
15:12 - Do you use any technology tools
15:14 or is this all in your head?
15:15 - My cell phone would be the most--
15:20 - That's the tool? - Technology tool that I use.
15:23 I wouldn't consider myself a technology savvy person,
15:26 but I understand how to use technology for growth.
15:29 - I mean, it's fascinating to see, obviously,
15:35 the who's who list of celebrities, athletes,
15:38 media personalities that have come.
15:40 And not only are they coming to visit,
15:44 but they're posting on their social medias
15:46 about their visit.
15:47 And then you're getting media on top
15:51 just saying that they came to your restaurant to visit,
15:54 which is pretty incredible.
15:56 When you look at all of the press that you've gotten,
15:59 this is your second year?
16:01 - Yeah, so we were two years in January,
16:03 so a little bit more than two years.
16:04 - Congratulations, two years.
16:06 When you look at the press coverage that you've gotten,
16:08 and more importantly, the relationships that you've built,
16:13 what stands out the most in the last two years
16:15 of what you've accomplished?
16:16 - The consistency.
16:19 There hasn't really been peaks and valleys.
16:21 It's been pretty consistent from when we opened
16:23 till this day.
16:25 And that's something that we pride ourselves on.
16:27 It's not hype.
16:30 It's hard work and it's consistency.
16:33 And it doesn't matter how great one week was,
16:36 the next week we come back to work
16:37 and do the same thing over and over.
16:39 And it's just really putting a product out there
16:41 that people appreciate.
16:43 We've become a destination.
16:45 We obviously have our built-in clientele from New York City,
16:47 but I think when people come to New York,
16:50 we're a destination where people have to come
16:52 when they're in town just to check in, say hi, have a meal.
16:56 We have a tremendous bar, so sometimes people come,
16:59 they don't even sit down for dinner,
17:00 but they come and hang out at the bar.
17:03 I think it's just, what I'm proud of really
17:06 is how consistently we've done it
17:08 over the course of the last two years.
17:10 And with pop-ups and things like that,
17:13 we're continuing to expand the brand,
17:14 but not forget about the flagship.
17:17 - Tell me more about the pop-ups.
17:18 What's the driving force behind the pop-ups?
17:21 What are the economics behind it?
17:22 Why are we doing it?
17:24 - Well, NBA All-Star Weekend is just a natural fit.
17:28 There's a high concentration of our clients
17:30 in one place at the same time.
17:32 Obviously, primarily NBA clients.
17:35 And then there's obviously the music artists
17:36 that are there, part of All-Star Weekend.
17:39 It could be as a performer, as a celebrity guest,
17:41 or whatever it is.
17:43 And then a lot of the brands that we work with,
17:44 NBA, Adidas, Nike, Body Armor,
17:47 a lot of the brands that work with NBA
17:49 or the NBA players are a lot of our clients too.
17:52 So there was definitely a need to, I guess,
17:58 market our brand further at those kind of events.
18:02 But then obviously the economics behind it too,
18:04 there's opportunity to drive revenue
18:07 through natural sales of food and liquor,
18:10 but then also there's media partners,
18:11 there's sponsorship opportunities.
18:13 And I guess the most important thing
18:15 is the continuous networking
18:17 and the brand building that goes on.
18:19 - Do you bring us inside the brand side of it?
18:23 I mean, I think it's fascinating.
18:25 It's why we created this show.
18:26 It's moving beyond the standard P&L
18:29 of a profit and loss statement
18:31 of a brick and mortar restaurant.
18:32 There's so many different opportunities
18:34 for restaurants to expand and be more profitable.
18:38 You have big brands that are reaching out to you
18:40 because of who you guys are.
18:42 Can you bring us inside,
18:43 kind of, you don't need to name the brand,
18:45 but bring us inside the brand deals
18:47 that you, something that you've done?
18:49 - Yeah, so we've done some apparel brand deals.
18:52 For example, they give our doorman
18:54 and our management apparel to wear restaurant.
18:59 So that's something that we've done previously.
19:01 Then obviously there's the merch component
19:03 that comes off of that too, of like, say less merch.
19:05 And then for the pop-ups,
19:08 the natural fit obviously is the liquor brands.
19:11 They are big drivers of sponsorships for any restaurant,
19:15 but we do some partnerships with them.
19:16 And then something that was new for Indie
19:19 was the media companies.
19:20 We did a lot of pop-up podcasts
19:25 at our space during the daytime.
19:27 And then obviously at nighttime, we did the activations.
19:29 So that was something that was new that went really well.
19:32 And we'll continue to do that.
19:34 'Cause obviously, a lot of athletes,
19:37 a lot of music artists are doing podcasts.
19:39 So when they come to New York, they go shoot their podcast,
19:42 and then they come to the restaurant or vice versa.
19:44 So we're actually building out a podcast studio
19:47 as part of the restaurant, which will be something
19:49 that we look forward to hosting you one day.
19:52 - That is fantastic.
19:53 That might be the best news I've heard
19:55 since I've done this show for two years.
19:57 We believe that every restaurant
20:01 can be their own media company,
20:02 and that's why we turned our barbecue business
20:04 into a media company.
20:05 But the fact that you guys are doing it
20:07 at the highest level, I mean, can you bring me inside?
20:11 Give me some of the scoop.
20:12 This is amazing news for me.
20:13 - Well, we have some media partners,
20:16 some technology partners that obviously see the value
20:18 in what we do.
20:19 We have the ability to drive traffic to some podcasts.
20:23 People always ask me,
20:25 "Well, why don't you do a sales podcast?"
20:27 That's just not something that I'm looking to do
20:29 at the current time, maybe down the road.
20:32 But I do see the opportunity in terms of the entrepreneur
20:35 in me and the business side of things
20:36 of really curating the podcast.
20:38 So I think just giving these podcast brands
20:44 a platform and a space,
20:46 some of the biggest sports and cannabis
20:49 and different kinds of podcasts,
20:51 they frequent our restaurant when they're in New York,
20:53 and then they go to other venues to shoot their podcasts.
20:56 And I always think, "Well, why don't we just keep them here?"
20:59 So it sounds easy to do,
21:03 but you have to have the right partners
21:04 to really execute it at a high level
21:06 because you need to have the technology and the space.
21:08 And there are certain things that go on behind the scenes
21:12 of a podcast that you might not notice
21:15 when you're watching the podcast or listening to it.
21:18 But really giving, again, that white glove service,
21:22 it's a one-stop shop.
21:24 - That would be amazing.
21:25 Thank you for sharing that.
21:27 There's an article that you collaborated with on Medium,
21:31 and it's talking about things that you wish you knew
21:34 when you started a restaurant.
21:36 One of the things you said,
21:37 "I wish someone told me to understand your audience."
21:40 What do you mean?
21:41 - Well, listen, when you're selling anything,
21:44 you have to understand the consumer.
21:46 But I think in the restaurant, that's even more important
21:50 because obviously different consumers have different tastes,
21:54 but in the restaurant, you could have the same dish
21:57 and now two different people taste it,
21:59 and one person says it's too sweet,
22:00 one person says it's too salty.
22:03 And they could both be right because that's their preference
22:06 and there could be nothing wrong with the dish.
22:08 So like in any business, the customer is always right,
22:12 but I think it's important to really educate people too
22:15 when people are ordering things.
22:19 It starts with the waiter or the bartender,
22:21 really educating the customer before they order something,
22:24 "This is how it's gonna be.
22:26 "Do you like spicy dishes?
22:27 "Do you like sweet and sour dishes?"
22:29 Just to kind of reduce the waste, I guess,
22:31 and really educate the consumer
22:33 on what they're ordering before they order it.
22:35 - You guys are getting more into merch.
22:39 Can you share a little bit more about that revenue stream?
22:43 How are you thinking about it from a brand perspective?
22:46 - Well, I think every brand, it could be a restaurant
22:50 or it could be a media company wants to sell merch.
22:53 Selling merch is probably as difficult
22:57 as opening a restaurant.
22:57 - Giving away merch is much easier than selling merch.
23:01 - I'm not in the business to be giving away merch.
23:04 It sounds great, but at the end of the day,
23:05 that doesn't help the balance sheet.
23:07 So I think doing limited capsules and limited drops
23:10 of nice pieces that someone would wanna wear,
23:15 we don't want it to look like a billboard.
23:18 It's gotta be a little bit edgy,
23:21 a little more premium quality,
23:23 and then it's not necessary for everyone.
23:25 And that's kind of how we're going to be rolling it out.
23:29 There'll obviously be the basic t-shirts,
23:32 the hats, the hoodies,
23:34 but then I think there's opportunities to do cookware
23:37 and different things that are restaurant-oriented
23:40 as part of merch down the road as well.
23:43 - How do you balance supply and demand
23:45 with the clients that want your services
23:50 and want your time?
23:51 When Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg
23:56 want to rent out the entire restaurant at the same time,
23:59 how do you pick and choose?
24:00 - Luckily, we have a lot of space.
24:05 So we usually-- - How big is your space?
24:07 - It's about 8,000 square feet.
24:09 - Oh, that's a big space, for sure.
24:10 - Yeah, we put a lot of people together
24:14 that we think might get along.
24:16 Obviously, if it's very adamant that they have to be private,
24:20 we somehow make it work.
24:21 But I think that's just the beauty of what we do at CLS
24:25 is really bringing people together
24:27 from different walks of life that have common interests.
24:30 It's definitely a juggling act,
24:35 but I think that's what I really enjoy about the business
24:38 is really the fine lines.
24:41 Sometimes you have to walk to bringing people together,
24:44 but also making them feel special and private.
24:46 - If we look two years from now,
24:50 a four-year anniversary, where will the brand be?
24:53 Are you gonna be opening up in other markets?
24:55 What is it gonna look like?
24:57 - Yeah, I think we'll continue to push the pop-ups
24:59 'cause it's a lot easier to go to a market
25:01 for a week or a weekend or even a month or six months
25:04 and do some damage and then close up shop and leave
25:07 and leave your mark.
25:08 It gives you the opportunity to prove the concept
25:11 and do a little bit of market research.
25:13 I think a lot of brands,
25:16 including some of the brands that I've worked for
25:17 in the past, wanna just expand all over the place.
25:21 And what they end up doing is they end up failing
25:23 in their expansion, and then because of that,
25:25 they hurt the flagship location in New York.
25:28 So more is not always better,
25:32 and sometimes I feel like less is more,
25:35 but it is important to keep the forward momentum
25:38 and keep expanding the brand.
25:41 And then obviously opening new locations
25:43 is the ultimate goal, but I think doing that
25:47 in a strategic way and a profitable way
25:49 makes the most sense.
25:51 - Is there anything that you've changed your mind on
25:54 since you've started, that you are adamant
25:56 that we wouldn't do a certain thing,
25:58 but now you've reevaluated
25:59 and might be doing it differently?
26:01 - I don't think there's one specific thing,
26:07 but there's definitely lessons that you learn every day
26:09 of consumer behavior and even your staff,
26:12 and what used to work five years ago
26:15 might not work as well anymore.
26:16 But the main thing is that we're in a social media
26:21 driven economy, and if you're not incorporating that
26:26 into your business model, it doesn't matter
26:27 what kind of business you have,
26:29 you're kind of fooling yourself.
26:31 So really giving people a platform to showcase your brand,
26:36 but as well as showcase their brand,
26:39 in a way that it's not cheesy.
26:43 Giving people a platform and a backdrop to do that
26:47 in a restaurant is very important.
26:50 - How do you work with influencers, Instagram,
26:53 YouTubers, TikTokers, how do you engage with them?
26:57 - TikTokers definitely have been a valuable asset to us
27:02 as we've grown.
27:03 You never really understand,
27:06 someone could have a big following,
27:07 someone could have a small following,
27:08 you never understand the impact it might have,
27:11 but it's kind of a numbers game.
27:13 When you're dealing with food,
27:15 you put it down as a marketing expense
27:17 and you try different things.
27:20 Some things work in different seasons,
27:22 but they don't, it might work in the winter,
27:23 but it doesn't work in the summer.
27:25 A little bit of trial and error,
27:27 but really once you build a relationship with people
27:29 that work for you, just kind of repeat.
27:32 Don't fix something that's not broken
27:35 and keep doing what's working.
27:38 - Do you have any mentors?
27:40 - I have several mentors, yeah.
27:42 - Can you share a story about a lesson
27:43 that a mentor taught you?
27:46 - Just in life and approaching business,
27:48 not everything is as bad as it seems
27:53 and not everything is as good as it seems.
27:55 You're gonna have your ups and your downs,
27:57 but when things are bad, they're not as bad as they seem,
27:59 and when things are good,
28:00 they're not as good as they seem.
28:02 Kind of remain level-headed
28:04 and just keep putting the work in and be consistent.
28:07 - What advice do you have to anyone
28:09 that's looking to launch a restaurant with partnerships?
28:13 - Really understand who your partners are.
28:16 If you're investing in a restaurant, even more so,
28:21 because I've heard all the horror stories
28:22 about people investing in restaurants
28:24 and the stereotype of restaurants are a bad investment.
28:28 At the end of the day, you're investing in the person
28:30 and the concept.
28:32 Someone can give you a business plan for a restaurant
28:34 or any business and put a bunch
28:36 of hypothetical numbers on there,
28:38 but if you're not really sure about the person
28:40 that you're investing in,
28:41 then the business plan doesn't mean anything.
28:44 You could write whatever you want
28:45 and that's just hypothetical information.
28:47 It's a forecast.
28:48 It could be a forecast for selling merchandise.
28:50 It could be a forecast for selling cars, for selling food,
28:53 whatever that is.
28:54 If the person that you're investing in
28:56 is not someone that you know enough about,
28:59 then do a little more digging.
29:03 Every single week on Wednesday and Friday on LinkedIn,
29:05 if you're listening to this show,
29:07 if you're watching this show,
29:08 please join us on that platform.
29:10 It's a chance for you, if you're a restaurateur,
29:13 if you are a content creator,
29:14 if you're in marketing sales, come join our community.
29:17 It's a chance for you to come on stage and share your story.
29:21 Every week we give a social shout out.
29:23 This week's social shout out goes to Ian Stonebrook.
29:26 He used to be on the Cali Barbecue Media team.
29:28 Now he is moving on up and he works for Boardroom.
29:32 He works for Kevin and he does some incredible work,
29:35 writing some incredible pieces.
29:36 So Ian, shout out to you.
29:38 Dara, who would you like to give a shout out for your team?
29:42 It's gonna be an entrepreneur.
29:43 One person, you can't give me the entire team.
29:47 I don't want the whole Say Less team.
29:49 Give me one person that's gone above and beyond
29:51 for the brand recently.
29:52 - I'd like to shout out to my partner, Eevee Shano.
29:55 We came into the venture together
29:59 and we compliment each other.
30:01 His skillset and my skillset are really complimentary
30:04 of each other.
30:05 I think it's important when you go into business
30:06 with someone, find people that have different strengths
30:08 than you so you're not focusing on the same task at hand.
30:12 So we have a tremendous team.
30:15 My partner, George Karavanis, but all of us really
30:19 do our part in the business and I think that's really
30:22 important to succeeding in any business,
30:25 but especially hospitality is find a team
30:28 and you're only good as your team.
30:29 Your staff, your chef, everyone's gotta be working
30:32 on the same page and if there are issues,
30:35 you address the issues and you move forward.
30:36 You don't let things linger.
30:38 - So we believe in smartphone storytelling.
30:41 We believe every company, every person has a media
30:44 machine in their pocket.
30:46 I wanna hear, before I let you go, I just wanna ask you
30:48 a couple quick questions.
30:49 Are you iPhone or Android?
30:51 - iPhone.
30:52 - And what version?
30:54 - Like I said, I'm not too technology savvy,
30:57 but the version before the most recent version.
31:00 - Okay, do you always update your software?
31:02 - No.
31:03 - Do you prefer emails or text messages?
31:06 - Text messages.
31:07 - How many emails do you get a day?
31:09 - Two to 400.
31:13 - Two to 400.
31:14 How many emails do you enjoy reading?
31:16 - I enjoy reading all of them.
31:18 - All of them?
31:19 - Yeah, listen, I mean, if it's spam, you just delete it.
31:22 If it requires attention, you pay more attention to it,
31:25 but I think every piece of data that you come across
31:29 is teaching you something, and when you really combine
31:32 all the data together, you're learning about your business.
31:37 - What's your favorite app on your phone?
31:39 - Favorite app?
31:42 The ones I use the most are probably ESPN and Instagram.
31:49 - And Instagram.
31:50 What's your least favorite app?
31:52 - I don't have a least favorite.
31:53 If I don't like it, it's not on my phone.
31:55 (laughing)
31:56 - Do you have notifications on your phone,
31:58 or do you turn notifications off?
32:00 - For certain apps, I turn them on.
32:02 For certain ones, they're off.
32:03 - Where do you listen to music?
32:06 - So this is probably the crazy thing,
32:08 and my friends make fun of me.
32:09 I don't listen to music.
32:10 - You don't listen to music?
32:12 No music at all?
32:14 - No music, I mean, listen, when I'm out or in the club
32:16 or in the car, I listen to music,
32:17 but I'm not a person that downloads music
32:20 and listens to music.
32:22 - So when you're in the car, do you listen to FM?
32:25 - Yeah.
32:27 - FM?
32:28 - FM or satellite radio.
32:29 - Or satellite radio, okay.
32:31 - But I mean, I know every music artist out there,
32:33 and they're my clients,
32:34 and I never talk about music with them
32:36 because I just don't know anything about their music.
32:39 Once I become friends with them,
32:40 I become familiar with their music,
32:42 but I'm never a fan of their music before I meet them,
32:46 which I think helps in developing the friendship
32:50 and the relationship.
32:51 I'm not based around their music.
32:53 - That's awesome.
32:54 Well, if you guys wanna keep in touch with me,
32:55 I'm weirdly available.
32:56 It's @SeanPWalchef, S-H-A-W-N-P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F.
33:01 Dara, what's the best way for people
33:03 to keep in touch with you and the brand?
33:05 - So probably say less NYC, and then Dara June NYC.
33:11 - All right, we'll put links in the show notes.
33:14 Dara, we really appreciate it.
33:16 If you ever make it to the West Coast,
33:18 if you ever make it to San Diego, please let me know.
33:20 I'd love to have you over for some barbecue
33:23 and just talk shop.
33:25 Really appreciate your time, man.
33:26 Thank you.
33:27 - Love it.
33:28 Thank you for having me.
33:28 And likewise, when you're in New York,
33:29 please hit me up and come by.
33:30 - I will, absolutely.
33:31 Appreciate you, Dara.
33:32 Thank you.
33:33 - Thank you.
33:33 - As always, guys, stay curious, get involved.
33:35 Don't be afraid to ask for help,
33:37 and we'll catch you guys next week.
33:39 Thank you for listening to "Restaurant Influencers."
33:42 If you want to get in touch with me,
33:43 I am weirdly available @SeanPWalchef,
33:46 S-H-A-W-N-P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F.
33:50 Cali Barbecue Media has other shows.
33:53 You can check out "Digital Hospitality."
33:55 We've been doing that show since 2017.
33:58 We also just launched a show,
34:00 season two, "Family Style," on YouTube with Toast.
34:04 And if you are a restaurant brand or a hospitality brand
34:07 and you're looking to launch your own show,
34:09 Cali Barbecue Media can help you.
34:11 Recently, we just launched "Room for Seconds"
34:15 with Greg Majewski.
34:16 It is an incredible insight into leadership,
34:20 into hospitality, into enterprise restaurants
34:23 and franchise, franchisee relationships.
34:26 Take a look at "Room for Seconds."
34:28 And if you're ready to start a show, reach out to us.
34:31 Be the show.media.
34:33 We can't wait to work with you.
34:34 (upbeat music)
34:37 you
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