Corner Booth Podcast

Episode 97: Emily Hunt Turner with All Square Cafe

Emily Hunt Turner is the founder and CEO of All Square Enterprises, a Minnesota non-profit organization. A former civil rights attorney, she created a restaurant and food truck business that provides a fresh start for people with a criminal record.

Says Emily, “By investing in those recently released [from prison] and those with criminal records and trying to move forward, we provide a sense of purpose and appreciation while receiving a loyal hard-working family of staff members.” The organization’s name suggests being “all square” with society.

She launched All Square Enterprises six years ago as a small cafe seating 50 people and operating five days a week from 11 am to 8 pm. Its specialty grilled cheese sandwiches are served in four squares, each representing four steps of entering society from incarceration -- space, light, open, and free. The sandwich varieties include basil pesto, Jamaica jerk, and jalapeño popper with fries, soup, and salad as sides.

In this episode, Emily shares how she learned to overcome her lack of restaurant experience and how her unusual opening promotion succeeded in raising startup capital. "This truly took a village to open,” she says. “We had assistance from community members to assist with design, construction, and equipment. She adds,” But my offering free grilled cheese sandwiches for life promotion for [a donation of] $1,000 was miraculous. We had 62 responses allowing me to have the necessary funds to open.”

Emily spends time with staff and management at the restaurant and attends food truck promotions, but she works primarily on the organization’s fellowship program. "We offer family services and legal assistance. We also teach entrepreneurship as a way of preparing our staff members for the rest of their lives." 

Episode 96: Jackie & Jessica Rodriguez with Grupo Lorena

Sisters Jackie and Jessica Rodriguez started working in the family restaurant business as teenagers. With time and hard work, they have grown into leadership positions in this successful multi-concept hospitality company in El Salvador. What started as a San Salvadorian bakery created by their grandparents, grew into a 20-unit chain under the leadership of their father. 

Sixteen years ago, the family jumped at the opportunity to purchase a small hotel and their concept diversification plan was underway… Today Grupo Lorena consists of Hotel Villa, 16 Lorena bakeries as well as Don Beto Cafe, Fontana Bar and Restaurant, and La Tartaleta. The family decided to become a franchisee of the Japanese seafood concept, Sushi Koi as a way of continuing its multi-concept expansion. 

"We believe it is important to pioneer concepts, becoming the first in the San Salvadorian market helps us create impact, further our growth and increase our brand value" says Jessica, who heads up Marketing and Brand Management.

In this episode, we learn the distinction between a family operating restaurants and a restaurant business that happens to employ family members. Jackie, who leads operations, purchasing and Human Resources explains, "You don’t simply get a position in the company because you are family…you must qualify and get selected based on education and experience."

This is a story of successful concept development, profitable operations and strategic expansion by a family that has created a culture of responsibility, accountability and reward.

Episode 95: Cameron Gerber with Pebbles Family Buffet

In 2014, Cameron Gerber bought a hotel and restaurant near his home outside Varney, a small community in Ottawa, Canada. After trying to sell the real estate, he and his brother Andrew opened a casual full-service concept on the property, with no restaurant experience. Their first restaurant struggled until they renovated it into Pebbles Family Buffet, which became a local hit. 

The success of the buffet, fresh bakery, and gift shop required the brothers to develop operating systems and procedures to improve efficiency and profitability. "We learned so much from the information and operating materials we found on www.restaurantowner.com, it remains our go-to reference to this day," says Cameron. 

In 2019, Pebbles Family Buffet increased its guest capacity to more than 250 seats and expanded its food-to-go program. They built a 10,000-square-foot commercial kitchen for the Pebbles Pantry, which delivers seven popular dinner offerings to more than 100 community grocery stores. 

In this episode, Cameron explains the importance of the business’s relationship with its staff and how his vision of Pebbles as a family became a reality. Says Cameron, "We show our care by involving our staff members in our daily operations, menu planning, and community marketing."

Over the next few years, Cameron and Andrew say they plan to continue their commitment to expansion, marketing, and staff. "We see Pebbles with an expanded bakery and gift shop and a pantry that has doubled in its production," says Cameron.

Episode 94: Alex Eagle with Freebirds World Burrito

Alex Eagle was general counsel for Austin, Texas-based fast-casual concept Freebirds World Burrito before becoming its chief executive officer in 2018. Albeit his hands-on restaurant experience was limited, he forged ahead with plans for the concept’s improvement, leaning on his attention to detail and ability to motivate others.

Quoting Jim Sullivan, CEO and founder of leadership and development training site Sullivision.com, Eagle says, "Good leaders may not have all the right answers, but they have all the right questions." He adds, "And I had plenty of questions."

Eagle had no question that Freebirds was an exciting concept with great quality and an energetic team, but he found many of the units were underperforming. "Previous leadership may have spent too much time on brand expansion and not enough on consistent operations," says Eagle.

Thus, Eagle spent time with unit managers and staff to discover opportunities for improvement. He gained confidence to implement a three-step program. The first step was improving both operating consistency and kitchen efficiency. Step two was keeping staff members happy. Says Eagle, "Going above and beyond staff expectations in the areas of quality of work, compensation and quality of life became our mantra." Step three involved marketing product quality and promoting successful limited-time offerings.

His efforts paid off. Freebirds World Burrito completed its past fiscal year with increased sales, improved margins, and 64 profitable Texas units.

Since this recording in August 2024, Freebirds World Burrito was purchased by Texas-based Sun Holdings, Inc.

Episode 93: Tom O’Keefe with Southern Classic Chicken

Tom O’Keefe is managing director of the 17-unit Louisiana and Texas family-style concept Southern Classic Chicken. O’Keefe says that he was initially drawn to the company by its 35-year customer following that he describes as "cult-like."

Says O’Keefe, "Brothers Howard and Leon Fanning had just taken over operations and were placing emphasis on growth when I decided to join. The combination of qualified people, a popular product line, established operating procedures, and great unit-level economics made this scalable."

In this episode, O’Keefe explains how his legal background and previous experience with Al Copeland’s restaurant enterprises helped him successfully build the Southern Classic Chicken franchise program. "Growth through franchising requires proper selection and consistent field support," says O’Keefe. "We pride ourselves on working hard at both."

Among the concept’s menu offerings are bone-in chicken by-the-piece and a chicken tender sandwich — the D.I.Y. Chicken Sandwich. Most of the company’s locations require half- to one-acre sites to accommodate free-standing units offering seated dine-in service, a walk-up order pass thru, and a drive-thru order window. In 2025, the company plans to launch a smaller unit design with less on-premises seating and more space dedicated to walk-up and drive-thru service.

Southern Classic Chicken’s adherence to hospitality business fundamentals has helped it maintain high customer loyalty and better than industry average unit sales volume. Says O’Keefe, "In the short term, we plan to keep our emphasis on customer service and consistent operations while we continue to grow throughout the Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas markets."

Episode 92: Olga Sagan with Piroshky Piroshky Bakery

As immigrants from the Soviet Union and speaking little English, Piroshky Piroshky Bakery’s founders launched the business 32 years ago in a 350-sq.-ft. space at Seattle’s Pikes Peak Market. In this episode, owner Olga Sagan tells how her grandparents created an Eastern European pastry business that is now a nationally recognized brand.

"Quality never goes out of style," says Olga. "We use the finest ingredients and follow the same traditional family recipes every day when making our sweet and savory Piroshkis," she adds.

"The secret is in the dough. Our daily offering includes traditional piroshki such as cabbage and rice, beef and cheese, and potato and cheese, as well as new popular additions like veggie chipotle, and smoked salmon. Our sweet offerings include chocolate cream hazelnut and cinnamon cardamon braided twists."

Olga joined the family business 24 years ago. She quickly saw the need for operating systems to improve consistency and efficiency. "My finance background was very helpful in structuring the growth of the business." Soon after, the concept had three Seattle locations supported by a production commissary. Olga bought the business in 2017. Within two years, she added two locations and offered online ordering for pickup and delivery. Her pop-up locations in several cities to build awareness of the brand led to Piroshky Piroshky Bakery’s successful nationwide shipping business.

"I am very excited about our short-term future," says Olga. "We have a great team of people and a pastry with a point of difference. California is currently a huge online market for us and may become our next retail market area."

 

Learn more at www.piroshkybakery.com  

Episode 91: Celeste Deal with ARF Financial

Getting "money, money, money" to finance their businesses is always a hot topic of interest for restaurant owners and operators. Meet Celeste Deal, chief sales officer with ARF Financial. She has 24 years of funding experience and has provided more than $120 million in 12,000 different transactions with small-business operators. 

Here, Celeste shares her knowledge to help us secure funding, manage debt, achieve a return on investment, and prepare for succession planning. In this interview, we can learn the essential steps of restaurant debt consolidation, expansion, and improvement. 

Celeste illustrates how one restaurant's plan to expand into a space next door was consummated with two loans. The first financed design, construction, equipment, and decor. The latter financed small wares, inventory, and working capital as needed. 

She also explains how food truck operators can obtain funding to move to brick-and-mortar locations and how established restaurants can finance trucks for catering. 

Learn from an expert on successful start-up, expansion, and franchise financing in this "must-listen" episode.

Episode 90: Mike Stasko with Sunny Street Café

Mike Stasko, president of Columbia, Ohio-based Sunny Street Café, was influenced by his father’s career in the restaurant equipment and supply business. He eventually went to work with his father at Rise & Dine, a breakfast and lunch concept where Mike learned how to manage its operations and business development. Mike rebranded Rise & Dine to Sunny Street and opened the first of what would become eight Columbus locations. 

In this episode, we learn what makes Mike’s full-service breakfast and lunch restaurant business successful and how he is growing it via franchising. Says Mike, “Franchising is the best way of getting into the business for yourself without being by yourself,” adding, “We have been very careful with the franchise partners we select and continue to actively support them.”

Sunny Street is open from 6:30 am to 2:30 pm daily. Each unit seats 100 to 120 guests, with space for private and group dining. “Most locations are in suburban shopping centers, making the family our primary guest. Weekends are huge,” says Mike. “Children have helped our pancakes become the number-one seller.”  

Sunny Street recently redesigned its packaging for off-premises dining to meet growing customer demand for third-party delivery and curbside pick-up, which account for approximately 20% of sales. Mike’s immediate goals include maintaining strong daily operations, growing the catering and delivery business, and supporting Sunny Street’s 22 franchisees in Ohio, Illinois, and Texas.

Episode 89: Giorgia Caporuscio with Don Antonio Pizza

Giorgia Caporuscio was born in the small town of Terracina, Italy, an hour from Naples. In her youth, she dreamed of becoming a flight attendant to pursue her love of travel. At 19, she moved to New York City to work in her father’s pizza restaurant.

The experience changed her direction. “It was love at first bite,” says Giorgia, adding “I became intrigued with the process of authentic pizza making and wanted to master the art.”  

Giorgia traveled back to Italy to study under master pizza maker Antonio Biglietto in Naples, and she went on to win first place in the World Pizza Championship. In 2019, she returned to New York City to attend culinary school and, upon graduation, take over operations of Don Antonio, her father’s initial restaurant.

In this episode, Giorgia shares her story of how she succeeded in New York City’s competitive Hell’s Kitchen dining market and the specific challenges, including:

• Balancing the dynamics of a traditional family business with today's demanding labor market.
• Maintaining the traditional menu while meeting the tastes of today’s diners.

She also explains:

• Why in-house delivery works better than third-party delivery post-Covid.
• How to enhance the guest experience through staff training and improved processes.

Episode 88: Benson Lau with Fluffy Fluffy Dessert Café

Fuwa Fuwa is Japanese for Fluffy Fluffy, which, in this case, also translates to a successful, fast-growing soufflé pancake concept. Benson Lau started in 2018 with one small cafe in Toronto and has quickly grown his business to 40 locations throughout Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. During the summer of 2024, Benson and his team opened their newest unit in Orange County, California.

 

“It's incredible to experience this. I am overwhelmed by the acceptance of our unique soufflé pancake menu,” says Benson. “Our point of difference is truly the menu offering. Guests tell us they have never seen such light fluffy soufflé style pancakes for breakfast, dessert and all day.” 

 

Fluffy Fluffy is a counter-service, open-kitchen concept, with units that range in size from 1,200 to 2,400 sq. ft. Most locations seat 30 to 40 guests and are open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

 

“The addition of our crunchy waffle sandwiches called Croffles, along with our wide variety of desserts and coffees, help us build guest traffic during lunch and early evening hours,” says Benson. Although these delicate soufflé items may not travel well, most Fluffy Fluffy locations post 20% of revenue from pick up or delivery.

 

In this episode, Benson explains his approach to daily operations and his short-term growth planning. Benson says, "I see myself as the team captain. Our success depends on people having fun while working well together. We offer today's guests an affordable luxury that is sweet and healthy. As long as we are able to enjoy our work, we will continue to share our happiness one pancake at a time.”