Corner Booth Podcast

Episode 113: Jose Salazar with Safi Wine Bar, Salazars, & more

Award-winning Chef Jose Salazar was born in Colombia and raised in Queens, New York. His career includes working with Jean George Vongerichten, Thomas Keller, and other culinary luminaries. In 2008, he and his family moved to Cincinnati, where he now operates four successful concepts, including Salazar, Safi Wine Bar, Mita's, and Daylily.

"I found Cincinnati to be a big, small town, where word of mouth drives the success or failure of your restaurant,” says Salazar. “We were fortunate to develop a good following and are grateful for the success this community has provided." 

Salazar is also thankful for the chance meeting with a customer many years ago, who became an investor in the business and led to a wonderful partnership. "I knew the kitchen very well but wasn't aware of the financial and business aspects of restaurants," he says.

Salazar shares his experience with developing unique concepts, building a group of talented team members, and learning to operate a successful restaurant business. “It's no secret that this is a people business, and I learned it's best to trust your people but put your faith in your systems." He found that developing standard operating procedures is required for his team to operate consistently.

Salazar is committed to following the steps that made his restaurants successful. This includes fostering strong purveyor relationships to secure the finest local ingredients, offering a fresh seasonal menu, and providing guests with personal attention from his well-trained service staff. As Salazar says, "The basics of the service business have never been more important than they are today.”

Episode 112: Nelson Monteith with Honest Mary's

Inspired by the trend of healthy menu options in quick-service dining, Nelson Monteith, founder and CEO of Austin, TX-based Honest Mary's, left the oil and gas industry to become a restaurant entrepreneur. Monteith’s confidence in Honest Mary’s was fueled by months visiting similar concepts in California and Florida, as well as researching the quick-service sector. However, he was not as confident in his ability to run the business.  ''I worked making smoothies as a teenager, but was unaware of the many moving pieces there are in the daily operations of a restaurant,” he says. “Committing to a lease and raising the necessary funds was a very big step, as was leaving my job.”

Naming the concept after his wife Mary, he launched the business in 2017 in a 2,500-square-foot space in Austin. In this episode, Monteith shares his experience in the startup phase to develop systems and operational consistency. Honest Mary's became known as the "Fresh, Healthy, Fast, & Affordable " alternative, serving a growing community of guests for lunch and dinner. 

With a menu focused on both signature and build-your-own grain bowls, Honest Mary's built a loyal following. Two and a half years after launching the first unit, Monteith opened the second location. He opened the third in 2023 and the fourth in 2024. 

Now, armed with a fresh seasonal menu program, community-focused marketing, and a strong management team, Honest Mary's is looking to expand outside of Austin. "We aren't interested in franchising but should open a company-operated location in Houston sometime late 2025," says Monteith.

With 40% of the restaurant's volume coming from online orders, car-side pick-up, and delivery, Honest Mary's successfully operates from small spaces with minimal staffing and opening costs. Says Monteith, “We think we are a concept built for today's market." 

Episode 111: Sam Ballas & Sammy Gianopoulos with Sammy's Sliders

Sam Ballas grew up in a restaurant family, but he chose a career in finance upon graduation from college. However, 19 years later, he met Chef Sammy Gianopoulos, a Johnson & Wales University graduate with acclaimed culinary success at multiple concepts, and decided to return to the restaurant business. 

Gianopoulos yearned to create a high-quality, counter-service restaurant that could easily be replicated. In this episode, Ballas and Gianopoulos explain how combining their culinary expertise and financial acumen laid the foundation of a successful partnership.

In December 2023, they created Sammy’s Sliders, featuring chef-inspired Angus beef, antibiotic-free chicken, fresh fish, and falafel sandwiches. Their initial 2,200 square-foot Winston-Salem, NC strip mall location was an instant success. "The ‘two-slider tray’ with fries and drink for $13 helped establish us as a great value concept,” says Gianopoulos, adding, “Today's customer expects high quality, good portion, and reasonable prices. We knew we wouldn’t be able to expand without providing all three.”

In October 2024, they launched a second location in Kernersville, NC and began promoting the concept as a franchise. "Expanding through franchising works best for Sammy’s Sliders,” says Ballas. “We offer established operating systems, experienced financial ability, a low cost of entry, and relative ease of operation.”

The future looks bright for this partnership, says Ballas going on to say, “We are keeping our focus on the three basic combined steps of successful growth — serve high-quality product, maintain a hospitable service culture, and carefully select franchisees that fit our concept and vision.”

Episode 110: Kacie Dancy with Pop's Beef

Pop’s Italian Beef & Sausage (“Pop’s Beef”) has been a Chicagoland favorite for more than 45 years. The original Pop’s Beef store, located at 7153 W 127th Street in Palos Heights, IL, was opened March 24th, 1980, as a small family-run sandwich concept operation. Today, it is a successful franchisor with 17 locations. 

“I was born in the business,” says Kacie Dancey, the eldest of founder Frank Radochonski’s four children. A University of Illinois graduate with a degree in finance, she worked in wine sales after college for two years before returning to her family’s restaurant as a manager. Kacie is now the concept’s vice president of operations.

Pop's Beef menu offering includes freshly made sandwiches, sausage, burgers, salads, and hot dogs. Its house special, a marinated, warmed, and thinly sliced beef sandwich, is available in a variety of sizes. “We are successful because of our commitment to consistent high quality and reasonable pricing,” says Kacie.

Kacie explains how she and her team overcame poorly structured early growth to create an expansion program that is flexible and successful. "We have learned from the loosely organized licensed units we had at first,” she says, adding that the business now oversees franchisees with freestanding locations, shopping center units, and convenience store kiosks.

"I live by our marketing slogan, ‘Don't Worry, Beef Happy,’ and spend my time between the company-owned training unit and visiting the many franchised locations,” says Kacie. Pop's Beef’s short-term plan includes their continued commitment to improve operations while integrating technology into product management and marketing.

Episode 109: Hamp Lindsey with Wade’s Restaurant

Hamp Lindsey's parents founded a small neighborhood grocery store 77 years ago. Today, it is a landmark restaurant in Spartanburg, SC. 

“My father was always an entrepreneur,” says Lindsey. “He added a dining room to the store in 1949 and Wade’s Restaurant grew from there.” 

Lindsey held various positions at Wade’s before he left to study engineering at Clemson University. In 1977, he returned to Wade’s desiring to run the restaurant more like a business. 

“Creating a business has always been a passion of mine," he says, explaining that his plans were inspired by business consultant and author Jim Collins and Collins’s book “Good to Great”.

Lindsey shares his strategy that helped Wade’s become a high-volume restaurant, starting with cleanliness and basic organization and progressing to standards and systems to maintain consistency and clearer branding and marketing. “I believe more in quality than variety and found success with a limited menu that features fresh vegetables as our point of difference,” says Lindsey. “‘Have You Had Your Veggies today?!?’ has been our battle cry ever since.”

Wade’s operates in an 8,000 sq. ft. former cafeteria that accommodates a large kitchen that serves the dining room, self-service pick-up, and a grab-and-go market. Sales are evenly divided between dine-in and pick-up and take-out business.

Lindsey says he is proud of his 135-member staff. “We work hard to capture their interest at orientation and keep them engaged through cross-training and ongoing development programs.” He believes his success is based on three principles: 1) follow the best examples, 2) keep things simple, and 3) maintain consistency.

Episode 108: Ford Fry with Rocket Farm Restaurants

As a youngster traveling and dining out with his grandparents, William “Ford” Fry developed an interest in restaurants. "I wasn’t a very good student in school and didn’t do well working restaurant front-of-house positions, but when I attended culinary school in Vermont, something clicked and I found a love for cooking," says Fry. That love for cooking and his creativity led him to develop 26 award-winning restaurants in five states. 

“I started slow,” he explains. In 2007, he opened Junction, a casual farm-to-table concept. At the time, he met one of his repeat guests Phil Hickey, the founder of Capital Grille. Hickey provided Fry with advice and encouragement that helped him go on to create new signature concepts.

In this episode, Fry shares five steps of successful concept development. "What begins with a dream, turns into a vision and becomes reality through managing the process," says Fry. 

Today, Rocket Farm Restaurants operates concepts in the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas. They include Superica, St. Celia, Beetle Cat, The Optimist, State of Grace, and Little Rey.

“I see myself as part instructor and part caretaker because newer concepts take instruction, while my more established restaurants require refreshing,” says Fry, who distinguishes chef-driven individual concepts from multi-unit concepts. “We should never settle or be satisfied with current successes, but instead continue to work on finding ways to improve."

Episode 107: Federico Castellucci III with Castellucci Hospitality Group

Knowing full well the challenges of the restaurant business as a line cook at his family’s Atlanta restaurant, Federico Castellucci chose to study finance at Cornell University. However, he switched to the university’s hotel administration & hospitality program where his enthusiasm for the restaurant business was fueled by encounters with luminaries such as Danny Meyer and Michael Mina.

Castellucci went on to assume a failed franchise location to create and launch Sugo, his first concept in Atlanta. “Passion alone can be a recipe for misery in this business,” he says, “but add a lot of hard work and a great team and it becomes magic.” 

Sugo‘s first nine months were difficult, but the concept became established and profitable. Castellucci began planning his next concept. In September 2009, the Iberian Pig opened. 

The transition from restaurant operator to owner of a restaurant company required changing his responsibilities and creating a support team. Family members along with management and key staff helped him develop his winning strategy, operate efficiently, and grow successfully.  By 2014, he added the concepts Double Zero, Cooks & Soldiers, Basque, and Mujo to the Castellucci family of restaurants.

In this episode, Castellucci explains how his small support team is critical to the creation and management of the company’s multiple concepts. “I prefer a horizontal structure and engagement from my operating partners in the field,” says Castellucci, adding “we include management in decisions and provide an incentive bonus program meant to share the wealth.”

Castellucci Hospitality Group currently operates seven concepts in Atlanta and Nashville, with additional units being developed in Florida and North Carolina. “My role is to balance exploitation, the duplication of existing brands, with exploration, the creation of new concepts,” says Castellucci. “I try to choose the one best thing I think we can do each year." 

 

Episode 106: Jacob Monty, Immigration Attorney

“There is a lack of information and some actual misinformation regarding current immigration policies to deal with today,” says immigration attorney Jacob Monty, a partner with Texas law firm Monty & Ramirez, LLP.

Monty serves on both the James Beard Foundation and the Texas Restaurant Association boards of trustees and advised the George W. Bush administration on immigration reform.

“When it comes to targeted arrests, the hysteria is much worse than the reality," says Monty. "Violators have typically been notified to deport but have ignored the order and are usually picked up at their homes as to not disrupt employers and other public places.”

In this episode, Monty explains what restaurant operators should do when faced with notice of intention to audit (NOI), as well as the steps for accepting and filing employees I-9’s. 

He also explains how to prevent I-9 audits, the self-auditing process and correcting errors, and avoiding fraudulent I-9 requests and other scams.

As a restaurant operator, proper I-9 compliance means one less thing to keep you awake at night. Tune in for useful guidance to clarify the process.

Episode 105: Sarah Lieberman and JC Ricks with Dandelion Cafe

Long Before Sarah Lieberman and J.C. Ricks were awarded “Best Chicken & Waffles” in the country by Good Morning America in 2023, they were running Dandelion Cafe, their 40-seat breakfast and brunch concept in Bellaire, TX. 

As a teen, Lieberman worked in her parent's pizza restaurant.  After a brief career in the oil industry, she returned to hospitality in 2016 to open Dandelion Cafe. Ricks had studied culinary arts and began his career in fine dining before meeting Lieberman and joining her at Dandelion Cafe.

Their relationship blossomed personally and professionally into a partnership that grew Dandelion Cafe from a small coffee and pastry shop to a popular neighborhood breakfast and brunch concept. Known for their creative approach to breakfast, Lieberman and Ricks offer a seasonal menu with fresh local products. Specialty items include lemon blueberry and brioche strawberry French toast.

Ricks manages the kitchen and Lieberman is responsible for service and operations. "We work very well together and have created a sense of family among our staff,” says Lieberman, crediting the positive work environment for building a team that helped expand the concept to three units. Adds Ricks, “Being married and parents helps us to lead with empathy and better engage and support our staff.”

In this episode, Lieberman and Ricks share advice for creating and growing a successful concept, emphasizing the importance of creativity, community involvement, and satisfying the customer. “Success is much more than serving good food and beverages,” says Lieberman. “It’s bonding with your guest."

Episode 104: Brian Mills with CHOP5

Brian Mills and his business partners researched dining trends and successful restaurant concepts before creating CHOP5. “We chose health, freshness, and quality at a reasonable price as the basis of our concept as we saw those items as being most important to today’s dining consumer," says Mills. CHOP5 now operates restaurants in Ohio, Florida, and Colorado with plans for franchise growth.

CHOP5 offers fresh-made salads, soups, rice bowls, and sandwiches at 2,000 square-foot counter-service units with open kitchens, limited-seating dining, and take-out service. “We have a tremendous online ordering presence with 40% to 50% of revenue coming from our website and third-party delivery,” says Mills. Most units are located in residential markets where late afternoon, dinner, and weekend traffic account for most sales.

Mills explains how counter service doesn’t have to be a lackluster guest experience. "We strive for eyeball-to-eyeball interaction with each guest,” says Mills, describing the concept’s “guest acknowledgment, suggestive selling, menu explanation, and show of appreciation.” Staff selection, training, and development are significant unit management responsibilities at CHOP5.

"Choosing franchise partners is where it all begins,” says Mills, adding, “There must be a compatibility with our concept's culture, quality initiatives, and operating environment.” 

With new store openings on the horizon. CHOP5’s near-term future looks bright. However, as Mills notes, the concept’s goal is finding quality franchisees not simply growing the number of units.