Welcome back. Thanks for being with me on the podcast. You know, this is a business of the basics. It’s about foundational systems that help you run a fantastic operation and grow that operation. My guest this week is John Issa, and he is a partner and a co founder of a company called INVIC2S Hospitality Group in Washington, DC.

Now they have a bakery, a beer garden, a sports bar, a craft cocktail bar, And a nightclub all under their hospitality group. And it’s all about teamwork and building that team spirit, company culture, true leadership, and not getting so close to the organization that you miss the basics. We cover all the operating details, so stay tuned.

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It’s about staff training, not just in hospitality. But also in salesmanship to increase check averages and provide amazing dining experiences. It’s about marketing that’s trackable, so you know where the business is coming from and that there’s a return on investment. It’s also about efficiencies across your operation.

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Welcome back, everyone. So glad you are here. And John, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Excellent. You have a very dynamic restaurant group in the D. C. area, and we’re going to get into the ins and outs of running great restaurants and what hospitality is all about, but can you first start by telling us your backstory in hospitality and how this all began?

My backstory in hospitality began when I was a little kid. My father had a bunch of restaurants and catering companies And I worked for him for a while and went to school, came back. I was a musician full time. And then, coming back off tour was always.

I needed some supplemental income. So I was just, I’d bartend here or there. And then all of a sudden my rockstar dreams didn’t happen. I had to get serious and my supplemental income turned into my career.

Now, you have some partners in INVIC2S Hospitality Group, and how did you meet those guys? And tell us about your different roles, and how you complement each other, and stay in your lane, and put your visions together to make it all happen.

Okay, I met them when I was working at Public Bar 2009, I was one of the general managers there after I moved up. on the ranks and Edwin, the owner, Edwin Villegas Windmark Instruction, he is my guy. Everyone in the story that has an opportunity to become successful throughout the course of their career always has one guy or a few guys.

And Edwin’s my guy. He gave me an opportunity to move next door, right next door, to open up South House Beer Hall and Garden in 2014. And I took on the opportunity and we’ve been there. We just had our 10 year anniversary. And it’s been a great run. And we’re still continuing growing.

And I met Johan and Christian Cortez, they’re brothers. I met Johan at Public Bar while I was bartending. He was my bar back. So I asked him to come over to Soft House with me before we opened. And he decided he would, and he was a manager, bartender, then manager, and then the opportunity came up for him to buy some shares and some stake in the business, and he did, and his brother came to this country, started working for us, same thing happened to him, and now we have, one big happy restaurant group family.

Yeah, it’s a tight group, it sounds like. Tell us just a quick overview of each of your concepts. They’re all growing, they’re all dynamic, they’re all interestingly different. Give us kind of an overview of each one. So we had,

we started at Softhouse and that’s just your, it’s on, it was an authentic German beer garden.

And throughout the course, this industry, you have to evolve into nature and the area. So we, we still have very, authenticity still remains. We have a beer garden outside with picnic tables. And then, at night, the nightlife kicks in and we overturn it into a place where, you know, like a little nightclub fun, we have live music there on Fridays and Saturday nights, followed by DJs in every room.

And public bar, live, sports bar live music, hybrid nightclub on the rooftop, bottle service, all that. So it’s one stop shopping at public. And then we took on the bakery that was making our pretzels. We offered the owner to buy in and get them running. It was more mom and pop, try to get them.

Systems in place for him to run a business where it’s not always hands on for him. He can relax a little bit, get organized. So he agreed and we launched that in March 2023 and it’s been going great. And then this little space opened up in Navy Yard and we were supposed to take the building on the second and third floor.

I signed a lease in February 2020 and then COVID hit and I got out of the lease, thankfully, but then, after COVID, My friend who owns the building calls back up. He’s I got this little space in the basement. I don’t know if you want to do a nightclub. And we’re like, we don’t want to do a nightclub, but we did it.

So it’s more, it’s a speakeasy. We like to move away from the speakeasy term and call it a craft cocktail bar and lounge. So that’s called STFU.

And they all have, say, different different concepts, different ambiance. Do you have any crossover with your guests that come to different your different venues and patronize more than one?

Or do they each have their own distinct sort of, clientele?

We do have crossover and but, there are different concepts. Public bar and staff house will allow you in, you can’t wear flip flops and stuff like that. The speak STFU, yes, it’s very strict course dress code enforced.

So you have to dress up, you want to go out, you’re going to spend some money, you’re going to get a table, you’re going to get a bottle. So yeah, it’s a all of them, like you said, are super dynamic. So I think that’s what keeps it interesting. And it’s not the same across the board. Yeah.

So do you all sit around sometimes and brainstorm what the next concept is?

Like you mentioned, it started with Softhouse, but then someone came up with the idea of, INVIC2S and what does that mean and what’s the vision of this company and what does it really want to do? Is it a diverse company that’s going to have multiple different concepts moving forward? Are you going to focus on what’s working now and expand outside of the DC area?

Like what’s the big vision?

Big vision is to keep growing, obviously. Yes, and also to expand, our, we’d like to have a few different places that, you know, and different locations for soft house and public bar, cause it’s a good model. They work. But it depends on the location. So we’re always entertaining the opportunity to go and look at different locations.

And 99 times out of 100, none of them work out. But that one just boom, you have a vision like this is going to be completely different, but we can do it. So we have, I think we’ve come full circle from bakery to sportsbar, nightclub, to craft cocktail bar. So I think we’ve incorporated everything in the nightlife industry or the, hospitality industry, besides a full on fine dining restaurant and a strip club, which we don’t want that.

Gotcha. Now, locations. How did you select them? I think you mentioned one of your colleagues suggested a certain location, and you went to evaluate it, and you get the vision for the space, and you say, this works, and does it have high walk by traffic, is it a drive thru, does it have parking?

Every location is different. How do you, what do you look for? What’s the key criteria in selecting a location, knowing that the concept will fly in that space?

There’s a couple of key things. Where we are located it’s, the location is, it’s great. About a half a block down from DuPont.

You can’t beat that location. There’s high foot traffic. Yes. So we we took that location because of it. And We, we built on that. We saw what Public Bar was doing prior to us taking ownership over it. And we’re like, this will work here. And so then the lease came up at Public, we’re like, we’re going to take that too, because we know it works throughout the year.

And we had history of, and records of it working very well. We go to I think it’s in DC, especially rent is so ridiculous that you have to find a gentrifying area, we want to put the word on it and find a low rent. Otherwise, you’re coming in out the gate with 72 to 75 a square foot.

Yeah. And you’re going to be in the red for three years just paying that down or paying your loan off. So yeah, you have to find an area that’s up and coming, and we have a broker that helps us do that.

So how about liquor licenses? Are they very expensive in D. C.? Like it’s incredibly astronomical in a city like San Francisco or New York City.

What’s D. C. like? D. C.

liquor license. It’s They’re not super expensive. You have to renew them. You can do a one or two year, three year program. So we just lock that down at three years and not have to worry about it. And we have, we all are, all our establishments have tavern licenses, so we don’t have to serve the food and, do that food ratio per person.

Alcohol versus alcohol. But we do offer, we have offerings to keep you in there and, keep you satisfied.

Great. Yeah. I’m glad you mentioned operating costs because we’re going to talk finances and bottom line a little bit. What do you consider to be the foundation of a successful hospitality operation, whether that be a single unit location or multiple concepts like you have, like you mentioned the word systems, what would you say is the foundation of your success?

I think everyone needs, a crash course every now and then on the basics. The basics of how to run an operations and putting systems in place and having meetings and going through, not just having a meeting about the meeting. I always tell them, I don’t want to talk about this again.

I don’t want excuses. We want results or I want, a solution. So having these in place and having your different operators, and it takes a long time to build a great team. You have to, we’re going through the systems like it’s a corporate system now, but we have a very family feel with all our employees.

We know everyone, they know us. We’re very hands on there. Not so much micromanaging. I think that was the biggest thing for me to loosen the reins a little bit. And that was the hardest part for me. But now with this restaurant group we got involved with a consulting group called HaasPoint and they’ve been great and they’ve helped us put together, back to the basics again, let’s go, cause when you’re on the inside, look at, you’re on the inside looking in, you start missing a few things after, this is my 29th year in the industry and Oh man, I forgot about that, but that’s so basic, but it’s just hashing over the basics again, getting those systems in line and following through with them.

And that’s what we do. I think that’s when it becomes a well oiled machine.

I’m glad you mentioned that because as owner operators, we can be really close to our business and think, oh, we’ve got this. And like you said, maybe you forget some of the basics because you’ve been doing it so long, but a fresh perspective when bringing experts in your corner that see things that you might not see them is just a way of keeping fresh, keeping innovative and putting a new spin on what’s already working and maybe uplevel the operation.

So it sounds like you’re doing that. Let’s talk about. Your people. You mentioned family. Now I’m hearing company culture, but I’m also hearing that you shifted your management style, perhaps, and now we’re talking about leadership. Tell me what that word means to you and how you lead your people and what you expect of them to be part of your team and what the culture is.

That’s a big question, but it’s all wrapped in.

Yeah, we have, you have your front of the house, you have your back of the house, you have your managers, you have your bartenders, you have your barbacks and your bussers and your kitchen staff but we all work together. I don’t want to see, we don’t we create a culture where people are like, oh, pick that up and they see it out of the corner of their eye and it’s not my job.

I don’t, we don’t, that doesn’t work at where we are. So when, building respect with your employees is showing them that you know how to do your job, that you’ve done their job before and you know that how hard it is or what they go through and, they have an understanding that, exactly, you’ve been doing this for a long time and you have to build, respect.

So showing them, Hey, I got this. I can pick up a broom. Oh, there’s an empty glass over there. I know where it goes. So everyone has their jobs, but like we all work together in that respect.

Eyes open. Yeah, that’s exactly right. I used to have a motto in my places where every table is your table.

And that didn’t just mean front of house, back of house. So that’s your section. It’s everyone’s got a set of eyes. Come through the front door, put your guest hat on and see what the customer sees before they see it. Fix what’s broken that you can fix. It’s like everybody was part of that team and it sounds like that’s your culture also.

What about onboarding new team members? Is there a, a procedure in place? Do they mentor and shadow your veterans? Tell us about that. How do you bring people in?

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There

is an onboarding process, yes it’s on our, one of our apps that we have. So it’s, everything is, systematic now and streamlined.

They come in for their interview, we go over it, then we make a decision, then we give them, we hire them, they go through the onboarding process, and they’ll sit down with the general manager, and then they’ll have at least 10 days of training, whatever their job is, especially if they’re bartending, public bar and soft house aren’t like rocket science bartending, it’s like pouring beers and opening beer bottles and making just quick box sodas, but That’s TFU, yes, you have to show a resume of you or you can, you have to be trainable and willing to learn.

So once we’re like, okay, we can do that. You’re set. We let them go. And then they’re on their own. Prior to that, it was more like throw them in the wolves. We’re down three bartenders, but we are, our employee retention has been very great. I don’t think I’ve had, I think I have about four.

Five of the bartenders still that I started with at Softhouse 10 years ago. And we kept our employees during COVID and we could pay them as much as we could. And everyone stayed. So we didn’t have that problem when we opened up, reopened.

Once you’ve got that system in place, it just becomes easier to, maintain that level of staffing, that level of expectation, the culture, people tell their friends about a great place to work.

Do you hire for experience or. Personality and attitude or both. What do you really look for in someone? What do you expect them to bring to the table?

I always tell them this and if they’re in school I know that this industry is a rotating door for a lot of people, you know They want to make some money on the weekends when they’re if they’re going to school or they have their other job And this is just supplemented income for them.

I expect them to still You know, treat it as a job, like a real job to them. Not just Oh, I don’t really need this job, but that attitude’s got to go. And if I see that they don’t change, then they got to go. But I was telling like, I will, I’m here to help you. If this is just a stepping stone, great. And I’m glad to be a part of it, and help you out along the way.

And everyone’s got that. I tell them it’s a, we’re in the service industry, but we’re also in the hot where anyone can do service, but this is an experience, it’s hospitality. So they understand that, and we reiterate that every month, we always have an employee function or something like that, and we go over everything before we have fun.

Team building, and recognition and rewards, tell me about

that. Team building, there’s all sorts of Seminars that we send, the ones that we think are growing, the lifers as we call them you have to go and, Barmetrics has this great program that I was in, it was a mentoring program.

And you have to actually go through an application process, a phone interview, and then they’ll accept 50 at a time for a weekend course on a Saturday, Sunday, or sorry, Sunday, Monday into Tuesday. And it’s on hand, you have to, it’s up in Baltimore, or Annapolis. It’s really great. And that taught me a lot.

I brought it back to the table and that’s what we do every quarter for the people that we see that are growing, or, the best thing is when your employee walks up to you and asks you, what can I do to get to where you are, or I want to grow with you guys, and you’re like, alright, we got this guy locked in, or this lady locked in, let’s work with them.

And if I see potential, then, I will pull it out of you. That’s one of my things. If I see it, I will be the hardest on you, because I know it’s in there, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna pull it out, somehow.

Now you’re talking about nurturing, recognizing talent and nurturing your people, which is a very powerful formula.

And not only giving them opportunities to move up, but perhaps incentivizing them to take on that additional responsibility. Is that pretty much what, and is that your role? Is that, or do all your partners recognize people in the different concepts and say, hey, I think this person has something special.

I think they can go here. Tell us about the process. I always tell them,

I the way I got to where I am is like, I kept my mouth shut and I would go above and beyond. And I always tell them like, if you shine someone, if it’s not me or somebody, like someone will recognize it. Some, at some point someone will recognize it and talk to you and give you the opportunity.

So keep your head down, offer, suggestions. Don’t be, Constructive criticism is great, but, don’t be, I don’t know why they’re doing it this way oh, okay hey, I think we should be doing this. What do you guys think of this idea? Or, and then, and don’t ask for extra.

Are you guys going to pay me for that idea? No, just sit down, keep your mouth shut, shine. And your day will come, I swear it. I live by that.

So that’s creating a culture of intrapreneurship, which I love that word, and obviously you know what that means. And you are entrepreneurs and you’re building a growing business, and now you’re nurturing people within your business to think like owners, to act like owners, to put their best ideas forward, to Give above and beyond, and then the rewards will follow.

It just seems natural that certain people rise to that challenge because they take pride in what they’re doing, they’re passionate about hospitality, and they see a real future here, and I think you’re providing that future.

Yeah, I want people to know that, a lot of people don’t take this industry seriously.

They think it’s, it’s a party. Yeah, a step to something else, right? Yeah, and they’re going to be done after five years. I think my legacy I want to leave behind is showing people that this is a very professional industry. Even though we don’t work normal hours, this is a multi billion dollar industry across the board and it should be taken seriously, and so that, that’s what I want to show them that, you can have a life doing this, I have a great life doing this and hopefully they’re having a great life.

Do you have a particular definition of hospitality? What does that word mean to you, and how do you impart it to your team? Even though there are many definitions to that word, there’s a common core there that really establishes your values and what you want the guests to feel in all of your concepts.

But what does hospitality mean to you?

It means an experience. Where are you going to, you’re going to go and you’re going to, you’re going to be wowed and you’re like, wow, I’m going to come back here again. And they’re not going to write, I think the people that write the reviews are the ones that just hated the place, or they just had something wrong or they just don’t have, they just have so much time on their hands.

You, a customer leaves unhappy. Yes, they’ll write a review. A customer leaves happy with a great experience. I don’t think they’re going to leave a great, they’ll leave a review, but they’ll tell their friends about it. Word of mouth. I think in experience, it’s personal. So that’s how they have to serve and that’s how they do it.

And have great clients. They have great our clients that come every day. We have a bunch of those and we all know them and it makes them feel like their home. And I think those are the best customers to have.

So it sounds like you’ve. built and you continue to build what I call the dream team staff.

And that means that people have their own personal standards of how they approach the job every day, and they’re going above and beyond, which clearly rubs off on other new people coming in. But there are those people that maybe don’t quite get it. They could get it if they were nurtured a little bit.

Do you have anything that’s how do you clearly. communicate expectations and hold people accountable to those expectations until they get it. It clicks and then that’s their approach to the job every day and then it rubs off on others.

I think it’s more of Not telling them what they’re doing wrong and just oh, hey, next time that happens don’t you think this would be better?

Not just you did that wrong and you shouldn’t do that. I think that’s when they stop listening. Yeah. I think it’s hey, why don’t you try this next time? I think it’ll work better. Or try it. I’ve tried this, say this to them instead of that, and that would be great. And then you definitely learn who’s willing to do that and who’s just there for, a paycheck.

I think you’re talking about a critique versus a criticism. And that’s also part of being a leader versus being the boss that just tells people what to do and how to do it. And that creates resentment and it doesn’t foster that team culture and team spirit. So I think that’s exactly the right approach.

That’s terrific. Now, what about let’s switch to finances. Who’s in charge of finances and what are the, the key performance indicators perhaps that you monitor on a regular basis just to make sure that you’re, your margins are where they need to be in your ensuring profitability?

So Johan Cortes, one of the brothers, he’s in, he’s the CFO. So he’s in charge of the numbers, he’s a numbers guy. We’re all numbers guys, but he is very, he’s good with it. That’s his role. Yeah, that’s his role. That’s his title. Okay. So we go over, we go over the P& Ls every month as owners, all the partners meet, we hash through it and dig deep into them.

We keep a running, our managers, we have a meeting with them once every, it’s on a Tuesday, the first Tuesday of the month with the PNLs. We provide them a week before that so they can go through it. So they see the numbers. They’re, everything’s very transparent. Correct. They’re not trying to hide anything because their bonuses are based off of the numbers and their performance.

So it gives them a stake in it. Oh, if we do better, I get a bigger bonus. So we go over them. We, we had a class prior to teach them how to read a P& L if they didn’t know how to do they have a working breakeven. with your fixed costs or variable costs. Excellent. This is a working process, the working work, it’s a working worksheet.

It’s always going to be a plus or minus, depending on the month. We have a log every day. We write. At the end of the shift, how the day was, everything, what to expect. And that’s why I always tell my bartenders pick a week. That’s great to go on vacation. We, the months that are slower, the months that you won’t miss out on too much.

And so log it down and we can see we we keep up rent always goes up every year. We keep, I keep an eye out on the insurances cause that’s probably the biggest hit that we take in DC. Right now I believe that they’re, the moratorium, there’s a moratorium in DC which, limits the amount of carriers that you can work with, and those carriers you work with are price gouging like crazy.

Unbelievable. No kidding. It’s a racket, huh? Yeah, it’s a racket. And yeah, I know the DRAM law was approved, but not passed yet. I’m waiting for the mayor to sign it. I think we all are. Yeah, for sure. So put a cap on that somehow, right? That’s

yeah, or just get a fair competition. Yeah, it’s like Monopoly

Yeah, so yeah that to me is our biggest expense and you can’t shop around insurances You can’t be like get a couple brokers and be like, hey, no you have to have one guy You sign a broker, an agent, a broker of agent letter, and that he blocks everyone else from coming in and giving you a better price.

Yeah, the the restaurant and hospitality business has traditionally been a high risk business, which means lots of carriers don’t even want to touch it. Has that shifted at all over the years, or is that limit, in an already limited market of limited carriers that you can work with, is it even smaller because lots of them stay away from restaurants or hospitality?

Yes, it is high risk. And there’s, I think there’s only a few, I think I tell my six to six right now that you could work with. And there’s more time in New York City and DC and in the state of Alabama for some reason. So yeah, I’ve had one guy I’ve worked with for about eight years now. But I try to shop it around and just see without signing a letter, but they do price gouge you like crazy.

And I’ve never used it ever until the last two years when we’ve had some situations. I’m like, you know what, I’m gonna let my insurance deal with this because I pay them enough that they can, deal with it now.

I’m glad you mentioned shopping it around, and I, we talked about maybe being so close to your business that you don’t necessarily think about certain things, but this is a business of relationships.

No one would disagree with that. You have people you’ve worked with for a long time that you like, But it’s not about being friends or liking someone, it’s about they work for your business, and if they’re not constantly working for your business, someone else may be. And they need to understand that, and I always used to shop around all the different things that were provided by so many different suppliers.

And over time, you want service, and you want value. And both of those things are pretty important, and I’m sure you’re doing that also.

Yeah, I think that’s the biggest thing that keeps you busy. Always shopping around, always meeting with the players, coming up with a better deal. I scratch your back, you scratch my back kind of thing.

Yeah, that definitely keeps everyone busy.

What about cost of goods and maintaining margins? Inflation has been crazy. Have you had to raise prices much? Do you dial things in, regularly costing out your menus? It’s what kinds of things can you do to keep your margins where they need to be without the inflation?

Without losing the value provided to the guest.

Yes, we absolutely rebrace our prices. But not like within reason. Yeah, a dollar. We do it, here and there. I think we’ve done it twice since COVID ended. And cause everything’s, it’s parallel, everything’s getting expensive. All our goods are crazy.

So at the end of each month, we’ll go through a sales report and we’ll see what items are really selling, what items are just sitting there and how we can either reduce the menu or add another item that might be a better fit. So that’s constantly happening.

So yeah, shifting your menu around availability and value pricing and that sort of thing without losing the things that your guests have come to expect that they really enjoy.

But you have to make certain shifts. When something goes through the roof and you can’t charge an exorbitant amount for it, you need to make it shift even temporarily. So

yeah, and also, not creating so much waste. You have you go on. We have vegetables we serve vegetables on your hamburger.

So why can’t we make a salad? There are vegetables there. So otherwise it’s going to go to waste. Just adding to your menu with what you still have without making it too crazy.

Thank you. Now you’re talking about cross utilizing menu items and not bringing something in just because it goes on one or two dishes, but it literally crosses your menu in multiple uses and that minimizes spoilage.

That’s also one of those basics, but it’s really important to mention. Let’s shift to marketing. What’s your marketing strategy and what works and what’s trackable? What drives business in the door? How do promote your businesses?

Social media, we are on social media. We have a company that helps us, works with us, creates our digital flyers.

Any DJ or, band that plays. promoter, which we try to stay away from, but sometimes you just need them. Yeah. We’ll create the flyer, they’ll tag us, sometimes we pay for ads. That gets the word out there. Influencers, obviously, I think that’s what the shift is. The trend is going from promoters now to influencers.

They don’t want to be called promoters anymore. They want to be called influencers. So now they’re throwing parties and they can bring in, I have, I have 300, 000 followers. I’m like, it’s great. Let me check out your demographics, see if it works. So Yeah, social media is huge for us. We do have websites which, has our handles on every one of them that directs you.

We’re still building our INVIC2S website to be, streamline everything in with all our groups on the bottom. Just click on that, go there.

Yeah, while we’re on the subject of influencers, DC is a tourist town. Lots of people come to the nation’s capital for a variety of reasons. Do you primarily get locals to your different venues?

Do you find that tourists find their way? Do Lyft and Uber drivers recommend you? Conserges and hotels? Do you work with any of these people to influence people’s decisions to go to your concepts?

Absolutely. We have a concierge program we work with, I think, around the perimeter of a Three block radius where we are in DuPont, there’s over, 165 hotels or boutique hotels.

So we work with a bunch of concierges and they throw networking events there. We give a discount if you show us your key card, we’ll give you a 10 percent discount, especially at the Navy Yard. We are, we’re surrounded by two hotels. Excellent. That’s great. Built in audience. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we definitely we rely on it.

We have regulars, we have Uber drivers around that area in DuPont at night. It’s they close the area off. You have to pick up your Uber about a block down cause it’s just, there’s about seven, eight different nightclubs in that area. So it gets a little. It’s a little crazy, but yeah we work with a lot of the concierges and we have, we’ll send out digital flyers.

There’s always a program of Oh, look at how many people are in this area. Look at the residences around here. You just send them out a mailer every now and then. And we have a program we work with in kind it’s a new app with restaurants are giving a certain amount of consumption to this app and they will, download the app and it, You go there and you pay for it that way.

So it’s a good, it’s good promotion. It’s good feedback.

Do you do specific theme parties when you have live entertainment for special events, whether that be Mardi Gras or Super Bowl or whatever it is, you bring in an actor or an entertainment person and you promote a theme party around it?

We do theme parties we have an emo theme party coming up now, I think at the end of the month at Public Bar Live.

Playing a bunch of emo, so that, that was, that’s very big, that’s trending as they say it now. Oktoberfest is just around the corner. That’s right, yeah. We will, we do contests, we have contests throughout the week. We’re working with Polliner, the beer company, and they’re the first 50 people in if they’re dressed in their lederhosen or their dirndl.

Excellent. They’ll get a liter of beer, Polliner, on the house. Like Saturday especially, we have a date party. We’ll have little, like little 15 minute segments of contests. Beer, Stein hoisting, or just stupid games where people put like an Oreo on their head and they try to get it in their mouth without using their hands.

Just something that interacts with the crowd a little bit. They love it. Throw shirts out and different, POS and stuff like that.

Yeah. Do you remember that treat when you were a kid called the devil dog? Okay. So a devil dog was like devil’s food cake, a layer on the top and on the bottom with cream in the middle.

And whenever you, and it was like a, a Twinkie, but it was about yay big. We used to pass those out in the bar and have a contest. Okay, whoever could eat the devil dog and then whistle first would win some prize. Just crazy stuff like your Oreo cookie idea. Just crazy bar stunts, people have fun doing these things.

I’m going to use

that if you

don’t mind. No, go for it if it works for you, that’s cool. What about hooks and signature items? What makes, each of your venues is different, it’s unique, it’s special in a certain way, and we all know what hooks are, what sets you apart from the competition?

You promote these things, people come in for these things, we used to have these signature 60 ounce goblets, it was like a 30 ounce And they all glowed from the inside out because you put a glow stick in there and it was like grenadine or blue curacao would make it glow like antifreeze. And they’d go through the dining room, they’d sell themselves, they were like 20 bucks a piece, that was a hook.

Do you have signature items on all the menus that just, people just love and they sell themselves?

Yeah, we do. At South House, we have, we work with Fairwinds Brewery in Lorton, Virginia. One of my buddies is the owner, and he came up with this great beer for us. Very light, all day drink, and they call it 4.

0 ABV. It’s called South House Hellis Lager. He let us tag our name on it, and he prints out cans for us. It says South House, so that’s our, one of, one of our number one sellers, and people can get that to go now. I think

I saw the can on your website or some of the materials your PR agent sent me.

I saw the can. Yeah, that’s cool.

So we have that. And we do, that’s why I think the novelty of beer gardens, we have the steins that are huge and people just like that atmosphere. And Public Bar, we have a great watermelon crush and it’s like a huge watermelon. A piece of watermelon is really refreshing drink that we, that goes over, like you said, like mostly in the summertime.

Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. We’ll switch over according to the season. With the new craft cocktail bar, CFU, we have. All of our cocktails are based on like prohibition drinks and we just renamed them. We had, and we added our spin to it. Like back in the day is named after the old fashioned with our little twist on it.

That would be our number one seller and we’ve gotten great reviews about that. Yeah. And obviously changing it up throughout the season. So people know. There’s some pumpkin in there or whatever coming up.

So catchy, funky names also sell as signature items. It’s really cool that you do that.

Not every restaurant has really funky names and people either ask the question, what’s that? Or you get a descriptor, but the name sells it sometimes. It’s that’s a key. That’s awesome.

For sure. I like, Stirring feathers, ruffling feathers a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Being a little bit of row, irreverent.

People appreciate that. A little cheeky, maybe. Yeah, exactly. That’s cool. Awesome. Got any loyalty programs? Anything that brings repeat business in? Besides just, word of mouth buzz. People love your places. Do you do anything special to encourage repeat business?

We are working on a loyalty program now with Toast for we use them across the board.

So we’re getting that started now. Which we, we have gift cards and, but, some of our, some of our regulars are already grandfathered in. Yeah, of course. Yeah, they have their we created a BFF card, like a BFF soft house card, and they show it to them every time they get their tab and they, they get a good 15 percent off their bill.

Good. Yeah. Awesome. How about a mug club? You guys have a mug club?

Not yet. We were looking for a stein club. But yeah. I always joke with everyone, I was like, I always tell our broker, our real estate broker find me a spot in a great location that has zero storage. We’re we make do with what we have zero storage every anywhere.

We store stuff in odd places. So we’re trying to figure out a locker program at STFU to where you can buy a bottle and come back and use it constantly throw bottles over like a membership. And at South House, we’re trying to find ways to hang the steins without them being, stolen or broken. Of course.

Yeah, breakage is always a problem and all that sort of thing. We had a huge mug club that just grew and grew and it was cash flow up front because of the memberships, but it actually brought people in multiple days per week when they used to come once or twice a month. So that was a huge benefit for our biggest place also.

Let’s talk about decision making, right? You guys put your heads together and not everything is a home run, grand slam hit. What about mistakes and failures and experiments? Anything come to mind that seemingly was a great idea, just didn’t pan out?

Yeah, tons of things. It’s the nature of the biz, right?

Yeah. I feel like, some people have this mindset of paying less for something is, Because we’re saving money or not spending as much because there’s a difference. You know, we’ve gone through that a bunch of times with our social media companies. Live music was very, it’s very difficult in the city to get onto that train and to be recognized as soft house is different.

It’s a very easy model of cover bands, Fridays and Saturdays, everyone likes a good cover band.

Absolutely. We did that. When

you, when you get onto the live music train it’s hard because there’s some like the bands we want to bring in that cost a lot. ticketed event. If they play in Baltimore, they can’t, they won’t, I think they’re not allowed to play in Washington.

They’ll pass DC and go straight to Richmond. So we’re still trying to work on that niche right there. Haven’t failed at it. We still haven’t played music, but I’d like to get better bands in there and, compete with the market, which is really R2 at this point.

That brings to mind staying ahead of the competition and always knowing what they’re up to.

Like you play your best game, but you got to stay on top of what your competitors are doing. Do you guys like shop around different places that you would consider to be competitors and go see what they’re doing well and see what they’re not doing well? Maybe even encourage your team to go see what they’re doing.

Are they training their staff? Are they delivering hospitality? Are they upselling? It’s are they driving business in an innovative sort of way, right? Oh, absolutely.

If we’re there on a Friday, Saturday night, it’s a little slower. We’ll go out and, pound the pavement and check out what our competitors are doing.

In our areas, both in Navy Yard and DuPont, you can always just go across the street and see what’s going on. Yep, exactly. It’s very, yeah. And then bring an idea or we sit on the bid too. So all of our owners in the Navy Yard, we all have meetings every month or every two months.

And we try to try to bring ideas. We’re going to have a bar crawl on the 26th of October that everyone’s going to participate in work off the ideas. Cause we’re, There are a lot of sports bars and different dive bars in Navy Yard. We’re the only one that’s very chic and, one of a kind, awesome.

You stand

apart. Yeah. But everyone’s very friendly and they opened us with welcome to open arms. And it’s just building relationships too. I’m all about competition, but I believe DuPont has so many, let’s go to DuPont. You’re going to find something you’re going to like and something different at each doorway.

So nightclub, bottle service, beer garden, live music venue, strip club around the corner, if you’re into that kind of thing, but

yeah. What’s next? Is there any concept on the drawing board right now?

Not, I think what we’re definitely focusing on, what do they say? Old businesses tend to themselves, but new businesses need more attention.

So we’re, I’m definitely focusing on STFU and and a bakery. To get and we’re growing in the bakery and we first took it over. We had six, 16 contracts with Hank, our baker, and now we have about 71 and we’re growing. I see big potential in the bakery. As far as moving forward and opening up, yes, we’d like to open up more beer gardens.

Just like Zoffhouse. And that model, I think we’ve grasped it very well. It’s easy. It’s easy at this point now. And there are not so many wheels running at the same time, like public bars, huge operations, so much going on all the time. So I think our next step was, is for the hospitality group, especially is to show like a lot of developers are like, Hey, I just built out this brand new Restaurant bar.

I love your concept of soft house. You want to come in here as the manager, sub managing. So like the risk that we know we take every day in our business. It’s a little bit alleviated from us taking all the risks of insurances and opening a spot and, starting from scratch in the build out and all the equipment and dropping, three, 4 million.

Now they want us there, they’re taking, they’re assuming the risks. We just have to come in as a management company and run it and then split the rewards. I think that’s our next step.

Fantastic. I wish you guys the best of success. We’ve covered a lot of ground today, but you’re clearly operators.

Operators, right? You’ve got your finger on the pulse of the industry, what’s happening in the neighborhood. You’re creating innovative, upscale concepts that have a following and seems like you’re doing a lot of things right in the business. So keep at it. Thank you. Appreciate it so much. It’s been my pleasure having you on the Restaurant Rockstars podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in. Can’t wait to see you all in the next episode. Stay well, stay tuned. See you next time.

People go to restaurants for lots of reasons. What the customer doesn’t know is the thousands of details it takes to run a great restaurant. This is a high risk, high fail business. It’s a treacherous road, and smart operators need a professional guide. I’m Roger. I’ve started many highly successful, high profit restaurants.

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