Creating Memorable Dining Experiences: The Concentrix Restaurant Journey with Todd Rushing
Join Nick Constantino on Marketing MadMen as he interviews Todd Rushing of Concentrix Restaurant Group. Celebrating 20 years of culinary excellence, Todd shares his journey, the evolution of One Midtown Kitchen, and insights into creating unforgettable dining experiences. Discover how traditional cooking methods and innovative design have shaped their success and influenced Atlanta’s restaurant scene.
Key Takeaways
- Todd Rushing’s journey from youth restaurant jobs to co-founding Concentrix Restaurant Group.
- The significance of One Midtown Kitchen’s post-9/11 opening and its impact.
- The challenges faced by the current restaurant industry, including inflation and rising costs.
- The importance of creating memorable dining experiences and investing in employees.
- How traditional cooking methods and innovative restaurant design contribute to success.
- The transformation of their restaurant space and the influence of the Beltline project.
- The network of successful chefs and culinary professionals who began their careers with Concentrix
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Happy Saturday! Nick Constantino is joined by Todd Rushing of Concentrix Restaurant Group for the first ever on-location recording of the Marketing MadMen podcast. They’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of Todd’s restaurant and Nick’s 10 years in Atlanta.
Key Points Covered:
Todd’s Career Journey:
- Grew up in Atlanta, began working in restaurants during his youth.
- Started his career with the Peasant Restaurant Group, later became a chef in New Orleans.
- Partnered with Bob and co-founded Concentrix Restaurant Group, opening various successful restaurants including One Midtown Kitchen.
One Midtown Kitchen:
- Opened post-9/11, aimed to provide comfort through dining.
- Its success led to the establishment of other ventures like the current location discussed.
Emotional Side of Dining:
- Dining is about creating comfort and memorable experiences.
- Even in uncertain times, like the post-9/11 era, restaurants can bring people together and provide solace.
Current Restaurant Industry:
- Facing challenges with inflation and rising costs.
- Average check price has risen from $46 pre-pandemic to $61 now.
- Importance of adding value and creating lasting memories for customers despite economic pressures.
Sustaining Success:
- Requires empathy, experience, and making guests feel at home.
- Importance of understanding both operational and guest perspectives.
Creating an Experience
Nick and Todd discuss the importance of creating an experience that makes people feel like they’re part of something special. Todd emphasizes that their job is to create lasting memories for their guests, not just serve food and beverages. This experiential approach keeps customers coming back.
Investing in People
Investing in employees directly impacts guest experience. When employees feel valued, they invest in providing exceptional service. This mutual relationship is key to maintaining a successful restaurant.
Memorable Moments
Todd shares a memory from Valentine’s Day 2020, where he successfully managed to serve 1600 guests, instilling confidence in his team and creating a memorable event.
Adapting and Innovating
The restaurant’s success over the years is attributed to their ability to adapt and innovate. From creating a unique sense of arrival to ensuring a comforting ambiance, every detail is meticulously planned.
The Evolution of the Space
They discuss the transformation of their current location, initially an industrial space, into a thriving dining destination. Todd credits his partner Bob with the vision to create a warm, inviting atmosphere.
Influences and Inspirations
The design blends industrial elements with soft textures and warm lighting, creating a comforting space for guests.
Traditional Cooking Methods
Using wood-burning ovens and rotisseries imparts unique flavors and requires a professional touch, reflecting the love and care put into the cooking process.
The Open Kitchen
Adds to the dining experience by showing transparency in food preparation and engaging guests’ senses.
The Beltline’s Impact
The Beltline project transformed the area, bringing new energy and business opportunities. The restaurant adapted by expanding its patio and integrating further into the community.
Culinary Web of Influence
Todd takes pride in the many chefs who started their careers with him and have gone on to achieve great success, like Richard Blais and Scott Serpas.
Different Restaurant Concepts
Todd’s other restaurant, Bully Boy, offers a different dining experience with Japanese and Southeast Asian flavors, contrasting with the larger atmosphere of their other establishments.
Transcript
Happy Saturday and welcome to the marketing manager Man, Nick Constantino here. And I’m with Todd Rushing of Concentrix restaurant group, and we are doing our first ever on location recording of the marketing moment. Todd, how you?
Doing good. I’m well, how?
Are you? It’s wonderful to have you. This is a surfing different occasion. We didn’t find how much subjectivity was here until we started talking. But the restaurant is going on. 20 years and I have now officially, as of today, been Atlanta for half that time. So we’re celebrating 2 anniversaries with this. We are very excited. So Todd, the place is amazing. It brings back memories. As we walk through some of the things that you were talking about where the vivid things that I remember, it wasn’t necessarily colors, but it was the homely feeling about it. So before we get to hear talk about your restaurant career and what brought you to this place, because that will frame a lot of this stuff and what this. Place is to you, well in terms.
Of career grew up in Atlanta. My father, and this is the best part of my restaurant career. I graduated 2° from college, OK? And he said as I was applying to law school, maybe you need to take some time off. And get a job. OK. And so my father being the wise man and and and in reality he was very wise because I I took the time off. I’ve always been in in working in restaurants as a kid just to make extra money and I grew up in Sandy Springs and and so I. I mean the. Entire summer before I actually got a job because. Your father put a date on.
As as as this tradition?
You know, and my next door neighbor was a gentleman named Bob and Mike, who owned the peasant restaurant group with Steve Meyer and Vick Bailey. OK. And I walked next door, knocked on his door and said I want to be in the restaurant business. And he said no, you don’t. And he spent a better part of that half a day trying to tell me I didn’t want to do that. He hired me. Worked for him for 10 years. And at the end of that time, I was fully ingrained and. Cousin sold to another company, and that’s different history. And I went off.
Sure.
To be a chef. In New Orleans for a couple of years, and Bob called me back in 1998 and said we’re going to a restaurant up and now we’re at a called Killer Creek Chophouse. We did that. And we divorced that partner that we’ve done with and in 2001 we started restaurants. So here we are Fast forward 37 years and then those 37 years, 35 I’ve worked with Bob Mother and we’ve been partners. And really pushing each other over the course of those 35 years and the first restaurant was one Midtown kitchen. Yep. And it was a very successful restaurant, which led us to where we’re sitting now. We couldn’t do 2 without one because 1 was so successful. It was first restaurant Post 911 which for any time was very you know. Food is all about being comforted. Yeah, and 9/11 really disrupted it. How everybody felt about things, particularly Americans. Yeah, I think it it did.
Are these people together? But it also asked them, asked what? People together, they did. They I was in New Yorker, my father actually was the CEO of the hospital. That was the only helped me. And I know I didn’t touch my bad for like 2 weeks. I was in. DC where Maryland when it happened. So I was. 10 miles from the Pentagon won’t happen, so initial shock, but the rallying around everything again, talk about that. So the deputy and then that you will be us on the time where everyone is coming together, right? It was not. Being divided, they were coming together, which is wonderful.
It shows you the emotional side of what dining is, what humanity is for sure. And so here we. Our success of of 1 Midtown and the landlord of this space, said you. Know I got a. Space for you. Come have a. Look at it. Bob and I. Come look at it and and literally he he’d see it first and brought me over to.
Yeah.
And I go. Are you out of your mind? You completely out of line. Nobody there. This place is surrounded here by nothing. Yeah, it was. It was in the crafting part of Atlanta. It was a warehouse space. Nothing around it. And you know, and I guess in a sense, he talked me into it. This made sense for us. And we. Wants to have legs. And it was an opportunity to do something. You know. A warehouse space. Really make it serve something special with roasted meats and fish. Everything that’s fun about dining. Going back to it made you feel comfortable. Yeah, love it and. If you can make people feel comfortable, then they’re going to come and see you and and I think. From day one.
Which was a struggle. I I’ll tell you, but that’s more operational side we had. We had some bombs. Yeah, I believe it. And we need the bombs to get. But I think we’re going to walk through the restaurant. We’re going to kind of film pieces of the actual restaurant, I think is so important. My question is a lot of people go into restaurants and they they go in front of house only or they be they want to own a restaurant.
Yeah. Bronx.
You were a chef too, so let’s see. And I like you. They say your looks in New Orleans, one of the most famous culinary institutions. How much do you think being a little bit of everything helped your ability to run restaurants now?
It it helps a lot. I mean you know, you can empathize both externally and internally. I can hire chefs and understand what they’re going through. I can also understand it from a guest point of view. On the operational side, I can lend an opportunity to teach staff. How to best approach the guest? But also looking.
Based on decades of experience not being talking down to people, I’m like you. I mean, you said 37.
Well.
Years, not me.
Yeah, I’m. I’m an old old guy in this business now, partner. This is always. Had 15 years and that’s how long. He’s been at it so. So we bring that we bring that understanding of how to make people feel comfortable. Mother, mother and that’s what adds to, I think anybody who comes to urban lakes, they feel comfortable. Yeah, they know what they’re coming to. They know the style of food, you know, they know the style of service. Yeah. And and but they know they can be at home. Yeah. And that’s the biggest thing. I mean, we were talking about, you know, how do you feel? You know when you first came here? How did we make you feel?
Love it and that’s what I was going to say. First timers have that comfort also. It’s kind of easy to get some a fourth time to make them feel comfortable coming back the 4th time. But for somebody in their first time to have that comfort, that’s a lot harder to do. And so you guys pulled off, right? But.
Why? You came here. Your first time, Sir, and you left and you still have the memory.
So.
That’s the goal. There’s always something. Of memory for somebody.
So I want to talk a little bit about the 20th anniversary. The first, what are your current thoughts of the state of the restaurant industry? Right. We’re coming off COVID. There’s a lot of news. You see a lot of you see a lot of news about restaurants closing down. What do you think the state of the restaurant industry is? And then that will submit into why you think these you guys have made it for so?
The current state is is precarious. You know the economic environment and you know, we all go through it. I mean, inflation is is a challenge. Cost of goods have become, you know, much higher our checkpoint average. When we went into the the. Pandemic was in $46 a person, OK. Where we are now is $61.00 a person. OK, I I’ve had to raise prices.
That’s almost 33%. Just didn’t let them have them.
I’ve had to.
Through evaluated prices. Perfect. To reflect that. But it’s not because I want to is to survive, and I, and I think everybody is battling that, that same battle and and unfortunately the you know, the US public is battling that same.
Now when you go to.
The grocery store you go to the gas station wherever you might be. You’re battling those things, so for us. We are constantly. You know trying. To figure out how we can add value. But more importantly, create those memories. If I can get you for you know, one time a month if I can get you for that special occasion, if I can make that date, if you. Want to impress? Your girlfriend. Boyfriend, if you whoever it might be. If I can get you that one time and and and then I you feel comfortable with me, then you’re going to always come back. Cause I created that memory. Yeah, that’s the challenge now. Where we go from here it’s. I mean, I think we’re still probably in for another couple of years if things being rather tight.
Yeah, yeah, I I would agree that I think you also create an experience that makes people feel like they’re not just spending money on food because that’s one of the things I do go to the best restaurant, but if you. Feel like you’re. Just they’re eating your value proposition changes. No. If you feel like you’re part of. This experience and you coming in, it feels like home. The drinks are there, this love that goes into the wine and how it’s. Curated with stainless steel. I think that part of it makes you a little bit, you know, people spend less. Money traveling they. Run all over you are we cry. When crying poor. But have no problem $3000 on a credit card to fly. In Europe, so I think that experiential or might be a millennial thing, but the experiential part of it is what you’ve done the. Job of and you can’t fake that.
It’s creating a memory. I appreciate every day our job is not about food and beverage, just creating your memory. Yeah, if you’ve created a memory and a positive vibe with it, with your guests, they’re always going to come back and see you. But you have to invest yourself. It’s all about the people, investment, food and beverage is great, but unless you invest in your people. And they in turn invest in the in the gas. To come and see you, you’ve lost.
Yeah. So we’re celebrating 20 years before we get to some of the festivities planned for talk about 1 memory you had. That was a oh, crap moment. That was an ocean moment. What do I do now? Everyone, and I’ll give you a second on that one. And then one moment that was like. Holy crap, this was all worth it because I think those are the two extremes. But I think the middle is there everyday is that those are the memories you probably stick out. So talk about those.
Hmm so.
No.
One memory and it actually happened prior to the pandemic. That it it is a memory of not only teaching people, but also that. You know, creating memories. I came back. To operate this restaurant. Unfortunately, because of the change of personnel. Here. And we’re coming up to Valentine’s Day of 2020 and, you know. What we do? Here is, you know, want to take care of people, create memories for those folks, come in and see us. And I said to them about a month beforehand, we’re going to do 1600 people on Valentine’s Day, OK. And they went. There’s now. We can’t do that. I’m gonna show you. Again, think about it. These are two people coming in. They execute 2 dishes. You you put. Get out. It’s about an hour turn time. We have 310 seats. We can get this done. Look.
Math. You’re doing math wise, right? Yeah.
It up. And they’re like, we can’t do this. We’ve never done this now, though. We can. We can do this so. We did slightly less than 1600 people. On Valentine’s Day. We made a lot of people happy. I calmed. The nerves of all the chefs. Who said we can’t do? This, you know, the service staff made. And now the bar is set, so that’s set. Yeah, we went twice. But you know, these are the risk. But that was 15 years ago. I’ll, you know, 16 years ago, it’s everything is part of how you set the tone. Yeah, you know, satisfy the guests first. Take care of them. Then you satisfy your employees. Yeah, let them make money and make.
Make they have to go both ways if they if the employees are enjoying it, if the if the customers are enjoying it, they pay the employees more money. If the employees are doing the job, the customers pay.
In this form and then.
More money, so if you. Don’t know that balance. So and then set.
Everything up for success, but that’s all organization I. Don’t care what you do, yeah. Widgets and lane.
But at its core, everyone thinks of all the other stuff, right? The painting doesn’t matter if that’s the bad experience. So I love it when we get back from the break. We’re gonna go back with you. Our favorite experience. I know. That was a good one. Or bad one. Or an option. We go back to your favorite. Experience. I’m going to talk a little bit about Billy Boy. I want to talk about the point anniversary. What the future looks like. So you’ll be listening to marketing moment.
The next 163 and be right back. That’s the original sign, which is. You know, bully boy. Just to give you a history. Boy Boy was a a blacksmith’s workshop. And he was here, obviously, before we were and then we. We decided to do 2 of them likes. You know, we wanted to use as we have, anytime we do restaurants is utilized folks that are local to it. So we asked me to do the sign and so that’s the original sign and and you know and he you know. Got really excited and did it for us. And and the beauty of it is is he still has done a lot of other work for us over the course of the years. The negative side as the Beltline came along, which we can touch on. But the Beltline comes along and he can’t afford to be here anymore. So now I have another restaurant gentrification, and it’s fine because the whole idea is this is a warehouse. It’s 150,000. He’s gone, right?
Their fee.
Yeah. And everybody goes. Why the hell would do you guys want to come over here? Because there’s nothing over here. There was nothing here. There were no. None of the apartments, the condos, the homes. The post office was the only thing here. And the telephone factory? That was it.
Yeah, that’s good.
And you know, and for us it was like. If we hadn’t had this success in one Midtown Kitchen, which is in God’s honest truth, and then. You know our our landlord. Who said? You know, I have this. Really cool space. Come over and look at it and we looked at it. And go this. Is great, but how does anybody even want to know? But then the same thing applied to when that time kitchen nobody knew. We were going. To. Be and yet we were successful, yeah. So we came here. Turner had 130,000 square feet. Worth of this space? And they did all of their. They’re. Set design and everything for theirs and they did storage and everything else, and then there. Us yeah, so. We created what was really cool. You pull up. Since of arrival since arrival is you drive up into the building. You get dropped. Off you don’t stand in the rain. The cold, the heat. I mean, we put in heaters.
Sure.
So that people can stand out here and not be cold in the winter time, which doesn’t exist in the. And then it was like when you get out of the car, where do? You go well. You know, there’s a. Sign. Yeah. And there’s just an industrial door. That heavy, right. That was the whole idea. Yeah, you know, and so we’ve we’ve adapted over 20 years.
How many people look confused when they’re here? It is like people are like. I don’t know where I’m going and I still know. Where am I going? Yeah. Yeah, they, they pull up and they stop, put out here and they go.
Stay here. What am I supposed to do here? I have drive up the drive. Yeah. All the signs say that.
Here.
Now we’re seeing people read signs that’s the problem.
That is. That’s then. Then you come in and it’s just coming in. OK. You open the door.
And you really don’t know what?
You’re coming into.
No nightclub. It could be a cabaret.
It could be anything, yeah. Yeah, the curtains. The curtains. Hide things. And it’s it’s all about a sense of arrival. It’s a sense of excitement, a sense of not knowing and making you feel that you’re coming in, and then it sort of blossoms into something. Yeah, that’s, you know, to me, it’s really important.
Yeah. And it is like a grand reveal. So I will ask. Influences, so it doesn’t have to be culinary. A lot went into this. What are the things when you look through here, what were the things that biggest influence when you want to make this and what was going to what this place would look like? Well, I give a lot of credit to my partner Bob and because it it it really had this sense of.
Taking the building and recognizing how who can take this big space? Yep, soften it and make it feel really comfortable. For the gas.
Yeah.
And so we soften the walls and and you know. And so we have this wood paneling on the walls and. We have the. Lighting. Yeah, everything made. You feel? Yeah, you don’t know where you’re coming to, so you need a hug to make sure that you feel OK. But it doesn’t seem.
Too, it’s not bland. It’s not just white walls. It’s a little bit of everything, mixed textures.
No, it’s not. And and and everything has industrial sort of characteristics to it, whether it be sealing glass and the line wall or the the light fixtures that we use everything else. But it but it softens it. Yeah, it takes the the anxiety away from the.
Gas, which is why you want you want to escape. You’re not going to need to be stressed.
And you’re going to stick away. Yeah. And that’s the beauty of, you know, you’re like.
Yes.
OK, I’m here.
What am I looking at? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And for us, he started the bar because that’s the first thing you did when you, when you show up at a restaurant, you order a drink, right, whether it be the wine tower, which is something really special or the cocktails, which you can have in. The bar and then. You know, we’ll take into the. That’s that’s the cool part. Of what we’re trying, what we’re trying to accomplish.
Yeah. And I would say people sort of take this for granted now because everyone’s trying to make things look like this. Now this 20 years ago, 22 it was ahead of its time for Atlanta for the country, everyone takes this. But everyone says they want to soften the walls and make it welcoming, but not everyone’s taking old spaces and completely retrofitting. Then we took.
A lot of things. We hear a lot ahead of our time for sure, you know, so, you know, coming into the the restaurant, you know, the bar is the focus and then you come. In and then the. Bar when you have 10,000. See how do you make your restaurant feel comfortable? If it’s not. Busy and my concern always is if we’re not going to be, you know, successful as we we are today. How do you make people feel engaged as opposed to sitting in a big empty dining room? And I said, let’s put the restaurant in the center of meals. Let’s put the kitchen in the.
Yeah.
Center of the restaurant.
Yes.
So that’s what we.
Did that also makes 5:00 PM appealing. So you’re coming in at all hours and it feels like there’s stuff going on, which makes it probably fills it up in those hours in there also.
And it brings energy. Like, yeah, and everybody wants to be a part of it and we put, we put seeding it here at the bar. You watch it all happen. The chefs can talk to you when they’re preparing your food. But, you know, it’s all wood, rest and meats and fish. Yeah. So now everything comes to life. You know, you have fire. Fire. Fire. And fire is what drives everybody to it.
And I think the other thing, and again I think it’s another thing to take it for granted nowadays, but everything’s got to be an experience. Right now, everything has to be experienced. You go out and it’s all fine spending all. This money because. There’s an experience that’s not what it was like, 20 years now. People are more conservative with dining. They weren’t expecting this. So now when you take back and when you want in 20 years. All these words are things everyone’s saying every day. Now. We’re gonna take a step back 20 years ago, and now we’ll talk about ironically. But I believe personally for this is where it’s gonna go back to the part of the IT feels like being cooking.
Yeah.
Your house right nowadays, everything is so sterile and everything’s going to be from this point. And it’s I get it. But there’s something about some of those things. Wood in the house and my grandma lives in the land when she’s turning over.
Wood that makes it feel. That’s beautiful, but it’s and it’s warm. It makes you feel part of something that’s just really cool because it brings in the memory back to.
Something completely. Anyways.
What makes you feel?
You know that whole and and do you think it’s crazy, but I think there’s a chance you might have caught a whole cycle where it wasn’t trending. And then all of a sudden now food’s going to go back to over wood fire. You feel like you’re at home, so you might have been around so long that you’ve made the circle. Is that, does that feel good? I mean, it’s crazy to think about or it makes me feel good.
I don’t.
But it makes it makes me feel good about this place and again. It was my first time. Here was 12 years ago and I remember what you were saying. I remember I couldn’t pick it out of the line of what colors you’re using, but I remember the field when I came here. Right. And that is it. That was history right there with the firewall. And that growing is something that you try to duplicate in your house. You enjoy barbecuing all these things. You don’t want to see. Who cares how it’s made behind. This is what you want to say. They enjoy it and. How I enjoyed.
Him everything to me about food is all about memories and about the simplicity in which you execute it, and I don’t care if you’re doing it at home or you’re somebody’s restaurant. And if you can execute those things and make people feel comfortable. Then, then you’ve satisfied that that need, whether it be the first date or you’ve been married for 30 years, or it’s, you know, it’s a special occasion, whatever it might be, you put everybody at ease. That’s the beauty of dining. Love it. I mean that’s that’s what it’s.
Not it.
Supposed to be love it.
But again, that’s the only thing. That. Will stay consistent, right? You look back like in this country over two years, you know, two consistent people that wear jeans. There’s only certain things that you know are not trends that will last. And that’s something that is going to last. And that’s what makes I think that’s what gives character and makes this place that. And so I and and my eyes are drawn to the painting. So I don’t know where you were going, but I just kind of want to talk about the painting. Cause it’s where my eye went.
To absolutely next, well, the painting comes with the fact that you have a 10,000 square foot.
Building OK, people wasn’t an option.
It isn’t a knife.
The option of going oh I need I need. Something’s going to go on museum or I need something that really makes a statement. Tom Murphy. Was not only a friend of my partner who was a collective of art, but my mother, who’s an interior designer here in Atlanta, and. He had a warehouse over. On Edgewood and and Todd was just this wonderful artist. Yeah, he had this particular piece. Well, he had all six panels and then he added the 7th panel after we. Committed to mine. But it it made a statement for us for sure and makes a statement for him, but more importantly, it set a tone for what we are trying to achieve here and and it’s just been an iconic part of if if anybody sees this, they know where they are. Yeah. You know, I don’t care any. Print you know, somebody talks about this as they go. Oh, it’s the artwork. People still come in and just take pictures of the. Artwork and they. Don’t even dine with us. Yeah, because that piece you know. Is is iconic.
And I’m not going to pretend to be some avid art guy, but art is supposed to be whatever the person wants it to be. That looks at it, and there’s so much going. On there to interpret and look. It’s similar to the restaurant, right? It is what it is to you. And that’s what makes you come back. So you two people can look at it and see it and think 1000 different things, right? 50 people can make that million people. They can also something different. It’s what makes all good. And I think these are. Part of an experience.
That keeps people coming back. Absolutely. Yeah. You know and love. For us, you know, it is the birth. Margaret. Margaret Maid, who is an anthropologist. Yeah, and it sort. Of says hey, this is. This is something special that you know you’re looking at it and you can see it anywhere in the restaurant and people just get excited about. But that’s just really cool about it. Alright, so we’ve come to, let’s call it the.
Heart of the restaurant. Where everything comes from everything, everything that comes next comes through here.
I’m out of here.
Out of here so. Obviously this is a huge kitchen that everybody gets to do. My question is, where did the culinary influences come from that made you think of this is the kitchen we need and this is what we want to look like. Well, as I told you, I mean everything needed. We needed to break up the space. But then from that you need the drama and and for us, we just love.
Dude, this would rust tech, and so it was like, how do you how do you get that? Well, for us, wood burning oven, wood burning grill, rotisserie and actually what we won’t see is a wood burning smoke. Worker. All of that in parts. Flavor. Yep. And for us, you know, it’s it’s comfort, though. Yeah, everything we talked about and not to over mix is is as cool as it may look. It’s all about comfort. I mean it’s the comfort of the the menu and the things you feel when you come in. You know it’s it’s like being with. Sam on you.
Yeah, we’re having.
Know or just having those special. So there’s wood burning or tisserie chicken or, you know, some piece of fish out of. The oven and those things are great and would just import stuff like be going back to the basics of how.
Not it.
You cook and ironically, but it is much harder to. Cook that way.
Very, very difficult.
You’re not controlling temperature, you have to be a professional. I tell people like, yeah, cool. I get you have a trigger with an automatic thing that does the time on Bluetooth, but like it takes a while to get a Big Green Egg rice.
No, there’s yeah here.
Even over wood fire doesn’t matter if you using root 4 altogether. If you get it wrong, it could be really, really wrong. You gotta get it.
Yeah, they can be.
Wrong. Exactly right. Right. If you put something in the oven that’s created, forget it’s it’s hard to screw it up. But in something like this in one angle long, the chart could be wrong. They. Could burn the. Top of it, there’s so many things. So when I say simple, I mean it’s simple because it’s an old school way of doing it, but it. Is one of the. Hardest ways to actually cook food, yeah.
You know, it all comes down to touch. And. How things feel and and but it’s it’s it’s the love you put in. And if the and I and I think that’s what what I try to impart on the folks who work for me, but also our guests is you know we’re putting a lot of love into what we do and that’s what’s really that’s important.
Yeah, yeah.
And the open kitchen and all these concepts, looking at you shows. There’s. Love. Yeah, but it’s hard to love somebody from hiding. Behind a corner.
Somewhere like you. Yeah, it really is that we can’t hide from anything we do, because here we are. Yeah. If we screw it up. Yeah.
Everyone’s going to space.
Listen.
Because it keeps them honest to me. It it you know.
I question any restaurant now that we. Go into when I can’t see.
What they’re doing?
And I have this a little bit more. Experience. Yeah, sure, Joe. Good. You should be able to see. Be a part of it, but it. Adds also to the experience. All the sensory things that happen when you walk.
Yeah.
Into a restaurant. To hear the crack of the fire, to see the flame on it. You know you have the. Is it going on? You have the lights going on, everything adds a part of. What the experience is going through.
Love it, but this is this is the new part. So talk about where we are and the importance of.
All this around us 20 years ago there was, you know, this warehouse and there was railroad tracks that ran up to this. And it was part of. A system of of railway that ran 28 miles around the. City of Atlanta. Who’s defunct? Yeah. Who’s dead?
Yeah.
Put it in perspective. The homeless, you know. Yeah. Undesirables. We’ll call them. So we brought this on, built this patio here and they had a basketball court and then we had sort of. Let’s just call it barrier. So that’s how it was. Now, over the course of time, wonderful. Part of what has become added to our business.
So.
To the livelihood of what Atlanta now is. And with that, we’ve added a secondary patio, but we’ve added. More gas with that is another way to get here. We’ve added, you know, just an opportunity for us to be a continued growing into the fabric of what Atlanta is and you know and for us it’s been, it’s been fabulous and it’s been a wonderful being part of it. All that happenstance. Yeah, because we weren’t.
Yeah, what’s my figure?
Sometimes it’s more. I think there’s more that goes into it. Sometimes I think you put good vibes into the world, you get good vibes back. Well, we’ll save my hippy. Dippy stuff for another conversation, but I don’t disagree with you. Comma is.
Yeah, yeah.
A *****, right? Yeah. Yeah, that’s wonderful thing and.
So. Right. It’s never in the middle, and this guy, this has been a wonderful thing. For you.
I’m gonna take it. Good for you. Good for you. Alright, let’s go inside. Let’s let’s talk.
That’s one side.
Welcome back to the marketing management on extra mono 63. Nick Constantino here with Todd Rushing with Concentrix Restaurant Group and I’m gonna pick you a good thing.
For you, OK, so.
I have to imagine I’m gonna like this. We’re about to start the NFL season to. Football in football A. Good coach is famous because of not just him, but all the people underneath him. That tree that comes out. And I have to imagine that in this town and all over the country, that this establishment has started so many other establishments and so many other chefs to other places, and I have to. Imagine it’s a pretty problem for you.
You know, I’ve had a. Lot of folks work for. Me and you know, and out of this. On but also is collectively, I mean we’ve had you can see. You can see Richard Blaze on TV once a week with with Gordon Ramsay because he’s doing on he’s on TV and he worked for. He worked for me 3 different times. Wow. And on this particular, you know, Restaurant 2 of them next, I mean, the Ebony chef with Scott Serpas. Fabulous chef and and Scott’s been around the city of Atlanta well. We’re still in our age, probably 40 years, right? But you know his opening shoe sous? Chef was kind of the last peak foreman. Kevin already has three, maybe 4 restaurants. You know, Kevin, you know, came to us just working at the Risk hall and crazy, you know. And then I have. You know Michael Vertesi Michael was a kid right out of Auburn University working for David Bancroft, who is now.
A David Bancroft is a wait turn that off.
Thank you. You’re right. Down. Right. Real fast. OK. Alright. So Michael, who’s working for David? David Bancroft. Who is a James Beard award-winning chef for the southeast. You know, Michael comes us. He calls us up, he goes. You know, I’d like to work for you. And he comes in as a line cook, becomes a sous chef, becomes the exact chef, becomes our culinary director. Now he’s the culinary director for Kimball Musk, Elon Musk. Brother, and you know he’s running all kinds of restaurants for him out in.
I could only imagine what that adventure was like. It’s an. It’s an. Is it rewarding to have that big of a web? Is it something you think about often? I mean.
The West Coast, so. It is we, my partner. I joke all the time, you know, we are at the point now in our careers that you either work for us or you know, you work for. We in the olden days we would say that the peasant group or.
It’s got to feel.
You. Know. Peristalsis or now is sort of us. And Ford fly got. It and you know it’s. That’s the reality. You know, you’ve been a cook. You’ve been a bartender. You’re gonna serve or whatever it might be a manager. You know you’ve worked. And and I I get great satisfaction. Amazing seeing these folks be successful.
Got it. Amazing, I love it.
Richard Tang, who worked for me as a bartender. He has you. You know. He has bar diver and I think he has. He has two other concepts.
And all in town. Too, you know? It’s it’s, it’s amazing. I love it. It was bartender. I love it. I think that’s the that’s the moment. That’s a that’s a proud thing. Congrats on that. We would be remiss if we didn’t cover boy, boy. I mean, if I had to say if I had to pick the opposite restaurant. To make them. This place, even though right across street, that’s what I would pick. So talk about the style of food there, how it’s different, give some love to that. Because honestly, I had a great meal there and made me feel like I was transported to another country completely, another part of. The world, which is of course like.
Well, I appreciate that. So Bowling boy is. To me, and and what I call Japanese, it is is cooked Japanese food with influence in Southeast Asia. So it’s not pure Japanese and then it has sushi. But what what it does is it’s completely different from here. So you have raw foods, you have cooked food, but you have this more small. Intimate environment. This is 300 seats. That’s 90. You know this is, you know, something that is big and boisterous and in your face and your this is fully voiced, something that’s more comforting to a certain degree. But it’s. But it’s just. Food. Yeah, well executed, you know.
Was it a passion project? Why did you go so opposite? Where did you? Were you intending on doing that? Did you want to go so different? What? What is the the inspiration behind that? Our inspiration is always been to do something different here in Atlanta and.
So if you. Look at the portfolio of the restaurants that we’ve done. We’ve done restaurants that we’re so ahead of their times that people go, I don’t get. And that’s OK. And we’ve done other restaurants where people go, you know, I really, I really understand this and I’m a big supporter of it and bully boy was really more than name was a passionate part of my my partners because Billy Boy was a steakhouse somewhere in between. Manhattan and Upstate New York, where his father was.
OK.
At West Point.
OK.
And they would meet and uncle and have. Laugh. At a place called Bully Boy, OK, there’s a lot between those two places. And so we’re talking about the concept, and I really want to do this style of food. And he goes great. That’s how we want to eat, you know, make it really sort of fun as the food is prepared, you know, brings to the table. Here we go.
Yeah.
Everybody gets to enjoy it and. And I go what are you gonna call it? He goes bully boy and I go. And what reference does that have to anything they’re doing? And he goes.
100 mile radius somewhere near doesn’t matter. There you go. That’s it. Another.
And the reality of firm and and name of the. Restaurants it doesn’t. Matter. Yeah, I.
Mean. You know, I I things just have a name. I love it. So we might end the radio show. We’ll just do this in succession. So I have 3 questions for you. OK, first and foremost.
I love this.
How do people find? You how it’s find people about the information about the 20th anniversary where you wanna.
Go to find this so you find us on Instagram. You find us on Facebook, you find us on our.
See.
Websitesyouknowits2overlooks.com beautiful. It’s blueboy.com. That’s easy, you know. You can come see us. Because that’s more important that much.
Further, that and we’ll do a walk through. So when you get to the door, you know how the hell to get in here. That’s an important part of all this. So you’ll see that. So we’ll get to that.
Yeah.
Because I want you to come see me. And I can tell you, and you can find me here. That’s awesome. Because I’m here.
Pretty regularly, so that was the easy question. Now I’m gonna get a little harder, then go really hard. So then the the the harder question is what is your favorite thing on the menu of? Here and at boy boy.
Ah, OK, it is hard.
It’s always really hard.
Favorite thing on the menu here? You know, and I. Wow. I’m going to say currently the beef cheeks, right? Is the favorite thing here, and it is beef that is braised. Then it’s reformed and pressed and served on Green hatch chili polenta. Ronnie and it’s served with poached eggs, yeah. De Gallo.
I’m not. I’m going to but you.
Know I just. That I love. Amazing. Now bowling boy. It’s all fish.
That’s. It’s cooked out.
Flash fried flash, fried Thai style Thai vegetables. It’s got spice to it. Ohh yes, I love that cider rice.
Amazing. Chili’s on.
It all together, take it off from your chopstick. You can go, there’s.
No wrong way to do that. And and agree that dirty you’re in heaven. Yeah. Dirty. OK, so now the hardest question. OK, the hardest question is what advice can you give to somebody who wants to open a restaurant or looks in this place and say that’s really cool. I want to do that and let’s skip the usual. Don’t freaking do it. Stupid. Let’s skip that one. What advice would you give to people? Socket. About this is about hospitality in general.
It’s about people. I think that’s the biggest thing. You know, everybody looks at opening a restaurant that is easy because cooking food and serving it somebody is easy. But it’s it, it is conveying. Your sense of hospitality and and the culture that you have to create so that everybody works on the same page and and it’s really hard to convey to them, this is how we want to make people. Feel because people are the most important part. Anybody can cook a good meal. Anybody can put a beverage out, have a great cocktail. But until you include the people part of it and how you can, how you make people feel. You know how when you’re seated how they greet you, how you know?
It’s contagious. It’s it’s it’s completely vibes to the whole place. It has to.
It is and. And there’s oftentimes when you go into a restaurant, you have a great meal and you have great experience and. You know the. Execution. Yeah, is there. But I always talk. About, you know. Service is something done to you is something for you. And if you do these things that are done for you and you make them feel that, then they leave and it’s a great time when it’s done to you, you leave you go. That was great. Yeah. Their meal pairing worked well, but I leave.
But you’re you’re not you don’t feel like it’s not just much a part of it. It feels like good. Yeah, I love it. It’s empty. It’s empty. Well, this is been great. Happy 20th, I think. What I would tell people is we lasted for 350 restaurant and run it for 20 years, which is pretty much like a magic. Like, that’s like lightning hitting you riding, riding a shark, which is just insane. So Congrats. Man, thank you much appreciated you visiting the marketing man then an extra month 63.
Pleasure.
And we will catch you next week.
Cheers.
Yeah.
