How chef Sean Brock + fast casual = success at scale

Take-Away with Sam Oches

Nation's Restaurant News

Business, Entrepreneurship

2.5 • 15 Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Nick Pihakis, founder and CEO of Pihakis Restaurant Group, a Birmingham, Ala.-based portfolio with six distinct concepts. That includes Rodney Scott’s BBQ, with the renowned pitmaster out of Charleston, S.C., and most recently Joyland, a fast casual concept in partnership with James Beard Award winning chef Sean Brock. Nick joined the podcast to talk about solving an important restaurant equation: how restaurants that are laser focused on high-quality foods can scale without diluting the brand or the menu.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

An obsessive commitment to efficiency is key to scaling high-quality concepts
Your opening staff should be the best-trained staff you’ll ever have
The restaurant business is just a math equation
People make places
Operators must decide whether off-premises business is worth lowering quality standards
A diverse portfolio of concepts can help you maximize impact with guests

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected].

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey there, welcome to Takeaway with Sam Ocas, a podcast from Nation's Restaurant News.
0:10.1	I am Sam Ocas, editor-in-chief here at NRN, and this is the show where I give you an all-ac-ac-pass to the restaurant industry's most influential decision-makers.
0:19.1	This week, I'm talking with Nick Pahakas. He is the founder and
0:22.9	CEO of Pahakas Restaurant Group, a Birmingham, Alabama-based portfolio with six distinct concepts.
0:30.9	That includes Rodney Scott's barbecue with the renowned pitmaster out of Charleston, South Carolina,
0:38.9	and most recently it includes Joyland, a fast casual concept in partnership with James Beard Award-winning chef Sean
0:45.5	Brock. Nick has been in the hospitality industry since he was a teenager, and he was the co-founder
0:51.2	of the barbecue concept, Jim and Nix.
0:59.0	Now he's committed to building one of the South's most impressive restaurant groups by pairing his expertise at scaling restaurants with concepts that feature chef-designed menus.
1:06.1	He joined the podcast to talk about how restaurants that are laser focused on high quality foods can
1:12.0	scale without diluting the brand or the menu. In this conversation, you will learn more about why
1:18.3	your opening staff should be the best trained staff that you'll ever have, why the restaurant
1:24.0	business is just a math equation, and why a diverse portfolio of concepts
1:29.4	can help you maximize your impact with your guests.
1:32.9	Jumping now into my interview with Pahakas Restaurant Group founder, Nick Pahakas.
1:38.0	Also, don't forget to stick around after the interview as I will share my six takeaways from this discussion,
1:42.8	actionable insights that you can take with you on the go.
1:51.8	Okay, I'm here with Nick Pihakis of Pihakis Restaurant Group.
1:55.9	Nick, thanks for joining me today.
1:57.4	Absolutely.
1:58.4	Look forward to it.
2:00.1	Yeah, so, Nick, tell me about Pahakis Restaurant
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nation's Restaurant News, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Nation's Restaurant News and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.