Welcome to Takeaway with Sam Okas, a podcast for leaders of growing restaurant companies looking to take their businesses to the next level.

In nearly two decades covering restaurants, I've gained access to some of this industry's most influential decision makers, and I'm letting you in on the conversations.

In today's episode, you'll hear from the co-founder of a fast casual concept that changed up its

core menu in a play to build guest frequency, and you'll find out why sometimes you've got

a swing for the fences in order to grow your business. Seth Cohen is the co-founder of Sweetfin,

a Los Angeles-based fast casual that launched a decade ago as one of the first players in the

Pokey category. Sweetfin has grown to 15 locations in Southern California, but in order to

unlock more growth, the leadership team decided that the core menu needed a facelift. As Seth

explains in this interview, Pokey is still a big hit at Sweet Finn restaurants,

but he and his partners felt like they needed to widen the aperture of the menu a little bit

to secure new guests and more frequent visits.

Enter Michelin-starred chef Daniel Patterson.

Chef Daniel was recruited to develop new menu items for Sweetfin, and the result was a line of new warm bowls that feature cooked proteins, as well as new salads and vegetable sides.

The new menu, which leans into Sweet Finn's identity as a California-Asian-inspired concept, debuted at one location earlier this year, and Seth joined the podcast to talk

about why the brand felt like it needed to expand beyond Poke and which metrics he's watching

to see if it's a success. In this conversation, you will learn more about why the era of

extremely focused menus may be over, why your menu needs to have a point of view, and why all brand

evolution must be filtered through your core values. If you learn something from this episode,

go follow takeaway wherever you listen to podcasts and leave some feedback. It is the best way to get

those lessons to a fellow restaurant leader. Jumping now into my interview with Sweetfin co-founder Seth Cohen.

Also, don't forget to stick around after the interview as I will share my five takeaways

from this discussion, actionable insights that you can take with you on the go.

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