[00:00:00] Speaker A: Jon Taffer is my guest on today's show. This is a killer conversation you do not want to miss. Of course, Jon Taffer basically needs no introduction, though I will try to introduce him. He has a restaurateur, he is an author, he is the host of the TV show Bar Rescue and he has partnered with Shift4 for the Sky Tab Rescue Mission contest. So winners will each receive a $20,000 business grant grant, a consultation call with John, and a complete Skytab POS system from shift 4. If you want to know how to enter that contest, the link is in the show notes open to owners and operators all over the country.
Go do that and then come back for this incredible conversation with hospitality icon Jon Taffer.
There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close and this is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast dedicated to helping you build a more profitable and sustainable business. Business. I've been in this industry for 25 years. Most of that time was spent in New York City, the world of fine dining. But I now work with operators and owners from all over the world. We were in six different countries. Over 150 people currently enrolled in my program, my coaching program called the P3 mastermind. So I write books, I give talks, I host this podcast. You find me on social media. But if you want to work personally with me in my group coaching program, it's the P3 mastermind and I'm happy to chat with you about that. It is for independent restaurant owners who struggle with profitability. The way to get started is to go to restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule grab some time on the calendar. You'll get to ask some questions of us so you better understand the program. We'll get to ask questions of you so we can understand if you're a good fit for the program again. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com Schedule and yes, you'll find that link in the show notes.
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So my guest on today's episode really needs no introduction. He's the one, the only, John Taffer. Of course, you know him from tv. He's got a couple of restaurants. He is out there helping this industry in so many different ways. I'm going to spend the next 20 minutes or so pummeling him with questions. But first we got to welcome him. Mr. Taffer, it's good to have you here.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Good to be back. Good to talk to you.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you've been in and around this industry for a very, very, very long time. Obviously we've been through this sort of cataclysmic change over the last four years or so. None, none know that better than you, not only as a consultant, but as an operator yourself. So talk to me. I want to start here. Obviously, there's the pre pandemic world. There's the post pandemic world. There is a new normal. We all know the negative aspects of it. I'm tired of talking about it. I'm sure you're tired of talking about it.
Talk to me, because I think there are positive changes that happened. What are some of the positive changes that you see that have happened to our industry from this before and after time?
[00:04:59] Speaker B: Well, there are some positive aspects of it. Of course. I can't say current traffic levels are positive because they're not. I can't say that current inflationary impact has positive aspects because it sort of doesn't the employees have come back and to some degree that's made a huge difference. And our ability to retain better employees seems to be improving.
But consumer profiles have changed.
And I read a powerful report. I was doing a segment on Fox News a few weeks ago. 68% of Americans now consider fast food a luxury.
Now, fast food was utilitarian dining, as I would call it. It was dining that in most cases, so you had a snack, but in most cases it fulfilled the utilitarian purpose. You know, people look at the 99 cent sandwich they can make to bring with them to work versus that McDonald's deal which is crossed the $10 mark in most cases.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: And they've chosen to avoid the restaurant. You know, when we take a look at the kind of dining choices that are made, I think we're finding, and I don't have stats to prove this other than an impression I'll call it.
I think that we're getting back to basics in some, many, many, many ways. You know, the first restaurant in any city is always a steakhouse. The longest lasting restaurant in any city is always the steakhouse. When you take a look what lasts a long time, it tends not to be trend based.
It tends to be what I'll call primal based, meaning it's the prime flavors, the prime things that we as a society indulge in. And I think there's a movement back to that.
And I think what's happened as the industry compresses, and I use the word compress, and in every single way, we're compressing our menus because of costs and production in the kitchens.
In some cases, we're compressing portion size because we're fighting price value propositions.
In other markets, we're compressing the amount of staff that we have because we have to, we can't afford the amount of staff. We're compressing operating hours. In some markets, we're compressing how many days. So this is what I would call a compression marketplace. And everything is under this level of compression. Well, the consumer is experiencing the same compression.
They have compression, they have compression when they go to the store, they have compression on all of these ways. Almost 70% of America lives paycheck to paycheck these days. So this compression aspect causes all of us to say, okay, I have less.
So I'm going to spend my money on what is true, what is predictable, what fits my basic needs before I can move to more frilly type of endeavors. We're seeing that, Disney is seeing that at the theme parks A lot of what I'll call LBE is a term that I use often, which is location based entertainment. LBE's, if you will, is everything from a bowling center to a movie theater to a Dave and Buster's, all of these types of things to a restaurant. There's location based entertainment. So we're seeing it across all of those platforms. So in a sense, it's a time for restaurateurs to embrace some of the more basic flavors, steps and products that have the greatest mass appeal.
Because niche things won't drive the amount of traffic that niches used to drive. So I think those are the kind of opportunities that we have is to say, wow, I could actually create a menu that could work now, couldn't I?
Wow. I could actually send marketing messages that could hit those. I'm going to call primal instincts, for lack of a better term.
So, yeah, there is sort of something that I could strategically navigate to and wind up in just the right place.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: At times like this, people who think that way, the ones that bubble to the top.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Talk to me about compression. I hadn't thought about it in those terms. I love the way you put it.
Obviously, I've been seeing this. I'm a consultant myself. I've been talking a lot about compressing hours, compressing menu, compressing staff out of necessity. Right. How many chefs, how many kitchens have I walked into? And I've said, okay, great. This is, you know, this is how much you can spend on your labor. And how many chefs have looked at me, Michelin starred chefs, and said, I'm sorry, I can't execute this menu at that labor level? I said, great, and a smile. You gotta change the menu. Right. Said, this is current business level. And we could say, yeah, it'd be great to have an extra 20%, 30% in revenue over the course of the week, but over the last 18 months, we haven't seen it. So we have to address the reality of this is our current business level and we can drive it into the ground by overstaffing or we can understand the reality. Talk to me about this idea of compression and how you've applied it to your. I mean, it sounds like this, these idea of primal flavors appealing to primal instincts is something that you've applied to your own business. But talk to me about this sense of compression because I think this will be of a lot of value to a lot of the listeners listening here. How do you, how have you approached it?
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Well, you know, I've approached in the sense that the environment has compressed U.S. utility costs, occupancy costs, trash. I mean, we're getting nailed in every single way. You know that as well as I do. So I have to compress my operation at least to the level that I'm being compressed. Right. There's. There's a law of physics here.
So when I take a look at these things, I have to start from the bottom up.
It's a different way of engineering a business. If I have to generate 15, 18, 10, 12, whatever my EBITDA is, my bottom line is I have to engineer upward to attain that level.
I'm going to drop in a lot of these fixed costs, which are higher than they used to be. I'm going to drop in a food cost, which is realistic based upon today's environment, beverage cost. All of that. I'm going to look at and I'm going to engineer up.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: When I start engineering up, when I land on labor, I am not going to have the amount of points that I used to have. That is a fact.
I have to compress my labor so I can do it one of two ways. I compress overall hours, or I can redesign production and menu and compress a labor labor cost per hour and still be able to seize revenue opportunities. So my first choice is always that. My first choice is always to leave the revenue opportunity open and try to manage costs as best I can.
Tavern, interestingly, was that when I created Taffer's Tavern. You'll get a kick out of this. Trump was still president. This was long pre pandemic and working with the NRA and stuff. As I've known for 25 years, we've always had a labor problem in our industry. It's always been a challenge to us.
Well, when Covid hit and post Covid, and just before COVID we didn't have a labor market. So we're hiring new Americans that might not communicate as well as Native Americans would.
We're hiring employees who might not stay that long. We're hiring employees who might not be the pick of the litter, so to speak.
And we have this massive turnover. Managers, rather than spending time in the front of the house shaking hands and kissing babies, are in the kitchen retraining kitchen help every single day, because this is a circle that won't end.
So I said to myself, wow, this has to stop. Could I redesign a kitchen that inherently uses half the people?
And could we look at a menu that. And could we use sous vide?
And could we use certain cooking techniques and production techniques? And could I cut the labor Cost in a kitchen by design, 50 to 60%.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Do I need a stove in a kitchen in a traditional sense, it can be assessed. Do I need a hood in a traditional sense? In a kitchen today with food technology, sous vide products, all sorts of products. Working with my chefs and all my food technicians and see there's amazing products out there.
And so Taffer's Tavern was an effort to do that. Taffer's tavern is about 80% sous vide.
Almost everything in a restaurant is completely sous vide. You ready for this?
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: The kitchen is air conditioned, doesn't have a traditional hood.
It's all turbo chefs and unique fryers and specialized cooking equipment. My food technicians and my equipment technicians all work together with me.
Powerful collaborative basis. I thank Cuisine Solutions, I thank Middleby for being such great partners.
And we created a menu that'll blow you away with flavors and everything necessary that fits where we need to. In a position where we can run a 50, 52% prime cost, we can run below a 50% prime cost in certain restaurants. The end result is six and a half minutes, seven minute ticket times.
Very, very low production.
A kitchen people enjoy working in because it's not chaotic with screaming and yelling at 95, 100 degrees, it's a cool place to work.
The food has a consistency to it because it's designed for consistency, and there's not a lot of loopholes where consistency can slide into.
And so my point is this. In Taffra's Tavern, we engineered a kitchen to have a 50% labor cost, but that's how we started with that goal.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: John, I didn't know any of this.
You are making me happier than you can possibly, possibly imagine. This is incredible.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: So what we really said was, how do we reinvent the kitchen? What if we really started with a blank blackboard? And what if we looked at the turbo chef technologies and combi oven technologies and, you know, and contained fryer units that have their own fire control system. I don't need the hood. I don't need the. And then what if we really work with food quality?
Quality, which you can accomplish in sous vide and in other types of food. And look, I've tried sous vide raspberry ducks. That blew me me a way that could work in any high end restaurant I've ever been in.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: You know, it cooked flawlessly. You know, the microwaves warmed it, the infrareds crisped it. It comes out of this combi oven. I mean, you think a chef worked on this for 19 hours for Christmas and it's perfect every single time.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: So when we created this was pre Covid, when we were done and we opened Taffer's Tavern, which opened during COVID by the way.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: We realized, son of a gun, we have less counter space than every other kitchen. Wow. We have less contact every other kitchen. We don't have the depth of prep and all that. And so we realized it's not only more efficient, it's safer, it's more consistent. So it's interesting. And I suggest to all operators, you know, you have to look at it from the bottom up and you have to say to yourself, just because something was done a certain way in the past doesn't mean I have to do it. There's technologies today in the food side and the production side that can change our lives if we do it correctly. Bar rescue. I do it all the time. It's amazing what I can accomplish with the Turbo Chef on bar rescue because I don't have kitchens, I don't have hoods, I don't have trained. There are no chefs.
So we have to do it sort of. I don't want to insult anyone, but sort of idiot proof is a figurative. Not that I'm suggesting they're idiots.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Pop Menu has reimagined the restaurant. They're breaking the mold of the menu, taking the kitchen doors right off the hinges and serving up their most comprehensive technology solution yet. Pop Menu. Max. It comes with the previous ingredients that we've talked about here on the podcast. Right. Websites designed with SEO marketing tools that help keep you top of mind with guests. And of course, that patented interactive menu technology.
This new recipe brings automated phone answering to the table, third party online order aggregation, wait listing, and more. Pop Menu's phone answering technology, for example, has your ringing phones covered with AI. The simple questions that used to keep your phone line tied up will now be handled by the computer without having to pull a staff member away from your in person hospitality. So all those questions that people ask can be answered by the AI server, by the AI phone answering service. So no more missed reservations, no more people asking for your hours, or if there's parking or if you've got a gluten free, whatever.
Also, no more missed revenue. And that's just the beginning. You have a passion for food. Pop Menu has a passion for technology.
Together, that's a recipe for restaurant success. And now even more digital ingredients are in their technology pantry. And Pop Menu is helping restaurants attract, engage, remarket and transact with their guests on a whole new level. Trust me. If you're a restaurant owner, you need to look at Pop Menu to take your business to the next level. For a limited time only get $100 off your first month. Plus you get to lock in one flat unchanging monthly rate. Go to popmenu.com restaurantstrategy to claim the offer. That's a hundred dollars off your first month by visiting p o p m e n u.com RestaurantStrategy as always, that link is in the show notes.
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It's a whole audience of operators. They understand what you're saying. I want to keep on this idea of reverse engineering because that's how I work with all of the members of my mastermind, the clients I work with. I want to talk about profitability, right? Because I believe everything you believe, everything you said.
If you were to say one thing, what's the number one thing, one thing that somebody could do today? You got an audience full thousands of owners and operators out there, mostly independents. What's the one thing they could do today that would increase their profitability in a meaningful way in the restaurant?
[00:19:49] Speaker B: On menu engineering? You know I wrote a book, I hate to say it, 30 years ago on menu engineering. I spent a fortune tracking eye movement with laser Trackers. I studied a 1 panel, 2 panel, 3 panel menu. I identified where the eye lands, where the eye goes back a second time. I all of the mechanical elements of it. We identified the prime real estate. Then we went and we started boxing and shadowing and Listing things. And I'll tell you this, and you can take this to the bank.
If you take your highest profit item, I assume it's your best item too. If it's your highest profit, I would think it's something that's delicious, that people order all the time.
Box that baby the center of your menu.
Sales of that item will go up 20%. I guarantee it. Because when people go to a restaurant, they want to eat what's important, don't they?
If you're famous for corned beef, I don't want pastrami, I want corned beef. That's what he's known for.
Tell them what you're known for.
Steer them to buy. Okay, Now I'm selling 20% more of my most profitable item. Next, I take my second most profitable item and I shadow that baby or highlight it as a chef special.
That becomes my second highest profit contributor. Not in points, in dollars.
This is about dollars, not points.
Next, people have a 9.6% propensity to order the bottom two items on any list.
I move my third and fourth profit contributors in each category to the bottom of the lists. I haven't changed one recipe. I look at every one of my prices. I bring them up to 95 cents. There's no $8.25. There's no $8.50. There's no $8.75. It's 95, 8, 95. If I have to raise my prices, I go to $9.95. I don't stop in the middle. It's called psychological pricing. You're leaving 50 cents on a table every time. If you sell it for 845. So I've now have my pricing restructured. I've realigned my menu. And I guarantee you, you'll raise sales 7, 8% and drop a point, point and a half off your food cost.
That's automatic, that's mechanical. And you'll be steering your customers to order the things that you're most proud of, most known for, that'll create the most experience.
So menu engineering creates not only a higher level of profitability, but it steers the guests to a.
So I would rather tell my guests what to order than have it be a free for all. Let's say I have a fame, a famous, a. Well, a pretty popular item, but it's high cost. I hate selling this sucker because I don't make money off. I'm going to hide that baby in the least important spot of the menu in the middle of the list. It's hidden.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: But now in a world with compression. Right. Isn't that one of those things that just gets squeezed right off the menu? Or do you think there's still a place for it?
[00:22:40] Speaker B: If it's too popular, I'm scared to remove it. So I hide it.
New customers don't find it, but the old ones can get it.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Understood.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: And then I'll squeak it out. Certainly it's, it's on a death path for sure.
I might, it might make a stop or two along the way.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: You know, it's all about selling that profitability and understanding menu engineering. That's the first thing. And it astonishes me how nobody does this. Nobody does it. If there's anything in a restaurant industry that's automatic, it's menu engineering. If you do it, you will achieve a result. It is absolute. But so few people do it. It's. It's a style. Then they say, oh, I box and you open up. Everything is boxed.
No.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Yeah, one thing. Okay, great. I love it. I want to. I know we've got limited time here, so I want to be really respectful of your time.
You did a very famous interview, it's famous across the restaurant industry with Gary Vaynerchuk long time ago, where it was a call in show. And this thing is all over the Internet where you were talking about customer retention. Right. How to get the customer back. Everybody knows it really well. I'll include the link. I don't want to waste the time here because it's well documented. I want to talk about the other side of customer acquisition that I believe customer retention trumps everything. Right. Like I always joke around and say, we've got all the customers we could ever need. We just have to do a better job of making sure that they, that we want them back. Make sure they know that. But customer acquisition is important. We need to raise awareness and bring people in. You know this obviously because you've opened restaurants in new markets. So you've had to think about this.
Talk to me about what's the easiest way, the best way, the most surefire way that people can prop up a customer acquisition strategy.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: You know, I didn't learn this with my own restaurants. You know, for 20 plus years I was a consultant to primarily hotels and underperforming restaurant chains. They always called me and said, john, raise my revenue. But by the way, we have no money.
So I always was faced with this. So this was the world I walked into. My entire career, nobody ever called me and said, hey, John, I'm hiring As a consultant, because revenues are great, never happened.
So I've always walked in to revenue holes my whole life, okay. And I've assessed every kind of angle to possibly do it, from stunts to, you know, I remember opening, opening my restaurant in Salt Lake City, Utah. I herded 47 head of cattle through downtown Salt Lake City up to the front door of the restaurant, created a parade event and all that. It was great. But if the connectivity didn't exist in a restaurant, they don't come back.
So when we take a look at marketing, when I said in the Vander Chuck thing, I don't want to repeat it because you're going to put the link out there. But we need to understand that restaurant loyalty happens on the third visit. Everything that we do must stimulate a second and a third visit. I'm very big on incentivizing those initial visits, but I don't do printed coupons. I do handwritten incent incentives between the manager and the guest. I don't want people to think that discounting is always, discounting is a part of our business. You put it on a flyer, it's now who you are.
You offer it to people who you want to come back for that second and third visit. It isn't who you are.
They feel special because they're the one who got that. They don't see it anyplace else in the room. So that three visit approach is very, very powerful. But I caution our industry very much on where we're going.
And when we created Taffer's Tavern, I did not want to sacrifice connectivity through technology.
I did not want tablets in my server's hands at the tables. I did not want any technology between the server and the guest, the bartender and the guest. I have every technology you can imagine in the back of the house, including indoor lockers and outdoor where you pick out food and the puck system, as Middleby calls it.
So when we create true connectivity, which is generating that third visit, but having a server who's personally dynamic, mechanically dynamic, interactively dynamic, who knows how to look at somebody and say, by the way, that's a beautiful shirt. Now, you wouldn't wear that shirt if you didn't like it. So it's very easy. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. And I always, in speeches, always talk about that Disney host who looks at the ugliest child on the planet, lifts up their hat and says to mom, that child's beautiful.
As they're looking at, the ugliest child on the planet, stands up. But make no mistake, that child is only beautiful in two places in the world. Grandma's house and Disney. Go to Universal and that child is not treated the same way. There's a magic that we create in a restaurant industry and that magic happens from connectivity.
Connectivity is understanding who your customers are, dressing the plate for them. There's a lot of ways to make a hamburger and you have to make it right for your guests. And I'm using that as a simple example. But the fact of the matter is we have to connect. Our staff must connect.
Brand loyalty is extremely low right now.
What we would call traditional brands, loyalty is extremely low. Our new generations don't give a Damn about a 25 year old brand. They care about the new guy down the street if the reputation and the connectivity is there.
So what happens when we compress is we start to lose that connectivity.
So I say this, compress in the back. Compress your menu, compress your back of the house cost. Don't compress your front of the house service, don't compress that connectivity. And everything that we work on in our training is all about personal dynamics, connectivity.
For example, do you know if a server writes her name on a napkin and drops that napkin in the middle of the table, that her tips will go up about 25%?
[00:28:33] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:35] Speaker B: I've studied these things when I used to own a Hooters franchise. We studied these things.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:39] Speaker B: Why wouldn't we have our servers write their name and put it in the middle of the table? Hi, my name is Anne. Nice to meet you all. I'm here to help you today.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: It's a simple, easy step that can happen. You know the Red Napkin program that I talk about with Gary? A simple visual thing that prompts what, connectivity? Yeah, that whole Vander Chuck thing was about connect. I don't think I used that word at all when I was with Gary that day.
[00:29:06] Speaker A: No, no, it's it.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: Each one of those steps was connective, wasn't it?
[00:29:11] Speaker A: Yep, yep.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Looking at somebody's eyes, inviting you back, giving you that card, creating that. And here's a last point that I'll share with you and this. I know from when I own the Neighborhood Marketing Institute that if you can increase guest frequency by one visit a month, that's about an 11 to 12% increase in revenue.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: It's huge, right? It's amazing.
I had on the show a couple years back a guy named Peter Fader. Peter Fader. Among other things, he's launched and sold three or four companies. He's a professor at Wharton he wrote a book called Customer Centricity. And he basically says, you know, this. Pareto's principle. 80% of our sales come from 20% of our customers. 80% of our problems come from 20% of our. He's like, it's actually totally wrong. He's like, it's about 7%. He's like, it's like 93% of our sales come from roughly 7%. He's like, not all. Not all customers are created equal. Some. Some people's money is greener. It's our job to identify those. He's like, it's 7%. He's like. And we've run the modeling, and he's an MIT guy. He's a pur. Quant. And he's like. So he's not talking qualitatively, he's talking quantitatively. And he's like, it doesn't matter what industry, what market, whatever. He's like, I've run the number thousands and thousands of times. You know what? It comes out every single time. 7%. Every single time.
[00:30:24] Speaker B: I say 10, 90. So I'm off too.
But I find that 90% comes from about 10%. You know, the other thing I would say to. To. To full service operators, casual operators, is beverages. You know, look, I'm lucky I missed a beverage in the consumer world as Taffer. I get that. But, you know, Taffer's tavern can run 55, 60, 65% beverage sales.
And when we run our beverage sales, we're selling mixed cocktails, Taffer cocktails, which run a 14 cost or so. Some of them 12% cost. When you're running 55, 60% beverage sales. And that beverage sales number is coming in at 18 to 20%. That's a massive contributor to the bottom line.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: A hundred percent, 100%.
[00:31:08] Speaker B: So many operators missed that opportunity to. To do that. You know, it's funny. I was in a couple of bars a few weeks ago. I was in another city, and one of the bars had the bar rescue cocktail from that week on their menu. It was listed. They had no connection to bar rescue at all. It was an idea. I thought it was freaking brilliant. So whenever we featured that week, they would have.
[00:31:30] Speaker A: So, yeah, I love it.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: That's having fun. My point is this. Let's not ignore beverage programs. And by the way, menu engineering principles apply to those menus as well.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I was funny. It was to. I did this live event every year at the Profitability Summit, and I share all these playbooks and things, and I used to work with this Woman named Elaine. A million years ago, 25 years ago, when I was starting in the business and I basically started compiling.
It's the beginnings of a book. But it's all the stuff that Elaine would do. And Elaine would always fail her secret shop.
Her secret shopper reports at this restaurant. But she would always walk over with no menus in her hand, and she'd always pretend like she was busy. She said, I'm so sorry. I was stuck at another table. I didn't want you guys waiting. I'm gonna get the menus. I'll be right back with you. Listen, I'd love to start you off with some cocktails, though. I really hate that I've left you here. And she's like. And then you look for the thirstiest person at the table. She's like, at this. It was fine dining. You always had to take the woman's order first. And usually the older women, then the younger women, then the men. He's like, it's always some guy. She said, it's always some guy who's the thirstiest individual at the table. And you look over, say, I'd love to get you started off with cocktails, sir. Looks like you need a drink. What can I get for you? Because he greases the wheels. He says, oh, yeah, I'd love a martini. And they said, perfect. What else can I get for you? She's like, the best way to get a second beverage is get that first beverage on the table.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Let me take it a step further. Yes, step further. If you then look at him and say, what kind of vodka would you like?
[00:32:51] Speaker A: Sure, sure.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: They all will fall.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: Same term. The first. Get the first one. And they all fall not only on ordering the cocktail, but on a call brand. Because if the first guy says, give me Tito's, the next guy. Next guy is not going to say.
[00:33:05] Speaker A: Give me the bar 100%. There are so many scripts, and I always use Elaine's playbook. And I said, she failed every single shopper report. But she says, I'd like for you to pull up my ppa, my per person average, my check average. She's like, I'm $30 ahead above the average. She's like, so shut up and back off. Because I know how to get those drinks. I can get a full round of cocktails before I get the bottle of white, before I get the bottle of red.
[00:33:32] Speaker B: There's a way to do that and generate a score as well.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: Sure, sure. I mean, she was. It was the, you know, the company that the corporate would hire whatever. Point being is, beverage is huge. She understood it, people understood it. All of that. John, I want to be really respectful of your time. Thank you so much for sitting and chatting with me and letting me pummel you with questions. Where can people go to learn more about what you got going on right now? I mean, obviously the show's on. They'll check out the show, but what else is going on? Where can we send people?
[00:33:57] Speaker B: Well, you can always find me at Jon Taffer on every platform as well as my website. And you know, we do it. We're finishing up two more episodes of Bar Rescue. Finishing up next week. I'm here in Milwaukee right now and great season. A lot of surprises. Taffer's Brown Butter Bourbon is now in Nevada and Massachusetts with the third successful new label launch in Massachusetts. So we're very, very proud of that. And we'll be going into more states soon with that and new season of Bar Rescue in a few months. So it's a good time, busy time for us.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: I can't wait. John, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thanks.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Good to talk to you.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: Once again, I got to thank John for taking time out of his busy shooting schedule to sit and give us 30 minutes to chat all about the industry. One final reminder, remember he is partnering with shift to shift 4 on the sky Tab Rescue Mission Contest. Winners of the contest each receive a $20,000 business grant. They get a consultation call with John and a complete Sky Tab POS system from Shift 4. You enter that contest by by following the link in the show notes. It is there. Go enter the contest Again, all kinds of incredible benefits to all of the winners there. As always, thank you guys for taking time out of your busy day to sit and listen to the conversations we have here. One final reminder, if you get any sort of value from this show, please go leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. That more than anything else helps us grow this incredible community. Thank you very much and I'll see you next time.
Sam, it.
