Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to another episode of Give an Ovation, the restaurant guest experience podcast, where I talk to industry experts to get their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five-star guest experience. This podcast is sponsored by Ovation, an operations and guest recovery platform for multi-unit restaurants that gives you all the answers without annoying your guests with all the questions. Learn more at OvationUpcom. Today I am so excited because we have James Vitrano. There are two types of people in the world those who don't know James and those who love James. There is nothing in between. He's the co-owner of Sucre, along with Abney, the co-owner of Prima a Pre, and these brands are just so unique, so distinguished, so classy and they are amazing. I had the privilege of trying. What was it that you sent me? The cake.

Speaker 2: 0:51

Oh yeah, it was such a king cake from Sucre.

Speaker 1: 0:53

Dude, it was unbelievable.

Speaker 2: 0:56

It was just so good we wanted to use for the kids. We just wanted to see the kids smile.

Speaker 1: 1:00

And it was just like it was, this amazing blast of delicious and fun, and it totally fits yours and Abney's energy. Anyway, thanks for joining me on. Give an Ovation, james. How are you?

Speaker 2: 1:12

I'm honored is what I am, man. You're like an industry celebrity man. This is like the highlight of my career right here, second podcast, first with you. I made it on and I got that like wonderful introduction. I don't know who sent that to you if you wrote it up yourself but I'll take it.

Speaker 1: 1:28

No, that just came from the heart man. So, james, first of all tell me about why you're in the restaurant business. Like you have so much energy, you've got so much pizzazz, you could be doing anything. Why restaurants?

Speaker 2: 1:41

Oh my God, Great question. I got in sort of the back way. I'm a lawyer and I don't practice much anymore, but I had the opportunity to work for really one of the most amazing people in the restaurant business, a woman by the name of Rhonda Parrish. She was the chief legal officer of Einstein Noah Restaurant Group and she took a flyer and hired me as her second and I got to learn the restaurant business under her. Were you there with Jim Mises? No, no, I was there in 2010 until we sold to JAB. So Jeff O'Neill God rest his soul was our CEO, but we had a whole bunch of unbelievable people running through there. Right, we had James O'Reilly, who's killing it as a CEO, Piccadilly Group and whatnot. We had Manny Hilario as our CFO, who is running the one group, and on and on from Susan Littensmith to John Coletta. I mean, there was just a bunch of great executives.

Speaker 2: 2:33

But I got the opportunity to work with Rhonda Parrish and she was one of the first lawyers at Walmart, worked with Sam Walton, really a pioneer in the industry, and then she was with Flagstar and Denny's Advanica. I really took them through all of their issues in the 80s and 90s. She backed it up to Walmart. She helped build Sam's Club so the opportunity to work for and with Rhonda was amazing and that's where I fell in love with the restaurant business at Einstein.

Speaker 2: 3:00

I know a restaurant group and you know about three brands Einstein Brothers Knows, New York Bagels, the Manhattan Bagel Company and we were franchised first. So I cut my teeth on franchising with Paul Carolyn and Mike Ellis and really loved that group of people, that brand, and that's where the entrepreneurial aspect of restaurants and franchising really bit me and kind of used the law to get me in that way and that's kind of come full circle from an executive to a guy who is trying to grow an emerging brand. So some days I miss the practice of law but most days I'm very thankful to be in the restaurant business.

Speaker 1: 3:30

You're not just like a legal one-trick pony. I mean, you were CEO of two brands New Orleans Original Daiquiri and Fat Tuesday. All of these brands are like very celebration-esque brands and it's really interesting to see that, because when you meet you you don't think, oh, that guy's a recovering lawyer.

Speaker 2: 3:49

Well, I take that as a compliment no offense to my legal friends out there. I had the ability to leave Einstein NOAA and then go to Ruby Tuesday and I got to learn under Brett Patterson who's now running Outback and a great group there, and the turnaround that we sold to NRD over to Aziz Hashim. And then I had the pleasure of working for the owner founder of Fat Tuesday and New Orleans Original Daiquiris and I got to grow that franchise offering and took them through the pandemic, which was a heck of an experience and a niche industry. They invented the frozen drink, so it was a lot of fun or very, very unique offering and then I was fortunate enough to help them sell it to guys at Garnet Station Partners, matt Perlman and Alex Sloan true geniuses out of New York.

Speaker 2: 4:30

And that sort of lawyer thing really led me into the love of restaurants and you can't beat the restaurant business when it comes to the people that work in your restaurants and your team and then the guests. Like it's a true humbling and loving offering to serve people food, to connect with people on that very level. So that's really what connected me. I'm a people person and if you don't enjoy doing for others, then you shouldn't be in the restaurant business.

Speaker 1: 4:54

And if you can't tell her, if our listeners can't tell, by the first five minutes of this podcast, james has dropped like 30 names and that truly is a sign of like a great people person, of someone who you're not doing it to name drop. You're doing it because they really had an impact on you and you're grateful for them.

Speaker 2: 5:13

And you learned so much, zach. I came in from the corporate side and then now I'm in that single unit, multi-unit growth phase. Those people really taught me something every step of the way, and if you aren't around people who can teach you or that you can grow from, why are you doing what you're doing? It's just fortunate to have great people in the restaurant industry, both on the corporate side as well as in the store, and that, I think, is what keeps me coming back for more Amen, you being one of them, bro, with this great product.

Speaker 1: 5:41

Oh man, honor that I'd even be mentioned in the same breath as those teams.

Speaker 2: 5:45

Man. I'm addicted to you, bro. I love what you're doing, how you're doing it, what you do for our businesses. We are just lucky to have you leading this sort of wonderful product, and it helps my teams and my companies every day.

Speaker 1: 6:00

Well, I appreciate that, man. And the heart of it all, it's about the guest experience, right? Oh yes, when you think about the guest experience, what do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays?

Speaker 2: 6:09

Yeah, that's a great question, Zach, and I'll answer it sort of this way. So Sucre is a high end right. There's really nothing like it in the United States. It's as if you walk in to a very European, very polished, beautiful place where we're serving high-end pastry desserts. So you typically have to go to a four or five-star Michelin restaurant with a pastry chef to experience some of the entremets that we make and provide to our guests, all the way to our macarons, which are the best in the world, and I take that personally in sending my message out Take that to the Olympics brother.

Speaker 1: 6:44

Yeah To the.

Speaker 2: 6:44

Lotterie folks of the world. I think our macarons are the best in the world, and all the way through our gelatos and our cupcakes and other desserts. But it's a high-end experience and so the customer satisfaction aspect of it from our, our perspective, is really kindness. At the end of the day, we focus on kindness. We have four S's of Sucre, but the real main one is service and that kindness that is emitted to the guests for coming in, spending their hard-earned money with us, for that opportunity to escape their reality.

Speaker 2: 7:18

We try to make our stores to be sort of I wish you'd get back into making movies, those Nancy Meyer type of romance movies where you can step away and it's picturesque and you and I can have a coffee or you and your wife can have a dessert and you escape the realities of the demands of life. And our job in a customer service standpoint is to treat you with absolute kindness and that's really the touchstone of it from of life. And our job in a customer service standpoint is to treat you with absolute kindness and that's really the touchstone of it from our standpoint.

Speaker 1: 7:44

And I love that you used the word kindness, not niceness, right? Kindness, it's so much deeper than niceness, and kindness is treating others not how you would want to be treated. But kindness is treating others how they would want to be treated. It really stems treating others how they would want to be treated.

Speaker 2: 8:00

It really stems from grace. At the end of the day, it's a form of love and we want to express that sort of true, selfless kindness to you coming in. So you're going to get greeted with a smile, you're going to be spoken to throughout your entire process. We really don't care about ticket time. Take your time, beautiful stuff, ask a bunch of questions, there's no rush and we're going to thank you for spending your money and spending your time with us and the kindness extended from meeting you with just a smile, just a greeting, just a thank you. If we did that in every day, in every context, think how much softer and happier this world would be. So that's what Sucre is about from a customer service standpoint Love, that Powerful, powerful stuff. You admit kindness, man, that's wild, like a million dollars a mile right.

Speaker 1: 8:46

That's a billion dollars. Let's have a podcast every day, James. I want to start my day with a podcast with James. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 8:52

I don't know if anybody else will listen, but I have a heck of a I'm with you, my friend.

Speaker 1: 8:57

So going to the next thing what are some tactics that you've used to improve guest experience, especially at Sucre?

Speaker 2: 9:02

First and foremost bro.

Speaker 1: 9:04

Oh.

Speaker 2: 9:05

Yo ovation, that tactic, that's that tactic.

Speaker 1: 9:08

By the way, how has ovation helped you?

Speaker 2: 9:10

I don't know and I think I've told you this before so I'll admit it to the public I don't know that I'm using Ovation the right way. I use Ovation and our team so I see everything that comes in, so I'm so. It's unprecedented growth. With that growth we didn't have a way to really see how the teams were doing right and, in all honesty no offense to the Yelps, which I'm not a huge fan of, or the Google reviews really not a huge fan of Yelp, but the Google review aspects of things it's really easy to just throw something out there and when I respond or we respond to the Google reviews because there's a lot of constraints on how you respond on Yelp sidebar, on the next one or our next podcast, the communication with the guest on that is not didactic, Whereas Ovation I love the customer that scans that little QR code, calls the number and tells me how it is and gives me the opportunity to either answer their questions, address their concern or help them understand the why of it, and that ability for my team to communicate directly with the guests on whatever issue it is and not impact the store.

Speaker 2: 10:29

We use Ovation. We don't have phones in my stores. None of the stores have phones, because, A I don't want somebody being distracted by the phone and, B the customer in the store is priority to our team. So we take that off of our team and we manage it from an above store standpoint so that we are speaking with one voice we are able to really address, so I can connect with you. And what it does for me, which is really powerful, does two things it ensures that the connection to the guest, that kindness, is extended, no matter what the issue is, and it allows me to understand. That's the tactic. The tactic and the strategy is understanding. I have to seek to understand you as my guest at every level.

Speaker 2: 11:13

Now we might not agree but at the end of the day, I just want to understand what your issue is, and Ovation does that for us. Ovation does that for us in real time and it allows us to quantify how we're doing across different spectrums, and to me it's invaluable. It's the one tool I use every day in my business that I thoroughly enjoy, and I don't say that about anybody, Dude.

Speaker 1: 11:35

I appreciate that, James. I love that concept of understanding the guest, because that's really what it comes down to right. It's that when we had Will Guderian, one of the things he talks about all the time is helping the guests feel seen when you can connect with them on a one-to-one, a human-to-human. That's what it's about, and so many people like I don't have the margins to afford that kind of connection. The truth of it is technology can help you to not replace the human touch, but to enhance, to expedite, to make more efficient that human touch, so you can scale that hospitality.

Speaker 2: 12:12

If you're driving, if kindness is our goal and understanding is our tactic and or strategy, what Ovation does for me is it gives me the tool I was missing to achieve those on all kinds of fronts, which is connection. So it gives me the ability to immediately connect with my guests or the guests connect immediately with me. And here's the interesting thing I see it, it is my brand and my partners. I see every connection good, bad or otherwise and that's imperative to really understanding so that we are able to drive kindness Because, like you said, kindness should be a selfless give. Understanding what the need state is of the customer helps. So here's a great example when we bought the brand last year, they were doing double scoops of gelato. Right, and long story as short as possible.

Speaker 2: 13:02

Gelato is different than ice cream, right, and I think that on a mass scale we do it pretty well for retail, but we're improving it constantly. But gelato is kept at a different temperature than ice cream. I killed the double scoop. I did it. I'm the guy who killed it. I killed the double scoop. And I killed the double scoop because I just didn't think that our gelato, which is so hot, like you put it together different flavors, it melts immediately. Especially when the salad is really fast and hot, it becomes a mess.

Speaker 2: 13:28

Ovation and the feedback I've gotten from our guests made it really clear that whatever I thought was wrong and the guests weren't happy with it and they wanted double scoops. That connection enabled me to give them what they want, not what I think is best for the brand or the flavor of the taste. That fluidity of conversation allows for adaptability in the business market, which is important for me because I mean in all honesty, I can charge more for two scoops so there's more profit as well. It works out and the guest is happy. But I wouldn't have known that temperature had I not been able to didactically interact on a communicative level vis-a-vis the connection that Ovation gives Love, that Powerful stuff, james, appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 14:18

Now you just listed off, so many people that you know that have helped out in the restaurant industry. Who is someone that we should be following? Who's someone that deserves an ovation? Oh man, I'll tell you what. I'll give you three right, all right, ready One is you, man, like, I'm a huge fan of you and you're doing a hell of a job.

Speaker 2: 14:30

The product's great. Your approach with people's great. It's refreshing to do business with people that are truly genuine, and so I think you deserve one in your product. Secondly, I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to my guy, dan Meth at Ingest. I think he's got something special there. We use it. I think it's got. If I'm an FP&A or a CFO, I'm looking at my people going. I could probably condense it to a couple of folks because this tool is so amazing. So I think meth at Ingest needs a big ovation. And then I'm fortunate that I'm married to her.

Speaker 2: 15:01

But Abney Harper, who lets me spend every day with her, is a true genius in the restaurant space. She's a lawyer turned shelf-taught chef. She had a phenomenal restaurant in Sea Island, georgia, that was top 100 and open table in 2019 in the US, and she took all those learnings and she's created this brand, prima Apre, and it's spectacular. It's fresh made pasta. You pick your sauce, you pick your toppings, it's served in a beautiful little container to go and it's spectacular. And then she's got her pavlova, which is a tremendous dessert and a beautiful offering, and it's all chef made stuff condensed into a two-and-a-half-minute experience at a really good price. There's nothing like it out there. The three favorite people in my restaurant world right now are you, brother the Mester and Abney Harper, crushing at Prima Appare.

Speaker 1: 15:45

Yeah, and check out that Instagram page. I mean the stuff just looks so amazing. Just to go down there for Prima Appare and Sucre, I'm ready to do it, like hop me on a plane, my man, let's go. So, james, where can people go to learn more or follow you?

Speaker 2: 16:04

Oh, that's so kind. I don't know that anybody follows me other than my five daughters and son, and I think they want to unfollow me every day. But you can check us out at shopsucrecom, or our Insta is Sucre New Orleansal Insta. Check us out at at Prima Apre for the Prima Instagram. I'm James at ShopSucrecom. If anybody has any questions, concerns or complaints.

Speaker 1: 16:21

Awesome. Well, james, for making every day a celebration. Today's ovation goes to you. Thank you so much for leaving the legal world behind and for gracing us with your presence here in the restaurant space, man.

Speaker 2: 16:32

Thanks.

Speaker 1: 16:33

Zach, awesome Thanks for joining us today. If you like this episode, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite place to listen. We're all about feedback here. Again, this episode was sponsored by Ovation, a two-question, sms-based actionable guest feedback platform built for multi-unit restaurants. If you'd like to learn how we can help you measure and create a better guest experience, visit us at OvationUpcom.