Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation the restaurant guest experience podcast. I am your host, zach Oates, and each week I chat with industry experts to uncover their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five-star guest experience. This podcast is powered by Ovation, the feedback and operations platform built for multi-unit restaurants. You get all the insights you need to improve without an annoying survey for your guests. Learn more at OvationUpcom. And today we have someone who just has an incredible background. He has just done it in the restaurant industry. I met him through Kathleen Wood and I think everybody knows and loves Kathleen Wood, but if you're not familiar with her, go check out her episode of my podcast. But we have Ralph Lewis with us today and Ralph has been the CEO and owner of Okeechobee Steakhouse and Prime Meat Market and you've got a couple other things, but you've been in the Okeechobee Steakhouse for almost for 48 and a half years.

Speaker 2: 1:02

No, longer than that.

Speaker 1: 1:04

No, really.

Speaker 2: 1:05

Yeah, zach. So thanks for the introduction. We're just restaurant operators. But to give you a little background real quick, we're in West Palm Beach, florida. Okeechobee Steakhouse is the oldest steakhouse in the state of Florida, so this October, coming up in just a few months, 78 years. It was started by my grandfather and grandmother in 1947. We're the original building, original location and, by the way, you see West Palm Beach, palm Beach County, on the news every day now that Trump is our president. You just see it If you watch any news. Everything's being broadcast from here. So ton of people here now think like 1.7 million people. And where I'm going with this? When my grandparents built this restaurant it was so far out of town they couldn't get deliveries. So here we are, almost 78 years later, and moving right along and things are doing amazing. So I'm a third generation.

Speaker 1: 2:03

Oh my gosh. So I know that you've been there for a while. I didn't realize that your grandfather started it.

Speaker 2: 2:08

Yeah, my grandfather started it. My father run the business for the longest of all of us, probably close to 45, 50 years. He still comes in every day hangs around world knowledge, so it's been a family business. Like I said, three generations. We've opened a Okeechobee Prime Meat Market a few years ago. Catty corner behind Okeechobee Steakhouse, we have an event hall which is where I'm sitting this morning. At our event hall only place I could get some silence and catch up with you, my friend, and, by the way, it was great seeing you the other day at the restaurant show in Chicago.

Speaker 1: 2:46

I do. I feel like you bump into everyone there in Chicago. So I was happy to see you there, Ralph, and it was funny because I was like wait, don't we have a podcast like this week.

Speaker 2: 2:56

Yeah so. And then we have Lewis Steakhouse in Jupiter, Florida, and then we have Lewis Prime Grill which is out in Loxahatchee. They're all in Palm beach County, so we've expanded but here we are.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Oh my gosh. And by the way, for those wondering, he's not just using that in hyperbole, I really did just Google what is the oldest steakhouse in Florida? And sure enough, okeechobee steakhouse. So not like I didn't believe you, ralph, I just wanted to see if the internet agreed with you.

Speaker 2: 3:27

And yeah, there you go. Well, you know, if you tell the internet something enough times, you know I slip it in there. It starts to believe it too.

Speaker 1: 3:35

I love that. So, Ralph, this is something where, from your cradle you have been, Okeechobee Steakhouse has been like in your blood. What are some like crazy stories, Because I mean, over the years you've had to have had some like crazy things happen in the steakhouse. Anything come to mind? Yeah?

Speaker 2: 3:52

if you want things that are like funny stories and different stories. So we had a server waiter that worked for us for 44 years, hired by my grandparents, worked for all three generations of us, mr Hospitality, very old school Southern gentleman. Of course when he started with us he was young, from Georgia. Had that very old school Southern gentleman demeanor. People loved him. So one day he was waiting on some tables and this is when he got a little older. He had a lot of call parties, a lot of people requested him. He's a very popular server and he was bending over showing some ladies our steak tray. We present our steaks on a tray and when he did he always wore a pin like an American flag pin on his vest and it caught in her hair, her wig, and when he stood up it pulled her wig off and then she went to holler and it scared him bad and his false teeth fell out on the meat tray.

Speaker 2: 4:56

So it just escalated from there and of course, everybody in the whole dining room was laughing and as it got worse and escalated, he started backing up. You know, oh my God, I'm sorry, Of course, pulling our wig across the dining room floor, but there's a hundred stories like that.

Speaker 1: 5:12

Oh my gosh, that is so funny and you know what I love about those stories is that you go to work getting ready for like just another day and then, just like some crazy story, like that happens. I have never asked anyone that question, but just knowing how steakhouses are and how intimate you are, like you know, involved in this I figured you had a couple up your sleeve. So, thinking about the guest experience, ralph, what do you think is one of the most important aspects of guest experience nowadays and, in your opinion, how has that, if it has evolved over the last 70 some odd years?

Speaker 2: 5:50

Yeah, guest experiences have definitely evolved. One of the huge reasons, obviously in the last 25, 30 years, is exactly what we're doing now Podcasts, social media, phones, you know where you can video, snap pictures at the dining room table. Those are all things. So it still comes back to your basic fundamentals. People want a great experience, so they want great food, great service, a great atmosphere, but you also have to deliver hospitality, which is way different than just points of service. Anyone you know a robot could deliver points of service, and I don't know if you were like me. I seen a ton of robots at the National Restaurant Show last week, but they can't deliver hospitality and hospitality.

Speaker 2: 6:35

I'm going to go back to the gentleman Wesley who I was telling you. They've been with us 44 years, so one of the reasons he was so popular was every single day for 44 years he had a new joke to tell the guests, so he also remembered their names. He remembered their children's names, birthdays. He would write this down. He memorized every, even what they were wearing when they came in so he could compliment the ladies the next time.

Speaker 1: 7:02

What did he say about the wig the next time?

Speaker 2: 7:04

What did you say about the wig the next time? They actually they got a great laugh out of that.

Speaker 1: 7:08

All of them did so that, of course if we'd had the internet, then that was when the internet was just starting to come out, really good, but hospitality it's a feeling you have to give the people and deliver a feeling.

Speaker 2: 7:23

You can go anywhere and get food, but you have to deliver that experience. You have to make the guests understand that they're appreciated, they're welcomed, and you will go above and beyond to show that appreciation.

Speaker 1: 7:38

And there's just so many ways to do it and, like the gentleman who authored this book right behind me, he always talks about how service is performing the technical aspects of the job effectively right. That's giving the right food at the right time at the right time. Hospitality is how the guest feels as you do that, and I think that in an increasing digital world, it doesn't mean that people don't care about hospitality. I went around and I did micro podcasts all over NRA and that's what a lot of people were saying is like it's about getting back to the roots of hospitality, about proving to the guests that you really care, like that's what it comes down to, and I think that's something where I've loved seeing that return to the humanistic, humanality, whatever, to the human, to human part of hospitality, because that's what it's really all about.

Speaker 2: 8:30

Well, it is, and one of the things we strive for is we never want to have a corporate feel. We don't want to have that corporate feel where you feel like you're just a number, and that starts with your staff too. Feel like you're just a number and that starts with your staff too. You don't want your staff to just feel like they're lost in a sea of 10,000 employees or even 100 employees. Everyone needs to feel important. That's your staff, your guests, your vendors. It's the same experience. Everyone needs to think of your place and smile.

Speaker 2: 9:03

So one of the things we do is we give away a free birthday dinner on your birthday steak dinner at all three of our restaurants. So if you come in, we get you a birthday dinner, or we take that price of the dinner off of another dinner if you get something more expensive. Well, one of the reasons and my father was the one instrumental in starting that probably 35 years ago and as of last September 2024, we had given away 350,000 free steak dinners, birthday dinners at Okeechobee Steakhouse. But here is where the rub is with this. But here is where the rub is with this.

Speaker 2: 9:49

So, again going back to experiences, I don't remember last year where I was the day before my birthday. I don't even remember where I was two or three days after, but I remember where I was, my birthday and, like most of us, we remember Christmas, our birthdays, our children's birthday. So we want you in our restaurant experiencing that memorable moment that's going to get passed down in those photos for decades at Okeechobee Steakhouse and we have generational people now that are coming in saying their grandparents or parents brought them in here 30 years ago at 15 years old for a free birthday dinner and they remember celebrating that with their grandparents who are no longer with them or their parents. So those are things you can't buy with advertising or you can't jump on and be an influencer and give that feeling. I do a lot of video content, a lot of videos, but I can't replicate that feeling.

Speaker 1: 10:47

Yeah, I love that idea because that's such a smart thing of like, yeah, where you celebrate your birthday, you remember. That's a really good point of. I remember my birthday last year but I don't remember what I did before or after. But yeah, I remember where I was. That's a really interesting idea. Besides that, I mean like because the birthday club it normally seems like a kind of tired idea, but how you're explaining it is really like give me huge hope in the fact that it's not a tired idea. It's actually that opportunity to create a lasting memory and that's really powerful. Any other tactics that you would use to improve the guest experience?

Speaker 2: 11:25

Yes, Well, you want to give them wild moments. One of the things we do we present a steak tray. We come to the table with our steaks raw, show them and describe each steak. It's something different. So you get a visual, you get knowledge. The waitstaff, the servers and they're really guest experience specialists is who works in the front of our house. They're very professional, well-trained staff that embrace the culture. They're very knowledgeable of their product. In fact I would consider them experts of their product. They understand the steak all the way, from where it originates, the cut, the quality, as far as the tenderness profile, the flavor profiles, but they present that at the table and explain each one. There again, it's a little bit different experience. We do the same with our desserts. We come to the table with a dessert tray, present our dessert, show them to you, you order and then we bring the dessert out.

Speaker 2: 12:26

So there's a lot of things, from the beginning to the end, to the way the valet makes you feel. The hostess at the front door, the way they smile, engage. I'm really big on smiling. I believe smiling is huge. Give that extra little step, as my grandmother, who was one of the founders of the steakhouse, used to tell me, when a person leaves our restaurant, they need to feel like they just met their long lost cousin and that they're already talking about their next visit. So if they're not talking about their next visit, her belief was you've dropped the ball. And so do we nail that every time? Probably not, you know, no one's perfect, but we go out of our way every day. And it's also delivering that same message every day repetitively, and understanding that the message in your culture may get boring to you as a restaurant owner, and the managers and the staff, but it's new to your guests.

Speaker 2: 13:28

Oh, I love that, you see what I'm saying, because your guests aren't there all day, every day, even though we have guests that come in, maybe every day for lunch, but tomorrow they may bring a person that's never been here, they may bring a family member. So those are all important, and what we strive for is a trust-based business.

Speaker 1: 13:48

I love that, Ralph. I mean it's so powerful, and I wish we had three hours to chat, but unfortunately we're wrapping up here. So, ralph, a couple last questions. Is who deserves an ovation in the restaurant industry? Who's someone that we should be following?

Speaker 2: 14:01

Well, gosh, there are so, so many. Here's what I'm going to say to that. I can't say as I have one, but here's what I do. I look at two things, zach, real quick. One, the legends who have been around for 50, 75, 100 years and are kind of with the same ownership, and also look for the ones that are on the cutting edge and love to take risks and challenges when everyone says that won't work and they prove them wrong. And there's a lot of those people. But I damn well love those people. Man, just say I'm not willing to, I'm not afraid to put it out there and I'm willing to take a chance and roll the dice and they show that it will work and buck the industry.

Speaker 1: 14:47

Love that, ralph. And how do people find and follow you?

Speaker 2: 14:53

industry. Love that, ralph. And how do people find and follow you? Well, they can go on Facebook. I'm at Ralph A Lewis on Facebook and Instagram and then I'm on LinkedIn, so they can follow me at all of those. They can follow Okeechobee Steakhouse okeechobeestakehousecom and Okeechobee Steakhouse on Facebook, instagram, linkedin. We're there and you can see some of my videos and make comments there too.

Speaker 1: 15:17

Well, the million dollar question, Ralph, what is your steak of choice and how do you like it cooked?

Speaker 2: 15:22

Oh so I love a prime dry, aged, bone-in ribeye. That's about 27, 28 ounces that thick, wow, seared on the outside, medium rare. Love that, love that. That's my go-to steak.

Speaker 1: 15:40

Okay, there you go.

Speaker 2: 15:42

Lots of marble, lots of flavor, and if you want the savory flavor, that's the go-to.

Speaker 1: 15:48

Love that Well, ralph, for teaching us three generations of hospitality. Today's ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us on Give an Ovation.

Speaker 2: 15:57

Zach, thank you for having me Wonderful. Look forward to talking to you again. Everyone, have an amazing weekend.

Speaker 1: 16:04

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.