Meet Kyle And Maggie Of Dillas

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Learn more at elevation of.com. Now, today I am so excited because we have the owners, the founders, the followers of Dillot Case Ideas, Kyle and Maggie Gordon, who we were just talking about before the show. They are not just business partners, but at first I was like, maybe they didn't happen to have the last day of the same last day, but no, they are married. And when you see them at trade shows, it is amazing to see how much respect they have for each other and how they seem like they're homies, like they're just like friends. And anyway, just really respect that. And especially Kyle, the hair game. I'm working on them.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

And one day I'll catch up, but you gotta really control it. You can work this side a little bit more.

From Raising Cane’s To First Dillas

SPEAKER_02 1:11

By the way, do you have do you use a blow driver? Okay. Well, I told you I would come on with hard-hitting questions. So we'll start there. So for those who aren't familiar with Dillas, why don't you tell us about the founding story and what Dillas does?

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Yeah, I love that. So started in 2013. I like to always mention that like straight out of college, had the idea for Dillas in college, but straight out of college was like really wanted to get in the restaurant business, wanted to start Dillas, talked to a mentor, and he was like, no, get a job. Like, you need to see if you've got ketchup in your veins. And so um I actually got an interview with Raising Canes, which I was very blessed at the perfect timing, right, to go work for Raising Canes. So they were opening their second location in DFW, and I was like, awesome, like get me in.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Wait, their second?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Yeah, they only had they had less like 40 at this time, like maybe 30?

SPEAKER_03 2:07

Yeah, something in that range. Um my god. Their second one in DFW. Now they've got probably 50 or something.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Oh, sorry, second in DFW.

Defining American Quesadillas And Model

SPEAKER_03 2:15

Yeah. Okay, 30 or 40 total. Got it, got it. Yeah, this is like 2006, 2007, somewhere around there. So this was when Todd was like still super involved and was like at the GN meetings and everything. So super exciting time to be there. So worked with them for seven years, and like that was my 10,000 hours plus in terms of like just learning how to operate a business, all the different things that it touches. And an opportunity kind of came to either continue to grow with them or to pursue Dillas and stay in Dallas. And I looked at Maggie and she was pregnant, and I was like, let's go ask your mom and dad for money. Um like if if leverage, that's a leverage lesson right there. You get a pregnant wife, you can always ask your in-laws for money. So they were like, hey, we'll keep you in Dallas, help you guys out. I had a little buyout, she had a little bit of money, and like we just boot shopped uh our first Dillas location in 2013. It was in the same parking lot as my Raising Canes, so I like knew a lot of the community members around there. So just so anybody out there who doesn't know what we do, like primo quesadilla meals. So we've got like some signature quesadillas, also with French fries and a drink is that meal. And we have been growing that for 12 years now. Uh, we've got 11 locations, six of them are our babies uh here in DFW area. And then we've got one franchisee with five locations. He's in like East Texas and uh Shreeport and has one in Ruston, Louisiana as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Oh, got it.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

By the way, I don't know if you guys most of the origin story.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

The story, but I'll say, I'll add on to what Dilla's is. It's really like American quesadillas. That's why it's Dilla's, it's not Dia's, right? Like we take our favorite comfort foods of American Favor brisket and one that's like, I don't know, like a buffalo wing flavor. Like we put that in the wonderful vehicle of a quesadilla that everybody loves and serve it with french fries and queso instead of we do have chips, but it's really about the really high quality, convenient drive-through.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

QSR Plus, so really high quality, but half of our business is drive-through, 85%'s in a bag, only 15% dine in. So just to kind of help people visualize uh what the restaurant is like.

Execution Over Experience-For-Show

SPEAKER_02 4:33

And how are you looking at? Because right now there's a lot of movement in the market to kind of like that full service. How are you thinking in a fast casual environment? How are you combating that full service family dining that's kind of seems like for the first time in like 20 years, it's kind of starting to come back.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, like restaurants, like we were having a conversation before this, Cole, about just kind of like the restaurant roller coaster in general. I could have sworn that chili was gonna go under, you know, like five years ago, right? But like everything, you know, like has its place. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that for us, it's our future and like kind of how we visualize it, is like there's gonna be places that are gonna be about experience, and there's gonna be places that are gonna be all about execution, right? So like we're leaning a little bit more execution because we want people to be like to know us as like it's always good, it's always, you know, serve fast. I can grab it and it's wholesome. Like, that's kind of more the lane that we're going down. We're not trying to create like an experience where there's TVs and alcohol and like it's a long sit-down. Like, that's not our jam. It's really high quality, it's really convenient, and we want to own that lane and execute on your expectations. Um, we're not trying to kind of create necessarily like a long night out with a family, although we do have great dining experiences.

Connection Beats Perfection

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yeah, I I think the other piece of that though is that you know, we're about K City is being about connection, right? Like you said, we don't have TDs, we don't have Wi-Fi. So, like if you are dining in with us, it's about focusing in on your experience with the person you're with or maybe by yourself. It's about connecting, right? But I think that also goes outside the four walls. So to the families that maybe would normally go sit down somewhere, we're a great option to take that and have that experience at home with really high quality, great case to they don't have to do the work, but they still get to have a family experience together.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Yeah, well, connection.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah.

Persistence, Leases, And Unit Economics

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Yeah. And I and I think that connection is so important. And that's obviously something that I mean, quite frankly, that's the reason I started ovation was that I feel like there's so many things that in the restaurant industry, we have to be perfect at everything. But the truth is, like we're not. So that's where connection comes in because uh connection allows the guests to overlook imperfections. And so that's why I always say it's not about perfection, it's about connection. Uh not saying we don't strive for perfection, but just saying we need to be understanding that it's not gonna happen. Now, was there a moment that I've heard the story, like the 3 a.m. moment of like the hundred thousand dollar check? How do you overcome the challenges that it is to build a brand? Jeez Louise.

Marriage, Roles, And Balance

SPEAKER_03 7:22

I mean, it it's again back to the roller coaster, like it is Evan Flow. And I think that when we got into this business, we had a lot of mentors early on. And uh one of the ones I remember clearly, he founded Snappy Salads, and he was like, Man, this game is like a persistence game. And if you can slug it out and stay in and make it multiple rounds, like ride the wave. The other thing that I tell people who are either getting into this or trying to figure out their way in restaurants is like, if you are getting into this for money, you're in the wrong business. There's so many other start a uh you know, software company. Yeah, like I mean, yeah, people who are they don't get in their own john because you have to get energy and you have to get like fulfillment from like developing people and from serving customers and being a part of community and it's not a quick dollar, right? It's uh it you have to really build a brand, you have to be super patient. And restaurant economics are difficult, and the best way that they pencil or how I kind of explain it to people, it's like, okay, you sign a 10-year lease, you got to pay off that whatever note and everything else, like the first five years, and then the back half, if you're a success, is kind of the gravy train. So no matter what, you're already up kind of against a three to five year like uh uphill battle, you know, like where you know you're gonna have lower EBITDA margins to make sure everything's getting paid off and you're gonna win on the back half of your lease, and then hopefully sign some additional five-year um extensions. So you gotta roll with the punches, but I don't know if there's any specific moment other than like, I no matter what happens, I'm gonna stick this out. Like it's the conviction overall, is I think what you have to have.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

And I think that luckily for us, as you mentioned, like we're husband and wife, we balance each other really well. So one of us might be freaking out in some situation more than the other in different scenarios, right? Certain things make me more anxious and certain things make him more anxious going through the whole life cycle of the business. And but we're there to kind of counterbalance each other and provide like reason on the other side and like smooth it over, I guess, if you will.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

Yeah, I'm a little bit more like empathy, emotion, and like she's a little bit more execution and analytics and details, and so she'll help me solve emotional problems with analytics and detail, and like help me like back me off the clip a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

So, like, because I'll be like Or he'll be like, it's all gonna be all right when I'm we're down in traffic, let's sell the company, and she's like, it's only one week, you know.

SPEAKER_03 10:13

Like it's like there are those moments, you know, that you have that on the journey, um it definitely helps to have a partner in your business that is helping balance that out because you both can't be on the edge of the clip, you know. You gotta have like a kind of like the balance of like, I'm gonna pull you back, I'm gonna apply this. I know that I can see emotionally maybe what you're feeling. I can't go there with you. I'm gonna be the one who's gonna pull you back this time. You just catch me next time. It's that kind of thing in the business.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Are there any rules that you guys have put in place to protect your marriage from the business? No.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

No, it's all done loads all the time.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

All the time.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

There's no sacred cows at the house or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

No, it's actually great though, you know, because like a lot of like marriages, I think can go, I don't know, I haven't never been in one, but I think they can go stale. It's kind of like, oh, like, oh well, we either talk about the kids or like, I mean, what else do you want to say? And I have what else do you want to talk about? And they run out of stuff to talk about, right? If you own a restaurant with your wife, you never run out of anything. Like, you'll always have a topic, right? It's like, oh, that guy got fired. Oh my god, did you hear about this restaurant? And oh, did you read that review? Oh no, or wow, did you see the sales that this location or that catering? We can always fall back if we want to on Dillas or restaurant industry.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Yeah, it was the industry, I think, is the other thing that like kind of outside of the Dillas realm keeps us engaged in lively conversations as well, you know.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

Pay for our travel, you know, like all sorts of good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Do you guys see you guys in a lot of shows? Do you ever like piggyback a vacation onto those shows or no?

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Sure. Every day or so. Yeah.

Crafting A Consistent Guest Experience

SPEAKER_03 11:54

Depends on the city. I mean, like we show up in Atlanta, we're not like, oh, how do we Indianapolis? Yeah, ooh, we're waiting for like Maui or something like that. All on the list. Um, but yeah, no, and honestly, like we're we're pretty busy. We take care of ourselves, you know, so like at the end of the day, I guess you could say, like when it's like an hour of watching a show together or something like that, we're kind of like out of Dillas anyways, you know, it's we've taken care of kids, we've taken care of our personal things that we like to do. So it's usually like during the day or during the working hours we can sit it all in.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yeah, but it provides the freedom. Like he said, we've got two kids, two teenagers, right? And like they have a lot going on. So it does while we may talk about it at 8 p.m. at night, it's because we were off for an hour in the middle of the day because we had to do carpool or something, right? So like it's it kind of like it blurs the lines of normal timeline of work because it's all encompassing, but it gives us that freedom to like do what we need to do and be there for our kids.

Details, Cleanliness, And Trust Signals

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Well, I think it comes down to like in any business partnership, quite frankly, it's like knowing what each other's strengths are, respecting those strengths. And then, for example, like with my business partner, if it's nine o'clock at night and I'm like, oh my gosh, I have this thing I need to talk to him about, I know that he's gonna pick up the phone, right? Because I'm not always calling him at nine o'clock at night, but I will tell you at 8 30 the next morning, there are like a string of flacks that go out from my account. Like, because at night, when I'm thinking about it, I just schedule them all out because a lot of these things aren't urgent. Like I don't I don't need to be solved tonight, but if I don't get it out of my mind, then I'm like gonna be awake, right, all night. So I think it's amazing how uh you all have done that and taken this journey together from the very beginning. And when you look at one of the things that is, I think, exceptional about Dillas is uh the guest experience. And so, like what is your philosophy on the guest experience? Why is it so critical? Why have you invested so much into it? And uh even beyond just like the yeah, you've invested in tools, but you've also invested in your team, you've invested in training, like your operations mindset to build a consistent brand is just uh I mean, you are in the top 1% of 1% of restaurants out there doing that and caring about that. So I'd love to hear your philosophy on the guest experience.

Feedback Loops With Ovation

SPEAKER_03 14:28

I'll let Maggie kind of go to the community side, the proven process side, because even though I'm a visionary, my feet have always been in the ground operationally. So when it came time to build the company, that's where I had the most like confidence. And so we were really focused on being able to have it be repeatable. And I think that where we've come to of Dillos in 2026 is like having a really consistent experience, right? And I think that we've made very strategic decisions on eliminating things on behalf of the customer, right? So, like if we eliminate this, like it could be going cashless, it could be changing a product, it could be implementing some piece of AI or a new tool or whatever. Okay, does that allow more time on the floor to just execute in a more meaningful way for the customer? Because as much as I would love to say that they're there for our team first in terms of service, I don't think that's the case. I think that they want their food hot, fresh, flavorful, and then fast. In that order is how we try to do it. So we never sacrifice quality for speed, but speed is a component of a quality experience. That's really like kind of how we've approached it, an operations first mindset. I think that you would hear that from a lot of operators, like marketing, like operations is your number one marketing tool. And so we've said, okay, like, man, it needs to be hot, it needs to be, we need to be able to get it off the line, into the bag, properly labeled, give them what they want, right? Because if they didn't get a smile that day, they're at least gonna get what they came for. And I can't control people and make them smile, but what we can control is the process and kind of the product that they came for. And I need to hit on that all the time. And then the other things I know that are people involved, I'm not always gonna hit on. So that's well, what we're really the foundation of it all.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yeah, what's built into our training? I mean, it's one of our three brand promises, the unique experience. And we do have like a proven process of this like six-step experience for customers. And I would say the two most critical things are the warm greeting and welcome when they walk in the door. Like, not everyone does that anymore, you know, eye contact, right? Right? That's not everyone's. I might like brisket, you might want patch green chilies, right? So, like it's about educating them and making it valuable to them while they're within our four walls, or even through the drive-thru, right? Like, you can still create a special experience in the drive-thru and like a warm exit when they leave. Bye, thanks for coming. Like, it's just about engaging with the customers, and that's something that we have to really train nowadays, you know, like young people coming into the workforce, they're by nature a little bit more reserved and not as interactive on a person-to-person basis. So we really strive to get them out of their shell and be very personable to make that a really unique experience.

Accountability, Reputation, And Closing

SPEAKER_03 17:39

And one of the pieces that she kind of went over quickly that is really important into that whole thing is we call it details, details, details. So when you walk into a restaurant, there is a distinct difference in my mind, right, between one that has a great vibe and one that is an average location, right? Am I gonna name it? You've read QSR magazine enough to see that like there's some brands right now that are declining. And you walk in there and you're like, man, this is kind of tired. Like, nobody really feels like they want to be here. There's a straw wrapper under the self-serve. That to me, when I walk into a restaurant, details, details, details to me is a Terminator mindset. I don't know if you've seen the movie Terminator or Terminator 2, but like Arnold, when he looks, he's like constantly scanning up and down, looking for little things. Uh yeah, like that he's really identifying. He doesn't have a band. You're kind of like eye-blind down and eye blind up. It's the full picture, right? So, what does the AC feel like? Is there a straw wrapper? Is there something that's not properly picked up over here? Is there crumbs on this? Dust on the corners, is there a cobweb up high? Really trying to get our ship leaders and our operators at the location to really feel that kind of 360-degree experience before the customer walks in the door. So, like when they do, they're like, Yeah, I don't know what it was about Phillas, but like it's just a little bit better, right? Let's go there instead of X because we're literally on that razor's edge of margin on that decision because we don't have the power to market, like raising cane, Floodaburger, In N Out, or Chick-fil-A. So we have to win on experience and it really coaching that into the team as we earn ourselves into some of those better marketing experiences. Um, that's what we've got to do.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Someone told me one time that they said, don't walk by problems. Because how often is it like, I'm sure that there is a toy on my stairs right now that was waiting to go up to the playroom and I walked over it on the way down the stairs and on the way back up the stairs to get a drink and on the way back down the stairs, right? Yeah. But it's like that concept in your business of like not walking over problems. And back in my early days of advertising, there was a mantra that my company always said, which was everything communicates. Everything. Everything. And so if I see that rapper, or like I went to a restaurant who, by the way, like six months later, this whole entire region of this restaurant went bankrupt. But like I went to this restaurant and I looked on the floor and it literally was like on the corner was caked with dirt. And I was like, I will never come back here. Even if the whole surface of the restaurant was clean, the cake on the dirt in the bottom corner, because we've all worked in restaurants, and what do people always say? They say, after working there and seeing what goes on in the kitchen, I'm not gonna eat there again, right? But those little details of seeing that dirty corner or seeing that wrapper, it says something about what is happening. If this is happening in front of the counter, what's happening behind the counter, right?

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Yeah, or we're in the trust business. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

So take pride in it and like treat it like it's your own. Like we all have, we're all in it together. And so like that pride piece is where I think to Kyle's point, some of that like looking at those details and wanting to put your best foot forward, another life lesson like try to teach.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

But the trust the trust is a big one, you know, and like we're just trying to earn trust through images, earn trust through operations. And when somebody is feeding you something, there is a surrender moment. There is a shit, like, all right, here we go. You know, like I hope it's good. Am I gonna get listeria? Yeah, right, like because it it's not, you know, like it would be rare uh for that instance, right? For somebody to get sick, but like you gotta take it really seriously, and that's why in almost every city it's like very highly regulated, right? Like you gotta wear gloves and you gotta have these cleaning audits, you gotta have these health inspections, and you gotta have hot water, and you gotta have Cooling and all that. So the customer comes in and they are like giving their trust to you. Hey, I'm trusting your product to nourish my body today. Can we agree on that, right? And the things that you're talking about are a little red flag, ding ding, ding, that are like, eh, maybe I shouldn't trust them. And their website does kind of suck. Oh, they didn't update that link. All those things speak. And I think that that's a great point that you made.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

And the other thing about trust is, especially being married, you understand this. In Russian, there's this expression, because I think you guys know I lived in Ukraine for two years, learned Russian, and they have this beautiful expression, which is katilas kak luce no poluchilas kaktigda, which means I wanted to do something better, but it turned out like it always does. And I feel like that's such a good thing for marriages, because like, for example, I may try to bake some cookies and it ends up they get burnt and the whole house smells bad. And now it's like I tried something nice and it turned out terrible, and I'm sorry. So anyway, that was like one of the very first Russian expressions I taught my wife because I think it just is so beautiful. But I think that part of that trust isn't just getting it right, but it's making it right when you get it wrong. And I know that you all have done such an incredible job of building a fan base with ovation. And so I just love to hear how has ovation has been helpful for you? And yeah, what are your thoughts on ovation?

SPEAKER_03 23:22

Yeah, kick that off, Maggie. We're using a lot of different ways, but I'll let Maggie go.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Yeah, I I mean, to your point, it's about like maintaining that trust. So giving the customer an outlet to feel like they can express their love or not love, lack of love for the experience, right? But they know that they're gonna get a response really quick. And I think that's like the response time is critical when any of these experiences to catch it, fix it, make it right. Um, and our operators, it ovation makes it so easy for them. Like just having the app and it's like texting back and forth with the customer, it's easy communication that they're comfortable with. I mean, we all would love for customers to come up and talk to us at the store, but like Kyle said, 85% of our business is outside of our four walls. So that's the way they can channel us and get their word over to us. And so I think that the technology side of it makes it so easy and reportable and like we love the leaderboard. It gives a little bit of that gamification, if you will, for our operators to kind of like want to be at the top with the lowest amount of bad faith, right? And the highest response rate, but ultimately it makes their job easy to take care of.

SPEAKER_03 24:37

Yeah, and I'll I'll give a couple of high-level strategic compliments to Obation. I think that one thing in 2025 that we wanted to get better at was the consistency of the experience. And without the accuracy insights and without some of the other food or service insights um that we really needed to look at, we wouldn't have been able to make good decisions on that. I think that we got around 15,000 surveys in those 11 months that we kind of looked back at, right? And we're like, that's a good data set. We're really getting a lot of generation of these reviews. And to be able to have something that can help you steer your business strategically and not just be kind of, oh yeah, we need to collect customer feedback, we gotta have a resource there. Um and then it's gonna be a mystery shop type of thing where the the GMs hate it and aren't gonna pay attention to it. Like it's really something that we can leverage uh to help improve the business and ultimately improve the customer's experience. Because there's an everybody on this thing will have to go look up this little speech, but uh uh Steve Jobs gave a great speech on start with the customer experience and then work your way back. Yeah, right? Or don't build a feature-rich thing and then hope customers will come buy it. Design it around what your customer wants. And they were telling us through feedback, we want freaking accuracy. You're messing up on like giving me the sauce or or making sure that this modification is being properly done. So being able to leverage that and steer things in the right direction was really big. And then I also to kind of echo Maggie's point, like the glass box of it is really great because it does we use it in every like I do a video every month and I call out what's called the core values award, delivering the goods is our mission, and then under that is our core values go through good people, good times working hard and keeping it clean. So all of that stuff is captured through ovation feedback. So whoever's the highest gets called out, right? And they get the core value award for that period. It's usually the operator that is high on satisfaction, great on response time, all those things. And then also to the right of that, which I love, is that if you're doing great, it is a direct, tangible increase to your Google.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Yeah. That's what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

Yeah, and so that funnel has increased our Google and your online reputation is for a small brand like us, an emerging 11-unit brand, like your digital reputation is like probably 90% of like our word of mouth, other than people that's talking about it. So you have to be good there in that at table set.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

Well, and like, I mean, you know, we talked about it with feedback, like the velocity and the amount of reviews you get is so important in the algorithm, right? And so being able to funnel people in just automatically into those reviews when they have a great experience. But I also outside of just funneling them into adding a Google review, I think that our operators do a really great job of like commenting back when they even get a good comment. They like engaging with the customer and like, thank you so much, glad to hear you had a great experience today. That otherwise they might not have heard. So I think it does give them positive momentum as well and energy to take back to their teams when it's they're getting great feedback as well.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

It's cool to have a customer-view platform that can also be a marketing platform when every penny counts. We can't afford crazy things that some of the bigger brands can. So when you can make something be kind of a, I don't know, force multiplier, like I don't really know how to describe it. Um, but you're like, oh wow, we can extract a little bit more value out of that in two different ways that serve two different departments, then that kind of like really helps check the loss.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

I love that. I appreciate that. Because I think that the one thing that I think, as I was talking about, that you do so well is not just the measurement of it, but the accountability of it, right? It's not just about making it right. It's not just about setting systems up to fix the root problem. It's about having the accountability that those systems are being enacted to make sure you don't have that problem in the first place. And I think you do such a good job of all three of those phases. And I think that's why your in-laws were lucky to get it on the ground floor. And I think there's gonna be a podcast 20 years from now of someone being like, wait, you worked at Dillas when they were like three locations. And I think that's really exciting and um grateful to have you all as thought partners and not just people that use ovation, but people that help share your feedback to make it better because secrets out, we like feedback. So I think that you've been very helpful and great thought partners over the years. So thank you so much for all that you do. And I know we're over time here, but just love chatting with you guys, whether or not it's recorded. I guess final question is how do people find and follow you guys?

SPEAKER_03 29:31

Yeah, easy. I mean, dills.com, go to the website, check it out on there. We're on everything else, Instagram. Maggie and I both have our own handles, Kyle Gordon and Maggie Gordon on LinkedIn. Um, we love connecting with other restaurant industry people.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

So if you're in DFW ever, we're in the northern burbs for the most part. So happy to host anyone that wants to come visit us.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Come grab a quesadilla. Awesome. Well, Kyle and Maggie for caring about the guests and making it okay to put the L back in Casadilla's. Today's ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us on give it ovation.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Thank you. Thanks for joining us today. If you like this episode, leave us a review on Apple Side.