Peter Newlin [00:00:00]:

I do think, like, there's a tremendous backlog and there's a lot of ideas for great tech that's going to, you know, support the restaurant industry. And I do think this, you know, no code, you know, whatever you want to call it, but AI tools are going to drast. I don't think there's going to be smaller teams. I just think the ice box of all of these tech companies is going to speed up, and we're going to get a lot of deployed tech in the next two to three years.

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Angelo Esposito [00:00:36]:

Welcome to another episode of WISKing It All. We're joined today by Pete Newland, chief Vision Officer and co founder of Gastamo Group. Thanks for joining us, Pete.

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Peter Newlin [00:00:47]:

Yeah, Angelo, thank you so much for having me on the show. Excited to be here? Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:00:52]:

Excited to have you. I mean, I know you have a wealth of experience in the hospitality space, so we're going to get into the different concepts within Gastamo Group and everything you're doing but one area. If you've listened to the podcast, my listeners are used to me saying this, but I always like understanding how people got to where they are. So I'd love to know about your career path and, you know, what drew you to the hospitality industry in the first place.

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Peter Newlin [00:01:15]:

The hospitality industry is interesting, and it grabs people from all over, right. And I was just kind of one of those lost souls trying to figure out what the heck I was supposed to do with my life. And hospitality grabbed me in, and here I am 15, 16 years later. I grew up in Augusta, Georgia. My dad was a pastor. I went to school in Charleston, South Carolina. Still, really, really no clue what I wanted to do, but I loved being around people. Did a business degree there.

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Peter Newlin [00:01:42]:

It was the heart of the Great Recession. Had no clue what I wanted to do still, but I knew I was pretty in love with this thing called skiing. And I also was an avid whitewater kayaker. So I was like, well, I'll fool everybody. I'll go get an MBA and. And then I'll ski 100 days during the same year. So I gu. Got an mba.

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Peter Newlin [00:02:02]:

Still no clue what I wanted to do. I thought I wanted to be in the outdoor industry, ski industry. I was really influenced by other people who had a clear path. And I was like, well, if they feel so, you know, committed to this path, then maybe I should be that committed to their path. And I think we. We all follow others and different aspects of our lives, and I think that's good in a lot of ways. But, you know, thought I Wanted to be in the outdoor industry. And then I was biking home one day at the time, really hadn't spent a lot of time in restaurants.

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Peter Newlin [00:02:31]:

And I biked past this 40 seat burger restaurant that had just opened in Platte park called Park Burger. And I remember sitting at the bar and it was really the first time I'd ever experienced hospitality. I sat at the bar, I saw all these people having fun and it could have been in the best restaurant in the world and it would have been irrelevant. I just felt joy. I had understood the concept of sequence of service, operational flow, operational excellence, throughput, all the things that make a P and L function. But I don't necessarily before that I definitely had never felt the magic of space. And that was really where I just, that became an obsession of my life, of like, man, you can genuinely make people's lives better through the power of hospitality and the power of moments. And these small, simple interactions can have a profound impact.

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Peter Newlin [00:03:24]:

So I ended up applying at this 40C burger restaurant the next day, Park Burger and kind of the rest was history. I don't cook, you know, I think I was joking with my wife and I think I've like literally in our, you know, five years of marriage, six years of marriage, I think I've cooked like literally five times and they're all like avocado, cheese, you know, it's the everything seasoning that's the key to my key.

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Angelo Esposito [00:03:47]:

I love that.

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Peter Newlin [00:03:49]:

But I quickly fell in love with just the idea of just walking the dining room floor, touching tables, bringing joy, seeing smiles, opening doors, you know, just transforming guest experiences. And then that led to a love of interior design, experiential design. And I've had the same partnership for the entire run. Jean Philippe, who started the company, he's really focused on the menu and the culinary vision of the company. And then I've really fell in love with like, what's the experience, what's the concept creation, what's the, you know, the layout of the space, how are we really transforming guests, guest experiences? And you know, so what started out serving tables at a 40 seat burger restaurant led to, you know, kind of director of operations at three restaurants, then it kind of led to a partner at 4 and to where we are today, where I really spend a lot of my day, you know, focusing on kind of growth opportunities for the company, real estate strategy and then the overall concept creation. What's the brand story, what are we trying to tell and then how do we learn endless details to increase the value proposition to the guests? And so really the focus now for Gastamo is experiential dining. We really don't want to be a group that competes on function.

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Angelo Esposito [00:05:08]:

If.

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Peter Newlin [00:05:09]:

If you're saying Gastamo's got to compete on price and convenience, well, that's not going to be us. But we do want to compete where. If it's, you know, kind of removing you from your day to day. Unbelievable design. Farm fresh foods and just the levels of sequence of service that make it truly special. So that's exciting. That's kind of the direction. And there were a lot of different things that happened during the last 15 years.

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Peter Newlin [00:05:32]:

We started a concept called Bird Call, built a proprietary tech stack that was really inspired by brands that kind of showed the path in automation, like eatsa. We opened restaurants in the Middle east that was a wild experience. Watched music festivals and just have had an incredible ride. But I always say, like restaurant groups that get past the 1 to 2 to 3 store, it's pure luck from 3 to 5 or 3 to 6. And then it's like if you're able to survive past, then hopefully you've had enough painful lessons where you can actually start growing in a. In a prudent way. So hopefully we've made a lot of those big mistakes and always love kind of thinking back on it because the humility is the most important kind of.

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Angelo Esposito [00:06:17]:

Thing when it comes to being, you.

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Peter Newlin [00:06:19]:

Know, in the restaurant industry.

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Angelo Esposito [00:06:20]:

Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Wow. Well, we'll definitely dive into more. I mean, one thing that comes to mind is like, for you, were there any defining moments or maybe even like mentors that kind of shaped that journey to, you know, co founding Gastamo Group.

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Peter Newlin [00:06:37]:

You know, Philippe was always, you know, always just a great role model within the organization because I didn't know the business coming into it. And you know, what I love about the hospitality industry is, you know, for the first three, four years when we worked together, we really kept our head down, we focused looking inside the business. And then, I don't know, I think it was when I looked at Snooze, an incredible organization that was built in Denver, and I looked at John and Adam Schlegel and, you know, they were opening, you know, they would open up about how they built snooze and different lessons learned. And I think that was the first time I really realized it's such a supportive community and, you know, people will share anything if you ask and you're willing to listen and you're willing to share back. That was then what inspired just Just this thirst for knowledge. And any restaurateur, any executive who wanted to share anything, you know, we were going to be there to listen. And, you know, that that still continues to this day. And, you know, I think what's shifted in the last couple years is, you know, early on, you know, that mentorship was primarily driven by established restaurant operators.

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Peter Newlin [00:07:45]:

And now it's like the thing about restaurants is like this. The skills needed to be successful, the wide breadth of skills needed to be successful is so wide that like, there's more than just restaurants. There's real estate strategy, there's marketing, there's, you know, there's. How do you drive a good P and L? Operational success, leadership. I mean, it's just endless. So, yeah, and we're actually trying to build a real estate company. We're trying to purchase all the real estate. So the last couple years I've really looked for mentorship and developers and, you know, how do you underwrite a building? How do we make sure that this sets our team up for success, our partners up for success? Because early on, when you're first starting the restaurant group, there's no underwriting, there's no, you know, pro forma.

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Angelo Esposito [00:08:28]:

It's kind of like, hey, there's an.

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Peter Newlin [00:08:29]:

Empty space and I think I've got 200k in the bank if, you know, and. Or I can strum up 200k through all these different friends and family and let's give it a shot.

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Angelo Esposito [00:08:38]:

And now it's easier.

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Peter Newlin [00:08:39]:

You know, what I'm really excited about and you know, is just how tools like chat, GP perplexity and all of these LLMs are going to allow new entrants to get into the market with a lot more confidence on their investment, right?

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Angelo Esposito [00:08:54]:

Yeah, yeah, big time. It's funny you mentioned all the different kind of facets of running that business. It's always something that personally has attracted me and, and given me like this sense of awe to restauranters or four restauranters. Because it's like, I always joke around that as like, entrepreneurship in general is hard. Like, building WISK is hard. It's been 10 years. It's hard. There's ups and downs.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:13]:

Like, I get it, but I feel like restaurants are like the entrepreneurs of entrepreneurs because, like, within those four walls there's so many things, and you alluded to it, but there's like marketing and real estate and legal and ops and hiring and leadership. And so you kind of have like, you know, the MBA of MBAs, because you're doing like, everything possible in A restaurant which is kind of really, really cool, but also, like, just, yeah, really fascinating.

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Peter Newlin [00:09:36]:

I think that's where a lot of. A lot of us go sideways. And I mean, frankly, it wasn't even until this past year where I had support from a coach who was like, what the hell are you doing? You're keeping yourself extremely busy. You have. You're doing things in your day, but you're not necessarily productive. And I think restaurant people are very, very good at staying busy. I think we're notoriously bad at being productive. And, like, what's actually driving a difference? What's actually making a meaningful impact? And because the fun thing about restaurants is, like, there's always going to be something fun to work on.

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Peter Newlin [00:10:13]:

But.

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Angelo Esposito [00:10:13]:

Yes. Yeah.

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Peter Newlin [00:10:14]:

What's fun to work on may not necessarily be what you need to work on.

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Angelo Esposito [00:10:17]:

Right, right. I move the needle. Yeah. No, it makes sense. It makes sense. And it's a book I read not too long ago was great. It was Buy Back youk Time by Dan Martell. And it's for any business entrepreneur, but really one of the concepts he talks about is auditing, like two weeks of your life.

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Angelo Esposito [00:10:33]:

So, like, just for two weeks, let's say starting today, you write down 15 minute intervals what you're doing, and then you classify them in two ways. One is just green or red. Like, does this give me energy and I like it or do I hate it? And then the other column is just like dollar signs, 1, 2, 3, $4 signs. So, like, is this moving the needle? And, like, this is important for my business or is it something that just keeps me busy? And then based on that kind of like patterns of green and red, whatever, you start fixing things. So if it's red and it's not bringing money, get rid of it. It's taking your energy and it's not the business. If it's green and it's a lot of money, keep doubling down on those. And then the in between, there's like, steps on how to handle it.

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Angelo Esposito [00:11:06]:

But you're. You're right. So it made me think of that when you're like, kind of auditing your time because you're right. A lot of people, not just restaurateurs, are good at being busy and being in meetings. But it's like, take a step back and okay, what actions are actually moving the needle in terms of my, you know, important KPIs, let's say.

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Peter Newlin [00:11:24]:

Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:11:25]:

And no matter how much you prioritize.

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Peter Newlin [00:11:27]:

Your day, like, I still fight with, like, I'm just going to Go to whatever's the easiest, whatever's the most fun. But I think I heard a quote the other or I was reading what it means to be a CEO and this quote kind of stuck out with me. And it's like we deliver in the short term, we invest and plan for the midterm and we make experiential bets for the long term. And I think like early in my career I was just like, I was like, let's just. It was all about these crazy experiential experimental bets and I don't think any of them worked out. And what has worked is like the slow, steady investment in the day, the customer experience, the that, that particular burger or whatever it is. But it's so easy to get sidetracked.

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Angelo Esposito [00:12:09]:

I hear you, I hear you. And looking back, what advice would you give your younger self? Right? Like you were starting on this field. We have a lot of restaurant operators listening in. Any advice to two younger Pete?

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Peter Newlin [00:12:19]:

I think I'm an overly optimistic person. So like I genuinely don't believe anything would work. You know, kind of can see a path through anything. But I think patience and focus would be the two biggest things. I mean early in the career it was like, is this going to be, you know, I'd always have this fear. I was like, is this my last good idea? Is this the last, is this the last opportunity we're going to have? Is this the only shot that they're going to get? You know, and ultimately, as you know with Wisk, if you focus on the day to day, if you build slow, you're building something with such a great foundation that you're going to have the flexibility to do whatever you want. Now if you build quickly and, and you sacrifice, you know, in different layers and then ultimately you're going to have a lot less flexibility and frankly you might not even be in control. So I think for me it took 15 years of mistakes to be like, let's grow slow.

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Peter Newlin [00:13:12]:

Let's be extremely intentional. And if we don't have an opportunity tomorrow, that's okay. Let's then just focus on optimizing what we've been blessed to have and then more opportunities are going to create down the mind. But I mean it kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier of like, I've always been super busy but I don't necessarily been productive. And if I keep myself super busy, then I'm distracting a tremendous amount of people, right? So sending people on these crazy one off missions, right, Doing nothing. But I think patience is the Biggest one. I mean, early, early in the career, an executive at Whole Foods, you know, told me to watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi, where it's all about this sushi master in Japan who has an eight seat sushi bar. And he was like, I don't necessarily care about having 100 restaurants.

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Peter Newlin [00:13:58]:

I care about having the best restaurant. I think he was trying to tell me something then. And I think I still need to hear that lesson today.

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Angelo Esposito [00:14:06]:

That's awesome. And kind of shifting gears to jump a bit more into, you know, Gastamo’s group concepts and ops. I'd love to maybe start off with some of the concepts. So for people who don't know, can you talk about maybe some of the concepts within the group and then we'll get more into it, but maybe let's just start with the actual concepts.

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Peter Newlin [00:14:25]:

Yeah. So we started in the gourmet burger business with a brand called Park Burger. Kind of mid century vibes, the old retro diner. That led to a brand called Homegrown Tapendo, which is kind of. It's really inspired by nice 1970s ski culture. You know, I always loved it. In my head I've got this picture of, you know, is homegrown when you know, the ski bunny or the skier met the cowboy or cowgirl. And is it like this romance and emerging of these amazing cultures.

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Peter Newlin [00:14:58]:

And I still wear like western belt buckles because I just got such a love of just like, just what was this vibe like? And you know, I think what's so fun with restaurants is like make. Create a story like what is. There's more than just the food. There's. There's so much more to the why behind why we're building these restaurants. So homegrown Tap into is pretty special, but that's Italian. Great pizzas, fresh made pastas, great beer selection. Then we have a brand called Perdita Kitchen Baja.

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Peter Newlin [00:15:30]:

Coastal Perdida means lost. It's really the idea of we're all on these personal journeys looking to find ourselves, but what we find is the journey is the destination. We find community, love, friendship. And so Perdita is really designed to transport you to Baja to be this, this little vacation. We have a taco bar called Lady Namata. We're in preparation to do our first, you know, larger footprint event venue steakhouse. We have an urban tavern called park and Company. And then my partner and I also started a brand called Bird Call that's under great leadership now, which is a fast casual concept.

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Peter Newlin [00:16:06]:

So.

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Angelo Esposito [00:16:06]:

Okay. Yeah, and that's. Those are like chicken sandwiches. If I remember correctly. Right. Okay, yeah, that's really cool.

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Peter Newlin [00:16:12]:

But the folk. The focus for us right now is at Costamo is just the next gen of casual dining in suburban America. I mean, you know, so many things happened during COVID but one of them was a mass migration from urban cores and left this really great opportunity to kind of not necessarily bring the next gen, but just really take some of the things that have been done at the best restaurants in the world and apply them to more traditional dining.

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Angelo Esposito [00:16:39]:

And yeah, you've seen kind of this return post Covid of like people, you know, leaving dense cities and maybe living more, more in, you know, rural, ish areas, you know, still cities, but just a bit more rural. And it's been interesting to see like the restaurant scenes in those places is kind of like get a. Get a. Get a. Get a second chance. Not a second chance, but get a. Get a different wave of events, I would say. Which brings me to actually one of my questions.

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Angelo Esposito [00:17:05]:

I wanted to know on your end, how do you kind of approach building these restaurant brands? Because obviously on one hand they're all unique in some way, but also keeping them or finding a way to kind of connect them to the community you're building in, how do you balance that, how do you think through that with so many different, you know, brands?

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Angelo Esposito [00:17:26]:

I mean, in the end of the.

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Peter Newlin [00:17:27]:

Day, it's about having a world class team and great partners.

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Angelo Esposito [00:17:30]:

Right.

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Peter Newlin [00:17:30]:

That allows you to scale while keeping things that are core to your belief system in check. But I think like, you know, one of my favorite lessons early on was we built a restaurant in art district, the River North Arts district in Denver. Young never really built a restaurant before. I had designed Freedom and I put a bunch of jerseys up because I was like, it's a sports town, like TVs and jerseys. It's going to be a hit. But this was in the heart of an art district. I didn't connect with the community. I didn't, you know, there were so many mistakes.

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Peter Newlin [00:18:04]:

And the biggest takeaway was, I mean, there was a Instagram campaign and it was like, get the bros out of Rhino. And ultimately it was painful at the time, but it was kind of one of the best lessons. It's like, if you're not building a restaurant to enlighten the community, it has a privilege to serve, who are you building it for? And, you know, so that led to going to neighborhood meetings, you know, asking questions involving the community in the design process, you know, going to all the other restaurants in the neighborhood, seeing if There was a gap or if there was a way to layer in something special and that's cool. That led to working with different designers. And now every restaurant we have has exterior art and public, you know, community facing art that, you know, murals on the building. And so it's this huge evolution that just started with like, dude, what do people, what are people actually looking for? And are you bringing more of the same thing or you are bringing something that will complement the neighborhood? And right now, yeah, we're a multi concept group but a lot of the folks focus is really growing on this brand called Homegrown Tap and O. And we're really targeting second gen restaurants in a somewhat distressed position that we can come in and kind of potentially reuse some of the core, get some of the infrastructure, and then put a ton of unique design details into the, you know, the front of house experience. And so each one of these restaurants is completely unique.

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Peter Newlin [00:19:31]:

You know, at some point maybe we'll be at a scale to where you've got to bring some common threads from each project. But if you're only building two to three restaurants a year, you have more than enough time to design that restaurant specifically for that neighborhood. Make sure the artwork is truly special, you know, make sure that menu is tweaked to facilitate. Whether it be the price point or the taste or whatever it is, you have the time. Make sure you're listening there. The other thing, last thing, Angela. What I love so much about these restaurants is, you know, they're living breathing brands. So when you open the doors, what happened in that where we opened with the jerseys on the wall? Well, we sure as heck didn't leave those jerseys up, right? The jerseys came down, local art went up, murals went up.

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Peter Newlin [00:20:24]:

We started a music festival, like so cool. It evolves. So what? However you come out of the gates of these restaurants, I think that's less critical than how does your restaurant form to the community. Because once you're open, then you actually have the customer.

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Angelo Esposito [00:20:39]:

Right.

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Peter Newlin [00:20:40]:

Feedback, guest feedback. It's a question of are you listening to it and are you responding to it? And if you're listening to, you're responding to it. If you were thoughtful about your real estate strategy, if you were thoughtful about, you know, customer demand and market gaps, then, you know, you don't see restaurants fail too often. It's. If you are like stubborn and like, no, no, I know the answers.

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Angelo Esposito [00:21:02]:

You know, that's so interesting. It's so interesting hearing you say all these things. It's, it's funny how it Translates to business in general. Like Wisk has the same philosophies like listen to the customer, don't build in a silo, build for the customer, solve their problems, listen to them. Same thing with the feedback loop. Right. You mentioned, but it's exactly that. It's not when you launch the product, it's the feedback and how fast you can reiterate based on real people being like oh wait, this sucks or this is really cool and like navigate.

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Angelo Esposito [00:21:29]:

And it's really cool to hear you speak the exact same language but with a real life brick and mortar store and having that feedback loop. Get listening, which is a key one. So to our restaurant listeners, that's great advice. Listen to your customers, they're the ones coming in. So being able to digest and take in their feedback, for better or for worse, I think is crucial. Really, really cool. So I'd love to know, I think right now, if I'm not mistaken, correct me, but most of your locations are all geographically in the same area, give or take. Is it all in Denver?

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Angelo Esposito [00:22:02]:

Yeah. And I think for us, I mean that's been one of the best lessons, right. If you look at these brands that have been built over generations, right. They have such a critical mass in their home markets before they even consider to grow. And you know, some of the, some of the most wise advice I've been.

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Peter Newlin [00:22:19]:

Told is like you can always grow.

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Angelo Esposito [00:22:21]:

5 to 10x in your home market than in what you actually believe. So if you think you can have five restaurants in your home state, well, you probably could have 25 to 50 restaurants within.

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Peter Newlin [00:22:31]:

That's right.

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Angelo Esposito [00:22:33]:

Especially if you're a multi concept operator. And for us, you know, there's so many competitive advantages by operating in your home market.

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Peter Newlin [00:22:43]:

Right.

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Angelo Esposito [00:22:44]:

You know, first and foremost, right. You actually have a better understanding of the real estate. Right.

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Peter Newlin [00:22:49]:

You all know you can go to.

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Angelo Esposito [00:22:51]:

A new market, people will say it's great intersection, right. X, Y or Z, all the data.

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Peter Newlin [00:22:57]:

To back it up.

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Angelo Esposito [00:22:57]:

But for some reason it's just not in people's travel patterns or they don't tend to stop or what it may be. But in your home market it's like you dine in these areas, you know who's successful, you know, where people have.

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Peter Newlin [00:23:09]:

Missed the gut behind making a decision.

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Angelo Esposito [00:23:12]:

Of this scale is just so much better. Especially when you talk about building a restaurant of this like level of quality. I mean these are every bit of two and a half to four million dollar renovations, not to mention the real estate acquisition. So you just don't have the luxury to miss.

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Angelo Esposito [00:23:30]:

Right? Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:23:31]:

So I think first and foremost, it's like, you know, the intersection, you know it'll be successful. And that's not to mention you probably have first looked at different sites because you've built a brand reputation. So not only do you know the intersection, but you might actually have a first look on a piece of property. On top of that, the operational success that exists within home market, now you're able to keep an eye on them. And if you've got to jump a plane to check on a restaurant, because ultimately it's up to whatever the owner is or the ownership team to make sure that, like, hey, does this have the tools to be successful? Are these people being set up to be successful? You know, when I actually hear about markets that are challenged best in class, operators pick up and they move to that market until that market's in a better shape. So for us, it's like we've got five to 10 years of very, very focused growth in the state of Colorado before we actually even have to consider leaving. The other thing that I think is interesting, especially as you start to consider next gen casual dining, is I believe, in this idea of the regional fortress. And I don't necessarily know if this is true.

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Angelo Esposito [00:24:37]:

I don't know if anybody's ever going to act on this, but one thought I had is because of everything that was just outlined as far as the reasons for growing in your home market operational, better clarity. Not to mention you prob. Have relationships from a GC general contractual perspective, millwork. So and so. Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:24:55]:

So for.

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Angelo Esposito [00:24:56]:

So the costs are going to be less and you're going to be more bullish on the actual location. So if that's the case and then operationally you're set up to be successful, what's to keep, you know, long term? Is the idea that new chains are going to be the same chain stamped.

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Peter Newlin [00:25:12]:

Out across the country?

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Angelo Esposito [00:25:14]:

Or is there a play where someone might say, hey, I'm going to acquire Pete's taco bar in Atlanta and Pete's, you know, Mexican restaurant in Denver. Allow them to have their own brand identity, but then, you know, bring the whole back office up and maybe you consolidate menu items, maybe you consolidate leadership strategies or what may, whatever it may be, but you keep the brand identities unique because no one's going to know if, you know, Pete's restaurant in Elena has the same menu as Pete's restaurant in Denver. What they'll know is they're, you know, they're owned or operated by someone who.

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Peter Newlin [00:25:51]:

Has Been in that community for a.

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Angelo Esposito [00:25:53]:

Long period of time. So I tend to believe in this idea of like, could the next gen of casual dining be different brands rolled up across the country under different, you know, celebrity chefs or whatever, whatever it may be, because it's just so much easier to grow within your home market. So I think, especially post Covid, where, you know, we talked about it prior to the call. Post Covid, it's focused on profitability in these groups. I do think you're going to see less movement out of home markets, you know, because we're going to go back to what Chick Fil a did, what Zaxby did. You know, what does Zaxby's have in the southeast? 8, 900 restaurants, right? I don't know.

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Peter Newlin [00:26:29]:

Like, nobody even knows Zaxby's in Colorado. And that's okay.

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Angelo Esposito [00:26:32]:

Yeah, I think there's a. If you always look back at history, you tend to learn that, you know, speed may not be the answer. And people are that successful, you know, took their time, built a strong foundation and scaled accordingly.

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Angelo Esposito [00:26:46]:

Yeah, no, well said. That's some really good insight. Thanks for sharing that. And you know, I always like to get people who have a ton of experience, like yourselves in the, in the hospitality space to get some perspective on maybe some industry trends. So I know it's a bit of a loaded question, but as the restaurant world is always evolving, I'd love to know what are some maybe trends that you think are going to make the biggest impact or either are going to make the biggest impact or are making the biggest impact right now in the restaurant space, you know, we believe is.

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Angelo Esposito [00:27:15]:

Just this idea of experiential dining. Historically, the quality of a space from an interior perspective, from the sequence of service, was directly tied to the price point of those menu items. And then, you know, some of the stuff that can be done in hospitality, some of it doesn't even have a variable cost associated with it. So I think the biggest trend that you're going to see is that historically, for a better experience, I had to pay more. Does that have to be the case? Can you not have the most beautiful restaurant that also is the most value driven from a price point? So I think number one is you're going to continue to see restaurant groups focus on experiential design. And you can see this, you know, if you look at the next gen Olive Garden, if you go into a new raising canes, like clearly they're prioritizing interior finishes in a way that they didn't previously do. I think that's going to continue to shape the future of dining. I also think you're going to start to see an increased focus on quality over quantity.

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Angelo Esposito [00:28:17]:

I think a lot of the value proposition across dining has been focused on quantity of food. And I think you're going to see a massive shift partly due to some of the new drugs that are coming onto the market, but you're going to see a new renewed focus on like, wait a minute, if I am going to go spend my money, I don't necessarily know if I care about unlimited, you know, salad bar or whatever. I care about having the best of what I do do enjoy. And those price points could be similar. So you saw this, you know, from the 90s to the 2000s, everybody went to like, you know, quantity and frozen and whatever. And I do think you're gonna, you've seen it, right? It's why there's been so successful, such success in local operated organizations is because they're going back to the roots of where these brands were started, which was scratch kitchens, you know, food that is thoughtfully curated. So I think not only is the experience going to get better, I think you're going to see higher quality in these ingredients. Now this is as it relates to more of the casual dining sector.

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Angelo Esposito [00:29:21]:

I love that. And where do you see maybe technology fitting in? I know technology is always evolving so fast and I know, I feel for restaurateurs because they get bombarded with guys like me and all that we don't actually bombard, but there's a lot of tech companies that they can bombard it with and third party apps and loyalty and this and that and pos and there's so much out there that there's a lot of noise. There's obviously some really good stuff. There's a lot of noise. But I'm just curious, how do you see technology kind of evolving in the restaurant space?

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Angelo Esposito [00:29:47]:

Well, it's interesting and I also think there's a lot of pain from restaurants switching platforms so quickly during COVID Right. Because Covid was the, hey, you need this tech to survive. But you know.

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Angelo Esposito [00:29:58]:

Right.

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Angelo Esposito [00:29:59]:

You know, most tech platforms are sold before they're even ready to go to market and they're selling the user on features that don't exist.

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Angelo Esposito [00:30:06]:

Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:30:07]:

So now I do think, like there's a tremendous backlog and there's a lot of ideas for great tech that's going to, you know, support the restaurant industry. And I do think this, you know, no code, you know, whatever you want to call it, but AI tools are going to drast. I don't think there's going to be smaller teams. I just think the ice box of all of these tech companies is going to speed up and we're going to get a lot of deployed tech in the next two to three years. So, you know, I do always urge new operators. I'm like, just wait a little bit before you make a switch. Understand what the roadmap is, show that they actually can commit to delivering to that roadmap. But I think the biggest, you know, what I'm looking forward to is just better integrations between all these different tech solutions.

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Angelo Esposito [00:30:52]:

Historically, single unit restaurants or smaller restaurant chains had been limited to single platforms or to live within a single ecosystem. And like, the better tech stacks were only accessible to these larger chains because they actually had the budget. So I think as tech cost comes down, you know, we're going to be able to integrate these solutions in a much more fluid way and we're going to be getting the data that actually makes a difference in building the business. Because the problem that we have, you know, the problem that frankly, all restaurants have, frankly, I go to Starbucks and get the same drink. And yes, just because I don't use the app, they have no idea it's me. I've literally bought probably thousands of strawberry refreshers.

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Peter Newlin [00:31:32]:

And I'm just, I'm just waiting.

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Angelo Esposito [00:31:34]:

I'm hoping one day I'll walk in and they'll be like, Mr. Nuland, you're going to float away, sir. I can't serve this to you today. But, like, we just don't know across the industry who our guests are. So loyalty is thought of as a function post guest experience. But I don't think that's actually developing brand loyalty or a deep connection to a brand.

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Peter Newlin [00:31:53]:

Right.

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Angelo Esposito [00:31:54]:

Like, we're, we're all creating our individual brands, which is a collection of all the brands that define us. You know, we wear brands that we relate to, we eat at friends that we relate to. And we owe our guests, you know, we owe our guests more and we, if they connect with our brand, we have to connect with them in a deeper way. So I'm really, frankly super stoked about, like, what's the future of loyalty? How do we actually know who our guests are and support them in a way that's individual to their guest experience and solving that problem. I heard it from a friend and someone I look up to. He told me, he goes, if I go to Perdida one more time, and they say, is this your first time visiting? Nothing's worse than you bring your buddy to your local restaurant and you're like.

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Peter Newlin [00:32:39]:

This is my spa.

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Angelo Esposito [00:32:41]:

And they're like, is this your first time in, sir? And you're like, no, trust me, I'm a regular. Yeah, but you make, you know, restaurants are designed to make you feel cool, not for you as the operator to feel cool.

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Peter Newlin [00:32:52]:

Right.

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Angelo Esposito [00:32:52]:

You need to make people feel special. So I'm, so I think what's going to happen in the near term is you're going to see a lot of these ice box. You're going to see a tremendous amount of noise from technology companies, but you're going to also see better paths. And so, and maybe you're going to see some, some mass consolidation that's driven by the fact that. And driven by the fact that if you're not profitable, well, you either got to get gobbled up or say goodbye. Yeah, Right.

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Angelo Esposito [00:33:18]:

Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. No, well said. And to wrap things up, I want to give you a chance to just how can people find you? Plug your website, plug you on LinkedIn, whatever you want to plug. So just a chance, we're going to put it in the notes and it'll be in the link on YouTube and on different podcast platforms. But really just a chance for people to find you.

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Angelo Esposito [00:33:36]:

So, yeah, you know, I'm on LinkedIn. Peter Newland, follow Gastamo Group. Check our website out at www.Gastamogroup.com and if you're ever in Denver, you know, look us up. Peter, at Gastamo Group, you know, we'd love to. We always love connecting with operators from around the country and, and sharing lessons learned.

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Angelo Esposito [00:33:58]:

I love that. Well, once again, Pete Newland joining us from Gastamo Group. Pete, it was a pleasure having you on the show. Wealth of knowledge to be shared with our listeners. So thank you for sharing that.

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Angelo Esposito [00:34:09]:

Ah, pleasure.

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Angelo Esposito [00:34:12]:

If you want to learn more about WISK, head to WISK AI and book a demo.

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