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Bryce Dillinham; Roll Up · Spinning the Light Podcast

0:04
Hello and welcome to two girls in a pod.
0:06
I'm Sharon. I'm Christy and we have a guest
0:08
today. Local business owner and
0:11
entrepreneur Bryce Dillingham. Welcome.
0:13
Thank you. So I was just saying to you,
0:17
you're in the restaurant business, which is not an easy
0:20
any of the food industry I feel is really kind of a difficult
0:23
industry to be in. So let's talk about how is it
0:27
you got into that? The food business, really.
0:30
Before we started any food things, I was doing like a I
0:34
opened my own like junk removal, trash removal service.
0:38
I was doing that and just really tired of it was like all the
0:41
appoint like the phone appointments and you're trying
0:44
to fill your schedule and maximize your money, but one
0:47
little thing goes wrong and your whole day goes wrong.
0:50
And a lot of the things that were going wrong wasn't
0:52
necessarily our fault. It would be we'd pull up to
0:55
someone's house and they forgot we were coming, They were at
0:57
home. Or small delays.
0:58
It was just like really stressing me out and kind of
1:01
lost control of your own. You kind of lose control of your
1:04
own schedule. And then I was like, all right,
1:07
I don't want to do this anymore, really like cooking.
1:10
So we gave that a shot and started off like really slow and
1:13
really small and just kind of built up from it.
1:16
And yeah, yeah. Where did your love of cooking
1:19
come from? Mainly just family, just a lot.
1:21
Anytime you do anything it was like cooking involved.
1:24
So really did that. And then free time is like
1:27
growing up and out of school and stuff was just cooking, reading
1:31
recipes or watching it on TV and stuff.
1:33
So I just thought it would be cool at least to give it a shot
1:36
of selling food for money and then it just kind of started
1:39
growing from there, so. You know, I don't understand
1:41
this. She will not watch cooking
1:43
programs. I love them.
1:45
Yeah, I watch all kinds. And she's there, like.
1:48
Are you gonna make that for me? Well, no, that's kind of.
1:50
Well, then why are you watching it?
1:51
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
1:53
She's. Not.
1:55
But it's kind of fun. Where do you get your ideas or
1:58
inspiration for your? Oh, a lot of like our core
2:01
menus. Just stuff people like eating
2:04
like we do. Like a Taco shop side of the
2:05
menu, like breakfast burritos, bagel sandwiches.
2:08
So we try to just take stuff, people.
2:11
Enjoy eating and they're used to and then kind of making it our
2:14
way or at least adding something to make it kind of unique and a
2:17
reason to come to us instead of anywhere else.
2:20
Cuz a lot of the food we sell, you can essentially get anywhere
2:24
else. It's like about making it yours
2:26
and the brand, yours and. Can you start it out with the
2:29
food truck, right? The first one was a tiny little
2:32
food truck with the fryer, and that's why it's called roll up,
2:35
is we did all just egg rolls. So I like pizza egg rolls, all
2:39
different ones. And then.
2:41
As we grew, we ran into the pains of that is like it's hard
2:44
to roll all those rolls and they look the same when you're trying
2:47
to, when you're busy and you're frying so many things at once.
2:50
It was just a big mess that when you're just starting out and
2:53
trying to the goal is just to sell some food.
2:56
You don't really think all those things through.
2:58
So you just kind of run into issues as you go and fix.
3:01
You can either fix them or not and then I think that's how far
3:05
you go is if you fix them or not so.
3:08
Well, I think sometimes. When you have those things, how
3:11
do you keep yourself from spinning out of control too?
3:14
Because you don't like when you were talking about with your
3:16
trash removal stuff, it starts to get really overwhelming.
3:20
I tend to fall into it for too long.
3:23
You're like, all right, this isn't working.
3:24
Let's keep trying it though and tweak little things.
3:27
And eventually with some stuff you have to just stop it.
3:30
And it's like, this isn't working.
3:31
Let's just stop it. People are going to be mad, but
3:34
they're going to be madder if we just continue with the issue.
3:37
So. It gets to where if it's like
3:39
stressing me or other people out repeatedly and it's the same
3:42
issue, I think that's when it's time to address at least
3:45
something, figure out why so, right?
3:47
So have you had a pretty consistent staff or has that
3:50
been? Hard for you, No.
3:52
It's a when we were such a new business, it was a little
3:55
inconsistent just because, especially with the food trunk
3:58
schedule, you're not open like Monday through Saturday.
4:01
It's it's depending on who books you and what you have going on.
4:05
So some weeks there's a lot of money, some weeks there wasn't.
4:08
And it's also a super laid back environment when you're just a
4:13
food truck. So it's hard to get like really
4:15
even if they are serious, it's hard to like maintain them being
4:18
serious because it's so relaxed. So now as we grow, it's a lot
4:22
easier to lock in staff that they like enjoy cooking more
4:25
than they want to just have a job and then they they want to
4:28
learn with you and you. Yeah.
4:29
So we have some staff that's been there for a year, some are
4:32
pushing two and three years, so. When did you get started with
4:35
the the food truck what you're? 2017 it was like January 2017 is
4:41
one of the I bought the first food truck in like late 2016
4:45
kind of got it licensed and then we started in January so.
4:48
OK. Is that difficult in the winter
4:50
months here because? Yeah, once you've set up and get
4:53
going, it's you really don't notice that It's like winter
4:56
outside, it's just all the stuff that comes with it, like your
4:59
water freezes and just a lot of random issues that mainly the
5:03
water. In food trucks is it's just
5:06
insane and there's no real way of preventing everything.
5:09
Some days when it gets negative too, even if you're running heat
5:12
in there, your pipes will freeze and yeah, so.
5:16
Well, see the things people do not know the behind the scenes
5:19
of a food. Truck.
5:21
Yeah, it's. Well, and I think that's the
5:23
thing anytime you're starting a business or you're doing a
5:26
business. When you first start into it,
5:28
you really don't know all those little intricate things.
5:31
Yeah, you're more. Just trying to.
5:33
Yeah, you're really just trying to open like to make it happen
5:36
1st and then that's when you really start to run into small
5:40
things that build up, cuz then you've got five small things and
5:44
then ten small things and so yeah.
5:47
It can be a little nerve racking.
5:49
Yeah. You know, we don't do a food
5:50
truck. We just run a mental health
5:52
business. And sometimes that's nerve
5:54
racking. Yeah, it's just the random days.
5:56
You walk in, it'll you're like, oh, it's going to be an easy
5:58
day, and then you walk in and now it's not so.
6:02
People cancel or whatever, you know, life happens and there's
6:07
so much of life that's happening that we don't get to control,
6:10
you know, and it sounds like that's more where your stressors
6:14
come or those things that are outside of your.
6:16
Control exactly. And so you started the food
6:18
truck in 2017. What made you, because you're in
6:21
the process of expanding, talk a little bit about your new
6:24
venture now? We pretty much grew the food
6:26
truck. Each food truck we bought, we
6:28
we're now on our 4th one, which should be the last.
6:31
But we basically we bought a new food truck.
6:34
We maximize how busy we could get out of it, get another one,
6:38
same thing would happen we. Go from like, oh, this is all
6:41
the space in the world to like, we hate this food truck.
6:44
It's too small and then we buy the other one and that's where
6:47
we're at now is you. We the we have a building where
6:50
you order in and you can dine in and stuff but the kitchen still
6:53
the food truck. And we're just at like that
6:55
breaking point now where like we finally found out why everyone
6:59
doesn't do this and why you don't see like buildings with a
7:02
food truck out back as a kitchen and.
7:04
We've like, completely maximized and we just need all our space
7:08
in one roof and it. The main reason is it feels like
7:11
we have like 3 separate businesses because we have the
7:13
storefront, we have like the inside prep area, and then we
7:16
have the kitchen. But they're all separate.
7:18
And everyone that we hire is kind of assigned to one of
7:21
those. Right now, it feels like you're
7:23
working in that station rather than just like in the building,
7:26
and that's why we're trying to expand.
7:28
So does it. So is that the goal is to go to
7:31
complete brick and mortar? Or yeah, yeah, we're going to do
7:35
away completely with the food trucks, go full brick and
7:38
mortar. Our building has a big garage
7:40
where it used to be a car wash. So that's going to be our
7:43
kitchen. And then we'll have kind of a
7:44
back storage room and then the big storefront and we'll have a
7:47
bar and a dine it and all that go in soon.
7:50
But yeah, it's going to be fun. When is your project how we say
7:53
projected? Because with this there's always
7:55
something that comes up. When is your projected opening
7:57
for that? I think for full bar and like
8:00
all everything inside should be December, so it should be like
8:04
November, December. The weird thing though is the
8:07
food licenses run by calendar year.
8:09
So if you pay for December, you don't get your full year, you
8:13
pay for December and then you you expire in January and you W
8:17
repay it. So we're going to see how far.
8:20
So if we're like halfway through December and we only have like
8:23
15 days, we might just push it to January.
8:25
So it's going to kind of depend on the scheduling of how stuff
8:28
gets completed and then inspected license and all that.
8:32
So until then, you stay open as the food.
8:35
Yeah. So until then, the plan is just
8:37
to keep kind of operating as as usual.
8:40
OK, so let everybody know the name of your business.
8:43
It's called roll up. OK.
8:45
And where is it located? 301 Main St. and that's the zip
8:49
codes 80911 and the South End Colorado Springs wide field
8:53
area. OK, so.
8:55
You're local to here, correct? Yeah.
8:57
And you graduated from? Wide field, high school, OK And
9:00
that's cool cuz it's like right up the road from our location
9:03
too. So it's we're like right?
9:04
Kind of. A lot of us grew up in the area
9:06
too and it's right there. So you're expecting some of
9:09
those high school students to be rolling up to your roll up?
9:12
Oh yeah, they come. They they really come.
9:14
And then always around like break time or summertime is when
9:18
we get a lot of like applications for.
9:21
Right now we don't have them, but we will soon of like summer
9:23
jobs and people that want to at least like test out if they want
9:27
to work in kitchens and stuff, so.
9:29
Do you feel like that you've had a lot of support from the
9:31
community being from here? Oh yeah.
9:34
Just directly just from being from here for sure.
9:37
And then also just bringing like a restaurant to that area.
9:41
It's good and focuses on like the food and value of it and
9:45
all. We're busy just from that too,
9:46
because there's not a whole lot going on down there, so.
9:50
No, we stopped by and had lunch one day and it was interesting
9:53
because it was so quiet. Yeah, the whole area.
9:56
There's not a whole lot. You're right, that goes on
9:58
there. So, but you were kind of busy
10:00
that day. Yeah, it's it's wild.
10:02
And depending on when you come, you might sit there for 10
10:04
minutes and we're no one's there.
10:06
And then. It's all of a sudden the rush
10:08
starts hitting and feed just cars after cars start pulling
10:11
in, so. With you, because, you know, we
10:13
also talk a lot of care about the support we get from people
10:16
mentorships. Who has that bit?
10:18
Who's been doing that for you? Who do you feel has been that
10:21
big support system for you? I don't have one, just one, but
10:26
really just or more. There's other restaurants that
10:29
are kind of following our same timeline or doing, they're kind
10:32
of doing our similar growth their way and it's cool to at
10:35
least have. I'm like, I'd say like the owner
10:38
of Lucell's, Trevaris and Luce and Chantelle there.
10:41
I look up to them a lot and it's basically for the same reason is
10:45
there. We like, did food trucks at the
10:47
same time and then decided to take it kind of elsewhere.
10:50
So it's cool to at least have somebody to.
10:53
Tell like, oh, this is crazy. And they at least relate because
10:56
a lot of people you're explaining this stuff too and
10:58
they don't know. So the best they can tell you is
11:01
like, oh that's crazy or whatever, so.
11:03
So it's through those connections that you've made,
11:05
you're able to bounce ideas off. Of yeah, ideas.
11:07
And just like I said, if you need some random fix or really
11:11
just anything, you at least have somebody to go ask SO.
11:15
That's really good because I would imagine going into this
11:17
and you know any kind of business that you're just
11:19
starting. I mean to not have somebody that
11:22
can kind of guide the way for you.
11:24
And I've done it before, cuz a lot of either people who have
11:28
like done it and not so successfully are having it all.
11:31
They're like best advice is just not to You're telling all these,
11:34
like, I'll talk to some other owners or people like, oh, we're
11:38
like expanding our location and they're like, oh, that's stupid,
11:40
that's expensive. And you know, that's gonna
11:42
stress you out and but it's like you haven't done it before, so
11:45
it's hard to take what you're saying.
11:48
Seriously. I guess so.
11:50
I think any endeavor you have can has the potential to stress
11:54
you out. Once they have talked about
11:55
those things we can't control. But I think that the important
11:59
thing is, is when people follow whatever they feel is important
12:02
to them and there's a lot of naysayers out there.
12:06
So how do you do your best to kind of keep those out of the
12:10
forefront for you, those people who maybe you do like and
12:14
respect? Who are still saying no, don't
12:16
do that. Yeah, I've learned you have to
12:18
just distance yourself or avoid it completely because you're not
12:23
going to change their mind if they think what you're doing is
12:25
dumb or if they the craziest part is like how many restaurant
12:29
owners are better towards the industry but they stay in it and
12:32
all they want to do is kind of get you on board with like, oh,
12:35
this sucks or like this isn't worth our time and.
12:39
It's really to where you gotta just distance yourself from that
12:42
and do your own thing and let them do their own thing and have
12:45
quick, casual conversations. But yeah.
12:48
I think it's pretty cool that you're willing to step out and,
12:50
you know, yeah, just pursue it anyway, Yeah, yeah.
12:54
Well, and I think that's the thing.
12:55
Anytime you start an endeavor, you conceptualize it once again.
13:00
I think you conceptualize the end piece, but there's all the
13:02
little pieces that go in between and sometimes they do kind of.
13:07
Rock You a little bit, yeah, when you realize that wasn't
13:10
what I thought. Yeah, some of the stuff
13:11
especially definitely when we bought the food truck like 7
13:16
years ago, there's no way I would have expected to be like
13:19
entering a building and putting a kitchen in and full bar and
13:23
all that. It was.
13:23
I didn't really know where it was gonna go.
13:25
I just, I didn't think it would be this.
13:27
I thought it would be like I take the food truck out every
13:29
day or. So.
13:31
So is this all just you, or do you have partners with it?
13:34
Or did you just sit there and say, you know what, I'm just
13:37
gonna do this. Yeah, it was just me, super
13:39
limited loans like through the process.
13:41
So I've been able even now with this expansion that own 100% of
13:46
it, no partners. Now we're at the point where we
13:48
have like really great staff. So we're starting to promote
13:51
people into like management roles and stuff that are.
13:54
It basically, if I can't run this business without you or it
13:57
would cause a lot of stress, it's time to like promote that
13:59
person, pay them accordingly and then also make sure they want to
14:03
do it because there's a lot of people that help you.
14:07
They'll play that role, but then they don't necessarily want it.
14:10
So I want to make sure they would know like this is what
14:13
you're expected of here's your pay and do you want to do it.
14:16
Rather than kind of like a loose expectation or or them seeing
14:19
you stressed out and feeling bad so they help out.
14:22
And so I just like I said once I get to the point where I feel
14:25
like I need you there, it's you have to treat them that way, so.
14:28
OK. How has your family been with
14:31
all this? They've been good.
14:32
It was a just same thing with anyone.
14:34
It's just like scary I guess is like because they can't really
14:39
relate, like they haven't owned a restaurant or business or
14:42
anything, so. When I tell them like we're
14:44
doing all this and the money involved in all that, I know we
14:47
can do it. But it's just like in the in the
14:49
numbers and explaining to him that way.
14:51
It's just like when you can't really relate to it directly,
14:54
it's scary. So I think it's hard for people
14:57
to understand when you go in business that you invest a lot
15:00
at the beginning in order to get the profit at the.
15:03
End Yeah, exactly. But it's hard because people
15:05
said there's, Oh my God, that's a lot of money.
15:07
What happens? It's always what if, what if,
15:09
what if? Yeah, you know, I think you have
15:10
to go on with the attitude of. Unsuccessful.
15:13
And investing in yourself. Yeah, and then set backup plans
15:17
for if you do fail like you have to.
15:19
I don't try to like focus on failing, but at least if we do
15:22
fail, I've calculated all that of it won't be that bad or it'll
15:26
be this bad if we completely fail.
15:29
So you can like focus on like the goal, but still along the
15:32
way at least somewhat of a backup of it's.
15:35
It is super scary, but This is why.
15:38
All this is put in place because I'm not the first to ever do
15:40
this, so there's always like a backup plan or people to help if
15:44
stuff goes completely bad. Well, I think The thing is too.
15:47
And I always tell people I don't.
15:49
I'm one that doesn't really use the word failure because I think
15:52
everything we do in life is practice.
15:53
Yeah, But I think we practice. But I think practicing with the
15:57
backup plan is always important. Yeah, exactly.
16:00
I think that you have to have multiple avenues.
16:02
Yeah, because of those unforceable things that we can't
16:05
change. You were just talking about all
16:07
the rain we got, how that kind of threw a little bit of a
16:10
monkey wrench and yeah, your remodel.
16:12
Failed all our rooftop units all the really.
16:16
It's basically a whole side of the business that I had no idea.
16:20
Like I don't know anything about rooftop cooling units and HVAC.
16:23
You don't really care about any of that till it fails, is what I
16:26
found out. And then and then I was like,
16:28
what do I do? Because we're in the middle of
16:31
summer, too, so our building's hot.
16:32
Our walk in was broken, like we're phasing out the food
16:36
truck. So that's on its last leg.
16:38
And it just felt like you're working in just a circus because
16:41
every time you turn around, something's broken or that.
16:44
And then in the middle of all that, you're also like insanely
16:47
busy. So it was, yeah, it was kind of
16:49
a welcomed, like, fail thing to happen, even though it was a
16:53
little bad. So.
16:54
How do you deal with the stress of all that?
16:56
Just get through it really. That's especially like the
16:59
daytoday, like the restaurant stuff.
17:01
Just kind of push through it and then try your best not to like
17:04
take it home with you because you're not going to like when
17:06
you're at home, you can't do anything either, so.
17:09
But yeah, some days you have to just kind of get out of the
17:11
building, like, all right, that was insane.
17:14
And then you get in your car and go home, so.
17:16
But that's where I'm like with our staff, that's not what they
17:19
signed up for. They know it's going to be
17:20
stressful, but they didn't sign up to like deal with that.
17:24
So it came to a head this last couple weeks with mainly the
17:27
equipment and stuff and then it was, it was good for everyone
17:30
kind of to get a little pause, so.
17:33
You know when you because we always talk about the importance
17:35
of taking care of yourself because the restaurant is kind
17:38
of. It can be really consuming, time
17:40
consuming. So what do you do to take care
17:43
of you? What are some of the things you
17:44
like to do? I mainly just try to get kind of
17:47
do stuff around the house, even though it's work related.
17:50
I really like just working on the building or looking at
17:53
recipes and stuff, but mainly mainly just like working on the
17:56
building and like making it better for other people.
17:59
It gets you out of like the kitchen side of things and a
18:02
different project or just either at home or at the business kind
18:05
of cleaning up the outside or just yeah.
18:08
I like working so it's it's always like involved in some
18:11
sort of like doing something so. So some people say I take a
18:14
vacation, you know? Yeah, we'll try to do that.
18:16
We actually, since all this crap happened, everything, we're
18:19
closed and going back and forth with insurance.
18:22
We like took a trip to the Hot Springs.
18:24
It was like Indian Hot Springs. We just got out for a night and
18:27
stuff, so it was cool to fight. That's usually what we'll do is
18:30
if it gets like real stressful and stuff, we'll like tell the
18:32
staff we're leaving for a few days.
18:34
Get everything ready and then just at least for two or three
18:37
days, just get out of there for a second, so.
18:39
Nice. Yeah.
18:40
I think sometimes we get so caught up in that whole thing we
18:45
you have the potential to get so focused on it that do you ever
18:50
find that you have those people who have to tell you?
18:52
OK, Bryce, step away. Yeah.
18:54
No, for sure. You get obsessed with like
18:56
fixing an issue and the best fix might be just like scrapping it
19:00
all together. And that's where we've been with
19:02
like our growth is. We didn't really have a point
19:05
where we like, took a huge loan. It seemed like a lot of
19:08
especially like investor restaurants are chains.
19:11
They have their big process of opening and then they kind of
19:14
just like snap their fingers. Everything's awesome and they're
19:16
open. We've had to kind of like
19:18
upgrade as we go. And that's where some of the
19:21
stuff we find like you just can't do it anymore.
19:23
So instead of obsessing about like, how to make this work,
19:26
it's time to just get rid of it. And then explaining to the
19:29
customers or people why you did and so?
19:32
Do you feel like if there is that time where you have to get
19:36
rid of something or that how receptive are your customers to
19:40
that? It's like 5050.
19:42
Some, yeah, some understand and they're kind of disappointed and
19:46
then others they just don't want to hear it.
19:48
So we, I wouldn't say we've like lost customers or lost respect
19:53
over kind of the changes because like long term they kind of see
19:56
why we've made that happen and stuff so.
19:58
Mainly tuning down our menu, getting it more automated in the
20:02
moment. Everyone hated it, but now we're
20:04
able to open seven days a week for 12/13 hours a day.
20:08
So in trade for that they don't get to come like it's not as
20:12
exclusive. But now we're able to open this
20:15
much longer and things are more consistent and stuff so.
20:19
So there's some trade-offs. Yeah, definitely trade-offs with
20:21
that. When you look at, you know your
20:24
brick and mortar. What is your goal for it?
20:27
That you're wanting to see with it.
20:29
I know personally just to like become more of an owner again,
20:34
where I'm not kind of like cooking.
20:36
I want to be involved in the food still, but I more want to
20:39
like bring people in that want to want to be there and let them
20:43
take those roles and learn for themselves.
20:45
And then that creates like a good work environment for
20:49
basically employees. So then you'd have like your
20:51
people in charge. Kind of getting their experience
20:54
and then be able to bring employees to eventually train
20:56
them up to take those roles on SO.
20:59
A little bit of a step back. Yeah, step back so I can focus.
21:02
Yeah, so I can focus on the business and then ideally to
21:06
open more cuz now we're building this building from scratch.
21:09
There's not a restaurant or there's not a kitchen and all
21:12
that already in it. So I'm like, as we go, I'm
21:14
learning how to like, contact architects, to do blueprints and
21:18
all this crap that I didn't know existed as far as the plumbing,
21:22
electrical and all that. I'm kind of starting to know
21:24
what I'm doing, so doing a second location wouldn't be like
21:28
a brand new thing a second time so.
21:31
This is to be kind of exciting though.
21:33
So many people go buy a building that's already existing that was
21:36
a restaurant oftentimes, because then with it comes sometimes the
21:39
equipment. You know, people just have the
21:41
whole entire thing. In your case, you actually get
21:44
to be a part of that design and stuff.
21:46
Yeah. And it's full education.
21:48
Oh yeah. It's like because a lot of
21:50
people hire a guy to do all this and they kind of sit down and
21:53
draw out their kitchen and their plans and then pay the guy.
21:56
And then like I said, then six months later they walk in and
22:00
see the progress or see the result and they don't really get
22:03
to like, understand what happened.
22:05
So. It seems like I would probably
22:08
feel better knowing the behind the scenes stuff.
22:11
Yeah, it's nice knowing and it's also nice with this as we've had
22:15
five years to kind of learn what we need.
22:17
So because if I five years ago, if I designed the restaurant, I
22:21
there's no way I'd actually know, know enough to do it the
22:26
right way. So I feel like we might have
22:27
spent all the kinds of money and time and we built it the wrong
22:31
way. So it's kind of nice now we
22:32
waited so long that it's like 100% what we want, so.
22:37
I talked to her about this. I say I can always tell somebody
22:40
who loves to cook. By the way, they arranged their
22:42
kitchen. Yeah.
22:43
You know, and I imagine that's the same thing with the
22:45
restaurant. There's a certain because you
22:47
want a certain flow to it. Yeah, and like, ideally just
22:50
like easy as possible. So while while we were in the
22:54
garage kind of designing the line, I like took each menu item
22:57
on a piece of paper and you really just stand there in the
23:00
darker with your eyes closed and like, cook it.
23:03
I tried to like know where the stuff is.
23:05
That way you can redesign the line and everything before it's
23:08
too late. So if you think maybe fryers on
23:10
like the left side work, then you find out the right sides
23:13
better. So it was nice to get all that
23:15
settled kind of before before it's too late or before it's
23:18
already done so. Wow, let's actually sort of
23:20
mapping it out. Yeah, just that way if you need
23:24
like your most frequent things, if you need it all the time,
23:26
it's like in arm's reach. And that's our biggest thing on
23:29
the food truck is that you can't do that, so.
23:32
Especially training new people. It's like you need the freezer
23:35
right next to you, but it's on the far other side.
23:37
But also you can't walk through it because there's so many
23:39
pieces. So it's just like it's gonna be
23:41
nice to really have a space that we thought through and it's
23:44
gonna work and everything. Yeah.
23:46
So how involved are your employees in this whole process?
23:50
And like the design and this process, not much, but I'll
23:54
still like as mainly just with the kitchen flow, we'd kind of
23:58
show them how it works and they don't have their feedback or say
24:02
that that'll be interesting or that'll work really well.
24:05
And so at least have them involved and then also kind of
24:09
showing them as we go the placement of things and.
24:12
See and if, like I said, if they're really excited about it
24:15
or they say maybe we should like rethink that.
24:17
And so we've yeah, we've definitely landed on like a
24:20
solid plan of where everything's gonna be.
24:23
Nice, even with that. So what made you decide?
24:26
Because prior to this you didn't have a bar, correct?
24:29
Yeah, yeah, it was like a coffee bar.
24:33
We do mainly like bottled in house, drinks like bottled
24:35
coffee, bottled juices. The bar side we're adding I
24:39
think attracts a lot more of like dinner, dining, crowds, and
24:43
it also attracts people. They might buy food, but they're
24:46
also there just have like a space in the community to at
24:50
least sit down and do something at and through doing food
24:53
trucks. We parked at a lot of breweries,
24:55
so I know a lot of brewery owners and breweries that I we
24:59
can bring their beer and products into.
25:01
Wide field where a lot of times people don't even know a lot of
25:04
that exists. So you go into like a bar down
25:07
there and it's like Coors, like all the average beers.
25:10
So it'll be cool to at least have kind of like a big display
25:13
of people to see what's going on around town and be able to try
25:16
it out, hopefully get them to leave town and go try somewhere
25:20
else too. So.
25:21
That's cool, but that's kind of cool if you can bring, you know,
25:24
other parts of springs or whatever into your location.
25:28
Because the cool thing is, is that's paying it forward and
25:31
that you're still. But if you're not here in wide
25:35
field, then you know if you're in springs and you like the
25:37
spirit, at least this is the way.
25:38
You can go, and it's cool because it works both ways too.
25:41
You can have the breweries come down and feature some of their
25:43
beers and in turn they post to their social media.
25:47
They wear it. Roll up tonight.
25:49
And so there's like a whole crowd down South that is
25:51
wondering what this brewery is and then the brewery people are
25:55
wondering what roll up is and you kind of trade off, right?
25:58
Because either customers or at least some word of mouth and
26:01
stuff. So it always works completely
26:03
which. Which kind of brings us into
26:05
another thing, your advertisement.
26:07
How do people know about you? I just go real heavy on
26:10
Facebook, Facebook and Instagram.
26:12
And then where we're at now is a lot of word of mouth.
26:15
We when you. Purchase anything from us, It'll
26:18
ask you if you wanna like, sign up for e-mail lists and stuff.
26:21
So we try to send coupons or just updates through e-mail and
26:25
all that as we go. But I push where we're at now
26:28
with how long we've been doing it.
26:30
I want it to be a lot of just word of mouth and like
26:33
reputation advertising, but we still hit Facebook as much as
26:37
possible and. Yeah.
26:39
Well, that's kind of cool. I mean, I I think it's a way
26:42
that I almost feel like people feel like things like Facebook
26:45
and stuff makes almost more personable.
26:47
Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, so, like, it's it's almost
26:50
like reaching out to a friend, a distant friend or.
26:53
Yeah, and it lets you, like post just random things in the
26:56
business like new hires. Or you can post like they were
27:00
busy today. Here's a picture and a lot
27:02
instead of I'd. I fall into it too, of getting
27:04
in the habit of just like posting up food pictures to get
27:07
it over with. But you can totally go a step
27:10
further and show what your business is and.
27:13
So are you the Facebook person? Are you?
27:15
Yeah, right now I'm glad. Yeah, I'm.
27:17
Trying to get. Yeah, some of this off my plate,
27:20
but right now I do all that myself.
27:21
So it's a lot of work, isn't it? Yeah, to do it right too, cuz
27:24
you can know how to do it right and you can still I've been
27:27
doing it. Wrong sometimes.
27:30
And then I'll kind of like, all right, let's get it together and
27:32
do it right. So it's if it's not just your
27:34
job, it is hard cuz it's too easy to, especially when you
27:38
have like the social media schedulers and all that, to just
27:41
post an entire day of stuff you've already done before and
27:44
you're like, oh, we're posting all day at least, but it's
27:47
nothing new to most of your already like existing customers
27:50
so. And you do.
27:52
It's like it has a life of its own.
27:53
You have to constantly post because that's what's in
27:56
people's face and that's what gets the.
27:57
Attention like sadly, some people they like they might not
28:02
even be a customer and they're just like a fan of your social
28:04
media and they're you really do get like that direct feedback of
28:08
just like boring or like post something else and that's yeah,
28:12
so. Yeah, you get those people out
28:15
there here. Yeah, kind of critique you a
28:17
little bit. Yeah, it's a lot to keep up
28:19
with, yeah. It is.
28:20
And I don't think people realize that.
28:22
You know, a lot of people in business have people who
28:24
actually do all their social media.
28:26
Yeah. Because it is so time consuming.
28:30
Yeah. And I'm like learning why cuz.
28:32
But like I said before, while we are growing one to keep the
28:35
money in the business and to like to learn how to do it, I
28:38
was doing it all. But you totally start finding
28:40
out. Why?
28:41
Other people can do a lot better than you, so.
28:45
Oh, we found out real fast when we started this podcast that
28:48
editors we are not and they would even say, Oh no, this is
28:51
simple under like, First off, we have a fulltime job when we're
28:55
not doing this. Yeah, exactly.
28:56
And that's. Yeah, and so it is.
28:58
And then that becomes almost nerve racking when you feel
29:01
like, Oh my gosh, it's 12:00 o'clock.
29:02
I haven't posted anything. Got to get out.
29:05
Well, that's her. I don't.
29:06
I'll admit I don't do I do very little of the social media
29:09
stuff. It's time consuming.
29:11
I usually just don't have time, you know?
29:14
Or, and I'm finding too, when you do it yourself, you like
29:17
almost blame yourself too much. So we might be slow one day and
29:21
I'm like, oh, it's cuz I didn't post this morning and it's not.
29:23
It's just cuz we're having a slow day.
29:25
So I'm desperately spending all this time posting and sending
29:29
coupons when I probably should just not even worry about that
29:33
and get some other stuff done. And just like, except it's just
29:36
not a busy day, so. You always post some great
29:39
pictures of the food I have seen.
29:42
That at least try to get the food pictures and then like keep
29:45
them fresh too. Even though we serve mainly the
29:48
same menu, after like 3-4 weeks of the same picture we'll at
29:52
least try to get a different 1. So it's not like I said just the
29:55
same over and over again. Would you say that you have like
29:58
a star dish? Yeah, the top, really.
30:01
Our burgers have been become one of our like main breakfast
30:05
burritos for like since we started doing.
30:08
Those are just like the go to for mainly all day.
30:11
A lot of like, word of mouth is like try their burritos.
30:14
But honestly, the burgers are becoming like one of the number
30:18
one things. So yeah.
30:20
OK. And I have to ask you, do you?
30:24
You know, cuz we have such a huge population of vegetarian,
30:27
vegan, Yeah, in free, gluten free.
30:30
In springs. Yeah, where are you guys out
30:32
with that? We hit gluten free options.
30:35
We're trying to make it like more blatant about it of like
30:38
cuz if you come in person and ask us, you flip our menu over
30:41
and there's a good list of the options when you order online is
30:44
where I'm trying to focus a little more on and I also.
30:49
For what some reason, all of our gluten free dishes are just the
30:52
way they are. We don't like, make them gluten
30:54
free. So I don't want people to think
30:57
like, say like our street tacos are gluten free.
31:00
I don't want to label them gluten free because sadly a lot
31:03
of people are like, oh that's I don't want those because I'm
31:06
not. I can eat gluten and I don't
31:08
want that because it's going to be weird.
31:10
And that and same with vegetarian, vegan, a lot of
31:12
people. Even though it might just be
31:14
amazing food, they won't try it because they're like, oh, I
31:17
don't eat vegetarian food. And so we're trying to make
31:21
those things like a menu item without presenting it directly
31:24
that way. Because the what I found is the
31:26
mass amount of people that's kind of sadly how they think
31:29
about some of those things is like like black bean burgers
31:32
they I like them sometimes better than a regular one but
31:35
some people just won't try them or like veggie burgers won't try
31:38
them so. You know, that's really an
31:41
interesting thing you just said there, because I don't think
31:43
people realize that sometimes people have that image of, Oh my
31:47
God, you're vegetarian or vegan, you're all Foo Foo or whatever
31:51
you want to call it or. Stuff like that.
31:53
And then cuz I don't think people look at the flip side of
31:56
that. They might look at the side of
31:57
well you know, cuz we're gluten intolerant.
32:00
So when we go places it's like we don't have any gluten free
32:03
stuff and it's like okay well I don't think we sit there and say
32:07
those people who can eat gluten, how dare they?
32:09
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
32:10
So, yeah. But I think you do have that.
32:14
And I and I, I've heard that too.
32:15
When people I won't eat that, that's that's like what
32:18
vegetarians are. Yeah.
32:19
Or like like with pizza, there's like the cauliflower crust or
32:22
the glue. And it's like sometimes you
32:23
don't even know the difference. And people like will just will
32:27
not try it because they're like, I don't want to eat cauliflower
32:29
pizza. And that's not, it's not what it
32:30
is. It's like try it for what it is
32:33
and then you either do like it or you don't like it, but.
32:36
Yeah, this mentality that we have around certain foods.
32:39
Her cousin was here. And so I'm making a salad one
32:43
day and I says, do you want a salad?
32:44
He goes. How do you say that with this
32:47
thick Southern accent? Yeah, I'm not.
32:49
I'm not eating them weeds out of the yard.
32:51
Yeah, exactly. And then he'd show them and it's
32:52
like a like chicken bacon salad. And it's just new favorite
32:56
things. Well, I'm just there like duty
32:58
that you want the salad or not. I'm cooking.
33:00
Oh, well, then in that case, and so I made the salad.
33:03
He goes, you know, this is really good, but.
33:07
Also, he had that mentality of what salad was.
33:09
Because everybody has these different ideas, you know, even
33:11
like people might say, oh, a breakfast burrito is the same
33:14
all the time and go to yours and you might have different
33:16
variations. Yeah, it's like a different
33:18
style or it's not all the same. I notice on the breakfast side
33:21
of things a lot with kind of like the older age crowd is
33:24
they're used to breakfast restaurants being like omelets,
33:27
pancakes and plates. So we have like loaded tater
33:30
tots and egg rolls and burritos and they're just like.
33:34
At first, like, what is going on?
33:36
And then you. And then they're all the sudden
33:38
they're there every single day and they walk in.
33:40
You already know what they're going to order.
33:41
And so you have to get through that stage of like they're like
33:45
they're not used to it. They're immediately thinking
33:48
it's weird and then you have to kind of let him try it and so.
33:51
Well, it's amazing how much bias people have with food.
33:55
It's just with food and it's like what they're used to, so
33:58
they yeah. So if it's not something they're
34:01
used to or a different style. Especially on the Internet is
34:04
that's where there's no filter and it's like people are just
34:08
like don't serve that or don't like.
34:09
I've never try that and so. I know we make it a practice of
34:13
every time we vacation, our one role is we have to try a new
34:16
food. Yeah.
34:17
Or we try. We also will go and we have some
34:20
friends and we'll try different new restaurants.
34:23
Yeah. You know, and we let.
34:24
I think that it's important to give back to the community even
34:28
in that way. And, you know, telling people,
34:30
you know, you can go eat at the chain restaurants.
34:32
But we'd also like you to give us a try.
34:34
Yeah, and I think a lot of people, that's where they're at
34:36
is especially a lot of people with families or even no
34:41
families. They don't have the money to
34:42
like be adventurous and go maybe try a dinner they don't like cuz
34:46
then. Then you might have to go buy
34:48
food twice. And I think that's their biggest
34:50
holdup is they want to like make sure they enjoy it before they
34:54
go. But then they're like totally
34:56
living like a false react, like they've already decided what
35:00
your food's going to be before they get there.
35:02
And then they might get mad because it's not that way or
35:05
whatever. So just being a lot more open
35:08
minded because it is just food, it's like a new experience for.
35:12
$15 a person or less and it's like it's in the end, it's not
35:16
as serious I think as people make it as far as like trying
35:19
something you may or may not like.
35:22
Well, I think that keeps people stuck too.
35:24
Yeah. You know, and it doesn't help
35:26
promote themselves outside of that little microcosm that they
35:30
live in, you know? So it's like, you're right.
35:33
If you go and the food sucks, who cares?
35:36
Did you enjoy your time with your friends or family?
35:39
That was really fun. The atmosphere might be good.
35:40
Yeah, you might never like We'll never go there again, but at
35:43
least we've tried it as kind of. Yeah, exactly.
35:46
So that's kind of where we're at.
35:47
We sometimes we try to play somewhere they're like, you
35:49
know, it's not our favorite, but we really.
35:51
But we usually walk out of there saying we'll find something in
35:54
whatever place we go to. You know, I really love the
35:57
decor. I love the atmosphere.
35:59
And sometimes, you know, even a restaurant, if it has that great
36:02
atmosphere, the food may not be great, Yeah, But you'll keep
36:05
going back for that atmosphere. Yeah, and that, and that's a
36:08
lot. But I noticed of like all the
36:10
new chain restaurants, and it's a lot.
36:13
I think, I think they spent all their like 90% of their time on
36:17
that atmosphere and their cool plates and their cool menus.
36:21
And so even if your food comes out terrible, it's like you're
36:25
in like this atmosphere that you're like, all right, it's
36:28
maybe not that bad where if you got served that food and like a
36:32
small shack of a place, that's when you kind of really realize
36:35
it's not that great, so. Yeah, and it's always funny.
36:39
You know how many times you find those hole in the wall, places
36:42
that just have the most fantastic food?
36:44
Yeah, and it's usually like a tiny menu and it's like
36:47
handwritten and it's the best. It's the best every time, so.
36:51
Really here? This is our menu today.
36:52
It's written on a napkin. Service might not be that great
36:55
because they're like I said, they just know their food's
36:57
good, so and that's my favorite places to go to or those ones,
37:00
so. Yeah, you find that there's
37:02
something really neat about even the staff and stuff.
37:06
It's like. It's almost like being at home,
37:08
having a meal. Yeah, you know, like they, yeah,
37:11
it comes off like they're being rude or they don't care, but
37:13
they're just there to do their job and serve the food.
37:16
And that's basically up to you as a customer to decide if
37:19
that's your thing or not. Because I would totally have
37:22
rather have, like really good food and a short amount of
37:26
service than the other way around and have like this
37:29
glorious building amazing service and the food sucks.
37:31
I'd totally rather have kind of this, the small version of that,
37:35
so. So let me ask you this, because
37:37
customer service is so important, especially in the
37:39
food industry, How do you help your employees if you find that
37:46
maybe they're lacking or you just wanted to do something
37:50
different? With that with customers, well,
37:52
at least try. Like rarely do we like step in.
37:56
When they're even if I see they're doing something wrong, I
37:59
try to let them. All of our managers do the same.
38:02
We try to at least in a moment let them do their thing.
38:05
That way the customer them aren't feeling dumb of like
38:08
somebody swoops in and and basically just steps on their
38:11
toes and tells them not to. So we'll try to like watch that
38:15
happen and then right away tell them like not to do that or do
38:20
this differently kind of said what we expect.
38:22
And then it's from there and it's up to them to either do
38:26
that or not do it. And if they don't do it, that's
38:28
when it becomes an issue. So we'll kind of remind you one
38:31
or one or two times if you're reminded on something like that.
38:34
It's like a personal choice to not do it.
38:37
So we wait till it becomes like a direct personal choice to kind
38:40
of not listen to what we're saying until then, so.
38:44
How do you deal with difficult customers because you know
38:47
everybody has them? Those like we try, that's when
38:51
I'll step in and kind of assist the person or our managers will
38:55
do the same of like you can repeat the same thing to someone
38:58
five times. And then they ask for a manager,
39:01
and then I come out and tell them the exact same thing, but
39:04
I'm not as nice as our staff. So I think sometimes they're
39:07
like, oh, I should have just dealt with the staff instead of
39:10
pushing it this far. So some people, and it's the
39:13
same thing with just what they're used to, Like they walk
39:16
in and I want onion rings and they're, well, we don't have
39:20
onion rings. And they're like, Oh yeah, we
39:21
had, we just dealt with this. The guy was saying we have a
39:24
fryer, but we don't have onion rings.
39:26
That's absurd. And you're kind of just trying
39:28
to explain. To him that I mean in the in
39:31
this moment I can't just grow onion rings so we don't have
39:34
them and and that's where you're kind of just have to like once
39:38
you kind of like hit a wall in the customer service side has to
39:41
go away and you just have to tell people like you can either
39:44
do this or not do it and you don't have to be here.
39:47
And so without losing your mind because sometimes it is really
39:52
frustrating and then we try to get staff after they've dealt
39:55
with that to. Like calm down and just let it
39:58
go that way. It's not like a the build up and
40:01
then the next customer you might have is a little rude and it
40:03
just spirals from there. So so.
40:05
Trying to deal with it as much. Yeah.
40:07
Just kind of like, yeah. And some customers don't need to
40:10
like just like employees, sometimes you have to let an
40:13
employee go. Sometimes you do have to ask the
40:15
customer not to come even if they are because we've had
40:19
somewhere they're they come all the time, but it's always
40:22
something and we verify that like we're doing nothing wrong.
40:26
And it's like after the 5th, 6th complaint of maybe we're just
40:30
not the place for you. It's kind of where you have to
40:33
like gently tell them that and then we don't like kick people
40:36
out and say you're banned, but we eventually that customer
40:39
service has to end when you're just kind of complaining just to
40:43
complain so, right. And I think that's the thing,
40:46
like I said, when you do the food industry dealing with
40:49
people because. People want what they want, when
40:52
they want it regardless, Even if they haven't looked at the menu
40:55
yet because that was our thing. Then we see onion rings and
40:59
where they were. Like, Oh no, we just asked for
41:00
fresh onion. Yeah, and they said that you
41:03
guys don't have any. So they're okay.
41:06
I was surprised. Yeah, but I mean, we didn't
41:09
throw a fit or. No, it's like the space issue
41:11
too, because some of those things then you have to go as
41:13
far as explaining our kitchen and like we totally could and
41:18
should have that kind of stuff and there's just not like
41:20
currently a space to put it in is.
41:22
Like we didn't even ask the question.
41:23
We just said, OK, we'll just take the food.
41:26
It's good, Yeah. And that's what, like sometimes
41:28
our friend and staff doesn't know or they just don't go as
41:32
far as explaining it because it's like more, it's like
41:33
technical, like we just don't have a spot to put it in.
41:36
Short of like if somebody orders fresh onions, they have to walk
41:40
all the way inside. So once we're in our set space,
41:43
a lot of that stuff will smooth out.
41:44
But it's like I said where we're at now trying to run a food
41:48
truck as a restaurant is you totally when you walk in our
41:51
building you just if you don't see the food truck, you'd assume
41:55
there's a kitchen in there. So a lot of people when we're
41:58
things are limited and stuff, it's hard to explain.
42:00
This is why. Well, I think as a consumer
42:03
though if I'm going into a place and when you when we were told
42:07
there's no onions, it's not a matter of I'm so special that
42:10
you need to run out and get me an onion First off.
42:14
Second, I chose the place to go into.
42:16
So therefore I'm going to take whatever's on the menu.
42:20
But often times I think you find that people, I don't know if
42:23
they elevate themselves or whatever, It's like criticism.
42:26
It just is what it is, you know. But you do have that where they
42:30
feel like. There's a certain expectation.
42:32
Yeah. Yeah, and a lot of it comes from
42:35
for some reason, and it's like only in the restaurant industry.
42:39
On the customer side, it's like you're not supposed to be told
42:43
no. And that's kind of a lot of new
42:45
restaurants are like trying to do away with that, cuz a lot of
42:49
it comes down to just the owner wants to make as much money as
42:52
possible. So as an owner, I could sell
42:55
fresh onions and I could do all this stuff and make it total
42:58
hell on my staff. And just for the sake of like
43:01
getting those customers and making the money, but it has to
43:04
be especially for the long term and stuff there's like it has to
43:09
be at least reasonable of what we're doing, so, right.
43:12
And I mean and that makes sense, but I think as a consumer, so
43:15
people, if you're listening out there, if you're a consumer,
43:17
remember you don't always know the behind the scenes stuff.
43:20
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
43:21
And just realizing that and we don't.
43:24
Once again, we didn't have onion.
43:26
It wasn't the end of the world. When some some things that have
43:29
hit our menu is because of that, it's because we've disappointed
43:32
so many people in a row that we're like, oh, maybe we should
43:35
do that. And so we've had some things
43:39
like some things we've changed and all that of like if it's
43:42
like over and over again maybe even though we feel like maybe
43:46
that wasn't what we were supposed to do.
43:48
Obviously if it's like a repeat thing, you should probably at
43:51
least some sort of way accommodate that and then.
43:54
The people who come back and then we ask like we have fresh
43:59
onions now, they really appreciate that.
44:01
And even though it might not be then that triggered it, they
44:03
kind of feel like it is or so, yeah, but yeah.
44:07
So now you guys were doing some catering and stuff too, correct?
44:11
Yeah, okay do you is that something you still?
44:13
Do yeah. We still do kind of offsite like
44:16
buffet style catering. So once we have our full
44:18
kitchen. I'm trying to, instead of doing
44:21
like a food truck thing, kind of double on the catering side.
44:25
Okay. Yeah, and do we do weddings?
44:27
A lot of breakfast, like businesses will buy burritos and
44:31
stuff for their staff, so. I had noticed like a year, it
44:34
was like a year ago or something like that.
44:35
You had something going at the Broadmoor.
44:38
That one was like a food. It was called Taste of Pikes
44:41
Peak and it was just like you're basically just promoting your
44:45
brand. So it's like a big if you're a
44:47
customer, you just buy a ticket and you just go sample food and
44:49
drinks and take information and it's like an opportunity for
44:54
like food vendors to it's like a reverse food show, like they
44:58
come to you like there's you're serving food, they can come to
45:00
you. So kind of just like a big
45:03
networking thing and that was. That was when we were gonna
45:06
enter the Kiwadi food hall on Tejon.
45:11
We just, it just didn't work out.
45:13
So I pulled back on that and opened our own location.
45:16
But that was that food show was kind of us like announcing the
45:20
food hall was opening up and these are the plan vendors and
45:23
stuff like that. So that's cool.
45:24
It was fun cuz that was my first.
45:27
That was the first step towards like like actually cooking.
45:30
We weren't just like a small food truck anymore.
45:32
It was like starting to get into the industry and.
45:35
Like seeing all these, like, people, I look up like you're
45:38
like, oh, that's the owner of this restaurant and stuff, and
45:41
then three years later you're like have his phone number and
45:44
stuff. You're talking to him directly.
45:45
So it's kind of cool. It's a good way to network.
45:47
Yeah, that's. Awesome networking is such an
45:49
important thing. But I think sometimes you know,
45:52
once again, when you give back to the community and it, you
45:54
know, when you open a restaurant, people don't
45:56
understand you're still giving back to the community.
45:58
Yeah, because you're giving them an opportunity to go somewhere,
46:01
that is. Run by a local person.
46:03
Yeah. Especially with stuff like that,
46:06
like there's not really any restaurants down in that area
46:08
that you can say like, was it that food show I went to or I
46:12
saw them there or whatever, so. Right.
46:15
Fun. So it sounds like fun and
46:17
exciting things. So once again, let's do before
46:20
we wrap up, give all your information once again.
46:25
Our website where you can just find just about anything is Roll
46:28
up cos.com. When you go on the website it
46:32
pops up normally right away. Just subscribe for emails and
46:36
those. That's what that's like.
46:37
The first to know any new info, mom.
46:40
And then our restaurant is located at Three O 1 Main St.
46:43
8O911. We're open seven days a week.
46:47
Breakfast, lunch and dinner Right now is a bunch of like non
46:50
alcoholic drinks. But towards the end of the year
46:52
we'll basically have full service go in.
46:55
So definitely it's a cool time to.
46:59
Come frequently because you're able to like, watch in real time
47:03
all the changes. Instead of us like closing,
47:06
shutting out and all the windows and then like snapping our
47:08
fingers, now we're open. You kind of get to like see the
47:11
like pain of all this, so. So but right at the moment you
47:15
had to close because of the renovation part, so you have
47:18
reopening? Yeah, the reopenings up in the
47:21
air cuz our our walkin cooler system and then the full H
47:26
vacuum it went down because of the storm.
47:28
And then there's a bunch of like internal, like just some random
47:31
leaks and stuff like that where we're trying to, we're trying to
47:36
get back open. But I also have to have that
47:38
space for like the people to come do the work.
47:41
So we're in a, this is super weird because we're closed due
47:45
to an emergency. And so while we're closed, I'm
47:48
trying to like as fast as I can, like renovate some of the
47:51
building. Like yesterday I ripped the
47:53
whole ceiling down, threw it all away.
47:56
While we were closed. So we're trying to like,
47:58
maximize this closed time while it's covered by insurance.
48:02
Then we're gonna when the fixes happen, we'll reopen and then it
48:07
might come down to another short close.
48:09
It just kind of depends on how much we can use the building
48:12
while it's being worked on at the same time.
48:15
And then not bringing in new customers into like chaos
48:18
because they there's gonna be a lot going on and not every
48:21
customer is like in the loop of what's going on.
48:23
So you walk into something crazy like Friday you walked into the
48:27
whole staff in a panic. And so that's where I was.
48:30
Like, all right, let's just close because it's we're able to
48:32
open and serve, but it looks just a little bit crazy because
48:35
all of our cold storage was in, like temporary units in the
48:38
dining room. So cooks are running and ripping
48:40
the fridge open and they can't find anything.
48:43
And so people are looking like, what is?
48:46
And we're all young and it's a new place.
48:47
So they're just like, where am I?
48:49
And so that's not the place I want them to, like, know a spy.
48:52
So we have to like, yeah. Yeah.
48:55
So they understand it's like under construction, but not just
48:58
a total circus, cuz it like Friday mainly was just, I was
49:02
like, this isn't what we should look like at all.
49:04
So yeah. So you can also follow you on
49:08
Facebook. Yeah, and that's rollup Cos is
49:11
all of our social media. So if you type that in anywhere,
49:13
you'll be able to pull it up and we post the same updates on all
49:17
the social. So if you follow one, you're
49:18
pretty much set to go on those. Yeah, so.
49:22
Anybody. If you wanna know and it's
49:24
opening back up, follow you guys and then you guys will keep
49:27
everybody posted as far as that goes.
49:29
Yeah, the main hold back now is especially it's like the worst
49:33
case for your A/C unit to go down.
49:35
It's the middle of summer and our building is like glass.
49:38
So as soon as the sun starts like coasting over the building
49:41
and hitting the glass, it's like 95 to 100 degrees in there and
49:45
we're getting no like air circulation.
49:48
So it's just like A and we we do a lot of like our green chili
49:51
and a lot of cooking in the backroom.
49:53
So we have like fridges running and bodies and steam and it's
49:57
just not like, like I said, we can technically be open, but
50:00
it's not something you should be open through, so.
50:03
Yeah. Let's take care of customers and
50:05
staff because you know, being in that, the customers not going to
50:08
be happy. Yeah, it's that hot.
50:10
Then they're going to be griping about.
50:12
We're running swamp coolers and the same thing if like why am I
50:15
sitting in the industrial building and there's run in the
50:17
same swamp cooler I have at home as what's cooling the building
50:20
and there's not a good way of explaining that, so and.
50:23
Yeah, it's commercial. So everything just takes longer.
50:26
So to replace this A/C unit, we have to get like an architect's
50:30
drawings and permits. And so the A/C, the HVAC company
50:34
said it's gonna be 7 to 10 days, but then we're waiting on two
50:38
months of process, so. It's frustrating that we're
50:41
possibly closed until like September over a seven day
50:45
waiting period, right so and there's no getting ahead,
50:48
there's just nothing you can do. You just exactly you hop in line
50:51
and let it kind of happen the way it's it has to so.
50:55
Awesome. Well, I think it sounds like
50:56
that you're on the right track. For you know success, it's nice
51:00
to like I said with how like in every we've just we've been so
51:04
busy everything's getting work to capacity so it is nice to
51:07
like pause it. And then you get to step back
51:10
and see like this, we should change everything real quick
51:14
while we have the chance to, because it's been especially
51:17
we're open seven days a week with big hours.
51:20
So the best case scenario is I can go in first thing in the
51:23
morning and work for a couple hours or like do an overnight,
51:27
but then you got to open again. So it's like there's been barely
51:31
any like ability to really go in and get stuff done without kind
51:35
of causing a mess, so. Awesome.
51:38
Well, you know we look forward to any open back up.
51:40
We will definitely stop back by. You know, thank you so much for
51:45
joining us today because we, you know being somebody who's local
51:50
and being the entrepreneur I think also has the ability to
51:54
inspire others to take that lead.
51:57
Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do is like.
52:00
At least be one of the more positive people of like this is
52:03
going to maybe suck but it'll work.
52:05
Instead of just telling somebody like my best advice is to not do
52:07
it because if that's there's if that was the case, there
52:11
wouldn't be restaurants if it was that hard, same with really
52:14
anything if it was really that hard there would be none of
52:17
those. So like there's a million
52:19
restaurants out there so that's the million people that have
52:21
already done it so. Exactly.
52:24
Once again, thank you so much. And to our listeners, thank you
52:27
so much for listening. We will be back next week.
52:30
Hope you guys all have a great week.
52:32
Bye.