The Fast Casual Nation podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurateurs who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, host Paul Barron gives a deep dive into the latest hiring stats, fast casual trends, and vaccination requirements for restaurant and hospitality workers.Following in the footsteps of Walmart, Google, Tyson Foods, and other large corporations, McDonald’s has put in place a vaccine mandate for its U.S. corporate employees. The requirement will go into effect September 27.“With labor already at a pressure cooker point, the question is going to be how this will apply to restaurants in the franchise community,” says Barron. “There’s going to be all kinds of new case law on this. This policy by McDonald’s could definitely spark a heavy amount of interest, especially with the Delta variant.”Chipotle is also considering whether to require vaccines for all of its employees, including at the store level. At the same time, restaurants have seen a hiring boom, hiring 1.3 million employees since January—a 15 percent increase from July 2020.According to the latest Foodable Labs data, loyalty visits are up by 3.9 percent amongst the top 50 fast casual concepts. Takeout also saw a 9.4 increase in July, with 53.7 percent of fast casual consumers increasing their at-home ordering.“Everything has been skewed over the past 18 months because everything is moving in that [at-home ordering] direction,” adds Barron. “There has also been a 129 percent rise in plant-based options in fast casual menus… this bodes well for the industry. Still, the question always comes back to taste: if we see more products make it to the menu, will they perform well in terms of sales?”

Fast Casual Nation Podcast

93. Covid Requirements and Fast Casual Consumer Update August 2020

Guest: Mike LaVitola, Co-Founder & CEO of Foxtrot

92. The Corner Store & Café Redefining Convenience | Foxtrot

91. Clover POS System | Jeff Dickerson

Guest: David Selman, Culinary Director - The Stand

90. The Stand Restaurant | Fast Casual Nation Podcast

The Fast Casual Nation podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurateurs who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, host Paul Barron chats with Joe Fontana, the owner and founder of Fry the Coop, to explore drive-thrus and the accelerated growth of chicken concepts in the fast casual space.Fry the Coop is a Nashville hot chicken concept based in Chicago. Established in 2017, the chain specializes in Nashville hot chicken, fries, and a wide variety of chicken sandwiches. Mac and cheese, donut fried spicy butter, and a number of chicken combos are also featured on the menu.“We are pretty new. We just opened up two drive-thru locations in the past five months, so we’re in the infant stages of our brand,” says Fontana. “We opened up pretty slow, but once we started getting media notoriety, the lines started forming.”Fast casual chicken concepts have exploded in popularity in recent years. And since the pandemic, consumers have changed their dining habits—more people are ordering online or eating their food off-location, which pairs well with the fast casual model. Ghost kitchens have also seen success, though some operators are still hesitant to invest in the uncertain venture.“The problem with ghost kitchens is you have to deliver food through a third party partner,” notes Fontana. “That’s 25 to 30 percent of your revenue. I think that makes sense when you have a lot of customers coming in and it’s an add-on, but if that’s your only business model it’s really hard to make a profit.”

89. Chicken Concept Growth in Fast Casual | Fry The Coop

The Fast Casual Nation podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurateurs who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, host Paul Barron chats with Jon Fish, the vice president of marketing for Worthington, to provide a hands-on look at some of the latest innovative plant-based products on the market today.Worthington is a plant-based or “plant powered” brand that specializes in providing clean, healthy alternatives to meat products. The company’s products are packed with protein, and offer vegetarians, vegans, and health-conscious consumers a number of delicious meal options.

88. Worthington: Vegan Barbeque Chicketts Pizza

The Fast Casual Nation podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurateurs who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, host Paul Barron sits down with Chris Birkinshaw, the chief executive officer of Aloha Poke, to explore franchising a poke bowl concept during a pandemic.

87. How Aloha Poke Built a Franchise | CEO Chris Birkinshaw

Fast casual must diversify in order to stay afloat after the delivery bubble bursts, according to Sam Nazarian, CEO of C3, the company behind Umami Burger, Krispy Rice and Sam’s Crispy Chicken. During Covid, Sam’s virtual restaurant company – a subsidiary of sbe – jumped from $20 billion to $40 billion in online sales. Now faced with the reality of a reopening economy, C3 is aggressively diversifying through the rapid development and expansion of virtual restaurant brands, the opening of over 300 ghost kitchens and digital food halls, and the introduction of a proprietary delivery app launching in 2021.Guest: Sam Nazarian, CEO - C3C3 sbe Website ➜ https://t2m.io/C3sbe​#GhostKitchens​ #VirtualRestaurants​ #FoodDelivery​~CEO Sam Nazarian interview | Focusing on Virtual Restaurant Brands & Ghost Kitchens~⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺Get the latest restaurant and hospitality insider tips and education on saving your restaurant business in our FREE Virtual Event Platform ? https://t2m.io/VirtualEvents​Subscribe on YouTube ✅ https://t2m.io/YoutubeSubscribe​Facebook ? https://t2m.io/FoodableFacebook​Twitter ? https://t2m.io/FoodableTwitter​───────────────────────────Want to start your own virtual event or education series? Try our pro-level virtual event services ? https://t2m.io/VirtualServices

86. Focusing on Virtual Restaurant Brands | C3 CEO Sam Nazarian

Steele was the entrepreneur, founder, & CEO of STEELE Fitness, which was successfully sold to LiftBrands Global in 2017. CRISP & GREEN is a fast-casual restaurant that combines delicious and sustainable chef-crafted menu featuring salads, grain bowls, and smoothies. They are committed to providing wellness resources and events to create healthier, happier and stronger communities. CRISP & GREEN’s second largest expansion with 10 stores set to open in the Floridamarket with zero venture capital backing.Guest: Steele Smiley, Founder & CEO of STEELE BRANDSCrisp & Green website ➜ https://t2m.io/CrispGreen​Steele Brands website ➜ https://t2m.io/Steele​#VentureCapital​ #FastCasual​ #Restaurants​~Scaling Restaurant with Zero Venture Capital | Crisp & Green's Plant-Based Success~⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺Get the latest restaurant and hospitality insider tips and education on saving your restaurant business in our FREE Virtual Event Platform ? https://t2m.io/VirtualEvents​Subscribe on YouTube ✅ https://t2m.io/YoutubeSubscribe​Facebook ? https://t2m.io/FoodableFacebook​Twitter ? https://t2m.io/FoodableTwitter​───────────────────────────Want to start your own virtual event or education series? Try our pro-level virtual event services ? https://t2m.io/VirtualServices

85. Scaling Restaurant with Zero Venture Capital | Crisp & Green's Plant-Based Success

Del Taco, the iconic Mexican-American concept, debuted its highly-anticipated new restaurant design prototype. The new "Fresh Flex" design focuses on: restaurant accessibility, speed of service and brand transparency. The latest design features third-party delivery pick-up stations, double drive-thru lanes dedicated to mobile orders or delivery driver pickups and dedicated parking lot areas for those who want to park, eat and go.

84. Del Taco's Fresh Flex Prototype | New Restaurant Design

The Fast Casual Nation podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurateurs who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, host Paul Barron sits down with Travis Bickham, the vice president of marketing for Birdeye, to explore how restaurant operators can grow their businesses online in 2021.This content brought to you by Birdeye.Birdeye is an all-in-one customer experience platform that provides 60,000+ businesses with tools to deliver great experiences at every step of the customer journey. Businesses use Birdeye to be found online, chosen through listings and reviews, be connected with customers, and deliver the best end-to-end experience with surveys and insights tools.

83. Restaurant Reviews & Ratings Software | Birdeye Customer Experience Management

Better-burger chain BurgerFi is plotting a massive expansion strategy. With plans to add 30-35 new locations this year, expanding ghost kitchen operations and the brand’s first drive-thru it has been a tremendous year of growth for BurgerFi as they have just gone public (BFI). The company's new CEO also has nearly three decades of experience in various positions at Burger King. The 125-unit chain credited “significant increases” in delivery and app sales for the small revenue boost in 2020. Given the aggressive growth plan, BurgerFi could be an undervalued stock to own within the hard hit restaurant industry.

82. BurgerFi's Massive Growth Plan | The Next Big Burger Chain?

Birdcall, a contemporary take on a retro chicken restaurant is the third restaurant concept and venture for the group that is lead by chef Jean-Philippe Failyau along with his partner Peter Newlin. Customers witness the birdcall experience by ordering from custom designed kiosks. Built from the ground up, Newlin and his team have developed their very own user-friendly, customer facing, POS system that allows the guest to feel completely immersed in the brand experience from start to finish.Guest: Peter Newlin - CEO of Birdcall

81. Birdcall Restaurant Built It's Own First-Party POS System

Nobana, Arizona’s newest Asian-inspired ghost kitchen, is now open for business via DoorDash, UBER Eats and Postmates. Created by the owner of Wildflower, Nobana offers flavor-packed bone broth and gluten-free noodle bowls, salads and wraps. The virtual restaurant is operating as a ghost kitchen out of the Sonora Village Wildflower location, with plans to expand to additional Wildflower locations around the Valley later this year.Guest: Louis Basile - President/Founder at Wildflower

80. Wildflower's New Virtual Restaurant Brand | Nobana

Sweet Paris Crêperie founded in 2012 by Allison and Ivan Chavez, Sweet Paris is one of the hottest and fastest growing restaurant brands in Houston, Texas with its Instagram-worthy, French-inspired interiors and delicious food and drinks made with high-quality ingredients and bold flavors. Guest: Allison Chavez, Founder of Sweet Paris Crêperie

79. Fastest-Growing Restaurant Chain in Texas | Sweet Paris Crêperie

My exploration of innovation led by operators who think different has gone on for more than 20 years. Fast Casual continues to be the darling of the food industry and is destined to redefine what restaurants and food can be for the consumer of the future. Hosted by Paul Barron, founder of fastcasual.com

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Fast Casual Nation Podcast

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