- 14 hours ago
Joe Fontana, founder of Fry the Coop, turned a love for Nashville hot chicken into one of Chicago’s fastest-growing restaurant brands. Known for bold risks, storytelling, and a $300,000-a-year commitment to frying in beef tallow.
Listen now to learn about the leap from cubicle to hot chicken, the marketing stunt with a full chicken costume, and the rise of Fry the Coop across Chicago.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Listen now to learn about the leap from cubicle to hot chicken, the marketing stunt with a full chicken costume, and the rise of Fry the Coop across Chicago.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
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NewsTranscript
00:00so what are you gonna do to raise your family support your family and I'm like what are you
00:03taught Nancy what are you talking about like I'm opening a restaurant she's like yeah yeah
00:06well after the restaurant like fails and closes like what are you gonna do I am starting to think
00:11that maybe you don't believe in me I do believe in you I just know you're gonna fail
00:18welcome to restaurant influencers presented by entrepreneur I'm your host Sean Walchef this is a
00:32Cali bbq media production we are coming to you from Chicago before the national restaurant
00:38association show I put out a post to the community if you're watching the show if you're new welcome
00:44uh I asked who's the best storyteller in Chicago and multiple people LinkedIn YouTube Instagram
00:51Joe Fontana wow really fry the coop all right multiple people and I've got Joe we are at fry
00:59the coop one of 10 locations that's right uh welcome to the show yeah thank you for having me I'm honored
01:05I'm gonna add storyteller to my LinkedIn profile here you should you should this is a storytelling show
01:10um shout out to toast for believing in this show we launched it in 2022 and we've been fortunate to
01:16film all over the United States um had some incredible people on this show and now we get to
01:21go deep in Chicago so love it um I'm gonna ask you my favorite random question which is where in the
01:27world is your favorite stadium stage or venue oh this one is very easy and it's in your guys backyard
01:36it is the Hollywood Bowl in California that's unexpected I was expecting right Wrigley Field
01:42you know there's something about the Hollywood Bowl that literally like most artists when they play
01:48there they that's the one and only time they will ever play at the Hollywood Bowl ever there is like
01:54only a handful of artists that have played there like multiple times so when you're seeing somebody
01:58play at the Hollywood Bowl it is a special once in a lifetime event and if you guys have ever been
02:04it is just magical when the sun sets and it gets to dusk you know it is just uh the magic in the air
02:11the sound the music the vibe yeah I gotta say Hollywood Bowl okay we're gonna go to the Hollywood Bowl we're
02:17gonna talk to toast entrepreneur we'll talk to some other sponsors and we're gonna get industry
02:22professionals people that listen to this show storytellers hospitality pros and we're gonna put
02:28you on center stage TEDx style oh and I'm gonna give you the mic and I want story time with Joe and
02:33Joe I want you to tell me bring me back to your dream of opening a restaurant working in farmers markets
02:40with brand new kids and a dream to open up restaurants yeah I love it I was um living in Chicago my wife and
02:51I got married we decided Chicago winters weren't for us we hightailed it to California moved to Temecula
02:57California found myself working some office job that was a great great job however I just found myself
03:04like almost in a cubicle just hating life stressed I wanted to do something that I loved and so after
03:10finding a mentor to give me some advice I figured out that I love food and food was like the the thing
03:17that drove me that got me excited and uh so I basically learned the phrase you know if you do
03:23what you love you never work another day in your life so I just started working backwards like okay
03:27how do I work and make a living in food my wife being pregnant you know I was like the pressure like
03:33I gotta make money for my family you know so I met a great chef in San Marcos California she had a
03:42little culinary school and one of the culinary classes that she offered was the business of food
03:47and imagine me I I know nothing you know like I can come to your house make you a great meal like
03:52I'm an Italian fat kid who loves food you know like no problem but like running a restaurant cooking
03:58commercially and cooking like the same meal over and over and over again the same consistent way I had
04:04no idea so this uh chef she uh took me under her wing for uh over you know it was going to be three
04:11months turned into six months I was just there with her every Saturday I remember one Saturday
04:16we were cooking going over the business plan and uh I got there in the morning I didn't get home to
04:21like nine o'clock at night so I was there like all day my wife is like texting me like what are you
04:26doing there with this lady you know like I don't understand it's just you and her there you didn't
04:29die she didn't kill me I didn't end up in the soup I didn't cheat on my wife it was literally just
04:35learning and cooking uh so I just like fell in love with the you know the the process the food
04:40learning you know the business of food and uh she pushed me to open up a uh food stand in uh the
04:48Oceanside food market so in Oceanside California every Thursday night they do this uh great thing
04:53where they um have like 50 60 vendors you know pop up and they do this food festival it's uh it's an
04:59amazing event and her point was that she's like you think you have a great concept she's like I think
05:04you have a good concept she's like I think the food is good she goes but you got to test the market
05:07yeah she's like you will not know you know she's like well you might think you have the best thing
05:12you know to slice bread she's like but until you test the market that's when you will really figure
05:17out and so it cost I think $2,800 to get all my setup for the market got my permits and uh started
05:25uh going there every every Thursday so it was a uh grind too because I was working my full-time job
05:30I would have to go shop for ingredients on Monday prep everything Tuesday Wednesday get everything ready
05:35for Thursday rush home from work great you know fill my car drive 45 minutes set up by the time
05:41I was done setting up I'm like dripping sweat you know and then it's like all right service begins
05:46and uh and you don't make any money either we were kind of talking about that the pop-up was great
05:51because it taught me a lot but like you know after food time cost expenses travel everything it's
05:58basically a break even yeah so uh I kind of learned after a year of doing that that it was like okay I
06:04need to focus on working on a brick and mortar yeah and that was like kind of the impotence of
06:08like hey I'm not really making any money I'm learning a lot the fans uh we used to have at
06:12the time my concept was called meatball republic that was the restaurant I was trying to open
06:16and literally um I had a line of people I was selling get there by five I'd be sold out by like
06:22eight o'clock wow and not only that I started getting some attention some of the breweries in
06:26California and the wineries in Temecula were starting to call and say like hey can you come set up at the
06:32winery do a Saturday do a Sunday uh so I started doing that but it is a crazy amount of work food
06:38trucks pop-ups it is like not for an old old guy like me now 100 uh and bring us to the impetus to
06:47get out of the food vending business and get into actual brick and mortar business well I actually did
06:55a kickstarter campaign raised $25,000 uh I was ready to for meatball for meatball concept yeah and
07:02I was going all in on it um I actually signed a lease somewhere um my daughter was pretty much
07:10just born like uh first daughter yeah my first daughter we have three kids now so I got uh like
07:15a newborn a little late home and I was basically trying to sign a lease at a store that was uh it was
07:20a bridal store they were supposed to move out they never moved out a bridal so not even an existing
07:26restaurant it wasn't an existing restaurant yeah I was like yeah just I'm gonna build from the ground
07:30up scratch you know like awful awful idea literally and uh you know everything happens for a reason
07:36and I really believe like that happened for a reason because they said they were gonna move out
07:40they never moved out I mean I went through with like architect plans like the whole um we had a
07:45concept uh drawing like 3d renderings drawn up with the restaurant uh I even got like a liquor license
07:51I was talking with the city so anyways after about a year of that not happening I ended up at the crack
07:57shack in uh San Diego in Encinitas and I just fell in love with these chicken sandwiches that they had
08:04there and so my friend flies into town I brought him back there and uh I grabbed the manager I was like
08:09hey come over here I'm like what is this sandwich right here and he's like oh we gave it a cute name
08:14but really it's like a Nashville hot chicken sandwich and I was like Nashville hot chicken
08:18like what is that you know but like the the moment was I was sitting in bed and I was like falling
08:25asleep but like still awake and I couldn't stop thinking about that flavor I'm like my tongue like
08:30I was like obsessed with like the flavor of this like Nashville hot chicken so I just started learning
08:36all about it and what I kind of realized what that there really is no um there was no especially
08:42around Temecula there was no Nashville hot chicken at the time so my buddy calls me up a good friend
08:47and he's like hey he's in real estate he goes I have this building we're actually about to lose it
08:52into foreclosure he goes but he goes if you want it was a restaurant that opened and closed would you
08:57want to fly out here and come check it out so I get on a plane go to Chicago check this thing out
09:02and it's over the counter service the meatball concept was like a full wine club like full
09:08server like you know full full service restaurant so I was like oh man over the counter I was like
09:13ah I'm like I didn't really think about anything over the counter and then I was like well I'm kind
09:19of addicted to these chicken sandwiches right now and for no reason than other like I wasn't trying
09:23to open up a chicken sandwich joint it was just I was obsessed with it like I was making it at home
09:27I was feeding all my neighbors like I just like obsessed with these fried chicken sandwiches
09:33and so I was like well let me go back to California and I'll start writing a business plan
09:37and I'll kind of see what comes of this I got about seven pages into this business plan
09:42around chicken sandwiches french fries at the time mind you I live right down the street from
09:47In-N-Out Burger of course so I'm eating In-N-Out like five days a week right I see the lines you know
09:53there was one day I'm driving down uh the road and there was these bushes that kind of covered the
09:58drive-thru line at In-N-Out yeah and I almost got into a car accident because it looked like the
10:02drive-thru was empty which I'd never seen before I was like it's always what's happening in-N-Out
10:07and then I finally see there is a line yeah okay but anyway so the just the idea I was like man
10:13chicken sandwiches handmade like gourmet chicken sandwiches served fast like kind of how In-N-Out
10:19does it I was like and I started writing the plan around that idea and now it's seven pages in I
10:24call my buddy up I'm like this is a hit like we got a hit on our hands I'm like I don't care what
10:28corner you put this on yeah it's a hit so then I had to go to my wife and say hey do you want to
10:34sell our first house that we just bought and uh and she's pregnant again by the way this time
10:39so I do want to move back to Chicago where the winters are like negative 14 degrees yeah uh so
10:45yeah we uh she was like if this is your dream and we want to do this you know I'll uh I'll do it with
10:50you so we packed up the car sold the house drove back across country um and uh I think one of the one
10:57of the other tidbits was that with meatball republic it was kind of a one-off concept like I don't know
11:02if you can duplicate a specialness with meatball republic but fry the coop I was like oh this is
11:08something that's scalable so I told her I go if we move back to Chicago this is not for me to create
11:13a job for myself this is like me creating a brand and like a concept that's like scalable so we came
11:19back with the idea that like I'm gonna try to like build this brand up and then at the time it was
11:25scale it to 15 locations so literally I we drove back to Chicago I got the keys this was uh September
11:31of 2017 September 2nd I got the keys walked into this place by myself just full panic you know
11:39just like I just started sweating what just happened what did I just tell my wife you know
11:45because you plan so much and then finally like the day comes and you're like oh my god I have to
11:50open up a restaurant yeah and I'm by myself literally there's just me I'm standing there
11:55by the way we're staying at my in-laws house at the time and my mother-in-law love her to pieces
12:00but one day we're having some uh wine and uh this was like just when we got there so I had like I'd
12:06been to the restaurant twice at this point and she's like so what are you gonna do to raise your
12:10family support your family and I'm like what are you talking Nancy what are you talking about like
12:14I'm opening a restaurant she's like yeah yeah well after the restaurant like fails and closes like
12:18what are you gonna do oh my god like what fantastic and I'm like uh what she's like well most
12:25restaurants fail didn't you think about that and I'm like no no I didn't actually like I'm like there
12:30is no plan b here it's like either kill or be killed so I kind of had this real sense of like we just had
12:36to go and uh yes we painted the walls uh and uh no lease some equipment and uh no sign I hired about
12:44three people I heard a chef which was awesome he kind of helped streamline everything but uh fast
12:50forward two months from that day of getting the keys we kicked the doors open and uh two months I
12:56know yeah I worked with the village and they just said it was restaurant to restaurant so there was
13:00nothing really do no construction and they were really cool to help me open up fast and it was funny
13:06because we opened the doors and there was two people from the building department in oak lawn
13:10illinois south side they came they were our first customers because they were the only ones that knew
13:14about it and then crickets no customers after that I mean there was like weeks that went by that were
13:21like I had my like you don't want to you don't want a restaurant slow there's like this moment when
13:28restaurants are slow everyone's got this like sad puppy dog look on their face you know you just look
13:33around yeah you're like are you sure something going on here I mean legit I went and bought from
13:38a Halloween store a chicken costume and I was standing out in the street just trying to wave
13:43any car I could like come on in please please come in you still have the chicken costume uh no we
13:49burned it actually I had a we went camping and I had a ceremony and we uh we burned it we've moved
13:56down in our marketing techniques um but yeah so that's how I went from basically you know the
14:01farmer's market to uh open up a brick and mortar did you know that toast powers over 140,000
14:07restaurants across the United States Canada and UK it's an incredible company I'm on the toast
14:14customer advisory board they are proud sponsors of this show restaurant influencers we couldn't do it
14:18without their support they power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego if you have questions
14:24about toast if you're thinking about bringing toast on to be your primary technology partner
14:29at your restaurants please reach out to me I'm happy to get a local toast representative to take
14:34care of you you can reach me at Sean P Welcheff on Instagram once again thank you to toast for
14:40believing in the power of technology the power of storytelling the power of hospitality back to the show
14:46so now you're opening up location number 10 yep what is the biggest thing that what was the biggest
14:52failure in that growth between one to ten oh okay the biggest failure for sure was not or thinking that
15:01I had my finances under control yeah but not really actually having my finance like my first hire was
15:07actually a bookkeeper yeah so we found a bookkeeper it was a third party like outside bookkeeper but uh I
15:13was like okay well we got it you know we got a bookkeeper she's she's got it you know uh totally wrong
15:19so the three things that I've learned for any any business really is you need a great great product
15:25you need great service and great finances and so we had the first two I thought we had the third one
15:30but I've learned after you know basically going from one to five I was able to wing that with a
15:35bookkeeper going from five to ten it was like an eyes wide open like slap in the face that we should
15:42have been uh keeping every source document invoices receipts and then finding a system to put them in
15:49and then also line by line getting the uh general ledger of every the gls you know every item you
15:56know categorized into exactly what it should be because that without good financing I don't care what
16:02business you have or good financials I mean uh you will not make it you won't and that's I think why a lot
16:07of chefs fail is because chefs will open a restaurant they know great service they know
16:12great food and they don't know the great financing part um and uh they fail we're obsessed with
16:19storytelling obviously we have barbecue restaurants in San Diego we built a media company on top of it
16:24to find the best storytellers in the hospitality space um what was your oh shit moment with social
16:30media oh well gosh um when you say oh shit moment you mean like that I knew like it was working
16:39yeah where you realize like yeah correct when you realize like oh wait this is like I'm actually a
16:46publisher I am actually you are your own media company you have you have the opportunity to publish
16:51and tell your story however you want you don't need permission to do it you just need dedication oh for
16:56sure and so I'll actually go a little before that I studied a lot of New York restauranteurs okay
17:03because New York City I mean the competition's so crazy high and you know in Manhattan you have to
17:10get noticed or you're you know the rents are so high it's like you're dead in the water if you don't have
17:14good marketing so I kept hearing these New York restaurant guys talk about publicists and I was like
17:20publicists like well I thought that was for like celebrities yeah what would you need a publicist for like
17:24why would a restaurant need a publicist and then I talked to somebody in Chicago that had a very
17:29successful restaurant and they credited a lot of their success to their publicist really and this
17:34was like right at the beginning so I'd like just opened up one restaurant like I said we really did
17:39not have any sales coming in but I was like all right we got to hire a publicist so I jumped off the
17:45cliff found a great publicist and one of the goals was to get on TV because I was like hey if I can go on
17:50TV maybe it'll spread the word like way better if I can get on the news and do that kind of thing
17:55so I found a great publicist she's still been working with us now eight years later but that
18:00publicist had was a game changer because there was a TV show I was trying to get on in Chicago on WGN
18:07and I found out who the producer was I mean I was stalking this producer DMs emails phone calls
18:14chicken costume yeah yeah nothing whatever you need I was getting crickets literally uh right
18:20after we hired the publicist she's like oh yeah I know Chrissy like yeah no no stop calling her I
18:24was booked on WGN like a week later oh sweet yeah so uh hiring the publicist really like projected us
18:31into getting on uh TV I went on ABC uh we got a one of the great um food critics in Chicago is Steve
18:40Dolinsky his thing was the hungry hound yeah he's a 13 times James Beard award-winning journalist
18:46which is pretty gnarly like who's got 13 James Beard awards uh but he actually came out did a
18:51segment on us and I'm not kidding you as soon as that segment aired we had to um hire like 25 people
18:58I mean the line went around the building we were selling out like wow every week we couldn't keep up
19:03with the prep we couldn't keep up with what we needed to order I mean it was like a shit how many
19:09stores did you have at that point it was just one wow just one store like that was like really taking
19:13a leap of faith how'd you find the publicist uh you know I looked around at a different uh restaurant
19:19groups in Chicago to figure out who they were using yep my original pick was this girl um I think her
19:24name was Heidi but she I called her up and I said hey we're looking for a publicist she just signed
19:30on one of the major restaurant groups in Chicago who has like 18 restaurants and she was like I can't
19:35take on one more thing she's like we just signed these 18 restaurants she's like but she's like
19:40if your goal is to get on tv and let me introduce you to Rebecca and uh that's how I found our publicist
19:45amazing yeah and uh she had just brought branched off on her own so it was kind of cool she was
19:49starting her own business at the time and I was so it was kind of like two like separate entrepreneurs
19:55like coming together and uh they've been great they've been great literally I mean we've been featured
19:59in wall street journal we were featured in bloomberg yesterday amazing I've been on nbc abc cbs
20:06uh wgn I mean you name it we've had shows come out the sun times uh chicago tribune uh we've been
20:14featured in usa today I mean the list goes on and on and on about you know and this is just the
20:20beginning like we're just getting warmed up as our brand grows I mean we're talking about going to
20:24New York to do the today show sweet um I'll fly out uh there's a national show for fox news that
20:29we'll do at some point uh we came this close to getting on the rachel ray show oh wow I was going
20:34to do a cooking segment on the rachel ray show the producer canceled on us but I was like I'm going to
20:39New York in like two days like I'm getting I'm jumping on a plane like I was like calling people I
20:43know out there like can we use your walking cooler uh yeah so I mean like I think the publicist was
20:48a game changer and then uh we went into well street market which is a little food hall it used
20:55to be in uh right in the loop the girl who did the social media for that and she also did it for my
21:01friend's restaurant I saw the success that she had with the social media and I was doing it myself
21:06but it was to like a very like you know it's hard to do all these things you're operating you're trying
21:11to do posts whatever it really wasn't working out so I just said hey you know would you ever be
21:15interested in taking us on and um that has bloomed now so it's been over six years since we've been
21:21working together with our social media person yep um but we've gotten better together as we've grown
21:27too into it and now like we're like finally catching a little wind and that that aw shit moment like
21:33aha was really I think last year at some point we really started catching like a groove of like us
21:39working together filming editing um because you know Instagram used to be pictures yep and then you
21:45know a couple about a year and a half ago it switched right to all videos yep so then it was
21:48like oh wait now we got to become video editors we gotta be correct now we're gonna like pictures
21:53don't do anything anymore and that was like the whole first like four years of us working together
21:57was just like pictures yep and so it all changed and um we ended up spending a little more money on it
22:02and now I'm actually like I want to put all my chips on the table um I'm actually contemplating
22:07hiring somebody uh to just do tiktok videos like full-time like a full-time job full in-house person
22:15that just shoots tiktok videos yeah because with that you can go viral almost at any moment so it's
22:21almost like um uh what is the where it's uh bats um what do they say with baseball where it's like
22:27how many times you're up to bats what's the phrase I don't know there's like a phrase there
22:30how many up to bats we'll call it that but how many at bats thank you at bats yeah but basically
22:37you know the more you're at bats the more videos you put out yep the more chances you have to reach
22:41people and go viral so uh tell us about family uh we're here at this location you shared with me
22:49before we started recording the photos on the wall the neighborhood the village um so much of that
22:55you know I I have an orange tree in front of our restaurant and the more I started talking
23:00about the orange tree which was planted by my grandfather who's from Bulgaria oh no way he
23:04made sure that it was there it survived you know multiple changes of restaurant ownership um eventually
23:11we built out the smokehouse and we were going to get rid of the orange tree and my wife who's also
23:14Bulgarian said you're not getting rid of the orange tree grandfather but so like we had this orange
23:19tree but like I never told stories about it until you know one podcast and somebody said hey you
23:24should tell that story more now I still tell it on stages but you have your own orange tree story
23:29with this location can you share a little bit of the deep deep roots of uh why we're here and
23:35and what's uh why'd you pick this location for us to film in yeah love it um well I can't wait to
23:41hear the orange tree story I'm not I didn't know about that so I'm gonna be digging into it you gotta
23:45go you gotta go check out our Cali barbecue media uh youtube channel for the orange story yeah uh so
23:51at our first restaurant I sat down with the historic society and I got a ton of pictures of the old
23:56the neighborhood to put in and I love the idea of paying homage to like the history of the
24:00neighborhood you're in you know um so we did that at restaurant one restaurant two this was uh restaurant
24:06three and um we ended up buying this building which was really cool I knew my grandparents grew up in
24:13this neighborhood both sets of my grandparents grew up around here this used to be an old Italian
24:18neighborhood back in the day a lot of those guys from the movie casino they all came from this
24:23neighborhood wow like that you know that guy who got his head in the vice and they squeezed it
24:26that guy actually used to hit on my grandma right two blocks behind us got into a fight with my
24:31grandfather yeah I swear to god that character so this was the neighborhood they all came from
24:35uh but I learned that um you know my grandma grew up three blocks behind us like almost directly behind
24:42us I actually drive by the house she grew up in like 50 times a year now you know um my other grandma
24:48grew up a couple blocks that way my grandpa's house was a couple blocks this way uh so trying
24:54to find all those historic pictures around the neighborhood um it was really hard because now
24:59this neighborhood's called the west town we're in west town chicago just west of the city but it's um
25:04it was really hard to find like pictures of like actually this little pocket it was just called
25:09chicago but look up old pictures of chicago there's a million right and like tons of neighborhoods
25:13so I called my grandma one day and I was like hey you mind if I go through your um like crawl space
25:18and pick through some pictures she was like absolutely so I drove to her house spent hours
25:23sitting in her crawl space picking out pictures what I learned is like she got married in the church
25:28like directly behind us in 1959 uh I found all the pictures from her wedding which are on the wall now
25:34really cool I found pictures of my grandpa uh my great-grandfather who's also named Joe Fontana
25:39uh pictures taken like two blocks away from here we're talking about in the 40s 50s crazy uh 60s
25:45and so it's cool we made copies of all of them and now we put them on the wall kind of pay homage
25:49of the neighborhood and then also um you know pay a little uh respect to my family and they're like
25:54you know childhood growing up here this used to be a convenience store actually and this building
25:59that we're sitting in is 153 years old now so my grandma used to come here and like walk by you
26:04know and uh right down the street now the library the chicago public library used to be a
26:09goldblatt's which was this huge like kind of like our like an old school sears if you will but like
26:15it sold everything from like clothes to milk you can get like groceries there and like so everyone
26:20used to you know they'd be like here's a nickel go get us milk at goldblatt's you know so all the
26:24kids would run up and down here uh so it's really kind of like a special place here uh for me just
26:29because this is like where you know essentially I came from it's amazing and uh love the history we also
26:35got to find the library hooked us up with a ton of pictures for the neighborhood uh one I was just
26:40showing you there's a picture behind us from 1920 and it's the corner right here chicago avenue and
26:46ashland and it's so cool down the street they had street cars yep with like electric lines that
26:51powered them uh which is so cool there was like train tracks in here but there's so much history in
26:56Chicago so I love the idea of kind of like giving back a little bit and you know putting that on the
27:01walls so we're on a mission to have every restaurant also become a media company you're on a mission to
27:07make sure that all restaurants switch over to beef tallow oh yeah tell us about beef tallow tell us
27:11about the wall street journal bloomberg um I love the videos we're gonna put links obviously fry the
27:17coop uh your instagram your tiktok because you show versus tell you don't just tell us about beef tallow but
27:23let us know about beef tallow what it means to you and um also also the press that you've gotten because
27:28of it oh yeah I love it and honestly I'm on a mission to change every restaurant and switching
27:33over to beef tallow I truly believe it's better for you it tastes better and it's just a better way
27:39to eat uh people have been you're spending oh three hundred thousand dollars a year extra because
27:44of beef tallow this man is he's not he's not bullshitting I mean I saw the wall street journal
27:49article and there's an extra three hundred thousand dollars a lot of that's a commitment to quality
27:54we're all in well people have been cooking with animal fats since the beginning of time you know
27:59so I feel like it's a natural way to cook food um going back I mean the taste is really the main
28:04thing here for any restaurant you want to have food to taste the best so when we were opening up the
28:08restaurant uh the chef that we had hired he had said like hey why don't we blanch our fries and beef
28:13tallow but then we'll cook everything in vegetable oil so we were testing and starting out by doing like
28:19a 50 50 but I didn't actually know anything about beef tallow at the time then somebody sends me
28:24Malcolm Gladwell's podcast uh called revisionist history and he has an episode called McDonald's
28:30broke my heart so I listened to this episode and it goes into the whole history that everyone used to
28:36use beef tallow like the Burger Kings McDonald's of the world up until 1991 everyone switched over
28:43and what I found out in that podcast is that there was some peer pressure from this guy who
28:48kind of was thinking that McDonald's was killing America with their beef fat fries and this guy
28:55he was a self-made billionaire and he was retired sold this company and he just used his fortune to
29:02like go after big companies like Kellogg's he went after McDonald's but this guy was going nuts I mean
29:07he was taking out billboards he was taking out Super Bowl ads commercials literally saying like
29:12McDonald's is killing America with the beef fat and so at the time they had assumed that like saturated
29:20fats were worse for you than a trans fat and so we just didn't know at the time we just kind of thought
29:25like oh like it's killing America right so this guy the final straw that broke the camel's back is this guy
29:32went on the the Johnny Carson show the tonight show with the CEO of McDonald's and uh he made the CEO
29:39McDonald's look foolish and they just argued it out I don't know how they got on the tonight show but
29:44they argued it out live TV and about three months later McDonald's switched over wow from beef tallow
29:50to a vegetable oil and now we know that you know trans fat the seed oils are way worse for you than a
29:57saturated fat so anyways McDonald's being a leader in the industry um eventually everybody followed suit
30:04Burger King Wendy's I mean you name it everybody switched over to uh seed oil and if you talk to
30:10the food distributors now one of their top items that they sell to restaurants is seed oils yeah I
30:16mean that's like a number one key item that they move a lot of jibs um and so I think uh it's time that
30:23we get back to beef tallow and get rid of the seed oil jibs and uh get to uh great tasting beef tallow but uh so
30:32what we did is we've been using it since the beginning once I listened to that Malcolm Gladwell
30:36podcast it was literally like almost uh right when we opened up the doors so I was like you know what
30:41we're going 100% beef tallow both in the back when we blanch and then the front when we fry to order
30:46um so for us it's been eight years and I didn't really know anything you know yeah I didn't know better
30:52I was just that's what I learned so that's what we're going with and people always say they'll eat
30:56our chicken they're like god this is the best chicken sandwich I ever had you know why is that
31:01and I'm always like well don't tell anybody but it's the beef tallow you know it's like the secret
31:06um and it really is I think a game changer in taste flavor um and so come now fast forward to about a
31:13year ago uh with all the political stuff and you know everyone looking at health and yep um the food
31:20dies and you know all that um beef tallow started getting into the conversation so all these media
31:26outlets have really made it um uh have made it um like politicized it you know which I don't
31:33prescribe to that don't care but we thought well hey we'll jump out we've been doing this for so long
31:39like we should jump on the bandwagon here and also to our publicist was like hey we could probably get
31:43some attention you know because you've been doing beef tallow for a while so the first thing we did is
31:48we put out a video um and people were always curious about it we heard all these questions when we
31:53talk about the beef tallow like how do you put in the fryer how does it melt we had restaurants dming
31:58us like do you have to filter it how do you when do you change it you know just so many questions
32:03so finally we shot a video where we kind of like just loaded up the fryer with beef tallow and showed
32:07the process and we did like a little um quick um what do you call time lapse of it that video got
32:146.8 million views I mean like it legit went viral you know like no doubt then we put up another one
32:20kind of similar and talking about beef tallow that one got like 4 million views or something
32:24wow so like we just started going viral viral viral around beef tallow and uh what what I realize is
32:31that a lot of people they've heard about it they know a little bit but they don't haven't seen it
32:35they haven't seen it show me the process yeah show me the process it also looks kind of like ice cream
32:40looks like vanilla ice cream yeah so it's kind of hard to like judge so we've we've just been
32:44educating people about it um answering dms and just trying to tell people like hey like
32:50this tastes better you know and uh and I think if I go somewhere just in general just me personally
32:55like I want to eat at a place that's fried in beef tallow you're you know everyone oh we have duck fat
33:00fries it's like yes absolutely I will take the duck fat fries right here you know it just everyone has
33:06this idea so it's been a blessing to kind of talk about what we do in the back of the kitchen uh from
33:12that manner and uh it's gotten us a lot of attention that's amazing if you guys are watching
33:16this or listening to this thank you for subscribing we appreciate it uh please check out our restaurant
33:21technology sub stack newsletter so we just launched that I'm going to have Joe on I'm going to ask him
33:26some rapid fire questions about how he uses toast what products he uses with toast but also all the
33:31other tech tools that he uses we're also going to do a beef tallow shoot so we will put that into
33:37the episode um please go check that out uh Joe this has been awesome I am truly grateful that uh
33:44I know you that I call your friend um that you were here on the show and that you're uh you're going to
33:50show us around any parting words for a restaurateur that's uh has that business plan in hand you know
33:56go confidently in the direction of your dreams you just got to jump off the cliff and grow wings on
34:01the way down and if you believe in yourself and you believe in your product and your service and
34:06have you have good finances good financing yeah uh you know you can do it so believe in yourself
34:12amazing as always guys stay curious get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help we'll catch you
34:16guys next episode thank you for watching thank you for listening if you've made it this long
34:24you are part of the community you're part of the tribe we can't do this alone we started no one
34:29was listening now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe please
34:34check out our new series called restaurant technology sub stack it's a sub stack newsletter
34:39it's free it's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants also go to youtube and
34:45subscribe to cali barbecue media cali bbq media on youtube we've been putting out a lot of new original
34:51content hopefully you guys like that content if you want to work with us go to be the show dot media
34:56we show up all over the united states some international countries we would love to work
35:01with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling you can reach out to me anytime
35:05at sean p welchef on instagram i'm weirdly available stay curious get involved don't be afraid to ask for
35:11help we'll catch you next episode
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