- 6 weeks ago
Daniel Shemtob, winner of Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race and founder of The Lime Truck and Snibbs, has built a career that bridges hospitality and innovation. From food trucks to footwear, he’s turned real kitchen experience into products and businesses that serve the people behind the line.
Watch now to learn about building The Lime Truck from the ground up, turning a kitchen injury into innovation, and finding purpose in helping others rebuild.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn about building The Lime Truck from the ground up, turning a kitchen injury into innovation, and finding purpose in helping others rebuild.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
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NewsTranscript
00:00Is it harder to build a shoe brand or a restaurant?
00:05I only laugh because they're both so goddamn equally hard.
00:17Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur. I'm your host,
00:21Sean Walchef. This is a Cali BBQ Media production in life, in the restaurant business,
00:26and in the new creator economy, we learn through lessons and stories. Special shout out to Toast,
00:32our primary technology partner at our barbecue restaurants here in San Diego for believing in
00:37me, believing in this show. We launched in 2022, and we've had some incredible guests on. If you're
00:42new to the show, welcome. We picked the best, the best storytellers, the best hospitality professionals,
00:48and the best technologists to feature on this show. And we have Daniel Shemtaub. He is the CEO
00:54and founder of The Lime Truck, Snibs Footwear, co-founder, CEO, and Hatcha Later. Daniel,
01:02he also is a cookbook author. He's done some amazing things. We'll let him tell the story
01:06because he'll tell it better than I. Daniel, welcome to the show.
01:09Hey, thanks for having me, Sean.
01:11What's your favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
01:15Oh, great question. I can answer this two ways. I would say official stadium, I would say the
01:24Hollywood Bowl. When I first moved to LA, I lived up the street from there. And so we used to kind
01:30of just walk in to see any type of show we could. And even though it ruined us from a traffic
01:35perspective, it was a beautiful environment to be on. And then the other, my favorite venue is
01:41Burning Man. And any show you get to see at Burning Man is a special show.
01:45Cool. Well, let's go to Hollywood Bowl. We'll talk to Entrepreneur. We'll talk to
01:49Toast. We'll get snibs out there for all the people that show up in attendance. But we like
01:55saying that the people that are playing the game within the game, the hospitality professionals
01:59that are putting the true work in, the people that listen to this show show up in real life.
02:04I'm going to put you on stage, give you a mic, and ask you, Daniel, I need to bring you back to
02:10January 9th, 2025. Can you share what happened January 9th, 2025? And what's happened since?
02:21Yeah, so I guess that officially, that would be the day, the day after, right? So we, we live,
02:29me and my wife, we moved to the Palisades in basically April of the year prior, with the intention
02:36of starting our family there. So shortly after we got pregnant, and we were going to be, my brother
02:42moved from Hollywood out to the Palisades. My wife's brother moved from Northern California down
02:48there, and then her parents were building a home from Northern California, and it was all in the same,
02:53you know, small area of the Palisades. And so we had built this idea of kind of the American dream,
02:59and it was going to be there. And, you know, quickly in just, you know, 20 hours from seeing
03:07a hill on fire about a mile from our house, we evacuated right away, thinking it was just more
03:14of an evacuation notice than even any real danger, because the fire was separated by, you know, miles
03:21of concrete. And later that evening, we got an alert system through our home security that a fire was in
03:28our house, and it was a smoke detected, and window broken, and then we knew everything was gone.
03:35Can you describe the video that you posted on Instagram?
03:40Yeah, so one of the things that had happened was, there was very little clarity on what happened,
03:47right? And so I know, I knew personally, that we had lost our home before we were told or before I saw
03:53that, but my wife was really struggling with that. So she really wanted to know, and every day she
03:59would ask me to drive back to our existing house and see if our home was still there, if there was
04:05any remains of our homes there. And we didn't know the level of kind of magnitude of our whole
04:09neighborhood being wiped out. And so about, I think it was like five days or six days, four days after the
04:18fire. I went to Brentwood, I borrowed a friend's bike, and I rode into our neighborhood, which is
04:25called the Huntington in the Palisades. And when you get there, it's, it's pretty devastating. I mean,
04:34it looks like it was a war zone, there's cars that are burnt out, there's, you know, homes leveled to
04:41the ground. And this was a nice neighborhood. And so seeing that, and then I had crazy enough. So
04:48I'm riding my bike and I passed my house because I just, it was so unrecognizable that I didn't know.
04:54So I'm like at this house two doors down and I'm like, this is so weird. Like it looks like my house,
04:59but it isn't. And then I realized after being there for like three, four minutes, I was at the wrong
05:03house. That's how unrecognizable it was. So I head back to homes and I see our house and, you know,
05:10I lost, uh, I lost a lot in the fire. I lost my car. I lost my motorcycle, obviously all my,
05:16my belongings, my late mom's belongings, my baby pictures. I mean, the list goes on and on,
05:21but I think being in that raw space and seeing it and being alone and wanting to have some kind
05:28of good news for my pregnant wife at home and not having that. And then the reality kind of sinking
05:34in that whatever we thought was going to be our future, um, isn't going to be our future anymore.
05:42And so it was a lot to take in. I mean, as, as Ron Burgundy, our friend would say, it was a
05:48rollercoaster of emotion. When you get past the stages of grief, um, you quickly got into action.
05:58Can you share what you did in response? Yeah. So, uh, shortly after everything went down,
06:07um, the Friday after, so maybe three days, uh, it happened on Tuesday. Um, I decided that I didn't
06:15want to sit there and be depressed. Um, in, I had a really rough COVID. Uh, I lost my mom who is like
06:22my biggest cheerleader and who's amazing. I lost two businesses that I bought in 2019. Uh, and I put
06:28millions up for, so I had gone through a really difficult period. Uh, my first, I would say my
06:34first period that was both personal and business. I've had business woes. I've had personal woes,
06:39but I've never had ones of that magnitude compounded into each other. And, um, once you know,
06:46the feeling inside of you, once you've had the experience or built the resilience, like you,
06:50you kind of recognize things inside of you very quickly. And so, um, having gone through that,
06:56uh, bootcamp, let's call it that. Um, I felt all the same emotions and I, I knew that what pulled
07:03me out of that dark depression and COVID was giving back, was getting into the community,
07:10was being around. And so I, I, that was kind of like one of the things that led me to jump into
07:16action. And then I had always been a partner of old central kitchen. Um, my footwear brand did a
07:21collaboration with them two and a half years ago. And I did it because I knew it was a great
07:27organization. I love Jose Andres. I thought, Hey, I like what they're doing. I like the organization.
07:33I want to help having been part of it now. It's pretty incredible. And it did way more than I
07:39expected. And so right away, I started volunteering with world central kitchen. I had a lot of people
07:44who wanted to donate money to me, but I didn't think I was in a position to take. Um, and so what I did
07:50was I created a GoFundMe to help me do more for the community. And so these people were supporting
07:57me, but I wasn't really taking the money for myself. They were allowing me to do more, which
08:01was pretty awesome. Um, and so I started doing events at 5am on PCH for, um, first responders.
08:09I started feeding people at world central kitchen. I started giving away shoes at the Pasadena humane
08:15society, which is a crazy place and, and really beautiful and really sad at the same time to
08:20seeing all these people who had to give away their pets. And so I just became more aware
08:24and involved. And, uh, yeah, to your point, I just, I became very active share with, what
08:30did, what did you do with snibs specifically during? So with snibs, uh, the first thing our,
08:38our company's mission is to elevate the worker. And I think about that all the time because,
08:43you know, I've been on, I started as a bus boy, I, I rose to the ranks of CEO. So I've
08:48held every position, um, outside of maybe line cook, but I honestly think I was a line cook
08:53for a while when we started the food truck. So I've held every position in the restaurant
08:56at this point. And, um, I always feel like there's this thing that hospitality people get,
09:03but maybe not everyone else gets, which is that these are people who serve others and their
09:09whole job and their whole life is often to serve you. They serve their families. They send money
09:16back home. I mean, you know, like the amount of things that these people do for others,
09:20like it's mind blowing. And so we thought if we can give to them, that would be a very special
09:24thing. Plus we knew, I knew personally, because I have restaurants and food trucks that it was
09:29really slow in the, in the industry. So I was like, you know what, let's start. We have a grant
09:34program where we give $350 and a pair of shoes to people in need. I read somewhere that, uh, that,
09:40that amount of money, if you get hit with that and you're living check to check, it typically takes
09:45you 10 to 12 months to recover from that, um, increment of unexpected expenses. And so I was
09:51like, you know what, let's hit it with them. Let's hit it with the shoes. We can make more of an impact
09:56if we give away more shoes and less of the dollars. And so we chose to do that and we've given away
10:00over 1300 pairs of shoes. We did it with Calrest. Um, they have a grant program. So now when you
10:06get a grant from them, which I think is a thousand dollars, you get a free pair of shoes from us.
10:09And so just to sweeten the deal and just let our community know we're taking care of them and we're
10:14still issuing grants as we speak. What inspired you to, to, to build snibs? I had a really bad slip
10:21and fall in the kitchen and I, uh, hated all the footwear out there. And I just was like,
10:27why isn't anyone making anything worthwhile that represents us, that feels good to us,
10:32that the slip resistance is good, but it also has support and it also looks cool. And so,
10:36uh, I went down that journey. Um, yeah, because of a really bad kind of thing that happened to me.
10:41I still, I mean, right now I'm in back pain. I have my little Thera gun that I'm shooting up over
10:46here. So, uh, it definitely comes back and forth every once in a while, but luckily I haven't had a
10:51slip and fall since. Did you know that toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States,
10:58Canada, and UK? It's an incredible company. I'm on the toast customer advisory board. They are
11:03proud sponsors of this show, restaurant influencers. We couldn't do it without their
11:08support. They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego. If you have questions about toast,
11:13if you're thinking about bringing toast on to be your primary technology partner at your
11:18restaurants, please reach out to me. I'm happy to get a local toast representative to take care of
11:23you. You can reach me at Sean P. Welch on Instagram. Once again, thank you to toast for
11:29believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling, the power of hospitality. Back to
11:34the show. Is it harder to build a shoe brand or a restaurant? I only laugh because they're so both so
11:43goddamn equally hard. Um, there, there, I would say restaurant probably, but you, you know, everything
11:51has its own challenges. I love to tell restaurant people that if they ever decide to leave the
11:56industry, they're like an ER doctor. Like they know how to deal with people, real estate, state,
12:03city, uh, every, you know, finance, cost of goods that are perishable. Like you, you become so good
12:08at managing so many things that in our business less to manage, but they mean more like, you know,
12:14uh, inventory can wipe you out, which in a restaurant, it can kind of wipe you out, but
12:18most likely not because you can kind of adjust and do things correctly. So, um, yeah, I kind of look
12:24at it as an ER doctor, but they're both really hard. Um, I would say only because of the tariffs
12:29and everything recently footwear has become a little bit more difficult, but, um, historically I
12:35think the restaurant industry is harder. Bring us into the business of footwear.
12:40Yeah. So things that I didn't expect in footwear that I'm learning about still, as we speak,
12:47it took me five years to make our first shoe. Luckily I have a great investor. I was, I put up
12:54some of the cash. Dr. Snibby put up the rest who's our, we named the company after, and we didn't want
12:59to rush anything, but our pro that we just released, which is like my favorite shoe in the world now,
13:04uh, that took us three years. And so we've gotten better at making shoes quicker, but when you want
13:10to make it right, it just takes time. Um, we, by the time this episode comes out, probably we'll be
13:16really close to releasing the Nancy Silverton shoe. And her shoe is like, it's so her, we designed the
13:23outsole, which is the bottom of the shoe to be like a pasta dish we had at a restaurant, because we
13:27know that that pasta does the best job at holding sauce. So we had that hypothesis and then we built
13:33the shoe around it and we tested it and it was right. It's one of the best non-slips we've created.
13:37So all of this work goes into making her shoe and we're about two and a half years in, and it's like,
13:44it's a slow process and people, it's hard to stay interested when you're waiting that long to make
13:51something. And so I would say that's the biggest thing because in a food truck, you can really get
13:56concept to plate in a day or two. You know, we were making a brand new menu every day. And so that was a,
14:01a really special thing. And then, um, you, you learn a lot more about customer acquisition and
14:08data. Um, you know, you're, you're in media, you see it because you, you get to do the other side
14:13of it, but I always found it mind blowing how little technology and the restaurant space have
14:19kind of adopted each other. Um, like I still don't get customer data for everyone that comes
14:24to the lime truck and I, I, and I understand it and try to make it happen. But you know, these people
14:28who, when we do catering events, they're not going to give me information. Right. You know? And so
14:32it's like, there's just a lack of that, I think, in the industry. And, um, that, that part I've
14:36really enjoyed, like getting into the data, getting all the analytics, you know, learning about how
14:41customers repurchase when they repurchase why. Um, and I, and I think that the restaurant world is a
14:47little bit behind when it comes to technology like that.
14:49I have a lot of empathy for the five year process. It took us five years of creating media content
14:54before we actually got our first brand deal or made any money. So is that how long it took?
15:00Was there a breakthrough piece of content? Uh, the breakthrough was honestly, this show was
15:05launching a second show. Having one podcast wasn't enough. It was the second podcast pushing the team
15:11and I guess getting good enough to getting good enough to, to approach entrepreneur, um, have them
15:16believe in us, have toast, believe in us. And, you know, now we're here and I I've never done this
15:22on a show before, but we unboxed a pair of snibs. So Steven Swiderski, he is our catering manager at
15:31Cali barbecue. Your team graciously sent us a box to test it out. I didn't know if they were going to
15:37get it on time, if he was going to be able to test them, but I'm going to give you live feedback.
15:41So he just sent me this text. I don't know if, uh, if we have to edit it, but you're a, this is
15:47live feedback, uh, from Steven. Um, all right. I got some steps in the last week wearing the snibs.
15:53Here's my opinion and feedback, lightweight and very breathable, comfortable to wear for those 12
15:58to 16 hour shifts in the kitchen or doing big barbecue events. The non-slip traction is top tier
16:04flexible material, primarily around the ankle, which gives more support due to the taller neck collar
16:09compared to other non-slip shoe brands that I've worn over the past decade in the restaurant
16:14industry. I can a hundred percent say that snibs is my preferred choice for work shoes being big on
16:20sustainability. I love that snibs are made for a hundred percent recycled materials and the mid
16:24souls are biodegradable. Steven Swiderski. Boom. Damn. Tell Steven, uh, I'll give a big hug. That's
16:30pretty awesome. I was like, Oh, is this going to go bad? This is live media. This is how it's done.
16:36Uh, that is awesome to hear that shoe. Honestly, uh, I don't even understand. It's like really,
16:42so what's crazy about that shoe is we were done with it like a year ago. Um, and I was, I got
16:47obsessed. So one of the things that really helps you when you're on your feet all day is your heel
16:52being locked into place. So Dr. Snibby was like, it has to be locked in place. It has to be locked
16:56in place. But when you want to do a slip on slip off boot, it's not easy to lock a heel in place
17:02because it wouldn't, the construction wouldn't add up. Right. And so what we did was we took
17:07technology, our designer, who's like a huge booty and a really talented designer was like, Hey,
17:13the best running shoes have these kind of like memory foam nodes that are around the ankle.
17:18I bet you, if I put that technology into this shoe, it's going to change how it feels. And that
17:24was that thing. That was like the, what took us from like a night, a nice, like 92, 93 rating,
17:29in my opinion, to like a 97, 98, 99. And, um, it's, it's pretty special, but yeah, it's,
17:36it's that like, it's, it's that second podcast or it's that fifth year. It's like, we've, we've been
17:41in business now five years too. And it's like, you kind of need it to like understand where
17:45innovation will come. Yeah. Uh, you wrote a book called food truck mogul to answer all of the
17:52expertise that you have built up building the lime truck. Uh, can you share some of that expertise?
17:58Bring us, bring us back to the beginning of the lime truck, the aha, the, the entry into
18:03the world of food and beverage. Yeah. So, uh, the entry was a rough one, kind of like coming
18:10into this world. I just had a baby and I saw that intensity right there. And so how old
18:14did you got it? How old is your daughter? One month. Oh, wow. Congratulations. Yeah.
18:18Thanks. I appreciate that. Yeah. So, um, it was, I had come from real estate. I had always
18:24been an entrepreneur. Like that was, uh, an absolute for me. And, um, I came from these
18:29real estate services and I hated going to work 20 years old own business. I wasn't generating
18:33very much revenue, but enough that I was making money for myself and I hated going to work.
18:38And I was like, dude, there's something off here. Like, this is not the equation that will
18:42make sense for me. And, and so that business failed and I moved home and I was like, I want
18:47to do something I love. And my passion always growing up was food and fashion. It was like, they
18:52were synonymous. Like I got best dressed in high school, but I used to be best. Yeah,
18:56I know. Right. High school. But, uh, I would also take weeks off where I would ditch and I
19:01would just cook food all week with my friends. Like, I swear to you, like, that's what I got
19:04kicked out of high school for. Well, that and gambling, that's separate. Yeah. So, um, so
19:10when I went to go do the passion, it was the food and I had no idea. I mean, I'm telling
19:15you, I didn't know how to put, I didn't put propane in our truck the first time we went out
19:19and I didn't know that you had to do that. Like the amount of things I didn't know could
19:24make 10 books. And all I knew was I knew how to give hospitality and I knew how to make
19:29good food and not even consistently, which is why we changed the menu every day. And
19:33so, um, it took a lot of raw learning to make that food truck happen, but you know what it's
19:40like, you have tenacity, you're smart, you're willing to put in the hours, you're willing to
19:44figure it out. And I think the one thing that was really beneficial at the time was I had started
19:50the business with a high school best friend. We had both put in seven grand and we had no
19:54overhead other than the food truck. And so it allowed for room to make mistakes, which I think
20:00the difference is now, like when I started a company, like I raised millions of dollars for
20:04snibs. So you don't have that luxury of being like, Hey, let's test a bunch of things and see,
20:09I mean, you can kind of do that, but it's, it's a little bit harder when you have, you know,
20:13a board and everybody that you have to kind of report to. So I would say that was my lesson
20:18into food. And then with the book, I really break it down from picking your food truck,
20:25creating lower risk when you get started by renting the truck, putting your brand together,
20:30picking a menu that works for what you're trying to accomplish, but also works for a food truck
20:35and how to go from one to two trucks. And so really walking you through my process. I mean,
20:40my food trucks have been in business for 15 years. How many do you have? How many do you
20:45have now? There's four of them for California, all in Southern California. Yeah. Awesome. So we
20:52just started franchising them. Um, and it's just like, it's a bread and butter business. It's, I mean,
20:57it's been profitable. It's been great. It's, it's got, um, really good mechanics. I know it really
21:02well. And so I figured after this, like every week, every month I get someone who's like, Hey,
21:07I want to start a food truck. And I was like, man, I should just, you know, bite the bullet,
21:10write the book. And also if there's something really cathartic about writing a book on something,
21:17you know, like I, and also the, none of the, from what I saw when I looked and did my research,
21:21all the books that are written on how to start a food truck are written by non food truck operators.
21:25And I was like, well, it's great. I feel like someone, the person who did it should write the
21:30book. So I put it out there and I mean, it's, I, you know, it's not a gangbusters book,
21:34but I think the people who buy it get a lot of value out of it.
21:38Tell us the great food truck race story. How'd you, how'd you find out about the show?
21:43How'd you get on the show?
21:45Oh, I thought you're going to ask for some, uh, some dirt behind the scenes on
21:48you can show behind the scenes. I'm cool with that. That's fine with you.
21:53So the, the day we launched our food truck, I honestly, I would say that week we saw a great
21:59food truck race season one. So it had come out right after we had launched our truck.
22:03And we were like, man, if they ever do a second season, like pack your bags, we're going.
22:08Yeah.
22:09Sure enough, nine months later, uh, one of our, um, he was a blogger, Jason Eel, uh, who loved
22:16our truck and was just like a big fan, uh, said, Hey, if it happens, I was at this food truck event
22:22in LA and I met one of the casting producers of the great food truck race. And I told him how great
22:27you guys are and how you guys like argue with each other on the truck, but you guys make really good
22:32food. And like, I just told him how great I think you would be for TV. And so sure enough,
22:37we get the call. They're like, make the submission tape. I still have that submission tape. It is,
22:41I, I still die laughing when I see it. So I'm sure they were like thinking these idiots,
22:45like they're going to be great for TV. And so, um, yeah, we got on the show that second season
22:51and, um, you know, it's, it's a crazy show for those who don't watch it. The show's evolved very
22:58much through the last 15 years, but in the first and second season, it was food truck operators.
23:04You start in one point, which we started in Malibu and you drive your food truck. You literally drive
23:11your food truck. It's not on a like tow bed or anything from Malibu to Miami. And so, yeah,
23:17it's crazy. I mean, it's honestly the craziest premise for a show. And I don't think they do it
23:21anymore because it's so expensive and difficult to make it that now it's like, we're going to go from
23:25San Francisco to Napa and back to Oakland. And you're like, okay, that makes more sense. You
23:29know, like, um, and so, yeah, we traveled the country for two months with like Malibu to Miami.
23:35And then you got to come back and then you got to come back. And the best part was, is so spoiler,
23:39we, we won the second season. And so, uh, after we win the show, I look at the guy and I'm like,
23:46Hey man, so are you going to send my truck home for me? And he's like, no, it's your responsibility.
23:50And I was like, uh, no, it's not like you guys got to bring this truck back. And he's like,
23:54take your a hundred thousand dollars and pay for the fucking tow. And I was like, yeah. And I was
23:59like, first off that split three ways. Like what, this should be your responsibility. The guy's like,
24:04nah. And I was like, man, luckily we won. I would have been way more pissed if we didn't win.
24:09Did you drive it back?
24:11Nah, I put it on. I was so tired after that two months, I would have a reoccurring dream for the
24:17next three weeks that it was the night before the last day of the competition. And I hadn't like,
24:21and like, I was late for like, you know, uh, to start the competition. And it was like, it was,
24:26it was harrowing. It was like one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life.
24:28So the food blogger, he recommended you because these guys are great, great food,
24:32but they argue all the time. What were you, who were you arguing with and who, and what were you
24:36arguing about?
24:37So his name is Jason Quinn. He's a high school, a high school friend. Also my business partner when we
24:43started a line truck. So my co-founder and, uh, dude, we would, he would argue about like,
24:49so if anyone wanted a mod, didn't matter what the reason was or anything, he would say no.
24:53And I'm like, dude, you can't say no to everybody. Like it's the mod. Like I understand mods. I don't
24:58like giving mods either, but like this person is coming to you out of their way. They waited in
25:02line, like make the person happy. Like we're in the hospitality business and we don't see eye to
25:06eye there. He still believes like he kept a sign on his door. That was like, uh, they gave you
25:12homemade radish dip instead of ketchup one star. And he like loves that because he's like,
25:16Oh, I made something homemade and you gave me one star. Like, and so he's, he's like
25:20a righteous dude. And he just, you know, he would, he would just give a lot of shit to
25:25me and or to the customer and I would protect the customer. And then, um, we both had strong
25:29personalities, strong beliefs. I think our partnership only lasted like five months. Um, and
25:35so we, we, we are still friends. Like I still love Jason, but, but not the best, uh, environment
25:40for the two of us.
25:41Uh, tell me about storytelling. How does it play a role in your brand, your personal
25:45brand, what you're building at snubs, what you still do with the food trucks to your
25:48restaurant?
25:50Yeah. I mean, you know, this better than anyone's story. Storytelling is everything. I think
25:54what I'm, what I knew for the last three years, but maybe only agreed to like in 25 is that we're
26:03all content companies at this point, like your content company and you sell your product specifically
26:08from that content. And like how you push that content is different for each product and for
26:14each demographic and market. But, um, it's, it's everything. And I'll give you an example.
26:20Um, whenever we launch a product and we feel that the storytelling was done really well, we
26:26know the sales of that product are going to be higher and it's anecdotal. You don't actually
26:32know if your storytelling is better or not, right? Like how, where's the meter that's going
26:35to tell you that, but you internally know, did I create great content? Does the story
26:40make sense? Was I able to get the word out about the story? And if you can say yes on
26:43every of those, which we always like to do kind of our own scorecard, the product directly,
26:49the sales of the product directly relate to that. And so I thought that was like really
26:53interesting and creating content. Storytelling is, um, it's, it's what moves the needle and
26:58like everything else is a shortcut. I think in, in storytelling, like if you want to, I spent a ton
27:04of money on paid ads, like hopefully you're going to start getting some ads for snips
27:07after this. If you haven't already, we just read an ad. We just, we just, we created an
27:11ad. What do you mean? That was a good ad on entrepreneur.
27:16Exactly. So it's like exactly that. So, and it's like, we're, and we'll do paid after this,
27:20but like someone who heard this story is going to do a, they're going to think differently
27:25about the brand than someone who saw this in an ad. Right. And so it's like organic storytelling
27:30right now is like everything. And I just feel like everything else is because you can't
27:34figure out how to get the organic word to work. Yeah. We, uh, we have a mantra that we live by
27:38at our media company. It's be the show, not the commercial. And it's not that we don't believe
27:43in advertising. It's just, we don't believe we believe in storytelling. First and foremost
27:48is it's much easier to hear another restaurant owner, another restaurant worker, talk about snips,
27:55talk about why they use it versus, you know, you or me talking about it. And that's not that I don't
28:00think that we shouldn't talk about it because I a hundred percent believe that you should be on
28:03every show possible talking about it because frankly, no one's coming to tell your story and
28:09no one can tell your story better than you can. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Uh, restaurant. Tell me, uh,
28:16tell me about the restaurant business moving from moving from a food, moving from a food truck to an
28:23actual brick and mortar. We're anchored in a low one location. We're not moving. Yeah. 365 days out of the year.
28:30We better picked a good location. Uh, I would say the funniest thing that was an adjustment was I
28:36was still cater wrapping everything in the walk-in and everyone's like, dude, why are you catering
28:40wrapping everything? And I was like, well, you never know if it's going to move around. And they're
28:42like, earthquake, earthquake, knock on wood. Like I just don't want, cause I've seen it happen too
28:51many times with a food truck where you take a turn. That's funny. So I would say that was a funny,
28:58funny experience. Um, but no, the, it, you're right. It's location-based. You can't 86 an item
29:05just because, you know, it's a food truck. You cross it out. No one says anything, but like in
29:09a restaurant, like people come there for a dish, like they want that dish. That's just how it's
29:12going to be. And so there's a lot less of a allowance for, um, for kind of like a, being like
29:19a unprepared operator, I would say. Um, but things get way easier, so much easier to manage the
29:25business because you know, every day you have the same team coming in the morning, the same team
29:30coming in the evening with a food truck, one events Monday at three o'clock, one events Tuesday at nine
29:34o'clock. Like, so either sometimes it's the same staff, sometimes it's different staff. It's hard
29:38to find people who are willing to take such variable hours. So I found a lot of things easier
29:45in adopting the restaurant. Plus I love open kitchens and I like controlling the energy. And so I
29:53would DJ an expo at the same time at hatch. So you would come in there and it's like,
29:57you know, it's my energy. I'm certain. And I set up the whole restaurant where, where I stand in
30:02expo, I could see the whole line and I could see every seat in the, in the restaurant. So I could
30:06see, and I'm like hyper aware. So I could see if anyone's like takes a bite and I could see if
30:10they're happy or if they're not. And if they're not happy, I would send one of my servers or my
30:14manager to go ask why. So it was like, it's a little psycho, but at the same time you read Danny
30:19Meyer's book. And he's like, your chance to fix an experience is there. If they leave and they
30:23didn't have a good experience, it's over. And they told 20 friends about how much they didn't like it.
30:27And so I built it in a very, I think, unique way of, um, really controlling a lot of the variables.
30:34And it was just, it's, it's like one of my favorite places in the world. I just, I love it there.
30:38That's awesome. Do you have more plans for more restaurants in the future?
30:42No, not right now. Not right now. Focus. I think right now it's the, the food trucks make a lot of
30:47sense considering what's happening in the world. I think the restaurants, um, they can work and
30:53you know, you're successful at them. You know exactly what it's like, but the media company
30:56on top of my restaurant, like we're, we're successful. We've been there for 17 years,
31:00but it's a tough business. It's a beautiful business, but it's, it's a tough business for
31:04sure. Yeah. And I'm thinking we're going to see, I personally have a really, I'm not a negative
31:09person. I'm very much an optimist, but I have a very strong feeling that whatever the restaurant
31:15industry is that we knew pre COVID it's kind of done. And we've, we're going to lose middle-sized
31:21restaurants. We're going to lose restaurants that charge like a hundred, you know, do 150 bucks for
31:25two people. Like it's just, things are going to, especially in LA, things are just going to get
31:29increasingly kind of either really cheap or really expensive. And I think we're going to lose a lot of
31:36these independent operators because it's just so hard unless you have scale to command prices with
31:42your food suppliers and, and hire good managers that can oversee the business. And so I'm, I'm
31:48actually really concerned for our industry and yeah, I mean, I, I want it to be better, but you
31:55know, you go to LA on a, on a Monday or Tuesday night and almost every restaurant except the top
31:5910 are empty and a restaurants, some restaurants have built a good enough model where they can
32:05survive on weekends, but it's far and few between. Yeah, no, it's really good points. If you guys are
32:10watching this or listening to this, we appreciate you. Please subscribe to the show. Please share
32:15it. We also recently launched a restaurant technology sub stack newsletter. So check that out. You can
32:21send me a message on Instagram at Sean P. Walchef. I respond quickly on Instagram, LinkedIn, all the
32:28platforms. Daniel, before I let you go, I need to learn about your personal tech stack. Are you an
32:34Android or an iPhone user? I am an iPhone user. Uh, which version? Uh, the newest one, I think 16.
32:41When do you decide to get a new phone? Uh, I don't have an answer for that one. I just kind of
32:48happens. I typically try to upgrade when there's a new phone out there, but, uh, I pushed the last
32:53one for a little while longer. So I don't know. It just kind of depends. I think it's when, whenever
32:57I have an upgrade, what's the first app you open, uh, in the morning, the first app I open
33:03in the morning would be, I actually don't use my phone until like 10, 15 every morning. Um,
33:11that's great. So I would say, yeah, I just, I kind of, so I have like a whole, uh, you know,
33:16the first thing I use in my tech stack and I'm like obsessed with it is my remarkable.
33:20And, uh, it's this thing right here. It's like a paper tablet and it uploads to the cloud and
33:25everything. And I have my daily morning. So I start with meditation, a workout that I do
33:30journal data, Instagram. I walk five miles. It's like a whole thing I do every morning.
33:35And so that's really cool. That's remarkable. It's called remarkable. And then you're going
33:39to love this. That's rad. And then I put the amount of to do's that I have to do for the day.
33:44No way. Yeah. And then if I lose for the day, it's a one for them. And if I win for the day,
33:50it's one. So this week it's Wednesday. I lost yesterday, but I think I'll win today. I only
33:55have five more to do. So no way that is rad, but it's like weird psycho. Like no one needs to be
34:00like this, but Hey, we all, we all have to figure, figure this thing called life and business out
34:06together. Um, how many emails do you get a day? Uh, I don't know. Nothing crazy, but I only check
34:11email once a day. And how many do you enjoy reading? Uh, I enjoy reading the sales ones that
34:18are working out. So those are my favorite ones, but most of them are always like you have to do,
34:22you know, you're CEO, you're problem solvers. Every email that comes your way. It's typically
34:25you have to do something, uh, phone calls or text messages. Oh my God. I would, I love phone calls.
34:32I think I have 972 unread text messages. Stop it. Why do you have so many unread text messages?
34:38I really don't like text messages. I was like, if you want a response from me, it's email or phone,
34:42but text is like, it's like spam city. How many, how many group chats are you in?
34:47Probably a lot. Probably a lot. How's your team? I mean, I have to put a reminder to check my phone
34:52and WhatsApp because if not, I just won't do it. And I know that people, they use text. So I have
34:57to like be responsive. Wow. That's it. It's once a day. Yeah. Um, what's your favorite app that you
35:03use? Favorite app that I use. Great question. I would say Spotify for enjoyment, uh, and Instacart
35:12for convenience. Okay. Nice. Uh, how many hours a day are you on your phone? Not much, not much.
35:19Do you get more work done on a desktop laptop or your phone laptop laptop? Yeah. Apple maps or Google
35:28maps? Uh, I like ways you like ways. Nice. Um, I think that's it. What's the best place for people
35:38to, uh, keep in touch with you, all the things you do snibs, all the spots. Yeah. I mean, for me
35:45personally, I'm really active on Instagrams, so it's just my name. Uh, there's a dot in the middle,
35:50Daniel dot gem top, uh, for snibs. You can find it online as well. We're really active on Instagram.
35:55Uh, I also use LinkedIn a lot. Um, uh, and the process of launching my podcast, I've already filled
36:01a few episodes on it. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Good news is you just have to launch too.
36:06Yeah. I know when you said that, I was like, and it's, and it has to be weekly. So if you want,
36:12if you want the advice, you need a hundred episodes a year to actually make it in this
36:16crazy podcast media game. I mean, it's like, this is bad news, but I love it, man. It's like,
36:22I love our industry to death. So it's like getting to connect with people and just support them in
36:27any way possible. I mean, it's what you're doing. It's, you know, you made that great content for us.
36:31You just shout out. I mean, and luckily our products did the test of time with your catering manager,
36:35but it's, you're doing us a favor. You're helping the industry and you're, I mean, if I didn't have
36:40this show, I wouldn't be able to connect with people like you. I mean, we would meet maybe at
36:43an industry event or a friend would connect us, but like, this is so much more it's intentional.
36:48And it's also magical because I don't know who I'm going to meet or how they're going to get,
36:52find their way onto the show. Yeah, that's great. Awesome, Sean. Well, I appreciate you,
36:56Daniel. And obviously thank you guys for watching, for listening. We appreciate it as always. Thank you,
37:01toast and stay curious, get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you guys next
37:05episode. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. If you've made it this long,
37:12you are part of the community. You're part of the tribe. We can't do this alone. We started,
37:16no one was listening. Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
37:22Please check out our new series called restaurant technology, sub stack. It's a sub stack newsletter.
37:27It's free. It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants. Also go to YouTube
37:32and subscribe to Cali BBQ media, Cali BBQ media on YouTube. We've been putting out a lot of new
37:38original content. Hopefully you guys like that content. If you want to work with us, go to
37:43be the show.media. We show up all over the United States, some international countries. We would love
37:48to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling. You can reach out to me anytime
37:53at Sean P. Walchef on Instagram. I'm weirdly available. Stay curious, get involved. Don't
37:59be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you next episode.
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