- 6 weeks ago
Brooks Schaden, co-CEO and co-founder of Tom’s Watch Bar, is building a new kind of sports bar designed around how fans actually watch games today. Through thoughtful design, operations, and partnerships, he’s turning live sports into a scalable hospitality experience.
Watch now to learn how a sports bar built around fandom grew fast, formed strategic partnerships, and turned games into shared moments.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn how a sports bar built around fandom grew fast, formed strategic partnerships, and turned games into shared moments.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
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NewsTranscript
00:00You know, we'll probably have about 4 million fans through our doors in 25, probably 6, 6.5 million next year.
00:06As we grow and expand, the new unit expansion is great, but we're also building an audience.
00:10And with that audience, what else do you do with that audience while they're there from an entertainment and engagement perspective?
00:24Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur.
00:27I'm your host, Sean Walsh. This is a Cali BBQ Media production in life, in the restaurant business, and in the new creator economy.
00:36We learn through lessons and stories.
00:38I'm really excited for today's episode because for those that don't know, I am a passionate, passionate sports fan.
00:46We opened up our restaurants in 2018 with a deep thesis that there were people in the world that love sports as much as we do.
00:53I think I found that person. His name is Brooks Shadden.
00:56He is the co-CEO of Tom's Watch Bar. It is an emerging brand, 18 locations in 2025.
01:02They do over $100 million in sales, $6 million average unit volume with 25% restaurant-level margins.
01:11But more importantly, they are passionate about the fan experience, and they are redefining a concept.
01:18Brooks, welcome to the show.
01:19Thanks, Sean. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me here.
01:21Where in the world is your favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
01:28Ooh, that's a tough one.
01:30You know, I grew up in Chicago, and I still have my diehard Cubs fan club card from, you know, I won't even give the date just to date myself.
01:40But back in the 80s, loved going to Wrigley Field, and it's just got that character, that stadium, and the history behind it.
01:47It's hard to beat.
01:48Okay. We're going to go to Wrigley Field.
01:49We're going to talk to Entrepreneur.
01:51We're going to talk to some other sponsors, possibly Azul, Tequila, Fletcher Azul.
01:55We're going to fill out the entire Cubs stadium, Wrigley Field, with people that we say play the game within the game.
02:03Hospitality professionals that understand building a business, a hospitality business in 2025, takes a lot different tool set than it did 10 years ago, 20 years ago.
02:14And these are forward-thinking individuals.
02:16I'm going to put you on the pitcher's mound, give you a mic, and say, Brooks, give us the thesis.
02:21What is the Tom's Watch Bar thesis?
02:23Yeah, you know, I think the fundamental premise behind Tom's is that sports is about community.
02:31You know, these days, anyone can watch whatever game you want on your phone, on your TV, whatever.
02:37But we think that people want to get together, especially for the important games that matter, to watch together, share that passion.
02:45And what was exciting about Tom's when we were first building it was, you know, with consumer brands, you're always trying to figure out, how do I create these raving fans for my concept?
02:56And with ours, the fans were already there.
02:58What we had to do was just provide a venue and experience, entertainment and hospitality to cater towards what these people want.
03:06And, you know, being that we are those people, we kind of had a sense of what we think they wanted.
03:11And it's just, it's changing.
03:12I think that that was the other premise behind what we wanted to do was bring something new for the new way that sports fans are watching.
03:21And so that was really the premise behind Tom's is create a place for sports community to get together, bring something better for how sports fans want to watch today.
03:31And not necessarily completely reinvent the wheel.
03:34Like we didn't invent the idea of a sports bar, but we wanted to bring something better for what people expect today for sports fans and sports entertainment.
03:43What makes Tom's watch bar unique?
03:46Yes, there's a lot of different layers.
03:48I think there's not one specific thing that I can point to and say that's the, you know, the magic silver bullet for what we do.
03:56But it all caters back towards how do we cater towards this community?
03:59So obviously we have lots of TVs, but it's not just about the number of TVs.
04:04People are watching differently.
04:06I mean, I think one of the things we saw is that there's this huge tailwind in sports, not just to watch the games, but what you're watching, how many games you're watching, how many different sports you're watching.
04:18So, you know, right now, perfect example, we call it the sports equinox.
04:22You know, you've got all the teams playing, all the major sports playing.
04:26We just finished baseball.
04:27And so you may have been to our Tom's location in L.A. to watch the game seven, which was unbelievable, by the way.
04:33I won't take sides, but it was an unbelievable game.
04:37But even though there's all that buzz and energy, especially in L.A., people still want to see what's going on at the Lakers game.
04:43They want to know what happened at the Kings game.
04:45They want to know what happened in whatever soccer team they're watching.
04:47And so we lay out and curate the screens in a way that you have the main feature screen, but you've got to have a lot of other things going on around it because people are paying attention to more sports, you know, sports betting, fantasy leagues, streaming content.
05:02There's a lot more information that people are consuming.
05:04And so we want to make sure we give them all of that.
05:07But we also try to create a venue where people can engage.
05:10And so simple little things like we try to remove booths or really big segmented seating so that you're off on your own because fans want to get together and engage.
05:18They want to high five or talk trash to each other.
05:21And a lot of times you may have a table for four, but people are kind of leaning against it like it's a bar and talking to the table next to them.
05:28So the way we lay the space out is really important.
05:32The hospitality and service model is really different, too.
05:35We aren't trying.
05:36We're putting on events.
05:37We're marketing and managing events.
05:40And so it's not just about coming in to have lunch on a Tuesday or dinner on a Friday.
05:45People are coming in to watch the game.
05:48And the F&B is there.
05:49That's how we make our money.
05:50But it's kind of secondary.
05:52And so people are coming in and watching games for two, three hours at some times, which normally in the restaurant business is a death nail.
05:58We had to cater the kitchen model, the bar, the service model, service system, all to cater towards that fan base and how people are using it.
06:06So the operations, we had to really build differently as well.
06:11And then what we do is we put on a party.
06:13I mean, we've put on what we call wash parties, especially for bigger events.
06:17We have partnerships with a team where they'll send over activation teams.
06:20We'll bring in a DJ, the stadium announcer, do giveaways.
06:25Everything we can do to make it feel like it's that in-stadium experience versus, again, just turn on the TV and hope people come out to watch.
06:32So we're really trying to bring something special, especially these days, tickets and traffic and all that stuff.
06:39It's getting expensive and harder to get to actual games.
06:41And so whatever we can do to create that hub for people want to not just come watch the game, but be a part of that fan experience is what we're trying to do to make it different.
06:51Can you bring me into the technology?
06:53You know, as somebody that opened up in 2008, when we opened up, it was easy to just activate DirecTV, NFL Sunday ticket, add curated content.
07:05We built our own playlist.
07:07So we knew every single game at 10 o'clock on the West Coast games kickoff.
07:11We knew which TV and which room was going to be on.
07:14We had to be flexible because a fan would come in and, you know, we would have a game on and an Atlanta Falcons fan would want a TV in the booths.
07:23So much has changed in those 18 years since when we first started opening.
07:28I mean, there wasn't games on Amazon Prime.
07:30There were not games on Netflix.
07:32We didn't have to get an Apple TV subscription to show MLS soccer.
07:36Can you share a little bit about how you build Tom's Watch Bars with the idea that you have to be flexible because Jake Paul might be fighting on Netflix and that might be the event that you need to show on the TVs?
07:51Yeah.
07:51Yeah, that's a great question.
07:53And there's a lot of different pieces to that.
07:55Part of it is making sure that we know everything that's going on, to your point, because you can't miss the things that might not be as popular.
08:07The UFC and combat sports has become some of our biggest nights in a month for those events.
08:14And we have to make sure we curate that with the whole operational platform because, you know, it's on a Saturday night.
08:19You have a, you know, big college game going on that afternoon.
08:23How do you also get, you know, one crowd in, one crowd out?
08:26And so a lot of it's just being really into the details of what's going on and planning for it.
08:31And then, but from a technology perspective, most of what we try to do is build the whole system so that the input, for lack of a better phrase, is kind of agnostic.
08:41So whether it's coming through Netflix or whatever other source it is, we want to make sure that people just know.
08:47And I think that's one of the things that was our goal is you build a reputation so people don't even question it.
08:53They just, you know, the old school was you called up the bar and said, got a bartender and say, hey, you're going to have the Michigan game on.
09:00And they say, yeah, maybe I'll turn it on if you come in.
09:02We're trying to build a reputation where people don't even call.
09:05They just know.
09:06And so we publish it on the website.
09:07We use our email database and fan club to push outreach, remind people, here's the games that are coming on and try to automate that process as well.
09:16But the nice part is we've been trying to stay on the edge from a technology perspective, less so with like the screens are displayed themselves, because you're always you can always spend more to have that next little bit of pitch of visibility.
09:31But that's not what people want.
09:33They just want to see the game.
09:34And so it's been more on the back end to make sure we build the system so that you can plug in whatever the content source really is.
09:40Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada and UK?
09:48It's an incredible company.
09:50I'm on the Toast customer advisory board.
09:52They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers.
09:55We couldn't do it without their support.
09:57They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.
10:00If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your primary technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to me.
10:08I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you.
10:12You can reach me at Sean P. Welch on Instagram.
10:15Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling, the power of hospitality.
10:22Back to the show.
10:24Bring me into these curated, you know, publishing the schedule.
10:28I know from personal experience, I haven't done it in a long time.
10:32We've been spending time building the media company.
10:34I've got an incredible restaurant team that now runs the restaurant.
10:37And honestly, we've actually moved away from the sports bar model, which is why I was so excited to talk to you, because what you guys are doing is really different, really unique.
10:46It's super exciting.
10:47But bring me into, like, what tools are you using AI to scrape?
10:52You know, what games are going to be on in a local market?
10:54You know, obviously, what you're going to be putting on in L.A. is going to be different than Las Vegas, but you still need to know what games are going to be on.
11:02Because if we're honest, the cool thing about sports is that it's international.
11:06So you have games that are soccer games that somebody might care about, Man United, and that game kicks off maybe at 7 o'clock and your store is open at 8.
11:16So you have to understand, like, where are we going to be flexible and where are we going to hold the line?
11:20Yeah, it's a lot of, you know, game planning throughout at the beginning of the week and then throughout the week, because, as you said, it changes day by day, week by week.
11:31And what you thought was going to be a good game on Saturday is now not a good game anymore.
11:35And so a lot of we do a lot of work on the analytics side from the headquarters to help provide them with the information to say, not only do we think this is a big game, but when do people typically come in?
11:49Are they, you know, if it's a 7.30 game, are they coming in at 7.15, 6?
11:54Because the hardest part that we found about this business is it doesn't follow the traditional restaurant day parts, right?
12:00So it's really driven by what the game is.
12:04And you'll go from, you know, 20 people to 1,000 people like that.
12:09You can't, you'll kill your labor model or your economic model if you say, great, I'm going to bring 70 servers in at 4 o'clock and I was off by two hours.
12:16They were busy, but you were just busier later than you thought.
12:19And so we are doing a lot of AI scrapes.
12:21And a lot of it is just good old fashioned getting around the room and saying, all right, here's the games we think are popular.
12:27And then really engaging with our, we call them operating partners.
12:31We have kind of a unique model where we really treat those guys like owners in their local business.
12:37Because it's hard to beat the on the ground, boots on the ground, grassroots, here's what I'm hearing is the most popular.
12:43And so we try to give them as much information as possible, but we'd have a lot of push and pull to say, all right, what are you hearing from the fans in the local market?
12:52Or that, you know, if we have a couple locations in D.C., are they paying more attention to the commanders of the Ravens this year?
12:59And you kind of just have to get that local feel on the ground.
13:02And so we do a lot of analytics.
13:04We do use a lot of technology.
13:06But at the end of the day, you got to justify it and sanity check it with the reality from the folks there.
13:11What's your thesis on audio?
13:16Ooh, that's a good question.
13:18It is the never-ending debate.
13:21You clearly had this one as well, I can tell.
13:25So it depends game by game, sport by sport.
13:28For the most part, Saturday and Sunday for football, it's usually pick the most popular game and we'll play the audio.
13:34And then other sports, you know, for the most part, baseball games, it kind of goes back to music, unless it's the World Series.
13:39So it really, there's kind of some boundaries and parameters we set.
13:43And then you kind of have to play it game by game and day by day.
13:47The other one that I found funny is basketball.
13:49March Madness is always a good example.
13:51You have so many games going on.
13:53You know you want to have the sound.
13:55The question is which game you want.
13:56But what we've also kind of found is we try to build the restaurant so that it's segmented to some extent.
14:03You know, not separate rooms, but, you know, you have a little bit of a divider, kind of a video wall in the middle where they're watching the, you know, Arizona game on one side and Florida on the other side.
14:11But the energy still kind of crisscrosses.
14:15And people don't necessarily care as much if they're hearing the sound from their game.
14:18They just love the sound of the crowd, the squeaking of the shoes.
14:22It just, it makes you feel like you're a part of it.
14:24Whereas other sports, I think that's just not as popular.
14:27But yeah, that's a never-ending debate.
14:30We also do what I mentioned before in the wash parties.
14:33We'll have DJs or even in some cases, we'll bring in, we have partnerships with teams in a lot of the local markets.
14:40And they'll bring out cheerleaders and mascots.
14:42And on some of the bigger games, we'll do away game wash parties.
14:46They'll bring in the in-stadium announcer, which is really cool.
14:49Adds like kind of another layer of excitement.
14:52But again, you got to be really careful.
14:54If it's not one game and there's multiple games going on, people get annoyed by the DJ trying to play music.
14:59So like on Saturday during college football, we've actually said, you know what, no DJs anymore.
15:04They want to hear the game because there's too many games going on at one time.
15:07So it's really specific situation by situation.
15:12I'd love for you to talk a little bit more about the collaborations.
15:15Specifically, let's start with the Fletcher, Zul, Tequila, Mark Wahlberg.
15:18You guys just announced that nationwide rollout.
15:21Explain why and how it's been going.
15:25Yeah, it's been going great.
15:26I think it's one of the consistent themes that we've built a lot of our businesses on, but here more than anywhere else, is just building strong partnerships.
15:34Especially when we're new and trying to get known and get our name out there.
15:38Finding great brand partners that share kind of a common vision, have similar philosophy and values.
15:46And we can help them and they can help us.
15:48And so that's a good example of one where they're trying to build the brand of Fletcher and we can help roll it out through all of our locations.
15:57But they also have a great following and Mark Wahlberg's got a great following where he can help promote our concept as well.
16:03And so these are great ways with them and with others that we found that especially as an early brown brand to kind of punch above our weight class with some outreach that's a little bit more broad than what we might have on our own.
16:16And tell me more about the stadium collaborations.
16:20I mean, it's the utilization of other brands' email list is something that is just, I wish restaurateurs had a better way to think about that.
16:30I mean, we've done lots of marketing with San Diego State Aztecs, the Chargers when they were in town, the San Diego HL hockey team, the Seals.
16:38Like we spent so much time doing that and partnering and bringing those fan bases to our locations.
16:45Share a little bit about how powerful that is.
16:48Yeah, it's a great point as well.
16:50We obviously try a lot of different things in the marketing front.
16:54And on one hand, the whole digital and social side is great because you can get really targeted with who the fan base is.
17:00It's not just traditional restaurant marketing where you say, hey, my food's better.
17:04Everyone eats.
17:05Got to stay top of mind.
17:06And the thing we found is, I'll use Denver here where I'm located, we have a deal with the Rockies right across from the stadium, have a partnership.
17:15And to your point, the email database was the most powerful tool.
17:19I mean, they have several hundred thousand people in their database easily.
17:24When they send something out to their fan club, people open it.
17:27So if our open rates are 10%, 15%, whatever they might be, their open rates are like 90%.
17:33And so to have them send out outreach on our behalf as a partnership is incredibly powerful.
17:40And so now as we go to new markets and we do partnerships with the teams, you know, now at 18, going to 19 locations, we've done this in a few markets.
17:50Now you start to realize, okay, these four things didn't work.
17:53This one really worked.
17:54And, you know, just good old fashioned email database marketing has been really powerful, really powerful outreach tool with the teams.
18:01And the, not just email, but you're also collaborating on social.
18:05That's right.
18:06Yeah.
18:06So usually what your point, like tapping into the play-by-play announcer, that's actually coming on location that has, that has a following.
18:13It might not be a huge following, but it's a following of passionate fans that want to know where they are.
18:18Yeah, that's exactly right.
18:19I mean, they've got the passionate fans for the team.
18:22We're trying to get to them.
18:23And so in partnership, we can do it together.
18:25And so what we found now we do with the teams and the arenas is rather than just doing a, you know, traditional sponsorship and you might have your names on the boards or on the ice or whatever that might be, we say, great.
18:37Let's actually partner together on very specific, what we call watch parties.
18:42And it's not just a generic definition.
18:44We together specifically define, okay, we're doing these 10 days.
18:48We always do them for away games because we usually, especially if we're by the team, we're usually going to be busy for the home games because the crowds are around.
18:54And like you said, I don't need 25,000 people, right?
18:58We can't fit them all.
18:59I just need to get a small segment of that crowd.
19:01And on away games, it's a great way for the team to engage with their fans when they're away.
19:06And so a great example, last year, I was out in Minneapolis.
19:10We have a great deal with the Timberwolves.
19:12They were in the playoffs.
19:13I think it was against the Lakers game.
19:15I was there and it was an away game.
19:17The team brought in there, like I just said, the cheerleaders, mascots.
19:22And some of those things sound kind of simple, but the mascot had to have a handler taking them around because there's so many people trying to get a picture with them.
19:30And then McUltra came in as one of the vendor sponsors and said, wow, this is amazing.
19:34We get to really high touch engage with your fans.
19:39We do more sales on the away games than we did when they were just across the street, you know, a couple blocks away.
19:44And it creates this really great fan engagement experience between, and like I said, we get really specific.
19:50We're going to do it on this day.
19:52You're going to send out an email.
19:53You're going to send out a social post.
19:54You're going to bring these different assets into the building.
19:57And you walk in and it's like, wow, this is just something different.
20:01It's not just people watching the TV.
20:04They came out because they want to be around all the other fans and the team and all those other pieces.
20:08So we built a media company on top of our restaurant.
20:14We started this show to talk deeply about storytelling.
20:18We've never lived in an age where you can become your own distribution company.
20:21You can start publishing your own content.
20:23You can create a show on YouTube.
20:25You can create a show on TikTok, on Instagram.
20:27How do you guys think, given the breadth of all the different markets, you obviously can't just, you know, talk about Las Vegas because you have one brand account.
20:36How do you think about where you're going to go and how you're going to differentiate yourself from your other competitors from a social media standpoint?
20:45Yeah, it is one of the blessings and curses of being spread out like we are.
20:52Because every market is very different.
20:54You know, you asked before about the technology deciding what you're going to play.
20:57We have a centralized group that helps organize the media plans and media outreach, but the tactics are very, very local.
21:07I mean, like you said, you can't promote the same thing in Vegas that you do in, you know, Orlando.
21:12It's totally different.
21:13And the markets are different.
21:15You know, our LA location is right by crypto.com.
21:18So we get a lot of our traffic for people on the way to the games.
21:21Whereas our Denver location, it's in a downtown, and we're just trying to be the local watering hole to come watch games.
21:26In Orlando, you're in Disney, so they're very transient.
21:29So the tactics and what you're promoting are really, really different.
21:33And so it's one of the reasons that the local partners and the vendor partners are a really important part of that.
21:39But it's not necessarily just a national deal.
21:41It's doing things on a really local level to make sure we're reaching out to the right groups.
21:45But, you know, from how we think about where to go and how to differentiate, I think that's one of the big parts is how do we bring what we're trying to bring from Tom's overall and an entertainment experience, but also feel local and make sure that we fit within the local market, both from the people, the sports that they're promoting.
22:05And I think it's why it works better in certain markets than others.
22:08You know, I often use our Minneapolis location compared to like Miami as an example.
22:15You know, Miami tends to be a fairly transient town, great restaurant market, fantastic for that segment of the business.
22:22But do you still have that same base of kind of loyal viewers?
22:26Whereas in Minneapolis, you'll go to Tom's on Sunday and you've got grandfather, son and grandson all in their jerseys.
22:34They've been watching games together for years, and they're going to come out every Sunday and watch every game.
22:39And those are the kind of markets we want to go to, just fanatic, passionate sports fans.
22:44And there's lots of them around, but there's certain markets you can just tell, all right, you've tapped into something special in certain markets.
22:50And that's really where we're trying to go.
22:52You have aggressive growth plans, 10 to 13 units per year.
22:56You're raising $50 million.
22:57Why should somebody that's listening to this consider Tom's watch bar?
23:05Yeah, so I think a few different reasons.
23:07One, I think we've proven out the concept.
23:11You know, that's really where we start with everything.
23:14Start with one, get the model right, get the business model right, get the economics right.
23:18And I feel like we've really gotten that right.
23:20And then we've kind of gone around the country to test out, does it really work in different markets?
23:24And I think we're only missing Maine by touching all four corners of the country, but I'm not sure if that'll be our next market.
23:31No, I don't know.
23:32But, you know, we've kind of tested it out and feel like it fits in different markets.
23:36And everyone's slightly different.
23:37You know, we've got a 20,000 square foot location.
23:39We've got a 4,000 square foot location.
23:41We really specifically try to curate the store to what we think fits in that market and that specific occasion.
23:47And so we really think the opportunity is there.
23:51Sports viewing and sports viewership and fandom is only increasing in our perspective.
23:56And the other really cool long-term play that we see that we're just starting with is, you know, we have on a Sunday, you know, thousands and thousands, if not growing to millions of fans, hanging out in our restaurants on a Sunday every year.
24:10And what else can we do to engage with them?
24:13What other corporate partners, sports betting partners, fantasy leagues, what else can you do with that audience and that base once we build it there?
24:20I think, you know, we'll probably have about 4 million fans through our doors in 25, probably 6, 6.5 million next year.
24:27As we grow and expand, the new unit expansion is great, but we're also building an audience.
24:33And with that audience, it starts to, you know, beg the question, what else do you do with that audience while they're there from an entertainment and engagement perspective?
24:42And, you know, we're kind of coming at it from a reverse way, quite frankly.
24:45We've got a great fundamental restaurant business that makes great revenue, great margins, fantastic business.
24:52But if you build out that audience base, let's make sure that we take care of people and continue to give them what they want.
24:57As somebody that spent thousands of dollars for pay-per-view events, I know pay-per-view is declining.
25:06But knowing that, you know, the Manny Pacquiao versus Mayweather fight, I think I spent $6,700 to show that in our restaurants.
25:15Yeah.
25:16Are you charging cover fees or how do you navigate actually expenses for showing these events?
25:22Because there's, who's to say that, you know, Netflix, Amazon Prime, all of these different models, it's all pay-per-occupancy.
25:28So if you have a 3,000-square-foot venue, you're going to be paying a lot of money to put that event on.
25:35Yeah, they do get pricey.
25:37You know, I think we've kind of adopted the philosophy that if we're going to be all the sports all the time, we just need to make sure we have them.
25:43For the most part, around the bigger events that tend to be more expensive, we've been busy enough where it hasn't been quite an issue.
25:51And actually what we've done in a lot of locations, we've done cover charges mostly to manage the door just because it gets a little bit bigger and you get a lot of people that come in and hang out, you know, just hanging around watching.
26:03So we'll put in a nominal-
26:04Higher occupancy.
26:05Yeah, exactly.
26:08Yeah, so we've tinkered around with you to even, you know, a $5 or $10 cover charge just to kind of weed that out or a minimum spend.
26:15So we're still kind of figuring that piece out.
26:17But it's an interesting question, you know, especially with the UFC Paramount deal.
26:21You know, what will that do next year?
26:23That's probably the biggest one that we run into.
26:26But for the most part, we try to stick with the theme that we are a sports bar.
26:31We have to have it all on.
26:32And we don't want to price gouge our fans.
26:35Let's do something to kind of manage it.
26:37But it is also the way we build our places.
26:40One of the big learnings we had was early on, if you're going to be a sports bar, your sales are going to peak and trough much heavier than most other restaurants.
26:49Therefore, when you get those big peaks, you've got to have enough space, seating capacity to capture as much revenue as you can.
26:56And so I think it allows us in those bigger days, even though it's a little expensive, you know, we're going to be much busier on those days than most places.
27:03We're probably going to be slower on a typical Tuesday or Wednesday, but we can absorb the cost of that or build it so that we can absorb the cost of that because we need to have enough, you know, have really big days on those big fight days or pay-per-view days.
27:14Can you be a family-friendly sports bar?
27:18Yeah, good question.
27:20During certain parts of the day, certain events.
27:23Yeah, it's interesting.
27:24We joke a lot about our demographics, how it's easy to look at averages, but we have a really wide range in the average.
27:30And, you know, we're not going after the, you know, 21-year-old just out of college looking for the cheapest bucket of beers.
27:36You know, our demographic is about 52, 48 male, female, you know, early 30s, a little bit higher income.
27:44And so we do attract a slightly different demographic, but it really depends on the occasion.
27:49So here in Denver, we're by Coors Field.
27:51So on baseball game days, absolutely.
27:53We get tons of families through the door.
27:55If that's on a Saturday and it starts to gravitate towards the night and it's UFC, probably not.
28:01But as a matter of fact, in our Cincinnati location, we just opened up with, we are partnered with BetMGM.
28:07They actually have like a small sports book in the corner to try to work out that kind of sports book, sports bar pairing.
28:14And there we actually did just go 21 and over because it's just an environment that, yes, we probably lose a little bit on the family side during the day.
28:22But most of our occasion is bar.
28:24We're about 50% alcohol across the board.
28:27So, you know.
28:28That's the Las Vegas location?
28:31That's actually in Cincinnati that we're partnered with the Reds.
28:34But we also do, our Vegas location is in New York.
28:37New York, also partnered with BetMGM.
28:40They've got a sports book.
28:4121 and up?
28:42The one in Las Vegas?
28:43That one's not.
28:44The sports book is actually like right across the walkway.
28:47So we're technically separated from the actual sports book itself.
28:52Amazing.
28:53Yeah.
28:54What's your dream location?
28:56What are you and the team?
28:59What do you talk about?
29:00What is this?
29:00Yeah.
29:02Well, my first gut reaction was Chicago just growing up there.
29:07It's such a great sports town.
29:09I would love to find the right spot in Chicago.
29:12It's a hard, but from a real estate perspective, it's a hard one.
29:15The stadiums are so spread out.
29:18It's hard to just figure out what exactly that right spot is.
29:21But honestly, I think what our future looks like is finding just these great, I think a lot of the Midwestern towns have a lot of the attributes of, you know, from Minneapolis all the way down through Texas.
29:33I think there's such a great multi-generational sports fan base.
29:39That's great.
29:40But I still love the big sports towns, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, New York.
29:46The hard part is that they've got really expensive rent, so you better make sure you pick it right.
29:52So every guest, we ask them about their personal tech stack.
29:56So are you an iPhone or an Android user?
29:59I'm an iPhone user.
30:00What version?
30:03What are we on?
30:0416.
30:04Not the latest one.
30:05Yeah.
30:06Not the latest one.
30:06Do you prefer phone calls or text messages?
30:11Text.
30:13Do you leave voicemails?
30:15Rarely.
30:17How many emails do you get a day?
30:19Ooh.
30:20I'm going to guess 100, 150 or so maybe.
30:24How many of those do you enjoy reading?
30:27Ooh.
30:30I'm going to go with 10.
30:33What's your notification management?
30:35How do you manage notifications on your phone?
30:39Yeah.
30:39Very few things.
30:41It's a handful of people, a handful of apps I use, and anything for the kids.
30:45Which apps do you use that people wouldn't expect?
30:51That I wouldn't expect?
30:54I don't know if I wouldn't expect.
30:55I'm just thinking the ones I use the most.
30:57I mean, you'd expect me.
30:58I'm on our POS app constantly, which drives my wife crazy.
31:01And my kid's school one, ESPN a lot.
31:06I can't think of one that you might not expect, but it's probably all the usuals, really.
31:11How do you...
31:11Do you watch sports on your phone?
31:14I do.
31:15Yeah.
31:16Well, and yesterday, I couldn't get the Monday night football game, so I was even doing the
31:20refresh on the little play-by-play.
31:21Your YouTube TV?
31:23Yeah, with the little football dashed line moving across the field just to see the score.
31:27It's how desperate we get, right?
31:29I've done it.
31:30I've done it all.
31:31My wife is from Bulgaria.
31:32I've watched Charger football games streamed on browsers that I have no idea how.
31:37But yeah, I get it.
31:38Yeah.
31:39The funny part is what I found is how...
31:42What's more unexpected is the teams I'm rooting for now, just because we're so spread out.
31:46We're so driven by which teams are doing well.
31:48I drive my kids nuts at home.
31:50I'm cheering for the team that they hate.
31:52I'm like, hey, guys, this one's better for business.
31:55And whether I want to root for the Dodgers or not, I want this to go game seven, and I
31:59want to go as long as possible.
32:01When people ask, do I bet on sports?
32:04I'm like, I have a sports bar.
32:06I'm always betting for seven games.
32:08I want the games to go as long as the drama just to continue to build.
32:13Yeah, I don't want to blow out Super Bowl.
32:15I want the games to go seven.
32:16I was going crazy to see it go game seven.
32:21And once it goes game seven, I said, now I don't care.
32:23I just want to see a good game.
32:25Well, Brooks, I can't thank you enough for taking the time.
32:27If you guys want to reach out to me, I'm weirdly available at Sean P.
32:31Welchef.
32:31Instagram is probably the fastest, but LinkedIn, TikTok, all the platforms.
32:35Please subscribe to the show.
32:36Please share the show.
32:37Please go to a Tom's watch bar.
32:40Tag us.
32:40Tag me in the content.
32:41Let me know.
32:42I'm heading with my wife and my son and my daughter.
32:45We're going to Vegas this weekend, and we're going to go to Tom's watch bar because I'm a Chargers season ticket holder, but we're at a restaurant event, so I will be watching the Chargers take on the Steelers at your location in Las Vegas.
32:58I can't wait to check it out.
33:00Brooks, where's the best place for people to learn more about Tom's?
33:03Yeah, tomswatchbar.com.
33:05It's got our main site and all the other individual locations, Instagram, all the socials, as usual.
33:12But, yeah, I would love to have everybody out there, and I appreciate the time, and thanks for having us on.
33:18I can't wait.
33:18I'll definitely have you on again in the future as you guys continue to build.
33:22I didn't have enough time to ask you all the questions I wanted to, but we love what you guys are doing.
33:27Well, if we miss you in Vegas, make sure you come out.
33:28We just opened in Englewood, right across from SoFi, so you can come check us out.
33:35We took over space and in conversion right now, but come check us out on your next Chargers game.
33:39100% I will.
33:40I appreciate it.
33:40As always, guys, stay curious, get involved, and don't be afraid to ask for help.
33:44We'll catch you next week.
33:49Thank you for listening.
33:50If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.
33:53You're part of the tribe.
33:54We can't do this alone.
33:55We started.
33:56No one was listening.
33:57Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
34:01Please check out our new series called Restaurant Technology Substack.
34:05It's a Substack newsletter.
34:07It's free.
34:07It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants.
34:11Also, go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali BBQ Media.
34:15Cali BBQ Media on YouTube.
34:17We've been putting out a lot of new original content.
34:19Hopefully, you guys like that content.
34:21If you want to work with us, go to etheshow.media.
34:24We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
34:28We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
34:31You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
34:35I'm weirdly available.
34:36Stay curious.
34:37Get involved.
34:38Don't be afraid to ask for help.
34:39We'll catch you next episode.
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