- 2 hours ago
Alex Smith, founder and CEO of Atlas Restaurant Group, helped transform Baltimore’s Harbor East into a dining destination while building a rapidly expanding hospitality company known for luxury restaurants, disciplined operations, and team-first culture.
Watch now to learn how Alex Smith built Atlas Restaurant Group, transformed Harbor East, and used lacrosse principles to scale team culture.
Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by:
• Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI
• PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico
Watch now to learn how Alex Smith built Atlas Restaurant Group, transformed Harbor East, and used lacrosse principles to scale team culture.
Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by:
• Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI
• PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico
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NewsTranscript
00:00Who was I talking to, Izzy?
00:01Yeah.
00:01She said she got 50 Instagram handles she's running?
00:04She does.
00:06It's tough.
00:07So I feel bad for Izzy.
00:12I'm tired, boss.
00:22Welcome to Restaurant Influencers, presented by Entrepreneur.
00:25I'm your host, Sean Walcheff.
00:26This is a Cali BBQ Media production.
00:28We are coming to you live from on top of Baltimore.
00:33We are at the Four Seasons Hotel with the Atlas Restaurant Group, CEO and visionary Alex Smith.
00:39We traveled all the way from San Diego to come and bring you guys this story.
00:43Because in life, in the restaurant business, and in the new creator economy, we learn through lessons and stories.
00:49Alex, where in the world is your favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
00:54Oh, favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
01:00Well, I mean, I would say Camden Yards, for sure.
01:02Camden Yards.
01:03I mean, I think it's the best ballpark in the country.
01:05Best ballpark in the country.
01:06Camden Yards is just over our shoulders, right?
01:08It is just over our shoulder.
01:09And it's also a great concert venue.
01:12Okay, set the scene.
01:13Where are we sitting?
01:14Where are we recording this podcast?
01:16So we're in Harbor East, which is the east side of Baltimore, adjacent to Fells Point and south of Johns
01:21Hopkins Hospital.
01:23And you can see over my left shoulder, you have the city there.
01:26And then over my right shoulder is Federal Hill.
01:29And that's where the ballparks are.
01:31You have M&T Bank Stadium as well as Camden Yards.
01:35Amazing.
01:35So we're going to go to Camden Yards.
01:37We're going to talk to Entrepreneur, talk to Toast, talk to some other sponsors.
01:40We're going to fill the entire arena with entrepreneurs, hospitality professionals, people that believe in building great businesses.
01:47And I'm going to bring you to the pitcher's mound, give you the mic, and say,
01:50Alex, bring me back to the 20-year-old that went to Minneapolis to pitch Haagen-Dazs, to give him
01:58a franchise.
01:59Tell us that story, but then tell us what you've learned and how big the brand has become, the Atlas
02:05Group.
02:05Yeah, well, I was 20 years old and I went to Minneapolis for training.
02:09First to pitch and then for training.
02:11But I can tell you it's very cold there in the wintertime.
02:14It was my first experience in Minneapolis.
02:16I was there for two weeks in training for Haagen-Dazs in the middle of the winter, freezing cold.
02:21But what I saw, you know, my experience with them was great.
02:26Haagen-Dazs Shop Company was fantastic.
02:28Adam Hansen, who's CEO, is, you know, he was there when, you know, teaching my training class and he's now
02:35CEO of the company there.
02:36So we still stay in touch.
02:37And it's been a relationship that started in, man, 2006.
02:42And so 20 years later, you know, I'm still with those guys.
02:45We have a store right down here in Harbor East.
02:48The store is literally across the street from where we're recording this podcast.
02:51It is.
02:51Yep.
02:52And, you know, my first manager who started with me there, she's still there 20 years later as well.
02:57And we've got a great team there.
02:59And it was a great experience to learn how to run a small business.
03:05Yeah.
03:05No hot kitchen.
03:07So just, you know, basic stuff, hiring, training, inventory control, you know, making sure it's clean.
03:14Cleanliness is huge in the ice cream store.
03:16Nobody wants to walk into an ice cream store, see drips of ice cream on the ground.
03:19Just learning how to run my own small business.
03:21It was invaluable.
03:22And those guys are great partners.
03:25Bring me back to the pitch.
03:28Yeah.
03:28So basically I went in there and I was like, look, there's this up and coming area in Baltimore City
03:33and it's called Harbor East.
03:36And there was no buildings here, no Four Seasons here.
03:38This is all dirt where we are now.
03:40Wow.
03:40And there was a theater that was going in, Landmark Theaters, which was owned by Mark Cuban at the time.
03:46So I said, look, I've got this location.
03:48I'm peeling off.
03:49It's right next to Landmark Theaters.
03:51And their whole thing was, look, you know, we really do better in seasonal and not in seasonal towns where
03:59it's warm like San Diego, 365 for most of the year.
04:04And so they were really focused on Florida and the South, Texas.
04:09But I convinced them to, you know, give me a franchise up here.
04:12And I think they were impressed with just my work ethic and the fact that they called me APK, Alex
04:20B. Keating.
04:22So they were just impressed that I was a hustler, a young kid, and I was hungry to be successful.
04:29So they took a chance on me.
04:31So when did it go from Haagen-Dazs to the Atlas restaurant?
04:35What does Atlas, why Atlas?
04:36Why did you pick the name Atlas?
04:37Yeah, so Atlas came along a few years later.
04:40So after Haagen-Dazs, when the buildings around here started being developed, there was no place for lunch.
04:46And so I thought, man, I'll do a deli diner style concept with, you know, cheesesteaks and pizza and sandwiches
04:53and salads.
04:54And, you know, with all these construction workers and all the new office workers coming in, we'll provide an amenity
04:59for the neighborhood.
05:00And that turned out to be great.
05:02So basically, I'm graduated college.
05:04I was a finance major.
05:05I knew nothing about food.
05:08And three years later, I have, you know, this Harbor East deli, which is still around as well.
05:12I have Haagen-Dazs.
05:13And I've got these two businesses I'm managing.
05:16And then after that, I wanted to get into something more upscale, more fine dining.
05:22And so a few years after that, which is now 2012.
05:25So five years after I opened the Haagen-Dazs.
05:28And now I'm about 27, 28 years old.
05:31I opened Uzo Bay in Harbor East.
05:34And that was my first real restaurant.
05:38After Uzo, we did a Japanese restaurant, Izumi.
05:42Okay.
05:43And then did Lachbar, which really was like a European-style oyster bar concept at the time.
05:50And it's evolved.
05:52But that's how I came up with Atlas because I figured I'm doing Mediterranean.
05:55I'm doing Japanese.
05:56I'm doing this European-style oyster bar, which is basically now an American seafood tavern.
06:02It's kind of evolved over the last decade.
06:04And I thought Atlas Restaurant Group because you're encompassing different parts of the world, different regions, different types of food.
06:10And that's how I came up with it.
06:11Obviously, I've got Greek descent.
06:14And so Uzo Bay is my first restaurant, was a high-end Greek restaurant.
06:19And then that's why I chose a Greek titan as a name for the company because I wanted to tie
06:24into that history.
06:27When did you know you wanted more than just the Haagen-Dazs?
06:32Immediately?
06:33I think I just saw the opportunity in the neighborhood and figured I can grow with the neighborhood.
06:39And this is a Greek—I never really thought I would have—I think at the end of this year, we're going
06:43to have 60 restaurants open and operating.
06:4660 restaurants, 3,500 employees.
06:48Yeah, by the end of this year, yes.
06:50Unbelievable.
06:50So, you know, I never really thought we'd grow that big, to tell you the truth.
06:54And there were times where the business was super tough when we were just growing.
06:58And I was like, look, I'm happy with what I have.
07:00Like, I'm going to tidy this up and go do something else.
07:04And really, I was just trying to grow with the opportunity that was in front of me.
07:08And it was a natural, organic type of growth.
07:12It wasn't something that was forced or something that I felt that I needed to immediately scale to sell or
07:18get out.
07:19I've always looked at it as an organic business.
07:22You know, somebody approaches us with a deal.
07:24You know, what does it look like economically?
07:26Can we make money here?
07:28And how does it just evolve naturally?
07:30Bring me into the most finance people run away from restaurants.
07:34Yeah.
07:34Not run towards it.
07:36Why do the economics make sense for you?
07:38Well, I think part of the reason I grew the way I grew is because we got a lot of,
07:43you know, opportunity.
07:44We got an opportunity to be in the hotel after Mina vacated it.
07:50So, Michael Mina was originally in these properties.
07:52We were kind of the hometown operator.
07:54They made a change.
07:55He kind of vacated the properties.
07:56We came in.
07:57You know, we spent limited capital refacing them.
08:01That was our first big break.
08:03But there's been some opportunity that have come up where it's either, you know, hotel deals, second generation properties, owners
08:09that sunk a lot of capital in but didn't necessarily know how to run the business.
08:15And so, you know, part of our growth strategy was the economics.
08:20I think it's very, very difficult in this business if you're a sole proprietor.
08:24If you're a mom and pop, incredibly hard, even three, four, five units.
08:28I see great restauranteurs all the time.
08:30They have two great units.
08:31They open the third, takes their whole company down.
08:33And we were there.
08:34I mean, you know, we expanded to Florida.
08:37We opened a store in a wrong location and it was hard.
08:40We ended up shutting that one down.
08:42But the fact of the matter is, is that now it's about, for us, it's about scale.
08:47Because the bigger we get, things like procurement and, you know, using our HR and using our management team to
08:56cut costs on a, on a, basically a nationwide scale is how you make the money.
09:01I mean, it is, as you know, is a penny's business and very difficult.
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09:14thing, sustainable growth.
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10:24Bring me back to the Florida.
10:26One of the hardest things as entrepreneurs is to talk about the things that we did wrong.
10:30It's obviously whenever we make content about the things that we did wrong running our restaurants in San Diego,
10:36it turns out to be the best performing content because we don't want to repeat mistakes that other entrepreneurs have
10:41made.
10:42Can you bring us back to when did you realize that it was a bad location?
10:46Yeah.
10:46So I opened Uzo Bay in Boca Raton and Meisner Park.
10:51And, you know, one of the biggest mistakes I made in Boca Raton is you go down A1A and you
10:56look at all these beautiful homes and you're like,
10:57man, there's people that are affluent here.
10:59I'll open a fine dining restaurant.
11:01And really, those people come maybe once a year for a week.
11:04They're not year-round residents.
11:07And the people that are really living in that community are looking for more everyday dining.
11:10So I think we came into the market price too heavy, a little bit too sophisticated of a concept.
11:16And then my other mistake was it was too big a store.
11:20It was my first big box store.
11:22It was 8,000, 9,000 square feet.
11:24Really, I should have opened something in 3,500.
11:27More manageable, less employees, less overhead, less expense.
11:31And then the other mistake I made was, you know, I only had a year guarantee.
11:36And I kept it open for three years because I was trying to prove to myself that I could make
11:40it.
11:41And I was like, look, we're putting a great quality product out.
11:44We got great reviews.
11:45We were, you know, loved in the community.
11:49But just, you know, in the off months, there wasn't enough business there to generate the traffic you needed to
11:54sustain it.
11:54And so really, it cost me a lot of money because for a sense of pride, I never really failed
12:00before.
12:01And I would say that the biggest mistake was not realizing it's a failure and wrapping it up and moving
12:06on.
12:07You know, I really wanted to challenge myself to try and make it there.
12:10And that ended up hurting.
12:12I appreciate the candor and the honesty.
12:14It's something that I hope more entrepreneurs do, especially the most successful ones, because we all know that success leaves
12:21secrets.
12:21I learned a ton.
12:22Yeah.
12:23I learned a ton.
12:23I mean, fail to hurt.
12:25You go through the pain of, you know, pulling your equipment out of there, your tables and chairs and, you
12:29know, you know, sending a note to the staff and making sure they're taken care of as you're winding things
12:35down.
12:35And it's painful.
12:36Yeah.
12:37And you never want to go through that again.
12:39A hundred percent.
12:40I recently heard Danny Meyer on a podcast talking about his biggest regret with writing the book, setting the table
12:46was in the book.
12:48He talks about having pride in never having closed a restaurant.
12:50And he says, now looking back, he doesn't want that message to go out there because there's amazing restaurateurs that
12:57have closed locations and have learned and made even better businesses because of those closed locations.
13:02Especially in South Florida.
13:04I mean, just as an example, I mean, there are some unbelievable, world-renowned restaurateurs that have opened in Florida
13:11in six months, they're closed.
13:13And it's a fickle market and it's the type of market either you crush or you struggle.
13:19And you really got to know what you're doing in that market.
13:22Bring me into scaling the unscalable.
13:26As far as.
13:27As far as you have proven concepts that work.
13:30Yeah.
13:30And you're opening them up, but you still develop new concepts.
13:33Where do you make the decision?
13:35How do you bring us into concept development?
13:37Well, one of the things we've done in Baltimore is we're developing concepts in our hometown.
13:41Yeah.
13:42Where we have a huge base, you know, we are heavily entrenched in the community here.
13:48We've got a very loyal following.
13:50And so one of the things we do is when there's a piece of real estate available or it's adaptive
13:55reuse or we buy an old building and fix it up, we put a new concept in it to see,
14:00hey, can this work in Baltimore?
14:02And if it's a hit in this town and it makes it in this town, which is it's a tough
14:06town to make it in.
14:08Generally, it's one that we'll think about taking on the road.
14:10So our most successful concepts, Bruxton, Block Bar, Izumi, Chop Tank, are all concepts that we've grown and created other
14:19iterations of in other markets.
14:21So we're really using our hometown as a test bed.
14:24And I think that, you know, a lot of restauranteurs have done that.
14:27This is, you know, our bread and butter.
14:28These are our regular guests.
14:31And if they're receptive and love what we're doing, that's one we'll take on the road.
14:35Tell us about this Four Seasons property.
14:37We're recording right now at Bygone.
14:40And if you're listening to the podcast, please go to YouTube and watch the visuals because this is just a
14:45phenomenal property.
14:46It's a great, great hotel.
14:47We're going to do a behind the scenes tour of the restaurant.
14:50Tell us about you said this was your big break.
14:53Yeah.
14:53Did you go and put a request in, request for proposal?
14:56Did they come to you?
14:57How did this come apart?
14:59They came to us.
15:00What I would tell you is, is that we were the hot local operator at that time.
15:05And, you know, look, Michael Mina had Pabu, Witten Wisdom and LaMille Coffee here.
15:10And he was generating, I think it was at the time, you know, seven, eight million in sales between the
15:15three outlets.
15:16We added a fourth, which is Bygone.
15:19But, you know, we're doing top line now, 35 million in the same spot that he was doing.
15:23Wow.
15:24And so, you know, this Four Seasons, you know, if you just look at the F&B and you take
15:29out IRD and Banquet, it's top three in North America for F&B sales.
15:36And that's in Baltimore.
15:37And so it's an incredible hotel, you know, 260 rooms.
15:41They've got 70 condos, full spa.
15:44You know, there's a lot of Four Seasons that are great around the country, but I would put this one
15:49up there with most of them.
15:51Tell me more about the city of Baltimore.
15:53Yeah.
15:54City of Baltimore is an amazing city.
15:56It really is.
15:57You're on the tourism board?
15:57It really is.
15:58I am.
15:58I've been on the tourism board for, I think, 14 years.
16:01And, you know, what's cool about Baltimore is, well, first off, you know, Baltimore gets a bad rap, you know,
16:09nationally sometimes.
16:10I would tell you that, you know, the reality on the ground is much different than the perception that we
16:16get nationally.
16:18If you're here walking around at night, these properties, Fells Point, these neighborhoods,
16:22they're completely safe.
16:24It's a beautiful town.
16:25And it's the only town, really, where you can get new builds like this.
16:29And you can walk two blocks and you can be in Fells Point.
16:32And we have a bar there, the Waterfront Hotel, that was built in 1771.
16:35Wow.
16:36So we have, you know, some properties that are pushing 250 or over 250.
16:41Incredible.
16:41And so you get the history of the neighborhoods, you know, Federal Hill, Fort McHenry is over here on this
16:48point.
16:49You know, the Star Spangled Banner was written out there right in the Chesapeake.
16:52I mean, there's tremendous history here.
16:55And you get the history of these really cool waterfront neighborhoods along with some, a lot of new development.
17:01And then the other thing that's neat about our city is like close proximity.
17:05I mean, you're a 25-minute train ride to D.C.
17:08You're an hour to Philly.
17:10You're two hours to New York.
17:12So you've got great proximity.
17:14And then we have unbelievable waterfront.
17:16You can literally jog almost around the entire waterfront of the city.
17:20So we've got so many great things to offer and a lot of great, a lot of great, cool little
17:27restaurants in this town as well.
17:29Tell me about the people of Baltimore.
17:31So I would tell you the people of Baltimore are resilient, have a lot of grit, super passionate about their
17:38town.
17:40You know, I think that they've got an edge to them.
17:45And, you know, we have a great sense of pride in our town.
17:47And, you know, I'm the type of person that, like, I was born here and I will die here, never
17:54leaving.
17:55And I look at it as my responsibility to give back to the city and create cool, unique dining concepts
18:01that can help further the city.
18:04But, like, you have a lot of diehard people like me that are just like, look, this is my town.
18:09And I'm going to be here forever and I'm going to raise my family here.
18:13And that's, you know, it's a good thing.
18:15Sense of pride.
18:16Can you define Baltimore hospitality for me?
18:20I would say define Baltimore hospitality.
18:25Well, I would tell you that I think we do some things that nobody else does really well.
18:30And I think we do really we do seafood really well.
18:32OK.
18:32I really do think we we are, you know, you know, it's New Orleans, it's Baltimore, it's that Chesapeake Bay
18:38region.
18:38And you got Louisiana.
18:39I mean, I think there's a few cities in the country, you know, Boston's maybe one of them that really
18:45focuses on seafood and do it really well.
18:47And I think that's our bread and butter.
18:49I mean, we got the largest estuary in the world, you know, crabs, hard shells, soft shells, you know, rockfish.
18:55I mean, we just do oysters.
18:57We do we do that very well.
19:00Tell me about the competitive nature of you playing professional lacrosse.
19:05Yeah.
19:06And bringing that into business.
19:07Like what lessons as a lacrosse player have you brought into your company?
19:12Number one thing is team.
19:14And, you know, in lacrosse, you know, our best teams, we're not necessarily the best players in each position, but
19:22the but the best team members in each position, because you have 10 guys on a field and you'll have
19:27to work together to win.
19:28Yeah.
19:28And I think it's very similar in the restaurant.
19:31You know, you want team players.
19:32You want people that want to be there.
19:34You want people that show up every day for practice and work hard.
19:37And those are the guys you put out on the field.
19:39But, you know, the way I look at a restaurant is, is like, you know, you have your back of
19:43house and front of house.
19:44It's kind of your offense and defense.
19:47You have your coach, which is like, let's say, the general manager.
19:50And, you know, the best teams that I was on playing lacrosse were the ones where it was completely fluid.
19:57You went on on the field and everybody just played their role.
20:00And together you had success.
20:02And it's much like the restaurant.
20:04You know, everybody asked me, like, what's your favorite part about opening a restaurant?
20:09It's not the first night.
20:11It's not the first month.
20:12It's when you walk in, you know, 60, 90 days later and you sit at a table for the first
20:17time, like, as an owner and you have a meal and you watch.
20:21It works.
20:21And you just look around and everybody's moving with purpose.
20:24My coach used to say, move with purpose.
20:26In other words, when the ball is behind the cage, just don't stand there.
20:29Yeah.
20:30Move.
20:30Move.
20:30And for me, the most beautiful part is it's like a symphony.
20:35You walk in and everybody's moving with purpose for the success of one another in the business.
20:40And I think that's what I've taken from lacrosse.
20:43Bring me into branding and marketing.
20:45Yeah.
20:45I love branding and marketing.
20:48It's, you know, I've seen the marketing people over there and they'll tell you I'm a huge pain in the
20:52ass.
20:54But I, you know, one of the things I've done is really I've developed pretty much all the names and
21:00the brands for the restaurants with our team, of course.
21:04And I'm heavily involved in that.
21:06And I think, you know, one of the things I'm passionate about, once again, bringing back to Baltimore, is I'm
21:11super well-traveled.
21:13And part of the reason I'm well-traveled is I want to go experience what we don't have.
21:17Yeah.
21:18And I love traveling.
21:19I love looking at, you know, before we opened our Japanese concept, we went to Japan.
21:23We spent, you know, a week in Kyoto.
21:25We spent a week in Tokyo.
21:26We actually embraced ourselves into the culture and looked at the product and said, okay, well, what will resonate with
21:32people from Baltimore and what, you know, can we not do?
21:35Right.
21:36And there's a balance there.
21:37And I think that's where I come in.
21:40But with the branding, I think it's fun to go look at what the best people do in the world.
21:45Yeah.
21:46And then cultivate your own brand.
21:49And look, copying is the most sincere form of flattery.
21:53I wouldn't say copy because there's many things that you could copy and put in this market that would fail.
21:59Yeah.
21:59But we have a unique understanding of this market and the mid-Atlantic market.
22:02And so for me, what's fun is going out and exploring, seeing what works in other markets, and then figuring
22:08out how do I bring that back to my market?
22:10How do I bring that back to Baltimore and make it successful in our market to give the people of
22:15Baltimore something that they don't already have?
22:18That's really the passion behind branding is how can we create something new and cool that, you know, it's going
22:25to resonate with the community and vice versa.
22:27When out of town artists like yourself come in, they're like, wow, I can't believe this is in Baltimore.
22:32And so everything we do branding wise is geared around that.
22:35Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada, and UK?
22:43It's an incredible company.
22:45I'm on the Toast customer advisory board.
22:46They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers.
22:49We couldn't do it without their support.
22:51They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.
22:55If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your primary technology partner at
23:01your restaurants, please reach out to me.
23:03I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you.
23:07You can reach me at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
23:10Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling, the power of
23:16hospitality.
23:17Back to the show.
23:18Every business is a family business.
23:22Bring me into your role as a father, as a husband, and how that shapes how you run your company.
23:28Well, I mean, you know, I've got three kids under five.
23:33They're all boys.
23:35Wow.
23:35Under five?
23:36They're all boys.
23:37Wow.
23:38And it's incredibly difficult.
23:40I've got a fantastic wife.
23:42And I would tell you that the best thing about my wife is, you know, when we first got together,
23:48you know, she sold me, like, right away.
23:52She's like, look, her line was, I understand right now, we were just dating, that I'm the third most important
23:58thing in your life.
23:59And I said, what do you mean?
24:00She's like, family's number one, second's your business, and I'm third.
24:04And I said, well, honey, I'm sorry you feel that way.
24:06And she's like, I'm cool with it as long as I have room to move up.
24:09And I'm like, I'm going to marry this girl.
24:12So, but, you know, I'm out.
24:14I work a lot of late nights.
24:16And my wife and I have trust.
24:17And I've never betrayed that trust.
24:20And she knows that I'm out there grinding and that, you know, we're making an impact on the community, her
24:26and I.
24:26And so, you know, she's been just my rock.
24:30And I'm super appreciative of the relationship I have.
24:32For the kids, you know, it's tough because I'm working a lot of nights.
24:36I still try and hit all my properties Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
24:39I'm walking through.
24:39I'm talking to guests.
24:41I'm in the action.
24:42I feel it's important for an owner-operator to just be, even at 60 properties, you have to be in
24:48the stores.
24:50And so I really try and do a good job of come home in the afternoons, pick them up from
24:55school, do the three to five thing, you know, cook them dinner, get them ready for bed, and then say,
25:00hey, I'm going to be out till 10, 11 o'clock at night.
25:03I got to roll.
25:03I'll be back later.
25:04See you guys in the morning.
25:05But I think I've done a much better job since the kids have come along of try and spend time
25:10where I can, quality time where I can.
25:13And then every now and then pull one and take them in the restaurant with me.
25:16Amazing.
25:17Take them in the back.
25:18You know, let them help out here or there.
25:19Show them what the business is.
25:21Show them what I'm doing when I'm not at home so he has an understanding of it.
25:25And that's been great.
25:26But it's been a learning curve.
25:28Someone do that for you growing up?
25:30You know, my dad worked a lot.
25:33He was gone a lot.
25:35But I just remember that the times that I had with him, like, he was present and he was there.
25:40So when he could give me time, like, we had that time together.
25:44And I never felt that we didn't have enough time together.
25:48You know, when I was a kid, there was games he missed growing up.
25:52But as I got older and into college, he's like, I'm never going to miss one of your games.
25:56Because he was at a point in his career where he could do that.
25:58Yeah.
25:58And to his credit, he never missed a game later in life.
26:02And so I think it's about, you know, being present and spending the time you have when you have it.
26:09How is it working side by side with your brother?
26:12It's fantastic.
26:13I mean, he and I sometimes.
26:15What do you butt heads on the most?
26:17Well, I mean, he and I sometimes couldn't be more opposite.
26:22Older brother or younger brother?
26:23It's my younger brother.
26:24So, yeah, the middle one, there's three of us.
26:26The middle one is not in our business.
26:29But it's me and the youngest, Eric, who's my partner.
26:33And he's a cool dude.
26:36But I think that the reason we work so well is that we're complete opposites in some ways.
26:42In many ways, we're very much aligned.
26:45But I think that he looks at it as his job to poke holes in some of the things that
26:53I want to do.
26:53And I think that's a really healthy thing.
26:55Yes.
26:56As long as it's done, like, in a respectful way, which he and I are, like, you know, so tight.
27:01So, like, I trust his counsel.
27:05He's an extremely hard worker.
27:07And he's kind of found his own niche in the business, which is he runs all of our projects.
27:12Yeah.
27:13So where I'm doing business development and branding, and Brian, who you're going to talk to, runs our operations and
27:19is really running the company.
27:20Brian is just, you know, my right hand.
27:23And Eric is doing, like, the real hard work, managing our subs, managing the contractors, managing the kitchen equipment guys.
27:31He's in there with the landlords when there's structural issues.
27:34He's doing a lot of our real estate work.
27:37He runs our entire beverage program because he's super detail-oriented with that.
27:41But, and so, like, we've all kind of found our roles, and it goes back to team.
27:46Yeah.
27:46You know, there's things I'm great at that he's not great at, and there's things that he's great at that
27:51I'm not great at.
27:52So, but I'm super, I mean, look, everybody says family business is tough, but I would say it's great because
27:59you have people telling you the truth.
28:02Yeah.
28:03And no matter what, it's not like these people are paid to work for you.
28:06Yeah.
28:07This is your family, and they have your best interest at heart.
28:10And I have his best interest at heart, and so I think the transparency and the full disclosure is just
28:15really healthy.
28:16Paint the bigger picture for me.
28:19Like, so we look back on this podcast, if we check back in 2030, what does Atlas Restaurant Group look
28:24like?
28:25Are we international?
28:26You know, I don't know that we're international.
28:28Maybe we are.
28:29You know, my goal would be, look, I look at companies around the country of who I would want to
28:39emulate.
28:41And, you know, we're, I would say, a top 10 multi-concept operator in the country as far as sales
28:48volumes and properties.
28:49And I would tell you that, you know, Landry's, if you look at Landry's, which I think is the biggest.
28:56No, I don't think they're the biggest.
28:57They are the biggest.
28:58They're more of a private equity, and they're not really growing their own concepts.
29:01They're investing in some really talented operators, like the Catch Guys and so on and so forth, or they're buying,
29:07you know, the Frisco's or, you know, other brands.
29:11I don't really see ourselves as that.
29:13I see ourselves more in the Let Us Entertain You category.
29:16I think that their family's done an incredible job building a generational company.
29:22They've grown all their brands from within.
29:25They have, you know, 30 or 40 different operating partners that have pieces of the business where they're taking care
29:31of their families, they're taking care of their staff, they're growing people within their organization.
29:36I hear they're approaching a billion dollars in sales, privately held.
29:40I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what I heard.
29:42And so if I were to put a picture of, like, what we look like in 20 years, that would
29:48be it.
29:49A billion dollars in, you know, in sales with, you know, 150, 125 restaurants with multiple different brands, but more
29:58importantly, growing people and culture to a way where they're having community impact in all their markets.
30:04They have 30 or 40 different operating partners that, you know, these aren't general managers.
30:09These are guys making real money.
30:12And then they're growing people within their organization.
30:15I really think that that would be somebody for us to try and emulate.
30:20Amazing.
30:20Do you have any mentors?
30:22My father.
30:24I talk to my dad pretty much every day.
30:27And, you know.
30:28You call him?
30:29He calls you?
30:29A little bit of both?
30:30A little bit of both.
30:31Okay.
30:31At 2 o'clock every day, either I'm calling him or he's calling him.
30:33Really?
30:33Yeah.
30:34Standing 2 o'clock.
30:35Yeah, standing 2 o'clock, 1.30, 2 o'clock.
30:37I know where he is.
30:38I know what he's doing.
30:40And he and my uncle are two of my mentors.
30:44They both run big companies and, you know, they've been around the block.
30:49Yeah.
30:50And he and my uncle are very much like Eric and I.
30:53So I get two perspectives.
30:56You know, I have two perspectives.
30:59And those guys are really my mentors.
31:01And then my grandfather, who unfortunately passed in 2016, you know, he was like very different than my dad and
31:08my uncle.
31:08Well, not so different, but he was a not a very well-educated guy when it came to college and
31:14high school and this and that.
31:15But he was a grinded out, risk-taking, ambitious guy and did very well for himself.
31:22But I learned a lot from him.
31:25I learned a lot from him as well.
31:26It's kind of the old school style.
31:29But those would be the three people in my life that I spend the most time with.
31:34Tell us about what's next, immediate projects on the horizon.
31:37Yeah, we have two restaurants opening in the Waterfront Hotel in Annapolis, which is a big hotel property for us.
31:45We've got Banquet.
31:46We've got two restaurants.
31:47We've got IRD there.
31:48That's coming on 90 days.
31:51We have Ruxton, which is a big growth vehicle for us.
31:54We're opening in National Harbor in November.
31:57We're going to open up in April in the old Charlie Palmers in D.C. at 101 Constitution.
32:02And then shortly after that, late spring, summer, fall, somewhere in there, depending on when the hotel's done, we're going
32:08to open up Ruxton in Philadelphia in Rittenhouse Square.
32:10So we have three Ruxtons opening in the next, call it, year and a half.
32:15And then we have our hotel property we're opening in Annapolis.
32:18And then we're already kind of through 28.
32:22We know what we're doing, where we're going.
32:24We're going to potentially two new cities in 28 on the East Coast.
32:31So that'll be big for us.
32:33And that's pretty much it.
32:35That's amazing.
32:36Before I let you go, one of my favorite segments is personal tech stacks.
32:41Are you an Android or an iPhone user?
32:43I'm an iPhone guy.
32:44Which version?
32:46Whatever the latest one, 17.
32:47You always get the latest when it comes out?
32:49I usually skip a year.
32:51You skip a year.
32:52Because they're so well made.
32:53So if this year's the 18, I'll wait a year and I'll get the 19 next year.
32:57Who's your carrier?
32:58Verizon.
32:59Been with them forever?
32:59Forever.
33:00Never switched?
33:01Never switched.
33:02Me neither.
33:03And I think Verizon has the best.
33:06It's weird because I go to some of these markets.
33:08I'm like, why are my bars low?
33:10But it's because AT&T or whatever is better in that area.
33:13But Verizon for Maryland is Verizon San Diego works phenomenal too.
33:17Yeah, it's great.
33:18And in Bulgaria because I travel internationally.
33:20Phone calls or text messages?
33:23Do you prefer?
33:27Phone calls probably.
33:29Phone calls.
33:29Yeah.
33:30Do you leave voicemails?
33:31I don't.
33:32Do you listen to voicemails?
33:33I don't.
33:36What's your notification management system?
33:40Like if we looked at your phone right now, would you have like hundreds of unread emails?
33:44Hundreds of unread texts?
33:45I would, yes.
33:46Unread texts?
33:46Oh, no, no, no.
33:46Sorry.
33:47So, no.
33:48I would have zero unread emails.
33:49Zero unread texts.
33:49I would have 25 unread emails.
33:52Okay.
33:52And I would probably have 10 unread texts from just the time we were talking.
33:56Just the time we were talking.
33:57Sounds about right.
33:57But I'm actually really anal about every single day in my email box.
34:01Yeah.
34:01I have zero emails.
34:02I clear them out.
34:04I respond to everybody.
34:05If I don't have a response, I'll respond and be like, I'm not sure, but I will follow up.
34:09And I'll make a note to follow up.
34:11And then I've got a great chief of staff, Patty Sparraga, who runs my entire life.
34:15Yeah.
34:15And without her, I don't know where I'd be.
34:22Teams, Zoom, or Google Meets?
34:24I'm a Zoom guy.
34:25You're a Zoom guy.
34:26Yeah.
34:26Okay.
34:27Google Meets isn't bad either.
34:28I mean, they're all fine.
34:28Are you in the G Suite?
34:29They're all fine.
34:30You guys use Gmail?
34:31Oh, we use Gmail.
34:32You use Gmail.
34:32But no Google Meets?
34:33No Google Meets.
34:35For internal communications, we use Slack.
34:37Okay.
34:37So we're a big Slack company.
34:39Yeah, we're a big Slack.
34:40On the media side, less on the restaurant ops.
34:42Restaurant ops?
34:43You guys don't do...
34:44Restaurant ops, we use Slack.
34:45Use Slack.
34:46Really?
34:46We use Slack.
34:47Yeah, it's one of the tools.
34:47Amazing.
34:47Yeah.
34:48Wow.
34:49Impressive.
34:49I've asked Slack for groups that use it and they couldn't give me an answer, but the answer
34:54sitting right in front of me.
34:57Do you prefer photos or videos?
34:59Taking photos or videos?
35:01I prefer taking photos.
35:02You prefer taking...
35:03What's your favorite social platform?
35:06Instagram.
35:07Instagram.
35:08I'm old.
35:09You're not old.
35:09I'll be honest.
35:10I don't even have TikTok.
35:11You're a fringe millennial.
35:12Yeah.
35:12I'm a fringe millennial.
35:14I don't even have TikTok.
35:15Yeah?
35:15Never had it.
35:16Never had TikTok.
35:17Never had Snapchat.
35:18That's all right.
35:19No worries.
35:21Is there an app that you use that the audience should know about?
35:26Like a useful business app?
35:28Mirus.
35:29Mirus.
35:29What's that?
35:29Have you heard of Mirus?
35:30No, I haven't.
35:31Yeah.
35:31So Mirus is incredible.
35:33So we used to use Averro.
35:35Okay.
35:35And we switched to Mirus.
35:38Basically, you can take your...
35:40Either Restaurant 365 data or Toast data.
35:43Yes.
35:43And you can make whatever sheet you want.
35:47Stop.
35:47In Mirus.
35:48Really?
35:48Yes.
35:49So it's integrated with Restaurant 365 and Toast?
35:52Yes.
35:52And you can design whatever you want.
35:54You can look at anything you want.
35:55Like you could design it so that you can pull up how many French fries you sell company-wide every
36:00day.
36:01Amazing.
36:01And look at that for a week.
36:02Wow.
36:02You can adjust anything.
36:04It's wild.
36:05Mirus.
36:06Okay.
36:06M-I-R-U-S.
36:07They're on the radar now.
36:08Yeah.
36:10ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or...
36:13Claude.
36:13Gemini.
36:14Claude.
36:15How recently did you make the switch?
36:17I made the switch from ChatGPT to Claude.
36:19Why?
36:21I just feel like it's better.
36:23Yeah.
36:23Yeah.
36:24Everyone's been telling me it's better.
36:25It is.
36:26Okay.
36:27It's wild.
36:28Okay.
36:28The stuff it can do is wild.
36:29How do you listen to music?
36:31Mainly in the car.
36:33Which platform?
36:34Listen to music.
36:35iTunes.
36:35iTunes.
36:36Yeah.
36:36Okay.
36:38What's the best...
36:39How many social handles?
36:41I was talking...
36:41I was talking...
36:42Who was I talking to?
36:43Izzy?
36:43Yeah.
36:44She said she got 50 Instagram handles she's running?
36:47She does.
36:48Well, the problem is for us is like...
36:51Please tell us the problem.
36:52Like, for like Ruxton, where it's pretty much the same menu and you're stamping it out,
36:58you can have one.
36:58Right.
36:59But with a lot of these brands in different towns, they're geared towards those specific markets.
37:05So like Lockbar Houston, there's a lot going on that's separate from Lockbar Baltimore,
37:09which is separate from Lockbar Philly.
37:10So it's like, how do you get out to your...
37:12You know, it's tough.
37:14So I feel bad for Izzy.
37:15She's got like a number of people that's coming in to help her though.
37:19We will put links to Atlas Restaurant Group.
37:22Anything you want our audience to know about?
37:24Well, restaurant business is hard.
37:27Yeah.
37:27It's not an easy business, but I love it.
37:31And I think that the people who are in it should love it as well.
37:36Don't do it just to do it because you think it's easier.
37:38You think it's a way to have money coming in the door.
37:41Do it because you love it.
37:43And if you love it and you love your people, they'll love your guests and you'll be successful.
37:49Amazing.
37:50If you guys want to reach out to me, I'm weirdly available, always looking for the greatest
37:54restauranteurs and storytellers on the planet.
37:56So please reach out to me on Instagram at Sean P. Walchef is the fastest.
38:02Alex, I appreciate the hospitality.
38:04I cannot wait to go see the properties, taste the food.
38:07Baltimore, this is...
38:09I came for the story.
38:10You picked a good day.
38:11I picked this.
38:12It's a beautiful day.
38:13This is a perfect day in Baltimore.
38:16We appreciate you guys for watching.
38:17As always, stay curious, get involved, and don't be afraid to ask for help.
38:21We'll catch you next episode.
38:25Thank you for listening.
38:26If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.
38:29You're part of the tribe.
38:30We can't do this alone.
38:32We started, no one was listening.
38:33Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
38:37Please check out our new series called Restaurant Technology Substack.
38:42It's a Substack newsletter.
38:43It's free.
38:44It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants.
38:47Also, go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali BBQ Media.
38:51Cali BBQ Media on YouTube.
38:53We've been putting out a lot of new original content.
38:55Hopefully, you guys like that content.
38:57If you want to work with us, go to etheshow.media.
39:00We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
39:03We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
39:08You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
39:11I'm weirdly available.
39:13Stay curious.
39:13Get involved.
39:14Don't be afraid to ask for help.
39:16We'll catch you next episode.
39:17We'll catch you next episode.
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