Eric (4:49)

Allow me to introduce you today's guest Chef owner AKA Block Captain of Chop and Block Chef Opie Mosu. My man Chef, are you feeling unstoppable today?

Opie Mosu (4:58)

Hey man, look, like I told you, I've been listening to your podcast since 2017 bro. So to be here, having people hear my voice and my story, it's definitely a full circle moment. So I appreciate you having me and.

Eric (5:10)

It'S popping here man. If I had any ounce of influence on your success, it's, it's truly an honor to see what you've done here. And I I got here like around I want to say like one o' clock and I was expecting it to die down and they say busy straight until it's 3 o' clock now, 3pm and it's even now. You can hear the noise in the background. So congratulations on your success.

Opie Mosu (5:30)

We prayed for this for a long time.

Eric (5:31)

Hey, somebody was listening.

Opie Mosu (5:32)

There we go. Yeah.

Eric (5:33)

So I can't wait to dive into your story and to find out more about who you are and how you got to where you are today. Let's get that motivational inspirational ball rolling with a success quote or mantra and.

Opie Mosu (5:42)

Get right on that mic, man. It's something I lean my hat on, which is what is yours is yours.

Eric (5:46)

What is yours is yours. Dive into yours.

Opie Mosu (5:50)

So look, I believe that, you know, our steps are already ordained here. And you know, if you put your mind to something, if it's meant to be, it's going to happen, right?

Podcast Host (5:56)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (5:56)

People are not going to really be able to stop. You know that. That blessing, that's on the other side for you. So lean into that 100. Do what you can to make sure that it's attainable and you give your yourself, your best effort. I think a lot of times we deal with imposter syndrome as well. Oh, yeah, that's something that kind of helped you.

Eric (6:12)

I'm sure you didn't have anything to do with that.

Opie Mosu (6:14)

Come on.

Eric (6:14)

No background beverage.

Opie Mosu (6:16)

I am very much human. I am very much human. But. But no, seriously, though, like, I really believe a lot of times people say, hey, you know, don't share your dreams, don't share your visions with people. It can always be duplicated. That's cool and all, but I believe what's mine is mine. And I'm gonna go get it regardless. I love that what is yours is yours.

Eric (6:31)

Yeah. When I hear that, you know, like, perception is reality. If you believe, you can't do it. If you believe, you don't deserve it. If you believe it's out of reach for you. You're right.

Opie Mosu (6:37)

100.

Eric (6:38)

Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right is what Ford said. Right. Hear that in the quote that you shared with us?

Opie Mosu (6:44)

Yes, sir.

Eric (6:45)

So awesome.

Opie Mosu (6:45)

That one's for free. Yeah, man.

Podcast Host (6:47)

Awesome.

Eric (6:47)

Way to get this thing started. So before we go back and talk about the beginning.

Opie Mosu (6:52)

Yeah.

Eric (6:54)

Like, where are you today? Two locations, Chop and block. You don't have any other restaurants?

Opie Mosu (6:58)

No. Two locations, Chopping block. I'm all in on chopping block. I don't really care for anything else. All the way.

Eric (7:03)

First location was counter service.

Opie Mosu (7:05)

First location still run as counter service outside of the. It's inside. The Post Houston, which is downtown Houston. It's a big entertainment complex in the middle of downtown Houston. We opened that one in November of 2021. Okay. Counter Service model. Really? Really, I would say, you know, digestible, short menu in there. We have maybe six seats.

Eric (7:28)

Okay.

Opie Mosu (7:28)

We're talking about 670 square foot total between front of house, back house, storage, and now we have our flagship location which we open in October of last year, 2024. So we just clocked in on a year here. This is about 3,060 square feet. This is an all day restaurant, right? Full service? Sure is. Got a full bar. It started off as counter service for about a week and then the people said, ah, nah, it's too cute in here. We're not getting up. So you know, we, we decided not to go against the grain too much.

Eric (7:57)

And you made it cozy. And I'll tell you that I was hanging out on this, these, these couches. I felt like I was on a couch, but I was at a table.

Opie Mosu (8:04)

Sitting in a booth.

Eric (8:04)

Not quite a booth, but the chair.

Opie Mosu (8:06)

Is at your African auntie's house.

Eric (8:08)

Yeah, you don't want to go anywhere, that's for sure.

Opie Mosu (8:09)

It's super cozy.

Eric (8:11)

So in the original location, that was 2022. November 22nd, 2121. Okay, so it's been a little over four years. All in.

Opie Mosu (8:20)

Yes, sir.

Eric (8:21)

That first location, where are you at in terms of. It's all counter service. What kind of like what are the numbers associated with that?

Opie Mosu (8:29)

Yeah, I mean that one's been busting out the scenes, man. We, I'll give you some high level. That location clocks in close about 2 million.

Eric (8:36)

2 million total revenue.

Opie Mosu (8:37)

Yeah. And then it's an interesting model because it is a, a licensing agreement that we have with the facilities. Okay. So I can't share everything based off of that contractual. Right, right.

Eric (8:50)

That makes sense.

Opie Mosu (8:51)

But we are able to still preserve double digit margins on the bottom line.

Eric (8:55)

So you're doing over 10 profit?

Opie Mosu (8:56)

Yes, sir. So we, but, but we don't have a rent, we don't have a fixed rent. It's all a revenue sharing model.

Eric (9:02)

Okay.

Opie Mosu (9:02)

So off the top, anything I take they collect, right? On top of that, I can't give the numbers.

Eric (9:08)

No, I totally, I respect that. I mean it's, it's. I love talking the numbers, man, because we don't talk numbers enough. And I think there's no benchmarks because we don't talk the numbers. We don't know what's good, we don't know what's possible. And it's a weird question to come out of the gates with. And I recognize that and I appreciate people getting open and vulnerable. What about this location? How many seats are in this location?

Opie Mosu (9:24)

So this location inside and outside combined gives you roughly about 100.

Eric (9:28)

Okay.

Opie Mosu (9:28)

About 72 seats inside. And depending on how we set up the patio, we can get about another 30 out there.

Eric (9:33)

And you've got about a little over a year under your belt of operating.

Opie Mosu (9:36)

Right at one year. Yeah, right at one year. So this one is, is. Is. Is doing its thing. Yeah, I'll say that. So we're doing top line here. We're running at about a five million dollar run rate here. And then we are at our prime cost, anywhere between 50 to 55% on there.

Podcast Host (9:57)

That's great.

Opie Mosu (9:58)

We're able to operate the model really well and we have been able to exceed our expectations relative to our rent percentage. So we're doing about 20. 20% products.

Eric (10:12)

That's fantastic. I can't wait, man. Even.

Podcast Host (10:14)

Cool.

Eric (10:15)

And can you say what your rent is percentage?

Opie Mosu (10:18)

So right now we are doing. My target is 6%. But based off of revenue, we're closer to about 3 to 4.

Podcast Host (10:26)

Wow.

Opie Mosu (10:26)

Yeah.

Eric (10:26)

So you're beating the target buyer.

Podcast Host (10:28)

Oh, yeah.

Opie Mosu (10:28)

For sure. For sure.

Eric (10:29)

Yeah. Pull that whole table in real quick. Yeah, I think you can get a little closer in that mic. Just want to make sure the folks can hear. Thank you. Okay, so I think we have a pretty good idea, actually.

Podcast Host (10:37)

I'm curious.

Eric (10:37)

You do a lot of takeout too?

Opie Mosu (10:39)

We do quite a bit of takeout. Yeah. We do both direct as well as through third parties.

Eric (10:44)

Okay. What's that split look like?

Opie Mosu (10:45)

It's not much. Yeah, it's not too. Too much. You know, it's growing, but we really just turn like. Like coming in after years. When we turned on UberEats. Yeah. We were exclusively on doordash with it before. And then our own. Our own service. So take out takeout online takeout business is less than 10 of what we need.

Eric (11:03)

All right. I think we'll pull back the layers on that. But I just trying to get an idea of the. The full business model. So not a. I love talking to people like you, man. Because you didn't really have a traditional entry into the restaurant industry.

Opie Mosu (11:15)

You.

Eric (11:17)

I think you were up until like 2017 working at GE.

Opie Mosu (11:21)

Correct. Yeah.

Eric (11:22)

And then only a couple years after that, three years after that, you opened your brick and mortar.

Opie Mosu (11:26)

Yeah. So.

Eric (11:27)

But where does it make sense to start sharing your story? Where do you want to Start.

Opie Mosu (11:29)

I mean, wherever we want to start, man. I think I've been living this West African experience my whole life. You know, growing up in Houston, being a child of Nigerian immigrants. Moved here when I was like two going on. Sorry. I moved here when I was going on four. I left. I left London, moved to Nigeria, and I came here right before I turned four. But, you know, I think industry wise, like, yeah, 2017, January 18, 2017 is when I had that aha moment.

Podcast Host (11:54)

The itch.

Opie Mosu (11:55)

Yeah. Yeah. I went to business school, graduated from Rice Business School here in Houston in 2014.

Eric (12:00)

Okay.

Opie Mosu (12:01)

Took that as an opportunity to pivot and go into the energy industry. Started working oil and gas as a corporate sales experience executive. Basically on their sales and marketing executive level leadership track was what were you selling? So I was on the oil field production chemistry side of things. So I was responsible for one, managing relationships, coming up with salesforce effectiveness strategy. Ultimately, the ask of me was to take what the company did in the Middle East, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Those were the markets where we had a minimalist upstream oil and gas production, chemical business. Okay. And learn the business, come up with strategies on how we can continue to expand and grow that part of the business, but most importantly, determine the business plan for how we build that in the US and so I spent about two and a half years in a lot of international markets. I was based in Philly, but I was often living in Dubai or doing work in Latin America, Southeast Asia.

Eric (12:57)

South America. I saw it too.

Opie Mosu (12:59)

Exactly.

Eric (12:59)

That sucks.

Opie Mosu (13:00)

Yeah. Terrible job. But then it came really cool because they started sending me to West Texas, Oklahoma, you know, a little bit different, but, yeah, that was. That was my life. Right. And as I was doing that, you know, I was able to essentially, you know, travel the world and experience so many things. And I started noticing the way that my culture was just not being as represented the way that I wanted to be able to access it. Right. Like, regardless of where I was, I had to travel 45 minutes to an hour outside of my way to tap into where my immigrant community settled in that specific part of wherever I was to be able to, like, hear the language, have the food smells, music, all of that. Right. And it just didn't sit right with me. And I know that, you know, with my attachment to who I am and the continent and how there's, you know, over 43 million people who have direct ties right back to that part of the world, it just didn't make sense to me. Why, like, I had to hustle to find myself Right. And I just have always grown up like being so enamored with food and food culture. It's the way my family fellowship, it's everything. It's everything. Yeah.

Eric (14:08)

I think we don't. We take for granted if you, if you're alive today, all you know is abundance. Well, not everybody, but most of the world knows. Just like food is just this thing that it's like it's literally listed as a commodity.

Opie Mosu (14:19)

You can't do it without.

Eric (14:20)

It's. But I think it's. It's more than a commodity. It's literally life. It's family, it's culture, it's everything.

Opie Mosu (14:25)

You know, it's fellowship. It's the way that we did deals on the table. Like that was what I always looked forward to was getting outside of the office setting and meeting with clients after that. Right. That's where a lot of connections truly started to happen for me. It's the same way with like, how my family fellowship. I mean, dude, I was, you know, I joke sometimes, say. Actually I really started the food game when I was like in elementary school. I used to be selling opie sauce in the cafeteria. Cafeteria. Or slanging cookies on Friday and stuff like that.

Eric (14:52)

So the entrepreneurial bug was in you.

Opie Mosu (14:54)

Always. Always. But no, but seriously though, I think for me, like all roads again led to January 18, 2017. I was actually visiting Houston at the time on my way to a. A conference for work. And I had passed by Piata, the Italian street food past guest on the show. Yep. And yeah, I need to listen to the episode. But. But, you know, whatever. It was like I had kind of already been sharing this pain point with my sister who lived in D.C. at the time. Some friends of mine who live in Philly, we were enamored by cava sweet green, asking why there wasn't one for us. And so one of my buddies was like, oh yeah, when you go to Houston, check out Piata. I could never find. It happened to be finding on the way to this conference. And that's when the light bulb went off and I said, that's what I'm gonna go do. Yeah. I am going to create the first modern West African inspired food and beverage concept to share the beauty of my culture with the world and languages that people understand. Yeah.

Eric (15:48)

And Piata is a fast casual Italian concept based out of either Dayton or Cincinnati, Ohio. A really great interview, but that they took. I think they were one of the first to apply that fast casual model to Italian food. Nobody was really doing it before that. And you know, you're reminding me of a quote that I once heard that was actually the inspiration I needed to. To start this podcast. If you're looking for something and you can't find it, there's a good chance you're not the only person looking for it, and there's an opportunity there.

Opie Mosu (16:16)

That's right. That's right. Yeah.

Eric (16:18)

That's what you did.

Opie Mosu (16:19)

I identified a pain point that mattered a lot to me. And I figured that there's people who come from where I come from that I know. We've been dealing with this gap that we've been trying to figure out, why do we have to live like this? And I often say, like, one of my other analogies I use is like, the beauty of the iPad. Right. I remember when the iPad first got released, and I was one of those folks that was like, why do we need this device? We already have the itouch. We already have our phones. Like, this is just a bigger version of things we already have. Right. But one of the things I felt was super genius, that I just didn't know at the time was how, you know, Apple really believed, like, this was going to be a critical component in people's tech arsenal. Right. And that is true to this day. And so for me, when I looked at the concept as well, I was like, you know, I definitely want to make sure that I build something that people who come from where I come from can appreciate and recognize and celebrate. But I also want to build it in a way where it spans beyond their access to the communities that we just happen to settle in. And I was like, most of those people don't even know that they have this, this pain point until we expose it to them. And once they're hooked, it's gonna be just like, yeah, you don't know until.

Eric (17:33)

You know, until you meet Aware. Like, I think that's like, like Ford has another quote that if people wanted. If people ask me what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. You don't know what you're until you don't know what you're looking for until you show them. Like, this is actually a better option, right?

Opie Mosu (17:47)

That's right.

Podcast Host (17:48)

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Eric (19:49)

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Podcast Host (19:51)

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Eric (19:56)

I am curious, what, what, what's the split? Like what in terms of your, your target market, your actual customer base. What percentage of them are Nigerian?

Opie Mosu (20:06)

Nigerian? I mean, less than, less than 20%. Yeah, I'd even venture to say probably less than 15, 10% and I always caveat that and say don't get it twisted. My community will ride so hard for me. Right? They love this concept, right? You do get those that are just like, you know, they might not fully understand it or they are who I call like the ultra purists that are like yeah, this isn't, this isn't the, the way I grew up eating it and I'm like 100%.

Eric (20:33)

Nobody does it quite like grandma.

Opie Mosu (20:34)

It's not meant to be the way you grew up eating it. It's meant to be what it is and you know, appreciate it for that. But no, I mean my community rides with me. It's just that one of the things that we've done that we often get, you know, told that just hasn't really happened before is we've come up with a way to celebrate our cuisine but also invite others to the table. Right.

Podcast Host (20:53)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (20:53)

So one of the. We were recently reviewed on Texas Monthly magazine, Paula Forbes, shout out to her, and, you know, she gave us a glowing review. And I think the title was like, chopping Block in Houston is. Or Chopping Block is Houston at its best.

Eric (21:10)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (21:10)

Like, when you look at the dining room, it is Houston at its best. Meaning. I mean, you know, Houston is the most diverse city in the country. And to me, as much as I love my people and I love them down. Right. The intention I have for this is to create a space that can be as diverse as the communities that we serve. Right. Because I feel like that's truly how we make the level of progress and grow the way that I want to see. See our story, our narrative spread, and I want it to be told by us. Yeah. Others. So I love that, man. That's. That's really, like, the intention.

Eric (21:47)

And you're making me think like, my. My mission statement is to inspire, empower, and change the world through inspiring power and changing the restaurant industry. And I think that the. The restaurant industry, if there is an industry that's positioned to change the world, it's the restaurant industry. And food is such a vehicle to connect and to understand a culture and to. I think, you know, and when I say this, I. I get worried when I say this sometimes I'm worried that people are going to take it out of context. But they've done studies where they connect the brain to, like, this machine, and there's a bunch of sensors, and they show a bunch of random images in front of the person with their brain connected to this, like, sensor. And they'll show things that, like, anything, like balloons, a house. And then they'll show random things that are supposed to be scary and bad, like a spider, a snake, something gross, like feces or like vomit. Like, I hate to be gross, but, like, the whole idea is they're trying to see what parts of the brain light up when you see something that's a threat to you and all those things could hurt you. We, over time evolved this instinct to be adverse from things that could cause us harm. And one of the inconvenient, sad truths is when you see faces of people who. That don't look like you in that. That slideshow, the same part of the brain lights up. And I. They think that the reason for this is because for the majority of our existence, if we came across people that didn't sound or look like us, they were a threat because they had different culture, different. It was. It was. It was a threat for the majority of our existence. Look what happened when the English came to this, the, you know, the Americas, and they transferred a bunch of different dispositions, diseases, and people. Almost the entire race of people die.

Opie Mosu (23:26)

Yeah.

Eric (23:26)

You know, like, that's an example of it being a real threat.

Opie Mosu (23:28)

Yeah. No, makes sense. Makes sense.

Eric (23:30)

And it's important that we recognize that there's this. This part of us that no longer serves us and to, like, own that and say, this no longer serves us and to, like, own it and say, like, let me understand this other culture.

Opie Mosu (23:41)

Yeah.

Eric (23:41)

And I think there is no better way to do that than food.

Opie Mosu (23:44)

Yeah. And I think food has the beauty. Right. When presented the right way. Way, you know, it has the beauty to exceed that barrier.

Eric (23:53)

It breaks down the walls. And then you take that, you eat, you share a table, you share food. Oh, my God, this is delicious. What's the history of this? Like, what's. Like, what is your culture? It forces people to understand perspective.

Opie Mosu (24:03)

It invokes natural curiosity.

Eric (24:05)

It's beautiful.

Opie Mosu (24:05)

100.

Eric (24:06)

Yeah. I love that. Okay, so you. This is why you want to do what you want to do. This is what the inspiration for chopping block was. What were your biggest challenges in the early. So, like, you didn't have any experience working in restaurants.

Opie Mosu (24:20)

So what you do? So 2017, I had the idea, I started just kind of, you know, asking people around me, like, what they thought about it. Started off with my family. Also went back to some of my business school professors, kind of trying to get their insight. One of the big things that I felt that served me well was I started speaking with other veterans in the industry. Right. I was able to get connected with some folks who had been doing this for a while.

Eric (24:45)

Who'd you reach out to? What kind of people are you looking for?

Opie Mosu (24:47)

Yeah, so I reached out to my business school. I reached out to Rice. Rice University business program, and they connected me with the. With Andy Aweda from the Kirby Group, Karen Mann, who at the time was over it, just closed down. Oxheart with. With Justin in you. Right. Like, and then that's kind of where I started. Just kind of going on a goose hunt from wherever they would send me. And actually, even. Even in business school, funny enough, one of the projects I did, I actually interviewed the Pappas family as well. Right. And so, like, it was just trying to understand, like, the good, the bad, and ugly a little bit.

Eric (25:24)

What did they teach you? What were the biggest lessons during those. Those conversations?

Opie Mosu (25:28)

Yeah, one. I just felt like it's wild how I feel like this is actually attainable, you know, but also, like, the level of detail and specificity that they have. I remember meeting with Andy. This was right when they're getting ready to open Heights Heights Heights Beer Garden. And, like, he's on the floor, he's, like, looking at the floor, like, picking up, like a random cigarette butt. Things like that that, like, only he is seeing at that moment, right? Like, just the level of detail. And like, you know, that was important. The other thing that I really learned, and it came actually from the conversation with my business school professor, was like, I know people talk about the restaurant industry like it is this big, bad, scary thing, but he's like, it's just a business at the end of the day, right? If you can come up with a way to make your outputs exceed your inputs, just look at it as a widget. If you can come up with a way. Up with the way. To use the metaphor, just maximize your chicken. Right? What all can you get out of that chicken that's going to exceed how much you put into that chicken? Yeah, you might have a business here.

Eric (26:33)

Maximize that yields.

Opie Mosu (26:34)

Exactly. So, you know, those were some of the things that I was hearing that was reassuring. I listened to a whole lot of podcasts. That's where I came up with yours.

Eric (26:40)

Oh, man, thank you.

Opie Mosu (26:41)

I mean, I don't know if I can shout out other ones on this podcast.

Eric (26:44)

Go for it, man.

Opie Mosu (26:45)

Yeah, I was hooked on how I built this for so long, you know, and so it's just kind of giving me that inspiration. But I think most importantly, the biggest thing that I ended up doing was telling myself, man, the way I got into the oil and gas industry through business school, I basically leapfrogged a bunch of steps, meaning I had never worked in the field, but I was making decisions that impacted what was going to happen on the field. And I was making decisions that if I had knowledge of working in the field, I'd probably be a lot more sharp in my game. And so I didn't want to make that same, what I would say a mistake in creating the business that I really wanted to create. So I said, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna actually go and start getting some true boots on the ground. I put an application in at Chipotle because they moved the most race that I know.

Eric (27:34)

What did they say when they saw your application come through?

Opie Mosu (27:36)

You're hired.

Eric (27:38)

Are you sure you got this came to the right place?

Opie Mosu (27:39)

I mean, look like that was probably one of my toughest Interviews? When? Why? Because I had to scrub down my app, my resume so bad. Like the. I led with the fact that I worked at Ruby Tuesdays in college, you know what I mean? Like, that was, that was it. Right. And my goal was again to really get some true hands on experience to understand how an operation that can scale truly works. Right. I was a prep cooking dishwasher. Yeah. That was the most entry level position that they offer.

Eric (28:08)

Humble.

Opie Mosu (28:08)

And sure, I was in there scrubbing bathroom toilets at the same time, prepping all the vegetables at the same time, washing all the dishes at the same time, the last person leave the restaurant every single night. Right. But being that fly on the wall, understanding how much volume typically moves through that kitchen, understanding how many customers are turning hourly, you know, understanding how much I'm actually prepping, how many people we staffing, you know, things like that. Right. Were all like context that I wanted to make sure I understood. As I was also writing my business plan. Right. I didn't want to just write a whole bunch of BS off of just assumptions and misinformation. I was pretty convinced that if I'm going to go and create something that's a fast casual concept and I'm coming out the door and people don't know me, I'm not going to do the same numbers as Chipotle, so my financials better not sell. Say that I'm going to be coming in and you know, at the same time doing three and a half, four million that the Chipotle I'm working at was doing. Right. Like, that just didn't make sense. So. Yeah, really just trying to like wrap my head around that also, you know, subscribing to the fact that like, if I can as a corporate oil and gas professional, humble myself and take this nighttime gig to do something else, work in this industry and scrub toilets, I'm gonna appreciate.

Eric (29:31)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (29:31)

And if you still like it after doing me. Yeah, yeah. So like, you know, it was, there's like that intrinsic value to it, you know, that kind of altruistic, you know, perspective on it, but then also like, you know, the true, like, you know, business aspect of it as well too. Right. So that's why I started doing 2017. I, I did that and then end of 2017, my wife and I, we moved back to Houston. 2018, I. Well, actually before then my wife was like, yeah, you know, the reason you had this issue though is because you don't know how to make the food. And that's when I was like, aha, you're right about what was that issue that specifically I had to drive 45 minutes an hour away, go get the food because I know how to make it. Yeah, you know, I mean, she's like, you know, if you actually knew how to make this food, you wouldn't be driving. You would just go to the grocery store. Store, buy what you need to buy and make what you need to make. Right.

Eric (30:22)

So what was next?

Opie Mosu (30:23)

So then I was like, you know what? You want something, right? I used to have this belief that for chopping block to work, it was going to take three people, a partnership of three people. Because I believe that startups are a team sport and those three people are going to be one, the person that's there to build it. And I was like, that's my job. Right. I just went to business school. I've been building businesses for ge. Cool. That's me. Someone to run it. That's the person that has the more the operational mindset that wants to be in the restaurants.

Eric (30:53)

Boots on the boots on ground. Yeah.

Opie Mosu (30:55)

And I was like, nah, that's not me. And then someone to cook it. And I was like, that person doesn't necessarily have to be in the restaurants, but I'm thinking more kind of like a corporate chef type intellectual property. And I'm like, yeah, I need, I need that person. Right? My chief technology officer, if you want to look at it that way.

Eric (31:09)

Right. Creative. Right.

Opie Mosu (31:11)

And I was like, and that's not me either. Right. So for a while I was just looking for like, who's going to partner with me. I hit up people I saw online, met with people that I had like in my network or extended networks who I felt were like kind of food adjacent to see if it'd be something they'd be of interest in. But one of the things I realized quickly was like, my passion for this was so big that, like, I just got tired of, like, feeling like I had to wait on someone else to be able to live out my dream. Right. Or to be able to put this dream in motion the way that I was feeling so invigorated to go and do. And so when she said, yeah, the reason you had this issue is because you don't know how to cook the food, I was like, you know what? That's just, that's just a business problem. Like, I can go find out how to make a product, right. And get an mvp, I was like, you know what? In my community, I'm not going to learn it. Going to go work at an African restaurant, nor like Am I going to go work, learn it? Working at any other restaurant, I need to learn from the best in my community. The people that make the best versions of our food are the home cooks.

Eric (32:09)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (32:09)

Whenever we have weddings, big events, celebrations, whatever the case may be. Right. Even if you're having small gatherings in the home, like you are going to reach out to these home cooks who are these pillars in our community who are known for making a specific dish very well, and everybody buys that dish from them for their functions. I wanted to get close with them to learn how to make the food the way that it was usually made back in our home countries. I wanted to also make sure that we were celebrating more than just Nigeria, but West Africa as a region. Because what I was building was something that I wanted everyone that comes from that part of the world to feel connected to. And so I started meeting. The first person I met with, fortunately, was the person I felt made like the best version of. Of the most.

Eric (32:54)

You say unfortunately or fortunately.

Opie Mosu (32:56)

Fortunately was the best, was the person I felt made the best version of one of the most iconic West African dishes ever created, which is Jolof rice. I felt like Jolof rice, which is like the precursor to Southern jambalaya, a tomato based rice dish. I felt like West Africans are going to come and taste our Jollof rice to figure out are we legit or not. Right. So I wanted to make sure we hit that out the park. Yeah. I was just blessed that I felt like the best version came from my cousin who also made it for other people's parties and functions. And I sat with her and she taught me how to make traditional smoky Nigerian style jello fries.

Eric (33:38)

So how. So you approach your. Your cousin.

Opie Mosu (33:40)

Yeah.

Eric (33:40)

You also approach other people too?

Opie Mosu (33:41)

Yep.

Eric (33:42)

How were they receptive of you coming in and being. I want to learn this food so I can bring it to a restaurant.

Opie Mosu (33:46)

You know, I kind of shared the whole vision with him. Right. Like, look, I want to learn how to make this food because I am working on this concept and I want to be able to have a good foundation on how this food is typically made. And then I can take my own lived experiences and recreate it. And what I'm going to do with it first is I'm actually going to run it through a series of private invite only underground dinners. And I want to invite you to attend these dinners and I want you to see. Tell me what you think about this rendition I'm making of the food. And I want you to see what other people are saying. Around. Okay. And I want you to help me educate them on why the food that we make from where we come from is important. Yeah. Right.

Eric (34:27)

I just want to highlight up to this point what you did, I think is exactly what I would tell anybody to do. If you want to open a restaurant, if you have no experience, first and foremost, go to the people who have done it and go get that advice. Go get that mentorship.

Podcast Host (34:39)

Go get.

Eric (34:40)

And if you can leverage a network like your college university, I think that's the most valuable thing. If you do go to some kind of culinary school, it's the network that you get from that school. It's not how to hold a knife.

Opie Mosu (34:49)

Yeah.

Eric (34:50)

Like that isn't going to be what makes you successful. It's who they're going to introduce you to.

Opie Mosu (34:53)

Yeah.

Eric (34:54)

And that's what Rice University did for you.

Opie Mosu (34:55)

Yeah.

Eric (34:56)

And just leveraging that network, going to successful people and learning. And then the next best thing you did is you went and you work for the, the image of, in your mind of what you thought was the best in terms of a business model.

Opie Mosu (35:06)

Yeah.

Eric (35:07)

Chipotle. You went and you found a, oh, fine tuned, well oiled machine and you said, let me see what's behind or under the hood. Let me see, let me lift up the skirt and see what we're working with here. What does it look like? And you learned and you got that perspective and you, you were humble and you did the, the nasty work to know, bro. Yeah.

Podcast Host (35:26)

And you really wrapped your mind around what that looks.

Eric (35:28)

Looks like. It's exactly what I would tell anybody to do.

Podcast Host (35:30)

And I think going to a corporation.

Eric (35:32)

Is a great way to learn what systems look like and what's possible. I love your story, man. And I think the next thing, like what we're leading into is the next best way to start is small. I think for some people, they think that you have to go spend $2 million on a brick and mortar and invest all this money and you don't.

Podcast Host (35:48)

Even know if what you has sticks.

Eric (35:50)

If it has traction.

Podcast Host (35:51)

You have no clue. Start small.

Opie Mosu (35:54)

Yep.

Eric (35:55)

Start with parties in your home. Build word of mouth, build hype.

Podcast Host (36:00)

See if there's interest.

Eric (36:01)

Is exactly what I would tell that.

Opie Mosu (36:03)

Joint with like 400, man. That's what I did. Okay. So I knew in my community, whenever, like growing up, whenever we had someone's trying to have a baby shower or birthday party or whatnot. Right. Like, the finesse that we did culturally is we would reach out to a relative who lives in a, a very nice apartment. Complex, Right. Because the apartment complexes usually have a club room that the tenants are able to rent out at a very, very low price point. And ultimately, that's where we would host our events. Right? And so for me, in this case, I was like, I need an mvp. I want to be very lean. That's something I learned, you know, even kind of from my corporate life at the time, too.

Eric (36:41)

MVP stands for minimal viable.

Opie Mosu (36:43)

Exactly. Like from my corporate life, you know, before we sank money into a big capital investment, we always ran some sort of bench scale pilot to prove the concept out. And so I reached out to my cousin. She had a very nice compartment she was living in. I was like, hey, how much does it cost to rent out your club room? $200 later, we had the club, the club room rented out. I now had a venue to host this underground dinner series. In addition to that, I started inviting people. That one first started with my own personal network, who I felt represented various different customer segments. I wanted to see which customer segment would take to what it was that I was creating. Right? And my background is in sales and marketing. My business school degree, MBA undergrad, was in marketing. So I think with that, with that brain often, right. I started thinking about different kinds of customer archetypes, classifying them, and said, okay, who do I know that kind of fits this archetype? Let me see if I can invite them. And so I send a personalized invitation to it. Hey, Eric, it's been a while. I haven't connected in a while. I just moved back to Houston. I'm actually working on this really, really cool restaurant. Like, I would love to have you do me the honor to offer some feedback on what I'm creating. The only thing is, I need you to put down a $40 RSVP deposit, which you receive back once you arrive. And in addition, you can't show up alone. You need to bring a plus one, right? My goal was to invite 10 people who would then help me bring another 10 people. We'd have 20 people in the room. They all felt like it was a great evening out. But throughout this entire experience, when they arrived, they started to realize they were part of a bigger community, right? It was 20, it was 19 or 18 other people there. And they had kind of that first bat at helping me, someone that they cared about, like, create something of value, right? And so they would eat throughout. We would talk about the concept, I'd pick their brain. It all kind of went back to this, this other aspect of, like, my corporate background, which was like a Terminology called customer co creation. Don't build it in a vacuum. Build it alongside your customers. They'll lead you the right way.

Eric (38:55)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (38:55)

And so that was what I was doing, right. I was also trying to combat the fact that you often hear, oh, if like, can African food scale or if it was such a good idea, someone would have done it already. Right. A lot of subjective questions, right. And I wanted to have hard data that really showed what people were taking to it. Let's take a lot of the subjectivity out and let's instead have a way that we can trend that subjectivity per se. Right. What are we getting scored on? Different metrics that were important. Be it the food, be it the drink, be it the overall experience, right on the back of these cards. So. So I'm kind of going ahead of myself. But in the experience, they would dine and then they'd also have to fill out these like feedback cards. Right. Like we said, it's these keeping it real cards. Right. And on the back of it. And everything was done anonymously. So like, it was like, hey, look, don't, don't worry about making me feel good today. Set me up for, for success, right? Give me, give me the real. Do it anonymously. I'll read these later and then I'll iterate on it. But on the back I had questions like, you know, how often do you eat out for lunch, how often you eat out for dinner, what side of town, how much you spend it, you know, things like that, trying to find out what your target market, target market, true customer data. Because I knew there's gonna be one day where I'm at the flex that data. If it's, you know, trying to get funding, if it's, you know, continue just to like build out the viability of the concept, build it, bringing in partners, whatever the case may be. But it's not subjective at this point. Like, I've talked to this many people, by the time I did the, the third dinner or the third dinner, I didn't know anyone in the room. Right. I would run these twice a month. And so now I had this, this whole book of data that I was able to iterate upon when it came to like, you know, adjusting my recipes, learning how people were taking to these dishes. I would, was. I had recently, like just learned how to make right with these home cooks and then put my own spin on, on them. Right. In 2017 or, sorry, 2018, March is when I did the first one. I ran that through 2018, 2019, all the way up until 2020. One of the things that happened though that I didn't necessarily lock in on in the beginning was because I would get someone's information, like they'd give me their feedback. I wouldn't invite them again. Like they've already done the whole gamut, They've given me the input. But people actually like, we're having such a great time. You know, at the end of each dinner I'd say, hey, who would you want to gift this to? So they would give me their, their. Oh, they'd open up their own, their own communities to me, their own network. And so like they wanted to come back with their network to like enjoy it. And I wasn't allowing that. And so that's what then moved me to start doing these quarterly restaurant takeovers where there were basically 100 person public pop up dinners that I would do and I would partner with an existing restaurant for a night. We turn it into chopping block for that night. And that was like my large scale takeovers. And so one, I was gathering data, but also I was building a book of business and building a customer base long before we ever opened up the restaurant.

Eric (41:57)

So how long were you doing the dinner parties before you did your first pop up?

Opie Mosu (41:59)

So my first, my first private dinner was March of 2018. And then in November of 2018 was when we had our first what I called restaurant takeover.

Eric (42:11)

And how many dinners would you have a month?

Opie Mosu (42:13)

So I would do them quarterly.

Eric (42:15)

No, not the pop ups, the actual, like the actual dinners.

Opie Mosu (42:18)

The 20 person ones. Yeah, I was doing about two a month.

Eric (42:20)

Two a month?

Opie Mosu (42:20)

Yeah.

Eric (42:21)

So you got about 24 of those under your belt. Yeah, you got some 24 times 24 hundred and 80 people you said you got that feedback from.

Opie Mosu (42:29)

Yeah, and then I also started taking them into like. Because then we started getting asked like, well, do you do catering events? Like we have this function. I would take them to these things and be like, yo, fill this out. Like, you know, so we were getting a whole bunch of data and I still got the cards and like all the trends of.

Eric (42:42)

And how would you find the restaurants to do the pop ups and how would you approach those people, man?

Opie Mosu (42:46)

God. What's that? I said, God. So the first one we did was we actually, you know, we didn't know anything. Like, if we would have really like been at where we're at now, I'd have probably blocked my blessing. Right. But I was ignorant. So I got connected with this couple who owned a coffee shop in the arts district called Cafeza. It's no longer there. They closed during the pandemic. But through one of my good friends that went to bed business school with me, like, they just kind of. I don't know how our circle started to like interconnect. I think I had worked there like one day, like just kind of doing some work on the side, like, you know, getting away from my home office and working out of that coffee shop. Long story short, I met the owners. They're very entrepreneurial minded and they're like, oh yeah, we heard about this thing you're doing. Like, would you like what's next? And I was like, well, I want to do these restaurant takeovers. Cafes are probably. It's at 50. We got it. We got it to sit 50. But I'm talking about, man, it was probably definitely like maybe 1500 square foot.

Eric (43:52)

Okay.

Opie Mosu (43:52)

Coffee shop, like really small, small. And you know, they basically offered their space and said, hey, you want to take it over on a Sunday and do a chopping block event here? Do a pop up. And so that's when like we did the first one and we were like, wow, this place, like it, like we, we choked in the sense where like, operationally, like people were waiting for a long, long time.

Eric (44:15)

That's why you do these things.

Opie Mosu (44:16)

Exactly. But we also were like, man, we didn't realize, like, you know, we actually need more equipment than this. Actually the first run around, we didn't realize that was what the problem was. Right. We just thought it was like us. And then we ran the second one in their space the next quarter we were like, oh, like low key. I think we just need a bigger space.

Eric (44:34)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (44:35)

To pull this off. Right. But that was the first location. And then the third one, probably like the third through like the sixth or seventh because we started doing some like private ones.

Eric (44:48)

You started doing in 2019.

Opie Mosu (44:50)

The first one was 2018. November. November. And then I think it was like.

Eric (44:54)

February would have been 2019 was the second one. We did one a quarter. And how many years did you do one a quarter?

Opie Mosu (44:59)

We did 20. We did 2019 and then we had one in January of 2020 and we had another one slated for. For March of 2020. And that one we had to refund everybody their money cuz the all in.

Eric (45:16)

You only did six. One in 2021, one in 2018, four in 2019 and one in 20.

Podcast Host (45:22)

Yeah, six.

Opie Mosu (45:23)

Six public ones. We also had like, we worked with Rice University. They wanted to do one exclusively for Rice students or Rice MBA students and alumni. So like they bought One out. So we squeezed one in there, but it was public facing.

Eric (45:36)

Are you working for GE this entire time?

Opie Mosu (45:38)

Yeah. Yeah. Well, GE technically, but we end up getting sold to a company called Suez. The French multinationals, so. But yeah, like, same, same, same business.

Eric (45:46)

Got it. So thank you for that. Like, MBA and how to do a pop up, how to scale into a pop up. Like, that is how you do it. So 2020 happens. The whole world kind of slows down. Your momentum slows down. It wasn't until 2022, end of 2022.

Opie Mosu (46:03)

That you open your brick and mortar. 2021.

Eric (46:05)

2021. Thank you. It's hard to keep all the. The dates, so I don't want to get too much into what happened during COVID unless there's something really important to that story that you.

Opie Mosu (46:15)

I mean, we just stuck with it. Like, you know, we started trying to learn how to, like. I ordered like, a whole 18 wheeler full of, like, insulated thermal liners to learn how to ship food across the country. I'm still sitting on a bunch of those.

Eric (46:26)

That's right. You were doing that.

Opie Mosu (46:27)

You started shipping food. Yeah, we were shipping food around the country. We were partnering with, like, celebrities that we had kind of created relationships with in 2019 and beginning of 2020 to hop on, like, different, like, digital opportunities they had going on. But the biggest thing, I would say, like, the biggest win of 2020 for us was Rice University asked us to be the first of their alumni featured businesses to send out gift packages to their donors. And we put one together that featured, like, some of the popcorn flavors that I had worked on. So I was working on, like, different pantry items, worked on some flavors of some popcorns, sent those out. And one of the recipients of it was gentleman by the name of Frank, Frank Lou, big real estate guy here in Houston, and he was the one who was actually working on the post. Okay. And so that's how I want this in my. Yeah, let me connect with this business owner we met, and that's when he shared what he was building at the post and offered us the opportunity if we were interested.

Eric (47:29)

So that's how you found your first brick and mortar spot.

Opie Mosu (47:32)

That's right.

Eric (47:33)

Fast, casual concept. How many seats you say it was?

Opie Mosu (47:36)

Like, it's like six.

Eric (47:38)

And it was the end of 2021, you opened.

Opie Mosu (47:40)

Yes.

Eric (47:41)

Did you have to go raise money? Did all this data that you collected over the years helped you get. Go get that money, or did this gentleman also come with.

Opie Mosu (47:48)

No, I mean, so, like, you know, even leading up to this. Like, when I started the dinners in 2018, I pitched them as Vision 2020. Like, I want to have two years of running this and building the foundation so we can then take our next step. And quickly into that, I said, I think the next step is actually going to be into a food hall. Right. That was like, when I started doing research and seeing how food halls were actually getting ready to break into Houston. And I had been exposed to them from living in the Northeast. And I was enamored by it when I saw them in the Northeast, like, lived in Philly, so Reading, Terminal Market, a bunch of them in different types of concepts in New York. So I was like, you know, I think this actually could be a good way for us to, like, connect versus going into, like, a food truck next or even, like, going into, like, a true standalone. And so, like, that was. That was my idea there. And so the reason I like food hall is because food halls are on that revenue sharing model. And it's usually a very, very small capital outlay in order to, like, build out the stall. Right. Part of the revenue sharing model is that the facility is going to build out your kitchen for you each time, what you need, maintenance, all that, all of that. Right. So, like, that was kind of the thought. And so I did go and raise some money. I raised a little less than half a million dollars, but I raised it off of. I want to be able to have capital on hand so that once we outgrow this food hall, we can actually open another location.

Eric (49:20)

Well, also, you might not outgrow that. You might have a longer Runway than you thought. You're going to need to get off the ground. And that gives you operating capital.

Opie Mosu (49:27)

Yeah, exactly. So. But we didn't. We didn't need nearly, nearly much try to go raise. But.

Eric (49:33)

But you never got into a food hall, right? That never happened.

Opie Mosu (49:35)

No. So the first locations in. Oh, post the food hall. Yeah. Yeah. So. So, like, that was the. That was the whole plan. And I also understood, like, it seems like banks like to give money to people that have money. Yeah. So, like, that was a good bet. That was how I did the first raise. I raised it as convertible debt. So I did a convertible note round. So basically kind of like some friends and family and just kind of like, you know, really intimate network of people who had agreed that they were willing to essentially lend me the money to prove out the concept before we actually put a true value on the concept. And then when the day comes that we do actually, actually raise an institution around that has a value or price associated with it. They get a discount on that price. And the debt that they gave me, plus the interest that accrued can convert into equity at like a pre arranged rate. Right. That was like the terms. So they were willing to do that.

Eric (50:26)

Where'd you go to learn these, these, this structure?

Opie Mosu (50:29)

I mean it's a, it's a structure that's often used in like tech startups and asking, asking around, like doing research. I had some really close friends of mine who started a, a fintech company on helping like schools raise money versus like selling candy instead. They kind of had this whole model and so they actually went that route was like convertible note. And so I started looking more into it because they always say like it's, you know, you don't really want to give up a whole bunch of equipment. Equity is so expensive in the beginning. Right. And so I learned about this tool and I just pitched it to some folks that like, at the end of the day, truth is they were just investing because they believed in me.

Eric (51:11)

Yeah, you don't believe in concepts, you believe in people.

Opie Mosu (51:14)

I think this concept has traction. I've seen it, I've seen it grow organically. I've seen the way he's approached this. I want to be in on it. And if he is saying like, yo, lend me some money and then I'm going to benefit from it. When I do have the option to like convert that into ownership if I choose to at that point, like I'm down for it. And so like that's how I end up going about raising the money. And obviously I put my own money up front too. Right. So people see like, I'm serious about this. Yeah, this is, I'm, I'm real about mine. Yeah. And so yeah, I raised that money. We opened up at the post, we used less than 100k. So we were sitting on that capital. And then like restaurants are a short cycle business. Right? Like we're not collecting money off of what you just ate on a net 30 basis. No, you're coming into the restaurant, you're gonna pay right now, you know, so yeah, quick cash flow starting to build. So, you know, we were able to put, put, put capital on the books and you know, it kept us looking exciting for ultimately when we went to go raise money for Montrose and do.

Eric (52:16)

That for three years before moving or expanding.

Opie Mosu (52:19)

Yeah, yeah, we identified Montrose two years in.

Eric (52:21)

We're at Montrose today.

Opie Mosu (52:22)

Yeah, we're at Montrose today. Flagship. Yeah, we identified this location about two years in and we went through the SBA route. And.

Eric (52:30)

Yeah, what was about this space that lined up with all that data that you collected, man?

Opie Mosu (52:34)

A lot of things, bro. But I also think, like, it was the data on top of, like, okay, now we've been at Post for two years, and Post is like a big. A big, you know, entertainment hub for the city. And it's new and it opened at the right time when the city. When like, like when Covid kind of started to dissipate and like, you know.

Eric (52:57)

All the people are chomping at the pit.

Opie Mosu (53:00)

Like, we had people come from everywhere to Post and then they would discover us. Right. So it was both the. The pre work we had done, but also just the way that we were able to execute at the Post and ultimately become like the highest grossing concept in there, like one of the most popular concepts in the entire building. And so Montrose stuck out because, you know, I felt like one of the things that helped us at Post was a lot of open mindedness. And. And Montrose is, you know, in so many ways, it's a restaurant row within the city of Houston. The neighborhood itself is also one of the most eclectic neighborhoods, I would say, just even in this part of the country. Country, Right. I needed people who would be open to experiencing what we had to offer. I wanted to have the opportunity to add something to the neighborhood that could continue to expand upon, like, the beauty of what the neighborhood is known to be able to offer. It's also adjacent to the historic Freedman's Town, which is where the first settlement of free black slaves settled upon finding out that they had been freed at Juneteenth. Right. Like, and so we're kind of. We're right there. And that was important to me too, because we are telling the story of the black diaspora. Right. And being able to kind of reclaim, you know, space was important. It's also a part of town that people from all around, like, travel through or to. And so I just felt like, man, if we get. And. And then like, we are on Westheimer itself, like a very, very high traffic block corner of this neighborhood. Right? And so a lot of that made sense. The rent made sense. And I was like, all right, you know what? Like, the space, the amount of space was 3,000 square feet, like, that seemed about right for us. So a lot of things just made it, you know, made it seem like it'd be the right move. And it's proven to be the case.

Eric (54:56)

Any lessons from that first location that you corrected for in opening the second location?

Opie Mosu (55:02)

Yeah, I mean, I think you know, even just kind of the way we set up our kitchen, you know, we took some of the. Some of the same layouts, but also made some adjustments in the back. You know, Montrose is different because, like, it's. It's a larger, like, menu, you know, even just kind of opening up, like, the beverage component to what we offer now. Like, there's still been a whole lot of learning lessons coming in here that, you know, eventually, whenever we take a. Get a new space, like, we're going to take that knowledge with us into there as well, but. And then it's also, like, a lot of good, right? Like, keep the menu even if we're going to expand it, keep it digestible. Right?

Eric (55:47)

What do you mean by digestible? Like, understanding what the food is.

Opie Mosu (55:51)

We learned at the beginning at Post, we built a very nice space, right? If you walk into the post, you walk by all of the stalls, and then you see chopping block, and you're like, this place looks very different, right? I mean, it's a very. Like, we use warm lighting. It looks like a warm space. It looks very lush. We have greenery, like, in the space. You know, we have different. Like, different textiles on the walls. Like the wallpaper we chose to use, like the books that we have featured, right? And you go in the other spaces, and they didn't have that same style of a character. And so we knew we wanted to build Montrose in a way that, like, continue to make sure that you felt like you were at a chop of.

Podcast Host (56:34)

Block.

Opie Mosu (56:36)

But keeping it digested in the sense of, like, when we made it that beautiful at post, we noticed people would walk around the food hall and they would stop in front of ours and just, like, be in awe.

Eric (56:48)

Take it in. Yeah.

Opie Mosu (56:49)

And then they'd be like, that's cool. We don't know what they sell, though. African food. We don't know what to get. There's so many choices. Let's keep walking, right?

Eric (56:57)

It's scary if you're not used to it. It's a lot of unfamiliar words and things, and until you put it in your mouth, you're like, damn.

Opie Mosu (57:03)

That's the perception, right? And so, you know, for us, it was like, okay, look, we need to be able to.

Eric (57:10)

1.

Opie Mosu (57:10)

I knew I want. Like, even when I was doing these dinners, I wanted to present the food in a way where a lot of the pairings that I would put, like, if I'm gonna eat jello fries, I'm eating with plantains. I like to eat mine with chicken. You know, things like that. Right. Like, that's how I built the dishes, so that the consumer doesn't necessarily need to think about what goes with what. It's presented that way for you already. Right. If you want to make modifications, look, this is your house. Do what you want to do. But if you don't want to have that, you know, decision anxiety, like, we've already done all the thinking for you. All you need to know is the name of it. We'll tell you what's in it. We'll tell you if it's the favorite, and we even let you get a sample of it.

Eric (57:44)

Yeah, you're really. Educate your staff and help them know.

Opie Mosu (57:47)

Let.

Eric (57:47)

Make them know how to educate the consumer.

Opie Mosu (57:49)

100. So, like, you know, to me, that's what I see as digestible. Right. Is taking something that takes a little lot of moving parts and thought in creating and then doing all the leg work and presenting it to the customer in a way where they don't think so hard about it. Right. And that's what we wanted to make sure that we still did here, even as we continue to expand the menu and focus more on, like, the stories that we're telling with each of the dishes and let people enjoy it for what that is.

Eric (58:18)

Nice. Did it get louder in here, or is this song just hit really hard?

Opie Mosu (58:24)

Let me know if we need to turn down.

Eric (58:25)

No, you're good, man. As long as I can hear you, the people at home can hear you.

Opie Mosu (58:29)

Okay.

Eric (58:29)

How you hear in your headset is exactly how it will get published.

Opie Mosu (58:31)

Okay, cool. Cool. Yeah, I can hear you. Yeah. Cool. So one thing we say at Chop Block is the vibe is always included. So, hey, man, for y' all listeners, this is what it is. I love.

Eric (58:42)

I mean, it's a restaurant business podcast. There's restaurant noise in the background. I think this is the only podcast I can get away with this and have it be okay. But I love it. You guys have been so awesome, very welcoming here, and I appreciate it. So I want to know kind of like, where you are now, because in the timeline, we're only a year out.

Opie Mosu (58:59)

From where we are today.

Eric (59:00)

Right. It's only about a year from when you open this spot. So I guess one thing I'm curious about is having two concepts named the same thing.

Opie Mosu (59:09)

Yeah.

Eric (59:09)

But they're different business models.

Opie Mosu (59:11)

That's right.

Eric (59:12)

Does that cause a lot of questions, confusion, or, like, how has that been?

Opie Mosu (59:15)

I think it does some, but not too much.

Eric (59:17)

What do you think going forward? What do you want? Is it more this or More what you started.

Opie Mosu (59:21)

I think we're. I think we're going to continue to remain fit for purpose. I think the flagship, what we built here at Montrose is probably going to be what we lead with more.

Eric (59:27)

Right. Okay.

Opie Mosu (59:27)

Say.

Eric (59:27)

I want. Make sure you want to say that one more time.

Opie Mosu (59:29)

I said it's more fit for purpose.

Eric (59:31)

Okay.

Opie Mosu (59:31)

Right again. Chopping block, to me is really about how you feel. Right. Yeah. We want to make a concept that's scalable. I think we're going to show up in some cases will show up in different ways in different spaces and what makes the most sense. Right. But I do believe, like, the goal is to build more. More. More locations and more often gonna be like the Montrose one. Right. Yeah. So it's.

Eric (59:53)

It makes your. You've proven that the concept works in full service and fast casual.

Opie Mosu (59:58)

Yeah.

Eric (59:59)

So you can put it. It gives you a little diversity, a little mobility.

Podcast Host (60:03)

What's the word? Like.

Eric (60:04)

Yeah, like mobility. Malleability.

Opie Mosu (60:05)

Yeah.

Eric (60:06)

To be able to fit in wherever there's opportunity. I think if you can start that way, it might cause a little bit of confusion. Maybe there's a way you can rebrand the different. Like, you know, call it chop and block.

Opie Mosu (60:16)

You know, down a little bit. Thanks.

Eric (60:18)

Chop and block, like, I don't know, Express or something like that. In the future, whatever is on brand for you. But there's. You've seen other people do it. I'm thinking of a concept in Atlanta, and it's. Forest Kargar is the name of the guy. It's a beautiful concept. He has a. I want to say it's a. It's either. It's Palestinian maybe concept, but similar to you. It's a foreign cuisine.

Opie Mosu (60:40)

Yeah.

Eric (60:40)

And they do a really phenomenal job. It's so elegant. The food is so delicious. Probably some similar ingredients. I mean, I don't know that part of the world really well, but similar profiles maybe. Anyway, my point is he has like this. He started off full service and then they made a fast, casual version of it. Rendition of it. And that gives you that ability to capitalize on opportunity.

Opie Mosu (61:00)

Yeah.

Eric (61:01)

And move it into whatever space is available.

Opie Mosu (61:03)

Comma, did the same thing. Right.

Podcast Host (61:05)

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Opie Mosu (63:53)

Kava started off as a full service. Yeah and then they end up opening the Fast Casual. The Fast casuals what took off and they ran with that. I believe the full service is actually still open, but yeah, the OG is but like, even, you know, like, One of my OGs is Justin Rosenberg over at Honey Girl.

Eric (64:13)

Dude, I've been going back and forth with him. I was actually supposed to connect them on my way down here.

Opie Mosu (64:16)

Okay, we're going to make it happen. And whenever I'm driving, maybe we can. Maybe we can sit down to him again.

Eric (64:21)

Maybe you can interview him. I'll just sit back, let it happen.

Opie Mosu (64:24)

But not Justin. I mean, like, you know, he let me pick his brain before we open up at the Post. And one thing I asked him, I was like, yeah, so tell me about, like, this whole, like, Honey Grow. And then you created mini Grow. They created mini grow in, like, New York and so on. And, you know, he was just kind of talking about, like, he's like, if you're gonna do that, like, you have to be very clear because customers could possibly, right. Be confused about what is what. Right? And I think here with us, it's. Maybe we're benefiting from the fact that, like, we start off, it's kind of like how you're just kind of slowly growing the concept. We start off at the Post, and that's all we had, right? And people were able to appreciate it. And so now they see Montrose is like that next evolution. Right? But, you know, it's no different than a restaurant that has a location and then also has like a satellite location at an airport or in a mall or, you know, the list goes on, right? A ball game, right? Like, you're not necessarily expecting the same exact experience there as what you're expecting in maybe the standalone that you had been to. Right? And so for us, I think we've kind of had that inverse where people saw the Post, then they came to Montrose, and they're like, whoa. But they don't forget the Post. And the Post is still running, right? So, you know, I think, you know, we're not, you know, it's not that we're looking at, hey, we're gonna go and open up a bunch more, you know, Post type locations just like in the middle of the city in different places. But like, we've been working for the last couple years now with the Houston Rockets. Like, we're the first to ever bring West African food into a professional sports stadium in the U.S. right? It's pretty cool. And so, like, who knows where that relationship goes? But, you know, more than likely, if we were to ever have a permanent placement in there, it's going to be more like the Post, you know, like, you know, so that's, that's what I mean, or like even in the. Texas has the largest or Houston has the largest medical center in the country, the Texas Medical Center.

Eric (66:25)

Well, yeah. You've proven the concept works.

Opie Mosu (66:27)

Yeah.

Eric (66:27)

In. In both ways. And how you desert decide to rebrand and tweak it to make it less confusing.

Opie Mosu (66:34)

Yeah.

Eric (66:35)

There's ways to do that.

Opie Mosu (66:36)

You'll figure it out.

Eric (66:37)

And I wanted to play homage to Farskar Gar. It's Del Bar is the name of his restaurant and his. His spin off QSR counter service concept is called bb, which is also in a food court.

Opie Mosu (66:49)

Yes.

Eric (66:49)

Which is kind of. There's a lot of similarities there.

Opie Mosu (66:51)

Shout out to the food courts.

Eric (66:52)

And it was a Iranian concept. Concept.

Opie Mosu (66:55)

Where'd you say this is it?

Eric (66:56)

This is in Atlanta. I would introduce you to. I'll introduce you to bars. He would take it in a heartbeat. I also kind of want to point something out.

Podcast Host (67:02)

What you are doing, man, to approach.

Eric (67:04)

Successful restaurateurs is the way, like, go talk to people. You'd be so surprised how willing people are to share their knowledge.

Podcast Host (67:11)

I am living proof of that.

Eric (67:12)

My life is going to people and saying, will you talk to me? This whole podcast is based off of that model.

Opie Mosu (67:18)

Just.

Eric (67:18)

Just record the advice.

Podcast Host (67:20)

How'd you do it?

Eric (67:20)

And that's exactly what we're doing at Restaurant Stoppable Community. Just for the record, like everybody I get on the show, I'm gonna ask you too. Can you just do a 30 minute, 1 hour max Q A where our listeners can ask you questions. This is exactly what we're doing. And I think that is the power. It's just connectivity. Like, just like. That's the biggest thing I can do to serve my listeners is help them connect with the people that are being referred to me organically.

Opie Mosu (67:43)

Can I give one piece of advice on this? Right. To the listeners out there that are inspired to follow in. You know that. That same approach, I think it's most compelling because we as restaurateurs, chefs or whoever we are in the industry, like, one of the most valuable resources we have is time. Right. We don't have enough of it. Right. So if you can present in your way, that shows one, you're serious about what you're doing. And two, even if you have some traction that you can offer for us to understand, it gets us more excited to have those conversations. And not just have the conversations, but tailor those conversations in ways that would be the most valuable for you and your time as well. Right.

Eric (68:23)

So offer some context.

Opie Mosu (68:26)

I reached out to Justin out the Blue. And when I reached out to Justin, I came correct. I was like, hey, Justin, you don't know me, but I've been listening to you on podcast. I've been a big fan of your restaurants when I was living in Philly. I'm building this concept, and that's what I've been doing for the past so many years. I reached out to him in 2021 before we opened up at the Post, but I gave him the whole rap sheet of what I did from 2017. Working at Chipotle, learning how to home cooks. These dinners I had on my belt, like, you know, and I'm not saying you have to wait till you get to that point before you reach out to somebody, but Justin fired email back to me in less than an hour.

Eric (68:59)

He's responsible.

Opie Mosu (69:00)

He was like, bro, like, you're serious? And I also mentioned, like. And I remember hearing you on this podcast where you said, hey, you're willing to help people. And I'm like, I'm one of those. I am people.

Eric (69:10)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (69:10)

What was the show? I don't remember which one it was. I don't know which one it was, but somebody caught him on YouTube and he's like, look, I'm open book. Like, if someone wants advice, like, I will tell you. And so my hope, that's what I did.

Eric (69:20)

My hope is to get him on the show. I might just plan my next trip on, like, hey, Justin, my camper is in the South. I'm leaving it down here, and I'm gonna be driving back up for the holidays. The plan is come back in January down South. I think I'm going to leave it in Southern Mississippi. And just to make the drive more.

Opie Mosu (69:34)

He's in Philly, though.

Podcast Host (69:35)

He's in Philly.

Eric (69:36)

So I got to drive right through Philly. I'm going to be like, I'm going back south when I can interview you, so tell me when you're available, and I will leave that day, the day.

Opie Mosu (69:44)

Before to be Justin. Man, he's great.

Eric (69:46)

I'd be honored to get him on the show. We're working on it. So, I mean, paint the picture. Where are you today? Like, start with, like, org structure. What is your organization?

Opie Mosu (69:54)

Structure? Yeah, so we're actually building out our structure right now. So if you'd asked me this six months ago, it would have been just my two separate teams, right? My general manager is leading the front at the Post. She has her assistant in place. We have leads in place. From there, you kind of have your cooks, you have your dish. You know, kind of traditional structure there. I sat at the top. And then you have, like, our external resources that we bring in, like our accounting resources and a lot of back office support that we do, that we outsource. And then you have the Montrose location. And Montrose will stack the same. Right. A manager agm. Have my core of leads. From there, I have my cooks, my dish. But now we're really trying to prepare for growth. Right. So real quick, before you get into.

Eric (70:42)

The growth post, how many employees do you have post?

Opie Mosu (70:45)

Most. We are like around 20.

Eric (70:46)

20. And of that, how many are how many? One GM.

Opie Mosu (70:50)

One GM.

Eric (70:50)

How many? You call them leads or AGMs.

Opie Mosu (70:53)

So I have leads. I have leads. We have an AGM opportunity available, but we're waiting to see who we fill that with.

Eric (70:59)

And how many leads do you have?

Opie Mosu (71:00)

So leads. I have two front of house leads and I have two kitchen leads.

Eric (71:07)

So all in. Right now we're at 1, 4. We're at 5 employees. So the remaining 15 employees. Cooks, dish in front of house staff.

Opie Mosu (71:15)

Yep.

Eric (71:17)

I think that that covers everything.

Opie Mosu (71:19)

Yep.

Eric (71:19)

And then same situation here. How many? You have one GM here.

Opie Mosu (71:22)

I have one GM here at Montrose. Now, how many leads? I have a total of one. Well, we've kind of. We just restructured. Okay, right. We restructured it. So Montrose, I have about, like almost 80 employees. And then now the structure is I have a GM front of house. I have three front of house leads. We are looking at bringing in an AGM that will sit on top of that. And then in my kitchen, we are currently hiring for a CDC chef cuisine. We just promoted a team member to be our sous chef in the kitchen. We actually took someone out, kind of plucked them out, and now they're our culinary culinary development lead. So they work directly with me on new recipes, new product innovations. And then I have two. Two prep leads. And we have an open position for a line cook league. Yeah, right. And then after that, servers, the cooks.

Eric (72:29)

That's back of us.

Opie Mosu (72:30)

Yeah, cooks and dish. And in the front we have service. Bartenders, busters.

Eric (72:35)

Got it. And then you're restructuring. What's. What's interesting right now, I'm all about this number called Dunbar's number. Robin Dunbar. Have you ever heard of Dunbar's number?

Opie Mosu (72:43)

School me on it. Yeah.

Eric (72:44)

So basically, Robin Dunbar is an evolutionary psychologist. I think maybe psycho. He studies basically. Or maybe behavioral psychologists. And he. He. He's famous for work.

Podcast Host (72:54)

He.

Eric (72:55)

He studied chimpanzees in their natural environment and realized that at about 50 group members.

Opie Mosu (73:00)

Yeah.

Eric (73:01)

There the pack started to have social conflict and they would have to split.

Opie Mosu (73:05)

Yeah.

Eric (73:06)

And he started to. They're like, he. And then he realized there was a correlation between, like, the surface area of, like, the skull, like, the frontal lobe, like, this ratio, and that that ratio was predetermined on how many relationships a primate can handle. And he started running this ratio in all different types of primates. And he saw that there was a correlation. If you study them in the wild, that that. That ratio dictates how many relationships that they can handle. So that was, like, the source of his work. And he did that. We are primates, human beings, and you realize that we can handle about 150 relationships. Okay. And he coined this number called Dunbar's number, which is that humans have about 150 meaningful relationships. But there are other numbers associated with Dunbar's number. And it. If. But 150 is where we and them starts. So beyond 150, it's us versus them, because you can't handle more relationships, and you start to get, like, sex, like groups of people that are, like a tribe, you know, And. But the number, if you reverse engineer, it's 150, 50, 15, 5. 1.5. 1.5 is you and your spouse.

Opie Mosu (74:08)

Yeah, yeah.

Eric (74:09)

5 is a family. 15 is a greater family. Like, you're like, immediate cousins.

Opie Mosu (74:13)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Eric (74:14)

50 is like your community, like your band.

Opie Mosu (74:17)

Okay.

Eric (74:17)

And, like, that's what you would, like, go hunting, gathering. Like, you live in, like, you'd come back to a village. Like, you're maybe the village. I get. Maybe camp is 15. Village is like, like, how it, like, shows up and like, like, how we would have been anyway. There's correlations with. If you look at how restaurants scale, those numbers are effective. And to your point, you're at 100 now.

Podcast Host (74:36)

It's a hard. That's a hard number.

Eric (74:38)

The goal is to get from 50 to 150 as fast as possible and then slow down and build. And what you're doing right now, because you got past 50, and it's probably weird. Things aren't probably driving exactly the way you want them to because you got to re. And you're rebuilding. You're building the house before you move into it.

Opie Mosu (74:53)

Yeah.

Eric (74:53)

And that's the right approach. That's the point I'm trying to make, is when you get beyond 50, for some reason, things don't work well, and that number is greater than that. So the goal is to slow down at 50 and then really figure out, okay, what is our. Like, what Is our plan, our strategy. And then you get to 150 as fast as possible and then you slow down.

Opie Mosu (75:13)

Okay.

Eric (75:13)

And then you got to do the same thing to get to 500 because.

Opie Mosu (75:16)

So 150 to 500.

Eric (75:18)

Yeah, but, but if you look at scale, so like one location is the first, the hardest to scale, right. Then you can get to two or three, but then we get. But that's when you start getting to about 150 and you have to slow down again. And the next hard time is getting beyond 10. And that's a. I mean that could be. Depending on the scale of your restaurants, that could be 500 employees.

Opie Mosu (75:35)

Yeah, yeah.

Eric (75:36)

And you got to get to 500 as fast as possible. So you got to build the house before you move into it. Is that your goal?

Opie Mosu (75:42)

Yeah, yeah, more than that.

Eric (75:44)

Eventually, yeah, we're gonna get that.

Opie Mosu (75:46)

But yeah, like that's the approach we're taking right now. To your point, I wouldn't, I wasn't familiar with Dunbar or his number, but it's fascinating, you know, the whole aspect of like now we're really trying to build out the infrastructure that allows for the growth to land in the right place.

Eric (76:03)

You got to build the house before you move it.

Opie Mosu (76:04)

Yes, sir.

Eric (76:04)

So what does that structure look like that you're building?

Opie Mosu (76:06)

So we've also expanded our catering components. I have a catering director, my former GM at our Montrose location has now moved over within his team. And so they're now kind of tag teaming, building that part of our business out. But then we're also looking at bringing in like essentially a operations director. Right, an operations director to sit into working first on how we continue to build supportive infrastructure within our back of house model. And then from there we now start to focus more on like front of house guest experience aspects as well. You know, getting us prepared to then. And be able to have leadership that sits outside of both restaurants that's focused on managing multiples, multiple units. Right. So think about area director, district manager, area director, types of opportunities and even opportunities like, you know, I still look at my extended team as really important to us. Right. So our back of our back office support systems that we use, we're looking at bringing some of that in house as well. But really that's kind of the big thing, right, Is let's make sure the operational models there. Let's make sure now we have like the, the team members in place that can oversee and watch over the operational model and then start building out our growth team that can continue to go and look at what's ahead in the future. Yeah. Both from a product standpoint but then also from like, you know, new footprints.

Eric (77:38)

I want to talk more about your, your plan for scale, but I want to dive deeper into where you are right now. What is your tech stack? Let's talk tech stack.

Opie Mosu (77:46)

Say it again.

Eric (77:47)

Tech stack.

Opie Mosu (77:48)

Tell me more.

Eric (77:49)

So like what technology are you leveraging?

Opie Mosu (77:51)

What systems? Yeah, I mean so we use, we use Restaurant365. Our POS is toast. We are looking at identified ways to bring in like just kind of the other AI support into helping us run a bit more efficiently. Reservations are, are done via open table for us. What else we got?

Eric (78:16)

So any AI tools that stand out? Top of mind right now.

Opie Mosu (78:19)

We not, we're not doing. No. I think we have a lot of ground to go and cover from that standpoint. I was meeting with another mentor today, Benji Levitt of, of local foods group. And you know, he was kind of sharing some of the things that he's been digging into. And so like I literally have top secret stuff.

Eric (78:37)

Is that privy information that you don't want to broadcast to the world?

Opie Mosu (78:40)

Not really. I just haven't tested it out yet so I can't put them on game, you know what I mean? I literally had this meeting this morning.

Eric (78:45)

I'm. It's moving so fast right now. You know, there's so much stuff out there. I know Spoton acquired some AI companies that they're levering, leveraging.

Opie Mosu (78:54)

I mean I feel like AI is also like sexy word and it's like, are you doing AI? Like you should be looking into it. I think as a society, like some of us know how to use it better than others. I'm, I'm learning. Like I'm learning. I still, I mean I use chat GPT too. Like, you know, I don't think we, we, we, we shout out chat GPT enough. Right.

Eric (79:10)

Like how do you use that as a restaurant?

Opie Mosu (79:11)

I use it to think through questions and take them outside of my head and just kind of have a sounding board.

Eric (79:16)

Give me an example.

Opie Mosu (79:17)

Right. Okay. Hey. One of the things I work with Chat GPT on is trying to understand like what would be an ideal structure for my kitchen. Right. I was thinking, you know, we're growing. We anticipated our restaurant to do one and a half times what we're doing at post. So I built this off of a model of like this would be successful if we could do 3 million dollar top line. As I mentioned, we're running at a, at a north of a five Million dollar pace. Right. So you know, capacity wise, what we have in the kitchen luters leadership structure we had in the kitchen before we used to run it just like the post where it was just. We had a, we, we started with a kitchen manager very early on, but that didn't really last. So then we were running the kitchen with leads. We always wanted to make sure we had leadership in the building and we did it through a community of leads. Well realized, like, hey, at this scale, with the amount of volume that we're pushing through and just the amount of team members we need and everything that that entails, like both the, the functional and the emotional components that it all brings, like we need like to follow more of like a, of a structured back of house model. Right. So I'm talking to Chad GPT about like these are my problems. This is kind of what I'm thinking, like what types of roles and positions you think would make the most sense here. And then it starts spitting out, well, you know, you could actually structure your kitchen manager be a good way to do it. I'm like, well when we had a kitchen manager, you know, these are some, some of the pros and the cons of that. And it's like, well, okay, well if you do that and then you add this other layer to it and now I'm talking to JBT to understand like different thought processes on how I can like structure my kitchen. And then you know, JB is great because it's like, it's like the great employee that's like, here's the information you want. Would you also like me to do this for you? Would you like me to do that? I'm like, yeah, do that too.

Eric (81:03)

It's proactive, it's hospital, it's high. That's hospital hospitality. It's anticipating.

Opie Mosu (81:06)

Exactly. So like that's, that's, that's kind of how you know I've been successful in using it and then understanding like hey, what is market rates on certain things and so on and so forth. Right.

Eric (81:14)

I've made some predictions and I don't know if it's gonna win me over or when it's. I might be calling. I don't know, I, I wonder. It might cause some trouble with my political connections, my colleagues that I'm worried about the world of consulting, you know, like I don't know if there's going to be much of a place for consultants in the near future because you can literally ask I just for fun I was asking chat GPT random questions about like, okay, I'm opening a restaurant. Give me a checklist of everything that I need from utensils to, oh, like my opening checklist. And it was like, and it was like, it literally said, you're also going to need these permits too. And this and this and this. I was like, I was like, consultants are done for. I was like. And like they're like, I can put that in a spreadsheet for you. I just, you know, like, I'm not trying to paint like, no disrespect to consultants. I just see where this is going and what you're paying for with consultants is that knowledge. And yes, some hold handing to help roll out and to have that guidance. But with the, the other thing too is there are more and more platforms like Restaurant Unstoppable out there, communities where, where restaurant owners are coming together and sharing knowledge. So I think really, I don't know, man, like, the future is really interesting. Like, I want to get into outsourcing. I think that's another big part of the future of the restaurant industry is realizing that we don't have to do it all in house, that we can partner with specialists, we can outsource the specialists. Another thing that I think is going to be threatening the consultant is, you know, the world of fractional executives. So what are you outsourcing?

Opie Mosu (82:47)

So we do a lot of our, like, payroll, a lot of our accounting in general. We work with Sir Bony Services. I think Cervone connected us together out here in Houston, but we've been working with them since day one, so.

Eric (83:04)

Day one?

Opie Mosu (83:05)

Yeah. Since, since day one.

Eric (83:06)

How did you have that foresight.

Opie Mosu (83:10)

Man? I don't know who gave me that advice actually. I mean, I was like, I know I can't do it, but my, like I don't have the capacity to do it by myself. Like, I understand it, right? Like I get all that stuff, but having to be my own accountant as well as like be operationally involved in the restaurant, especially in the beginning. My wife, she's an accountant. We weren't making enough money with the restaurant. She had her own job, right. Like, and so figuring that, hey, I could out outsource this versus bringing someone in full time to take that on.

Eric (83:48)

Like, I think that's part of the answer, right? I think that's the future. The world of fractional executives is on the rise. I think fractional, if you can do a fractional CFO and a fractional cmo, if you can outsource the marketing and the finance and it's not for You. It's not just a bookkeeping. Assuming you're leveraging the executive. The CFO service, the. Like their financial. You know, the executive. Why am I struggling right now? Chief financial officer. So helping you project based off the numbers and plan and strategize, not just taking care of your books and doing your taxes.

Opie Mosu (84:23)

So with them, we're kind of still looking more on the accounting side. Okay. You know, within me and my team, I've done more of the forecasting with support with one of my investment partners. But that is something that we're looking at, bringing another fractional executive in to start helping us look more at kind of the future state.

Eric (84:47)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (84:47)

Projecting out some of the growth opportunities. You know, I've kind of felt like in some ways I've taken on roles that I've ultimately had to fire myself up. Right. Just based off of capacity.

Eric (84:57)

And it takes self awareness to know what lane you should stay in.

Opie Mosu (85:00)

Yeah. And you know, that's. That's probably one of the next up is. Is. Is on the finance side.

Eric (85:06)

Yeah. Any other services? I mean. I mean, actually, I'm surprised. I am surprised that you went with Sir Boni right out of the gates like early on. I think literally, if I'm opening a restaurant tomorrow, I'm leveraging Enterprise solution, meaning like Restaurant365. I'm going with Restaurant Assist Pro for the strict reason because I think their customer support is amazing. And I think that we need to give Restaurant 365 a run for their money because they're.

Podcast Host (85:33)

They're the only.

Eric (85:34)

They're the only Enterprise solution that's top of mind for the majority of the industry.

Opie Mosu (85:37)

Yeah.

Eric (85:38)

And I think we're Fred Langley with Restaurant Systems Pro, also a sponsor of the show. But I just really believe in that organization POS Enterprise Solution that fully integrates with a fully integrated general ledger.

Opie Mosu (85:49)

Yeah.

Eric (85:50)

All accounting, inventory, labor, management, all that with an executive financial officer or outsourced like Siboney.

Opie Mosu (85:59)

Yeah.

Eric (85:59)

So I don't have to touch any of that because that will break your business if you don't do it right. They also know how to use the technology. Like you would break restaurant365 if you were trying to do it out of the gates. It would take a lot of repetitions to get that right.

Opie Mosu (86:11)

Yeah. And you know, we actually got pulled in the restaurant365 through Siboney. That's. That was the service that they use. So I was like, all right, bet that's what y' all use.

Eric (86:19)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (86:19)

Let's run with it. Right.

Eric (86:20)

I introduced them to Restaurant Assistance Pro. My fingers crossed. I'm trying to make that, like, Parent Trap over here.

Opie Mosu (86:26)

You might be the plug. We'll see. But yeah, I mean that like that. Like, we also, you know, legal, like, you talk about something that'll break you legal. We're like, all right, we need to get, like, a lawyer that we work with, even if it's on a contract basis, because it's going to be real expensive to fix some stuff because we didn't do it right. Versus, like, just biting the bullet and pay for it to be done right up.

Eric (86:50)

Right, right. The money you spend to fix what you broke will be less expensive than just going and getting a lawyer to do it right the first time.

Opie Mosu (86:56)

That's right. So, like, you know, that's an approach that we took. I mentioned pr, like, for the longest, and we've been blessed. We've had great press even before we brought PR in. But leading up into opening Montrose, I was like, all right, I think we're at the. The point now where we can actually further benefit from having someone take this off of my plate and just kind of handle inquiries coming in, relationships I've already created. But then my whole theory is like, I want to bring people that are better than me at doing what they do. Right? Let's leverage what she has created and let her run with it. And, you know, that's been a success as well.

Eric (87:29)

Do you want to give a shout out there?

Opie Mosu (87:30)

Hey, man, shout out to Jalen, the Frankie Collective. Like, best in the business.

Eric (87:33)

Yeah, she's been a blast.

Opie Mosu (87:35)

Has been. She has been awesome. Seriously. So, you know, she's got that go getter mentality out the mud. Like, you know, we vibe very well together. She's not the biggest firm, but she's got what I was saying.

Eric (87:50)

We'll just give her that shout out.

Opie Mosu (87:51)

So it's about to get bigger. There we go.

Eric (87:53)

So what's the vision, man? Where are you going? We started getting into it. You started building the house before you move in. You're looking to get a director of operations. What's the vision? Like, where do you want to be? What's like, what's the perfect world for you?

Opie Mosu (88:04)

I mean, shopping block is a platform, right? So we are going to have locations all throughout the country. And I look at that as, like, I say, our. Our. Our storefronts, I. I call them community hubs. Right? They are places where we can put our flag pole down and the community can come in and interact in this community space. And ultimately like, check us out on their time. Right. That's what that is all about. We also want to continue to, to build out our, our presence within the communities.

Podcast Host (88:35)

Right.

Opie Mosu (88:35)

So that's getting in through partnerships through, through our own programming initiatives to actually truly be ingrained in the communities that we serve. Right. So I mentioned like the partnership we created with the Houston Rockets. There have been a lot of brands that we've been working with as well to ultimately help us further tell that West African story, share who we are as a community and as a diaspora. And that's important to us. The philanthropic aspect of it I don't talk about enough, but we want to also continue to give back to the community in that way as well. So launching a, A a part of Chopping Block called Fella, which is Finance and Entrepreneurship Literacy Academy. It's also named after my father. But you know, I want to be able to use what we built through this platform and use it as a way to be able to help develop that next generation of leaders. What it's all about, through skills that I felt have served me well even coming into this industry.

Podcast Host (89:27)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (89:28)

From a completely different background, I think people can use it and take that however they want. Right. Yeah, that's something we don't get access to enough entrepreneurship and, and like financial literacy, like those are, those are key to me. So, you know, that's a big part of it. You know, ultimately. Yeah, we want to be able to get into your household. Like, you know, I think there's a. Of couple ways to, you know, people talk about like, oh, I want to be in like in stores and things like that. And it's very difficult to get shelf space. What's even harder than that is to get off the shelf. Right. And I feel like a lot of concepts that have done it successfully are just brands that do it successfully. They've taken two approaches. One approach is to hire a very. Bring in a very big sexy name and people are going to pull it off the shelf because the celebrity is the one that's behind it and they all know that celebrities face and they want to try the product. Or the other is to build a very, very strong brand that people are passionate about and then that will help you get your flow through. Right. So one day we'll be there.

Eric (90:22)

So product goods.

Opie Mosu (90:23)

Yeah, one day we'll be there. And then the storytelling piece, like, yeah, we are going to loud our story from the mountaintop. We're going to have our own media. We have a, like, we even have our Own digital newsletter we sent out called Small Chops, Snacks Stories to get you through the day. Quick 5 minute reads that talk about the happenings within, you know, the communities that we come from.

Eric (90:42)

Do you write those?

Opie Mosu (90:43)

No, I actually have a friend and partner that he kind of owns that and writes those stories for us. So talk about another.

Eric (90:49)

I love that. Creating opportunity for others. Yeah, I want to. I always say, again, the mission statement is to inspire, empower, and transform the industry. I think we transform the industry, we will transform the world. And it's through people like you, man, who see that it's more than a job job.

Podcast Host (91:02)

Yeah.

Eric (91:02)

You have an obligation, a moral obligation to lift up your people and to give them opportunity, to give them life skills. For so many people, the restaurant industry is their first job. If this is their break into a professional career, you know, and we. How that that first experience goes will shape the future. And people like you doing that extra to really lift up the community. Not just be a paycheck, but to be a mentor tour. To be somebody who empowers and makes the. If you make your people better, your business is better.

Opie Mosu (91:32)

Yeah, man, look, we're blessed. We are blessed, man. Like, one thing you can never duplicate is authenticity. And, like, that's what we're in for. It's like the same way you have a mission, we have our mission, and we stand 10 toes down on it. Right. Our purpose is rooted in two things. Is to make our culture more accessible, is to build community along the way. I love it. You know, I say, hey, we built Chop and Block ultimately as a vehicle to showcase the beauty of West African culture through foods that reshape society's daily routine. Like, that's what we're all about. All the energy that we put into everything that we do goes to that. So we're grateful whenever we get, like, a lot of the big, you know, because we don't seek that validation. Right. So we've been fortunate. Multiple James Beard nominations this year. Year one of Montrose. We're New York Times top 50 restaurants in the country. Just got Michelin Bib Gourman. Like, all of those things, things are exciting, but the biggest thing is, like, why do we do what we do? And those are outlets that are helping us to amplify our message. But at the end of the day, ten toes down, we do it to be able to truly put on for our community, for our culture, and bring people along the ride for us.

Eric (92:39)

Do you have a vision for how you want to scale it? Is it going to start Are you going to do more, like, go to the cities where you. You think your. Your demographic is there waiting for your target market?

Opie Mosu (92:48)

I feel like you have read the playbook already. It's the same thing I did in Houston. Right. Like, as I mentioned, like, the West African diaspora, you know, they're not the. They're not like, you talk about the Nigerian community and so on. Like, they're never, in my opinion, gonna be the biggest portion of our. Of our customer base because we are blessed to be able to reach, you know, a super diverse audience. However, to me, I believe that there's a lot of value in going into the markets where they have influence. Right. Houston has the largest West African community in the country. Right. And so, one, I want to make sure that my people feel like well represented. But two, I also understand that for those that don't even come from where we come from, the fact that you have a colleague, a friend, a classmate, your friend, your. Your child's best friend, a neighbor. Right. Like, who comes from this community, it's not as foreign to you to say, oh, yeah, I'm gonna go try chopping block. Right, Right. Like, that's where so and so. Oh, I have a neighbor that's Nigerian. I've had food at their house before. Or from Ghana. Right. And we're blessed as well to where, like, our community is fortunate to have been, like, you know, very successful as one of the most successful immigrant communities out there. Right. So we are a bunch of doctors, we are a bunch of lawyers, we are a bunch of engineers. We are a bunch of, you know, professional place in professional settings where we're able to reach a lot of people. And so, you know, I think there's value in going into those type of. In those types of markets. But the cool thing about those markets is when you really start to plot them on a. On a map for some of the biggest. They're some of the biggest markets in the country. Yeah, right. You got Houston, you got Dallas, you got the whole DMV area, you have the Tri States area, New York, you know, I mean, like, you can go down to Florida, Louisiana. Like, these are markets that people want to be at. Right.

Eric (94:49)

So are you going to start close to home and, like, centrifuge circle out to, like, dot spread yourself, build it.

Opie Mosu (94:54)

In a way where supply chain can support it. Yeah. Where the infrastructure can support it. Right. Where the brand name can continue to, like, organically grow through it. Right. But we got to get. We got to keep getting Montrose, right? Yeah, man, we got to keep getting the local market.

Eric (95:06)

I could keep going with you. I'm looking at the. This place getting full. We're sitting at two tables right now. I want to respect your space and your diners. I want to ask a couple questions to wrap it up, and we'll be out of here in just about 10 minutes. So what is one thing you've done recently that has you excited that's really moved the needle?

Opie Mosu (95:22)

One thing we've done recently that is. That has moved the needle, Man. That's a great question. I'm trying to think if I can land on, like, one thing, what's the.

Eric (95:40)

First thing that comes to mind? Honestly, man, you did a lot of things out of the gate that would move the needle.

Opie Mosu (95:49)

Even. Listen, listen. Listen to my. Listen to my team and my staff, even when it's uncomfortable to do so.

Eric (95:55)

How's that helped you give me an example.

Opie Mosu (95:59)

You know, right now, one of the big things we're talking about is, like, even just, you know, how we look at. You're improving, like, our tip structures, right? Like, we run off a tip pool here, and it's like, okay, how. How can we even look at ways that we might be able to get our team in positions to earn more, right? Like, and, you know, I might have my own thought of, like, pros and cons associated with going this path or the other or. But, like, the team has been like, no, no. We kind of want to also have the opportunity to just, like, go after this ourselves and, like, not necessarily have to be in this tips, pull this way, but, like, kind of go after our own bag. And I'm like, all right, well, what.

Eric (96:44)

Tools are you using to leverage shipwreck?

Opie Mosu (96:47)

So we use toast. We also kind of have our own spreadsheets that we calculate as well.

Eric (96:51)

Got it. What is one conversation you think restaurant owners need to start having?

Opie Mosu (96:57)

One conversation restaurant owners need to start having is. What I see. We do a lot in Houston. What I hear we don't do much in other parts of the country is understanding how we can work together in collaboration, go further. Feeling like everyone is like doggy dog.

Eric (97:22)

It's always the ones that come together that rise to the top. And every community that I talk to, there's a pattern there. I can. I can say for sure that is one of the keys to success, is choosing to go further to together. What is one thing about your business? A value, a process, a system that is truly uncommon and makes you unstoppable?

Opie Mosu (97:40)

One thing about our business, we are a one of one Because I really feel like a lot of times we're telling a story that a lot. A lot of people don't even want to touch, you know, from our food offerings to the way that we, you know, show up in this space, like, our flavor is truly unique in many ways. And I'm not just talking about the way things. Things taste. I'm talking about the way that we approach our craft in general. And people see it. People.

Eric (98:02)

The whole vibe, man, the energy, People.

Opie Mosu (98:04)

Feel it when they come in here. Yeah. I feel like.

Eric (98:06)

I think our listeners can hear it.

Opie Mosu (98:07)

Yeah.

Eric (98:08)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (98:09)

Houston, pull up.

Eric (98:10)

Yeah. The mission statement is to change the world through inspiring, empowering, and transforming the restaurant industry. How have you personally transformed. How are you a better man today because of the restaurant industry?

Opie Mosu (98:18)

Look, I'm letting them know that the West African Diaspora got something to say. You know what I mean? Like, that's, you know, we, we are a region of rich history and kingdoms, and in many ways, we have set foundations in a lot of global food culture. And so here we're just here presenting those flowers, letting people know those stories that haven't been told before, and do it in a way where people can understand, digest, and also not feel intimidated by.

Eric (98:49)

Yeah.

Opie Mosu (98:49)

All right.

Eric (98:49)

This is a big one. Get ready for it. If you got the news you'd be leaving this world tomorrow, all the memories of you, your work, and your restaurants will be lost with your departure, with the exception of three pieces of wisdom you can leave behind for the good of humanity and your legacy. What would those three pieces of wisdom be?

Opie Mosu (99:03)

I like that one. So I think the first would be move authentically. Move authentic. I'm gonna go back to start off, to end the way I started, right? What's yours is yours. That's two, right? And then the third one I would leave is make time for what matters the most.

Eric (99:29)

It's been a lot of fun, man. Thank you so much. I found you through word of mouth, sir. Bonus Services said you got to talk to Opie while you're in town.

Podcast Host (99:35)

He's amazing.

Eric (99:36)

They were right. You were amazing. And who do you respect and admire? Somebody that you look up to and somebody you aspire to be, like somebody who's doing it right, who's making an impact and making money while they do it. You already mentioned a few names, man.

Opie Mosu (99:49)

Yeah, man, like my OG's, Justin Rosenberg, Benji Levitt, Local Foods Group here in Houston, man. I, I, I spend time talking with Marcus Davis of the Breakfast Club here in Houston quite a bit. Who else would I Throw in in the mix there.

Eric (100:08)

Marcus Davis.

Opie Mosu (100:09)

Marcus Davis.

Eric (100:10)

The Breakfast Club. The Breakfast Club.

Opie Mosu (100:11)

Yes, sir. You know, I just recently did an awesome collaboration with Trill Burgers, Bun B. And the way this man, even though he's known as being a Southern hip hop legend, has fully embraced the culinary space and has gone into this, you know, with the focus of I'm going to be disciplined in how I work. To be able to put out the best burger concept the same way I put out the best music is inspirational. I love the work that they're doing as well. So shout out to the trilogy. Bun B. Gotta put him on. But yeah, man, those are just a few of my OGs. And I'll give you one more.

Eric (100:59)

Okay, man.

Opie Mosu (100:59)

I can't leave without giving a shout out to one of my big homies as well. We become fast friends, but Tovel Bristol Joseph from Emory and Rye Hospitality in Austin, Kanji Emer and Rye, what he's doing in San Antonio with Pullman Market, man, Tavel is on my radar. Savella is that guy. Savell is that guy.

Eric (101:19)

Justin, Benji, Marcus, Trill Travell, look out. Coming after you guys. I think I'm gonna be back in Texas in January, so I'd love to make those interactions, interviews happen. And Justin, on the way down, I'm stopping, man. I'm doing Philadelphia shout outs to Auntie.

Opie Mosu (101:33)

Mao McQueen as well. Mao McQueen in Aspen, if you're ever going through Colorado.

Eric (101:37)

Okay, how do you spell that?

Opie Mosu (101:39)

M a w a ma. McQueen. I got a dish on the menu named after her. Nancy Ma's Mafe Mawa.

Eric (101:46)

Looking out. I'm coming after you too. And Opie, I literally cannot do what I do without people like you taking time to get vulnerable, to get generous with your. Your time and your knowledge and your perspective. Congratulations and everything.

Opie Mosu (101:59)

My man.

Eric (101:59)

There is no questioning. You are unstoppable, man.

Opie Mosu (102:01)

Blessings, man. Like I said, being on this podcast, after just clicking and checking it out in 2017, we're here today. Look, man, that's his affirmation right there. So thank you for taking the time to even create the space for me and for me to be able to tell our story.

Eric (102:15)

Pleasure is truly my man. Thank you.

Podcast Host (102:18)

There's another episode wrapped up here at Restaurant Unstoppable. Special thanks to our guest today, Opie, for coming on. And, man, what a great conversation. I really love your entrepreneurial journey, your background, having zero experience in the restaurant industry, putting a plan together, showing up, collecting data, executing the plan, and just the grit to show up to approach other People to ask for help to get that mentorship, man, you did it exactly how I would tell somebody to do it. That execution is awesome, man. I, I love sharing your story. If you enjoyed today's episode and you want to meet Opie, I did extend an invitation to him to have a, have him join us for coffee with Eric and I'm waiting to get that confirmation from him. Things got a little crazy with the holiday, so I'm kind of behind on sending out invitations, as I know. I'll let you know. And we would love to have you join us in Restaurant Stoppable Network. The goal going forward is to continue to do what we've been doing, but just to do it better as we go forward. And I want to focus on relationships. I want to focus on finding amazing people in the industry, sharing their story, in helping you connect with these mentors, to, to learn from their perspective, to learn from their knowledge. And I, I do believe that we go further together. And I think that that's what my, my goal is, is to help the industry connect and to share and to go further together. And that's what we're doing over at Restaurant Unstoppable Network. We'd love to have you be a part of it. Please support this mission to inspire, empower and transform the industry by heading over to Restaurantstoppable.com live and we'll see you there. All right, guys, until next time. Peace out. I almost forgot to mention that beginning tomorrow, January 2nd, Fred Langley is going to be hosting a 30 day mastery program. So this is in partnership with Restaurant Stoppable. We're actually going to be hosting these live events on our calendar. So if you go to Restaurant Systems Pro and you sign up for this, it will cost you 97. But if you are a Restaurant Stoppable Network member, you get this program for absolutely free. You just pay the 47amonth to join our community and you're in. And you can get access to this live training. It's every Monday, Wednesday and Friday beginning in the new year. And he goes over all the core systems you need to be profitable to make sure you're getting your prime costs under control. So again, first session is Friday, the 2nd at 12pm and we will link to all those live events. When you join Restaurant Unstoppable Network, this.

Eric (104:36)

Is a great way to get the.

Podcast Host (104:38)

New year started by investing in yourself. So hopefully we'll see you there.