1277: Mike Cordero, chef/owner of Cordero Hospitality Group

Summary

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Restaurant Unstoppable, Ep. 1277: Mike Cordero, Chef/Owner of Cordero Hospitality Group (June 14, 2026)

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Eric Cacciatore sits down with veteran restaurateur Mike Cordero—the chef/owner of Cordero Hospitality Group—to unpack the lessons gleaned from nearly five decades in the industry. Cordero, with over 50 restaurant openings under his belt and currently overseeing 11 locations across several concepts in the DC/VA/MD area, reflects on his journey from the Bronx to building a hospitality family business. The conversation dives deep into entrepreneurship, sustainable growth, operations, partnership pitfalls, the power of hospitality, adapting tech, and building legacy for future restaurateurs.

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Main Theme

What does it take to build an unstoppable restaurant business? Mike Cordero shares his hard-earned wisdom on leadership, relationship management, business sustainability, and creating transformative guest experiences. He recounts successes, mistakes, and pivotal moments that shaped his path from scrappy pizza cook to multi-concept owner, passing lessons forward to the next generation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Early Work Ethic & Motivation

• Mike’s Mantra:
  “Every dish has a story to tell, and I'm here to tell every story.” (04:04)
  Mike explains how food and its stories facilitate connection, belonging, and creativity.

• Origin Story:

  • Started at 13, shining shoes and making pizzas near Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx. Work ethic born out of poverty:
    “My work ethic has always... at this age, I'm still strong. I enjoy going to work. It's not a job. It's just a passion.” (18:01–19:04)
  • Learned early: No two days in restaurants are the same; enjoys the dynamism and challenge.

Evolution of Cordero Hospitality Group

• Current Overview:

  • 11 restaurants, 4 key concepts (Taco Rock, Carbonara, Bronson Beer Hall, Rockwood; plus Big Tony’s & Don Tito)
  • Two additional units in the pipeline.
  • “We're blessed… able to just keep on going and increasing. Not only the product, but sales, and profit.” (06:10)

• Concept Rundown:

  • Taco Rock: Fast-casual, 5 units
  • Carbonara: Italian scratch kitchen, soon opening 2nd, larger location (08:06)
  • Bronson Beer Hall: 350+ seats, high-volume beer hall
  • Rockwood: Farm-to-table
  • Big Tony’s: Pizza, a nod to roots
  • Don Tito: Three floors, Tex-Mex with nightlife, 10,000 sq ft

What Drives Profit & Differentiation

• Bronson Beer Hall as the Cash Cow:

  • 20%+ profit margins, 55% prime cost (25–30% labor, rest COGS); massive volume.
  • Key: Millennial-focused “neighborhood watering hole,” efficient self-service via table kiosks, low labor (11:05–12:53).
  • "Any given time... there was 400+ people in there. It's a place to watch sports, to gather." (11:28)

• Carbonara's Unique Angle:

  • Italian, scratch kitchen, theatrical tableside pasta finishes, Instagrammable moments.
  • Attracts a diverse clientele (35–80yo, spanning generations) driven by social media virality (14:09–14:57).
  • “We bring a Parmesan wheel, finish your carbonara off in that big Parmesan—Instagrammable.” (14:09)
  • Prime cost at 50% (25% labor / 25% COGS), rent only 5%, 25%+ profit margin (16:42–17:07).
  • "Carbonara is a restaurant that's difficult to emulate...it's a scratch kitchen." (13:16)

Entrepreneurship—Growth, Pivots, and Partnerships

• From Single Store to 42 Outlets (Italian Delight):

  • At age 19, partnered in a joint venture, expanding rapidly through mall-based pizza units (25 by age 25, 42 locations in 10 years).
  • Lean menu: "When you do less, you can do more." (26:07)
  • Fast growth anchored by relationships with mall developers; Sbarros was main competition.

• Strategic Exit & Regret:

  • Sold to Sbarros in 1991. Mike wishes he'd bought out his partner and continued expanding:
    “What I should have done was buy him out and kept on going... maybe open another 50 restaurants.” (38:41)

• Partnership Lessons:

  • Clear partnership agreements are vital. After Malibu Grill, Mike learned to avoid “string-attached” investments and vague roles.
  • "If you're taking on a partnership, have a solid, ironclad agreement. It's your protection down the road." (51:10)
  • Family now forms the core leadership team; key managers operate on a profit-sharing (not equity) model.

Hospitality as a Differentiator

• Hospitality Over Food:

  • "You can have mediocre food, but if you have hospitality top notch, people will come back." (57:23)
  • Disney training inspired an ethos: Hospitality is about creating a “fantasy land” for guests and staff—anticipated needs, continual enthusiasm, exceed expectations (57:35–60:03).

• Practices:

  • Staff hired for personality over experience; ongoing training; managers lead by positive reinforcement.
  • “If you have a personality, we're able to train you... We need that personality first.” (73:35)

Operations & Modernization

• Adaptation to Technology:

  • Early growth managed on trust; newer ventures run with systems, weekly numbers review, structured policies, use of tech stacks (Toast, MarginEdge, SevenShifts, Serious Consulting as a fractional CFO). (87:43–90:54, 109:05)

• Profit-Sharing for Retention:

  • Key managers participate in profit-sharing (2–5%), not equity—avoids buy-out complications, helps retain talent.

• Culture Carriers & "SWAT Teams":

  • Specialized opening teams help launch new units, then return to base units (92:34–93:50).
  • "They're your culture carriers... They elevate, train people up, show people. They are the picture of what the job done looks like." (92:45)

Family Legacy & Passing the Torch

• Involving the Next Generation:

  • All three of Mike’s children now work in the business (operations directors and marketing); they earned roles by working up—not given.
  • "They needed to prove themselves first... It wasn't just that I just handed it over because they were my children." (85:45)

• Succession & Leadership Vision:

  • Mike focuses on innovation and growth; his children on operation and maintaining systems.

Scalability & Brand Philosophy

• Carbonara’s Controlled Growth:
  • Intentional not to dilute the brand. Each new Italian concept may adopt a unique pasta name, but underlying systems are standardized—“different chassis, same car.” (97:50–99:27)
  • Preference for regional dominance and uniqueness over mass replication: "I want to keep the prestigious...of how hard we got. It took us a while to get here." (97:53)

Industry Challenges & “Transforming” the Industry

• Policy and Advocacy:

  • High wage mandates, slow permitting threaten independent restaurants' viability.
    “If we were all to gather up together, maybe we'll have a voice... we're making 1% profit.” (106:23)
  • Advocates for industry collaboration and lifting each other up: “Put all that energy into partnering up with other restaurants and make something happen versus trying to do it by yourself.” (108:06)

• Advice for Aspiring Restaurateurs:

  • Work for Corporate First: “Learn the corporate structure... where your cost should be, payroll... I recommend they do that before trying to open a restaurant.” (103:50)
  • Hospitality is Everything: Learn it. Practice it.
  • Know Your Numbers: Understanding costs, margins, and P&L mastery is essential.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Storytelling Through Food:
  “Every dish has a story to tell, and I'm here to tell every story.” — Mike (04:04)

• On Hospitality:
  “You can have mediocre food, but if you have hospitality top notch, people still come back.” — Mike (57:23)

• On Partnership Agreements:
  “It's great in the beginning... but when things start going south, that's when that document is going to come out, because it's your protection.” — Mike (51:10)

• On Lessons From Disney:
  “They make you feel like you're a million dollars...and that's the same thing they do to the guests.” — Mike (57:35)

• On Work Ethic:
  “A lot of people hate going to work on Monday. I love it.” — Mike (32:26)

• On Adapting Concepts:
  “If I love the location and feel like the times have changed...I do the change.” — Mike (78:07)

• On Building Reputation:
  “Make a name for yourself. Integrity…. deliver on the promise of a relationship.” — Eric (36:18)

• On Technology Transformation:
  “Back then you could slap paint on the wall… Now, they want ambiance, service, food—and they want it for nothing.” — Mike (56:01)

• On Big Tech and Reviews:
  “These days, customers only give you one chance. They'll write a bad review…and I couldn't believe how many guests look at reviews. It's crazy.” — Mike (73:35)

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Timestamps of Crucial Segments

• Mantra & Storytelling in Food: 04:04
• Overview of Concepts & Growth: 06:10–09:09
• What Makes Bronson Beer Hall & Carbonara Profitable: 11:05–17:08
• Early Career & The Value of Work Ethic: 18:01–19:30, 31:43–32:35
• Franchising Expansion & Lessons in Partnership: 21:03–27:17, 31:36–39:37, 49:01–51:10
• Hospitality Philosophy/Disney Training: 57:23–60:06
• Building a Family Organization & Passing the Torch: 80:35–86:28
• Modern Operations & Tech Stack: 87:43–90:54, 109:05–111:06
• Branding & Scaling Philosophy (Carbonara): 97:39–99:01
• Industry Advocacy & The Future: 103:46–108:33
• 3 Keys to Enduring Success: 115:25 (corporate experience, hospitality, numbers)

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Actionable Wisdom & Advice

1. Get Corporate Experience:
   “Learn corporate structure before opening your own. Know the business side—costs, scheduling, payroll.”

2. Hospitality is Everything:
   “Don’t just serve food; create memorable, enthusiastic guest experiences. Go above and beyond—even when it’s inconvenient.”

3. Master Your Numbers:
   “Use technology, keep score. Know your prime costs. Don’t manage blindly.”

4. Build Integrity & Reputation:
   “Relationships and integrity matter more than ever. Deliver on your promises.”

5. Partnerships Require Care:
   “Only partner with those you deeply trust. Have clear, ironclad agreements.”

6. Stay Adaptable:
   “Evolve concepts for the times. Don’t be afraid to pivot or rebrand when trends shift.”

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Final Takeaways

Mike Cordero’s approach is the sum of decades of hustle, resilience, reinvention, and heart. His story is a blueprint for growing intelligently, learning from missteps, and building a people-first company—one that makes guests and staff feel special, delivers for the community, and adapts to thrive regardless of era.

For aspiring restaurateurs:
Work hard, know your numbers and your people, value story and hospitality, embrace technology, and never stop adapting.

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Contact Mike Cordero:
[e-mail]

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For show notes, resources, and more episodes: restaurantunstoppable.com

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Transcript

[Eric]

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[Mike Cordero]

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[Mike Cordero]

And I can't do it alone. I need your support. Thank you in advance.

[Eric]

Welcome to restaurant unstoppable. For 10 years and over 1, 000 episodes, I've been traveling the country chasing word of mouth leads and having in person only long form discussions with the industry's finest owners and operators. Our mission is to inspire, empower and transform the restaurant industry by bridging the gap between this generation's leaders and the next. Listen to today's guest and so many others and get one step closer to becoming unstoppable. This episode is brought to you by Restaurant Technologies, the leader in automated cooking oil management. Their total oil management solution is is an end to end closed loop automated system that delivers, monitors, filters, collects and recycles your cooking oil, eliminating one of the dirtiest jobs in the kitchen. Restaurant technologies services over 45,000 customers nationwide. Automate your oil and elevate your kitchen by visiting RTI Inc.com or call 888-779-5314 to get started. This episode is made possible by US Foods. Running a successful restaurant takes more than just great food. With US Foods, you can expect more high quality products, advanced tools and flexible deliveries to grow your business. Their industry leading moxy platform also does more than just place your US Foods order. It uses AI to help you take control, save time and increase profitability. Visit usfoods.com expect more to learn how to become a US Foods customer one more time, that is usfoods.com expect more restaurant owners. Are you still using ADP paychecks or indeed, 35,000 plus restaurants have already switched to Workstream. The all in one payroll, hiring and HR platform actually built four restaurants. 46 of the top 50 restaurant brands rely on Workstream to hire faster, stay compliant and run payroll in minutes across all their locations. Visit workstream us/unstoppable for three months, free payroll. That's work stream. Dot us/unstoppable with excitement.

[Mike Cordero]

Allow me to introduce to you today's guest chef, owner of Cordero Hospitality Group, Mike Cordero. My man. Mike, are you feeling unstoppable today?

I'm feeling unstoppable. And thank you for having me on your show.

Thank you for being here. I cannot do what I do with badasses like you. Making time early in the morning to share your story. And I got to say, special shout out and thank you to US Foods. This episode is in partnership with US Foods. They are hosting their immersion event all across the country. We were in DC recently, and they said, if you're in dc, you got to talk to, like, the short list of, like, five or six operators. They have not let me down yet. Every episode I've recorded in partnership with US Foods has been spot on. So I know you're going to be good, man.

I know that they have fantastic.

There's some great folks in their network. So not to put too much pressure on you, but I can't wait to get into this. Before we dive into 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. What do you got for us?

I have every dish has a story to tell, and I'm here to tell every story.

Why is story so important to you?

Just because food brings to a gathering conversation, a way to break the ice. And I've learned that through the years that I can approach a table and just ask them how the dinner was, and we'll get into the whole where they're from, how did they get here? So I feel like, you know, there's

no better way to break the ice than with food.

Exactly.

And to show people you love and to bring people in. It's such a powerful tool.

Yes, yes.

So is that what it is about food that you love is that you can use the story of food and food to. To bring people together?

I agree. You know, I just. I just love being in the business, and I'm very passionate chef, you know, and one thing versus, you know, just being a business owner, it's creating cuisines, creating different type of ingredients, and that's what keeps me going all these years. I mean, 47 years in the business so far.

So, yeah, I think that's one of the most important things that humans that makes us what we are is our desire to create. You know, it's just one of the most human things there is to. To create something out of nothing doesn't have to be a painting, it doesn't have to be a poem. It can be a way to do a system better.

Right.

It can be a way to cook a meal better. It can be your rendition of that. Like it can be literally anything that didn't exist before you created it.

That's correct. From now, you know, from the past till now, I mean, this is an ever changing business. You just got to keep up with the cuisine and the different items that are out there. That actually, you know, with social media being so powerful, it could really put you on the map with this one video that goes viral. Right.

It's wild. The world we live in right now. So before we dive into your story, how you got to where you are, give me a snapshot. Where is your business today? What. How many concepts do you have total?

I have four different concepts and a total of 11 restaurants and two on the way. And so the company is still growing and we're quite pleased and just gonna throw the word out there, we're blessed because, you know, like I said, this is an ever changing business and we're able to just keep on going and increasing. Not only the product, the sales, the profit, and it keeps, you know, just keep on opening restaurants.

It's.

It's a success for us.

So four concepts total. 11 total locations. What are your four current concepts?

Well, Italian is what we're dipping into now. We have a beer hall that's called the Bronson Beer Hall. I have a restaurant in about 30 minutes from here in Gainesville, Virginia called Rockwood. Basically more like a farm to table restaurant. We use fresh products and I love that. I love that kind of cuisine. And then I have my fast casual tacos. It's called Taco Rock. And I have five locations throughout the dmv.

Got it. So you have Taco Rock, the. The Carbonara where we're sitting today. Bronson Beer Hall. And what was the missing one?

Rockwood.

Rockwood, yeah. And how many of each of those do you have in terms of location, the amount of locations?

How many?

I'm sorry, so you have 11 total locations. So which, like, tell me, how many of.

Oh, yeah, Taco Rock is the fast casual. We have five.

Got it.

Yeah, we have five and then just one off. But we're opening Carbonara 2.0 in June and we're quite excited about that because our first location that we're sitting at right now, you know, we said only 90 seats this one is going to sit over 250 seats. So. Wow.

So you have five taco rock locations, and then you had the Cabanara with a second opening. So that would make seven total concepts. And then the Bronson Beer Hall. One of those.

Yes, one.

And then Rockwood. One of those.

One of those. And then I, you know, I started in the pizza business. I decided to have one in the company.

You kept one.

So I kept. It's called Big Tony's.

Big Tony's. Got it. So Big Tony's. With Big Tony's, you have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And is there one I'm missing?

Don Tito.

Okay, what? Tell me about Dontino.

Don Tito is a massive 10,000 square feet, three floors. We basically sell the Mexican cuisine, more of a Tex Mex cuisine. And then at nighttime, it turns into a live entertainment.

Got it. And Don Tito's. That was way back in the early 2000s. You've had that one for a while, huh?

No, this one. 2000. Yeah. Well, 2015.

Okay.

Yeah. So 10 years.

10 years ago. Got it. Cool. All right, so out of all those concepts, is there one in terms of, like, one cash cow, One that's doing really well, more better than the others?

Bronson and Carbonara are probably the top leaders as far as that.

What is it about those two concepts that you think you figured it out?

I think what we did was a neighborhood watering hole bar, and Arlington is very populated with millennials, and they made that place happen.

And talking about Bronson Beer hall right now.

Bronson Beer hall right now.

How many seats there?

We set over 350 seats between inside and outside.

When did you open that location?

That opened in 2019.

Okay, okay.

But I was there in that particular location with previous concepts.

Got it. What was the previous concept? I'm curious.

Well, 2004 was Caribbean Breeze.

Okay.

I blew through 10 years, and then I decided to change it to a restaurant called a Town Bar and Grill, which was probably one of the most popular restaurants across the country just because of the nightlife that we did on Sunday Funday. And we got in trouble with neighbors, so I decided to change it to the Brunson Beer hall. And. And it's been quite successful since 2019.

So what. What makes it quite successful? Could you mind getting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think just, you know, we redesigned it. We made it look like a German beer hall. People feel that just because of the. The ambiance, the gathering, the people that frequent that place, it just made it a very successful, unique Concept that people just want to visit almost every day.

Can you share percent profit?

Share percent profit? Yeah. We're above 20.

20%. That's not easy to do today.

No, it's not.

So 300 seats, 20%. You're, you're doing some volume there, and it's pretty consistent. I mean, that's hard to. Today.

Yes.

If, I think if you're plus five right now, depending on the concept, you know, you're doing something better than most.

Exactly.

So that, that's a real testament to how well you're doing. What is it about that model that makes it profitable?

I think it's like I said, we were, we work more on volume with that, with that restaurant because, I mean, any given time, we just had the March Madness game. I mean, there was 400 plus people in there.

Wow.

And it, they, you know, it's a place to watch sports, it's a place to gather and casual, I'm assuming. Casual.

Casual, yeah.

Counter service, full service, actually self service. Yeah. We have the kiosk on each table. You scan it, you order your food and low labor.

Low labor?

Yeah, definitely low labor.

Okay, so can you, what do you know, your prime cost split labor, cost of goods?

Yeah, I mean, you know, we always try to stay below 55%, you know, between both of them together. I know right now a lot of people are working on 60% just because of the cost of goods is up. And you have to pay your people a lot more now. Right. So just working with the volume that I, we do, you know, we're about 55. Yeah.

So your prime total is 55%. Do you know what that split looks like where your, your labor cost is that?

Yeah, 25, 30.

Okay. So I mean, 25, I'm assuming, is the labor.

The labor, yeah.

And that's all back of house majority?

I'm assuming that's correct.

Yeah. So that really gives you the, the ability to shift that labor towards throughput.

Right.

If you, if you have it, yes. Are you using any automation in the back of house too, or is that all humans?

No, basically we use a lot of technology, but we haven't got into automated anything yet. It's still made the old fashioned way.

So if, if it's the Bronson hall, that's kind of your, your, you know, your cash cow, the one that performs well. Why, why double down on carbonara?

Oh, because carbonara is right behind it. And you know, one thing about, you know, restaurants, once you're successful, everybody tries to emulate it, everybody tries to copy It. Well, Carbonara is one restaurant that's very difficult to emulate or copy just because it's a scratch kitchen.

Okay.

So not too many people want to get dip into something like that. That.

Right.

And make it, you know, it's a challenge to do. Right, Exactly. Yeah.

But there's no shortage of Italian restaurants. We say Italian, American, Italian, or this is.

Yeah, classic Italian restaurant. I'm from New York City, so I bought an old school Italian restaurant from New York City. Here we're very successful.

So how do you take something as popular as the concept of Italian food, but create blue ocean effect uniqueness to make it difficult to replicate?

Well, I think what we have done is make the concept an entertaining night by doing tableside Carbonara. The name of the restaurant is called Carbonara, so I have to showcase it somehow. So we bring a Parmesan wheel. We put bait at the table. We finish your carbonara off in that big Parmesan.

Real Instagrammable.

I. Exactly. I mean, I couldn't believe that some of These videos have 40 million views.

Yeah.

And we do a chicken parm slider where we slide the cheese and the sauce off at the table. The chicken stays crispy throughout the meal. I think that's really important. And versus getting a chicken parm from the back of the house, and by the time you get it, it's soggy.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

So you're really leaning into the experience economy with this concept. You really, you know, you're bringing the whole. And you're letting your customers do the marketing for you.

They are.

Yeah, they are smart.

I mean, some, you know, I. I feel like social media could be hit or miss. It just depends the concept and it depends the demographics, you know, because at Carbonara, we get older people in here, you know, mothers and perhaps grandmothers. And I'll go to the table. She goes, oh, your first time here? She goes, yeah. You know, my. My granddaughter told me about this place. My daughter, they saw it on. On their social media. Exactly. So, I mean, even with them not having. But the. The clientele that we have at Carbonara is a lot older than just millennials in Arlington. You know, our clientele, I feel like, is 35 to 80 years old, which I've never touched that market in 15 years that I've been in Arlington. So.

Yeah. Okay, one last question about Common. Our. A couple questions, just like you did with the beer hall, like, can you break down, like, the percent profit here?

Well, we're working with a lot of fresh pasta, so definitely we're working on high labor. 50. Yeah.

Oh, 50 prime cost.

50 prime cost. Yeah.

Okay. And then we're. That's really.

Well, 25 and 25.

So fresh. So. I mean, flour and water is a great market.

Yeah. Right.

If you can break in, if you can figure out a way to make money with flour and water, you'll have good, good margins.

Exactly.

So you're at 50 prime cost. What is your labor cost of goods?

It's 25. 25.

25.

25.

And so you. I'm guessing the big thing here that's tapping into your profit would be rent, because you're not. You're downtownish area.

I am. I think this is the only location that I struck gold with the rent. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Do you mind me sharing what percent your rent is?

My rent is 5%.

Really? And that's a struggle. Yeah, I think that's pretty good to be 5%.

Yeah, it should be 10 across the board.

Is it the high revenue that's helping with that percent?

That and the fact is that I negotiated a very tough deal.

Oh, maybe we can talk about how to negotiate it.

Yeah, exactly.

So where are you at with percent profit here?

Over 25.

That's awesome.

Yeah. Wow.

I'm surprised you didn't share that one first.

Yeah.

And no wonder why you're scaling this one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I. I just think it's a. It's a concept. It's not easy to. It's not easy to grow, but it's an. A concept that you can actually, you know, make a lot of profit if you do it right. And so I've been cooking Italian food since I was 13 years old, making pizzas and. In the Bronx of New York City. And honestly, you know, this is. My passion, is cooking Italian cuisine.

Okay. I got so many questions, I'm taking notes, so I don't forget that. So we're only at 90 seats with this location, full service, but the next one's going to be 300 seats or 200.

250 still.

I mean, so I'm excited for you. That's really. I bet you're excited.

I'm. We're so excited. Yeah.

And it's almost 40 years of continued growth and evolution for you as a restaurateur, right?

Yes.

So take us back to where it makes sense. Like, I have a date on my calendar or my list here. But where do you want to take us?

Well, I can take you back to when I started 13 years old. I started making pizzas at a local Pizza place two blocks from Yankee Stadium. I mean, I was able to get a job there just because I just kind of snuck in through the back door. There's nobody hiring people at 13 years old. Definitely, definitely came from poverty. You know, there was a lot of poverty in the South Bronx and I was one of that, one of those. And so I had the early age to go to work. I mean before, before making pizzas at the age 13. That's when I discovered the restaurant business. I was shining shoes for 25 cents at the local bar. Yeah. So, you know, I think the work ethic has always. I'm so happy that I had that challenge while I was younger because my work ethics, you know, at this age, I mean, I'm still strong. You know, I enjoy going to work. It's not a, a job. I feel like it's just a passion of a whole day of enjoying life.

Yeah. What do you, what is it exactly that you enjoy about it?

What I enjoy about it is just the ever changing business.

No two days are exactly the same.

Exactly. And we always have some type of event or we have, you know, different, just different customers coming in and everything. And on the weekends we have a Frank Sinatra singer here at Carbonara. So, you know, I get, I get to enjoy that's fun in the entertainment while I'm working. So.

Yeah, I got a question for you. So my dad used to sign shine shoes when he was a young kid, probably around the same age as you. When you were doing it, did you ever charge people to sit in your chair?

To sit in my chair now, no. Well, it wasn't. Well, I didn't, I, I was too poor to have my own chair. So when I went into the barbershops, that's when I made the money and everything. Yeah. So I didn't shine shoes on the corner. It was mainly stick, you know, hitting all these barbershops while they're waiting for their haircut. I was able to shine their shoes.

So my dad used to set up in front of the New Bridge Cafe in ever Chelsea in Massachusetts. And he had, he'd bring his chairs and then so people when they, when they sign the shoes, like they have a place to sit, sit and people would go out of the bar to smoke a cigarette and they would sit in his chair and he'd be like, you gotta, you gotta give me money to sit in my chair. And people, the bookies would love it. Yeah. And they would just throw him with 20 and he would go home with like stacks of 20s in my my grandfather be like, what the hell are you doing bringing this money home? Like, what are you doing to make this? But he was.

I wish I would have heard that story when I was 8 years old. I would have bought a chair.

I guess entrepreneurial, entrepreneurism runs in the family, the Contratori family. But anyway, back to your story.

Yeah, yeah. So I, it started making and then, you know, between going to school, working my ass off. I mean basically I didn't find a passion until I was a lot later. I was just working to pay bills and, and you know, make a living. That's basically what I was doing.

I saw when you're 19 years old, you were, you're in. Or maybe it was 18, you're a line cook at the Sardis New York.

Yeah, that's correct.

Did I say that right?

Sardis, yeah, yeah, More, more, more along like 16 years old.

16 years old. And then by the time you were 20, you were in a leadership role with an Italian. With Italian Delight.

Yes.

So I mean, I don't want to skip too far ahead. Do you want to get into that? That, that.

Yeah. So, you know, being in the, being in the. Well and I was a dishwasher at Saudi's and worked my way up there. That was a couple of years. But pizza was calling my name so I was always in, in the pizza business when I was doing this stuff. Well, anyway, getting to Italian Delight, I worked with them for about, yes, 15 to, yeah, 15 to 19. And I think they saw my work and how I did things. Italian guy who's about 20 years older than me from Brooklyn, he said, you know, I like to branch out and see if we can take a time delight to somewhere else, another state and everything. And I said, well listen, you know, I just moved from New York to New Jersey and that's the furthest I'm going to go. He said, well, I'm talking about Virginia. And I said, wow, that's crazy. I don't know if I would move to Virginia. He said, take a ride over there and you'll see. You let me know and we'll take it from there. So I, you know, it was in the back of my head, but for a month I didn't venture out and anything. I said, you know what, I got a day off. I'm just gonna drive over there. I drove here to Northern Virginia, which

was Fairfax and five hour drive from New Jersey.

Yeah, four and a half, it's not too bad. Four and a half. Yeah. Hop on. 95 and you're here yeah, yeah. So I, I, you know, I.

How old were you?

I was 19.

19.

19, yeah.

[Eric]

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[Mike Cordero]

And at this point in your career, before you took this trip, are you, like, in love with the industry? Is this what you want to do? Did you have a dream of opening your own place at this point?

Well, that's what I was coming for. He was asked, he was, he was offering me a partnership.

Okay.

In Virginia.

And before that offer, had you ever wanted to open your own place?

I was looking, yeah. It was always in the back of my head to do it. But, you know, he kind of made it easier and said, hey, let's partner up.

Yeah.

And, you know, I've saved a lot of money, you know, and basically working just day and night, day and night, I was able to save money and I was able to own 30% of that restaurant that we opened in Beijing. So when I came.

So that's a little teaser. You made the movement.

Yeah. So when I came, you know, I said, I went back to him, I said, you know what? I think I'd like to take a chance.

What was it about it when you came out here that made you want to move to this area?

I think that, you know, like, not so much country because it was there, but I just felt I need a change in my life as well. And this was the perfect opportunity. And it was the right opportunity because from here, you know, from moving down to Virginia, we made home base Baltimore, and we were opening tank lights throughout, throughout the country. We opened up in Philly, New Jersey, Baltimore, Virginia. We opened up in North Carolina. Furthest off was Miami. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah.

From, I think from one point you went, you got to, I think, 42 total locations.

Yeah.

By the age of 25, you're at 25 locations.

Locations. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, about like that, in like

six years, you opened about 25 locations. And before you left, you had gotten to 42.

Yeah. Were you 10 years, 10 years later? Yeah, just me and the. My Italian partner that was 20 years older than me. And, you know, it was crazy. I mean, I couldn't believe looking back how we were able to operate all those restaurants just with a cash register.

Whoa, that's crazy. But plus, I mean, I think one thing too. What was on your menu? Was it a big menu?

Sandwiches and pizzas.

How many sandwiches?

If you had a guess, I'll say about six.

Six sandwiches. How many pizzas?

Pizza. You know, we just made every different topping. But the ones we saw. The ones we saw by the slice were four.

Yeah. So simple. Stupid.

Yeah.

You know, you kept it simple. When you keep it simple, you do a few things. When you do less, you can do more.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. But just. Just operational, I'm telling you, you know, with the technology I have now, and if I would have had that technology in the past, oh my God, who knows?

But everybody has it, you know, that's the thing. So it's like you have it and everyone else.

Right, right.

So I wonder if it really gives you a competitive edge these days or if we're just over complicating the world.

Well, not everybody is really computer savvy. So, you know, you're as good, you're as good as the operator.

That's true, that's true. So back to this point in like, in six years, you go from never owning a restaurant to owning 25 locations at the age of 25.

Roughly. Yeah. About thing.

Can you. I mean, and this is like the 80s, this is prime time. How to make money in the restaurant industry. Open a pizza place. Because again, flower and water.

Right.

And I'm sure you're doing a really good market margins back then.

Back then, yes.

Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of rich pizza people came out of the 80s and 90s.

Yep, they did. They did.

I'm sure you're doing good. So can you tell us more about that partnership and how you set it up?

Yeah, so, you know, we opened up the first one, it was really good. And especially, you know, we were strictly in malls. Okay. So we, you know, we went after every regional mall across the country as much as we can. What was great about it? Because you had your holidays all the time, so that's when you really raked in the. Yeah, yeah. So Christmas, Mother's Day, Father's Day, all those days you know, and, you know, so it was very profitable. I think, you know, we had a competitor at that time. It's probably, you know who it is. It starts and Sbarros Pizza. So Sbarros Pizza. You know, they were. We were kind of neck and neck, and then they were in the stock market, and they went public. They went. Yeah, they had money to burn. And so they were going to the real estate convention in Vegas. And, you know, we were more of a cherry picker. We'll say, well, take those three locations. They said, we'll take 30 of those locations. So it was hard to compete. So in 1991, when we had all these restaurants. Okay. Sbarros made us an offer we couldn't refuse. So, you know, my partner was like, let's take the deal. Let's take the deal. He was pushing to take the deal. And I was just kind of like, 50. 50. And then finally he convinced me and I took the deal. That's when I say I have a PhD and making mistakes when I was 20 and 30. Because what I should have done was buy him out and kept on going and I did it. So here I am in Virginia. I was ready to go back to New York, Jersey, and do something there. I have kids, and my kids said, no, no, we don't want to go. At that time, they were like, 13 and 14.

Got it.

Yeah. And so they were like, we love it here.

This is the 90s.

This is the 90s.

Okay.

Yeah. And so they convinced me to stay, and I just started branching out in different type of cuisines, and that made it exciting. While I was opening up a Brazilian steakhouse, I opened up a Spanish tapas restaurant, I opened up a Caribbean restaurant. And so, you know, all those were very, very satisfying until my kids got older and said, hey, dad, let's open up some bars. So I started opening bars.

What year was that?

I'm gonna say 2005.

Okay. So around 2005. So we breathe, we breeze through the. The 90s. So what. What year did you sell your shares of Pizza Delight?

91.

91. So there's a. Almost like a 14 year period here.

Yeah. So I. Yep. And you're right. I. So I opened up Italian restaurant.

Yeah.

Okay.

How many.

My restaurant was Bravos. Bravos.

Got it.

And 1, 2, 4.

4.

4. And so. Yeah, well, you know what we did? Fast forward.

Yeah. You got a deep career.

My. My whole life of bravos. You're right. Yeah.

Before we get into Bravos, I think you. You left some lessons. You said you made a big mistake.

Yeah.

You should have bought out your partner and kept going.

1. That's correct.

So you had. All together, the two of you had 42 locations across malls across America. I'm tempted to get into what, why that strategy. It seems pretty obvious wherever there's people, you know, there's hungry people. And that is, that's your, your model. We go to malls. You figured it out. That model doesn't really work today.

It doesn't. And you know, it's kind of sad. Just. Well, it's just very competitive.

We've lost something about coming together and being together in like that act of like, you know, going to the malls kind of.

I think it was easy for me to grow back then because we were strictly targeting malls.

Yeah.

So as long as we had some type of relationship with the landlord, because the landlord will open three different malls or four different. So we were automatic developer.

Basically. You get the relationship with the developer and then that every time they open them all, they already know who they're

going to go to. That's correct.

Yeah.

So that's how, that's how we grow. That's how we grew so fast. Not like now relationships. You got to get a broker and, you know.

Yeah.

You're fighting, you know, 10 restaurants for the same location. So.

Yep, yep.

Yeah.

So what can you help me understand the deal. Was it 3070? Was that the deal with this, this partner of yours back in the day?

No, no, we were. Yeah. Yeah. Back then. Yeah.

30, 70. But you were just 19 years old.

Yeah.

That's a great opportunity for a 19 year old to get 30% stake in a business. Your sweat equity. Was he more the. What were the lanes there?

I was, I was a working guy.

Operations.

Yeah. I was, I was more operator. I was the one training each restaurant, you know, and go on to the next one into the next one. So I was a lot on the road.

Got it.

10 years.

But you're young. Yeah. This is one to do it right. When you have the.

It was, it was in my. It was, it was in my blood.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, trying to think, you know, like I said, I think what made me is the work ethics in the South Bronx that I was able to just.

That northeast drive. Yeah.

Like get up in the morning and not have a problem with that. A lot of people regret, you know, and hate it when they got to go to work on Monday. I love it.

I mean, I do too.

Yes.

Like even like this morning we had a 8, I think 8:30 call and I was like, this is awesome. I'm gonna be there an hour early. I was up with, I just something about like having something to do early and just getting an early start is like the best feeling in the world. Yeah. So what, what was your partner's link? If you're operations and, you know, opening new restaurants, training, developing, creating opportunity for others. Was he out like finding the next location? What was it?

Yeah, he had the relationship and also he was real savvy in construction. Got it. So he did a lot of the construction.

So like chief development officer.

Yeah, like project manager because he was. There were prototypes, you know, once you build one, they all look the same, you know. So he was, he was doing that and negotiating leases and everything else.

Good partner to have.

Right. But I always tagged along just because I wanted to learn how to do all the aspects that he was doing.

Important.

Yeah.

Or the biggest lessons you learned during that time that serve you to this day.

I got, I think the biggest thing is negotiating. What'd you learn about negotiating? At least?

Yeah.

You know, not. Don't fall for, don't fall for. If you love, if you love the location, just don't fall in love with the location. Make sure it works for you. Because he called it, you're signing a marriage. Okay. A ten year lease. Okay. You're going to be married to that location for 10 years.

Yeah.

Okay. And then if you don't have an exit or, or anything, well, you're stuck there. So one way or another, you know, either you make it or you don't.

Yeah. Tell you how to be practical.

Yes.

Look at the numbers.

[Eric]

Does it work?

[Mike Cordero]

Yeah.

Yeah. What else did he teach you about and negotiate?

Well, what I think was more the aspect of the lease because that part there, you know, people are sticking in percentage right now. If you break over a certain breakpoint, the landlord gets more money and all that. We deleted all that stuff in our thing and I think, you know, that was in our favor because. Because he was very knowledgeable in negotiating stuff like that. So for me, I learned all that when I went on my own and kept that same moral and aspects of negotiating and yeah, I, you know, I don't know what it is, you know, about the Italians and how do you call it, you know, being in New York and all that. I mean, if somebody throws, okay, I can do this for a dollar. He goes, well, how about 70, 75 cents? You know, we're always negotiating.

Yeah. Every penny counts.

Yeah.

So when you look at a lease to this day, what is It. That you look to remove.

Well, what. What you got to do. What we're experts was we're do the business side. Okay. Then you get your attorney to do the legal side. And that's where the landlord kind of hides a lot of little hidden stuff that you don't realize, but an attorney can. You know, AI is good at finding

that stuff today, too, which is really helpful.

Well, that's great.

Yeah. I think it's. I hope it's one thing that levels the playing field, because right now, if you're a lawyer, I mean, if you're. If you're a corporation, you have the money to go get those lawyers that can put that language in there to, you know, backdoor something.

Yeah.

You know, they'll bury it in the language.

Yeah.

But AI picks up on that stuff and, you know, getting a hundred thousand dollars to have an amazing team of lawyers, that's a real disadvantage.

Yeah.

Or advantage, if you have it right.

Yes. I think. I think these days now, back in. Back in the day, when you're getting a lease and everything else, as long as you had a good relationship with the developer, that's how we were able to grow. Now it's all about your reputation.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. So best way to build a reputation.

Yes. Yes.

What is the best way to build?

The best way is to do what I did. Heart and hustle.

Yeah.

Make a name for yourself.

Integrity.

So I made. Exactly. And I made the dmv, you know, my home. And I think a lot of people know who I am.

Yeah.

At this point, after all these years and all my concepts and all my restaurants that they came and. Yeah.

Yeah. I sent out my weekly email yesterday and I wrote that. I think the most important thing in business is how to manage relationships. If there's one skill, it's just managing relationships. But also the best way to manage relationships is to. To deliver on the promise of a relationship.

Yeah. Right.

Like, yeah, here's what I. Like I said I'd do this. Integrity. Like, I'm gonna stay true to what I said I'm gonna do.

Yeah.

And that's how you build a reputation.

Well. And that's the only way you're getting locations because, you know, a developer can easily go to a national tenant and get them in there, get his rent all the time. He's gonna sign a corporate personal guarantee versus myself.

Yeah.

The way I come in, he goes, well, I got somebody very popular in this area that everybody knows and that he can make this location quite successful. Yeah. So that's the challenge.

Got it. Got it. Anything you look to add to a lease when you're looking at it, that if you don't see it, you want to add it?

I think you look for an. First thing. Okay, you got to look for exits. Okay. If the restaurant is not successful, can you sell it? Okay. What you know, with. And can they change the use clause? You know, they would have to get landlord, but if you put that in there, at least you have the first refusal. Second, can you sell it and how do you call it to have that area there? I think the other one would be an exit status, exit strategy where you don't have a. A corporate guarantee or personal guarantee. Those things tend to hold you down because let's say you do want to sell the restaurant, the landlord will probably want you to stay on as the personal guarantor.

Okay, good. So you look to. Yeah, remove all those things.

Yes.

Great advice. This is exactly the kind of stuff I love to look for, so thank you for getting into that. So you. You end up selling. You said that if it. If you knew what you know now, you would have bought out your partner and you would have kept going. Why is that the better path? Why do you think that would have been better for you?

Because I was young. I was. I had, you know, I. I knew exactly how that concept was going, and I built the relationships along the way like he did. And I was able to, you know, I was the operator, Billy. I was a trainer. I was the guy that was, you know, had the relationship with every general manager in each restaurant. And so I feel like I could easily kept on going and maybe, I don't know, maybe open another 50 restaurants.

Yeah.

You know, and then exit out or something.

But, yeah, I bet you. I mean, I'm sure you look back at shoulda, coulda, woulda all the time. Like, what I would have done if I kept that. Yeah, what does that look like, what you would have done? Would it have been opening more up to like, 50 locations?

Yeah, I would have definitely kept on. I think. I think I master pizza. I mean, like, literally till now, it's like riding a bike. I can make a pizza, throw it up in the air. I can do that whole time.

You guys open here?

Excuse me.

What time do you open here?

11:30.

Oh, man. I'm gonna have to stick around. Yeah. Is there pizza? You guys have pizza?

We do.

Okay.

We do.

We're selling it.

Yeah. But yeah, we got the pizzeria down the street too, so.

That's right.

You get the new York Authentic style pizza. Yeah, I just think, you know, that, that at that time, it was my passion. I had the energy to do it. You know, I could easily put a team and kept on going. You know, I was the HR guy. I was the one writing the house rules. I was the one doing the scheduling. I was, you know, and gave. Handed that to each manager so they can run their pizza shop.

Yeah, you're creating opportunity for others. You're. You're elevating. So you're. How old were you when you had 42 locations?

32.

32. I mean, I'm assuming that what you got from the sale is what set you up to open up these other locations. Did you do well?

Yeah, we did well, but we had debts to pay off and everything. So, you know, I, if I would have stayed, I would have taken on those debts and kept on going, but eventually I would have paid him off.

Yeah.

So we got clear and free. My partnership, my partner was really in the horse business, so he really wanted that escape because he wanted to build.

He was looking to exit.

Yeah. He wanted to buy more horses and everything else. So, yeah, with the funds I had, I opened up, you know, the restaurant for four locations.

Bravo.

Yeah.

From when. When was the first location open? 1991.

19. I'm gonna say 1989.

1989. And you, you opened this after you had exited, right?

Yes, yes.

So you exited, what, in 88? 87?

No, no, I'm sorry, I. No. So I think I made a mistake on the year. 1991 is when we exited. 9. No, 1990s when we exited. 1991 is the. When we opened. Bravo. So I'm sorry.

Got it. So you kind of, you, you kind of hit the ground running.

Yeah.

You weren't wasting any time.

No.

So why Bravos?

It was Italian food. My. My specialty. Something that I had comfort with, something that I knew, something that I know that I can offer to the customer at a. At a. At a bang for their buck and give them quality.

What was the vision for Bravos?

The vision was a sit down Italian restaurant and, you know, fresh pasta every day. We bought that old school, you know, New York style menu like the veal, the clams, and all that, which. It wasn't real popular in Virginia at that time.

Okay, so. But you opened four.

Yep.

So you. So you must have had some success.

I did okay. I did. So what we did, I, I had one Annapolis, Laurel, Fairfax, two in Fairfax, actually, Chantilly and there. Just because we were transitioning locations and so what, what I did was these restaurants that, you know, were there for almost 20 years. Really? Okay. So what happened was the one in Annapolis, I sold Laurel. I sold and Chantilly. We moved it to the new location in Fairfax. I blew through 20 years there. Okay. And after that.

So until 2011.

Yeah. So the landlord asked me, do you want to stay? What do you want to do? You want to go? And I said, you know what? I'd like to stay, but I want to change the concept. He said, well, what do you want to do? He says, I want to do a sports bar. And sports bars were in that time and 2011. Yeah. So I decided to change it and put it and change it, and I called it Prime Time.

Okay.

Very, very successful. Busy as crap. So.

So prime time opened in 2011.

Yeah.

But in the. You Bravo wasn't the only thing you had going on.

Right.

Because I saw Don. When did Don Tito's open?

No, don Tito was 2015.

Okay.

But I did have, in the 90s, you know, other restaurants.

And I mean, here's what I. It's kind of all. I mean, it's a really impressive career. Like, I was trying to make sense of it all yesterday before our meeting. So Bravos, you got to four locations. You. You had Bravos at least one location up until 2011. So for 20 years, you sold the other three?

Yes.

Right. When did you sell the last of the other three?

Not sure. It was the same year. It was like, boom, boom, boom, all in the same year.

So do you know when that. Like, was it before 2000 or.

Yeah, it was before 2000.

Okay. So in the 90s. So this was kind of a short run.

No, this was in the 90s.

I'm sorry. You're fine. And then. So I think it was 95. You sold the other locations. You retained one, the one in Fairfax.

That's correct.

And then you also opened Malibu Grill.

Malibu Grill was opened up in 1996.

Any lessons from selling those three locations and going into an opening Malibu Grill,

I mean, well, I was every restaurant.

I feel like we get better, right?

Yeah, me. So there were reasons why I sold these Bravos. One, we used to have city council come and frequent the. The Bravos in Annapolis, and he gave me an inside scoop. So there was a traffic light that you can make a left or right into the restaurant. Okay. He said, do you realize that Route 50 is going to go straight through, and the only way they can get to your place is one mile down the road making a U turn.

Oh, my gosh.

So when he told me that, I put it on the market and two years later, that's what happened.

Oh, that makes sense. I mean, you gotta. It's good to have friends in high places.

Yeah.

Get that information because that will kill a business.

And the demographics in Laurel didn't quite fit what I was doing, so. Yeah, that's why I stuck with you.

Were you able to get out of the profit?

Yeah.

Nice.

Yeah. Not much, but, you know, better than losing.

Right.

Well, you know what? If you can find somebody to buy your restaurant in modern days like today, you better sell it.

Yeah.

Right.

Or at least be someone's exercise.

Yeah. Because there's not a lot of restaurants, you know, so get. I got a brief five minutes on that. Okay. I was very fortunate that if I love the location and I'll just change the concept. Like I said, the Bronson was Caribbean Breeze. After that was eight town. Now it's Bronson and it's very successful. Successful. So changing with the. Changing with the ever time you know, restaurant business. But I'm able, other, other owners and other operators, they say they can't make it. They just close or they sell. But I'm able to create a whole new concept. And so I think I've been very blessed and have a gift on changing cuisines that I can make it successful with something else.

Staying fresh.

Yes. So

there's a great lesson in that. Do you want to get into any lessons that you had with Malibu Grill? That was in the mid late 90s?

Yeah. So what happened was it wasn't that I was planning to open up a Brazilian steakhouse. I went to New York, I felt I went to this Brazilian steakhouse. I said, wow, this would really do. Good, fun experience and Northern Virginia, there's nothing like it. So I started doing my homework and getting things together and everything else. And then I. I met a guy that had a Brazilian chef. And we were able to talk and get things together and said, hey, listen, I want to open up a Brazilian steakhouse. You know, would you want to be, you know, come in and be part of it? He said, I would love to. Scoping out a hundred locations around. We found one right in Seven Corners in Northern Virginia. And that was our first Malibu Grill.

How long did that go for that concept?

So we have partnership in that. In that particular concept. So before I exit, I opened up Malibu Grill in Falls Church. I mean, I'm in Seven Corners, one in Fairfax and one Columbia, Maryland.

So three total?

Three total. Okay, then.

Partners in all locations.

Yes, partners in all Locations and partnership. We didn't start seeing eye to eye and every. In every aspect. So I said to him, you know, I said, we can either split or whatever. He was really gun hold about it. He says, I'll buy the. I'll buy all the locations and I'll buy you out. I said, okay. Yeah, so I took that. I took that offer.

Was this the first restaurant that you partnered with somebody where you approached somebody and offered partnership? Because before you were approached and offered partnerships, this isn't your first partnership. Yeah, but this is where you're kind of the one with the assets creating the opportunity for.

Well, I got a group of investors together, and that's what the investors were. You know, I mean, they weren't partners, but they were investors. Financial investors. Yes. Yeah. We just didn't see eye to eye in some of the many things. They thought that we can make a lot more money.

So your partners that you're talking about right now isn't an individual, but it's

a group of investors that we.

From Malibu Group.

Yes.

Got it. So you didn't have an operating partner?

No.

Okay, so when you say partners, there was a bunch of financial investors for Malibu Group.

That's correct.

And you were the operating partner?

I was the operating.

And what did you learn anything from this experience in terms of going into partnerships, making sure you see eye to eye for. From day one? Like, what. What did. What can you. What did you learn? What did you pull from this?

Yeah, so, I mean, at that point in time, I wasn't looking for that. I was just looking to raise money. And so these. These gentlemen had.

The money always comes with strings attached.

Yeah. So. And so, you know, our. If I would have known, our agreement would have been a lot more solid partnership agreement that we had. But there was so many holes in it that, you know, we were able to, like, pick on. And so it just got to a point where investors were bringing their family into work and all that. And so at that point in time, the concept was being changed, you know, after I made it so successful. So that's where the frustrating part was that, you know, once they bought them in and everything else, they. Things started changing along the way.

You said investors are bringing family in, like, to work. Okay. So you're getting people that necessarily. You had a hire that you necessarily wouldn't have hired.

I would have never hired them.

So it was a cultural clash, basically.

Exactly.

Got it. So. And then they, you know, the concept has success, and then they start saying, oh, this is great. We want to start making changes. And that was pulling it off of the. The direction you wanted to go.

Yes.

So what, what do you do today when you enter, when you go into partnership, if you still treat, if you ever do this today, what advice do you have to set yourself up to protect yourself that you didn't do then that you can share with our listeners?

Okay. So at my. At my point in my life, I have no more partnership. All I have is my family now. I got my two sons and daughter. They work for me. Those are partnerships. Yeah. And, well, you know what? I think blood, you know, is thicker than water.

What about what people say? Never go into business.

I know they always say that, but, you know, I. I'm not going to lie. I had war. War with my kids and stuff like that. But I, you know, it's something that I can. It's just a trust issue that is there, so. Right.

Well, you know that they're. They have your culture. You raise them.

Right. Right. And so, you know, that. That's the whole thing. I think what, you know, anybody that's taken on a partnership should have a solid, ironclad partnership agreement. Okay. Because that's going to be your protection down the road. Because, you know, it's great when, you know, in the beginning and, you know, everybody's giving you, not money here, money there and everything else. But when things start going south, that's when that document is going to come out, because it's going to be the one to protect you. Because, you know, you can't predict sometimes, you know. Right. If you're going to be successful or not. And, you know, there's so many obstacles and things like that. Whoever thought the pandemic would close.

You never know what's gonna happen.

Right.

So back to this idea of partnership agreements. And knowing what you know now about partnership agreements, what would your partnership agreement have said that it didn't say? Back in the mid-90s with the. With, I think, the Malibu concepts, I think one.

One partnership agreement that I had back then was. How do you call it that? If you want, if you're gonna leave, okay, you know the company. Okay. Either you sell, okay. Or you, you know, or it stays in the company. The shares stay in the company somehow.

So you can't pull the shares away from the company.

Yeah. You can't pull the shares away. You can't transfer them to your cousin, grandmother, whoever. So those are things that I learned.

So the share either belongs to the entity, the company.

Yes.

Or to a partner, but it can't Leave the entity.

Yeah, he can sell it to another partner or sell it to the company or whatever.

Got it. Any other, I mean, specific words around that?

Well, I think those are the, the mistakes I made. Yeah, you know.

Got it. This is all great stuff. I love this stuff. So, so eventually you end up exiting the Malibu Concept. Malibu Grill. When did you get full out of the Malibu concepts?

90. I think it was like night. 1997. So 19, I think it was like 1999.

Okay, you're all out.

Yeah.

Did you exit in the hole or did you exit on top?

No, I, I, I was basically above. Yeah, above.

So were you able to sell your, your shares?

Yes.

That's good.

Yeah.

So where were you?

The investors bought the shares, which had no clue on how to run the operation. About two years down the road, they closed them all.

Oh, wow. So in 1999 you own zero restaurants.

1999. No, I still had the first Bravo. Yeah, I still had that.

So while this is all going on, you saw Bravo running on the side?

That's correct.

So you went from being a five unit operator to. Well, you went from being a 42 unit operator to a zero to five to one. And now we're in the mid, we're in the early 2000s. You have one location.

Yeah.

So where are you in your world of like, okay, because I started, I've stopped, I've started, I've stopped and kind of stopped.

Yeah.

And then I started again and now I'm back to like, I have one location. Like, how are you coming back in the early 2000s? Better than ever before.

Well, I feel like I was never gonna stay in one location. For me, opening a restaurant is great, but I like the whole thing about opening them up, training the staff, doing everything. To me that gives me so much excitement, for me is like another baby being born.

Honestly, that's another creation.

Yeah, that's what I feel running the restaurant. I'm okay.

Yeah.

But opening them up is the thing.

What is it about the opening that you love so much?

Just the excitement. Yeah, just the excitement. You know, I, I'll go through the whole construction aspects of it, then we go to the training part of it. Then we go. When we open that front door and we cut the ribbon, you know, it just gives me so much excitement.

I bet.

Yeah.

Have you gotten better at opening restaurants?

Oh, yeah, yeah. So I, I think, I think people can hire me.

So. Yeah. So at this point, you have opened 42 pizza locations, four Bravo locations, and three Malibu Grill. So all in 42 plus 46. Like you're at like 51 total locations that you've opened under your supervision.

I've always set that it's over 50 something. Yeah, yeah.

So what, what are you doing different this time? Because of all the reputations, you got to do it better.

Well, I'll tell you like I told you, I have a PhD in making mistakes when I was 20 and 30. I feel like I don't make any major mistakes that would hurt the business if I do. They're more of a minor. I think things out, I strategize. I have a plan that's for six months that stay on that track and, and stay with the, stay with the times with the ever changing business these days. You know, 30 years ago, you know, you could slap paint on the wall. As long as the food was good, you give it to them, and when the customer leave, you can throw them out the wall window. Well, 30 years later, okay, it doesn't work like that, okay? They want the ambiance, okay? They want the service, they want the food, and they want it for nothing. And if you don't give them a bang for their buck, they're just gonna blast you on, on your Google reviews or whatever. Yelp reviews. So customers want you to spend $350 on a chair. They want the food, they want the ambiance. And so I think what I've seen learned through all these years, okay, is to take care of the customer, okay? Right now, hospitality is everything, okay? We focus and emphasize so much on our hospitality. In all my restaurants that basically that's all we do. It's preach hospitality, preach hospitality. And we feel that, you know, by having hospitality, a lot of customers will stick to that restaurant forever. I, I, I said, you know, you can have mediocre food, but if you have hospitality, top notch, people still come back.

What is hospitality?

For me, hospitality is the approaching the customer, okay? You have to understand that the customer, okay, said, we're going to go to dinner tonight. Okay, where do you want to go? I want to go to Carbonara. I heard about that place. They chose us. They chose us tonight, okay? We have to make that happen, okay? And the whole thing is how you deliver, how you approach and, and the, the guests. And I use a philosophy. It's funny because like I said, this is an ever changing business and I'm learning things every year myself. But one of the best training hospitality programs I got in the world was Disney World. I went there for a three day seminar. I was like, okay, they sit you down. I mean, 15,000 people there and everything. And they hypnotize you. They mesmerize the guests. And they do the same thing to the staff, okay? Because I'm like, how can you, how can you motivate a staff getting me paid minimum wage? Well, they start giving you that Disney World feeling. They hypnotize you. They transpire you into Disney World and they make you feel like you're a million dollars. And that's the same thing they do to the guests. The guest walks in and at the door, at the gate, $350 to get in the date for one day, you're like, ouch. Okay, for my two kids and my wife, $350. Well, you know what they do? They walk in and they start making you feel like you're in Disneyland. They hypnotize you, they mesmerize you. And you go there and you see thousands of people sweeping the grounds because there's no such dirt in fantasy land. Well, you have a table here with broken straws, broken sugar packages. Well, that's fantasy land here. The main thing is they don't make you think, okay, so when you're in a restaurant and the customer asks you, what's the soup of the day? Let me go check. Well, you just brought them back to reality land, okay? And this is what they do. So throughout the whole day, just fast forward, okay? Your kids are having a great time and everything else. And then Minnie and Mickey come out to the fireworks and you look at your kids and you look at your wife because, oh my God, we had such a great time. Let's come back tomorrow. What did they do? They made you Forget about the $350 you spent.

Yeah. Yeah. So you said this is where you really learned about hospital hospitality. So you said what? What did they teach you about hospitality?

To take care of the guests. Okay. Like they're your family.

Got it.

[Eric]

This episode is made possible by US Foods. It takes more than great food to run a kitchen these days. With US Foods, More means consistently high quality products, industry leading tools, inflexible deliveries that let you grow your business on your schedule. Whatever your goals, US Foods helps you turn them into reality. As a US Foods customer, you'll g gain access to their industry leading moxy platform. Which doesn't just make it easy to place your US Foods order, but it uses AI powered technology to help you take more control of your business and increase profitability. You can also explore the latest issues of Food Fanatics magazine from US Foods. In each issue, you'll find real world success stories, bold culinary inspiration and practical profit boosting ideas you can put to work immediately. The Visit usfoods.com/expect more to learn how to become a US Foods customer again, that's usfoods.com expect more restaurant owners. Are you still juggling six tools to hire, schedule and pay your team? Workstream replaces all of them with one platform for hiring, scheduling, payroll and compliance. Built specifically for restaurants trusted by 46 of the top 50 restaurant brands, including McDonald's, Starbucks, Crumble and more. With Workstream, 25,000 operators have cut their interview no show rates by 55%, saved 20% on payroll, and saved 30,000 a year on software alone. If you're done duct taping your HR stack together, visit Workstream US unstoppable and see what an all in one restaurant grade platform actually feels like. That's work stream us/unstoppable for three months free payroll. I repeat, that's work stream us/unsticking for three months of free payroll.

[Mike Cordero]

And he said they, they hypnotize and memorize you. So how, how are you doing that here? What does that look like? How does that manifest?

Well, you put your, you, you put your scope, okay, the way you want to run the restaurant, okay. And you preach that, but you preach that in such a positive way. Rewarding your staff, okay? Making them feel that they're great. If they did something great, put it up there on the thing. Make them feel. Not a number in the restaurant business. Make them feel. And with that attitude that they have, they share it with the guests.

So it's enthusiasm.

Yeah. Yes.

So it's, it's. You kind of remind me of Gino. Johnny. It's another C, not kabanar. Carabas.

Oh, Karabas.

You know Johnny Caraba?

Yeah.

I had him on the show years ago and he emphasized enthusiasm. And that's, I think, what Disney does. Not just with like the, the theme characters and like they see you and they celebrate you, but they, they emphasize cleanliness and like all. But to your point, they make all of your worries go away.

Yeah.

And that's what happens when people walk into your, your restaurant. You create a safe space. You, you, you're enthusiastic.

[Eric]

Like you said, they chose us tonight.

[Mike Cordero]

Yeah.

So we are so excited that they chose us tonight. Let's reciprocate by giving warmth and generosity and care and enthusiasm for them being here. And that same, that same enthusiasm.

[Eric]

Your employees chose you.

[Mike Cordero]

They could have worked at any restaurant in the city. They chose to work for You. It starts with them.

That's.

That's what I heard.

That's correct. And, you know, going out of what. You're going out of your way for the. For the guest experience. I think we do that. Not so much a corporate restaurant would alter a recipe from your menu or whatever, but we do because we have guests coming in. Can I get that eggplant parmesan, but not with the red sauce. Can I get it with the vodka sauce? Yes, you can. As long as we have the product in house, we'll make it for you.

Yeah. If it's an inconvenience that. This is one thing I like to say that if you. If somebody asks you for something in. Your immediate reaction is that's going to be a huge, huge inconvenience. That is your. Your trigger to go do the thing. Because anything that's an inconvenience to you is a measurement to how hospitable you're being. Right. Because the more inconvenient it is, the more hospitality you're delivering to make it happen.

That's.

And that's how you can shine.

Yes.

So do the in. Do the inconvenient thing, do the hard thing, and that's. That's how you stand out.

Yep. And that's what we preach. And that's why I feel that Carbonara has won so many awards here.

And how long has Common Art here been open?

Next month is two years. Wow. Actually, yeah.

You've already won tons of awards, huh?

Yes. Yes. And that's when the restaurant became very popular. Early stage. I mean, one award we're really proud of was that we were in the New York Post. And a buddy of mine calls me up and says, hey, Carbonara is in the New York Post. I said, that's got to be Carbonara, New York. Why would that be us? Well, anyway, after investigating, we were top 25 new restaurant in the country.

Wow.

And that was quite a. Quite a experience. And then we had a lot of the local TV stations, celebrity, the host and all that. They started coming in, making the restaurant popular. And then we had the former president a couple of months ago here that really made. Made put us on the map, too.

So did I start this episode by saying US Foods did not let me down once this week with the people that helped me connect with.

Well, yes, they did. Yeah.

Yeah.

You said, you said you're, like, getting. What's five for five now?

Yeah, five for five. They've not let me down. And they have such a massive network of restaurant tours. And when I said, I want to talk to your best in every market they're.

They're delivering, it's crazy, because I've been with them 30 years over. Over 30. 30 years.

I was curious.

You know, I'm a. I'm a type of guy that, you know, if I. If it's not broken, I'm not gonna fix it. I'm very loyal to, you know, a lot of my vendors and everything, because it's just. Just not. Because it's just the pricing. It's just the way they take care of us and the way they. They. Customer service. It's amazing. My. My salesperson guy is amazing too. You know, like two weeks ago, it's Saturday afternoon at 12. He's dropping off some cheese, and I said, what are you doing here? He goes, you need a cheese. And, you know, he could have been with his family. You know, he has two kids, and he could be enjoying his weekend with his family, and he decided to drop off, you know, a product just for us.

Yeah.

So I feel like, you know, and. And what? Also with US Food, you can reach out to them. Them. And they understand.

What do they understand?

They. They just. They just understand restaurants.

Yeah.

You know, you know, you could be late in a payment somewhere else. They're already charging you a 5% management, you know, 5% fee, U.S. food. I understand. You know, whatever. So. Yeah, I just feel like I. I burned that after being 30 years with them.

Yeah. So. So I. I pursued U S Foods as a sponsor for two years because I was traveling in the country and I was hearing amazing things. Exactly what you're saying. I would see the US Food trucks in the. The back, and I would ask, how do you like US Foods? And it's always. It's not transactional. It's a partnership. And that's what I'm hearing from you. It's a true partnership.

Yeah. Yeah, it. Definitely. Yeah. I mean, those are the companies we've had. We've had other places come in, would say, I'll write you a big fat check just to come in, you know, just to transfer with us. And, you know, cut 10% here, cut 10% there. But I'm. I just don't.

It's not.

Look at that. Yeah.

Yeah, you said that. 30 years you've been with them. You. You've also emphasized how important it is to stay with the times, to stay with the technological evolution. If you can't adapt, you'll. You'll fall back. Yes, you said. Have you said. Or would you say U.S. foods has adapted and evolved.

U.S. food has so many ways to help the restaurant business. They have cost analysis. They have. As far as pricing out everything, understanding your product, you know, by the pound, by the ounce or whatever. So, yeah, US Food is very all

tied into your ordering.

Yes. Very, very educational. You can order online. You know, the only time we call our salesperson because, you know, once we have our order guy intact is, you know, if we want a new product or we have a question of a product.

So has US Foods helped you move the needle at all with the. The new tools they're delivering?

Of course.

Which one?

Of course. The cost analysis, where we can break down the cost of a pasta and get. Get it right to the margin that we wanted to and charge what necessary to charge that price are you. In order to turn a profit.

Why is that so important?

Well, you know, it's all about numbers in the restaurant business. Once you become, you know, it's just crazy because I've seen, you know, owners, you know, they're great front of the house guys, but they don't know shit in the back.

Yeah.

And then I've seen great chefs and they don't know in the front. So, you know, I think you have to have all aspects, and US Foods is able to help you with some of that.

So are you doing any kind of dynamic pricing because you have access to the constant fluctuation of the market?

Yes, yes, so I do. And also, we. Right now, we're taking advantage of every technology company out there, Margin Edge. We use a company called Series Consulting. I mean, right to the. The penny. They give us, you know, our profit in return and stuff like that. So.

So are you using the Moxie app by any chance? With. With US Foods?

The Moxy app? I don't think we.

Delivery? Yeah, like the, the online ordering.

No, no, no.

Got it.

No.

What is Serious Consulting?

Serious Consulting is an amazing. They're based out of Baltimore. They can really set the tone as far as Margin Edge is more of the inventory company. They'll pay your bills and everything else. But Serious Consulting just takes over your whole company. Entire company. One. Let's. Let's say for instance, one restaurant. They have access to every invoice you have. They itemize every invoice you have. They have access to the banking system.

So that's meaning they sync up with QuickBooks or do they have their own generation ledger?

They have their own general ledger, and they spit out a cost on a daily basis. Where your labor should be, where, you know, your alcohol should be. And amazing stuff.

How long have you been working with Serious Consulting?

But I think it's gonna be a year now.

And they also provide software.

They do, they do. Well, not software, but what they do is they have a liaison and you, you can, you can call him or reach out to him. I mean 24 7.

So yeah. Are you using. So is the Serious consulting the tech stack or is it a fractional CFO that manages your technology and outsources the technology?

It manages the technology.

So are you using, what are you using for a tech stack?

So we use toast.

Got it.

You know, and, and Margin Edge.

And are you using.

Just like right now, they're doing inventory through Margin Edge.

Got it, got it. So when you say they have their own general ledger, are they using QuickBooks or are they using an enterprise solution like Restaurant Systems Pro or Restaurant365?

No, they have their own system. I didn't see any of those three options that you just mentioned.

But they also do. They also do your bookkeeping.

Serious consultants bookkeeping. And I, I think they use some QuickBooks, but they kind of like from QuickBooks, they put it into their technology.

And so are they also a fractional CFO achieve. Do they offer some kind of strategy involved too, or planning?

Yeah, they can actually tell you exactly where your weak point is and where you need to strength and everything else. I mean, you know, we, we try them with one restaurant. We love them and I mean they have 450 clients.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, yeah.

This it. They sound similar to Serbon Services, a past sponsor in the show, where they, they are basically fractional executives. Right. So today, you know, you need at least three or four or five locations to start building the house to scale because you need to go buy, you need to go hire that chief, that coo, that C fo, that cmo. But now you're starting to see a lot of fractional executives that can leverage technology to be able to handle more clients. So instead of outsourcing and having your own executive, you know, your financial chief officer, you can get somebody who manages that for a bunch of restaurants. And that's kind of. It sounds like what Serious Consulting does.

Yes.

Similar to say.

Yeah, I would say that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have to check them out. Thank you. First time mentioned on the show, man, we're covering a lot and I'm really loving the conversation. I. One thing before we move forward. You talked about the importance of hospitality and I want to bring back to that because I think it's really one thing that to be enthusiastic one day and say, we're all about hospitality, we're all about caring for our guests. We're all about being generous and warm, like whatever.

[Eric]

That enthusiasm, that love, that appreciation for them choosing us.

[Mike Cordero]

But how do you keep that energy going day after day after day? How do you mean, maintain hospitality?

You have to make it part of your restaurant. You know, how do you do that? This is so basically we look, we look for people to hire with a personality. I don't care if you never poured a drink. I don't care if you never carry the tray. I don't care if you don't even know how to do technology on our computer system. But if you have a personality, we're able to train you and mow you that. So we need that personality first in order to join our, our team. You know, I've seen a lot of high end restaurants, beautiful ambiance, the food and everything else, but the personality was more like. They had personality like an armpit which, you know, they just. Customer didn't come back, you know, and it's funny because it's, you know, like I said, customers only give you one chance these days. They'll write a, they'll write a bad review. And, you know, I couldn't believe how many guests look at reviews. It's crazy how many things. You know, Sebastian Maniscalco is a comedian, Italian comedian. It's funny because he has a skit when he says he goes into a restaurant, okay. And you know, him and his wife are ordering and you know, she'll take her sweet time and everything. He'll go to the, he'll go, he'll go back to the service, said, I'll have the salmon back to you, honey. Okay. And then they, well, they're conversating and stuff like that. She goes, what do you think about the salmon? Salmon sucks. Let's get the hell out of here. I'm not writing an essay. Okay. And tattletailing on the restaurant on Google. So it's just a funny skit that, you know, he was talking about restaurants.

Yeah, it's funny. So, I mean, we could, we could go in any direction. Right now we're at the point in your story, I think the year is like 2000s. We're in the 2000s. I don't, I think you had, you're down to one location. When you come back in the 2000s, you put an emphasis on hospitality. I think we were talking about how that was so important to you.

Yeah.

When did you. After getting out Of Malibu Grill. All together, you have one Bravos. You rebrand Bravos.

That becomes prime time. But before prime time, I did open a few more restaurants. Okay.

Okay.

So I. I had.

So just run through the lists.

Okay, so after the Malibu were sold,

this is the year 2000-2001-2000-2001.

Actually, I think it was 9, 11. When I got the location, it was a restaurant called Cafe Salsa.

Okay.

It was basically more of a Cuban, Caribbean type of restaurant. I opened this with a hundred seats. Very successful. A lot of the critic news, critics came in, gave me three stars.

What was this called?

It was called Cafe Salsa.

Cafe Salsa, Yeah.

So Cafe Salsa was in the heart of old town Alexandria. It was two floors. So we did. We had a bar upstairs and we had a little bar downstairs, and basically it looked like a. A little Cuban restaurant from Miami. Actually, that's what I went for. People loved it. And we had dancing on the weekends upstairs.

That was 2001.

Yeah.

100 locations, two bars. Yeah, it's our 100 seats. Two bars.

Okay.

What was next?

Caribbean Breeze. Caribbean Breeze.

What year is that?

Where is the Bronson right now? Okay, that was 2004.

2004, yeah. Where the Bronson is today?

Yes, that. Yeah. And then from there. Okay, 2004, we had that, that. And then we. Oh, that's when the lease was up at Bravos. I changed it to prime time. That was prime time 2004 as well? No, no, that was 2008. When I changed it to prime time.

Got it. 2008.

So now I have three locations.

Got it. And how long were you at three locations?

For quite a while. Yeah, for quite a while.

When did you go to four locations?

So this. We said 2008. Okay. After that, we went to Bronx Pizza in 2010.

Okay. And.

Which is Big Tony's now.

Got it. So it's hard to keep track of all the different things you got going on.

I saw a lot. You know why? Because I changed. So, you know, if I love the location, you know, and I feel like it's. If the times have changed, you know, 10 years later, you know, smash burgers are better than tacos. Well, then, you know, I. I do the change.

So a lot of people, like Will, every five years, they will. They have, like, a budget, maybe like 2% of profit goes to this. This account versus accruing. Accruing, accruing. And then every five years, they dump out that account and they. They do something to shake things up.

Okay.

But with you, I think you're. You Have a concept. You let that concept ride the trend and then you think about what's next. You'll take a whole new concept and you'll target it for what's happening. And then it kind of reminds me, it's kind of like a slower. Have you ever heard the. The restaurant Next Alinea Group?

Okay.

Yeah, like, but I think every quarter they reinvent the restaurant.

Okay.

You know, because they're like super trend setting.

Yeah, I've heard of it.

But this is similar to that. But like over every five years you'll reinvent.

Well, for example, downtown Tito, which is a massive three floor, 10,000 square feet restaurant that's getting a renovation. So what we're doing is sign of kind of a Spanish type of restaurant on the first floor. On the second floor is going to be a sports bar. And then the third floor, it's the rooftop, which we don't have to do anything because people just love staying up there in the view. So we're working on that concept right now.

Interesting.

[Eric]

Yeah, I, I kind of want to

[Mike Cordero]

pivot into, you know, we. In terms of the timeline, we got it up to 2008. You're the owner of three locations today you own 11. So a lot has happened since 2008. Over the past 20 years, you've went from three to. You've tripled in size. More than tripled in size. Where were your kids in all this in the early 2000s? How old are your kids now?

Yeah, no, my kids are in their

40s today, but 27 years ago. Yeah, they were in their 20s.

Yeah. And they. So they worked in, in restaurants like Cafe Salsa. They were busing tables, running food, you know, while they were going to school, they played a lot of sports. So I couldn't take too much of their time right in there. But they always, you know, was doing something in the restaurant business with me.

Got it.

Then they went off to college and they went off to college and then they decided to come back and work.

Yeah.

In the restaurant industry.

When did they start coming to work in the restaurant industry? When did that happen?

So my son, I'm going to say my oldest son, as soon as he graduated, he came right away and worked with us.

What was that?

He was helping out. Caribbean Breeze, which was located in Ali. Yeah. 2004.

2004.

Thank you. Yeah.

Caribbean Breeze, which is now Bronson.

Bronson Beer Hall. Yeah.

So how many kids do you have all together?

Three.

Three kids. And are they all in the business today?

Yes.

And what did your oldest son go to School for.

He went for business.

And what about your other two kids?

Legal criminal. My middle son, criminology. He wanted to be.

Middle son was legal criminal.

Yes.

And the youngest.

And my youngest daughter was more business administration and fashion. VCU College, you know, specializes in that. But what she does, she handles all the reviews that come in, whether she's

doing a social media.

Yeah, no, no, she doesn't do the social media. She responds back to everybody that writes a review. So. Yeah.

Has she looked into any of the tools that are associated with that today? Like, are you evolving that, like. Or she's doing it all longhand, all person.

She's doing up one by one.

Yeah. I wonder about that. There's. I mean, it's weird. Like, I. I go back and forth on this. I feel like the world we live in now, like, the expectation from the consumer has gotten so unreasonable. I think the world we live in is frankly unreasonable. With the amount of connection there is. The expectation to be there everywhere. It's not good for your brain.

I feel that.

Yeah. So, like. Yeah. To your point, is social media phenomenal 100? Like, you're. Like you said, a social viral clip can make or break your business. But we're all playing this game, but we're all constantly plugged in. That constant plugged in of being connected to your device means you have to pull that attention from somewhere.

Yeah. Right.

And I wonder sometimes if there's. If we could be better as a society, finding that balance between being in the analog world and the digital world.

Yeah. Well, I think what we have is we have an army of social media.

Yeah.

So they basically take care. Yeah. They can't. They take care of the production, the editing, the filming and everything else. We just need to show up and.

Yeah.

And do. And do our thing.

We look at what's happening now with the trends, what the solution to all this presence online. Like, you have to respond to Yelp, Google, Facebook, Instagram, wherever people can talk to, you have to respond to them. Now there are tools like margin and edge that are out there that kind of centralize all this. These places into a dashboard.

Yeah.

And there's also AI that's responding to these people digitally. And I'm like, what. What's the point of being on these platforms if it's just AI engaging with AI? Like, I don't know, like, where are we going?

Well, AI is taking over already.

Yeah.

I mean, a lot of these videos are so cinematic that, you know.

Oh, yeah.

AI costs pennies versus a whole cinematic team coming in here.

I know.

And filming a video for $3,000.

Yeah. I really do it the hard way. I travel all over the country and do this in person. But I think there's something to be said to my point. I think there's something to be said about sitting across the table from somebody.

I agree.

There's a level of connection that you can never replace with any digital asset.

Yes.

And then there's also something about having a. Knowing that there's a person on the other side.

Yeah.

Because that is a huge inconvenience. So if you truly want to.

And I don't think that's ever going to go away.

But also, what do we say earlier? It's like lean into the inconvenience. Right.

[Eric]

Do the hardest possible thing.

[Mike Cordero]

That's how, you know, people care.

Yeah.

But there is such a pathway away from that today with technology to that low hanging fruit to do the easy thing.

Yeah.

So it's a weird world we live in. Okay, so I guess back to the story. I'm interested in the kids because now you have four or three kids.

Yeah.

What does it look like today? Like paint the picture, you know, in terms of the timeline. It's 2008. That's where we've gotten in your story. Are all of your kids working for you by 2008?

Yes, except my daughter.

When does she come on board?

She came later on. I'm gonna say, boy, she came in a lot later. Maybe. Maybe 10 years later.

Okay.

Yeah.

So like 2000. Well, 10 years later would have been right about now.

Yeah.

Well, so how recently was three years ago? Three years ago. Okay, cool. So 2022.

Yeah.

So I guess from 2008, when you have three locations to where you are now, you're bringing on your kids. Kids. Are they like, when do they start getting equity partnership? When did that start happening?

My. When we. 2012.

2012.

Yeah.

Like this is an awkward conversation. Like how do you like. Like this is. Normally you're not supposed to ask people these kinds of questions. Right. But I think this is where people get in trouble is they don't know how to go about doing that. Because we never talk about it.

Yeah.

We never talk about how to set it up, how to do it.

Right.

You have a whole career setting up partnerships and now you get to do it with your kids. So I'm assuming you're going to set them up.

Well, I think they needed to prove themselves first and I think that's what they did, you know, in order for them to, to come in and you know, after a long heart to heart talk with them, they said that, you know, we are going to, you know, that we really dedicated, we really want to be in this Korea and this business and everything else. And so, you know, it wasn't just that I just handed it over because they were my children. I think, you know, they earned it in a certain way that I could say, okay, I trust you, let's move on.

So the first part of a partnership is, is a, a period of working together to make sure you're going to make a good partner long term.

Yes.

Step one.

Yes.

What, what else, what else did you do to, to set this up?

Well, trust. Trust, you know, trust. You know, I'll be honest with you. Like I said, I came from poverty. I mean, you know, my dad left when I was 2. My mom passed away when I was 13, basically living on the old, you know, by my own, on the streets. And I think what I wanted to do was give my kids a head start. And that's what I did. You know, I gave them a head start whether it's good or bad. Sometimes, you know, when you put the ghost spoon in their mouth, you know, it's not the same workouts ethic as I had when I was growing up, but so far so good. I think that, you know, our company with 11 restaurants and 300 employees, my door was always open to everybody and you know, it is to certain people now. But basically I've done that day to day problem solving and everything else. I handed that down to my kids where I can focus more on the growth of the restaurant, creating different cuisines and recipes and paying the bills, doing

what you love, what you identified earlier. You love creating new things, creating opportunity for other people like your kids.

That's right.

So we fast forward nine years, you're at 11 locations. What is the organizational structure today?

Well, the structure would be where one, you know, how do you call it? We keep growing. Okay. In a sense of that. If we need to hire more people to be closer to us and everything else, we would. But what I do now, they're not a partner, they're more of a managing partner. And I do profit sharing versus versus equity.

What's that, that profit sharing model look like?

How can it range from anywhere from, from 2 to 5% of profit. Of profit.

Got it?

Yeah.

And do they have to buy into that profit sharing model?

No.

So are you familiar with the, the Outback steakhouse model?

Yes.

So I think the Outback, yeah. So you had like, I think it was 20, $25,000 you'd have to put in to be to buy into the partnership. The partnership program was an equity partnership, but it was a profit sharing partnership. So that's similar to what you do, but you don't make people put up the cash.

No, because I didn't want it to get complicated because once the, you know, somebody's putting up cash, what's the exit strategy to get out? You know, you just keep their cash and if they want to ever leave. So this way, if I'm doing a profit sharing, you know, that they ever want to leave, they can leave.

Yeah, yeah. You know, so. So there's CEO. Is that you?

I. Yeah.

At the top. I mean, we're talking like sometimes I

feel like I'm the dishwasher, but in

terms of like the.

I'm the CEO.

Very top.

Yeah.

And then do you have like chiefs under you?

Yeah, my two sons, they're directors.

So there Are they operations?

Yes, Operation directors.

Got it. And do they divide the, the restaurants between the two of them?

They do. And then we have director of operations, which she's an employee.

Got it, yeah. And she oversees all the restaurants.

Yes, got it, yeah.

And then what about your, your daughter's marketing?

Yeah.

Any other like, like.

No, that's all we needed because, you know, once we, you know, we have our weekly meetings and everything else. The operational director, she teaches technology to all the guests. I mean, to all these, the managers and everything else. Where, you know, we just signed up with seven shifts, which creates schedules for us and makes it convenient where everybody can see the a schedule on their phone versus, you know, printing it out and putting out on a board or whatever. So we're always keeping up with the technology. And she's the one that trains every manager to use that technology.

Got it. And you're also outsourcing to fractional cfo, it sounds like with your serious consulting.

Yes.

So you have that operations, that financial element that you're outsourcing.

Yeah, we have our in house bookkeeping. I mean, in house bookkeeping we have our accountant and everything else. We just felt we needed that extra niche to give us that number that we really want. And the series consultant is able to do that.

Do they consult you on technology too? Are they helping you make.

Yeah, you can use their technology if you want as well. Which is, which is more like what we have now, Margin Edge and Got it and toast.

So do they steer you towards Margin Edge Edge?

No, we signed up with Margin Edge first.

Got it.

Okay. And then serious Consulting came second.

Got it.

We've always worked with toast, and toast was actually the major part, you know, when there wasn't any margin edge or all serious consulting.

Yeah. So I love just trying to get into all this, and it helps me a lot. Like, you know, I just love trying to figure out, like, how did you, like, where are you today? How have you built your business? How have you structured it, how you organize it? The more I talk to people and the more I tend to believe that if you want to be the best going forward, it's going to be harder and harder to do it alone. You need partners, but it sounds like your family is your partnership. A lot of people don't think of that as a partnership, but I'm like, how's it not?

It is. And, you know, how do you call it? I mean, I don't need partnership. I need workers.

Yeah.

That's what I need. You know, I don't need investors. I don't need somebody that just sit there. I need somebody that's going to help me grow the company, get their hands dirty. And that's basically, you know, what I would do is, you know, and set up. And I did. I did set up, you know, a team where I call it a SWAT team, where I put them all together and we open our restaurants for the first two or three weeks, and then everybody goes back to their original restaurant and everything else. And with those people, you know, I have other regional managers and managers that do. We do profit sharing, and that's how they. We keep them because, you know, they're making double the money now.

So your SWAT team is your, like, elite.

Yeah.

Your specialists. That we're opening a new restaurant. Yeah.

And everybody has their station.

Yep. And we'd call these people culture carriers, too, because they're the. The. They are the example of what we are all striving to be.

Right.

So you pull these people together, they prime the engine that is your new restaurant. They. They elevate, train people up, show people. They are the picture of what the job done.

[Eric]

Right.

[Mike Cordero]

Looks like.

Yes. Right.

And they're your culture carriers.

Right.

I think that's. That's huge. And these people are also. Are they technically your. You said you have managers, but would. Are they. Are they your managers or are they your SWAT team? Like, is there. Are they the same.

Well, we have certain people that are part of the SWAT team and managers. You know, they're managers of restaurant, but they'll come in and be part of the SWAT team. And with being part of The SWAT team. Naturally you get paid more.

Yeah.

And everything else. And just for instance, you know, I'll give you an example. Taco Rock. When we opened our first one, everybody was there. We wanted to make sure that was successful. And everything else. Well, when we opened the second one, you know, we needed less people because, you know, we set up a SWAT team from the first one to open the second one and then we opened the third one, which I didn't even have to be there.

Yeah.

You know, so it was, you know, that's how we work.

Yeah. What haven't we discussed up to this point in terms of what you think you do at the. Exceptionally well, what, what you would want to know 30 years ago that, you know, now how can you pay? Like if you were speaking to that past version of yourself, what haven't we discussed yet that you would have wanted to know?

Organization. I, you know, I lack organization back then where, you know, I, it was more of trusting people versus me having them accountable and having some, some type of organization where now everything is structural, everything is, you know, in place. And you know, there's a lot of policies that we have where we didn't have it in the past and everything else. So, you know, we were, you know, if somebody wanted to sue us, they could.

Yeah. So in the past you relied on trusts, which is huge, but now you're backing that up with the systems.

Yeah.

Can you get into like how you're organized today, what that organization looks like?

Yeah, I mean, we start off with numbers and, and basically everybody, you know, is looking at numbers. And Monday is a big day for all the restaurants because that's when payroll is due and everything else. So we tackle the numbers and we compare it to the week before or the month before and see why, you know, we're down or why we're up. And so.

So you keep a scorecard.

Yes, exactly.

So your cost, you're managing by numbers.

Yes.

And you're constantly trying to move those numbers in the right direction.

Yeah.

And are you using a system, like a known system for that? Like for example, eos, the entrepreneurial operating system. They have the process, they call the, the weekly meeting of level 10 meeting and then they have quarterly meetings and they have annual meetings where you talk about your five year plan and you reverse engineer it. Like, are you using something.

We use more Google.

More Google Docs?

Yeah, yeah, Google Docs and Google Drive, you know, all that. We use that where, you know, we're able to communicate through, through that system.

Got it.

And everything else. So, you know, we do have an office. And so we have our weekly meetings there and discuss, you know, either, you know, if we have restaurants that are failing or where do we, you know, why and whether we need to go. Events that are coming up, you know, we have National Carbonara Day, then we have Cherry Boston. We got our anniversary. So we're setting up, you know, we're setting up for that. But, you know, what's good about having the same restaurant? And you have five of them. You can compare. You can. Why, why, why is the Taco so, you know, their profit margin of solo versus this nut, you know, restaurant number two or restaurant number three, you know,

so, yeah, what's your vision for the future? Where do you want to take this, this. This group?

So, you know, I'm going backwards, actually. You know, I'm going back to the Italian food business. I feel like that was my strong point in everything else. And one thing, I opened Carbonara to get back on the map as a chef. Okay. You know, I wasn't known as a chef for these 10 years that we were open, opening sports bars and opening bars because people were drinking. They'll taste the food and they'll say, oh, wow, this is great, but they're not coming for the food. They were coming here. It's all food driven. It's all it. Everything has to do with food and chefing and, you know, people are coming here because of the ambiance and the food versus our other places. It's a gathering water hole, people drinking and having a great time. Well, here people are coming me into dying, and I just feel like we have. I'm scaling a new concept which I can't talk about, but that could be Italian. Safe to say it's kind of both. It's kind of a mix mix between Italian and American.

Okay.

Yeah, Yeah. I think. I think this is going to be

a full service qsr.

Full service. Full service. But not on the biggest. Not. Not on the Carbonara scale.

Do you want to do more Carbonaras?

So what I was trying to do with Carbonara is that, you know, I don't want to wear the name out where it's a chain, looks like a chain restaurant. I wanted to have Carbonara if I want to open in another state. Okay. I would use the name Carbonara, like Baltimore. If I go to Florida, you know, I would call it Carbonara. You know, my thing was that I would use different pastas. If I want to open up another Italian restaurant, I call one Cappellini. The Other one, Rigatoni's. The other one, Cavatelli's. That's what I would do, but I want to keep the prestigious. Of how hard we got. It took us a while to get here, you know, two years and you know, the name is really successful. And I'll give you an example of an Italian restaurant in New York where you. Which is pretty famous. Carbones in New York. Okay. Two months out for reservation and everything. Well, there's 8 million people living in New York City. Why don't they open another Car Bones there? No, they decided to open Car Bones in Miami. They decided Vegas and you know, different areas, but they won't call it Carbone again. They have other restaurants.

Yeah.

Different name.

Yeah, you make me think of a few things. One, Cameron Mitchell. Do you know Mitchell's restaurant? So he likens. What you're talking about is every one of his cars. Every one of his restaurants is like a car. The systems are exactly the same, but there's just like a different branding on the outside.

Yeah, right.

Maybe the food's slightly different, but the. Essentially it's the same car. Different. Like the same chassis.

Right.

Different exterior.

Yeah.

So I think of that and then I also think of Zif's law, where in every market there can be only one number one. So if you're already number one in your market, you can. You could double down. Like what? You know, I'm thinking in Austin, why can I think of the name of their burger? Peter's. You ever heard of a P. Terry? What's that?

Yeah, yeah.

They had like, I think up to 23 locations in and around the mark. The. The Austin market before they ever went to another. But that was a burger concept. And they're competing with McDonald's and Burger King and Whataburger and In n out. So I think when you're a single burger and you want to be the number one burger, you need to have multiple locations. But if you're the number one fine dining Italian restaurant, how many of those can you have?

Yeah, right.

So instead of doubling down and scaling in that market. Be the number one Italian in. In a different market with the same brand is what I would.

I. Yeah. And we love it because, you know, here the excitement is the. And the biggest headache, the biggest problem. The customer says it's hard to get in this restaurant. You know, we kind of like that because we're six weeks out. You know, that's good. We have a gym. We have a gym next door. Do I really want to take it or not, you know, I have the opportunity when their lease is up, to take it. But we're thinking about the excitement that

we have where we're sitting like a busy gym.

Yeah, there's a.

There are a bunch of people pouring out of it. When I was walking by this morning.

Yeah, I think their lease is up soon, and, you know, I'm not sure they're going to renew it. So, yeah, everything.

So that's the way to scale one. One wall at a time.

Yeah. So the second car, the second restaurant, Carbonara. The only reason why I called it carbonara, which is 30 minutes away from here, is I need to start off on fire. The name of the name Carbonara is already on fire. I need. It's a big place, you know, I don't want to call it somewhere else where I'm starting, starting from scratch again. Even though it's the sister or the brother of Carbonara, I want to call it Carbonara. We got so much excitement from it. I mean, when we announced it, this is the first time when I announced a restaurant that we didn't have one bad comment.

That's awesome.

You know, usually somebody always has something to say about my. My restaurants or anything, but this time, everybody's like, I can't wait. Oh, my God, this is so amazing. You know, so everybody's looking forward to the opening day.

I think that, that I lean towards that approach of having one concept scale regionally, you know, 20 locations in a region be number one for that thing that you do in that region. Yeah, I much rather see that world than a number one Italian restaurant that's number one in the country, you know, because I feel like there's something to be said about regionality and local culture and local charm.

Yeah.

What is your vision? Like, how old are you today, if you don't mind me asking?

66.

66.

66. On my way out in a few years.

And you're talking about scaling new new locations and opening new concepts.

Right.

So you're not really slowing down, though. It sounds like you're speeding up.

You know what? As long as. God bless me with the health and, you know, I feel like, so energized, and as long as I have this energy in me, I'm just going to keep going until I realize I can't do it anymore. And then hopefully my. My two sons would have learned enough that they can keep the company going in, in a. In. In a different way and stuff like that. You know, I. I'm the innovator, man. I'm My head's always thinking what I, what new can I bring to the dmv and everything else so well when

I look to the future. So where we are in the story, we've, we've shared your story, we've inspired our listeners. We for sure, like from 13 years old, mother passing away, not having a dad, to building what you built, working, opening 25 locations by the age of 25, 42, exiting, scaling, exiting. And now you're scaling again. Like, it's amazing what you've done in your career. We're totally inspired. You've given us some amazing advice. We're empowered for sure. You can't argue that. But the last part of my mission is to transform, inspire, empower, transformation. How do we go into the future? After 40 plus years of being in this industry, knowing what, you know, looking to the future, what is the future you want to pass off to the future restaurant owners? Like, how do we go into the future? Better?

[Eric]

What can we do better as an

[Mike Cordero]

industry to be intentional as we go forward?

Well, for one, you know, I'm gonna give individual advice right now. If you're planning to get into the restaurant business, go work for a corporate restaurant so you learn the corporate structure of everything. You know, people are great making cookies or making a taco, but they know nothing about the technology and the way to run a restaurant. They don't have where their cost should be, their overall cost and payroll. So I recommend that, yeah, I recommend that they do that before they go anywhere to try to open a restaurant in any way. And so by then you'll learn basically how to open a restaurant and how to survive and make it correctly because these corporate restaurants have it down to a science and everything else. And I just think, you know, I think if, you know, the government steps in and helps us out. Well, you take for instance, Washington D.C. they're trying to pass a law that the minimum wage is $25 per hour. Okay, well, here we go. My dishwasher is going to get paid $25 an hour. So what is my cook gonna get paid? So how is a restaurant supposed to survive in that type of atmosphere, environment that if they barely making it and they have to pay their cooks and everything, you know, what is their payroll, 50 now? Yeah. So I just feel like if we get help from some of the governors and, and some of the politicians and some of the local bureaucracy where permitting takes forever to get a permit these days, and for what, you know, yeah, we're just opening a simple donut place down the street and, you know, the gentleman's taking six months to get a permit.

Yeah. You know, I, I'm with you. And I, I wonder sometimes if part of that solution isn't, is, is is in government, but also in spreading out because there's so, like, the cities have gotten so big.

Right.

There's so many people in the cities that you have to have a lot of systems and processes because of the amount of people that are here.

Yeah.

[Eric]

But if we were to spread out

[Mike Cordero]

and we were to get involved, involved with our government, as we spread out as restaurateurs, you know, we go, we become a part of like the, the, you know, we become a selectman, you know, and we influence local government. We just spread out and, and we get more involved. I think that's one way to kind of influence government, don't you?

Yeah, I, I feel, you know, just like we have all these protesters every weekend and every day. Why don't they do, you know, all the restaurants get together and just do something? I mean, there, there are, you know, food vendor shows. Revolution started in the restaurant. Yeah, exactly. So I just feel like, you know, if we were all to gather up together, maybe we'll have a voice and, you know, people will start listening to us say, hey, listen, I mean, we're making 1% profit. You know, we're working 80 hours a week, and, you know, yeah, you can either make us or break us right now.

That's a big part of what I'm trying to do with this podcast with Transform.

Right.

Is provide a platform for restaurant owners to share the reality of this industry and how hard it is and to say, well, how do we all pull in the same direction? What changes do we want to see? I think we do need to get government involved, but I also think, like, you've lived your life, you've taken control of the situation. You led by example. I think that what needs to happen is the restaurant industry needs to, to collectively lead by example.

Y.

And I think that if restaurant owners can elevate restaurant owners, then restaurants will elevate communities. And I think at the end of the day, it's the communities that need to be changed too.

Right. Like, they, I agree. So I, I agree. You know, I, I, I know a lot of restaurants that are always involved with the community, whether they're donating food or donating their space and everything else. So, you know, we'd like something in return.

Second largest industry in the world.

Yeah.

Or in America, at least, behind the government.

Okay.

So we have a ton of influence.

Yeah.

And. Yeah, you know, it's just. It's. It's a very complicated issue.

Right.

Any other thoughts you have? I don't want to. I could. I could talk, but I want to put.

Yeah. I mean, just that, you know, I think, you know, especially when your restaurant is successful through all these years, and I was one of them too. You have a big chip on your shoulder. Shoulders like, you know, I got the best restaurant, I got the best thing. Instead of having, you know, that chip on your shoulder put all that energy into, you know, partnering up with other restaurants and make it. And make something happen versus, you know, go further together trying to do it by yourself.

Yeah. That's the other thing that, like we're launch restaurant stoppable network. The whole idea behind that is to get restaurant owners talking to restaurant owners and finding those specialists and finding those partners. Partnerships go further together. I 100 get behind that idea. So what's one thing you've done in the past year or two? And if. If you've already shared it, you can echo it here. That has really moved the needle. Whether top line, bottom line. Like, what's one thing you've done to really improve systems?

I think technology. What's a big point? You know, so you switched to toast switch. Well, toast margin.

Edge.

Margin edge. And serious consulting. We have seven shifts that. That's our latest technology that we entered. And just having, you know, I look back, you know, when I had all these pizza places and, you know, there was no technology. Like I said, I don't know how I did it. But, you know, now if you want to just take a day off, you can. You got cameras all over your restaurants. You know, you can actually see you. You know, you're on. Let's say you're on the bottom of a palm tree, like a commercial corona that, you know, and you have your phone, then you can still see your. Your restaurant from. From wherever. And I think.

What are you using for cameras?

Just dismiss. I think it's called dismiss. Yeah.

Is there any AI overlay with that? I'm just curious where I can track and look at behavior and stuff like that.

No, it doesn't.

Okay. That's really cool. What they're doing some of those cameras where there's like an AI overlay.

Yeah.

So they can follow the habits and patterns of people. So if somebody's going to one spot more than they should.

Yeah.

What's going on over in the spot?

Yeah.

Like no one else goes over to that spot. It's interesting. Yeah.

I gotta check that out. I, I mean we have caught a lot of things that you know, our host will be on their phones, verse and the customers walking in and track all that. So you know, it's a little big

brothery, but you know.

Yeah, yeah, we've caught a lot of things on the camera, so. Yeah, and it made our restaurant run better. So.

Yeah, I mean it keeps people honest. Yeah, right. You have rules. Just do. Just follow the rules and we won't bother you.

Exactly.

So out of all those technologies you've listed, which one do you think had the biggest impact on your bottom line?

I'm gonna say, you know, it's old fashioned way for me, you know, heart and hustle. But at the same time, you know, these, all these technology companies have helped us. I think Margin Edge has been a big thing because, you know, we, we have to do inventory again and everything. Well now it's so much easier to do it because, you know, you, you're taking a picture, you invoice you sending it to them and you have the bottom line like they're doing right now, and that's it.

So yeah, Margin and past sponsor of the show. I was actually hoping to connect with him while I was out here, but we weren't able to make it happen. Hopefully on my way back through D.C. we'll be able to connect because it's been about four years since I've talked to Bo Bryant. So he's due to.

That's bro.

Brian. Right, his last name.

I'm not sure who he is, but yeah.

Okay, we're almost wrapped up. A couple questions and we'll get out of here. Well let you guys open up. Is there one vendor or organization you've recently started working with that's had a huge impact or a breakthrough for you?

I think with the Carbonara, you know, trying to find Italian products, you know, where, you know, US Foods basically has to do a special order or special shipment. I found a vendor that's called International Gourmet, located in Northern Virginia and they were able to accommodate a lot of the Italian products that I need in order for Carbonara to be better quality. Maybe, you know, do they work with

your foods for distribution or is it totally different distribution?

No, it's a totally distribution.

Got it.

Totally.

And who are there again?

International Gourmet.

International Gourmet, yeah, got it.

And it's just not Italian products. They have, you know, from Spanish products to any other Middle Eastern products and things. But they were able to accommodate products that we need like our Special carbonara. We have an 80 pound parmesan.

We saw that wheel. I was like, does US food distribute this?

No, no, no, no. That's International Gourmet and that's imported from Italy. 80. 80 pound Parmesan wheels.

Those are easy to find.

Yeah, yeah. So. And they have them in stock. That's the thing. I need things in stock. I don't need things five days later or three days later.

So, yeah, you need that just in time. Inventory. What's one thing about your business? A value, a process, a system that's uncommon and truly makes you unstoppable?

I think the operational part that we have created throughout the restaurants that we didn't have in the past, basically now the managers have their shift meeting, they're having their weekly meetings, keeping the employees, you know, updated in so many ways that they able to dish out their hospitality. Where before we were lackadaisical in some of those topics and some of those departments. So now we have it on top where basically there we didn't have a directive operation, so now we have that. Then she's able to enforce a lot of these things that you're. If you're not using our technology, then, you know, basically you're not working for us.

Yeah, yeah. So the mission statement is to inspire, empower and transform the industry. If we do that, I think we'll change the world. And we're going to do that by changing one owner at a time. But how have you personally transformed. How are you a better man today than the man you were when you got started?

Oh, like I said, I made all my mistakes when I was young and I was able to learn from them. Where I think that's where, as far as the restaurant industry has made me successful because not to make that terrible mistake again. Making a mistake in a restaurant business is a major thing, you know. You know, you're not doing good with your lease, you know, that can really haunt you. Or you're not doing good as far as your promotionals go. So a lot of people don't take chances like this and I was able to take a chance and make that successful.

Yeah.

So, you know, people look at, well, if I give buy one, get one free, what am I going to do? Well, you're going to have a million customers coming through your door.

Yeah.

And then you're able to set back once you get them in to try your food.

Yeah.

Because they're going to love it. So. Yeah.

Yeah. Hopefully after listening to you today, there's a lot more people out There that won't be making some similar mistakes. And that's what it's all about. It's about paying those mistakes forward to lower the risk.

Yeah. And I'm able. I'm so happy to. You have me on my. On your show and. And I was able to share my. Not only my success, but my ups and downs.

Yeah. Last question. It's a big one. Here it comes. If you got the news you'd be leaving this world tomorrow. All the memories of you. You're working your restaurants will be lost with your departure with the exception option of three pieces of wisdom that you could leave behind for the good of the industry in your legacy. What were those three pieces of wisdom be. Imagine you're telling these three pieces of wisdom to your children. What would it be? Yeah.

I mean, if people. Wisdom as far as, you know, go work for a corporate corporation so you can learn as much as you can. Okay. Learn hospitality that's taking over the world right now as far as that. And learn. Okay. How your profit margins work in order to be successful.

3. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you so much for taking the time, Chef. I've really enjoyed sharing your story. Who do you respect and admire? US Foods referred me to you, but who are you going to refer to me?

Who.

Who do you respect and admire out there? Who's out there making money while making a difference, making an impact? Who deserves to be made an example of?

I love, you know, following chefs. So some, you know, some of the top chefs in. In the world, you know, Eric Rapar, Daniel Ballou. And so, you know, I look at these guys how, you know, they created cuisines and they're able to charge, you know, $200 a plate where. And the restaurant is busy. I look up to chefs, and I'm always looking up to chefs. So that's where I was hoping you

would set the bar a little higher than Eric Repair and Daniel. I'm joking. Those would be amazing folks to get on the show. Thank you for. For calling them out. Look out, Eric and Daniel, I'm coming after you. I'd love to get you on the show. And if we enjoyed today's conversation, maybe we want to come check out one of your restaurants. Maybe we want to come work for you. Maybe we have questions as a up here. What's the best way to connect?

The best way to connect is if you want to connect on my email, which is. Is Mike at Chef CHF Cordero. C O R-R O.com [e-mail] We'll have

those linked in the show notes. And this is where I say I just thank you again for making time for me. Carving out two hours is a long time to sit, to be, to be grilled, to open up, to get vulnerable. And you've been all those things for us. So I literally cannot do what I do without people like you, Chef Mike, making the time. So there is no questioning. My man. You are unstoppable. Thank you.

Well, thank you. It was a pleasure.

Cheers.

[Eric]

There's another episode wrapped up here at Restaurant Unstoppable. Special thanks to our guest today, Mike Cordero. I hope you guys enjoyed this one. And if you are enjoying this podcast and you're liking, you know, honestly, one

[Mike Cordero]

of the biggest pieces of feedback I

[Eric]

get all the time is that the

[Mike Cordero]

show is the most real show out there. It's the most honest, transparent show out there.

[Eric]

It's not scripted. I. I am just following word of mouth and I'm chasing people that others are talking about who need to be

[Mike Cordero]

made an example of.

[Eric]

And I want to this thing honest, but I need your support. And, you know, I'll be honest. Right now, I'm not very hopeful for

[Mike Cordero]

the independent restaurant industry in the immediate future.

[Eric]

I think we're about to head into a very dark time and a crisis. If I'm being completely honest, and I don't mean to be negative, but the only good news about being in a crisis is that crisis are always followed by times of good, times of extreme highs. And over the next five years, we need to be very intention. We show up as independent restaurant owners to engineer, to manifest the future of our industry. We need to go further together.

[Mike Cordero]

We need to communicate.

[Eric]

We need to lift each other up. We need to support the companies that want to support us. And it's going to take a lot of communication, a lot of sharing, a lot of uniting. And I want to be a person that hosts this type of activity, this type of behavior.

[Mike Cordero]

We're doing that at Restaurant Unstoppable Network.

[Eric]

So if you want to connect with other owners across the country who have your values, who love the independent restaurant industry, who want to keep the industry as human as possible, then we need

[Mike Cordero]

to do that together and we need to communicate.

[Eric]

And we're doing that at least once a week.

[Mike Cordero]

Every Monday at 11am during Coffee with

[Eric]

Eric, I'm pulling my guests onto the show. We're going deeper and I want to do more. I want to start pulling together panels of past guests, and I want to start listening to you to find out where's your pain and how can I serve you with experts and specialists in my network. I need help, guys. Head over to restaurantunstoppable.com live if you want to support this mission of supporting

[Mike Cordero]

you, the independent restaurant operator.

[Eric]

We'll see you there again, Restaurant unstoppable.

[Mike Cordero]

Com live.