The Restaurant Systems Behind Talkin’ Tacos Success: Food Truck to 30+ Locations
What makes a restaurant stand out and stay successful?
According to Omar from Talkin’ Tacos, it takes more than great food. It takes strong systems, clear culture, consistent training and a brand experience people remember.
In this episode of the Restaurant Rockstars Podcast, Roger talks with Omar about the operational side of restaurant success and the systems that helped Talkin’ Tacos build a recognizable and growing brand.
Whether you run one restaurant or several, this episode delivers practical ideas you can use to strengthen your own operation.
Building a Restaurant Brand People Remember
Talkin’ Tacos understood early that experience matters.
The team wanted their restaurants to feel different, energetic and memorable. Inspired by Miami culture and vibrant design, they focused on creating an atmosphere that encouraged guests to stay, share and come back.
From murals and lighting to strong food photography and branding, every detail was designed to create an experience beyond the meal.
Roger and Omar discuss why atmosphere and guest experience remain powerful competitive advantages for restaurants today.
Marketing That Creates Momentum
Marketing played a major role in Talkin’ Tacos’ success.
Social media became one of the brand’s strongest tools for visibility and customer engagement, particularly Instagram.
Omar shares how early marketing investments helped create awareness and drive traffic while keeping the brand front and center with customers.
The conversation also explores how becoming the official taco partner of the Miami Dolphins strengthened brand recognition and reinforced local credibility.
Systems Create Better Restaurant Operations
One of the biggest lessons from this episode is simple:
Strong restaurants run on systems.
Talkin’ Tacos focused on building repeatable systems across labor, training, inventory and operations.
Omar explains that systems are not static. They evolve as the business grows and improve through testing, learning and continuous refinement.
His philosophy:
Fail fast. Fix fast. Move forward.
That mindset helped the company turn challenges into operational improvements rather than setbacks.
Training, Accountability and Culture
Culture does not happen by accident.
Talkin’ Tacos developed a detailed operational playbook covering training, certifications, guest interaction and team expectations.
New team members follow structured onboarding and testing designed to create consistency and accountability.
Roger and Omar discuss mentorship, promoting from within and why employees stay longer when they can see opportunity and growth inside the company.
Watching the Numbers That Matter
Restaurant success requires more than passion.
It requires discipline around numbers.
Omar shares the KPIs Talkin’ Tacos watches closely, including:
Labor cost
Food cost
Sales per labor hour
Ticket averages
Reviews
Store inspections
Operational scorecards
The team also uses tools including Restaurant365, SevenShifts and AI-assisted forecasting to support scheduling, planning and decision-making.
Roger and Omar discuss how better visibility into numbers helps managers make faster and smarter operational decisions.
Final Thoughts
This episode is not just about a taco brand.
It is about building a restaurant operation with stronger systems, better culture and clearer leadership.
Omar shares practical lessons on accountability, marketing and operations that can help any restaurant owner create more consistency and long-term success.
If you’re looking to improve how your restaurant runs, this conversation delivers plenty of ideas worth applying.
Listen now and discover the systems behind Talkin’ Tacos success.
Connect with our Guest:
Instagram @_talkintacos
Tik Tok @_talkintacos
-
This episode is a masterclass in how to run a restaurant business, but more importantly, build a super powerful brand. A small truck side hustle exploded into 36 bricks-and-mortar restaurant locations, 500 employees, and over $60 million in sales. This story about building a brand, mastering social media, creating scalable systems, developing team culture, and turning a restaurant concept into a powerhouse operation.
this episode is packed with lessons you can apply immediately. Stay tuned.
Omar, welcome to the show today I am so psyched you're here
Hey Roger. Thank you for having me. It's a, it's a pleasure.
You have a fascinating restaurant story, and it all started with a food truck and catering Pita truck right How did you grow from a food truck and catering operations to 36 bricks and mortar locations, 500 employees, and $60 million in revenue That blows my socks off. There's a story there. Obviously, it goes beyond vision but what did it take to do that
I mean it was definitely a long story starting with Needa' Pita back in 2016. I started at Endeavor my brother and I. But that got me all the way up into COVID. And when, when COVID came around, I ended up partnering with one of my childhood best friends. Mohammad. Farraj is also the co-founder.
Of the company Talkin’Tacos. I had two pita trucks at the time. I was like, Hey, Mo, like I got this second truck just sitting here collecting dust. It's COVID. I'm barely taking this first one out. Like, what do you say? Like, we do something with this. Like, yeah, man, let's do something. You know, we went to school together for a long time and we always, you know, dreamed of working together.
So this opportunity came, he's, he was in school, he's a, he's a doctor himself. He was like, I don't really have much time, you know, this and that. I said, Mo, just something, you know, let's just get our feet wet, you know, do something on the side. I ended up starting as a side hustle when we founded Talkin’Tacos
Literally just as an experiment, just. Do something together, like, yeah, pay some bills, you know, we work together and the rest is history. I mean, that, that story goes on it's a long story when it comes to how it started, started off really slow. We weren't really looking to make money off of this project.
First few days we were selling $30 , $60. We're like, yeah man, we just hit our first a hundred dollars. So like it was more of a side project. There wasn't really anything that we looked at to grow into what it is today. That started with Talkin’Tacos
So opening the first location okay you transitioned from the truck to bricks and mortar You picked a location and there was a balance between okay can we pay the rent here Is it a strong location Is there good traffic And then was the size right what were the challenges with that first store besides some of the things I mentioned Do you remember?
Before we even got our first location opened, we actually had a big bump where we had a location. Previous to our first location in Miramar, where we signed a lease in Miami. That's a, that's a story of its own where it, it was a big failure and we never even got that store open. So we ended up with the little money we have left, kind of going back to our roots.
We're here from, you know, Broward, Florida, and we were living in Miramar at the time and not too far from our home. We had a location that was available to buy as an asset sale, and I was like, Hey, Mo, like I know we have no money left, but let's just give this a shot. I know the first one failed, like we couldn't really get that open, but I really think it's time for us to be, you know, a brick and motar
And really be open to public, you know, seven days a week from 10 to 10, you know, just be that type of brand. And he was like, you know, let's do it. So we ended up opening in Myanmar, Florida, where we're from, where we live currently. Or it was like a local store. And that was, that was the beginning of Talkin’Tacos as, as a brick and mortar.
I was looking at the website and You've got what I call wow factor Okay Because wow factor can be many things And to me when I owned restaurants it was about everything It was about the food it was about the service and it certainly was about the ambiance but it's like the colors the dynamicism of some of your stores is that your idea Is it your Friend's idea Did you put your heads together and say Hey this is a Mexican concept and it's gotta be wild and kinda loud and colorful I had a Mexican canteen and I did the very same thing We painted the place crazy colors It was purple it was yellow it was orange It's like everything was different and it had a vibe with murals Where did you come up with the branding Because it's clearly a brand like all of that is part of the brand Tell me about that
So when we first started off, we wanted to be different. We said, Hey, like we're gonna open something. We open a cuisine that is loud a cuisine that is delicious, that's flavorful, that's gonna hit you as soon as your first bite. And like, okay, that's, that's one thing we know that food itself.
Doesn't really do as much as the vibe, the environment, the brand, like you mentioned. So we said, Hey, let's, let's make this place really cool. Like what's cool? Like you know, dark vibes, black light murals, Wynwood vibe. You know, we're from down here in Miami. We go to Wynwood a lot. You know, it, it's a vibe, you know.
So we got a, a local artist to come in. We said, Hey you know, we have these four walls, we have these tables. You have a vision. We have a vision. Let's work together and make this Talkin’Tacos branding. He said, you know what? Leave it to me. I said, all right. So we kind of let the artist do his thing, his Wynwood vibes to it.
We told him we wanted to do fluorescent lights on the painting so we could put black lights. So at night really pops and, and then it's, it is dark in there and it pops and it glows and it just feels. Surreal. Like you're there, you're eating these amazing food, these birria tacos, you're dipping your tacos, having a nice bite, and you're just like, this is a vibe.
This is cool. And something we really wanted to do as well when it comes to brand. We wanted people to know the brand and I think to the way it looks with the food and everything, people just want to hang out there, take pictures post on Instagram, and really get that name out there.
That is so killer I totally agree with that and I buy right in now I've always thought that first of all I love your website because I think that it really draws people in If you've never been to Talkin’Tacos and you go to that website it's Yeah I gotta go there because it brings the experience to life before you even walk in the door And it's not only the vibe we talked about and the colors and the fluorescence and the black lights but the food photography is fantastic too every dish that I saw just looks like I want to eat that great job on that Let's talk
about your
Thank you.
Strategy like what really works for you And we're gonna talk about the Miami Dolphins in a minute but let's start with your marketing strategy
The number one way to grow your restaurant in 2026 is Google Search. 70% of diners searching for a place to eat start on Google. If your restaurant isn't showing up when customers search for your cuisine, you're invisible. Google uses more than 90 ranking factors, and SEO changes constantly. Big restaurant brands spend millions staying on top of this.
Independent operators simply don't have the time or the budget. Owner.com is the solution. Owner.com helps restaurants get discovered by more customers and increase both direct online orders and repeat business with loyalty, email, SMS, and push marketing. For more visibility, more repeat business, and more direct sales, visit owner.com/rockstars.
Marketing. That's a big part of our co-founder, Mo, he's, I call him a marketing guru. He's he's that guy when it comes to marketing. I know in the beginning when we first started on the food truck, he was like, Hey Omar, I'm about to spend $20 on Instagram for marketing.
I was like, bro, $20 out of our budget. And now we're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on, on marketing. I think social media is our, our biggest, you know, audience capture, like you mentioned, our website has the, the food, it just pops right out. I think us, you know, putting that on Instagram and people just, just talking to the people.
That's generation, which is spending the money, which is going out, which is using. The platform of social media and really bringing brands out there. I think that, you know, having, social media marketing, it was a big part of our, our growth and success.
Fantastic And now you're the official Taco of the Miami Dolphins How did that come about You don't just do that by accident like you're in the right place at the right time You got connections they love your food and they say Hey how does that happen
You know, that came from building a really strong local brand, I think down here in, in Miami, I would say. I believe when you build momentum, opportunities just come. So I think we built a lot of momentum down here in Miami and South Florida specifically, and they just came out and outta nowhere, got an email from Joe Sullivan.
He was one of the partners with Miami Dolphins when it comes to bringing in partners, reached out and kind of said, Hey man, we'd love for you guys to be just the taco partner of the Miami Dolphins. So I was kind of in shock. I said, Miami Dolphins, you know, that's huge. It's NFL man,
like that's big time.
And it, it was surreal. I mean, we took it, we kinda asked a lot of questions and they said, yeah, we'd love for you guys to be on the first, second, third floor. Be the taco, the Miami Dolphins, like you guys are Miami's taco. And that, that to me was, you know,
That
got, got me by surprise.
It was real before that happened but then that really like you walk in there and you're like wow that is surreal unto itself But what a
Question.
Full brand builder That is right for the whole any fan any one part of that whole south Florida community is like suddenly in front of this thing and it's it just it's gotta drive tons of business to your stores the whole thing is just so cohesive so it's awesome
A hundred percent I think. I have lots of friends that also go and just take a picture, send it to me. Hey man, you guys are the Dolphins stadium. Like, that's awesome. Like, yeah, definitely. And a lot of people, when they come to your location in the stadium, it's limited menu of course, but we have branding, branding in there telling us, Hey, visit us here, here, and here.
Wow, you have locations everywhere. Okay. For sure. You guys are next to my house in Cold Springs. I'll definitely check you guys out. I think that was really helpful as well by bringing the South Florida community that loved football, loved tacos come together and could, they could find us anywhere.
Right on So that's a big idea for sure Did you have any other say big ideas that you thought were gonna be like Grand Slam outta the park home runs long bomb for the touchdown but they just didn't work Like it was a flop Like we have successes we have failures Did
Sure.
work
Plenty of things didn't work. I mean, that's part of business. Manual items, flopping locations, I'm underperforming. With every failure becomes a system, comes a lesson, you learn from it. I think without failure, there is no growth. Without failure, there's no success. You know, to me it's fail fast, fix fast, move forward.
You know, you gotta keep, you gotta figure it out. Learn from your mistakes, and then grow from that.
I love that advice That's fantastic You mentioned the word systems and I know that you guys were totally into building systems for all aspects of your company cause you can't grow you can't scale unless you got your operation dialed What do you consider to be those most important systems and what started it all
You know that kids often determine where the family dines out, and they want the fun place. If you're a kid-friendly restaurant, GrubLab is completely reinventing kids' menus. Imagine licensed NBA, NFL, and Hollywood brands in augmented reality that brings the characters to life right at the table, and collectible menus that rotate every few months so there's always something new with your look and your logo, all just $99 a month.
With GrubLab, families stay longer and come back more often. It's a real loyalty driver. Go to grublab.co to get started. That's G-R-U-B-L-A-B.C-O.
I think to us when we first started one of our partners came and said, Hey, listen, we're not gonna be a one-off store. Talking tacos is gonna be a brand. And we kind of knew that as we were in a food truck. Like this is a brand now, this is not just a taco shop. You just open in your local neighborhood.
This is a brand we gotta run with the brand. And creating systems was our first thing off the bat. We're like, Hey, we want to be a 20 plus location company. Okay, how do we do that? Systems, operating systems, financial systems, labor systems, and, and just learn how to scale these systems. We want to keep building systems to where you could just open, plug and play, plug and play, plug and play, and we built labor systems, inventory systems, training systems, all these systems to really help us scale.
I think without that you would lose what we're doing in on the way to 20 plus.
And did it take a while to get the bugs outta those things or you didn't grow until you had em dialed
No, a hundred percent. I mean, we're still building systems to today, you know, 35 plus locations and
to
systems don't stop. You know, the playbook does not stop. We keep training going. Training is always new and improved. These things that you're gonna need to grow, you can't just. Once, once you have two locations, it's one thing.
And then once you have a a problem in that one or two locations, once you have 10 plus, that becomes a 10 plus location catastrophe. You know, without systems we start getting lost in the sauce, you know?
The team are vitally important the consistency across all the stores It's like the philosophy behind your training and onboarding You mentioned the word playbook You guys wrote a team training playbook Tell me about that
We wrote, we wrote our own playbook. It's not like a generic training, I would say It was more of a, it is catered to Talkin’Tacos So that took us a long time until today we're still adding onto this playbook. It was standing in the restaurant, we're like, Hey, everything's gonna be defined.
How to make the food, how to talk to guests, how to approach problems, how to fix problems, how to talk to staff from A to Z, you name it. Onboarding, certifications, positions. This playbook just has it all. It became really vital when, when we started to grow because of training. Now it's not the same systems of.
Plug and play with you just bring people on. Oh, I'll train these guys, just follow what I do that, you know, that's gonna die out really soon. But when they come in, they have a playbook, they read it, they go through it, they take a test, you can't continue on unless you get a 90% of the test before you move on to the next.
It's a whole process. So I think the clear expectations when it comes to how to, you know, be a team member of Talkin’Tacos the playbook really is helpful.
Awesome Do you do any mentoring and shadowing You put new team members in front of people that have been around that really know the gig
For sure. I think when we do new locations, when we open new locations with management we hire from within 90% of our staff is hired from within. I think we focus heavily on growth in the company, so a lot of people have already seen. Their, their mentor, it would be their manager kind of working as, as they, you know, run an operation.
And then as, as you want to grow with the company. And we're really big on growth and pe everyone knows that. It's in our culture, I think it's really important for them to understand that once it's your time when you, they, they see the growth in, in stores, your time is coming. You know, just follow me and we'll, we'll get you there.
A lot of our audience are still struggling with labor and staffing and all those issues that come with it this is a transient business by nature Some operations do really well with creating a company culture and keeping people and retention but then others have problems with turnover Do you guys have any labor issues that you can speak to
I think labor is one of the most challenging things when it comes to the restaurant industry. A lot of high turnover in the markets. I think with us labor has been a lot. Less of an issue in the last few years. I think because of what I mentioned earlier, our, our culture is very strong here. You know, people they focus on growth.
You know, people want a path and we like to promote from within. So I think when they're on the, on that wavelength as us, as, as leaders, when we show them that, hey. There's opportunity here. They like to stick, stick with us, and we pay well. So I, I think that helps
So you get the big picture of 30,000 foot view of all these stores Do you ever get in the stores themselves and just either Secret Shop or jump behind the line and serve the guests Every now and again just cause one it's fun and two it keeps you in touch with the your customers and your guests What about that
for sure. , I actually built a system with our internal office. 95% of this office that we have at corporate worked in entry level restaurant position at Talkin’Tacos. So they see that growth. But when it comes to working in locations, we're at every grand opening, holding a position.
Everyone in the office, not just leadership here, everyone at the office to show to kind of, you know, keep culture going. Me, myself hold positions all the time. All partners hold positions. We built this thing where quarterly that we go into restaurants, kind of give some staff members a day off, and we hold a position either it's on the line, host expo, you name it.
Someone from this office is holding position at least four times a year without grand openings. Just, you know it's like a system. We kind of building that culture.
Fantastic So you've got a new team member and before you recognize that they've got something special and you want them to grow within your company you certainly don't wanna lose them it's so important to set expectations and somehow get accountability of the team Is there a system in place for that Setting those expectations and holding people accountable to a certain set of performance and results
For sure. When it comes to, to onboarding a staff first, it's structured. You know, everyone gets certifications. They have no certifications, it's no position. So first step of accountability. We set clear expectations. We have daily checklists where each manager does a checklist for the store twice a day.
We do scorecards on them. Everyone's held accountable for their store. So if it doesn't pop up by two o'clock on our system, we're gonna get a notification. Notification comes in, Brickle. Why haven't you sent in our chat? Brickle? Why haven't you sent in the inspection? Oh, my bad. I'm on it. Okay, understood.
No problem. You sent it 10 minutes late. 10 o'clock. Second one. Hey, where's, where's our inspection report? So it's, we're, we're on it when it comes to every store. 'cause the more you grow, the harder it's gonna get. And that's with our team. Of course, everyone here works together when it, we're not a one man team.
This is a, this is a big team that we have, and everyone works together to make sure everyone's held accountable and we just keep structure going.
How about recognition and rewards How do you recognize your top people does it happen
Daily Do you praise and give rewards It's is there any formal program in place what happens there
Ask any chef what makes a great BLT and watch how fast they start talking about the bacon. Well, that's why there's Smithfield Select. It's premium, ready-to-cook bacon that will elevate your menu and your bottom line. Because there are menu items and then there are menu magnets. That's Smithfield Select Bacon.
It pleases patrons while saving you time, labor, and back-of-house costs. It's thick cut, crispy, and golden brown with a texture and appearance that make it seem freshly cooked from raw. But you can just heat and serve. Funny thing about bacon, guests notice. To order yours, visit smithfieldselect.com
So we have, we have a monthly recognition. It's a newsletter that we send out to all staff members, so they'll get it in their email, and it's gonna be just anything that happened. We will put like the nicest reviews that came. Hey, Miramar had the nicest review that came in. Congratulations to Miramar.
Hey, employees of the month. All stacked up. And why are they employee of the month? So everyone's like, oh, so that's what they did. I need that to, you know, keep going. Got it. New additions to the team. If there's a promotion from within, Hey, congratulations to so-and-so. They just been promoted to our new general manager and our new locations at Boca Ratone.
Oh man, that's awesome. Congratulations. Like, all that stuff. And then they could also send that messages to each other. Where they can congratulate each other and everyone's just happy for each other. So there is a newsletter that goes out monthly and anything that does happen on a daily basis, if it's something that's a really wow factor, we definitely all just, we all share a chat so we could always send messages to each other and kind of congratulate anyone at the time.
That's team spirit and that definitely speaks to your culture Let's shift gears and talk a little bit about financial controls and KPIs cause that's so important today Obviously volatile markets and rising costs and high labor and all these things and shrinking margins you need to maintain if not grow your margins So what are you guys watching on a regular basis
So for us it's. More of not managing the stores, it's managing the numbers of the stores, just the costs, you know, labor costs, food costs sales per labor hour, average tickets, reviews. You know, we try to keep everything really tight. Those, those numbers really tell you everything about the operation.
It's. It's clear when it comes to our KPIs and inventory and all that stuff that we're really tight on it. I think it's big. Actually Mohamed just developed an app recently that we're launching very soon for just for Talkin’Tacos, where it's, focused on. Labor and it shows us sales per hour.
Sales per day shows us labor targets what we're supposed to be at. If we're at 21%, you're way off supposed to be. We're trying to hit 18% labor costs on a weekly basis. And it shows you where you have to improve on. So I think really honing down on numbers, which is the biggest part of the, the business is when you really tackle these KPIs that.
That we have set expectations to our management that they also get, monthly bonuses on reaching these KPIs that we set.
Nice So inventory you doing that every single week or is that on a monthly basis once you stay in your sweet spot
So right now inventory is on a monthly basis. We do want to move that to a weekly basis. I think as we hone down to really perfecting the system we have. We'll probably get to a weekly basis shortly, hopefully very soon.
I did it just the opposite It's like whenever I opened a new location it's like we tracked it every single week until we found I love the word or the term sweet spot right So if you want your food cost to be say 26 or 28 or whatever's realistic for your cuisine if you hit that four weeks in a row with consistency then you don't have to do it every week as long as you stay in that sweet spot So we
For sure.
we It's a little bit different than you did but not to say you don't want to dial things in and make sure that they're just rock solid every week So your store manager does that with a team member Is it done individually Are you using any software specifically to do it
So the software we are using now that , we onboarded with the restaurant 3 6 5
Oh you are Okay
was very helpful. I think that's really hone us down to that weekly, that weekly number that you mentioned before. We were doing it manually. Old school really, really manually. So we're, we're moving on to more technology, more ai, more of where anything that could help us.
Yeah I had restaurant 3 6 5 their CEO was on the podcast a while back so yeah definitely product there Let's talk about ai What are you using for ai what's the big thing that's helping you improve your store operations
Well, we're using it more for forecasting, you know, marketing ideas, data. It, it helps us move faster and make better decisions more when we use ai. I think combined with ourselves, of course, it is lots of different ais that we're, we're using mostly I would say we're forecasting. We give 'em a month's worth of sales from last year, the year before that what is, you know, sales gonna look like?
Maybe this. So that helps us when it comes to labor. How do we schedule our labor now? A forecast? Is this okay? Our average ticket is, is only this, on this holiday, for example, on holidays. It helps us really hone down on, on labor.
Excellent How about else some of the other pieces of tech in your stack What else are you using point of sale Any other improve efficiency improvement type technology
So I would say really important piece of technology that we've been using is more for scheduling. We use seven shifts right now. That kind of helps us keep. Track of hours, how much you're paying in labor for the week and how many hours that we, we want it paid.
It's, it's forecasted the way we set it up, and it's available for all locations at the same time. So with our master account, we could just run through it, look week by week and, and see if everyone is on the same page.
Fantastic So you're big with obviously millennials and Gen Z Now, is that your target audience Are you reaching like a broad demographic of your customer base tell us about that because the vibe right Miami is a loud wild dynamic place and that is your locations But are you getting a cross section of ages and demographics
We definitely do. It depends on location. So if we're going, you know, in a suburban neighborhood in the middle of Tampa, it's not gonna be as much Gen Z, you know, clientele we're gonna see. But I do think that. Clientele, the Gen Z is, is very strong for us because most of our branding and material that we send out for marketing is social media and that's where majority of Gen Z is on social media, TikTok, Instagram, you name it.
So I do think that we do try to check the younger crowd or next to colleges and in areas that attract younger crowds, but we do cater to all ages and you know, you name it.
So social media right Is TikTok the big thing still Are you on TikTok and Instagram are probably the biggest view right
Yeah, definitely. I'd say Instagram is, is for us, is the biggest TikTok. It isn't really focused on local. It really just kind of goes to a national level when if something does go viral, goes to an international level as well. I, I remember one time we made a video that went viral and. We had people from India saying, come to India, who are just like, what?
It doesn't work like that. But social media for Instagram, it's more targeted in your surrounding areas. So I think Instagram is our, is our biggest bet.
So not everyone is a social media expert and there's a certain magic formula about okay what to post when to post how often to post what time of day is best what platforms all that Is that your partner behind that or do you get involved in it too
No, I definitely do not get involved when it comes to social media and what to posts not to post Partner Mo that runs the marketing. He's really on top of that. He has a great team behind him as well, and he's, he's led him to, to really be on, on point when it comes to social media and marketing to a point where I'm not even allowed to, to touch the Instagram.
Yeah Stay awake stay in your lane Is that what they say
Basically, Hey, leave this to me. You got it, man.
So what's a typical day like for you They're all different but what would you say start me off on the beginning of the day middle of the day like what's typical for you What do you do
Every day is, every day is different. Every day is a, a challenge. It depends if I come to the office, sit down, go, go through emails, kind of work on what's in my email box, and then we work. I. Recently we've been working on the growth signing, you know, new locations, flying out to locations, really doing a lot of scouting.
But if I'm not doing that, I'm in here. I'm building systems, going over KPIs, going over store to store level managers talking to them, one, one-on-one, going to stores, talking to them one-on-one as well. Really being there, being involved. I touch a little of everything, as much as you possibly can in, in a day's work
So what's a growth plan you mentioned flying here and there Are you planning on going outside of Florida
Oh yeah, we're actually, right now we're in Atlanta. We're in Georgia. We're in Texas, DC New York,
Oh wow.
Carolina.
Excellent
now we're, a majority of our stores are here in Florida. But yes, our growth plan is to expand in those areas. I've mentioned we've have signed leases in, in Boston right now. We have signed leases in Chicago.
We have signed leases in, more in dc we're growing. We're growing
So you're looking mostly urban areas and big cities Is that the thing Yeah
Urban areas, big cities, high traffic, where it's, you're gonna get a lot of high volume areas. Really copy what we've done for the last 30 locations, trying to copy and move with that. We plan on doubling our size within the next year and a half.
I was gonna ask you that next Right on You gonna head to Southern California Hit some of the beach cities
I think the west coast is, is not in my foreseeable future. I think we're gonna focus on the East coast right now and really just go up and down the East coast, kind of where, where we're comfortable right now. I think we, we stay and where we're at and kind of stay on the east coast, try to be East Coast brand until we go to the west.
Very cool So the logo is fantastic Do you do a whole line of retail Are you selling a bunch of retail merch
That's actually funny you asked. We've been, we've been working on right now just some swag and merch that we wanna Yeah. Send out to our stores and either do it either online or strictly in store only. But we've been working recently on, on some merch and some great ideas. Mo's been running point on that one, so I'm, I'm gonna let him keep doing his thing.
Fantastic You also given back to the community you do a lot with care packages and medicines and all that that that's just noble and a great thing to do besides it being the right thing to do it's also strong for marketing So what are you doing like what's the big picture there
So a lot of our caterings that we send out on the house is mostly for schools and hospitals that we give back to teachers and, you know, the community that. It's always gonna take care of, take care of us. So I think when we send out for, you know, a school teachers appreciation, send them out food, you know, they're, they appreciate it.
They come, they all gather together and like, you know what? Talkin’Tacos, we appreciate it. Our brands on everything, all of our boxes, all our food. And then they become customers of ours and then they, they come to us directly as well. And hospitals the same thing. I think targeting the, the communities is very important for us.
Fantastic you got a rocking concept and I wish you the best of success We covered a lot of ground today Omar but you guys are knocking it outta the park so I wish you the best in the future and you keep on growing and you keep on the systems and just keep engaging and growing your teams and I love to follow your progress Thank you so much for being on the show
Thanks, Roger. I really appreciate you having me.
That was the restaurant Rock Shows podcast We appreciate you listening Can't wait to see you in the next episode Thanks to our sponsors this week and we'll hope to see you next time Stay well stay tuned
From my experience, lots of marketers talk a good game, but they fail to deliver ROI. Zivzo is not just a full-service digital marketing agency, but industry pros that specialize in restaurants and a strategic decision to move your business forward. Zivzo excels in marketing, advertising, video, and animation production that brings your restaurant to life and enhances your brand visibility.
Go to zivzo.com. That's Z-I-V-Z-O.com
Owner.com runs automated marketing campaigns for your restaurant that send personalized offers, order reminders, promotions, and new menu announcements automatically to your guests. So your marketing works for you every single day. And here’s the real power move: Owner.com gives your restaurant your own branded app.
ZivZo Marketing, Advertising & Video Production: ZivZo is not only a full service marketing agency, but restaurant industry pros specializing in animation and video production that brings your restaurant to life.
Smithfield Culinary serves up perfect proteins for every dish and every daypart like Smithfield’s new ready to eat select bacon, Its premium, ready to cook bacon that will elevate your menu and your bottom line. Smithfield Select saves you time, labor and back of house costs all while satisfying your guests. When you partner with Smithfield, you serve what you love and your guests will love what you serve.
Grub Lab completely reinvented the kids' menu. Imagine NBA, NFL, and Hollywood brands in augmented reality that brings characters to life right at the table, and collectible menus with your look and logo that rotate every couple of months, so there's always something new. Families stay longer, spend more and come back more often. Turn your kids' menu into a real loyalty driver.
