Mecha Noodle Bar’s Blueprint for Giving Back

CEO of Metcha. Uh hey doing today, Rich, fantastic, happy to be here, Thanks, Thanks for thanks for joining me. It's been it's been a busy week for both of us at a restaurant finance and development conference. Um so, I really appreciate your time. So, so why don't we start by you just kind of letting the listeners know about Metcha, you know, talk about the cuisine, a service type, price point, anything else that that you think is important

for the for the listeners to know. Yeah, I mean Metria can be summed up in three words, foam, ramen, and cocktails. We focus on those three things in a design forward space with a full service bar, a full service restaurant service. However, also can be quick service in terms of grabbing a bowl and going at the end of the day, we always talk about about a bowl and a stiff drink. That's Metria with some great hip hop vibsh That sounds like it's right up my alley,

so I have to get over to Metcha. It's it's it's everyone's alley, man, everyone's out. I'm telling you, I don't care if it's a fifteen year old or fifty five year old. You know, heads bob, and they smile when they when they taste that braw that's awesome man. And uh and where you located throughout Connecticut and recently opened up in Massachusetts. So we have five locations in the Connecticut market. Recently opened up in downtown Boston and

Seaport and also Brookline as well. Okay, very cool. So what what where did the name come from? So I'm actually the co founder, my best friend since childhood as the founder. He started Metcha in two thirteen, and you know, his goal was very simple. He wanted to create a mom and pop restaurant that had clean bathrooms. So we took that inspiration to create the name. And the name Mitcha breaks down to mom and pop in Vietnamese. So

we put him together and MITCHA was born. Very cool. Uh. And so you grew up in the restaurant business, but your career journey really wasn't a straight line. So uh kind of time to talk about how you got here. Yeah, yeah, not at all. I mean, at the end of the day, the food service business, I always say it was my greatest teacher and the reason why it's been teaching me. So as I was five years old, my dad was an immigrant to this country from day a car Republic,

and he opened up a Delhi. So I was five and I was the kid who was going to work before going to PM kindergarten. You know, I was on the milk create, I was behind the register. Um. I grew up in that Delhi, and you know, I learned a lot about people. I learned a lot of hospitality. Um. And because I learned all that, I swear it off and I went to college and I said, you know what, I'm going to be an attorney. Uh. And I did

an internship. I remember my first summer after a freshman year at n y U, and I said, this is not for me, absolutely not. Um. So I pivoted and I went into pre business at n y U, and to make you a long story short, graduated and did some investment banking, a little private equity work, and still found, like, you know what, this is just not for me. Uh. Took one more pivot before getting a restaurants, which was doing some nonprofit work helping diverse communities get jobs on

Wall Street, believe it or not. And it was amazing and it was fulfilling, and it was everything I wanted it to be, but it just wasn't enough. I didn't wake up every day if you know, like you know what, I'm making the impact I want to make. So I called them my dad and said, hey, you know you've been visiting me at n y U every year for the last four years. We go to the best restaurants

in the city. Like there's a there's a love and art to this industry, and I want to apply that to your Delhi, meaning I want to take that soulful Latin cuisine that we eat and grew up eating in our home and I want to put in a full service environment with the bar. And he said, you know you've never steered yourself wrong. Come home and give it a shot and that's on his own, which was our very first restaurant was born back in two thousand eleven.

Very cool, And that's a good segue into my next question, right, because charitable charitable giving is key to the d n A of the Metro brand. So can you talk a little bit about eat Justice and and how that's how that got started and now it's evolved. Yeah, it's not just key of the brand. Is the reason why we exist. And the reason why I say that is at that first restaurant was just me and myself, uh concurrently my

business partner. He was working inside of his family's like little nanager square foot mom and pop Vienamese restaurant, and he evolved out of that after seeing me kind of take the jump on my own and started Metcha in two thousand and thirteen his own and at the time there was no Roman in Connecticut whatsoever, and he felt like there was a big opportunity to scale the business,

but he needed some help. He needed somebody with a more finance background and operations background, and he turned to me. But there was a precondition to being his partner. There was two One was to see a spiritual coach which he saw just to make sure meet him on the same page interest of energy and intention. But the second one, which we always tell people was that we had to find a way to get back. We will not grow much unless giving back because as part of our DNA.

So when I joined, you know, that was a leading thought process for us. And what we came up with was, how can we leverage the existing revenue stream of our business to do good in our community? Right? Restaurants generate a ton of revenue, right, and if there's a way to leverage that to make an impact, then that's why we want our restaurant brand and our restaurant company to grow. So we created in Justice and been rolling ever since. Very cool. Um, you know, I'd imagine that this drive

sales and creates a more loyal employee base. Um. Can you talk about how you know, I guess, how you raise the money and um, how the employees have some say and where the money goes. Yeah, I mean you started with the guests. That's outside in. We'd like to talk about Injustice from the inside out, right, So the inside out meaning is the company intention first and foremost

to give back. So the way the company does that is by adding fifty cents to every bowl around and we sell each month, and that fifty cents is collected throughout the entire month, and at the end of the month is donated to a nonprofit in the local community. The reason why I say it's inside out is because it starts first with our intention and our commitment to highlighting on our menu. Hey, we're increasing everything fifty cents. The bowl says fourteen and then a little asterisk and uh,

the justice purple as fifty cents. And that starts with us as owners and as leaders. But from there, that fifty cents and where it goes is actually determined by the restaurant staff and the leadership. Each person, whether you are a general manager or a dish washer, has the opportunity to say, hey, I cared deeply about this cause. Here's a community or a group of people or nonprofit doing really great work in this space. Can we raise

funds for them? And our answer is absolutely uh. And we ask that person who makes the nomination to be part of the process. Right, we want you to engage that nonprofit. We want you to really learn about what they do so that we can better spread that message to not only our staff, but to our guests as well. Um. And you know each month that that my mouth has has changed from the first very first campaigns about three

thousand dollars and our last campaign just cracked twenty dollars. Awesome. Um. What are some of the charities that your employees have picked over the last year. I mean, they ranged the gamut because that's the beauty of the whole idea of putting it back in their hands, right, it's the human experience.

Every single person cares about something different. And as much as it's amazing to rally behind a single cause like some companies do, we like to celebrate our staff and we have this ethos that says, be excellent BU and we see this as a way of leaning into that. You know, b excellent means do the best that you can possibly do every day. But BU means don't don't hide behind what you care about and and don't conform to, you know, a generalist idea of what it means to

be charitable. UM. So, I mean, most recently we did one with the Catalyst Foundation. It was actually our very first international campaign rates and what the Catalyst Foundation does is that the aim to stop human trafficking and they're based out of Vietnam, so we have that all the way down to cancer, which is a big one. UM Special Disabilities was one of our favorite ones. There's a local nonprofit of fair Field and they hire UM students

with certain learning disabilities to make dog treats. Uh So it was a great way for us to lean into the dove levels in our company, to lean into education in our company, and ultimately able to touch and feel it. Because they're in fair Field and we operate in fair Field, we were able to go down there and it kind of helped make treats and interact and it was probably

one of the most fun campaigns that we've done. That's very cool, man, And I'm blessed to work for Bloomberg, a place that that UM you know, has charitable giving really in its d n A right and and UM they're very generous generous with their donation matches every year and you know, they'll give us a day off to work in a soup kitchen and different things like that. So I think it creates a lot of loyalty to

the brand for the employees, right. So, uh, I decided assume the same thing for you and uh, it's very important in a tight labor market. So do you have any turnover data that you'd like to share? Remember to do is something that we're actually working on. We just hired you know, we're emerging brand. Right, We're at seven units, so we just hired our director of HRS. I don't have the exact figures, but what I can definitely tell you is that beyond a shot of a doubt, it

makes an impact. And I'll tell you why. I can give you an actually anecdotal experience. Very recently went out to Brookline to Massachusetts, and we were talking to the GM. They're just asking your kind of how it's going and you know, being out of market, and she raised her hand and volunteer to move from the Haven to Brookline for us. Uh. In that conversation really kind of she turned and said, you know it's great. I love it. Um working Justice is doing is a big reason why

I'm here. But I want to do more right. I want you justice to evolve from simply adding fifty cents and raising funds, raising awareness to making it a facilitated process where not only myself and my staff can volunteer that month with the organization. So to me, that's how everything I need to know about the power of each justice. She's not just thinking about her four walls or operation. She's thinking about how can I make an impact in

that community. And when you are interconnected in so many different ways and and kind of have your feet on the ground, I think it makes it a stickier value proposition to the employee as beautiful man. And and like I mentioned earlier, you know brands that that have charitable giving in their DNA. You know, out of the companies that cover I think shake Shack, you know, UM with their donations off their concrete sales that they've been doing from day one, is one where I'd imagine it definitely

boost your sales as well. And and from what I understand, Uh, you're looking to grow pretty significantly. So can you talk a little bit about your development goals for metcha. Yeah. The development goal is, uh, you Justice will grow as Metric grows, So that means match is donna grow because we want to make this impact as big as we possibly can. And uh, to kind of lean into what

you were talking about. The gen Z another example actually from Vegas right in Tony and the last night we went out to our own dinner at MAT thirty two and we were sitting next to two I would say about year olds, UM, and we just got to chat with them, uh, and they asked us what we did, and we explained to them, you know about matchup is then the third and of course what's the first thing

they do. They pull out their cell phone, right and they go on to our Instagram and the very first thing that they click on is a video of an e justice campaign reveal and it was us UM giving out a scholarship to Latino Scholarship Fund students and that was the video. That was the little thumbnail that they clicked and they watched it and that was the conversation. So to me, that tells me everything about you know, that generation and what they want to be connected to it.

What they noticed right there. They're not going to notice that perfectly built bowl and that the photo that you took of it, but they're gonna notice what is it you're doing for the community, What is the bigger purpose here? How can I be connected to it? UM? So we think about it as you know, if we have seven matches that's raising dollars, imagine when it's at and fifteen. We actually recently, just recently, the last campaign wrote the

half million dollar mark. So since we started Adjustice, we've raised a half million dollars of impact in our local communities. Um, so we want that to be a million to three million or more. So that's gonna mean opening in DC, that's gonna be I mean opening you know throughout the Eastern Seaboard and possibly beyond. Right. Um, yeah, that's awesome. Um, it's a great way for you to to expand your reach.

It's it's uh and it's just fantastic what you're doing. Uh. So you mentioned d C, Are there any other areas that you're looking to expand any plans to come to New Jersey? New Jersey is something that's on the list along that side a lot of others, right. Um, So you know, we're definitely thinking about, you know, that kind of Eastern corridor d C, Connecticut, Boston, but you know, there's a lot of other parts of this country that we think would be really fun and exciting to bring

this to write. Whether it's something a little bit further south to Charlotte or a little more west like Denver or even Ohio. Um, you know, in the Midwest. Ultimately, we always tell people that, you know, we sell hugging a bowl and I don't care where you live. Like a hugging a bowl feels good and it makes you feel good. So if we can bring that experience to other parts of the country, UM, there's no real limit

as to where we may want to go. I'd imagine college towns would would be a pretty attractive spot for you if if the if the real estate price makes sense, yep, it's college towns, it's young professionals, and then it's families. Because our average guest pre COVID was nineteen. You know, with the environment that we're in, we're at twenty three. But twenty three is affordable for a family as a once a week, twice a week take auuption UM. So you know, we really are able to service a big

breath of different guests and different life cycles that they're at. Um. And because of that, you know, it kind of really opens up the white space for us across the country in different communities. Cool, very cool, And uh have you done? Do you have a kid's menu? If families are important? You know what what do kids tend to order from? Macha don't need one don't need one. Noodles and broth. Think about it, right, every kid loves spaghetti, every kid

loves noodles. So when you take that noodle experience and drop it into like an unctuous salty ramen broth, I mean, there's just no way that you know, you can lose um. So you know, we do have a chippy ramen we call it, but it's basically ramen within now toppings. But the kids that can have whatever they want, right they want chicken, if they want flam meat balls, if they

want half an egg. But ultimately, you know, you give a kid a bowl of broth and noodles and watch and that is your kids bending at the other day, rightful, do you do? You get a lot of orders for no green stuff. That was my son's favorite order pretty much anywhere we went, no green stuff, you know. Yeah, yeah, that's how we keep it basic noodles and broth. Right, it's the it's the heart of the bowl and let them add to it from there. Great, and it's uh

and is it took table service? Fast casual? What's the It's what you wanted to be, right. It is a full service restaurant. There are servers there is a full bar, but because of the nature of the cuisine, you know, Raman being you want to devour in seven minutes piping hot uh. And then the snacks are are bows and dumplings. So two or three bites, you know you're done with your bow or you're dumpling. You can be in and out less than a half hour we'd like to say

twenty minutes. Or you can take it and turn it into an hour hour and have dinting experience. Right. We have twelve to sixteen small plates and our menu. You can order four or five of those, uh and consider it like a top of style experience where you're all sharing um. So you know there's a gennatic fertility and how the brand is used depending on the moment in

time and the consumer. Very cool and so being a full service restaurant, are you employing tablets or server handhelds or is that something you plan on doing in the future. I know that that's been a big movement over the last couple of years as as wage rates have gone

up in the industry. Yep, it's actually a really a proud moment of my meaning we transition to handhelds about two years ago, right before the pandemic um And it was something that we resisted for a while because we're people first, right, we always say profits matter, but people matter more, UH, and we felt like a handheld is an excuse to make profits matter more, meaning a handhels about efficiency, handheles about execution, and what it does is

for most parts, it makes UH staff members and team members have their nose in the screen and not really connect with the guests in front of them. So you really thought about how do we train against that, how do we train to use the efficiency of the handheld but not take away from the human experience. And I can honestly say we've been quite successful. You know when we do some of these hires. We've been building our team, we hired ahead of ops. You've had a director of

training HR director. We tell them coming to our stores and let me know if this is for you, like, just come in and eat, have the full experience, and time after time after time, when the things we get back is how engage your staff is. I cannot believe how much they care, how excited they are to be there. And I asked the question about the handheld, like how was the handheld and three times or three times it

was I didn't even know it was there. So we make sure that they're trained to interact, answer questions, make sure that you have all the information you need to make your menu decision. Make your decision, and then we pull out the handheld from our back pocket and use it. But we never approached the table with the handheld in our head. Leading with efficiency, that's great, and I'm sure the servers love it. They could carry cover more tables and or more in tips, right and uh, you know,

and and to your point, service is so important. I went out to dinner with my son last night and we had a great experience, you know, and and and uh and it was because of the server. We had been to the restaurant a lot of times. You know, it's a good, good spot, uh, quality food. But he made it special because he he was on top of h he was on top of his game. Anytime we need a drink, as soon as you finished drinking, was

at the table. Anything you needed, uh, he got with a smile, joked around with us, had a good time, and it really made it a great experience, you know. So so it's it's definitely critical. Can you talk a little bit too about uh, other technologies that that you're implementing in the restaurant. You know, a lot of times, um, it's harder for some of these established brands to start implementing technology because they have to redo some of the

mistakes they made in the past. And from from a lot of the emerging brands we speak to, it's it's kind of easier to start with a blank slate almost. So can you talk about some of the other tech initiatives you have going there and metcha? Yeah, I mean we're we're testing a lot of stuff because we're truly on that cust of emerging. You know, we just went out of market for the first time. Um, so it's it's a really fun time to see what's working and

what's not working. So I would say, you know, beyond the transition to the handhelds and the tablets at the table, uh, you know, we're we're looking at ways to leverage things like wisely, uh, to you know, better improve the guest experience. And I'm not talking just about the host management you know, part of the software. I'm talking about the guest sentiment, right, So, how are the guests, you know, viewing their experience and

how are they talking about your experience? And how can we use that information and data to improve within our four walls. So that's something we recently started about three or four months ago, just kind of scouring the digital universe about you know, how do they see us? We know how we see ourselves, but how do they see us? And how do they talk about us? And what can

we lean into or what can we correct for? Right if there's something that you know is consistently coming up as you know, mencha is not this, but we believe that we can offer that, we have to be able to train and pivot towards that. Um. So I would say that's one of the bigger ones right now is really guest sentiment and feedback and the different tools that are out there. I mean, we're evaluating black Box at

the moment as well. Um, just to kind of understand, you know, how does you know staff engagement again going back to the people first piece, how does staff engagement impact that guests experience? So I think those are the two that we're really leading with. They're leading into the most right now in early stages, but you know, excited to see what can come out of it. Our club

for our partners that black Box. They do a great job and what they found throughout history as success of a restaurant core lights closely with the quality and experience of your GM. Right, So i'd imagine your growth plans gives your employees some motivation they they may see some

growth rate with your company. Can you just talk a little bit about the motivation that your your employees have and are they motivated because they see a growth opportunity with MATCHA Yeah, I mean I would actually say that

they see a bigger growth opportunity that we do. Meaning um, you know, when we get together, we bring out the leadership in the room, uh, and we talk about our growth plans, you know, and you ask people who wants to move to a market and help open a mature who wants to take the next step in their career. All the hands go up. So I always like to joke, you know, we have seven gms, we have seven multi

units as well. Um, So I think that you know the idea of always being people first, but understanding that how important profits are because profits facilitate a good job, right and a good work environment. Those two things cannot be taken apart from one another. UM. So when we talk about excellency, we talk about leading into the operation and running a tight business with good margins to allow you to always stay people first, to allow you to offer the benefits that are first in class, to allow

you to offer a better work life balance. UH. And when you do all those things and give somebody a purpose larger than themselves, like the justice, UM, I think that it creates a motivation level where you know, they want they want to see you succeed. And when your employees want to see you succeed, UM, they believe in the growth more than you do. And that's great man. UM. You know one of the companies I covered, Popeyes, UH.

You know, Cheryl bad Shelter was the CEO, and she did a great job of engaging those UH franchise ese UM and and the kind of motivating them to do the same thing. On the employee side, they experienced, you know, astronomical growth and was a phenomenal and phenomenal growth story. And hopefully you have a similar type of story ahead of you. Man. I think what are doing there is

absolutely phenomenal. I think customers know when UH companies are really really interested in in charitable giving and when it's for part or the DNA or if it's not right. And so the fact that you guys are doing such great things engaging your employees in it, um, giving customers a place, a fun place to eat where they feel like they can be a part of something better is just a fantastic story. And I'm looking forward to year and more about uh, you know, your growth over the

years and I can't wait. I can't wait to visit when your restaurants. Yeah, but I need to get you out here. We need to get to get you out here. And one of the things that really want highlay is that you know it could be done a by anybody, right. The whole original intention was to leverage the power of capitalism at what we call the power of this skew. So every purchase is a decision and a decision to

vote with your feet, vote with your wallet. Um. So, whether you're in hospitality or not, the idea of using the power of this you to create change that you want to see is the message that I want to really hope that resonates and people take play without sacrifice. In the bottom line, Uh, you know, we're a highly profitable company who are high growth company, but we have engaged employees and we have a way to make an impact.

And you know, I don't see anything that in that equation that requires you to sacrifice one thing over the other. I think that's perfect spot to wrap up. Can you just let our listeners know where we can We can find matcha, Instagram, TikTok um. You know what's what's the based best place to to find the brand on social media? Yeah, you can. You can find it across all those platforms.

Eat robbin is the handle for Metta Little bar Uh and on there you'll you'll see the links to our injuice, to our TikTok all those content kind of social media places. So you know, go check us out and pop into our stores. Hi Create. Thanks Rich. Bloomberg Intelligence is a service provided by Bloomberg Finance LP and its affiliates. This recording does not constitute, nor should it be construed, as investment advice, investment recommendations, or a recommendation as to an

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