This is the restaurant technology guys podcast, helping you run your restaurant better.
Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys podcast. We thank our audience out there for joining us. As I say each and every time, we know that you guys have got lots of choices on how you spend your time out in the internet world. And so we appreciate you guys spending time with us. Today is one of my favorite types of episodes because we get to talk with a co founder of a hot
brands. And so I'm gonna Dina introduce herself first and then we'll talk a little bit about what she gets to do in this phase of her career because she's had, she's had lots of success in her career in the past. So I'm excited to dig into to her history and then we can jump into what she's doing with cornbread. You know, why don't you introduce yourself to our audience, tell everybody a little bit about you, your history, your background and those kinds of things.
Okay, thanks for having me. My name is Adina bio. I'm co founder CEO of this hot concept called comprehend farm to so and we're literally a hot concept we just got name by restaurant news as the one of the best hot concept of 2023. So I'm excited to be here share what we're doing. And you know, see how we can talk a little bit restaurant tech.
I love it. I love it. Why don't you give our audience a little bit of background? So this isn't your first restaurant venture? You've been doing restaurants for one or two years. Right? You know, you're only like 23 You know, just just out of college you know, one or two years you've been doing restaurants so but want to give everybody a little bit of a background before we dig too deep into cornbread farm to soul.
Yes. started when I was like five years ago and I've been in the restaurant space for 17 years. I started as a I have franchisee I went on to co found Conrad farm to so and another concept corporate city vegan. And so yeah, I've been doing this since I was five. So
yeah, I haven't seen it at 22. You know, 17 years, it makes sense that all the math is making sense. Yes. Perfect. Well, um, for those that haven't experienced cornbread farm to soul, why don't you talk a little bit about what what is it? What is the concept? You know, for those that haven't gotten the privilege to experience it, and even if they read the article that NRN put out, you know, oftentimes it's not the same until you get to get get to
there. So what kind of food is it what, you know, give me a little bit about about what the experience looks like.
Oh, so we are the hottest. So full concept. We were voted the best fried chicken in New York City 2022. We have the best cornbread in the market. We bet we have the best collard greens, we have the best yams the best mac and cheese. We also full concept that is a fast casual concept. We don't have tablecloth, we the best way to describe us is a Chipotle, but we're serving you so full. And we are just really a very driven by our ingredients, our community and the people that work for us,
right. So when I think of so food, the best way I can describe it is we are changing the landscape around food. You know, food is the vehicle in which allow us to build communities and employ people. So for me, I always say food is a byproduct, but we are people based community based and which is really getting people in the door to support our cause of hiring people with pain and well.
I love it. I love it. For those that haven't you talked about some of the ingredients and some of the product. But for those that are less familiar with soul food, because it's not Chipotle, it's not Mexican food, it's not Italian food. Well you know where you've got these these large slots and you know, soul food to different people in different places is often even misconstrued. So talk to me, where would the origin Where's soul food come from? With you
and your co founder? We you know, kind of where's the origin of that and then let's talk a little bit about the food and, and why you guys chose to go down that route.
So my co founder lJd Smith, is from Tifton, Georgia. And she is an amazing human being. She actually worked with Dr. Martin Luther King in the south. And when you think about soulful you think about all of the other cuisines that you literally just name. So food is the only thing America is responsible for. Yeah. America is not responsible for Mexican, Italian and Chinese. Another have that America is responsible
for so full. And we think of so food think of, you know be most would think of this AF in terms of Yes, it was really full that I want to say, fu my ancestor, fat. So with of a journey of, you know, the journey of people through food, when I think of so far, I think of the journey of African American people in this
country, but to so full. So we went through that journey with my co founder, understanding what that journey was like, for our ancestors, on farms on plantations, making the best of what they had to create a really, really wholesome, tasty food. So really, when I think of so far, I look at soulful as a journey of African American people, but through food.
That's, that's a great explanation. I years ago, I did did business with with a group that was that had opened up a soul food restaurant in Los Angeles. And it was, it was kind of that same concept of let's get back to the roots of where
we were at. And the part that the part that I do find interesting is, is you guys have got a couple of stores, but they're not, I guess, where you would traditionally find soul food, you know, and so talk to me a little bit about that journey, because it sounds like it's something that you're probably I don't know, maybe I'm taking a leap here, but you've got to educate people, not just this audience that's on the, you know, listening to our show
here. But the people that aren't as familiar with soul food in, you know, the tri state area, you know, New York, New Jersey, and such. So talk to me a little bit about that journey and how that's been.
So really, when we opened a concept we wanted to, obviously, the concept is Young is hip is really, it's a beautiful place in a very casual environment. And we wanted to make some food for everyone. So food for everybody. Right? So we are in our first was in Maplewood, New Jersey is a very suburban town. And when we open, the diversity of people that came in that door was amazing. We were in a predominantly white community. And people came, people came from everywhere, we
had lungs, lines after door. But it was the thing that was so amazing about that was people came for the good food we are selling, right. And I think that have no bounds that have no ethnicity that have when your food is good, it allows you to bring so many people along your journey, right? So when esto first opened, it was an open to a really amazing reception.
Because the fool that my co founder who is responsible for all of the recipe had crafted was some really mouth watering things that would just knock your socks off when you put them on your tongue. So I think this part is to assess was yes. was doing so far in a way it hasn't been done. But I also think a lot of they have to do what I feel how amazing it is.
Yeah, I, as I've been been doing, you know, I didn't do as much research about you and your co founder, but I did do some research about the food. And it definitely is mouthwatering. And you guys have done a good job of making it. One of our one of our customers talks about the crave ability
factor. And it feels like a lot of what it is you guys do hit straight to that communal aspect of food because they know, again, we talk about it often on the show, it's like food is used as a means to gather food is used as a means, you know, there's very few gatherings that don't have some food and some beverage and so now go back to that. You talked a little bit about your guys's passion for people. Talk to me a little bit more about the passion for people and why why is such a
passion for people? And why are you you know, man, I love that you guys are using food and restaurants to employ people and try and get people into a better place. But where does that come from?
I think for me, it comes from my journey as someone that have had to overcome a lot of adversity in my life. I've had to deal with personal trauma. I've had to deal with escaping a civil war. I've had to growing up in profit property property. I'm sorry, yeah, you're growing up in poverty. I've had to deal with being dyslexia I had to deal with, you know, coming into this country at 13. But being put in the seventh grade, graduating the
top seven of my class. I think for me, I've always benefited from the generosity of other people. I think Jenna Rhapsody of other people have played a great impact in my life. So when I think about how I want to spend the rest of my life and the journey that I want to take on, I want to be very generous to people. I want to be generous with my spirits, I want to be generous with my time. And I also want to be equitable to people. I want people that work in my stores to know that they
are being paid well, right. So for me that focus on people come from my journey of not being here today, but for the generosity of other people. And understanding that when life gets hard, that humanity steps in humanity chips in, and I want to pay that forward. And I want my team to be part of something that we're all growing together, you know, I want my team to know that Congress successful that they had a hand to play in that.
So that is where their focus, like all three of my story now are ran by women, about 80% of leadership position in my company is held by women. And that is very intentional. I want to create a concept that recognize the strength in women, and know that women, when given the opportunity can outperform male, so that focus on the human factors that have come from my spirits.
Well, it's no wonder with that, that in mind that you guys have been successful, you've got fantastic food, you guys have a focus on the people, which at the end of the day creates a great guest experience, you've got great food, you've got great ambiance and environment based on the people owning it and caring for it, you want to talk a little bit about kind of what it is you guys did to set out to make the dining experience I don't say unique but different than than what most two to three unit
operators would do from a tech side. It is, after all, the restaurant technology guys podcast. So talk to me a little bit about what the technology experience might look like, from a brand that you know, again, only has three stores today. I'm sure by the time that this goes live, you guys will be you guys will be well into your you know, well into planning stages for
opening a lot more. But um, but talk to me a little bit about what the what the the the experience looks like, for for guests when they come in, from a tech perspective, how do they engage with the brand, both in store and then we can talk a little bit about about outside of the four walls.
So we've always been technology focus, I said, we live in a world in a tech age. And you have to be engaged with technology if you're gonna grow in a meaningful way. So for starter, you know, we're three stores, but we work with a concept called locate AI that locate our locations for us. They know our data, they know our customers, and they go out
and scout locations for us. And know, let me know Edina based on the experience of Maplewood and the success of Maplewood, you want to duplicate that, we find a neighborhood that fit that demographic that fit that. That fits what Matt was doing. And that's how we select our sites. And you know, we have stuff
order and chaos. We have people that come in that don't want to use a cashier to place their order, you can go to our stuff Oriente ours, we have an app, you can go on our app, you can order, you can place your order, pick it up delivery. And we'll also have a partnership with Uber, where we have them as our exclusive third party delivery service. So we have been at this technology thing for a very long time. We don't make no decision internally, unless we run the
numbers. We don't take locations unless we run them through our locate, you know, our locator platform. We are we're you know, we, our POS toasts and we dive into the data we dive into what is the guest saying about this new product is moving as a selling? And what we find is that when you pay attention to the data, you can make decisions that are well informed, even if because sometimes I think you think well that just makes
sense. Even if it doesn't make sense that number and the data sometimes supports those decisions.
Yeah. And so, um, you talked about your your location selections. software that you guys are using. And I know that that's become more and more commonplace with restaurants to help me understand what it is that, you know, because you guys are at three now I'm assuming you guys have a desire to grow, or what you guys are looking to do. And so we'll talk about what were your guys's growth trajectories are here in just a few minutes. But But what pieces of data? Are you guys looking at? Is it
demographic? Is it psychographic? Is it? You know, when you guys are picking locations? Is that median income? Is it how close to a school how far away from a school that is? Talk to me a little bit about about that, because I think it's an
interesting play. And I think all too often, I've talked with lots of restaurant tours on the show, and just in the walks of what I get to do for a living, they pick the wrong location, and that location ends up burying them because it's it they get stuck in a five year lease, and now they're stuck in a five year lease, and they can't get out of it. And that money that you're making in the other stores is now going to this location that that's
unsuccessful. So what pieces of data are you guys looking for, in order to not just say, Oh, this is really pretty building and it looks like it'd be a fun place to go open up a new restaurant. The data, as you talked about, it is critical to making those decisions. Can you can you share a little bit more insight as to what you guys do with that?
Jim? Can I tell you literally how we are there example that you just give is so it's so it's so important. And we'd have had to learn by a great deal by making a decision and not relying on technology. But going up, what we perceive was a good decision. So actually a quick story with you know, I'd love to, after we built our first door, it was amazing. We had great. Let me there's two stores have done well. So we we got into a partnership with
Walmart. And we in Walmart gave us a really great opportunity this that, you know, you guys can go into WalMart stores, you guys can you know, replace some McDonald's some subway and go in there. We just thought oh, great. This is this is an amazing opportunity. Let's do it. We didn't run no data to say what warmth or location we should be in. We just sort of say, oh, let's go by the highest
growth in Walmart. There's a Walmart in Pittsburgh, that's doing excellent million demos be the Walmart of being with the three of us stores inside of Walmart. And it was a mistake. Our customers were in there, we
were in the wrong place. And right, as we open them, the pandemic also hit, we close down the stores, but how we at the time had our platform now, we will not have made those decision without first running those addresses on the platform to see its demographic there is our you know, it's the customers that we're going after. So socially audit there, we would definitely have the data to make a more informed decision we did
not. And that causes a great deal of money that cost millions of dollars and human time that we can never get back. But it's all part of the journey of learning. When you go into these opportunities. Don't be so excited and have the opportunity. But take a step back and say this is a great opportunity. But it said the right opportunity for me at this time.
Yeah, yeah, I was talking to a restaurant owner just last week about that same idea is he was so excited. It was opening his first restaurant, it was a for it happened to be a Franchise Group. And he happens to be a friend of mine. And ironically, I had said to him before he went into their franchise group. I said to him, I've been in the restaurant business for 25 years. I'll give you free consulting, let me help you. And he's like, no, no, no, I got to
figure it out. I you know, they told me that this would be the right place and, and our kids happened to go to school together. And I said, Oh, hey, how's it going, knowing that the store is not doing well, because I drive by it. I'm in the community and I see it and it's nothing against this guy as much as it was the idea that says he had some vision that it was going to just hit and the truth is is based on his product. And based on the demographics around
there. The median income was there, but the product didn't fit that need that says people are going to go to this place two times a week which is really what he needed them to go to, you know, it's not a sandwich shop it's it happens to be a poke a place and poke a wall. It's fantastic. There is a lot of people that won't eat poker more than once maybe a month where you know, twice a month
kind of thing. And so with that some you know, I guess your thought on kind of understood Getting the demographics understanding who you guys are understanding who you guys serve.
It's such a it's so important, this type of demographic? Yes. Um, you want sometimes go off your guts, but you got to pay attention to those numbers. And and the data is out there that's going to help you make a more informed decision. Yeah,
well, and it's amazing how few people actually use those tools. And so I love that you talk about that as even one of your first pieces of tech, which is understanding that it's going to be successful, because not only the millions of dollars that you guys lost, I can imagine it was an extreme distraction, trying to figure out what are we doing
here? Why is it not working? And it takes away from the passion that you have for the people that are already there making the brand work and the original couple of stores. And now you're stuck, you know, investing time, money and energy into something that isn't working. And it's taking away because you only have the same amount of hours in the day that everybody does to invest in those stores. Right, exactly. So you talked about some you talked about
experiencing the brand. You talked about early on walking in. And you know, ordering at a counter, you also talked about the fact that you guys put in self service kiosk, talk to me a little bit about that journey, because some will say and I'm and I know the answer to this based on your passion for the people, oh, you're just putting in kiosks to eliminate jobs. Oh, you're just putting in online
ordering to eliminate jobs. Talk to me about how you guys balance that because at the end of the day, you guys are passionate about helping people to fulfill what it is that they that they need to do given them well paying jobs. And at the same time, you guys have chosen to have tech to help augment the guest experience in a positive way for what the guests are
looking for. So talk to me a little bit about how you guys have been balancing those two, what some people will say as antithetical, I think it's actually an enhancement to the experience that the staff members have. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on that, if you wouldn't mind. I think it's
both, I think, you know, as much as we want to say, we want to support someone being a cashier there, our customer, our data told us that much rather half and Tech experience, they prefer to be at that kiosk, place their order and wait and, and we can we can ramp our views and thoughts down people so as
to be respectful of that. Yeah, there is no doubt in my mind that going in a store and have an option of I can either order with a cache, or I can order an ACEF Order and Chaos give you a added advantage over any brand. That's only doing it one way or the other. So for us, we chose both, we are accommodating to those folks that want to have the human experience. But we're also competent and respect for those people that just want to come in order and pick up and
go. Right? Well also respect for those people that just want to be in their pajamas, and it come to their door and they continue to binge watch on Game of Thrones. You know that Beyonce can you know, so for me, I'm going to meet you wherever you're at, right? And my job is to make sure that experience is a good one. Right? I always say to my team, when a guest come to our restaurant, when something happened for them, we have one, when something happened to them,
we have loss. So I drill in their mind to be very mindful when something is happening for our guests, versus when something is happening to our guests.
That's such an amazing paradigm. I love that I'm gonna use that I'm gonna end up stealing that. I hope you don't mind I'll use that. I'll use that with my with our own team. Do you he talks about some your exclusive relationship with
Uber. You talk to me a little bit about where and why that was something you guys chose to do as a business because some just go all out and they go DoorDash GrubHub UberEATS, you know, and others, like you guys have picked one platform and said, You know what, we're going to invest our time and energy into the one platform that we think is is best for us talk to me a little bit about that decision making and how and why you guys went down that route.
So I think for me, I'm a very simple, like, simplicity has always been the key to my success being simple organized. In the restaurant space. We have restaurant owners are now being inundated as vendor menu
had to say about you know, being a vendor manager versus being a restaurant and so I think all too often, restaurant tours will try and get everything done all at the same time. And I think all too often, they lose focus on the food and the customer and their employees. And they want to become tech entrepreneurs, they want to be, you know, they want to be marketing people. And it's like, focus on what it is that
you guys do. And so I love your, your thought that says, let's focus on, you know, building a deep level relationship with one provider and doing it well. And you know what the other ones, we can live it live without it. So talk to me a little bit about kind of the how and the why behind going UberEATS. And what that meant to your guys's business. From a simplicity perspective,
I just wanted to make the process very simple for my team. I wanted to make sure that we were delivering great service, even when there was a third party delivery service, right. I wanted to make that process seamless for our guests, and also very seamless for my internal customers, which is the people that work for me. Yeah. And I just find that having all these third party delivery app in the stores was creating
chaos. Yeah. And I wanted to get out of the vendor management experience, and manage my team, and make sure that we were doing it in the right way in whatever platform we decided on. And we did our research, we found out you know, obrah was the third party to have most of our customers. So we, again, we let the data and the customer led that decision to go with Uber, it wasn't a had anything, it just our customer, were using that platform at a higher rate
than anyone in a platform. So again, I want to focus on what I'm good at. And that's managing my staff and managing the stores and building concepts. Right? So I'm not doing that when I'm spending the time working on that person, that person that person apt to figure it out. That's not my best best use of my time.
I love that simplicity. And again, we joke with some of our customers just like you sell hamburgers, we do technology, you should let us do technology while you do hamburgers. Yes. So with that, I always I like to ask this question, because oftentimes, there's a challenge with the both third party delivery and just take out in general, based on the type of products that you sell. You guys, you know, looking at your menu, you guys
have some fried foods. How have you guys managed food quality outside of the four walls when it comes to you know, the food being hot? And you know, nobody likes soggy? You know, Fried, fried catfish, right? Nobody likes soggy fried chicken. They like it crispy. They like it hot. They like it. And so how have you guys managed that, and a guest experience perspective, as it relates to whether it be third party delivery or even, you know, people coming in for takeout?
I think I have obsessive personality. So I have literally spent obscene amount of time tried to focus on how long do my frog cat fish sit there before it gets soggy. So I've literally done the test in store. First of all, our cat fish is half this crispy batter with this tender juicy inside, that when you that first bite, I want you to that crunch. So my co founder is also very obsessed with the upkeep of the quality
of the food. So she and I got on this journey where we did the cat fish, we let it sit and see how many hours before you lose that crunch. Right? We find that our cat fish without anything, can sit there six hours for years, and you still get that crunch. And we've had to play with so many different batters. We've had to play with so many fryers. We've had to, you know, we want to make sure we're not selling you greasy and oily food either. So it's been a journey
of tests. It's been a journey of less make sure we obsess about the quality of our food. How does it make it to your doorsteps?
I think again, similar to the conversation we had about people and and focusing on ensuring that you've got that guests experience is huge. You alluded to it earlier didn't talk to me about Chris you know you guys you guys have have the three stores today. You guys did expand pandemic hit talked a little bit about the Walmart thing. Talk to me a little bit about what's your guys's trajectory you guys just got named you know, this hot
concept. And you know, I love that that you guys are getting sold foods for the masses for lack of a better term. You know, you guys are getting them out there and it's becoming more and
more. I mean, it's always been relevant but now we've got people that are going to be able to experience it where they wouldn't have been able to otherwise but what we're besides the sky's the limit and you guys are gonna have 500 store As you guys are going to compete with Chipotle and, and subway across the country, where are you guys out on the growth trajectory? And what do you see for the next, you know, one three and five years for your guys's brand?
Yeah, that's a great question. And my goal right now is to get us to 20 Stone in next five years $50 million in revenue, right? That is my, that is my that is where the brand is going. And we want to grow in the New York market we want we have a store in Brooklyn right now that's killing it. We think we could put another three or four stores
in Brooklyn next year. So if anyone listening you have this amazing location, on IG, Deena bio, or hit me up on corporate so and I want to really infiltrate that Brooklyn market. And do queens do Harlem like, I want the strategy to be New York focus, right? Then once we kill a New York, then we can say, Okay, let's go to Philly, let's do dc, let's go to Virginia, you
know, that sort of things. But right now, the focus is really in our backyard where we know we're killing it would, you know, so we're not wasting our marketing dollars throughout different markets, where we have this very insulated growth plan that allows us to grow where we are capitalizing on our staff, capitalizing the marketing dollars, supply chain, all of those things come into play.
I love it. And I'm gonna make an assumption here, but you guys are currently all owned and operated by you and your co founder or you guys get into the franchise market.
We're on an app right now. You don't have a franchise background and a franchisee for about 17 years.
So yeah, started when you were two or three. Right? You know, when you were five, you know? Yeah, franchise franchise business. I got it. We gotta go back to that.
And that's the plan right now is to grow the brand, grow, grow the brand in a very intentional way.
I love it. I love it. What did we miss today? What is there anything that we missed in our conversation that that you want everybody to know about? About? Cornbread farm to soul?
I think the only thing that I sort of want to put out there is that the whoever's listening is support, support comrades support women owned businesses. Because when we're given resources, when we're given opportunity is not just a space where is about us. It is not a cornbread. I want you guys to know, the mindset here is to grow. And as we grow and to grow our people with us, right? As cornbread grow, I want people to grow with us. So whenever you can, if you're in our neighborhood, you're in
Brooklyn. We're on Eastern Parkway in Bedford, if you're in New Jersey, we're in Maplewood. We're in New York, and we're opening in Montclair in three weeks. So I want you to support us, we are on third party, we do catering do support us, because the only way this happen is to you and your support.
I can't wait to try it next time. I'm on that on that coast. Um, I'm not gonna lie checking out the pictures online. I'm like, Ooh, that looks really good. So yeah,
you know what, you're really close. Okay, happy together.
I would love to, I'd love to I LA and New York City is one of my favorite places in the world. So I, I find my way there on accident from time to time. Again, I'm like, I make up excuses to come into the city. So I love it. I love it. How can they learn more? How can they get the same capability that I've been getting? While I've been checking out the food online? Where can they find you? Where can they find the brand, you know, direct them on the web, and I'll put it in the show
notes. Once we get done.
Come to our stores, experience us a live person, experience what this corner is all about. And if nothing else, I'll leave your audience with this. I will lead them with this journey that we're on that you're on. It's a journey of self discovery. And if the universe have put in your mind that this is where you need
to be, go for it. Because if I'm sitting here, someone that escaped Civil War, someone that have experienced personal trauma, someone that was dyslexia, someone that did not know anything about this system, and I'm sitting here today on the show, you also have it in you so I want to inspire everyone to live that in a dream You have anything they want to do. So I'm grateful to be here and share this hour with you and your audience and just, I'm in a happy place but I'm talking about food.
Like I say often I can't wait to I can't wait to check it out. And Dina, thank you very much for sharing your story. Tell your co founder, thank you for for doing what you what you guys are doing because it's it's an amazing story of triumph over over a lot of difficult circumstances. And at the same time, you guys are truly making a difference in the world. And so to that, I say thank you, to our audience,
guys. We know that you guys have got lots of choices, as I said on the onset, if you haven't already subscribed, please do so. On either your favorite podcast player or on YouTube. I do thank you so much into our audience, make it a great day.
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