#11 A Journey of Resilience with Victor Chan of SUteiShi in New York City

In this captivating episode of Restaurant Leaders Unplugged, we’re joined by Victor Chan, founder of Suteishi Japanese Restaurant in New York City. With a fascinating journey that began as an aircraft mechanic and led through cigar shops and cafés before opening his celebrated sushi restaurant, Victor’s story is one of resilience, creativity, and leadership.

Victor shares his approach to transforming the dining experience—every scent, taste, and sound thoughtfully curated to take guests on a memorable journey. We dive into his experience navigating major challenges like Hurricane Sandy and the pandemic, the pivotal lessons from joining the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and his core leadership philosophy that prioritizes culture and empowers his team.

Get ready to learn from Victor’s unique take on restaurant marketing, his process for staying relevant in a competitive market, and his insights on building a brand with lasting impact. Don’t miss this conversation packed with wisdom for restaurateurs and leaders alike.

Tune in and discover:

• The art of crafting a holistic dining experience
• Overcoming adversity in the restaurant industry
• Building a loyal, empowered team culture
• Staying relevant and innovative in NYC’s food scene

Listen now and be inspired by Victor Chan’s story of resilience, adaptability, and dedication to excellence!

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Transcript

Victor Chan – Transcript 

(0:00 - 0:26)

The way I look at restaurants, you have an opportunity to control this person's next hour and a half, from the time they walk into the door, to how they greet you, what they smell, what they see, you have captured them, and you can create an environment where you really can take them on a journey. And so that's the way I see it. It's like everything that they see, they smell, they hear, they taste is controlled by me.

(0:26 - 0:42)

Welcome to the Restaurant Leaders Unplugged podcast, where real talks with restaurant leaders take center stage. Discover the challenges and victories that define success in the culinary world. Dive into essential strategies from marketing to operations and gain insights that will transform your approach to your restaurant business.

(0:43 - 0:52)

Don't just keep up, lead the way. Join me, your host, Sebastian Stahl, on this journey to excellence. Nature, welcome to the Restaurant Leaders Unplugged podcast.

(0:52 - 0:57)

It's really a pleasure today to have you here. Same here, Sebastian. Glad to be here.

(0:58 - 1:04)

All right. So today, guys, we have a special treat here for you guys. Again, Victor Chen from Tsuteshi Japanese Restaurant in New York City.

(1:04 - 1:20)

Victor's journey is in the restaurant world is quite unique and not your typical story. He was an aircraft mechanic and then running a cigar shop, cigar shops, actually, and then eventually starting a sushi spot in New York City, of course, in a very competitive market. So he's navigated a lot of challenges.

(1:20 - 1:29)

I think there's a lot of value behind Victor's story today. So again, Victor, welcome. And let's dive into the beginning of your story.

(1:31 - 1:43)

The beginning of the restaurant? You want to start there or? Let's start how you ended up getting into the restaurant business. Let's start where you started, right? Cause I know you were an aircraft mechanic. Oh, and I also forgot to mention a stuntman.

(1:43 - 1:50)

So I know there's a lot of days behind your story before you even getting into the restaurant world. So you can start with that. Sure, sure.

(1:50 - 2:04)

So I started as an aircraft mechanic for 14 years, always wanted to get into business. And a friend of mine there said in 1994 that we should get into the cigar business. And I was like, I don't know anybody in the cigar business.

(2:04 - 2:17)

But at that time we were passing over the FDR drive, the South street seaport. And I said, there, there, that's where we, we got to open the cigar business. And we made a little pitch about selling premium hand rolled cigars on the pier.

(2:17 - 2:33)

And the lady just looked at me, the leasing agent. And she says, you know, there's no smoking on a wooden pier. And so we had to kind of like convince her that no, these are like, you know, not dirty like cigarettes, but more refined, you know, it's a hand rolled, it's aged, it's aged tobacco.

(2:34 - 2:46)

And so she said, why don't you try it on a cart? And so we were the first ones ever to retail premium hand rolled cigars out of all cart. Yeah. And at that time we were working for the airline.

(2:46 - 3:08)

So I was doing the midnight shift and pre 9-11, you just showed your ID and jumped on an airplane and we were able to open in Faneuil Hall in Boston and Inner Harbor in Baltimore and kind of spread pretty quickly at that time as cigars, the popularity really grew. So what happened after that? Well, we split up. I kept New York, he kept Baltimore, we sold off Boston.

(3:08 - 3:21)

And I think it was Bloomberg who, or Giuliani who, Mayor Giuliani, who stopped all the smoking in bars and restaurants. And that created a huge challenge for us because our sales went down. So I pitched the landlord to sell Cuban coffee with cigars.

(3:22 - 3:37)

And Cuban coffee is just espresso and you add a little steamed milk to it. You add cappuccinos and we had a line out the door for cappuccinos. So I think Cuban coffee is more like, I would say a mix of cocaine and coffee.

(3:38 - 3:43)

I don't know. Thank you. We called it a Cyber Cigar Coffee Bar.

(3:43 - 3:56)

So that was the beginning of my journey in business. I really didn't have a business background. I did a lot of things wrong, but we also kept on trying and plugging away and doing different things to adapt to the situations.

(3:56 - 4:10)

And one of the things that the landlord did see how we were adapting and there was an empty space there and she asked me if I wanted to do something with that space. And at that time Paninis were really popular. I didn't want to call them Paninis.

(4:10 - 4:22)

I called them Slamwiches. I trademarked the name actually. I later sold it to Denny's, which it's another story because Denny's Grand Slam breakfast, you know, they bought my trademark to Slamwich.

(4:22 - 4:53)

But if I knew it was Denny's and it was buying, if I would have sold it for a couple more zeros, then I did, you know, yeah, that was an interesting story. But three years later, we had this little cafe called A Bite to Eat, home of the Slamwich and three years later, the landlord needed the space back. And I'm not sure if you're familiar with the lower Manhattan here in New York city, it was the Fulton's fish market that was here and Giuliani moved it, the mayor Giuliani moved it to the Bronx and this whole new area just kind of erupted.

(4:54 - 5:19)

And a real estate guy was showing me a space and I'm looking out the window at the Brooklyn bridge in this empty space in a new gentrified area. And I said, this place, nobody's gonna walk this far for a Slamwich, but it speaks sushi to me. And I said, what do they want for the rent? And then the guy was like, just put in a bid, just put in a bid, the real estate guy, and I put in the bid for a sushi restaurant and they came back with a hundred dollars on top of my bid.

(5:20 - 5:38)

And I said, I guess I'm doing sushi. And so just like that, how's the sushi concept came about? You know, all this expert planning and everything really didn't kick in. So it was, and at that time I literally bet the house on it.

(5:38 - 5:52)

I had mortgaged my house to get enough money to build a sushi restaurant. Wow. So who was doing the cooking? How did you even think about it? Cause I mean, I know your background is, you know, well, I'll, I'll, I did skip over a little.

(5:52 - 6:17)

So while I was doing a bite to eat home of the Slamwich, I had a customer who came in and said, cause he was watching me do everything. I was like frantic running here, running there, taking care of this thing, taking care of that, and he said to me, you know, Victor, you should pick up this book called the E-myth by Michael Gerber. And I picked up that book I read and I cried because I was this character Sally in his book who was doing everything.

(6:18 - 6:35)

And so I learned to systematize my business and create a handbook, an operational handbook and delegated different parts of the operations. And he came back to me and he saw all the changes that I was doing. He goes, you know, you'd be a good candidate for EO.

(6:36 - 7:15)

And I was like, EO, what's that? And he was like the entrepreneurs organization. So I joined the entrepreneurs organization in 2005 and that really opened my eyes to how business is really supposed to be run. And just so grateful to be with like-minded people and tell my kids now that whatever field that they're in, it's so important to join organizations within your field because it's just dealing with like-minded people and they have the same kind of challenges that you have and just hearing about their experience and how they dealt with those challenges is incredible learning experience.

(7:16 - 7:23)

A hundred percent. And Victor, especially in the restaurant world, when you're starting out systematizing your restaurant is done and you don't even think about it. Right.

(7:23 - 7:51)

And it's, you're just trying to get by and get things done, but it's such a key factor, right? Especially for those creative minds, right? The chefs that go out and like build a restaurant, but at the end of the day, restaurants are all about processes and systems like without those and that balance between creativity and processes, right? It's a delicate mix, right? So you can keep both things consistent, but I think it's definitely key. So what do you think, Victor, of course, you've been in business for over 18 years and that's a long time. For family business, yeah.

(7:51 - 8:11)

A hundred percent. So what do you attribute, and we're going to get into the challenges because I know you've faced a lot of different things, but what do you attribute the success of being open for 18 years in a restaurant in New York City? I don't know if there's a perfect formula. I think luck has a lot to play with it, play within, you have to be really lucky as well.

(8:12 - 8:33)

But aside from that, what you can do proactively is build a team. You know, you have to realize that my lowest paid employees are in touch with my customers the most. And so I really worked on the culture of the business, building a culture of empowering my employees.

(8:33 - 8:45)

So I'm not a micromanager. I like to explain the situation. And, um, it's one thing that I learned from Michael Gerber is that, you know, I know what to do and when to do it.

(8:45 - 9:14)

And if you place what to do, what to do for each position, you make that a hiring tool. So if I'm talking to a waitstaff, I would have all their duties listed. Can you serve people in a polite manner? Are you willing to learn the menu? Are you willing to do a quarterly assessments and you know, all these things, and as you go through the role of clean wipe tables, you know, service, learn the POS system, all these things we build points on.

(9:14 - 9:32)

And these points is a ratio of her tips in accordance to other waitstaff. And so if she's at a hundred points, that means she's passed certain tests and that person passed certain tests and passed certain milestones in order to be a hundred points. So we built that into a hiring mechanism.

(9:32 - 9:43)

Just having them understand what their role is and what to do and when to do it was so important in building a relaxed culture. So I don't say, oh, now you got to go sweep. Now do this.

(9:43 - 10:09)

Now do that. Nobody likes to be micromanaged in a business. And I think building that type of empowering employees has really helped me to like my manager has been with me for 18 years, my sushi chef's been with me for 14 years, we've had a lot of long-term employees and that's because I give them the freedom to do it the way they would want, I mean, a great example of this is like the McDonald's.

(10:09 - 10:34)

You have teenage kids operating a multimillion dollar business, right? So McDonald's, they have a system and the employees operate the system. And so you can hire somebody who says, hi, welcome to McDonald's. Would you like that supersized? Or you can hire somebody with a greater personality and, uh, hi, welcome to McDonald's, uh, would you like that supersized, right? So you can't do that really.

(10:34 - 10:44)

So we hire for personality and we always taught the nuances of the role, but we always hired for personality first. Right. Cause that's something you can't teach.

(10:44 - 10:51)

Yeah, exactly. I can teach you how to wipe a table, but I can't teach you to smile and you know. Right.

(10:51 - 10:52)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

(10:52 - 11:07)

A hundred percent. You can't teach people hospitality, some things yes you can, but a lot of the other things, it just comes. Victor, so within this 18 years of your trajectory in this business, tell us a little bit about the challenges that you faced throughout the years.

(11:07 - 11:21)

I know you went through a hurricane, worst pandemic that we all went through, 2008 financial crisis. Walk us through a little bit of those challenges, because I know you were invited to give a talk on adversity. So you had your fair share of difficult situations that you've overcome.

(11:22 - 11:30)

So yeah, tell us a little about those stories. Well, 2008 financial crisis, everything just kind of shut down. Nobody was spending money.

(11:30 - 11:59)

And of course we thrived on having our business launches that being down by the financial district here in New York City. And so how we mitigated through that was we did lower our prices some, and we did reach out to our catering and take out lunches, so we really focused on that because they still need to eat lunch, but you know, we offered discount and we offered promoted more about delivery. That seemed to work for us at that time.

(11:59 - 12:14)

A more difficult time, that was in 2008 financial, and then that's 2008 and 2013, 2012, 13 was hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy destroyed the restaurant. That was the most difficult time in my life.

(12:15 - 12:24)

We had six feet of flood water and the whole, the whole area was destroyed. Nevermind just my restaurant. So that was the lowest time in my life because I didn't know what to do with myself.

(12:24 - 12:55)

At one point, the landlord locked us out of even trying to clean up the restaurant or anything like that because of infrastructure problems within the building, and I was still part of the entrepreneurs organization and talking with people from Hurricane Katrina in our chapter in New Orleans, I was able to get, gain a lot of perspective on how to deal with these type of adversity. And the number one thing I was like, I don't know if I have time for the entrepreneurs organization. I got so much to deal with this and that.

(12:55 - 13:24)

And one of the guys was like, this is when you need this organization the most. Uh, he was totally right because as I continued in and attended events, I got to talking to another person who from Katrina and I estimate their experience about taking charity because a lot of people were offering money and helping to rebuild and, and, and how that would impact my business. And so I talked to this named Jude Oldlinger and, uh, from New Orleans.

(13:24 - 13:40)

He said to me, we don't have, during Katrina, we didn't have the vehicles for charity, online charity, but why don't you pre-sell your meals? I was like, what? He goes, yeah, yeah. Have your guests buy a meal today and redeem it after you're opened. And I was like, oh, wow.

(13:41 - 13:56)

And we were able to raise $50,000 just from that one idea to help him build. And so just being part of the organization and like-minded people really made an impact. Took us a year to rebuild, uh, the restaurant.

(13:57 - 14:03)

But we, uh, we kept our name out there through delivery and takeout. Wow. That was rough to say the least.

(14:04 - 14:36)

And so when you were going through all of this, you know, your team's looking up to you and as entrepreneurs or restauranteurs, we got to keep it together. You know what I mean? At least try to, right? Because the team's looking up to you to see, you know, what you're going to do next. How did you internally and emotionally and in terms of your mindset, Victor, how did you stay centered and how did you overcome all of these things that were happening mentally and be able to lead a team through all these things? Yeah.

(14:36 - 14:49)

Sebastian, when it first happened, I was in the doldrums. I was in a pity party. And for the first couple, three weeks, I just moped around and moaned and groaned.

(14:49 - 15:05)

And I'll be honest, one day I smoked a little marijuana and I had this revelation. I don't know what it was, but I haven't smoked in, you know, over 20 years as an aircraft mechanic and all that. And it just so happened that I have an opportunity and I did it.

(15:05 - 15:20)

And actually it opened my eyes to my situation. And what it said to me was like, how am I living? I don't know why that resonated with me. It's like, I was looking at myself from the outside and saying that other people are looking to me as well.

(15:20 - 15:39)

And how am I going to respond to this? So I picked up my bootstraps and, you know, started folding my clothes and doing my laundry, started with that and started with little things to make little goals. And then I was told by people in New Orleans, don't wait for help. Help will come, but don't wait for it.

(15:39 - 15:44)

Be proactive. And that's exactly what I did. We started, you know, I gathered the team.

(15:44 - 16:09)

That's actually how we found the neighbor because we were here, we were meeting there to get breakfast. And then we were saying, talking to the owner and, and saying, Hey, you know, the idea just popped up and say, why can't we ask them to rent this space? And so when you get involved and get proactive, you see a lot more opportunities and your eyes open to instead of being at a pity party. Right.

(16:09 - 16:17)

Right. A hundred percent. And you mentioned two important things there, I think for entrepreneurship in general is humility, which is, I don't know, have all the answers.

(16:17 - 16:30)

Let me find them. Cause other people have gone through this and then finding that support and then chopping wood and carrying water, just do the next thing that's in front of you because we can't see, we can't see. And I've been there too.

(16:31 - 16:40)

And I think many people or every restaurateur has been there. That's really meant 18 years of experience of doing this thing. Yeah.

(16:40 - 16:58)

Yeah. Now the pandemic was a whole, that was another, that's another time I thought that was it. You know, how's my business going to survive? How am I going to survive? And just to interrupt there, Victor, you have kids and you have a family as well, right? So you're not even thinking just a restaurant.

(16:58 - 17:06)

You're thinking of how am I going to keep my family afloat going through all this stuff, right? Like many people, like we all did. Yes. Yes.

(17:06 - 17:21)

One of the biggest transitions was leaving a safe, secure job, quote unquote, as an aircraft mechanic. And taking that leap of faith to quit that job and go fully into business. For me, I'm a Christian.

(17:21 - 17:43)

I use that faith a lot and you have to believe and see a future, see something better than what is now. And just take a step here and a step there and be bold enough to do that. For me, it's taking steps with the team, right? So if I didn't have my team with me watching me and helping me in every which way, it's not all my ideas.

(17:44 - 17:57)

It's the team's ideas, but it was my responsibility to gather them and to listen and be open. You've touched on a few things there, Victor. And for sure, you know, that's been my experience too with, I need to have some type of faith.

(17:57 - 18:15)

I think I'm very similar to you in regards, because when we're going through things and adversities and things that we don't even know the answers to, like what do you hold on to? Your own intellect? You can try. But then of course, you're relying on the team. And that's just, I think I also rely on trusting God to be honest with you.

(18:15 - 18:19)

I just don't see it another way, especially when you're in the midst of it. It's like. Yeah.

(18:19 - 18:33)

And I think God gives you the humility to, like I'm a prideful person. I have to say, I don't ask for help a lot, but I had to. I've learned to, you know, I guess it's called meekness, right? So this strength and humility.

(18:33 - 19:09)

And as I asked for help, people were willing and more than happy to help. When I was rebuilding, during Hurricane Sandy, people came and gave me flooring at cost, furniture at cost, just by me reaching out and asking for some help as I rebuild. And you know, help will come and it did with the government later on, but these are steps that you really need to take on your own as a leader and know that people are watching how you respond to these adversities, especially for my kids, I wanted to really be an example of somebody who can be strong enough to make it through these things.

(19:09 - 19:17)

I don't know if I was the perfect example, but we made it through. But other than that, I know they're proud of me for that. I am sure they are.

(19:17 - 19:30)

I mean, none of us are perfect. We just do the best that we can, you know, with the tools that we have. That's where the answer is always asking for help because the more people you talk to, especially them, we're experiencing is you always going to get different ways of seeing things.

(19:31 - 19:39)

And the answers are there. So, Victor, I know, again, you know, running a restaurant business, there's a lot to it and there's a lot of time that we spend at the restaurants. And of course you have a family.

(19:40 - 19:51)

How do you manage? This is something I ask a lot of restaurateurs because it's challenging. How do you manage, you know, your restaurant life and your family life and how to balance those two? You talked about the e-myth and systems. I'm assuming that's part of it.

(19:52 - 19:59)

Yeah. Yeah. So that was when I first started the restaurant, it was my new company that Michael Gerber talks about.

(19:59 - 20:30)

Like he talks about the new co and the good things that you take from the old company and how you're going to build upon what's new. And as I opened Sutaishi, I had a vision of two young kids at that time about being home at six o'clock for dinner with them and not missing any of their school activities and things like that. And it's funny because my sister had a friend who just left the restaurant business and she said to me, you know, Vicky, you really don't know how to run a restaurant, you never ran a restaurant before.

(20:30 - 20:44)

Why don't you talk to my friend? And I said, sure, you know, you're right. And so this guy came in, he's got tons of experience in a restaurant and he's looking around. He said, you know, Victor, I just got done with 14, 16 hour shifts.

(20:44 - 21:02)

I don't see myself doing it again. They said, oh no, oh no, I'm planning to work weekend, not work weekends and be home at six o'clock. And I can imagine his thoughts like this rookie is like not, but you know, Sebastian for a couple of years, I've worked 24 seven on the restaurant.

(21:03 - 21:19)

And then, but lo and behold, I was able to go and be home for dinner and, and off on the weekends. And I think if you never had that intention in the beginning, you'll never achieve it. So I think having that intention initially, and it doesn't always work out.

(21:19 - 21:38)

Everybody has their own timeline of when that is going to work out. But I think if you don't have that vision for yourself initially, it'll never come about. And following that line of these questions, Victor's running this business comes with a lot of stress, especially at the beginning, and it can come of course through adversities and things that happened throughout your career.

(21:38 - 22:02)

Right now, there's a lot of changes in the industry, raising costs, labor costs, food costs, like all this stuff, man, all these regulations that bring that type of stress, how do you stay grounded and keep your head in the game under pressure? And especially when things are not going well, and what advice would you people starting in this business? Don't get into the business. Nothing. That's what I'd say.

(22:02 - 22:19)

Are you sure you want to get into it? Are you sure you want to get into the business? Look, I think you have to have a game plan. You have to have resiliences. How do you, how do you explain that though? Cause when you start, you don't start like I have resilience, then I can start.

(22:19 - 22:24)

You start excited and you don't think about what the hell is going to happen. Right. Yeah.

(22:24 - 22:32)

I think you have to roll with punches. I have to say, in my case, luck was a big factor. You have to have fun with what you're doing.

(22:32 - 22:53)

I enjoy creating memorable dining experiences. The way I look at restaurants, you have an opportunity to control this person's next hour and a half from the time they walk into the door to how they're greeted, what they smell, what they see. You have captured them and you can create an environment where you really can take them on a journey.

(22:54 - 23:08)

And so that's the way I see it. It's like everything that they see, they smell, they hear, they taste is controlled by me for the next hour, hour and a half. And so everything is weighed against what we call dining fine.

(23:08 - 23:28)

It's a play on fine dining and it's everything you know and love about fine dining, the food presentations, the attentive service, the eclectic atmosphere. But we do that all in a very casual setting. And so I think you have to know your customers, who your customers are going to be in order to create the experience.

(23:28 - 23:41)

It's important to have these systems in place to control what they smell and hear. And, you know, we've had problems with the music where people would be playing their own music. The weak deaf wants to play this music and wants to play that music.

(23:41 - 24:00)

And we would, it would be a little haphazard at times. So by you controlling yourself, we do jazz during lunch for the business crowd, and we do a little more hip music during the evenings, you know. So just controlling that, even what they smell and how they greeted, just like the McDonald's example that I gave this.

(24:00 - 24:12)

So every person that we hire for personality and that they greeted, they use that personality to make their own greeting. So I don't have a script, but I do have a feeling that I want to convey. Right.

(24:12 - 24:17)

I love that, man. I love the dining fine concept. It's a very cool concept.

(24:17 - 25:02)

So Victor, how do you stay relevant for 18 years in a city like New York? What changes have you made? What do you do from menu to your space, to your crew training? Like, how do you stay relevant? Well, we've evolved, I think, you know, with the onset of social media and I think we stay relevant by embracing change. You have to, or I had to understand, especially after the COVID, a lot of the families moved out of this neighborhood and the whole clientele has shifted. Yeah, we're in that shift right now, to be honest with you, because the work from home concept has kicked in, which completely killed my lunch sales and also delivery, right? So we had to adjust for this.

(25:02 - 25:20)

We're still adjusting. Now we're creating experiences with omakase's for small groups. We are creating dishes that are more Instagrammable because that's what we started buying dry ice so we can create experiences with the smoke coming out, you know, and then of course, special, special, specials.

(25:20 - 25:32)

Well, we created this special called the tuna ravioli. We smash a tuna, that'll be the wrap. And then we do avocado and Connie and mix in there with an onion sauce.

(25:32 - 25:39)

And it's delicious. So, so people come for that and just continuing to innovate. We tried a sushi sandwich.

(25:39 - 25:52)

One of the things that that's still popular today is tuna with the roasted garlic chip. So it's just these things that you have to keep on innovating for. And that's really what keeps the customers coming back and kind of excited to be back.

(25:53 - 26:15)

So, so you mentioned, you know, here, of course, Instagram, social media, what's worked with you for you, you know, when it comes to marketing for, for the restaurant, because of course being in a city like New York's not easy, there's a lot of noise, there's a lot of competition. Our OS system to do, uh, actually Resi to do text messaging. So we do text, social, and then email marketing also.

(26:16 - 26:29)

We use a company called Moving Targets. So people will move into the neighborhood. We send out a mailer with a discount or a free dish to keep relevant and bring in new customers.

(26:29 - 26:36)

Well, that's all good stuff. Definitely. I think that what we always preach on when it comes to restaurant marketing is get customer data.

(26:36 - 26:45)

It's a goldmine every single time that's in e-commerce, that's in restaurant, like it's in any business because then now you have a way to communicate it with them. Yes. So first thing.

(26:45 - 27:02)

So now moving on to a little bit of the future of restaurants and your take on this Victor, because it is changing so much with everything that's happening. And what we're seeing is, you know, streamlined menus, reduced menus, streamlined production, all of these things to be able to control all that stuff. Still be able to remain profitable.

(27:02 - 27:20)

Where do you see things going? While we're in the digital age, I think from my clientele, the way I see Satoshi in the beginning is tradition. Tradition is a big part of what we do, especially because sushi is such a traditional food. And so we were doing digital menus with QR codes.

(27:21 - 27:34)

We went back to the old menus, the booklets, you know, everybody was charging this three and a half percent for a credit card charges, right? This is a new thing. And honestly, we were doing that. And then I stopped it.

(27:34 - 28:00)

So, because you could do everything right while they're dining, when they walk in, you, they greet it with a smile, they come sit, have a fantastic meal. And then at the end of the meal, you're giving them this bill with three and a half percent above, and they're like, what the heck is this? And it ruined their whole, it just ruined, you know, that three and a half percent just ruined the whole experience. And so to me, that was not worth it.

(28:00 - 28:14)

I saw people walk out unhappy because they had to pay this three and a half percent. And so we cut it out because we wanted our customers to leave on a happy note, what we created. And so I know the future is all about tech and all that.

(28:14 - 28:34)

I don't anticipate putting robots in the restaurant or, you know, I think the PR system, machines that make sushi, you need it. Sushi chefs get performers, you know, people want to see can made, made to order. Sushi, and I think that's so important for us and the quality that we want to put out there.

(28:35 - 28:54)

So although there's a ton of technology coming out, I think we can utilize that technology through our POS system, through our advertising and social media, but in-house operationally, I don't see technology really being all that impactful for us in that sense. Right. No, definitely not for your concept.

(28:54 - 28:59)

I mean, sushi is an art form. They're great. So I don't think any robot is going to come in and do that.

(28:59 - 29:04)

And then the hospitality part of it is just not going to. Right. There's no substitution for that.

(29:04 - 29:18)

Victor, so what is next for Tsutaishi and for you? You know, I've been doing this for 18 years. A lot of people want to invest in another Tsutaishi. I think it would need to be profound and meaning bigger.

(29:18 - 29:27)

And I don't want to open just another restaurant. I want to open something big. And I think I have the reputation and the experience to do that.

(29:27 - 29:43)

So I'm looking at something more substantial, like a 300 seat restaurant or so. But I'm taking my time and then it has to be on the right side of circumstances because I'm finding that my time is more valuable as I get older, so. Oh yeah.

(29:45 - 29:59)

Agreed. And last question, the final question, Victor, as a leader, all your experience that you've had, what's been the most difficult decision that you've had to make and how did it shape your leadership style? 

(30:00 - 30:21)

Oh, it's. I would say the most difficult, I'm trying to choose one that I can tell a story about. I think it's with letting people go, here's mine, because I get very personal with the people that I hire. It's family to me, you know, and trust them as that.

(30:21 - 30:43)

And when they do breach the trust, it hurts me personally first, and then I have to take action business-wise afterwards. So I think those types of situations are the most difficult for me. Marketing and we can hire people to do that, to keeping the culture of the business on track is number one for me, keeping the culture of the business.

(30:44 - 31:10)

And the difficulties that lie around that because of personalities and because of people's schedules and just all sorts of things that bite into or bite away of the culture. It's like Danny Meyer said, you have to keep on reminding people where perfection is, right? He did this example of putting a salt shaker and perfectly in the middle of the table. And he would have his manager say, okay, put it, he would move it.

(31:10 - 31:20)

And then he would tell his manager, put it perfectly back in the center. And the manager would put it back in the center and he would push it away. And then he would say, put it back in the center.

(31:20 - 31:31)

And the manager's like, all right, I'll put it back in the center. But the lesson of that is your employees are always going to get out of center. They're always going to take things out of perfection.

(31:31 - 31:39)

It's your idea to bring it back to perfection. It's your job to bring it back to perfection. And that's through constant gentle reminders.

(31:39 - 31:49)

So constant gentle reminders, rather than yelling at somebody, it's all part of the culture to, hey, this is the way we do it. Don't forget that this is the way we do it. This is the way we do it.

(31:49 - 31:58)

And so you have to be patient. You have to be understanding and there's a lot of reminders. 

(31:58 - 32:19)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Another thing that you're bringing here is on topic is empathy, right? Because to be able to give a gentle reminder, you need to also be self-aware enough that you know that you mess up a ton of times too. We're just there to be of guidance and to help to our team. And you've definitely seen that you have created a culture of all of these things.

(32:20 - 32:28)

Empathy, inclusion, and humility in general, because I mean, you have people been with you for a long time. So Victor, congratulations. You've done a fantastic job.

(32:29 - 32:41)

I really wish that you opened that 300 seat restaurant. That's a lot with this industry in this current scenario, but I know with your experience that you'll definitely be successful. Thank you, Sebastian.

(32:41 - 32:46)

I appreciate that. Victor, thank you so much for being on the show. Really appreciate your time.

(32:46 - 32:58)

And for anybody listening out there that's not from New York, that's visiting New York, because there's a lot of people who go visit New York. Where are you guys located and how can they get in touch with you? 

(32:58 - 33:06)

Sure. We're located down by the South Street Seaport here in New York City. It's 24 Peck Flip in New York City. And you could just look us up at sutaishi.com. Fantastic. Well, thanks again, Victor.

(33:06 - 33:08)

Appreciate your time. Thank you, Sebastian.