Crafting Profitable Bar Programs: Ben Potts on the Secrets to Hospitality Success

What makes a profitable and unforgettable bar program? In this episode of Restaurant Leaders Unplugged, I sit down with Ben Potts, co-founder of Unfiltered Hospitality and co-owner of The Sylvester in Miami. Ben’s journey is a masterclass in persistence and innovation, from starting as a bar back to becoming one of the most sought-after beverage program consultants in the industry.

We dive into:

• How Unfiltered Hospitality helps restaurants build profitable, guest-focused bar programs.
• The key metrics every restaurant owner should track for bar success.
• How to recruit and train a bar team that shares your vision and values.
• Why creative cocktails and efficient systems go hand-in-hand in today’s market.
• The trends shaping the future of bars, from performative elements to multisensory experiences.

Whether you're a restaurant owner, a budding bartender, or a seasoned operator, this episode is packed with actionable insights to elevate your hospitality game.

Connect with our guest:
Social Media: @benbenpottspotts
Website: www.unfilteredhospo.com

Don’t miss this deep dive into the art and science of creating a standout bar experience!

Restaurant Leaders Unplugged with Sebastian Stahl

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Transcript

(0:00 - 0:10)

If you think you know everything, you're never going to learn anything. And if you are open to learning, there's so much out there. I mean, I don't even have the time to keep up with everything that's going on.

(0:10 - 0:21)

And it's fascinating. The things that people are doing are just so amazing. And if you open yourself up to it, you will have an amazing, thriving career and you'll go very far.

(0:31 - 0:43)

Dive into essential strategies for marketing to operations and gain insights that will transform your approach to your restaurant business. Don't just keep up, lead the way. Join me, your host, Sebastian Stahl, on this journey to excellence.

(0:43 - 0:51)

All right. Welcome to Restaurant Leader's Unpucked podcast. Before we dive in today, I'm excited to introduce a very special guest, a longtime friend, Ben Potts.

(0:52 - 1:02)

Ben is a true innovator in the Miami bar scene and co-owner of The Sylvester and co-founder of Unfiltered Hospitality. So Ben, welcome to the show. It's really a pleasure to have you here.

(1:03 - 1:07)

Man, thank you so much, Sebastian. Really a pleasure to be here as well. Fantastic.

(1:08 - 1:14)

So Ben, let's start from the beginning. Just take us back a little bit. How you guys started in the hospitality business.

(1:14 - 1:21)

I know your background is quite unique because you were actually not in the hospitality business for some time. Then you were trying to figure out what to do. So yeah, bring us back.

(1:22 - 1:26)

Yeah. So, you know, I'm a native Miamian. I've been here my whole life.

(1:26 - 1:38)

Always surrounded by hospitality. But when I was growing up, I didn't necessarily know that I wanted to be here. First, I thought I wanted to be a mechanic or somebody who worked on cars.

(1:38 - 1:44)

Like I wanted to develop cars and engines, things like that. I was fascinated. So went down the mechanical engineering route.

(1:45 - 1:55)

Realized very quickly that that profession was not for me. Mostly in college when I was trying to get a mechanical engineering degree at Tulane. Switched to finance.

(1:55 - 2:06)

Surprisingly, finance is a lot easier than mechanical engineering. Ended up getting my MBA immediately after down here at UF. And then I went into investment banking.

(2:06 - 2:22)

But I went into investment banking in 2007, 2008. Not a great time to be in finance, if you'll remember the massive recession that we had. So after about a year or two of punishment there, I decided to quit.

(2:22 - 2:28)

I had no idea what I wanted to do. I got a motorcycle. I shaved my head.

(2:29 - 2:42)

And I left finance altogether with no plan and nothing to do. So I had a very good friend. He owned my favorite bar at the time, Purdy Lounge, which was a classic down here in Miami, in Miami Beach.

(2:43 - 2:53)

And his bar back quit one day while we were just hanging out. And he's like, Pops, you're not doing anything. You want to work in my bar? I said, sure.

(2:53 - 3:03)

I got nothing better to do. And started working there Memorial Day of 2009. And that was my, that was where it all started.

(3:04 - 3:23)

And that's quite an initiation. So after that, you know, you get into bar back and you're doing all this stuff with the bar and all that stuff. So how did you really get into developing your first concepts with Beaker? Of course, now with the Sylvester, how did that transition happen? And then we're going to go into talking about unfiltered, because that's a really cool thing that you guys are doing around.

(3:23 - 3:34)

So how did that happen? Yeah. So as I mentioned, started off as a bar back at a dive bar. For those of you that don't know Purdy Lounge, my mother was thrilled, as you can imagine.

(3:34 - 3:56)

College, grad school, investment banking, bar back. Maybe not the most prestigious transition, but ultimately I had a lot of faith that it would work out and said as much to my family and they trusted me. So from bar back at Purdy, I worked my way up the ranks, went from bar back to manager almost instantly, and then became a bartender.

(3:56 - 4:19)

Apparently I was somewhat responsible in my early twenties. After two years at Purdy, I found myself wanting something a little more professional than a dive bar career. And so I started a recruiting agency called Ronan Staffing Company, where I recruited general managers, assistant managers, bar managers for restaurants around Miami, restaurants and hotels.

(4:20 - 4:28)

I did that for about a year. Felt like that was a little too far in the other direction. I wasn't quite ready for that level of entrepreneurship.

(4:29 - 4:37)

And then went back to the same company, but a new concept called Blackbird Ordinary, which is still around. Yeah. And it's still in Brickell.

(4:37 - 4:55)

They were, when they first opened, they had a very avant-garde cocktail program, or at least like a creative cocktail program that was really cool and interesting. And I thought, man, there must be something to this whole cocktail thing. I'm seeing it more and more.

(4:55 - 5:14)

And this is obviously after all the lemon drops, apple martinis, Washington apples, like that whole cocktail era, Long Island iced teas. And so I was like, I think there's something to this. And so while I was at Blackbird, I committed myself to cocktails and mixology.

(5:14 - 5:20)

Back then, it wasn't cool to say mixology. It's generally more acceptable now. I use the term pretty regularly.

(5:20 - 5:22)

I think it's fine. It's fine now. Yeah, it's fine.

(5:24 - 5:42)

And yeah, so I attended Bar Five Day, which is a very difficult program that takes place in New York, usually people who have five to 10 years of beverage experience do this. I had about nine months of cocktail experience going into it, but I was confident I would succeed. I did, fortunately.

(5:42 - 5:48)

And then I got a call from my best friend at the time. Well, he's still my best friend. He was my best friend at the time too.

(5:48 - 5:55)

Brian Nassajon, who was a chef at Sushi Samba. He came from Wish. He worked at Lure in New York.

(5:55 - 6:04)

And he was like, hey, man, I want to open a restaurant. And I wanted to have a stick bar program. What do you think? I was like, I don't know, dude.

(6:04 - 6:11)

I'm a bartender at a cocktail bar. Let's, uh, what you got? And so he said, well, let's workshop it. Let's talk to my family.

(6:11 - 6:20)

Let's see what we can put together, where we want to open it, what kind of concept. And I was like, cool. I was like, I'm a bartender, but I can definitely figure this out.

(6:20 - 6:26)

So. You didn't know you had that creative energy behind you, huh? I didn't necessarily know. Right.

(6:26 - 6:45)

I didn't know I could put together a program, manage it, and run it profitably. As it turns out, I did have that capacity, not without substantial amounts of support from my team, my partners and everyone. But over the next, it was about two years after I'd been working at Blackbird.

(6:46 - 6:54)

When we figured out that we were going to open the restaurant, I was like, all right, I need to learn a little more. I need to go to somewhere new. Because at this point, I've only had two bars under my belt.

(6:54 - 7:08)

That's not very much. So I had an opportunity to go work at Broken Shaker, which at the time was probably the country's most exciting cocktail program. It was winning awards left and right.

(7:08 - 7:20)

My now business partner, Dee Arshi, was the bar manager. He was bar manager at the time when I started. And I was like, hey, dude, I know you need people.

(7:20 - 7:30)

I need to learn more. I think I can bring a lot of my experience working. I volume to this program, which like all you guys are sick at making cocktails.

(7:31 - 7:39)

But right now, the reputation is like kind of takes a minute to get a drink. I think I can help. And so he's like, all right, well, we'll work on your cocktails.

(7:39 - 7:45)

You work on our speed and execution. It's like, awesome. So worked at Broken Shaker for about nine months.

(7:45 - 7:57)

And then in that time, we were developing what would become Beaker and Gray. And learned a ton, met some amazing people working on the team. They were guests at the Shaker.

(7:57 - 8:10)

It was just an incredible experience. And so finally, in I believe December of 2014, we opened Beaker and Gray, right in time for Art Basel. Couldn't have planned it any better.

(8:10 - 8:23)

I mean, literally the first week of Art Basel, we opened Beaker and Gray. I remember that, Ben. And actually, we had opened the restaurant across from you guys that previous Art Basel.

(8:23 - 8:30)

And we opened also right on time for Art Basel. And that was insane. It'll test your limits.

(8:30 - 8:39)

That's for sure. It's the busiest week of the year. And Wynwood, especially back then, was the epicenter.

(8:39 - 8:46)

I mean, it was Mighty Beach, and then it was Wynwood. And then it was like Mighty Beach and Wynwood. Now it's Mighty Beach and Wynwood.

(8:46 - 8:54)

Now it's the whole city. But Wynwood was really kind of coming into its own. And it was Art Walk was still happening back then.

(8:55 - 9:00)

Miss Art Walk. I miss it too, man. I miss the old Wynwood, to be honest with you, man.

(9:01 - 9:12)

It had a different magic. But anyways, so Ben, you said a couple of interesting things here now, man. You're talking about making this not just run a beverage program or a cocktail program.

(9:12 - 9:21)

It's a profitable cocktail program, right? Because you can get very creative. And that's kind of the thing that happens also in the kitchen. And you can get very creative and create an awesome menu.

(9:21 - 9:28)

But it's like now you have to make that profitable. So now with Unfiltered, and we're going to go there now. It's first tell me about Unfiltered.

(9:28 - 9:37)

I know that you guys are doing it, consulting it and creating and running, helping restaurants run their bar programs profitably. So tell me a little bit about that. Yeah.

(9:38 - 9:45)

So right after Beger, and I'll just sort of fast forward to getting to Unfiltered. Beger opened. We had some great years there.

(9:46 - 9:49)

Zika. No, that was fun. Oh my God.

(9:49 - 10:02)

I remember that. And in 2018, we had an opportunity to buy a bar that was going out of business, Bardo. And then we put what is now The Sylvester, which is my cocktail bar and ode to all things Florida.

(10:03 - 10:05)

Which is big time. That's your baby, man. That's it, man.

(10:05 - 10:12)

I love it. I go there every week and my happy place. But it was only open for a year before COVID.

(10:14 - 10:22)

So during COVID, we closed Beger and The Sylvester. Sylvester for an entire year. Beger for an undetermined amount of time.

(10:22 - 10:37)

It ended up being like three or four months. But during that, I ended up opening Unfiltered, my beverage development consulting agency. And so, yeah, what we do is we work with hospitality operators, primarily restaurants and hotels.

(10:37 - 11:00)

But we have a number of other clients that also had beverage operations. And we work with them not just to create beautiful cocktails, but to establish beverage programs that are profitable, sustainable, and provide an acceptable experience for the guests, the staff, and the owners. Sure, man.

(11:00 - 11:15)

I think you guys are doing a great job there. It is something that's much needed. But Ben, why did you guys come up with this concept with Unfiltered? I mean, what pain points, what things did you find that restaurant owners face when it comes to their bar programs? And how do you guys solve that? Yes.

(11:15 - 11:27)

So it's interesting. There's like the pain points, which are generally kind of like symptoms of a larger problem, right? As we all see. But generally, people come to us for one of two reasons.

(11:28 - 11:36)

One, they want to open a place. And they want an amazing beverage program to open with. And they don't have the expertise on their team.

(11:36 - 11:54)

Finding bar managers and good bar managers who are reliable, who have creativity skills, who have administrative skills, who have management skills, the very, very difficult thing to find. Most bar managers used to be bartenders. And there's some amazing bartenders out there.

(11:54 - 12:20)

But bartenders who work at a very high level, who have management, administration, creative skills, that's a lot to ask for from one person who's never been trained by anybody, except maybe another bar manager who used to be a bartend. Now, I was obviously a bar manager who used to be a bartender. But I've committed myself and I've committed Unfiltered to developing the skill of beverage program management or bar management.

(12:20 - 12:34)

And so, the pain points that people come to us with are, we don't have the expertise on our team to develop the program that we need in order to have a profitable program. That's really what it comes down to, expertise. They lack expertise.

(12:35 - 12:58)

And that's what we provide in a very comprehensive package. We typically start from what is going to be in front of the guests, right? The guest experiences your cocktail program, right? And so, that's essentially, that is the surface level solution. But in order to support the cocktail program, you also need a highly trained team.

(12:59 - 13:19)

And a highly trained team is something that's very easy to do, but it's very easy to do if you have the skill set, materials to do it, evaluation materials, and so on. But then to maintain that team and that cocktail program, you need to have systems. And those systems need to be extremely detailed and thorough and done on a daily basis.

(13:19 - 13:33)

They need to support both the trained team and the cocktail program in order to have this whole system that works seamlessly and provides a profitable program for operators. That's how we approach it with those three areas. That's awesome, man.

(13:33 - 13:52)

And it's very interesting because, I don't know what feedback you get from restaurant operators, but I think the bar is a very high profit center, right? And it's a revenue center. And sometimes it kind of gets lost. It's like I said, second, I have to thought, because they're focused so much on the food and the stuff, and they can be making so much money there.

(13:52 - 14:06)

You know what I mean? So when you're working with clients then, because you're talking about building a whole system for them. So you start with hiring all the way to training and then following up to make sure that their bar programs are profitable and running smoothly. How does that work? Right.

(14:06 - 14:17)

So we kind of approach it from a few different ways. Well, we approach it from three different levers that we look at. We want to attract as many guests as we can, right? So that's guests per week.

(14:17 - 14:36)

Once we've attracted those guests, we attract them with an incredible program. Once we've attracted those guests, how do we get them to order as many drinks as possible? So drinks per guest. And then the profitability of those drinks, profit per drink is what we need to make sure is maximized as well.

(14:36 - 14:51)

So guests per week, drinks per guest, profit per drink. That's the way we explain it. But the way we approach it is, we start with a profitable beverage program, right? We do that by developing a cocktail menu that is high profit from the onset.

(14:51 - 14:55)

A cocktail menu has a few advantages, right? It's exciting. It's shareable. It's marketable.

(14:55 - 14:59)

It's drinkable. So people are like, oh, that's awesome. That's a very cool cocktail menu.

(15:00 - 15:07)

I'm going to come in and check that out. And it's already high profit. A trained team really gives you the opportunity to serve as many guests as possible.

(15:07 - 15:31)

Because if your team is capable of executing at a high level, they're going to be able to do that. And then finally, keeping that cocktail menu fresh and interesting with specials around the holidays and just consistent refreshes is how you keep the guests coming back for more and more and more, as well as making sure that it's extremely marketable with people taking pictures, sharing them on Instagram and so on. So that's really, those are the three levers that we attack.

(15:31 - 15:47)

Well, you definitely deliver that. I mean, we've worked with you guys before and I've seen it firsthand, like the type of product and the cocktails that you guys deliver and the training and everything. Ben, can you share a case study that you can think of that comes to mind of a restaurant that had a crappy bar program or an okay bar program.

(15:47 - 16:03)

You guys came in, helped them out with that and they've seen results. Yeah, absolutely. I don't technically know if I'm allowed to share the name of the concept, but suffice to say, we had a, we have a client, they're still a client of ours.

(16:03 - 16:26)

They have a restaurant in Philly, very well-known restaurant, been open for many years. They were very successful for a very long time and their program was fine, but they knew they could do better. And they started working with us, right? And they were like, okay, well, let's do your program, which is a cocktail menu training program and the systems to support it.

(16:26 - 16:43)

So we put in the program, we developed the menu, have a very comprehensive process where we learn everything about our clients, who their customers are, what their concept demands are and what their capabilities are. We designed a menu around that. After we documented and teach the team, we were able to roll it out.

(16:44 - 17:07)

When we rolled it out, I think we rolled it out in October of last year. Within two months of rolling out the new program, they had made back enough profit on that program to pay for an entire year of our services in one month. So non-revenue in profit.

(17:08 - 17:13)

Wow. Yeah. And so it's pretty compelling stuff, right? There were a lot of things that went well.

(17:13 - 17:32)

I mean, these are very professional organizations. They're very good at doing a lot of things, but combining that with the beverage program developed by us and the systems and the training that come along with it, they were able to capitalize on that. And as far as I know, they're still maintaining that performance.

(17:32 - 17:41)

So you can imagine where over a year later, they 10x that investment easily. That's amazing, Ben. This is an incredible result.

(17:41 - 17:48)

So Ben, you mentioned staffing here. I mean, it being the key really, right? So getting the right people in place. And of course the training.

(17:48 - 18:28)

And it's still one of the biggest issues for restaurant owners, right? What's your approach to helping clients? First, if you're helping them recruit or if you would give advice restaurant owners or our audience listening, what would you recommend in terms of how to recruit and train and then keeping them motivated, especially in a team in the bar, it's hard to find good people, man, especially at the bar because they might have hidden motives of why they want to be behind the bar. Sure, you know what I mean? I do. That's a great question because I truly believe that almost more important than the product that you offer is the team that you have creating that program because without them, the program is nothing, right? You can't have one without the other.

(18:28 - 19:10)

So recruiting and developing is one of the most important things you can do to give yourself a huge leg up in maintaining an intellectual beverage program. And the way we approach recruiting and as a former recruiting agency owner and recruiting many times, there's a few areas that we really focus on. One is alignment between the values of the organization and the values of the prospective employee, right? They need to have the same mindset about what they believe are important in this world, right? How they feel about hospitality and service and quality of product.

(19:10 - 19:48)

When that alignment is there, that's an incredible bond that you form between the two. What practical things would you say that you can use to find if there's alignment between values? Well, it's fairly simple if you have something like this established for your business, right? You think to yourself and you're like, if you don't have values, right? If you don't have core values or things that you really think about as an organization, think about the things, like if you're an owner, for instance, you think about the things that are important to you, right? Yeah. Warm, friendly service, right? If you are the type of place, like for instance, like at The Sylvester, we want everyone to feel like they are at home.

(19:48 - 20:25)

And so what comes along with that, right? When you feel like you're at home, you feel comfortable, you feel content and you feel like you belong, right? And so explaining or seeking, putting even in the job description, we are seeking people who want to make their guests feel like this. If you are this person, you're a perfect applicant for this job, right? And obviously you can expand that, right? You can expand to that's how the guests feel, but then you want to talk about quality of product. Say like at The Sylvester, for example, I can speak pretty clearly about it because it's something I care quite a bit.

(20:26 - 20:59)

We care about having an exceptional product, right? We want the product to be not just high quality, but interesting and delicious and not something that's just like high concept, but something that's enjoyable, right? We want you to have an enjoyable, delicious, interesting experience with every drink. And so you figure out how to translate those into qualities that you look for in a staff member. And you want to put it front and center on your job descriptions, right? And keep it simple, right? Keep it simple, but thorough.

(20:59 - 21:20)

And so that's how I would approach finding that alignment. And then the other big thing for me is setting expectations, right? Like this is the roles and responsibilities of the job. This is what you should expect working in this position, right? And so if you have all of that very clear, the uncertainty is almost gone.

(21:20 - 21:36)

And also your expectations are high which mine are incredibly high. I tell people, I'm like, okay, so the first thing that's going to happen before you start this job is you are going to have to take a practical and a written exam and you are going to fail. I was like, it's true.

(21:37 - 21:57)

We've had like one or two people like actually pass because it's a difficult exam and it's a new bar. So it's not designed to make people fail, but the likelihood is like, unless you are creme de la creme and you're coming in at a high level, which we don't typically hire at a high level. We hire more entry-level people because it's more aligned with what we're looking for.

(21:58 - 22:22)

Well, and that's the next thing I was going to say. And I was going to ask you about because hiring at a high level, it just, I guess it's good for particular things, right? But then you're talking about different level. So when you're hiring and we see that they have those values, what are the things you look for in terms of their attitudes? Or what do you look for when you're interviewing someone to try to make the right choice? Because, you know, when they're coming at a high level, they have all the accolades, they might have this experience, all that stuff.

(22:22 - 22:32)

But sometimes they come with old tricks. So what's your process with that? It's pretty straightforward. It's humility and a desire to learn.

(22:32 - 22:40)

If you have those two qualities, like someone coming in and telling me about all the great things they've done, I have no interest. In fact, yeah, I don't care. I don't care.

(22:40 - 22:49)

Like you come in and you say, I want to be the best bartender. I am dedicated to this craft. I want to do whatever it takes to get there.

(22:50 - 22:54)

You got the job. You're in, right? That's it, man. Because you guys can teach us skills.

(22:54 - 23:01)

That's for sure, man. You've got experience as well. So Ben, I know you build teams, of course, for your clients, for your restaurants and for your venues as well.

(23:02 - 23:25)

What's your leadership philosophy? How do you inspire both your in-house teams and your consulting clients? It's interesting. Really comes back to the trust, but verify, right? Like believe in your team, give them the tools for autonomy and make sure that they feel like they have the capacity to do things on their own. But at the same time, make sure you're paying attention to what they're doing and how they're doing it.

(23:26 - 23:50)

Not because they're necessarily are going to try to do something to subvert whatever goals you have, but more likely people are different, right? My interpretation of be warm and friendly may be one thing for me, but something very different for somebody else, right? Like a smile and a nod might be sufficient for someone. Whereas for me, it's a warm greeting. It's a hi, how are you? And it's even different.

(23:50 - 24:16)

You meet my business partner, Guy, he takes it to a whole nother level of like warm, friendly reception. So I very much have tons and tons of faith in my teams, especially if we've hired according to the way that I just described. But verifying that they are performing within the expectation is something that is very helpful for both sides, right? It's helpful for me and it's helpful for them.

(24:16 - 24:28)

Because when you say, hey, that's not exactly what I meant. I really like this, but what I meant by what I said was this, this, and this. And this is how I think we should approach it moving forward.

(24:28 - 24:37)

And typically, if you've hired right and you have a receptive learner who's willing to do whatever it takes to get to the next level, they'll say like, awesome. I had no idea. That's great.

(24:38 - 24:45)

That makes me better, so I'm happy. And approaching it that way usually results in some pretty amazing things. I agree, I agree with that phrase.

(24:45 - 24:51)

I think it's come from, forget the name of the book, man. It's called Inspect What You Expect. Because it's so true.

(24:52 - 25:03)

Because we give direction and I don't believe in micromanaging either, but you give direction, but you have to inspect it. Make sure that that's happening. You know, if you just kind of leave them be, then strays away.

(25:03 - 25:36)

So yeah, I mean, so Ben, I know in Unfiltered, you guys also look at some actionable metrics and data because you guys are also data driven when it comes to bar programs. How do you guys use data to improve bar performance? And what key metrics you guys look for? And what would you recommend or advice restaurant owners listening that they need to have a pulse on? Yeah, actually data is a massive thing for us. And we try to keep it simple, mostly because different operators and concepts have different ways of data acquisition, right? Meaning like one POS might be different from another.

(25:37 - 26:03)

We're actually trying to start working with a company called Glibs that uses video artificial intelligence to analyze like performance metrics, which is insane. That's obviously another level. But to keep it very simple, we usually try to identify five or six metrics that really give us the biggest pulse on how well an organization is doing, or one of our clients, or I use this at Sylvester as well.

(26:04 - 26:21)

We look at obviously total sales and we usually look at when it's a restaurant, beverage sales to total sales. We want that percentage to be as close to the legal limit as possible. So if your beverage sales are like 25%, we want to figure out how to get it to 30, and 30 to 35, and 35 to 40, and so on.

(26:21 - 26:28)

That's a huge lever. So that's your sales, which is a very big metric. We again look back to that profit lever, that guest per week.

(26:29 - 26:42)

So if you have your guest per week that's declining, you have to kind of understand what's going on there. If it's consistently rising, you're doing a great job. The drinks per guests, again, that's another very important number for us.

(26:42 - 27:01)

If you have two drinks per guest, how do you get it to 2.2? How do you get it to 2.5 and so on? And then profitability of your program, which means we're looking at price. So your average drink price of what you're selling, and then your cost of goods on that drink price. So cost of goods, obviously a huge metric.

(27:01 - 27:10)

That's super important. And that'll tell you, you know, if your average drink price is $20, which would be incredible. I mean, it's getting close, honestly.

(27:10 - 27:27)

And your cost of goods is 20%, you know that you're making $16 a drink in profit, not including labor. We do love labor. Labor is a little difficult to look at consistently for all of our partners, just because people include different aspects of bar labor.

(27:28 - 27:37)

Sometimes they just look at bar staff. Sometimes they look at bar staff plus prep staff. If the bartender served like tables around the bar, that also kind of skews the numbers a little bit.

(27:37 - 27:48)

So we do like to keep it simple and try to keep it to those five metrics or so in order to like really see what's working and what's not working. And then once we do, we look for the biggest gaps. We set targets.

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We have our 13-week average. So it's trailing 13-week average. And then we say, okay, this number, we want it to be here.

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We look for the biggest gap and then we figure out what the urgency is of fixing that gap. If your cost of goods is 25% and your target's 20, how do we close that gap immediately? Yeah. So any advice for independents, Ben? Because I know when you're running a restaurant, you're kind of starting out or at least you have a couple of maybe years.

(28:16 - 28:33)

Man, you're so busy with operations, right? And you're doing all this stuff with the restaurant. I live through that stuff. And then like, how do you coach people or clients into getting into the habit of looking at their numbers and looking at these metrics on a consistent basis so they can continuously improve? Right.

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So we understand that that is a very difficult thing to continue to do on a weekly or biweekly basis. That's why with our partners, we strongly encourage consistently working with us because we'll do that for you, right? That's a huge weight lifted off your shoulder when you know that someone is actually tracking that for you and say, oh, let's look at this. Okay, here are your metrics.

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Here's where you have the opportunity. Here's a plan on how to get there, right? And so if you are working on this on your own, because I think a lot of people are there and I think it's important that they consider it as well, building it into your schedule. That's the simplest way that I can express it.

(30:00 - 30:17)

Yeah, well, it's something that I decided like this is a non-negotiable for me. That's the first thing that goes in my calendar and sleep is obviously, you have to sleep, but I put exercise first and then I build my schedule from there. Obviously, I have tons of other responsibilities, but that's first.

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And I'm not saying checking your numbers, six metrics a week should only take you about 15 to 30 minutes depending on how organized your systems are. But if you put that every Monday at 2 p.m. for 30 minutes, you are putting in your numbers from the week before. That's how you build that habit.

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And please, either use a physical paper planner or just the one in your spot. It's a great habit to get into. It helps to stay on top of important appointments.

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Not everyone has that habit. I fortunately do. My calendar is insane.

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It looks like a rainbow. It's color-coded and it's wild. And that's great advice, Ben.

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And I'm also a firm believer of time blocking and it's really helpful. But man, sometimes it's a battle to stay within those parameters. I think, you know, with so many distractions, especially when you're running a restaurant, you got so many things coming at you at all different times.

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It's like, you know, getting into the office, closing that little closet in the restaurant, the closet door. And it's like, guys, don't bother me for the next freaking hour. I need to focus on this stuff.

(31:24 - 31:35)

Yeah, that's cool, man. So Ben, I know there's a lot of things happening in the restaurant industry these days in terms of labor costs, all this stuff. What do you see? I mean, you're talking to a bunch of different people in the industry and clients.

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What trends are you seeing? Of course, you're specifically experienced in bar peripherals. What are you seeing in terms of trends for restaurants? Where is it heading, you know, with everything that's happening? Yeah. So in like the major markets, there seems to be a movement, major markets like New York, Miami, LA, Chicago.

(31:52 - 32:13)

There's a lot of targeting people with disposable income, right? Your staple restaurants are always going to be there, right? Your chains who are always serving a certain demographic of guests, they're always going to be there. They're going to be doing the same thing. After COVID, we saw a huge movement toward delivery because everyone was ordering from home.

(32:13 - 32:21)

That stayed for whatever reason. Obviously, I think convenience is a big part of it and people want a little variety in what they eat. So Uber Eats, great job.

(32:22 - 32:31)

DoorDash, all you guys. But I think the more elevated concepts, experience has been sort of trending. Multisensory stuff is kind of the easiest way I can describe it.

(32:31 - 32:45)

So more performative elements. Vegas obviously got that right a long time ago. In Miami, you'll see a lot more places opening up that have, even at the restaurants, you'll see a lot more like fire dancers, live performances.

(32:45 - 33:09)

It's becoming a lot more prevalent and you'll see that, like you'll see burlesque shows. That performance element is coming in, is very much in vogue. And that also translates not just to auxiliary groups and teams and whatever, but also within the beverage program, for instance, you'll see more like the Flavor Blaster, which makes like bubbles of smoke that sit on top of your cocktails.

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Like that didn't exist five years ago. Things like that are becoming more and more interesting because guests want more. They want something that's more Instagrammable, right? They want something that's shareable and people love to share cool things.

(3:24 - 3:36)

So performative elements that really stand out has definitely been one of the biggest trends that we've seen so far. Well, absolutely. And then it's higher cost, you're charging more, so you gotta deliver basically more on the experience, right? Yeah.

(33:36 - 33:43)

Well, people will pay for it. Yeah, they will pay for it. I just went to a bar the other day, they tell a story behind each cocktail and they do this whole thing.

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And it's like, it's really interesting. You see them adding value. This is just the curiosity because I haven't actually seen this.

(33:48 - 34:00)

I'm not in bars anymore too much. But are there any bars that are just focused on like, yes, great cocktails, but like streamlining, you know, with food, for example. People are already focused with like the fast, casual, you know, sector.

(34:00 - 34:16)

They're streamlining menus, getting rid of all this stuff that's not profitable, just making it very simple, convenient. Are you seeing anything like that in the bar scene? Well, the place that you see the most of that are places with huge quantities of people. So, yeah, stadiums, events.

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You don't really see too many cocktail menus at nightclubs, right? Maybe less depth on top of their concept where they want to offer that. But even still, they keep it relatively small and fairly simple to execute. With the right amount of effort and thought behind it, something that we're very big on at Unfiltered is providing streamlined beverage menus.

(34:41 - 35:01)

And what that means is we develop them in such a way that we're doing as much preparation for the cocktail, as much preparation as we possibly can before the cocktail is actually made. So combining certain ingredients, which leads to consistency of service and simplicity of execution. You know, we pre-cut garnishes.

(35:01 - 35:17)

We make garnishes that are very cool and interesting and unique, but that require some preparation as well. So like making tuiles and things like that, or like spraying gold paint on a mid-spring or something like that. Edible gold paint.

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The streamlining process is great at kind of like most places because faster you can serve cocktails better. People can only eat so much. And I'm not saying that all your beverages have to be alcoholic, but people can consume essentially an unlimited quantity of beverages.

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And again, let me emphasize, I don't mean alcoholic. I don't just mean alcoholic. You can drink water, coffee, you know, cocktails as well, but then there's also low ABV or no ABV cocktails.

(35:48 - 36:03)

So the only thing that's limiting is like by your creativity and your program. 100%. So last question, Ben, for people aspiring to get into hospitality business, especially, you know, into following your footsteps to get into the bar scene and all this part of hospitality.

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What advice would you give a young bartender or an entrepreneur looking to build a lasting career in hospitality? I get asked this one a lot. Back to kind of my interview questions and what I'm looking for. Yeah.

(36:16 - 36:33)

Beyond showing up on time, doing what you say you're going to do, and not being a jerk, humility and being open to learning. Those two are massive, right? If you think you know everything, you're never going to learn anything. And if you are open to learning, there's so much out there.

(36:33 - 36:40)

I mean, I don't even have the time to keep up with everything that's going on. And it's fascinating. The things that people are doing are just so amazing.

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And if you open yourself up to it, you will have an amazing, thriving career and you'll go very far. That's really all I can recommend. The other thing that I would add to that, seeing you is your character, man.

(36:54 - 37:00)

You work out seven days a week and you've been doing that for 10 years straight. That's discipline. That helps a lot, what you're doing.

(37:01 - 37:07)

What you're doing, man, that's amazing. Ben, well, thank you so much again, man, for your time. That was awesome.

(37:07 - 37:31)

Really, really enjoy our conversation and hope that our audience is going to, I know they're going to get a lot from it with all your experience. So Ben, if they want to get in touch with you, anybody that wants to reach out for help with their bar program, how can they get in touch with you? Yeah, very easily. You can find our website at www.unfilteredhospo.com or our Instagram is at unfilteredhospo.

(37:31 - 37:38)

You can reach us there very easily. We have a contact us thing. You can go to our Instagram, send us a message.

(37:38 - 37:47)

We always respond and you can find me. I have a hacked Instagram account, but I'm slowly rebuilding it. I'm at benpotpots, pretty easy.

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But yeah, we'd love to hear from anyone and if we can help, we'd love to. Okay. Fantastic, Ben.

(37:54 - 37:59)

Thanks again, Ben. Great to see you and we'll definitely see you soon. All right, brother.