?? Vol 10: What's an "employer brand" & why's it the secret sauce to restaurant success?

In this edition of Food Runner, we're covering a pretty cool restaurant story. Not because they happen to use 7shifts, but because they’re kickass and have a novel approach to restaurant operations. Enter: gusto! Founder, Nate Hybl. He went from '03 Rose Bowl MVP to growing gusto! to 14 locations with a 98% retention rate.

ON THE MENU

?? How to live your restaurant values

? What being an empowering employer looks like

?? Why your team matters... a lot

What's your passion, your juice? What gets you excited? These questions struck the former QB, and after coming across the word gusto (synonymous with verve, moxie, oomph), his Atlantan restaurant's catchphrase was born. Read on for a Q&A with Nate Hybl his VP of Operations, Richmond Green .

BY THE NUMBERS

ON HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Nate: I couldn't shake the idea that there there should be something better in Atlanta. There should be a better brand that is providing healthy, fast food. It took me four years of research and development in my own kitchen and on the whiteboard trying to figure out what this brand was, what the essence of what I was trying to get out of my soul was supposed to be.

Once the food and the idea and repeatability of making a bowl seemed doable, the business plan had to be written and money had to be raised. I didn't have anything. So I drove around and cooked for people and pitched them on the idea and raised $600,000 to open gusto! number one on Peachtree across the street from Piedmont hospital.

ON GUSTO!'S DRIVING FORCE

Nate: When I go to restaurant shows, I see all the same people and they're having the same conversations about Combi ovens and POS systems and reward platforms. Why aren't we talking about human being development? I don't understand why this isn't a big part and a key part of the restaurant business as we rely on human beings to do things.

We have all these bright eyed, bushy tailed human beings. Why can't they be bad asses? Why can't they start their own businesses? Why can't they grow? Why can't they make more money? And so it's part of our business plan. We hope our magic is unlocking potential, and saying yes, and arming our human beings with the tools so they can grow.

Our North Star is to become the most empowering employer brand in the restaurant space. Empowerment is much stronger and much more tactile than just the best place to work.

ON HOW TO BE PEOPLE POWERED

Richmond: We really think about the day-to-day lives of our human beings. So flexible schedules, working around things like school, daycare, and family commitments. That's one of the practical ways we can invest back as being a really caring employer.

Beyond that, we're always striving to think about how can we help that person grow. Intentionally fostering growth is what we call our core employee commitment, that every single day we are going to invest in your growth. Because we know that this business is not going to be a career for everybody. We know that we've got some people that may be here for 40 years. We've got some people that may be here for four months while they're home from college. But we want to make that time that you're with us a time where you can clearly see you've grown, developed skills, developed leadership, and then you can go and apply that to whatever you want—whether that's go be a doctor, a teacher, or a business person.

So from our team members all the way up through leadership, we really try to think about intentional plans, intentional growth. It doesn't happen by accident. It happens through preparation and building something that is right for that human being.

ON HOW TO BUILD COMMUNITY

Richmond: Connecting with communities is what being in the restaurant business is all about. We view our places as a community center. This is where people come together to break bread, to spend time with family, to share time with friends. And so the biggest way we can invest in our community is creating a space like that, delivering great hospitality, being part of the neighborhoods that we do business in.

Nate: We want Atlanta and the south to be proud of this little homemade brand, and so we feel a duty to inject life into our communities. We just started an initiative with Second Helpings. We are dropping off bags of food that don't get eaten to those that are underserved in our community.

Our locations that are near hospitals have a buy one, get one free every Monday. We call it medical Monday, which was really cool because during COVID we fed hospitals for free. We were showing up with food, we felt it was our duty to help take care of frontline workers.

Richmond: We're trying not to think of our relationship with Atlanta as transactional. Instead, how can we build a genuine relationship with Atlanta, with our communities, and the people that live around and rally around our restaurants? There’s a lot of different ways that we could connect with our communities, but what better way than taking care of the people that are in our buildings every single day.?

ON HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE

Richmond: For the most part, there's not much in this restaurant that we can't teach somebody. So what we're looking at is what are the intangible things that we can't teach?

• Do they come in with genuine joy on their face?
• Do they come in excited to be here?
• Are they punctual?
• Do they have a growth mindset?
• Do they come in and ask a lot of questions?
• Do they clearly have a yearning and a curiosity to grow?
• Are they the type that will roll up their sleeves and get on the dish?
• Are they the type that interacts well with guests?

We'll ask things like, tell us a book that you've read recently. That tells us a lot about your growth mindset. If you are, without prodding, already investing back into yourself.

Or tell me about a time you overcame a challenge. Are you a self starter? Are you somebody that has to be given direction? Or do you go out and seek things and opportunities?

For us, it's really about those intangible qualities that you can't teach somebody.

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