Podcasts about macaroni grill

In this episode of the Digible Dudes Podcast, Reid and David dive deep into the scaling challenges facing digital marketing agencies, especially within the multifamily real estate industry.From trust-driven service models to margin compression, and from customization vs. productization to the hidden cost of chasing big clients, this episode lays out the hard truths every agency leader needs to hear.They explore why some agencies plateau, how founder-led charisma is hard to duplicate, and what it really takes to create sustainable systems. Using analogies from restaurants like Macaroni Grill and Shake Shack, they illustrate the cost of dilution when scaling goes wrong—and when saying "no" is actually a growth move.This episode is a masterclass in scaling service businesses, with insights you won't want to miss.Digible:⁠ https://digible.com/Fiona: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.myfiona.com/Leave a Spotify Review: ⁠⁠⁠https://spoti.fi/3LfoEdU⁠⁠⁠Leave an Apple Review: ⁠⁠⁠https://apple.co/3AA2zRj⁠⁠(00:00) Why Most Agencies Don't Scale(01:26) Fragmentation in Multifamily Marketing(03:38) Trust, People & Customer Experience(05:54) Scaling Struggles: Lessons from Macaroni Grill(10:48) Customization vs. Scalability(14:20) Margin Compression and the Price Problem(17:44) Growth, Overhead & Operational Complexity(22:42) Decision Filters for Smarter Scaling(29:41) Big Clients, Low Margins: Is It Worth It?(34:14) Should Agencies Even Scale?(42:04) Bootstrapping Challenges & Hiring Realities(52:12) Will AI Change the Scaling Game?

WE'RE BACK! Better late than never!! It's dated but it's good!! We discuss getting into a Deftones gig, Cole and Matt linking up in San Diego, CALI living, where you took your dates in high school (while you were also in high school btw), the glory days of Macaroni Grill, first date spots, our struggle meals, Cole's controversial lace choices, polos and oi culture, the Oscars (lol), Baylen Out Loud and much more!!! TAP IN!!!!!!!!

Hannah's appetite was good at this point, probably stimulated by the steroids, and she still enjoyed going out to eat.  With her poor vision and motor skills, it was a bit of a challenge getting her in and out of restaurants ... but if she wanted to go, we took her.  On this particular day, it was Macaroni Grill, and she enjoyed her favorite dish -- Penne Rustica. Thank you for joining me for another bonus episode of the While We're Waiting podcast in this year-long series in which I share our family's experiences as our teenage daughter Hannah battled glioblastoma brain cancer from February 2008 through February 2009.  My desire is to process through the events of those twelve months with the perspective that 16 years has brought … and point listeners to hope in Jesus along the way.I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Click here to send me a message!** IMPORTANT** - All views expressed by guests on this podcast are theirs alone, and may not represent the Statement of Faith and Statement of Beliefs of the While We're Waiting ministry. We'd love for you to connect with us here at While We're Waiting! Click HERE to visit our website and learn about our free While We're Waiting Weekends for bereaved parentsClick HERE to learn more about our network of While We're Waiting support groups all across the country. Click HERE to subscribe to our YouTube channelClick HERE to follow our public Facebook pageClick HERE to follow us on Instagram Click HERE to follow us on Twitter Click HERE to make a tax-deductible donation to the While We're Waiting ministryContact Jill by email at: jill@whilewerewaiting.org

In this episode, Alex starts by finally delivering his Macaroni Grill rant, after he couldn't watch the game there last Sunday, he figured it was time to speak out. Next, he talks about the troubling Wall Street Journal piece that helps illustrate the so-called “cover-up” of President Biden's mental capacities. In reality, it is bad, and Alex thinks that Biden did a disservice to the country and his legacy has been tarnished. He finds the report troubling and thinks that many in Biden's inner circle have a lot to answer for. Finally, Alex provides an update on Venezuela. Since Venezuela's president (albiet dictator), Nicolás Maduro, clearly lost the recent presidential election in July of 2025, he has decided to enact revenge on the population. There was always an authoritarian deal in Venezuela, “you don't speak up and you won't be bothered.” However, since Maduro has been challenged internally, he is now imposing uncertainty on his population and has directly forced political opponents to get walled up in Argentina's closed embassy. Alex argues that this uncertainty of fear is the next stage of Maduro's oppressive revenge on his own people. The ramifications will hault any chance of oppostion for the near future. 

On our third anniversary, we're taking a look back at our first anniversary when 15,000 Pod Squaders joined us live to discuss:   - Why Amanda started taking meds, Glennon keeps taking meds – and why Abby might consider taking meds :)  - The brilliant preemptive post mortem strategy to help you emotionally recover from any gathering.   - Your most frequently asked question of Abby: How she tracked down her first love connection at the Macaroni Grill. - The pie chart of showing up – and why it's rarely ever 100%.   - Glennon shares her first steps up from the “landing” of her eating disorder relapse.   CW // eating disorders discussion To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode we bring you up to date with current events. Website: thefacthunter.com Email: thefacthunter@mail.com Snail Mail: George Hobbs PO Box 109 Goldsboro, MD  21636Show Notes:GMRS OPTIONhttps://strykerradios.com/ham-radios/gmrs-vs-ham-radio-which-should-i-choose/#:~:text=In%20short%2C%20as%20GMRS%20is,of%20the%20other%20bands%20besides. Canadian municipality now requires a QR code https://thecountersignal.com/canadian-municipality-requires-qr-code/ Philippines also US, European nations consider vaccinating workers exposed to bird flu https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-european-nations-consider-vaccinating-workers-exposed-bird-flu-2024-05-27/ Chickens culled https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/05/29/bird-flu-updates-iowa-infected-chickens-alpacas/73892743007/ Chase Oliver https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1794992462403957031 https://x.com/mazemoore/status/1795089209776021510 https://x.com/amuse/status/1795083779460985044 Lawmakers move to automate Selective Service registration for all men https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2024/05/23/lawmakers-move-to-automate-selective-service-registration-for-all-men/ Usury: The Crime of the Ages https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2024/05/usury-the-crime-of-the-ages AUDIO:  The 1969 Draft Lottery (Vietnam War) https://youtu.be/gl29gRRppBg?si=zLTWGkfUG93hADQm Restaurants going out of business Fuddruckers, Old Country Buffet, iHop, Buffalo Wild Wings. Applebees, Red Lobster, Denny's, Marie Callender's, Pizza Hut, Outback Steakhouse, Sbarro, MOD Pizza, Ruby Tuesday, PDQ, Joes Crab Shack, Bonefish grill, Casinos, Quiznos, Macaroni Grill, TGI Fridays, Boston Markets.  US nears deal to fund Moderna's bird flu vaccine trial https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-nears-deal-fund-modernas-bird-flu-vaccine-trial-ft-reports-2024-05-30/

It's Dumpster Dive's first Trash Talk episode! A Pop Culture round-up series avialable on the free Dumpster Dive feed until June 12th! After that, these episodes will be making their way over to the patreon, which can be found here. And for the inaugural episode, the one and only John Hill joins me to dish on all the things that made growing up in Texas fabulous, Chuck-E-Cheese, Macaroni Grill, and MORE OK?! Somehow, lots of rat-chat in this one. ENJOY!!! Tom Hamlett Instagram: @thetomhamlett John Hill Instagram: @johnarthurhill Dumpster Dive Instagram: @dumpsterdivepod Dumpster Dive TikTok: @2dumpsterdivas --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dumpsterdivepod/support

"Find a great need in a near edge and act upon it to make a difference" as my father always encouraged. This has proven to be a powerful recipe for action, especially for Nancy Brinker, a three-time Ambassador and New York Times best-selling author, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. She launched two impactful charitable organizations from her kitchen table. Nancy is regarded as the leader of the global breast cancer movement. Her journey began with promise to her dying sister, Susan G. Komen that she would do everything possible to end the shame, fear and hopelessness caused by this disease. Since 1982, Susan G Komen Foundation has invested nearly $1.1 billion in breast cancer research. The second charity that Nancy recently founded is the Promise Fund of Florida, which helps ensure that every woman, regardless of her circumstances has access to life-saving cancer resources. She was shocked to discover that 80,000 women ages 18-65 in Palm Beach County do not have health insurance coverage, and 30% of breast cancers are at an advanced stage when diagnosed. Kitchen Chat was honored to sit with Nancy at this very kitchen table where she started The Promise Fund of Florida to discuss an issue that is important to both of us. Nancy and I are breast cancer survivors. Nancy Brinker and I met at Women's Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO) event at the United Nations where she was being honored by Wendy Diamond, the founder of the WEDO. During our Kitchen Chat, Nancy and I of course bonded over our love and appreciation of food. She shared highlights from her favorite meals as U.S. Ambassador to Hungary along with her appreciation of her late husband's accomplishments as a pioneer within the restaurant industry. Norman Brinker was the founder of Steak and Ale and CEO of Brinker International which owns Chili's Grill and Bar, Romano's Macaroni Grill and Maggiano's Little Italy. He is credited for revolutionizing the casual-dining restaurants in the United States. In a full circle, "hugs from heaven" moment, Nancy invited me to join her for the Women of Distinction awards luncheon in Palm Beach which is hosted by Palm Beach Atlantic University. She of course is a past honoree. What she didn't realize is that when my father was president of Palm Beach Atlantic University over thirty years ago, he actually helped create this concept of honoring women in the community. Please help support the Promise Fund of Florida and make an impact for women to have access to life-saving cancer resources. Thank you, Nancy Brinker for finding "a great need in a near edge and acting upon it to make a huge difference." Savor the day! Be sure and visit https://www.kitchenchat.info

Ted speaks with JD Miller an artist and gallery owner who owns Samuel Lynn Galleries with Phil Romano. Based in Dallas, JD now has galleries spread across the US, and talks with Ted about how he initially got his start and the direction he's headed next.From his start in the music business, his transition into radio, to his 3rd career in art - JD Miller shares his incredible story, including his belief that if you have a positive attitude good things will come your way. TOPICS DISCUSSED[2:35] JD's background[4:07] When did you find a passion for art?[5:25]  Is art trainable or innate?[7:30] JD's business partner: Macaroni Grill, Fudruckers, Heart Stents, and a leap of faith [20:00] The gallery and finding David Yarrow[ 31:35] Life before making money with his art, and transitioning to art full time[37:18] Why aren't galleries succeeding anymore?.[43:43] Clint Black and the worst weather Dallas has ever seen[46:45] Learning from mentors[49:00] The vision going forward and the law of attraction[53:34] Wrap upCONNECT WITH GUESTJD MillerWebsiteInstagramLinkedInKEY QUOTES FROM EPISODEI've been really fortunate to work with some true geniuses in this business. And David Yarrow is the most he's not only a brilliant photographer, a brilliant artist, but he's the most brilliant branding and marketing person I've ever dealt with. The other thing about David is he's one of these guys that he knows everybody, the most famous people in the world, wherever he is, he's just a magnet. You know, it's changed so much. There are very few really brick and mortar galleries that are really, really doing well. You know, a lot of it's gone online and we're an exception. 

The brothers are back! This week with Macaroni Grill memories, the best of the Batman movies, and just how awful Hogwarts would be in real life.NEW PATREON PAGE: https://www.patreon.com/SnackSpotMerch Link: https://snack-spot-se.creator-spring.comTITC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twointhecooler/?hl=enInstacart Link: https://instacart.oloiyb.net/vAWXNSupport the show

At a time when customization and a personalized experience have become the expectation, the hospitality industry is racing to keep up with that demand. Our guest today understands that deeply, and he's driving an innovative business model that is way ahead of the curve. We're sitting down with Barry McGowan, the CEO of Fogo de Chão, an international chain of Brazilian Steakhouses. Barry became CEO in 2019, after serving as President from 2013 to 2018. He has over 40 years of experience in the restaurant industry, including more than 10 years with Brinker International, where he served as COO of Macaroni Grill from 2010 to 2013.Barry also served as President and CEO of Waterloo Restaurants from 2002 to 2010. With his prior experience, Barry brings a broad range of strategic leadership and operational knowledge to Fogo. He holds a B.S. in Hotel Restaurant Management from the University of North Texas, and a Graduate Certificate of Finance from SMU.Highlights: Barry's introduction to the hospitality industry (2:51) Barry describes how the Fogo de Chão opportunity was presented to him (4:20) Fogo's unique background, history, and approach to service (6:19) Fogo de Chão's demographics and how their consumer market has changed over time (8:35) Barry describes Fogo's menu and value model (10:56) Fogo's labor model and how it contributes to their service approach (13:16) Barry explains Fogo's pricing philosophy (16:02) Fogo's outlook and goals for the next ten years (18:52) The investment partnership between Fogo de Chão and Bain Capital (21:58) Fogo's international expansion and growth projection (23:38) Barry discusses Fogo's leadership team (25:11) How Fogo continues to innovate while staying true to their roots (27:07) Barry's favorite items at Fogo de Chão (28:55) Links:Barry McGowan on LinkedInFogo de Chão on LinkedInFogo de Chão WebsiteICR LinkedInICR TwitterICR WebsiteFeedback:If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, marion@lowerstreet.co.

Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you The Red Pegasus Podcast's 13th guest! Today we welcome Kurt Metzger to the show. Kurt is the Vice President of Operations at Norma's Cafe. Since 1956, Norma's has been serving the best Texas home cooking from their original storefront in Oak Cliff. Owner and Cafeteur Ed Murph said, "We make more than great comfort food; we make great friends and memories." Throughout episode 85, Kurt and the guys go down memory lane as Kurt's story is explored. From a family owned and operated restaurant in Brenham, Texas, to climbing the career ladder at Macaroni Grill to now being at the helm of Norma's Cafe. Kurt has been in the Texas restaurant industry for over 30 years and is passionate about its roots while balancing its evolution. Kurt shared the Murph's heart behind what they do and that's how they give back to the community. While tying together North and South Dallas, they desire to serve the needs within the communities. From free Thanksgiving Day meals to serving homeless children through The Birthday Party Project to plenty of other events and fundraisers throughout the year. Be sure to follow them on social media to keep up! Go take a seat in a Texas flag booth at one of their five current locations. Order a big country breakfast or a chicken fried steak, but always finish it off with a mile-high pie. Just know, whatever you order, you won't be disappointed. It is Dallas' destination for Texas home cooking! Follow, Support, and Eat at Norma's Cafe: Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | X: @Normascafe Website: Norma's Cafe Locations: Oak Cliff | Park Lane | North Dallas | Plano | Frisco   Life is short, eat dessert first!   Don't forget to check out Crossbar Soccer + Beer in Richardson. It's the place to be if you love soccer, beer, watching sports, hanging out with good people or all of the above. They have men and coed leagues every quarter as well as open pickup everyday of the week. Also, they have a huge selection of some of the greatest local craft beers.  Lastly, follow along with all things involving the Red Pegasus Podcast. We're on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @RedPegasusPod. If you subscribe, rate and review, we will personally give you a shoutout on the show.  Do you have a story idea or want us to discuss something specific on the pod? Maybe you have a small business or individual you want us to promote? We're always looking to highlight local Texans and their passions, so email us at redpegasuspod@gmail.com. Visit the Red Pegasus Podcast shop to purchase things like shirts, sweaters and stickers!

Imagine that you're the head of the second largest restaurant company in the business, overseeing the likes of Burger King, Godfather's, Steak and Ale and Bennigan's, making a huge salary, though you've already made millions upon millions.  But you decide to pack it in to buy an upstart concept no one had ever heard of, to start all over in building a restaurant brand. As this week's episode of Restaurant Rewind recounts, that was exactly what Norman Brinker did while heading the enormous restaurant group of The Pillsbury Co. He could have worked that job for the rest of his life, and made a fortune doing it. Instead, he resigned to buy an upstart concept that few had even heard of, a full-service brand in a segment called gourmet burgers, which would all but disappear within a few years.  Chili's would not. It would become the foundation of a multi-brand restaurant company whose brands would include Maggiano's, Romano's Macaroni Grill, Bay Street, Cozy Mel's, On the Border, Wildfire Grill and Corner Market, to name just a few.  In the process, Brinker changed the trajectory of the restaurant business. It's proof that he was one of the smartest and most successful leaders the industry has ever seen.  But listen for yourself, in Part II of our two-part series. And if you need to catch up, give Part I a listen. You'll find both wherever you get your podcasts. 

This episode features Sommelier Jason Wilfore, the recent champion of our "Unusual Suspects" Blind Tasting Competition here in Atlanta, GA. He was born and raised in Schenectady, NY and got his start working in the restaurant business as a server and singer at Romano's Macaroni Grill. He later worked at Provence in Guilderland, NY which focused more on traditional French and Mediterranean cuisine that also sparked his interested in wine and beverage followed by working at Grappa '72, another local upscale family-owned restaurant that focused on Northern and Southern Italian cuisine. He moved to Atlanta in 2016 and started working at South City Kitchen in Vinings as a server and bartender. He says that as his curiosity for beverage grew, his beverage manager suggested looking into the Introductory and Certified Courses and Exams with the Court of Master Sommeliers, and the Certified Specialist of Wine certification with the Society of Wine Educators. He passed both the CSW and Certified exams in 2019, and he transferred to Ecco in Midtown where he was able to merge his French/Italian/Mediterranean experiences and start building some knowledge in Spanish cuisine and beverage. After eventually getting promoted to Beverage Manager, he started learning the business/logistical aspects of a beverage program. We talk about his move to Marcel, which meant a shift from a management position to be able to work at a fine dining restaurant with an extensive wine program and continue his development while working with and learning from the sommelier. Currently, Jason is working as a sommelier at Mujo, and we talk about the unique setting in which he is now applying his wine knowledge and creativity. The second half of the episode is devoted to debriefing about the blind tasting competition - Jason walks us through his thought process and strategy for each of his calls, and the dialogue is both entertaining and educational. You can follow @wilforejay on Instagram and find him on Twitch at SommJay. Recorded June 9, 2023 ------------------------------------------- This episode is generously sponsored by Diane Carpenter and Ross Knoll Vineyard: https://www.dianecarpenter.org/wines TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE HERE --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acorkintheroad/support

They changed the bread and killed our childhood! The boys color on the table at this week's pick: Romano's Macaroni Grill Garrett wants to bottle up Michael's spaghetti grease to eat later The bathroom signs are confusing Phil Romano has some crazy ideas for an Asian cuisine restaurant A pushy waiter demands to know why a nearby table is celebrating Garrett must become next week's restaurant, literally Audrey reviews the Macaroni Grill kids menu in this week's Munchkin Menu Musings JUB will make use of all your food byproducts We're on Patreon! Get an extra episode every month, extended Yelp from Strangers segments every other week, merch discounts, download access to our music including the 7 singles from our Olive Garden musical, and more!   Get our 5 Survival Tips for Casual Dining at www.finediningpodcast.com!   Send us your Romano's Macaroni Grill stories at finediningpodcast@gmail.com.   Follow us on TikTok and Instagram @finediningpodcast   Let us know where we should go next by leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts. We read every one!   Next time on Fine Dining: Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville! If you have ever worked for Margaritaville and have a story to share, send it to finediningpodcast@gmail.com.

It's Turbo Time! Steve Moulton (I Think You Should Leave, Young Rock, Sharknado) joins the boys in going to LAX, one of the busiest airports in the world, to dine at a pre-security Planet Hollywood Garrett orders the worst steak we've ever seen Planet Hollywood has no Hollywood decor?! The Floor Wing RETURNS!! And he's kidnapped (pineapplenapped?) Juicy Jr. Girthy paper straws are WAY TOO MUCH Steve & Garrett time out on The Headline Game A veritable Final Destination is What's Going On Over There? JUB needs you to set aside your ethics We're on Patreon! Get an extra episode every month, extended Yelp from Strangers segments every other week, merch discounts, download access to our music including the 7 singles from our Olive Garden musical, and more!   Get our 5 Survival Tips for Casual Dining at www.finediningpodcast.com!   Send us your Planet Hollywood stories at finediningpodcast@gmail.com.   Follow us on TikTok and Instagram @finediningpodcast   Let us know where we should go next by leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts. We read every one!   Next time on Fine Dining: Romano's Macaroni Grill! If you have ever worked for Macaroni Grill and have a story to share, send it to finediningpodcast@gmail.com.

103: Brenda Rogers is an Executive Assistant and worked in the restaurant industry for over 15 years. She was the Chief of Staff at Gordon Ramsay North America (GRNA). Prior to that, Brenda was the Field Administrative Manager for the Dallas Field Office at McDonald's USA. Before joining McDonald's, she was the Vice President of Administration and Executive Assistant to the CEO at Del Frisco's Restaurant Group (DFRG). Earlier in her career, she was an Executive Assistant to the CEO at Taco Mac Restaurants and Romano's Macaroni Grill, and supported executives at Brinker International, Pizza Hut, and Blockbuster. Brenda is an administrative professional who is passionate about the administrative profession. She continually seeks to develop her skills and mentor assistants. Brenda held the designation of Certified Administrative Professional® from 2005 until 2022 and she earned the Advanced Certificate for the Executive Assistant (ACEA) in November 2017. Brenda is a native Texan who lives in Irving. She loves cooking, traveling, hanging out with her family, friends, and her boyfriend, Avery, and their pup, Bailey. She also enjoys watching classic movies (she introduced “Wuthering Heights” with Ben Mankiewicz on Turner Classic Movies in April 2019).   Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendalrogerscap/ ACEA: https://www.acea.training/ More news soon on ACEA on my newsletter: https://the-socialista-projects.com/#newsletter

Welcome back to the episode where we finally put the debate of Macaroni Grill vs Olive Garden to rest and are oddly nice to one another.-----Follow us on @swappinghorrorstoriespod on Instagram for updates on episodes.Lauren: @listeningtolauren on IGCaleb: @superwittman on IG or @spaghettihands on pelotonContact us at swappinghorrorstoriespodcast@gmail.comPodcast art by Katie Lily (@thehauntedoutfit on Instagram)Intro Music (Curious Games by Mike Franklyn): https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/pMC8Tty2dj/

Savor the flavors of this week's guests on Food Farms & Chefs Radio Show, because they're cooking up some hot commodities in their kitchens.  From a self-taught Barbecuer, to a fast-casual burger joint, and some dessert to follow--these dynamic individuals are creating treats for all of us to eat!We began our episode with Terrell Barkley, who started his BBQ business after he unintentionally became the neighborhood grill master.  He found his passion, and skill, to barbecuing while he was recovering from an injury.  When he started to cook, the neighbors sniffed out the delicious offerings, and soon he found himself feeding all the children and their parents.  As fate would have it, he met someone who wanted out of their business, and soon it became Barkley's BBQ.   His popularity grew with every tasty bite, and soon he expanded to meet the requests of his fans, committing to a food truck in addition to his brick and mortar location.We next wanted you to MEAT the self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur of Cherry Hill, or his newest endeavor that is.  Mathew Daniel, who is a young, talented, and very driven individual is no stranger to owning his own business; he has formerly owned a Frutta Bowl franchise, as well as Cloud Lounge.  Now, Daniel is the owner of BurgerFi in Cherry Hill, NJ, and he had his General Manager, Nicole Jackson, join us on Food, Farms, & Chefs.  After discussing a little history of her own journey in the hospitality industry, we dug in...to BurgerFi and what distinguishes their brand from all the others.  Lastly, we spoke with Vanessa Jackson, owner and founder of Philly Cheesecake Lady.  After spending an astounding 34-years without tasting this decadent dessert, Jackson took her first bite of cheesecake during an office holiday party.  To her delight, she fell in love with the rich and creamy treat, committing to a weekly outing to Macaroni Grill for some more. It didn't take too long before she started making them at home, and eventually created cheesecakes that the whole family relished in.  Seeing an opportunity, and not wasting it, she eventually opened a brick and mortar location, and has seen continued growth ever since.  Now, Philly Cheesecake Lady is a family affair with both of her daughters co-owning and operating the booming business alongside her.  If you would like to know more of the delicious details, tune in at 6pm on WWDB 860 AM & WPEN HD2 97.5 in the Philadelphia listening area on Tuesdays, or 1pm on Fridays in the Hudson Valley, NY, CT, and North Jersey regions on WMLD 103.7 FM, or you can stream our show at anytime by asking your smart device to play FOOD FARMS AND CHEFS RADIO SHOW!   

How much of the high price of eggs can restaurants eat before they have to pass it along to customers? Prominent restaurateurs // Restaurant Industry Experts // head up Trinity Groves, a concept started in 2013 by famed restaurant innovator Phil Romano (founder of Fuddruckers, Romano's Macaroni Grill and Eatzi's). Trinity Groves has more than a dozen restaurants & dessert shops, attracting families & foodies alike Julian Rodarte joins John to explain why this might happen.

Have you ever felt like a clumsy novice when everybody else seemed so pulled together?  First tries and first attempts are the ways to lead to upgrades and updates, and you don't have to get it all right the first time!  Going from shiny, new and fresh, to being more seasoned and experienced, means having no shame in stumbling.  Let's take notice of our reaction and response, so as to get up again and not be frozen in fear or panic after a fall.  Give yourself grace and find contentment first, to be able to move forward and build, or to change and leave, and then bring that centered peace with you. And by the way, don't be afraid to ask for help! Mistakes might not be ideal, but they're certainly ordinary and no big deal. Those very mistakes and lessons are what leads to a wiser 2.0 edition of ourselves!

Happy Woo Wednesdays!Lisa Marie Photographie is in the get a heck yes house. A repeat guest and a dear friend of mine. Check out our past episode about how to brand yourself in a new location.Fun fact about LisaShe was in the restaurant industry for about 17 years.. which she believes helps her in this industry a ton! She even met her hubby Igor while working at Macaroni Grill!She used to be a second shooter lead photographer for the Carissa Woo photography team before until she sadly moved to Taho.I miss her. Today we talk about dos and don't for 2nd shooting. If you want to get into the wedding photography world, start off my 2nd shooting to build your experience and portfolio. You are going to want to tune in.Connect with Lisa MarieApply to work with Carissahttps://heckyesmedia.co/applyhttps://lisamariephotographie.com/

Julian and Alexa Rodarte are prominent restaurateurs in Dallas. They head up Trinity Groves, a concept started in 2013 by famed restaurant innovator Phil Romano (founder of Fuddruckers, Romano's Macaroni Grill and Eatzi's). Restaurants feel pressure to increase menu prices due to rising cost of eggs

In this episode, we discuss the United States one sided trace with Russia

Full Court Press: Giannis Ladder Drama & Sacramento Lights The Beam  That Actually Happened: The Time A Girls High School Basketball Team Won 100-0  3-on-3: The Three Coolest/Wackest NBA City Edition Jersey Press Releases  And Also: The Amazing Race, Tasmanian Devil, Turnip Throwing, Yankee Swap/White Elephant, The Jim Beam/LL Beam, Sully, Airport Carpet Patterns, Dysentery, Dirt Nowitzki, Deconstructed Chocolate Cake, Romano's Macaroni Grill, Hustlers, Christian Pulisic's Nuts    Sponsor:   BetterHelp: Get matched easily with a licensed, board-accredited counselor today. More than 3000 therapists with 38 million+ counseling sessions are ready to help you! Get 10% off your first month at www.betterhelp.com/horse.    Find Us Online - website: horsehoops.com - patreon: patreon.com/horsehoops - twitter: twitter.com/horse_hoops - instagram: instagram.com/horsehoops - facebook: facebook.com/horsehoops   HORSE is hosted by Mike Schubert and Adam Mamawala. Created by Eric Silver and Mike Schubert. Edited by Mike Schubert. Theme song by Bettina Campomanes. Art by Allyson Wakeman. Website by Kelly Schubert.   About Us On HORSE, we don't analyze wins and losses. We talk beefs, dig into Internet drama, and have fun. The NBA is now a 365-day league and it's never been more present in pop culture. From Kevin Durant's burner accounts to LeBron taking his talents anywhere to trusting the Process, the NBA is becoming a pop culture requirement. At the same time, sports can have gatekeepers that make it insular and frustrating for people who aren't die hard fans. We're here to prove that basketball is entertaining to follow for all fans, whether you're actively watching the games or not. Recently featured in The New York Times!

October 29, 2022www.actaccordinglypodcast.comTwitter @actaccordingFacebook facebook.com/actaccordinglypodcast/Instagram instagram.com/actaccordinglypodcast/Listen on Apple Music, Google Music, Spotify, Tune In Radio, Amazon, Stitcher Radio, and iHeartRadioKanye, Hobby Lobby, Macaroni Grill, Soccer

On today's MJ Morning Show: Why was Roxanne late? Morons in the news Bucs play tonight The McRib may be on it's final run? Macaroni Grill inflation fee Froggy's story about his dog's droppings in someone's yard Men who want kids are on the decline TMZ was fooled about a celebrity A British DJ died... on his air shift What percentage of people are on dating apps who are not single. We took calls. Kanye tried another shoemaker Powerball is goin' up again. There will be shortages for Thanksgiving items Warren Moon suggests Gronk could turn this team around if he were to come out of retirement. Matthew Perry life story is coming out Filling the TMZ tipline with fake stories Will there be rainbow Fentanyl for Halloween?

Today on the Woody and Wilcox Show: Tumbleweeds trap a couple in their house; Macaroni Grill being sued for adding an inflation charge to bills; Woody Game Wednesday; Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas special; Bono apologizes for putting the U2 album on iPhones in 2014; And so much more!

Riley calls us about a girl named Diana that he met on Hinge. She seemed like a great catch on paper: pretty face, educated, has a good job, seemed very family-oriented, etc. He quickly struck up a conversation with her and to his surprise, she actually responded — a rare event for a guy. After clicking a bit through texts, he asked her if she'd be willing for him to take her out, to which she happily agreed. Then end up going to Romano's Macaroni Grill for some Italian food and the date was better than expected! He thought that it would be awkward at first, as most first dates are, but Diana was able to make him feel super comfortable. He texted her right when he got home after their date to say he had a great time and to ask her out again, but she doesn't respond. He figured that maybe since it was a bit late at night, maybe she was already sleeping. But the next day rolls around and still no reply. After a couple of days and more of Riley's follow-up texts, still nothing. He wants to know what's up. Follow us on Instagram: @thekeolashow Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheKeolaShow

Ricardo is founder and principal of PÉREZ LAW. He is representing the girls in the Macaroni Grill case and he has a lot of information that we weren't even aware of. Take a listen!

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy sits down with businessman and philanthropist Dean Riesen about his effort to deliver and access clean water in Tanzania and what the rest of us can learn from his work.Dean is the Managing Partner of Redrock Partners, a private equity investment firm. As part of the firm's work, he has served as the Chairman of Romano's Macaroni Grill, Chairman of Famous Dave's of America, and Managing Partner of Rimrock Partners, a commercial real estate investment and development firm. He founded and serves as Chairman of the Tanzania Water Fund, which has completed over 35 community-based water systems in the Singida Region of Tanzania. Does a localist approach translate to international giving? Dean shares his method for charitable sustainability through the Tanzania Water Fund—along with systems, people, and protocols to enact. He outlines what he calls the “human development pyramid” and why clean water is foundational to transformative impact for many developing communities rather than economic development or healthcare. Dean closes out by offering wisdom on starting new endeavors and charitable work, noting the importance of patience and persistence when things fail and measuring the desired output instead of input.During our practicalities segment, Jeremy speaks with American Philanthropic consultant Michela Petrosino. She shares her insights and unique approaches to cultivating genuine relationships with your donors that go beyond the typical run-of-a-mill suggestions.You can find Givers, Doers, & Thinkers here at Philanthropy Daily, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Buzzsprout, and wherever you listen to podcasts.We'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas, questions, and recommendations for the podcast! You can shoot Katie Janus, GDT's producer, an email anytime!

Over 15,000 Pod Squaders joined live to celebrate One Year of the Pod and discuss: 1. Why Amanda started taking meds, Glennon keeps taking meds–and why Abby might consider taking meds :) 2. The brilliant preemptive post mortem strategy to help you emotionally recover from any gathering.  3. Your frequently asked question of Abby: How she tracked down her first love connection at the Macaroni Grill. 4. The pie chart of showing up–and why it's rarely ever 100%.  5. Glennon shares her first steps up from the “landing” of her eating disorder relapse.  CW // eating disorders discussion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi Gang! This week we have a nice Top Five list on the Best Italian Restaurant Chains in America! The boys also touch on the Kentucky Derby and the major long and our Chrissy would some dough on that race, how'd you do? The guys get into the Top Five list chatting about the ambiance of the various establishments, which is always a treat with these two. Mike gets into Bowling, and how much he likes the Ten Pin better than Candlepin, what about you? Bowling is making a comeback! Father Mikey makes a return to the show! Father talks about his sabbatical and gives out some advice to Chrissy, updates us about Sister Good and Plenty. Tom has the question of the day for Mikey to answer, please submit your request for advice! Some of the Top Chains are, Bucca di Beppo, Bertucci's, California Pizza, Romano's Macaroni Grill, Carrabba's, and the unanimous choice for number one was Maggiano's Little Italy. What is your Top Five? They also get into the Top 10 Comedians of all time, great list!   Also, please check out Tom's book, Bless Me Sister, only a few left! https://www.amazon.com/Bless-Me-Sister-Tom-Zappala/dp/193969308X   Father Mikey is back in the States, in fact “Advice from Father Mikey” will run each and every week, so please send your questions along!! If you have a question for Father Mikey, send us a note on Facebook or send us an email: thesiciliancorner@gmail.com.   #TheSicilianCorner #Sicilian #TSC #TomZappala #MikeLomazo #Studio21PodcastCafe #UnitedPodcastNetwork   Follow Us On: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSicilianCorner/ YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt-Op7TLxqV7yoqkAfv8KQg Listen to Us on Podbean: https://thesiciliancorner.podbean.com/  or anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts Join us as we broadcast on location from Studio 21 Podcast Cafe high above Two Guys Smoke Shop in Salem, New Hampshire on the United Podcast Network, Tuesdays @ 9:30am

Jackie recaps the Oscars, tries to raise Joan Rivers from the dead for some unfiltered fashion commentary and reminisces on her deep love for the Macaroni Grill and stealing mens razors to tend to her foliage pre-hook up.   Produced By Dear Media

Jackie recaps the Oscars, tries to raise Joan Rivers from the dead for some unfiltered fashion commentary and reminisces on her deep love for the Macaroni Grill and stealing mens razors to tend to her foliage pre-hook up.   Produced By Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Robin Blanchette, CEO and Founder, Norton Creative (Houston, TX)   Robin Blanchette is CEO and Founder at Norton Creative, an agency focused “narrow and deep” on restaurant and hospitality branding. Their primary client base includes multi-unit operators, mid-size and larger chains, and franchises. They also work with independents . . . but never with conflicting brands or direct competitors in the same time frame.  Over the eight years of its existence, the agency has worked with over 150 different restaurant brands, developing strategies, doing creative work, finding whitespace, differentiating positions, and designing brand standards that allow room for franchisees to “own their businesses” while maintaining what Robin calls “brand purity.” Clients have included Buffalo Wild Wings, TGIFridays, Bob Evans Farms, Mellow Mushroom, Friendly's, Fuddruckers, Sonic, and Luby's . . . . Robin started her career on the client side and said that the agencies she worked with “didn't get it.” She makes sure that the creative her agency produces not only works on the marketing side . . . but addresses questions such as: “What is your business problem you're trying to solve?” “What is your objective?” and translates the creative solution into business results in terms of sales, traffic, and profitability.  Norton Creatives architecture and interiors team helps develop brand architectures that will be scalable to two or more locations so that a single site operation can seamlessly “grow.” When the creative team designs menus, the layout is engineered for profitability. The firm also provides carry-out packaging design and merchandising services, which have increased in importance during the pandemic. In this interview, Robin talks about the challenges restaurants face . . . and what successful restaurants have done to succeed over the past couple of years. She reminds us that restaurants have very tight margins and notes that the number of restaurants in the US is down 100,000 from pre-pandemic days. Those that have succeeded are those that are willing to do “whatever it takes.” In particular, Robin says many have developed new ways to deliver to their customers, reduced the number of selections on their menus, and gotten more efficient in their operations.  Robin can be reached on her agency's website at https://norton-creative.com/, on LinkedIn, and on Instagram. Transcript Follows: ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Kischuk, and I am joined today by Robin Blanchette, CEO, and Founder at Norton Creative based in Houston, Texas. Welcome to the podcast, Robin. ROBIN: Thank you for having me, Rob. This is great. ROB: Great to have you here. Why don't you give us a focus in on the superpowers of Norton Creative? I think you have a pretty distinctive story for us. ROBIN: Absolutely. We say we go narrow and deep. We're focused really only on the restaurant and hospitality industries. We do creative work, find whitespace, differentiating positions, ways to bring the brand to life in this industry. We're experts in hospitality. To be honest, I just have to say that this industry versus any other industry is really one of service, and that's what we love about it. It's really about the people. I mean, you could see through the pandemic, the restaurant owners/operators, independent chains, they all rolled up their sleeves. They're completely open and humbled to be in an environment to serve people, and that's what we do at Norton. That's why we focus solely on this industry. ROB: It's fascinating. I've known some very small agencies that try to focus in on very mom n' pop restaurants. You see really small clients – and sometimes they have bigger restaurants, too. Where is your sweet spot? Are you working with local, single location? Are you looking mostly at multi-location or franchise or chain? How does that fit your mix? ROBIN: We really are in both, but I will say our primary client is multi-unit operators, mid-size and larger chains. We do independents. We have an architecture and interiors team, so anything the guest really sees from a restaurant perspective is what we focus on. Architecture and interiors, we do large chains, but we also do a lot of independents. Chefs that have been maybe working for a brand and then they want to create their own brand. We've got a client that wanted to start a cookie shop, and we created a cookie shop. She's got one location; she started as a virtual brand and she was like, “Now I want to open an actual, four-walls place.” So, most of our clients are large chains and mid-size chains, but I will say we're a creative group of people, and if you know creative design type folks, they want some really unique and independent stuff to do. So we like to balance it out for them, for the team, because they like to do unique, niche-y kind of stuff too. You know what I mean? ROB: Absolutely. To that point a little bit, when you're talking about a restaurant that is investing in architecture and design, it's still somebody thinking a little bit bigger than someone who took over a lease, someone else moved out, they're moving in, they want to sell their mom's favorite sandwich. I mean, maybe there's a good place for it, but I hear you talking about investing in a brand architecture that might be able to scale out two more locations, even if someone's starting with one. ROBIN: Absolutely. I think right now, too, certainly during the pandemic and what we're thinking of as post-pandemic – let's put out the positive vibes there that this is post-pandemic – there's a lot of folks that are looking to take their one-unit, two-unit, three-unit and franchise. There's a lot of franchise development agreements happening right now. We work with a regional chain out of Houston called Shipley Do-Nuts, and if you're a Texan, you know very well what that brand's all about because you're born and raised with it. But they're franchising rapidly across the country. To be able to get brand standards and get your box right, get things lined up so a potential franchisee, or even a potential buyer for that matter, can look at it and go, “Yeah, I can expand this, it's obvious” – Wahlburgers is one of our clients based out of Austin, and they're doing the same thing. It's like, let's create a brand position, a story of your standards so that we can now execute this in multiple ways across the world and across the U.S. ROB: Franchisees seem like a particular challenge. A lot of times you'll see some really well-run restaurants, even gas stations, tend to not be franchised. So how do you think about the design of the brand, the design of the collateral in a way that is easier for a franchisee to succeed? That seems like quite a challenge. ROBIN: I think some of it has to do with development agreements and how the franchisor decides to set up the boundaries and rules and how they also might hold franchisees accountable for those. From a franchisee perspective, there does have to be space – I worked for Applebee's corporate for many years, and we had an incredible group of franchisees and business owners that owned lots of different chains, lots of different restaurants, and we would have local walls that they could interchange their own local flair, if you will. So, there are ways for franchisees to make it their own, but you're buying the sign and paying royalties towards that brand. For us, when we create pieces or brand standards, there has to be some sort of give and take there for a franchisee. It's their business, it's their livelihood, it's their company. My philosophy is around brand purity. I believe that individual brands should take up their own space – not that nobody has a competitor, but in terms of creating a brand from scratch or even trying to differentiate one – look, there's lots of wing places in this world, but Buffalo Wild Wings are the only people that do it their way. They're the only one that focuses on a gathering place for sports and the best wings, or whatever. So I think about it as brand purity, and franchisees think of it that way too. That's why they're buying in. ROB: Yeah, Buffalo Wild Wings you mentioned is a client of yours, I believe. ROBIN: Yeah. ROB: It is a fascinating thing; there's kind of a hole in the market to an extent. You say, what is the national sports bar chain that is actually going to deliver on something you expect to receive from it? It's not quite there. We have a couple local chains; some of them die, some of them come, some of them go. And then there is the big yellow and black sign that you can see from the highway. I think it's interesting to turn a corner here and talk about the origin story of Norton Creative. You mentioned your own background on the brand side. I think it's very credible. What led you to move from the corporate side and the brand side and take some risks by starting your own shop? ROBIN: It's very scary. [laughs] I'll say that. It was a very scary proposition. I joke when people are starting their own restaurant brands or whatever; I'm like, I was googling how to start a company. I'm not going to lie about that. That's the God's honest truth. “What forms do I need to fill out?” or whatever. But the impetus for it was – if you've spent any time at all on the client side – I hired all the big agencies and many small agencies. I've gone through the formal pitch processes that take months and I've hired somebody out of the blue. I've been on that side primarily. So I really knew what was missing, I think. That was part of it. Gosh, I had great agencies and really talented creative people, and certainly all the major consulting companies, too, come in, like the big decks from the Big Three or whatever. What's missing is I could never find anybody that could solve my creative conundrum out of the gate. They didn't really get it on the agency side. Now that I'm on the other side, we work really hard to get it, like “What is your business problem you're trying to solve?” Not just your marketing problem, not just your creative problem, but what's your objective? We come back to that every time. And every agency I ever had would bring beautiful work, but it didn't actually go to work. I hear other people say that all the time, like “Our creative works,” but ours really is about sales, traffic, and profitability. It's even hard to train creatives a lot of times in that, but think about it; when we're doing a menu design, we do not do menu design without engineering, which is profitability work. Where do the items go? Where does the eye go for the guest? Where's the heat of the person? We do all of the backend stuff on that because I don't want to design a menu, roll it out, and then your best-in-the-world item fails because we've shoved it someplace. That's a long way of answering your question in that we really understand, I really understood, what was missing. We have a tendency to say things like, look, I am not going to give you a 100-page deck to answer a very short question of “What are we best in the world at?” Let's write a paragraph. It's born out of some sort of truth, right? If we're going to have to explain this to the guest for two hours, it's never going to work. What is it in its most simple form? What's your brand about? I think what has made a difference – we've been around eight years now. Somebody told me when I first started Norton, “It's like owning a boat. The best day is the day you get it and the day you sell it.” [laughs] The in between is all the work. It's just hard work. And that's where we are now. We're in the middle of the work. And it was born out of “We get you because we've been there. We understand.” ROB: You have a very deep experience in the industry. How do you go about taking somebody who may be very talented, and they may have even delivered a very good quality of work across a range of industries – how do you bring them into the restaurant world? How do you build that into culture, build that into training, build that into process? ROBIN: First of all, we've all eaten at restaurants, so it's not a stretch to be like, “Do you know what it's like to be a restaurant guest and read a menu?” That's the first point of contact for the most part. So that's not a hard hurdle to overcome. It's not like I'm teaching somebody about the pipeline across Alaska or something. It's not something hard to teach. People get it, and they get the restaurant experience. In terms of the underneath of it all, some of it's just teaching and getting in there, being thrown in and saying, “Look, here's how we engineer our menu. Here's how we build a box to make the customer journey be the best. Here's how we create stories.” Some of it is just teaching, and we really do like to hire more junior folks and train them into the industry. Again, I'm really focused on our leaders. In the restaurant industry, we talk about “train the trainer.” We train the trainer a lot here, and we use a lot of the way that restaurant operators train somebody who is a 16-year-old host and how they greet the guests and how a server might greet somebody, how a kitchen might move quickly but still provide quality food. We use those same fundamentals for what we do every day. I don't want a piece of work that goes out that is not the best it can be. We've got expo. If you've ever worked in a restaurant, you know what expo is. You're checking the plate before it goes to the guest. So, we have folks in place that get it, and we also hire a lot of people who've been on the other side. There used to be a thing where it was like in-house creatives are maybe not that great. They haven't worked across a variety of industries of whatever. But in-house creatives on the restaurant side get it. They know they've got to turn it quick. There's somebody standing over their shoulder saying “Make that blue, make that purple” or whatever. They understand the language, too. So, we hire people like that as well. ROB: Got it. You mentioned packaging; are you also even in packaging design and takeout? Has that been part of your world for the past couple of years especially? ROBIN: Oh my gosh, yes, and long before that, you can imagine. One of the very first projects that I worked on when I was at Applebee's was creating Carside To Go. You might remember it back in the late '90s, when that all started for some of the bigger casual dining chains. All the pitfalls that go into that are the same ones we have today, which is like the guest doesn't want to get out of their car, and how are we going to be of service to them? So yeah, we do full to-go packaging. Again, it's built out of the brand. With Buffalo Wild Wings, we're super flexible. They have a lead creative agency, which is the Martin Agency, which we're huge fans of – huge fans – and we do all of the menu and merchandising work for them. So we all work together. When it comes to things like packaging, we're working on packaging along with other folks, many times, working with operations, working cross-functionally with either other agencies or also working within the organization cross-functionally. Lots of different teams. We're not just working with the marketing teams; we're working with the development teams and real estate teams, things like that. ROB: Right. A challenge that strikes me – I think this is a challenge brand side as well – when you talk about something like package design, that's kind of an intermittent need. Same thing with internal architecture. Some people – maybe you'll tell me differently – don't tweak their menu that often. So how do you juggle having these capabilities that are not a persistent need, but it's a recurring one? It's kind of that challenging “usually but not always” need. How do you juggle some of those specialties? ROBIN: First of all, the way we're set up, we certainly have retained clients that we work on stuff every single day. We're in and out all year long, and those are transformational partnerships where we are in it. Everything they need, they call us. And then we also do a lot of project work. When somebody has a need – when Smoothie King needs menu design and engineering work and profitability work, or Red Lobster – we just finished doing some work for Red Lobster – they will call us and say, “We need this work. We're not ready yet” – especially right now in the middle of the pandemic, the government shut down our industry, in effect, in 2020. What's happening right now in the industry is we have lots of folks that are calling and saying, “Hey, look, I'm not ready yet for the full package of services because I just can't. We had 50 people in our marketing department; now we have three. We can't do it yet, but hey, can you do this for us right now? Can you build this campaign? Can you do this for the next six months?” or whatever. And of course we can. Again, we're of service. We'd like the transformational partnership because obviously – and you understand – when you have those retained relationships, you can really add more value long term, and certainly it helps from a resourcing perspective internally and the P&L. But from just how we can handle the intermittent needs, we do. We just say yes. ROB: What are you seeing when it comes to – some places have probably reopened pretty well, but some places have probably reopened hoping that they're going to be able to keep doing exactly what they did before. What are you seeing change in the actual function of restaurants, the marketing, the design? There's obviously this mobile and pickup version of things, but are people going to be able to relaunch these big box, large format restaurants with crowds? How are they having to adapt their space for the new reality? ROBIN: Fortunately and unfortunately, we've got hundreds of thousands fewer restaurants than we did before the pandemic. You'll have to check me on the number, but I think it's 100,000 fewer restaurants in the United States from before the pandemic. For the restaurants remaining, the ones that fought, rolled up their sleeves, did their best to try to survive – PPP and ERC and all the ways in which – those chains are I would say healthier than ever. They reduced menu skus in terms of number of items, because menus were getting really big. It's hard to delete stuff because you're like, “Ah, I have that one guest that likes that item.” It's like, well, let's figure it out. So, menus got smaller. Restaurants had to be much more efficient in terms of how they were utilizing their supply chain. Obviously there are labor issues and all of these things. I would say from my purview, restaurants are more efficient than they were before, and there's people hungry for eating out. They're hungry for entertainment. My husband went to a car show/boat show thing this weekend and he's like, “It was like a mob scene.” People are like, “We'll take whatever, just to walk around and find something to do.” But people are back in restaurants again, and they're saying, “We want that.” In terms of the large chains, I think it's gotten some guests back. People are spending maybe a little less money. They're saying, “Maybe I was eating at the high-end fine dining before; now, you know what? I'm good. I would love to eat at TGI Friday's. I miss my potato skins.” ROB: It certainly makes sense. I've seen all over the map – one of our favorite pre-pandemic places, I think they still don't know what they want to be post-COVID. Their dining room is in a state of disarray, and they're like, “You can take your food and sit outside and eat it if you want, but we don't even know what to do with our dining room.” They used to have an ice cream scooper, and they just dumped it. I don't know if they know what they want to be when they're done. But you see these brand transformations where their delivery was actually really, really good. And I've never seen them do free delivery, and they really nailed it. I've been surprised by what it can be. We're in Atlanta; you're in Houston. These are larger footprints. This is not New York City where you go pick up something around the corner or some guy walks something up to your door. 10 minutes is 5 miles. ROBIN: Right. Add traffic. But I will say the restaurants that are killing it right now are the ones that were like, “We're going to do whatever it takes. We're going to figure this out. What do people need? What am I going to do?” There was a whole period of time with lots of phone calls around self-delivery versus the third-party delivery folks. The third-party delivery folks were taking most of the margin in restaurants, and margins are very lean. I don't know what the general public thinks, but I will say that restaurants are not just printing money out there. It's a hard business. It's hard work, and the people are caring and of service. They want to provide the way in which – like my local restaurant, like what you're talking about, did everything they possibly could do. I'm like, I can't believe this bag of food showed up at my front door hot in five minutes. This is crazy. Way to go, guys. But yeah, lots of weird things that happen, but it was really born out of the grit of the industry. Think about things like virtual brands that are working out of kitchens. People are taking those down day parts and they're using them to try to make profit to keep those teams going. They're paying people by day. I think the biggest thing, Rob, that I was just thinking about is some of it – the brands that are the big chains that really have the dollars to be able to invest in technology – and I know you guys operate in this space – you can see the difference, the folks that have made the shift to these really turnkey technology platforms and point of sale platforms. The ones that can't do it, I think they're struggling more. ROB: Yeah. It's still definitely shifting. One of your friends, the Buffalo Wild Wings folks – I went to online order the other day and they said, “Do you want to order from our kitchen?” It's only pickup and delivery. It's not even a ghost kitchen. They're putting it front and center to people and saying, “Look, we're here too. This is a pickup spot and it's a place that's closer to you when you want delivery.” I don't know – maybe you helped them architect that. But it was evident to me, “Wait, this is closer to me. They'll probably get me my food faster and warmer.” We're just down the road from our friends at Chick-fil-A's headquarters, and what they're doing with their drive-thrus is herculean. Whereas I'll go to Burger King and their drive-thru is closed or it's taking half an hour. I go to Chick-fil-A, they're cranking through 50 cars in 5 minutes, and I don't even know – ROBIN: If I could pick up my prescriptions from Chick-fil-A, I would. [laughs] They are gold standard, man. Gold standard. You're absolutely right. Their speed of service – but they figured it out. That's what I'm saying. Just think about it. You've got all this dead space, and you've got cooks in the kitchen, and you have this time. If you're Friday's or Applebee's or Chili's, there's a dead time where nobody's eating. What are you going to do with that? Let's be more efficient. Let's figure out how to be of service more. I appreciate that. ROB: It is that commitment. I'm sure you've done this as a firm; it's that commitment to figuring it out. We had a local megachurch here that, in April of 2020, said, “We are closed through the end of the year.” The clarity of vision involved in that – you're telling everyone, “We're going to figure it out. We're not waiting around. We're not waiting for this thing to be over. We're going to lean straight into it and do what it takes to get through and emerge on the other side who we need to be, with whatever changed.” ROBIN: I saw that with restaurants, too. ROB: Robin, as you reflect on the growth of the firm so far, what are some lessons you've learned that you would want to go back and tell yourself as you're heading out of the brand world and the brand side and you're going to build your own firm to serve them? What would you tell yourself? Lessons learned. ROBIN: Oh man, lessons learned. Oh gosh. I've got to say this out loud? I would have been more confident about my own abilities and the abilities of our team from the get-go. And when I say that, we always did great work from the beginning, and always had really big clients from the beginning. What is it, the cobbler's kids have no shoes? [laughs] We did not market ourselves. We didn't talk about the great things we did. We said, “We're not ego-driven, we're not about awards,” all the things we would say. “We're not about getting awards. We just do the good work, we're super humble, we're scrappy, we fly under the radar.” Those are all the things that we'd say about ourselves, but at the same time, the humility in it is totally our personality. That's just how we are. But we should be standing up and saying, “Oh my gosh, look at our great work. We are so proud of it.” You can say that and still be humble about what you do and not have this big fat ego about things. I would say I would've done that earlier. Coming out of the pandemic, we started doing that. We're like, oh my gosh, we've touched over 150 different restaurant brands in eight years. There's no agency that can say that. We've touched so many of them and loved them, to be honest, and built real, meaningful relationships with people that we care and cherish. I wish we would've waved our Norton flag from the beginning. Better late than never, but now's the time for us to say, we're proud of what we do. We're proud of our industry. We think they're amazing people. I'm telling you, even going back to the conferences, the restaurant and hospitality focused, the keynote speakers – it's all changed. People are like, “We're so grateful for our teams. They're leading from a place of optimism and hope and empathy” – things that I didn't really hear 20 years ago. It was all about the almighty dollar. Now we're all very Simon Sinek, Adam Grant, hope and optimism focused. I think it's what we've been through. That's what I'd tell myself. ROB: It's an interesting journey there. One challenge I can imagine is the perception of conflict and conflicting clients. These people have chicken, these people have pizza, those people have chicken, those people have pizza, they have sandwiches. How do you address the challenge of conflict, both the actual concerns of it as well as the perception? I think that's a common thing to many people, but maybe especially in the low-margin restaurant world. ROBIN: I think the perception is changing in the agency world a little bit. I certainly, when I hired McCann back in the day for their amazing TV and creative work – love those people – that was a really important thing to me that we made sure there was no creative conflicts in their agency. I did think that at the time as a client and as a CMO. I did think, “Do I really care about that?” [laughs] I really just want the best creative minds, and surely they're not taking work from one team and giving it to another. And that really is true. They're not doing that. At least in my view, no agency is doing that. We certainly don't do it. We do conflicting work sometimes, but for the most part all of our retained clients, there's no conflict. And we try to keep it that way. Any sort of transformational partnership that I think of, long-term relationship – like Fogo de Chao is one of our big clients who we love. They're amazing. Look at them for leadership in the restaurant industry. They're just amazing. We're not going to take on another Brazilian steakhouse, for instance. We're just not going to do that. We're very focused on what we can try to solve for them. So, the retained relationships, we keep that very, very clean. In terms of the project work, it comes in and out anyway. We would rethink that, probably, if they were going to become a long-term partner. But we're pretty careful about that. We're never working on conflicting brands or direct competitors at the same time, ever. That's a hard no. ROB: Yeah, I can certainly see how Brazilian steakhouse is a niche; it's hard to define – perhaps you can, but it's hard to define separate experiences in that world. It also strikes me that that's a place where hospitality has really lived at a chain level for a long time. The real hospitality in the hospitality industry can be missing quite often. What I see across a lot of your brands that you work with is I don't necessarily even think about them on a list. I think about them as the place that you go to that is – you mentioned Applebee's, but then you mentioned something like Fogo de Chao, you mentioned something like Macaroni Grill. It's not the fifth version of that thing; it's almost the only version of what it is, and what I think of when I go there. It sounds like that's what you're aiming for – helping them be the only thing of their kind. A Buffalo Wild Wings is the experience that it is, and it's not one of your top five chicken wings sports bar places. ROBIN: Right. I think that's important for any brand, including Norton. That's why we say narrow and deep. Be who you are. Be comfortable in your own skin. We play the “what if?” game a lot. This brand's known for potato skins; what if they did this? You know, in this service business, now that I'm on the outside of it, the idea really is to provide what we in Texas and Louisiana call “lagniappe,” which is the added value, the special thing, the thing that maybe nobody has thought of to be helpful. How are we going to present menus that's something that's different than everyone else, or whatever. For all of the brands that we work on, what are they best in the world at? That comes down to something as simple as what's on their menu. What are they best in the world at? Even if it's not a profitable item, what can they be known for? All of us as people and as brands deserve that. You've heard that term, probably, and used it in your lifetime, about “death by a thousand cuts.” I think there are so many brands that you get different leadership teams that come in, different people, everybody's got a new idea, and then you get off task. Next thing you know, you don't even recognize your own brand. So, we work on that. ROB: Really, really fascinating firm, fascinating work. Great progress, Robin. Obviously, you're working with household names, and ones that have pushed through the pandemic. When people want to connect with you, Robin, and want to connect with Norton, where should they go to find you? ROBIN: Obviously, our website is an easy way. Certainly LinkedIn. We're Norton Creative. I always say you can call me. You can reach out to me in any form or fashion. It's all out there. We certainly have a marketing director, Jesse Dickerson, who is managing all of the day-to-day business development and activities. Now we aren't the cobbler's kid who has no shoes; we are trying to do a little bit better at talking about what we do. So certainly website and Instagram, LinkedIn. We're all out there. ROB: Wonderful. Robin, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing. We are glad to hear your story and your expertise. Thank you so much. ROBIN: Thank you. ROB: Be well. Bye. Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com.

On this week's episode, AJ and Emile are full of pride with guest Levi Chambers, host of Straw Hut's very own Pride podcast and founder of Rainbow Media Co., which owns and operates the LGBTQ entertainment news brand, Gayety, as well as instagram accounts @pride, @lgbt, @lgbtq, and @gayety. As the founder and former editor in chief of Pride.com, Levi has more than ten years working in the LGBTQ+ media space. He joins the guys to uncover queer secrets about catfishing, circumcision, strip club stalkers, and Macaroni Grill, among plenty of other topics. Levi is the communities across social media.  If you'd like a chance to hear your secret revealed on the podcast, you can submit your secret on our website: ConfessYourMess.us  IG: @_AJGibson / @EmileEnnisJr / @ConfessYourMessPodcastTwitter: @AJGibson / @EmileEnnisJr / @ConfessPodcast  Watch on YouTube From Straw Hut Media

1. How Abby discovered she was gay while out to dinner with her parents at a Macaroni Grill. 2. The moment Glennon knew for sure she was queer (in an Amish Boogie Nights bathroom)—and the song that sealed the deal. 3. How, as a straight, cis woman, Amanda never had to wrestle with her sexuality, why she thinks that stunted her exploration. 4. How Glennon's failed Van Gogh visit inspired Amanda's next sex steps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's like recreating your favorite fast food dish while being driven around SF, but nobody likes a pumpkin spice banana split.

Plug your nose because the smell adjectives get real as we learn about the crimes committed against Blanche Monnier.  We've got strained eyes and bad french pronunciation, but we're willing to throw down at another Macaroni Grill to bring you this tragic tale. A certain cereal-loving tiger might not be a defense lawyer but we don't need him with our new motto of don't do crime, read crime! If you enjoy the episode, please consider subscribing or following our podcast! If you're on Apple Podcast, we'd love it if you could comment and give us a 5-star rating. If you can follow us or subscribe on other podcast platforms, that would also be much appreciated so we can keep bringing you grim tales!  Follow us on Twitter Creep us on Instagram Like us on Facebook

Nishant has extensive restaurant and food industry experience and is currently serving as the President and CEO of Dividend Restaurant Group, parent company to Romano's Macaroni Grill and Sullivan's Steakhouse. Nishant was responsible for the turnaround of both restaurants and the acquisition of Sullivan's Steakhouse. On this episode, Nishant discusses his childhood growing up in Dubai and working at Mackinac helping distressed companies. They go through the process of what types of companies come to Mackinac, their diagnosis period, and what they look to achieve when working with companies. They also dive deep into running a restaurant during the pandemic, how to fix the labor issue in hospitality, and what pandemic-era changes will stick going forward. Finally, they wrap up talking about Nishant's venture into the Cannabis industry with his premium THC spirit company, Pamos, and the future of VC in the industry. Enjoy! Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Visit www.pamos.com Mackinac Partners (01:12) - Nishant's Background, Upbringing in Dubai, and Early Career (04:33) - What is Mackinaw and what do y'all do? (05:47) - What's the process of working with distressed companies with Mackinaw?  (07:13) - Do most companies that come to you even know what their issues are? (07:41) - How quickly can Mackinaw determine the root issues of a client? (09:30) - How often is it a management team problem where you need to clean house? (10:09) - What are the reasons why companies go into distress? (12:08) - What do capital providers do wrong that start squeezing their businesses? (13:30) - How much forewarning are companies given that a new operator is about to come in and call all the shots? (14:20) - Is it common for family businesses to fail after they sell to PE? (14:56) - What happens after your 60-day diagnosis of a distressed business?  (18:26) - Why do companies not see things as clearly as you've explained them? (19:54) - Is there ever a time where you were unable to help a business? (20:50) - How does Mackinaw make money? (21:01) - Nishant's Experience Building a Time-Share Business (25:34) - Building a Sales Platform from Scratch (30:25) - Is there a business to be had just to sell your time-share easily? (31:56) - How did you know it was time to sell the business? (33:35) - You Can Be Successful in Business Without Working in Your Passion (35:55) - The Difference Between Honesty and Trust (36:25) - Nishant's Jump into Restaurants (39:52) - How did you source the Macaroni Grill deal? (45:21) -  What's the goal for Mac Grill with growth? (46:44) - What was your world like during the Pandemic? (53:00) - What were the best and worst decision you made during Covid? (54:51) - What changes will stick in the business? What's the labor market look like to you? (1:00:14) - What's the private equity interest in the restaurant industry like right now? (1:02:00) - Nishant's Work in Cannabis (1:04:57) - Industry Size and Cannabis Statistics (1:07:06) - How far away are we from mainstream acceptance and federal legalization? (1:10:53) - Nishant's Cannabis Funding Concept  (1:14:09) -  Nishant's Approach to Building and Implementing Platforms (1:15:53) - The Difference Between a System and a Process (1:16:20) - “You can think more freely when you've hit financial freedom” (1:17:04) - What's something you see a lot of young people get wrong in their careers or early life? (1:17:56) - What's the best advice you've been given? (1:18:46) - Is there a childhood experience that shaped who you've become? (1:19:43) - Why do you read so many legal documents? (1:21:58) - How can people find you? The FORT is produced by Straight Up Podcasts

Philip J. Romano is an investor, entrepreneur, artist and nationally-renowned restaurateur. Involved in the restaurant business for over fifty years, he has created over twenty-five concepts with six of them national concepts: Fuddruckers, Romano's Macaroni Grill, Spageddies, Cozymel's, Rudy's Country Store and BBQ and eatZi's Market & Bakery. Romano currently owns and operates eatZi's Market & Bakery, Nick & Sam's Steak & Fish House, Nick & Sam's Grill and Coal Vines Pizza. Romano wrote his first book entitled Food for Thought in 2005 that made the CEO Best Sellers List. His latest book, The MAD Entrepreneur, was released in March 2019 and shares his secrets to success, how he took ideas and turned them into nationally-recognized businesses, and insights into how he's making a difference in business and in life. On this episode, we'll discuss: ✓ The importance of having a “Value System” ✓“Phasing Out” of business and his future vision ✓The new “Art Park” in Trinity Groves Social Links: https://philipjromano.com/product/the-mad-entrepreneur/ Pathways to Success is brought to you by: Codeup: https://codeup.com/ CityCentral: https://citycentral.com/ (Promo Code "Pathways" for 50% off first 3 months)  DeadSoxy: https://deadsoxy.com/?ref=pathways (Promo Code "Pathways" for 30% off)  To work with me, send an e-mail to: Julian@JulianPlacino.com    ✓ Keynote Speaking: Personal Branding, Networking, Leadership ✓ Sponsorships & Brand Partnerships  ✓ Personal Branding Consulting 

Buffalo Grove flies Pride Flag after outcry, but not at village hall; Des Plaines residents come out to support Pride flag's display at city hall; COVID-19 update: 44,174 more vaccinations, 365 new cases, 11 more deaths; Restaurant Poke Bros coming to Palatine; New drive-through Chipotle coming to old Macaroni Grill site in Wheaton; Arlington Alfresco to end in late September to make room for downtown 'finale event'

Three caricatures of their former selves, Anna Seibert, Caroline Kidwell, and Jack Wright, talk Cheesecake Factory, canned smoothies, and sopping wet children.

FamilyLife Today® Radio TranscriptReferences to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. Creating a More Romantic MarriageDay 1 of 8 Guest:                            Dennis Rainey From the Series:         The Most Romantic Thing________________________________________________________________­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Music:             Bob:                And, welcome to FamilyLife Today.  Thanks for joining us on the broadcast.  I did it yesterday; I went ahead and declared this the year of romance in my marriage.   Dennis:          All right. Bob:                So, we're going to kick off a year-long romantic adventure.  Dennis:          Should we call Mary Anne right now and see how you did on day one? Bob:                I don't know. Dennis:          We'll save that for a little later.  All right?  You know, I ran across something that, even though it's the day after Valentine's Day, I found it fascinating to go back and look at, really, the historical significance of this day.  Valentine was a Pagan priest who lived in the third century.  He was not a Christian, but he really found it very difficult to stomach that these Christians were being persecuted.  He put his foot down – so much so that they threw him into prison.  While he was in prison, he converted to Christianity and was asked to renounce his faith.  He didn't.  He stayed in prison for a long time.  One historian said that during his last days, Valentine often thought of his family and friends who were not allowed to come visit him.  Tradition has it that in order to communicate his love, he would reach out his window bars and pick the violets which grew outside.  He then pierced the heart-shaped leaves with a message like “Remember your Valentine.”  Then he sent the message home with some homing pigeons supplied by his family.  Toward the end of his life, the message changed to a simple “I love you.”  Finally, when he refused to renounce his faith in Christ, Valentine was clubbed to death in his cell February 14, 268 A.D.  You know, that's interesting that yesterday is a day that we celebrate love, but so much of the world's celebration of this love is not from an agape - God's love for us, which caused us to love him.  Instead, it's a narcissistic kind of love.  You know, if anybody ought to have the right kind of love on Valentine's Day, or for that matter, throughout the year, it ought to be Christians. Bob:                Yeah.  I would hope that over the last two and a half weeks, Dennis, as you and Barbara have shared on this series and on this subject of romance, that message has come crystal clear – that the foundation for romance in marriage has got to be the solid commitment between a husband and a wife.  If for any reason folks have not been able to be with us over the last two and a half weeks, I would encourage them to get the cassette tapes of these broadcasts, and together, with their spouse, listen to this discussion on romance.  It will give them an opportunity to interact over what romance ought to be in marriage. Dennis:          I really agree.  I think a lot of times in marriage, we really miss each other because we're communicating what communicates love to us, not what communicates love to my wife.  There are a lot of men who would really benefit from hearing Barbara talk straight about what a woman is looking for in romance from her husband. Bob:                Or, from hearing you talk straight to women about how men view romance.  If you're interested in getting this cassette series, call us toll free at 1-800-FL-TODAY.  We'll get you the information you need. Dennis:          Well, I'm excited about today because we're going to give our listeners the privilege of hearing the most creative ideas we've been able to gather from our FamilyLife marriage conference speaker team, from our FamilyLife staff here in Little Rock, and from some of our FamilyLife marriage conference messages that have been given over the past year.  What I would encourage you to do right now, if you're driving, pull out a 3 by 5 card or open your daytimes; or if you're at home, get yourself a piece of paper and a pencil, because you're going to hear at least a half dozen ideas that you ought to be able to use at some point in your marriage over the coming year. Bob:                If you're driving, please write these down only at stoplights when you come to an appropriate point. Dennis:          That's right.  There could be liability back here against FamilyLife Today. Bob:                Well, we kick things off with someone from our staff, Lance Coffman, sharing about the most romantic birthday he ever had. Lance:            “Yesterday was my birthday, and it was a very special time.  Just to show you how special I felt… I guess, to sum it up, she was thinking of me throughout the whole time.  What I mean by that, is Sunday she took me to the Macaroni Grill.  But, see, it was a gift certificate given to her, and it was just a special time that she would take that to spend on me for my birthday lunch.  She said, ‘Okay.  That's a [unintelligible] of what's to come.'  Anyway, we went to bed that night.  I woke up the next morning and went to the bathroom, and plastered all over the mirror was posters:  ‘Happy Birthday, Lance.  Happy Birthday, No. 30.'  Then she gave me a card and a present.  Then she cooked me breakfast.  I was off to work.  Around 10:30, the guys called me over, and Denise brought some oatmeal cookies.  They sang me ‘Happy Birthday,' and I went back to work.  But, Denise, said, ‘Lance, call me before you come home.'  I said, ‘Okay.'  So, I called her before I came home, saying ‘I'm coming home.'  So, I come home, and there's a note on the door.  It's around 5:15.  I don't leave work early.  The note said, ‘Lance, ring the doorbell before you come in.'  See, usually, I just come in.  This time, I was going to ring the doorbell.  So, I rang the doorbell, and Denise opens the door.  She's in a black tuxedo with tails.  She goes, ‘Mr. Coffman, happy birthday.  Your dinner's ready.'” Woman:         “This happened on Valentine's Day last year, when I'd asked Jeff to stop at the store and get me some groceries.  I really think that he forgot it was Valentine's Day, and I'd been on the phone with my friend.  She got flowers and a little necklace.  I thought to myself, ‘I know he forgot, and I'm not going to get anything.'  He came home from the grocery store, sat me down on the table and had this big bag of groceries.  He made me sit down, and he proceeded to take one thing out at a time.  It was all these different kinds of fruits and all these different groceries.  The ones that I remember in my mind was… As he took each item out, he'd say something sweet to me.  He grabbed the apple out, and he said, ‘Honey, you're the apple of my eye.'  He sat it on the table.  He grabbed the diapers out and said, ‘I love to get Huggies from you.'  He set it on the table.  He had a pear, and he put that on the table and said, ‘We're such a great pair.'  He had a little jar of that honey bear, and he said to me, ‘Your kisses drip with honey.'  Then, there was a little carton of milk, and he said, ‘I want to milk every moment God's given me with you.'  Then, the last thing I do remember that he pulled out of the bag was a whole bunch of bananas, and he said he wanted to go peel my clothes off.” Woman:         “Well, I just have to share with you how Dan totally outdid himself for my birthday this last year.  The media department knows all about it.  I've never, ever in all my years of marriage, and we've been married 21 years, ever been kept totally in surprise of a surprise.  Anyway, it was my birthday.  The morning of my birthday, Haman Cross was supposed to come in to be with student venture at [unintelligible], so the setting was so natural.  Dan was home.  We were going to take off to go together to the school and spend the morning there and everything.  For some reason, that morning… Usually we have our celebration at night, but we had this big breakfast in the morning, all decorated and everything.  The kids had helped him with it.  I thought, ‘Oh, well.  Yeah.  Tonight we have a meeting, so this is probably their celebration.'  Anyway, I had my birthday celebration and got to the school and all.  Dan just whispered in my ear while Haman Cross was speaking, ‘I have a package that has to get to the airport.'  He said, ‘It has to be there by such and such a time, so we need to leave just a little bit early.  Then I'll take you out to dinner.'  I thought, ‘Yeah.'  We don't get a whole lot of time just to spend relaxing over a dinner.  I was really excited about that.  We got up, we left early, got to the airport; and there was this package sitting between us on the way out to the airport.  I thought, ‘This is kind of strange,' but I know that he has all kind of strange errands to do, so I didn't really question it.  We got to the airport, and I watched him go to try to check it in.  I went to look at some magazines.  He came back, and he said, ‘Oh, it's going to be another half hour.  I can't check it in for another half hour.'  So, we went and got ice cream.  I thought, ‘This is going to ruin our lunch together.  Should we really be eating this?'  He goes, ‘Oh, it's fine.  You'll still have room for something else.'  So, anyway, it got to be about five minutes before the time, and he walked me over to this airlines.  I just thought he was going to put the box on the counter.  He sat me down, and he handed me the box.  I go, ‘What is this?'  I didn't have a clue what was going on.  I open the box, and in there was a gift bag just full of my favorite magazines, candy bars, a card from each one of the kids, a card from him.  I opened the card from him, and there was spending money and then a ticket to California to visit my best friend in California.  And, I totally lost it.  I cried.  I said, ‘I can't leave my agenda for this week.'  It was just packed with all kinds of really important events and everything.  I just said, ‘The girls can't do without me.'  ‘They can do without you, dear.  Honest.  Leave it with me.'  So, anyway, it took me until St. Louis to gain composure and stop crying.  The guy that sat next to me thought I was just totally out to lunch.  He couldn't understand.  I couldn't even gain composure to tell him what had happened.  Anyway, that is the biggest surprise, and it was a wonderful birthday.” Man:               “A few years ago, I had to leave my wonderful wife for about a month on a trip in Europe.  She, of course, helped me remember the things to pack, and we had a list to check off.  The first night that I was there, I opened my suitcase, and I found a large manila envelope.  In the envelope, there were smaller envelopes with each date that I would be gone.  As I went through that trip for a month, every evening I had a different envelope to open with some very sweet little poems or some Snickers bars or something else.  She had gone to all the trouble to think about the whole 30 days I'd be gone and to just communicate things to keep us close, at least in spirit.” Man:               “Letter B.  A wife feels cherished when there is romance in the relationship - little things and little comments.  You and I don't care if our wife says, ‘You sure look nice,' but our wives care very much if we would say, ‘Sweetheart, that really does you justice.  You really look good in hot pink or navy blue' or whatever – things that would never occur to us, but it means a lot to them to hear us express it.  You figure it out.  Learn to speak woman, because her needs are different.  One day, I remember thinking of my wife.  I lived out… We lived out on the east side of town, and the hospital that I had to make a pastoral call in was in the middle of town.  The town center - the shopping center where Linda was working at the time to help keep the boys in college was in between.  I thought, ‘I'm going to express my love for Linda.'  I stopped at Safeway on the way.  I grabbed one of those rosebud things (it probably cost me $5.00) and a card.  The card probably cost $5.00 too.  I knew where she parked her car because I'd been in the parking lot.  I grabbed the key, I opened the car door, I put the rosebud on the console between the seats and slipped the card on the seat.  I shut the car and locked it and went off about my pastoral call and back to work.  That evening we had a conversation about that little episode.  I said, ‘What did you think when you saw that there?'  She said, ‘Well, I started to put my key in the car, and I saw somebody had been in my car.  I knew it couldn't have been you.  So I checked behind the seat to make sure nobody was lurking there.'  Then, she said, ‘I opened the door, I appreciated the rose, I opened the card.'  She began to cry over a card that cost me $3.00.  One day… Friday was a day off.  I finally got a day off, and she was working that morning, but a half day.  So, I knew she'd be home around noon.  I figured, ‘Well, what would she do if she were there and if our roles were reversed?'  If I'd have looked through her lenses, she would fix lunch.  ‘I'll fix lunch.'  I don't do lunch.  When I go hunting with the guys, it's donut holes and milk.  We don't cook.  You know?  But, I thought, ‘what would Linda do?'  Well, she would not have lunch on the regular kitchen table because that's just the hoy paloy table.  She would have lunch in the dining room.  That means more to her – the dining room.  It's special.  So, I set the dining room table with the china, because you don't use the stoneware; you use the china when you're trying to give a message, at least you do when you're a woman.  So, I'm trying to learn to speak this language.  I set the china on the table.  Now, the real challenge.  You've got to put food on it.  I don't do much food, but I figured tuna fish.  I can handle tuna fish.  China and tuna.  It didn't matter.  It was an effort.  She understands.  So, I got some tuna, and I put it on half of an English muffin, and I set it on the plate.  It looked really bad.  You know, big china plate, little English muffin, and a pile of tuna.  I remembered on Sunday nights after church, she'll sometimes do that, and she'll melt some cheese with some pineapple and stuff and that sort of thing.  It looked a little bit better.  It still wasn't too cool, but it was a little bit better.  When she came in, she was overwhelmed.  She was absolutely overwhelmed.  She was struck by that.  The power of a woman to respond is incredible.  I would say we had the most powerful session of lovemaking that we had had in years, all because I was trying to learn to speak the language.  I wasn't doing it for the selfish reason of her responding like that.  That was a gift she gave to me, you see, with no strings attached.” Woman:         “[Unintelligible] when he's kind of quiet and creative both.  So, the things that I want to share fit both of those.  First of all, Blaine designed my wedding rings.  We had a friend that was a jeweler, and he carved them out of a piece of wax and had the jeweler cast the gold and set the diamond for us.  He totally surprised me with that.  I wasn't expecting it.  He didn't get the same thing.  I'm not quite that creative.  And, a few years ago, on Valentine's, we had, as many young couples do, struggled with finances.  Every year, we kept cutting out one more gift that we gave each other.  So, Valentine's was one that we decided we'd have to cut out.  That year, I wasn't expecting anything but maybe a card.  He bought one of those blank books that's bound.  Now, every year at Valentine's, he writes me a love letter.  That was really sweet.  Very special.  Something neat for our kids some day.” Woman:         “My husband brings me home flowers all the time.  He does laundry when I don't need it done.  He just does it.  But, one of the things that popped to my mind was he gave me the privilege of having two of his children.  And, over the years, I thought a lot about how much he does for me and how much he loves me.  But, the most romantic thing he's ever done is he's allowed me to have the privilege of being his wife and the mother of his children.  There isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't in some way express his love to me, whether it's doing the little things or whether it's doing the big things or whether it's bringing home flowers.  But, he does it every day.  For me, that's the most romantic thing my husband can do for me.” Bob:                Well, what a treat.  We've been listening together to members of our FamilyLife marriage conference speaker team and folks who are on the staff here at FamilyLife, all of these folks sharing about romance in their marriage.  I think this is a fitting conclusion to the last two and a half weeks as we've tried to peel back our hearts a little bit and look inside to see how we can re-ignite the romantic spark in marriage.   Dennis:          What we've talked about here is that romance is a need that every marriage has.  Men need romance because they need to be needed.  They need to be needed sexually by their wives, they need to be attracted to their wives, and they need their wives to be attracted to them.  Women need romance because they need a relationship with their husband, and they want a relationship with him.  They want to be courted and pursued by their husbands.  I think all too often, this is one area of the marriage relationship that we don't pay attention to.  So, it's no mistake that the fires begin to go out, and the coals grow cold.  A marriage ought to be a place that has excitement, fun and romance and some intrigue about it. Bob:                I think there are two things we can recommend to couples, Dennis, as a way to breath some romantic life back into a marriage.  One of them is the collection that we put together called “Simply Romantic.”  That was put together specifically to give couples a plan, give them a tool, give them something that they can use in their marriage relationship, some practical help for making romance come alive.  Frankly, all of us need that kind of help from time to time. Dennis:          Yeah.  We're a culture that kind of gets into games.  Although this isn't a game, it is a collection in a box.  We've got it right here in front of us.  It's got some cards just for men that help men communicate romance to their wives, fresh ideas for every month of the year.  Then, it's got some cards for the wife; again, ideas for each month that she can use to communicate romance to her husband.  It's got a little checklist that a guy can fill out on his wife.  I went shopping last Christmas, and I was thinking, “What size is Barbara?  Is it an 8 or a 6 that she wears in this one particular garment here?”  If I'd have had this little thing right here, Bob, this would have saved me a lot of trouble.  It's got love notes.  It's got a booklet that I've written on why romance is important to every marriage.  It's got mood music on a cassette tape on one side, and then on the other side, it's got ideas from our FamilyLife marriage conference speaker team where they shared the best ideas that they've ever had in their marriages to communicate romance to their spouses. Bob:                Yeah, like the ideas that we featured on the broadcast today.  We also have a questionnaire that a husband and wife can fill out that kind of is an inventory.  It's a romantic analysis of your mate.  It gives you an opportunity to understand them better in this critical area.  Really, you mentioned it's not a game, but it kind of feels like a game.  It's fun for couples to do this, and it gives them a way to bring romance alive.  I think sometimes ten years in or fifteen years into the marriage, you feel a little awkward trying to make romance come alive in your marriage. Dennis:          Okay.  Okay.  Okay.  Here's one of the cards that says, “For February – romancing your wife.”  Now, I'm hoping your wife is not listening to the broadcast right now. Bob:                This would be things that husbands can do that would… Dennis:          This is something you're going to do for Mary Anne this month.  I'm going to see which one of these you'd choose.  Idea number one:  “Tell your wife that being close to her still excites you.”  Hello.  Idea number two.  Well, it's too late for this one because it says, “On Valentine's Day, buy a pad of PostIt notes and write a brief message to your wife on each page.  Hide them in different places where she will find them.”  Oh, you did that before. Bob:                I've already done that one.  Dennis:          And she's still finding some of those notes in recipe books and other things.  That's a great idea.  Idea number three:  “Volunteer to do all the ironing for a week.”  Now, how is it I can't picture that right there?  Idea number four:  “Plan a romantic evening.  Dine at a nice restaurant, and then go to the theater or ballet.”  Hey, that's a good idea.  Idea number five:  “Have a bubble bath and favorite music.  Have a bubble bath and favorite music, or a book ready for your wife after she's had an especially hard day.  Then give her a massage.”  Now… You know, all of those are relationship builders. Bob:                I think I'll do all of them, except maybe that ironing thing.  I'm going to have to pray about that one.  Well, listen, if you're interested in getting a copy of “Simply Romantic,” simply call us here at FamilyLife Today.  The phone number is 1-800-FL-TODAY.  It's 1-800-F as in Family, L as in Life, and then the word TODAY.  The cost for this collection is $19.95, plus $3.00 for shipping and handling.  In addition to this collection, as I mentioned earlier, we also have audiotapes of this entire series available.  If you're interested in that, you can call us.  We also have other resources – a whole collection of books that are helpful tools for couples who want to build a more romantic marriage.  When you call, ask what resources are available to help with the maybe specific romantic needs you have in your marriage.  You can call us, again, toll free, 1-800-FL-TODAY.  Or, if you'd prefer to write, our address is FamilyLife Today, Box 8220, Little Rock, Arkansas.  Our zip code is 72221.  Once again, it's FamilyLife Today, Box 8220, Little Rock, Arkansas.  And our zip code is 72221.  When you call or write, please remember FamilyLife Today is a listener supported broadcast, and we appreciate those of you who stand with us with our financial needs for the ongoing work of this ministry.                          Well, tomorrow and Friday, Dennis, we're going to continue to talk about romantic feelings, but we're going to talk about what happens when they become misdirected.  Lois Raby [sp] is going to join us in the studio to talk about the snare that is laying in wait for men and women all across this culture. Dennis:          Don't miss these days with Lois Raby. Bob:                I hope you can join us for that.  Our engineer is Mark Whitlock; our host Dennis Rainey.  I'm Bob Lepine.  We'll see you tomorrow for another edition of FamilyLife Today. FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas, a Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.  __________________________________________________________________We are so happy to provide these transcripts to you.  However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website.  If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would   you consider donating today to help defray the costs?   Copyright © FamilyLife.  All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com    

Chris Dahlander is a graduate of Texas Tech University with a degree in Advertising. Previous to starting Snappy Salads, Dahlander served 4 year as a project manager for the Forbes Group and 8 years as the Director of Marketing for Romano's Macaroni Grill. In 2006 Dahlander opened Snappy Salads with the mission to make the world healthier than the way he found it. 13 years later Snappy Salads has scaled to 17 locations and growing throughout Austin, Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth. Show notes… Favorite success quote or mantra: Sacrifice and persistence are the only two items that you need for success In today's episode with Chris Dahlander, we will discuss: Sacrifice and persistence as the only two necessary items required for success in any category of life The importance of family Leaving any place as HEALTHIER than the way you found it Operational excellence Consistency Hire slow/fire fast The importance of volunteering Trademarking your brand and ideas The legal side of restaurant/concept development The importance of learning what NOT to do Balancing SOUL and PROFIT Seeing the absence of a concept and building it Appreciating sponsors! Doing what's RIGHT, not what's easy Knowing when to give up self-regulations Being more environmentally-conscious in the restaurant industry Scaling Getting game-changers and leaders in your organization Reflection Today's sponsor: Wisetail.com, A Premier Learning Management System, Wisetail Grew Up Alongside Some of the Most Recognizable Restaurants In the Industry. This Has Helped Shape Their Product and its Functionality Through Real-World Feedback and Rigorous Testing. BentoBox helps restaurants grow their business through a connected suite of tools, offering them an integrated website to connect with their guests and drive revenue online. Restaurant owners and operators are able to easily update menus, promote specials, take catering and event inquiries, sell merchandise, gift cards and more. Revel Systems integrates front of house and back of house operations into a single dashboard. Designed to increase security, stability, ease of use, and speed of service, Revel's streamlined ecosystem provides businesses with the right tools to grow. Learn more at revelsystems.com/unstoppable.   Knowledge bombs Which "it factor" habit, trait, or characteristic you believe most contributes to your success? Leadership What is your biggest weakness? Being too humble What's one question you ask or thing you look for during an interview? Leadership What's a current challenge? How are you dealing with it? Staffing. Promote what we do well and how we treat our team members. Share one code of conduct or behavior you teach your team. One rule: do the right thing sincerely and automatically regardless of the situation What is one uncommon standard of service you teach your staff? Make the guests' dining experience so great that they want to return tomorrow What's one book we must read to become a better person or restaurant owner? The Greats on Leadership: Classic Wisdom for Modern Managers by Jocelyn Davis Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't by Simon Sinek  GET THIS BOOK FOR FREE AT AUDIBLE.COM  What's the one thing you feel restaurateurs don't know well enough or do often enough? Have a purpose other than to make money. What's one piece of technology you've adopted within your four walls and how has it influence operations? POS: Olo. Punchh app. If you got the news that you'd be leaving this world tomorrow and all memories of you, your work, and your restaurants would be lost with your departure with the exception of 3 pieces of wisdom you could leave behind for the good of humanity, what would they be? We are all one Everything has already been revealed We are all perfect in our own imperfectedness Contact info: Email: chris@snappysalads.com Snappy Salads website Instagram: @snappysalads Facebook: @SnappySalads Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for joining today! Have some feedback you'd like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post. Also, please leave an honest review for the Restaurant Unstoppable Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And finally, don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. Huge thanks to Chris Dahlander for joining me for another awesome episode. Until next time!   Restaurant Unstoppable is a free podcast. One of the ways I'm able to make it free is by earning a commission when sharing certain products with you. I've made it a core value to only share tools, resources, and services my guest mentors have recommend, first. If you're finding value in my podcast, please use my links!

Today on the show we have one of the greats here in Dallas - Phil Romano.  Restaurateur, entrepreneur, artist, philanthropist…   He has started some of the biggest concepts around:  Macaroni Grill, Fuddruckers, Eatzi's, and so many others.     But that's just his restaurant side of life.     Early in his career he funded a medical device that was not only a massive financial success, but ended up saving his life.   We jump in right away with his amazing art.  Completely self-taught, Phil has become a renowned painter, once again turning something he loves doing into a lucrative endeavor.   And of course we dig in deep on his latest  business concepts, Trinity Groves and Network Bar.  Each one has already made a huge impact on Dallas.   We get the stories on how Trinity Groves came to be and the lives that are being changed thanks to this concept of a

Grace's Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown-Up (Touchstone Books) "One of the sharpest, funniest voices on YouTube" ("Forbes"), comedian Grace Helbig offers an irreverent and illustrated guide to life for anyone faced with the challenge of growing up. Face it--being a young adult in the digital era is one of the hardest things to be. Well, maybe there are harder things in life...but being an adult is difficult! So Grace Helbig has written a guide that's perfect for anyone who is faced with the daunting task of becoming an adult. Infused with her trademark saucy, sweet, and funny voice, Grace's Guide is a tongue-in-cheek handbook for millennials, encompassing everything a young or new (or regular or old) adult needs to know, from surviving a breakup to recovering from a hangover. Beautifully illustrated and full-color,Grace's Guide features interactive elements and exclusive stories from Grace's own misadventures--like losing her virginity solely because her date took her to a Macaroni Grill--and many other hilarious lessons she learned the hard way. Amusing and unexpectedly educational, this refreshing and colorful guide proves that becoming an adult doesn't necessarily mean you have to grow up. Praise for Grace's Guide "This book is just like Grace Helbig--hilarious, bright, and will cut you when you least expect it. Seriously, paper cuts are no joke. This is high-quality paper stock."--Mamrie Hart, Host of You Deserve a Drink on YouTube "Grace Helbig is a sparkly vessel of wit and fun!"--Andy Cohen, author of Most Talkative "One of YouTube's most endearing personalities."--Variety "I've always looked up to Grace Helbig--and not only because she's a giantess!--because she has the extraordinary ability to accomplish whatever she sets out to do. I think this book is a testament to that."--Hannah Hart, author ofMy Drunk Kitchen "Grace Helbig is my spirit animal and I would gladly take her to lunch at Macaroni Grill so we could talk Latin conventions, first love, and hangover remedies. I wouldn't even expect her to put out."-Jenny Han, author of To All the Boys I've Loved Before "Hilariously honest without missing a beat, Grace brings her irresistible voice and lovable personality to Grace's Guide. #MustReadImmediately."--Tyler Oakley Grace Helbig is a comedian, actress, and YouTube personality. She previously hosted "DailyGrace "on My Damn Channel, before leaving in January 2014 to create her own YouTube channel, it'sGrace which has more than 1.7 million subscribers and 150 million views. Helbig is the executive producer and star of the feature film "Camp Takota." She is the winner of the People's Choice Webby Award for Best First Person Format and the Streamy Award for Personality of the Year and Best First-Person Series. Helbig has been named one of "Fast Company's "100 Most Creative People in Business, "Forbes"' 30 under 30, "Time "magazine's 140 Best Twitter feeds, and BuzzFeed's 11 Awesome Up-and-Coming Funny Ladies You Should Know. A graduate of Ramapo College, she lives in Los Angeles.

There Will Be Cooking. Joel Sinensky must prepare a meal for me and my girlfriend using four mystery ingredients in an episode that is absolutely nothing like the show “Chopped” whatsoever. We also discuss Food Network personalities, Romano’s Macaroni Grill mafia, and my special recipe for floor kebobs. Stay till the end for a special […]