SPEAKER_01: 0:08

Welcome back to the show, everybody. This week is super exciting, and I know I say that a lot uh every week, but just filled with a lot of gratitude today. This is officially my 100th episode of the show. That is uh very overwhelming and hard to say. I think when I started this show a couple years ago, my mission and goal was to provide a leadership development resource in a different form, uh, besides newsletters and books. And the response has just been absolutely overwhelming, thanks to you all. So this moment of gratitude goes out to you today for listening, for commenting, um, for letting me know when I when I see you in person that you're listening to the show or you took something of value away from the show. That's really what this is all about, and that feedback keeps me going. Um, I am still working on not being as a high of achiever as I am and slowing down. And my um, my lovely human Connor, who partners with me on the show, reminded me a couple weeks ago. He said, Kristen, your hundredth episode is coming up, and I it snuck up on me faster than I realized. And thanks to Connor, I know he's listening to this as he helps prepare the show, but um, thank you for helping me slow down and realize and recognize that this is a really awesome moment um to share with everybody. So, that being said, for any of you restaurant owners out there, multi-unit restaurant owners that are listening to the show today, I would love to gift you a coaching session so you can figure out how to make 2026 the absolute best year that your restaurant group has seen yet. So if you'd like to um to indulge in a coaching conversation with me, feel free to reach out via email, kristenlmarvin at gmail.com, and we can schedule some time together. You can also send me a text message in the show notes at the very, very top. Just click the link at the very top of the show notes. Just know that I can't respond to that link. So be sure to put your contact information, your phone number, or your email in there, and we'll get connected. In honor of a hundred episodes, that would do something pretty fun and different. I had a PR firm reach out to me on behalf of Brett Rocino, chef Brett Rocino, who is a TV celebrity chef. She has an amazing restaurant called Fiama in Sun Valley, Idaho. And she's been on, she beat Bobby Flay on his show. She's on Tournament of Champions. She's she's got just a crazy, crazy killer uh resume. And on the show today, we get to indulge a little bit and learn more about her behind the scenes, behind the flashy productions and all the fun competitions. And she gives advice on how to run a successful restaurant with your spouse, which is something I talk to a lot of people about. She gives advice on how to do market research and figure out exactly what niche is going to fit where when you're talking about opening your first restaurant, which is just so impactful and so important to the success. And we dive into her strategy a little bit as she is starting to go into her first down season. Uh, they call it Slack season in Sun Valley. She's been open for six months, she's already gotten a four-diamond award, absolutely magical and incredible, so well deserved. And we talk about how she's preparing for that off season and her goals about thinking differently around what mountain towns typically do when it comes to hours of operation and staffing. Loved this conversation. Cannot wait to cheer her on and watch her more as she continues to manage these careers of TV celebrity chef and restaurateur. So I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you again for um allowing me to stay on the air for 100 episodes. I can't wait for the next 100. Welcome to the Restaurant Leadership Podcast, the show where restaurant leaders learn tools, tactics, and habits from the world's greatest operators. I'm your host, Kristen Marvin, with Solutions by Kristen. I've spent the last two decades in the restaurant industry and now partner with restaurant owners to develop their leaders and scale their businesses through powerful one-on-one coaching, group coaching, and leadership workshops. This show is complete with episodes around coaching, leadership development, and interviews with powerful industry leaders. You can now engage with me on the show and share topics you'd like to hear about, leadership lessons you want to learn, and any feedback you have. Simply click the link at the top of the show notes, and I will give you a shout-out on a future episode. Thanks so much for listening, and I look forward to connecting. Britt, thanks for being here today. Um we're gonna we're gonna talk about background a little bit. I know you've been on a ton of interviews, you're total pro with this, but this these things happen where I I tend to have a conversation with somebody teed up for the show, and then the day or two before I have a conversation with someone that is just very fitting for what we're gonna talk about today. So last night I had dinner with a couple who wants to open their own restaurant together, their first restaurant. And and you run the restaurant with your wife, right with Kinsey. Yep. So I I would like to start off with one piece of advice that you would give to this couple going into business together for the first time.

SPEAKER_00: 6:10

Uh leave everything at the door. Leave your relationship at the front door of your house, leave the restaurant emotions at the back door of the restaurant.

SPEAKER_01: 6:20

Okay. How do you do that? I was thinking about them this morning, like on the, you know, I was thinking, could I could I ever be in a relationship and run a restaurant with somebody? I couldn't. I know myself too well. Like, how do you how do you do that? I mean, it sounds so simple, right? Just make the commitment, leave it at the door. But when things come up during service and thing, you know, and you're both chefs, right? So I'm sure you're super fucking passionate. How do you check yourself, you know, check each other and and and remember that there's people around watching you all the time?

SPEAKER_00: 6:53

Yeah, I think I think the best thing is that you have to have mutual respect. Um, and that has actually helped me be a better leader. Um, you know, running a business with my wife, because, you know, I grew up in kitchens, my family-owned restaurant. Like emotions get high. And unfortunately, there's a lot of things said that like you wouldn't normally say, but it's under the pressure and the heat, right? Yeah. Well, I'm not gonna say those things to my wife. Like that's just not happening. So it's made me process things a little bit better and say things with more respect and intention. Um, and that just goes to my whole staff as well. Like, if I hear someone talking, you know, aggressively towards another one and I know it's just pressure, it's like, hey, man, take a second, take a deep breath. You don't want to be spoken to that way. So don't speak to other people that way. And I think it's just created a really healthy environment for the restaurant because everyone talks to everybody with nothing but respect.

SPEAKER_01: 7:54

I love that. Did you guys have that intention going in that that we want to create this environment of mutual respect? Or did it just kind of organically come up through your relationship?

SPEAKER_00: 8:03

Honestly, it just kind of came up organically and it was it was wonderful because I actually feel less stressed. Because I'm now learning how to process my emotions a little bit better and take that second to take a deep breath, or we'll talk about this later. You know, and that's fine. You could still have those hard conversations and adjust and let people know that you're you're the boss for the day, you know. But you just have to have that mature and respectful conversation.

SPEAKER_01: 8:33

Yeah, I love it. Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna completely switch gears for a second because I have a very selfish question for you. So your your website and your branding is fucking gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00: 8:44

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 8:46

When I was on your website, I and I love this. You know, I've heard of I've taken some classes on branding and marketing, and and it's constantly something that I'm trying to work on in my own business. But I love that when you first jump on your website, you've got the video there that you actually feel like you're in the restaurant and you feel like you're part of the experience. I mean, you just you guys totally fucking nailed it. It's great.

SPEAKER_00: 9:07

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, our whole point was like, you know, we obviously want to do the food that we love. Yeah. Uh we want it to be swanky, a little sexy, but we always want it to be approachable. And we always equated it to like you're going to your grandmother's house, right? Um, your grandmother's house is always nice. She's got the fine china. You're not running around bumping into things because something's gonna break, but like you feel at home and you feel at peace when you're there. And that's the whole vibe that we were trying to create was like, sure, you're gonna have a really nice dinner. It's gonna be fancy, it's gonna be beautiful, but it's approachable and you feel comfortable.

SPEAKER_01: 9:44

I love that. So you knew exactly what you wanted going in. Yeah, that's great. I'm in the process of doing a rebrand and I'm starting from scratch, and it's it's hard to put your vision and the the guest experience into words like you've just articulated. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 10:00

Absolutely. Absolutely. It's the hardest thing. Like you can you can think it in your head, but that doesn't mean that that's what's going to transcribe on a piece of paper.

SPEAKER_01: 10:08

Yeah, 100%. I love it. I've got a lot of work to do. Before we dive deeper into today's topic, I want to share something that's been a game changer for the restaurant owners I work with. You know how we've been talking about building stronger foundations for your restaurant? Well, I've taken everything I teach my coaching clients about creating core values, mission statements, and long-term vision, and I've turned it into three hands-on online courses. These aren't your typical watch and forget courses. Each one walks you through using AI tools like ChatGPT to create the foundational elements every successful restaurant needs. We're talking about core values that actually guide your hiring decisions, mission statements your team can rally behind, and a three-year vision that turns your growth from reactive to strategic. The best part is each course is only$49, or you can grab all three for$99. That's less than what most restaurants spend on a single food delivery order, but it'll give you the clarity to make better decisions for years to come. You can check them out at kristinmarvin.com slash courses. You can also text me directly in the show notes. There's a link at the top of the show if you want a special promo code to save an additional amount of money on any of the courses, including the bundle. Now let's get back to our conversation. So take us on this journey. You know, when you and I first spoke, I was just really intrigued by your story and this amazing journey that you and Kinsey went on around the pop-ups. But let's talk a little bit about how, you know, how does a chef from Jersey end up in Sun Valley, Idaho?

SPEAKER_00: 11:58

Uh, there's a local culinary school that asked me, I think it was three and a half years ago, they asked me to do their first ever food and wine festival. Um, actually, Jonathan Sawyer, um, who we all know and love from Food Network. Um, me and him connected on my first season of Tournament of Champions. Okay. And we connected in like five minutes. And he was just like, I really like you. Do you want to come to Sun Valley and do a food and wine event with me? And I was like, Yeah, have no clue where Sun Valley is. Yeah. I was like, Yeah, I have no clue where Idaho is. Um so went to the culinary school, did the food and wine festival for them. Um, and then I wound up donating four dinners that we had to come back for to raise money for the kids for their scholarships and such. Um, and basically Kinse, Jonathan, and I spent a summer here three years ago, fell in love with the area, saw a niche that we could, you know, slide right into, and it would be pretty seamless. And it's probably one of the most beautiful places I've seen in America. Nice. Um, you know, we live in the middle of the Rocky Mountains and it's just stunning.

SPEAKER_01: 13:16

Yeah. I bet fall is amazing right now.

SPEAKER_00: 13:19

Uh yeah, we're just getting into fall. The leaves are starting to change. I'm looking up at the mountain right now. Yeah. Um, fall is happening, and that makes me super happy. Being from the East Coast, I need my seasons. I need it to be hot in the summer, I need it to be cold in the winter, and I need that beautiful fall and spring, and you get it here.

SPEAKER_01: 13:36

Love it. How did you know that that niche was gonna work? Talk to me about price point, menu. How did you know that it was gonna be accepted? Or did you?

SPEAKER_00: 13:46

Um, you know, I'm a unique individual, and I tend to think that you either love me or you hate me. Okay. Uh, because I am just authentically me. Like I'm unapologetic about who I am, and um, I'm very confident in who I am. And that's either a really good thing for you or a really bad thing. And I'm fine with that because I never have to be someone else. Um, and I was my my most unique self while I was here and just having fun, but also having, you know, business conversations and really diving into the dynamics of what this area is. Um, and I was so wildly accepted.

unknown: 14:32

Nice.

SPEAKER_00: 14:32

Um, you know, I I talk about my food all the time. My food, it's fucking sexy. Like that's just how I say it. I don't care if you make$2 a year or if you make$2 billion a year. That's how I talk about my food. And if you love that and you love my food, then you love our whole vibe. And having doing the all those dinners, you know, we were in front of tons of people. And I mean, it was hundreds of people that were just like, you gotta open a restaurant here, you have to open a restaurant here. Doing some market research, seeing, you know, the type of people that live here, and knowing, knowing all of the information and doing that real due diligence to really immerse ourselves into the community to figure out like, hey, is this actually the spot, or do we want to be in Charleston, South Carolina? Yeah. Where we know it's gonna be fine. So we did a lot of work to see if it was gonna be a good fit. And, you know, honestly, it was like sliding that right puzzle piece right in.

SPEAKER_01: 15:33

Nice. So you've been open for how long now?

SPEAKER_00: 15:36

We opened March 5th. So we just hit our sixth month a couple weeks ago, going on to our seventh month.

SPEAKER_01: 15:44

And it's going pretty well, right?

SPEAKER_00: 15:46

Oh my gosh, it's incredible. Honestly, I walk through the building every every day, and I'm just like, wow, this is this is ours. Like, this is our dream come true.

SPEAKER_01: 15:54

Yeah. Did you have a PR firm out of the gate?

SPEAKER_00: 15:58

We did not. Um, I did I was sponsored by a beef company out of Chicago. Um, and their PR firm was was who I was connected with, you know, being sponsored by them. Um, and then just made a really great connection with someone in that PR firm and just stuck with it. And uh, you know, Sam's been such a blessing to us.

SPEAKER_01: 16:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:24

And I think it's, you know, it's a lot of money that goes out the door, but it's a lot of well well spent money.

SPEAKER_01: 16:31

Do you see yourself working with a PR firm for the entirety of your restaurant career? Do you think it's more valuable in the beginning stages?

SPEAKER_00: 16:40

Um Truthfully, I think it's really, really important in the beginning to really spend that money, right? You have to spend the money, do the work, talk to people, um, make the connections and really just put yourself out there. If you wait too long, you're you're just you're late to the race, you know? Um, so I think it's really important to spend a lot of money on PR in the beginning. Um, and then I think that we'll continue to use PR probably for a very long time, but not as not as uh, you know, in a grand scale as we are.

SPEAKER_01: 17:17

No, yeah, like you said, it's it's really expensive. And it's sometimes it's hard to see the ROI, right, uh, out of the gate on it for sure.

SPEAKER_00: 17:26

Um, you think all the time you're like, wow, this is four or five thousand dollars every month. Like you know, we gotta cut costs. I'm working on food costs and all this stuff. And it's like, it's an easy one to say, like, all right, let's just cut the PR. That's four thousand dollars, five thousand dollars a month.

SPEAKER_01: 17:43

Yeah, put it in your pocket.

SPEAKER_00: 17:45

But that that effort and having that PR firm is giving you tenfold.

SPEAKER_01: 17:51

Yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00: 17:52

So you you know, you bite the bullet while you can, and you know, it it it's worth it, it's worth every penny. I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 17:59

Talk to me a little bit about Communion Bay Supper Club. Was this part of market research?

SPEAKER_00: 18:04

It was so uh Kinse and I were what we call both coastal. So she lived in Seattle. I lived in New Jersey. Um, we worked together in Seattle for about two months. I got hired as a consulting chef for a place that she was working for. Um, and she was just like, hey, we work really well together. Do you want to like do some pop-ups and stuff? And I was like, Yeah, this sounds great. We were, you know, just friends. We had worked together for two months. Um, so she left the job and we started just traveling around doing dinners at people's houses. I mean, we would be flying to Florida the next day, be flying to Portland, Oregon. Two days after that, we're flying back to Idaho, back to New Jersey, Seattle. Like we were on so many flights, you know, flying with ingredients. Yeah. You know, TSA is always checking your bag. You have a note. I'm like, oh yeah, there's a couple white powders in there, they're gonna be checking it out. Don't worry, guys. It's just Xanthem gum.

SPEAKER_01: 19:11

How many how many pop-ups did you guys do? Oh God 50? In in what time span? Less than a year.

unknown: 19:22

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01: 19:24

So how like talk to me about how that business was running? How were people finding you? Were you marketing yourself? Like, were the menus different or the same? Walk me through all that.

SPEAKER_00: 19:34

Yeah, it was super cool. So I would whenever wherever we were at, I would go to the local markets and stuff, and I would just find things and then base the menu off of whatever I found that was local in season. Um, so that was a lot of fun, you know, especially when you're going to places that I'm not familiar with, like Portland, or you know, I'm familiar with with Florida, but like I've never been a chef there. So like utilizing what they have seasonally is a lot of fun. Like we got to work with some great fish and everything. So we would just write the menu as we were walking the store together.

SPEAKER_01: 20:15

Amazing. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 20:17

It was it was so cool, and then we would, you know, get it printed. We would find a print shop, a local print shop. We would get the menu printed, and then we would go to the person's house and just cook out of their house. Sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was super challenging.

SPEAKER_01: 20:33

Yeah. How did people find you?

SPEAKER_00: 20:35

Um, mostly through Instagram. Um, you know, having thankfully having a big following helps with that. Um, so the marketing was was pretty easy. Um, and people just wanted me to come to their house and and have a dinner party, and it was a lot of fun. You know, it was like eight courses, 10 courses sometimes. Yeah. Um, but it was just about connecting with people, talking about the area, trying to figure out where was going to be a good spot for us to open a restaurant. Because that was the end goal, and that was the whole goal of Communion Bay Supper Club was to travel around America and figure out where we wanted to open a restaurant.

SPEAKER_01: 21:15

And what did you know you were looking for?

SPEAKER_00: 21:19

Um, well, we knew we wanted to do high-end Italian. So the the demographics had to be there for that.

SPEAKER_01: 21:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:28

You know, you you have to have people that don't mind spending$45 on a bowl of pasta versus, you know, the demographic of well, I can go to Olive Garden and get Endless Pasta Bowl for$19.99.

SPEAKER_01: 21:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:46

Why can't I get Endless Pasta with you? Well, you know, we make everything in-house. There's there's a difference and there's a quality. Um, you know, we don't we don't buy anything, we buy raw ingredients and we make everything in-house. And, you know, the perception of Italian cuisine is that it's cheap. You know, a box of pasta is a whole pound of pasta is a dollar. So there's this conception, and you have to find the market that really cares about the quality. And I think that was something that we were really looking for.

SPEAKER_01: 22:20

Yeah. Nice. Did you have two or three backup cities?

SPEAKER_00: 22:26

We actually had uh an LOI on a building um in Charleston, South Carolina. Okay. Uh we were pretty dead set. I knew we would I knew we would do well.

SPEAKER_01: 22:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 22:39

Um the market is obviously saturated there, but you still can't get in anywhere. So as saturated as it is, a restaurateur would do fine as long as you put out really good stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 22:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 22:53

Um so, you know, that was that was our plan. But you know, we were also thinking about, you know, do we stay to my roots and stay in New Jersey? Do we go to Seattle where Kinsey's from and open a place there? Neither one of those places really called to us because wherever we were, we wanted to lay our roots, our personal roots.

SPEAKER_01: 23:18

Yeah. So nice. I love it. So you're six months in.

SPEAKER_00: 23:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 23:24

What are you most looking forward to the next six months?

SPEAKER_00: 23:29

The next six months. I am really looking forward to winter season. Uh winter is coming, the weather is changing, it's cold. Um, but I am very much looking forward to the winter season. It's my favorite my favorite season here. Um I love the people that come here because it's truly just joyous. They love the the snow, they're here for our vacation, the locals are happy because there's snow on the ground. It's just such a wonderful, thrilling time to be in Idaho.

SPEAKER_01: 24:03

Yeah, I love it. I've never been. I'll have to come check it out.

SPEAKER_00: 24:06

It's it's truly like you see those pictures of like Montana and these giant mountains and everything. That's literally where we live.

SPEAKER_01: 24:15

Awesome. What's your biggest challenge ahead of you?

SPEAKER_00: 24:18

We are coming into Slack right now. So Slack is our off season. Um there is no tourists. It's right before, it's after the beautiful summer, going into winter, that lull, everyone leaves, all the locals leave, they go to their favorite spot to chill and wait for the snow to start hitting the ground.

SPEAKER_01: 24:40

What is how long is Slack?

SPEAKER_00: 24:43

Um truly, it depends on snow.

SPEAKER_01: 24:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:48

Uh so our mountain opens Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_01: 24:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 24:52

So basically October, November until Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_01: 24:56

What does success look like for you coming out of Slack?

SPEAKER_00: 25:00

Success coming out of Slack is still having a full staff. Um and the doors easily getting open every day. Not having to worry about are we making the right choice? Should we have closed for a little bit? Um, you know, just being happy with, you know, there's still a bunch of locals between Haley, Sun Valley, and Ketchum. There's tons of people. Are we hitting that market? Are we hitting it well enough that we can open the doors and not have to close for a month like everyone else does?

SPEAKER_01: 25:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 25:38

So I think success is measured by still having a beautiful staff like we do, maintaining them all, uh, not having to put anyone on unemployment and feeding the locals.

SPEAKER_01: 25:52

Yeah. Yeah. What do you need to do to make that happen?

SPEAKER_00: 25:55

Uh we're actually starting an apertivo hour. Um, so we open at 4 30 every day. Um we're gonna start our apertivo hour from 4 30, 5 30. It'd be a true hour. Um, and I'm not gonna say that we have cheap bites, but it's a true apertivo hour. Warmed olives, you know, burrata with pepperinata, um, some nice cocktails and everything. And I I hate I hate the the word happy hour because that's not it. We're celebrating just ingredients in a different way.

unknown: 26:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 26:35

Um, but we're trying to show the locals that, like, hey, we got an hour that, you know, we have some snacks, we have some great drinks that are 20% off. Come on in early before your dinner, have a little snack, and then stay for your reservation that everyone comes in at six o'clock for.

SPEAKER_01: 26:52

Love it. Love it. So you feel like that's gonna continue to pull the market that you need.

SPEAKER_00: 26:58

I do. And and I'm a I'm a I'm an early dinner lover.

SPEAKER_01: 27:03

Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_00: 27:04

I'm like 5 30 is my favorite time, maybe five o'clock.

unknown: 27:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 27:10

Um and you know, right now we're not really hitting that 4 30, five between 4 30 and 5 30. We're just yeah, we're just not hitting the mark right now. And, you know, we're we're trying to think about things that we can do for our locals and for us to make sure that we are still getting that that early business because I want to keep my employees employed for those amount of hours. I don't want to open up at five.

SPEAKER_01: 27:36

Totally. Is your restaurant one that's getting are you getting one turn during the week and two turns on the weekends? What what is Sun Valley like as far as dining preferences?

SPEAKER_00: 27:45

We're still getting two turns right now. Nice. Uh talk to me in two weeks, that might be a different story. Yeah, but as of right now, we're still getting two turns during the week, three turns on the weekends.

SPEAKER_01: 27:59

Okay. Awesome. Um what do you need to do to keep the staff?

SPEAKER_00: 28:05

We just need to have the business. We're we my whole thing is I want to have year-round staff. I don't want to have to train, you know, a lot of restaurants they close in the winter or sorry, they close in the spring and fall for a little bit of time. And you know, you just can't send people off and be like, hey, we'll we'll see you in four to six weeks. Right. Some people can do that, some people can't. And then you always have to train new staff and everything. So for us, it's just making sure that the doors stay open and that we're nice and busy still.

SPEAKER_01: 28:40

Yeah. Awesome. What how do you how will you handle you and Kinzie handle this pressure over the next couple months? Just this uncertainty and and not knowing how the business is gonna operate since it's your first year.

SPEAKER_00: 28:56

Totally. It's you know, this year is it's a learning curve. Um, but consistency is key and communication is key. And, you know, we just we just have to stick to our guns. And um, something that I'm big on is continuity. If we say we're gonna do something, let's do it and let's do it 100%. So if we say that we're open at 4 30, we open at 4 30 no matter what. Even if we don't have a single person that walks through the door until 5 45, we have to maintain consistency so that everyone around us knows that we're serious and we're here for them.

SPEAKER_01: 29:30

So important. So important. It's I think it's I I see it happening often in um whether it's, you know, I lived in Arizona for three years, where summer, a lot of people either completely close the restaurant, go down to very limited hours and days of the week, or they just open up to locals only and give them a menu that only they want to eat. Right. Um, which is pretty wild. But I agree with you, the consistency is so key. And and uh it I see that in the mountain towns too. I talk to some people, right? It's Um, oh yeah, we'll open an hour earlier or we'll close an hour, you know, we'll close an hour. It's like, no, it's it's so dangerous to your business. And I've worked for, you know, massive companies where, you know, we get five feet of snow, and yeah, you want to close, but it's just so dangerous to your reputation. And it's it's detrimental. Totally, totally.

SPEAKER_00: 30:21

Yeah, you know, I've worked, I've worked for restaurants where uh again, being from New Jersey, I'm from the shore. So our summers are popping, they're nuts, they're crazy. You extend your hours, and then in the winter, you shorten your hours, not even to regular hours, you shorten them. And I have always found that, you know, July and August, you're fine, right? But September and June, you've gotten your customers used to you closing early. So their mindset, normally you close at 10 o'clock, right? You start closing at nine o'clock because you don't have any customers. Well, nobody wants to be the last customer in the building. So now they're coming at eight o'clock.

unknown: 31:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 31:09

And now you've ruined two hours of business for yourself.

SPEAKER_01: 31:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 31:13

100%. And it's just it as much as you want to do it and it's painful to sit there and stay open, you got to do it because you got to show everyone that you're consistent and that you're the real deal. And I think that's something that is so important and also the hardest thing to teach your staff.

SPEAKER_01: 31:31

Yeah, absolutely. It's uh it's so hard to change guest preferences. You know, I talked to a lot of operators that are they're like, my sales are down, which you know, it's happening everywhere right now, uh, especially in the Denver market because it's so saturated. And people say, you know, I I want to build sales, I want to start with building uh sales on Tuesdays and Wednesday nights. It's like that's not when people go out to eat. Let's talk about Friday and Saturday and Sundays and maximizing those first if you're not at capacity. It's so much easier to bring people in because you're probably saying no to some reservations that you could get creative with, right? Or offer some different times around and find seats for those people. Totally. Kudos to you. That's great. Thanks. That's a great mindset. Um, now are you still going to um are you still traveling and doing some fun competitions? Like, do you want to go back on Bobby Flay and kick his ass again with your grandmother's chicken and dumpling recipe? Like, what does what does marketing for you look like outside of the restaurant?

SPEAKER_00: 32:28

Yeah, I have uh I have two careers. I'm a restaurant owner and I'm a TV chef.

unknown: 32:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 32:34

And I will always do it as long as I'm called. Um, it's a passion of mine. I truly love it. Um especially the competition part, like whether I'm judging or I'm competing at the end of the day. Every time I do it, it's like being in the Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_01: 32:56

How did you get into that?

SPEAKER_00: 33:00

Funny story. Um a lot of people all the time were just like, you're hilarious, you're funny, you have a great personality, you should do chopped. And I was like, no way, no way, no way. I'm a chef. Put me behind the scenes for a reason. Yeah. Like I'm funny to you guys, and I'm funny into everyone else because I'm comfortable.

SPEAKER_01: 33:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 33:25

But put me on stage and I can't say two words. Yeah. I was like, it'll never work. So one of my friends was just like, you gotta do it, gotta do it, gotta do it. And one day I was sitting on the couch, might have had one too many whiskies, and was like, I'm just gonna do it. And I applied to Chopped and woke up the next morning and was like, oh, I can't believe I did that. Thankfully, they'll never call me. And I gotta call that afternoon.

SPEAKER_01: 33:53

Some liquid courage.

SPEAKER_00: 33:55

Oh gosh. Great. But it honestly, I'm so thankful that it happened because it has changed my life and in so many good ways. And I found a new passion. And I think when you get into your career for as long as I have, that it's it's sometimes it's hard to find new passion. Um in doing this, I have connected with so many chefs and we talk about food. And and you know, when we're all together and we're doing things like turn them into champions, like all we do is talk about food and how the restaurants are doing, and and I just get so fueled. And now I get to do all these food and wine events, and I, you know, it's just it's fun.

SPEAKER_01: 34:43

Yeah, I love it. In the early days, all right, because I don't know how you get into that circuit or or or really anything about it, but are you just applying yourself until and I'm I'm sure now the PR firm helps you uh manage all that and do all the reach outs for that, right?

SPEAKER_00: 34:58

Uh I don't I don't reach out at all.

SPEAKER_01: 35:01

You okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 35:02

But in the beginning it was all the only one I did reach out for was Chopped, and I've been called for all the different shows since then.

SPEAKER_01: 35:10

Got it. Okay, so you're you got yourself out there. You apparently said more than two words on the first chapter.

SPEAKER_00: 35:16

I might have said three, but I don't know that it was much more.

SPEAKER_01: 35:19

But it was another attention.

SPEAKER_00: 35:21

Thankfully, I can cook.

SPEAKER_01: 35:23

Yeah, I love it. That's great. Um, is there a show that you haven't been on yet that you want to go on?

SPEAKER_00: 35:29

I want to be on Bobby's Triple Threat so bad.

SPEAKER_01: 35:32

Okay, we put it out there. Here it is. I anybody listening.

SPEAKER_00: 35:37

Fingers and toes are crossed.

SPEAKER_01: 35:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:39

I can cross my eyes too if I need to.

SPEAKER_01: 35:42

What is it about that show?

SPEAKER_00: 35:45

You know, I have so much respect for my friends, Bobby and Brooke and Michael. Uh, I know there's a new chef, Aisha, that's on now that I haven't met, but I'm I'm I'm friends with Michael Voltaggio. I'm friends with Brooke Williamson. And I have so much respect for them growing up watching them competing on Top Chef, the the beginnings of Top Chef and everything, and just being so inspired by them. Like I haven't had a chance to go against them. And I'm always a firm believer in you're only you're only as good as the best person you can go against, whether you win or lose, it's putting yourself out there. Um, and I just I want to put myself out there. I know I'll probably get my ass kicked, but that's okay.

unknown: 36:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:36

I just want to hang.

SPEAKER_01: 36:37

Yeah. I love it. What would you I mean, looking back on your career? I mean, you've got so far to go, but like of all all the things that you've absolutely accomplished. I mean, a four diamond award and four months of opening your first restaurant, like absolutely fucking insane. If you look back now at that 13-year-old cook in your family's kitchen, what would you say to her?

SPEAKER_00: 36:59

Keep going.

unknown: 37:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 37:01

Dream big and just keep going. Don't stop ever. Um, that's something that my grandmother told me when I was younger. Like, if this is what you want to do, then do it and do it all. And that's something I've I've taken with me. That's something that I try to teach to anyone that wants to talk to me about culinary, it whether they want to get into the business or they want to go to culinary school. Um, if you're gonna do it, do it. Yeah, go big, go home.

SPEAKER_01: 37:35

Love it. Do you have plans to open more restaurants?

SPEAKER_00: 37:39

Heck yes. Without hesitation, no hesitation whatsoever.

SPEAKER_01: 37:45

Love it in Sun Valley.

SPEAKER_00: 37:47

Um, we're trying to decide on whether we want to build an empire here or if we want to go to different mountain towns um and open more fiamas.

SPEAKER_01: 38:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 38:02

Love it. So that's something that we're still going back and forth on, trying to figure out, you know, the pluses and minuses. And small mountain towns are hard because, you know, you open a restaurant and it does well. You're great.

SPEAKER_01: 38:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 38:16

But are you gonna take business away if you open a second? Because you know it's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_01: 38:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 38:22

I know, I know that our restaurant's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_01: 38:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 38:25

So that's that's something that we are constantly going back and forth on. And we might have talks about a second restaurant with some people already.

SPEAKER_01: 38:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 38:34

Um, but right now it's kind of the Venn diagram, like pros, cons, the in-between, like what what weighs heavier.

SPEAKER_01: 38:44

What what role do you see yourself in in five years from now?

SPEAKER_00: 38:50

Five years from now, I would like to be the owner of three restaurants. Okay. Uh, I would like to have a TOC belt. Okay. And I would like to be a mentor to multiple young chefs. That's something that's really important to me is to inspire the next generation. Um and maybe I should say the next next generation, because I want to develop that passion with children while they're young, because I had that when I was young. And I think it's so important. And my parents let me make all of my decisions, what I wanted to do. They never wanted me to be a chef, but here I am. Uh, they tried so hard to talk me out of it, but again, here I am. And I think this is one of the hardest careers to make it in, to make money, to make it to be successful. Um, and if I can import some knowledge into a young, creative being, I think it's just so important.

SPEAKER_01: 40:01

Love it. Britt, you are uh absolutely fucking awesome. You're such a powerhouse. Thank you. I I love your confidence. And I love that the ego that comes with that is all about competition in a really fun, playful way and learning and mentorship. Um, I think that's very unique and it's very special. And uh wish you absolutely all the best with building your empire. It's it's gonna be incredible. I can't wait to come out and check out your food one day.

SPEAKER_00: 40:32

Seriously, you gotta come out and have some sexy food.

SPEAKER_01: 40:35

Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much for your time. Absolutely for coming on. Really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00: 40:40

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01: 40:41

Absolutely. Thank you all so much for listening this week. It's been a really amazing episode, tons of value here. Um, please share this episode with anybody that you know in the industry that can benefit.