John McDonnell, President, Clyde's Restaurant Group

Joining Clyde’s Restaurant Group in the fall of 2016, former Co-Founder, President, and CEO of the privately held chain, Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano, John McDonnell has brought a record of success with him. As a results-driven Business Management Executive with the ability to lead teams using effective operational strategies while also exhibiting an unwavering commitment to excellence, John’s unique expertise makes him a valuable part of the Clyde’s family

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
M ANDT Bank presidents CEOs you shouldknow powered by Iheartadia. Let's mean John
McDonald. He is the president andCEO for Clyde's Restaurant Group, along with
others in their portfolio Old Epic,Rill, the Hambleton, the Tombs,
Fitzgerald in seventeen eighty nine. Beforewe talk about all of these fantastic restaurants
in the DMV, I first askedJohn and talked a little bit about himself,

(00:23):
where he's from and his origin story. So I grew up in Ithaca,
New York, with five older sistersand a single mom for most of
my life. My father died whenI was pretty young, so I was
raised by six women. When Iwas growing up, I absolutely lived for
sports, and then I got ajob in the restaurant business. I was
fourteen and got a job at Friendly'sice Cream and the first thing that struck

(00:47):
me that it was exactly like sports. She had players and coaches, and
it was dynamic and moving, andthat's kind of what hooked me into the
restaurant business. So I got outof high school and it was fortunate enough
to get in to the hospitality programat Cornell and went to school there.
And with a focus on obviously businessand hospitality, specifically food and beverage.

(01:11):
And then upon graduating in nineteen eightyfive, the American Cafe sucked me down
to work in Washington, DC fromIthacan, New York. Bob Jaimo,
who now has Silver Diner and hispartner Ebanks fabulous people and they were my
first employers out of college. Wellhow about that. I had a chance
to speak to them just a coupleof months ago, and they have a

(01:32):
fascinating story too. I'm always curiousabout people that get into the restaurant business
because as a layman, just fromoutside that looking glass, it looks like
a very difficult business to sustain growth. COVID came into play that turned everybody
upside down on their head. Whydid you get into the bus? Well?
Kind of like what I alluded tobefore. You know, as I

(01:53):
was growing up, sports were alot more important to me than academics,
pretty short term thinking, obviously,and a restaurant really reminded me of an
athletic team. You know, thereis a dynamic to it where you know
players are either going to be wellcoached and know their positions or they're not.
And you're going to win the gameor you're not. And managing is

(02:15):
a lot like coaching, and allthose dynamics really appealed to me because they
always appealed it to me, Andso that's what gravitated me, why I
gravitated towards the business, and andI think it was good instincts, because
you know, it does seem likea lot to people who aren't in a
business, like a really hard business, and coming from the outside, it's

(02:37):
kind of like jumping on a treadmill. But if you've been on that treadmill
since you're young, you hate gettingoff of it. And so it's a
little like that. And the teamdynamic is just it's so good in the
restaurant business. You know, youreally you feel it when you pulled the
great team together, when you accomplisheda great shift, or you're creating a
great restaurant, and that inner relianceis a really powerful thing, and it's

(03:01):
a really immediately rewarding thing. Soeverybody in my intro got to hear about
the restaurants that we're going to talktoday. And if you're from the DMV
like I am, from my oldfalse church days in the late seventies early
eighties, then Clyde and Old Ebbitt, Hamilton Tombs Fitzgerald's in seventeen eighty nine
are not only historical but mean alot to people. And I just wanted

(03:23):
to do an overview first because Iknow this is your second tour of duty
with the company and I'd love tohear that story. We'll circle back to
the why you rejoin the company andhow it was the first time around,
but if you could just talk alittle bit about feedback from people like me
where they reminisce and they have specialmemories, and not only because the food's
good and there's great service and it'scomfortable there at all your restaurants. What

(03:46):
is special? What's the secret sauceto why the restaurants work so well in
the area here with people that livehere. That's a really great question,
and I think you'd have to goback to you the founder, Stuart Davidson,
and then his his partner who reallybecame rose up from dishwasher and became
the driving force of the growth ofthe company, John Latham. And it
has a lot to do with theirvalues and ethics. I think that there's

(04:10):
a few things that they combined tobelieve in and build restaurants on one the
belief that it's more fun to eatin a bar than it is to drink
in a restaurant, So our restaurantshave that sort of energy of the bar,
never too far from you. Butthey always believed you could do really
good food and ambitious food and foodwith high integrity despite it being bar driven,

(04:31):
and I think that has a lotto do with it. Loyalty and
training huge things in the company andalways have been, from my first Torrid
duty and now to the legacy thatwe and the shoulders we stand on.
We're still committed to that. Andyou know, loyalty and long term thinking
in the restaurant business, you know, should always be there, but it

(04:55):
can be a tough business to actuallylive that and walk that walk, because
you know, sales go up anddown, costs go up and down.
Staying loyal to people and keeping themon through the hard times it's not an
easy thing to do. And it'salways been a company that really leans in
on taking care of people and alsopreserving some creativity for the people running the

(05:15):
restaurants. You know, we havethe six clients, but none of them
have the same menu. You know, they have similarities, like they all
have the same crab cake, theyhave the same burger. But the other
of thirty forty percent of the menu, you know, that's that chef team
driving that menu to meet the audienceof that clients and preserving that kind of
creativity and the experience for people runningyour restaurants, along with the values of

(05:39):
loyalty and trust and courtesy, dignity, respect. You know, that's a
powerful combination and it seems like commonsense. But you know, with all
the anxiety that accompanies the restaurant business, not everybody can stay true to those
things day and day out. AndI think we've always been pretty committed to
that. I think it served aswell. All right, this is your

(06:00):
second tour duty. So tell usabout the first time around you left and
then he came back. Tell usabout that story. Yeah. So I
joined Clyde's back in nineteen hundred andeighty seven as a dining room manager and
wine steward. At the seventeen eightynine I kind of bs to my job
into the wine knowledge part. Interviewedwith John Latham and spent about four and

(06:24):
a half hours talking to him inthe Clydes of Georgetown, and between us
we smoked a back and a halfof cigarettes, and that's back in the
I was a smoker back then,and man, so is he. And
we really hit it off. Andhonestly, I was a little disillusioned with
the industry at that point in time. I've been working in an environment where
it was just running shifts and youdidn't have a lot of say on the

(06:44):
menu and choices and marketing and creativity. And then I get a load of
John and he's all about buying localand this is nineteen eighties, like nobody
was saying farmed a table in nineteeneighties, and he was about empowering creativity.
And he really got me inspired.And I had a great run the
company. I absolutely loved working forhim. I loved working with all the
people I did. I went fromthe eighty nine to then run the Olymic

(07:06):
Grill and it was a great experience. What I didn't want to do at
that point in time in my careerthat I was spending the rest of my
career with one company and I andI also had some entrepreneurial ambitions, so
I left the company and co foundeda concept called Batsimore which you might remember.

(07:27):
You know, we started in ShadyGrouve, but we had seven in
the DC Baltimore area. I doremember, yeah, And I was in
my twenties and my partners were intheir sixties. Fred Berman and Artie allsoter
wonderful people, and we grew thatto seven locations, and then I took
that knowledge and I joined up.I ended up leaving them and we had

(07:48):
a really good exit, and theybrought my interest back and I moved my
wife and kids to the Midwest toco found a concept called Bogie's, which
polished casual Italian with a focus togo on some of the small into some
of the smaller markets in the Midwest, and my partner and I started with
a business plan and raised capital andultimately grew it to twenty two restaurants.

(08:13):
And then in twenty fifteen, ourkids were up and out of the house,
never coming back to Bloomington, Illinois, where our headquarters were. All
of our families on the East Coast, and it was time for my wife
and I to get back east whereboth she grew up in Arlington, I
grew up in New York and andso again sold my interest in the company.
Had a great exit, and aftera year of traveling and having fun

(08:35):
and playing a lot of ice hockey, it was time to get back to
being an adult. And it's kindof ironic. I was about to accept
a job in Phoenix, Arizona,at not starting another company, but at
a sea level with a large restaurantcompany, and my wife said, hey,

(08:56):
are you sure that this is theone. I'm like, yeah,
I think this is great. Shesaid, well, if you could have
any job in the world, wouldit be any job? I'd want to
go back and run Clydes. Andshe said, well, why don't you
just tell them that before you acceptthe job. I said, okay,
and the rest is history. Herewe are. I love it. That's
a great story. You know.I've had a lot of travels because of

(09:16):
radio, and that means I've livedin a lot of good food towns and
including one of my favorites, Portland, Oregon. I think it's one of
the best foodie towns in the UnitedStates. But every time I see a
list, and as I say,this is my fourth time living here.
Now I live in the district andI get to enjoy a lot of restaurants,
including all the years in the DMVthat DC always hasn't come in like
the top five of foodie towns,and I think you gotta be kidding.

(09:39):
There's so many great restaurants in thearea here, it's it's absolutely extraordinary.
I'd like to know your opinion aboutwhat you think about how DC ranks is
a foodie town. I think it'sa fantastic foody town. And I'll tell
you, you know, living inthe Midwest, I spent so much time
in Chicago, which gets always greathackling where I'm from, by the way,
and of course they're known for steak, pizza. It's meat and potatoes.

(10:01):
It's just that, not just thatgreat Italian all that kind of divid
but but the Chicago is a greatfood town. Yeah, and I get
there a lot still, you know, two adult children living there, and
you know, lots of people Iused to work with still there obviously,
And I'm constantly amazed at how muchmore innovative I think DC is than Chicago.

(10:22):
I think DC is doing a reallygood job elevating third world cuisine for
lack of better terminology, and Ithink it's it's a city that's just you
know, during the years i've beenback the constant innovation and a DC restaurant
scene. I think it's been fantasticand I'm very proud to be a part

(10:43):
of the city. And that istough sometimes for us, right because there's
always a flashy new opening, andeverybody wants to try the new restaurant at
some point. Right, if youhave enough openings, that kind of can
cover all your visits, so you'vereally you know, we we've got to
make sure that, you know,we give them lots of reasons to continue

(11:03):
to use us and knock on wood. You know, we've been pretty successful.
John, Before we talk about growth, and there's some growth coming up
in the future, which is reallyexciting. I want to talk about sustainability
specifically during COVID, and I imaginethat all the smart people got into room
after we got off the shock thatwe are not going to be going anywhere
for quite some time. You ofcourse know better than anybody that the restaurant
industry was hit very hard and youhad to pivot major league style and it

(11:26):
opened up a lot of different avenuesand a lot of different thought processes of
how we could sustain our business.Talk about that, about how the group
did that and where it took andyour and your pivot. Yeah. So
well, I mean here's the youknow, just the basic you know,
x's and os of it. Wewent from eighteen hundred employees down to two

(11:48):
hundred in a matter of two weeks. So you know, there was our
restaurants were all closed. There wasno place for hourly workers to do anything.
We kept our salary managers on board, which is about one hundred and
seventy five people certainly not doing enoughsales to generate enough income to pay them,
but we kept doing it. Andthat is you know, that story

(12:11):
isn't about any genius pivot on ourpart. It's really about our wonderful parent
company, Graham Holdings, buying intothe fact that we felt that was important
that we got a hold lot ofthese people so when we come out,
we're on stable ground and because it'sthe right thing to do. So,
you know, Graham was a tremendousfinancial backstop for us, but we also

(12:33):
held our own financially. You know, like a lot of other companies,
you do pivot, and you know, we really got great at carry out
and delivery. We developed you know, four different ghost kitchen concepts to increase
that. We started a combination philanthropicand something that could help more people be

(12:56):
employed concept called food at Forward.And what food and Ford was as people
could buy meals and those meals weredonated to a few different places in town
and Martha's Kitchen was our primary recipientand we did thousands and thousands of meals
a week and so the cost ofyou know, what people were buying through

(13:20):
the ability to feed it forward withus was enough to cover our payroll and
our food and that's about it.In all this effort so that we could
bring some hourly employees back, keepour management busy, and get a little
bit more cash flow and sort ofoffset the cost of keeping people employed.

(13:41):
And it was a really wonderful experience. You know. We we put out
a lot of meals for a lotof people who really needed it, and
so things like that, you know, finding ways to get a little bit
more cash in to just keep peopleworking. To make it to the other
side that and of course the supportiveGraham. We did not take any government
funding, not a single penny,no loans, nothing, and that again

(14:03):
speaks to Graham. We certainly couldhave qualified for that, but as a
division of Graham, which isn't allhospitality. They didn't feel it was ethically
right, which says fantastic things aboutthem. So, you know, some
of that money we're still paying backto Graham, you know, but that's
okay, you know, it's itwas all the right thing to do,
and you know, we're we've almostgot that debt paid off. So so

(14:26):
we have mentioned the great arsenal restaurantsthat you currently have, but I know
that Baltimore Resting Station which is justexploding right now, and also Chevy Chase,
which the city I've lived in before, is also booming. Along with
Bethesda. You've got three things comingup in the future. Talk a little
bit about that or what you cantell us. Sure, so we have
I'll start with Baltimore and March,we're opening a restaurant there called Rice Street

(14:50):
Tavern. It was previously operating.It's a fairly new restaurant that there was
a management contract to run, andwe're taking it over with a traditional leach
lease approach and putting a lot ofmoney into it, as we do with
all of our properties. And it'sin Baltimore Peninsula, which used to be
known as Port Covington and Sagamore Development, which is a branch of you know,

(15:13):
the Plank Family investments of under Armourhave done just a fantastic job developing
that area, and they've got reallyambitious long term plans, and we're coming
on because we see what they're doing, we see how good it is for
Baltimore. Ultimately, it's going toget to about fourteen million square feet of

(15:35):
mixed use development that will be greatfor Baltimore. It's really easy access to
I ninety five. It's right byunder Armour's headquarters. They're developing a whole
site for you know, high schoolathletics and stadiums, and it's just really
wonderful the commitment that they are makingto Baltimore. And it just felt really
great for us to take over thatrestaurant. And when all the development's done,

(15:58):
we're going to be the only restfront that's actually on the water nice
and that's really important, or rightnext to the distillery, so we're going
to do a lot of tie inswith the distillery. So on so many
levels, it felt like us,you know, I think what Kevin wants
to do there seems like really thatdoesn't seem It is fantastic citizenship and that's
something that's always been important to us. And it also just has such amazing

(16:22):
potential for volume and traffic and revitalization, and we're going to be right at
the center of it. So wefeel really excited about that. And that's
going to be opening or reopening asI should say, March fourth. We
have another deal confirmed which is calledEbbitt House and that's going to be opening
in rest In Station, right acrossfrom where you know the core is now

(16:45):
with Founding Farmers in the development wherethe Marriott is going up a few high
rises of residential and that is sortof an owned to the beginning of Old
of It Grill. You know,the Old of It Grill since the eighteen
hundreds has been a lot of differentthings. Its first name was in fact
Ebbitt House, and it has evolvedover the years, but the name is
stay true. So we want todo a more relevant and I hate to

(17:08):
use the word contemporary because it's notgoing to be a contemporary design, but
more contemporary approach than what the Abbotrepresents now as it's steeped in nostalgia.
We're carrying forward a lot of thegreat traditions of the Ebit. You know,
the oyster bars, three bars inthe restaurant, so you always have
that bar vibrancy feel, the reallygreat service levels, and also the kind

(17:30):
of place that you can use fora lot of reasons. You know,
you can come in for a specialoccasion, or you can come in for
a drink and a plate of oysters, and you'll like the energy and you'll
like the vibe. It's going tobe a big menu like the old Ebit
grill, but leaning a bit morefanciful than our approach is at the Ebit.
And the decor is going to belighter and brighter, but certainly not

(17:51):
contemporary. It'll still be rooted inthe classic. We're using a design company
out of Chicago called Studio Kay who'sdone just a lot of fabulous stuff there.
Really excited about the design and that'llopen an early twenty twenty five.
We're very close on signing a leasein Union Market to do a seafood restaurant

(18:11):
there. Seafood has always been sucha huge part of our sales mix and
it's something that we really hang ourhat on, I mean, our oyster
program. We are so dedicated tofreshness and quality, you know, we
don't start anything that's been out ofthe water more than forty eight hours,
and we all of our oysters gettested once a month at a testing facility

(18:32):
in Colorado and we test for higherlevels than you know, the United States
requires to see that the water conditionsthe oysters are coming from. And so
we've really got a great culture ofseafood, but we've never done a seafood
dedicated restaurant. And that's if we'redoing in Union Market, and it's going
to be kind of cool because itwill be a lot of things in that

(18:52):
sort of international law approach from thingslike you know, crudeo and sushi like
approach, and everything that's cooked isgoing to be on charcoal. I mean
we're talking charcoal grills, charcoal ovens, so it's pretty much charcoal or raw
at that restaurant coming away. Soyou know, it's a lot of fun
fire chefs to really lean in onsomething that is rooted in tradition, cultural

(19:15):
traditions, but a little bit moreesoteric and it's delivery and I think a
really cool neighborhood to do it in. So you know that we should have
that least sign soon and that's lookingto open. You know that probably may
June of next year. Our ChevyChase clients, you know, that's that's
been a stalwart in that neighborhood fora long time. But we think it's

(19:37):
it's ready for an upgrade, youknow, an approach that's a little bit
more in line with our other restaurants. You know, when we say it's
more fun to to uh eating abar than is to drink in a restaurant,
we really want to carry that throughinto the Chevy Chase restaurant. Right
now, the bar is hidden downstairs, so the plan is to gut the
main floor really deliver a powerful bar. Pres We're working with our landlord to

(20:03):
make sure it all makes sense todeliver that, so hopefully we'll be able
to announce that soon. So youknow, that keeps us pretty busy through
the first quarter of twenty twenty twentyfive, which you know right now we're
only actually looking for opportunities from midtwenty twenty five forward, but we plan
on continuing to grow and innobate.Well, John, thanks for sharing all
that. I didn't want to askyou about a leadership question, and I

(20:25):
realized at times maybe the restaurant businesscan be transient for a certain time of
job you do. But I've alsorun into people like when I lived in
Chevy Chase and we my family frequentthe Parkway Delhi. We had waitresses over
there for twenty years. So asfar as the leaders concerned with your vision,
along with your managers and all theimportant people at the top, making

(20:45):
sure that the hostess and the serversand you get the right chefs and all
the goods were putting in a restaurant. Because there's so really much behind the
scenes to do it. How doyou make sure that your vision is exactly
the way you want and articulated toeverybody and it goes down the line,
but also making sure that all theemployees have a good, happy work life

(21:07):
balance in today's climate. Yeah,well, that's such a great question,
and it's it's a broad one reallybecause there's so many, so many answers,
but you know, ultimately it isabout it's about all of the leaders
sharing common values of leadership and communicationand also knowing what type of leaders you
want and the type of leaders thatwe want our storytellers, ones who can

(21:32):
get what we're trying to convey andretell it in a way that people want
to listen, and that's a hugething in restaurants because you know, ultimately
speaking, our plan is only asgood as the leadership team of any restaurant,
and if if they're managing a waythat alienates people or is you know,
not really connected with where we wantto go, that's where that restaurant's

(21:53):
going to be. And so it'sreally about making sure those hundred and seventy
salaried people share the same values ofcourtesy, dignity, respect, how you
treat people. They share the samevalues of prioritizing training and really living and
dying by that, and we doa lot as a company to help them

(22:14):
out. You know, we havea corporate training center here in Georgetown that
is a whole muck dining that hasa bar, tables, everything. So
everybody in our team who is eithera backweight or somebody who runs food,
a server or a bartender or ahost, they have to come and do
a several day class with our corporatetrainer. So the of the more than
a thousand service people out there,all of them have been through that class

(22:37):
with Allison, our director of training, and that really helps with consistency.
So then the trainers at the restaurantsand they're augmenting that, you know,
rather than reinventing the wheel each time. And so it's little things like that.
It's a lot about human resources too, you know. The restaurant business
is really a human resources It's kindof like you're hiring and training organization.

(22:59):
That happens to self, you know, and so our vice president of human
resources, Katie wrong is always lookingfor ways to make the employee experience better,
the benefits better, so that youhold on to people, because that's
part of it too, you know. For somebody to be great at their
job, they got to stick around. And if the wheels always spinning and
new people getting off and new peoplegetting on all the time, it's hard

(23:22):
to be great. Well, thanksJohn, that's just so well said.
I did want to kind of wrapup our conversation by just giving an overarching
final thought from you. I know, it's hard to talk about all the
restaurants because they're all just a littlebit different, you know. For me,
as I talked about off the topof our conversation, being in the
DMV as a teenager and then growingup and going all your different places and

(23:45):
enjoying the great service the food,the nostalgia of the history of all of
it. I certainly know what itmeans to me and my family. So
what I'd like for you to dois, there's a lot of new people
that are moving to the DMV,as you know all the time. So
if you were to make a pitchfor your restaurants in general, what would
you say to them about you knowwhy, these are some great establishments that
you should check out. You know, these restaurants are restaurants didn't do things

(24:10):
for the right reasons. We're longterm thinkers, were really committed to quality.
We have been the largest buyer oflocal source products since the nineteen eighties.
That has a lot to do withour integrity. We work really hard
at trying to keep prices reasonable andwe feel that for the most part,

(24:30):
most times, when people go outand they want to feel some energy,
it's good to be near a barand you want food that is approachable yet
also interesting and current enough that itexcites you. And that's our wheelhouse.
We've been doing it for sixty yearsand doing it well, and we're still
here and we're still growing sales.Because we do it well. You can

(24:51):
trust us for a great Dinny experiencethat is really well said and not a
paid advertisement for meet. It's justbecause I've been going to the restaurants all
the time. My wife and Iaid it old bit for brunch on Sunday,
and it is spectacular. Plus everybody'sjust cool there. It's just it's
a great atmosphere and you're only minutesfrom the White House and everything else down
there, So we always have alot. That's one of our favorite restaurants
that we go to. So Iappreciate all the good work that you and

(25:15):
your team do. So listen,we've talked about all the restaurants. Is
there one stop shop website that everybodycan kind of check a little bit about
every restaurant and then go from there. Johns dot com it's the website.
Ye outstanding. Hey, John,I can't tell you how much I appreciate
you town. When I get achance to talk about food, I'm having
fun, and especially which all thehistory that your restaurants have brought to my

(25:37):
family in my lifetime and all thegood memories and all the ones that will
have in the future. So Ireally appreciate that this has been great for
me, and I know it's beengreat for a listening audience. So thank
you so much for your valuable time. Give my best to everybody in the
Clyde's family and continue success and wereally appreciate you joining us on CEOs.
You should know. Thank you somuch, Tennis, it was really an
honor. Our community partner, MANDT Bank supports CEOs, you should know,

(25:59):
as part of their ongoing commitment tobuilding strong communities, and that starts
by backing the businesses within them.As a Bank for Communities, MNT believes
in dedicating time, talent, andresources to help local businesses thrive because when
businesses succeed, our communities succeed