The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Damola Adamolekun To Discuss Being The CEO Of 'Red Lobster' Saving Company From Bankruptcy, PF Chang's. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning. The breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Everybody is the j n V. Just hilarious, charlamage the guy.
We are the breakfast Club. We got a special guest
in the buildings.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Are you waiting to get your ass kicked? Let's go,
let's go red Lobster. Okay, what else, let's go, Let's go. Okay,
here come to punch.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Adam a lookin.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey, what did he get? An eight out of ten? Man?
Almost got it? Almost got it.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
You're very close man. That's a that's a good that's
a good effort are doing.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Can we give our brother a water? Please? Please? Regular
get a big mac?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
You got a mouthful of you know, it's crazy, Demola.
We interview a lot of people, and people always ask,
you know, who do you want to interview?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I never know the answer.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
But then I see certain people on the schedule and
I'm like, damn, I would like to talk to this guy.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
And when I saw your name on the schedule, I
was like, see you alread lost. Yes, I'd like to
talk to him. Ye, you guys are doing amazing things.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's gonna be so let's start from the beginning.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
How did you get into fool because you just weren't
the CEO of a lapster, you with CEO of PF Chang.
So how did you get your start into this restaurant business.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And you're only thirty six?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, yeah, look, I mean really, I started by waiting
tables when I was young, when I was in high school.
And you're from I'm from I'm Nigerian originally. I went
to high school in Maryland. Okay, So it's nice, yeah,
you know, doing the waiter slash runner thing in high school.
But in this current track, you know, I started working
(01:34):
in finance when I was in college. So I started
interning at Goldman Sacks when I was nineteen, so seventeen
years ago. Wow, So I got my first internship at Goldman.
I was at Brown playing football and worked at Goldman
for four years, and then worked at a private equity
firm called TPG, and then went to business school and
then worked at a hedge fund here in New York.
(01:55):
The reason I got into restaurants because I did a
restaurant deal. We bought PF. Chang's in twenty nineteen. I
worked for John Paulson, who's a famous billionaire investor in
New York This firm is called Pulson and Company. So
I was working at a hedge fund and we do
a lot of things. The hedge fund's big, it's you know,
billions of dollars and we do a lot of different things.
But one of the things that we did that I
(02:16):
suggested was to buy PF. Chanks was up for sale.
So I pitched it to the firm. They agreed, but
it was I led the deal. This is twenty nineteen now,
so it was up for sale. You know, I thought
it was an interesting thing, good brand, great great history,
great product. I thought we could do a lot of
new things with it. We could ad delivery, we could
remodel the restaurants, we could make it more.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Interesting, it make it more relevant, cool, and it was
all going pretty well.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
And then COVID hit right in twenty twenty, so my
big restaurant dealed. You know, we put hundreds of millions
of dollars into it, and it went south during COVID,
like like everything else did.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
All the restaurants were closed.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So just curious how much was Pfchang selling for it
back then?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
You know, we never released it, but there's an article
that quotes something around seven hundred million.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
It's in the in the ballpark. So they didn't make
their money back clearly though, No we didn't. But that's
the thing. I had to go save it.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
So then in COVID, it looked it looked like it
looked like we weren't gonna It looked like a bad deal.
And it was my deal, so you know, that's that's
on me, right, So it wasn't looking good. We lost
the CEO during COVID, and I had to go step
into sort of rescue the situation. Now, the year before that,
I was chief strategy officer, so I'd been there every week.
I was flying to Scotts salehere the company is headquartered.
(03:26):
I was flying back to New York. So I was
running the company kind of as chief strategy officer. And
then I was at the Hedge Fund. And then when
COVID happened, we lost the CEO, they asked me to
be CEO. So that's when I stepped in again because
it's my deal. I'm responsible for the outcome, right, So
I went in there to try to salvage things and
get us through COVID, which we did, and then then
we grew from there and ended up ended up being
(03:46):
a really good deal, but not without a lot of
you know, blood, sweat and tears for a few years
and getting through it.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So that was that that that ended up well.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So you took the salt and pepper prawns off the menu.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
That was me right, I was gone by that. I
got so many questions.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Man number one, you know you said you guys want
to talk about you got to you said you you
started at nineteen doing what you was.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
I got my first internship at Goldman Sachs, who put investment.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Who pushed those seeds in your mind at such a
young age to say this is what I want to
do at nineteen.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Years old, it's a good it's a good question. So
when I was even younger than that, when I was
in high school, I played football and I was trying
to go to a good school. But at the same
time I was trying to play football in college. Ended
up playing at Brown. But before that, I won a
speech contest. I had an English teacher that was like,
(04:37):
joined the speech and debate team. You talk too much,
I think, as what she was trying to say. But
I joined the speech and debate team and I won
a couple of things. I won the state championship for
debate that I want a speech contest, which paid me
ten thousand dollars. Right, it was a scholarship, and it
was the most money I'd ever had at that point.
I'm like, okay, we made it, right like, and I
decided I wanted to invest that money. That's why I
(04:58):
started with investing. So I got a bunch of money.
When I was in high school. I started wanting to invest.
What does that mean? Back then, everybody's doing real estate.
It's like, oh five oh six, everybody's trying to buy
real estate. So I thought I could do that. It
wasn't enough money, I learned quickly, but uh, but I
could buy stocks. So I got into stocks first, and
I opened a portfolio, and I just started. I read
there's a there's a website called the Motley Fool. I
(05:19):
think it's still around, but that's what I used to read.
I'd read anything about Buffett and I stop. You know,
you can buy stocks with a one hundred dollars. You
can buy stocks with ten thousand dollars. You buy stocks
of millions of dollars, right, it's just you buy more
of them. So I learned that and sort of trained
myself and asked a bunch of questions of people who
I knew that were doing that sort of thing. So
(05:39):
when I got to Brown, I joined the Investment Club.
That's it's an IV League school. There's a bunch of
people who you know, their parents work in that world,
they grew up around it. They know a lot, right,
So I learned a lot quickly, and then I applied
for Goldman, And you know, you got to pretend a
little bit, right, So I studied. I didn't come from
that world, but but I studied, and I showed up
to these interviews and I got the internship.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
When you say pretend, what do you mean, Well, you don't.
You know? People know.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
There's people that that are born and raised to do this,
and they're taught at a young age.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You know, I was teaching myself in high school and college.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
When I say pretend, it's it's you study enough to
be dangerous to come into an interview and know what
you're talking. It's not faking it. It's teaching. It's it's
becoming the thing you need to be. It's becoming the
person you need to be. So pretend is the wrong word,
but it's becoming preparing.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
You need to. You need to.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
You need to recognize that you don't who you are
now is and who you're going to be ultimately, and
you need to take steps towards your goals. That's what
you know and that's how you are both. So what
you know is studying books, studying how to invest, studying stocks.
How you are is like working in gold massacces is hard.
It's you need discipline, you need work ethic, you need curiosity.
(06:56):
You need to be able to communicate you and be
able to defend your ideas and negotiate like all these things.
So there's skills that you have to develop in yourself
and there's knowledge you need to acquire both. And when
you do those things, you can be dangerous, right, you
can show up to something and stand up and get it,
make it happen.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So was it your parents like a bother figure, mother
figure like who pushed you in that direction?
Speaker 6 (07:17):
Because even in high school you're talking about you invested
the money.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Like I was making Listen, it's six everybody was making money.
Stocks were just going up back then. I thought I
was a genius, but it was just the market.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
But yeah, what were.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
You doing as a child, Like, that's what I'm trying
to figure out. Like, like, I mean, so I was born.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
In Nigeria and my dad's a doctor, he's a neurologist.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
My family is all about academics.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
So the idea to be like to try to achieve
has just been in my life since I was young.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Absolutely, it's you know, what are your grades?
Speaker 4 (07:49):
You got six a'h one B? What's up with that B? Like,
let's get that to an A. That's that was kind
of my childhood. And then we were immigrants to America.
We moved when I was nine and coming here for us,
I mean, my parents did a lot to bring us here.
It's it's a very complicated, difficult process and it took years, right,
It's like five years for them to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So I think you should be saying that at the time,
like this, well, you know.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
It's it's there's different ways to immigrates.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
This is skill.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
This is the skill visa is what my dad used,
and it's it's a legitimate process. It just takes a
long time. Yeah, there's a bunch of tests, there's a
bunch of they.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Don't care you're a successful black man. You're too smart.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
So how did you get to.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Red Red Lobster.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
So, you know, the PF chains deal went well, and
you know, it won me some some plaudits in the
industry because it was difficult, right, and and we made
it happen. And then after that, I connected with the
folks who had lent money to Red Lobster before the
company went bankrupt, so they were in line to own
it coming out of bankruptcy.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's a good group called Fortress.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
And so they asked me first to consult to provide advice, like,
you know, you were just spent for years running a
business that was in distress similar to this, you know,
what do you think of this situation? So I was
advising them at first, and then it turned into they
asked me to come run it. Basically presented a plan.
They were like, well, like your plan police come executed
for us, right, So I took over a CEO coming
(09:18):
out of bankruptcy in September.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
That's you's what we've been doing.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
You know, when I first heard that story, I was
on the radio acting like I knew what I was
talking about, and I was just like, I know exactly
what Red Lobster should be doing.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, And I felt like Red Lobster.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Should you know, scale down from being a fine dining
establishment and be more like Chipotle, Like you could go
in there and you know you can get your lobster
insturment pasta right from the bar or whatever. The items
is just right there from the bar. Just make it
like a smaller, more Chipotle like establishment of the post
of buying dining restaurant.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Well, the thing about Chipotle is they have a well.
So your point about.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Being able to get food conveniently is an important one.
There should be options and there should be ways.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Where you get things you need quickly.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
For example, our delivery business that should feel fast casualist
where you put it in order, it comes quickly, et cetera.
Are the way the company is set up has a
cost structure that you can run it. You can run
it like Chipole. For example, our restaurants they're nine to
ten thousand square feet pulleys a fifteen hundred square feet
maybe two thousand max. So you have a real estate
(10:19):
footprint that you couldn't run on Chipotle revenue per unit.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Right, you have to you have to do more.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
The food we serve, we serve lobster and crab you
can't sell that at chipole price points because you pay
too much for those products. So there's there's structural differences
in the businesses that would prevent that. But that said,
some of the things Polly is good at you can
be better at, right, like delivery, digital, uh, you know,
speed of service. Those are things that people care about,
and definitely you can learn from it.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Hold on, Remember I started off by saying acting like
I knew it. I knew I said, acting like, so,
how do you say red lobster?
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Now? Right? Well, so the thing is you have to
lean into what made it successful in the first place, right, Like,
what do people love about red lobster?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
There's reason it is what it is. Biscuits biscuits for sure.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
And I also think a lot of us from where
we grew up that was you know, we went for graduation,
we went for celebratory.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
It felt like five stars, felt like five until you
start to make that's it.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
But until all these other restaurants started popping up. Now,
you know, people look down on red Lobster when it
comes to celebratory. They'll go to you know, a PF Chanins,
They'll go to a towel, they'll go to an expensive
steakhouse because they don't look at Red Lobster as that
in I think, but you know it's good, but you know,
(11:43):
so how do you change that way of thinking?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
So it used to be it used to be.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Red Lobster was the first company to take these high
end seafood products across the country. It was the first
place you could get lobster, get crap for a lot
of people, their first experience I went with to Red
Lobster in Springfield, Illinois when I used to live there
when I was nine or ten, and I remember that right,
So I think people a lot of people have these
memories after church on Sundays, you know, important dinners, graduation,
(12:08):
et cetera. The it's now you can get these products
in different places, but we're still the only company at
scale that serves lobster and crab. And by the way,
it's not Lobster and crab are wild caught products. You
can't form raise them, so they catch them on boats.
We buy twenty five percent of the lobster that's that's
caught on boats in North America.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
We buy a quarter of it.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Wow, We buy a quarter of the crab that's caught
by virtue of our size and scale, we can get
the best product, which we do. So the lobster you
get a red lobster is as good as lobster.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
You'll get anywhere.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
But people don't know that at all, and so there's
a communication aspect to it that need to let people
know this is the best this is the best product
you can get for lobster, for crab. That's number one.
Number two, you need to give people a reason. You know,
you mentioned Chipotle. If we're not going to be prices
to Chiapole, then we need to offer something and that
Chipotle doesn't offer. And what that is is called service
and hospitality. Like you need to come in, you need
(12:59):
to feel like you're weal them, you need to feel
like you're a guest. You need to be taken care of.
You need to get it in connection with your server.
So it's food and its services where we win and ambiyonce.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
A lot of these restaurants don't.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Feels like McDonald's at times when you walk out, the
floors look very cold.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
The right word outdated. I did a I did a
remodel project. I totally agree. I did a remodel project
at PF Chain's where we remodel eighty percent of the restaurants.
Right if you go to them now, it's red, gold,
black like. So that's what we you know, we did that,
and so this needs something similar and we're working on that.
That takes a bit of time. You have to design it,
you have to scope it, you have to test it,
(13:40):
you have to prove the results. Then you have to
raise the money.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Then you have to go. So that takes time.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
What you can do now is improve service. We launched
something we're calling red Carpet Hospitality. We launched that a
couple of weeks ago. If you go and ask the
server and red lobster about it, they'll tell you about it.
RED stands for recognized, engage and delight. When people walk in,
you need to recognize them. Smile as soon as they
walk in. There should be somebody smiling at the host
stand to greet them. You see somebody, you're within ten
(14:05):
feet of them, you recognize them within four feet, you
speak to them. We call it the ten four role.
You make sure that you know when people need to
go to the bathroom, you walk them there. You don't
point to the bathroom, You escort them. You make sure
that you're connecting with them, you're talking with them, youre
asking questions. So we're training these behavioral patterns. That's something
you can do today, right, and then trying to highlight
(14:26):
the quality of the food and introduce them new things
like the lobster roles that are fun, that are interesting,
so food and service. And then the third point for
sure is a Beyonce. We fix the things we can
fix quickly, like the music is better. If you go
to a red lobster now, you'll notice the music is better.
And you'll notice there's small things like we put the
market prices on the lobster, we put the liners on
the tables. There's small things you can do now, but comprehensively,
(14:48):
there needs to be a remodel, right, and that's something
that we'll do in the future.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I think that y'all got a great foundation because the
biggest thing is that nobody's ever said the food.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Was whack, even to this day. You walked them to
ge business and there everybody went crazy. You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
You think about episodes of the Boondocks when Riley was
going crazy lost and shrimp pasta has always been my
favorite dishes.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I would fuck that up right now, like right next.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
But you know what, like you're the one day the run.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
The one reason I stopped going to Red Lobster is
because I always felt like Red Lobster's food wasn't as
good as a lot of these other places. But now
that you're telling me that they're all got from the
same place, I just myself felt like it was maybe
it's a processed type of thing, and if I go
to this restaurant, maybe there I never felt like your food.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
The food is great, and especially again lobster and crab,
because again we buy most of it. We buy more
than every country except a couple. You know, Japan with
all their sushi buy buys a lot of lobster and crab,
and I think China is the only only one that
buys more than we do. So just because of that,
we get the best product. We have scale, we can
demand things, we can insist on standards, which we do,
(15:52):
so product wise, it's it's there, But there's a communication
that needs to happen. And I'll tell you something like
going through what the company went through, the bankruptcy was
damaging in a lot of ways, but one of the
things that it raises the question like is they mess
with the product, and the answer is no, right, because
that's one thing you can't mess with. And coming out
of it, I just want to get people thinking about
(16:14):
Red Lobster how they used to, which is like a
fun time, a great meal, great service, great hospitality, and
now we need to deliver on that. If I say
great hospitality, people going to have a good experience, and
then you know that makes me a liar. But we're
seeing the results. So before we launched it, we track
what we call a sentiment score, which is not positive
versus negative sentiment, right, like what are people saying that
it's good versushether people saying that's bad. It was thirty
(16:37):
when I took over. This last month it was sixty,
so it doubled, right, And that's after we launched these programs.
We got people because they want people want to have
a good experience at work. These waiters and waitresses, it's
better for them if they can enjoy themselves and talk
to a guest, and they've given license to do that.
So we basically like let them let them free on
that and gave them some direction, some coaching, some training,
(16:57):
and you see the result. So yeah, when you go
to Red Lobster next, you'll see it's. Uh, it's gonna
feel different, that people are going to take care of
you different. There's other things we need to do that
will take time. I agree with you on the remodels,
but we're starting, you know where we can.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
What about franchise, I'm sorry.
Speaker 6 (17:11):
Yeah, there was a list that women that put together
right of places that they don't want to be taken
on the first date. Red Lapster was number eleven. Eleven, Yes,
it was number eleven. So did you see that list?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You look like you see it.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
I'm gonna show you right after. But what do you
would you say that real laps is a valid place
for a first date?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I mean lobster on a first date?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
Can you beat that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:35):
First date?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
You want to share some main lobster twin lobster tales,
rock lobster main right, Okay, But.
Speaker 7 (17:42):
Also on that list it was PF Chain's and cheesecake.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
I think it's these are chain restaurants, and there's something
about like chain versus independent. Now, if you make the
chain experience feel like an independent, like each restaurant's its
own and they have like a culture and personality. Then
it doesn't feel like a chain restaurant. Yeah, and there's
restaurants that do that really well, and we're, you know,
(18:08):
we're working to become that. But look, if you go
in a date and have some Chadybay biscuits, some lobster tails,
some barred eye crab, people are gonna have a great time.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
I wanted to know about franchise, and I know most
of the stores a company owned, but you do do
they still allow certain people to own franchising or not
at all anymore?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
So all the company all the stores in the US
are company owned. There's still some franchise internationally, but it's
a smaller group. It's about thirty units abroad.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
Why is that good of bad? Is it good if
some somebody that owns it in that area? Or you
do you think is better because it's company owned, everything
is corporately, everything is stamped, everything is the same way.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
Well, it's trade offs, right, and so I'll just speak
broadly about the franchise model versus the corporate owned and
operated model. When you own and operate your restaurants, the
benefit is you get to control them more closely. So
what I just talked about red carpet hospitality. I rolled
it out in our restaurants with I COEO and my
team and we went. We presented to the people who
manage the rest the level above the restaurants, the people
(19:06):
who they report to the people at the restaurants.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
We can we rolled it out quickly. You can do that.
Get everybody in a call. This is what we're doing.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
If it's a franchise business, I need to convince a
bunch of franchisees A to agree that it's a good
idea B to one to fund it. This case is
there's no funding require, but if it might need money
and they had to put up the cash right Whereas
you know, if it's if we run it, we can
just make that decision. So it's easier to do things
when you control the business. It's easier to improve and
control quality because you'll have some franchises that do great,
(19:35):
some franchises that don't, some franchises that have great hositalities,
some that don't right, so it's easier to manage. Now,
the benefit of franchise model is you have partners that
are running smaller businesses. So we have five hundred and
forty five restaurants if you had ten franchises, it feel
like you know, ten fifty restaurant chains, right, which is
easier to manage on some level.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
So there's trade offs.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
But you'll see as a lot of fast casual will
do franchise models because they're easier to run. Make a pizza,
So it's easy to franchise pizza restaurants, right if you
put in another and for ex many minutes, and so
they can do that and control the quality because it's
just not that hard. When it gets complicated, you have
to be careful, not that you can't do it, but
you just have to be careful and make sure that
the people you're franchising too art can run it and
(20:17):
will kind of follow the direction.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, I got a million. I got more questions.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
You run out, you run a franchise, franchise a few restaurants.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, Crystal christ in South Carolina, Me and my wife
bought a five of them.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Good, But I got so many questions for you. But
now I'm just sitting there thinking about, you know, Red Lobster,
how do you keep people feeling.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
The nostalgia Red Lobster? Because as I'm sitting here and
I'm listening to you talk.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
I'm just thinking about all the different memories I've had
in Red Lobster, So.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
How do you keep this nostalgia that but then still
move people forward. That's that's why I love the brand.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
That's part of what So when we bought PF Chanks,
I used to tell people, like you asked anybody about
PF Chanks, They'll be like, oh, I love PF Chanks.
I used to go to outre I haven't been in
a while, and same with Red Lobster into a higher degree.
I think, especially in our community, a lot of people
have these amazing memories, and so that's a good starting point.
So if one is to redeliver on the promise of
(21:12):
the initial brand, right, which is great food, great service
at an affordable price. And so we need to deliver
that number one, which is red carpet hospitality, the food
menu stuff, like we're working on all that, and then
it's inviting people back, right, So that's a marketing challenge,
like talking about it, letting people know that it's different,
it's got new leadership, we're doing new things, and we're
(21:34):
trying to get the word out on that. And then
and then it builds. People come in with good memories,
trying to see what it is and if they have
a great experience, then you snap back into it. People
basically have like they'll have like three, four or five
restaurants in their minds that they go to. It's dinner
Thursday night, dinner Friday night. They've got like a list
in your head. Everybody does sho, I go this one
or this one of that one. So what you're trying
(21:55):
to do is get on that list. And you do
that by getting people to try you and then delivering,
and then you get on You do that enough times,
then you're on the list.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Then you become a.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Place they think about and you can increase frequency.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Right, So that's it.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
It's it's it's simple, but it's complicated. It's simple what
needs to happen. But it's a it's a big organization
and it's a lot of uh, it's a lot of work, right,
but but the team's teams motivated and we're getting it done.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
How do you eradicate the stigma of chain restaurants because
I think that's another thing too, right, people think chain
restaurants just on healthy for some reason. Even when I
invested in Crystal, I like the fact that they had
a vegan option on the menu and.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
But I also wouldn't try to push anything that I
know I wouldn't eat, right, So ye, so I would
eat crystal, I would eat red lobster. Like, how do
you get people to eradicate the stigma of just chain
restaurants not being healthy?
Speaker 1 (22:37):
I guess yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Mean some chain restaurants are unhealthy based on the products
they use. I think it's it's about focusing on the
Like there's a lot of chain restaurants, there's only one
that serves lobster.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
And crab the way we do.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
So we are a chain restaurant, that is what it is,
but the but the product is unique, and so it's
focusing a bit more on the product. Where you're gonna
get crabed? What chain restaurant're gonna get grea crab? What
chain restaurant are you going to get.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Some of our?
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Like you know, we've got this lobster parpadel that just
came out that nobody has that what the hell is that?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
That's not? Lobster parade is amazing?
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Came out in November, right, So we're doing some new
things on the menu using lobster and crab mostly, so
it's folks, it's it becomes a The differentiator for us
is product, and I want it to be serviced to hospitality.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
And once you if we went on those two, then
it's like, Okay.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
It's not just a chain restaurant because it's got something
that you can't get anywhere else, and it's got a
feeling that you can't find anywhere else. And I feel
like family when I get there, and I want to
come back, like these are the things you can separate
yourself on.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
And then some of y'all had some like y'all we're
working with costam egos like running some promotions where y'all
had like that's good too, I mean because that that's
like the drink right now, So.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
A Snoop Dog we're talking to him about his new
gin drink, right and so yeah, there's opportunities for co branding.
And we've got Blake Griffin right now in our ads.
He's dunking lobster into butter. If anybody's curious, you can
you can look that up. But uh, but yeah, partnerships
are key right at a bar, and when they got
the bar's got that exactly and yeah, getting the right partnerships,
(24:10):
right like people who uh because you want to be
more relevant mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
But like he just said, like you know, I didn't
even know there was a bar red Lobster because that's
not what people think about when they go watch the game, right,
they don't think about going to red Lobster.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And now those were some of the things that happened
because when.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
We were young, like when we were going to Red
loftter we were young, were a drink, right, so we
didn't drink. We didn't think, but we don't think about that.
Speaker 6 (24:30):
Now you know they were running the ass though it
was commercials they had Like that's how that's how you're
seeing anything about the costs.
Speaker 7 (24:39):
I'm sorry, what did you ad?
Speaker 1 (24:40):
What I didn't?
Speaker 3 (24:41):
I never saw the cos I wanted to watch TV.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And be honest, I'm serious because.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
To that point, I've seen the new partnership with Popeye
and Don Julio, but I never remember seeing the con But.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
Be honest, you've seen that because the girls on line,
because the videos are going viral with them like acting
like it's a section. You can't if we're trying to
get back to five star.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
Feeling real life. We can't have no sections, no bottom
girls coming out.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
There's things you can do, right. We launched that happy hour,
right and like a happy hour is a simple thing.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
It's just you know, the same drinks or different drinks,
but discounted at a certain time. Come three to six,
get drinks for five bucks, is what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yeah, so you get your beer, wine.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Cocktail five bucks discount on the appetizers. So now we
need to message that more, you know, to the point
like people need to know that. But but we launched that,
and you know, so I got here. We're doing a
lot right, So that came out in November too. So
we want to be a place where you can come
hang out at the bar, have a drink, have fun,
have a full dinner. It's like, uh, you know, it's
fancy food, but it's an approachable feeling. Right. You don't
(25:41):
need to wear a suit, you know, to come to
to come to dinner, right, come, it's it's it's you know,
we serve all people.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Did you stop the endless shrinp promotion? It's done, so
no more endless shrip jes dare you got a messed
up now?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
But by the way, that was the dumb welln't a
dumb promotion, But don't promise people in less shrimp because
y'all never give in.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It was a challenge. I know people who tried. They
don't know if you put a cap on it. He's tried.
I've been in the restaurants when they put a cap
on the end the shrimp.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
I mean, look, the way it was done didn't work.
I'm not saying it'll never be done, but it'll be
done in a way that's that's more sensible.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
What's sensible because you guys, I'm gonna tell you what
people will do. Going there with four people, one person
order endless shrimp and they just keep bringing mass shrimp
for the table.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That's that's insensible.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
I mean it is so Look, I mean these promotions
people do promotions like this Olive Garden does a and
unless positive promotion like people do these.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Lives is a lie. They will put a cap on
your fat ass, but different because it fills you up
so fast and it's cheap, and it's cheap, so they
can do that. So you just need to the math
needs to needs to make sense.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Endless biscuits still, if you want more biscuits, they will
give you more biscuits.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
We bring out six to the table. The biscuits. Biscuits
we can give you because when you eat them in
drink that water.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
Well. So this biscuits are amazing, right, and people love
them and it's an easy thing for us to do.
So you know, that's an example of being hospitable. You know,
not every table's gon to get endle this biscuits. But
if you were asked your server, it could have more biscus.
And're not going to say no.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
You allowed to tell its the truth about the endless shrimp.
Tellus the truth it was. It never was endless. It
was endless. We put them out of business, and and
why did it come to an end?
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Look, let me say this. I can't get too much
into it.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
I'll say this. The previous owner of the business was
the shrimp supplier to the business. Mmm, he's double dipping
shrimp cut off. So the math is different.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Got you If you're strictly thinking about the business versus
also thinking about the supply chain the shrimp supplier, then
it's different math. Right, So I'm thinking just about the
business right now the supplier is no longer involved.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
It often seems like they want to put black people
in the CEO positions when the company is like messed up, right,
So why did you want this job? Especially at the
time Red Lobster was going through bankruptcy.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
So I did the work before.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Look, I'm an ambitious person and i'm and I'm young
for the position. I had a lot of success that changed,
but even that when I took over was not looking good.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
So for me, it's I think the brand is worth saving.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
I think it can be saved. There's a lot of
things that need to be done. But I've got the
energy and I've got you know, I'm dedicating the time.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
We hired a great team.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
So for me, it's it's Look, there's it's a great
iconic brand. There's thirty thousand people that work for the company.
If we can save it, that's a good thing for
the country. It's a good thing for the people that
work there. It's a good thing for the people that
have history going there. Right, So it's it's it's it's
not gonna it's not easy, but it's doable, and why
not why not try to try to see if we
can get this done?
Speaker 3 (28:52):
How do you know when the back wouldn't step out
because you know, you was with PF Chang for four
years for all, Why did you step down?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
That's a big question. Yeahy did you leave Pfchangs? Well,
we more or.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Less achieved the objectives that we set out to achieve initially.
And you know, I was I had a I was
also involved on the on the finance side, right, I
was working at a hedge fund.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
So I went back to the private equity side to.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Look at the opportunity to do something similar because we learned,
we learned a lot doing that, and we felt like
we could we could do that again, right with a
different brand.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
And then the.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Fortress Group reached out and and we went. We worked
with them on Red Lobster. But PF Chang's is a
great business. This is about twice the size of PF
Changs in terms of sales and maybe three exercise in
terms of footprint. So it's a bigger challenge, it's a
bigger opportunity. You know, a lot of life is calculated risk, right,
(29:45):
and it's you know, it's hard to really build something
without taking some chances along the way, right, There's no
guarantee that you're gonna be there's no guarantee when I
took over the PF Changs world that i'd be successful.
But if I was, you know, it'd be great for
a lot of people. And we work same thing here.
If we're successful here, this is you know, this is
an iconic brand that we brought back from bankruptcy and
(30:07):
hopefully turn into a thriving company for decades to come.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Right, So that that to me is worth it's worth
it's worth going for. So why did you do that? James?
Just we were just basically done one.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
We're ready to you know, once you turned them around,
once the owners decide that it's time to do something,
you know, they we turned it around and eventually you know,
without commenting on their situation, but they're going to do
different things from an ownership perspective, right, So it's uh,
it was like behind the scenes convos, right, but nothing
to do with the business.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
So then just the mind state of being you know
who you are, like, you know, they they'll hire you,
put you in these positions, you'll turn them around and
you'll move on to the No no.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
No, I mean it depends on the situation.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
If it's if it's a group, for example, Fortresses willing
to invest and do the work to turn this business around.
And if that's the case, then I can be successful.
But you need that alignment ownership and operator. When ownership
takes a different perspective, for example, we want to manage cost,
let's say, or we want to you know, cut certain things,
(31:07):
we want to stop investing in certain things. If I
disagree with that and I go executed, then I'm responsible
for the result. So on some level, you just need
to agree with what ownership wants to do. And ownership
owns a business. If you disagree to you either gotta leave,
right not the people that own the business. So to
the extent that you know, look, every CEO is either
gonna resign or get fired one day. That's how CEO
(31:30):
job's in. You don't get promoted, you know, from that.
So for me, it's as long as things are aligned,
it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
But you don't. I don't want.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
It's not wise to be in a situation where you
don't agree with the plan and you're responsible for implementing
the plan. Because if you think something's not gonna work
and you do it and it doesn't work like you
thought it was like you, like you you predicted and
it's you're still gonna get blamed.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Change.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Do you change the target audience for red labster. I'm
just thinking about it now, right, And anytime you usually
see a red Lobsters in neighborhoods, right, it's in queens
in areas where it's usually middle class or poorer. But
when I look at PF Chain's, it's a little different.
It's a lot different.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Actually, do you.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Change your audience or is that the case, because especially
with the world now, a lot of people are not
making the money as they were before and they're struggling,
so which means in those areas they're gonna be struggling
to come to red lobster.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
You mean the demographics of where the restaurants are.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
So, it's tricky to move your restaurant footprint because you
have long leases and the footprint kind of is what
it is. Some come up for renewal every year, et cetera.
But for the most part, what we can do is
so value is an interest, So value is an equation.
Part of it is price, and you can get some
things on the menu that are lower priced. For example,
the lobster roles are great if you want lobster and
(32:46):
you want it for twenty bucks, We've got the lobster
role in certain markets for that price. At the same time,
values what you get for the price. So if you
improve what you get, then you improve value. So if
hospitality is way better and the food is interesting and
the drinks are fun, and you pay the same price,
but all of that is better, people will perceive that
as better value. So value is important, but we approach
(33:09):
it from both ends. Improve the product and then give
people entry level things that you can get for twenty
bucks fifteen bucks. You know, we have Shrimp your Way
for you know, sixteen ninety nine for two types of shrimp.
There's things you can do that are approachable if you
don't want to do the full lobster for it for
a higher price. Right So, I'm looking at the lobsters
me and you right now, I go lot. I might
go around last this week, and I'm not I might
(33:32):
take send me. I'm like, I never took my kids
the red loss never. And I'm like, you know, may
like me in the white list. Take the kids the
red lobster just to see what they know what for you. No,
I'm not gonna tell you I'm going, but I'm gonna
tell you.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
I know exactly which one I'm going to too, what
you're going to to you know when I'm going to
go on.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yep, but that one looks a little bit up though
it looks a lot beat up. But I'm gonna tell
you something.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
That's why I was just asking that question. They don't
look I laugh it every morning and in my mind,
you know, you just thinking nostalgia. I'm like, damn, yo,
back in the day when I was young, that have
been perfect. The hotel right there, the red Lobster right there,
you go, right, the red.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Still perfect, man, it's still perfect motel.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
But think about when you were seventeen eighteen, that'd have
been perfect, right well, think about.
Speaker 7 (34:22):
When Beyonce said it in the song yes Me Good,
I take as you Red Lobster.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
What did that do for the same Did y'all capitalize
on this? Yes, I was here, Oh that was before me.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
It's not too late though, right right, because it's not
too late for that. Even when Riley mentioned it on
The Boon Doctors.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
You know, the Kelsey Brothers did something with that. So yeah,
I mean, part of the part of the game is
to is to take advantage of cultural moments, right, like
when something happens in the culture, like you want to
be on it, so that that's something that we weren't
very good at in the past and we need to
get better.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
After sure, did you even talk to him about that? Like,
did anybody reach out to beyond you know, I can't
speak to that and I wasn't here.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
But but for example, Flavor Flavor we did, right fat
wanted to save the you know, wanted to save Red Lobster.
They you know, we did a promotion with them. So
there's it's it's important for sure. And uh yeah, I
mean look now Kelsey Billers reach out, we respond the
same day, right like, so we're we're engaging and it's important.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Man, I'm so impressed by you because I mean, number one,
you get young, you're thirty six and you're from Nigeria.
I'm just wondering, like, what are the challenges you know,
being so young as the CEO. Do people take you
as serious as they should in the business that you're in?
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah? I think so.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
I mean, look, I think you know the best thing
you can do to accrue the respect you want is
to just be a person worthy of respect, right Like
if you behave, if you behave the right if you
develop yourself a certain way and you behave the right
way and you're a serious person, and.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
That's obvious, people will they will respect you. It's it's natural.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
People know, right if they meet you and they don't
feel subconsciously like your a person deserving a respect and
will give it to you, especially if you're like but
I'm black.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, sure, but you.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Can overcome all that just by being a person that's
clearly worthy of respect. And then you know that goes
out the window, like I don't, I don't have issues.
If I sit down with somebody for thirty minutes, they
don't leave feeling like, you know, he's not serious, or
he doesn't know what he's talking about, or he's not intelligent,
or he can't communicate.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
At the end of it, you know they're fine.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
So yeah, maybe before but you know, you talk to somebody,
you know they know they people know, they understand, right,
and so they don't.
Speaker 7 (36:26):
Know that asks about me, man, I'm asks about me.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Well, it's just it's just it's just I was.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
You know, you're not born as a finished product. It's
all about development.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
So if you if you work you know, like I said,
I said, they may be joined the speech in the
Bay team in high.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
School, you're that guy can send that guy really well.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Now, but that's been a working process, right, you know
I played football growing up through high school college.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Maybe it makes you strong physically, we know what it
does makes you strong mentally. This is what you got
to wake up six am every day.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
You gotta go train.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
You got so you learn things right and that becomes
part of your character. You know, the emotional discipline that's
important too, and you learn that. So if you spend
your life building these skills, you will become a person
that has these skills.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
And that is what people respect.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
How the weaponization of DEI impacted you if at all
the people say, oh, he's a de I higher.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
No, I've just been so successful throughout my life. I
don't get that. I mean you could take you know.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
For me, it goes back to early early I aim
to excel at everything I do, and there's very little
evidence of me not excelling at anything that I've tried
to do, from football to Brown to Goldman to TVG
to Harvard to Paul Like, there's no real l's on
the not saying I won't fail it anything, and I
have failed at plenty.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Let's go talk to them coaches. Well, there's a record
out there somewhere that's funny. Nobody talking about that's the
fair funt.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
But you know, and I'm not saying that to but
I'm just saying, you can build a habit of excellence
and that that's how that's how you'll be viewed. Right,
and so I think anybody can achieve. You just have
to build these habits. Yeah, right, So it's really more
motivation to people who were listening.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Was coming from Nigeria.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
You know, you say your dad was a neurologists, a
reagi mom was a pharmacist where they have said, you
didn't stay in like that that field in some way
shape or for him.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
Like my parents were always just like, whatever you do,
just be the best at it. That was that's all
they ever cared about. When when I when we got
to America, we went to we lived in Springfield, Illinois.
I remember we went to go get a haircut and
the barber, Barbier's name was Fresh, the barber, and Fresh
was driving an S Class Benz.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Even though it's a barber and Nigeria. That's unheard of, right,
a barber driving a Benz.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
But my dad's point when we saw that was in America,
if you're the best at whatever you do, whatever it is,
you can do really well, you can have a nice life,
you can build.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Something for yourself.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
They were just like, what you choose whatever you want,
but aimed to be the best at it, right, which
I think is good advice because people have different interests.
Not everybody's gonna be care about finance. Not everybody is
good enough at math to do that. But you might
be good at something else, you know, whether you might
start a podcast, maybe you're very good at interviewing people,
you're very good speaker. You might find some other interest,
(39:10):
music or whatever. Right, But whatever you do, if you
if you if you build a mentality that I'm my
goal is to be the best at it, then you're
gonna do all right.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I like this too, man, because it's clear you understand culture.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
Because I can't think of I'm trying to think, who
have any CEOs and any restaurants come here? I'm really
trying to think besides Carbone, Oh, Carbone comes in alone.
I don't want to say no because We've been doing
it for four years, but is the first that I
can remember?
Speaker 1 (39:33):
And why is this important to do? Why is it
important to do? You know, media?
Speaker 4 (39:38):
You got to get the word out, you know, people,
people need to people don't. I live this every day,
so I know everything we're doing, but most people don't.
So somebody's got to tell them.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Difficult Do they listen to you? Is that difficult? Do
they listen to? I get?
Speaker 4 (39:51):
I get people listen when I when I if I
do like a CNN R you know, I did a
c AN interview, I did a Today's Show interview, or
I did a Wall Street Journal interview, and those get
a lot of views. I think people are curious, right, like,
what's what's going on with this guy? Right, thirty six
year old CEO? Like, you know, black guy, What's what's up?
And so they want to there's a curiosity there. But
that that's fine because that creates attention for the business,
which what I what I mostly care about, and it
(40:13):
will please And then what was.
Speaker 6 (40:16):
Good about it is you get to hear what people want,
like you know, you like, we're talking to you about
what hour?
Speaker 4 (40:24):
And you guys represent the culture right because you guys speak.
You guys speak for the culture in a way that
not a lot of people do. You talk to viewers
all the time. You hear what people are listening to,
You see what people are engaging with, what parts of
the segment. So you guys know, right, and so yeah,
for sure, it's helpful for me to hear, and it's
helpful to have a platform to speak and talk about
some of.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
The things that that we're working on. I do feel
like there is a room for like just smaller locations.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Like if I'm sitting here at the radio station and
I want to go to lunch, but I don't want
to sit somewhere like I just want to run in
gravel lobster and shrimp ball real quick. I feel like
there's room for that because you got food trucks that
got these lobster.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Rolls and everything else.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
For sure, if I started the company today, they wouldn't
be as big as they are. You know, if I
could stab my finger and shrink all of them, you
probably would. They were built for a different time now.
A lot of the business is off premise. It's a
lot of grabbing growth. So my point is that we're
kind of stuck with the footprint, right.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
It's not you reach out as a as an African
out here right now, who's trying to shrink everything namee
of the Elon Musk.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Show. The way of doing right.
Speaker 4 (41:23):
The real estate is is not impossible to change, but
it's harder to change and it's expensive to change. If
you want to get out of the lease, you need
to pay the landlord how many years you got left,
how many how many dollars per year times that by
thirty percent is probably what.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
You owe them. And then you got to build a
new restaurant. You know that's that's a few million dollars
per per unit. So it's it's it's it's a thing
that you would do. You just need to.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
You have limited capital. You got to make decisions. What's
what comes first?
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Right?
Speaker 4 (41:50):
But for sure, if if if you were starting this
company all over, you wouldn't have as big. And that
was true for PF Changs too. You know PF Changs
was eight nine thousand square feet. The new ones we
built were four or five thousand square feet, and you'd
probably do the same thing here. And these are bigger,
you know, these are closer to ten thousand. So it's
It's a good valid point, just a harder thing to fix.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Quickly before you get out of it, because you already
gave the CEO. Look back to your people to wrap
it up. What's your involvement with HPCU. What's we're allowed
to do with HPCU.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Yeah, look, so I mean before that, Darden the founder
of Red Lobster, Bill Darden, who Darden Company is named after.
That's Olive Garden, Texas, Longhorne, et cetera. So he's an
important restaurant tour in American history. The first restaurant that
he opened was Red Lobster, and that from the very beginning,
had a really good relationship with the Black American community.
(42:39):
This is in sixty eight, so at the very end
of the Civil Rights movement, but from the very beginning,
black people were welcome to eat there, welcome to work there.
And that was stansit he took from the very beginning.
So it's always had a good relationship with Black America
from the start. You mentioned Beyonce mess flavor. Flav It's
always had a position in culture. I'm just acknowledging it
and speaking to it and and doing more for that
(43:02):
to try to build that so HBCUs we did Band
of the Year, right, We went to watch the band's
perform B move one miles one for the junior division,
and we gave the awards out. We sponsored it Red Lobster,
and you know, millions of dollars went to scholarships and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
So we're gonna do more. You know.
Speaker 4 (43:21):
That's a start, but it's it's important community. It's one
that has been connected to the brand for a long
time and it's a good place to spend time and
spend money on our behalf.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
All right, well, we appreciate you for joining us and
bringing us some biscuits.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Yeah, enjoy, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Whatever we can do to help, man, I mean, I
want to see you succeed. I appreciate it if people
like you succeed, and that just means more successful the rest.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Yeah, visit your local at Red Lobster. You guys, send
feedback and we'll keep we'll.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Keep improving going this week it Adam Loan, Yes, you
know that. All right, there we go. It's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club
Wake that ass up in the morning. The breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Everybody is the j n V. Just hilarious, charlamage the guy.
We are the breakfast Club. We got a special guest
in the buildings.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Are you waiting to get your ass kicked? Let's go,
let's go red Lobster. Okay, what else, let's go, Let's go. Okay,
here come to punch.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Adam a lookin.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey, what did he get? An eight out of ten? Man?
Almost got it? Almost got it.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
You're very close man. That's a that's a good that's
a good effort are doing.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Can we give our brother a water? Please? Please? Regular
get a big mac?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
You got a mouthful of you know, it's crazy, Demola.
We interview a lot of people, and people always ask,
you know, who do you want to interview?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I never know the answer.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
But then I see certain people on the schedule and
I'm like, damn, I would like to talk to this guy.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
And when I saw your name on the schedule, I
was like, see you alread lost. Yes, I'd like to
talk to him. Ye, you guys are doing amazing things.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's gonna be so let's start from the beginning.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
How did you get into fool because you just weren't
the CEO of a lapster, you with CEO of PF Chang.
So how did you get your start into this restaurant business.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And you're only thirty six?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, yeah, look, I mean really, I started by waiting
tables when I was young, when I was in high school.
And you're from I'm from I'm Nigerian originally. I went
to high school in Maryland. Okay, So it's nice, yeah,
you know, doing the waiter slash runner thing in high school.
But in this current track, you know, I started working
(01:34):
in finance when I was in college. So I started
interning at Goldman Sacks when I was nineteen, so seventeen
years ago. Wow, So I got my first internship at Goldman.
I was at Brown playing football and worked at Goldman
for four years, and then worked at a private equity
firm called TPG, and then went to business school and
then worked at a hedge fund here in New York.
(01:55):
The reason I got into restaurants because I did a
restaurant deal. We bought PF. Chang's in twenty nineteen. I
worked for John Paulson, who's a famous billionaire investor in
New York This firm is called Pulson and Company. So
I was working at a hedge fund and we do
a lot of things. The hedge fund's big, it's you know,
billions of dollars and we do a lot of different things.
But one of the things that we did that I
(02:16):
suggested was to buy PF. Chanks was up for sale.
So I pitched it to the firm. They agreed, but
it was I led the deal. This is twenty nineteen now,
so it was up for sale. You know, I thought
it was an interesting thing, good brand, great great history,
great product. I thought we could do a lot of
new things with it. We could ad delivery, we could
remodel the restaurants, we could make it more.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Interesting, it make it more relevant, cool, and it was
all going pretty well.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
And then COVID hit right in twenty twenty, so my
big restaurant dealed. You know, we put hundreds of millions
of dollars into it, and it went south during COVID,
like like everything else did.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
All the restaurants were closed.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So just curious how much was Pfchang selling for it
back then?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
You know, we never released it, but there's an article
that quotes something around seven hundred million.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
It's in the in the ballpark. So they didn't make
their money back clearly though, No we didn't. But that's
the thing. I had to go save it.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
So then in COVID, it looked it looked like it
looked like we weren't gonna It looked like a bad deal.
And it was my deal, so you know, that's that's
on me, right, So it wasn't looking good. We lost
the CEO during COVID, and I had to go step
into sort of rescue the situation. Now, the year before that,
I was chief strategy officer, so I'd been there every week.
I was flying to Scotts salehere the company is headquartered.
(03:26):
I was flying back to New York. So I was
running the company kind of as chief strategy officer. And
then I was at the Hedge Fund. And then when
COVID happened, we lost the CEO, they asked me to
be CEO. So that's when I stepped in again because
it's my deal. I'm responsible for the outcome, right, So
I went in there to try to salvage things and
get us through COVID, which we did, and then then
we grew from there and ended up ended up being
(03:46):
a really good deal, but not without a lot of
you know, blood, sweat and tears for a few years
and getting through it.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So that was that that that ended up well.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So you took the salt and pepper prawns off the menu.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
That was me right, I was gone by that. I
got so many questions.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Man number one, you know you said you guys want
to talk about you got to you said you you
started at nineteen doing what you was.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
I got my first internship at Goldman Sachs, who put investment.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Who pushed those seeds in your mind at such a
young age to say this is what I want to
do at nineteen.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Years old, it's a good it's a good question. So
when I was even younger than that, when I was
in high school, I played football and I was trying
to go to a good school. But at the same
time I was trying to play football in college. Ended
up playing at Brown. But before that, I won a
speech contest. I had an English teacher that was like,
(04:37):
joined the speech and debate team. You talk too much,
I think, as what she was trying to say. But
I joined the speech and debate team and I won
a couple of things. I won the state championship for
debate that I want a speech contest, which paid me
ten thousand dollars. Right, it was a scholarship, and it
was the most money I'd ever had at that point.
I'm like, okay, we made it, right like, and I
decided I wanted to invest that money. That's why I
(04:58):
started with investing. So I got a bunch of money.
When I was in high school. I started wanting to invest.
What does that mean? Back then, everybody's doing real estate.
It's like, oh five oh six, everybody's trying to buy
real estate. So I thought I could do that. It
wasn't enough money, I learned quickly, but uh, but I
could buy stocks. So I got into stocks first, and
I opened a portfolio, and I just started. I read
there's a there's a website called the Motley Fool. I
(05:19):
think it's still around, but that's what I used to read.
I'd read anything about Buffett and I stop. You know,
you can buy stocks with a one hundred dollars. You
can buy stocks with ten thousand dollars. You buy stocks
of millions of dollars, right, it's just you buy more
of them. So I learned that and sort of trained
myself and asked a bunch of questions of people who
I knew that were doing that sort of thing. So
(05:39):
when I got to Brown, I joined the Investment Club.
That's it's an IV League school. There's a bunch of
people who you know, their parents work in that world,
they grew up around it. They know a lot, right,
So I learned a lot quickly, and then I applied
for Goldman, And you know, you got to pretend a
little bit, right, So I studied. I didn't come from
that world, but but I studied, and I showed up
to these interviews and I got the internship.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
When you say pretend, what do you mean, Well, you don't.
You know? People know.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
There's people that that are born and raised to do this,
and they're taught at a young age.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You know, I was teaching myself in high school and college.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
When I say pretend, it's it's you study enough to
be dangerous to come into an interview and know what
you're talking. It's not faking it. It's teaching. It's it's
becoming the thing you need to be. It's becoming the
person you need to be. So pretend is the wrong word,
but it's becoming preparing.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
You need to. You need to.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
You need to recognize that you don't who you are
now is and who you're going to be ultimately, and
you need to take steps towards your goals. That's what
you know and that's how you are both. So what
you know is studying books, studying how to invest, studying stocks.
How you are is like working in gold massacces is hard.
It's you need discipline, you need work ethic, you need curiosity.
(06:56):
You need to be able to communicate you and be
able to defend your ideas and negotiate like all these things.
So there's skills that you have to develop in yourself
and there's knowledge you need to acquire both. And when
you do those things, you can be dangerous, right, you
can show up to something and stand up and get it,
make it happen.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So was it your parents like a bother figure, mother
figure like who pushed you in that direction?
Speaker 6 (07:17):
Because even in high school you're talking about you invested
the money.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Like I was making Listen, it's six everybody was making money.
Stocks were just going up back then. I thought I
was a genius, but it was just the market.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
But yeah, what were.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
You doing as a child, Like, that's what I'm trying
to figure out. Like, like, I mean, so I was born.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
In Nigeria and my dad's a doctor, he's a neurologist.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
My family is all about academics.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
So the idea to be like to try to achieve
has just been in my life since I was young.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Absolutely, it's you know, what are your grades?
Speaker 4 (07:49):
You got six a'h one B? What's up with that B? Like,
let's get that to an A. That's that was kind
of my childhood. And then we were immigrants to America.
We moved when I was nine and coming here for us,
I mean, my parents did a lot to bring us here.
It's it's a very complicated, difficult process and it took years, right,
It's like five years for them to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So I think you should be saying that at the time,
like this, well, you know.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
It's it's there's different ways to immigrates.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
This is skill.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
This is the skill visa is what my dad used,
and it's it's a legitimate process. It just takes a
long time. Yeah, there's a bunch of tests, there's a
bunch of they.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Don't care you're a successful black man. You're too smart.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
So how did you get to.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Red Red Lobster.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
So, you know, the PF chains deal went well, and
you know, it won me some some plaudits in the
industry because it was difficult, right, and and we made
it happen. And then after that, I connected with the
folks who had lent money to Red Lobster before the
company went bankrupt, so they were in line to own
it coming out of bankruptcy.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's a good group called Fortress.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
And so they asked me first to consult to provide advice, like,
you know, you were just spent for years running a
business that was in distress similar to this, you know,
what do you think of this situation? So I was
advising them at first, and then it turned into they
asked me to come run it. Basically presented a plan.
They were like, well, like your plan police come executed
for us, right, So I took over a CEO coming
(09:18):
out of bankruptcy in September.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
That's you's what we've been doing.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
You know, when I first heard that story, I was
on the radio acting like I knew what I was
talking about, and I was just like, I know exactly
what Red Lobster should be doing.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, And I felt like Red Lobster.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Should you know, scale down from being a fine dining
establishment and be more like Chipotle, Like you could go
in there and you know you can get your lobster
insturment pasta right from the bar or whatever. The items
is just right there from the bar. Just make it
like a smaller, more Chipotle like establishment of the post
of buying dining restaurant.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Well, the thing about Chipotle is they have a well.
So your point about.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Being able to get food conveniently is an important one.
There should be options and there should be ways.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Where you get things you need quickly.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
For example, our delivery business that should feel fast casualist
where you put it in order, it comes quickly, et cetera.
Are the way the company is set up has a
cost structure that you can run it. You can run
it like Chipole. For example, our restaurants they're nine to
ten thousand square feet pulleys a fifteen hundred square feet
maybe two thousand max. So you have a real estate
(10:19):
footprint that you couldn't run on Chipotle revenue per unit.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Right, you have to you have to do more.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
The food we serve, we serve lobster and crab you
can't sell that at chipole price points because you pay
too much for those products. So there's there's structural differences
in the businesses that would prevent that. But that said,
some of the things Polly is good at you can
be better at, right, like delivery, digital, uh, you know,
speed of service. Those are things that people care about,
and definitely you can learn from it.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Hold on, Remember I started off by saying acting like
I knew it. I knew I said, acting like, so,
how do you say red lobster?
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Now? Right? Well, so the thing is you have to
lean into what made it successful in the first place, right, Like,
what do people love about red lobster?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
There's reason it is what it is. Biscuits biscuits for sure.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
And I also think a lot of us from where
we grew up that was you know, we went for graduation,
we went for celebratory.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
It felt like five stars, felt like five until you
start to make that's it.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
But until all these other restaurants started popping up. Now,
you know, people look down on red Lobster when it
comes to celebratory. They'll go to you know, a PF Chanins,
They'll go to a towel, they'll go to an expensive
steakhouse because they don't look at Red Lobster as that
in I think, but you know it's good, but you know,
(11:43):
so how do you change that way of thinking?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
So it used to be it used to be.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Red Lobster was the first company to take these high
end seafood products across the country. It was the first
place you could get lobster, get crap for a lot
of people, their first experience I went with to Red
Lobster in Springfield, Illinois when I used to live there
when I was nine or ten, and I remember that right,
So I think people a lot of people have these
memories after church on Sundays, you know, important dinners, graduation,
(12:08):
et cetera. The it's now you can get these products
in different places, but we're still the only company at
scale that serves lobster and crab. And by the way,
it's not Lobster and crab are wild caught products. You
can't form raise them, so they catch them on boats.
We buy twenty five percent of the lobster that's that's
caught on boats in North America.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
We buy a quarter of it.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Wow, We buy a quarter of the crab that's caught
by virtue of our size and scale, we can get
the best product, which we do. So the lobster you
get a red lobster is as good as lobster.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
You'll get anywhere.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
But people don't know that at all, and so there's
a communication aspect to it that need to let people
know this is the best this is the best product
you can get for lobster, for crab. That's number one.
Number two, you need to give people a reason. You know,
you mentioned Chipotle. If we're not going to be prices
to Chiapole, then we need to offer something and that
Chipotle doesn't offer. And what that is is called service
and hospitality. Like you need to come in, you need
(12:59):
to feel like you're weal them, you need to feel
like you're a guest. You need to be taken care of.
You need to get it in connection with your server.
So it's food and its services where we win and ambiyonce.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
A lot of these restaurants don't.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Feels like McDonald's at times when you walk out, the
floors look very cold.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
The right word outdated. I did a I did a
remodel project. I totally agree. I did a remodel project
at PF Chain's where we remodel eighty percent of the restaurants.
Right if you go to them now, it's red, gold,
black like. So that's what we you know, we did that,
and so this needs something similar and we're working on that.
That takes a bit of time. You have to design it,
you have to scope it, you have to test it,
(13:40):
you have to prove the results. Then you have to
raise the money.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Then you have to go. So that takes time.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
What you can do now is improve service. We launched
something we're calling red Carpet Hospitality. We launched that a
couple of weeks ago. If you go and ask the
server and red lobster about it, they'll tell you about it.
RED stands for recognized, engage and delight. When people walk in,
you need to recognize them. Smile as soon as they
walk in. There should be somebody smiling at the host
stand to greet them. You see somebody, you're within ten
(14:05):
feet of them, you recognize them within four feet, you
speak to them. We call it the ten four role.
You make sure that you know when people need to
go to the bathroom, you walk them there. You don't
point to the bathroom, You escort them. You make sure
that you're connecting with them, you're talking with them, youre
asking questions. So we're training these behavioral patterns. That's something
you can do today, right, and then trying to highlight
(14:26):
the quality of the food and introduce them new things
like the lobster roles that are fun, that are interesting,
so food and service. And then the third point for
sure is a Beyonce. We fix the things we can
fix quickly, like the music is better. If you go
to a red lobster now, you'll notice the music is better.
And you'll notice there's small things like we put the
market prices on the lobster, we put the liners on
the tables. There's small things you can do now, but comprehensively,
(14:48):
there needs to be a remodel, right, and that's something
that we'll do in the future.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I think that y'all got a great foundation because the
biggest thing is that nobody's ever said the food.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Was whack, even to this day. You walked them to
ge business and there everybody went crazy. You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
You think about episodes of the Boondocks when Riley was
going crazy lost and shrimp pasta has always been my
favorite dishes.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I would fuck that up right now, like right next.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
But you know what, like you're the one day the run.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
The one reason I stopped going to Red Lobster is
because I always felt like Red Lobster's food wasn't as
good as a lot of these other places. But now
that you're telling me that they're all got from the
same place, I just myself felt like it was maybe
it's a processed type of thing, and if I go
to this restaurant, maybe there I never felt like your food.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
The food is great, and especially again lobster and crab,
because again we buy most of it. We buy more
than every country except a couple. You know, Japan with
all their sushi buy buys a lot of lobster and crab,
and I think China is the only only one that
buys more than we do. So just because of that,
we get the best product. We have scale, we can
demand things, we can insist on standards, which we do,
(15:52):
so product wise, it's it's there, But there's a communication
that needs to happen. And I'll tell you something like
going through what the company went through, the bankruptcy was
damaging in a lot of ways, but one of the
things that it raises the question like is they mess
with the product, and the answer is no, right, because
that's one thing you can't mess with. And coming out
of it, I just want to get people thinking about
(16:14):
Red Lobster how they used to, which is like a
fun time, a great meal, great service, great hospitality, and
now we need to deliver on that. If I say
great hospitality, people going to have a good experience, and
then you know that makes me a liar. But we're
seeing the results. So before we launched it, we track
what we call a sentiment score, which is not positive
versus negative sentiment, right, like what are people saying that
it's good versushether people saying that's bad. It was thirty
(16:37):
when I took over. This last month it was sixty,
so it doubled, right, And that's after we launched these programs.
We got people because they want people want to have
a good experience at work. These waiters and waitresses, it's
better for them if they can enjoy themselves and talk
to a guest, and they've given license to do that.
So we basically like let them let them free on
that and gave them some direction, some coaching, some training,
(16:57):
and you see the result. So yeah, when you go
to Red Lobster next, you'll see it's. Uh, it's gonna
feel different, that people are going to take care of
you different. There's other things we need to do that
will take time. I agree with you on the remodels,
but we're starting, you know where we can.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
What about franchise, I'm sorry.
Speaker 6 (17:11):
Yeah, there was a list that women that put together
right of places that they don't want to be taken
on the first date. Red Lapster was number eleven. Eleven, Yes,
it was number eleven. So did you see that list?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You look like you see it.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
I'm gonna show you right after. But what do you
would you say that real laps is a valid place
for a first date?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I mean lobster on a first date?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
Can you beat that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:35):
First date?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
You want to share some main lobster twin lobster tales,
rock lobster main right, Okay, But.
Speaker 7 (17:42):
Also on that list it was PF Chain's and cheesecake.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
I think it's these are chain restaurants, and there's something
about like chain versus independent. Now, if you make the
chain experience feel like an independent, like each restaurant's its
own and they have like a culture and personality. Then
it doesn't feel like a chain restaurant. Yeah, and there's
restaurants that do that really well, and we're, you know,
(18:08):
we're working to become that. But look, if you go
in a date and have some Chadybay biscuits, some lobster tails,
some barred eye crab, people are gonna have a great time.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
I wanted to know about franchise, and I know most
of the stores a company owned, but you do do
they still allow certain people to own franchising or not
at all anymore?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
So all the company all the stores in the US
are company owned. There's still some franchise internationally, but it's
a smaller group. It's about thirty units abroad.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
Why is that good of bad? Is it good if
some somebody that owns it in that area? Or you
do you think is better because it's company owned, everything
is corporately, everything is stamped, everything is the same way.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
Well, it's trade offs, right, and so I'll just speak
broadly about the franchise model versus the corporate owned and
operated model. When you own and operate your restaurants, the
benefit is you get to control them more closely. So
what I just talked about red carpet hospitality. I rolled
it out in our restaurants with I COEO and my
team and we went. We presented to the people who
manage the rest the level above the restaurants, the people
(19:06):
who they report to the people at the restaurants.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
We can we rolled it out quickly. You can do that.
Get everybody in a call. This is what we're doing.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
If it's a franchise business, I need to convince a
bunch of franchisees A to agree that it's a good
idea B to one to fund it. This case is
there's no funding require, but if it might need money
and they had to put up the cash right Whereas
you know, if it's if we run it, we can
just make that decision. So it's easier to do things
when you control the business. It's easier to improve and
control quality because you'll have some franchises that do great,
(19:35):
some franchises that don't, some franchises that have great hositalities,
some that don't right, so it's easier to manage. Now,
the benefit of franchise model is you have partners that
are running smaller businesses. So we have five hundred and
forty five restaurants if you had ten franchises, it feel
like you know, ten fifty restaurant chains, right, which is
easier to manage on some level.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
So there's trade offs.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
But you'll see as a lot of fast casual will
do franchise models because they're easier to run. Make a pizza,
So it's easy to franchise pizza restaurants, right if you
put in another and for ex many minutes, and so
they can do that and control the quality because it's
just not that hard. When it gets complicated, you have
to be careful, not that you can't do it, but
you just have to be careful and make sure that
the people you're franchising too art can run it and
(20:17):
will kind of follow the direction.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, I got a million. I got more questions.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
You run out, you run a franchise, franchise a few restaurants.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, Crystal christ in South Carolina, Me and my wife
bought a five of them.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Good, But I got so many questions for you. But
now I'm just sitting there thinking about, you know, Red Lobster,
how do you keep people feeling.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
The nostalgia Red Lobster? Because as I'm sitting here and
I'm listening to you talk.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
I'm just thinking about all the different memories I've had
in Red Lobster, So.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
How do you keep this nostalgia that but then still
move people forward. That's that's why I love the brand.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
That's part of what So when we bought PF Chanks,
I used to tell people, like you asked anybody about
PF Chanks, They'll be like, oh, I love PF Chanks.
I used to go to outre I haven't been in
a while, and same with Red Lobster into a higher degree.
I think, especially in our community, a lot of people
have these amazing memories, and so that's a good starting point.
So if one is to redeliver on the promise of
(21:12):
the initial brand, right, which is great food, great service
at an affordable price. And so we need to deliver
that number one, which is red carpet hospitality, the food
menu stuff, like we're working on all that, and then
it's inviting people back, right, So that's a marketing challenge,
like talking about it, letting people know that it's different,
it's got new leadership, we're doing new things, and we're
(21:34):
trying to get the word out on that. And then
and then it builds. People come in with good memories,
trying to see what it is and if they have
a great experience, then you snap back into it. People
basically have like they'll have like three, four or five
restaurants in their minds that they go to. It's dinner
Thursday night, dinner Friday night. They've got like a list
in your head. Everybody does sho, I go this one
or this one of that one. So what you're trying
(21:55):
to do is get on that list. And you do
that by getting people to try you and then delivering,
and then you get on You do that enough times,
then you're on the list.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Then you become a.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Place they think about and you can increase frequency.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Right, So that's it.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
It's it's it's simple, but it's complicated. It's simple what
needs to happen. But it's a it's a big organization
and it's a lot of uh, it's a lot of work, right,
but but the team's teams motivated and we're getting it done.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
How do you eradicate the stigma of chain restaurants because
I think that's another thing too, right, people think chain
restaurants just on healthy for some reason. Even when I
invested in Crystal, I like the fact that they had
a vegan option on the menu and.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
But I also wouldn't try to push anything that I
know I wouldn't eat, right, So ye, so I would
eat crystal, I would eat red lobster. Like, how do
you get people to eradicate the stigma of just chain
restaurants not being healthy?
Speaker 1 (22:37):
I guess yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Mean some chain restaurants are unhealthy based on the products
they use. I think it's it's about focusing on the
Like there's a lot of chain restaurants, there's only one
that serves lobster.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
And crab the way we do.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
So we are a chain restaurant, that is what it is,
but the but the product is unique, and so it's
focusing a bit more on the product. Where you're gonna
get crabed? What chain restaurant're gonna get grea crab? What
chain restaurant are you going to get.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Some of our?
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Like you know, we've got this lobster parpadel that just
came out that nobody has that what the hell is that?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
That's not? Lobster parade is amazing?
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Came out in November, right, So we're doing some new
things on the menu using lobster and crab mostly, so
it's folks, it's it becomes a The differentiator for us
is product, and I want it to be serviced to hospitality.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
And once you if we went on those two, then
it's like, Okay.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
It's not just a chain restaurant because it's got something
that you can't get anywhere else, and it's got a
feeling that you can't find anywhere else. And I feel
like family when I get there, and I want to
come back, like these are the things you can separate
yourself on.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
And then some of y'all had some like y'all we're
working with costam egos like running some promotions where y'all
had like that's good too, I mean because that that's
like the drink right now, So.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
A Snoop Dog we're talking to him about his new
gin drink, right and so yeah, there's opportunities for co branding.
And we've got Blake Griffin right now in our ads.
He's dunking lobster into butter. If anybody's curious, you can
you can look that up. But uh, but yeah, partnerships
are key right at a bar, and when they got
the bar's got that exactly and yeah, getting the right partnerships,
(24:10):
right like people who uh because you want to be
more relevant mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
But like he just said, like you know, I didn't
even know there was a bar red Lobster because that's
not what people think about when they go watch the game, right,
they don't think about going to red Lobster.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And now those were some of the things that happened
because when.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
We were young, like when we were going to Red
loftter we were young, were a drink, right, so we
didn't drink. We didn't think, but we don't think about that.
Speaker 6 (24:30):
Now you know they were running the ass though it
was commercials they had Like that's how that's how you're
seeing anything about the costs.
Speaker 7 (24:39):
I'm sorry, what did you ad?
Speaker 1 (24:40):
What I didn't?
Speaker 3 (24:41):
I never saw the cos I wanted to watch TV.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And be honest, I'm serious because.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
To that point, I've seen the new partnership with Popeye
and Don Julio, but I never remember seeing the con But.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
Be honest, you've seen that because the girls on line,
because the videos are going viral with them like acting
like it's a section. You can't if we're trying to
get back to five star.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
Feeling real life. We can't have no sections, no bottom
girls coming out.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
There's things you can do, right. We launched that happy hour,
right and like a happy hour is a simple thing.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
It's just you know, the same drinks or different drinks,
but discounted at a certain time. Come three to six,
get drinks for five bucks, is what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yeah, so you get your beer, wine.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Cocktail five bucks discount on the appetizers. So now we
need to message that more, you know, to the point
like people need to know that. But but we launched that,
and you know, so I got here. We're doing a
lot right, So that came out in November too. So
we want to be a place where you can come
hang out at the bar, have a drink, have fun,
have a full dinner. It's like, uh, you know, it's
fancy food, but it's an approachable feeling. Right. You don't
(25:41):
need to wear a suit, you know, to come to
to come to dinner, right, come, it's it's it's you know,
we serve all people.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Did you stop the endless shrinp promotion? It's done, so
no more endless shrip jes dare you got a messed
up now?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
But by the way, that was the dumb welln't a
dumb promotion, But don't promise people in less shrimp because
y'all never give in.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It was a challenge. I know people who tried. They
don't know if you put a cap on it. He's tried.
I've been in the restaurants when they put a cap
on the end the shrimp.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
I mean, look, the way it was done didn't work.
I'm not saying it'll never be done, but it'll be
done in a way that's that's more sensible.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
What's sensible because you guys, I'm gonna tell you what
people will do. Going there with four people, one person
order endless shrimp and they just keep bringing mass shrimp
for the table.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That's that's insensible.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
I mean it is so Look, I mean these promotions
people do promotions like this Olive Garden does a and
unless positive promotion like people do these.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Lives is a lie. They will put a cap on
your fat ass, but different because it fills you up
so fast and it's cheap, and it's cheap, so they
can do that. So you just need to the math
needs to needs to make sense.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Endless biscuits still, if you want more biscuits, they will
give you more biscuits.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
We bring out six to the table. The biscuits. Biscuits
we can give you because when you eat them in
drink that water.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
Well. So this biscuits are amazing, right, and people love
them and it's an easy thing for us to do.
So you know, that's an example of being hospitable. You know,
not every table's gon to get endle this biscuits. But
if you were asked your server, it could have more biscus.
And're not going to say no.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
You allowed to tell its the truth about the endless shrimp.
Tellus the truth it was. It never was endless. It
was endless. We put them out of business, and and
why did it come to an end?
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Look, let me say this. I can't get too much
into it.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
I'll say this. The previous owner of the business was
the shrimp supplier to the business. Mmm, he's double dipping
shrimp cut off. So the math is different.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Got you If you're strictly thinking about the business versus
also thinking about the supply chain the shrimp supplier, then
it's different math. Right, So I'm thinking just about the
business right now the supplier is no longer involved.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
It often seems like they want to put black people
in the CEO positions when the company is like messed up, right,
So why did you want this job? Especially at the
time Red Lobster was going through bankruptcy.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
So I did the work before.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Look, I'm an ambitious person and i'm and I'm young
for the position. I had a lot of success that changed,
but even that when I took over was not looking good.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
So for me, it's I think the brand is worth saving.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
I think it can be saved. There's a lot of
things that need to be done. But I've got the
energy and I've got you know, I'm dedicating the time.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
We hired a great team.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
So for me, it's it's Look, there's it's a great
iconic brand. There's thirty thousand people that work for the company.
If we can save it, that's a good thing for
the country. It's a good thing for the people that
work there. It's a good thing for the people that
have history going there. Right, So it's it's it's it's
not gonna it's not easy, but it's doable, and why
not why not try to try to see if we
can get this done?
Speaker 3 (28:52):
How do you know when the back wouldn't step out
because you know, you was with PF Chang for four
years for all, Why did you step down?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
That's a big question. Yeahy did you leave Pfchangs? Well,
we more or.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Less achieved the objectives that we set out to achieve initially.
And you know, I was I had a I was
also involved on the on the finance side, right, I
was working at a hedge fund.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
So I went back to the private equity side to.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Look at the opportunity to do something similar because we learned,
we learned a lot doing that, and we felt like
we could we could do that again, right with a
different brand.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
And then the.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Fortress Group reached out and and we went. We worked
with them on Red Lobster. But PF Chang's is a
great business. This is about twice the size of PF
Changs in terms of sales and maybe three exercise in
terms of footprint. So it's a bigger challenge, it's a
bigger opportunity. You know, a lot of life is calculated risk, right,
(29:45):
and it's you know, it's hard to really build something
without taking some chances along the way, right, There's no
guarantee that you're gonna be there's no guarantee when I
took over the PF Changs world that i'd be successful.
But if I was, you know, it'd be great for
a lot of people. And we work same thing here.
If we're successful here, this is you know, this is
an iconic brand that we brought back from bankruptcy and
(30:07):
hopefully turn into a thriving company for decades to come.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Right, So that that to me is worth it's worth
it's worth going for. So why did you do that? James?
Just we were just basically done one.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
We're ready to you know, once you turned them around,
once the owners decide that it's time to do something,
you know, they we turned it around and eventually you know,
without commenting on their situation, but they're going to do
different things from an ownership perspective, right, So it's uh,
it was like behind the scenes convos, right, but nothing
to do with the business.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
So then just the mind state of being you know
who you are, like, you know, they they'll hire you,
put you in these positions, you'll turn them around and
you'll move on to the No no.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
No, I mean it depends on the situation.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
If it's if it's a group, for example, Fortresses willing
to invest and do the work to turn this business around.
And if that's the case, then I can be successful.
But you need that alignment ownership and operator. When ownership
takes a different perspective, for example, we want to manage cost,
let's say, or we want to you know, cut certain things,
(31:07):
we want to stop investing in certain things. If I
disagree with that and I go executed, then I'm responsible
for the result. So on some level, you just need
to agree with what ownership wants to do. And ownership
owns a business. If you disagree to you either gotta leave,
right not the people that own the business. So to
the extent that you know, look, every CEO is either
gonna resign or get fired one day. That's how CEO
(31:30):
job's in. You don't get promoted, you know, from that.
So for me, it's as long as things are aligned,
it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
But you don't. I don't want.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
It's not wise to be in a situation where you
don't agree with the plan and you're responsible for implementing
the plan. Because if you think something's not gonna work
and you do it and it doesn't work like you
thought it was like you, like you you predicted and
it's you're still gonna get blamed.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Change.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Do you change the target audience for red labster. I'm
just thinking about it now, right, And anytime you usually
see a red Lobsters in neighborhoods, right, it's in queens
in areas where it's usually middle class or poorer. But
when I look at PF Chain's, it's a little different.
It's a lot different.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Actually, do you.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Change your audience or is that the case, because especially
with the world now, a lot of people are not
making the money as they were before and they're struggling,
so which means in those areas they're gonna be struggling
to come to red lobster.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
You mean the demographics of where the restaurants are.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
So, it's tricky to move your restaurant footprint because you
have long leases and the footprint kind of is what
it is. Some come up for renewal every year, et cetera.
But for the most part, what we can do is
so value is an interest, So value is an equation.
Part of it is price, and you can get some
things on the menu that are lower priced. For example,
the lobster roles are great if you want lobster and
(32:46):
you want it for twenty bucks, We've got the lobster
role in certain markets for that price. At the same time,
values what you get for the price. So if you
improve what you get, then you improve value. So if
hospitality is way better and the food is interesting and
the drinks are fun, and you pay the same price,
but all of that is better, people will perceive that
as better value. So value is important, but we approach
(33:09):
it from both ends. Improve the product and then give
people entry level things that you can get for twenty
bucks fifteen bucks. You know, we have Shrimp your Way
for you know, sixteen ninety nine for two types of shrimp.
There's things you can do that are approachable if you
don't want to do the full lobster for it for
a higher price. Right So, I'm looking at the lobsters
me and you right now, I go lot. I might
go around last this week, and I'm not I might
(33:32):
take send me. I'm like, I never took my kids
the red loss never. And I'm like, you know, may
like me in the white list. Take the kids the
red lobster just to see what they know what for you. No,
I'm not gonna tell you I'm going, but I'm gonna
tell you.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
I know exactly which one I'm going to too, what
you're going to to you know when I'm going to
go on.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yep, but that one looks a little bit up though
it looks a lot beat up. But I'm gonna tell
you something.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
That's why I was just asking that question. They don't
look I laugh it every morning and in my mind,
you know, you just thinking nostalgia. I'm like, damn, yo,
back in the day when I was young, that have
been perfect. The hotel right there, the red Lobster right there,
you go, right, the red.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Still perfect, man, it's still perfect motel.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
But think about when you were seventeen eighteen, that'd have
been perfect, right well, think about.
Speaker 7 (34:22):
When Beyonce said it in the song yes Me Good,
I take as you Red Lobster.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
What did that do for the same Did y'all capitalize
on this? Yes, I was here, Oh that was before me.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
It's not too late though, right right, because it's not
too late for that. Even when Riley mentioned it on
The Boon Doctors.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
You know, the Kelsey Brothers did something with that. So yeah,
I mean, part of the part of the game is
to is to take advantage of cultural moments, right, like
when something happens in the culture, like you want to
be on it, so that that's something that we weren't
very good at in the past and we need to
get better.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
After sure, did you even talk to him about that? Like,
did anybody reach out to beyond you know, I can't
speak to that and I wasn't here.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
But but for example, Flavor Flavor we did, right fat
wanted to save the you know, wanted to save Red Lobster.
They you know, we did a promotion with them. So
there's it's it's important for sure. And uh yeah, I
mean look now Kelsey Billers reach out, we respond the
same day, right like, so we're we're engaging and it's important.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Man, I'm so impressed by you because I mean, number one,
you get young, you're thirty six and you're from Nigeria.
I'm just wondering, like, what are the challenges you know,
being so young as the CEO. Do people take you
as serious as they should in the business that you're in?
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah? I think so.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
I mean, look, I think you know the best thing
you can do to accrue the respect you want is
to just be a person worthy of respect, right Like
if you behave, if you behave the right if you
develop yourself a certain way and you behave the right
way and you're a serious person, and.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
That's obvious, people will they will respect you. It's it's natural.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
People know, right if they meet you and they don't
feel subconsciously like your a person deserving a respect and
will give it to you, especially if you're like but
I'm black.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, sure, but you.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Can overcome all that just by being a person that's
clearly worthy of respect. And then you know that goes
out the window, like I don't, I don't have issues.
If I sit down with somebody for thirty minutes, they
don't leave feeling like, you know, he's not serious, or
he doesn't know what he's talking about, or he's not intelligent,
or he can't communicate.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
At the end of it, you know they're fine.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
So yeah, maybe before but you know, you talk to somebody,
you know they know they people know, they understand, right,
and so they don't.
Speaker 7 (36:26):
Know that asks about me, man, I'm asks about me.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Well, it's just it's just it's just I was.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
You know, you're not born as a finished product. It's
all about development.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
So if you if you work you know, like I said,
I said, they may be joined the speech in the
Bay team in high.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
School, you're that guy can send that guy really well.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Now, but that's been a working process, right, you know
I played football growing up through high school college.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Maybe it makes you strong physically, we know what it
does makes you strong mentally. This is what you got
to wake up six am every day.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
You gotta go train.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
You got so you learn things right and that becomes
part of your character. You know, the emotional discipline that's
important too, and you learn that. So if you spend
your life building these skills, you will become a person
that has these skills.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
And that is what people respect.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
How the weaponization of DEI impacted you if at all
the people say, oh, he's a de I higher.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
No, I've just been so successful throughout my life. I
don't get that. I mean you could take you know.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
For me, it goes back to early early I aim
to excel at everything I do, and there's very little
evidence of me not excelling at anything that I've tried
to do, from football to Brown to Goldman to TVG
to Harvard to Paul Like, there's no real l's on
the not saying I won't fail it anything, and I
have failed at plenty.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Let's go talk to them coaches. Well, there's a record
out there somewhere that's funny. Nobody talking about that's the
fair funt.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
But you know, and I'm not saying that to but
I'm just saying, you can build a habit of excellence
and that that's how that's how you'll be viewed. Right,
and so I think anybody can achieve. You just have
to build these habits. Yeah, right, So it's really more
motivation to people who were listening.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Was coming from Nigeria.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
You know, you say your dad was a neurologists, a
reagi mom was a pharmacist where they have said, you
didn't stay in like that that field in some way
shape or for him.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
Like my parents were always just like, whatever you do,
just be the best at it. That was that's all
they ever cared about. When when I when we got
to America, we went to we lived in Springfield, Illinois.
I remember we went to go get a haircut and
the barber, Barbier's name was Fresh, the barber, and Fresh
was driving an S Class Benz.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Even though it's a barber and Nigeria. That's unheard of, right,
a barber driving a Benz.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
But my dad's point when we saw that was in America,
if you're the best at whatever you do, whatever it is,
you can do really well, you can have a nice life,
you can build.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Something for yourself.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
They were just like, what you choose whatever you want,
but aimed to be the best at it, right, which
I think is good advice because people have different interests.
Not everybody's gonna be care about finance. Not everybody is
good enough at math to do that. But you might
be good at something else, you know, whether you might
start a podcast, maybe you're very good at interviewing people,
you're very good speaker. You might find some other interest,
(39:10):
music or whatever. Right, But whatever you do, if you
if you if you build a mentality that I'm my
goal is to be the best at it, then you're
gonna do all right.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I like this too, man, because it's clear you understand culture.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
Because I can't think of I'm trying to think, who
have any CEOs and any restaurants come here? I'm really
trying to think besides Carbone, Oh, Carbone comes in alone.
I don't want to say no because We've been doing
it for four years, but is the first that I
can remember?
Speaker 1 (39:33):
And why is this important to do? Why is it
important to do? You know, media?
Speaker 4 (39:38):
You got to get the word out, you know, people,
people need to people don't. I live this every day,
so I know everything we're doing, but most people don't.
So somebody's got to tell them.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Difficult Do they listen to you? Is that difficult? Do
they listen to? I get?
Speaker 4 (39:51):
I get people listen when I when I if I
do like a CNN R you know, I did a
c AN interview, I did a Today's Show interview, or
I did a Wall Street Journal interview, and those get
a lot of views. I think people are curious, right, like,
what's what's going on with this guy? Right, thirty six
year old CEO? Like, you know, black guy, What's what's up?
And so they want to there's a curiosity there. But
that that's fine because that creates attention for the business,
which what I what I mostly care about, and it
(40:13):
will please And then what was.
Speaker 6 (40:16):
Good about it is you get to hear what people want,
like you know, you like, we're talking to you about
what hour?
Speaker 4 (40:24):
And you guys represent the culture right because you guys speak.
You guys speak for the culture in a way that
not a lot of people do. You talk to viewers
all the time. You hear what people are listening to,
You see what people are engaging with, what parts of
the segment. So you guys know, right, and so yeah,
for sure, it's helpful for me to hear, and it's
helpful to have a platform to speak and talk about
some of.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
The things that that we're working on. I do feel
like there is a room for like just smaller locations.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Like if I'm sitting here at the radio station and
I want to go to lunch, but I don't want
to sit somewhere like I just want to run in
gravel lobster and shrimp ball real quick. I feel like
there's room for that because you got food trucks that
got these lobster.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Rolls and everything else.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
For sure, if I started the company today, they wouldn't
be as big as they are. You know, if I
could stab my finger and shrink all of them, you
probably would. They were built for a different time now.
A lot of the business is off premise. It's a
lot of grabbing growth. So my point is that we're
kind of stuck with the footprint, right.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
It's not you reach out as a as an African
out here right now, who's trying to shrink everything namee
of the Elon Musk.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Show. The way of doing right.
Speaker 4 (41:23):
The real estate is is not impossible to change, but
it's harder to change and it's expensive to change. If
you want to get out of the lease, you need
to pay the landlord how many years you got left,
how many how many dollars per year times that by
thirty percent is probably what.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
You owe them. And then you got to build a
new restaurant. You know that's that's a few million dollars
per per unit. So it's it's it's it's a thing
that you would do. You just need to.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
You have limited capital. You got to make decisions. What's
what comes first?
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Right?
Speaker 4 (41:50):
But for sure, if if if you were starting this
company all over, you wouldn't have as big. And that
was true for PF Changs too. You know PF Changs
was eight nine thousand square feet. The new ones we
built were four or five thousand square feet, and you'd
probably do the same thing here. And these are bigger,
you know, these are closer to ten thousand. So it's
It's a good valid point, just a harder thing to fix.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Quickly before you get out of it, because you already
gave the CEO. Look back to your people to wrap
it up. What's your involvement with HPCU. What's we're allowed
to do with HPCU.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Yeah, look, so I mean before that, Darden the founder
of Red Lobster, Bill Darden, who Darden Company is named after.
That's Olive Garden, Texas, Longhorne, et cetera. So he's an
important restaurant tour in American history. The first restaurant that
he opened was Red Lobster, and that from the very beginning,
had a really good relationship with the Black American community.
(42:39):
This is in sixty eight, so at the very end
of the Civil Rights movement, but from the very beginning,
black people were welcome to eat there, welcome to work there.
And that was stansit he took from the very beginning.
So it's always had a good relationship with Black America
from the start. You mentioned Beyonce mess flavor. Flav It's
always had a position in culture. I'm just acknowledging it
and speaking to it and and doing more for that
(43:02):
to try to build that so HBCUs we did Band
of the Year, right, We went to watch the band's
perform B move one miles one for the junior division,
and we gave the awards out. We sponsored it Red Lobster,
and you know, millions of dollars went to scholarships and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
So we're gonna do more. You know.
Speaker 4 (43:21):
That's a start, but it's it's important community. It's one
that has been connected to the brand for a long
time and it's a good place to spend time and
spend money on our behalf.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
All right, well, we appreciate you for joining us and
bringing us some biscuits.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Yeah, enjoy, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Whatever we can do to help, man, I mean, I
want to see you succeed. I appreciate it if people
like you succeed, and that just means more successful the rest.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Yeah, visit your local at Red Lobster. You guys, send
feedback and we'll keep we'll.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Keep improving going this week it Adam Loan, Yes, you
know that. All right, there we go. It's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club
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Charlamagne Tha God
DJ Envy
Jess Hilarious
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