00:00.81
vigorbranding
Everyone today I’m joined by chef troy guard from tag restaurant group which you’re going to learn all about if you’re not already familiar. Um Troy say hello give a little bit of backstory.

00:11.84
Chef Troy Guard
good morning good afternoon good evening whatever time we’re listening to here. It’s March Seventeenth St Patrick’s day and I’m just chilling in my marketing’s ah my marketers’ room right now. So talking to Joseph in the. Excited to be on board. Thanks for having me.

00:29.77
vigorbranding
Awesome! Well Troy so you grew up in Hawaii um, which it’s islands that I absolutely love and now you find yourself imp possibly the complete opposite. You’re a mile up in the air in Denver.

00:35.91
Chef Troy Guard
Um, you know.

00:42.93
vigorbranding
Um, what led you to Denver from Hawaii and and how have those roots from the islands influenced your cooking and your outlook on life.

00:50.48
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah, thank you so yup board on the islands we’re 5 generations of being in Hawaii even though we’re white where you know some of the first missionaries to come over there which is kind of cool. Um, great stories back there. Um I left when I was. You know, 21 and just kind of just went all over the place and it’s funny now that you just said that that I never even kind of realized I knew I traded the ocean for the mountains but being at sea level and then a mile up. That’s pretty crazy and it’s the first first place. Anywhere in my life that I was landlocked I’ve always lived by an ocean. So I’ve been here 21 years now so the last twenty one years no ocean but it’s kind of cool I get to go on vacation to the ocean. So ah, I’m actually going to Malley on Wednesday I can’t wait and it is my happy place.

01:42.64
vigorbranding
I love it. It’s it’s hard not to dis not to love? Ah Hawaii um I haven’t gotten to maui I haven’t gotten to Kawai I’ve only been to a wahoo. Um, but.

01:44.98
Chef Troy Guard
So yeah, um.

01:49.89
Chef Troy Guard
Um, they’re all beautiful. They’re all different and I think they’re all very very special magical.

01:56.76
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah, and you pick up a little bit of local slang while you’re there too. So I believe you’re a howly and um and you make food that is very ono. Yeah.

02:01.83
Chef Troy Guard
Yep, that’s for sure I got picked on all the time I got you all? yeah oh no odo delicious um yeah I got picked on all the time because I was the little white kid over there. So um, yeah was it’s pretty different, pretty crazy. Um, but I love it. I love the international flavors of Hawaii filipino Japanese Chinese ah polynesian american so it was pretty cool and the funny thing was I don’t think I had a casadia ah so I was like 15 I mean we had like.

02:36.47
vigorbranding
Um.

02:37.40
Chef Troy Guard
That seasoning taco mix and stuff like that. But I just never really ate mexican food I I can’t remember a mexican restaurant on Hawaii that I went to.

02:46.12
vigorbranding
Yeah, it’s wild. Um, the the food there is amazing and so for those haven’t really thought about it or haven’t been to the islands the influences make a lot of sense because Hawaii it’s about what 5 hours off the coast or 3 hours off the coast of ah of California but it’s 5 hours away from Japan and some of the other ones.

02:57.82
Chef Troy Guard
Um, yep.

03:03.40
vigorbranding
And then the weirdest thing that I found is they get a huge influx of estonians in the summertime which which is like such a weird thing. Um, yeah, very odd, but ah, suffice to say you you move over into the states or into the mainland I should say you’re up in Denver.

03:08.68
Chef Troy Guard
Um, oh nice it is yeah it sounds different.

03:23.15
vigorbranding
How do you take the the love and passion and that influence culinarily speaking and and how have you used that to create these concepts within the tag group restaurant family.

03:32.11
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah, great question. So I think years and years ago. Um, as you know, growing up as a kid a lot of stuff wasn’t that fresh I can’t remember like fresh brostel sprouts you had carrots and onions. But. Not the things that we are really accustomed to now you go on the whole foods and it’s like I am even you know we have safeways. Whatever. So um I always was was taught early on working in California Hawaii New York even Hong Kong you know you utilize what you can where you’re from so obviously in California it’s a great season all year round. But in Denver like springtime coming up. We’re going to get peas and ramps and asparagus. We’ll have that too in California but they could have it more readily available. But. I like being in Denver I like the seasonality of a lot of things and we try to get about I mean as much as we can and I would say sometimes up to 80% of anything that are is on our menu comes from Colorado which I think is pretty cool.

04:36.19
vigorbranding
Is that is that something that you’re continuing as you branch out of Colorado I know that you’re in Houston now and.

04:43.56
Chef Troy Guard
So then when we go to Houston we want to use products from Houston so they’re a little bit different over there. We might even have to adjust the ah recipes tweak them a little bit. But yeah, that’s what we do and then I want to use our what I call continental different continents different flavors different cooking techniques. And I might want to bring in a hawaiian fish or Paca Paca I want to might bring in some japanese fish or some chinese spices and to kind of give it that twist I feel like America is a melting pot and it’s so international now and Houston is one of the biggest international cities. It is fantastic down there. But I love those bold flavors those ingredients and to take you know a simple dish and just tweak it a little bit I think that’s kind of fun.

05:32.70
vigorbranding
I love that so I did mess up and and talk about the tag restaurant group family. So one of the words that you use from the island is ohhanna and Ohhanna essentially means family but it means I think more. It’s a bigger definition. That’s really hard to pin down in english. Um.

05:41.16
Chef Troy Guard
Um, oh Hanna yes, do.

05:49.92
vigorbranding
Especially when you talk about your staff in the yohanna. That’s there. So what? what part does that play in the company culture. How do you foster this and people who haven’t maybe had the Hawaiian experience. Um, and yeah, how how do you bring that out.

05:58.93
Chef Troy Guard
Um, yup, so yes, oh Hanna means family in hawaiian if you haven’t been to Hawaii. It’s hard to really understand but I take it even like Mexico when you go down there they hug they kiss. Um. Hawaii’s hug and kiss how you doing aloha means actually hello and goodbye. So um, it’s kind of cool and we work with 450 employees I feel like we’re a big family a big o hana because sometimes we spend forty plus hours here sometimes more than we do at ah with our families. So at home. So we’re 1 big ohanna and if anybody needs any support. Anybody needs any help we you know we want to be great leaders and managers but also a great family if if anybody needs to lean on someone.

06:33.88
vigorbranding
A.

06:50.65
vigorbranding
Yeah, and I think in in this in this state that we’re in this industry um in the struggles that we have ah finding new talent keeping great talent How how have you seen this this embracing because a lot of people say oh we’re part of the family and then it comes time to scrub though, get baseboards and you don’t really feel very family-like at that moment.

07:04.64
Chef Troy Guard
Um, so.

07:08.80
vigorbranding
Um, how do you put that out into the world in a way that feels honest and authentic and um, how has that played a role in this growth of tag restaurant group.

07:18.17
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah, great too I I’ll be 52 in a month and every year I think I get a little wiser a little bit more experience. Um I think ah when I sometimes say oh everyone doesn’t like this or everyone does this. Ah, of course not everybody so let’s just take a hundred people. There’s probably about 5% that are the bad apples but sometimes a bad Apple can spoil the bunch so we try to focus in on more of the positives. But um, that’s.

07:43.60
vigorbranding
A.

07:55.49
Chef Troy Guard
What we’re trying to do in the restaurant business is work together. Um, now I got sidetracked Can you repeat that question I just lost my train of thought I apologize.

08:03.48
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah, well, it’s no and I totally I threw that in as a ringer I think um when we see this idea of family manifest ah out there. How do how do you make sure it feels authentic and real and and what role has that played in. Ah.

08:17.70
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah, so authentic and real I think everyone can see someone who’s genuine if someone is kissing my ass or you know doing it just to do something you know that we we try to hire people who are genuinely hospitable.

08:18.86
vigorbranding
The success of tag.

08:35.73
Chef Troy Guard
Great smiles wants to do things even if they don’t know how to cook but they have a good attitude and want to we we like those type of people. So and then as far as um, moving forward I think covid has changed a lot I mean everybody knows it. It changed a lot of different things. Ah, we just like to be a strong support system I mean the days of people staying for ten plus years are are probably long gone and that’s okay, too. But while they’re here. We’re going to give it our our best. And after they leave I hope they remember all the things that they learn and literally two days ago I had a guy who used to work for me five years ago and just just wanted to reach out and say hey man you helped me tremendously in so many different ways that makes me feel so good.

09:27.38
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.

09:29.47
Chef Troy Guard
And you know some people don’t of course like ah what we do, but most people enjoy the oh Hanna and the concepts and the structure that we have here just just like politics. There’s never everyone who really likes something but we always try to do. What’s best.

09:44.90
vigorbranding
Right.

09:48.71
Chef Troy Guard
For our employees and the business. Yeah.

09:51.81
vigorbranding
Yeah, that’s that’s a fantastic path forward because I think a lot of people pin. Ah the the struggles of the industry on pay. You know oh it’ss that we don’t pay enough ah restaurants under pay blah Blah Blah You know we’ve we’ve had those arguments before um.

09:58.90
Chef Troy Guard
So right 2

10:05.16
vigorbranding
But I think what you find is pay is of course 1 factor but it’s not the factor and usually a lot of it is that interaction with um leadership. Ah, it’s really tough I think to foster a culture when you start to spread out to the size of tag and but and and above you know what? I mean. So. 2 3 concepts locations. Not so bad. But when you have to start instilling that middle management. You get torn between that do I have the person who is a hell of an operator but a terrible cultural fit or or the opposite. Um.

10:26.63
Chef Troy Guard
Right.

10:36.95
Chef Troy Guard
Right.

10:42.20
vigorbranding
And and I think if you go the opposite like yeah, you’re really fostering that like how do how do you find you meaning you’re fostering the culture but man we’re flailing and we’re not doing Well we can’t stay open. Um so how do you build it.

10:49.14
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah, so yeah, just took Ah yeah, just took out of my wallet here I made this I don’t know if you guys can see it very well. Yup I’m going to explain it. Yep.

10:58.97
vigorbranding
Um, ah let me are you going to explain it Otherwise I can okay, cool. Great.

11:02.75
Chef Troy Guard
So at the top. It says our business perspective and then it says the vision you have to have a vision at work and so when we’re coming to work. Of course we’re doing it because we need to get paid and pay our bills but let’s have a meaning to why we’re coming so the vision. Tag is a celebration of the unexpected. You never know what’s going to happen today. Someone calls in sick um, the dishwasher goes down you name it I’ve been there. It’s happened. How do we put ourselves in those situations and it gets stressful that restaurants are stressful. And there’s a lot of moving pieces. A lot of curveballs. So then the first thing is culture like we just talked about if you don’t have the culture. You’re not going to be successful. Everybody has to buy into what we do and again I’m going to say 95% of all our employees buy into what we do. Even if they’re there for three months or 3 years they like what we do and they might have to leave for other different reasons. But that’s okay or we might have to give them a new job somewhere else too. But the culture is number one next there are core values so we’re coming to work and why are we doing this and.

12:08.40
vigorbranding
A.

12:17.57
Chef Troy Guard
Ah, core values passion imagination courage, caring humility harmony and ownership. So in one sense of the word when I sat down thirteen fifteen years ago before I opened my first restaurant like That’s what I want to see in people I want to give them the ownership Joseph. You’re a server that’s the guest and the like something I’m giving you ownership to do what you think is best. Don’t give away five hundred bucks but let’s do something genuinely that’s going to take care of. This situation and guess we care for each other I’m very passionate about my work you have to have imagination. So all these core values are great and then the last one is systems. So then we got all the systems in place and then once you do that? Our results are great food, great service and great finance. So. Out of all that money was the last when I was first coming up. That’s all I thought about was money like because if I don’t make money I’m going to lose but I had it all wrong I had to do the culture the oh Hanna and um, if that is.

13:33.17
Chef Troy Guard
On on number 10 everything else should fall in the place. So.

13:38.78
vigorbranding
Yeah I love it having that little reminder card is a nice touch I have 1 in my wallet that I put in there five years ago it just has 1 sentence. It just says what if you’re wrong. It’s just ah, it’s just a reminder you know.

13:41.81
Chef Troy Guard
Like.

13:51.10
Chef Troy Guard
Um, nice I Love that I love that there’s you know.

13:54.83
vigorbranding
Like because especially if you have bold convictions and you really believe in something it isn’t a challenge in a meaning you are wrong just to hey don’t forget like what if you’re wrong, just think about that other side. Yeah, um, but you did you talked about ah thirteen fifteen years ago um let’s hop back there. So um.

14:02.60
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah, exactly I like it.

14:14.10
vigorbranding
Ah, around that time is when you opened your first ah concept and you’re about a month into this idea of tag restaurant group and things weren’t going well investors came a knock in and said hey man you got like two weeks that we’re done how how did that feel.

14:18.50
Chef Troy Guard
Yep.

14:23.71
Chef Troy Guard
Yep.

14:27.53
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah.

14:31.90
vigorbranding
How did you overcome.

14:34.56
Chef Troy Guard
Kind of like what your sentence says in your wallet. What if I’m wrong. So um I like to share my stories like that I’m pretty open I don’t like to say I’m great when I’m not doing great or I’m I’m not doing great and you’re great. So.

14:51.50
Chef Troy Guard
I tell that story a lot of my investors tell it to a lot of different people too because I thought I was a great chef and I was but I didn’t know everything that else that went on with it and there’s a lot of moving pieces in this business. So. I focused in on the food instead of really being the leader that I needed to be in the restaurant so two weeks into it. Yeah, we lost we already were $40000 in the hole. It’s like geez that’s a lot of money troy how are we going to make that up I had you know too many people in the kitchen too many people on the floor ordering too much wine. Ordering too many high-end ingredients so we brought it all back in and we worked together as a culture the second month. Yeah, my investor said hey if you don’t change. We’re going to have to close the second month we lost 20 Grand so we were moving in the right direction. The third we broke. Even.

15:41.40
vigorbranding
Um.

15:45.73
Chef Troy Guard
And the fourth I swear to god we made $40000 so we made a $80000 swing in four months by just focusing and working together.

15:57.45
vigorbranding
Yeah, but that’s amazing. Um, it’s fantastic I Think a lot of businesses suffer that from that where you have a leader who’s passionate about the craft and because I’m passionate about the craft because I’m good at what I do therefore success.

16:08.53
Chef Troy Guard
Um, to write? yeah.

16:13.10
vigorbranding
Like yeah but you’re missing so many other things that go into success. Especially it’s the same sustained success as well. Um, and I love the story because it was so rapid and was such a turnaround because I think when you’re that myopically focused on just the 1 thing if I build it they will come. Um.

16:26.75
Chef Troy Guard
Right.

16:30.81
vigorbranding
You can turn around things quite fast and I think what we see in restaurants large and small um multi-unit in single unit is a lot of Uberris and a lot of ah arrogance in that. Well it can’t be all the things that I do it has to be something else. It’s marketing. Let’s fix marketing. It’s like well.

16:45.31
Chef Troy Guard
Right? see? yeah.

16:50.39
vigorbranding
You know marketing is going to get someone to come there. Maybe once? um and I said this to a client a while back. That’s right? Yeah I said that on a client call a few years ago it didn’t go over very well but I stand by it I would say it all over again and that is we can get them to come there.

16:52.78
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah, like yeah you marketing is going to get him in there. But what are you going to do to get him back right.

17:09.40
vigorbranding
It’s your job to get in the comeback and if they don’t come back. No amount of marketing can finagle them back. You know, especially if it was a terrible experience. You know.

17:11.70
Chef Troy Guard
Um, yeah, no, you’re absolutely right? I always say the 4 walls. Um I’d rather do and you can ask anyone in the company. When we first start out I rather do 50 great covers a night than 100 sloppy because I want to blow those 50 away and then we can grow from there. So ah, we we hold the reservations we hold we pace things out. Because again numbers are great and I want to make a lot of money. Um, because we’re we’re in ah um, a business for profit. We’re not a charity and so we need to make money but we have the first build a foundation and that’s ah ah, taking care of the guest.

18:05.24
vigorbranding
Yeah I love that and so that that kind of gets into another thing I wanted to open up which is this foray into Houston um, as well as the total footprint. So I think you have a total of 12 locations right now.

18:10.84
Chef Troy Guard
Um, oh excuse me.

18:18.27
Chef Troy Guard
Correct. We used to have more but um, we lost a couple in Covid and also a couple leases ran out and we we were negotiating and then my whole vision changed during Covid right? You know I was going to do this.

18:31.96
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.

18:35.91
Chef Troy Guard
This path. But now we’re doing this path which before I think we had 8 or 9 concepts now we have 4 so I wanted to go an inch wide and a mile deep before I was a mile wide and only an inch deep which isn’t bad but I want to grow the most successful concepts that have legs. And so going down the Houston our first one out of state was a steakhouse I mean Houston you would think no brain or right steak and but there’s a lot of good stakeeak down there. A lot of great competition so we had to be on our a game and ah unfortunately three months after reopen covid happened. So.

19:02.85
vigorbranding
Um, a.

19:13.87
Chef Troy Guard
All those dollars spent in training and marketing and building the restaurant just down the tube. So you know we struggled like everybody. Um for that year so 20 and then 21 we were building it back up, but it’s still covid’s up and down. And then 22 january I think I remember covid hit hard again, but we had a great year a solid team and touching the tables and working those 4 walls I remember doing fifty covers a night now they’re doing three hundred covers a night by taking care of the guests and working together. Um.

19:51.60
vigorbranding
Yeah I love that um across the board. It’s funny so much change in Covid But what didn’t change was landlords and their idea of what the value of the space was is still happening. Um, yeah, so a lot of places closed not because they were doing bad but.

19:59.90
Chef Troy Guard
Right now. It’s crazy.

20:07.16
vigorbranding
Quite simply because nothing changed on that level everything else changed but nothing changed there.

20:08.61
Chef Troy Guard
I would say 90% so nine out of ten eight out of 10 landlords were really helpful and good and there’s always that 1 or 2 just like I said that 95 and five percent. Not everyone’s gonna do what they should or shouldn’t do and it’s just a bummer right? cause.

20:26.23
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.

20:28.36
Chef Troy Guard
Covid wasn’t anyone’s doing you know, come down on me if I don’t pay the rent because I’m not being successful but you can’t get mad at me for Covid you know what? I mean? yeah.

20:39.20
vigorbranding
That’s right, Yeah, it’s really tough, especially when we’re all in it together. Um I Also love the idea that you you took the It’s a really difficult move to to shrink by design you know, ah for those that have ever gotten a haircut they call it a health cut. You know you chop back a couple inches because you need to grow longer.

20:56.25
Chef Troy Guard
Yep.

20:56.34
vigorbranding
Um, but so often I see um what ah I would consider tag a hospitality group hospitality groups. They with good reason are absolutely enamored with creating new Concepts I’m enamored with creating new Concepts which is why I started vigor as a branding agency I Love creating new Concepts but with each one of those.

20:59.60
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah. Yeah.

21:11.53
Chef Troy Guard
Um, it’s awesome. Yeah.

21:14.94
vigorbranding
You have you have to have your own marketing budget. You have to have unique processes because you kind of stem from the same hub but still like you have to make it unique like ksad diaz as you said earlier are not the same mistakes and all of that. So how have you wrangled that together. How have you ensured that when you do create a new concept. Um, it is coming from that same heart the Ohhanna heart. But.

21:21.96
Chef Troy Guard
You hope.

21:32.55
Chef Troy Guard
Um, yeah, you know it’s it’s everything is challenging but what I’ve learned and it took me a while to learn again is no matter what business we’re in. It’s about the people.

21:34.54
vigorbranding
Manifests effectively.

21:49.38
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.

21:51.32
Chef Troy Guard
We all have to work together for the common goal. So I’m a very creative guy. That’s why imagination is 1 of our core values and I like to create it. But then I got to the point I think where it’s like all right now. Let’s focus. On some of these great creative concepts that I’ve come up with and and our employees embraced it and made it awesome now. Let’s take some of those they were all awesome for different reasons but tag was me it was chef driven. Um. I couldn’t I mean I could duplicate it but not really that was that was everything of me my my heart my sleeve my tears everything and everyone that worked there made it amazing but without tag I couldn’t have done these other concepts and so growing growing the. The tag it and getting back to your question I got off but going from 8 concepts or 16 restaurants down covid let us do that I I looked at covid as they gave us lemons I’m in lemonade right? so.

22:51.12
vigorbranding
No your front. Yeah.

23:06.90
Chef Troy Guard
Um, we reassessed what we were doing. We’re all moving so fast that we forgot to step back and really take a look at what we had and so I could have kept tag open I could have kept tag Burger bar open I could have kept a lot of things open. But.

23:19.11
vigorbranding
Um.

23:25.33
Chef Troy Guard
I said let’s take the four best like I worked for Roy Yamaguchi he only opened 1 restaurant for 2030 years now he’s branching out and doing 3 4 or 5 different concepts. We I did it differently I branched out first. He didn’t um, but that’s where I learned a lot working with him growing. Not being able to be in 1 spot all the time. Ah and bringing the culture to each environment. That’s what’s going to make it special because everybody can make mistakes how are we going to make ours more special. It’s I feel. It’s with our people.

24:01.68
vigorbranding
Yeah, so that’s that’s a good point. We you mentioned like the multiple footprints so um, creating new Concepts that are evocative of the area or this unique brand moment. Um, again, a lot of fun and you see a lot of hospitality groups that do just that. Um.

24:04.50
Chef Troy Guard
Um, oh.

24:17.75
vigorbranding
But when you start to go multi-unit. There are the optimizations that you mentioned but a new challenge arises which is how do you prevent it feeling going to use the C word like a chain you know which can have really you know it basically feels devalued. It’s like oh well this is.

24:28.40
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

24:36.30
vigorbranding
This is also in Denver. It’s also in l a it’s also blah blah blah. So it’s not unique to my neighborhood. How do you? How do you ah work around that.

24:38.71
Chef Troy Guard
Right? But yeah I think when I was younger and more cocky I thought chains chains sounded terrible but as I’ve gotten older I think chains can be good. Um. The consistency the product, the culture. So um, let’s just say let’s pick a che maybe wolfgang puck or something. He’s a chain but I know when I hear and see that name I have a certain quality or. Um, it’s going to be a certain value to me even Mcdonald’s I mean everyone says they don’t like it but it’s consistent I don’t I don’t eat it a lot but I have kids and of course I go to Mcdonald’s but at least you know what you’re getting and that’s what I appreciate about chains is the consistency but you.

25:31.23
vigorbranding
And.

25:34.50
Chef Troy Guard
You have to be careful because then I see them cutting um, cutting standards or cutting things that made them that great right? So um, we never cut on.

25:42.27
vigorbranding
Um, yep.

25:49.65
Chef Troy Guard
The value of the plate the product I’m not going to buy a cheaper fillet mignon or a cheaper chicken just to make more money I’m going to try to give the best product I can a best value and we know how much everything has gone up since Covid to so it’s been very challenging and in a delicate process to.

26:02.80
vigorbranding
Yeah.

26:08.98
Chef Troy Guard
I can’t just up the menus all the time. What we do is we up it a little bit but we then work on something else on the p and l that we have to get better at whether it’s instead of Joe’s Joseph’s coming in at one o’clock every day we’re going to bring you at 151 and if you do that with 50 employees that adds up a lot. Okay, so you losing a few minutes here and there we’re going to make it up another way. So um, and how we make it up is we put a service charge on on our checks for three point 5.

26:30.79
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.

26:44.89
Chef Troy Guard
And 60% goes to the house which myself to offset and everything right? So I don’t have to raise the prices and we know like chemicals and gloves and everything just went up and then 40% we gave to the back of the house. Um because they needed a little bit more.

26:49.10
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.

27:02.38
Chef Troy Guard
The front of the house got it because when we raise our prices they get more tips. So um I think it worked out really really well that way.

27:08.65
vigorbranding
Yeah I love that I think those those little changes can have such a big impact I think people forget that because they think everything has to be cataclysmic these monumental shifts to make monumental change and it’s like no actually just little habits little.

27:17.39
Chef Troy Guard
Right.

27:24.40
vigorbranding
Little turning of the knob that doesn’t devalue. It only increases value like all those things. It’s good to hear that as a reminder for those that knew it but forgot it and it’s good for those that don’t know it to hear it. It’s like actually it’s just usually in the details. You know as they say um.

27:32.59
Chef Troy Guard
Um, yep.

27:37.86
Chef Troy Guard
Correct yep and I love looking at numbers before I was just food food food and I didn’t care about the numbers. But you know like I said at tag if I didn’t know the numbers. We’re gonna fail just like I ask everyone. You know what’s in your bank account. Of course you do so you got to know the restaurant too. What are your numbers. How much food am I bringing in today. How much if I bring in a hundred dollars worth of food. What do I need to do in gas per um, you know ppa and things like that. So um.

28:15.10
Chef Troy Guard
I like to think we’re tag university too. We we sit down once a month and go over the p and ls we sit down once a week and have manager meetings we sit down once a quarter with every manager in our restaurant group and we even fly them up from Houston so we’re all together. As an ohna and working together like hey, how’d you get 20% man I keep getting 25. Let’s connect and figure out the best way you know? So um, yeah, it’s it’s fun. It’s cool and we have to. We have to take care of the guest but we also have to see all the other things that go on in the restaurant light bulbs. Why is the restaurant. This is a but 1 for me, we open at 5 but every light in the restaurant is is on at Nine Zero a m when everyone comes in like we don’t need that it sounds silly.

29:09.30
vigorbranding
Um, yeah, no, no, it does it.

29:10.81
Chef Troy Guard
But every little thing every little thing adds up I’m a big stickler on um, the environment and waste like you should see like these are your papers that I printed out but later on I’m going to use it on this side.

29:24.56
vigorbranding
Right.

29:26.62
Chef Troy Guard
And anybody that has to print something we use recycled papers. So it takes an extra second to do what’s right? And that’s what we try to do? yeah.

29:34.83
vigorbranding
Yeah I love that no the lights thing cracks me up because I’m in an I’m in an ongoing battle with the misses on that and I think every day I sing Teddy Pendergrass to her like turn off the lights especially during the day I’m like we we have beautiful windows we have plenty of light.

29:45.93
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah, yeah I like it right I Love it exactly Yes I love it. You know.

29:53.95
vigorbranding
Like you know and it’s not that I’m a cheap case. It’s just like but but why like you know it’s better for you. Natural light is better for you anyway.

30:03.77
Chef Troy Guard
Think our society gets a bad rap like everybody I feel needs a little love right now. Everyone’s complaining or angry about stuff and we got to help the environment too and I have my four eight year olds and 13 year old like we’re we’re somewhere like dad look at that trash and they’ll pick it up because. We’ve worked together to learn that stuff and we got to make the environment a better place. So so.

30:22.54
vigorbranding
Yeah, absolutely love it. What what’s next for you and tag restaurant group. What what can you tell me like get us excited about the rest of the year in 2024 yeah yeah

30:35.11
Chef Troy Guard
Yes, 2023 is already flying by right? It’s going to be April first in just a few days. Um, we’ve been working really hard with during covid so um, like I said we took a step back to reassess everything. And really focused on um, the foundation. Our people um making sure our recipes our daily duties all that kind of stuff and now we’re ramped up to really hit it hard. So. We signed the deal a few days ah or a month ago to open our second hashtag we’re working right now on 2 more hashtags that’ll be open 24 probably we want to open 4 more hashtags in 2 years We’re working on a garden grace. Um, possibly. In Dallas or another city right now we’re we’re in negotiation so that’ll be hopefully next year and the boobooos and lo are gonna wait ah wait lo she is a boobo are gonna wait another year while we focus on these 2 but we’re still working on those in the background but those are the 2 that we’re going to focus on first and then we’re going to um, spend more time on the quick casual boobo and we call badass mexican los chingones.

31:57.10
vigorbranding
Oh yeah, absolutely lot I’m very familiar with Los Chiing goess. Um, we ah so when when I owned vigor we profiled that very heavily because we opened and created my neighbor Felix believe it or not yeah so yeah, so I’m good friends with the.

32:01.90
Chef Troy Guard
2

32:11.12
Chef Troy Guard
Oh right on cool francois all hose is Jose is Jose up felix still okay, yeah, but he was there a long time. Yeah, he’s cool.

32:16.16
vigorbranding
Chef ah jose ah I love fran while I won’t say we’re friends but I don’t think so no, he’s he’s stepped away but ah, really good friends with Jose yeah, he’s great guy. Um, anyway, so next time I get to Denver I’ll have to see you.

32:29.51
Chef Troy Guard
Um, right on.

32:31.10
vigorbranding
Ah, final question worst question in my opinion because it’s so tough to answer but I will make you answer it if you had 1 final meal. What would you eat and where and why.

32:40.86
Chef Troy Guard
Nice. That’s a great question. Hopefully it’s not for a long long time. So I haven’t really thought about it. But my favorite thing is ah a grilled ribye steak. On charcoal because ah, growing up literally we ate on a grill five 6 days a week. My dad would barbecue something fish meat. Whatever and it’d probably be some type of rice I ate rice every single day. I like a little bit of teriaki sauce and butter drizzled over that nice steak when it comes out and I love what? What first time I went to Hong Kong like the way they cooked vegetables blew me away I always thought you know you got vegetables and you throw them in the saute pan and you cook them. They blanched everything or steamed everything and the color came out so bright. All that chlorophyll. So I love choice some I like crunchy vegetables and it’s like a chinese broccoli. Um, maybe a little bit of kimchi or some hawaiian pokey and I’m a.

33:31.43
vigorbranding
Um.

33:46.90
Chef Troy Guard
Cours like guys simple and I would do that and I would probably have to do it on the ocean in Hawaii right.

33:53.28
vigorbranding
Absolutely love it Man That’s a fantastic answer. Um, thanks for being such an open book and generous with your time. A lot of insights in here I can’t thank you enough. So best of luck to you in the future.

34:04.58
Chef Troy Guard
Yeah, thanks for having me Joseph I can’t wait to ah continue to listen to your podcast man.

34:08.17
vigorbranding
Thanks.