Good Neighbor Podcast: Rochester
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Rochester
Good Neighbor Podcast: Rochester
EP#109 Savvy Sliders with Raham Hadi
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When a regular customer becomes the proud owner of a place that served his favorite meal, you know there's a story worth savoring. That's exactly what happened to Raham, our guest on the Good Neighbor Podcast, who turned his love affair with Savvy Sliders into a thriving business venture. In a heart-to-heart conversation, Raham spills the secret sauce behind his transition from patron to proprietor, revealing the significance of fresh ingredients and the surprising effect they have on the taste buds of unsuspecting diners. His commitment to freshness is not just about good food; it's about crafting moments of delight with each slider and hand-breaded chicken.
But wait, there's more than just good food on our plate! Raham also dishes out the personal touch that Savvy Sliders is known for, stirring in the joys of meal customization and stellar service. And because he's feeling generous, our listeners get to shake things up with a special treat—mention the podcast for a complimentary shake to top off your meal! So tune in and get a bite-sized look at what makes Savvy Sliders a standout in the local food scene and how one man's culinary passion is bringing the community together, one delicious slider at a time.
Savvy Sliders Sliders and Chicken
Speaker 1This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lisa Swiftney.
Speaker 2Hi everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast, episode number 109. Today we have with us Good Neighbor Raham, and he is the owner of Savvy Sliders in Rochester and Auburn Hills. So, raham, thank you so much for being a guest today.
Speaker 3Thank you so much, Lisa. Thank you for having me here.
Speaker 2So why don't we start off by you telling us a little bit about your business, tell us about Savvy Sliders?
Speaker 3your business. Tell us about Savvy Sliders, All right. Well, Savvy Sliders, it's an amazing brand that I fell in love with Three years ago. I would say we serve amazing, amazing fried chicken, hand-fried fried chicken and amazing sliders. We have 12 different sliders that we offer from burgers, fried chicken, grilled chicken. Hangover steakhouse Tastes amazing. We do a lot of catering and, yeah, I mean, everything in our menus tastes really good. We have great sides. We have cheese curds and earrings and we have amazing shakes that we sell a ton of them. You can upgrade your shakes, drinks to a shake, to any order combos. So all these things made me fall in love with the brand, and everything at Savvy Slider is cooked fresh, and that one makes it taste really good.
Speaker 2And I can attestify that is very fresh, it is very good and the shakes are amazing. So so tell our listeners about your journey. How did you get into this business?
Speaker 3get into this business. So, as I said, three years ago I was a new location popped up and I was driving by and for a long time in Michigan I haven't seen any great chicken places and I love chicken, you know, especially chicken fingers. And one day my wife and I were driving on this road and a new place popped up and it says Famous Fried Chicken and I told my wife, let's go try it, let's give it a try, hopefully it's good. And we planned it out. Two days later we went there and I ordered chicken and I was surprised. It was amazing. I ordered chicken and I was surprised. It was amazing. I loved it and actually while I was sitting there eating my food, I saw a poster that says franchise now, or something like this. And what I did is, while I was eating my food, I emailed them and four days later they contacted me and here I am I have two savvy sliders.
Speaker 2And the chicken is very good too. So I can say everything I've had at the restaurant has been amazing. So I appreciate that. So can you tell us about any myths or misconceptions that you hear about in your industry?
Speaker 3Yes, a lot of people like are used to frozen chicken fingers, frozen burgers, and ours is fresh. And when people taste our chicken they sometimes they think they're undercooked. They don't understand how fresh chicken should taste like. And we have to explain to them that we hand-bread the chicken. It's raw, we cook it raw and we hand-bread them. We put them in a broaster not a fryer, but a broaster um, it's a whole different, different way of cooking. Uh, chicken fingers and um, and they're not frozen. As I said, they taste a lot different. And also our sliders. We hear a lot from customers, for example, $3.99 is a lot for a slider. Our patties are actually 2.5 oz. They're big, big patties. They're not tiny sliders. They're bigger, bolder and better.
Speaker 2Yeah, and again I can say that they are. They are not your normal sliders, so they are really good and you know, having that fresh food is so important, you know for people and they look for that. So thank you for explaining that to us.
Speaker 3Thank you for that.
Speaker 2So thank you for explaining that to us. Thank you. So when you're not working on your business, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3we live in Michigan and during summer we try to go on a picnic. Most of the time we try to go on a picnic Most of the time we try to enjoy the beautiful weather on a lake, for most of the part, watching movies. When I have a lot of free time, what I do is I go door-to-door to businesses in the area to introduce them about the brand. I encourage people to come in, as we love to see people coming in to our restaurants dining in. For most of the part, yeah, hang out with the family. My priority is family and I open a business and invest all my money in a business so I can have a lot more time with my family to enjoy life.
Speaker 2And family is important, and you do have a beautiful family, so thank you. Can you describe for us one hardship or a life challenge that you rose above and can now say because of that challenge that you're better and or stronger for it?
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean there's a lot that I can think of right now, but since let's relate something to Savvy Sliders, one of the challenge, you know catering that we face a lot, especially during football games. We get a lot of orders within one or two hours that cannot be done within one or two hours. So this is a big challenge for us to find a way how to prep all the food in a small amount of time and deliver it fresh. So this is like a big challenge for us at Savvy Sliders, especially during catering events, and yeah so.
Speaker 2And I can understand that. So, typically, how much time would you like to have for catering orders?
Speaker 3So this is how we put it. You know, for each 24 pack slider that we cook, it takes us about 15 minutes. For example, we had a customer that ordered four of them and they wanted them to be done within 20 minutes. It's impossible to get it done and we tried to explain that to the customer, but that customer wasn't understanding at some point that food takes longer to cook. Especially, we cook everything fresh. We cannot just cook burgers and put them in the warmer. We don't do that. We don't like to put anything in the warmers. We always want to cook everything fresh.
Speaker 2Oh, that is really good to know. Everything is fresh. You want it fresh for your client. You don't want it sitting around Correct. Yes, very good. What is one thing that you wish our listeners knew about your business?
Speaker 3That we cook everything fresh. Be patient with us, because we want you to have the great taste that I had three years ago and this is my passion, you know to deliver the quality. And we care about customer service for most of the part and we want you to come in and enjoy our food. And I want you to know that when you eat at Savvy Sliders Rochester Hills location, you're eating at a very, very clean restaurant that follow hygiene and you will always get that excellent customer service, no matter what, if you come in in the morning or if you come in at night, one minute before closing, you will still get that fresh food and that great customer service.
Speaker 3And we ask we open late? We open at 10 pm. We don't close at 8. Um, friday, saturday, we do close at 12 am. A lot of people think that we we close early, but we are not. And a lot of people, uh get, get afraid to come in one minute or two minutes before closing because they think that we're going to just give them leftover food. We don't actually have leftover food. We don't overcook and sit things in the warmer. We actually order everything. I mean we cook everything fresh.
Speaker 2That is good, that is really really good and that's important to people. So our listeners are intrigued, so I know I'm intrigued. I want to come to Savvy Slater's, so how do they find you, where are you and where do they need to go to have one of your tremendous burgers or chicken sandwiches?
Speaker 3So I have two locations. The first location is inside Great Lakes Crossing Mall and no, we are not at the food court. We have our own dining area right in front of our Louis and AMC Theater. We're at District 6. You will never miss us. If you go into District 6, you will see us, the big red building inside the mall. So and Rochester is my second location that we opened three months ago. It's on South Rochester Road, right in front Mercedes-Benz dealership. You will never miss us. There's two flags American flag underneath the Savvy Sliders flag. If you're heading north, we will be on your left side. If you're heading south, we will be on your right side.
Local Food Podcast Promotion
Speaker 2That is great. Well, raham, thank you so much for coming on our podcast today telling us about how we can get fresh food made to order the way we like it and where you're located. I appreciate your time today you're located.
Speaker 3I appreciate your time today. Thank you, Lisa, for having me here. I appreciate the time and I hope we see you soon. And actually, as a matter of fact, for our listeners, if they mentioned this broadcast, they will get a free shake with their meal. So make sure you make sure you mentioned that broadcast and we'll get you a free shake with their meal. Oh yeah. So make sure you mention that broadcast and we'll get you that free shake.
Speaker 2Oh, that is great. Well, thank you so much, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3Thank you, Lisa.
Speaker 1Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Rochester. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Rochestercom. That's GNP Rochestercom, or call 248-988-9640.