Through the Door: The Insider's Perspective on Running a Business

How to Become a Brunch Boss

• Nevada State Bank • Episode 9

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In “Episode Nine: From Busser to Brunch Boss,” host Megan Comfort welcomes Nik Poptchev, Co-Owner of AmeriBrunch Cafe, to share his remarkable journey from Bulgarian immigrant and Chicago busser to successful Las Vegas restaurateur. Poptchev recounts how AmeriBrunch Cafe evolved from a modest coffee shop into a bustling Downtown Las Vegas brunch hotspot, driven by a commitment to authentic hospitality, customer feedback, and hands-on leadership. He opens up about the challenges of renovating a restaurant space, the strategic use of social media storytelling, and his vision for expanding or franchising the beloved local eatery. This episode offers an inspiring look at resilience, entrepreneurship, and the power of community in building a thriving business.

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Thank you for tuning in. This is Through the Door, the insider's perspective on running a business. I'm making comfort, small business manager at Nevada State Bank, and I am here with Nick Popjev. He is the owner and operator of Amara Brunch, a brunch restaurant that is located near Fremont Street within walking distance. It was established in 2017, so I want to say thank you for being here, Nick. Of course, thank you for having me. This is a podcast where we interview business owners and we get their experiences and stories of the trials and tribulations of business ownership, the day-to-day.(...) Tell me a little bit about Amara Brunch and how it came into being.

 

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Amara Brunch was opened seven years ago in 2017 by my wife and I.

 

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Prior to that, we did have restaurant experience. My wife was working for restaurants, anything from serving to bartending, and I've been working in restaurants since high school. My first job was a busser in Chicago where I grew up. I'm originally from Bulgaria.

 

(...)

 

I'm 38 years old and back in the day when I was a kid,(...) my father actually ran a restaurant in downtown of our city called Caravo, which was a lot of fun for me because I was in first grade and all the kids would come with me after school and go to our bar restaurant where my father would give us food and drinks and all the waitresses would greet us like we're such a big deal. But we had multiple businesses in Bulgaria and when we eventually moved to America,

 

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we first went to Chicago,

 

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a very large Bulgarian community in Chicago, probably the biggest.

 

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Some of us call it the capital of Bulgaria.

 

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It's good to know. I didn't know that. Yeah. A lot of our friends were already there, very established, and went to school there,(...) sports, got my first job there, and I was a busser in a local Irish pub.

 

(...)

 

I really loved the job and one day the general manager, I still remember his name, Ryan, he came up to me and he said, "You're the best busser we ever had. You are now a general busser." I looked at him and said, "Wow, that's a great position." I had no idea what these positions mean.

 

(...)

 

So when he said that, I thought I was being taken to the next level in the restaurant business. I told everybody and I was working really hard. I said,(...) "This is it for me.(...) The restaurant business is where I want to work, even though I'm going to school at the same time." I just felt like it was very comfortable and I love being around people. I love not only customer service and talking to new people every day, meeting people from all over the world and the country visiting, but also I loved the process of dealing with co-workers,

 

(...)

 

and training, and learning new systems that they will implement in the restaurant all the time like specials, weekly recipes, new things that they want to try out, new drinks.

 

(...)

 

Eventually, I became a food runner, which was a bump up. Then I said, once I turned 18, I want to be a server.(...) So from there, I became a server at a local Greek restaurant. I was working there for about six months and I was able to meet a lot of people. I worked really hard after school, went to high school at the time. So it was pretty tough waking up in the morning because this was a night job.(...) But the experience was amazing and the owners were on top of everything. This was a family business ran for 100 years. They were making pies in the basement of their business since... That's a lot of longevity. Yeah, and it was breakfast, lunch, and dinner, diner.(...) It was called around the clock, so they were always open.

 

(...)

 

And that really stuck with me. When you love something that you do, eventually you want to do more of it. So it was just an amazing experience for me to not only work in a restaurant, but learn a lot from management and the owners. Yeah, you got to learn more than just your role, the operational aspects of running a restaurant and all the things that really play into it. Correct.(...) And I also learned that it's not just about working hard, but working efficiently. Because when you're in the restaurant, there's so many things you have to do at the same time. When you go to an interview for the first time and you apply for a restaurant job, and they ask you, "How are you at multitasking?" Everybody says yes. But to me, multitasking means doing the right thing at the right time.

 

(...)

 

There could be a thousand things happening, but if you can go to this table at the right time and fix an issue with a customer or improve their experience, for me, that's everything. Yeah, prioritization.(...) Having 10 different things pop all at once, and it's like, "What do you address first?" Yes.

 

(...)

 

So when my friends moved out to Vegas sometime after,(...) we were neighbors, Bulgarian friends, grew up with them, and they moved out to Vegas first. They opened a pizza chain of restaurants.(...) And I was coming to Vegas for fun pretty frequently. Young guy, Vegas, good spot to be. Yeah, couple of times a year, you know. And I loved Vegas. So one day, I visited, and I said, "You know what? I should just stay here." This is hospitality.

 

(...)

 

I saw the potential that they had with their business, and I loved the restaurant business. And at the time I was doing marketing for school, I was doing a lot of computer work, because my father also owned a computer shop in Bulgaria,(...) to where he had an office where he would train people that have never used a computer before and also teach them English at the same time. Very important skills in a country where that's hard to come by. Yeah. So that was very important to me,

 

(...)

 

to continue learning about new systems in computers. I learned some software, some coding. I did website design.

 

(...)

 

I did a lot of marketing for local businesses already and a lot of websites. And I also had a few of my own back in the day. But when I came to Vegas,(...) and I helped my friends with their pizzeria shops, and I said, "You know what? I think it's time. One day, I will own a business like this."(...) And when I met my wife here in Vegas, and we got married, and her restaurant expertise and experience and how good she is with customers... Where did she work? Did she work on the strip or off the strip? She was off the strip in a local Italian restaurant. Okay. And she was bartending and pretty much managing the whole bar area.

 

(...)

 

And she told me everything that she's going through on a daily basis, as you share with your partner. But the things that she was able to do for her restaurant, even though it wasn't hers, she was able to increase their sales. And she was able to fix a lot of the issues that they had with inventory from wasting, for example, alcohol and food cost. Okay. She increased a lot of that, and the restaurant grew tremendously from that. So... That is a bit... That's a hard thing to do in the restaurant industry, is kind of manage and minimize waste and make sure that you're using everything. Because some of the things that you have have a shelf life, like the food that you use, especially if you want fresh ingredients, you have to make sure that you're very careful with how much inventory you have.(...) Yeah, exactly. So one day, my friends who had the pizzeria business were selling their pizzeria.(...) And first thing I did is I picked up the phone and I wanted to call them. But it was already sold to somebody else. But I said, "You know what? We have to do something with my wife." And we were in a very difficult inner past because we were deciding at that time it was either buy a house or open a business. So we decided to open a business instead. Nice. So... Either one's a good investment, but business is probably the good best choice. Yeah. I mean, you know, it always depends on the situation. But we just felt so confident and so comfortable in the business(...) that there was just like nothing left except going in that direction.(...) So for me, you know, and for her, that was very important to find the right location.(...) So tell us more about that, because that's one thing that every time anyone thinks about a restaurant or back in the day, before social media and digital marketing was so big, it was location, location, location. And in some respects, that's still somewhat accurate. But what led you to the location that you have? Because it is kind of tucked away. It's not necessarily this highly visible spot downtown.(...) Yeah. So the location is actually a couple blocks away from Fremont,(...) which is the original downtown of Las Vegas. And it's a very high foot traffic area, but it's very hard to find at the same time because you do have to stray off the beaten path to find it. If you are looking for a local bank branch or you're looking at visiting the courthouse for some reason or trying to go into that direction, you would find yourself lost very fast. So you have to know where you're going. And the way people know they're going these days is online.

 

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So when I first visited the location that was for sale, it was from a previous owner that owned it, and they were running it as a deli coffee shop where they had pastries and salad, like a very small salad bar and grab and go sandwiches.

 

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It was a very small, tight space and I think it was just him and his wife running it with another employer or two. So more of a walk up, grab and go type of-- Yeah. And that was perfect for downtown in that area, in that location, because all they had was all the traffic that worked in downtown. They didn't have any tourism.

 

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Tourists didn't go in that direction at the time.

 

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And that's where we saw an opportunity to say, not only is it going to be more affordable to obtain this location, but also we see potential in increasing the traffic from the tourism on Fremont or potentially the strip, which is very close, just a five minute drive away. Or a five minute walk away. So they kind of abandoned the idea of maybe attracting tourists, clients, and just focused more on the office environment and the professional buildings that were-- Oh, they were actually closed on the weekends. Oh, wow. Yeah, they were closed Saturday, Sundays. Those are like your busiest times. Yeah, and that was huge because when you see a business that's closed for a couple of days a week,(...) you have real potential. Because these days, when you're looking at-- when you're scouting a potential to purchase and to open your own restaurant or a coffee shop or a business, you're looking at what they're doing at the moment and you want to see how far you can take it. So a lot of these listings would say and mention things like, there's always potential to increase revenue from online sales, deliveries, catering. But that's something that everybody should be doing already.

 

(...)

 

When you see limited business hours and when you see the limited amount of days they're open, that opens the door to a lot of opportunity.

 

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If you have the drive to do it, of course. So tell me a little bit more about-- so you kind of identified this location. You saw the opportunity because there was limited hours and some of the things that they were doing were more like grab and go type of things because your restaurant experience is very different. So how did that evolution of what Amera Branches start and become what it is today?

 

(...)

 

So we are different than a lot of probably restaurants because we listen to the customer the most. So when we first opened, it was basically a coffee shop similar to what the previous owner had. But we just expanded upon the coffee menu because we are European and we love coffee more than anything. Me too. I'm not European, but I love coffee too. So it was espresso machines, latte art,(...) over 100 recipes for different drinks. And we went crazy with coffee. We had the pour overs. We had the cold brew. We were steeping 24-hour nitros. So it was a lot. It was a lot that we did with coffee. But customers would come out to our location, and we were very small at the time, and they would ask for food.(...) We had pastries. We had grab and go sandwiches, like paninis and salads and wraps. But they were asking for breakfast because coffee goes very well with breakfast.

 

(...)

 

And we knew that breakfast is one of the biggest categories in food. And we knew that we would love to do breakfast. And that was always something that we thought about,(...) the morning traffic in that area.

 

(...)

 

But it was very difficult at the time because we had to expand our footprint and we had to increase our capacity in the restaurant. We started out as a single unit where it was around 1,000 square feet. And we had to grow from there to acquire the unit next door and potentially utilize the lobby for a waiting area where people can wait for a table.

 

(...)

 

We also built a kiosk towards the street where you can grab and go and order a drink or pick up your order. Walk-up window. Walk-up window, which helped a lot.

 

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And we wanted to have a full kitchen so we can do proper breakfast. OK, so it didn't have a full kitchen initially? No, it did not. So you had to do that build-out. I think the only thing we had at the time was the panini maker, a microwave, and a couple of refrigerators from the previous owner. OK. Yeah. So then we put in a full-size hood, grease trap in the ground. We did all the ovens, grills, flat tops.

 

(...)

 

And slowly over time, we renovated a couple of times. We were closed during those times, very crucial times for us, because each time we closed for a couple of months, the last one was four months. Oh, wow. Yeah. And that was the big renovation. How do you make that decision, I guess? And then what do you do in the meantime to just make sure(...) that your client base knows you're reopening? Yeah. So a lot of locals, a lot of people thought it's just another restaurant that's closed.

 

(...)

 

And we were definitely speaking with everyone to make sure that we're just renovating, we're upgrading, and we're taking the business to the next level, which is in a direction where we wanted to always take it as a full-size restaurant.

 

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And to have-- we promised everyone we're going to have a full menu. We're not going to have a limited menu of food items and drinks. We're going to have a full menu. We're going to put a bar in. We're going to have drinks.

 

(...)

 

It's not just going to be coffee and grab and go. And people got excited about the idea. Over time,(...) whatever we already created, my wife is the specialist behind the menu. So she has a taste unlike anyone I've ever seen to where she would look at a basic recipe, such as a chicken pesto panini, which everyone has tried one at some point. And she would say, it's missing this. It needs that. And also, it doesn't have that real flavor that I'm looking from a fresh mozzarella or a homemade pesto sauce would bring.(...) And something that she introduced was her special touch to the menu. So she would--(...) every single item that we would put in a menu, she would make sure it tasted just like back home. And it's not just about having a good recipe that she would come up with, also purchasing the highest quality of ingredients.(...) Price, food cost was never the reason why we would put something on the menu or not. She always strived to find the best of the best,

 

(...)

 

whether it was a very difficult time for the business to purchase a specific ingredient because of a seasonal item or something that's just hard to come by. If it was on the menu, she would make sure that it's done right. And when people tasted that-- and we have a lot of feedback that people visiting from all over the world, different countries trying new things all the time. And they would tell us that they've had this specific panini in their country.

 

(...)

 

And it's not only tastes as good, but also tastes different enough to be unique, which is very important because you don't just want to bring it to your restaurant and have people eat the same thing they've always been eating.

 

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We believe that when you're visiting Las Vegas, which is the capital of tourism, and you want to try something new,

 

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it should really be new.

 

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We've seen a lot of people come down and look for items that they've already had back home,(...) like steak and eggs. Something that-- Standard. Standard, basic recipe.

 

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We decided to take it in a different direction. The flank steak with everything on the menu is real. So we use real cracked eggs. There is no ingredients that would sacrifice the meal for speed.

 

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And we also make sure that when it comes to presentation, people want to take a picture of it. It's very important to us.

 

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Well, that also creates the kind of the virality, or the spreading of the word. And I looked at your Yelp and all of your reviews. And it is amazing how many photos-- not only that you guys have put on there that are just beautiful photos of your food, but also your customers.

 

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A lot of people now go to places based on reviews. I know I do. I'll be sitting in a restaurant, and the menu will be right in front of me. But I'll be on Yelp looking at who has posted what and what food looks good, because that's just kind of part of the experience of ordering and making sure that you're trying the right thing. Yeah, I mean,(...) it really is what they say. You eat with your eyes. When you first look at the plate that is served to you,

 

(...)

 

you either say wow, or you want to try it first. There's two different things in the restaurant business. One is presentation, and the other one is a taste.

 

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Now, when it comes to service and customer service,

 

(...)

 

that's our background. My wife and I have always strived for something that we see not only in ourselves, but also in other restaurants, where they would always want to make sure the customer is feeling special. And special meaning when a server approaches you, or when it doesn't matter what position they are in the restaurant. When they speak to you, you feel like you're the only customer in the restaurant. That's very important to us. How do you foster that with so many employees? Yeah. Like, what are some of the things that you kind of like share with your employees, or how do you cultivate that type of culture? Yeah, that's a good question, because that's probably one of the most difficult parts in the restaurant business, is managing employees and finding the right employees.

 

(...)

 

Because there's some people that can be taught to have excellent customer service and be professional and multitask correctly, but there are some people that just have the raw talent. And as soon as they come in,(...) and you know right off the bat from the interview that this person is special. Because he or she made me feel special.

 

(...)

 

And whether you are a manager or an owner, and you're interviewing people that are coming in to apply for a job,(...) when they treat you like you're the only person there, instead of looking around and trying to gauge whether this restaurant is for them, or why they want to work here, or what's the name, because they found it online, but they don't remember where they actually came in.(...) That happens a lot. And that's something that you don't want in an employee.(...) That's when you find out in the first couple of minutes, you find out this person is not here for us. They're here to make money, which is fine.(...) That's a good reason as well. But they shouldn't only be there to make money. They should be there also because they love what they do, which is working in a restaurant and loving customer service and seeing people happy from treating them well or serving them great food. And when I see that, and when my wife sees that, when we ask people, and we always talk to them, and we try to find out what brought you here, that's a very important question for us. Not as much as,(...) for example, how many years of experience do you have? Because you could have a lot of experience. And still not be great. Yeah, but if we have a hard time communicating,

 

(...)

 

that's going to be rough.(...) So that matters a lot to us. We can see how personal someone is, how personable, and how comfortable we feel when we talk to them.

 

(...)

 

And that's just the first step. Once you overcome that first step of interviewing

 

(...)

 

and giving the green light to that person, it's very easy to train them. It's very easy to go through the first two weeks and just basically make sure that they're learning the menus and basically learning how to work in our system, in our environment, when it comes to the way we manage the front of the house or the way we manage the business. Because we are also not only owners, but we're operators. So we're on the floor. And we work with them. So they see us constantly on a daily basis. And the way we manage the business and the way we run the business, they can see what we do at any given time.

 

(...)

 

And that means a lot to them. Because when our employees see them working on the floor with us, they see that we're going through the same thing as they are. Well, and it's funny because as we continue to do these episodes, I'm starting to see commonalities with great operators of business owners that actually are working shoulder to shoulder with their employees. And how the way that you are as a leader and the way that you conduct yourself and how you treat others and all of that, they start to emulate that. So if you're scatterbrains, your employees will be scatterbrains. If you are more focused and you actually can prioritize and you are doing things based on your experiences that really improve the customer experience and improve the operations of the business, and they start to emulate that too, naturally.

 

(...)

 

So you talk about the customer feedback and how that's really important that you listen to your customers. What are some of the ways that you do that? Is it just through being there and talking to your customers? Is there other areas or ways that you accumulate that data, that information?

 

(...)

 

Yeah, that's one of the ways. And that's how you start out with is on the ground level, on the floor.

 

(...)

 

But we have a lot of information that we're looking at, whether it's through the point of sale system or the website or social media. We would look at all the information when it comes to where customers are coming from and also for what reason they're coming into town for. Because when we have tourism and we are expecting a volume increase in covers for the day or for the weekend,(...) when we look at the data and we see that, for example, this weekend there's going to be a CES convention of 200,000 people. We're expecting a small percentage to come through our front door.

 

(...)

 

We also prep our employees for that as well. And we would overstaff. And we would make sure that we are not only prepared

 

(...)

 

to handle the rush or the increase in volume, but also we don't want any customer to feel like we are rushing through them as we're serving them. Because we've seen that a lot over the years in a lot of restaurants where you as a customer,(...) you can see the employees are busy. You can see the employees are overperforming.(...) And they're spreading themselves thin. But you do feel bad for them. But at the same time, you are paying for that experience.(...) So you want to make sure that there's a fine line you can stay in not to make the customer feel uncomfortable.

 

(...)

 

Because that's one thing that can happen, is if they start feeling a certain way during they stay in the restaurant, then they can get to a point to where--

 

(...)

 

I love the-- they would say, I love the food. And I loved the customer service.(...) But it's a little too hectic and stressful for me in that atmosphere. Why don't we go somewhere more quiet and chill and just have a more standard experience?

 

(...)

 

This is, I think, the main difference between a family-owned business and a franchise or a large chain is where the customer would feel the difference when it comes to the amount of employees and the amount of service(...) they have available at the time. Because when you walk into a corporate store location, for example, on a large franchise,

 

(...)

 

they usually have enough staff to accommodate every single person. If they do not, they would not accept any more covers.

 

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And they have multiple people for each position available at all times.

 

(...)

 

And they have the resources to overcome any event or convention or festival that is happening in town.

 

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They have all the data already. They have done this 1,000 times.(...) So you as a small location, let alone a single location like we are,(...) we have to consider those factors when we're running the business is that we want to make them feel like they're not in a small business. We want to make them feel like we're just a restaurant that you would enjoy the food and enjoy the customer service. But we don't want to make you feel uncomfortable or stressed out by the fact that we are just a small business trying to run a large business. That for us is very important. And we've been running the business that way since day one.(...) From hiring enough employees to hiring the right employees to make sure they can do the job and our employees are the best.(...) They can handle anything. Is that really just from that hiring experience?

 

(...)

 

You're in an environment that's highly competitive with the restaurant industry. So how do you retain those employees? How do they stick around? What's the longevity? So our average retention is pretty high for a restaurant. It's two years. We do have most of our kitchen staff with us since the beginning, since day one. That's a big deal. Yeah.

 

(...)

 

And when I would say the hardest part about managing a restaurant is also not only managing employees, but managing--(...) I would say managing the right employees. Because you want to retain those employees. And you want to make sure that not only they stay with you long term, but they're happy. And you reward them for their job. So it's easy to manage someone who needs to be trained or somebody who needs to improve in their field. That's for us. It's something that can be improved.

 

(...)

 

It's easier to manage employees that walk in through the door. And their whole task, their whole goal is just to be a busser.

 

(...)

 

That's a single position that a lot of people can fulfill.(...) And they just have to be fast and good at it. But we don't just require bussers. We're looking for people that can speak to customers and also be able to accommodate customers.

 

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Because we don't look at positions in the restaurant as a hierarchy. We don't look at the ground level of employees being bussers, food runners.(...) And you look at servers, bartenders, management.

 

(...)

 

When a customer is asking a question to an employee,

 

(...)

 

they're asking the first employee they see.

 

(...)

 

They don't know what your position is. And they don't care. They don't care. They want their needs solved.

 

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Whether it's something simple as a to-go box, or they want another drink,(...) or they say, just take my plate. I'm done with it. And they haven't touched the plate.

 

(...)

 

Most employees would grab the plate and just drop it off at the bus stop for the dishwasher to clean.(...) But that means that customer did not like the food.

 

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And they did not touch it. So if there is no communication between that employee and the customer, and then from the employee afterwards to management to let us know that happened,

 

(...)

 

that customer will walk away unhappy and most likely let you know afterwards, whether it's online or through their friends where the mouth spreads really fast.(...) And that's a bad experience at a restaurant. You want to prevent that. And how you prevent it is being able to make sure that everyone that's working in the restaurant has the same job, which is we are all taking care of each other and we're taking care of our customers.

 

(...)

 

That reminds me of-- I have that same concept, actually, with one of my husband's companies. It's small. There's not very many employees. So it's a little easier to manage. But I make them watch this episode of Ted Lasso, actually. And you've probably seen the episode. It's the episode of Total Football. And he just comes up with this idea that he thinks is new, but it's not. And it's just about every position and everyone learning the other positions on the team. Because at any given point, you just need to do what the situation requires. It has nothing to do with necessarily what your actual main core job is most of the time. It's about assessing a situation and saying, what does this situation need? And how can I become that? Because that's what it needs right now. And that's how you make everything better. And that's how you run more of an efficient business. And I love making people watch that episode. Because one, it's very inspiring and entertaining. But it resonates with them a little bit more. They get it. They understand the importance of doing what is necessary, not necessarily looking at your job title and saying, that's not my job. That's not the type of person that anybody wants to work with. Is, oh, well, that's not my job. So I don't need to do that. Don't ask me. People want to work with other people that are willing to figure it out and be a part of a team. And I think that's how you foster great culture and like-minded individuals. It can be contagious.(...) Yeah, that's actually a perfect example.

 

(...)

 

There's a lot of examples in that show that actually help restaurants.(...) I would advise a lot of restaurant owners to watch that show. As a bank, we watch it. We had an annual officers meeting that was Ted Lasso themed. And it is a really inspiring show. And it's really fun to see the character development and the relationships. But yeah, I would agree. I think it's great for business owners and operators and anyone managing a team. It's a great show. And specifically, that example is great. Because what you mentioned about every employee trying(...) to work in a different position that they usually do not work in, and not only are they able to see how that position operates and how that position works, but also they're able to respect those individuals in those positions afterwards. Because they're able to experience what they're going through on a daily basis.

 

(...)

 

Because a lot of people, for example, in soccer, you would say, oh, he's a goalie. He just sits there at the line. And he's waiting for the ball to come. He doesn't have to run across the field all the time. Exactly. While you're a goalie for 10 minutes and you just lost the team, that's a big deal. And then you start to appreciate where and how far you have to be to take that position in order to be successful. And everybody has a place.(...) And whether it's a restaurant or a sports team, I think that's really important. It matters a lot. So tell me more about the marketing aspect of your business, just because that is one thing that I think is difficult for any business to really become noticed.(...) And we talked about this before, how views don't necessarily equate to sales.(...) So tell me a little bit about your philosophy with the digital marketing space and how you have kind of focused on certain things that you know work.

 

(...)

 

Yes. So when it comes to restaurants now compared to even 2017 when we opened, it has changed a lot because of social media.(...) And obviously, a lot of businesses utilize social media on a day-to-day basis.

 

(...)

 

But I think that the online landscape has changed so much that if you are not involved to the point where you love to be a creator,(...) you would miss out. Because when you're browsing online and when you're looking through all these profiles of whether it's a business or an influencer or a creator, something is specializing.

 

(...)

 

And it looks beautiful. It looks professionally done.(...) It looks well shot.

 

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But there's something missing. It's that-- I would say it's that organic touch. It's something that you cannot-- no matter how many times you replicate, you cannot accomplish a homemade video.

 

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And I would say that, for example, when we first started posting on social media,(...) it

 

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makes such a big difference to be able to show how the business works behind the scenes and also in front of the house.

 

(...)

 

So I would post-- at the time, it was Facebook and Instagram. So I would post specific examples of creating a new special or working on a new recipe.(...) And whether it's a sneak peek or something, that just makes it feel--

 

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it makes it feel authentic because your viewers and also your customers are able to see you grow with them. So every time you post something that shows them that not only are you keeping your page updated, but you're also taking them on a journey with you.(...) For example, doing our main closures of the business, we had to be very active online. And the customers were able to find out that this is what we're going through. This is why it's taking so long. But at the end, it's going to be worth it. We're upgrading the bar or upgrading the kitchen. This is the menu we're working on, graphics.(...) And that made a huge difference.(...) And I guess you have to think of it as not only are you a family-owned business or small business or large business. You have to think of it as somebody has to be able to relate to you. And most people cannot relate to you as a business owner.

 

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So you have to show them that it's not that much different. You're going through the same things they are.

 

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For you, this is work. For them, it's just another restaurant. But for you, this is not only your job, but this is your livelihood. So you have to make it more appealing. And at the same time, you have to make it more authentic.(...) And I think that by introducing your audience to the way you run your business and also of the way you want to take your-- in what direction you want to take your business in.

 

(...)

 

They appreciate that a lot. People want to be supporters of a journey with a company. And it does. It becomes relatable. And it becomes something that they can cheer on and support. Exactly. But it's funny. I think about even Gary Vee. He's a big media person. And he said, you aren't in whatever business you think you're in. You're in the media business. That's kind of what every business should be thinking. Because you have to be a part of the social media world and the content. And the more that you can create that authentic voice for yourself, the better off you'll be. I think about that even with what we do as a bank, that you have to be authentic. You have to have some level of authenticity and your own style to it. Because people will gravitate to that and want to work with you. You're not doing anything really that different from everyone else. What makes it special and different is you.

 

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And so that's a very important piece to it. So what is next for a merit branch? What are some of the things that you want to share that you think you'll be working on in the future? Like if I were to pull you back here three years from now,

 

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what would you say?

 

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I would say that we have looked into--

 

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we are a single location for a long time. And the restaurant business seven years is a very long time.

 

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And we have gotten to the point where we're able to look at other spaces and locations that we might be able to expand into and open our first second location.(...) But at the same time, we believe that we can replicate what we have done and be able to grow at a much faster and better rate than we are right now if we were to franchise.

 

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So we believe that we should go into that direction right off the bat.

 

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Wow, nice. Well, thank you, Nick, so much for being here today. I really appreciate all of your time. If you haven't checked out a merit branch, please go. It's great. Their coffee is amazing. Their food is really good. I know. I go there actually quite often. Some of our bank colleagues are the ones that turn me onto it. Shout out to Jon Vander Ploeg. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, thanks.

 

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Good?

 

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Yay. That was a first take, right?

 

(...)

 

Woo! That was good.