DOES YOUR RESTAURANT HAVE AN IDENTITY CRISIS?

In the world of food service, sometimes we get wrapped up in the day to day operations and lose site of some important things, like, who we want to be. This is perfectly normal, but it can also be a perfect storm to unravel what we started out to create in the first place. In this episode we uncover some pitfalls, I am not saying don't serve cheese sticks or cheesecake, I am saying do not let them be your identity. Have some strong performers on your menu that showcase who you really are and what specialties you have mastered. The biggest pitfall in brand identity is allowing your distributor to have a bigger identity in your restaurant than you do.

Local Eats are the Best Eats!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Well, good morning. It is July the 5th, 2026, and straight from the Halle Caverns studio, this is the Mad Food Critic podcast. Now, today, I hope I don't lose anyone. I have something that I feel I want to deliver today's message as if that we are sitting in a room. Just me and however many restaurant owners are ready to listen. That's what I'd like today's podcast to be. It's just a simple conversation regarding some issues that are out there that I see that others don't because I've been so many years on all sides of the food service industry. I've been a food service rep, I've owned a restaurant, I've built restaurants, I've written training manuals front of the house, back of the house. I've done all these things. It doesn't make me an expert. What it does is it gives me an insight that a lot of people don't have. And so today, something occurred to me when we went out to eat the other night, and I thought, you know, I hadn't thought about this. And so I just feel like that I have a confession to make. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Because even though I'm gonna make a few of you uncomfortable today, that's actually good because uncomfortable is where improvement begins. So before any keyboard warriors start typing, no, people love our cheesecake. Relax. I'm not talking about whether people like frozen desserts or frozen appetizers. I'm talking about something much bigger. I'm talking about identity. Here's something that most customers don't know. I spent many a year working in food service sales. And one of the first things that we were taught as a sales rep is how to identify our competitors when we walk into a restaurant. You look at the menu, you look at the appetizers, you look at the desserts. You could usually tell which trucks delivered to that restaurant. You looked at the sugar packets on the table, and now one of my pet peeves is you look at the ketchup bottle. Uh, because that seems to be the thing out there these days, is to have a distributor's brand ketchup on your table. I mean, who are you trying to sell? Are you trying to sell your restaurant or are you trying to be a salesman for the distributor? I'm not saying it's bad. I'm just saying in a restaurant, in the food service industry, details matter. And when I sit down to a table, if it has a food service distributor sugar packet, that doesn't really bother me that much. However, if I sit down and I see sugar packets that have no food service distributor, I was like, wow, they're trying to this restaurant is trying to establish its own identity. I applaud you for that. When I'm my eyes move from the sugar packet to the ketchup bottle, and I see a food service brand ketchup, when you've got brands out there that identify not nationally, globally, as in Heinz. And I'm just throwing that one out there because they are globally recognized as the top ketchup. If you want to serve the best, why would you not have the best on the table? That's the only question I have for you. Alright, so let's let's let's keep getting into this. So you walk into a restaurant, first thing I look at the sugar packets, I look at uh different boxes around the restaurant because you may have boxes of cups or napkins, or you would be surprised. And if you don't believe me, do this test yourself. Walk into your own restaurant, into your own dining room, and sit down. Any table, you choose the table. Now, I will usually sit at a table that I can see the kitchen, especially if I'm trying to identify who the food service receiver, who my competitors are. I'm going to sit at a table that I can see the kitchen. So whenever that kitchen door swings open, I get a three-second glance of something on a shelf. And I can automatically recognize by the logos of who's in there. I can go to the restroom, I can see the towel dispensers, the toilet paper dispensers. Again, I can see who's in there. Because everything is stamped with branding, which is the way it's designed. But just ask yourself a question: who am I trying to sell? Am I trying to sell my restaurant to my customers? Or am I trying to tell my customers, hey, here's our food service distributors that we use, aren't they great? No. You sell yourself because at the end of the day, that's where your paycheck comes from. All right. So let's keep let's keep moving along here. Restaurant owners, I've got some bad news. If your signature appetizer has a barcode, it's not your signature appetizer. It's your distributors. That mozzarella cheese stick, I've seen it. The spinach dip, I've seen it. The brownie Sunday, I've seen it. The only thing different is your menu cover. Look, the chef didn't make the dessert, he just supervised the thawing process. Or how about this one? Some restaurants have chefs, others have excellent box opening skills. And if your friar knows more recipes in your kitchen, you got problems. Now before anybody gets upset, let's be fair. Hear me here. There's nothing wrong with using distributors. There's nothing wrong with using distributor products. Every restaurant does. The problem is when the distributor becomes more creative than the restaurant owner. That's where you lost me. Look, there are some food manufacturers out there that are absolutely phenomenal at some of the things that they have. Absolutely off the chain for a frozen or pre-made product, they're absolutely off the chain and they are high-end. But you know what most impresses me about restaurants is when I can sit down and have an entire meal, and I have no absolutely no idea of where they got the dessert, where they got the appetizer, where they sourced the ingredients for the main entree. Because maybe they didn't. Maybe, just maybe, somebody made it. Maybe somebody's grandma's banana pudding recipe is still alive. I mean, how hard is it to make a banana pudding? You want to know another one? Pecan pie. It just drives me bananas. Enough bananas to make banana pudding. At nobody can make a pecan pie. You're already heating up the ovens. A pecan pie is one of the most simplest pies you can make. And you can tweak that recipe to make it your own. Now you can put on the menu this is our signature pecan pie or pecan if you're in other states, just so that I don't get the keyboard warriors upset because I said pecan instead of pecan. It's like chicken fried steak or country fried steak. Keyboard warriors come after me. It's okay. I don't mind it. It's it's fine. Actually, a lot of it is comical to me. Maybe, just maybe, the owner still says, My customers, my patrons deserve something that nobody else has. That is memorable. That is what brings people back. That is what creates a line going out the door. That barcode stamp product that you're getting from a distributor will not create a line going out the door. I don't care where you are or who you are, it's not going to happen that way. You've got to create memorability with your patrons. So please hear me, restaurant owners. If I can identify your distributor before I can identify the name of your restaurant, your distributor has a stronger brand than you do. And that's not the distributor's fault. That's yours. Own it. Look, I'm not asking you to spend another ten thousand dollars. I'm asking you to sit in your own dining room, tighten one table leg, make one dessert, train one employee, clean the restroom, give your patrons one reason. That's all it takes. Give your patrons one reason to remember your restaurant instead of your distributor's catalog. Because great restaurants are not built on shortcuts, they're built on details, and that is one of the things why I give out a wow factor experience to some restaurants because they do not cut corners on the details. Every detail from the parking lot to the register is the they check the box on every single detail. And sometimes the details outshine the food. The food was just a component that brought me in. But now I've had an experience, a wow experience surrounding that food. A food that did not have a varcode. Look, please understand, please and please hear me. I'm not mad because restaurants use frozen products. Not at all. I'm disappointed when that that's all that they use. Because somewhere along the way, too many restaurants stopped asking what makes us different. And if today's episode made you think or made you laugh, or maybe you walk into your own dining room with a different perspective, then we've accomplished something. And until next time, I'm the mad food critic, and remember, details matter. Remember one other thing local eats are the best eats. I appreciate everyone listening, and I'll see you again next week, right here behind this big old mic. Have a great day.