--- title: 'Restaurant Influencers: Alex Smith on Building a 60-Restaurant Empire' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=hIlZ18PViUc' video_id: 'hIlZ18PViUc' date: 2026-07-14 duration_sec: 0 --- # Restaurant Influencers: Alex Smith on Building a 60-Restaurant Empire > Source: [Restaurant Influencers: Alex Smith on Building a 60-Restaurant Empire](https://youtube.com/watch?v=hIlZ18PViUc) ## Summary In this episode of Restaurant Influencers, host Sean Walchef interviews Alex Smith, CEO of Atlas Restaurant Group, at the Four Seasons in Baltimore. Smith shares his journey from opening a Haagen-Dazs franchise at age 20 to building a 60-restaurant empire, discussing lessons in entrepreneurship, failure, branding, and family business dynamics. ### Key Points - **Introduction and Setting** [00:00] — Sean Walchef introduces the podcast from the Four Seasons in Baltimore, with Alex Smith of Atlas Restaurant Group. They are overlooking Camden Yards and discuss the city's hospitality scene. - **First Business: Haagen-Dazs Franchise** [01:30] — At age 20, Smith pitched Haagen-Dazs to open a franchise in Baltimore's Harbor East, an undeveloped area. He convinced them despite their preference for warm climates, citing the upcoming Landmark Theaters. He trained in Minneapolis and learned small business basics: hiring, training, inventory, cleanliness. - **Origin of Atlas Restaurant Group** [04:00] — After Haagen-Dazs, Smith opened Harbor East Deli to serve lunch to construction workers. In 2012, he opened Ouzo Bay, his first fine-dining Greek restaurant, followed by Izumi (Japanese) and Loch Bar (European oyster bar). He named the group Atlas after the Greek Titan, reflecting diverse cuisines. - **Growth Philosophy and Economics** [06:30] — Smith emphasizes organic growth, not forced scaling. He took over hotel restaurants from Michael Mina, which was a big break. He notes that scaling brings procurement and operational efficiencies. He warns that opening a third unit can sink a small operator. - **Failure in Florida: Boca Raton** [09:00] — Smith opened Ouzo Bay in Boca Raton, a 8,000-9,000 sq ft fine-dining restaurant. He misjudged the market: affluent visitors came only seasonally, and locals wanted everyday dining. He kept it open three years out of pride, costing significant money. He advises recognizing failure early and moving on. - **Concept Development and Scaling** [12:00] — Atlas uses Baltimore as a test bed. Successful concepts like Loch Bar, Azumi, and Choptank are then expanded to other markets. They develop new concepts for available real estate and only scale those that prove viable locally. - **Four Seasons Hotel Success** [14:00] — Atlas took over the Four Seasons Baltimore's F&B from Michael Mina, adding a fourth outlet (Bygone). They grew sales from $8M to $35M, making it a top-3 Four Seasons in North America for F&B revenue. This was a pivotal break for the company. - **Baltimore's Hospitality and People** [16:30] — Smith describes Baltimore as resilient, gritty, and passionate. He highlights the city's seafood heritage (crabs, rockfish, oysters) and its unique blend of historic neighborhoods and new development. He serves on the tourism board and is committed to the city. - **Lessons from Lacrosse** [19:00] — Smith played professional lacrosse and applies team principles to business: everyone has a role, move with purpose, and work together. He compares back-of-house to defense and front-of-house to offense, with the GM as coach. His favorite moment is watching a restaurant run smoothly 60-90 days after opening. - **Branding and Market Research** [21:30] — Smith travels extensively to experience what Baltimore lacks. Before opening Izumi, he spent a week in Kyoto and Tokyo to understand Japanese culture and adapt concepts for local tastes. He believes in creating unique offerings that resonate with the community. - **Family and Work-Life Balance** [24:00] — Smith has three boys under five. His wife understood early that family and business come first. He balances by picking kids up from school, cooking dinner, then working late at restaurants. He takes them to work occasionally to show what he does. - **Working with His Brother** [27:00] — Smith's younger brother Eric is his partner. They are opposites: Eric pokes holes in ideas, runs projects, real estate, and beverage programs. Smith values the honesty and trust of family business. Brian runs operations as his right hand. - **Future Vision and Mentors** [29:00] — Smith aspires to emulate Lettuce Entertain You: a billion-dollar, privately held multi-concept operator with many operating partners. His mentors are his father (daily calls at 2 PM), his uncle, and his late grandfather, who was a risk-taker. - **Upcoming Projects** [31:30] — Atlas is opening Ruxton in National Harbor (Nov), D.C. (April), and Philadelphia (late spring/summer). They are also opening a hotel property in Annapolis and planning two new East Coast cities in 2028. - **Personal Tech Stack** [33:00] — Smith uses iPhone (skips generations), Verizon, Zoom, Slack for internal comms, Gmail, and Meris (integrated with Toast and Restaurant365) for data analytics. He prefers Claude over ChatGPT. He clears emails daily and relies on his chief of staff. ### Conclusion Alex Smith's journey from a single ice cream shop to a 60-restaurant group underscores the importance of organic growth, learning from failure, and staying true to your market. His advice: love the business, love your people, and they will love your guests. ## Transcript who was i talking to izzy yeah she said she got 50 instagram handles she's running she does it's it's tough so i feel bad for izzy welcome to restaurant influencers presented by entrepreneur i'm your host sean walcheff this is a cali bbq media production I'm your host Sean Walchef. This is a Cali BBQ Media production. We are coming to you live from on top of Baltimore. We are at the Four Seasons Hotel with the Atlas Restaurant Group, CEO and visionary Alex Smith. We traveled all the way from San Diego to come and bring you guys this story because in life, in the restaurant business, and in the new creator economy, we learn through lessons and stories. Alex, where in the world is your favorite stadium, stadium stage or venue oh favorite stadium stage or venue well i mean i would say camden yards for sure camden yards i mean i think it's best ballpark in the country best ballpark in the country camden yards is just over our shoulders it is just over our shoulder and it's also a great concert venue you know okay set the scene where are we sitting where are we recording this podcast we're in harbor east uh which is the east side of baltimore adjacent to fells point and south of johns hopkins hospital adjacent to Fells Point and south of Johns Hopkins Hospital and you can see over my left shoulder you have the city there and then over my right shoulder is Federal Hill and that's where the ballparks are you have M &T Bank Stadium as well as Camden Yards amazing so we're gonna go to Camden Yards we're gonna talk to entrepreneur talk to toast talk to some other sponsors we're gonna fill the entire arena with entrepreneurs hospitality professionals people that believe in building great businesses I'm gonna bring you to the pitchers and building great businesses. I'm going to bring you to the pitcher's mound, give you the mic and say, Alex, bring me back to the 20 -year -old that went to Minneapolis to pitch Haagen -Dazs, to give him a franchise. Tell us that story, but then tell us what you've learned and how big the brand has become, the Atlas Group. Yeah, well, I was 20 years old and I went to Minneapolis for training, first to pitch and then for training. But I can tell you it's very cold there in the wintertime. It was my first experience in Minneapolis. I was there Very cold there in the wintertime. It was my first experience in Minneapolis. I was there for two weeks training for Haagen -Dazs in the middle of the winter, freezing cold. But what I saw, my experience with them was great. Haagen -Dazs Shop Company was fantastic. Adam Hansen, who's CEO, he was there teaching my training class and he's now CEO of the company there. We still stay in touch and it's been a relationship that started in 2006 and so 20 years later. in, man, 2006. And so 20 years later, you know, I'm still with those guys. We have a store right down here in Harbor East. The store is literally across the street from where we're recording this podcast. It is. Yep. And, you know, my first manager who started with me there, she's still there 20 years later as well. And we've got a great team there. And it was a great experience to learn how to run a small business. Yeah. No hot kitchen. So just, you know, basic stuff, hiring, training. So just, you know, basic stuff, hiring, training, inventory control, you know, making sure it's clean. Cleanliness is huge in the ice cream store. Nobody wants to walk into an ice cream store, see drips of ice cream on the ground, just learning how to run my own small business. It was invaluable. And those guys are great partners. Bring me back to the pitch. Yeah. So basically I went in there and I was like, look, there's this up and coming area in Baltimore City and it's called Harbor East. And there was no buildings here. no Four Seasons here this is all dirt where we are now and there was a theater that was going in Landmark Theaters which was owned by Mark Cuban at the time so I said look I've got this location I'm peeling off it's right next to Landmark Theaters and their whole thing was look you know we really do better in seasonal and not in seasonal towns where it's warm like San Diego 365 or for most most of the 365 or for most most of the year and so they were really focused on Florida and the South Texas but I convinced them to you know give me a franchise up here and I think they were impressed with just my work ethic and the fact that they called me APK Alex B Keaton Keaton so they were just impressed that I was a hustler young kid and and I was hungry to to be successful so they took a chance on me I was hungry to be successful, so they took a chance on me. So when did it go from Haagen -Dazs to the Atlas restaurant? Why Atlas? Why did you pick the name Atlas? Yeah, so Atlas came along a few years later. So after Haagen -Dazs, when the buildings around here started being developed, there was no place for lunch. And so I thought, man, I'll do a deli diner style concept with cheesesteaks and pizza and sandwiches and salads. And, you know, with all these construction workers and all the new office workers coming in, we'll provide. an amenity for the neighborhood. And that turned out to be great. So basically, I'm I'm graduated college. I was a finance major. I knew nothing about food. And three years later, I have, you know, this Harbor East Deli, which is still around as well. I have Haagen -Dazs and I've got these two businesses I'm managing. And then after that, I wanted to get into something more upscale, more fine dining. And so a few years after that, which is now 2012. so five years after I opened the Haagen -Dazs, and now I'm about 27, 28 years old, I opened Uzo Bay in Harbor East. And that was my first real restaurant. After Uzo, we did a Japanese restaurant, Izumi, and then did Lock Bar, which really was like a European -style oyster bar concept at the time. bar concept at the time and it's evolved but that's how i came up with atlas because i figured i'm doing mediterranean i'm doing japanese i'm doing this european style oyster bar which is basically now an american seafood tavern it's kind of evolved over the last decade um and i thought atlas restaurant group because you're encompassing different parts of the world different regions different types of food and that's how i came up with it obviously i've got greek descent and so ouzo bay as my first restaurant was uh you know high -end greek restaurant um My first restaurant was, you know, a high -end Greek restaurant, and then that's why I chose a Greek Titan as a name for the company, because I wanted to tie into that, you know, that history. When did you know you wanted more than just the Haagen -Dazs? Immediately? I think I just saw the opportunity in the neighborhood and figured I can grow with the neighborhood, and this is a great— I never really thought I would have, you know, I think at the end of this year we're going to have 60 restaurants open and operating, At the end of this year, we're going to have 60 restaurants open and operating. 60 restaurants, 3 ,500 employees. Yeah, by the end of this year, yes. Unbelievable. So I never really thought we'd grow that big, to tell you the truth. And there were times where the business was super tough when we were just growing. And I was like, look, I'm happy with what I have. I'm going to tidy this up and go do something else. And really, I was just trying to grow with the opportunity that was in front of me. And it was a natural, organic type of growth. natural, organic type of growth. It wasn't something that was forced or something that I felt that I needed to immediately scale to sell or get out. I've always looked at it as an organic business. Somebody approaches us with a deal, what does it look like economically? Can we make money here? And how does it just evolve naturally? Bring me into the most finance people run away from restaurants, not run towards it. Why do the economics make sense for you? Well, I think part of the reason I grew the way I Why did the economics make sense? Well, I think part of the reason I grew the way I grew is because we got a lot of opportunity. We got an opportunity to be in the hotel after Mina vacated it. So Michael Mina was originally in these properties. We were kind of the hometown operator. They made a change. He kind of vacated the properties. We came in. We spent limited capital refacing them. That was our first big break. But there's been some opportunity that have come up where it's either hotel deals. But there's been some opportunity that have come up where it's either, you know, hotel deals, second generation properties, owners that sunk a lot of capital in, but didn't necessarily know how to run the business where we got involved and we were successful. And so, you know, part of our growth strategy was the economics. I think it's very, very difficult in this business if you're a sole proprietor, if you're a mom and pop, incredibly hard, even three, four or five units. I see great restauranteurs all the time. They have two great units. They open the third, takes their whole company down. And we were there. They have two great units. They open the third, takes their whole company down. And we were there. I mean, you know, we expanded to Florida. We opened a store in a wrong location and it was hard. We ended up shutting that one down. But the fact of the matter is, is that now it's about, for us, it's about scale because the bigger we get, things like procurement and, you know, using our HR and using our management team to cut costs on a, on a basically a nationwide scale is how you make the money. i mean is as you know is a penny's business um and very difficult whether you're a global restaurant powerhouse or local independent like us here at cali barbecue we all want the same thing sustainable growth and let me tell you pepsico is a partner built to do exactly that help you build a sustainable business as operators we get it we know that digital matters online ordering third -party apps digital menu Digital matters. Online ordering, third -party apps, digital menus, online visibility. It's a lot. And it's incredibly hard to prioritize when you're just trying to take care of your kitchen and manage a busy team. 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It's obviously whenever we make content about the things that we did wrong running our restaurants in San Diego, it turns out to be the best performing content because we don't want to repeat mistakes that other entrepreneurs have made. Can you bring us back to when did you realize that it was a bad location? Yeah, so I opened Uzo Bay in Boca Raton. in Meisner Park. And, you know, one of the biggest mistakes I made in Boca Raton is you go down A1A and you look at all these beautiful homes and you're like, man, there's people that are affluent here. I'll open a fine dining restaurant. And really those people come maybe once a year for a week. They're not year -round residents. And the people that are really living in that community are looking for more everyday dining. So I think we came into the market price too heavy, a little bit too sophisticated of a concept. And then my other mistake was it was too big a store. It was my first big box store. It was 8 ,000, 9 ,000 square feet. Really, I should have opened something in 3 ,500, more manageable, less employees, less overhead, less expense. And then the other mistake I made was I only had a year guarantee and I kept it open for three years because I was trying to prove to myself that I could make it. And I was like, look, we're putting a great quality. I was trying to prove to myself that I could make it and I was like look we're putting a great quality product out we got great reviews we were you know loved in the community but just you know in the in the off months there wasn't enough business there to generate the traffic you needed to sustain it and so really it cost me a lot of money because for a sense of pride I never really failed before and I would say that the biggest mistake was not realizing it's a failure and wrapping it up and moving on you know I really wanted to challenge myself to try and make it there You know, I really wanted to challenge myself to try and make it there and that ended up hurting. I appreciate the candor and the honesty. It's something that I hope more entrepreneurs do, especially the most successful ones, because we all know that success leaves secrets. I learned a ton. Yeah, I learned a ton. I mean, fail to hurt. You go through the pain of, you know, pulling your equipment out of there, your tables and chairs and, you know, you know, sending a note to the staff and making sure they're taken care of as you're winding things down. And it's painful. Yeah. taken care of as you're winding things down and it's painful yeah um and you never want to go through that again 100 i recently heard danny meyer on a podcast talking about his biggest regret with writing the book setting the table was in the book he talks about having pride in never having closed a restaurant and he says now looking back he doesn't want that message to go out there because there's amazing restauranteurs that have closed locations absolutely and have learned and made even better businesses because of those closed locations especially in south florida in better businesses because of those closed locations especially in south florida i mean i just as an example i mean there are some unbelievable world -renowned restaurateurs that have opened in florida in six months they're closed and it's it's a it's a fickle market and it's the type of market either you you you crush or you struggle and you really got to know what you're doing in that market uh bring me in to scaling the unscalable as far as as far as you have proven concepts that work yeah and you're opening them As far as you have proven concepts that work and you're opening them up, but you still develop new concepts. Where do you make the decision? How do you bring us into concept development? Well, one of the things we've done in Baltimore is we're developing concepts in our hometown where we have a huge base. We are heavily entrenched in the community here. We've got a very loyal following. And so one of the things we do is when there's a piece of real estate available or it's adaptive reuse or we buy an old building and fix it up. we put a new concept in it to see hey can this work in baltimore and if it's a hit in this town it and it makes it in this town which is it's a tough town to make it in um generally it's one that we'll think about taking on the road so our most successful concepts broxton block bar azumi chop tank um are all concepts that we've grown and created other iterations of uh in other markets um so really using our hometown as a test bed and i think that markets um so we're really using our hometown as a test bed and i think that you know a lot of restaurateurs have done that this is you know our bread and butter these are our our regular guests and if they're receptive and love what we're doing that's that's one we'll take on the road tell us about this four seasons property we're recording right now at bygone if you're listening to the podcast please go to youtube and watch the visuals because this is just a phenomenal property it's great beautiful restaurant we're going to do a behind the scenes tour of the behind the scenes tour of the restaurant. Tell us about, you said this was your big break. Did you go and put a request in, request for proposal? Did they come to you? How did this come apart? They came to us. What I would tell you is that we were the hot local operator at that time. And look, Michael Mina had Pabu, Witten Wisdom, and LaMille Coffee here. And he was generating, I think it was at the time, seven, eight million in sales between the three outlets. We added a fourth, which is bygone. between the three outlets. We added a fourth, which is bygone, but we're doing top line now, 35 million in the same spot that he was doing eight. And so this Four Seasons, if you just look at the F &B and you take out IRD and banquet, it's top three in North America for F &B sales. And that's in Baltimore. And so it's an incredible hotel, 260 rooms, they've got 70 condos, full spa. You know, there's, there's a lot of four. condos, full spa. There's a lot of Four Seasons that are great around the country, but I would put this one up there with most of them. Tell me more about the city of Baltimore. Yeah. The city of Baltimore is an amazing city. It really is. You're on the tourism board? It really is. I am. I've been on the tourism board for, I think, 14 years. And what's cool about Baltimore is, well, first off, Baltimore gets a bad rap nationally sometimes. Nationally, sometimes I would tell you that, you know, the reality on the ground is much different than the perception that we get nationally. If you're here walking around at night, these properties, Fells Point, these neighborhoods, they're completely safe. It's a beautiful town. And it's the only town really where you can get new builds like this. And you can walk two blocks and you can be in Fells Point. And we have a bar there, the Waterfront Hotel, that was built in 1771. Wow. So we have, you know, some properties that are pushing 250 or over to so we have you know some properties that are pushing 250 or over 250 and so you get the history of the neighborhoods you know Federal Hill Fort McHenry's over here on this point you know the Star Spangled Banner was written out there right right in the Chesapeake I mean there's tremendous history here and you get the history of these really cool waterfront neighborhoods along with some a lot of new development and then the other thing that's neat about our city is like close proximity I mean you're a The thing that's neat about our city is like close proximity. I mean you're a 25 -minute train ride to DC, you're an hour to Philly, you're two hours to New York. So you've got great proximity and then we have unbelievable waterfront. You can literally jog almost around the entire waterfront of the city. So we've got so many great things to offer and a lot of great a lot of great cool little restaurants in this town as well. Tell me about the people of Baltimore. So I would tell you the people of Baltimore So I would tell you the people of Baltimore are resilient, have a lot of grit, super passionate about their town. You know, I think that they've got an edge to them. And, you know, we have a great sense of pride in our town. You know, I'm the type of person that like I was born here and I will die here, never leaving. And I look at it as my responsibility to give back to the city and create cool. My responsibility to give back to the city and create cool, unique dining concepts that that can help further the city. But like you have a lot of diehard people like me that are just like, look, this is my town and I'm going to be here forever. And I'm going to raise my family here. And that's, you know, it's a good thing. Sense of pride. Can you define Baltimore hospitality for me? I would say define Baltimore hospitality. Well, I would tell you that I think we do some things that. nobody else does really well. And I think we do seafood really well. I really do think we are, you know, it's New Orleans, it's Baltimore, it's that Chesapeake Bay region, and you got Louisiana. I mean, I think there's a few cities in the country, you know, Boston's maybe one of them that really focuses on seafood and do it really well. And I think that's our bread and butter. I mean, we got the largest estuary in the world, you know, crabs, hard shells, soft shells. world. You know, crabs, hard shells, saw shells, you know, rockfish. I mean, we just do oysters. We do we do that very well. Tell me about the competitive nature of you playing professional lacrosse. Yeah. And bringing that into business. Like what lessons as a lacrosse player have you brought into your company? Number one thing is team. And, you know, in lacrosse, you know, our best teams, we're not necessarily the best players in each position. but the best team members in each position because you have 10 guys on a field and you all have to work together to win. And I think it's very similar in the restaurant. You know, you want team players, you want people that want to be there, you want people that show up every day for practice and work hard. And those are the guys you put out on the field. But, you know, the way I look at a restaurant is, it's like, you know, you have your back of house and front of house. It's kind of your offense and defense. You have your coach, which is like. your offense and defense um you have your coach which is like let's say the general manager and you know the best teams that i was on playing lacrosse were the ones where it was completely fluid you went on on the field and everybody just played their role and together you had success and it's much like the restaurant you know everybody asked me like when's your favorite part about opening a restaurant it's not the first night it's not the first month it's it's when you the first month it's it's when you walk in you know 60 90 days later yeah and you sit at a table for the first time like as an owner and you have a meal and you watch it works and you just look around and everybody's moving with purpose my coach used to say move with purpose in other words when the ball is behind the case just don't stand there yeah move and the for me the most beautiful part is it's like a symphony you walk in and everybody's moving with purpose for the success of one another in the business and i think that's what i've taken from lacrosse bring me into branding and marketing yeah I love branding and marketing um it's you know I've seen the marketing people over there and they'll tell you a huge pain in the ass but I um you know one of the things I've done is really I've developed pretty much all the names and the brands for the restaurants with with our team of course and I'm heavily involved in that and I think you know one of the things I'm passionate about once again Involved in that. And I think, you know, one of the things I'm passionate about, once again, bringing back to Baltimore is I'm super well traveled. And part of the reason I'm well traveled is I want to go experience what we don't have. Yeah. And I love traveling. I love looking at, you know, before we opened our Japanese concept, we went to Japan. We spent, you know, a week in Kyoto. We spent a week in Tokyo. We actually embraced ourselves into the culture and looked at the product and said, OK, well, what will resonate with people from Baltimore? And what can we not do? Right. people from Baltimore and what can we not do, right? And there's a balance there. And I think that's where I come in. But with the branding, I think it's fun to go look at what the best people do in the world and then cultivate your own brand. And look, copying is the most sincere form of flattery. I wouldn't say copy because there's many things that you could copy and put in this market that would fail. But we have a unique understanding of this market in the mid -Atlantic market. But we have a unique understanding of this market in the mid -Atlantic market. And so for me, what's fun is going out and exploring, seeing what works in other markets, and then figuring out, how do I bring that back to my market? How do I bring that back to Baltimore and make it successful in our market to give the people of Baltimore something that they don't already have? That's really the passion behind branding is how can we create something new and cool that, you know, it's going to resonate with the community and vice versa when out of town artists like yourself come in, they're like, wow. and vice versa when out of town artists like yourself come in they're like wow I can't believe this is in Baltimore and so everything we do branding wise is geared around that did you know that toast powers over 140 ,000 restaurants across the United States Canada and UK it's an incredible company I'm on the toast customer advisory board they are proud sponsors of this show restaurant influencers we couldn't do it without their support they power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego if you have questions about toast if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your primary technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to me. I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you. You can reach me at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram. Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling, the power of hospitality. Back to the show. Every business is a family business. Bring me into your role as a father. the family business. Bring me into your role as a father, as a husband, and how that shapes how you run your company. Well, I mean, you know, I've got three kids under five. They're all boys. Wow. Under five? They're all boys. Wow. And it's incredibly difficult. I've got a fantastic wife. And I would tell you that the best thing about my wife is, you know, when we first got together, you know, she sold me like, And when we first got together, you know, she she she sold me like right away. She's like, look, her line was, I understand right now we were just dating that I'm the third most important thing in your life. And I said, what do you mean? She's like, family's number one, second, your business. And I'm third. And I said, well, honey, I'm sorry you feel that way. And she's like, I'm cool with it as long as I have room to move up. And I'm like, wow, I'm going to marry this girl. So but, you know, I'm out. I work a lot of late nights and my wife and I have trust. Yeah. And. I work a lot of late nights and my wife and I have trust and I've never betrayed that trust and she knows that I'm out there grinding and that you know we're making an impact on the community her and I and so you know she's been just my rock and and I'm super appreciative of the relationship I have for the kids you know it's tough because I'm working a lot of nights I still try and hit all my properties Thursday Friday Saturday I'm walking through I'm talking to guests I'm in the action I feel it's important for an owner operator to just be, even at 60 properties, you have to be in the stores. And so I really try and do a good job of come home in the afternoons, pick them up from school, do the three to five thing, cook them dinner, get them ready for bed, and then say, hey, I'm going to be out till 10, 11 o 'clock at night. I got to roll. I'll be back later. See you guys in the morning. But I think I've done a much better job since the kids have come along of try and spend time where I can, quality time. The kids have come along of try and spend time where I can, quality time where I can. And then every now and then pull one and take him in the restaurant with me. Amazing. Take him in the back, you know, let him help out here or there, show him what the business is, show him what I'm doing when I'm not at home so he has an understanding of it. And that's been great, but it's been a learning curve. Someone do that for you growing up? You know, my dad worked a lot. He was gone a lot. But I just remember that the times that I had with him, like he. was present and he was there. So when he could give me time, like we had that time together and I never felt that we didn't have enough time together. You know, when I was a kid, there was games he missed growing up. But as I got older and into college, he's like, I'm never going to miss one of your games because he was at a point in his career where he could do that. And to his credit, he never missed a game later in life. And and so I think it's about, you know, being. present and spending the time you have when you have it I was a working side -by -side with your brother it's fantastic I mean what do you butt heads on the most well I mean he and I sometimes couldn't be more opposite which is my younger brother it's my younger brother so yeah the middle one there's three of us the middle one is not in our business but it's being the youngest Eric who's my my partner and But it's me and the youngest, Eric, who's my my partner, and he's he's a cool dude. But I think that the reason we work so well is that we're complete opposites in some ways, in many ways. We're very much aligned. But I think that he looks at it as his job to poke holes in some of the things that I want to do. And I think that's a really healthy thing. Yes. As long as it's done like in a respectful way, which he and I are like, you know. so tight. So like, I, I trust his counsel. Um, he's an extremely hard worker and he's kind of found his own niche in the business, which is he runs all of our projects. Yeah. So where I'm doing business development and branding and Brian, who you're going to talk to runs our operations and is really running the company. Brian does, it's just my, you know, my right hand. Um, Eric is doing like the real hard work managing. Eric is doing the real hard work, managing our subs, managing the contractors, managing the kitchen equipment guys. He's in there with the landlords when there's structural issues. He's doing a lot of our real estate work. He runs our entire beverage program because he's super detail -oriented with that. And so we've all kind of found our roles, and it goes back to team. There's things I'm great at that he's not great at, and there's things that he's great at that I'm not great at. things that he's great at that great at that I'm not great at so but I'm super I mean look everybody says family business is tough but I would say it's great because you have people telling you the truth yeah and no matter what it's not like these people are paid to work for you yeah this is your family and they have your best interest at heart and I have his best interest at heart and so I think the transparency and the full disclosure is it's just really healthy paint the bigger picture for me like so we look back on this podcast if we check back in 2030 what's atlas restaurant group look like are we international you know i don't know that we're international maybe we are um you know my goal would be look i i look at i look at i look at um companies around the country yep of who i would want to emulate and you know we're i would say a top 10 multi -concept operator in the country as far as sales volumes and properties and I would tell you that you know Landry's if you look at Landry's which I think is the biggest yeah no I don't think they're the biggest they are the biggest they're more of a private equity and they're not really growing their own concepts they're investing in some really talented operators like the catch guys and so on and so forth or they're buying you know they'll Frisco's or you know other brands I don't really see ourselves as that I see ourselves more in the lettuce energy I don't really see ourselves as that. I see ourselves more in the Let Us Entertain You category. I think that their family's done an incredible job building a generational company. They've grown all their brands from within. They have 30 or 40 different operating partners that have pieces of the business where they're taking care of their families, they're taking care of their staff, they're growing people within their organization. I hear they're approaching a billion dollars in sales privately held. I don't know if that's true or not. but that's what I heard. And so if I were to put a picture of what we look like in 20 years, that would be it. A billion dollars in sales with 150, 125 restaurants with multiple different brands, but more importantly, growing people and culture to a way where they're having community impact in all their markets, they have 30 or 40 different operating partners that, you know, these aren't general managers, these are guys making real money. And then they're growing people within their organization. I really think that that would be somebody for us to try and emulate. Amazing. Do you have any mentors? My father. I talk to my dad pretty much every day. You call him, he calls you, a little bit of both? At 2 o 'clock every day, either I'm calling him or he's calling him. Standing 2 o 'clock. Every day, either I'm calling him or he's calling him. Really? Yeah. Standing 2 o 'clock. Yeah, standing 2 o 'clock, 1 .30, 2 o 'clock. I know where he is. I know what he's doing. And he and my uncle are two of my mentors. They both run big companies, and they've been around the block. Yeah. And he and my uncle are very much like Eric and I, so I get two perspectives. I have two perspectives, and those guys are really my mentors. And then my grandfather. um and those guys are really my mentors and then my grandfather um who unfortunately passed in 2016. you know he was like uh very different than my dad and my uncle well not not so different but he was a not a very well educated guy when it came to college and high school and this and that but he was a grinded out risk -taking ambitious guy and did very well for himself but i learned a lot from him um i learned a lot from him as well it's kind of the old school style um but those would be the three people in my life that I spend the most time with. Tell us about what's next, immediate projects on the horizon. Yeah, we have, uh, two, two restaurants opening in the waterfront hotel in Annapolis, um, which, uh, is a big hotel property for us. We've got banquet, we've got two restaurants, we've got IRD there that's coming on 90 days. Uh, we have Ruxton, uh, which is a big growth vehicle for us. We're opening a national harbor in November. which is a big growth vehicle for us. We're opening in National Harbor in November. We're going to open up in April in the old Charlie Palmers in D .C. at 101 Constitution. And then shortly after that, late spring, summer, fall, somewhere in there, depending on when the hotel's done, we're going to open up Ruxton in Philadelphia in Rittenhouse Square. So we have three Ruxtons opening in the next, call it year and a half. And then we have our hotel property we're opening in Annapolis. And then we're already kind of through 28. We know what we're doing, where we're going. We're already kind of through 28. We know what we're doing, where we're going. to potentially two new cities in 28 on the East Coast. So that'll be big for us. And that's pretty much it. That's amazing. Before I let you go, one of my favorite segments is personal tech stacks. Are you an Android or an iPhone user? I'm an iPhone guy. Which version? Whatever the latest one, 17. You always get the latest when it comes out? I usually skip. whatever the latest one 17 you always get the latest when it comes out or you usually skip a year you skip a year because they're so well made you know so like if this year's the 18 i'll wait a year and i'll get the 19 next year who's your carrier verizon been with them forever forever never never switched never switched me neither uh and i think verizon has the best it's oh it's weird because i go to some of these markets yeah like why is my why are my bars low but it's because at &t or whatever is better in that area but verizon for maryland is verizon san diego works phenomenal too but verizon for maryland is verizon san diego works yeah yeah it's great uh and in bulgaria because i travel internationally um phone calls or uh text messages do you prefer uh phone calls probably phone calls yeah do you leave voicemails i don't do you listen to voicemails i don't what's your notification management system uh like if we looked at your phone right now would you have like hundreds of unread emails hundreds of unread Looked at your phone right now. Would you have like hundreds of unread emails, hundreds of unread texts? I would, yes. Oh, no, no, no. Sorry. So, no, I would have zero unread. I would have 25 unread emails, and I would probably have 10 unread texts from just the time we were talking. But I'm actually really anal about every single day in my email box. I have zero emails. I clear them out. I respond to everybody. If I don't have a response, I'll respond and be like, I'm not sure, but I will follow up. And I'll make a note to follow up. Be like, I'm not sure, but I will follow up. And I'll make a note to follow up. And then I've got a great chief of staff, Patty Sparraga, who runs my entire life. Yeah. And without her, I don't know where I'd be. Teams, Zoom, or Google Meets? I'm a Zoom guy. You're a Zoom guy? Yeah. Okay. Google Meets isn't bad either. I mean, they're all fine. Are you in the G Suite? They're all fine. You guys use Gmail? Oh, we use Gmail. You use Gmail. But no Google Meets? Okay. For internal communications, we use Slack. Okay. So we're a big team. For internal communications, we use Slack. Okay. So we're a big Slack company. Yeah, we're a big Slack. On the media side, less on the restaurant ops. you guys don't do... Restaurant ops, we use Slack. really? We use Slack, yeah, it's one of the tools. Amazing, wow, impressive. I've asked Slack for groups that use it, and they couldn't give me an answer, but the answer's in right in front of me. Do you prefer photos or videos, taking photos or videos? I prefer taking photos. You prefer taking... What's your favorite social platform? i prefer taking photos you prefer taking what's your favorite social platform instagram instagram i'm old i don't know i'll be honest i don't even have tiktok you're a fringe millennial yeah i'm a fringe millennial i don't even have tiktok yeah never had it never had tiktok never had snapchat that's all right no worries um is there an app that you use uh that the audience should know about like a useful business app uh miris miris what's that have you heard of miris no i haven't yeah so miris is incredible Meris, what's that? Have you heard of Meris? No, I haven't. Yeah, so Meris is incredible. So we used to use Averro. Okay. And we switched to Meris. Basically, you can take your either Restaurant 365 data or Toast data. Yes. And you can make whatever sheet you want. Stop. In Meris. Really? Yes. So it's integrated with Restaurant 365 and Toast? Yes. And you can design whatever you want. You can look at anything you want. Like you could design it so that you can Like you could design it so that you could pull up how many french fries you sell company -wide every day and look at that for a week. Wow. You can adjust anything. It's wild. Mirus, okay. M -I -R -U -S. They're on the radar now. ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Gemini? Claude. How recently did you make the switch? I made the switch from ChatGPT to Claude. Why? I just feel like it's better. Yeah. Everyone's been telling me it's better. It is. better yeah yeah everyone's been telling me it's better it is okay it's wild okay the stuff it can do is wild how do you listen to music uh mainly in the car well which platform uh listen music itunes itunes okay um what's the best how many social handles i was talking i was talking who was i talking to is he yeah she said she got 50 instagram handles she's running she does well the problem is for us is like please tell us the problem like for like Ruxton, where it's it's pretty much the same menu and you're stamping it out. You can have one. Right. But with a lot of these brands in different towns, they're geared towards those specific markets. So like Lockbar Houston, there's a lot going on that's separate from Lockbar Baltimore, separate from Lockbar Philly. So it's like, how do you get out to your, you know, it's tough. So I feel bad for Izzy. She's got like a number of people that's coming in to help her, though. A number of people that's coming in to help her, though. We will put links to Atlas Restaurant Group. Anything you want our audience to know about? Restaurant business is hard. It's not an easy business, but I love it. And I think that the people who are in it should love it as well. Don't do it just to do it because you think it's easy or you think it's a way to have money coming in the door. Do it because you love it. And if you love it and you love your people, they'll love your guests. and you'll be successful. Amazing. If you guys want to reach out to me, I'm weirdly available, always looking for the greatest restauranteurs and storytellers on the planet. So please reach out to me on Instagram at Sean P. Walcheff is the fastest. Alex, I appreciate the hospitality. I cannot wait to go see the properties, taste the food. Baltimore, this is, I came for the story. You picked a good day. I picked this. It's a beautiful day. It's a perfect day. the story you picked a good day i picked this abuse it's a beautiful day in baltimore we appreciate you guys for watching as always stay curious get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help we'll catch you next episode thank you for watching thank you for listening if you've made it this long you are part of the community you're part of the tribe we can't do this alone we started no one was listening now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe please check out our new series please check out our new series called restaurant technology sub stack it's a sub stack newsletter it's free it's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants also go to youtube and subscribe to cali barbecue media cali bbq media on youtube we've been putting out a lot of new original content hopefully you guys like that content if you want to work with us go to etheshow .media we show up all over the united states some international countries we love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling you can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Walchef on Instagram. I'm weirdly available. Stay curious, get involved, don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you next episode.