Sue Straughan, a tenured hospitality specialist and Corporate Director of Business Solutions for the food distributor Ben E. Keith, shares her remarkable 40+ year journey in the industry, detailing how a necessity job at Baskin Robbins evolved into a profound passion. The discussion centers on her pivotal experience working for Houston's restaurant, where she learned that "chaos and hospitality could coexist in a way that was beautiful", and how she applied these high standards to help turn around the struggling James Coney Island chain. This success was achieved not by raising prices, but by relentlessly focusing on systems, consistency, team pride, and the overall guest experience, demonstrating that flawless execution on the basics is the key to driving sustained sales and word-of-mouth growth.

10 Takeaways

1. Prioritize Execution over Complexity: The most successful businesses, especially in restaurants, focus on doing fewer things perfectly rather than many things averagely. This requires a constant discipline to maintain simplicity.
   
   
2. Hospitality and Chaos Coexist: High-volume restaurants (like Houston's with 1-3 hour waits) prove that it's possible to execute 100% flawlessly and maintain composure ("calm in the middle of chaos") by having robust systems and an intentional team culture.
   
   
3. The Menu Should Serve the Concept: Keep the menu small and focused (e.g., Houston's one-page, 22-item menu). Introduce new items only if they meet strict time standards (e.g., eight minutes at lunch) and, if needed, replace an existing item to prevent complexity creep.
   
   
4. Structure and Systems Build Culture: Employees thrive when they know what is expected of them. Implementing detailed, consistent systems, from cleaning standards to specific service greetings, creates a "well-oiled machine" and instills a sense of pride in the team.
   
   
5. Invest in Your Team's Pride: Simple things like new uniforms, standardized training, and daily pre-shift meetings can significantly boost team mentality, tenure, and passion by making employees feel valued and reinforcing the importance of their role.
   
   
6. Sales Growth Should Precede Price Hikes: The turnaround at James Coney Island focused first on driving sales by improving the guest experience before considering raising prices. The four ways to drive sales are: raise prices, encourage higher spend per visit, increase visit frequency, or attract new customers.
   
   
7. Focus on Low-Hanging Fruit for Revitalization: Start improvement efforts by addressing what the customer sees first, such as clean parking lots, fresh paint, working signage, and clear glass. These visual cues are essential for first impressions.
   
   
8. Measure and Reward Hospitality: Implementing a rigorous system like a 10-page mystery shopper report, coupled with accountability and financial rewards for achieving high scores (e.g., $1,000 manager bonus), can directly correlate with rising sales.
   
   
9. Focus on What You Can Control: Don't rely on external factors like the weather to drive business. Concentrate effort and resources on perfecting the inside of your four walls: the guest's experience from driving by to walking out.
   
   
10. Reverse-Engineer Customer Frustration: Identify the top five things consumers are most frustrated with in your industry (e.g., long waits, inconsistent quality) and intentionally do the exact opposite to stand out and "blow their mind."
    
    

This episode features Donnie Madia of One Off Hospitality,, a James Beard Award-winning Chicago restaurateur, discussing the paramount importance of human connection, service, and soul in hospitality. Madia shares his origin story, starting as a bartender who learned to view himself as an "independent contractor" focused on cultivating customer relationships. He critiques modern distractions, calling mobile phones the "contraption" that destroys in-person dialogue. While he supports using AI for administrative tasks, he strongly opposes its intrusion into service roles, citing a machine that folds napkins as an example of soul-destroying automation. Finally, Madia highlights his support for The Giving Kitchen, an organization providing essential mental and financial health lifelines to hospitality workers in crisis.

10 Takeaways

1. Independent Contractor Mindset: Madia spent 10 years bartending, learning to build a personal clientele by treating his role like that of an independent contractor, focused on entertaining and taking care of people.
   
   
2. Service is Built on Trust: True hospitality is guests trusting the restaurant and staff. Service involves simple, mindful tasks, like making eye contact or going the extra mile, which foster genuine human connection.
   
   
3. The "Contraption" Problem: The average person checks their phone 27 times per hour, leading to wasted time and missed connection opportunities. This requires employers to actively teach mindful presence and eye contact.
   
   
4. Signal vs. Noise and the 85/15 Rule: Madia advocates for spending 85% of time on micro-tasks (hyper-focused work) and 15% on macro-distractions (noise) to maximize effectiveness, arguing most people have this ratio reversed.
   
   
5. Relationship Over Transaction: Long-term success is not transactional; it requires selflessly building trust and credibility. Repeat customers are the byproduct of a wonderful, relationship-driven experience.
   
   
6. AI as Tool, Not Soul Replacement: AI can assist with admin (emails, accounting). However, automation should not replace human roles that build camaraderie, such as folding napkins, which would destroy the soul of the business.
   
   
7. The Investment in Staff: Madia's philosophy focuses on the intangible value of staff investment. Paying people well and treating them with respect leads to low turnover, continuity, and team camaraderie, offering a superior experience.
   
   
8. Hospitality is Essential: Restaurants are essential human spaces for congregation and escape. In a digitally isolated world, people increasingly crave the authentic human experience and the memory and story of food cooked with heart.
   
   
9. The Giving Kitchen Lifeline: Madia champions The Giving Kitchen, an organization that provides vital financial and mental health resources to hospitality workers facing crises (e.g., severe injury or financial disaster).
   
   
10. Power of Authentic Connection: An example of true connection: The Giving Kitchen's representative hand-delivered invitations to restaurateurs in Chicago, resulting in a near-perfect attendance rate, proving the effectiveness of intentional, non-digital engagement.
    
    

This episode of "Restaurant Owners Uncorked" features a conversation with Eric Scheffer, owner of The Scheffer Group in Asheville, North Carolina. Eric provides an update on his successful concepts (Vinny's, Jetty Ray's Oyster House, Ganshan, and a fifth on the way) and shares a harrowing account of the 2024 Hurricane Helene flood. This 1,000-year disaster crippled Asheville, leaving the city without power and water for months.

Eric and his team immediately pivoted, mobilizing their four dark kitchens to feed the community, eventually serving nearly 50,000 meals in partnership with World Central Kitchen. The biggest challenge was securing water: Eric brokered a personal "handshake deal" over bourbon with a Texas water tanker driver. This, combined with the ingenuity of a local plumber, led to the creation of a temporary, complex filtration system, allowing his restaurants to safely operate. Demonstrating remarkable community leadership, The Scheffer Group then helped 21 other local restaurants replicate the expensive system to get them back online.

Eric reflects that the tragedy changed his philosophy, underscoring the vital importance of deeply supporting employees who are often "a paycheck away from nothing." He emphasizes that in business, self-reliance is crucial ("the cavalry is not coming") and success hinges on the ability to pivot and be resourceful. Despite seeing the dark side of disaster profiteering, Eric remains optimistic about the economy stabilizing and Asheville's strong rebound.

Key Takeaways

1. Community Heartbeat: Restaurants are vital social and physical hubs, essential for leading disaster relief and support.
   
   
2. The Pivoting Imperative: Business survival requires an immediate capacity to pivot operations, such as shifting to counter-service, to navigate sudden crises.
   
   
3. Disaster Mobilization: Eric's group successfully leveraged closed kitchens and existing stock to serve nearly 50,000 meals in partnership with World Central Kitchen.
   
   
4. Resourceful Solutions: When city utilities failed, water was secured through a personal "bourbon and a handshake" deal with a contracted tanker driver and a plumber's innovative filtration system.
   
   
5. Mutual Aid: Eric's team extended their water solution to help $\sim 21$ other Asheville restaurants quickly achieve operational status.
   
   
6. Employee Focus: The crisis reinforced the importance of deep employer support for staff, many of whom face significant financial precarity.
   
   
7. Self-Reliance: External help (FEMA, government) is unreliable. The core philosophy is that "The cavalry is not coming," forcing businesses to figure it out themselves.
   
   
8. The Dark Side: Disasters expose the "disgusting" reality of individuals and companies exploiting human tragedy for obscene financial gain.
   
   
9. Optimism/Stabilization: Eric sees stability returning; commodity prices (fuel, distribution) are starting to drop, suggesting a positive year ahead.
   
   
10. Vendor Partnerships: Communicate financial struggles with vendors; negotiating product alternatives or pricing can foster collaborative survival.