SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
EP 85: Going from 1 To 17 Restaurants and Landing a Bravo TV Show with Jeffrey Zurofsky
17 Oct 2015
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base. You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have. I'm now at $20,000 per talk. Five and six million. He is hell-bent on global domination. We just broke our 100,000 unit sold mark.
And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. Okay Top Tribe, yesterday morning you heard from Bazzi Hassan who walked through how you can spend five cents to get a click and make two cents on that same click. He's generated over a million bucks in sales. Okay, Top Tribe, good morning. I am here in studio.
It's a great morning, a little foggy in the Roanoke Mountains this morning, but you're going to love our guest today. His name is Jeffrey Zurofsky, and Jeffrey's got an amazing history. Starting off in 2003, he partnered with two chefs to co-found Witchcraft as a Sandwich Shop, where the ingredients and cooking techniques are rooted in fine dining, but served in a casual and welcoming environment.
Since then, he's grown witchcraft in the sandwich shop and opened 15 stores, including locations in San Francisco, Vegas, and has over 400 team members. Most recently, Jeffrey can be found writing about his experiences on his blog, chefpreneur.com. and as co-host of Bravo's new restaurant competition show called Best New Restaurant.
Jeffrey is also a key advisor and contributor to Tim Ferriss, The 4-Hour Chef, and he's got a lot of amazing accomplishments, which will be in the show notes for this episode. But first, Jeffrey, are you ready to take us to the top? I am, I am. So let's do it. First off, you taught everyone at this recent mastermind how to give a great hug.
I knew you were going there.
No, you didn't. You had no idea. You thought I was going to ask a food question or something. How did you become such a good hugger?
I like to hug people. I love physical contact. I think it's missing in our world and I just love to physically connect. I've learned over the years from friends and and some pretty smart people on how to give good hugs.
I love that. Well, let's jump right into witchcraft first. And then I want to talk about the Bravo show at the end of the episode. So why did you decide to jump into witchcraft and tell me the story about when you opened your first physical location?
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Chapter 2: What inspired Jeffrey Zurofsky to start his restaurant journey?
We were all fine dining chefs, but we never really worked in or opened something that was meant to do a lot of volume and a lot of covers. The response and reception was incredible. What does that mean?
What's an incredible response mean? You opened that first one in 2003.
Yeah, we had lines out the door. It's a high-class problem to have, but we had lines out the door. people responded really well to what it is we were making, even more so than I think we expected.
And it wasn't just a sandwich shop, right? It wasn't like a grocery store. It was a sandwich shop.
Correct. We had 17 menu items. Each one was an individual creation, but all of them sort of stemmed from the same background of seasonal produce or seasonal meats that were locally sourced, or we at least had transparency into the maker of the of the product. And so what was really amazing, and this is the problem that we encountered was the response was so great.
We didn't, we just didn't know how to produce that much food in that short period of time and set a customer expectation. You know, most people were, were used to buying stuff at, you know, in two or three minutes at a fast food spot for sure.
So Jeffrey, you, you kind of perfected this model of local ingredients. You then thought about jumping in and doing this physical location. You said it was a huge hit lines out the door, help folks understand that might be listening, thinking about opening a physical location.
What did maybe, you know, success metric is obviously how big is the crowd, but revenue wise that first year in that first shop, do you remember what you guys did top line and why it works so well?
Um, uh, you know, you're, uh, I don't remember exactly how much we did in that first year. But what it was exceeded our expectations and exceeded the volume of what people had done before in terms of the price that we could charge for the same product.
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Chapter 3: How did Jeffrey grow his restaurant chain from 1 to 17 locations?
And then, uh, if you're not growing, then, you know, maybe your GNA, your whole, your whole, um, general and administrative for those of you, for those of you watching at home, uh, should be 10 to 15 or so percent, um, you know, maybe less than that if you get to, if you really cut back. But I think in today's day and age.
So if you're not, I mean, I want to get, the top loves numbers. I mean, the reason they're going to go check out your website and understand all this is because they're going to understand your numbers. So you don't want, you don't want to pin it down. So I'm trying to, I'm going to try and get a range here.
So 20, 20 million top line, sleep it does around 25%, which means if you're not in hyper, hyper growth mode where you're investing a lot, which means cashflow could be negative on 20 million top line, you're throwing off it. Sleep it again, store level somewhere around the $5 million mark, maybe less.
Yeah, if you're in that range, you've got a successful enterprise.
So you're sitting on a rocket ship. Why jump into a Bravo reality show?
Well, there's a couple reasons. I mean, one was the actual show did a lot for, you know, I'd say the connection and the relationship between the restaurant and me and Tom is known as sort of business people in the industry. I don't think there's ever bad exposure on that. And the way we were portrayed as judges and as hosts only contribute to the credibility around expertise in the field.
Having said that, it was time for me personally running that business for 12 years. It was time for someone else to You know, I'd say my expertise is in creating and setting up businesses, running them for, you know, growing from 15 units to maybe 50 units, which would be the goal, right? That's a different set of skills that work for me and
Even for the organization, I mean, I think one thing that entrepreneurs need to learn is to listen to the organization. And at some point, the company kind of tells you what it needs.
So, Jeffrey, you got the sense that it was time to do something new. The show came along, you jumped in, and that's why you made the change.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did Jeffrey face when opening his first restaurant?
Well guys, with that, again, I'm going to link to, to the numbers, Jeffrey story, his full bio show notes. We even linked to the show that he did on Bravo in the show notes at Nathan, lack of.com forward slash the top eight, five again, forward slash the top eight, So, okay, Top Tribe. Companies are wanting to sponsor the show for a lot of money, and I'm telling them all no.
So help me out and go subscribe on iTunes. When you do, email me at NathanLatka at gmail.com, and I will email you back a surprise that you're really going to love. As Jeffrey takes that swig of his drink, it's because he's getting excited for the next part of the show. Jeffrey, do you know what's next?
I do not know what's next.
It is time for the Famous Five. You ready?
Go for it.
All right, number one, what is your favorite business book?
I got a couple of them, but can I choose a couple? Give me one. My favorite of all time is Let My People Go Surfing by Yvonne Chouinard.
I've never heard that one before. I'm looking forward to reading that one.
Oh, it's incredible.
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Chapter 5: What revenue did Jeffrey's first restaurant generate in its first year?
I learned to master my energy better. I think when Only in the last five years have I really, through meditation and some other mindful practices, have I learned how to master energy. It's really the only thing you have because it's the thing that makes time pass fast or slow, and then time is really the only currency you have, and that helps you with all the other things in your life.
So I think energy is the root of that, and learning how to master your energy is something that I think I wish I had known earlier.
back then because i just expended it out of every pore in my body guys there you have it energy mastery you heard me from jeffrey first now jeffrey people want to follow your story online moving forward and passes where can they connect with you uh to well i mean anywhere online and social is at jeffrey zarofsky you know j-e-f-f-r-e-y-z-u-r-o-f-s-k-y or um
either at my blog, chefrepreneur.com or jeffreysarofsky.com. Both go to the same spot. So it's easy to find either one.
Well, guys, there you have it. From his first restaurant in 2003, doing 1.5 million top line to building it to over 400 employees, 15 locations and over 20 million in top line revenue, landing a Bravo show, advising all over the place. Jeffrey, thank you for taking us to the top.
Thank you so much, Nathan. Thank you.
Coming up tomorrow morning, I speak with Stephen Kahn, and he walks me through how his gay fashion brand does $500,000 a year in revenue with a membership.
Okay, Top Tribe, companies are wanting to sponsor the show for a lot of money, and I'm telling them all no. So help me out and go subscribe on iTunes. When you do, email me at NathanLasker at gmail.com, and I will email you back a surprise that you're really going to love.
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