Chapter 1: What challenges do restaurant owners face in the current market?
Zagat's, with your hosts, Hank and Beverly Gelfand.
Hello, and welcome to Zagat's. I'm Bev Gelfand, and this is my husband, Hank. Maybe we can all find a place to go in our Zagat's New York restaurant guide.
On this episode of the Commercial Break...
And I got to be honest, even though Outback, when you first heard the name, you would associate that with the Australia. I don't think of Australia when I walk into the Outback Steakhouse. I just don't. There's a lot of boomerangs. Yeah, there are a lot of boomerangs. Yep.
The next episode of The Commercial Break starts now.
Oh, yeah, cats and kittens, welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Greene. This is my dear friend and the co-host of this show, Kristen Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Kristen.
Best to you, Brian.
Best to you out there in the podcast and streaming universe. Thanks for joining us. How the hell are you? You notice I'm three days in a row with the aliens. Did you notice that? I did. And you know why that is? I love it. Because so many people have said, I want the aliens. I like the aliens.
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Chapter 2: Why has Outback Steakhouse seen a decline in popularity?
Keep the aliens. Okay. All right. I'll do you a favor. All right. I'll do you a favor. There's your aliens. There's your daily dose of aliens. Okay. I watched a really fascinating video yesterday. I get stuck sometimes in this YouTube loop, like a lot of people do, going down whatever rabbit hole it is. I was on Everest for a while, and then I went on high jumpers.
I love that Everest stuff.
Yeah, the Everest stuff is... I could do Everest forever. I think I've run out of Everest stuff, actually. I think I know about every expedition that ever happened. It's certainly every one that was videotaped.
Yeah, there's that Amazon Prime one where it's like the Discovery Channel sponsors it. Okay. There's, you know, eight people that go on this whole thing.
Is it new? No, it's older. This was like a socialite.
It was like a socialite from England.
I saw that one. Fascinating, fascinating shit. She like buddies up with the dude. Yes. Yeah, she's like this prim and proper pampered princess who decides all of a sudden. She climbed some mountain in Switzerland that had a ski lift that got to her to the top. And Everest is the next thing. Yeah, she did it. She toughed it out.
She paid people to carry all her stuff.
That's what they all do. That's what they all do. Anyway, Everest is a whole different topic. We'll do that someday. I'd love to do that someday. I'd love to talk about Everest someday. I do love Everest stuff. But I went down the YouTube rabbit hole on the restaurant industry and what's going on in the restaurant industry.
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Chapter 3: What role does the Australian theme play in Outback's branding?
An hour of free fucking work is basically what it was. And actually, Outback got sued for that. They called it Outback time. Waiters would have to come in early. They would have to do a bunch of work on Outback time. And basically what that meant is free fucking labor. They got sued. They lost the case or they went to litigation. They went to mediation or whatever it was.
But just a number of... I remember rolling that silverware.
Oh, that fucking silverware, that paper goddamn napkin and that little loop you had to put on, you know. I mean, to be fair, I also had to do this at the finest of dining restaurants.
Yes, you have to.
With real napkins and heavy silverware. And that wasn't much fun either. But the paper napkin bullshit with the utensils that you could literally blow on and they would bend. You could blow on it and it would bend. It was the cheapest silverware I had ever seen in my entire life. It's crazy. But, you know, somehow... I ended up with a kitchen full of chili silverware at my house.
Did you? Oh, yeah. You took it home. Of course. You needed it.
Not on purpose. You know, I would like take-to-go food and I would throw a fork in there. Yeah, I would throw a fork in there. Kind of on purpose, not on purpose, just to make sure I had a fork because, you know, when you're 20 and you're living alone, forks aren't on the top of your priority list. Do you know what I'm saying? No, it's not. That's for sure.
But it was very interesting how the whole fast casual business has been totally obliterated by the even faster casual business of Chipotle and all these other really fast casual restaurants that have popped up.
A lot of burrito places.
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Chapter 4: How did the original founders of Outback Steakhouse strategize their branding?
It's so crazy to think about waiting that long.
to think about waiting at all for a restaurant. You should have a reservation. You should walk in and you should do it. No matter how shitty the food is, you should just be like, just get a table. Waiting an hour. And with kids, I will never wait that long. I mean, unless I'm at Disney World and that's just part and parcel of what you do down there.
Yeah, it's just like the whole industry has had a shakeup and then COVID came and it just blew it all apart. So Outback, you know, now is really in the dumps. They're trying to find a way to make themselves relevant again. But will it ever be? You know, I was part of a restaurant chain, part of the opening a restaurant chain called Marlowe's. That's right. Here in Atlanta.
I like Marlowe's. I used to. I haven't been in forever.
John Metz and Hank – They had a black and blue salad that I really liked. It was really good. John Metz is like a corporate chef. He had been for many years. He'd owned a bunch of restaurants. His dad was in the restaurant business. They would do feeding like – Like corporations, like they had a contract to feed people at the Coca-Cola building here in Atlanta. All right.
So they had these kits. They called it the Coca-Cola kitchen. And essentially, if you worked at the Coca-Cola factory, wherever it is, I'm not going to name where it is. But if you worked at that Coca-Cola factory or in those buildings, you could go to the Coca-Cola kitchen and you could get your lunch or your breakfast or your dinner. That's nice. Yeah.
And then he parlayed that into restaurants, you know, working in like more finer dining restaurants like Aqua Blue, where you can get sushi, steak, a burger, fries, chicken, satays, Indian food, Asian food, Outback food. You could get anything at Aqua Blue.
I remember going there for some like networking event.
Aqua Blue had the wildest Thursday nights in all of Atlanta.
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Chapter 5: What are the common issues with restaurant service and customer experience?
I just said you got funny next door.
Oh, you did? Okay, there's a restaurant. Unless we have to, let's not name the restaurant. So that way we're not just bang. But there is a restaurant here in Atlanta. And I know this one is not good most of the time. And people love it. People say it's one of those restaurants that you have to go to. But I fully disagree. And so does my wife.
This is one of those restaurants where everybody goes, oh, my God, have you been? Have you been? And it's a little bit pricier than most restaurants. They've only got two locations there. So they're like, you know, true Atlanta restaurant. I'll tell you afterwards, but they are horrible. What do you have? Do you have one on tap here?
I do. So this was coming straight from Zagat.com.
Oh, tell me. I love good old Zagat.
Yeah, so these are funny like one-liner reviews.
Okay, cool.
One was, our waiter would have been better cast as an undertaker.
Our waiter would have been better cast as an undertaker.
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Chapter 6: How has the pandemic affected the restaurant industry?
It was whatever it was. Everybody has owned this building. Everybody has rented this building. And no one has made it work.
Exactly. So weird.
P. Diddy had it for a while. What's his name?
That's actually on Peachtree.
No, not that one. A different one. Yeah. It's a different one down the street. I'll show you where it is. So, oh, I can name exactly where it is because I'm looking at it. Juniper Street. I'm sorry. It's on Juniper Street. Oh, the Juniper Street. Yeah, right there on Juniper. Simon owned it. Simon owned it for a while. He didn't own it. Of course he did. Let's just be clear. Let's be clear.
He didn't own it. And by the way, this is like the third restaurant that Simon has been involved in that has gone completely belly up because Simon also likened himself not only a Nigerian oil guy, but he also likened himself a restaurateur.
All right.
A restaurateur, knowing nothing about the restaurant business.
So he can be a big man.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of restaurant reviews on consumer choices?
Bad service can really sink a whole experience.
Bad service can. Yes, for sure. Bad service is the one thing that really can take a restaurant –
experience and make it terrible no matter how good the food is it's the people like the food would have to be just crazy off the charts and listen being a waiter and a waitress or and or a waitress is not an easy thing to do no it's tough everybody should try it everybody should do community service or restaurant service once in their life so they know what it's like to serve other people because being a waiter or waitress is just immensely difficult and I really I look at every restaurant I go into I look at the waiters and waitresses with uh
A lot of empathy. And you can have a bad day just like everybody else can.
Yeah.
But sometimes the service is outrageously bad and it seems like they're doing it on purpose.
Well, I was going to say, I've been to a couple of places before where it's just like it seems like the general attitude of everybody.
Yeah. Totally. Yeah. We went to a Mellow Mushroom here in Atlanta, which is a pizza chain. I love their pizza. They're great. The pizza's fan-fucking-tastic there. And they got other good stuff, too. They serve subs and calzones and all that other stuff. But we went, and it's mainly 20 teenagers and 20-somethings that run the restaurants, that work in the restaurants. And it's well-known.
There are many of them. And it's always good pizza, so you can always go in there and get one. But when you go to sit down... I will say that sometimes it can be hit or miss, the waiter. So we had a waiter that came over, dyed red, you know, purple hair. Like, he's obviously a young guy, you know, just in the prime of his life, having fun. And he came with an attitude. So you know what I did?
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