How to Turn One Restaurant into a National Brand | Ep 857
episodePreviously titled “How to Turn One Restaurant into a National Brand | Ep 886” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
Transcript
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Who are Calvin and Air, and what do they do?
This is Calvin and Air, a husband and wife duo that run a Thai restaurant that does $3.5 million a year and has lines out the door. But they're opening up their second location next month and they're not ready. If they mess this up, they could lose their savings and the reputation they spent years building. Hi Alex, how are you doing? My name is Calvin and this is my wife, Air. Hi.
Welcome. We're the owners of Basil & Co Thai Cuisine in Diamond Bar. 2024, our revenue was $3.5 million. Gross profit was $670,000. Our net margins was 19% and served over 100,000 guests last year.
First impressions, restaurants have the highest failure rate of all businesses. So the fact that they're at, you know, 19% margins, I would say that's good. I would love to see if we expand it. Now, some people might hear that and be like, I thought the average restaurant margins are smaller. Yeah, they sure are. And that also doesn't mean that we need to be constrained by that. So what is the goal?
So our goal is to open 20 restaurant locations in the next 5 to 10 years. And we want to bring in over $80 million in revenues. And we want to get there by providing nice and comfortable space for friends and family to gather over a delicious meal. Another mission that we have personally really is to create an environment for staff to showcase their talent and also receive competitive pay.
How'd you start the business?
What are Calvin and Air's financial goals for their restaurant?
Maybe 15 years ago. And that is when Calvin and I met in a Thai restaurant in Santa Monica. He was a busser and I was a server. So naturally, you know, we talk, right? And then we talk about our big goal, wanting to become an entrepreneur and own a restaurant in the future. Well, that plan goes so well that I end up marrying him. In 2019, we opened our first restaurant, Basil & Co. in Diamond Bar, California. Within the first three years, we maxed out our capacity. We actually leased the next unit, and we're able to meet the demands. But we are starting to max out again, so a sneak peek is our RE Thai Eatery in Azusa, California, coming up soon.
How did Calvin and Air start their restaurant business?
Okay, so who do you serve?
So we serve our local communities, businesses, and families in Diamond Bar. The people who walk into the door, we see an age range between 25 to maybe 60. And we're in a very situated, mid to high income neighborhood.
Awesome. Well, how do you make money? Let's go through the numbers.
So our average food item is $16. Okay. Our most expensive one is $68, the Crying Tiger. Average ticket size is $60 to $80, $80 on the weekends. Takeout is 30%, dine-in is 70%. And our most popular dishes would be the Pad Thai, Pad See You, and Drunken Noodles. And we also do beer and wine, but it's only 1% of our sales.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling here. So right off the bat, they have beer and wine. And the fact that they have 1% of sales from arguably the highest margin item that they sell, there's probably more we can find out and some big opportunities there. How do you get customers? How do they find out about you?
So we have organic page. It's about 50% of our business, we think. 1,300 reviews, 4.6 stars. Google has 460 reviews at 4.7 stars, Instagram, Facebook. Word of mouth, our customers like to spread the word of mouth a lot. Paid ads, we do Yelp $1,200 a month. We do affiliates, foodie collaborations on Instagram.
But word of mouth is really through our server talking to our customer. And when we are at the restaurant, we talk to our customer.
Right. And you'd say about half of them come from... Yeah, my mom was here yesterday.
She said, I need to come try. And they come try. And then they say, I'm going to go tell my friend to come try.
Got it.
That's why I think word of mouth is a big thing for us as well.
I would say almost for food more than almost any other business, word of mouth is just huge.
I really believe that the food sells itself.
Yeah. Yeah. No, that's great. On a long enough time horizon, the product of the business is the only thing that matters. Marketing just pulls up your timeline forward. It gets more people introduced to your product faster. And so marketing can accelerate growth, but it cannot create a good business.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who are Calvin and Air, and what do they do?
0:00–1:33
2
What are Calvin and Air's financial goals for their restaurant?
1:33–2:12
3
How did Calvin and Air start their restaurant business?
2:12–5:45
4
What strategies can increase weekday sales for the restaurant?
5:45–6:43
5
How can alcohol sales be improved at the restaurant?
6:43–15:03
6
What pricing strategies could boost profit margins?
15:03–18:30
7
What are the key takeaways for scaling a restaurant business?
18:30–52:57
Speakers
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