Restaurant Culture: How Great Teams Create Exceptional Guest Experiences

00:06 — Anthony Presley: 

One of my idols in the industry. Been an operator for a long time. In case there is somebody that doesn’t know who you are, will you introduce yourself? 

 

00:14 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

My name is Mehdi and I’m the owner and founder of Crazy Pita Rotisserie and Grill. This August, it will be 20 year in business. 

 

00:23 — Anthony Presley: 

Wow. 

 

00:23 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

We’ve been operating for exactly 20 years. We’re gonna have a big celebration before that. I used to work for four season hot for another 12 years prior. I traveled the globe. I met so many cultures and I implemented so many training programs to different cultures globally from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Middle East, Europe, here in the United States of America. And when I moved on my own, we created Crazy PETA and it’s been thriving. And this is just the start now. And we will be taking it further within the next five, six years. So unlimited amount of stores national with the intent to go globally within the next five to 10 years. 

 

01:08 — Anthony Presley: 

Wow, that’s awesome. 

 

01:10 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

But here’s the key, Anthony. What you have to understand, it’s all about consistency and operation. 

 

01:17 — Anthony Presley: 

Okay. 

 

01:17 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

And I’m sure this is the interview that we have here, so I’m going to let you go ahead and ask a question. 

 

01:22 — Anthony Presley: 

Oh, I love it. I love it. I mean, you can take it away. So we’ve been meeting with operators, talking a lot about a evergreen topic of labor, and we’ve been talking about some of the generations that are in the workforce and maybe how you approach them differently. But we’ve started at a high level and I’m sure you have an opinion on this. Talk to me a little bit about turnover and what you’re seeing in the industry. We’ve talked to some folks who have no turnover issues. We have others that have massive turnover in the first 90 or 120 days. Where are you at with your stores? Are you. Do you see turnover, do you see as a training issue? Is that a hiring issue? Talk to me. 

 

01:58 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

The turnover is all about the culture and the society and the environment where you live in. Thankfully, Crazy Feeder, we have. Our attention has been, you know, we haven’t had so much of it lately, to be honest. 

 

02:13 — Anthony Presley: 

Okay. 

 

02:13 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

We have reduced it so much, about 5%. We have employees that work with us for the last 19, 20 years, and the new ones that jump the ship, they stay with us longer. 

 

02:24 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

02:24 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

So it all starts with the person and the hiring process. 

 

02:28 — Anthony Presley: 

Okay. 

 

02:29 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

And we kind of find. We figure out that works for us from the back of house and the front of house. Let’s pick the front of house, for example, where you can have a highest turnover because those are entry level jobs and people are in school or high school. So we kind of pick the moments where as the perfect time when we get them in, right when they’re juniors. 

 

02:51 — Anthony Presley: 

Okay. 

 

02:52 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Right when they turn 16 years old. And we know they’re going to stay in high school for another year and half. So we bring them in summertime right before May. So and we help them through summer with few shifts. So we give them an introductory to what it’s what to expect. And they seem to enjoy it. But we have a choice training program in place that I developed myself throughout my years. And what we found out, especially the younger generation, you want to make them so comfortable that they want to come back tomorrow. That’s a big challenge. Yeah. Is to get your way to come back at the younger age. They go to school, so they’re always strict with them. Then they go to their house and it’s always strict. 

 

03:35 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

So the last thing I want from my side is to kind of be strict at the same time. So I make that comfort zone for them where they come in, they just do deliver food to the table. They just do the packaging. I let them handle the floor. They. They go talk to the customer so he can open that bridge for them. Now they have to communicate with the guest. May I take your plate away? And we teach them verbiage what to say. Oh, wow, would you like some extra pita bread? Would you like some extra taziki or homemade hot sauce? And this, the small little wars that they interact with builds confidence in them. And they see that the customers are coming back to them with a thank you. Oh, great. They communicate with them. What is your name? That builds confidence. 

 

04:22 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

The more that we put them inside the pos where they start taking orders and ringing up and then we start packaging the food, entering the phone. The next thing you know, they’re talking to every customer that comes in. They’re controlling. They have a confidence and they know what’s in their surroundings and their environment. I have kids right now that work with me at 17, 18 years old. And they’re practically running the show on their own. 

 

04:48 — Anthony Presley: 

Wow. 

 

04:49 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

And you know how sometimes hectic the restaurant. 

 

04:51 — Anthony Presley: 

Yes. Yeah. 

 

04:52 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

And what’s with our training program that we have in place within? It takes about more than two weeks. It takes about a month to month and a half for really for them to figure out. And this gives them some sort of confidence and comfort. So they come back and they pick up extra shift during their school. And this summer’s their full Time. So the next thing you know, they’re picking up four or five ships as they grow, because now their expenses are up. 

 

05:17 — Anthony Presley: 

Right, Right. 

 

05:18 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Yeah. 

 

05:19 — Anthony Presley: 

Wow. There was so much we could unpack in that little. But I want to just let you know that everything you just said, you’ve made it sound so very simple, but there are so many layers of the training and the organizational hierarchy and the legion, for lack of a better term, of the job seekers to come into your organization. You have spent decades perfecting that, and that didn’t just happen overnight. That was a perfect example of, like, Apple spending billions of dollars in engineering to provide a very simple plan. And you’ve been spending years on that plan. 

 

05:54 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

We introduce it in a way not in a. In a way where you have an app and you have to fill it up. It’s more of a natural way. Our service are built to offer a minimum amount of service that we can. It’s like the sequence is designed just to offer the guests exactly what they want with the least amount of time. But we want touch every base of the service to make it. To conclude it with at the end where the. The employee is looking for you. Hey, come back. We’ll see you. 

 

06:26 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah, yeah. 

 

06:27 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Oh, my God. We didn’t say goodbye to my friend. It’s more personal. 

 

06:31 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

06:32 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Yeah. It’s like when you. When you’re at home and your family and you come, we embrace you, we argue. Oh, no, it’s Mrs. Smith who’s coming. We know what she likes. Let’s put it all together for her. We know what her kids like, and it becomes a one because she knows her family, they know their money. It’s all a community within our neighborhood. Because their kids go to school together. 

 

06:53 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. Yeah. 

 

06:54 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

And that makes it easy when you create some sort. Like I said earlier, we teach someone the confidence. 

 

07:00 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

07:00 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

You put those on an app. As we scale, we write all this as in our system. Yeah. But I said I force my managers and my GMs to teach it verbally. 

 

07:10 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

07:11 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

As much as possible. 

 

07:12 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

07:13 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

The apps are great. They’re wonderful. I have quite a few of them, but I found they don’t want to use it. They want to keep their phones to themselves. 

 

07:20 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

07:20 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

They want to do it for. You don’t want to have an employee with so many apps. Now they have one where they can punch in one where they have to learn one. They have to present this. That’s true. They do that in school. School all day. 

 

07:33 — Anthony Presley: 

Right, Right. 

 

07:33 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Their mothers and fathers are giving them homework. 

 

07:36 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

07:37 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

I Want them to look forward that break where they’re gonna have that meal. Yeah. And we break that meal together. And sometimes I let them make their design their own food. Yeah. 

 

07:47 — Anthony Presley: 

Wow. 

 

07:47 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

And it’s all about taking care of your people. 

 

07:51 — Anthony Presley: 

I love that. I love that. That’s community building. Right. Do you view yourself that way as like, hey, we’re. We’re a pillar of the community. We’re hiring from the local community. We’re. We’re giving back to. I know some stories of you helping folks who come into the store and maybe they can’t pay for or afford the meal. I’ve. I’ve been with you while you’ve actually given some of that. Do you view that? Do you preach that? Do you talk to your team about that? 

 

08:13 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Our. Our business is community driven. 

 

08:15 — Anthony Presley: 

Okay. 

 

08:16 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

You can go and get food anywhere. Right. But you want to create a place, an environment where you know you’re coming to a kind place where you know the person who’s gonna serve you. And you know what? The culture that Crazy Feeder believes in. We’re a be kind restaurant. Yes. We promote kindness. We even have shirt that says be kind. We. We promote kindness in all our. We are in 400 schools where we do business. 

 

08:45 — Anthony Presley: 

Wow. 

 

08:46 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Within 13 states. 

 

08:47 — Anthony Presley: 

Wow. 

 

08:48 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

So our core is made on culture. When we write the be kind, we have like the B. Be the best E. When you talk to customer, make eye contact. 

 

08:58 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

08:58 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

You know, the eye is. Is eye contact. The end beneath. So all of those. We look at how you dress. 

 

09:05 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. The. 

 

09:07 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

The end have some sort of knowledge with you where. About your menu, about your environment. When do we open? When we close. How many restaurants do we have? Just information about your menu. 

 

09:19 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

09:19 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

And the last one is the D is I wrote it that when you follow all that sequence, you deliver the one. 

 

09:26 — Anthony Presley: 

Oh, yeah. Okay. 

 

09:27 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

That’s what it ends it with. And we touch it and it’s perfect every time. Once you touch all those spaces. 

 

09:34 — Anthony Presley: 

I love that. 

 

09:35 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

And it’s so simple. 

 

09:36 — Anthony Presley: 

That’s. That’s amazing. That’s. That’s a good. I was going to ask you a hot seat question which was. Yeah. So if somebody’s coming into a new role in the. In the restaurant industry, let’s say at a manager level, they’re gonna show up. What’s the one thing they can do on day one? What’s the first thing they can do? Whatever the brand is to make an impact in their organization. 

 

09:56 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Well, the first thing you do is if you go in as a manager, any manager, they will. It’s just observe. Go talk to your staff. Go talk to the guy that cut the vegetables in the bag. Go learn about, Go talk to your cook, talk to your cashiers, talk to your guests. Go look at the environment, look at the front door, from the front all the way to the back of the room. Assess on what’s happening and become part of the team. I’ve seen it. Sometimes I promote people as managers and of us become managers and all of a sudden they start acting like CEOs. 

 

10:33 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

10:34 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

You know, that’s a failure. Right, Right. I talk to a manager and I ask them, what do you do to. When an employee does something that is not acceptable? How do you correct it? And when they are first thing they tell me, oh, we’re gonna write them up. They’re not the wrong, they’re the wrong managers for you. Right. I look for attitude, the smile. How do you interact with different culture? 

 

10:56 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

10:56 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Are you a good listener? The conversation is two ways. 

 

11:02 — Anthony Presley: 

Right. 

 

11:02 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

I tell my employees how I want things done, but if they don’t tell me what they need, I want to know. 

 

11:08 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

11:09 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

So I, I help them with that. Not everybody is outspoken, but I help them to tell me and communicate with me. And that’s. Communication is key between management and line of ways and that’s the key to success. If your own ways, if are not happy or if you make their, their shift miserable, if you’re preach. It’s tough. Many times I go into a restaurant and they see everybody not smiling. I asked them, I said, was it a tough pre shift meeting today? Well, that’s wrong, you know. 

 

11:43 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

11:44 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

You want to motivate you. 

 

11:45 — Anthony Presley: 

Right. 

 

11:46 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

As a, you know, I always say the reward. Not all captains are good. 

 

11:51 — Anthony Presley: 

That’s true. That’s very true. That’s a good phrase. 

 

11:53 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

You gotta motivate your people. You gotta be that hero on the floor. 

 

11:57 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

11:57 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

You want to have sweet. You want to teach them show lead by example. 

 

12:01 — Anthony Presley: 

I love that. 

 

12:02 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

It’s not science. I mean, it’s just we cook food and we serve it. 

 

12:05 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah, yeah. 

 

12:06 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

It’s as simple as it is. 

 

12:07 — Anthony Presley: 

It’s funny. One of my mentors likes to say everything you learned about running a business, you learn in third grade. You just have forgotten it since then. You know? 

 

12:14 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Exactly. You know, sometimes we forget what we do for a living is we cook. That’s right. If people come, they pay us money, we cook it for them and we offer it to them and they. How do you want them to come back? Is how we enhance every step of that process, you know, to make it convenient for the guests. 

 

12:34 — Anthony Presley: 

I love it. Last question. You’re a busy guy, we’ll let you on your way. But let’s go the other side of that. Let’s say I’m a brand new employee. I just started at Crazy PETA. I’ve been there for a few months, and I want to grow. I want to be at a better leadership position. But I’m maybe on the ground floor. How do you, how would you coach somebody that’s new and going, hey, I want more, but maybe they don’t have the power for more yet. 

 

12:58 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Well, we put them. Usually when we notice somebody, we look at not just how good of a job they do while they’re there. We look at what, how is their life is. Do they have enough time to contribute to that position or is it. Or they’re doing 80 hours in school or they just don’t want it to make, just to make more money. And those are the first questions we ask. Why do you want this position? What’s the purpose if it’s just making more money? We can help you out. We can give you more hours. 

 

13:27 — Anthony Presley: 

Right. 

 

13:28 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

If you come in, I can give you a different job where you can have them make more money. But it doesn’t mean that stick have to become manager or supervisors. 

 

13:38 — Anthony Presley: 

Right. 

 

13:39 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

And usually when we see if they want to take the supervisor in, then we see that there is. They have free time that maybe they’re doing just online school or they don’t want. They want to continue in the food and beverage career. 

 

13:54 — Anthony Presley: 

Okay. 

 

13:54 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

And of course, we offer them that opportunity and we put them in a program, you know, we put them in a three months, then six months, and within less than nine years, they can become managers. 

 

14:05 — Anthony Presley: 

Wow. Wow. 

 

14:06 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

So we have both options for them and even our current managers right now, when we don’t have, if we don’t have a position for them to grow in, we help them get. We’re from Las Vegas, right. We have a lot of hotels, a lot of restaurants that have higher position than ours. Yeah, we help them get those jobs. 

 

14:25 — Anthony Presley: 

Wow. 

 

14:25 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Throughout my 20 years, we have had a lot and a lot of managers become successful in what they were doing with places. But we help them get there. 

 

14:36 — Anthony Presley: 

That’s fantastic. 

 

14:37 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

You know, we’ve seen people who are now they were 20 years ago when they were 20 years old 20 years ago. Now they’re in the 40s, right? 

 

14:45 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah, yeah. 

 

14:46 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

There’s some of them are CEOs of different companies. 

 

14:49 — Anthony Presley: 

I love that. 

 

14:50 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

And to see that some of them are investment banking. 

 

14:53 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

14:54 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Big CMOs. It’s really good to see you’re. 

 

14:58 — Anthony Presley: 

Getting to grow people. It’s an amazing thing. It’s amazing thing. Well, thanks for your time so much today. 

 

15:04 — Mehdi Zarhloul: 

Thank you for having me, Anthony. Always a pleasure. 

 

15:07 — Anthony Presley: 

Always. Thank you.