Five Things E20: Running A Successful Restaurant with Victor Khoury
https://brandascentmedia.com/?page_id=1215

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on today's podcast honestly I get
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motivated just waking up every morning
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mm-hmm you know I thank God for what I
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have
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[Music]
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the truth is adding value will never go
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out of style hello and thanks for
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joining us for another five things
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podcast here with Victor quarry today
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I'm pronouncing that right right Korea
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just want to make sure owner of saints
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and scholars we've actually known each
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other for quite a while now
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and thanks for joining me here today
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Victor and what we wanted to talk about
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is you know people that are thinking
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about becoming self-employed thinking
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about starting a business you and I are
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in a little bit different business to
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where you're actually in a retail space
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you know you had a build-out you had to
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do a lot a bunch of stuff that that I
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really didn't have to do so it's we're
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both business owners but it's a totally
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different process totally different
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perspective so definitely looking
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forward to hearing about that and what
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you've dealt with so tell us tell
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audiences and how you ended up at this
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point I was born raising Jordan okay and
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down I came to finish high school into
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college in 1982 which is about 16 years
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old and finished high school went on to
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college and got married
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any guess um becoming US is okay where'd
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you go to school at in the US I went to
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East Tennessee I went to high school I
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ended up Cohen Tennessee yeah okay I
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went to Covenant College in Kentucky
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okay yeah so like he's Tennessee like
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Knoxville like Seymour Tennessee okay
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and also between nas one-gallon burg
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awesome how did you guys end up in that
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area just randomly or no so my mother
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had a friend back home and okay he was
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you know locating kids to study abroad
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and you know my my sibling study abroad
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so okay very cool yeah and so you end up
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going to college where'd you go to
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college I went to college and coming
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come come - cause in Kentucky okay
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Williamsburg Kentucky yeah I don't
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detect any accent yeah awesome
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and then so from from Kentucky and um
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Kentucky I came to Raleigh to finish my
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degree at state and okay and I was I was
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waiting tables at Red Lobster
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okay back in old days awesome and as
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soon as I turned 21 they recruit me into
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Schmidt and I think they offered me like
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$34,000 a year back in 1987 big money
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that was huge Marik especially young guy
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yeah plus bonuses oh and I just had
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Solomon wishes my firstborn at that time
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I figured let's put school aside and
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became actually a restaurant management
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was my first job to be okay read lost a
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manager and is it happen to be the one
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awful old Wake Forest by chance actually
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yes really okay man that place been
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there what a long time okay so and I
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moved on and got transferred to several
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locations promotions and whatnot so I
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think school was totally out in my head
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like I was making enough money to live
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on and yeah I can see that I mean you're
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kind of going to school to start making
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money but when you found your niche and
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you you started kicking butt what do you
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think or what do you think are some of
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the things you did early on as an
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employee that led you to that
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opportunity to manage and work your way
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up well I came from growing up in Jordan
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oh my father was pretty strict and and
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all he taught us integrity and
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accountability and I'd always do the
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right thing and do your best and and and
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I just took that and I just carried
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around with and carried it with it so
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everywhere I've worked taking that and
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now I use that into my business as well
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hmm
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being a business owner and a leader of
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employees you know I said the example by
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leading by an examples right yeah I mean
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it's a must
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you know the John Maxwell one of my
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favorite books he did he talked about
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the speed of the group is determined by
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the speed of the leader you know if
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you're a if you're a you're probably not
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gonna have any tens working for you
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correct so you got a you got to be the
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example for sure and they're as good as
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you make them to so well that too yeah
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so let me ask you this what's something
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that what is something that
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was bad that happened or negative that
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happened that you learned a lot from in
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the past if you had if you had to think
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of one thing I would say several you
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know we've gone through a bad economy
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and you know we've struggled hard at one
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time I used to have four locations and
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and bigger is not always better and we
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became such a big company really fast
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and and we've hit some bumps into the
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bad economy and and kind of you know
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took everything away from me it's like
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in three years period I just kept you
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know feeding the beast and sure enough
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finally like decided you know why it's
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time to move on and so and that's when I
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closed Psalms restaurant and I moved
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into Saints it's cause an Irish pub and
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I started out back in 2012
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right after closed Solomon's okay you
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know I got was self-employed at a
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business during the the Great Recession
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as well and and one of the things that
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it's tough to it's tough to go backwards
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and you know something that I've learned
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that I think that I could adjust quicker
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now if things look bad on the horizon or
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this and that I think I'm probably more
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emotionally ready to make cuts and
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changes in this and that because having
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been through that and it sounds like you
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probably have that perspective as good
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yeah it's just just to learn how to cope
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with bad economy and how to adjust from
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payroll to trimming and inventory it
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just makes you a much better operator
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right now right it's true you know and
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again that was the thing is you know
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people are really the most expensive
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actually it is my most expensive was
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just looking at my P you know my most
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expensive thing is is humans for the
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company and so I was reluctant when
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things started you know going bad in
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2007-2008 you know it's reluctant to cut
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people because these are people that I
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cared about and you know you keep
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thinking hey we'll figure it out we'll
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find a way this and that and then you
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ultimately I'm paying myself less then
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I'm not paying myself one week and all
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of a sudden you're you're hanging on
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you're hanging
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and I'll tell you the one thing that I
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learned not to be sour on employees but
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they didn't appreciate it you know and
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it was you know you're you're out there
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fighting to try to keep everything
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together correct and I'll tell you just
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not a lot of people number one a lot of
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them don't appreciate it but some did I
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mean you know certainly some did but
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I've just learned that not to kick a
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dead horse here because we've been
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talking about it but I'm gonna make
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changes pretty quickly if I see things
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coming down the horizon because got to
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take care of the baby number one correct
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you know and you know it is what it is
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so that's definitely a good lesson learn
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right there always let me ask you
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something cuz I know I know how hard you
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work you know obviously you've had some
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good principles instilled in you and
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this and that where do you get
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inspiration from what what do you think
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motivates you truly and honestly I get
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motivated just waking up every morning
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mm-hmm you know I thank God for what I
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have and I always pray to God to give me
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the best ability to my best that day so
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and I get inspired by just being alive
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and just grateful to have the
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opportunity to the opportunity to have
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what I have but I think I have more than
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I need mm-hmm so that's awesome so just
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again you know just a spirit of
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gratitude absolutely you know is is
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super positive and I always got that I
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was got the positive vibes from you you
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know anything just have that peace of
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mind and and and just feel of freedom
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and knowing that you know I'm doing the
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right thing in life mm-hmm every day and
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you seem like you really enjoy what you
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do I love what I do
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you know just yeah definitely definitely
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a people guy I love people I love
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shaking hands I love you know talking to
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everybody and and seeing smiles on
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people's faces and I love taking care of
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my employees and and and create a good
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environment good work in place
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and there's no perfect place to work out
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there if you're listening there is no
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perfect place there's no perfect
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employee no there's no perfect employer
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so you know anybody can anybody complain
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can complain but I always try to say you
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know if you have a complaint bring a
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solution with it otherwise it's just
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noise let me ask you this so you start
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saints and scholars which is a great
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place and what what kind of was the
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inspiration behind that what is the how
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did you come up with saints and scholars
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actually I bought the place
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too much red tape to change the name
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first on Solomon's and I don't want to
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just sure so I walked into saints and
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scholars okay we closed solemn ISM
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Sunday and we open stance on Thursday
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okay so it was a quick right quick
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transition all my employees with me and
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we combined both minis together so we
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took military and Irish and combine it
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together and it's a pretty good for my
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worst grade and we strive about quality
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and the value in the service that we
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provide there now and it was a totally
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different ballgame from Solomon's
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salman's was pretty much like a
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full-time restaurant you know service
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bar in a beautiful bar right say it's
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more of a bar a nightclub field and the
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live music live music yeah the cheers of
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our restaurant bar so to speak right
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that night our regulars come in all the
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time and they're my bread and butter
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right I appreciate every one of them so
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absolutely it's a great location great
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location it's a great setup and then
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service has always been great every time
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I've been in there and you know people
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are polite and and they're all over it
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and so open up saints and scholars
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what's uh what's something that that you
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think may be separate saints and
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scholars from the average place we're
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gonna come we're not in common I don't
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focus my I don't focus my energy on what
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other people are people I just want to
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do what I do best and what
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know how to do best you know I totally
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believe prices which are values is is
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exactly where it needs to be and as far
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as a service goes you know we strive to
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give the best service right um that what
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service interests to do is to provide
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the best service sure and a quality is
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amazing you know
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people eat our food and they like whoa
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you know this is really you know pub
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food so we are pub but we're also like
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quality restaurant yeah food definitely
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I can vouch for that personally and
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thank you for being a I watch security
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customer by the way just did the thank
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you very much just at a great up fit
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they're a remodel over there
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I guess Hopf it's not the word it would
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be remodel yeah so you know all that
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came out really great and ultimately I
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guess what we'll do is we'll go ahead
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and jump right into the the five things
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topic you know a lot of our content is
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for that young future hustler
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entrepreneur grinder wanted to get out
11:56
there and thinking about becoming
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self-employed and this and that and so
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you know someone with yourself you've
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got I mean when you factor in management
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experience I mean you've got you know
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what three four decades right over 30
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years experience so this is great
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content and if you had to narrow it down
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and I know we were actually talking
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before the podcast there's a lot of
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things you could talk about but if you
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had to narrow it down to five what do
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you think that the top five things would
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be advice to someone starting a business
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thinking about really in here's the
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thing thinking about going all in on
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themselves which is a scary thing I
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believe my number one is integrity
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mmm-hmm and and people confuse integrity
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by doing the right thing integrity
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really is honoring your word you know
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and and when you start a business and
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you know you put integrity there any
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honor your word about what you're doing
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it what you want to do is is something
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that a must
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as far as integrity goes nothing worse
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with integrity mm-hmm and my number two
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would be don't make don't make it all
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about yourself mm-hmm
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when you start making everything by
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yourself everything fails right from
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relationships too
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you know it lists with kids and
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your wife and your employees and right
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it's just not nothing will work we got
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to be customer focused for sure and you
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know you've probably seen this I've seen
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some businesses in the past like they
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open up and there their hours are 9:00
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to 5:00 and I'm looking at that type of
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business and I'm like how is this
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business going to survive 9:00 to 5:00
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you know how are you not available when
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the general public is available which is
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5:00 to 9:00 p.m.
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and sure enough you see that business go
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out of business about a year later you
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know it's it's it's not a job I mean you
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can't you got to be available when
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customers are available you know for the
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most part especially early and also and
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my priority is also putting customer
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first no matter what every decision I
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make every thing that I focus on when it
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comes to the pub is you know what's in
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it for the customer what's the best
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thing we should do to provide that
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employees they're number one in my life
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and I come last offer myself last yeah
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so customer focused is definitely where
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it's absent and you're always gonna err
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on the side of the customer absolutely
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and I think that's that's a great
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principle that I think a lot of people
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don't you know where you gotta listen to
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them see what they want you know from
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quality to pricing to atmosphere to what
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kind of music they like and you got to
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care to that and you got to change you
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gotta adapt probably absolutely you know
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if you're getting you know there's this
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there's a sales thing but I guess it
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would apply for for business ownership
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is that if you're selling something and
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you get the same objections back I can't
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afford it or this or that just then you
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got to adjust to what you're saying and
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you need to talk about well talk about
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how afford
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let's talk about the discounts talk
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about money it saves you over year you
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know it's all in presentation and with
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the business you know you're listening
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to the feedback from your clients and
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then you can make adjustments because
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your hearts in the right place you want
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you want to provide that good value you
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want to provide service and a safe place
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for them to come to you know I got a lot
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of single womens walk in by themselves
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and they love coming in because it feels
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safe and you know were or a much
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classier than an average definitely
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night club that people that's what I
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hear they sure to survive yeah it's well
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lit up you know I you know I can I can
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personally vouch you've got a great
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camera system and security and you know
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so I you know I know that you paid the
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price to have good quality in there you
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know so I definitely agree with that
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so I guess number three were on quality
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quality focus on quality you never never
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lacked that and then we compromise if
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anything comes out of kitchen that I
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feel like it's just not worth taking out
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we just we make it and if anybody
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doesn't like it or they don't care for
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the way it looks or taste they don't
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have to pay for it we can give us
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something else
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mm-hmm so we're really big on quality
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and for a pub to be honest with you
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Brian
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I mean we buy some of the best
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ingredients money would buy for to
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create what we have as far as our menu
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goes one a restaurant it's easy it would
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be easy for you to scrimp on some of
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that stuff but the the product would
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suffer I mean people think chicken wings
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are chicken wings but no the way we by
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the way will prep them and the way the
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process to make him taste so much better
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than other restaurants is is a long
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process you know you know saman he's my
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son and he's my chef now you know he's
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being with me for years okay and he's he
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takes proud of every plate that goes out
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it's all screens that we have you know
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people say well salt is salt but we buy
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a good salt good sea salt makes a huge
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difference I bet yeah absolutely example
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and that's the thing it's like nobody's
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gonna see that you're buying the
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a little bit better quality cheese or
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the sea salt versus the regular correct
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you know bulk salt or something like
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that beginning ground before you get
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served by ground beef which one is we we
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get the service right versus just
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regular ground beef so and that makes
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all the difference in your lumens yeah
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you know and here's the other thing I
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mean as a consumer I don't mind paying
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for that because at the end of the day
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it if I'm looking at my dish and it's a
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dollar or two more but I love it exactly
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I mean it's well worth a dollar - it's
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four bucks or whatever and truly Brian I
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mean people are you know they watch what
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they spent you know and you know I'm not
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the cheapest place in Raleigh I mean
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I'll tell you that much but if you look
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at your total average check you know if
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it's three four dollars or five dollars
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more than somewhere else to me it's well
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worth it like I said I really go some
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already and spend extra ten dollars on
18:18
my total check but I get atmosphere I
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getting great music and I get you know a
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safe place to be and I get a fun good
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service and got owners on-site and
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they're you know and your son is there I
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mean you guys put your care and your
18:32
pride in - absolutely and my brother's
18:34
my par nineties he's there all the time
18:36
- soon so you get you get well yeah and
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it's worth whatever it is it we're not
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you get to value that I tell you that
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for sure you know and I guess I can
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relate on that and a level that you know
18:50
and I'm not bashing ADT here but you
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know I feel bad for people to think an
18:57
ADT employee cares like I care
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it's my company it's my brand it's my
19:01
name I take my company very personal so
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they can have great employees they're
19:07
not gonna get a Brian Smith because this
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is you know when I'm replying to a text
19:12
message at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night
19:13
while I'm watching football jumping on
19:16
my iPad delete a motion detector that's
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falling for some reason you know
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ultimately you get people that care and
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that translates and to me that's worth a
19:28
couple bucks easily when it comes to a
19:30
restaurant
19:31
separated us - from corporate versus a
19:34
privately owned locally owned locally
19:36
owned yeah and that's what we support
19:38
all the time absolutely and there's the
19:40
other thing when you support a local
19:41
restaurant you know you're supporting
19:42
the local economy is heavily in security
19:46
company right but so now we're on number
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four which is value value is a big thing
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and I learned in this business I've been
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doing this for 30 years you know when
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people go on
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they want a steak and they want to make
20:01
sure they get a good thick fat steak
20:04
tastes good and it comes with like a
20:06
couple of sides and salads and they want
20:08
any good value they don't want to feel
20:10
like making me hungry thing and then to
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be honest ooh Brian I mean I've gone out
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to I we go out to you a lot and and and
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I get to spoilage so many times you know
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not because I can't afford it there's
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some goods like I feel like I'm not
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getting my money's worth out of it you
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know I'm spending $30 on a plate right
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but I don't feel like I got my $30 world
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right so being the middle-eastern my
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family very generous my mom just feeds
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you like crazy I can imagine so I took
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that and kind of you know if you've
20:45
noticed our portions or yeah that's a
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great portions values huge you know a
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not just value of how much it is it's
20:52
also the quality behind it so I
20:54
guarantee you won't leave hungry yeah
20:57
that's a good thing and last thing is
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service service with this model and you
21:04
know with all due respect to all the
21:06
service industry people feel like you
21:08
know this is not real job you know I'm
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gonna get real job eventually you know
21:11
I'm just here waiting tables I'm just
21:14
here bartending and and eventually I'm
21:16
gonna get a real job well you know it's
21:17
a real job mm-hmm pays the bills I've
21:20
waited tables through college I know
21:22
some people that do really well and
21:24
they're very same before yes yes very
21:25
well and my my look on to servers and
21:33
bartenders is you do have a real job
21:35
and you do provide service to the
21:39
community as well so you're in a service
21:41
business and you know people come to see
21:46
our servers to see our bartenders and
21:47
know they're gonna go well be well taken
21:49
care of you know they're gonna leave
21:51
with a smile and and knowing that
21:53
somebody took good care so I can tell
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you this - just I've definitely
21:58
I've been single for a long time now but
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you know going to a place where you know
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you're gonna deal with that group of
22:07
people and they're always consistent
22:09
they're happy there's good dialogue
22:11
there's there's fun to talk to people
22:14
that you can interact with and they're
22:16
happy that's a big deal you know some
22:20
environments a really big deal and I
22:22
know you guys do a great job of that but
22:25
anybody out there in the service
22:26
industry that might be listening to this
22:28
you're not just in service you're in
22:30
sales you know that tip is is definitely
22:33
predicated upon the experience the
22:35
person's havin and they need to give
22:37
this sums a lot of credit I mean it's
22:39
it's a tough it's a tough business
22:40
obviously I think in my opinion I think
22:43
it should be like a high school
22:44
requirement to wait tables three months
22:47
out of the hole just to kind of relate
22:50
to people and get to that appreciate
22:53
what mmm hard work is all about really
22:57
and being in service you're in a
22:59
position to really brighten up
23:00
somebody's day absolutely and directly
23:02
benefit you know so that's definitely a
23:05
big positive so you've got any special
23:09
events or I know you guys always have
23:10
bands and all kinds of stuff going on -
23:12
we're big live music typically what
23:15
Fridays or Saturdays and you know right
23:17
now we're backing off Sunday because of
23:19
the weather and sure folks in morale
23:21
football but usually we do what's called
23:23
a Sunday Funday it's usually like I'm 48
23:26
outside on the patio okay nicest padding
23:29
awake care to be honest with ya there's
23:30
a great patio and people love it they
23:33
love that Sunday afternoon music the
23:35
weather's fine and and we got a couple
23:38
more Sundays this week the next two Sun
23:40
is we've got music ice on the patio
23:42
then after that we're gonna focus on
23:44
football and right let's get to it of
23:46
holidays and sure New Year's Eve a big
23:48
bash of course you know nice beautiful
23:51
ladies bands and and we'll take it one
23:55
day at Tom awesome one holiday at a time
23:57
and go from there so definitely check
23:59
out saints and scholars Friday or
24:00
Saturday for live music typically on a
24:04
website which is Facebook you can always
24:05
follow us on Facebook we promote that
24:07
all day long so absolutely so thanks for
24:10
joining us
24:11
today Victor and giving us some tips for
24:14
our folks out here listening and thanks
24:16
again for joining us for a five things
24:17
podcast
24:19
[Applause]
24:19
[Music]
24:26
hello this is Brian Smith and thank you
24:28
for watching please subscribe for more
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