[SpotOn Series] Sustainability and Success With Florian Pfahler, Founder of Hannah’s Bretzel

Florian Pfahler is the Founder of Hannah’s Bretzel, an innovative sandwich chain in Chicago known for its organic pretzel bread and commitment to sustainable practices. Originally from Stuttgart, Germany, Florian moved to the US in 1992 with a background in marketing and advertising. His passion for healthful, flavorful food and the absence of traditional German pretzels in Chicago led him to start his restaurant in 2005. Florian emphasizes the importance of ingredient purity, taste, and eco-conscious operations. He leads his business with a strong focus on team culture and the well-being of his staff, which he believes is key to their success.

Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:

[01:23] Florian Pfahler’s surprising journey from marketing to launching a food business
[05:24] How online ordering has transformed the restaurant industry post-2020
[06:42] The roots of Hannah’s Bretzel’s unique menu and ingredient selection
[10:37] How sustainability is woven into Hannah’s business model
[21:42] The pride and challenges of nearing 20 years in the competitive restaurant industry
[25:37] How a strong, happy team can translate to better customer service
[31:13] Florian’s personal favorite menu items and insider tips on delicious offerings at Hannah’s Bretzel

In this episode…

The restaurant industry is constantly evolving, with new trends and challenges shaping the landscape for both established and emerging businesses. How can restaurant owners adapt to changing consumer preferences and market conditions while maintaining a successful and sustainable operation?

According to Florian Pfahler, who launched Hannah’s Bretzel in 2005, adapting to changing consumer preferences and market conditions requires a multifaceted approach. He emphasizes the importance of embracing technology by shifting from walk-in traffic to online ordering and delivery platforms to meet evolving customer habits. Prioritizing sustainability is another key factor, with Florian implementing eco-friendly practices such as using biodegradable packaging, composting, and powering operations with renewable energy. Lastly, Florian stresses the importance of building a strong team by cultivating a positive work culture with benefits like unlimited vacation to increase employee loyalty and productivity.

On this episode of the Top Business Leaders Show, Rise25’s Chad Franzen chats with Florian Pfahler, Founder of Hannah’s Bretzel, about his journey in founding Hannah’s Bretzel, a Chicago-based restaurant chain. Florian shares insights on adapting to industry changes, maintaining sustainability practices, and creating a positive work culture. He discusses the impact of the pandemic on the restaurant industry, the importance of quality ingredients, and his plans for future expansion.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“I’m from a world where food was very important; fast food was not really a thing as I grew up.”
“I think we can say, ‘bring it on.’ I don’t see what else can happen that we wouldn’t be able to survive.”
“The team takes care of the customer and the customer takes care of the business.”
“You don’t stay in business for 20 years unless you do something right.”
“I force everybody to take two weeks vacation in a row once a year. It’s important.”

Action Steps:

Focus on quality ingredients: By prioritizing high-quality, clean ingredients, businesses can offer healthier options that satisfy customer desires for nutritious foods.
Embrace sustainability: Transitioning to eco-friendly solutions can save costs while benefiting the environment.
Adapt to market trends: Keeping abreast of shifts in consumer behavior helps businesses stay relevant and profitable.
Foster team well-being: Creating a supportive work environment that values employees’ well-being can result in a more engaged and effective team, subsequently leading to better customer service.
Plan for strategic growth: When considering expansion, assess the financial risk and opt for smaller, low-rent spaces to ensure stability and community integration for long-term success.

Sponsor for this episode

SpotOn:

Today’s episode is brought to you by SpotOn. SpotOn has transformed the merchant service industry by providing the tools and support your business deserves at a price that puts money back into your pocket!

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Whether you are a merchant or a consumer, SpotOn wants to be more than an average payment processor. SpotOn aims to exceed your expectations by valuing simplicity, maintaining flexibility, and celebrating innovative collaboration. Let SpotOn help you do business the right way.

Partner with SpotOn today! Visit spoton.com today to schedule your free demo or to view SpotOn’s products. You can also call SpotOn at 877.814.4102 at any time. Let SpotOn help you make the difference with your business!

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Episode Transcript

Intro 0:03

Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show. Powered by Rise25 media, we featured top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world.

Chad Franzen 0:19

Hi. Chad Franzen, here, co host for this show, where we feature top restaurant tours, investors and business leaders. This episode is brought to you by SpotOn. SpotOn has the best in class payment platform for retail, and they have a flagship solution called spot on restaurant, where they combine marketing software and payments all in one they’ve served everyone from larger chains like Dairy Queen and subway to small mom and pop restaurants to learn more, go to spoton.com it’s also brought to you by Rise25 we help b2b businesses to get ROI clients, referrals and strategic partnerships through done for you podcasts. If you have a b2b business and want to build great relationships with clients, referral partners and thought leaders in your space. There’s no better way to do it than through podcasts and content marketing to learn more, go to Rise25.com and email us at support@rise25.com. My guest today is Florian Pfahler, the founder of Hannah’s Bretzel, and I’m really looking forward to talking to him today. Florian, how are you?

Florian Pfahler 1:23

I’m fine. How are you? Thanks for having me here. Good. Thanks.

Chad Franzen 1:26

Hey, tell me. How did you kind of get started in the restaurant industry?

Florian Pfahler 1:31

I was a little bit by accident. I moved to the United States in 1992 to New York, actually, and My background is marketing and advertising. By 2000 I moved to Chicago for Leo Burnett, the advertising agency. And, you know, I grew up in Stuttgart, Germany, and I missed the Bretzel bread, and it was on my mind to do something with Brett sobre on the side. And as I started to get knowledgeable about the environment that I lived in in Chicago, I moved into the west loop at the time, and that was, I know, if you’re familiar, what’s going on in Chicago, but the West Loop is a very dynamic neighborhood by now. It was a very empty neighborhood, basically like the meat market in Chelsea. It reminded me a lot of that. And as I was growing accustomed to my life in Chicago, I got also introduced to Whole Foods. And so when I was looking at the pretzel bread, and then I looked at Whole Foods, and how Whole Foods was growing, and there was no Whole Foods in New York. When I lived in New York, this was the first time I was introduced to Whole Foods. And I looked at what’s happening in Whole Foods, and I looked at what’s happening with the internet, which sounds kind of funny, but at the time, the internet was just on its rise, and it became obvious that the whole dynamic of how people experience healthy and eating and foods on the go is going to change. I talked to a lot of customers at Whole Foods. I’m a marketer at heart. I feel like one of the best things to do is chat people up in the environment that you want to do research in where they are the most natural, and I learned very quickly that a lot of customers were looking at living healthier and eating healthier, and Whole Foods provided them a platform for that. But also I learned through talking to them that their whole magical side and the way they structured their lifestyle around eating healthier has been opened up by the Internet. They were talking about what they were reading here and what they were reading there, so that one on one, relationship of the past between your doctor and you, or your nutritionist and you has opened up to a whole source of whole wide range of resources, and it became pretty quickly very clear that there’s a huge opportunity to provide foods on the go that reflect that lifestyle, which is the lifestyle that I lived anyway. My roots are. I’m from a world of school environment. I grew up in a household that, like many European households, where food was very, very important, nutrition was very important. Fast food was not really a thing as I grew up. And so when I learned that, I looked at the pretzel bread, and I looked at Whole Foods, and I looked at the consumer and the dynamics that were provided by the Internet and the growth of knowledge, and I felt that there’s an opportunity, and so I opened up the first hunters in 2005 on Washington and wells right next to a corner bakery. Pretty bold. I was like thinking that if I don’t make a dent, if I can’t bring over the customers that walk from into corner bakery come to me and eating a much better and healthier and tastier sandwich product, then I rather want to fail quickly and move on. And 20 years later, here we are.

Chad Franzen 5:16

Yeah. Sounds like that didn’t happen. So when you say food on the go, is that? Is that really what it is like people go in there, grab, get the food, and then they take it?

Florian Pfahler 5:24

Not initially, initially in 2005 90% of what we sold was sold by walk in traffic in the stores. That all changed in 2016 with the rise of technology in the online ordering platforms. By now, 70% is ordered online. About 65% is delivered and or picked up. And so that dynamic is rather going to grow. So we initially successful back in 2005 through the financial crisis into 2012-13. Before the gluten free trend started. That hit us hard, but we got through that. It was really about having large locations, because the only way you could eat was by going downstairs and walk into a store that has been turned on its head. So now we shed all the large locations, we’re going back really small because it’s easier to operate, but also we don’t see the we don’t see the lunch, sit down customer anymore. It’s just not happening right now. Might be something of the future, but it definitely doesn’t warrant anymore to have three and a half 1,000 square feet of prime retail space in the downtown environment at very high rent and so right now, small is beautiful again, yeah.

Chad Franzen 6:42

Where did the idea for this specific kind of restaurant come from? I know you talked about your background with food and things like that, but for Hannah pretzel itself, how did, how did that kind of come about?

Florian Pfahler 6:55

Yeah, so the pretzel bread was really a driver. And I, you know, in Stuttgart, when you walk through the city, there’s a lot of little kiosks that sell you a pretzel on the go. You grab it for a euro or two, or something like this. I don’t know how much it is. Not when I was a kid, it was much less, but that’s what a lot of people do. They, you know, in the afternoon or in the morning, at 10 o’clock, they pass by, and some have a little butter on it, and the other ones are just plain, and that’s about it. And you just grab one and go and you eat it and that’s it. And initially I thought about doing something like that, but the city of Chicago pretty quickly shut that down and said, like, you know, you want to do food, you need to do a health inspection, you need to have a retail space. So now, when it came about to have a retail space. I was like, well, to have a retail space that just sells bread so long ago is not going to work. So in the meantime, when I had lunch every day with Leo Burnett and I went to these places that my coworkers felt are worth going to, I felt that there was a lack of creativity when it came to making sandwiches ingredients, but also it was the ingredient that, like the meats used, or the cheeses used, were just not that interesting. And I thought that there’s so much more to it. Nobody did anything with parma ham, nobody did anything with wild caught salmon. Nobody did anything with braza Ola. Nobody did anything with Serrano ham, nobody. It was just all the same, another turkey sandwich, you know. And so I went out and I bought a lot of baguette and a lot of ingredients, and I invited friends to my house in the west loop, and we started making sandwiches. I thought I need one weekend to figure it out. What I underestimated is we should have done this, like when you have a white a red wine tester, you know, like they swirl it and then they spit it out, right? So what we did is we ate the sandwiches, and within half an hour, we were so full we couldn’t continue. So I realized I needed to space it out a little bit. But we tested the menu quite deeply. We had a lot of inspiration from chefs and from books and our own creative ideas. We made some that were absolutely uneatable, but that was the foundation. And then I was just taking the risk, and I was like, Okay, fine, here we are. It’s not about piling high. It’s not about eating a ton of meat. It’s more about the pureness of the ingredient we made. We make our bread ourselves from day one, it’s organic. Has always been organic. Will only be organic bread, we make our own sauces and chutneys, we decided that too, so there’s no preservatives in there. We know the ingredients and then when it comes to the other ingredients, that is easy to source, relatively speaking, presola is priscilla Serrano hemp, Parma hemp, these wonderful hemps French. Jean Monte Paris, beautiful ingredients that tend to be rather clean. I will look out for the antibiotics and the growth hormones. Now, according to law in the US animal are not supposed to have antibiotics and growth hormones. However, if the livestock is not healthy, they are allowed to give them. And so there’s always, like a little loophole. So we try to work with purveyors that are strictly living up to the no antibiotics and growth hormone thing. And so the product is really lovely, and. It tastes good, but it is not for the person that is looking for the meat piled high and you know, but also size is not like we go for ingredients and flavor.

Chad Franzen 10:27

So I know sustainability is also important to you. Can you kind of tell me maybe extra steps that you take in that regard, maybe that other restaurants don’t take

Florian Pfahler 10:37

Yeah. So over the years, of course, you know, climate change has become a big word. The focus in business to operate environmentally more friendly has been a growing segment of our society that has gotten a lot of attention. We don’t do that to save the planet. And I say this deliberately every time, because I think that is one of the most arrogant statements that humans can do. The planet will have no problem. It will be here billions from years from now. We probably won’t. And so we’re saving ourselves, if anything, and we’ll say we’re saving our habitat, but we’re not saving the planet. The planet will just do fine with probably better without us on it, quite frankly. And so I also think that we, you know, we’re small business, so it’s more like operating within the community without unnecessary burden on landfill and and just doing things a little bit different, and what I would call smarter, not necessarily more expensive. As a matter of fact, like we just two years ago, we switched to electric Mini Cooper. We had gas powered Mini Coopers for delivery and running errands. The electric Mini Cooper is fantastic, not expensive, and saves us 10 grand in gas money here, if not 12. Right to the bottom line, we have a parking space in a garage that we would pay for for gas powered as well, and we can charge the car up there for free. So now it costs zero cost to drive the car. Well, the tires, the tires need more attention than a normal car because it accelerated like hell, and my team loves that, and I need to always calm them down and tell them, like not to do that, but the tires have a little bit more wear. But otherwise, it’s a very smart investment. We’ve been biodegradable in our packaging. Thing, since about 2009 2008 the minute it came up, we were like, okay, plastic bye, bye. Now you can argue about biodegradable and is it better? And is it not? For me, it anything that is not plastic is better, and if the material is bamboo, particularly, I’m particularly excited, because it’s such a renewable resource, and plastic, as we know, is a real problem. And everybody talks about the microplastics right now, well, the microplastics are created by the all the things we throw away that find, surprisingly, their way back into nature, and with that, into our bellies, and, you know, into our bodies. And it’s not a good thing. We power wind and solar, 100% wind and solar. Since I don’t even know when we started, 2010 maybe 2011 now, everybody’s like, Oh, come on. How do you know it’s wind and solar? Well, it’s not about that. It’s like Lake Michigan. You can pour a bottle of mineral water into Lake Michigan, and it still will be water from rain and water from other sources and your bottle of mineral water. And so the mineral water is the wind and solar. Obviously, when we get the water from Lake Michigan, we it’s not 100% wind and solar, but our money goes to the company that produces 100% wind and solar, and with that, we support them in their endeavor to grow their share of market in energy supply, and you be compost in the back of house that we that was only started about, I would say, just pre covid, 2019 it became viable. Until then, there was nobody really doing that. Now we work with a company called Waste Not in Chicago, and they are fantastic. And they do residential too. And if anybody listens to this podcast who wants to do compost at home, waste not is your source? Fantastic people. Not expensive, smart thing to do. It is a shame if food waste gets thrown away. You know, we have a farmhouse, my family, we have a farmhouse outside of Munich in Bavaria, and we’ve been composting there since I’ve been a child. And it’s in the corner of the it’s a large garden, so in the corner where there’s a composting area, and we throw the things on there that are good for composting, and then we use it turns into Earth and and we use that in the garden for herbs and for planting vegetables and for for whatever we use flower beds. And it’s just amazing how well these things grow. But it’s also incredibly nutrient-rich earth. And I think what a lot of consumers, because we’ve been so removed from the food supply side, what consumers need to understand, and I don’t want to be lecturing people already know, but for them, for the ones maybe that listen to this, that haven’t thought about it, that the nutrients in the earth give the fruit and the vegetable the ingredients to make it a healthy thing to eat. That’s where the body gets very important supplies for micronutrients. And if the Earth is not healthy, then yes, you can eat that fruit and that vegetable, but it won’t have the nutrients that the body needs. And in that essence, it becomes empty food. And by composting, composting is probably the nutrient densest kind of dirt you can have. And so composting is really, really important. It is. The beauty is in Germany. Now, the state collects the food garbage of households, every household, and composts everything. And it’s really fascinating when I go home, there’s four different trash bins that are put out in the street and being picked up plastic, and bottles is one, not glass plastic, and anything plastic is one bag. And then there’s paper and carton. And then there is household waste, which is food, basically for composting. And then the fourth one is your regular trash. And the regular landfill trash is the smallest bin, and it’s also the emptiest, because once you get rid of all these other items, there’s not a whole lot left. There’s not a whole lot left to throw away. So basically, your landfill issues are a thing of yesterday, and you recycle what you can recycle and the food waste becomes incredibly important and nutrition Earth to plant fruits and vegetables in the future. And I think the whole cycle is really, really smart. So that’s what we do at Hana. It’s our small contribution to our community, and we don’t think this is the way to operate a business, whether that is a coffee shop or whether it is an office, or whether it is a restaurant, I think that everybody should adopt that and look out for that.

Chad Franzen 17:42

Yeah, absolutely, wow. That’s, that’s, that is awesome. How did the name Hannah’s come about?

Florian Pfahler 17:47

It’s my daughter, Hannah. So Hannah was born in 2002 and when I wrote the business plan in 2003 into 2004 you know, I decided that Hannah is a beautiful name, you know, front, back, the same thing, three letters in the middle, two ends. Can get better than that. Very memorable and then my daughter, Ella, was born in 2004 and she doesn’t think this is funny. So I have a concept for Ella that I wanted to do in 2020 but then COVID hit, and so we shelved it, but I still want to do it, and it’s ready to go. Things are looking pretty good again. Now, business since covid ended, the last two years, this year and 23 end of 22 into 23-24 were pretty solid. And I think that if 25 holds and things don’t go crazy on the macroeconomic side, I most probably will do the Ella’s concept.

Chad Franzen 19:00

Is there a, speaking of COVID… Is there any part of your operation that changed and now is kind of still permanently changed as a result of COVID?

Florian Pfahler 19:09

Yeah. I mean, covid had a huge impact on everything, and I mentioned the first one, which was locations don’t need to be big anymore. The second thing is, obviously, the big news of this week was that Amazon said five days a week starting 25 everybody back in the office, we’ll see if they succeed, right? And the past companies tried, and employees were like, Yeah, we don’t think so. So now I think, though, considering the labor picture and considering the macroeconomic environment that we’re looking at, where people are discussing hard landing, soft landing, recession, no recession. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think that team members are a little bit more concerned about their future and about their position, and I think the leverage is ever so slightly turning over into companies. And I would not be surprised to see more of an effort for companies to say, you need to come back five days a week. We’ll see about that. I think there’s industries where that is more necessary, and there’s industries where it’s less necessary. Sorry. I think that Fridays will, for sure, stay weaker days in the week, much weaker than they used to be. And right now for us, the Friday is a permanent weekend, like our weekend starts Thursday afternoon in the sense of revenue, but our days on Monday, Monday, a little less so, but growing Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, bonkers, okay, and that is, that is all right, so that, besides the location size, the business just has been condensed into three days. So, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. I like the concentrated environment of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday. We are very lean, and the team actually enjoys it, because it’s like it’s an easy day. Friday, they can catch up and clean up and then they go into the weekend. And so that is the other big change from covid otherwise, in terms of people eating or habits, not really, not really, just more condensed.

Chad Franzen 21:32

So you are. You’re headed towards 20 years with Hannah’s Bretzel. What are you most proud of about that kind of journey to be there after 20 years?

Florian Pfahler 21:44

I mean, it’s been, look, this is, it’s a very competitive business, you know, I think that to have had the opportunity to steer this brand and this company through all the challenges that were thrown at us over the years, I think is something to be proud of. To be still standing up a covid is something to be proud of from we had first the financial crisis back in 2007-08, the gluten free trend came in, 12 11, 12 13, we got through that. Then came the online ordering trend, which really turned the whole industry upside down. But you know, before online ordering, I knew that if I open a location in downtown Chicago, I will most probably own three block rate at the three block radios around me for high end sandwiches. That customer comes to me when they want a sandwich that was very predictable when online ordering happened, any business that made a food in Chicago became your competitor. Even 20 miles away, people didn’t care. They get it delivered, you know, the door dashes of the world then promised like for low delivery fees, and suddenly you had a whole range of competitors. It’s settled by now. And it’s like you, you know that, but in the beginning it was a challenge. And then, of course, when covid happened, all bets were off. So it was like always over the 20 years that we’re going at next year, it was always macroeconomic trends from the outside that threw a real big challenge at us. It has never been anything that happened on the inside. We never had a food issue or E coli or the salmonella or anything like that. And so I’m at this point, after looking back and looking at what my team and my brand has gone through, I think we can say, Bring it on. I don’t see, I see what else can happen that that we wouldn’t be able to survive. But I got to say one word here about the team. I am lucky to have my head of operations just had his 16th haniversary. We call them haniversaries. And my GM over at our Franklin location, he’s been with us for 17 years. The GM over at the Randolph location has been with us for 11-12 years. We have hourly team members who’ve worked with us for more than 10 years. We really focus on soft skills and on creating an environment that is supportive and and and understanding, and maybe that’s my European roots. I don’t know what it is. We offer unlimited vacation. We don’t do vacation days. We don’t do that. We appeal to the grown up in everybody we I force everybody to take two weeks vacation in a row once a year. Yeah, it’s important. I think, you know, I think we tend to forget that this is a temporary deal on this planet for us. And as much as working hard is the thing, I think it is important also to to step away and and not work and see the planet and do something that you enjoy, and then come back and I think it increased our productivity. But it also. Increased our the team loyalty, because they think it’s a really good deal and it’s fair. And I when they’re here, they work hard and, and so I think that is really just mutually beneficial and, and I’m, you know, the team is very proud of it, and I’m very proud of it, and we created a really tight little family running this business.

Chad Franzen 25:37

Do you think that that kind of, that team centered culture — where people enjoy working there — do you think that translates to the customer?

Florian Pfahler 25:44

One gazillion percent. I can’t emphasize that enough. Look, I’m gone a lot. I’m not in the operation, and I’m lucky, because I trust my team, the Dream Team trusts me. I’m a man of my word. I say what I do and I mean what I say. And they know that, they know they can rely on me. I created a very reliable work environment and they appreciate that. And I think that kind of, you know, engaging a fun environment with great customer feedback coming to us that they can be proud of, and are celebrating milestones. So we celebrate a lot. I take my team out probably four or five, six times a year. And when I say I take them out, it’s not fast food out. We go to, like, sit down restaurants of chefs that we work with, and, and we have a real meal and a real splurge and, and it’s fun and they, you know, so it’s, it’s mutual appreciation. I really believe that the tea takes care of the customer and the customer takes care of the business. And me, I need to keep the bird’s eye view to keep that process going. And that’s my role, and, and, and I need to equip the team with the technology or the knowledge or the tools to succeed in making the customer really happy, so that we repeat business. And I think you don’t stay in business for 20 years unless you do something right. And I think we got probably 90% right, and the 10% we need to work on.

Chad Franzen 27:18

So I have one more question for you. But first, I know you have, you have three locations in the Chicago area. Tell me how people can find out more about Hannah’s Bretzel.

Florian Pfahler 27:27

Well, obviously, go to the website hannahsbretzel.com you know, we also have an Instagram @hannasbretzel. You can find us on there too. Yeah, we have three locations. We used to have seven in 2020 actually, the plan was to expand into Washington, DC, and the goal after that was, shortly thereafter, to head to Denver. That, of course, was all mixed by that virus. Amazing what a little virus can do, huh? And, and so, yeah, think about it, teeny Bitsy and and so, you know, we had to close a lot of locations because there was no other choice. And so we’re down to three. We’re closing a location over at 400 North LaSalle in October. That is our last really large legacy location of 3,500 square feet. We just don’t need that size anymore. We don’t need to pay the rent, we don’t need to have the operating expenses we can do with 1/3 the size. And we’re relocating that location into the Merchandise Mart. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Merchandise Mart, but it’s a rather large building, and we will operate in there a location that is 1/3 the size of 400 North La Salle location at a fraction of the rent that we pay at La Salle Street. And that is really the way to go. So that’s just a block away. So we’re going to work very hard in the next four weeks on convincing all of our customers at LaSalle Street in the future to go one block over to meet us there, but then we’re back at three. Now, once the march is opened, we will study opportunities to possibly add back locations in 25 and 26 my goal would be to be back at about seven to eight locations by 2026, but that has to be handled very, very carefully in the market that we’re in. You know, the downtown market, you know, is still under, under pressure. Retail vacancies are high. Office occupancies stuck in the mid 50s, on average, 60, 65% on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Some cities reach 70% on those three days, but we’re nowhere near 80-90% that might change in the future. Who knows? Right? I think it will probably be city to city and company to company. So then the option is to go ex urban or go Suburban. And I think for me, those things are not obvious, so we will look carefully to make an investment that makes sense, and that means small and ideally formal restaurants with a build out infrastructure, where we just need to do cosmetics to open up to keep the investment rather low and. Uh, it’s back to nine. It’s back to 2005, a small space. Go in, make it look good, open, and hopefully it works. And you will make numbers. And number one criteria for making numbers is that the rent is that the rent gives confidence. So I’m saying that because I, in the past, signed leases where the rent was 1718, grand. That requires a solid performance. I wouldn’t do that today. There’s no way. So it needs to be low rent, probably with a percentage component, so that you can go into like with confidence, into a location that you can make numbers work and be there for the long term, become part of the community.

Chad Franzen 30:59

Sounds good. Sounds very good. Yeah, my last question for you, when, when you need to grab lunch on the go and you go to Hannah’s brutal, do you have like a go-to combination of items or item of choice?

Florian Pfahler 31:13

Yeah. I mean, I, I love, I love our soups. Surprisingly, I say that right now with Oktoberfest inspired kale white bean soup with Neiman ranch bratwurst and the Neman Ranch is an amazing product. And then I’m a huge fan of the sandwiches. I love the presa Ola, which I think it’s a northern Italian cured beef. It’s it’s an amazing flavor. It’s one of the best sandwiches, the Marisol, which was created by Jason ham from dulu cafe. For us, we do chef series sandwiches, where we collaborate with chefs. They create a sandwich. We sell the sandwich, we donate 10% of revenue, not profits, revenue, to a community organization of the Chef’s Choice pilot light was for Chef Jason Hammel. We just did one with Paul Kahan. We donated 25% of revenue from that sandwich. Jason Hamel, sandwich was the Marisol outstanding. It made our permanent menu. And the salmon sandwich, I think the salmon is really phenomenal. All our sandwiches are really, I think, interesting in the flavor. And that is really what we focus on, clean ingredients, flavor, surprisingly low in calorie counts, surprisingly low in sodium count, all the Nutritionals on the website. It’s all very transparent. And obviously, if anybody ever has a question, they can email us at catering@huntersbretts.com, and we’re always there. We do a lot of catering business model have the opportunity to mention that we’ve been a downtown caterer for all Chicago companies across the board for a long time, and it’s been probably 40% of our business by now. And we’re very proud of that. So yeah, so those are my things to go to, and if I have a sweet tooth, obviously, the chocolate brownie we make. It’s a triple chocolate brownie with organic chocolate. It’s all organic. We make it in house. There’s no crap in it. And I love that one. Oh, may I mention the chocolate chip cookie while I’m at it? Okay, of course.

Chad Franzen 33:31

Okay. Well, sounds fantastic. It’s not. I’m ready for lunch. It’s only 8:40 a.m. here. Go for it. Hey, hey, Florian, it was, it was great to talk to you today. Thank you so much for joining me, and really appreciate all of your time, your insights and giving me the opportunity.

Florian Pfahler 33:48

It’s been a real pleasure. And if there’s anybody has a follow up question, they can reach us catering@hannahsbretzel.com

Chad Franzen 33:54

Okay, awesome. Thanks so much, Florian.

Florian Pfahler 33:56

Thank you.

Chad Franzen 33:57

So long everybody.

Outro 33:59

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