Peter Demos 12:04
my wife and I did yeah, Kristen was also very instrumental. She deals with a lot of our marketing and brand management of it. Kristen also has a business where she helps businesses create their purpose statement, their values, their mission statements, and does that so she does facilitation helps them with SWOT analysis. So she does that. So she’s instrumental and kind of helping kind of get what was in my head, kind of out on paper, etc. And then again, she did the design and the decor of it and addition to feedback of other things that that’s particular particular in there. She’s also we also have a gift shop component. So people can come in there and just buy gifts. And we you know, a lot of those gifts that we have are from local Local Places or, or maybe from nonprofits that will help kind of support their organization. And so she’s been instrumental to of ensuring that we have, you know, the right amount of gifts and it’s kind of decorated, etc. And we have people hired for that type of stuff, but she’s over all of that as well. So she’s been extremely critical in that in the opening of this.
Chad Franzen 13:10
I’m guessing you started with one location. Where was that and what were the early days there like?
Peter Demos 13:16
So we started in Bellevue, actually, Bellevue right outside of Nashville and then a year later, we opened up in Mount Juliet. And so we actually went into Bellevue because they were creating their building the Ford Ice Center. That was there, there was a brand new movie theater in the area that we were in and, and a hotel was supposed to be built long before we went in. Well, the Fordyce center was delayed over a year, the hotel that the guy had went through five contractors. So it took forever to get built. And by the time those two got built, we only had a couple of months before COVID hit so yes so so what we went to Bellevue for the reason why we pick those areas just kind of went out the window so so you know, the in restaurants it’s always hard the first you know, year or so, you know, I mean, and then you’re trying to figure out especially the new concept, you know, what works doesn’t work, what menu items people don’t like they do like etc. And by the time you kind of think you started to get it figured out, you know COVID came and just changed the rules for everybody and everything. And then our mountain Julius dermatophytes we celebrated our one year anniversary under lockdown like we weren’t even open on the one year anniversary, so and then we have a third one that’s opening up on Charlotte pike in Nashville right now. So R is being constructed right now.
Chad Franzen 14:36
What about Demos family restaurant? What can the customer expect when going there?
Peter Demos 14:41
So that one’s that one’s we’ve been around. That’s the one my parents started. It’s been around for 30 Cali be 33 years in December so 32 and a half years and it’s a full service restaurant. It also has an eclectic menu of steaks, seafood pasta, chicken butt We have no fried food. And so originally when it when it opened it was Demos to steak and spaghetti house. And and then we just moved to Dennis’s restaurant because so many people just assumed we were Italian. And, and so, so we wanted people to try the other areas or the other items that we had. And so that’s where a lot of that comes from. And, you know, but we have everything from getting pot roast. And you know, our steaks or your steaks are hand cut, and season with our seasoning, special seasoning, we marinate them in our particular marinade. And, you know, so there’s a lot of different things. But uh, probably our most popular item, which wasn’t intended to be was our soup, we have a baked chicken and rice soup, which we ship all over the nation and including our spaghetti sauces, and a couple other items. And you could do that through our through Demos family kitchen website, where you can get it we ship it anywhere.
Chad Franzen 15:51
Oh, wow. How was COVID? Kind of important? How did COVID end up changing the operations of all your restaurants? He talked about how, how it affected you a little bit already?
Peter Demos 16:02
You know, I guess, during COVID, you know, there was there was a lot of things that were playing into it, which is you again, just trying to figure out what rules regulations in Tennessee, you know, the counties were all different, you know, so each county could rule a different ways. So wherever location we were in, we had to figure out what was going on there and trying to trying to, you know, know, what we can do can’t do, you know, dealing with customers who thought you were going to extreme one direction or too extreme the other direction. And then, you know, so a lot of that was taking place. And you know, we started doing curbside and that’s when we got UberEATS and deliver food and, you know, so we did a lot of that type, that type of stuff. But since then, you know what the impact of COVID has really been more negatively impactful after things started returning to normal, I guess for lack a better way to say it. Because at that point in time, we’ve seen two things we’ve seen customers that were customers always got angry, and probably the same percent always got angry, the way they portray it is tremendously worse and the way they they so I have a son who’s 19, who’s working part time as a manager right now one of our locations, and I got a daughter who’s 17 as a cashier. And the stories they come back with what customers say and say to them and do to them is unreal. And I again, I’ve been in this business a long time, and I’ve dealt with my share of really bad crazy angry customers. But but the volume of it seems to be more than the intensity seems to be more. And then obviously is a problem across the nation with every industry, which is labor. And so trying to figure out how to do more with less, you know, figuring out okay, do we shut down this week? Because, you know, we don’t have people do we, you know, how do we how do we make certain that people get trained properly and not sacrifice training, because you don’t have the people and you want to get them on the in rotation as fast as possible. So we’ve had to try to figure out how to really maintain the training. And then And then the last one is the supply chain. And you know, the figuring out what you’re going to be short or not short. Now back in October, we created what I call the Genesis 41 plan. And that is a plan where as reading in Genesis 41, where Joseph tells Pharaoh, hey, we get seven years of famine or famine coming up after seven years of good years. And so start stockpiling. And so we started doing that with all over non perishables, and I got seven storage units and, and we have everything from your straws to to go boxes, or whatever it happens to be. And so when our distributor runs out, we have a supply that we can provide ourselves. And then when this distributor gets it back in, we replenish our storage units. And that’s been it’s been instrumental and helping our employees, you know, frustrating it is when you run out of trash bags, or you can’t get a broom or saran wrap, you got to use 212 inch wraps instead of one to 120. And, you know, it’s that type of stuff. And it’s just been really, really helpful in maintaining our morale of our staff, and just being able to provide them the ability to take care of our customers.
Chad Franzen 19:11
Is this you mentioned kind of a change in customer behavior or comments that customers would make. Is this regarding COVID or kind of you just noticed the comments changing as a result.
Peter Demos 19:22
Is there anything I mean it’s really odd. So for example, we had a the most recent example I can think of is we had a customer that was angry, they came in with a 2020 top you know we can’t open up all the areas because we don’t have the staff for it. And so we had a certain area shut down. And we told them the wait time and the we had a we had a table that was we had to separate them into several tables to pull together in one table just wouldn’t get up. I mean, just sometimes that just happens. And we’ve gone over the wait time we were communicating with them saying hey, it’s only one table. You know, this is What happens, etc? Well, when the table got up, you know, two managers ran over to clean the table, you know, we had the host clean the table, and then they ran to go see, you know, by that time the customer started leaving, and you know, my son again, you know, try to chase them out and literally caught them in the street. It’s a side street. So it’s not like it’s a busy road type thing is dodging traffic. But it was still he caught him in the street, and tried to convince them to come back in and say, look, we got it now, etc. And the guy just cussed him out. And then of course, posted on social media, etc. Now the guy was very accurate on what he posted on social media. And he was right, in the sense of, we quote them a certain time it went over. But again, it was a reaction and the in the cussing and that sort of stuff. So again, I think what’s going on, and this is, this is Peter speaking, this is not any expert at this at all. But I think people are so angry at what’s going on and culture in our society, and they’re so angry with, everything else is going on that they have a hard time, you know, and they can’t take it out on the people they’re angry with, or they you may not even know who it is. So when something like that happens, I think it fuels and just adds to the fire that’s already in them. And then they explode. You know. So again, part of our job in the restaurant is to make people again, our job is to help people. So our job is to, to make certain that we make them happier, they don’t come out to eat because they’re hungry. They come out because they’re wanting the experience. And so our job is to try to fix that on them as best as we possibly can. And I think that’s where some of that’s coming in. And, you know, sometimes we just fail. I mean, I had a law professors say, you know, what, every day, doctors lawyers commit malpractice every day, it’s just a matter of whether or not it rises to a level of legal liability. I think it’s true with everything. I think you committed malpractice. They may whether you even caught it or not. I know I have, you know, I mean, it’s just, it’s just a thing that just happens because we’re human, and we mess up. It’s just Can we catch it before it reaches to that customer, and then ethic that’s where the key is on it.
Chad Franzen 22:03
When you hear about those stories, that doesn’t affect your desire and passion to help people.
Peter Demos 22:09
No, no, it doesn’t help. No, it does not at all. Matter of fact, I want to more I just, you know, it may it may. You know, there are times where I’ll be honest, it hurts. You know, there are times where you just kind of like, I don’t know, you know, I don’t know, this is worth it type thing. I mean, you go through those feelings and emotions. But reality is is, you know, right now, there’s so much anxiety out there, that there’s there’s there’s answers for peace out there. And to me, that’s kind of where the stage has to be set. That’s where it has to go. And, and, you know, so it makes me want to for that reason, it makes me feel it gets for lack of better way, say it makes me feel sorry for them. You know, my mother used to say, with grumpy customers, she’s like, you know, they got to deal with themselves 24 hours a day, you just got to deal with them for a brief period. And I think she’s 100% correct. On it, you know, but But you know, at some point in time, you really got to feel sorry for him. I mean, you know that, that they can get that angry over a five minute difference, or they can get that angry over something really, really small. And it’s generally not that small. It’s a last straw type thing. You know, and I know I have, I know, I have, particularly in my younger years, I know, I acted stupid and inappropriate to many places and many people. And I look back on it now. And I’m like, Yeah, because I was just in a bad place. And I didn’t know I was in a bad place. But I was in a bad place. And I think that’s where some of that is. And so these people, they’re, they’re in a bad place. And we’re it’s our job to try to, you know, try to just help them kind of find just just even even if it’s 30 minutes of a good place. I mean, that does a whole lot.
Chad Franzen 23:54
Sure, sure. Hey, can you tell me about your book, afraid to trust? What? What led to your decision to write that? And what is the primary takeaway for the reader?
Peter Demos 24:04
Yeah, so So about nine years, a little over nine years ago, I got saved and whereas was most of my life. I grew up around church and grew up in Christian schools. But again, just didn’t didn’t have a relationship with Christ. I was very angry. If you asked me, I would have told you I was a Christian. But that was a lie. I really wasn’t. And when I got saved, I said, okay, we’re turning everything over to Jesus. It’s all his and so that means turning our business over. That means turning my family over. That means turning, you know, your basic everyday decisions over and so and during that time, I would get up and speak to groups and people come up and say, Hey, I think you need to write a book. I was like, it’s just not ready for it yet. I just it’s just not there. And then we open up a restaurant that failed miserably and every sense and stuff of the world Word. God saw us through this process, but what it did was is when you’re up at two o’clock in the morning crying because everything is collapsing around you, you know, the financials, you know, friends that, you know, we’re there to support you the beginning of the business and saw was not going to work and they left. And you know, so there was all this stuff that we started seeing around us. And it just just God just taking away that pride and learning how to go through that process with him that he can provide that security for you when you don’t realize you have it. And so that’s what the book is about. It kind of leads from, from the story of me becoming a Christian hating Christians attacking Christians, and then going all the way to how God was faithful and getting us through this through the season. And if it weren’t for that season, that God showed us the way I don’t know how we got through COVID through in any type of sanity. But, but but we were able to utilize the lessons from that. So that’s a big component of what happened. And then it also talks a little bit about, you know, ways that we, you know, ways that we, you know, transformed our business to be a Christian business, not a business that has Christians in it, but a Christian business. And so that’s part of what we’ve done from there.
Chad Franzen 26:14
Great, great. Hey, I have one more question for you. But first, tell me how people can find out more about both of your restaurants and your book.
Peter Demos 26:22
So the where you can go as you go to PeterDemos.org. And then and that’s where that’s my personal website, that’s also you want to book for speaking or for, you know, and so I write a lot of articles and different things. So a lot of that’s on there. And then you can also but if you’re interested in the restaurants, there’s always Demos his restaurant PDK you can just kind of Google both of those and, and kind of find something about it and and then there’s always hyperlinks to everything else. So you know, everything has to be interconnected and woven to make sense. So that’s kind of what we’ve had to do there.
Chad Franzen 26:55
Okay. Hey, last question. If you were to go to PDK Southern Kitchen & Pantry as a customer, what would be your go to item of choice.
Peter Demos 27:03
Wow. So there’s there’s there’s really kind of depends on my mood. I love our PDK burger. It’s nice and simple. The fries are great. And the fries are one of the few things of fries that actually is it gets cold, it’s still actually good, which is really unusual. So so that to me is kind of the nice, simple go to our hot chicken. If I’m in the mood for something spicy, that’s also good. But then when I’m dieting like I am right now we get I get the the grilled salmon because our statement is fresh cut. It’s actually we cut it there, you’re where the customers are, they can see it if you come in the afternoon, you watch us do the prep on the salmon. But we have grilled salmon, and we either have fried Brussels or grilled broccoli that you can do with it. And you know, you can’t find that in fast food restaurants fresh cut salmon, grilled broccoli, you know, so, so that’s kind of that’s probably my that’s probably my number one. That’s one eat the most because you know I diet 300 days a year and wonder why the 60 days doesn’t make you lose weight. So
Chad Franzen 28:04
Hey, Peter, it’s been a pleasure to speak with you. I really appreciate your time and your thoughts and your insights. Thank you so much.
Peter Demos 28:10
Thank you appreciate it.
Chad Franzen 28:11
Thank you. So long, everybody.
Outro 28:12
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