Mo Assi 16:47
Yeah, first year, again, was was was crazy. So second year, you know, we started to gain a little bit more traction and a bit more consistency consistency with our product consistency with our labor, our cost of goods in general, we could really then dial into what we would do on a, you know, a weekly basis on a monthly basis, what we may be able to do on an on a weekend. Year three was a good year, as far as having some historicals. And being able to look back and being able to say, you know, last year, this time, this is where we were we are seeing incremental increases. So something is working. You know, my dad, we have seen incremental increases year over year. So we we always knew we were heading in the right direction. Now, about year three is when we started to have those serious conversations. This is 2019, round October, you know, fourth quarter, we start having those conversations of, okay, I feel like we’re stable, and let’s start, let’s start looking for that location. Well, then 2020 comes around, round. And it was like we’re slingshotted right back into the operation and figuring out now how do we navigate through this unknown territory. So we did the best we could and we then turned into a takeout-centric restaurant, we are trying our best to promote our business more than ever market more than ever do things that we’d never done. And that wasn’t just us. That was the industry as a whole really brought, you know, the community together really brought a lot of my colleagues and other restaurant tours in the area together to figure out, you know, what, how are we going to get through this 2021 comes around. And now we’re feeling the effects of the supply chain issue where prices now are going up. And, you know, you may get half your order you you’re going you’re at the mercy of whatever is available at that point. You know, you may have a spec item and you may have had that for the last few years, but now we’re short supply. So we went from managing through 2020 and figuring out what what is our business looked like going forward where we’ve always had a very high takeout, percentage. Being fast, casual, it’s quick, it’s easy. You can use our app, you can order online, you can order it through a delivery service. So we’ve always, you know, leverage, you know, strong relationships with with those companies that help us bring an added revenue, where it’s needed and where you can give the guests the option of ordering delivery or pickup. Then 2020 again was now how do we be creative with the product that we have and what’s coming in. After kind of the smoke settle, you know, we we were put in opportunity where we saw a location that was available and we’ve always wanted to grow within Frisco. We really want to Stay was our roots here, there was an opportunity where there was a restaurant about four miles away from our restaurant now. It will has a little patio on it. And it was right around the square footage that we needed, and it was available. And that’s that is exactly how it happened. We were ready for for some time. But really looking for the real estate and finding the perfect spot, you know, kind of fell in our lap, if you will. And now we’re in the position where, like I said, the second location is started off around the year three level of first restaurant. We’re in a position now where we can we’re looking for a third location.
Chad Franzen 20:40
Great, great. Hey, you talked about how when you when you first started, you were kind of like you knew the foods like you knew what you were looking for in the food and developing good food? How has your role changed over the over the years? Are you still kind of the food master? Or are you kind of focusing on other things as well?
Mo Assi 20:58
Yeah, I’m focusing on other things as well. Right now we’re going through a huge infrastructure change, which is something that excites me, and I think this is another fork in the road for our brand. And we’re going in the right direction. So we are. So as far as a food is concerned, obviously, I wanted to make sure that, you know, one thing I learned working for these big national companies is that consistency is key. And systems are key. You know, it doesn’t matter what I can personally produce, it matters what our team can produce. And we have to give them the opportunity to be successful. Right. So a lot of menu engineering, a lot of recipe engineering. System Engineering is really kind of what my roles look like today. Marketing thinking towards the future, what can we do? What can we do different without going in derailing ourselves? What can we do to give ourselves that competitive edge? You know, if you look at Texas, right, and you say taco, there’s dozens and hundreds of 1000s of options. We look at ourselves and we hold ourselves to a standard that we believe we will be the next national brand. We do obviously have competition out there, just like other restaurants, and we feel crushed tacos, get the legs, the opportunity we have the resource versus to grow this brand. And more. So now that’s that’s what I work on is our brand recognition throughout the community. Our brand growth, as we as we get older a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, what is our concept look like? We’ve got to be able to adapt to the times we’ve got to be able to continue to test and grow. Look, we’ve had the same menu. Since we’ve started. We’ve made some tweaks to that we run features. We don’t have to do any of that. We can set it and we can forget it. But where’s that going to take you? Right? I’m not saying we have to reinvent the wheel. But I do have to say we have to stay relevant, right? We have to look at what’s hot in the community right now. And you know, when it comes to our restaurant, yes, we’re serving food. But we’re much more than that. The biggest, the biggest competitive edge, I feel that we have. And we continue to hold on as a service, right people come for the food, they returned for the hospitality. And that is something that we continue to drive home. Constant coaching, counseling and training. And, again, I said we’re going through big infrastructure change. And, you know, we’re going through a huge inventory management system, we’re going through a Labor Management System, things that we can now dial in, as I said before, when I was doing this at six months into the brand, it was all handwritten. It was all Excel, it was all very manual. We’re now we’re seeing cost analysis done on a 24 hour basis, we’re seeing labor forecasting done on a 24 hour basis. So we’re still in the very the midst of that training and getting that infrastructure set up. But again, a big piece of the growth of the brand.
Chad Franzen 24:13
So what are some of your what are some of your long term goals? Obviously, you’ve got, you’ve got you’re working on getting all this infrastructure in place. You’re expanding to a third location. What are some of your long term goals? Maybe the next 510 years even?
Mo Assi 24:25
Yeah, so I would say in the next five years, I see Crush Taco, having 10 locations with us opening to a year going forward. And initially, you know, you have these these big goals and these big expectations. I have big expectations for me, for our team and for our brand in general. But I I’m never I never looked at I never underestimate the restaurant business, right, if you will. So I always I always know we have to go step by step. But at the same time, you have to have, what are we taking the steps to go to, right now want to get to that, that 10 Mark, when you get to that 10 mark, and we have 12 restaurants, I believe at that point, then we’re, you know, a serious player with growth, because we all know you get to 10, you get to 12. Now you’re, you’re gaining national attraction. And, you know, I feel at that point, we’ll be able to put ourselves in a position where we may be able to, you know, be acquired to grow into, you know, a bigger brand by that point. And that could be at five years, could be between five and 10. But I just know that now, we’re still building the foundation, you know, make no mistake about it. One, two restaurants, very good, you know, celebrate. Right, the success, however, we still have to continue to stay relevant to continue to grow, to continue to focus on training, and take it step by step, you go from two, you go to three, and from three and go to four, you don’t go from two to 10. Okay, so, you know, that is the main focus for me, is, as the success comes in, our brands continue to grow, that we’re still focused on the day to day, we’re still focused on the operation. And we’re really focused on our team, and we’re really focused on the development of our team. And that is where I see us in the next five years. And after that, you know, I I’m still you know, very, you know, exceeds my expectations of where we are, you know, to this day, yeah, a few years in,
Chad Franzen 26:48
Hey, what is it about restaurant industry that you find so enjoyable or appealing?
Mo Assi 26:54
Yeah, you know, as a young kid, I always love to cook. You know, I never associated restaurant business. Listen, cooking together, you know, as a young kid, you just like to cook you like being the kitchen. That’s where everybody is, right? So it brings this togetherness that is unlike any part of your day, right? You wake up, you go to work, you wake up, you go to school, you’re on your friends, you’re around your colleagues. But when you come home, you gather around the kitchen, you gather around the grill, you gather around the outdoor barbecue. A lot of what we do is centered around food and dining out, etc. So that was one thing I really liked. As I grew older, graduated high school went to culinary school. I began working at Lowery’s that was my first restaurant job. And it was just so majestic. mean you can not compare the the energy of a Friday night in the restaurant and especially busy restaurant, to anything else. We’re hosting a dinner party every night, we were cooking food, we were having a good time. You know, we were younger. We were in our early 20s in our late teens, even you know cooking food, having a good time. And you know, it builds life. Long relationships, lifelong friendships, it’s built so many great things for us and for me and for my family and again, for other colleagues and it was just something that I knew I was going to gravitate towards. And, you know, again in the early in the early days in the early years, it’s it is just you know, suiting up for a suiting up for a game and getting ready to go, you know, into this battle. You know, what does Saturday night look like? You got 400 covers, you know, it’s going to be fun, it’s going to be hectic, but you know, it’s that adrenaline rush that you know you really can’t get anywhere else.
Chad Franzen 28:52
That’s great when you were growing up what was your did you have kind of like a dish that you knew like everybody was gonna think was great. Um,
Mo Assi 29:01
you know, growing up, I just growing up I would watch the Food Network all the time. And this was when Emeril Lagasse first came on with Emeril live and and Bobby Flay had Boy Meets grill, I believe it was, and that was really the first time that I’d ever seen food kind of glamorized, you know, I’d never I’d never seen it like that. Before it was always just you know, your your mom or your family cooked and and that was it. But I would say that watching Mr. A young age and seeing a flare that he put behind food and the personality he put behind food, gave me a real sense of confidence when it came to food, and I messed up a lot. I remember I would just cook food just to cook it I would make sense variants, not knowing what they were I would make I would make bread that you could break a window with. I would, I would just mess things up. Was there a single dish that I remember that I knew was going to be a hit? Not necessarily, I wouldn’t pick out a single dish. But I would definitely I would definitely say that my flavor profile was something that I knew was going to give me a competitive edge, both flavors not afraid to seize and not afraid to, to cook things in a certain way that I felt was going to extract the best flavor profile. You know, at the end of the day, the worst thing that you can do with a dish is mess it up. That’s the worst thing that you can do. And I’ll joke and people tastings like, oh my god, this is so great. Or on the other hand, this is not so great. But the reasons for that is I’ve made made that 100 times and you’re getting the hundreds in one time, you know. So you know, we’re only really as good as our last dish. But, you know, I feel like the more we practice and more I practice that I narrow the opportunity for mistakes.
Chad Franzen 31:11
Sure, sure. Sounds good. Hey, I have one more question for you. But first, tell me how people can find out more about Crush Taco and everything you have going on there.
Mo Assi 31:21
Yeah, so Crush Taco. We’ve got a great presence. Online, we’ve got great social media following. We’re very active on Facebook. We’re very active on Instagram. You can follow us at Crush Taco. Our website is crushtaco.com We have a lot of information on there from our menu and you know how we got started and where we’re located. brief thing about to Crush Taco. Again, our presence is out there. We’re located in Frisco, Texas. We have two locations. Now we have one Stonebrook and 423. And we want to have one off the Dallas North Tollway with more restaurants to come. That’s the plan for crushing our growth going forward, but those are some outlets where you can find us.
Chad Franzen 32:16
You my last question you mentioned what are some of your more popular items. If you were to go to Crush Taco as a customer, what would be your item of choice.
Mo Assi 32:25
And I do go as a customer often once a week at least been twice this week. So my favorite taco I’ve got a couple favorite tacos. So I’m a big pickle fan. Anything pickled. That’s my flavor profile. That’s what I love. I think pickles are very versatile. Right now. We have the buttermilk fried chicken with its so it’s that pickle-inspired taco is talking about so buttermilk fried chicken with our buttermilk fried chicken. We’ve got kosher salt, we got black pepper, got a blend of seasonings in our in our flour base. We’re hand-frying it throughout the day. That goes on a flour tortilla with crinkle-cut fried pickles. We got to pickle thick cut crinkle cut pickles on top of that in dill over that with the ranch crema. You could almost you can almost taste that. Right. That is my favorite but ongoing. It is the blackened fish taco on corn tortillas. So what I do there we take two thicker yellow corn tortillas. We crisp them up on both sides. We have a mix of cabbage iceberg carrot. I do the blackened fish we have our own seasoning that we black in the cotton. And it’s got a dynamite sauce. It’s a little bit Xsc a little spicy. And what it what changes the game this air is the crispy potatoes that we put on top. So we shave these potatoes micro thin and we fry them until they puff up like little haystack. Then that goes on top of the taco. That’s not necessarily on the menu. I mean we have our we have our Baja fish tacos, but on the menu it’s fried. But the kicker is it’s good. It’s good fried don’t get me wrong, but the blackened fish taco on corn tortilla. Good stuff
Chad Franzen 34:24
sounds amazing. I’m starving now after after listening. Hey, Mo it’s been fantastic to talk to you. I really appreciate it. Appreciate your time.
Mo Assi 34:32
Yeah. Thanks, Chad. Appreciate you.
Chad Franzen 34:34
So long, everybody.
Outro 34:35
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