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Sara FrascaSara Frasca is an innovation Keynote Speaker, business consultant, and the COO at Point Northeast. She’s also the owner of Trasca & Co Eatery, an Italian-inspired neighborhood eatery in Ponte Vedra, Florida, with a one-of-a-kind vintage atmosphere and signature panini made by the secret Frasca family recipe.

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Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:

  • Sara Frasca shares her interest in the restaurant industry sparked by her family’s legacy
  • The importance of creating and tracking a shared vision within a team
  • Sara discusses the integration of standardized operations between businesses
  • How to foster innovation and creativity in the restaurant industry

In this episode…

In this episode of the SpotOn Series, Chad Franzen is joined by Sara Frasca, keynote speaker and Owner of Trasca & Co Eatery. They discuss the business opportunities within the restaurant industry, establishing trackable team goals, and staying true to brand values. Sara also shares how she is maintaining the right vision to further her family’s legacy while promoting innovation through creativity and business operations.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sponsor for this episode

SpotOn:

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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 0:04

Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show, powered by Rise 25 Media. We featured top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world.

Chad Franzen 0:20

Chad Franzen here co-host for this show where we feature top restaurant tours, investors and business leaders. This is part of our SpotOn Series. Spot on has the best-in-class payment platform for retail and they have a flagship solution called SpotOn Restaurant, where they combined 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 This episode is brought to you by Rhys 25. We help b2b businesses to get ROI clients referrals and strategic partnerships through done for you podcast. 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 or email us at support@rise.25media.com Sara Frasca is an innovation and business growth expert who serves as COO for Point Northeast and innovation keynote speaker and founder and owner of Trasca & Co Eatery a one of a kind, locally-owned vintage inspired neighborhood eatery in Ponte Vedra, Florida, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Sara was named the 2017 female entrepreneur of the year in Jacksonville, Florida. She helps organizations cultivate human imagination, build a culture of accountability, and solve complex problems to drive business growth. Sara, thanks so much for joining me today. How are you? 

Sara Frasca 1:38

Thank you for having me. I’m great. 

Chad Franzen 1:40

Hey, so tell me a little bit more about Trasca & Co Eatery. And what a customer can expect when going there. 

Sara Frasca 1:45

Yeah, thank you. Well, it is a labor of love. Let me start with that. My grandmother invented our sandwich back in 1974. So my family has been serving them for almost 50 years. And that was the basis of what I wanted to create here in Ponte Vedra Beach. When I moved here about 11 years ago from Minneapolis, I noticed that the area was void of what I considered essential for small families for business professionals and that was artists in quality food, you know, really around the corner, but in an unpretentious space, a space where you could come as you were you could bring your toddlers that cetera. And there’s plenty of wonderful restaurants in the area. Don’t get me wrong, but you know, I didn’t feel comfortable bringing my little kid. So we are a vintage East Coast eatery as you described, serving food that is made everything is from scratch or dressings or sauces or soups, et cetera, most notably our dough actually. And that creation, the panino is, has been delighting people for almost 50 years. So we wanted to bring it here to Ponte Vedra Beach. Yeah, I saw that on your menu. What? So tell me what a panino is, if you could describe what Yeah, it’s very unique. I think that’s kind of the fun thing. You know, panino means little bread or little sandwich in Italian, and panino is singular Panini is typically plural. For whatever reason, the United States has deemed that kind of like a grill pressed sandwich, and that’s what we call it, but ours is different. Ours is made with a homemade dough. It’s rolled very thinly, almost the size of a piece of paper. All of the ingredients are baked on top, the meats, cheeses, vegetable sauces, whatever it goes on top of the variety you choose. Then it goes through our oven, the conveyor belt oven, when it comes out, it’s topped with the fresh ingredients, whether it’s fresh tomatoes, ranch dressing, fresh avocado, etc. And then it’s rolled up, cut in half, so that you eat it like a sandwich even though it’s more of a roll up with everything inside. So very unique. Yep, 

Chad Franzen 3:56

Sounds good. I’m hungry. It’s 930 where I am. Hey, so So you said you move back there from Minnesota? What what kind of things were you doing in Minnesota and you know, you’re also doing some other things. Now tell me a little bit about those two things.

Sara Frasca 4:10

Yeah, thank you. I really do think that they all came together. For me. I worked at General Mills right out of undergrad. So General Mills is a fantastic spot to really build business acumen I was on several different brand teams there several different teams and really have the good fortune of being part of a wonderful company thriving with, you know, great businesses, great people. The folks are so smart, and I learned a ton. And when I moved down here to Ponte Vedra Beach actually from my ex husband’s job, I was still with General Mills and that’s when I felt like you know this area needed a little something and it needed the panino so I left General Mills open to the restaurant, and the rest is history there.

Chad Franzen 4:57

So tell me about your your kind of roots in the in the restaurant and industry, you know, a lot of people wouldn’t just want to open a restaurant, you know, out of the blue.

Sara Frasca 5:04

Yeah, no, it’s a good question. Chad, I would say, you know, I’ve always had, you know, an interest to carry on my family’s legacy. And honestly, you know, I called it a labor of love. It’s a very difficult industry, which all the listeners, all those that have delved into it, whether you’re a server, a bartender, or an owner, you know how difficult this industry is. And, unfortunately, I think there’s so many folks who go into it, you know, loving food, being passionate about, you know, serving people, and all of those are really wonderful. But to go into it without the business acumen, I feel like sometimes, you know, that can leave folks or lead them astray. Not that I, you know, pretend to have all of the answers. But, again, that background at General Mills was able to allow me to know, you know, more of the business components than anything. And then, you know, I just had good luck to be born into the Frasca family where we had this wonderful sandwich. And so the combination of that, I think, you know, I run my restaurant, like a business, I don’t run it like a restaurant, I have a leadership team, we actually operate on a business system that I coach folks with on my consulting firm. So, you know, I’m very, again, very driven to make sure that we do things differently, and that we succeed, I think I owe it to my staff, I owe it to my family to make sure that the, you know, is something sustainable.

Chad Franzen 6:32

Can you kind of expand on that when you say you don’t run it, like a restaurant, you’re running like a business? What are some ways in which that that manifests itself?

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