Brian Hurowitz 6:51
So I came in, like I said, it was summer 2019, we shut down the restaurant for about two weeks, pulled everything out, you know, deep cleaned, organized, reset everything, set the standard with the employees, and really hit the ground running for that that fall of 2019, everything was going really well obviously super busy, steadily growing the sales, we’re seeing anywhere from like a five to 15% Lift throughout those first few months. And then we hit the Super Bowl in 2020. And we had record sales that day. And that gave us a lot of momentum heading into March. And so we were seeing our sales continue to increase. And then unfortunately, when the pandemic hit us transplant to take out and delivery, I got very fortunate that the restaurant I was working with was already doing about 80 to 90% of our business via takeout and delivery at about 75% of that was coming from the third parties like UberEATS, GrubHub and DoorDash. So when everybody was trying to get on the third parties and get those systems that have already had the infrastructure in place already had the brand recognition already had the specials going, and we were seeing sales increases as much as 50 or 60%, throughout the summer of 2020. And we were able to really carry those extra sales through that year. And that put me in a position to work with the Wings Over company to open up our second Wings Over Pittsburgh location in East liberty on the other side of town. And it also put me in a position to work with PrimoHoagies to start to two restaurants with them. Also here in Pittsburgh, how different was starting that second location compared to you know, buying that one that was already in existence. It’s a totally different experience. And I’m so glad to have had that now. Because when you take over an existing restaurant, you’re not there for the build out, you’re not there for the initial grand opening, you’re really, you know, coming into a place, it’s already in existence, and you’re making tweaks and changes and adjustments based off how things are going. But you get in there’s already sort of a status quo there. With the second location, I got to work with the Wings Over team for everything from drawing up the blueprints to selecting the contractor to going through the permit process, learning those different things. And every city is going to be different with that hiring a whole new staff and going through the actual motions of a grand opening. And now I’m getting the pleasure of going through the marketing and things like that. Okay. But I had the opportunity with multiple restaurants to just focus on growing the brand.
Chad Franzen 9:16
Was there anything that you I guess didn’t know that you didn’t know? Or, you know, like, I didn’t realize that
Brian Hurowitz 9:25
So much. And then I’m glad you said it that way. Because if people ask me about my list of the same thing, I’m like, I don’t know what I don’t know. And what I did not know was a lot of the permit process. And so, Pittsburgh has changed recently from sort of that old school, you know, contractor calls, calls the guy they know who does their inspections, and he’s like, Yeah, I’ll be in town tomorrow. I’ll stop by well, with technology and efficiency coming into play. Everything’s computerized now. So a lot of we’re all learning to adapt to that where it’s no longer just making that call. So you have Have everything by the computer, which actually caused about a four to six week backlog for us, because I had never been through that before. And so we had to work through the city to find okay, we accidentally ended up being selected for this inspection. We were supposed to be selected for that inspection. And the first inspection won’t happen because of that. And so it was a lot of stuff like that, that like I said, it’s just, it’s learning the ins and outs, and every town, every city has those things, and you just have to learn how to work through that.
Chad Franzen 10:30
So what’s the difference between wanting, say, running one and two locations operationally for you?
Brian Hurowitz 10:37
Everything changes when you go to multi-unit. When I was running just Wings Over Pittsburgh on a single location, I was there all day, every day, I knew everything that was going on. I mean, I could write the order from home because I knew exactly how much product I had. I knew exactly what the schedule was. I was running service for the most part. Now that I have to and we’re about to open our third. It’s becoming a lot more about managing more of the high level and making sure I have a good GM in each location that I have an operations manager who can help with things like the hiring and the multi-unit oversight.
Chad Franzen 11:11
Yeah. Tell me a little bit about PrimoHoagies then what’s attractive to you about that?
Brian Hurowitz 11:15
Absolutely. So for me, like I mentioned before I was born and raised in the Philadelphia area, and that’s where PrimoHoagies started. So the majority of their locations are in the Philly, South Jersey area. And their hoagies are amazing. As far as chain franchises go, Primo is by far the best in class, their bread has won multiple awards. It’s a hard seated roll that’s baked off fresh throughout the day. It’s higher quality meat, everything is sliced to order. And so I said hey, if I’m not going to be living in Philly, like I thought I would. I love living in Pittsburgh, I might as well bring some parts of Philly here. And the other thing that really helped with it is even though Primodidn’t have any locations in Pittsburgh, because there’s so many Philadelphia area residents as well as shore destination travelers. For a company that had no locations in Pittsburgh, they had one of the best brand recognitions I’ve ever seen.
Chad Franzen 12:09
How will that be? How will those be different than maybe Wings Over Pittsburgh from an aberration standpoint? Is that basically the same thing?
Brian Hurowitz 12:17
They’re very similar. I think one of the reasons I went with this is diversifying the portfolio is important. I don’t want to stray too far from the past, right? Like my expertise is quick service restaurants like Wings Over. And so Primo is sort of the opposite within the same category Wings Over is comfort food. It’s deep fried, it’s crispy, it is going to be a late night it’s going to be partying, it’s going to be you know, and there’s a lot of bleed over football, then you have Primo, which is doing home using the Hokies and all of a sudden, it’s significantly more catering it’s significantly more daytime. So you have these two brands that can really really work so well together because Primo is huge in the day. With dinnertime being there incremental sales and wings is the opposite. The lunch times are incremental, that dinner time in the late night is really where we do the bulk of our business.
Chad Franzen 13:06
What will be the key to kind of maintaining a high standard at all at you know, four different locations?
Brian Hurowitz 13:14
A lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of communication. And all of that boils down to a training, training training. And I’m really fortunate I have an operations manager, his name is Joe. And he is just absolutely phenomenal. He has over 30 years experience in retail and other types of leadership. I have my GMs are all amazing, really strong work ethics really strong leaders so I’m able to work with and let them be able to work with their teams in order to get that standard where it needs to be.
Chad Franzen 13:45
I have one more question for you. But first, how can people find out more about you know all the locations what you have going on?
Brian Hurowitz 13:52
Absolutely. So from Wings Over order.wingsover.com Or just wingsover.com will take you to the corporate landing page and you’ll be able to see all of the Wings Over locations so maybe you’re listening to this podcast and like hey, I’m not in Pittsburgh where do I get this but you can go on the website and you can see all the different locations you can order directly through the website we have delivery on there as well. If you prefer ordering through Uber DoorDash or GrubHub you can always find us there and then the same thing for Primo is going to be primohoagies.com Or even just Google PrimoHoagies. The company page will come up and same thing you can see all the locations see if there’s one near you you can find out more information about the company the the menu, the philosophy or the history things like that.
Chad Franzen 14:37
Last question given that you’re from Philadelphia, if you were to go to PrimoHoagies as a customer what would be your go to item?
Brian Hurowitz 14:44
So my my number one item that I grew up always the Italian the Italian is the classic I absolutely love it. Of course Italian sandwiches are going to have a little bit of a higher calorie count so if I’m if I’m thinking about that I might go with more of like a turkey Diablo but if If it’s like gun to your head, it’s the last one you’re going to eat. It’s going to be in Italian, Italian, Italian.
Chad Franzen 15:05
What about Wings Over?
Brian Hurowitz 15:06
Wings over my favorite my two favorite sauces were the honey mustard and the golden barbecue so I used to get the one pound attenders those two sauces, ranch dressing and fries. And that was that was like four nights a week in college easy.
Chad Franzen 15:18
Okay, very nice. Hey, Brian has been great to talk to you. I really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much.
Brian Hurowitz 15:22
Hey, Chad, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Chad Franzen 15:24
So long, everybody.
Outro 15:25
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