The Friday Feeling: Inside TGI Fridays’ Comeback

0:00Hey everybody, I gotta tell you, we're gonna talk about Built. Built Hospitality. Millions of people use Built every day, that's right, every day to earn rewards on housing and in their neighborhood. But now, now it extends to your restaurant. That's where Built Hospitality comes in. Built Hospitality shapes how guests are recognized and taken care of. Built's restaurant-facing platform is designed specifically for dining operators to drive loyalty with their guests. It combines reservations, guest preferences, VIP management, and payments all into one platform alongside an agentic concierge. That's right, an AI concierge that thoughtfully designs and executes experiences around your guest tastes.

0:47Using the latest and greatest in AI technology. When a guest walks in, your team already knows what they like without digging through notes. Built Hospitality works across the entire guest journey. That's right, the entire guest journey from delivering a complimentary course at the right moment, just the right moment, sending a personalized offer that brings them coming back again and again and again. That's right. That's what Built Hospitality is doing. It is allowing you to communicate with your guests and keep them coming back over and over. Make every guest feel like a regular every time, not just their first time, every time.

1:24They're a regular. Built Hospitality is available now for restaurant groups everywhere. Learn more at BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. That's BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. And check out what Built Hospitality is going to do for you and your restaurant. You put all the advisory teams together. You got all these franchise operators. What's the one thing where you're like, here's the problem, boss? It felt like the brand was being under-invested in. Is that like not buying technology, not fixing legs? Well, there's technology. There was, you know, where the brand's going to compete, how it's going to win, making sure we have our unique voice back.

2:00We're all about sociability, and that's where red and white striped uniforms and the bar flair was always around. Entertainment before that was even a thing. Before it was even a thing. Jimmy, we are back. We are back at the Hospitality Hangout live in Orlando. It is absolutely gorgeous. Just, Jimmy, you were outside last night. That'd be 110 degrees. Am I right? It was a little warm. You were sweating. I mean, I've seen you sweat, but last night you were really, you were crushing. I was dropping pounds. Listen, I just wanted to do a shout out to Olo, our friends at Olo, for presenting the Hospitality Hangout here live in beautiful Orlando.

2:35And we've got a great guest right now. We have, I would say, industry legend here, if I may say, Mr. Ray Blanchett, CEO of TGI Fridays. But we're going to get into the resume because the resume, honestly, I had to go to the back side of my paper, Jimmy. I don't usually do that. Usually resume is front side only. But on Ray's resume, we're going to say print on the back copy. Jimmy, let's jump into it. Well, at the risk of upsetting some of our other guests today, I will say I was most excited about this discussion because I just— Why is that, Mr. Jimmy? Because I love the story. You're talking about a gentleman who started as a manager in training.

3:16Yeah. Okay? At TGI Fridays in Philadelphia back in my favorite decade, the 80s, 1989. And 35 years later, he's leading the entire brand in what might be its biggest chapter yet. That's why I was most excited. Because he fell in love early, Jimmy. Because this was, by the way, I grew up, as you know, Chance, he grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. so there is a personal love affair of this brand as the iconic TGI Fridays on the Upper East Side on the on the north sorry north east corner of God 60 63rd and first thank you see the first Alan Stillman for the 1974 but yeah so we're gonna dive into we're gonna dive on you never forget your first right Jimmy 1965.

4:04That's what I meant. Yeah. Okay. We're going to talk about Ray's one, two, three strategic vision. The targeting of a thousand plus restaurants. We're going to talk about two billion of annual sales by 2030. Okay. He's doing this all as a CEO and a franchisee himself. That's why I was most excited for this episode. So please welcome Ray, CEO of TGI Friday. Thank you for being here with us. Oh, it's my pleasure. You are a true hustler. And that's why I want to jump in. I mean, you started as a manager. at TGI Fridays in Philly in 1989. Started in the kitchen. In the kitchen. So when I say you never forget your first, I mean, talk about a round trip.

4:44The dishroom to the boardroom. I mean, this is what we talk about. This is The Hustler. You started there. I mean, you had a few little things in between, right? I mean, over at Oban Pond, Ruby Tuesdays, right? But you came back. Well, when I left, it was actually in 2000. So 89 to 2007. Yep. Right. It took 18 years, started as management training, left as president and kind of checked every box. Right. Worked domestically, internationally. No. And I got recruited to be a CEO and went to Joe's Crab Shack. OK. Right. That was what? That's Landry's? No, we peeled it away. A private equity group peeled it away.

5:19OK. Because that was my first CEO job when I was 40. OK. In 2007. And just turned 60. Right. A couple days ago. Are we back in real time now? Yeah. Oh, so guys, happy birthday. Happy birthday. Yeah, yeah. I didn't know if you were still telling a story. No, no, no. I thought you were still going with the, hey, you know, when I turn 60, and they're like, hey, you want to buy Fridays? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're back in real time. Yeah, so anyway, you know, we created an Ignite Restaurant Group and took that public. So let me ask you something. So, I mean, you work Fridays. Yep. You become the president.

5:56You leave Fridays. You go to another thing. Most people would be like, you know what, I'm going to go play golf, I'm going to go boating, I'm going to go do this. How did you come into becoming an owner of Fridays as a franchise operator and you run the whole thing? Were people like, what are you, out of your mind? Yeah. What are you thinking about? I don't know what's wrong with those of us that sort of take on these turnarounds, right? I mean, there's something broken in the brain. And you're just like, I left it in good hands, what happened kind of thing? Well, listen, Carlson, they owned it for 40 years.

6:30It was in such good hands. Right. And then, you know, a couple rounds of private equity ownership, and then suddenly it's unrecognizable. Yeah, I don't want to throw anybody under the bus. Let's, you know, we won't go. I'm not giving names. We'll keep it clean. We'll keep it clean. Jimmy's getting excited over there, the finance guy. No, no, no, no, no. You know, but right. You know, the brand got underinvested and, you know, rationalized quite a bit. But like you said, you just turned 60. Do you need this aggravation? I mean, is this what you need? You sound like Robin now. This is a cerebral sport.

7:00This is my wife's session. What are you doing to me? She did tell me, she goes, I thought we were slowing down. And I started like seven. I mean, I wanted to get a puppy and you said no. I started like seven companies in the last 18 months. So, yeah, all right. So what's the strategy? I mean, you got the ambitions, as Jimmy mentioned. 1 ,000 restaurants, 2 billion revenue, a whole vision. So how do you get this done? What do you do? You jump out of bread and you just start? Well, it always starts. I mean, change always starts with organizational design, right? Getting the right leaders. And so when I brought Phil Broad in as our president, he just started signing all these deals internationally.

7:39I mean, we've signed probably 250 restaurants in the last 8 to 10 months. So the brand never, like, it continued to have incredible equity overseas? Tremendous equity overseas. Tremendous equity. Okay, people love it. I got it. Dumball, we're super excited about it. Let's hear more about the comeback. Jimmy. Because I want to, yes. It's a comeback story. I want to talk about this genuine comeback story. You love Rudy. Don't you love Rudy? Love Rudy. It's like his favorite movie. Rudy, Rocky, all these four. Why wouldn't you? But specifically, the new menu, you've refreshed it, I understand, to the tune of like 85%.

8:13And you brought back the flair. You brought back the striped uniforms. and franchisees, you've invited them to, you brought them kind of into the inner circle. They're on your management advisory committee. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So talk about some of the changes that you kind of made right out of the gate to bring back what I imagine was some of your instincts, your loyalty, your love of the brand, and you start bringing these things back, in my sense, because what made you love the brand and make you want to take on this challenge. But talk about that a little bit. You're opening in Peru to Uzbekistan.

8:50You're signing agreements globally. What does it feel like to step in and now really be part of this, bringing this brand back that you've loved and been part of your career for so long? Well, that's true. I'm certainly very passionate about it. But I will tell you, you know, it's not about the rearview mirror. We can't go back to, oh, let's make it what it was in 1989. It can never be. Never. I mean, those days are gone, right? It's a different industry now. It's Tom Cruise. Right. We trained them. I mean, you know. But what we can do is we can make our food better. We can bring hospitality back.

9:24Food can always be a little better, right? Reinvest in training. And that's really, when we say 85 % of the menu, it was getting rid of freezer to fryer and building dishes from the ground up. We've got saute ranges. Getting back to being a restaurant. Just doing stuff you're proud of. Right. Yes, exactly. I mean, you've got to do work that you're proud of. It lifts your people up. Yep. And doing that with our franchisees, that was probably the most important thing, was putting that management advisory committee together. We got five international franchisees and two domestic franchisees that we meet with every month.

9:59We built the global vision, our strategy for going forward with them. So there's immediate buy, right? People have ownership in what they help create. Right. And so they're bought in, and they've got to cascade this message as hard as the management team's got to cascade them. So when you take over, it's about a year and a half ago, right? Yeah. As CEO. And you put all the advisory teams together. You got all these franchise operators. What's the one thing when you're like, hey, you know, what was the overarching, here's the problem, boss. What were they saying? What was it? I mean, everyone knows the name TGIF.

10:36It's iconic. Yeah. So what was the thing that stood out and be like, all right, this is where we got to start? Other things that you said. What's that? Other than the things you were talking about with the team, what were some of the problems they were like, this is a problem? Yeah, I mean, they felt like the brand was being underinvested then. Right. Right, and it was loose. Is that like not buying technology, not fixing the stores? We had to upgrade our entire tech stack this year. Right. You know, like right out of the gate. Right out of the gate. And doing the same thing. Especially now. I mean, yeah, you can't be working with an old, you know, an old Micro 3700.

11:12It's exactly what we pulled out. Yeah, exactly. 3 ,700. Unsupportable. Yeah, yeah. And nothing against micros. No, but that system's running on, like, windows. Like, I don't know. It was unsupportable. I mean, what we said was we got to keep our managers can't keep watching the sunrise over the dish machine. Right, right, right. Because the computer breaks down at the end of the night, you know. So, really, was that kind of started the thing? Was really technology and getting into the... Well, there was technology. There was, you know, where the brand's going to compete, how it's going to win, making sure we have our unique voice back.

11:45Right. Right? Yeah, what is that? I mean, because it started out, at least from what I read, it was like a place where people would go for happy hour. It was the original singles bar. The original singles bar. In America. Now, clearly, we're not a singles bar anymore, right? But it was a place that people could depend on for good times, and they related to that kind of thing. Yeah, we're all about sociability, and that's where, you know, the red and white striped uniforms and the bar flair was all always around just sort of entertainment before that was even a thing. Before it was even a thing, right.

12:20And so we know that the social occasions are important. It informs menu strategy, right? That's why you've got to have a big appetizer section at TGI Fridays. People want to come in in big groups. They want to nosh, right? Very social. Yeah, it affects how you design your restaurants, how you give spaces for people to gather, all that type of stuff. And then on the pop culture, because it's been around for such a long time and everybody knows it. We talk about Tom Cruise from Cocktail. I mean, it's been in movies. I remember, what was it, Office Space, I think it was, with Jennifer Aniston. She had the thing with all the things on.

12:55I mean, it's an iconic brand. It's been around. How do you, to a younger generation, because at the end of the day, you don't got to appeal to me and Jim. I mean, that's definitely not your target audience. How do you appeal to the younger generation that is the place I could still go and hang out and have a good time? Well, nowadays, how you market the business is very different, right? You meet them where they are. Right. And, you know, we blew up our whole social team when we first came back and changed our voice, right? Yeah. Like, in my mind, you can't use social media to sell something to somebody.

13:29You got to put content out there that they want to digest. Yes. Right? That they want to engage with. And so we started being a little zanier, right? We got into some bottles. You got to get some viral stuff going on. Yeah, we got into a little tiff with chilies and, you know, over cheese pools. And it was a lot of fun. That's friendly stuff that creates a little, yeah, 100%. But we love those guys. They're doing a great job, obviously. And I think they're, you know, they're sharing, they're showing everybody what the art of the possible is now for casual dining. Listen, it's good for the entire sector when, like, you know, if casual dining is doing well, generally it gives everybody an opportunity, right?

14:09That's right. So I dig it. And you see a resurgence right now in casual dining. And what about off-prem? It's huge. Is that an area that was under, like, you guys weren't really paying attention and now you're kind of balls in on that? 100%. We put somebody directly in charge of that particular piece of the business. Yeah, because you've got to have online ordering, right? Well, if I'm not mistaken, that's kind of one of the key factoids of the relationship between Olo and TGI Fridays is they really— I was feeding you that, but you were like not taking it because you were looking over there. I'm feeding it to you.

14:46That's boom. They're trying to establish themselves as the second-party marketplace. But talk about how you're working with Olo and really some of the things that they're doing with you guys. Because we know that off-prem isn't a nice to have. It's a critical. It's a must-have, Jimmy. If I said it once, I'll say it again. But what have you guys done? And it sounds like you've literally hired people to essentially champion that as a key vertical for TGI Fridays. It's its own day part now. Even though it goes across all the day parts. It's another revenue center. It is as big a day part as we have.

15:20So think about this. before COVID, our way from restaurant sales was about 10%. All in. Today, it's closer to 30. Right? Makes sense. And obviously, during COVID, it was 100. Yeah. That's exactly where it should be, don't you think? Yeah. I mean, but you have to relearn your brand. You got to relearn how to execute, right? No doubt. I mean, you can manage how many open menus you have in the dining room, but when all of a sudden everything starts rolling in because everybody wants to eat at the same time, You got to reevaluate everything that you're doing and make sure, because in the DSPs and whatnot, if you don't keep your scores high, you move down the algorithm.

15:59And they don't see you. And then you're gone. Yeah, you're gone. So, you know, we're learning a lot about that business. Olo's been a great partner for us. I mean, very important partner. What about the, like, curbside pickup? Do people order from Fridays and mostly get in delivery, or do they like to pick it up? Because that saves you money, doesn't it? Well, most of it is delivery. It is. Everyone still loves delivery. Even the organic stuff. So when they go to Fridays.com, I mean, that's when we use Yolo Rails. Right. And it moves it straight to DoorDash for a seamless delivery from the consumer's perspective, right?

16:38They get the food. All they do is order from our website, and it shows up at their house as if they were on Uber Eats or DoorDash or any of the others. Yeah, that's the partnership with Olo that you're talking about. So for you guys, the tech, it's complete rebuilding the tech. You're redesigning the menu, the stores. And how's it been going? Oh, it's going great. You know, when we look at same-store sales around the globe, we're seeing meaningful growth in almost every region. We're having a little bit of a problem right now in Australia. Yeah. But Asia is... Australia is tough. I don't know what it is.

17:17I think it's the accent. I think it affects... We've got a language barrier. Yeah, you've got a language barrier. You don't know what the hell's going on over there. We have a great franchisee in Australia. Kidding, we're kidding. We love Australia. I mean, everybody's up. Americas are up. Europe is up. And given the uncertainty around the globe right now, you would think... I mean, when gas... When energy prices go up, it adversely impacts developing countries around the globe. Right. Right? But we're still in three years of double-digit growth in a place like Peru. The Philippines have increased their guest traffic over the last three years by 50%.

17:58So are we going to hit$2 billion by 2030? Do you think we get there earlier? I mean, is this something I should go on to like Polymarket right now? Should I be on Polymarket right now? Can we make a few bucks on this? I don't know. We'll get there early. I mean, I'm thinking. But when you put a vision like that out, it's intended to be modestly aspirational. But definitely what people in the organization should see that and go, that means opportunity. That means growth for me personally. Right. We're going to have people going all over the globe. But we're opening a lot of new countries this year.

18:31But when you're opening, if the growth you're saying is it's a lot of not in America. I'm sure America is doing great, as you said. But is that because of the nostalgia? is that people still just love America and love that whole vibe that we bring? Because that's Fridays, right? Well, the answer to your question is yes, but also... That's all I wanted to hear. That's all I wanted to hear. Thank you. That's all. Thank you very much, everybody. We've been in the Philippines for 30 years. I'm going to Cyprus to celebrate their 30-year anniversary in two weeks. Is it true that you only go to nice weather places to visit stores?

19:11Well, I don't go to the Middle East this time of year, if that's what you're asking. I'll wait until October. Yeah, we're going to Mykonos? Exactly. I happen to go to Sardinia. We just opened a new store over there. It's gorgeous. We opened a couple in Athens over the last couple weeks. You see? Notice the city's invention, you know? In Lisbon. You know, Barcelona. Right? But what you see, so in Greece, where we've been there since 1997. Yep. We're not Americana, right? We're a Greek restaurant that sells American food. Okay. Because you haven't... I like that. Two entire generations that have grown up eating at TGI Fridays.

19:49To them, the politics in America don't matter. They're not going to stop going to Fridays. Right. They grew up. Now they're going to take their kids to TGI Fridays because that's where they go to have an American food experience. I don't think it's necessarily about Americana. Ray, what do you order at Fridays? What is your... I mean, you started the first job at 23-year-olds. You know the menu, in and out. You've seen everything change. What do you get? What's your go-to? This is what I like to get. I eat across the menu. I think our pastas are great. Burgers are great. But is there something that has stayed?

20:22If I could only have one more, I'd have Jack Daniel's ribs. Oh, really? So what's been on the menu? You're like, you know what? This is an item that's pretty much the same. Potato skins. Potato skins have never been there forever. We invented them in like 75. Right. You buy them in the supermarket. Isn't that still a big part of your business? It's huge. Licensing is huge. That's all license. Because you see in the frozen section, you see TJ all over the place. Is that growing overseas too? Oh, yeah. We did a deal with Iceland Foods in the UK maybe four years ago, and it's just growing exponentially every year.

21:02Yeah, I like the potato skins. Yeah, potato skins. You don't see a lot of potato skins anymore. But it's like, you know. Shatsy, you're going to learn something about me. Despite our knowing each other for almost 40 years. Yes. Here's a factoid. You did not know about me. You don't like potato skins. No. To the contrary. When I worked in the kitchen, I worked in one of the dining facilities in college. Right. And my station was the potato skin station. What do you mean your station? All you do is make potato skins. You're scooping them? I was the guy. Making big potatoes, scooping them? I would take the skin.

21:29And then I would fill it. I did the cheese. Yeah. I had the toasters. I would do the cheese. Banging in the cheese melting. And the toppings. I worked the potato skin station when I was in college. I like that. Well, now I think, like, the big food service companies, like, I don't know what the brands, you know, but whatever, like, Lamb West, whatever. They make, like, it's just like a shell that you can just put in the toaster. You can just stick it on there if you wanted to. You know, even the restaurants can buy them that way. You were scooping. I was scooping. Do you have a potato skin in your pocket right now?

22:00I do not have a potato skin in my pocket. That's what I thought you were going to say. There's nothing like the scoop skin, though. Yeah, and when you go sour cream and bacon and chives, the whole shebang? Bits, bacon bits. I like the bacon bits. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you use real bacon on your potato skins? 100%. It's real bacon. Absolutely. I'm offended you even asked him. Right. I'm offended. I don't know. I remember growing up. I remember growing up in my house, we had, like, Baco's. Stop. Yeah, we had Baco's. You could put them in your salad. Baco, and you looked at it. It was, like, just fake bacon.

22:29I'm telling you, man. It was, like, remember, red dye number 40. That was our thing. They're taking it out of all the food. You're talking to a guy that grew up going to Ponderosa Steakhouse. You remember the salad bar, right? You put those bakers on. They're killing me. My brother loved them. I hated them. They just said they're taking all the artificial color out of M &M's. I'm noticing the difference. Of course you are. I mean, that doesn't taste good anymore. Anyway, listen, we're going to take a quick break. Be right back with Ray Blanchett. He's not only the, he started in the kitchen at Friday.

22:58He's not only is the CEO, president, chairman. stop me stop me if you want c-o-o we own it c-o-o he's also a franchise opera how many restaurants you got in the in sugarloaf uh 41 41 stores and how many restaurants around the world about 400 400 okay so that's what so don't go because we get back to that that's what you're getting back to all right and we're gonna have some hot or not and uh it's a whole olo festival here at the hospitality hangout. So don't go away. Be right back. Hey, everybody. I got to tell you, we're going to talk about Built. Built hospitality. Millions of people use Built every day.

23:38That's right, every day to earn rewards on housing and in their neighborhood. But now, now it extends to your restaurant. That's where Built Hospitality comes in. Built Hospitality shapes how guests are recognized and taken care of. Built's restaurant-facing platform is designed specifically for dining operators to drive loyalty with their guests. It combines reservations, guest preferences, VIP management, and payments all into one platform alongside an agentic concierge. That's right, an AI concierge that thoughtfully designs and executes experiences around your guest tastes using the latest and greatest in AI technology.

24:20When a guest walks in, your team already knows what they like without digging through notes. Built Hospitality works across the entire guest journey. That's right, the entire guest journey from delivering a complimentary course at the right moment, just the right moment, sending a personalized offer that brings them coming back again and again and again. That's right. That's what Built Hospitality is doing. It is allowing you to communicate with your guests and keep them coming back over and over. Make every guest feel like a regular every time not just their first time every time they're a regular built hospitality is available now for restaurant groups everywhere learn more at built dining.com backslash hangout that's built dining.com backslash hangout and check out what built hospitality is going to do for you and your restaurant and we're back to hospitality hangout i gotta tell you it was a Quick break.

25:19I went to the bathroom. Jimmy went for lunch. Ray stayed here. We're back. It's the hospitality. We're doing the headline. This is the headline. All right. This is a bit that we don't often do, but I got to tell you, I'm very excited about it. I like it. I like it a lot. I'm going to go. I'm going to read you three headlines. Two of these headlines are real, and one of them is completely fake and made up. Jimmy, you can play too. Yes, I do not know. Jimmy, I can't tell you. I don't know the answer. Mr. Ray Blanchett. Fire. Very smart guy also, by the way. All right. Here we go. Domino's creates an engagement ring featuring a real pepperoni instead of a diamond.

25:55Are you looking over here? Oh, no, no, no. Instead of a diamond. If I could read that at the age 60, you could hold it right here. I couldn't read it. Let me see what's going on. Let me see what's going on. Yeah. Good luck. There you go. These are not terrible. You can burn ants with those. These are not. Get out of here. Those aren't bad ones. Those are what? Those 1X, 1X? Those are three. Oh, those are three? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Those are legit readers. I think you're bordering on. Those are legit readers. You're bordering on. I can't see. All right, listen. Okay. Domino's creates an engagement ring featuring a real pepperoni diamond instead of a diamond, a real pepperoni.

26:27Okay? Yep. Chipotle sells lemonade-scented candle disguised as one of its free water cuffs. I don't even know what that means. Jimmy? Candle in a water cup? Yeah, that's what I'm guessing. Why don't they just say that? What the hell? All right, Burger King pays for wedding of a man named Joel Burger and a woman named Ashley King. So Joel Burger and Ashley King got married. So which one is fake? Is it the Domino's creates an engagement ring and they replace a diamond with a big chunk of pepperoni? Is it Chipotle sells a candle with a lemonade? What does Chipotle and lemonade even have to do with each other?

27:09There should be a burrito flavor. I think people would be like that. I'm going with... Or the Burger King thing. No, no. I'm going with two is fake. I think the other two are real. So Chipotle is fake. Yeah, yeah. Chipotle is fake. Jimmy? I think so. I'm going with A is fake because I just can't even understand, like, how is this piece of pepperoni in perpetuity going to stay? Like, what is the lifespan of this ring? I'm going A is fake. Well, wait a minute, Jimmy. It says here that they've dipped it in acrylic. So it is acrylic encrusted. Did you change your vote? It is acrylic encrusted. So they are preventing.

27:46That has a little impact, but I'm going to stick with A, meet Chiboli, meet the fake headline. Really? Acrylic encrusted. This piece of pepperoni can never go bad. See, I just assumed the pepperoni was something they did on social media. Because we did that when Taylor Swift got engaged. Are you changing your vote, sir? We put a potato skin on there. No, I'm sticking with mine. By the way, I feel like I'm being shamed. I feel like I have to know. I'm sticking with A. Jimmy's like, see, Burger King. All right, I got to tell you, Jimmy, as my fifth grade teacher, Dr. Odeski, would have said, always stick with your first instincts.

28:25It is A. It is A. Good job. The fake story, the real story is the Chipotle lemonade and Burger King, Joel Burger and Ashley King. They get married. Yeah. And they're happily married right now. Now, five years ago, I just had a kid, and Wendy. They named her Wendy. Or him Wendy. His name is Wendy, and he identifies as a burger. What happened with Taylor Swift? It was just a social media post. Let's hear it. What did you do? We replaced her diamond with a potato skin. Oh, when she was going all over the place. Had it up before. By the way, you had to get a pretty big potato skin, because that diamond's a pity.

29:04That diamond was no joke. We need a big Idaho potato. We need a bigger potato. Hot or not? Here we go. Are Ghost Kitchens hot? No. Jimmy's going to be so upset right now. He did a whole bit on Ghost Kitchen. No, Jimmy. Ghost Kitchen is not hot. Mocktails, are they hot? Yes. Is that a big deal at Friday's? Yes. It is. People are digging it? People are digging it. Ray, protein everything. Is protein still hot? Screaming. It's screaming. Screaming. Are you guys embracing on a menu at TGI's? 100%. A lot of protein. stuff yeah gop ones are they still hot oh my god yes unfortunately yes what percentage of your friends are on gop is this like when you go out and see somebody you're just like oh zampik oh zampik oh zampik well yeah if you when you're if you don't recognize you and rob would just be like oh you haven't seen them in three weeks they come in and you don't recognize them i'm like you're juicing your fattest friend is now is like it's like 120 i know right i know you're juicing.

30:06Right. It's juicing. When we were in high school it was like you were on the juice. You were uh you were uh you're balking up. Think about the word juicing. It's the reverse juice. In high school it was meant steroids. Then we went through a phase where juicing meant you were doing a lot of green juices. You were you were literally juicing. And now we're back to juicing being like you're on the you're on the needle. I think creatine also. The kids are in creatine. All right. Drone delivery. Is that hot? Not yet. It's not hot. Not yet. But I do think that's probably going to happen. When do you see that?

30:39Because it's happening like, is this like five years you're going to see this? Ten years? Or like next year? Not ten. And not five. Probably not five. Seven. No, probably less than five. Oh, three. Probably somewhere in between one and five. Probably market that. Probably market that? Or Calcio, yeah. As soon as it is cheaper to do that than pay somebody to pick it up, It's going to happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what about social media? Like social media is a big part of your business, right? We talked about that. That's how you're connecting with the younger generation. LTOs, social media. Is that a big thing?

31:17Social media is huge. For us, if we're going to do like any sort of innovation or LTOs, it's got to create a new reason to visit. Right. Not just be distracting to operations, right? I'd rather they focus on executing the menu perfectly every day than hitting them with a bunch of new stuff. But, you know, we just had World Cup, right? Yeah. So we did a huge. Is that good for business? Oh, yeah. I mean, around the globe, yes. People went nuts, and they went to your place, spent money. Oh, our WhatsApp was blowing up. And you got TVs everywhere, right? We had restaurants in Spain. We have restaurants in Argentina, and they're jabbing at each other.

31:54So you saw a big uptick. Yes. Restaurants packed. Did you love the way they put it on here in America? I mean, I thought it was really great. I was proud of us. I thought we looked good. I was especially proud of Americans and the way they embraced people. The tourists and everybody. You know what I mean? The way Scotland sort of took over Boston. They're like telling everyone to leave. That was the best collaboration. They took over Boston. Drank a lot of beer. They literally drank all the beer. And the same thing, because we saw Sam Adams over in our Scottish restaurants. all American beers were gone.

32:30Everyone likes what they can't like. Yeah, they couldn't even get it. See, I thought it was great. Everyone I spoke to that went to games said they had a great time. They said that, like, everyone was really happy and it was awesome. So I'm glad to see that. It was a really good uptick for you guys globally. I mean, it's awesome, you know. All right, listen. Quick fire, Jimmy. We've got to go quick fire. Let's do it. What's the best food city in the world for you? If you can go to any city in the world, where would you go? Manhattan. New York City. Yeah, New York City. However, I will say, one caveat, Houston, where I live, phenomenal food town.

33:02Yeah, why not? And it's finally starting to get recognized. Yeah, all the city. I mean, every city's got some. Chefs are big everywhere. Everyone wants good food. Nobody, yeah. What's your Uber rating right now, Mr. Blanchett? What's that? Uber rating. Oh, I'm like 4.97, something like that. I'm off the charts. Are you going on here? Could we see validation on this? Come on. 4.95. I'm going. 4.95. 5. Jimmy? I don't know. But let's. Jimmy's doing his best impression of a. You got to show me where to find it. It's a. You go there and just go. Hold on. You tipping? You tipping? It's a. Give the guy a tip.

33:37Give the guy a tip. Give the guy a tip. Give the guy a tip. I tip cash. Go here. Go here. Go account. Account? Yeah. Where are we? What do you got? 497. 497. 497. Very high. Very high. Jimmy has been guessing this right. But Jimmy said 495. And should have taken the over. Should have taken the over. Should have taken the over. 4-9-7. That is a very high rating. I'm an over-tipper. You really are. I don't know. If I didn't say anything, were you going to tip there? No, that was in Saratoga. I gave the guy$20 cash. Oh, yeah. That's the oldest. Oh, I gave him cash. Ah, come on. How do you think you maintain a rating like that?

34:16Big tipper. Give him some big tippers. How do you take your bagel? My bagel? Yeah, what is your bagel order? What is your go-to bagel? I like either poppy seed or sesame seed toasted cream cheese. You sell hamburgers at TGI? A couple. A lot of them. A lot of them, right? Is that one of the biggest sellers? Huge. Is that a sandwich? Is a hamburger a sandwich? It's a burger. Not a sandwich? No. I'm with Ray. Do you sell grilled cheese at TGI Fridays? No. You don't. Do you sell, like, do you do a patty melt? No. Ever? Never? Mm-mm. Is a hot dog a sandwich? That is the question. Why do you say of course?

34:52Of course not. By the way, with conviction. I mean, not even. The CEO of TGI Fridays with conviction. It's a hot dog. I've been saying that forever. Thank you. So a hamburger is a hamburger. Yes. A hot dog is a hot dog. A sandwich is a sandwich. Yes. It's like a French dip, right? That's a sandwich. That's a sandwich. Wait a minute. Why is a French dip a sandwich? Pastrami on rye? He sees me. It's a sandwich. Ray sees me. He understands me. I'm just not understanding. What's the difference between a pastrami on rye and a hot dog in a bun? It's a pastrami sandwich. What's the difference? I have to passami sandwich.

35:24I have to passami sandwich. I take a hot dog. You can't be arguing that a hot dog is a sandwich. Thank you. I love this. I love this. Isn't the sandwich two pieces of bread with meat in between? How many pieces of bread is a hot dog? One piece of bread. A lot of times. One piece of bread. It's continuing. No, a lot of times it opens up. It's not the intentionality. It wasn't the intent of the bun. Split top bun. Fenway Frank. Let's go. I love this. By the way, I'm saving this section. I'm saving this section. Because he agrees. He's so passionate. Not just agrees. He's dropping knowledge about articulating with conviction.

35:57Why? You do burritos at TGI's? Yeah. Is that a sandwich? No. It's a burrito. It's a burrito. Is a taco a sandwich? No. It's a taco. How could it be a sandwich? If I take that rib that you like, the rib water. You think you're going to get a move forward on this? Between two pieces of rye. Is that a sandwich? Yeah. We have one. You do? Yeah. It's called a frib. It's like the McRib sandwich. If we just pull the bones out, barbecue, cheese, caramelized onion. Disney or Universal. Disney all the way. Oh, Disney all the way? Jimmy? Disney or Universal? Disney. Disney? Disney. All right, Jimmy, take us home, baby.

36:37Ray, this was so fun before we got to the whole debate. All the way, we're not going to debate Shotsy. You can rattle Ray, man. I got to tell you. But in all seriousness, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. Jimmy, it's going to be getting loud for you. We know your schedule is busy, and we appreciate you spending some time. Did you bring a gift card for us? No. You didn't bring anything? Who'd you bring me? I thought I was the guest. You know what he brought? He brought his time. IHOP was on, they bring us a gift card. He brought his time. I don't know. And his expertise. I thought it was common.

37:07I thought I was the guest. I thought it was common podcast etiquette. Like you were invited to a show. You bring a gift. When you go, someone asks you to dinner. Did you bring a bottle of wine? Of course. All right. Hello. Because I'm getting a steak or something. Right? We gave him water out of the aisle. No, I had to bring it with me. You had to bring us a water. That's right. There you go. Okay. I'm going to send you some gift cards. All right. You heard it here. 1 ,000 restaurants, 2 million in sales, 20, 30. And we'll be back next year, and we're going to check in on how that's going. You better.

37:39Ladies and gentlemen, and thank you. We've been over a billion in a half next year. I appreciate it, guys. Cheers, everybody.