Transcript: Episode 153: Our Robot Overlords

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[00:00:00] Susan Barry: This is Top Floor episode 153. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/153. 

[00:00:13] Narrator: Welcome to Top Floor with Susan Barry. This weekly podcast ride up to the top floor features tangible tips and excellent stories from the experts and characters who elevate hospitality. And now your host and elevator operator, Susan Barry.

[00:00:32] Susan Barry: Welcome to the show. Matt Casella majored in finance in college, but he says he spent more time watching the Food Network than the market. Matt has worked in both finance and food, culminating in his role as president of Apple. RichTech Robotics, a publicly traded hospitality robotics company that has installed over 250 robots in restaurants, casinos, hotels and other businesses. Today we are going to talk about robots for cleaning, carrying and cooking. But before we jump in, we need to answer the call button.

Call button rings

[00:01:30] Susan Barry: The emergency call button is our hotline for hospitality professionals who have burning questions. If you would like to submit a question, you can call or text me at 850-404-9630.

Today's question was submitted by Liza. And he'll be able to tell why I picked it. From listening to Top Floor - thank you, Liza. Thanks for listening. - I've noticed that a lot of hospitality entrepreneurs have finance backgrounds. What are the pros and cons of that? I think this is such an interesting question. It has been something that's been spinning in my mind for quite some time because it is true. But at the same time, hospitality is such an apprentice business in a lot of ways, where regardless of your education, you have to kind of learn the ropes. So I'm just really interested in what you think about this as a true expert in the field. What do you have to say, Matt?

[00:02:17] Matt Casella: Yeah, I think that's, uh, I think that's a great question. And, and wow, I liked, uh, I liked that we just jumped right in here with these, with the hot button.

[00:02:24] Susan Barry: Right on the spot!

[00:02:27] Matt Casella: Thanks, Susan. Um, you know, I think finance is such an important discipline. For everything, for every kind of business, every kind of entrepreneur, um, really having some fundamental knowledge of how those books are going to be kept and what is going to make a business profitable, um, really is important, right? I think you, you touched on something that's, that's unique about the hospitality and service sector though, that, that really, there's such a human element, right? That seems kind of at some it's in some instances seems in opposition to, you know, the finer points of, you know, accounting or, or bookkeeping, right.

But those two things have to be married in a very deep way to make those hospitality businesses successful. For me personally, it was really kind of through studying for, um, you know, the, the CFA exam, right? Which is really kind of how you analyze companies and profitable investments, right? That it became clear to me that it was, you know, there's people on the other side of that, that are pulling the levers and making these businesses profitable by, you know, by operating them successfully and making sure that, you know, revenue is strong and that margins are good.

Um, and that really is kind of where I was, I made my shift in my career, right? You point to the fact that I had a long career in finance, and then I kind of transitioned to, you know, food and beverage and hospitality, which seems very, very far apart. But for me, it was really something that made a lot of sense in that, it kind of married two different things that I was, that I was very interested in. And, um, you know, and was able to make, make a career out of it. 

[00:04:16] Susan Barry: So say more about that because you just asked yourself my next question. So what was attractive to you about leaving I mean, like a 10 year career in finance to join Life Kitchen? Which was a restaurant brand startup at the time, and you worked in operations and kind of learned the ropes that way. To me, it seems like the opposite of a move. Like a lot of people will spend a lot of time in restaurants and then go, okay, time for me to become a financial advisor or whatever. So what attracted you to making that move? 

[00:04:52] Matt Casella: Yeah. I, um, I think it was a calling that was always there that I, for some reason. Ignored or thought wasn't the most prudent thing that I should do with my life. Um, I mean there were a number of instances that I can think back on now when it was like well maybe I should have paid more attention or closer attention earlier on Like, I, I loved, I loved cooking when I was younger. Like I, you know, I considered myself a microwave chef when I was young. 

[00:05:21] Susan Barry: Like, what did you make, what did you make in the microwave? 

[00:05:23] Matt Casella: I could, I could put, I could put anything on top of a triscuit triscuit cheese and any sort of variety of toppings on top of that. And it would become, you know, quite, quite hors d'oeuvre.

[00:05:32] Susan Barry: Nice. 

[00:05:33] Matt Casella: Um, so I considered myself very, uh, very successful at that. My favorite, my favorite book growing up that I read to my, have read to all my kids, right. It was Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, right. So it's food falling from the sky, which, you know, I think is a, it is interesting to think about in this new world. Um, and then, you know, further on, I remember talking with a teacher in high school, a mentor, you know, a teacher who I had a lot of trust in. And, you know, I said, well, I don't know, I'd maybe I'd want to go be a chef. And he. You know, in a delicate way, it was kind of like, well, you know, maybe, you're pretty good with numbers.

Maybe, you know, sales or finance is a, is a smarter way for you to go. And so that kind of informed things a little bit. Um, and then I got into college and I, you know, I worked my way through college and a variety of hospitality and food related businesses. Worked for the concessions department at the University of Illinois, where we'd run the concessions. Either we'd manage different stands in the football stadium, or we'd actually make the food ourselves if it was smaller games, like softball or baseball games. So that was always something that was fun for me and exciting and all the while studying finance, right? Uh, and then one of my early. Interviews, seeking a job out of college, um, which actually kind of fast forward things a little bit, but was, you know, was with enterprise rent a car not to name names, right? Who has a great management program, all this, all sorts of good stuff. And one of the questions they asked me was, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” And I said, “Owning my own restaurant.” Right? So needless to say, I did not get that job.

[00:07:22] Susan Barry: They were like, that is not compatible with this gig, buddy. 

[00:07:23] Matt Casella: No, they were not. They were not looking for a guy who, um, you know, who wanted to, you know, wanted to own a restaurant. So it was something that was always kind of in there for me, but really, I guess I was fighting it a little bit in that, you know, I knew that maybe, you know, maybe there was more stability taking the finance route.

[00:07:41] Susan Barry: So this is interesting because I have this theory that I have not been shy about shouting from the rooftops as much as I possibly can, hence Top Floor. Um, which is that people who are going to school - the, the jobs that they will likely have as their career or as the, the, you know, sort of meaningful part of their career don't exist yet. So they might as well do what they want. Study what you want, learn about the things that are interesting to you and will keep you engaged. Because I'll tell you what, when I was in college, podcasting didn't exist. I had never heard of hospitality marketing consulting and B2B marketing for hotel companies didn't exist. And the things that you're doing now didn't exist when you were getting all this advice. So it's almost like, just do what you want, man. Who cares? Go to culinary school. It'll work out. 

[00:08:39] Matt Casella: No, all of those things, all of those life lessons that we hear when we're growing up, whether we follow them or not, you know, tend to be true, right?

[00:08:47] Susan Barry: After that, you worked at a couple of kind of early stage kitchen food automation companies. Can you just hit the highlights on those? What were those businesses? And maybe I want to draw the line between that and where you are now. 

[00:09:01] Matt Casella: It didn't seem like the restaurant space was nearly as far along, technologically speaking, as we were in our everyday lives at home, even, right? Or in, or certainly in other, in other businesses and in other industries. 

[00:09:16] Susan Barry: Do you mean the equipment itself? Or do you mean things like inventory management software, blah, blah, blah? 

[00:09:24] Matt Casella: Specifically, I was kind of focused in the equipment space, but it was also like there were starting to be new, all these new products software wise, but you know, to be a general manager of one of our locations, you needed 12 logins to get through a day. Right. And that was, that was onerous in itself. A couple of people that I've worked with at Life Kitchen and myself and some others that kind of got together and said, how can we start to bring about more automation, you know, into the kitchen within the four walls of the restaurant space? Because we're seeing it. Um, you know, we're seeing it elsewhere and we want to start to have the benefits of it. So, um, so that really is kind of what led from Life Kitchen into what was PRG called Precision Restaurant Group was the name of it.

Uh, you know, it was a very early stage company that allowed us to, you know, have a group that was really working with, uh, some engineering, uh, some engineering companies out of Chicago, a company called Dylan Kane. That was a very strong partner of ours for a while in coming up with a automated restaurant plan, right? So we really kind of built out this simulation model that we were able to to bring around and have conversations with very high, um, you know, very high ranking people at a variety of different fast food restaurants throughout the country. Many, you know, many of the brand names that you'd hear. And it was, it was interesting to kind of hear their perspective and the pushback. And this was probably in the I guess this was in 2017 ish, plus or minus 2018. Um, they really weren't ready for it then, right? They kind of knew it was coming, but these were companies when you, when you talk to these bigger players, you're learning that there's so much legacy equipment and operations that they have to deal with that thinking about a paradigm shift like this is just not something that they're really even wanting to entertain at that time. 

[00:11:26] Susan Barry: Well, and I don't think it's a lack of interest in innovation. It's that asset light model, right? So you've got all these franchisees that you have to bring on board and tell them they've got tens of thousands of dollars of equipment they need to repurchase. You're going to get a little pushback from that. 

[00:11:43] Matt Casella: Absolutely. Absolutely. So, so that kind of, it was kind of through that idea, you know, that process that we kind of learned, you know, hey, this is, this is a really tough sell for these guys right there. They're not going to want to get in, um, you know, and do this wholesale. So maybe it's something that we need to think about setting up ourselves. We kind of moved into this next, this next company kind of. It was kind of more of a pivot from the first group into the next group, Caravive, which was kind of focused on, um, focused on automated kitchen delivery model, uh, and how to package those two things together and how to, how to bring those to market.

[00:12:20] Susan Barry: Okay. So that was more of a proof of concept effort to go, “Hey, no, really, this really works, guys. Here, we'll show you how it goes.” Okay. That makes a lot of sense. 

[00:12:32] Matt Casella: Exactly. So that was a really exciting. That was kind of a few of the same people, uh, went on the Caravive, uh, and kind of again, kind of an exploration of the space, um, you know, very early stage and, uh, went on for a few years. While, uh, part of that through part of that process made a very, a few very, uh, important connections, a couple of robotics companies that were kind of tapping into the same space that we were. And then that has actually through that, um, through that work is when I first came, became familiar with RichTech Robotics.

Um, and so we met with them, we talked about, um, you know, talked about some different things and it was interesting for me to look at what they had, uh, and think about how I fit in with them, right. With the founders, uh, Wayne and Michael Long, right. There was a lot of technology, technological expertise within that within their capability. Um, but really it was kind of somebody who had a much closer tie or, or better understanding of the hospitality space, right. And, and of the finance space, right. So it was really kind of two needs that they had that were, were really, you know, it was interesting and it felt, it felt like such a great fit. It felt like, wow, this is kind of exactly where I want it to be. Right. We, we, I want to be in the food space. I want to be at a new company. I want to be, um, you know, helping make a business profitable and I want it to be in the hospitality space. It was just kind of like, you know, this is it. This is a great conversation. It really felt that way. So it was, uh, it was really an exciting opportunity that came to be. 

[00:14:16] Susan Barry: So RichTech Robotics makes robots that are used in restaurants, hotels to clean and to carry things. They have a long history and we'll link to the company in our show notes, but most recently you've added Adam. What or I maybe I should say, who is Adam and what - how does Adam benefit the world? 

[00:14:45] Matt Casella: So Adam is definitely the poster boy for RichTech Robotics at the moment. And Adam is our dual armed humanoid barista robot, right? So Adam can make anything from cocktails to mocktails, uh, coffees, hot coffees, latte drinks, iced coffees, uh, boba tea, uh, and then we're also working on a variety of additional concepts, smoothies, he can pour sodas, really kind of everything, anything that you can think of in the beverage category, Adam can do. He can pour beers, right, he can pour beers, um, Which, you know, which is obviously critical. But he can, you know, it's really there's, there's really nothing that we've come across yet in the beverage category that we're, uh, that we're, that we shy away from thinking that Adam can, can do. And we're getting a lot of traction here now, uh, in the coffee segment, uh, and then really in the cocktail segment. So, um, it's a very exciting time. 

[00:15:43] Susan Barry: What are the benefits of using a humanoid robot instead of a human? 

[00:15:49] Matt Casella: I think there's a couple of things that I focus on. There's obviously, uh, the consistency aspect, right? When you're talking about alcoholic beverages, there's always a consistent pour, right? That's a benefit. Um, there's the, the taste, the quality remains consistent. That's a big benefit for automation that I think people, um, people understand. You know, I think, um, I think Adam, there's no, there's no denying that having Adam is also a very popular experiential component to any operation.

[00:16:25] Susan Barry: That was something I wasn't thinking about. And then when I watch the videos, I'm like, Oh, okay, this is just fun to watch. 

[00:16:31] Matt Casella: And we're, we've, we've designed him, Adam specifically for that purpose, right? I mean, there's going to be automation coming in all, in all forms, right? There's going to be some automation that's very forward customer facing. There's going to be some that's in the back of the house. Um, there's going to be some that's really relied upon by businesses, operators to showcase their business and the experience that they want to provide. And there's going to be some who don't even want you to know that it's there. And I think, and I believe that there's room for all of that. And I think that that's how this next, you know, wave of automation is going to continue to unfold. 

[00:17:12] Susan Barry: So let's talk about the money. Look, since you are a finance guy, of course, I'm going to ask you a finance question. I watched a bunch of videos on your website of Adam at work, like making coffee, pouring beers, all that stuff. And it seems like and definitely correct me if I've got this wrong, but it seems like there's a lot of a sort of special equipment that has to go along with him. So, for example, I saw cups that fill up from the bottom rather than from the top. And that made me wonder, you know, part of the expense is not just the robot itself, right? It's all of this sort of accoutrement that go with it. So how long does it take for that expense to break even against what I think we both know the real benefit, which is the labor savings, right? Like what, how does that work? How does, how does the math work?

[00:18:10] Matt Casella: Yeah. So I think it's, uh, for better or worse, that becomes a very specific, a very specific equation for any operator to, to come to terms with, right? And the point about the equipment is actually, I think the, um, maybe a little bit of, not as, not as much as you might have perceived from the videos, right. Those bottom up cups that you were seeing, that's actually a different, a different vendor and a different, um, a different piece of equipment altogether, right?

[00:18:43] Susan Barry: So he doesn't have to have that.

[00:18:44] Matt Casella: He doesn't have to have those, but he was, he was using those.

[00:18:47] Susan Barry: It looks cool. 

[00:18:48] Matt Casella: I saw those, I think at the, you know, at the restaurant show, uh, in Chicago, probably, gosh, probably six or seven years ago, right? When I was like, wow, look at those things. But those are just, that's just a new tap that somebody has invented. So really what, and that's important to think about how we're trying to develop Adam. We really want Adam to be a tabletop robot that has dual arms and can work with any type of environment around him. Right? So any kind of equipment, there are some certain specs that need to happen for the, the piece of, um, for certain pieces of equipment, specifically like the coffee maker that he uses to brew the espresso, right? That there has to be some ability to connect through it via an API. That has to happen, but we're not locked into one and only coffee maker, right? We, we use one, we have a preferred one that we use, but if a customer came to us and said, we need to use this different type of coffee maker, if it met some certain specs, we would be able to incorporate it, right?

And that's kind of a really important thing that, um, as we're growing and building the capability of Adam, right? He has a camera. He's able to recognize the tools within his environment and to be able to interact with them. Right? So as opposed to it being, you know, the old days where it would be, you know, take, grab the cup that's at this position on the X, Y coordinate plane and move it up six inches and over 12 inches and down six inches right now, he can visualize what's there. He can recognize that's a cup, right? And he can go and he can grab it with the right amount of force, pick it up and move. And if there's something happens to be in the way he would be able to avoid that obstacle and deliver it, right?

[00:20:33] Susan Barry: Oh, that’s cool.

[00:20:34] Matt Casella: So we're really getting to a new phase where there's a lot more autonomy in Adam's operation that I think is really becoming more beneficial. And the idea that you can start to fold in all sorts of new, all sorts of new, um, new capability. Now, you know, as far as the, as far as the cost benefit analysis, I think it's one that's interesting based on a variety of factors, right? But if we just look at, you know, things like, um, you know, things like coffee, right. Which happened, which I mentioned is, is a big one for us. Um, we're getting to a place now where this payoff is happening in two, in roughly two years, plus or minus. Um, and that depends obviously on everybody's business.

They're all going to be different. Uh, what are you using Adam for? How fully is he integrated into your operation? Uh, but our, the selling price right now for Adam, what we quote is like $180,000 a year. Right. And when you start to break that down, that Adam would be working. All of your hours, right? So if you were open 16 hours a day, Adam's working 16 hours as opposed to needing two or three employees to cover that shift, he's working seven days a week, as opposed to four or five days a week, right? So he's, he's there all the time. And then when you start to look at the 

[00:21:55] Susan Barry: Adam needs a union! 

[00:21:57] Matt Casella: Right? Don't don't feed that into the algorithm. Otherwise that might pop up. 

[00:22:04] Susan Barry: Just wait. 

[00:22:05] Matt Casella: But it starts to become very, very easy to see how much that's going to be a direct savings. And then when you look at the, you know, what's happening with wages, which is fine, but there's going to always be a, the natural, like, you know…. What's the solution, what's the counter to having to pay 22 an hour, 25 an hour? Because we all know, you know, when you look in the restaurant hospitality business, if you raise that, when you raise that minimum wage, you've got to raise the rest of your wages also, right? Because you've got to, now you've got guys now who are in gals who have had seniority or cooks that are back there, you know, that need to start making more than that minimum wage. And so you've got to figure out how that all fits into your operation.

And I think I really believe this and it's not, um, you know, it's no just the speak of a, of an executive at an automation company, because I've kind of, I've been paying attention and we've, as I we've just gone over, I've kind of been in this industry now for a number of years and I've heard a lot of things that, you know, when you hear them, they sound like lip service, right? It's really just lip service of this guy just wants to sell automation and get rid of, get rid of as many employees as he can, right? That's, that's what people, that's the big bad side of what people think of when they think of automation. When I think of the hospitality business, I think of a very dynamic and resilient group of people that find ways to present new and exciting experiences for their guests, right? 

[00:23:44] Susan Barry: Well, I mean, it's a big jump to get on board in a business that people refer to very specifically as a “people to people” business, right? So how do you respond to that criticism that people don't want to get their coffee from a robot, they want to get it from another person or, you know? I was thinking about this when you were talking about the cameras, like, okay, a camera can help Adam figure out whether there's an obstacle in the way for to make an espresso but can that camera recognize a regular and buy around in celebration of her birthday. Do you know what I mean? Like can you talk a little bit about that and and maybe it's a hybrid of the two that's where we're headed. What do you think? 

[00:24:33] Matt Casella: Well, I I think yeah your last point there I think is exactly what it is It's a hybrid and it's going to be a pick and choose and I alluded to this earlier that people will people being the operators of these businesses are going to choose how automation forward they want to be, right? And that's important, right? The example I use all the time is that if you and I say, let's go get a hamburger, right? That could mean I just said that. And you have a certain idea of what I just meant. I might have a certain idea of what I just meant. They could be, I could be thinking about 15 different places wherever either of us live, right? That mean let's go get a hamburger, right? It's in there all, it's all part of it's the taste, the quality of the burger, but it's also the experience in which it's delivered, right? Same thing for a cup of coffee. Same thing for a cocktail. There are enough operators out there. What I would hate to see in some ubiquitous, this is, this is what going out to eat means.

[00:25:35] Susan Barry: We like to make sure that our listeners come away from every episode of Top Floor with some practical, tangible tips that they can try in their businesses or in their lives. What are some of the characteristics of a business where a robot, whether it's an Adam or one like a cleaning robot or whatever the thing is - are there commonalities between those businesses where that's a good fit? Like, for example, is there a minimum revenue threshold where it makes sense and below that it doesn't make sense? Or is there a particular style of service that's a better fit? 

[00:26:16] Matt Casella: I think that question gets answered best thinking about each and every different piece of automation, right? I mean, there's definitely, when you look at, at Adam, Adam is a relatively, you know, it's a significant investment, $180,000. Obviously when you talk about, um, you know, the types of businesses, what we're doing is starting to move Adam into a robot as a service model where you're paying that, you know, you're paying for the service of Adam over the life of a five year contract, right? So it starts to make a lot more sense. And so, you know, I think that the answer is people should all be thinking about automation right now. They should be thinking about how it could fit into their business. And then they can explore the different types of automation that are beneficial. 

[00:27:08] Susan Barry: We have reached the fortune telling portion of our program. So now you have to predict the future. I mean, I think you're already do that in your day job, but let's do it again. What is a prediction that you have about the future of dining? It doesn't have to be automation specific, although it can be, but just big picture. What's the prediction? 

[00:27:31] Matt Casella: Yeah, you know, I wish I was a fortune teller, right? I wish I could do this much better. Um, I think that we're going to continue to see very personalized experiences in the dining space. And I think that, I think that there's been a lot of talk right through COVID. COVID really fast forwarded the idea of delivery, right? The delivery models, all these third party delivery companies, people thought we're never going to have, you know, brick and mortar restaurants. Everything's just going to be sent away. And I think we're seeing the, the bit of blowback from that. We've seen that over the last couple of years, people are not, you know, they don't want to just have a brown bag dropped at their doorstep. They want, they still want experiences. And I think with things like, uh, not only physical automation and robotics, but the new, but how AI is going to start to affect things and impact things, we're going to start to see really, really unique and fun experiences in the dining space.

And I, when I think of that, the coolest one out there right now, and I haven't been, and I it's on my list to go is to go to the Sphere in Las Vegas. But whenever you see that It is so different and so cool that, um, I really, that's kind of what it was always pops in my head of like how that's going to impact and how we're going to have experiences like that, you know, in the restaurant space and in, in the restaurant space at all levels. I think that it's becoming more, um, you know, more accessible, so it doesn't have to just be, you know, a $500 a plate type of meal where you can go and expect a really elevated experience. It can now be the fast, casual space that, um, you know, that you're able to go with, you know, on a Tuesday night or with your family or whatever that will, that will start to be, um, really a unique, fun, fun experience. And I think that that's important. That's, that's one thing that I want to say that I, that through COVID and through what we saw, it was a tragedy on a lot of, uh, in a lot of fronts, right? I mean, the, what happened, the impact, the response and how everything got had to get shut down and then the decisions that had to be made by operators of all types across food and beverage, across restaurants, across hotels and operators that a lot of the hospitality and a lot of the service had to get stripped away so that they could survive. And unfortunately, a lot of times when things get stripped away and people become used to them, not being there, operators are hesitant to offer them again, right? Because it affects the bottom line in a, in a negative way.

I'm hopeful that through automation that we're going to start to be able to, to return some of these things and really start to elevate hospitality, uh, in the service industry back to where it was. And, and even more so it can't just make things cheaper, right? But the big, the, the it, right, the it of automation and of technology and of robotics, it can't just be there to make things cheaper, right? If that's the only value that it's bringing, it's not going to work, right? It needs to make things better. It needs to make things better on a number of fronts for people to really want to be there, right? It needs to make more money. For the operators, right? It can't just be there to cut costs. That's not a winning formula. So that's really what you know what we're, we're striving for. And I think, you know, if people have that goal in mind and how they're going to use the automation, then I think, um, I think we're on the right course. 

[00:31:09] Susan Barry: I love that. Okay, folks, before we tell Matt goodbye, we are going to head down to the loading dock where all of the best stories get told.

Elevator voice announces, “Going down.”

Matt, what is a story you would only tell on the loading dock? 

[00:31:28] Matt Casella: So I, I gotta say, Susan, this has given me more anxiety over the last couple of weeks than anything, uh, anything else I've, I've ever done.

[00:31:38] Susan Barry: You must have a good story.

[00:31:40] Matt Casella: No, I, no, I didn't think I did. And I, I, I, who knows? We'll see if mine, mine, uh, levels up. But part of it was I had to, I had to, uh, you know, as I'm lucky to be able to do, I had to bounce this off my wife and get her to, you know, come back at me with some of the stories that I've shared with her over the years.

[00:31:57] Susan Barry: Wise move.

[00:31:58] Matt Casella: Yeah. So, uh, so there, I was going to go a couple of different ways. One, one that, uh, wasn't, didn't make the final cut, but one was, you know, early in my career, actually, I took a break in college for a couple of years. Um, and I went and I worked down at the board of trade or actually the Chicago mercantile exchange where they, you know, trade stocks on the floor, which is in itself a loading dock, basically.

[00:32:21] Susan Barry: I was gonna say, that sounds exciting

[00:32:22] Matt Casella: It was so exciting. And the, um, you know, the amount of, the amount of things that, that I learned down there were innumerable. But I'll never forget the first day I was walking across the street because we had our office one spot and then the floor was across the street at the merc. And we were walking over and my boss that was like, well, you know, just a couple of things you need to know, don't hit anybody. I was like okay, wow, that's, that's good advice. Is that really like, is that really something I need to be, you know, I need to be aware of? So there were a lot of lessons like that that were learned, but the funnier one that gets us more into the hospitality space was, um, came from being at Life Kitchen. And it was a, um, Life was, uh, as I mentioned, it was, it was a well resourced company, a lot of good connections early on.

So we were actually able to get a lot of really good publicity. There were, you know, our first location was up in Palo Alto. Celebrities all the time, uh, President Clinton came in the store at one time. I mean, it was like, it was like, wow, there was always somebody new and exciting coming in, um, up there. So we had, that was our first location. Then we opened our, what was to be our second, but kind of flagship location down in Culver City, California, right? Right outside Los Angeles. Um, And we were there working really hard. It was a huge store. It was probably, you know, 6,500, 7, 000 square feet, really big restaurant, especially for our type of restaurant, right?

Just a fast, casual spot. Um, but it was great. A lot of work going into it, you know, getting, getting ready, getting it open. And obviously, you know, things, you know, things always happen. We had our big, uh, grand opening party. One night went very successful. Um, and then the next day we were going to be open to the public and, uh, you know, we were there early and wouldn't you know it, plumbing issue leaks floor floor is starting to, you know, an inch of water across the, just in the, right in the front, right up, right in front of the cash registers. Oh my God, shut down door, you know, somebody, we've got somebody send, you know, a server out front to just start handing out gift cards to people, let them know we're furiously working. And luckily we were able to kind of get it under control, uh, by lunchtime. So we were able to open the doors back up. But one of our first guests that came in once the doors were open was Adam Sandler.

Who had his, who had his production studio right down the street in Culver City. And it was like myself, I was the GM of the location at the time and another guy and he was standing there and he looks at both of us and he goes, “Which one of you took the poop?” I was like, Oh no, neither. It was not that. I promise. I promise. Nothing like that. Thank you for coming back. We appreciate it. You know, we loaded him up with, with gift cards and 

[00:35:31] Susan Barry: That is so on brand and so funny. And I wouldn't be surprised if one of these days that didn't make it into one of his movies. For sure. 

[00:35:41] Matt Casella: No, it was, it was great, especially cause you know, it's such a tense, I mean, that kind of opening week is so tense, so busy. Everybody's just working their tail off. And then you know, that kind of, that kind of cut through it all. And uh, and everybody was able to get a good laugh and move on and successful opening. 

[00:36:01] Susan Barry: That's amazing. Matt Casella, thank you so much for being here. I know that our listeners are going to be on the lookout for Adam and other robots at their local restaurants. And I really appreciate you riding with us to the top floor. 

[00:36:17] Matt Casella: Thank you very much. I really appreciate being on Susan. 

[00:36:20] Susan Barry: Thank you for listening. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/153. Jonathan Albano is our editor, producer, and all around genius. He even wrote and performed our theme song with vocals by Cameron Albano. You can subscribe to Top Floor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. And your rating or review will go a long way in helping us give you more of what you like. 

[00:36:56] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Top Floor Podcast at www.topfloorpodcast.com. Have a hospitality marketing question? Reach us at 850-404-9630 to be featured in a future episode.