Jon Alexis is the owner of
TJ's Seafood Market (2 locations) and
Malibu Poke (2 Dallas locations and 1 Austin location).
TJ's Seafood Market is celebrating 30 years as a family-owned business. Under Alexis's vision, TJ's has expanded from a neighborhood favorite fish market to two award-winning restaurants with fish markets, plus a robust catering company.
Malibu Poke is Jon's fast-casual poke concept known for it's uber-fresh ingredients. Malibu Poke also features a unique tech-based self-serving kiosks which allow guests to choose facial recognition features that "remember" their order history.
Check out
vCFO.com as mentioned in today's episode!
Show notes…
Calls to ACTION!!!
Favorite success quote or mantra:
- "The longest journey begins with a single step."
In this episode with Jon Alexis we will discuss:
- Just start
- Lean into an underserved market
- Changing the perception of seafood
- Do everything in order to make the experience better for the guest
- Taking all the risk on yourself
- Systems
- Budgeting
- How to create a "problem solving machine"
- Automated ordering
- Trial and error in finding the best way to order seafood
- Fish-driven over chef-driven seafood experience
- Utilizing the normally unused parts of fish in creative ways
- People want options
- Value of educating your staff on everything you serve
- Surprising benefits to not being first to market
- Approaching Poke from new and fresh angles
- "Fast-fine" dining
- Using tech to improve the hospitality experience
- Only make decisions based on "will it make the experience better?"
- Over-fishing and what we can do about it
- The truth about "bycatch"
- Don't take the BS of you industry home with you
- Aqua-farming; 5 key factors:
- Are the fish raised in the environment they are meant to live in?
- Does the aquafarm have clean water circulation?
- Does the aqua farm produce more protein than it takes out?
- Is the feed they are using high-quality?
- The quality of antibiotics
Today's sponsor:
BentoBox empowers restaurants to own their presence, profits and relationships. The hospitality platform disrupts third-party services that come between the restaurant and the guest. BentoBox puts the restaurant first and offers tools that drive high-margin revenue directly through the restaurant's website. BentoBox is trusted and loved by over 5,000 restaurants worldwide including Union Square Hospitality Group, Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern, Lilia and more.
Restaurant365 is a cloud-based, all-in-one, restaurant-specific accounting and back-office platform that seamlessly integrates with POS systems, payroll providers, food and beverage vendors. It generates accurate real-time reporting and analysis in user-friendly dashboards, facilitating immediate, data-driven decision making. Restaurant365 eliminates manual, error-prone processes and is designed to help restaurant businesses grow with functionality that helps optimize labor costs, reduce food costs and increase revenue.
P&G ProfessionalTM offers innovative total foodservice solutions featuring trusted brands such as Dawn® Professional, Cascade® Professional, Spic and Span® and Comet®. We are unique in that our total solutions are founded in customer and patron understanding, superior products that help save time and cut overall costs, and a five-star service group that is compensated based on customer satisfaction, not commissions. Visit www.pgpro.com for the latest information about P&G Professional's solutions and services.
Knowledge bombs
- Which "it factor" habit, trait, or characteristic you believe most contributes to your success?
- What is your biggest weakness?
- What's one question you ask or thing you look for during an interview?
- Tell me about the best boss you've ever had
- Share one code of conduct or behavior you teach your team.
- If it would get you fired in a 9-5 you can't do it here
- What is one uncommon standard of service you teach your staff?
- Answer every question with another question
- What's one book we must read to become a better person or restaurant owner?
- What's one thing you feel restaurateurs don't know well enough or do often enough?
- Why WON'T a guest come to your restaurant (as apposed to why they WOULD)
- Name one service you've hired.
- What's one piece of technology you've adopted within your restaurant walls and how has it influenced operations?
- If you got the news that you'd be leaving this world tomorrow and all memories of you, your work, and your restaurants would be lost with your departure with the exception of 3 pieces of wisdom you could leave behind for the good of humanity, what would they be?
- Life is hard, food is good, enjoy your meals
- We don't have the responsibility to be good to the people around us; we have the opportunity
- Realize that waking up everyday is a blessing
Contact info:
TJs Seafood Market website
Malibu Poke website
Thanks for listening!
Thanks so much for joining today! Have some feedback you'd like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!
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Huge thanks to Jon Alexis for joining me for another awesome episode. Until next time!
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