Mark This! Podcast, Episode 24, Local Restaurant Row
Host: Heather Dotchel, Corporate Communications
Guests: Max Cavanaugh, Director of Brand and Innovation for Aramark; Rachel Hunter, Marketing Manager for Middle Tennessee State University Dining; Hitesh Wadhawan, Owner of O’Desi aroma
It is time to Mark This, a podcast in which we peel back the corporate curtain to reveal the cool and innovative people, programs and projects that are happening all over Aramark's varied lines of business.
I'm Heather Dotchel. As a member of Aramark's Communications team, I see and hear amazing things that are happening across our company every day. These remarkable initiatives happen because we have remarkable people behind them building opportunity, building innovation and building community.
Local Restaurant Row is an amazing dining concept that crosses through multiple lines of business at Aramark, we're passionate about local flavor and positively impacting the communities we serve. Local restaurants and the people who make them possible are the cornerstone of our communities, so we partner with restaurants, food trucks and area chefs to bring authentic local favorites and global flavors to our campuses, workplaces, and venues. We've gathered a group today to talk about Local Restaurant Row.
We're speaking with Max Cavanaugh who is the brand director with Local Restaurant Row, Rachel Hunter from Middle Tennessee State University's dining team, and Hitesh Wadhawan of O'Desi Aroma, an award-winning Local Restaurant Row partner.
To begin, let's talk to some Aramark team members. First, Max who leads our enterprise Local Restaurant Row efforts, will give more detail about the concept and then we'll talk to Rachel Hunter, marketing manager from our dining team at Middle Tennessee State University about their program on campus.
Max, can you explain the Local Restaurant Row program? What was its genesis? How did you come to work with it? What makes it special?
Thanks, Heather. Local Restaurant Row is a program that really allows our operators to collaborate with local restaurants, food trucks, and chefs from their communities to bring exciting menus and authentic flavors to those guests that we're serving every day. We do currently operate it across four lines of business, as you mentioned before with Healthcare Plus, Collegiate Hospitality, the Workplace Experience Group, and our student nutrition line of business. Really, our partners are invited to serve on site right alongside Aramark, usually in limited engagements or pop-up events.
A lot of this really came out of some great work folks in the field were doing several years ago. We learned that a lot of operators were looking to infuse variety into their dining programs and one of the pieces that they thought would be most effective was to really collaborate with those communities that we serve every day. When we found out that these operators were doing this great work in the field, our team undertook a process to really mine all the information they had currently learned, where their pain points were, where the wins were for them, and help design a more repeatable process and some standardized systems that more operators could then leverage.
I came to join the group in the start of 2020, but really the main focus for me when I came on board was to try to make this a more repeatable program, as I said, and my background being in restaurants, I really hoped that I could connect that world, the contract food service management world and help bridge that gap to help bring those vendors on board as well. I think what makes it really so special is that it does allow the food service operation, the menus, to really reflect the communities where our clients are located. The example I always give to folks is maybe you don't want the guy from Philadelphia deciding the best barbecue to offer in Austin, Texas, and so we do want to empower our folks in the field to be able to go out and make those connections, bring those local favorites into their site. Not only to add variety, but also sometimes to add maybe menu items that guests just really want to try. If they're commuting to work or they to a campus, we want to make sure they experience that community where they live and work every day.
I think lastly, one of the great things that we see when it comes to really differentiating this program is it allows a lot of our folks to really reconnect. Whether that's alumni owned businesses coming back to serve at their university or other opportunities where we are able to invite local programs in, it really is incredibly rewarding to see those folks get to grow alongside us and see the excitement of our guests every day when they do get to try out that new culinary trend or that exciting new cuisine that's maybe opening up in their neighborhood.
Is there a typical Local Restaurant Row format, Max, or is it a bit different at each location?
Typically we see the Local Restaurant Row format operating in a retail model we'll say. Whether that's a food truck coming on campus to vend their amazing food, whether it's someone coming in and taking over maybe one of our stations in the cafe or operating alongside us in the food court, that's really what we typically see. The last few years though, we have seen some expansion of the program into the athletic concessions world, which may only operate 10, 12 days a year for those big games, and it's wonderful to be able to infuse that local community flavor into the offerings that our guests are given every single day there. There is a little bit of difference. I would definitely say the best thing about the difference is really that the program is a reflection of those places where people operate.
I think one of the most amazing things about Local Restaurant Row is really the opportunity to support each other. Whether we saw it in the pandemic and there were businesses that we knew didn't have foot traffic because of the pandemic, we were able to bring those folks into our healthcare facilities and other locations where frankly we didn't have the luxury of shutting down operations. Our guests needed to eat. We'd love to make sure that our local vendors were still going to be there when the pandemic ended, and we see so many examples of folks who were able to survive with this and other catering events. I'm sure as everyone saw in the healthcare world, a lot of restaurants really participating and feeding those nurses and first responders, but since then we've also seen so much incredible growth. I think Rachel will talk about it a little bit later in the program, but seeing a local business open secondary locations, have a more permanent location or placement on campus, and really just increase their business alongside Aramark, and we really hope we can facilitate that every day. That's what really gets me excited at the end of the week.
All right, well perfect. We're teed up for Rachel then. If anybody's been listening to this for a while, I always like to take the meta view and get as specific as possible. Rachel, Middle Tennessee State University has had a really robust Local Restaurant Row program for a few years now. I know you started the program with around 10 to 15 businesses rotating on a two week cycle, but you've reduced that number to four permanent partners. Can you walk us through that decision, please?
Thanks, Heather. Yes, I'd love to. I'm just going to give the back story to it. Local Restaurant Row was brought to us by our client. She suggested it. It was right after COVID, she saw that we were having staffing issues, she saw that the campus community needed something to bring it together, so we decided to partner with our alumni association and reach out to true blue businesses in our area. We reached out to some local restaurants and we found that these restaurants were having the same staffing issues that we were, so the restaurants didn't really work for us. We had to veer more to the food truck vendors. We decided to rotate them every two weeks so we could get them all in and we could see what the student and the campus population enjoyed.
We went from the first semester, a two week rotation into the following semester where we decided to hold them for a month each. This was better for our vendors and better for us as well. As a campus community that is majority commuters, we literally only have 2,500 students living on campus in a population of 20,000 students, the commuter population liked the vendors staying longer. They felt like they got to see them and enjoy them more. It was also right after COVID, so a lot of our classes were hybrid and only meeting certain times of the week, so the move to the monthly really made a big game changer and it made it a lot easier for us and the vendors.
At the end of that academic year, we spoke with the client and we decided to utilize the next semester to see what the campus really wanted, to use it to find out who our top five vendors were. We partnered with our student government association, we did a survey and included that with our sales data to decide who the top five vendors would be. When we received the data, we spoke with our client and we decided that we would not only keep one vendor permanently on campus, but instead we decided to keep four vendors permanently on campus. We took the survey data along with our sales data and decided to remove three additional national brands from our location.
Out of the top four, three of our Local Restaurant Row partners are MTSU alumni and I think that has been a huge, huge impact on our campus community. After COVID, it brought us a sense of community back to campus. Our students felt like they had hope. They saw that these alumni had gone out and taken the chance in entrepreneurship and done well, and now here they are serving the students at their alma mater.
I remember hearing, Rachel that three of your four permanent partners are alumni-owned, which is really neat. I appreciate you sharing that that's important to the campus, that the students see that and it serves as a model for them. Can you tell us a little bit more about the food that is served at the four restaurants? Because I'd like to highlight for our audience how diverse this concept is when it brings different partners in.
Yes, absolutely. As I talked about in the survey, the results we got back were very close and that was part of our decision in keeping four instead of just one, but yet they're very diverse in their menus. One of them is coffee, a local coffee shop here in town whose owner is currently enrolled in their PhD program here at Middle Tennessee State University, so that's really awesome. Another one is a true local business, small business startup that's in the niche of chicken and waffles, hot chicken and waffles to be exact. The student population love, love, loves it. The other one is the new craft specialty pizza, and it has been very well accepted. It has done so well here on campus, our local specialty pizza owners do speaking engagements on campus with the business department and student organizations. Another one of our vendors, our last vendor is a specialty niche as well with acai bowls and the students love them. The fact that they can go and get a shake or a bowl and add fresh fruit and granola to it, they love it and you'll see them walking around campus with it all the time.
Well, now that you've made me incredibly hungry, Rachel, as we're recording this around lunchtime, I'll let the audience know. Let's talk about more food that's going to make me very upset that I'm not eating it right now because I do love it.
Let's pivot to talk to Hitesh from O'desi Aroma, one of our stellar Local Restaurant Row partners. O'Desi Aroma was awarded the President's Choice Honors, the best of the best for our annual Local Restaurant Row recognition this year. This restaurant, which serves multiple lines of business across Texas offers delicious and authentic Indian cuisine. Welcome to the podcast Hitesh. Please share with our audience all about O'Desi Aroma.
Thank you Heather for the invite to this podcast. Really appreciate the kind words and I'm glad to be here with this group.
O'Desi Aroma started its journey back in May of 2017. We are a small business based out of the DFW market. We opened a first restaurant in Plano, Texas on 1st of May, 2017. We started this journey thinking of building an Indian food brand and we started building this using three basic pillars. We said we want to serve authentic Indian food, we want to make sure it's consistent, and we want to make sure it's affordable. That prompted us to choose a service model, which is fast casual.
Fast forward, now last week we opened our fourth restaurant. We opened our second right before the pandemic, just a couple of months before pandemic. We opened the third one last year in 2023, and just last week we opened our fourth restaurant in Dallas, Texas.
You've partnered with Aramark for some time, so what made you want to get involved with the Local Restaurant Row concept? How has your partnership with Aramark evolved with that? I know you're involved in several lines of business. Can you tell us what this relationship looks like?
Sure. I think there's a small story I would like to share. This is to your question about what made us partner with Aramark. I think it's by chance. I was serving in the restaurant, I was one of the servers and one of the leaders from Aramark happened to be dining with us, and that's where the conversation started. When we had the initial discussion, I could not imagine at that time how meaningful it could be for us as a brand.
We started our journey with Aramark in September of 2020, and this was right in the middle of the pandemic. We started with 30 meals with Aramark with one of their healthcare divisions, and honestly, Heather, working with Aramark Food Service during pandemic actually helped us save this brand. We say this to anyone and everyone who's willing to listen because if we had not pivoted and started doing food service with healthcare division of Aramark in Dallas, I don't know where we would have gone.
Not only it helped us grow as a brand, but this relationship has transformed on how we are doing this business now. Food service has become almost... 1/4 of our business is a food service vertical. We have dedicated tremendous resources. We have learned a lot during this journey and continuously try and improve how we can do or enable different verticals in Aramark, in the DFW market to do Indian food. We truly believe after working with Aramark and DFW Market for almost four years now, that this is still a starting point. I think there's a huge opportunity out there that we are not able to tap into, and that is because we do hot food and it's made fresh in the morning and it limits our geographical footprint. Today we are doing food all the way to Round Rock, Texas, but that's how far we can go to make sure we have the right product, it temps right, and it's served right to the customers.
We work with multiple lines of businesses with Aramark, and this is, again, like I said, the starting point was those 30 meals at one hospital and now we do healthcare. We also work with collegiate. We are doing a lot of corporates as well. That's where we stand. One of the problem statement we as a brand are trying to solve for is how do we enable Aramark outside of DFW market to be able to serve authentic and consistent Indian food in all the various locations they have nationally. That's one of the challenges we are trying to conquer.
I've talked about this to Max many times, and we are a small business, Heather. For us to be running a regular brick and mortar and like I said, food service because Aramark opened doors to other food service partners as well. It's a very exciting space for us as a brand and as a cuisine. We love the fact that we are able to go to colleges and serve the students. We love the fact that we are able to get to high schoolers and serve our cuisine, because that's how we believe the cuisine would grow in the community. If the kids are eating when they're in high school, in college, when they come out, overall for Indian cuisine, it's good.
Well, thank you for sharing all of that. I think it's not chance that you all met at your restaurant and Aramark leadership at that point because I think hospitality people tend to love to go out, try new things, and recognize a truly excellent experience when they see it. It makes sense that we would all want to work together. I find it very encouraging to hear how wonderfully you are growing and how our partnership has helped to get you there.
Before we wrap this up then, on that note Max, I'm going to turn back to you for the final question. What is the best way for local restaurants to get involved with this program?
Thanks, Heather. We're always looking for authentic local partners and while this effort is usually led by those local operating teams who have boots on the ground and know the local market best, we also want to make sure that vendors can find us. Probably the easiest way to do that is to visit Aramark.com/LocalRestaurantRow. There, local businesses can learn more about the program, review case studies, even hear some success stories of other folks, one of which is definitely Hitesh up there as well. Businesses can also submit their information there to be connected with our team and really explore the program in more detail.
One thing I always do like to highlight is that while there may not be an opportunity today in a given city, in a given market, we still want to build those relationships. We still want to nurture them so that when Aramark is going out and we're pursuing new business or we're refreshing a concept and infusing innovation into our dining operations, we have an excited, engaged network of entrepreneurs who want to grow alongside us, who want to bring that next exciting offering to our guests. I definitely encourage folks to go to the Local Restaurant Row page at Aramark.com, learn some more, submit your information, and we'll probably be talking on the phone in a few months.
I really want to say also that I think that the power of food has an incredible ability to bridge cultural divides, really make people aware of other people around them, expand their community and really bring us all closer together. I know when I travel, the first thing I usually do is ask my cab driver, where do you like to eat after work? Where's the best place locally? I think this is really an extension of that kind of concept of you might have someone who's moving across the country to go to college or they're in a remote location and they're working out of this office for a few months. If we can help make them feel more connected to that community through food, I think it's incredibly impactful and hopefully it does also then support those local businesses. As Hitesh will probably mention, the more that we raise one boat, everyone raises with us.
If you want to know more about Aramark's Local Restaurant Row, you can go to the URL that Max gave you, but you can also visit our newsroom on aramark.com to access more information.
I'd like to thank Max and Rachel and Hitesh for joining us, and thanks as always to our Mark This listeners.
