2/23/10: Sue Sullivan from Hot Squeeze + Robbie Kukler and Michael Erickson from Fifth Group Restaurants
Laura, GFR's great Guest Host!
Today’s show made me hungry. All we talked about was food! It was great though because I had an awesome guest host, Laura Scholz, filling in while Erik is on vacay.
First up we were joined by Sue Sullivan from Hot Squeeze. Sue is an Atlanta-area entrepreneur who was a caterer for a long time before making the leap into the retail food business. She had used the Hot Squeeze recipe in her catering business for years and then finally decided that she should bottle it and sell it. Four years and a lot of hard work later, she has a great product that a lot of people love! She didn’t go the traditional route though. Most people start by making batches of their products for family and friends and then selling at farmer’s markets and growing from there. She went straight to the New York Fancy Food Show. The rest is history and again, a lot of hard work. Sue is a self-described “workout-aholic” so she has a lot of energy. Her free advice to anyone looking to launch a product was to be ready for the long hours. She’s still going it alone but you can tell just from talking to her that she is passionate about this product and won’t rest until it’s on every table in America. She calls it “ketchup for adults.” I love that! If you’re looking for her online, she’s got a Facebook and Twitter page and there’s even an iPhone app! As for the product, it can be found in Whole Foods as well as many other specialty grocers and online.
Michael Erickson and Robbie Kukler
Next we were joined by Robbie Kukler and Michael Erickson from Fifth Group Restaurants in Atlanta. Robbie began with just one restaurant, South City Kitchen which turns 17 this year. The other Fifth Group restaurants are: La Tavola, El Taco, Ecco, South City Kitchen Vinings and their catering/special events company Bold American. Michael is the Director of Marketing for Fifth Group restaurants and does a great job using social media to spread the word about promotions and upcoming events. We talked about how their marketing efforts have changed with the new media phenomenon. They said that they do far less print advertising and that any that they do today is focused on publications which might be in hotels or for tourists. Michael uses Facebook and Twitter primarily to connect with guests and monitor what people are saying about any of the Fifth Group restaurants.
One thing we learned which I think is pretty amazing and because Atlanta doesn’t really tout itself as a “green” city as much as it should is that Ecco has NO DUMPSTERS. They compost or recycle everything. That is amazing! So, whenever you eat there, you can feel good knowing that you aren’t contributing to the landfills. Surprisingly, Atlanta is actually ahead of the curve on the environmentally-friendly efforts in the hospitality industry. Robbie got the chance to showcase that at recent conference for event planners which was held at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Robbie and Michael’s free advice was that you really have to love what you are doing. Michael used to be in advertising and now gets to use those skills in an industry he is more passionate about. Robbie also said that being a restaurateur is hard work and anyone considering getting into the business needs to be prepared to work long hours and have well over six figures to invest in their business since they won’t be making any money for at least the first eighteen months.
Thanks to all of our guests and to Laura for being such an awesome guest host! See you next week!
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