650: Damien Watel on Partnerships and Humility

French-born Damien Watel got his start in the restaurant industry at the age of 25 working for his uncle's two Dallas restaurants. In 1999 Chef Watel opened Bistro Vatel, which had an 18-year run and earned Watel recognition as one of the great chefs in the nation, before closing in 2017. Chef Watel's most recent project, Bistr09,  is the ninth restaurant project Chef Damien Watel has undertaken in the collaboration of his wife, Chef Lisa Astorga-Watel.  In addition, The Watels own and operate Bite in Southtown.

 

Show notes…

Favorite success quote or mantra:

• "It's not about the skills, it's about the character."

In today's episode with Damien Watel we will discuss:

• The right questions to ask in an interview looking for new team members
• Growing up in France
• Learning the passion of cooking from his father and visiting great restaurants in France
• Cooking school and training in Paris
• Humility
• Cell phones in the workplace
• Pleasing people is our business
• Risks of opening
• Balancing creativity with the business side of restaurant ownership
• Go where your target market is
• All Watel's restaurants leading up to Bistr09
• Dealing with partners
• Dealing within surrounding businesses that share your space

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.

 

CAKE provides an easy-to-use integrated software and hardware solution to build better dining experiences for restaurant operators and their guests. With mobile marketing and waitlist management to point of sale payment processing, the CAKErestaurant management system helps you grow your business.  Learn more at trycake.com/unstoppable

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.

 

Knowledge bombs

1. Which "it factor" habit, trait, or characteristic you believe most contributes to your success?
   • Calm and collected
2. What is your biggest weakness?
   • Numbers side of the business
3. What's one question you ask or thing you look for during an interview?
   • What do you do on the weekends?
4. What's a current challenge? How are you dealing with it?
   • To realistically get where I want to be. "Soften the dream."
5. Share one code of conduct or behavior you teach your team.
   • Always think twice. Give people a second chance.
6. What is one uncommon standard of service you teach your staff?
   • Be close to your customers and understand what they individually want
7. What's the one thing you feel restaurateurs don't know well enough or do often enough?
   • Meet with their friends and support each other
8. What's one piece of technology you've adopted within your four walls restaurant and how has it influence operations?
   • Toast POS and reservation system
9. 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 too short so live it the way you intend to
   • More time for family and friends
   • More time for your passion

Contact info:

Bistr09 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!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for the Restaurant Unstoppable Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates.

Huge thanks to Damien Watel for joining me for another awesome episode. Until next time!