Owner/Operator
The Real Chow Baby
Co-Owned the highly acclaimed The Real Chow Baby restaurants in Atlanta’s West Midtown and Virginia Highland neighborhoods; partnership revenues exceeded $60M annually.• Built an award-winning restaurant, The Real Chow Baby, with the following public recognitions: “Atlanta’s Best Bites” -- Air Tran Airways, In Flight Magazine 2007, “Best Cheap Eats” – AOL City Guide, 2007 and 2008, “Best Wait staff” -- Creative Loafing, 2007 and 2008, “Best Place for a First Date” – Creative Loafing, 2006 and 2007, “100 Best Restaurants” – Jezebel, 2007 and 2008 and a rating of “Excellent” – Zagat, 2006-2008.• Grew Chow Baby Ponce, LLC from a single restaurant in 2010 to a restaurant holding company, which included joint venture partnerships with 25 restaurants including, but not limited to Chick-Fila, Chop House, Outback Steak, Starbucks, Carrabbas, El Taco, Ecco, and Pei Wei.• Noteworthy accomplishment includes growing a new company and restaurant from 1 store location to partner in 25 stores at the world's busiest airport; store grew from a $2M operation in year one to partner in operations with gross revenues of $60M.• Maintained budgets, P & L activities, updated business plans, and effectively managed human resources. • Oversaw daily operations of the restaurants including, hiring, development of training plans, operating procedures, brand manuals, opening and development of each location, systems implementation and growth strategies. • Hands-on leadership resulted in high employee retention; retained employees with better than average employee turnover rates and developed hourly personnel for growth within the company. • Created highly successful social media campaigns with significant guest engagement.• Updated menus and offerings to increase sales and margins while improving food quality.• Managed bar and alcohol inventories and created drink specials and weekly bar campaigns.
