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And today, we’re joined by special guest mr. Daniel ramirez who is the director of business development and operations for los dos potrillos restaurants in the south suburbs of denver, colorado, and daniel. Welcome. Thank you guys appreciate it.
Brian, richard is a pleasure. And also joined by brian devine, president of top line management. And so today, daniel, we’re gonna spend a few minutes together and talk a little bit about how are things going and how are you doing with your staff and keeping everybody going at los dos potrillos great.
Great. So what are you all doing during these difficult times to manage through this? You know, it’s been crazy. You know what i’d like to tell people? You know, two weeks ago overnight, we lost 240 employees. As a company, you know, we have four locations.
We employ close to 300 employees, and we lost the majority of them but for the most part, we didn’t know what we were gonna do, you know? Of course it was. You know, things were constantly changing day in and day out by the hour.
And you know one thing that we kind of said to ourselves we’re not could be defeated with this and you want to continue being able to be that cover food for so many families and continue employing as much as we came up, you know? Wow. Abiding by the health code regulations and making sure that we’re keeping everyone safe. You know, all of our team members, you know, are wrong or right from the beginning.
My family and I were right from the beginning. You know, we we said, you know, let’s figure this out.
We ended up changing our operations, you know, in six days, basically, we open up four new restaurants. That’s how it felt, like, you know, we were full, full service, sit down restaurant, of course.
And we ended up changing it. Most of israel’s express. We do kurtz. I take out to go orders and then walk up window.
And we’ve been able to do really well with that for the most part. So i’m very aware of the success that you’ve created in terms of meeting the needs of the community, your staff, your employees.
You’ve been very conscious about not just what you do for los dos potrillos but you’ve also been helpful for other restaurants in the marketplace. So maybe you could expand a little bit about some of the things you’re doing there as well.
Absolutely. You know, at the end of the day, it’s we’re all in this together, everybody in this entire world, literally.
You know, colorado. We were born and raised here, has multiple other restaurant tours that are struggling and so on and so forth.
We had a really good following. Our social media pages were about 6000 or facebook, 5000 on instagram. So about 11,000 that we get to be chat organically.
And what we’ve been doing is, you know, visiting some restaurant tours ground grab. But quick find to eat for lunch, or for dinner and, you know, telling people to go check out and help other small businesses.
You know, even if it is another mexican restaurant, even if it is another competitive responsible with you right now, it’s not about that. It’s about being able to help each other out at its i’m needed and so on and so forth. And at the end of the day, yes, we’re in the same industry, but rather like home.
That’s amazing. Brian, you wanna ask daniel a question? Yeah. Daniel thank you so much for taking the time and sharing this information with this, the thing that I really want to know it, you know, obviously, richard myself. We’re trying to support this industry, and you’re in it.
What in your opinion, your thoughts can we or should we be doing to help more to be more of a support to everybody in this industry right now. That’s a great question, right? I think we’re the biggest things when it comes to. I think what everyone’s saying is tipping, tipping well for the employees that are out there.
And, you know, there were two point, you know, risking themselves as well. They’re being interacted with a lot of people as well, you know, they’re making sure that if they feel crummy and feel sick, they have to stay home.
And you know they’re not taking any chances of that, and I think a lot of people still going out, and I guess being able to adapt to the new changes the next couple months. That’s the biggest thing is we don’t like change.
People don’t like change in general, but being able to adapt and say, you know what? I don’t think going out to dinner, you know, picking up dinner and bring home being able to still have dinner around dinner table. That’s what we did. Actually, a week ago, we did a video on basically re-enacting how family would dig up the food from our location, bring it back on mom hugs that kids in around the dinner table and the face time in a friend of family friends.
And that’s kind of the reality. Well, it’s right. It’s still bringing families together around the dinner table, but from a distance.
Oh, I love that. That’s actually we even talked about that in nrc helpful moment then please do that. How did that people respond to that?
Yeah, people responded to really well. And, you know, we got a lot of great feedback under as well, because you know where I guess we’re not running away from reality.
We’re facing a right front to front, you know, we can’t be high into well, maybe it’s gonna be better for me. It’s gonna get better.
No, I have to accept it. Wrap, grab on to it and flew with it. You know, it’s the same way move, promoter business in any other way. If everything was completely perfect and things were running well, you know, let’s take some great photos. Let’s promote in here, but now, since everything is take out houses on and so forth. So let’s promote our food as a takeout container as a you know, at the dinner table and everything like that, because we live in that reality right now. And I know one thing you are doing and just make sure people understand. You are really practicing social distancing of your restaurants with with the consumer with the guests.
100 might have the walk. You have to take out your texting people. You bring the food, then you’re practicing social distancing. If you do have people walking up, you’re requiring them to stay apart from each other.
You’re doing the right social components of stay in place. Yeah, totally. And I can just go a little bit off that richard is you know what we’ve noticed? That our centennial location. It’s, you know, it’s the neighborhood spot, and people were always used to, you know, walking up and so on support they didn’t understand. He call you call. So that’s what we did a block of window.
And we did our pager system. So whenever someone comes in, we put a pager system in a baggie with gloves on. We give it to the person, tell him he had no hate the waiting car buzzer, and when they returned it, we sanitize it, removed the baggie, and then for a new bag and stuff to do first.
So that’s, you know, we don’t want you hanging out in front of restaurants was worth going out of your car.
Will buzz. You’re right, right? So it’s a great piece. Lastly, anything else you could think of, daniel, you want to share with the hospitality industry because this is being broadcast all over us north america.
I think at the end of the day is what I said is, except the adaptation. You know, we have to adapt to what we are right now. And you know, all of us a restaurant tours and hold us know that this industry’s heart but we love this industry, and we’ve had a lot of difficult times, but this is definitely is difficult. Time is to continue staying strong and continue fighting that fight.
Because at the end of day, you know, we’ve all been there, you know, drag down, tired, worn out.
But this doesn’t last forever. And I know it’s not gonna last forever. So adapt what you can adapt and push through this because, you know, we’re all gonna get through this, and it’s gonna be okay.
That’s outstanding. And brian, one last piece and ask you to share is that there’s $10,000 out there literally for the asking.
If you’ll just listen to brian real quick, get a piece of paper. We’re gonna put this link on our website tonight in our facebook. What’s really important is that $10,000 grant money you can apply for it today and you do it today.
Yeah, get get on this right now. My cpa just confirmed that it is live so go to covid19relief. Sba. Gov and that will start the process.
And it is a truncated process. They’re not asking for a lot of details, so this could be done in about 15 minutes. And it is to get the $10,000 now and actually right, go ahead.
Say, actually, put your bank account information in there, so I want to make sure you have the correct link, because there are a lot of people that are gonna be scanning right now, so make sure you have the right link and you don’t put your information into the wrong accounts, right? So that that’s huge, so we’ll make sure the link is there.
Like I said, it did come from I c p a. So it has embedded. Um, and I went through the process that took me about 15 minutes, and hopefully we’ll be able to get that money really fast.
And most of that money, in most cases, not 100%. Most cases that will become for forgivable or if it does convert into alone, it’s going to be under 4% in a very long term basis. But again, most of that’s pretty available to all small businesses, which is pretty much everybody that we’re reaching. If you’re less than 500 employees and pro delegation, you qualify. So that’s it for now. Daniel ramirez. We can’t thank you enough for joining us.
Yes, everybody. We help wish you health and safety. And bye for now. Thank you.
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