From Busing Tables at 15 to CEO: Kevin Gudejko's Four Decades Moving Through American Dining History

Anthony Codispoti (00:01)

Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome adversity. As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Cotaspodi and today's guest started busing tables at a country club at age 15 because that's what you did when your mom was a server and your dad was a meat cutter. He didn't land in the

restaurant industry so much as he was born into it. Now, he spent the next four decades moving through 13 states and some of the most formative kitchens in American dining history, learning from people who delayed restaurant openings over the wrong color booth cushions and built concept after concept before buying out the company he helped build for 12 years. His name is Kevin Gudeco, and he's the president and CEO of Main Street Mentors Restaurant Group.

a collection of 21 upscale scratch kitchen restaurants across five states that donates more than $2 million a year to local community charities. And was recognized by the National Restaurant Association for its early work in digital menu technology. But before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency. And you'll want to hear this because it's hurting almost every business you know.

Health insurance costs keep going up every single year and restaurants are furious about it. They're paying more, claims are getting denied, employees are opting out because they can't afford it, and it hurts turnover and morale. It's one of the most maddening problems in running a business and everyone just accepts it. But you don't have to anymore. Now there's a program that gives employees unlimited access to doctors, therapists, and prescriptions

with no co-pays or deductibles to meet. But here's the part that really shocks most people. Our program increases your net profits. We recently helped a client add $900 per employee per year to their bottom line. Results vary, but gains like that can change how a business is valued. Get your free consultation today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, President and CEO of Main Street Ventures Restaurant Company,

Kevin Gudeco, thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Kevin Gudejko (02:28)

I've excited to be here, appreciate it.

Anthony Codispoti (02:31)

So as we were mentioning in the intro, Kevin, your dad was a meat cutter. Your mom was a server. You were busing tables at age 15. At what point in your early life did you realize that the restaurant industry wasn't just a way to make money. It's actually what you wanted to do with your life long term.

Kevin Gudejko (02:49)

Yeah, I didn't put this into words till much, much later, I think, in life. And I often tell that to people now that I think there's a misconception about the restaurant industry. And I personally, and we as a company, look at it as an industry of opportunity. And that's really where I started to see, as I grew in the business and as you mentioned, caddying in the summer, moving into the restaurant.

as the season progressed into the cooler months. I just saw the opportunity. I need to be honest, I was young and energetic too. So I kind of liked having money in my pocket every day. But ⁓ I think coming out of college, that was really where I started to understand that's where wanted to be. And the day-to-day part of it too. Anybody that's in the industry understands that every day is different. There's no two days the same.

Anthony Codispoti (03:47)

Did you go to college specifically for something in hospitality management or culinary arts?

Kevin Gudejko (03:53)

I did not know. initially started as a ⁓ pharmacy major and then decided that I didn't want to count pills the rest of my life. ⁓ So I switched to ⁓ biology to get through and then moved on to this industry.

Anthony Codispoti (04:08)

So coming out of college, you jumped right into management with Benegants in Virginia during what you called the heyday of Fern bars. What is a Fern bar?

Kevin Gudejko (04:20)

Yeah, well, for people that might have been around that time period, it started, think TGI Fridays was the first of it. Benningans came along quickly thereafter. ⁓ It was ⁓ a style of restaurant, typically, honestly, a lot of greenery, lot of ferns, brass accents, Tiffany lamps, ⁓ elevated bar. It also started about the same time when ⁓ the culture of ⁓

happy hours and casual entertainment and that kind of was just taking off. So was really centered and focused on the bar in both of those concepts, especially the Benningens. The first thing you walked in was a large expansive bar right up front, up a couple steps and you were in middle of it.

Anthony Codispoti (05:04)

Right there up front.

So thinking back to that time, Kevin, tell us about a time where you learned a powerful lesson, either from a mentor in a positive way or a challenging work experience with a coworker or a customer.

Kevin Gudejko (05:23)

Yeah. You know, had, as I think a lot of people, I had some great mentors coming up and I worked with a gentleman named Jim Pollard, who was my first supervisor at Benningens. And then we worked together years, years later at Bloomen Brands and Outback and Carrabba's. ⁓ Jim was instrumental in trying to, that early in that career, helping me understand.

This was about coaching and teaching and developing people, not just running numbers. Obviously an important part of it, without a doubt. So early on, I was in a restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina. And they first came out with alcohol where you could, you we using mini bottles for purchasing, but you had to keep the liquor mix under 50%. We were way over.

So the challenge was trying to maintain a business ⁓ and kill a business at the same time. So we had to drop that.

Anthony Codispoti (06:25)

meaning

only 50 % of your revenues could be coming from alcohol.

Kevin Gudejko (06:29)

Correct. And we were closer to 60%. So it was challenging in that we, as I mentioned in that concept, the first thing you saw was walk and then saw a bar that probably had 25 to 30 seats at it. It was a focal focal point.

We had to adapt pretty quickly within the first 18 months because we were way over. ⁓ So it was, ⁓ and Pennington was early on, forcing not towards the end, but focused on food. And that was the challenge is saying, can we still make this work? ⁓ Drive the liquor mix down, focus on the food side of it, and not only keep the guests happy, but ⁓ keep our staff employed and happy about coming into work every day.

Anthony Codispoti (07:11)

How did you pull

that off?

Kevin Gudejko (07:13)

Well, physically we just eliminated half the bar and made it 90. So we just forced the issue, cut way back on happy hour. we used to do the two for one happy hour thing and that. It was challenging for sure. And it wasn't a lot of tough conversations with people who didn't understand what we were trying to accomplish.

Anthony Codispoti (07:38)

I imagine that overall revenues probably took a dip through this process. Okay.

Kevin Gudejko (07:42)

A dip would be kind.

it would be very kind. ⁓ know, we survived. But no, it was I think we probably dropped at least 30 percent in sales to try and make it happen. Wasn't fun. We did. Yeah. Exactly. That was the only other option was shutting it down and moving on. So that was an expansion market for the company and something we had to figure out.

Anthony Codispoti (07:56)

Well, you do what you got to do, right? mean, that was this was the law. If you wanted to keep your doors open, this is what you had to do.

Kevin Gudejko (08:10)

I think we were the second Benningens in that state. In those days, was, when I say the heyday, when I started with Benningens, we were opening somewhere at night. had about 40 restaurants a year. So you were, and that started my trends, my travel times, where I think I kept moving every year, a little different than it is now. It was kind of like you've been there 14 or 15 months and you said, you know, you're going to be in Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday. So pack your bags and get going. A little bit different today.

Anthony Codispoti (08:21)

Wow, that's quite a clip.

It's almost like being in the military, having to change bases every year or two.

Kevin Gudejko (08:42)

Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

But it was a great training ground. They had a great training program and taught me a tremendous amount about, you know, the financial side of the business and just how to run it and inventories and cost and making things work.

Anthony Codispoti (08:59)

⁓

I want to hear a little bit more about what Jim Pollard was teaching you. You know, this idea that being in the restaurant business is as much about coaching and developing your employees as it is about making sure that the numbers line up.

Kevin Gudejko (09:04)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, Jim was instrumental in that and we still keep in touch. We haven't worked together probably in 25 years, but we still keep in touch. He really showed me that I think when you're young, you really think that it's all about you and you can muscle your way through a lot of situations. And he was instrumental in just...

you know, coaching and teaching me personally to say, you know, can't do this that way. You've got to have a great team around you. You've got to develop people and you have to have a bench. You know, one of the things I really am happy that Jim taught me early on was just that, you know, things might be going well today and the team looks great, but you need to have opportunity for those people. You're going to have to move some people on because it's good for them.

May not be the easiest thing for you, but you need to build that bench and constantly be looking for new people to help coach and teach and develop and move up the ladder.

And it was very helpful to me, certainly in my career as a conter. One of the real keys that Jim helped me with.

Anthony Codispoti (10:27)

So from Bennegan's, you moved to Houston's, not the city, the company, now called Hillstone, which is a brand that's known for its obsessive standards. And so what we referenced in the intro, you open a restaurant for the founder in Manhattan Beach. He delayed the opening by two weeks over booth cushion colors that he didn't like. And a two week delay in the restaurant,

Kevin Gudejko (10:31)

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yep. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (10:53)

business costs a lot of lost revenue. So it's no small thing. What was your impression of that at the time? Did you think it was excessive? And in what ways did that experience shape your own approach to hospitality standards as an office?

Kevin Gudejko (10:55)

You ⁓

Yeah, you know, even for that concept, was it was not expected. I knew, as you mentioned, Houston's and Hillsdale just fanatical about the details of running a restaurant and building a restaurant for sure. There was nothing that was too small to not take your time, energy, effort, make sure it was actually.

Perfect. ⁓ So we had been known for decades at that point about our booth color, which was ⁓ Mercedes ⁓ red. And in this case, I guess the designer convinced George that brown might be the better option for this restaurant. The colors were a little bit lighter, a little more California-esque than some of the older ones were. And he hadn't seen it ⁓ until he walked in and... ⁓

experienced it in person. So ⁓ I think it just, you know, when that detail and you're willing to spend the kind of money that we had to spend to do that makes the other stuff easier in people's minds. So, you know, having a clean, spotless piece of glassware or, you know,

greeting the guests as you would at home or walking them to the restroom or making sure the restrooms are spotless. I think when you have that kind of a standard, you're willing to go to that length to get exactly what your vision is. I think it makes things easier in some cases. And I think so, yeah. mean, people understand that if...

Anthony Codispoti (12:38)

makes it easier.

Kevin Gudejko (12:44)

we were willing to delay and we paid everybody, which was extraordinary because we didn't want to lose anybody. So it wasn't just the cost of not operating for two weeks. It was the cost of paying people for two weeks because we had gotten to a point where we hired them and trained them and they left other jobs. I ⁓ think when they see that commitment to them and that commitment to the quality that we're trying to establish, then.

know, making sure the food's hot food hot, cold food cold, sparkling clean glassware. Just the total ambiance of the restaurant. I think it becomes easier. People start to see what you're trying to accomplish.

Anthony Codispoti (13:17)

So

do you think, let me start with this question. Do you think it was the right thing to do? Delay the restaurant opening by two weeks so you could get this different color booth cushion.

Kevin Gudejko (13:29)

⁓

I think as an independent owner, ⁓ that decision in George's mind was easy. I think for me to do it in my situation now might be a little bit more challenging to do. But I think...

Anthony Codispoti (13:45)

because you have investors,

you've got other folks with you.

Kevin Gudejko (13:48)

If

I went to my board of directors and say we're not going to open this restaurant for two weeks because I didn't like the color of the booths, think that might cause a couple of eyebrows to be raised. again, I think there was such passion not only from him but in that company that this is the vision and this is where we're trying to go. And if it doesn't align, then we're going to make it work no matter the cost. There's some legendary things that he did that...

He was certainly a pioneer for sure. And still is, he's still out there somewhere.

Anthony Codispoti (14:22)

So would it be safe to say that sales in that restaurant were not altered by the color of the booth, but maybe the bigger impact was sending the message to the team, to the staff, that this is how we operate, to very tight standards.

Kevin Gudejko (14:42)

Yeah, absolutely. I don't think there would have been a guest. There may have been a few because we were so well known for the other boots, but it wasn't going to impact the sales. wasn't really going to impact that. I think it was, again, that absolutely this is what we're about. This is how we're going to do it. That's how important it is to us.

Anthony Codispoti (15:02)

And you said the gentleman that you were working with was really a pioneer and continues to be. Can you give some examples of ways in which he's been a pioneer in the space?

Kevin Gudejko (15:06)

Mm-hmm.

Well, I think, you know, if you look at, it's always amazing and unusual if you look at Hillstone, really tight menu, extraordinarily high quality, both on the service aspect of it, the quality of the restaurants and the quality of the food. So I think when I say a pioneer in that way, going the lengths that he would go to develop a restaurant.

But I think just again, that focus on knowing exactly where you want to be. And if it didn't fit with your vision, you're going to move on. Whether that was a restaurant that may have been open for 20 years and the market had changed or, you know, we used to have a term that he said, you got to dance with the one you brought. So that was important that we stayed focused on that goal and mission.

Anthony Codispoti (16:04)

So you left Hillstone at some point and you joined Hops Grill and Brewery. This is a microbrewery concept out of Clearwater. Now when you joined, there were only three locations. You helped to build it to 20 locations when it was sold. What allowed for such impressive growth? What were you guys doing so well? And what lessons did you learn about scaling something?

Kevin Gudejko (16:29)

Yeah, well, that I got involved with that because it was the same group of people that had actually for prior worked with ⁓ with Houston's and started this other concept. So although it was ⁓ microbrewery against it, same kind of.

tight focus on really high quality food, executing on a daily basis and high standards on the service aspect of it. Certainly far more casual than the Houston's was without a doubt. We grew that and we actually grew to 200 restaurants before it was sold to Apple South. 200, yeah, right, Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (17:13)

200, I said 20, you grew from three to 200, I lopped off a

zero, wow.

Kevin Gudejko (17:19)

Yeah,

and it was, was a restaurant of the year, one year in restaurant magazines. So each individual restaurant had a microbrewery in it, which was unusual and extraordinarily expensive to do. But I think it was an early adopter to...

They didn't call it joint venture partner, we called it market partner though. So you ⁓ were there to develop a concept, develop a market. ⁓ You were investing your own money as well as your general manager was. So they'd have an ownership stake, ⁓ which I think allowed us to really attract some great people ⁓ that saw this as that opportunity to ⁓ own a piece of the business and grow it.

create something for themselves and their families and others as well. So scaling it, again, I think it goes all the way back. I mentioned Jim Paul earlier, impossible to do without great people. And then going as quickly as we did, that was difficult to do. But I think everybody like myself, I would come in and... ⁓

Because of my experience, I knew a couple of different people that I was able to bring on and join my team and open and operate their own restaurants in the central Florida market.

Anthony Codispoti (18:45)

Was this joint venture model new in the restaurant space at the time or had it been around for a while?

Kevin Gudejko (18:52)

It was ⁓ pretty new. I think my first recollection of it was I was still with with Houston's and and Outback had started that program where you had a

a market partner, an individual joint venture. I called them proprietors in the restaurants that were putting up $25,000 and they were getting 10 % of the net income. But that's the first time I'd heard of it. And we had adopted that similar program with ⁓ ops.

Anthony Codispoti (19:27)

What were you learning about this model that worked as well as maybe where some of the rough spots were?

Kevin Gudejko (19:32)

Yeah.

Well, it worked in that ⁓ great incentive to drive your business, to grow the sales ⁓ and to make money. think it was fantastic if you had the right individual. It could be abused because there were certainly times if you didn't take care of your building or take care of your people, you could drive some top end sales. You could make some quick money. But, you know, at the end of the day,

restaurant may not have a long-term life cycle to it or a physical plant wasn't being kept up. So those are certainly challenges, without a doubt, when you didn't get the right person.

Anthony Codispoti (20:12)

So after Hops, you became a joint venture partner with Carrabba's Italian Grill, ⁓ Italian casual dining chain. So now you were participating on the other side of this, right? You're putting up your own capital alongside of Outback's parent company to build out a market. Tell us more about that experience and what it was like moving from one side of the table on that arrangement to the other.

Kevin Gudejko (20:20)

Thanks

Yep,

Yeah, I had a little bit experience with it at ops, so it was kind of the second go around of that, but I think.

It even made it more critical and more challenging to attract the right individuals. Because it's not like you were building, and depending on the market, we were originally in Chicago, which is where we were hoped to really grow the restaurant company and do a bunch of restaurants. Real estate became a much more difficult proposition there. So although I moved to Chicago, we ended up, think, at the time that I left after six years with one restaurant there. So we had restaurants in Wisconsin,

Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. So it became even more critical to get ⁓ people that I might be five hours away from somewhere, from a restaurant to know that it was operating it correctly and running well. I put a lot of miles in a car. I a lot of windshield time. My son used to joke and he would try and translate my work week into hours of windshield time.

which was never a good thing, but. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (21:45)

So common

sense would tell me that having this joint venture model would mean less travel time, right? You've got somebody local, the GM there in the restaurant who's more motivated to do things in the right way. But.

Kevin Gudejko (21:59)

Yeah.

Well, when you have 10 restaurants, I would tell people, if somebody said, gee, I haven't seen you in a while, I'd say, well, that's a good thing. If you're seeing me often or if I'm spending a week with you, then you're to know we have some challenges here. So it wasn't that I was getting around to all 10 on a weekly basis. It was more focused.

execution and looking at specific individual restaurants. along with that, you were it. mean, you know, Blooming Brands did have a support system behind you, certainly on the accounting side and human resources and legal. But, you you were out there searching sites because you had to grow your business. So it was up to you to find new markets, new restaurants, new sites and help on that part of it,

Anthony Codispoti (22:53)

Would it be true to say that once you've got the market built out in this joint venture model, that your workload greatly decreases? Once you've got the right folks there, you've got the locations up and running, kind of take a step back and you've got some breathing space?

Kevin Gudejko (23:12)

You do, especially on the ones that have been around a while, but that model was designed that you were actually transitioning out. So once you built a market, blooming brands would buy it back from you. So eventually you were going to be moving into ⁓ transitioning out of a market altogether, which is what happened with me. Eventually you've kind of built out the market and it's you get your buyout pay off and it's time to move on.

Take another.

Anthony Codispoti (23:42)

so this isn't a long-term

hold for you as the joint venture partner.

Kevin Gudejko (23:45)

It could be depending on it, depending on the market and how you wanted to work.

But yeah, that was always kind of designed that way. You could go on to other markets if you'd like. And in my case, I probably could have stayed longer. had four states to try and develop. But ⁓ this other opportunity came up, which really intrigued me at the time.

Anthony Codispoti (24:08)

Tell us about the other opportunity and why you decided to sell.

Kevin Gudejko (24:11)

Yeah, well, it actually by I was introduced by a friend ⁓ to Mike Gibbons, who was was the CEO at the time of this company, which is Main Street Ventures. It's now Main Street Ventures Restaurant Group. But. ⁓

He at the time was becoming the Vice Chairman of the National Investment Association and onto chairman and they were going through a transition. So he knew he'd be for the next three years or so would be tied up doing a bunch of other things. So he was looking for somebody to come in as a director of operations and a partner.

to run the company at that time. Based here in Ann Arbor, predominantly a Michigan based company. ⁓ At that time we had restaurants in Michigan, Ohio and two in Florida. We had two in West Virginia as well at the time. So ⁓ Mike knew my background and we kind of hit it off and I came in to do the day to day operations back in 2007.

Anthony Codispoti (25:15)

So tell me what Main Street Restaurant Group was back, or Main Street Ventures back then, as it was known. What was it like at the time when you came in? How many locations? What were the different concepts?

Kevin Gudejko (25:21)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, at the time we had, as again, I came in as a partner there, so we had three other partners, there's an executive chef, Simon Pasucius, Dennis Saris, who was the original founder of the first real seafood company in 1975. And then Mike Gibbons, Mike and Dennis got together in 81 and started the company. So we were predominantly, again, based in Michigan.

We had the fine dining side of it. I think that we had adapted the service aspects of what had made a lot of us ⁓ successful ⁓ and really focused again on high quality. was a real seafood base more than anything else at that time. A real seafood company was a...

large part of it. We had some different Italian restaurants as we do now, similar in style, ⁓ different concept name. None of the restaurants look the same. We tend to use different designers for almost every one that we do. I think you hopefully get a feel when you come in that you know it's one of our restaurants by the way it operates and maybe a few other things, but they should all look different in the individual way they're designed.

And that group was a little bit different than it is now. Mike in particular really just liked to design restaurants and really had fun with the menus as did Chef Simon. So we had some smaller restaurants and some experimentation. We at one time challenged ourselves to open a restaurant in Toledo called Revolution Grill. We wanted to do it for under ⁓ $700,000.

converted to another restaurant. was small, but it was fun. we called it Revolution Grill because it was just that we wanted to try things that we wouldn't normally do in one of our other 16 restaurants. ⁓ Early on, Adoptr to ⁓ the POS technology ⁓ used, I think at the time it was called Lavu, ⁓ which was a tablet-based, internet-based system. ⁓ We used to serve ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (27:24)

Give me an example.

Kevin Gudejko (27:42)

And not that it's just not done often in this country, we would do only we would do wine by the glass, but we would give you the bottle and that would be an honor system. I think that was started somewhere else, but something that we adapted as well. It was in the early days of adopting the I menu tech technology, the tablet menus as well there. So we kind of try to throw anything we could think at out there and give it a shot and see if it worked. I think it was more.

Anthony Codispoti (28:10)

You guys are very

tech forward.

Kevin Gudejko (28:13)

⁓ We are and we try to be. think ⁓ it's hard not to be right now. You need to be trying to get ahead of the curve. I can't say that. You're riding the wave for sure. Every day I think somebody walks in my office, tried to done something new with AI and said, here you need to look at this and get overwhelmed by it at times for sure.

Anthony Codispoti (28:35)

Are there ways in which you're adopting AI presently that you're currently excited about?

Kevin Gudejko (28:41)

Yeah, we're using it on a couple of different ways. We're using it on the accounting side. I think I've mentioned to you that we outsource. I think we do a great job of understanding the restaurant industry when it comes to operating a restaurant, when it comes down to the food service, the decor, the ambiance and the kind of creating memorable experiences for people. I don't profess to be a CPA nor an attorney nor a

anything along those lines. So we try and outsource as much of that as we can. I do have, you know, we have a fractional CFO, we have a comptroller and a bookkeeper. They've really started to embrace it quite a bit when it comes to producing reports that we used to do by hand. Still hard to get away from sometimes. I look at pen and paper, pencil and paper, longing for that at times, but

They've embraced it. The other part that we've embraced it is it's been really helpful. As you can imagine, we're 20 restaurants. How many reviews we get in on a daily basis. ⁓ And looking at those trends has been really helpful using AI to...

to look at a concept, that be seafood or look at an individual restaurant. Sometimes it's not a surprise. I think that if you've been in the business a while, you might know that if sales aren't where they are, there's probably a leadership issue. But it's interesting to look and delve into it a little bit more and get some of that feedback. It's consolidated pretty quickly.

Anthony Codispoti (30:16)

So Kevin, I want to better understand this outsourcing model that you're using. It applies to the accounting side of the business. I believe that you outsource most of your marketing and your general managers are actually building their own P &L every single week down to net income. Talk to me about this structure, how you came up with it and why you think it works for you.

Kevin Gudejko (30:27)

Thank

Yeah. Yeah.

Prior to doing this, ⁓ we did have an outside accounting firm and they would do that for us. And it was extraordinarily frustrating to me that I didn't have ⁓ information quickly enough to react to it. So I would get a monthly P &L and it would be 10 to 15 days after the end of the period. ⁓

And I think we all know that in any business, especially in this one, it's fast moving as is, doesn't help me to look back two weeks or three weeks or four weeks ago to what's going on right now. When we switch to this model, which is ⁓ RSI out of Denver, ⁓ we get a weekly ⁓ P &L.

So they're doing an inventory every Tuesday night, Wednesday morning. By Wednesday at five, Thursday at eight in the morning or something, I've got a complete set of P &Ls and IEDs for whole company. So I can tell you exactly what our food cost is right down to what the net income was and what the even it was pretty much 36 to 48 hours after the end of the week.

Anthony Codispoti (31:46)

And that's more efficient for you than having somebody in-house do this.

Kevin Gudejko (31:50)

It is, I think it's critical that ⁓ I think our GMs understand their operations much more. You gotta be careful, because there are others that get too involved in it. I want them to be out on the floor and not doing that. But I think if you ask any of our chefs, they'll know exactly what they're paying for. Whether it's tenderloin or a box of tomatoes or what...

cooking oil costs right now because they're seeing that, they're importing that, they're looking at it ⁓ on a daily, weekly basis. It also helps us, they've struggled a little bit, but we're getting close on theoretical food costs as well through that program, which will be updated on a weekly basis as well.

Anthony Codispoti (32:37)

Explain that you're getting close on theoretical food costs.

Kevin Gudejko (32:40)

Yeah, they've had some challenges adopting it because again, we have so many different concepts. Even the Italian restaurants have different menus. if we were 21 steak houses or 21 real seafoods, had the same menu, buying from the same vendors, things would be much easier to do. So it's been a little bit more challenging along those lines.

Anthony Codispoti (33:02)

So you run

21 locations across 11 concepts. Is there a thought to try to standardize the menu and the customer experience a bit more, be a little bit easier to manage, maybe some efficiencies to be found there?

Kevin Gudejko (33:10)

⁓

Well, I think we have to some degree, but moving forward in individual markets, that may be an easier thing to do. It's challenging because it hasn't been our, just hadn't been the way we've operated. So even when we talk about it and say we've got a polio in Ann Arbor, one in Grand Rapids, ⁓ we want them to be similar, but we just tend to.

We tend to deviate a bit. But I think it also helps us though, because it's interesting to see that even if have the same menu, things don't sell the same in each of the markets for us. It's just individual tastes, whether it's location, demographics, whatever the case is, things are different by market. ⁓

People will say, can't believe you took off ⁓ whatever, we didn't take off pay, but somebody said we took it off. I said, don't take off things that don't sell. If we were selling five to 10 a day or 50 a week, it would be on the menu. But it works somewhere, it doesn't work somewhere else.

Anthony Codispoti (34:23)

Got it.

Okay, that makes sense. You got to you got to go with what's selling. And it's but it's interesting to me that, you know, what sells in Ann Arbor, you know, just from to Grand Rapids, you would think it's roughly the same part of this, not only the country, but the same part of the state. And

Kevin Gudejko (34:37)

Yeah.

If you could figure that out for me, I'm all in. don't, it shocks me all the time as well. And I don't know. ⁓ I don't know. I mean, it's, I'm not going to say it's wildly different, but it certainly has a different, it absolutely is.

Anthony Codispoti (34:42)

Ha

Yeah. Yeah.

It occurs to me, it seems like your ⁓ management structure is relatively flat. mean, a group this size, you would typically see, you know, layers of district managers, maybe regional VPs. But you don't have any of that. It's sort of like a very small back office. And then it's the GMs.

Kevin Gudejko (35:10)

Yeah.

It is. is. You know, we did that. It was a conscious decision and I was with the company at the time, but but right before the financial crisis in 2008, where we did have those layers, we had, you know, we had at that time, I we had five district managers that were not in restaurants. They were supervising different parts of we did it by concept at the time. And then we switched to markets and.

We kind of got a heads up a little bit on what was coming down the pike in 2008. And we got together as a group and said, I think the next year to 18 months is gonna be pretty challenging for the industry. What can we do different? And one of those decisions was everybody's back in the restaurant. We eliminated district managers, said, you're running ⁓ the real seafood company in Arbor.

You're going to get an extra manager so you have time to supervise those other two or three restaurants that you have. But we eliminated that level of supervision. So other than myself, I've got Jeff Reidinger, who's been with me for 25 years. He's one of the guys that I hired way back in Carrabba's in the early days as a director of operations.

And then our district managers are responsible for one specific restaurant and then typically somewhere about two or three others in a market. We do it by market now.

Anthony Codispoti (36:44)

Do you see staying with this model or maybe is there a hope that things stabilize and you can go back to a little bit of extra infrastructure?

Kevin Gudejko (36:50)

Yeah.

Well, now that we've stuck with it almost a decade. ⁓

We're probably not gonna go away from it completely. But I will say we've expanded. One of the things we started doing is, I don't think we obviously ourselves franchising, but we do management contracts now predominantly for our own concepts. So we do have some outside investors that own like the real seafood in Grand Rapids or the Chopas in Toledo or our two Madison locations are owned by outside investors that we have management contracts with.

Anthony Codispoti (36:58)

It's working.

Kevin Gudejko (37:26)

see that we'll probably have someone that's specifically in charge of those restaurants. ⁓ They take a lot more ⁓ attention on the reporting side.

Anthony Codispoti (37:37)

You've got folks

that you need to let know what's going on and communicate to them. Yeah. So paint a picture for us today, Kevin. Tell us what Main Street Ventures Restaurant Group is. What does it own? What does it operate? And what do you think really makes your restaurants different from the other things out

Kevin Gudejko (37:40)

Right. Yeah.

Yeah, well, as you mentioned, we operate 21 restaurants. 16 of those are owned by us and the others are managed by us. Predominantly, know, Midwest based companies are here in Ann Arbor and that's been our focus for quite a while. I don't see that changing dramatically as we move forward. As I mentioned, I think that although our restaurants...

run the same way and have the same standard procedures, they all look different. I think we're known for that part of it. But I think we're also known if you walk into our restaurants and the service style is going to alert yourself to what we have going on and how we operate as a business, as a company. We just try and expand. I look at and I think. ⁓

Dining isn't what it was, certainly when I grew up, when it was a special occasion and wasn't that often and it was a meal. It's supplanted a lot of things, it's entertainment now. And then we need to look at it that way. So whatever we can do to enhance that experience, and it's not always giving something away, but our motto is we provide memorable experiences in distinctive and creative restaurants.

Anthony Codispoti (39:13)

So what does that mean for it to be more of an entertainment experience? Can you give us an example?

Kevin Gudejko (39:19)

Well, ⁓ I think that ⁓ it can be ⁓ what shows up as a drink, whether that's a smoked cocktail or a food item that's a little bit different than you would typically see. But I think it is more about ⁓

the ambiance and the interaction with the guests that we're seeing and trying to make that special for them. It's the right hello, the goodbye, knowing who the people are.

you know, if it's a birthday card or if it's flowers or it's again, not always something that you're giving, but it's recognizing people for who they are and that they're supporting you on an ongoing basis. And I think a lot of that just, you know, again, I learned from my early days in the Houston days, it's lot of the details. People aren't gonna realize and understand all the things that we do.

but they hopefully are gonna walk out knowing that that was a great experience. The food was good, the experience was good. I love the server. Can you tell me the details? Maybe not, but I just, know I felt good when I went. It was a good choice. Solidified my decision to go to that restaurant.

Anthony Codispoti (40:33)

What are some of the subtleties? Give us one or two examples of what you coach your team to do that the guest is maybe not consciously noticing, but just contributes to that overall positive experience.

Kevin Gudejko (40:41)

Yeah.

You

know, I've mentioned service a few times, you know, we do use and that this one does get noticed and certainly the Chop House we do use synchronized service. So if you've got 10 people disabled, they're getting their meals placed in front of them at the same time. By 10 individual servers. So that synchronized services is kind of a bit of a flare that goes into that. But, know, You know, I think that the things that.

You know, we mentioned the tablet menus along those lines. Some of it's just wording. We certainly have our definition of things that we don't say. You know, the servers, hopefully, and they've got this as they don't say, are you done working on that? When you're finished with your meal, you know, it's not a chore. mean, you know, so I have those.

Anthony Codispoti (41:39)

It's subtle,

but the words matter, right?

Kevin Gudejko (41:41)

They do, they do.

And I think it's critical. I words are very important. know, guests, we walk guests to the restroom as far as instead of just saying, you know, it's down the hallway here to the left or something, we get them going in that direction. ⁓ And then I think the understanding and explaining the details of what we do. ⁓

on the introduction from the server. Talking about the Foley fish out of Boston we've used since 1975 and who trains our chefs and we send them there to do that. Or where are getting meat from, where are we getting our produce from, who the chef is, what their experience is. A lot of it's just, as you just mentioned, it's words, but words are critical.

Anthony Codispoti (42:33)

So Kevin in 2019 you completed a buyout of Main Street Ventures and you assembled a group of roughly 22 investors including some people inside the company who wanted a piece. What worked really well for you in this new setup and what were some of the growing pains that you've experienced?

Kevin Gudejko (42:52)

Yeah, I think I was very fortunate that because we've had such a long history and some great regular guests that of that 22 people, I think there was only one individual that came in from a friend of a friend that hadn't experienced our restaurant, knew our restaurants from dining in them and thought that was important to be part of what we were doing. So it wasn't easy to raise that money, but it was ⁓

It was going back on it, I think, if I would have focused more on that group. think when we looked at it, we were looking at people outside the market and other places. It turned out that, you know.

you're loyal, gastro loyal. And a lot of them wanted to be part of what we were doing. So that was part of it. The biggest challenge was we did that, we closed on February 5th of 2019. And we all know what happened in mid-March of 2020. So to be able to come out of that.

in good shape. know, it's certainly been a challenge, but we've been able to financially survive and get to a point where we've been able to grow the restaurants again. It's been important and fun. ⁓ A lot of it's education. I've got a board of directors of five individuals. Only one of them has ever had any experience in restaurant industry.

So I tell them all the time that they know far more than they ever wanted to know about the restaurant industry. But they have fun with it. We'll take them in the kitchen and we'll do a beef steak cutting with them and show them what's going on there. We'll take them and bring them in the pasta kitchen and have them make some pasta. So they're learning a lot. But they're savvy individuals, certainly great business people. So they've been really helpful to me on that.

And it's made us sharper when it comes down to reporting. As I mentioned, the ⁓ management companies, those individuals want some more in-depth reporting than we would typically do to anybody. And the group of board of directors has made us sharper at that as well, doing better on projections and ⁓ executing on those.

Anthony Codispoti (45:15)

No. Now, Kevin, you've described present day, here we are in middle of 2026, as the most difficult time that you've ever seen in the restaurant industry. What specifically is making it harder right now than anything you've experienced before, including during the 2008 financial crisis or the pandemic?

Kevin Gudejko (45:17)

.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah,

2008, as I mentioned, was a great learning experience because we did have a little bit of a heads up on what we thought was coming. And we actually came out of that in great shape. We really did. For some reason, I pushed 2020 and the COVID crisis out of my mind at times as far as what fun that was. I look at it right now, though, in my experience. We look at sales.

at labor and we look at commodities as our main, know, those things, you know, above gross profit. In my experience, typically there's at least one, if not two of those that aren't under the kind of pressure that we currently see. know, inflation has been hammering us for years now since COVID on all aspects of that.

were the last line of defense, I can only raise my prices so much. And I'm not a fan of the credit card surcharges or the rest of that, so we try and build that in. But I think that that pressure has been extraordinary. I think the labor pressure is ⁓ along with that. I think that the pressure on tip credit and that.

going away there. Right now I ⁓ pay ten dollars an hour right now for Florida service, ⁓ which was to think of that five or six or seven years ago was extraordinary.

Anthony Codispoti (47:07)

because

they're earning substantial tips on top of that.

Kevin Gudejko (47:10)

They aren't, and surprisingly, they still earn 20 and 25%. There's been a significant switch. It's more challenging, and you need to paint the picture.

get people to believe when it moving. Used to be a server supervisor manager that was just a regular progression for people. We talked about a industry of opportunity. You know, I've got some servers that are in the six figure range and you get into a steakhouse that are working 35 or 40 hours a week without a great deal of responsibility. I try and convince them that that's what it'll be five and 10 years from now as well. But...

So again, I think the commodity side of it, the labor side of it, and the sales side of it as well. I think when you combine what people see at the grocery store with some uncertainty in the economy, uncertainty in the world market, it's put pressure on sales as well. I think we're fortunate that... ⁓

the people that the K shaped economy has kept people rolling on the high end of this, which has been fortunate for us. So we've not seen that, but I think some of the Italians and seafood concepts have felt it more than not.

Anthony Codispoti (48:27)

Sorry, Kevin, did you say K shaped economy? Can you explain that?

Kevin Gudejko (48:30)

Correct, yeah.

It's kind of the haves and have nots. mean, there's more people invested in the stock market than there ever has been. And as we've seen, it seems to be disconnected from reality as far as the economy goes or world events. It reacts very quickly on a tweet. But I think if you're invested in it, you're feeling pretty comfortable.

and you're making money and things are going well. And that the pressure becomes from people that are through the paycheck to paycheck and paying $5 an hour or $5 a gallon for gas. You see what's happening at the grocery store and the middle's been a big challenge that we have to face and figure out for sure.

Anthony Codispoti (49:15)

Now, I know you said just a moment ago that you tried to push COVID out of your mind, try to block that whole dark period of the memory banks. But you've also said that COVID broke a whole generation of workers who were entering the workforce during that period. Say more about that. What do you think that is?

Kevin Gudejko (49:18)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

This has come through with ⁓ conversations with our leadership team and in particular my son, who's a director of beverage for us and a district manager. ⁓ That this industry again, I mentioned a couple of times is opportunity, but I think it's also the ability to just interact with people to go through some tough situations on a daily basis. ⁓

get that experience. And I think that when we shut down for as long as we did, people turned inward. And having people have the ability to come into a restaurant and converse with people and talk to people and ⁓ do the things that we need them to do has been missing.

been missing for a while. I think that group of people that maybe were in junior high school, high school, some of them in college, it went for years without that experience. When I went away to college, I grew up fast. In the first couple of years, I think that was missing for people. It's just not a snap of your fingers and you're back into it again. So I think that has been a challenge for us.

in getting people to do that. I think that there was, again, a time period where some people felt that they didn't have to work as hard as they had and things should automatically come to them and that people would take care of them.

Anthony Codispoti (50:56)

I think what you're, sorry, go ahead, Kevin.

It sounds like there's a couple of things at play here. The latter of what you were just saying, you know, there was a lot of free money flowing, right? There was a lot of unemployment getting paid. I've talked to a bunch of employers that had trouble getting folks to come back to work, you know, as they were able to reopen. And the other thing that I think I hear you saying, Kevin, is that there was this social development aspect that a lot of

Kevin Gudejko (51:22)

Ahem.

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (51:38)

kids and young adults missed out on during these years where they would normally be learning those social skills, junior high, high school, college, learning how to interact with their peers. They're instead withdrawn, they're at home, they're learning in front of a screen because they're not supposed to be around other people and it's hard to make up for that missed time.

Kevin Gudejko (51:59)

Yeah, it is. Again, as I said, you can't just snap your fingers and do it. And I think a lot of those people have what they feel. And it's not me, so I can't say right or wrong. They have a ⁓ robust group of friends. They just happen to be online. And that ⁓ sitting across the table from somebody or standing there kind of conversing with somebody and have an interaction is a learned skill. Along with that, that just work ethic is, you

It's just different when you have to initially start when you first want things to be able to say, I've got to go make this happen for myself. I don't want to be completely doomed and gloom. think that there's, ⁓ we're coming out of that for sure. And I see, that next generation that we're seeing. And I guess because of the challenge that we have in our industry, I don't hire a lot of people that are under 18, but I see a lot of people that want to come out and work and that are willing to, to get excited about coming in and looking for a job.

Anthony Codispoti (52:30)

Yeah.

That's great. I want to talk about the philanthropy that you guys are doing. And I messed up a number earlier where I said you guys built 20 restaurants when it was actually 200. So I want to check my math here. But I have that Main Street Ventures donates more than $2 million a year to local community charities across the different markets. Do I have that number correct?

Kevin Gudejko (53:01)

Hmm?

You

Yeah.

Yeah, I think you're good. ⁓ I don't go back and calculate it because there's nothing we publicize. There's nothing that we work, you know, kind of put out there. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (53:31)

Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to publicize it because that's a really impressive number.

Are you guys, where does the money come from? Are you running fundraisers? Is this straight from company profits? Like, talk me through.

Kevin Gudejko (53:40)

Yeah, no, it's

typically, ⁓ we like to support people. It kind of goes back to the work ethic almost, you know, if they're willing to do what it takes to have an event and to, because it takes a lot of work.

And it goes back to the original said, I can provide you a place. I can provide you a menu. We can figure out the service aspect of it. It's up to you if you want to do an auction. If you want to, you know, you need to get 200 people here and if you charge them, you know, $150 and that's going to be your nut. That's what you're going to be able to make. That's what you need to do. So I'll help on the other end of that.

So some of them are large, some of them aren't. The largest one we do here in Ann Arbor is through the Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund, which we do in June of every year, which is pretty interesting because Charles has become a friend over time.

takes the money that we generate with him and then he supports researchers that are just starting out that haven't got any federal funding yet and have an idea that they want to pursue and he'll fund that until they have some results and then they go on to NIH and get federal funding to do it. You know, I think we've raised over $10 million for him over the course of the decade or so in doing this event.

Anthony Codispoti (55:12)

Are there particular areas of research that he focuses on or?

Kevin Gudejko (55:16)

Most of it's pediatrics. ⁓ know, Charles was, if you're familiar with him or not, but he played here at Michigan, Heisman Trophy winner. Part of what they do here at Michigan is be really engaged with Mott Children's Hospital. So that's kind of where it came from. So yeah, it's mostly pediatric ⁓ things that he really focuses in on. But some of them small. I mean, some of them are, I don't, as I mentioned to you, I'm not a fan of, ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (55:38)

That's tremendous.

Kevin Gudejko (55:45)

somebody dropping me a letter saying I'm having a car wash fundraiser, can you send me some gift cards? So we try and do some other things, but some of them are smaller and might be an individual event in a restaurant. I like every restaurant and every GM to have a passion about a charity. Some of them overtake, the Woodson one overtakes everybody in the town because we do it. We actually close the street.

that second, third Thursday in June. So 600 people, we close our restaurants. They're in the street for cocktails and dancing and appetizers. They go into the restaurants for dinner. They come back afterwards. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (56:24)

That sounds like fun.

The switching gears on you now, Kevin, what's one of the hardest things you've ever had to overcome personally? And what did that teach you?

Kevin Gudejko (56:32)

Yeah.

No.

It's probably one of the reasons I get passionate about the event on Maine and Mott Children's Hospital. So my younger son, Colin, was born in California and had a surgery today. was born in...

At the time, unbeknownst to my wife and I, there was an incident where he stopped breathing during that surgery and ended up ⁓ with autism. So he's on the autism spectrum. ⁓ And ⁓ it has been a big challenge over the course of time. Colin is now 33 and doing great. But I think... ⁓

going through that. Interesting, my wife and I were just talking about this recently for some reason, but it is somewhat like almost a death, know, because you're having a child and you've got great expectations and it's going to be fantastic and all of a sudden you're switching gears and this is reality. think that, you know, people will ask, how do you do it? I don't think there's any way not to do it.

It's just this is, as I said, this is a reality. What's the next step? How is it going to work? What are we going to do to make it work? And I think that's certainly taught us over the course of time a lot, for sure. But he's grown. It was a massive challenge for the last 10 or 12 years of his life. He now...

Works with us, he's a host at a restaurant, which I never thought would have happened. Takes the bus to and from. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (58:20)

Does he live on his own or is he living with mom and dad?

Kevin Gudejko (58:23)

He does not live with us. He actually lives with his brother. So Xander has, I mentioned Xander works with us as well. Xander, Christie and their two daughters live here in town and have an apartment in the basement. Colin lives there. If you'd asked me that 30 years ago, I would have thought you were talking about walking on the moon. Seemed impossible, yeah. But it's worked out well.

Anthony Codispoti (58:42)

didn't seem like a possibility.

any anger or resentment towards what happened that day of surgery.

Kevin Gudejko (58:56)

Yeah, I maybe if I'd known at the time, might have felt differently. No, I can't. Yeah, yeah, just going back after it and looking at medical records years and years later. And, you know, they were doing what they could do. And he had to have surgery that day. He would have died if he hadn't had it. no resentment to it. I think, you know.

Anthony Codispoti (59:03)

you found out months or years later.

Kevin Gudejko (59:23)

Certainly wish for a different outcome, but he's happy and we're happy. It's fun to have him, Uncle Carl, living in the basement with my grandkids. So yeah, that's turned out well.

Anthony Codispoti (59:32)

That's really cool. Any advice

for parents who are maybe going through their own challenging situation with a child?

Kevin Gudejko (59:39)

Yeah,

I think like a lot of things in life, you turn inward and think that it's just you, but there's a community of people which we certainly found over time ⁓ that are going through, if not the same thing, similar things. And I think sharing that experience and networking, finding the things that work. We still do it now, again, Colin is...

Still talk to people that are going through that or maybe somebody that's got a kid going through high school or getting to 18 and the things that have to be taken care of and the trusts that need to be set up and the rest of that. So it's creating a community and networking around it. It's been really helpful.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:22)

finding support outside the four walls of your own home.

Kevin Gudejko (1:00:24)

Yeah,

yeah, it causes a lot of divorces. It does, it's hard, it's hard. So think it's something you need to stay committed to and. ⁓

Understand it's not you, your wife, or your other kids. It's hard on the family, but you get through it. It is what it is. You live it and you move on.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:45)

As you think about the work that you're doing now with Main Street Ventures, ⁓ sorry, Main Street Ventures Restaurant Group, it's a new name now, but yep, new entity, but same great restaurants and great food that people have known for a long time. As you think about the work that you're doing there today, Kevin, what is it that you most want to be remembered for?

Kevin Gudejko (1:00:53)

We had to rename it, yes.

Well, I think it's, I'd be remiss to say that, you know, creating those great restaurants and continuing the legacy that we've had prior to this. For those places that people rely on, we're part of people's lives. Certainly now that we've been around for 50 years. You know, one of our investors was a server at Real Seafood in the 1980s and now his kids have worked for us.

that time period as well. So having that legacy I think is ⁓ important. But that sense of community and being part of the community ⁓ and creating a place that people want to work ⁓ and create a life for themselves, whether that be as a server, as a manager, ⁓ potentially as an investor with a company. I think at some point this will continue to grow.

and have other opportunities for people which I know I've mentioned it probably three if not four times. It's an industry of opportunity and we want to be a company that provides that opportunity for people as well.

Anthony Codispoti (1:02:18)

Just one more question for you today, Kevin, but before I ask it, I want to do three quick things for the audience. First of all, if you want to learn more about what Kevin and his team are doing, their website is a great place to start. Mainstreetventuresinc.com. We'll have it in the show notes, but no reason to wait. Mainstreetventuresinc.com. You go check it out right now. And if you're enjoying the show today, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you're listening.

It also sends a signal that helps others discover our podcast. So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can finally get your restaurant employees access to therapists, doctors, and prescription meds that counterintuitively actually increases your company's net profits. No copays, no deductibles, and net profit increases that change how a business is valued. You want happier employees and a stronger bottom line? Reach out to us today at addbackbenefits.com.

So last question for you, Kevin, a year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be celebrated?

Kevin Gudejko (1:03:22)

Hmm. ⁓

That's a good question. We are currently working on our three to five year plans. ⁓ I ⁓ think that ⁓ just getting us through the next year in a really solid ⁓ financial position and a really solid growth plan is going to be important to us. think that ⁓ without some real strong focus, there's going to be some challenges for people.

as we continue on in this year. Hopefully things settle down around the world and we can get back to just business and take care of business here.

Anthony Codispoti (1:04:09)

We all look forward to that. Kevin Gudako from Main Street Ventures Restaurant Group. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate you being here.

Kevin Gudejko (1:04:11)

Yeah.

Anthony, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Take care.

Anthony Codispoti (1:04:22)

Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.

🔗 Connect with Kevin Gudejko:

Website: mainstreetventuresinc.com