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Economic Outlook for Restaurants

Restaurant Masterminds Podcast

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Restaurant Masterminds Podcast

## Transcript

Alright, here we go. Let's start it off right. Of course, we are back here on the Restaurant Mastermind Podcast. Joining me here today is Ms. Anna Towson. And of course, you know her as the marketing guru coming in from our Mastermind team. Great to see you. Nice to be here. Thanks, Paul. Yeah. And we've got Michael Halen back in the podcast. It's like a once a year appearance from Michael. But we got to, of course, have him back in. From Bloomberg Intelligence, Michael, you're doing a great job. Thanks for coming in today.

Yeah, thanks for having me. Alright, so we've had a chance to chat the last few podcasts. The second to last podcast, you were exactly right on the trends that were brewing for 2025, and that was market slowdown. We saw that. You also came back in and talked on another podcast anticipating that we were going to run out of price room for the industry, meaning you weren't going to be able to take price anymore.

That appears to be the case now. So we are at our end in terms of price taking as an industry. And of course, the pressure is on from the consumers. We're going to be talking about all that. The fork in the road is what I'm going to call this podcast today for the restaurant industry. And it is a very, very serious fork in the road. So let's just get into it. First, I want to start off with you, Anna. Let's get into a little bit of what's going on at the bakery.

Give us some real boots on the ground or boots in the bakery insights. What's happening? Oh my goodness. So it's so much fun, right? I love owning the bakery. We opened our second location last fall as well. So we're doing well. It is a slow season. Everyone likes to diet during January, but I'm really looking forward to February 14th is our next big pop, of course, for Valentine's Day. So that's always a big win. Please visit your local bakeries.

Interestingly, we're dealing with a weather situation in Texas. And I said it earlier, but when Ted Cruz leaves the state, we know it's going to be serious. And so we're expecting a freeze this weekend. And so we're trying to scramble and make sure that all of our guests get their baked goods before the freeze comes in this weekend. Yeah. Well, those are the boots on the ground things. Yeah. That's a bad deal, man. I remember the last crazy freeze you guys had. That was a serious thing. So listen, I don't miss Austin for that very reason is the winters, you know? Yeah.

Everybody thinks the winters are subtle and nice. Most of the time they are. Yeah. They're cold. They freeze. They're cold. It's cold. Michael, let me ask you, we're just going to go right to it. And my question to you, coming from the guy who analyzes the markets more than anyone out there, is the restaurant recession over or are we just changing a shape right now? Are we in for maybe a K-shape recovery? What do you think?

Yeah. I mean, we've had several years of the K-sh...

Economic Outlook for Restaurants

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Economic Outlook for Restaurants

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.