Opening a second restaurant can be a bigger leap than opening the first.
Aaron Lyons learned that firsthand while growing Dish Society.
About eight months after opening his first location, Lyons signed a lease for restaurant No. 2. His son had recently been born, the original restaurant was not yet cash-flow positive, and the company was still developing its systems.
“Looking back, I don’t know what the hell we were doing,” Lyons said.
The risk paid off. Today, Five 12 Restaurant Concepts operates seven locations across Dish Society and Daily Gather in Houston and Austin.
Building Around People
As the company has grown, Lyons has focused on something beyond adding locations.
“I think building really strong teams,” Lyons said when discussing his strengths as an entrepreneur.
That means understanding what customers value, creating an experience that keeps them coming back and building a team capable of delivering it consistently.
Technology plays a role in that experience, too.
Lyons initially described “digital hospitality” as almost an oxymoron because digital interactions can easily become transactional. But he believes technology can create hospitality when it makes life easier for the guest.
He pointed to a parent arriving for curbside pickup with sleeping children in the car. Ordering through an app and having a team member bring the food directly to the vehicle removes a small but meaningful problem.“I think that that is a result of having a digital component,” Lyons said. “That does provide hospitality to that guest in that situation.”
For Lyons, the technology may change how restaurants serve people, but the goal remains the same: understand what the customer needs and build an experience around it.
