Transcripts For CNBC The Profit 20240713

Joe t. i know. If it wasnt for you, wed all be up the [bleep] creek without a paddle. Lemonis i may have to cut my losses. Ive had enough. My name is marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. Were not gonna wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. Were gonna wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. Its not always pretty. Everythings gonna change. Everything. But i do it to save jobs and i do it to make money. This. Lets go to work. Is the profit. I receive thousands of applications from people looking for my help, but none were more persistent than sammy lazoja from standard burger. So, earlier this year, i headed to Staten Island to meet him and his partners. Sammy its a pleasure to meet you. How are you . Lemonis how you doing . My First Impression was not good. Is the restaurant making money . Todd no. Lemonis how much are you losing . Covello 5,000, 6,000 a month. Lemonis their pricing was all over the place. Todd theres no logic on it. Lemonis theres no logic. Thank you. And the restaurant was a mess. Look at the toilet. Its disgusting. The product was underwhelming. Honestly, i would say the burgers are average. But it didnt take long to find out why. You guys have frozen burger . Sammy yes. Lemonis . The four partners didnt know what they were doing. Joe t. keep in mind, none of us have had any restaurant ownership experience at all. Lemonis oh, i dont have to keep it in mind. I picked up on it. And instead of figuring it out. Sammy we had an idea. It [bleep] went to [bleep] lemonis . They fought bitterly. Sammy thats [bleep] that i dont love this place. Joe t. hey thats enough. Fuji, thats enough. Lemonis sammys brother, fuji, the only one with restaurant experience, had been pushed out of the business. Todd weve all had issues with him. Lemonis after tasting the burgers that he made, i quickly decided that if i was gonna be involved in standard burger, so was fuji. Fuji is in charge of the kitchen. So he is now a partner, as well. I made a deal to invest 130,000 for 30 of the business. We got a deal . Were gonna start over. If were gonna set the standard, its gonna be my standard. We upped the quality of our ingredients, simplified the menu, and overhauled the space. [ laughter and applause ] we needed somebody to run the daytoday operations, so joseph stepped up to be the general manager. But i wasnt just fixing up one restaurant in Staten Island, i saw standard burger as a national opportunity. And this place would be the model wed use to sell franchisees on the concept. To the burger boys. All burger boys. Lemonis six months and about a half a Million Dollars later, were just about ready. Today were at time out magazines battle of the burger, and theres about 50 restaurants here competing for one prize best burger in new york city. Joe t. so lets rock this out. Lets show everybody who we are. [ cheering ] [ whistling ] lemonis the Business Plan is to launch standard burger into other markets through a franchise model. And so, when you can get recognition as the best burger in new york, that bodes very well for getting potential franchisees. Come on down try the standard burger joe t. has everybody got a chance to try the texan from standard burger . Lemonis everybody was out there, fired up, promoting it, getting excited. What do you think . Man oh lemonis you see . Its good. Joe t. best burger here. Come in and give it a try. Lemonis come on down joe t. we got a line going. Lemonis standard burger we were going up against some real competitors. I was nervous. But after being there for five hours and talking to thousands of people. Standard burger was the winner of battle of the burger. And im not gonna lie to you, i was pretty fired up. I always enjoy revisiting businesses. But coming back to an awardwinner . Even better. But im not just here to hang out. Were about to have our first meeting with a potential franchisee, and i want to make sure were ready. So far, so good. The place looks as good as it did when i left the last time a few months ago. Hey, guys. Woman morning. Lemonis some of you missed out on it. It was exciting. Woman we know. Lemonis how you doing, sir . Good to see you. Joe t. good, brother. You, too. Lemonis ill give you one initial compliment i walked the parking lot, i dont see a speck of paper anywhere. Joe t. so thats part of our training that we do here. Every employee knows that before they clock in, theyre to walk the property fully. Lemonis it looks fantastic. Joe t. thank you so much for saying so. Lemonis and you can see it when you walk in. It looks fantastic. Joe t. thank you, marcus. Lemonis and you didnt know i was coming, so that makes a big difference. As youre building a business model, one of the things that you have to have in place is fantastic presentation. And for me, theyve gotten an a. Guys, what are all these little chalkboards for . Joe t. uh. Lemonis as a customer, im not happy about that. Fuji thats what im saying. Because i see a lot of people come in and they look at that, they look at that, and we dont simplify it enough for them. Lemonis yeah. Id rather redo the board. Joe t. i was just looking for what it costs. Lemonis no, but cant you just change it to 6 up there . Fuji no, thats a completely different item. Lemonis what is the real difference in the item . Joe t. some toppings. Lemonis one of the things that i wanted to do last time was pare down the menu and simplify it. After spending over 400,000 building a master plan for a business that i want to scale, im now seeing the exact opposite of what i wanted. Okay, can i order, please . Joe t. sure. Welcome to standard burger. How can i help you today . Lemonis ill have a standard burger, please. Actually, you know what . Im gonna save a dollar. Im gonna just get a hamburger. Joe t. hamburger, okay. Lemonis and so whats the size of the patty on that . Joe t. the same three and a half ounces. The bun is the same. Its a 4inch bun. Lemonis okay. Why do i have to pay 1. 00 more for this one . Joe t. cause the hamburger itself has no toppings. Its just meat and bread. The standard burger has lettuce, tomato. Lemonis it has no tomato on it . Can i have a hamburger with lettuce . Joe t. wed offer you the standard burger then, sir. Lemonis so i have to pay 1 for a tomato . Joe t. its not just tomato. Its lettuce and tomato and i think theres some onions on there, also pickle. Sammy but i think we actually lose money like this. Joe t. we lose money like this . Sammy i think so. Joe t. so your suggestion is to leave those burgers or dont leave those burgers . Sammy wipe them out. Joe t. wipe them out . So the highestselling burger in the restaurant, you want to wipe off the menu . Sammy well, its the highest selling cause its the cheapest. Were inventing items on the menu just to make some people happy. Joe t. we didnt invent any items on the menu. And theyve been incorporated now for three months, and this is the first im hearing that nobody likes them. Lemonis the problem is that it wasnt part of our original concept. And so when we depart from it, it could create animosity. Sammy these are the areas where, like, sometimes i feel offended and i dont come to the restaurant, because, like, i walk in and i got joe t. you dont come to the restaurant cause you dont feel like it, sam. Lets not makebelieve. Sammy so i did all this joe t. you did all this . Sammy well, i tried. I put effort in to do all this joe t. you put effort in. Okay, i finished it, though. You start stuff and then i wind up finishing it. Thats how it goes. You dont think so . Sammy no. Joe t. so when you left for your honeymoon without telling anybody what was going on in the middle of all this construction, who finished it . Sammy you did. You joe t. did you tell me what you were doing . Did you tell me where you were . Sammy yeah, i said joe t. did you tell me what stage you were at . Did you tell what vendor was coming . Sammy joe, did the place get built . Joe t. it did, because i slept on the bench. Thats why it got built. Sammy joe, it was my honeymoon. I entrusted you cause youre my friend. Joe t. i know. But youre telling me right now that you feel like i make decisions without you. Sammy you do. Joe t. we didnt even see you, though, sam. Youre welcome to come in this door and join the conversation any time you like. Lemonis listen, ive had enough. We have a franchisee scheduled to come here. Hes expecting to see consistency, and theres chalkboards up here, youve changed the price of things it looks like chaos to me. Why dont we do this . Why dont we take a little kind of cooling off break for a minute . Im gonna go talk to the staff, okay . Joe t. yeah. Lemonis okay. Hows chef fuji doing . Dana i love fuji. Hes great. Hes here every day almost all day. Lemonis working his butt off . Dana he sweats. Its hard. [ laughs ] lemonis how are things different . Dana a lot more organized, more efficient. Lemonis does it always look this clean back here . Dana yeah. Lemonis it really does . No b. S. . Dana no. Lemonis okay. No b. S. Joe, i just did a walk of the kitchen, and its onpoint. No doubt about it. So i want to work in the kitchen with you guys. Man so where was this going . Lemonis i noticed there was some confusion in the kitchen. Things are not running as smoothly as they first appeared. Which burger is this . Man texan toppings with an egg on it. Lemonis did somebody order a texan with an egg . Anybody order it with an egg . Youre still waiting for it . Is this it . Joe t. ill get you a burger in sec. Lemonis you got yours and you didnt get yours. That will be on us, by the way. Joe t. are you working on 41 over there . Man im on 45. Joe t. theres no 41 there . Lemonis were waiting for a burger with an egg. Joe t. i need that firing, okay . Lemonis who ordered this one . Man we had to remake this burger. Lemonis is this a refire . Man yes. Well, we dropped it. Lemonis so this is a no bueno . Not only have they messed up two orders, theyre completely disorganized. We had another issue. Different table, totally the wrong burger. When he went out there, somebody said they didnt order it. Woman that was number eight. That was the one that you wrote down. Man no, it wasnt. Lemonis were not busy. So what happened . Joe t. sticking knives in your friends backs, and you say bull[bleep] to other people, and expect it to go under the rug. Sammy hold up. Joe t. im the rug sweep it under me prescription eyewear can be rebut heres a secret. Glasses dont actually cost that much to make. But surprise especially when you design your own eyewear and then sell it directly to your customers. Like we do. Oh hi, were warby parker. Our glasses start at 95. Including prescription lenses and the best part, you can try 5 pairs for free at warbyparker. Com i dont have to worry about that, do i . Harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line. Crest gum detoxify, voted product of the year. It works below the gum line to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. Gum detoxify, from crest. Lemonis we had another issue. Different table, totally the wrong burger. So what happened . Man youre pulling us out of working our station. Lemonis whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. These orders got placed before i even walked in the door. Man yeah, yeah. Lemonis so dont be putting that on me. Man im sorry. Im sorry. Lemonis how often does that happen . Joe t. not very often. Lemonis so its totally coincidental that all three orders that i pick up are jacked up . Man yes. Lemonis in the Restaurant Business, there are going to be mistakes that happen in the kitchen, but when i see it happen over and over again, im starting to worry about how much this is affecting our food costs. Can we sit down and have a financial discussion . Joe t. sure. Sure. Lemonis i wanted to go over Topline Revenue for the last 90 days. And then i want to dig into food costs. What were we doing prior to that renovation . 50,000 a month . Todd yes. Lemonis okay. And so in the month of june, right out of the gates, 108,000. The gross profit on that 73,000. Todd right. Lemonis and so food costs, as you know, are a function of the cost of the product and what else . Joe t. labor. Lemonis nope. Todd budget . Lemonis nope. Joe t. price sold . Lemonis thats right. The Restaurant Business is really one in the margins and the smallest of numbers. And the most important factor in the Restaurant Business is food costs. Food costs are calculated by taking all of the costs of the actual ingredients and dividing them by the retail price. And at standard burger, that number cant be greater than 30 . So in the month of june, our food costs were 31. 4 . I want to be under 30 . So were a point and a half away. Then, when i come to july, we jump up to 34 . Nothing changed with the cost of the food. You want to know why we went to 34 . Todd because we dropped the price. Lemonis right. With this economy burger that joes come up with, all hes done is lower the retail price. Taking out lettuce and tomato isnt gonna help our food costs. In fact, our food costs have jumped from 31 to 34 , and those three Percentage Points matter. Thats a recipe for disaster. And so we all agree our concept is gonna have a really good burger, but we cant compromise on ingredients. So we can negotiate with the vendor, we can work on food costs, or we can be careful what we do on discount. Those are things we need to do to get the 1. 5 out of june and the 4. 2 out of july. This is a good financial discussion. I feel like were making progress. Im not scared about the numbers. The fact that were breaking even and i know where the opportunity is, is better than losing money. Anytime youre building a concept, you have to invest in the strategy. Im okay breaking even because i feel like im investing for the future, but its a hell of a lot better than losing money like they were before. And then one thing, sammy, when joe says youre not coming around, how many times have you been here in the last 90 days . Sammy probably 30. Lemonis so, once every three days . Sammy yeah. [ laughter ] lemonis what do you think, fuji . You think hes been here once every three days . Fuji not once every three days. Lemonis once every four days . Fuji id give him once a week. Lemonis once a week . Fuji about that. Sammy i had my own reasons why i wasnt coming around. Lemonis what are they . Sammy i was just feeling that, you know, i was being kind of pushed to the side a little bit. Lemonis but youre the largest shareholder. Sammy yeah. Lemonis you shouldnt have to be invited to your business. And so thats on you, right . Or no . Sammy yeah, no. Its on me. Lemonis its not their job to tell you what your role is. Its your job to establish what your role is and say to the guys, guys, heres what i was thinking i could contribute to the group. At this point, i feel like im ready for any question that a potential franchisee may ask, so ive agreed to go see another location that sammys been going on and on about. Sammy hey, marcus. Lemonis do i think we need a second location . No. Look, im focused on franchising, but im always open to new ideas. But i expected there to be a door and, like, a ceiling. What is this . Sammy construction. Lemonis well, what is this . Sammy well, so its a new Shopping Center being built, a movie theaters being built over there, and this is the venue thats available. Lemonis how you doing guys . Marcus. Jack jack hays. Nice to meet you. Lemonis jack, how are you . Jeremy jeremy felt. Jed jed hays. Nice to meet you. Lemonis how are you . Fatherson . Together yes. Lemonis very good. And so, whats the plan here . Maybe you guys could give us a summary and we could walk it . Jed yes. Those buildings there, thats t. J. Maxx. Theyre gonna open in the next few months. Lemonis lets walk the space. Its a construction site. What are they asking a foot . Jed 777. Lemonis thats pretty strong. How many square feet . Jed 3,000. Lemonis so, over 230,000 a year . Divide that by 12, youre talking about 18 grand a month . A good rule of thumb is that a restaurants rent shouldnt exceed more than 8 of its total revenue. With an 18,000 rent factor, the restaurant would have to do at least 225,000 a month in sales. Standards current restaurant does about 100,000 a month in sales. If we were to open up a new location like this one, we would have to more than double our business. How many people live within 1 mile, 5 mile, 10 mile . Sammy i have the demographics for it. Lemonis what is it . Sammy its. Lemonis you brought me here. Sammy yeah. Lemonis so what is it . Sammy its. I cant remember. Joe t. i think its gonna be more of shopping traffic than it is gonna be lunch business crowd. Lemonis shopping for what . Joe t. shopping for t. J. Maxx. Lemonis t. J. Maxx what is that customer . Jack discount. Lemonis discount. They gonna come here and spend 20 bucks . Joe t. right. Jed they do. Lemonis now i want to be clear with you guys. Im not saying this is a bad idea. Joe t. after this conversation, i dont think its a good idea, though. Lemonis well, but we dont have the data to say whether its good or bad. This space, with the variables that weve talked about, scares me. Let me talk to these guys for just a minute. Jed okay. Lemonis the problem that im having with these guys is they basically just pull [bleep] out of the air. Well just go to a location and we hope the rents gonna work out. Youre not gonna do that with my money. Were in the business of building a box, marketing it, polishing it, perfecting it, and then having somebody say, ill take one. Ill take one. Thats what a franchise is. We are not in the business of leasing space and building [bleep] out. Joe t. and if it happens the way it happened the first time, im gonna be sleeping on the bench over there, too. Sammy come on, lets be honest. I did everything that i was possible able to. I was leaving on my honeymoon. Joe t. you can say honeymoon. I dont care if you went to japan, you shouldve told me before you left what im doing. Sammy i left you with directions and what was happening. Joe t. me . Me . Sammy yeah, i said, hey, joe. This is whats happening. Can you just keep an eye on it . Joe t. holy cow, bro. Sammy and you can ask all the contractors you can. I dealt with every single thing. Joe t. im the one who scheduled the dates, im the one who scheduled the lead times i did all that stuff. I held the bag. Sammy are you kidding me . I killed myself. Im telling you i worked on Everything Possible. Joe t. i hear chinese and bull[bleep] right now. Thats what i hear. Joe t. i apologize if your daughter and i may have had some relationship with each other that didnt work out. We didnt have an affair. It wasnt like that. Joe oh, no. You had an affair. Sammy im telling you, i worked on Everything Possible to build out that space. Joe t. i hear chinese and bull[bleep] right now. Thats what i hear. Sammy chinese and bull[bleep] joe t. do not attack my integrity or my work ethic or my [bleep] job status, dude. If it was up to you, we would still be closed. Sammy the fact that you honestly think that i abandoned you and i left for my honeymoon and i left you tasking to open the restaurant. Joe t. forget the honeymoon part. Its before you went on your honeymoon. You were one foot in, one foot out. Sammy i laid out all the kitchen equipment, i helped designed the new line, i helped design the entire space. Joe t. i know. If it wasnt for, wed all be up the [bleep] creek without a paddle. Thanks, sam. Lemonis over the six months that ive worked with joe, ive noticed that, on several occasions, hes got a very short fuse. Joe. Joe t. yep . Lemonis come here, bud. If joe cant have a conversation with somebody without erupting, hes never gonna grow professionally. I told you when i came back for the opening that i was super proud of what you did. Joe t. thank you. Lemonis . And that i felt like you did all the work. I dont think you ever felt like i didnt give you that credit. Joe t. no, of course. Yeah. Lemonis okay. Joe t. okay. Lemonis the only thing thats missing is your ability to absorb information from other people. Because i think itll honestly, i think itll help. Itll make people feel like they can approach you. Joe t. but ive never done business with anyone who feels that im unapproachable. I do well with relationships. Lemonis but lets assume that we can work on it. Joe t. but, yeah, as long as you dont stick your foot out to trip me, well keep moving, but dont try to trip me up. Lemonis but he may even do that. Joe t. then were gonna go to war. Lemonis no, you dont have to go to war. What you have to do is just say, you know what, man . I probably wasnt thinking about it right. Joe t. i will. I promise. Lemonis okay. Ill see you back at the office. Joe t. yeah, ill see you in a few minutes. Lemonis on my way back into the restaurant, sammy grabbed me and told me that he wanted to talk to me. Sammy a lot of bull[bleep] a lot of lies, marcus. Lemonis well, tell me about them. Sammy the whole construction thing, lets put that to the side. The restaurant isnt being ran correctly. For the last 90 days, its been [bleep] bad burgers, bad fries, bad customer service, bad relations. I came in, and literally every customer had a complaint. Every customer. You remember you said to me, if they can do it, then. Lemonis let joe run the business. Sammy right . I stepped back, i walked away, this sammys not coming around no more stems from that. Its not genuine. Lemonis whats not genuine . Sammy joe. Hes not being genuine. Lemonis hes not being honest . Sammy no. Hes bull[bleep] hes bull[bleep] about stuff. Lemonis all right, well, why dont we let the dust settle a little bit . Sammy okay. Lemonis all right . Sammy got it. Lemonis the blowup between sammy and joe gives me real concern. I know we have a management problem, but i need to put that off to the side and get focused, because we have a meeting with the first potential franchisee. How are you, john . John good. How are you . Lemonis good to see you. Im marcus. Im blown away by the interest that we already have with the concept, but closing a deal here today will give us real momentum. Weve gotten a lot of applications almost 800 since we kind of launched the concept. And so one of the prerequisites we have is that theres significant restaurant experience. Do you have it . John sure. My wifes family has been in the Restaurant Catering business for almost 50 years. I have a background in design and construction. Lemonis well, clearly your background is qualified. Why dont we take a look at the menu board . John youve got five burgers. Are there other things than just burgers . I know its standard burger, but. Lemonis is there something specific that youd like to see on the menu that you feel is missing . John i think if you add a kids menu, i think that would be helpful, because ive got three children. If were gonna bring the kids for lunch or dinner, you kind of want to see it on the menu. Lemonis i wouldnt be surprised if other franchisees ask the same question about the kids menu and other nonburger options. This is good feedback and something i should have thought of the first time. John how about your food costs . Lemonis right now were 34 . John thats very high. Lemonis and where would you like to be . John i think in the 30range 28 , 30 . Lemonis so we have some work to do. John a little work to do for sure. Lemonis okay. I can tell that john is pretty close to saying yes. If we can resolve the menu issues and get our food costs down, then i feel like were close to a handshake deal. I think, based on your visit, weve gotten some good feedback, and so i think we have some work to do. And maybe we can schedule to meet in a couple weeks. John okay. Lemonis well see you soon. John okay, take care. Thanks. Lemonis our First Priority now is getting those food costs down. And before we dig into ways to do that, i want to find out what joe was thinking with the 6 burger of his. How much is this . Joe t. that is a standard burger. Thats 6 bucks. Lemonis how much is this . Joe t. 7. Lemonis whats the difference . Joe t. lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, pickles. Lemonis so this. How much does that cost . Joe t. id say another 50 cents. Lemonis that better not cost 50 cents. How did you arrive at that . Joe t. 8 cents for the raw onion. Lemonis i have a hard time believing that a couple pieces of onion cost 8 cents. How much does a whole onion cost . Dana 23. 58 for 25 pounds. Lemonis so thats 94 cents a pound 0. 2 of one ounce. Joe t. of one ounce. My pricing was probably right on the onions, then. Lemonis no. Its a penny. Joe t. okay, were not paying a penny for red onions. Somethings off. Lemonis its math. Okay, what else . Joe t. you got 15 cents for tomato. Lemonis put the tomatoes on there. Dana 0. 8. Lemonis its 10. 7 cents. You guys got to get your food costs a little more detailed. I think it would help. Now i know why joe cut the cost of the burger by 1 while barely cutting the cost of the food. Thats cause he doesnt know the cost of the ingredients. The general manager has to know these numbers. Sammy thats why our numbers are down. cause were shooting from the hip on the pricing of it. Joe t. nobody shot from the hip. I got direct from marcus to lemonis i didnt tell you to put a 6 chalkboard burger out there. Joe t. when i run the report and the hamburger and the cheeseburger are the two highestselling items in the restaurant. Lemonis theyre the two highestselling because theyre the two lowestpriced. But if you dont have the option, people just order this. We still have to get our food costs down, and i dont want it to be higher than 30 . And im not willing to cut the retail price or compromise on quality, so that leaves one option we negotiate with our vendors. So im gonna call pat lafrieda and work on the price of meat our singlebiggest ingredient. [ ringing ] im doing good, my man. You got a quick second . So, im working on the food costs at standard burger, and im struggling to make it work on the numbers. What are you charging me for the standard burger per pound today . Pat its 3. 95 a pound for you guys. Lemonis okay. And so im struggling. Ill tell you, im off by like 40 cents. Pat thats a big drop. Lemonis that works for me. That works for me. And i appreciate that. Pat you got it, brother. Lemonis thank you so much. Pat all right. Lemonis okay. Look, it may seem crazy to people that we would call up a vendor and renegotiate pricing just because we werent happy with our margins, but it would be crazier not to ask. In the case of pat lafrieda, hes willing to make those concessions because he knows were building a brand for the future and he wants to be a vendor for all of the businesses not just this one. [ laughter ] just by calling and asking, we saved 10 . Why dont we go outside . Joe t. lets do it. Lemonis lets go sit outside. I hadnt had a oneonone conversation with joe since the construction site, and i could tell he was still on edge. So i asked him to step outside. You know, when it comes to sammy, you have a difficult time letting him talk. I know you dont realize it, but. Joe t. no, i realize it. Lemonis you keep cutting him off. Joe t. im trying to cut him off. Lemonis he feels like your bull[bleep] me. Joe t. im bull[bleep] you . Lemonis thats what he feels like. Joe t. on what front . Lemonis i dont know. Let me get him. Hey, sammy sammy yeah . Lemonis come on up. So, i was having a conversation with joe. And i told him that you felt you told me this, so you got to be a man about it that you felt like he was bull[bleep] me a little bit. Sammy a little bit, yeah. Joe t. where . Sammy about how smooth things are running. I think the restaurant still needs a lot of help. Joe t. how would you know . Sammy cause i just spent time here and joe t. when did you spend time here . Be specific what date . Sammy two weeks ago . Joe t. im the guy thats here every day and youre the guy that shows up once a month thats the problem. So if you want to [bleep] stop calling my name and bull[bleep] together, be ready to be a man and stand next to me and say so. Sammy im not calling you a [bleep] im saying theres problems here. Joe t. yeah, theres problems here. Youre the problem here. Sammy im the problem . Joe t. yeah, thats right, cause you stick knives in your friends backs and you say bull[bleep] to other people and expect it to go under the rug. Thats what you expect. Sammy hold up. Joe t. im the rug sweep it under me sammy im not sweeping under your. Joe t. im the rug im the rug sweep it under me. Thats what i thought. Sammy this isnt a conversation. Joe t. no, its not a conversation. You just tried to tarnish my name. Sammy i didnt tarnish your name. Joe t. telling marcus that im bull[bleep] him. Sammy lying doesnt help. Joe t. why not pick up the phone and say, hey, joe sammy cause ive done that and this is the [bleep] reaction i get from you joe t. do me a favor take two weeks, come here, and do my job. Sammy you dont pay me to do that. Joe t. i wont get paid ever again. Start now. I quit. I quit. Start now. Did you raise your hand . Did you say you would do it . You know why . cause youre bull[bleep] thats why sammy im not bull[bleep] im not bull[bleep] joe t. you are bull[bleep] lets see how well you run this place, or if people come here to work for you, or if people love you, or if people love coming here because of you. You want to know something . Nobody likes you. Youre nothing. Youre an ass[bleep] sammy im not an ass[bleep] im not an ass[bleep] lemonis joe, come on. Joe t. marcus, please. This is between him and i. Seriously. Lemonis i know that. Sammy im not an ass [bleep] we have girls that ive just found out that have been working for us for years that just got fired just like that. Thats bull [bleep] what did she do . Joe t. do you run this restaurant . Or do you just want to advocate for pretty girl . Dont make the mistake of saying my name and bull[bleep] again, bro. I gave you a pass just now. Dont do that again. Lemonis joe, let me ask you a question. Whos the girl that you fired . Joe t. the girl i fired . Lemonis who is it . Sammy nikki. Lemonis who is that right there . It all happened so fast. When sammy started confronting joe about the fact that this employee was fired, i see this man in the parking lot leaning against his car, and hes giving all of us this bit of a death stare. Sammy thats nikkis dad. Joe t. holy [bleep] sammy thats gonna be a problem. Lemonis if your business is in trouble and you need my help, log on to. My mom washes the dishes. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. So what does the dishwasher do . Cascade platinum does the work for you, prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. Wow, thats clean cascade platinum. My bladder leak underwear. Orried someone might see so, i switched. To always discreet boutique. Its shapehugging threads smooth out the back. So it fits better than depend. And no one notices. Always discreet. Lemonis joe, let me ask you a question. Whos the girl that you fired . Joe t. the girl i fired . Lemonis who is it . Sammy nikki. Lemonis who is that right there . Sammy thats nikkis dad. Joe t. holy [bleep] sammy thats gonna be a problem. Lemonis how you doing, joe . Is your daughter nikki . Joe yeah. Lemonis this is a sensitive situation, and i need to talk to this guy in private by myself and find out whats really going on here. Well, thats what my partner was just confronting him about. Is he dating your daughter . Lemonis hey, listen, man joe t. im really not comfortable not being part of the conversation. Joe well, im really not comfortable with you seeing my [bleep] daughter, number one, and then firing her today telling her what a [bleep] worker she is. Joe t. first of all, your daughter was under evaluation joe dont come up with corporate crap to me. Joe t. im not coming up with corporate anything. Joe whyd you fire my daughter . cause shes a [bleep] worker . Because shes not on your list . Joe t. hey, hey. Listen joe [bleep] check. [bleep] check. Joe t. first of all, she didnt do her job well. Second of all, her and i didnt get along together. Joe she worked here for three years. You were [bleep] banging her joe t. we didnt get along, so joe you were trying to bang her joe t. okay, you know what . You got a whole lot of stories, bro. And you know what else . You got a daughter thats very confused and in love with me. I cant have her work here anymore. Thats just that. Joe youre a [bleep] jerk [bleep] joe t. hey, just one second. Listen, i apologize if your daughter and i may have had some relationship with each other that didnt work out. Big, big mistake on my part. Joe yeah, thats a little inappropriate. Lemonis when did you terminate her . Joe t. today. Lemonis in person . Joe t. over the telephone. Lemonis you fired her over the telephone . After three years . Joe t. i had to be here for this thing you know what . Lemonis i know, but, joe, you couldve waited. You were having an affair with one of the employees. You cant do that. Joe t. we didnt have an affair. It wasnt like that. Joe oh, no. You had an affair. Joe t. it was crush that she had on me. I was being nice to her. All right, you know what . Did sammy tell you come here . Joe yeah, he paid me 1 million. Joe t. he probably did. Joe get the [bleep] out of here. I dont even know who sammy is. Joe t. he probably did. You know what . Im gonna break his [bleep] head. Lemonis honestly, im gonna be straight with you, im surprised you didnt beat the [bleep] out of him. This is crazy. All i know is we have a problem, and i need to find out whats happening. Nikkis father told me that she was on the way to talk to me. Is this nikki . Joe t. yeah. Lemonis yes . Why dont you take joe inside . Hey, come on over here. Come on over here. Aye yai yai. So, what happened . Nikki i dont know. He called me up while i was at the beach. He told me that im not a good worker. Lemonis which is not the first time you ever heard that . Nikki and, i mean, you can ask all the employees. Lemonis did you guys ever date . Nikki it was on and off. Lemonis but you did a little . Nikki yeah. Lemonis okay. While you were working here . Nikki yeah. Lemonis okay. Joe t. i fired tim the other day. He didnt come here crying with his mom, you know what i mean . I dont get what the hells going on. Lemonis this him to you . Nikki i was just lied to the whole entire time. And he had a girlfriend. Lemonis aye yai yai. I take business very seriously, and i know that people make mistakes. But when youre put in a position of leadership, you have to know the difference between right and wrong. And when you make a decision that puts the business in jeopardy, you have to understand that those decisions have consequences. When i came back and i witnessed what was going on between you and sammy, it was bad. Joe t. it was terrible. Lemonis yeah. Joe t. it wasnt bad. It was terrible. Lemonis in front of customers, in front of employees. Ive never seen anything like that. Joe t. i mean, it was us outside, marcus. No one else was outside. Lemonis no, there was people coming in and out. The problem is, joe, you are in such a dark place. Joe t. i was in a rage. Its just gonna happen with me. Im an intense guy. Do i have strong opinions and am i argumentative about things that i feel strongly about . Absolutely. Lemonis thats not you cant run a business that way. Joe t. i know. Lemonis you lose your [bleep] over nothing. Joe t. i think that if we asked the staff and the people that work with me on a daytoday basis, they would have nothing but and im not just patting myself on the back great things to say about my decisionmaking. Lemonis the fact that you let your personal life come into the business, it puts pressure on the business. Joe t. it does, but i really dont want to discuss it. And i know things that happened here that made it look horrible, but its not that bad. It really isnt that bad. Lemonis the things that happened were really bad. Joe t. [ sighs ] lemonis especially since you were the boss. Joe t. but it to be honest with you and just because i want this on the record it was terminated long before that person was terminated. Lemonis how much time was separated . Joe t. i dont care. Lemonis im curious. Joe t. i have no idea. Lemonis 10 days . Joe t. more than that. Lemonis 100 . Joe t. no. Lemonis 30 . Joe t. more. Lemonis 60 . Joe t. yeah. Lemonis 60 days . Joe t. yeah. Lemonis there was 60days time between you terminating the person and you stopping your communication with her . Which means, joe, that it still happened inside of the window that you and i were partners. This discussion is about you making a decision that put the business in jeopardy. Joe t. i know, thats what youre saying. Lemonis you put your partners in jeopardy, you put me in jeopardy. Why did you fire her . Joe t. she was being evaluated over time, and so was everyone else. Lemonis when i first got there, you never said to me, theres a list of employees. Theyre problem children. Im having to coach them. Joe t. i am not the person whos gonna say, hey, im done with that person. Im going to try to put them through my Training Program and see what i can do to make them better employees. Lemonis did you do that with the young lady . Joe t. as a group . Absolutely. Lemonis im not saying as a group. Were not having this conversation with the other guys. Before you terminate somebody, you should have that oneonone conversation. Joe t. if i trained every Single Person there oneonone every time, i would never be able to train everyone. Lemonis how many people work there . Joe t. right now . I think 14. Lemonis and so when you say that you dont have the time to train everybody oneonone . Joe t. so when there is, for instance, something wrong . Absolutely i sit down with that person and try to figure it out. Lemonis why didnt you that moment . Joe t. theres enough is enough sometimes. Its just the way it is, marcus. I mean, youve never had to let anybody go before . Im sure you understand what im saying. Lemonis i do, and its the worst thing in the world. Joe t. i know. Youre about to do it right now. Lemonis so the franchisee should be here any minute. Just kind of making sure that we have everything in line. I mean, really, this is our shot, right . My mom washes the dishes. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. So what does the dishwasher do . Cascade platinum does the work for you, prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. Wow, thats clean cascade platinum. Lemonis why did you fire her . Joe t. theres enough is enough sometimes. Its just the way it is, marcus. I mean, youve never had to let anybody go before . Im sure you understand what im saying. Lemonis i do, and its the worst thing in the world. Joe t. i know. Youre about to do it right now, arent you . Lemonis i am. Im about to tell you that you cant be in that role. Joe t. i cant even believe youre doing this right now. I mean, if youre gonna crucify me for lemonis joe, please dont be a martyr. Joe t. cause ive done nothing but give you my heart, soul, and blood since the day i got here. Lemonis i agree with that. Joe t. and if thats not enough for you, i dont have anything else. Lemonis you have the ownership in the business, and it got open largely because of you. Joe t. thank you. Lemonis i think youre qualified to do a lot of things. And i think you need to slide back into the role of partner and friend. Joe t. i dont walk away easy. Its tough for me. People invested money into this thing. I feel like its my job to make sure im contributing enough to equal out to that. Lemonis i appreciate that. And to be honest with you, i would look any of them in the face, since ive put the most money in, and i would tell them that you more than earned your equity. Joe t. thank you. Lemonis all right . Joe t. yep. Lemonis are we good . Joe t. yes, we are. Lemonis okay, man. Joe t. thanks, buddy. Lemonis im sorry it had to go this way. Ill see you soon. Joe t. yep. Lemonis theres no gray area here for me. Its black and white. If you mistreat other employees, you cannot work here. And while it was tough to let him go, the business is bigger than all of us, and the business deserves more respect than that. I asked the guys to meet me at a restaurant nearby so i can tell them what joe and i just talked about. Hi, guys. Covello hi, marcus. Lemonis well, you guys know why youre here . Fuji no. Lemonis do you notice whos not here . Sammy joseph. Lemonis joe and i just had a really, i would say, good discussion. What i told him was that i wasnt comfortable with him being the manager anymore. Todd im shocked. Lemonis you are . Why . Todd he put his heart and soul in it. Lemonis yes, he did. But he made a mistake, todd. In this moment, hes able to be a partner, help the business from a distance just like you guys do. Todd he works hard. He puts heart into this place, and thats why im shocked. Covello whats the game plan . Lemonis in order to sell franchises, we have to have one that really works. And so we need to find a general manager who can be objective, who can report to each one of you, and thats it. They just need to run the business that way. Sammy i have two managers that can delegate really well, like, really well. Covello but were in the same spot with sammy there that we were just in with joe. Lemonis but sammys not trying to [bleep] somebody. In the short term, sammys got to pick up the slack here. Its a messy day. But long term, were gonna hire a real general manager whos there on a daytoday basis, who can run the operations with a high level of professionalism. Thanks. Its been a rough time for everybody, but if were gonna close the deal with a potential franchisee, we have to get to work. He suggested that we add some nonburger alternatives to the menu, so im taking the guys to pat lafrieda to look for some options. What we started talking about is how do we come up with something thats memorable . Yes, we have new yorks best burger. Great. Check the box. I think to get people to like the franchise even more, we need something that isnt a burger that would appeal to kids, appeal to families, and get people excited. Mark if someone doesnt want a beef burger, what are they gonna eat . Pat kids like hot dogs. Lemonis you got Something Interesting . Pat we do. Lemonis where can we go to see it . [ laughter ] mark this is amazing. Most people eat that hot dog, they say its the best hot dog they ever ate. Lemonis how many ounces is it . Mark its 14. Lemonis 14 ounces . Just under a pound. Fuji college kids will love it. Lemonis college kids will love it. Sammy theyre gonna write newspaper articles about us. Lemonis what is the priceperpound on Something Like this . Pat 3. 60 a pound. Lemonis with the overall cost of 3. 60 per pound and a 14ounce dog, that comes out to 3. 15 per dog. If we add 50 cents for the bun and 48 cents for toppings, we come out to 4. 13. If we want to keep our margins at 70 , were going to have to sell this jumbo dog at 13. 95. But this is really creating the wow factor. What is the priceperpound on Something Like this . Mark thats 4. 50 a pound, and theres 6 to a pound. Lemonis so, 75 cents for this hot dog if its 4. 50 a pound. You could sell this for 5. 95 . Pat 5. 95. Lemonis okay. Thats great. So i got this one. We can add it because the maths making sense to me. 5 retail. 13. 95 buns and amazing toppings. Pat lafrieda just helped us kill two birds with one stone. The small dog gives us our kids menu item and the larger dog provides a nonburger alternative for our customers. And at less than 30 food costs, both items are right where we want them to be. Now its time to show john, our potential franchisee, and see what he thinks. So, johns on his way. Do you feel like we have a good understanding of everything . Sammy yeah. Lemonis i think things that john wanted was understand that our food costs are down around 30 or below. Weve gotten that done. He wanted to see a variety of menu items, and so weve gotten the dogs solved. Kids menu stuff is solved. Weve got the right price on top. I mean, really, this is our shot, right . Todd right. Lemonis him really coming is kind of making sure that we have everything in line. He should be here any minute. I dont have to worry about that, do i . Harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line. Crest gum detoxify, voted product of the year. It works below the gum line to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. Gum detoxify, from crest. danny 12 hours . 20 dogs . Asy. Wheres your belly rubs . After a day of chasing dogs you shouldnt have to chase down payments. vo send invoices and accept payments to get paid twice as fast. danny its time to get yours vo quickbooks. Backing you. Costs are down to 30 , weve added some items to the menu. I mean, really, this is our shot, right . He should be here any minute. Today we have our critical meeting with john and his business partner, evellyn. We need to show them that weve listened to their feedback and were ready to expand. John, good to see you. Theyre experienced in the industry, and their excitement for the concept is exactly what standard burger needs to launch as a national franchise. Wed really dug into the food costs since we last talked. Were down around 30 . That allows margins to really expand. I know from our last meeting with john that lowering our food costs would definitely sit well with him. But the real question is what would they think of our new menu items . Sammy and something new that we added to the menu is the standard dog. And it literally is the biggest beef hot dog you ever seen before. Lemonis no, no, no. [ laughter ] its an allbeef hot dog 14 ounces. Evellyn wow. Sammy and if we partner this up with one of our direct beers, it looks great, we can advertise it, and it has a great advertisement ring to it. Lemonis what are kind of your thoughts . Youve seen the concept, and i know weve had a lot of discussions. John well, our thought is to grow the concept, specifically in new jersey. We have the restaurant experience, we have the realestate experience, and we feel we can team up and grow. Lemonis you feel comfortable moving forward . Evellyn we do. John you bet, yeah. Evellyn we do. Lemonis we have a deal . Evellyn if my brotherinlaw says we have a deal, were good . John we have a deal. Evellyn im good. Lemonis great. Evellyn i love this. I really like this a lot. Todd welcome to the family. Evellyn thank you. Its a pleasure. Sammy im excited. Lemonis today was a great day for us, because securing a deal with john and evellyn gave us the foundation that we needed to launch standard burger as a national franchise. But theres one more issue we still need to discuss. There he is. Joe t. hey. Lemonis how you doing, my man . Joe t. how we doing . Lemonis you doing all right . Joe t. whats the word . Lemonis good word. Covello hey, joe. Lemonis joe, you mind grabbing that chair . I know that hes very sorry. I asked him to come down because he still is our partner. I want to make sure that you know from me and from everybody that a lot of the good processes are a big credit to you. Joe t. thank you. Lemonis and its a testament to the burger boys. Joe t. i feel kumbaya in the background right now. Everything feels kind of good. Todd you know, joe put his heart and his soul in here. You know hes part of our team. Hes a brother to all of us, and he belongs here. Lemonis back in the game, were back together. [ laughter ] joe t. hey, guys. Is anybody interested in trying our new hot dog that we have on the menu . Lemonis i think in business, sometimes there are tough decisions to make, but you have to make sure that the business is bigger than anyone. And in this case, standard burgers on its way to great success. Lejerry about a week. St time youlemonis lets go e . Tonight on the profit. My god, im already dizzy. A Family Fun Center located on 7 acres in las vegas has become one of the citys most popular destinations. Taylor whoo were the Birthday Party capital of the world. Lemonis this feels like it. After nearly 27 years in this industry, owners jerry and matisun barton are ready to hand over the keys to their son, taylor. Jerry youre doing good, buddy. Lemonis but taylor struggles to fit in, sometimes appearing totally out of control. Taylor we sell fun here, so if youre not smiling, im gonna send you home. Lemonis your attitude, i want to throw it in the trash. Previously, taylor was a nascar driver, but his career came to a screeching halt