#008: Opening Up a Pizza Restaurant in La Jolla is Easy They Said – Wheat&Water - a podcast by Shawn Walchef

Ted Cochrane (@WheatandWater) of Wheat&Water  Website: http://wheatandwater.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WheatAndWater/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wheatandwater/ Ole Hickory Pits: www.olehickorypits.com/ Weber Grills: www.weber.com/US/en/grills Del Mar BBQ Championship: http://arlie-que.com/event_detail.php?event=10200 Article on Wheat&Water: http://www.lajollabluebook.com/blog/first-look-inside-wheat-and-water-la-jolla/ Bird Rock's Wheat&Water - The New Neighborhood Hangout: https://sandiego.eater.com/2016/12/6/13855404/wheat-water-la-jolla-boulevard-pizza-cocktails-bird-rock#0 Eater San Diego Article: https://sandiego.eater.com/2017/1/26/14404590/happy-hour-wheat-water-bird-rock-coffee-barcon-miho - Ted Cochrane, Owner of Wheat&Water located in La Jolla, San Diego - Fathers Day at Cali Comfort BBQ was the busiest day in history (see below picture from the end of the night) - Ted went to La Jolla High School in San Diego - Worked at El Pescador Fish Market&Restaurant in La Jolla: http://elpescadorfishmarket.com/ - Fern from Fern's BBQ (episode #001) worked on Fathers Day Sunday (see below) -"Work hard and you can live a good life, you can travel the world"  - Expanding too fast, trying to do too many things can ruin a business very easily - Ted wanted to find some good pizza in La Jolla but felt like he never could, so he was inspired to start his own pizza restaurant - Fun Fact: Gray hairs come in faster when you own a business - Ted envisioned Wheat&Water to be Wood-fired, roasted, charred pizza in a rustic setting - So much business turnover in La Jolla because rent prices are so high - Ted's biz partner, Doug Ritz - awesome biz partner - Hardest part about opening up was raising the money for the restaurant, He tried every method in the books - PROVE YOUR CONCEPT when trying to raise money - Pick a small location or find a restaurant that’s not doing well and see if there's any opportunity… - If you make good, quality food, people will come! -"LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION"- a wrong/old theory -"ATTITUDE ATTITUDE ATTITUDE - QUALITY QUALITY"- the new theory  - Beaumonts Eatery in La Jolla: www.beaumontseatery.com/ - Birdrock Coffee Roasters: birdrockcoffee.com/ - Tacos El Gordo: tacoselgordobc.com/ - Getting the restaurant open wasn’t easy for WW, it took 2.5 years to open the restaurant - You will hear the question, “when’s your restaurant going to be open?” all the time from friends and family - Raising money is so difficult, W&W was able to raise $1mil to open up in La Jolla - Wheat& Water has 30 taps, 6 for wines, 1 with cold brew coffee and the rest are beer   - Wheat& Water likes to do beer takeovers - Takeovers with Green Flash, Alpine, Societe, and Mike Hess - Don’t try and do"too much"too fast when just opening up, take time to see what works - Having a good restaurant atmosphere/vibe is very important, just having good food isn't enough these days - W&W is focused on building a lifestyle brand online  - W&W is on UberEats and GrubHub, is that a smart idea? Too much? - Services like GrubHub, etc are the exact inverse of catering - Have systems in place to keep your restaurant profitable - Restaurant business = perishable products / a very hard biz to keep open - RSI systems https://www.rsiweb.com/ - Wheat&Water has great wood-fired pizzas using white oak Double-split wood - California firewood californiafirewoodsd.com/ - New pizza called “La Pizza” chili verde, pork shoulder"MEXICO ON A PIZZA"- Tacos del Yaqui in Rosarito https://www.yelp.com/biz/tacos-el-yaqui-rosarito - W&W newest chef'Chef Cristian Fiol'- has worked at Cucina Urbana&Galaxy Taco - Fun Fact: Valley Farm Market is looking to get into La Jolla for a second location - Live feed available of the farm where VFM gets their meat to show “how the meat was raised” -"Always be ready to educate the consumer on your product"- W&W used Guerilla Marketing in the beginnin...

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