Frjtz, a classic meets contemporary restaurant featuring authentic belgian cuisine, was inspired by owner Santiago Rodriguez’s first trip to Germany where he stumbled across perfectly seasoned belgian fries. Located in San Francisco, Frjtz has become a local favorite best known for its authentic belgain fries, over 20 dipping sauces, Belgian beers, burgers and crepes.
Before Santiago made the switch to CloudKitchens, he struggled managing increasing overhead costs, especially the increase in minimum wage in the state of California. Now Santiago has been able to cut costs and get back to focusing on the food with his very own ghost kitchen. Here’s what Santiago has to say about his CloudKitchens experience and why he recommends partnering with us:
Q: We keep hearing how it’s getting harder to run a restaurant. What does that mean to you?
A: As a restaurant owner, no two days are the same. You want to concentrate on the quality of your food and the happiness of your employees, but that gets obscured by other things: financing, construction, permitting, maintenance, technology issues. These are all alleviated by CloudKitchens.
Q: How has working with CloudKitchens impacted your operating costs?
A: The whole country seems to be moving toward increasing the minimum wage to $15/hr or more. With CloudKitchens, being able to get started with a fraction of the upfront costs of a brick and mortar gave me the opportunity to pay my employees more. Rewarding my employees has dramatically increased retention. This is an advantage that brick and mortar operators don’t have.
Q: How does the technology CloudKitchens offers impact your business?
A: Technology is very important. All of the orders come into one POS, and they are consistent which saves time. I used to deal with all of the different platforms, and now I don’t have to worry about that. This allows me to concentrate on what I love about being a restaurant owner.
Q: How does working with CloudKitchens help you stay ahead of business trends?
A: Data is a beautiful thing. I work closely with the team at CloudKitchens to analyze order data and update our menu accordingly. We were able to quickly develop a new chicken sandwich concept. I have more time to focus on the food and menu options since I don’t have to worry about and spend time on so many operational aspects of the business.
Santiago not only runs his own brand, Frjtz, out of a CloudKitchens facility, he also leverages our existing off-the-shelf brands through our Future Foods team to further expand and grow his business. Now he has more time than ever before to get back to doing what he loves: cooking great food for happy customers.
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