The Leap of Faith: Quitting Corporate for a Craigslist Rotisserie Machine

Eric Nathal: I think my path into the hospitality industry was not your traditional one.  So just to give a bit of a background, from Mexico originally. I was born there, and came to the U.S. when I was about 10. Florida was my home for most of my life. I lived in Boca Raton when I was a child in Miami. I did most of my high school, my college, my work life was, you know, based out of Miami for a long time. And then in 2016, I decided to, you know, needed a change and decided to move to Austin. When I moved to Austin, I was working for a Miami based company and was able to convince them to relocate me here. I was doing business development for consumer technology. And, you know, there's a lot more technology, at least in that time in Austin than in Miami. And also it was more central to be traveling to meet clients. So that's how I ended up here in Austin. 

The food journey, you know, I've always liked cooking. I've never been formally trained, but you know, I grew up in a home. Both of my parents are business owners, our business owners. And we always had food on the table, but I never always liked it. You know what it means? So that's how I learned how to cook. You know, my mom is a great mother, but when it comes to cooking, that's not her forte.  So that's how I learned, you know, just out of necessity. And I just didn't like what I was being served. So that's kind of how the journey started. And I think back in 2011, when I was still in Miami, I had a full-time job, you know, and I tried to open up sort of a meal prep business, kind of a customized meals and, you know, but I was doing everything. 

I was cooking, I was delivering while having a full-time job, you know, so I wasn't able to scale. wasn't making enough income to be able to justify quitting my job. So I had about like, you know, 15, 20 loyal clients, but I just couldn't scale and I had to just kind of put that dream aside and continue in my corporate journey, you know. But once we came to Austin, you know my wife is French. So this is how the whole concept kind of started. We were sitting one day, I think it was close to New Year's and we were in a balcony just talking and the rotisserie idea was always in the back of my mind, you know,  and I was telling my wife how in Mexico, I have memories of my father on a Sunday picking up the rotisserie and with the tortillas and the hot sauce and watching a soccer game.

And she's like, well, you know, for her living in Paris, growing up in Paris, she had the same sort of experience, you know, but also in Paris where it comes from traditionally rotisserie, you know, it's a French concept, French word, French technique. So, yeah, same thing for her, you know, going on the way home from school, picking up the chicken, you know, it's kind of like a small luxury. And for me, it was more of the memories, you know, I have those vivid memories and we just started talking about it 

You know, I had that idea and never really pursued it in Florida, but I saw an opening in the market. You know, most rotisserie was Costco or in Florida Publix, here in Texas, HEB or Whole Foods. And, you know, nothing wrong with that. I used to buy them all the time. It'd be like a meal for two days, you know? But there was nobody really dedicated to a specialized traditional French rotisserie. Nobody was really doing it.  And I thought it was a kind of a gap in the market to kind of come in and elevate a product, you know.  And that's how the idea came about. I had a job, my job, as I mentioned, I was VP of business development. It is a nice job, nice salary, great benefits. And, you know, it's a hard decision, but I decided to quit. And I thought, okay, you know, I bought a big rotisserie machine. 

Two months prior, you know, I had that idea already. And I remember we were at a little coffee shop here. We had some friends flying in from Miami. We had a pie, too many margaritas. And I remember seeing on Craigslist this big rotisserie for sale. And I had one friend in Austin and he had a pickup truck. So he let me borrow it. I went with my brother, like three hours away, and picked it up. And it was this monstrous thing. I could hardly fit in the garage. I just kept it there for two months, quit my job and like, okay, I'm gonna start cooking and open up. It wasn't that easy. So many little moving parts. But ultimately we got the recipe going, made a very simple menu and we approached, well, I guess the biggest thing was figuring out where we would fit. We didn't have enough funds to open a food truck or you know, at that point even a brick and mortar.

So we did pop-ups, but we did it in one spot and we thought it would be a great fit. It's a company that's no longer around, but it was called the Infinite Monkey Theorem. And their whole tagline was no vineyards, no pretense. So they were the first company to offer canned wine. And they started in Colorado and that super casual, very relaxed concept. And I approached the owner and was like, hey, listen, would you guys be interested in having somebody kind of like offer food that's very parable with your wines, you know, and he was so cool, such a nice guy. And, you know, he's like, go ahead, man. I would love that. And rent free, the community here was amazing, very inviting. And we did that for about a year and  that's how we started. It was a bit of a process, but  yeah, that's how we got to start here in Austin.

Eric Nathal: 100%. Well, the company I was with,  I went from a big company to a small company. So I guess I was a bigger fish in a smaller pond, you know? And I was heading a brand new division for them, the consumer technology. And, you know, I'm not going to get into it, but the cycle in that world, once January happens, every product is launched pretty much for every consumer tech agency, sorry, company. And after that, we have a lull. In the business, you know, and I guess he didn't understand that I was kind of tired of explaining. So it was kind of a preemptive, you know, quitting for me.  But yeah, it was a huge risk. You know, I was 40 years old in a brand new city, newlywed, you know, and it was a huge risk. And exactly. And not like I had unlimited funds to go up in a business and invest a bunch of money in it. You know, it was quite the opposite. 

But I have to thank my wife for kind of giving me a little extra push. And you know, she's like, we're never going to be homeless. We're always going to be able to make money. You know, we're smart people. Like what's the worst that could happen? But in my mind, the worst is going to happen. I'll try this for a couple of years and you know what? I'll be like maybe 42, 43, maybe 45. And I had to go back into the workforce. You know, that's a scary thought, you know, kind of be considered a dinosaur at that point when some they could hire somebody that's younger and cheaper, you know, so. That was a big, big risk for me. And looking back, you know, it's been eight years now. I'm like, wow, like I can't believe I did it. I can't believe I had the vision, I guess, of my version of myself eight years ago. We were very happy we did it.

Eric Nathal: No, 100%. And, you know, obviously the things that nobody tells you but you expect is, you know, the hours of working hard and, you know, having an achy body and all those things, you know, I kind of consider those obviously. But I think one of the biggest things in the corporate world, if you have a, if something breaks, you usually have systems in place to, you know, go about fixing or correcting the situation.

When you're on your own doing this, you know, I guess nobody told me that how quickly it was going to be not just about the food, you know, it's about systems, creating systems in place. And at the beginning, you are the system, you know, you are fixing all the problems. I think problem solving and being creative, especially at the beginning stages when you're bootstrapped, you know, you have to get your hands dirty and, you know, just always being creative,  solving problems in a way. You know, ultimately, so you can serve your customers when you have limited funds, you don't have a space, you know, we were operating on temporary food permits. You know, when you go to a festival, they have food pop ups. We were doing those permits every two weeks. So, yeah, I mean, it took a lot of hard work, but yes, I think the biggest thing that I was not expecting, I thought it was just going to be cooking and giving my food and, you know, feeding everybody and being happy about that. 

There's a whole other side of it.  Admin, marketing,  HR, you become a bit of everything. But at the beginning, doing everything on your own. The time it took, we didn't travel for about four years. just, you know, holidays, she didn't go to France, I didn't go to Mexico.  We were working pretty much seven days a week.  Exhausted, but very happy. But I think really, to get a new concept off the ground, you need to put in time the blood, tears. I would say those four years were crucial in building relationships, perfecting the menu, and building a proof of concept.

Eric Nathal: 100 % so many times that I'm like what am I doing with my life? know, there's probably better ways to make money I thought a few times, you know when we had the pop-up you have to understand that It was a picnic two picnic tables extension cords coolers  You know everything cooking right or preparing everything right in front of the client, you know We had there were two three behind us. We would have to cover it every day, put everything in and out. So it would take about an hour and half to open and I want to have to close and just long long days and I will look at the sales like $80. I'm like, what am I doing? You know what it means? Is this worth it? You know, and then the first time we sold over 300, we're like, oh my God, look at this, you know? But you know, it's all relative, you know, when I was working my salary and all that, it was very different, but you know, you would be so happy with, you know, we made 400, it's a new record, you know?

That was in those pop-up stages probably like one of the biggest like what am I doing, you know? And the second time was when we opened the brick and mortar, you know, we did the pop-up, the food truck, and then the food hall. And we went from being open five days a week from around 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. to being open every single day from 11 to 9.  At the beginning, we didn't have that much staff, so I was doing every single shift. My wife was helping as well. And I remember three days into it, the first two, three days adrenaline, you know, we're working, we just opened up. And I remember like the third, fourth day I woke up, my body, I could not move. I was sore in places that I'd never been sore before. And I'm like, this in the bed, I'm like, what did I get myself into? I just signed a three year lease. You know? Yeah, that was probably like, right at the beginning I was like, oh my God, how am gonna survive this for three years? What did I get myself into?  But, you know, little by little you figure it out.

Eric Nathal: Yes, for sure. So I think the pop-up for us was definitely a proof of concept. You know, do we have a product that people like, people enjoy? That was, I think, the biggest thing we were looking for, actually we learned. We learned to pivot real quick based on the customer's, you know, wants or practicality, you know, in the pop-up stage we were at the winery and initially we were serving chicken salad and baguette very simple very simple menu but I realized probably the second day people are on dates at the winery you know they're on the first day second they don't want to be eating chicken and with their hands and getting all greasy so I'm like okay let's make a sandwich out of the chicken and the salad arugula and goat cheese and we have baguettes and that was how our first sandwich was born so you know we have to pivot very very quickly

Another thing is names. One of our more popular sandwiches is very simple. It's our baguette, salted butter, ham, and Swiss cheese. It's very popular in France, probably one of the most sold sandwiches in France. And the French name is jambon beurre. It's like, you know, ham and cheese or butter. And we had that name initially and nobody would order it at all. And I think about a month into it I changed the name to the Parisian same description and then people started buying it right now it's our top two selling items on the menu so educating the client and having proof of concept was probably the biggest lessons working on the pop-up face-to-face with the clients on a daily basis and for the food truck

I think there it kind of taught us how to be efficient, how to work in a small space. Definitely, you know, for the food truck, it got very challenging in terms of all the logistics behind a food truck.  know, wastewater, the insurance, the fire department, things that you never think of.  Obviously, a pop-up is a pop-up, super temporary. And a food truck, just kind of teaches you a bit of, I guess somebody like me that didn't know anything in the industry, kind of the ins and outs in a very scalable way. But yeah, I think the food truck teaches you how to be efficient and kind of get true feedback on what the client likes, what they don't like. That was probably one of the takeaways from the food truck, the food truck days.

Brick-and-mortar was a bit crazy for us. We got approached by them probably six months before they reopened after COVID. And you have to understand that we have five concepts in the food hall in total. Every other concept was part of a big restaurant group. Some of them have Michelin stars now and none of them are there anymore, but they were big, big restaurant groups and this was a little side project for them. You know, and they were there for months with the chefs and the cooks learning the line and you know, the flow of  the orders. We didn't have that. We put our sign up, our fridge, the display fridge was empty. had the Coca-Cola products and that's pretty much it. We got there the day of  opening with our chickens because we closed the food truck the day before.  

And I brought my team, you know, or made-up team of friends and people we knew in the business. And we just started like that. And I remember the director of the food hall, he's like, are you sure you're gonna be able to open in time? I'm like, yes, leave me alone. We're gonna open in two hours, no problem. So for me, the food hall was really kind of a slap in the face, being open every single day. But it gave me the time. You know, I had to start delegating.  I couldn't be the only person making the chickens. I couldn't be the only person making the soups or the salads. And it took me a long time to figure that out, not to figure out, to let go of that. You know, because you can't be there all the time and you can't grow if you have to be there all the time. You can have a business that doesn't run if you're not there. It definitely took a long time, but, you know, 

I think the biggest  element for you to be successful or for us would be having a great team. You have a team that you can train, know, give you feedback, and be reliable.  We had to find our, I guess, our little niche, our team. And right now we are in a great place. I think most of our team has been there for at least two years, some four years. So yeah. I think it taught me how to delegate and how to learn how to rely on people and you know pretty much teaching consistency. That was like the biggest thing you know: make sure that if I'm there or somebody else is there it's gonna look and taste the same.

But yeah, the food hall experience, I think for somebody that comes from our background and the brand new concept, it would make sense, but you know, you have to watch how kind of deals you make, make sure that, you know, a lot of people ask for percentage rate of the sales and all the different things. Just make sure you have a good contract that makes sense for you and you feel comfortable with. We were approached before this from a different restaurant group and they, you know, they wanted to open a rotisserie and they wanted me to be a part of it, but essentially it didn't make sense for me.

You know, it's big money, big restaurant groups, but I already have proof of concept. I'm like, I don't want to be a glorified employee. Why would I do that if I already have a, you know, it's mine. It's a small little, tiny little business, you know, a food truck at that point, but it's mine, you know, and I don't have to answer to anybody, ultimately that's what I've always been. Well, most of my life I've been self-employed.  So, and I have an example from my parents. I just like the freedom, you know, I like to be able to make decisions on it, you know, as quickly as possible and yeah. So for me it worked out, but  yeah, I think that's, I think it's a good deal. You know, it's a good deal.  Make sure the location is good and make sure that people around you, the food makes sense. You know, you don't want to be selling the same thing as the guy next to you.

Eric Nathal: The job didn't require me to come to Austin. I wanted to move to Austin. Yeah. So I came here for some client meetings, like probably in 2014. And for me, the Texas idea was like, you know, I've been to San Antonio, Dallas, and I wasn't really a huge fan. And then I came to Austin, I was like, OK, this is a very different Texas, you know, and I just loved it. And I have been in Miami for quite, almost 30 years and I kind of needed a change already. No, and so it was my choice to move here.  But so in Miami, you know that our idea came along and came to fruition here in Austin. But in Miami, I never pursued it. I guess that's the right word. I had ideas in Miami, but I never really pursued it.  You know, it wasn't in the cards for me.

But also I think I got inspired with the environment here in Austin that people are so friendly. Coming from Miami, people are friendly, but if you don't know somebody, people are usually more standoffish. And here, you go to coffee shops or anywhere, people are like, hi, how are you? And I was like, what do you want? Why are you talking to me? And I'm like, wow, I'm so jaded growing up over there. But yeah, so we felt that it was a very inviting place. You give a simple idea, you know, let the product speak for itself. Good, simple, people will come back, they'll try it, they'll engage. And I think, at least in my mind, I thought Miami, I would need to kind of dress it up a little more. I think it's a little more trend oriented, or at least when I was over there. So I guess I didn't, I think, I guess there were a lot more facilitated here.

Eric Nathal:  Well, I think finding your voice is key. Obviously, like knowing who you are, what you stand for and what you do. You know, it's not about being the loudest, you know, in messaging. It's about just being consistent and being true to yourself. But, you know, and I have people that I know in the business that started close to when I started, they were amazing chefs, amazing food. And somehow they didn't even work out and, you know, makes me very sad. But yeah, somehow, unfortunately, it's not just about the food.

You know, I think one of the, guess, you know, coming from a marketing background,  you know, PR, marketing, all those sort of  interrelated,  you know, fields. One thing that for me was always very important. As soon as we could have somebody help us with that is PR. I think a lot of restaurant owners underestimate the power of PR. You know, if you do marketing and you do paid advertising, it's great, you and it does work, but the difference between paid advertising and earned media, which, you PR, is that it's a lot more powerful,  somebody speaking about you, you know, a third party, which is a media or a magazine or an influencer or whatever it might be. I think that's a lot more credible and powerful than, you know, putting your message out there. You can have both, which is great, but if I had to choose one, it would be PR. 

And initially, I did on my own PR, you know, from what I knew and I worked in my past. I didn't have any relationships with you either or any of the magazines here or food writers. But very quickly I was able to get in there. And as you mentioned, Eater, you know, we from the beginning, you know, send a press release. We're a small, tiny company, you know, but with the press releases and by the media. So we're very, very consistent with that. Again, like I said, earned media versus paid media, I think is key. know, messaging, keeping everything simple. I think a lot of restaurants, especially in Austin, do marketing amazingly.  But for us, simple menu, simple message. And,  you know, our whole aesthetic and motto is comfort food. know, French food without, you know, being like people think French food is very fancy, very expensive.

And our whole thing is like, eat like a Parisian. I know, this is like their fast food in a way.  So then our menu is very, very simple. You know, we don't fry anything. We reuse everything.  Even the bones we used to make bone broth, you know. So we're a very fit company  in that sense.  Keep keeping things simple. But  yeah, social media is also, as you know, a huge, huge thing. My wife happens to be amazing at it.  Personally, I don't love going on camera for Instagram videos or I don't love it.  She makes me sometimes, which is great.  You know, once a product comes out, she's really good at it. But when it comes to a restaurant, I think people really like to see who's behind it.  And so that's what I learned a lot from her and, you know, kind of looking at the analytics of everything we post.

Yeah, people really like to, they feel that connection. They have a name or sorry, a face behind the food they've been getting all these years, you know. So I think for us, like personalizing the brand, clear messaging and  you know, and then the PR, it's always an amazing thing. It has been for us since the beginning, just being a little tiny pop-up, but still being talked about, making it to, you know, online lists or influencers that helped us, you get noticed, it helped us. People from the  food hall reach out to us. Several people have reached out to us in the past to do collaborations or go into business together and unfortunately that didn't make sense for us, but that's what PR does.

Eric Nathal: I think if you're passionate about it,  yes, definitely take the leap.  You know it's going to be very, very hard. And sometimes you want to cry and just like, what did I do? But yeah, I think if you're passionate  and you have a vision of, do you see yourself growing with this? Do you see yourself? What do you see yourself doing in three, four, five years? But yeah, definitely take the leap. I would have hated it if I would have gotten a different job. And I had some offers with different companies, great jobs, great salaries. But I was, now looking back, I'm so happy I didn't take those, those, those jobs. I think one of the things that for me was probably now looking back, I didn't know, I didn't know what I didn't know, you know, back then. And that kind of helped me in a way.

You maybe now knowing what I do, would, you know, I was, was, you know, always be humble, but you know, starting as a pop-up for a year in that sort of way, I think people that have been in the industry for a long time, they wouldn't want to do that because maybe they would feel self-conscious, you know? So, you know, take, take advantage of not knowing what you don't know. You know what I mean? And that was also one of the difficult things, but yeah, I would definitely take a leap, but have a clear idea of what you want to offer, who's your clientele and what you stand for.