707: Chef Kelly Mullarney on Adaptability, Evolution, and Open-Mindedness

Chef Kelly Mullarney is a graduate from the CIA with nearly 40 years of experience working in, opening, and operating successful restaurants. Today Chef Kelly serves as co-founder and chef of Bruxie. Bruxie is responsible for the original Fried Chicken and Waffle Sandwich, and each unique sandwich recipe was developed by Chef Kelly.  Today, there are seven Bruxie locations in California and Nevada, and 18 U.S. locations and 24 international locations in development.

Show notes… Calls to ACTION!!!

• Subscribe to the Restaurant Unstoppable YouTube Channel
• Join the private Unstoppable Facebook Group
• Join the email list! (Scroll Down to get the Vendor List!)

Favorite success quote or mantra:

• "The mind is like an umbrella; it works best when it's open."

In today's episode with Kelly Mullarney we will discuss: 

• Open-mindedness
• Kelly got his start working for free in order to learn as much as he could
• Kelly recommends getting kitchen experience before entering culinary school
• Any experience, good or bad, is a valuable experience
• The importance of traveling and broadening your horizons
• Growth happens when you are out of your comfort zone
• Adaptability and evolution
• Bring solutions and not problems
• Take the stress for your team
• It's better to light a fire within your staff instead of under their ass
• Working with recruiters
• Franchising
• Creation of the Fried Chicken and Waffle Sandwich
• The pressure of fine dining
• Creativity can be taxing
• Branding
• The future of Bruxie

Today's sponsor:

Restaurant365 is a cloud-based, all-in-one, restaurant-specific accounting and back-office platform that seamlessly integrates with POS systems, payroll providers, food and beverage vendors. It generates accurate real-time reporting and analysis in user-friendly dashboards, facilitating immediate, data-driven decision making. Restaurant365 eliminates manual, error-prone processes and is designed to help restaurant businesses grow with functionality that helps optimize labor costs, reduce food costs and increase revenue.

P&G ProfessionalTM offers innovative total foodservice solutions featuring trusted brands such as Dawn® Professional, Cascade® Professional, Spic and Span® and Comet®. We are unique in that our total solutions are founded in customer and patron understanding, superior products that help save time and cut overall costs, and a five-star service group that is compensated based on customer satisfaction, not commissions. Visit www.pgpro.com for the latest information about P&G Professional's solutions and services.

 

Knowledge bombs

1. Which "it factor" habit, trait, or characteristic you believe most contributes to your success?
   • Work ethic
2. What is your biggest weakness?
   • Overthinking
3. What's one question you ask or thing you look for during an interview?
   • It's about personality
4. What's a current challenge? How are you dealing with it?
   • Finding the right people
5. Share one code of conduct or behavior you teach your team.
   • Lead by example
6. What is one uncommon standard of service you teach your staff?
   • Exceed the guest's expectations
7. What's one book we must read to become a better person or restaurant owner?
   • GET THIS BOOK FOR FREE AT AUDIBLE.COM 
   • 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
8. What's one thing you feel restaurateurs don't know well enough or do often enough?
   • Listen
9. If you got the news that you'd be leaving this world tomorrow and all memories of you, your work, and your restaurants would be lost with your departure with the exception of 3 pieces of wisdom you could leave behind for the good of humanity, what would they be?
   1. Be kind
   2. Be open-minded
   3. Don't be afraid to fail but learn from the failures and learn to adapt
   4. (Bonus!) Find what makes you happy and be passionate about it

Contact info:

Bruxie website

Franchising with Bruxie

Email: info@bruxie.com

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining today! Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for the Restaurant Unstoppable Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates.

Huge thanks to Kelly Mullarney for joining me for another awesome episode. Until next time!

 

Restaurant Unstoppable is a free podcast. One of the ways I'm able to make it free is by earning a commission when sharing certain products with you. I've made it a core value to only share tools, resources, and services my guest mentors have recommend, first. If you're finding value in my podcast, please use my links!