Todd Hogan With Community Burger

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:23] Welcome to Cherokee Business Radio Stone Payton here with you this morning. And today’s episode is brought to you in part by Alma Coffee. Sustainably grown, veteran, owned and direct trade, which means, of course, from seed to cup, there are no middlemen. Please go check them out at my Alma coffee and go visit their Roastery Cafe at 3448 Holly Springs Parkway in Canton. As for Harry or the brains of the outfit Leticia and please tell them that Stone sent you. You guys are in for a real treat this morning and please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Community Burger and Canton chef Todd Hogan. Good morning, sir.

Todd Hogan: [00:01:06] Good morning. How are you doing today?

Stone Payton: [00:01:07] I am doing well. I mentioned it before we came on the air. I’ll say it again on the air so that it’s on the record. Great looking hat, man.

Todd Hogan: [00:01:14] Well, thanks. I’ll tell you what it was. It was a project that we truly enjoyed developing. You know, the whole community burger design was to be truly what it says, community based. We’re a full philanthropic style restaurant where we want to actually give back to the communities in which we put our restaurants. So it’s a brand new brand and we’re excited to hopefully grow this thing throughout the Southeast. And we’ll see how it how we get there. You know, it’s baby steps. You know, they say you eat an elephant, one bite at a time and we’re taking our first bite.

Stone Payton: [00:01:52] All right. Well, I love the brand. I love the intent. What did compel you and yours? Ta ta. I was going to say jump off a cliff. That’s probably a little radical, but it’s a pretty big move to do something like this, right?

Todd Hogan: [00:02:04] Well, you know, I’ve been in the restaurant business now, right, at 39 years.

Stone Payton: [00:02:09] Oh, my. You don’t look that old man.

Todd Hogan: [00:02:11] Well, I started when I was really, really young, so we’ll say that. And my my best friend and I started in the upscale, casual, fine dining segment of the restaurants when we were early teens. And it’s something we’ve we’ve done together. We went down different paths. I stayed in the actual restaurant segment, culinary. I’ve been an executive chef since my my first job. I was 21 when I was the first executive chef role. But over the years, he’s watched me, you know, have struggles, big hurdles. He’s seen me have successes and failures. And through the process, in my mind, I’m like, you know, I love fine dining. I love that upscale feel. But I feel like where we are currently in our in our world is that the demand for dining is doing nothing but increasing. The challenges we currently have with staffing was where we kind of landed on this particular concept. And he and I decided that, you know, number one, the top well, the top three food segments are burgers, tacos and pizzas.

Stone Payton: [00:03:17] They are.

Todd Hogan: [00:03:17] For me. I mean, it really is. I mean, when I think about my days off, you know, what’s dad going to make at home? I’m like, let’s make a pizza or let’s make tacos or let’s do burgers. So I love the burger application because it’s anything you can imagine between buns, right? So, you know, so kind of coming back to how we landed on this is we thought we got staffing challenges. So this is what they consider a fast casual concept, which is counter service. You walk up, you place your order, you sit down and then it’s delivered to you. So it’s a hybrid between full service and actual self service. And with that being said, I didn’t want to lose some other unique pieces. And the cocktail program to me was also very important. So we’re not just a burger and beer joint. We’ve got cocktails, beer and wine all on tap.

Stone Payton: [00:04:06] Oh, my little difference. Y’all can’t see in the studio. But he saw it. Yeah, eyes lit up. Well, that’s a cocktail.

Todd Hogan: [00:04:11] Well, the cocktails are going to be very unique and very custom. We’ll have some old school throwback favorites, but we’re also going to have some creative, you know, mixologists style cocktails on tap. And we’re also going to have adult milkshakes and regular milkshakes for the kids. And we also have a small daiquiri program that will just pair up. And I think it’s a perfect pairing for the burgers, you know, and it’s not just traditional burgers. We’ll have the traditional burgers with beef and all the unique, fun, chef driven ingredients. We’re also doing a nontraditional category that’s includes grouper, salmon, ahi, tuna and chicken. And then we have an international burger category that’s like, you know, a bratwurst burger with sauerkraut and butter case cheese, which is a German creamy cheese, you know. And we also have salads. So whenever we were thinking about our target market, we were looking for that either stay at home mom or that figure of the household that brought their kids out several times during the week to eat. And we wanted to give them the options because not everybody wants a burger every day, a traditional burger. So having. The nontraditional category in the salad category really opened up our target market. And I feel like it’s going to be a home run for us by doing that.

Stone Payton: [00:05:30] Sounds like a home run to me. So how far out are we? We’re in mid-June. For those of you who kind of trip over this later in the season, but how far out are we now?

Todd Hogan: [00:05:39] So we’re I would have to say, I mean, truthfully, we’re about 30 days behind, you know.

Stone Payton: [00:05:44] I mean I mean, par for the course.

Todd Hogan: [00:05:46] It really is right now. I mean, it’s, you know, challenges in the world about supply chain and, you know, and just sourcing certain things that we needed for the project. So we’re we’re probably looking the 1st of July. I’m hesitant to give an actual date. Date, yeah. We’re we’re we’re crossing the finish line though. We’re getting there. And it’s it’s been a project because this is in the Edward Mill facility, which is an old 1800s cotton mill.

Stone Payton: [00:06:13] So like with reformation and.

Todd Hogan: [00:06:14] That’s exactly.

Stone Payton: [00:06:15] Right. Oh, baby.

Todd Hogan: [00:06:16] So it’s a great location. But when you’re dealing with older buildings, some historic, some not historic, but probably should have been considered historic. You know, you have you have challenges. You know, just how the buildings were originally put in place and how do you get that infrastructure to support. But the feel of the project is amazing because when you pull in, we’re one of the first two independent buildings in the middle of the project, so you can’t help but see us like we’re one of the first things you see when you pull in and we we kind of bud up to the amphitheater. So are you familiar with what they do down there?

Stone Payton: [00:06:56] Not completely. I’ve been there. I was at a business meeting that was held within reformation before. And then I went in and I visited with my buddy John Cloonan is participates in that thrive coworking. Oh yeah. I’ve been out.

Todd Hogan: [00:07:08] There. Yeah. Well you know it’s you know it thrives a big piece of this and there’s multiple boutique shops now we’re we’re opening up more restaurants. So currently there’s one, two, three in full operations and there’s three more restaurant spots to be opened. Community Burger is one of them. They have another one that’s called Blackbird Tavern that’s going to be opening, but they’ve got some really cool restaurant concepts down there. Yeah. And it’s it’s going to become a destination location for eating as opposed to just a walk by or drive by. People will be coming to the mill to decide on where they’re going to go and have dinner with their kids or if it’s a date night and coming back to community burgers, we really drove this towards the family baseline. We wanted it to feel like an everyday eating facility, not special occasion. You know, I’ve had those restaurants in my past and I’ve enjoyed them, but I’d rather see that customer twice a week than once a quarter. So that’s another one of our reasons for wanting to go on the more casual side for this concept.

Stone Payton: [00:08:14] So let’s talk about the past a little bit. I’d love to hear a little bit about the back story, the path that led you here because you’ve done quite a bit. This is not your first rodeo.

Todd Hogan: [00:08:23] No, I’ve I’ve I’ve been in the Atlanta market since 97. Okay. Prior to that, I traveled all over the country. I graduated from Johnson Wells University. I was a TA and a fellow. So I was teaching freshman and sophomore classes during that time frame. As I left the university, I wound up going, you know, to places like Dallas, Texas, out, out west, Los Angeles, East Vail. I was in New York for a while. You know, I’ve had great experiences throughout the country, and I was in Key West for about five years. I was at a Cafe Marquesa down there, and that was like the chef’s dream job. It was dinner only and it was seven nights a week. And you were in this, you know, really cool destination that people came and wanted to just kind of let their hair down and have a great time. So when I came back to Atlanta in 97 to open my first restaurant, personal restaurant, it was it was interesting because I opened up this cutting edge style restaurant in the Duluth, Gwinnett County market, and I was kind of ahead of the curve, if you will. So although a great learning process for me, I had a friend of mine when I opened it. He goes, You know, Todd, it’s going to take three failures before you make you make your first success. I’m like, is that a backhanded compliment on what I’m doing? I mean, you know, but I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right. Sorry if I dropped the D-word, you know, and it did. It took three failures for me to start realizing what it was with each failure. And I’ll say this, they weren’t necessarily failures in the big picture because I took care of team members and they had a lifestyle and they had a way of earning a living. But from a business sustainability perspective, I had a lot to learn. I was young and John Maxwell, who is an author and he wrote.

Stone Payton: [00:10:21] Yeah, wrote some great.

Todd Hogan: [00:10:22] Books. He was one of my regulars at Wild Berries. A bistro was the name of my restaurant back in those days, and he gave me this book called Failing Forward, and he gave me a series of books. But that particular book, after I read it, I was like, This makes complete sense. So you learn by your mistakes. Just don’t make the mistake a second time and you just continue to grow down that path. And, you know, now we’re fast forward to where we are. I had a restaurant in Roswell that we opened up in what year 2009, I think was when it was and market crashed the week we opened. And I’m sitting there and I’m thinking, okay, now what? Because I put all my eggs in the basket. So we white knuckled it through this whole process and I wound up losing the restaurant to a fire. And I’m like, okay, so we made it through all the ups and downs. Then we had a fire, so now we had to reset. So in late 2012, I took all the rest of my eggs I had in the basket, and I put it all into branch water, which is located in Cumming. It’s in the Forsyth County market, it’s in Vicary Village. And I put this restaurant up there and I basically was like, this all or nothing, you know? And it’s ten years old this month.

Stone Payton: [00:11:39] Oh.

Todd Hogan: [00:11:40] So I’m very proud of that restaurant. I’m proud of the team members that were that have been a part of my life from the the day we started to date now. And as we grew, you know, we’ve we’ve come across a lot of challenges. Then the pandemic hit, I’m like, okay, now the pandemic hits and because.

Stone Payton: [00:12:00] The universe just wanting to make sure you really want to do this right.

Todd Hogan: [00:12:03] I mean, and I’m looking at this going, okay, I had branch water at the time. I have branch and barrel. That’s at Avalon. It’s one of our our restaurants. And at the time we had a restaurant and Crab Apple called Duke’s that was kind of the runt of the group. And when pandemic hit, we had to make some some tough decisions. And I woke up one early morning and I thought, I’m not going to curl up in a ball and I’m not going to suck my thumb. I’m going to get back on my feet and we’re going to keep swinging this bat. So we opened up our second branch water location during the middle of the pandemic. Wow. And we opened that up in the historic district of downtown Canton. And I guess that was that was 2020. So here we are in 2022. It’s doing awesome. I love it. And it’s it really has to do with the relationships you create, you.

Stone Payton: [00:12:54] Know, isn’t it? It’s remarkable to me. I come from the training and consulting world. The client side of the work we do here is so relationship oriented. But it continues to amaze me and I don’t know why it surprises me at all. But so many businesses, I don’t care what they it really does come down to relationships a 100%.

Todd Hogan: [00:13:14] You know, Darren, you know, the pandemic and we were making these decisions. We had to shift gears quickly, like fast on your feet and, you know, restaurant tours, you know, Countrywide were having to reinvent themselves. And that meant were you a grocery store or are you a delivery service where you a branch water, for example, we converted to a family meal style restaurant. We were steak and seafood. Now all of a sudden we’re doing meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans for four and delivering it to your door. So we had to get real creative real fast. But that all being said, the customer, the regular, the friend that we developed over the years, they are why we succeeded and made it through that nightmare. And all I can do is say it’s because of my team, how they built the relationships. That is not about me. You know, I may have created the concept and written the recipes and done the development, but when you really boil it down, it’s about the folks you hire and become part of your family. And shortly thereafter, we did this Atlanta eat segment. And, you know, the hosts asked me because, well, why did you get in the business? And without even pausing, I said, I got in the business to take care of my family. That was yeah, hands down. The whole reason I didn’t realize that my family was going to grow to 100 people because that’s what it came down to. It wasn’t just about me and my four kids and my and my wife. It was about the folks that are involved in my restaurant day to day, because I see them more than I see my own blood family.

Todd Hogan: [00:14:48] Right. So they are a part of my family. They are. They are. Why I continue to to reach out, to do more, to do better, to be a better company, to work for. And that’s what it comes down to. And then so then we had the, the, the new branch water that opened and then again it came circle back around with, with my best friend on, on this community burger project. And we thought, what are we going to do to create something that is a legacy based creation? All right. Now, that’s a big statement to make. But it’s made and it’s felt. And he and I wanted to create something that wasn’t just a one off. We wanted to create something that would be multiple locations. And in each community we built one. It made an impact at that level, not just we say we’re you know, we have philanthropies. We wanted to have philanthropies that were specific to the locations. So because you survive because the community that you’re that you’re within. Yeah. So we wanted to and it’s secular. So community supports us. We want to support the community. And that’s that’s the whole plan. I mean, it sounds simple and it, it’s nice to make it sound like it’s simple, but it is a little bit more detailed than that. I mean, we want to we really want to make an impact. And there’s there’s restaurants out there that currently do that. We wanted to do it better. And that’s a big statement to say that we want to do it better than, let’s say, Chick fil A, for example.

Stone Payton: [00:16:23] Sure.

Todd Hogan: [00:16:24] Chick fil A is is an amazing company, aren’t they? And they what they have what they have developed and what they have become. I mean, you know, that’s it’s it’s humbling to have met, you know, Truett Cathy back in the day. I worked for Chick fil A gazillion years ago, and now I’m looking at what we’re doing and I’m like, I want to make an impact like that. And we’re going to do absolutely everything in our power to do that.

Stone Payton: [00:16:50] What a noble pursuit. And I know it must be incredibly fulfilling. Just beginning to lay out the plans for that. If you have any of this organized, talk to us a little bit about what that looks like on the ground, like so it might manifest.

Todd Hogan: [00:17:04] All right. So the way the philanthropy program is designed, as initially my partner and I, we’re choosing the three philanthropies. We’re going to do three philanthropies per quarter. Now, as a customer, they would come in and there’s going to be a QR code that they can click on and then they can make their suggestion for upcoming philanthropies. And as we get these philanthropies in our in our database, we’re going to do a lottery pull every quarter, pick three new philanthropies, and we’ll make that announcement, which philanthropy they are, who made the suggestion and how to support them. And inside the restaurant, we’re going to have something called a giving wall. So it’s kind of interactive. Do you remember that game Pachinko or Plinko, you’ve seen on game shows where you drop a coin and it bounces.

Stone Payton: [00:17:52] All over the place? Yes.

Todd Hogan: [00:17:53] So we’re having this designed and when you come in and dine, you’ll get a token and then you’ll take your token and go to the giving wall and make your choice which philanthropy you put it in. So whether your child puts it in there or you put it in there, you watch it and it drops into your chosen philanthropy. And then every quarter we will pull all the votes and distribute the donation pro-rata based on the votes given by the customer.

Stone Payton: [00:18:22] Oh, fun.

Todd Hogan: [00:18:23] So it is, you know, everybody has an opportunity to have a voice and that’s what also makes it that much more unique.

Stone Payton: [00:18:30] I love it. Yeah, this is so cool.

Todd Hogan: [00:18:34] Yeah. And you know, I’m a I’m a foodie. I’m a chef. So when we were designing this, I wanted to not lose that that edge. I wanted to make sure that when you came in to Community Burger, you were getting a burger experience that was wildly different than all the others that are out there. I’ve had the pleasure of working with several of the burger concepts and consulting with some of them and getting a bird’s eye view. And I decided to raise the bar on it. And the menu is we’re actually live or our website’s live. It’s called your community burger.

Stone Payton: [00:19:09] Your community burger. So you can.

Todd Hogan: [00:19:11] Check it out. And we’ve already done all of our food photography. So if you see it, that’s what it’s going to look like when it hit your table. And we do everything that we possibly can from scratch. For example, we’re making our own handmade tater tots, hand-cut french fries, and there’s a lot of restaurants that do hand-cut french fries. There’s a difference in doing it great. And doing it. And we’re going to do it great.

Stone Payton: [00:19:35] All right. You heard it here.

Todd Hogan: [00:19:36] You know, it’s got to do with how you blanch them and how you manage the potatoes and how what the age of the potato is. I mean, all these things, there’s a lot.

Stone Payton: [00:19:44] More to it.

Todd Hogan: [00:19:44] There’s a little bit more to it than just cutting the French fry and frying it. Because I love French fries. I mean, as you can tell, I have to go to the gym every day just so I can eat what I like. But, you know, I like them crispy and I like them to be, you know, a wow factor. So whenever you leave Community Burger, the whole idea is that when you get home, you’re thinking about the next time you’re coming because it was that good.

Stone Payton: [00:20:09] Oh, I’m so excited for this. So how are you finding the what’s the right word? The business community, the business climate in the Cherokee County and specifically the Canton area? Is it an embracing?

Todd Hogan: [00:20:22] Yes.

Stone Payton: [00:20:23] Support and help.

Todd Hogan: [00:20:24] Well, you know, out there in Canton, there in a what I would consider a growth spurt. Mm hmm. I’ve been out in the Canton area for 17 years now, and I’ve wanted to put a restaurant in downtown Canton for 17 years now. But we’ve waited.

Stone Payton: [00:20:41] You’ve been living out there?

Todd Hogan: [00:20:42] Yeah, we live out there. Oh, wow. Okay. So my wife and I and our our children, we’ve all we’ve we’ve watched Canton as it’s been developing. Yeah. And my wife has held me back several times about because I wanted to put a restaurant out and she’s like, it’s not ready. It’s not ready yet. And while we thought during the middle of a pandemic was perfect timing, I have no idea.

Stone Payton: [00:21:02] But I know that’s your style, man. That’s your that’s your signature.

Todd Hogan: [00:21:06] Yeah. So we we dove in, you know, hip deep and it it worked, you know, and but Canton as a whole, Cherokee County as a whole, is very much in a development stage. And they’re going great, great gangbusters. And that mill project is a prime example of taking an old property, repurposing it. Yeah. And that gives that you’re stepping back in time, kind of feel, you know, and that’s very unique and so exciting to be a part of that project.

Stone Payton: [00:21:39] Oh, bet. So you touched on it briefly, but you know, it’s my show. So let’s talk about some of my favorite things. Let’s talk about the cocktail tap thing, a little bit more cocktails.

Todd Hogan: [00:21:48] All right. So our initial start with the cocktails on tap is we’re going to have some old favorites like a Paloma or a mint julep. But we’re also going to have some unique things. We have a a smoked apple whiskey sour that’s going to be on there. And, you know, and then we’re going to work with some local breweries.

Stone Payton: [00:22:06] Oh, that’s a great idea.

Todd Hogan: [00:22:07] And I’m actually the brewery that I chose is Green Lane Brewery, and they’re right in downtown Kansas.

Stone Payton: [00:22:13] They’re right there. In fact, my buddy Cody Bolden’s on cans.

Todd Hogan: [00:22:16] Yeah, well, you know, we did the launch for that for the Allen Brook and he came and did he came and did the music at the restaurant. And the three brothers that own green line are like just amazing. They’re just very down to earth. They grew up in Roswell, you know, they’re committed to the community. And I felt like that was a great way to to show the partnership and friendship that we’ve developed over the years because Branch Water is Green Line’s neighbor. And so we’re going to have their Allen Brook on tap. We’re going to have a new one that’s called shirtless, that’s going to be on tap. And then we got a a community light, if you will, that’s that we’re working on with another brewery that’s going to be a light beer profile and we’re going to do a rotating tab that could be anything from reformation to, you know, what’s that red hair and yeah, Monday Night Brewery, we’re going to run it through all the local brewers. So that way it’s not just one brewery. We’ll have some other presence on the TAP system as well.

Stone Payton: [00:23:15] So we have quite a few. Some are aspiring entrepreneurs, but we have quite a few practicing entrepreneurs I guess is the way to characterize it and they like to tap into to the show. So any counsel that you might offer with regard to recruiting, selecting, developing, inspiring, cultivating the right culture because that’s going to be so important. It’s got to be, oh.

Todd Hogan: [00:23:39] My culture is everything. Because if if you don’t have a true identity in your culture, you don’t know what you get. All of a sudden now it’s a box of Cracker Jacks. You don’t know what your prize is.

Stone Payton: [00:23:50] So.

Todd Hogan: [00:23:51] You know, when we’re when we’re talking about our culture and we’re hiring our team members, we’re very upfront about we, you know, we want to be the biggest little company that can possibly be. We don’t want to lose the intimacy of the ownership being directly in touch. I do something that’s called a checkup from the neck up and my restaurants and I go to the restaurants almost every day. I’m at every restaurant. They’re there sometimes it doesn’t always happen, but generally speaking, I get in the restaurants every day and I just monitor, you know, what’s the feel in the building, you know? And if I see servers with smiles and happy and I know things are good, but if I see somebody that’s down, I take that as an opportunity to do as I call it, a one on one. And I know a lot of businesses do that, but I take the time just to, you know, tap in. How are you doing? What can I do to make your day better? And if you if you really practice that and not just preach it, but practice it, the impact that you make at that level, there’s no no amount of money you can put on that, because what you’re doing is you’re making an impact on that individual’s life at that very moment. And for it, it may not be a situation that you can fix at that very moment, but the fact that you took the time to listen and let and let somebody know that you actually care, well, that’s a game changer, 100%. And that’s part of our culture. It’s like, you know, and sometimes there’s things that you can fix and sometimes there’s things that you just can’t fix and. It’s just so you have to be there, have to be available. You know.

Stone Payton: [00:25:25] I would think that candidates for this upcoming concept would be so attracted to what you’ve been describing here with the the pursuit to support different philanthropies, the kind of culture that you’re trying to build. I got to believe that gives you, to some degree, a bit of a competitive advantage in this market where, you know, getting talent is challenging.

Todd Hogan: [00:25:49] It’s very challenging. And I better knock on wood or something here. I have I have a proven track record with my management team. I don’t I have very little turnover. You know, typically the turnover comes every four years with servers because we get them when they’re a freshman in college. And then when by the time they graduate, if they’ve decided to go down a different career path, that’s where the transition happens. Now, I will say I’ve been very lucky to, you know, maintain even some that after they graduate, they decide they want to get in the hospitality industry. And I believe it’s because of the impact we made at that level. You know, we we take it very seriously, you know, in terms of people. And when I say family, that’s very important to me because if you’re not happy at home, you’re not going be happy at work. And I don’t care what business you’re in. You know, so there is a very there’s a balance to the expectations for management in general. If you’re one of those companies, that’s the old school, you know, drive it, drive it, drive it, drive it and not listen to your team member. Well, you’re looking to have some some challenges in the future.

Stone Payton: [00:26:59] You’ll be doing plenty of training because you’ll be.

Todd Hogan: [00:27:02] Constantly in a training mode. Exactly.

Stone Payton: [00:27:05] So is it early yet? Or like are you in the process of bringing on. Well, team members at this point?

Todd Hogan: [00:27:12] We are today we’re fully staffed. We start wow. I actually started training today. I got one of my training classes started. That’s starting right now.

Stone Payton: [00:27:19] Okay.

Todd Hogan: [00:27:20] And we’ve we have set up it’s almost a two week training process. It goes through class time, orientation, understanding the culture, understanding where what restaurants we currently have and and introducing what community burger is to us. And then we’re going through menu tastings and menu tests. And because it’s important that the team members know, like, for example, if you come in and you say I’m allergic to garlic, they know exactly how to how to, you know, drive you to which items you should have and which ones you shouldn’t have. If you have dietary needs and we have any way possible to to work around it, we absolutely will. So those are the things that are important during the training is that we we know how to take care of the customer when they come in.

Stone Payton: [00:28:05] So another pro tip, get your ducks in a row early if you’re going to open up any kind of operation, no doubt. Don’t wait till two weeks out.

Todd Hogan: [00:28:14] Yeah, and it’s been challenging with not knowing when the actual car will hit because we’re we’re about a week early for training. But but given that we’re 30 days behind in construction, you know, it’s it’s a balancing act. And, you know, we made the conscientious decision just to extend the training, commit the time, commit the financial commitment, you know, to that training. I think the end result is going to be a win win. Everybody’s going to come out of that training program 100% knowledgeable and ready and fired up to take care of customers.

Stone Payton: [00:28:48] So related topic, and I’m sure the answer is yes and yes, but maybe a little more depth on the on on this particular subject. Mentors, surely you’ve had some people you would categorize characterize as mentors coming up. And it sounds like you really do try to take every opportunity to mentor others, but again, largely for the benefit of our entrepreneurial listeners, can you. Anything you could share on that front? I know we’d all appreciate it.

Todd Hogan: [00:29:14] So, yes, when I when I first got into the industry and, you know, I was working through, you know, the Chick-Fil-A process and the model, and then I got into this restaurant with my best friend. It was actually my best friend’s family restaurant. And the chef that was there was his name was Richard Ford. And, you know, he was very passionate about food. And I found that to be intriguing. And I was watching him and I wound up going to Johnson Wales University in Charleston, South Carolina. And, you know, I found I found some chefs that were there that were, you know, very in touch with the young student who was eager, wanting to learn more than just what was on paper. And, you know, I just dove in and I’ve got two chefs in my my history that are very near and dear to me that gave me more than just education, that gave me part of their their heart and drive. And one is Kurt Isley. And ironically, he he’s still in the business and has a restaurant over in Gwinnett County called Curtis. And, you know, he was he’s an old school chef. From Stuttgart, Germany. And the other chef was Karl Moss, and he was a master German chef at Augsburg, Germany. And I just spent a lot of time with these guys, you know, and they gave me they gave me their heart and soul and the food and, you know, industry and that what it took commitment wise to get to that next level.

Stone Payton: [00:30:40] Yeah. So you obviously I know people can hear it on the airwaves. I can see it and feel it here in the room. Your your your passion, your your drive, your commitment to this work and to this particular concept in this phase of your life and your human. Yeah, surely you your batteries run a little bit low from time to time. Where do you go? And I don’t necessarily mean a physical place, but where do you go to to recharge, to get inspired to kind of, you know, get it all back together again and get out there and fight the good fight.

Todd Hogan: [00:31:11] So I have I’m very system based, meaning I even personally, I have these routines and I do them like religion. I go to the gym five or six days a week. That’s my mental check out. I try to stay as fit as possible.

Stone Payton: [00:31:29] Considering the fries.

Todd Hogan: [00:31:31] Considering the fries as you can be, the french fries and milkshakes. You got it. You’ve got to do something to burn those calories. And I commit my you know, I go to church every week. I commit myself to my family. And I’ll tell you what, what my drive is, is when I see my kids. You know, I was fortunate enough to meet someone from the Gerber family, Dan Gerber. His father was Gerber. Gerber baby food. He’s who created it. And he told me the story about his father was on basically on his deathbed. And he was there with him. And he says he says his dad looks at him and says, you know, I never meant to do that. And Dan said, and this is Dan Sharon, the story with me, because what do you mean? Daddy goes, I never meant to be this big company. I only wanted to cook for my kids. And that stuck to me. I was like, That’s pretty inspiring. So when I look at my kids and I cook for my kids and I cook for my family, I think about, you know, what would they like, you know, and how do they love it and how does that translate? And it does it it completely translates. So that’s my ray charge, you know, family commitment to being better for other people. And that’s that’s what it comes down to.

Stone Payton: [00:32:48] All right. Before we wrap, let’s make sure that we leave our listeners with. Let’s remind them of the location. Of course, let’s leave them with a way to kind of tap into what you’re doing now as far as website and that kind of thing. Maybe someone’s interested in employment because, you know, they may have an opportunity down the road. Maybe someone would like to have a conversation with you about teaming up to help you with some of these philanthropies, whatever you feel like is appropriate, whether it’s LinkedIn website. Sure. But let’s leave them with with a with a way to continue that relationship.

Todd Hogan: [00:33:19] Absolutely. So I am on LinkedIn. Todd Hogan. You know, Chef Todd Hogan, we have our website, your community, Voter.com. We are opening our first location in downtown Canton and it’s in the Edwardsville project. Our second location is underway. It’s in the Crab Apple market.

Stone Payton: [00:33:38] The grass is growing under your feet. You’re like, you’re getting ready to go.

Todd Hogan: [00:33:41] We have a plan. And we we’re currently looking at locations three and four. It’s just a matter of time. I mean, I’m myself and my partner are very committed to the growth of this company and the impact we make at the community level.

Stone Payton: [00:33:55] All right. Be sure to build in, like a Business RadioX studio spot there.

Todd Hogan: [00:33:59] There you go. We’ll do that as a test kitchen and a studio at the same time.

Stone Payton: [00:34:04] No, it could be fun sometimes, though, to do like an onsite, you know, like some sort of business. I don’t know. It could be fun.

Todd Hogan: [00:34:10] We’d love to do that. And if any of your listeners have any questions or have ties with philanthropies, please reach out to me. I’m really easy to find. It’s whether you go on our Facebook page or community burger or Facebook page at branch and barrel or branch water. My my teams will let me know whenever someone’s reaching out to me directly and I’ll get right back to you.

Stone Payton: [00:34:30] Well, man, the work you’re doing and the way you’re doing it is so important. Keep up the good work and we sure appreciate it.

Todd Hogan: [00:34:38] Well, thank you for having me this morning. I greatly appreciate.

Stone Payton: [00:34:41] That. It’s been an absolute delight. And don’t be a stranger. Maybe we’ll have you come in periodically. Or like I said, maybe I’ll take a suitcase with a remote kid out there and we’ll and we’ll visit sometime. But it’s a this is fantastic for our community here in Cherokee, man.

Todd Hogan: [00:34:56] Well, I appreciate you having me.

Stone Payton: [00:34:57] All right. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Chef Todd Hogan with Community Burger and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you next time on Cherokee Business Radio.