​​Restaurateurs of Manifesto: Isaac Starobin, Inside Manifesto's model

“60% of our sales go to customers who came here specifically for us, which means that a solid 40% of my sales are made to customers who didn't know I existed, that's huge to be able to bring in that many sales for people who don't know your name.”

The second video episode of the Manifesto Academy features Isaac Starobin, an American-born legend of the American BBQ in Prague, working within Manifesto since 2018. Soon to introduce his concept to Berliners. 

Isaac, can you tell us how the model of Manifesto supports chefs?

So when you're opening your own standalone place, you're out there on your own completely. Nobody's watching your back, nobody's bringing in other experts. With Manifesto I know that if I get into a situation that I don't know what to do, I can always call somebody. And if they don't know the answer, they will connect me with somebody who does.

 

You are the owner of Dirty Dog Southern Smokehouse, working with Manifesto since late 2018. A true icon of the American BBQ in Prague. 

Especially if you come from the back of the house, especially if you were trained in kitchens, Manifesto is really really good at the things that we suck at. So putting your back of the house skills and your kitchen management skills together with Manifesto's other skills. It's an absolute winner. 

 

How do you make your business profitable?

10 to 20% net profits, that profitability is what you should be looking at if you were successful.

 

How does Manifesto help you get there?

There's more people around to pick up my weak spots. Like I said, marketing is one of my weak spots. Financial Management is one of my weak spots. I was never trained for these things. And I've had to learn them on my own as the years go. Now, in a standalone restaurant, you have two choices, either you hire people to fill in your weak spots, or you ignore your weak spots. Neither of those is a wonderful solution. Whereas a place like this, where there are other people who are invested in my success, right, because I'm not successful, that's Manifesto. They're just as invested in my success as I am. So they're willing to watch my back, and give ways that do not exist when you're out there on your own.

 

How do you find customers?

I think about 60% of our sales go to customers who came here specifically for us, which means that a solid 40% of my sales are made to customers who didn't know I existed. That's huge to be able to bring in that many sales from people who don't know your name, and who you didn't have to pull in yourself! Manifesto pulled those people in for me, that's pretty cool, right?! 40% of my sales were created by somebody else pulling those customers in!

 

We are happy for you! Anything else you like about Manifesto? 

Manifesto has a wonderful sense of aesthetics. If you look around at anything that Manifesto does, they say, I want this to look perfect, and I'm going to spend an obscene amount of time and money to make it happen. So being associated with somebody who has those kinds of outlandish goals and is willing to just knock down whatever it takes to make them happen, is awesome. It also pushes us harder to adopt some of that energy ourselves. A lot of us tend to ignore some of the more aesthetic attributes of the restaurant, especially those of us who are raised in the back of house. Manifesto understands how important that is and pushes us to be better with that side of things.

 

So what is it like to run your business at Manifesto?

The main way that Manifesto helps me is by taking some of the other challenges off my plate, and letting me focus on these. Because these are the ones you know, everybody's going to be different. Every owner or manager is going to be different. It depends on where you come from, it depends on where you were trained. If you were trained in the front of the house, the challenges you're going to focus on are making sure that your services go right, that the people on the floor are taking the orders, making sure they're well trained. And you're gonna offload some of the challenges, other challenges to other people. So where Manifesto really helps is by allowing us to offload some of the challenges that we are less ready to take on ourselves. So we can focus on the ones that we really often take off in difficult situations.

 

Do you need a big staff at Manifesto?

Five cooks, three for the house people at a quitter, that's my biggest thing.

 

Have you always believed in the concept of Manifesto?

So I got a call that they were opening this sort of outdoor street food market, and they were looking for somebody to do some American style food. I was like, well, I don't know, man, this Manifesto thing, it sounds pretty, audacious. I don't think it's gonna work,no, I’m going to pass. So that was the beginning of 2018. Around the middle of 2018. A couple of months after Manifesto opened, I got an email from my mother with an article in The New York Times, my hometown newspaper, all about this amazing Manifesto Market in Prague. And I was dropped off a bridge. Because every young chef in New York wants a write up in the New York Times. Most of us  will never ever get it. I'm certainly never gonna get it, I don't live there anymore, and I don't work on that level anymore. This was probably the only chance that I will ever have to have my name in the New York Times. And I blew it by not believing in Manifesto in the beginning, the biggest mistake of my life. So as soon as the stand became open for the 2018 Christmas market, I was like, yes, I’m in! I don't care, even if there's no more New York Times or anything. Clearly, you guys know what you're doing, you know how to fill a space, which is, as I said before, incredibly important and something that a lot of us weren't trained to do. 

 

And after that experience, are you considering growing with Manifesto? 

I would have been crazy not to. So there's obviously the financial reason, which is that when Manifesto expands, we expand with them. When something works, do more of that. I mean, we had long, long conversations internally with my business partners and my staff, my family, do we do our own standalone restaurant? Which is something we've wanted to do for a long time. Or do we put slightly less money and slightly less risk and go with Manifesto to Berlin? And after some long talks about this, the answer was obvious. 

 

Interview conducted by Klara Olivova.