FSR July 2023

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Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ

ANGIE MOSIER RODNEY SCOTT’S WHOLE HOG BBQ / ANGIE MOSIER (2)

Five of Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ restaurants in South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia are permanently shifting from counter service to full-serve casual dining. The new service format will provide more opportunities for team members to connect with guests and personalize their experiences, and ultimately “fulfill that meaning of Southern hospitality,” says Rodney Scott. FSR editor Callie Evergreen caught up with the James Beard Award-winning pitmaster to find out why he believes an elevated service model will give guests an experience that matches the “love, tradition, and technique we put into our food,” and what it will take to make the transition.

GUESTS LINGER LONGER When you think of barbecue, you think of sitting down and lingering a while with friends and family while enjoying great food. is is the best way to serve guests with our food. We want people to feel catered to and feel like it’s a more complete experience. With my busi ness partner Nick Pihaki’s past expe rience and with me loving the element of catering to guests, it just worked. Right now, we plan to transition all of our restaurants to full service in the near future, with the exception of our original store in Charleston. TRANSITION PERIOD e experience of shifting to full-ser vice has just been so much more per sonal for the team—they love the ele ment of catering to the guests instead

RETURN ON INVESTMENT Guests can now also dine at the to-go counter, and hand-held devices allow servers to take orders at the table and collect payments. While there has been training investment and uni form investment up front, the return on investment ( ) should be high; people appreciate being catered to, so the ROI will be driven by our guests who will go to our restaurants and have their expectations fully exceeded from what you typically expect at a barbe cue restaurant. TRUE HOSPITALITY CULTURE It all came down to the type of experi ence we wanted our guests to have, so we wanted to go back to the true cul ture of hospitality and provide guests with a more personalized experience.

of just bringing food to the table. We brought in a greeter at the door and another bartender, but the majority of the shift relied on training our existing sta . We had to get everyone adapted to the full-service model to make this transition work. We spent a lot of time training our servers with the basics, like which tables they are serving, how to take payments from the table, how to make sure guests that come through the back are seated at a table close to them, et cetera. In addition to training, we also changed uniforms—we used to require T-shirts, jeans, and short aprons around the waist, but now the uniform is dark jeans with a bib apron, which provides more of a cleaner look. We thought that elevated service called for a more elevated look / uniform.

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JULY 2023

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