FSR September 2022
ONE OFF HOSPI TAL I T Y
coronavirus, Browne advised the part ners to create an “in case of emergency” document with contingency plans. Clearly, it proved a prescient suggestion. Her business savvy is also helping One Off leverage better real estate deals. In the past, Madia and Alexander han dled lease negotiations, a responsibil ity they’ve since handed off to Browne. Madia likens his approach to Friendly Bob Adams salesman—an affable, ficti tious character used as a marketing tool in bygone days to attract prospective customers. By comparison, Browne is adept in parsing out contractual details that benefit and protect the parent group. While she brings graciousness and a spirit of hospitality to these negotiations, she’s also cognizant of the line between professional and personal matters. Busi ness ties can be friendly, but the parties needn’t always be friends. “I know two things: ere are list-mak ers and novel-makers. And then there are CEOs and non-CEOs. I’mnot a CEO; I’m just not, and I don’t think the other four partners are CEO material. Could we run a company? Yeah, we ran a com pany, but I think to get to the next level of business and organization and cen tralization, [we need a CEO],” Madia says. Still, Browne is quick to give credit to the One Off partners. “Regardless of what he is saying, they’ve been very suc cessful. ey had very good real estate deals [and] great locations,” she adds. Browne had been in contact with Madia years before she officially joined the team. Back in 2015, the pair’s corre spondence centered on one topic in par ticular: staffing. “She wrote an email to me and goes, ‘I’m very confused with the makeup of your workforce. I think in the next five years, you’re going to see something that you’ve never seen before,’” Madia says. “She wasn’t projecting that it was going to be a pandemic, but [she knew] how hard it was going to be for us to get staffed.” As restaurants settle in for the long haul in a more competitive labor mar ket, Browne’s experience is a major asset. For the past 20 years, she has worked at the highest level for companies special
that time, it’s only lost about a dozen. Browne has also made a point of invit ing staffmembers who aren’t upper-level decision-makers to join in discussions around employee advancement. “Karen’s mindset is diversity, growth employment, and moving people up the ladder of One Off Hospitality and creating more employee propositions— and also helping retainership as well, because that’s a thing we’re faced with on a daily basis,” Madia says. “We want to have a leg-up in some way to promote our staff members that have been with us for years.” THE CONCEPT CURATORS BothMadia and Browne exude a certain air of fearlessness and possibility. ey have ambitious plans for the restaurant group, plus a track record that demon strates those plans aren’t mere pie-in the-sky dreams. e two are just as hun gry as younger restaurant upstarts, but they have nothing to prove. Instead, they continue this work for the love and chal lenge of it. “ e partners are very hands-on here. They’re not at home relaxing. I try to encourage more of that, but it never hap pens,” Browne says. For her part, moving into the res taurant sphere after decades in a differ ent industry was a decision made out of genuine interest, not necessity. “I’m at a point in my career where I would only work where the ownership is gracious. You grow up and you work for some great people, and you work for some people where it’s a job. is is not that. It’s really a fun experience every day,” she adds. And in a way, her semblance to a smartly attired curator is fitting. “ eir brand is unbelievable. It’s kind of like being a curator in a museum— just trying to not take it off kilter, but to guide it,” Browne says. “What I’m very proud of is putting in great people who are empowered and can really move this [group] to the next place. at’s what we’re focused on. e partners are always going to be growing the business. We’re always going to be adding restaurants and doing great things.”
DONNIE MADIA
KAREN BROWNE
izing in talent acquisition and workforce solutions. She saw the workforce bottle neck years before it began in earnest, and now she’s taking steps to reshape what a career with One Off looks like. “I tell our team that if we lose some one, we may not have an eligible person to replace them, and that is where we are just in America,” Browne says. “We’re always going to have a great employee proposition of why [work at] One Off. And I’mhoping everyone prioritizes that for people. I think it’s just going to make everybody better.” She adds that difficulty can be inspi rational because it requires companies to behave better, whether that’s rethink ing work schedules, benefits, paths to advancement, or training practices. Madia says that once upon a time, com panies could be “persnickety” when look ing at résumés, but now is the time to keep an open mind. After all, skills can be taught, and work experience unre lated to foodservice can bring a kalei doscope of fresh perspectives. Since March 2020, the group has hired about 200 employees, and in
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FSRMAGAZINE .COM
SEPTEMBER 2022
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