QSR June 2023

YOUNG LEADERS

for a brand, and not all of them have a com munity. “I always say I’d rather have one per son that would buy something from me than 10 people who just want to watch and not engage,” Earl says “It’s a totally different ball game.” Virtual Dining Concepts spends time with talent enough to understand their vision and become embedded in their following. From there, it’s data analysis of what will work and what won’t. After taste tests, the concept undergoes an operations process, which can be difficult, Earl says. The brand can’t be too complicated. For instance, hand-breading a product can take a lot of prep time. Those items can be tricky, especially if a restau rant already operates at scale. To remove this obstacle, Virtual Dining Concepts created a “speedy system” in which it learned how to get concepts to a certain number of SKUs and ease of execution. The process considers back of-house workers’ ability to learn the product and go off of muscle memory. One of Virtual Dining Concepts’ biggest successes was MrBeast Burger. Earl met Don aldson four or five years prior when he was playing in the creator brand space. He orig

and form a new industry. He also partici pated in several startups that gave him a broad understanding of the restaurant tech ecosystem. Earl and his team ask multiple questions before recognizing a concept as viable. Could this be a national brand? Is it able to survive and thrive on its own? Is it good enough to stand the test of time? There’s also a talent lit mus test. Earl says not every celebrity is made

it is a restaurant that we were able to help or a customer that enjoyed a meal and was sur prised and delighted by it, that is probably my favorite part of what we do.” Some examples of Virtual Dining Con cepts’ work includes MrBeast Burger (with YouTube star MrBeast, aka Jimmy Don aldson), Mariah’s Cookies (Mariah Carey), Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Kitchen, and Robert Irvine’s American Heroes. Earl co-founded the company with his father, Robert Earl (founder of Planet Hol lywood), and Trish Giordano, a longtime marketing executive with Earl Enterprises. He describes the partnership by quoting Isaac Newton, who once said, “if I have seen further [than others], it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” That’s how he views the expertise of his father and Giordano, whose credibility and knowledge help Virtual Dining Concepts make the right decisions. But Earl carries his weight. He oversees much of the day-to-day operations and helps develop many new brands. The three main skillsets he uses for the job are hospitality, dealing with talent, and in-depth knowledge of technology. He acquired the first two by working in his father’s restaurants since he was 14 years old and by attending Boston University School of Hospitality Administra tion. After graduating, Earl worked at talent management companies, where he gained a strong belief that creators could build brands

ROBBIE EARL PLAYS A BIG ROLE IN CULTIVATING NEW BRANDS FOR VIRTUAL DINING CONCEPTS.

VIRTUAL DINING CONCEPTS / RICH POLK

inally pitched the social media sensation a different idea, and Donaldson ripped it to shreds. So Earl came back with an even stron ger pitch. It was going to be pizza at first, but statistics showed burgers had a greater oppor tunity for disruption. “It wasn’t originally going to be a smash burger,” Earl recalls. “So at the time, we had two to three burger concepts that we were test ing and seeing what worked, and our best one was smash burgers. So in the back of every one’s head, we’re like, ‘This thing is a hit no matter what. We know it’s going to work.’ And we were like, ‘Oh, well, let’s talk to Jimmy about the non-smash patty.’ And I was just like, ‘No, let’s go with the best product that we possibly have with the best talent for the high

VIRTUAL DINING CONCEPTS / DAVE KOTINSKY (2)

20

JUNE 2023 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com