Great restaurants don’t automatically become great businesses. Scaling takes the right systems, people and strategy. Amir Yazdi, founder and managing partner of Bastian Capital, has spent more than 20 years building, operating and investing in restaurant brands, giving him a unique perspective on what separates concepts that grow from those that stall.
In a recent episode of Forktales, Amir shares what makes a restaurant concept investable, the biggest mistakes operators make when scaling, how rising labor costs and GLP-1s are reshaping the industry, and why restaurants continue to thrive as places that bring communities together.
Check out the full episode here.
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR WHEN EVALUATING A RESTAURANT CONCEPT?
Obviously, we look at the fundamentals like margins and scalability, but there’s much more to it. Is it a legacy brand or an emerging one? What category is it in? What geography? How old are the restaurants? Geography plays as big a role as almost anything today. And one of the first questions we always ask is, “Why are you selling?” No one sells the good ones. We want to know whether there’s still real growth ahead or if someone is trying to get out before the business starts to decline.
WHAT SEPARATES A GREAT SINGLE RESTAURANT FROM A CONCEPT THAT CAN SCALE?
It comes down to replicability. A great local restaurant often succeeds because it’s tied to one owner or one personality. But if you’re going to grow to 20 or 100 locations, the operation has to be simple and repeatable. You have to remove the guesswork. Early in our business, all I did was build charts and systems because every location was doing things differently. Once we standardized the operation, that became the catalyst for real growth.
WHAT’S ONE OF THE BIGGEST MISTAKES RESTAURANT OPERATORS MAKE WHEN THEY TRY TO GROW?
People often assume that because someone is great at one job, they’ll automatically be great at the next level. We learned the hard way that an excellent single-unit manager doesn’t necessarily become a great multi-unit manager. On the acquisition side, operators also hesitate to change things because they don’t want to disrupt the business. But maintaining legacy habits just because “that’s how we’ve always done it” can become one of the biggest obstacles to growth.
IF YOU COULD GIVE ONE PIECE OF ADVICE TO AN EMERGING RESTAURANT BRAND, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Who are your people? Your vision can only take the business so far. You need the right team coming along on that journey with you. Are their capabilities aligned with your goals? If the answer isn’t almost completely yes, they’re probably not the right fit. Businesses grow because everyone is pulling in the same direction.
WHAT MAKES YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY?
People will always want to gather around food. There’s something special about breaking bread together. Whether you’re celebrating with family, meeting friends or watching a game at your neighborhood bar, restaurants create community in a way few other places can. You get to know the staff, the regulars and the atmosphere. That’s the magic of this business, and I don’t think that ever goes away.
