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HAVING WORDS WITH Rich Levy, founder and owner, Salad Spinners

HAVING WORDS WITH Rich Levy, founder and owner, Salad Spinners

Rich Levy likes to think of himself as the “head tomato” of Salad Spinners, a three-unit chain he founded in ChicAgo in 2000. Combined, the restaurants generate about $2 million in sales, and Levy plans to open four to six corporate stores this year and franchise the chain’s first unit by the fourth quarter.

As its mission statement says, “Salad Spinners is dedicated to American farmers, the men and women of our great land who toil the earth each day to ensure America’s bread basket.”

His success with the concept, which offers healthful salad and sandwich dining alternatives, follows what he readily admits was a disaster with an earlier concept called Piez. It sold meat pies, which Levy used to eat when he was growing up in South Africa. That is, it sold meat pies for the eight money-losing months it was open.

“This was a humbling experience,” says Levy, who was only 23 and fresh out of college when he started the venture.

It also was a learning experience that guided him when he decided to borrow $40,000 from his father to open Salad Spinners. He’s a wiser businessman these days who says that anyone who works in a restaurant—from the owner to kitchen employees—performs on a stage and needs good reviews from customers to be a success. That’s why he studies improvisational comedy at Chicago’s Second City.

Why did Piez fail?

Three reasons. First, we completely didn’t remain true to the British meat pie, and the name didn’t tell you what it was. The second thing was that a month before we opened, our manufacturer pulled out of the deal. We had to scramble and find a manufacturer to make the pies. We compromised on quality. The third thing is the guy who was running the operation, which was me, was very inexperienced, very green and didn’t know enough about business, let alone the restaurant business.

What did you learn from that?

The biggest lesson was to keep my ego in check. I learned to have a healthy respect for cash flow. I learned how to manage people.

FAST FACTS

EDUCATION: bachelor’s degree in business from Indiana University

AGE: 32

BIRTHPLACE: Johannesburg, South Africa

HOBBIES: sail planing, wildlife photography, triathlon training

How was Salad Spinners founded?

The guy who used to be my mentor asked me what I would be doing [after Piez]. I didn’t have a game plan. He was running a rotisserie chicken concept that was selling more salad than chicken. He said, “Look, I want to spin off the salad division.”

What’s your marketing philosophy?

I’m a big proponent of viral marketing, specifically e-mail viral marketing. We send out messages to our database of 5,000 people and encourage them to forward the message.

What is your goal as a brand?

I don’t think anyone owns the word “salad.” We’re striving to be the first concept to own the word salad in the consumer’s mind’s eye, and even more importantly, “gourmet salad.”

Why study improv comedy?

The reason is simple. People are watching you like they’d watch any play or performance. The restaurant industry is all about menu-tainment: How is my pizza made? How is the sandwich made? I find [improv] skills very useful. It gets your creative juices flowing.

What should young entrepreneurs know about starting a restaurant?

I’m actually mentoring two young ladies who are starting a juice concept. The advice I’m giving them is to test the waters. Make sure your brand is something people want and understand. Most importantly, don’t have an ego, and have very thick skin.

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