While many restaurants struggled through the recession, New Mexico’s largest operation, the 1,020-seat El Pinto Restaurant & Cantina, thrived by amping up its engagement with guests and tapping social media to enhance the relationship.
Sales at the family-owned El Pinto in Albuquerque, N.M., have increased in each of the past 10 years, said Jim A. Garcia, El Pinto’s director of operations. In 2010, for example, sales at the restaurant alone rose more than 7 percent to pass $6.2 million, he said, and that excludes the company’s popular packaged salsa products.
“We want to create evangelists,” Garcia said. “We want to get guests to tell other people about us.”
El Pinto, founded in 1962 and owned by twin brothers Jim and John Thomas of the original founding family, has emphasized the guest experience, producing a wait list for its thousand-plus seats nearly every night.
Garcia, who worked 10 years each with Bennigan’s and Olive Garden, said the guest experience starts with El Pinto’s 220 employees who “create the magic.”
They concentrate on creating a “wow factor” for the guest, and learn to do so in a training program created a year and a half ago.
Garcia talked with Nation’s Restaurant News about other El Pinto programs that contribute to the restaurant’s success:
How do you maintain your customer loyalty?
We decided we were going to create a remarkable experience for our customers, giving them not only a dinner, but an experience they would never forget. We knew our market was families and a variety of people who wanted to celebrate an occasion. El Pinto is a spot that has a lot of beauty and great things to look at. We started to animate everything that we did and animate their senses: the view, the chiles roasting and great food.
Hear co-owner Jim Thomas talk about El Pinto; story continues on page 2
