Creating Shareable Experiences In Your Restaurant With Michael Tronn

creating-shareable-experiences-your-restaurant-michael

A good restaurant is beloved not just because of its delicious food, but most importantly the lasting shareable experiences it offers to every single customer. Jaime Oikle sits down with Michael Tronn of 3 Hospitality and TIMBR to discuss the right way to deliver a complete restaurant experience anyone will love and remember. He explains how to perfectly combine good food, flawless service, and impactful branding to make your restaurant a certified go-to establishment. Michael also discusses why restaurant owners must always stay updated with current social media trends, where word of mouth is passed around almost instantly.

Find out more at https://www.michaeltronn.com & https://www.runningrestaurants.com.

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Coming up on this episode of Running Restaurants, I get with Michael Tronn of 3 Hospitality and TIMBR Restaurant to talk about how effective design and branding can be on the complete restaurant experience. Michael shares stories and wisdom across multiple decades in the various cities he's worked in while delivering tips and insights that you can use in your restaurant. Stay tuned.

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Looking Back To Michael Tronn’s Career Journey

Welcome to Running Restaurants. We're bringing the tips, tools, and techniques you need to make your restaurant more profitable and more successful. I'm your host, Jaime Oikle. I got a great episode for you with Michael Tronn, Chief Creative Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at 3 Hospitality. It has opened a restaurant called TIMBR, which is in the Fort Lauderdale marketplace. Michael, the backstory from what I read is quite captivating. Give folks a little bit of your background, and we'll get into it. What you got?

My backstory and hospitality started when I was sixteen years old in New York. I was doing events in nightclubs primarily before there was even such a thing as promoters, when it was all based around popularity and creativity. I happened to do some events in some clubs in New York. When I was sixteen, I was studying art and fashion at LaGuardia High School. For one of my thesis projects, I did a fashion show, which led to several other fashion shows in nightclubs.

One of the heads of one of the nightclubs said, “Since you're getting such a good response from these shows, why don't you just have parties? I'll pay you to do them, and you won't have to make all these clothes.” At sixteen, that sounded good. I did it for eight years in New York, about another eight years in Miami, and some time in Los Angeles. TIMBR is the 34th place that I've been responsible for. It is certainly the biggest build that I've done in terms of design and construction. It took five years to complete and was a big investment, almost a ground-floor build. It's been very well received.

Origin Story Of The Fort Lauderdale Restaurant

I'm going to come back to a couple of those things. You must have seen a lot to be in the New York party scene, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale. There is some active stuff there. Let's stay with the Fort Lauderdale restaurant. We spent some time in the Miami marketplace. I have been to that Las Olas area in Fort Lauderdale, but this is going back some years. Tell me what's going on there now. The size and scope of the concept are pretty dramatic. How do you tackle going into an upscale market like that area? What are you looking at? How do you design it? How do you put it all together?

I have two partners. One of them had the property already. It was a different nightclub here. The property had been several nightclubs and also a drug store. The building is 110 years old. It was a men's clothing store at one point in the '40s. The way that I put it together was by thinking about the things not only that I liked, but what I felt would be comforting and attractive to others. I'm always thinking about other people's experiences, not just myself, which is a surprisingly differentiator. A lot of people think that their first ideas are great ideas. That's all they think about, and they execute them. Sometimes, they work out. Sometimes, they don't.

I have a system that I've developed over roughly 35 years. I'm writing about that. It's a symphony for the senses concept. It's quite literal that when doing a restaurant or a nightclub, it is a symphony for the senses. Every single element that you can touch is communicating something to the guest. I like to try to speak to them on the conscious level and on the subconscious level, and then use all of their senses to give them something that they might not even realize that they want.

In the case of TIMBR, being in the post-COVID era, certainly comfort was a very big part of it. Familiarity is also a big part of it. The renderings behind me are the exterior of the building. There is also inspiration, creativity, and evoking imagination. TIMBR checks all of those boxes. There are thousands of details in it. There are three rooms that are completely unique from one another, although they do work holistically together. They do tell a story.

When I am working on crafting a concept or design, all of these variables come into play. It's not only the design. It's designed for marketing. It's designed as a user experience. In the moment that we're in with social media, particularly Instagram, everything has to be an Instagrammable moment, from the napkin to the culinary and beverage offerings.

In this age of social media, everything has to be an Instagrammable moment in your restaurant, from the napkin to the culinary and beverages.

A Business of a Thousand Details...

I was scribbling down a whole bunch of stuff. I got lots of notes to come back to there, Michael. Let's stay right there because that's fascinating to think about. You talked about thousands of details. You talked about Instagrammable moments in a venue like yours. You want folks to share it and hashtag it out. How do you design those shareable moments? How do you think about it? How do you space them out so that they can be taken advantage of from multiple vantage points in multiple locations? Tell me some more.

It's living theater. The restaurant itself is a stage or an immersive art experience. Unlike a theater production, it's not just an audience sitting and watching something. They're involved. They're participating. The staff are characters. Their uniforms are costumes, largely in a way. They're not costumey in a silly sense, but even with them and the linen shirts that I have them wearing, it's designed to evoke a Malibu, Martha's Vineyard, Napa Valley vibe. Everywhere you turn in the different rooms in TIMBR, there is something to see.

In the front room, which is called the park, there are real trees in there. We have an 18-foot high ceiling. It feels like you're in a park. There are trees. There are custom-made firefly lights. There are live-edge dining tables, all custom-made. Our seating is also very original. The booths are upholstered in vintage age denim. They're incredibly soft. They're unusual because people don't typically use denim in design. The color rubs off on other people's clothing. In our case, we had the denim treated so that it would not do that.

That was something that I wanted because denim evokes people's favorite pairs of jeans. In addition to the denim, our cushions are also not like any other restaurant cushions. Normally, they're hard enough to make people not want to stay for a very long time. They're commercial is what I'm trying to say. In our case, I wanted them to be like a sofa at your house, and they are. We had to do six different cushion stuffing tests in order to get to it. It was a lot. Everything here was tested multiple times.

Now, they're great. People notice them. They love them, and they talk about them. I have people who I would not expect to notice the details frequently talk to me. They come up to me and say, “Thank you for creating this. This is something Fort Lauderdale needed.” They do appreciate it, not only subconsciously, but consciously as well, which is nice.

How Do You Describe Branding

We had an interview that focused on marketing and branding. A lot of the stuff you talked about relates to branding. It's the vibe. It's the feeling. It's the whole thing you get. It's not the logo or just the color. It's the entire experience. You've launched so many projects and so many events. How do you describe branding?

It all goes together. When I think about branding, it's the product, it's the people, and it's the process. It's the memory that begins when a person first hears about whatever it is that you're promoting. It's the duration of that memory until they're so old that they forget it or move on in life. Branding is perception. Certainly, you're right. It's not just a logo. It's not just designed. It is a holistic experience. Speaking to what I said before, it's all of the senses working together to give a guest a memory. More than being in hospitality, we're in the memory-making business.

What about mistakes around branding and around marketing? You've seen a lot. Is there anything you'd point to and say, “Man, I did that badly.”? It is not to name names. You can even point the finger at yourself. Are there any mistakes you've seen people make in the marketing and branding space? What do you think?

Yes, for sure. Logo overusage is awful. I do not believe in using a logo. On-site, people know where they are. They don't need a constant reminder. It takes what can be a very nice and intimate relationship between the venue and the guest. If you logo your place to death, then you're selling something that they've already bought. There's no need to do that. Most of the places where I grew up didn't even have signage outside.

To me, signage and logos were uncool. I still feel that way. I'm thinking of some of the great places in New York, and signage is always very minimal. I think it's because places that are successful are clubhouses. Part of a clubhouse experience, I don't want to say that it's secret, but there's a scene. There's a community there. If you have your core community, then you don't need to oversell to them.

If you have a core community, you do not need to oversell to them.

Build Out Tips & Budgets

I have a question. If you could share your thoughts on a wide basis. Some folks have a little bit of money to spend, some have medium, and some have a lot to spend. With different budgets in mind, how do you think other restaurateurs can create more experience at their venues to imbibe this culture stuff and to imbibe a following? Any thoughts there?

They should call me. In all honesty, you have to create something that's not only interesting to yourself, although that's a good place to start. You've got to think about where you are. What city are you in? I don't like to refer to people as demographics, but what are the crowds that are around? Who are you creating for? What are your expectations for building the business that you want to build? You've got to know what your targets are in advance.

There are some people who can strike lightning in a bottle once, or maybe twice, just by luck and timing. I have not seen a lot of people who can do 34 venues or multiple cities. The multiple-city thing is very uncommon, but it speaks to what I was saying. It's almost like how do you become an expert without doing? You have to be an expert to succeed in this business. For new people, I would say do something interesting and imaginative. Imagine it to capture the attention of wherever you are, and hopefully, the media as well, wherever you are.

Be clear about having your product match the people that you want to reach. The other thing I would say is you have to have imagination. If you don't have that, you're just not going to succeed. There's a movie, Field of Dreams, with Kevin Costner. In hospitality, that is not true. If you build it, you have to build it and then market the hell out of it, and then they will come.

Here is a question for you because you hinted at this. Folks, give me a call. In addition to TIMBR, do you do consulting for folks around the country and ideas? Tell me about that.

I would for the right project. We are planning on opening more TIMBRs, but in terms of myself, sure. I think about fantastic experiences that could be created in a number of cities, be it Las Vegas or Los Angeles. I've worked in Las Vegas. I've worked in New York. I've worked in Miami. I guess to answer a yes or no question, the answer would be yes.

Prioritizing Character Over Skill

There we go. We'll make sure they have a way to reach out to you. Let's go to the people part of the business because that is a crazy component of what you do. You need lots of people to make it happen. You've got to find the right people. You've got to train them. You've got to keep them motivated and so forth. You've got to give them growth opportunities. How have you thought about the leadership of people over the times you've been involved in restaurants? How are you finding people these days, growing them, and motivating them? What do you think?

Your team is incredibly important. There are characteristics that one would need to have in a good team. The word that comes to mind off the top of my head is kindness. We value personality first and foremost. It's not only about knowing what you do, but it's about how you communicate with the guests. How do you make them feel good, feel special, and feel catered to? The other things can be trained, but you have to have good-hearted people with you from the start. You have to train them well, too.

Other things can be trained, but you need to have good-hearted people in your team from the start.

There's a book that one of my partners brought to us early in the staffing phase called Unreasonable Hospitality. It's a very good book in the industry. I think it's a good book. If you are going into hospitality, that would be a cornerstone. That speaks to the guest experience in terms of staff, kindness, professionalism, attitude, patience, and performance, for sure.

Revitalizing Early Communities

That is a good list of characteristics there. The people will make the difference. That book has come up time and time again. It's very well recommended. I appreciate you sharing that as well and giving that. From your PR team, your history goes back to revitalizing communities and developing neighborhoods. That's part of it. A lot of times, restaurants do start on the fringe of a neighborhood and build a whole character. That can be a fun and challenging part. Tell me about some stories you have there.

I was part of several different early community developments. The first would be in New York. The Meatpacking District is now a luxury location for retail and restaurants and not nightclubs anymore, but at one time it was. At one point, the Meatpacking District was actually where the meat entered Manhattan. It was a very bad neighborhood, but bad neighborhoods lend themselves to good nightclubs. When I was 21 or 22, there was a club over there called Mars. I promoted that on Saturday nights. That would be an example of pioneering an early neighborhood. That's one.

Also, I did work in the East Village at a club called The World. I had a whole building that I was responsible for that was adjacent to it. That was, I would hardly say VIP, but a separate area for downtown cool VIP people involved in the East Village commercialization, I guess. Coming to Miami in the early '90s, before Miami was even a thing, both as a guest and then later as someone who did a bunch of clubs and projects in Miami, South Beach specifically, I was part of the revitalization of South Beach.

I was the creative and marketing director for Studio 54 of Miami, which was a club called Liquid. I then went on to do another project, which was a club called Crobar. Many people think it was the last good club in Miami, and I am inclined to agree. In Miami, I was also on a council selected by the mayor, David Dermer, for all of the branding, business development, and marketing for Miami and the beaches. They needed that help. They were doing a very commercial and housewife-driven advertising media buy, just because they didn't know any better, truthfully.

They were doing these very generic-looking ads, running them in Women's Day, Good Housekeeping, and things of that nature. One of my contributions to the council was changing the media buy and changing the advertising strategy because the people who South Beach would innately appeal to are actually not Midwestern housewives or families. It was founded on inexpensive fashion shoot production, so I redirected them back into that space.

I told them, “You should be buying ads. If you're going to buy ads at all, then it should be in Vogue, W, and Vanity Fair.” They did exactly that with much more cool and high-fashion-looking ads. They also changed the logo for all of Miami, which now has this interesting architectural logo. Before, it was very commercial. Part of Miami's vibe overall is that it's an international, cool destination. There are lots of components that have created that, and huge support for creation and development. The cool factor is in how it's marketed. To speak to Wynwood, which is Miami's hip Art District, it was a warehouse, and there was nothing.

In the early 2000s, when Wynwood was just a bunch of warehouses, myself and about twenty or so other artists were given these empty warehouses to do these big art pop-ups once a month, which was Fridays. The gentleman who owned a lot of these warehouses was the developer, David Lombardi. He realized that the way to activate a neighborhood is through art, especially because when you have a lot of empty warehouses, what's the thing you can do with them? You can fill them with exhibits.

Unlike a lot of cities that have replicated this formula, even Los Angeles, the art has to be very well-kept. If you just put a bunch of art student work on there, it's not going to resonate in the same way. It's not going to be taken seriously. The people who curated the exhibits and the artists who showed them are now museum-caliber. The majority have had either a lot of success. Some of whom are well-known in the arts community. Certainly, many of us have had individual exhibits, myself included, which were also in the design district in Miami. It has since also exploded in a different way.

Wynwood maintained its art origin. Some people say I'm one of the people to be credited with painting on the outside of buildings because I had a house that I bought and painted all over the exterior. Maybe I was the first. I don't know, but it is something that people say. In terms of the Design District, that was a district that had happened mostly for interior designers. It had popped, and then it had waned a little bit. A developer called Craig Robins from Dacra invested heavily in the area. He was able to transition it from an art gallery and only interior design neighborhood into our version of Rodeo Drive.

It's even better. In terms of building the community, to speak to that, it's usually with art, come restaurants, and then come scale, if you do it right. Building a community is very similar to running a restaurant or a nightclub. Any venue is a destination. Any destination, although it's a neighborhood, is not a venue. I do approach it the same way. I think about who we want to be. What are we creating? It's all conscious. It's not, to speak to the thing that I am thinking about, that they should know before doing a restaurant, a nightclub, even a retail store, or even a city.

Predicting The Future of Hospitality

Here is a question for you. This is one thing that I want to ask you, and this will probably be my last main question. You've got your finger on the pulse. You're designing new places. You're talking with folks. Where do you think things are two years from now and five years from now in the hospitality segment? What are some future trends?

What we're going to get into is what I do, this symphonic experience. Instagram is not going away. AI is only going to expand. I don't necessarily foresee that every person is going to be replaced with a robot, even though there will be those restaurants that are gimmicky in that way. People care about human interaction, so restaurants, as we know them, will remain. However, the Instagramable element is only going to increase as the space gets more crowded and as the requirement of evening attention and getting excited guests to share their experiences online and by word of mouth. You just have to be better.

You have to be more interesting. You have to be better. I like to think you have to be the best in your field. In the case of TIMBR, knowing the statistics compared to every other restaurant here, per seat, we are the most popular restaurant in town. We have done that in four months. Open strong. Make sure your opening is strong. Anyone who says that you're going to just open, put out a velvet rope, and magically, people are coming, that's not true. Open strong.

Why You Should Follow Your Intuition

Michael, last thing, you mentioned a couple of books earlier. Anything else on your reading table, anything you're reading right now, anything else you recommend for folks, any other quotes you want to share, or any parting wisdom? I'll open the floor for you.

I encourage people to follow their intuitions a lot, despite all the science that I apply to what I do, because it is an art and a science. It's not one or the other. I believe in following my intuition. To give you an example, we had a completely different design for TIMBR for six weeks that was very modern. Even though I had designed it to something, it was not resonating for me. This was the wrong design. I told my partners that I wanted something warmer. They were understanding and supportive of the change.

Get to know yourself, figure out where you think the void is in your community, and fill that void. Do the thing that you're passionate about because if you're not passionate about it, you're going to lose interest. It's one of my biggest things that I say. When I am working on a project, I don't look at it as, “How can I get business from the community?” because that's too take. I'm very much like, “What can I give to the community? We're creating everything.” That is different from a lot.

Do the thing you are passionate about. If you do something without passion, you will eventually lose interest.

Get In Touch With Michael

Good one, Michael. Websites, socials, where can they find you? Where should they go? Hit them.

For our socials for TIMBR, all across the board, it is @TIMBR_Restaurant. That will be on Instagram and Facebook. I'm just Michael Tronn. All my socials are the same thing. Instagram and Facebook are there. If you are curious about me personally, it's MichaelTronn.com or CatalystXM.com, which stands for Experiential Marketing. If you happen to be curious about contemporary art, then I have the Michael Tronn Gallery. There you go.

We didn't get into the art stuff, but perhaps in the future. Folks, Michael Tronn of 3 Hospitality and TIMBR, you can find them on the web at www.TIMBR-Restaurant.com. Michael's website is MichaelTronn.com. For more great restaurant marketing, people, service, and tech news, stay tuned to us here at RunningRestaurants.com. In the meantime, do us a favor. Like the episode, share it, rate it, and review it. All that stuff is super helpful for us and helps spread the word. We'll see you next time. Thanks, Michael.

Thank you.

Creating Shareable Experiences In Your Restaurant With Michael Tronn

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