Taffer Takeaways: Top 10 from MURTEC’s Superstar Keynote

We all know Jon Taffer as a larger-than-life television personality who takes a no-holds-barred approach to helping hotels, restaurants, bars and businesses reach their full potential. He’s also an international celebrity, New York Times best-selling author, highly sought-after hospitality and general business consultant and creator, and is the creator, executive producer and star of Paramount Network’s number-one show, Bar Rescue. AND, he was our AMAZING MURTEC keynote speaker. 

Here are my Taffer Takeaways, quoting his passionate plea to the restaurant industry he loves: 

1. “I've learned more from failure than I've ever learned from success. I've learned the look of failure. The talk of failure. I can smell it a mile away. I found the common denominator of failure: An Excuse. Excuses paralyze. They stop growth, every single time. If we own failure and do not allow circumstances to stop us, we find success.”
2. “Reaction management is the name of the game. If I can get my prospects to react better to me, I’ll sell more. Our success in life is derived from those around us. We look at Customer Reaction Opportunity Windows (C.R.O.W.) This is how we measure if these guys get it.”
3. “Post-pandemic, we are all up 15-25 percent. All restaurants, except the ones that don’t deserve it. And we’ve got 25-30 percent in take-out, and we’re going back to pre-pandemic dine-in numbers. It’s a revenue boomtown.”
4. Meeting with Florida senators, I thought of something that no one else was bringing up. If I go out and buy an airplane, I can write it off. But for restaurants, there’s a 5-year straight-line deductibility. When we think of challenges, we can’t find people. Technology is the answer. Communication, security, labor, the answer is the same. Technology. We need accelerated equipment deductibility / depreciation for restaurant equipment, and I’m going to be all over TV plugging the hell out of it.”
5. “We reinvented the casual dining model at Taffer’s Tavern, and we did it all through technology. Computerized cooking, flawless consistency, 5-6 minute ticket times. All Sous Vide. No Hood, no traditional stoves. My kitchen is air conditioned. While everyone is cutting front-of-house (FOH) labor, we focused on back-of-house (BOH). By minimizing the BOH payroll burden with technology, we increased human connectivity in the FOH. The future of our industry is technology. I created it because of you. Your technologies helped me achieve this objective.”
   
   Jon Taffer’s Kitchen of the Future Concept
    
6. “I had to struggle to put this (Taffer’s Tavern model) together. We need to develop the right models to create the right reactions. You never tried to sell me the solutions, you never tried to sell me the future. I suggest many of you are selling the wrong thing.” 
7. “The door has never been wider for us (post-pandemic). We just went through hell. We are just getting on our feet. The solutions are in this room. We are around the corner from boomtown.”
8. “As costs start to stabilize, the restaurant industry is going to buy everything you’re selling. I can’t improve efficiency without you. Every problem I have, you (technology companies) are my solution. Here is your opportunity. To position your tech in the heart of our industry.”
9. “From things like this, good things evolve. From disruption, comes opportunity. Great marketers, great salespeople will bubble to the top. Some will disappear and some will explode in growth. Which companies will create the best reaction? If it doesn’t create a reaction, don’t do it.”
10. “Lick off the wounds. Get rid of excuses. Restaurants are packed. Restaurants are packed! That’s all that matters to us right now. SEIZE THIS OPPORTUNITY. There will never be a better one. You will become a superstar or a bum. It’s up to you.” 

Additional MURTEC 22 coverage can be found here. 

About the Author

Angela Diffly is the Co-Founder of Restaurant Technology Network. Follow her on LinkedIn to stay in the know on all-things restaurant technology: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angeladiffly/.

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