Full Taste Vegan

Restaurant Name: Full Taste Vegan

Employees: 8

Owner: Dr. Debbie Wallace

Location: Atlanta, GA

Debbie is successful doctor who’s used to succeeding in all she sets out to do… except for owning and operating a restaurant. Coming from a medical background, Debbie is on a mission to change the world and improve people’s health through food. How hard could it be to run a restaurant? So she hired a General Manager/future Co-Owner, Sayyid, and started down the path. Being a health nut, Debbie’s main goal is to produce healthy, vegan style food for the masses, but she is very quickly realizing she has taken on far more than she can handle. Debbie has put $500,000 of her own money into her restaurant, and sadly she isn’t seeing any return on investment. She’s squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars on an expensive build out, top of the line equipment, a hot-shot chef and paying her employees top-dollar. She did everything right. So why is she failing? 

The business is absolutely in the red and not turning a profit. The foot traffic is nowhere where it should or needs to be to be a sustainable restaurant. Debbie, her Chef Michael aka “Mike” and her general manager, Sayyid all point fingers and playing the “blame game.” Debbie brought in Michael to be her star Chef. He sold her promises and dreams, but so far hasn’t delivered. She still stands by her Chef, however, Sayyid says that Michael is delusional and is the problem. Michael is living in his own universe, unrealistic and dismissive regarding the state of the restaurant. Sayyid is ready to walk away, thinking that Michael and Debbie are too enmeshed and spacey that they are beyond helping. To make matters worse, the lack of leadership trickles down to the other employees who don’t know what to do with their time when there aren’t enough meals to make. 

According to Sayyid the biggest issue is the head-chef. Chef Michael is living in his own universe, thinking Full Taste is his own restaurant. He truly believes that he’s going to get a Michelin star. He’s that good… Sayyid knows that he’s out of his mind but still, Michael doesn’t see the writing on the wall. Debbie only placates him and reinforces his ego instead of bringing him back down to earth. His food is too lofty, too expensive and not accessible. According to Sayyid, he needs a wakeup call or be let go in order for the restaurant to succeed. He also displays other problematic behavior: He comes in when he wants to and leaves when he wants to…sometimes even leaving the restaurant mid-day! Debbie pays him a generous amount, but at the cost of her own salary. And potentially the restaurant.

Michael is also pushing Debbie to sell alcohol at the restaurant, but that goes against everything she believes in as a health advocate. This causes a struggle between her and Michael. The staff can smell alcohol on his breath. Michael says that if the restaurant isn’t successful it’s because that Debbie won’t sell alcohol. (Again, the blame game) Sayyid thinks that there’s a way to make the restaurant successful without selling alcohol but does admit, that wine and beer sales would help tremendously. 

The lack of leadership trickles down to the other positions: Servers will be noticeably check-out and play on their phones instead of tending to customers. Because of Debbie's lack of knowledge when it comes to bookkeeping and managing a team, Sayyid is convinced that the staff is stealing money from Debbie. 

One thing is for sure: if things don’t turn around, and quickly, Debbie will be forced to close the restaurant. What’s worse, the employees won’t even see it coming. If Full Taste Vegan closes it would mean that Debbie’s dream has failed, but even worse, she’ll have to let go of her entire staff and say good-bye to a half-million-dollar investment.