Nick Reader of PDQ: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restauranteur

An Interview With Vicky Colas

Take it slow. Listen first. You get bored with your menu before your guests do. Surround yourself with people smarter than you. Enjoy the process

As part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restaurateur”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Nick Reader.

Nick Reader serves as CEO and Co-Founder of the award-winning PDQ restaurant brand. Reader has received many accolades over the years, including the 2016 Emerging Entrepreneur Award as part of Ernst & Young’s Florida Entrepreneur of the Year program, and was also named one of the University of Florida’s inaugural Gator100, recognizing the 100 fastest-growing businesses owned or led by UF alumni. He was also awarded with one of the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s “30 People Under 30” awards, recognizing the top young professionals in the Tampa Bay community. Reader was previously Chief Financial Officer of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the youngest CFO at the time in the National Football League.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know’ you a bit. Can you share with our readers a story about what inspired you to become a restaurateur?

With an active family of three boys who all play sports and are in school, in addition to my wife who is a schoolteacher, I found myself dressing kids for practice and eating in the car more than I would have ever expected. The ridicule of my super fit friends about eating fast food made myself and my partner Bob Basham question why there couldn’t be better options with drive-thrus. It was then that we realized we wanted to start a restaurant that served food that we could be proud of and would be willing to serve at home to our families. At PDQ we believe that food should be fresh, fast and affordable, and we continuously work to achieve that goal.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you became a restaurateur? What was the lesson or take away you took out of that story?

As part of our People First mentality, we started a scholarship program for team members a few years ago. As part of the program, I have the opportunity to visit the winners and surprise them with a check at their restaurant on a day when they are working. On one of the first visits, the winner was so surprised that her and her parents started crying in the middle of our dining room and it caused a scene from our team members to our guests. Once everyone figured out what was happening, all returned to normal, and everyone hugged while enjoying the moment. And the best lesson from that experience was to involve everyone in the restaurant so since then, I have made the presentation by announcing it to the entire dining room, which has allowed us to celebrate these special moments not only with our team members, but our guests as well.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? How did you overcome this obstacle?

We did what a lot of brands do and overcomplicated our menu. But over time, we have taken a step back and listened to our guests and our team to understand what they really want as well the challenges for our people as well. We are obsessed with delighting our guests’ cravings, and now everything we do goes back to that mantra.

In your experience, what is the key to creating a dish that customers are crazy about?

It has to start with crave-able flavors and quality ingredients. Guests care about your brand’s authenticity now more than ever so you have to look at who are your guest is and what is it they come to you for. Each brand has a flavor profile and experience unique to them. You realize you can’t be everything to everybody, so listening to what your guests want versus what you think is the key to developing new menu items and limited time offerings. As an example, our guests asked for a spicy option for a long time. But instead of being the first to venture into the spicy world, we took our time and perfected an amazing recipe for a spicy sandwich and spicy nuggets. We launched both as limited time offerings, but the response from our guests has been so tremendous that they both have earned a permanent place on our menu.

Personally, what is the ‘perfect meal for you’?

It starts with my wife of 23 years and our three boys at our favorite sit-down restaurant in Tampa: Rocca. The meal usually starts with a bottle of wine and lots of incredible pastas and ends with a lot of teasing between the boys. My wife Melanie has learned to be a referee and a trooper because two teenage boys and an 8-year old boy involves a lot of teasing and joking about who the best is.

Where does your inspiration for creating come from? Is there something that you turn to for a daily creativity boost?

I really love eating and the entire experience of breaking bread while sharing more than a meal, but an experience with people you care about. For me and my family a lot of our travel revolves around visiting restaurants and great retail spots, and just observing what gives a certain place the ‘it’ factor. There are certain restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, or retail stores you can visit 100 times and just leave with a really special feeling. To me, the Breakers in Palm Beach is a hotel that does everything to perfection. Every time I stay there I come home inspired to do more for our team and guests. The other big thing is reading and surrounding yourself around great people. As part of our culture here at PDQ, we have incorporated fireside chats for our team members featuring industry leaders and other successful individuals in business, sports and other areas. In addition, our teams take part in book clubs to improve and learn every single day

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? What impact do you think this will have?

PDQ is dedicated to taking care of its Team Members and providing an environment that’s fun but educational to help continue their careers. PDQ offers its Team Members lots of opportunities to grow and enjoy working for the brand, including retention bonuses, Team Member Reward Programs, contests among units and brandwide, sales training, infusing culture into our current eLearning, employee wellness training, soft skills leadership training and development (offered to coaches, ODS, home office) and a scholarship program.

When one of our Team Members has an idea, we will always consider it and most of the time we’ll allow them to try it out in their stores and see how well it works. We’ve seen numerous ideas do well for that store and then expand out to the other PDQ stores to continue building our company.

What advice would you give to other restaurateurs to thrive and avoid burnout?

Enjoy the process and invest in your people. To me the biggest joy is providing an opportunity to our team to better themselves and their lives.

Thank you for all that. Now we are ready for the main question of the interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started as a Restaurateur” and why? Please share a story or an example for each.

• Take it slow
• Listen first
• You get bored with your menu before your guests do
• Surround yourself with people smarter than you
• Enjoy the process

What’s the one dish people have to try if they visit your establishment?

For me the go to order is the Buffy Bleu sandwich with a side of waffle fries and some PDQ sauce to dip them in. And a hand-spun Oreo shake to finish. The next day to make up for my indulgence I love the grilled chicken lettuce wrap, add some avocado, with a side order of parmesan broccoli and a green tea. We have the best green tea anywhere made for us by a local coffee and tea company called Joffrey’s.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

A good friend and partner to me and PDQ is Thaddeus Bullard aka WWE Superstar Titus O’Neil. Thaddeus was raised by his mother, who was raped at the age of 11 and chose to give life to him, and he has dedicated his life to giving back to children and families in need through his Bullard Family Foundation and adopting a local elementary school in an area of need. He also works closely with the local Boys and Girls Club, which is close to my heart as my wife is a fifth-grade teacher. I love what he has done to improve the lives and opportunities for youth, which ties into why I love working for PDQ because we can provide opportunity, leadership and mentorship for our people.

Thank you so much for these insights. This was very inspirational!