Justin Devillier: Stop Fixing What's Already Broken

Josh Kopel (0:00)

I'm going to ask you a question that might sting a bit. How many holiday parties do you have booked for the month of December? Not like, how many do you expect? It's how many are on the books right now with the deposits collected and the contracts signed. And for many of you, I worry that the answer is not enough. And here's why that matters. I think that the companies that are going to throw those parties are picking their venues right now. This is a sweet spot between August and September. And by the time you start thinking about December, the decision has already been made. You're not losing those parties in November. You're going to lose them this month. And that's why I built the Private Events Engine. It's a simple three-part system that leverages AI to do most of the work for you. And this month in the Marketing Masterclass, I'm going to walk you through it. It's going to show you how to package events, how to get in front of the people that are booking them, and how to close them without discounting. And you get the whole thing for free. So show up to this month's Marketing Masterclass. Go to restaurantbusinessschool.com today to sign up. Now here we go.

Justin Devillier (1:08)

Focusing on all those problems can actually become a hindrance to what a lot of people call consistency. But I think we should probably call it something else like growth, getting better. Sometimes you just can't fix your problem. Sometimes you're not built to like manage a certain problem and you keep beating your head against the wall trying to fix it. Maybe it's just not your thing.

Josh Kopel (1:28)

Welcome to FULL COMP, a show offering insight into the hospitality industry, featuring restaurateurs, thought leaders, and innovators. Served up on the house.

What is the standard you're most proud of is the thing holding your restaurant back. Justin Devillier has run La Petite Grocery in New Orleans for two decades, won a James Beard Award, and opened a 210-seat brass fray, then closed it, and is now opening Daughters in the old Upperline space. His take on consistency is blunt, delivering the same experience every visit is how good restaurants slide into mediocrity. In today's conversation, we get into why chasing your weaknesses drains the energy you should be putting into your strengths. What scale actually magnifies when you go from a small room to a 200-seat restaurant, and why taking care of the guests is still the cheapest advantage in business. If you're grinding on problems and wondering why nothing is moving, this one's going to reframe where those efforts land.

Justin Devillier (2:40)

I grew up with a creative mind. I just remember early on always having ideas for movie scenes and things like that, running through my head as a child and was very into art and music and things like that and just gravitated towards the creative side of life.

Somewhere in my early teens, I befriended a couple of guys who were in my neighborhood that I grew up in, who were chefs at a local hotel and that piqued my interest into like, oh, that sounds so cool. You get to create food and there was something that's always just kind of drawn me towards food and towards cooking. And I think that my creative nature also just kind of threw gasoline on that fire for me. So as I set out in my career as a chef and cook and all that as like a young man, you don't know at first and you don't know when you're that young, kind of what your path is going to be or what you're going to try to do. And I always kind of thought I would wind up working in an organization or for somebody else and focus on being a chef. And I thought that was how it was going to go. And honestly, the restaurant tour part just kind of unfolded through working and opportunities and some dumb luck and some hard work. So it definitely wasn't something that I set a goal and plan to do. The restaurant ownership part, it definitely unfolded through my career. And at a young age, I actually found myself in an ownership position. I think I was 28 years old when I first took over some ownership of La Petite Grocery. So that wasn't the plan. I moved to New Orleans in 2003 and I was a lion cook at that time. And I kind of set myself this goal that I would work here and maybe work some other places. And try to have like a 10 year period of apprenticeship and learning and then go off and try to become a chef.