Michael White & Bruce Bronster: Price Less, Win More

**Josh Kopel** (0:00)
What are you doing this month to make sure your business grows? Do you mind if I make a suggestion? This month's free Restaurant Marketing Master Class is about one thing, using AI to create an unfair advantage. And not by replacing what makes your restaurant special, but by helping you move faster on the work that actually drives growth. I'm taking my proven tactics, tools and strategies and showing you how to use AI to sharpen your marketing, speed up execution, and turn good ideas into action without getting buried in the details. You'll be working with me personally to build these strategies into your business in real time. And because of that, space is limited. But you can sign up for free today by going to restaurantbusinessschool.com.
Again, you can sign up for free today just by going to restaurantbusinessschool.com. I'll see you there. Now here we go.

**Bruce Bronster** (0:54)
When I would touch the table, people would be like thrilled. And I had no idea that it would be so thrilling for patrons. And people would feel honored, blessed, respected if an owner touched the table. And I'm there now. I'm there every night.

**Josh Kopel** (1:13)
Welcome to FULL COMP, a show offering insight into the hospitality industry, featuring restauranteurs, thought leaders, and innovators. Served up on the house.
What if the reason your margins are tight has nothing to do with efficiency and everything to do with strategy? Chef Michael White held five simultaneous Michelin stars under the Altamarea Group before co-founding BBianco Hospitality Group with hospitality attorney Bruce Bronster in 2020 Together, they run a restaurant company, they deliberately prices below the competition, and still gets guests back three or four times a week because of it. In today's conversation, we get into why their three Cs are the real operating system behind a loyal guest base, how volume answers margin problems, the deficiencies never can, and why knowing your lane inside a close partnership is the thing that keeps your business from falling apart. If you're still chasing 20 percent margins and losing guests in the process, this is the episode for you.

**Bruce Bronster** (2:23)
We met in the early aughts at Michael's two-star Michelin Alto, which was almost a life-changing restaurant at 53rd and Madison, which is where Santi is now. We became fast friends. We had a little posse of food friends, purveyors, chefs, people in the industry. And we would go to the wine and food festivals all the time. We'd hang out. Patiently, I would have Michael and his family over my house for dinner, he would immediately take over everything because I was always messing it up. But great friends. I'm a lawyer to the food industry. I've done that for a long time. I worked with Michael professionally, so we were friends, we were professional cohorts, and then COVID happened.
Michael left the Altamarea Group, and in the midst of worldwide devastation, we were sensing an opportunity to present Michael's amazing food in kind of a new and innovative way, and work together and achieve something. So that's how it all happened.

**Josh Kopel** (3:26)
Michael, what inspired you to leave? What seemed like a really successful career? I'm sure a lot of people in your circle and within the industry probably turned to you and said, you got a good thing going. Why would you pivot?

**Michael White** (3:36)
Sure. I think it was just a moment of opportunity in the sense that you really didn't know what was going to happen next. We were in this spiral from March to April to May, in the beginning of COVID. It was just a moment in which I had done what I could do at the Altamarea Group and decided that it was time that I go out and do it for myself and on my own, partnering with someone that could help me achieve my next path in my culinary career, the next rung on the ladder, if you will.

**Josh Kopel** (4:10)
Well, I think for many of us, what that ultimately translates to is more risk, less money, and more work. But the two of you seem really intentional.
I would ask you, as you initially approach the partnership, how did you establish concrete roles and a plan to make sure? Because Bruce, especially as a lawyer, I think every entrepreneur of venture starts out with, how hard could this possibly be? Then ultimately, you end up across the desk from a lawyer that is explaining all of the ways. You were able to have a very sober look going into this. What guardrails were you guys able to put in a place in the conceptual phase to make sure that didn't happen?