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Show Summary:

Adam El-Dika, the sole owner of Wam and Windsor, shares his story on the Wisdom Lifestyle Money Show. He grew up in Windsor, Ontario, attended school there, and then moved to Lebanon with his family at the age of 17. After completing high school in Lebanon, he returned to Windsor and attended university, studying biology. However, he quickly realized that teaching was not the right path for him. During this time, he started working at a restaurant and gained experience in the industry.

Adam and his team opened Mario Nostrom, their first restaurant, after winning a request for proposal (RFP) process. They later opened a second location in Kingsville and launched a retail food division. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they had to pivot their business entirely. They closed down for a period and then started a home delivery service to supplement their operations. They also noticed a demand for burgers and decided to offer smash burgers with unique features like using Martin's potato buns and branding the buns with the phrase "Bite me up."

Organization and time management were key lessons Adam learned throughout his life, which became even more important when managing multiple business ventures. During the pandemic, they faced challenges such as increased costs, labor shortages, and external uncertainties. However, they adapted and focused on long-term planning now that lockdowns and restrictions are not a concern.

Regarding delivery, they utilize a point-of-sale system called Touch Bistro, which integrates with DoorDash for delivery. By ordering directly from them, customers can avoid the higher prices and additional fees charged by third-party delivery platforms. Adam also explains the concept of smash burgers, where freshly ground beef is smashed on a griddle, creating a crispy crust while maintaining a soft interior. They offer halal chicken options and are actively seeking halal beef products.

When choosing a location for a business, Adam emphasizes the importance of proximity to the expressway, which increases delivery radius and accessibility. Being on a bus route is also crucial for accessing the labor force, especially in a student-dominated market like Windsor. While the mall could be a good option, there may be restrictions due to non-compete agreements with existing restaurants.

Overall, Adam's journey in the restaurant industry has involved adapting to challenges, embracing new opportunities, and focusing on customer satisfaction.

Scott Dillingham: Welcome back to the Wisdom Lifestyle Money Show. I'm your host, Scott Dillingham. Today I've got Adam El-Dika with us, who's the sole owner of Wam and Windsor. How's it going, Adam? Good, Scott, thank you for having me. Awesome. No worries. I'm so glad you're here. Now what we usually do when we start off the show is when we have a guest, we have the guests kind of start and tell us growing up how it was growing up to get to where you are now, cuz you're very accomplished in the restaurant industry locally here.

And I'd love to hear your story. Yeah. Thanks again for having me. I appreciate it. I was born in Windsor, Ontario. Lived here for most of my life. Attended our lady of perpetual help grade school Catholic central for high school. But I actually didn't graduate here.

Adam El-Dika: My family decided to move to Lebanon when I was 17. Okay. And I graduated from an American high school there. It was called Eastwood College. And so that was a, actually a. Pretty formative year in my life. It put me in a totally different culture, although obviously born and raised to be Lebanese I've come to realize recently that I'm Canadian, Lebanese and not Lebanese.

Yes, there's a difference. Yeah. And so that was quite a formative time and really insightful. And then I moved back to Windsor after a year of High school there, attended the university. I was actually a biology undergraduate, although I'm not using that particular knowledge base in my current career.

But Did that for four years. The intention was actually to go to teacher's college was there for two weeks and then quickly realized that it wasn't meant for me. Okay. At that time I was working for a restaurant here in Windsor. They were opening a second branch at the University of Windsor, where we actually currently are.

Okay. They, we operated that with them for about eight months and then they decided to exit the location cuz they were expanding into South Windsor. And the opportunity to apply for that location came up because it was actually an rfp that was opened by the Graduate Student Society. So Okay.

So we got into grocery stores, bottling, salad dressings. Nice. And then Covid happened. Yep. And then we pivoted over entirely to now which is our primary focus, which is wa

Scott Dillingham: what? So somebody hearing your story, right? And you have all these different ventures, was there any lessons that you learned when you were younger as a child that you took with you to make you successful

Adam El-Dika: today?

When I was younger and even up until now organization was key. Okay. Calendar notes, all that stuff. I think when you're pursuing multiple business ventures being on top of everything is vital. Things can quickly get unorganized, especially when you start to have a staff of 22 people or whatever it is.

Yeah. Being on top of 22 individuals, the business, operations, finances, all that stuff. So I think the biggest takeaway is being organized. Okay. Task time management is a huge thing. I would say those two things are probably the biggest takeaways, I think from my childhood up until now.

Scott Dillingham: Okay. No, which makes sense.

You're right. You have to be organized. Even like I'll see friends with clutter in their house, and I'm like, even that, like even clutter in your house can affect you at work and your performance because your brain has all this stuff going on. Yeah. Because you have stuff everywhere, right? So if you clean up and so it makes a huge difference.

So thanks for sharing that. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm curious, cuz we got started this now, I was doing mortgages way before at a major bank and then I started Len City pre Covid, like right before it happened. And your whamburg started during Covid too. How is that with the food industry and lockdowns and how did you guys make it

Adam El-Dika: through that when everything happened?

We obviously closed down for about 10 weeks or so. Weren't doing any operations within the restaurant when we reopened because of our location and our proximity to the university. I think the west end of Windsor probably suffered and was probably more imp impact was hit more impactfully by the pandemic because of its reliance on students.

So we quickly realized that our previous operations weren't going to sustain us. So we started a retail, sorry, a home delivery service. To supplement us and then also quickly realized that wasn't gonna be enough. And then so we're like, okay what can we do to bring in additional income?

I think around that time, skip the dishes had released a report about some of the most popular cuisines and food items within Windsor. And so burgers were at the top. Yeah. But we didn't just wanna be another burger place. Yeah. So we thought to ourselves, what could we do differently? That we realized that no one was doing smash burgers no one was using a Martin's potato bun.

And then I think the, one of the more iconic things that we do is branding the buns with that. Bite me up so that. In conjunction with everything happened, kinda led to that development of the project. But I think everything happening, the rise of the cost of goods labor shortages, everything happening all at once, there's all these externalities.

I think a lot of businesses, not only restaurants had to navigate just a really. Tumultuous time. Yeah. Right now we do have that sense of security. I don't think we are where we were three years ago. Yeah. But the fact that you're not worrying about lockdowns and restrictions on how you can operate has put us in a situation where we can make.

Better decision decisions and even think longer term, not within the next 2, 3, 6 months. Yeah. And

Scott Dillingham: now exactly like you said, there's no lockdown so you can plan ahead. It's not okay, is there gonna be a lockdown? How do I hire, how do I staff for that? Do you know what I mean? Yeah. No, that's good.

Now you mentioned home delivery, right? And I know there's skipped the dishes and other alternatives as well. Are you still offering your own home delivery? So

Adam El-Dika: we utilize touch Bistro, which is a point of sale system. And so they released a feature about four months ago, which is now integrated DoorDash delivery.

Okay. Within the online ordering platform. So if a customer wants to place an order with us, but they don't wanna necessarily pick it up, they have the option to deliver. And the great thing about that is one, you're not now faced with a menu that has 20% increase in prices because I am Yeah. We, whenever we upload our menus on Skip the Dishes, DoorDash, Uber Eats, we take into consideration the 20 to 30% commission that we're losing.

And it varies with platform. So if you decide now to order directly through us One, you have the option to get free delivery based off a minimum order. Okay. Or a very minimal delivery charge of $5. Right now we actually have a free delivery campaign till the end of February. Okay. In addition to that, you aren't purchasing one of our combos at a 30% markup.

I like

Scott Dillingham: that. Yeah, because a lot of restaurants, they don't have that and you do you see it and you're like, it's so much more money. Plus then some of them still have a delivery. Yep. And then obviously tip,

Adam El-Dika: minimum order fee surcharges.

Scott Dillingham: Yeah. So then it's I should just go pick

Adam El-Dika: this up. . And even if you don't want to, I mean you go on our website, you hit delivery instead of pickup, you're still gonna get that delivery without any of those extra charges.

Okay.

Scott Dillingham: So that's super cool to know. I like that. So that's great for the listeners for sure. Yeah, that's for sure. So cool. No, I'm glad I asked you about that. Now you mentioned you do smash burgers. Now I have to say I've eaten that WEM burger a ton of times. Not act like I get take, skip the dishes actually , so I'm glad that's sounds like home delivery.

What's this? What is a smashburger like? It's so good, but what is it? It's essentially a style of preparation where you take freshly ground beef and you literally take a iron and smash it on the griddle. And then eventually what happens is that meat sticks to the griddle. It forms a really nice crust, super crispy edges.

Adam El-Dika: You literally have to peel it off the crust because it's stuck there. And it's so obviously, A little bit more distinct and different than something like a traditional griddle where it's just cooking on top. Yeah. And that like heat that you are cooking with is cooking through the burger and not actually sticking to it.

And obviously different than char broiling. Yeah. And then that, I think those two things, that crust and those crispy edges are like two unique characteristics. Yeah.

Scott Dillingham: I was gonna say like they do seem like crispy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But soft on the inside.

Adam El-Dika: Yeah. Because essentially you are utilizing the cooking process to cook the burger on one side almost 90% of the way.

Okay. You're almost chopping in all like the moisture, the juices of the burger. So when we do flip it, add that cheese, it's less than 30 seconds and then it's off the grill. Yeah. That's awesome. And

Scott Dillingham: I know, I've heard that you guys also have halal options and things like that. Yeah. So as it stands right now, all of her chicken options are halal.

Adam El-Dika: Our beef is not. Okay. But we are actively always looking for products that kind of meet our specifications to introduce a halal beef option. So

Scott Dillingham: then, so chicken you when you order chicken, you don't have to specify halal. It just is

Adam El-Dika: natural. Yeah. Everything that comes in that's poultry is halal.

Scott Dillingham: Oh, that's cool. So what do you find is your hottest menu item? What do you guys, obviously,

Adam El-Dika: is it the burgers? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. The wham, the double whammy. The American are all the smash burgers that we offer and those are our top sellers. But when it comes to chicken, I think by far I mean we released the fried chicks and that was our original fried chicken option.

Okay. But the hot southern chicks, it has quickly and as of right now, like overtaken the fried chicks. Yeah.

Scott Dillingham: Yeah. Yeah. Now I know prior to the show we were talking cuz you know, there, there are a lot of investors that hear the show and we have business coaches and just all kinds of different things on here.

And you mentioned that one of the cool things that you could mention is like, how does one go into choosing a location for a business? Yeah. Which I also think is applicable for how to choose locations for real estate investment. Yeah. So I'm curious maybe if you could share without giving your secrets, but the process Yeah.

That you went through

Adam El-Dika: too. Being where we are right now at the university, we didn't really pick that location for Wabar cuz we were there as a brick and mortar prior to. Yeah. But expanding has been at the like kind of forefront of our thought process for the last year. And the entire time we've been thinking proximity to the expressway.

And I think my insight is more specific to Windsor. Sure. I don't think it could necessarily provide insight to other cities. Yeah. But the expressway in Windsor, I think. Provides a huge advantage to restaurants, especially considering how heavily people utilize third party delivery platforms, like Skip the Dishes, Uber Eats, DoorDash.

It greatly increases your delivery radius. Yep. So if you are in a residential area that's maybe a couple kilometers away from the expressway you will have that exposure to. The people within a maybe four or five kilometer radius, but all of a sudden the expressway opens it up to maybe six, seven kilometers, eight kilometers depending on everything.

And then it also affords you the opportunity to be accessible to people coming in. Yep. So someone living in the east end can just jump on the expressway. And be with be at the restaurant within a few minutes rather than taking one of the main roads like Howard to come see Walker with all the traffic.

Exactly. So I think. Right now anytime we look for a restaurant or a space, we always take into consideration how far it is from the expressway, how far it is away from bus routes. I think a lot of the discussions across the labor market have been about shortages. Yeah. So if you're not on a bus route, I think it really hinders your ability to access The labor force, and I think for a lot of I think restaurants in Windsor, it's a lot of students.

So if you're not on a bus route, I think you've basically eliminated the majority of possible applicants for any open position that you have. Now, this, I

Scott Dillingham: don't know if you want to talk about this. If not, let me know, but have you ever considered the mall? Okay. It's close proximity to the DC road. Yeah.

Lots

Adam El-Dika: of foot traffic. I th we have we haven't done anything formal in approaching the mall. I think the one thing that stops us or would stop the mall from allowing us in there is a conflict of interest with a and w. Okay. So I think. Okay. And I'm not a hundred percent, but they can only have one of each particular cuisine.

So there's no overlap in cross competition. Gotcha. So I know like in plazas when op, when people o open up and they signed a lease, sometimes they put a non-compete so that no two burger places can operate within the single plaza. Yep. So I think that mall has that kind of same.

Scott Dillingham: Makes sense. Yeah. Cuz now I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking about the stores that are in there or the restaurants and Yeah, you're right, there's not a duplicate.

Yeah. Some similarities but not

Adam El-Dika: Yeah. Not a complete crossover. Yeah. And. We see the restaurants operating in there. The one deterrent on my side is I've seen so many of those restaurants go up for sale. I'm always on realtor. Yeah. And that I begin to question like why? I'm obviously not in those conversations, but you can assume one thing or the other.

Yeah. So I think that the mall and retail. Are still recovering because I think so much has moved to e-commerce ordering online that people either might be hesitant for health concerns or have just shifted their buying habits to be more predominantly online than in store. And so I think as a consequence that food court has seen less foot traffic, therefore less sales.

Yeah,

Scott Dillingham: you're right. And it's funny, I don't want to talk bad about them, but. I think at least for a and w I don't really see anybody there. Yeah. When I go not to knock them, cuz I do like them.

Adam El-Dika: Yeah. Yeah. I. I'm, to be honest, I'm one of those consumers where I'm like, I'm not in the mall unless I need to, and sometimes I'm only in the mall because I want to look at something and see something, and then I might end up just buying it online.

Yeah. Yeah I think most of those restaurants I've seen a kind of a little downturn and I hope it shifts back to the way things were. Yeah. For the sake of all the great businesses that operate in there. But I. I think those people have to be a little bit more patient than the rest of us.

Scott Dillingham: No, makes sense. You're right. Cuz they are, they're, you fortunately have the foot traffic from the school. Which school's gonna be in play, right? Yeah, of course. Where course where they have people buying online, so less foot traffic. So it is a different market for sure. Yeah. So cool. No, that's awesome.

Now I know that we've set up this Sort of a link that people can sign up with and they can get 10% off. Yep. Their first order with you guys. Yeah, of course. Through us. I don't have the link. What we'll do is we'll put the link in the description below, so if anybody wants to try a hamburger, they are good.

And I'm not being paid to tell you this, they're so good. I order them all the time. But yeah, you'll be able to get 10% off through the link that's there now. Do you want to share anything else or I. Life lessons or tribulations that you've went through that you think would be valuable to the listener?

Adam El-Dika: Yeah. I think a lot of my insight obviously is gonna be the food industry specific. I think over the last two years or so I've developed a new level of patience that I didn't know I had. But I think specifically within insight within my industry I tell this to other friends that are within the food and beverage industry is the focus is people, right?

Whenever we do an interview with someone, we lay down our tenants of operation, which are communication, efficiency, and speed. Yep. And then we let them know what our philosophy is at the restaurant. And it's people plus great food equals customer satisfaction. Yeah. And so people and our employees are at the forefront of how we operate.

Building an environment that's like respectful. Providing them with the resources to excel are really what we do to ensure they're coming in and being happy. Yeah. You've noted down that you love our product. Other people love our product, and so those two things I think I.

Lead to the byproduct, which is customer satisfaction. I really don't believe in the kind of disingenuous let's pursue customer satisfaction and let that be the forefront. I think if your employees are happy, you're providing them with the necessary resources. They come in Excel, you're pumping out a great product.

I think it's almost natural for someone to leave happy. Yeah, so yeah, my, my. Piece of insight is if you're operating in the restaurant industry, focus on the people that you know are helping you operate the restaurant. Cuz I'm one of 22 people in there. Yeah. I don't know of any restaurants that are a one man show.

You have at least three or four people working for you in any restaurant. Yeah. And I think the next piece of advice after you have that down really well is leverage technology as much as you can. Almost every industry in the world has been touched by the advancement and any piece of technology, the internet, all that.

So we've done that heavily over the last few years. Okay. Whether it's moving away from Excel scheduling. Putting in an Excel sheet, emailing it to our staff to now using a program called Seven Shifts. Yeah. Which allows us to create employee profiles, do all the scheduling on the app, has an in-app messaging feature.

Okay. Shift pooling, time off availability. We even just rolled out a new task management feature so that we're more organized on that side. And leveraging technology is super important. For sake of operations. Yeah. And then obviously I think as your business progresses, you obviously have to put a great deal of emphasis on marketing.

Yeah. And if you can do it in house, great. I think we just did a a small blog and newsletter with Touch Bistro. They touched on our social media. Okay. And the one thing I noted to them was if you're gonna do it in house and you're gonna have your employees do it, make sure you compensate them.

I think a lot of people. We'll think my employees are there anyway. We'll have them do this extra stuff and they won't get compensated. And one either poor production or poor content or poor quality, or eventually the degradation of that kind of process because people just get bored.

But I think if they're being compensated for their time, they feel accountable, they feel compensated. Yeah, they'll take care of it really well, like they would with any other task. And if you can't do it in house, then I would recommend outsourcing it. I know probably that's for many small businesses in the restaurant industry, that's one of the last things they want to do.

But if you want to have a social media presence I think it's vital whether you do it yourself or if you can't just outsource it.

Scott Dillingham: No, and I think that's important. I know you're saying it's geared towards restaurants, but I think that applies to all businesses. Yeah. Like we have I'll I'm actually gonna look up seven shifts.

We have home base Okay. That we use. It's up for renewal in March. You pay like an annual thing. Yeah. So we've been just checking to see what's out there. But yeah, it's all, like you said, it's all around technology. We have the online applications like. Everything's shifting compared to before.

And we all need to follow that. So I think your advice coincides with all businesses. Yeah, for sure. Not, it's not just the restaurant. For sure. And you're right, you do have to take care of your people and you have to have fun. And the more they're taking care of, the more they're gonna take care of your customers.

Yeah, of course. So I believe all that no, that's awesome. So then for a customer who's looking to order from you guys or reach out to you or find you online or whatever where would they go? Where's the first step for

Adam El-Dika: them? If you're sitting at home and don't wanna leave your house you can order off, skip the dishes, Uber Eats, DoorDash, or you can just go onto our website, wa.com.

There's an online ordering section there. You click that you have the option to do pickup or in-house delivery. We're located at the University of Windsor SE 4 0 1 California. So if you want to come in and actually pay us a visit and come into the restaurant, you can go there. Our location on campus is a little weird for some people because there isn't any visible parking when you see the restaurant.

So parking on California is gonna be your best bet there. Okay. And then we don't offer actually any phone ordering, so I'm not gonna provide a phone number. Okay. Actually during our peak months from September to April, just because it's too crazy on campus to be picking up the phone. But then we reintroduce that service in the summer.

Scott Dillingham: No. So that makes sense. And then just from what you've told me on the show is that it's cheaper to order off your website a hundred percent. Yeah. So yeah, I would definitely check there. We have the convenience of Skip and all the others, but if you can save money, I know right now people are looking to save money.

So Yeah.

Adam El-Dika: All my notary, I think on one hand you're saving money yourself, but when you also order in person, obviously you're saving the restaurant money as well. Yeah. Cause we're not losing out on that commission. Mind you, obviously we've noted that we do increase our prices there, but you're not gonna increase it to the point where you're covering all the commission.

Yeah. So you do eat up some. Yep. No,

Scott Dillingham: that makes sense. Awesome. Yeah. No, thanks for sharing. Thanks for coming on, Adam. It was great to chat with you. Thank you. And hope everybody has a great day.

Thank.