Kevin Seo has had a colorful career. He achieved viral success with his NFT-themed restaurant, as well as a traveling pop-up cafe centered around Sonic The Hedgehog. Fans can now enjoy Sonic’s favorite chili dogs, cheese fries, and more.
Watch now to learn about partnering with SEGA to bring Sonic The Hedgehog Speed Cafe to life, listening to fans, and running multiple businesses
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn about partnering with SEGA to bring Sonic The Hedgehog Speed Cafe to life, listening to fans, and running multiple businesses
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
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NewsTranscript
00:00He opens his phone and purchases a $20,000 item to get all the perks at the restaurant.
00:08Come on.
00:09$20,000 item?
00:10And I was like, what just happened?
00:19Welcome to Restaurant Influencers, presented by Entrepreneur.
00:22I'm your host, Sean Walchef.
00:23This is a Cali BBQ Media production coming to you from Del Mar, California.
00:28We're at the Myrtec Executive Summit.
00:33Most of the time, restaurant conferences, technology conferences, they don't happen
00:37in San Diego, but when they do, they bring powerhouse restaurant influencers like Kevin
00:42Tsao.
00:43Kevin Tsao.
00:44Kevin Tsao.
00:45Kevin Tsao.
00:46Kevin Tsao.
00:47So I'll tell you a quick story about my friend here.
00:50I met Kevin on Zoom during the pandemic, and I thought during the pandemic, the whole time
00:58until I was introduced to Zach Goetz from Ovation, who's been on this podcast.
01:02He said that it was Kevin SEO.
01:05Like I thought that was your brand, Kevin SEO.
01:10And it's not.
01:11It's not Kevin SEO.
01:12He's good at SEO.
01:13Yeah.
01:14He's phenomenal at SEO.
01:15He's phenomenal at restaurants.
01:16Kevin, let's start with our favorite random question, which is, where in the world is
01:19your favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
01:22Oh my gosh.
01:24I did not know that was the first question.
01:26Oh my gosh.
01:27Oh, man.
01:28Oh, man.
01:29Oh, man.
01:30Oh, man.
01:31I don't want it.
01:32Like I know people.
01:33Okay.
01:34I know people are going to watch this.
01:35You know, I just got I'm hometown LA Dodger Stadium.
01:38Let's get it.
01:39Dodger Stadium.
01:40See, that's a safe bet.
01:41Yeah.
01:42Hometown.
01:43Okay.
01:44Let's go.
01:45We're going to Dodger Stadium.
01:46We're going to talk to Toast, who sponsors this content.
01:47We're grateful for Toast.
01:48If you don't know about Toast, if you're looking to put Toast into your restaurants, contact
01:52me.
01:53I got a guy.
01:54We'll do an unboxing video.
01:55We'll do some family style content.
01:56We're going to go to Dodger Stadium.
01:57We're going to rent the entire thing out.
01:59Cool.
02:00Yeah.
02:01The entire thing.
02:02We're going to talk to Sonic.
02:03We're going to talk to some big brands, some big players, and we're going to put.
02:07We like people that play the game within the game.
02:09So if you're watching this video, if you're listening to this podcast, you're our type
02:12of people.
02:13We're going to fill it with people that want to move their business forward that are super
02:16fired up about the industry disruptors.
02:20And Kevin, I'm going to give you the mic on the pitcher's mound and say, Mike, drop this
02:24stadium.
02:26Give us the Sonic the Hedgehog Speed Café story.
02:30So Sonic the Hedgehog Speed Café came about because our amazing partners at Sega had this
02:39amazing dream to bring Chili Dog, Sonic's favorite food, into real life.
02:44And we're like, heck yeah.
02:47Because first of all, I love the game myself, Andy, Phillip, the partners, we've always
02:52loved the nostalgia of the Sega Genesis, the original games.
02:57My favorite was Sonic and Knuckles because Knuckles is a pretty badass character.
03:01Love him.
03:02And basically from there, both of our dreams all came true with Sega and we created Sonic
03:08the Hedgehog Speed Café and you could officially try his Chili Cheese Dogs.
03:12That's amazing.
03:13And where did you guys first pop up?
03:14Because these are pop up restaurants.
03:15Yeah.
03:16So the first one was at Comic-Con 2023 in San Diego.
03:20It was absolutely bonkers.
03:23The fans really came out.
03:25I've never seen a line this long, actually.
03:29We've seen long lines for other things that we've done in the past, but this was something
03:33new for us.
03:35It was pandemonium, fandomonium, like it was absolutely crazy.
03:39So we love you guys.
03:40Thank you guys for showing up for us always, wherever we go.
03:43How does it work to partner with Sega?
03:45I mean, that's a big partnership.
03:47It is a big partnership.
03:49I will say Sega is so open with creativity that the fact that they allowed us to talk
03:56through menu, ideation, and we're actually building new IP with them.
04:01Really?
04:02You know, it's like new property that's never been touched.
04:04Like literally, if you see any of the images with Sonic holding chili dogs or Shadow holding
04:09a shake, those are real life things they put into their story art now because we were able
04:15to create together, which is absolutely wild.
04:17So we love you guys.
04:19We definitely, it's also interesting.
04:21There's a Japan component.
04:22Thank you, Japan.
04:23We work with a Sega Japan as well.
04:25So it comes all the way from east to west and we make it all work.
04:30So it's kind of crazy.
04:31So how hard is it to put up pop-up restaurants?
04:33I mean, there's a lot of logistics involved.
04:35Yeah, there's a lot.
04:36There's a good restaurant business community that listens to this show.
04:39Yeah.
04:40So pop-up restaurants, it's kind of like, there's a lot of prep.
04:45So in anything, it's almost like there's this giant lead up to an extremely incredible
04:52moment.
04:53So what's going to happen is if you prep well, anyone that's in events knows that something
04:59always goes wrong in events actually, but you know, that's like a thing, you know?
05:03So pop-ups are very much an event, but you have to treat it a little bit more long-term.
05:08You still have to, it's like a micro version of actually running a restaurant still, but
05:12there's an end date.
05:13So you have to keep the energy as you exit as well.
05:17So they actually follow the brand to the next thing, or they're waiting for your next pop-up,
05:21whatever that could be.
05:22Yeah.
05:23So this is a storytelling podcast.
05:25We believe in the creator economy, the business creator economy, so many opportunities for
05:30companies like a barbecue restaurant to host a show on entrepreneur, building in public,
05:34sharing all the Cali Barbecue media secrets.
05:37Tell us about your creator journey personally, first as a brand, and then what you guys do
05:42with the restaurants and the pop-ups and Sonic.
05:44Yeah.
05:45So when me, Andy and Phil partnered up, it really stemmed from Andy's, I will always
05:50say he's like the crazy creative in the room because it really stemmed from his dream of,
05:57he always was in streetwear before.
05:59So collaboration was a thing.
06:01He loved bringing communities together.
06:03That's where we really saw eye to eye.
06:05I love bringing this community and this community and mashing that and what does that do?
06:10It creates like something really special and something new.
06:13And so as we were journeying through that, we had so many different brands we wanted
06:16to try along the way.
06:18We got here to Sega as one of the larger brands that we work with.
06:23There are some other brands that Andy has worked with before, like Hello Kitty Cafe
06:26and things like that.
06:27And so we learned, I learned a lot about what it means to really care about the fans and
06:34how do we carefully bring them into a new platform?
06:39Because a lot of these fans, they only know the brand digitally.
06:42So there's still this honor that you have to have with the digital part of the brand.
06:46And then you carry that and introduce them to this whole new format of enjoying and touching
06:51and feeling the brand as well.
06:53So there's a lot of quality that still goes into it.
06:55I think that's the thing that people mistake a lot is that when you do these like pop-ups,
06:59they're like, Oh, this is a gimmick.
07:01Like you're mashing things together.
07:03Oh, gimmick is the first word that comes out, cash grab, gimmick, whatever.
07:06I get it though, because anytime there's innovation, there's also the other side of it, right?
07:11There's a lot of criticism, things like that.
07:13But the reality is we put careful care and attention to the entire menu.
07:19Most of the items are actually made from scratch because we like the flavors.
07:24We work with our suppliers.
07:25We figure out what goes well together, all those different things.
07:29Everything from the packaging is designed by a very well-known packaging designer.
07:35Even the clothes that I'm wearing right here, this is actually done by an up-and-coming
07:40streetwear designer.
07:42So like all these things are custom to each pop-up.
07:47And so all that quality and care just really comes out for like the ultimate fan experience.
07:52How do you guys go about storytelling?
07:55Storytelling for us, I mean, personally, this goes with, a lot of it is with the leadership
08:00of our team.
08:01We love personally engaging with our audience, even though we are in a lot of places and
08:05we travel a lot.
08:06We go wherever we need to go.
08:08You are traveling a lot.
08:09Yeah, we do go everywhere, but we love actually being on the socials.
08:13We do a lot of lives, we do giveaways.
08:16I'll literally live stream during our grand opening and I talk to the audience.
08:21I want them to come out.
08:22I ask them for these certain opportunities.
08:25I'll tell them, hey, we're doing a giveaway for this, this, and that just for this limited
08:28time.
08:29So we really want to engage them as much as possible.
08:32And then we take all their feedback from all the different marketing and social touches
08:36that we get access to.
08:38And then we take all of that and then we just try to do as much as we can that's feasible
08:42in the sense of business, of course.
08:45Share about Bored and Hungry.
08:47Bored and Hungry was definitely a crazy adventure before Sonic the Hedgehog.
08:53This was the first NFT restaurant that hit the market and it literally went global.
09:00So just to let you know what it is, it was a very famous NFT company, Bored at Biot Club.
09:06We purchased the NFT that gave us the rights of licensing.
09:09We used that image and we created a blockchain-focused smash burger restaurant and it went viral.
09:17And I think that was the first time I ever flew globally because of a brand.
09:22So that was absolutely insane.
09:24Today, the U.S. locations are closed and we have six locations in Asia.
09:30And where was the original location?
09:31It was in Long Beach, California.
09:33And what happened when you guys opened?
09:36Because I was watching on something.
09:37I can't believe that I didn't get up there.
09:39I apologize.
09:40No, no, no.
09:41It was on my list, but like, I was just cheering for you guys, but watching it happen.
09:45It was insane.
09:46The day we opened, same thing, day before 10 p.m., first guy was right at the door.
09:52There's a couple of big highlights that I'll talk about.
09:56The people waited the day before we opened.
09:58There was a line about three blocks down, literally there was like helicopters, firemen
10:04and police.
10:05I thought we're going to get shut down, to be honest, but they came to join the line,
10:11which was awesome.
10:12We definitely made the local news and the national news.
10:18And all of that happened all at once to come to this pandemonium of the first NFT restaurant.
10:23And some incredible things was the first person that, oh, there was a first person to order,
10:29but the fifth customer that came in, he ordered with blockchain crypto and he was pretty much
10:35the first one to buy with ApeCoin a burger.
10:39And we were able to pull off that technology in a very short timeframe, like it was crazy.
10:45So shout out to all the crazy payment processors out there.
10:48But we ended up doing it.
10:51And so that was wild.
10:53And the last thing I'll say is the second day, not even the first day of the grand opening,
10:57the second day was still so many people there.
11:00The second day a man showed up and we were still giving away free burgers for whoever
11:04had this specific token.
11:07That token at the time was worth over $20,000 for the cheapest one.
11:11The most expensive one is like $1.5 million.
11:14The cheapest one was $20,000 to have this digital coin, which right now sounds crazy.
11:20But at the time this man goes, wait, I get a free burger if I own that.
11:24He's like, yeah, okay.
11:25He opens his phone and purchases a $20,000 item to get all the perks at the restaurant.
11:33Come on.
11:34And I was like, what just happened?
11:38Like we were all, we have that on film.
11:40It was, it went all over Twitter.
11:42It was insane.
11:43And we were like, this guy just bought it in front of us just so he could experience
11:47it.
11:48I was like, do not skip this ad.
11:50This is important information.
11:52I unboxed toast, our point of sale at our barbecue restaurants.
11:57And now here I am interviewing Shaquille O'Neal on the biggest stages.
12:02We want to hear your toast story.
12:05If you use toast in your restaurant, send me a message at Sean P. Walcheff on Instagram
12:11SHAWNPWALCHEFF.
12:16We want to hear your toast story.
12:18If you're thinking about switching to toast, we would love to help you.
12:22Please send us a message so that we can share your toast story today.
12:29Where do you see NFTs, Flyfish, Gary Vee, what they're doing?
12:33Where do you see the future of NFTs in restaurants?
12:36Definitely in the U.S. is a tough road ahead because I think there's been a lot of backlash
12:41from all the different types of things that happened in that era.
12:45There's a lot of good and bad.
12:47And I think definitely the bad overshadows the technology, at least of it.
12:51I think there's still beautiful future of where the technology could lead us to gamification,
12:56to more community engagement.
12:59I think there's so much still there.
13:01So I feel like it will exist, but it will be much more in the background and it'll be
13:07talked about in a different way.
13:09That's how I believe.
13:10I think the term NFT and the term blockchain will be taken out of the public light, but
13:14the technology will exist and the actual things and products that it produces, I believe it
13:20will exist.
13:21Kind of the same as dynamic pricing.
13:23Exactly.
13:24I'm going to be giving a talk about that.
13:27Maybe I can make some references.
13:31Let's talk about your new show.
13:34So we believe that people need to be in creation mode, long form content.
13:41This is a little bit different than restaurants, but it is storytelling.
13:44Tell us about the name of the show, what you guys have learned, how quickly it's grown.
13:48Yeah, yeah.
13:49Thank you for giving me the platform to do that, by the way.
13:52I love that because I think creation is really cool.
13:55We have so many tools today.
13:58So what he's talking about is Good Service Podcast.
14:02It's a show with me and Ben Cheung.
14:05We were just brothers that knew each other through the entrepreneurship space, to be
14:09honest.
14:10The one thing that tied us together is we just really care about the spiritual component
14:14of who we are.
14:15Like we love God and we love Jesus and faith is a big part of our lives.
14:19And we just wanted a raw format where we just kind of hang out, eat and talk.
14:23That's why it's called Good Service because it's good service when you eat good food,
14:27good service like a Sunday service and the good service you provide for the world type
14:31thing.
14:32And it was actually just supposed to be more for fun, but we committed.
14:35We said every Thursday we're going to film, we're going to have raw conversations.
14:40We bring all sorts of guests on, to be honest, and it's been something very transformative
14:45that we didn't think that it would do.
14:47We have an incredible Patreon audience.
14:50We have an incredible growth in our short form content and we had some really good viral
14:56success today.
14:57And now we're over 40,000 followers on multiple platforms.
15:02So like total following and reach, we've grown quite a bit.
15:05And I think our total reach today, our 90 day new reach goal is 3.5 million, which is
15:13really awesome.
15:14And they're really exposed to our lives because we're very raw on the format.
15:18So we talk about everything.
15:19So this includes work, life, everything.
15:21What advice do you have to somebody that's wanting to create a show, no matter what it
15:24is, whether it's about restaurants, whether it's about faith, to build a community?
15:29If it's long form format, like if it's long form, I have different advice in short form
15:33actually.
15:34So for long form content, you have to be extremely authentic and pure to the topic.
15:40So if you aren't about that life, don't do long form.
15:43It's so easy to spot someone just faking it.
15:46For sure.
15:47It's so easy, especially in long form.
15:50So if you really want that real, authentic, true thousand person fandom that really rock
15:56with you and your community, you have to be extremely authentic on the platform and be
16:02open to authenticness, even to a place of vulnerability.
16:06And it might be a little bit scary to do that.
16:08But short form, definitely test your creativity, like go wild there.
16:13I really think short form is really interesting because you could do things that's completely
16:18outside of your context just to test, just to learn, just to see what all this is about.
16:24Because I've seen people today that hold the power of influence that have no idea what
16:31to do with it.
16:32And I wish if those people were somehow attached to someone that knew what to do with it or
16:38had an incredible drive, product, or thing that's good for humanity or whatever it is,
16:45I wish they just could turn that on for them because they need to reach more people.
16:50And so that's where short form could be really fun and have less fear on that platform.
16:56Just really do almost anything you can without being weird.
17:02Sometimes weird is good.
17:03Yeah, sometimes weird is good.
17:04Depends on how weird.
17:05Yeah, yeah.
17:06Depends on how weird.
17:08But definitely short form, it's a different playground, it's a different playground.
17:13Let's think about the future.
17:16We're here 2024, evergreen content, we're going to look back, remember that time when
17:21we were in Del Mar at the Fairmont Grand Hotel.
17:24What does it look like for you?
17:26What gets you fired up for next year?
17:30When I talk about future lately, my answers are so lame.
17:37Lame is fine.
17:38Yeah, yeah.
17:39Lame is fine.
17:40Shaquille O'Neal, he says, for him, he's like, I only think in 10 year terms, so I don't
17:45think that I'm turning 52, I think that I'm turning 62 and what am I going to accomplish
17:50in 10 years?
17:51I'm like, 10 year plan, Shaq.
17:52That's bold.
17:53Dang, that is bold.
17:54That's bold and that's big.
17:55That is bold.
17:56I'm literally opposite of Shaq, sorry, sorry Shaq.
18:00One day at a time.
18:01I'm a one day at a time guy.
18:02I love being present.
18:05So when someone asks me about a year later, I think I'll be extremely happy if I was very
18:11true to being one day at a time and being present with people, family.
18:16I'm a big fan of like kids' soccer right now.
18:20You know, I never knew that kids' soccer.
18:22I'm going home today.
18:23I'm leaving after my speech to get to my son's soccer.
18:25See, that's right.
18:26Yeah.
18:27You guys don't know, it's fine.
18:28It's amazing.
18:29It's amazing.
18:30It is wild.
18:31It's amazing.
18:32When your sons get a little bit good at something, it's like, oh man, I'm thinking about the
18:35World Cup already.
18:36Like, it's wild.
18:37But anyways, yeah, I think if I could be honest to myself in a year's time from now, looking
18:44back at this clip and I could say I did that, I'd be super stoked.
18:48Okay, before we let you go, we need your personal tech stacks.
18:51Are you Android or iPhone?
18:53Why are you laughing?
18:55Is it a question?
18:57iPhone.
18:58Which version?
18:59What does that mean?
19:00Oh, I have the 16.
19:01Pro?
19:02Max?
19:03Yeah, Pro Max.
19:04Storage?
19:05Terabyte.
19:06That's what's up.
19:07How much content do you have on your phone?
19:11If we pull it up, photos, videos, are we at 100,000?
19:15100K?
19:16Yeah.
19:17Oh, dude, easy.
19:18Easy 100K.
19:19Dude, it's always, always content.
19:21Always content.
19:22You never know.
19:23Do you prefer photos or videos?
19:24I like to do, nowadays, because technology got so good, I do video and I'll snip photos
19:30out of it.
19:31Yeah, I know.
19:32So do I.
19:33Isn't that crazy?
19:34You also get audio too.
19:35It wasn't like this before.
19:36It wasn't like this before.
19:37I know.
19:38It is now.
19:39So think about it, guys.
19:40Okay.
19:41Emails.
19:42How many emails do you get a day?
19:43Why are you laughing?
19:44What's so funny about this question?
19:45Oh, gosh, man.
19:46It's a legitimate question.
19:47This is hard-hitting journalism.
19:48Yeah.
19:49Monday through Friday, 150 emails a day.
19:51Monday through Friday, 150.
19:53How many of those do you enjoy reading that you would share to a friend that they have
19:56to read it?
19:5710.
19:5810?
19:5910 a day.
20:0010 a day.
20:01Are you on Slack?
20:03I am on Slack.
20:04Yes.
20:05For the company?
20:06For the podcast.
20:07Yeah.
20:08For the podcast.
20:09Got it.
20:10Which map app do you use?
20:11Waze, Google, Apple?
20:14Waze for research and Apple for everyday.
20:18Waze for research?
20:19Really?
20:20Mm-hmm.
20:21Apple for everyday?
20:23I used to use Google, but because I'm an Apple person, I just leave it on Apple because
20:29it just translates everything.
20:30I can share my location and all that stuff.
20:33Okay.
20:34Music?
20:35Music.
20:36I'm super into a lot of new things lately, actually.
20:40I'm super into very easy listening jazz, which is super lame.
20:45But outside of that, really hard-hitting Christian rap.
20:49Christian rap?
20:50On Spotify?
20:51Yeah.
20:52He's amazing.
20:53He's not even a Christian rapper, technically.
20:55He's a rapper.
20:56But it's Spotify.
20:57But it's on Spotify.
20:58Tobi, I'm saying his name slightly wrong.
21:01Nigwe?
21:02Nigwe?
21:03Nigwe?
21:04Anyways, he's out of Houston.
21:05He's amazing.
21:06You use DJX?
21:07I've never heard of DJX.
21:08Come on.
21:09DJX on Spotify?
21:10What's DJX on Spotify?
21:11He literally curates the playlist for you.
21:13You tell DJX what you like listening to, and it's AI feeding you what you should be listening
21:17to.
21:18See?
21:19I just learned this.
21:20I literally didn't know.
21:22DJX.
21:23What?
21:24Amazing.
21:25He curates my kids' playlists.
21:26What?
21:27Really?
21:28Yeah.
21:29DJX?
21:30He's giving me all the new hits.
21:31Well, I do have Spotify.
21:32I didn't even know.
21:33That's a thing?
21:34It's a total thing.
21:35Do you like songs?
21:36I do.
21:37How do you create a playlist, or what do you do?
21:38I just find them.
21:39Yeah.
21:40Just heart anything that you like, and then all of a sudden you have a playlist, and then
21:41DJX will come, and now you have AI.
21:42Oh, snap.
21:43I'm also kind of obsessed about these new K-pop songs that came out.
21:46Oh, yeah?
21:47New K-pop.
21:48There it is.
21:49New K-pop.
21:50It's so addicting.
21:51Are you addicted to, that you're ashamed of?
21:54TikTok.
21:55TikTok?
21:56That's the fastest answer.
21:57I'm so ashamed.
21:58I actually am trying to do a cleanse off of this thing.
22:01I am so toxically addicted to TikTok.
22:05It does make me stay on top of trends, though.
22:08Do you watch TV?
22:10Man, not as much.
22:12How do you watch TV?
22:13At home, do you have direct TV?
22:14I stream.
22:15Do you have YouTube TV?
22:16Yeah.
22:17I stream.
22:18So you have YouTube TV?
22:19No, Netflix.
22:21Netflix?
22:22Prime.
22:23Prime.
22:24Disney.
22:25Disney, of course.
22:26ESPN Plus.
22:27Peacock.
22:28Peacock.
22:29That's it.
22:30Okay.
22:31Yeah, I keep it pretty simple there.
22:32Yeah.
22:33And then, finally, how can people connect with you, learn more?
22:37It's TheKevinSEO.
22:40SEO.
22:41Everywhere.
22:42Everywhere.
22:43All my channels are TheKevinSEO, branded everywhere.
22:47Please follow the journey, and thank you for the support.
22:50If you guys want to reach out to me, I'm easy to find,
22:52at Sean P. Wolcheff, S-H-A-W-N-P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F.
22:57Please like this episode.
22:58Please reach out to Kevin.
22:59We want to meet you in real life.
23:01We've got some really cool things that we're doing
23:03in 2025 with Restaurant Influencers.
23:05You're part of this community.
23:06Follow Kali BBQ Media on LinkedIn.
23:09Join our calls.
23:10You can be part of live podcasts.
23:12We appreciate you for listening, and as always,
23:14stay curious, get involved, and don't be afraid to ask for help.
23:17Catch you guys next week.
23:20Thank you for listening to Restaurant Influencers.
23:22If you want to get in touch with me, I'm weirdly available
23:25at Sean P. Wolcheff, S-H-A-W-N-P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F.
23:31Kali BBQ Media has other shows.
23:34You can check out Digital Hospitality.
23:36We've been doing that show since 2017.
23:39We also just launched a show, Season 2, Family Style,
23:42on YouTube with Toast.
23:44And if you are a restaurant brand or a hospitality brand,
23:48and you're looking to launch your own show,
23:50Kali BBQ Media can help you.
23:52Recently, we just launched Room for Seconds
23:55with Greg Majewski.
23:57It is an incredible insight into leadership,
24:00into hospitality, into enterprise restaurants,
24:03and franchise, franchisee relationships.
24:06Take a look at Room for Seconds,
24:08and if you're ready to start a show, reach out to us.
24:11BeTheShow.media.
24:13We can't wait to work with you.