00:00 - And so I would say more often th

00:08 - people have their own opinions about what Chile should be.

00:12 - Everyone is very particular.

00:20 - Hi, my name is Jordan Rivers and I'm the owner of Revival Chi.

00:24 - So I had actually never worked I

00:27 - industry before deciding to start my own food truck.

00:30 - When I graduated college, I there was a chili recipe

00:33 - from my fraternity that we made in large batches.

00:35 - I decided I wanted to start catering different events and do

00:40 - mostly for friends and family.

00:44 - The reason for the revival is so

00:46 - I was arrested and convicted of drinking when I was 19 and in co

00:51 - I didn't really think anything o at the time,

00:53 - but it actually prevented me from getting a single job offer

00:56 - or coming out of college.

00:57 - A lot of my colleagues went out consulting.

00:59 - I'm a systems engineer by degree so a lot of them went into consu

01:04 - and background checks were run and I didn't receive any job off.

01:08 - Being a white male from a relati

01:12 - good upbringing, kind of that really impacted me

01:15 - of like opening my eyes to the problems of the world,

01:18 - what other people experience and what's going on.

01:20 - So with the word revival, I wanted to help revive people's.

01:25 - When I started the food truck, it was specifically employing th

01:28 - that have spent time in the jail and returning citizens.

01:31 - And now we own a restaurant.

01:32 - When I bought the restaurant,

01:33 - it was expanded to anyone with barriers to employment.

01:38 - So once you decide to start a fo

01:40 - what are the steps that get you the point where you make your fi.

01:43 - A lot.

01:45 - Generally, the steps are, you kn you need to decide basic questio.

01:49 - Do I want a truck or a train?

01:50 - Am I going to try to do the build out myself

01:53 - or do I want to hire somebody?

01:54 - Am I going to want to buy used e and I want to buy all brand new.

01:59 - Like, where is that going to get shipp.

02:00 - If I get how much time do I have.

02:03 - And then and that's not to say, your menu is going to really imp

02:07 - what equipment you need, your br what do you want The name to be?

02:11 - All of those different things go

02:13 - you know, just the build out of the truck,

02:25 - Most events that we

02:26 - do only require one individual t.

02:29 - So my I love my staff.

02:31 - They're absolutely wonderful and another like really big thing th

02:36 - I started and what I'm trying to with the food they are responsib.

02:40 - Everything is one person.

02:42 - They show up, as I said,

02:44 - get the Chili's cook in and up the toppings,

02:48 - do the entire event themselves and clean out the beer.

02:52 - Generally on busy events, we do in time, incorporate a second pe.

02:57 - But with that I designed the menu to be very e.

03:02 - As as I said, I'm an engineer, so I was thinking about the menu

03:06 - and the equipment needed.

03:07 - I wanted it to be super fast ser

03:10 - scoop and serve, you know, simil to like a Chipotle model.

03:13 - So generally well inside, we'll.

03:14 - We have our rice cornbread

03:18 - that's right behind

03:20 - you when you're serving as are getting the order.

03:23 - I'm already doing what needs to

03:25 - I'm talking. You're interested.

03:26 - Okay, so you would like a classic ball

03:28 - and already putting the cornbread in the bow.

03:31 - So I can say, Yeah, okay, I'm scooping the Chilean.

03:34 - And you like the cheese sour cream and chips on top.

03:36 - So really trying to achieve multiple things at once.

03:41 - I especially at busy events with person, you know, you got to mov.

03:46 - So you're trying to talk with th and make their order

03:49 - all at the same time

03:50 - so that by the time they're done their order more or less already

03:54 - taking their payment and they're good to go.

03:59 - So you have four different types

04:01 - vegan classic beef, spicy chicken and spicy beef and.

04:05 - So I wanted to cover most dietar restrictions with the chili, whi.

04:08 - And the chili is gluten free,

04:10 - no eggs, no dairy, you know, not and nothing else in the chili.

04:14 - And then obviously we have the vegan option

04:16 - and then the vegan and the class are both low levels of spice.

04:20 - Chicken is like our medium and the beef and pork is our spi.

04:25 - What really goes into making a g which I tell people

04:28 - is pre cooking your ingredients before you combine it together.

04:33 - So a lot of people would be like

04:34 - I got a crock pot, you know, I'll throw in some Rob

04:37 - and carrot, tomatoes, veggies, w and I'll let it sit for 8 hours.

04:41 - Like that's not going to make a good chili.

04:46 - So take us through a day today.

04:48 - You're out. You're out on site.

04:50 - What time do you start?

04:51 - What are you doing on it?

04:53 - Kind of take us through step by step through to your day.

04:54 - Yeah, absolutely.

04:56 - Very quickly, since when I started the food tr

04:59 - as I said, I'm an engineer, so I developed checklist for eve

05:02 - that is needed to kind of make y not think about the process as m

05:06 - because it can be a long day.

05:07 - Like, yes, we go out to an event or 4 hours,

05:10 - but there's obviously the time b and the cleanup time after.

05:13 - So generally speaking will show

05:15 - I recommend to my employees and to show up

05:19 - two and a half hours before you must leave for the ev.

05:22 - So that means identifying how far the event is from our ho.

05:26 - We do have a restaurant over in.

05:31 - So how long does it take to get.

05:33 - Show up two and a half hours bef.

05:35 - That gives you time to put the chilies in t

05:37 - or the warmers to heat up the Ch or cooking new pot.

05:41 - If we have to put a new pot of c that gives enough time to kind o

05:44 - get all those things done,

05:45 - then you want to make sure we're on toppings and rice and cornbre.

05:49 - So we make the cornbread and ric every single day

05:52 - and the chili is served.

05:54 - I did mention that before chili over rice or cornbread with thei

05:57 - of toppings, including cheese, sour cream, lime, cilantro and j.

06:02 - So chopping up the toppings, prepping the rice and cornbread,

06:05 - and then doing any prep work for future chili.

06:11 - So service is the funnest part, in my opinion here.

06:15 - Interacting with the individuals seeing those files of friendly g

06:20 - and then clean up and, you know, to the restaurant, wash all the

06:23 - even with a 3 to 4 hour event, you know, your day is 7 to 8 hou

06:29 - which is why it's very important that we try and get the prep wor

06:34 - during that set, during some of the downtime and then seven o.

06:37 - So we don't have longer ten, 12

06:41 - hour days like is frequent in fo

06:44 - service industry.

06:49 - What's something that you, you k now that you didn't know

06:51 - when you first started this that you wish you did?

06:56 - It's a lot of work,

06:58 - but it takes a lot longer to

07:02 - get to where you want to be than you might think.

07:06 - I knew that I didn't want to be

07:09 - like on my food truck within the day to day operation

07:12 - for an extremely long period of because I wanted to build the bu

07:17 - that I've described in like really empowering employees

07:21 - and getting them the point of like ownership in that day,

07:25 - you know, and control their dest and use this business to do that.

07:30 - And it it's not until more or less like this year

07:34 - with the restaurant and the food so about seven years that it's

07:39 - that I've been able to get to the point of achieving.

07:44 - And that's not I don't have I me I have enjoyed everything along

07:49 - but it takes a lot of

07:50 - like, no one is ever going to ca about your business as much as y.

07:54 - And it takes a long time to kind build it to the point

07:59 - if it is something that you real care about

08:02 - to have others kind of train oth

08:05 - and empower them and give them t opportunities and also get the b

08:09 - like they have to want to do tha just because you want it to happ

08:13 - doesn't mean that somebody else is going to want to want to do I