If you’ve been hearing about David Sandusky lately, chances are it’s because of his appearance as a contender on Season 2 of BBQ Brawl, which airs weekly on Food Newtork. (See this week’s schedule here). Competing against 12 other pitmasters for the title of Master of ‘Cue, Sandusky is vying for not only bragging rights but also the chance to become Food Network’s official barbecue expert of the year. Just two episodes in, he’s proving to be a fierce competitor.
Sandusky has been up to far more than competing on a high-profile TV show lately, though. If the past year and a half has taught him anything, it’s the importance of having a backup plan—actually, multiple plans. That means not only innovating in the guest-facing hospitality space but also rethinking the very way that his restaurant does business.
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“I’m vertically integrating as much as I can to own as much of the process as possible, which allows me to diversify my portfolio,” Sandusky says. “If for some reason the restaurants go on pause again, I can have something else to throw myself into that is already established and profitable.”
A New Way of Hood Cleaning
Long before he became the face of BEAST Craft BBQ and BEAST Butcher & Block, Sandusky was a restaurant employee who came to lament the kitchen hood-cleaning system. “No one likes to write the big check when the hood gets cleaned,” Sandusky says. “So we wanted to shake things up as we always do and try to bring a new level of professionalism and honesty to this industry while benefitting from it at the same time.”
To that end, Sandusky has decided to delve into the hood-cleaning business with his new venture, KnightHOOD Cleaning & Chemical. Leveraging his kitchen HVAC and supply company, Professional Kitchen Solutions, Sandusky has taken its client list for dishwasher leasing and chemical and paper supply, added hood cleaning to the mix, and put everything under the KnightHOOD banner. The result is a hood cleaning and supply company that is providing an essential service to his businesses and others.
According to Sandusky, KnightHOOD is changing the way the hood-cleaning business operates. The business offers a subscription cleaning service, wherein it will swap out and clean filters for clients every week, making the regular six-month cleaning job easier and faster. “We also wipe down and polish the hood, so it always looks like it was just cleaned,” Sandusky says.
“We have a lot of clients that are excited about it,” he adds. “People are happy to see something cool and new. I’ve cleaned six hoods late at night since we started. We’re also doing power washing and cleaning smokers, and the revenue keeps increasing. It’s dirty work—that’s for sure—but I’m not scared.”
Letting the Pros Handle Staffing
Like almost every restaurant owner, Sandusky has experienced the staffing crisis that much of the dining industry is currently facing. Rather than wait for the situation to improve, however, Sandusky has decided to turn to a professional recruiter and human resources specialist, outsourcing a job that has caused great angst among his managers.
“We’re struggling to hire and onboard people,” Sandusky says. “By the time you have staff to open, people you’ve already hired but put on hold have moved on because they need to work. It’s been really difficult.”
As Sandusky explains, the staffing issue goes well beyond just getting enough employees to operate the business. “It’s a morale issue,” Sandusky explains. “My GMs are constantly disappointed wasting time calling people who don’t show up. If they show for an interview, they won’t show for orientation. If they show for orientation and they put them on the schedule, they won’t show up for their first day of work. There are so many opportunities to ruin the manager’s day, and it’s affecting them because all they want to do is move the restaurant forward and fill these positions.”
Sandusky reached out to a longtime friend and professional recruiter, Aaron Dias, to help him solve the problem. And while he admits that he hasn’t yet fulfilled all of his staffing needs, outsourcing to Dias has put him in a better position to run his restaurants.
“Had it not been for Aaron finding us the people we needed, we would not have been able to reopen the dining room,” Sandusky says. “He recruits and reads the resumes, does the interview, makes the offer, sets the rate of pay, does the onboarding, supplies the necessary employment forms, and conducts a very short orientation over the phone. All the GM has to do is worry about getting them on the schedule and whether or not they stay employed after the first 30 days. Letting a person familiar with staffing do the staffing has been a godsend.”
A future HR business? Sandusky won’t rule it out. “There has to be some innovation as far as how we deal with employees, because it’s just not the same as it used to be,” Sandusky says. “People don’t go to an interview in a shirt and tie anymore; it’s not that kind of market, so we decided to just own it. If this is 2021 and these are the things people expect, we’re going to double down and deal with it in the most informal but professional way possible, because that’s what’s going to get it done.”
