I mean, how much can you hold the line on that? 'Cause when I see $12, that's great if you're a consumer, uh, but if you're an operator, I mean, how do you make $12 profitable?

It's really more of a barbell strategy, right? What we've, what we've seen, one of the main reasons that casual dining is making the resurgence that it's making right now is people are, again, recognizing the value.

When you look at all the sort of newer, polished casual restaurants that have come on the scene, they've pushed price to a point that's really pushing people out of the, out of the segment.

And, and I think a lot of folks are now realizing, look, you can get the same high quality food made from scratch and, and pay substantially less with still a great service experience, great atmosphere, upbeat music, and, and that's really the, the secret sauce here.

And, and I'm glad to see our peers performing as well as they're performing 'cause I think this rising tide lifts all boats.

So what are you doing different now that whatever, for whatever reason, you weren't able to execute in 2018 to 20 thir- 23 when you were CEO then?

Well, now that we have a, you, you know, now, now that we own the business outright, um, we're able to take a longer term view and, and really focus on what's gonna create brand value over, over the long haul.

Um, you know, for us, we were blessed.

Um, can you speak a little bit to what drove your success last year and what maybe you have planned here in the US to boost results this year?

Yeah.

You, you know, we've got a, a major quality initiative [clears throat] that we're focused on.

When we started looking at the guest attribute ratings of the brand right after we took over last January, not this past January, but January of '25, is when we took over the global brand, uh, Sugarloaf Management.

And, you know, looking at the, at the guest attribute, I was like, "Wow, we're getting s- you know, a lot of-" Sort of one and two-star ratings, which means, you know, we're, we're clearly dropping the ball.

I mean, that somebody wouldn't have chosen the brand if they were even capable of giving you a one or two-star rating.

It means we've done something wrong.

Can you talk a, a little bit about that? And if you have any plans to do, um, some similar type pop-up of events around other holidays or wherever it might be.

And so y- you're gonna be the guy to save the company? Is that how you feel right now? (laughs)

Um... (laughs) I'm gonna be the guy that brings the people together that change the trajectory of the business, right? I mean, if I've- haven't learned anything over 30 years, I've certainly learned that our brand is expressed through people, right? This is a labor-intensive business, and the culture and the values and sort of establishing the white lines in the road for how we're gonna interact, that's a really important piece of any turnaround, but especially at Fridays. It starts culturally within the Fridays family.

I asked Ray if he was worried about Fridays not being cool anymore.

You should be in one of my restaurants at 10 o'clock at night. You'd have a hard time saying, "This place isn't, isn't fun." I mean, uh, cool, I think, is, is, is ridiculous, right? You can't chase cool. I mean, who are we? James Dean? I mean, what... That's... People are gonna... You know, I'm, I'm not... We're not trying to be cool. We have food that people get excited about. We have an atmosphere that is conducive to social interactions and social connections. And so that's why I think the brand gets turned around.