Most restaurant marketing advice is guesswork. This is what it looks like when storytelling is the strategy. San Pedro Fish Market grew about 2.5% a year for thirteen years — then the family started telling its own story on camera, and growth ran 10% to 14% a year for seven straight years, right through the pandemic. Today they're operating out of a shipping-container restaurant in a parking lot after an eviction, and Michael Ungaro expects it to do around $20 million.

Michael is the CEO and co-owner of San Pedro Fish Market and Restaurant, the 70-year-old family business on the Los Angeles waterfront that his grandfather started as a 200-square-foot storefront. At its peak it ran 3,000 seats across 55,000 square feet and served roughly two million people a year. Their story became Kings of Fi$h, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

If you're looking for restaurant marketing strategies that hold up over decades rather than restaurant promotion ideas that work for a weekend, this one is for you.

We get into:
Why a 70-year-old fish market started making television, and what it was really for
The value-proposition exercise that revealed what guests were actually celebrating
How to make a restaurant go viral — one Food Beast video brought 30,000 customers in ten days and closed a freeway off-ramp
What happened to growth when storytelling became a real function instead of a hobby
Why most operators are scared of marketing, and the hardware store Christmas card that fixed it
Restaurant social media content that works: letting guests in line and 30-year employees tell the story
Surviving an eviction and four years in a parking lot on brand equity alone
Rebuilding a marketing team sized for seven locations when you only have two
Where AI fits in restaurant marketing, and the leadership problem hiding underneath it
Competing on story when there is no shortage of food in America

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro — storytelling as the marketing strategy
02:08 A 70-year-old family business that started in 200 square feet
09:26 The value-proposition exercise: who the customer really is
12:53 Norm's Landing and the 3,000-seat waterfront property
18:18 The Food Beast video: 30,000 customers in ten days
20:47 Why restaurant operators are scared of marketing
21:34 The hardware store Christmas card
25:30 Letting guests and employees tell the story
28:43 The eviction and the parking lot rebuild
33:54 Rebuilding a marketing team for two locations
36:17 Where AI actually fits in restaurant marketing
43:34 Competing on story when food is everywhere
44:58 What to order, and shipping nationwide

Guest: Michael Ungaro, CEO and Co-Owner, San Pedro Fish Market
LinkedIn: LinkedIn: mikeungaro
San Pedro Fish Market: https://sanpedrofish.com/
Kings of Fi$h: streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Episode 355 of the Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast.

Full show notes and complete transcript:
https://restauranttechnologyguys.com/...

Connect with us:
Website: https://restauranttechnologyguys.com/
Email: jeremy@restauranttechnologyguys.com

Hosted by Jeremy Julian, President & Chief Revenue Officer, CBS NorthStar.

Thanks to our sponsors — Restaurant Technologies (https://www.rti-inc.com/) and Yelp (https://restaurants.yelp.com/).

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