A Bigger, Better SMASH

Acquiring the lease for SMASH 2’s location was just the first step in the six-month process of getting the restaurant up and running. Since the first SMASH was just a hole-in-the-wall kitchen, it was ready to go in less than six weeks. SMASH 2, however, was made much more complicated by its size and customer seating. The new restaurant was almost 10x the size of our first kitchen, which came with many challenges.  Equipment-wise, we needed five grills instead of two, six fridges instead of two, eight freezers instead of two, three TVs for menus instead of one… the list goes on. SMASH 2 had a lot of space to fill, but that also meant it had significantly more potential. 

With all of the new equipment and space, I knew we would also need a bigger team. This was our second store and I didn’t really know how to go about preparations and efficient hiring - I decided it’s better to be over-prepared than under-prepared. We had to conduct mass hiring, and suddenly we had twenty new employees that needed training. I decided to implement a buddy system at the first SMASH, pairing experienced employees with the new hires and training them with on-the-job experience. This system of hiring and training was so efficient, that we had a  new store’s worth of crew hired and trained by August even though SMASH DHA would not be opening until November. I decided to begin promoting current employees to the new management roles necessary, as I wanted to foster a culture of growth and loyalty within SMASH. 

We started deliveries and servicing orders to family, friends and loyal customers from the second SMASH outlet two weeks before we opened so that the new crew could familiarize themselves with the larger kitchen area. SMASH’s flashy sign handled a lot of the advertising by drawing in curious onlookers, and I ran an Instagram marketing campaign to SMASH’s 7,000+ followers that we had accrued on the platform. When opening day finally came, we did not even have to plan an event - we sold 400 burgers on the first day through general interest alone. With our opening day in the books, SMASH 2 had officially arrived.