Transcript:

Michael (00:49.058)

Welcome everybody to The Family Biz Show. I'm your host, Michael Palumbos with Family Wealth and Legacy in Rochester, New York. And today we've got Conor and Dan Sullivan from Bumpa's in, shh, I knew I was going to get that wrong. South Carolina, Charleston. 

Michael (01:18.83)

There we go. I pulled it out. Welcome. Welcome, welcome. So, yeah, you guys are brothers. So obviously that's how the, you know, family business, you know, connection comes in there. What I ask, we have a tradition on the show of asking each of you to kind of talk about your journey. What was life before Bumpa's? And then how did you guys decide to start this thing? And 

Michael (01:46.712)

you know, and then we'll dive into all of the family stuff and the business stuff, you know, from there. So Dan, do you mind kicking us off? 

Dan (01:55.438)

Sure. So for getting into the bar and restaurant business, I was in finance. I worked for PNC Bank for 12 years in Pittsburgh, which is where we're originally from. And this idea of this bar was sort of always in the back of our minds. And there came a day where I just wasn't feeling fulfilled professionally. And I wanted to 

Dan (02:25.496)

give it a shot, my own thing and do it together. so Conor and I got serious about a business plan. I moved down here about a year before Conor. We were looking for the site for our new place and eventually we found it. We opened up during the pandemic of 2020. 

Michael (02:53.142)

Nice. So here we are in the finance world doing not running a restaurant bar. And it's like, hey, let's go do this. 

Dan (03:08.27)

Dan (03:08.69)

it was definitely, you know, we're not getting any younger. Let's give it a shot. Let's see what we've got. And we've been very, I love the business, Conor loves the business. It's been a lot of fun for us. 

Michael (03:24.792)

Nice. Conor, give us your background and journey beforehand. 

Conor (03:29.902)

Not so dissimilar. I came from a background in corporate real estate and really mostly software sales. Okay. You know, at the corporate enterprise level. My wife and I, when we started getting serious about this, we were living in, not married at the time, but in New York City. And she's from Richmond, Virginia. She's, Southern town. 

Conor (03:58.882)

know, Dan, was part of the business plan was being in Charleston, South Carolina, where our parents had since relocated. So she had always wanted to move back to a Southern city. Dan had been egging me for years to finally execute and start building the bar. So I was like, all right, well, to Dan's point, not getting any younger. The timing seems to be right. The stars aligned. So we've done Charleston, rolled up our sleeves and got after it. 

Michael (04:27.306)

Nice. I want to dig into the pre, you know, digging into this and starting this. don't have very, more often than not, when the family businesses that have been on the show, they are the founder and the next generation kind of a thing. They're already established. So you guys being, you know, relatively new. I want to, you know, talk about what did what kind of work went into 

Michael (04:54.978)

the strategic plan, the business plan that you guys were putting together, you know, how long did you, were you going through these pieces? What was the process for this? 

Conor (05:04.462)

Yeah, it was a long process. sorry, I'm slightly distracted. My newborn son is screaming in the next room. I apologize. But yeah, no, it was built over a span of many years. Again, it was a lot of, I was just saying this earlier today, a lot of conversation, family holidays, like getting together, Thanksgiving, Christmas, putting little pieces together. And before we knew it, 

Conor (05:33.762)

you know, had the menu written, it's just more or less, I mean, still the foundation of what we use today. And yeah, we built ourselves, but you know, we had a lot of help. You know, it's definitely a family affair, we've kept it all in the family, but you know, our father was super instrumental in helping us build this thing out as well. And Bumpa, you namesake of our restaurant is his father. So we might be, you know, first owners and operators, but it still very much is a multi-generational. 

Conor (06:03.224)

Family Fair. 

Michael (06:04.558)

So this is the homage to your grandfather. 

Dan (06:09.742)

He was a storyteller and loved a good drink. So that was the atmosphere that we wanted to provide to Charleston and our little neighborhood over in French Quarter. 

Michael (06:23.214)

Good for you guys. Let's talk about, you you've got the business plan in place. What were some of the hassles? What were some of the things? What were some of the obstacles that came up between business plan and opening the doors that maybe surprised you? you know, if you're coaching other business owners that are getting ready to do their thing, what kind of things should they be prepared for? 

Dan (06:52.504)

Well, how much time do you have because it was one thing after another. So we started the building project before we had ever heard of the pandemic. And by the time the project was complete and we were ready to open the doors, the city had shut down and we weren't sure what the next steps were going to be. Right. 

Dan (07:20.962)

Before pandemic, this being our first venture, we really surrounded ourselves with a terrific team of seasoned veterans. built restaurants before. Luckily, our contractor was a friend of the family and he was able to sort of guide us through the process. But renovating a period-specific building, 

Dan (07:49.646)

The historic building in Charleston is not for the faint of heart, and it's probably not something we would ever seek out again. There are many restrictions as to what you can do and especially in Charleston. Yeah. The architectural review board wants to make sure that you're keeping the history of the building intact. So even if you own the place, it's really up to them how you make it look, at least from the outside perspective. 

Dan (08:19.982)

And also the fact that the building is so old, there were a lot of conventional building methods that we weren't allowed to use. We couldn't dig past a certain point with a bulldozer because the foundation only went so far. 

Conor

The water table's like two feet below where the asphalt is. It's crazy. We are right on the water, even Charleston. For future business owners, I'd... 

Michael (08:38.158)

Thanks 

Michael (08:42.114)

Okay. 

Conor (08:47.214)

Whatever budget you have for retrofitting a historic building, I'd say double it or just build something new in a different place. Yeah. 

Dan

Yeah. I think it would have saved us money to do something this spoke, Kind of starts 2020. Yeah. The building is fantastic. We won the, there's a prestigious award in Charleston called the Carolopolis Award for 

Dan (09:13.806)

achievements in preservation of historic buildings. And we were the only project in 2020 to win for both exterior and interior. And that's less to do with Conor and I and more to do with the entire team's vision. So we had a terrific architect, terrific contractor, and it came in late and over budget, but the results are... 

Dan (09:40.278)

really phenomenal. It's just a truly beautiful building to walk into. 

Michael (09:44.972)

Very cool. How old is the building? looking at pictures right now, so if you see me looking up, I had to pull it up and take a peek at it. How old is the building? 

Dan (09:53.406)

At least 1832, we think it's quite a bit older than that. So it is pre-Civil War. The address existed in the late 1700s. We don't know if this building was there, but Charleston's about as old as you get in the United States. So it's really interesting to wrap your head around the fact that this building was around before the Civil War was over. Very cool. 

Conor (10:22.646)

If Wallace could talk, we'd certainly be listening. of course, we're adding our own pros to that as well. But yeah, to Dan's point, yes, it was over time and over budget, but extremely rewarding to see what. 

Michael (10:38.264)

Very cool. So now you're ready to, know, for doors open and the city shut down. Right. Yeah. You know, when did you start the hiring process? When did you start pulling, you know, getting ready to open doors, you know, with people and that kind of stuff. 

Conor (10:56.878)

Yeah, great question. you know, early 2019, we had hired our, our management staff. So we had a GM, we had an executive chef, we had a bar manager, we had a sous chef about to come on board and assistant general manager about to come on board when everything sort of froze up. But you know, we were, were in the midst of really starting to get to opening day. And then, you know, when everything shut down, you know, we had a super 

Dan (11:26.358)

sobering meeting with our team just in our building, our beautiful new building, new old building. And we just made the really tough call because even before the actual shutdown, was like, is it responsible to open right now? And there's so much fear and doubt. And then the city made the call for us. So it's not like it was our decision to make. But that was a really tough day. Thankfully, we qualified for payment protection programs. We got to. 

Dan (11:54.84)

keep that core staff afloat for a few months and gave them some things to chew on while we were in closure. And then we really had to make the decision. Do we wait this thing out? Because we had no idea how long it was going to last, or do we bite the bullet and as soon as we can go, we go? That's the decision we ended up making, the latter, thankfully, because if we'd sat our hands and waited, the business would never have opened at all. 

Dan (12:30.286)

of 2020 was our soft opening and then the 22nd opened to public. So yeah, it was a little later than we wanted, but you know, something that we always kind of remember is we didn't have a lot of bad habits to break in terms of COVID precaution when we did open. So something that was very important to us is a new restaurant opening after this pandemic. 

Michael (12:36.683)

Nice! 

Dan (12:59.37)

was to make sure people saw how seriously we took cleaning the tables, cleaning the chairs, making sure their safety was accounted for. So we were really, really adamant about making sure our staff was showing everyone what we were doing. 

Michael (13:18.904)

So one of the things that you said earlier that caught my ear was, know, we had the menu done before we even had our business plan pretty much in place. What is special about Bumpa's menu? I'm dying to hear some of the things that you guys have on there. 

Conor (13:36.726)

That's a good question. you know, it's one of the more fun parts of, you know, putting the business together is like putting together this kind of crazy menu. So, I mean, you said we were kind of still offline, Michael, but we are, we are a gastropub. I guess if you had to brand us, you know, we've got the Irish influence. People call us a sports bar. You know, we don't like to kind of declare one thing over another. And I think our food kind of 

Conor (14:04.504)

fits that, or rather blankets, you know, different kinds of cuisine as well. But yeah, there was a place in Pittsburgh where we're from originally, or where we grew up anyway, that had these build your own fry plates that we just, loved and adopted. And instead, even then, you know, this is probably 10 years ago, know, if ever we were gonna build a restaurant, a build your own fry plate would have to be, you know, top of the, top of the. 

Conor (14:34.072)

know, top of mind when people come in. And I think we've accomplished that. One time I came to visit Dan when I moved away from Pittsburgh and built a fried plate of jalapenos, barbecue sauce, beer, cheese, and pickles. And Dan and my sister-in-law were like, this can't be good. 

Conor (14:51.566)

But it's on our menu right now today, all these. 

Dan (14:54.872)

years 

Dan (14:55.102)

later. After we fixed it, that's gonna be on the menu one day. So we were, we were, get some sweet and get some heat. 

Michael (15:03.266)

That's right. 

Michael (15:04.907)

That is for anybody listening, that's called the condor. had to pull this up because I'm like, now I'm All I had was a salad for lunch, so I'm ready to dig into. 

Dan (15:10.52)

That's right. 

Dan (15:12.888)

three. 

Dan (15:20.828)

Sorry. Sorry about that. 

Michael (15:22.658)

That's all good. What are some of the other things that make you unique? I've never heard of Legendary Fridays before. I'm gonna tell ya. I thought, I'm in Rochester, New York, which is the home of the garbage plate. And so the garbage plate has been on television at least a multitude of times and when famous people come in, especially if they have their own show. 

Michael (15:50.35)

You know, they're definitely checking out a garbage plate. Definitely worth looking at, but not for nothing. think I kind of, I don't want to say this, I'm going to get slashed in Rochester, but I kind of like the idea of make your own fry plate even better than a garbage plate. 

Dan (16:07.594)

You can probably 

Dan (16:08.295)

recreate it more or less. We've got 40-some toppings, you know, meats, cheeses, vegetables, soft- 

Michael (16:14.249)

Put out what you want. I love it. That's a great idea. 

Dan (16:17.4)

Yeah, the more creative the more our kitchen likes to put it out. That's true. I said the more creative the patrons get when they're creating a fry plate, the better our kitchen enjoys making. So they love doing different things. Absolutely. 

Michael (16:21.624)

Say that again? 

Michael (16:34.434)

What are some of the other things that you have done that are the hallmark of what makes you unique in the marketplace? 

Dan (16:43.96)

First thing comes to mind is scotch egg. We do a terrific scotch egg in the traditional fashion. So soft boiled egg, wrapped in sausage, fried. It's a painstaking process. it's a busy lunch, we like to make sure the table understands the cook time on these is no joke. just bear with us and we'll get it out as soon as possible. But it's terrific. 

Dan (17:13.422)

consistent every time and fried sausage around a softball. Oh, that's good. That's for so that's that's my favorite. We also so our our logo is basically a take off the Sullivan crests to features a stag and a boar and we have a stag and boar burger that is there you go. Zoom in or squint might be able to see that but we actually use venison and boar meat blended together. It's a pretty decadent burger. 

Dan (17:43.15)

But also, from a product and cost perspective, for what you get, for all fresh ingredients locally sourced where possible, we're at a lower price point than a lot of our neighbors. And yeah, that's what we want to be, right? We want to be kind of more accessible sort of neighborhood bar. And again, I think our cuisine speaks to that as well. 

Michael (18:05.11)

I love it. All right, so let's talk about family. You got, you know, what's it like working together? You know, you entered this with a business plan of this, you know, vision of what working together was going to be like, give me the give me the you know, what's working, what's not working? What do you what do you still have, you know, some things to get through? And, and how do you make, you know, when you when you're not on the same page, how do you you know, what's the what's the tiebreaker? How do you how do you do this stuff? 

Dan (18:34.734)

Dan (18:35.495)

Well, it's a great question, Mike. And I would say that in addition to Conor and I complimenting each other very well with our skill sets, something that we're very mindful of is the messaging from ownership being one message, one coming from one place. It's never Dan said this, Conor said this, it's always us. So even if there's 

Dan (19:04.942)

disagreement on how something should be done by the time that message comes out, it's coming from both of us. Conor and I like to say no pride of authorship. Best idea wins. So we really make every attempt to just take pride and ego out of the equation and just let's focus on what's best. That's really worked really well. Having that unified message from the two of us is 

Conor (19:34.25)

is kind of paramount to making sure they know we're on the same page. Yeah. I think, you know, going in, we have a say like a line of demarcation or, you know, split in duties. Like Dan is, you know, over operations. I'm more on like the financial side. You know, all big decisions, the strategy, you know, we work together on. 

Dan (20:01.294)

So, you know, that kind of helps too. So we can kind of, you know, we don't have to come together for every single decision we can work in. I don't want to say the word siloed because that's too much, you know, there are things, decisions that could be made that like the other person isn't going to question, right? Or even necessarily care about. And then things go south. This is something we decided on like years ago, just as brothers before we were business partners is if 

Dan (20:29.972)

If we're at an impasse and neither of us are going to bend or bound to the other, we have a safety word. When said, you must stand down no matter what. You can't break it. You just got to do it. After a few draft beers, opinions can really start to stick and it becomes very precious. So we make sure that before anything goes in any direction we don't want it to. 

Michael (20:38.136)

Okay. 

Dan (20:59.51)

we nip it in the bud and back off and, you know, at the end of the day, it's two guys trying to do something with the best intentions. it's always with Bumpas in mind. And like Conor said, now that we're in year four, things just sort of happen now. They click into place without the two of us having to 

Dan (21:28.578)

do X, Y, or Z. We don't necessarily need to remind each other of our duties and it's just, it clicks very nicely and it's been terrific partnership. It's definitely defined what my life looks like and who else, who to trust better than your own brother. So, Dean. 

Michael (21:50.974)

one of my favorite parts about family business. So I was in business with my father. That's what led me to this desire to do this. And we, you know, we didn't always, we ran separate businesses an awful lot, but we highly respected, you know, what he was doing. I highly respected it. you know, as I became more and more attuned, he respected what I was doing because I needed to do things differently. 

Michael (22:20.782)

than him. And that was that was a tough pill for him to swallow. And we worked through it. And you know, I got involved in family business groups. And a lot of times, you know, the the groups would be like, you just want to come in here because you're a financial advisor, you know, yada yada, like, no, I'm dealing with my father. And I need to hear how other people have gotten through these things. And he's dealing with me. And those dynamics, you know, I need to understand some of that stuff. So 

Michael (22:51.118)

good on you guys for coming to, you know, some agreements as to how this works. I just finished reading the book, Unreasonable Hospitality. I don't know if you've ever read that book, highly recommend it for anybody in your business, but it's 11 Madison Park EMP. And they talked about, and I don't remember it specifically, but they had a word between, you know, the front, you know, the dining room manager and the chef that was like, 

Michael (23:19.456)

what you know one or the other could call that word and that means okay so that's pretty cool yeah you guys are following in good footsteps and you 

Dan (23:28.366)

sure 

Dan (23:28.766)

are. Here's a great book. think we both recommend it. It's still here on my bookshelf in my office. 

Michael (23:33.87)

That is the thing. 

Michael (23:38.154)

Same guy that wrote it, same guy, Danny Mayer, yeah. it's the same, same author. Unreasonable, I'm going to double check myself real quick. no, no. Unreasonable is Will Godera. But Danny Mayer and Will work together. 

Dan (23:43.331)

Hi. 

Dan (23:51.085)

Okay. 

Michael (23:57.346)

Yeah. And for those listening that have no idea what we were just talking about there, that book, Unreasonable Hospitality, and Setting the Table by guys that run 11 Madison Park, which is a five-star Michelin restaurant. It's number one in the world. Just amazing what they've done through the years. And I have not eaten there yet, but it is definitely on my list. My wife is like, 

Michael (24:26.575)

I'm sure I'm gonna spend that money. honey, yes we are. 

Dan (24:30.158)

Dan (24:31.345)

Given the chance. 

Michael (24:32.494)

That's right. So now I've got 11 Madison Park and Bumpa's on my list of places I got to go and check out the eats. I'm not sure we've been mentioning them the same sense. I'm going to hate mail for putting those two together. at the same time, let's face it, it's yes. 

Dan (24:41.368)

Really the same breath, though. 

Michael (24:59.328)

You're looking, you you have a team today. How many people are on your team? 

Dan (25:04.366)

We have 28 employees currently. 

Michael (25:06.722)

Yeah. And, you know, are you communicating how you want people to feel in your establishment? you, you know, you're having these kinds of meetings that can, you know, the, backgrounds and the way that you've looked at your menu and what you've been, you can just tell that, you know, the two of you have an, an aura of this is what we want. And so let's make sure that we're giving people exactly what we set out to do. 

Dan (25:34.806)

Yeah, they are a big tenant for us is always quality of life and making sure Bumpers is a great place to work. But when we need to change something or fix something, they know that we're not going to be playing around with it. So I think it helps that they see our faces all the time. They know that we're in this with them. 

Dan (26:04.936)

And I think that goes a long way. The loyalty is earned and I think their buy-in to what we're doing is earnest simply by the fact that they see us in the trenches with them. But yeah, Conor and I are, we demand a good deal of respect and make sure that our messages are received and that they aren't just forgetting it. 

Dan (26:34.816)

in two weeks. Yeah. I mean, you know, you can tell when you walk through the threshold of any bar or restaurant, I think you like kind of know intrinsically what your experience is going to be like more or less. And, you know, we want people to walk in and like, just feel good, right? Feel comfortable. And, you know, I think, think we've worked really hard to cultivate that. And, you know, maybe, maybe not day one because we had no staff and 

Conor (27:04.11)

Was Dan and I? You know, like once we got there and we were on the night, it just felt so good to see, you know, our manager on duty running a good shift and our people having fun smiling and our customers smile back. just happens on its own. It's that's so satisfying. Something we tell our employees is, you know, this is this is your house. Bumpers is your house. People are coming to see you. It's not the other way around. I want to make sure they know. 

Michael (27:04.654)

going to you what I'm 

Dan (27:33.784)

This is your place. You have to treat it that way. And you have to take ownership of your service and also keep in mind that we've got your back no matter what happens. I think it's paid dividends. We've really low turnover, knock on wood. So the team we have in place now has been there for a while. We've got a lot of veterans and 

Dan (28:03.232)

in this business on our payroll and it's really been a terrific experience. 

Michael (28:09.39)

Very 

Michael (28:09.87)

nice. Talk to me about the next 12 months. are some of your business priorities? What would you say is your top one or two priorities over the next 12 months? 

Dan (28:24.736)

geez. Well, you know, we certainly have this is a big growth year for us. You know, again, we were entering into our fourth year and we really want to see a certain kind of growth. I mean, we're we're already seeing it now. We're kind of ahead of our own curve, which is super encouraging. So, yeah, we have progressive revenue targets. You we absolutely want to open second place one day. What what that 

Dan (28:53.742)

would be, whether it's bump us again or a totally different concept. Again, that qualifies one of the strategic decisions that we make together. That's as yet undefined, but I would love to say within the 12 months, we're starting to have those conversations and have the war chest to go do it. So that's the dream. 

Michael (29:16.302)

Got it. What are the things getting in the way of that right now? If you look at like, what are the pains and frustrations of running a business day to day right now? 

Dan (29:24.142)

Dan (29:25.142)

Cost, the cost of goods, our expenses, insurance costs, taxes, payroll. It's such a huge thing. So it's tough to find that windfall. And without going too into detail, and I have made a lot of financial sacrifices to make sure that this had the runway to lift off and become something. 

Michael (29:33.144)

Okay, we're rolling. 

Dan (29:54.942)

and one day we're very confident we're going to be in that position, but as our dad likes to say, this is really the hardest way to make a living. could have chosen. so I, you know, it's tough for me to look 12 months, every day being different, every month being different. kind of tend to have a shorter view. 

Dan (30:23.086)

But when we get together, that's always something we touch on. What is the future? I think in our industry specifically, mean, I won't speak for other industries necessarily, but since COVID, the cost is so variable. So it's incredibly hard to predict what your costs are to be, especially maintenance and support. 

Dan (30:49.998)

of our assets, something goes down, the walk-in goes down, there's five grand out the window that we were banking on having for a different project the next month. So it's things like that that just kind of can take the wind out of your sails. It's tough. Yeah, torpedoes, the whole thing, you have to fix the fridge or the air conditioner or whatever. Or pity's plumbing problem. Yeah. We won't go into that either. 

Michael (31:17.95)

That's all right. That's all right. You know, but I think, you know, what you're saying is relevant for everybody. You know, it's you can make your best plan and everybody thinks, you know, we're starting from zero and then that's the straight line revenue up to where we want to be. And the reality is there are so many things that it's like a roller coaster pulling you back and forth. So that's why I'm always talking about that vision. You know, what is 12 months? I'm 

Michael (31:45.79)

I like to use a 10 year or a 20 year vision to say, you know, what is the big dream look like so that you've got that North Star pulling you to say, when we have the plumbing go off or the walk in, go out the door, we can stay focused on what is that 10 year vision of what we're, what are we really doing this for? 

Dan (32:08.941)

Right. 

Michael (32:10.296)

So I appreciate the fact that you guys are in the thick of these things and the risk that you were willing to take in the, you put it, as your father said, it is the hardest way of doing those things. You both had jobs, corporate jobs, making nice money. Family was probably pretty well set. then, yeah. Are you both married? I know Connie, okay. 

Dan (32:34.478)

guys. 

Michael (32:39.624)

So let's talk about, what about your wives? You gotta give a little shout out to the wives based on what we just talked about right now. 

Dan (32:47.918)

Yeah. Joe, my wife, Conor points out he's known her longer than he hasn't known her in his life. So we've been together for a long, long time. This will be our 14th wedding anniversary this month. Two terrific daughters and they are 100 % supportive of this venture and all the hiccups and trials that come with it. 

Michael (33:03.832)

Congratulations. 

Dan (33:17.934)

There has never been a day where I haven't felt like they're on our side and rooting for us. And my wife completely understands when there's a late night or a few late nights in a row and she just takes care everything else for me. And I'm really blessed. She's just 100%. 

Michael (33:39.82)

Yeah, I mean the restaurant business, bar business, it is not always easy, know. The hours can be a little crazy sometimes because as they say, life happens, right? 

Dan (33:52.11)

Yup, the other does. 

Michael (33:54.766)

that's awesome. 

Dan (33:57.326)

Yeah. 

Dan (33:58.746)

Yeah. So yeah, I talked a bit about my wife earlier, but yeah, no, same, same sort of deal. You know, she's a therapist by trade and has usually always worked for a non-for-profit. So she's comfortable for operating in the margin somewhat. So, but yeah, no, you know, also I mentioned, you know, we've got a newborn kid. you know, life's been 

Dan (34:25.986)

Well crazy these days, you know, just just makes the successes you know, all that really 

Michael (34:32.322)

Your parents are in town. That's cool. How often are they in the restaurant and the bar? 

Dan (34:34.35)

Mm-hmm. 

Dan (34:38.766)

dad comes in once a week. sometimes they're out traveling, but if they're not doing that, he makes a point of coming in for his hot dogs. 

Michael (34:52.429)

Michael (34:53.11)

That's so funny that that's what you said because my father-in-law ran a restaurant here in Rochester and his claim to fame is I'm the one that brought the footlong hot dog to Rochester, New York. Nobody had them before that. 

Dan (35:06.798)

Well then maybe 

Dan (35:08.618)

we owe him a dad. don't know, but yeah, dad loves his footlong hot dog. call it pops footlong hot dog. And yeah, so he comes in once a week for that and a Guinness, which he swears is just as good as what you get in Ireland. And I agree. Maybe a little colder. Yeah, it's a little colder. But yeah, so he's in once a week and like once a month, maybe that's down for dinner. Yeah. 

Michael (35:34.904)

Nice. 

Dan (35:36.462)

They're regulars. They have regular status. 

Michael (35:40.43)

That's awesome. Talk about what else? I have my normal questions for the multi-generational families that have gone through transition and whatnot, but that's not you guys. If you could, and I know it's hard to look at this, but when you started doing your business plan and started putting this together, was it just one restaurant or was it always 

Michael (36:09.326)

We're gonna have, what's the big dream that you guys had way back when? 

Conor (36:16.366)

Yeah, I mean, it's a good question. think it always started kinda like this. know, Dan's always said, like, how cool would it be if we owned a bar? Just full stop, how satisfying is that? But you know, once we started building out our business and we got really serious about it and put our business acumen to it, mean, well, we built a profit model and we're like, 

Dan (36:45.774)

If all goes well, we could build our own restaurant group one day. We have a holding company under a different name for that very reason. We want another Bumpa's. We joke, this was actually published recently, but maybe it shouldn't have been. we've essentially made a neighborhood Irish bar after our Irish grandfather Bumpa. Our other grandfather, 

Dan (37:15.224)

Vittorio Emilio del Justina, know, bit of a different background. like what, how great would it be if we could have a trattoria, you know, after Victor. So Victor's trattoria, you know, we'll see. I mean, we both love Italian food too. My wife's Italian. That would be, I think pretty fantastic. Not to say that there wouldn't be more Bumpas in the world, but yeah, I think a restaurant group would be amazing. So I have chef that. 

Dan (37:42.818)

handles all the menus, day-to-day manager, general manager, managers on site. I think that's, you said 10-year plan, hopefully it's not that long, but yeah, I think that would be kind of the platinum reward at the end of all this. 

Michael (38:04.568)

What else? What haven't I asked you that others have asked you that you know that I'm missing on the boat here? 

Dan (38:10.414)

There's a questionnaire. What would you tell the world? Oh yeah, what's the one thing you want the world to know about Bumpa's? Go for it. I think we said we're your bar in Charleston. We've been compared to Cheers a number of times. Close to our heart. whether it's review or somebody 

Dan (38:40.27)

said something in an article and we wear that like a badge of honor for sure. We want to be that place that knows your name. And I think over four years we've had quite a bit of people from out of town that feel like when they come back, they're in their place. And we even have a way to honor that with our wall of heroes. Yeah, you know, it really is just, know, wood and brick makes up, you know, 99 % of this building. And on one of our 

Dan (39:09.998)

our largest single surface of wooden wall within the building goes around our kitchen. We have black and white photos from end to end. It started with photos of our family, obviously including Bumper, but we encouraged our coworkers to bring in pictures of their Bumper, whatever that might be, whatever their hero was growing up. And we extended that to our customers, certainly our regulars, but we joked earlier, we're like, if you want 

Michael (39:39.32)

the threat. 

Dan (39:39.586)

special 

Dan (39:40.267)

and you're friendly and we like you. You're invited to send us a photo of someone special to your picture, your family, whatever it is. As long as it's black and white and fits in, we love it. Yeah. they generally they'll email us these photos and we just print them out and frame them. And it's fun to see their faces when they come back, especially if they bring new guests. Hey, there's see I told you. 

Dan (40:07.928)

There's a bar in here with my grandfather in there. It's just, it's cool. Yeah. It's neat to be able to call a place your own when you're in a different city. that's, that's, think what we want, whether you're local or you're from out of town. want this to be your neighborhood bar. And whatever, you know, if, if by God there's a, there's a second place, I think we, we still want that to be. 

Dan (40:34.914)

you know, a tent pole of whatever business we roll out. You we want people to feel that way when they come into one of our spots. 

Michael (40:43.224)

I love it. I love it. Dan and Conor Sullivan from Bumpa's in Charleston, South Carolina. Thank you guys for sharing. 

Dan (40:51.854)

Thanks 

Dan (40:52.064)

Mark. Thank so much Michael. It was a pleasure. 

Michael (40:54.726)

Really appreciate it. Thanks everybody for listening. My name is Michael Palumbos from Family Wealth and Legacy and you've been listening to the Family Biz Show. Can't wait to have you listening on the next episode. Take care everybody and have a great day.