Steve Catalano and Carla Cutter- Franchisee Dunkin Donuts (Route 65)

[MUSIC] Super excited to date a welcome you to another episode of the Brentwood Up podcast. My name is Brandon Still and I am joined with the Queen, Kathy DeVero. Thank you. There she is. Crowd loves her. Crowd loves her. I'm telling you, this is a whole thing. Welcome Kathy, it's been a little while. It has been. Thanks, Brandon. I'm thrilled to be here and welcoming the people we have on the podcast. I am so excited about today's episode because not only am I a fan, I'm a fan of what they're doing and I'm excited to talk to them. Some really interested in this. We are joined today. I will not bury the lead here. We are joined today with Steve Catalano and he is the franchisee for Duncan Donuts here in Tennessee. He's been doing this for 35 years. We are also joined with Carla Cutter and she is the COO of this company. What is the name of your company, Steve? It's just Duncan Donuts. It's Route 65. Route 65. I love that. Tell me why Route 65? Well, you were -- Besides the obvious. We were looking for names for the company when we first came down here about 11 years ago. So my partner and I met Campo Baso. We got really creative and we have Route 65, Route 40 and Route 24 Donuts. Hey, no, I'm trying to. We were very creative. I like that. It's a good thing. Welcome to the Brentwood Up podcast. We're excited to have you guys here. Well, thank you very much for having us. We're very excited to be here with you and we're very excited to talk about Duncan Donuts and what we do in the community. Community involvement is very important to us. We appreciate all of the support we get from the community to run our business. People coming in and there's a lot of choices where people can spend money and we really appreciate people coming to our stores. So in return, we like to be very involved with the community. One of the things that really sets Duncan Donuts apart from other franchises is the community support. We started about 35 years ago back in Massachusetts and it was really a regional brand at the time. And as we started, and being involved in each community, each town that we're in or each county down here that we're in, we really like to give back to the community. We have some really great causes that we like to support from the NCA, the Nashville Children's Alliance to, we're working right now with Group Donald Polasky to do a Boys and Girls Club down there to renovate that Boys and Girls Club. So the different communities we're in, we really like to give back and we really like to be part of the community. A lot of our employees come from those, you know, these communities and the ability for us to give back is super important to us. And it's a core, it's a core principle of our company. Why do you, I love that first of all. I think that's amazing. And I think that restaurants are cornerstones of communities. But was there something in your life that made that something that was so centric to what you're doing? Like that, hey, look, we're going to do Donuts, but I really want to give back to the community. Well, it's funny to ask that because when I first started, I started as a night baker in Wuban, Massachusetts about 35 years ago. And I really like baseball. So I would coach baseball. I was working at night in the mornings. And so when the kids got out of school, I'd coach baseball and, you know, in doing that and, you know, being involved in the community. I mean, it was kind of eye opening for me because a lot of the kids as they grew up, they became employees of the other company. So it was sort of a good hand in hand type of thing. I belonged to the rotary club down there as well. And, you know, the pancake breakfast and all the different things that we did with the community and that community involvement really integrated us in the community and gave us, you know, the ability to, you know, people would come in and, you know, coffee shop is kind of relaxed and fun. We wanted to be a fun atmosphere. You know, Donuts and coffee. It's not like putting a man on the moon, you know, so we really enjoyed, we really enjoyed being in the community and having the community involved with us as well. And I will tell you, we're going to have Meredith Luckett join us here in a little while. And she is the director of development for the Nashville Children's Alliance. I know you guys are doing some things with them. And I can't wait to hear more about that. And Kathy, we're going to jump in. I know you've got like a million questions, but I want to ask one more. You have this wonderful woman sitting next to you. Carla, tell me about Carla and what she brings to your entire operation. Well, Carla brings the excitement. She brings the knowledge. She brings it all to the organization. We're very, very happy to have Carla as part of the organization. And a funny story, you know, when Carla and I were talking and we were negotiating in the first round when she first came to me and we started talking about, still looks like a tough negotiator. Oh, she's a tough negotiator. She told me to pound sand at the first time. Oh, I knew I liked you. And then finally, finally, we got together and, you know, everything, you know, her being down here and the sacrifices that she makes, you know, in moving down to Nashville, which really isn't a sacrifice because Nashville is such a beautiful place. But, you know, growing up in the, you know, are being involved in the Massachusetts community. She brings a lot to the table and she runs a tight ship and we really appreciate having her on board. Carla, what does the day look like for you? Oh, it's fun. It's funny. We've done it in coffee. It cannot complain about that for sure. But, you know, let me talk a little bit about why Carla is here. Why am I here and why I do what I do. So we talk about Duncan, give it back to the community. So when I start working with Duncan, it's a little bit over 25 years ago. I was going to ask you how long you've been with them. I did not have any background restaurant. And one thing I learned right off the bat with Duncan Donets was they give it back to the community to be involved and it's not just about the job. It's not just punching, punch out. It's really built that culture with this, the community. And that's those things giving back, being involved help develop the new generation of workers in that community. It's what made me fell in love with Duncan Donets. And that's why I still with Duncan too today. And that's why I'm in Nashville. It's so much opportunities. But to bring what is done is the culture and the love we have for Duncan to Nashville is a privilege. And I'm taking our wing and that's why we hear. Well, I got to tell you, being a vice chair, the Brentwood Chamber of Commerce, and we first went to Duncan, you guys grabbed us with open arms. And we so appreciated it. We really did. And you've been so generous. We did a last year at Christmas, we did take pictures with Santa. And you guys gave us donuts and hot chocolate and hot tea and all kinds of stuff. We did up the Ravenswood House. And we just grabbed people walking by and people go, of course we made the point saying, this is from Duncan Donets. You people, you need to support that man. People were just so impressed. And that is, that is getting involved in the community. We're now working also with the Gary Sennese organization, which we need to kind of hook you guys up with. They're a great organization also that you may want to get involved with along with all the other charity events because the more the merrier, right? And it certainly stayed in your right. It sets Duncan Donets apart from everybody else. It's impressive. And that's a mission down here. Where are you from? I'm from Brazil. Okay. Okay. I have a very good friend, her brother and a married woman from Brazil. She's a darling girl, just like you. Of course, you don't look old enough to be working with them for 22 years, you hire when she's 12. I think there's I think there's laws against that here. Thank you. You make me feel a million bucks, but I'm getting there. Enjoy it. It's an ugly ride. I know the pain, the aches, tell me. Yeah, I'm not kidding. So let me ask you, Steve, how many locations have you got total now? We have 63 locations. We have 32 locations in the greater, I called the greater Nashville Tennessee market, but it's really middle Tennessee. Our southern most store is Lawrence Berg, and I know that most store is Portland. Do you have one that's like over and above everybody else that does more business than anyone else? I would say Karothers does that's our prime store over on Karothers Boulevard. Yeah. And our store down in Port Royal does very well as well. Spring Hill. Spring Hill. Yes. All right. Let me ask you a question. What is the number one donut? Your number one seller? What is the thing that people and they go to Dunkin glazed? What's the number one donut? And excluding glazed? Well, they're all my favorites. They're like my children. Well, they're all the same. But what are people buy? People buy probably I would say glazed and Boston cream probably the most. Really? Actually, it's chocolate sprinkles. My kids like the maple. That's like how I was here. That's kids. That's kids. And number two is chocolate sprinkles. strawberry is right ahead ahead and after that would be Boston cream. You're making me hungry. I love the maple. Where's the donuts by the way? Yeah, where's the donuts? I thought you least come with three or four or five boxes. We should. Yeah, I'm just realizing there's no donuts here for us to enjoy during this show. Everything except today and we stopped by you. And I got a dunk in half a mile from here and there's and there's not donuts today. Nothing like putting them on the spot. It's like. This is a tough crowd. Let me tell you. Well, what if you got coming up next now that's some big event or or what you want to talk about or is there anything you want everybody to know about? Well, the NCA right now, natural children's alliance in partnership with the Metro police. We're doing a $25 dozen and all of that $25 goes to the national children's alliance. They do an unbelievable job. We went and we took a tour of the facility they have and they really take care of a lot of children that have been in really bad situations. Even to the point where you know, from a funding standpoint, they don't receive a whole lot of funds from the state or the federal government or anything like that. And it's really grassroots what they do and the money that they raise. So it's a partnership that we really feel strongly about. And the work that they do is absolutely incredible. They have therapists. They have a lot of children that come in, a lot of families that have had some really, really difficult circumstances and very difficult to deal with. And our children are most vulnerable. You know, they don't have a voice. They don't know what's going on. And the situations that they've been put in are really, really horrific. And the work that the national, the National Children's Alliance does is absolutely amazing. Even to the point where they have a waiting list which breaks my heart to have to even think about children that have to be on a waiting list that have been in such traumatic situations. So we really feel strongly about this. And it's not only our group, but it's Blumon Group also. There are another franchisee in the Duncan market. So it's all the Duncan stores in Nashville are offering this $25 dozen. And again, 100% of that goes to the National Children's Alliance. We're donating all the donuts from our stores, our donuts to this. And we, our goal is to raise $25,000. We're going to do, we want to do a thousand dozen. And we're very excited about it. And we really would like to, you know, make this thing big for these guys. You can come into the stores. There's a barcode. You can hit the barcode. You can order your donuts and you can pick up your donuts. Wow. That is, that is incredible. 12,000 donuts. And we're going to bring in Meredith Luckett right now. She is the director of development. Meredith, thanks for joining us. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here. An honor to be partnered with Duncan and to know Steve and Carla. They're as good as it gets here. It's amazing. Tell us about, and he just kind of outlined a little bit of it. But tell us in your words, tell us about the Nashville Children's Alliance. Sure. So we have been around since 1992. NCA was formed to serve children who have experienced severe physical abuse, sexual abuse, or have witnessed a violent crime. We work in direct partnership with the Department of Children's Services with the Metro Nashville Police Department, juvenile court, our kids, the DA's office, and the Vanderbilt care team, really to make sure that all of these children are getting the support and care that they deserve. So each week we meet with representatives from all of those different organizations to review every single allegation of severe child abuse to make sure that every perspective is investigated. And like Steve said, we provide the forensic interviews for the children. So our team, we are the ones that are actually interviewing the children to find out what happened. We provide family advocacy, court education, ongoing trauma therapy, and everything that we do is free. We know that the families have been through enough and we never want to add a financial burden on top of that. But we're really there to support the family with whatever we can do. And of course, because our services are free, fundraisers like this are so crucial just to make sure we are able to keep providing everything for free. You get around of applause for that. I mean, bless you. I mean, just, I mean, you can describe that. But I think if you're listening to this and you hear that, you go, wow, that's really great. But I'm looking at you thinking about how heartbreaking your job has to be to just experience and see those things happening on a regular basis. And it's just how do you get through every day? I'm supposed to like first responders who have to go to these car wrecks and stuff like, how do you, how do you cope with that? Like, thank you. First of all, for what you do. It's absolutely incredible. And what's that like? Thank you. I appreciate that. I say that I have the easiest job doing development. My teammates are the ones who are in the thick of it every single day hearing these stories over and over. We can do up to six forensic interviews per day. Each year, we keep seeing an increase in the number of cases that are coming in. So this past year, we reviewed over 1900 cases. And this is just Davidson County alone. It's, it's really horrifying, but it's also the reality. What we try to do is make sure people know that this exists. We still here in some communities. You know, that doesn't happen here, but it does. It does. It does. It does. How the abuse doesn't discriminate. Yeah, it's, I actually started as a volunteer with NCA for about five years before I joined the team at the work. I'm biased because I love it so much. It's just, it's the most incredible place. I would encourage anyone to come out and actually see our office, the topics that we work around. They're really heavy topics, but our, our space as soon as you walk through the doors. And I think Carla and Steve can attest to this. You feel the hope. It's just a really amazing place to work. You see a child come in and they may have their head down and they're experiencing the most horrific time of their lives. And when they leave, they get to, you know, pick out a stuffed animal and take it with them. And that's our way of empowering the children and giving them their choice back when a lot of times they've had their choice taken away. But you see them walk out of our doors with a smile on their face and they're feeling lighter and their head is, their head is up, their shoulders are down. Just knowing that they're on the path to healing. So it's, amazing. It's like walking into Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and you kind of, you know, but there's all of the hope and the things happening around it. What an amazing organization to partner with. Absolutely. We're very excited about partnering with them. And there's not, I mean, there are a lot of causes and a lot of, a lot of ways and a lot of things like you say Vanderbilt in the Children's Hospital is a lot of, a lot of places where you can donate money to. But this was, this was one that just absolutely hit us when we went in the tour and the people and the staff and what they do is just truly amazing. And the fact that they have a wait list for children is absolutely kills me. So that's something that we want to try to, you know, help so that we can get it to the point. Maybe they don't have a waiting list. If we can raise, you know, enough funds and continue to support them. I want to like leave this interview right now and go buy donuts. I mean, I really want, I mean, this is this, I want to support this. If maybe you're, you, you, any of the, any of the Duncan donuts and go to any Duncan donuts and how do I make sure that my purchase, here we go. Here's how it works. You donate $25 to NCA now. Get a dozen NCA Duncan donuts support credit. Okay. So I just, I need to go to NCA.com. Actually, if you go to tiny URL.com/NCAXDunkin, that'll take you straight to our PayPal page where you're able to make that purchase. There, we have these flyers that I'll share with you guys. So you have the actual graphics, you can scan the QR code or go straight to that website. So when you make a $25 donation to NCA, then they send you a voucher for a free dozen donuts. So through that PayPal, you quite literally pick the date that you want to pick up. You pick up your location or you choose your location for pickup. And then we are working on the logistics with Carla. You will just go to the store on that day and your donuts will be waiting for you. Wow. Okay. Well, everybody needs to let's, let's, let's give that website. If somebody's listening to this and if you're listening, they should drive in your car, pull over, hit pause, note that word about 20 minutes right now into the episode, 19 and a half minutes into the episode. You're marked that so you can go back and you can type this into a URL or you can go to any Dunkin Donuts and scan the QR code and that works. Give me the URL again. Sure, it's tiny URL. com/ncaxduncan. TinyURL.com/ncaxduncan. Excellent. So go there, donate the $25. Now let's just say, I want to donate $100. Can I donate any amount? You sure, Cam? On that PayPal account, when you're scrolling through the images, there is a graphic with another QR code that takes you straight to our website to donate any amount. Or you go straight to Nashville Children's Alliance.org. And we have the donation link right on that main page. Wouldn't it be awesome if everybody listening to this went right now and gave at least $100. I mean, this is Brentwood. Let's go give as much as we possibly can. There's a wait list right now for children who need help. And we're out doing all the things that we do. Like, come on, people. Let's go to this website. The Nashville Children's Alliance NCAA. Go to their website. Help them out. Let's, let's, let's from this show, let's make a difference. This is where podcasting really works. If we can make a difference right now and children's lives, this is a vital. This is vital. I'm so excited to hear it. I'm just excited to learn about it. I don't even know about this. So this is really exciting to learn about it. Thank you so much. We're just so fortunate at Duncan has gone above and beyond with this partnership. You know, it's one thing to donate money to an organization. But they are hands on coming and supporting us. And it is just so incredible. The amount of care that they are providing for our community. Really, it's a blessing. They are giving us a platform that we didn't know we could even get to. I was a fan of Duncan before this, but now I'm, I'm, this is amazing. I'm so excited. Yeah, now it's a, it's a thing. This is really great. Kathy, you're, Kathy has shared her microphone. Do you want to jump in? Do you have anything you want to say? I'm just going to echo what Brandon said and that is people get off your back sides and go out and do this. For children to be on a waiting list is horrific. Do something. That's heartbreaking. Yeah. One of the things I just like to add to that too is, you know, when you sec in, you go to the doctor and you know you have whatever problem and it's, it's bad. And, you know, there are doctors there and the doctors will see you and you go in. And, you know, you're, you're being taken care of these kids. They don't even know that they're, they have this problem. They're, they're taking off of police lists and so forth of, you know, domestic violence or whatever happens in the house and the household. And, um, they're just so vulnerable. It's, it's just absolutely amazing that this happens in this day and age that kids go, you know, with these issues of abuse and, um, domestic problems in the house and, uh, they're the future of our, of our country, of, of everything, our society. So, um, these, um, these are kind of the kids that are left behind. So we really appreciate you coming in and, uh, donating, whether you donate, whether you use the URL code, or you come in into the store and you, um, use the, um, the code and the QR code, the QR code, yeah. Um, it, it's a great cause and, um, I can't, I can't say enough about, um, the Nashville Children's Alliance, the folks that they have over there and the work that they do. And in Brentwood, your store is at 4930 thoroughbred lane. That is your store in Brentwood. And if you're listening to this in here, a Brentwood business owner, but maybe you live in Franklin, they've got four locations in Franklin. They've got two on Carothers Parkway, one on Cool Springs Boulevard and the new highway 96 West, which is my local. That's my store. That's the store I go to, uh, at least weekly. I'll get woken up by the kids at like six months. I'm already dead. We want to dunk in. I'll go. Yeah, let's do it. Let's go. And that's how I get woken up at least once a week. So I'm, uh, I'm a, I'm a big fan and, um, thank you guys so much for coming in today. I could talk to you for the next three hours. I'm a restaurant guy, right? So I mean, I could talk, I want to talk to Carla about operational stuff. And I want to hear all about coffee because coffee is such a massive part of what you guys do. I mean, you have retail in stores. Do you, that's, that's a corporate thing, right? You don't have anything to do with the coffee in the stores, right? As far as the, well, so Duncan, um, the franchise is actually do all the purchasing. We do it by the, you know, they have a standard. And we have a board, our, uh, distribution center has a board of franchise elected, uh, franchise ease that actually go out and do the buying and the sourcing and all of that. So, um, it's a pretty unique franchise in that, in that respect. Wow. I did, I did not know that. I didn't either. I didn't know what it takes to know. I mean, I, I assume if, if I went to work for you, got to help you, uh, you'd have teach me how to make donuts, right? I mean, you walk in the door or they don't, I mean, I'm ignorant when it comes to that stuff. I just walk in, buy them off the shelf and think they got there magically, you know, some donut fairy brought up to please me. The donut fairy makes a bad night. Are you telling me that there's no donut fairy? No, I'm shocked. Me too, but how many people come in and just buy coffee and no donuts? A lot. Our, our product mix is probably about, um, we're about 55% on the coffee on the beverage end of it and, um, you know, the best coffee. And I'm not a coffee drinker, but if I'm going to have it, yeah, really is. Partial absolutely. Is that price going to have to go up on the coffee? Yeah. We hope not. I'm, you know, right now coffee is at an all time high as far as, you know, the bean and then, you know, the roasting and, you know, with the tariffs and so forth. There's a whole lot going into that right now and we're hoping to keep everything we hate raising prices. You know, as I'm a consumer too. And, you know, I don't like to, you know, that's not where we want to be. That's great. And as the COO, you're dealing with a lot of that type of stuff every day. I said, what does your day look like? What time do you get up in the morning? Are you, are you like an early morning? Is the bulk of your day happened bright and early in the morning? Are you like a nine to five type thing? No, a day is a very early in the morning. I start opening around 4, 5 a.m. So I lead us already to go at 6. So that's when my day started. Yeah, we make a money and a rush morning from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. So why I should be that a nine. So I'm always available any time of the day. Let me ask you this. Do you have trouble hiring people? I mean, I hear from other businesses how tough it is right now to get good employees. If you guys ran into that. I think it is some challenges, but the way I look at it is our I employees are a community and as long we could to be a community we are hiring from in should not be that hard. Okay. If someone is out there looking for a job. We always hiring do they just go to the local donut shop. Yeah, they can talk to the major walking one of our locations. They will see a queue call to the managers. They will be able to help and guide you through the process. Okay, you never know. You know, there's a lot of college kids out there not being able to find a job right now. So. Yes, we always hire a special seasonal. We have the summer jobs actually in the schools. The college students is going back to school now. So we're going to see them going and return to the holidays. I want to try to forget I want to give shout out to Andrew with your organization. He always is there to help us and always he's just such a sweetheart. So I want to thank you for that connection. I have a restaurant right on Belmont University's campus. It's directly across street from the campus on Belmont Boulevard and it's this week is a really crazy week for us because all of our summer help. All the people that are going to like UT in these other schools who've been working all summer all leave this week. And then everybody all the rest of our students are our staff who go to Belmont are all coming back. I've never experienced this of like an entire staff switch of people that are going back to school and the people who are going back to school coming back to work. It's really fun. It's a neat little dynamic that I've never experienced before. You're in a good location there. Yeah, that's a great location. My daughter just graduated last year from Belmont. It's a well, you're right across the street from campus and right now they're doing the dolly musical across the street at the Fisher Center, which is if you walk out our front door, you walk directly or front door directly into the front door of the Fisher Center and every night there's, you know, a show right now until the end of August and it's been fantastic. That's terrific. Certainly enjoy that for sure. All right, guys, what are we missing anything we're missing? What do you want to say to the people of Brentwood that are listening to this? The business owners of Brentwood, this is the Brentwood up podcast. You guys get to take us out one final word, final thought, whatever you want to say, we'll go cross the board. We'll go Steve, we'll go Carla, we'll go Meredith, you all get a shot. Well, first of all, thank you very much for having us today. We really appreciate being on, we really appreciate being able to talk about the NCA. Secondly, really appreciate all the support from the Brentwood community, all the people, our employees, really appreciate it all. Thank you very much. All right, very nice. We'll give you a… There it is. Steve Catalana. All right. What? Carla. Carla Cutter. Carla Cutter. Carla Cutter. Thank you. Ann Meredith. Yeah, I just wanted to wrap up with a little statistic from the University of Tennessee. A few years ago, they did a study and found that the economic impact of child abuse and Tennessee alone is about $4 billion each year. So the business community, you should understand what that impact means and help us bring that number down. And not to the $4 billion a year, but for you being here. You know, $4 billion a year, that is more than Kathy makes in an entire year. Just a little. Did you know that? I wish that was an issue. All right, guys, Steve. It's been a pleasure meeting you, Carla Meredith. Thank you guys so much for your time today. And thank you for your support of the Brentwood up chamber of commerce. We hope to see you guys at a bulls and business someday every Thursday from five to seven at Maribol. It is an open love to have you guys. We do a networking event every single Thursday. You're welcome to come also Meredith. We love to have you anybody out there who would like to meet local business owners and just connect. We do free or derives. We do drink specials. And it's in the lounge right there. It's almost time to go back to the patio almost. That's why there's almost there. We're going to go back to the outside patio, but we'd love to have all of you come to bulls and business at Maribol restaurant at fifty two oh one Maryland way and Brentwood, Tennessee. Like the shameless plug there at the end. It's disgusting. Yes, I want to tell everybody thank you to we appreciate taking the time. We know your schedules are busy. But we want to get this word out to everyone. So thanks. Thank you. All right, guys. Have a wonderful rest of your day. You too. [Music] [Music]