Alaska: Alaska’s Breakfast King, Derrick Green on the Waffles & WhatNot Success Story
This week on the Titans of Food Service podcast, Nick Portillo speaks with Derrick Green, former Army veteran, and Alaska’s “breakfast king”. Derrick shares his inspiring journey of transforming personal health challenges into a thriving food business, Waffles and Whatnot. After facing significant health issues within his family, including cancer diagnoses for both his wife and mother, Derek turned to food not just as sustenance but as a means of healing. His company is built on the belief that food should nourish and promote wellness, and he aims to create the largest black-owned franchise in the U.S. Nick and Derrick discuss the unique characteristics of the Alaskan food scene, highlighting its reliance on local ingredients and the bountiful seafood that defines its culinary landscape.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Intro
(00:36) Meet Derrick Green: From Army to Entrepreneur
(01:40) Alaska's Unique Culinary Scene
(07:39) Derrick’s Journey Through Health Challenges
(09:46) The Birth of Waffles and Whatnot
(11:51) Creating Health-Conscious Meals
(17:56) Building the Largest Black-Owned Franchise
(32:56) Community Outreach
RESOURCES
CONTACT
Transcript
There are a million ways to make money in the food service industry.
Nick Portillo:You just have to find one.
Nick Portillo:On the Titans of Food Service podcast, I interview real life movers and shakers in the food game who cut through all the noise to get to the top.
Nick Portillo:My name is Nick Portillo and welcome to the Titans of Food Service podcast.
Nick Portillo:Let's jump right into it.
Nick Portillo:Welcome back to season three of Titans of Food Service.
Nick Portillo:I'm your host, Nick Portillo, and as part of my across America 50 weeks tour, I'm visiting every state to sit down with some of the biggest names in food service.
Nick Portillo:This week, I'm going to be heading to the beautiful state of Alaska and I'm excited to introduce my guest, Derek Green.
Nick Portillo:So, Derek, he has an incredible story.
Nick Portillo:After serving in the army for 21 years, he was inspired to help his family through some difficult health challenges by focusing on healthy, nutritious eating.
Nick Portillo:What started for Derek as a personal mission to care for his wife and mother turned into something much bigger.
Nick Portillo:And we're going to talk about that in the conversation.
Nick Portillo:And what happened was Derek founded Waffles and Whatnot, which is a company built on the belief that food should both nourish and heal.
Nick Portillo:And in current day, Derek is on a mission to grow Waffles and Whatnot into the largest black owned franchise model in the history of the United States.
Nick Portillo:His journey has been nothing short of inspiring.
Nick Portillo:He's been featured on food and food networks, diners drive ins and dives to being recognized by Entrepreneur magazine and USA Today.
Nick Portillo:His restaurant has earned numerous accolades, including being named the best breakfast in Alaska and winning the best food truck in Alaska two times.
Nick Portillo:We'll dive into how Derek's experience in the army combined with his passion for health and wellness, shaped his approach to business, leadership and community impact.
Nick Portillo:But before I get into my conversation with Derek, I'd like to take a look at the unique food service scene in Alaska.
Nick Portillo:So Alaska is known for its rugged beauty.
Nick Portillo:It offers an extraordinary culinary experience shaped by its proximity to pristine waters and abundant wildlife.
Nick Portillo:From king crab to wild salmon, seafood is a cornerstone of Alaskan cuisine.
Nick Portillo:Alaskans also have a deep appreciation for locally sourced ingredients, foraging for wild berries and herbs, and embracing the state's indigenous food traditions.
Nick Portillo:With a unique blend of local flavors, sustainability and adventure, the Alaskan food service industry truly stands out.
Nick Portillo:Now, without further ado, let's go ahead and welcome.
Nick Portillo:All right, Derek, welcome to the Titans of Food Service podcast.
Nick Portillo:Man, I appreciate you taking time to come on and meet with me.
Derek Green:Thank you for having me, brother.
Derek Green:I appreciate the opportunity.
Nick Portillo:Yeah.
Nick Portillo:So you're in Alaska.
Nick Portillo:You know, I.
Nick Portillo:I've got a list on my phone of all the different states that I've been to in the country, and I think I've hit.
Nick Portillo:I've definitely been more to more than half of them, but Alaska is one that I've never been to.
Nick Portillo:Where do you live in Alaska?
Derek Green:I'm in Anchorage, Alaska, and man, you have to make that trip for me.
Derek Green:Alaska is literally the most beautiful state I've ever been to.
Derek Green:The most beautiful place I've ever been to.
Nick Portillo:Did you grow up in Alaska?
Derek Green:No, no, no.
Derek Green:I grew up in Fort Bears, Florida.
Derek Green: I came here in: Nick Portillo:Is there an army base there in Alaska?
Derek Green:Many.
Derek Green:Yes.
Nick Portillo:I did not know that.
Nick Portillo:Okay.
Nick Portillo:I live in Orange County, California.
Nick Portillo:So near us.
Nick Portillo:I mean, we've got many different military bases.
Nick Portillo:Camp Pendleton, you know, and I think there's an Air Force base out to in the desert as well.
Nick Portillo:So there's quite a few here in Southern California.
Nick Portillo:But I didn't realize Alaska had so many.
Derek Green:Yeah, we actually have all branches of service up here in Alaska.
Derek Green:Big military presence is so close proximity wise to Russia and so a lot of defensive elements up here.
Nick Portillo:Could you cross.
Nick Portillo:Could someone cross from Alaska into Russia with a boat?
Derek Green:Yes.
Derek Green:So, okay, there are.
Derek Green:Years ago there was this thing with Sarah Palin saying that she could see Russia from her home.
Derek Green:Yeah, yeah.
Derek Green:She lives in.
Derek Green:Or at the time was living in Wasola.
Derek Green:So she can't see Russia from her home, but there is an island that you can go to where you can see Russia across the strait.
Nick Portillo:Wow.
Nick Portillo:It's so crazy, like how the whole, how the whole map works, you know, that we are.
Nick Portillo:I mean, it's a.
Nick Portillo:We're massive.
Nick Portillo:You know, Earth is massive.
Nick Portillo:But really we're.
Nick Portillo:We're.
Nick Portillo:We're closer to everyone that.
Nick Portillo:Than you think, I think sometimes.
Derek Green:Absolutely, man.
Derek Green:Which is why I'm tired of everything that's dividing us.
Derek Green:It's like we're closer to each other than you realize and.
Derek Green:Agreed, man.
Derek Green:Anyway, not to get into political stuff, but.
Nick Portillo:Yeah, you know, I got off.
Nick Portillo:I love LinkedIn, right?
Nick Portillo:It's LinkedIn for me.
Nick Portillo:It's got a lot of my professional contacts, but when it comes like Instagram and TikTok and those, like, I'm not.
Nick Portillo:I have an account set up on there, but I don't ever use those.
Nick Portillo:I feel like it's better for my mental health.
Nick Portillo:You know what you read and see online is.
Nick Portillo:And then you.
Nick Portillo:And then sometimes, like, I'll watch something, and then you go outside and you're like, wait, I think it's.
Nick Portillo:I think my.
Nick Portillo:My.
Nick Portillo:My little handheld phone is telling me maybe a different story than what I see outside.
Derek Green:Yeah.
Nick Portillo:You know, kind of funny.
Nick Portillo:So tell me, so you.
Nick Portillo:You.
Nick Portillo:You moved to Alaska from Florida to join the Army.
Nick Portillo:And why did you want to get into the Army?
Derek Green:So I grew up in a place in Fort Pierce, Florida, which was the home of the underwater dem.
Derek Green:The what are now known as seals.
Derek Green:Growing up there, I didn't see a lot of opportunity for progression.
Derek Green:I didn't see a way out of the trap of being in that low socioeconomic environment where most of the people that I knew either ended up in jail, prison, or dead.
Derek Green:Either that or just they literally sit on a front porch miserable like that.
Derek Green:There was nothing that I saw growing up as a kid that made me want to stay in Fort Pierce.
Derek Green:And I went Veterans Day one year.
Derek Green:Veterans Day or Memorial Day.
Derek Green:I'm not sure which one, but I was somewhere around 12 or 13 years old, and they were putting flags on the graves of all of the veterans, and I watched them painstakingly search this cemetery for veterans.
Derek Green:And I thought, man, these people are dead and gone, but somebody still cares enough to honor them, to put a flag on their grave, to go out there and honor them.
Derek Green:And I was like, I want to be a part of that.
Derek Green:And so I joined JROTC in high school, and then I was absolutely hooked after that.
Derek Green:JROTC was so much fun.
Derek Green:I learned how to shoot, and I was a great shot.
Derek Green:And so that propelled me forward through that organization.
Derek Green:And I joined the army, and career took off, brother.
Nick Portillo:And you were there for what, over 20 years?
Derek Green:21 years.
Nick Portillo:Wow.
Nick Portillo:And what did you.
Nick Portillo:What was your role in the Army?
Derek Green:So my mos.
Derek Green:My job was a military policeman, but within that, I had several roles.
Derek Green:So I've done everything from traffic accident investigation to being a DUI specialist to sexual assault victim advocacy, suicide intervention, domestic violence victim advocacy, resiliency training.
Derek Green:And at the end of my career, I was a community liaison.
Derek Green:I was hired by, at the time, it was Governor Walker to be his military aide de camp, his personal assistant.
Derek Green:So my career just went from.
Derek Green:I literally went from this kid with no hope or anything like this to being hired by the governor, a job which I declined after accepting so that I could make waffles on the sidewalk.
Nick Portillo:I was gonna ask you.
Nick Portillo:It's like in your 21 years there.
Nick Portillo:Did food ever come into the picture?
Derek Green: of my military career, but in: Derek Green:2008 is when she found it, but she found this lump in her breast.
Derek Green:And this is on that journey of watching her go through chemotherapy and this radiation treatment and all other things, the cancer journey.
Derek Green:That's where food gained importance.
Derek Green:And at the same time, my mother also had cancer and hiv.
Derek Green:And so regulation of the gut microbiome through food became a much more important aspect of my life.
Derek Green:Then, wow.
Nick Portillo:Okay, okay, Tell me a little bit more about that.
Nick Portillo:The how you got into food.
Nick Portillo:So you have your wife and your mom simultaneously both have cancer, and so this is really driving you towards food and trying to find ways to maybe help.
Nick Portillo:Is that essentially what you're looking to do?
Derek Green:Yeah.
Derek Green:So for my wife, I watched her taste buds completely change with the chemo.
Derek Green:Okay, the things that she used to love, she couldn't stand anymore, even to smell.
Derek Green:So when I would be cooking, though, there were things, dishes that she previously really enjoyed.
Derek Green:Now she was just like, no, take it out of the house.
Derek Green:I can't smell it.
Derek Green:And so I already had to revamp the way that our family ate and the way that I cooked.
Derek Green:The third day of chemotherapy, third day after chemo, was always her worst day.
Derek Green:And so on that day, she'd have been vomiting essentially for three days, and she'd be completely empty.
Derek Green:Her stomach would be empty, and energetically, she would be completely drained.
Derek Green:And so what I did was search for options.
Derek Green:And I found the brat diet.
Derek Green:Bananas, rice, apples, and toast that she was okay on that.
Derek Green:So I created a pancake that if she were able to just eat two or three bites and hold that pancake down, it would give her some energy and she wouldn't feel completely stumped by life.
Derek Green:And eventually I turned that pancake into a waffle.
Derek Green:That's when I wanted to try this business thing out and started out on the sidewalk selling people those waffles.
Derek Green:But first, I was just giving those waffles away.
Derek Green:Additionally, my mom had cancer and hiv.
Derek Green:And when my mom came up to Alaska, she literally had this little tackle box of pills that she had to take on a daily basis.
Derek Green:And so as I looked in this tackle box of pills, I saw that there were things that I could replace place with food items.
Derek Green:You know, one of the things that stood out to me was this coconut oil supplement that she had to take, which was this huge horse pill.
Derek Green:Or the turmeric capsules, which was also a big pill.
Derek Green:And I'm like, my mom, I hate taking pills.
Derek Green:And so once I figured out what I could replace with food ingredients, I put those things in a bowl and saw if there was a way that I could make something out of it.
Derek Green:And eventually I came up with a chicken batter.
Derek Green:And my mom needed a certain amount of protein per day.
Derek Green:And so what I found is that when I hand cut chicken strips, I could give her the amount of protein that she needed.
Derek Green:And I formulated that chicken batter such that when three strips of that chicken batter is coated in that mix, it's called the badass art word the baby.
Derek Green:When three strips of chicken are coated with that seasoning, and my mom eats the apple cinnamon waffle, and there's this little sauce that I put on the side called the house sauce, she could stop taking six of the pills that she had to take on a daily basis.
Derek Green:So then it becomes a question of how many more things could I do this with.
Derek Green:My grandmother had four stents in her heart, and she'd suffered a minor stroke.
Derek Green:She was a diabetic, and she had high blood pressure.
Derek Green:And so looking at her restrictions, looking at the foods that she needed to ingest, and understanding, you know what?
Derek Green:I can craft a omelet, a breakfast meal that has the daily dose of seven of the top 10 food items that helps to clear plaque out of the arteries and just make it delicious.
Derek Green:And then it's just a meal.
Derek Green:Somebody's just eating breakfast.
Derek Green:They don't realize that they're taking their medicine, and food is medicine.
Nick Portillo:That's incredible.
Nick Portillo:How did you figure out how to.
Nick Portillo:How did you figure all this out?
Derek Green:Honestly, man, I just got tired of watching the women that I love suffer.
Nick Portillo:Yeah.
Derek Green:And it continues now because I realized that we're losing the battle with.
Derek Green:I just.
Derek Green:I refer to it as the industrial food complex.
Derek Green:We're losing the battle of that.
Derek Green:Because even as a restaurateur, with all of this health knowledge that I have in my head, my kids know those golden arches, and they knew those golden arches since there was a little, you know, little things.
Derek Green:So the marketing and the product availability of these larger corporations that don't really care about what we're ingesting, they care more about the bottom line is, in my opinion, contributing to the downfall of our country via our bodies, our health.
Derek Green:And I just started learning, brother.
Derek Green:I would read scientific journals and still do.
Derek Green:I would read books, and then I would find books that countered the previous book so that I can get both sides of it.
Derek Green:And if they mention a book in a book, I'll go read that book also or go look up that piece of research to eventually realize that in this country, the foods that we eat, first of all, it's an individual thing, though.
Derek Green:They group us all together.
Derek Green:Your body is unique, and what's happening in your body is unique.
Derek Green:So you're going to have to learn what's happening in your body.
Derek Green:But once you learn what's happening in there, it's a true guessing game damn near to figure out how to reset your gut microbiome.
Derek Green:And that's the key.
Derek Green:That's the key right there is making those little guys in your colon happy.
Nick Portillo:That's right.
Nick Portillo:My wife and I, we went to Europe a couple years or last year, and we'd go out to dinner, right?
Nick Portillo:We were in Italy, and we'd get a big pasta dish and we get some meat and some bread.
Nick Portillo:The way our body would feel a stomach, you know, if we had that same meal here in California, we would feel bloated, we'd probably feel tired.
Nick Portillo:But in Europe, where their food system is different, you know, their standards around food are different, what they're adding into their products is vastly different from what we do here.
Nick Portillo:We didn't feel as bad.
Nick Portillo:We'd leave the restaurant and be like, hey, I'm satisfied, I'm full.
Nick Portillo:But I'm not to the level of, like, where I feel like I've turned into a.
Nick Portillo:You know, my stomach's not a beach ball because I'm so bloated and full.
Nick Portillo:And I think what you.
Nick Portillo:One interesting thing that I found about being in a capitalistic society is, and you kind of hinted at this, is the companies have to have to generate a profit, especially on the food side.
Nick Portillo:If I'm making product X, if I could maybe put in this chemical or this extra additive to increase the shelf life, or I can drive more profit off of it.
Nick Portillo:I'm going to do that because it's good for the business.
Nick Portillo:But as the consumer, as the American consumer, and I like what you said, not everybody's the same.
Nick Portillo:But as the American consumer, it's not necessarily good for our health to have these different additives or chemicals in there or whatever it may be that that's being produced, you know, and it takes away from our health, for sure, it.
Derek Green:Takes away from our health, but it adds to the bottom line of someone who's out there to help cure or treat, manage.
Derek Green:Manage is a better word to help manage whatever ailments you Develop from eating years for you, from years of eating high fructose corn syrup or other additives.
Derek Green:The, the dyes that are placed in our foods.
Derek Green:So, and I agree with you, man, I agree with you.
Derek Green:Turmeric can be expensive.
Derek Green:So if I can add a little bit of turmeric, but a lot more yellow dye to get this yellowish flavor to make you feel like this thing is filled with your daily dose of turmeric, then why not do that?
Derek Green:That's been the general consensus, in my opinion, amongst this industrial food complex.
Derek Green:And this is how they were able to eventually replace beef with beef product or chicken with chicken product, such that we don't know what's in the nuggets that we're eating anymore.
Derek Green:Is it chicken?
Derek Green:Is the, is the tuna you're eating actually tuna?
Nick Portillo:Yeah, you're right.
Nick Portillo:It creates, it creates a mystery and it's not good, you know, especially when you have to ingest it.
Nick Portillo:It's going into your system and it stays there.
Nick Portillo:And it's like anything.
Nick Portillo:If you would exercise every day for 10 years, your body and your health and your overall wellbeing is probably going to be better off than if you didn't do a single day of exercise.
Nick Portillo:The same thing is for food.
Nick Portillo:If you eat poorly today and you do eat poorly for 10 years, where's your body going to be at in 10 years from now?
Nick Portillo:Over small amounts, over long periods of time can really do damage to us, for sure.
Derek Green:You know, it's amazing that people never connect this statement, the truth of the statement that you just said, man, it's like if you neglect your dog for an amount of time, you know, and that dog develops some type of resentment or something towards you, or you're wondering why they don't love you, why they don't respond to you in a certain way, it's because of the way you treated them for the years.
Derek Green:If you have a vehicle that you're driving and you don't check the fluids on it, you don't wash it, you don't take care of it and it starts to break down and you get upset and you know, and a lot of people think that they can just take that vehicle to the mechanic and the mechanic is supposed to work some miracle on it to get on a brand new truck or a brand new car, and it's like, no, that's not the way this thing works.
Derek Green:And if you've had, like my mom did and like we do, frankly, years and years and years of crappy eating, all those chemicals, those preservatives the additives, all those things are built up in your system.
Derek Green:Some of them you can get out, other ones you can't.
Derek Green:They're just stuck there.
Derek Green:They're in there.
Derek Green:And this is why for me, I'm attempting to build the largest black owned franchise in American history.
Derek Green:But it's not because I'm on some big power trip or something like that.
Derek Green:It's because I have to offer an alternative in communities that need it.
Derek Green:The poorer communities, color doesn't matter.
Derek Green:The poorer communities in this country that don't have access to whole foods or you know, larger supermarket chains that are healthier focused places to eat, they need access to foods that they're used to eating.
Derek Green:Which is why I focus on American style cuisines, particularly chicken and waffles.
Derek Green:But they need something that tastes amazing but can begin to heal the body, can begin to help them feel a little bit better.
Derek Green:And it was an amazing thing for me to travel to Uganda, one of the poorest countries on the planet, and realize that there's not a single, I didn't find one American made product, food product in their stores.
Derek Green:Here you are in a country that, man, some of the kids don't have shoes, but they know better than to eat our food.
Derek Green:And it made me just think like, yeah, what are we eating?
Derek Green:What have I been eating all my life?
Derek Green:And I'm not one of these conspiracy theorist type people, but it's like if one of the poorest countries on the planet won't eat our food, and their diabetes rate is 3.7%, whereas ours is close to 33% or third, that's either diabetic or pre.
Derek Green:Diabetic.
Derek Green:Maybe they're doing something better than what we're doing here.
Nick Portillo:Yeah, isn't that something?
Nick Portillo:Even at the very beginning of the conversation you mentioned the Golden Arch is McDonald's.
Nick Portillo:I've been to McDonald's in Morocco, I've been to McDonald's here, obviously I've been to McDonald's in Europe.
Nick Portillo:It's just different there than it is here.
Nick Portillo:You know, like the golden nuggets, they're.
Nick Portillo:Or the, the chicken nuggets, they're just, they're better.
Nick Portillo:They, they almost.
Nick Portillo:I don't know what it is, but it's the same company, but they're not making the same stuff.
Nick Portillo:Or at least the ingredients are not the same.
Nick Portillo:I would imagine those com.
Nick Portillo:Those countries probably similar to Uganda have probably.
Nick Portillo:There's definitely a stigma around American foods from other countries as well.
Nick Portillo:But then also their government saying, hey, we're not going to eat this stuff, not going to give it to people.
Nick Portillo:It's not, it's not healthy or safe.
Derek Green:Right, right.
Derek Green:There's so many things about food, and for me, what I've learned is that talking about it or even like going into the depths that I'm going right now, and this is surface level, but being able to go in at levels like this, it's a turn off for a lot of people.
Derek Green:And they've been conditioned through marketing to think that I'm a tree hugger or I'm some conspiracy theorist or I should be in California.
Derek Green:I get all types of statements, things like this, you know, lipped hard and all of this stuff.
Derek Green:And it's like, yeah, now check your, your hemoglobin A1C and your blood pressure and get back with me.
Derek Green:Right.
Derek Green:I would rather just focus on the quality of the food that we're pushing out, the taste of the food.
Derek Green:I let the reviews stand on their own and, man, I've been doing this now for eight years and we're still one of the highest rated restaurants in the country on most restaurant review platforms.
Derek Green:And I'm thankful and grateful for that.
Derek Green:You know, it's like if I can keep pushing that just the quality of the food, keep pushing, you know, having shows like Diners Drive Ins and Dives come up and film us and push us out nationally, then people are focused on the quality of the food versus what's in the food.
Derek Green:And that's beautiful because I'm reverse engineering what companies like McDonald's have done.
Derek Green:Where initially you had a burger and you had a milkshake that was actually ice cream and today don't know what it is that you're getting in at McFlurry.
Nick Portillo:Yeah, that's right.
Nick Portillo:That's right.
Nick Portillo:So tell me, so all of the some of the stuff that you made for your mom, for your wife, are those items incorporated in your concept waffles and whatnot?
Derek Green:Oh, absolutely.
Derek Green:The chicken batter that people eat on a daily basis, that's the same chicken batter that I developed for my mom.
Derek Green:Nice.
Derek Green:It's an exact batter.
Derek Green:The apple cinnamon waffle, the gourmet apple cinnamon waffle, which contains people's daily dose of Ceylon cinnamon, which is the highest quality cinnamon that I've been able to find on the planet, contains a third of an apple and each waffle that you eat and the highest quality apples from sock farms.
Derek Green:And I know people that grow the apples, so I know how they treat their plants and everything, their trees.
Derek Green:Yes, we do.
Derek Green:Our Level best brother to incorporate all of this knowledge that I have.
Derek Green:The fact that if I can get men to eat half a cup of cabbage a day, we're greatly reducing the chance of colon cancer.
Derek Green:So getting them to eat coleslaw or getting them to eat chow chow, or getting them to eat all different types of cabbage products without their knowledge, putting different fruits and veggie combinations, you know, even the dipping sauce.
Derek Green:So you have the chicken, and the chicken has your daily dose of turmeric in it.
Derek Green:When you eat the three strips of chicken.
Derek Green:And turmeric is best activated, the active ingredient is curcumin.
Derek Green:And curcumin is best activated when it's mixed with a pepper.
Derek Green:Like so I put three different peppers in the sauce that you dip it in.
Derek Green:White pepper, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
Derek Green:So that your body, I don't know which pepper Nick's body is going to like better, but I put it in there so that you can activate the curcumin and your body can uptake more of it.
Derek Green:So you're getting a better benefit from that.
Derek Green:My macaroni and cheese has your daily dose of garlic in it.
Derek Green:It's a five ounce scoop of Mac and cheese, but it has your daily dose of garlic.
Derek Green:There's so many different things in there.
Derek Green:The waffle itself is either one of the waffles with the amount of coconut oil that we put in there, you're talking about the MCT oil and you're also talking about being able to fight inflammation because I'm putting your daily dose, your daily recommended dose of that MCT oil in the waffle to be able to help your body along.
Derek Green:Or maybe I infuse the whipped cream with a chicory root inulin or an artichoke based inulin so that you're getting higher fiber.
Derek Green:And I can put enough fiber in that whipped cream to counterbalance the 27 grams of carbs that are on the waffle itself or in the waffle itself.
Nick Portillo:Wow.
Derek Green:And then the waffles, none of my waffles require a topping.
Derek Green:You can eat any of them plain.
Derek Green:And there's less sugar when I make my batches of waffle mix.
Derek Green:So I can take a 70 pound batch of waffle mix and measure it out.
Derek Green:And there's less sugar in there than there is in a 2 liter of Mountain Dew or a 2 liter of any soda product that you want to have.
Derek Green:So the food is also designed to satiate you.
Derek Green:So it's designed literally the opposite of what the industrial food complex does.
Derek Green:Where you can go and have a number two and eat this and eat the fries, the large fries, medium fries, and drink the drink.
Derek Green:And then an hour or two hours later you find yourself snacking on something else because you're not satiated.
Derek Green:Whereas when you eat my foods, they're going to expand in your stomach.
Derek Green:I formulated them so that they do expand and keep you fuller, longer.
Derek Green:So you have many people that come there and they eat breakfast with us because they won't eat again.
Derek Green:So people that are doing omad or doing one meal a day or they're doing intermittent fasting, time restricted, eating all different types of things.
Derek Green:Ketogenic, man, we.
Nick Portillo:You got it all.
Derek Green:Yeah.
Nick Portillo:That is so cool.
Nick Portillo:I mean, if anything it just sounds fun too to kind of.
Nick Portillo:You're almost like you're a chef, but almost a scientist in a way trying to figure out how to make it all.
Nick Portillo:Every meal has its thing, has its health benefit for your consumer coming in.
Nick Portillo:I think that's really, really cool and really impressive.
Nick Portillo:You mentioned that you want to be the largest black owned franchise model in the country.
Nick Portillo:What is your plan to be able to do that?
Derek Green:I intend on finding certain investors that come aboard from the models that we run.
Derek Green:I need $12.3 million.
Derek Green:That's what I have to raise 12.3.
Derek Green:Once I raise 12.3, that'll actually allow me to begin acquisitions of existing companies.
Derek Green:There will be some that we'll build to suit, but that most of them will be acquisitions.
Derek Green:There's so many people across this country that have restaurants that don't know how to manage them.
Derek Green:They're not making a profit yet or their margins are so slim, you know, national average is somewhere around 5% whereas my margins have always been at a minimum about 18%.
Derek Green:And so I have a very efficient restaurant system.
Derek Green:And with that being able to go in, talk to mom and pop's locations, pick out their five to seven best things that they have on the menu.
Derek Green:As long as it surpasses what we're doing.
Derek Green:Like it has to be high quality food that are pushing out, but then revamping their system and retraining them on a better way.
Derek Green:And wherever they're weak at, we want to be able to add strength to that location where they're weak at.
Derek Green:So if they don't know how to manage their numbers, if financial literacy isn't their strength, then we have a team to help with that.
Derek Green:If marketing isn't their strength, we have a team to help with that.
Derek Green:If they don't know how to cook they're just putting out standard, tasteless, like bland food.
Derek Green:It's like, you know what, we can help you with that part.
Derek Green:But it's allowing, it's an acquisition model that allows people to live in their strength.
Derek Green:And then we come in and shore up the rest of it.
Nick Portillo:Would they take on the waffles and whatnot name or would they stay.
Nick Portillo:Oh, so they would.
Nick Portillo:Okay, so they would become a waffles and whatnot.
Nick Portillo:All of the stuff that you're making right now, are you making it scratch in your locations or, or how, how would that work for them?
Derek Green:So these are all original recipes that we manufacture.
Derek Green:All of the products they would purchase.
Nick Portillo:Okay, you manufacture.
Nick Portillo:That's, that's, that's great to have.
Derek Green:So I have a manufacturing operation.
Derek Green:They would purchase the products through us.
Derek Green:And let's say you had a restaurant.
Derek Green:It was called Portillos, Portillos Bistro.
Derek Green:If we came in there, it would become Portillo's Juan or Juan Portillo Waffles and whatnot.
Derek Green:Portillo.
Derek Green:We still include your name in it so that public recognizes that it's you.
Derek Green:And branding wise, there's certain elements of our branding that will go into your location.
Derek Green:But I'm really big on emphasizing the operator of that location.
Derek Green:So there's a picture that goes up on a wall in every single location.
Derek Green:And that picture would be Nick Portillo.
Derek Green:And around you would be all of the people that helped you get to where you are in life, the people that you want to give credit to, to memorialize.
Derek Green:On that wall there'll be a design.
Derek Green:It looks like a food truck.
Derek Green:So it's kind of like there's an indoor park with a food truck and this is where you're ordering your food through.
Derek Green:So there are some elements that we would change and alter of the operation.
Derek Green:The operation would completely change.
Derek Green:So you're going to operate the way waffles and whatnot operates.
Derek Green:And that's so that we can plug and play people.
Derek Green:If you're short on labor, I may be able to loan you one or two people from another location.
Derek Green:And they need to be able to fit into that system seamlessly.
Derek Green:So this was a part of the process of developing a franchise model.
Derek Green:Just the consistency of operation, the consistency of training, the consistency of the food that leaves the kitchen.
Derek Green:It's like the larger corporations have left a great blueprint for how to run a great business.
Derek Green:You can't knock McDonald's business model or Chick Fil a or any of these organizations.
Derek Green:Like, they wouldn't be the size and scale that they are, had they not had a great system in place.
Derek Green:So there's no need to reinvent the wheel on that.
Derek Green:It's just tweaking certain things to my liking.
Nick Portillo:Okay.
Nick Portillo:Okay.
Nick Portillo:Would you start in the Alaska area or how would you kind of.
Nick Portillo:What would be the first starting steps in terms of geography?
Derek Green:The right person.
Nick Portillo:Okay, so it doesn't matter.
Nick Portillo:They could be in Florida, they could be in New York.
Nick Portillo:They could be.
Nick Portillo:You're just looking for the right operator.
Derek Green:The right operator.
Derek Green:The right operator, the right mentality.
Derek Green:Again, you'll hear me say that I'm building the largest black owned franchise in American history.
Derek Green:But it has nothing to do with color.
Derek Green:It's not about color.
Derek Green:It's about making it available.
Derek Green:I need to get it out there and make it available.
Derek Green:So it's more of a marketing statement to say I'm building the largest black owned franchise in American history.
Derek Green:It's a vision that people can get behind and dream.
Nick Portillo:Yeah, you got to have your, your, I call it a bhag.
Nick Portillo:Right.
Nick Portillo:Your big hairy, audacious goal and something that.
Nick Portillo:And your vision.
Nick Portillo:You know, when you say it over and over, it's like manifesting it in a way.
Nick Portillo:And I like that you're putting it out into the universe.
Nick Portillo:Your brain is taking it in because you're saying it out loud.
Nick Portillo:Your family is your friends, anybody you meet.
Nick Portillo:And so it kind of, when you, when you're putting it out there, there's something about just your brain kind of like, hey, when I'm saying something, you start moving towards that direction.
Derek Green:Repetition is the mother of excellence.
Derek Green:And so you continue putting it out there, you reprogram in your subconscious mind to understand you're planting that seed in there.
Derek Green:It won't just be the largest black owned franchise in American history.
Derek Green:It'll also be the most culinarily diverse food establishment in existence.
Nick Portillo:Yeah, I can definitely see that.
Derek Green:Imagine if I had 100 different stores, 100 operators.
Derek Green:That means that's 100 locations with unique foods that they make in addition to the standardization of the waffles and whatnot menu.
Derek Green:So now you have the ability to have every 100 different locations where you can get that one thing that you love and then try something different.
Nick Portillo:Yeah.
Derek Green:So here in Alaska, at this store, I have Dominican chef, I have Filipino chef, and I have a Japanese chef and an Israeli also.
Derek Green:So on any given day, you could have Israeli cuisine, you could have sushi, you could have Dominican food, Puerto Rican food, Hawaiian food, you could have Filipino food.
Derek Green:Different regions of the Philippines, and then you could just eat chicken and waffles and.
Nick Portillo:Who doesn't love that, man?
Nick Portillo:Well, for those listening, what's the best way to contact you or to reach out to you to find you?
Derek Green:Just go to the website, waffles and whatnot.com.
Derek Green:they can.
Nick Portillo:Nice and easy.
Derek Green:Anybody that wants to have a conversation.
Derek Green:My staff knows how to get ahold of me, and I always make myself available.
Derek Green:I try to.
Derek Green:Community outreach is really big for me.
Nick Portillo:Fantastic.
Nick Portillo:Well, Derek, thank you so much for taking time to do this.
Nick Portillo:I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your story.
Nick Portillo:And I'm.
Nick Portillo:And I'm gonna be following you, man.
Nick Portillo:I'm hopeful that you're gonna make it huge.
Derek Green:I appreciate you, brother.
Derek Green:Thank you.
Nick Portillo:You're welcome.
