When Amir Mostafavi’s love for fresh, vibrant ingredients and his commitment to community collide, South Block was born—a growing chain of juice and acai bowl shops making an impact in neighborhoods across DC, Virginia, and Maryland. With over two decades of experience, Amir has built a brand focused on quality, connection, and innovation, leading to 17 thriving locations and more on the horizon.

Key Highlights

From Passion to Purpose (1:05)

“For me, it started with fruits—fresh, flavorful, and nostalgic. I wanted to share that passion with others.” – Amir Mostafavi

Amir reflects on his early memories of enjoying fruit with his family and how this simple joy led him to open his first juice bar on a college campus, eventually paving the way for South Block’s community-driven mission.

The Power of Guest Experience (3:14)

“Guest experience has always been our #1 KPI—because happy guests are the best growth strategy.” – Amir Mostafavi

Amir emphasizes how prioritizing guest satisfaction over short-term gains leads to sustainable success. By monitoring feedback trends, South Block consistently improves systems without compromising product quality.

Creating Authenticity, No Shortcuts (5:46)

“We still make our acai bowls the traditional way—no sorbets, no shortcuts. Quality matters.” – Amir Mostafavi

Learn how Amir’s commitment to crafting authentic, Brazilian-style acai bowls sets South Block apart, even as demand grows. He shares how systems and technology help maintain consistency without sacrificing quality.

Evolving with Technology (7:30)

“Over 76% of our orders are digital—technology lets us serve guests faster while preserving the experience.” – Amir Mostafavi

Amir discusses how South Block uses apps, kiosks, and online ordering to enhance convenience for guests, streamlining operations while keeping the focus on quality and hospitality.

Building Blocks of Community (9:12)

“Our name reflects our mission: every block we enter, we want to make it better.” – Amir Mostafavi

Discover how South Block’s roots in grassroots marketing and local partnerships have fostered deep community ties. From fundraising events to neighborhood initiatives, Amir shares how giving back is central to their brand.

Balancing Growth with Culture (11:25)

“We’re not just creating jobs—we’re building careers and opportunities.” – Amir Mostafavi

Amir highlights South Block’s focus on leadership development and cultivating a positive work environment. By prioritizing people, the brand ensures its culture scales alongside its success.

Who Deserves an Ovation? (13:40)

Amir gives a shoutout to DMV favorites Cava and Call Your Mother Bagels for their commitment to quality, innovation, and vibrant community vibes.

Follow South Block

Website: southblock.com

Instagram: @SouthBlock

For anyone passionate about transforming a simple idea into a purpose-driven brand, Amir Mostafavi’s story offers inspiration on how to scale authenticity, innovation, and community—one block at a time.

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Transcript

00:00:00:08 – 00:00:22:05

Zack

Welcome to another edition of Give and Ovation, the Restaurant Guest Experience podcast, where I talk to industry experts to get their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five star guest experience. This podcast is sponsored by ovation, an operations and guest recovery platform for multi-unit restaurants that gives all the answers without annoying guests with all the questions.

00:00:22:06 – 00:00:46:19

Zack

Learn more at ovation up.com. And today I’m so excited. This guy that you’re about to listen to. He not only is awesome, but he has a company with a mission to make people feel awesome. His name is Amir Mustafi. Amir is the founder and CEO of South Block. Such a cool brand. He’s been doing it now for almost 14 years, based in the DC area.

00:00:46:19 – 00:01:10:24

Zack

And then a couple of years ago or last year joined up with the savory funds and now he’s part of the Savory clan this year. This year okay time flies Amir, but I’m so excited to have you on because every interaction I’ve had with you, you just ooze authenticity. And you’re just one of these people where it’s like you’re doing cool stuff for the right reasons.

00:01:11:01 – 00:01:24:01

Zack

And to have that both for the right reasons and it being cool stuff is just hard to nail. And so I’m excited to get a spoonful from your ocean of wisdom, Amir, on this short podcast. But first of all, how are you, man?

00:01:24:03 – 00:01:40:17

Amir Mostafavi

Good. Thank you man. Thanks for that intro. Now I feel like I got to live up to some awesomeness here, but right back at you, like first time I met you like the hat even you’re like the how you wear now. Like the shirt. It’s all good and it’s all good energy I love it, I love it. I got to take some notes from, you know, doing good.

00:01:40:20 – 00:01:41:22

Amir Mostafavi

Thanks for having me on.

00:01:41:24 – 00:01:59:02

Zack

As we’re looking at South Block because we’re thinking about it. For those who aren’t familiar, do you want to give like a quick overview of South Block? Yeah. And then I’d love to hear like how would you start it? Because I know that this isn’t your first foray into like, bulls and healthy foods. And so we’d love to hear like, what did you learn that you put into South Block two?

00:01:59:04 – 00:02:02:18

Zack

Can you answer those 15 questions in one? Let’s see.

00:02:02:23 – 00:02:36:02

Amir Mostafavi

Do I have more than 30s? Yeah. So South Block. So I started South Block in 2011. We’re based out of the DMV, the Washington DC area, the DC, Virginia, Maryland locations where 17 locations opened today with three in development. And we sell smoothies, juices, acai bowls. I’ve been in this business in total for 20 years. I opened my first juice bar 20 years ago at GW University in the gym on campus, and didn’t have a clue what I was doing.

00:02:36:04 – 00:02:55:12

Amir Mostafavi

I got married that same year. I quit my job at one of the big consulting firms and decided to go make smoothies at a college campus, and I had no foodservice experience except for two weeks at a sandwich shop at Virginia Tech, where I went to swap. And I quit after two weeks because my manager was a jerk.

00:02:55:12 – 00:03:19:14

Amir Mostafavi

So all I knew is that if you’re a jerk, your employees will quit. So that was my rule number one. And from there, I just kept figuring stuff out and I had a passion for smoothies. Well, I would say more. I had a passion for fruits and vegetables, but more so for fruits. I was really into fruits and my whole life growing up and just love the flavors, the colors, the smells coming from my dad.

00:03:19:14 – 00:03:36:13

Amir Mostafavi

It would bring fruit to us. You didn’t go to the grocery store for anything except for that. You just come home with bags of fruit, sit on the floor and just eat it. I always have good memories of that, and when I was looking to do something for myself, I was just drawn to that world of those vibes and those flavors.

00:03:36:15 – 00:04:10:15

Amir Mostafavi

So learned at GW University. I always tell people that that’s where I got my master’s in business at GW. Not for real, but just from learning at that first juice bar that was called Campus Fresh, and things that I learned was just creating awesome quality recipes that we still carry over today and connection with community. We were very involved in campus life and student body, and a lot of fundraisers and a lot of events, and the grass roots marketing efforts that I took with me to South Walk, which became the meeting of South Block, is building community on every block we go into.

00:04:10:17 – 00:04:31:15

Amir Mostafavi

So we’re very passionate about getting involved and getting people to know that we exist and trying to make them block a little bit better than it was before we got there. So that’s what I did on the South Block in Clarendon, where we first opened our business. We were on the south block of this big new tower that nobody came to that side of the building.

00:04:31:15 – 00:04:49:07

Amir Mostafavi

It was dead on that side. So I knew we had to have an awesome product and have an awesome connection with the community to drive people to that part of the block. So that’s where South Block came from, and that’s where everywhere we go now that follows us, that same idea of building a better community on that block.

00:04:49:07 – 00:04:51:00

Amir Mostafavi

So that’s who we are.

00:04:51:02 – 00:05:13:16

Zack

Man. And I love that you really kind of put the story of the mission in the name. And I think that just rings so true, especially because at ovation, we’re a company of celebration. We love finding those people who love good experiences and getting them to tout that right. And so our whole thing was like ovation. And that’s part of who we are in our character, in our values.

00:05:13:21 – 00:05:27:05

Zack

And I love that. I love that yours is like it’s the story of it, right? Ours is like the thing itself, ovation. But yours is the story that makes it so tangible, because stories are sticky like that, and it’s so smart of you to do that.

00:05:27:07 – 00:05:48:11

Amir Mostafavi

Yeah, well thank you. And I thought of all these different names and a lot of them were at the time, like more generic, like Arlington Smoothie and things like that. At the end of the day, I wanted us South Park to be different than a typical like juice or smoothie shop. And I wanted it to represent more of this idea of what we were trying to do with our purpose and being in business.

00:05:48:11 – 00:06:01:20

Amir Mostafavi

So obviously having best in class quality products number one, but standing out because of our commitment to company culture and to people. And I wanted the name to reflect that.

00:06:01:22 – 00:06:20:17

Zack

I love that, and I think that when you look at the company culture in the company and the people that you’re bringing in and keeping, and a lot of it is around the end of the day, the guest experience, right? It’s like, how are we creating the right vibe for our guests? And so what do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays?

00:06:20:19 – 00:06:43:15

Amir Mostafavi

So guest experience for us and you’ll love this. Like it has been my number one indicator on our KPI reports for years. I created this game for my business as we started scaling. It’s literally call it. We call it the game and it’s basically a KPI report that shows your traditional things like your cogs and your labor, your revenue.

00:06:43:17 – 00:07:08:22

Amir Mostafavi

But it has our guest experience score on there. And that has always been my baby. My number one indicator of how we are doing as a business, because I felt like that if you focus too much on your stores with you got to get your labor down, you got to get your cogs down. Whatever you tell your store leaders to focus on is where their energy is going to go.

00:07:08:24 – 00:07:27:17

Amir Mostafavi

So if you’re telling them you’ve got to get your labor down, all they’re thinking is, I got to cut shifts and then you’re creating a worse guest experience because you don’t have enough people to properly serve. Your guests were coming through your door. So I didn’t want to create those bad habits by focusing on so much attention on the cogs and labor.

00:07:27:17 – 00:07:47:17

Amir Mostafavi

And I’ve always put it like, we’re going to give you systems to control your Cogs and labor. We’re going to set you up for success there. You guys are starting with guest experience, making sure you’re nailing that. The rest is going to fall in line. The numbers are going to fall line the revenue is going to drive. It’s going to drive upward and it’s going to create more profit for the business.

00:07:47:19 – 00:08:14:13

Amir Mostafavi

But it starts with guest experience. I’ve also seen guest experience be an indicator. It’s almost a crystal ball into what could potentially negatively impact your numbers. If you’re really tracking your guest experience, feedback that you’re getting, you can start seeing those trends of what are some things that we need to solve for today that could negatively impact our numbers tomorrow?

00:08:14:15 – 00:08:37:00

Amir Mostafavi

Yeah. So we’re tracking all of that and we’re saying, okay, here’s an opportunity. We’re seeing that wait times are what people are complaining about consistently. Yeah. It’s important you don’t take one negative feedback and change everything in your company. Because what you’re seeing trends now you’re saying, okay, we need to look at this. And is there a better way to solve for this faster ticket times modifiers being missed.

00:08:37:00 – 00:08:46:13

Amir Mostafavi

But we got to focus more on order accuracy. And then if you can catch it quick enough, you’re catching it to where it’s not negatively impacting your business and your sales.

00:08:46:15 – 00:09:08:09

Zack

That is so powerful because I think your whole point of you want to listen to your guests, but don’t make abrupt decisions based on a couple of people, right? Because I’ve seen people be like, oh, you know, CEOs bring in a negative review and they go to their team like, we need to fix this thing. And it’s like, all right, Steve, it’s not broken.

00:09:08:11 – 00:09:31:02

Zack

It’s just, you know, someone is complaining on Yelp. Right? But to your point, we need to be open to the fact that it might be broken right. And if we can do that and have that humility to listen and to hear those trends that need to be fixed, that’s where you get super power of great, let’s address it in the moment with the individual.

00:09:31:04 – 00:09:41:15

Zack

But let’s only take action on the stuff that needs to be fixed, because otherwise you’re running around just fixing stuff that isn’t broken.

00:09:41:17 – 00:10:05:22

Amir Mostafavi

But you’d be doing. You’d be wasting a lot of time doing that. You’re right. And you also be driving your team crazy, negatively impacting your culture. So yeah, you’re absolutely right. You got to identify the trends and just constantly be solution minded. You know, I think in general in business that’s so important. Looking for areas of improvement all the time, no matter if you’ve been doing this for one year or 20 years like I have.

00:10:06:00 – 00:10:16:18

Amir Mostafavi

Yeah, always ways to improve. And this is a constantly evolving to there way different tools in place today than there were when I started. So you just got to keep up with it.

00:10:16:20 – 00:10:30:03

Zack

So let’s talk about that, about some of the tactics that you’re using today. And it could be anything from tech to different, like ideas that you’ve had over the years. What are some tactics that you’ve used to improve the guest experience over the years?

00:10:30:05 – 00:10:42:17

Amir Mostafavi

Yeah. So I think the main thing for us, we’ve been using a lot of the same recipes that I started off doing, and one of the main ones is as eyeballs, that is makes up more than 50% of our sales today. It wasn’t always.

00:10:42:17 – 00:10:58:23

Zack

That. Your hint is that you’re trick mirror for staying so young, because to the audience listening if you’re not looking. This guy told me his age before we started and I thought he was totally lying to me. I thought, he’s like 15, 20 years younger. So is it the assembles? Is that what I need to do? Just eat more outside to look like you?

00:10:58:23 – 00:10:59:20

Zack

Amir?

00:10:59:22 – 00:11:17:02

Amir Mostafavi

I guess it’s Aussie. It’s juice. I don’t know, it’s all that stuff, but, Yeah, I’m some. I’m turning 50 this summer. I started, like I said, 20 years ago, so then added a long time. But yeah, the Aussie Bowl is one of those things like that. I just the moment I tasted it, I fell in love with it.

00:11:17:02 – 00:11:34:10

Amir Mostafavi

And and there’s a cool story there of how I was introduced to Aussie. So I was at my campus juice bar Ji-woo. And this I describe him as a surfer dude came into my shop with like a little cooler and he’s like, hey, bro, do you mind if I make you something? And I was like, okay, sure.

00:11:34:10 – 00:11:48:15

Amir Mostafavi

Like, what do you got? He goes on this call to ask this class. I never heard of him before. Like, nobody’s really that heard of it 20 years ago. Right. So he jumped behind my counter and started making me this thing. And then once it was done, he asked me to taste it and I took a bite of it.

00:11:48:15 – 00:12:07:18

Amir Mostafavi

I was like, wow, this is amazing. It’s like the for me, it was like the best thing I’d ever taste in my life. I was like, how do I get this? So I started importing Asahi overnight on dry ice and put a bowl on my menu, and we probably sold like five a day because nobody had heard of it but anyone who would listen to me or taste it.

00:12:07:18 – 00:12:28:09

Amir Mostafavi

I tried to get them to try it because I just loved it so much. So, eventually it became when I started South Block in 2011, I decided to make half my menu Aussie Bowls. Oh, just like totally lean into that. That’s going to be what we’re known for. And so back to your question. You’re probably wondering why I went back 20 years to answer it.

00:12:28:11 – 00:12:51:08

Amir Mostafavi

It’s because we have not taken any shortcuts on the quality of that assemble. I still make it the same way that I did from learning from that surfer dude. It’s the authentic way and there’s so many shortcuts in making it today. Biggest one is using Super Bowl sorbet. And and for me, like I can’t stand when I see ASI being stupid out of a tub.

00:12:51:10 – 00:13:12:09

Amir Mostafavi

It’s just not authentic. It’s loaded with all these gums and sugars and it doesn’t taste real to me. So we make it the real Brazilian authentic way that I was taught. And a lot of people don’t make it that way because it’s a longer process. So for us, like wait times became an issue with our guest feedback. It was taking a long time especially.

00:13:12:09 – 00:13:37:14

Amir Mostafavi

We were getting busier, which was great, and we were selling more, i.e. we were taking long to make it so ticket times, wait time. So working a lot on our system to produce the ASI. So it’s almost like an assembly line system now. Still takes longer than scooping something out of a tub. But we’ve got the system down pretty good now, and we’re constantly looking for ways to improve that.

00:13:37:18 – 00:14:04:03

Amir Mostafavi

Another way we’ve addressed that guest feedback is now with the advancement of technology, is getting people in the habit of pre-ordering through online or app. We have over 50% off premise sales and 76% through digital, including our kiosks. So we’re always seeing about 24% come to our register in order at their register. And it’s just a better flow.

00:14:04:03 – 00:14:21:03

Amir Mostafavi

Like if you can order on the app before you come to the store, you roll in your orders ready and you roll out. It’s frictionless. So really leaning into technology and communicating that to our guests is a way to like, hey, get your order in, we’ll have it ready for you. And by the way, now we don’t have to, like, sell out and take shortcuts.

00:14:21:03 – 00:14:24:00

Amir Mostafavi

You still getting best quality product?

00:14:24:02 – 00:14:49:22

Zack

I love that, man. I mean, taking feedback and really operationalizing it is just so powerful and it’s not easy to do because you get a thousand things hitting you. But I think when you have the focus of the guest experience, right, everything flows into and from the guest experience, it forces you to make those decisions and to say, no, this is a better guest experience to have the product right.

00:14:50:03 – 00:15:01:03

Zack

And let’s figure out the wait time situation as opposed to just saying, well, let’s make a worse product to create a better guest experience. You’re just trading one side for the other.

00:15:01:05 – 00:15:16:05

Amir Mostafavi

Yeah. And I’m super stubborn about that. I’m like, we are not going to sacrifice the quality of the product, just solve that problem. We’re going to figure out other ways to solve that problem. And I think we’ve done it. And I think customers appreciate it. And some customers also like are willing to wait a little bit longer because of that.

00:15:16:05 – 00:15:36:23

Amir Mostafavi

So yeah, I mean, it really like to me that’s a big part of guest experience, is making sure that when they do get their product, it’s a great quality product and your accuracy is on point. Like a lot of people they care more about was an item, was a topic missing from their bowl? Was it a good quality bowl and did I have to wait a little bit longer?

00:15:37:00 – 00:15:40:18

Amir Mostafavi

They just want it right and they want it good. That’s what our goal is.

00:15:40:20 – 00:16:04:06

Zack

Well, and you know what’s actually interesting is research has found that if you are going above and beyond and let’s say that your typical wait time is seven minutes and you’re getting things out and you’re doing it in two minutes, right? For a couple of days, it actually is a negative net experience. Why? Because it resets the expectation of the guest.

00:16:04:08 – 00:16:29:03

Zack

But what we find is that the most important thing in this industry is not how much you’re charging, but it’s are you consistent in the experience that you’re delivering? Because, yeah, guest is willing to pay more for an experience, and it’s shown over and over and over again. Just look at DoorDash. Everyone has bumped up the prices. And there’s a tip and there’s a delivery fee and there’s DoorDash stuff.

00:16:29:03 – 00:16:54:16

Zack

And so people end up paying twice as much for the same food for the convenience of having to eat at home as long as that’s a consistent experience, people are willing to pay more. And so I think it’s less about charging less and more about nailing the the experience. Now, I know you’re like everyone in this industry. And so I know this is a tough question for you, but who is someone that you think deserves innovation in the restaurant industry?

00:16:54:16 – 00:16:56:13

Zack

Who’s someone that we should be following?

00:16:56:15 – 00:17:02:19

Amir Mostafavi

Oh man. Well, I love everyone at the savory brand, all the brands they’re facing, all the all the founders there.

00:17:02:19 – 00:17:06:16

Zack

I just had Mo Betty’s today for lunch. There. It’s fire.

00:17:06:18 – 00:17:25:20

Amir Mostafavi

Yeah, all the founders there are awesome. So definitely ovation to all of that. But if I’m going outside of the savory fund, I mean, there’s so many great DMV brands too. Everyone knows cava now. What? They started out of the DMV. I definitely give them an ovation. And Brett Schulman, he’s been CEO, one of the founders of cava.

00:17:25:22 – 00:17:48:14

Amir Mostafavi

He’s been a great friend and mentor, whenever I needed it. So definitely cava out of the DMV. And I’ll also say like a smaller level, like there’s so much support for DMV brands and we’re all close with each other. One of my favorites today that you guys have probably heard about, if not, you’re going to hear about them is called Call Your Mother a Bagel Shop out of the DMV.

00:17:48:14 – 00:17:55:06

Amir Mostafavi

That just amazing quality product, but also just great vibes that we love. So I’ll give them an ovation as well.

00:17:55:07 – 00:18:05:24

Zack

There we go. Do their website looks super cool. Bagels, coffee and vibes. Call your mother delish.com. Yeah, definitely go check them out. And I saw their founder. I’ll give them a shout out.

00:18:06:04 – 00:18:09:16

Amir Mostafavi

Andrew. Dana, he would love your hat too. That’s his vibe right there.

00:18:09:18 – 00:18:15:00

Zack

Yeah, I know I’m looking at these colors. I’m like, I’m ready to get some of this merch. And I like our neighbor.

00:18:15:02 – 00:18:21:20

Amir Mostafavi

What’s the city in a lot of our locations, we’d like open next to each other. Yeah. Sorry. You were going to say their tagline. Yeah.

00:18:21:20 – 00:18:30:11

Zack

Their tagline is A Jewish deli. I love that we did. Okay, well, mirror, how do people find in Follow You or South Block?

00:18:30:13 – 00:19:02:02

Amir Mostafavi

Best way is, Instagram. So we’re on Instagram at South Walk website is South Block com. Yeah, that’s the best way. Follow us along for our journey. We’re we’re excited. Next year we’re going to go into new markets outside of the DMV. So follow along for that. It’s going to be a challenge for us that we’re excited about, and we’re excited to keep spreading those vibes to new blocks and new communities and providing hopefully awesome experiences and also great work opportunities for people like that’s something we pride ourselves on.

00:19:02:04 – 00:19:24:11

Amir Mostafavi

Is being a great place to work. And if you want to grow a career, I think it’s for me. I would be not nearly as passionate as I am today about selling smoothies if we didn’t make it about the people. And I love the fact that we can create a great career path for people who are working at a juice bar, I just think that’s awesome, and I think we’ve done that.

00:19:24:12 – 00:19:36:14

Amir Mostafavi

We’ve really focused on leadership development, people development as part of our brand culture. So yeah, I’d love for you guys to follow along. If we come to one of your blocks, check us out.

00:19:36:16 – 00:19:56:08

Zack

Awesome. Well, Amir, hopefully you got the American Fork Lehigh Utah block ready to go. We’d love to host you out here with the South Block location, but. Well, Amir, thanks for coming on today and for serving up the Fountain of Youth in a bowl. Today’s ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us and giving ovation. Amir.

00:19:56:10 – 00:19:58:22

Amir Mostafavi

Thanks so much for having me. Appreciate it.

00:19:58:24 – 00:20:21:12

Zack

Thanks for joining us today. If you like this episode, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite place to listen. We’re all about feedback here. Again, this episode was sponsored by ovation, a two question, SMS based, actionable guest feedback platform built for multi-unit restaurants. If you’d like to learn how we can help you measure and create a better guest experience, visit us at ovation up.com.