Amy Hom, CEO of Barcelona Wine Bar, brings decades of operational excellence and team-first leadership to this episode of Give an Ovation. With a background spanning brands like Sweetgreen, Red Robin, and Bluestone Lane, Amy shares why investing in people is the ultimate guest experience strategy. Her insights offer a masterclass in culture-building, training, and creating sustainable hospitality from the inside out.

Leading with Culture First (01:42)

Amy shares what she looks for when walking into a restaurant—and why team energy is the most important indicator of success.

“If the team’s not having fun, I don’t want to be in there.”

The ROI of Development (04:45)

Barcelona Wine Bar saw a 30% drop in turnover after implementing intentional development plans, onboarding systems, and coaching tools.

“Culture creates great results.”

Gratitude Over Burnout (06:19)

Amy explains how staying grounded in gratitude allows her to show up with positivity—even on hard days.

“There’s so much good in the world. You just have to choose to see it.”

From B Player to A Player (08:43)

The ability to receive and apply feedback is what separates the promotable from the plateaued.

“They can either take feedback and adjust or they can’t.”

Training Teams for Guest Readiness (12:16)

With tighter labor budgets, training is more critical than ever—especially as hospitality expectations rise.

“Now you don’t have the luxury of having C or D players serve your guests.”

Slow Down to Scale Right (14:24)

Amy shares why her teams pause marketing until operations are dialed in.

“Don’t bring people in until you’re really running properly.”

Who Deserves an Ovation? (17:23)

Amy gives a shoutout to Stephen Mercer of Mendocino Farms for his authentic leadership and team-first approach.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyhom17/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/barcelona-wine-bar/

https://www.instagram.com/barcelonawinebar/

Transcript

00:00:00:06 – 00:00:22:23

Zack Oates

Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation, the Restaurant Guest Experience podcast. I’m your host, Zach Oates, and each week I chat with industry experts to uncover their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five star guest experience. This podcast is powered by ovation, the feedback and operations platform built for multi-unit restaurants. It gives you all the insights you need with none of the annoying surveys for your guests.

00:00:22:24 – 00:00:44:24

Zack Oates

Learn more at ovation up.com. And today is an honor because I have the distinguished Abby Hom with us. And if you don’t know her, that means you probably are new in the restaurant industry. So let me introduce you. She’s the CEO of Barcelona Wine Bar. She’s board member on the Glenn Network Rescue the lunchbox, former CEO of Bluestone Lane.

00:00:45:00 – 00:00:57:05

Zack Oates

She was with reef Sweetgreen, Red Robin, Wolfgang Puck, CPK. I mean, Amy, you have done it all, and it’s act. Oh, and she did three months at each of those brands.

00:00:57:09 – 00:01:02:05

Amy Hom

So, I sometimes it feels like that, but they were a little longer than that.

00:01:02:07 – 00:01:35:15

Zack Oates

Yeah. Well, Amy, you’ve had such a distinguished career in this industry, and so it’s an honor for those of you who might not be seeing our little clip. We are wearing matching hats. And truly, Amy, you deserve an ovation because you’ve been doing so many incredible things. But we’ll get to that in a minute. First, I want to hear about you have been deep in the operations of restaurants, and when you think about restaurant operations, what are some things when you go into a brand and you’re looking at low hanging fruit that you can get in and say, let’s fix that.

00:01:35:17 – 00:01:42:01

Zack Oates

What are some of the common things that you see that most restaurants need to improve when it comes to their operations?

00:01:42:03 – 00:01:51:20

Amy Hom

First off, we need to give an ovation for Zach, who’s been doing an extraordinary job, built this amazing platform. I’m a big fan, so nice job and I hope you get ovation sometimes.

00:01:51:20 – 00:01:53:08

Zack Oates

So oh well, thank you Amy.

00:01:53:12 – 00:01:59:04

Amy Hom

I’m just bummed I didn’t get a t shirt, but that’s okay. That’s okay. I’ll talk to your people and.

00:01:59:04 – 00:02:02:03

Zack Oates

All right, let’s come to the booth. We’ll have a bunch of that right.

00:02:02:05 – 00:02:20:24

Amy Hom

Come to the booth. That is where I picked of this lovely hat. So for some things, you go into your restaurant and look for. I don’t think it’s any different than any other guests. Hospitality are there smiling faces? The team having fun is the most important to me. Clean, safe environment for the team and for the food and the vibe.

00:02:21:01 – 00:02:31:23

Amy Hom

Everybody wants to be hangout in a cool place with the vibe, so. But if the team’s not having fun, I don’t want to be in there. So you got to have a really great climate and culture for the team to be working in.

00:02:32:00 – 00:02:57:13

Zack Oates

So I get that in theory, but you have made a career out of that, and I think the teams that you’ve built and how people talk about you as a leader is exceptional. You have actually a great quote on your LinkedIn. Oh, I just had it pulled up because I love that. But your backdrop of your LinkedIn, you talk about if your actions create a legacy that inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more than, you are an excellent leader.

00:02:57:15 – 00:03:14:05

Zack Oates

That’s a Dolly Parton quote. Love me some Dolly, but she’s someone who works like 9 to 9, 9 to 5. How do you do that? In practicality? Because I think there’s no one who would disagree with you, but the people who agree with you. A lot of we’re still terrible bosses. So like, how do you create that environment?

00:03:14:07 – 00:03:33:14

Amy Hom

I agree, there are some folks out there that are not great for culture, but culture creates great results. And so if you want to create a climate of development where people you’re literally zoned in on that person and what they want to learn, what they want to work on, you’re giving them that time, you’re writing it down, you’re putting your phone away and making an intentional that’s important.

00:03:33:16 – 00:03:46:14

Amy Hom

We do heart act. A lot of people heard that. I know Stacey Cain and some of the other folks in the industry are now doing them with the franchisees, which is awesome and hilarious. But questions to us about that. Learn about people you can’t get on a call and just zoom like you and I were chatting before this call.

00:03:46:14 – 00:04:05:19

Amy Hom

It’s like you’re getting to know each other, you’re still vibing, but you got to make sure the teams are doing okay. More people are living alone than ever these days. Mental health is an issue and that’s a lot of our team members. We’re still the second largest employer in the country when it comes to restaurants. Right? Pass under the government there.

00:04:05:22 – 00:04:24:17

Amy Hom

Well, that may have changed. We might be the number one now. Small dig there, but there’s a need for connection. There’s a need for connection for our teams. And there’s a need for connection with the guests to walk into our restaurant. And if we can make create an environment that leaves them better than how they walked in or how we found them.

00:04:24:19 – 00:04:45:22

Amy Hom

Team members, guests, vendors, everyone, then you’ve got this culture that people want to belong to, but you have to care. And is it extra time? Sure is. Is it extra energy? 100% what you get back, what you put in. And so we really strive to do that and that’s important. And we just saw we were just doing our numbers.

00:04:45:22 – 00:05:11:18

Amy Hom

We just saw a 30% reduction in turnover. That’s training dollars. That’s all these things. And we’ve all been on board doing these things of development planning in 30, 69 cities and having them read the first 90 days when they join all these components, skill building, practice sessions, all these things tie into that one big thing, which is the probably one of the largest costs behind labor and Cogs is that retention and turnover piece.

00:05:11:18 – 00:05:28:12

Amy Hom

So it all comes down to do you want to go to work when you wake up in the morning? I know you love what you do because it exudes when you walk through, when I’m around you, like you just have this positive ball of energy that everybody wants to be around. Zach, if they could be Zach when they grow up, they love to be.

00:05:28:14 – 00:05:32:17

Zack Oates

Well, maybe when you get to be my age, Amy, I’ll give you some secrets.

00:05:32:19 – 00:05:44:08

Amy Hom

Oh my gosh. Anyway, so it is what kind of energy you bring into the business. And so you might be having a bad day, but you’re leading troops and nobody cares. So you have to care more about them than you do by yourself.

00:05:44:10 – 00:06:02:04

Zack Oates

Let’s get a little deeper, because I think this is so great. And I think that as a leader, you’re someone who I’ve always seen talk about someone who lights up a room like you go in and you have such positive, fun energy. I remember the first time that we actually met, we were at a dinner and sitting next to each other, and I was just cracking up.

00:06:02:10 – 00:06:19:00

Zack Oates

You just make everyone around you happy. But even the great Amy Ham has a bad day every now and again. As a leader, what’s some advice you have to like? Still bring it, still bring the positivity in that great energy even when you’re not feeling it.

00:06:19:02 – 00:06:36:21

Amy Hom

I don’t not feel it. And I’ll tell you why when you look at and this may sound so dramatic, and it probably is to some people listening, but I’m very grateful. My arms and legs work right now, and I’m happy I get to wake up in a bed. And it depends on if you don’t do gratitude or think about those things.

00:06:37:01 – 00:06:58:09

Amy Hom

You can go down a rabbit hole pretty quick. So there’s a lot of stuff in the world that’s just crazy and can bring you down. And there’s so much good in the world that we’re still living in. And so I grew up in a crazy area in Saint Louis, and I’m very fortunate to live in California. Not that there’s anything wrong with Saint Louis, but where I grew up and a lot of the people that know me from my childhood agree.

00:06:58:12 – 00:07:15:06

Amy Hom

Not a great place where we all grew up. But now I’m living a dream that I never thought where that I could be. Now did I get here and push myself? Yes, I’m a learner. I’m big. I’m strength finders. I’m big on development. Somebody asked me today, what’s one thing you’re trying to focus on this year? And it’s always seeking knowledge.

00:07:15:06 – 00:07:29:11

Amy Hom

So if there’s something I can learn from someone, I will leach myself onto that person, figure it out, and, like, spend time. But you have to invest in what you want to do in life. You’ve invested in your company and building it and all of that, and we’re all trying to do the same thing in our own way.

00:07:29:11 – 00:07:33:15

Amy Hom

But things don’t just happen to you. You have to actually go chase them and make them happen.

00:07:33:15 – 00:07:35:18

Zack Oates

So are you a woo, Amy?

00:07:35:20 – 00:07:36:23

Amy Hom

I’m not a will.

00:07:37:00 – 00:07:38:11

Zack Oates

No way.

00:07:38:13 – 00:07:57:14

Amy Hom

No, I’m still a realist. I’m still a realist. My number one is futuristic, so I’m very much a visionary. I can look at something or walk into a restaurant, say, oh, this could be this. If we did this strategy to get there, and we built this business this way with the right people. But I’m pretty far away from a world.

00:07:57:15 – 00:08:28:01

Amy Hom

I’m easy on people, tough on standards. If I have to fire you because you can’t figure it out and get results or take feedback, then you can’t play in the sandbox. So that’s definitely not the woo side. That’s the opposite side of it. But the relator and some of those other people pieces I have. But I also think there’s a line in the sand on getting results and making sure that the people that are working with you are driving them and having fun along the way, but they should feel like they’re part of an team and you can’t keep the as everybody knows, you can’t keep a C and D players because you’re 18 becomes

00:08:28:01 – 00:08:28:18

Amy Hom

less of that.

00:08:28:18 – 00:08:43:00

Zack Oates

So so what do you recommend? Let’s say that you’ve got some B players and what are some signs of if they can make that jump to being a player. Because I think DNC players, that’s one thing, right? It’s like we know that people that aren’t performing can’t.

00:08:43:01 – 00:08:45:08

Amy Hom

Have a good fit for the very good or the.

00:08:45:08 – 00:09:00:02

Zack Oates

Business, but there are some B players where they’re like, if they just did this, they would be in a player. How much do you put into those B players and how do you coach them, and how do you know if it’s just not going to work long term? They’ll never be in a player.

00:09:00:02 – 00:09:04:13

Amy Hom

Very simple. They can either take feedback and adjust or they can’t.

00:09:04:15 – 00:09:05:20

Zack Oates

Interesting.

00:09:05:22 – 00:09:19:15

Amy Hom

So if I’m working with somebody in a role and they want to get promoted and you’re giving them feedback on how to get better, and they don’t write it down and they don’t follow up with you and they’re not coming to you with, hey, these are things I’m working on, which of course, we have that in the conversation.

00:09:19:17 – 00:09:37:21

Amy Hom

They don’t get anywhere. And I worked for a CEO once and I was getting in the car. This was a large publicly traded company. And I said, why are there some people you spend time with versus others and who gets promoted versus not? And he goes with people that can take feedback. And that’s something I learned from the famous Steve Carley, who turned around to play a logo in Red Robin.

00:09:37:23 – 00:09:42:07

Amy Hom

And that stuck with me. And he is absolutely, 100% right.

00:09:42:09 – 00:10:13:17

Zack Oates

Wow, that is powerful. That is like knowledge bomb of the decade because I think that’s such a great benchmark. Can they adapt? Can they adjust even if your feedback might not be totally right? I think as leaders, we’re not going to be right all the time. We’re often wrong. But can they work on themselves and can they go in that direction and take that feedback and at least say, yeah, that’s really good feedback as opposed to I know what I’m doing.

00:10:13:19 – 00:10:14:17

Zack Oates

That’s really interesting.

00:10:14:17 – 00:10:30:07

Amy Hom

And a lot of people can’t take it. And whether they’re a business owner and a vendor’s giving feedback like, hey, this way. And they’re like, no, this is what my product is, is how it works. It’s like, no, we need you to band. I think you do that really well. You listen to what’s going on. And when I was talking about our business, you’re like, this is what I could do.

00:10:30:07 – 00:10:55:14

Amy Hom

This is how we can flex the model. That’s important for vendor relationship and being ovation and being on the number one. And then you go to other products and they don’t listen and you hit a wall, or I get on the phone and the salesperson will say, I won’t even talk to the sales folks too much anymore. I’ll say, I want to talk to the engineers, because I’ll find out that the thing they’re asking for is 20 ranks down on the engineer roadmap, and they’re not being honest.

00:10:55:14 – 00:11:10:06

Amy Hom

I said, just give me the engineers number only because of some of the advisory work I’ve done. I can see how both sides of this work. So I’m like, I love you, but you’re not who I need to talk to right now. So you have to be firm and fair. But I think taking feedback at the end of the day is the biggest thing.

00:11:10:06 – 00:11:16:12

Amy Hom

People get stuck in their roles and where they’re at. If they cannot adjust, they’re not adaptable and they can’t take the feedback.

00:11:16:14 – 00:11:35:09

Zack Oates

I mean, I was not expecting to get on and get a masterclass on, you know, dealing with employees and team members masterclass. But I think this is so spot on because what we’re talking about is the root of the guest experience. And as we’ve said numerous times in this podcast, the employee experience can never exceed the guest experience.

00:11:35:11 – 00:12:00:23

Zack Oates

And so I love that we’re starting with the Last Touch, which is the employees. And you could do all of the marketing, all of the branding, all of the decor. But if the person delivering the food doesn’t have that joy, then it’s not going to be hospitality. And as you know, we’ll get there. Talks about is service is giving the right food at the right time, the right temperature, hospitality is how the guest feels about it.

00:12:01:00 – 00:12:16:06

Zack Oates

And I think that this is what we’re nailing. But talk to me though about the guest experience. What are some things that you would recommend restaurants do to improve their guest experience, other than I think that you’ve nailed it on the head of the employee experience? What else about the guest experience though?

00:12:16:08 – 00:12:37:07

Amy Hom

The guest experience is all about our team or a team reading the guest, right? Some people want to be connected to and talked to. Some people don’t want to talk to anybody. They just want to come in for by deed instead of the barn, have a beer or a soda, and then it’s about making sure that the team is equipped with the skillset to handle any situation.

00:12:37:07 – 00:13:02:23

Amy Hom

Right. So it’s a lot of coaching. It’s a lot of pre chefs communication. What I have watched happen over the years, I’m talking about both sides of my head. Here is wage rates rose. Everyone’s struggling especially in states like California, Illinois where it’s really tough to do business. You see New York, you see labor cuts, right? You go down to Texas, you get better hospitality because they have more staff on because the minimum wage can afford it.

00:13:03:00 – 00:13:20:10

Amy Hom

So as you’re thinking through, how do you do more with less? You have to make sure that your players are trained. Right. Because now you don’t have the luxury of having a C or D player serve your guests, because you can only have so many people on with the budgeting and and trying to make some money in the business.

00:13:20:10 – 00:13:39:21

Amy Hom

So it’s important to constantly train. I do think restaurants have gone sideways a little bit. They pause where there is more mom and pops than ever, but they’re not developing their teams. My son recently went to work at a pizza place. I said, hey, how’s the training? They cut the training short. How’s the development going? There’s no development.

00:13:39:21 – 00:14:03:03

Amy Hom

They throw them and all of a sudden he turns 18 and now he’s a shift manager. And I just started laughing because that is what’s happening with a lot of businesses. If you want to pause and you want to take a little bit of the money that you might be spending somewhere else and reroute it back into your people and invest in the teams, your business will thrive longer, and the teams will be more invested, and they’ll actually want to help you make money and be successful.

00:14:03:05 – 00:14:24:24

Amy Hom

But right now, instead of you building slow to go fast, everyone’s going fast and then going faster and falling. And so you see some of these concepts struggling a little bit or going out of business and hats off to them. People are giving everything they’ve got right now, the sweats, tears and fast. But those ones that do have a little bit of the money on the side, it’s you should be investing in the people.

00:14:24:24 – 00:14:30:10

Amy Hom

And I think those are the ones that thrive and will stand out and hang for the long haul through all of this.

00:14:30:12 – 00:14:37:02

Zack Oates

And I would say before you put dollars in marketing, put dollars in your people, put dollars in to.

00:14:37:02 – 00:14:56:18

Amy Hom

Not bring anybody in unless you are a raving fan yourself of that location or that business. Absolutely not. And we paused marketing I we only approved certain locations that are ready for it, because we’re not going to bring people in until we’re really running properly. And then I’ll say, okay, turn on the faucet, send some influencers and or whatnot, but don’t send anybody.

00:14:56:18 – 00:15:05:24

Amy Hom

And right now we’re missing a gem or missing a couple key components on some of our metrics that are important to us. Until we nail those and they can get the extra push.

00:15:06:01 – 00:15:26:24

Zack Oates

Wow. That’s powerful. I mean, the theory is good. It’s cool that you’re actually doing that. I mean, we just signed up a brand. They have a thousand locations. They’re growing. They do. Congrats. Thank you. But what was so cool was they created an entire internal doc all about ovation, telling their entire company, here’s why we’re doing it. Here’s what we’re doing.

00:15:26:24 – 00:15:52:23

Zack Oates

Here’s exactly how every little thing looks at it. And I went through that. I sent it to my team and I’m like, let’s do this. This is great. We are obviously have our training materials and stuff, but they put together this entire program all about ovation. And I was so impressed. And it just goes to show, like they are really investing in the guest experience and they’re investing in their team and they’re making sure that when they bring on a vendor, it’s not like, great.

00:15:52:23 – 00:15:57:20

Zack Oates

The end is not the signature. That is the beginning. And a lot of times.

00:15:57:23 – 00:15:59:01

Amy Hom

It’s a partnership.

00:15:59:01 – 00:16:20:08

Zack Oates

Exactly. But I feel like what happened sometimes is the signature comes in and then certain restaurant brands, they’ll be like, okay, great, now just do your thing. And I’m like, okay. But like, we need to partner on this. We’re a tool and we need to be used. And so I would just encourage everyone to think about the vendors that they’re using and how can they get their teams more engaged.

00:16:20:08 – 00:16:30:01

Zack Oates

And and how could it make their team’s lives easier. And I think most tools are designed to do that. But if you don’t use them correctly, they’ll do the opposite.

00:16:30:03 – 00:16:49:23

Amy Hom

Well, if you don’t deliver the message, explain the how and the why, especially with the generation that is in the workforce right now. Then you lose them. And so the old school restaurant leadership I think, was DirecTV. Now it’s about participative and affiliative leadership styles. And how do you bring them along? That’s what’s so critical is and nine times out of ten, they have better answers than we than I do.

00:16:49:23 – 00:17:05:20

Amy Hom

And some like, what do you guys want to do here? Here’s the goal. Here’s the goal. How are we going to get there? And each person leading or market might have a different way they need to align. So we’re all walking in lockstep. But that’s where you have to go slow to build properly. And that’s what that companies doing right.

00:17:05:20 – 00:17:18:12

Amy Hom

They’re building slow. They’re making sure everybody understands the program. They’re getting the buy in. That’s the most important. They get the buy in then. Then they can go really fast with the program and start executing at a high rate. I think that’s great. They’re doing that.

00:17:18:14 – 00:17:23:00

Zack Oates

Amy, who deserves innovation in the restaurant industry, who is someone that we should be following?

00:17:23:02 – 00:17:43:01

Amy Hom

I think you need to follow Stephen Mercer, Mendocino Farm. So Mendocino Farms is, of course in a growth of state. They’ve got some great leadership over there. But Stephen Mercer, who is one of their VP’s, is a complete badass. He has the west side of the stage. I worked with him in a past life and is this leader that everybody wants to follow.

00:17:43:01 – 00:18:00:09

Amy Hom

Positive energy explains the why, has great, great listening skills, very active listener and people want to work for him. So I’d give him a big ovation. I think he deserves one. He’s had a long road and he’s pretty resilient and he’s got a lot of grit. So very proud of where he is at.

00:18:00:11 – 00:18:10:03

Zack Oates

Awesome. Well, definitely a huge fan of Mendocino Farms and they’ve done some amazing things. But Amy, how do people find and follow you and Barcelona Wine Bar?

00:18:10:05 – 00:18:13:21

Amy Hom

Well, I’m on LinkedIn just like everybody else.

00:18:13:23 – 00:18:36:24

Zack Oates

But I do have to say you do post occasionally. If you follow Amy, follow her comments. Her and Jim Mises, I think, are two people in the industry who just leave the best comments on posts because like, anyone can post like a thoughtful post, but you, Amy, you post thoughtful comments and so I need to shout that out because that’s something that so few people do and you rock at it.

00:18:36:24 – 00:18:37:18

Zack Oates

But okay.

00:18:37:19 – 00:18:56:15

Amy Hom

Well, you gotta think about it. If you have an opportunity to fill somebody’s bucket, why wouldn’t you? So if it’s somebody’s birthday or anniversary, it’s a special day or they have a special accomplishment. Again, it’s easy on people, tough on standards. And if they deserve it, then we need to pause for a minute because life is too short and our job is to fill each other’s buckets at the end of the day.

00:18:56:15 – 00:19:03:03

Amy Hom

So we try to do that. We all try to do that as best we can. Life gets busy, but you should never be too busy to give somebody a little love.

00:19:03:05 – 00:19:08:00

Zack Oates

Love that. And Barcelona Wine Bar is all the handles. Barcelona wine bar.

00:19:08:02 – 00:19:28:21

Amy Hom

Yeah, Barcelona wine bar. We also have Corsica. We have a second brand. We’re opening our second location, Reston, Virginia, soon, so that’s going to be right by the rest. And Barcelona Wine Bar right around the corner there. So yeah, we’ll have our two brands up and going and driving. So looking at some leads to grow and super excited if you’ve not been in one, it’s even if you don’t drink.

00:19:28:21 – 00:19:37:03

Amy Hom

We have great nonalcoholic cocktails mocktails wine. But we have amazing chefs in every location that create tapas and change the menu every day. So it’s pretty cool.

00:19:37:05 – 00:19:51:18

Zack Oates

Super cool. Well, Amy, for teaching us the barometer of how employees take feedback and for just being a light in this industry. Today’s ovation goes to you because you deserve an ovation. As it says on our hats. Love it. Thank you so much.

00:19:51:21 – 00:19:54:21

Amy Hom

All you did to Zach. You give everybody ovations back to you.

00:19:54:24 – 00:20:22:09

Zack Oates

Well, thank you for joining us on Giving Ovation Amy. Thanks. 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.