Ralph Lewis is the CEO and third-generation owner of Okeechobee Steakhouse, the oldest steakhouse in Florida. With nearly eight decades of family legacy behind him, Ralph leads a multi-unit hospitality group that includes Okeechobee Prime Meat Market, Lewis Steakhouse, and Lewis Prime Grill—all centered in Palm Beach County.

Generations of Hospitality (00:00)

Ralph shares how his family built Okeechobee Steakhouse in 1947 when it was “too far out of town for deliveries.” Now, 78 years later, it remains in the original location, led by the third generation. Ralph’s father still shows up every day, and the family continues to grow the business while staying true to its roots.

What Hospitality Really Means (05:50)

Ralph defines hospitality as a feeling—not just service. He tells the story of a server who worked for them for 44 years and was known for memorizing guests’ names, birthdays, and even outfits. “Hospitality is about delivering a feeling that shows people they’re appreciated and welcomed.”

Creating Lasting Birthday Memories (09:00)

Ralph explains the power of their long-running birthday dinner program. Since launching it 35 years ago, they’ve given away more than 350,000 free steak dinners. “People remember where they were on their birthday. We want that memory tied to our restaurant.”

Steak Trays, Dessert Carts, and WOW Moments (11:26)

Okeechobee’s front-of-house team is trained to deliver more than just orders—they deliver moments. Ralph describes how guests choose steaks and desserts from rolling trays, making the experience interactive and personal.

Every Guest, Every Day (13:30)

Even with long-time regulars, Ralph emphasizes the importance of treating every visit like it’s their first. “The message might be repetitive for us, but it’s new to the guest. You have to show up with the same energy, every day.”

Legacy and Innovation (14:00)

While grounded in tradition, Ralph keeps pushing for innovation. He praises both legacy operators and risk-takers who challenge industry norms and prove doubters wrong. For Ralph, great hospitality means leading with both history and heart.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralph-lewis-980a74358/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/okeechobee-steakhouse/

https://www.instagram.com/okeechobeesteakhouse/

https://www.okeesteakhouse.com/

Transcript

00:00:00:04 – 00:00:25:17

Zack Oates

Welcome to another edition of Give and Ovation, the Restaurant Guest Experience podcast. I am your host Zack 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 restaurant. You get all the insights you need to improve without an annoying survey for your guests.

00:00:25:17 – 00:00:55:04

Zack Oates

Learn more at Ovation Up. Com and today we have someone who just has an incredible background. He has just done it in the restaurant industry. I met him through Kathleen Wood and I think everybody knows and loves Kathleen Wood. But if you’re not familiar with her, go check out her episode of my podcast. But we have Ralph Lewis with us today, and Ralph has been the CEO and owner of Okeechobee Steakhouse House and Prime Meat Market.

00:00:55:04 – 00:01:02:14

Zack Oates

And you’ve got a couple other things, but you’ve been in the Okeechobee Steakhouse for almost for 48.5 years.

00:01:02:14 – 00:01:04:02

Ralph Lewis

No longer than that.

00:01:04:04 – 00:01:05:01

Zack Oates

Dog. Really?

00:01:05:06 – 00:01:32:02

Ralph Lewis

Yeah. Zach. So thanks for the introduction. We’re just restaurant operators. But to give you a little background real quick, we’re in West Palm Beach, Florida. Okeechobee steakhouse is the oldest steakhouse in the state of Florida. So this October coming up in just a few months, 78 years, it was started by my grandfather and grandmother in 1947. We’re the original building, original location.

00:01:32:04 – 00:01:54:15

Ralph Lewis

And by the way, you see West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County on the news every day. Now that Trump is our president, you just see it. If you watch any news, everything’s being broadcast from there. So ton of people here now think like 1.7 million people. And where I’m going with this. When my grandparents built this restaurant, it was so far out of town they couldn’t get deliveries.

00:01:54:17 – 00:02:03:08

Ralph Lewis

So here we are almost 78 years later and, moving right along. And things are doing amazing. So I’m a third generation.

00:02:03:10 – 00:02:08:04

Zack Oates

Oh my gosh. So I know that you’ve been there for a while. I didn’t realize that your grandfather started it.

00:02:08:10 – 00:02:33:12

Ralph Lewis

Yeah, my grandfather started it. My father run the business for the longest of of all of us, probably close to 45, 50 years. And he still comes in every day, hangs around world and knowledge. So it’s been a family business, like I said, three generations. We’ve opened a Okeechobee Prime meat market a few years ago, catty corner behind Okeechobee Steakhouse.

00:02:33:17 – 00:02:46:06

Ralph Lewis

We have an event hall, which is where I’m sitting. This morning’s at our event. All the only place I could get some silence and catch up with you, my friend. And by the way, it was great seeing you the other day at the restaurant show in Chicago.

00:02:46:08 – 00:02:56:14

Zack Oates

I do. I feel like you bump into everyone there at Chicago, so I was happy to see you there, Ralph. It was funny because I was like, wait, don’t we have a podcast like this week?

00:02:56:16 – 00:03:09:19

Ralph Lewis

Yeah. So and then we have, Louis Steakhouse in Jupiter, Florida, and then we have Louis Prime Grill, which is out Loxahatchee. They’re all in Palm Beach County, so we’ve expanded, but here we are.

00:03:09:21 – 00:03:29:02

Zack Oates

Oh my gosh. And by the way, for those wondering, he’s not just using that in hyperbole. I really did just Google what is the oldest steakhouse in Florida. And sure enough Okeechobee Steakhouse. So not like I didn’t believe you, Ralph. I just wanted to see if the internet agreed with you and now there you go.

00:03:29:04 – 00:03:35:10

Ralph Lewis

Please tell the internet something. Enough times, you know, I slip it in there, it starts to believe it. Oh.

00:03:35:12 – 00:03:52:09

Zack Oates

I love that. So, Ralph, this is something. Where from your cradle you have been. Okeechobee steakhouse has been, like, in your blood. What are some, like, crazy stories? Because, I mean, over the years, you’ve had to have had some, like, crazy things happen in this steakhouse. Anything come to mind?

00:03:52:14 – 00:04:16:14

Ralph Lewis

Yeah. If you want things that are, like funny stories and different stories. So we had a server waiter. That workforce for 44 years, hired by my grandparents, worked for all three generations of us. Mr.. Hospitality, very old school southern gentleman. Course when he started with us. So he was young from Georgia, had that very old school southern gentleman demeanor.

00:04:16:17 – 00:04:36:04

Ralph Lewis

People loved him. So one day he was waiting on some tables and this was when he got a little older. He got a lot of call parties. A lot of people requested him. You know, he was a very popular server, and he was sending over show and some ladies our steak tray. We present our steaks on a tray.

00:04:36:06 – 00:04:58:14

Ralph Lewis

And when he did, he always wore a pin like an American flag pin on his best. And it caught in her hair, her wig. And when he stood up, it pulled her wig off. And then she went to hollerin. It scared him bad in his false teeth, fell out on the meat tray. So it just escalated from there.

00:04:58:14 – 00:05:12:08

Ralph Lewis

And of course, everybody in the whole dining room was laughing. And as it got worse and escalated, he started backing up, you know, oh my God, I’m sorry. Of course, pulling our wig across the the dining room floor. But there’s 100 stories like that.

00:05:12:10 – 00:05:35:01

Zack Oates

Oh my gosh, that is so funny. You know, what I love about those stories is that you go to work getting ready for, like, just another day, and then just like some crazy story like that happens. Yeah. Funny. Ralph. Yeah. I have never asked anyone that question, but just knowing how steakhouses are and how intimate you are, like, you know, involved in this, I figured you had a couple up your sleeve.

00:05:35:01 – 00:05:50:00

Zack Oates

So thinking about the guests experience, Ralph, what do you think is one of the most important aspects of guest experience nowadays? And in your opinion, how has that if it has evolved over the last 70 some odd years?

00:05:50:02 – 00:06:17:16

Ralph Lewis

Yeah, guest experiences have definitely evolved. One of the huge reasons, obviously in the last 25, 30 years, that’s exactly what we’re doing now podcasts, social media, phones. You know where you can video, snap pictures at the dining room table. Those are all things. So it still comes back to your basic fundamentals. People want a great experience, so they want great food, great service, a great atmosphere here.

00:06:17:18 – 00:06:38:16

Ralph Lewis

But you also have to deliver hospitality, which is way different than just points to service anyone. You know, a robot could deliver points of service and I don’t know if you were like me. I seen a ton of robots at the National Restaurant Show last week, but they can’t deliver hospitality and hospitality. I’m going to go back to the gentleman, Wesley, who I was telling you.

00:06:38:20 – 00:07:01:17

Ralph Lewis

They’ve been with us 44 years. So one of the reasons he was so popular was every single day for 44 years. He had a new joke to tell the guests. So we also remembered their names. He remembered their children’s names, birthdays. He would write this down. He memorized every even what they were wearing when they came in so he could compliment the ladies the next time.

00:07:01:18 – 00:07:03:24

Zack Oates

What did you say about the wig the next time?

00:07:04:01 – 00:07:15:16

Ralph Lewis

Oh well, they actually, they got a great laugh out about all of them did. So about of course, we had the internet there, and that was when the internet was just starting to come out. Really good.

00:07:15:18 – 00:07:16:24

Zack Oates

Way to go, right? Yeah.

00:07:17:00 – 00:07:40:10

Ralph Lewis

But hospitality, it’s a feeling you have to give the people and deliver a feeling. You can go anywhere and get food, but you have to deliver that experience. You have to make the gas under stand, that they’re appreciated, they’re welcomed, and you will go above and beyond to show that appreciation. And then there was just so many ways to do it.

00:07:40:12 – 00:08:05:16

Zack Oates

And like the gentleman who authored this book right behind me, he always talks about how service is performing the technical aspects of the job effectively. Right. That’s giving the right food at the right time, at the right time. Hospitality is how the guest feels. Yes, as you do that. And I think that in an increasing digital world, it doesn’t mean that people don’t care about hospitality.

00:08:05:22 – 00:08:30:11

Zack Oates

I went around and I did micro podcast all over NRA, and that’s what a lot of people were saying. It’s like it’s about getting back to the roots of hospitality, about proving to the guests that you really care. Like that’s what it comes down to. And I think that’s something where I’ve loved seeing that return to the humanistic you banality whatever, to the human to human part of hospitality, because that’s what it’s really all about.

00:08:30:13 – 00:08:51:24

Ralph Lewis

Well, it is, and one of the things we strive for is we never want to have a corporate feel. We don’t want to have that corporate feel where you feel like you’re just a number. And that starts with your staff too. You know you don’t want your staff to just feel like they’re lost in a sea of 10,000 employees or even 100 employees.

00:08:52:01 – 00:09:20:14

Ralph Lewis

Everyone needs to feel important that your staff, your guests, your vendors, it’s the same experience. Everyone needs to think of your place and smile. So what are the things we do is we give away a free birthday dinner on your birthday steak dinner at all three of our restaurants. So if you come in, we get you a birthday dinner or we take that price of the dinner off of of another dinner if you get something more expensive.

00:09:20:16 – 00:09:51:07

Ralph Lewis

Well, one of the reasons I and my father was the one instrumental in starting not probably 35 years ago, and as of last September 2024, we had given away 350,000 free state dinners, birthday dinners at Okeechobee Steakhouse. But here is where the rub is with this. So again, going back to experiences, I don’t remember last year where I was the day before my birthday.

00:09:51:07 – 00:10:26:18

Ralph Lewis

I don’t even remember where I was 2 or 3 days after, but I remember where I was on my birthday. And like most of us, we remember Christmas, our birthdays, our children’s birthday. So we want you in our restaurant experiencing that memorable moment. That’s going to get passed down in those photos for decades at Okeechobee Steakhouse. And we have generational people now that are coming in saying their grandparents or parents brought them in here 30 years ago at 15 years old for a free birthday dinner.

00:10:26:20 – 00:10:47:10

Ralph Lewis

And they remember celebrating that with their grandparents, who were no longer with them or their parents. So those are things you can’t buy with advertising, or you can’t jump on and be an influencer and give that feeling. I do a lot of video content, a lot of videos, but I can’t replicate that feeling.

00:10:47:12 – 00:11:16:23

Zack Oates

Yeah, I love that idea because that’s such a smart thing of like, yeah, where you celebrate your birthday, you remember. That’s a really good point of I remember my birthday last year, but I don’t remember what I did before or after, but yeah, I remember where I was. That’s a really interesting idea. Besides that, I mean, like, because the birthday club, it normally seems like a kind of tired idea, but how you’re explaining it is really like, give me huge hope in the fact that it’s not a tired idea.

00:11:16:23 – 00:11:26:12

Zack Oates

It’s actually that the opportunity to create a lasting memory. And that’s really powerful. Any other tactics that you would use to improve the guest experience?

00:11:26:14 – 00:11:48:08

Ralph Lewis

Well, you want to give them wild moments. One of the things we do, we present a steak tray. We come to the table with our steaks, roll, show them, and describe each steak with something different. So you get a visual, you get knowledge. The waitstaff, the servers, and they’re really guest experience specialists is who works in the front of our house.

00:11:48:10 – 00:12:13:21

Ralph Lewis

They’re very professional, well-trained staff that embrace the culture. They’re very knowledgeable of their product. I in fact, I would consider them experts of their product. They understand the steak all the way from where it originates, the cut, the quality as far as the tenderness profile, the flavor profiles. But they present that at the table and explain each one there.

00:12:13:21 – 00:12:36:21

Ralph Lewis

Again, it’s a little bit different experience. We do the same with our dessert. We come to the table with a dessert tray present our dessert, show them to you, you order, and then we bring the dessert out. So there’s a lot of things from the beginning to the end, to the way the valet makes you feel. The hostess at the front door, the way they smile and gauge.

00:12:36:21 – 00:12:58:01

Ralph Lewis

You know, I’m really big on smiling. I believe smiling is huge. Give that extra little step. As my grandmother, who was one of the founders of the steakhouse, she used to tell me, when a person leaves our restaurant, they need to feel like they just met their long lost cousin and that they’re already talking about their next visit.

00:12:58:03 – 00:13:28:02

Ralph Lewis

So if they’re not talking about their next visit, her belief was you dropped the ball and so do we. Nailed that every time. Probably not. You know, no one’s perfect, but we go out of our way every day, and it’s also delivering that same message every day repetitively, and understanding that the message in your culture may get boring to you as a restaurant owner and the managers and the staff, but it’s new to your guests.

00:13:28:06 – 00:13:29:01

Zack Oates

Oh, I love that.

00:13:29:02 – 00:13:48:09

Ralph Lewis

You see what I’m saying? Because your guests are there all day, every day. Even though we have guests that come in maybe every day for lunch. But tomorrow they may bring a person that’s never been here. They might bring a family member. So those are all important. And what we strive for is a trust based business.

00:13:48:11 – 00:14:01:08

Zack Oates

I love that rather. I mean, it’s so powerful and I wish we had three hours to chat, but unfortunately we’re wrapping up here. So Ralph, a couple ask questions is who deserves an ovation in the restaurant industry? Who’s someone that we should be following?

00:14:01:10 – 00:14:27:04

Ralph Lewis

Well, gosh, there’s so, so many. Here’s what I’m going to say to that. I can’t say is I have one, but here’s what I do. I look at two things real quick. One, the legends who have been around for 50, 75, 100 years and are kind of with the same ownership and also look for the ones that are on the cutting edge and love to take risk and challenges.

00:14:27:07 – 00:14:47:00

Ralph Lewis

When everyone says that won’t work and they prove them wrong. And there’s a lot of those people, but I damn well love those people, man. Yeah, just say I’m not willing to, I’m not afraid to put it out there, and I’m willing to take a chance and roll the dice. And they show that it will work and buck the industry.

00:14:47:02 – 00:14:51:09

Zack Oates

Love that, Ralph. And how do people find and follow you?

00:14:51:11 – 00:15:17:08

Ralph Lewis

Well, they can go on Facebook. I’m a Ralph, a Louis on Facebook and Instagram and then I’m on LinkedIn so they can follow me and all of those. They can follow Okeechobee Steakhouse, Okeechobee Steakhouse, dot com, and Okeechobee Steakhouse on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, where there. And you can see some of my videos and make comments there to.

00:15:17:10 – 00:15:22:06

Zack Oates

Well, the million dollar question. Ralph, what is your steak of choice and how do you like it cooked?

00:15:22:08 – 00:15:47:23

Ralph Lewis

Oh, so I love a prime dry aged bone in ribeye that’s about 2720 eight ounces that thick. Wow. Seared on the outside, medium rare. Love that, love that. That’s my go to steak okay. Lots of marble, lots of flavor. And if you want the savory flavor that’s the go to.

00:15:48:00 – 00:15:57:18

Zack Oates

Yeah love that. Well, Ralph, for teaching us three generations of hospitality. Today’s ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us and giving ovation Zach.

00:15:57:18 – 00:16:04:16

Ralph Lewis

Thank you for having me. Wonderful. Look forward to talking to you again everyone. Have an amazing weekend.

00:16:04:18 – 00:16:27:05

Zack Oates

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.