Steven Droulis, owner of Resto Vivaldi in Montreal, joins Zack Oates to discuss how a family restaurant built an enormous social media following while staying focused on authentic cooking and strong guest experiences. With hundreds of videos and hundreds of millions of views across platforms, Steven shares how consistent content and genuine storytelling helped turn everyday kitchen moments into global engagement.

Authenticity Drives Engagement (01:41)

“I was just trying to be myself and show a behind the scenes look of how we run the kitchen.”

Steven explains that the early videos were never meant to go viral. Instead of trying to perform for the camera, he simply showed the real day to day work inside his restaurant kitchen. That authenticity resonated with viewers and quickly led to explosive growth across platforms.

Consistency Builds Momentum (03:12)

“We’re putting out a lot of content.”

Since launching his social media presence, Steven and his team have produced hundreds of videos. Their strategy focuses on consistent output and simple production rather than perfection. By filming multiple videos during off days at the restaurant, they maintain a steady flow of content without disrupting daily operations.

Teaching Through Food Content (06:10)

“Try to teach something.”

One of Steven’s guiding principles is that every video should offer something useful. Instead of simply promoting menu items, he focuses on recipes viewers can recreate at home. This educational approach keeps audiences engaged while also strengthening trust in the brand behind the content.

Classic Food Over Culinary Ego (12:27)

“I don’t cook for ego.”

Steven believes many chefs overcomplicate dishes in pursuit of creativity. Instead, he focuses on the timeless classics that guests already love. By refining proven dishes rather than reinventing them, restaurants can create food that guests return for again and again.

Value and Consistency Define Guest Experience (15:13)

“People want value for their dollar.”

For Steven, the guest experience comes down to delivering clear value. Guests want to feel that what they receive matches what they paid for. Combined with consistent food and friendly service, that value creates the foundation for long term success.

Community and Reputation Matter (16:15)

“I want to make sure I’m doing a good job.”

Despite his growing online audience, Steven remains focused on his local reputation. As a neighborhood restaurant owner, he believes maintaining trust within the community is just as important as growing a digital audience. That mindset keeps the restaurant grounded even as its visibility continues to expand.

Links:

https://www.instagram.com/restovivaldi/

https://restovivaldi.com/en/

Transcript

00:00:00:08 – 00:00:25:02

Zack Oates

Welcome to the other edition of Give An Ovation, the Restaurant guest Experience podcast. I’m your host, Zack Oates, and each week I get to chat with industry experts to uncover their strategies and tactics to help you create a five star guest experience. This podcast is powered by ovation, the feedback and operations platform built for restaurants. Learn what’s actually happening in your restaurants and exactly how to improve while driving revenue.

00:00:25:03 – 00:00:50:13

Zack Oates

Learn more at Ovation Epcot. And today we have someone where I bring people on that I kind of fanboy about, you know, like when I brought in Wil Cordero, I was just like so excited. When I brought on DDP, I was super stoked. But Steve Drew Julius is the owner of Resto Vivaldi and I am so excited to have him on because this guy is unreal.

00:00:50:13 – 00:01:23:18

Zack Oates

He’s got a family owned restaurant in Montreal, but his social game is fire. 240,000 followers on Instagram, 211,000 followers on TikTok. Almost a million subscribers on YouTube, half a billion views, hundreds of videos. My kids. We watch Steve almost every single day. And just to put that in comparison about like, okay, he’s again family restaurant in Montreal. And that is about the social following of a five guys of a jersey.

00:01:23:18 – 00:01:30:03

Zack Oates

Mike’s of a Wingstop of a Shake Shack. Steve, how are you doing it, man? That’s crazy.

00:01:30:06 – 00:01:33:06

Steven Droulis

I’m doing great, but, doing fantastic. Thanks for.

00:01:33:06 – 00:01:41:12

Zack Oates

Having me. And this is just unreal numbers that you’re posting. Like, why do you think people are resonating so well with the stuff that you’re creating?

00:01:41:14 – 00:01:58:02

Steven Droulis

Well, we talk about that all the time. We weren’t sure because it happened really, really fast. That that was a real shocking part is like by video number two, we were already getting pretty viral. And then, we started the YouTube channel. I don’t even know. We started the YouTube channel. I did that on this on there.

00:01:58:04 – 00:02:24:06

Steven Droulis

And, you know, for a hundred thousand subscribers looking like a few weeks, Instagram went up 40,000 views on one post. I mean, like, it was just going insane. I think at the beginning, maybe we were so relaxed because we didn’t really think anybody was gonna see these videos. And I was just trying to like, yeah, I was trying to show like, a behind the scenes look of how we turn and burning in the kitchen, and I wasn’t going to swear and I wasn’t going to try to flex, and I was going to try to do.

00:02:24:08 – 00:02:48:09

Steven Droulis

I just wanted to be myself and try to keep it wholesome. Now has to why do we have more views than a lot of, say, big brands? I think at this point the spark is we put on more content. I think compared to a lot of the TV chefs that are doing the odd, short here and there and the big name brands that are just running ads on there, the promotions that a month where we’re putting out a lot of content, we put a lot of work into it.

00:02:48:09 – 00:02:54:20

Steven Droulis

So so I think maybe that now, today, why at the beginning, I don’t know, lightning struck. I can’t tell you why.

00:02:54:22 – 00:03:00:18

Zack Oates

Well, and I but I do want to talk about that consistency because when did you post your first video?

00:03:00:20 – 00:03:08:15

Steven Droulis

I’d say it’s about a year and a half of your, you know, a year in three quarters, I think was, August or September of 2024.

00:03:08:17 – 00:03:12:22

Zack Oates

And, and and you posted what, like almost 300 videos since then.

00:03:12:24 – 00:03:15:10

Steven Droulis

Yeah, yeah. We’re gonna, we’re going to those three hundreds. Yeah.

00:03:15:12 – 00:03:18:14

Zack Oates

So what’s your schedule like, how do you and I work that out.

00:03:18:16 – 00:03:40:18

Steven Droulis

So my job is to I mean we talk about everything. So it’s it’s a collaboration between the two of us. I’ll try to come up with content that I think people want to watch. I’ll run it by him. I think these are good, good ideas. Then I’ll work the recipes throughout the week or throughout the weeks. The early videos I was cooking and stuff that I’ve been cooking for 27 years now.

00:03:40:20 – 00:03:55:24

Steven Droulis

I’m cooking stuff where I got, I got to practice. I got to put together a recipe that when people try it at home, it’s going to taste good. I just don’t want it to look good on camera. So when I do my preparation in the mornings, I’ll get to work at like 9:00 in the morning. I’ll do my preparation till about noon.

00:03:56:01 – 00:04:14:13

Steven Droulis

The normally I’m going to end up in a coffee shop somewhere, sitting down writing content for a couple hours, and we film everything or we’re closed. Sundays and Mondays are so Monday mornings, like today. We filmed seven shorts this morning. Oh my gosh, we film on our day off on my on my day off. Once we do that, everything’s in five signs after that.

00:04:14:19 – 00:04:20:02

Steven Droulis

I don’t know when the videos are coming out. I don’t know what he’s posting. I have I see the videos first time you see them.

00:04:20:04 – 00:04:35:23

Zack Oates

It’s working. Right. And I love, by the way, you you are so authentic in these videos. And one of my favorite things is when something works out well and you’ve kind of like, you’re like, oh, wow. Like, you always seem surprised sometimes that it works out.

00:04:36:00 – 00:04:39:20

Steven Droulis

It’s good. Sometimes I’m like, I’ll give you an example. Like we did a muffin video last year.

00:04:39:20 – 00:04:45:14

Zack Oates

I was going to say the English muffin video was the one that I was thinking of, because when you did it, you were like, oh, wow. These turned out.

00:04:45:19 – 00:05:03:18

Steven Droulis

Because I had never cooked it that way before. I brought this it in a cast iron pan, which is the way a lot of people do it. I thought there was a lot of waste that way, and I thought it was too slow. So I wanted to develop an oven way. So I practice that at home once, and then I put it in my pizza oven for the first time, and I had no idea how it was going to come out of my pizza oven.

00:05:03:20 – 00:05:07:21

Steven Droulis

We filmed one take so I don’t have, let’s say, triple budgets.

00:05:07:23 – 00:05:09:16

Zack Oates

Yeah.

00:05:09:18 – 00:05:27:23

Steven Droulis

We filmed one take and, we saw mistakes. Look, if a recipe completely flops, obviously we can’t edit, but I was happy because I thought I showed people a way they could cook. Six 1218 because all the videos that we’re seeing out there, they were all in cast iron pans. I wanted to and I thought, like I said, slow and wasteful.

00:05:28:00 – 00:05:34:13

Steven Droulis

I was trying to show a way that you could do it fast and efficiently so that it doesn’t become burdensome. So when it came out, I was I was happy. Yeah. I was really.

00:05:34:13 – 00:05:52:16

Zack Oates

Happy. I yeah, it’s so funny that you bring that up because that’s literally what got me thinking about that is because you were like, yeah. And I think that authenticity is what people really connect with is because you are so you you are not trying to be anyone else. And I think that that’s a lot of times people are trying to be something else.

00:05:52:16 – 00:06:06:04

Zack Oates

They’re trying to be what they think. Social media wants them to be. Besides authenticity, what are some other tips that you would have to restaurant operators that are a little bit concerned with getting their social media going?

00:06:06:06 – 00:06:25:22

Steven Droulis

It’s a little tricky, right? Because I’m authentic. Because I wasn’t trying to be a content creator. My restaurant is my main business. So then I became a content creator. I don’t have the stress of like, this is never going to be my full time livelihood. The restaurant is. But my advice to anybody trying to do it is yeah, be yourself.

00:06:25:24 – 00:06:44:14

Steven Droulis

Try to teach something. Try to give a piece of advice and be yourself. People like the behind the scenes look, and they like to know that you care about the stuff you’re doing and if you can get that off in a video, it’s great. There’s a lot of restaurant, like a lot of guys in Montreal started doing videos after I started.

00:06:44:16 – 00:07:04:06

Steven Droulis

They started calling me the O.G. around here because guys started popping up all over the place trying to do like, similar style videos and like, have manager expectations, have a plan because you’ll run through your menu. So it can’t just be about your menu items. My plan was never just to promote my restaurant, it was to promote myself as the brand.

00:07:04:08 – 00:07:21:04

Steven Droulis

That way I wouldn’t run out of content. Yeah. You know, so that’s what worked for us. But I mean, show your product and try to teach something at the same time. I think people are very educated now when it comes to food. That’s internet, that’s Food network. Before that, you can’t fool customers anymore. So show them your best and try to teach them something.

00:07:21:04 – 00:07:22:15

Steven Droulis

Try to teach them something you don’t know.

00:07:22:17 – 00:07:24:04

Zack Oates

And also I love them.

00:07:24:04 – 00:07:25:18

Steven Droulis

I, I mean, my advice.

00:07:25:20 – 00:07:42:19

Zack Oates

And I love that your recipes are also like I look at Kev Mo. I also watch his videos and I think his are like very attainable. It’s like, hey, you know, let’s open up these cans, let’s put it together. And like for a family of six, like I have like a lot of those recipes are good. I think.

00:07:42:19 – 00:08:09:04

Zack Oates

Then on the other end you have like Jack Papon. And I also love to watch cooking at home, but like, I don’t have 80% of the ingredients that he’s cooking with, nor do I want to do the dishes that he’s doing. I think you have such an interesting thing, because it’s like an elevated thing that you can do at home, and I think that you’ve kind of filled this niche that, yeah, Jack Ryan is fun to watch, but I will never cook any of his dishes.

00:08:09:06 – 00:08:12:10

Zack Oates

I have sent my wife dozens of yours.

00:08:12:12 – 00:08:31:02

Steven Droulis

Yeah, well, I guess it just turned out that this is what I did the first time I did a dish, and I was family style, and I got my first DM of someone attempting the recipe and telling me all their kids eat everything ordered. And that motivated me. Yeah, because I got two kids who just told me, you guys are, you know, four kids.

00:08:31:02 – 00:08:47:20

Steven Droulis

From my understanding. I mean, you know, we’re rotating meals. We’re trying to find the week because we’re all busy, and me and my wife struggle with that. Like, what are we eating tonight? You know, like, they were trying to doing the same stuff. So I’m trying to make exactly that. So you hit the nail on the head when it comes to me, because that’s a lot of people miss the point.

00:08:47:22 – 00:09:06:07

Steven Droulis

They think when I do. Like I did a chicken fried rice recipe, I’m never going to serve chicken fried rice on my restaurant. Yeah, okay. But it’s a dish that someone could put together at home and feed a whole family with on a budget as well. You know, that’s why I’m not working with tomahawks and tenderloins, and I’m not trying to do stuff that I want to do, stuff that is accessible to people.

00:09:06:09 – 00:09:21:02

Steven Droulis

That’s where I struggle the hardest and worked the hardest on my content to try to do stuff that people I think will want to do. So it’s not even about the restaurant anymore. The restaurant gets the benefit one way or another. I’m a content creator. You can find I like any cooks in Australia.

00:09:21:04 – 00:09:22:06

Zack Oates

00:09:22:08 – 00:09:34:14

Steven Droulis

You know, I know if ever I was in Australia and I want to find him, I probably couldn’t. Yeah. However, I’m in Australia and you had a restaurant. I can make a reservation. Yeah, yeah. And that’s what happens here, you know, like, you know, we have a lot of tourists now, so.

00:09:34:15 – 00:09:38:14

Zack Oates

Yeah. So has it help the restaurant sales?

00:09:38:16 – 00:09:52:06

Steven Droulis

Yes. For sure. Yeah. I was fairly busy before I came out of Covid. A lot stronger than I was, but we took it to another level. Like we took it to a level that it was possible. We don’t have slow periods anymore that January slump or that February slump with the bad weather in Canada.

00:09:52:07 – 00:09:52:17

Zack Oates

Yeah, yeah.

00:09:52:17 – 00:09:55:01

Steven Droulis

Yeah, it’s it doesn’t really affect us anymore work. Yeah.

00:09:55:01 – 00:09:56:06

Zack Oates

So that’s amazing.

00:09:56:06 – 00:09:57:12

Steven Droulis

And it’s been beneficial.

00:09:57:14 – 00:10:23:21

Zack Oates

Yeah. Well and I know that I want to get your take on the guest experience, but I think like you’re also not afraid to approach controversy. I mean, I got to tell you, onions are probably one of the most controversial ingredients outside of cilantro. Onions and cilantro, I think are the two like most controversial ingredients. And I have you on camera saying onions make every dish better so you’re not afraid to put your toe in some controversy.

00:10:23:21 – 00:10:28:14

Zack Oates

Steve, have you gotten any, like, pushback from audiences?

00:10:28:16 – 00:10:44:15

Steven Droulis

I didn’t know was controversial? You get enough, you you get pushback on everything, right? Yeah. But I mean, like, the base of cooking and more sauces and more soups and most everything else is an onion, right? I just think a lot of people don’t know how to use them properly. My kids reading onions before they even knew that was in the food.

00:10:44:17 – 00:11:05:24

Steven Droulis

Right? Or or. Well, yeah, it’s just it’s just one of those things for me. Onions, garlic stalks I don’t over season and over herb. I don’t like to put too much flavors in a dish. I like the ingredients to speak for themselves to a certain degree. For me, the 4 or 5 main ingredient of the food are gonna, when they marry together, are going to be the flavor.

00:11:06:01 – 00:11:17:17

Steven Droulis

I don’t like too many, you’re not gonna see me use, like, a ton of garlic, salt and garlic powders and, like, I see a lot of people that are very liberal of those spices. I’m like, well, that’s pretty, that’s pretty salty.

00:11:17:19 – 00:11:35:23

Zack Oates

Yeah. Well, I mean, and to be clear, I love cooked onions. I think cooked onions are phenomenal. But, man, like, you get me a sandwich with like, a raw onion on it or like a pizza with a raw, you know, I’m, I’m like, give me that crunch and let me run. But again, I think that some of this stuff is all around you.

00:11:35:23 – 00:11:46:00

Zack Oates

Take it from the perspective of your viewers, like, what are my viewers going to want to do it? I think that similarly, in a restaurant, you take it from the perspective of the guest of what do you think?

00:11:46:02 – 00:12:10:17

Steven Droulis

For my guests, experience is to figure, the easiest way I can sum it up without getting too long winded is regardless of what kind of restaurant you are, a fast service Michelin star family restaurant. People are educated. They want value for dollars. It’s not about price, it’s about are they getting for whatever they spend it, they feel they’re getting value for their money because people are so educated about food.

00:12:10:17 – 00:12:27:10

Steven Droulis

I guess if you can deliver that, okay, then generally you can find success. I don’t cook for eagle. I was trying to explain to somebody a long time ago, just like a trap that a lot of young chefs will follow you is they’re trying to do better than everyone before them. They’re trying to elevate more than the person before them.

00:12:27:12 – 00:12:49:08

Steven Droulis

But I’m a big believer that the best stuff has already been invented. So I could come up with, chicken dish with a wild berry balsamic demi reduction on a chicken scallop, and I’ll make it look good. I’ll make it tastes pretty good, too, but it will never outsell, chicken marsala. Chicken parmesan in the States. The chicken franchise, you know, like you’re never going to beat those classics.

00:12:49:12 – 00:13:09:07

Steven Droulis

And there’s a reason they’re on so many menus and they’re sold so much. I believe the best has been invented. You can refine it a little bit, you can present it a little bit differently. But, you know, in my opinion, like the more you simplify the food, then the more longevity you can have, because once you overcomplicate it, good for one bite, good for two bites, good for one meal, good for two meals.

00:13:09:09 – 00:13:17:09

Steven Droulis

But are you what are you going to want to go back 4 or 5 times with that wild berry monstrosity that I just created in my head? Although I know. Yeah.

00:13:17:11 – 00:13:34:06

Zack Oates

I love that very thought about that. Not cooking for ego, but, like, really put the guests first, right? We’re in hospitality, right? It’s not about just like, creating this dish that one person is going to think is amazing, but it’s about how do we create the best experience for most. And I think that’s a really good principle.

00:13:34:08 – 00:13:52:08

Zack Oates

Are there any tips that you’ve seen in the restaurant that have helped you to improve the guest experience, either in the restaurant or to go? Because I know that you do delivery as well, which talk about cooking for ego. There’s a lot of places that like what do delivery because like come in and get it or don’t.

00:13:52:10 – 00:14:14:02

Steven Droulis

So again, speaking from a family restaurant perspective, we don’t have like I would imagine that a big corporate restaurant is going to have a lot of guidelines, rules, regulations and training materials, tables, stuff like that. When we hire staff, we’ll say, listen, we’re going to train you. But at the end of the day, we want smiles, we want friendly service and just pay attention to the customer.

00:14:14:03 – 00:14:32:22

Steven Droulis

It’s not us against them. We’re in this together. We’re not trying to hustle the customer. We’re trying to give them a nice meal and we’re trying to get paid for it. So at the end of the day, I’ve always preferred a friendly service to a more formal, catered service. If you have good food and friendly service, it’ll forgive a lot.

00:14:32:22 – 00:14:57:06

Steven Droulis

A little mishaps and mishaps will happen. I don’t care where you go when I’m working, I just want my my, my waiters to like, not only when we’re busy, everyone’s dialed in. It’s those moments at the end of the Russian before the rush where waiters can be distracted, where I just want to remind them, hey, guys, we’re here for the customers, not for our conversation, I don’t mind, you have a good time of work, but let’s not forget we got guests in the dining room right now.

00:14:57:06 – 00:15:13:16

Steven Droulis

Let’s dial in, you know, and that’s it. Like, for me, it’s. I used to read a lot of, like, books when I was younger, a lot of service books. I remember a book of service that sells that came out like 25 years ago. And I pick up tidbits here and there. But at the end of the day, value for dollar friendly service and consistency.

00:15:13:20 – 00:15:24:15

Steven Droulis

That’s always been the day. On if we leave our consistency, then we’re in trouble. You. They might like your food, they might not like your food would be consistent. Because if enough people like it and you’re consistent, you should have longevity, you know?

00:15:24:15 – 00:15:40:07

Zack Oates

So yeah, I love that. I think that consistency I we often talk about this podcast, The Ladder of Loyalty, where it starts off with convenience. You got to get them in the door and then it goes to consistency, which is they need to know what they’re going to get every time they come in. And then it’s about connection.

00:15:40:09 – 00:15:56:21

Zack Oates

How do you build that emotional connection. And in light of that, Steve, do you ever feel like anxious of like, oh my gosh, like all these people are coming in now trying to talk to me because these videos are going viral. When people are coming in, like, does that ever weigh on you, the celebrity nature that you’ve become?

00:15:56:21 – 00:16:11:17

Steven Droulis

It’s, I still don’t like I haven’t really viewed myself as a celebrity yet, but yes, I do have to like I mean, I do got to take a lot of pictures before I leave at the end of the night. And I do got to go to a lot more like I’ve talked, I’ve been more customers this year than I did in the first 26 years of the restaurant.

00:16:11:19 – 00:16:30:19

Steven Droulis

I’m on anxious about it. I’m more anxious about like, I’m a I grew up where my restaurant is, so I get a lot of school mates, a lot of support mates. Oh yeah. Want families? We know I want to have a good reputation. You know, also always making sure that the food and service are on point, that we’re community oriented, we do a lot of charity.

00:16:30:19 – 00:16:47:22

Steven Droulis

We do a lot of community outreach. We never say no to a donation. So karma for it like this is like the most anti-business thing that I could say on a podcast full of, see, like on a podcast or it’s not about CEOs, but I believe in karma. Yeah. No, man. Like, I do right by others. They’ll they’ll do right onto you.

00:16:48:00 – 00:17:09:23

Steven Droulis

And that’s my only anxiety. I want to make sure I’m doing a good job. And it’s not just as like, and I wear a lot of hats as, like, chef owner now, content creator, accountant. You know, like, there’s, we don’t really have, like, a little elaborate system here, like, my brothers, my partner. We don’t see him too, too often in the videos, but, you know, like a business meeting for us is about a three second conversation in our office.

00:17:09:23 – 00:17:14:23

Steven Droulis

We make a decision, we move on. You know? And, Yeah, like, it’s not very formal. Yeah.

00:17:15:00 – 00:17:28:24

Zack Oates

Well, I love that. And again, I think it goes back to the the brand and who you are, which is incredible. So, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. And before we close out, who is someone that you think deserves an ovation? Who’s someone that we should be following?

00:17:29:01 – 00:17:51:04

Steven Droulis

So Dave McMillan just came out of retirement with another at a restaurant. Retirement with another chef partner of his, they’re the man I if you know, David Nolan from Joe Beef and, formerly from Joe Beef. And they opened a restaurant in the area called The Grill Nature. And they’ve been doing some fantastic work over there. And it’s like you’re stepping back into a kitchen with a brand new restaurant.

00:17:51:04 – 00:18:10:07

Steven Droulis

After about a 4 or 5 year hiatus, he fell right back into doing a great job over there. So I think besides, my staff and my employees will be doing a really great job since for the past few years, especially with the uptick in the restaurants, I’ll give an ovation to my staff and I’ll give an ovation to a new restaurant in the area with, probably one of our biggest celebrity chefs.

00:18:10:10 – 00:18:16:08

Steven Droulis

Kind of they’ve McMillan they’ve been doing a great job over there. I’ve been there three times. So my my ovation was a David.

00:18:16:10 – 00:18:30:15

Zack Oates

Awesome great great ovation there. Well Steve, for teaching us the three rules of social authenticity consistency and teach something. Today’s ovation goes to you. Thank you so much for joining us. I give it ovation Steve at Vivaldi.

00:18:30:17 – 00:18:32:15

Steven Droulis

Thanks so much. Zach was a it was a blast.

00:18:32:17 – 00:18:56:02

Zack Oates

Yeah. Thanks for joining us today. If you liked 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 ABC.com.