How Munsok So Built a Hospitality Group From a Hotel Lounge

Munsok So's 612North event space did $220,000 in sales across two days, including more than $160,000 in a single four-to-five-hour event. On this episode of Behind the Numbers, the president and CEO of So Hospitality Group, who signed on with Restaurant365 when the company had 11 employees, walks through how he built eight restaurants across four concepts in the St. Louis area: Drunken Fish, Kimchi Guys, Stein Haus, and 612North.

So explains the labor budget every store receives with the rule of not a dollar over, the daily report that shows whether each store hit yesterday's number, and the weekly inventory count that takes a management team three to three and a half hours with a full bar program. He tells the story of opening a sushi restaurant in 2003 in a city that had three of them, the building collapse he missed by 15 minutes that produced Kimchi Guys and 612North, the SOP and bonus program he built with Claude in a couple of days, and the gaming license at Stein Haus that splits profits in thirds.

Hosted by Marc Cohen and Rich Sweeney. Find Munsok So on LinkedIn and So Hospitality Group at sohospitalitygroup.com. Listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or watch on YouTube.