Craig is the founder of Doc B’s Restaurant & Bar. The restaurant is named after Craig’s late father, “Doctor B,” Doc B’s was first opened in Chicago in September 2013 and is a fresh, casual dining concept. Doc B’s has 10 locations in Chicago, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale, and Coral Gables, FL; Austin, Dallas, and Forth Worth, TX. Craig was inspired to follow a career in the restaurant industry after meeting Morton’s Steakhouse legend Allen Bernstein at a Knicks game. Craig and his dad talked to Allen at his courtside seats and he later formed a mentor relationship with Craig. Craig interviewed Allen Bernstein for a career report in the sixth grade about being a restaurant owner. Allen would later industry Craig to other restaurant industry leaders. Doc B’s started as a fast casual restaurant and transformed into a full service restaurant. That shift allowed Doc B’s to offer an elevated food offering and establish a better relationship with customers. Different layouts of each Doc B’s location provides opportunities for different design elements and features within each location. QUOTES “(Allen Bernstein) really transformed my life to a certain extent. Allen drove me to pursue a career in the restaurant industry.” (Craig) “For me, the idea of hospitality and really going above and beyond for every guest was always really innate in the philosophy of our business. That’s why we transferred to full service.” (Craig) “It’s about slow and steady growth. Not just growing for growth sake. Really trying to get great real estate, grow organically, grow from within and build the team from within.” (Craig) “I know the last chapter of our book. I just don’t know all the pages between today and then.” (Craig) “We don’t want to cut costs just to get more bodies inside the restaurant. We want to maintain our integrity, we want to maintain our value on the plate and we don’t want to trim the quality that we offer.” (Craig) “We’re traveling. We’re in our restaurants. We’re engaging with the team and engaging with guests. We’re doing constant evaluations of the food and service.” (Craig) “It really comes down to letting the general managers own their business and operate it like it was their four walls.” (Craig) “What’s fun about my job is you can have a day that’s the easiest day in the world and then you can have another day where nothing is going right.” (Craig) TRANSCRIPT 00:00.60vigorbrandingHey there hey I’m really excited today to talk to a guest ah a gentleman I met probably a couple months ago something happened there got an error message you the phone expensive fiction problems. She’s got internet connection. 00:20.20vigorbrandingIt’s still going just gonna let rather than stop it ended I think we’ll just I’ll trim this up so you let’s start over. Okay hi I’m really excited about today’s guest mainly because I love a good origin story. Our guest today is Craig Bernstein he’s the founder of dock be’s fresh kitchen restaurants Craig I really appreciate you joining us today. Um, ah you and I met like ah I don’t know a couple months ago out in l a and I got to talking to you and I just love a good story. So welcome to the show. 00:36.61Craig Yeah, thank you so much. Thanks for having me Michael and it was great to meet you and share with you. My story and tell you more about it today. 01:00.21vigorbrandingSounds great. So you know when I first heard you talk about doc bees. Um I was fascinated by it for 2 reasons. First of all as I said I’m a marker right? So I love a good story. Ah, ah, original stories or or what brands are made of so we have doc bees and also ah you know Doc Bee was your father. 01:11.97Craig Um, yeah. 01:18.23vigorbrandingAnd my dad was my best friend so the whole thing just kind of fit together for me and I was really ah, really excited. Ah for you to be on here today so can can you tell me tell me a little bit about the whole thing about your dad and and and how this whole thing about the doc bees got started. 01:19.90Craig Full I have to go way back way back? Um, you know my father was a doctor um, like you mentioned my last name is Bernstein so Doc B is ultimately where the name for the business came from but um I grew up in New York long island and me my father and I you we you know we used to go to the New York Knickscapes and we had a great you know great experiences going to madison square garden rooting on the knicks in the 90 s Patrick Ewing Charles Oakley John Starks still remember it like it was yesterday. And so if I go into the story about how Doc Bees and the restaurant started. Um, yeah I could go into that detail if that’s what you’d like yeah so so it’s it’s kind of a cool story. So I’m ten years old I’m a middle child I have ah a younger sister. 02:08.55vigorbrandingIt’s awesome. 02:13.75Craig Sarah she’s 5 an older ...
