How Painted Hospitality Beats Restaurant Margins With Bowling and Pickleball | Justin Amick
Michelin-awarded restaurateur Josh Kopel sits down with Justin Amick on FULL COMP — the show where Josh Kopel unpacks the tactics, tools, and strategies of the world’s best restaurateurs.
Justin Amick is the co-founder of Painted Hospitality in Atlanta, the group behind the Painted Pen, the Painted Duck, and a new Beltline nightlife concept called Painted Park. He grew up second-generation in the business watching his father Bob run and consult for restaurants, took a full basketball scholarship to New Orleans, and fell into food and beverage there instead, working his way through a management training program, spending roughly a year and a half shadowing the winemaking team at one of the largest winery operations in the United States through a full growing season, harvest, and bottling, and sitting for Court of Master Sommeliers and Society of Wine Educators accreditation along the way. He spent about 4 or 5 years as general manager of Parish Foods and Goods for his father’s Concentrics Restaurant Group before a call from a friend of his wife’s turned into the partnership that became Painted Hospitality. Talking with Josh Kopel, he is direct about how strange the first deal looked from the outside: a dive bar surrounded by big nightclubs, at a moment when big nightclubs were what everyone wanted, a bet he says was going to be either a clear win or a massive failure with no middle outcome. The core of the conversation is the economics of eatertainment — why bowling, gaming, and now pickleball revenue flows through the P&L in a way that makes the whole business look far healthier than a traditional food-and-beverage outlet, and why he insists the order matters: an entertainment and F&B venue with 8 indoor pickleball courts, not a pickleball place that happens to serve food. He also explains why they opened on word of mouth and targeted social rather than traditional marketing and advertising (and why he would not recommend that to most operators), how much guests now expect from a build-out and design, how they navigated COVID across existing venues, and how doing it twice before lets them minimize risk on the next project — in operational terms more than financial ones. Topics covered include eatertainment and entertainment venue economics, restaurant margins versus gaming and amusement revenue, pickleball venue development, opening without a marketing budget, restaurant design and build-out expectations, second-generation restaurant families, and sommelier training as an operator’s foundation.
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⏱ CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
04:09 A Basketball Scholarship and Falling for New Orleans Hospitality
06:23 Getting Into a Management Training Program
08:10 A Year and a Half Shadowing a Winemaking Team
08:35 Sommelier Accreditation and Cutting His Teeth
09:38 Working for His Father’s Concentrics Restaurant Group
14:10 The Call From His Future Business Partner
16:13 Why Eatertainment Is a Niche Corner of F&B
18:09 Buying a Dive Bar Surrounded by Nightclubs
20:39 The Painted Pen and the Painted Duck
23:10 Painted Park and the Beltline Concept
24:24 Growing on Word of Mouth Instead of Advertising
28:05 Why Guests Expect a Beautiful Build-Out
32:05 Navigating COVID With Existing Venues
36:09 Why Bowling and Gaming Revenue Carries the P&L
37:43 Eight Indoor Pickleball Courts, Entertainment First
40:16 Minimizing Risk After Doing It Twice
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🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS
• The restaurant industry requires a strong work ethic and long hours, which can be challenging for both the individuals working in it and their families.
• Finding a unique concept and executing it flawlessly can lead to success in the industry.
• Word of mouth and targeted social media can be effective marketing strategies for niche entertainment-driven concepts.
• Opening multiple large-scale projects simultaneously can be a financial risk, but with careful planning and a strong team, it can lead to success.
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ABOUT THE HOST
Josh Kopel is a Michelin-awarded restaurateur, founder of Restaurant Scaling
Systems, and the host of FULL COMP. After two decades operating restaurants —
from fast casual to fine dining — Josh Kopel now teaches independent restaurant
owners how to build profitable restaurants that run without them.
For free restaurant marketing tools and trainings from Josh Kopel, visit
https://joshkopel.com
▶ Subscribe for a new FULL COMP episode with Josh Kopel every day.
#restaurants #hospitality #restaurantbusiness #FullComp #JoshKopel
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