May 13, 2020

Meet Ann Hsing of Dialogue Restaurant and Pasjoli in Santa Monica

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ann Hsing.

Ann, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I met Chef Dave Beran while working at the Alinea Group in Chicago in 2013. I started as an intern under the CFO and was their first business group hire. Eventually, I was promoted to Director of Business Operations.

Prior to Alinea, I didn’t have a formal restaurant background. After graduating with an Economics degree from MIT in 2002, I opened a bubble tea shop in Boston. Boston wasn’t ready for bubble tea yet so I closed the shop after two years and went into management consulting to pay off my SBA loan. After two years in consulting, I left to pursue my MBA at the Kellogg School of Management. From business school, I went straight to Wall Street where I worked as an equity derivatives trader until leaving for Alinea.

I left the Alinea Group in 2016 with plans to exit the restaurant industry. Chef Dave, who left the group earlier that year to move to Los Angeles, convinced me to join him in Los Angeles to help run his restaurants, prioritizing company culture as our top initiative.

We opened Dialogue in September 2017 and pasjoli in September 2019. Both award-winning restaurants have received positive reception from the press and the public. Pasjoli was starting to really hit its stride as we entered into our sixth month of operation, but things came to a halting stop on March 15, 2020 when the “safer at home” mandate was announced.

With the government mandate, we had difficult decisions to make – would we close entirely or would we try to pivot our business model? We decided to pivot to takeout. We had to create an entirely new business model within a few short shorts.

Both locations are providing ready-to-heat meals for pickup. Pasjoli is offering delivery as well. The meals have been going well but do not come close to making up for lost revenues of a full dining room. We generate about 15% of our revenue prior to closing our dining room. Staffing at Dialogue has been cut in half. The hourly staff at pasjoli has been mostly furloughed, with one shift per hourly employee maybe once a week. The managers are all now hourly employees.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We incur daily costs such as rent and insurance regardless of if the restaurant is open or closed. To avoid immediate bankruptcy, we had to pivot our business quickly.

It’s been a very steep learning curve.

The main struggle we faced was figuring out how to run a takeout business in a short amount of time. Neither location served takeout food – all of our food is plated beautifully by the chefs and uses cooking techniques difficult to recreate at home. We had to create menus that could travel easily and still be enjoyed by our guests at home. We had to find appropriate takeout boxes, bags – all things we did not already have. We had to come up with entirely new menus.

We also had to take our existing systems and figure out how to properly use them for takeout. We had to build new processes for how to obtain guests’ orders and fulfill them successfully. We also had to decide if we wanted to pursue delivery, either through third party platforms or delivering ourselves. We decided to deliver our meals ourselves so that we could keep more of our team members employed, stay connected with our guests and also maintain our hospitality standards.

Finally, we had no idea about demand. In an environment where you’re trying to save costs, we had to find the balance between buying enough cost of goods to meet demand but also not overspend.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Dialogue Restaurant and Pasjoli – what should we know?
Dialogue is an intimate 700 square foot restaurant that invites guests to enjoy an 18 to 22 course tasting menu. Everything from plateware to music is considered when designing our guests’ experience. The menu changes completely every season and the whole idea is to incite a dialogue amongst guests and staff.

Pasjoli is new – an elevated neighborhood bistro focusing on French classics. Our most well-known course is a tableside duck press for two. It’s a preparation of duck by Escoffier.

We’re most well-known for not only our quality of food but our warm hospitality and overall experience of sitting in our dining rooms.

As I mentioned, both locations did not provide takeout or delivery prior to March 15, 2020 not did we ever have plans to provide takeout or delivery.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Every business decision made at Dialogue and Pasjoli takes company culture into consideration. We greatly value treating one another with kindness and respect. From owners to hourly dishwashers, all team members are encouraged to feel a sense of ownership and be a leader in the company. We have taken input from every one of our team members to get through these uncertain days. We’re extremely fortunate to have such an amazing team surrounding us.

Pricing:

Dialogue takeout is a 3-course meal with menus changing every week. Prices range from $40 to $80.
Dialogue normally costs $235 per person not including taxes or alcohol.
Pasjoli takeout is a main, sides and dessert with menus changing daily. prices range from $35 to $70.

Contact Info:

Address: Dialogue
1315 3rd Street Promenade, Suite K
Santa Monica, CA 90402
Pasjoli
2732 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: www.dialoguerestaurant.com, www.pasjoli.com
Phone: no phone at Dialogue / (424) 330-0020
Email: [email protected] , [email protected]
Instagram: @dialogue.sm, @pasjoli.sm

Image Credit:
Pasjoli interior, Dialogue interior – Wonhon Frank Lee, Dave Beran head shot – Mariah Tauger, Dialogue Bar Shot with Dave’s head down – Kristin Boyd, duck, brioche with truffles, caviar – Christian Seel

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