Taking Extraordinary Bets

The billboard peeping over Amandine Patisserie Cafe in Brentwood, Los Angeles reminds owner Derek Chang: it’s been a long road to get to where he is today. Not that he ever just sat around and waited for opportunity. “I got involved in the restaurant business right back when I was in college, helping my sister at a little restaurant in Santa Monica. I used to support her in front of the house. One day I went into the kitchen and saw that our cook had broken his arm and it was in a cast. I made a bet that I could learn everything I needed to become a chef. Fernando taught me every step of his job, and to this day, I tell my staff they can’t skip a step. If you don’t want to eat it, it’s not going out.”

It’s this attention to detail plus the sumptuous food at Amandine that no doubt helps keep the local movie and TV show-making crowd so loyal. “I had one customer stay at his seat for nine hours and order three meals,” Derek jokes. “Then again, I’ve also had Ellen DeGeneres and James Corden drop in. But I tell my staff, all three are just like any other customer. You do what you need to, to make them happy.”

I’m eager to find out what drove Derek to get into an entirely new form of cuisine more recently, with The Boil Daddy. But before that I had to find out how he survived the pandemic at Amandine: “On the sixteenth of March 2020, Governor Newsom asked restaurants to shift to take-out only. And that day our sales dropped 90%. Three days later a statewide shelter-in-place order was issued. I’ve survived the Northridge earthquake and the L.A. riots. Neither had as much impact as this.

“But I quickly realized that as people shifted to having food delivered at home, they were also looking for deals. So I took a bet on leaning in, and tried every promotion out there. And to this day I tell Alana, my DoorDash account manager: if you’re trying a new experiment, make me the guinea pig. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been able to make it work. Right now, first time customers get 30% off, and if they order again within a couple of weeks, they get 20% off.”

As we all know, anxiety or stress can make us reach for something salty, just as much as something sweet! And this is where The Boil Daddy came in, although it wasn’t immediately obvious that it would succeed: “The pandemic drove up demand for all kinds of comfort food,” says Derek. “But the previous option for boiled Cajun seafood in L.A. was, I think, a bit too salty for locals’ taste. At The Boil Daddy we’ve substituted more garlic for salt.” And with that, he shows me their lobster tails:“we seem to have hit the right mixture.” 

“Where Amandine offers Japanese and French twists on American classics, most popular at breakfast and lunch, the Boil Daddy appeals to the night-time crowd,” Derek expands, “including those who maybe want to prevent a hangover tomorrow morning!” He must be on to something, as The Boil Daddy has quickly expanded to six locations.

One of my jobs at DoorDash is figuring out the big bets we should take to grow our core business, but also building new ones on top of it, like connecting people to grocery, convenience items, flowers, pet food and other neighborhood needs. But, there are many people working to make all this happen with me. With far fewer resources, but also as a man who cares deeply about his family, I wondered what drove Derek to expand Amandine, first into Koreatown, then DTLA, let alone to take on The Boil Daddy. 

“The truth is, it is more work. And my wife thought I was crazy when I first started. But I had been consulting for a while with the original founders of The Boil Daddy. Eventually it just made sense to come on board full time. Their original idea was broader, more of a cloud kitchen. But we refined it to the franchise operation it is now, where chefs get a leg up who might otherwise not get a chance to get on the entrepreneurial ladder.”

One thing that must hit The Boil Daddy as much as Amandine these days is inflation. Derek shares how he approaches that problem: “I don’t believe in cutting corners. I believe the only solution in this battle is to sell a lot of things. Margins are smaller, yes, but if you sell enough, then it works out.  

“That’s where DoorDash comes in again: without the app, a lot of people wouldn’t discover us. Instead, I have people who order the same thing from Amandine, seven days a week! I could never get those same customers to actually come into the restaurant that often. And we make sure we send them a little treat now and then, to thank them for that loyalty.”

Starting your own business or trying to expand how many people your current one reaches will always feel a bit like a gamble. To improve the odds, at DoorDash we offer a variety of marketing opportunities. DoorDash promotions generate an average of $5 in sales per dollar spent on marketing. 

Just being on the app puts your business in front of many more people than will walk past your physical store. But as Derek points out, before he leaves to pick up his kids from school: “I’ve realized that giving back equals getting more, because even when inflation and the pandemic recede, customers are still going to be looking for deals.”