Welcome to Tulsa Talks presented by Tulsa Regional Chamber. I’m your host Tim Landes.

My guest on this episode is Johnna Hayes of 3 Sirens Restaurant Group. She first appeared on the podcast a couple years ago to talk about her growing restaurant operation that would soon span three cities. That was our first conversation. A few months later we started dating. A few months after that COVID-19 reached Tulsa and she was dealing with the shutdown.

We’re still dating. Four of her five restaurants are currently open. She has a smaller staff and lots of customers expecting the restaurant experience to be the same as it was two years ago.

We’ve talked a lot the past 17 months about her experiences being a restaurant owner during a pandemic. She’s had to navigate a lot of obstacles just to keep the doors open. We felt it was a good time for her to come back on the pod and discuss some of what she’s experienced and learned along the way.

We kick off the conversation with a status report on the three Brambles and Bird & Bottle, and then discuss the importance of Restaurant Week, which is Sept. 10-19. You can find participating restaurant menus at TulsaPeople.com/RestaurantWeek. I encourage you to pick one or two out and then call to make reservations if possible. Don’t wait to the last minute.

We didn’t get into everything she’s faced, but we did discuss the on-going staff shortage and what she’s learned about wages through her experiences working with her employees from dishwashing to running fryers. We talk about how she was forced to navigate the politics that came with COVID and operating restaurants in three different cities, including Broken Arrow. We talk about the entitlement people believe they have and the lack of patience for many and how they think its ok to scream at teenagers and become violent because they have to wait on a table or asked to wear a mask.

We also talk about how the pandemic forced local restaurants to band together and how that’s changed the Tulsa restaurant industry for the better, plus other positives to come out of the pandemic, so far.

It’s been quite an experience watching her grow as a business owner and become a voice for the industry since I first spoke to her for this podcast. I’m really proud of her and how much stronger of a leader she’s become.

I’d also like to give a shoutout to her employees for their loyalty and dedication. The restaurant business is a tough one when there’s not an ongoing pandemic. It only got harder, but her core group of employees have really stepped up because they care about the company and the customers as much as they do each other.

Following my conversation with Johnna, hear a single from Kaitlin Butts. More on that later.

OK, let’s get this going.

This is Tulsa Talks with Johnna Hayes.  

Kaitlin Butts is a Nashville singer/songwriter, but her roots are here in Tulsa, where she graduated from Union in 2011.

In our September issue Steve Hunt wrote about her and the song that is featured next:

In 2017 she wrote “How Lucky Am I” as a Valentine’s Day present for her husband, Cleto Cordero, also a Nashville-based recording artist. She then created a video using footage from their wedding and of them as a couple. That video generated nearly 9,000 views its first month on YouTube and to date has nearly 600,000 streams on Spotify.

“It took me so much time and I worked really hard on it, but it was worth it because it’s cool to look back and remember every little bit,” Butts says. “Every little clip is a good memory.”

Butts, the daughter of Tulsa homebuilder Bill Butts, performed this past April at Cain’s Ballroom and will perform Sept. 17 in Pryor as part of the Born and Raised Music Festival.

And with that here is Kaitlinn Butts with “How Lucky Am I.”

Welcome to Tulsa Talks presented by Tulsa Regional Chamber. I’m your host Tim Landes.

My guest on this episode is Johnna Hayes of 3 Sirens Restaurant Group. She first appeared on the podcast a couple years ago to talk about her growing restaurant operation that would soon span three cities. That was our first conversation. A few months later we started dating. A few months after that COVID-19 reached Tulsa and she was dealing with the shutdown.

We’re still dating. Four of her five restaurants are currently open. She has a smaller staff and lots of customers expecting the restaurant experience to be the same as it was two years ago.

We’ve talked a lot the past 17 months about her experiences being a restaurant owner during a pandemic. She’s had to navigate a lot of obstacles just to keep the doors open. We felt it was a good time for her to come back on the pod and discuss some of what she’s experienced and learned along the way.

We kick off the conversation with a status report on the three Brambles and Bird & Bottle, and then discuss the importance of Restaurant Week, which is Sept. 10-19. You can find participating restaurant menus at TulsaPeople.com/RestaurantWeek. I encourage you to pick one or two out and then call to make reservations if possible. Don’t wait to the last minute.

We didn’t get into everything she’s faced, but we did discuss the on-going staff shortage and what she’s learned about wages through her experiences working with her employees from dishwashing to running fryers. We talk about how she was forced to navigate the politics that came with COVID and operating restaurants in three different cities, including Broken Arrow. We talk about the entitlement people believe they have and the lack of patience for many and how they think its ok to scream at teenagers and become violent because they have to wait on a table or asked to wear a mask.

We also talk about how the pandemic forced local restaurants to band together and how that’s changed the Tulsa restaurant industry for the better, plus other positives to come out of the pandemic, so far.

It’s been quite an experience watching her grow as a business owner and become a voice for the industry since I first spoke to her for this podcast. I’m really proud of her and how much stronger of a leader she’s become.

I’d also like to give a shoutout to her employees for their loyalty and dedication. The restaurant business is a tough one when there’s not an ongoing pandemic. It only got harder, but her core group of employees have really stepped up because they care about the company and the customers as much as they do each other.

Following my conversation with Johnna, hear a single from Kaitlin Butts. More on that later.

OK, let’s get this going.

This is Tulsa Talks with Johnna Hayes.  

Kaitlin Butts is a Nashville singer/songwriter, but her roots are here in Tulsa, where she graduated from Union in 2011.

In our September issue Steve Hunt wrote about her and the song that is featured next:

In 2017 she wrote “How Lucky Am I” as a Valentine’s Day present for her husband, Cleto Cordero, also a Nashville-based recording artist. She then created a video using footage from their wedding and of them as a couple. That video generated nearly 9,000 views its first month on YouTube and to date has nearly 600,000 streams on Spotify.

“It took me so much time and I worked really hard on it, but it was worth it because it’s cool to look back and remember every little bit,” Butts says. “Every little clip is a good memory.”

Butts, the daughter of Tulsa homebuilder Bill Butts, performed this past April at Cain’s Ballroom and will perform Sept. 17 in Pryor as part of the Born and Raised Music Festival.

And with that here is Kaitlinn Butts with “How Lucky Am I.”

To see the original article, head over to: https://www.tulsapeople.com/multimedia/podcast/running-restaurants-during-a-pandemic---johnna-hayes-3-sirens-restaurant-group/article_b8eb0fba-0b61-11ec-a5a0-57caa918f722.html