The Fast Casual Nation Podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurants who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, I chat with Devin Handler, vice president of brand marketing at Naf Naf Grill about restaurant trends, marketing tactics, and chicken schnitzel. 

Handler shares how he got started in the industry and restaurant marketing, he says that his background was nontraditional. He started in the advertising agency world in creative and moved into insight and strategy. Handler says he began just falling in love with the idea of using insight and consumer behavior to drive meaningful communications that help grow businesses. He talks about making a change and working for Qdoba Restaurant Corporation which had thirty restaurants when he started and they had over eight hundred when he left the company. 

Handler talks about joining Naf Naf after Greg Willman had come on board as chief executive officer. He talks about Willman’s vision for the brand saying, “I've never met anybody so all in on a brand in my life and I think that gives you a little bit of an idea of how important this brand is to him and how much potential he thinks it has.” He adds, “we want to make middle eastern mediterranean cuisine a mainstream favorite across the United States, one because it needs to be and then two because it's a very interesting way to keep the world you know sort of adventurously eating and exploring new things but doing it in a way that is healthful.” 

Naf Naf was started by Sahar Sander, who wanted to take the food and flavors of his childhood and bring them to his new home in America. Handler says Sander wanted to do it in a way that created the idea of sitting around the grill or the table and having a great meal, making lasting memories and hopefully connections that happen only over a meal.

When it comes to Middle Eastern cuisine, Handler says “I do believe that people are opening up to that. I think while there are sort of educational hurdles for let's say mainstream America there is this desire to get out there and find new things and taste new things.” 

To hear Handler’s take on off-premise, marketing strategies, Fan The Flame, and Naf Naf’s expansion plans, listen to this episode of Fast Casual Nation on Apple Podcasts.