Q3 2023 NEWSLETTER

JOHN PLEW CEO/Founder

I hope you all enjoyed your summer and were able to spend some quality time with your friends and family. Thank you all for your continued efforts to keep our business healthy and strong. This Summer we experienced softer sales than last year, primarily due to the record heat in Arizona and Texas as well as the number of people traveling. The good news is we should see the weather start to cool in the next few weeks, normalizing travel patterns.

As a result of the softer sales, we rolled out Late Night Happy Hour which has had a positive impact and is growing in many of our locations. We brought back Wine Wednesday for limited time to help boost a slower day of the week and was well received by our guests.

Fall is a great time of year to get back to our routines with school, sports, and many family functions. Plans are under way to implement Pub Trivia at various stores- STAY TUNED! We feel confident that Q4 will be a strong quarter and bring a lot of Holiday parties to boost store sales.

The new Fall Fresh sheet will roll out on October 12th with many seasonal Favorites like— Black Cherry BBQ Pork Tenderloin and Arugula & Beet Salad with Herb Grilled Chicken as well as a new item, the Seared Shrimp & Butternut Squash Linguine.

As we prepare for Q4 we need to keep our commitment to the Quality Food, Drinks, Service and Environments that we provide for our guests. We should always be looking at what we can do better without losing focus on our guests and communities.

In closing, we have accomplished a great deal and have a lot to be proud of including opening store number 12 in Addison, Texas, on November 7th. This will be our 5th store in Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. Let’s finish strong in 2023.

**Addison, TX**
**Opening**
**Nov 7th**

The Addison Thirsty Lion location is on track to open Tuesday, November 7th. Justin Oddo has been named the GM and Diego Castillo has been promoted to Executive Chef.

MAUI STRONG
FUNDRAISER

$1 from the sale of the Hawaiian Sunshine and Maui Mai Tai is being donated to the Maui Strong Fund. As a company, we sold 1469 of the Hawaiian Sunshine, 908 of the Maui Mai Tai.
In combination with Bacardi, we are proud to announce that we will be donating $4,377 dollars for the cause.
In addition, based on the # of drink sold and % of LBW, Tanasbourne is the winner! They sold 335.
Great merchandising by Glade Park on Saturday, Sept. 23 (guests and employee photos). On that Saturday GP sold 49 Hawaiian Sunshine and 33 Maui Mai Tai drinks! A total of 82.

DINE TO GIVE

School sales for the month of September came to $16,270 which is a 2.4% increase from last year. The program continues to build year over year.

Overall 29 schools participated across 8 of our locations. Tanasbourne generated the most total sales from their 6 schools totaling $4,287, and Tanasbourne Forest Park Elementary brought in the most per school sales at $2,109. Second place goes to Preston Hollow with 8 schools and sales totaling $4,047 and Merriman Park Elementary per school sales $1,725.

Supporting the local schools and community is part of CEG’s mission. Great job team!

Q3 Anniversaries (5+ Years)

**July** Jennifer Herbold (CEG) - 11 Jerome Duncan (WSQ) - 10 Caroline Parks (CEG) - 9 Miriam de lara Flores (US) - 7
**August** Brodie Campbell (GRAND) - 9 Jason Hall (GRAND) - 5 David Washington (CHDR) - 6
**September** Mandy Krohn (CEG) - 10 Brandon Wescom (WSQ) – 9 Mario Rojas (TEMPE) - 12 David Focareto (TANAS) - 6 Juan Montero (GCB) - 6

**RECENTLY PROMOTED**
JORDAN DIPRIZIO (MGR to GM at Chandler) DIEGO CASTILLO (Sous Chef at Glade Park to Chef at Addison) ASHLEY PORTUGAL (Chandler, MGR) EVELYN COJULUN (Addison, MGR) LUIS ABELINO (Tempe, Sous Chef)
FABIAN NAVARRO (San Tan, MGR)
**REHIRES**
JUSTIN ODDO (Addison, GM) RANDY STROTHERS (Denver, GM)
**NEWLY HIRED**
CAITLIN ORMAN (Grand Central Bowl, MGR) JAY FLORES (MF, MGR)
CHARLES “CJ” KING (Glade, MGR)
MARCUS LOPEZ (Addison, MGR)
KYLIE CAMPBELL (Addison, MGR)
MORGAN DWYER (Grandscape, MGR)
***Congratulations to the Preston Hollow team who marked their 1st anniversary August 1st. Keep the momentum going.***

WINE WEDS. CONTEST

The overall store was Tanasbourne!
1st Place Winner Tawna Lowman from Tanasbourne sold 44 bottles.
2nd Place Winner Omar Hernandez-Dominguez from Chandler 28 bottles.
3rd Place Winner Amber Van Poppel from WSQ 26 bottles.
Samantha Gomez from Preston Hollow (pictured right with manager, Sean Statland) tied for 7th place with Glade Parks Karissa Watson with 17 bottles.
Congratulations to all the winners!

NOW IN SPANISH

We now have all our recipes and training materials in Spanish as well as English.

**Guest Feedback**

**Going Above & Beyond**
Everyday our teams work hard to provide the best guest experiences. And, everyday we receive great comments from guests. Here are just a few examples of recent guest comments.
Click Here to View Notable Guest Comments

Paycom's New Vault Visa Payroll Card

We wanted to provide some information on Paycom’s new Vault Visa Payroll card that rolled out last month as a new product that Paycom offers.
Paycom now has their own option for payroll cards. A new employee can add the option when they do their Electronic Onboarding. Existing employees can add a Vault Visa card to their account via their Paycom ESS and following the prompts. If existing bank accounts already exist, an employee can add this as an additional option or a sole option. See instructions on Paycom for details (or through the Paycom app).

When an employee signs up for this pay card option, Paycom first verifies their identity. If verification clears, the employee will be sent two emails. One is to confirm delivery of their card (about 7-10 business days) and the other email is to confirm activation of your digital card and how to proceed in accessing it.

This is NOT an elimination of Rapid Pay Cards! We will still use them for terminations or if someone doesn’t have a bank account and doesn’t want to sign up for Vault, or if they are denied a Vault Card because their information is unable to be verified. Rapid Cards are still the best and only way to get terminated employees’ final paychecks in a timely manner that is compliant and paperless.

Please see attachments (these are ALSO IN PAYCOM for anyone to access*) and Video’s below. I have also included some very helpful links. Please keep this email should any of your employees have questions!

My Vault Card app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play

ENROLLING IN VAULT – HELPFUL LINKS!

English Video about Vault ESS

Enrolling in Vault via onboarding - English

Enrolling in Vault via onboarding - Spanish

Spanish How-to about Vault ESS

Vault Visa Payroll Card Fee information

AllPoint ATM Network (this is the same network of ATMs that Rapid uses)