Executive-2018-Summer

tricky, according to Sanchez. “You have to have an artisan on the grill. The margin of error is very, very small.” Plus, not everyone likes the charcoal taste, he admitted. “I wanted to duplicate the fine dining steakhouse experience in an easier way,” Sanchez said. And thus, the idea of Frankie’s was created. When asked how Sanchez got his start in the restaurant business, he laughed and joked, “Bad luck.” After leaving his home in Mexico to study engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, Sanchez got a job at a Mexican restaurant near school and befriended the owner. After graduating and working in the engineering field for a few years, he and two of his engineer friends decided to give the restaurant industry a try for themselves. “There was a lot of risk involved,” Sanchez said. “But I was 29 and didn’t care about any risks.” Though the business associates eventually parted ways, that was the beginning of Sanchez’s company, Norsan Group and his entrenchment in the Southeast food scene. Norsan Group owns and operates Frontera Mex-Mex Grill, Luciano’s Italian Ristorante, and Pampas Steakhouse restaurants across the southeastern United States, as well as a media company that owns Spanish-language radio stations, newspapers and websites in several states. Norsan also owns a meat packing and distribution company called Prime Meats, which operates in the eastern U.S. With such a close link to the meat suppliers, Norsan’s restaurants can directly request specific prime and specialized cuts of meat. “It’s great to be vertically integrated,” Sanchez said. By eliminating many of the supply chain issues, Sanchez said the hardest part of running his restaurants is the human component. While Norsan is “blessed with talented executives,” Sanchez said that finding the right staff for the front of house and kitchens is always difficult. “We want a very high service level,” he said, and that’s hard to maintain when your turnover is high. Luckily, Sanchez said “the rotation we have this year at Frankie’s has been very low, which helps service and operations.” He said many of his experienced hosts, waitstaff and kitchen staff were excited to find fine dining work opportunities closer to home in Gwinnett County. “We love this area and it’s been great for us,” Sanchez said. “The leaders we have here in charge of Gwinnett County’s economic development have done a fantastic job creating a great place to do business.” Sanchez moved to Gwinnett County in the 1980s and has watched the area grow. “With the construction of the Infinite Energy Arena, we don’t even have to go downtown for big events,” he said. “With traffic the way that it is, it’s so important to have everything here, locally.” Which is one of the reasons Sanchez wanted to create a fine dining option for steak lovers close to home. Since Frankie’s has been so well- received in Gwinnett County, Norsan Group is looking to open a second location, hopefully by the end of the year. Though Sanchez is not certain where, he thinks it will be in another large city. As the chain expands, Frankie’s patrons can expect that Sanchez’s attention to the small things won’t waiver. “We like to pay attention to the little bitty details,” he said. For example, if a Frankie’s customer decides to take home part of their meal, it is carefully packaged into a reusable shopping bag. Dinner guests also receive a muffin to take home with them for breakfast the next morning. “I like the idea of our guests thinking about us again in the morning with their coffee,” Sanchez said. In addition to a second Frankie’s location, Sanchez is also developing a casual-fine dining Spanish tapas gastronomic concept as well as other concepts for Italian casual- fine dining. the EXECUTIVE 3