Is Ozempic Changing the Restaurant Industry?!?

Adrienne and Joe dive into the Ozempic and GLP-1 trend to unpack its massive impact on the restaurant industry, shifting diner habits, and what it all means for the future of menus. In this episode, we also discuss: How shifting appetites change what we order, not how often How GLP-1s work and influence habits The demand for smaller portions and higher protein Who adapts faster: fast-casual or fine dining? Fewer desserts, less booze, and the mocktail boom Lessons from past diet trends like Atkins and Paleo Why feeling healthier might actually increase dining out How restaurants survive by constantly adapting Follow the show: @chefscutpod Follow Adrienne: @chefadriennecheatham Follow Joe: @insta.flamm

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:14Adrienne Cheatham?

  Today on The Chef's Cut, we're talking about the Ozempic effect and how it's influencing restaurant menus across the country.

• 0:20Joe Flamm?

  If we just run this menu, we're gonna get a bump.

• 0:24Adrienne Cheatham?

  What does this trend mean for portion sizes?

• 0:26Joe Flamm?

  It's just a half order of chicken.

• 0:27Adrienne Cheatham?

  Pretty much, yeah. And whether or not this craze is gonna change the dining landscape for a long time, or just a little while.

• 0:35Joe Flamm?

  If our customers are changing their habits, we're gonna change with them.

• 0:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  Chef's Cut Nation, you know what time it is. Please take 10 seconds of your day to rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps.

• 0:53Joe Flamm?

  Today, we're gonna talk about something that is everywhere, and that is the Ozempic effect in regards to restaurants and what it's doing for our industry. It's something you hear chefs talking about. It's something you hear restaurateurs talking about. I know in New York, it's a big topic of conversation. I know in Chicago, it is as well. There's a million articles on it right now on like, how or where or what it's shaping in diners' choices. And I think it's interesting because, you know, it's always one of those things when we talk about, you know, trends, right? So there's so many food trends you and I talk about, but then there's these exterior factors like this.

• 1:32Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right, right.

• 1:33Joe Flamm?

  This isn't, you know what I mean? No chef cooked up fucking Ozempic in a lab.

• 1:37Adrienne Cheatham?

  Definitely not.

• 1:38Joe Flamm?

  Or restaurateur.

• 1:39Adrienne Cheatham?

  The antithesis of what a chef would create.

• 1:41Joe Flamm?

  This is, you know, I've never seen a mixologist shake up one of these, but that affects what we do. And I think, you know, you be to private work, I think sometimes, you know, like, private work is like, the first ones to see this stuff, kind of. Because you're cooking for people every day.

• 2:00Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right, and that's what I'm curious to see your thought, because we're also in two different cities. You're in the Midwest, I'm on the East Coast, you're in restaurants, I'm in private work. So I'm curious to hear what you have to say about this too, but that is such a good point. When you're cooking for people in their home on a regular basis, you're much more subjected to them controlling their food and their diet. If you're going out to a restaurant, you know you want to enjoy what that restaurant has to offer. You picked that restaurant because you want to try what they have to offer. When you're at home, that's very different, though. You can say, I want to lose weight, so I don't want to do any carbs for two weeks. I want to eat only protein and steamed vegetables.

• 2:43Adrienne Cheatham?

  It's not very exciting for the chef, but you have to understand this person has health concerns and you have to kind of cater to that. So if it's cutting out fat, if it's cutting out carbs, if it's increasing protein, whatever those whims are, you definitely see it more on the home side.

• 3:00Joe Flamm?

  Right, especially when you're controlling most of someone's meals, right? And I think that's the benefit of, you know, why these people have private chefs, right? It's not just that they want the best food all the time and they want Adrian Cheatham three-course dinner every night. It's that they want, you know, I mean, a super high level of control of what, you know, they're intaking. And I just think of this like, you know, like, the simplest way for me, it's like, if I'm making breakfast at the house for myself, is not what I'm ordering if, you know, you and I are going out for breakfast.

• 3:29Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right, right.

• 3:30Joe Flamm?

  You know what I mean? If you and I are going out for breakfast, I'm ordering breakfast. But it's like, most days, it's like, I'm dumping a scoop of protein into a cup of coffee, buzzing it together and slamming the thing.

• 3:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  Black coffee, this is my breakfast. And let's, let's talk a little bit about how these drugs work. So we, we call it Ozempic, but that's just kind of like, I don't know, Ozempic, it's like the Vaseline or the Kleenex of the world. It's like.

• 3:52Joe Flamm?

  Right, right. Name another petroleum jelly.

• 3:56Adrienne Cheatham?

  So we'll call it Ozempic, but it's all, what do they call them? GLP-1s?

• 4:01Joe Flamm?

  Uh, yeah.

• 4:02Adrienne Cheatham?

  And so they work by changing the hormones a little bit. So you feel full very fast. It requires much less food to feel full. It slows the emptying of your stomach. So it slows down digestion, so you feel fuller for longer also. And it helps, from what I've heard, it kind of helps control like, some of those blood sugar spikes, which is why it was created for diabetes. So your stomach emptying slower helps, helps control the blood sugar spikes and drops that diabetics would get. So you're able to control what you eat, you're able to control your sugar intake. And I, I mean, personally, my mom takes Manjaro.

• 4:44Adrienne Cheatham?

  And she had some high blood sugar, she had some health concerns, and she also started taking it a few years ago. I think they approved it for weight loss like, five years ago. Before that, it was only for diabetes. So my mom got on it once it was released for weight control. And she, in the, I want to say in about a year and a half, two years, she was down about 50 pounds.

• 5:08Joe Flamm?

  Wow.

• 5:09Adrienne Cheatham?

  And she was never heavy, like, she's beautiful, and she's never looked heavy to me, but the way she describes her feeling is completely different. Where she can focus at work, she can focus on things that she's doing because her mind doesn't feel as scattered. And it's also helped with like, inflammation in her body. So she had knee surgery and hip surgery, and she said like, her inflammation numbers, when she's gotten a blood test done, are so much lower, and she just feels better overall. But going out to eat with her is not the same. I mean, this woman used to drink me under the table, and now she'll barely finish a glass of wine.

• 5:45Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, I've heard that too. There were like, the people who take it, where they're like, the craving for alcohol is, is lessened, or they don't want it as much. And I will not pretend in any way, shape, or form to understand what this shit does. You know what I mean? I take like, Allegra, that's about it, and I don't understand what that does. All I know is it makes me sneeze less for part of the year, sometimes when it works.

• 6:04Adrienne Cheatham?

  Nice.

• 6:05Joe Flamm?

  But it is interesting, like, seeing that, you know, when, because everybody knows somebody who's on it, right? There's so many people, and I think there's a ton, there's a ton of chefs on it.

• 6:14Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 6:14Joe Flamm?

  I know, you know what I mean? And it's like, and listen, and I'm not gonna be the one who sit here and be like, oh no, this is what, like, you shouldn't or shouldn't put in your body. I smoked cigarettes for like, 15 years, so you know what I mean? Like, I can't.

• 6:25Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 6:25Joe Flamm?

  You know what I mean? I have no shame in my game of judging, you know, anyone.

• 6:28Adrienne Cheatham?

  The number of shots of whiskey and cigarettes I've smoked, it's, I have no place to tell anybody.

• 6:34Joe Flamm?

  Right, you know what I mean? Wait, we worked, if it's working for you, baby, do it.

• 6:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  Have fun.

• 6:38Joe Flamm?

  You know, as they say, if you like it, I love it, go for it.

• 6:43Joe Flamm?

  But, but that being said, you know what I mean? People's changes in their behavior of how they eat, how they drink affects what we do for a living.

• 6:51Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right, and that's huge.

• 6:53Joe Flamm?

  It's undeniable.

• 6:54Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 6:55Joe Flamm?

  And, you know, I think you see all these articles out there, and it's interesting to me, because, you know, for me, it's like working in restaurants and, you know, very like, you know, kind of chef-driven restaurants.

• 7:09Joe Flamm?

  I think, you know, the trends, like, you know, we always talk about how things affect restaurants immediately, whether it's, it's weather, whether it's political, whether it's financial, whether it's, whatever it is, it hits the restaurants right away.

• 7:23Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 7:23Joe Flamm?

  Because, you know what I mean? Like, if it's, you know, in Chicago today, like, if we have, you know, a tornado wardens today, like.

• 7:31Adrienne Cheatham?

  Nobody's going out.

• 7:32Joe Flamm?

  I'm losing money. You know what I mean? Like, people are gonna cancel reservations, people are not gonna come in, I can't open the patios, you're not gonna have any walk-ins, like, it's gonna hurt, I'm gonna feel it just based on weather, and there's nothing I can do about that today.

• 7:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 7:46Joe Flamm?

  So it's like, all those weird things. And so I think it's an interesting thing of like, looking at, like, how does this affect? Because I do think you see people like, going out less.

• 7:58Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right, and that's kind of overall, because things are so much more expensive, but it's, it's hard to know, it's like a chicken/egg kind of thing, which came first.

• 8:09Joe Flamm?

  Right.

• 8:10Adrienne Cheatham?

  The rising prices and people going out less, or eating less because of these drugs, and that affecting their behavior.

• 8:25Joe Flamm?

  I feel like, Age, like, in Chicago, saying like, I don't feel like the, the diners who are coming to my restaurants, I don't feel like they're necessarily ordering less or drinking less. You know, I think check averages have stayed fairly steady across the board.

• 8:36Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay.

• 8:37Joe Flamm?

  But it's just like, I don't know, like, if this is affecting how much people are going out.

• 8:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  That's a good point, that, so, there is a little bit of data. There's not like, obviously, this is growing and shifting all the time, because this is still relatively new. But the NRA had a big survey that came out in May, so just a couple months ago, and they polled a ton of people, some who are on GLP-1s and some who are not. And as it turns out, according to their survey, people who are on GLP-1s are going out to eat, on average, slightly more than people who are not on them. So it hasn't changed that, it hasn't made people go out less, it's just changing what they order when they go to restaurants.

• 9:23Adrienne Cheatham?

  And apparently, one of those things is people are drinking less, ordering less desserts.

• 9:30Adrienne Cheatham?

  Are you seeing any of those reflected in your restaurants?

• 9:34Joe Flamm?

  Hard to tell, hard to tell. Honestly, I don't feel like we really are, but I also feel like this is one of those things where it's like, with these trends where it's like, one, it's like, when these people saying they're going out to more restaurants, it's like, does that just mean like they're going to Sweetgreen more?

• 9:48Adrienne Cheatham?

  Ah, or they're just getting an appetizer?

• 9:51Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. And it's like, and I don't see that. And I think it's just like one of those, you know, I'm in a restaurant space of like, you know, I said, I've kind of liked the more like chef driven restaurants. It's not like, most of the places I run are not a place people are going to eat at multiple times a week. Right? So I think in restaurants, it's more like the quick service, the chains and stuff like that. They are more reactionary to the trends, you know, like a couple of months back, talking about how, you know, like Dunkin' Donuts now has a Dunkachino with protein.

• 10:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. And that was, was that before the Ozempic like thing to the effect?

• 10:28Joe Flamm?

  That was like nine months ago, they were ripping, you know, Dunk protein Dunkachinos. Like, so I think they see it in there more where it's like more of those, those places that are the people, like for people that where they're going, you know, where they might go two or three times a week where it's their, their weekday lunch or their weekday breakfast or, I think it's like more affected in that and more of those places. Cause those places are places that don't, you know what I mean? Really set trends, right? You know what I mean? No, no chefs are reading, you know, Olive Garden's menu to see, be like, oh, what are they doing?

• 10:59Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right, right. They've really got their finger on the pulse. Let's see what they're up to.

• 11:03Joe Flamm?

  Right. You know what I mean? So it's like, they're going to always be more reactionary because it's like, they're just trying to like, hey, if we have this amount of customers, if our customers are changing their habits, we're going to change with them. Where I think, you know, for, you know, chefs like myself, it's like, we exist more where we're a little bit on the toeing the line of those special occasion restaurants. So it doesn't fit into your normal day to day life necessarily, right? Where it's like, you're going to come in and, you know, you want to do the thing we do. And maybe that's not what you do six days a week, but for that seventh day a week, when you're going out, you know what I mean? It's date night, it's birthday, it's, you know, friends in town.

• 11:40Joe Flamm?

  If you're going to let it rip for a night, you're going to come let it rip with us. Probably not like, you're not going to go to, you know, be like a quick serve salad place and be like, this is where we're going to party.

• 11:50Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. This is my indulgent meal. And so this is some, some more data from the NRA survey. So again, most people who are on these medications or these drugs are still going out to eat pretty regularly, just as often, if not more than people not taking them. But they are, according to the survey, 49% of people are ordering smaller portions. So either restaurants are offering smaller portions, or I don't know how that workaround happens. But they're also ordering more high protein items and ordering more vegetable based dishes. There have been tons of articles about this. So a lot of restaurants, big restaurants, operating in several states,

• 12:31Adrienne Cheatham?

  like Olive Garden, Chipotle, Subway, and even some sit down, you know, more sit down ordering restaurants. They are offering smaller portions. So like, we go back to our Olive Garden example. They have a chicken parm on the menu. Their standard chicken parm is like a thousand 20 calories and 64 grams of protein. So on Olive Garden's lighter option menu, they have the same chicken parm, but it's a smaller portion. So it's 630 calories and 36 grams of protein. So they're offering-

• 13:06Joe Flamm?

  It's just a half order of chicken parm?

• 13:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  Pretty much, yeah. Like less cheese, a little more chicken. I don't know.

• 13:12Joe Flamm?

  This is the same place that I think it was like three years ago was doing like buy one entree and you get another whole entree to go for free.

• 13:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes. So maybe it's restaurants having larger appetizer and the shared plates, the small plate section, where you have a larger appetizer section, you have more small plate options. And you can hone in your dessert menu. You can hone in those offerings that you don't have to have your prep team spend as much time on. You can have like maybe four desserts instead of seven.

• 13:53Adrienne Cheatham?

  American dining has been built on the premise for decades that you get more value by giving larger portions. So just more food, supersized, supersized fries, supersized drinks, a massive chicken parm the size of your head. Like, nobody needs to eat that. But that's kind of how our country operates, like on showing value.

• 14:16Joe Flamm?

  I want to eat that.

• 14:17Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 14:17Joe Flamm?

  I want to eat that chicken parm the size of my head.

• 14:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  Instead of taking leftovers, we were conditioned for so long that big portions means value or means better. So now these same restaurants that pushed that for years, oversized portions are now catering to the fact that people want to eat smaller portions. So it's like, they created the problem and now they're reacting to the problem.

• 14:44Joe Flamm?

  Right. And I think, you know, like, I think some of this is just like restaurant trend in general, that chef driven restaurants have been on for a minute, right? Where it's like, we've been really focusing on vegetables. We cook a ton of vegetables. We sell a ton of vegetables. You know, you think of a place like Rosemary, any vegetable we grill over that hearth, we will sell the life out of it. You know what I mean? It's like the amount of zucchini we sell right now, the corn, the green beans, like we sell an unbelievable amount of vegetables. And like, people are more apt to it. You know what I mean? Where I think 10, 15 years ago, people were like, I don't really eat vegetables, which is like a crazy statement. Um, so I think people are just-

• 15:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  Rabbit food.

• 15:22Joe Flamm?

  Right. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's not real meal. Um, and so I think like people are just more into that. I think people eat more seafood. And so I think like, some of these things have been more naturally transitioning and how diners are eating now and have been eating. I think people are more well versed, well traveled and well informed as diners than they've ever been. Cause of just the availability of information. So they're more open to things. For me, it's like, we can't be reactionary to trends. Like you can, you could adjust a little bit to the diners. Like I think like the NA thing rolling, like, you know, we've flushed out more NA options, right?

• 16:00Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, more non alcoholic beverages, options. Okay.

• 16:03Joe Flamm?

  Um, and so like, we sell a lot more of those and people really appreciate it because we work hard on them and we make really good, you know, like, uh, any cocktails and stuff like that. And that does really well. But it's some stuff we look at all the time. You know what I mean? We're looking at the end of every month to see what's, you know, selling and what's not.

• 16:19Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay.

• 16:19Joe Flamm?

  And things that are working and things that aren't and being like, oh, like things like this sell really well at this restaurant.

• 16:25Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 16:26Joe Flamm?

  So like, you know, like at the steakhouse, we're like happy hour does really well. So we should expand more happy hour offerings. Because people really like that. And if we do more of it, maybe more people will come in for it and we'll sell more of it and it goes better.

• 16:39Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. And that's what some of these medications, like some of the things that I've read, people are cutting out some of those impulse side purchases. So I'm here for the side of fries. You want to order a side of fries? I am, I want the side of fries with you. I want to try every little side dish that comes along.

• 16:56Joe Flamm?

  I'm never not here for the side of fries. It doesn't even matter, the, the occasion. You know what I mean?

• 17:03Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right, right. It's, it's always, it's, it always makes sense.

• 17:05Joe Flamm?

  If we were getting two coffees and they were like, you want a side of fries? I'll be like, yeah. So I mean, if you're offering.

• 17:11Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. Then yes, bring it on. And so that's what apparently some people say that they're cutting out on. So they're cutting out on carbs. Because if you're on these medications, you need to eat a higher protein diet. So that's in line with the protein craze that we were already seeing. So restaurants are really catering to that.

• 17:28Joe Flamm?

  Well, like Chipotle just straight up selling like bowls of chicken now.

• 17:31Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, just a protein cup.

• 17:33Joe Flamm?

  Bowl, like a protein cup. It's like, this is a protein cup. This is a bowl of chicken.

• 17:38Joe Flamm?

  This is just a leftover staff meal that you stash on your station. You know what I mean? This isn't a dish.

• 17:44Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. I mean, it's like, instead of ordering, you know, just a normal breakfast plate, people are ordering like five scrambled eggs and like a side salad or something to try to get more protein and vegetables, but fewer carbs.

• 17:56Joe Flamm?

  You know, like, and I mean, like at the new place at Tuto, we do breakfast and people come in, we offer, you know, you can get it as a scramble or a sandwich or wrap basically and- I think like as much as there is that I think the bigger trend is like people like the real ingredients, you know what I mean? People come in, it's like, cause we make eggs fresh. You mean it's three farm eggs scrambled fresh. Like when you order them and like real vegetables from farms and good cheese. And like, I think that carries as much weight with people as just the idea of like, just stacking protein, you know what I mean? Stacking carbs. But I think they do see it more on that commercial scale where it's like, cause you remember, and I think that's the thing, like with these crazy big food trends, like you remember like, these are

• 18:40Joe Flamm?

  the same places that had like, we're putting like little peas on their menu for like paleo friendly things, right?

• 18:46Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. Remember Atkins? Like when people, yes. It's like, here's a pound of bacon with a steak

• 18:54Joe Flamm?

  Like TGI Fridays was doing like Atkins friendly menus, you know what I mean? And I don't know, I don't know that business model. I've never run a TGI Fridays or a Chili's or a Ruby Tuesdays or any of those places where if they're just like, yeah, if we do that, like we'll get a bump, right?

• 19:10Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 19:10Joe Flamm?

  If we just run this menu, like if we just follow whatever trend this is, like, we're gonna get a bump.

• 19:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Mm hmm.

• 19:19Joe Flamm?

  And so like, I wonder, you think this is how people were like freaking out about like Slim Fast back in the day and like the early nineties when Slim Fast came out, like

• 19:27Adrienne Cheatham?

  Or like Weight Watchers.

• 19:28Joe Flamm?

  Everybody's mom was just living on Slim Fast and cigarettes and they were like restaurants were like, we're doomed. Like Slim Fast is gonna run us all out of business.

• 19:36Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes. And Weight Watchers where people would like count their points with what they, what they order on the menu. And some places even had like Weight Watchers points with their menu items because it was huge. Like

• 19:48Joe Flamm?

  It was huge because Oprah did it.

• 19:50Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, yes. Anything Oprah does, we know is gonna blow up. So you're not seeing a huge impact in your restaurants, but the chain restaurants that cater to massive people, because some of the states that have the most number of prescriptions for these drugs are in places that have massive populations with high diabetes rates and high obesity rates. So like Texas, Florida are the top two states. In New York, what I find really interesting, I've read an article that said the number one zip code in New York is actually a zip code that has the least number of health concerns like diabetes. So people are definitely taking it for weight loss there as opposed to like health control.

• 20:34Joe Flamm?

  Designer drug there.

• 20:35Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. Exactly. It's to help you like, look good in a bikini in the Hamptons versus like controlling your diabetes. Where in Texas, you do have a lot of those chains, those Olive Gardens, the Darden Restaurants, the Chipotle's, they're doing massive numbers there. And so they are catering to that huge population in Dallas and Houston, in all these cities that these restaurants are doing so much business. So they're a hundred percent catering to what people want.

• 21:02Joe Flamm?

  Right. And those chains have been, they've been in trouble. Like it's no secret, you know what I mean? There's tons of, you want to read articles about that too. There's a million out there, right? And they've been in trouble for a minute. I think the heyday of chains when, you know, I remember talking to somebody who worked for Darden and they were telling me like, oh yeah, they used to have four private jets for the Darden Group that they would fly people around it. And like all these crazy things. And like, those are not the days we're in now. So I think like, any reaction to their product right now, they're like, we have to get ahead of it. We have to figure it out. But you know what I mean? It's kind of, you know, you gotta think like, if you're an Olive Garden and your whole move have always been like, we're gonna give you just as much food as you want. It's so much food. And now you're like, oh, our play is gonna be,

• 21:46Joe Flamm?

  we're gonna serve a half chicken parm.

• 21:48Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. Unlimited breadsticks. Unlimited breadsticks.

• 21:53Joe Flamm?

  But half chicken parm?

• 21:54Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 21:56Joe Flamm?

  Like, are they gonna cut the unlimited breadsticks in half? Well, it's like, now it's just a mini breadstick. You can serve as many as you want, but they're half the size.

• 22:02Adrienne Cheatham?

  I, I wonder, I wonder, but that is, that's, it's so interesting how restaurants are at the whim of broader societal things. So GLP-1s, these Ozempic classes of drugs, there's 12% of the population on them. And I do find it really interesting. I really, before I read the NRA survey, I would have thought that more people taking these are going out less often. And it's not the case. The case is that they're actually just ordering differently when they get to the restaurants. And if they're at these chain restaurants, they want to see that healthy option. They, they're looking for the menu items that are half portions versus the, you know, 2,000 calorie chicken parm. They want the under a thousand.

• 22:47Joe Flamm?

  But I think it's also with this one that's different about the other health trends is that, you know, you remember back in the day, it's like, it's all these other ones rolled out. You would know what somebody was up to based on how they ordered. Cause they would order some, you know what I mean? Like goofy ass shit. They'd be like, oh, I want salmon cooked in like just clarified butter with vegetables that are steamed and this. And you're like, oh, they're doing like some paleo shit. Or they're on some app, cause you know, or like, I want a burger, no bun with two burger patties, four strips of bacon, a fried egg, and like no vegetables on a plate. You're like, okay, you'd be there at Atkins. But like with this one, it's like, there's not like those telltales. So it's harder to tell. You

• 23:32Joe Flamm?

  know what I mean? It's not just like gluten free. When everybody was going gluten free, right? So it's not the obvious where it's like, you know, cause the other ones were on the ticket. When you're running a pass, you could tell, you'd see them on the ticket. Where now it's like, somebody's on that. They're probably, you kind of said, where it's like, they're ordering maybe more vegetables. Maybe they're not getting a pizza and a pasta. They're just getting a pasta. Or, you know, they're getting more seafood or whatever it may be. Or they're just eating less of it when it's on the table.

• 23:59Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. And that's true. Cause like, even like I told you, my mom takes Manjaro, she will still order. It's not like she's only asking for like a piece of plain chicken breast with a side of steamed broccoli. Like that's, that's never been how she rolls. She's gonna order what's on the menu. She just might not finish it.

• 24:17Joe Flamm?

  Right. So it's like, you just don't know with this one. That's, that's the most interesting thing to me about this. All the other trends in the past, it was like really obvious when someone was doing it because you had to be like, can you ask the kitchen if they'll do, you know what I mean? Something that just was like, I mean, not what they did.

• 24:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. Way out of left field.

• 24:35Joe Flamm?

  Because there was some specific fat you couldn't have, or there was some specific grain you weren't eating, or there was some specific thing. And because this isn't like specific, it's hard to tell.

• 24:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  So Joe, I have a question for you. So with these drugs, changing the way people are ordering at restaurants, and mind you, 12% of people are taking these, and these drugs are moving into pill form. So people will no longer have to inject them with a needle. Do you think that restaurants should tailor their menus to these changing tastes?

• 25:20Joe Flamm?

  I don't think you could ever say there's a blanket thing like that, right? Like, I think if you're a good restaurant, if you're a good operator, you're constantly monitoring what is selling and what's not, right? Whether it's, uh, you know, a seasonality of a beer or a wine or a food thing or whatever, like you are always looking at your numbers and what's changing, what going. Basing it on a 12%, like 12% is, that's a ton of people. But like, you can't base, you know what I mean? A business decision on 12%.

• 25:52Joe Flamm?

  You know, my hope is like, listen, this is, this is my hope. At the end of the day, grand with it, is that, you know, if this drug is making people healthier and they feel better, they look better, and they want to go out more because they feel better. You know what I mean? They're like, damn, I look good. I should go out to dinner. You know what I mean? I want my friends to see me. I want to go on dates. I want to, you know what I mean?

• 26:13Adrienne Cheatham?

  I'm in these streets.

• 26:15Joe Flamm?

  Right. You know what I mean? I want to go sit at the bar. And it doesn't matter if, you know what I mean? I'm having a mocktail or if I only drink half my glass of wine, or if we order a dish and only eat half of it. Like, you know, this shirt looks great on me now, and I want people to fucking see me in it. Like, that's, that's my biggest hope of this. It's like, people feel good. They feel happy. They want to go out more. They want to have fun. They want to see their friends. They're more social. And it just like, makes things more vibrant. And I guess that's, you know, maybe that's the rosy optimist in me age where I'm always like, you already be like, if I feel good, I want to go out.

• 26:49Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. No, that's, that is so, wow. Like, that is such a perfect way of fucking saying it. And I think that that is what we're seeing. I mean, that is exactly, the people who take these drugs are not staying home so they can avoid eating. They are going out just as much, if not more than people not on them. So you might be on to something.

• 27:09Joe Flamm?

  Well, I'm just saying, like, especially if you, if you're, if you're in a, you know, in a zip code where you're just doing this to look better than the bikini of the Hamptons, it's like, well, you're going to the Hamptons.

• 27:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Exactly. You want people to see you.

• 27:20Joe Flamm?

  That's what I hope to see from it, I think, is my, my optimistic self in having to always be optimistic as someone who, you know, operates, uh, you know, restaurants. But you know what I mean? It's hard to tell. Like, it's a really short timeline on this one so far. So, you know what I mean? I think we'll, we'll see what's to come. But I think like, you know, the restaurants that are on the cutting edge, like they always set the trends that, you know, all of us follow. And, you know what I mean? Or all of us chase, if you will. And I think those are always bigger and broader than any outside factor.

• 27:54Adrienne Cheatham?

  This is gonna keep going. So we'll check back in in like a year or so, when, when we're up from only 12% of the population. Like, we'll have some more time to see how these Ozempic drugs are affecting restaurant habits. But this is a really interesting topic. We're nowhere close to seeing where it settles.

• 28:12Joe Flamm?

  You know, it's just another day in the life of restaurants of talking about things that you're wildly underqualified to understand, but have to hope to try to figure out to keep your business afloat.

• 28:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  Damn right. That is it for this episode of The Chef's Cut. Head to the comments to tell us how you think the Ozempic effect is changing the dining experience. And don't forget to subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Instagram. For Joe Flamm, I'm Adrian Cheatham, and this has been The Chef's Cut, life beyond the past.