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'The Chew's' Carla Hall talks lessons learned from her defunct fast casual brand

Carla Hall shares with FastCasual what she wishes she would have done differently and if she'll give the fast casual business another try.

April 26, 2018

Celebrity Chef and host of "The Chew" Carla Hall learned a lot about the do's and don'ts of running a fast casual restaurant from launching Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen two years ago in Brooklyn. After a fire and slumping sales, the business closed for good a year later, proving that fame doesn't always predict success.

"It's all about the location," she said this week during an interview with FastCasual's Cherryh Cansler at the Women Chefs &  Restaurateurs conference in Minneapolis. "We were in a place where it was great for fine dining, but when you have fast casual, it is inexpensive —  so $10 — so we really needed volume. So we really needed to be in a place where we got more foot traffic.

"The other thing about that — I'm on a national show. I needed to be in a place where I could capitalize on that national presence. And even though in hindsight I couldn't afford it, which meant I needed to be in like a Times Square or I needed to be in a place where it was very easy for people to get when there are coming in from all over the country."

Watch the interview to hear what Hall wishes she would have done differently and if she'll give the fast casual business another try.