We recently connected with Victoria Chediak and have shared our conversation below.
Victoria, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?
Social media should be a priority to small businesses in the restaurant industry. I have believed in its importance from my business’ inception, and I continue to prioritize it in Poké 305’s current operations. I graduated from the University of Miami in Advertising, Public Relations, and Marketing. My goal was always to create a name for myself in the creative track. I had a few years of experience doing PR for local restaurants before I began my own restaurant venture. In starting a business, I knew that I wanted a product whose aesthetic and visual appeal spoke for itself. Our poké bowls are the perfect combination of delicious and beautiful. Because of this, customers quickly began snapping a shot of their colorful poké bowls and posting them on their Instagrams and tagging @poke305. In those beginning stages when my priority was starting up the business and ensuring smooth daily operations, those tags were a lifesaver for our public relations efforts. Not only did it provide me great content to repost, it also helped me display testimonials and reviews of people that would come eat at our locations. Now that we are seven years into this business, I have been able to take on a more hands on approach to my social media. I do daily posts and interactive stories to keep up engagement. I have tapped back into my creative side to make sure that we grab as much attention from current and potential followers. I do, however, realize that I may be at a disadvantage from other PR professionals whose jobs are solely catering to the social media of businesses, especially as a millennial. I am trying to keep track of trends and have even started creating TikTok content and Instagram Reels to try to connect with audiences who are all about videos rather than images. Maybe in the future I will reach out to find the perfect PR team for me. But for now, I am enjoying tapping into my creative side and having fun handling the social media.
Victoria, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Poké 305 started as a pitch that I made to my parents in 2016 about how I saw the poké fast casual trend migrating from the West Coast to the East Coast. My goal was be the first poké restaurant in South Florida, and I accomplished it. Fast forward seven years, a total of six locations, and one pandemic later, Poké 305 continues to serve its customers consistently fresh and delicious meals that do not require any guilt afterwards. The key to balancing the two components comes from our dedication to fresh produce and protein, simple ingredients, and homemade sauces.
As a young, female entrepreneur, I can proudly say that I have learned every aspect of the fast casual restaurant industry with determination and grit. The challenges I have faced have only pushed me to continue my dreams and to maintain those core ideas of providing my customers with an experience that they would be happy to share with their loved ones. I think that one thing that sets my business plan apart from others is remaining consistent with my products, their quality, and the overall branding. Anyone who visited Miami seven years ago can come visit a local Poké 305 location today and have the same high level of experience that they had all those years ago.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Interestingly enough, I was fortunate to “meet” my business partners when I was born. Growing up, I always appreciated my parents for the hard work they put into their different business ventures. As a child of immigrant entrepreneurs, I witnessed the dedication and resilience they put into every opportunity. When I decided to become an entrepreneur myself, I knew that there was no better group of business partners than my mom and dad. Because I had already learned so much of my business ethics from them, my new goal was to pick their brains and learn the actual “know-how” of starting a business from the ground up. We have been a team ever since.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
When I graduated from the University of Miami in my early twenties, I worked for local public relation firms to help local businesses build up their social media. On my down time, I started my own person social media page to document all the amazing local restaurants I would eat at in my free time. That is how my food blog @asfoodasitgets was created. What many people do not know is that in managing a food blog, I had an interesting perspective in the food industry and was able to track the poké fast casual trend spreading from Hawaii to California and then all the way to New York. It was seeing this trend that I came up with the idea to open up South Florida’s first poké fast casual restaurant before other competitors could make their mark in this industry. Additionally, in the last year I have converted my @asfoodasitgets page into a new business model that combines my Poké 305 restaurants with blind kitchens both in South Florida and now in the Dominican Republic. What started as my side hustle or hobby is now the backbone of my businesses today.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.poke305.com
- Instagram: @poke305 @asfoodasitgets
- Facebook: @poke305
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/H4L3Rqg5Erb