Greetings, welcome to The ONE Group second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation today. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Tyler Loy. Please begin, sir. Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Before we begin our formal remarks, let me remind you that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and you should not place undue reliance on them. These statements are also subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. Please also note that these forward-looking statements reflect our opinion only as of the date of this call. We undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release any revisions of these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. We refer you to our recent SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact our future operating results and financial conditions. During today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating our performance. The presentation of these measures or other information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. For reconciliations of these measures, such as Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income, Restaurant Operating Profit, comparable sales, and total food and beverage sales, and owned and managed and licensed units to GAAP measures, along with the discussion of why we consider these measures useful, please see our earnings release issued today. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Emanuel Hilario. Thank you, Tyler. Hello, everyone. We sincerely appreciate you joining us today and for your interest in The ONE Group. First off, let me begin by thanking all of our team members for their hard work, providing world-class operations as we build a strong portfolio of restaurants with industry-leading returns. We recently opened a new Kona Grill in Riverton, Utah. The restaurant is off to a strong start. This marks our second Kona Grill opening this year and the seventh venue opening in the last 12 months. We will only be accelerating this pace. We've been diligently preparing and building our construction pipeline, and it's finally primed. We anticipate a new venue opening every four to six weeks for the foreseeable future. In addition to the strong start at our Riverton location, our other new store openings continue to perform above our investment model. Kona Grill, Columbus, average approximately $100,000 per week, and our STKs average approximately $250,000 per week during the quarter. For the STKs, this is significantly above our new store sales target of $154,000 per STK. Turning now to the second quarter, comparable sales faced tough post-Omicron comparisons from last year, especially at STK. As you may recall, our STK same-store sales volumes as compared to the pre-pandemic baseline were positive 82% during the second quarter of 2022 and significantly above industry averages for this benchmark. To put this in perspective, the fine dining segment has increased 20%-30% versus 2019, and the STK is up 70% versus the pre-pandemic baseline. While we believe we could hurdle this incredibly robust performance, our comparable sales faced greater macro pressure than anticipated. That said, we are maintaining our share gains from the last few years, and our STK average unit volumes continue to be over $16 million. Importantly, we did see accelerating comparable sales throughout the quarter, and Kona Grill sales in particular, are gathering momentum going into the back half of the year. Moving on to Restaurant Operating Profit. We continue to show best-in-class performance relative to cost of goods sold, as we posted our third consecutive quarter of 24% cost of goods. While we continue to see more moderate year-over-year inflation, much of the basket seems to be flattened compared to where we've been over the last 12 months. As discussed earlier, because of the macro pressure on sales, we invested graded in digital marketing, where we drove more than 10% increase versus the first quarter in social media impressions. In addition, we invested in restaurant staffing to ensure strong guest loyalty for the long term and to replace the high-quality talent that we moved into our opening teams. We are happy with our current guest loyalty metrics, and we believe they bode well for future performance. Lastly, we carried some additional manager headcounts in order to support our growth initiatives, and they are being deployed to our new store openings for the balance of the year. Macro pressures on sales, coupled with our strategic investments in brand awareness, guest experience, and staffing ahead of our robust development pipeline, impacted our Adjusted EBITDA year-over-year. Based on these factors, we have adjusted our guidance but believe we have actions in place that will deliver positive comparable sales and increased margin versus the prior year for the back half of 2023. Looking ahead, we are committed to robust growth and margin expansion. Our strategic focus is as follows: 1, driving the in-restaurant experience at both brands by making sure that we are delivering exceptional and unforgettable experiences to every guest, every time. This is fundamental to our operating model, that's what sets us apart from our peers. We have an amazing, talented group of restaurant teams, we'll be leveraged them to upsell our premium menu items and high-margin add-ons. Two, continue investment in digital marketing, especially focused on our value offerings. It's imperative that we keep the brands accessible to our entry-level price points. Our brunch and $3, $6, $9 happy hour offerings are especially relevant in the current economic environment and some of the best values in the industry. In addition to our value layers, our takeout and delivery business continues to grow in dollars and percentage of total revenue, that's another area where we will continue to invest. Three, taking target price increases as we have lagged our peer group and the industry in the amount of pricing we have taken during this highly inflationary period. Based on our peer comparisons and our guest satisfaction levels, we believe we have additional pricing opportunities that we plan to take. Four, committed to opening a new restaurant every 4-6 weeks for the foreseeable future. Five, right-sizing labor and other operating costs for post-initial investment and growth. We've talked about the increased managers that we've carried in order to support our growth initiatives, we have additional opportunity to scale our scheduling in order to drive sales and increase labor efficiency. In addition, we have launched several initiatives to reduce costs that do not impact sales, such as system-wide optimization of our paper supplies, credit card processing fees, and various outside services. Year to date, our store-level margin is 15.7%, we anticipate to finishing the year in the 17% range. We believe these strategic initiatives are paramount as we look to drive positive comparable sales and margin improvement during the back half of the year. Moving on to our development pipeline, we expect to open 8-12 new venues in 2023, we plan to open a new venue every 4-6 weeks for the foreseeable future. Already this year, we opened Kona Grill in Columbus, Ohio, 2 REEF Kitchen licensed locations, and a Kona Grill in Riverton, Utah. In addition, we added a Rooftop at the STK in Scottsdale, Arizona. By the end of the year, we are on track to open 1-2 additional Kona Grills in the following cities: Phoenix, Arizona, and Tigard, Oregon, and 3-4 new company-owned STKs in the following cities: Charlotte, North Carolina, Washington, D.C., Salt Lake City, Utah, and Boston, Massachusetts. Finally, we plan to add 1 managed or licensed STK. Over the long term, we view our addressable market as 200 STK restaurants globally and 200 Kona Grills domestically, with best-in-class ROIs of between 40% and 50%. There is clearly a long runway of opportunity ahead of us that we are just beginning to actualize. I'll turn the call over to Tyler. Thank you, Manny. Let me start by discussing our second quarter financials in greater detail. Total GAAP revenues were $83.4 million, increasing 2.8% from $81.1 million for the same quarter last year. Included in our total revenues is our own Restaurant Operating Profit net revenues of $79.9 million, which increased 3.9% from $76.9 million for the same quarter last year. The increase in revenue is primarily attributable to the opening of STK San Francisco in August of 2022, the opening of STK Dallas in November of 2022, and the opening of Kona Grill Columbus in January of 2023. This was partially offset by a 4.7% decrease in comparable sales. Consolidated comparable sales were 46.5% compared to 2019, our pre-pandemic base year. Management license and incentive fee revenues were $3.5 million during the quarter and $4.2 million in the second quarter of 2022. This decrease was primarily attributable to lower profitability on our managed STK restaurants in North America and decreased revenue at a managed property in London, England. Owned restaurant cost of sales as a percentage of owned restaurant net revenue was better by 180 basis points to 24% in the second quarter of 2023, compared to 25.8% in the prior year, primarily due to menu mix management, pricing, and operational cost reduction initiatives. Owned Restaurant Operating Expenses as a percentage of owned Restaurant Net Revenue increased 340 basis points to 61% in the second quarter of 2023, from 57.6% in the second quarter of 2022, primarily due to staffing ahead of growth, increased Marketing Expenses, and general Operating Expense inflation. This was partially offset by single-digit pricing taken in the back half of last year. In August, we will be taking an approximate 4% price increase at Kona Grill, reflecting our current confidence in the performance of the brand. Restaurant Operating Profit was 14.9% for the second quarter of 2023, compared to 16.6% in the second quarter of 2022. Restaurant Operating Profit at STK was 18.9%, and Kona Grill Operating Profit was 9.9% for the quarter. We anticipate Restaurant Operating Profit to increase year-over-year as a percentage of revenue during the back half of the year. On a total reported basis, general and administrative expenses were $8 million compared to $7.3 million in the prior year. The increase was attributable to increased stock-based compensation expense and additional investments required ahead of new restaurant openings. When adjusting for stock-based compensation, adjusted general and administrative expenses were $6.8 million in the second quarter of 2023 and $6.4 million in the same quarter last year. Pre-opening expenses were $1.6 million, compared to $0.8 million in the prior year. This increase was primarily related to Kona Grill Riverton, which opened in July 2023, and STK and Kona Grill restaurants currently under development. Both years include non-cash pre-opening rent required for U.S. GAAP. Interest expense was $1.6 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared to $0.4 million in the second quarter of 2022. The increase was driven by increases in our outstanding balance and benchmark rates year-over-year. Income tax expense was nominally beneficial in the second quarter of 2023 and $0.9 million in the second quarter of 2022. Net income attributable to The ONE Group Hospitality, Inc. was $0.6 million, or $0.02 net income per share, compared to a net income of $4.3 million in the second quarter of 2022, or $0.13 net income per share. Adjusted net income was $1.8 million, or $0.06 Adjusted net income per share, compared to an Adjusted net income of $4.9 million in the second quarter of 2022, or $0.15 net income per share. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter attributable to The ONE Group Hospitality, Inc, was $8.5 million, compared to $10.4 million in the second quarter of 2022. We have included a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted net income in the tables in our second quarter 2023 earnings release. During the second quarter, we repurchased approximately 500,000 shares of our common stock. In total, we have purchased 1.7 million shares, or approximately 5% of our outstanding shares, under our buyback program. We have approximately $3.7 million in share repurchases that remain available under our $15 million share repurchase program. We will continue to use discretion in determining the conditions under which shares may be purchased from time to time, if at all. Now, I'd like to provide some forward-looking commentary regarding our business. This commentary is subject to risks and uncertainties associated with forward-looking statements, as discussed in our SEC filings. We have always remind our investors the actual numbers and timing of new restaurant openings for any given period is subject to a number of factors outside the company's control, including weather conditions and factors under the control of landlords, contractors, licensees, and regulatory and licensing authorities. Based on the information available now and the expectations as of today, we are updating the following financial targets for 2023. Beginning with revenues, we project our total GAAP revenues of between $350 million and $365 million. Embedded in this top-line range is our expectation of flat consolidated comparable sales for the third quarter versus 2022, and positive 4%-8% in the fourth quarter when compared to 2022. Managed, licensed, and incentive fee revenues are now expected to be between $15 million and $15.5 million due to lower revenues on our properties in London. Total owned operating expenses as a percentage of owned restaurant net revenue of 83%-82%. Total G&A, excluding stock-based compensation, of approximately $27 million-$29 million. We now expect Adjusted EBITDA of $45 million-$50 million, which represents an approximate 10%-20% increase compared to 2022. Restaurant pre-opening expenses between $5.5 million and $6.5 million, an effective income tax rate of between 5% and 10%. Total CapEx, net of allowances received from landlords, of approximately 2.5% of company-owned revenue and approximately $3 million-$3.5 million per company-owned venue. Finally, we plan to open 8 to 12 new venues in 2023, including adding one managed or licensed STK restaurant. I will now turn the call back to Manny. Thank you, Tyler, and thank you all for your time today. Let me conclude by saying that we are in the early stages of our long-term growth strategy as we continue to build a portfolio of high-volume brands with compelling returns for our shareholders. Thank you all for your interest in The ONE Group. As I always say, none of this would be possible without the fantastic support of our teammates, who bring our mission of great execution to life every day. We have some exciting times ahead. We'll be opening a lot of restaurants in the near future, and I look forward to seeing you all out there. We appreciate everyone joining us on the call today. Tyler and I are happy to answer any questions that you may have. Operator? We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Today's first question comes from Joshua Long with Stephens. Please proceed. Great. Thank you for taking the question. Good afternoon. Was wondering if you could talk through the trends that you thought, saw through the quarter, in terms of understanding that there's, you know, certainly some substantial year-over-year comparisons that you were lapping up against. You know, underlying that, did you see any kind of pushes and pulls? Did things progress through the quarter? What can you tell us there? Then, you know, when we think just broadly about the consumers' demands and overall appetite for experiential dining, which your portfolio embodies, what are you seeing there, and, and how should we be thinking about that in the back half of the year? Josh, this is Manny. On that question, I would say that the, the softer part of the quarter was probably earlier in the quarter. The reason was with Omicron, many conventions got deferred and pushed into the second quarter. There was a little bit of a shift on convention business. We did benefit last year early on with the convention business of just people accelerating the conventions at that point. I, I would say that probably was the, the in-quarter big comparison year-over-year was lapping over just to catch up on conventions. Then I think that as we've gotten back, you know, closer to today, I think the sales momentum has become or not the momentum, but I would say the lapping has become easier for us. In terms of trends and what we see in the environment, you know, not anything different from what we've seen earlier, which is we do see a continued interest on Friday, Saturday business in the 6:30 to 8:30 timeframe. The dinner hour on the weekends continues to be very strong. Then we do have a slight drop-off in the late hours in terms of demand for dining. Then on weekdays, as I mentioned earlier, because we were getting the benefit of conventions and convention traffic, we do see a slight impact on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesdays. By the way, that is, you know, STK. In relation to Kona Grill, actually, I think the momentum on Kona Grill is very strong. It's actually on the year-over-year lap, we have seen very strong performance in June and July. As a matter of fact, as Tyler mentioned in his prepared statements, the momentum has been strong enough that we feel pretty confident in taking pricing without impacting transactions, as we've spoken in the past. Preserving traffic is paramount for us because we view that as our long-term strategy of keeping market share. We feel really good about the, the trends with Kona Grill. That's helpful. Tyler, in your prepared comments on the forward look, you, you offered some context on 3Q and 4Q. Curious, is that at the, kind of, the total combined level? Can you provide any sort of additional color there by STK or Kona as we think about the, either the pricing or other menu initiatives that you might have in place? Yeah, Josh, thanks for the question. I, I think that's on a, definitely on a combined basis. Manny touched on Kona Grill and the strength that we're seeing there, along with that pricing that we've taken. I think from a STK perspective, you can kind of see the patterns in the lap relative to, you know, we were lapping kind of an 82 versus 19 in the second quarter, kind of goes to 70 in the third, and then 61 down in the fourth quarter. I think that's where we're how, how we're kind of modeling that is, is we were 70% above 2019 in the second quarter. You can kind of see a little bit of pattern there in the lap. Got it. That's helpful. Last one for me, just when, when we think about the strong unit growth potential here, can you talk about some of the investments you made and you have made or will continue to make to, to support that? I mean, the, you know, 1 opening every 4 to 6 weeks is very impressive, especially within the backdrop of just others in the industry continuing to talk about permitting, more so permitting delays, that are facing... You're kind of providing a headwind there. Can you talk about some of the efforts and maybe the blocking and tackling that you're doing with your team to address that and be able to reach your, you know, impressive unit growth targets? Yeah, so I mean, two things come to mind right away. Number 1 is we have had to carry a significant amount of extra managers. The reason is, particularly for STK, we have made a decision to open up the restaurants with employees who do know the brand. We're training them in existing restaurants, which then puts pressure on the restaurant margin at STK. Because we, we want, we want to start off the new operations with a minimum of two managers who've already been in the system. Right now we've been carrying, as I mentioned earlier, about 15-25 extra managers just to support that strategy. The second item is that, you know, as we put together, our, our training team, which, you know, to open them, number of restaurants, we have a team of about 25 to 30 individuals, and those individuals were some of our best employees in the restaurants. We have to backfill those positions in the restaurants. We're investing in the restaurants as well, because we, we now are replacing top talent with additional headcount. Really where you see the pressure of that line is, is on, on labor, of course. Really the, the commitment there is that fine dining requires a very high level of execution in the restaurants, and that's one of the things that we're very proud about. you know, in the second quarter, although we didn't talk about it, is just the quality of operations and our feedback from consumers was extremely positive. So we know that we're doing the growth and getting ready for that growth, and we're still creating great experiences in the existing restaurants. So frankly, that's, that's really good for the long term when you're able to work on experience and get yourself ready for the growth. So I, I, I think the mission was accomplished there, to keep quality while you're getting ready for the growth. I think just relative to permitting, I, I think the, you know, the permitting environments, I'm, I'm sure you've heard from everybody, is tough. I mean, there's a lot of competition with lots of big projects in every big city going on right now. You know, the permitting, licensing establishment just does not seem to be organized. I mean, we have restaurants that have been in permitting for, you know, nine months, and in some cases, you know, some of them even nearing a whole year in terms of getting it cleared in the process. Obviously, our restaurants are big, have a lot of mechanical, a lot of complexity in the build out, so it does take a little bit of time to clear it out through the governmental agencies. I would say right now, the concept here is that, we have a tremendous amount of real estate that we signed on, and it's a little bit like priming a pump. We've kind of primed it up with locations where that permitting, time is no longer an issue to us, because we have a lot of backlog now in terms of available real estate to build. Now, it really gets back down to it's a training and, and getting the training teams in and out of the restaurants and get the operations, to go. That's, that's, that's how I view the, the growth and, and the investments that we've made. It's really labor and preserving the quality of the experience in the long term, which is, as you know, very important to us. Appreciate the context. Thanks so much. Our next question is from Nick Setyan with Wedbush Securities. Please proceed. Thanks. Just to clarify the flat comp in Q3 and 48% in Q4, is that consolidated or is that in reference to a specific brand? Yeah, Nick, this is Tyler. That's on a consolidated basis. Any chance you could break it out by brand? Yeah, I mean, I think that, kind of the... You know, what I was alluding to regarding Josh's question, I think, STK is, you know, kind of running at +70% versus 2019. If you look at what they're lapping last year, it's kind of +70% and then +62% for the 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter of last year. Then with Kona Grill, I think Manny kind of touched on it. I think we are seeing some strong results from the Kona Grill brand right now, enough that we feel pretty confident taking some additional pricing here this month. That basically implies like flattest comp at STK and then up in Q4, and then Kona actually up in Q3. I mean, right now, I mean, as I think I said on, on, on the statement, this is Manny, by the way, not Tyler anymore. Our, you know, our, our performance at Kona Grill is really strong right now. And again, there has been, you know, a lot of work that we've done there. I, I do think that, you know, it's, it's just, executing high level. I'm very, feel very good about the, the same store sales for Kona Grill this year, particularly for the back end. Got it. The, the 17% margin, exiting the year, is that for the full year 17% or Q4 17%? It's a full year version, and I think that the fourth quarter for us this year will be a very good margin quarter, as we will have a lot more STKs in operation this fourth quarter. I think that bodes very well for the margin in the fourth quarter. Okay. I think you guys have said, you know, for Q1, there was about 6% pricing and 2%-3% mix for, for both brands. What was the pricing and mix in Q2? Pricing is still running around 6 points positive for both brands, and mix is around + 2, +3, right, Tyler? Yeah, I think mix shifted down just slightly. I'm sorry, right, down 2-3. Yeah, for the quarter. Okay, down 2%-3%? Yep, that's correct. Okay. Okay, thank you very much. Our next question comes from Mark Smith with Lake Street Capital. Please proceed. Hey, guys. Just curious, just big picture here, as you look at the consumer, are, are you guys seeing any different trends from kind of metro versus suburban? You know, as we look at, at maybe Kona versus STK or even some of your STK restaurants, are you seeing any trends that way in, in kind of consumer trends, or is there anything else, big picture, that you see as far as changes in behavior, during the quarter? I mean, I, I think just right now, I would say that the predictability in the suburban is better. I would say that suburban sales seem to be more consistent and, and, and, and with lots more visibility. I think urban sales continue to be a little bit less visible just because of the business and convention business. I, I would say that right now, you know, the consistency is more on those, you know, on, on those suburban locations. Also, on smaller cities, I, I do see a little bit more strength than perhaps in the bigger cities. I think the bigger cities that benefit a lot of from tourism. Last year, I think there was a lot of U.S. tourism, whereas this year, you're seeing more of a global tourism business. I do think, the big cities with lots of tourism, exposure are a little tougher this year. Again, I would just say that probably suburban right now is really where the strength is. All right. And then as, as you guys are taking price, are, are we going to see most or all of this at Kona, or do you have plans to, to take any price in the second half here at STK? Right now, we -- our planned pricing, that Tyler mentioned, is going to grow, and that's going in here in the next couple of weeks. STK, we always look in November, we will take another look in the fourth quarter, mid fourth quarter, and take a look and see where the opportunities may be. Again, I think that as we've said in the past, you know, the pricing strategy is always has to be really thoughtful because, obviously, you always get the short-term margin bump ups when you do that, always think about the longer term. You're sometimes trading short-term margin for long-term traffic and market share. As you know, we're a market share long-term driver of sales, and we try to protect our pricing position and keep much pricing power because I think that's good for the brands in the long term. Allows you to do the right decisions for the brand and really work on the experiences. Okay. Then last, last one for me. Just looking at, at restaurant cost of sales here, you've been running about 24%. Anything that you see that changes that? Any changes in commodities, anything to call out, other, either good or bad, that you see kind of near term or on the horizon? I mean, I think, I mean, for us, commodities is kind of, you know, particularly on, on, on food items, and beverage items, I mean, our, our, performance on cost of goods, I couldn't be happier with that. I mean, that's usually, one of the big, hardest areas that is hard to control in hyperinflationary or high inflationary environments. I think we've done a really good job. We're, we're in the 24% range, which is kind of on the low end of our, you know, long-term, guided range for that item. We feel pretty good about that. I think that the pace of increase on commodities has softened, so that's good. I think we've seen a, a slowdown there. For us, and I think we keep repeating this, is we did have wage inflation. That's clear on our numbers. Really the bigger area of margin, if you will, pressure for us, was our decision to continue to invest on labor, in advance of the restaurants. As I mentioned earlier, we do want to start these new restaurants with high-quality management and crew staff, to, frankly, go out the blocks really strong with revenues and maximize profitability for us in the fourth quarter. I mean, that's really our big quarter, and that's the time that we will show up with a very strong margin and profitability results. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Our next question is from JP Wollam with Roth. Please proceed. Great. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. If we could start just at STK, I think you, you've been pretty clear that, you know, you're lapping some big conventions in 2022 that may have been delayed. Maybe if, if we could just talk a little bit more about what you're seeing at STK in terms of the different groups of customers, and maybe it's relative to your expectation instead of a sort of comp basis. I'm just wondering if you could provide a little more clarity about, you know, where you're seeing some, some trouble or some strength between, let's call it, the convention groups, maybe the expense tracked or the suits, and then social dining. If you could just kind of frame each of those relative to maybe where you thought you'd be at this point in the year. I mean, we'll start off with the suits or the business type of consumer. This is STK now, so for, for that brand, I, I think the, the tough lap has been on, on, you know, this is not, you know, purely, it's really the lap, is that, you know, less traffic from some of these conventions in the restaurants. I, I think that's probably Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays. On Fridays and Saturdays, I think that the consumers, when it comes to social occasion, is still strong, and there's still appetite to go out and celebrate and, and, and experience an elevated experience. The overall industry dynamic, though, is that there are some restaurants that do have capacity now in the 6:30-8:30 timeframe. The consumer is now wanting to book 9 and 10 o'clock reservations since they have choices to go pretty much anywhere else earlier in the day. On the social occasions, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays, you're seeing, you know, a really strong first turn for us. Then, you know, in the later hour, you know, you, you do see, you know, less fuel dining traffic. The way that we're fighting or adjusting for that is we have launched late hour happy hour in every single one of our restaurants. We are starting to see the post-10 o'clock business coming back, and that's actually been a very good add in most of our restaurants, and we're starting to see that business building in. I would say that's kind of been the, kind of the STK, you know, consumer view. I, I do see, I do see a little bit more of, of product sharing in the restaurants. I just see, and, and I think Tyler mentioned earlier that our check or mix, the mix is, is down, is because, we just see a lot more sharing on in the restaurants than we used to see before. Again, you know, I- it's, it's not that dramatic, but you, you definitely do see it a little bit in the restaurants now. Great, thank you. Moving over to Kona Grill. Something I, I think we've kind of been looking for for a little while, and just curious if, if there's any updates. Can you just share or maybe quantify at all, kind of the Columbus Kona Grill? If, if you prefer, and have numbers from Riverton, that's great, but I imagine it's early. Just kind of anything to point to how much better on maybe margin side, the kind of remodeled Columbus Kona Grill is relative to the average? Yeah, I mean, I, I wouldn't call it remodeled because we actually built a brand new restaurant in the, in the same property we did. If you go there now, you won't even recognize it's the same restaurant. But, you know, in context of that question, though, I would tell you that that restaurant with a new look, feel, design, layout, is up over 30% volume. And this is actually a really good test because we took the same real estate. We just put in there the new platform, new look, feel, and operation, and we gained over 30% sales per week. To me, that was a really good test to really tell me how good the, the, if you will, the revised brand is. We do know that there's a lot of power in the new menu and the new service style, and, and, and, and a little bit more energetic environment we put in there. Check the box on that. I'm super excited about that, and, and, and that tells me really that some of the stuff, you know, gives us some directional look that we've done the right things in terms of what we're doing with the brand. In terms of Riverton, it's obviously, you know, very early, but I, I will tell you that we opened that project, frankly, with no real marketing. We just opened the doors and, and we're already, you know, at above system average on a weekly volume for that restaurant. And that's just even without doing any of our, our, our marketing strategies there. It's frankly, that restaurant is a phenomenal project. It's a, it's a great CenterCal project. Again, the real estate is fantastic, and it's a beautiful restaurant. If you go out there and, and look at the, the videos that people have been posting from it, we do get an incredible score in, in our, in our benchmarks with the customers relative to look and feel and the experience, and it's really good. I would say the one, two punch coming out of Kona Grill is we're really excited about same-store sales momentum. I think that the new store venue, the new revenues are fantastic coming out of the new units. Obviously, the third item here that we will work on and get strong results is in the margin side. Because when you go to the new restaurants, you'll notice that the kitchens are smaller, the sushi bars are closer to the kitchen so that we don't have as much space allocated to a sushi bar that we really weren't using a lot in the older, older restaurants. The margin profile for those restaurants is significantly high, better, just because the labor costs are dramatically lower, 'cause we do not have 2 kitchens in the restaurant anymore. We have 1 kitchen with a sushi extension, and that will save us several points in margin. The last thing I would say about the new Kona Grill prototypes is we've invested in kitchen technology. A lot of our, well, not a lot, all of our new restaurants that we're building has efficiency, efficient equipment packages that require less people to operate the kitchens and provide better quality products. We're hitting both quality and cost in the long term with the new kitchen layouts and equipment packages. Great. That's very helpful. One last one, if I could just squeeze in. Just in terms of, of some of the digital marketing, anything you can kind of point to that you're really seeing, the success from it, that you're, you know, it's, it's worth it, it's helping, it's driving traffic? Anything you can kind of call out or, or point there? Yeah, I mean, as you know, we've always talked about digital marketing being the, the backbone of, of the company, and we, we, we measure it, you know, with the click-throughs and the, and the end, end results in, in reservations. Frankly, it is a bit variable for STK, and, and so we're, we're super excited about that. That's one of the reasons why we took on more digital. I think our digital model is also evolving from what we used to do, which I'm happy with. We're going more into the influencer, and frankly, we want to gain, gain a market advantage in the influencer. If you look at a lot of our stuff that we do digital, we've, we've gone away from just specifically hitting on, you know, the ads on Instagram and Facebook and stuff. I think that's everybody already does that. Our emphasis now is, is in building integrated influencer networks. You'll see us continue to evolve that strategy, and we're very excited about that. We, we actually did very well with, you know, the that network, with our with our solstice parties, which was off the charts successful. We're, we're super excited about some of the things that we're doing with, with the, the new evolution of digital and influencer in, in the marketing. Again, that's super efficient. You know, the cost, you know, is very measurable. We can track what's actually getting returns, and, we're super, you know, committed to continuing, investing in digital. Yep, appreciate the color. Best of luck, guys. Thank you, sir. The next question comes from David Kanen with Kanen Wealth Management. Please proceed. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. 1st one is in regards to the 2nd half of the year and your guidance. What are the levers or the initiatives that you're deploying to grow comparable sales that you referenced in the prepared, prepared remarks? What are the initiatives that you have underway to drive up restaurant level margin on the cost front? Probably three things. One, I think as Tyler mentioned earlier, the lap is way easier in the third quarter and easier in the fourth quarter relative to where we've been. I think there's a, you know, less swimming upstream relative to traffic. I think that's a favorable item for us. Number two is, I think, as I just mentioned earlier, our continued emphasis on digital, and particularly emphasis in influencer networks and driving that strategy is gonna help with same-store sales. I think we also, you know, are evolving. Well, and we're launching our Neighborhood Perks program, which is basically a digital app where we doing all our local store marketing through digital. That's another layer of newness that we didn't have in, in the past. I think that's gonna be a net add to our business. Then, I think from a margin perspective, just opening the new restaurants right off the shoots, we're moving significant amounts of, of managers off the restaurants to the new boxes. That's gonna, you know, we're gonna benefit on sales with, you know, and the labor is already loaded in, so we, we will get a lot of relief on the margins on the labor side from managers. Then again, just the fact that we've now have rebuilt the talents that we took and put into the training teams, that dramatically helps. I think Tyler mentioned that we're doing operating costs initiatives and everything from paper. We're changing the paper products in the restaurants. I think that'll be an important initiative to save cost. I think Tyler mentioned credit card processing fees. We're doing certain things there to help with those costs. We also have some contract and vendor costs that, you know, that we're just gonna probably stop using outside companies and do the work ourselves. I think just the combination of those items will help. Make no mistake that labor and just the number of bodies on the existing stores and moving them to new restaurants will make the most dramatic part on the margin. Also, remember that Kona Grill now with, you know, same-store sales and pricing will also help the margin for us on the back end. I, I truly believe that the new restaurants with the more efficient kitchen and less fixed labor on them will, will impact that line pretty well. Remember that 3 new units in Kona Grill, which we're about ready to open, the Phoenix one here soon, is over 10% unit growth for the brand. We're, we're bringing in very effective new restaurants with great labor model. Not to mention that the lease costs on these new restaurants is better than the existing portfolio. We're gonna get a margin benefit from having better rents in addition to better labor out of these restaurants. I'm, I'm pretty, pretty comfortable that we have enough items in the margin to, to bring it back up. Okay, that makes sense. Year to date, you spent $24 million on CapEx. You have an aggressive growth plan for the second half of the year. What do you expect the incremental CapEx to be in second half, 2023? Yeah, I mean, that $24 million reflects investment already in a lot of restaurants opening even in the fourth quarter. And in some cases, we, we, we pay for some things already in the first quarter of next year development because, you know, we pay for architectural and permitting and other, you know, we, we order leads items much earlier now because some of these items now take 6, 9, 12 months to get in there. We do a lot more of the capital investment upfront. I think, Tyler, on the capital guidance, what, what are you thinking for the year, the range on the capital? Yeah, David. I, I think the guidance implies something between $35 million and $40 million net. Remember, you know, the 23 is a gross number, so it does not include TI that we've received from landlords, which is several million dollars. The back half of the year, we'll spend $10 million-$16 million versus roughly $24 million in the first half of the year. Therefore, we will generate more significant free cash flow in the second half of the year. Is that safe to say? Yeah, I think, I think that's right. Just from a, the, the math on the CapEx, I think that's right. Remember, that's a, that's a net number. Then from a free cash flow perspective, we do expect positive free cash flow for the back half. Yeah. Also, just from an analysis perspective, we do provide in our 10-Q, a table that shows the TI amounts by quarter, so you kind of can get a perspective on what the actual net investment is on the new restaurant. You can always get down on the net number on that. Okay. In, in your revised guidance, the first half of the year was $19.6 million of EBITDA. The revised guidance is that you'll do $25 million-$30 million, between 25% to roughly a little over 50% if you hit the high end, of EBITDA in the second half of the year, which is good. That's encouraging. My, my question is, exiting the year with the new stores already stood up, the better margins, some of the cost initiatives, what will be the run rate before I know you're gonna probably do another 10 stores next year, but exiting the year, what do you think the run rate is before adding another 10 stores in 2024? I mean, you know, I, I think, again, depending on how they all come off the shoots, but I would say our run rate is north of $55 million, anywhere from $55 million to over $60 million, depending on how the new units come in. If they come as model, closer to $55 million. If they're above model, you know, lack of experience with the new STKs, probably closer to $60 million. Again, we didn't provide formal guidance in there, but it, it's a number closer to, you know, $55 million-$60 million coming at a run rate. Okay. Is, is that reasonable to do an other 10 stores next year in 2024, or is that too aggressive? Well, we have 18 leases, right? We, and of those 18, we have 12 already, you know, under some level of design, construction, or almost done. Again, we will have optionality, obviously, as we get, you know, in the middle of next year, we can always do an audible if we continue the accelerated pace or not. Everything that we see right now is that, you know, the new restaurant volumes have been consistently positive and above model, where, you know, again, you always have to knock on wood when you talk about those things, but we've been above model in the restaurants that we have opened. You know, you can't always anticipate that that will go forever, because, you know, that's not a reasonable expectation. If you look at the quality of the pipeline, these are all super high-quality sites. I mean, we're talking about, you know, Boston, Washington, D.C., Charlotte, Aventura Mall, Topanga. I mean, we're talking some really incredible, strong, real estate, and with the Kona Grill, it's exactly the same thing. We got another great project coming in Desert Ridge in Phoenix, which is a world-class mall. We have, you know, Tigard, Oregon, which is another CenterCal project. I'll tell you, the number one thing that I, I'm super pleased about is that for Kona Grill developments, the 95% of the sites that we have is all landlords. Our landlords want Kona Grill, so you're starting to see a very strong trend here, where some of the super high-quality landlords view the new prototype, and they view what we do with Kona Grill as a definite plus for their projects. It's really encouraging. It's a very strong pipeline. Once again, you know, it's, it's primed. We have a lot of restaurants now ready to go, and it's just a matter of getting the training teams through them now and getting them open. Okay. Just sounds like the prospects for the long haul are very positive. Now, based on CapEx being less in the second half of the year, EBITDA being higher, you, you'll generate, you know, significant free cash flow. You, you have $38 million in cash at the end of the quarter. You've been actively buying back the stock, which I love. However, there's only about, I think, just under $4 million left, $3 million, maybe $3.7 million. And the stock, I'm looking, I don't know if this will sustain itself into tomorrow, but when I look at the stock right now, based on the headline, it's trading down to, like, $6. Given the prospects that you're articulating, the free cash flow, is it, is it safe to say that you will be more aggressive in retiring shares?... in the back half of the year if the stock continues to be weak like this, getting down to $6, or you'll probably kind of move at the same pace, and, and just increase the buyback slightly? Yeah, I mean, I think probably the way for me to answer that question is, we'll continue focusing on growth and… Please hold. It appears that our speaker line has dropped. Okay. Excuse me, everyone, this is the operator. We are not able to get the speaker line back at this time, and this does end the question and answer session and the call for today. I would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.