For a restaurant manager, nothing is more terrifying than a loud bang in the dining room. In the silence that follows the boom, the general manager rushes to the scene, anxiously wondering if it's something minor, like a dropped tray, or something more serious, like a damaged chair or an injured guest.
A few years ago, the management team at RG locations across the country began to notice problems with their restaurant chairs. "We suddenly noticed a decline in chair quality," explains David Knighton, RG's Vice President of Operations. "The chairs started cracking, breaking, and wobbling. Some even collapsed!"
The restaurant quickly replaced the chairs, but the new ones continued to break. After some investigation, the corporate office discovered the problem: although the chairs were originally made in Brazil, the manufacturer had cut corners and moved manufacturing to China. Since then, the quality and durability of the chairs have declined.
RG's corporate office didn't want to send guests away upset, nor did they want to continue wasting money on flimsy chairs. "So, that's when we said, 'Well, there are plenty of other chairs on the market,'" David says. "Let's find some chairs with really sturdy frames."
David and Leandro found a chair from JSLOVE and customized it to create the perfect dining chairs for Rodizio Grill. "We wanted a commercial-grade chair that looked great but was affordable enough that we could buy a few hundred without breaking our budget," David explained. "That's what we found at JSLOVE."
"Working with JSLOVE was a pleasure," David said. He explained their needs and received a sample chair from JSLOVE a few weeks later. He then outlined a series of adjustments to give the chair an authentic Brazilian look and feel. "We imported stitched leather fabric from Brazil for the seat," David said. "We enhanced the profile, added extra padding to the seat, chose the stain... and we did it! It was exactly what we wanted."
The chairs and barstools they chose are part of JSLOVE's Ila collection. Thanks to easy customization options, David and Leandro achieved the look, feel, and style RG desired at an affordable price. Just as importantly, the new JSLOVE chairs are durable and designed to last for years. Made in North America from 100% beech hardwood, they feature mortise and tenon joints and come with a 12-year warranty.
"We had a lot of problems with our old chairs," says Ramon Anisio, General Manager of RG in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He previously worked at RG in Denver and loved the new JSLOVE chairs. After transferring to the Milwaukee location and working with the old, fragile chairs for a few months, he remodeled and placed a large order with JSLOVE to replace all the chairs with new ones.
"When the order arrived, I saw all the boxes and thought, 'Oh no, this will take two or three days to assemble.' But we opened the boxes and they were all assembled! ... They were ready to go." Ramon says it's a relief not to have to worry about the chairs breaking or customers complaining. "We're very happy with the quality of these [JSLOVE] chairs," Ramon says.
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