Today we’d like to introduce you to Todd Hyatt.
Todd, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
While there were some existing beach and tiki bars, we wanted to distinguish ourselves from them to create a place where people can escape the cold Chicago weather and experience Florida’s sunny, warm vibes. We also recognized how much people enjoyed karaoke, so we set out to do it better than anyone else. We focused it on fun. While we do enjoy skilled singers, we encourage people to get up, let loose and have a great time singing their favorite songs.
It’s an absolute honor to us when people come in and enjoy their experience. Chicago is full of options, and when they choose to visit our vision of fun, it brings us a lot of joy to offer people a good time.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Our biggest challenge is to maintain and deliver the best possible customer service. We take every review to heart, and if we receive a bad one, we actively review it and our processes to improve the customer experience to ensure everyone has a great time at Trader Todd’s.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Trader Todd’s – what should we know?
Trader Todd’s is an authentic pan-tropical themed restaurant that offers great times through pan-tropical food, festive tiki drinks and no-frills karaoke. We are proud to be known as a fun party spot in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. We are Chicago’s connection to paradise.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Our biggest contributor to our success are our customers and employees. Everything we do is to bring our customers an enjoyable experience. We also try to inspire our employees, and one way we do this is by taking our entire staff on vacation to Southwest Florida every spring. This helps build employee loyalty and provides a great atmosphere to strengthen the bonds between our staff. Another piece to our success can be attributed to our friend, Don ‘Ogre’ Gibb, who played Ogre in Revenge of the Nerds and other various roles. In 2001, we worked on various business projects together, and eventually he helped us launch Trader Todd’s. He assisted us with building the brand and launching it. His notoriety boosted our brand recognition and put us on the map for our initial success.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3216 N. Sheffield Chicago, IL 60657
- Website: https://www.tradertodd.com/
- Phone: (773) 348-3250
- Email: info@tradertodd.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tradertodds_chicago/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tradertodds
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TraderTodds
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/trader-todds-chicago
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
