I Know A Place: Gusto! W/ Nate Hybl
Season 3: Episode 3
One of the spectacular parts of life is enjoying the way that foods harmonize with each other. God forbid I ever become one of those individuals who can’t have their peas touching their mashed potatoes on the plate. I’ve always felt as though the perfect meal resides in a bowl. A complex concoction of textures, colors, flavors, and the like. There’s been a shift in American culture within the past few years, where the average eater is becoming more health-conscious than ever, but as per usual, the pace at which we often move doesn’t help with that. Thankfully, there’s a bowl spot born out of Atlanta called Gusto! This spot exists with a focus on fast and healthy options, rather than your everyday fast food fill. Founded by Nate Hybl, the former starting QB of the Oklahoma Sooners, Gusto! sets the tone for fast-paced, locally owned healthy eating. After football, Nate found a passion for food while unable to find something that fit his ever-changing lifestyle within athletics. Instead of waiting for someone else to put together what was missing, he stepped up and started Gusto! to provide people with the same standard of health and wellness for the fast-paced life of living and working in a city. I sat down with Nate to talk about his story and the story of Gusto!
The Place: Gusto!
1. What’s the story?
2. What does Gusto! mean?
3. What makes you unique?
4. What’s your Gusto?
5. What is Medical Mondays?
What’s the story of Gusto!?
After the last recession, I went through a major life change. I've been an athlete most of my life, but was looking for what was next. “What am I meant to do on this planet?” I kept asking myself. See, when you're an athlete and you've been on that path for, say, 20, 25 years, if you haven't made any preparatory plans, you could really wander around lost. I had found myself at the bottom of the barrel. I mean, I had no money and no direction. So there were a few years post-athletics where I searched for all kinds of “normal” jobs, and somewhere in there, I just realized, “You know what? I’m not sure that I want to have a normal job.” I think that comes from my strong independence, but ultimately, I had a huge creative bone that I needed to scratch that I hadn't since I was a young boy.
I had always been a pretty healthy eater, and as I looked around Atlanta, where there wasn’t really much of a “healthy, fast, casual” scene. So I got this kind of a tornado of an idea that I couldn't shake out of my head, not knowing where I wanted to go, and just being deeply curious about food, brand identity, what’s healthy, and what is fast-casual. So I started studying some cool brands around the country because other cities had these things, but Atlanta had yet to establish it.
Once I had the stupid, blind, dumb courage to chase this thing, the ego's gone, money's gone, I drove a little busted white minivan, I was all in. In the early days, during some of my due diligence sessions, I asked myself, “What’s your passion? What catches your eye? What is your vibe? What is the juice? What is the oomph?” Then I just kind of uttered, “What's your gusto?” and that was kind of the beginning.
Our definition of Gusto! is- “Vitality marked by an abundance of passion.” I think it's aptly named because I was seeking how to execute “vitality for customers,” and anybody who meets me isn’t going to say that I have a shortage of passion. After about four years of R&D, I raised $600,000, and we opened on November 1, 2014, with Gusto! number one off of Peachtree, and now it’s ten years later.
What does Gusto! mean?
There are a lot of books out there that talk about “What is your why?” I think one of the toughest things for me along my journey has been trying to unwind my personal purpose and the “whys” from the brand. For example, our origins were built around discovery, curiosity, and pushing Southerners toward global ingredients. There were plenty of moments where I thought that was the thing.
Then, after about three, four, five, or so years, I began settling on a purpose of “existing to help people thrive.” We want to be fuel for people. This world is hard, and it beats you down as soon as you wake up in the morning, and so we see Gusto! nowadays, as a place of life-giving food and good energy.
Your mission is what you do all day, every day, and so our mission is to refuel our world with life-giving food and good energy. By doing so, our food needs to be nutritious and offer vitality and be a bright spot to your day. Life-giving food is harder to do, and we also train staff so that their job is to lift you up with good energy and be a positive catalyst for your day. I think it’s about inspiring. We want to deliver that experience all day, every day.
What makes Gusto! unique?
Big flavor that comes from authentic, real, fresh ingredients, and an easy experience. It's still, “What's your base? What's your protein? What's your Gusto?” So speed, ease, and convenience are a part of the value. We want to be Atlanta's bowl brand. A brand that the community's proud of. Ultimately, what makes us unique is using real, whole food that’s hand-prepared. We do that via globally inspired ingredients, offering a simple order process, and getting it to you quickly.
What’s your Gusto?
It’s always changing, but right now, my favorite is a rice bowl with double spicy chicken, tahini, and cucumber feta. But last week, about three times, I had the half-and-half with our crispy panko chicken and the Polynesian chili mango.
What is Medical Mondays?
For all of our locations that are near hospitals, we have a buy one, get one free every Monday, called “Medical Monday.” That was just born out of generosity. A lot of medical professionals are in a hurry, and we love them and we appreciate them. So we want to do this solid for them. It's been wildly popular, but Gusto! Peachtree and Gusto! Decatur only, for our medical communities.
The Person: Nate Hybl
1. Who is Nate?
2. From Football Player to Chef
3. What keeps you fueled?
4. “Don’t Be Afraid To Be Great!” - Bob Stoops
5. Life Beyond Gusto!
Who is Nate?
You know, I'm still trying to figure it out. My parents are from Newton, Iowa. I grew up in a little town in South Georgia called Hazlehurst. There’s about three stoplights there. I love South Georgia. It's a big part of who I am. I went to school at the University of Oklahoma, so a part of my heart and soul is out in Norman. That's Boomer Sooner-land. I played for the Cleveland Browns and the Jacksonville Jaguars. I've lived in a bunch of different places but have called Atlanta home for the last 15 years, and Gusto's been around for 10. So I'm part Southern, part Midwestern, part wannabe farmer, part wannabe cowboy, part wannabe rancher. I'm still trying to figure that out, but now that I have a family and two boys, it's not just me anymore.
I think a big key to the puzzle for me in knowing who I am was also taking the Enneagram later in life. It's not voodoo, it's not religion; it’s just a personality test. A big part of who I am is that I believe that if you have the courage and if your situation allows you, you should understand who you are at your core. Asking the question “Who are you? What makes you tick? What is your passion?” We're all passionate about something. That doesn't mean you have to go be an entrepreneur and make a business out of it. But I think you've got to know what gives you the juice. We all have “the thing,” and that's the beautiful part. Some of my teammates have stamp collections. Some of them are going to be engineers to build for NASA, while some are going to be in the culinary world. But a big part of my journey is just self-awareness, to be honest.
I'm 6’4" and 235 lbs, so I think I'm a little misunderstood, usually. Because my true self is that I'm an artist. I love classical music. I love colors and shapes. And I'm very attune to sights, smells, and sounds. So the first thing is that I’m passionate about pushing people to be willing to be truthful with themselves. Then, the second part that I encourage is to walk through that fire. To walk through that fire beyond discovery and growth. I've been on that journey and still am. I'm still trying to figure out who I am, but I'm much more true to myself than I’ve ever been, and thank God in heaven, I discovered that through a lot of friends, family, help, and prayer.
How did cooking become a thing for you?
I didn't see it coming. I think the original idea was more business-related. That started with me dabbling in my own kitchen. I had this idea but had zero chops. The artist in me fell in love with how there are a hundred different kinds of vinegar. The same is true when it comes to herbs, vegetables, fruits, Southwestern cuisine, Mediterranean, and Asian. I was just trying to corral all these context clues into what was going to become our product. But as far as the origination goes, I look back, and these are kind of the romantic years for me. I looked like a mad scientist in the kitchen. It was a mess. I didn't know how to hold a freaking knife. Hell, I didn't know what a whisk was for, seriously. I had no idea how vinegar and oil react.
So I've been on the adventure of a lifetime, every day re-falling in love with food, which is both art and a science, frankly, and I’m now in the kitchen more than I've ever been.
But a big part of my story was that I kind of got lost in the sauce. I saw a path and a yearning for something original, so I just went after it. I wasted a ton of money and time, but the process was fun.
What keeps you fueled?
I get a lot of fuel from collaboration with our leaders. I love being on a team. It gets me in trouble sometimes because sometimes somebody's just got to make a decision. I read a lot of books. I listen to a lot of music. I need quiet time, but I also get my juice in the trenches of life with other people. One of my oddities is that I love magazines. I love Architectural Digest. I love the GQs and all of that. I get a lot of inspiration, peace, and soul-quenching curiosities, questions, answers, and notes from magazines because they're often beautiful to me.
Coach Bob Stoops once told you, “Don’t be afraid to be great.” How does that play out for you now?
I think it's an internal battle that I've been facing, and it’s not the same for everybody. I'm not gonna get out there and tell everybody they need to go be President of the United States, to win a Heisman trophy, or whatever, because that's just not reality. Everybody can make a difference in the world and have a meaningful life. So I think that for me, not being afraid to be great, the reason that is woven its way into my story is that I wasn't great enough as a college quarterback, for myself.
Maybe I was for society, maybe I was for family, but not for me personally. Whether that’s right, wrong, or indifferent, my expectations weren't lived up to. I felt like there was more, and when Coach Stoops sat me down in an empty stadium after practice one day, I think what he was saying was, “You have greatness in you. Get out of your own way.”
Gusto! was a chance for me to be ridiculously courageous, to throw caution to the wind. There is a particular type of crazy to jump off the cliff between an idea and making it a reality. I'm honestly still trying to digest what I think Coach Stoops meant when he said that and why that matters. Because being great, maybe nowadays, looks more like being the best husband and father that I can be. I think as I've matured and gotten enough coaching and enough love around me over the years, and enough of what I like to call “guardian angels,” my definition of great has been continually evolving.
What’s life like outside of Gusto?
Nowadays, I love grocery shopping with my two little boys and teaching them about food. It's truly like an adventure. I’m always asking them constant questions like, “What is this? What is this smell? What does this taste like?” I truly have a fundamental belief that most people like most things. They're just scared to try. I grew up hating mushrooms and tomatoes for about 30 years of my life, and now I can't live without them! I'm a walking testimony of “be willing, and things can change.”
My peace right now is in the kitchen with my family, listening to the Bluey soundtrack or Mickey Mouse while dancing and being silly. I would say beyond that, just being in nature. I'm a big hiker as well, and I believe that submersing myself in nature is the fastest way to humility.
Recommendations:
1. How did you Reinvent Yourself?
2. On Field Lessons (Let it Loose)
3. Lessons in the Kitchen (Communication Is Key)
Tips for reinventing yourself.
It's not so much about reinventing, but more about self-awareness. I think that for most humans, a reinvention is a reset on who their natural person is. Who are they in their heart? What makes their clock tick? So I think it starts with true, honest self-awareness. We all have these light bulbs or these moments of electricity. So, for me, I'd flip the word reinventing into “reigniting.” Let's have as many people walking around with the juice and the light bulb turned on.
It's so sad to think about people that are just going through life, and then they wake up one day, they're 65 and they’ve never lived on fire or with purpose, and I'm here to encourage people in that. So it starts with finding those things that make you tick. Now, what you do with it is up to you. I was just a crazy guy who decided to turn it into a business in one of the hardest industries on the planet, but that's what I want people to start looking for.
What’s the most valuable lesson that you learned on the field?
Let it loose. Easier said than done. I think what Coach Stoops was trying to tell me was, like I said before, “Get out of your own way.”
When I go back and look at games or film or anything, you figure out a way to let yourself loose. Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray both played at Oklahoma, as well. These guys figured out a way to have fun and enjoy themselves, and let it loose. That also meant they may have thrown three interceptions, but they’ve figured out a way to rationalize that and not let it beat them up. Now, I’m not Brett Favre. I'm not going to let it loose like that, but the one thing I learned was trying to figure out a way to get comfortable in the uncomfortable. I think that's a lifelong pursuit of mine, trying to get comfortable in the uncomfortable. In football, the uncomfortable is the arena. You've got 110,000 people yelling for you or booing you, with the added millions on TV. I think the best athletes are the ones who have figured out a way to get out of their own way.
What is the most valuable lesson that you’ve learned in the kitchen?
I would say the most valuable and the most fun lesson I learned in the kitchen was all about communication. In the kitchen, there are sizzles, bangs, and booms, and people are talking, yelling, and using code words. This also applies to athletics. We have our own language. If I read you a play from the Cleveland Browns playbook, you'd be like, “Oh my god, that's a mouthful.” Everything in life is about communication, but it was so eye-opening to me when I got into the kitchen and they were saying things like “corner, hot, behind, and heard.”
I love the communication from the mouth, the eyes, and the body language. There are so many things, and it's all about being on a team, but I think being a great communicator obviously translates to almost everything in life. It helps with marriage, family, or any team you've ever been on. I got baptized in a whole new language when I jumped into kitchens, and I don't mean Spanish, but that was one of them, too. But a language of how to move and how to take care of each other and how to basically say, “I got you” without actually saying, “I got you” in this loud, moving, dynamic, crazy-ass environment. That was cool and kind of symphonic to me.
So then ask yourself, “What’s your Gusto?”
Let is loose, baby.
Great read! I tried this place a couple of days ago - so great to hear the story. I’ll be coming back!