BRINGS THE Firebirds HEAT

BY DANNY KLEIN

FIREBIRDS WOOD FIRED GRILL CEO Steve Kislow wouldn’t exactly refer to the pandemic as a “good thing” for restaurants. Most full-service brands shed 90-plus percent of their business within literal hours. But the afterglow proved a lot different than the aftershock. “The disruption and the change in consumer behavior that happened as a result allowed us to shine,” Kislow says, speaking from the 23-yearold chain’s new Charlotte, North Carolina, headquarters. ¶ The Firebirds leaping from COVID’s crater is healthier, stronger, and with loftier average-unit volumes than ever. The reality is, Kislow says, it’s simply a different brand than it was in 2019. Just look around HQ. x

FILET AND SHRIMP, AND AN EXAMPLE OF HOW FIREBIRDS CONTINUES TO ELEVATE ITS APPROACH.

Up front, Firebirds has a lobby designed to serve two virtual brands— Fireburger and Noodles & Greens—to customers in the surrounding market. There’s a shiny, fully equipped test kitchen—complete with the brand’s signature FIREBAR—to fulfill orders, from virtual to catering, as well as test and refine what’s fast become an evolved culinary approach (more on this later).

It's a space capable of accentuating what the pandemic uncovered. “We’ve got an incredibly bright and creative team,” Kislow says. “And during that time, I think this team did things that maybe would never have thought of doing before, whether it was virtual restaurants, family meals, holidays feasts—there’s just so many new ideas that came up that, pre2020, we probably would have looked at somebody like they were crazy.”

This torrent has become a familiar COVID theme for restaurants. Innovation cycles sped up as dine-in’s exit forced operators to meet guests in fresh channels. However, where Firebirds continues to separate, Kislow says, is in its ability to continue setting new inflections. Where a lot of brands fizzled on initiatives as COVID entered the rearview, Firebirds keeps raising the bar. “Over these last three years, the aggressive nature of which we attack the business has allowed us to gain market share while others eroded it,” Kislow says.

It's a multi-faceted point, and one that ties as much to Firebirds’ DNA as its transformation. Kislow, a former GM at Morton’s The Steakhouse who joined Firebirds in 2003, is an operator to his core who watched the brand grow up over the years. On a Monday night in February, dining at the original Stonecrest location in Charlotte, the lobby is stuffed with patrons. Kislow points out how the dine-in experience, which returned in force, hasn’t lost any of its luster. Less visible than virtual brands and other pivots, Firebirds spent much of the past three years learning how to blend technology and innovation with hospitality, and not swing the pendulum too far on the former’s side. The restaurant is operating more efficiently, but the customer isn’t exactly let in on the secret.

“How to make that dance and make operations better,” Kislow says. “Yet still, the guest doesn’t necessarily walk out feeling like they were just served by a robot.”

Let’s rewind. In the early innings of the pandemic, Firebirds, like countless others, stood up make-shift drive-thrus in parking lots so people could pull up in their cars and have employees bring food out and drop it wherever asked. Stephen Loftis, Firebirds’ chief brand officer, got in line and personally worked shifts. The brand started selling cut steaks and seasoned beef for customers to take home and grill themselves. That’s still a business for Firebirds, namely as summer approaches, and curbside has held in as well, Loftis says. But it was always a task of guarding synergy and trying to maintain what the brand stood for.

“One of the challenges coming out of COVID is we have this tremendous experience people come to Firebirds for,” Loftis says. “How do you continue to parlay that externally?”

Firebirds took some operational steps and adjusted, and then connected with Flybuy. The platform creates a dashboard where Firebirds can see incoming orders in one place—previously, staff had to keep track of different tablets for delivery and takeout. Now, they’d receive location updates and audio/visual alerts when the guest or delivery driver approached the restaurant, and automatic prompts for the guest or courier as soon as they arrive.

Out of the gate, Firebirds saw wait times as low as 30 seconds and increased repeat visits. It also cut down carbon emissions by 11,857g each month by keeping cars from idling in the parking lot. Additionally, Firebirds reduced throwaways and food spoilage since the kitchen could prepare and throttle orders to pickup times versus trying to make food in advance. Flybuy helps keep lobbies clear, and Firebirds trains delivery service providers—it’s fully integrated with DoorDash and Uber Eats—to use the system as well.

“They get a text message and then they can track their order,” says Christine Lorusso, Firebirds’ senior director of digital marketing. “It’s really streamlined the process.”

Overall, there’s a queue, not unlike you’d see at a Panera bread, where Firebirds assigns an employee to helm takeaway and facilitate the business so it doesn’t sag dine-in and muddy either experience. There’s dedicated space in stores for Firebirds to “draw the line in the sand,” Kislow says.

“When you understand how to make the technology dance, you can make sure that from 7 to 8 on a Saturday night, it’s turned down a little bit,” he says. “Then it’s turned back up on the shoulders where you have more capacity.”

One of reasons Firebirds’ hasn’t let off the gas owes to a fortuitous bit of planning. To-go comprised a “very small” portion of the chain’s business in 2019. But Kislow says leadership was ready to bet on it. So it partnered with DSPs, Olo, and set infrastructure in motion. Firebirds was deliberate with each step. Then, March 2020 arrived, and the chain’s goals were washed over by a tsunami. The idea was to get somewhere between 15–20 percent of sales and mirror category leaders, or chains focused on lifting the dollars more so than just percentages. “Obviously,” Kislow says, “we had no idea we were going to get to 100 percent really fast.”

And even as dine-in returned, it’s stuck, right in that 15–20 percent of net sales Firebirds originally outlined. Kislow credits getting ahead of the beehive. When the pandemic clamped the sector, many of the solutions powering off-premises didn’t have the bandwidth to take all the calls coming in. Not right away, at least. Every brand, regardless of cuisine or service model, needed a digital footprint and access to channels to get food to customers.

“We talk about timing, our timing in 2019 was such that we set this all up,” Kislow says. “And when the rocket ship took off, we were there. Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good.”

That’s when evolution erupted. Firebirds started adding menu categories, like small plates and weekend brunch, when competitors had to shrink offerings as they scrambled. As much as any- thing, Kislow says, it’s where Firebirds began to grab market share through 2020 and 2021. It ramped up as others tried to regroup.

An illuminating stat is Firebirds’ frequency. The brand was a roughly six-times-a-year brand for customers pre-virus. Today, it’s 10-plus times a calendar, Kislow says. Firebirds gave diners more reasons to engage. Family meals. Feasts. To-go. “None of those things are taking away from the core dining experience,” he reiterates. “They’re still coming just as many times for that, but now, they’re coming for different reasons as well.”

For instance, a guest who tapped Firebirds for takeout when they had no other option during COVID came back to the dining room once they could. But they also now had an experience in their back pocket they might not have realized existed before. Semantics aside, Firebirds introduced itself though more means than ever. And those threads aren’t slipping away.

All along, Firebirds never lost sight of its dine-in equity. The brand looked at a pay-atthe-table device in 2019 but decided against it because “the devices looked like big, oversized calculators,” Kislow says.

“And even that, to me, it just didn’t feel like a polished experience,” he says. “… We’ve resisted in a lot of ways because I think the moment a computer comes to the table, it’s guest facing. I prefer those things to stay happening in the background, whether it’s Flybuy or OpenTable [the platform Firebirds uses for reservations].”

All of this isn’t to suggest Firebirds hasn’t paid heed to where the tech puck is headed. It’s collecting data and finding ways to leverage it, like others. But it’s always cognizant of guest experience. “It’s creepy for me to know you have a Basset hound, but it’s cool that I know you like Manhattans,” Kislow says, speaking to a writer who does, indeed, have a Basset hound. “So is there a way to get the right data to utilize, and then how do you teach the employees how to use it correctly?”

Firebirds’ Inner Circle program promises customers a chance to become “a Firebirds’ insider.” It informs of events, promotions, new menu items (like an upcoming summer menu, etc.), and exclusive offers. What it doesn’t do, Lorusso explains, is discount. “We’re up to 1.3 million people who are highly engaged, and we don’t offer them anything other than information,” she says. Still, each time Firebirds sends an email to this base, it sees a spike in sales and traffic. “It’s the most loyal and engaged guest we have,” Lorusso says. Firebirds wields data like a key to a VIP vault. It doesn’t need to pulse deals through the funnel because its loyal customers favor experience over value-seeking. That latter cohort isn’t Firebirds’ core user to begin with.

“It’s never been about discounting or rewarding to us, it’s been about recognition,” Loftis says. Firebirds segments its audience, on the marketing side and within restaurants. Ultimately, that means having a guest profile where the brand understands preferences and can deliver. “We know he’s a Manhattan lover,” Loftis says. “His wife’s a vegetarian. His birthday is next week. We cater that experience to you and your family. That’s the goal for us.”

Firebirds is also in the process of redoing its website and revamping online ordering. It will allow the brand to save order history and streamline steps; reduce clicks to checkout and, similar to Inner Circle, provide a customized approach that feels intuitive.

Many of Firebirds’ efforts are being driven by guest feedback. Lorusso and Jordan Jennings, the brand’s marketing coordinator, mine Sprout Social as a listening tool and monitor engagement across all platforms. “I try to respond to every one,” Jennings says of reviews. Even if it’s negative (or insensible), she’ll offer a response with a way to get in touch.