QSR #288 February 2022

AMERICA’S HOTTEST FAST CASUALS ARE GOING BIG IN 2022.

BRAND STORIES FROM QSR

QSR’s

EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, FOOD NEWS MEDIA: Danny Klein danny@qsrmagazine.com

MANAGING EDITOR, FOOD NEWS MEDIA: Nicole Duncan nicole@qsrmagazine.com

DIRECTOR OF CUSTOM CONTENT: Peggy Carouthers peggy@qsrmagazine.com

CUSTOM CONTENT ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Charlie Pogacar charlie@qsrmagazine.com

CONTENT EDITOR: Ben Coley ben@qsrmagazine.com

STAFF WRITER: Trevor Griner Trevor@qsrmagazine.com

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42 New Menu, New Look Have Bar Louie Surging Forward The 30-year-old brand is pacing $6 million in 2021 sales at a recently opened location. SPONSORED BY BAR LOUIE 44 bb.q Chicken

Aiming

These Iconic Brands

Perfected the Off-Premises Game Next up: a robust redesign, inside and out.

SPONSORED BY CHECKERS AND RALLY’S

52

The 1,200-unit Royalty-Free Brand Chester’s Chicken is dominating the C-store and supermarket space. Now Chester’s wants to expand its horizons. SPONSORED BY CHESTER’S INTERNATIONAL

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What “Taco Life” Means to Chronic Tacos The Southern California brand’s organic model has proved to travel well. SPONSORED BY CHRONIC TACOS

56

Detroit Wing Co. Poised for Major Growth With a perfected takeout-only model, the award-winning brand ramps up expansion.

SPONSORED BY DETROIT WING CO.

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The Beloved Brand Reimagining Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Edible ® is a case study on how to stay relevant in the foodservice business. SPONSORED BY EDIBLE

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The Human Bean is People First The coffee franchise is laser-focused on growing its values alongside its brand. SPONSORED BY THE HUMAN BEAN

Not Your Average Sandwich Shop How Lennys plans to become a major player in the sub sandwich segment.

SPONSORED BY LENNYS

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Trailblazer Pokéworks Wants to “Dominate” Category

It Helped Define The 61-unit brand is looking for multi-unit franchise partners. SPONSORED BY POKÉWORKS

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The Fast-Growing Franchise Aiming to Eliminate Coffee Deserts Targeting 200+ openings this year, Scooter’s Coffee ramps up franchise opportunities. SPONSORED BY SCOOTER’S COFFEE

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MADNESS

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EXECUTIVES OF THE 500 LARGEST COMPANIES listed on the S&P 500 market index had new favorite word in 2021: “journey.” As reported by Bloomberg News, the word spiked by 70 percent year-over-year on conference calls amongst executives. And 2021 was quite the journey in the restaurant franchising space. Fresh out of lockdowns that left ample time to hit the reset button and ponder the future, it seems new crop of entrepreneurial-minded people had motivation like never before to take control of their own destinies, whether that meant dipping their toes into the franchising space for the first time or expanding portfolio. In the following pages, you’ll hear more about where the franchising industry is headed. This year’s Restaurant Franchising spotlights 15 different brands that are excited about the future. After a turbulent couple of years, stands to reason that the brands still in growth mode are doing something right. Now they’re looking for franchisees who are enthusiastic about helping grow their concept and wherever that journey might take them. 42 Bar Louie 44 bb.q 46 Beyond Juicery Eatery 48 Bonchon 50 Checkers and Rally’s 52 Chester’s International 56 Detroit Wing Co 58 Edible 60 The Human Bean 62 Lenny 64 Pokeworks 66 Scooter’s Co ee 68 Teriyaki Madness Vitality Bowls 2022 POKÉWORKS bb.q 2 FEBRUARY 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com

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FOOD NEWS MEDIA PROPERTIES

A NextGen World Emerges

Well before COVID-19 accepted an invite to a party it was never invited to, there was a statistic shaping the future of foodservice. Off-premises sales scaled at nearly four times the rate of dine-in business, according to Rabobank. This, of course, presented major implications for restaurants. But none clearer than the blurring of segment lines.

Like many trends, the pandemic tossed Pop Rocks into a soda bottle. Firstly, consider how ubiquitous drivethru has become. Fast casuals and brands across America can now view a consumer’s phone as a potential menuboard. In a connected digital world, is curbside less convenient? Is ordering ahead and picking up off a shelf slower than queuing in line with other cars? What about pickup windows? As you’ll see in our fast casual 3.0 story (P. 32) the answer to these points is hardly uniform. And that’s bringing the quick-service world closer together, not further apart. It’s true from the flip side as well. The largest fast-food brands are paying more attention to personalization, purpose, and accessibility than ever.

Further, inflation has jostled the price part of this debate. How different does a Shake Shack meal cost today versus the premium tier of a major quick serve’s menu? But let’s not forget about full service. Fast casual’s disruption was not limited to fast food. The category burst forward from two angles—the fact it promised fast-food convenience but with higher-quality product, and the reverse notion of offering casual-dining quality food at a quick-service price. As the first statistic shows, full-service dining was ceding share to fast casual for some time. Eighty percent of restaurants’ U.S. dollar sales growth over the last three years

came away from the dining room.

In recent years, however, and especially over the past 20 months, the effect on sit-down brands has started to crystalize. Brands are taking fast-casual elements, like elevated décor, focused menus, environments and marketing that caters to younger crowds, and anchoring them with experience elements and bar programs difficult to compete with. Here’s a quote from full-serve Condado Tacos CEO Chris Artinian: “I think over the last several years, what’s been important in our industry is a focused menu—clean, fresh, craveable—and in a manageable box. … We bring the perfect sort of balance of speed if you want more of a fastcasual experience. So given our focused menu in being built for quality and speed, we’ve been able to meet this interesting need with the emergence of fast casual, but still [meet consumers’ ] desire for experience.”

In that push is a group of concepts we’ve taken to calling “NextGen Casual” at our sister publication, FSR. The future of full-service dining, as inspired by fast casual. This is relevant not just to traditional sit-down concepts and newcomers, but also to quick-service brands. If for no other reason than there’s a clear attempt by another, rising segment to lure the same group of customers away. NextGen is built on the ability to meet the technology and convenience needs of today’s diners, yet coupled with everything counter service gives up by not having servers. And so, a new battleground forms out of COVID. One that could change everything (again).

Danny Klein, Editorial Director

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craft beverage choices without the full bar.

Creators Take Charge

SHORT ORDER

VIRTUAL DINING CONCEPTS launched TikTok Kitchen in mid-December 2021, a partnership with the short-form video platform that’s found its way into quick-service marketing in recent years. The menu was inspired by the hottest viral food trends on TikTok, an extremely popular category on its own. The platform provides a space for creators to post food videos, from innovative recipes to cooking hacks, and this content is responsible for “hundreds of millions of views,” the company says. TikTok Kitchen’s offerings will celebrate these creators while offering restaurants across the country the opportunity to opt-in and become a market partner. Proceeds from TikTok Kitchen sales will go to support the creators who inspired the menu item, and to encourage and assist others to express themselves on the platform. As with all VDC concepts (think MrBeast), TikTok Kitchen menu items are fully tested in advance. Once approved, restaurants will receive the training materials, recipes, packaging, and more.

TikTok as a virtual restaurant brand?

TikTok has more than a billion users, and now it has a virtual concept for that massive network to tap into.

This past calendar was a year in flux for restaurant

Yet one positive turn is COVID conditions and digital growth introduced a wave of new consumers to brands. And for personalize experience in ways they never could before. The cross-section of technology and marketing made the industry, to some extent, a more connected arena than ever. According to marketing research consumers ate out, or ordered food, “BrandVue Eating Out Platform,” which gleans consumer insight from more than list of the “Most Loved Eating Out Brands of the year.

The Top 10: Category leaders:

. Chick-fil-A

. Starbucks Krispy Kreme Roadhouse

ASIAN:

BURGER:

CAFE ’ OR BAKERY:

CHICKEN:

FAMILY STYLE:

FROZEN DESSERTS:

ITALIAN OR PIZZA:

MEXICAN:

SANDWICH:

5. In-N-Out Burger

6. Dunki

7. Olive Garde

8. McDo

9. The Cheesecak Factory

10. Raising C

CHICK-FIL-A STANLEY LEARY, DUNKIN’, McDONALD’S, RAISING CANE’S

freshideas The Bar is Back

Even if the pandemic stopped in-person dining in its tracks, it was quite the time for drinking. And restaurants raced to capitalize with to-go cocktails and drink mixes.

Now, even as new variants muddy matters, demand for socialized drinking has made a visible comeback.

Austin, Texas-based Hopdoddy Burger Bar, for one, is seeing full bars. Although geographic markets somewhat vary, guests are embracing communal gatherings they missed during months of COVID restrictions. It’s not a relic of a prior time—people want to come to a bar and engage in conversation with friends or a bartender or even a stranger, says Hopdoddy CEO Jeff Chandler.

Granted, liquor, beer, and wine service has been a hallmark of Hopdoddy since day one. It’s built into the name. The fast casual was designed as a “perfect union” between burgers and beer, Chandler says. The bar is at the center of restaurants, physically

and figuratively, and guests have appreciated that coming out of COVID.

“I think one of the things that COVID has taught a lot of people is that they value people,” Chandler says. “They value communal interactions, and I think we have seen success in really embracing that and fostering that in a safe way, as people feel more and more comfortable dining out and dining in crowded restaurants.”

The renewed social push for alcohol has also unfolded at California-based Dog Haus, which started 11 years ago with only three beers on tap and then quickly flourished as Dog Haus Biergarten. The alcohol shift carried the brand forward, and 14 of the next 15 openings will be as biergartens, with more than 30 beers on tap alongside cocktail offerings.

“We were part of the ghost kitchen scene during the pandemic as well, which was great,” Dog Haus founding partner André Vener

As the pandemic altered consumer behavior, more restaurants began offering alcohol to-go. But they’ve also seen an increase in alcohol demand as consumers want to come together post-COVID.

BY SUZANNE BLAKE

Hopdoddy Burger Bar has found a way to take the bar to guests, inside and outside restaurants.

says. “And it’s continuing to do well, but we never stopped building Biergartens.” And as the pandemic looms in the rearview, more and more customers are embracing the bar again.

“A lot of people have already had their booster shots, and they’re ready to catch up on what they missed out over the past 18 or 20 months now,” Vener adds.

Cheba Hut Toasted Subs, a cannabis-themed sandwich brand, tacked on bars 15 years ago. Nowadays, it’s seen as part of Cheba Hut’s DNA, says Chief Relationship Officer Seth Larsen. It’s been a way to differentiate the sandwich brand as a restaurant that’s not a full sit-down concept or a place where the counter-service nature prevents guests from socializing over a cocktail or two.

There are various benefits to that approach, Larsen says. Cheba Hut’s sandwich competitors largely don’t boast bars, and offering drinks eliminates veto votes from guests who want a drink alongside their dinner. Cheba Hut’s bars are also unique in the fact even the highest-volume ones can still execute sales with only a single bartender, Larsen says. Additionally, the majority of Cheba Hut’s sales come in after 2 P M This is an uncommon dinner daypart feat for a place selling mostly sandwiches. The progression of alcohol in quick service charts an evolution in consumer behavior. The typical guest might not want to commit a large period of time to go out and eat, but they still desire benefits that come with “genuine hospitality,” like alcohol, Larsen says.

Just because food is fast no longer means it can (or should) lack in quality. People want higher quality meals at fast-casual restaurants, not just at their full-service, fine-dining competitors, Vener notes. And with elevated taste often comes adult beverage pairings. “I think people are turning fast-casual locations into their place to hang out for a couple hours,” Vener says.

“Alcohol takes part of the social fabric of America,” Larsen adds. “Sitting down and grabbing a drink and talking to a bartender or a friend next to you or a stranger on the other side is part of the culture here. I definitely think that consumers want to get back to that and that’s certainly what we’re seeing right now.”

Throughout COVID, Cheba Hut stayed mostly open and only laid off bartenders temporarily in the most severe of times. The

silver lining of the pandemic for the brand was that average tickets rose significantly, from $13 to about $18. And tech-enabled orders grew tenfold.

“We could have never trained our customer base to transition to digital sales that quick without an outside force like COVID,” Larsen says.

Hopdoddy also learned convenience played a greater role in reaching guests, but the communal aspect of its bars never wavered. In the wake of COVID, other brands acted on the same inkling that beer, wine, and liquor sales could be another mechanism to drive guests in and keep them coming back, Chandler says. The resurgence of craft brewing and cocktails has been one contributor as guests find themselves drawn to the careful creativity of a sophisticated drink. But many states also relaxed rules that allow operators to serve packaged beverages to-go. For Hopdoddy, this meant it could successfully introduce The Roadie, a half-gallon bag of Hopdoddy’s Frozen House Margarita.

Throughout its off-premises alcohol pursuits, Hopdoddy recognized the need to sell in a responsible manner, ensuring it doesn’t enable underage drinking and that overconsumption doesn’t take place, either. For example, customers can only purchase Hopdoddy’s alcohol to-go with food. “I think people are drinking more at home,” Chandler says. “They’re drinking better at home. I think that they realize that more and more restaurants are serving creative offerings. And so I think they’re more in tune with it.”

Likewise, brands that stayed nimble, delivered a craveable product and took care of their people survived through the pandemic, Larsen says, adding Cheba Hut is a stronger brand having gone through the last year and a half. Indeed, part of Cheba Hut’s future plans in remaining adaptable is its own alcohol to-go play. Cheba Hut plans to pilot alcohol to-go offerings in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, market in Q4. Larsen acknowledges difficulties abound for restaurants that want to expand revenue with alcohol to-go because every state has different regulations. Still, Larsen is confident it’s here to stay and signature cocktails will lead the pack. The key is to keep things simple and offer customers something they can’t get anywhere else.

Vener says finding the proper vessel for transportation is also vital to providing a great alcohol to-go experience, while making sure customers have specific instructions on how to match a cocktail to the one they’d be receiving in stores.

Third-party apps are already racing to keep up with the alcohol to-go demand. As of September, DoorDash expanded its alcohol delivery service to 20 new states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and Australia.

“It has legs, and I think it’s here to stay,” Larsen says. “I know a lot of states are continuously fighting for it. I think restaurants have proven that they can do it responsibly and successfully.” q

DOG HAUS (LEFT) AND CHEBA HUT ARE BRINGING DINERS BACK THROUGH SOCIAL EXPERIENCES.

Data for Every Location

And why it’s often the missing ingredient in effective franchise advertising.

BY SPENCER MOODY

ful for transactions, brands are at the behest of third parties to provide data from it. Third parties collect an enormous amount of data that would greatly benefit local franchises. In cases where the aggregator makes the data accessible, technical knowledge and skills are required to derive insights.

A lack of technical knowledge and expertise. Even without technical barriers, a team or individual who manages digital efforts needs to be in place to ensure that data is being properly collected and leveraged. Many contemporary websites use form fills for certain calls to action, but these elements are more difficult to track. Brands know that prospective customers want a modern experience on the website but, even with out-of-the-box solutions like Squarespace, bigger hurdles for tracking can be caused down the line.

Local data isn’t a new concept. Brands know they need it to win local markets. Even a decade ago in “The Chipotle Effect,” Paul Barron said that “the face of change is in the challenge of distilling a global message down to a local level and turning it into something authentic and organic that really connects with consumers.” National and regional data is no longer good enough. Restaurant brands need local data to win the local battle. So why has it been so elusive?”

Lack of Local First-Party Data

Technical barriers, lack of expertise, lack of tracking tools, and broad advertising targeting are some of the most common reasons that brands don’t have granular data at the local level. Why? Valuable actions (transactions, add to cart, other e-commerce behavior) take place off the main website, and data may be “owned” by third party. It’s very common (and increasingly so) for brands to use thirdparty vendors to execute transactions, which makes getting that data even more difficult. Many brands outsource their ordering/ delivery platform and use third-party POS systems. While help-

Brands are too focused on conversions. Marketers of mid-size brands typically run lean operations that track a limited number of site sections, which are primarily focused on sales. This commonly leads to marketers ignoring, or not having the platform to track, other nonmonetary actions such as engagement with site content, click to call, and the use of location finders on the site. These actions can offer valuable insights that can be used to enhance the design and execution of advertising campaigns. When marketers track these behaviors, novel insights are often revealed. For example, there may be a noticeable sales increase when the location finder is used on the website. This detail can be leveraged in digital campaigns by either directing ad traffic to these pages, remarketing to people who have used the tool, or building lookalike models.

A single national or DMA-focused ad fund setup is frequently used by lean teams to support locations across large areas. This means brands lack the ability to collect unique local data sets, down to the neighborhood or zip code level. DMA-focused ad funds target larger demographic areas and don’t empower brands to gather or leverage data for individual locations in any community. This restricts campaigns to appeal only to the lowest common denominator across locations.

Mid-size marketers have to answer up the chain and report to regional or national heads of marketing. This often leads to time spent analyzing and evaluating data that speaks to the

The rise of third-party delivery has only heightened the battle for guest data.

The 40/40 List

After navigating a global pandemic and every twist along the way, these upstart fast casuals are ready to leave their mark on the industry.

/ BY QSR STAFF

SHAQUILLE O’NEAL IS NO STRANGER TO QUICK SERVICE. BUT STARTING A CHICKEN CONCEPT WAS A MORE PERSONAL JOURNEY.

The lines between quick service and fast casual have blurred to unprecedented degrees. You can thank the digital revolution of COVID-19 and how convenience became a trademark of brands across foodservice, sitdown restaurants included. Yet one thing that hasn’t vanished— the entrepreneurial nature of the sector’s most innovative category.

Fast casual exploded out of the Great Recession due to its variety and nuance. In some ways, it was the counter-service world’s longawaited answer to the strength of independent restaurants. And so arrived brands of every food category and background, all capitalizing on the strengths of both segments, but with designs to grow. COVID didn’t change this. In truth, it might only serve to accelerate it. Fast casuals are emerging more connected and stronger than ever, with techcentric models and even drivethrus. Regardless of what’s changed, though, the unique DNA of these upstarts continues to fuel fast casual’s trajectory.

Our annual 40/40 List is now in its fifth iteration, recognizing 40 brands with fewer than 40 locations that we believe can be the next big thing. This group has weathered the storm and is ready to thrive in the most dynamic operating environment on record.

Big Chicken

Units: 10

Headquarters: Las Vegas

Shaquille O’Neal is hardly a restaurant rookie. He’s had a hand in Krispy Kreme and Five Guys franchises, and even a fine-dining spot in L.A. Not to mention, a headline-grabbing 2019 appointment to Papa Johns’ board, which included investing in nine Atlanta locations and helping front one of the industry’s biggest comebacks in recent memory.

But this was different. O’Neal says he frequently received calls to become a chicken franchise over the years that “just didn’t feel right.”

“Chicken was too personal to me,” says the 7-foot-1 NBA Hall of Famer and “Inside the NBA” analyst.

O’Neal’s business partner, Perry Rogers, the CEO and founder of PRP, a sports management and corporate consulting company that’s roster includes O’Neal and Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum, among others, introduced him to Matt Silverman and Matt Piekarski. “The two Matts,” as O’Neal calls them, joined him on the ground floor of what’s evolved into Big Chicken—a fast casual on the verge of super-sized growth.

Silverman and Piekarski, high-end chefs by practice, spearhead JRS Hospitality, a Las Vegas-based events and catering company known for its parties, private dining, and corporate gatherings. Big Chicken’s other group partner, Authentic Brands Group, is a brand development, marketing, and entertainment company with likeness rights to Sports Illustrated, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Forever 2021, Van Heusen, and Aéropostale.

And this year, with Big Chicken ready to scale, O’Neal and his partners brought on Josh Halpern, who’s worked at companies such as FIFCO, Anheuser-Busch, Clorox, and P&G, to lead as CEO. “Now, we’re writing our own story,” O’Neal says.

Again, though, it comes back to the connection. O’Neal says opening a chicken concept was something he’s always swirled around. “So many of my childhood memories revolved around my family’s dinner table, and chicken was on the menu most nights,” he says.

You see the sentiment unfold across Big Chicken’s marketing and menu materials. Items are named after important people in O’Neal’s life, like Lucille’s Mac N’ Cheese (in honor of his mother). There’s a cookie with the circumference of an NBA basketball and O’Neal’s footprints are imprinted by the soda machine. Each store even features a chair clearly built for a person taller than 7 feet.

“Then you have the fact that we really deliver on our promise of ‘Big Flavor, Big Food,

BIG CHICKEN

and Big Fun,’ with a 5-ounce chicken breast for all our sandwiches and the big cookie that you mentioned,” O’Neal says.

Also, units play the brand’s Facebook Live reality show on a TV in the restaurant. “More subtle, though, is how much the menu is built around my love of this food,” he adds. “I love banana pudding, so the Matts made an ice cream sandwich based on my favorite and our MDE [most dominant ever] is the most basic sandwich because I wanted the chicken, not what was on it, to be the most dominant ever.”

O’Neal shares a story about what’s been a popular draw—the “Charles Barkley” chicken sandwich (mac and cheese, crispy fried onion rings, roasted garlic barbecue aioli), named after O’Neal’s fellow Hall-ofFamer and broadcast partner.

They served the first version to Barkley himself on TNT. “We were going to call it the ‘Barles Charkley,’ and he told us he loved the sandwich and would prefer that we used his real name,” O’Neal says. “It’s a beast of a sandwich with mac-n-cheese and onion straws on top, but it’s a little different … just like Charles.”

Striking a balance between authentic and gimmicky has taken deliberate steps. “We’re doing a good job of aligning the values of the Big Chicken brand with my personal core values: fun and approachable,” O’Neal says. “And the fact that I’m an owner makes it especially authentic. I know it doesn’t need to be all about me, I am there to help the team as needed. I’m not above calling a sup-

Since launching in 2018, Big Chicken opened on Carnival Cruise ships and in sporting arenas (recently, Seattle’s new Climate Pledge Arena and The New York Islanders’ UBS Arena). As of February, there were 10 total locations, including brick-and-mortars in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and through a partnership with Ghost Kitchen Brands in Rochester, New York. Come fall 2021, there were seven restaurants in the pipeline, including a location set to open in the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

Big Chicken unveiled its strategic franchise program that August. It’s targeting multi-unit investors and cities across the globe.

“Like I said, given my love of fried chicken it needed to be a brand that’s personal to me,” O’Neal says. “As a franchisee, I know how personal their businesses are to them, too. Franchisees invest in the franchisor because they believe in the system and they want good partners. I tell our CEO, Josh, all the time: ‘If you hurt a franchisee, you’re hurting me. Because I was a franchisee long before this.’”

O’Neal believes Big Chicken can move fast. As Rogers told him, “plan your work and then work the plan.”

Big Chicken did a pop-up in the Middle East behind a Formula One race and went on its second cruise ship of late. “It’s a great way to get a lot of people to try out food,” O’Neal says.

And he believes that will carry Big Chicken where it needs to go. With active involvement from O’Neal, it took Piekarski and Silverman six months just to get the breading right. As for beverages, the culinary team used more than 50 gallons of milkshake mix before finding the right Southern vanilla blend. Simply, Big Chicken is far more than an enterprise with a famous name strapped to it.

plier to help get product or a franchisee that’s on the goal line. I’ve been there for the kickoff of all of our non-traditional venues.”

“I never wanted this to be a shrine to me,” he continues. “Just a place for people to get a chicken sandwich that feels like home.”

O’Neal is also not the only NBA star in the food ranks, with former Miami Heat teammates Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem striking ghost kitchen partnerships with Florida-based WingHouse Bar & Grill in December, and LeBron James famously serving as a Blaze Pizza investor.

“Plenty of room for all of us and I wish all my old teammates the best,” he says. “But they should know they can’t mess with the MDE.”

A CULINARY “DREAM TEAM” IS SETTING THE STAGE AS BIG CHICKEN PLOTS EXPANSION.

INSIDE THE BIG CHICKEN CRAZE. ■

Son of a Butcher

Units: 2

Bushfire Kitchen

Units: 5

Headquarters: Carlsbad, CA

“multiple growth equity firms” looking to invest and scale Bushfire Kitchen coast to coast.

FB Society, formerly Front Burner Restaurants and home to elevated full-service brands like Whiskey Cake and Sixty Vines, created its fast casual to showcase a compact menu with approachable pricing ($3.95 for one slider, $7.99 for two). But it has the company’s experience-forward style written all over it. An expansive, open-air patio helped customers return from COVID restrictions and the concept, which pulled in $3.6 million last year, doubled the size of its already buzzing, dog-friendly patio. There’s even a custom dog house—a replica of the restaurant—for pups to enjoy. Additionally, it introduced slider sleeves for guests to bring packs of 13 home at a time.

Son of a Butcher, or SoB, opened its first standalone store in December 2020 and worked to bring jobs back to the Dallas market. It operated through FB Society’s Furlough Kitchen, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created in response to the pandemic, during the Texas freeze to donate slider sleeves. SoB fed 125 victims of abuse, women and children, who were displaced from their shelter as a result of the winter storms.

FB Society says the fast casual appeals to all ages with a nimble social media presence that capitalizes on viral trends and remains ahead of pop culture. For instance, taking part in TikToks and timely memes like Squid Game, Crate Challenge, Dude with Sign, and more. On the growth front, SoB plans to open four new locations in 2022.

Founded by serial startup entrepreneur Clive Barwin and Chef Brandon Barwin, the gourmet, health-focused brand already has the chops for expansion. Before Bushfire Kitchen, Clive led Melt Gelato & Crepe Café, while Brandon directed operations. Together, they scaled it beyond 50 stores in the U.S. and Australia. Oliver Barwin (clearly, this is a family run concept), joined Bushfire Kitchen in March 2020 as CEO and guided it through COVID, while also working on future initiatives, such as tech, accounting, and operational efficiency, laying the groundwork for the fast casual’s next phase of expansion. This included a new website, curbside pickup, direct delivery, a fresh point of sale with Toast, direct online ordering, thirdparty delivery, and digital employee

BUSHFIRE KITCHEN (2) THE 40/40 LIST

onboarding software, among other back-end improvements.

Bushfire Kitchen never uses preservatives, food colorings, flavor enhancers or GMOs, and boasts 20-plus taps of craft beer and wine alongside a full liquor bar in select locations. It also generated 20 percent-plus store-level EBTDA margins last year and plans to open its fifth store, in Eastvale, California, this month. Another is slotted for September 2022. The company says it’s attracting interest from

Due’ Cucina Italiana

Units: 3

Headquarters: Seattle

DUE’ CUCINA

Ideated by two high school friends from Italy in 2014, and then incubated at MIT, Due’ Cucina arrived on the scene four years ago in Seattle. There are presently three units in the area, with two more planned for 2022. Annual revenues are $6.2 million with sales per square foot north of $1,100. The aim is straightforward: make authentic Italian cuisine, particularly fresh pasta, affordable and accessible. The brand focuses on dish presentation and ambiance typical to fine-dining, it says. Just with tech and standardization features hallmark to fast casual.

COVID pushed the brand to create a scalable online experience as well. It launched a mobile app for online ordering, including delivery powered by white-label solution DoorDash Drive, a loyalty program, better packaging (tamper-proof), SMS order-ready notifications, and, overall, a more streamlined pickup experience. In turn, Due’ Cucina stayed open the entirety of the pandemic and kept all of its staff employed, not to mention opening its second and third locations in 2021 as planned. In the coming five years, the chain plans to scale outside of Washington, first regionally and then nationally.

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Loro

Units: 3

Headquarters: Austin, TX

Chef Tyson Cole, of Uchi, and legendary pitmaster Aaron Franklin, of his eponymous Franklin Barbecue, formed an all-star operation in 2018 when they brought Loro to Austin. The James Beard awardwinning talents, along with VP of Culinary Jack Yoss, developed an Asian Smokehouse and Bar that’s pushing $9 million per year, per restaurant today. The menu offers fresh takes on Southeast Asian and Japanese-inspired dishes featuring Texas barbecue techniques. As the brand puts it, a concept that “feels new and fresh yet somehow really

familiar at the same time.”

Loro deploys a casual and communal service approach, where guests order at the bar and then have the food brought to the table. The outdoor-andindoor space is modeled after Texas dance halls, with seating arranged to encourage shared experiences.

During COVID, Loro leaned into boozy slushees and largebatch cocktails curbside. Inside,

it invested in better air filtration and lighting systems that are now standard for all new locations.

In 2020, Loro received a major investment from KSL Capital Partners out of Denver, a company that’s backed casual chain Cooper’s Hawk. This allowed Loro’s restaurant group, Hai Hospitality, to pursue growth, including openings in Old East Dallas, Houston, and a second in Dallas Forth Worth (Addison) in 2022. More are in the works.

Hawaiian Bros.

Units: 30

Headquarters: Kansas City, MO

With a mission to spread the “Aloha Spirit,” Hawaiian Bros. has built a brand around its

namesake state’s signature lunch plates. The format, which began in the Hawaiian plantations in the late 19th century, features a trio of rice, macaroni salad, and choice of protein, like Luau Pig and the extra spicy Kilauea Chicken.

It’s proved a winning formula—even in the face of a pandemic. Annual sales jumped from $5.9 million in 2019 to $20.6 million in 2020. It also tripled its unit count, from nine stores in 2020 to 26 at the close of 2021—this is all before the concept even celebrates its fourth anniversary.

Though growth is concentrated around Texas, Hawaiian Bros. is planting flags across the country, including two of the most competitive markets, New York and Chicago. It’s slated to open 25 locations this year and after an equity offering last August raised gross proceeds of $7.5 million, it’s well on track to achieve that goal.

Yumbii

Units: 4

Headquarters: Atlanta

Yumbii is one of those rare brands that in some ways bene-

■ THE 40/40 LIST

YUMBII LORO LORO TRAVIS HALLMARK HAWAIIAN BROS.

fited from COVID restrictions. The fast casual, which began as a food truck, leaned into its nimble nature and quickly shifted to takeout while also launching its own delivery program. During the toilet paper shortage, its restaurants even included a complimentary roll with each order. And rather than cutting staff, Yumbii was able to expand its team over the past two years.

The streamlined menu blends Korean barbecue, Mexican cuisine, and classic Southern fare with tacos featuring proteins like Asian rib-eye and Nashville hot fried chicken, as well as nachos with sriracha queso. Its sister concept, The Queso Shop, also started as a food truck and has a similar menu, albeit with more Mexican flavors

The Atlanta-based brand is working to saturate its hometown with 10 units in and around the area, and long term it plans to expand into other Southeastern cities.

The Red Chickz

Units: 2

Headquarters: Los Angeles

The Nashville hot chicken trend continues to spawn new concepts, but The Red Chickz is positioning itself as a category differentiator. At only two units, it already has plans to open an additional 40 in California, 25 in Texas, and 10 in both Nevada

and Arizona within the next year and a half. This growth will be fueled by franchising, which the brand launched last August.

While The Red Chickz does peddle the obligatory sandwich and tenders it also ventures into other carriers and formats, each made to order and customized to one of six levels of heat ranging from cool to inferno. The menu includes hot chicken tacos, waffles, and French toast, as well as Nashville hot shrimp and a chipotle-style sandwich.

Beyond its food offerings, the brand is something of a social media savant, boasting 1 million followers on TikTok and 100,000 on Instagram. The Red Chickz also has its own proprietary app, which it credits with helping stay connected to consumers during the pandemic.

Detroit CompanyWing

Units: 12 (8 coming soon)

Headquarters: Royal Oak, MI

When the pandemic began, Detroit Wing Company was better situated than most. The brand already had a well-established off-premises program with

locations doing 85–90 percent carryout orders. And in 2020, many units managed to double revenues, a trend that continued into the next year.

The experience has led the brand to reconsider its store footprint. Moving forward, all new locations will be off-premises-only with many sporting a drive-up window. The smaller size could help Detroit Wing Company reach its goal of opening 100 units nationwide over the next two years.

As for the wings themselves, the concept has landed on “best of” lists in both local and national media outlets, like Esquire, Men’s Health, and MSNBC. Detroit Wing Company prides itself on preparing menu items from scratch with fresh, neverfrozen chicken. That said, it’s building a commissary to prepare proprietary spice blends and house-made sauces, thus streamlining throughput.

The Works Café

Units: 9

Headquarters: Keene, NH

After 30-plus years in operation, The Works Café remains

true to its original mission of serving wholesome food, but it’s also ready to enter a new era of growth and evolution.

The New England concept, which is still led by founder Richard French, eschews in-themoment trends in favor of quality café fare by partnering with local farms and sustainably-minded producers. The Works also recycles or composts nearly all waste across its system.

Investments in online ordering and delivery in 2019 helped prepare the brand for the following year, and digital transactions now account for about a third of sales. During the pandemic, it offered curbside service and in-house delivery while also doubling its outside seating capacity.

The Works has even dipped its toe into ghost kitchens by partnering with corporations to serve as their virtual cafeterias.

With nine locations across five states, The Works aims to open about a dozen more units, starting with its first New York outpost as well as additional units in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. It’s also launching AI capabilities within its technology platform and designing drive thrus.

■ DETROIT WING COMPANY

■ THE WORKS CAFÉ

DETROIT WING COMPANY

Honeybee Burger

Units: 4

Headquarters: Los Angeles

Plant-based Honeybee Burger opened in mid-2019 with the mission of saving the planet with every sale. Wall Street veteran Adam Weiss decided to fuel expansion through regulated crowdfunding, and the brand has since become the most successful crowdfunded restaurant on the Start Engine platform. The emerging chain is developing stores in Southern California and New York and also looking to enter Miami and Austin via a growth strategy that involves brick and mortar, ghost kitchens, virtual brands, and eventually franchising. To elevate awareness, the chain signed an NIL deal with Tyger Campbell and partnered with DJ Dani Thorne to launch virtual brand PBAF.

H&H Bagels

Units: 7

Headquarters: New York City

Since CEO Jay Rushin joined H&H Bagels in 2014, he has tried to incorporate a more widespread approach. In 2017, the concept launched a national wholesale business at retail outlets across the country. Amid COVID, H&H witnessed a 500 percent bump in nationwide shipping and a 400 percent rise in its global wholesale business. To expand its presence even further, H&H announced the first franchising program in its 50-year-history. Rushin said the response from potential operators has been strong, and that franchise openings will begin “in earnest” in 2022.

Smalls Sliders

Units: 2

Headquarters: Baton Rouge, LA

Although Smalls Sliders operates two units in the Baton Rouge area, the chain prefers to “act like 1,000” when it comes to implementing processes and programs, CMO Katherine LeBlanc says.

That includes the chain’s first franchising program, which kicked off in July 2021. By October, Smalls had 19 locations in the pipeline, with five scheduled to debut in the first half of 2022. The growth strategy builds off a platform established by co-founders Jacob Dugas and Scott Fargason, and backed by Brandon Landry and former NFL quarterback Drew Brees, founder and investor, respectively, of casual-dining brand WalkOn’s.

“What we’re doing next is really just taking the amazing foundation that has been set and we’re shooting for the blue skies ahead of us, from a branding perspective, from communicating our ‘why,’ and then infusing our ‘why’ into our guest experience,” LeBlanc says.

LeBlanc attributes Smalls’ organic growth trajectory to its “keep it simple,” mantra, which applies to both the menu and building design. Customers are able to choose among four combos, including one, two, three, or four sliders—made with proprietary buns and sauces—paired with fries and a drink, and other special beverages like milkshakes and Icees. For those interested in bigger orders, the chain offers party packs of 25, 50, and 100 sliders.

Smalls sells the stream-

lined menu out of a roughly 1,000-square-foot shipping container that’s equipped with a walk-up window and drivethru. Instead of a dining room, the brand offers a small outdoor patio with picnic tables, turf, and string lights. LeBlanc says the unique design is a way for Smalls to “make a brand statement immediately” and “increase the brand recognition in a really fast way.”

CEO Joe Lewis also notes because of the slimmer footprint, the restaurant requires half or possibly one-third of the labor typically seen in a quick-service restaurant. And from an operating standpoint, routine costs like utilities and dumpster requirements are lower.

“The model has now done extremely well,” Lewis says. “We’re very, very satisfied with the food quality, the reception we’re getting from our customer base, and then also the unit economics that are there to be able to support franchising and make sure that our franchise owners open up and do very well with the concept.”

Lewis adds franchising requires a two-phase strategy that starts with solidifying training, marketing, technology, and operations. The next step is execution. The restaurant will first focus on Beaumont, Houston, and Houma/Thibodeaux, in Texas; Hattiesburg and Jackson in Mississippi; and New Orleans, Shreveport, Alexandria, Lake Charles, Lafayette, and Monroe in Louisiana.

As those concentric markets fill, Smalls will then set its sights on national expansion.

“We want to make sure that we get that first phase up, we build a great foundation, and then once we do that then make sure our systems will scale to multiple units,” Lewis says. “We know they will, but we need to do the work to be able to accomplish that. When we get that accomplished then we’ll extend our reach.”

SMALLS SLIDERS KATHERINE LEBLANC THE 40/40 LIST

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Poke Me

Units: 5

Headquarters: Los Angeles

Poke Me is run by a family with more than 40 years of experience in the restaurant industry. The chain has grown to five loca-

the fast casual aims to triple its footprint in the next 30 months with a mixture of company-run units and ghost kitchens throughout Southern California and new markets outside the Golden State.

Sauce on the Side

Units: 9

Headquarters: St. Louis

tions in six years, and claims to be one of the first original poke concepts before the cuisine became a national trend. Customers are able to select a certain-sized bowl or poke burrito, and choose from the chain’s 10 house-made sauces, including Eel Sauce, Truffle Ponzu, Spicy Mayo, and Yuzu Wasabi.

Sweetfin

Units: 15

Headquarters: West Hollywood, CA

Sauce on the Side, which serves handcrafted calzones and salads, has gained a cult-like following over the years and was named The Cheesiest Restaurant in America by The Travel Channel’s “Food Paradise.” With multiple dayparts, several revenue channels (dine-in, takeout, selfdelivery, third-party delivery, and catering), and a low-cost, flexible buildout for endcap development and second-generation conversions, Sauce on the Side aims to reach 50 restaurants in the Midwest by 2026. The chain recently converted to a cloud-based tech stack, which will pave the way for more operational efficiency and guest convenience platforms.

Roll-Em-Up Taquitos

Units: 5

Headquarters: Irvine, CA

rants in its franchise development pipeline. And that’s only the beginning; the five-year goal is to have 500 units in development. In preparation of this strategy, the chain implemented a tech stack designed to elevate franchise partners, including deals with Restaurant365, Olo, Punchh, Franconnect, and SMG. Because of its pivot to online ordering and order-ahead technology, Roll-Em-Up has experienced month-over-month increases in same-store sales and opened three stores since COVID began.

Wow Wow Hawaiian Lemonade

Units: 12

Headquarters: Scottsdale, AZ

large-sized back-of-house equipment, the chain moved toward smaller buildouts. Over time, the brand accommodated customers with digital ordering through a new app, curbside pickup, and third-party delivery, including the launch of a ghost kitchen. In 2021, Aloha opened the first of 11 stores in Houston, announced plans to open in Atlanta, and signed a deal to debut in Charlotte. In 2022, Aloha is targeting 20 openings in eight states, and aims to solidify another 30 development deals.

Soul & Smoke

Units: 3

Headquarters: Evanston, IL

Sweetfin’s off-premises business was strong entering 2020, and COVID bolstered sales even further. The chain invested in a tech stack that allowed for a fully integrated digital ordering experience among desktop, mobile, app, and a loyalty program. With the addition of kiosk ordering inside dining rooms, Sweetfin surpassed pre-pandemic sales despite having limitations with operations. Since the pandemic began, the brand has opened seven new stores. Going forward,

Roll-Em-Up Taquitos prides itself as the first and only taquitofocused multi-unit concept in the world. The company launched franchising in May, and finished 2021 with more than 100 restau-

Wow Wow Hawaiian Lemonade, with roughly a dozen stores across the U.S., expects to double in size by the end of the year. Multiple openings are scheduled for Dallas, San Antonio, New Mexico, Northern California, and Arizona. The growth is supported by a record-breaking 2021; in the first nine months of last year, the fast casual signed 40 agreements, the largest number of deals the chain has completed in a calendar year since franchising began in 2017. Wow Wow is owned by John Choi and Klaus Grimm of C&G Franchise Development, which purchased the brand in 2019, moved its headquarters to Scottsdale, Arizona, and hired existing franchisee Tim Weiderhoft as CEO.

Aloha Poke Units:

17

Headquarters: Chicago

Well before COVID hit the U.S., Aloha Poke began pivoting toward leaner operational costs and procedures. Without the need for ovens, fryers, and other

Barbecue concept Soul & Smoke launched in 2015 as a casual arm of Feast & Imbibe, a full-service catering company based in Chicagoland. During COVID however, meaningful changes were made within the catering business, and Soul & Smoke grew into a collection of ghost kitchens and a new food truck. The brand plans to debut a din-

ing room at its Evanston, Illinois, location after opening a patio space last summer, and open another brick-and-mortar restaurant in Avondale, Illinois. Soul & Smoke is looking to expand its retail offerings, as well, by offering its signature spice rubs and barbecue sauce via purchase with any meal and through local and national shipping.

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Rooster & Rice

Units: 10 Headquarters: San Francisco

Bryan Lew and Tommy Charoen

oversaw Indonesian restaurant

Indo in Palo Alto, California. A friend, who sold hot dogs in the Marina District of San Francisco, approached the pair about opening an Asian concept. And the notion got Lew and Charoen thinking. Could they introduce a one-item dish into a quick-service model?

That’s how Rooster & Rice was born six years ago. Its menu is simple, with a chicken dish known as khao man gai in Thai, finding a home in various formats. It started as a pop-up one weekend and quickly gained traction, ending up in the downtown tech area of San Francisco. The brand is now backed by a partnership with Aroi Hospitality Group, a restaurant group that includes two of the founders of third-party delivery app Caviar, and has grown into a 10-unit chain.

Lew says throughout Rooster & Rice’s journey, the greatest challenge was translating a high-quality product into a counter-service box, which only allots a few minutes for

“I think that that is still probably the toughest thing to translate is just getting people to buy in on the value of the quality of the product,” Lew says. “I think you can still get a fun experience from going to a quick-serve restaurant.”

Throughout the pandemic, Rooster & Rice benefited from the fact it’s always been primarily takeout. In the Financial District, customers were used to taking Rooster & Rice meals back to the office, and sales didn’t stop even when many buildings closed.

“It didn’t skip a beat during COVID,” Lew says. Rooster & Rice, naturally, did have to adjust to taking on more deliveries via third-party apps. This meant staff had to cross-train and multi-task more than ever. Still, the brand is

positioned to look at expansion opportunities, starting in Texas this spring. Lew says Rooster & Rice aims to add on four to five stores by

Franchising is also in the brand’s future, as Rooster & Rice solidified its model over the past year and a half. Now almost entirely corporate owned, Rooster & Rice looks for the same passion Lew found in his first franchisees, two friends that would not leave him alone about the opportunity for what felt like two years, he jokes.

Moving forward, Lew views Rooster & Rice’s mission as bringing Asian street food into the mainstream. Ramen and boba have made it, and now it’s time for Rooster & Rice’s khao man gai to find the spotlight. He hopes to make it to 20–25 corporate stores and 15–20 franchise operators, and becoming a multi-unit, inter-

Rooster & Rice lends itself to growth as a concept that is easy to prepare no matter the kitchen.

“It’s a healthy product,” Lew says. “It’s comforting, easy to understand, easy to grasp, easy to prepare at its core.”

Chick’nCone

Units: 34

Headquartered: Easton, PA

Chick’nCone has set out to reimagine the traditional comfort food of chicken and waffles in a scalable menu. The company developed a budding empire under a small footprint and ultimately showed it has what it takes to survive through a pandemic. Chick’nCone opened 26 new locations over the course of COVID and is now actively seeking multi-unit franchise partners to target growth in Columbia, South Carolina; Philadelphia; and St. Louis. The brand aims to have at least 50 locations open by the end of 2022.

Foxtail Coffee Company

Units: 35

Headquarters: Orlando, FL

Foxtail Coffee Company has a story that goes all the way back to its founders’ kindergarten class. Alex Tchekmeian and Iain Yeakle met in a South Florida elementary school, never knowing their lifelong friendship would eventually lead to the creation of Foxtail Coffee Company in 2016. Now, the brand is on a mission to bring its fresh roasted coffee outside of Florida in a strategy of growth that is both aggressive and responsible, the brand says.

The Chicken Shack

Units: 28

Headquarters: Las Vegas

When COVID hit, The Chicken Shack kept buzzing. In fact, it saw an increase in sales once it pivoted to kiosks and online ordering. Stores using this new technology have

ROOSTER & RICE

30–50 percent of gross sales conducted digitally, which requires no cashiers. Altogether, The Chicken Shack saved on labor while increasing ticket averages by 20 percent.

The Chicken Shack plans to unveil a double drive-thru concept to increase revenues while it upgrades technology at existing stores. Despite its name, plantbased offerings also will likely have a place as the fast casual targets underserved markets and expands into the West Coast.

Miller’s Famous Sandwiches

Units: 2

Headquarters: Providence, RI

The pandemic wasn’t the first obstacle Miller’s Famous Sandwiches met in its nearly 50-year history. Miller’s survived through multiple economic recessions and downturns, and COVID didn’t prove any different. Miller’s same-store sales were actually higher in 2020 than 2019.

The East Providence, Rhode Island, staple offers roast beef sandwiches, French dips, Reubens and more as a third-generation family owned restaurant business. Miller’s Famous Sandwiches, which so far says it has been able to stay ahead of global staffing challenges, recently announced its franchising opportunity and plans to have five to seven restaurants open in the next few years, spanning the Northeast down to Florida.

Grub Burger Bar

Units: 19

Headquarters: Bryan, TX

Grub Burger Bar leads with an expansive menu both in terms of burgers, shakes, chicken, and salads as well as in alcoholic beverages with a full dine-in bar featuring inventive cocktails. In all, guests who choose to dine at the bar generate 17 percent of total sales.

Emerging from the pandemic, Grub Burger Bar is primed for growth. To-go sales remain at 30 percent of mix, more than double pre-COVID rates. The brand also launched its own virtual brand, Chik Chik Boom, which will be available for delivery out of all 19 Grub locations in Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida.

Grub Burger Bar plans to launch additional virtual concepts by the end of 2022 and is currently pursuing expansion into new markets where it will aim for five new locations by mid-2023.

Bread Zeppelin

Units: 7

Headquarters: Dallas

A Zeppelin is not a salad, and it’s not a sandwich—it’s an entirely new format: a hollowed freshbaked artisan baguette filled with the customers’ choice of chopped salad. Bread Zeppelin created this product as an alternative to the often-messy wrap and in hopes of making salad eating onthe-go easier.

Since 2020, Bread Zeppelin launched its own app, and digital orders more than tripled compared to before the pandemic,

opened its first franchise restaurant in Houston.

Chick N Max

Units: 3

Headquarters: Wichita, KS

Max Sheets was at the floor of Ted’s Montana Grill when Ted Turner and George McKerrow pioneered the concept. It’s what ultimately led Sheets to found

now representing more than 40 percent of sales. Compared to the same period in 2019, Bread Zeppelin’s sales soared 18 percent. Moving into the future, Bread Zeppelin also unveiled a new product, Grain Bowls, and has

Chick N Max, a chain that aims to be the home of the “better chicken sandwich.”

Featuring 10 unique flavors of chef-created options, Chick N Max thrived through the entirety of the pandemic. The company created a “Community Support Menu” to make food more accessible and provided free meals to frontline workers and first responders, among others. In 2021, Chick N Max sales grew 35 percent over 2020 and 52 percent versus 2019. The chicken chain intends to double its footprint by the end of 2022, opening as many as five new restaurants each year thereafter.

■ MILLER’S FAMOUS SANDWICHES

■ GRUB BURGER BAR

THE CHICKEN SHACK

CHICK N MAX THE 40/40 LIST

FAMOUS SANDWICHES

Balance Grille

Units: 4

Headquarters: Toledo, Ohio

In addition to its four locations, Balance Grille developed an 8,000-square foot urban aquaponic farming operation, which provides year-round produce for restaurants.

Balance puts the focus on clean eating and menu transparency in an Asian fusion fast-casual concept that serves bowls, tacos, snacks, and bubble tea. The entire kitchen, from the production line to the walk-in cooler, is encased in glass, meaning customers see every step of the process, with no freezers, toasters or microwaves.

Technology guided Balance in its staffing practices as well. Employees can use their phones for training, to track work, scheduling, to switch shifts, and more. Throughout the pandemic, Balance also increased user count on its loyalty app from around 67,000 to more than 105,000 users. Additionally, the brand invested in a curbside text check-in system and added a Marketplace to its app menu,

which enables the sale of groceries from small local producers.

In 2022, Balance plans to launch its franchise program, overall targeting 30–40 locations over the next three years. Balance, so far, has circled Florida, Colorado, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina for new stores.

Mici Handcrafted Italian

Units: 7

Headquarters: Denver

King TacosDavid

Units: 4 (three carts, one brick and mortar)

Headquarters: New York City

Created by Austin, Texas, native Liz Solomon Dwyer, King David Tacos is bringing an authentic Texas flavor to the Big Apple. Inspired by the food of her native state, Solomon Dwyer saw an opportunity to capitalize on a market hungry for new flavors.

After moving to New York in 2006, Solomon Dwyer says she realized NYC was missing something. While there were plenty of bagels, there were no breakfast tacos.

“That seemed to be kind of a head scratcher because they’re delicious,” she says. “From my perspective, I thought breakfast tacos were the perfect food for the city because they lend themselves so well to grab-and-go convenience. They also hit on so many dietary preferences and needs, especially crunched meal times.”

Since opening 17 years ago, Mici has served family recipe pastas, artisan pizzas, salads, and more. Now, the brand is ready to grow nationally, having signed a 30-unit deal to expand into the Phoenix market and begin its franchising program.

The family-owned Italian brand increased sales 10 percent and retained all employees during COVID. It led with innovation as well, launching Kids’ Pizza Kits and Family Meal Bundles for offpremises and delivering beer and wine.

Mici also implemented an optimized carryout station to expedite customer pickups and opened its first delivery and carryout model store as a beta test for future small footprint locations in franchise markets.

Looking ahead, Mici plans to open 30 corporate stores over the next five years in Colorado. On the franchise side, the company intends to open 150 franchise restaurants with multi-unit operators by 2027, expanding to three-to-five markets annually for the next six years.

Solomon Dwyer says she knew King David would be successful in the land of bagels because the easy-to-eat breakfast item fit the ethos of New York City.

“New Yorkers are always looking for the balance of feeling good and being super productive,” she says. “But they also want to have something that is delicious and indulgent. The breakfast taco has the perfect mix of being craveable and functional, which kind of epitomizes the New York lifestyle. We’re all about efficiency, all about convenience.”

The name King David comes from Solomon Dwyer’s

■ LIZ SOLOMON DWYER

KING DAVID TACOS / REUBEN KLEINER THE 40/40 LIST

father, who she describes as “a big guy with a big personality.” His friends called him “King David.”

“There’s a lot of King David and a lot of King Solomon up here, but there was no King David Tacos,” she says.

The brand focuses on Austin-style tacos, which Solomon Dwyer says can mean a few things depending on whom you ask. For her, the most important aspect of the breakfast tacos that make them Austin-style is the tortilla. King David uses a vegan, flour tortilla that is smaller than your average flour tortilla used for burritos. She says the vegetable oil used in their tortillas is what makes it vegan and also gives the brand’s tacos a fluffy texture. Tortillas are shipped in from Austin because they can’t find the exact product they need in NYC.

The ingredients are also layered in the tacos, which she says is a necessary component of an Austin-style taco, compared to other breakfast tacos, which can sometimes mix all the ingredients into a scramble.

King David Tacos currently operates out of three cart locations and one brickand-mortar unit throughout the city. The tacos can also be found at more than 50 retail locations, including coffee shops and Whole Foods. Solomon Dwyer says the brand plans on focusing its expansion efforts on more retail partnerships over the next three-to-five years. Growth will be mainly focused in the region with sights set on New Jersey and Connecticut as potential new markets.

Recently, the brand partnered with Blank Street, a local coffee company, to launch a fleet of sustainable breakfast taco and coffee carts around the city. The carts will be fully battery powered with zero emissions.

Capital Tacos

Units: 5

Headquarters: Tampa, FL

Awarded a three-star review from the Tampa Bay Times, Capital Tacos has reeled in praise ever since its 2013 founding as a corner restaurant—no sign or marketing budget—in Land O’ Lakes, Florida. The brand spent recent years developing its menu ( husk street corn, hand-spiced crispy fries) and developing a concept ready to scale via franchising. The latter program is set to launch in early 2022, with the coming two calendars primed for growth, executives say. It will initially target Southeast franchisees before looking at nationwide opportunities. The primary focus will center on an owner-operator model and robust employee-to-franchisee career path. Additionally, Capital Tacos uses 100 percent second-generation spaces rather than new development— an approach the company says is better for the environment and helps keep initial investment costs down. “In turn, this makes for an attractive and achievable opportunity to many potential franchisees interested in bringing our award-winning offering to their local communities,” the brand says. Alongside franchise growth, Capital Tacos will expand through corporate locations in the Tampa Bay market as well.

Wolfnights

Units: 4

Headquarters: New York City

Gourmet wraps and bowls are the focus of this New York brand. Wolfnights specializes in using ingredients you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find wrapped up in a fast casual. Lamb Bacon, date and pumpkin seed wraps, and green papaya slaw, for instance. All of the items on the menu are made inhouse, including doughs such as ginger, fig, chestnut, and chili. While some concepts scaled back during COVID, Wolfnights went from two to four units, hired professional marketing services, and improved its tech stack. With projected sales of $7 million this year, the concept projects further growth in the New York area.

Ani Ramen House

Units: 8

Headquarters: Montclair, NJ

“Ani” translates to “eldest brother” in English from Jap-

anese and the brand says that sense of family and hospitality extends across the concept, from food to décor. Ani Ramen House features ramen and traditional Japanese izakaya plates, which are smaller offerings meant to be shared. One added example––the brand donated 3,500 ramen meal kits in 24 hours during the pandemic, which helped feed over 15,000 people. In the weeks that followed, Ani Ramen organized a non-profit restaurant company, #BeAwesomeFeedSomebody, where it donated meals to first responders, as well as serve food at a discounted price to the public. During the time that #BAFS was operational, the brand donated more than 30,000 meals. Moving forward, Ani Ramen expects to grow in New Jersey, New York City, and Westchester, New York. It will open fast casual and full-service locations.

Beyond Juicery + Eatery

Units: 39

Headquarters: Madison Heights, MI

Founded in 2005 by husband and wife Mijo Alanis and Pam Vivo, the health-focused chain serves options like made-toorder juices, smoothies, wraps, smoothie bowls, and salads. The brand started franchising in 2017 and has experienced considerable growth since. While

■ ANI RAMEN HOUSE

■ CAPITAL TACOS

CAPITAL TACOS THE 40/40 LIST

RAMEN HOUSE PETER BONACCI

its growth strategy is mainly centered in Michigan and Ohio, Beyond Juicery + Eatery also plans on targeting other Midwestern states as well as Florida. The chain was able to double its number of units in 2020, with some locations even turning into grocery hubs during the pandemic to provide communities with easy access to essential goods. Also, it streamlined the production of a variety of food kits for those stuck at home and sold nearly 10,000 boxes across the system.

Grumps Burgers

Units: 6

Headquarters: Granbury, TX

Grumps sees itself as the “Texas Roadhouse of burger joints,” a no-frills restaurant built on “cowboys and handshakes.” This coming year will be the brand’s 20th anniversary, and to celebrate, Grumps is tossing its hat into the franchising ring. The original store, which sat 16 people and generated $600 on a busy day, still stands today and seats roughly 200, churning out $600 hours regularly. Grumps keeps it simple with a focus on quality and a “Texacana” theme. The brand positioned its six stores in vastly different markets, yet has seen comparable year-overyear growth regardless of where it lands. When mandates came down to close stores, Grumps had just opened its fifth location and had 30 days of operating capital. It quickly shifted and added curbside, which soon generated 75 percent of the chain’s normal revenue. Before COVID, to-go represented just 9 percent of sales. Today, curbside produces 25 percent of sales and cash reserves have growth to 14 months. Looking ahead, Grumps will open more corporate units as well as franchises.

Killer Burger

Units: 18

Headquarters: Portland, OR

In the crowded fast casual arena of better-burger brands, Killer Burger leans on what it calls “Burger Tech” to stand out. It’s a methodology that anchors everything from how patties are cooked to which ingredients are paired together and even how burgers are built and presented to guests. In the past 19 months, the chain anchored that mission with logistical tech as well. It instituted new online ordering systems, expanded relationships with third-party delivery services, created special marketing programs, installed additional sanitation stations, and developed efficient curbside pickup processes to accommodate new social distancing requirements. Meanwhile, all existing franchisees signed on for additional units (of the 18 stores, 10 are corporate, six franchises, and two non-traditional). Killer Burger is also forging ahead with additional liquidity and a fleshed-out board of directors that boasts experienced industry execs. With new talent and strategic investments, the chain has its sights on aggressive franchise growth with multi-unit operators throughout Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, and select Midwest markets.

BEYOND JUICERY + EATERY ■

GRUMPS BURGERS ■

Stan’s Donuts & Coffee

Units: 15

Headquarters: Chicago

In less than eight years, Stan’s opened 15 units in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. The brand focuses on highquality ingredients for donuts, which means using the best butter, eggs, vanilla, and chocolate available. During the pandemic, it was able to partner with Kroger and Costco to develop a wholesale program, which allowed Stan’s to keep the lights on and the coffee brewing. It also placed added focus on drive-thru. Stan’s opened its second with the feature in December 2020 and expects to continue doing so going forward. Two or three units should open in 2022 and the company hopes to venture outside of Illinois the following year. As that growth unfolds, it will also push the wholesale program as it partners with large groups to gain national visibility.

Huey Magoo’s

Units: 20

Headquarters: Orlando, FL

Huey Magoo’s tagline, the “Filet Mignon of Chicken,” has carried it throughout the Southeast, with multiple stores in Central

and South Florida, Jacksonville; Georgia; Mississippi; and, soon, Tampa, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Alabama, Ohio, and more.

Led by “chicken expert” Andy Howard, a former Wingstop vet, and founders Matt Armstrong and Thad Hudgens, the brand recently opened its milestone 20th store and has sold 200 franchises company-wide. Yearover-year same-store sales are up more than 22 percent and the company hit $30 million in systemwide sales in 2021. Each Huey Magoo’s chicken tender is made all-natural, with no antibiotics, hormones, steroids, or preserva-

tives. Initially during COVID, the company implemented several marketing initiatives, including special deals on family meals, catering, and gift cards. It also added health, safety, and sanitization practices companywide, and tacked on curbside pickup at certain locations.

Bahia Bowls Açaí Café

Units: 11

Headquarters: Estero, FL

Started in 2017 by college sophomore Ben Casey and his business partner, Van Hatziyianis, Bahia Bowls Acai Café offers custom-

ers acai bowls, smoothies, salads, wraps, avocado toast, and coffee. It focuses on healthy food at a lower price point than competitors. Since signing the first franchise agreement in the summer of 2019, the brand opened a second corporate store and signed seven more franchise agreements (three during the pandemic)

With current operators looking to launch second and third locations, the fast casual doesn’t plan on slowing down. By the end of 2022, Bahia hopes to have 25 units. The long-term plan is to reach 500 venues across America. Recent success has fueled that optimism.

Since August of 2020, following an initial plunge in sales, flagship locations have generated business 40 percent higher every month, year-over-year. A significant amount of sales now flow through third-party delivery channels as well as an online ordering, and the company believes a shift to healthier foods has helped open its off-premises business. Getting better-for-you items to the masses has never been more accessible than it is today. q

■ HUEY MAGOO’S

■ BAHIA BOWLS AÇAÍ CAFÉ

■ STAN’S DONUTS & COFFEE

SAY HELLO TO FAST CASUAL

the flood, with fast casual growing 10–11 percent for five straight years starting in 2010, according to industry consultant Pentallect Inc. Today, it accounts for roughly 18 percent of revenue driven by the entire limited-service category.

However, one byproduct was the absence of the drive-thru, a channel synonymous with fast food and avoided like the dentist by fast casuals.

And it’s where the pandemic performance gap formed. At peak (the quarter ending June 2020), fast casual visits fell 23 percent, year-over-year, according to The NPD Group. Yet by year-to-date August 2021, they rose 8 percent and traffic was flat on a twoyear basis.

What changed? Simply, fast casuals found a way to get their food to guests again. The demand never dissipated—access did. Fast casual off-premises orders in the year ending August 2021 climbed 30 percent over the previous year. Off-premises was about half of the category’s traffic pre-COVID. Now, it represented more than 80 percent.

The end result has galvanized optimism throughout the sector. Tech innovations and fresh asset strategies (drive-thrus and pickup windows are enjoying a renaissance) are helping fast-casual brands threaten share from much larger players once again.

Brett Schulman, co-founder and CEO of CAVA, says the fastgrowing Mediterranean brand is “significantly ahead” of where it was in 2019. Mostly, this is a product of pre-pandemic investments set into motion by quarantine conditions. How “COVID served as an accelerant to a lot of the trends that were building underneath the surface,” he says.

When dining rooms closed, CAVA leaned on tech strategies well before it expected to. Its engineering team unveiled marketplaceaided delivery alongside curbside. The pandemic introduced guests to access points glossed over before.

And the spin is a now-familiar story among fast casuals: “We’ve only seen that carry over,” Schulman says. “As our guests return to inrestaurant dining visits, they’ve gained the increased awareness of being able to get their favorite CAVA meal how they want it, when they want it, where they want it.”

/ BY DANNY KLEIN

AT THE APEX OF LOCKDOWNS, FAST CASUALS FELT THE STING OF THEIR OWN DIFFERENTIATION. The category’s incubation in the 1990s into mid-2010s was largely a real estate deviation. Brands sought in-line, leased real estate in an effort to improve ROI that, at least in quick service, had historically favored fast-food giants. While a less traditional model, it proved fertile. And in rapid response, fast-casual brands of every ilk and category dove in as consumer demand supported it. There was visible whitespace for high-quality and convenient food served in a setting that catered to a coming generation. Localized designs and on-trend, focused menus. A middle ground between quick service and casual dining. Within a month of Steve Ells turning an $85,000 loan from his father into Chipotle, the assembly line concept was selling 1,000 burritos per day out of its original Denver location.

The Great Recession lowered barriers to entry and triggered

Before coronavirus, digital orders represented 20 percent of CAVA’s transactions. It surged to 80 percent amid COVID and moderated at 45 percent. “From a dollar basis, however,” Schulman says, “the sales have stayed sticky. It’s just the in-store has come back so strong.”

Shake Shack CFO Katie Fogertey says the burger brand, like CAVA, plotted major digital moves before a global pandemic sped up the stakes.

Shake Shack launched a mobile app in 2017. Yet here’s an anecdote illustrating COVID’s disruptive nature: Despite having web and app ordering, Shake Shack’s digital business could best be described as “nascent” in 2019. More than 85 percent of sales came from guests walking into restaurants and ordering at the cashier. Echoing Schulman’s point: “However, these earlier investments in app and web allowed us to leverage digital to quickly navigate and scale this business,” Fogertey says. By the second quarter of 2020, Shake Shack’s digital sales soared from 15 percent just a few months prior to 75 percent of total sales, and grew more than threefold, year-over-year.

3.0 ?

Despite early struggles, the pandemic might have spawned a new generation of fast casuals to be reckoned with.

“Many of the fast pivots in the early days of the pandemic soon became permanent functions, including implementing multi-channel delivery, enhancing digital pre-ordering, and expanding our fulfillment capabilities,” she says.

Similar trends unfurled across Focus Brands’ portfolio ( Moe’s Southwest Grill, McAlister’s Deli, Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, Carvel, Jamba, Schlotsky’s), says Claiborne Irby, the company’s SVP of customer engagement and strategy. All of that traffic outside the four walls enabled Focus to measure business more effectively, and understand which customers engage in which channels.

“We’ve made the pivot, but now we’re in a place where we’re sitting on a treasure trove of data,” Irby says. “And we need to make sure that we’re driving our brands forward, that we’re putting that to use, that we’re using that data to make smart decisions to drive our brand’s performance and that customer engagement.”

The value and race for guest data can’t be understated at this turn in the COVID comeback. Take Panera Bread. Today, more than 50 percent of the chain’s orders are processed in some sort

of digital fashion that captures data ( app, online, kiosk, drivethru, loyalty at the register )

Irby says loyalty will play a lead role in 2020 at Focus. It will be hard-pressed to find a fast casual where that’s not the case. Before COVID, Chipotle had fewer than 10 million rewards members. Come December 2021, there were 24.5 million.

Loyalty helped fast casuals gain on aggregator platforms as well as top competitors, and to keep customers in the funnel through tactics other than deep discounting or coupons—avenues larger quick-serves will almost always win on. Chipotle today is using methods like predictive modeling to trigger purchasing journeys.

“We want to make sure customers are getting the best experience possible using the information we’re seeing from people in loyalty, and outside of loyalty, to help our brands remain relevant and push our brand’s commercial performance on driving that demand generation,” Irby says.

Accessibility and customization are consumer expectations now, he adds. So is driving a one-to-one relationship. McAlister’s, for instance, added tableside ordering to layer in a digital format inside of physical stores. Customers sit down, skip the line, order and customize how they want via the app, yet get the meal-to-the-table service McAlister’s is known for.

“I think that’s going to be one of the most important things for brands in the coming year, is maintaining that customer experience, owning that customer experience across the physical and digital,” Irby says

“I think there’s never been a more exciting time for the industry,” he adds, “because technology has never been more accessible to restaurants. Even a single store can get a web and an app and experiment with ghost kitchens through third-party delivery. But it’s never been harder to achieve scale. It’s never been harder to own your customer’s experience and turn that data into a competitive advantage.”

Thirty-eight-unit Piada Italian Street Food started its push into digital in 2017, as Shake Shack did. Matthew Harding, senior vice president of culinary and menu innovation at the brand, says Piada rolled out online ordering and bought a generic app. The coming year, Piada brought that technology in-house and started to implement functionality to “punch over our weight.” The company’s apps launched November of

PIADA ITALIAN STREET FOOD HAS INNOVATED THROUGHOUT COVID, FROM TECH UPDATES TO MENU LAUNCHES.

last year and have seen about 10–15 percent growth per week. “When we realized that was going to be the savior, we really rushed in,” he says.

In its infancy, fast casual’s super power was the ability to blend experience with convenience at a price point consumers hadn’t seen before. Digital boom or not, CAVA’s Schulman says, the demise of in-restaurant dining was exaggerated. At Piada, in-store traffic gained 15 percent over the summer. Another case point—CAVA saw dinner business grow by 10 percent over pre-virus.

Here, fast casual has a chance to dig in against fast food, akin to the 90s. The idea fast casual “offers the best of both worlds” and can also grab share from full-serves by competing on quality.

Torchy’s Tacos founder Mike Rypka says human beings are social by nature, and the demand to gather didn’t evaporate when the option did.

“No one really loved being locked down in their house the last 18 months,” he says. “I think there’s still a big need for that.”

Torchy’s will continue to commit to an experience that courts a social, inviting environment far removed from the “food-as-fuel” chains of past quick-service lure, Rypka adds. This means full-service bars and ambiance, and branding felt across the 95-unit fleet.

“Also respecting and knowing that you’re probably leaving money on the table if you’re not investing and working on your digital to-go experience,” he says. “You’ve got to tackle both, and for us that’s very important.”

Thanks to COVID, guests now have a drive-thru menu in their hands, Schulman says, which also blurs the lines in fast casual’s favor. Piada’s Harding refers to this as the ability to “meet guests at the screen.” They can order ahead and go to curbside, or run to a pickup shelf. “You have the [quick-service] convenience with the quality of a fast-casual experience,” Schulman says. “But you can also have the ambiance or the quality of food that you can get at a casual-dining [brand] without the time or price commitment.”

Rypka says Torchy’s is looking at pay-at-the-table, increased curbside, and just offering more channels to communicate and reach out to guests. “Definitely, I think that’s the wave of the future,” he says.

EVOLUTION IN STORE (LITERALLY)

The pandemic created a far more flexible and dynamic fast casual world. CAVA, for instance, opened a store in November in Castle Rock, Colorado, with a pickup window and dining room. It has a Bryant Park, New York, unit without any seats. Guests order down the line, but everything is packed and sent out the door. There are also some CAVAs with upward of 80 seats. In January 2022, it flexed again with a Sandy Springs, Georgia, digital pickup kitchen—a first for the brand. It’s a storefront for digital-order pickup, delivery, and catering production to support the company’s recent push into the latter.

“This new, multi-channel world that we’ve evolved allows us to think about our real estate differently and adjust our real

estate to the needs of our guest in that given neighborhood or trade area,” Schulman says.

CAVA has the added benefit of its $300 million acquisition of Zoës Kitchen from 2018. The brand planned to convert a total of 55 in 2021 with another 60-plus on deck for 2022. It’s given CAVA an outlet to expand without typical challenges of sourcing real estate, like negotiating leases or developing a site from scratch. It went from having zero Atlanta stores in May to 14 by November. Dallas began 2021 with two and now has 14 as well.

This, too, fits into a broader fast-casual reaction out of COVID. Today, 80 percent of CAVA restaurants, notwithstanding the Zoës acquisition, are suburban. Nearly all of the Zoës brought into CAVA’s fold are.

The days of fast casuals tying their fortunes to city markets are gone. And with that, the opportunity to open more drivethrus and versatile formats knocked. Off-premises strengths and how COVID crossed the digital adoption gap, gave fast casuals the ability to rely less on foot traffic to build brand recognition and awareness.

It’s an especially vivid reality at Shake Shack, which is also placing a larger focus on suburban growth (more than half of Shake Shack’s planned corporate openings in 2022 are going to come in suburban markets ). Fogertey says the brand’s digital business was scaling too fast to settle on just having functionally to order digitally. That led to the creation of “Shack Track,” a digital pre-ordering and fulfillment experience that includes pickup shelves, curbside, pickup windows, multi-carrier delivery, and, more recently, drive-thru. Shake Shack opened its first in early December in Maple Grove, Minnesota, and plans to have 10 by year’s end.

The venue features a digital menuboard, two-lane ordering system, and separate pickup window. Additionally, there’s a split-kitchen design with a separate kitchen dedicated solely to drive-thru business.

“The need to enhance and alter the physical restaurant to meet the needs of digital is so important to Shake Shack that today, nearly all new restaurants we open have some aspect of Shack Track,” Fogertey says.

It’s a significant point as Shake Shack gears up for its biggest corporate growth year on record in 2022, taking aim at 45–50 new stores. “We are a young company with just over 200 company-owned restaurants in the U.S. today,” Fogertey says. “However, we know our guests expect our digital experience to be at parity or even better than other restaurant brands with more units and more resources. We have had to be and will continue to be strategic with our investments, but most importantly, we will continue to invest in digital initiatives to help welcome more guests into our omnichannel.”

THE FUNNEL GROWS

Between March 2020 and November 2021, Shake Shack welcomed more than 3.2 million total purchases on its company-owned app and web channels. In just Q3 2021, this base grew 14 percent, quarter-over-quarter, and more than doubled

prior-year levels.

The brand retained about 80 percent of digital sales from pandemic peak ( June 2020) and digital mixed 42 percent of total business.

CAVA’s digital base boomed as well, up twofold over the past two years. The brand updated its app to more closely mirror CAVA’s in-restaurant, down-the-line experience as it began to think through another fast-casual strength—hospitality without the need of a server. “It’s not just transactional,” Schulman says. “And you’re not just tasting our brand through the food you’re eating but you’re feeling our brand through the digital hospitality you’re getting in your digital experience. … Clearly, our guests are enjoying interacting with us in both ways.”

Shake Shack knows this ethos all too well. New York restaurateur Danny Meyer started the brand as a small, local installation to help support the refurbishment of Madison Square Park. The

first Shake Shack trialed as a hot dog cart in 2003 and evolved to a permanent kiosk across from the Flatiron Building as a riff on the American hamburger stands of the 1950s and 60s. It’s never looked, or felt, like your parent’s fast-food chain.

So how can you push experience despite the impersonal nature of off-premises business? “We are always going to be focused on gathering communities, enriching our neighborhoods, launching great products, and driving our brand in new and innovative ways,” Fogertey says. “Our digital channels allow us to do this and help convey what makes Shake Shack special and how we stand apart from traditional fast food. We at Shake Shack are known for our hospitality, and we have pushed beyond our physical walls over the past year and a half to connect with our guests in ways we haven’t had the opportunity to do before.”

In urban markets, Shake Shack installed walk-up windows and dedicated entrances with pickup shelves for to-go and delivery orders. Kiosks, of which the brand continues to invest in, were designed to help guests navigate the menu and premium add-ons more easily than traditional menuboards, Fogertey says.

“In the Shacks where we offer a kiosk order mode, 75 percent of our sales come through that channel as well as our digital channels,” she explains. “Kiosks also help our team members be more efficient, and over the long term, our investments will allow us to expand our digital and omnichannel ecosystem.”

DRIVE-THRU EMERGES

Cousins Subs is another brand rethinking physical infrastructure to address demand. About 40 percent of the 100-unit chain’s system includes drive-thrus today,

SHAKE SHACK’S FUTURE PROTOTYPES TAP INTO A CHANGING AND MORE FLEXIBLE CONSUMER.

and it’s looking for opportunities to add more. Stores perform 20–30 percent better and, as of November, Cousins had six company units in development, and all included a window. Brand president Jason Westhoff says lease rates on drive-thru facilities climbed “anywhere between $5–$10 a square foot” as landlords and developers rushed to cash in.

It’s just one element of a blurring movement, though. Westhoff believes current trends will continue at least through the year, and the pandemic won’t go out with a bang.

“I don’t know if we’ve reset the guest expectations or if the guest is resetting expectations for us,” he says.

“My belief is that a lot of people found that during the pandemic they weren’t good cooks and they liked the experience of not having to spend time preparing meals, and fast casual was filling the void at home because the food was either perceived to be a better quality or there were more choices,” Westhoff adds.

At Focus, about half of customers are using drive-thru and pickup and the company expects that to hold going forward, if not increase. Either way, Irby says, Focus is readying for a landscape where consumers demand the best of both, and get a branded experience across all of it. More than a third of its customers get delivery at least once a week. “That’s opening up new occasions, both for us to serve existing customers and to gain new customers,” Irby says.

Piada has pickup windows in about 25 percent of its locations. As Chipotle continues to prove with its “Chipotlane,” fast casuals can now tack on drive-thru business without adding high-cost items like menuboards. “It’s really a frictionless thing,” Harding says. “You’ve made all of your decisions, you just wait until the allotted time, drive up, pick up your food. It’s pre-paid. You’re eliminating a lot of the pain points. I don’t know about you, but when I go up to a drive-thru and I’ve got five people in the car, my family, I get anxious because I know what I want, but they won’t think about what they want until they’re asked.”

LABOR AND CULINARY OFFER A LEG UP

Regardless of where the consumer takes fast casual, the labor challenge will linger inside restaurants. Wages historically don’t retreat after they rise. Fast casuals are in a unique spot here as well due to the fact their core guest is often younger and more interested in aligning with a brand they believe in than some larger corporations.

It’s why Cousins Subs’ Westhoff sees retention, not recruitment as the labor battleground of 2022 for the category.

The chain upped wages and took a deeper look at benefits, like daily pay and free meals. It made it easier to apply for jobs and invested in retention bonuses. Managers conduct quarterly check-ins with hourly employees and teams hold daily huddles. “What we try to do is focus on retention instead of restaffing, and the best way we can retain is to create a good culture,” he says. “And good culture happens in a thousand different ways, but the biggest way is to create touchpoints for every single person in the organization down to the newest hourly employee. … I think anything we’re doing to make the brand better today is going to last.”

Schulman says COVID awakened people to their surroundings. “Who am I working for? Why am I doing this work? What is the greater purpose behind it?” he says. “I think it’s imperative for any brand to be able to clearly communicate that. … . Having a positive impact on the communities that we serve—that’s going to motivate people to come to work for us, and to stay working for us.”

Wages are up more than 12 percent at Piada. But it’s a cost the brand would rather incur than cede ground on service and lose some of what makes fast casual special. “The thing you have to remember is if you don’t have our team members giving great hospitality, you don’t have crap,” Harding says. “… We’ve got to take care of that initial thing, which is getting our team and getting our guests happy. Right now, those are the two things that should be tattooed on the inside of your eyelids.”

And just as fast casuals continue to lead with service, décor and experience, menu diversity is going to offer these brands a leg up in 2022, Harding says. That move to comfort food when the crisis spiked? “You’ve got palate fatigue,” he says. “In the initial phase of the pandemic I’d talk to friends and [pizza] was all they had two, three times a week, and then they got tired of it,” he says. “They began to kind of explore a little bit, and they found brands and they found restaurants that offered a little bit of differentiation.” Piada ran elevated LTOs over the summer, and “Cannoli Chips” in the fall.

“Those types of things have helped to accentuate the differentiation [for fast casual], the focus on the food, the freshness cues for the guest,” Harding adds. “And guests still want those things.” q

Danny Klein is Food News Media’s editorial director. Contact him at danny@foodnewsmedia.com

EMPLOYEE RETENTION IS TOP-OF-MIND AT COUSINS SUBS AS 2022 KICKS INTO GEAR.

PIADA IS BANKING ON CUSTOMERS LOOKING FOR MENU VARIETY AGAIN.

EXECUTIVES OF THE 500 LARGEST COMPANIES listed on the S&P 500 market index had a new favorite word in 2021: “journey.” As reported by Bloomberg News, the word spiked by 70 percent year-over-year on conference calls amongst executives.

And 2021 was quite the journey in the restaurant franchising space. Fresh out of lockdowns that left ample time to hit the reset button and ponder the future, it seems a new crop of entrepreneurial-minded people had motivation like never before to take control of their own destinies, whether that meant dipping their toes into the franchising space for the first time or expanding a portfolio.

In the following pages, you’ll hear more about where the franchising industry is headed. This year’s Restaurant Franchising spotlights 15 different brands that are excited about the future. After a turbulent couple of years, it stands to reason that the brands still in growth mode are doing something right. Now they’re looking for franchisees who are enthusiastic about helping grow their concept and wherever that journey might take them.

New Menu, New Look Have Bar Louie Surging Forward

The 30-year-old brand is pacing $6 million in 2021 sales at a recently opened location.

BY CHARLIE POGACAR

BAR LOUIE HAS BEEN AROUND SINCE 1990, but the franchisor believes it has never had tailwinds quite like it does now.

“We view ourselves as mavericks in the industry,” says Tom Fricke, who for over four years has been CEO of the brand that lays claim to coining the term ‘Gastrobar.’ “When I came on board at Bar Louie, what I saw was a business with a world-class beverage program and a magical guest experience. When one of our bars is full, and the music is playing, and you’re with your friends—there’s really nothing like it.”

Over the past few years, Fricke and his team have been hard at work focusing on three main areas where it felt the brand could improve. Fricke wanted to see more overall consistency in the guest experience. He also wanted to roll out a comprehensive digital marketing strategy and to create a food menu that would match Bar Louie’s renowned drinks menu in terms of quality and innovation.

The early results have been overwhelmingly positive, with a recently opened location in Granger, Indiana, projected to cross $6 million in sales in 2021. Three other locations that opened prior to or during the pandemic have been similarly successful, and Fricke thinks that has a lot to do with sleek and modern buildouts, as well as a new food menu that’s receiving rave reviews.

AUV: $3 million

Total Investment

Cost: $500k-$2m

Guest Demographics: Mostly female, ages 25-40

Average Guest

HHI: $125k-$200k

The menu was remade by industry veteran and Wolfgang Puck alum Steve Madonna, who says the driving force behind his innovation was creating a menu that would be popular with any type of diner or bar goer.

Menu favorites that might reflect the “maverick” in the brand include Fried Pickles, a Meatloaf Grilled Cheese, and signature Voodoo Pasta. Other more standard menu items range from wings and burgers to flatbread pizzas. The brand

and mac and cheeses.

“Nowadays in our space, you have to have food that matches your bar menu and vice versa—you can’t have one without the other,” Madonna says. “I think that’s really helped us provide the experience we are trying to provide, where we have a little something for everyone.”

And now Bar Louie is seeking to grow with franchisees wanting to open up multiple locations. There are wide swaths of white space that the brand is targeting, and Fricke says the company is open to having conversations with groups in many areas across the U.S.

“One of the things potential franchisees should know about us is that we have several bars that are corporately owned that we use to test out things, like menu changes and new tech initiatives,” Fricke says. “That means when we go to them asking for a change in the way we operate, we can demonstrate to them that it’s already worked. And, right now, things are moving along really nicely—it’s a great time to be investing in Bar Louie.” RF

For more on franchising with Bar Louie, visit barlouie.com/franchise.

*Info from Bar Louie’s Franchising Brochure

business opportunity a top shelf

investment details

Our expansion across the country is fueled by embracing each market’s local demand. Widening guardrails on site selections, offering lifestyle centers, event venues, beaches, hotels, airports, and more - aligns with our values as a company, allowing our neighborhoods to shape us, rather than the other way around. Each Bar Louie location is unique to the community and supports our brand’s local personality.

“In their first full year in business, franchise-owned Bar Louie Granger in Granger, IN had the highest first year sales ever, even during 2021 as bars were coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and its challenges. They delivered over $6.7M!”

Pam Leal, VP of Franchise Operations

bb.q Chicken Aiming For Massive Growth

KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN has begun to attract the American palate, with Datassential reporting that the menu item grew by 140 percent between 2016 and 2020. One of the leading brands in that movement is bb.q chicken, a Korean chicken brand with over 3,500 locations across 57 countries, which is now rapidly growing in North America.

There is a saying in Korean culture, says bb.q Chicken USA CEO Hyongbong Kim, that “food is the gateway to all culture.” Just like the saying, Korean cuisine has led the “Korean Wave,” or the rising global popularity of South Korean culture in general. From the smash success of Netflix series “Squid Games,” to K-Pop’s entry onto the international music charts, Korean culture has seeped into the consciousness of various countries.

“The best Korean fried chicken brand, bb.q, came to the U.S. in 2007,” Kim says. “Since, it has established its brand in North America by showing Korean food culture is part of K-Culture.”

Genesis BBQ, one of the largest Korean food and beverage franchise groups and parent company of bb.q, is aiming to ride its authentic food and “best of the best” service to a larger market share in the U.S. and Canada. Having already doubled in size since 2019 in the U.S. and Canada—going from 70 units to 140—Genesis BBQ aims to grow its unit count across its multiple brands to 10,000 total stores by 2027. The brand plans to do that through organic growth, mergers, and acquisitions.

Worldwide Locations: 3,500

U.S./Canada Locations: 140

U.S./Canada

Growth: Doubled since end of 2019

U.S./Canada Location

Breakdown: 20 states, 3 provinces

bb.q believes its authenticity is what positions it as South Korea’s next big export. Its signature items include Golden Original Chicken, Secret Spicy and Honey Garlic wings, along with authentic K-Food, such as tteokbokki. Chicken menu items are paired with sauces that help accentuate bb.q’s signature flavor profiles. Key ingredients that serve as the base for those sauces and marinades are imported from South Korea, emphasizing the brand’s authenticity.

“It is a taste that sets us apart from

other Korean food brands,” Kim says. “bb.q serves the customer from its 26 years of experience and has a system in place to protect its fundamental values. bb.q Chicken exists today because we’ve provided the ‘best of the best’ service and the ‘best of the best’ taste.”

One of the many reasons bb.q is thriving is the brand’s perfect fit as a dine-in and delivery, takeout and grab-go concept. Also, it has successfully implemented digital transformation, with robust mobile and online ordering systems. bb.q is looking into the drive-thru model for units built after 2022 to further lean into the off-premises channels it has perfected over the years.

Franchisees are entitled to best-in-class technology, two weeks’ of rigorous training, and grand opening marketing investments at all locations, because, Kim explains, of Genesis BBQ Group’s belief that the franchisee’s success is the franchisor’s success.

“That’s our motto—when the franchisee thrives, the franchisor thrives,” Kim says. “Everything we do revolves around the franchisee. We put them first—we think that makes our brand very unique and gives us a strong sense of identity within the franchise industry.” RF

For more on franchising with bb.q, visit bbdotqchicken.com.

The famous South Korean brand believes it can be the country’s next big export.

“It is a taste that sets us apart from other Korean food brands.”

A Better-For-You Franchise Coming Into Its Own

A true family business, this emerging health-focused fast-casual brand wants franchisees who appreciate balance.

BY DAVINA VAN BUREN

and asking for substitutions, such as fruit or salad instead of fries. While on vacation in Arizona, he visited a juice bar that he couldn’t stop thinking about once he returned home. Not only was the juice a healthy and delicious treat, but he felt revived and energetic afterwards.

“That’s when a chord struck in my head—take the juice bar concept, and design it to meet the needs of customers today,” Alanis says. In 2005, he and Vivio invested their savings into the first Beyond Juicery + Eatery in Birmingham, Michigan.

BEYOND JUICERY + EATERY’S STORY reads like a playbook of exactly how to succeed in the restaurant business. Co-founder Mijo Alanis first started in the industry at age 15 washing dishes at a local burger restaurant. He worked his way up the ladder the old-fashioned way: from dishwasher, to prep cook, to line cook, to eventual corporate management.

During a closing shift, Alanis had a “one minute before closing” customer that changed the course of his life: his future wife and Beyond co-founder, Pam Vivio. “I tell our staff, ‘You never know what will happen in that last minute, so treat the last guest the same as the first,’” Alanis says.

Vivio’s father owned a restaurant, and Alanis soon joined the family business. It was from his father-in-law that he learned the ropes of independent ownership. “He taught me what it’s like to stick the key in the door in the morning and lock it up at night,” Alanis says. “But more than anything, he taught me how to balance work and family life and how to bring the two together.”

In the early 2000s, Alanis noticed a trend: Customers were throwing away hamburger buns

In 2008, the brand gained traction for its delicious menu offerings, sleek restaurant look, and its “be the best part of someone’s day” mindset, and franchise inquiries began. By 2015, the couple had so many knocks on the door that they decided to build out a commissary and open four more stores. “We built four stores in 14 months, wrote training manuals, and created franchise agreements,” Alanis says. “By the time we finished, we’d already sold our first franchise.”

Seven years into its franchising journey, Beyond Juicery + Eatery has 50 U.S. locations either open or in development and is eager to open more, specifically in Michigan and Ohio, with a desire to expand into Florida and Indiana as well. Potential franchisees need $400,000 net worth and $150,000 liquidity and can sign on for single or multiple units. It also helps to have a passion for healthy food and nutrition. Franchisees immerse themselves in company culture during two weeks of field training and two weeks of classroom training and receive 24/7 support from the C-suite. While it’s important that potential franchisees be properly capitalized and have an entrepreneurial mindset, the culture aspect is particularly important.

“It was the feeling I got in that juice bar in Arizona that made me remember it so much,” Alanis says. “When we select franchisees, that is the criteria I use. I can tell you how each franchisee fit into our core values—even before we had them.” RF

For more on franchising with Beyond Juicery + Eatery, visit franchise.beyondjuiceryeatery.com.

F RANCHISE OPPORTUNITIES

PRIME TERRITORIES FOR

5 0 + 50+ OPEN OR IN DEVELOPMENT LOCATIONS

FRANCHISE WITH US! LEARN MORE AT

A Flavorful Franchising Opportunity With Bonchon

The secret behind the brand’s award-winning Korean fried chicken.

BY DAVINA VAN BUREN

FOUNDED IN BUSAN, South Korea, in 2002, Bonchon opened its first U.S. location in Fort Lee, New Jersey, just four years later. Now, the chain known for its flavorful and crunch-worthy Korean fried chicken has 114 U.S. locations from Boston to San Diego, and Oregon to Florida.

Bonchon’s most popular item is its hand-battered, double-fried chicken wings and strips, which are handbrushed (not tossed) with signature spicy or soy garlic sauces invented by founder Jinduk Seo. When the franchise topped Food & Wine’s Best Chicken Wings in the U.S. list in 2017, it received national attention. In 2019, Bonchon beat out several major players in the wing game to win Business Insider’s Best Fried Chicken honors.

“That validated the quality of food and strength of the brand to both the consumer and franchisees,” says Greg Bunchanan, senior vice president of development at Bonchon. “We also recently worked with Black Box Intelligence™ to collect data on our sales performance in comparison to the competition. Bonchon has consistently outperformed all other segments and cuisines in our two-year metrics, 2021 versus 2019, with positive 23-percent same store sales as of Dec. 25, 2021. When it comes to average unit volume, it’s increased 27 percent over the past four years with our comp store sales growth up 15 percent from 2020. Most franchisees come to us after experiencing the restaurant as a consumer—the fact that we win these awards for best wings and have the data to prove our success only makes us more attractive in their eyes.”

more than half of the chain’s orders are for takeout—leading to the launch of its first fast-casual location last year in Addison, Texas. To accommodate shifting demand for off-premises dining options and catering, as well as growing interest from new and current franchisees around this model, the brand is continuing to open more fast-casual locations.

“Historically we have been a full-service restaurant, but we’re beginning to open more fast-casual prototypes, and there are a few reasons why,” Buchanan says. “The fast-casual model meets the off-premise demands of today’s consumers while also having a lower investment cost for franchisees.”

AUV: $1.39MM* 5 Year Growth

Rate: 25.4% (1/1/17-12/31/21)

YTD Same-

Store Sales

Growth 2021 vs 2019: +23%**

But Bonchon is no one-trick pony. The rest of the menu—which includes Korean comfort food like bulgogi, bibimbap, japchae, kimchi, and much more—is equally flavorful and impactful, making it a favorite among foodies and families alike. It also travels well, an important factor considering

Bonchon is seeking franchisees with restaurant experience who are passionate about the brand and interested in area development agreements. Potential franchisees also need to have a net worth of $700,000, along with $250,000 of liquidity per store. “Our ideal franchisee has franchise experience with other brands and is looking to do a multi-unit deal,” Buchanan says. “However, that is not required—they can do one or two stores.”

Bonchon has what it calls an all-star executive team led by CEO Flynn Dekker, who served as CMO of Wingstop from 2014-2018. Once franchisees sign on, they receive strong support from the C-Suite, from site selection to opening and regular check-ins. Bonchon expects to open 30 stores in 2022, with a goal of having 400 units in the U.S. by 2027. RF

For more on franchising with Bonchon, visit franchising.bonchon.com.

These Iconic Brands Perfected the OffPremises Game

Next up: a robust redesign, inside and

CHECKERS & RALLY’S had its best year ever in 2021, thanks in part to robust off-premises channels the iconic brands have been building upon for years. By the end of 2021, the brands had 86 new franchise commitments, with over 100 new locations in the pipeline for 2022.

The brands, best known for their craveable fries, delicious charbroiled burgers, and being pioneers of the double drive thru, see their success as a product of both the dynamic, indulgent menu, as well as the surge in demand for off-premises dining.

“COVID taught us that drive thrus are more flexible in certain situations—like a pandemic,” says Robert Bhagwandat, senior director of franchise development at Checkers. “We’ve always been drive-thru and walk-up only, so we had a huge head start on the competition. While everyone else was scrambling to figure out their formats, we were already set up for this, which is a big deal to franchisees considering the current labor shortage.”

The brands’ small footprint has been a central part of their operational model for decades. Very few locations have dining rooms, which allowed Checkers & Rally’s to perfect drive-thru service long before COVID. Now, as other brands try to figure out how to add drive-thru lanes or pick-up windows with limited real estate, Checkers & Rally’s are now focusing on how to improve operations in other areas—like its “Restaurant of the Future” (ROTF) concept.

As part of a $20 million capital infusion from New York-based private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners (which acquired the brands in 2017), Checkers and Rally’s conducted a time -and-motion study to facilitate a more modern and efficient redesign of its stores. As a result, kitchens were redesigned to save as much as 1.5 miles of walking during a line shift. Franchisees got a peek at the first ROTF prototype in Lakeland, Florida, last June.

2021 Unit Agreements: 86

Total New Sites in Pipeline: 105

New Agreements

Signed by Current

Franchisees: 50%

“The new exterior is a game changer,” Bhagwandat says. “We still have elements of our signature checkerboard tiles, but toned down so the restaurant image is brought forward. It’s eye-appealing and innovative, and the modular design

BY DAVINA VAN BUREN

allows franchisees to add on if they need to, but still have the iconic double drive thru.”

ROTF stores have a dedicated ecommerce window for third-party delivery drivers and customers who order through their app, which launched in January 2021.

The brands recently expanded into new territory including Rhode Island and Sacramento, California, and are seeking to partner with experienced restaurant operators who have knowledge of local real estate markets. Average development time for a new location is between six and 12 months, and initial franchise fees run between $20,000–30,000. Potential franchisees must show a $750,000 minimum net worth, of which $250,000 per location must be liquid. But, Bhagwandat says, franchising is not solely about the financial aspect.

“At the end of day, you must love and believe in what we’re doing,” Bhagwandat says. “Sit-down dining will never be at pre-COVID levels again, and existing franchisees see that it makes sense to invest more now. For new franchisees, there’s no better time to make this happen.” RF

For more on franchising with these iconic brands, visit checkersfranchising.com.

out.

“While everyone else was scrambling to figure out their formats, we were already set up for this.”

The 1,200-unit Royalty-Free Brand

Chester’s Chicken is dominating the C-store and supermarket space. Now Chester’s wants to expand its horizons.

BY CHARLIE POGACAR

THERE AREN’T MANY 1,200 UNIT BRANDS that manage to fly under the radar, but Chester’s Chicken believes it’s doing just that. With locations in each state within the continental U.S., the brand says it has achieved a “cultlike” following by serving up high-quality fried chicken in spaces that are not always known for the quality of their food, like c-stores and supermarkets.

“Our brand is centered around fresh, double hand-breaded, never-frozen chicken and making the best possible product for our customers,” says William Culpepper, vice president of marketing at Chester’s International. “By comparison to other products in c-stores and supermarkets, ours really stands out, and that makes Chester’s a destination.”

The quality of product is how Chester’s stands out as a consumer-facing brand, but there are many other reasons that the brand stands out as a franchising opportunity. For one, start-up costs are relatively low—franchisees can open stores for as little as $40,000— as Chester’s has the agility to fit into footprints of 500 square feet or less. Secondly, thanks to its hot case and counter-service model, locations rarely require more than three employees to be on the floor at once, even at peak hours, making it easier to fully staff restaurants despite the ongoing challenges other brands are facing in that department.

Finally—crucially—Chester’s Chickens does not charge royalty fees, but instead acts as the wholesaler of goods to each store. Not only is the lack of royalty fees a huge financial boon to store owners under the Chester’s brand, but it improves the relationship between franchisor and franchisee, says Andy Chand, executive vice president at Chester’s International.

Units: 1,200+ Geographic Coverage: Continental U.S. and Canada

Start-Up Costs: From $40,000

Royalty Fees: $0

“This brand has the greatest relationship I’ve ever seen between franchisor and franchisee,” Chand says. “Not having royalties really removes the wedge between those two parties and makes it so that we’re hyper focused on the profitability of our franchisees.”

About two years ago, Chester’s rolled out a brand refresh across its footprint, focused on revamping the menu and creating

prototypes that would help the brand stand out in a market that’s becoming more competitive. The brand added items like a Fried Chicken Sandwich, and a Buffalo Chicken sandwich and revamped its sides like green beans and mac and cheese.

Now the brand is seeking to grow into some non-traditional franchising markets, like college campuses, airports, and stadium spaces. While California is the brand’s fastest-growing market, Chester’s is seeking to grow in places like Texas, Florida, the Carolinas, and many other markets as well.

“Our concept is turnkey,” Culpepper says. “We’re looking for franchisees who are fully committed to our brand’s program and have a passion for serving quality products. We’re specifically seeking multi-unit operators, or those who have the potential to be. We feel like we have a ton of white space to develop in various markets, and anybody who is looking to open a great concept in a high traffic location is somebody we want to talk to.” RF

For more on franchising with Chester’s, visit chesterschicken.com.

CHESTER’S INTERNATIONAL (2)

“This brand has the greatest relationship I’ve ever seen between franchisor and franchisee.”

What “Taco Life” Means to Chronic Tacos

The

Southern California brand’s organic model has proved to travel well.

BY CHARLIE POGACAR

CHRONIC TACOS BEGAN IN 2002 as a venture between friends who were sick of not having great tacos near their local hangout in Newport Beach, California. They opened a storefront focusing on serving authentic Mexican food with a vibe that would be slightly elevated from a typical taqueria.

The friends—Randy Wyner and Dan Biello—couldn’t have known that they were starting something of a movement, an organic approach to food and business they now define as the “Taco Life.”

“‘Taco Life’ for us is about individuality,” says Michael Mohammed, CEO of Chronic Tacos. “It’s about embracing the uniqueness of everybody’s lifestyle, whatever it is that they do. It’s really a culture that values creativity, progressiveness, and having fun—that’s the vibe we’ve created as a brand and that we seek to build within our restaurants.”

According to Mohammed, there are three strategic pillars that the brand focuses on to make it stand out from its competitors: unparalleled flavor, an elevated vibe, and an irresistible edge.

The unparalleled flavor comes from Southern California-inspired, third-generation recipes that Mohammed and others refer to as “higher quality than a typical fast casual.” Popular menu items include the signature California burrito, as well as tacos al pastor.

The elevated vibe is created by the approach the brand takes to training employees, emphasizing an atmosphere where everyone will feel welcome and happy to be hanging out there. According to Mohammed, each employee is encouraged to be their “true, authentic self,” which helps forge that image throughout the brand.

AUV: $1.34 million* Initial Investment Costs: $306,000$816,000 Franchise Fee: $40,000

Finally, the irresistible edge is the brand’s approach to unique decor, music playlists, and things like large, eye-catching murals on walls that help bring a Southern California spirit to wherever a store is built.

“This is a growing segment,” Mohammed says. “There are many brands our size serving Mexican

food, so you have to create an experience for the customer, and we really believe we create the best, most unique experience. And on top of that, our food is more authentic and traditional. We’ll put our food up against any competitor, bigger, smaller, quick service, or full service.”

All of this has translated into great business for the brand, with same-store sales growing 8 percent year over year in 2021. Chronic Tacos has grown to over 50 locations and is looking to franchise with people excited to bring the Taco Life to their community.

“Our franchisee for an upcoming location was telling me that he cannot wait to begin serving our food,” Mohammed says. “There’s such a sense of pride in the food we serve and the stor y behind its authenticity. I think it is a passion for our franchisees—it’s not just burgers out of a bag. The taco life is real.” RF

For more on the Taco Life, visit chronictacos.com/own-franchise.

“Our food is more authentic and traditional. We’ll put our food up against any competitor, bigger, smaller, quick-service, or full service.”

Detroit Wing Co. Poised for Major Growth

With a perfected takeout-only model, the award-winning brand ramps-up expansion.

WHILE THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, in-demand quick-service concepts have experienced a surge in revenue. That may be due to the fact that consumers have largely shifted their preferences from sit-down dining to takeout and delivery options.

So it’s no surprise Michigan-based Detroit Wing Co. enjoyed substantial sales growth in 2021, which included a system-wide increase of 72.05 percent, and a same store increase of 17.77 percent.

Through perfecting its quick-serve model that offers made-to-order chicken wings, tenders, and sides, Detroit Wing Co. has kept up with the growing demand for fast, high-quality food options.

“Being a made-to-order takeout restaurant from the start, we had a leg-up on the competition once the shift began in early 2020,” said Gus Malliaras, founder of Detroit Wing Co. “We saw this trend as an opportunity to grow our brand exponentially through partnering with franchisees to open new stores around the country, and the response has been incredible.”

Locations: 12

Projected Total Locations EOY

The company has opened seven new stores in the last 18 months, with 24 additional locations slated to open this year. At a time when many restaurants are shuttering, Detroit Wing Co. has created a unique model for success and continued growth.

2022: 36

Corporateowned stores: 9%

Percentage of sales increase in Q4 2021 vs. Q3: Same Store Increase - 4.72%, System Wide Increase - 10.96%

“Opening our business to franchisees took our brand to new heights,” added Malliaras. “We are now able to replicate what has made us among the best in the business and introduce Detroit Wing Co. to new customers every single day. It has been very exciting for both us and our franchisees.”

It seems consumers just can’t get enough of the brand’s wings in particular—based on polls, they are consistently rated among the best chicken wings in

Michigan, having been dubbed “Best in the State” by Esquire Magazine, Delish. com, Thrillist, Eater, Insider, Men’s Health, and other national media outlets. For Malliaras, it was a natural move to continue to find ways to improve and expand, which included a refresh of the brand’s identity through updates to the restaurants’ interior layouts and design. All upcoming Detroit Wing Co. franchises are required to build within the new blueprint, which includes updated digital signage, dedicated pick-up areas for delivery partner apps and online orders, and a more sleek, modern feel.

The first store with the new look opened in Woodhaven, Michigan, in December 2021.

“It’s truly exciting to be a part of something that has grown from a single location in 2015 to what is quickly becoming a household name in chicken wings,” said Malliaras. “The sky is the limit, and together with our franchisees, we plan to continue to enjoy uncapped, exceptional growth. As I tell all of our new franchisees—hold on tight!” RF

For more on franchising with Detroit Wing Co., visit detroitwingco.com.

“Opening our business to franchisees took our brand to new heights.”

The Beloved Brand Reimagining Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Edible® is a case study on how to stay relevant in the foodservice business.

BY DAVINA VAN BUREN

CONSUMERS KNOW EDIBLE ® for its delicious, floral-inspired fruit creations, but savvy entrepreneurs know the longevity, history of innovation, and name recognition that comes along with the brand.

Edible® founder and CEO Tariq Farid bought his first business—a flower shop in East Haven, Connecticut—at just 17 years old. A natural and enthusiastic entrepreneur, he soon introduced flower-style arrangements made completely of fresh fruit. The idea caught on like wildfire, and 22 years later, he leads a powerful global brand with more than 1,000 franchise locations. In recent years, Edible®—formerly Edible Arrangements—rebranded to better reflect its updated offerings including smoothies, miniature fruit topped cheesecakes, cookies, cupcakes, tea, popcorn, nuts graze boards, and its signature gourmet chocolate-dipped fruit.

Locations: 1,000+ Net Worth: $250,000 Liquidity: $80,000 Years of Success: 22

As the world’s leading gift and treat destination, Edible® is looking for franchisees to develop in a variety of key markets. “We have 450 franchise

opportunities remaining and available over the next few years, with 150 that will be developed in nontraditional spaces such as airports and military bases,” says Patricia Perry, vice president of franchise development at Edible®

While other brands are focusing on expanding drivethru services, Edible® is on a different track. Instead, the brand is improving its in-store experience. Since Edible® products are perfect for gifting, Perry explains, customers want a sensory and interactive experience with the products before they buy them.

As such, most new locations have a smaller footprint with an open floor plan that brings the back-ofhouse operations front and center on the retail floor. Customers can watch their arrangements being crafted and pick out containers and accessories like balloons, teddy bears, and a wide assortment of other items, all in person. End-cap locations with drive thrus will be pursued by the brand as well.

“From a brand perspective, we focus on how to improve the customer experience, ensuring we have the right product mix, the right location, and the right franchisees,” Perry says.

“So many new product categories have launched; from whole fruit boxes to our delicious Edible Bakeshop™ items and now even grazing boards. People want more customization and visibility into how their products are created, so the newly designed stores accomplish this.”

An added bonus: As an omnichannel concept, delivery is embedded into Edible’s® business model, and, as a result, the brand has seen significant year-over-year increases in systemwide sales, even during very uncertain times. The brand also has a robust, user-friendly e-commerce platform and its own shipping network, which provides additional options to reach customers during COVID. Edible® wants to open franchises in several target markets including Alaska, California, Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and the Midwest.

“We seek out potential franchisees who are experienced in retail or foodservice operations. They must be passionate about Edible® and have strong connections with their local communities,” Perry says. “We want consumers and businesses to know Edible® is available for all their gifting and treat needs, and we look forward to helping them celebrate what’s good in life.” RF

For more on franchising with Edible®, visit ediblefranchise.com.

The Human Bean is People First

The coffee franchise is laser-focused on growing its values alongside its brand.

BY CHARLIE POGACAR

THE FIRST THING MANY PEOPLE NOTICE about The Human Bean is the coffee brand’s unique name. What they may not know is that it was conceived by the mother of Dan Hawkins, co-founder and CEO of The Human Bean, and speaks to the culture of family, friends, and community that the coffee franchise holds dear.

“The name to us is about the guest experience we seek to provide and the way we approach working in the community and giving back,” Hawkins says. “It’s still the perfect name—the human element is something that’s just so important to us, from our franchisees, to our team members, to our guests.”

After opening its first location in Ashland, Oregon, in 1998, The Human Bean quickly became known for its efficient drive thrus and wide-ranging menu, featuring everything from high-quality espresso shots to decadent mochas and smoothies. The brand has achieved notoriety thanks to initiatives like Coffee for a Cure, which has raised over $2 million for breast cancer support and treatment.

Now the brand is one of the fastest-growing coffee franchises in the U.S., with 132 locations currently open and nearly 200 more in development in 29 states. As the brand grows and sales increase, The Human Bean relies on forward-thinking solutions, like line-busting tablets that keep up its drivethru efficiency without compromising on the quality of its product.

percent of the brand’s franchisees said they would recommend franchising with The Human Bean to a friend.

Hawkins believes that the high approval ratings are owed to the brand’s ongoing dedication to supporting franchisees, but he also thinks keeping franchisees happy starts with identifying the right partners to grow with.

Royalties: 0%

Franchise Fee: $30,000

Start-up Costs: $380,025 to $905,025

“Keeping the integrity of the brand is the most important thing for us in everything that we do,” Hawkins says. “We wouldn’t be expanding at the rate that we are if we didn’t think we could maintain the ethos of the brand and partner with people who will grow the brand the way we envision it.”

Technology: Robust

POS with integrated line busting and contactless rewards app

Hawkins is especially proud of the relationship The Human Bean has built with its franchisee partners. In a recent review conducted by a third-party, over 90

“We deny many more franchisees and locations than we approve because we really want to find people and places where we know we will be successful in sharing our culture,” Hawkins says. “That means creating a positive atmosphere where our amazing baristas can create the best possible guest experience. How do we maintain that? It requires a whole lot of upstream work in identifying the right people, plus regular communication from our system’s field operations team that goes out and assures not only quality and consistency but shares what a guest experience looks like, feels like, and tastes like.

“Because at the end of the day, that’s what separates us: The authentic connection we have with our guests in anticipating their needs and delivering something super special for them each time they come into our store.” RF

For more on franchising with The Human Bean, visit thehumanbean.com.

“Keeping the integrity of the brand is the most important thing for us in everything that we do.”

Not Your Average Sandwich Shop

How Lennys plans to become a major player in the sub sandwich segment.

BY CHARLIE POGACAR

THE TEAM AT LENNYS GRILL & SUBS is energized about its growth prospects, believing it can be a major player in the sandwich segment. They’re not alone—in 2018, QSR magazine named Lennys a top franchise deal, ranking it No. 1 in the sandwich category.

Lennys’ signature subs include the Mile High Turkey as well as the Philly Cheesesteak. But these unique signature items are not the only reason why the franchisor believes it’s “not your average sub shop.” Its differentiation from the competition, says Ranee Huff, director of marketing and communications at Lennys, is owed to its exemplary guest experience.

“We don’t just make you a sandwich,” Huff says. “Our people and our food give you an experience. We are your favorite neighborhood sandwich shop, where we know our customers by name.”

The 70-plus-unit brand was founded in Memphis in 1998 and began franchising in 2001. More recently, GOSH Enterprises—owner of Charley’s Philly Cheesesteaks and Bibibop Asian Grill—bought Lennys and began implementing technology and other infrastructure to prepare for growth. So far, the results post-purchase have been overwhelmingly positive, with double digit sales growth year-over-year.

Franchise Fee: $25,000

Total Investment: $332,030 - $455,594

Liquid Capital

Requirement: $75,000

Net Worth

Needed: $400,000

Lennys is now looking for franchisees who want to either open a single unit or want the rights to multi-unit territorial rights.

One of the reasons the Lennys team is confident first-time franchisees can be as successful as veterans is because of the ongoing support the brand gives its franchisees. It begins the moment the franchise agreement is signed. The support progresses during lease negotiation, restaurant buildout, while a marketing plan is being developed, when

operations training is taking place on site, and beyond.

“One of our mottos here is that you own your own business, but you’re not alone,” says Daniel Moran, franchise developer for Lennys. “For example, we pride ourselves on the fact that if you have an IT problem, our IT team will get back to you in under 20 minutes. They’re very responsive because at the end of the day, as an organization, we just care.”

In that way, the brand’s dedication to its franchisees is emblematic of its positioning as a neighborhood sandwich shop, Huff says. There’s a personal touch to everything Lennys does.

“If someone has a dream of owning and running their own business, we are dedicated to making that dream a reality,” Huff adds. “If it works for both parties, then let’s do this. The restaurant industry isn’t for everybody. It’s really hard work. But it’s also rewarding work, and we can’t think of anything better than helping to provide jobs for people and put a smile on customers’ faces. That’s what it’s all about for us.” RF

For more on franchising with Lennys, visit lennysfranchise.com.

“One of our mottos here is that you own your own business, but you’re not alone.”

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Trailblazer Pokeworks Wants to “Dominate” Category It Helped Define

The 61-unit brand is looking for multi-unit franchisee partners.

WHEN POKEWORKS first stepped onto the scene in 2015 with its first store in downtown Manhattan, not many mainland Americans knew much about Hawaii’s increasingly famous fare, poke. That was about to change in a big way, thanks in part to the trailblazing brand, in addition to consumers’ desire for healthy, sustainable foods—Datassential reports that from 2016 to the end of 2020, poke grew on menus by 135 percent.

Prior to Pokeworks opening in midtown Manhattan, poke was primarily a menu item and not a concept category. Pokeworks, lines extending out the door and around the block, essentially launched the poke category.

“We really created the category in a lot of ways,” says Larry Sidoti, chief development officer at Pokeworks. “Fast forward to the present day, and what makes Pokeworks different from competitors is our food, execution, leadership, and our best-in-class support team. Pokeworks is a premium brand that sources the highest quality ingredients. There is no compromise when it comes to freshness and quality. We work very hard to source only the best products while some of our competitors cut corners in that respect. You can see and taste the difference in the product—ours is superior.”

The brand now has 61 units across North America, and Sidoti says Pokeworks has built the foundation to scale its footprint in a significant way. The brand’s C-suite now includes a CEO, CDO, and COO with a combined 80-plus years of industry experience, rounding out a leadership team with extensive operations, marketing, and supply chain expertise.

“For us, the magic really happens with ‘Poke Your Way,’” Sidoti says. “That’s something we started, and it’s part of our ongoing innovation that’s led by one of our founding partners, Mike Wu, who has been intimately involved with everything about Pokeworks on the culinary side.”

Number of locations: 60+

Restaurants open by 2023: 85+

Percentage of multi-unit franchisees: 90%

Initial investment range: $259,000$659,000

While the Pokeworks menu boasts six signature bowls, the majority of guests opt for the brand’s “Poke Your Way” option, where guests get to choose a protein, base, mix-ins, toppings, flavor, and crunch. The menu also features the unique Garlic Spam Musubi—one of those “you have to try it” items, Sidoti says.

The brand is now looking for entrepreneurial-minded people to sign multi-unit deals in various regions across the U.S. Pokeworks is currently on track to open 20 restaurants in 2022 and believes it will have upwards of 200 total units by the end of 2025. Sidoti says important qualities in a franchisee include a working knowledge of the industry, of franchising, and somebody who has a deep passion for the restaurant industry and is aligned with the values and beliefs of Pokeworks.

“We want entrepreneurs who are passionate about food, hospitality, and operating successful restaurants,” Sidoti says. “We have a three-year plan, and our goal is to dominate this category. We want to continue building a great and dominant brand that sets the bar for what right looks like. We want to be best in class in all facets of the business providing our franchise partners with a system that not only creates wealth, but spreads the spirit of Aloha in everything we do. We believe we’ve done a good job of that so far, and we’re only going to continue to improve.” RF

For more on franchising with Pokeworks, visit pokeworks.com/franchise.

The Fast-Growing Franchise Aiming to Eliminate Coffee Deserts

Targeting 200+ openings this year, Scooter’s Coffee ramps up franchise opportunities.

BY DAVINA VAN BUREN

IN 1998, DON AND LINDA ECKLES opened a drive-thru coffeehouse in Bellevue, Nebraska. Their business philosophy was simple: Stay committed to high-quality drinks and speedy service with a smile.

At the time, the drive-thru coffee shop model was fairly new, but in the 23 years since, Scooter’s Coffee has perfected the approach. Serving up responsibly-sourced hot and iced coffee, smoothies, teas, and a limited menu including breakfast items, muffins, and sandwiches, Scooter’s Coffee has become an integral part of many Midwesterners’ daily routine.

Drive-Thru

Kiosk AUV: $993,790

YOY Sales

Growth: 31%

Locations: 400+ and counting

“Since our inception, we have focused on drive thru and the convenience that provides to customers,” says Kelly Crummer, senior director of franchise recruitment for Scooter’s Coffee. “With COVID, we have seen an increase in demand for drivethru services, and we are set up to provide that.”

Scooter’s Coffee has more than 400 locations in the U.S., most of which are located in the Midwest. Because the brand acts as its own distributor,

Crummer explains, they want to grow strategically outward from where stores are currently located and have an aggressive growth plan which includes opening more than 200 new stores in 2022.

“A lot of Midwest states have coffee deserts,” Crummer says. “The density in competition is not as high, so we want to capitalize on that opportunity and fill that need. Since we distribute to our own locations, we need stores to match the growth of our distribution network in order to fill in those gaps.”

Scooter’s Coffee works with franchisees who have a wide variety of experiences. Many have restaurant or hotel backgrounds, while some are executives in other companies who seek more financial freedom and flexibility. The most important factor when it comes to selecting franchisees is whether or not they’re a cultural match for the brand.

“Our core values—Love, Integrity, Humility, and Courage—are paramount to our success, and they are nonnegotiable,” Crummer says. “We are looking for people who want to partner with us and are willing to be coached. We are not trying to be all things to all people—while we love new ideas, we want to stay focused on friendly people serving amazing drinks, fast.”

The drive-thru kiosk model is the more popular design for franchisees. This model has a 674-foot building with a small footprint and lower staffing requirements. To qualify, potential franchisees must show $200,000 in liquid capital, including cash, savings, or assets that can be quickly liquidated. However, the culture fit trumps all else. Potential partners should be enthusiastic about coffee and dedicated to high customer service standards.

“One thing we talk about internally is the responsibility we have in servicing our customers,” Crummer says. “Many times we are the first human interaction they have outside their ho me in the morning, so we have a responsibility to start their day off right.” RF

For more on franchising with Scooter’s Coffee, visit franchising.scooterscoffee.com

SCOOTER’S COFFEE

“Since our inception, we have focused on drive thru and the convenience that provides to customers.”

*This is historical representation of what some of our franchised stores earned as described further in Item 19 of the FDD. This information is based upon 102 of 187 Drive-Thru Kiosks that were open for at least 13 months during the measured period. There is no guarantee you will stay in business that long or that you will achieve the stated levels of same-store sales growth within that time period. Your results may differ. See Item 19 of the FDD for more information.

The Branded Asian Concept Taking the Franchise World by Storm

Teriyaki Madness has grown same-store sales by 33 percent since the onset of the pandemic.

BY DAVINA VAN BUREN

MOST SIZABLE AMERICAN CITIES have an independentlyowned Asian restaurant that locals rave about. The downside? Consistency—the dishes someone may love at their neighborhood takeout spot can be a very different recipe than what they’d find elsewhere. This, combined with the rising popularity of offpremises dining, means more diners are looking for branded Asian takeout options.

“These days, people want comfort and convenience,” says Michael Haith, CEO of Teriyaki Madness. “Asian food travels better than almost any other food category, but there aren’t a lot of branded Asian delivery options.”

Enter: Teriyaki Madness, which offers a curated selection of made-to-order teriyaki bowls—what Haith calls “huge bowls of awesomeness”—featuring marinated grilled chicken, steak, salmon or tofu, fresh veggies, noodles and rice, and house-made sauces. “We serve people who want delicious food that happens to be healthier,” Haith says.

The franchise had a heavy focus on takeout and delivery well before the pandemic. In fact, Haith describes the concept as “neighborhood shops” with a rocket engine of a tech stack that puts the brand ahead of the pack. Teriyaki Madness made a large investment that relies heavily on solutions such as Olo, Punchh, and integrated third-party delivery to provide a variety of dining solutions for its customers.

“We focus on being able to operate in small footprints—most shops are 1,200-1,600 square feet,” Haith says. “We provide lots of pickup, third-party delivery, and catering—but we don’t get into expensive real estate. We don’t have drive thru, but we address that with curbside pickup that is second to none.”

Franchise fee: $45,000

Total Investment: $327,200-$678,260

Liquid Capital Requirement: $150,000

AUV: $1,079,488

On average, store sales are more than $1 million annually, and initial investment ranges from $327,200 to $678,260. The brand now has more than 105 stores in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and another 40 that are scheduled to open in 2022.

Teriyaki Madness wants to partner with local business people throughout North

America, and Haith emphasizes that he’s not focused as much on specific regions as he is on finding the right partners. “We connect deeply, as franchisees are members of the neighborhoods and the community,” he says.

Many Teriyaki Madness franchisees have no previous experience in the restaurant industry, something that’s possible thanks to a focus on training and support that begins with a crash course in the company’s culture.

Ultimately, what separates Teriyaki Madness’s support from other franchises, Haith explains, is full focus in reviewing P&L statements each month and a focus on franchise profitability. As more diners seek branded Asian food options, it’s an optimal time for franchisees to take advantage of the company’s strong positioning and growth plans.

“As a franchise organization, we help people accomplish the American dream,” Haith says. “Our organization is built to provide opportunities to firsttime franchisees, while at the same time supporting those who do have the experience to partner with us to grow quickly.” RF

“As a franchise organization, we help people accomplish the American dream.”

The Better-For-You Concept Looking for Passionate Franchisees

The superfood cafe has 119 units either open or in the works.

NOT EVERY FRANCHISE CONCEPT can say it was born o f necessity, but Vitality Bowls is no ordinary brand.

When Tara and Roy Gilad’s daughter developed severe food allergies early in life, the couple noticed a lack of restaurants that could reliably accommodate her needs. They couldn’t accept this as their daughter’s reality, so they set out on a journey.

“It was so hard watching our daughter go through what she went through,” Tara Gilad says. “On top of that, we felt like we could never go out as a family. So we said, ‘You know what? Let’s create an incredible restaurant that our daughter can go to.’”

Since Tara and Roy were self-proclaimed health nuts, they decided to make Vitality Bowls an allergen-sensitive café brand built around superfoods, like açaí.

The first store opened in the Bay Area in 2011, and it took a whole lot of grassroots marketing from the Gilads to spread the word. But once people came through the doors, they fell in love with the food. Menu items included salads, acai bowls, and smoothies, while a recent menu roll out added craveable items like grain bowls, toasts, and wraps.

Once the brand started franchising and expanded into other states, one of the many people who fell in love with the food was Josh Willingham, now a franchisee with three stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Willingham’s stores are just three of the more than 119 units the brand has either currently open or in the site selection or construction phase.

BY CHARLIE POGACAR

Locations: 76 open; 43 in pipeline

YoY Sales

“The first time you try Vitality Bowls, if you’re a health food junkie like me, you can’t believe how good it tastes,” Willingham says. “And then I started digging in and doing the research and found the company was super transparent with its menu and ingredients—everything was real, clean, with no hidden preservatives—and that aligned with my own goals. I wanted to bring that to my community in Frisco to give everybody a chance to eat a little healthier.”

Comps: 18% growth (20202021)

Minimum Liquid Capital: $50k

Minimum Net

Worth: $350k

Willingham’s background was in finance, but he’d always dreamed of owning his own business. Vitality Bowls was struck by his passion for the brand, which happened to be exactly what the franchisor is looking for in a franchisee. Vitality Bowls is looking to grow its brand with people who, like Willingham,

will take great pride in bringing a healthy, allergen-conscious brand to their own community.

“What I love most about this company is that we get such a diverse group of franchise partners,” says Uriah Blum, the brand’s vice president of development. “We love collaborating with our franchisees and getting their opinions and ideas. A lot of them aren’t restaurant people, but they have that passion and this brand really resonates with them. They’re all in and have the personality to back that up. They are willing to self promote and be social and embed themselves in the community, and we’ve been fortunate to find people capable of doing that.” RF

Panera Pushes Ahead

Since announcing its commitment to be climate positive by 2050, the fast casual is making its presence known as a sustainable, environmentally conscious company.

BY SUZANNE BLAKE

call. If some guests wanted to see the calorie information transparently laid out, why not provide it?

Labeling a meal’s carbon footprint was simply an extension of that vision to be transparent. The brand recognized guests were becoming increasingly aware of their place in the climate debate and wanted to play an active role. Yet Panera also knew it wasn’t so easy.

Was there a way, however, to simplify it down to the plate? To date, favorites like the chipotle chicken avocado melt and broccoli cheddar soup are designated as low-carbon “Cool Food Meals.” The moniker signals options with a low impact on the climate as certified by the World Resources Institute.

Since implementing these “Cool Food Meal” labels, Panera has monitored higher click-through rates and increased frequency from emails that tell customers they purchased environmentally friendly entrees.

Sustainability has been a long journey for Panera Bread, and one that goes back to the brand’s foundation as a restaurant concept, says Sara Burnett, its VP of food beliefs and sustainability.

In 2004, the chain became one of the first to start serving chicken raised without antibiotics. At first, it was just about getting the best-tasting product to accompany salads, and the choice happened to be antibiotic free.

“As we started to learn about those practices and everything that goes into the care for these animals and how they’re raised without antibiotics, we said, ‘Not only is this the best tasting product, but this is actually what it means to be good for you, good for the planet, good for the community, good for animals,’” Burnett says.

The company began labeling low-carbon entrees in 2020. It had listed calories for menu items long before it was required to do so as well, starting in 2010.

In the late 2000s, Panera was fresh off the decision to remove artificial trans fats from its menu and was holding internal conversations about nutrition. That made labeling calories a quick

And last fall, Panera arguably made the biggest sustainability decision yet. It pledged to become the first national fast casual to become climate positive by 2050. This means Panera will take out more carbon than it emits into the environment by that year.

This was the natural evolution in Panera’s climate journey after the brand reached its most recent target of reducing direct emissions per square foot by 15 percent ( since 2017 ). It wasn’t enough for Panera to announce a net-zero commitment, Burnett says.

The data is clear the work that net-zero work companies and even G2 Summit countries are doing today still falls short of what is necessary to stay below the 1.5 degrees Celsius increase in global temperatures that scientists warn about, she adds.

If successful in its commitment, Panera will eliminate roughly 2.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents each year compared to its 2019 greenhouse gas baseline. That number is equal to the amount of carbon sequestered by 2.96 million acres of forest per year, an area 14 times the size of New York City.

“Indirectly, our hope is that we inspire others to do the same, to make bold commitments whether that is a commitment to simply reduce their carbon footprint year over year, or it is to reach climate positivity,” Burnett says. “We know that our actions alone are not enough. It really is going to take our entire industry, truly

Panera has been at the forefront of sustainability in fast casual.

going to take everyone, our consumers, our partners, our industry, and really every industry in the world to make a big difference.”

Panera’s climate positive vision requires specific, immediate action—and smaller 2025 goals.

One element being to increase the percentage of Cool Food Meals to 60 percent of its bakery-cafe entrees. Panera says if, each year, every person in the U.S. swapped 10 quarter-pound burgers with fries for 10 Chipotle Chicken Avocado Melt sandwiches with chips, it would reduce carbon emissions by 77 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. This change equates to taking more than 16 million passenger vehicles off the road for one year.

Panera’s 2025 targets also include transitioning to 100 percent circular, reusable, and compostable packaging and green, renewable energy for at least 50 percent of owned operations.

But Panera also understands, from its previous decisions concerning chicken, calories and low carbon entrees, the greatest impact can stem from announcing bold commitments.

“We help really make the case for other brands, who might be hesitant in this because it is really complicated and really difficult work, to have confidence that we’re in this together,” Burnett says. “We all are going to create change, and so I’m excited by that momentum.”

There are a few key challenges that await Panera as it attempts to follow through on its promises.

For one, only about 20 percent of the country’s infrastructure operates with clean energy today. If Panera wants to meet its climate goals, it’s a figure that has to dramatically lift, Burnett says.

In order for Panera to fulfill its promise, there also must be widespread adoption of regenerative agricultural practices.

“I think that’s a huge lever that we’re all going to have to pull is to figure out how collectively do we implement regenerative practices on a wide scale basis,” Burnett says.

Supply shortages can also put a wrench into a brand’s best-laid sustainability plans for packaging, although ultimately, Burnett believes, the current shortages will come and go.

“We are very much dependent on our supply chains and our supply chain partners to achieve our goals,” Burnett says. “So they are going to be critical for us as we think about how we build strong resilient supply chains for the future so that we can not only achieve our goal and maintain our goals. It’s going to become even more critical in the future.”

As Panera forges ahead, Burnett believes more consumers are going to be looking at brands for increased transparency. The carbon footprint of meals will become a powerful part of consumers’ decisions.

“We think they’re going to continue to ask for more and more choices that are sustainably raised and just better for the planet,” Burnett says. q

DEPARTMENT OPERATIONS

Subscribe and Thrive

Accessibility is driving a new era of loyalty, and subscription programs aim to tap into all of it.

BY SUZANNE BLAKE

After Panera Bread launched its coffee subscription program in early 2020, the concept quickly gained traction with guests. Panera signed up 800,000 customers for the unlimited coffee offering during early months.

More recently, Caribou Coffee followed suit and fast casual Urban Plates jumped onboard. Taco Bell nationally launched a 30-day taco subscription in January.

Caribou Coffee launched its program in September, creating a nationwide coffee delivery service for craft-roasted coffee ground to consumer’s specifications. K-Cup Pods, teas, and ready-to-drink canned beverages were also available.

The Midwest-based coffee chain long had an informal subscription offering, but it was historically done via phone. This is the first time the platform was rebooted to be available on the web.

“It really came down to the fact that we know we’re a Midwest concentrated brand, and we know that our guests everywhere love our coffee and love our brand and wanted to be able to experience it in their neck of the woods,” says Erin Newkirk, VP of brand strategy at Caribou Coffee.

With the formalized subscription, consumers from more states could experience Caribou Coffee at home any time, widening Caribou’s scope of market penetration.

“It’s been a huge success,” Newkirk says. “Even more than anything, we’re always listening to our customers, and the fact that we are meeting them where they’re at is really powerful.”

To date, Caribou enjoyed a significant response from customers, evenly distributed across its typical markets and those out of reach of a traditional storefront. Ultimately, it proved a way for people to ensure they always have coffee in their pantry. And Caribou products at that.

It’s a strategy situated at an ideal time, too, Newkirk says. Currently, coffee is having a moment as at-home occasions surge from COVID.

“People nowadays are craving the community and the comfort of coffee,” Newkirk says. “That’s one of the reasons that we’ve really thrived during this time of uncertainty. I think subscription programs make people feel like there’s something that they can

rely on and that they can count on. It provides a sense of comfort and community and knowing that they’re going to get the very best in a regular way.”

Urban Plates’ Plate Pass is a monthly subscription that makes every menu item $10 or less for a fee of just $10 a month. This includes more than 30 individual entrees with an average cost of $13.50.

Urban Plates began testing “Plate Pass” in the second half of 2020 and officially rolled out the offering in June. The undertaking stemmed from the brand’s original mission: to make healthy food accessible.

Subscription programs are flowing at a time in which many restaurants continue to seek out customer loyalty to boost profits. It’s a way to keep prices down via higher guest visit frequency as well. But the greater motive for Urban Plates, the company says, is that mission of bringing healthy food to willing audiences. If Whole Foods was more affordable, Urban Plates founder Saad Nadhir says, more people would shop there. But healthy options are often out of reach.

Through this program, consumers can get food at what ends

Urban Plates wants to make healthy eating affordable to the masses.

INSIGHTS / CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

top, like aggregated performance at the regional level, and may overlook how to collect and evaluate valuable insights that drive performance at the local level.

Invest in solutions or training

There are lots of actionable ways that your brand can help you fill the local data gap, from analytics experts to marketing technology. Work with certified analytics or marketing data partners who can help navigate setting up conversion and behavior tracking on the site and/or app. For those who want to tackle it in-house, most prominent ad providers like Google and Facebook offer detailed instructions or even free courses to bring novices up to speed. There are also a variety of paid courses.

Track all location-relevant site behavior

This can be as simple as tracking how many people have been to a specific restaurant location’s web page or as sophisticated as determining whether site visitors have physically entered your locations. The goal is to understand how these factors impact sales.

Paint a picture with data

When advertisers track more actions than transactions or “conversions,” insights begin to emerge that indicate what behaviors and/or traits are most valuable to the business. For example, brands may find that people who use a specific site feature, or view content in a specific order, are more likely to complete a purchase. It’s also very likely that these characteristics differ, potentially significantly, based on where prospective customers are located. Putting all of this data together gives advertisers a more detailed view of customer behavior per region.

Analyze data, optimize

campaigns, rinse,

repeat

Equipped with valuable local customer data, marketers can analyze this information to determine what sort of campaign optimization can make the most impact. If advertisers see similarities among converting traffic in upper funnel actions in a specific region, lookalike models of users who have performed these actions can be built, which will bring new traffic to the site that is highly likely to convert. q

up being a considerable discount, between 28–30 percent. Already, Urban Plates witnessed a “substantial increase” in the frequency of guest visitation to the restaurant, Nadhir says. And it’s from the kind of core user the chain expects to stick around for other deals and options.

“We’ll see over time whether it plays out into an economic win for everybody, but right now it looks like it is,” Nadhir says. “It looks like the consumer wins really big, and we don’t get hurt.”

Originally, at the first store in Del Mar, California, in 2011, Urban Plates offered their entrees at $10.

No matter the meal, whether a steak or a Cobb salad, everything was priced at that fixed point. That could no longer be the case with surging commodity prices and labor costs mounting up. Prices crept up to $14-15.

But while everyone else is raising prices, Plate Pass enables Urban Plates to be one of few chains dialing them back. As price points lower, Nadhir says, Urban Plates’ addressable market rises.

His hope is that Plate Pass empowers Urban Plates to become a larger brand, one that more people will seek out for inexpensive healthy food.

“That one or two times a week, eating out type of food, that craveable, healthier food is something that most people want to do,” Nadhir says.

“But it is out of reach for some people because of the price points, and we wanted to bring it within reach of as many people as possible.”

Several thousands signed up for Plate Pass. Guests on the subscription plan are visiting four times a month whereas before they may have only bought food from Urban Plates once a month, according to surveys. Satisfaction was reported as extremely high, Nadhir says.

“It’s a very fervent crowd, the believers in the brand really value the accessibility that they now have,” Nadhir says.

“To get our kind of food for $10, why would you cook?”

Simplicity was another driver of Plate Pass. Typical loyalty programs include a perplexing system of points, and consumers have to keep track of them and apply them.

But with Plate Pass, consumers know exactly what they are getting and can unsub-

scribe at any time.

Plate Pass wasn’t born in a survival mode, either, but instead as a way to boost an already flourishing business. Even without Plate Pass, Urban Plates was comping positive to 2019. The company didn’t want their meals to be out of reach, even with commodity increases and labor costs pressing the bottom line, so Plate Pass was a pioneering way to broaden guest scope.

“We didn’t do this out of a ‘this is broken, how do we fix it,’” Nadhir says. “This was a very forward-looking affirmative step to broaden the reach of our brand because we want it to be accessible.”

There’s been an overarching gravitation toward higher-quality, healthier options amid the pandemic, and Nadhir believes that is here to stay. People want to take care of themselves, he says, and Urban Plates can help.

The brands that took the opportunity during COVID to update technology that deals with serving consumers are the ones that will ultimately thrive, Nadhir adds. After all, the way people accessed Urban Plates changed during this time: on premises business that used to be 70 percent transitioned to now be only 40 percent.

Yet what’s really changed is how Urban Plates gets orders in so many different ways: over the phone, in person, online ordering, and third-party delivery.

Nadhir predicts restaurants that understand these modes of distribution best and can ensure they are frictionless will have the most success.

As long as companies continue to prove value, Newkirk absolutely believes the subscription program is here to stay in the restaurant industry’s toolkit.

But connections will continue to set restaurants apart from their competitors, whether it’s at the drive thru, curbside or through online ordering. And that’s something programs of this nature can assist with.

Once customers sign up, their loyalty will continue to be rewarded.

“That consistency and that personalization I think is going to continue to be a huge trend in the restaurant business,” Newkirk says.

“The companies that are going to succeed are the ones that make their guests and their team feel really special.”

Spencer Moody is an AdOps lead at HYPERLOCOLOGY, a multi-location marketing platform.

Portioning Machine

Hollymatic’s self-feeding Model R2200 is designed for food forming and portioning requirements in small- to high-volume food processors. It’s compact and can form a wide variety of products into a multitude of shapes and sizes. hollymatic.com

Rugged Monitors

TRU-Vu Monitors, Inc., released a line of 13.3-inch industrial-grade LCD monitors. The compact new video displays feature 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution and 400 nits of brightness, ensuring high-quality color images. tru-vumonitors.com

AI-Powered Marketing Services

Zuppler, a global software and services, kicked off general availability of its AI-powered marketing services as part of the Menu Anywhere online ordering platform. It also announced automated abandon cart notification and order experience enhancements to its online ordering platform. zuppler.com

Autonomous Sustainable Retail

Robotics and AI startup company Wings announced Nectar (coming in 2023), which brings a new category of Autonomous Sustainable Retail to life. Nectar is powered by the company’s HiveRobotics, a unique collective of decentralized, self-organized robotic systems. It offers personalized service for drinks, food, and merchandise without human intervention.

wings.business/nectar

Back-of-House Worktables

Vollrath Company unveiled a new collection of easily customizable workstations with its 4-Series Back of House Worktables that offer a variety of optional features to accommodate the many needs of a busy commercial kitchen. Pre-designed worktable configurations offer either open or enclosed storage and are available in lengths between 36 and 144 inches, in 12-inch increments. vollrathfoodservice.com

Barista Approved

Steeped Coffee’s French Roast Fair Trade Organic Breakwater Blend was named a NEXTY Awards Finalist for “Best New Product.” It’s made from 100 percent specialty grade coffee that is ethically sourced, with Fair Trade and USDA Organic Certifications, from the Tolima region of Columbia. steepedcoffee.com

Online Manager Training

Foodservice Training Portal announced the launch of Manager Success University, an online leadership-focused training suite designed specifically for restaurant managers and owner/managers. It’s comprised of interactive development and compliance courses that help management staff both anticipate and respond to the business’s needs. foodservicetrainingportal.com.

Security First

Interface Security Systems is now offering Managed SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) services to tackle complex security challenges faced by multi-location enterprises. With it, restaurants will no longer have to rely on point solutions and building complex integrations to maintain a mature security posture. interfacesystems.com

Power of Feedback

Tattle integrated with Thanx to help restaurants and retailers personalize interactions with their guests through data capture. It’s now easier for restaurants to issue rewards, recover guests, and communicate with customers based on their individual feedback, elevating the guest experience and ultimately driving sales. thanx.com

Atmosphere TV .......Inside Back Cover 512-729-5133 | atmosphere.tv

Botrista ...........................................6 800-542-6190 | botrista.io

Ecolab...............................Back Cover 800-529-5458 ecolab.com/offerings/kay-machine-warewashing-qsr

Energy Solutions .............................3 714-787-1098 | www.caenergywise.com/qsr

Fuzzy’s Taco Shop ..........................74 817-624-8226 x.2 | myfuzzys.com

Ghirardelli .............Inside Front Cover 800-877-9338 | ghirardelli.com

Intellihot .......................................35 866-447-0209 | intellihot.com

Loomis U.S. ....................................19 713-435-6700 opt.2 | www.loomis.us

McCormick Frank’s .........................25 800-322-SPICE

McCormickForChefs.com/Franks-Means-Buffalo

Mrs. T’s Pierogies Foodservice ........11 800-743-7649 | mrstsfoodservice.com

NorthAmerican Bancard .................73 866-481-4604 | NYNAB.com

Perdue Farms ................................23 888-737-3832 | PerdueFoodservice.com

Red Gold ........................................17 866-729-7187 | RedGoldFoodservice.com

RF Technologies ....................5, 13, 78 800-598-2370 | rfdrivethru.com

Vito Fryfilter ..................................39 847-859-0398 | vitofryfilter.com

214-845-4800 | barlouie.com

BBDOTQ USA, INC ..................44, 45 201-926-0972 | bbdotqchicken.com/franchise Beyond Juicery + Eatery..........46, 47 https://franchise.BeyondJuiceryEatery.com

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Kitchen Equipment, Workspace Equipment & Components..................95

Law Firms .............................................96

Lighting & Electrical ............................96

Loss Prevention ....................................96

Loyalty Programs .................................96

Marketing & Promotional Items .........96

Music.....................................................96

Mystery Shopping................................97

Oil Dispensers & Grease Removal Systems.................................................97

Online & Remote Ordering ..................97

Outdoor Menuboards ..........................97

Ovens, Griddles & Ranges ...................98

Packaging .............................................98

Payment Processors.............................98

Payroll and HCM...................................99

Permit Coordination ............................99

Plastic, Paper & Foam Products ..........99

POP Programs, Materials & Signage .............................................99

POS Systems & Equipment................100

Process Control Systems ....................100

Promotional Menuboards .................100

Real Estate/Site Selection .................100

Refrigeration & Ice Machines ............101

Research Firms ...................................101

Restroom Equipment ........................101

Sanitation Equipment & Supplies .....101

Satellite TV & Entertainment ............101

Security Systems & Services .............102

Side Items & Other Food Products....102

Snack Foods........................................102

Supply Chain Management...............102

Tablewares .........................................102

Technology Support ..........................103

Windows ............................................103

ADVERTISING & MARKETING

All Points Public Relations

707 Lake Cook Road, Suite 340 | Deerfi eld, IL 60015

ANDERSON PARTNERS

444 Regency Parkway Drive, Suite 311 | Omaha, NE 68114 Blaze PR

1427 Third Street Promenade, Suite 201 | Santa Monica, CA 90401 Bob Bradley

318 W Katella Avenue B | Orange, CA 92867 Daktronics

201 Daktronics Drive | Brookings, SD 57006

PO Box 27468 | Fresno, CA 93729 DynamiCard

x. 10 810 Los Vallecitos Boulevard, 202 | San Marcos, CA 92069 EV Charge It Forward Network

2704 Pembroke Lane | Panama City, FL 32405

Franchise Update Media

P.O. Box 20547 | San Jose, CA 95160 Frandocs

P.O. Box 149 | Islamorada, FL 33036

Fridge - Advertising for Food & Beverage

4250 Highway 22, Suite 7 | Mandeville, LA 70471 www.thefridgeagency.com info@peoplewhothink.com FUSIONWRX Incorporated

720 Centre View Boulevard | Crestview Hills, KY 41017

X.

IGT Media Holdings

8395 Northeast 2nd Avenue | Miami, FL 33138

305-573-2800

781-444-1237 X. 16 140 Gould Street, Suite 280 | Needham, MA 02494

in4mation insights

Ink Link Marketing

6073 Northwest 167th Street, Suite C-18 | Hialeah, FL 3301 www.inklinkmarketing.com info@inklinkmarketing.com

305-631-2283

Full-service communicatio ns and PR agency specializing in the Restaurant and Hospitality space. Experts in Media Relations, Crisis Communications, Executive and Employee Communication, LSM, Grand Openings, and Reputation Management.

K R Y P T O Marketing & Advertising

317-749-8204 9646 Bradford Knoll Drive, Suite 100 | Fishers, IN 46037

Kerry Ford Communications 412-831-8995 231 Rocky Ridge Road, Suite 7 | Bethel Park, PA 15102

Landers & Partners 727-534-5547 13555 Automobile Boulevard, Suite 610 | Clearwater, FL 33762 landersandpartners.com jchang@landersandpartners.com

Best-in-class local marketing support! Let Landers drive awareness and push your sales and trans to new heights! Reach out today!

Lazworld.com Incorporated. 732-280-8069 PO Box 630 | Belmar, NJ 07719

Local Knowledge

Sidra Tower, Suite 2100 | Dubai, Media City 00000

Main Street Media 360

720 South Colorado Boulevard, | Denver, CO 80246 mainstreetmedia360.com richdegen@msmedia360.com

Hanna, Zappa & Polz Incorporated

708-836-1100 10555 West Cermak Road, Suite 3 | Westchester, IL 60154

HOT DISH ADVERTISING

3500 Vicksburg Lane North, Suite 400-361 | Plymouth, MN 55447

612-341-3100

Need Help Marketing your restaurant? Give us a call today we are Restaurant Marketing Gurus we will grow your Sales Guaranteed!

Mediagistic

8675 Hidden River Parkway | Tampa, FL 33637

Menu Express, LLC

House of Marketing Research

626-486-1400 2555 East Colorado Boulevard, Suite 205 | Pasadena, CA 91107 www.hmr-research.com amy@hmr-research.com

Recognized as one of the leading business decision insight firms in the food and beverage category, House of Marketing Research combines a highly experienced staff of researchers with a mix of innovative and proven approaches to answer pressing business issues. House of Marketing Research combine primary and connected data from multiple sources to create holistic and actionable analytic stories for their clients. House of Marketing Research empathically connects brands with the customers they serve, transforming the brand-to -consumer relationship into a human-to-human one. House of Marketing Research helps R&D and marketers to succeed through:

• In-store and online studies to better understand customer behavior, in both physical and online contexts.

• Qualitative studies to develop, screen and refine new product and packaging concepts.

• Quantitative studies to pre-test and quantify new packaging, merchandising and display systems (for physical stores and online).

• Conduct research in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog.

• Sensory Testing - Nationwide taste testing capabilities.

70413 First Street | Covington, LA 70433 Mission Mobile

831 Pacifi c Street, #3 | Santa Monica, CA 90405 Near

100 West Walnut, Suite 400 | Pasadena, CA 91124 www.near.com info@near.com

Near, the world’s largest source of intelligence on People, Places and Products, is the global leader in Data Intelligence emp owering organizations of all sizes to make smart, strategic decisions delivering optimal business performance. SDM Marketing

6000 Evanston Avenue North | Seattle, WA 98103

Seed PR & Communications

7600 Southwest 141 Street | Miami, FL 33158

THE BRANDIT AGENCY

1175 19th Street | Vero Beach, FL 32960 www.thebranditagency.com

bobby.mahler@teambrandit.com

786-417-5769

8304312444

Since 2010 The Brandit Agency has been providing a total turn-key service for all of your, sourcing, managing, fulfilling and distributing of BRANDED MERCHANDISE with a strong emphasis on logistics and project management needs. We help you build stronger relationships with your customers, prospects, employees, FRANCHISEES and communities.

• Promotional Products • Apparel & Uniforms • E-Stores • Franchisees • On-boarding

• Incentives & Awards • Event & Booth Setups • Indoor and Outdoor Signage

• Paper & Print Services

MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISES! WE ARE THE BEST! We have strong technology and development capabilities in house - we have developed robust sophisticated systems to manage regional marketing budgets for large multi-location companies (up to 12,000 locations). The

PO Box 2208 | Toa Baja, PR 00951

ARCHITECTURE

Zebra Projects

14614 N. Kierland Boulevard, Suite N300 | Scottsdale, AZ 85254 www.zbr.co.uk zachary.shirk@zbr.co.uk

480-426-2792

Zebra is a team of over 100 architects, interior designers and project managers based in Phoenix, London, Dubai and Hong Kong. Having delivered thousands of projects in over 90 countries worldwide, many globally recognized brands in hospitality & retail trust zebra to design and roll-out their store & restaurant programs. By combining creativity, a deep understanding of cultures and a total immersion into our client’s vision, we can ensure each brand is not only internationally recognizable but feels local and relatable to their target customer.

4500 Kemper Road, Suite 305 | Cincinnati, Ohio 45242

Main Street Gourmet

170 Muffi n Lane | Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223

Quorn Foods

213 West Institute Place | Chicago, IL 60610

330-929-0000

312-988-0828

Atul Karkhanis Architects, Ltd.

773-508-5533 2514 West Peterson Avenue | Chicago, IL 60659

BDG Architects

813-323-9233 400 North Ashley Drive, Suite 600 | Tampa, FL 33602

Benchmark Group

479-636-5400 1805 North 2nd Street | Rogers, AR 72756

Cedar Street Creative Incorporated.

650-269-7517 49 Elizabeth Street | New York, NY 10013 www.cedarstreet.com info@cedarstreet.co

Cedar Street Creative is a turnkey design and development partner for ambitious food and hospitality brands. Our team of designers, project managers, owner’s reps and real estate professionals will guide your project from daydream to ribbon cutting.

Core States Group

813-867-3742 3039 Premiere Parkway, Suite 700 | Duluth, GA 30097 www.core-states.com jventura@core-states.com

From prototypes to multi-site rollouts, Core States Group designs, builds, and remodels quick serve, casual, and fine dining restaurants.

ID Studio 4, LLC

972-870-1288 6201 Campus Circle Drive E. | Irving, TX 75062

Jencen Architecture

216-781-0131 2850 Euclid Avenue | Cleveland, OH 44115

LEEKA Architecture

503-644-4222 1001 Southeast Water Avenue, Suite 175 | Portland, OR 97214

Rogue Architects

817-820-0433 513 Main Street, Suite 300 | Fort Worth, TX 76102

ARCHITECTURE

Sargenti

461 From Road, Second Floor | Paramus, NJ 07652 www.sargarch.com

smcguinness@sargarch.com

DESIGNING EXPERIENCES. BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS.

480-678-1373

National Sign Systems

4200 Lyman Court | Hilliard, OH 43026 www.nationalsignsystems.com pfalkenbach@natsignsys.com

Sargenti represents a collection of highly qualified designers, architects & engineers. We are specialist in restaurant deve lopment and work internationally.

Sargenti’s business has grown since 1997. We have offices in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Arizona, California and London, allowing us to respond quickly to our client’s regional needs. Our teams can develop projects from concept through construction management and replicate it anywhere.

Sargenti’s culture is to provide personalized services. Our goal is to ensure our clients succeed and that we become an extension of their business.

07470

ASSOCIATION

800-544-6726

National Sign Systems manufactures interior and exterior signage, indoor and outdoor menu boards, and architectural building produc ts for national restaurant chains and local businesses. www.nationalsignsystems.com

Perspective1

19510 Holly Lane | Lutz, FL 33558

VINYL DISORDER INCorporated.

34202 Camino Capistrano | Dana Point, CA 92624

www.vinyldisorder.com

George@VinylDisorder.com

AWNINGS/SIGNAGE

South 110th Street | Greenfield, WI 53228

For over 90 years, Everbrite has been providing innovative visual identification, outdoor signage, indoor signs & displays, menu systems, architectural & drive-thru elements, electronic displays, scoreboards and LED lighting solutions to leading companies throughout the world. Allen Industries IncORPORATED

6434 Burnt Poplar Road | Greensboro, NC 27409

Piuma Avenue | Cerritos, CA 90703

Cutten Road | Houston, TX 77066

813-666-1073

866-723-3726

817-583-5514 2633 Blue Mound Road, West | Haslet, TX 76052

Willow Creek Signs incorporated.

BAKED GOODS, GRAINS & CEREAL

Banneton Bakery

856-832-7796 579 Pedricktown Road | Swedesboro, NJ 08085 www.bannetonbakery.com info@bannetonbakery.com

EFCO PRODUCTS INCORPORATED 8454524715

130 Smith Street | Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

www.efcoproducts.com info@efcoproducts.com

Our product line includes: Beverage Ingredients and Fortifications, Sauces and Spreads, Fillings and Toppings and Bakery Mixes and Concentrates. Our R&D and Culinary teams specialize in the development of custom solutions.

SIMPLi

240-672-6252 2807 4th Street, Northeast | Washington, DC 20002

Mission Foods

972-232-5507 5601 Executive Drive, Suite 800 | Irving, TX 75038

BAKING EQUIPMENT

Channel Manufacturing 516-944-6271 55 Channel Drive | Port Washington, NY 11050 Chicago Metallic 731-784-7140 1502 North Central Avenue | Humboldt, TN 38343

LloydPans

3808 North Sullivan Road, Building 25-J | Spokane Valley, WA 99216 www.lloydpans.com sales@lloydpans.com

US manufacturer of bakeware for the pizza, restaurant, foodservice and bakery industries. Franchises and companies praise us for the quality of our products, our innovation in solving their custom projects and the honesty of our customer service. Quality by reputation since 1989.

Univex

3 Old Rockingham Road | Salem, NH 03079

Hot Rocks Ovens

2555 Alfred Nobel | Drummonville, QC J2A 0L5

BEEF, POULTRY, SEAFOOD & PORK

Branding Iron Holdings

1682 Sauget Business Boulevard | Sauget, IL 62206-1454

EW Grobbel Sons

2500 Orleans Street | Detroit, MI 48207 www.ewgrobbel.com kcaputo@grobbel.com

Raw & Cooked Brisket - Roast Beef - Corned Beef - Smoked Pastrami - Smokehouse Meats - Deli Pickles - Custom Proteins

JOHNSONVILLE SAUSAGE

P.O. Box 906 | Sheboygan Falls, WI 53085 www.foodservice.johnsonville.com johnsonville@imtco.com

509-468-8691

BEVERAGES

Bevolution Group

500 South Lake Reedy Boulevard | Frostproof, FL 33843 www.bevolutiongroup.com rcorlett@bevolutiongroup.com

407-595-3922

Manufacturer of better than national brand quality juices, beverages, smoothies and bar mixers for Foodservice. Extensive packaging options from frozen and refrigerated to shelf stable and bib. Custom product and private brand development expertise. Our own brands include Tropics and Dr. Smoothie. All supported by our nationwide Beverage Dispensing Equipment and Service network. Manufacturing facilities in FL, IL and CA.

Seatech Corporation 425-835-0312

16825 48th Avenue West, Suite 222 | Lynnwood, WA 98037

Tijuana Flats 844-483-5287 2300 Maitland Center Parkway, 306 | Maitland, FL 2300

BEVERAGE MACHINES/DISPENSERS

Wineemotion USA

949-282-0187 17 Hammond, Suite 401 | Irvine, CA 92618

Blue Air FSE 310-808-0102

223 West Rosecrans Avenue | Gardena, CA 90248-1831

BOLD Grounds Coffee Company

806-544-5473 5507 126th Street, 216 | Lubbock, TX 79424

CS Beverage Solutions

214-347-3597 2909 MacArthur Boulevard | Northbrook, IL 60062

CULT Artisan Beverage

612-868-7465 2030 West Quail Street | Phoenix, AZ 85027

EFCO PRODUCTS INCORPORATED

8454524715 130 Smith Street | Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 www.efcoproducts.com info@efcoproducts.com

Our product line includes: Beverage Ingredients and Fortifications, Sauces and Spreads, Fillings and Toppings and Bakery Mixes and Concentrates. Our R&D and Culinary teams specialize in the development of custom solutions.

FARMER BROTHERS

1912 Farmer Brothers Drive | Northlake, TX 76262

www.farmerbros.com

dsdcustomerservice@farmerbros.com

6825496692

FARMER BROTHERS is a national coffee roaster, wholesaler and distributor of coffee, tea and culinary products, established in 1912. With the largest national direct store delivery (DSD) network in the coffee industry and exceptional customer service, we offer coffee, tea and culinary supplies to restaurants across the country. Our brands include Artisan Collection by Farmer Brothers™, Superior®, Metropolitan™, Cain’s™, McGarvey®, Boyds® and China Mist®.

Hudson-Leramo Beverage Group

314-771-8339 X. 28 310 South Fillmore Avenue | Kirkwood, MO 63122 www.hlbeverage.com info@hlbeverage.com

The Hudson-Leramo Beverage Group supplies the QSR & convenience channels with high quality, private labeled dispensed beverages; both hot and cold. We specialize in cold brew coffee programs, signature and estate coffees, frozen carbonated and un-carbonated drinks, proprietary B-I-B craft sodas, fresh brewed teas and sweeteners. Hudson-Leramo provides their customers with a unique equipment installation and store level training program. All our products are produced SQF certified. Call us for a tour and to discuss how we can customize a program for you!

Mike Shea’s Coffee Roasting Company.

30 1st Street, Unit 5 | Bridgewater, MA 02324 www.mikesheascoff ee.com john@mikesheascoff ee.com

774-929-5234

BUSINESS SERVICES

ADP

973-404-4360

Our coffee journey started with a Coffeehouse. It was always about the Coffee and Service. Today, it’s still about the Coffee and Service.

Roasting Better Coffee from Mike and the Family since 2009. Specialty graded quality coffee - Our Brands or Private Label. Great fit for Small to Medium - Retailers, Multi Unit Coffee Shops, and Distributors.

Oregon Fruit Products

3180 22nd Street | Salem, OR 97302 www.oregonfruit.com/foodservice foodservice@oregonfruit.com

EASY AS THAW & POUR -

406-207-1465

Oregon Fruit In Hand is made from high quality real fruit, quick-frozen at peak ripene ss. Enhance beverages, like adding real strawberries to lemonade. Choose Original which is diced fruit in a pourable texture, Velvet, a smooth variety, Compote, whole fruit identity, or Lemonade, four plus one, the perfect complement to our fruit.

1 ADP Boulevard | Roseland, NJ 07068 www.adp.com/qsr lisa.skelly@adp.com

Running a restaurant is hard work and requires long hours. Add the day-to-day tasks of managing shift changes, multiple locations and job types, tips and legal requirements - and there just aren’t enough hours in the day. ADP can help you find time again with easy-to-use solutions, so you can focus on what matters most - your business.

B Komplete

215-764-9651 900 Route 168, Suite A-2 | Turnersville, NJ 08012

Business Intermediary Services, Ltd.

828-230-6393 38 Timber Lane | Hilton Head Island, SC 29926

Business Service Associates

203-530-9982 117 Five Fields | Madison, CT 06443

Red Diamond Coffee & Tea

800-292-4651 400 Park Avenue | Moody, AL 35004

SolaBev 303-755-1100

5800 East 58th Avenue | Commerce City, CO 80022

THE COCACOLA COMPANY

1 Coca Cola Plaza, Southeast | Atlanta, GA 30313 www.coca-colacompany.com industrycomm@coca-cola.com

Tree Top Incorporated.

220 East Second Avenue | Selah, WA 98942 www.foodservice.treetop.com lisa.baldoz@treetop.com

Offering kid approved fruit products that enhance any kid’s meal.

BUILDING MATERIALS

8004382653

CTM CPAs & Business Advisors

1 Overlook Point, Suite 190 | Lincolnshire, IL 60069 www.ctm-cpa.com domalley@ctm-cpa.com

847-405-0944

CTM provides generations of QSR franchise owner-operators with specialized franchisee accounting services, including payroll & bill pay solutions, financial statement and income tax preparation, business valuations, succession planning and much more! Call us today!

Delaget

5320 West 23rd Street, Suite 140 | St. Louis Park, MN 55416

ExecuTeam USA

3400 Chapel Hill Road, Suite 322 | Douglasville, GA 30135

888-335-2438

678-741-5314

Fullerton Building Systems Incorporated. 800-450-9782 34620 250th Street | Worthington, MN 56187

Metropolitan Ceramics

330-484-4887 1201 Millerton Street, Southeast | Canton, OH 44707

The Mitchell Group

7040 North Austin Street | Niles, IL 60714

847-647-7300

Mirus

866-647-8748 820 Gessner, Suite 1600 | Houston, TX 77024 www.mirus.com sales@mirus.com

Owner Only Benefits, LLC

770-833-3220 334 Leeward Walk Lane | Alpharetta, GA 30005

R.F. Technologies Incorporated.

847-847-4076 330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

For over 30 years, R.F. Technologies, Inc. has been an industry leader for Drive-Thru Headset Repairs. We offer repair programs custom designed for single or multi-unit operators. RFT is your one-stop solution for drive-thru systems (including our new APEX Drive-Thru System), surveillance and music systems, along with a widerange of products and accessories. Nationwide on-site repair and installation services are available too.

The Tax Relief Group

Sarasota, FL 34276

The Wagner Company, P.C. CPAs

3700 Hampton Avenue, 2nd Floor | St. Louis, MO 63109 www.wagnercompany.com keith@wagnercompany.com

Proactively serving higher profits and lower taxes to restaurant owners! World Business Services Incorporated.

606 Western Avenue | Petaluma, CA 94952 Ampar Distribution, LLC

1815 Treseder Circle | El Cajon, CA 92019

2 Go

6151 Lake Osprey Drive, | Sarasota, FL 34240

Bizgrouplink, LLC

4701 Devonshire Road, Suite 106 | Harrisburg, PA 17109 Branded Strategic Hospitality

235 Park Avenue, South | New York, NY 10003

CABINETS & COUNTERS RJ Wood Industries

4450 Hron Road | West Bend, WI 53095 www.rjwoodindustries.com mike@rjwoodindustries.com

Rodolphe Forget | Montreal, Quebec H1E 7J8

CLEANING SUPPLIES

11 P.O. Box 279 | Burlington, WI 53105

Great Giant Foods USA INcorporated.

19100 Von Karman Avenue, Suite 370 | Irvine, CA 92612

MIC Food

13495 Southwest 134th Avenue, Suite 201 | Miami, FL 33186

CLEANING & SANITATION

KAIVAC INCORPORATED.

2680 Van Hook Avenue | Hamilton, OH 45015 www.kaivac.com info@kaivac.com

Sani Professional

400 Chestnut Ridge Road | Woodcliff Lake, NJ 07677

KAIVAC INCORPORATED.

8002871136 2680 Van Hook Avenue | Hamilton, OH 45015 www.kaivac.com info@kaivac.com

COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Kallpod- Kontactless

424-702-4608 5225 Wilshire Boulevard | Los Angeles, CA 90036

R.F. Technologies Incorporated.

847-847-4076 330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

For over 30 years, R.F. Technologies, Inc. has been an industry leader for Drive-Thru Headset Repairs. We offer repair programs custom designed for single or multi-unit operators. RFT is your one-stop solution for drive-thru systems (including our new APEX Drive-Thru System), surveillance and music systems, along with a widerange of products and accessories. Nationwide on-site repair and installation services are available too.

Unified Office

Energy

QSR customers confirm that the large savings pay for the system quickly; the rest is gravy!

CONDIMENTS, SAUCES

CONDIMENTS, SAUCES

30588 San Antonio Street | Hayward, CA 94544

P.O. Box 1578 | DeSoto, TX 75123-1578

130 Smith Street | Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 www.efcoproducts.com info@efcoproducts.com

Our product line includes: Beverage Ingredients and Fortifications, Sauces and Spreads, Fillings and Toppings and Bakery Mixes and Concentrates. Our R&D and Culinary teams specialize in the development of custom solutions. EZ

1896 Purdie Lane | Maple Glen, PA 19002-3129

12132 Knott Street | Garden Grove, CA 92841

Box 2189 | Longmont, CO 80502

CONSULTANTS

95380

CONSTRUCTION/BUILDING

1111 South Main Street, Suite 200 | Grapevine, TX 76051 www.BuildWithTrinityConstruction.com info@trinityccllc.com

Trinity Commercial Construction is an award-winning firm based out of Grapevine, Texas.

We have extensive experience in the restaurant industry. Our clients include McDonald’s, Starbucks, Dutch Bros, Dunkin brands, Einstein Brothers, and many more. We specialize in ground up construction and interior finish outs.

We partner with our clients to build their vision from pre-construction to occupancy.

Place, Suite 400 | Youngstown, OH 44512

40 + year Industry Executive that helps develop your business to new heights of growth and profitability. We turn your problems into opportunities and then to solutions. Domestic and International experience. Amplifi

2700 Cumberland Parkway, Suite #500 | Atlanta, GA 30339 ATE

116 West Sheman Way, Suite 9 | Nixa, MO 65714 Catalyst Insight Group

150 North Radnor Chester Road, Suite F200 | Radnor, PA 19087

Chiasson Consultants Incorporated

218 River Street | Toronto, Ontario M5A 3R1 Foster & Associates Restaurant Consulting

1255 South Rome Avenue | Republic, MO 65738 Freedom Food Sales

27 Eckernkamp Drive | Smithtown, NY 11787

fs STRATEGY Incorporated.

631 Soudan Avenue | Toronto, Ontario M4S 1X7

Goliath Consulting Group

6001 Live Oak Parkway | Norcross, GA 30093

Impact 21 859-219-3040

2700 Old Rosebud Road, 240 | Lexington, KY 40509 www.impact21.com inquiry@impact21.com

Impact 21’s extensive experience with all aspects of foodservice - from concept development, price & promotion optimization, operating & people capabilities, and sourcing, to work design - helps clients build sustainable and formidable food programs.

Base Camp Road, Suite A-1 | Monument, CO 80132

LOCATION DECISION ADVISORS

6505 Park Lane | Cincinnati, OH 45227

www.locationdecisionadvisors.com

frank@locationdecisionadvisors.com

5134848609

Location Decision Advisors (LDA) is a consulting firm committed to helping individuals and restaurant companies make “Home Run” location decisions. Please visit our website to learn more about the variety of services we provide. You are also invited to read “The ABC’s of Site Selection - How to Pick WINNERS and Avoid LOSERS” by Frank Raeon, the Principal of LDA.

Near

100 West Walnut, Suite 400 | Pasadena, CA 91124 www.www.near.com info@near.com

847-772-5501

Near, the world’s largest source of intelligence on People, Places and Products, is the global leader in Data Intelligence empowering organiza tions of all sizes to make smart, strategic decisions delivering optimal business performance.

Seaton Food Consultants

203-323-3035 Stamford, CT 06902

www.seatonfoods.com

njseaton@seatonfoods.com

Innovative and customized approach to product evaluation for quality assurance, ingredient adjustments and recipe testing. Foodservice operators, quality assurance companies and manufacturers benefit from proprietary testing methods, in depth analysis and reporting to ensure a high-quality, consistent product. The

Place | Denver, CO 80021

Food Safety and HACCP Compliance

818-703-7147 Woodland Hills, CA 91364

Hartman Public Relations, LLC

1866 Durand Mill Drive, Northeast | Atlanta, GA 30307

678-399-3335

702-233-8703 9505 Hillwood Drive, Suite 150| Las Vegas, NV 89134

Link Technologies

Progressive Business Insights Incorporated.

425 Tall Oaks Lane | Richardson, TX 75081

CONTAINERS, HOLDING & STORAGE

972-234-0848

TradeTrans Corporation

845-469-1000 173 Black Meadow Road | Chester, NY 10918

COOKING & PREP EQUIPMENT

AyrKing, LLC

2013 Cobalt Drive | Louisville, KY 40299 www.ayrking.com miked@ayrking.com

502-266-6270

AyrKing is a team of food preparation specialists committed to the idea that quality, consistency and profitability all start at the very beginning. We understand that optimizing the food preparation process is the key to reducing costs and perfecting the final product.

Cadco, Ltd.

860-738-2500 200 International Way | Winsted, CT 06098

CDN

P.O. Box 10947 | Portland, OR 97296

503-225-0900

800-338-5594 2355 Northwest Vaughn Street | Portland, OR 97210

CDN-Component Design Northwest Incorporated

973-279-5500 180 Broad Street | Clifton, NJ 07013

Economy Paper & Restaurant Supply

303-433-0124 3700 Havana Street, Suite 208 | Denver, CO 80239

Ignite Foodservice Solutions

888-239-0575 10310 Southard Drive | Beltsville, MD 20705

Marra Forni

METRIS INSTRUMENTS EAST, LLC

25 Longmeadow Place, 21 | South Setauket, NY 11720 www.metrisinst.com bobogden2005@gmail.com

A GREAT Line for independent SALES REP - 20 years in businessSHIP in 48 hours. We comply/meet/exceed NSF - FDA - HACCPNIST options

6314510063

609-280-1150 24 West Main Street, Suite 335 | Clinton, CT 06413

Drive-Thru Pop Up

Rational USA

224-366-3459 1701 Golf Road, Suite C-120 Commercium | Rolling Meadows, IL 60008

Vollrath Company

920-457-4851 1236 North 18TH Street | Sheboygan, WI 53081

Espresso Solution

973-279-5500 180 Broad Street | Clifton, NJ 07013

COOKING OIL MANAGEMENT

Gycor International

630-754-8070 10216 Werch Drive, Suite 108 | Woodridge, IL 60517 www.gycorfi lters.com drogers@gycorfi lters.com

Manufacturer of shortening/oil filtration products, including our revolutionary Filter Powder Pad which has our custom filter media built into the filter paper.

COOKING OIL MANAGEMENT

MAGNESOL® Frying Oil Filtration

374 Route 22, P.O. Box 489 | Whitehouse, NJ 08888

2250 Pilot Knob Road | Mendota Heights, MN 55120

CREDIT & DEBIT CARD SYSTEMS Cardconnect21

4 Park Newport | Newport Beach, CA 92660 www.cardconnect21.com steve@cardconnect21.com

Special Pricing for Clover Devices!

10 West End Road | Totowa, NJ 07512 www.stanpacnet.com foodservice@stanpacnet.com

Paper hot cups, take out packaging, ice cream cups and lids.

7 Portland Place | Montclair, NJ 07042

CUSTOMER

1737 McGee Street | Kansas City, MO 64108

CUSTOMER ORDER SYSTEMS

CardFree Incorporated.

655 Redwood Highway,102 | Mill Valley, CA 94941 www.cardfree.com info@cardfree.com

CardFree provides a suite of end-to-end mobile order & payment solutions, including Apps, Pay/Order@Table, Text-To-Pay, kiosks, and more. Revention Point of Sale

1315 West Sam Houston Parkway North, Suite 100 | Houston, TX 77043

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Lapgards.com 832-563-8756

3000 Quail Hollow Circle | BAYTOWN, TX 77521

DAIRY PRODUCTS

BelGioioso Cheese Incorporated. 877-863-2123 4200 Main Street | Green Bay, WI 54311

Velvet Ice Cream Company 740-892-3921 11324 Mount Vernon Road | Utica, OH 43080

Yolato 973-908-8125 158 Lafayette Avenue | Chatham, NJ 07928

Lioni Latticini

DESSERT

Our

line includes: Beverage Ingredients and

Sauces

Spreads, Fillings and Toppings and Bakery Mixes and Concentrates. Our

and Culinary teams specialize in the development of custom solutions.

Alto-Shaam

W164N9221 Water Street | Menomonee Falls, WI 53051

DISTRIBUTORS

Catalina Food Protection, LLC

325 North Riverview Avenue | Miamisburg, OH 45342

Gordon Food Service

1300 Gezon Parkway, Southwest | Wyoming, MI 49509

MrTakeOutBags.com

855 South Canal Street | Pittsburgh, PA 15212

262-251-3800

DRIVE THRU INSTALLATION & REPAIR

Fluid Audio

960 Rittenhouse Road | Audubon, PA 19403 www.fl uidaudioinc.com steven.seiden@fl uidaudioinc.com

937-269-6010

800-968-4164

412-321-4066

484-704-7383

Nationwide sales and service for indoor and outdoor Digital Signage, Drive Thru systems and authorized Headset Repair Depot for HME, PAR and Panasonic Speed of Service Timers, Security CCTV Low Voltage structured cabling, Audio Visual systems. Business Music.

YOUR ONLY NATIONWIDE ONE SOURCE VENDOR FOR QSR’s.

Drive Thru 911

Ria Distributing

801-300-5710 7720 Southwest Nimbus Avenue | Beaverton, OR 97008

SPINS

222 West Hubbard Street, 300 | Chicago, IL 60654

DRIVE THRU DISPLAY

312-281-5100

727-437-9017 28 Southwind Drive | Clearwater, FL 33770

Fingermark

31 Napier Road | Havelock North, Hawke’s Bay 4130 www.fi ngermark.tech salesusa@fi ngermarkglobal.com

649-358-4047

Market leading, digital solutions innovator utilizing insights to enable QSRs to improve operational efficiency, make revenue gains and deliver enhanced customer experiences.

Delphi Display Systems, Inc.

714-825-3452 3550 Hyland Avenue | Costa Mesa, CA 92626 www.delphidisplay.com Sales@delphidisplay.com

Outdoor Digital Menu Boards, Indoor Digital Menu Boards, Order Confirmation Systems, Drive Thru Timer Systems, Self-Order Kiosks, Headset Systems, Digital Menu Content Management Systems, Cloud-based real time performance ranking leaderboards

DSA Signage

16961 Central Avenue | Carson, CA 90746 www.dsasignage.com websales@dsasignage.com

310-537-5000

Leading manufacturer of made-inthe-US visual display solutions, we are your one-stop shop to build a complete and efficient modular drive-thru. Partnering with major Fast Casual brands for more than 40 years, we have developed innovative, revenue-generating solutions that wi ll support your evolving needs.

Fingermark

31 Napier Road | Havelock North, Hawke’s Bay 4130 www.fi ngermark.tech salesusa@fi ngermarkglobal.com

649-358-4047

Market leading, digital solutions innovator utilizing insights to enable QSRs to improve operational efficiency, make revenue gains and deliver enhanced customer experiences.

R.F. Technologies Incorporated

847-847-4076

Let’s Pave, LLC

330-716-1560 2907 Butterfi eld Road, Suite 110 | Oak Brook, IL 60523

R.F. Technologies incorporated

847-847-4076 330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

For over 30 years, R.F. Technologies, Inc. has been an industry leader for Drive-Thru Headset Repairs. We offer repair programs custom designed for single or multi-unit operators. RFT is your one-stop solution for drive-thru systems (including our new APEX Drive-Thru System), surveillance and music systems, along with a widerange of products and accessories. Nationwide on-site repair and installation services are available too.

R.F. Technologies Incorporated

800-598-2370 330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

Wayne Communications Incorporated.

855-471-9730 6612 Chancellor Drive | Cedar Falls, IA 5061 www.waynecomm.com service@waynecomm.com

08

330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

For over 30 years, R.F. Technologies, Inc. has been an industry leader for Drive-Thru Headset Repairs. We offer repair programs custom designed for single or multi-unit operators. RFT is your one-stop solution for drive-thru systems (including our new APEX Drive-Thru System), surveillance and music systems, along with a widerange of products and accessories. Nationwide on-site repair and installation services are available too.

A national QSR and fast casual logistics company.

DRIVE THRU SYSTEMS

DRIVE THRU SYSTEMS

Coates Group

112 North May Street | Chicago, IL 60607 www.coatesgroup.com

info@coatesgroup.com

312-374-1365

Coates Group is a global digital experience company, delivering innovative hardware products - outdoor digital menu boards for drive-thru, indoor digital menu boards, merchandising screens, self-order kiosks and more - that are powered by our dynamic and proprietary Content Management Software, Switchboard ™

We help some of the world’s leading brands execute engaging, personalized experiences for every customer.

Delphi Display Systems Incorporated.

3550 Hyland Avenue | Costa Mesa, CA 92626 www.delphidisplay.com

Sales@delphidisplay.com

714-825-3452

Outdoor Digital Menu Boards, Indoor Digital Menu Boards, Order Confirmation Systems, Drive Thru Timer Systems, Self-Order Kiosks, Headset Systems, Digital Menu Content Management Systems, Cloud-based real time performance ranking leaderboards

EVERBRITE, LLC

4949 South 110th Street | Greenfield, WI 53228 www.everbrite.com

sales@everbrite.com

4145293500

For over 90 years, Everbrite has been providing innovative visual identification, outdoor signage, indoor signs & displays, menu systems, architectural & drive-thru elements, electronic displays, scoreboards and LED lighting solutions to leading companies throughout the world.

Fluid Audio

960 Rittenhouse Road | Audubon, PA 19403 www.fl uidaudioinc.com steven.seiden@fl uidaudioinc.com

484-704-7383

Nationwide sales and service for indoor and outdoor Digital Signage, Drive Thru systems and authorized Headset Repair Depot for HME, PAR and Panasonic. Speed of Service Timers, Security CCTV Low Voltage structured cabling, Audio Visual systems. Business Music.

YOUR ONLY NATIONWIDE ONE SOURCE VENDOR FOR QSR’s.

Bavis Fabacraft

201 Grandin Road | Maineville, OH 45039

Fingermark

31 Napier Road | Havelock North, Hawke’s Bay 4130 www.fi ngermark.tech salesusa@fi ngermarkglobal.com

513-677-0500

649-358-4047

Market leading, digital solutions innovator utilizing insights to enable QSRs to improve operational efficiency, make revenue gains and deliver enhanced customer experiences.

HME

2848 Whiptail Loop | Carlsbad, CA 92010 www.hme.com/qsr dept-sales@hme.com

858-535-6000

HME is celebrating 50 years as a leading provider of innovative communication products and services. Founded in 1971, HME was the first to introduce the wireless drive-thru headset system to the restaurant industry. Today, our solutions are paving the way for a new era of restaurant operations and redefining the customer experience. Our patented Wideband HD Audio continues to deliver an unmatched voice clarity for drive-thru communication. HME drive-thru optimization systems are reenergizing crews and maximizing business grow th worldwide with innovative game-based engagement. Every day, restaurants in over 140 countries fulfill more than 30 million orders using our systems. HME offers a wide range of quality solutions for drive-thru, in-store, curbside pickup, and retail operations backed by full services and support.

R.F. Technologies Incoporated.

330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

847-847-4076

For over 30 years, R.F. Technologies, Inc. has been an industry leader for Drive-Thru Headset Repairs. We offer repair programs custom designed for single or multi-unit operators. RFT is your one-stop solution for drive-thru systems (including our new APEX Drive-Thru System), surveillance and music systems, along with a widerange of products and accessories. Nationwide on-site repair and installation services are available too.

R.F. Technologies Incorporated

800-598-2370 330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

Ready Access

800-621-5045 1815 Arthur Drive | West Chicago, IL 60185 www.ready-access.com ready@ready-access.com

Your go-to source for self-closing drive-thru / walk-up service windows and air curtains designed to meet health code. Trusted by the largest QSRs for over 50 years. Patented technology, economical and dependable. View our website to find the configuration that best fits your project!

High Mark Communications

888-963-9696 5961 East 38th Avenue | Denver, CO 80207

EDUCATION & TRAINING

Food Safety Consultation

971-283-6742 440 East Centennial Street | Rapid City, SD 57701

Franchise Speakers

303-669-9905 2229 Mariposa Avenue | Boulder, CO 80302 www.franchisespeakers.com Katrina@FranchiseSpeakers.com

We help franchise brands and multi-unit chains find outstanding, relevant, and timely speakers, trainers, entertainers, and emcees for events of all sizes, both live and virtual.

PlayerLync

720-459-4050 5690 DTC Boulevard, Suite 450e | Greenwood Village, CO 80111

University of GA Small Business Development Center

2419 Westgate Drive | Albany, GA 31707

229-420-1144

EQUIPMENT LIQUIDATIONS

US Equipment Company

417-725-5645

MPS Interactive Systems

609-524-2520 103 Carnegie Center, Suite 300 | Princeton, NJ 08540

Speakap

3808 West Ladle Rapids Street | Meridian, ID 83646

603-493-6212

TANTRUM Lab VR 718-964-7465

130 South Buchanan Street | Lafayette, LA 70501

ViaTech Publishing Solutions incoporated. 502-526-6667

11935 North Stemmons Freeway | Dallas, TX 75234

EMPLOYMENT & STAFFING

2045 North Preakness Drive | Nixa, MO 6571 www.usequipmentcompany.com info@usequipmentcompany.com

US Equipment Company assists franchisees and independent restaurant operators in receiving 20-80% more money for their equipment, then any other forms of liquidation. In 27 years of business, we continually outperform auctions, dealers and “do-it-yourselfers” in achieving top fair market value for our clients throughout the nation. There are no fees or commissions, and we handle all aspects of the sales and removal process.

ETHNIC FOODS

Jammrok Jerk Chicken

3650 West MLK Jr. Boulevard | Los Angeles, CA 90008

323-792-4122

ExactHire

317-296-8000 10333 North Meridian Street | Indianapolis, IN 46290

Kontos Foods Incorporated.

973-278-2800

WRAY EXECUTIVE SEARCH

7272444113 111 2nd Avenue, Northeast | Saint Petersburg, FL 33701 www.wraysearch.com info@wraysearch.com

• 50 years of proven executive search and advisory services

• Building impressive lead ership teams industry wide

EQUIPMENT FINANCE & LEASING

Crossroads Financial, LLC

4268 Portage Creek Road, Southeast | Grayling, MI 49738

734-674-4330

P.O. Box 628 | Paterson, NJ 07544 www.kontos.com info@kontos.com

Manufacturer and distributor of Pita, Naan and Flatbreads; Baklava, Spanakopita. Distributor of other fine Mediterranean foods. A.

Darcy and Company CPA’s, LLC 732-359-8282 2018 Highway 71, Suite 4 | Spring Lake Heights, NJ 07762

Vendor Alliance Capital

978-681-4000 100 Andover Bypass, Suite 202 | North Andover, MA 01845

EQUIPMENT INSTALLATION & REPAIR

505 Main Street, Suite 200 | Fort Worth, TX 76102

R.F. Technologies Incorporated.

847-847-4076 330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

For over 30 years, R.F. Technologies, Inc. has been an industry leader for Drive-Thru Headset Repairs. We offer repair programs custom designed for single or multi-unit operators. RFT is your one-stop solution for drive-thru systems (including our new APEX Drive-Thru System), surveillance and music systems, along with a widerange of products and accessories. Nationwide on-site repair and installation services are available too.

R.F. Technologies incorporated.

www.rfdrivethru.com

FINANCIAL

800-598-2370

CapitalSpring

212-981-0140 3100 West End Avenue, Suite 940 | Nashville, TN 37203 www.capitalspring.com learnmore@capitalspring.com

CapitalSpring is a private investment firm dedicated to the branded restaurant and food service sectors. Since 2005, we have supported proven management teams with private equity and lending solutions to accelerate growth, facilitate recapitalizations, and navigate complex financing dynamics. We pride ourselves on our integrity, structuring flexibility, relationship-driven appr oach, and deep industry knowledge.

FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

FIRST HORIZON BANK, RESTAURANT FINANCE

17851 North 85th Street, Suite 155 | Scottsdale, AZ 85255 www.fi rsthorizon.com/restaurantfi nance

RestaurantFinance@fi rsthorizon.com

4803759892

First Horizon Bank, Restaurant Finance is a national lender serving operators across the industry, whether franchisee, franchisor or chain. Together, we enable your growth and financial success while helping you navigate this challenging environment. We listen to you and deliver solutions.

Texas Capital Bank

2000 McKinney Avenue | Dallas, TX 75201

Hartzell Insurance Associates Incorporated

2501 North Bethlehem | Hatfi eld, PA 19440

FOOD

SAFETY

Spoiler Alert Food Safety

SERVICES & PRODUCTS

34299 Center Ridge Road | North Ridgeville, OH 44039 www.spoileralertfoodsafety.com info@spoileralertfoodsafety.com

214-218-1012

215-997-5800

800-284-3096

Spoiler Alert! Food Safety is the premier cloud based food safety app. This powerful yet simple to use food rotation/tracking/labeling system tracks product life cycle with easy to read trackable labels that alert you along the way. Our wash-away labels rinse safely down the drain. Starting at just $9.99/mo. Start your 30-day FREE trial today.

American Surgical Mask Company

5508 North 50th Street | Tampa, FL 33610

3905 Harrison Avenue, 21 | South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

Ashton Boulevard, Suite 300 | Lehi, UT 84043

25 Longmeadow Place 21 | South Setauket, NY 11720 www.metrisinst.com bobogden2005@gmail.com

A GREAT Line for independent SALES REP - 20 years in businessSHIP in 48 hours. We comply/meet/exceed NSF - FDA - HACCPNIST options

07712

Booskerdoo Coffee & Baking Co. is the first and only franchise coffee concept that roasts the coffee in front of the customer. Fresh coffee tastes amazing, but it’s very hard to find. The Booskerdoo experience continues with in-house baking, a certified barista training program, custom reverse osmosis water filtration, and more. We’re now interviewing potential franchisees who want to destroy all competition with us in NJ, CT, and NY.

CRUST Restaurant

668 Northwest 5th Street | Miami, FL 33128

305-371-7065

FRYING EQUIPMENT

VITO Fryfilter Incorporated.

847-859-0398

GoodLife Organic Kitchen

610-924-2862 2395 Lancaster Pike | Reading, PA 19335

702 West Algonquin Road | Arlington Heights, IL 60005

Winston Foodservice

502-495-5400

Quincy’s Original Lobster Rolls

215-704-4854 709 Beach Avenue | Cape May, NJ 08204

Restaurant Concept & Consulting Services

P.O. BOX 1768 | Murfreesboro, TN 37133 restaurantconcepts@aol.com

Providing Super Low Cost (D.I.Y.) Concept Packages for Startups and Conversions with FREE CONSULTING services by the original developer of nationally known O’CHARLEY’S and CORKY’S BBQ restaurants.

OPERATIONS EXPERT - TURNAROUND SPECIALIST - PROFIT MAKER

2345 Carton Drive | Louisville, KY 40299 foodservice.winstonind.com fsmarketing@winstonind.com

Our CVap® (Controlled Vapor Technology) cabinets and ovens, and Collectramatic®

fryers help your establishment deliver reliable, repeatable, results and perform like an extra hand in your kitchen, saving you time and money. We focus on creating products that help your operation be more productive and efficient, giving you the tools you need to provide consistent service, meal after meal.

The Green Vegan Monsta

718-666-8094 1470 Broadway | Brooklyn, NY 11221

The Honey Baked Ham Company

3875 Mansell Road | Alpharetta, GA 30022

United Franchise Group

2121 Vista Parkway | West Palm Beach, FL 33436

The Chicken Shack

4606 East Sunset Road | Henderson, NV 89014

FRUITS & VEGETABLES

Church Brothers Farms 831-796-1000

19065 Portola Drive, Suite C | Salinas, CA 93908

Garfield Produce Company

401 NorthTrumbull, Unit B | Chicago, IL 60624

Gielow Pickles Incorporated

100 Seltzer Road | Croswell, MI 48422

FURNISHINGS & FIXTURES

810-359-7680

406-207-1465 3180 22nd Street | Salem, OR 97302 www.oregonfruit.com/foodservice foodservice@oregonfruit.com

Oregon Fruit Products

EASY AS THAW & POUR -

Oregon Fruit In Hand is made from high quality real fruit, quick-frozen at peak ripene ss. Enhance beverages, like adding real strawberries to lemonade. Choose Original which is diced fruit in a pourable texture, Velvet, a smooth variety, Compote, whole fruit identity, or Lemonade, four plus one, the perfect complement to our fruit.

Tree Top Incorporated

220 East Second Avenue | Selah, WA 98942

www.foodservice.treetop.com

lisa.baldoz@treetop.com

Offering kid approved fruit products that enhance any kid’s meal.

509-697-7251

RJ Wood Industries

262-613-2798 4450 Hron Road | West Bend, WI 53076

U.B. Klem Furniture Company

812-326-2236 3861 East Schnellville Road | St. Anthony, IN 47575

Wisconsin Built 877-928-4589 400 Interpane Lane | Deerfi eld, WI 53531 www.wisconsin-built.com contact@wisconsin-built.com

Architectural woodwork and restaurant interior casework, booths & banquettes

FURNITURE & SEATING

BUM Commercial Furniture 855-337-2995 2400 Winston Park Drive, Unit 1 | Oakville, Ontario L6H0G7

FixturWorld

614-778-6668 455 Ward Mill | Baxter, TN 38544

FLAT TECHNOLOGIES

1900 East Golf Road, Suite 950 | Schaumburg, IL 60173 www.fl attech.com andyodonnell@fl attech.com

8559993528

John Celli Custom Furniture Designs Incorporated. 212-213-6999 37 Main Street, #1287 | New Milford, CT 06776

Paso Wine Barrels

805-221-5135 1633 Riverglen Drive | Paso Robles, CA 93446

PLYMOLD 8007596659 615 Centennial Drive | Kenyon, MN 55946 www.plymold.com Dealersales@plymold.com

RJ Wood Industries 262-613-2798 4450 Hron Road | West Bend, WI 53076

GIFT CARD SERVICES

Card Market

2026 Johnson Industrial Boulevard | Nolensville, TN 37135

ziprcard.com

12322 Penn Street | Whittier, CA 90602

National Gift Card

600 Church Road | Elgin, IL 60123

615-771-9300

310-890-3867

888-472-8747

GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS & FEDERAL AGENCIES

range of products and accessories. Nationwide on-site repair and installation services are available too.

800-598-2370 330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

R.F. Technologies Incorporated.

Buda Economic Development Corporation

512-295-2022 405 East Loop Street, Building 100-EDC | Buda, TX 78610

HEADSETS & TIMERS

Delphi Display Systems Incorporated.

714-825-3452 3550 Hyland Avenue | Costa Mesa, CA 92626 www.delphidisplay.com Sales@delphidisplay.com

Outdoor Digital Menu Boards, Indoor Digital Menu Boards, Order Confirmation Systems, Drive Thru Timer Systems, Self-Order Kiosks, Headset Systems, Digital Menu Content Management Systems, Cloud-based real time performance ranking leaderboards

Fluid Audio

960 Rittenhouse Road | Audubon, PA 19403 www.fl uidaudioinc.com steven.seiden@fl uidaudioinc.com

484-704-7383

Nationwide sales and service for indoor and outdoor Digital Signage, Drive Thru systems and authorized Headset Repair Depot for HME, PAR and Panasonic. Speed of Service Timers, Security CCTV Low Voltage structured cabling, Audio Visual systems. Business Music.

YOUR ONLY NATIONWIDE ONE SOURCE VENDOR FOR QSR’s.

CSI DRIVE THRU COMMUNICATIONS GROUP, LTD

8901 West Freeway, #141 | Fort Worth, TX 76116 www.csioftexas.com offfi ce@csioftexas.com

Drive Thru Pros

543 Country Club Drive Suite B-332 | Simi Valley, CA 93065

Quail Digital

2929 Carlisle Street, Suite 373 | Dallas, TX 75204

8009789942

800-559-1736

888-575-1010

Quail Digital

888-575-1016 2929 Carlisle Street, Suite 373 | Dallas, TX 75204

HEATING,WARMING & HOLDING EQUIPMENT

FWE

615-323-4541 5599 US-31 West | Portland, TN 37148

Winston Foodservice

502-495-5400 2345 Carton Drive | Louisville, KY 40299 foodservice.winstonind.com fsmarketing@winstonind.com

Our CVap® (Controlled Vapor Technology) cabinets and ovens, and Collectramatic® fryers help your establishment deliver reliable, repeatable, results and perform like an extra hand in your kitchen, saving you time and money. We focus on creating products that help your operation be more productive and efficient, giving you the tools you need to provide consistent service, meal after meal.

&

R.F. Technologies Incorporated.

08

847-847-4076 330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

For over 30 years, R.F. Technologies, Inc. has been an industry leader for Drive-Thru Headset Repairs. We offer repair programs custom designed for single or multi-unit operators. RFT is your one-stop solution for drive-thru systems (including our new APEX Drive-Thru System), surveillance and music systems, along with a wide-

Sargenti Architects

461 From Road, Second Floor | Paramus, NJ 07652 www.sargarch.com smcguinness@sargarch.com

DESIGNING EXPERIENCES. BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS.

KITCHEN EQUIPMENT, WORKSPACE EQUIPMENT & COMPONENTS

480-678-1373

Sargenti represents a collection of highly qualified designers, architects & engineers. We are specialist in restaurant deve lopment and work internationally.

Sargenti’s business has grown since 1997. We have offices in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Arizona, California and London, allowing us to respond quickly to our client’s regional needs. Our teams can develop projects from concept through construction management and replicate it anywhere.

Sargenti’s culture is to provide personalized services. Our goal is to ensure our clients succeed and that we become an extension of their business.

Stanco Signage Systems Incorporated.

1401 East Saint Andrew Place | Santa Ana, CA 92705

Cedar Street Creative

49 Elizabeth Street | New York, NY 10013

LTD Company

169 South River Road | Bedford, NH 03110

KIOSKS/SELF SERVICE

Coates Group

112 North May Street | Chicago, IL 60607 www.coatesgroup.com info@coatesgroup.com

714-549-9303

650-269-7517

603-623-7699

Keyser

9015 South Kedzie Avenue | Evergreen Park, IL 60805 www.explorekeyser.com info@explorekeyser.com

866-917-0400

Digital Signage products, Installation, and M aintenance Services. Custom menu boards, interactive kiosks, readerboards, video walls, and more. Keyser delivers high-quality products and services with over 200,000 installations completed.

Peerless-AV

2300 White Oak Circle | Aurora, IL 60502 www.peerless-av.com info@peerless-av.com

KITCHEN EQUIPMENT, WORKSPACE EQUIPMENT

& COMPONENTS

630-375-5100

312-374-1365

Coates Group is a global digital experience company, delivering innovative hardware products - outdoor digital menu boards for drive-thru, indoor digital menu boards, merchandising screens, self-order kiosks and more - that are powered by our dynamic and proprietary Content Management Software, Switchboard™.

We help some of the world’s leading brands execute engaging, personalized experiences for every customer.

Chepri

733 Lakeview Plaza Boulevard, Suite C | Worthington, OH 43085

Fingermark

31 Napier Road | Havelock North, Hawke’s Bay 4130 www.fi ngermark.tech salesusa@fi ngermarkglobal.com

614-505-3858

649-358-4047

Market leading, digital solutions innovator utilizing insights to enable QSRs to improve operational efficiency, make revenue gains and deliver enhanced customer experiences.

Frank Mayer and Associates incorporated.

1975 Wisconsin Avenue | Grafton, WI 53024 www.frankmayer.com

info@frankmayer.com

iPourIt

26242 Dimension Drive, #220 | Lake Forest, CA 92630

262-377-4700

949-270-0556

Comark Instruments

800-555-6658 P.O. Box 500 | Beaverton, OR 97077

Crest Foodservice Equipment Company.

804-266-9200 5929 School Avenue | Richmond, VA 23228

Drain-Net Technologies

844-564-9216 185 Industrial Parkway, Site H | Branchburg, NJ 08876 www.drain-tech.com sales@drain-tech.com

Haynes Lubricants

24142 Detroit Road | Westlake, OH 44145 www.haynesmfg.com info@haynesmfg.com

440-871-2188

Haynes manufactures premium food grade lubricants for all types of food service equipment.

ITW Food Equipment Group

937-332-3000 701 South Ridge Avenue | Troy, OH 45373

SnapSpace Solutions Incorporated.

207-947-9327 55 Baker Boulevard, Suite 201 | Brewer, ME 04412 www.snapspacesolutions.com chad@snapspacesolutions.com

Ghost/Host kitchen manufacturer using shipping containers for cost savings and flexibility. Branded modular store fronts and kitchens for testing markets quickly, safely with great cost savings.

T&S Brass and Bronze Works Incorporated

864-331-1291 2 Saddleback Cove | Travelers Rest, SC 29690

Univex Corporation

603-893-6191 3 Old Rockingham Road | Salem, NH 03079

ZANDUCO RESTAURANT EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES 8559263826 3500 Laird Road, Unit 1 | Mississauga, Ontario L5L 5Y4 www.zanduco.com sales@zanduco.com

LAW FIRMS

Franchise.Law

205 Regency Executive Park Drive, #200 | Charlotte, NC 28217 www.franchise.law Info@franchise.law

MARKETING & PROMOTIONAL ITEMS

980-202-5679

Purplegator

1055 Westlakes Drive, Suite 300 | Berwyn, PA 19312

THE BRANDIT AGENCY

610-688-6000

8304312444

Franchise Law is a law firm that serves both new and established franchisors with their franchise law needs. From initial agreements to disclosure documents, our firm helps with all law-related matters for our clients’ businesses from start to finish.

MacQueen & Gottlieb, PLC

2 North Central Avenue, Suite 1800 | Phoenix, AZ 85004

Roetzel & Andress LPA

41 South High Street-Huntington Center, 21st Floor | Columbus, OH 43215 www.ralaw.com/services/franchiselaw lwallerstein@ralaw.com

602-533-2840

614-463-9770

Roetzel is a full-service law firm that provides comprehensive, integrated legal counsel to regional, national and international clients, with offices throughout Ohio, Florida and in Chicago, Illinois. Roetzel attorneys practice in over 40 different areas of law, including corporate and business services, real estate, franchise, labor and employment, general business and commercial litigation, medical defense, public law and finance, government relations, education law, and workers’ compensation.

LIGHTING & ELECTRICAL

Hermitage Lighting National Accounts

3640 Trousdale Drive | Nashville, TN 37204

LOSS PREVENTION

Cashmaster USA Incorporated.

9665 Tradeport Drive | Orlando, FL 32827 www.cashmaster.com inquiriesusa@cashmaster.com

224-250-1561

1175 19th Street | Vero Beach, FL 32960

www.thebranditagency.com

bobby.mahler@teambrandit.com

Since 2010 The Brandit Agency has been providing a total turn-key service for all of your, sourcing, managing, fulfilling and distributing of BRANDED MERCHANDISE with a strong emphasis on logistics and project management needs. We help you build stronger relationships with your customers, prospects, employees, FRANCHISEES and communities.

• Promotional Products • Apparel & Uniforms • E-Stores • Franchisees • On-boarding

• Incentives & Awards • Event & Booth Setups • Indoor and Outdoor Signage

• Paper & Print Services

MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISES! WE ARE THE BEST! We have strong technology and development capabilities in house - we have developed robust sophisticated systems to manage regional marketing budgets for large multi-location companies (up to 12,000 locations).

The Point of View

P.O. box 2208 | Toa Baja, PR 00951

787-981-9552

877-227-4627

We have over 40 years of experience supporting businesses to achieve their loss prevention goals and reducing labor efficiencies by streamlining cash handling, cash counting and cash reconciliation.

Envysion Incorporated.

100 Superior Plaza Way, Suite 260 | Superior, CO 80027 www.envysion.com info@envysion.com

877-258-9441

Envysion, the authority in managed video solutions for QSR. Envysion protects your business and employees by using video, audio and data from POS and other business systems to reduce loss, mitigate risk, transform operating culture, secure brand promise, reduce employee turnover, and empowe r your staff with actionable information for better managent decisions.

LOYALTY PROGRAMS

iDeal Card

6910 South Yorktown Avenue, 367 | Tulsa, OK 74170

918-523-0300

re group

734-327-6630 213 West Liberty | Ann Arbor, MI 48104

SocialStreamingTV.com

303-594-1694 2525 Arapahoe, Suite E4-313 | Boulder, CO 80302

Talking Eats

773-780-4635 3926 West Touhy Avenue, #190 | Lincolnwood, IL 60712

MUSIC MIXHITS RADIO, LLC 8006494487 44 Bearfoot Road, Suite 325 | Northborough, MA 01532 www.mixhits.com sales@mixhits.com

R.F. Technologies Incorporated. 847-847-4076 330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

08

MYSTERY SHOPPING

Confero

535 Keisler Drive, Suite 204 | Cary, NC 27518 www.conferoinc.com info@conferoinc.com

Mystery shoppping onsite and telephone, social media monitoring and management, user experience studies, on site audits. Employee and customer rewards.

House of Marketing Research

2555 East Colorado Boulevard, Suite 205 | Pasadena, CA 91107

www.hmr-research.com

amy@hmr-research.com

919-469-5200 x. 11

ONLINE & REMOTE ORDERING

ZUPPLER

151 East 10th Avenue | Conshohocken, PA 19428 www.zuppler.com sales@zuppler.com

8889877537

626-486-1400

Recognized as one of the leading business decision insight firms in the food and beverage category, House of Marketing Research combines a highly experienced staff of researchers with a mix of innovative and proven approaches to answer pressing business issues. House of Marketing Research combine primary and connected data from multiple sources to create holistic and actionable analytic stories for their clients. House of Marketing Research empathically connects brands with the customers they serve, transforming the brand-toconsumer relationship into a human-to-human one. House of Marketing Research helps R&D and marketers to succeed through:

• In-store and online studies to better understand customer behavior, in both physical and online contexts.

• Qualitative studies to develop, screen and refine new product and packaging concepts.

• Quantitative studies to pre-test and quantify new packaging, merchandising and display systems (for physical stores and online).

• Conduct research in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog.

• Sensory Testing - Nationwide taste testing capabilities.

Market Force Information

6625 The Corner Parkway, Northwest | Peachtree Corners, GA 30092 www.marketforce.com info@marketforce.com

Multi-location solutions that provide a robust framework for measuring and improving employee experience, operational performance, customer experience, and financial KPIs.

Sinclair Customer Metrics

8610 Broadway Street, Suite 420 | San Antonio, TX 78217

OIL DISPENSERS & GREASE REMOVAL SYSTEMS

Masterfil LLC

P.O. Box 1247 | Magnolia, TX 77353

OILFRESH CORPORATION

1290 Lawrence Station Road | Sunnyvale, CA 04089

Rooftop Solutions

2019 Corporate Lane, Suite 119 | Naperville, IL 60563

Zuppler creates a fully branded online food ordering experience for businesses in the food industry that allow s them to build & maintain control of their customer relationships. This capability connects to POS, payment, loyalty, and delivery services.

P.O. Box 1909 | Livingston, NJ 07039

770-441-5366

Tamiami Trail North, Suite 400 | Naples, FL 34103

210-979-6000

OUTDOOR

281-356-1258

408-744-9575

800-913-7034

4949 South 110th Street | Greenfield, WI 53228

For over 90 years, Everbrite has been providing innovative visual identification, outdoor signage, indoor signs & displays, menu systems, architectural & drive-thru elements, electronic displays, scoreboards and LED lighting solutions to leading companies throughout the world.

OUTDOOR MENUBOARDS

Fluid Audio

960 Rittenhouse Road | Audubon, PA 19403 www.fl uidaudioinc.com steven.seiden@fl uidaudioinc.com

484-704-7383

PACKAGING

AFC Materials Group

14 Walter Court | Lake in the Hills, IL 60156

Nationwide sales and service for indoor and outdoor Digital Signage, Drive Thru systems and authorized Headset Repair Depot for HME, PAR and Panasonic. Speed of Service Timers, Security CCTV Low Voltage structured cabling, Audio Visual systems. Business Music.

YOUR ONLY NATIONWIDE ONE SOURCE VENDOR FOR QSR’s.

Ahlstrom-Munksjo

P.O. Box 600 | Kaukauna, WI 54130

www.Ahlstrom-Munksjo.com

Bonnie.Ermers@Ahlstrom-Munksjo.com

800-334-9372

920-766-8579

866-917-0400 9015 South Kedzie Avenue | Evergreen Park, IL 60805 www.explorekeyser.com info@explorekeyser.com

Keyser

Digital Signage products, Installation, and M aintenance Services. Custom menu boards, interactive kiosks, readerboards, video walls, and more. Keyser delivers high-quality products and services with over 200,000 installations completed.

Melitron

404 Silvercreek Parkway North | Guelph, ON N1H 1E8 www.melitron.com/digital-signage info@melitron.com

Ahlstrom-Munksjö’s extensive history of providing food packaging papers to the Quick Service Restaurant industry, combined with our vast portfolio of sustainable packaging options makes Ahlstrom-Munksjö your optimum QSR solution. Our QSR product range includes FluoroFree® grease resistant papers, ParaFree™ wax free papers, Cellustraw™ products for paper straws, and Cristal™ transparent packaging - all carrying BPI® Compostability Certification. In addition, we offer a wide range of products used in lamination and baking applications, including our DuraBake® papers.

Amcor

2200 Badger Avenue | Oshkosh, WI 54904

888-666-4309

ANCHOR PACKAGING

13515 Barrett Parkway, #100 | St. Louis, MO 63021-5870 www.anchorpackaging.com info@anchorpac.com

920-527-7300

8004673900

Keeps Food Hot & Crispy for Delivery & Takeout. Innovative award-winning package designs protect hot or cold foods for restaurants, supermarkets and c-stores. Foodservice cling film wrap.

National Sign Systems

800-544-6726 4200 Lyman Court | Hilliard, OH 43026 www.nationalsignsystems.com pfalkenbach@natsignsys.com

National Sign Systems manufactures interior and exterior signage, indoor and outdoor menuboards, and architectural building products for national restaurant chains and local businesses. www.nationalsignsystems.com

Peerless-AV

2300 White Oak Circle | Aurora, IL 60502 www.peerless-av.com info@peerless-av.com

Sealoc

1720 Bray Central Drive, Suite 100-X | McKinney, TX 75069

OVENS, GRIDDLES & RANGES

EARTHSTONE OVENS INCORPORATED

6717 San Fernando Road | Glendale, CA 91201 www.earthstoneovens.com info@earthstoneovens.com

Fabri-Kal Corporation

600 Plastics Place | Kalamazoo, MI 49001 Meyers Printing

7277 Boone Avenue North | Minneapolis, MN 55428

MrTakeOutBags.com

855 South Canal Street | Pittsburgh, PA 15212

1975 Sarasota Business Parkway | Conyers, GA 30013

Specialty Paper Company

3N555 North 17th Street | St. Charles, IL 60174

269-385-8061

Stanpac 905-957-3326 10 West End Road | Totowa, NJ 07512 www.stanpacnet.com foodservice@stanpacnet.com

paper hot cups, take out packaging, ice cream cups and lids

Studio Spear

P.O. Box 51291 | Jacksonville Beach, FL 32240

Thermodyne Foodservice Products

260-428-2535 4418 New Haven Avenue | Fort Wayne, IN 46803

Back to Nature Tableware +9-714-222-5532 Prime Tower, Business Bay | Dubai, Dubai 34031

Winston Foodservice

502-495-5400 2345 Carton Drive | Louisville, KY 40299 foodservice.winstonind.com fsmarketing@winstonind.com

Our CVap® (Controlled Vapor Technology) cabinets and ovens, and Collectramatic® fryers help your establishment deliver reliable, repeatable, results and perform like an extra hand in your kitchen, saving you time and money. We focus on creating products that help your operation be more productive and efficient, giving you the tools you need to provide consistent service, meal after meal.

Moore’s Food Resources, LLC

2516 Waukegan Road, Suite 135 | Glenview, IL 60025

PAYMENT PROCESSORS

ACI Worldwide

6060 Coventry Drive | Elkhorn, NE 68022-6482 www.aciworldwide.com/industries/resta merchantpayments@aciworldwide.com

844-776-6605

Modernize your payments experience, deliver alternative payment methods and checkout experiences customers love, Drive conversions and loyalty by empowering your customers to pay when and how they choose. Protect sensitive data and remove adjacent systems from PCI Scope. ACI works with your existing Acquirer(s), POS and other vendors to quickly deliver innovative payments anywhere, any time.

U.S. Bank Payment Solutions

2 Concourse Parkway Northeast, Suite 800 | Atlanta, GA 30328

PAYROLL AND HCM

AllianceHCM

Cascades Tissue Group

148 Hudson River Road | Waterford, NY 12188

Fineline Settings

135 Crotty Road | Middletown, NY 10941

Graphic Packaging International

1500 Riveredge Parkway | Atlanta, GA 30328

www.graphicpkg.com

gpi-foodservice-info@graphicpkg.com

866-868-3391

800-246-0711

845-369-6100

770-240-7200

Consumers are eating out and on-thego at an increasing rate, and they expect foodservice packaging that supports their evolving eating and dr inking habits. From cups and lids to trays, takeout containers and more, we’ve got your foodservice needs covered. Our extensive portfolio of foodservice packaging is here to serve quick-service and fast-casual restaurants, convenience stores, hotels, and even online orders thanks to our e-commerce platform, JavaStock.

KANEKA BIOPOLYMERS

800-789-7655

TX 77381

9110 Forest Crossing | The Woodlands, TX77381 https://alliancehcm.com/qsr/ solutions@alliancehcm.com

Since 1989, AllianceHCM has worked with the unique needs of thousands of restaurant owners and operators to ensure we always provide the most superior solution and unrivaled support to our QSR clients.

Our proprietary online software delivers:

• Payroll processing

• Work Opportunity Tax Credit

• Applicant tracking

• Benefits enrollment

• Paperless onboarding

• Employee self-service

• HR management

• Timekeeping

6250 Underwood Road | Pasadena, TX 77586

www.kanekabiopolymers.com

info@kanekabiopolymers.com

An Alternative to Traditional Fossil-Based Plastics. Compostable / Biodegradable Resin PlantSwitch 1722 Routh Street, Suite 900 | Dallas, TX 75201

• Expense management

• COVID tracker and so much more, all within one streamlined solution, so you can easily manage employee data from applicant to retirement with AllianceHCM.

PERMIT COORDINATION

Scout Services

490 Quail Ridge Drive | Westmont, IL 60559 www.scoutservices.com

kwhite@scoutservices.com

630-230-1238

The nation’s leading commercial construction permit expediting company with local expertise, superior customer service, and national reach. Scout handles program roll outs as a trusted partner to top architects and brands.

WDS Architecture, PLLC

1101 West Kaler Drive | Phoenix, AZ 85021

PLASTIC, PAPER & FOAM PRODUCTS

ANCHOR PACKAGING

13515 Barrett Parkway, #100 | St. Louis, MO 63021-5870

www.anchorpackaging.com

info@anchorpac.com

Best-in-class local marketing support! Let Landers drive awareness and push your sales and trans to new heights! Reach out today!

602-319-5282

8004673900

Keeps Food Hot & Crispy for Delivery & Takeout. Innovative award-winning package designs protect hot or cold foods for restaurants, supermarkets and c-stores. Foodservice cling film wrap.

POS SYSTEMS & EQUIPMENT

POS SYSTEMS & EQUIPMENT

The Top Rated, All-Concept POS System for 34+ Years. With seamless integrations, enterprise reporting mobile app, delivery & contactless functionality, mobile POS, kiosks, menu boards, online ordering/rewards, and more!

Drive | Madison, WI 53718

Dairy Road | Lancaster, PA 17601

Log Bridge Road | Middleton, MA 01949 QuikServe

South 149th Street, Suite 107 | Omaha, NE 68144

330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

For over 30 years, R.F. Technologies, Inc. has been an industry leader for Drive-Thru Headset Repairs. We offer repair programs custom designed for single or multi-unit operators. RFT is your one-stop solution for drive-thru systems (including our new APEX Drive-Thru System), surveillance and music systems, along with a widerange of products and accessories. Nationwide on-site repair and installation services are available too.

VAULT 336-698-3796

1515 West Green Drive | High Point, NC 27260

Vertical Cash Drawer 805-252-8673

Santa Barbara | Santa Barbara, CA 93105

Iconex 888-979-8627

3237 Satellite Boulevard, Suite 550 | Duluth, GA 30096

RSS Technology Solutions

502-753-0154 2680 Technology Drive | Louisville, KY 40299

Watson Distributing 800-967-7389 7137 Remmet Avenue | Canoga Park, CA 91303

PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEMS

Renau Electronics 818-341-1994 9309 Deering Avenue | Chatsworth, CA 91311

PROMOTIONAL MENUBOARDS

Epicure Digital Systems 310-652-8246 X. 7 269 South Beverly Drive, #541 | Beverly Hills, CA 90212

REAL ESTATE/SITE SELECTION

Adaptive Property Solutions 888-277-3815 7371 Atlas Walk Way, Suite 327 | Gainesville, VA 20155 www.adaptivepropertysolutions.com scott@adaptivepropertysolutions.com

Crossman - Ecuyer 704-609-0010 1444 Andover Road | Charlotte, NC 28211

Dorsey QSR, LLC Development

3636 North Causeway, Suite 200 | Metairie, LA 70002

Madewell Construction Incorporated

7314 73rd Street | Lubbock, TX 79424 Maine Commercial Realty

209 State Street | Bangor, ME 04401

Near

100 West Walnut, Suite 400 | Pasadena, CA 91124 www.near.com info@near.com

Near, the world’s largest source of intelligence on People, Places and Products, is the global leader in Data Intelligence emp owering organizations of all sizes to make smart, strategic decisions delivering optimal business performance.

Richards Dukes Law, LLC 720-551-7750 P.O. Box 794 | Erie, CO 80516

the gorman group 708-799-4200 1200 West 175 | East Hazel Crest, IL 60429

Timmons Group 919-866-4951 5410 Trinity Road, Suite 102 | Raleigh, NC 27606

TIMOTHY HARBER CCIM 3219604679 4716 Merlot Drive | Rockledge, FL 32955 www.HarberRealty.com TimlHarber@gmail.com

Bryant Commercial Real Estate 480-802-8100 2233 North 7 th Street | Phoenix, AZ 85006

REFRIGERATION & ICE MACHINES

Glastender Incorporated.

5400 North Michigan Road | Saginaw, MI 48604

Hoshizaki America Incorporated.

618 Highway 74 South | Peachtree City, GA 30269

ICS International Cold Storage

215 East 13th Street | Andover, KS 67002

Norlake Incorporated.

891 County Road U | Hudson, WI 54016

Perlick

8300 West Good Hope Road | Milwaukee, WI 53223

Small Refrigerated Trailer Sales, LLC

784 Palmetto Moon Road Southwest | Marietta, GA 30060-6279 www.smallrefrigeratedtrailersales.com sales@smallrefrigeratedteailersales.com

RESTROOM EQUIPMENT

800-748-0423

770-487-2331

800-835-0001

800-955-5253

800-558-5592

770-637-1038

AIR-SCENT International

290 Alpha Drive | Pittsburgh, PA 15238

RESTROOM REMODELS COMPANY

15 Hammatt Street | Ipswich, MA 01938 www.restroomremodels.com keith@restroomremodels.com

Restroom Remodels is your one stop shop for restroom equipment. Hand Dryers, Partitions, Accessories and more. Supplying national QSR chains for over a decade.

SANITATION EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES

AFCO| A ZEP Company

550 Development Avenue | Chambersburg, PA 17201

DiaperDepot.com

105 West Dewey Avenue Building D, Suite 410 | Wharton, NJ 07885

GOJO

One GOJO Plaza | Akron, OH 44311

SATELLITE TV & ENTERTAINMENT

412-252-2000

6175002554

800-345-1329

973-442-4623

216-408-8658

Ice-O-Matic

11100 East 45th Avenue | Denver, CO 80239

RESEARCH FIRMS

Decision Analyst

604 Avenue H East | Arlington, TX 76011 www.decisionanalyst.com jthomas@decisionanalyst.com

866-PURE-ICE

Cloud Cover Music

999 North Pacifi c Coast Highway, Suite 500 | El Segundo, CA 90245 www.cloudcovermusic.com sales@cloudcovermusic.com

817-640-6166

Decision Analyst offers in-depth qualitative investigations, strategic survey research, and advanced analytics, to solve complex marketin g problems. Decision Analyst specializes in sensory testing, new product concept testing and menu impact, forecasting, employee and customer satisfaction, market segmentation, advertising research and brand tracking.

House of Marketing Research

2555 East Colorado Boulevard, Suite 205 | Pasadena, CA 91107 www.hmr-research.com

amy@hmr-research.com

415-847-1593

Cloud Cover Music is the #1-rated digital B2B streaming music service used every day at tens of thousands of restaurants to delight customers and improve employee productivity. Our cloud-based service installs in minutes and scales seamlessly from one location to thousands, without missing a beat. Use a simple app to choose from 200+ professionally curated stations that cover every possible musical genre - or build your own. With Cloud Cover Music, you have the complete freedom to choose, control, and monitor the right music for your business - all at very affordable monthly pricing. No long-term contracts are ever required.

R.F. Technologies Incorporated.

626-486-1400

Recognized as one of the leading business decision insight firms in the food and beverage category, House of Marketing Research combines a highly experienced staff of researchers with a mix of innovative and proven approaches to answer pressing business issues. House of Marketing Research combine primary and connected data from multiple sources to create holistic and actionable analytic stories for their clients. House of Marketing Research empathically connects brands with the customers they serve, transforming the brand-toconsumer relationship into a human-to-human one. House of Marketing Research helps R&D and marketers to succeed through:

• In-store and online studies to better understand customer behavior, in both physical and online contexts.

• Qualitative studies to develop, screen and refine new product and packaging concepts.

• Quantitative studies to pre-test and quantify new packaging, merchandising and display systems (for physical stores and online).

• Conduct research in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog.

• Sensory Testing - Nationwide taste testing capabilities.

847-847-4076

330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

For over 30 years, R.F. Technologies, Inc. has been an industry leader for Drive-Thru Headset Repairs. We offer repair programs custom designed for single or multi-unit operators. RFT is your one-stop solution for drive-thru systems (including our new APEX Drive-Thru System), surveillance and music systems, along with a widerange of products and accessories. Nationwide on-site repair and installation services are available too.

08 08

SECURITY SYSTEMS & SERVICES

Battery Operated Barrier

7054 C.R. 521 | Bayfi eld, CO 81122

Hawk Security Services

14500 Trinity Boulevard, Suite 106 | Fort Worth, TX 76155

SIDE ITEMS & OTHER FOOD PRODUCTS

970-946-4180

Simply Greek

1900 Blalock Road | Houston, TX 77080

972-415-1402

SNACK FOODS

713-614-7181

678-206-5465 1703 Webb Drive, Suite C | Norcross, GA 30093 www.iLinkPro.com info@iLinkPro.com

iLink Professionals Incorporated USA

Security Camera Systems, POS Transactions Overlay on camera, Interface device, Access Control system direct from the manufacture. CALL US TODAY!

Netsurion

100 West Cypress Creek Road, Suite 530 | Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309 www.netsurion.com sales@netsurion.com

954-893-2157

Your margins are critical and can make or break your business. Unfortunately, POS terminals are a common target for data thieves, which you rely on every second of every day. Netsurion offers an all-in-one network solution for security, cellular failover, Wi-Fi, and PCI DSS - monitored 24/7, so you can focus on running your business.

R.F. Technologies Incorporated.

847-847-4076 330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

For over 30 years, R.F. Technologies, Inc. has been an industry leader for Drive-Thru Headset Repairs. We offer repair programs custom designed for single or multi-unit operators. RFT is your one-stop solution for drive-thru systems (including our new APEX Drive-Thru System), surveillance and music systems, along with a widerange of products and accessories. Nationwide on-site repair and installation services are available too.

R.F. Technologies Incorpoated.

330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

Solink

110-390 March Road | Ottawa, Ontario K2K 0G7

3SI Security Systems

101 Lindenwood Drive, Suite 200 | Malvern, PA 19355-1764

LYNN PEAVEY COMPANY

11042 Strang Line Road | Lenexa, KS 66215

Vector Security Networks

2000 Ericsson Drive | Warrendale, PA 15086-9801

800-598-2370

888-817-6546

800-523-1430

800-255-6499

724-741-2200 x. 25

California Walnuts

916-932-7070 101 Parkshore Drive, Suite 250 | Folsom, CA 95630

Tree Top Incorporated.

220 East Second Avenue | Selah, WA 98942 www.foodservice.treetop.com lisa.baldoz@treetop.com

Offering kid approved fruit products that enhance any kid’s meal.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

ArrowStream

141 West Jackson Boulevard, Suite 1310A | Chicago, IL 60604 www.arrowstream.com info@arrowstream.com

509-697-7251

312-267-4400

ArrowStream is the leader in end-to-end supply chain management software for the foodservice industry, helping clients capitalize on data to improve their business. ArrowStream serves thousands of chain restaurant operators, distributors and suppliers with a single integrated network of applications and industry data, providing unmatched levels of transparency, control and actionable insight to protect their clients’ brands, mitigate risks and optimize profitability.

TradeTrans Corporation

173 Black Meadow Road | Chester, NY 10918 www.tradetranscorp.com

llholmbo@tradetranscorp.com

845-469-1000

From purchasing to U.S export distribution to warehousing, TradeTrans simplifies the complexities of QSR supply chain management for US an d international franchises.

FoodandBids

100 Buff et Circle Drive | Brunswick, GA 31525

Foodbuy Foodservice

125 West Country Club Drive | Tampa, FL 33612

TABLEWARES

BIA Cordon Bleu

416 Browning Way | South San Francisco, CA 94080

21011 Commerce Pointe Drive | Walnut, CA 91789

7401 Security Way, Suite 200 | Jersey Village, TX 77040

TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT

ABHIRUTU CONSULTANTS

27/28, Himali Society | Pune, Maharashtra 411004

Aircharge

Downsview Road | Wantage, Oxfordshire OX12 9FA

Atos

51 Broadway, Suite 202 | Fargo, ND 58102

CLOUDWORK|PRO

750 Northwest Charbonneau Street, #201 | Bend, OR 97703 www.cloudworkpro.com info@cloudworkpro.com

WINDOWS

+91-982-239-4170

0-123-577-3373

701-298-8865

541-275-1200

When you need a national on-demand workforce for technology installs, think CLOUDWORK|PRO. It’s a marketplace where companies can easily connect with and deploy verified technicians. Experience your on-demand workforce at CLOUDWORK|PRO.

Concept Communications

2945 Bell Road, Building 120 | Auburn, CA 95603

Drive Thru Pros

543 Country Club Drive, Suite B-332 | Simi Valley, CA 93065

R.F. Technologies Incorporated.

330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

916-652-2399

800-559-1736

847-847-4076

Ready Access

1815 Arthur Drive | West Chicago, IL 60185 www.ready-access.com ready@ready-access.com

800-621-5045

Your go-to source for self-closing drive-thru / walk-up service windows and air curtains designed to meet health code. Trusted by the largest QSRs for over 50 years. Patented technology, economical and dependable. View our website to find the configuration that best fits your project!

For over 30 years, R.F. Technologies, Inc. has been an industry leader for Drive-Thru Headset Repairs. We offer repair programs custom designed for single or multi-unit operators. RFT is your one-stop solution for drive-thru systems (including our new APEX Drive-Thru System), surveillance and music systems, along with a widerange of products and accessories. Nationwide on-site repair and installation services are available too.

R.F. Technologies Incorporated.

800-598-2370 330 Lexington Drive | Buff alo Grove, IL 60 0 9 www.rfdrivethru.com sales@rftechno.com

Science On Call

312-521-0016 942 North Harvey Avenue | Oak Park, IL 60302 www.scienceoncall.com info@scienceoncall.com

TechLink Services

750 Northwest Charbonneau Street 201 | Bend, OR 97703 www.techlinkservices.com info@TechLinkSVC.net

828-348-0258

Since 2008, Techlink has successfully managed high volume, fast-paced rollouts of indoor and outdoor menu boards, POS, kiosks, low voltage cabling, cameras, networks, and loop timers for the restaurant industry. Contact us today and experience the reason why Inc. Magazine awarded TechLink as one of the fastest-growing companies in the nation, five years in a row.

Windstream Enterprise

4001 Rodney Parham Road | Little Rock, AR 72212

949-265-2205

Roger David

President and CEO

GSR

BRANDS GOLD STAR CHILI AND TOM & CHEE

What was your first job?

I started as a dishwasher at the Milford, Ohio, Gold Star Chili in addition to odd jobs in high school like babysitting a pregnant St. Bernard.

What’s your favorite cuisine outside of chili?

Obviously, my favorites are the two restaurants in our family of brands—Gold Star and Tom & Chee. But, when I’m not enjoying a 3-Way or Grilled Melt, I enjoy a variety of Mediterranean foods.

Who inspires you as a leader? Danny Meyer, for his take on hospitality. David Novak, for his vision and drive. Brené Brown, for her contribution to vulnerable leadership.

What’s the best piece of advice that other restaurant executives should hear? Learn your business from the ground up. Good restaurant owners are the ones who understand the tasks and empathize with the challenges of the position Understanding hospitality with the end in mind is key. We strive to ensure our guests leave happier than when they arrived. If we execute well, they will share their experience with others. It’s the oldest and most impactful form of marketing. Taking the time to really understand the granular aspects of the industry and how they impact your vision is essential to being a good and successful owner.

What are some of your interests outside of work?

Old German cars, helping others when I can, and spending time with my family and friends.

Family is at the heart of GSR Brands. Today, I’m fortunate to be running the family business my father and his brothers began 56 years ago. From the beginning, they instilled the brand’s value system throughout the company—respect, passion, courage, and integrity. To this day, we aim to uphold these in everything we do, from how we treat our customers to ensuring that all of our owners identify with these values.

If I’ve learned anything from my years in the restaurant industry, it’s that anyone can put food on a plate and serve it, but not every restaurant can make you feel at home and feel like family. That is what sets GSR Brands apart.

I never thought I’d be in the position I’m in today, running the family business. My father actually discouraged me from entering the restaurant industry. Instead, he was always suggesting I become a doctor or lawyer, thinking I could excel elsewhere. But I’m grateful for where I am and the experiences I’ve had.

After getting my MBA, I worked at Gold Star Chili in the marketing department for 10 years before stepping away to join the dot com industry. When that bubble burst, I was drawn right back to restaurants, this time in the design and brand consulting space. And while I truly enjoyed my work in that space, the hardest part was that all you could do is recommend things, and it was on the client to implement them. My favorite part of my work and role today is that I can be part of not only developing strategy but also overseeing and implementing its execution. Despite the pandemic, 2020 was one of our best years ever. We pivoted and grew in sales, in big part thanks to the spirit of our franchisees and the teams they have in place. One key thing we learned in the past year is that the drive-thru is essential, and I don’t think that convenience factor is going away anytime soon. That said, we are beginning to explore “drive-thru only” options for our brands, as well as pickup windows, to continue increasing convenience for our customers. q