Celebrating its 35th year, Andy’s Frozen Custard is scheduled to open its 100th store in Kansas City, Mo., this summer, marking a milestone as the chain hopes to grow 15% to 20% annually.

“We’d love to see an Andy’s on every corner in all the great neighborhoods in America and I think at some point we can get there,” said Kuntz. “It’s about finding the right people and the right locations and the right situations.” 

The Springfield, Mo.-based chain saw $41.2 million in sales in 2020, which was up 4.5% from the prior year. Andy’s opened two units during the year for a total of 94. 

That success comes in part because of a unique aspect for a frozen treat chain: All traditional stores are built with drive-thrus, so families saw Andy’s as a safe experience through the pandemic.

Known for concretes, Andy’s’ baked goods used as toppings — like brownies, pumpkin pie and cookies — are baked in stores, and toppings also include seasonal fresh fruit and roasted pecans. The frozen custard is made fresh throughout the day, so the concept is operationally more complex than most in the treat segment. But it’s managing that operational complexity that Andy’s is good at, said Kuntz

The concept was founded by John and Carol Kuntz in 1986, they brought their son Andy and his wife Dana into the business and Andy Kuntz has helped grow the chain with franchising.

Listen to his take on the brand’s future and the challenge of beating the custard melt.

The NRN team kicks off this week's pod talking about, what else, earnings season. From McDonald's awesome quarter to the future of pandemic "winners" like Domino's and Wingstop, the team covers it all.

Sam Oches, Joanna Fantozzi and Holly Petre also cover the new PPP program and McDonald's latest celebrity collaboration.

This week, hear from the president of Salata. Michelle Bythewood has only been president of Salata for two and a half years but she is using her skills to change the company – for the better. Since she began her tenure in 2019, the brand has undergone a complete refresh, a new tech suite and the inclusion of mental health days.

Rock n Roll Sushi occupies the unique niche of providing sushi rolls and hibachi-grilled items in a rock music-themed setting to consumers who might not normally eat raw fish.

Founded in Mobile, Ala., in 2010 by husband-and-wife team Lance and Gerry Mach Hallmark, the chain grew thanks to their deep understanding of their market and to devoted friends who opened franchises of their own.

Being successful at selling sushi in Alabama also caught the attention of Chris Kramolis, a former area developer for fast-casual chain Tropical Smoothie Cafe, who thought the concept might work in his home state of Arkansas, too.

The concept did work, even in May of 2020, when dining rooms were at 33% capacity. That’s when Kramolis opened his first Rock n Roll Sushi unit in Little Rock, Ark. It worked so well, in fact, that he opened a second unit in Little Rock in July, and then opened a location in Tallahassee, Fla.

That success drew the attention of Kramolis’s friend Eric Jenrich, founder of Tropical Smoothie Cafe, who ended up buying a controlling stake in Rock n Roll Sushi and making Kramolis its CEO.

In this video, Kramolis discusses the fear of operating during the pandemic as well as Rock n Roll Sushi’s resiliency and his own path to the C-suite.

Paul Altero has been working in restaurants since he was 9 years old, and for the past 13 years he and business partner Bill Hart have been running Bubbakoo’s Burritos, a fast-casual chain based on the Jersey shore serving burritos and related items with a wide variety of proteins, such as Buffalo chicken and hibachi steak & shrimp.

Bubbakoo’s growth actually accelerated during the pandemic, in part, according to Altero, because full-service operators were looking for business opportunities that didn’t depend on open dining rooms and contacted him about opening franchises.

In this video, Altero shares his own background, how he met Hart when they both worked for casual-dining chain Johnny Rockets, and the keys to Bubbakoo’s success during the pandemic. Those include streamlining the takeout and delivery process, launching a virtual brand called Tossem Wing Factory, and simply being lucky enough to already have the service style that fit customers’ changing needs.

Quinn Adkins has been Culver’s director of menu development for the past six years, overseeing the creation of menu items such as the award-winning Pretzel Haus Pub Burger and other items popular with guests and franchisees alike, such as the pretzel bites that recently were made permanent additions to the menu because they’re easy to make and also contribute to incremental sales — both important factors at all times, but particularly during a pandemic.

He also introduced a veggie burger made with actual plants rather than the meat analogs that he says are now so ubiquitous that a restaurant can no longer distinguish itself by using them.

Frozen custard is another signature item at the 800-unit chain based in Prairie du Sac, Wis., and customers are known to make U-turns when they see signs alerting them that their favorite custard is the “Flavor of the Day.”

Adkins has introduced two new custard flavors this year, but he did it without adding new SKUs by taking ingredients the opeartors had and blending them in different combinations.

The chef recently discussed those innovations with Nation’s Restaurant News, and also hinted at what might be coming in the future, such as a vegan entrée that isn’t a salad.

Bonchon, which translates from Korean as “My Hometown,” has over the past year begun to offer a fast-casual version of the traditionally casual-dining fried chicken restaurant and plans to introduce a delivery-carry-out version later this year.

“Our franchise partners are the ones that really led us down this path,” said Flynn Dekker, Bonchon CEO since 2019, in this Nation’s Restaurant News interview. “They were the ones that were saying, ‘Hey, we see where the market is going. We like casual [dining], but I'd like to test fast-casual and would like to test it in a delivery-carryout-only model.” 

The two fast-casual versions have opened in Addison, Texas, and Towson, Md.

Dekker said the fast-casual Bonchon units cover about 1,800 to 2,000 square feet and the delivery-carryout, or DelCo, version will range from 1,500 to 1,700 square feet. 

In Datassential’s most recent Firefly 500-plus rankings, Bonchon rose from No. 235 in 2019 to No. 216 in 2020. Unit growth was about 10.2%. U.S. sales increased about 5.8% in the period.

Hooters was one of the success stories among large sports-bar chains in 2020, largely because it was ready to shift to an all off-premises menu. The Atlanta-based chain already had seen that takeout and delivery were going to be growing segments of their business and had launched a fast-casual spinoff chain, Hoots Wings, in 2017, allowing corporate management and franchisees to become familiar with catering to the off-premises space.

Additionally, Hooters management had been approached before the pandemic started by third-party-delivery company Uber Eats to roll out a virtual burger concept, so Hootie’s Burger Bar was up and running even before last year’s lock down. Since then, the parent company has launched Hootie’s Bait & Tackle, highlighting the chain’s seafood items, as well as Hootie’s Chicken Tenders.

All of those concepts have remained popular even as dining rooms opened up, leading to incremental sales with minimal added cost.

In this video, Hooters CEO Sal Melilli discusses the chain’s success and his optomism for a bright future.

Like many restaurants, Focus Brands-owned fast-casual Tex-Mex chain Moe’s Southwest Grill had to think fast to keep up with changing customer preferences and technological needs during the pandemic. From recently updating its app to improve the digital ordering experience, to creating a refreshed logo and rolling out a new store prototype, Moe’s has been focusing on accommodating the modern customer’s changing needs.

 

“It's all about convenience for guests today,” Moe’s chief brand officer Alex Williams said. “They're always in a hurry, they're always on the go. […] So, the more seamless we can make that transaction, using technology will make it easier for them to choose us.”

 

The latest project for Moe’s is creating the new to-go focused store prototype with a smaller footprint that will be rolling out soon. The design was created with nostalgia in mind as Millennials are now becoming parents and remember going to Moe’s when they were kids in the early ‘00s.

 

“I think the family experience plays a significant part of who we are,” Williams said. “And some of those guests were probably some of our first most guests at one point in time as well. […] The atmosphere that we're creating now with some of these new prototypes, I think will serve in a way that will play out who we are as a brand: fun, vibrant and exciting, and a place to get a great burrito bowl.”

 

For more insight from Williams on how Moe’s has updated their menu and design as a result of the pandemic, keep listening.

Mark Rosati has been culinary director of Shake Shack since it was a single hotdog stand in New York City’s Madison Square Park.

He wasn’t sure he should take the job. He’d been cooking at Danny Meyer’s and Tom Colicchio’s fine-dining restaurant Gramercy Tavern, and running a takeout kiosk seemed like a step down. Would his chef friends even speak to him anymore?

But Rosati said that he appreciated that Shake Shack used the same ingredients and cooking techniques that Meyer’s fine-dining restaurant used — in fact, prep for “The Shack” initially took place across the street at Eleven Madison Park, which was part of Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group at the time.

Shake Shack has come a long way since then, with around 330 locations worldwide and its own test kitchen, and Rosati has relocated to Los Angeles for ease in travel as more shacks open in East Asia. His chef friends still speak with him.

In this podcast, Rosati discusses how Shake Shack has evolved and how the research & development process as changed, including how he and his team have had to adjust during the pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the ways Chevy’s Fresh Mex parent company Xperience Restaurant Group demonstrated their priority of employees was by refusing to lay off any of their managers, Xperience Restaurant Group CEO Randy Sharpe said in this week’s episode of Extra Serving.

To find out more about how Xperience Restaurant Group is able to afford higher wages and what they’re doing to combat staffing shortages, listen to this week’s episode of Extra Serving below.