May/June 2007

LowCountry Barbecue Inc., a full-service catering company founded by Bennett Brown III in 1986, opened a flagship restaurant featuring authentic Carolina-style barbecue in mid-April 2007: LowCountry Barbecue Outpost.

The menu, inspired by coastal SC and GA lowcountry culinary traditions and influenced by Gullah culture and cooking methods, features pit-cooked hand-pulled pork barbecue, southern side dishes such as Brunswick stew, baked beans, coleslaw and fresh vegetables as well as delicious desserts alongside barbecued pork ribs, chicken or beef. Meats are accompanied by LowCountry Barbecue’s signature vinegar-based sauce and/or a sweet tomato-based sauce. The menu also includes Chicken Perlo, a popular lowcountry dish made with chicken, rice and whole hog sausage. Traditional shrimp and grits and lowcountry shrimp boils are occasionally offered as specials. Beer and wine are available by the glass.

LowCountry Barbecue Outpost is located in Stonebridge Promenade at 3455 Peachtree Parkway (Hwy. 141), Suite 201, Suwanee, GA 30024, a half mile north of McGinnis Ferry Road. The restaurant’s telephone number is 678-OUTPOST (688-7678).

May/June 2007

Debby Cannon, Ph.D., CHE

A restaurant operator buys a new piece of equipment. Of course, there is an expected return on this investment. Perhaps it expands the restaurant’s capacity to offer more menu items or to offer a more consistent product. Maybe there will be enhanced productivity. New china is purchased and, again, a return on this investment is assumed � enhanced plate presentations, adding to the restaurant’s ambience.

No less should be expected of training when it comes to return on investment. Training does incur costs but, if properly designed, the benefits can outweigh the costs. How does a restaurant maximize ROI?

1. Evaluate where the gaps are between your restaurant’s standards and the performance of employees. This evaluation may come from customer feedback (comment cards, direct verbal comments, declining business). Or the gaps could relate to safety issues (increases in slips, falls, cuts, back injuries), breakage or waste. Training that directly relates to priority needs in your establishment will have a greater chance of providing significant ROI.

2. Establish definite training objectives. Objectives should follow the SMART formula:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-Specific

Instead of having a goal to “improve service,” objectives should be stated using the above formula. Service-related examples include:

• All servers (100%) will be able to describe all (100%) menu items including ingredients and cooking techniques.
• Drink orders will be taken within two minutes of guests being seated.
• All servers will check back with their tables to see if anything is needed within three minutes of entr�es being served.

Training based on these goals can be evaluated to determine if the behaviors were accomplished and to what degree.

3. Use repetition freely to reinforce training – Pre-shift meetings offer a great opportunity to daily reinforce training that has occurred. Utilize contests, games and other entertaining approaches to support performance standards and make them fun and memorable.

4. Evaluate training with ROI in mind. There are four possible approaches to how training is evaluated:

• Reaction – Did the employees enjoy the training? Find it entertaining? Informative?
• Increase in knowledge and skills – Was knowledge increased? Skills enhanced?
• On-the-job behaviors – Are employees performing the new behaviors at work? Is the knowledge learned being applied effectively on the job? Are the new or refined skills being used on the job?
• Results – Are there tangible results in your restaurant that prove the training is benefiting the operation?

For example after a training program on pairing wine and food, are servers observed making more wine suggestions? This level of evaluation would target “on-the-job behaviors.” Are wine sales increasing and by how much?

This takes the level of evaluation to “results.” Calculating the increase in wine sales (results) as compared to the costs of the wine training program (employee wages, product) results in a very tangible Return on Investment figure. With refreshers along the way, the positive impact of the wine training program could be felt for several months or more which definitely expands the ROI benefits.

Focusing the evaluation solely on the levels of “reaction” and “increase in knowledge and skills” will not be sufficient in determining ROI for training activities. It is imperative that on-the-job behaviors and results be evaluated. If training is not transferred to positive job behaviors, it is of very limited benefit to your business.

You may ask, “How about soft skills – service techniques, interpersonal skills, communication – how do you calculate the ROI in these areas?” The soft skills are definitely more difficult to quantify but we know these areas are of extreme importance in delivering quality service. In evaluating this type of training, aim for the SMART objectives to make the training efforts as focused as possible. For example, instead of aiming for “friendly service” try to be specific about the types of behaviors that might be perceived as “friendly” such as:

• Servers provide a warm, sincere greeting upon approaching the table;
• When children are at the table, the server acknowledges the children and offers a special “hello.”
• When there are older or disabled individuals, these individuals are not ignored but included in the warm greeting.
• The server asks if suggestions would be helpful as the party is ordering.
• The server gauges the timing of how fast or relaxed the party would like to pace their meal.

As you can see, there are many ways that “friendly service” can be more targeted. The standards for your restaurant will be the guiding force in what to include in a training program.

Monitor the areas impacted by these “soft skills” such as guest comments, complaints, returned orders, percentage of return guests, sales volume. Although it may be hard to put an exact dollar amount on the interpersonal skills, we know that these factors have a tremendous impact on the success of your restaurant.

Ongoing and effective training can directly benefit your bottom line as well as serve as a tool in the retention of employees. Consider various forms of recognition for completed training programs (a lapel pin, a framed certificate). These are low-costs ways to create employee enthusiasm for on-going professional development � another ROI for your establishment.

Debby Cannon, Ph.D., CHE is Director of the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality, Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University.

May/June 2007

By McCall Mastroianni

Cocktail crafting grows more competitive with each passing happy hour. To stay afloat in the specialty drink market, restaurateurs and bar staffs are going to new lengths. Some of Georgia’s beverage buffs met with Restaurant Forum to share their secrets for modern mixology.

What’s in a Name?

Do clever titles for liquid concoctions provide the ultimate icebreaker and convince customers to try them? For Gregg Smith, sommelier and bar manager at Silk restaurant in Midtown Atlanta, each cocktail has a story to tell. Smith has been with the restaurant since its opening in 2004 and immediately gained recognition for his innovative drinks. He also has a history of stirring up iconic inspiration when naming his cocktails.

Smith’s newest cocktail heroine is Bebel, named for Brazilian singer Bebel Gilberto whom he recently met when she was in town for a concert. The drink features Brazilian cacha a, fresh strawberries, Martinique sugar cane syrup, grapefruit juice and a splash of ros to add an effervescent sparkle. It’s the perfect balance between sweet and sour and just as smooth as Gilberto’s bossa nova sounds.

Another is Alexandra Marnier-Lapostolle of Grand Marnier fame and owner of Chilean winery Casa Lapostolle. “Alexandra is an inspiration to every businessperson in the world,” says Smith. “She is a vivacious and unstoppable woman dedicated to quality control. The Madame Alexandra cocktail is an homage to her.” The ultimate liquid compliment, this cocktail combines Grey Goose Le Citron with Grand Marnier and Casa Lapostolle Sauvignon Blanc and is garnished with frozen white grapes.

The Mango Picchu, a clever take on the ancient Incan ruin located in Peru, was recently introduced by Smith. The base is made with a pureed egg mixture known as leche de monja (“nun’s milk”). Whole raw eggs are covered with lime juice and stored in the refrigerator for two weeks while the lime juice “cooks” the eggs. During this time, the shells dissolve and the eggs continue to “cook” in the mixture until turning into a translucent white liquid. This liquid is strained through a fine sieve and combined with mango puree, mango liqueur and Pisco brandy from Peru.

For Ecco, part of the Fifth Group Restaurants portfolio, drinks are typically named for ingredients or perhaps the action that may result from its consumption. A wintertime cocktail called The Caroler is a “well-endowed hot cocoa” that has been known to send guests roving the streets humming favorite holiday melodies, while the Gingerberis Maximus is a Latin take on the generous splash of piquant Modern Spirits Ginger vodka. The Port-O-Call, the only drink on the menu that utilizes wine, is a complex combination of grapefruit-honey vodka and ruby port.

Ecco’s Beverage Director Vajra Stratigos also likes to honor the greats. The restaurant’s Sir Edward Hamilton cocktail pays respect to the rum guru that introduced sugar cane juice spirits to the United States as a connoisseur’s beverage.

Putting Fresh to the Test

With a high demand for seasonal ingredients on restaurant menus, the same expectations are now common for the cocktail menus as well. According to Smith, fresh ingredients can make a very noticeable difference, even in a drink as simple as a screwdriver. “You absolutely have to use fresh lime juice in a Pisco Sour,” he says. “It makes a huge difference and so do the correct proportions.”

Ingredients can also be rooted in the restaurant’s culinary tradition, such as Silk’s featuring shiso leaves (also known as Japanese basil) instead of the traditional mint leaves in its raspberry shiso mojito.

Silk’s sake caipirinha, a drink introduced by the Brazilian American Chamber of Commerce, was a trendy drink in San Paola last summer and now Smith has made it a refreshing change of pace here in Atlanta by offering the cocktail in different fruit flavors such as kiwi, raspberry and strawberry. The bar “juices to order” and changes the flavors as different fruits come in season. Unlike traditional caipirinhas that are almost entirely alcohol, this twist uses sake instead, which results in lower alcohol content and a more refreshing edge when combined with the fresh muddled fruit.

Wowing guests is one benefit of original and fresh cocktail ingredients, but Stratigos acknowledges that it’s not feasible for a restaurant to go overboard with fussy components. “We recognize that Ecco is a high volume restaurant,” he explains. “We are trying to bridge the gab between the kitchen and the bar, so most ingredients utilize a kitchen component.”

Stir Things Up or Stick to the Classics?

Georgia restaurants are finding subtle ways to honor the old but bring in the new.

A fun twist on a French classic at Silk is La Vie en Rose (“life in pink”) a classic French 75 prepared with Mo�t et Chandon Brut Ros�, Van Gogh gin, fresh raspberries, fresh lemon juice, sugar cane syrup and crushed ice.

At Ecco, Stratigos wanted to find a way to soften bourbon and make it more feminine. He accomplished this by turning the traditional Manhattan into the restaurant’s El Gravitizer by adding imported Amarena cherries to Woodford Reserve bourbon for a taste of Kentucky-meets-Italy. “The intensity of the cherries balances out the woodiness of the bourbon,” he says.

Garnishes: Glorified or Gratifying?

Sometimes a simple garnish gives way to a memorable moniker. Bonefish Grill, a seafood restaurant new to Johns Creek, created the Icicle Aphrodisiac, which features Skyy Vanilla vodka and passion fruit nectar adorned with a watermelon icicle that is created with a combination of fresh watermelon puree and a hint of Monin watermelon syrup. A cinnamon stick serves as the “handle” of the watermelon popsicle. Bonefish Grill’s beverage department and Patrick Henry Creative Promotions came together to create this chilly concoction, and it paid off. Last year, as a company, Bonefish Grill sold about 100,000 of these cocktails.

“Our guests really enjoy the interaction with the Icicle Aphrodisiac,” says David Harrell, Director of Beverage. “The color, scent, taste and chilly temperature make it appealing on many levels. The drink is truly an ‘inside-out’ cocktail. As the watermelon icicle begins to melt, it infuses the beverage with a shot of color and additional flavor,” he explains.

Frozen grapes can serve double duty as a garnish that keeps the cocktail colder for longer. This technique can be found in drinks at Silk and also in the signature martini at ONE.midtown kitchen.

Ecco tops off its Bloody Mary with French smoked sea salt on the glass rim and a skewer of pickled vegetables for a “natural graduation of the drink,” says Stratigos. The pickled vegetables include okra, red carrots, turnips and pan seared cauliflower that’s put through four different brining baths. The same theory is applied to The Gibson cocktail, which is garnished with house-pickled cipollini onions that complement the drink’s earthy truffle vodka.

“The matter of allure and intrigue comes into play when we tell our customers that we make our garnishes in the restaurant,” says Stratigos. “This is when the impression is made. We want to make sure that our beverage program as a whole is consistent every time.”

Georgia restaurateurs have found a way to make their bottom line easier to swallow by mixing things up for guests.

McCall Mastroianni works for Melissa Libby & Associates, a PR firm with several restaurants among its clients. She can be reached at (404) 816-3068.

May/June 2007

By Hope S. Philbrick

Choosing the cover subject for each issue of Restaurant Forum-Georgia isn’t always easy. There are many folks who we think deserve the attention. But ask any Atlanta restaurateur who they admire and Bob Amick’s name routinely makes the list, a fact that makes our coverage of him seem long overdue. We recently caught up with Amick at TROIS to learn more about what drives him and some secrets behind his success.

“It gets in your blood,” says Bob Amick when asked what led him to a career in the restaurant industry. “It’s all I’ve ever done.” This kid who started selling hot dogs in a stadium has grown into one of Atlanta’s most respected industry leaders with a long list of successful restaurant ventures to his credit, currently including ONE.midtown kitchen, TWO.urban licks, piebar, Lobby at Twelve and TROIS. Several more developments are underway including the gastro pub TAP and the sports bar STATS.

“I’m probably unemployable anyway, so it’s nice working for myself and doing what I want to do,” he jokes. But Amick didn’t start out on his own. After a stint at the Bavarian Alpine Inn, which he describes as “a little beer joint sandwich shop,” Amick joined Peasant Restaurants in 1974. He created Mick’s Restaurants, named for his father, in the 80s. After growing the Peasant and Mick’s companies to over 42 restaurants nationwide, in 1998 Amick sold his interests and launched his first solo venture, Killer Creek. He sold that company in 2001 and started developing a series of chef-driven restaurant concepts and a consulting business with partners Todd Rushing and Mary Reynolds.

Concentrics Hospitality Solutions, the consulting arm, boasts clients like Tom Murphy of Murphy’s; Jim Borders, CEO of the Novare Group developers of the TWELVE Hotel and Residences; and Brian France, CEO and Chairman of the Board of NASCAR. The restaurants are under the Concentrics Restaurants umbrella. “It’s an interesting business model,” says Amick, and one with organic roots. “We didn’t sit down with a pen and paper and plan. Demand creates opportunity.” The magic comes in recognizing opportunity and in knowing when and how to leverage it. “You can’t think, ‘I’m going to do five restaurants,’” says Amick. “You think about opening one restaurant and doing it well. If you do it well and if you’re lucky enough for it to be successful, it could lead to other things.”

In Amick’s case, the path led to consulting. “We’re hired by folks who want to get into the restaurant business but don’t necessarily have the wherewithal or the time to do that. We can do everything from site location to contract negotiation, lease negotiation, hiring architects, designing and building concepts. We can take clients to the opening day and hand them a set of keys or we can run that business.”

“The public doesn’t know necessarily what I own or what I’ve developed,” says Amick. For example, for nearly six years Concentrics has operated Murphy’s under a management agreement of which many people may not be aware. “Tom Murphy still owns the restaurant; we manage his business.” One trick to creating a seamless brand identity is keeping such underlying business arrangements invisible: “Even though a restaurant may be under contract, I treat it and run it like it’s mine.”

For Amick one reward of a large company is the chance it gives him to focus on his favorite part of the job. “I like to develop concepts. It’s fun to do one-of-a-kind restaurants. It’s fun going into a new market and trying to figure out what the climate in that city is and what will work there,” says Amick. “Because what will work in Los Angeles doesn’t necessarily work in Atlanta.”

Another plus is that employees can benefit with expanded career opportunities. “The tough thing when you only have one restaurant is that it can be a dead-end for people,” says Amick. “By having a larger company people can move and develop and see a future.” As an example, Concentrics recently expanded to Florida with Luma On Park, a restaurant that was named ‘best new restaurant’ by Orlando Magazine and Florida Trend Magazine.

A successful large company can also attract high-profile talent. “If I had four restaurants I wouldn’t have the luxury of a pastry chef in each restaurant let alone a corporate pastry chef of Jonathan St. Hilaire’s stature-we think he’s one of the top talents in the city.” Amick lured Jeremy Lieb from Le Cirque Vegas to join TROIS as Executive Chef. While Concentrics is large enough to warrant the Chief Financial Officer and human resources executives on staff, Amick says, “I’m not a big infrastructure guy. I had a big corporate office. I don’t believe in it. It’s not about me; it’s about the talent I put in the kitchen. If we want to do a French restaurant because we think there’s a void in the market, we bring credibility to it. The credibility isn’t Bob Amick; it’s Jeremy Lieb.”

Amick does believe in emphasizing the kitchen. “The world has changed from when I ran that last company. It wasn’t a chef-driven society [back then], you had kitchen managers and a corporate staff that developed recipes and then went out and trained people to cook those recipes. Now we really build the success of each restaurant around culinary talent because we’re in the food business-and if we can’t do that well, we can’t do anything.” The front of the house is not overlooked. “We find operational talent to run each restaurant as its own entity. Each restaurant stands on its own and is successful because it’s a successful restaurant and not because it’s part of a successful company.”

Though his focus is on one-of-a-kind restaurants, Amick admits in some ways he has it easy: “I have huge respect for chef-owned restaurants that have 40 to 50 seats. They have to be there every day and the only way they get a day off is to close the restaurant. That’s an incredible commitment, but it’s not the way I choose to do restaurants. Restaurants have to be a certain size and in the right location to be financially successful.”

But each one is ultimately a calculated risk. “There’s a lot of insecurity in the restaurant business,” he says. “There’s this fierce competitiveness and turf territory. But I’m a big believer that anybody who’s good at anything-I don’t care if you’re a clothier, a hotelier, a restaurant operator or a lawyer-if you’re good at what you do, you will survive. There’s always room in the marketplace for people who do things well. And if you do things well, you don’t have to worry about what’s going on around you. This is a business that can get affected by a lot of things, but what you do between your own four walls really affects it. If you do a great job and really understand your concept and who your customers are, there’s comfort in that.”

Still “there’s no guarantee you’re going to be successful ever,” he says. “You build it and don’t know if they’re going to come. And then when they come you don’t know if they’re going to like it or not. There’s going to be rejection. A lot of people go into it for the wrong reasons. The restaurant business is like gambling. It’s scary and dangerous. It can be incredibly rewarding but we’re at the whim of other people. Everybody has an opinion in this business. Everybody thinks they know food or service or restaurants. The great American public is a very dangerous way to earn a living.”

 The public is fickle. “It’s very hard in this business to keep the focus and energy on one location for a long period of time. By having a company that’s growing and continuously offering new things, there’s a great residual benefit back to other restaurants and they get reinvigorated. When [the media mentions] TROIS, they mention ONE.midtown kitchen and so on. That’s a huge benefit and so we’ve spent a lot of time and energy this year branding Concentrics Restaurants.”

Despite being part of a group, each restaurant targets a specific clientele. “People say all the time, ‘TROIS is so different from your other restaurants.’ Well, yeah, it’s supposed to be. It’s a different location. It was designed to be that way. My job is to make sure that whatever restaurant I do has an audience.” As part of his market research, Amick finds answers to key questions: Who are the potential customers? Where are they coming from? Where do they live? Where do they go to eat now? “You have to understand your customer and play to that customer. Just because you’ve got a great concept in your head and you think it’s going to be great doesn’t mean anybody else thinks it’s going to be great.”

When someone approaches Amick to discuss the possibility of his consulting on their first venture into the restaurant business, what’s the content of the first meeting? “The first thing we try and do is talk you out of it,” says Amick. “I don’t think anybody should go in the restaurant business. The hours are long and the reward most the time is not good. You can be a slave to this business and it’s hard. I didn’t encourage any of my children to work in it-they’re sort of all getting involved in it, but it wasn’t my choice. You have to like working 16 hours a day seven days a week. It doesn’t matter what level you’re at, if you want to be good at it it’s a constant thing.”

He may have reservations about recommending it to others, but there’s no denying the industry is a perfect fit for Amick. “It’s great to be 57 and feel like you’re 21 in terms of the opportunities. Life’s a funny thing. You get an opportunity to reinvent yourself and do it all over again and that’s pretty thrilling. Most people my age are downsizing and stepping back; I’m stepping up and doing more things than I ever did. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s exciting, it’s fun and it’s nice to be active. I can’t see myself playing golf. Work is my play.”

Behind Bob’s Back

What makes Bob Amick successful? We asked two of his colleagues.

“Besides passion, Bob begins every project like a puzzle and every piece must fit exactly. Every item plays a role in the guest experience whether the guest realizes it or not: the color of a server’s shoes, his belt, her earrings, the height of the host stand, the flowers in the bathroom, the coffee cup, the votive candle. Bob’s mind is always going over each detail because it makes the difference.” -Todd Rushing, partner Concentrics Restaurants

“I think Bob’s willing to put in the effort. It’s a consistency. Various people can have the ideas. Bob is able to consistently pull off quality, day in and day out. And of course he has some great, cutting-edge ideas.” -Steve Nygren, former owner of Peasant Restaurants

Amick On…

…Location

“When choosing location, the key is a visible landmark that people recognize.”

…Midtown

“I think it’s really going to be the heart of Atlanta from an art standpoint. It’s only lacking retail and I think that’s coming.”

…Atlanta

“Downtown is further behind the curve. It’s more government and education based. There’s a huge amount of development, it just needs density in residential, retail and basic conveniences. They’re coming.”

…People

“Atlantans have not proven that they’re willing to go downtown just to eat. They’ll go downtown for an event and look for a place to eat, but they’re not making downtown a destination. STATS will be a great experiment with that.”

…The National Scene

“Atlanta is a major player. I think it doesn’t get credit sometimes because it is in the South. Vegas has a reputation for great restaurants but I wouldn’t say it has the cultural fiber to be a great restaurant city; it’s gone out and gotten celebrity chefs and dumped them there.”

at McCormack Place in Chicago. www.restaurant.org/show/.

showcases 75+ restaurants. Cuisine to be judged by a panel of experts. Event held in Historic downtown Alpharetta. (678) 297-6078. http://alpharetta.ga.us.

(404) 624-5820. www.zooatlanta.org.

May/June 2007 By Julie DouglasJohn Roberts is master brewer and co-owner of Max Lager’s, “Atlanta’s oldest independent restaurant brewery.” Roberts honed his brewing chops in Boston then joined his aunt and uncle, Alan and Cindy LeBlanc, in opening the Peachtree Street venture. His passion is evident in his brews and his mischievous streak even more so in his eleven percent alcohol Imperial IPA. Restaurant Forum spoke to Roberts about his love of suds and his path to Max Lager’s.Restaurant Forum: What’s the first beer you ever tried? John Roberts: My father’s Coors. For some reason, my father thought that it was the best beer and would go all the way to Arkansas to bring it back to the Gulf Shores of Alabama, where I’m from. I remember drinking it and thinking, “Ugh, I hate this.”RF: How did you get into brewing? JR: Drinking beer (laughs). I went to school at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. At the time, the microbrew revolution was just taking off and I was there. I witnessed Jim Cook, the owner of Sam Adams, walking down the street with two six-packs in his hands, going bar to bar selling them. I ended up living an eighth of a mile away from his test brewery-crawling distance, as I used to call it. I spent some time there talking to the brewers, getting as much information as I could and started home brewing. I knew from the first minute I started that I loved it.RF: Where did you work before Max Lager’s?JR: I gave up my day job in studio engineering and started interning with breweries. I took a job with a home brew supply store and built a brew-on-premise facility for them and was brewery manager. I still, to this day, say it was my favorite job of all time. I went to work at 10 a.m. and tested all the beers to make sure that they were doing all right just a little for empirical study. We needed ten new recipes a week and I’d make up test batches. Customers would come in, I’d talk beer and make beer all day and went home happy early, too! I gained a lot of weight!I came to Atlanta to prepare to open the brewpub in 1996, but the process was slow. So I took a job with Atlanta Brewing Company and I became a head brewer. That was during the Olympics. I did a lot of brewing during that time. I lost a lot of weight! I worked there for a little over a year and a half. Then we opened Max Lager’s in 1998 and have been going ever since.RF: What beer stoked your imagination? JR: When I was 18, I tried a Moosehead beer and thought, “That actually tastes good.” I started drinking imports at the time there were no microbreweries. The first microbrew beer that made me think, “This is what I should be doing” was Sam Adams. My brewer-friends probably cringe when they hear that. But to this day, I still love Sam Adams. Then all the microbrews started coming out. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale just blew my mind, initially.RF: Where do you get your inspiration? JR: I’m more of a traditional brewer. I’ll occasionally venture out on the extreme. I like what American brewers have done with traditional styles by making them a little more extreme, with a lot of hop power to it. But I’m not just a “hop head,” as we call ourselves. I love subtly in beer as well. Any time I taste a beer I like, I get inspired by that. There are style guidelines that I venture beyond. I’m not stuck with “all malt beer, all of the time.”RF: I imagine you love all your beers as if they were your children. But is there one that you’d take with you to a desert island? JR: If I had to pick one, it would be the Imperial IPA. I made it on a whim without a recipe. When it came out, I said “This is what I want.”RF: Do you have brew master philosophy? JR: I’m a real hands-on person. If it’s going to be craft-made, it should be craft-made, and not computer made. In a brewpub the idea is, “Maybe each batch doesn’t taste the same, a little different here and there. Maybe I feel like putting more hops in it this time. Or I want to try something different this time.”

Expands, Keeps Community Feel 

May/June 2007

By Christy White

In 1988, college kids Jamey Loftin and Hughes Lowrance dreamed of opening their own restaurant. Nearly 20 years later, that dream has turned into more than 25 franchised Locos Grill & Pub locations throughout the southeast.

How did they do it? With a little determination and a lot of organization.

“I think we initially started with about $10,000,” remembers Lowrance, co-founder and CEO. “It was a very shoestring budget.”

Located in a tiny building in Athens, Locos Deli and General Store originally offered 10 sandwiches in addition to basic necessities like milk and toilet paper. The restaurant soon moved to a new location, dropped the general store, added alcohol and expanded its menu. It was a formula for success.

After opening two more restaurants in town, the pair decided to franchise the concept.

“We didn’t have a lot of financial backing just to open our own corporate stores. So Hughes said, �Let’s start selling franchises,’” says Loftin, co-founder and COO.

The first franchised location opened in Gainesville in 1997. Today, Locos Grill & Pub �named after Lowrance’s father Collie�is in cities such as Vidalia, Tifton and Columbus, and is considering expanding into South Carolina and Missouri. And while those 10 original sandwiches are still on the menu, the offerings have grown to more than 100 items.

The key to the company’s success is to make franchising a Locos Grill & Pub as easy as possible.

“Know how your business works. Have very detailed methods of how you prepare food, how you keep your costs in line, stuff like that,” Loftin says. “That’s what people want to buy a franchise for, to have all that work done for them so they can open up and be successful and not have to spend time figuring out how to train people, what menu items to carry, how to prepare them, or how to cook them properly.”

“You’re trying to create a model for somebody else to follow, and if you don’t have all your procedures in line, then you can’t train people,” Lowrance adds. “If you get your procedures in line, everybody’s expectations about what their job is becomes a lot clearer. Your mission statement or goal will be a lot easier for your employees to follow, which will translate into a good experience for your customers.”

Just recently, Locos Grill & Pub unveiled its new prototype restaurant in Athens and Albany. The two locations feature huge wooden beams, stacked stone, a large patio and a mahogany bar inside.

It’s a look that will be incorporated going forward, and is based on the pub�short for “public house”�experience.

“We want it to be very comfortable,” Loftin says. “You can kind of linger and hang out, chill out, meet your friends. It’s really a community living room.”

“We’re trying to appeal to all walks of life,” Lowrance adds. “We have 70- and 80-year-old people who are comfortable with the menu and the atmosphere next to families with kids, next to people that are there to have a few beers and watch a basketball game.”

The new locations have witnessed a 40 percent increase in volume. “We’re seeing $50,000 to $60,000 in sales in these new prototypes,” Lowrance says. “Some of the older stores are doing $30,000 to $40,000 a week.”

Going forward, Locos Grill & Pub continues to look for prime franchise locations, preferring freestanding locations to strip centers.

“We’re really trying to get into some “A” locations where the visibility is good, the parking is ample and the access is good,” Loftin says. “You can open up on day one and everyone knows where you are. You have that opportunity to seize that volume of business right out of the gate as opposed to spending two or three years educating your guests on where you are.”

One of the most important aspects of Locos Grill & Pub’s success is its community outreach. The company hosts an annual golf tournament that raises an average of $10,000 a year, which goes to local charities. The franchised locations are also encouraged to participate in the local community as well.

“It’s a business decision. Yeah, I love to do it because it’s the right thing to do and it makes everybody feel good and warm, and that is a great reason to do that,” Loftin says. “But these people are coming in and spending money in our stores, so we want to give some of that back to them and put it out in the community.”

100 percent of ticket sales benefits The Atlanta Community Food Bank, Genesis, A New Life and Project open Hand. To be held at the Georgia Aquarium. Contact Amy Cromwell, (770) 436-5151. www.atlantataste.org.