Growing a Business: Operating Multiple Locations and Concepts

 
CHEFS MATTHEW MEDURE AND DAVID MEDURE
Owners/Partners | Medure Brothers Culinary Concepts: Matthew's, Restaurant Medure, M Shack, Midtown Table, Hipp Fitt Meals

Background: Originally our motivation for new concepts was to provide opportunities to our great employees. One restaurant was not enough to support our talented team. Rue Saint-Marc was an opportunity for Scott Alters and Gabby Saul to take leadership roles. The different concepts came slowly over time, based on a desire to share the food that we love. We had been talking for years about opening M Shack, a simple burger place, using fresh ground beef. We didn’t set out to have more than one, but the opportunity at St. Johns Town Center presented itself to open a second location.

How location reflects the brand: We had talked about focusing on Italian cuisine for a long time, and when this location near the St. Johns Town Center became available, it felt like the right time. We also love this area called Midtown, halfway between downtown and the beaches. We want our newest concept, Midtown, to be a restaurant for the neighborhoods and so far that’s what we are. We are seeing a lot of locals from Deerwood, James Island and other close-by communities. We started this over two years ago, before half the growth that has occurred in the St. Johns Town Center.

Challenges: The more stuff you have, the more it seems like something is always going wrong. Having a small issue in one restaurant, that’s easy to deal with. Having a small issue in 6 different locations increases the demands on you. You can’t do it all yourself, can’t be everywhere at the same time. You have to select the right leaders, knowing you’re not able to be in each place all the time.

Advice: As owners of multiple locations, you go from having a job you’re performing to a way of life. It feels like you are always on and you adapt to that lifestyle if you want to succeed. It’s rewarding as long as you can manage that lifestyle – but it could be overwhelming. You have to have a strong partner. Our strengths complement each other. You have to be able to manage multiple leaders. When your employees work alongside you, they see you, feed off your work ethic. When you’re leading from afar, that’s a different perspective and it makes it more critical to have strong leaders who share your vision and philosophy.

 
THERESA, TIM AND BRYAN POYNTER
Owners/Partners | Café Karibo, Timoti’s Seafood Shak and Gregor MacGregor’s Mini Links

Background: Café Karibo had been open in Fernandina Beach for 10 years, and after a local fish house closed, we saw a need in the downtown area for a good seafood place. The fast casual restaurant concept was just starting to catch on and we wanted to experiment with it. People were aware of Karibo’s style of food: healthy, made from scratch, fresh ingredients. We wanted to apply that same ethos to a fast casual seafood shack. We took a lot of the lessons we learned from Karibo. Since opening Timoti’s, we have made so many tweaks and corrections, it doesn’t look like our original idea, except for the continued emphasis on fresh seafood.

How location reflects the brand: We had looked for the second Timoti’s location for over a year. There were several spots, including in St. Augustine, that just didn’t come together. Bryan was driving around and saw a sign being put up at the Five Points location and called right away. We didn’t have to sell the owner on our brand. The first spot we considered in Nocatee didn’t really align with the Timoti’s brand so we turned down that offer. The property management company got in touch with us 6 months later and said they had another space for us with the footprint that we needed.

Challenges: Getting and keeping employees. You’re trying to build a culture so it’s critical to find people who embody your values. You can’t teach values. Attitude is more important than skills. You can train skills but you can’t train someone to have the same attitude and values you have. Being an entrepreneur is lonely when you get started. When you get people on your side, they buy into what you’re doing, they believe it and are willing to work their butts off – it’s pretty cool to see that forward momentum. It’s a neat feeling to build and take care of a great crew. Then those people start to attract other quality people.

Advice: Listen to your customers. Grow smart and set up the infrastructure behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly. We didn’t set out to open multiple Timoti’s, but as we were creating it we wanted to make sure it could be duplicated. Being in the right place at the start of a boom has been beneficial. But no matter how big the wave is, if you can’t deliver you won’t succeed. Keep it simple at the start and scale up as you go. If you start big and then scale back, that’s seen as a bad sign that you’re failing.

 
ALEX JUAREZ
Owner | Hightide Burrito Co.

Background: We knew that eventually we wanted to open another location. The first [restaurant in San Marco] was a proving ground for my concept. My wife and I had been looking casually for another spot for a while. After we had made offers on a couple of places that didn’t work out, we had a serious discussion about whether we wanted to really go ahead with another location. I felt like I was ready for a second spot, mentally and physically. We’re taking what we learned, best practices from the original place and applying them to the new place. Sometimes it’s not a science, it’s more of an art to figure out what works based on your first location.

How location reflects the brand: When we came across Sadler Marina, instantly I saw the possibilities of it. It was a non-traditional site with a great space for an outdoor patio alongside the marina. The landlord was extremely accommodating – and that’s a really critical aspect. Essentially you are entering into a marriage with your landlord. That same week we made an offer.

Challenges: With multiple locations, you have to have a good team to help execute the vision. That’s really hard –getting people to buy into your vision and what you want to do and be onboard with it. You can’t physically do it all yourself and you have to depend on your staff, your management team, to take care of what needs to be done. Being able to delegate and trust is critical.

Advice: Listen to your customers. When we opened our second location, the concept was fast casual with a full bar. After the first month, it was obvious that the customers were demanding table service. That was a change we did not anticipate in the planning process. So we made the switch based on customer feedback. No matter how much you plan things out, sometimes you have to be open to making changes according to what your customers really want. When we opened High Tide in San Marco, it was a completely different menu than what we serve now. But I had to sit back and listen to what the customers were asking for.

 
ERIC WILLIAMS
Director of Restaurant Operations | Marker 32, The Fish Camps and Valley Smoke

Background: Ben and Liza Groshell, owners of Marker 32 since the early ‘90s, loved the traditional fish camp and always wanted to open a restaurant based on that concept. The idea was to take a nostalgic approach with a modern twist and put an emphasis on Southern-style seafood. Fine dining hit a slump so they took a big leap of faith, borrowed money and opened Palm Valley Fish Camp. Another two years down the road, demand had grown and the first fish camp was extremely busy. The Groshells found a spot in Neptune Beach for their second location. Then a great opportunity came up in Mandarin so they opened the Julington Creek Fish Camp after a lot of work on a run-down building. The next location is about to open in St. Augustine. Valley Smoke was launched because Ben and Liza, as creative people, don’t believe in putting all their eggs in one basket as far as a restaurant concept. They love barbecue, and they loved the idea of having a more upscale bbq restaurant with a giant bourbon library. It’s a different approach to barbecue although the menu has what you could find in a traditional restaurant but it also has a lot of dishes that you wouldn’t typically find. People come for a business dinner, families bring their kids.

How location reflects the brand: People are always talking to us about location opportunities. Strip malls don’t really match our brand. Waterfront is important for the Fish Camps, and we want to be in a cool area with enough parking. In St. Augustine, we are on the San Sebastian river, where you can see working shrimp boats.

Challenges: Over the years, we have developed great relationships with our vendor partners but it’s an ongoing process. When you have multiple locations, you have to work hard to source local, fresh seafood. When the weather’s bad, the sea is rough and conditions are less than optimal for the boats bringing in the fish.

Advice: Take it slow. Make sure you have control over your business before venturing out. Make sure you are treating your existing employees right so that when you can’t be at that location as you open a new place, you have staff you can rely on and trust to keep things running. Training is essential and education is continuing so that your staff is engaged and interested in what you’re trying to do. Have a common vision so everyone knows what’s going on. Make sure you are committed to the community you are opening in. We are in different markets – Julington Creek, Neptune Beach, Palm Valley and soon St. Augustine – so it’s important to engage with each locale a little differently.