The chain of 73 restaurants operated by Darden Restaurants based in Orlando, FL has been sold to Sun Capital Partners according to this article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
The article goes on to explain that the new owners plan to add more beer and adult frozen drinks to the menu.
I've got a suggestion for the new owners, how about focusing on improving the quality of the barbecue?
If adding drinks to the menu would fix their ills, don't you think Darden would have figured that out already?
Oh SNAP! Nice one, Brian.
ReplyDeleteWhy do companies keep forgetting the BBQ when developing the business plan for a BBQ chain?
I'm trying to find something witty to say here. No such luck.
ReplyDeleteWhen a restaurant chain is sold to a firm like Sun Captial Partners, kiss that place good bye. Restaurants need someone who loves to cook somewhere in control or they just suck.
There is no such thing as a chain BBQ that is any good. That is why small mom and pop shops will always kick chain ass. All the chain cares about is the bottom line and the fat wallets at the top
ReplyDeleteWhen do you become a chain? 2 locations? 5? I wonder when the quality starts to dip. I'm sure it's not the same with every chain, but it would be interesting to see if there was any consistency.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad to say, but with Smokey Bones BBQ is a theme, like music at the Hard Rock or motorcycles at the Harley Davidson Cafe. I visited their one Long Island location twice and it was two times too many.
Eric Devlin
It's so true about the dip in quality and to illustrate that point further here's an example...
ReplyDeleteYou can give three people the same recipe for bbq pork ribs and they can use the exact same ingredients and the same bbq smokers, but the results will be different. No two people cook the same way and with a product such as traditional southern bbq --an artform really--the quality from restaurant to restaurant cannot be maintained.