Food Halls and Building Multi-brand Companies

I couldn’t help thing of the progression of our food vending dating back to the beginning of mall food courts. I remember going to all of the familiar go-tos from Hotdog on a stick, Sbarro , Dippin Dots , Subway Franchise Development , Auntie Anne's , Cinnabon , Panda Restaurant Group , and Orange Julius. It was great for the customer because you had so many choices a family could order from different ones. It was great for the business because you had a relatively small food print with a shared seating space and a captive audience……. Hungry shoppers.

Then, the next big thing was the food truck. We were able to open for business without the heavy costs associated with a brick and mortar space and we could go where the customer was like little league baseball games, concerts, festivals, downtown near business offices, etc. Again, we were able to sell from a very small foot print. However, food truck owners saw how this was great for introducing new food options to market but it was a hard life to sustain. There was a tremendous amount of prep, packing things up, and rolling from site to site.

Then came the Food Halls. In 2010, there were just 25 American food halls. By 2020, real-estate analysts predict an estimated 300 food halls will be in the American landscape. When I was in Las Vegas this past March for Bar & Restaurant Expo, I experienced Eataly , Joe Bastianich's food hall. It was Italian focused but had stores and mini restaurants with cheeses, breads, charcuteries, pizza, seafood, wine, and more.It had the energy of a fun market but with a new edgier feel. This was my first food hall experience.

Once again, the multi-choice dining option came back on the dining landscape. Once again, you could operate in a very small space but you didn’t have to load up a truck every morning and unload at night. The main difference from the food court is you no longer had shoppers as the captured attention. So these food halls came up with a creative venue and multiple choices to become a destination in itself. I predict that these food halls are here to stay for a long time.

Out of the food hall craze emerged a remarkable company called Front Burner Society. FB Society created a food hall concept that they are now scaling throughout the country. Unlike other food hall companies, FB Society also created a number of restaurant concepts that have also bee n highly successful These brands include Haywire (a Texas steakhouse), Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar (a cocktail-centric, food restaurant), Son of a Butcher Slider Bar (a slider bar), Sixty Vines (a wine-centric bar with sixty wines on tap), Mexican Sugar (a Mexican style restaurant with an extensive tequila program called the Agave Library), and more.

Creating one successful brand is hard enough but, FB Society, under the leadership of Jack Gibbons , is crushing multiple concepts and food halls.You definitely want to check out this growing mega-brand. If you want to know more, Jack and I will both be on a panel at NextGen Restaurant Summit in Atlanta in September. If you don’t want to wait that long tune in to the Restaurant Success Club Linked In Live conversation this Thursday at 2pm right here on my Linked In page where I will have the privilege of discussing building a multiple brand empire with FB Society’s CEO Jack Gibbons.

Want help creating a multi-brand restaurant group? If so, book a FREE CALL with me. I work with small, emerging restaurant groups looking to grow a single concept or many. Click here NOW to book a call.

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