Food and restaurant products wholesaler St. Johns Food Service is following an industry trend: It is creating its customers one restaurant at a time.
Craig Smith, who owns the St. Augustine-based company, bought the Dick’s Wings & Grill franchise at 10750 Atlantic Blvd. off St. Johns Bluff Road in September. He learned about the strategy while attending wholesale conferences.
“A guy up Baltimore has like three barbecue restaurants. In Indiana, a guy has three barbecue restaurants and two Mexican. Everybody seems to have Mexican restaurants because it’s so inexpensive, right?” Smith said.
The business plan is to operate a profitable restaurant and in turn make that restaurant a St. Johns Food Service customer and sell the restaurant items at a lower margin.
Smith also owns Alhambra Theatre & Dining and uses the same strategy there.
Smith chose to seek a Dick’s Wings location because his cousin, Rob Langley, has a successful Dick’s Wings in St. Augustine.
He took on Langley and St. Johns Food Service business partner Joel Slotnick as restaurant partners. It was Langley who learned that the Atlantic Boulevard franchise was for sale.
They took over in September. It was a seamless transition that didn’t necessitate closing the restaurant.
In April, they brightened what had been a rather dark sports bar and turned it into a more family-friendly sports restaurant.
The Regency-area location, across from Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport, had been a Dick’s Wings franchise for about 15 years. The black tabletops have been replaced with light tan butcher block surfaces.
The large open space now has a dividing wall topped with a smoked glass panel separating the bar and sit-down restaurant areas. The black brick wall behind the bar is now teal.
For convenience, they made a designated to-go pickup area to give those customers a place to wait without having to stand around a crowded bar.
It cost about $450,000 to buy the franchise, remodel, equip and stock it. The contractor was Intracoastal Construction & Repair Inc.
Smith said ARC Group Inc., the Dick’s Wings & Grill chain’s parent company, was fairly accepting of their redecorating ideas.
“They dictate the colors you can use, and beyond that they pretty much let you run your business,” Smith said.
The Dick’s Wings franchise is known for its variety of wing flavors. This location is approaching the menu a bit differently.
They made changes to how food is sourced and prepared.
The fried shrimp, fried green tomatoes and fried mushrooms are hand-battered in the kitchen. They are not frozen.
Servers are encouraged to offer samples to customers before they order.
“Two weeks ago we brought shrimp out and got people to sample it. The next day, they brought back 21 friends and got a big table and had a blast,” Smith said.
He estimates that 30% of the time, once customers sample the shrimp, they will order it.
The hospitality extends to the bar. Smith said they stock more high-end brands than most Dick’s franchises. Soon-to-be completed shelving will have the top-end bottles on display. They will be offered at about $9 instead of $14 to $20 as seen in many cocktail-centric bars.
“We’re willing to give up some margin to give somebody that next-level experience that you wouldn’t get at average Dick’s Wings,” Slotnick said.
The group expects to have two more restaurants in the next couple of years. But they are limiting those to Dick’s Wings.
“We’re not just stuck on Dick’s Wings. We’re currently looking at some other deals,” Slotnick said.
Eventually, they’d like to buy the entire Dick’s Wings business, Smith said. They have approached Arc Group Inc. about such a deal. The talks are in the preliminary stages, he said. They would continue the franchise model.
Arc Group Inc. is based in Orange Park. There are four company-owned and 19 franchises in Florida and Georgia, according to crunchbase.com.