After hitting pause on growth around the time of the pandemic, Missouri-based Big Whiskey's is again making a push to open more units. As part of the effort, the brand signed a three-unit agreement with a Texas couple who will bring Big Whiskey's to Houston.
The founders of Big Whiskey’s American Restaurant & Bar launched the concept to fill a dining gap in Springfield, Missouri.
Nearly 20 years later, new franchisees Tony and Mary Cook are looking to open three of their own Big Whiskey’s restaurants for the same reason. The Cooks live in Conroe, Texas, a mid-sized city just north of the Houston metro area, and they said the growing community could use what Big Whiskey’s is offering.
“We saw there was a need for more restaurants and, specifically, those that are more sports bar-oriented,” Tony Cook said. “We saw what opportunities had already come into the marketplace, and then Big Whiskey’s happened across my path as I was formulating the idea. We found it to be an upscale sports bar with a higher quality of food than what we saw with other concepts, and it was in line with what we were looking for.”
Mary and Tony Cook are opening three Big Whiskey’s locations in Texas.
Today, the Cooks run property management and commercial development companies. But they are no strangers to franchising, or the restaurant space.
Before moving to Texas in 2012, Mary Cook owned several 7-Eleven stores in Nevada. Tony Cook, meanwhile, spent nearly a decade with Jack in the Box, building up a Nevada footprint from 14 locations to 60.
“As a past operator, I look at the margins and the growth, and what I saw with Big Whiskey’s was attractive,” Tony Cook said. “Then I started focusing in on food costs and labor.” Coming from a quick-service restaurant, “we run with much thinner margins on individual units. What I saw with them, especially with new units, was immediate volume numbers that made the concept work.”
The brand, with 18 locations open, reports an average unit volume of $4.3 million. Erin Detrick, Big Whiskey’s associate vice president of franchising, said the concept originated when its founders were looking to bring a new dining option to a revitalized district in Springfield.
The brand began franchising in 2014 and steadily grew with a mix of company-owned stores and franchise locations. Whiskey’s expects to open five more locations by the end of 2025, marking a new phase in expansion after a hiatus.
“We took a large pause during the pandemic,” Detrick said. “We wanted to make sure we knew how we were going to navigate the world, and now we’re getting back into the thick of it.”
Erin Detrickis is the associate vice president of franchising at Big Whiskey's.
For their development, Tony Cook said opening three restaurants is what he considers a “standard size” under a district manager. He said that way, each individual restaurant can have proper support.
Detrick called the agreement a major step for the brand’s growth plan.
“Texas is a big deal,” Detrick said. “Anybody in the industry will tell you that. Getting into these markets is aligned with our strategy, as we see growth organically in the south and southwest regions of the country. There are a lot of people down in the Houston market that have never heard of us, so it’s an opportunity to expose ourselves and strengthen our presence.”
Without brand awareness in Texas, the Cooks plan to rely on several local connections they’ve built to make customers feel welcome.
“We’re going to do a lot of guerilla marketing,” Mary Cook said. “Being on the ground is where I have experience. We’re going to have a lot of local marketing efforts and our interior design is going to include photos of local athletes and our TVs are going to show high school games of local teams.”
“I’ve been coaching junior high school football and baseball in the area for the last seven years,” Tony Cook said. “So, I’m planning to connect with local schools and their athletic programs on marketing and awareness.”
Detrick said those community connections are among the reasons the brand has confidence in the Cooks.
“What we look for in our franchisees are those who’re focused on bringing not just our blueprint and operations, but our culture within them,” Detrick said. “They’ve shown that by being involved with developing their community, and this is the next piece in their puzzle to support their community infrastructure.”
Along with Houston, Detrick said the brand is also looking to expand in Dallas and Austin. New units in Texas will add the state to a footprint that includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri and Oklahoma. Big Whiskey’s is also planning to open in Kentucky.
Founded in 2006 and franchising since 2016, Missouri-based Big Whiskey’s American Restaurant & Bar is again pushing franchise growth.
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