How Chad Offerdahl Turned a Two-Unit Diner into a Breakfast Powerhouse

Chad Offerdahl, Co-CEO of The Big Biscuit, sits down with FSR editors to share how he and his father transformed a beloved two-unit diner based outside of Kansas City, Missouri, into a 30-unit breakfast powerhouse that’s actively franchising. He unpacks how his QSR background and mindset inspired efficiency like six-minute ticket times, and how they’re scaling both company-owned and franchise units with purpose. From menu refreshes to launching third-party delivery and the value of oversized portions, Offerdahl reveals what it takes to win in the fast-moving world of full-service breakfast.

Transcript

Callie Evergreen: 0:05

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Restaurant Innovator, a podcast from the editors of FSR magazine, where we explore the bold ideas, creative minds, and strategic decisions reshaping full service dining. I'm your host and FSR editor, Callie Evergreen, joined by my colleague and co-host, Sam Danley, Associate Editor. I'm excited to welcome our special guest for today's episode, Chad Offerdall, the co-CEO of the Big Biscuit, which has grown to nearly 30 locations across four states. Chad also recently spoke at FSR's third Next Gen Restaurant Summit in Atlanta on the panel Engaging Entertaining Talent in a High Turnover Industry. And he was also the second feature in our new QA web series, Next Gen Brand Builders, which you can check out on FSRmagazine.com. So it's about time we got him on the podcast. So, Chad, welcome, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. How are you and the team doing?

Chad Offerdahl: 1:03

Uh, we're doing very well. We're blessed to be busy. And yeah, thank you for having me on. Uh, restaurants have been in my blood for a long time, and I'm definitely glad to be here.

Callie Evergreen: 1:12

Fantastic. Well, let's talk about that that restaurant industry and your blood. What was kind of your your first foray into the restaurant industry?

Chad Offerdahl: 1:20

Well, I actually grew up around restaurants. Uh so my dad, all through my childhood, was a multi-unit Sonic franchisee. So from an early age, I really got a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run restaurants at scale and manage large teams. You know, I got to see the grind, but I also got to see like the power and effectiveness of systems and leadership and you know, the exciting stuff, creating opportunities for people. And uh, you know, a lot of that really shaped how I lead and grow the Big Biscuit brand today. Um, it's uh, you know, so ever since I've been a kid, it's just been in my blood. I've been doing it since day one.

Sam Danley: 2:01

So uh you and your dad like stumbled across the Big Biscuit when it was quite a bit smaller than it is today. Just kind of walk us through that. How did you first encounter this brand? What did you see in it that made you want to get involved in the first place?

Chad Offerdahl: 2:18

Yeah, it's actually a really cool story. You know, it comes down to just being uh in the right place at the right time. So uh back in uh 2010, we stumbled across the original Big Biscuit in Independence, Missouri uh on the way through Kansas City and stopped for breakfast, and we're just immediately struck by the brand. We love the product, um, we saw huge potential, and we had been talking about doing something of our own, uh, you know, switching from the franchisee side of things to the franchiseur side of things. And uh, you know, so we said, man, we we see huge opportunity here. Uh, people love what it is, this classic American uh menu, and we got to learn more. So we took a meeting with the founder and came to find out that he had no plans to do anything with Big Biscuit beyond the two locations he had in Kansas City. That was just gonna be the end of it. And so we just looked at each other and said, we know we can add so much value and take this brand somewhere in a big way. So we uh we made him an offer and we had acquired the brand, Lockstock and Barrel, and got to work immediately and started working on opening up a third location, which we did about a year later in Shawnee, Kansas. And slowly and steadily over the course of uh you know the next 15 years, we opened up you know one location a year, and then two, and then three, as we really started getting our feet under ourselves. And uh, you know, fast forward to today, like you said uh uh when you were doing your introduction, uh, we've got 29 locations open, and we are very soon will be opening up our 30th, which we're very excited about. And uh yeah, it's it's it's been a really fun journey taking this brand from you know that uh original location, which we still have and we love it. It's our original spot. In fact, I I go there as often as I can because it's in an old farmhouse. I mean, we love it. It's it's where the brand was born. Uh to today, where you know, we're franchising, we have multi-unit franchisees, we're in four states, you know, we're uh passing the 30 location threshold and we're really starting to get our stride. It's exciting.

Callie Evergreen: 4:36

How soon after you acquired the brand did you start franchising it?

Chad Offerdahl: 4:42

We actually took our time and were very diligent. So we from the from the get-go, franchising was something we had determined that was going to be part of our growth strategy. We knew that from day one. And so from day one, we were paying ourselves a royalty. We were doing everything like we were franchising. We didn't until we we got to, I believe it was 15 locations we got to. Uh, we started preparing to franchise, like all of the legal stuff and the operations manual and everything uh in 2018 and 2019. We sold our first franchise in 2019, and the first location opened up right after COVID in 2020. You know, so that was uh, you know, it definitely taught us a lot. It was challenging, but that location and all the locations that we've opened since then are thriving, and we're just thrilled about that. Um, so we we got our feet under ourselves. We we proved to the concept. We did, you know, in the spirit of being the franchise or we always wanted, we wanted to be proven in more than just one or two or three locations. So we had 15 plus locations in a variety of different markets, multiple states, and had you know, scraped our knees, made the mistakes, learned, and you know, most importantly, built a really strong team to support our franchisees. And that made all the difference in the world of getting us off the ground. Uh, you know, it's before we even sold our first franchise, we were royalty self-sufficient. So we've been in the driver's seat since day one where we can make the right decisions of bringing on the franchisees we want to have and choosing the markets we want to be in without the pressure of needing to make a sale, which is what has been huge for our growth.

Sam Danley: 6:31

How do you guys think about like what the corporate footprint is going to look like now that you've been in franchising for a while? Are you still interested in kind of having a sizable corporate footprint, or have you kind of gone all in on the franchising side?

Chad Offerdahl: 6:47

Yeah, that's an interesting question. I actually get that asked a lot more now. Um, the answer is we are absolutely still in the game. We are gonna continue to grow our uh corporate footprint. In fact, we are in the process right now of developing the Wichita Kansas market for our corporate locations. Uh, we have 21 corporate locations open currently. Uh, you know, 12 months from now, we're gonna have 25 or more. And we're just gonna continue that growth alongside franchising. And that's uh that's important for a number of reasons. Uh but the primary one is again, going back to that philosophy and theme that we have of just being the best franchisor we can, being a franchisee first company, is we want the decisions we make as a franchisor to affect us as much or more than any of our franchisees. We want to be in the trenches with them. And it adds a ton of credibility. You know, with the franchisees we have now, I mean, we have such strong relationships with them. I feel incredibly blessed to have the franchisees we have. But they know when we're making decisions that, you know, it's affecting us multiple times over on impact than it is for them. So they know that we're making the right decisions for our operators, for our franchisees that make the most sense. Um, you know, and then obviously there's also the component of it gives us a ton of brand strength. You know, the more we grow our corporate footprint, the more strength we have to support our franchisees better. And, you know, every store we open, whether it's franchised or corporate, it elevates our strength. It expands our buying power. We can uh have more of a support team. It's you know, it's that whole rising tide lifts all ships. So, you know, our intent is as we grow and really get our franchising to scale, to is to keep a 30% ratio at minimum of corporate to franchised. We want to have a very strong presence in our brand for those reasons.

Callie Evergreen: 8:50

That's great. That's great. You know, I'm curious, going kind of back to that, you know, that initial location that opened in 2000 in Independence, Missouri, that you said was in a farmhouse, you know, what have been the changes and evolutions over the years as you've taken this great brand and been able to scale it to the you know 30 locations while still maintaining like the essence of what made the big biscuit special?

Chad Offerdahl: 9:17

Uh that is a question that is near and dear to my heart because we actually we have a trademarked saying that is don't mess with breakfast. So we are very much focused. And yeah, and I see you guys smiling. Yes, uh, we love that because it just speaks to who we are. You know, it seems like in the breakfast space, which is becoming more and more crowded these days compared to where it was 10 and 15 years ago, it seems like there's just this draw to be, to jump, jump on every trend there is, you know, to do the next great thing every two weeks. And uh don't get me wrong, we one of our core values is uh adaptability. We we make sure that we stay relevant and we do what we need to do to make sure that this brand has the longevity to uh you know be a multi-generational brand. However, we stick to who we are, we're very focused on not losing sight of our brand. You know, again, there's there's legacy brands out there that used to champion, you know, we don't serve alcohol for, and they would say that for 50 years, and you know, then COVID hits, and all of a sudden alcohol's on the menu, you know, and I that's something that we're just very mindful of is again staying true to who we are. So uh, you know, from from that original location, you know, when we walked in there, there were a number of things we saw. Uh, you know, opportunities in menu design and engineering, and huge opportunities in technology. You know, that was still a handwritten order, and you go put it in front of the cook, and they I mean it was there was no technology whatsoever. It was literally a cash register. Um, you know, so lots of technology opportunities that we've implemented from point of sale and reporting and all of those things, and uh supporting our team with you know, easy to use HR software, all that kind of stuff. And even now we're really starting to lean in heavily to AI, which you know, that that's a rabbit hole that unless you guys want to go down, I won't go down the rabbit hole of AI, but uh huge, huge opportunity that we're putting in there. But uh, you know, kind of back to the menu and the the base of the brand, we are that classic American Southern breakfast comfort style brand. And so it seems anymore that we are different in the fact that we're staying consistent and traditional. You know, it's you we're still that place where you can come. And if you want to get bacon and eggs and pancakes, you can get bacon and eggs and pancakes. But we also have other varieties and options for people. If they want to get a gigantic burrito or a sticky biscuit or, you know, some of these other fun, you know, uh non-alcoholic drinks we've been introducing. We have that as well, but we stick true to the core of our brand of being that consistent, reliable, habitual experience that seems harder and harder to find these days.

Sam Danley: 12:15

You know, I know one thing that you guys boast too is like six-minute wait times, 35-minute table terms, very like quick and efficient service. Talk a little bit about how you've engineered the kitchen and the front-of-house systems to make that possible. I know a big part of that has to do with like coming from a QSR background and kind of applying a QSR mindset to the operations. Is that right?

Chad Offerdahl: 12:41

That's exactly right. Is you know, uh we could serving a really great quality menu, but taking the uh speed of QSR to it. You know, and it wasn't uh it wasn't necessarily so much driven of we want to do this as fast as we can, even though obviously the faster we can serve our guests with a high quality product is a win. It's it was driven from an efficiency standpoint. You know, we really got it down to the microscopic level of, okay, when somebody is making this menu item, can we reduce it where they don't have to take three steps to get an ingredient? Can they make one step? Or can they can just simply can they simply rotate? Or, you know, if we add in this piece of technology or put this here, can we make them that much more efficient on every item? And uh, you know, even down to our equipment of how effectively can we cook these things with the right equipment so that we can put out a high quality product really quickly. And uh, we're very proud of that. In fact, we uh go out of our way to say that we don't have any microwaves in our kitchens, and we're proud of that because people ask us all the time, holy cow, you know, they order their food, and you know, four to six minutes later, all their food's landing on the table. They're like, How the heck did you guys do that? Do you guys are you guys back there microwaving my eggs? And we tell them, no, we don't even have any microwaves in the kitchen. We're just we've got our processes down so well where we're constantly uh cooking product, and every order is still made to order. We just have our systems down so tight and have our kitchens designed so well, and uh all of our processes down where we have that QSR speed with the full service restaurant hospitality. And uh it really is going into one of our kitchens during a peak period on a weekend is so much fun. Just to see the machine and work where we're pushing out tons of food, fresh food really fast, it's exciting to see.

Callie Evergreen: 14:41

Hmm. And I'm sure that that you know ability to to speed up like those wait times and you know, those table turns. I'm sure your servers love that, but it also allows them to like really focus in on you know providing that hospitality experience when they're not worried about, oh, is the kitchen, you know, how long are they taking? Do I have to go apologize for, oh, this is taking this long? Talk a little bit about you know how it kind of frees up your servers to provide like the breakfast experience.

Chad Offerdahl: 15:13

Yeah, you know, and that's even part of the technology we've embraced of, you know, the having the handheld uh tablets at the at the tables for our servers where it's empowered them to engage with our guests more. You know, that it was definitely a step for us to increase or decrease our uh time that guests are waiting, because if a server is entering an order as they're hearing it versus writing it down and then going and entering it, we're cutting down, you know, at least a minute, if not more. Um, which, but it also gives the servers time to interact with the guests, which is the most important thing they can do. Um, and then there's the other component of in our uh day part, in the breakfast and lunch day part, lunch is a lot more, at least for the Big Biscuit brand, a lot more where the focus is the hard-fought sales. You know, breakfast, breakfast comes easy to the Big Biscuit. We're very blessed. It's the lunch time, it's the lunch day part that we have to really earn. And so by having those faster turn times and that high quality product, but it comes out really quickly, we're able to capture working professionals and people who are on short uh time periods where they can come in, get a full service experience, a high quality meal, but they can get it over a lunch break or they can get it, you know, in a in a hurry. And that really has been a huge deal for us as we continue to grow our sales opportunities in different day parts, is we can put out this product in a quick way and it's reliable, and people trust us for that, so they come over the lunch break.

Callie Evergreen: 16:50

Hmm. I'm curious, just you know, since the the pandemic hit to now, how you've just seen, you know, kind of from a macro standpoint, lunch evolve because it's, you know, obviously the shutdown, people had more time, but they were also there was weirdness with not being able to be open. And, you know, how have you kind of seen it evolve over the past five years?

Chad Offerdahl: 17:13

Um, it's been it's been interesting. Lunch has always been something that we want to grow. I don't know that we're ever going to be satisfied with it, but I think that's just the name of the game. Uh it's I think when it comes to lunch, what we're finding, and I think really what a lot of uh the restaurant industry is finding is less is more. You know, it's not always so much the answer is more options, more variety. It's doing what you do really well and putting out that product. And that's something that we're continuing to focus on very much with you know our lunch offerings so that we can grow our lunch time. Because we really do look at those separately. You know, we do sell a pretty strong amount of our breakfast offerings during our lunch hours, but having that high-quality lunch is our focus, not having all sorts of items. In fact, we just in the last year reduced our offerings for our lunch items and really got honed in on what we execute really well and we're really proud of. And we've seen a positive uh outcome from that, where people are trying us for that and they're seeing us as more than just a breakfast restaurant, and they appreciate that we have these quality products for lunchtime, and that's that's definitely helping us grow that day part.

Sam Danley: 18:36

You know, on the day part note, I'm curious too, like just talk a little bit about maybe what you're seeing with like, you know, weekend brunch versus like a weekday breakfast occasion. Are there any kind of growth areas or just big changes in how consumers have been engaging with some of those other day parts you guys plan?

Chad Offerdahl: 18:57

Uh, you know, for the Big Biscuit brand, we're definitely seeing uh lunch is uh stronger than it has been during the week, Monday through Friday. Uh, you know, as as as a breakfast concept, I think most breakfast, full service breakfast concepts, the majority of your sales come Saturday, Sunday. You know, for Big Biscuit, that's about 60%. And uh the lunch during the week definitely is a growing segment. The lunch on the weekends, you know, it's again, we look at it from two perspectives. One is the lunch items, and one is our lunch day part. The lunch day part is growing our lunch item sales not so much. We're definitely getting a lot more of a crowd on the weekends that are kind of breakfast brunch interested, you know, egg dishes and griddle dishes and things like that. Whereas during the week, we definitely capture more of those, you know, professionals or uh you know couples that are coming in for a true lunch. Um, and then in addition, as we are leaning into third-party delivery, which we've just partnered with DoorDash and we're taking that across the brand. We're very excited about that. In our initial testing, we're seeing strong data that shows that that third-party delivery is going to be very strong for us in the lunch day part, which is very exciting that we can capture that off-premise sale in the right day part. So we're excited about that.

Callie Evergreen: 20:25

That's great. Congrats on that. I'm curious um how you're thinking about you know, the menu for that third-party delivery and kind of minimizing it to what you're able to kind of get out the door really well and that is gonna deliver well.

Chad Offerdahl: 20:42

Well, you know, it's uh it's easy for us. I shouldn't say easy. It's simpler for us because we have such a streamlined menu where, I mean, we're proud to say we have just over 200 SKUs in our restaurant, and we're it's we're super proud of that. Um, from a from an operator standpoint, it makes it so much easier than you know, if you're in a 3-4 or even there's some I know that are 600 plus. I mean, just crazy number of SKUs. And uh that lends it to where we can offer our entire menu on a third-party delivery basis, in addition to we have our catering options that we call them bundles. In addition to that, we can execute that reliably on the third-party side as a well, as well as with our uh in-house side. So again, it makes operations very simple. It makes where our guests can get their familiar favorite dish, you know, and uh whether they're in our dining room or ordering it from the couch, they can experience, you know, enjoy the same food.

Sam Danley: 21:50

So kind of switching gears a bit here, Chad, but um, you know, you guys just executed a pretty significant menu refresh. I think the maybe the brand's largest in the past couple of years. Talk to us a little bit about that and kind of how you decided it was time to evolve, what you changed, what stayed the same, just what that looked like.

Chad Offerdahl: 22:11

Yeah, so kind of like our philosophy when it comes to menu innovation is like I mentioned earlier, it's not about being flashy. It's not about being complicated of we just want to offer more stuff because it feels good to offer more stuff. Um, it's about listening to our guests, keeping our menu consistent, uh, we say timeless, you know, where you can get those classic dishes. Um, but then also finding ways to add in those fun, surprising things so long as they resonate with our brand and what our guests expect. You know, we stick to breakfast and lunch, you know, pancakes, omelets, biscuits. Um, you know, one of our biggest uh recent hits is our Western sodas. Uh that's gone over so well for us as we continue to push our beverage sales, our non-alcoholic beverage sales. And uh, you know, we made a lot of improvements behind the scenes, you know, things that really weren't necessarily new menu items, but we're just making upgrades like with our icing, our sausage, our chicken, uh, different in-house recipes, elevating those to um, you know, just give that extra value to our guests. But uh, as far as some of the new stuff, you know, this year we're celebrating our 25th brand anniversary. So we're very excited about that. And as a part of that, we launched our birthday cake pancakes, which are as good as they sound, they're really fun, uh, loaded up with sprinkles and icing. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Um, but then in addition to that, uh, we made a bunch of new specialty chicken and waffle platters that uh are fun. We have a you know, a Nashville hot, a maple bacon chicken, uh, lots of lots of fun ones. And then also, we've had for a long time lots of requests for biscuit sandwiches. And we have now developed uh several biscuit sandwiches. We call them our chicken biscuits, and they're on the menu, and they have just been gangbusters. People are so happy that we got them on there. So we're glad to have those. They're selling really well. People are excited about them. In addition, we rolled out a number of uh different grit options. You know, we're a classic southern concept, you know, so grits is definitely part of the menu. So we put uh some specialty grit options out there, upgraded our recipe. And then again, just back to our beverage menu, expansions there of uh flavored teas and uh handcrafted sodas and uh specialty coffees, of really giving our guests as much opportunity on the beverage side of the menu as they are on the entree side of the menu to really craft what they want within our restaurants. Um and then right now we're running our, you know, it's uh it's fall time, we're running our pumpkin pancakes and our pumpkin cream coal brew. We've been running this for years and years and years, and it is by far our most popular LTO. And uh as of today, I actually checked it this morning. As of today, we're even uh almost 13% up over last year on those pumpkin items. People are very excited. And last year we were up, I think it was 34 or 36 percent. Uh so it's it's definitely a really strong growing area for us. The pumpkin people love them. Uh so we have those up uh through uh, I think it's the week before Thanksgiving. Um, and then as we're as we uh look ahead, you know, right now we're working on a number of different initiatives for our 2026 uh menu. You know, we're looking, like I mentioned to you guys, uh our lunch offerings of just making sure that we continue to elevate our offerings there, make sure that everything on the menu is high quality, we execute well, and then anything that makes sense for us to be considerate for it, uh, for adding to the menu, so long as we stay true to our brand and our breakfast DNA. So that's a really long-winded say uh long-winded way of saying everything we got going on. But uh our menu innovation has really is about balance. Um, because it'd be very easy to just bring in a whole bunch of more SKUs and add a whole bunch more items, you know, chase all these trends, but that's just that's not who we are. We want to make strategic adaptations while staying true to our brand. And we feel like we've done that and we're gonna continue to do that.

Callie Evergreen: 26:41

Man, all of that sounded delicious. You got me got me hungry here. But um, you know, thinking about just the way that you've you know elevated those ingredients to make them the most high quality, how do you kind of balance that with making sure that you know that the you know value conscious consumer is still, you know, getting a really good price point? How do you kind of think through like what your core consumer is looking for and how you can kind of elevate those offerings while balancing that price point?

Chad Offerdahl: 27:18

You know, balance is right. And um again, it goes back to just we're not saying yes to everything. And I think that really is where the answer lies is you know, there's we we get requests for lots of different things, you know, whether it's a a salmon avocado this or a you know pineapple upside down that, or you know, that we we get all sorts of different things and we evaluate a lot of them. But, you know, again, we we I I've been talking a lot about philosophies we have. And one philosophy that I really push inside our organization is the concept of by saying no to something, we can say yes to something else. And so it's very strategic no's this that this doesn't make sense for our brand or it doesn't make sense operationally, whatever it is, let's make sure we're only saying yes to the right things. It's too easy. I mean, we we see all the time, right? I mean, you guys, you guys, you guys do this, you're journalists of brands that are going back and significantly cutting down their offerings and their menus because they've gotten carried away. We're kind of taking the mindset of let's just not get there in the first place. You know, let's make sure that, you know, it's uh the idea of every time we add in SKUs, and my team knows this, my menu innovation team, when we sit in meetings, if they say, hey, we want to introduce this idea or these items or whatever, it's gonna take four more SKUs, here's what it is, they know without me even having to ask, they go, okay, here's four ideas for SKUs we can get rid of, you know, because it's so easy to get carried away. And so that's really how we balance it is by keeping what we offer streamlined, you know, we're we're buying it better, we're not having waste, we can uh, you know, utilize it quicker, it's fresher for our guests, we're elevating the experience, and operationally it's a lot simpler. So it kind of just all goes together.

Sam Danley: 29:11

You know, I'm curious, just kind of zooming out, what your thoughts are on, you know, obviously a big word lately in not just full service, but all across restaurants has been value and the value equation. I guess I'm curious maybe what that looks like for this daytime dining segment specifically. If there's maybe anything unique or just kind of special considerations with breakfast and and lunch. Um, you know, do you see like more or less price sensitivity from consumers in this segment, more or less kind of levers you can pull when you're thinking about the value equation? Or kind of what's your take for this segment specifically?

Chad Offerdahl: 29:51

Yeah, for this segment, I mean, definitely there's a lot of pressures on price point right now, right? I mean, it's not even just this segment, it's the industry and economy as a whole. But, you know, really to combat that, you know, we we really haven't had to try hard at it because our portions, anybody who's eaten at a big biscuit knows that if you just look at a price point, that's, you know, if you're if it's price first, there's there's companies out there and there's brands out there that they'll sell you the $5.99 breakfast and you'll get what you pay for, kind of thing. You know, but what we have is you come to the Big Biscuit, you order your dish, and when it hits the table, your eyes widen, like, oh my gosh. I mean, you know, it's uh we we have impossibly generous portions. Uh, you know, even you know, people who uh order iced coffees or lattes from us, you know, when it hits the table and they see a 20-ounce uh cup hit the table, you know, they're and they're expecting like a 10, a 12, whatever it is, that's just that's really what our DNA is, is we are proud of what we put on the plate. We it's a very generous portion. You don't leave hungry. And uh, you know, that's that's really we we focus on value from how much you get for the dollar, not trying to keep a price point down and then cutting portions. That's just that that would be against our DNA.

Callie Evergreen: 31:18

Hmm. And you are seeing that in the in so many restaurants right now where you are, you know, maybe leaving hungry and there's nothing like more disappointing than that. And you just that like it doesn't matter what price you paid if if you didn't, you know, get full, what's the point?

Chad Offerdahl: 31:35

Right. And that's not to say like because I want to make sure I'm you know, I'm not saying we're an expensive option because we definitely are not, but we are not competing in that realm where you're gonna see a coupon for the $5.99 breakfast at Big Biscuit, like you know, some of our bargain competitors might do. Where our value is truly driven from you get a high quality product and a great portion size from it. And that's something that we'll take to the bank all day long.

Callie Evergreen: 32:04

Love it. Love it. Well, switching gears a little bit here, I want to talk about you know your future growth. I know you recently signed a deal with a 25-unit Sonic franchisee. Curious if you can talk a little bit just about the strategic growth plan moving forward, what kind of markets you're you're targeting here in the future.

Chad Offerdahl: 32:23

Yeah, you know, we're definitely very excited. And that uh that group that we just signed a deal with, uh, they're taking their first location to Columbia, Missouri, which uh it definitely hits home for me. I grew up in Columbia. Uh, so it's kind of a full circle moment for me, getting to take the big biscuit back home. Uh so very excited. And though that group, uh, like all of our groups, so grateful to be in business with them. It's uh a father and two sons, and they uh they've got 25 soon-to-be-more Sonics, and uh they just they have a great organization and they have big plans for the Big Biscuit. I mean, that we're we're talking about multiple major metropolitan areas that they're looking at for future growth beyond Columbia. Um, and then our other uh existing franchisees are all continuing to develop, which we're also very proud of. You know, we're continuing uh uh development in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City markets in the Northwest uh Arkansas market, and uh we recently are uh we're getting close to locking up additional markets in uh Arkansas. Uh the St. Louis market has a lot of interest. In fact, we're closing in on uh a group or two for that market. It's we're really looking at uh from the Kansas City base that we're in, growing very strategic regionally. Uh, we've got uh a group that's about to close a deal with us in Nashville, and we're talking with some groups about Omaha and Des Moines. So, really, you take that Kansas City and you start going three, four, and five hours, and those are all the markets we're hitting. But we also have a ton of interest uh from farther outlying areas that we're entertaining for the right groups as well. You know, Georgia and uh farther in Tennessee and Texas. I mean, Texas definitely is one that we're getting a ton of interest in right now. So um we're we're definitely blessed to be having the conversations that we're having with uh a lot of high-quality prospective franchisees, and really what we're just focusing on is that relationship. You know, it's it's easy to go out and find somebody who has money and who has interest, but what really is that rarity is that person that you want to be in business with for the long term. You know, and for us, it could not have been a better lesson that our first franchisee opened up his first location right during COVID. You know, we got to go right through a really difficult time straight out of the gate, and it was just confirmation that thank goodness we were diligent and picked this group that we resonate with, that we want to be in the trenches with, because we know this business is hard. It's a lot of fun, but this is a hard business, and you want to be in business with people that you know when the hard times come, you guys attack it together. You have that relationship, you have that trust, you have the experience and the skill. So uh yeah, we're back to you know, our growth plans. We're very excited about that. We've got a great team. We uh are focused on onboarding and training our new franchisees, helping our existing ones expand their markets and improve their operations on their existing locations. So lots of very fun growth opportunity, and we're excited to continue to do that.

Callie Evergreen: 35:52

And then, you know, you you'd mentioned this a little bit, but you know, how when you're going through the process of, you know, talking to prospective franchisees, franchisee groups, how do you ensure that they're aligned with you know your brand values and your culture of hospitality beyond just having you know the financial requirements?

Chad Offerdahl: 36:14

Yeah, it's uh there's there's a number of steps we go through. You know, there's always there's the obvious things that happen, right? Of you know, the executive uh team getting to meet them, discovery days, uh, you know, spending time together, things like that. But um really it's uh getting to know them on a on a deep level. And what I keep referring to is just like stress testing. You know, I we I believe in stress testing a relationship early, early on. It's like when you're dating, right? It's like you you you get to a point where it's just like day one, you're almost like, I want to have four kids as I'm a deal breaker. You know what I mean?

Callie Evergreen: 36:51

Yeah, let's not waste anyone's time here.

Chad Offerdahl: 36:53

Yeah, exactly. It's like let's just be so clear from day one. So it's I try to find every opportunity I can to stress test and break a relationship before we commit to something like a franchise. You know, it's let's we would all much rather find it out in the dating phase than before we get in business together, you know. And so that's the focus is, you know, and I tell the franchisees we talk to, don't take this wrong, but it's gonna sound like I'm selling you away. Like you're you're you're you're gonna ask me, Chad, are you trying to like get me to not buy a franchise? And if I do that, I'm doing my job. Like I want to find every reason that you shouldn't work with us. And that really is the focus because you know, whether they find it out when you're courting them or once they're an established franchisee, eventually it comes out. You know, so that's that's been our focus.

Sam Danley: 37:50

And for any of our listeners out there who you know want to follow along on this next phase of growth for the Big Biscuit or just stay in touch, you know, uh get to know you guys. Is there a good website or social media you'd send people to?

Chad Offerdahl: 38:06

Uh yeah, you can follow me on uh LinkedIn, Chad Offerdall. I update everything that's going on Big Biscuit there. You can also follow Big Biscuit on LinkedIn. Uh, but then we also have our franchising page, bigbiscuitfranchise.com, that we keep updated with uh you know our opportunity and territories and everything. And uh, you know, also follow us on Instagram if you want to see all of the uh yummy food pictures and offerings that we have.

Callie Evergreen: 38:31

So love it. Well, congrats on your success thus far and getting to 30 locations here um in the near future. And you know, thank you so much, Chad, for coming on, for sharing your expertise, your insights, and thank you to all of our listeners out there as well. Stay tuned for more.