Why restaurant expansion requires a strategic plan
Strategic expansion isn’t just about opening more doors — it’s about keeping your quality, community, and sustainability goals in sync.
At the DoorDash Main Street Summit in Los Angeles, Pinky Cole of Slutty Vegan, Sara Kramer of Kismet and Kismet Rotisserie, and Aaron Noveshen of Starbird Chicken discussed how to leverage technology like virtual brands and data analytics, as well as DoorDash solutions to expand operations.
Watch the full session on YouTube and read below to learn how these three restaurateurs grew their business and expanded into new locations.
Restaurant expansion strategy: Key factors to consider
Before growing your business, ask yourself:
Where should the next location be?
How will you maintain food and service quality?
How can you ensure a consistent guest experience across every site?
According to Sara Kramer, chef and co-owner of Kismet and Kismet Rotisserie in Los Angeles, these questions define a sustainable expansion plan. "A big part of it for us is going to be figuring out what we want to outsource versus what we want to bring in-house," she says. "And as we scale, what we can do ourselves versus what we can have other people do for us."
How to maintain quality and consistency while growing
Training is key to scaling sustainably. Sara emphasizes investing in strong training programs to maintain quality and help teams grow:
"I can’t underestimate training for employees in terms of quality and having a very strong training program because quality is about the people making the things," says Sara. "A huge point of focus for us is working with our teams and giving them the resources that they need to succeed."
How to choose the right location for your restaurant expansion
Pinky Cole is the owner of Slutty Vegan, a vegan burger chain with seven locations throughout Georgia, Alabama, and New York City. As her business expands, she emphasizes the importance of choosing locations intentionally. In her case, this means in vegan food deserts or underserved neighborhoods.
"They have to be less attractive to big-time developers — people who don't want to come into this neighborhood because they don't feel like it would make money or be right in the heart of gentrification.”
Pinky also understands the ripple effect her business has on a community, which makes her even more measured when it comes to her restaurant location strategy. "When Slutty Vegan comes into a neighborhood, it raises the value of the community, because more people want to live in that kind of area where there's a booming business down the block," she says. "So the other businesses nearby also win, as it raises the ecosystem for everybody."
The experience means everything to me. I don't care about money. I know I'm gonna make that. I care about how the consumer feels when they walk through the door because it's not the person that comes in for the first time. It's the person that comes in the second, the third, and the fourth time.
How to expand your restaurant virtually
While operators may traditionally think of expansion as a new brick-and-mortar location, there are new ways to expand your footprint digitally as well. That's what Starbird Chicken founder and CEO Aaron Noveshen discovered as the operator of more than ten locations throughout California — as well as a number of virtual brands and ghost kitchens.
Today, Starbird's virtual brands include Starbird Wings, Starbird Salads, Gardenbird (a plant-based concept), and Starbird Bowls. "During the pandemic, there weren't a lot of people going out to restaurants. They were all ordering food digitally," he says. "We wanted to expand into this new 'digital real estate,' and also be able to reach people where they wanted to be reached."
Virtual restaurant brands are easier to start than ever — but as Aaron points out, low cost doesn’t guarantee success.
For Aaron, tuning into his customers’ preferences and implementing an omnichannel approach have been key to the Starbird virtual brand promotion strategy.
"The way we think about omnichannel is to reach consumers where they want to be met and through multiple channels”, he says. "Some people want to walk in the door and talk to a human being and order something and connect. But other people don't want to talk to anybody — and we need to reach those people too. That's why we have an app and third-party delivery to allow people to navigate the Starbird experience digitally."
Common challenges of restaurant expansion — and how to overcome them
Industry challenges — from labor shortages to inflation to supply chain interruptions — threaten to set back progress and profitability of restaurant expansions.
Hiring and team alignment
For Pinky, some of those challenges have included team alignment.
"I've had bad contractors, I've had people walk out at the last minute so I had to be in the kitchen myself," says Pinky. "But I needed those things to happen so that I could be more strategic in my approach to growing Slutty Vegan."
Hiring the right people is a challenge for every restaurant — and Aaron emphasized how important it is to part ways quickly when someone isn’t the right fit for your restaurant culture.
Take the time to find the right people, but when it's wrong, don't rationalize it. Fail fast and don't breathe your own exhaust along the way. Leading is ultimately bringing the people up around you. Always judge your success by the success of those around you.
Managing rising costs and pricing strategy
Menu pricing is always a complicated challenge for restaurants, especially as inflation continues to rise. Rising costs affect every restaurant. Aaron tackled inflation by promoting lower-cost menu items like salads. Sara adjusted Kismet’s prices gradually:
"We have a very diverse menu which has really helped us," Sara says. "When we want to adjust prices, we can look at the whole mix rather than increasing all chicken dishes by 25%. We can do a little jump — like five or ten percent — in a lot of places, and have the product mix sort of balance out at the end."
Sara also stressed the importance of having positive relationships with suppliers. "Chicken prices were skyrocketing everywhere, but because of our relationship with our local purveyor and how much business we're giving them, they didn't touch our chicken price."
Don't underestimate the power of your local relationships. We were extremely lucky because we'd had a relationship with our chicken purveyor for many years. Our business was valuable to them so they took the hit for us, which was huge. You see that over and over again when you develop personal relationships.
Growing your restaurant business — and your community
Whatever your restaurant expansion strategy, building a community around each location and your brand overall will pay dividends in the future. "What I realized is the more good you do in the community, the more it comes back to you in the form of support for your business," Pinky says. "It makes it a lot easier to scale because people know Slutty Vegan is going to help make the community better."
For more advice from local restaurateurs, watch all Main Street Summit: LA sessions on YouTube and check out other session recaps like How to Build an Authentic Restaurant Brand on Social Media.
