By Kristen Wile

One year ago, Bobby’s Burgers by Bobby Flay opened its flagship store in SouthPark with an appearance by the famed Food Network chef. The first franchise concept from Flay, who also owns Las Vegas fine dining concepts Brasserie B and Amalfi, Bobby’s Burgers made its debut on the Vegas Strip. With the opening of the SouthPark restaurant, however, Charlotte became the brand’s headquarters — playing host to potential franchisees and hosting Flay in the kitchen for research and development.

The brand has since opened its first franchise location in Orem, Utah, with plans to grow outside of Salt Lake City, as well as a location opening soon in Raleigh-Durham International Airport. All locations serve a selection of six-ounce, Angus beef patties with Flay’s signature flair, as well as other sandwiches, sides, and milkshakes.

We spoke with Michael McGill, President of Bobby’s Burgers, to learn more about the company’s decision to set up a home base in Charlotte and what his team has learned after a year of operations in the city. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

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Unpretentious Palate: What makes Charlotte an appealing place to start an expansion?
Michael McGill: I think a couple of things. One, Charlotte itself is a booming city, attracting people from all over the country. Myself, I grew up in the Northeast and some of our team are from other parts of the country as well. When we were looking at where to have our brand headquarters, we decided here because Charlotte is that growing market, a great location, it has a sophisticated palate as well but also can appreciate comfort food. 

UP: Why did you pick SouthPark in particular? 
MM: We felt that this is one of the busiest street corners in Charlotte, where we are right here, and that SouthPark is a couple of things: One, there’s a lot of business around here, a lot of industry in terms of Fortune 500 companies; everybody knows SouthPark Mall, so there are a lot of tourists that come in this area as well. But as I mentioned before, we want to be that neighborhood burger spot. We felt what better place in Charlotte than SouthPark that has such deep roots within the community that we can be involved as community partners? We felt that SouthPark truly identified with the brand that we’re building. 

UP: Were there other cities that were in contention that you were considering earlier in the market research before landing on Charlotte? 
MM: We felt Charlotte was a great base in the sense that it is one of the biggest growth markets in the country. As you look at a brand that’s launching, there are some other markets around the country that come into play that their brand particularly will go to first, and Charlotte is becoming that just because of the diverse segment that is here. Also, on a personal level, we love the Carolinas and also being close to Bobby. Bobby’s based in New York City, so the ability for him to hop on a plane and be here in an hour and a half and work in our innovation center — Bobby is the R&D department for our brand. A lot of other concepts, they have a name in lights and that’s where it stops. But Bobby creates everything on the menu himself. … As we looked at other markets around the country, we felt Charlotte was great in the sense of it being close to the Northeast, being close to the South, it’s a hub for a major airline, so the ability for people to get here who are interested in the brand and the ability for us to get out there from a business standpoint and get out and see other parts of the country, all those things come into play. 

UP: Tell us about the R&D Center. 
MM: This is our flagship location for the brand, so it serves a couple of purposes. One, all of our franchisees around the country will come through here for training, so they’ll come and they’ll work in the restaurant. They’ll work in the back of the house, and they’ll spend two weeks here understanding how to become the Bobby’s Burgers by Bobby Flay expert in their market and then grow the brand from there. 

It’s not that we have a special specialized R&D kitchen, but our kitchen here gives Bobby the opportunity to come in. He likes to work in a real kitchen environment, not in a lab, so it gives him the opportunity to be able to create new limited time offers, and we can test new equipment here so that we can roll it out to our franchise community and say, ‘Hey we’ve tested this for 3 or 6 months. Here are the results of these tests and here’s why we want to roll this particular part of equipment or this innovation out to you.’ 

UP: When that’s happening, will guests pop in and Bobby’s back there working?
MM: Depending on his schedule, we’ll try to do it in off hours because it works better that way. Usually before we open is when a lot of those things will happen. He’ll come in and we’ll do things from that standpoint; from time to time he will make public appearances. He was here for our grand opening and we’ll look to work within his schedule to do that from time to time, especially in this market.

UP: Are there certain places that have more Food Network fans, and how does that factor in? 
MM: It’s funny because people ask you, ‘What’s your demographic profile?’ and I don’t mean to say this in a casual way, but it’s truly, our age group is from 8 to 80. My 80-year-old mom loves Bobby, knows Bobby Flay, right? And then my kids who are in their 20s and 30s, they know Bobby Flay as well, and they appreciate great food. I think that that’s the great thing about Bobby — he’s never franchised before. And so this really is going to be his legacy brand because not everybody’s had the opportunity to go to his fine dining restaurants. This provides everybody an opportunity. Let’s watch Bobby Flay, come in and get a Bobby Flay dining experience, and enjoy a Bobby Flay experience all around. 

UP: You mentioned tourism in South Park. What are some of the things you look for in a city? Is tourism a must?
MM: I wouldn’t say it’s a must. What we’re looking for is folks that have an appreciation for good quality food, and I think Charlotte has that mixture of neighborhoods that have been there for generations, the families that are there, a mixture of the young professionals that are coming in, it has a mixture of folks that are retired and get to enjoy that. That’s why I think Charlotte’s such a perfect fit. Universities are here as well. I think that checks all the boxes for what we’re looking for. 

UP: How do you determine going into a city whether they have an appreciation for good food? 
MM: You look at the brands that are there. There’s a mixture of like certain chefs that come into those markets; the diversity of brands. People can appreciate food from all different levels. It’s not just fine dining. So if you have a mixture of fine dining, fast casual, some local restaurants as well, I think that’s why again Charlotte is a perfect mixture. You have your national brands that are here. You have the local flavor of small mom and pops or small family run restaurants, as well as some of the steakhouses or fine dining restaurants, that’s the kind of mix we’re looking for. 

UP: When you’re launching a brand, I imagine there’s a lot of market research being done. What are some of the things that you are hoping to get more information on or following closely?
MM: We’ll look at a couple of things. We’ll look — especially with the way the economy is right now — we look at spend in the market. We are a Bobby Flay dining experience, and that’s really what this is all about. Not everybody has had the opportunity to go to a high-end restaurant like Amalfi and Mesa Grill and Brasserie B. So really the gist of the brand is that we are a craveable and approachable brand, and we want to bring that unbeatable burger across America. We really want to identify with a casual atmosphere, identify with a segment that translates in Charlotte, North Carolina and Orem, Utah, and New York, New York, and Phoenix, Arizona — everywhere. 

We look for trends in the industry. From a food perspective, everybody loves burgers, and Bobby, that’s his go-to food. We looked at the industry and (no pun intended), we felt that the industry was kind of stale, the better burger segment, and we really wanted to shake it up and bring you something that has the culinary expertise of Bobby. As we did our research, we felt that was lacking. 

UP: If you were to expand in Charlotte, would that be franchised? 
MM: Our corporate team runs this location. We felt that was important because you know it’s important to have skin in the game really from the franchisees. It’s also important for us to understand what it takes to run day to day operations in a restaurant. So I think moving forward, we would look at the opportunities in front of us, and I think if we could grow with someone else here in the Charlotte market that you know has that passion for Bobby’s that we do and has that experience in the industry, I think we’d lean towards that. 

UP: In terms of Vegas versus Charlotte, is there a big difference in orders or popular menu items?
MM: Believe it or not, people love a classic American cheeseburger. The Palace Classic, which is a classic American cheeseburger, is one of our most popular burgers everywhere. The bacon crunchburger is Bobby’s favorite. Bobby’s favorite order is bacon crunch, onion rings, and then the pistachio shake. That’s his go to. 

UP: Is there anything else that you’ve learned about Charlotte or you find interesting or different about the city? 
MM: We’re extremely happy with putting our roots down here. It’s everything we thought. We’ve done our homework and I think we felt this was the right place for the brand, and we still feel that. We’ll continue to look for opportunities to grow within the market here because we feel there is opportunity for that. 

The first year was just focusing on this restaurant as it should be and making sure that we’re delivering that unbeatable burger experience every time to all the customers that come in. I think you’ll see over the course of the next six to nine months some exciting things that are coming out, especially with menu innovation. 

UP: Do you think Charlotte is about to experience an influx of brands wanting to come here?
MM: From personal experience, my children are in their 20s and 30s, right? And they all went to different schools in different parts of the country, mostly on the East Coast, and even college friends of mine, their kids are graduating in different parts of the country, they’re coming here, because for young people there’s just so much to do here. It’s such a vibrant market in terms of not only the culinary scene, but just the activities that are out there, whether you’re an outdoors person, you’re a couple hours to the mountains, you’re a couple hours to the ocean. You have all the lakes around here and there’s just so much to do and I think that’s part of it. With the greenway that continues to be expanded and then just with the sports teams that are in town and there’s so many activities on a weekend, a weekday to do here, it’s just endless.

It’s a well-kept secret, but the secret is getting out. I think more and more people are going to, you know, and again the building boom continues, right, and that’s not going to stop.