Famous Dave’s targets area for BBQ restaurants
Famous Dave’s, a publicly traded Minnesota barbecue restaurant chain, plans to open as many as a dozen Louisiana locations in the next two to three years, with most of those in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas.
“Louisiana is a great place to be for us. Y’all appreciate good food down there,” Famous Dave’s Director of Franchise Development Brett Larrabee said Thursday.
Larrabee said he could not talk about specific numbers in each market because the company is publicly traded.
Famous Dave’s expects to have at least two experienced franchisees and possibly three, he said. It’s just a matter of time before the company selects the right candidates and moves forward.
The typical Dave’s store costs $650,000 to $3 million, depending on the type of building, Larrabee said.
The company has two types of restaurants: full-service casual dining in 5,000-square-foot stores and the Famous Dave’s Shack, 3,000- to 3,500-square-foot stores where customers order at the counter.
The chain prefers franchise owners put the stores in strip shopping centers or in the sites of former fast-food restaurants, Larrabee said. Franchise owners determine whether to buy a location and build a new restaurant or lease an existing space.
Famous Dave’s has 187 locations in the United States and Canada. The new locations will each create 25 to 35 new jobs.