Prime Restaurant Turnaround: How HotOperator Helped an Oklahoma Operator Save His Restaurant

Prime Restaurant Turnaround: How HotOperator Helped an Oklahoma Operator Save His Restaurant

We’ve worked with a restaurant operator in Enid, Oklahoma, for more than a decade. Enid is a city of just over 50,000 people and a mostly industrial community. This operator had two successful restaurants: an Italian restaurant called Napoli’s, and a steakhouse called The Landrun. That is, until just recently. This is a short story about how HotOperator helped an Oklahoma operator save his restaurant.

From Steakhouse to PrimeTime Sports Bar?

A few months ago, our contact at the restaurant, Tony, and I had a lengthy conversation about his steakhouse. The problem was, a new Texas Roadhouse had moved into the community and was sucking all his customers away. The quality of service at Texas Roadhouse wasn’t as good, and the atmosphere was much, much better at The Landrun. But the prices were so much cheaper at Texas Roadhouse, Tony’s best customers were willing to overlook the atmosphere and slight downgrade in service to save money on essentially the same steak.

As we looked at options for his struggling business, Tony was thinking about just closing the business down in defeat. But after the call, I did a little digging and discovered that Enid was lacking in sports and entertainment restaurants. When I brought this idea to Tony, he was reluctant. From his point of view, it was an investment in a business that had been bleeding money for nearly six months.

Change Can Be Scary, Right?

But after some convincing on my part, he decided to give it a try. To be fair, it was a significant investment to change the business over to The PrimeTime Sports Bar and Grill. There were the TVs, the drink and dining menus, the website, new furniture, signage, and on and on. But over a period of about three months (the length of time was a result of the beverage license), we were able to transform his business into the PrimeTime Sports Bar & Grill.

Going Soft to Open

As we got closer to his new opening, we advised a couple of soft opens with lists he had gathered from the local chamber of commerce. This was a list of about 400 people, not including some of Tony’s close friends and acquaintances. We also suggested he have the two events on Thursday and Friday evenings to ensure a high enough turnout. We also advised him to close over the weekend and open the following Monday so that he could work out some of the kinks in the operations.

The first night, Tony had about 200 people show up. For the most part, everyone loved the new atmosphere, food, and service, although on the service side of things, it was more of a display. While a few people ordered off the menu, most people ate the free appetizers and bought drinks at the bar.

The second night saw about 150 people, so slightly fewer. However, that night also saw a number of local drive-bys who stopped in because they saw a lot of cars in the parking lot. Tony was pleasantly surprised at the overall success of the initial soft opening.

But the following week, Tony saw an influx of people and excitement that he didn’t expect. Throughout the week, we maintained a crowd with a 30- to 45-minute wait towards the weekend. It got to the point where Tony had to push back his Sunday opening from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. because he was running out of food.

Don’t you just love honeymoons in the restaurant business?

Our goal as Tony’s agency is to help him grow his new sports bar and grill into a $3M operation over the course of the next two years. We’ve helped him grow his Napoli’s Italian Restaurant into a $2.5M operation, even though it’s in a very poor location in the downtown area. And in the next few months, we’re helping Tony open a new Mexican restaurant called Casa Latina.

If you’re ever in Enid, Oklahoma, look up any of Tony’s operations. He is a very good operator and would love to see you!

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If you’re looking to turn your business around, reach out to me here!