New restaurants open up all the time, yet few manage the feat of expanding to a second location while maintaining high quality and a devoted clientele.

What talents and tactics are utilized by restaurateurs who expand beyond a single site? And how might their hard-won knowledge help other growth-minded entrepreneurs?

Thinking Bigger Business went behind the scenes with the owners of some of Kansas City’s best-loved hometown eateries to discover the personal motivations and professional methods—culinary and otherwise—that led to their successful expansions.

From Far Guar to Comfort Food

When chefs Colby and Megan Garrelts opened their fine dining restaurant bluestem in 2004 in Kansas City’s Westport entertainment district, they were all about creating a one-of-a-kind epicurean experience for a
few dozen foodies every night.

When the couple opened rye restaurant in 2012 in Leawood’s Mission Farms retail-residential development, the menu was markedly different: Fancy far guar was out, and rib-sticking comfort food was in.

Why didn’t they simply create another bluestem?

“There are only so many people in KC that want that style of dining,”
said pastry chef Megan.

“And want to spend that kind of money,” added Colby, a Kansas City native and the 2013 James Beard Foundation winner of the Best Chef: Midwest award.

The mainstream and affordably priced rye offers excellently prepared Midwest fare—notably fried chicken, steaks and pies—that satisfies the
appetites of up to 300 customers at a time.

“There’s a financial side of it, by all means,” Colby said of the choice to open a roomier place. “We want to make more money. This style of food
is meant for big groups and families. And, honestly, we have two little
kids, and we wanted to build a
family restaurant.”

Megan calls rye a natural progression for the two chefs, who met while working at the five-star, five-diamond restaurant TRU in Chicago. They married and in 2003 moved to Kansas City to open the adventurously gastronomic bluestem.

“We were really ambitious about the precision of fine dining when we opened bluestem,” Megan said. “But as we’ve gotten older, we decided this style of restaurant was the next step.”

That step involved taking a leap. Since the Garreltses chose not to replicate bluestem in another location, “there was no blueprint for rye,” Megan said. “But our A-team from bluestem already knew a lot of the moving parts of our base recipes, like our stocks, a lot of our sauces, my ice cream base. And that was helpful coming in.”

Initial inefficiencies have been solved on the fly at rye, including such basics as how many food prep tables were needed in the kitchen.

“We got two prep tables, and then we added two more, and we added two more,” Megan said. “We just kept adding things that we figured out we needed.”

The business also had to devise simpler, less time-consuming recipes than the ones at bluestem.

“We realized, as many steps as we were taking to do things in fine dining, we couldn’t do here at rye,” Colby said. “So we had to figure out how to pare things down and make them quicker.”

More than a few bluestem diners have been concerned that Colby and Megan aren’t around like they used to be.

“We’ve gotten a lot of comments and questions from our (bluestem) clientele, like, ‘We don’t see you as much’ or ‘When are you here?’” Megan said. “And it’s like we kind of go where we’re needed. So if there’s a special event at rye, we might be here tonight, or if something is going on at bluestem, we’ll be over there.

“We’ve just got to keep focusing on our goals, which are good concept, good food, good service. We’re not perfect, but people want you to be when they go out and spend money. And that’s OK. You do the best you can.”

Systems, Structure, Accountability

Kelly Manning, owner of Tavern in the Village in Prairie Village and Tavern at Mission Farms in Leawood, never saw himself running only one restaurant.

“The goal from Day One was to open more than one,” Manning said. “I just love the business. I like taking care of people. It’s about getting to know people and creating lasting relationships. It’s a fun experience for me.”

Both locations—the Village, which opened in 2011, and Mission Farms, which followed in 2012—are comfortable places where folks can enjoy similar menus offering quality American cuisine, such as a scratch soup or salad, a fresh fish catch of the day or a customer-favorite Tavern Burger.

Manning, a Prairie Village native, met his business partner Anthony Zarate and director of spirits David Smuckler during his 14-year stint at Morton’s The Steakhouse, where he served as regional director of operations.

“I talked about doing this for so many years, that I tried to bring as many people into the fold as I could,” he said.

Manning strongly believes, especially with two locations
and more than 130 employees, that consistency is the key to success in the restaurant business. It’s essential to have a structure and systems that hold people accountable, he said.

“Those things are so important,” he said. “The accountability is created through the systems and the structure, because you can only hold people accountable for what they understand.”

Opening the second Tavern restaurant was “a lot easier,” he said, because trial and error at the first restaurant made him realize what would or wouldn’t succeed at a future location.

“We’re pretty lucky that most of the things we originally put in place worked well,” Manning said, even seemingly little things like always bringing a fresh glass of iced tea to a customer, rather than merely refilling their glass with watered-down tea from a pitcher.

The second Tavern also benefited from a well-trained staff at the first location. They were able to come over and train the new team at Mission Farms.

Happily, both locations are doing very well, Manning said. He has entertained the possibility of a third Tavern, although with a bit of healthy apprehension.

“With any expansion, you have to be prepared and have the right team in place. We are guarded and want to make sure that any future growth is calculated, timely and appropriate.”

Expanding Reach

Expansion is the whole point of Bread & Butter Concepts, founded by Texas native Alan Gaylin, a former senior vice president of operations at the Kansas City-based Houlihan’s chain.

Since 2010, Gaylin’s company has opened four different concepts at five locations in the Kansas City area: the burger-centric BRGR Kitchen + Bar in Prairie Village and in Kansas City’s downtown Power & Light District; Urban Table in Prairie Village, which specializes in seasonal bistro-style items; Gram & Dun on the Country Club Plaza, offering high-end beer and traditional American food; and Taco Republic in Westwood.

“There is a saturation point for any particular concept, so we get the opportunity to capture our guests on a more frequent basis at each one of our different concepts,” Gaylin said. “That way, people go: ‘I know those guys. They do a great job. They have cool, hip places. They deliver the food. They deliver the service. And they do it for a reasonably good price.’”

Even the same restaurant isn’t exactly the same restaurant under the Bread & Butter banner. The original BRGR location attracts a lot of families, but the Power & Light location doesn’t.

“So we took the P&L menu and made it a little bit more adult driven,” Gaylin said. “We have a really thick grilled pork chop, which we don’t do at the original location, and we have a barbecued shrimp item.”

Gaylin’s corporate experience made him realize what he didn’t want to do with his own enterprise. His goal for Bread & Butter Concepts is to grow into a midsized—not gigantic—regional company.

“I used to be chief operating officer of a big company, and we had hundreds of restaurants,” he said. “And when you went to make a menu change, it took us six to eight months to get one thing changed. Not only does it take time, but it costs money. When you’re smaller than that, you can react to the consumers’ needs better.”

To-Go Orders  for Entrepreneurs

Gaylin has clear advice for entrepreneurs interested in growth, regardless of whether they are in the restaurant business.

“Find a great partner,” he said, “and make sure that it’s the right partner for you. Don’t make a decision to go into business with someone just because they may have the financial piece.

“I have the best partner in the world, and it works because we work together and we know our roles. I was fortunate. I’ve known him since seventh grade.”

And make sure that you have the team in place that you’ll need to grow your next team, the Garreltses said.

“You’ve got to have a team ready to go in your new expansion, and you’ve got to have the right team where you are,” Megan said. “It’s all about people, because you can’t do it all yourself.”

Kelly Manning knows exactly what to tell an entrepreneur who wants to expand a business, but perhaps feels a bit skittish, because it’s exactly what he’s told himself.

“You have to look back,” Manning said. “How did you finally get over the initial hump? Because for all entrepreneurs, there’s an initial push in the back, there’s an initial shove, there’s an initial something that actually gets you down that path to do it the first time.

“Look back and ask: ‘All right, how did I get over that first hurdle?’ And think: ‘Hey, you know what? I got over the hurdle. It was big, and I had to crawl, and I had to leap, and I had to jump, and I got a ladder, and then I had to get a rope, and finally, I got over it and then, falling down, I kind of twisted my ankle a little bit.

“But I got there.”