Better Burgers arrive in Alliance, Texas

Bailey McGuire and his brother-in-law Frank Sciuto will be opening their second family-owned and family-run MOOYAH restaurant on September 1 in Alliance, Texas three years after the opening of their first business venture. McGuire runs the day-to-day operations of the restaurant, and is looking forward to applying the business acumen that he has developed since becoming a young business owner in 2011. After graduating from Southern Methodist University in 2007 with a corporate communications degree, McGuire went into the sports marketing field, and represented various corporate clients for Genesco Sports Enterprises. Sciuto handles the finance and accounting side of the business, and has been able to support McGuire with his previous experience in franchises and restaurants. In addition to coming from a family who owned a small chain of Mexican restaurants in San Diego, Sciuto also spent four years as a franchise development manager with The Dalton Gang, which worked with various brands including MOOYAH. Why did you choose an opportunity with MOOYAH? Bailey: Frank and I had always bounced business ideas off each other, and had always planned to open one together. We had never really thought about franchising but the opportunity presented itself through Frank. MOOYAH was a young brand at the time, and through his job, Frank was able to learn the principles of the brand as well as got to know Rich Hicks and Michael Mabry. They developed a good relationship, and Rich and Michael proposed the idea of becoming a franchisee. While we didn’t meet the normal franchisee requirements, they were willing to bet on us and we were willing to bet on them. I was also looking for a way to return to Texas at the time. I was living in Chicago for work, so my wife and I flew down and visited some stores, did some research, and decided to go for it. What successes have you experienced since opening? In 2012 we were named Rookie of the Year by MOOYAH and that same year I was named one of the Top Movers and Shakers Under 30 by QSR Magazine. How many jobs will you be adding to the community? We currently have 18-20 employees at our Burleson location, and we have hired 30 people for the second location. What are your future development plans? Ideally we’d like to have the third restaurant in the center of Fort Worth, and we’re currently looking for the perfect location. Hopefully we will open it within the next year. We have aspirations of opening at least 3-4 more. Are you involved with any charities? MOOYAH is a locally-based franchise and we’re local owners, so we’re very enthusiastic about supporting local organizations. We sponsor local youth sports teams, and we host fundraising nights where we donate 20 percent of the night’s profits back to the chosen organization or school.