From Server to CEO: Greg Graber's Journey with Heritage Restaurant Brands

Greg Graber is the CEO of Heritage Restaurant Brands, a franchisor that operates Cool Hand Luke's, Perco's Cafe Grill, and Huckleberry's Breakfast and Lunch. 

In a recent episode of 1851 Franchise’s “Meet the Zor” podcast, 1851 Franchise Founder and Publisher Nick Powills spoke with Graber about his journey into franchising and the key moments in his career.

“My dream wasn't to always own something. I guess I always assumed it was going to happen,” said Graber. “I believe that growth is the result of doing things right … [M]y goal was to take on as much responsibility and learn as much as I could, and it sort of evolved to where I was ending up in leadership positions wherever we were at.  The idea to own a franchise came out of the blue; I wasn't looking for it. I was actually looking for another corporate job ... This has been way more fun and challenging.”

Graber also discussed the challenges and strategic decisions behind the growth of Heritage Restaurant Brands, including the importance of choosing the right franchise partners and focusing on operational excellence. 

“[W]e’re not trying to grow our way to success,” he said. “We’re trying to execute our way to success and let growth be the result of it. That means sometimes you go fast and sometimes you go slow. But understanding who that operator is is primarily important.”

A summarized transcript of Jameson’s interview with Powills is included below. It has been edited for clarity, brevity, and style.

Nick Powills: How did you accidentally fall into franchising? What's your franchise backstory?

Greg Graber: That's a great way to put it because I did accidentally fall into it. I've been in the restaurant business my whole life and, like many folks in our industry, sort of pulled myself up by my bootstraps and started as a server and worked my way up through a few various companies and got to do something. Those were company-owned restaurants so I’d never really been involved in the franchise world on either side of the equation as a franchisee or franchisor. In 2016, I met Randy Brooks and he had a company called Brooks Restaurant Group. He was looking for an exit strategy and I was looking for something to do, so we met and he was the franchisor of three brands at the time. We just started talking and he was looking for someone that could A) continue what he was doing and take great care of his franchisees and B) maybe take these brands to a place that might be elevated in a little bit better place than where they were.

Powills: Were those three franchises when you stepped in?

Graber: They were, yes. Yes.

Powills: At what point as a server and working your way up does the dream change from “I want to be an employee” to “I want to own something” — or was it always there?

Graber: My dream wasn't to always own something. I guess I always assumed that it was going to happen. I believe that growth is the result of doing things right and not the definition of it. As I kept trying to contribute to wherever those companies were and to be the very best that I could be, my goal was to take on as much responsibility and learn as much as I could, and it sort of evolved to where I was ending up in leadership positions wherever we were at. The idea to own a franchise came out of the blue; I wasn't looking for it. I was actually looking for another corporate job, like a C-suite job where I could go help somebody build their business. This has been way more fun and challenging.

Powills: With food, you're always a competitor brand, no matter what. But you went off and now you're doing something different, so I'm always fascinated by that, too.

Graber: You know, our industry is full of talented folks — I mean, right at the restaurant level. The skill set to be able to walk up to a complete stranger and make a friend in a 45 minute conversation is one that they'll take with them the rest of their lives, regardless if they stay in our industry or not. When I was running multi-unit, I would ask the general managers, “Who are your most talented, smartest, sharpest people?” because those are the ones I want to talk to, and they would say, “Well, they're not interested in the business.” And I was like, “Maybe let's talk to them.” And because you can really do something in this industry, you can really make something. I mean, it's competitive and it's fun and it's fascinating. And you meet new people. There's a chance to be creative and influence people's lives and make communities better. I would put our industry up against anyone. And we do know this — that people are going to eat three times a day — so we get a chance to capture that as well.

Powills: So take me through the portfolio now. Just give me the lay of the land on the three brands as it stands today since you've taken over.

Graber: We have a steakhouse called Cool Hand Luke's; we have six of those locations and are looking to add another one. It's not a growth vehicle for us, but it's sort of — let’s call it “mid-scale steak, prime rib.” It's got a Western theme to it, and all six of those are in California.

We have another brand called Perco's Cafe Grill and Perco's is breakfast, lunch and dinner, open at six, close at 10 p.m. — all three day parts, pretty sizable menu, call it American classic dining — and it's more of a legacy brand. It's definitely a little bit older; it's been around for many, many years. 

And then we have Huckleberry's Breakfast and Lunch. When we purchased the company, there were seven of those and we identified that pretty early on as the growth vehicle. Huckleberry's, when you walk in, sort of feels like a Mississippi bayou and it's just very differentiating and neat. I love the fact that it was 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., so one daypart. We used to work weekend nights and all night — when everybody else was playing, we were working — so the fact that somebody could be in our business and still be home for soccer games and dinners with family was appealing to me. We put energy and effort into growing Huckleberry's, starting foundationally first, but today we have 36 of them.

Powills: I've seen brands in this space get somewhere between 30 and 50 and stall out, and they can't get beyond it because they selected the wrong partner. How have you done differently to build this brand up?

Graber: Well, it's a pretty astute observation. It takes three legs of the stool to grow a brand. I mean, the dog has to hunt, right? The brand has to work and the unit economics have to be there; you have to have money or finances to get it done. And then, the most important leg of that stool is operations. I believe that we might have had 50 or 60 restaurants right now if we’d chosen anybody else just to partner with. 

Again, we're not trying to grow our way to success. We're trying to execute our way to success and let growth be the result of it. That means sometimes you go fast and sometimes you go slow. But understanding who that operator is is primarily important, and then putting our energy into it. 

When I have conversations, I'll tell folks, “Hey, I'm a restaurateur, not [just] a franchisor.” There's a transactional side and the relational side to that business — and I get it — but we make decisions along with our franchise partners about what’s best for the restaurant. How is it going to impact the restaurant? How are we going to be able to execute this and take this idea from here all the way to the plate? That's one of the reasons we spent 18 months building the foundation of the brand before we decided to even grow one restaurant. We reengineered the menu and took it from 74 items to 53 items so we could do things better more often and improve the quality. 

Now, are you going to have variances? Yeah, you are. We have variances at 36 and we'll have more when we have 76. But, by and large, we strive and it's my job as franchisor to make sure that the consumer experience is the same in Anaheim as it is in Sacramento.

Powills: And whether they have one unit or they have 100 units, you look at them and say, “Man, if their customers could just come try us, they wouldn't be buying those brands.” And is that an awareness issue, say, east of the Mississippi?

Graber: Partially. Most of our restaurants are in California, but we just opened our first one in Texas with our second one under construction. It's gone very, very well. And when we just put the word out, the social media buzz is really taking off, so that tells me that we have something that is newsworthy in terms of the consumer. 

Now, our job is to back it up, and I would say, “Yeah, I would love for franchisees that are competitors to come try us.” Of course, we always think our food quality and our value proposition is better; we'll say our food is in the upper quartile of quality and in the low to mid quartile in terms of comparative price. But more importantly, I would like for them just to meet us. This is a relational business. We would like to get to know them because there are going to be road bumps along the way. COVID was a big road bump — huge example of how you can sort of work together. Our job is to provide the compass, but we can't guide every step of the way. We have to give franchisees enough leeway to make it, particularly in a restrictive environment. And we're blessed to say that we didn't close a single restaurant during COVID and they're thriving.

Powills: How does the less competitive nature of third-party delivery services like DoorDash and Grubhub in the breakfast and lunch space benefit your brands compared to the lunch and dinner segments?

Graber: We're surprised at how well we do with these third-party delivery providers. In our view, breakfast is very experiential — you want to come in, you want to escape, leave your brain in the glove box and go in — but we're pretty surprised to find out the level of delivery that actually occurred. We were surprised a little bit pre-COVID, but post-COVID it stuck. And that's when we've seen some pretty good volume jumps where the in-restaurant business came back, but the delivery business didn't go away. And then we turn our attention to how we do this economically, right? How do we do this profitably for our franchisees and use the right technology? It's easy to say, “We're going to alienate those third parties because they're too expensive,” but I think you do it at your own peril. You're better to partner with them and do the very best that you can. And then, of course, there's lots of other things to discuss like packaging and hot food, hot and cold food, cold and all those things as well. It's a lot of the part.

Powills: Packaging is a huge area of opportunity. If brands can figure out how to deliver food that closely matches the in-restaurant experience, consumers will be willing to pay a premium for that convenience. So, what’s the vision for your brands moving forward?

Graber: Well, for Huckleberry's in particular, I think we're going to grow organically. I mean, we are slowly starting to get a little bit of national recognition. When you start going from 10 to 20 to 30, people are saying, “Okay, it's a thing. Right. People are starting to recognize it.”

We're very gratified with our growth and consumer acceptance in Texas because I think that opens up for us everything from Houston to Minneapolis. I mean, the whole Midwest corridor is now available. If we can be successful in California, we can be successful just about anywhere. It's a challenging environment for a variety of reasons. So I think building from California all the way to Texas, it doesn't mean we wouldn't go to the East Coast. It just means we have to go with a multi-unit presence for all the reasons that you know.

Powills: What are you going to do with the other two brands? Do they just kind of stay as is?

Graber: Well, they're very important to us. Those owners have been around a lot longer than we have, and we sure have learned a lot from them and appreciate them. 

I think that Cool Hand Luke's has the ability to grow. I mean, we're going to grow one here pretty soon within the next year; it’ll be our first new unit for Cool Hand Luke's to see what our new thinking does in a brand new market, so we're excited about that. I think Luke's might have some legs internationally as well — I think there's some appeal to the Wild West to see what might happen over there — but it's not something we're aggressively going after. 

You can only do so many things great and, as our company grows, we're just trying to add the talent and resources here to make sure that we're supporting all of our franchisees appropriately.

Powills: Your franchise site should highlight your unique success in California, as overcoming challenges there indicates potential success anywhere. Showcase the excitement and your compelling personal story of growth from server to CEO, and emphasize how you've engineered differentiation and strong unit economics to stand out in a crowded market.

Graber: Thanks. Now you can make me go back and look at the whole thing. Thank you. I'll do it.

Powills: That's good. That's good. So let's say there's a candidate that watched us up to this point. Anything else you want them to know about the business before we sign off?

Graber: Again, the unit economics have to work. It's a crowded space, but we're the only themed restaurant in the entire space in terms of breakfast and lunch. And if you're thinking about it, go try everyone else, but come try us too. We'd love to meet you.

You can watch and listen to the entire interview above, or on YouTube.