The Untapped Potential of the Breakfast Segment

Stop and appreciate, for a moment, the simple beauty of the egg. It’s a superfood – incredibly healthy, easily prepared, fabulously versatile and to the taste of nearly everyone.

Oh, and it can be a gold mine when utilized properly. Just ask Robert Maynard, co-founder and CEO of Famous Toastery.

“One of the best things about the breakfast concept – people eat it every day,” Maynard said. “People don’t eat Mexican every day, people don’t eat ice cream every day – but people do eat breakfast every day. Eggs, bacon – they eat it.”

So for those wondering why Maynard, along with business partner Brian Burchill, chose breakfast as his restaurant segment, now you know.

“We have a lot of customers who come three or four times a week,” he continued. “And people usually order the same exact thing. You’re typically not going to go to Chipotle four days a week, but people feel okay going to get their egg dish four times a week.”

Besides a passion for delicious food and insight into the potential of the breakfast segment, there was another reason Maynard was drawn to the world of eggs and bacon – freedom.

“In the restaurant business, nine times out of 10, it’s your entire life,” Maynard said. “There are very few concepts that close by 3 in the afternoon. With breakfast, you can actually have a night time, have a life. Any other concept out there, it’s lunch, dinner and your day’s shot.”

Of course, Famous Toastery isn’t the only breakfast franchise concept out there, but the brand has been able to differentiate itself with the F-word – freshness.

“Everyone likes to drop the F-bomb – fresh - but it’s false,” Maynard said. “You won’t walk into one of our stores and find a bag of frozen potatoes. We actually do make everything fresh, we make everything in the morning that day. We don’t just throw guacamole in your dish, we cut the avocado. We take a lot of time to do it right.”

In short, Famous Toastery is used to operating in areas where they’re the only non-national chain, but by focusing on their strengths, the team is able to beat out bigger names for space, business and product.

But it’s not just fresh ingredients that keep people coming back. Famous Toastery has also differentiated itself from the competition with a unique approach to customer service. To hear Maynard tell it, the breakfast franchise has completely done away with the idea of servers having specific sections.

“Everyone in the restaurant works for everyone in the restaurant,” he said. “No servers have a section, every server works for you.”

In short, the common refrain of “I’m out of coffee – where’s my server?” has been replaced with “No thanks, I’m fine.”

It’s these small but significant changes that have made customers look at Famous Toastery like it’s the best thing since sliced bread – an appropriate comparison for a business with toast in its name.