Editor’s Note: This story has been revised from an earlier version to clarify the number of restaurants the chain is planning to develop in the next few years.
Walk-On’s Bistreaux and Bar is continuing its expansion out of state with a move into the Dallas-Fort Worth market.
The Baton Rouge-based sports bar chain announced today it has signed a development agreement with its Lubbock, Texas, franchisee group to open five new Walk-On’s in the neighboring Dallas-Fort Worth area over the next three years.
The group’s Lubbock location is under construction and set to open later this summer.
“They’re a good group,” says Walk-On’s co-owner Brandon Landry of the Texas franchisees, Johnny Qubty and Josh Allen, who do business as WO Metroplex LLC. “They get us, they get our brand. They’re very well-capitalized. So it’s a very good group to get in with.”
The deal marks the latest development in Walk-On’s rapid expansion. The company currently has eight locations throughout Louisiana, six of which are company-owned. Six additional franchise locations are under construction in Louisiana and Texas, including the Lubbock restaurant.
What’s more, the restaurant’s development company, Walk-On’s Enterprises, has sold franchises for 26 new restaurants that will open over the next 3 to 4 years. Deals for more than 20 additional franchise-owned restaurants are currently in the works and should be announced soon, Landry says. Those restaurants would also be developed over the next 3 to 4 years, which means more than 50 Walk-On’s restaurants could be up and running around the U.S. by 2020.
“We’re moving more towards expansion through the franchise stores now, which gives us more rapid growth,” Landry says. “The good thing is we’re not under any financial pressure to go out and sell franchises. For us, it’s more important to find the right partners.”
Though Walk-On’s Enterprises still will sell single franchise agreements to an individual operator, the company is more interested these days in signing area development agreements with operators that can develop several restaurants within a particular market.
“Lately, we’ve been saying ‘no’ a lot more than we say ‘yes,’” Landry says.
The 2015 buy-in to Walk-On’s Enterprises by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and his wife, Brittany, has helped generate interest in the company, Landry says. At the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona earlier this year, Brees gave a 15-minute presentation about Walk-On’s to some 3,000 restaurant executives in attendance.
“That really catapulted our brand,” Landry says. “It put us on the map nationally. We’ve gotten a lot of interest in the brand since then.”
—Stephanie Riegel
