The Surprising Menu Item That Made Farmer Boys Famous

In today's episode, we're talking about a burger brand whose number one selling item is not even a burger.

It's a Cobb salad.

Today's guest runs a 45-year-old California brand that has been quietly doing what most fast food restaurants say is impossible.

Scratch made, made to order, fresh cracked eggs at the drive-thru, and they're still growing 10% a year.

When I was in Southern California, it was one of my favorite brands to go visit.

If you watch the QSR category over the last 20 years, you've seen the same trade-offs year over year.

Speed or quality.

One category or broad appeal.

Frozen patties, pre-cracked eggs, table service, 30 minute wait.

Most brands pick a side and live there.

Today's guest is running a brand that has spent four and a half decades refusing to pick.

They're so unique in that way.

They serve breakfast, burgers, salads, built-in drive-thrus, nothing's ever frozen.

He tells us how they figured it out.

In this conversation, we get into the operational choices that let this brand continue to operate the way that they have for so many years and why most concepts struggle to pull off this level of complexity within their kitchen, but making it simple enough that the guests don't feel like it's complex.

We even get into the franchise economics of the brand where the franchisees can retire on a single unit, which is unheard of in today's day and age, including the original Greek word that the founders used to decide who they will and who they won't sign as franchisees.

Today, I am joined by industry veteran, John Lucas, who spent the last nine and a half years on the leadership team at Farmer Boys.

Before that, he spent 20 years at Marriott Hotels, was a regional director for Starbucks.

He spent some time at Boudin Bakery, the brand that brought sourdough to America.

He came up through Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island.

And Farmer Boys was founded in 1981 by five brothers from Cyprus.

Today, they are all over the Southwest and continuing to expand nationwide.

If you don't know me, my name is Jeremy Julian.

I am the Chief Revenue Officer at CBS Northstar, as well as the founder of the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast.

If you haven't already subscribed, please do so.

And now, on to the episode.