Michael McGill spent the last four years as an expat in Indonesia, working for a confectionary company and a lifestyle retail brand there. The former Cold Stone Creamery and Krispy Kreme executive is now the new CEO of Bobby’s Burgers, the second attempt by celebrity Chef Bobby Flay to launch a franchised burger concept.
Flay’s first such franchise, Bobby’s Burger Palace unveiled at the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference in 2017, failed to take off, McGill told Franchise Times in an interview last week, in part because it was too big and had a too complicated menu. “We were able to take the key learnings from Bobby’s Burger Palace and scale it down,” McGill said.
Bobby’s Burger Palace was 6,000 square feet. The initial version of Bobby’s Burgers is 400 square feet and has only seven signature sandwiches, including the celebrated Crunch Burger, with potato chips and Bobby’s Sauce. McGill said it’s doing well in Caesar’s Palace, Harrah’s and Paris casinos in Las Vegas. A site in Harrah’s in Atlantic City is in the works, as is one for the new wing of the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, with operating partner The Grove.
A Bobby’s Burgers in Yankees Stadium in New York, where Flay was “born and bred,” is also shining after its second season, McGill said. He’s rolling out the franchise program now, which includes four models and a cost of investment ranging from several hundred thousand dollars to $1.5 million, he said.
Read an interview here with celebrity Chef Bobby Flay and Franchise Times.