Kirk Jefferies doesn’t like to overcomplicate things. The multi-unit, multi-brand franchisee knows operating restaurants is tough enough, and while he said he doesn’t possess the secret to success, he takes a straightforward approach.
“We keep it simple. One customer at a time. One employee at a time,” said Jefferies, a longtime Jason’s Deli franchisee who’s about to open his third Mr. Gatti’s Pizza next week.
Jefferies, a Jason’s Deli owner since 1995, has 20 locations in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri with operating partner Kent Hodge. He sold his four-unit Chicken Express business last year and then got into Mr. Gatti’s with the acquisition of a store in Evansville, Indiana.
He acknowledged that while his method sounds, well, simple, it requires a deep level of involvement and constant focus on solid operations. “We’re on the road a lot, visiting stores every five to six weeks,” said Jefferies, who’s based in Fort Worth, Texas. “You have to be hands-on. You can’t just run these stores from the office. That’s the biggest thing. We’re always in the stores, meeting with our managers.”
Multi-unit franchisee Kirk Jefferies operates 20 Jason’s Deli units and is opening his third Mr. Gatti’s Pizza restaurant.
Jefferies decided to make a career out of operating restaurants after earning his restaurant and hotel management degree from Texas Tech University. He encountered Jason’s Deli during a recruiting event on campus and started working in a corporate store before later joining the team of a franchise owner. Becoming a franchisee himself was the next step and he opened his first Jason’s unit in Amarillo, Texas.
Later, with a growing unit count in Texas and Kansas, he and a now-former partner took the concept to Tampa, Florida. That expansion proved to be an important learning experience.
“We struggled mightily,” Jefferies said. “We didn’t really have the capital to make it work.”
After a split, the partner kept the business in Florida while Jefferies maintained ownership of the Wichita market. In the years since, he said he’s learned the importance of an intense focus on investing in people.
“The culture we create in the stores is what’s most important,” he said. His company offers insurance to all employees and pays a portion of those costs, embraces recognition of its frontline workers, managers and above-store personnel, and “of course we’re paying more.”
“We’ve had less turnover in the last three or four years that ever before,” he said. “Our margins are a little less, but we’ve been willing to do that to take care of our people.”
Operations for Jason’s Deli, which at its 240 locations has a broad menu of sandwiches, salads, pasta dishes and bowls, plus a full salad bar, are complex, Jefferies said, and the environment is fast-paced.
“We do catering, delivery, we have our own drivers and we use third party,” he said, while dine-in business accounts for 50 percent of sales. “It’s a lot of moving parts.”
Texas-based Mr. Gatti’s Pizza, which traces its roots back to 1964, is again pushing franchise growth.
Average monthly sales across the system run $220,000 to $230,00, he noted, and his 20 stores perform above that average overall.
With Mr. Gatti’s, Jefferies saw an opportunity to reintroduce the concept to Fort Worth, where the company is based but doesn’t have much of a presence after closures years ago. He signed on to open five locations.
Founded as The Pizza Place in 1964, at its height what became Mr. Gatti’s had more than 200 locations. It went through multiple ownership changes and in 2019 its prior owner, Sovrano LLC, which also owned Gigi’s Cupcakes, filed for Chapter 11 debt protection. Mr. Gatti’s emerged from bankruptcy in 2021 after restructuring the business and now has about 80 locations open. It offers a family entertainment center model at about 12,500 square feet with the pizza, pasta and salad buffet, plus arcade, and a smaller delivery- and carryout-focused model at about 1,200 square feet.
“I grew up with Mr. Gatti’s, going after baseball games,” said Jefferies. “They’re building it back up and I just really liked the family entertainment part of it and the buffet. It’s so easy for families.”
Mr. Gatti’s finished 2023 with $123 million in systemwide sales, up 10 percent from 2022, according to Franchise Times Top 400 data. It signed 18 franchise agreements last year and in July announced plans to open 92 corporate-owned units inside Walmart locations across Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Kentucky.
After some remodeling and the addition of new games at his unit in Indiana, Jefferies said sales are up and he’s looking forward to opening his third location, a family entertainment center, August 26 on the southern edge of Fort Worth.
His first new Mr. Gatti’s, which opened in September 2023, is a delivery/carryout restaurant and has had a slower start, he said. He expects to keep gaining traction and believes with the larger presence and in-person dining and game element of the next store that the brand will perform well.
Average gross sales for delivery/carryout Mr. Gatti’s stores were $857,965 in 2023, the company reported in its franchise disclosure document. It’s larger family entertainment center locations, those 10,000 to 30,000 square feet, had average gross sales of $2.8 million; smaller entertainment centers, 3,500 to 9,999 square feet, averaged $1.6 million.
At age 55, Jefferies said he doesn’t have an exit strategy and plans to keep growing his portfolio with Jason’s and Mr. Gatti’s. “I can’t see myself doing anything else,” he said.
The family entertainment center model for Mr. Gatti’s features arcade games, in addition to a pizza, pasta and salad buffet.