In just one month, two Foremark casual dining restaurant clients accomplished this. In the same week in July, a Florida-based concept opened in Nevada and a Texas-based concept opened in Alabama.

Miller’s Ale House, one of Florida’s most successful sports-themed restaurant chains, considered a “Regional Powerhouse” by Nations Restaurant News, opened in Las Vegas, and Chuy’s, a successful, Austin, Texas-based Tex-Mex concept, popular throughout the state of Texas, opened its newest location in Birmingham, Alabama.

For any restaurant company, expansion is the surest way to achieve growth objectives. But, without argument, each of these concepts could have selected new, less challenging locations closer to markets each knows best.

“It’s gutsy, none of us will deny that. We’re accustomed to opening in places closer to home where lots of people know us,” explains Michael Hatcher, vice president of real estate and development. “We felt like it was time to go outside of our comfort zone, both operationally and from a customer standpoint. Sooner or later it’s a step we had to take. We believe we were up to it, though. We know we have the real estate support to identify good markets and sites and we’re confident we can manage the store successfully.”

For Miller’s Ale House, the expansion was even more challenging. “Las Vegas is a lot different than Orlando, or any Florida market, for that matter. And, besides that, it’s 2,300 miles and two time zones away,” jokes Ray Holden, President and COO, Miller’s Ale House. “We know we can compete once we’re there. We can run our restaurants. We provide good value. We needed to make sure we made good decisions about where we put the restaurant, that’s something we can’t change,” Holden adds. “It’s a growth step for us. But that’s the way it goes, right? If you’re working hard and doing what you need to grow, it never gets easy. If you’re comfortable, something’s wrong. In this business, everyone knows that.”

For us at Foremark, this was a big week for our clients, Miller’s Ale House and Chuy’s and us. While each of the companies have built a successful business with the capability to expand on this level, we know our broad knowledge of markets and trade areas along with our ability to identity conducive sites has played a key role in each of these ambitious moves.