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NWA Founders is a voice for Founders, Owners, and Builders driving growth in Northwest Arkansas, and is hosted by Cameron Clark and Nick Beyer.
'NWA Founders' is a voice for Founders, Owners, and Builders driving growth in Northwest Arkansas, and is hosted by Cameron Clark and Nick Beyer.
To recommend a guest or ask questions, reach out at nwafounders@gmail.com and follow us on YouTube and LinkedIn for video content.
Lewis Chase: [00:00:00] You could kind of see a need for more hospitality spots in Fayetteville. I think if you lived here, it was pretty obvious at the time that we needed more things to do. The first week we opened, it was a Thursday night and there was 450 people inside, and so we had to actually stand at the doors or the gates and not let people in for a while.
Wow. How cool the space was. It felt like I couldn't say no. So Matt called me one day and he was like, Hey, I have a buddy. He's interested in buying a building. Tell me if it's something you'd be interested in. So I walked over, looked at the building. It's a building that if you grew up in Fayetteville, you knew it.
It had been abandoned for 40 years. Climbed up on the roof, saw the view, and I said, this's, gotta be it.
Cameron Clark: Good morning everybody. You've got myself, Cameron Clark, and then Nick Byer host here of the NWA Founders Podcast where we. Interview builders, owners, anyone making the area [00:01:00] special and like pushing it forward. And I'm super excited this morning, dear friend Lewis, who is with the dudes of Folly. He, Matt and Mikey have, uh, three different concepts here going in Fayetteville that, uh, excited him, kind of lean in more to that.
I'm sure all of you have been to Good morning, Lewis. Good morning. I'm, I'm excited to be here, man. Thanks for having me. We're happy to have you. Yeah. I give everybody some background here on you.
Lewis Chase: Born and raised in Fayville, Arkansas. Uh, my family's been in Fayetteville for a very long time. My uncle was the president of, uh, bank of Fayetteville.
Uh, my grandfather, that side of the family started Louis Ford. Uh, back in the day we used to have Louis, um, brothers hardware on the square as well. Wow. In the Bank of Fayetteville building. Um, so yeah, born and raised in Fayetteville High School, college, everything here. About as local as you can get.
Cameron Clark: I mean, did you ever think about leaving?
Lewis Chase: Yeah, a couple different times. Uh, after college I almost moved to Austin and to Durango with Mikey, my partner. Uh, but I just [00:02:00] kind of missed the window and ended up staying. And by the time I was ready to leave, everybody seemed like they were coming back and things were happening.
Mm-hmm.
Lewis Chase: Northwest Arkansas, and it just became clearer.
That this is where I needed to be to, to do what I wanted to do.
Cameron Clark: And did you like through high school, you had jobs and was that, was that in food?
Lewis Chase: Yeah, so, you know, growing up one of my really good friends, Casey Walker's, family owned Noodles, Italian kitchen.
Yeah.
Cameron Clark: Yeah.
Lewis Chase: Everybody in my grade worked at Noodles at, you know, food run in doing something there.
Yeah. Doing caterings, I've, I've done those with them before. And so that was probably my introduction to the food business. 16, 15. Yeah. I was in high school, so yeah, probably 16 or so as I got through college. Um, I started bartending right when I turned 21. Okay. I worked at 21st Amendment, uh, started at the door, then bar backed, and then the guys that own 21st.
Opened West End and asked if I wanted to be a bartender there. And I was like, sure. Did that for about five years. So when everyone started
Cameron Clark: flooding West End and yeah,
Lewis Chase: we opened that place up. It was wild. [00:03:00] When we first opened, man, it was like, uh, fraternity, sorority central. Oh yeah. Uh, it was wild. Every single night we'd be dead and then 10 o'clock would hit and from 10 till about two in the morning, it was just a mad house.
Yeah. So that was like my first time I probably got used to like the real big hustle. Yeah. Of like it. And, uh, it was madness, but I loved it.
Cameron Clark: What'd you like about it? Just the chaos. Just the excitement. I think I liked the chaos. Chaos.
Lewis Chase: Yeah. The excitement, the working energy. I also, like everybody I worked with was my friend there, you know?
Mm-hmm. So like upstairs, I would bartend upstairs every night and it was like me and three of my bros. And so like, we would, you know, like before the crowd got there, we'd all take a shot and like get hyped up and we'd just get slammed and make a, we also made a ton of money and, or at least at the time, it felt like a ton of money.
Um, and so it was just fun, you know, A lot of fun. Yeah. Just so everyone
Cameron Clark: knows, here we are sitting this morning in, in the Geisinger. Mm-hmm. Um, the dudes of Foley's latest concept and yeah, it's fantastic. Super unbelievable old building. And we were actually just talking about the [00:04:00] different pictures up on the wall here that we can kind of dive into later, but I'm sure there'll be some background noise of just different cars going by and all that.
So yeah, circling back to. Bartending open up West End. Did you ever not work with your
Lewis Chase: friends? No, I think, uh, at least in hospitality, I always had friends. Like I said, when we opened West End, that was like the first time I'd ever been with a company that like, we were opening a new concept. So like, I felt like I learned a ton, like just getting to see all the things you had to do to kind of open a place, you know, 'cause we were working, we were painting power washing, like doing everything to help these guys try to open Westin when we did.
Uh, so I think that was like a pretty eye-opening experience for me and like the hospitality industry, just kind of seeing it firsthand. Like all the stuff that you kind of had to, you know, yeah. Do to open a business, talk to distributors, you know, furniture, just everything. Um, and so I thought that was super cool, you know?
Cameron Clark: And then what was, what was next after that?
Lewis Chase: I took a break after that. So like, I. When I was bartending and going to [00:05:00] school, uh, school kind of fell in the, fell behind you could say. Um, and so when I quit bartending, I went back to school full-time, finished school. Then I worked for Mike Conley Senior, who, uh, was like a sports agent at the time for like Greg Den, Darren McFadden.
Cameron Clark: Yeah.
Lewis Chase: I just was like an office boy for him.
Cameron Clark: And what was your, was your degree in advertising or marketing?
Lewis Chase: No, it was actually in sports management. Okay. I finished my degree in sports management. Um, and so part of that sports management degree, I had to have an internship.
Cameron Clark: Yeah.
Lewis Chase: My internship was for the Conley's.
Okay. And then they just hired me afterwards. Nice. Um, like I said, I was pretty much a glorified personal assistant, uh, but it was a lot of fun. Um, but I, I knew I wasn't gonna live in that world very long. Uh, and so after that, I got into real estate 'cause of my neighbor, John Coger. Yeah. At the time had talked me into it, he's like, I think you'll like it.
So I did real estate, worked with Coldwell Banker for about three years and then switched to Collier.
Cameron Clark: Yeah. And so, so and met your wife? [00:06:00] Yeah. Yeah. You met Lindsay. Yep. Uh, and when you say real estate, just everybody knows residential. Yeah. Age agent. Yep. Reside
Lewis Chase: residential.
Cameron Clark: Yep. Um, and so you're selling houses for friends, I'm sure like all the relationships you have just growing up here, it was like kind of natural for you to do something like that?
Yeah, for sure.
Lewis Chase: It just seemed to make sense at the time. And like I said, I was kind of lost in exactly what I wanted to do. And so I think real estate's a good transitional job, you know? 'cause you can meet a lot of people. You get to see a lot of different industries, whether it's, you know, guys that run HVAC companies or mm-hmm.
You know, title companies. So you get to see a lot of things. Um, and so, yeah, it was a good place for me to be for a while.
Cameron Clark: And how old were you at the time when you jumped into real estate and like, how long was that era? I think I
Lewis Chase: was in real estate from 25. Age 25 until 30, I think Feed and Folly. We started doing Feed and Folly, or planning for Feed and Folly when I was about 28.
And it didn't open until I was 30. Okay. And so
Cameron Clark: 30th birthday. Yep. And so as far as like your, your family [00:07:00] involved at all, like as with you opening up the first restaurant? No. It kind of seemed like it was just you. It
Lewis Chase: was, it was me and, you know, Matt and Mikey. It was completely my idea. I was doing real estate and I mean, I was successful enough with it.
I was making a living, but I didn't love it. Um, and you know, during that time you could kind of see a need for more hospitality spots in Fayetteville. I think if you lived here, it was pretty obvious at the time that we needed more things to do. Um, wow. I think I was 27, I went on a bachelor party to Durango, Colorado.
Yeah. For
Lewis Chase: Brandon, for US' Bachelor party. And that's where Mikey and Matt were living at the time. My partners, uh, they were running a deli out there for a, for some older folks. The deli was not doing well. The brothers took over. It started curing and smoking all bone meats. Wow. And blew the deli up.
Awesome. By them doing that, a guy that ran a brewery called NMS Brewery Company out there, reached out to them and then they implemented a whole food program for the guy's brewery. [00:08:00] Ended up getting hired as GMs there. Wow. And so when I went out there, I was just blown away because we ate at the sandwich shop and it was so good.
Yeah. It was kind of like a Chiba hut, but it was called like, I think like Twin or Three Peaks Deli or something like that at the time. Was blown away 'cause it was so good. Then we went to the brewery and again, you know, great food. Mm-hmm. Like a lot of the items, uh, were kind of inspired at F Folly were from that brewery.
Um, and I was blown away and I just remember leaving there and being like, man, these guys are doing it. You know? Yeah. Like they, yeah. It's so good. It's so cool. And so I went back six months later, I flew out there and was like, what do I have to do to get you guys to come home? Uh, and so that's kinda how it started.
Wow. And you know, those guys were kind of getting at a point. They weren't really loving the guys they were working for out there. They were having to work all the time. Durango's really expensive. They couldn't really afford housing.
Mm-hmm.
Lewis Chase: And they were like, man, unless we own something out here, there's never gonna be a livable situation for us.
So they decided to come home. We started looking for [00:09:00] spaces. Uh, Mikey was the GM at both Schmitty's garages? Oh yeah. Yeah. At in Rogers and Fayetteville. During the time we were kind of looking for space, Matt was GM and at Wright's Barbecue.
Cameron Clark: Okay.
Lewis Chase: Um, so they kinda got their feet wet back in Fayetteville and then we found Feed and Folly and, you know, took off from there.
Cameron Clark: When and before we kind of get, dive into feed and f talk about like, y'all yours, Matt and Mikey's relationship maybe growing up, like Yeah.
Lewis Chase: Well, so the boys are British. Yeah. Uh, they're from Southport, England. The boys. Yeah. Are they brothers? They're brothers, yeah. They're brothers. Michael and Matt Sutton.
I met Mikey and. Eighth or ninth grade. I can't remember if it was eighth or ninth grade, but it was at Woodland Junior High. And I just remember he sat next to me in like English class and I heard him talk and I was like, whoa, you know,
Cameron Clark: like, you're not from here. No. He sounded straight
Lewis Chase: off the boat. And I was like, what?
Uh, and honestly, we were friends immediately. That's awesome. And uh, I think one of Mikey's qualities that caught me like from the beginning was, you know, like you hang out with a bunch of [00:10:00] friends and y'all are kind of similar. Mikey was different, you know? Yeah. He, uh, he could do everything he could. He like ran our video, he photography stuff for like our basketball team.
He made like videos. He could like fix computers. He just could do, I remember if you had to do something, Mikey could figure out how to do it.
Cameron Clark: He's a hustler.
Lewis Chase: Yeah, he was just a hustler and, uh, finagler I guess, you know. Yeah. So that always sat with me. Uh, and then his brother was four years older than us.
I didn't know, we call Matt Pip, by the way. PIP. Uh, so I didn't really know Pip, you know, just like as an older brother figure, but I didn't really get to start hanging out with him until I got to college.
Cameron Clark: Where'd the, where'd the name Pip come from? The nickname. I
Lewis Chase: think it's a family thing, to be honest with you.
I don't even know. That's the first time I ever met him. He just, I'm Pip you know, I was like, alright, but your name was Matt. Exactly. Uh, and so, yeah, so, you know, we have a great working relationship. Like I said, I've known Mikey since eighth grade. I had a lot of great times with him and um, you know, he was one of those friends, like when we went to college, Mikey was.
Didn't go to [00:11:00] college, but he was running the, uh, megabyte store. Mm-hmm. Which used to be like our Apple equivalent of an Apple store. Yeah. But he was managing that during the day and then GM me noodles at night at like 18, you know, and just hustling and I don't know, something I always recognized in him and, uh, was impressed with
Nick Beyer: what, I mean, so one of the things I feel like I've heard over and over is like, don't start, don't start businesses with friends or family.
And these guys seem like your core best friends growing up. Like, did you get that advice? Would, do you, do you disagree with it now or,
Lewis Chase: yeah. You know, I think going in business, I think in today's world especially, I feel like it, you almost have to make partnerships, right? Because it's so hard to. Take the burden on by yourself.
Yeah. And so for me, yeah. I mean, like growing up, I heard that all the time, like, don't get in business with friends. Um, but it's been nothing but great. It's amazing. Uh, you know, the brothers are great. I feel like I'm one of their brothers at this point. And, and so it's been, it's been nothing but a blessing for me so far.
So I guess, yeah, I would disagree with it. Good. You know, as long as it's structured and everybody understands [00:12:00] pretty clearly at the beginning, you know, who's in charge of what, who's responsible for what, and, you know, all have the same goal. And I think even after it's been like five years now, we all still have the same goals and, you know, all still super aligned.
And so it's been great for us so far.
Cameron Clark: Well, and outside looking in, I think what, just from what you talked about so far, one of the things I admire about y'all and y'all's partnership is that y'all are gritty. Mm-hmm. And like, I know you're gonna go into it more on some of this talking about feed and folly, but I'm just like, this is, it was from day one, like the gr the grittiness.
You've either got it or you don't. You don't For sure. It's like if you got partners that have it, like pretty special. I feel like they've taught
Lewis Chase: me to, to be a little bit more gritty. 'cause you know, I probably, uh, the less, you know, but those guys, like I said, there's nothing you can put in front of both those guys and they'll figure out, or they'll get it done.
Whether it's they're cooking, you know, or they're cleaning or they're painting. Or Mikey, we make fun of him, but he's like our plumber too, you know, like we have a leak. It's like, yo, Mikey, we got a leak, [00:13:00] and he'll go fix it, you know? And so, uh, they can do it all, man.
Cameron Clark: Wow. Talk about feeding folly, like finding the spot, the idea for it,
Lewis Chase: finding the spot, you know, everything about the time leading up to feed and follow was pretty stressful.
We, uh, originally had a lease on a building on Martin Luther King. Which is the blue garage. That's a food truck court now across from South Yard.
Cameron Clark: Oh, yes.
Lewis Chase: We, we had that under lease at one point. Um, so we thought we were gonna do it there. Right, right
Cameron Clark: there on the trail. Mm-hmm. Right. Yep.
Lewis Chase: And so our very first idea, honestly, was kind of a more of a city park vibe.
Uh, so we had that building under lease one way or the other. It just wasn't gonna work. The building cost too much money to try to fix up. We, um, went through some planning stuff and we just kind of got to a point with the, the people that owned it, where we saw that our visions weren't really gonna match up and they, they wanted specific control of certain things like the color of the building and how much we could do to it.
Um. So, like I said, we got outta the lease. Um, how long was that [00:14:00] process? Probably eight to 10 months. Oh wow. That we had it. This is like
Nick Beyer: 2018 ish. Mm-hmm. Kind of when you said the vision started for it about 20
Lewis Chase: 17, 20 18. Okay. Is when we had that building under lease. It was the first thing that we ever, like.
I wanna say that I got the building under lease before the boys even moved back from Colorado because we like when they got there, here I had it and I remember talking about it. I had floor plans already drawn up and either way that did not work out. Um, so then we spent probably eight to 12 more months.
My buddy Matt Mazzoni was helping us. Yep. Um,
Cameron Clark: good old Matt.
Lewis Chase: Right. Uh, we had incredible, we had a building on Block Street. I was walking into the, the leasing office to sign the lease and they told me they leased it to someone else that day. Uh, and it's where Big Box Karaoke is now, currently. Okay. Okay. So that was actually supposed to be the original Feed and Folly location.
Um. We were, we were pretty devastated when that happened to us. Um, but you know, as I say, things work out for a reason and I couldn't see Feed and Folly [00:15:00] being in any other building. Yeah. Uh, than it, yeah. Than the one it's in. So fast forward, like three weeks after the building fell through Sage Partners and Matt Mazzone felt so bad 'cause they're like, we've never had anything like that happen to us before where we told you had a building and then they didn't leased it from under us.
Wow. So Matt called me one day and he was like, Hey, I have a buddy Sterling Hamilton who works for me, he's interested in buying a building. Go look at this building and tell me if it's something you'd be interested in. So I walked over to, uh, one 10 South College where Fi Foley is now looked at the building.
It's a building that if you grew up in Fayetteville, you knew it. 'cause you know, you drove by it and it had been abandoned for 40 years. Climbed up on the roof, saw the view, and I said, this has gotta be it. Wow. And so Sterling and Greg bought it and. You know, from there we just teamed up and it was honestly a pretty great partnership with them.
White boxing it, us building it out, and then COVID hit, uh, the day we opened. So did you
Nick Beyer: already have the vision [00:16:00] for Feed and Folly before the building, or did the, when you were up there on the building, is that kind of where the vision started to come to life a little bit.
Lewis Chase: Uh, I had already wanted to do a rooftop.
Okay. That was like something, I think with my experience at Westin, I just didn't understand why there was no restaurants with rooftops or there just weren't more rooftop bars in general. 'cause it just seemed so fun and awesome. And so we were gonna put a rooftop on the building on block. Okay. Um, and so I already knew that I wanted that.
Um, but I didn't know that building had a view like it does. And so once we got up there, it was kinda solidified it for us, that, man, this, this has to be the spot, you know?
Cameron Clark: Yeah. Uh, and so how long did it take from you standing on the roof to opening day?
Lewis Chase: Probably 18 months.
Cameron Clark: Okay.
Lewis Chase: If I had to guess, the build out took a little bit longer and the planning took a little bit longer.
Um, and so you know how those things go.
Cameron Clark: It seems like out of the the three of y'all, you're more the visionary and you know, I would say they're more of [00:17:00] the like true restaurant guys. Yeah. Would you, would you say that? Yeah. What's the Yeah, for sure.
Lewis Chase: I mean, like at this point we're all operators, but I mean, I had to learn when we opened Feed and Folly, I did not have experience managing or running restaurants.
Those guys did. And so yeah, those guys were the operators. I was the fluff. You know, I always tell people like, I was like the talker and uh, I guess you can call it a visionary, but I just have the crazy ideas and, uh, I'm lucky enough to have partners that let me run and are really great at implementing some of the crazy stuff that I spit out.
You know what I mean?
Yeah. Yeah. And so, and
Lewis Chase: then like I said, with Feeding and Folly. When we first opened, we all three managed every single day. And so like mm-hmm. I learned so much in that first three years of how to manage staff, how to do inventory, how to do ordering, you know, stuff that I didn't know how to do.
Uh, prior to getting in there.
Cameron Clark: What was the hardest part about getting that up to getting open? What was the hardest, hardest part about all that?
Lewis Chase: Navigating the city, the builder, the architect, like that relationship. 'cause I had never done anything like that before. I [00:18:00] think that was something, I mean, again, I learn every time we do a new project.
Mm-hmm. But I think that was like, that was a lot for us, you know, and 'cause Mikey and Matt didn't have experience in that. They, they could get the restaurant and they could run it, but it was like, how do we. Get it to be ready to run. I think that, for me was the most challenging part. Um, like I said, did you, did you
Nick Beyer: have your Mount Rushmore, did you have guys behind you who were like, Hey, we can help you kind of walk through this?
Or was it truly just your learning as you go? Yeah, it was
Lewis Chase: totally learning as, as we go. Um, completely Because like I said, my, my father, uh, is a doctor. Mm-hmm. So he didn't have, you know, didn't have much business background and like starting businesses and stuff. And so we didn't have a ton of people to lean on, uh, as far as like navigating contractors, navigating city code.
Yeah. All that kind of stuff. And so it was just a big learning experience. Yeah. That's awesome. Same with City Park, like, you know. Yeah.
Cameron Clark: Y'all just
Nick Beyer: jumped in. Yeah. Just jump in. You just go,
Lewis Chase: yeah. There's nothing else that you have to do. These are not, and if you don't live
Nick Beyer: in northwest Arkansas, these are not, you don't look, I mean, you can tell when you look [00:19:00] at these buildings or these concepts that there was a lot of work that went into bringing into life.
Yeah. You
Nick Beyer: just gotta respect and appreciate that.
Cameron Clark: So, yeah, talk about the menu feed and Fol is curated, so well talk about how that happened, menu, and then maybe then we'll kind of dive into, you know, actually opening and all that too. Yeah.
Lewis Chase: So when I first brought the boys back to open something, my dream was City Park, right?
And that's kind of what we were trying to do down on MLK. It didn't work out. And the boys, uh, being from England were like, well, we've always kind of wanted to open a British themed pub. Mm-hmm. You know, that's like a gastro pub with a lot of local beers and like a lot of local cuisine stuff we can throw stuff on.
And I was, I'll be honest, I was kinda like, I don't know, man, British Pub. Like yeah, no one wants to go to a British pub and like, I didn't get it. And so when we chose to do Feed and Folly first I remember I wasn't really nervous 'cause I was like, well, you know, I thought we were gonna come out the gate with something like City Park and we could have done the British Pub thing later on.
Um, but it just didn't work out that [00:20:00] way. Mm. And so. For me, it was like, how do I modernize what the boys want to do, uh, to where it doesn't, it's not necessarily a British pub, it's more like a gastro pub. Mm-hmm. Um, and so that's kind of how the idea started to get the name. I'm gonna go down a little bit of a black rabbit hole here.
Yeah. Yeah. So Mikey and Matt's great, great, great uncle is named William Sutton, and there's a statue of him in Southport, England in downtown. And he was a very eccentric guy, and Southport is not the nicest town, but it's on the beach. And so he was one of the very first people ever to put changing rooms on a beach in England and like tried to like, make the beach in Southport, like touristy uhhuh, like a nice vacation spot.
And so everybody would call, uh, like I said, apparently he was eccentric, but everybody started calling him the Duke of Folly. Okay. Because he had a place like a Folly hotel too.
Yeah.
Lewis Chase: So everybody started calling him the Duke of Folly. And so I, when I heard that history, I was like. That's kind of cool, you know?
And that's how we got our LLC named [00:21:00] the Dudes of Folly. Uh, and then again, we worked with Archetype, uh, for branding and we just started going over that. And then that's where the feed and the folly kind of came in. Yeah. It's like, hey, well that's kind of plays heritage to the boys. Yep. Kind of gives you that English vibe, but it's not, you know, like a old school English pub.
Uh, it's a little bit more modern. And it also helped us with our, our whole idea of the meat and drink. Right. Of what Feed and Folly is. So we wanted a place where people could gather, they could eat and they could have great food for. So for us, the feeds, the food, the follies, the fun.
Cameron Clark: Yeah. And
Lewis Chase: the drinking upstairs.
Right. Yeah. And that's, that's kind of the, the background of how we got to that name. Uh, and then, like I said, the menu is stuff the boys have just done at other, you know, I'm not saying that they had those exact items, but it's things that they were familiar with. Yeah. Uh, and things that they really liked.
And so we probably put that menu together over a year, you know, just like going back and forth with each other. Some of the stuff, stuff that I wanted, you know, but the boys [00:22:00] brought alive and so most popular menu items feed folly. What are they? Appetizer, crispy pork belly. Yep. Uh, by far. And then slam dunk fish tacos.
Fish and chips. Okay. Are are two of our bigger selling entrees. And then the Philly cheese steak.
Nick Beyer: Yeah. So we've got this idea. It came to life through, it sounds like a lot of hardship. You're building out this really different menu for Fayetteville, Arkansas. You open, COVID starts. Walk us through how the opening goes even and from a business perspective, like, are you like, holy smokes, I'm extremely nervous.
Like I've never done something like this. Like walk us through some of the economics of
Lewis Chase: Yeah.
Nick Beyer: Opening a restaurant.
Lewis Chase: We were running outta money. You know, every time we open a restaurant, it's funny, it's like. If we don't open that day, I don't know what we're gonna do. You know, like, that's kind of like where we get to, we're like,
Nick Beyer: ah, we gotta open today.
And so at this point, is it, is it y'all three just throwing in capital together and saying, let's make this, yeah.
Lewis Chase: So we, we took a small business loan out Okay. To, [00:23:00] to get, um, folly open. And luckily at the time, small business really the loan program really looked at experience. And so having the guys have such long history, you know, since 16 Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Being managers and GMs of restaurants was so helpful to get that over the line. Shout out to John Michael Davis. Uh, he's my banker.
Cameron Clark: Oh, nice. He's also one of my
Lewis Chase: best friends, but I mean, without him, I don't know if we would've gotten that loan with him, like walking it through his credit department and doing all this stuff.
'cause I mean, it was a risky loan to give us at the time. And which bank? I think it's, I always messed up their name, but it's like Southern Bancorp. Okay.
Cameron Clark: Yeah.
Lewis Chase: Yeah. I think, yeah, they do like chicken loans. We were their very first business loan that wasn't a chicken loan, which is, it worked out. Which worked out great.
But yeah, like it was nerve wracking. You know, you have a business plan and the thing about opening a business is there's so many costs that you can't foresee, right? And so at the time we were dealing with that, you know, paying an architect a little bit more than we thought, paying the builders for, you know, changes that we didn't really see.
[00:24:00] And so, I mean, we were coming down to the wire when we open feed and fall. And I just remember it was like the week before we opened, you know, the boys are experienced opening restaurants too. 'cause they helped Schmitty's Open one, they helped n Noodles open a restaurant in Austin. So like they'd been there from the jump on places before.
But I just remember feeling like I wasn't ready.
Cameron Clark: Yeah.
Lewis Chase: I was like, the building's not ready, the staff's not ready, I'm not ready. And the boys are like, we're, it's open tomorrow. We're doing our soft opening's tomorrow, let's go. And I don't care. And I just remember we did it, the soft opening was on a Sunday night and we started having people drop outta the soft opening 'cause the news of COVID.
And I remember like, we didn't really know what it was yet, but people were like, I'm just not comfortable coming. We're like, oh, that's not a big deal. Had a soft opening. It went great. Uh, the patio was still not done 'cause we couldn't get it done in time. Um, and then the next day at lunch, all the news starts breaking out about, I mean, at the time we didn't know what it was.
Yeah. But I just remember looking at Mikey and, uh, we were both like, I think we should just shut down before we get told to shut [00:25:00] down. So we were actually one of the first restaurants in Fayetteville that just said, Hey, we're closing our doors takeout only. And so, yeah, it was so scary.
Nick Beyer: And at that point, did they, I mean, so, and then you started to get into like the nuts and bolts of how restaurants shifted from being in person to now doing takeout.
So like, was that a muscle that these guys already had in their repertoire? Or is this one where y'all are like, okay, we're growing and we're, we're working these muscles out together?
Lewis Chase: Oh, it was definitely something that, I mean, they've done catering and takeout at all the restaurants. Like McAllister, a lot of their business was takeout and caterings and so they had experience with it.
But you know, again, in credit to those guys that they pivoted, you know, and I think we did it before a lot of people where it was like, Hey. We're doing takeout and we're gonna do it as good as we can and really try to crush it. And so, like I said, shout out to, to my partners on being able to just go with what we have to do and like then implement systems that make it work.
And, you know, again, Fayetteville's such a great place. I think everybody knew we just tried to open and so we had [00:26:00] great support from the community and uh, you know, we wouldn't have made it through COVID without the community and the, the takeout business that we got, especially on the weekends.
Yeah. It was like the, it
Lewis Chase: was, it was really, uh, phenomenal.
Really was, you know, I'd never seen anything like that. I thought we were, I thought we were done and we didn't get any COVID money either. And so, you know, lot of these a of government assistance, a lot of these businesses were getting like, help. And we applied for it and they were like, well, you haven't been open enough, so you couldn't show loss.
Right. Yeah. And so we got no help and so we just, I mean, every single week I remember just looking at our bank account and being like, man, I think we can make it next week. Mm-hmm. You like, I think we can make an order and, yeah. Finally got the patio done during the COVID shutdown. And so when it did finally open back up and you could be only outside dining, we just did the roof ready to go.
Roof only. Yeah. It's unbelievable. And luckily people were so ready to be outside and just be out and be social that, you know, we were so busy. We ended up doing resi.com, you know, just to help us Wow. Deal with the demand. Yeah. And so, and then, uh, after that, the rest was [00:27:00] history, you know, finally got amazing, the slow roll, the downstairs open.
I think it started at 70%. So we had to get rid of some of the tables and slowly add 'em back
Nick Beyer: and, yeah. Well I just feel like that's inspirational and both of us just growing up here, it's like how fun to see the community rally around a business. Especially, I mean the, the no government assistant thing.
That's, that's unbelievable. Yeah. That was crazy that you, you all survived. Totally. New concept. Totally new concept in northwest Arkansas. Yeah. Right. I mean, that's unbelievable. So it was, man, just
Lewis Chase: really, and we got lucky too because, you know, the majority of our staff, um, we got to keep kitchen. Okay. So we got to keep the majority of our staff in the kitchen.
And then the majority of our front of house were college kids and they all went home anyways.
Oh, wow. But we had like
Lewis Chase: two girls that stayed up here and they just ran our phones and take out, and, I mean, they made so much money during that time too, 'cause people felt bad. Mm-hmm. So they'd come in, they'd tip you so much money.
Yeah. So I just remember how much
Cameron Clark: good for them,
Lewis Chase: how scary it was. Yeah. But at the same time, like so much fun. [00:28:00] I mean, just like answering the phone, like, like those times were fun for us. Yeah. You know? 'cause it was, it gave us time to work out. Yeah. Kinks in our kitchen, gave us time to get better at making certain, you know, items in our menu.
And so again, yeah. It was horrible. But uh, again, I think we did a good job of turning something just Absolutely. You know, that would've shattered most people's businesses. Yeah. And turned it into a positive and. Um,
Nick Beyer: made it through it. Yeah. Well, I'm looking back at my notes here and one of the things I wrote as you were giving your intro was just chaos.
Like it sounds like, and, and we're even now seeing it with the open of feed and folly. Like you love and you thrive in chaos, and that's not, that's a gift. That's, that's, that's not natural. That's not innate in people. So before we move on to kind of the next concept, would you walk us through like whether it's revenue or just how feed and Folly Hass grown and just the scale that it's at now and the success on the business side and just really the economics of it?
Lewis Chase: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for us, like I said, we started off with the small business loan, [00:29:00] uh, pretty much ran outta money during COVID, slowly built it back up, uh, as we got to open everything up. And I, and I will say the, the thing that's made Feed and Folly special are really just what we're doing special in my mind is our staff.
You know, um, the, the people that we're able to give power to, um. Stick around, you know, like our two main managers at Feed and Folly were really three all started with us when we opened, and they're still there. Wow. Amazing. You know, um, one of the guys we got during COVID, uh, who's my GM at Feed and Folly now, uh, came from us from Logan Steakhouse, but he also worked at Common Grounds, uh, hog House on Dixon back in the day.
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So super experienced, but he was a guy that had only worked in kitchens, you know, had made the same amount of money at Logan's for like six straight years, never got a raise. And when he came over to us, I just remember seeing him back in the kitchen. It was like, this dude's special, you know, like the way he moved, the way he could talk to people.
Um, and so being able to [00:30:00] keep people like that mm-hmm. In your businesses has, has been what's given us the, the power to keep moving and keep opening new stuff, you know? Um, and without them we would still be there running it ourselves and we wouldn't be able to, you know, open more spots. So how do you, how do you keep them.
How do you I think just treating people. I, I mean, I hope that, I mean, you'd have to ask them, I guess. Yeah. But for me, it's just treating people the way that I want to be treated. You know, like I said, we've all been in the hospitality industry at some time and, and took notes on how we were treated by owners or by bosses.
Cameron Clark: Yeah.
Lewis Chase: Um, we offer health insurance, which a lot of, uh, companies in our position don't do.
Cameron Clark: Wow.
Lewis Chase: Um, and then we just pay, you know, if you can come in and you can prove that you're gonna stick with us and that you're capable of the job, like we're gonna do everything we can, whether it's help you with a car payment, help you buy a house, like, and you wanna ride or die with us, like, we're gonna take care of you.
Wow. That's important business model, at least for us so far. You know, and like I said, and it is not like we're doing crazy good stuff. It's just like [00:31:00] you growing up in the hospitality industry, especially with Mikey and Matt, it doesn't take a whole lot to do the extra, you know, and the hospitality industry is one of those industries that I feel like it's okay to get treated bad and people just get used to it.
Yeah. And it's like. You don't have to Yeah. Do anything extra special. You just have to run your business the right way. Mm-hmm. I feel like, you know, that's just something that we strive to do and so that's amazing. But yeah, as far as the economics though, like I said, we just, we got that loan right outta money in COVID, slowly built it back up with the community.
Um, first football season when we could have a hundred percent occupancy was the first time we were like, oh, okay, we can make money here. Yeah. We can
Cameron Clark: survive. Yeah. We can survive and
Lewis Chase: thrive. Maybe even. Uh, and so, yeah. So like I said, we, we went through a full year and then that very next year bought the land for City Park.
Okay. With the money we'd made at feet and f
Nick Beyer: Okay. So the restaurant's up, it's, it's going well, making probably more than you anticipated or thought, and you're like, Hey, let's roll that success into. What was the [00:32:00] first idea or dream now kind of making that come to life? So let's, yeah, let's move to, let's move to City Park and let's just hear you talk about that concept, how it came to life.
I assume it took a couple years of planning and It did. Yeah,
Lewis Chase: and, and just like, you know, we bought the property and it set for I think 18 months before we even started construction on it. Uh, and it was one of those things where Mikey and Matt knew that that's what I wanted to do, just because of, you know, the first idea that we had.
And so me and Mikey were actually riding bikes on the trail one day and peeked through the woods and saw a for lease sign on the property that is now City Park, uh, called the owner and we're like, Hey, you know, we're interested. Uh, the guy's like, well, I'm not selling, it's just for lease. And it was like a garage bay.
That conversation kept going. I kept bothering the guy. I kept just randomly showing up and he'd be like, what are you doing here, man? And I'd be like, I just am looking around. I'm really interested in your property. He's like, again, it's not for sale. Uh, finally just made the guy an offer. And, uh, that moved the [00:33:00] ball a little bit.
Cameron Clark: Yeah.
Lewis Chase: And then, you know, six more months of negotiation and me pestering the hell out of him, he sold it to me. I was very surprised I wasn't ready for him to say yes. Yeah. Uh, so again, we just had to kind of scramble, uh, did SBA again. 'cause if you grow your business, you know, you can put a little bit less down.
Uh, and so that's, that's what we did, bought the property. So we actually own it. So, and
Nick Beyer: is SBA is that buying the property and building out the concept?
Lewis Chase: Yep. Mm-hmm. Yep. They gave us one chunk loan for that. Um, but again, it couldn't have been a new LLC, so I had to roll it as I was growing feed and Folly or that LLC.
So we bought the property, uh, closed on it and then came to find out that you could only upgrade it 20% of its current value because of its floodplain, uh, where it was in the floodplain. And we knew it was in the flood plain 'cause we had it surveyed before we bought it, but we didn't know that bit of information.
So my very first plans I set into the city. They looked at and they're like, no way. Uh, and so again, [00:34:00] it was just, I gotta figure out what I can do here. Mm-hmm. And how I'm gonna do it. Um, so that took some time, some planning. We had a really great architect, uh, flintlock Labs, uh, Allison, uh, Quinlan Thurman, and she was super helpful.
But again, it was, you know, our original plan for City Park was more like a cafeteria, you know, so like you would've been able to walk up to like a burger stand, walk up to the taco stand, walk up to like three different concepts. Mm-hmm. I couldn't build out that many kitchens because of the value of the property.
And so again, it was just like, okay, well what can I do? What can I get away with? With them not really seeing, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Which, I mean, everybody I think kind of does that with like, you know, not telling the city, Hey, I'm gonna put all new wires up here, and you just have to do it. Um, went through all that, got a builder, started going through the building process, found out again, new information that I didn't know the city made us do a flood study.
On the property because it was in the flood plain, because it was in the floodplain to do [00:35:00] any construction on the property, which was a thing they had passed just that January. Oh, wow. Mm. So we had to spend another, uh, eight months to do a flood study. Wow. It cost $13,000. And the guys doing the flood study.
I remember calling, 'cause we had a huge flood one night, like where our whole property got flooded. There was a huge log jam in the creek. Like, yeah. You're like, this is the time to do the study guys. So I called the city, the city removed the log jam, the flooding never happened again. But I was like, Hey, I'm gonna call the flood study guy to tell him about this news.
Called him. He is like, dude, I've never been in the property. I just do it off of FEMA data. And I was like,
oh my god, my goodness.
Lewis Chase: You know? I was like, you don't even know what you're like looking at. Oh my goodness. So that was like really eyeopening to me that I had to pay all that money, go through all that time.
Wow. Really for nothing when AI could have taken care of. Yeah. Right. Right. Like I could have cared less that it, goodness, we, we removed the dam, you know, like I was like, Hey man, we're not flooding anymore. I don't care. You know?
Cameron Clark: And so Allie Quinlan had already had all the design done. Like, y'all are ready to go.
We were ready
Lewis Chase: to go. And she study. She's [00:36:00] fantastic too. Oh yeah. Like, but she didn't know either. 'cause like I said, it was a new rule. I think we were trying to start construction in March. Yeah. That law, you barely, that law had only passed in January, so it was like three months new. We were the very first flood study ever submitted to the city.
Yeah. So I remember when I submitted to the city, the city didn't really know what they were even looking at. 'cause it was the very first one Yeah. Ever submitted. Wow. And so
Nick Beyer: everyone's learning together.
Lewis Chase: Right. And at
Nick Beyer: this point you're just kind of doing all this from the SBA loan, you're just kind of ticking away at it.
Carrying, holding costs Yep. Of the, of the property for however long. Eight months. Yep. Keeps getting delayed. Okay. Keeps getting delayed. You know, so obviously you're cur
Lewis Chase: curring costs stuff you don't expect. Um. Got into construction. I don't even want to get into the construction part of it, but, uh, I am currently in a lawsuit against the people that built Feed or City Park out.
Um, welcome to Construction. Yeah, right. Welcome to Construction. It's funny, you know, lawyers get a bad name. I, I feel like it's contractors that should have it. Uh, I
Cameron Clark: it's messy, like it's man construction. It's, it's so messy. [00:37:00] Yeah. It's just messy.
Lewis Chase: They blame the architect, they'll blame the subs. It's like, well, didn't you hire the subs?
Oh God. The,
Cameron Clark: I mean, even just talking to my contractor friends, it's like, dude, it's just, it is a messy job. It is. Like, especially remodels. Yeah. It's like,
Lewis Chase: especially, yeah. Old building. I mean, again, city Park was a, a a, an old southwestern bell utility hub. Oh. And so it was built like in the early sixties, and so it was old decrepit.
I think most people would've torn it down, you know? But. I just, we saw something special there, gritty, uh, with it being on the bike trail. Um, and like I said, you go to any other city, like when you're in your mid twenties to see your friends in Dallas or Nashville, there's that spot you're going, yeah, you're going to a day drinking spot outside on a trail.
Like, so we needed it. I, I felt that Fayetteville needed it really, really badly. Um, and I, I think we were right 'cause we've been pretty successful there so far. Um, but yeah, the process of that build out, I don't think I could have [00:38:00] learned, uh, from a book, like seriously I city park, build out city process.
I learned more than I've ever learned in my entire life in like an 18 month span. Wow. Uh, which was really, really cool.
Yeah,
Lewis Chase: yeah, yeah. But yeah, we finally got that one open last July
Cameron Clark: and maybe folks that I don't know live in different parts of Northwest Arkansas or don't live here. Talk about the location of it, where it's at.
And you said on the trail? Yeah. So
Lewis Chase: City Park is on Lever It, which, it's funny 'cause I feel like that part of town's kind of like. Not really thought of. Mm-hmm. But it's in the middle of town. It is. It's four blocks away from the football stadium. Mm-hmm. You know, four blocks away from the university and all the sororities.
Um, and so like when we first went down there and saw it, it was like, you know, we kind of got priced out of like MLK prices at the time, so we're like, okay, we want to be in the middle of town. And so we just started following the bike trail, trying to look for like junky property is like how we found it.
Um, found the one on Lever It. And you know, at first if you like, would ask my parents or ask, a lot of my friends are like, dude, lever it. Like
Cameron Clark: yeah. Mm-hmm. No one [00:39:00] goes there. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Like,
Lewis Chase: I'm like, well, you know, that's kinda the point of it. Right.
Cameron Clark: Um, well, and even like just being, me being a real estate guy, it's like.
People look at demographics, it's like, all right, what's the average, what are the average incomes? Can it support this here? How do you get there? All those things. It's like, it probably wouldn't have got picked, you know, it probably wouldn't be through the top of the list, but like the trail is, is everything right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, it's just everything. It is. And
Lewis Chase: I mean, even since we've bought the property, the amount of like the, of the apartments getting remodeled over there, all the town houses getting built and like for me changing. Yeah. For me, like if you look at like the university and how landlocked it is, why would it not go there?
Right? And it's going like all the way south. Like it makes so much more sense to be
Cameron Clark: there.
Lewis Chase: There, yeah. You know, uh, for just like walking purposes and everything like that. Um, and so, yeah, I think it's just a phenomenal spot. But yeah, it's made by the bike trail and like the amount of people that use the bike trail in Fayetteville is I think something that's underestimated by a lot of people.
But that thing is full all the time and we're still working with the city to try to get a bridge.
Mm-hmm.
Lewis Chase: Uh, and to remodel [00:40:00] that section of Creek on our property. Um, but again, it's tied to fema. And just a lot of things are tied up in it. And so we're, we're working on it slowly. Yeah. But eventually we should have a trail connection that goes to our property mm-hmm.
That anybody can use anytime of the day. And I'm, I'm, I'm really excited about that. 'cause the whole back of City Park, you know, city park's about one, like, just like one and a half acres. Mm-hmm. So it's a really large outdoor space. Uh, but the back part is just gravel right now. Yeah. Which works out. 'cause the kids love it gives you a lot of open space.
But like originally the plan was to have like bocce ball courts, plant trees, and like really curate that back spot. And that's what we want to do. Uh, we just have to get a little bit further down the line.
Cameron Clark: I know that, uh, like I'm, we're going to the fall here right now. Some of the best memories I've had at City Park so far is like, all these friends are coming into town Friday afternoon, we're meeting at City Park.
Mm-hmm. And then like, kind of the weekend at football like begins. What are some of the biggest weekends y'all have had? Like, I mean, whether it's people wise or just like, you know, you only have one kitchen. Ha. [00:41:00] Have you been able to service all of 'em? And you, I know you've got the, the barbecue food truck.
Like tell us about like some peak weekend or day.
Lewis Chase: Yeah. So, uh, you know, like when we first opened last year, I remember I think at one point it was the first week we opened. It was a Thursday night and there was 450 people inside. Like no one, there wasn't any places to sit. And uh, me and Mikey looked at each other, we're like, alright.
And so we had to actually stand at the doors or the gates and not let people in for a while. Wow. It's like, so that was nuts. Um, and then, you know, as your kitchen gets smoother, like when we first opened, it was not very easy to service all the tables we had and it was a mess. And you'd look up at the ticket window, there'd be a.
200 tickets touching the ground. And wow. My partner Pip would just be going through and he'd be doing expo and he'd be doing it for six hours, you know? Um, but as you get going, the kitchen gets better again. We have a lot of the same guys that open that place with us, so they've gotten so much better, and now we're like, can we add more seats?
You know, because mm-hmm. We can service everything. Uh, we, at least we feel [00:42:00] like we've, we've done a pretty good job. I feel like you guys have been customers, but like, I don't think I've ever waited more than 10 minutes for a burger or No, no. A drink. Even not even close to that actually. And we have 300 people in there, so I think, I think that's, you know.
Pretty good. Uh, the way that we do that too, not having servers with just the QR codes. Again, you know, if we had to have servers for a place that large, I don't know if financially it would make sense.
Mm-hmm.
Lewis Chase: Because the staff, you know, the payroll would be so big and, you know, it's such a hit or miss business.
'cause if it's nice, we're busy, it's not nice, we're dead. And so is that how you're, sorry, meant to cut
Cameron Clark: you off, but is that how you're able to keep the food prices? I mean, just you're, you, you probably have some of the, the best food prices in town.
Lewis Chase: I think at Folly we do too. I mean, you can get a steak for under $20 at Folly.
I don't think you can do that in, you know, maybe at Texas Roadhouse. I, I might need to, I think. Yeah. It might even be more expensive there.
Cameron Clark: Yeah. I went to tacos for life for lunch yesterday and like, I think I could have fed my whole family. For what price of my one meal at City Park for like [00:43:00] what I paid at Tacos for Life.
I was like, this is crazy. And uh, um, and that's, that's just not a dis on Tacos for Life. I fact that's a lot of everywhere Yeah. Places right now.
Lewis Chase: Yeah. I mean, food costs have gone up, you know, for everybody. But, you know, that's something that again, PIP does such a good job at and he's, uh, it's almost like one of the points of contention with us sometimes because I'm always like, dude, I just went to this place and they're charging $45 for an eight ounce hanger steak.
We're charging 19. He is. But it's like, well again, we talk about demographics and like we look where Feed and Folly was when we opened it, you know, it wasn't in the, the most, uh, prestigious area, you know. And so again, we don't wanna price out our neighbors Yeah. To eat at our restaurant. Same with Lever.
It's like, okay, we're gonna be in a, a place that has a lot of, you know, half my staff at Feed and Folly lives on Lever It, you know, the students live on Lever It. And so again, it's just like, do we want to be a place that. People that are around us can't afford. Yeah. And it's just like people from, you know, east Fayetteville and you know, people coming in to to eat there on game weekends, it's like, no, we don't want [00:44:00] that.
We want everybody to be able to eat here. And you know, like I said, Pip's done a phenomenal job at keeping prices down and working with distributors and, you know, all that kind of stuff to, to be able to do that
Cameron Clark: Best burger in Fayetteville or one of the best is at City Park. I appreciate it. Yeah. Burger.
Lewis Chase: It's like candy. I'll eat like
Cameron Clark: three
Lewis Chase: of 'em.
Nick Beyer: Thin patties. They're,
Lewis Chase: yeah. I always good. Everybody always wants to get like a double. Yeah. But I'm telling you, you go single and you just get to 'em. Okay. It's so much better. It's like designed to eat as a single.
Cameron Clark: The, the optics of that are a little, uh, a little different That Right.
Just told two burgers. Uh, the, no, we've got a friend that, one of his things is in WA Burger Review. And so it's constantly, this list is constantly cycling. You know, there's the two or three that are continually up top and I mean, he's trying everything. He's trying, you know, the cosmos burgers to the, any food truck to like every, every spot in Bentonville, every spot in Fayetteville.
And like the, uh, city Park Burger [00:45:00] is like, it's one, two, or three on that list. Like continually. I love it. Love to hear that. Yeah. I mean, I, other friends say the same thing. Yeah. It's just, it's a good burger and it's consistent. Yeah.
Lewis Chase: Nicest compliment you can give us. That's right. It's consistent. Yeah. Yeah.
That's what we strive for, so I appreciate it. That's something that, uh, we worked on for quite a while in the, in the buildup to opening it, you know, just different recipes, different. Ways we wanna smash it, like all that stuff. And so the amount of burgers I ate leading up to opening City Park, I like couldn't eat one for like a year.
I was like, I don't wanna ever see a burger again, but I'm back
Nick Beyer: on 'em now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anything else on the design of City Park and, and just kind of that build out before we moved to the economics and the business?
Lewis Chase: Uh, I mean, not, not really. Like I said, the building was already set up. Yeah. For pretty much what you walk into now.
You know, like I said, what a unique structure that was in the first place. And I, you couldn't rebuild that today. Yeah. Like, it wouldn't make financial sense to get all that metal and all those overhangs. And so again, when we walked [00:46:00] in there, that spoke to me, you know, it's just like, this is what this needs to be.
And so I think we've been kind of fortunate. Same with Feed and Volley, where it's like you walk in and even the Geisinger, you walk in and you let the place tell you what it's gonna be, you know, and then you just try to curate it. Um. The best you can. Yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And that's something that I really enjoy.
You know, that's something that I've really been big on in the three restaurants is the design. You know, I'm, I'm kind of on the design team, the aesthetics, you know, picking out the booths, the chairs, glassware, like all that kind of stuff is where I kind of nerd out and have a lot of fun. Yeah.
Nick Beyer: Yeah. I'd say Thrive just, I mean, I, all three of these places, it's, it's top notch.
I appreciate that, especially for
Lewis Chase: northwest Arkansas. It's, and again, it's at the top of the list, so Archetype has been super helpful, uh, with our branding. You know, who,
Cameron Clark: who, who's your contact there? Who
Lewis Chase: do you talk to? Uh, will Collins. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, it's funny, they, when we did Feed and Folly and City Park, they helped us like name it Uhhuh, right?
But then it always came back to like me and [00:47:00] Mikey's name that we kind of had, and then they would just help kind of curate that name and then like design the brand for it. Um, but that's, that's something that's been, I. Like I said, again, it just, you go to the space and it almost tells you what it should be called.
Yeah. You know, whether it's family history with Mikey and Matt with Feeding Folly or just, you know, city Park. The name came from Wilson Park, used to be called City Park. Okay. And at one point it changed. Wow. And so, I don't know if you've been there and saw the quote that we have paid mural. Yeah.
Cameron Clark: Talk about that for everybody.
Lewis Chase: I'll have to like pull out, I can't quote it quite yet, but, uh, again, Mikey and I were just doing research on the area when we bought City Park Uhhuh. And we had flipped through this old book that my mom had on our shelf and we saw the quote from a unanimous poet. It literally just said unanimous poet.
Or I can never say that word. It's not unanimous. It's anonymous. Anonymous, sorry.
Yeah.
Lewis Chase: Anonymous poet, 1907. And that's what it said. And it ended with City Park and we were like, bro, like that's what we're trying to do. That's awesome. Like, everything about that poem is what we're trying to do here. And
Cameron Clark: is that a Fayetteville [00:48:00] poet?
Yeah, so it was, so it was
Lewis Chase: a poet that wrote it about City Park in 1907 about Wilson Park. Uh, and so when we saw that. It just, like I said, it was just like a light. It was like that's, that's gonna be the name, that's gonna be the idea. And you know, that's the biggest part about City Park for us, is like trying to create a place that's so community driven.
And I think we've done a good job. We do make's markets there. I'm not sure if y'all have ever been on a Saturday. It's the first Saturday of every month. We took a break in the summer 'cause it was just too hot. But we do makers markets where they, you know, we'll have 40 vendors set up in that back part.
Cool. Uh, selling bread and all sorts of stuff. You know, we've been doing ice baths, yoga, uh, really just trying to activate the space with anything community driven. 'cause I mean, that's what that place is for. Yeah. You know? So
Nick Beyer: Cool. Let's talk through the economics of it. 'cause this one just, when I first walked in, I'm like totally outside.
I mean, we live in Arkansas. It's not like we're in, in Texas or, or maybe a place where it's fair weathered year round. So I'm like [00:49:00] seasonality. Even thinking through like how do you staff that? I imagine those are all the things that we're kind of rolling through your head before. The idea and design and then even when you're in it, I mean I'm sure that y'all have learned so much and it's like your one year in is revenue.
What you thought it would be is, is it more seasonal than you thought it would be? Is it less seasonal? Like does the business model make sense? I think
Lewis Chase: it does. Yeah. I really do. I would be lying if I said that we had it figured out today. We don't. I think it changes, you know, even at Feed and Folly with just the roof top, like the amount of times we had to change how we pay everybody.
Mm-hmm. How the tip outs work, how we staff it. Like that was a learning pro progress and it, that almost set us up for City Park. 'cause that was pretty seasonal, you know, the patio at Folly. Um, and so when we opened City Park, I don't think I would ever open a restaurant all outdoors again. Okay. Uh, especially in this area.
But yet, and it has been seasonal, but I mean, look at Jan February this year. It was, we had a [00:50:00] week of seventies. Yeah. And we were talking, you earlier, you asked about one of the busiest weekends we've ever had. It was this past February. No way, because it was just random. 70 degree could draw that out.
Cameron Clark: And people look for the one place, how can we get outside?
And it's like, that's the spot. Yeah.
Lewis Chase: And we didn't have the staff for it and we got slapped and beat up, but it was fun and we learned a lot, you know? Um, I was probably there for all I know, like, yeah. Geez. Yeah. And so, uh, again, like with City Park Staffing and trying to figure out the best way to run it, we're still, we're still getting there.
It's not perfect. Um, but it just makes sense. Like I said, anybody wants to be outside. Arkansas is up and down with the weather, but you know, this year, this last year, we installed dropdown shades.
Mm-hmm.
Lewis Chase: We have heaters and so we're optimistic that this winter won't be as bad as it was last year just 'cause we had no cover whatsoever last year.
And so I think there's a way to keep it going and to make a lot of sense financially, but we're just having to tweak it and maybe spend a little bit more money [00:51:00] to get to that perfect pocket of. This is what we were trying to do, you know? Yeah.
Cameron Clark: You have the QR codes in the table.
Mm-hmm.
Cameron Clark: I know different people have different styles on how they collect their data and like how they, you know, choose to make decisions on the future.
Like the rooftop allowed you to like understand the metrics behind that with the city park. Like, I mean, do you really know like, all right, this is how many tables we're doing this in these hours and like. I mean, does that allow you to like really know average ticket? Well, like the QR code? Yeah, for sure.
So we
Lewis Chase: use Toast. Okay. Uh, and Toast has all sorts of analytics. You know, I can pull it up on my phone right now and I have all three restaurants and I can look at sales per hour. You know, we also use Resi at Feed and Folly in here. So I can tell you how many covers we've had. Wow. At lunch, you know, how many people have walked in the doors, I can pull up average ticket times, average ticket costs.
And so yeah, we, we nerd out on that stuff quite a bit. Um, and it's really, really helpful. Yeah, we didn't have all that stuff. We used to use a different POS system until we got to toast. It [00:52:00] was a little bit harder to like track a lot of that stuff, but now it's, it's like on point. Same with our like revenue or, or same with our inventory.
Excuse me. We scan in our inventory as we get it.
Got it.
Lewis Chase: It puts it up there. So like if chicken say like chicken breasts, one week goes up, we know immediately. Wow. And like when we first open feed and fol, it might take us a month to be like, oh, we should have up this by a couple dollars. 'cause we've been losing money.
Especially during COVID 'cause uh, everything was changing so much. Mm. Uh, and we didn't have that. It just took us a little bit longer. Now it's five a second. You know, I could Wow. Pull up my phone right now and tell you if chickens costing me the same as it did last week of feeding and folly. That's crazy.
Which is great. Is crazy. Yeah. Uh, which is helpful.
Cameron Clark: That's like revolutionary for a
Nick Beyer: small, small business for a restaurant. I mean the, I I assume 10 years ago, I mean, being a restaurant owner is, is you're shooting from the hip a lot of times on Oh, for sure. Prices on inventory. It's like, Hey, we're just, we're just out of X and Oh yeah.
I don't know how long we're out for, but we're out. Yeah. And so,
Lewis Chase: well if you just [00:53:00] talk to like Pip who used to, you know, work for a bunch of different places, he, he was like, when I was a manager at McAllister's at the end of the night, I would do three hours of paperwork. Yeah. And like all these systems now cut that out.
'cause it's, you know, the data is all online. It's all right. Done for you by just typing stuff in. Wow. Instead of you having to sit there and. Do it yourself as a gm. Yeah. You know, which is great for the GMs 'cause there's nothing worse than two hours of paperwork after you get throttle on a Texas game weekend.
You
Nick Beyer: know? Yeah. And so, yeah. So be, so before we move on to this, this last concept, if you're, you're one year into city park revenue business model, is it, is it like a, hey, we over overdelivered what we thought we're probably right in line with where we thought, or hey, we're, we're under, but we're making some key investments as we round out into the next year and season.
Like how would you stamp
Lewis Chase: that? I think we're doing great. Like I said, the business, we've been busier than we originally thought City Park would be. Um, however, I mean, we had to spend a ton, a lot more money to get it open. Yeah. Uh, than we expected [00:54:00] just because of, like I said, we got in a little bit of a lawsuit with our builder.
Yep.
Lewis Chase: We had, you know, delays, uh, from the city and the flood study. So when we opened City Park, again, it was kinda like folly, where I remember being like, I'm not really ready. The boys were like, well, it's opening tomorrow, you know? I was like, all right, lemme strap up. Get ready. Yeah. Uh, and so, yes, I think now that we've gotten some of the things figured out at City Park, the business is there.
It's just about how do we curate, you know, it during certain time periods during the year where we know we're not gonna get near as much business, like during the winter, during the really hot summers. You know, how do we, how do we keep it activated? Mm-hmm. And I think like doing more events and doing, you know, anything that just gets people to the space is what we're trying to do.
And then I think the moment we get the trail connection, that also just ups the antsy. 'cause then people can just swoop it. And that's like one of our biggest complaints is people like, hi. I thought y'all were on the trail. I came on the trail and then I had to got it measle my way through apartments.
It's like, nah. You know, I think once we can do that, it'll be a lot [00:55:00] easier. I think this year we're gonna throw like a big Christmas themed, you know, place in the overhangs. Oh, awesome. Is that, uh, do a bunch of blowups for the kids out in the yard. Yeah. So it's almost like a Christmas Warner land. Yeah. Uh, for people.
Oh, that's great. So it's, you know, people like events. Absolutely. You know, and like themes. And so we're gonna try to lean into some more stuff like that during our slow periods just to see if we can, you know, keep us above water a little bit more. And really our biggest concern, like, you know, the money is there.
We're not really concerned about that, but it sucks we, the staff Yeah. Know 'cause we have such good people there.
Yeah.
Lewis Chase: We don't wanna furlough people. Right. And so it's really about like, we're okay taking losses certain months, but it's like, we gotta make sure the losses just aren't too big so we can keep those great people for when a, you know, a day in February hits 70 and there's gonna be 300 people showing up.
Mm-hmm. You know, you got the staff. Yeah. That we have the staff and the people that can handle it. So I think that's been the most challenging, uh, part for us so far. That makes sense. It's quite the operation. Like I said, falling and City Parker are like very large scale, uh, operations as far as like [00:56:00] the amount of staff and product we go through.
It's just like, if you could go in our kitchen at feed and falling and see how small it is and be like they're cranking what they're cranking out of this area. Yeah. It's so impressive. Or at least it's impressive to me. 'cause it seems like you're in a closet and we're just pumping out volume, you know?
Yeah. Which is, which is really great.
Cameron Clark: Well, let's talk about the Geisinger.
Lewis Chase: Yeah.
Cameron Clark: We're here. Yes. We're in the Geisinger right now. We're, we're already looking at it. So let's talk about the design here.
Lewis Chase: Yeah. So again, um, you know, this building is owned, uh, by Sterling Hamilton, who's a, a good buddy of mine and, uh, owns some of the, the real estate at Feed and Folly.
He had been trying to rent this out and had reached out to me and was like, Hey man, I know you guys are real busy with City Park. 'cause we had just opened City Park when he had reached out to me. He's like, but I got this space for rent and I just kinda want to get your input on what you think should go there and like what I should be targeting, trying to get someone in here.
Uh, he brought me in here. I like looked around for less than two seconds. I was like, well, it needs to be a bar. Yeah, right. It just felt like a bar. Um, I [00:57:00] felt like, you know, as we get older, we don't really want to be on Dixon Street, you know, you see, Nope. The block street's kind of revolutionized. I mean, Maxine's always been there, but there's more and more stuff getting done on Block Street.
Um, and so, and like just the building itself was so cool that it just felt like something swaggy should be in here. Um, so then I got my, my boys in here. They saw the private rooms, which we call Snugs, which is a British term. And they're like, yo, this is a pub. Like this reminds me of a pub, like in my neighborhood.
Yeah. I've,
Nick Beyer: I've been to Ireland and there are rooms like that. Yeah. In, in pubs. Yeah. And
Lewis Chase: so they were super stoked about it. And whenever I can get those guys excited. I know I have to like really push forward on it. Yeah. And uh, so they were super stoked and really wanted to do it and that's kinda how it started, you know?
Wow. So cool. And like I said, design wise, you know, the snugs were here, the tile on the roof is original from like the 18 hundreds. So like we just painted it, made it look nicer. We built the bar. Uh, really cool. So the cloud, [00:58:00] which is the big light fixture above the bar, is actually all local Walnut. Wow.
From Neil Pendergraph. He has a walnut grout on Drake farm. Yeah. That fell in the ice storm of like 2009 or 12.
Yeah.
Lewis Chase: He kept it in his garage and oh, oh nine I was actually getting a tour of the new Pendergraph building, you know, out there. Yeah. And all this beautiful walnut. I was like, man, where did y'all get this walnut?
And Rachel was like, we, it was ours. And I was like, well, you think you'd sell me some? And they're so nice. They just gave it to me.
Nick Beyer: And Walnut is actually really expensive. It is. Well, that's
Lewis Chase: what I said. I was like finding some, but I was, it was, oh, it's out outing me. So I was like, well, I can't use Walnut.
Ended up finding that at the last second. And then a, a local guy named Cole Bailey, uh, super talented. Um, but he built a solar kiln, dried the wood in his backyard, and then milled it all to make it look like it does today.
Nick Beyer: I mean, it looks, yeah, we've gotta, we gotta get that on the podcast somehow. The picture video of it.
Lewis Chase: Yeah. Like I [00:59:00] said, I didn't even know it was possible, but, um,
Cameron Clark: the other interesting thing about the bar, so cool, the bar area there too, is that like, it, it looks like it just, it fits, you know, somewhat originally. I mean, yeah, obviously there's a, a new flair to it, but like, it looks like it fits with the old building,
Lewis Chase: you know?
Oh, for sure. It looks historic. Yeah. Well, I mean, no doubt. We were talking about this before the, the mic came on about these pictures up here. Yeah. And, uh, mean that was our main inspiration is when it was a, you know, piano shop, that it had that big long bar on that side, Uhhuh. And so we were like, man, if we can get as close, you know, to this as we can, but make it look cool and modern and.
Like it, like it's been here the whole time. That was our, that was one of our main goals. And you know, the green, uh, bank of Fayetteville was green as a kid. I don't know if you remember when the Bank of Fayville was green, they used to have green tile. So like we picked green to kind of throw, uh, you know, throw some history back towards that.
Um, and yeah, man, we have a really great chef here. This is the first restaurant that we've had, um, where [01:00:00] it's not like the food doesn't come from me and the boys Uhhuh. And so we have a French chef here named Jamie that's really, really good. So if you've ever had any of the small bites, it's all curated by him.
Wow. Uh, and he's, he's an incredible chef. And then, uh, again, you know, kind of to point back towards, uh, what I said earlier about our staff at City Park, our GM now was in the kitchen at Feed and Folly. So a guy that we've taken from Feed and Folly worked with at Feed and Folly put him in that position at City Park and I.
Absolutely crushing it. Same here. The, the guy that helped us come up with the majority of the drinks and the guy that's running the bar now is Wit and Witt was a bartender at Feed and Folly for the last like two and a half years, you know, really got into cocktails. And so we brought him and, uh, another guy named James who had, had been a bartender for us at Foley as well.
And they're running this place and doing a great job, you know, and help curate a lot of the aesthetics as far as glassware. Mm-hmm. Drink combinations and all that fun stuff.
Nick Beyer: Yeah. And, and you used the word bar. I feel like that's really [01:01:00] underselling this place. So like what, what was the vision
Lewis Chase: man? The vision was like, was like an English pub.
Like as we've gotten older, I was kinda talking about, you know, you go to bars and you go in there and you can't talk.
Mm-hmm.
Lewis Chase: So we really wanted to create a place that was still a bar feel, uh, felt a little bit more elevated, but also gave you space to still enjoy the people you went with. Yeah. And I think that's something that the boys drove from the, you know, where they came from.
They're like, man. Yeah, you go to these bars back home, but you can always find a snook or you know, a snug or like a little corner to get away where you can still have conversations. And so, um, you know, once we fill up here at this bar, like every seat's taken, we don't let anybody in, you know, there's no standing room here.
Mm-hmm. Like, you know, most bars you can crowd and get really, uh, crazy that again, that's something that we wanted to control the environment. Mm-hmm. Which, you know, might not be the best thing for sales. Yeah. Especially here come football season. Um. But that's, we, it's all about the environment. You know, we want people to be able to come have a [01:02:00] cocktail and still enjoy
mm-hmm.
Lewis Chase: The people they came to be with, instead of having people reach over their shoulders trying to get the bartender's attention. And we've actually gotten some pushback from people, you know, that will come and be like, well, we just want to go stand at the bar. And we're like, well, we don't really do that.
And they get mad at us and they're like, well, we're gonna go over here. It's like, that's fine with us. You know, you'll, you'll be back. Yeah. Right. And get a reservation, you'll be
Cameron Clark: back. Right. Um,
Lewis Chase: yeah, there's something
Cameron Clark: to the exclusive feel, not, I don't even know if that's the word, but just like, it just, I don't know.
It, it puts a whole nother value when maybe you can't get something sometime, but you still want it later. And uh, yeah. I think that maybe even happened to us one time when we came here and it was like, it was totally full and it was like, alright, shoot. Like we're getting on the list next time. Or, you know, we we're, we're, you know, planning.
Well that's other great
Lewis Chase: thing about what we do is we use resi for this. So like, if you do come and we're on a wait, we can literally put you on a text. So you can go and enjoy another bar. Go grab a drink somewhere else, and we'll just text you when a table's ready. Yeah. Um, and so that's kinda [01:03:00] like how I, I think we combated it well because I don't think you can go to very many bars and at least get a text, you know, when you, they have a spot for you.
Um, and it also, for us, it pushes business to the whole square. Yeah. You know, and that's, that's what we're trying to do. We're not, you know, I'm a big believer in the more the merrier. Mm-hmm. The more things that are down here, the more people that will come down here. And so, um, you know, I'm just an advocate for everybody's business and I want to share and drive business for everybody that has one down here.
Nick Beyer: Tide rises together.
Lewis Chase: Absolutely. Yeah.
Nick Beyer: Well, you're speaking, Cameron's gonna laugh 'cause he knows me so well. But you're speaking my language. I mean, why I, I've always complained, like never really went out in college for multiple reasons, but I was like, I, I can't have any conversations with the people who I'm hanging out.
What's the point? Like Right. And so I think. You have a concept that fits that problem and it might not be the most common problem, right? That's, that's probably we're, we're [01:04:00] talking maybe 25, 30% of people. But the people who, man, when you're having friends in town for a football game and you haven't seen them and you know, a year or two years and you've had a lot of life changes happen.
How fun is it that there's a place where you can go and like, enjoy, enjoy a drink, enjoy the historic nature of this building, but then also enjoy the conversations and the time with those people. And I think I. As I hear you speak, there's a lot of sincerity around that. No.
Lewis Chase: For
Nick Beyer: which is not common. That's not,
Lewis Chase: that's not common.
So for sure, I appreciate it. And I said, you nailed that on the head. That's exactly what we've tried to, you know, to do here. And like I said, I have friends that come in town, uh, all the time. Like I said, big life changes. I want to still go out and I don't wanna just sit at my house. Right. And so again, we just try to create that place.
And then, you know, my parents are a little bit older and anytime I ever go anywhere with them, they're like, it's too loud. It's too loud. It's, I can't talk. And so again, it does get loud in here. And I think one of the coolest places about, uh, one of the coolest things about this [01:05:00] place that since we've opened like at four o'clock, we start out with the music really low, usually something a little bit jazzier and it's all older folks.
Cameron Clark: Yeah.
Lewis Chase: They're in here talking so fun. And then as it hits about nine to 10 gets darker, the music goes up. Yeah. You know, we might change it to something a little bit wilder, like Kangan, uh, and then it's younger kids. Yeah. You know, and, and so I think that's something that's super cool. Um, to see mm-hmm. You know, is, is just how it grows into like, a bunch of different things for different people.
Mm. You know, but still using the principles that we've kind of set forth, uh, for this place. So Cool. Which is super, super cool, you know? So Cool.
Nick Beyer: Before we dig into the business and the economics, I think we missed, so you're, you said you started talking with Sterling right after you opened City Park?
Lewis Chase: Yeah, I think like we opened in July.
I wanna say that. I saw this place in September,
Nick Beyer: and so I'm, I mean, my, my wheels are just turning, like, you've got Feed and Folly. You're trying to operate [01:06:00] that, do that. Well, sounds like you probably, you're, you're four years into that, so you've got, I mean, you've got things set up there, but you're opening a totally new concept in City Park.
Nothing like our area scene running into the building problems, the, uh, city problems, kind of all the other problems you've run into. And then you start having conversations about this place. So I'm, I'm, I'm wondering, like, is, is Louis crazy? Is he Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Just master visionary. Like, tell us, I think we just kind of glanced over that.
Like how did, how did this start? And how, how do you balance what you have going on at City Park with the idea design open of this place? 'cause those, those overlapped that's Oh, absolutely. In a lot of ways. So, yeah.
Lewis Chase: Yeah. I mean, like I said, how cool the space was. It felt like, I couldn't say no. Um, I have such a passion for downtown Fayetteville, 'cause of my family history here.
Like I said, my family's owned businesses and operated 'em since, you know, for over 150 years in [01:07:00] Fayetteville. And so, like, the square is so special to me. And so when we saw this building, I couldn't say no. Um, but to your point, I remember when I first went to Mikey and Matt and I was like, Hey man. Uh, I got something else in the queue.
They're like, what do you like, what do you mean? You got something else in the queue, bro? Dadgum at Lewis? Yeah. Like this place just opened two months ago. But then they saw, they got excited and uh, our first thought was, uh, it's just a bar. Like how hard could it be? Uh, and it, we always joke that I tried to open a bar and now it's a restaurant 'cause we have food, you know?
So it's like, uh, we didn't really hit that goal. Um, but yeah, man, it was, again, I think having great partnership, you know, like having those two guys as my backbone, knowing that if I have to go do something else, those guys can operate The businesses, you know, they've, they've both done. It allows you to take a, take room for a risk.
More risk. Yeah. It gives me a little bit room and, you know, so that, and then the staff, you know, I think mm-hmm. Reaching back to kinda what I talked about, if we didn't have people that we'd already worked [01:08:00] with to help us open both places, would we be doing them? No. You know, like if I didn't have Whit and James, you know, at Feed and Folly ready to grow.
Would I have been able to do this as easily? No. You know, and so I think great partnerships, uh, and then, you know, great staff I think is the key to what we're able to do. You know, like I said, it gives me the flexibility to dream a little bit and be passionate about chasing stuff. And, you know, not everything works out.
You know, there's been a million things that I've wanted to do, uh, and whether it's timing or just financials or, you know, who knows what, um, it just seemed like this one worked, you know? And then again, having the partners, uh, Sterling who owns the building, and another gentleman named Pierce Osborne owns the building, really were helpful in helping us not take as many risks personally.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Uhhuh to, to, to do it, you know? So again, it's a partnership thing. Yeah. You know, I know that partnerships [01:09:00] can be really scary for people, but again, if people, I. Both parties are protected. Both PE people understand both people want a certain thing, you know, 'cause they wanted this too. I think curating that partnership helped me do this.
'cause like I said, if I, if this was a hundred percent just on us at the time, we wouldn't have had the ability to do it, but make a good partnership, uh, you know, and, and things can happen. That's awesome. And so,
Nick Beyer: so when you start this, is it, is it S-B-O-S-B-A loan number three? Or it's kind of a tie of all those partnerships that you just talked through?
Yeah,
Lewis Chase: it's a tie of all the partnerships and so, um, this place was a little bit more di like I said, we didn't take out a loan to do this place. We, uh, we did take out a loan, but not a small business loan. And we took it out with the, the building owners. And so we're not the only ones tied to the loan, you know, everybody is.
And so, like I said, it just made it easier, put more people at risk. Uh, and sometimes when there's more people at risk and something has to happen, it, it makes it happen. You and more people tied to wanting it to [01:10:00] succeed at the same time. Right, exactly. Yeah. And so exactly that, you know? And so again, if we would've had to taken the full loan ourselves, I don't know if I would've even, you know, after opening City Park and being in the debt, I was, I don't think they would've given me it.
But having those guys with us going to get it, uh, you know, made us a lot stronger. And this place, like I said, it was already kind of aesthetically pleasing. Yeah. So, uh, the cost of this place was one third, if not even, you know, one sixth. The cost of Folly in Yeah, yeah. In City Park. It was not that, you know, near as much money.
And so that's cool.
Nick Beyer: And then now we're five months open. Yeah. I think what ish? I always forget
Lewis Chase: when we open, I couldn't even tell you when we opened City Park. Uh, like the actual day. Sure. Yeah. None of us. Can we just say it's sometime in July? July? Was it January when you opened here? No, it was February, I think it was March.
Okay. Okay. I think it was March. Yeah. I, yeah, I. Okay, so we're like five, six. No, it was, when did they graduate? When [01:11:00] did the kids graduate? May. May, may. So it was, may 'cause it was the week before graduation. No way. Yeah.
Cameron Clark: It feels like it's been longer. It does,
Lewis Chase: yeah, it does for
Nick Beyer: sure.
Lewis Chase: Yeah. I
Nick Beyer: just remember it was the week before graduation, so four months in the books we're onto our fifth month.
Is is kind of going back to like the business and the economics is, is it what you thought it would be when, when you drew it up? Is it more successful? Yeah. Right on par.
Lewis Chase: No, it's, it's about right on par. Okay. Like I said, you know, when we opened we originally had wanted to open last year again, you know, construction and just Yep.
Times and you know, the city at one point tried to just not even let it happen. Um, but that's a whole other story. But yeah, it's go, you know, for us we always knew that like once the kids left, the summer is always gonna be this place's slowest time. Mm-hmm. And so for us this first summer is kind of an anomaly 'cause we're new so we feel like people are excited.
So that's been beneficial. And then, you know, this place to us. The time that we're always gonna do well and not have to worry about it is Lights of the Ozark.
Mm-hmm. Like once
Lewis Chase: [01:12:00] those lights go up. Mm-hmm. And I, I think it's gonna be jamming. And so for us, yeah. It's right on par with what we thought. That's awesome.
Uh, if not, just a little bit better so far. And, uh, we're real excited to see what football season and, uh, know what Christmas brings to this place.
Cameron Clark: It's getting so slammed.
Lewis Chase: Yeah. We're planning on, so like our plan right now is, I hope I don't speak too soon, but we're gonna decorate. Okay. We're not gonna be like, over the top, we're gonna be very classy, but we're also gonna do like a pop-up event.
So from when the lights get lit, I think, which is like, I think it's Thanksgiving. Oh yeah. Thanksgiving. Yeah. It's, so from Thanksgiving until January mm-hmm. We're gonna have a curated menu. Oh wow. We're gonna sell like, popup merchandise, like sweatshirts, hats, like, we haven't named it yet, but we're gonna name it something
Uhhuh.
Lewis Chase: Um, and then just like I said, decorate it and make it look really cool. That's awesome. And so we think it, it is gonna be a lot of fun.
Cameron Clark: Did Matt did the design on this one here too, right? Poe? Yeah. Pat Po. Architecture on this one.
Lewis Chase: Yep. No, it was funny. Yeah. I got Matt in here. Like right after we had talked about doing it, and I kind of just mentioned [01:13:00] like what I kind of thought I would see in here, and like less than a week later he sent me some like sketches.
I don't, I can't remember. I, it, I felt like the sketches were on a napkin, but I know they weren't, they were on a program, whatever, a sketch paper. Yeah, yeah, right. But it was just like, you know, some free freehand, like really simple design stuff. But it was pretty much what you see here now. Wow. Yeah. And so he had like two different things for me.
And it was, again, working with someone that just, he walked in the building, he got it immediately. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, you know, I was like, uh, option A and it was done, you know? Amazing. And so, and we didn't use a contractor here either, which was a different experience. We used a, a singular guy named Jesus Ramirez.
Okay, cool. Who can just do everything. Uh, he clearly did it. Yeah. Great job. He, he was phenomenal. And so, um, but we outsourced like the cabinets and stuff, you know, some of the bigger stuff we outsourced and he just installed and so, wow.
Cameron Clark: I mean,
Lewis Chase: but yeah.
Cameron Clark: Yeah, it turned out great. So, I mean, I guess moving
Lewis Chase: forward now.
What's next? That's a great question, man. There's a lot of opportunity [01:14:00] at this point, um, being thrown at us and I think that's like something that I'm now just learning about, I guess, you know? 'cause at, at when we opened Feed and Folly, if you would've asked 90% of my friends and family, they'd have been like, this dude's crazy.
Restaurants fail, like. It's not gonna work. That's the mo on restaurants. A hundred percent. Like everybody, like my aunt who used to own restaurants in Joplin, Missouri was like, do you really know what you're getting yourself into? I was like, no, I don't. You know, but,
Cameron Clark: and
Lewis Chase: whether you define yourself this way or not, you're a restaurant group, right?
Like now, I guess with three, I guess. Yeah. I guess you have to be, um, considered that now. But yeah. Even at City Park, you know, uh, again, same thing. People are like, this is crazy. It's too seasonal. Like, it's never gonna work. It's too big. And I feel like we've proved, proven that wrong. This was the first spot that I brought my dad to before opening it where he was like, I think this is a great idea.
And I was like, I don't know. I don't know if I like That. Made you nervous A little. It made me real nervous. I was like, I like you telling me I'm an idiot. Yeah. And so for you to like this. Oh [01:15:00] gosh. Uh, but it's, it's been great so far. Yeah. And as far as what's coming next, who knows man. Uh, like I said, one of my partners just had their first child.
He's on a little, uh, a little break from us right now. And so he's gonna come back and I'm gonna have like 16 things lined up and he's gonna be like, what are you talking about man? The idea guys got things going right? Yeah. And so, um, I don't know man. Like I said, we'll have to see well
Cameron Clark: in this, and this could be more of like your vision or just vision as a whole.
One of the things Nick and I want to kind of tap into on every guest here is what's your vision for Northwest Arkansas? I know like we've really just been talking about Fayetteville here at this point, and maybe you are Fayetteville, Fayetteville Group. Or maybe do y'all go outside of that? What's your vision for, call it, you know, restaurants here?
Lewis Chase: Yeah, I mean, that's a very interesting question. It's honestly something that we ask ourselves all the time. You know, we've been asked multiple times to do a feed and Folly or a city park up in Rogers or Bentonville, which, I mean, it seems like [01:16:00] their business is there 'cause there's so much stuff going on up there.
But like, again, I think it's a little bit like I'm so comfortable in Fayetteville. I feel like I know the people, I know the culture. Yeah. Uh, I have people down here that can help me, whether it's architects or, you know, people like Sterling and Pierce. Mm-hmm. Like I feel like there's, even with the city, you know, people talk about how hard the city is down here and, and yeah.
It is difficult, but like, once you get to know the people, I feel like I can lean on them. Yeah. To ask certain questions and like, and I don't know that up north. And so I think it's just about trying to get outta like our comfort zone. 'cause I do think some of the concepts we have would work in multiple places.
Yeah. Um, but again, it's just like that Fayetteville pride in me where I'm like, you know, like when we went to college, I went to college in 2006.
Mm-hmm.
Lewis Chase: Bentonville and Rogers. Or nothing. Mm-hmm. Right. Like you wouldn't have thought of Bentonville and Rogers. And then sometime in that last 10 to 15 years, the pendulum kind of swung.
Mm-hmm. And it was Bentonville, Rogers this, Bentonville this, which I'm so happy it's doing. 'cause [01:17:00] I, I love northwest Arkansas. I want the whole place to grow. But as a Fable person, I was kinda like, I think y'all are sleeping on Fayetteville. Like this is where the university is, this is where the culture is.
Yeah.
Lewis Chase: And so I think my, like, when I saw that happen, my main goal was I want to catch Fayetteville hospitality industry wise, back up with Bentonville and Rogers. Mm-hmm. Or keep on pace. Right. Um, but yeah, I think eventually it, it would only make sense to be up there for us if we keep growing. Um, and that's, that's our goal.
You know, when we first started, our goal was three and we've gotten there a lot quicker than we expected to Four years. I mean, that's, yeah. So pretty fast, impressive growth. Uh, but it's also risky. Yeah. You, like I said, every time we make money, we turn it around and spill it into something different.
Yeah.
Lewis Chase: Uh, which is, is a risk. But, um, you know, I think now if you asked us what our goal was, I would say it'd be seven to 10 restaurants. Um, whether they're all the same concept or we throw some different ones in there. Mm-hmm. Uh, there's definitely a list of things that I wanna [01:18:00] do. I know there's a list of things that guys want to do as far as concept wise, um, but it might take us a little bit longer to get to those concepts.
Um,
Cameron Clark: and what, what motivates you behind this? What's the
Lewis Chase: tra I mean, I think just traveling, like eating, going out to, uh, other towns and places and seeing cool stuff, uh, I think is what motivates me. And I mean, at the end of the day, I like to go out. I like to be social. Yeah. Uh, my girlfriend does too. And so I just want, I try to think of places like what do I want to go to?
Yeah. You know, like, where would I spend my money and my time? And then like, just like a need to, you know, you, you go out in the city and you're like, man, I wish I had this.
Mm-hmm.
Lewis Chase: You know, and there's a few things we feel that way about right now. And so it's just about finding the right location, uh, possibly the right partnerships and, uh, getting those things leveled out, you know?
Hmm. I've got another
Cameron Clark: question here to leave you with as we're starting to wrap up. So this is one we're asking every guest here. Now, how do you define success?
Lewis Chase: Ooh, that's a tough one. I mean, obviously you have to make a living, right? So I'm not saying [01:19:00] money is, I'm not defining success as money, but you have to be able to make a living.
And I think for me it's like quality of life. Um, not only for me, but for my partners, for my staff, you know, uh, I don't wanna sound too corny, but like, I truly want to, to build a company and a group that can take care of the people that work for it. And, you know, going back to, like I said, you know, Whit and James we're about to outgrow feed and Folly.
So it's like, how can I keep people that are interested in hospitality? How can I give them space to grow? You know? And that's what I'm trying to do is, and, and it's the same with the guy that's running my, you know, city park. It's like, this guy was so talented in the kitchen. He had ran other spots before.
He's kind of out. I can't pay him more money here. I need to create something so I can give him more responsibility. Let him grow in, in this industry and be able to pay it more. Right? And so that's my goal. That's, wow. If you asked me what success was, it'd be that I [01:20:00] can help the people that work for me grow in the areas they're trying to grow in and, and get to where they're trying to get to.
Same with my partners, you know, I want them to have a great quality life, whatever that means to them. Whether it's they've got time to spend with their family, um, have businesses for themselves or, you know, have enough money to buy groceries. You
Nick Beyer: know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it's amazing. And I think there's some of that too, where it's, you grew up here, you know.
And so the, the place that you grew up is now where you're building and it's like, there, there are humans, there are people who are here that, like you are now in charge of, they're under, under your stewardship. And like, how cool is that, that you take that seriously?
Lewis Chase: Yeah, for sure. Some people
Nick Beyer: don't.
Lewis Chase: So, well, I feel like I'm a like, what's it imposter sin syndrome sometimes, you know, like, yeah.
Because like someone like, well how many employees do you guys have? I'm like, we have 80. And it's like, I can't believe we have pay 80 people to, on a word. Like it's, uh, oh gosh. It's kind a surreal [01:21:00] feeling sometimes. Yeah. And uh, it can be a lot of weight. Yeah. You know, uh, at certain times, especially like if things aren't going mm-hmm.
As of planned, which it has plenty of times before, like last winter at City Park, you know, I think we were sitting around a couple days being like, oh gosh, you know, if this keeps up, I don't know if this is gonna last you. Mm-hmm. Know for our staff, for us, for everything. And so, um, but yeah, man. Um. I think that's the thing that's most important and it's, I know it's the most important for Matt and Mikey too.
'cause they've been in those positions where they felt like they weren't heard. Yeah. They were working. So, you know that the Durango, Colorado, they were working 65 hours a week, you know, killing themselves. And it's like, for what? Yeah. You know, and, and I would just like to define
Nick Beyer: that. What, for people a little bit more.
Well, I mean, I just sitting here, this has been awesome. It's been awesome to get to know you more. And uh, I think as we kind of recap here, things we learn from you. Chaos, you thrive in chaos and, and like we talked about earlier, that is not innate. And so a gift that you've been given and just keep on ripping it because you are, [01:22:00] you're chaos is three totally new concepts in four years.
I mean, that to me, I, I'm thinking business. I'm thinking, okay, if you have a concept that works, go do it four more times. Right? Right. But you said no, I'm gonna just do three totally different concepts. And so I think. That, that, that inspires me. I know that inspires Cameron. Like keep, keep doing that. Um, the gritty piece, whether it's it's you, your partners, your employees, like y'all just kind of figured out how to make it work.
And uh, I think that's something we can all learn from is just like, how do we take what we have and just make it work? Um, so really cool to see that the visionary piece, just hearing you talk about you rode your bike past this place and like you could just see it, you walked into this place and you were like, man, I have so much other stuff going on.
But like there is a concept that I have in my head that has to be here. It has to be here. That is, that is visionary. And man, we're not talking iPhone, we're not talking anything like that. [01:23:00] But it is just as inspiring living here, getting to kind of come in these places and enjoy these places. Someone has to have a vision for that.
So thanks for doing that. And then I think the piece that for us, I mean Cameron and I both, our faith is so important to us and. Just hearing you talk about your focus on the community, your focus on the staff, that's sincere. And I think there's a lot of, you know, you kind of talk, talking through our culture.
There's a lot of people who say that's important. Uh, but, but they don't do the hard work. They don't go out of their way to make sure it's important. And so thank you for taking care of your staff. Thank you for taking care of our community and like this is the place that we grew up and that we care about.
And as we look forward to what NWA could be, we're thankful to have builders, founders, owners like you who are gonna be supporting employees and giving us places to hang out and meet that are amazing. So [01:24:00] thanks for that. Louis Chase, how can people reach out to you? How can they find you? Instagram. Okay.
Lewis Chase: I run the Geisinger Instagram right now.
Uh, but we have someone that does the other two, but Instagram, you can find me, I'm not on LinkedIn or anything, um, stop by one of the restaurants. Honestly, I'm usually at one of 'em. And so that's probably the best way to find me. Um, and again, like I said, I appreciate being on the podcast. Um, it's an honor.
It really is an honor and a privilege to get to do what I get to do and to be partners with the people that I'm partners with. Um, I never would've thought that I would've been in a position to be able to do what I'm doing now. If you would've asked me when I was 28 as a real estate agent, like, are you gonna be doing this?
And, you know, getting the community excited and, and I would've never thought that. And so, like I said, it really is a privilege to me and, uh, I'm just honored to be doing it with the people I'm doing it with. And, um, like I said, I just really appreciate you guys. Giving me a platform to talk about it and, uh, you know, I'm excited to see what Northwest Arkansas looks like in the next 20, 25 years.[01:25:00]
Thank you for listening to this
Cameron Clark: episode of NWA Founders, where we sit down with founders, owners and builders driving growth here in northwest Arkansas. For recommendations are to connect with us, reach out at nwa, founders@gmail.com. Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, then please consider leaving a rating, a review, and sending it to someone who you think would benefit from it.
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