A few weeks ago, veteran Atlanta casual-dining and quick-service operator David Davoudpour closed a deal to buy 282-unit Shoney’s, the 50-plus-year-old brand that pioneered all-you-can-eat salad bars and breakfast buffets in the Southeast.
A family-dining icon, Shoney’s is a nickname for the late foodservice entrepreneur Alex Schoenbaum, who launched the region’s first Shoney’s Big Boy in 1953 after buying multistate franchise rights for the Big Boy concept two years earlier. In time, Schoenbaum teamed with Shoney’s Big Boy franchisee and operations guru Ray Danner, who had been developing the brand aggressively in Tennessee.
Eventually, the Big Boy name was dropped, and the chain grew rapidly as Shoney’s, passing the 300-unit mark in the late 1970s.
By the mid-1990s, there were nearly 1,000 franchised and company Shoney’s in many regions beyond the chain’s Nashville, Tenn., headquarters. But, after failing to change with the times, Shoney’s became a stagnant and then declining brand, vulnerable to competitive ingenuity except in markets where creative operators made adjustments that kept their units alive and in touch with guests.
Shoney’s parent group, meanwhile, lost sight of the core brand by branching into casual dining, manufacturing, distribution and even lodging. These moves funneled cash from menu development, operational upgrading, leadership enhancement and unit remodeling.
At its near bankruptcy in 2002, Shoney’s and profitable sister chain Captain D’s were bought by Dallas-based Lone Star Funds, the same group from which Davoudpour’s Atlanta-based Royal Hospitality Corp. acquired Shoney’s weeks ago.
Suddenly a lot of people want to know: Where is Shoney’s going?
If Davoudpour’s success with more than 100 underperforming Church’s Chicken units during the past decade is any indication, Shoney’s is in for good times. Davoudpour is pledging to restore Shoney’s to its “glory days.”
But Shoney’s prospered in a world where the average breakfast customer was neither pressed for time nor aware of larger or more healthful buffet alternatives.
In the first case, can Shoney’s compete with today’s ubiquitous drive-thru window or the grab-and-go choices available at every service station, grocery outlet and convenience store? In the second case, can Shoney’s compete on weekdays with the contemporary feel of chef-driven, sit-down bakery-cafe options, or with weekend breakfast giants like Golden Corral that draw clientele who eat light on weekdays so they can do the breakfast splurge on Saturdays and Sundays?
Davoudpour says he’s committed to restoring unit cleanliness, friendly service and great food to the system, its operators and its guests. Many who know the Shoney’s name—old friends, customers, suppliers and competitors—will be watching and wondering in the months ahead.
