Under The Cheesecake Factory umbrella, the gastropub is beginning to push into new territories.
Culinary Dropout, the casual-dining gastropub concept from Fox Restaurant Concepts (FRC), appears poised for a faster pace of growth as parent The Cheesecake Factory digs deeper into the FRC portfolio.
Acquired as part of Cheesecake’s $353 million deal in 2019, the Calabasas Hills, Calif.-based company had put FRC’s casual-dining North Italia and fast-casual Flower Child on growth trajectories, bringing their business functions into the corporate hierarchy.
David Gordon, president of The Cheesecake Factory, on a fall earnings call said Cheesecake now was looking closely at Culinary Dropout.
“We just opened our newest Culinary Dropout in Charlotte, N.C., to strong demand with average sales of $175,000 over the first couple of weeks,” he said at the time.
“Culinary Dropout’s strong cash-on-cash returns position this concept as one of the more promising experiential concepts within FRC’s portfolio, given the attractive unit economics,” he said. “We are testing the geographic portability and currently have plans to open another location this year in Atlanta, as well as another two to three locations a year over the next two years across the Southeast, Texas, and Southern California.”
In a May earnings call, Gordon said landlord demand for the FRC concepts, including Culinary Dropout, remained high and that they are “able to fit the needs of those landlords everywhere from 3,500 square feet all the way up to 10,000 square feet.”
Culinary Dropout opened in June in Dallas with a signature rooftop bar in the city’s Design District, just northwest of downtown.
Culinary Dropout debuted a new menu for the Dallas restaurant. The two-story restaurant also offers live music, big-screen televisions, private event spaces, and more.
“With its recent growth and cool, creative vibe, the Design District is the perfect fit for Culinary Dropout,” said Sam Fox, founder of Fox Restaurant Concepts, in a statement. “We’re excited to launch our new menu and offer a beautiful rooftop bar just for this location.”
The Dallas menu includes sushi items, a first for the Culinary Dropout brand.
“For Dallas, we kind of reinvented everything about the menu,” said Clint Wood, FRC’s chief culinary officer. “We did a completely new design. We added a whole section with sushi, so we have a couple different crispy rices, two or three new rolls, and we have some crudos. We added a little lighter option for summertime in Dallas.”
The menu also features sharable appetizers like Wagyu Pigs in a Blanket, BBQ Pork Belly Nachos, and a hearty antipasti board.
The Design District location of Culinary Dropout offers a designated stage for live local musicians, an array of TVs for streaming sporting events, and a spacious rooftop bar. A second-floor private event space, equipped with audio-visual capability, will be available to book for groups.
The newest location, at about 22,000 square feet, was designed by Gensler around the concept of “grit-chic.”
Culinary Dropout has 13 locations in six states, including Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]
Follow him on X/Twitter: @RonRuggless
