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Former CEO James O’Reilly says the 62-unit brand was founded with the intent of being ‘the best of American barbecue.’
Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill, the 62-unit casual-dining brand, has taken its mission of being “the best of American barbecue” and adapted it to the post-pandemic market, making off-premises sales a priority and even testing drive-thrus.
Darden opened the first Smokey Bones restaurant in Orlando, Fla., in 1999, filling a site that previously hosted a Red Lobster, then also a Darden brand. Darden sold Smokey Bones in 2008 to a division of the private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners.
Now known as Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill, the concept offers a range of barbecue favorites, from baby-back and St. Louis-style ribs to hand-pulled pork. Other menu items include flame-grilled sandwiches and steaks, half-pound Angus and buffalo burgers, as well as a selection of salads, fish and chicken entrees.
James O’Reilly, who was CEO of the Aventura, Fla.-based concept for four years before leaving to become the CEO of Ascent Hospitality on Monday, said traditional Smokey Bones restaurants are large at about 8,000 square feet, with a seating capacity for more than 250 people.
The company has also developed a prototype that is smaller at about 5,500-5,700 square feet.
“Those will be the ones we will be building as we continue to move forward as a company,” O’Reilly said. “Another thing that's very different about our prototypes today and our new restaurants is that they prominently feature dedicated off-premises functionality. So we will have dedicated off-premises, a vestibule for the off-premises guests [and] for the delivery drivers.”
The pandemic changed many aspects of the restaurant industry, O’Reilly said.
“As a concept and recognizing the way the industry has shifted so much in the last three to five years, we've definitely made off-premises more of a strategic priority in our builds and doing that in a 5,500-6,000-square-foot building means we brought the total seating capacity down, the dining-room size down,” he said.
He added that Smokey Bones is designing new restaurants in a way that the dine-in guest doesn’t have to see a bunch of people carrying out their orders or delivery drivers walking in and out of the restaurant.
O’Reilly said about 25% of Smokey Bone’s business today is off-premises.
“Almost every dollar of off-premises revenue that we gained during the pandemic is still with us, which is not the norm necessarily in casual dining, and we believe it's because we have made off-premises a strategic priority for the company,” he said. “We've invested in it. We've brought new technology to it. We continue to try and innovate in off premises with things like drive-thru and more digital curbside capability, and we've developed a real capability as a company with virtual brands and virtual-brand technology, and that has contributed to the success of our off-premises business.”
Smokey Bones’ first drive-thru is in Bowling Green, Ky. The digital drive thru is designed to be fully functioning, meaning guests can pull up to the digital menuboard, place their order with one of the team members, and drive up to the window for payment and to receive the order.
Smokey Bones’ top-selling item remains the baby-back ribs, but side items get attention too, O’Reilly said.
“We actually are just launching some sides this summer as a part of our summer program,” he said. “We're doing kind of an elote-inspired off-the-cob street corn that is sprinkled with crushed Takis [rolled tortilla chips]. Takis are a spicy Mexican-style corn snack and we decided to put them on top of our street corn to make the street corn more of an incredible sensory experience and make it a little more spicy. The product is incredibly craveable and it's just about to launch.”
Smokey Bones also maintains a grill-level adult beverage program, promoting the late-night daypart at many locations with Tuesday trivia contests. Alcohol tops 20% of Smokey Bones’ total dining revenue, O’Reilly said, adding that the brand hires engaging bartenders and innovates with limited-time beverage offers.
O’Reilly said the secret sauce at Smokey Bones is the culture.
“We are a culture-driven company,” he said. “And we absolutely love what we do. We're passionate. We like to drive for results and like to be accountable, be creative with all these things … that we talk about every day in the company. We recognize each other for demonstrating those values and we like to think about doing business the right way, not only as a company but as people.”
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