Now more than ever, people are seeking comfort from wherever they can, but most especially in food. One of the most recognizable comfort food products in the United States are biscuits, more accurately American scones. These fluffy, salty and delicious pastries are just as much a part of American cuisine as apple pie. It’s no wonder two businesses have both found success selling them to the public. The Maple Street Biscuit Company and the Denver Biscuit Company are two businesses that have established themselves as masters of making and selling these fluffy pastries.
If you’re deciding on which is the best franchise to own, you may pick a food-oriented business like a Subway franchise. Or you may want to start a food-business on your own. In any case, you would do well to learn just how the Maple Street Biscuit Company and the Denver Biscuit Company both cultivated such success from one of the humbler offerings of American cuisine.
The Business of Comfort Food
One key to the success of these two companies is the inherent lure of what you call “comfort foods.” The general definition of comfort food refers to any food people crave when they’re under emotional stress. There’s really no set standard on what that can be. It can be a dessert, like a pint of ice cream or breakfast foods, like the ones served by a Waffle House franchise.
No matter the ingredients, comfort food draws people because they have great and calming memories involving these meals. Americans biscuits are one of these comfort foods. Originating from the genteel parlors of the South, American biscuits have become a staple side dish or snack throughout the country.
According to business analysts, as many as 33.67 percent of restaurants serve some form of biscuit. Each year, biscuit consumption has increased by an average of almost 37 percent. People consume biscuits an average of 2.44 times a year, which means a restaurant that serves biscuits can hopefully have everyone in their area buy a helping of gravy-soaked biscuits twice annually.
The popularity of comfort foods, and biscuits in particular, is an essential component in the success of businesses like the Maple Street Biscuit Company. But it’s not the only key to their success.
Take a look at which aspects of their businesses made the Maple Street Biscuit Company and the Denver Biscuit Company profitable.
Maple Street Biscuit Company
The Maple Street Biscuit Company first opened its doors in Jacksonville, Florida on 2012. Founded by two entrepreneurs Scott Moore and Gus Evans, wanted to provide their customers with a place where they can get classic comfort foods like biscuit but with modern efficiency. They were also committed to authenticity and as such they sought to make food only with the best quality ingredients.
In just eight years, customers can now enjoy the Maple Street Biscuit company’s menu in eight states. From Florida, the business has expanded to open locations in Texas, Tennessee, and both North and South Carolina.
Maple Street Biscuit Company’s Menu
The Maple Street Biscuit Company aims to provide authentic and fresh food to their customers, which is why their menu uses the freshest ingredients available. Their main product is of course their flaky buttermilk biscuits. They also serve their fresh biscuits with a variety of gravies. Customers can choose between sausage gravy or shiitake mushroom gravy.
A hungry customer can also enjoy fresh, all-natural chicken meat, which is guaranteed to be fresh, not frozen. What’s more, the menu of Maple Street Biscuit Company’s different locations can serve unique items, depending on where they are. For example, some locations can serve mimosas for brunch.
What Made the Maple Street Biscuit Company Successful?
The Maple Street Biscuit Company cultivated their success carefully over eight years, culminating in their acquisition in 2019. On October of that year, food and restaurant company Cracker Barrel acquired the Maple Street Biscuit Company in a generous $36 million deal. The food giant acquired the comfort food restaurant because they were convinced of its strong potential for growth. According to the CEO of Cracker Barrel, Sandra Cochran, they admired the Maple Street Biscuit company for its emphasis on hospitality and authentic food.
Authenticity
When Scott Moore and Gus Evans first opened the Maple Street Biscuit Company, one of their guiding principles was making their food from scratch in a sustainable fashion. Their commitment to authenticity and sustainability is essential in making their delicious food.
For example, their fluffy biscuits are made from high-quality artisanal flour and they serve coffee made sourced from local growers. These ingredients matter and have undoubtedly contributed to their success.
Hospitality
Comfort food is one thing, but customers need to be able to enjoy their meals in a welcoming environment. Some of the guiding principles of the Maple Street Biscuit Company include providing their customers with gracious service and keeping their locations as clean as possible. Both these factors make people feel right at home and comfortable in their locations, leading to great customer experience and a thriving customer base.
The Maple Street Biscuit Company isn’t the only restaurant business to cash in on the popularity of comfort foods. Another enterprise centered on comfort food is the Denver Biscuit Company.
Denver Biscuit Company
The Denver Biscuit Company started out as the vision of Drew Shader, who came to Colorado to attend university. He noted a distinct lack of the delicious drop biscuits he grew up with in Florida and worked hard to fill in a market niche.
In 2009, he first launched a food truck focusing on serving biscuits fresh from the oven. They sold approximately 450 biscuits a day from their truck. From there, the Denver Biscuit Company has since expanded outside of Colorado, even opening a location on Broadway in New York City. How did this food truck business expand into a profitable enterprise with locations in multiple states? Two of their guiding principles are essential for their success, namely innovation and community.
Denver Biscuit Company’s Menu
The Denver Biscuit Company’s Menu is born from the effort of its founders. Since it started in the back of food truck, it was essential they serve compact but filling meals, leading to their delicious biscuit sandwiches.
When a customer walks into one of their locations, the Denver Biscuit Company’s menu offers them an astonishing array of 12 different biscuit sandwiches. These meals range from the Winona, which contains chicken fried in buttermilk and Tillamook cheddar pimento cheese, and the Tomahawk, a sandwich that contains sausage patty, cheddar cheese and scrambled egg, topped with strawberry rhubarb jam.
What Made the Denver Biscuit Company Successful?
Drew Shader and his team, including his wife Ashleigh worked for years to come up with their delicious biscuit recipe. Finding out how to get it just right was essential in their success. Thanks to their innovative spirit, the Denver Biscuit Company eventually expanded to different communities, where it formed profitable partnerships with resident businesses. It’s these two principles that make it a strong candidate for a thriving business.
Innovation
When Drew Shader first wanted to introduce drop biscuits to Denver, he ran into a problem: the city was built at a higher elevation than his home state of Florida. Higher altitudes affect many aspects of cooking, especially baking. But Shader and his team persisted because they had discovered that there was a thriving and untapped market for just such a product in the area. Their discoveries, such as making recipes for biscuits that would work in high elevations, led to the growth of the Denver Biscuit Company.
Community
From its early days, the Denver Biscuit Company was all about providing delicious products and sterling service to the community. The food truck from which the entire business sprang forth first began selling biscuits at the Cherry Creek Farmer’s Market, where it enjoyed rousing success. Even when the business took off and became a success, the Denver Biscuit Company has focused on bringing food to new communities. In 2018, Shader opened a new branch of the Denver Biscuit Company, along with two other food operations he owns, away from the other restaurants of Colorado Springs. The new location not only brings comfort food, pizza and signature cocktails to an ignored section of the community, it also avoids the competition, ensuring a thriving market.
Can You Franchise Them?
Now you may be convinced that opening Maple Street Biscuit Company sounds like the perfect avenue for success, but there’s some bad news. Along with the Denver Biscuit Company, neither of these businesses are available for franchising. But all is not lost.
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, the success of these two companies can teach you just how you can ensure your restaurant endeavor becomes profitable. By committing to providing authentic food, creating a hospitable restaurant, you can emulate the Maple Street Biscuit Company’s path to profitability. By fostering innovativeness and aiming to improve your community, your restaurant can be more like the Denver Biscuit Company.
These lessons and principles are what make these two enterprises successful. That, and fluffy delicious biscuits.
