Sonny’s BBQ launches brand refresh

Sonny’s BBQ has undertaken a brand refresh that includes new prototype restaurants and an updated employee programs.

The 47-year-old, Winter Park, Fla.-based barbecue chain, which owns and franchises 115 restaurants across eight states, is looking to make the brand successful for another five decades, Sonny’s chairman CEO Robert Yarmuth told Nation’s Restaurant News. “We had gotten a little stale because we’re a chain that was founded in 1968,” Yarmuth said. “We were still successful, but we’d become a little stagnant.”

“In our effort to get more relevant for the world that is today, we took a full physical,” he said. “Our building had grown to more than 6,000 square feet and 200-plus seats, with a kitchen that was virtually the same. It also looked old. It’s a beloved brand with great name recognition, but it was like a grandmother you don’t visit frequently. You loved her but you didn’t see her as much.”

The new prototype in Gainesville pared the sized of a unit down to 5,000 square feet and 160 seats. The unit does not include a drive-thru, although some restaurants in the system do, Yarmuth said. The restaurant is reporting about $80,000 a week in sales. The average check is about $11.50. Beer and other adult beverages make up perhaps 3 percent of sales, Yarmuth said. “That’s another area of opportunity,” he said.

The new building allowed Sonny’s to introduce new technology and kitchen equipment and create a bar-kitchen counter area, Yarmuth said. The redesign also helped the brand return some speed to the service model. The menu is still centered around barbecued beef, pork, chicken and ribs, but some cooking procedures have been changed and some recipes changed, Yarmuth said.

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