We also will build within the specialty portfolio, which is our ChopHouse restaurant brand.” The virtual brands’ future is also in that mix, he said. “We do expect new ground-up restaurants that we will build. “We actually expect the growth to come a couple of different ways,” Mazany said. The casual-dining sector is seeing good traffic in the Vaccine Era, he added, with the SPB brands seeing double-digit sales comparisons over 2019. Mazany said he expected to retain and grow those off-premises channels.

The brands saw off-premises orders rise from 5% of sales to 20% to 25% currently. “That’s part of hospitality,” Mazany said.

It did more than $80,000 in sales the first week, he said, “so we're really excited with that.”ĭuring the pandemic, the SPB brands repurposed some employees to a live call center, answering phones in person to take orders. The company just reopened an Old Chicago restaurant in Waco, Texas, that had been closed during the pandemic and bankruptcy proceedings. Mazany, who lives in Houston, said 25 of SPB’s restaurants are in the Lone Star State, so locating headquarters there “was a natural fit.” “The organization is primed to grow, and we wanted to centralize our support center in one area.” “We actually are coming out of the pandemic in very strong shape,” Mazany said from the new offices in Houston. The headquarters consolidation in Houston will help SPB in expanding those brands. “Ember Smoked BBQ is probably our hottest by far sales performance in our virtual space,” Mazany said, “so we anticipate taking some of those virtual restaurants into brick and mortar in the near future.” He said those brick-and-mortar versions might appear within six months. It also owns the Rock Bottom Brewery, Gordon Biersch, ChopHouse & Brewery, Big River Grille & Brewing Works, AIA Ale Works Restaurant & Taproom, Ragtime Tavern Seafood & Grill and Seven Bridges Grille & Brewery.ĭuring the pandemic, SPB also launched three virtual brands - Ember Smoked BBQ, Roadies Sliders and Twisted Tenders - that it innovated at the corporate level and services out of its restaurant kitchens.

With 145 Logan’s Roadhouse casual-dining units and about 90 Old Chicago Pizza & Taprooms, SPB (which stands for steak, pizza and beer) Hospitality has 250 units. Related: SPB Hospitality, formerly Craftworks Holdings, has named Jim Mazany as CEO Mazany, who was named CEO in September after Fortress Investment Group LLC bought the former Craftworks Holdings out of bankruptcy in June, said in an interview Monday that a vibrant Vaccine Era consumer and virtual brands are giving the new SPB Hospitality a boost in 2021. SPB Hospitality, the parent company for Logan’s Roadhouse, Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom and other brands, is consolidating its corporate offices in Denver, Colo., and Nashville, Tenn., to Houston by mid-August, says CEO Jim Mazany.

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