People start to make decisions about what they want to do with their lives long-term. So there’s an incredible amount of real estate that's going to become available and has become available, and I think that also this is the time when you go to these step changes in society. “So right now we're seeing, unfortunately for so many people, the number of restaurants and other retail businesses that have shut down, and a lot of those are not going to reopen. This is a 10 or 15-year plan,” Schnatter said. That’s why Coulter and Schnatter both believe now is the right time for Biscuit Belly to launch its first-ever franchise strategy.

He’s confident that the industry will come out on the other side in the next 12 to 18 months after vaccines and therapies are rolled out. Bright times are ahead, according to Schnatter, and so are the opportunities. However, as Schnatter points out, during the worst of the COVID pandemic, Biscuit Belly remained open in a state that “was probably as close to being locked down as any other state in the country.” He assures that the company is still doing well, and improving each week. All of those external factors have been mixed with the pandemic’s critical effects to the breakfast segment, with more consumers working from home and losing their morning routine. Tourism related to the city’s bourbon industry fell sharply, as well. The annual Ironman Louisville was canceled as well as several outdoor music festivals. The Kentucky Derby, which has a $400 million economic impact on the region, didn’t have spectators. Louisville’s tourism took a significant hit. But that wasn’t the only challenge facing the brand. “We really wanted to expand and open location number two and three in Louisville and then thought with the unit economics-at least before COVID-that it was really a brand that could succeed in the franchising world.”Įarly into the pandemic, Biscuit Belly swiftly pivoted to delivery and takeout in a state that didn’t allow indoor dining until late May. “After opening the first location, I'm seeing the success that it was,” Coulter says. The menu features innovative biscuit concoctions such as The Rockwell (buttermilk fried chicken thigh, Cheddar, and goetta sausage gravy) and the Mama’s Boy (buttermilk fried chicken thigh, roasted jalapeño pimento cheese, Pop’s pickles, and fried green tomato.) Then in June, the breakfast chain reached three locations.

Six months later, another store popped up. Years worth of recipe tinkering and concept development led to the opening of Biscuit Belly in Louisville, Kentucky, in June 2019. It seemed like a logical next step in Coulter’s progression, given that he’s a Georgia native who grew up eating scratch-made biscuits. He’s also the younger brother of Papa John's founder John Schnatter Along for the ride was industry veteran Chuck Schnatter, who saw the growth of Papa John’s from its first store in the back of Mick’s Lounge to the more than 4,000 locations the chain had when he left in 2010. Since the opening of LouVino, Coulter and Tavis Rockwell, his executive chef and culinary director, toyed with the idea of opening a biscuit concept. Those moves in turn sparked a new adventure. His journey took him to franchising paint-and-sip locations with his wife, Lauren, to opening wine bar LouVino, which now has five locations. Chad Coulter jokes that it’s the common progression for a pharmacist to get out of pharmacy.

Biscuit belly