After opening more than 25 restaurants, I'd narrow the menu

When my brother and I opened Schnipper's in 2009, we offered a broad menu — burgers alongside salads, sandwiches, and comfort food. We assumed variety made sense, but over the years we've learned diners prefer specialists: places that do a few things very well.

Our newer concept, Hamburger America, reflects that lesson. The menu is intentionally tight — a couple of burgers and a couple of sandwiches — which lets us focus on execution. The risk with a large menu is that almost everything finds a champion; low-volume items still develop loyal followings, and that makes paring down difficult.

My brother and I got our start in 1990 with Hale and Hearty, growing it to 18 locations before selling our interest in 2006. Later we launched Schnipper's and partnered with George Motz on Hamburger America. The partnership works because we have different strengths: my brother trained as a chef and leads the culinary side, while I handle operations and accounting.

schnipper's, hamburger america, hale and, george motz, burgers, sandwiches, menu strategy, specialization, operations, comfort food