After working for McDonald’s Corporation for over 30 years, I decided to look for something different. With casual dining being the fastest growing segment of the restaurant industry, and sports bars and grills being the fastest growing sub-segment, I narrowed it down to two concepts: Buffalo Wild Wings and Native. Ultimately, there were two factors that led to my choice with Native. No. 1 was the quality of food; Native’s food is far superior in my opinion. No. 2 was cost; it takes about half as much to open a Native as it does to open a BWW. During my time with Native, I have witnessed many positive changes that have continued to make Native Grill & Wings a great investment opportunity.
After we spent 16 years on the corporate side of McDonald’s, we decided it was time to pursue our own restaurant. Being long-term customers of Native, it was an easy choice to look into this franchise. The upbeat atmosphere, great food quality, community involvement and the well-known Native name was enough to get us started. The supportive home office staff and other franchise owners are always there to help. This franchise offers all of the tools you need to become a successful owner of your own business. As with any business, hard work and dedication are a must, but we can tell you the effort you put in will pay off.
The Support Center is absolutely wonderful and they get their jobs done. And with Native being so unique because it is such a small brand, I think it's important to understand that you will have a lot more leverage in this franchise system than one would think.
I like to be there as close to every day as possible. When the restaurants are busy, my wife, Kim, and I are there. But when it's time to take our weekends off or take a vacation, we make sure the restaurants are set up and we leave and we go enjoy. We don’t just work hard; we play hard, too.
It’s so important to be involved in your community. We try to say yes to everything we can when the community asks for it. If the PTA president comes in or the football moms come in and they say, "Can you help me with this?" and it's our local high school, then we do. We sponsor sports teams, we donate to the food bank, we do whatever we can. And in the end you get more than you give, because what happens is it’s not just “Native” anymore. It becomes “Pat's place.”
I've been in the business 35 years and I've done mainly a lot of fast food and QSR. I had come across Native through a friend of mine, and what appealed to me was how accessible the leadership was and how simple operations are from a franchise owner standpoint. I became a franchisee in March of 2020.