How to create a restaurant concept in a time of uncertainty

How do you create a restaurant concept when so much about the business is uncertain? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Jack Gibbons, the CEO of concept incubator FB Society, to talk about concept development and the industry’s future. FB Society, formerly known as Front Burner Brands, is known most for creating Velvet Taco, which has since been sold—though FB still has an interest in the chain and is a licensee. The company has created several other full-service and fast casual brands including Sixty Vines, Mexican Sugar, Whiskey Cake and Son of a Butcher, among others. Gibbons talks about how FB Society thinks when it creates a concept right now and what things they consider when developing full-service and fast-casual brands. He also discusses consumers’ continued desire for service and the demand for high-quality restaurants and what kind of takeout consideration full-service restaurants should have. And he talks about whether fast-casual restaurants should focus on the dine-in business at all. Gibbons also takes some time to talk about how best to win the labor shortage and about rethinking unit economics when everything costs so much.