One Restaurant, Eight Brands

To boost sales during the pandemic, the founders of Dog Haus flooded delivery apps with virtual restaurants that operate out of existing franchise kitchens. They've been so valuable that they're now here to stay-and are coming soon to a grocery store near you.

- CLINT CARTER

When Dog Haus launched in 2010, its concept made a lot of sense...for the year 2010. Its mission was to elevate stadium food into culinary masterwork, and it did so by selling hot dogs and sausages decorated with ingredients such as bacon, pastrami, caramelized onions, and arugula. The three founders, Hagop Giragossian, Quasim Riaz, and André Vener, dubbed their concept "craft casual," and they built fun, large, airy venues to serve customers. It has grown to 50-plus locations since franchising.

But in the decade since, much has changed about how Americans eat. People increasingly order food through Grubhub or Uber Eats. Dog Haus responded by expanding its reach through ghost kitchens-delivery-only facilities with no seating, parking, or signs. Then, when the pandemic hit, foot traffic dropped even more and the ghost kitchens presented an intriguing opportunity. If Dog Haus could sell food without a dine-in location, why did its founders have to stick to just selling Dog Haus-branded food? Couldn't they sell, well, anything?

In March 2020, the three Dog Haus founders put that question to the test by announcing an ambitious roster of brands: The Absolute Brands, consisting of seven new quick-service restaurant concepts that had no physical stores and operated out of existing Dog Haus locations. (After all, Dog Haus kitchens suddenly had excess capacity.) Today, six brands are still standing-Plant B, The Impossible Shop, Big Belly Burger, Bad Mutha Clucka, Bad-Ass Breakfast Burritos and Jailbird-and more than 20% of the company's sales are coming from The Absolute Brands. Same-store sales are up 34% compared to pre-pandemic 2019.

The three founders sat down with Entrepreneur to explain how The Absolute Brands work, and why the future is looking a lot more flexible.

It sounds exhausting to launch multiple restaurants during a pandemic. How were you able to do it so quickly?